Category: News You Need to Know

Minneapolis’s New Push on Guns

So far this year there have been 29 homicides in Minneapolis. Unlike Chicago when the murder rate starts exceeding 20 in a Minnesota city we start asking what the fuck? Well apparently the answer to lower the homicide rate in Minneapolis is to get tougher on “illegal possession” of guns.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you know my stance on “illegal possession.” In my book you can not be stripped of your rights. Once you’re out of prison your rights should be fully restored regardless of the crimes you’ve committed and that includes your second amendment rights.

With that said I’m also for a system where dangerous criminals are not returned to the streets so long as they’re still a possible danger. If you’ve committed a violent crime I believe part of the sentencing should include a psychological review by a jury of medical professionals (who are selected with jury-like care and randomness). This jury would have to give a criminal the OK before he’s released back into society. I must stipulate that this is only for violent crimes because if you haven’t caused harm to another person or their property I don’t feel any crime has been committed.

So I don’t find legitimacy in Minneapolis’s new policy of enforcing “illegal possession.” But I do like the idea of being tougher on repeat offenders and criminals with violent histories. Alas I find it stupid that they police are targeting guns instead of actual crimes. If I had been the person writing out the plan I’d have said the city is going to get tougher on repeat offenders and violent criminals. Gun have nothing to do with crime rate, criminals do. Target the.

Oh and if we really want to fix the homicide rate in Minneapolis all we need to do is carpet bomb North Minneapolis with napalm. Lots and lots of fiery napalm.

Cue the Sad Trombone

Remember that pay wall Rupert Murdoch is tossing up on all the “news” sites he owns? Remember all that bitching about freeloading Internet users no longer getting a free lunch? Remember how this was going to monetize the news industry and turn a profit? Well not so much. Via Dvorak Uncensored it appears as though not many people are subscribing to the London Time’s website:

After a month of forced free registrations and two weeks of a full paywall, Dan Sabbagh at Beehivecity.com says these are the numbers:

Apparently, the 15,000 paid subscriptions figure is considered “disappointing.”

That may sound like a lot but really isn’t not enough to pay for anything:

At 2 pounds a week, the average online subscriber would produce 100 pounds of revenue a year. 150,000 of them would produce 15 million pounds of revenue.

15 million pounds of revenue would be nice for a company used to living on, say, $5 million of revenue. But it wouldn’t even begin to offset the cost of the Times’ huge newsroom.

Meanwhile, what has the new paywall done to online traffic? So far, it has dropped by two-thirds. That, apparently, is actually better than expected. One editor feared it would collapse by 90%.

So what did Murdoch’s pay wall accomplish? A complete obliteration of online traffic and probably destroyed any chance of making a reason for advertisers to pay for in-site ads. Nice job dumb ass. I hope getting hit with the clue stick hurt.

It’s practically impossible to provide a free service and later turn it into a pay service. Almost everybody who has attempted to do as such has failed pretty miserably. The other thing to remember is the fact it’s very difficult to get customers to pay for a service that is provided free elsewhere (and even more difficult when those free sources are better than the pricey one).

Papers Please

Yeah the title I chose is way overboard for this little post but I thought it was funny so that’s what I used.

Some stores like to check your receipts when you leave their establishment. Best Buy is notorious for doing this, almost more-so than pushing their shitty “extended warranties” on customers. Well it appears Bitter over at Snowflakes in Hell got the special treatment from Wal-Mart.

I’m pointing this out to point out something else people don’t often know. When you are leaving a store with your purchased goods and you are asked for a receipt you are under no obligation to show it. The burden of proof that you’ve stolen something (because somebody who just payed for something obviously is in the business of theft as well) if they want to get the police involved. Funny enough the only way they can detain you is if they get the police involved… which requires them to provide the police with above mentioned evidence.

There are two ways you can think about this. The first is checking the receipt it little hassle and is easier than fighting over it. The other way of thinking about this, which is what I believe, is a store has no right to accuse a paying customer of theft. That’s what they are doing when they ask to check you receipt; telling you they believe you’re a crook. It’s a practice that pisses me off and frankly is the reason I rarely shop at stores such as Best Buy.

Security is Only as Strong as Its Weakest Link

And that weakest link always proves to be people. Bruce Schneier points out that the recently arrested Russian “spies” used stenography to secure their messages but they had one flaw:

“Law-enforcement agents observed and forensically copied a set of computer disks” when searching some of the defendants’ residences, according to a statement from FBI agent Maria Ricci. “Based on subsequent investigation as described below, I believe that the password-protected disks contain a steganography program employed by the SVR and the Illegals.” SVR stands for Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki, Russia’s foreign intelligence agency and the successor to the foreign operations arm of the KGB.

Ricci said the steganographic program was activated by pressing control-alt-E and then typing in a 27-character password, which the FBI found written down on a piece of paper during one of its searches.

Sounds like a strong password. It’s a good thing they wrote it down… oh wait.

That’s Racist

Not really but this story is funny. Apparently Chinese employers are willing to rent white people to mull around their facilities acting as employees:

“Face, we say in China, is more important than life itself,” said Zhang Haihua, author of “Think Like Chinese.” “Because Western countries are so developed, people think they are more well off, so people think that if a company can hire foreigners, it must have a lot of money and have very important connections overseas. So when they really want to impress someone, they may roll out a foreigner.”

Of course the pay kind of sucks if you ask me:

Zatkin was paid 2,000 yuan (about $300) to fly, along with a couple of Russian models, to a small city in the central province of Henan where he delivered a speech for the grand opening ceremony of a jewelry store there.

But it’s a job so simple anybody could do it… so long as they are white:

The requirements for these jobs are simple. 1. Be white. 2. Do not speak any Chinese, or really speak at all, unless asked. 3. Pretend like you just got off of an airplane yesterday.

I’m white, willing to shut up, and have no problem pretending I just got off of a plane, I could do this. Sweet deal!

Milk and Oil are the Same Thing

At least according to the EPA who has now classified cow milk as oil because it contains animal fat. Along with this reclassification comes the fact that farmers are now required to create milk spill prevention plans:

“This is an example of where we have overreach by the department that defies common sense,” said Matt Smego, legislative counsel for Michigan Farm Bureau.

Smego said its an unnecessary regulatory burden that creates additional costs. He said it could cost $2,500 for a certified engineer to safeguard milk, plus more to construct secondary containment structures.

Michigan has 2,299 dairy farms. According to the Michigan Department of Agriculture, dairy is the leading segment of Michigan’s agricultural industry, providing a $5.1 billion impact on the state’s economy.

Who would think up something this fucking stupid? Our government. Who would support something this fucking stupid? The Sierra Club:

But Gayle Miller, legislative director of Sierra Club Michigan Chapter, said agricultural pollution probably is the nation’s most severe chronic problem when it comes to water pollution.

“Milk is wholesome in a child’s body. It is devastating in a waterway,” Miller said. “The fact that it’s biodegradable is irrelevant if people die as a result of cryptosporidium, beaches close for E. coli and fish are killed.”

My question is this, has such a scenario ever happened? Has a milk spilled filled with harmful bacteria every caused harm to a population? This sounds like a ploy to make life even more difficult for farmers through enacting stupid laws that benefit nobody besides the government (who get to employ more people to enforce these regulations).

Your government at work.

Tornado Destruction

So we had some harsh weather here in Minnesota last night. In fact said harsh weather canceled the USPSA match. Wadena and Albert Lea didn’t have a fun night as their towns were messed up by tornadoes. Three people were killed by Mother Nature and 20 others were treated for mostly minor injuries.

Thankfully Governor Pawlenty is taking time off from his job his presidential campaign to size up the damage. Hey he still might not be doing his job but at least he’s in the state which is a huge improvement.

HP to Start Printing Ads On Your Printer

Oh this should go over like a lead ballon. HP has released a new line of Internet connected printers. One of the features of these new printers is they each have a unique e-mail address so you can e-mail documents directly to the printer and they’ll print them. But that’s not all they’re going to print. They are also going to print advertisements and you’ll be footing the bill on the ink for them. Yes that’s right not only do you get to pay for the printer and the ink but now you also get the privilege to pay for a little extra ink so HP can print advertisements onto your documents. Oh and this is just great:

“What we discovered is that people were not bothered by it [an advertisement],” Nigro said. “Part of it I think our belief is you’re used to it. You’re used to seeing things with ads.”

Really? You must have an odd test group because if I pay for something I don’t expect to have to deal with advertisements. If the product were free then I can see the justification in doing this to pay for the hardware but the customer is purchasing the printers. And yes I know HP sells their printers at a loss but they make up for it with the overly expensive ink. Now they’re double-dipping but overcharging for ink and advertising. But to make it really bad they are printing those advertisements with the overly expensive ink.

Fuck I hate what HP has become. I still remember when they were a good company that made reliable products.

Shut Up Slave

Although they often claim to be working for us our representatives seems to really believe they are above us. For instance find out what happens when a lowly slave questions the mighty congressman Bob Etheridge:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v60oNUoHBYM]

You don’t ask questions, you shut up and do as you’re told.

And for those saying the Congressman didn’t physically harm the student I ask you this; what would have happened if the student had done the same to the Congressman? The answer is he’d probably be in jail on the charge of assault. I don’t ask for much but I do demand the elimination of double standards when it comes to our representatives. Remember they are not above us, they are not higher than us, they are our public servants. They answer to us.