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It isn't just corporate and interest groups that are doing this. What concerns me much much more is that the Bush administration is doing this, too, to advance their agenda. And it's paid for by US taxpayers.

"Thank you, Bush. Thank you, U.S.A.," a jubilant Iraqi-American told a camera crew in Kansas City for a segment about reaction to the fall of Baghdad. A second report told of "another success" in the Bush administration's "drive to strengthen aviation security"; the reporter called it "one of the most remarkable campaigns in aviation history." A third segment, broadcast in January, described the administration's determination to open markets for American farmers.

Not to mention they are on a decent 3th place on this chart(ratio of people that belive in human evolution)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/15/science/15math.h tml?ex=1313294400&en=ad11dd7003387acf&ei=5090&part ner=rssuserland&emc=rss

Why don't these polls include an "I don't know, I don't have time to check the facts, and it really doesn't matter in my everyday life" option? I think that would be the best response for a thinking non-scientist.

Judging from the list of countries where the poll was taken, they generally focused on "Western" nations and completely avoided many countries that would probably appear more fundamentalist than the U.S. or Turkey. Imagine the results if we tried the survey in Iran, Bangladesh, or most other so-called "Third World" countries.

Oh wait, we're trying to show that we're the most clueless Western nation, not the most clueless nation overall. Sorry. I forgot that for a moment.

"If this research truly were remarkable, then they wouldn't have trouble getting the money."

I guess funding the TSA isn't truly remarkable, because we're not doing that, either.

Personally I like this link much better: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/15/technology/15bat tery.html?ex=1313294400&en=af57f2af347e0f52&ei=508 8&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

I'm not sure whether that picture is the scariest thing I've ever seen or the funniest thing I've ever seen. That guy looks like he's about to get his shotgun and head for a Dell executive.

I think that Sodium Chloride (NaCl) has killed more people over the last 20 years in America than Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH). (I hate working with lye, mostly because my instructor doesn't give us gloves.)

Wow, fucknut. You can copy from the New York Times. I would say that you just forgot your blockquotes, but you actually manipulated the text just slightly.

Fucking loser.

Plagiarize detection mode on - this sounds a bit familiar

Confession is good for the soul!

"Free people do not relinquish their security. This is contrary to Bush's claim that we hate freedom. Let him tell us why we did not strike Sweden, for example." --Bin Laden's speech

The latest terrorist craze is (apparently) to put liquid explosives in drink bottles (supposedly in a false bottom).
See: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/11/world/europe/11p lot.html

I it's not hard to see that the next logical step for terrorists would be to put explosives in semi-solid form such as toothpaste.

Just because you don't know what is going on in Colorado does'nt mean there is nothing going on in Colorado, CmdrTaco.

One of the hotly contested swing seats on congress is up for grabs in a fair race. Both sides see it as a referendum on policy.

See this article for more information CmdrTaco, then take my suggestion we rename a irrelevant website after him. Say... Colbertdot.org

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/05/washington/05hou se.html

Seismic data is usually represented in a "trace" format: tens or hundreds of traces visually graphed alongside one another - each trace being a single wavelike patterns on the screen. But hearing the individual traces (and sequentially hearing spatially-adjacent traces) would likely reveal detail not necessarily easily detected by the eye. Also, standard mathematical processing of these traces relies on "linearizing" an essentially nonlinear model. So the result is an approximation in which some details are omitted. Listening to the unprocessed trace may reveal hitherto-unrevealed nonlinear details indicating underground structure of significance.

It's like having a new sense or a sense with extended range. Would it be useful to you if you had an internal compass so that you could always detect true North, even when inside a building? Do you think that having the acute hearing of a deer would be useful? What if you could see in the dark without night vision goggles? Would any of these be useful?

A thousand over the mediterranean, A thousand over the atlantic?

Your comment is already at +5 Ins, so I can't do my bit by modding it up.

Here's a heartfealt commendation: I think your post was one of the few that added something useful and, yes, insightful to the disscussion, and I could not agree more with it.

Here's a quote from the NYT article covering the removal of the data from the AOL website:

"AOL said the publication of the data was a violation of internal policies and issued a strongly worded apology."

Thanks, AOL. Millions of people out there feel so much better.

You want proof the NYPD edits its tapes that it uses as evidence? Here's the NY Times article (you have to pay):

Here is a graphic that you don't need to pay for.

Googling for NYPD RNC edited tapes turns up a bunch of hits.

I was actually involved in this story - I volunteered to watch videos of the RNC protests to write logs for them for I-Witness Video. I logged the differences between the tapes, although it was someone else who first noticed the difference - Eileen Clancy, who's mentioned in the article. Also edited out, but not mentioned in the NYT article, is the NYPD beating the shit out of a black protestor.

Nor is this an isolated incident - the NYPD routinely denies that tapes exist. In an unrelated case, a witness's tape caught several plainclothes cops on camera with videotapes in one of these cases, and the NYPD said, "How do you know those are cops, that could be anyone." Eileen had to be called to the stand to testify that those people had been identified as cops in other videos before the NYPD (and DA's office) admitted that tapes existed and released them to the defense.

Or how about the Miami PD denying they attacked a first aid station during protests there in 2003, despite reports that the PD videotaped it?

I'd like to see the Feds take action in THOSE cases (the DOJ was supposed to look into the NYPD abuses, but Google turns up nothing after the initial announcement). Josh Wolf is a brave man, and his reasons for not providing the tape certainly, in the context of our country's law enforcement tactics, certainly outweigh the potential benefit of releasing the tape.

You want proof the NYPD edits its tapes that it uses as evidence? Here's the NY Times article (you have to pay):

Here is a graphic that you don't need to pay for.

Googling for NYPD RNC edited tapes turns up a bunch of hits.

I was actually involved in this story - I volunteered to watch videos of the RNC protests to write logs for them for I-Witness Video. I logged the differences between the tapes, although it was someone else who first noticed the difference - Eileen Clancy, who's mentioned in the article. Also edited out, but not mentioned in the NYT article, is the NYPD beating the shit out of a black protestor.

Nor is this an isolated incident - the NYPD routinely denies that tapes exist. In an unrelated case, a witness's tape caught several plainclothes cops on camera with videotapes in one of these cases, and the NYPD said, "How do you know those are cops, that could be anyone." Eileen had to be called to the stand to testify that those people had been identified as cops in other videos before the NYPD (and DA's office) admitted that tapes existed and released them to the defense.

Or how about the Miami PD denying they attacked a first aid station during protests there in 2003, despite reports that the PD videotaped it?

I'd like to see the Feds take action in THOSE cases (the DOJ was supposed to look into the NYPD abuses, but Google turns up nothing after the initial announcement). Josh Wolf is a brave man, and his reasons for not providing the tape certainly, in the context of our country's law enforcement tactics, certainly outweigh the potential benefit of releasing the tape.

[W]e've reached a point in the digital age where technology is so central to so many coverage areas that the kinds of stories once reserved to Circuits are now being told on the front page and all over the paper.

If you think you can cheap out and push terabytes for nothing, you will quickly find out that free lunches are hard to find anymore.

Unless you're a doctor in America.

And yes, this has to do with the campaign. The first thing Lamont talked about in his speech this evening was not the war-- it was health care.

W

If you think you can cheap out and push terabytes for nothing, you will quickly find out that free lunches are hard to find anymore.

Unless you're a doctor in America.

And yes, this has to do with the campaign. The first thing Lamont talked about in his speech this evening was not the war-- it was health care.

W

At least if he'd stayed in school he would never have met his loser, dropout friends Bill, Larry and Steve, who are CONSTANTLY in trouble with the law.

I'm 38 and I can hear them just fine.

High frequency hearing loss is a definite trend, but cannot be used to predict individual responses. The hair cells in the cochlea that encode high frequencies are the highest metabolism hair cells, and they are the ones that die first, which leads to high frequency hearing loss.

There was a story a while back about a high frequency ringtone that kids used in classrooms thinking their teacher could not hear it...but some teachers can still hear 17 kHz just fine.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/12/technology/12rin g.html

In the case of crazy cat women, they are probably being dominated by Toxoplasma gondii a great little parasite that can only reproduce in cats but changes the behaviour of other animals to help them get back to cats. For instance, rodents infected with Toxoplasma gondii not only loose fear of the smell of cat urine but are actually drawn to it! http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/20/science/20toxo.h tml?ex=1155096000&en=977deffa6234ac39&ei=5070

If all of that work and expense could be done by one company, and any other company could snap it up w/o having to invest in that research, then who in their right mind would invest 10's or 100's of millions of dollars into producing a product when that basically means they're giving it to their competetors for free? Sometimes when the product is sufficiently narrow in scope, even with patents, on a successful drug, drug companies fail to recover their investment during the patent's lifetime.

By my calculations that means that congressmen can be bought for less than $400K. My, my, my what an insanely great ROI.

Buying congresscritters can be very profitable. San Diego contracor Brent Wilke's companies have recieved about 100 million in federal contracts, for an investment of a little more than 706,000 by him and his associates since 1997. Wilkes refers to this process as 'transactional lobbying.'

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/washington/06wil kes.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1154836800&en=b811f7519279d9b2 &ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=slogin

"To bring a pharmacutical to market costs millions if not BILLIONS in research, experimentation, lobbying, and even FDA fees."

I'm sure they spend a lot of money on research, but I think you do too. As in your tax dollars that go to fund research at universities and government labs. Look at the NIH. That's $28 billion in pure research right there.

But, when I hear comments like the one I quoted above, it sounds to me like you are complaining about the fact that they spent billions in research. I simply cannot stand shit like that. It's like "Oh, the poor, poor pharmaceutical companies. They have it sooo hard. Science won't cut them a break like the government will." Hey, they chose that business, they even make the rules by buying up the congressmen.

I'm not attacking your friend or her work. It's not her fault things like this and this happen.

These pharmaceutical companies are businesses, pure and simple, and they will do whatever they can to whomever they can. If someone, with little money for lawyer fees, makes a new drug that will help tons of people, and goes and gets a patent, do you think the drug companies will allow that patent to stand in the way of their using that drug so they can increase their profits? Or, do you think that they'll send their "legal team" to ensure that they have access to that drug.

"A Inventor comes up with a great idea, spends 10 years perfecting it, and now .. with no patent system .. big corporation with limitless pockets starts producing his idea and making even more to line the limitless pockets. Explain to me how even the current patent system hurts the inventor."

Well, in the current patent system, that "big corporation with limitless pockets" would start producing his idea anyway. This is because they have lawyers that would eat that inventor alive when he tried to sue. The patent system only works if you have the lawyers to defend your patent.

"To advocate 'anarchy' is a fools dream. People need laws and rules to form a society, and society is what stops most folks from knifing their neighbor, or .. selling him into slavery to the first spanish boat that came along because you wanted his cattle."

Anarchy doesn't work, but neither does having all of the laws made by people with enough money to buy congressmen. They both end up at the same place: all of the power in the hands of relatively few people.

"To bring a pharmacutical to market costs millions if not BILLIONS in research, experimentation, lobbying, and even FDA fees."

I'm sure they spend a lot of money on research, but I think you do too. As in your tax dollars that go to fund research at universities and government labs. Look at the NIH. That's $28 billion in pure research right there.

But, when I hear comments like the one I quoted above, it sounds to me like you are complaining about the fact that they spent billions in research. I simply cannot stand shit like that. It's like "Oh, the poor, poor pharmaceutical companies. They have it sooo hard. Science won't cut them a break like the government will." Hey, they chose that business, they even make the rules by buying up the congressmen.

I'm not attacking your friend or her work. It's not her fault things like this and this happen.

These pharmaceutical companies are businesses, pure and simple, and they will do whatever they can to whomever they can. If someone, with little money for lawyer fees, makes a new drug that will help tons of people, and goes and gets a patent, do you think the drug companies will allow that patent to stand in the way of their using that drug so they can increase their profits? Or, do you think that they'll send their "legal team" to ensure that they have access to that drug.

"A Inventor comes up with a great idea, spends 10 years perfecting it, and now .. with no patent system .. big corporation with limitless pockets starts producing his idea and making even more to line the limitless pockets. Explain to me how even the current patent system hurts the inventor."

Well, in the current patent system, that "big corporation with limitless pockets" would start producing his idea anyway. This is because they have lawyers that would eat that inventor alive when he tried to sue. The patent system only works if you have the lawyers to defend your patent.

"To advocate 'anarchy' is a fools dream. People need laws and rules to form a society, and society is what stops most folks from knifing their neighbor, or .. selling him into slavery to the first spanish boat that came along because you wanted his cattle."

Anarchy doesn't work, but neither does having all of the laws made by people with enough money to buy congressmen. They both end up at the same place: all of the power in the hands of relatively few people.

Tell that to the kids who're using it to let their cellphones ring in class without the teacher hearing.

Took me a good 15 minutes to find http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0 DE2DB143FF932A3575AC0A961948260

And some enigmatic stuff here: http://www.gaby.de/ftp/pub/win3x/archive/softlib/1 997w3x.pdf

And a cryptic reference to the Mach 10 and 20 here: http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifeobsoleteproduc ts

Other than that, there is not much info left out there.

I think the Mach 10 was an 80186 with RAM and such on an 8-bit ISA card, probably an 8MHz or 12MHz part. The Mach 20 was a 80286, and cooler. Probably a 16MHz part. I think the Mach 10 would take 1.5MB RAM, as a heaping shovelful of 16- or 22-pin DRAM. The Mach 20 similar. Both had an InPort for Bus Mouse. I guess the Mach 20 could be had with or without the RAM expansion, and with or without an updated FDC to run 3.5" drives. I had an XT-Turbo at 8MHz that already handled 3.5" drives. Woot...

Just a quick look, but it seems about the only thing there with less info on it out there is Modern Jazz.

rick

• http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/20/technology/20pog ue.html?ex=1154664000&en=de0cc680499edb17&ei=5070/
  • Dragon Naturally Speaking 9.0 can be used for dictation. It has about 99% accuracy, and it starts out of the box with 98% I think.....stop reading what I wrote, start reading the article....

1. Go to the New York Times Link Generator. http://nytimes.blogspace.com/genlink
2. Generate a link that does not require registration. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/science/01arc.ht ml?ex=1312084800&en=47d325654e49623c&ei=5090&partn er=rssuserland&emc=rss
3. Profit?

Taco et al should change all NYT links to registration free versions as a matter of course.

Bloggers get special PMITA treatment.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/02/us/02protest.htm l

First paragraph:
Blogger Jailed After Defying Court Orders

By JESSE McKINLEY Published: August 2, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 1 -- A freelance journalist and blogger was jailed on Tuesday after refusing to turn over video he took at an anticapitalist protest here last summer and after refusing to testify before a grand jury looking into accusations that crimes were committed at the protest.

here's the RSS link too. (no registration required).

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/02/business/02posta l.html?ex=1312171200&en=52b1770033b0930f&ei=5088&p artner=rssnyt&emc=rss

How about the source article instead of a blog about it?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/02/washington/02pho nes.html
http://www.bugmenot.com/view/www.nytimes.com

I think the concept behind MSNBC was originally to be a sort of tech TV channel, as it emerged right around when the internet was coming into the mainsteam But that whole concept flopped.. and eventually they just became a 24 hours news network.

Originally, the ownership of MSNBC was 50% microsoft and 50% NBC, but back in late 2005 NBC bought 32% of microsoft's share in the company. So, Microsoft really doesn't have a controlling stake in the company.

Although... NBC has always said that Microsoft doesn't have editorial control.

I use Dragon NaturallySpeaking every day (carpal tunnel syndrome), and version 9 has around 99% accuracy, with around 98% out-of-the-box with no training. This means 10 or so errors out of a 1000 word dictation.

I didn't believe it either, until I actually tried it. Dragon is the first worthwhile speech recognition solution I've seen that's practical for general use (Though I'd love if they'd release a "programmers" version to compliment the Medial/Legal versions). I get about 99% accuracy (a decent microphone is *very* important!)

Dragon 9 also doesn't "technically" need training, but accuracy further improves if you do bother to train it a bit. The NYT reviewer was able to get 99.6% accuracy after a short training session.

Here's a few reviews of version 9:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/20/technology/20pog ue.html?ex=1154318400&en=6fd795114b3f72ea&ei=5070

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=5577523

Reason 1: You don't have to train this software. That's when you have to read aloud a canned piece of prose that it displays on the screen -- a standard ritual that has begun the speech-recognition adventure for thousands of people.

I can remember, in the early days, having to read 45 minutes' worth of these scripts for the software's benefit. [...] NatSpeak 9 requires no training at all."

Could be a good thing then: "...productivity in France - G.D.P. per hour worked - is actually a bit higher than in the United States." See http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/29/opinion/29krugma n.html?ex=1280289600&en=3c228241f02da3b6&ei=5088&p artner=rssnyt&emc=rss

So, THEY have come up with this new type of sticker just when grocers have figured out how to replace sticky product labels with barcodes burnt into the fruit with lasers:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/19/dining/19fruit.h tml?ei=5090&en=3a2eb1eaf127773a&ex=1279425600&page wanted=print

THEY must be in cahoots with the sticky label industry.

What ever you do, do NOT get a loan from Sallie Mae. SLM Corporation, the backers of Sallie Mae loans is a very profitable company that would love for you to sign on the bottom line. They give kick backs to universities to sign you up. They are also well connected in DC - better than credit card companies. As a consequense, you cannot get out of one of their loans if you experience a hardship - not even credit card do that to you.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/05/60minute s/main1591583_page2.shtml

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/14/business/14salli e.html?ex=1310529600&en=7536d00984c03b89&ei=5088&p artner=rssnyt&emc=rss

The NY times magazine had an interesting article on people who constantly have deja vu. Seems to effect a small population of the elderly, some of whom are in resonablely good health. Its a bit lengthy but provides some interesting stories as well as a basic history into deja vu research.

I think the bigger part of this story is that TiVo wants to change their privacy policy to collect more demagraphic info about what you're doing. i.e. your clicks won't be so anonymous any more. From the NYTimes article about this:

For now, TiVo will not be able to tell advertisers anything about the demographics of the audience it measures. The privacy policy of the service allows it to gather data about viewing habits, but not any personal information. Mr. Juenger [TiVo VP of Audience Research] said TiVo hoped to find a way to change that by the end of the year.

The current TiVo Privacy Policy says repeatedly that all the data collected is anonymous. I guess that will have to change.

In the end it's all about money. TiVo needs to make more money. They're trying to do more with the watching data they already collect. And they want to collect more data to make it more valuable.

this could be real good if AMD's acquisition of ATI allows them to produce full chipsets in the same fashion Intel has with its Centrino line. let the competition begin!

NY times work?
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/19/technology/19wif i.html?ex=1268888400&en=51d90e7518bba5d6&ei=5090&p artner=rssuserland

To your comment "Sorry, bub. AMD isn't the competition", from the 7/21/06 New York Times:

The Intel Corporation, the semiconductor maker, said yesterday that it had shuffled its management team as part of an effort to speed up decision making and win back market share from Advanced Micro Devices.

Congratulations for getting a job as a junior engineer at a formerly great company, but don't plan on retiring on your stock options.

Here's some background that isn't apparent from the article. The CNN piece talks about Neanderthals in the context of understanding brain evolution, but the million dollar question- in most scientists' minds- is whether Neanderthals and early modern humans interbred, after 500,000 years of separation. It seems at least possible: lions and tigers produce fertile offspring and they diverged 2 million years ago. As the New York Times states,

        "A longstanding dispute among archaeologists is whether the modern humans who first entered Europe 45,000 years ago, ultimately from Africa, interbred with the Neanderthals or forced them into extinction. Interbreeding could have been genetically advantageous to the incoming humans, says Bruce Lahn, a geneticist at the University of Chicago, because the Neanderthals were well adapted to the cold European climate -- the last ice age had another 35,000 years to run -- and to local diseases.

        Evidence from the human genome suggests some interbreeding with an archaic species, Dr. Lahn said, which could have been Neanderthals or other early humans."

Now, nobody really knows much at this point. But something that I found interesting was that, via John Hawks, "Neandertals will be within the human range of variation for most genes." And the "pilot experiments" Rothberg mentioned is a reference to how their team sequenced the DNA of the cave bear as a test-run. As I understand it this was mostly to convince museums that grinding up some of their prize Neanderthal fossils in the name of research was a good idea. :)

From the NY Times:

Google earned $721.1 million, or $2.33 a share in the quarter, compared with $342.8 million, or $1.19 a share, in the period a year ago. Excluding charges related to stock-based compensation and a gain from the sale of its shares in Baidu, the Chinese Internet company, Google earned $2.49 a share. Analysts had expected the company to earn $2.22 on that basis.

Personally, I don't care what Wall Street expects. If growth goes from 80% to 70% to 60% to 50%, our P/E will be like 10 (at $400/share), and we'll still be growing at a really high rate.

Do the math, and forget about projections. If you take the $2.33 GAAP number, and look at the run rate (this would be a middle ground between ttm and projected), $2.33 * 4 = 9.32, which gives GOOG a 43 P/E ratio.

How does that make GOOG way overvalued?

No matter the method, suicides occur at a higher rate in rural areas than in cities or suburbs, with the rate rising steadily the more rural the community. With homicides, the trend works in reverse, with higher rates in more urban areas.

Until recently? Try again. Guess how much melanin is in the skin of the people in this article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/05/us/05prisoners.h tml

The New York Times
July 5, 2006
With Jobs to Do, Louisiana Parish Turns to Inmates
By ADAM NOSSITER

LAKE PROVIDENCE, La. -- At barbecues, ballgames and funerals, cotton
gins, service stations, the First Baptist Church, the pepper-sauce
factory and the local private school -- the men in orange are everywhere.

Many people here in East Carroll Parish, as Louisiana counties are known,
say they could not get by without their inmates, who make up more than
10 percent of its population and most of its labor force. They are
dirt-cheap, sometimes free, always compliant, ever-ready and disposable.

You just call up the sheriff, and presto, inmates are headed your
way. "They bring me warm bodies, 10 warm bodies in the morning," said
Grady Brown, owner of the Panola Pepper Corporation. "They do anything
you ask them to do."

It is an ideal arrangement, many in this farming parish say.

"You call them up, they drop them off, and they pick them up in the
afternoon," said Paul Chapple, owner of a service station.

National prison experts say that only Louisiana allows citizens to
use inmate labor on such a widespread scale, under the supervision of
local sheriffs. The state has the nation's highest incarceration rate,
and East Carroll Parish, a forlorn jurisdiction of 8,700 people along
the Mississippi River in the remote northeastern corner of Louisiana,
has one of the highest rates in the state.

As a result, it is here that the nation's culture of incarceration
achieves a kind of ultimate synthesis with the local economy. The prison
system converts a substantial segment of the population into a commodity
that is in desperately short supply -- cheap labor -- and local-jail
inmates are integrated into every aspect of economic and social life.

The practice is both an odd vestige of the abusive convict-lease system
that began in the South around Reconstruction, and an outgrowth of
Louisiana's penchant for stuffing state inmates into parish jails --
far more than in any other state. Nowhere else would sheriffs have so
many inmates readily at hand, creating a potent political tool come
election time, and one that keeps them popular in between.

Sometimes the men get paid -- minimum wage, for instance, working for
Mr. Brown. But by the time the sheriff takes his cut, which includes
board, travel expenses and clothes, they wind up with considerably less
than half of that, inmates say.

The rules are loose and give the sheriffs broad discretion. State law
dictates only which inmates may go out into the world (mostly those
nearing the end of their sentences) and how much the authorities get
to keep of an inmate's wages, rather than the type of work he can
perform. There is little in the state rules to limit the potential for
a sheriff to use his inmate flock to curry favor or to reap personal
benefit.

"If you talk to people around here, it is jokingly referred to as
rent-a-convict," said Michael Brewer, a lawyer and former public defender
in Alexandria, in central Louisiana. "There's something offensive about
that. It's almost like a form of slavery."

That is not a view often expressed in East Carroll Parish.

"I've been at cocktail parties where people laugh about it," said Jacques
Roy, another Alexandria lawyer. "People in Alexandria clamor for it. It's
cheaper. I've always envisioned it as a who-you-know kind of thing."

The prisoners are not compelled to work, but several interviewed here
said they welcomed the chance to get out of the crowded jail, at least
during the day. Still, Mr. Brewer said, "if one of them were to refuse,
you can imagine the repercuss