Monthly Archives: December 2011

All the organizations and companies supporting the heinous SOPA. It all the usual suspects, media corporations and lawyers, with a few surprises, like the Major County Sheriffs, the Majority City Chiefs and GoDaddy.

In my excitement over Downton Abbey Christmas special, I forgot that Sherlock returns on January 1st.  A good way to start the new year, I think.

That does it, I’m reading The Hobbit this weekend.

Even the best case scenario, a peaceful reunification of the Koreas, won’t be pretty.

The perfect response to Slate’s Nervous Nelly article on Nerf and their awesomeness.

Emmett Otter outtakes.

Kim Jong-Il is dead, world leaders are busy not saying what they really think.

I found Under The Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader to be a painfully balanced and but interesting look at the recent history of the country, if you’re interested.

As an aside, 2011 has been a bad year for despots in general, hasn’t it?

First off, I thought collusion was illegal. Secondly, it seems apparent publishers don’t care about ebook sales, or hope it’s a passing fad, because they are guaranteeing that I am going to buy a used paperback. Did they learn nothing from Napster and the music industry?

Digital books have one two advantages over physical ones, I can fit a lot of them on one device and carry them all with me and I can buy them without having to get up. But all that convience just isn’t worth more than the cost of a paperback.

Sorry authors, I bet I would have enjoyed your writing.

Christopher Hitchens. He was an amazing writer whose work I enjoyed, even when he was wrong.

Isaac Newton notebooks are online for your viewing pleasure. Knowledge of Greek would be useful.

Look, you chose to be a public servant, driving a publicly-owned car. That kind of negates your right to privacy there.  Getting the cops to cover for you is, a. really bad PR for the cops, and b. if not illegal, it should be.

I have no doubt that newspapers mangle the news regularly, and I can understand wanting to avoid that, but shoving evidence under the carpet is no way to get out of trouble. It’s just going to make things worse. Release the evidence, get your experts to explain what happened and go about your life.

Note to self: Make sure next car doesn’t have black box.

Something 25 light years away is bouncing our old TV signals back to us and scientists are using that to recover the lost Doctor Who episodes. Awesome.

A good tutorial on the latest news from CERN about the Higgs boson thing.

Norway is facing a butter shortage as Christmas approaches. I cannot even fathom how this possible.

Shame on every Senator that voted for this. And I’m pretty sure the terrorists have won when the Democrats are the ones trying to limit the government’s power.

Having failed at conquest victory conditions twice, Germany goes for the economic victory.

The Doctor Who Christmas Special prequel.

I remember when the Falkland Islands thing happened the first time. I doubt it will go any better for Argentina this time, should Britian decided to stop writing letters and do something.

A look at the militarization of the police over the last 30 years.

The amount of force the government uses to uphold a given law is no longer determined only by the threat to public safety posed by the suspect. Now, it appears to give an indication of how serious the government is about the law being enforced. The DEA sends SWAT teams barreling into the offices of doctors accused of over-prescribing painkillers not because the doctors pose any real threat of violence, but because prescription drug abuse is a hot issue right now. The feds sent SWAT teams into marijuana dispensaries not because medicinal pot merchants are inherently dangerous people, but because officials believe the dispensaries are openly defying federal law. It is, to put it bluntly, a terror tactic.

Scientists have developed a new coating that may keep eyeglasses and tablets/phones from smudging.

“I’m sorry, but you are President of the damn United States of America. You have to do what is right for the country and not worry about the political ramifications.”

While the money quote is good, the problem isn’t the President. The problem is Congress is unwilling to legislate because that would require being willing to take the blame, and it’s far less risky to let the President take the blame than to take a stand. It’s Congress’ job to figure out how to fix things and then the President then executes those plans. It’s been a while since it’s worked that way though, so I can understand why Cardoza is confused about it.

Google points out that the Protect IP Act is a bad idea. And if trial lawyers like it, you can bet it’s a bad idea.