Found by John Ligums.

The celestial, steampunk GPS

“Sweetheart. What’s with the meat cleaver?”
“Herbert, You said you went bowling last night. That’s 11.2 miles from here. The GPS record shows you drove only 8.3 miles. That’s exactly the distance to that slut Edna’s house. Explain yourself!”

While the exact details are still being ironed out, Gov. Kulongoski’s web page gives the basics. He states, “As Oregonians drive less and demand more fuel-efficient vehicles, it is increasingly important that the state find a new way, other than the gas tax, to finance our transportation system.”

He is creating a task force “to partner with auto manufacturers to refine technology that would enable Oregonians to pay for the transportation system based on how many miles they drive.” Key studies were performed in 2006 and 2007 that indicate that such a program would indeed be possible.

In the 2007 test which lasted 10 months with 300 motorists at two service stations, drivers were taxed 1.2 cents per mile and were refunded the 24 cents a gallon state gas tax. When the motorists got to the pump, their vehicles connected to government computers informing them of the mileage (calculated via GPS tracking) and issuing tax. Equipment for the test came from Oregon State University.
[...]
Despite assurances from James Whitty, the ODOT official in charge of the project, that the new GPS system would not be used for continuous tracking of citizens’ cars, many advocacy groups are outraged and many remain fearful. The final report on the 2007 test deployment was conscious of this fear, stating, “The concept requires no transmission of vehicle travel locations, either in real time or of travel history. Accordingly, no travel location points are stored within the vehicle or transmitted elsewhere. Thus there can be no ‘tracking’ of vehicle movements.”

No back door for the Feds to track criminals? Riiiight. Next up, GPS watches to track your movements.

io9.com – Dec 27 2008:

A Canadian college student majoring in chemistry built himself a home lab – and discovered that trying to do science in your own home quickly leads to accusations of drug-making and terrorism.

Lewis Casey, an 18-year-old in Saskatchewan, had built a small chemistry lab in his family’s garage near the university where he studies. Then two weeks ago, police arrived at his home with a search warrant and based on a quick survey of his lab determined that it was a meth lab. They pulled Casey out of the shower to interrogate him, and then arrested him.

A few days later, police admitted that Casey’s chemistry lab wasn’t a meth lab – but they kept him in jail, claiming that he had some of the materials necessary to produce explosives. Friends and neighbors wrote dozens of letters to the court, testifying that Casey was innocent and merely a student who is really enthusiastic about chemistry.

On December 24, Casey was finally released into his parents’ custody, pending a trial to determine whether he was building what police called “improvised explosive devices.”

What friggin’ idiots!

Found by John Ligums.

East Village residents can say “Arrivederci!” to another neighborhood institution. The beloved movie shop Kim’s Video will soon shut down its rental service on St. Marks Place and ship the store’s 55,000-title film collection to a new far-flung home – in Italy.

And it’s been given away for free.

For owner Yongman Kim, losing his video collection marks the end of an era. “I think my passion in loving film to share and introduce to New Yorkers is no longer valid,”he told the Daily News via e-mail. Kim cited the “so-called Internet revolution”as one cause of the store’s demise. Online rental services like Netflix hurt business, and Kim also blames digital distractions like e-mail and YouTube – activities he says occupy the time people once spent watching movies at home.

Kim made a public offer in early September to donate his film collection for free, as long as the new owner kept the library intact and had 3,000 square feet to house the thousands of films.

Kim went with a bid from Salemi Mayor Vittorio Sgarbi – a former TV talk show host described as “one of the oddest and most colorful figures in contemporary Italy, by the British newspaper, The Independent – who’s trying to revitalize his poverty-stricken town.

“I now do not want to fight against the new stream,”Kim said. “I just want to disappear calmly.”

I am surprised no one in NYC had the smarts or civic concern to reach out and acquire the collection for posterity. The city is, after all, one of the world-class centers for the development of cinema production.

Maine man faces OUI charge atop Zamboni – Boston.com — How is being drunk on a Zamboni inside a building constitute “drunk driving?” This is police state BS.

A Portland man faces a drunken driving charge after police found him aboard an idling Zamboni inside the Cumberland County Civic Center.

Police and firefighters were alerted by an alarm at about 2 a.m. Tuesday that somebody was inside the arena, which is home to the Portland Pirates hockey team.

Police officers discovered 22-year-old Adam Patterson attempting to operate the Zamboni, which had crashed into a wall inside the civic center’s storage area.

Found by Tim Gilman.

Apparently, around 2:00 AM today, the Zune models either reset, or were already off. Upon when turning on, the thing loads up and… freezes with a full loading bar (as pictured above). I thought my brother was the only one with it, but then it happened to my Zune. Then I checked out the forums and it seems everyone with a 30GB HDD model has had this happen to them

This report is consistently corroborated by literally hundreds of others across the various Zune support and fan forums.

What hasn’t emerged yet, largely due to the fact that MS’s support lines aren’t yet open for the day, is why these devices are failing. The evidence seems to point to a software glitch, but simple resets aren’t providing any relief. Some reports indicate that only Zunes with the latest firmware are affected, but this hasn’t yet been confirmed.

The ambulance crew had been sent to Barry Baker’s home after he dialled 999 saying he thought he was having a heart attack.

Ambulance controllers kept Mr Baker talking on the phone as they ordered the paramedic and ambulance technician to use their blue lights to get to him as quickly as possible.

But 59-year-old Mr Baker, who was disabled and lived alone, collapsed unconscious while talking on the phone, leaving the line open to the control centre as he lay on the floor.
[...]
The police source said that despite Mr Baker collapsing, the controller was able to hear everything because the phone line remained open.

‘What they heard after their ambulance crew arrived frankly astonished them,’ said the source. ‘They are apparently heard to comment on seeing Mr Baker and saying-that it was not worth bothering to try to carry out resuscitation to try to save him.

‘They then are heard discussing what to tell ambulance control and allegedly decide to say that he was already dead when they arrived.

‘The controllers were so shocked by what seemed to be their colleagues’ lack of care for their patient that they immediately contacted senior managers and the police were called in.’