6 ~ Sunday, August 29, 1999 — North Shore News T’S time to take another look at the potential of the SeaBus system to ease the commuting woes of North Shore residents who ‘ork south of the Burrard Inlet. When former premier Dave Barrett first touted the transit-operated har- bour ferry, three routes were envi- sioned: one from the Lonsdale area, one from West Vancouver and one from the Seymour area. The SeaBus has proven its worth. In 22 years of valiant service and about 85 million rides, the only con- sistent complaint relates to the over- crowding duzing rush hours. BC Transit (now TransLink) com- rissioned an engineering report in 1995 on the feasibilicy of expanding the routes. Sites at Ambleside and the. mouth of the Seymour River were examined and the report concluded north shore news VIEWPOINT us study that there were some advantages to the Seymour proposal. The log-sort- ing site at the foot of Riverside Drive could support a SeaBus terminal, a bus loop and park ’n’ ride facilities. Scymour residents have long com- plained of the inconvenience of the bus service out of Phibbs Exchange. Connecting new local routes with 2 Seymour SeaBus would take a lot of pressure off the Second Narrows Bridge bottleneck that the provincial government has no plans to fix any time soon. As for the possibility of an Ambleside routing, one might expect West Vancouverites to embrace 4 Lions Gate Bridge alternative. Yet the thought persists that the noticn of reducing our dependence on the auto- mobile is less important in communi- ties where cars are status symbols. WiTORD Teak (OLowAr 6: BY HOKD PRS aK ke Corte ecartann.com you Said it “We don’t vote in a government — we vote out a government. We-need to ask tougher questions at efec- tion time.” . _ MUA, for West Vancouver-Ca; apilano Jeremy Dalton, on the “wacky” polarized politics of British Columbia. (From an Aug. 25 News story.) 900 “We haven’t had a premier complete a term of : da.” ice for 20 years. That’s extraordinary by any stan- Political analy.t and former MLA David Mitchell, on ‘the undermining of public trust and the. cynicism felt towards politicians. (From the same Aug. 25 News story.) Q08 : “(It’s) possible to be a good feminist and like to have sex with men. “ludy Rebick, CBC host and feminist, with a feminist revelation. (From lena Mercer's Aug. 27 Fair Comment column.) . : “Don't drive like you own the road; drive like you -own the car.” - Teenager: Ryan. Bickholtz, writing on his traffic safety ~ Web site and. Ts by traffic columnist Shaun Conlin. os (From @ * Ang. 7 News Signals column } : : 000 “You can preach it, but you can’t teach i it.” North Van resident Candice Nikolic, on her belief that "religious teaching belongs in the home, not in school. : (From s a Ane 27 News Inquiring Reporter column.) A -2a0 “Ire kind of like being a psychologist. Sometimes ~ you see a lot of people'who are extremely frustrated — >. tough day. at work, maybe they just missed the boat. - You can feel the tension.” “North Van singer-songwriter Brenda McCann, + on “keeping in touch with her: public via busking. (From a * Auge 27 News This, Week story. ) . ””) Werth Share Maws, founded in 1969 as an ‘ “independent suarban newspaper and qualified under Scheduta 111, Paragragh 111 of ine Encisé Tax Act, is published each Wednesday, ° - Friday and Sunday by HON Publications Company and distrihuted to every door on the Nowth Shore. Canata Post Canadian Pubtications Mali Sales Product Agreement No. 0087233. Maing rasan on mus . Barbara Emo Distribution Manager * 986-1337 (124) Mark Fancher Creative Services Detector 985-2151 (127) . 61,582 (average cit fculabon, Wednesday Fray & Sunday) _-ANDIF-THAT WASNT BAD ENCUGH, THE PUBLIC SECTOR UNION TOOK AWAY {iY PENSION, Cyberspace: friend or enemy? THE Internet, 9: we 1 know, has no shortage of cheerleaders. What it lacks and badly needs is a f+ more crystal bali gazers — eee with an . adequate supply o red flags. ‘The basic trouble with the Internet, of course, is that it reflects the total range of human activity, goed, bad, indifferent and unspeakable — all the way from modern- day saints, inspired thinkers, titillating enter- tainment and zillions of fascinating, facts to child porn, Satanism, bestiality and bomb-making lessons for teens with attitude. All available in cyber- space to anyone with a few keystrokes. Cyberspace, Iegally equivalent to the high seas, obeys no controls or national jurisdictions. Short of throwing out the home computer — or sitting with the kids every second they use it — dads and moms can never completely protect their offspring from the filth in the Web site next door to the gold. But the Internet — despite all the virtues amid its vices — poses two fonger- term threats potentially even. more serious than dirty pictures and bad thoughts for iminature young minds: Its built-in attack on the social life of individuals and an eventual unhealthy reshaping of our entire social order. : For many, surfing the Web irom idle curiosity with no specific purpose quickly exercises a drug-like effect. With 1 never- Bee Dasiiwal Homan Resources Manager 885-2131 177) a oH Photography Manager > : 985-2131 (160) ; RONSON, Classified Manager 986-6222 (202) Entire contants © 1999 HCN Publications Company. Alf fights feseived. | ending sites to explore, half-hours and hours fly by unheeded — at mounting cost to personal, family and social relation- ships. A Pittsburgh University study of 400 cyher junkies who stayed up to 14 hours glued to comput- ers without food or even going to the bath- room put Net surfing, as an addiction, right up there with tooze, nico- tine and cocaine. Meanwhile, the over- whelming volume of accessible information" brings its own danger, as David Shenk argues in his 1997 book DATA SMOG: Surin the Information Glut. Information, he stresses, is pointless unless useful. Data is not knowledge, fet alone wisdom. So people, he predicts, will "fight the “information glut” by concen- trating more and more on niche areas of information that reflect only their personal interests, to the exclusion of all else.’ The result, he warns, will be the very opposite of Marshall McLub=s"s global vil- age. . “Instead of gathering i in the sown | square,” says Shenk, “the new information - technology clusters us into social cubicles.” Can democracy, he asks, even exist int such a world where, overall; there is too much information — but tco little sared information for a consensus on anything? ° Then there’s The End of Work, futurist x a Jeremy Rifkin’s gloomy prophecy that by material needs, leaving the other 80% per- . manently jobless, Today, already, call any bur the smallest business — to suffer endless minutes of taped voices, pushbutton “options” and canned music before you finally contact a living person — for a preview.of Jeremy’ s brave new human-less world. : The Internet will obviously contribute mightily to that human-less world. Just | one example is electronic commerce. By: 2003 the Paris-based Organization for - Economic Cooperation and Developmen predicts that e-commerce — which dis penses with sales clerks, cashiers, invento-- - ry-checkers, bookkeepers, data processors: and even store-cleaning ladies — will already handle at least-15% of the worl total retail trade. Go figure the scene 20 years later. : ; Even armed forces can be made redun dant. Hackers already. wreak hav ly by infecting Internct-linked tons systems with. “viruses,” °° A recent Pentagon study 30 expert hackers around “could bring the United States to its knees” on 2 budget of less than $10 lion. The conquest of nations without ing a single sh tis 1ow, it sceins, perfectly. undoubted benefits. Just never forg to recognize.the point where the -“+you thought:was at your fingertips becomes the enemy poised to destray yor around 2025 or earlier 20% of the current - workforce with their high-tech tools will be effortlessly producing all the world’s, ~ LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Letters must Include your name,” -*.. “full address & telephone number,” VIA e-mail: trenshaw @ directca Mareging Eaitor 985-2121 (116) Whitman” Display Advertising Manager » 980-0511 (317) Gail Snelgrove” General Otice tage 985-2131 (105) - Intomnet- httpafanaw nsnews.com ~ Michael Backer - News Edi 85-213 a 14):