So this post over at Daddy Types got me thinking about how 3D ultra sounds will eventually make the static fuzz of current ultra-sounds seem as prehistoric as taking x-rays and using special rulers to determine the size of in-utero fetuses.

From what I can tell 3-D ultrasounds are just an algorithm. The ultrasound machine just takes pictures at many different depths and angles. Have an algorithm to tell what the “outside” of the baby is, and stitch together a 3D image from all those pictures. Here’s an illustration of how it works:

The hard part is knowing what is the skin and what is, say placenta, and then just rendering all those “skin” points. The theory is a lot easier than the actual implementation I’m sure. But I think that in the future we’ll go in for an ultrasound and it will look like the clear plates in an encyclopedia. The ones with a plate for skin, then muscles, a plate for nerves, and one for the vascular system, and finally the skeleton. I think once the algorithms advance we’ll see all that, in 3D. We’ll have to explain to our kids how we used to go into the doctor and it was like a Rorschach test to figure out where your baby was in the snow.

Note: I will return to the Lego Advent Calendar. I really need a quick point and shoot camera that hooks into my computer for blog pictures. Anyone know where I can find a cheap memory stick/camera?

My lovely sisters bought me a Lego Advent Calendar. It has an awesome city scene inside with some beautiful architecture. You get a small set each day, so I was really looking forward to it.

Day 1: We opened the first day and out popped a little man. Hmm… with a chicken leg. Is this Thanksgiving themed?

Day 2: This one took a bit of figuring out, as its shape is not readily apparent. Gas grill!

Day 3: Nice little sidebar for the grill. You’ve got your beer mug and a frying pan.

Day 4: Our first guest arrives. She’s a bit trashy looking though. What’s with the perpetual wink and the ice cream cone that’s larger than her head.

Day 5: The beer cooler arrives with portable umbrella. The party has really started!

I’m waiting for around Day 18 when the police and fire department show up after Virgil’s lighter fluid experimentation gets out of hand.

It\‘s available now. You can read their presentation.Lot\‘s of nice pictures. Most of what I\‘m seeing is really good. The anti-light rail people at Country Club Creek Trail seem like they didn\‘t sway the opinions much. It\‘s still one of the top priorities. I attended a meeting where there was talk about how light rail would bring in an undesirable element. Unless they\‘re referring to rich yuppies I don\‘t see what they\‘re concerned about. If the element they\‘re referring to is the element I think they\‘re referring to, they\‘d be better off rerouting the #7 away from Riverside drive.

Country Club Creek Trail is still a major part of the plan which is great. Once they get the trail under Riverside setup they\‘ll have a great arterial for getting bike traffic from areas south of Oltorf into the commercial zones at Riverside and Pleasant Valley.

Modern architecture fares worse than traditional which is probably attributed to the fact that the participants were quite a bit older than the average Austinite.

The graph explaining what income groups people think should be represented is fascinating and representative of Austin in general I think:

I\‘m glad the desire is there to keep the mix, and hopefully they\‘ll be able to do so. But I hope no one\‘s under the illusion that as many poor families will be housed there in the future. I honestly think that the mix of Moderate and High income is wishful thinking and that the High Income Only is more than likely where this is going. Lakefront property in Austin next to a light rail line is not going to be cheap.

I think one of the big issues we see time and time again is a wishful thinking on the part of advocates for the poor and middle income. We saw this with Mueller. There was this expectation that it really wouldn\‘t be that popular. That rich people really wouldn\‘t want to live in East Austin so it wouldn\‘t be a big deal for low and middle income housing. I think we should be planning that anyone who makes less than $75k/year is not going to be able to find housing within a 10 minute walk of the Riverside corridor within ten years time. Setup our affordable housing plans with that in mind. I think this is going to move faster than anyone thinks. Those east riverside commercial slumlords have been holding onto their property specifically waiting for the transformation to start. They\‘re going to sell the minute things look good. And the first half-mile looks like it will be transformed within a couple of years. If you like the Baby A\‘s on riverside you might want to drink up.

If the light rail plan actually goes through, even Canyon Oaks might get a fresh can of paint and a couple hundred dollar hike in rent.

That said, I think the plan looks great. Now I can\‘t wait for them to zone Oltorf for mixed use and start getting rid of all the ugly strip malls.

On an only lightly related note I found this great resource on a CapMetro blog today. It shows you every bus stop on a bus route, so you don\‘t have to guess where the bus goes. It would be better if they interfaced with Google Street View, but still very nice.

I just read this in a CNN article and was startled. Our attitudes are changing very fast:

A recent Washington Post/ABC News poll found that 75 percent of respondents supported allowing gays to serve openly in the military, up from 62 percent in 2001 and 44 percent in 1993.

31% change in 15 years. My guess is that these marriage bans have a few more years of life and then will be overturned quietly and without much fanfare.

And yes, I\‘m also as depressed as you that 1993 was 15 years ago.

Oh goodness. What a week already. Monday night lentil soup was on the menu. I find that I enjoy soups once they’re made, but I don’t really enjoy making them. So I dutifully boiled the soup. Then I was supposed to put it in the blender to puree it. I should stop here to say that I hate our blender. It looks pretty cool, which I’m sure is why we put it on our wedding registry. But it sucks. None of the pieces are particularly water tight. The lid doesn’t completely cover the spout, so if you turn it on a high setting with something fairly liquid you’ll get whatever’s inside splashing out of the lip. It’s awesome for making margaritas. You cannot have enough sticky syrup coating your kitchen.

But back to the soup.

So for those who came to our Halloween party on Saturday night and sat as we were buzzed by helicopters, we probably should have been in the house. Remember when I joked that if someone came in our back gate, it was probably a bad sign? Yeah, that joke was probably in bad taste.

One of the landlords in our neighborhood rents 4 properties out as sort of halfway houses. This particular home houses a woman we know is a prostitute and who has been seen smoking crack by many neighbors. While we were partying

So, we were watching the election on CNN and I realized that we’ve now entered a new world of Political Correctness. The new minority group not to offend are conservatives. More specifically conservatives who use terms like the Main Stream Media, to describe non-partisan media outlets. Watching CNN on election night was ridiculous. They were constantly letting their Republican pundits talk. Constantly asking them for their opinion, even though a few were obviously delusional. They wouldn’t in any way analyze any of the elephants in the room. When Pennsylvania and Ohio went for Obama they asked the Republican pundits whether there was any way forward. They both replied that it was “hard”. Which was one of the most ridiculous statements of the night. Hard? Are we really at the point where we can’t even suggest that we don’t think it’s going to happen? Fox News was even reporting more honestly than this.

I think some of this was respect for people who hadn’t voted on the west coast. But some of it was just stupid. Conservatives aren’t going to start watching CNN because it’s ridiculously well-balanced. It’s always been pretty well balanced. There are a lot of people now who want entertaining news tailored to their bias. That’s fine. We have Fox News and the Daily Show. But when I want real news I don’t want silly pandering. I want you to report that it looks like Obama is going to win, when it looks like Obama is going to win. Otherwise you just look like ignorami who can’t do math.

Because of things I have done on behalf of justice to the workingman, I have often been called a Socialist. Usually I have not taken the trouble even to notice the epithet. … Moreover, I know that many American Socialists are high-minded and honorable citizens, who in reality are merely radical social reformers. They are opposed to the brutalities and industrial injustices which we see everywhere about us.

The Chronicle has recommended voting no on Prop 2. They have a more thoughtful explanation than I could muster yesterday:

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/story?oid=689835

I blame the damn raccoon that keeps wandering into the house and waking me up in the middle of the night playing with the dog’s water bowl.

So Prop 2 is coming up. It’s widly supported and I expect it will pass. I mean how could it not? It’s phrased in such a way that voters will always vote for it. Prop 12 - New Parks for Austin, Prop 13 - Keep Pedophiles Away from Children, Prop 2 - Stop Subsidies to Luxury Retailers. Who would vote against any of those? They’re all written to appeal to the knee jerk. And I’m speaking as someone who’s generally a knee jerk. I’m constantly fighting my impulsive knee.

But sometimes we need to talk about whether our parks department has the budget to maintain a new park, and whether our plans to keep pedophiles away from children might also keep non-pedophiles from volunteering with chlidren, and whether stopping subsidies to a certain luxury retailer might actually encourage more of the Big Box developments we know and loathe.

We seem to have a lot of the same people who were against the WalMart at Northcross against the Domain subsidies as well. What are you guys looking for? What sort of shopping would make you happy? The city spent a lot of time and got a lot of input and decided that the majority of Austinites wanted the city to look like Hyde Park. Homes, mixed with apartments all withing walking distance of public transit and stores.

So IBM starts selling off parts of the domain and the city comes up with a plan to start creating a new urban neighborhood. They give these goals to the investors building the project. They provide incentives to hopefully bring in tonier clients (and thus bringing in better tax revenue). Remember we as Austinites have a real incentive to get high dollar businesses in town. Every time we drive to Sunset Valley or Beecaves to shop those tiny cities get to drive down their property taxes. And Austinites get the privilege of paying for the roads that lead there.

The city also provided incentives to build affordable housing (again something the electorate has been overwhelmingly in support of), and $1 million dollars to help get local businesses into the development.

Sometimes we have to make decisions. Do we use some of our tax dollars to ensure we don’t get more big box stores and have affordable housing? Or do we just hope and pray that developers will magically stop building the kind of shopping we hate (but go to anyway) and build the type we like?

And let’s not forget that Prop 2 was sponsored by a real estate investor (Brian Rodgers). There don’t seem to be a lot of people asking him what he’s getting out of the bargain. As a real estate investor is he planning on creating mixed-use developments like The Domain without the assistance of the city? Or is he just planning on building more suburban strip malls and big box retailers?