Month: March 2007

Department of Justice issues massive report on PATRIOT act abuse

The federal government has a web site dedicated to spreading lies and propaganda stating that the PATRIOT act is good for the country and never has caused anything bad. What’s so odd about that is that while it appears to be a Department of Justice site, that is the department that has just written a massive, damning report on the many abuses of the PATRIOT act. Of course, there are still too many Americans (not surprisingly, mostly conservatives with a smattering of independents) blinded by their love of our current President, regardless of how many times he lies and deceives, who believe the executive branch representatives when they say the PATRIOT act is not abused and that Americans’ rights are protected under the PATRIOT act.

We have to suffer Presidential signing statements, though they carry no legal force, regardless of President Bush’s determinination to make the Executive branch also function as the Legislative branch. We have an attorney general who states that Constitutional protections against taking rights away don’t mean we actually have those rights. We had ongoing discussion among various high-level political folks about the validity, legality, and appropriateness of torture, especially in terms of dealing with Al Queda prisoners. To me, the fact that even the easily followed guidelines in the PATRIOT act which allow our government to ignore our Constitutionally protected rights are not followed is not hard to believe.

I’ve been opposed to this law even when I thought the bad provisions were at least subject to the oversight written into the law. Now that I see that those charged with protecting us can’t even resist abusing the simple rules which allow for paper trails, I’m totally disheartened. When are we going to see this undone? Why can’t the liberals do something useful with their tiny majority in Congress to get rid of this? My theory is lack of backbone, but I’m open to other interpretations.

[tags]Department of Justice issues massive document of PATRIOT act abuses, PATRIOT act abuses, Continuing loss of rights in America[/tags]

Another contender for parent of the year

It’s disappointing to see folks like this reproducing and raising children.

A 20-year-old Shreveport woman has been arrested after her first-grade son brought a rock of crack cocaine to school for show-and-tell.

Police were especially disturbed by the child’s understanding of crack cocaine. They said he seemed so accustomed to the highly addictive drug that he thought there was nothing wrong with bringing it to school.

. . .

Lachristie Thomas was booked on a charge of improper child supervision, a misdemeanor.

Because, yes, raising your child in a crack-addled home and letting that child take crack to school for show-and-tell is a minor crime. Misdemeanor sounds about, um, stupid?

[tags]Parent of the year contender, Child brings crack cocaine rock to school for show and tell[/tags]

Trump calls President Bush worst President in the history of the US

I’m not a fan of President Bush. If you haven’t figured that out by reading my site, you haven’t been paying attention. That said, I do give him credit for doing the right thing when I think he has done so (but I do still have some articles planned in the near future to highlight what I think he has done wrong). I used to believe he was the worst President ever, but I’ve backed off of that. However, it turns out Donald Trump is prepared to make that declaration.

The comments associated with this article are interesting, too. They show a disturbing lack of understanding of politics. They show a disturbing bountiness of unintelligent thought. There are a few good comments, but not many. Bleh. This kind of stuff is why I avoided politics for so long, and why I get more annoyed with the American public as I learn more of the wrongs we are subjected to because of our so-called leaders. (via Digg)

[tags]Trump not a fan of Bush, Bush worst President in history of the US according to Trump[/tags]

Recording industry again trying to chase off their audience

Year after year, the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) pursues tactics which drive away music listeners or turn the listening audience to other entertainment venues. Sueing the demographic most likely to listen to and purchase music in recent years wasn’t enough. Now to drive more potential customers away, recording industry representatives have plans to set music royalty fees so high that the vast majority of American-based internet radio stations will have to shut down. This move was originally planned for a few years ago, but the otherwise unthinkable ally of Senator Jesse Helms worked to block legislation that would have allowed this in 2002.

Continue reading “Recording industry again trying to chase off their audience”

Peer to peer distribution not just hurting recording and movie industry

Over on TorrentFreaks, we get the story of Tony, a seller/distributor of counterfeit software in the 1990s.  He’s out of that business now, and he blames online P2P distribution.  Curse you BitTorrent, et al.

Tony started his life of piracy sometime in the 1990’s working markets, car-boot sales and pubs in the UK, selling counterfeit PC applications/games and console discs for a fraction of the retail price. “The profit was amazing back then” he recalls “We were getting £25 ($48) for a couple of PSX games and £15 ($29) for a single CDR with the latest utilities on. We couldn’t make them fast enough.” Things were looking good for his little enterprise and before long he was clearing up to £1000 ($1,942) profit each week.

. . .

“In 2005 we shut down the factory unit” said Tony, “we just couldn’t keep going on that scale, nobody was buying anything in quantity anymore. So we closed up and moved back into a bedroom at home with my wife and her sister operating the burners, something they hadn’t done in years. They weren’t happy.”

. . .

Tony is very clear about why his rags to riches story has gone back to rags again. “File-sharing, P2P – call it what you like. When you asked a customer why he wasn’t buying anything, 9 times out of 10 it was ‘BitTorrent this, LimeWire that’.

Peer to peer doesn’t just hurt the archaic industries running on obsolete business models.  It also hurts the pirates who specialize in physical duplication and distribution.  So the next time you are downloading that cool new song or game, whether it’s a legal or illegal copy you are getting, think of Tony and how you drove him out of his nice house and made him give up his fancy sports car and fine wines.  And remember, Valve’s Steam distribution center doesn’t just suck for gamers.
[tags]P2P hurts pirates as well as industry, The other victim of online distribution[/tags]

Apples and Oranges – the Gonzales 8 firings

I have my own planned article on the firings last year of 8 Attorneys General. In the meantime, try to learn a little bit how this event differs from the standard clean-up of federal prosecutors that takes place with each incoming President.

There is so much disinformation and misinformation floating around cyberspace these days about the firing of eight federal prosecutors that you would almost think people on one side of the debate and the other are writing about and analyzing two completely different stories.

. . .

…let’s all stop trying to compare the “Reno 93” with the “Gonzales 8.” Even Republican lawmakers are growing uneasy with that inapt comparison. One legal scholar after another, and one veteran Justice Department watcher after another, has come forward to say that it is extraordinary for a White House to fire a federal prosecutor mid-term, or even mid-presidency, absent some extraordinary misfeasance or malfeasance on the part of the U.S. Attorney. Here is just the latest to do so.

One important thing to note about these 8 attorneys is that they were republican appointees. I mention this, because I know some people feel they should have been fired when Bush took office since Clinton appointees should not stay in under the new President. Just trying to share some information with those that haven’t read up on a lot of the controversy.

Interesting facts about Google

I learned something new today. I suppose I can go back to bed. Here are a few trivialities on Google for you to ruminate over.

  1. The prime reason the Google home page is so bare is due to the fact that the founders didn’t know HTML and just wanted a quick interface. Infact it was noted that the submit button was a long time coming and hitting the RETURN key was the only way to burst Google into life.
  2. Due to the sparseness of the homepage, in early user tests they noted people just sitting looking at the screen. After a minute of nothingness, the tester intervened and asked ‘Whats up?’ to which they replied “We are waiting for the rest of it”. To solve that particular problem the Google Copyright message was inserted to act as a crude end of page marker.
  3. One of the biggest leap in search usage came about when they introduced their much improved spell checker giving birth to the “Did you mean…” feature. This instantly doubled their traffic, but they had some interesting discussions on how best to place that information, as most people simply tuned that out. But they discovered the placement at the bottom of the results was the most effective area.

Plus over a dozen other interesting bits about Google. (via Digg)

[tags]Google founders didn’t know HTML, Interesting trivia about Google[/tags]

The art of deception

Last year, LiveScience.com posted an article by Massimo Polidoro from The Skeptical Inquirer on how so-called psychics deceive their audiences to give the appearance of supernatural or paranormal powers. He writes of what he learned from the Amazing Randi how many of these deceptions occur. I found the article so fascinating that I’ve read over it a couple of times, and held on to the bookmark with plans to post it. Finally, I’m putting this up here so others can learn how we are fooled, and how often we are willing fools for it.

The great fake psychics are great improvisationists. This means that a really good pseudo-psychic is able to produce phenomena under almost any circumstance. A quick mind and a good knowledge of the techniques and psychology of deception are all that is needed. Sometimes, only a quick mind is enough.

In one early test of telepathy, in 1882, pseudo-psychic G.A. Smith and his accomplice, Douglas Blackburn, were able to fool researchers of the Society for Psychical Research. In a later confession, Blackburn described how they had to think fast and frequently invent new ways of faking telepathy demonstrations.

Continue reading “The art of deception”