Ach! And you thought the picture to the left was a mere bit of sarcasm, didn't you? Well, this should set the record straight:

City lawyers, in a motion filed Tuesday, asked the judge, Jack Weinstein of U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, to preclude the store’s lawyers from arguing that the suit infringed on any Second Amendment rights belonging to the gun store or its customers. In the motion, the lawyer for the city, Eric Proshansky, is also seeking a ban on “any references” to the amendment.
“Any references by counsel to the Second Amendment or analogous state constitutional provisions are likewise irrelevant,” the brief states.

I'm sure they'd find that pesky First Amendment to be "irrelevant" as well, if the case involved an unapproved publication or religion. The Fourth Amendment is already ignored.

No, I'm afraid the Constitution really is "Void Where Prohibited by Law".

Lawyers for Mayor Bloomberg are asking a judge to ban any reference to the Second Amendment during the upcoming trial of a gun shop owner who was sued by the city. While trials are often tightly choreographed, with lawyers routinely instructed to not tell certain facts to a jury, a gag order on a section of the Constitution would be an oddity.

(link) [The New York Sun]

via Overlawyered

Sun, 11 May 2008 07:36 /Politics | 0 writebacks | permanent link

OK, I'm convinced! The entertainment industry really has lost it's collective mind. As if this story we're proof enough, I offer this sordid tale from the Grey Lady herself: apparently the execs from NBC/Universal have slept through the last decade and still think DRM is a great idea, and apparently the Evil Empire itself is backing the assertion. Which is hilarious, in light of the fate of their previous DRM effort.

Los Angeles County, following New York's lead, is declaring property a public nuisance if it's used to counterfeit copyrighted music and videos. Among the reasons: "It's detrimental to the public health, safety and welfare" of the public at large. Penalties range up to $1,000 for violation and properties can be shuttered.

Sat, 10 May 2008 08:20 /Copywrongs | 0 writebacks | permanent link

Good grief! Despite it's serious political implications this story has to be filed as 'Humor'. But where do I start? I suppose with the obvious: they're finally literally taking candy from the mouths of babes. And it goes downhill from there:

Senator Doug Stoner pushed the bill in the Senate.

An anti-drug bill sponsored by a guy named "Stoner"? And he "pushed" it? Really? But it gets better - I can't make this stuff up:

State Representative Judy Manning said she was shocked to receive death threats over the bill to ban the candy. "Some people think their rights are their rights," she said.

Write me up as one of those folks convinced that my rights are indeed, my rights! I mean, if they're my rights, who elses rights could they possibly be? Yours? Too? What a concept!

Having read the above, I was forced to check the story over again to make sure it wasn't a belated April Fools prank - apparently, in Georgia, fools have no particularly special day, and are just as liable to appear in May as they are on the first of April. Especially in the Legislature.

But the coup de grace to this whole sordid tale of absurdity is the name of the candy being banned: Pot Suckers.

It may be begging the question, but I've gotta ask: who are the real suckers in this insane "War on Drugs"?

Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed a measure into law Wednesday that bans the sale of "marijuana flavored products" to minors -- anyone under 18 -- and calls for a fine of up to $500 for each offense.

(link) [WSB-TV]

Thu, 08 May 2008 06:11 /Humor | 0 writebacks | permanent link

This could get really crazy if the court fails to see the implications of ruling against a program that "cheats" ...

SeeSp0tRun writes to remind us of Blizzard's lawsuit against MDY Industries over the Glider cheat. It seems that Blizzard is pushing it even further. They're trying out the legal theory that a software creator retains complete control over how a program is used, meaning that anyone who uses it in a different way could be found guilty of copyright infringement, at $750 a pop. The EFF and Public Knowledge are among the organizations trying to assure that the court doesn't set a really bad precedent here.

Wed, 07 May 2008 07:07 /Copywrongs | 0 writebacks | permanent link

And all the developers said "Amen!"

As part of an Ars Technica series on how one developer migrated from Windows to OS X (and why), this second article concentrates on how Microsoft bungled the transition from XP to Vista. The author looks at some unfortunate decisions Microsoft made that have made Windows an unpleasant development platform. "So Windows is just a disaster to write programs for. It's miserable. It's quite nice if you want to use the same techniques you learned 15 years ago and not bother to change how you do, well, anything, but for anyone else it's all pain... And it's not just third parties who suffer. It causes trouble for Microsoft, too. The code isn't just inconsistent and ugly on the outside; it's that way on the inside, too. There's a lot of software for Windows, a lot of business-critical software, that's not maintained any more. And that software is usually buggy. It passes bad parameters to API calls, uses memory that it has released, assumes that files live in particular hard-coded locations, all sorts of things that it shouldn't do."

Tue, 06 May 2008 06:46 /Technology | 0 writebacks | permanent link

I, for one, am fascinated...

Fri, 02 May 2008 06:33 /Technology | 1 writeback | permanent link

Amazing - ASCAP, the RIAA and other music industry groups are bound and determined to kill that golden egg laying goose no matter waht. And they're well on their way ...

A federal judge has established a formula for reckoning the internet royalties owed Yahoo, AOL and RealNetworks. ASCAP is thrilled and estimates the ruling will yield their members as much as $100 million for online use between 2002 and 2009.

Fri, 02 May 2008 06:30 /Copywrongs | 0 writebacks | permanent link

Reviled, loathed and loved - many programmers first language but no pro's last. Happy Birthday, BASIC!

In the predawn hours of May Day, two professors at Dartmouth College run the first program in their new language, BASIC.

Thu, 01 May 2008 06:30 /Technology | 0 writebacks | permanent link

As if "cloud computing" was something new.

We've seen more than enough folks all atwitter and wetting their shorts over cloud computing at Interop 2008 Las Vegas. So it was a bit of a surprise to catch a panel at the show with Google and Amazon reps discussing what keeps businesses from embracing the technology.

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:26 /Technology | 0 writebacks | permanent link

From his autobiography:

"In a dreamlike state, with eyes closed (I found the daylight to be unpleasantly glaring), I perceived an uninterrupted stream of fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colors. After some two hours this condition faded away."

A true giant of science - RIP.

The Swiss scientist who synthesized lysergic acid diethylamide -- and accidentally took the first LSD trip -- departs for the great beyond.

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 06:20 /Technology | 0 writebacks | permanent link

If people find out how little good these bureaucratic hassles really do, perhaps they'll want to eliminate them. Right? C'mon - they'll make them more bureaucratic, tougher and more intrusive - then they'll do some good!

I wonder how long this cycle must continue before we finally grow brains?

Foodborne diseases cause an estimated 76 million illnesses in the US each year with about half associated with restaurant meals (more than 70 billion meals). Therefore, preventing restaurant-associated foodborne disease is an important task of public health departments. According to an article in the June 2008 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the public is generally unaware of the frequency of restaurant inspections and the consequences of poor inspection results.

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:23 /Agriculture | 0 writebacks | permanent link

A true icon of my generation.

Mothra vs. Godzilla makes its screen debut in Japan. Or was it Mothra Against Godzilla, Godzilla vs. Mothra or Godzilla vs. The Thing?

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:13 /Humor | 0 writebacks | permanent link

What witty comment could do this justice?

AP - A newlywed couple spent the night in separate jail cells — she in her wedding gown — after police said they brawled with each other, then members of another wedding party, at a suburban Pittsburgh hotel.

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:38 /Humor | 0 writebacks | permanent link

Ya know, I find the Islamic (and Jewish) restriction on pork silly. But what's instructive about this article is how it details the implementation of a government policy, in this case a religious one, without actual reference to that policy's objectives. They're not banning pork, they're intentionally regulating it out of existence.

We're seeing more of the same here in the US - although the policy objective isn't religious, it's commercial.

New laws may spell Turkish pork industry's demise

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:21 /Agriculture | 0 writebacks | permanent link

It's not just Tibet - the Chinese seem to have learned well from Russian, American and Australian treatment of native peoples.

In China's far west, the Muslim ethnic group finds itself relegated to menial jobs. Chinese officials also restrict religious practice and use of their language in schools.

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 06:03 /Politics | 0 writebacks | permanent link