and it includes JVC's own video editing software for manipulating the special video - which is not compatible with most current video editing solutions
What? If I can't get it into Final Cut Pro, why would I want it? Surely, they can write a codec for QuickTime. Besides, as others have pointed out, editing/manipulating MPEG-type compressed video is 'problematic'.
It's nice that the industry is starting to get into HD, but I'll wait for Sony and Canon to release sub us$4,000, HD, 3-ccd cameras with a more standard codec. Luckily, I won't need a new camera for a few years.
M$ probably bought VirtualPC in order to sell Windows upgrades. You have to remember that VPC also runs on Windows:
company: No, Ms. M$ salesperson, we have a bunch of apps that will break if we buy your Windows upgrade! We might as well port to Linux at this point.
M$ sales: Ah ha, with Microsoft VirtualPC you can spend more money to run your old version of Windows inside a virtual machine inside the new version that has features you don't need!
company: Oh! In that case we'll take 10,000 licenses!
As usual, the Mac market is tiny compared to the Windows market.
So where are they unbalanced? I always hear about the Fox News bias, and when I ask some low level dumbshit ideological complete waste of oxygen dumber than rocks asshole for examples, they invariably point to the shows that are clearly opinion shows.
It's sort of stunning to come face-to-face (so to speak) with a Fox-fan who doesn't understand the bias. (There are plenty of Fox-fans who are aware of the bias and just like it). Nonetheless, the AC poses a fair issue.
First of all, why do people care what the opinion hosts have to say? It's becuase their opinions form a lens through which Fox viewers are more likely to interpret the 'facts'. This is particularly a problem for viewers who are not independently well informed. Their worldview is particularly easy to 'massage' to a particular position.
That said, why do more broadly informed people percive Fox News to be biased? It's not just the opinion shows. My biggest objection has to do with the low standards for fact checking and journalism. During the Sep. 11th attacks, the Fox crawl reported that handcuffed hands had been found on a rooftop in some debris. Just in case you're confused - no such 'hands' were found. Is this inherently politically biased? No, but it is sensationalistic and the kind of gory anecdote that is often used in rabble rousing. During the Clinton/Bush transition Brit Hume and Paula Zahn reported as fact that there was widespread vandalism of the White House by departing staffers. It was compared to "Animal House". There was no signifigant vandalism and Fox News never really corrected their reporting on air. I hope that the political bias of this sort of fabrication is clear in and of itself. Perhaps is isn't fair to present, but of course, Fox 'reporter' Heraldo Rivera lied on air about his being kicked out of Iraq by the US military.
It isn't just the poor journalism that lends to the perception of bias. It's the comments by the (nominally non-pundit) news hosts. Brit Hume asked, on air, why civilian casualties of US military action should even be reported given that it's part and parcel of war. I recently saw the (nominally non-pundit) Fox newscasters 'reporting' on GWBs visit to Northern Ireland to meet with PM Blair to discuss post-conflict Iraq. Blair was going in to the meeting to stress the importance of UN involvement to lend legitimacy to the process. One Fox newscaster commented that the Bush administration opposes this. The other newscaster replied "Well, France will be crying!" Cut to commercials. She was clearly cheer-leading the Bush administration. Even as they are supposedly 'just reporting the facts' they are adding editorial comments to 'help' the viewers to form the 'correct opinion' of them.
Former Fox News employees report how management interferes with the reporting process to modify stories to make them more appealing to right-wing viewers. Analysis of the pary affiliation of guests on Fox News reveals an overwhelming slant towards individuals from the Republican party.
Perhaps the most sad thing here is that while the Fox staff are personally commited to the the Conservative agenda, the News Corp. fundamentally produces this stuff because it makes money. The irony of all of this is that while Fox promotes the Bush administration and its policies, the average Fox viewer doesn't make enough money to benefit from the Bush tax plan.
Boy! Good thing we've all switched over to the paperless office! All the synergies just lined up and overwhelmed the paper business and centuries of legal precedents of using paper documents! Someone pointed out how much sense it would make to digitize all our paper and just work off the computer screen for everything, and it just happened in the course of a few years! Hurray!
If it weren't for the paperless office revolution, I would have to haul big ass rolls of blueprints to City Hall to get building permits. If it weren't for the paperless office, I would have received a SIX FOOT TALL (2m) stack of faxes during the construction of a 6,000 sq. ft. (600 sq. m) building. I sure am glad that I don't have to haul a big stack of papers to every project meeting! I'm sure that you all live in the paper free world, too.
Gosh, I'm sure that the obvious Hydrogen Revolution will happen just like the paperless office revolution did. Overnight.
(Note to the sarcasm impared: we do lots of things today with less paper, but the 'paperless office revolution' hasn't happened)
Grrrr! I'm constantly annoyed that Adobe thought that it would be cool in Illustrator if Cmd-H hides/shows object edges, rather than hiding the application (unlike every other OSX app!) Even if I'm not getting the error in the story, that particular modifier key is useless to me because I can't remember to use some different key combination to hide Illustrator!
We (here in the US) can't complain too much. Our dear Secretary of 'Defense' has plans to militarize earth orbital space, making it the domain of the US military. By comparison, a bit of commercial mining on the moon sounds pretty tame. Of course, we could organize and petition the Bush Administration to tell them that the American people oppose this sort of thing, but that would only work if the Administration gave a damn about what the people want...
The MiniDV format is 4.5 minutes of video+audio per Gigabyte. A MiniDV tape is usually either 60 or 90 minutes. At 90 minutes, that's 20 GB. Thus, Sony's format will allow me to back up any MiniDV tape to one of their disks to archive it. Yippiee! I like it. Now make it as cheap as the current DVD burning systems.
(nit picker note: yes, almost everyone uses the tape at 60 minutes, yes, there are other size tapes, and yes, there are 'big' MiniDV tapes (kinda oxymoronic, I know) but none of these are critical.)
Is it just me or has BtVS more or less become the Willow show? Maybe it's just that all the more intersting parts of the show have revolved around Willow. If they're looking for a more interesting spin off, I say center it on Willow.
I'm sure it's a mix of the three, but which of the three explanations do you think is predominantly behind billg's goofy comment? (I'm really not sure, myself)
It isn't clear to me how Symantec could know, hours in advance, about a worm which took ten minutes to spread throughout the entire Internet...
Wouldn't the spread rate of this be an exponential curve, with a flat beginning leading to a steep spike? It seems reasonable that the flat start would be a few hours before the steep spike that would be seen as 'spreading across the internet in ten minutes.'
Like a lot of innovative building products, I'm thinking, "Interesting, but..." It sounds appealing, but there are a bunch of hurdles to get over before I would use it in a project.
One issue in it's favor is the faddish aspects of 'green building'. Lots of clients want to think that they have a 'green building' but don't want to spend the money or make the compromises required. Slapping some of this on your facade would go a long way - you can see it, point to it and say 'look, green building.' A lot of more effective systems aren't as easily understood or are out of sight.
The biggest down side is the reality of building roofs/skins. Water penetration is the biggest thing that makes architects sweat and loose sleep. Leaky roofs are the biggest source of lawsuits for architects in the US. Roofs undergo massive thermal expansion ranges (for a building product) and are exposed to the weather and physical abuse constantly. I expect a roof to last for decades with minimal maintenance. Anything that claims to be a water-tight roofing surface has to be tested and proven before I'm going to specify it for a project. As with all roofing products, it's not just the stuff that shows up on a truck at the site, but the experience of the roofers who install it and the complete roofing system as installed that is critical.
Of course, you could put this stuff up as an 'outer skin' over a real roof/cladding system, but then you're paying twice for a roof/skin.
A lot of faddish materials have come and gone. They get installed in some buildings, fail in a few years, get ripped off and replaced with something proven. In the end, this stuff has to prove itself over the long run as a high quality building product before it's going to be used extensively. It will be judged on its price vs. performance like anything else.
I, for one, am not so keen on 'roll up' displays. If it's anything like most laminated plastic sheets, it will develop ripples and creases with 'normal use' (a.k.a. mild abuse). For some users an uneven display would be just fine, but not for CAD, design or similar uses.
On the other hand, wallpaper = display would be great. You could change colors and patterns when ever you want, even to 'set the mood'. I could design rooms without worrying where the TV is going, because it could be (on) any wall and at any height/size. Heck, if it's luminescent you could even light the room!
The real difference in times for this test was on the batch processing tests. I, like most people, don't do tons of batch processing. So what? Over the course of a year, how much time do I spend waiting for my Mac to finish a Photoshop batch, and how much time do I spend installing anti-virus software and dealing with OS problems on my WinTel box. I'm still using my Mac to get more done.
The recent rumors were that apple would intro a 19" iMac this January. But with LCD prices for this size range not dropping and possibly increasing, that rumor is fading. Additionally, a 19" 'head' on the same iMac base would not be aesthetically pleasing (it would look funny). The only way that Apple is dropping all 17" iMacs and moving to all 19" is with great pricing on the new screens and a form factor change. Don't forget that it is always possible that Apple is working on a new enclosure (mood Mac story)that might use a different 17" LCD.
Apple won't publicly, directly support these moves because it still has to talk and negotiate with M$. At the same time, they must be happy that these apps are moving forward, but without needing their direct support. These open apps are a percieved threat to M$ across several platforms, so Apple gets a little leverage with M$ (because cutting Office for Mac is less of a doomsday scenario), without being 'one of the bad guys.' Also, don't forget that Apple has it's own competing product to OpenOffice - AppleWorks.
Regarding Apple's homegrown browser, I would guess that it will just drive M$ to make IE for Windows even less stnadards compliant, forcing web developers to follow, and making IE on Windows the only way to reliably interact with lots more web sites.
going after the smut providers certainly was a brillinat move. Normally, the big fish would consider helping out the small fish who are being raped first, but because AOLTW and their ilk can't be seen to be 'promoting porn,' they can't help the small fish.
How do we convince people that patent abuse funds international terrorism?
Oh, how our poor fundimentalist friends (primarily Christian here in the US) must wish that a mob of screaming Talib could just fall from the sky and take over that satanic 'university'. Now that woudl be doing God's will! And then they could move on to eradicating the teaching of that silly 'theory' of evolution.
(This is sarcastic, for those with sarcasm sensory imparement)
What's the correct term? "Pro-choice" is a laughable euphemism, considering it avoids specific mention of the issue at hand.
Yes, let's address the exact issue at hand. Try "anti-prohibition". The choice to abort a pregnancy always exists, wether it's a (relatively) safe and legal medical proceedure, a coat hanger or jumping in front of a truck. We will never 'stop abortion.' The distinction is wether people want to impose their religious beliefs on others by means of our government through a legal prohibition. Remember that a legal prohibition will be as effective as our legal prohibition on certain drugs.
I think that the solution to the abortion 'problem' is for all of us to make the changes necessary to make the need for abortions as rare as possible.
I was born in Philadelphia, grew up near one of the major heroin centers in Chicago, currently live not far from large housing projects in Chicago, and worked in East Saint Louis, IL (former per capita murder capitol of the US). For most of my life, hearing minor gun battles out my window has been nothing out of the ordinary. I have friends who have been not just shot at, but shot at point blank range. Here are some of my thoughts about guns in America.
There never were 'good old days.' My grandparents, while out for a beer at the neighborhood tap, watched two guys 'cap' someone at the bar. A few years later, a drive-by killed the wrong guy in front of the same bar. As they tell a different story, there was a near miss of a Columbine-lite in the neighborhood among some middle class white kids in the 50's. (Of course those kids didn't have access to Drug War weapons).
It seems ironic to me that in the suburbs and rural areas, where one is statistically exposed to less violent crime from strangers, people frequently have guns in their homes 'for protection.' But in the big city, where there appears to be a greater risk from stranger-crime, many people refuse to have a gun in the house. They (as I do) believe that a gun in the home is likely to be used against you in a home invasion. Also, it appears that the risk from the gun being used in an effective suicide or in a friend/relative crime is greater than the benefit of 'protection.'
Prohibition doesn't work. Didn't work for alchohol, doesn't work for drugs, won't work for guns. Social stigma, on the other hand, can work. I don't associate with herion users. I think that people need to speak out and express the idea that it's a bad idea to have non-hunting/non-sporting guns.
I'm a big First Amendment freak, so it's only fair that I take the Second Amendment serioiusly. Taken literally, I believe that it protects the rights of memebers of well organized national defence militia to bear muzzle-loaded muskets. Taken more generally, I believe that the government should fear the citizenry. There was a day and age when the general population could rise up and militarily overthrow a government. I don't see that as possible in the US today. Rather, I think it's critical that we all keep and maintain the ability to monkey wrench and sabotage the US if that was needed to overthrow a government that was failing to uphold the constitution.
It's not exactly what you had in mind, but the work of Spanish architect/engineer Santiago Calatrava is an amazing bunch of engineering+art. The fact that a lot of his stuff is in Spain (bridges) and Switzerland (train stations) doesn't hurt. Oh, and there's the art museum in Milwaukee (USA)
Don't forget about Chicago architecture/engineering. While the Sears Tower is still the tallest building in the world, by any reasonable standard, the John Hancock building is almost a niftier bit of engineering.
Don't forget about the Chicago River - it used to flow into lake Michigan with it's load of sewage. The obvious solution was to reverse the flow of the river - so they did it..
Re:Local building codes and restraint of trade
on
Open Source Housing
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· Score: 2
Bullshit. Non-standardized building codes are a pain in the ass, but they don't limit trade from one area to another, unless it's contractors from Stupidville trying to work somewhere else.
I work in Chicago, where modern buildng codes were invented after the big fire. The idiosyncratic code here protects two things: First, it protects the jobs of the building permit reviewers and site inspectors. Second, there are elements of the code that make work for contractors/tradespeople. (e.g. PVC pipe is limited making more work for plumbers, and low-voltage cabling (telephone, CAT5) must be in conduit in commercial construction making for more work for electricians.)
There may be some freaky hick town codes out there, but for the most part, competent contractors know about the differences between different towns' interpretations and 'tweaks'. It's a bit like dealing with a variety of Linux distros.
That said, Chicago claims to be moving towards the "International Building Code" The IBC isn't international at all (I don't know if it has any metric equivalents?), but is the current update to the US-centric BOCA model code.
While we're on the topic of codes, the BOCA model sucks. It's free to adopt as a town, but you have to pay to get a copy of the actual code. There was a/. article a while ago (can't find it) about a guy who dealt with this by putting the code on the web, arguing that it's now a law and can't be copyrighted. It's tough to fight the building inspector when you have to spend us$200 to get a copy of the code that he's referencing. But inspectors like being questioned as much as cops do.
I got to see both films this weekend. The new one (Solaris 02)in the theater and the old one (Solaris 72) on TV.
I finally was able to stay awake through the '72 film! It's important to note that the '72 film was specifically a response to Kubrick's 2001 - the filmmakers felt it was cold and inhuman. I think that's important in understanding why the film looks and feels as it does. They filled three hours, but in a different way than Kubrick. It was odd that in michael's review he comments on the long periods without dialog in Solaris 02, when there are much longer periods without dialog in Solaris 72 and it's extraordinarily slow-paced. (Thus, it's sleep inducing nature) Solaris 02 is a bit too short, perhaps, which is surprising given the 'Titanic' producer.
There are obvious visual references in Solaris 02 to 2001. More interesting, to me, are the visual references to Blade Runner (rainy streets and crowds with umbrellas, among others). It is in comparison to Blade Runner where I see the two Solaris films lacking. In both Blade Runner and Solaris there are semi-humans through which we can ask questions about what it is to be human. Both the Replicants and the Guests are simultaneously creations of human minds and forms of simulations of humanity. I may have missed something in Solris 72, but it seemed that Solaris 02 dealt with the 'Guest's' semi-humanity more directly. The re-creation of the dead wife is aware of her limited nature and asks questions about what it is to be human. But somehow neither Solaris seemed to get deeply enough into these questions. In Solaris 02, Snow seems to address some of this near the end of the film, but again, it doesn't seem to be adequate.
I'm still unclear on what was intended with the ending of Solaris 02. Perhaps that is part of why it's getting negative reactions.
It's worth pointing out that what you see out the windows of the train near the end of the film is the Chicago "L" passing the Merchandise Mart station. (Chicagoans keep Hollywood running, BTW)
High speed rail is a great thing, yes, even in the US! I'm in Chicago (live+work in the city!) so I follow Midwest High Speed Rail. For those who claim that we don't have the population density for rail, note that Chicago to Detroit has higher pop density along the corridor than Paris to Lille (the main trunk of the TGV system). At about 200mph I could get from downtown Chicago to downtown St. Louis faster than by plane (shlep to the airport, wait, fly breifly, wait, shlep back from the airport, etc.)
Seattle monorail, on the other hand, doesn't go from anywhere to anywhere. It's cute, but, as I understand the proposed alignment, it doesn't really serve anyone's needs! It's just going to be a living monorail joke. This doesn't just suck for the people of Seattle - it will be used by morons to argue against investment in public transit in general and against innovative transit technology in specific. I was involved in the development of a prototype Personal Rapid Transit system that would have well served the needs of more dense inner-ring suburbs, but the political will wasn't there from the state government to fund construction. When Seatle builds the extension and there are very few riders, it will be used to bash all sorts of actually good systems.
Slashdot Mirror
What? If I can't get it into Final Cut Pro, why would I want it? Surely, they can write a codec for QuickTime. Besides, as others have pointed out, editing/manipulating MPEG-type compressed video is 'problematic'.
It's nice that the industry is starting to get into HD, but I'll wait for Sony and Canon to release sub us$4,000, HD, 3-ccd cameras with a more standard codec. Luckily, I won't need a new camera for a few years.
company: No, Ms. M$ salesperson, we have a bunch of apps that will break if we buy your Windows upgrade! We might as well port to Linux at this point.
M$ sales: Ah ha, with Microsoft VirtualPC you can spend more money to run your old version of Windows inside a virtual machine inside the new version that has features you don't need!
company: Oh! In that case we'll take 10,000 licenses!
As usual, the Mac market is tiny compared to the Windows market.
It's sort of stunning to come face-to-face (so to speak) with a Fox-fan who doesn't understand the bias. (There are plenty of Fox-fans who are aware of the bias and just like it). Nonetheless, the AC poses a fair issue.
First of all, why do people care what the opinion hosts have to say? It's becuase their opinions form a lens through which Fox viewers are more likely to interpret the 'facts'. This is particularly a problem for viewers who are not independently well informed. Their worldview is particularly easy to 'massage' to a particular position.
That said, why do more broadly informed people percive Fox News to be biased? It's not just the opinion shows. My biggest objection has to do with the low standards for fact checking and journalism. During the Sep. 11th attacks, the Fox crawl reported that handcuffed hands had been found on a rooftop in some debris. Just in case you're confused - no such 'hands' were found. Is this inherently politically biased? No, but it is sensationalistic and the kind of gory anecdote that is often used in rabble rousing. During the Clinton/Bush transition Brit Hume and Paula Zahn reported as fact that there was widespread vandalism of the White House by departing staffers. It was compared to "Animal House". There was no signifigant vandalism and Fox News never really corrected their reporting on air. I hope that the political bias of this sort of fabrication is clear in and of itself. Perhaps is isn't fair to present, but of course, Fox 'reporter' Heraldo Rivera lied on air about his being kicked out of Iraq by the US military.
It isn't just the poor journalism that lends to the perception of bias. It's the comments by the (nominally non-pundit) news hosts. Brit Hume asked, on air, why civilian casualties of US military action should even be reported given that it's part and parcel of war. I recently saw the (nominally non-pundit) Fox newscasters 'reporting' on GWBs visit to Northern Ireland to meet with PM Blair to discuss post-conflict Iraq. Blair was going in to the meeting to stress the importance of UN involvement to lend legitimacy to the process. One Fox newscaster commented that the Bush administration opposes this. The other newscaster replied "Well, France will be crying!" Cut to commercials. She was clearly cheer-leading the Bush administration. Even as they are supposedly 'just reporting the facts' they are adding editorial comments to 'help' the viewers to form the 'correct opinion' of them.
Former Fox News employees report how management interferes with the reporting process to modify stories to make them more appealing to right-wing viewers. Analysis of the pary affiliation of guests on Fox News reveals an overwhelming slant towards individuals from the Republican party.
Perhaps the most sad thing here is that while the Fox staff are personally commited to the the Conservative agenda, the News Corp. fundamentally produces this stuff because it makes money. The irony of all of this is that while Fox promotes the Bush administration and its policies, the average Fox viewer doesn't make enough money to benefit from the Bush tax plan.
If it weren't for the paperless office revolution, I would have to haul big ass rolls of blueprints to City Hall to get building permits. If it weren't for the paperless office, I would have received a SIX FOOT TALL (2m) stack of faxes during the construction of a 6,000 sq. ft. (600 sq. m) building. I sure am glad that I don't have to haul a big stack of papers to every project meeting! I'm sure that you all live in the paper free world, too.
Gosh, I'm sure that the obvious Hydrogen Revolution will happen just like the paperless office revolution did. Overnight.
(Note to the sarcasm impared: we do lots of things today with less paper, but the 'paperless office revolution' hasn't happened)
Grrrr! I'm constantly annoyed that Adobe thought that it would be cool in Illustrator if Cmd-H hides/shows object edges, rather than hiding the application (unlike every other OSX app!) Even if I'm not getting the error in the story, that particular modifier key is useless to me because I can't remember to use some different key combination to hide Illustrator!
We (here in the US) can't complain too much. Our dear Secretary of 'Defense' has plans to militarize earth orbital space, making it the domain of the US military. By comparison, a bit of commercial mining on the moon sounds pretty tame. Of course, we could organize and petition the Bush Administration to tell them that the American people oppose this sort of thing, but that would only work if the Administration gave a damn about what the people want...
(nit picker note: yes, almost everyone uses the tape at 60 minutes, yes, there are other size tapes, and yes, there are 'big' MiniDV tapes (kinda oxymoronic, I know) but none of these are critical.)
Is it just me or has BtVS more or less become the Willow show? Maybe it's just that all the more intersting parts of the show have revolved around Willow. If they're looking for a more interesting spin off, I say center it on Willow.
I'm sure it's a mix of the three, but which of the three explanations do you think is predominantly behind billg's goofy comment? (I'm really not sure, myself)
Wouldn't the spread rate of this be an exponential curve, with a flat beginning leading to a steep spike? It seems reasonable that the flat start would be a few hours before the steep spike that would be seen as 'spreading across the internet in ten minutes.'
One issue in it's favor is the faddish aspects of 'green building'. Lots of clients want to think that they have a 'green building' but don't want to spend the money or make the compromises required. Slapping some of this on your facade would go a long way - you can see it, point to it and say 'look, green building.' A lot of more effective systems aren't as easily understood or are out of sight.
The biggest down side is the reality of building roofs/skins. Water penetration is the biggest thing that makes architects sweat and loose sleep. Leaky roofs are the biggest source of lawsuits for architects in the US. Roofs undergo massive thermal expansion ranges (for a building product) and are exposed to the weather and physical abuse constantly. I expect a roof to last for decades with minimal maintenance. Anything that claims to be a water-tight roofing surface has to be tested and proven before I'm going to specify it for a project. As with all roofing products, it's not just the stuff that shows up on a truck at the site, but the experience of the roofers who install it and the complete roofing system as installed that is critical.
Of course, you could put this stuff up as an 'outer skin' over a real roof/cladding system, but then you're paying twice for a roof/skin.
A lot of faddish materials have come and gone. They get installed in some buildings, fail in a few years, get ripped off and replaced with something proven. In the end, this stuff has to prove itself over the long run as a high quality building product before it's going to be used extensively. It will be judged on its price vs. performance like anything else.
On the other hand, wallpaper = display would be great. You could change colors and patterns when ever you want, even to 'set the mood'. I could design rooms without worrying where the TV is going, because it could be (on) any wall and at any height/size. Heck, if it's luminescent you could even light the room!
The real difference in times for this test was on the batch processing tests. I, like most people, don't do tons of batch processing. So what? Over the course of a year, how much time do I spend waiting for my Mac to finish a Photoshop batch, and how much time do I spend installing anti-virus software and dealing with OS problems on my WinTel box. I'm still using my Mac to get more done.
The recent rumors were that apple would intro a 19" iMac this January. But with LCD prices for this size range not dropping and possibly increasing, that rumor is fading. Additionally, a 19" 'head' on the same iMac base would not be aesthetically pleasing (it would look funny). The only way that Apple is dropping all 17" iMacs and moving to all 19" is with great pricing on the new screens and a form factor change. Don't forget that it is always possible that Apple is working on a new enclosure (mood Mac story)that might use a different 17" LCD.
Regarding Apple's homegrown browser, I would guess that it will just drive M$ to make IE for Windows even less stnadards compliant, forcing web developers to follow, and making IE on Windows the only way to reliably interact with lots more web sites.
How do we convince people that patent abuse funds international terrorism?
(This is sarcastic, for those with sarcasm sensory imparement)
Yes, let's address the exact issue at hand. Try "anti-prohibition". The choice to abort a pregnancy always exists, wether it's a (relatively) safe and legal medical proceedure, a coat hanger or jumping in front of a truck. We will never 'stop abortion.' The distinction is wether people want to impose their religious beliefs on others by means of our government through a legal prohibition. Remember that a legal prohibition will be as effective as our legal prohibition on certain drugs.
I think that the solution to the abortion 'problem' is for all of us to make the changes necessary to make the need for abortions as rare as possible.
There never were 'good old days.' My grandparents, while out for a beer at the neighborhood tap, watched two guys 'cap' someone at the bar. A few years later, a drive-by killed the wrong guy in front of the same bar. As they tell a different story, there was a near miss of a Columbine-lite in the neighborhood among some middle class white kids in the 50's. (Of course those kids didn't have access to Drug War weapons).
It seems ironic to me that in the suburbs and rural areas, where one is statistically exposed to less violent crime from strangers, people frequently have guns in their homes 'for protection.' But in the big city, where there appears to be a greater risk from stranger-crime, many people refuse to have a gun in the house. They (as I do) believe that a gun in the home is likely to be used against you in a home invasion. Also, it appears that the risk from the gun being used in an effective suicide or in a friend/relative crime is greater than the benefit of 'protection.'
Prohibition doesn't work. Didn't work for alchohol, doesn't work for drugs, won't work for guns. Social stigma, on the other hand, can work. I don't associate with herion users. I think that people need to speak out and express the idea that it's a bad idea to have non-hunting/non-sporting guns.
I'm a big First Amendment freak, so it's only fair that I take the Second Amendment serioiusly. Taken literally, I believe that it protects the rights of memebers of well organized national defence militia to bear muzzle-loaded muskets. Taken more generally, I believe that the government should fear the citizenry. There was a day and age when the general population could rise up and militarily overthrow a government. I don't see that as possible in the US today. Rather, I think it's critical that we all keep and maintain the ability to monkey wrench and sabotage the US if that was needed to overthrow a government that was failing to uphold the constitution.
It's not exactly what you had in mind, but the work of Spanish architect/engineer Santiago Calatrava is an amazing bunch of engineering+art. The fact that a lot of his stuff is in Spain (bridges) and Switzerland (train stations) doesn't hurt. Oh, and there's the art museum in Milwaukee (USA)
Don't forget about the Chicago River - it used to flow into lake Michigan with it's load of sewage. The obvious solution was to reverse the flow of the river - so they did it..
I work in Chicago, where modern buildng codes were invented after the big fire. The idiosyncratic code here protects two things: First, it protects the jobs of the building permit reviewers and site inspectors. Second, there are elements of the code that make work for contractors/tradespeople. (e.g. PVC pipe is limited making more work for plumbers, and low-voltage cabling (telephone, CAT5) must be in conduit in commercial construction making for more work for electricians.)
There may be some freaky hick town codes out there, but for the most part, competent contractors know about the differences between different towns' interpretations and 'tweaks'. It's a bit like dealing with a variety of Linux distros.
That said, Chicago claims to be moving towards the "International Building Code" The IBC isn't international at all (I don't know if it has any metric equivalents?), but is the current update to the US-centric BOCA model code.
While we're on the topic of codes, the BOCA model sucks. It's free to adopt as a town, but you have to pay to get a copy of the actual code. There was a /. article a while ago (can't find it) about a guy who dealt with this by putting the code on the web, arguing that it's now a law and can't be copyrighted. It's tough to fight the building inspector when you have to spend us$200 to get a copy of the code that he's referencing. But inspectors like being questioned as much as cops do.
I finally was able to stay awake through the '72 film! It's important to note that the '72 film was specifically a response to Kubrick's 2001 - the filmmakers felt it was cold and inhuman. I think that's important in understanding why the film looks and feels as it does. They filled three hours, but in a different way than Kubrick. It was odd that in michael's review he comments on the long periods without dialog in Solaris 02, when there are much longer periods without dialog in Solaris 72 and it's extraordinarily slow-paced. (Thus, it's sleep inducing nature) Solaris 02 is a bit too short, perhaps, which is surprising given the 'Titanic' producer.
There are obvious visual references in Solaris 02 to 2001. More interesting, to me, are the visual references to Blade Runner (rainy streets and crowds with umbrellas, among others). It is in comparison to Blade Runner where I see the two Solaris films lacking. In both Blade Runner and Solaris there are semi-humans through which we can ask questions about what it is to be human. Both the Replicants and the Guests are simultaneously creations of human minds and forms of simulations of humanity. I may have missed something in Solris 72, but it seemed that Solaris 02 dealt with the 'Guest's' semi-humanity more directly. The re-creation of the dead wife is aware of her limited nature and asks questions about what it is to be human. But somehow neither Solaris seemed to get deeply enough into these questions. In Solaris 02, Snow seems to address some of this near the end of the film, but again, it doesn't seem to be adequate.
I'm still unclear on what was intended with the ending of Solaris 02. Perhaps that is part of why it's getting negative reactions.
It's worth pointing out that what you see out the windows of the train near the end of the film is the Chicago "L" passing the Merchandise Mart station. (Chicagoans keep Hollywood running, BTW)
What do you mean 'reduced to'? What else are they good for?
Seattle monorail, on the other hand, doesn't go from anywhere to anywhere. It's cute, but, as I understand the proposed alignment, it doesn't really serve anyone's needs! It's just going to be a living monorail joke. This doesn't just suck for the people of Seattle - it will be used by morons to argue against investment in public transit in general and against innovative transit technology in specific. I was involved in the development of a prototype Personal Rapid Transit system that would have well served the needs of more dense inner-ring suburbs, but the political will wasn't there from the state government to fund construction. When Seatle builds the extension and there are very few riders, it will be used to bash all sorts of actually good systems.