Slashdot Mirror

"I would scream it from the rooftops if I felt it would do any good: CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM! It may not solve every problem, but strong, enforced CFR would at least help."

The laws are a joke and I should know. All campaign finance reform laws have done is increased the amount of paperwork required to run for office. I have to file paperwork with the Louisiana Ethics Comission, the Clerk of the House the Federal Election Commissions, and I have to send a copy of FEC paperwork to the Louisiana Department of State. All that paperwork does is provide another bureaucratic layer for the candidates to hide behind. Does it increase public access to information on my funding? Not really. Most people don't even know of the existance of these organizations, let alone how to obtain copies of the papers I've filed. It sure as hell isn't as informative to the general public as this, but most politicians want you to know as little about them as possible. It seems that most major candidates spend more time running interference on each other than actually sharing information with the voting public.

"The rich and powerful are vastly overrepresented in the legislatures, some effort at restoring balance is incredibly important."

You're not going to get it with the current batch of party sheep. If anything, they know what they needed to get into office themselves and aren't about to give it up easily.

"I'm a Democrat, but if McCain had been on the ballot I would have voted for him in a heartbeat."

Maybe too many Americans are too busy toeing the party line to see that most of the problems lie in the current two-paty system in the US. Guess how all those legislators probably got all their money? It was likely all funnelled through the state and national Democratic and Republican committees. All that most of the required election paperwork seems to have accomplished is to make sure more money is funnelled ("laundered?") through the party rather than going to the politician directly.

"Now we have a President that has spent over half of his time in office either on vacation or fund raising, or a combination thereof."

Which is completely different from what Clinton, Bush, Regan, Carter, Ford, Nixon, Johnson, Kennedy, Eisenhower, Truman, Roosevelt, Hoover, Coolidge, Taft, Wilson, Harding, Roosevelt, or McKinley have done in office? Should I go through the nineteenth century as well?

Most of the "this president is the most lazy/money-grubbing yet" stuff is just talk from the other party. If anything it's just more politicians running political interference. We have an executive that is very much alone and very easy for the press to focus on, and we have 535 legislators that can easily hide behind each other and can generally get away with more individually and as a group than the president. In my opinion, all this party nonsense about bad-mouthing the president's policies is little more than Congress keeping the attention shifted away from the real seat of corruption in government.

And the same goes for the states as well. Most governors would know better than to shoot themselves in the political foot by vetoing a bill with a title like that. But if it never gets to the governor's office to begin with, who's the wiser?

The only real solution to this problem is both very simple and the one nobody ever brings up:

1.) Go find the California Legislature on the internet

2.) Find the bill on-line

3.) See which state Senators voted against it (whoever is represented by Senator Haynes is in luck, otherwise...). The measure passed the State Assembly, but it might be worth seeing who voted against it there as well.

4.) Vote against them next election. In fact, tell them you're going to do so. Better yet, run against the bastard yourself. It's a cushy job and looks good on a resume at the very least.

It's that easy! And you're still not going to do it, are you? Most people don't even know their national legislators, let alone their legislators at the state level. Nobody even bothers to vote for anybody in the state governments, except maybe the governor. Maybe. This is probably little more than the state legislators showing the same contempt for the voters as the voters seem to have for the legislators. They listen to campaign contributors because they're usually the only people talking to them.

Until there is a major break through in battary technology battary devices will always be crippled compared to those drawing energy for either AC or petro fuels

I believed this myth too, until I got an EV1 and actually drove it every day. And you know what? Given the incremental advances over the past few decades in power semiconductors, motor controllers, aerodynamic vehicle design and low rolling resistance tires, the fact is that you can now make an entirely practical EV without any major breakthroughs in battery technology. Even good old lead acid batteries are perfectly useful.

The problem is that everyone is still fixated on range-per-charge. You have to actually drive an EV on a daily basis to know what a red herring it is. Even the California Air Resources Board (CARB has fallen into the trap. They've greatly increased the costs of EVs by mandating unnecessarily high ranges that still require exotic new battery technologies.

EVs cannot replace every gasoline car, but they don't have to. The fact is that well-designed EVs with readily available batteries can already meet the daily needs of a great many people, provided that charging facilities are available where these cars are routinely parked.

"California" firm
Fighting for honest email
Based in Delaware
http://kepler.ss.ca.gov/corpdata/ShowAllList?Query CorpNumber=C2461936

• you created entirely on your own time
• you created entirely with your own equiptment
• is not directly related to your employer's business, or demonstrable future business plans (ie ideas currently in development).

Just a note ahead of time. Some of the cars listed below are only available in certain parts of California and are only available in relatively low numbers.

Pure Electric:

2002 The Nissan Altra EV (pilot?)
2002 Ford Thi!nk City
2002 Toyota Rav4-EV
2002 Lido Motors Lido
2002 Ford Ranger EV (fleet only?)
2002 Nissan HyperMini (pilot only?)
Selectria Force (out of production?)

Hybrids:

2003 Honda Civic Hybrid
2002 Honda Insight
2002 Toyota Prius

Web Sites of Interest:

EV World
US DoE Alternative Fuel Car Buying Guide (many listed)
US DoE Alternative Fuel Vehicle Listing (many listed)
California ZEV Buyers Guide

At last check, this benefit was not available to hybrid electric vehicles. Especially in a large metro area like San Francisco or Los Angeles this perk alone can pay for itself.

The California Air Resources board provides a list of vehicles eligible for the carpool lane perk - choose carefully because not all alternative fuel vehicles are eligible!

A good resource to learn more is NGV.ORG (I've linked to google's cache... this is a small box, please don't hammer our server.) which provides a list of cofunding opportunities available for natural gas vehicle owners, including tax breaks and rebates from the state of California.

Good luck in your search!

However, according to various reports,(none of which I can find right now) there are no "Feral" Ferret populations in the USA.

But according to the State of California ferrets can establish ferral populations, and have done so in New Zealand & the UK, among other places.

The Center for Exotic Pest Research at UC Davis said if ferret ownership was to become legal, there is a "high risk" of feral populations.

Groups like Ferets Anonymous say that Ferets cannot survive in the wild and grow in population. This does not make sense. All other domesticated animals; Cats, dogs, rabbits, rats, cows, and even parrots, can and have established feral populations. But some magical force prevents ferrets from breeding outside of a human house? That doesn't add up.

Domestic Ferrets are legal in all continental states including Alaska, and excepting California.

California & Hawaii also have the most to protect.
California has more native plants an animals then any other state, and the second highest percentage of surving native species (Hawaii is first) (Sorry, can't find a link, and I've sold my biology texts).

Indiginous animal populations are already threatened by feral housecats, feral ferrets would only threaten more species.

Tell me, when it comes to protecting the environment, who do you trust more: The Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, the California Department of Fish & Game, and UC Davis ; or Ferrets Anonymous?

The State of California in 2001 produced 265059 Gigawatt-hours, or almost 3000 times more electric power than these trains are supposed to produce. Even solar energy contributes more to California; 638 GW-hours!

California Gross System Electricity Production for 2001

This whole scheme smells of an "I can therefore I ought" sort of deal. It has got to be one of the worst ways of generating and transporting electricity that I can imagine.

Good question
Googling gave this which says quite the opposite.

quote"
Finally, NiCd batteries aren't significantly affected by cold weather. NiMH batteries lose power at cold temperatures since the battery's chemicals interact at a slower rate.
"/quote

Wonder if this was physics favouring the unlucky....

~!Q

the People's Republic of California

Crap, comrades, they finally noticed the bear and red star on the flag! (ref)

And just for the record, I live in California, but I love life in Vegas. :)

(c) Any person who engages in an act of unlawful sexual
intercourse with a minor who is more than three years younger than
the perpetrator is guilty of either a misdemeanor or a felony, and
shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one
year, or by imprisonment in the state prison.
(d) Any person 21 years of age or older who engages in an act of
unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor who is under 16 years of age
is guilty of either a misdemeanor or a felony, and shall be punished
by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by
imprisonment in the state prison for two, three, or four years.

The pictures on the California highspeed rail site are actually of a EuroStar.

Looks like California High Speed Rail have decided to use the same blue-prints for the trains as used by the Eurostar. At least thats from looking at the photos.

This picture actually shows Eurostars in London. I hope California didn't pay a lot for their virtual railway. (just kidding)

Well, I live in Canada too, and I think the ridiculous costs of ratifying Kyoto estimated by the energy industry and Alberta are on at least as shaky ground as the estimated climactic effects of not ratifying that are often criticized. It's natural for Ralph Klein, the the Canadian Petroluem Producers Association & Chamber of Commerce, and George "Big-Oil" Bush to spread worst-case scenario estimates on the costs of Kyoto, but these scaremongering tactics just muddy an already difficult discussion. An economic meltdown certainly didn't happen when the state of California introduced stringent vehicle emissions standards and it's not in the cards with California's much greater planned controls, for example. Also, the jurisdictions that adopt such controls early will have a head start on building clean energy business and technologies that the rest of the world will inevitably have to adopt.

Two things nobody can deny: the climate is warming and further warming will have serious consequences. Further, the writing is on the wall that limits on carbon output is the way things are moving, whether we ratify Kyoto or not. We can either choose to join with the rest of the developed world and show some leadership, or not and point the finger to countries that cannot afford to adopt Kyoto as the reason we won't either. If Canada can't even take a (relatively) modest step now, how will we make the much larger necessary cuts in the future?

Oh, don't you worry about that, "Californians expect their government to be accountable!"

It was Patty and Selma!

More to the point, did anyone wonder how it can possibly require 265,000 people to run the state of California? According to the California Department of Finance's numbers, that's one state employee for every 124 Californians...

1. Garvey Products which sells felt markers that can be used to circumvent a digital rights managed compact disk...
2. Exotic Birds which has been teaching children the mechanisms by which felt markers leave an indelible mark, which is the key to defeating the copy protection on a number of protected devices.
3. Instrument Sales which in addition to standard felt markers, sells lumber crayons, which can be used to circumvent even HEAVY DUTY copyright protection!

Do not click on that link with automatic downloading of DLLs or Active-X controls enabled.

I was surprised to see hostile code from a supposedly respectable news organization. There's no contractual relationship or EULA which could possibly justify this. In California, this is a criminal offense. California law is tougher on computer viruses and related hostile code than other states.

Here's the relevant Calfornia law:

"502. (a) It is the intent of the Legislature in enacting this section to expand the degree of protection afforded to individuals, businesses, and governmental agencies from tampering, interference, damage, and unauthorized access to lawfully created computer data and computer systems." ...

• (4) Knowingly accesses and without permission adds, alters, damages, deletes, or destroys any data, computer software, or computer programs which reside or exist internal or external to a computer, computer system, or computer network.
• (5) Knowingly and without permission disrupts or causes the disruption of computer services or denies or causes the denial of computer services to an authorized user of a computer, computer system, or computer network.
• (6) Knowingly and without permission provides or assists in providing a means of accessing a computer, computer system, or computer network in violation of this section.
• (7) Knowingly and without permission accesses or causes to be accessed any computer, computer system, or computer network.
• (8) Knowingly introduces any computer contaminant into any computer, computer system, or computer network.

I have filed a complaint with the Office of the California Attorney General in this matter.

There's an EDIS Bulletin on the quake, but it's a routine report, with a priority too low to generate an E-mail message from EDIS. No indications of any significant emergencies to be dealt with.

Press reports indicate that several plates fell down at a china outlet store in Gilroy, and a coffee pot was damaged at the Gilroy Rodeway Inn.

For some reason, phone service in San Jose was affected. Unclear why.

This kinda bugged me too so I decided to go to the State of California website and do a lookup to see if the company was actually registered. It was.

PANIP, LLC Number: 200207410071
Date Filed: 3/12/2002
Status: active
Jurisdiction: CALIFORNIA
Principal Address
1168 VIRGINIA WAY LA JOLLA, CA 92037
Agent for Service of Process
WILLIAM G WILHELM
1168 VIRGINIA WAY LA JOLLA, CA 92037

The date filed part is interesting... the principal address and the agent for service of process entries might just be the address for their lawyer however.

If anybody is feeling really interested, you can pay to get copies their records which I'm sure list the names who is actually running the company from the same website.

Here is a link to the California Attorney General Campaign Finance info on Oracle. Isn't the internet great! If you really want to question reality, look here and wonder why a) the teacher's union is out-contributing Gov. Davis's own party and b) Why do they have an opinion on Indian Gaming?!

Here is a link to the California Attorney General Campaign Finance info on Oracle. Isn't the internet great! If you really want to question reality, look here and wonder why a) the teacher's union is out-contributing Gov. Davis's own party and b) Why do they have an opinion on Indian Gaming?!

It's about time someone got put away for this sort of crap.

The standard CALTRANS yellow light timings aren't that long, though; the shortest is 3.1 seconds. These increase with speed, but not by much. As one of the original articles points out, an extra second of yellow will cut red light violations down substantially.

The standard CALTRANS yellow light timings aren't that long, though; the shortest is 3.1 seconds. These increase with speed, but not by much. As one of the original articles points out, an extra second of yellow will cut red light violations down substantially.

There was an interview on the TV with one of the music recording artists trying to overturn an exemption to a California law allowing for excessively long personal service contracts for people who sign in the music industry. For those who don't know, California limits the maximum length of a personal service contract to 7 years. Any longer than that is illegal. In 1987, the recording industry managed to get an exemption passed just for them, basically allowing for indentured servitude on the part of artists who sign with them.

The recording industry's excuse is that if a band or artist gets popular, they need to be allowed to get maximum return on their investment (ie, they need to exploit them to the maximum the law allows) in order to make up for all the people who they sign that don't make it. The artists (at least the successful ones), understandably, are pissed about this - the example cited in the interview was of a singer who had been signed when she was 12. According to the terms of her contract, she needs to produce 11 albums. At 1 album every 2 years (a statistic she cited as being an industry average) she would be bound to the contract until she was 34 (at the time of the interview, she was in her early 20s.)

After her label got wind of her interview, they managed to negotiate a settlement, but there are other artists in similar positions. Essentially, they sign a contract dictating terms for a certain number of albums, and if they make a hit, they have little or no room to negotiate with the label because of the contract.

Of course, one of the terms of contract is that what they produce is property of the label - hence many artists, even if they wanted to promote themselves with MP3s, have their work controlled by the minions of the RIAA, including future work as covered under the terms of the contract...

That's how evil the system is. Now, before anyone goes off buying the RIAA line, consider this: the old Hollywood studio system functioned in the same way - actors, writers, directors, etc. were all under contract, and distributors were often forced to accept a "B" picture along with an "A" picture. These days, I don't think anyone would say that the movie industry is lacking in profits, even though everyone shuffles from job to job without the kind of iron-clad contracts that still characterize the music industry.

Oracle also donated $25K on 6/20/01 and another $25K on 12/27/2000 to the campaign of Bill Lockyer, the current California Attorney General who's leading the investigation into this mess.

Oracle also donated $25K on 6/20/01 and another $25K on 12/27/2000 to the campaign of Bill Lockyer, the current California Attorney General who's leading the investigation into this mess.

But a teaching credential is different. Basically, a teaching credential means taking some classes on "how to teach," and on subjects like how to deal with the needs of minor students, and the legal obligations of teachers (e.g. reporting knowledge of molestation). The requirements for a teaching credential differ for the age group being taught, in a fairly logical way, at least in California. (See the links, below.)

I have a B.A. degree in journalism, plus a J.D. (law) degree, plus a number of years of respectable work experience. I'm confident that I could probably get a job teaching college classes if I wanted, and for a couple years I even taught a class in the local school district's "adult education" program. But I absolutely believe that I would need special training to be qualified to teach to children.

What is disturbing to me, is that school districts are permitted to hire uncertified teachers, who can continue employment for up to five years while making NO effort toward certification. Until recently, these 'teachers' could be dropped into classrooms without ANY training (some were even permitted to skip orientation sessions), and when they "timed out" in one school district they could simply start the clock again in another school district.

And where did this happen most often? In inner-city schools, where the obstacles are so plentiful that we need the very best-trained teachers.

What is involved in getting a teaching certification? Spend one summer at a local college's intense program, or night school for a couple nights per week for two semesters or three quarters. Read, do the homework, pass the exams.

Nobody pretends that it is difficult to get a teaching certification: the classes can be easy, the exams a breeze. It is only "difficult" for those who want to cut corners and try to teach kids without ever learning "how kids learn" and how to deal with situations that arise in the classroom setting.

I occasionally think that I'd like to teach, but I really don't think I have the energy or stamina. Start my first class at 8am? Teach five 50-minute classes per day, with an average of 35 students per class (175 students!). Deal with career teachers and petty bureaucracy? Survive the intense emotional needs of children? Grade papers and exams while watching TV every night? Maybe I could teach one or two classes per day, or better yet nine to twelve hours per week of classroom teaching time (like a college professor).

Teaching is a very difficult job, and we don't pay teachers very well, hardly even a living wage unless they "play the game" of seeking out a master's degree in education and survive many years in a school district to work up the pay ladder. Yeah, they get 8 to 10 weeks of summer vacation, and maybe they work fewer hours than some of us who've ridden the dot-com roller coaster, but they are doing something we all agree must be done -- and done well -- and it is a job I know that most people couldn't do very well.

Some links:

• Tips for becoming a teacher
• Yahoo:K-12 Education
• Single Subject Teaching Credential (California), program at San Jose State Univ.
• California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, index page
• Education Week article: Teaching as a Profession
• US Dept of Labor summary of typical teaching requirements for K-12
• Becoming a Math or Science Teacher in California
• An Inner City School Teacher's account of the experience

That $480k isn't the entire amount of money the state is spending on IT, only the amount that that it costs per year that the Enterprise Licensing Agreement (ELA) would cover. If you read the auditor's report, page 35, you'll see that the $480k was the actual amount spent in one year on software maintenance. The $3.2m extra that Logicon claimed came primarily from previous or future years, items unrelated to maintenance, and maintence that doesn't apply to the ELA.

To fully understand what happened, you have to read the California State Auditor's report on the issue. It'll take a couple hours to read, but it's definitely worth it.

Kind of odd though... nothing illegal about people under 18 having sex in most states

At least in the states I've lived in, there are a number of circumstances under which it's illegal. California in particular has some very strict codes [ca.gov] on underaged sexual activity that do not make allowances even if both parties involved are underaged or near in age. Check your own state's legal code.

this space intentionally left blank

I can't believe the arrogance of this poster! There is so much work that is being done in this area, and this geek thinks he can just solve all the problems while goofing off at work? Before you or anyone wastes any more time, please take a look at a small sample of the good info that is already out there: Tons of info!,DOE's Hydro Porgram, The old shut down coean thermal program, and a good survey from the CA energy commission.

Depends on what state you are living in. In California, your employer cannot fire you if you gave that interview during nonworking hours away from the employer's premises.

CA Labor Code Section 98.6, 96 (k): Prohibits an employee being discharged, threatened with discharge, demoted, suspended, or in any other manner discriminated against in the terms and conditions of his or her employment because the employee engaged in lawful conduct occurring during nonworking hours away from the employer's premises.

Check the source code.

[2870] .... the part included in the original post ....

(b) To the extent a provision in an employment agreement purports to require an employee to assign an invention otherwise excluded from being required to be assigned under subdivision (a), the provision is against the public policy of this state and is unenforceable.

2871. No employer shall require a provision made void and unenforceable by Section 2870 as a condition of employment or continued employment. Nothing in this article shall be construed to forbid or restrict the right of an employer to provide in contracts of employment for disclosure, provided that any such disclosures be received in confidence, of all of the employee's inventions made solely or jointly with others during the term of his or her employment, a review process by the employer to determine such issues as may arise, and for full title to certain patents and inventions to be in the United States, as required by contracts between the employer and the United States or any of its agencies.

2872. If an employment agreement entered into after January 1, 1980, contains a provision requiring the employee to assign or offer to assign any of his or her rights in any invention to his or her employer, the employer must also, at the time the agreement is made, provide a written notification to the employee that the agreement does not apply to an invention which qualifies fully under the provisions of Section 2870. In any suit or action arising thereunder, the burden of proof shall be on the employee claiming the benefits of its provisions.

But then again, I'm no lawyer so I have no idea how this should be interpreted "correctly".

Yeah...Why bother trying "Inurv.com"?
Or, you could try the California Corporations database to find Inurv, Inc. or their parent, Nash Business Services:
Nash Business Services, (818) 243-1977, 210 N Central Ave, Glendale, CA 91203

Yeah...Why bother trying "Inurv.com"?
Or, you could try the California Corporations database to find Inurv, Inc. or their parent, Nash Business Services:
Nash Business Services, (818) 243-1977, 210 N Central Ave, Glendale, CA 91203

Got it ;o)

Posted somewhere down the page, I listed a link found on Google to a earlier article by bizjournal.com. In that article, they list Inurv Inc from Glendale, CA. No searches of general business directories for Glendale CA turned anything up, but this tells us a whole lot more... Of course, the Secretary of State should have some good info ;o)

I'll post the general info here in case Sec State website are susceptible to ./ effect.. Probably the funniest thing there is that guy's name. So, Google has triumphed once again.

Corporation

INURV, INC.

Number: C2381410
Date Filed: 9/28/2001
Status: active

Jurisdiction: California

Mailing Address

210 N. CENTRAL AVENUE #210

GLENDALE, CA 91203

Agent for Service of Process

GEORGI KARAYACOUBIAN

1443 ROCKGLEN AVENUE #4

GLENDALE, CA 91205

I've been contacted twice by my litigating state Attorney General's office (California) and have found them very interested in misbehavior. Duh. They are quite active in pressing this on, and any weapons you can give them will be very good. Now, they may decide that there is nothing to use but at least they will have looked at your information and seen if it can be a hammer in their hands.

I'd suggest using your own personal state address if you're a resident of the 9 sane states... you will be able to get their attention easier.

Good luck!

Bill Jones is California's secretary of state, not a US Representative. He's running for the Republican nomination for governor.

Or get copies of the California state code and email him 1-2 megs of it. This way you aren't sending him unsolicited commercial emails either. Your sending him non-commercial, political email, which is apparently legal under california law.

Wonders how many slashdot users it takes to fill a mail server...

Ahh, but if you moved to California you couldn't vote in this election. You had to register by February 19, 2002.

Find a big ol' picture of this guy at his web site.

I would assume that the average speed is raised by commuters who travel longer distances on freeways. These drivers might be persuaded to use a park-n-ride facility for the more congested urban portion of their trip and still save time.

It looks like two US senators are introducing bills that would impose recycling fees on new computer systems sold.

That's OK; most Californians I know can't name the two U.S. Senators they elected (Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein)

It looks like two US senators are introducing bills that would impose recycling fees on new computer systems sold.

That's OK; most Californians I know can't name the two U.S. Senators they elected (Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein)

I still prefer using dice.com, because of its advanced search options. It it looks like (from my own search parameters) all of the jobs that are listed on AJB are also on dice; plus dice has a lot more listings.

My message to the people of California is "Don't take your freedoms for granted!" For the past ten years I have been working to legalize the domestic ferret in California. During this process I have seen how politics works in California. And it only works for those who have political power. Domestic ferrets are legal in 48 states. Our state constitution recognizes our right to own domestic animals. Yet our state government has blocked efforts for this very simple matter. Our freedom does not come from the government; it is our birthright. Elect people who understand that.