| 'Vantage Point' (president assassination drama, starring Dennis Quaid)
Each time "Vantage Point" loops back to high noon, we learn a little more about the shooting and the bombings from a different character's perspective. We also learn a little more about how tricky the thriller game has become in the late Bush era. A movie such as this, full of barely contained "24"-inspired rage (though its multiple perspectives owe more to the short-lived TV series "Boomtown") has it in for everybody. Its high body count and repeated shots of bombing victims wandering, bloody, amid smoke and carnage encourages a kind of sour acceptance of the way things are.
Once the conspiracy reveals itself, the film throws up its hands and plunks Quaid behind the wheel of a borrowed automobile, and director Pete Travis' film finally throws the stick shift out of reverse.
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TransAdelaide plan for fewer seats on our trains
TransAdelaide general manager Bill Watson has written to a disgruntled commuter who complained about a train carriage with reduced seating that has been on trial for six weeks. His letter to Seacliff Park commuter Ivan Winter says: "Standing room, especially in peak periods, is the reality of all public transport systems in all major cities." Mr Watson said replacing the decks of three seats along one side of Carriage 2103 with decks of two seats, did not cut the carriage's capacity because standing room had been increased. "My immediate reaction to that is that it is outrageous," Mr Winter said yesterday. "We ought to be developing and improving our public transport. Instead, what we're seeing from the operator is they are degrading it .
Winter storms at both ends of the country dump snow, snarl travel
CHICAGO (AP) — Winter storms at both ends of the country dumped snow and snarled air and land travel Friday, killing at least 10 people, blocking major highways and even stranding 400 train passengers in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest. Nearly 7 1/2 inches of snow was reported at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport before the front moved out of the area Friday. About 500 flights were canceled at O'Hare, which canceled 600 flights Thursday and housed hundreds of stranded travelers who spent the night awaiting planes from other cities also affected by the storm. At least 12 inches of snow was reported in Springfield by Friday morning, said National Weather Service meteorologist Gino Izzi. Other parts of Illinois saw similar amounts. "If you don't have to be out here, don't," Ty Wilson, a very wet Chicago bicycle messenger, said as he stopped along a slushy street between morning deliveries.
Aquaduct gets the medal for its pedal-powered idea
A few months back, I pointed in this blog to the call for entries for the "Innovate or Die" contest for a pedal-powered machine (aka bicycle). Right now, I'd be hard-pressed to ride a bike here in New Jersey, for fear of wind-burn and on account of the slight snow we had today, but I AM walking the two miles to the train station routinely. (Reduces the energy stored in my body, too.) But, anyway, the contest co-sponsors — Google, Specialized Bicycles, and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners — actually have announced the winner. The winning entry, schemed up by five students in California, is the Aquaduct, which transports and filters water. Their idea is that women in third world countries would be able to use the vehicle both to collect water (which they often have to travel a large distance to find) and to purify it.
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