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Actually it is not. They have had those since 2011. Here is an old article that gives details on how well they worked:

"From February 2010 through the end of 2012, license plate readers helped the state police recover 529 stolen vehicles and 751 stolen license plates and arrest 229 wanted persons, Geller said. In one recent high-profile case, she said, the readers were used in investigating a string of arsons on the Eastern Shore last year."

https://www.nbcsandiego.com/ne...

These things were awesome and stopped a lot of crime in a short time.

I am all against facial recognition. But cars aren't people. And driving is a privilege, not a right.

Other cities do this as well.

Hawaii has the nation's highest rate of homelessness, per state, but that number can be misleading. For one thing, it counts homeless individuals that were bussed from other states to get rid of them.

Those are really good buses!

I assume that part was meant to be about California, where that apparently actually happened.

Democrat run cities seem to be the worst, you can check the stats on that one.

Let's see...San Francisco, median household income: $78,378. Los Angeles, $55,909. Chicago? $63,153. Detroit? $26,095. New York City (Home of the President, Donald Trump), $50,711. Looks like your examples are mostly doing well. The only one that's significantly below average is what, Detroit?

So you've got one. Except Detroit is in Michigan. A state run by Republicans for years. Why haven't they fixed any of that city's problems? Why haven't they done what they did for Flint...oh wait, that wasn't a good thing.

Besides, you want to know what's done about the Homeless? Bus tickets. Out of sight, out of mind.

Of course, this has been a problem for decades problem for decades, but you're too busy blaming Democrats, as usual for yourself, but then...why can you offer no solutions, no miracles in your partisan bastions of prosperity?

Oh wait, you think because you can rail about a few high-profile cities, you think nobody has driven through rural Mississippi and seen the abject poverty there.

And you know what? A lot of those homeless are veterans. Maybe you're just not patriotic enough?

> Entitled? What if you grew up there; lived there all
> your damn life.

Actually, what's going on is that other states are "dumping" their homeless on California in general, and San Francisco and San Diego in particular (LA used to be a popular one too, but they engaged in their own anti-dumping battle a while back when "skid row" became unmanageable.). Most recently, Nevada was caught red-handed shuffling their mental patients off to California with one-way Greyhound tickets:

http://www.motherjones.com/moj...
https://thinkprogress.org/neva...
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/...
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/new...

Im not sure what the solution is. But the reality is that there really is a metric crapton of unpopulated land in the US where people could be housed cheaply. It's hard to believe until you do a decent amount of cross-country travel. But I've flown from SF to Kansas a number of times for work these last few years. And, aside from Denver, there's very little in-between. And, for that matter, Kansas has all of one city of any note; and they share that one with Missouri. The rest is a whole lot of nothing. It's kind of ironic that it's Nevada that was caught doing the most recent round of bussing; because they're one of the states with the most empty land.

THAT explains why there are no accidents in California involving taxis.

Oh, wait there's this one in San Diego, and this one also in San Diego, and... oh, never mind.

Either California issues driver's licenses to COMPETENT drivers, or they do not ... they pretend that there's a point to issuing licenses to drivers and pretend those licenses are "good enough" (even for people carrying a car-load of children) but then mysteriously pretend that a taxi driver needs a special license to carry even one consenting adult. Either California's insurance requirements and vehicle inspection requirements are good, or they are not and the state should stop hassling average citizens with them; it's a JOKE to say the insurance and vehicle inspection for driver "Joe" are adequate (even hauling passengers) but that another set of rules are needed for for the very same guy in the very same car and hauling the very same passengers ... IF HE DOES IT FOR MONEY.

It's a scam.

In most places with taxi regulations, the rules setup a limited number of authorized cronies (to artificially-inflate and protect prices) using some scheme like "medallions" as a totally-artificial market manipulation.

This plague tends to occur in big cities where [a] lots of money is on the line and [b] "big government" Democrats have a death-grip on the political machine (think: Chuck Heston with his NRA rifle), and will therefore never get voted-out over it (because their base voters will support them no matter what they do as long as they support gay marriage, or food stamps, or whatever other social "causes" are the "wedge issue" of the day)

An artist at my University has worked towards trying to raise awareness of these sorts of risks - particularly topical for the San Diego region where we have a confluence of lots of defense companies and high-tech university research. His art piece generated a lot of attention for wanting to stimulate the conversations we'd have when a crash occurs in a residential or otherwise inopportune area, before the event actually happens. http://uccenterfordrones.wordpress.com/regarding-recent-drone-malfunction/ was his piece on it, and one of the many articles explaining the 'hoax' http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/-Source-of-Mystery-Drone-Crash-Revealed-182407811.html

Maybe they'll use it to create a gene therapy to cure conservatism instead?

TFA is firewalled off here (it feels like China... or Soviet Russia). Ten year old PC crawling along at a snail's pace on XP... The only thing good about it is it makes my netbook feel like a supercomputer. I think the head of IT here must need this therapy.

But Google found the story for me.

According to scientists at UC San Diego and Harvard University, "ideology is affected not just by social factors, but also by a dopamine receptor gene called DRD4." That and how many friends you had during high school.

Hmmm... that explains the conservative, (actually, downright selfish and power hungry, which "conservative" is a euphemism for) bent you see at slashdot so often.

It does stand to reason that more social people are going to be liberal. Of course, the conservatives are going to say "dopamine! Liberals are dopes! They're all on DRUGS!"

Does anybody have a link to the actual study? TFA I found is weak on details.

we need an explanation as to why NHTSA is not talking about the extreme wear that they found on the brakes on all the cars (even if the various drivers were not strong enough to use unaided brakes to stop the cars, they should have been strong enough to really mess up the brake pads).

You mean like this?

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local-beat/Runaway-Prius-Needs-Help-to-StopCHP-86965487.html

Officer Neibert said he not only could smell the brakes from the Prius but also witnessed Sikes physically lifting his body to apply pressure on the brakes. ... "I was on the brakes pretty healthy," Sikes said. "It wasn't stopping, it wasn't doing anything to it ... I just stayed on the brakes as much as I could until finally they started smelling really bad and I had metal sounds coming in the car."

Although some have naturally accused the guy of pulling a hoax, the officer did indeed confirm that the brakes were utterly shot, and Toyota admitted that they were mystified as to how it would even be possible to perform this if it was indeed intended to be done as a hoax – you can’t hit the gas and the brakes simultaneously:

http://www.fox40.com/news/headlines/ktxl-news-jamessikesinvestigated0311,0,4677651.story

Don Esmond, senior vice president of automotive operations for Toyota Motor Sales, says all Priuses are equipped with a computer system that cuts power to the wheels if the brake and gas pedals are depressed at the same time.

"It's tough for us to say if we're skeptical. I'm mystified in how it could happen with the brake override system," he said.

No, it's ok to rob banks because they're FDIC insured. Whatever you get from the bank, the fed pays them back. No harm, no foul, unless someone gets hurt in the process. Ok, we all end up paying, but at least someone gets the lump sum. :) Don't take watches, wallets, and purses though, individuals aren't insured for this kind of theft.

    In LEO school (one of those things I though I'd do once upon a time), there was a huge discussion about criminal liability. If someone is hurt in the commission of a crime, it becomes a much bigger deal for the criminal. It doesn't matter if the criminal did it or not.

    For example, if Mr. Criminal were robbing a bank, and there was an exchange of gunfire at some point. One of the cops bullets goes wild (they're anxious, and pull the trigger accidentally), and it hits an uninvolved 3rd party blocks away. Because it happened in the commission of the robbery, Mr. Criminal is liable. The same could apply to someone blocks away seeing what's happening (police cars screaming up to the bank, etc, etc), and he has a heart attack and dies. The logic behind it is that none of that would have happened if Mr. Criminal wasn't robbing the bank in the first place, even though he was completely unaware that the "victim" even existed.

    So... I don't recommend robbing banks. :) That and most don't keep much in their cash drawers, so it may seem like a bold daring move, but in reality the criminal would probably walk out with around $2,000 cash. If he were really lucky there could be circumstances that would make it more profitable. I read a news story about a guy who did rob a bank. He just wanted to get enough money to keep from losing his house, and he had exhausted all of his other routes. He hit one of those lucky circumstances, and instead of walking out with a few thousand, he walked out with $107,000. (I can't even make some of this stuff up, the weirdos beat me to it.)

Go ahead internet tough guy and absolute expert, I dare ya to tell this guy what he found is all "hype", because your cred is so much better than his, plus you don't own one, and he does, but you know better that it is all just "hype"

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10445564-64.html?tag=newsLatestHeadlinesArea.0

covered here previously

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/02/02/1458230/Woz-Cites-Scary-Prius-Acceleration-Software-Problem

and this is hype, burnt brakes and everything

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local-beat/Runaway-Prius-Needs-Help-to-StopCHP-86965487.html

Please post your back and forth email correspondence with woz when you tell him it is all hype, and that he is wrong and you are right, along with your technical analysis why you say it is all hype.

The history of the license plate:

In The Hound of the Baskervilles [1902] by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are found unsuccessfully trying to catch a public hansom cab. Holmes, however, got close enough to the cab to spot its license number, which became a major clue in cracking the case.

This is the reality:

Deputy charged in assault on prostitute, [Aug 1], Mom pleads for daughter's safe return [Aug 1], Police say Sciota man tried to burn bar

You will find stories like these in every newspaper published in the last 100 years.

The license plate is not going to go away and it will be read by the neighborhood watch and the highway patrolman.

The policeman is first and last the successor to the watchman in the night. He needs to know who is out there. He needs to move quickly sometimes.

Now back to our story:

New York became the first state to require vehicle registration [1901] and California followed suit later that year. The first New York issues were homemade plates, bearing the initials of the owner without any numbers. Massachusetts was the first state to actually issue plates, beginning in 1903. By 1918, all 48 of the contiguous United States were issuing license plate. Although they were territories at the time, Alaska and Hawaii began issuing plates in 1921 and 1922.

License plates have changed significantly over the years. Early plates were not fancy -- just the state name or abbreviation, a registration number, and, more often than not, the year. Fancy lettering, reflectorization, slogans, county names, illustrations or logos peculiar to a particular state became more common.

Beginning in 1957, most types of North American plates have been a standard size, six by twelve inches. Prior to that, different sizes and shapes were not uncommon. Plates were normally rectangular, but oval, square, round, and triangular shapes were used. For a number of years, Kansas and Tennessee cut their plates to match the shaped of the state itself. The distinction for the most unusually shaped plates goes to Northwest Territories and Nunavut in Canada, which have their plates cut in the shape of a bear. Automobile License Plate Buying Guide

The Pentagon Papers and Iran-Contra never happened. Nope, not at all.

Good thinking! "The government has a history of doing bad things, so whatever bad thing I suggest must be true, and anyone who objects must be brainwashed and ignorant."

Let me try one: I posit that the U.S. government will soon throw sniff out all the drug users and throw them into camps. This is based on the following:

1. At the government's encouragement, drug screening is now widespread in private industry and schools.
2. The government has a substantiated history of collecting supposedly private information.
3. Halliburton received a contract to build detention camps in the U.S.

Obviously, these camps are part the "final solution" to the War on Drugs. You might want to say, "Perhaps there's another reason for building them, like preparations for mass deportation of illegal immigrants," but anyone who says this is just brainwashed, man, by the corpo-fascist thugs and their dastardly agents of deceit. Prove me wrong.

Fun as this is, I'm going to have to give it a rest. Arguing with a conspiracy theorist is exactly like arguing with a creationist: no understanding is possible in the presence of such different standards of evidence. Once the need to search for answers in empirical reality is disposed of, anything's possible. The appeal of having certain Truths, in the face of a world that rejects them, is undeniable and has formed the basis of most cults throughout history. (Christianity, for example, in the days when Christians were persecuted by harsher means than the removal of government-mandated prayer.) Far be it from me to screw with your personal religion, but if it'll make you feel better to reply to this post by once again asserting that a person you don't know is a helpless tool of forces that only those with your secret knowledge understand, go right ahead. It's still a relatively free country.

That can be applied to sightings of many other things.

The problem is, how does one determine which patterns indicate something and which patterns are just convincing illusions?

This is also the reason why you can't sue the Government if you were wrongly accused of murder and held in prison for 20 years

I think I have a good answer for you, Molly, and no, it's not the money. It's the courts and our intolerant society. Just look at what is going on in Kansas and Georgia and Texas. We have *got* to do something about the Conservative Christian (right or left, I don't give a fsck about your political orientation... it takes all kinds to stick your head in the sand) constantly trying to subvert what Science has PROVED to be fact.

Now, that being said.. One can say that Darwinian Theory is still a theory. Not a single person has 'evolved' anything of substance... just look at these arguments, brain cells haven't evolved! BUT - many other creatures have evolved, and we do so evolve - it's just usually medically corrected - in the event of a sixth finger/toe, or something like that, they call it a malformity. But how do we prove the regularly evolving cellular species, plant species and animal species that have been documented in the past 125 years since The Origin of Species was published? Oh yeah... that's what Intelligent Design is for.

Don't even get me started on physics/astronomy/nanotech/whatever. My point is, our children are NOT being taught sciences in school. They are being taught theocracy, they are being taught lies, and they are deceived. But this has always been the case!!! This has not changed since the 1970s/80s since I went to school. Probably hasn't changed in 60 years. PLEASE!! My history teacher tried to teach us that the Chinese won the Vietnam War, and I graduated in 1991!!

Go ahead, blame Bush, you know you want to. But you are WRONG. Since when do School Board Administrators talk to Congress for their lesson plans? The NEA is just one big fscking Mob Front for whatever their agenda is this month. Last time I checked, legislatures do not set our local school lesson plans. They don't force our students to carry 8 credits of arts, but only 4 of science and 2 of math! These policies are not set by our national government, but by our state and local legislatures. It's time that the blame start being laid at the appropriate feet of those responsible. Your Governer, State Legislature and City Council administer the schools, not the US Government. Tell me about it... I live in California, the crappiest school admin in the country.

Again, all of that said... The No Child Left Behind Act was supposed to help with all of this. HOWEVER, it uses the carrot and stick (not SCHtick) approach. In order to receive the federal funds, the schools have to pass the standardized tests with an 800 or better, and California cannot do that. http://www.nbcsandiego.com/education/4292821/detai l.html I don't know what is so hard about educating children to a basic level, but that's just BS. only 21% of the schools pass, and of them, they are middle and elementary schools!! This is where our problem lies, people. Teachers unwilling or untrained to teach. Goes back to the ye olde compensation issue. Compensate them appropriately, we might see some results. Now, I'm not saying that the NCLB Act is not flawed or implemented well, it's not. But, it was a measure taken to try to mitigate some of these issues. And it's not working because the schools don't want it to.

The entire US School System needs to be overhauled... and it all starts with each of us, in our local communities. NOT with President Bush. Just remember that!!

Personally, I'm just shipping my kids to Japan for education!

1. Manhattan is an island, but Washington DC isn't.
2. Prospective terrorists can ship innocent radioactive materials and observe the police response, so they can rehearse their attack to evade it.
3. Lead is inexpensive. Knowing that the detectors exist, the bomb can be encased in a nice thick box for transport. The terrorists can get their own radiation detectors and practice on the package until it's sure that nothing is leaking out.
   
4. From New Jersey, you can launch bombs into Manhattan with a simple mortar. The weapon can be constructed in-place from ordinary steel pipe. (The launch shock might damage an atomic detonator, but firing 20+ "dirty" bombs would still make an effective assault, and require less technical expertise too)

Ooh, it looks like the ingenious advance man and the Lincoln crew are mistakers as well.

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/2592556/detail.htm l

I fully agree. A $5 billion aircraft carrier is hardly needed when we have other aircraft carriers sitting around mothballed. In fact, the USS Ronald Reagan will take the place of the USS Constellation while that ship will be mothballed. It's a perfectly-able ship which will likely cost several million dollars a year to maintain while it is not being used. All so the military can use its budget for this year so that it will be able to get the same budget next year. Oh, and the military brass will get to brag about how they now have XYZ whizbang capabilities which are so unneccesary when compared to the capabilities of our potential adversaries. Yes, we need sea-based flight strips. We don't need new ones that cost $4.5 billion, though.

I prefer real links. It's that what the web is supposed to be about?