Alright Constitutional Scholars...

[Peikko 1,575]

One technical point, cat's eyes are not lights. That is in fact what makes them so neat because they do not need a power supply, they work using the refection of the car headlights. I am not qute sure why you keep bringing them bup, but it iss true that they are not used here very often. However I am curious as to how you managed to drive by the light of them with your headlights off...

[Heracles 417]

One technical point, cat's eyes are not lights. That is in fact what makes them so neat because they do not need a power supply, they work using the refection of the car headlights. I am not qute sure why you keep bringing them bup, but it iss true that they are not used here very often. However I am curious as to how you managed to drive by the light of them with your headlights off...

There are new models which actually glow too thanks to built in LEDs. They are solar powered. Here we don't even have normal cat eyes. Driving at night and when it's raining is almost an impossible task. At the very least extremely dangerous. Whereas it is quite easy to drive throughout Melbourne or Sydney at night, through 20 miles of suburbia, without your lights on. That is, thanks to the streetlights and proper markers on the roads. I am talking suburbia here. So how is it we pay less tax there yet have much better roads. the roads are paved every few years too. Also swept weekly.

Edited May 24, 2009 by Constellation

[Heracles 417]

I am going to concede some points to you here, Constellation.

#1 - on certain key measures, the US is lagging behind other developed countries. As you correctly point out that Human Development, Quality of Life, etc. are consistently higher statistically in Scandinavian countries, Holland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan.

#2 - the chronic failure in the US to address these shortfalls has a lot to do with the nation's priorities and spending. And in turn that is a function of the political dynamics of the country. Congress has been absolutely inept - across the aisle- to tackle these matters headlong. We have had decades of deficit spending (with the exception of the surpluses in the last few years of the Clinton administration), and the results of that spending do not measure up. No wonder that Congress's popularity rankings are abysmal.

But.....

On many other fronts, the US is world leading and continues to be the envy of its peers. In terms of technical innovation, the liquidity and strength of its capital markets, the work ethic of its labor force, don't count America out. Yes, the Chinese are catching up. But you know what? We heard that decades ago about the Japanese and the Germans. And yes, Toyota has surpassed the Big3 in sales - of course we have a lot to learn from them, and others. We are all in a global economy. I'd suggest you read Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat . Everybody is in a race to catch up and compete with everybody else. We're all in it together, and America has strengths and weaknesses in this race.

What was the point of your Google maps? I absolutely did not get that at all. So.... downtown Melbourne, downtown Chicago... so????

I guess the average person here measures success and quality of life by different variables to that of the rest of the world. Sure it is generalizing, as you point out, but it is what it is. Also know as empirical evidence. A valid observation that my background in engineering and business allows me to make. It is the reason why people are proud of technical advancements (BA, MA bla bla bla) while their cities and towns are dilapidated and third world like too. See:Detroit and various parts of Chicago. While I see you acknowledge that, as some do, nothing will be done because people don't care and obviously don't see a nice place to live in as something important. Which is why the United States is like it is; Run Down. Which is why technological advancements aside the United States is slowly turning into a second world country, if its not already there.

We take great pride in our cities overseas. We strive to improve them or maintain the historical ones. Every six months I am there something new is being built to improve the city. Maybe people missed the newsflash but quality of life and so on is not only important in life but is what determines your cities livability. In terms of livability (quality of life) Chicago is ranked about 44th in the world, while Sydney is ranked 10 and Melbourne 18. Yes this is the same Chicago that is the third largest city in the United States, as you pointed out. Though, it is also the murder capital of America.

The point of those pictures was to show you the condition of a typical Chicago street to a typical street in Melbourne. Like other links I posted of Amsterdam, London, Paris etc the other day. How can anyone not look at that and then think to themselves what the hell are we doing here? It's embarrassing.

Edited May 24, 2009 by Constellation

[Danno 1,228]

One technical point, cat's eyes are not lights. That is in fact what makes them so neat because they do not need a power supply, they work using the refection of the car headlights. I am not qute sure why you keep bringing them bup, but it iss true that they are not used here very often. However I am curious as to how you managed to drive by the light of them with your headlights off...

There are new models which actually glow too thanks to built in LEDs. They are solar powered. Here we don't even have normal cat eyes. Driving at night and when it's raining is almost an impossible task. At the very least extremely dangerous. Whereas it is quite easy to drive throughout Melbourne or Sydney at night, through 20 miles of suburbia, without your lights on. That is, thanks to the streetlights and proper markers on the roads. I am talking suburbia here. So how is it we pay less tax there yet have much better roads. the roads are paved every few years too. Also swept weekly.

Are these things scooped up by the snow plows or perhaps placed below the roads surface?

[Danno 1,228]

<<<<Much in the same way I can look at the Human development index, quality of life index, rate of poverty charts, most livable city ranks, world tourism rankings, heck even house prices. Really you name it. So opinions aside, it's not too hard to draw a conclusion on which country knows what they are doing and which does not. Which is now bankrupt to which is not. >>>>

Thats why I raised the question earlier about the number of tourists who Visit Australia vs USA, that might be an interesting indicator to consider.... anyone know what those numbers are?

[Peikko 1,575]

One technical point, cat's eyes are not lights. That is in fact what makes them so neat because they do not need a power supply, they work using the refection of the car headlights. I am not qute sure why you keep bringing them bup, but it iss true that they are not used here very often. However I am curious as to how you managed to drive by the light of them with your headlights off...

There are new models which actually glow too thanks to built in LEDs. They are solar powered. Here we don't even have normal cat eyes. Driving at night and when it's raining is almost an impossible task. At the very least extremely dangerous. Whereas it is quite easy to drive throughout Melbourne or Sydney at night, through 20 miles of suburbia, without your lights on. That is, thanks to the streetlights and proper markers on the roads. I am talking suburbia here. So how is it we pay less tax there yet have much better roads. the roads are paved every few years too. Also swept weekly.

Are these things scooped up by the snow plows or perhaps placed below the roads surface?

They are flush with the road surface. They collapse under the weight of the vehicle as it traverses it, in the originals, this collapse was accompanied by a 'washing' function that kept the 'eyes' clean and always reflecting. It is actually an extremely simple and effective idea.

[scandal 951]

I guess the average person here measures success and quality of life by different variables to that of the rest of the world. Sure it is generalizing, as you point out, but it is what it is. Also know as empirical evidence. A valid observation that my background in engineering and business allows me to make. It is the reason why people are proud of technical advancements (BA, MA bla bla bla) while their cities and towns are dilapidated and third world like too. See:Detroit and various parts of Chicago. While I see you acknowledge that, as some do, nothing will be done because people don't care and obviously don't see a nice place to live in as something important. Which is why the United States is like it is; Run Down. Which is why technological advancements aside the United States is slowly turning into a second world country, if its not already there.

We take great pride in our cities overseas. We strive to improve them or maintain the historical ones. Every six months I am there something new is being built to improve the city. Maybe people missed the newsflash but quality of life and so on is not only important in life but is what determines your cities livability. In terms of livability (quality of life) Chicago is ranked about 44th in the world, while Sydney is ranked 10 and Melbourne 18. Yes this is the same Chicago that is the third largest city in the United States, as you pointed out. Though, it is also the murder capital of America.

The point of those pictures was to show you the condition of a typical Chicago street to a typical street in Melbourne. Like other links I posted of Amsterdam, London, Paris etc the other day. How can anyone not look at that and then think to themselves what the hell are we doing here? It's embarrassing.

I don't understand you. I give you specific concrete factual statements to counter your sweeping generalizations and baseless assertions, and you go right off and keep on doing it.

Stop hating on Chicago dude , or Mayor Daley is gonna personally whack you in the shins

This city is a vibrant, livable, rockin' town. We're competing with Madrid, Tokyo and Rio to host the 2016 Olympics. By golly we've got a shot at getting them here!

I did a screen capture of your Chicago Google map:

What's embarrassing about this? It's downtown on Clark St. I see a clean street, no litter, no crime. What the he11 is your point, dude?

Chicago is not the murder capital of America:

City Population Murder/Non-negligent Homicides, 2007, per-100,000 population

Detroit 860,971 46

Baltimore 624,237 45

St. Louis 348,197 40

Chicago 2,824,434 16 (same as Dallas and Houston)

[Heracles 417]

Are these things scooped up by the snow plows or perhaps placed below the roads surface?

They are fixed to the road. I'm not sure how.

Maybe snow plows are the issue here. But what about all of the states that barely get any snow? What about countries that get more snow yet have them?

Surely there is a way to protect these from being damaged by snow plows.

[Heracles 417]

What's embarrassing about this? It's downtown on Clark St. I see a clean street, no litter, no crime. What the he11 is your point, dude?

You have to be joking right. You don't think that is old and run down? wow. Heck even the buses are quite shitty. Well different strokes for different folks I guess.

Melbourne:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=-37...,70.97,,0,-1.16

Sydney:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=-33...172.48,,0,-8.78

Paris:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=48....2,84.73,,0,7.63

London:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=51....,237.59,,0,-0.4

Amsterdam:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=52....,182.83,,0,0.43

Rome:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=41....250.96,,0,-1.65

Madrid:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=40....,96.16,,0,-5.66

[Marilyn. 340]

Chicago

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source...p=12,35.56,,0,5

[Heracles 417]

Rachael Rael has a show on right now about Melbourne.

Cannot beat the food there. Super fresh and super tasty.

[Marilyn. 340]

I had some super fresh and super tasty fish last week in Malibu..

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

I had some super fresh and super tasty fish last week in Malibu..

Malibu, FTW!

My brother's family has a beach house just past the county line. The wife and I stay there everytime we visit LA.

[Marilyn. 340]

I had some super fresh and super tasty fish last week in Malibu..

Malibu, FTW!

My brother's family has a beach house just past the county line. The wife and I stay there everytime we visit LA.

wow you are lucky

it was my first time in Malibu.. I loved it there.. definitely want to go back.. we camped at the Leo Carillo Campground.. it was really nice

[spookyturtle 9,465]

I had some super fresh and super tasty fish last week in Malibu..

Malibu, FTW!

My brother's family has a beach house just past the county line. The wife and I stay there everytime we visit LA.

wow you are lucky

it was my first time in Malibu.. I loved it there.. definitely want to go back.. we camped at the Leo Carillo Campground.. it was really nice

It would have been nicer if it was in Australia because everything is better in Australia.