Archive for the ‘Unintended Consequences’ Category
Thursday, December 9th, 2010
WikiLeaks, Stuxnet, Cyberwar, and Obama:
War is transforming itself before our eyes, turning into something unfamiliar and strange. Information has taken a place as a major class of weaponry, with sabotage and subterfuge as preferred tactics. On the new battlefield, these weapons are available not only to nation-states, but to organizations and even individuals.
The Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) is something that ought to be more widely known than it is. Starting in the 1980s, advances in cybernetics and communications began having a dramatic impact had on military operations. Such innovations as Precision-Guided Munitions (PGMs) and high channel capacity communications systems not only increased the effectiveness of individual weapons systems, but, acting as force multipliers, they also boosted the capabilities of entire units to a point where they could take on and defeat enemy forces that in the past would have been considered far superior.
The impact of the RMA became apparent in the First Gulf War of 1990-1991. Most of the two-thirds of a million Coalition troops deployed in Saudi Arabia never engaged with enemy forces. The Iraqis were defeated by a handful of spearhead units so technologically superior to the Warsaw Pact-type Iraqi units that there was no contest. In 2003, a much smaller Coalition force routed the Iraqis, utilizing all the technological advantages that had appeared in the ensuing twelve years. (Unfortunately, Donald Rumsfeld attempting to carry out the occupation of Iraq with the same size force, demonstrating that the RMA does not extend to civil affairs.)
But despite all the speculation surrounding the RMA, few foresaw the arrival of a second phase in which the breadth, execution, and very definition of warfare would be transformed. The new technology empowered not only military forces, but also intelligence agencies and even non-state actors. Utilizing communications and cybernetics innovations, the new combatants can, under the right circumstances, have an impact rivaling that of entire nation-states, causing serious turmoil and damage with a minimal outlay of effort. In 2010, we have been introduced to this mutated form of warfare by two distinct events: Stuxnet and WikiLeaks.
Yes it’s long, but read the whole thing. TL;DR doesn’t cut it here…
Posted in Hackers and Hacking, Unintended Consequences, War | No Comments »
Monday, September 20th, 2010
N.Zealand burn-off sends dope smoke over school
Police in New Zealand burning off seized cannabis were left red-faced when a change in the wind sent smoke billowing over a primary school, it was reported Tuesday.
Officers in the South Island town of Picton were destroying cannabis and shredded paper in an incinerator at the local police station when the incident occurred, the Marlborough Express newspaper reported.
It said St Joseph’s School principal Peter Knowles noticed the smoke on Friday morning and complained to police, who immediately extinguished the fire.
Posted in Drugs, Idiot Authorities, Oops, Unintended Consequences | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 27th, 2010
Island which spent £600,000 getting rid of rats over-run with rabbits:
The last rat was seen on the tiny island of Canna four years ago after specialist pest controllers were brought in from more than 11,000 miles away to deal with the problem.
But now islanders are complaining that the rodent’s disappearance has led to thousands of rabbits invading the island because there are no rats to keep their numbers down.
The problem is so bad that locals say historic monuments are being “devastated” by the rabbits and they are devouring the self-sufficient islanders’ gardens away.
Even the island’s only restaurant has responded to the bounty and put on dishes of rabbit and cranberry with pistachio and rabbit pie in a rosemary and thyme cream sauce.
Posted in Animal Rebellion Update, Unintended Consequences | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 14th, 2010
Canceled: Hearing That Would Have Grilled CEOs on Health Care
Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has canceled a hearing intended to grill CEOs who took a charge against profits because of the health care reform bill. The cancellation came after they realized what everyone already knew – that the companies were required to do what they did because of accounting rules.
Waxman and others had reacted with outrage and accused the companies of doing it – in essence, to make health care reform look bad.
AT&T took a $1 billion charge and other companies including Caterpillar, John Deere, and Valero Energy, and 3M took hundreds of millions in charges because of the health care reforms.
The new bill ended a tax break intended to make it attractive for the companies to keep their retirees on company drug benefit plans instead of ending those plans and pushing them into Medicare which would have cost the government much more money. The Democratic memo cancelling the hearing notes, “These one-time charges were required by applicable accounting rules.
Under Generally Accepted Accounting Principles as determined by the FASB, companies are required to take a noncash charge against current earnings to recognize a tax liability for the estimated future tax effects of a new law.”
It goes on to read, “This noncash charge must reflect the entire present value of the loss of future tax deductions on the subsidy, and it must be taken in the period in which the law is enacted. Moreover, if the level of the impact is deemed “material” under SEC regulations, the company must file the report promptly following the triggering event, in this case the enactment of the law.”
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Idiot Authorities, Politico Follies, Unintended Consequences | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009
Four of Top ‘Clunkers’ Model Purchases Are Foreign
Four of the top five models sold so far under the U.S. “cash for clunkers” program, aimed at boosting the auto industry, are made by foreign automakers, according to Transportation Department data.
Ford Motor Co.’s Focus was the top seller, followed by Toyota Motor Corp.’s Corolla, Honda Motor Co.’s Civic and Toyota’s Prius and Camry, data from the department showed today.
Initial clunkers legislation sponsored by Representative Betty Sutton, an Ohio Democrat, would have barred discounts for new vehicles manufactured overseas and offered higher payments for cars and trucks produced in the U.S. than for those made in Canada and Mexico.
The “Buy American” provision was dropped from the final legislation because of opposition from foreign automakers and free-trade advocates who said it would conflict with U.S. obligations to the World Trade Organization.
Posted in Idiot Authorities, Unintended Consequences | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 16th, 2009
Battle for hearts — and screens — of the world
#iranelection
Apparently, the song was right: The revolution will not be televised. It will be thumbed.
With traditional reporting silenced and with Iranian e-mail and Web services shut down by the government Tuesday, much of the information about the election protests in Tehran was coming through social media sites such as Twitter.com and Facebook.com.
Many users of social media sites access them through cell phones and messaging services, which use different pathways from the World Wide Web circuits that Iranian censors have labored to shut down.
“They’ve cut off telephone, e-mail, texting, and for foreign press issued a letter saying nobody can report without permission,” the Center for Arab and Iranian Studies in London said in a statement. “Twitter is the one thing being used.”
Posted in T.R.O.P., Unintended Consequences | No Comments »
Friday, July 4th, 2008
Secret report: biofuel caused food crisis
Biofuels have forced global food prices up by 75% – far more than previously estimated – according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian.
The damning unpublished assessment is based on the most detailed analysis of the crisis so far, carried out by an internationally-respected economist at global financial body.
The figure emphatically contradicts the US government’s claims that plant-derived fuels contribute less than 3% to food-price rises. It will add to pressure on governments in Washington and across Europe, which have turned to plant-derived fuels to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and reduce their dependence on imported oil.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Idiot Activists, Idiot Authorities, Unintended Consequences | Comments Off
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
‘Free Tibet’ flags made in China
Police in southern China have discovered a factory manufacturing Free Tibet flags, media reports say.
The factory in Guangdong had been completing overseas orders for the flag of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
Workers said they thought they were just making colourful flags and did not realise their meaning.
But then some of them saw TV images of protesters holding the emblem and they alerted the authorities, according to Hong Kong’s Ming Pao newspaper.
The factory owner reportedly told police the emblems had been ordered from outside China, and he did not know that they stood for an independent Tibet.
Posted in Crazed Dictatorships, Unintended Consequences | Comments Off
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
A New ‘Green’ Body Count Begins
Food riots caused by rising food prices have erupted around the world. Five people died in uprisings in Haiti, perhaps the first of many casualties to come from the fad of being “green.”
Food riots also broke out in Egypt, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Ethiopia. The military is being deployed in Pakistan and Thailand to protect fields and warehouses. Higher energy costs and policies promoting the use of biofuels such as ethanol are being blamed.
“When millions of people are going hungry, it’s a crime against humanity that food should be diverted to biofuels,” an Indian government official told the Wall Street Journal. Turkey’s finance minister labeled the use of biofuels as “appalling,” according to the paper.
Biofuels have turned out to be a lose-lose-lose proposition. Once touted by the greens and the biofuel industry as being able to reduce the demand for oil and lower greenhouse gas emissions, biofuels have accomplished neither goal and have no prospect for accomplishing either in the foreseeable future.
Posted in Gore Effect Update, Greed is Good, Idiot Authorities, Unintended Consequences | Comments Off
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
Search resumes for Brazil priest carried aloft by party balloons
Rescuers scoured the waters off Brazil’s southern Atlantic coast on Tuesday looking for a Roman Catholic priest who disappeared after floating into the sky strapped to hundreds of helium party balloons.
Rev. Adelir Antonio di Carli lifted off from the port city of Paranagua on Sunday afternoon wearing a helmet, aluminum thermal flight suit, water proof coveralls and parachute in a bid to break a record for the longest time in-flight with party balloons.
He was reported missing about eight hours later after losing contact with port authority officials. A cluster of coloured balloons were found Tuesday night, floating intact in the sea off Brazil’s southern Santa Catarina state near di Carli’s last contact point, according to a photograph posted on Sao Paulo’s UOL news website.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Unintended Consequences | Comments Off
Monday, March 31st, 2008
N.Y. Teen’s Donated Organs Lead To Cancer Deaths
They thought they were helping others by donating their son’s organs. Instead those organs spread a rare, undiagnosed form of cancer.
Alex Koehne passed away a year ago from lymphoma. Since then, two of the 15-year-old donor’s recipients have died and two others are battling the same disease.
…
The Koehne’s had demanded an autopsy. One month later they found out Alex actually died of a rare lymphoma. It was too late. The organs were already donated.
“(The doctor) said, ‘Jim I don’t want to upset you, but we’ve heard something from the recipients that two of them had died from cancer,’” Jim Koehne said.
Posted in Medical Monstrosities, Unintended Consequences | Comments Off
Thursday, March 6th, 2008
Minnesota Bars Skirt Smoking Ban by Declaring Patrons as ‘Actors’
All the world’s a stage at some of Minnesota’s bars.
A new state ban on smoking in restaurants and other nightspots contains an exception for performers in theatrical productions. So some bars are getting around the ban by printing up playbills, encouraging customers to come in costume, and pronouncing them “actors.”
The customers are playing right along, merrily puffing away — and sometimes speaking in funny accents and doing a little improvisation, too.
The state Health Department is threatening to bring the curtain down on these sham productions. But for now, it’s on with the show.
At The Rock, a hard-rock and heavy-metal bar in suburban St. Paul, the “actors” during “theater night” do little more than sit around, drink, smoke and listen to the earsplitting music.
“They’re playing themselves before Oct. 1. You know, before there was a smoking ban,” owner Brian Bauman explained. Shaping the words in the air with his hands, like a producer envisioning the marquee, he said: “We call the production, `Before the Ban!”‘
Hat tip to Kara!
Posted in Fun with Alcohol, Idiot Authorities, Kara's Classics, Unintended Consequences | Comments Off
Thursday, February 21st, 2008
Protesters Storm U.S. Embassy in Serbia and Set Fire Over Kosovo Independence
Rioters stormed the U.S. embassy in Belgrade, Serbia, on Thursday and started a fire in protest of Kosovo’s declaration of independence earlier this week.
Serbian media said a charred body was found inside the embassy.
U.S. officials told FOX News that the embassy building was secured and the fire was extinguished, but angry demonstrators were still rioting well into the night. The mayhem came after a large organized protest against the situation in Kosovo.
Sources have provided conflicting reports on how extensive the breach of the U.S. Embassy was. Some told FOX News that no protesters made it into the building, which has been closed this week.
Other reports from The Associated Press noted masked attackers had gained entry and tried to throw furniture from an office. The reports also said a blaze had broken out inside one of the offices.
Posted in Anarchy, Concentrated Criminality, Fire, Idiot Authorities, Unintended Consequences | Comments Off
Saturday, February 9th, 2008
Biofuels Deemed a Greenhouse Threat
Almost all biofuels used today cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of producing these “green” fuels are taken into account, two studies being published Thursday have concluded.
The benefits of biofuels have come under increasing attack in recent months, as scientists took a closer look at the global environmental cost of their production. These latest studies, published in the prestigious journal Science, are likely to add to the controversy.
These studies for the first time take a detailed, comprehensive look at the emissions effects of the huge amount of natural land that is being converted to cropland globally to support biofuels development.
The destruction of natural ecosystems — whether rain forest in the tropics or grasslands in South America — not only releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere when they are burned and plowed, but also deprives the planet of natural sponges to absorb carbon emissions. Cropland also absorbs far less carbon than the rain forests or even scrubland that it replaces.
Together the two studies offer sweeping conclusions: It does not matter if it is rain forest or scrubland that is cleared, the greenhouse gas contribution is significant. More important, they discovered that, taken globally, the production of almost all biofuels resulted, directly or indirectly, intentionally or not, in new lands being cleared, either for food or fuel.
Posted in End of the World Update, Idiot Authorities, Unintended Consequences | Comments Off
Friday, February 8th, 2008
Cyberblue on cyberblue
For goodness’ sake people, don’t hit “Reply all”!
When the Department of Homeland Security ran its first cyberwargame in February of 2006, it found it easier to fight intrusions to individual networks than fight a shifting and expanding attack across a spectrum of targets. This was precisely the kind of attack the Russians launched against Estonia a year and two months later. Suitably warned, the DHS grimly began to ramp its game, uneventfully on the whole, but with one tiny exception …
In late 2007, a contractor for the US Department of Homeland Security sent its daily Open Source Intelligence Report to “a subscription list of hundreds, perhaps thousands of recipients” according to Michael Sachs, the director of the SANS Internet Storm Center. You can guess what happened next.
A fault in the settings created a storm of emails. Replies went to everyone on the DHS mail list, as did every other reply from people who replied back. Subsequent e-mails pleading with members to “stop hitting the reply-to-all button” added themselves to the din. Within a short time a storm of mail, most sent by misadventure was crisscrossing the network. ZDNet describes the tragicomic sequence of events.
Posted in Concentrated Stupidity, Idiot Authorities, Unintended Consequences | Comments Off
Thursday, December 6th, 2007
Microsoft shutters Santa site
Microsoft Corp. quickly shut down Santa Claus’ Web privileges after it found out the automated elf it created for kids to instant message with was talking naughty, not nice.
Last year, Microsoft encouraged kids to connect directly to “Santa” by adding northpolelive.com to its Windows Live Messenger contact lists. The Santa program, which Microsoft reactivated in early December, asked children what they wanted for Christmas and could respond on topic, thanks to artificial intelligence.
The holiday cheer soured this week when a reader of a United Kingdom-based technology news site, The Register, reported that a chat between Santa and his underage nieces about eating pizza prompted Santa to bring up oral sex.
One of the publication’s writers replicated the chat Monday. After declining the writer’s repeated invitations to eat pizza, a frustrated Santa burst out with, “You want me to eat what?!? It’s fun to talk about oral sex, but I want to chat about something else.”
The exchange ended with the writer and Santa calling each other “dirty bastard.”
Posted in Technological Travesties, Unintended Consequences | Comments Off
Monday, November 26th, 2007
German biofuel thirst pours out higher beer prices
Beer and oil may not mix, but in Germany there’s a direct link between hefty increases in the cost of a barrel of each.
Just as the price of oil approaches the milestone $100-per-barrel mark, the beer industry in Germany is bracing for a 10 to 15 percent price increase early next year and as much as 40 percent over the next five years. The reason for price boost at the beer taps: biofuels.
To reduce Europe’s dependency on oil, the European Union is paying generous subsidies to farmers who grow crops used in the production of biofuels. As a result, many farmers have switched from growing barley — used to make malt, the main ingredient in beer — to crops such as rapeseed and corn. This has driven up the cost of barley to more than $410 from $190 a ton last year.
Posted in Idiot Activists, Idiot Authorities, Unintended Consequences | Comments Off
Monday, November 19th, 2007
Wife’s at a loss to find husband after he wins the lottery
The clues trickled in that Donna Campbell’s husband was hiding something from her.
Arnim Ramdass started to keep the television off at all times, then he disconnected their phone line. But the ah-ha! moment came when Campbell thumbed through the mail at their Miramar house and saw a postcard: Congratulations on the purchase of your new home.
Campbell, knowing her husband was a habitual lottery player, fired up her computer and Googled “Ramdass and lotto.”
The first hit was a Florida Lottery press release about a pool of 17 airline mechanics who won a $19 million jackpot this summer.
Posted in Greed is Good, Unintended Consequences | Comments Off
Friday, October 26th, 2007
UN Expert Seeks to Halt Biofuel Output
A U.N. expert on Friday called the growing practice of converting food crops into biofuel “a crime against humanity,” saying it is creating food shortages and price jumps that cause millions of poor people to go hungry.
Jean Ziegler, who has been the United Nations’ independent expert on the right to food since the position was established in 2000, called for a five-year moratorium on biofuel production to halt what he called a growing “catastrophe” for the poor.
Scientific research is progressing very quickly, he said, “and in five years it will be possible to make biofuel and biodiesel from agricultural waste” rather than wheat, corn, sugar cane and other food crops.
Posted in Idiot Authorities, Unintended Consequences | Comments Off
Thursday, September 27th, 2007
Navy To Remedy Swastika-Shaped Barracks
The U.S. Navy will spend as much as $600,000 to modify the appearance of a barracks complex in Coronado that resembles a swastika from the air.
Navy officials said the spending for changes to the four L-shaped buildings were approved after satellite images from Google Earth revealed the swastika-like shape.
“We don’t want to be associated with something as symbolic and hateful as a swastika,” Navy spokesman Scott Sutherland told the L.A. Times.
One has to wonder if anyone in authority bothered to look at the blueprints before the thing was built…
Posted in Idiot Authorities, Nazis, Oops, Unintended Consequences | Comments Off
Saturday, September 15th, 2007
Putin to West: Drop ‘Silly Atlantic Solidarity,’ Cold War Attitudes
President Putin called on the West yesterday to drop its “silly Atlantic solidarity” if it wanted improved relations with Russia.
He accused America and some of the countries of the EU of harbouring outdated Cold War attitudes that led to distrust, particularly on issues such as energy security and trade. Such stereotypical positions were “absolutely inappropriate” in the economic arena, he said, insisting that one source of friction – Russia’s decision to build a pipeline bypassing Poland – was not infringing anybody’s rights.
He also warned the West to stop giving Russia blanket lectures on democracy. “We will participate in any debate with our partners, but, if they want us to do something, they must be specific. If they want us to resolve Kosovo, let’s talk Kosovo. If they are worried about nuclear programmes in Iran, let’s talk about Iran, rather than talking about democracy in Russia.”
Posted in Commies, Concentrated Criminality, Conspiracies, Crazed Dictatorships, Unintended Consequences | Comments Off
Sunday, September 9th, 2007
Competition has shaken Good Vibrations
Good Vibrations, the woman-friendly sex toy retailer, is used to a lot of shaking and grinding.
But not in its financials.
Reeling from a sharp drop in Internet sales, the three-decade-old San Francisco company posted a letter on its Web site last week pleading with friends to throw it a lifeline of capital.
“Today, having almost completed our 30th year, we face the need to raise capital quickly in order to ensure that our business survives in its traditional form,” board members Charlie Glickman and Carol Queen wrote in the letter.
…
Company officials blamed the precipitous drop partly on the entry of numerous price-slashing sellers into the online sex toy market. Some were big companies like Amazon and Drugstore.com that could underprice Good Vibrations due to economies of scale and purchasing clout. Others were kitchen-table Web businesses that could underprice Good Vibrations because they had almost no overhead.
Posted in Sex, Unintended Consequences | Comments Off
Monday, August 20th, 2007
Mistake in Arkansas Law Allows Any Age to Marry if Parents Agree
A law passed this year allows Arkansans of any age — even infants — to marry if their parents agree, and the governor may have to call a special session to fix the mistake, lawmakers said Friday.
The legislation was intended to establish 18 as the minimum age to marry but also allow pregnant teenagers to marry with parental consent, bill sponsor Rep. Will Bond said. An extraneous “not” in the bill, however, allows anyone who is not pregnant to marry at any age if the parents allow it.
“It’s clearly not the intent to allow 10-year-olds or 11-year-olds to get married,” Bond said. “The legislation was screwed up.”
The bill reads: “In order for a person who is younger than eighteen (18) years of age and who is not pregnant to obtain a marriage license, the person must provide the county clerk with evidence of parental consent to the marriage.”
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Idiot Authorities, Unintended Consequences | Comments Off
Sunday, August 19th, 2007
Forget biofuels – burn oil and plant forests instead
It sounds counterintuitive, but burning oil and planting forests to compensate is more environmentally friendly than burning biofuel. So say scientists who have calculated the difference in net emissions between using land to produce biofuel and the alternative: fuelling cars with gasoline and replanting forests on the land instead.
They recommend governments steer away from biofuel and focus on reforestation and maximising the efficiency of fossil fuels instead.
The reason is that producing biofuel is not a “green process”. It requires tractors and fertilisers and land, all of which means burning fossil fuels to make “green” fuel. In the case of bioethanol produced from corn – an alternative to oil – “it’s essentially a zero-sums game,” says Ghislaine Kieffer, programme manager for Latin America at the International Energy Agency in Paris, France
Posted in Unintended Consequences | No Comments »
Thursday, August 16th, 2007
Rating agencies hit by subprime probe
The European Commission is to investigate credit ratings agencies amid growing dismay over their slow response to the subprime mortgage crisis.
Officials in Brussels, and many other critics, believe the ratings agencies failed to act quickly enough to warn investors about the risks of investing in securities backed by US subprime mortgages – the sector whose troubles triggered the recent global market volatility.
In the US, Barney Frank, Democrat chairman of the House financial services committee, said he planned to hold hearings on the agencies’ performance next month. He said the agencies had “not done a good job” in the current crisis.
Banks first warned about a potential crisis in subprime last year. But it was only this spring that S&P and Moody’s started downgrading the ratings of mortgage-backed securities on a significant scale
Posted in End of the World Update, Unintended Consequences | No Comments »
Monday, August 6th, 2007
The downside of diversity
IT HAS BECOME increasingly popular to speak of racial and ethnic diversity as a civic strength. From multicultural festivals to pronouncements from political leaders, the message is the same: our differences make us stronger.
But a massive new study, based on detailed interviews of nearly 30,000 people across America, has concluded just the opposite. Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam — famous for “Bowling Alone,” his 2000 book on declining civic engagement — has found that the greater the diversity in a community, the fewer people vote and the less they volunteer, the less they give to charity and work on community projects. In the most diverse communities, neighbors trust one another about half as much as they do in the most homogenous settings.
Posted in Cultural Oddities, Unintended Consequences | No Comments »
Sunday, August 5th, 2007
Virtual jihad hits Second Life website
Islamic militants are suspected of using Second Life, the internet virtual world, to hunt for recruits and mimic real-life terrorism.
Police and the intelligence services are concerned that it may have been infiltrated by extremists to proselytise, communicate and transfer money to one another. Radicals may also be responsible for “virtual” terrorist attacks in which buildings depicted on the website are blown up.
Kevin Zuccato, head of the Australian government’s High Tech Crime Centre, said jihadists may also be using the virtual reality world to master skills such as reconnaissance and surveillance. “We need to start thinking about living, working and protecting two worlds and two realities,” he told a security industry conference in Sydney.
The concerns are shared by Europol, the pan-European police agency, which believes that Second Life provides a means to transfer money across borders in a way that is more difficult for the authorities to monitor. It has recruited security consultants to advise on the use of Second Life for fraud and terrorism.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Technological Travesties, Unintended Consequences | No Comments »
Friday, July 13th, 2007
Pensioners take cash and points to keep speeding drivers on the road
It is the latest ruse on the roads of France: drivers are avoiding disqualification by trading licence points on the internet.
Complete strangers are taking the rap for speeding offences in return for up to €1,500 (£1,000), and police admit they are powerless to intervene. Even pensioners who have not driven for many years are getting in on the act.
The online scam is also popular in Spain and other European countries, and authorities believe it may soon be introduced in Britain. It threatens to make a mockery of a French crackdown on road safety and embarrass President Sarkozy over his promise of a “zero tolerance” on law and order.
…
The technique is simple. In return for money, the seller provides his or her name and licence number in response to the speed camera ticket. The notice that is automatically sent to the owner of the offending vehicle includes a form for identifying another driver. Checks are extremely rare.
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Unintended Consequences | No Comments »
Saturday, July 7th, 2007
Live Earth is promoting green to save the planet – what planet are they on?
…The Live Earth event is, in the words of one commentator: “a massive, hypocritical fraud”.
For while the organisers’ commitment to save the planet is genuine, the very process of putting on such a vast event, with more than 150 performers jetting around the world to appear in concerts from Tokyo to Hamburg, is surely an exercise in hypocrisy on a grand scale.
Matt Bellamy, front man of the rock band Muse, has dubbed it ‘private jets for climate change’.
A Daily Mail investigation has revealed that far from saving the planet, the extravaganza will generate a huge fuel bill, acres of garbage, thousands of tonnes of carbon emissions, and a mileage total equal to the movement of an army.
The most conservative assessment of the flights being taken by its superstars is that they are flying an extraordinary 222,623.63 miles between them to get to the various concerts – nearly nine times the circumference of the world. The true environmental cost, as they transport their technicians, dancers and support staff, is likely to be far higher.
The total carbon footprint of the event, taking into account the artists’ and spectators’ travel to the concert, and the energy consumption on the day, is likely to be at least 31,500 tonnes of carbon emissions, according to John Buckley of Carbonfootprint.com, who specialises in such calculations.
Throw in the television audience and it comes to a staggering 74,500 tonnes. In comparison, the average Briton produces ten tonnes in a year.
Posted in Idiot Activists, Unintended Consequences, Yuck! | No Comments »
Sunday, July 1st, 2007
We ain’t got dames
A NEW disease is abroad in eastern Germany: Frauenmangel, lack of women. In some towns there are only 75 young women for every 100 young men. In one or two there are as few as 40. The effects are worrying, not only because populations may shrink but also because of the existence of a growing underclass of young men who are partnerless, underqualified and jobless.
A study by the Berlin Institute for Population and Development has looked at Herzberg and Ebersbach, two small towns in eastern Germany. “Even the mayor of Ebersbach hadn’t realised this is going on,” says Reiner Klingholz, the institute’s director. It is a vicious spiral. Girls are more studious than boys, so they get better qualified and migrate west to find both partners and jobs. The boys lack role models at home, where fathers are often unemployed, and at school, where teachers are mostly female. Young men now account for 65% of German high-school dropouts.
Consider this your German Neo-Nazi Storm Warning…
Posted in Doh!, Unintended Consequences | No Comments »
Thursday, June 28th, 2007
Politician okays marijuana in food
Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who opposes legalizing marijuana, doesn’t mind the drug being used in cooking, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.
“It’s alright to use it as a food seasoning, but it should not be fully legalized,” Kalla was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Post daily.
Kalla was commenting on a recent study by two Indonesian agencies dealing with drug abuse that recommended the government review its policy to outlaw the use of marijuana for recreational purposes, the Post said.
Posted in Drugs, Unintended Consequences | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 19th, 2007
Unwanted Result of Ballot Confusion: A Beerless Town
This sleepy Finger Lakes town, which does not lay claim to any actual lakefront, misses much of the tourism that helps support the picturesque region. Agriculture is the main industry here in this dot of a town of 1,800, where drivers have to yield to roosters that wander onto the road.
Without help, the nearest six-pack will soon be 10 miles from Potter.
There are no bars or liquor stores, but the town does have three restaurants and one small grocery, which has long sold beer, lots of beer.
Residents say that nearly two years ago they made a sobering mistake that has bedeviled them ever since. While trying to grant one of the restaurants permission to serve beer and wine with meals, voters unwittingly banned the sale of all alcohol in the town’s 37 square miles.
Hat tip to Joey!
Posted in Doh!, I hate it when that happens, Unintended Consequences | No Comments »
Friday, June 15th, 2007
Michael Moore’s ‘Sicko’ Leaked Onto Web
Michael Moore’s new documentary “Sicko” has been pirated and is now widely available for download on peer-to-peer content sites like www.thepiratebay.org.
Last week, the Oscar winning director announced that he’d decided to stash a copy of “Sicko” in Canada, in case the Federal government decided to impound it over an apparently unauthorized trip to Cuba made during its filming. As it turns out, the hard part won’t be getting the film released, but getting audiences to pay to see it now that its available for free.
Posted in Hackers and Hacking, I hate it when that happens, Idiot Celebrities, Pirate Update, Unintended Consequences | No Comments »
Saturday, April 21st, 2007
Clerk inadvertently wins $200,000
A Conover convenience store clerk inadvertently won a $200,000 Powerball prize after she rang up duplicate lottery tickets. Wadburn Allen accidentally printed the two tickets for a customer Tuesday. At the end of the day, after she was unable to sell the second ticket, Allen paid for the ticket herself.
Posted in Unintended Consequences | No Comments »
Saturday, April 21st, 2007
Novelty Phone Causes Stir at Post Office:
Telephones typically ring, not tick, so a man who went to the post office to pick up a novelty phone he ordered over the Internet was alarmed that the package was ticking.
It turned out that the phone shaped like Winnie the Pooh had a feature the customer didn’t know about: An incoming call causes Winnie’s head to spin, and the feature apparently had been activated during shipping.
The ticking that prompted evacuation of the Wright City post office Thursday morning was Winnie’s head repeatedly hitting the side of the package, said Cpl. Julie Scerine, a spokeswoman for the Missouri Highway Patrol.
Police and members of the bomb squad were called about 6:45 a.m. when the man retrieving the package noticed the unexpected sound. Wright City is about 45 miles west of St. Louis.
“It was pretty distinctly ticking,” Police Chief Don Wickenhauser said. “And he didn’t want to pick it up.”
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Sunday, February 25th, 2007
Cadbury sorry over graves stunt:
Cadbury Schweppes has apologised to the authorities in the US city of Boston after a marketing stunt closed an historic cemetery. The UK firm was promoting its Dr Pepper drink in the US by organising gold coin treasure hunts for big cash prizes. Contestants flocked to the 347-year-old Granary Burying Ground to find the hidden coin, but the site was shut amid fears that graves may be desecrated. The firm said burying the coin there had been “poor judgement”.
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Saturday, February 24th, 2007
Throwing Away the Key:
The problem today is not only the draconian sentences that white-collar offenders are receiving, but the fact that because of the elimination of parole they will actually have to serve them. [Oh the Horrors! Imagine that! Ed.]
For example, if Michael Milken had been sentenced under today’s sentencing regime, and if he had been made to serve his entire sentence, he might not have been able to found the Prostate Cancer Foundation or FasterCures, two organizations that have made serious inroads in the treatment of diseases. Without the freedom to undertake this extraordinary work in the fight against cancer, he might never have earned Fortune Magazine’s title of “The Man Who Changed Medicine.” [Shocking! Shocking! Ed.]
…
Not surprisingly, the sentences in white-collar cases have matched Congress’s desires. Look at the case of Chalana McFarland, a first-time offender who received a thirty-year prison term for her role in a mortgage fraud scheme that skimmed twenty million dollars from the sale of over one hundred homes from 1999 to 2002.
Congress might want to be tough on crime, but does Congress really want McFarland to serve more time than John Walker Lindh, who received a twenty-year sentence for supplying services to the Taliban”? Is there a legitimate reason for white-collar offenders to receive longer prison sentences than a traitor?
Posted in Concentrated Criminality, Idiot Activists, Unintended Consequences | No Comments »
Monday, February 19th, 2007
Organic farming no better for the environment
Organic food may be no better for the environment than conventional produce and in some cases is contributing more to global warming than intensive agriculture, according to a government report.The first comprehensive study of the environmental impact of food production found there was “insufficient evidence” to say organic produce has fewer ecological side-effects than other farming methods.
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Tuesday, February 6th, 2007
Immigrant Protests Energize KKK, Neo-Nazis
Huge street protests made millions of immigrants more visible and powerful last year, but they also seem to have revived a hateful counter force: white supremacists.Groups linked to the Ku Klux Klan, skinheads and neo-Nazis grew significantly more active, holding more rallies, distributing leaflets and increasing their presence on the Internet – much of it focused on stirring anti-immigrant sentiment, a new report released by the Anti-Defamation League says.
Posted in Nazis, Unintended Consequences | No Comments »
