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Oh?

Try that shit in California and the CARB will want to have a word with you.

And no, I'm not joking.

But the headline, "Did Humans Evolve? No, Says (sic) Americans," seems to indicate a profound ignorance of grammar. The results of California's STAR test released today say I should not be surprised.

Is to put 9 flash videos on your home page, like Arnold's campaign tards did the day of the California special election last November. The same idiots are now pushing the limits of how much they can make gov.ca.gov into a campaign site.

my my aren't we a troll

can you prove to me the 2004 election was fraud free? can you even support the statement that it was fraud free? Of course fucking not, even a cursory glance at Ohio will tell anyone who has a brain that we can never know if bush really was the honest winner of that state (not to mention several others) or not.

Why did they make up a fake terrorist threat claim on the last county to count it's votes (which prevented all observers from seeing the count)? We know it wasn't a real threat, and we know counting votes in secret like that is one of the fundmantal signs of a flawed election.

How about the ESS tech who, without authorization, accessed on of the voting machines used in voting between the voting and the "recount" (retabulating insecurable inauditable unreliable data tables doesn't constitute a recount).

Insecure elections is NOT a partisan issue, just like jerrymandering ISN'T a partisan issue. The last two national election cycles the insecurities in the voting system have merely happen to have been taken advantage by the republicans - there Is no gaurantee that the democrats wouldn't do that same thing, and I have no illusions that they are immune to the temptation.

Insecure balloting techniques, jerrymandering, etc should ALL be illegal. Jerrymandering is impossible in exactly ONE state in the nation: Iowa, where I happen to live. One state with only 5 house reps is the only state where you cannot jerrymander

Unjerrymandered:
Iowa http://www.legis.state.ia.us/GA/77GA/Congressional /Maps/Map.gif
Hawaii http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/32/HI-d istricts-108.JPG
(probably) Idaho http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b3/ID-d istricts-108.JPG
NH http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2c/NH-d istricts-108.JPG

Jerrymandered:
Texas http://z.about.com/d/uspolitics/1/0/w/texas_congre ssional_map.png
California http://www.senate.ca.gov/ftp/SEN/cngplan/CNGMAPS/C D_STATE8X11.JPG
Florida http://www.democracyinaction.com/dia/organizations /karin/images/congressionalmap.gif?
Illinois http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b8/IL-d istricts-108.JPG

see the difference? Jerrymandering leads to complex districts most of the time, unjerrymandered districts are as geographically simple as possible.

rather obvious are they not? Jerrymandering is just another form of election fraud and both parties engage in it.

Which is why I said nearly all. Other videogame laws have been proposed on local, state or national levels by Joe Baca, Leland Yee, Rod Blagojevich, and Roy Burrell just to name the few laws I can remember. Then there are people like Joe Lieberman and Hillary Clinton who have both threatened to propose videogame violence laws.

But it doesn't matter because after Natural Gas is the most commonly used source of electricity generation on the California Power Grid. In addition a wopping 10% is already from renewable sources. http://www.energy.ca.gov/html/energysources.html It should be assumed that even if there was a need for new generation (a big possibility) that Natural Gas and Renewable sources would be the source of that generation. In addition people could install solor panels on thier roofs to add electricity to the grid during peak times. Currently if you do this you will recoup your ivestment in about 15 years.

I respect your article referral, but the reference only speculates on future gasoline usage and omits empirical data. For at least the past several years (and likely longer) gasoline usage has increased in California or remained the same year over year -- taxable revenue has always increased.

Here are my references:

Fourth Quarter 1999, 3.71% increase in gasoline usage
Fourth Quarter 2004, 29% increase in service station sales including gasoline (PDF)

I respect your article referral, but the reference only speculates on future gasoline usage and omits empirical data. For at least the past several years (and likely longer) gasoline usage has increased in California or remained the same year over year -- taxable revenue has always increased.

Here are my references:

Fourth Quarter 1999, 3.71% increase in gasoline usage
Fourth Quarter 2004, 29% increase in service station sales including gasoline (PDF)

Safety experts have raised concerns over cyclists, pedestrians and motorists being involved in accidents when they are distracted by their digital music devices.

Which is why it's illegal in California to wear earphones in phone ears while driving a vehicle or riding a bike. It's California Vehicle Code 27400. Not many people would think to read the CVC for rules and laws outside the DMV handbook. Ane even fewer would read it to see if they're violating any laws while on a bike. Yes, this is enforced. A friend of mine got a ticket for it.

You know, this will enable blind people to be able to use an iPod, which is nice, but may be impracticle for non-blind users to search through thousands of songs simply to not take it out of a pocket. And if driving, well, like with finding a particular CD, why not just wait for a stop?

Now if Apple were to release an iPod with a small speaker, that would be pretty damned cool, even if the sound quality sucks.

According to TFA, they compared phone users to drivers who were at the legal blood-alcohol limit, not those above it. So they have, at most, demonstrated that driving while using a phone is more dangerous than other driving that we consider legal.

I think they've done more than that. If you're at 0.08% BAC and behind the wheel you are driving under the influence. In other words, the kind of impairment caused by using a cellphone is serious enough that were it caused by alcohol, Johnny Law would take your license away on the spot.

Then they really better not count California's roads. Somehow California managed to dodge all requirements for having exit numbers and mile marker posts (as opposed to post-mile markers) since the 1971, as well as any type of reflective sign technology available to the rest of the country for at least the last 30 years. (A few are just now starting to appear.)

Oh, and Californians hate Interstates so much the locals don't even call them Interstates. Ever been on "the 5 freeway?" Or "the 15?" Say "I-15" to someone from LA and watch the confusion unfold.

The Eisenhower Interstate System has long been absent here.

See the CalNexus "modernization" program currently in progress here or here.

In fact, Caltrans (the California DOT) itself barely knows what an Interstate is. Just google "Caltrans bloopers" and the like.

Of US states, California has the lowest electricity use per capita in 2001 at 6.8 MWh/year (the national average is almost twice that), which means that city of a million people uses 18.6 GWh every day. Your "huge difference" is an improvement of less that four percent. Then you have to amortize the extra energy that went into producing and shipping the replacement hardware...

Hey buddy,

I have experience in this. Given that all crime is of a commercial nature, you became a criminal when you accepted and voluntarily signed that contract to appear at that Bakersfield court. If you don't know the premise of contract law from trust law, then you should know that you didn't have a judge in the courthouse because you voluntarily SIGNED a contract for your person to appear somewhere else to argue or pay. In court process, the judge simply weighs evidence as to two feuds in honor or dishonour. A judge can't plead on your behalf without causing joinder to one of the parties in the suit, but an appointed executive administrator could; don't build any "trust" to an administrator over a matter you don't trust them upon, and if any misplaced trust is erected then return their capacity as to a Judge by not giving them permission to plead on your behalf (attorney in black robe concealing BAR Association membership card).

The purpose in all this reasoning is to determine whether your indirect actions caused any damage(tort) or infringement of right of way to a neighboring motorist. Also to reason is where the Judge is incapacited and becomes an administrator as a trustee over your person. In terms of trust law, there is a grantor and a trustee and a beneficiary person to administer a property on your behalf. The trustee, as appointed by Deparment of Motor Vehicles, is conferred to that appointed administrator. Usually, a grantor would have hired a chaufer (trustee) to direct a motor vehicle in the transport of cargo and passengers for beneficiary. Whenever the trustee and beneficiary are indistinguishable, the trust is dissolved.

On the DMV website, is claimed that DEPARTMENT OF MOTOR VEHICLES was created about 1913 by the Vehicle Act. This layed the framework to define that a Vessell dedicated for commercial purposes shall be known as a "motor vehicle", and that all persons involved in the use of a "motor vehicle" for the transport of cargo and passengers for hire, is to be registered. The nature of locomotion of most vessels on land is not to be hired, so your recourse is in the truth. But, you appeared and the presumptions were made.

To not lay dormant your lawful duty of movement, simply make such reservation at the signature of the Driver License in the form of "John Quincy dba JOHN QUINCY DOE." This moves all accusations as to your interests in any cause of tort on someone else or there property, and not the resolve to a private/copyright/administrative code that makes it enabling cause by the strawman making an appearance (JOHN QUINCY DOE). Also of matter, is to be certain the given name (John Quincy) makes restrictive and special apropria persona appearance for the "John Quincy Doe" created by the birth certificate. John Quincy of the Doe family existed prior to the birth certificate, by assign of the town bishop to commerce under the state provost. Trusts in the triplette remeniscent of the First and Middle and Last name are not applicable to the county birth-certificate, and usually libeled by misapplication and inductance to the corporate STATE records. As evinced in the Law of Nations, by Vattel; in constructing a trust, do not be equaly bound body-politic with body-corporate.

And last, the magic words in saving your suite in light of the coerced mis-application of Code, are "for failure to state a claim for which relief can be granted." Many transmitting utilities apparent to the birth certificate, are known to just run their mouth like a broken record on their opinions as opposed to the law and due process.

Enjoy.

I would say the lack of scientific reason in HSers goes hand-in-hand with today's emphasis upon standards. I will be getting my teaching credential in physics and chemistry in the state of California and the standards, California State Science Content Standards, to which I have to teach make no mention of teaching scientific reasoning. It's all about learing the facts, ideas, and concepts of the subjects I will teach. How are you to continue to reinforce scientific reasoning in this climate?

Actually, check out the decision:

[W]e can see no sustainable basis to distinguish petitioners from the reporters, editors, and publishers who provide news to the public through traditional print and broadcast media. It is established without contradiction that they gather, select, and prepare, for purposes of publication to a mass audience, information about current events of interest and concern to that audience." "If their activities and social function differ at all from those of traditional print and broadcast journalists, the distinctions are minute, subtle, and constitutionally immaterial.

Essentially, the sum total results of this decision were that someone acting in a journalistic capacity qualifies as a journalist, without further refining the definition thereof. Whoop-de-freaking-doo.

But isn't that exactly how shield laws should work? Is a blogger a journalist? If they're gathering or distributing news. Is a NY Times writer a journalist? If they're gathering or distributing news. Why should a reporter for the mainstream media automatically get subpoena immunity in discovery via a shield law while a blogger can't? Seems obvious, but being the midst of one of these and following the others closely, the public and legal discourse definitely needs more analysis along these lines.

The cool thing here is that the decision makes significant progress on the definition of "news" and extends it to include source material published. From the decision:

[A]n absence of editorial judgment cannot be inferred merely from the fact that some source material is published verbatim. It may once have been unusual to reproduce source materials at length, but that fact appears attributable to the constraints of pre-digital publishing technology, which compelled an editor to decide how to use the limited space afforded by a particular publication. This required decisions not only about what information to include but about how to compress source materials to fit. In short, editors were forced to summarize, paraphrase, and rewrite because there was not room on their pages to do otherwise.

Digital communication and storage, especially when coupled with hypertext linking, make it possible to present readers with an unlimited amount of information in connection with a given subject, story, or report. The only real constraint now is time-the publisher's and the reader's. From the reader's perspective, the ideal presentation probably consists of a top-level summary with the ability to 'drill down' to source materials through hypertext links. The decision whether to take this approach, or to present original information at the top level of an article, is itself an occasion for editorial judgment. Courts ought not to cling too fiercely to traditional preconceptions, especially when they may operate to discourage the seemingly salutary practice of providing readers with source materials rather than subjecting them to the editors' own 'spin' on a story.

This is a pretty significant finding by the court that displays a keen understanding of "editorial oversight" and a creative and wise interpretation of how such oversight applies to online publications.

Given all the crazy things that could've happened, this is really good.

The Governator is coming up for de-election soon as well:

http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a12/photo s/gov-sign-1.jpg

The big push behind this is because of the phaseout of CRTs. Until recently, the leaded glass in CRTs could be recycled into new CRTs, and there was some value in used monitors. Now nobody wants the things, and CRTs are being discarded at a huge rate. So keeping all that lead out of landfills is a real problem.

1: According to recent research commission byt the ESA, kids don't buy very many games. Way more often than not (80th percentile IIRC) it's adults that buy them.
2: This is just another attempt by politicians to get more money, nothing deeper. I genuinely believe this joker doesn't give a wet slap if it's Grand Theft Auto, or Mario Sunshine, he just wants a piece of the action.
3: Throwing more and more money at a problem is NOT the solution. California pays less per year, per student than we do. Want a truly shocking revelation? http://republican.sen.ca.gov/web/mcclintock/articl e_detail.asp?PID=292 Check out the schools California should be getting with the money it spends per student. Now image what Texas ought to have.
4: If this passes, which I doubt, I'm sure the ESA will be all over it with FOS arguments, and likely win.
5: It's not a Republican/Democrat issue. As a Republican, I assure you my party is JUST as interested in inserting their hands into our wallets as the Democrats are. These days the parties only differ on how to spend their ill-gotten gains.

Besides the cost, I see this being a huge benefit to reducing power load on the grid. I suppose the real question is, why don't power companies do this further up the pipe, at the generating stations?

Oh, but they do!

About 25 minutes drive away from my expanding Chico, CA home, is the Oroville, CA "Lake Oroville Forebay". It's a beautiful lake managed by the Department of Water Resources (DWR) where they (sesriously!) pump water uphill at night, then run the water out through generators during the day.

The upshot is a beautiful lake that's wonderful for canoing, bike-riding, hiking, and in general enjoying one's self, which acts as a power stabilizer for the California power grid. I've enjoyed a 6-pack or two with my father-in-law, mountain-biking or hiking various trails above it.

I'm sure it's not the only project like it.

For more information, see this CA gov website and pay attention to the numerous references to 'reversible pump' operation....

Minors in the USA can sign contracts.

The problem is that the minor can choose to disaffirm the contract any time before he/she turns 18, leaving not much of a recourse to the other party. This would be a problem in a credit agreement.

But this isn't generally a problem as long as the minor is providing a service to someone else -- if the service is provided, you pay; if not, you don't.

(I got my own business license at 14 -- many years ago.)

References:
Contracting as a minor
California Bar

Hogwash!!! At least in the US. Average gasoline taxes -- state plus federal -- are well under 50 cents a gallon. About 15% at this week's pricing. See http://www.energy.ca.gov/gasoline/statistics/gas_t axes_by_state_2002.html. There are surely some hidden taxes (e.g. property taxes on refineries, etc), but I doubt they amount to all that much. Now residents of other countries ... THEY have gasoline taxes.

I couldn't find a quick number for electricity taxes, but I'll be suprised if they aren't between 5% and 10% of most customer's bills.

***Rolling blackouts in California were not caused by lack of generation capacity. They were caused by Enron calling up plant operators and saying "Hey. Shut down for maintenance.***

That's correct, but it seems to me that the market probably couldn't have been manipulated so readily if there were any significant amount of excess capacity. The one thing I do recall from the California fiasco is that the US transmission line system was not then capable of bringing in large amounts of energy from distant parts of the country (or even distant parts of California). As far as I know, there hasn't been much expansion of tranmission capacity in the intervening 5 years. So maybe there really is a problem lurking there.

And of course, you'd need real-time information on accidents, weather variables and road closings to complete this model. I suspect we will have this information within the next 10-20 years as cell phones are tracked and we have real-time information about road conditions available centrally.

"10 and 2" is no longer suggested, if you have a steering-wheel airbag. "9 and 3" or "8 and 4" is the new consensus, to avoid injury to your arms and help you maintain control of the vehicle if necessary after the airbag deploys. I prefer 8 and 4 because it lets me do the most turning without having to reposition both hands, and it's just more comfortable if the wheel has the right hand-holds there.

(See for example http://www.mpi.mb.ca/english/dr_tips/handposition. html or http://www.dmv.ca.gov/about/senior/safety/driver.h tm)

6.6.7.5 Managed Frame Relay (M-O)
...
The Contractor shall provide tailored comprehensive WAN solutions for each location based on traffic load, usage patterns, transport requirements, and economics.

• Provide design for routed solutions for many LAN protocols in the Ethernet or token ring LAN environments

...

Check out the California motor vehicle code exemption of emergency vehicles.

The claim that speed enforcement is just a money-maker is silly. Speeding kills, and it does it on the highway as well as in residential areas.

You don't have to be a US citizen to get a CA driver's license, but you do have to have an SSN, which means you 1) are a citizen or 2) have DHS permission to work in the country.

Moreover, the feds have threatened that if states don't collect SSN information, you won't be allowed to use that state's DL to board a plane or enter a federal office building. There is a definite push towards linking one's legal ability to operate a motor vehicle with citizenship.

California's Bureau of Unclaimed Property do the same with lost bank account transactions. Just enter a surname and city, and you can find a whole list of people from the individual owner search.

You're an asshole and besides that you're wrong. The left lane is not the "fast" lane. It is the passing lane. You know all those "KEEP RIGHT EXCEPT TO PASS" signs you see all over? What do you think they mean, numbnuts?

California state law states:

21654. (a) Notwithstanding the prima facie speed limits, any
vehicle proceeding upon a highway at a speed less than the normal
speed of traffic moving in the same direction at such time shall be
driven in the right-hand lane for traffic or as close as practicable
to the right-hand edge or curb, except when overtaking and passing
another vehicle proceeding in the same direction or when preparing
for a left turn at an intersection or into a private road or
driveway.
      (b) If a vehicle is being driven at a speed less than the normal
speed of traffic moving in the same direction at such time, and is
not being driven in the right-hand lane for traffic or as close as
practicable to the right-hand edge or curb, it shall constitute prima
facie evidence that the driver is operating the vehicle in violation
of subdivision (a) of this section.
      (c) The Department of Transportation, with respect to state
highways, and local authorities, with respect to highways under their
jurisdiction, may place and maintain upon highways official signs
directing slow-moving traffic to use the right-hand traffic lane
except when overtaking and passing another vehicle or preparing for a
left turn.

Asshole.

Buzzzzz, wrong answer. Vanna, tell the contestant that he gets a years supply of Rice-A-Roni, the San Francisco treat.

CA does have the encryption exemption. See this pdf file. http://privacy.ca.gov/recommendations/secbreach.pd f

Read page 8 under Definitions, Notice-triggering information. "As provided in California law, this is unecrypted (information)..."

Sure, there undoubtedly many factors, but mention genetics as one of them and you will be shunned.

total = (500,000 x 10^6 g of shit) * (1.4 x 10^-3 liters of gas) / (100 g of shit)
total = 7,000,000 liters of gasoline
total = 1,849,204.36 US gallons

Per capita consumption 464 gallons per year
(http://www.energy.ca.gov/gasoline/statistics/gaso line_per_capita.html)

Americans = (1,849,204.36 US gallons) / (464 gallons)
Americans = 3,985.3

4000 people would benefit. Woohoo!!! Energy Independence! USA! USA! USA! USA!

We're not even factoring the gasoline needed to make the process work or to ship the shit/gasoline in and out of the plant. The problem with most policies makers even business people is that they don't do "back of the envelope calculations" before passing laws or making decision, especially with science related stuff.

The institute which is being sued was a direct result of the passing of California's Proposition 71.

The proposition basically said that a institute would be created to oversee applications and grants of stem cell research, and fund said research by issuing bonds worth up to $350million per year, up to a maximum of $3billion overall.

It's ironic that the representativesof the voters that voted this bill in are the ones that are now suing the institute the bill created, completely ignoring the fact that the bill itself states that funding deliberations are exempt from the state's open-meeting law.
Go read it, it's all here: http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/bp_nov04/prop_71_en tire.pdf

They voted for something they DID NOT READ AND UNDERSTAND FULLY. This is a sad reality in today's elections; very rarely you find anyone who actually knows what they're voting for, instead following the misleading propaganda out there, with stupid statements like "If you don't pass this bill, millions of kids will die!". Just check out the homepage for the institute itself:

http://www.curesforcalifornia.com/

Sometimes, it boggles the mind how ignorant and idiotic my fellow Californians can be....

I don't know which school system you're familiar with, but here in California, the money that should go to the classroom is being wasted. Given the amount we spend, we should be able to buy every kid a laptop running Windows XP Pro. Take a look at "A Modest Proposal for Saving Our Schools" for an analysis of why our educational system isn't "cash strapped." I suspect those of most other states aren't either.

Aren't these the idiots that allowed MTBE (methyl t- butyl ether) to be used as an oxygenate. It was implemented at a huge cost that was .... drum roll please.... passed on the the consumers. This heralded in gas prices higher than anywhere in the country.

Oh and now we find that the low molecular weight ether is water soluble (known all along) and is ..... drum roll please ...... polluting water supplies and now it is no longer being used.

Why didn't these fools mandate that ethanol be used? Oh because it is biomass produced and a renewable resource. Well, we can't have people thinking they can grow gas for their cars when the asshats in charge are in the pocket of the petroleum industry.

I say tar & feather these fools and ride them outta town on a rail.

http://www.energy.ca.gov/mtbe/

Ethically, I agree with you. Legally, though, GP is right. California's whistle-blower statute protects you if you report the illegal action to any law-enforcement agency or appropriate authority. There's also a hotline you can call to direct your report to the appropriate enforcement agency. Rightly or wrongly, it says nothing about going public. The relevant section of the California Civil code is here. Another point worth noting: this wasn't a Diebold employee, it was someone who worked at their lawyer's office. In other words, he also seems to have violated attorney-client confidentiality, and that action is specifically exempted from protection. So even if this guy had called the whistleblower hotline, he would still be on the hook. My guess is that it's that violation that has the DA's panties in a twist, rather than any Republican-controlled smackdown, as some other posters have suggested. After all, L.A., and California in general, is controlled by Democrats. But lawyers of all political stripes react poorly to violating attorney-client privilege.

I know someone responded to you with "average LA worker dreams of a commute that short", and I'd like to second that for the SF Bay Area worker. The average commute time for someone living in Contra Costa county in *2000* was nearly 35 minutes, and no county showed an average less than 20 minutes... and that's the statistical average, accounting for folks ( like me ) who work very close to home, and things have gotten worse, not better.

And we're talking about looking for a new job here, so that 45 minutes is a *maximum*, and at some point ( depending on the location ) most sane people would consider moving closer to their work... but many of us know we should be able to find employment closer to our current location, and don't want to uproot our family for a gig without being really, really certain, so yea, 45 minutes isn't bad. The problem is that a 45 minute commute in one direction might be a lot longer than a 45 minute commute in another direction, but the point is, most websites don't even give a good way of searching by a group of cities, much less zip codes or even much much less point-to-point distances, which is what we *really* want.

Indirect/Direct two stage evaporative AC system coming to market soon:
http://www.oasysairconditioner.com/
background:
http://energy.ca.gov/pier/buildings/projects/500-9 8-022-0.html

Cool features: Runs off 120VAC, pulls between 100 and 500watts while cooling up to 3.5 tons. Automatic variable speed fan motor runs off AC and DC automatically; you can hook up some solar panels and it will blend them without an inverter.

I have been watching this for nearly a year, and it's finally coming to market-- I should be getting my unit in march for $1800. Yes, it is evaporative but it should maintain humidity of around 40-50% indoors, which is actually the recommended levels for people and computers, furniture, etc.

Despite being evaporative technology, it would work fine during monsoon here in AZ, since it can achieve sub-dew point temperatures...

Junk in orbit is junk, just like junk on Earth is junk.

Uh oh....better not tell that to these people...

What sort of reclamation do you expect to do in orbit, without any sort of manufacturing capability to process the materials?

This is possibly the most retarded thing I've read here all week. This is akin to saying 'how am I gonna get all these apples across this river without a bridge'? Solution: build a bridge. Yes, it will require a capital investment, but it will have to be built anyway, so rather than ship up raw materials at 10K/kg, why not use what's at hand. (Slight flaw in my analogy - space debris, unlike apples, do not go bad, so one collect it and stockpile it long before the manufacturing capability was in place.)

I notice I had lower chances of being hired due to my physical disabilities: 1) Don't drive a vehicle and 2) impediments with speech and hearing. It took me a year to get a full-time job (2001-2002) after interviewed about 20 times with different employers. Also, I had a job developer, from Employment Development Department (EDD), to assist me.

I was lucky to find someone, who was also a /.aholic, and hired me at a well known security company.

A gasoline car while just sitting emits nothing.

This is not true, and is something that the Prius specifically addresses, by having a bladder inside of the fuel tank.

And the quote about emissions levels and what they mean (and specifically about a car's emissions while sitting) were lifted from this site.

It doesn't sound too different from the old lemon battery experiment. Sure, he might be able to generate voltage, but the question is...Where are the AMPS? If he has 12V at .005 milliamps, this tree electricity won't be useful to anyone. I hope not too many investors are buying this guy's line...

Non-embryonic stem-cell research is already miles ahead in providing cures

Embryonic lines consistently develop mutations that make them unusable.

Non-embryonic lines are progressing towards embryonic flexibility.

All of this pales, however, in view of the green dollar signs that float in front of researcher's eyes. Somehow, money seems to make morally outrageous actions seem legit. I have no problem turning off the flow of cash to research that amounts to cannibalism.

Let me know when they can get WinXP to install and run on one of these. That's truly legacy hardware.

Because they adopted California's vehicle regulations. I'm not an expert, but I think this is how it works: California requires a catalytic converter. Current diesels don't have them because the high sulfur content in diesel would either damage them or make them not work or something. Therefore, you can't buy a diesel car in California. I think you will be able to buy one again in the next year or two when ULSD becomes standard and vehicle makers add those to their cars. I think. Again, don't quote me on this; I had trouble finding info on the website: http://www.arb.ca.gov/.

The law requires that all games fitting its definitions of "violent" be emblazoned with a 2-inch by 2-inch sticker with the number "18" on it. Since it doesn't establish any ratings review board and doesn't punish publishers or developers directly (the $1000 fine only applies to the person who sells the game), it would have been up to the retailers themselves to decide which games were violent under the law, and to affix a label to them. There was a good chance this was going to get blocked, but with only a week to go, I can't believe major retailers didn't have a contingency plan.

Did anyone working at a game store in California get a box of "18" stickers from the corporate office and a list of games that needed to be labelled? Can you tell us what was on the list?

>California ... said "NO" to getting rid of gerrymandering,
>one of the worst cancers ever to afflict the democratic
>process.
Have you read prop 77 and thought about what is wrong with it?

http://www.voterguide.ss.ca.gov/prop77/title_summa ry.shtml

I am definately a fan of legislation to reduce gerrymandering
but this legislation was too flawed for me to vote for it.

Specifically:
* Redistricting would have occurred *immediately* rather
    than when schedualled to occur next (every 10 years).
* This would have legislated (into our constitution!)
    a process that assumes that there are two major
    parties in CA that are nearly equally popular.
    Although this is true now, I think that it is
    a big folly to pass legislation that assumes
    this is true.
    Pretend for a moment that CA had three parties with the
    following representation:
      65% A
      20% B
      15% all others
    According to this legislation, three judges would be selected
    to draw districts where one judge would be from party A,
    one from party B and one essentially a coin toss between
    a judge from party A and one from party B!

That said, I would love to see an automatic
politics-free way of creating numerous contiguous
small districts.

Well, in California as I understand it you are only half correct. In California you are, as a consumer, required to pay use tax -- not quite the same thing as sales tax, though it may be the same amount, I'm not sure -- on items you order from other states. The companies located in the other states, on the other hand, are not generally obligated to collect that tax. They can't, really -- they have no relationship with the government of California, no tax ID in my state, and no real way of keeping up with local tax laws. Only companies that have a business presence in California can collect California taxes.

So yup, you read between the lines correctly. What that means is that citizens are expected to tally up the value of mail-order purchases from out of state companies themselves and send the relevant taxes to the state's Franchise Tax Board.

Now, how many people do you think actually do that? Of course. And that is why the entire population of the state of California is in prison.

According to this PDF form, "Proof of Service by Mail" for a subpoena does exist. All it has to be is First Class mail. It sucks, but it exists.

I'm going to forget some details about the incident, because it was about a year ago, but:

One morning a group of students went around and posted copies of California Ed Code 51530, which forbids advocating communism, on several professor's doors. It turned out that it was the campus Republican club, and it had been instigated by an outside group. One of the professors that was targeted taught a class I was in, and she believed it was a threat, because she has received personal threats in the past, and figured this was a threat against her job.

This became a huge deal, and she was pushing to get the students expelled, the Dean wasn't happy, and it was in the papers for a while.

CA Ed Code 51530:
http://leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate?WAISdocID=8 8401910314+0+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve