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The only corporate media reference to George Zimmerman's father I can find using 30 seconds of Google activity, is that the LA Times saying ...his father, Robert, a retired magistrate judge.... A magistrate judge, according to wikipedia, "In the United States federal courts, magistrate judges are appointed to assist United States district court judges in the performance of their duties." Sorry i can't Google more, but I'm afraid the ADD will wear off and I'll have to go to bed...

Pops being a judge definitely adds a wrinkle.

Speaking of politics, has anyone noticed the price of gas lately?!

Interesting. I found this LA Times piece about that episode, lower CO^2 and better fuel economy but lots more of the nasty stuff...
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2011/09/mythbusters-motorcycle-emissions.html

My bike has about 350 lbs of steel in it vs 1200+ lbs in a typical car. That is a big environmental impact in itself. Not to mention that you can ship about 4 bikes in the same container space as one car when importing. The emissions regulations are looser on bikes, but I live in CA where emissions are stricter on all vehicles, and have been since the early 90s. My bike for example has CA specific smog related parts.

I get 45MPG all the time on my 20 year old bike that also happens to go 0-60 in less than 4 seconds. She's is going to continue being my commuter for quite a while...

Your last comment comment about China is interesting:

The villain in the remake of Red Dawn was actually switched from China (realistic) to North Korea (ridiculous) in order to not upset China (and its movie audiences). I guess the producers figured that "vaguely Asian-looking" actors could just as easily be viewed by American audiences as Korean.

There is "sand" involved here, though: heads are nestled deeply in it.

It's interesting that you and the parent AC believe this is somehow a "war on the academic sector". There is indeed a war, but it's not coming from within. First, a backdrop, beginning with the fact that China is on track to exceed US military spending by 2025:

Chinese Insider Offers Rare Glimpse of U.S.-China Frictions
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/world/asia/chinese-insider-offers-rare-glimpse-of-us-china-frictions.html

"The senior leadership of the Chinese government increasingly views the competition between the United States and China as a zero-sum game, with China the likely long-range winner if the American economy and domestic political system continue to stumble, according to an influential Chinese policy analyst. China views the United States as a declining power, but at the same time believes that Washington is trying to fight back to undermine, and even disrupt, the economic and military growth that point to China’s becoming the world’s most powerful country."

Asia's balance of power: China’s military rise
http://www.economist.com/node/21552212

"NO MATTER how often China has emphasised the idea of a peaceful rise, the pace and nature of its military modernisation inevitably cause alarm. As America and the big European powers reduce their defence spending, China looks likely to maintain the past decade’s increases of about 12% a year. Even though its defence budget is less than a quarter the size of America’s today, China’s generals are ambitious. The country is on course to become the world’s largest military spender in just 20 years or so."

China’s military rise: The dragon’s new teeth
http://www.economist.com/node/21552193

And now on to what's happening every day in US academic and business environments:

How China Steals Our Secrets
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/opinion/how-china-steals-our-secrets.html

China's Cyber Thievery Is National Policy—And Must Be Challenged
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052970203718504577178832338032176-lMyQjAxMTAyMDAwOTEwNDkyWj.html

FBI Traces Trail of Spy Ring to China
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052970203961204577266892884130620-lMyQjAxMTAyMDAwNzEwNDcyWj.html

NSA: China is Destroying U.S. Economy Via Security Hacks
http://www.dailytech.com/NSA+China+is+Destroying+US+Economy+Via+Security+Hacks/article24328.htm

Former cybersecurity czar: Every major U.S. company has been hacked by China
http://www.itworld.com/security/262616/former-cybersecurity-czar-every-major-us-company-has-been-hacked-china

China Att

Apparently you didn't read about Path. In this instance, iOS was very open in terms of what an application could access without asking the user (contacts). Any app could do the same as well. No jailbreak needed.

Not saying that other mobile operating systems are better.....just countering your sensitive info leak point.

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/feb/08/business/la-fi-tn-path-ceo-dave-morin-we-are-sorry-20120208

At nearby Langley AFB, local land purchases are adding to the safety buffer.

Rumor has it that there's a plaque in the hills above Fukushima that says in effect "Water has come up this high in the past, don't build anything you care about lower than this level".

Maybe you're talking about this story about a Japanese village that built a shrine that warned people not to take shelter at a particular hill in case of tsunami. Could be wrong, just couldn't find anything relating to Fukushima.

Not to be pedantic: The State of Arizona had little to do with one school district canceling Mexican-American studies. That was a course taught at a few schools in Tucson, and the school district shut it down. There are reasonable arguments both ways on that call.

Huh? You are completely wrong. Maybe you are trolling and this is meant to be "meta", but here are the actual facts.

It was a popular Tucson program that was ruined by Republican state lawmakers from outside Tucson. There was a state law passed that specifically targeted Mexican-American studies at TUSD. You can read more here. There were 1400 kids in Mexican American studies in Tucson before the state started targeting it. The state threatened to withhold 10% of TUSD's budget - millions of dollars for a cash-strapped school district - unless they cancelled Mexican American studies. TUSD appealed the decision and lost a court case, and only then voted to end the program.

An audit the state commissioned found that the program was successful and not illegal, but the Republicans ignored their own audit and insisted the program was illegal.

How many things actually happened in the entire history of commercial flights before the TSA existed? And why do they still exist in light of that? Sheesh.

Highjackings became a significant problem in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, although they still occur from time to time. Various militant groups, including Palestinian and Communist terrorist organizations, we commonly involved. The rate slowly considerably as airports put in metal detectors, started searching bags, sky marshals took to the air, and police forces with automatic weapons started patrolling the airports. (Sound familiar?) The occasional commando force storming a plane and killing the hijackers also helped dampen the enthusiasm for it, not the mention the famous Operation Thunderbolt - the raid on Entebbe.

That is why you don't keep seeing headlines like these so often:

Mexico Police Storm Hijacked Airplane, Free Crew

17 Killed in Airport Raids by Terrorists at Rome, Vienna : 116 Wounded in Attacks Apparently Aimed at El Al; Palestinians Blamed
December 28, 1985

ROME — Two terrorist teams firing assault rifles and throwing grenades struck minutes apart at the international airports in Rome and Vienna early Friday, leaving 17 dead, including an 11-year-old American girl and three other Americans. At least 116 people were wounded in the bloody attacks.

Officials and eyewitnesses said the attacks appeared aimed at facilities of El Al, the Israeli national airline. Meir Rosenne, Israel's ambassador to the United States, blamed the Palestine Liberation Organization for the slaughter. PLO officials in Vienna, Rome and at PLO headquarters in Tunis, Tunisia, denied responsibility and condemned the attacks.

In Spain, a caller claiming to belong to the "Abu Nidal group," a breakaway faction of the PLO blamed for many earlier terrorist assaults in Europe, telephoned a radio station in Malaga, claiming responsibility for the attacks in the name of his group. There was no way to confirm the claim.

Abu Nidal has been described as a bitter opponent of PLO leader Yasser Arafat, who he is said to consider to be overly moderate in the Arab-Israeli conflict. . . . more

The terrorist I knew - Christopher Hitchens sheds no tears for Abu Nidal, but admits to a small twinge of nostalgia.

The official story - that he had shot himself several times in the head . . .

Abu Nidal Organization (ANO), aka Fatah Revolutionary Council, the Arab Revolutionary Brigades, or the Revolutionary Organization of Socialist Muslims

Belgium: Murders committed for Abu Nidal

How many things actually happened in the entire history of commercial flights before the TSA existed? And why do they still exist in light of that? Sheesh.

Highjackings became a significant problem in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, although they still occur from time to time. Various militant groups, including Palestinian and Communist terrorist organizations, we commonly involved. The rate slowly considerably as airports put in metal detectors, started searching bags, sky marshals took to the air, and police forces with automatic weapons started patrolling the airports. (Sound familiar?) The occasional commando force storming a plane and killing the hijackers also helped dampen the enthusiasm for it, not the mention the famous Operation Thunderbolt - the raid on Entebbe.

That is why you don't keep seeing headlines like these so often:

Mexico Police Storm Hijacked Airplane, Free Crew

17 Killed in Airport Raids by Terrorists at Rome, Vienna : 116 Wounded in Attacks Apparently Aimed at El Al; Palestinians Blamed
December 28, 1985

ROME — Two terrorist teams firing assault rifles and throwing grenades struck minutes apart at the international airports in Rome and Vienna early Friday, leaving 17 dead, including an 11-year-old American girl and three other Americans. At least 116 people were wounded in the bloody attacks.

Officials and eyewitnesses said the attacks appeared aimed at facilities of El Al, the Israeli national airline. Meir Rosenne, Israel's ambassador to the United States, blamed the Palestine Liberation Organization for the slaughter. PLO officials in Vienna, Rome and at PLO headquarters in Tunis, Tunisia, denied responsibility and condemned the attacks.

In Spain, a caller claiming to belong to the "Abu Nidal group," a breakaway faction of the PLO blamed for many earlier terrorist assaults in Europe, telephoned a radio station in Malaga, claiming responsibility for the attacks in the name of his group. There was no way to confirm the claim.

Abu Nidal has been described as a bitter opponent of PLO leader Yasser Arafat, who he is said to consider to be overly moderate in the Arab-Israeli conflict. . . . more

The terrorist I knew - Christopher Hitchens sheds no tears for Abu Nidal, but admits to a small twinge of nostalgia.

The official story - that he had shot himself several times in the head . . .

Abu Nidal Organization (ANO), aka Fatah Revolutionary Council, the Arab Revolutionary Brigades, or the Revolutionary Organization of Socialist Muslims

Belgium: Murders committed for Abu Nidal

After all, AT&T's shoddy network encouraged huge numbers to switch to other carriers the moment Apple allowed them to. In business having a poor product might allow you to gain in the short term but is a huge detriment in the long term.

That can't possibly prove anything wrong, because it itself is wrong.

The secret has been out for over a year that AT&T did not lose any significant number of users to other iPhone carriers when exclusivity ended. They actually GAINED customers, and they GAINED more iPhone 4S customers than did Verizon or any of the other iPhone carriers.

So your premise is totally wrong.

The huge detriment you speak of, on the other hand is accruing to the carriers that gain the iPhone, but not for the reason you expect. Selling the iPhone is huge drain on a carriers bottom line.

According to CNN-Money: all carriers that carry the iPhone lose money on it over what they were making previously. If AT&T has a network problem it has been caused directly by the iPhone and iPhone users. From lame Infinion chipsets that brought the towers to their knees early, to the data sucking ways of the typical iphone user.

Between 2009 and 2010, Verizon averaged EBITDA service margin of 46.4% per quarter. In the first quarter that the iPhone went on sale, that fell to 43.7%. Last quarter, when Verizon sold a record 4.2 million iPhones, its margin plunged to 42.2%.

This is not to say I have any argument with the subject of this story, namely the suspicion that carriers are hording bandwidth and creating artificial shortage.

The iPhone was a huge siphon, emptying AT&Ts pockets into Apples, making Apple the
richest company in sight on a phone that really does not cost that much to produce.
Now Apple are doing the same thing to the other carriers.

You may be an Apple "fanboy" or an Apple "hater," but there's one thing you can agree on: this is the greatest thing to ever happen.

I wish all phones were sold unlocked, and I wish all carrier subsidies were illegal.
The price of phones rises to absorb all the subsidy they can extract from the carriers.

The iPhone was a huge siphon, emptying AT&Ts pockets into Apples, making Apple the
richest company in sight on a phone that really does not cost that much to produce.
Now Apple are doing the same thing to the other carriers.

If people had to buy their own phones the net effect would be lower prices, or they would be buying other phones. Greece, like India doesn't allow subsidies. Apple isn't selling well there. If Apple cut its profit margin in half, they would open up vast new markets.

Some of the lower-to-mid level Android phones do well in those same markets.

especially since each coin stays in circulation for up to 30 years (last paragraph of the article).

At Chernobyl they had to dive into the water to release a valve (suicide mission, obviously). As I recall the first team couldn't even find it, because ultra-intense alpha radiation had turned the water into H2O2 and it oxidized their suits, skin, and equipment too quickly.

- where do you get your insane information, do you just come up with it as you go alone?

While it would seem he might be wrong about the H2O2 this news clipping from 1986 mentions some divers

"3 Dove into Pool The three men in wet suits dove into a pool, probing with underwater searchlights for two small valves that would allow the pool to drain, Tass said. It quoted one of the men, Alexei Ananenko, as telling Soviet journalists: "When the searchlight beam fell on a pipe, we were joyous: The pipe led to the valves. We heard the rush of water out of the tank. And in a few more minutes we were being embraced by the guys.""

So the story is not that far fetched. No mention of what happned to the divers after though

- http://articles.latimes.com/1986-05-17/news/mn-5669_1_chernobyl-toll

Lastly, nobody at Chernobyl had to dive into water to release a valve. That would be the absolute worst possible design a reactor could be, and the Russians were smarter than that. On top of that, even when not in meltdown, the water in a plant is going to be incredibly warm - close to boiling if not actually boiling, so it should not be possible to do anything in that environment. You probably couldn't open your eyes or do anything useful because of the intense pain of being boiled alive. This situation never happened, and you are probably confusing the name of Chernobyl with what happened at Three Mile Island (which was nowhere near as dramatic as diving into a reactor).

Apparently three men dived into an emergency cooling reservoir to fix sluice gates which had malfunctioned. This then allowed the water to be released to mitigate steam explosion risk as the reservoirs were located directly under the core. It was not a suicide mission in the sense of H2O2 oxidising their skin - all 3 returned and one even subsequently spoke to the media. There are reports that they did all subsequently contract radiation sickness and two died.

The drop situation is the same for all iPads, even if you drop tested an older one and got different results, you just got lucky on the old one. The screen is a huge expanse of glass on any iPad, you have to be careful.

The drop thing is particularly egregious in this article. TFA cites Square Trade, who dropped iPads in various orientations and gave qualitative descriptions.

Their conclusion?

The iPad 2 screen shattered badly, but not as badly as the new iPad. The new iPad screen almost popped off and suffered much more damage.

So what? Once the screen is shattered, you're getting a new one either way; the magnitude of the shattering doesn't particularly matter. If you take it in to an Apple store, they're just going to clone the contents to a replacement; if you take it to an independent repair shop, they're still just going to replace the screen. It's not like there's much in there that'll get damaged from hitting the ground.

And the thing is, falling face down is an absolute worst-case scenario for the iPad; I've already dropped my iPad 3 from about chest height, and it survived without a scratch after landing on its corner and sliding under the stove. (tip: don't hold your iPad while cooking until they come up with better covers and cases; the Apple Smart Case will pop off when you least expect it).

> Ironic that you seem to advocate boycotting DRM, yet you still buy Blurays.
1. It is not for me to advocate one position of the other -- people are smart enough to come to their own conclusions.

2. It only appears hypocritical because, no offense, you lack the wisdom of balance: Taking any ideology to an extreme is never a good thing in the long run.

3. Everyone needs to make their own choice for what is rewarding bad behavior and what is acceptable. Just because something has DRM doesn't mean you are not allowed to back it. i.e. Copy a _number_ for personal use. If it weren't for MakeMKV or AnyDVD I probably would not buy any Blu Rays as the "value" of the investment would not make it worth it.

> , there are a lot of people who think streaming is "good enough".
Agreed. Streaming definitely is good enough. The problem is not the average consumer, but the ISPs and Networks. They absolutely hate streaming. The two extremes are:
Content: You must pay for every watching on every device, and only on devices we allow you.
Consumers: I want to watch anything on any device.

The fight is already here; the outcome is inevitable, it is just a matter of time before the industry wakes up and gives consumers what they want.

> I'm also not quite as negative on Netflix's prospects
That's because you don't have access to the facts -- i.e. how much the license fees that must be paid to the content creators and the content carriers. Basically Netflix is fucked -- they just don't have the capital to afford something that increases ~ 10% every year. :-/ Netflix is a great service. Unfortunately politics (and economics) is going to kill it.

i.e. Do you understand why Netflix lost "Starz" ? When you can only afford hundreds of millions while the networks can afford a billion who do you think is going to get the license?
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/09/netflix-to-lose-starz-its-most-valuable-source-of-new-movies.html

Soviets Sponsor Spread of AIDS Disinformation

Finland made a heroic stand against the invading armies of the Soviet Union, humiliating them badly.

Suomen historiaa

Winter War and Continuation War

The Soviet Union launched an attack on Finland on 30 November 1939, marking the beginning of the Winter War. During the Second World War, Finland fought the Soviet Union twice: in the Winter War in 1939-1940 and again in the Continuation War in 1941-1944.

As a result of the wars, Finland had to concede Karelia and a few other territories to the Soviet Union. The 430,000 Finns who lived in these territories had to flee their homes and resettle in the remaining Finnish territory. Most importantly, however, Finland was not occupied at any point during the Second World War and the country retained its independence despite the territorial concessions.

Finland After the Wars

The wars left Finland in a state of uncertainty. At first, there were fears that the Soviet Union would try to turn Finland into a communist country as it had done with the other European neighbours of the Soviet Union after the war. Nevertheless, Finland managed to build up a good relationship with the Soviet Union, to retain its democratic social structure and to increase trading with the Western World. Regardless of all this, the country had to balance its foreign policy between the Soviet Union and the West for a long time.

Winter War Timeline

In some ways, Soviet leader Josef Stalin became emboldened by Adolph Hitler's actions (and subsequent success) in his capture of several of the smaller nations en route to Poland and France. Not to be outdone - and securing a pact with Hitler's Germany, Stalin moved to expand the Soviet Empire to include the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuanian. With little resistance, the Soviet Army was allowed to set up local garrisons in the respective countries.

Finland was another such nation in the Soviet scope. However, the Finns were not all too ready to bow down to the Communist herd and stood strong in the face of threats from the Soviets. Eventually, the threats were called off and two days later, the Soviet Army invaded Finland. World support from the US, UK, France and Sweden all proposed assistance but little of this actually materialized to help the Finns out.

The defense of Finland more or less revolved around the integrity of the Mannerheim Line, a series of defensive fortifications protecting the Finnish-Russo border. Initial thrusts by Soviet Armor columns and troops to the south of the line were met with disastrous results. Though the Fins were outclassed logistically and materially, they were experts on their home turf - trained to fight in ice and snow (not to mention the resolve inherent in the Finn soldier). . . .More

Simo Häyhä - The greatest sniper in history

Simo Häyhä, nicknamed "White Death" by the Red Army, was a Finnish sniper. Using a modified Mosin–Nagant in the Winter War, he has the highest recorded number of confirmed sniper kills–505–in any major war. Häyhä was also credited with over 200 kills with a Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun, for a total of 705 confirmed kills.

I am pretty sure that Samsung workers in Korea (where phones are assembled) would not switch place with Foxconn workers in China...

Really? Why is that? What makes you so sure they are treated any better, given so few people look carefully at labor practices there?

I mean, 13 deaths in 16 months, when people freaked out over similar numbers in suicides at FoxConn.

How do you know things are really better there for factory workers?

I hate to break it to you man but factory work SUCKS in any country, not just China.

Copy Right Alert System Backers
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures: Owned by Disney Enterprises, Inc run by Bob Iger Jewish

Paramount Pictures Corporation run by Brad Grey Jewish

Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc run by Michael Lynton Jewish

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation run by Stephen Blairson Jewish

Universal City Studios LLC run by Ron Meyer Jewish

Warner Bros. run by Barry Meyer Jewish

And on and on and on
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-stein19-2008dec19,0,4676183.column

Crossed checked via Wikipedia

Now go look up who owns and runs the major banking and financial corporations.

Now go look up "neo-conservatism" and AIPAC

http://www.ifamericansknew.org/

ISRAEL FIRST

Now thumbs down and scream "anti-semetism" like a Pavlovian dog.

Stealing an item of personal property is larceny. Add the use of force or fear and it's robbery. Robbery is always a felony because of the inherent risk that someone could be injured or killed. That's why Jerry Dewayne Williams is serving 25-to-life for stealing a slice of pizza.

Nothing?

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/20/local/me-dna20
http://www.darwinawards.com/science/forensic_analysis.html
that didn't take me long to find.

And the most damning, from a university:

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/labs/gel/forensics/

Is DNA evidence alone enough to acquit or convict?

It is easier to exclude a suspect than to convict someone based on a DNA match. The FBI estimates that one-third of initial rape suspects are excluded because DNA samples failed to match.

Forensic DNA is just one of many types of evidence. It is important to examine other clues such as motive, weapon, or additional evidence linking a suspect to the crime scene. The more evidence collected, the less likely it is that samples from a particular suspect were planted, either on purpose or by accident, at the crime scene.

So assuming that taking someone's DNA is going to match later? And not acknowledging that people could be mis-identified?

Either everyone on the planet is in your "DNA bank" or it's simply not going to be accurate. Guess how realistic that is?
"look a DNA match! this guy's guilty, let's go arrest him" (because he's the only person in the database). You know that will happen.

I had originally wrote "amusing" but changed it to "mesmerizing", precisely because of the power Fox wields. That part certainly is not amusing. (The Daily Show send ups of it, though, are.) In any case, the sweeping generalizations came from Fox (the hypocritical bit in particular came from a Sean Hannity clip I saw), not me.

I too count myself as a liberal. I also personally tend to look down on societies that put religion ahead of people and reason, regardless of the religion. That's the kind of thing that leads to deadly riots as a response to someone burning a book. Sure, burning the Koran is a grave insult, but few would argue that that's a proportionate response.

Well, a big problem with this requirement is that DNA isn't sequenced for identification. That's far too expensive (for now), but would allow for accurate identification excluding mosaics and twins (the former is likely underestimated in frequency since it's rarely relevant outside of this sort of analysis).

The traditional method is to chop DNA at known uncommon sequences so you get several pieces, run them on a gel that separates them according to size, and see if the sizes and number of fragments match-up. This works because humans have a few variable length repeats that vary in size and change with each generation (an over-simplification, e.g. the repeats often expand if the mother has the gene but not the father). Modern DNA analysis is a bit more sophisticated, but the underlying principle is the same.

So, how frequent are false positives? In an analysis of Arizona's 65,000 inmates researchers found 122 9/13 matches, 20 10/13, 1 11/13, and 1 12/13. Some of these were relatives but it's hard to say how many given the study was anonymous. So, it's a low rate but not low enough to use as police would like. I'm sure it'd be very easy to find some DNA at a crime scene, run the DNA search, find one person that matches and lives in the area, and arrest them for the crime.

It's hard to argue that it's a false positive if you live a block from the crime scene and fit the physical description, but merely because people don't understand statistics very well. (E.g. if it turned out to be an 80 year old Chinese lady and not a 20-ish Black guy that resembled the description, then nobody would arrest her.) And, prosecutors are going to argue the one in 108 billion theoretic odds, without any deeper understanding of the statistics and genetics that make false positives more likely.

Setting aside, for a moment, that I have tons of non-genetics issues with such a law, I must say this is premature. In a few years we'll be able to cheaply sequence DNA and have far more accurate identifications. Furthermore, we may be able to find genes and such that make violent behavior more likely, thus aiding research. So it's illogical to adopt this technology now rather than when it actually works well in a few years. It's not like the military immediately started commissioning Wright flyers as bombers and scouts.

Not to fan a political fire but Mr. Obama ain't no saint when it comes to secrecy... http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/21/nation/la-na-ticket21-2010mar21 ^ not exactly a 'conservative' paper by any means. Cherry picking from the article "An Associated Press examination of 17 major agencies' handling of FOIA requests found denials 466,872 times, an increase of nearly 50% from the 2008 fiscal year under Bush". Lets just face it Obama is a politician, and as a politician essentially every time he opens his mouth he lies, just like his predecessor, and his, etc, etc, etc. WE the people really need to wake the hell up and hold these people we elect accountable, we need to research their records and hold their feet to the fire when they lie to us, conservative or liberal doesn't matter a lie is a lie and this President lies with the best of them.

The cameras typically used (country wide, I have no specific knowledge of Chicago) can be set to trigger at virtually any speed on a permitted right turn on red. So they can set it to catch a one mile per hour rolling stop, and issue a ticket even when there is zero cross traffic.

They are focused on small areas, the intersection. So the only place they monitor speed is in the intersection, and the only speeders they will catch there are the ones trying to beat the short yellows that have been put in place to raise revenue.
Going thru the intersection at 5 over to beat the light does not cause accidents, because cross traffic is already stopped, pedestrians are not permitted to be crossing at that time. Further the speeding can only occur when there is no traffic ahead, and the speeder will have to slow down as soon as they catch up to traffic.

In short, the only use case is to catch those trying to beat the short yellow.

This issue is starting to hit the main stream press in Chicago, and the mayor is currently in "no comment" mode over his relationship with Goldner. But Chicago being Chicago, this will probably be pushed through regardless.

In light of the Kaleidescape ruling i'd really like to know how Rovi are getting away with their dvd "cloud lifting" service that was just announced at CES 2012 - http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2012/01/ces-rovi-digital-copy-dvd-cloud.html BTW yes http://www.cloudification.net/ domain is still available for sale :)

I think you have it backwards: If the company management isn't willing to do evil, the company will never reach that mass. Sooner or later the time will come when the management must choose between their principles and their duty to maximise profits - they can't have both.

Exactly.

The same way you fire anyone else: By firing them. The "tenure" everyone talks about isn't "tenure". The only difference is that after two years, the school has to document a reason for the firing. Before that, they can fire the teacher at any time, for no reason at all.

No, it's not the same way as anyone else. It is really hard to fire a teacher in California. Either you're oblivious to that fact, or you are willfully deceptive. In the first case, it's very hard to get rid of a teacher who can't teach. As long as they don't mess up, they will stay in their position.

Even if they do mess up, say, have a principle has an affair with a teacher and is also found mismanaging the accounting and lying to the schoolboard and teachers, you STILL can't fire him easily. It will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and can take a year or more. I know this because it happened near where I live.

Here's another good explanation. A good quote from the article, "You're in the position of having to look at 125 kids and just say, 'I'm sorry,' because the process of removal is really difficult. . . . You're looking at these kids and knowing they are going to high school and they're not ready. It is absolutely devastating."

How is that helping kids? It's not. School needs to be about helping kids, even if some teachers get fired without deserving it. That's not the end of the world.

"Bing executive: 'We have caught up' to Google in search quality" - Los Angeles Times, June 23, 2010.

$6.6 billion in hundred dollar bills literally "fell off a plane" and disappeared in Iraq; and that's something they'll actually admit to.

You must have missed the followup story
Billions in Iraqi reconstruction money finally accounted for
A U.S. audit finds that most of $6.6 billion entrusted to the Pentagon that had been missing was in fact delivered to Iraqi authorities in 2003 and 2004.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/28/world/la-fg-iraq-billions-20111028

Here's the story of the one man whose job it was to transport those billions from the military's C-17s to the Central Bank of Iraq
It's really rather amazing: http://www.cnbc.com/id/45031100/45031100

$6.6 billion in hundred dollar bills literally "fell off a plane" and disappeared in Iraq; and that's something they'll actually admit to. Five trillion dollars is probably a bit much, but really, who knows how many billions have been pumped into the black hole of "anti-terror" technologies?

There are many references to the studies.

Not that I disagree, but Netflix isn't bankrupt.

"delivered nothing but a few PowerPoint slides"

That is not accurate. Sure TrailBlazer had A LOT of contractor issues, such as cost control, overcharging, and typical contractor abuse between BOTH gov't branch heads and execs from private industry. Heck guess where a lot of those TB gov't heads retired to...private industry!

One needs to realize:

a. Thin thread was a excellent proof of concept... you needed to completely change the culture of the community overnight to implement it at scale. It's the typical "new paradigm on a moving train" scenario. Before 9/11, the agency was getting it's budgets slashed and was moving towards COTS. Post 9/11, it panic on solutions and went with COTS... on steroids.

b. Pre-9/11, the agency was panicking as Drake mentioned, BUT there was a lot of competition in-house to develop the right GOTS solution (TT was one of them in some ways). Since it's gov't we're talking about, the politicians thought we were moving to slow and getting expensive since the agency was reducing workforce in the 90's, hence COTS, out-sourcing, and contracting was ideal--heck it worked for DIA, DoD, etc...

c. Since (b) was occurring, the TT team was backstabbed both politically and timely--the contractors took over for instance. I say backstabbed cause basically the contractors took ownership of the problem and wanted their COTS in place... and huge service contracts. That's why we all keep hearing about TT --how about all those other R&D GOTS solutions and other black-projects? Remember the agency had smoke-stack projects, need to know ruled. It wasn't just TT that was successful... at the same mission! Sounds like someone had his lunch stolen.

d. And PPT slides? Sorry but there's a lot of Trailblazer apps being used in the agency, most just got refactored. Trailblazer just didn't promise the holy grail all the leaders were touting, but then again, politics and contractor greed can be blamed for that. Heck even the TT architects wouldn't imagine the amount of data being generated today.

And in the end, we can talk about how TT could have been so great but, we still got him without it.

Mass Transit in the US cannot work. Why? Because it puts prey (middle class White men and women) next to predators (inner city Blacks and Hispanics, many Mexican nationals).

This is the brutally honest reason why the LA Blue Line, the Green Line, and various subway systems don't work. There are a lot folks who commute into LA's downtown and would like to avoid large daily parking fees. Ever look around at the Blue/Green lines? They are hideous, no-go for Whites Third World hell-holes. Filled with homeless, gang-bangers, various casual criminals. As are the buses that traverse LA. Atlanta's MARTA, the Bay Area BART system, and DC's Metro is the same way.

White middle class people don't like being victimized. Making mass transit safe means lots of racial profiling, summary arrest of Black/Mexican criminals, for things such as public urination, hassling people, shake-down robberies, and carrying weapons.

That is politically impossible: the NAACP, Urban League, La Raza, MALDEF, and a zillion other racial/ethnic interest and lobbying groups won't allow it.

The brutal honest truth is that America buys social peace: Blacks and Hispanics can run riot and embrace criminality (like the 13 year old White boy set on fire by two Black "youths") while the White middle class avoids them by living in distant suburbs and driving private cars to insulate them from the criminal behavior.

America needs cheap gas for social peace. Yeah, that's ugly. Brutal truth -- no one said Diversity did not cost. A lot. America is not the Balkans because Whites can avoid by cheap gas Black/Hispanic criminal victimization.

Yes that's "racist." Ask yourself honestly: would you travel in the ghetto or barrio daily if you could avoid it? This LA Times Article does not show a single White person on the Blue Line. Check it out for yourself.

"Chinese hackers: No site is safe - CNN"

"Chinese hacking worries Pentagon"

"Pentagon hacked, Chinese Army suspected"

"China denies hacking Pentagon computers"

And you have to pay a $1,000 fine for playing Frisbee or football on the beach.

bad information: See: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/02/football-and-frisbee-beach-furor-la-county-reels.html

There is so much unconventional methane available that we can just about forget about any other source of energy for centuries to come. We're seeing the leading edge of this as new technology makes shale gas economically feasible.
http://www.naturalgas.org/overview/unconvent_ng_resource.asp

Obama wasn't fibbing when he said America is: "The Saudi Arabia of Natural Gas". http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jan/26/nation/la-na-obama-energy-20120127

A recent discovery of long term space exploration is that being in low gravity for too long literally folds parts of your eye. Causing astronauts who spend too much time up in space to have permanent vision changes that leave them very far-sighted and required to wear reading glasses. Just six months in low gravity was enough for major changes in vision.

Imagine a missions to Mars that takes six months just one way? These astronauts would be blind under our current understanding of how space travel affects sight by the time that they came back.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/20/nation/la-na-blind-nasa-astronaut-20110921

"What we are seeing is flattening of the globe, swelling of the optic nerve, a far-sighted shift, and choroidal folds," said Dr. C. Robert Gibson, one of authors of the study published in the October 2011 issue of Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. "We think it is intracranial pressure related, but we're not sure; it could also be due to an increase in pressure along the optic nerve itself or some kind of localized change to the back of the eyeball."

The study identified new risks for those who live in space for at least six months. Blurred vision was the primary issue reported by the seven astronaut test subjects.

"After a few weeks aboard the [station]," said Astronaut Bob Thirsk, a Canadian Space Agency physician who spent six months as a member of the Expedition 20 and 21 crews in 2007, "I noticed that my visual acuity had changed. My distant vision was not too bad, but I found that it was more difficult to read procedures. I also had trouble manually focusing cameras, so I would ask a crewmate to verify my focus setting on critical experiments."

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/Astronaut_Vision.html

The way I see it is that there are two options. The first one is we only send replicants to Mars or more unmanned flights. The other is that NASA gets some awesome new understanding of vision loss or develops technology to overcome vision loss. Either way this would be quite the benefit for society if NASA can develop some new things to combat vision loss.

I don't like the Heartland Institute and I wouldn't attempt to defend them or their actions, but your points are weak:

creating controversy and doubt over the fact that smoking causes health problems

OK, that's indefensible.

drafting policies targeted at reducing the services provided by the federal government to nothing more than a "competitive marketplace"

You're begging the question by assuming that they're wrong. I'm not saying they're right, but I don't think either "big government" or "small" government approach is inherently correct.

instituting "market reform" into the education system and championing charter schools (here in los angeles, charter schools show up in the news once a week for some major breech of trust, child abuse or embezzlement scandal)

As we all know, all regular public schools have spotless reputations. Can you cite evidence that charter schools have higher crime rates than non-charter schools?

the same reaganite health care privatization and deinstitutionalization mentality that landed an entire generation of schitzophrenics and invalids on the streets of skid row.

That's just sensationalism.

Again, I'm not defending them. It's just that you've done a really poor job of illustrating why they're not to be trusted.

Today's (20 Feb) edition -- print and online -- of the Los Angeles Times contains an unsigned editorial (thus, the official opinion of the newspaper itself) condemning the Heartland Institute. The editorial notes that, even if the document whose authenticity is being disputed is a forgery, other Heartland documents that are authentic also discuss the planting of school curricula that deny the existence of global climate change caused by human activities.

See http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-climate-20120220,0,3564279.story.

There are more women than men in the workforce (though Canada beat the US by several years). And after re-reading my post, I still don't see what you are referring to when you write that "the link points out a correction for this."

There are other studies that show that men don't do their fair share ...

As for gender and violence, it IS pretty cut-and-dried.

91% of United States rape victims were female and 9% were male, with 99% of the offenders being male and 1% of the offenders being female.

So, rapists are men 99% of the time, and the victims were women more than 90% of the time. I honestly don't know how you can't get much more cut-and-dried than that.

Also - the car study - a dirty old Ford Fiesta to a clean new car??? (not the same as todays' version, btw). You might as well say that women are more attracted to men who take a bath once in a while.

For the female orgasm study, I think the real point was missed. Here's the salient quote:

From the analysis, they found that 121 of these women always had orgasms during sex, while 408 more had them "often". Another 762 "sometimes" orgasmed while 243 had them rarely or never. Such figures are similar to those for western countries.

The majority of women with partners didn't have orgasms often. It's known that financial stress causes "performance stress" for men ... so it would also explain why couples where there is more $$$ == better sex. Also, more $$$ == better health, and more likelihood to be able to see a doctor to get help for things like problems attaining orgasm - for both sexes. It's not as simple as the headline makes it out to be. And let's be honest - it's also a lot harder for people to get in the mood when there are job problems, money problems, and/or health problems.

Which brings me back to my main point - labeling women as gold-diggers is superficial, to say the least. It would be like me saying almost all men are rapists just because almost all rapists are men.

Financial, job, and in-the-home equality are part of the solution. Another part of the solution is better jobs, period! A sour economy brings out the worst in people, eroding their self-confidence, their resiliency, their willingness to see things as other than "us vs them."

The John Stewart show that started this whole thing stated some pretty ugly figures about suicide rates. ... Around high places where you could jump to your death, they've installed nets to catch jumpers.

Look up the suicide rate per million of Foxconn employees. Look up the suicide rate per million of Chinese in general. Look up the suicide rate per million of Americans in general.

Two of those three suicide rates are "ugly figures" and I bet you'll be surprised to see which ones. In fact, it's several orders of magnitude worse than the lowest rate of those three...

As for nets, many buildings in the US (not to mention most countries of the world...) have suicide nets. Why is it such a big deal that Foxconn has them when most major locations in the US have them? Heck, here's an article about the Golden Gate bridge getting a suicide net.

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/11/local/me-goldengate11

How about you worry about Americans, who clearly have a larger suicide problem than Foxconn's workers?

I recently read how a California woman successfully sued Honda in small claims court without the need to spend any money on lawyers. Actually, lawyers aren't permitted in small claims court so Organic farmers could sue Monsanto for practically nothing and Monsanto would not be allowed to send in their lawyers to defend them.

Sure they would.

1. Obviously it'd have a decent screen.
2. It would have audio decoding built in, so all that's needed is to hook it up to an amplifier for 5.1 audio, irrespective of the input (HDMI, SPDIF, whatever.)
3. The complicated stuff wouldn't be on the remote. If you're fiddling with the TV trying to set up the picture, the chances are you're right there anyway. Why add set up menus to the remote when you're not going to use them when sitting down?
4. The remote would be as basic as possible. Volume. Channel up/down. Menu
5. "Menu" brings up an interface that you literally point at, Wii style. You'd use that to browse listings, watch on-demand content, etc. It'd probably look a little Rokuish.

Actually, most of these are available now. There are TVs that can output audio via SPDIF or ARC (audio return channel on HDMI) - not via 6 channel analog, of course, which I guess is what you want... people just don't care about separate 5 channel HT amps these days, too niche (that being said, I have one ;)

As for the remote, the higher end LG TVs have it now, and they are introducing it to more in the lower end models this year.

The TV would sit on your network. It would accept the usual inputs too. Unencrypted compressed content could be stored on any network storage device (it's all digital now anyway) and you'd be able to set up schedules giving you the most important part of DVR functionality.

Unfortunately it'd never work. Why? Because the effing cable and satellite companies would never work with it. So 75%+ of the population would end up with a clumsy UI and connection experience anyway. Urgh.

A networked Cablecard DVR (like Tivo Premiere or Moxi) solves much of this. If they added a few HDMI inputs it could act as a video preamp as well and you'd be 90% of the way there.

And that's what I was talking about originally... give me a high quality, large size 1080p display (OLED!) that I can feel confident about paying thousands of dollars on and may replace once a decade, and leave the whims of compatibility, performance, and new features to a cheaper set-top box...

> "[E]vidence to sustain such dire warnings is conspicuously absent."
Guess the Wired.com authors live in a different world than I do:

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-02-nortel-penetrated-hackers-decade.html
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/aug/17/opinion/ed-cyberwar17
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_cyberattacks_on_Estonia
http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2011/10/rsa-details-march-cyber-attack-blames-nation-state-for-securid-breach.ars
http://www.commandfive.com/research.html
http://www.darkreading.com/database-security/167901020/security/attacks-breaches/229700229/targeted-attacks-on-u-s-defense-contractors-fallout-from-rsa-breach.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet

I'm concerned about the response, but the threat is real.

"Golden Gate to get suicide net," Los Angeles Times, Oct. 11, 2008

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/oct/11/local/me-goldengate11

Just sayin'.

Nonsense, of course. What he is...is a professional. Professionals do sit idly by while inferior people make extremely stupid decisions -- of which "going Microsoft" is most assuredly one. They utilize their best professional judgment, they protest, they complain, they argue, they do everything that they can to argue their case. And if they fail? Then they resign in protest, as this person has. (And were I hiring: I would hire this one in a minute. Most people are simply too weak to demonstrate this kind of courage, to put their own job on the line.)

The people who most deserve our admiration are not the ones who meekly go along with incompetence and short-sightedness and stupidity; no, they're the ones who stand up to it. And in a week where we learned of the death of Roger Boisjoly, a man who did that very thing, maybe we should remind ourselves that if we really want to call ourselves professionals -- and not cheap whores who will do anything for a paycheck -- then we are REQUIRED to stand up for our principles. Anyone who can't or won't do that is a spineless, worthless coward.