Month: November 2018

Do they Actually Believe this Sh%$?

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I know that Kentucky Governor Matt Beven is no one’s poster child for a member of the reality based community, but claiming that zombie television shows are the root cause of mass shootings is a bridge too far:

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) has been forthright about what he believes are the root causes of mass shootings. A few months ago, he blamed gun violence on children’s access to smartphones, video games and psychotropic drugs.

Most recently, he blamed society’s obsession with a specific genre of violent entertainment.

“Seriously, what’s the most important topic that seems to be in every cable television network for example? Television shows are all about what? Zombies,” he said in an interview Tuesday with conservative Kentucky radio host Leland Conway.

Mass shootings point to deep cultural problems, Bevin said, particularly in a society that consumes daily doses of violence through the media. He acknowledged tying zombie shows to gun violence might be perceived as “trite and simplistic.” But, he argued, American culture is “inundated by the worst things that celebrate death,” including the forms of entertainment young people consume.

“These are drips, drips, drips on the stones of the psyches of young generations that are growing up in a society that increasingly said this is normal and okay,” he said. “And eventually, some of those young minds are not going to be able to handle it.”

I’m beginning to think that Matt Bevans is looking to take over Tom Cruise’s role as Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder II: Yokels in Yemen.

Iceland, and Now Portugal

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Portland has eschewed the confidence fairy, and austerity, and their economy is going gangbusters:

Ramón Rivera had barely gotten his olive oil business started in the sun-swept Alentejo region of Portugal when Europe’s debt crisis struck. The economy crumbled, wages were cut, and unemployment doubled. The government in Lisbon had to accept a humiliating international bailout.

But as the misery deepened, Portugal took a daring stand: In 2015, it cast aside the harshest austerity measures its European creditors had imposed, igniting a virtuous cycle that put its economy back on a path to growth. The country reversed cuts to wages, pensions and social security, and offered incentives to businesses.

The government’s U-turn, and willingness to spend, had a powerful effect. Creditors railed against the move, but the gloom that had gripped the nation through years of belt-tightening began to lift. Business confidence rebounded. Production and exports began to take off — including at Mr. Rivera’s olive groves.

“We had faith that Portugal would come out of the crisis,” said Mr. Rivera, the general manager of Elaia. The company focused on state-of-the-art harvesting technology, and it is now one of Portugal’s biggest olive oil producers. “We saw that this was the best place in the world to invest.”

At a time of mounting uncertainty in Europe, Portugal has defied critics who have insisted on austerity as the answer to the Continent’s economic and financial crisis. While countries from Greece to Ireland — and for a stretch, Portugal itself — toed the line, Lisbon resisted, helping to stoke a revival that drove economic growth last year to its highest level in a decade.

The EU is dominated by Germans, and German economic philosophy, which has not changed since their disastrous policies during the Great Depression, which created the most brutal economic downturn in all of Europe and rise of the Nazis.

Here’s hoping that Merkel’s successor doesn’t stake their political career on inflicting pointless misery on fellow EU members the way that she did.

Judge to Governor Bat Boy: Go Cheney Yourself

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A judge just responded to Rick Scott’s demands to shut down the vote count in Florida, and it was an emphatic no:


A Leon County circuit judge is expected to issue an order today extending the deadline for recounts in Palm Beach County on state races in question to Nov. 20, about five days after the original 3 p.m. Thursday deadline.

The order would include extending the recounting of votes in the U.S. Senate race between incumbent Bill Nelson and Gov. Rick Scott, the governor’s race between Republican Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum, the race for agriculture commissioner between Democrat Nikki Fried and Republican Matt Caldwell, and the race for state House District 89 between Democrat Jim Bonfiglio and Republican Mike Caruso.

The extension comes out of a lawsuit filed by Bonfiglio, who is losing to Caruso by 37 votes. Bonfiglio told The Palm Beach Post on Tuesday afternoon that he was in a conference call with circuit Judge Karen Gievers around 1 p.m. during a case management conference concerning the lawsuit he filed to extend the deadline to allow time for a recount in his race.

Bonfiglio, the former mayor of Ocean Ridge, said he asked the judge to extend all the races or put his race first since his race would require less time to recount. He said the judge decided to extend all the races.

The state will doubtless try to appeal to the federal courts, and I have no idea how that will turn out, but for right now, I am enjoying the schadenfreude.

Seriously?

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I’ve seen a lot of weird sh%$ in my day, but I never expected to see a first lady demanding the resignation of a senior national security council staffer:

First lady Melania Trump demanded the ouster of National Security Adviser John Bolton’s top deputy, Mira Ricardel, on Tuesday as reports swirled about an imminent shakeup of President Donald Trump’s administration.

“It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House,” Melania Trump’s spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said in a statement in response to a question about reports the first lady had sought Ricardel’s removal.

Ricardel, Bolton’s top deputy, clashed with the first lady’s staff after threatening to withhold National Security Council resources during Melania Trump’s trip to Africa last month unless Ricardel or another NSC official was included in her entourage, one person familiar with the matter said.

So basically she tried to shake down the first lady so that she could go along on a junket with her.

I guess that she wanted to go on safari, but if the alleged behavior is true, Ricardel’s behavior is beyond the pale, which would be typical of anyone who is a John Bolton protege.

It’s rare for first ladies to publicly intervene in West Wing staffing decisions, but when they do the clashes usually turn out badly for the aides involved. In what was probably the highest-profile such incident, President Ronald Reagan ousted his chief of staff Donald Regan in 1987 after he crossed Nancy Reagan.

It should be noted that Nancy Reagan did not PUBLICLY CALL FOR REGAN’S FIRING, and Melania Trump just DID.

………

 Melania Trump said in an ABC News interview during her Africa trip she had told her husband that people she didn’t trust worked for him. Asked what happened to those people, she said: “Well, some people, they don’t work there anymore.”

 ………

 While Bolton likes her, according to Trump administration officials, Ricardel is widely disliked among other White House staff. She’s regarded as inflexible and obsessed with process, which some officials complain has complicated coordination between the NSC and cabinet agencies.

Basically, she’s an incompetent and insufferable ass, which explains why John Bolton wanted her as his deputy, he sees himself in her.

This is unbelievavly f%$#ed up though, itn’t it?

You Gotta be F%$#ing Kidding

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Quoting Palmer from The Thing

Someone actually tried to copyright the taste of a specific of cheese, and it actually made to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

IP claims are completely out of hand:

A Dutch cheese company tried to claim that it had a monopoly on the taste of a cheese spread. The Court of Justice of the European Union weighed arguments from two competing food producers, and decided on Tuesday that a taste cannot be copyrighted.

Taste is “an idea,” rather than an “expression of an original intellectual creation,” the court ruled. And something that cannot be defined precisely cannot be copyrighted, it ruled.

The case was brought in the Netherlands, but it had been referred to the European court to make a ruling that would apply across the bloc. Levola Hengelo, a Dutch food producer, had sued Smilde Foods, another Dutch manufacturer, for infringing its copyright over the taste of a cheese spread.

The Levola product, known as Heks’nkaas, or Witches Cheese, is made of cream cheese and herbs and vegetables including parsley, leek and garlic. Smilde’s herbed cheese dip, which contained many of the same ingredients, was called Witte Wievenkaas, a name that also makes reference to witches. It is now sold as Wilde Wietze Dip.

Levola argued that the taste of food, like literary, scientific or artistic works, can be copyrighted. The company cited a 2006 case involving Lancôme, the cosmetics company, that had accepted in principle that the scent of a perfume could be eligible for copyright protection.

………

Well, there was no cheese tasting. But it agreed with Smilde that the taste of the cheese could not be defined with enough precision and objectivity to make it clear to other companies where they might be overstepping the mark.

………

To be protected by copyright, a work must be an “expression” of an original intellectual creation.

“Copyright isn’t supposed to be used to stop the spread and use of ideas,” said Joshua Marshall, an intellectual property lawyer at the European law firm Fieldfisher. “The taste of a leek-and-garlic cheese is really an idea.”

Copyright is supposed to “promote the progress of science and useful arts,” not to be used as an anti-competitive weapon to be used against competitors.

IP naturally has an anti-competitive effect, but that is a cost of the promotion of creativity, not a benefit.

And McCain’s Seat Goes Blue

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Democrat Kyrsten Sinema has officially been declared the victor of the Senate race in Arizona, as her opponent Republican Martha McSally:

Representative Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat and former social worker, scored a groundbreaking victory in the race for a Senate seat in Arizona, defeating her Republican opponent after waging a campaign in which she embraced solidly centrist positions.

Ms. Sinema’s victory over Martha McSally, a Republican congresswoman and former Air Force pilot, marks the first Democratic triumph since 1976 in a battle for an open Senate seat in Arizona. Ms. Sinema takes the seat being vacated by Jeff Flake, a Republican who is leaving the Senate after repeated clashes with President Trump.

Ms. Sinema’s victory guarantees the Democrats at least 47 Senate seats. Republicans control 51, with two still undecided: Florida, where there is a recount, and Mississippi, where there is a runoff.

Unfortunately, Sinema is a Blue Dog, (literally) so I would not expect her to be particularly helpful in implementing any sort of Democratic Party agenda, but hopefully, she will be better than Jim Manchin.

When Someone Says, “Good Guy with a Gun,” they mean “White Guy with a Gun.”

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Case in point, Midlothian, Illinois, where an armed security guard subdued a suspect, and was promptly shot by police:

It began in a way gun advocates have suggested would curtail violence. A gun comes out. Shots are fired. A “good guy with a gun” steps in to help before police can respond.

The tidy theoretical doesn’t account for the chaotic unknowns when police arrive and can’t tell a “good guy” with a gun from a “bad guy” with a gun.

The theory turned to grim reality at Manny’s Blue Room Bar in Robbins, Ill., outside Chicago early Sunday.

Police shot and killed the good guy. Jemel Roberson, 26, was working security.

“Everybody was screaming out, ‘He was a security guard,’ and they basically saw a black man with a gun and killed him,” witness Adam Harris told WGN.

I expect nothing but crickets from the NRA over this, because their underlying reason for existence is their advocacy for the ability of white people to shoot black people whenever they see fit.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

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Only 10 Hours Long, Not Enough

OK, it’s Mark Penn, who is wrong about everything, but still, when he says that Hillary Clinton will run for President in 2020, I have a very bad feeling about this:

Two-time Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will mount a third bid for the White House, longtime Clinton adviser Mark Penn wrote in an op-ed published Sunday by The Wall Street Journal, predicting that the former first lady and secretary of state is readying a “Hillary 4.0” campaign for 2020.

In the Journal op-ed, Penn, an adviser and pollster to the Clintons from 1995-2008, and former New York City politician Andrew Stein wrote that in a 2020 run, Clinton would reinvent herself “as a liberal firebrand.” The twice-failed presidential candidate would not “let a little thing like two stunning defeats stand in the way of her claim to the White House,” they wrote.

Although she has routinely shot down talk of a 2020 run, Clinton said in an interview earlier this month that “I’d like to be president” after answering “no” when asked whether she wanted to run for president again.

Please, someone make it stop.

Another Clinton run is like making Mary Mallon your caterer at your son’s Bar Mitzvah.

Puffery, Huh?

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Puffery is an interesting legal concept.

Basically it allows individuals and business to make claims that are not true, so long as it is in a context where the fact that is propaganda is clear.

So, (sorry Kurt Russel) when a car dealer says that they have miles of cars, it’s OK, or when you say that a horror movie wopn’t scare you, it will f%$# you up for life, or that the beer you drink will lead you to hook up to the Swedish bikini team, it’s OK. (Also Joe Isuzu)

On the other hand, making specific verifiable misstatements, for example, claiming that your car gets 100 mpg when it get 12 mpg, is false advertising and fraud.

It can be a fuzzy line sometimes, but when Wells Fargo asserts that promising not to spend every waking hour trying to figure how to rip off its customers also qualifies as puffery, I take exception:

If you’ve ever wondered how businesses can get away with making transparently false or deceptive claims about themselves or their products — “The Best Tasting Juice in America,” Wrigley’s gum is “for whiter teeth, no matter what,” etc., etc. — the answer is an all-purpose legal dodge known as the “puffery” defense.

Simply put, judges and regulators have ruled that when a business makes a claim that is either vague or so obviously inflated that people simply won’t believe it, that’s “puffery,” and not actionable in court.

Wells Fargo, which is struggling to rebuild its reputation for integrity after a string of scandals involving consumer rip-offs, is testing the limits of the “puffery” defense. In a legal filing last week aimed at getting a shareholder lawsuit dismissed, the company asserted that statements that the bank was working to “restore trust” among its customers and “trying to be more transparent” about its scandals — statements made by its chief executive, Tim Sloan — were, well, just puffery.

………

“This is just another example of corporate actors making statements to the market, and then trying to avoid liability for the representations they made,” says Darren Robbins, the San Diego lawyer bringing the shareholder suit.

If it sounds like a strange thing for a bank to say when it’s trying to present itself as a paragon of rectitude — in essence, “We can’t be sued because no one believed us anyway” — just wait. It gets stranger.

………

The lawsuit at issue concerns a scandal that erupted in public in July 2017, when it became known that for years Wells Fargo had been charging auto loan borrowers for unnecessary insurance on their vehicles. The lawsuit seeks class certification for all investors who bought the company’s stock from Nov. 3, 2016 — when Sloan announced at an investors conference that he was “not aware” of any undisclosed scandals in sales practices — through Aug. 3, 2018, the day before the bank formally disclosed the auto-loan issues in an earnings report.

………

Regulators are justifiably furious. In April, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency folded in the auto loan case with an investigation of improper fees Wells Fargo charged to mortgage applicants, and penalized the bank $1 billion for both. It was one of the largest bank fines in history.

………

What about Wells Fargo’s repeated assurances that it is moving heaven and earth to be more transparent and regain customers’ trust?

That’s where “puffery” comes in. The defense most commonly arises in connection with advertising, as when the Federal Trade Commission investigates whether an advertising claim is deceptive. Over the years, courts have given businesses ever more latitude to make extravagant claims.

Ultimately, puffery has become defined as “advertising claims that ordinary consumers do not take seriously, as the Harvard Business Review observed a few years ago. But if that’s so, then what’s the point of advertising?

A couple of things here that are important to note:

  • They were making statements about THEIR OWN BEHAVIOR, and explicitly stating that they would not do things that would put them in regulatory crosshairs ever again, and that they would pursue bad actors in their firm and remove them. 
  • This was not an advertisement.  IT WAS A STATEMENT TO SHAREHOLDERS, and as such was a deliberate omission of material facts about the health of the company.

Just  try them, convict them, and make them forfeit all their ill gotten gains, and be done with it.

Stan Lee Has Died

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He was 95, and had been in ill health for the past year or so.

Before you ask, I know that Batman is DC and not Marvel, and that he was created by Bob Kane (Eli Katz) and Bill (Milton) Finger.

I’m just doing a bit of light hearted trolling, as Lee did at the wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm, when, at the end of the comic, Lee and Jack Kirby (Jacob Kurtzberg) wrote themselves in as gate crashers given the heave-ho by Nick Fury.

It’s Lee and Kirby doing what every reader of that issue wanted to do: Get thrown out of the superhero wedding of the year.

Batman crying is a sort of an homage to Lee’s sometimes mischievous sense of humor.

In case you are wondering, Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber), Kane, Kirby and Finger were all Jewish.

In a quick perusal of comic book artists of that era, it appears that the only one who wasn’t Jewish was Steve Ditko, whose religion was unclear, but given his Czech origins, he was probably born Catholic.

Oh Snap!

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A judge in Florida will not impound voting machines in Florida, as Governor, and Senate candidate Rick “Batboy” Scott had demanded in court:

Injunction denied. That’s the decision Monday from a Broward Circuit Court judge at an emergency hearing involving a lawsuit filed by Florida Governor Rick Scott, asking to impound ballots and machines at the Broward Election office.

 Instead of granting the injunction, Judge Jack Tuter suggested the addition of three additional armed Broward Sheriff’s Deputies at election headquarters who do not report directly to Elections Supervisor Dr. Brenda Snipes, like other deputies do.

 Judge Tuter allowed the attorneys to meet privately and come up with a plan that everyone could agree on and when court reconvened, all sides agreed to the suggested plan of three additional deputies. One will monitor cameras, one will monitors USB drives that contain votes and the third will be a supervisor who the other two report to. They will not report to the supervisor’s office.

 Republican Gov. Rick Scott’s U.S. Senate campaign filed two new lawsuits Sunday, one demanding law enforcement impound and secure voting machines, tallies and ballots in Broward and Palm Beach counties any time they were not actively in use.

I get that the Republicans define vote fraud as, “Whenever I lose,” and I am glad that the judge saw through that bullsh%$.

The only illegal voting in Florida that I am aware of is actually in heavily Republican Bay County, which allowed some voters displaced by Hurricane Michael to vote via email.

American Business Management in a Nutshell

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7-Eleven has been trying to institute changes in its policies which would benefit the corporation at the expense of its franchise holders.

The franchise holders have been organizing to oppose these changes, so corporate has been sending complaints about illegal workers to ICE to allow it to pull the franchises of people it finds difficult:

Most of America’s 9,000 7-Eleven stores are owned by franchisees, many of them immigrants; the owners’ contracts with 7-Eleven corporate allows the company to pull their franchises if they violate US law.

The current CEO of 7-Eleven is Joe DePinto, a West Point grad who got the job in 2005 and has spent his tenure slowly tightening the screw on franchisees, demanding business practices that return more profit to corporate HQ at the expense of the independent operators. As the franchisees have felt the sting, they’ve fought back, suing the company over DePinto’s policies.

DePinto has become legendary for his dirty tricks campaign to get rid of his least-favored franchisees, from hiring private eyes to making secret recordings.

Now the franchisees allege that DePinto has started snitching on his own franchisees to ICE, directing government immigration raids against 7-Eleven stores. If these franchise owners are found to have illegally hired undocumented immigrants, DePinto can cancel their franchise agreements and kick them out of the business and take over their stores.

Obviously, some 7-Eleven stores have probably hired illegals, but using INS to settle scores so that you can cheat your franchise holders?

That’s just evil.

79 Years Too Late

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Canada has formally apologized for turning away the St. Louis, and its 907 Jewish refugees, in 1939:

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau formally apologized for the government’s decision in 1939 to turn away a ship full of Jewish refugees who had escaped Nazi Germany.

“Today I rise to issue a long-overdue apology to the Jewish refugees Canada turned away,” Trudeau said Wednesday in a speech to Parliament

Canada denied asylum to the 907 German Jews on board the MS St. Louis when it arrived on its shores. Cuba and the United States also denied entry to the refugees and, after they returned to Europe, about one-quarter of those on board died in the Holocaust.

“In 1939, Canada turned its back on 907 Jewish refugees, deeming them unworthy of a home, and undeserving of our help. Today, I issue an official apology on behalf of the Government of Canada to the passengers of the MS St. Louis and their families for this injustice,” he said in both English and French.

“While decades have passed since we turned our backs on Jewish refugees, time has by no means absolved Canada of its guilt or lessened the weight of our shame,” he said.

Words now are cheap.

I’m not sure how to make things right, or if it is even possible, but hopefully some lessons learned.

Election Results

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In Arizona, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema is now ½% up over Republican Martha McSally:

Democratic candidate Kyrsten Sinema opened up a lead Saturday night over Republican rival Martha McSally in the U.S. Senate race in Arizona as officials count mail-in ballots, raising the prospects of Democrats winning a long-held GOP seat.

 Sinema now leads McSally 49.51 percent to 48.15 percent, according to results provided by election officials at 7 p.m. Eastern time Saturday. The two congresswomen were separated by 28,673 ballots cast statewide, with a Green Party candidate lagging far behind. More than 2.1 million votes were cast.

 The contest is to replace retiring Sen. Jeff Flake, one of the more outspoken Republican critics of President Trump.

 Without any evidence, President Trump suggested foul play in the Arizona vote count in a tweet on Friday: “Just out — in Arizona, SIGNATURES DON’T MATCH. Electoral corruption — Call for a new Election? We must protect our Democracy!” the president tweeted.

 In response, Flake tweeted: “There is no evidence of ‘electoral corruption’ in Arizona, Mr. President. Thousands of dedicated Arizonans work in a non-partisan fashion every election cycle to ensure that every vote is counted. We appreciate their service.”

It’s still not certain, Arizona has a large proportion of vote by mail ballots, but it looks promising, though Sinema has recently been very Blue Dog, so she is the definition of winning poorly.

And then there is Florida, where both the Governor’s race and the Senate race (and Ag Commissioner) are heading to a recount.

It’s always Florida, isn’t it?

Florida Secretary of State Ken Detzner has formally ordered a machine recount in three statewide races: U.S. Senate, Governor and Agriculture Commissioner.

“I hereby order the canvassing boards responsible for canvassing [the three races] to conduct a machine recount of the votes cast in the race,” reads an order from Detzner sent to elections supervisors in all 67 Florida counties. Separate orders were sent for each race subject to a recount.

The Secretary of State’s office also sent procedures to be followed for the machine recount.

Totals as of 12:30 on Saturday shows Republican Senate candidate Rick Scott leading incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson by 12,562, Republican Gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis beating Democrat Andrew Gillum by 33,684 votes, and Democratic Agriculture Commissioner candidate Nikki Fried ahead of Republican Matt Caldwell by 5,326 votes.

All three races fall within the 0.5 percent margin to trigger a statewide recount.

For now, only a machine recount has been orders and that remains the focus of elections officials.

Once again, I do find it odd that every time we examine elections in the Sunshine State, EVERY error cuts in favor of the Republicans.

Interesting how that works, huh?

I Can Haz Prosecushunz?

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It has been known for some time that the Vampire Squid (Goldman Sachs) was heavily involved in the the Malaysian government’s fabulously corrupt 1MDB sovereign wealth fund.

We now know that Goldman Sachs’ then CEO Lloyd Blankfein was directly involved in the program:

Years before Goldman Sachs Group Inc. arranged bond deals now at the heart of globe-spanning corruption probes, the firm’s then-CEO Lloyd Blankfein personally helped forge ties with Malaysia and its new sovereign wealth fund, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

Blankfein was the unidentified high-ranking Goldman Sachs executive referenced in U.S. court documents who attended a 2009 meeting with the former Malaysian prime minister, the people said. The meeting was arranged with the help of men who are now tied to the subsequent plundering of the 1MDB fund, according to U.S. court documents unsealed last week.

………

The high-level gathering laid the groundwork for a relationship that would prove profitable for the investment bank. Since then, the use of $6.5 billion that Goldman raised for 1MDB has sparked investigations across several nations, and entangled the U.S. bank in a high-profile corruption probe

This is not a surprise.

Laundering ill-gotten gains is a major profit center for big finance, but their involvement in 1MDB is downright criminal.

Some serious jail time should be in order.

A Bunch of Mindless Jerks Who’ll Be the First Against the Wall When the Revolution Comes.

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What a surprise. As soon as Ajit Pai and his evil minions™ repealed Net Neutrality, the Telcos started trying to shut down rivals.
In fact, they were doing so well before the repeal, because the FCC didn’t have time to find and fine them.

Capitalism at its finest:

US cellphone networks are all throttling video to some extent, providing lower-quality stream to their customers, and some are purposefully undermining Skype as an alternative to their services.

That’s the upshot of a ten-month study by Northeastern University’s College of Computer and Information Science set up to see what impact, if any, the end of net neutrality rules had had only ordinary users.

On the pure question of whether the FCC’s decision to scrap its own rules has changed cellphone operators’ behavior, the answer is no, they haven’t – they were throttling before and they have continued to do so.

However, the authors note that such throttling was actually banned under the previous rules. So it was likely the case that there was not enough time for the FCC’s enforcement department to clamp down on that behavior before the rules were rescinded.

As to the throttling itself, intriguingly it is not consistent across video providers or operators, suggesting that there may be deals between certain mobile phone networks and certain video streaming companies to let their videos pass through unthrottled.

And if that’s the case, then of course there is a pressure point that cellular networks can use to extract money from video companies – which is exactly what net neutrality advocates are concerned about. But there is no smoking gun as such.

Demand and supply


It could be that the throttling is activated to tackle network congestion: as available bandwidth is consumed by people streaming and downloading stuff over the airwaves, operators may limit speeds to ensure an even level of quality-of-service for everyone in a particular cell, neighborhood, or city.

What is worrying, though, is the fact that some mobile operators are throttling a clear competitor in the form of Skype. Sprint seems to be the worst offender but Boost was also seen to be throttling the voice-and-video streaming service.

FYI, Boost is Sprint, in the US at least, so the rat-f%$#ery is actually from the same company.

Rule one of telecommunications and last-mile connectivity providers are that they contemptible greed-heads who need to be kept on a short leash.

Rule two is see rule one.

Windows Toilet???? Are You Sh%$#ing Me?

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It appears that Bill Gates is determined to create the high tech toilet of the future.

4 Words, Blue Screen of Death.

Do ……… not ……… want:

Bill Gates believes the world needs better toilets.

Specifically, toilets that improve hygiene, don’t have to connect to sewage systems at all and can break down human waste into fertilizer.

So on Tuesday in Beijing, Mr. Gates held the Reinvented Toilet Expo, a chance for companies to showcase their takes on the simple bathroom fixture. Companies showed toilets that could separate urine from other waste for more efficient treatment, that recycled water for hand washing and that sported solar roofs. 

Two points:

  1. Toilets need to be more reliable than you average machine.
  2. Bill Gates only qualification to be an “expert” s that he’s obscenely rich, which something profoundly f%$#ed up about our society.

This Has Fiasco Written All Over It

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Expensive to Acquire, Expensive to Operate

The US Air Force is looking at their next tanker, and the mission creep is insane.

This sounds like it will make the F-35 debacle look like the Skunk Works:

Very little has changed in the configuration and performance of airlifter and air-refueling aircraft since the mid-1950s. Lockheed Martin’s C-5A dramatically expanded payload volume in 1968, and Boeing’s C-17 introduced a strategic airlifter with the ability to make short takeoffs and landings on unprepared runways. Besides those improvements, the U.S. Air Force’s mobility mission has been almost untouched by the survivability requirements that drove radical changes to the design and operation of fighters, bombers and intelligence-gathering aircraft in the last half-century.

As Air Force planners now embark on the early stages of a process to acquire a new class of refuelers and airlifters over the next two decades, there is a clear emphasis on designs that overcome the vulnerability of existing aircraft to detection and interception. That potential shift in the requirements follows a new strategy of air warfare that transforms the role of mobility aircraft from a purely supporting one to an active part in combat operations as forward-based command-and-control nodes and even strike platforms.

And in case you are wondering just how far overboard the USAF is planning to go, have a slice of this guaranteed winner in the next bullsh%$ bingo competition:

It is a transformation that senior Air Force officials are still trying to socialize with the community of cargo and tanker crews. Underscoring the unfolding transition was a key theme of Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein’s address at the Airlift Tanker Association (ATA) annual conference on Oct. 26. “I had the chance to fly the KC-46 a few weeks ago,” Goldfein said before several hundred ATA members. “But what I strapped on was not an aircraft. What I flew was a node in our future network, [with] computing capacity that we can connect at the speed of light to other platforms, sensors and weapons to bring creative solutions to the fight.”

If they are at this level of complete bullsh%$ at this stage of the program, this presages a Death Star sized debacle.