In 1982, I joined a bunch of my 13-year-old friends for a birthday party. We went to see a new movie, one we seemed certain to like. After all, it starred Harrison Ford, known to us as Han Solo and Indiana Jones, as a detective chasing down androids in a future world of vertiginous skyscrapers and flying cars.
As it turned out, I did like "Blade Runner," though the movie was considerably different than what I'd expected. There were gleaming skyscrapers and flying cars, but most of the movie took place either indoors or on crowded streets awash in rain and noise. Mr. Ford's character, Deckard, sure didn't seem much like Han or Indy: While he wasn't exactly the bad guy, he shot two women (one in the back) and spent much of the movie all but leveled by exhaustion, pain or both. Meanwhile, the villain -- Rutger Hauer's platinum-blonde replicant Batty -- wound up striking us as a sort of hero. In fact, the replicants seemed more caring, and more human, than the humans hunting them. For a 13-year-old it was at first confusing, then very interesting.
Now "Blade Runner" is back, in a recut, restored edition billed as director Ridley Scott's "final cut." Last week I watched the DVD, curious to see what changes had been made, if they'd improve a movie I vividly remembered in its original incarnation, and how the future imagined in "Blade Runner" holds up in an age of ubiquitous computing and communications.
Of course, "Blade Runner" never really left. It became a cult classic, appearing in a puzzling array of versions, and an Internet favorite. Not long after I first went online, I discovered newsgroup FAQs recounting the movie's troubled production, the tug-of-war between Mr. Scott and others over the story, and arguments about what the movie really "meant." I was fascinated: I hadn't known that Mr. Ford had disliked the movie, or that his Sam Spade voiceover and the oddly happy ending had been tacked on after test screenings. And I'd never seen the odd "unicorn scene" added in later releases, or read how it "proved" Deckard was also a replicant.
All this Net lore made "Blade Runner" a richer experience, but it was also frustrating: I wanted to see the movie I remembered again, but I wanted to see it the way Mr. Scott had intended it. That kept getting pushed off, though; for years Web chatter suggested a new edition would be on the way … soon.
Now, the wait is over and "Blade Runner" and I are at last reacquainted. The restored movie is beautiful, with superb sound, but I'd expected that. While it's possible the voiceover helped me get my bearings as a 13-year-old, I didn't miss it now -- particularly not in the film's powerful final minutes, with a battered Deckard left to ponder Batty's sacrifice in silence. I enjoyed following the clues about Deckard possibly being a replicant, and found the less-happy ending more satisfying. (Some of the continuity bloopers and special-effects flubs have also been cleaned up, and of course there are all manner of intriguing extras, from Mr. Scott's commentary to a exhaustive, occasionally exhausting warts-and-all documentary.)
How did the movie hold up for me? "Blade Runner" is set in Los Angeles in 2019, and some parts of that vision do now seem more derived from the early 1980s: Darryl Hannah's evil-doll replicant looks like she stepped out of first-wave MTV, Deckard wears a digital watch, and nobody has a cellphone.
And then there was one of my favorite scenes. Deckard uses a voice-activated computer to delve deep into a snapshot, zooming in until he finds the reflection of a face in a mirror in the background. It remains a startling piece of movie-making, one I often think about when working with high-resolution digital photos. But this time I found myself distracted. Why doesn't Deckard's software zoom in smoothly, like every program does today? This would be a real pain to use, I thought -- and was disappointed to think so.
But these are quibbles. I was still drawn in by the look and feel of "Blade Runner," slipping easily into the world it imagines. Yes, that world includes space colonies and attack ships off the shoulder of Orion. But we never see them, which is good -- because even in the best science fiction, everything from gadgetry to clothing typically strikes us as fantastic, and therefore fake. "Blade Runner" is different: We see a transformed but still-recognizable world, with odd but not-unfamiliar fashions, a familiar urban divide between conspicuous wealth and grinding poverty, and people trying to get by as best they can on crowded, chaotic streets.
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As a forerunner of cyberpunk, "Blade Runner" helped strip science fiction of starships and space wars, though it just pushes them offscreen instead of doing away with them entirely. (Another cyberpunk pioneer, William Gibson's "Neuromancer," also comes with the trappings of conventional sci-fi, with orbiting space stations and a self-aware supercomputer.) But "Blade Runner" also continues to speak to our hopes and fears. In 1982, it channeled fears of overpopulation and pollution, as well as American worries about Asia's rise. If some of those worries have subsided, new ones have replaced them: The weather has changed by 2019, and real animals have all but disappeared.
And the fear of being ceaselessly stifled and jostled and overwhelmed remains with us, though transferred from the real world to the virtual one. "Blade Runner" is full of noise and overrun by gadgetry, its buildings choked by the technological kudzu of advertisements and infrastructure. Yet peeking out amid the babble and clutter, we recognize things from our time -- old cars, photos, the books and piano in Deckard's apartment. They seem fragile and vulnerable, as if a few more rainy nights might leave them rotted and replaced, and we want desperately to hold onto them. Even without replicants or advertising zeppelins, that's a fear we've felt as well, watching with mingled excitement and anxiety as the digital age sweeps away old ways and familiar things.
Nearly 19,000 Americans died in 2005 of invasive infections caused by drug-resistant staphylococcus bacteria—more than were killed by AIDS, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The report, written by experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is the latest research to note the alarming spread of methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus in communities across the U.S. and to document the bacteria's deadly impact.
MRSA is a superbug that does not respond to treatment with common antibiotics such as penicillin. More than 94,000 Americans contracted life-threatening MRSA infections in 2005, including blood and bone infections, pneumonia and inflammation of the heart's lining. Most appear to be traceable back to hospitals, nursing homes or medical clinics, the new CDC report found.
"This is really a call to action for health-care facilities to make sure they're doing everything they can to prevent MRSA," said R. Monina Klevens, the lead author of the report and a medical epidemiologist at the CDC.
This year, Illinois became the first state in the nation to require hospitals to report infection rates, test patients in intensive-care units for the bacteria and to take specific measures to prevent its spread.
Nancy Foster, vice president of patient safety at the American Hospital Association, called the study an "eye-opener" and said hospitals across the country will need to evaluate whether current strategies for combating MRSA are effective.
But a growing number of MRSA cases are also arising at community gyms and schools, and these, too, can be deadly. On Tuesday, a high school senior in Moneta, Va., died after being hospitalized for a week with an infection that spread to his kidney, liver, lungs and heart.
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"I've never heard of a bacterial invasive disease with an attack rate anywhere near this high in children and the elderly," said Dr. Robert Daum, a specialist in MRSA and a professor of pediatrics at the University of Chicago.
It's not known how the Virginia student contracted the infection, but officials ordered all 21 schools in the district closed for cleaning Wednesday. The bacteria can live on common surfaces, such as a table, for days or weeks and can be transmitted when someone touches it.
The CDC study found 32 of every 100,000 people in the communities studied contracted invasive MRSA infections. Rates were twice as high for African-Americans (66 per 100,000) and four times higher for the elderly (128 per 100,000). For infants younger than 1, the rate for blacks was four times that of whites.
African-Americans may be more vulnerable because they have higher rates of chronic illnesses such as diabetes, which require more visits to health-care providers, Klevens said. Infected individuals may then unwittingly spread the bacteria to other household members.
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The new CDC report is the most reliable overview of serious MRSA infections prepared to date. The data came from nine sites: Connecticut; Baltimore; the metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Denver, Atlanta and Portland, Ore.; and three counties in Minnesota, Tennessee and New York.
Instead of using administrative data, researchers checked medical records to confirm cases of invasive MRSA infections and double-checked laboratory results. An earlier CDC study that relied on administrative data had estimated 5,000 people die each year of dangerous MRSA infections.
Dr. William Jarvis, former acting director of the hospital infections program at the CDC, called upon the agency to strengthen recommended measures for preventing MRSA's spread in light of the new report's findings.
"The CDC recommends routine screening for HIV for everyone who goes to a doctor, but it doesn't even recommend routine screening for all hospital patients for MRSA," he said.
Dr. John Jernigan, deputy chief of prevention at the CDC, defended recent agency guidelines that call for health-care facilities to lower MRSA infection rates. The guidelines are voluntary and there is no timetable or national reporting of the data. But Jernigan said the recommendations will work if health-care facilities are serious about following them.
By day, David Lassiter's view of his surroundings is confined to what he can see from the cab of a ready-mix concrete truck.
By night, it is as vast as the universe.
On clear nights, Lassiter is in his backyard observatory, viewing planets, comets and other deep-space objects or photographing them with a computer-controlled camera designed for astrophotography.
His photographs have appeared in Astronomy Magazine and on its Web site. His photograph of Comet Holmes was recently a "Photo of the Day."
Lassiter, 59, of Fishing Creek Valley Road in Middle Paxton Twp., said he has always been interested in astronomy but didn't acquire his first telescope until about six years ago.
That was a 41/2-inch Newtonian reflector he bought for about $350.
"I always wanted to buy a telescope," Lassiter said. "I would look up at the night sky and wonder what is out there."
Today, a 14-inch research-grade Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope is the heart of his observatory, which is in a 10- by 12-foot wooden shed with a roll-off roof. Lassiter has invested more than $10,000 in equipment.
Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes use mirrors and a lens. The size of Lassiter's telescope refers to the size of its mirror.
The larger the mirror or lens, the more detail one can see, he said.
"I love astronomy and the beauty of it," Lassiter said. "After a long, stressful day, there is something about being able to roll back that roof, focus on some distant object in the universe, and mellow out.
"You are looking in the face of God, looking at God's amazing creation."
Michael Bakich, the photography editor for Astronomy Magazine, said he gets 100 to 200 photographs a week from backyard stargazers such as Lassiter.
"We love to get pictures from David and other amateurs," he said. "They are taking photographs of deep-space objects that rival those major observatories were making 25 or 30 years ago.
"The equipment that amateur astronomers are using today is much better than anything a large observatory was using 25 years ago," Bakich said.
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Digital imaging allows amateur astronomers to get more detail in their photographs.
Once he had the ability to view even the smallest and faintest celestial object, Lassiter wanted to photograph them.
He uses a computer-controlled digital camera that controls the focus of the telescope and the length of the exposure.
"I can photograph things with it, like the Horsehead Nebulae in the Constellation Orion, that I can't even see through the eyepiece of my telescope," he said.
Sky charts help him find the objects, much like Mapquest helps drivers find the best route to grandma's house.
Photographs show brilliant colors and details that can't be seen with the unaided eye, Lassiter said.
"The light cones in the human eye are too weak to pick the colors up, and it may take an exposure of several minutes for them to show up," he said. "When the live image finally comes up on your computer, you can see all these beautiful colors."
While he enjoys astrophotography, Lassiter also makes sure to leave time for plain old visual observation on rare perfect nights.
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"All these beautiful objects are out there, just waiting to be seen," he said.
"People call me a stargazer, but I don't spend any time looking at stars. All you see when you focus on a star is a bright point of light."
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