| Good blog for info on Austin's local bars:
Now our planners want to spend billions more, mostly on projects for which tolls will only pay a small fraction of the cost. The draft long-range road plan which will be up for public comment in February and March calls for spending more than $1.5 billion (with a "b") on road projects in the Barton Springs watershed alone. The Envision Central Texas survey shows overwhelming consensus from rural, suburban, and urban residents for the kind of "careful planning" you seem to want. Whether, when, and how tolls are involved are important questions, but disagreements on tolling should not confuse the question of which projects support and which harm the future we want for our region. Sincerely, Bill Bunch Save Our Springs Alliance A Tough Decision Dear Editor, I have not heard the toll road issue so well put ["Page Two," Jan.
Park won't try to replace historic Grand Canyon gift shop
GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. — The National Park Service says it won't try to find another company to run the historic Verkamp's Curios gift shop on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, ending a 100-year run for the family owned store. The Verkamp family decided not to bid to run the shop when the Park Service asked for proposals last year. The Park Service has decided not to seek other bidders and will find other uses for the building once they buy out the family's interest in the building. The family began selling trinkets out of a tent and built the shop in 1906, living there until the mid-1980s. Millions of visitors have bought curios, Indian blankets, baskets, pottery and other souvenirs at the site. It is set to close in September. On the Net: Verkamp's Curios: http://verkamps.com/ Grand Canyon National Park: http://www.nps.gov/grca/ .
Cactus Pryor battles Alzheimer's
Writing a piece used to take me five minutes. It takes me a day now," he says. "Sure, he gets frustrated," says son Don Pryor, who also works at KLBJ and shares commentary duty with his father. "I look at it with the perspective that it takes me two or three days to write one." "Cactus at one-quarter speed is what the rest of us are at full speed," Davis Pryor says. Writing and relying on his recollection of Austin's rich history is good for Pryor. "Having difficulty remembering a password is quite typical, but his writing skills will remain intact because whenever he writes, it will be about things familiar to him like his distant past," says David Lipschitz, a leading geriatrician, chairman of the Ronald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatrics and director of the Institute on Aging at the University of Arkansas.
Commentary: President Bush v. polar bears
A half-century ago, before SUVs doomed the planet, there were only 8,000 to 10,000 polar bears, according to science writer Theo Richel. Much of this increase is due to hunting restrictions that were put in place. And if polar bears, as reported, seem to be losing weight, it may be because increasing populations are competing for the same food supply. Actually, global warming might help in that area. A reduction in ice cover creates a better habitat for seals, which are the bears' main food. Less ice cover means more sunlight producing more phytoplankton, increasing the supply of other food sources. On land, blueberries, which the bears adore, would become more plentiful. Taylor says he's seen bears so full of blueberries they waddle. .
Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 8.0c build 136
Vegas Movie Studio+DVD software makes video editing easy and fun. Best of all, Vegas Movie Studio+DVD software is a real-time nondestructive video editor. No matter what changes you make to your video and photos in the software, your original files are never affected. Vegas Movie Studio+DVD software gives you the freedom to experiment and have fun with video editing, without worrying about making a mistake. All Vegas Movie Studio+DVD editions include easy drag-and-drop video editing, integrated DVD layout and burning, and Show Me How interactive tutorials. In addition, Platinum Edition provides added features, advanced editing tools, and other bonus materials to speed you through even the most complex of movie projects from fullscreen DV to widescreen HDV. Version 8 adds support for MJPEG-encoded AVI files, editing files recorded with Sony AVCHD camcorders, opening and rendering ATRAC3, ATRAC3plus, and ATRAC Advanced Lossless files, and improved playback and performance.
Adobe releases Moviestar beta for Flash Player 9
Adobe Systems's upgrade for its Flash Player, released on Tuesday, adds support for one of the latest video encoding standards as well as new audio support. The upgrade, called Moviestar, applies to Adobe's latest Flash Player, version 9. A beta of the upgrade will be available for download later in the day, with a final version to be ready in the third quarter, Adobe said. Moviestar supports the playback of video encoded using the H.264 standard, which allows for greater compression of video files than previous standards while maintaining quality. Adobe already supports H.264 encoding in products such as Premiere Pro and the After Effects video editing software. Moviestar also includes High-Efficiency AAC support, an improved audio compression technology. Although the complete specifications of the upgrade are complicated, Adobe has tried to stick to industry standards as users sort through a range of available video technologies, wrote Tinic Uro, an Adobe engineer who works on the Flash Player, on his blog.
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