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http://www.usatoday.com/money/jobcenter/workplace/employmentlaw/2002-12-18-criminal-record_x.htm
http://www.legal.uillinois.edu/faq/supervisor.html
http://www.poeknows.com/faq.html

You will need to provide more than a mere assertion for me to believe you.

Though it was a cross-site scripting and caused his web page to be redirected to Hillary Clinton's... http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/hacking/2008-04-24-obama-website-hack_N.htm

Riiiiight. And the FBI hasn't been caught improperly issuing National Security Letters recently ahref=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/washington/25justice.htmlrel=url2html-11383http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/washington/25justice.html>. And the NSA hasn't conducted domestic wiretapping in violation of the 4th amendment http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-05-10-nsa_x.htm. And the executive branch hasn't claimed that the right to a writ of habeas corpus is not granted by the Constitution http://www.baltimorechronicle.com/2007/011907Parry.shtml

Not to be rude, but do you believe in the tooth fairy, too?

So your 10-20 year lifespan of the battery isn't documented on the website anywhere that I can find.

They've stated they're using lithium phosphate in news articles (example here). Lithium phosphate batteries have a 10-20 year lifespan in normal use. Normal laptop cells have a few hundred to a thousand or so cycles before 50% degradation. A123 cells have 1000 cycles to 5% degradation (in an Aptera, 1000 cycles is 120,000 miles). And everyone I've seen who's talked about using A123 cells in their own experience says that if anything, the spec sheet is too pessimistic. A123 was initially saying "10+ years and 7000 cycles+" for the Volt's pack (which will be a lot more stressed than the Aptera's, since it's a PHEV). Now GM is saying they expect it to be good for 15, and are planning to give it a very long warranty. And even then, you're not talking about the battery dying; you're talking about it being down 20% capacity or so. Spinels can last even longer -- LG Chem expects theirs to be good for as much as 40 years in typical EV use.

There's nothing inherent about batteries that means they have to rapidly degrade. Jay Leno has a 1909 Baker Electric that still runs on its original Edison cells. It all depends on the stability of the battery chemistry. Lead-acid and LiCoO2/graphite li-ion are not stable chemistries. LiP, titanates, and spinels are.

I also note on the Aptera site that the car isn't designed for cold climates.

Says who? Aptera has only said that it's not initially going to be *tested* in cold climates. A123 lithium phosphate cells are rated for -30C for operation and -50C for storage. And lightweight tadpole configurations like the Aptera can do exceedingly well in the snow -- for example, the Messerschmidt KR200 (which is a far more primitive and less stable design). Smaller vehicles have lower moments of inertia, so they're easier to stop. Compare the stopping time on a semi with a typical sedan, for example.

Availability is almost non-existent as well

Availability *is* non-existant because it's pre-production; only the prototypes exist. They've fully raised their final round of funding for production and they brought on board the head of production for the Dodge Viper and Ford GT projects to manage it (a perfect match, as he's used to working with low volume cars with light alloys and composite structures). The first deliveries to customers are scheduled for late this year.

Last, and perhaps most distressing, Aptera offers no warranty on the vehicle.

Wrong. The site explicitly says, "The details of our financing and warranty are still being defined" and "We will announce further information regarding the battery lifespan and warranty policy well before we begin manufacturing the Typ-1 next October.", not "There will be no warranty". How do you have terms on a warranty when there is none? Perhaps you were looking at the terms of use of the *Website*? ("Aptera PROVIDES THIS WEB SITE, AND ALL CONTENT AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEB SITE "AS IS" AND WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF TITLE, MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY OF INFORMATIONAL CONTENT, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.")

News media are very careful to keep onside with the Whitehouse, Pentagon etc.

I used to think that was the case. But watching over the last twenty years or so I've come to realize that it isn't quite that simple.

For example, during the Monica Lewinsky hoopla, it seemed you couldn't look at a newspaper or turn on a TV without hearing more than you wanted to know about the story. They certainly weren't trying to stay on Clinton's good side, even though he was very popular at the time.

Fast forward a decade, and if you keep your eyes peeled you can catch stories like this:

• The United States has suspended Habis Corpus for "enemy combatants"..
• The Bush administration claims the authority to brand anyone (even US citizens) an "enemy combatant" based only on their say-so, with no recourse and no appeal.
• The Bush administration claims the ability to "render" these "enemy combatants", taking them to undisclosed secret prisons without trial or any public record of what happened to them.
• John Yoo thinks it would be legal to crush an enemy combatant's child's testicles in front of them to get them to talk, the the President were to authorize it.
• Vice president Dick Cheney, Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice were briefed on Yoo's opinions and used them to craft "enhanced interrogations."
• President Bush was aware of these meeting and approved of them.

So it's not quite as simple as you make it sound.

If a popular president has an extramarital affair, the press shows no fear and shouts it from the rooftops night and day.

But if the least popular president on record (backed by his administration) maintains that he has the inherent authority to kidnap US citizens at will and make them watch while his goons crush their children's testicles, the "free press" covers his butt so well that if you blink you'll miss the story.

--MarkusQ

that makes good press but the truth is pentagon has already sold thousands of F-14 parts publically and legally: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-08-01-f14parts_N.htm

we sold Iran their F-14's too

what's the point?

...that, once the DNA is collect, that it *will* be processed and catalogued. Or not.

You can't overcome Good Ol' Bureaucracy, no matter how much you shred the Constitution.

Since 2000 the annual numbers of AIDS diagnoses have been relatively constant, with an estimated 37,852 in 2006. That's people DIAGNOSED, not deaths.

Some 43,443 people were killed on the highways in 2005.

Meanwhile, 559,312 people who died from cancer. Cancer is only the second biggest killer, heart disease kills more people of ALL races. More black people die of cancer than all races combined die of AIDS.

HIV is comparitively a very minor threat, even to minorities, compared to other dangers. If you're talking about dangers to minorities you should be talking about incarceration, as a disproportionate number of our prisoners (more per capita than any other country) are minorities.

a new tool for America's War on Drugs!

Yeah, I don't listen to me either.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2007-11-20-obama-education_N.htm [usatoday.com]
"To pay for his education program, Obama would eliminate tax-deductibility of CEO pay by corporations and delay NASA's program to return to the moon and then journey to Mars."

http://www.google.com/search?q=obama+project+constellation

Learn to google.

Learn to google fag. It's all over if you just look.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2007-11-20-obama-education_N.htm
"To pay for his education program, Obama would eliminate tax-deductibility of CEO pay by corporations and delay NASA's program to return to the moon and then journey to Mars."

The problem is it is all from a late november speech. Obama needs to learn to look before he speaks.

Not sure if anyone here tracks this stuff. I'm guessing not, but the Intel community are learning how to gather in the information age. Take the joe-sixpack paper USA TODAY and you can find interesting articles like this one which talk about how so-called "open-source" information can be used to form classified products. This is a clear case and example where the whole is greater than the sum of all the parts. This isn't about spin or politics, it's about putting it all together to get a clear picture.

Maybe it'll work out better this time...

Na, I'd prefer the princess Leia's bikini instead.

Damn, while looking for a picture I came across this... ruined my whole image.

Damn you google image search!

You have no expectation of privacy with regard to Google Street View photographs, or any other "shutterbug" snapping pictures on your street, provided the photos were taken from public property, and were not done in such a way as to grossly invade your space (telephoto lenses into your bathroom window, for example).

Here's a good article that points to guidelines from people who go to court to defend their members' rights to do what is in their rights (Google's Street View team would be wise to join up):

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/andrewkantor/2005-12-29-camera-laws_x.htm

From what I understand about the equipment and methods in use by the Google Street View project, I wouldn't expect them to be in violation of the "zoom lenses" provisions in any "invasion" statute in these states.

The great thing about Amateur Radio is that it allows people to connect in far-flung places. In an area as large as the Malay Archipelago, I have to believe that good, clear radio contact would take precedence over a technology that has been tried and abandoned in several different areas. No one thinks about the HAM radio guys, until a disaster strikes. Then they are the first ones on the air, delivering status reports and relaying information about what is needed where.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-03-19-powerline_x.htm

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-06-24-cheney_N.htm

And, needless to say, the alternative is not safe.

Why not just extend Medicare to everyone - old, young, rich, and poor? It works for the rest of the world!

Medicare's problems are compounded by soaring health care costs, which are running at more than twice the general rate of inflation. And they're made less predictable by future medical technologies whose emergence, impact and cost are impossible to foresee.

Census data was used to round up japanese-american citizens for interment camps during WWII:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-03-30-census-role_N.htm

With the current "war on the unexpected" who knows how current census data will be used to abuse citizens like yourself.

Personally I'm glad Wal-mart's putting pressure on the record labels, there's a lot of inefficiency in how they do things. I'm quite certain they could get that price down to around $10 pretty easily if they wanted to.

One thing that has to be kept in mind when comparing the retail price of entertainment items: a) what did it cost to make them, and b) how much money have they already made on them? For a major label music CD or many boxed video games, the answers are a) a lot and b) nothing. That's going to get reflected in the retail price of the item, as all of the profits are coming from the sale of that item.

Hold that in contrast to DVD, where the answers are a) a lot and, b) the theatrical receipts (with the exception of direct-to-dvd titles). There are titles where the theatrical release has already recouped the creation and marketing costs, and the DVD is pure profit. Of course there are also many times, even for Oscar Nominees, that the DVD release is what makes a title profitable after an otherwise "lackluster" theatrical run.

I'm not saying that there's a 1:1 correlation, but it is something to consider when evaluating the retail prices of entertainment items, especially if arguing along the lines of "why does this DVD of a two hour movie with four hours of bonus footage" or "this game that provides 60 hours of playtime" cost the same as "this 74 minute CD"

I hope this works better than Houston's attempt to create their own office suite, the only notable result of which was a full week of Daily WTF stories on its creation.

I assume you are talking about http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/22/passport.files/ ?

Read the article once more. Yes, and employee of Analysis Corp. checked out Obama's and McCain's passport information. Also, Analysis Corp is run by John Brennan. John Brennan also does some consulting for Obama.

Also note that in the article, it notes that the CEO of Stanley, another passport database contractor, is a Clinton supporter. Also irrelevant.

Remember, it was Obama that called for the investigation into this matter.
http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2008/03/nbc-obamas-pass.html

You made a completly unsubstantiated statement and I called BS with a similar amount of proof as you had.

I would put a fully patched XP against any fully patched linux with a default install, and I'd be quite interested in the result. I don't know vista personally but I'd expect it to be about the same. BTW if you don't patch anything then it's a stupid test - I'm not talking about making esoteric configuration, just get updated patches for the OS. These days the security comparisons are getting nitpicky. Both linux & Windows are pretty decent thesee days until you start putting applications on them. Apple tho ... well not so great. When it comes to apple - the fanboys themselves are the biggest vulnerbility, they don't believe they NEED to patch.

Try looking here for some insight - and yes I know - there's a LOT of window, linux and BSD there too http://nvd.nist.gov/nvd.cfm

No OS is secure - Apple less so than some. The old claim that "apple is more secure" is turning out to be a modern version of The Emperor's New Clothes - only uttered by fanboys and the ignorant

Blast ... I wasn't going to offer evidence, oh well - the fanboys won't see any

I don't get it....wouldn't the market dictate progress for massive fuel efficiency gains?

I read TFA as well and that particular part sparked my interest so I did a bit of googling to see exactly what he got 20 years for. I couldn't find much, but I found another similar article which said he was sentenced for "mutilating bodies" (source).

Now that strikes me as a bit odd. These people are already dead. He didn't kill them. So my first question is: does a dead body have rights ? I'm pretty sure it does not. Does it belong to anyone ? This one I don't know. But assuming it belongs to his/her heirs then I think a conviction of theft, breach of contract, vandalism or fraud would be more appropriate.

So what I'm wondering is exactly why "mutilating a dead body", one that you did not have any part in killing, is not only illegal but worth 20 years in prison ?

Did this guy do something unethical ? Absolutely. I'm not condoning what he did. I'm just wondering how he could be convicted and sentenced to 20 years for cutting up dead bodies that were already dead. Of course these are just small sentences in long articles (articles which contradict each other BTW ... TFA said the guy was turned in by a jealous lover and the article I google'd said it was an employee) and so they both might be wrong. Without the details of the trial we won't know EXACTLY what he was found guilty of.

How about this plan: anybody, who wishes to maintain an Internet-reachable computer, needs to be licensed (or hire someone, who is). I mean, we require licenses and/or permits to alter plumbing in a house or to add a porch — aren't botnets more threatening to the country, than an improperly placed pipe here and there?

Since most attacks originate from abroad, we could relax the rule by applying it only to those, who wish to be reachable from outside US (rather than be automatically firewalled by their ISP)...

Licensing requirements would include familiarity with firewalls, computers and network security...

To be sure, I'd hate having to go through this, but having to deal with a botnet-running extortionist is, likely, even worse... Or not? What do you think?

Politicians seem completely incapable of grasping the idea that it is just dumb to keep something illegal when not only is everyone doing it, but everyone is morally right to do it.

That only hold true if the goal of the politician is to serve the people. If the goal of the politician is to have power over the people or to serve someone who wants to have power over the people, then having the majority of the people open to prosecution at your leisure is a very useful tool. Most parking and speeding tickets are a lower level of this sort of criminalizing of the average person:"The National League of Cities says 47% of the nation's cities raised fees and fines last year. Most of the added money came from parking tickets. Revenue from these fines and fees now rivals property taxes as a major source of municipal income, says the league's Chris Hoene."Now obviously, the city governments that generate a significant portion of their income through tickets don't actully want everyone to start parking legally, nor do they want to make more legal parking easily available. They want money, just like the RIAA does.

Funny you should mention those numbers. Virginia finally decided to do something about those idiots.

Needless to say, I can hear the folks on here whining about how the money is just another tax. Which in a sense it is since the fine is designed to add money to pay for road maintenance. But that is beside the point.

There will always be those who feel the rules shouldn't apply to them or that the penalty for endangering someone elses life is too high. Whine, whine, whine. Until it happens to you.

Read more

Well, it isn't necessarily the states. Look at the popular votes by county in the 2000 election where Gore beat bush on popular vote but Bush got Gore on electoral. In not state did Gore take the entire state in support. At best he took largely populated portions of a state that overrode every other person's vote.

the president is the president of the United States. Not of the people. He has no direct power over the people by design, the position was originally intended to be used as a govern between states to represent the needs of the states with foreign powers and organize the protection of the states, not populations of a state. Take the previous map and compare it to this one, It will show how it isn't the states but large population areas which gave the states to Gore in 2000. This is really what the electoral system was designed to eliminate. Now that some of these population centers are so big that they can pretty much overtake the entire state, people are starting to question the role of the electoral system. To me, it means that it is working as designed. The only change I might accept would be a proportionally distributed electors based on both the winning of the district and the state. But then Gerrymandering becomes so much more important an would probably cause more harm then good.

Well, it isn't necessarily the states. Look at the popular votes by county in the 2000 election where Gore beat bush on popular vote but Bush got Gore on electoral. In not state did Gore take the entire state in support. At best he took largely populated portions of a state that overrode every other person's vote.

the president is the president of the United States. Not of the people. He has no direct power over the people by design, the position was originally intended to be used as a govern between states to represent the needs of the states with foreign powers and organize the protection of the states, not populations of a state. Take the previous map and compare it to this one, It will show how it isn't the states but large population areas which gave the states to Gore in 2000. This is really what the electoral system was designed to eliminate. Now that some of these population centers are so big that they can pretty much overtake the entire state, people are starting to question the role of the electoral system. To me, it means that it is working as designed. The only change I might accept would be a proportionally distributed electors based on both the winning of the district and the state. But then Gerrymandering becomes so much more important an would probably cause more harm then good.

If your talking about florida, your sadely mistaken. If your talking about nation wide, then it worked as intended.

The entire idea behind the electoral system is to not allow law population centers dictate the policies to the rest of the country. It is built in to favor smaller populated areas for this reason specifically. Philadelphia was originally the capitol because it had one of the largest populations at the time of writing of the constitution. I contained more people then the rest of the state did at the time. The same could be said for boston and so on. One of the fears of the founders was that the large population centers would become so large that they alone could control the presidential races. Here is some insight from the 1790 census

While New York City was 5000 people more then phili, if you took PA as a whole, in the scheme of the larges cities, PA would have something like 44000 votes. NY state only had NYC and Hudson city on the list with 33,131 for NYC and only 2,584 for Hudson City (35715 total). Mass had something like 6 or 7 of the largest cities with a combines total around 42232 population. So going with the 13 colonies which are now states, the populations of those cities along would have a very large impact on who was elected. Instead, they decided to give the power to the house of representatives with appointments of representatives based on populations and let the entire state determine their electorate for the president while leaving the senators to be appointed by the governor of the state.

The very real fear was that one or two large cities could elect a president over all the smaller cities. They also notices that with the likes of PA and MA being so large, those two states could run over the other 11 states. The compromise was the electoral system that is designed to allow someone who doesn't win the popular vote, to win the office of president because it would represetn the country as a whole and not just large populated areas. This is how Gore won the popular vote in 2000 but Bush won the office. It is politics as intended. If you take a look at the county maps, you will see this in practice. Look at how little territory Gore actually won in but ended up with the popular vote. It was only the large populated areas of the north east, Florida and california. that put him up so high.

The electoral system worked as it was designed to. Saying it over rode the popular vote is sort of a misnomer, it isn't like the popular vote represented the entire country, it represented a few largely populated areas. And that is the intent of the electoral system, to negate this effect.

Also, I'm always getting Amway confused with Scientology ...

Just again, this hints at the fact that TSA screening is at best a security simulation and not real security.

Meanwhile, check out this neat music video (via Schneiers blog).

Bollocks. "Global Cooling panic" is a myth, it's debunked virtually every time it's mentioned and yet it still keeps getting repeated as fact.

Nevermind the vagueries of copyright law and its applicability to Chinese-hosted site, what matters is that this is likely to be a visible loss of face for the ROC Olympic Committee. Given the Chinese proclivity to punish moral crimes on a spectrum that ranges from extreme public humiliation to summary execution, I'm curious if the I-only-reused-16% developer will have 16% of his/her body mass removed for reuse after the execution van comes for a visit?

Come on! This is only a story because Coble has an 'R' next to his name. Coble (R-NC) SITS on the subcommittee and said some stupid things. Big deal!

Berman (D-CA) is the chairman of the subcommittee. Didn't he try this. No matter. He's clean as a whistle anyway.

Really? What part of the PRO IP act as a recent example? Or how about this "no swear word" ordinance in a California town? You'd call good intentions directly stifling the first amendment? You don't think this was the goal straight from the start, that now it has to be challenged to be proven wrong?

Here's another story that explains it better with figures to back it up. Hollywood actually shipped 30 million more DVDs than in 2006, but they were cheaper as is to be expected of a maturing technology. The general problems in the economy are another reason for the dip. Also half of the $600 million or so drop could be taken away if you count the $300 million in next-gen bluray and HD-DVD movies sold. The $1.7 billion on subscriptions like Netflix is included in the $23.4 bilion total as is the $700 million or so download market I believe. I don't know why they count the $300 million next-gen disc total differently.

daylight savings time might save light energy. But people seem to drive more and therefore use more gasoline.

Uhh, his manager fucked him over. He trusted the guy and got burned, it's not because he's a bad businessman.

No. DVD sales is what brought the show back from the dead.

Fox seems like they're actively trying to fuck it up again. Every time I turn it on to watch Family Guy, there's some bullshit sports event on. Before they had to cancel it the first time, they kept putting on sports and moving it around so that the fans lost interest.

LK

If you cant engineer it, then steal it.

..won't they eventually start running low on personnel?

Climate scientists say this acceptance comes none too soon. "All the time we should have been moving forward ... has been wasted by arguing if the problem even exists," says Michael Mann of the University of Virginia.