States are facing a great fiscal crisis. At least 44 states faced or are facing shortfalls in their budgets for this and/or next year, and severe fiscal problems are highly likely to continue into the following year as well. Combined budget gaps for the remainder of this fiscal year and state fiscal years 2010 and 2011 are estimated to total more than $350 billion.
Found by John Ligums.
THE Home Office has quietly adopted a new plan to allow police across Britain routinely to hack into people’s personal computers without a warrant.
The move, which follows a decision by the European Union’s council of ministers in Brussels, has angered civil liberties groups and opposition MPs. They described it as a sinister extension of the surveillance state which drives “a coach and horses” through privacy laws.
The hacking is known as “remote searching”. It allows police or MI5 officers who may be hundreds of miles away to examine covertly the hard drive of someone’s PC at his home, office or hotel room.
Under the Brussels edict, police across the EU have been given the green light to expand the implementation of a rarely used power involving warrantless intrusive surveillance of private property. The strategy will allow French, German and other EU forces to ask British officers to hack into someone’s UK computer and pass over any material gleaned.
Excuse me, but this just plain sucks!
Armed with his Canon 5D and his new Lensbaby lens, photographer Duane Kerzic set out to win Amtrak’s annual photo contest this week, hoping to win $1,000 in travel vouchers and have his photo published in Amtrak’s annual calendar. He ended up getting arrested by Amtrak police; handcuffed to a wall in a holding cell inside New York City’s Penn Station, accused of criminal trespass. Kerzic says he was hardly trespassing because he was taking photos from the train platform; the same one used by thousands of commuters everyday to step on and off the train.
“The only reason they arrested me was because I refused to delete my images,” Kerzic said in a phone interview with Photography is Not a Crime on Friday. “They never asked me to leave, they never mentioned anything about trespassing until after I was handcuffed in the holding cell.” In fact, he said, the only thing they told him before handcuffing him was that “it was illegal to take photos of the trains.” Obviously, there is a lack of communication between Amtrak’s marketing department, which promotes the annual contest, called Picture Our Trains, and its police department, which has a history of harassing photographers for photographing these same trains. Not much different than the JetBlue incident from earlier this year where JetBlue flight attendants had a woman arrested for refusing to delete a video she filmed in flight while the JetBlue marketing department hosted a contest encouraging passengers to take photos in flight.
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A woman in the area of Aspen and Hermosa NE told police Friday she was walking a friend to his car when she saw a suspicious person standing by a neighbor’s truck. The person then ran to a different vehicle, got in, and sped away. She thought it strange, and took down the vehicle’s license number.
The woman then turned around to check her Jeep and was surprised to find a man, later identified as George C. Sandoval, 27, of Albuquerque, inside, according to a criminal complaint filed in Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court. Sandoval ran, and the woman’s male friend gave chase.
“(The friend) ran after him and detained him after (Sandoval’s) pants fell to the ground, causing him to trip and fall,” the complaint states.
Sandoval told police he intended to steal items he could sell for drugs. He said the Jeep was unlocked. He opened it and began rummaging though it.
“He found a cookie on the passenger’s seat and began eating it,” the complaint reads.
“That was when he noticed (the woman and her friend) watching him, and he got out and started running.”
We truly specialize in dumb crooks in New Mexico.
 
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James Howarth is a little confused by two letters he has received from the Internal Revenue Service.
The Detroit defense lawyer received one letter in November that said he owed the IRS money – five cents.
He was warned that he should pay “to avoid additional penalty and/or interest,” the Detroit Free Press reported Saturday.
Howarth says he then received a second letter telling him the government owes him money – four cents.
He was told he would have to request the refund since it’s less than $1.
“When I owe them a nickel, I must pay them. It’s not optional,” he said. “But when they owe me, I have to ask for it.”
I’d be curious to know how much it cost to mail out those two letters.
For a slightly different look at religion, watch the full version of Bill Maher’s film, Religulous, here.
Du Hebing, of Xi’an, told Huashang Daily that he shot this picture by chance.
“After visiting Qinling Wild Animal Park, on the way home I saw a group of sheep walking along the road with a man holding a picture following behind them,” he said.
Du said he burst out laughing when he realised it was a picture of a wolf.
“The man was using the wolf picture to scare the sheep and drive them ahead – it was a really funny scene,” he said.
“Maybe he was just trying to save some money by not buying a sheepdog – but he is obviously a talented shepherd.”
Works for me.
Incidentally, this is the least likely to be bogus of the several versions floating around the web. Though a few reference the name Du Hebing as the photographer – or the farmer driving the sheep – or a zoo worker, only this version notes a newspaper source in China. Which I have not been able to track down in English.
In case you’re wondering what that thing is, it’s a Volkswagen. Oh, next to it? That’s just a General Electric GAU-8/A Avenger from an A-10 Thunderbolt II. Like everybody doesn’t know that. Duh!
Click image to go to No Agenda.
This Episode’s Show Notes by KD “Bubba” Martin:
Queue the closing credits — We hope you enjoy the show!
No Agenda
Running time: approx. 42 mins.
LOCUST GROVE, Va. (AP) – Wal-Mart wants to build a Supercenter within a cannonshot of where Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant first fought, a proposal that has preservationists rallying to protect the key Civil War site. A who’s who of historians including filmmaker Ken Burns and Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough sent a letter last month to H. Lee Scott, president and CEO of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT), urging the company to build somewhere farther from the Wilderness Battlefield. “The Wilderness is an indelible part of our history, its very ground hallowed by the American blood spilled there, and it cannot be moved,” said the letter from 253 scholars and others.
Grant’s Union troops were headed to Richmond on May 4, 1864, when they confronted Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. The Battle of the Wilderness involved more than 100,000 Union troops and 61,000 Confederates. The fighting, according to National Park Service estimates, left more than 4,000 dead and 20,000 wounded. Some 2,700 acres of the Wilderness Battlefield are protected as part of the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.
Preservationists regularly square off against developers in Virginia, where much of the Civil War was fought. This dispute, however, has stirred an outcry similar to the one in 1994 over The Walt Disney Co.’s plans to build a $650 million theme park within miles of the Manassas Battlefield. The entertainment giant bowed to public pressure and abandoned the project.
Wal-Mart…a class act……Always!
While Israel needed to do something about it being attacked, are the air strikes with all the civilian casualties only creating more hatred and suicide bombers and such? What can possibly be the outcome of a house to house ground war in Gaza? Or is that prospect just posturing to pressure the people to oust Hamas, assuming they could?
Israel bombed a mosque and the homes of at least half a dozen Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip on Friday and allowed foreign passport holders to leave the ravaged territory, as speculation rose that a ground assault could be imminent.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza, which began last Saturday, has been carried out exclusively by air and by sea. After a day of heavy rain, the weather improved Thursday, and military analysts said Israeli tanks and other vehicles massed on Gaza’s border could more easily enter the territory.
[…]
“The forces are there, and they’re ready for anything,” said an Israeli military spokeswoman, Maj. Avital Leibovich.
[…]
Although Israel rejected a cease-fire proposal this week, there were signs Thursday that it was stepping up its diplomatic efforts. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni traveled to France, where officials have been leading an international campaign to persuade Israel and Hamas to hold their fire.But there is pressure within Israel for the government to continue its campaign, and perhaps topple Hamas altogether. That would almost certainly require a ground operation, which would be likely to raise the death toll substantially on both sides.
“There is no way to take Hamas out without going into Gaza. The problem is the price,” said Yaakov Amidror, a retired Israeli major general who headed the military’s research and assessment division. “My feeling is that we should do it. All the other players in the region are wondering why we are hesitating if we are so strong.”
Carbon Credits have the potential to be the next great currency. Despite us not really wanting them at all, we will have to do something that stops us having more hurricanes like the one we had yesterday in the southern US. Hurricanes cost a lot of money and insurance companies are going to say that unless parties are seen to be taking all possible action to minimize the weather’s destruction, we won’t pay out. Insurers will find any reason not to pay out. It might be almost mandatory to have Carbon Credits one day and there seems to be no alternative world currency that escapes local political intervention that we can all trust. Carbon Credits are going to hold the same value where ever you are because CO2 has a global impact.
If anyone thinks that this makes any sense (especially the last sentence) then please explain in the comments.
For Kindle and with free ePub version. Only $9.49 Great reading.
Here is what Gary Shapiro CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) said: Dvorak's writing sings with insight and clarity. Whether or not you agree with John's views, he will get you thinking and is never boring. These essays are worth the read!
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