Apparently, corporations and unions can now spend unlimited funds on campaign advertisements. I’m hopeful that soon the Supreme Court will recognize that people are people too, and have the same free speech rights as corporations.
Maybe, too, the Court will recognize that Congress may not limit the right of people to freely associate, and perhaps even pool their money in support of ideas or candidates they like.
The New York Times is reporting that there’s a “Deep Discount on Space Shuttles ,” they’re down to $28.8 million. But even more exciting than getting one of the 3 surviving monstrosities is that the main engines are free:
As for the space shuttle main engines, those are now free. NASA advertised them in December 2008 for $400,000 to $800,000 each, but no one expressed interest. So now the engines are available, along with other shuttle artifacts, for the cost of transportation and handling.
So NASA, can I borrow the launchpad and send it to LEO?
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I’ll give you a topic, eh, no I won’t. Have at it, but not at each other.
Next week, I’ll be joining a podcast to discuss “top security stories of the year.”
I have a couple in mind, but I’d love to hear your nominations. What are the most important things which have happened in information security in the last year?
But in New York, a city that has become almost synonymous with high security, where office employees wear picture IDs and surveillance cameras are on the rise, some officers don’t wear their badges on patrol.Instead, they wear fakes.
Called “dupes,” these phony badges are often just a trifle smaller than real ones but otherwise completely authentic. Officers use them because losing a real badge can mean paperwork and a heavy penalty, as much as 10 days’ pay.
…
A few police veterans said they believed that many officers bought their second badges at a jewelry shop in Chinatown, near Police Headquarters. They did not want to name the store, however.
“Everybody knows where to go,” Mr. Anemone said.
Words fail me, but not Ray Rivera of the New York Times, who wrote “The Officer Is Real; The Badge May Be an Impostor.”
But taking the cake is the photo, “Police Badge,” by Kimmy’s Kakes.
According to BoingBoing, “Leaked UK government plan to create “Pirate Finder General” with power to appoint militias, create laws:”
What that means is that an unelected official would have the power to do anything without Parliamentary oversight or debate, provided it was done in the name of protecting copyright. Mandelson elaborates on this, giving three reasons for his proposal:
1. The Secretary of State would get the power to create new remedies for online infringements (for example, he could create jail terms for file-sharing, or create a “three-strikes” plan that costs entire families their internet access if any member stands accused of infringement)
2. The Secretary of State would get the power to create procedures to “confer rights” for the purposes of protecting rightsholders from online infringement. (for example, record labels and movie studios can be given investigative and enforcement powers that allow them to compel ISPs, libraries, companies and schools to turn over personal information about Internet users, and to order those companies to disconnect users, remove websites, block URLs, etc)
However, the Pirate Finder General will have no authority to find or engage actual pirates. Once again, all rise for a rousing two minutes on clear language.
[Update: There is now a petition against the proposed law at petitions.number10.gov.uk.]
What’s on your mind?
So the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite has one last sensing task which it will carry out tomorrow morning at 4:30 AM Pacific. That is to dig a big hole in Cabeus (proper) and see if there’s water there. Unfortunately for LCROSS, it doesn’t really have landing jets, which means it will dig a big hole and other instruments will check for water.
Unfortunately, the impact plume is expected to be not big enough for binoculars or cameras, but it will be big enough for large amateur telescopes.
NASA has a page on “where and how to observe the LCROSS impacts.”
Hal Finney has posted some news to LessWrong:
A man goes in to see his doctor, and after some tests, the doctor says, “I’m sorry, but you have a fatal disease.”
Man: “That’s terrible! How long have I got?”
Doctor: “Ten.”
Man: “Ten? What kind of answer is that? Ten months? Ten years? Ten what?”
The doctor looks at his watch. “Nine.”Recently I received some bad medical news (although not as bad as in the joke). Unfortunately I have been diagnosed with a fatal disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or ALS, sometimes called Lou Gehrig’s disease. ALS causes nerve damage, progressive muscle weakness and paralysis, and ultimately death. Patients lose the ability to talk, walk, move, eventually even to breathe, which is usually the end of life. This process generally takes about 2 to 5 years.
There are however two bright spots in this picture. The first is that ALS normally does not affect higher brain functions. I will retain my abilities to think and reason as usual. Even as my body is dying outside, I will remain alive inside.The second relates to survival. Although ALS is generally described as a fatal disease, this is not quite true. It is only mostly fatal. When breathing begins to fail, ALS patients must make a choice. They have the option to either go onto invasive mechanical respiration, which involves a tracheotomy and breathing machine, or they can die in comfort. I was very surprised to learn that over 90% of ALS patients choose to die.
I’m shocked and saddened to hear that Hal’s body is betraying him like this. Despite not having spoken to him in quite some time, I have many fond memories of conversations, and I’m pleased to see he’s standing by his ideals as he fights this.