Tag: You’re Doing it Right

A Wonderful Problem to Have

Sometimes you have to look on the bright side of things. For example, an increasing percentage of our species suffers from being overweight:

In 1980, there were 857 million overweight and obese people on the planet. Today that number is 2.1 billion, which means that nearly 30 percent of the world’s population is obese or overweight, concludes a study published in The Lancet yesterday. And what’s more worrisome is that no nation has managed to significantly decrease its obesity rates in the last 33 years.

The horror! 30 percent of the population is overweight, which puts a burden on our socialized healthcare systems! Overweight people obviously hate society!

OK, let us step back for a moment and consider the problem. Having one third of our species overweight is actually an incredible problem to have. Consider what it means. It means that a considerable amount of our species no longer has to invest every waking hour into obtaining enough food just to survive. In fact for those people food is so plentiful that they have to swap some of the time that used to be necessary to obtain food to deal with the side effects of having too much food. Instead of complaining incessantly about people being fat we should be celebrating how far we’ve come as a species. We’re damn lucky to have reached a point where we have to deal with these sorts of problems.

They Just Want to Thump Some Skulls

Modern police departments have more in common with military forces than they do with security agencies. If you look at most private security providers they tend to have little in the way of riot gear, grenade launchers, and armored personnel carriers. But there are a lot of police departments with plenty of all three and much more. Likewise the strategies employed by the two organizations differ. Private security providers tend to be far less psychopathic because no business wants its customers harassed by a man with a badge every time they try to come in the store. Modern police departments often don’t bother knocking on the door before sending a battering ram and a flashbang through as a precursor to a full scale invasion.

As modern police departments become more militarized more people are becoming upset, which has lead to a few investigations. The Seattle Police Department has been under investigation for a while now due to its use of excessive force on minorities. This has lead to the department adopting new rules of engagement, which has made many of its officers unhappy:

(Reuters) – Seattle police officers filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday challenging new policies that restrict use of force, saying the rules endanger lives of both officers and civilians.

More than 120 officers have joined the lawsuit, which seeks a complete dismantling of a new use of force policy hammered out between the Seattle Police Department and the U.S. Department of Justice to stem an alleged pattern of excessive force.

The Seattle Police Department has been under federal monitoring since 2012, following an investigation into a series of incidents in which officers appeared to engage in excessive force, particularly against minorities.

I believe that modern police departments, due to the strategies they employ more commonly every day, attract a special type of person. Namely people who actually enjoy hurting other people. Because of this we have police departments that are filled with vicious men who get upset whenever their ability to hurt other people is hindered.

If these officers were actually concerned with helping people they would already be using the bare minimum amount of force necessary to resolve situations. There wouldn’t be multiple reports of excessive force as other officers would come down on any of their fellows that employed it. But excessive force is the norm so long as the words “officer safety” can be written on the report. Officer safety shouldn’t be the primary concern of a police department, the safety of community members should be.

In an ideal world an individual signing up to become a police officer would do so with the understanding that their job is to protect members of the community. That necessarily requires putting one’s own life on the line to protect others, not putting other’s lives on the line to protect one’s self. If that is an idea that disturbs an individual then they should find another job.

The Greenwald Orbital Ion Cannon

Depending on how comprehensive this list is this latest release by Gleen Greenwald could effectively be the orbital ion cannon strike in the war against the National Security Agency (NSA):

Glenn Greenwald, one of the reporters who chronicled the document dump by National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden via the U.K. press, now said he’s set to publish his most dramatic piece yet: The names of those in the United States targeted by the NSA.

“One of the big questions when is comes to domestic spying is, ‘Who have been the NSA’s specific targets?’ Are they political critics and dissidents and activists? Are they genuinely people we’d regard as terrorists? What are the metrics and calculations that go into choosing those targets and what is done with the surveillance that is conducted? Those are the kinds of questions that I want to still answer,” Mr. Greenwald told The Sunday Times of London.

I’m imagining a list a million names long and am really hoping my name appears somewhere in it. But the list will likely be much shorter than that and may just contain the names of the “important” people the NSA is spying on. Either way it will be interesting to see who’s one it and, hopefully, determine some of the criteria the NSA uses to select targets for espionage.

Open Carry Texas Revamps Its Strategy

After brining gun owners the Chipotle fiasco Open Carry Texas has decided to revamp its strategy. Thankfully the revamping looks pretty intelligent:

For all further open carry walks with long guns, we are adopting the following unified protocol and general policy to best ensure meeting our respective legislative mission to legalize open carry:

1) Always notify local law enforcement prior to the walk, especially the day of.
2) Carry Flags and signs during your walk to increase awareness.
3) Carry the long gun on a sling, not held.
4) Do not go into corporate businesses without prior permission, preferably not at all.
5) If asked to leave, do so quietly and do not make it a problem.
6) Do not post pics publicly if you do get permission and are able to OC in a cooperate business.
7) Do not go into businesses with TABC signs posted with a long gun (Ever).
8) If at all possible, keep to local small businesses that are 2A friendly.

Points four and five are the big ones in my opinion. Businesses exist to make money. Anything that potentially interferes with that goal is undesirable. Politics is bad for business. No matter what your political stance is it will probably piss off half of your customer base. That’s why most businesses avoid making political statements, posting political signs, and otherwise be overt about political issues. When gun rights activists try to use a business for political gain it will cause unwanted backlash (as we’ve learned from Starbucks, Jack In The Box, and now Chipotle). Unless specifically invited leave businesses out of politics.

Kudos to Open Carry Texas for admitting it had a problem and doing something about it. Too many political organizations refuse to accept criticism and end up doubling down on their stupidity.

Glenn Greenwald Demonstrates Leniency in Describing Hillary Clinton

Glenn Greenwald is a class act. The man manages to find very polite ways to describe horrible people. Read his recent interview with GQ. In it he describes Hillary Clinton and demonstrates a level of professionalism that I couldn’t achieve if asked to describe that war criminal:

Hillary is banal, corrupted, drained of vibrancy and passion. I mean, she’s been around forever, the Clinton circle. She’s a fucking hawk and like a neocon, practically. She’s surrounded by all these sleazy money types who are just corrupting everything everywhere.

Only one f-bomb? That’s being extremely charitable with Hillary. After all Greenwald is describing the same woman who was downright giddy over the killing of Gadaff. Just look at the joy on her face. That’s pretty sick. But Greenwald also hits another nail on the head during his interview:

But she’s going to be the first female president, and women in America are going to be completely invested in her candidacy. Opposition to her is going to be depicted as misogynistic, like opposition to Obama has been depicted as racist. It’s going to be this completely symbolic messaging that’s going to overshadow the fact that she’ll do nothing but continue everything in pursuit of her own power. They’ll probably have a gay person after Hillary who’s just going to do the same thing.

I’m fairly certain his prediction is correct and Hillary will be the next president. Why? Because the Democratic Party has been fawning over her forever and the Republican Party is too incompetent to field a candidate that isn’t an equally horrific human being. And like racism with Obama, criticizing Hillary will end with accusations of misogyny (I’m going to criticize the every living fuck out of her anyways because I don’t give a damn about the opinions of her supporters).

I’m Not Sure Why She’s in Prison

There are times where I’m left completely baffled by a court decision (OK, truthfully it happens more often than not). Take the case of Maria del Carmen Garcia. When her daughter was 13 years-old she was raped. The rapist was sentenced to nine years in prison and was released on parol after seven. After being released the rapist ran into Maria:

While on parole he came in contact with Garcia after returning to the family’s hometown in Spain and asked her, “How’s your daughter?”

I’m sure running into her daughter’s rapist wasn’t a happy situation to begin with but asking how her daughter is doing is rubbing salt in an open wound. Maria then responded in a way that I feel was actually very lenient:

Locating the convicted rapist in a bar, she doused him with newly purchased petrol, and set him on fire, reports The Local. The man died a week later as a result of the burns.

Of all the horrible tortures she could have inflicted on her daughter’s rapist I must admit that dousing him with gasoline and lighting him ablaze was actually quite civil. It was certainly far better than the rapist deserved. Unfortunately the courts disagreed and decided locking Maria in prison was the best way to handle the situation. Initially she received a longer sentence than her rapist but at least the Spanish Supreme Court reduced it. Still the decision to cage Maria doesn’t appear to be very popular with the locals as thousands have signed a petition requesting clemency, which goes to show how popular people who rape children are.

The fact that Maria is sitting in a cage baffles me.

Technology Companies Defying the State By Reporting Law Enforcement Requests

Rebellion is a beautiful thing. Several major technology companies included Apple, Facebook, and Google have decided to notify their users when law enforcement agents request their data:

Major U.S. technology companies have largely ended the practice of quietly complying with investigators’ demands for e-mail records and other online data, saying that users have a right to know in advance when their information is targeted for government seizure.

This increasingly defiant industry stand is giving some of the tens of thousands of Americans whose Internet data gets swept into criminal investigations each year the opportunity to fight in court to prevent disclosures. Prosecutors, however, warn that tech companies may undermine cases by tipping off criminals, giving them time to destroy vital electronic evidence before it can be gathered.

Fueling the shift is the industry’s eagerness to distance itself from the government after last year’s disclosures about National Security Agency surveillance of online services. Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and Google all are updating their policies to expand routine notification of users about government data seizures, unless specifically gagged by a judge or other legal authority, officials at all four companies said. Yahoo announced similar changes in July.

One thing I like about the technology field is that companies and individuals within it tend to have a greater problem with authority than most. Although I would have preferred to see this happen sooner I’m not going to gripe too much. Instead I want to congratulate these companies on doing the right thing.

It’s interesting to see the changes that have rippled through the technology market since Edward Snowden leaked those National Security Agency (NSA) documents. Security and transparency has traditionally been an afterthought for major technology companies but both have gained more prominence since we all learned that the NSA was unlawfully spying on each and every one of us. Google, for example, began encrypting data moving between its data centers. Experts in the security field boycotted the RSA conference because its namesake took $10 million from the NSA to use a knowingly weak random number generator in its BSAFE product. There has also been a race to develop more secure communication devices in an attempt to thwart the NSA surveillance apparatus. Basically the state royally pissed off the technology industry and it is now actively doing what it can to rebel.

I’m proud to work in a field that is actively giving the state a gigantic middle finger. Seeing companies like Apple, Facebook, and Google publicly change their policies to better inform their customers when the state is snooping makes me smile.

Minnesota Legislature and Governor Dayton Strikes a Blow Against the Boys in Blue

The Minnesota legislature just struck a blow against our heroes in blue! With a swipe of his pen Governor Dayton has made it unlawful for police to keep confiscated property without a conviction:

In a big win for property rights and due process, Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton signed a bill yesterday to curb an abusive—and little known—police practice called civil forfeiture. Unlike criminal forfeiture, under civil forfeiture someone does not have to be convicted of a crime, or even charged with one, to permanently lose his or her cash, car or home.

The newly signed legislation, SF 874, corrects that injustice. Now the government can only take property if it obtains a criminal conviction or its equivalent, like if a property owner pleads guilty to a crime or becomes an informant. The bill also shifts the burden of proof onto the government, where it rightfully belongs. Previously, if owners wanted to get their property back, they had to prove their property was not the instrument or proceeds of the charged drug crime. In other words, owners had to prove a negative in civil court. Being acquitted of the drug charge in criminal court did not matter to the forfeiture case in civil court.

Civil forfeiture is one of the best sources of police funding. By simply accusing an individual of wrongdoing the police could confiscate his or her property and sell it to fund their department. Now our boys in blue will be required to actually convict an accused individual in order to sell their property! It’s obvious what this will do to our fine state. Without profits from civil forfeiture the police departments won’t be able to afford as many guns, as much body armor, and an ever growing fleet of cruisers. How can we expect our heroes to keep up their record number of curb stompings, dog slayings, and no-knock raids at incorrect addresses if they can’t afford the equipment those jobs require? This is a travesty!

Sincerely,

Your friendly neighborhood statist.

Solar Power That Doesn’t Suck

Renewable energy is the buzzword used by any company or non-profit organization that wants a big fat grant from the federal government. One of the big categories of renewable energy is solar. Solar sounds nice on paper since it produces energy from the sun and if the sun stops providing energy we will have much larger issues to worry about that electricity. But solar panels can also be unreliable. At night or when there is cloud cover solar panels produce nothing. The atmosphere, by design, also greatly diminishes solar energy before it gets to Earth’s surface. These factors make terrestrial solar panels less than idea for power production. But that doesn’t mean solar energy is nonviable, it merely means solar collectors need to be placed in space:

It’s been the subject of many previous studies and the stuff of sci-fi for decades, but space-based solar power could at last become a reality—and within 25 years, according to a proposal from researchers at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The agency, which leads the world in research on space-based solar power systems, now has a technology road map that suggests a series of ground and orbital demonstrations leading to the development in the 2030s of a 1-gigawatt commercial system—about the same output as a typical nuclear power plant.

This is research into solar energy that actually matters. Unlike the shit research produced here in the United States, research into space-based solar collectors could actually create a viable source of energy for our increasingly energy-hungry society.

Obviously the technology isn’t without danger. If energy is being beamed from orbit the beam will most likely carry a rather high damage potential. But wind farms and terrestrial solar collectors don’t have a flawless safety record either. Anything that generates enough electrical energy to matter is almost certainly going to have some tradeoffs. The only question becomes one of tradeoff. Here in the United States we’ve basically decided that the risk of nuclear meltdown is too great for the amount of power produced. Will we decide that the risk of a point on land being incinerated is low enough for the amount of power produced? I hope so because space-based solar panels will likely be the only renewable energy source that can produced what our species needs.

Beretta Shows Us the Potential of True Smart Guns

Smart gun is a dirty word in gun rights circles. This is because the term is used by gun control advocates in their crusade to restrict gun owners. But smart gun technology doesn’t have to be a dirty thing. There are a lot of neat features you could enable by including on-board electronics in firearms as Beretta is planning to show us with its new PX4i Storm series:

Beretta’s newest Law Enforcement pistol, unveiled at DSA ’14, is the Beretta PX4i Storm. This pistol is a standard PX4 Storm that been wired with electronic sensors which can track when rounds are fired, how many rounds are in the magazine, the status of the safety and even if a round is in the chamber or if the hammer is cocked.

[…]

If a police officer removes his PX4i from its holster the iProtect system could, for example, automatically notify the police dispatch as well as other officers nearby and route them to assist the officer in trouble. This can all be done without the officer having to make a radio call. It can even detect if an officer is injured or killed and issue an appropriate alert.

This is neat. I would love to have some of this technology in my competition pistol. Being able to automatically track the number of rounds fired would help me know when to replace wearable parts. It would also be interesting if the gun could record my draw time (which is possible since there is an accelerometer), the amount of time is takes me to go from drawing the pistol to firing the first round, and how long it takes me to perform a reload. If the technology was done correctly you could event eliminate the need for a shot timer in single-gun competitions by having the gun record the span of time between the first draw and the last round fired. Heck, if the guns were setup to communicate with one another you could even eliminate shot timers from multi-gun competitions.

Combining this technology with Bluetooth would open up a realm of possibilities. Imagine tying a firearm with something like Google Glass. At any time you could look up and know exactly how many rounds remain in your weapons magazine, whether or not a round is currently chambered, if there is a malfunction, how warm the barrel is (it would be helpful to receive an indicator if the barrel has reached a temperature where accuracy begins to deteriorate), how much charge remains in the optic’s battery, and so on.

I’m sure this technology will be pooh-poohed by a lot of gun owners. Many gun owners seem to dislike radical changes in firearm technology because they believe it will decrease reliability. But if there’s something electronic optics have taught us it’s that reliable electronics can be built and they can benefit our shooting. It won’t surprise me if the PXi4 has initial reliability issues but those issues will get resolved in time. Additionally there’s also the fact that electronics can be included in a firearm in such a way that an electronic failure won’t hamper the operation of the firearm itself, which I assume is how Beretta has designed the PXi4.