Category: News You Need to Know

The Science is In

File this under another reason to be against the war on drugs and government policy involving things we can and can not put into out bodies. The United Kingdom got a little irked when they told a group of scientists to do some research into various drugs. Unfortunately for the government the research didn’t give the results they wanted so now they’re making a new proposal that would remove the requirement for scientific advice when doing drug classifications:

The proposals will be of concern to the many doctors and scientists who have criticised the government’s treatment of scientific evidence in the wake of the sacking, last year, of ACMD chairman David Nutt. The then home secretary, Alan Johnson, removed Nutt from the post after the scientist criticised politicians for distorting research evidence and claiming alcohol and tobacco were more harmful than some illegal drugs, including LSD, ecstasy and cannabis.

And I love this wording:

“Removing the requirement on the home secretary to appoint to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs at least one person with experience in six specific areas will allow us greater flexibility in the expertise we are able to draw on.

In other words it will allow the government the flexibility to classify things however the fuck they please.

I just want to emphasis the main point in this post, the United Kingdom government didn’t like the results of scientific research so they are moving to abolish the requirement of scientific input on drug classification.

Wikileaks

I haven’t spoke up about my opinion on the recent Wikileaks fiasco. Frankly I don’t know what to think here. I’m all for the information being released because a government that keeps secrets from it’s citizens is a government that is up to something bad.

What I find most interesting is the recent movements against Wikileaks. Some people are calling for Assange to be charged with treason which is moronic because he’s not an American citizen (so note to Sarah Palin, Wikileaks itself committed no treasonous act). Others are clamoring for him to be charged with Espionage under the Espionage Act of 1917. I find this rather interesting for the following reason:

(a) of this section in time of war shall be punished by death or by imprisonment for not more than thirty years; and

(b) whoever, in time of war, with intent that the same shall be communicated to the enemy, shall collect, record, publish or communicate, or attempt to elicit any information with respect to the movement, numbers, description, condition, or disposition of any of the armed forces, ships, aircraft, or war materials of the United States, or with respect to the plans or conduct, or supposed plans or conduct of any naval of military operations, or with respect to any works or measures undertaken for or connected with, or intended for the fortification of any place, or any other information relating to the public defence, which might be useful to the enemy, shall be punished by death or by imprisonment for not more than thirty years.

Emphasis mine. Under our Constitution the only way the United States can be at war is if Congress declares it. Congress has declared no war since World War II so can Assange really be lawfully charged under the Espionage Act? I’m not stating either way but I find it a most interesting observation.

Strangely enough you’ll notice many stories about people calling for the head of Assange. Do you want to know a little secret? Assange isn’t Wikileaks, he’s just their figurehead. Nabbing Assange will not shut down Wikileaks as there are far more people behind the scenes doing the real work of keeping the site up.

I’d also point out the fact that any potential damage has already been done. You can’t erase information from the Internet, especially a heavily mirrored site such as Wikileaks. Shutting down the main Wikileaks servers, high jacking the domain name, or any other such nonsense will accomplish absolutely nothing. The base technologies of the Internet were designed as a decentralized method of communication that would be difficult to take down should the Russian decide to let nukes fly. It’s incredibly resilient and does not lend itself well to censorship.

The United States government should realized the damage is done and there is nothing they can do to take the information back. They need to realize the only method of correcting this problem is to stop conducting backroom deals that would be embarrassing if they should ever come to light.

Terrorism Cost Benefits Ratio

Bruce Schneier has a nice post up on his site talking about the cost benefits ratio of terror attacks. Ultimately terror attacks can be done on the cheap while costing us billions in wasted security measures aimed and preventing that same attack next time. Think the TSA for a second, every time some yahoo gets through with a few bucks with of poor explosives in their britches the TSA spend millions on new technologies that allow them to see through your clothing.

The terrorists have won ladies and gentlemen (well they won the second the PATRIOT Act was passed now that I think about it). If you can bleed your opponent dry of resources you really can hold out longer than they can and thus will win the war.

Trying to Ban Spelling Mistakes

If guns kill people then pencils cause spelling mistakes. Apparently a North Brookfield teach decided to try and ban spelling mistakes because she sent out a memo to every sixth-grade student alerting them that they would no longer be allowed to bring pencils to school. What? Well he reasoning is classic dumbassery:

The memo said students would no longer be allowed to bring writing implements to school. It said pencils would be provided for students in class and any students caught with pencils or pens after Nov. 15 would face disciplinary action for having materials ‘to build weapons.’

Of course the administration of the school is saying nobody authorized the teacher to release this memo but frankly it’s still sickeningly funny. Zero tolerance ladies and gentlemen means we must all wear Velcro shoes because shoe laces can be used to strangle people. On second thought shoes can be used to bludgeon people so I guess all students must go bear foot from here on out.

North and South Korea at it Again

It seems North and South Korea are having a not-so-friendly game of artillery tag. Although North Korea is claiming South Korea fired first I’m a little skeptical when it comes to anything Kimmy Boy says.

My biggest worry though is this combined with the fact there are rumblings of a uranium enrichment plant in North Korea will give the United States cause to enter into yet another expensive and pointless conflict that doesn’t involve us.

Incorrect Diagnosis

It seems that 911 is getting with the times so to speak as the FCC is updating the 911 system to handle text messages. I can see it now we can have quality texts such as:

OMG SUM DOOD SHOOTIN DA SKOOL, SEE PIGS

I’m guessing a dispatcher will be wasting more time trying to decipher most peoples’ text messages than sending actual help to an emergency. What really puts the icing on the cake for this story though is the reason the FCC is updating the 911 system:

“The technological limitations of 9-1-1 can have tragic, real-world consequences,” the release said. “During the 2007 Virginia Tech campus shooting, students and witnesses desperately tried to send texts to 9-1-1 that local dispatchers never received. If these messages had gone through, first responders may have arrived on the scene faster with firsthand intelligence about the life-threatening situation that was unfolding.”

That’s an incorrect diagnosis if I’ve ever read one. The problem with Virginia Tech was the fact there was a gunman walking around killing people. There aren’t a lot of solutions prevent such a case, you can only strive to make the situation end quickly. I highly doubt being able to receive text messages would have allow the police to arrive any faster. What would have had potential to end the situation faster would be to allowed students and faculty to legally carry their firearms on campus. Even to this day if a student or faculty member has a carry permit they are not allowed to carry at Virginia Tech. This limitation means any guy walking around shooting people on campus has several minutes at the last until the police are able to arrive.

If the FCC wants to limit the impact of these types of situations they should be placing their support behind a law to abolish the concept of the “gun-free zone.” Obviously that’s not the FCC’s area of jurisdiction so it’s best if they just stay out of it all together but it’s the only real solution to the problem they’re claiming to address at the moment.

Everything You Need to Know About the Recent TSA Fiasco

With all the shit flying about the recent TSA molestation of airliner customers it’s become very difficult to keep up with events as they unfold. Thankfully Bruce Schneier has a really good summary covering pretty much everything. Read it.

Mountain Goats… We’re Not Safe Anywhere

Yesterday I posted a story about a man who was killed by a mountain goat. Today I’m here to inform you that mountain goats are out there, they’re out to get us, and there is nowhere that we are safe. These bastards were spotted climbing the Cingino Dam in Italy. Looking at the picture it’s obvious that going around the dam would have been easier which leads me to believe the mountain goats are sending us a message… a very frightening message.

Cell Phones and Auto Accidents

A story today is saying the United States Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is pushing for a complete ban on cell phone usage while driving. This includes standard cell phone talking, texting, and the use of hand-free systems. He claims people are distracted by all of these things and it is leading to accidents.

Personally I’m always dubious of what politicians say so I’ve been looking into the matter. It’s pretty universally accepted that cell phone usage has been increasing exponentially for the last decade and a half. I’m not one to just take generally accepted ideas so I started digging for facts. CTIA has been keeping statistics on the number of cellular phone subscribers since 1985 [Waring: PDF]. Since 1985 the number of cell phone subscribers has went from 203,600 (which surprised me there were that many back in ’85) to 276,610,580 in 2009. In roughly two and a half decades we’ve literally went from hundreds of thousands of cell phone subscribers to hundreds of millions. I’d call that an exponential increase.

If Mr. LaHood’s claims are accurate and the ever increasing amount of distraction in automobiles are causing accidents there should be a noticeable increase in the number of accidents since 1985. This is where the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) comes into play (I sources them in my last post). In their 2008 report [Waring: PDF] page 14 lists the historical data of crashes by crash severity. The main thing I was concerned about was the total number of automobile accidents per year.

Like I said if cell phone usage has been causing automobile accidents it should be noted on the total number of accidents yearly. The data published by the NHTSA goes from 1988 to 2008 which is what we’ll concern ourselves with. So how much have automobile accidents increased? Here’s the funny thing, they haven’t. In fact the number of accidents has been on a slight downward trend since 1988.

In 1988 the total number of automobile accidents was 6,887,000, in 1990 it was 6,471,000, in 1995 it was 6,699,000, in 2000 it was 6,394,000, in 2005 it was 6,159,000, and finally in 2008 it was 5,811,000. It seems the only correlation that exists between the increase in cell phone subscribers and automobile accidents is a slight downward trend (which I’m absolutely not implying is causality).

Inevitably this is where somebody will point out the reason for the downward trend are laws banning cell phone usages while driving. The problem is that isn’t true. From what I’ve been able to find the first law banning cell phone usage while driving was enacted in New York in 2001. The downward trend in automobile accidents has been going on since the late ’80’s at the very least. If the downward trend was occurring before the first law banning cell phone usage while driving was enacted that indicate a third party reason. In fact a recent study confirms exactly what I’m saying.

Cell phone penetration seems to have no effect on the number of automobile accidents. I would wager that some people are just bad drivers. Cell phones don’t offer these people a distraction where there wasn’t one before, they just offer a different type of distraction. Before the popular use of cell phones how many times did you see somebody driving while applying makeup, brushing their teeth, shaving, reading, or some other such stupidity? Some people just want to be distracted and enacting laws barring the usage of cell phones while driving isn’t going to correct anything.

Please don’t read this and think I’m condoning texting while driving because I’m not. Texting while driving is just stupid and you must remove your eyes from the road. I just don’t think we need another law on the books to ban texting while driving, reckless driving laws already handle the problem. Especially considering the prevalent inclusion of GPS navigation systems on cell phones. What you might view as somebody reading an e-mail to texting could very well just be them reading a map and navigating. If you really want to remove all potential distractions from drivers you will have to ban GPS, radios, gauges (because looking at your heat gauge means you’re not look at the road), and passengers. Basically we all have to drive a single seat car with absolutely no accessories. Of course due to massive boredom we’ll probably have more people falling asleep at the wheel and thus increase the number of accidents.

I’m perfectly OK with the use of hands free system while driving as it’s no different than holding a conversation with your passenger and talking on your phone while driving without a hands-free system is dependent on the person doing it. Once again reckless driving laws already take care of the problem of bad and dangerous drivers.

The bottom line is I wish people would stop blaming cell phone usage for an increase in the number of accidents because there is no increase. Blame bad drivers for being bad drivers.

Remember All Those Saved and/or Created Jobs

I wonder where the Hell all those jobs that were saved and/or created by the stimulus bills. Apparently those jobs are hidden in some dark corner because this country keeps shedding jobs. For the fourth month in a row this country has lost more jobs. When will we finally admit that this whole idea of a regulated economy and Keynesian economics doesn’t work?