Mischievous Ramblings II

SCOTUS on GPS trackers used by law enforcement

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that police must get a search warrant before using GPS technology to track criminal suspects.

via www.msnbc.msn.com

What the Supreme Court Really Said About GPS Trackers

via WSJ Law Blog

 

IANAL, but I like the idea that SCOTUS seems to have decided that GPS trackers are not business as usual, that they are "a trespass", and they seem to require a warrant.

Good news.

"River of Meat Blood"

From Gizmodo:

Drone Pilot Discovers River of Meat Blood

Seems like a "Dallas drone hobbyist" was flying his camera equipped drone around when he "...discovered a huge stream of blood emptying into the Trinity River..."

Seems like the meat packing plant (aka slaughterhouse?) he was flying near was (probably) illegally discharging, um, waste material into the local watershed.

As more and more drones get into private hands, this is an example of the way that we, the people, can turn the tables on the wholesale surveillance state -- by turning the cameras on them.  Turn the cameras on the police, the corporations, the politicians... on The Man!

Apropos of, well, everything about this: Eye3; Engadget; TechCrunch

"...this report of my death was an exaggeration."*

From the Pine Bluff, AR Commercial:

Evan Robinson, Jr.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Mr. Evan Robinson, Jr., 60 of Pine Bluff, passed away, Friday, August 12, 2011. He was born in Pine Bluff to the late Evan Robinson, Sr. and Leona McKenzie.

His survivors include, wife, Linda Robinson of Pine Bluff; sons, James Robinson of Jackson, Miss., Herman Neal of Lafayette, La., Brian Neal of Pine Bluff, Brandon Hawkins of Denton, Texas, Gordon Johnson and Joseph Gray both of Pine Bluff; daughters, Lajeanne Miller of Denton, Texas; brothers, Arthur Williams of Kansas City, Kan. and Eddie Robinson; sisters, Teresa Tyson and Bettie Gray all of Pine Bluff; six grandchildren.

Services will be 10 a.m. Friday, August 19, 2011 at Family Time Baptist Church by Rev. Michael Williams. Burial will be in Forrest Lawn Cemetery.

Visitation will be from 5-7 p.m. Thursday at Brown Funeral Home of Pine Bluff.

The family will be at 1317 West 26th Street, Pine Bluff.

The body will lie in state at the church from 9:15 a.m. until time of service.

Online: Register: www.brownfuneralhomeandmortuary.com.

 

My condolences to the family of Evan Robinson, Jr, of Pine Bluff, AR.

* Samuel Langhorne Clemons (Mark Twain), May, 1897

R.I.P. Sun Microsystems: 1982 - 2010

(h/t James Gosling, Inventor of Java)

Interesting Musing on Oil Prices

Via Marginal Revolution, Calculated Risk discusses a possible scenario concerning oil prices, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) country spending, and the US trade deficit:

The following graph is interesting. This reminds me of how the surge in California state government revenues in the late '90s (due to the tech stock bubble), led to a concurrent surge in government spending. When the tech bubble burst, the state budget went bust.

The same pattern has been repeated across the U.S. recently with surging government spending based on revenues from the housing bubble. Now, almost every week, we see a story about some state or local government laying off workers and cutting their budget as revenues from housing decline.

Moved

Following in Chuq's footsteps, I have moved from WordPress over to TypePad. Here's the new feed

I've spent more than a month contemplating dealing with comment spam, and have given up. I'm more likely to write if I don't have technical issues like that.

Long Hard Slog

It's been long hard slog but the semester is over. I don't think I should have re-started blogging that close to finals week. Two finals, two final assignments, an American Kenpo seminar, and a USSD belt test all wrapped into just about 10 days made for, well, too much to do. :-)

But it's over, and I hope to get myself back to writing on a more regular basis.

Once I've graded all the homework that backed up on my for my TA job.

Yes, Comments are broken…

it's because of some of the anti-comment-spam stuff. I'm trying to decide whether I should fix it or just move over to TypePad or something where I don't have to worry about it.

Thanks for trying, though.

Yee-haw!

DVDActive - News - Releases - Western Mini-Series' (US - R1)

The Sacketts is coming to DVD.

Just this weekend I finished mastering a DVD copy of my (old, crappy, long-play) VHS version to a DL DVD. I was Googling to find the rights owners (track down the production companies, call NBC, etc.) when I found out Warner Home Video is finally going to put out a DVD.

Oh, it looks like I'm back to blogging. I wonder how that happened?

Woman fired for missing work after seeing husband off to war

Woman fired for missing work after seeing husband off to war

Family values as practiced in George W. Bush's America. I don't care if these people are Democrats or Republicans, they're despicable. They're obviously Corporatists: interested in their bottom line and getting the most they can for their money and nothing else matters.

Who said the 80s were the "me" decade? Sure looks like the 00's are even more the "me and my money" decade for the corporations of America.