Category: News You Need to Know

Takes Notes Lybia

Do you want to prevent the United States from parking their military power off of your coast? Well the Japanese found a solution, have a nuclear power plant facing a potential meltdown:

Experts say a disaster on the scale of Chernobyl in the 1980s is highly unlikely because the reactors are built to a higher standard and have much more rigorous safety measures.

But the US said it had moved one of its aircraft carriers from the area after detecting low-level radiation 160km (100 miles) offshore.

Problem solved. Slight sarcasm aside the damage caused in Japan by the recent Tsunami is pretty horrific. Between the death toll so far as the problems occurring afterward Japan is in pretty rough shape on their coastline. I have one friend who is currently living there, thankfully far enough inland to be OK, who reported that they will be facing power outages until April. That is a minor inconvenience, unless of course you’re a hospital (I’m unsure if it’s just residential areas that are facing power outages or entire cities, either way most hospitals have backup generators). I’m sure water contamination is going to be a huge problem for a while and it will probably be months before all the dead are found.

Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery Japan.

Avoiding Bankruptcy Without a Government Bailout

When General Motors and Chrysler were facing bankruptcy our government stepped in, handed both companies a ton of our money to reward them for failing, and then allowed them to pay back these “loans” with money obtained through a different tax payer funded scheme.

There is another way companies can void bankruptcy and it doesn’t involve stealing money from the tax payers. This method, although hardly known, is to produce a better product. A recent story I came across talks about Rovio, the makers Angry Birds. It seems before publishing their title that everybody and their grandmother has probably played they were facing bankruptcy:

First they had to save a company in crisis: at the beginning of 2009, Rovio was close to bankruptcy. Then they had to create the perfect game, do every other little thing exactly right, and keep on doing it.

Now the company has something like $50 million on hand. What an amazing concept, a failing business bringing itself back from the brink by offering a product or service that people want. It’s such a novel concept.

American Health Care and the Free-Market

People often point to the American health care system is a failure of the free-market. The problem lies in the fact that the American health care system isn’t a free-market:

To start with, the American Medical Association (AMA) has had a government-granted monopoly on the healthcare system for over 100 years. It has intentionally restricted the number of doctors allowed to practice medicine so as to raise physician incomes artificially. The primary way it does this is by using the coercive power of the state to restrict the number of approved medical schools in operation. After the AMA created its Council on Medical Education in 1904, state medical boards complied with the AMA’s recommendation to close down medical schools.

The American health care system is one of the most heavily regulated industries in the country. It’s a classic example of failure due to government interference in the free-market.

Stealing Vehicles with Tow Trucks

I’ve often wondered why nobody used tow truck services to steal cars but as Bruce Schneier points out they do:

Stealing cars has apparently never been easier. Criminals aren’t using fancy tools or new technology; they’re just calling the tow truck and having cars towed away.

I’ve had to have my truck towed a couple of times and I noticed I was never once asked for proof that I owned the vehicle. Due to this I figured calling a tow truck on a vehicle you want to steal would be a good idea. The only potential downside would be the tow truck driver knowing where the vehicle went but by the time anybody thought to contact the tow truck driver the vehicle could be long gone.

Of course few people keep the title to their vehicles inside of their vehicles (because it’s a stupid idea). Thus there really is no way to provide proof of ownership when you have your vehicle towed which makes this situation a bit tricky.

Supreme Court Rules in Westboro Case

The Supreme Court has rules that the gatherings by members of the Westboro Baptist “Church” are protected by the first amendment. The decision was 8-1 which is about as much of a landslide as you can get in that court.

As much as I despise what the members of Westboro Baptist “Church” do I openly admit that it’s speech and they’re free to do it. Like all rights the freedom of speech is a double-edged sword to some. You can use any individual right for both good and bad. Just because some people use it for bad purposes doesn’t mean we should enact restrictions against it.

The thing most people fail to realize is the members of Westboro are attention whores. All these gatherings, all the shouting, all the signs, everything they do is a vain attempt to garner attention. The only way to deal with these types of people is by completely ignoring them. If we manage to ignore them they will eventually go away and find something else to occupy their time, maybe by starting a shitty band in their garages where they can sing about all the emo feelings they experience. Oh, if these yahoos come to your town remember not to touch them as they fund their operation through lawsuit money.

Credit Card Fraud, So Simple an Inmate Can Do it

I’ve always known credit card fraud was easy to do but I couldn’t appreciate how easy until I read this story which I found via Bruce Schneier’s blog:

A Rikers Island inmate ran a nationwide cyber-crime ring from behind bars that forged fake credit cards to buy $1 million in iPads and Apple computers, officials said Wednesday.

Shaheed “Sha” Bilal, 28, directed the massive syndicate, instructing his girlfriend and three younger brothers on how to encode the magnetic strips on credit cards with stolen financial information, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said.

Obviously the prison system works well if those incarcerated for performing criminal acts can continue to perform criminal acts while imprisoned.

Dedication to One’s Art Form

If there was ever a man who has dedication to his art form it would be the mystery person found passed out on Joel DeSpain’s lawn. The man’s art form? Drinking apparently as he had a blood alcohol level of 0.559. According to the story you need to do some furious drinking to accomplish this:

As an illustration, a 150-pound man would have to drink 22 shots of 80-proof whiskey in two hours to get that drunk, according to an online blood-alcohol calculator maintained by the University of Notre Dame’s Office of Alcohol and Drug Education.

Cripes! What’s even better is this blood alcohol level isn’t even the record:

Drunkenness to such a degree can be deadly, but people have survived even greater levels of intoxication. In 2007, for example, an Oregon woman was found unconscious in her car and with a blood-alcohol content of 0.72 percent.

Dedication, these people most certainly have it.

More Victims Stabbed

It seems New York isn’t the only anti-gun state where multiple stabbings occurred this week. In New Jersey a homeless man stabbed three people with a steak knife at a Burger King:

An apparently homeless man armed with a six-inch steak knife randomly stabbed three customers at a Burger King in Sayreville on Saturday, police said.

Had somebody been granted their “right” to carry a firearm this situation could have been ended sooner. Alas New Jersey doesn’t like to allow the peasants a right to self-defense so the chances are higher for this kind of scenario.

I guess those stabbed can take solace in knowing they weren’t shot… right? I also found the second to last paragraph interesting:

Police arrested Pittel after locating him inside a neighboring pizza shop. He was charged with three counts each of aggravated assault, possession of weapon and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

So possession of a weapon and possession of a weapon for unlawful purpose are two separate charges? If it’s illegal to possess a weapon in New Jersey wouldn’t possession of a weapon by for unlawful purposes by definition?