MikeR

It's been a while since I posted, but I just read this article. Dubai not only had the world's tallest builfing, but now the first shape-shifting one. Each floor rotates independently on this 80-story structure: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/06/25/...ower/index.html

We went there last year. It's an excellent park; great for families. My kids loved the water park and the roller coaster is fun too.

RIC is my old Alma Mater. In the late '80s and early 90's that quad was all asphalt walkways The year I graduated was the year the old gym burned down. We had to hold our graduation on another field instead of the quad. The campus looks much better then when I went there a long time ago.

I went to Whole Foods at University Heights today - the weather is sparkling and all the trees are in full bloom. Today is definately the day to get outside a bit and enjoy the weather!

He'll find the city much changed (for the better) once he gets back.

This is the link to the UP forum regarding the shootings today at Virginia Tech. A horrible tragedy: http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=37412 UP'ers are posting condolances there.

Today was a terrible tragedy at Virginia Tech. 32 students killed by a shooter. My condolances to the victim's families.

Dead wrong. AAC IS an open and International format. Apple DID NOT develop AAC. AAC stands for Advanced Audio Coding, NOT Apple Audio Coding as so many people are lead to believe. There are plenty of free AAC codecs available from the Web that you can download to Windows Media Player if you use Windows, so you can rip your music to a superior format over MP3. I've experimented ripping my music to both formats, and AAC beats MP3 for fidelity hands down. However, Apple did develop Apple Lossless, which is a proprietary format. Just like Microsoft developed its' own proprietary formats for compressing digital media such as such as Windows Media Video (WMV) and Windows Media Audio (WMA) formats. From Wikipedia: AAC was developed with the cooperation and contributions of companies including Dolby, Fraunhofer (FhG), AT&T, Sony and Nokia, and was officially declared an international standard by the Moving Pictures Experts Group in April 1997. I don't see Apple in the list of companies that developed AAC. If you don't like AAC, then be sure to ditch your cable, satellite, or digital radio subscriptions because that's exactly what they are transmitting their audio in.

In other news, Sen. Barack Obama raises nearly $25 million in the 1Q 2007, matching Hillary Clinton's fundraising efforts: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17946727/ The money came from 100,000 donors; that's a LOT so early in.

Sandor Bodo's back! Great night photos!

Or other MP3 players made overseas like, you know, Samsung, iRiver, Creative, etc. Prove that Apple lied to customers about iPods NOT being made in China. Or, that Creative and Samsung are paying their workers who make their MP3 players let's say, oh, $7.80 an hour. MP3 is MPEG-1 Layer 3. AAC is MPEG-4 Part 10. Or, in other words, the successor to MP3 for audio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_audio_coding http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_Pictures_Experts_Group Unless, of course, people should be ripping their music to an older audio format like MP3, instead of the updated AAC audio format that uh, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD disks use, and the Playstation 3 uses, and all that. Or, perhaps, instead of purchasing music electronically, people should oh, drive in fossil-fueled cars to stores and buy CD's made of plastic and aluminum encased in a plastic jewel case with a paper front cover that a tree was killed in order to produce, and wrapped up in cellophane and vinyl tape, and all that. Have a nice day.

Apple did reduce the amount of packaging material on the iPod Shuffle and Nano by 30%. Apple does not have a trade-in policy on their old computers as their products enjoy a longer shelf life with owners and a healthy P2P market. (my 2 cents)

While we're talking about transportation; I saw my first Smart Car two days ago in Tiverton. It was pulling into the Viti Mercedes Benz dealership (Daimler-Benz makes the Smart Car) It really is tiny, but cute. So, I guess they are available here in the US.

Actually, I watched a "48 Hours" report on the heroin problem in Willamantic. It was a serious problem there.

Damn. Next time you go on a trip bring along some UP bodyguards. We'll watch your back! Seriously...glad to hear you're OK.

I swear that someday I'll take some pics of the skyline from here in Tiverton and post them; I went walking in my neighborhood the day before X-mas and Westin II is now clearly visible from where I live. The skyline is much easier to see in winter with the drier air and no leaves on the trees. The next clear day on the weekend I'll do it.

Congrats! Now, you must learn and accept the practice of changing diapers, bottle feeding, burping, and handling when your niece spits up. Happy Holidays to everyone here on UP!

Ruck Hand does those, and he posts here under "RHand".

He'll probably replace Arlene Violet's slot on WHJJ

Racepicks - welcome to the UP forum! Please continue to be a regular contributor here. On topic - if the residents nearby to the Depot live in a crime and rat-infested area with drugs, then a station WILL benefit them. They will have more choices in obtaining a higher-paying job in the Boston or Providence metro areas while not worrying about transportation costs; the monthly fee for a T-pass is less than they would be paying for fuel and maintenance costs for an automobile if they drove to the same job. The Barton/Weeden St. area would experience a a re-vitalization. Thinking ahead, they could purchase housing in this area now IF the station was to go in, and then watch their equity go up and up. Doing nothing will NOT benefit the people in this area. It was the short-sighted nature of several administrations that caused the situation to be like this in the first place. And I should know - I used to live there - on Jenks Ave. in Central Falls. I've been doing that since I quit that rotten corporation 10 years ago...