e A6 - Sunday News, Iuly 26, 1981 phenomenon. tomorrow. a continuously self goods? Today, acutally dropping, Obviously, crosswalk there. these some of streets on foot. Bb sunday news narth shore Rick Stonehouse $20 per year Entire contents All rights reserved No revesg pepe vesat pbity ae eyo ADM OBE Ofvolope Tough options If you believe the root cause of inflation is psychological, the present slump in the housing market offers an interesting reverse Today's inflation, other than housing, is clearly not based on any shortages of goods or services. They are available in abundance and are being bought briskly because everyone believes they'll cost even more By the same token, money borrowed to buy them will be repaid in cheaper dollars. This acceptance of wor- sening inflation, which automatically drives up wages and other costs, therefore becomes | When housing prices skyrocketed 100% in 18 months, the conventional wisdom was that demand exceeded supply. But DID it — any more than in the case.of consumer with real estate prices the market is suddenly flooded with unsaleable homes, indication there’s no real shortage there, either. Why, then, aren't people rushing tq sna “bdrgains” (by yesterday's standards)? use they are now holding back in the expectation that home prices will drop still further. In other words, the precise opposite of inflationary expectatio RS. If the same reverse psychology could be applied to all other commodities, would quickly be beaten. But the price, unfortunately, would be a painful recession, as falling demand caused production to stagnate and unemployment to soar. Which tells it exactly like it is. In our present economic situation we're between a rock and a hard place. Slow ‘em down One of the great joys of: working on Lonsdale Avenue is the thrill of not knowing if the car approaching you as you cross the street (even at intersections with lights) going to stop or not. Only last month a pedestrian was seriously injured at 14th and Lonsdale when crossing at the pedestrian Perhaps the RCMP, with their building only a block away, might crack down on motorists pedestrians who jaywalk across Lonsdale). But then the RCMP don’t have to patrol the V7M 2H4 news (604) 985-2131 ADVERTISING NEWS 960-0511 CLASSIFIEO 985-2131 986-6222 CIRCULATION 986-1337 Publisher Associate Publisher Editor-in-Chief Advertising Director Robert Graham Noel Wright Eric Cardwell Managing Editor Newe Editor Sports Editor Andy Fraser Chris Uoyd Patrick Rich General Manager Creative Administration Director ° Berni Hilliard Tim Francis Production Director Photography Accounting Supervisor Circulation Director Barbara Keen Brian A Ellis Faye McCrae North Ghore News, tounded in 1969 as an tndependent community newspaper and qualified under Schedule Il) Part Il Paragraph til of the trecise Tax Act os published each Wednesday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Utd and dtstituted to every dour on the North Shore Second Clase Mat Registration Number 3685 Subscriptions 1061 North Shore Free Prese Ltd Ratan Cita anc pau taen whch sbated tre aes VE HEHE CTR GL ATION 83 470 Wednesday $2 150 Sunday THIS PAPER 1S RECYCIt ABLE prophecy. . up the tion (and those 1139 Lonsdale Avo. North Vancouver, B.C. Peter Speck Eliaworth Oickson Purchaser varvescateg let teeter vasl the Hedy meeapraae esd fey os tener eg vere! SN. (An editorial n The Demo- cratic Commitment, the newsletter of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association) Legislative and regulatory changes proposed in British Columbia’s recent Motor _Vehicle Task Force Report have been reviewed by the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association. Our comments were for- warded to Attorney-General Allan Williams in a letter, which said in part: “We understand = and appreciate the deep concern and frustration of those con- cerned with traffic enforcement in this province about continuing and repeated violations and the resulting terrible cost in terms of death, injury and property damage. “However, some of the proposals in the Motor Vehicle Task Force Report must be objected to because they continue a dangerous trend, pioneered in British Columbia with the roadside suspensions of drivers licences, which gives police officers and other civil servants far too much dis- cretionary power while weakening the roles of the Provincial Legislature, the Federal Parliament and the nations’s courts.” Among the points made by the Association were: The seriousness of an Future searching by By PETER Senior Editor) COSTA (UPI ATLANTIC CITY, NJ. (UPI) — The future of newspapers may lie in the sky or undergrotnd, newspaper publishers are being told. Satellites, cable television and electronically sophisticated telephone lines are already carrying news and other highly specialized information to video ter- minals in homes = across North America and these will increase in popularity in the 1980s, said Kathleen Criner, director of tclecommunications affairs for the American Newspaper Publisher Association. “Very soon, people will be able to use their home video terminals not only to get minute-by-minute news updates but also to shop, to do their banking, to play games, to talk CB-hke to other video terminal uscrs around the world, buy real estate,” said. “Users now can play popular games Iike Dungeons and Dragons and Othello,” she said. and so far, because children have been the key to (he success of home computers, vidco gamos are an important part of video systems One commercial use beginning tn the United States is “the ability to shop for new homes by even to Ms. Criner asking prescnat a real thei system to pacture oof the estate law alleged offence, not a driver's previous record,. must govern how a suspect is dealt with; soe Impoundment penalizes the owner of a vehicle rather | than an Offending driver, and the two are not necessarily the same; Defaulted debts. to the Insurance Corporation of i Ng TREN agen they are interested in and even look at and compare floor plans on their screens,” she said. But some resistance to reading textual matter on video screens exists. People find sitting in front of a video screen essentially boring, she said, and screens still are not portable. She did say, however, that by the end of the decade, video display screens will be “as thin as a newspaper and be capable of true portability.” Sunday Brunch will return next week Leo Bogart, executive vice president and general manager of the Newspaper Advertising Bureau of New York. urged newspaper publishers to investigate ways to use their “unique data base” of local news and advertising to meet the demands of a public that seems to have “an insatiable necd” for more and more speciahzed information But) not all newspaper crxoccutlives were worried about losing readers to home video users of to the rapidly growing cable — television systems Cable television 18 fragmenting the audience of commercial television and that fragmentation ts giving new spapers anoecven greater _BC. [ 17 1S MY DUTY TO INFORM YOU MS. HANSON THAT THE CODE DEFINES HARASSMENT AS. “PERSISTENT SEXUAL SOLICTIANON Q ADVANCE MADE BY APER shoul@é be handled through uormal collection ‘procedufes-and not affect a debtor's. ability to renew or retain a driver's licence. ‘Whether a person is allowed to drive in B.C. should depend solely on driving ability and history; Assessing penalties for infractions occurring outside oe ata ets + opportunity for the future. Im bullish about the newspaper business,” Walter E. Mattson, president and chief operating officer of the New York Times Co., told UPI. — Mattson did attribute much of the commercial- business success of the New York Times to technological developments. “As for advanced technology, we are already using _ laser- scanners, satellite distribution, offset presses and electronic editing devices,” he said Most telecommumecatvions cxperts at the conference agreed that the 1980s revolution in clectronics was sull too new to predict what tts effect would be on newspapers But Friedrich Ww Burkhardt) of the FIFE) Research Association of Darmstadt, West Germany, thinks computer video terminals are sali considered a bit too stemle to be suc- cessful Few things in life are as “user Friendly” as newspapers, he said “lt will remain the bedrock fu existence for a long t come,” he said , And the newspag changing With the caccptRn of the thundering presses on which they are printed, ncwspapers in the 1980s will be produced in virtual silence by cratic clectrome devices Kathanne Graham, the our who chairs American B.C. is beyond the com- petence of the province and almost certainly would lead to inequities. Roadside suspensions should not be recorded on drivers’ records, since no offence has been proven; Mandatory blood test for injured drivers should not be instituted until related ethical and legal concerns can be thoroughly examined and satisfied’ The Association told the Attorney-General its review of the Task Force Report was based on the general position that “...legislators should make the laws, police should enforce them: and courts should, after due deliberation, determine the appropriate penalties in each case. Civil servants should administey the laws and insurance companies should operate in a non- discriminatory but = ac- tuarially sound manner.” Mr. Williams responded by saying that while it is necessary to utilize efficient procedures and effective penalties to reverse the increasing toll of traffic injuries and deaths, “there is no intention to deny access to the courts in achieving this objective.” He invited the Association to make further comment at such time as a new bill is introduced in the Provincial. Legislature to amend the Motor Vehicle Act. the media Newspaper Publishers Association and the board of The Washington Post Co., says the latest technical development. ‘full-page pagination, will revolutionize the design and layout of newspapers in the next decade. Before the development of pagination, news stories had lo be set tn type, arranged and laid out on a page. The pasted up page then had to be photographed and made into a plate before going to press. Now with pagination and laser plate technology. an editor can climinate those processes and go from story to plate in virtually one step. Because newspapers face increasing competition from what she called “alternative media voices - ranging from free-circulation papers to 100-channel cable television systems,” Mrs. Graham said publishers must use the latest’ technological ad- vances {© compete for readers who are becoming sophisticated information users She cited the recent computerization of cir- culation and = mailroom operations that enable Newspapers to deliver dif- ferent) combinations 9 of sections to different audiences and the development of inserting machines Unat) allow ad- vertisers to reach teadors on an almost street-by-street basis os two cxzamples of how newspapers can tailor their products to readers’ needs