"You can be a criminal for possesion of a lobster, opeing a packet of cigarettes without fully destroying the tax seal and for any number of lesser known laws."
-Technically you may have broken the law, but there is something called Officer Discretion. Wheather or not you are charged is up to the discretion of the officer, wheather or not you are prosecuted is up to the discretion of the District Attorney, and wheather or not you are tried is up to the discretion of the judge.
As regards to seemingly "stupid" laws, many of them are specific for a reason: You may be breaking the law for lobster or crab fishing out of season, or taking game that is not allowed to be taken in certain areas. There was a man who was arrested by the FBI for possesing sturgeon in my area, but that was because he possesed individuals that were WAY under the legal limit, and had appoximately 35-40 individual fish altogether, OUT OF SEASON, and clearly intended for commercial sale.
Possesion of a lobster, or crab, may be illeagal if it is clear that it was recently taken and it is out-of-season or taken from an area where such fishing is unlawful, because then it can be resonably proven that it was taken out-of-season and therefore unlawful to possess. However, possession is not illegal if it was purchased out-of-season or you did not catch it yourself from either a restricted area. Then, the seller may be questioned as to their method of acquiring said item, and the person who actually took the lobster or crab is liable.
I know there are a bunch of clearly ridiculous laws, and there is probably no shortage of their mention on the InterWeb, suchas the law against bringing a moose into a bar, but alot of laws are not as simple as: "You can be a criminal for possesion of a lobster, opeing a packet of cigarettes without fully destroying the tax seal and for any number of lesser known laws."
"Sentencing in this matter is scheduled for April 6, 2009, where Shu faces a possible maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $1,000,000 for each violation of the Arms Export Control Act, and a possible maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act."
-10 years per count violation of AECA, and 5 years per count violation of FCPA?!?!?!? This slimeball deserves LIFE without parole. Exporting arms and government and military know-how is not like walking out on the check. This dipshit exported classified information to a foreign nation, CHINA. Seeing as how China is his backer, the fines are meaningless.
I think we need to revisit how people like him are treated, given the severity of their crimes.
Of course, all this will be moot, since his sentence will most likely be overturned on appeal and he'll get nothing but a slap on the wrist.
"By designing a 'quantum corral,' an elliptical nanostructures that absorbs terahertz waves at a precise frequency, the team says it is possible to hide molecules that emit at exactly that frequency."
-No shit. You can hide objects by thowing something that absorbs the radiation emitted by them. I can hide an LED by keeping it in my shed, with the shed's construction material absorbing the light and heat emitted by the LED.
Basically, the nanostructure they built is nothing more than a filter that filters out terahertz wavelengths, like a red colored filter blocks out wavelengths in that frequency range.
Not a "breakthrough" by any means, but interesting in that they developed a substance that can filter out terahertz wavelengths.
"Lutz Heilmann (born September 7, 1966 in Zittau) is a member of the German Parliament, the Bundestag, for the far left[1] party Die Linke. Following his election in 2005, strong controversy erupted when it was revealed by the magazine Der Spiegel that he worked for the Stasi (infamous East German secret service) from 1985 to 1990.[2] Heilmann only left Stasi after it was dissolved following the fall of the communist regime. Heilmann narrowly survived an impeachment by the party electorate following his untruthfulness about his Stasi career prior to becoming MP.
He became a member of the communist party of the German Democratic Republic, the SED, at a time the party was still hardline totalitarian, in 1986, and has remained a member of its successor parties (SED-PDS, PDS, Die Linkspartei.PDS and now Die Linke), although he left the party in 1992 and rejoined in 2000.
Heilmann is the only official full-time Stasi employee to be elected MP to the Bundestag (although several other Die Linke politicians have been "unofficial" Stasi informants[3]).
Involvement with Wikipedia.de
On November 13, 2008, he pressed charges against Wikimedia Deutschland e.V., causing a preliminary injunction which bars the internet address www.wikipedia.de from being redirected to de.wikipedia.org as long as certain information about him is included in the German Wikipedia in the article Lutz Heilmann. He also took legal action against three Wikipedia users who had worked on the article. According to Spiegel's online service, Heilman objected to claims that he had not completed his university degree, and that he had participated in business venture involving pornography.[4] The report also suggests that the Wikipedia article had been repeatedly altered in line with his claims by an anonymous user operating within the Bundestag building, but Heilmann denied having been involved in an edit war.
1) Give billions of government tax dollars to private firm to develop giant high-tech laser weapon.
2) Develop said weapon.
3) Put weapon on the market.
4) Sell weapon to FOREIGN GOVERNMENT so they can ARM THEMSELVES WITH THEM.
5) Pocket proceeds from sale.
6) PROFIT!!!!! (sort of)
Wow. Now we are paying to develop a high-tech weapon that will now be SOLD to foreign governments. 10 bucks says China, Russia, N. Korea, and the Middle East are already trying to get their hands on one.
Even only selling them to "friendly" governments doesn't mean that the weapons won't be RESOLD through middlemen to hostile ones.
"Something tells me it's a bad idea to sue a school full of law students, law professors, and likely a few more lawyers on retainer or payroll, when you don't have a legal leg to stand on."
-It's like knocking on Death's front door and asking to come in......Especially when you've pissed them all off by making a mockery of their profession.
"Janella Spears doesnt think shes a sucker or an easy mark." -No, not a sucker or easy mark. She is a full-blown idiot.
"Everyone she knew, including law enforcement officials, her family and bank officials, told her to stop, that it was all a scam. She persisted." -Ok, just *HOW* stupid can people get?!?!?!
"She wiped out her husband's retirement account, mortgaged the house and took a lien out on the family car. Both were already paid for." -If I were her husband, I'd have her committed, since such flagrant stupidity is reserved for people who like to bang their heads on walls. Not only that, I'd divorce her, take everything I had left (not much) and leave the fool penniless and homeless.
"Now, Spears has gone public with her story as a warning to others not to fall victim." -No, by going public, she is now hoping that she will be able to dupe others into feeling sorry for her and sending her "donations" to help bail her out and fix the results of her mind-blowing stupidity. *DEFINITELY* not a scam I'll be falling victim to.
Seagate's Mike Hall: "I'm looking into this and will get back to you once I know more."
Translation: "I don't know anything about this. I just spent 2 months in Cancun playing golf and sipping pina coladas on the company tab. I really want to go back, and thinking about all the senoritas there is more important to me than trying to figure this massive problem out, and giving our paying customers and share holders an answer isn't something I feel like doing right now. I'm only a spokesman, and, seeing as how I am too stupid read our own product info releases, especially explaining why we recomended it for RAID applications, and then said it wasn't meant for such applications, resolving such a problem is way out of my league."
a) Legal bullies b) Being sued c) Lawyers who flout the rules d) Misstatements of fact
How ironic, because what they are claiming are simply unsupported accusations, whereas the RIAA's own legal bullying, lawsuits, misstatements of fact, and rule flouting can be easily pointed out.
What Mr. Beckerman should do in defending himself is to take each of the RIAA's charges and show the court where the RIAA has themselves committed the wrongful acts that they 'claim' Mr. Beckerman has. Nothing will kill a lawsuit faster than showing the court that the plaintiff has committed the VERY SAME ACTS that they are accusing the defendant of committing. Honestly, how can you explain to a judge how you think you should be able to engage in those practices without consequence, yet they (the judge) should sanction an opposing lawyer for supposedly committing those same acts?
The Amazing Kreskin predicts a trial in which Exhibit A will be watching the RIAA eat their foot..... after they've shot themselves in it.
"Why would the British make jokes about us walking backwards?"
Being Italian also, I would like to point out that the British can't cook worth a damn, but an Italian grandmother can cook anything out of virtually nothing.
Soldier 1::::Enemy behind the wall on the left by the palm tree.:::
Soldier 2::::Enemy behind the wall on the left by the palm tree.:::
Soldier 3::::Enemy behind the wall on the left by the palm tree.:::
Soldier 4::::Enemy behind the wall on the left by the palm tree. Hey, wait a minute! That reminds me, the mailman and my wife were pretty friendly last time I was home...:::
Soldier 5::::Enemy behing the wall on the left by the palm tree:::
Soldiers 1, 2, 3::::WTF?! Enemy behind the wall on the left by the palm tree!:::
Soldier 5::::I'll bet he's got a package for her!:::
Soldier 4::::What's THAT supposed to mean?:::
Soldier 6::::Dude, your wife's bangin the mailman!:::
"If they ban you from the online game, you can still play it by yourself, at home. Just not on their servers."
But if you paid for software that as intended to be used to play on their servers, then they are obligated to let you use the software and features that you paid for. The obvious exceptions are if you use the servers to do something that is outside of the use that you paid for (DOS attacks, hacking, spoofing, SPAM, etc.).
Oh, I have no problem buying an electric heater. It's paying for the electricity to run it that gets me.
Regarding SUVs, there needs to be a separate category for SUVs. Right now, auto companies can get away with it by classifying them as Light Trucks. Yes, they may weigh as much and be approxiamtely the same size, but they aren't intended or designed for use as trucks.
The law only goes by the capacity specifications (I think), not by intended use. THAT needs to be changed, as a Chevrolet Suburban, Cadillac Escalade, Ford Excursion, Toyota Tundra, or Land Rover *ARE NOT* the same as my F250.
Now Jack Thompson has something to get his jollies with.
Plus, every gun control nutjob, the "Brady Bunch", and every Lets-Ban-Everything-That-Is-Harmful yuppie now has another reason to restrict *YET ANOTHER* aspect of our lives!
This, ontop of the BAAQMD's new dictate that it is now, in my little town, now a *CRIME* to use your fireplace on days they declare "Spare The Air" days in winter:
First Offense: $100 fine, and you have to attend a class on how to burn a fire without creating excess smoke. Second/Subsequest Offenses: $100 fine.
Life is full of hazards and dangers. Get used to it. Someone tell the HAZARD NAZIS to shut the fuck up.
Thanks to this kind of news, every eco-department will have yet another "reason" to tell us how to live our lives. So far, the BAAQMD has now made it a *CRIME* to use your fireplace on "Spare The Air" days, regardless of how cold it gets during the winter. And no, they won't be reimbursing you for your electric bill.
Slashdot Mirror
"You can be a criminal for possesion of a lobster, opeing a packet of cigarettes without fully destroying the tax seal and for any number of lesser known laws."
-Technically you may have broken the law, but there is something called Officer Discretion. Wheather or not you are charged is up to the discretion of the officer, wheather or not you are prosecuted is up to the discretion of the District Attorney, and wheather or not you are tried is up to the discretion of the judge.
As regards to seemingly "stupid" laws, many of them are specific for a reason: You may be breaking the law for lobster or crab fishing out of season, or taking game that is not allowed to be taken in certain areas. There was a man who was arrested by the FBI for possesing sturgeon in my area, but that was because he possesed individuals that were WAY under the legal limit, and had appoximately 35-40 individual fish altogether, OUT OF SEASON, and clearly intended for commercial sale.
Possesion of a lobster, or crab, may be illeagal if it is clear that it was recently taken and it is out-of-season or taken from an area where such fishing is unlawful, because then it can be resonably proven that it was taken out-of-season and therefore unlawful to possess. However, possession is not illegal if it was purchased out-of-season or you did not catch it yourself from either a restricted area. Then, the seller may be questioned as to their method of acquiring said item, and the person who actually took the lobster or crab is liable.
I know there are a bunch of clearly ridiculous laws, and there is probably no shortage of their mention on the InterWeb, suchas the law against bringing a moose into a bar, but alot of laws are not as simple as: "You can be a criminal for possesion of a lobster, opeing a packet of cigarettes without fully destroying the tax seal and for any number of lesser known laws."
I guess you can say that his political career has "gone down the tubes".
(I'm truly sorry. I just could not resist the urge to make that joke.....)
"Sentencing in this matter is scheduled for April 6, 2009, where Shu faces a possible maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $1,000,000 for each violation of the Arms Export Control Act, and a possible maximum sentence of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 or twice the gross gain for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act."
-10 years per count violation of AECA, and 5 years per count violation of FCPA?!?!?!? This slimeball deserves LIFE without parole. Exporting arms and government and military know-how is not like walking out on the check. This dipshit exported classified information to a foreign nation, CHINA. Seeing as how China is his backer, the fines are meaningless.
I think we need to revisit how people like him are treated, given the severity of their crimes.
Of course, all this will be moot, since his sentence will most likely be overturned on appeal and he'll get nothing but a slap on the wrist.
"By designing a 'quantum corral,' an elliptical nanostructures that absorbs terahertz waves at a precise frequency, the team says it is possible to hide molecules that emit at exactly that frequency."
-No shit. You can hide objects by thowing something that absorbs the radiation emitted by them. I can hide an LED by keeping it in my shed, with the shed's construction material absorbing the light and heat emitted by the LED.
Basically, the nanostructure they built is nothing more than a filter that filters out terahertz wavelengths, like a red colored filter blocks out wavelengths in that frequency range.
Not a "breakthrough" by any means, but interesting in that they developed a substance that can filter out terahertz wavelengths.
From English Wikipedia:
"Lutz Heilmann (born September 7, 1966 in Zittau) is a member of the German Parliament, the Bundestag, for the far left[1] party Die Linke. Following his election in 2005, strong controversy erupted when it was revealed by the magazine Der Spiegel that he worked for the Stasi (infamous East German secret service) from 1985 to 1990.[2] Heilmann only left Stasi after it was dissolved following the fall of the communist regime. Heilmann narrowly survived an impeachment by the party electorate following his untruthfulness about his Stasi career prior to becoming MP.
He became a member of the communist party of the German Democratic Republic, the SED, at a time the party was still hardline totalitarian, in 1986, and has remained a member of its successor parties (SED-PDS, PDS, Die Linkspartei.PDS and now Die Linke), although he left the party in 1992 and rejoined in 2000.
Heilmann is the only official full-time Stasi employee to be elected MP to the Bundestag (although several other Die Linke politicians have been "unofficial" Stasi informants[3]).
Involvement with Wikipedia.de
On November 13, 2008, he pressed charges against Wikimedia Deutschland e.V., causing a preliminary injunction which bars the internet address www.wikipedia.de from being redirected to de.wikipedia.org as long as certain information about him is included in the German Wikipedia in the article Lutz Heilmann. He also took legal action against three Wikipedia users who had worked on the article. According to Spiegel's online service, Heilman objected to claims that he had not completed his university degree, and that he had participated in business venture involving pornography.[4] The report also suggests that the Wikipedia article had been repeatedly altered in line with his claims by an anonymous user operating within the Bundestag building, but Heilmann denied having been involved in an edit war.
1) Give billions of government tax dollars to private firm to develop giant high-tech laser weapon.
2) Develop said weapon.
3) Put weapon on the market.
4) Sell weapon to FOREIGN GOVERNMENT so they can ARM THEMSELVES WITH THEM.
5) Pocket proceeds from sale.
6) PROFIT!!!!! (sort of)
Wow. Now we are paying to develop a high-tech weapon that will now be SOLD to foreign governments. 10 bucks says China, Russia, N. Korea, and the Middle East are already trying to get their hands on one.
Even only selling them to "friendly" governments doesn't mean that the weapons won't be RESOLD through middlemen to hostile ones.
"Something tells me it's a bad idea to sue a school full of law students, law professors, and likely a few more lawyers on retainer or payroll, when you don't have a legal leg to stand on."
-It's like knocking on Death's front door and asking to come in. .....Especially when you've pissed them all off by making a mockery of their profession.
"Janella Spears doesnt think shes a sucker or an easy mark."
-No, not a sucker or easy mark. She is a full-blown idiot.
"Everyone she knew, including law enforcement officials, her family and bank officials, told her to stop, that it was all a scam. She persisted."
-Ok, just *HOW* stupid can people get?!?!?!
"She wiped out her husband's retirement account, mortgaged the house and took a lien out on the family car. Both were already paid for."
-If I were her husband, I'd have her committed, since such flagrant stupidity is reserved for people who like to bang their heads on walls. Not only that, I'd divorce her, take everything I had left (not much) and leave the fool penniless and homeless.
"Now, Spears has gone public with her story as a warning to others not to fall victim."
-No, by going public, she is now hoping that she will be able to dupe others into feeling sorry for her and sending her "donations" to help bail her out and fix the results of her mind-blowing stupidity. *DEFINITELY* not a scam I'll be falling victim to.
"In April, Google said it was investigating how to index HTML forms such as drop-down boxes and select menus, another part of the Dark Web."
-Great, now I can have 10,000 times more irrelevent search results to dig through!
Now I can control my wife's electric "back massager" when I'm away!
"i mean, look at the usa - they elected fraud #1 to their highest office!"
Do you mean Bush or Obama?
Seagate's Mike Hall: "I'm looking into this and will get back to you once I know more."
Translation: "I don't know anything about this. I just spent 2 months in Cancun playing golf and sipping pina coladas on the company tab. I really want to go back, and thinking about all the senoritas there is more important to me than trying to figure this massive problem out, and giving our paying customers and share holders an answer isn't something I feel like doing right now. I'm only a spokesman, and, seeing as how I am too stupid read our own product info releases, especially explaining why we recomended it for RAID applications, and then said it wasn't meant for such applications, resolving such a problem is way out of my league."
"(c) imitation of J. K. Rowling's writing style in portions"
Fictional? Creative? Fantasy?
So.....Now *WRITING STYLES* are copyrightable??
If Rowling and the publishers are hoping to protect their reputation, I think it is safe to say they just shot themselves in the foot. Repeatedly.
Wow..... The RIAA doesn't like:
a) Legal bullies
b) Being sued
c) Lawyers who flout the rules
d) Misstatements of fact
How ironic, because what they are claiming are simply unsupported accusations, whereas the RIAA's own legal bullying, lawsuits, misstatements of fact, and rule flouting can be easily pointed out.
What Mr. Beckerman should do in defending himself is to take each of the RIAA's charges and show the court where the RIAA has themselves committed the wrongful acts that they 'claim' Mr. Beckerman has. Nothing will kill a lawsuit faster than showing the court that the plaintiff has committed the VERY SAME ACTS that they are accusing the defendant of committing. Honestly, how can you explain to a judge how you think you should be able to engage in those practices without consequence, yet they (the judge) should sanction an opposing lawyer for supposedly committing those same acts?
The Amazing Kreskin predicts a trial in which Exhibit A will be watching the RIAA eat their foot..... after they've shot themselves in it.
"Why would the British make jokes about us walking backwards?"
Being Italian also, I would like to point out that the British can't cook worth a damn, but an Italian grandmother can cook anything out of virtually nothing.
I wonder what they turned the worm into.....
Soldier 1: :::Enemy behind the wall on the left by the palm tree.:::
Soldier 2: :::Enemy behind the wall on the left by the palm tree.:::
Soldier 3: :::Enemy behind the wall on the left by the palm tree.:::
Soldier 4: :::Enemy behind the wall on the left by the palm tree. Hey, wait a minute! That reminds me, the mailman and my wife were pretty friendly last time I was home...:::
Soldier 5: :::Enemy behing the wall on the left by the palm tree:::
Soldiers 1, 2, 3: :::WTF?! Enemy behind the wall on the left by the palm tree!:::
Soldier 5: :::I'll bet he's got a package for her!:::
Soldier 4: :::What's THAT supposed to mean?:::
Soldier 6: :::Dude, your wife's bangin the mailman!:::
Soldier 5: :::HE'S GOT AN RPG!!!:::
Soldier 4: :::Dude, that's not funny!:::
Soldier 5: :::NO! THE GUY BEHIND TH-.....
Fwishhhh! BOOOOOM!
Soldiers 1, 2, 3, 4, 6: :::Oh... *That* guy.....:::
Yeah.....I don't see that happening.
"it's not a bug. It's a security feature."
"If they ban you from the online game, you can still play it by yourself, at home. Just not on their servers."
But if you paid for software that as intended to be used to play on their servers, then they are obligated to let you use the software and features that you paid for. The obvious exceptions are if you use the servers to do something that is outside of the use that you paid for (DOS attacks, hacking, spoofing, SPAM, etc.).
Oh, I have no problem buying an electric heater. It's paying for the electricity to run it that gets me.
Regarding SUVs, there needs to be a separate category for SUVs. Right now, auto companies can get away with it by classifying them as Light Trucks. Yes, they may weigh as much and be approxiamtely the same size, but they aren't intended or designed for use as trucks.
The law only goes by the capacity specifications (I think), not by intended use. THAT needs to be changed, as a Chevrolet Suburban, Cadillac Escalade, Ford Excursion, Toyota Tundra, or Land Rover *ARE NOT* the same as my F250.
Great, just great.
Now Jack Thompson has something to get his jollies with.
Plus, every gun control nutjob, the "Brady Bunch", and every Lets-Ban-Everything-That-Is-Harmful yuppie now has another reason to restrict *YET ANOTHER* aspect of our lives!
This, ontop of the BAAQMD's new dictate that it is now, in my little town, now a *CRIME* to use your fireplace on days they declare "Spare The Air" days in winter:
First Offense: $100 fine, and you have to attend a class on how to burn a fire without creating excess smoke.
Second/Subsequest Offenses: $100 fine.
Life is full of hazards and dangers. Get used to it. Someone tell the HAZARD NAZIS to shut the fuck up.
HAHAHA!
Oh jeez, if I could use my mod points, I'd *definitely* mod that up! That one gavce me a good laugh!
I guess you could tack on Animal Cruelty too, since one of those big chunks of Skylab killed a rancher's steer.
"Save The Whales"
"Save The Rainforests"
"Think Of The Children"
"9/11"
"Global Warming"
"Change"
"Polar Icecaps"
Thanks to this kind of news, every eco-department will have yet another "reason" to tell us how to live our lives. So far, the BAAQMD has now made it a *CRIME* to use your fireplace on "Spare The Air" days, regardless of how cold it gets during the winter. And no, they won't be reimbursing you for your electric bill.
D.Y.I Home Security:
A 12 gauge semi-auto and a case of 00 buck.