The camera records to a flash drive in mpg format.  It’s nice because you can burn it straight to DVD and the software that came with it is adequate for editing it for what we need.  The down side is that we’d like to upload videos to the web or email them to family.  We don’t have a good tool for converting them to .avi or something else.  This would also come in handy when I cover the Republican Convention in a couple of weeks. 

Can anyone recommend a good tool for this?  If it’s part of a more sophisticated video editing package, that’s fine, but we don’t want to spend too much. 

Suggestions?

A bus strike in Racine left riders stranded without notice this morning. Curtis Garner, executive director of the company that manages the bus system, said he was just as surprised.

Garner said he learned the strike started when he got a call from the head of the city’s transit service for disabled riders. Nine kidney dialysis patients missed appointments, according to the company that manages the city’s bus service.

Managers with the bus system are scrambling to take disabled patients to other appointments.

Drivers have been picketing bus stations since this morning.

Drivers have been working without a contract since July 1. The 93 members of the local Teamsters union are in a dispute over proposed changes by management in insurance coverage for retirees and the transfer of three dispatchers from union to non-union positions.

Venezuela is proceeding with plans to nationalise its cement industry.

Multinational cement firms Holcim and Lafarge will sign agreements with the country to transfer shares of their local subsidiaries.

The country has begun nationalising industries, including electricity and gas, as part of President Hugo Chavez’s drive toward “21st-Century socialism”.

However, the Venezuelan government made no mention of Mexican firm Cemex, the country’s largest cement producer.

Details of the compensation talks have not been made public.

Cinderella, Snow White, Tinkerbell and other fictional fixtures of modern-day childhood were handcuffed, frisked and loaded into police vans Thursday at the culmination of a labor protest that brought a touch of reality to the Happiest Place on Earth.

The arrest of the 32 protesters, many of whom wore costumes representing famous Disney characters, came at the end of an hour-long march to Disneyland’s gates from one of three Disney-owned hotels at the center of a labor dispute.

A tiny Texas school district may be the first in the nation to allow teachers and staff to pack guns for protection when classes begin later this month, a newspaper reported.

Trustees at the Harrold Independent School District approved a district policy change last October so employees can carry concealed firearms to deter and protect against school shootings, provided the gun-toting teachers follow certain requirements.

In order for teachers and staff to carry a pistol, they must have a Texas license to carry a concealed handgun; must be authorized to carry by the district; must receive training in crisis management and hostile situations and have to use ammunition that is designed to minimize the risk of ricochet in school halls.

Superintendent David Thweatt said the small community is a 30-minute drive from the sheriff’s office, leaving students and teachers without protection. He said the district’s lone campus sits 500 feet from heavily trafficked U.S. 287, which could make it a target.

“When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that’s when all of these shootings started. Why would you put it out there that a group of people can’t defend themselves? That’s like saying ‘sic ‘em’ to a dog,” Thweatt said in Friday’s online edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Turns out Democratic primary loser Hillary Rodham Clinton will get time to shine at the party’s national convention after all — and quite a bit of it. Democrats officially will choose Barack Obama to run against Republican John McCain this fall.

But in an emblematic move meant to heal divisive primary wounds, the vanquished Clinton name also will be placed in nomination alongside his during the traditional state-by-state delegation roll call vote at the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

And, she gets her own plum speaking slot.

So does her husband, former President Bill Clinton.

On the one hand, it will be necessary eventually and is the primary commercial route into Wisconsin. 

On the other hand, the traffic load doesn’t yet justify the expansion.

On the third hand, it’s better to expand before the traffic peaks to prevent disruption.

On the fourth hand, the state is in a budget crunch and there are other projects that seem more pressing (Zoo interchange, maintenance, etc.)

Thoughts?

The foreign minister of Russia said Thursday that Georgia could “forget about” getting back its two breakaway provinces, and the former Soviet republic remained on edge as Russia sent tank columns to search out and destroy Georgian military equipment.

Russia’s intent was never anything more or less than an outright seizure of territory.