19 Feb 2004
RIAA Countersued Under Racketeering Laws

At least somebody's fighting back ... and, in truth, these tactics do smack of extortion.

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

Bunnies on the Mud Porch and Assorted Farm Pictures

Well, ever since they showed up I've been promising bunny pictures: so here!


There are six baby English Angora rabbits in this picture!


Our baby blue-eyed white.

Don't like bunnies? It's getting to be spring on the farm, and the babies are coming thick and fast. So, how about a goat? (from Kevyn's Boer herd)

On to the cows: we only got a couple of good ones:


Lyra munching some fresh hay.


One of Kevyn's new ones and Maeg at the round bale.

00:00 /Home | 3 comments | permanent link

Government 'to back GM crops'

Sometimes it seems like nobody gets it ... the danger from GM crops isn't that consumers will be poisoned or anything silly like that, the danger is that they'll drive out and/or mutate their natural "competition", the crops genetically modified by Nature over the past few million years.

We panic about biodiversity in the Amazon, and then seem to do our level best to destroy it in our own fields and backyards. There was one very observant quote in the article, however:

But Professor Vivian Moses, from the advisory body on biotech agriculture, said most people were "remarkably uninterested" in GM and "do not bother to read labels".

The government could back the limited use of GM crops, according to minutes leaked to the BBC.

(link) [BBC News | World | UK Edition]

00:00 /Agriculture | 1 comment | permanent link

You Can Find Anything on the Net

I'm not sure if this is a what entry or a why one, but at any rate I'm certain the category has to be 'You Can Find Anthing on the Net'... and it does tell us:

How It All Began

Hint: It wasn't Al Gore.

00:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link

An Ignition Interlock In Every Car?

Yep, it's a post to Politics from Slashdot! This is just un-freaking-believeable! I wonder how long for this kind of "logic" to figure out that we could reduce the crime rate substantially by locking up all black males from age 16 to age 30, since, statistically, they're more likely to commit crimes! What bogus bullshit!

Can you imagine being required to take a "random rolling test" while driving down a steep mountain road in a snowstorm? How about finally getting to that break in your remote fenceline in you new pickup, only to have the device fail, set off the horn and lights, and spook your cattle thru the break?

I'm sure glad I don't live in New Mexico, and I can only hope that this lunacy doesn't spread beyond it's borders.

The bill would require that every new car sold be equipped with an ignition interlock by 2008 and every used car by 2009. Ignition interlocks require a breath test, which takes 30 seconds to complete, to start the car as well as random 'rolling retests' to discourage others from taking the test for you. These rolling retests require the driver to take the test as the car is moving. If the driver fails a retest, the horn sounds and the lights flash until the car is turned off.

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Bleeding the Beast

I have heard of the polygamous Mormon communities on the Utah/Arizona border for a few years now. Horror tales about child abuse and gang rape, all infused with a statement from authorities that these folks were ripping off the state government for millions. And I always wondered how ...

This morning I ran across the link below, which is a link to a very lengthy article in the Independent. And buried in the article is the nuts and bolts of how to "bleed the Beast".

The community became expert at playing one set of state officials off against the other, and even more expert at squeezing the state and the federal government for subsidies and public assistance. Polygamists generally formalise their first marriage to reap the tax advantages of marital status, but leave subsequent matches undeclared. That means that all but one of their wives can claim single motherhood status.

With money flowing in for food stamps, health care, child care, the city police force (who are under the prophet's de facto authority), the local school district (ditto), and special federally funded projects including the construction of an airport just south of Colorado City, the fundamentalists receive more than $16 million a year from the government authorities they profess to despise. They call this "bleeding the beast" and take great pride in it.

(link) [Pagan Prattle]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Phone fibbing most common method for untruths

This get's filed under Humor just because it's so obvious as to defy belief that someone was paid to study it!

I wonder if the funding source considers statements like the one below from the researchers as funny as I do. I wonder if they think they got their money's worth for this study.

Why does the telephone make it easier to tell untruths? "If you called in sick to your boss, but you were dressed and ready to ski, you would succeed in lying on the phone. But if you claimed to be sick in a face-to-face conversation, but you were wearing a ski outfit, you would obviously fail in lying," Hancock observes.

(link) [Science Blog]

00:00 /Humor | 0 comments | permanent link

I'm an icon! And an avatar!

That's me - my likeness has been made into a 32x32 pixel GIF file! And I didn't do it! It was apparently done by or for a Spanish language Mac forum called Diariox, and appears as a selection in the avatar menu!

This is obviously a relic from my switch ad (and TV commercial) I made with Apple in the spring of 2002.

I think I'm flattered. But, then again, the likeness isn't all that good ... it shows off the bald spot!

00:00 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link