Comment Re:Who would have thought (Score 1) 194
Here's the best example I can think of...
A radio actor with narcolepsy? Seriously?
Here's the best example I can think of...
A radio actor with narcolepsy? Seriously?
No. They're signs that law-enforcement can use to help them identify possible smugglers. Do you feel a special need to put words in my mouth and then become outraged at them?
Simply sharing an anecdote with the poster above who asked what a plan for getting off the grid without being wealthy was...
Perhaps the author of the CBC article shouldn't have taken so many shortcuts in writing his article and just posted a link to the Washington Post article.
It says pretty clearly that abundant energy drinks or air fresheners were a potential indicator of smuggling -- which they are. While a back seat full of empty Monster cans might also be a good indicator of non-stop driving by spring breakers to Daytona, it's also a sign that you might be looking at smugglers. Abundant air fresheners, while possibly a sign that the guy in the passenger seat is lactose intolerant, is also a fair indicator of hiding a smell that wasn't just running over a skunk back up the highway. [In much the same way that slurring words doesn't necessarily indicate a drunk, it's certainly a possible indicator.]
As best I can tell nowhere in the WP article is clothing mentioned. I have to assume the CBC author came to that idea all on his lonesome.
Like I said to another poster. This unlawful seizure has only happened in a handful of cases over the last decade, and those where corrected by the courts, property returned and officers involved appropriately disciplined.
The original story reads like this happens every day. Sorry, that's not true. It doesn't happen once a week, or once a month even.
Are you sure?
From the Washington Post article that the CBC author quoted.
There have been 61,998 cash seizures made on highways and elsewhere since 9/11 without search warrants or indictments through the Equitable Sharing Program, totaling more than $2.5 billion. State and local authorities kept more than $1.7 billion of that while Justice, Homeland Security and other federal agencies received $800 million. Half of the seizures were below $8,800.
I'm not sure about the numbers either, but even if they're off by an order of magnitude, it seems like a lot of seizures.
Further interesting is the last line. It reads to me like half of the seizures are ABOVE $8,800.
As much as I like the idea of limiting my responses to legally identifying myself according to my state's laws, presenting any registrations or licenses potentially necessary, and then locking myself into a loop of, "am I being detained?" "am I under arrest?" "am I free to go?" I'm also smart enough to know that the any chance of the officer simply sending me on my way with a warning to keep my insurance card in the car and get a new tail-lamp next time I pass a Checker/Kragen/AutoZone flies right out the window when that happens.
It's a good idea to know your rights, not offer consent to searches, not volunteer any unnecessary information...but it's downright foolish to get into some sort of "I am being detained" back-and-forth through a slit cracked in the window.
I have a friend who, along with his wife, "retired" in their mid-20's.
They were both employed, had recently bought a house -- the sort of thing you expect from a new couple in their 20's. They were quietly living the white-picket-fence version of The American Dream. The company that they were working for got bought out. Employees - fortunately - had the opportunity to take a buyout on their position and leave with a tidy sum in their pockets. They sold their house for a small gain, took their buyout money, and have spent the last 20 years in a mobile home, moving from one state park to the next, hiking and living frugally. They both work part-time as trail guides in exchange for the occasional RV hookup fee or to supplement their retirement fund.
It didn't take much money for them to disconnect and live about as off the grid as you can comfortably.
I'm not suggesting this as practical advise for anyone -- but I've actually seen it work. If I liked hiking and camping (20 years of hiking and camping) I'd be more jealous.
A roundabout is simply nothing more than a right hand turn at a yield sign, followed by an exit ramp. If your application can't handle that, then why the hell is it on the road in the first place?
Oh, yeah, sure.
The only slight problem with that is that in order to react at all in time, you must be paying the same amount of attention as you would if there was no autonomous drive system at all.
I snipped the quote, but to the post as a whole...
Why? Based on other technologies we have, the autonomous system seems capable of stopping the car when it's confused. It doesn't just keep rolling at the unknown at full speed hoping you take over at the split-second that it leaves it's mapped world and enters the unknown.
Along the same lines, it doesn't seem difficult to take control of the system while it's actively driving. It's not hard to disengage cruise controls or stop a car using Park Assist or Lane Assist from turning into something not seen by the sensor system. Why is it hard for me to grab the wheel from the "hands" of the auto-pilot in the Google car?
Even if it doesn't have some sort of clear analog for home users, and even if it doesn't line up with the rest of copyright laws, a good public library is the cornerstone of a civilized world.
Pass a few laws that make for good libraries. I'll vote with 'ya.
Now they have the guide printed on the box but I can remember when i was a kid they didn't.
Some off them had maps at least as far back as the '50s, and probably much further.
A classic was the "Whitman Sampler" - an assortment of their products with a handy map. In addition to being a tasty and relatively low-priced collection of their products, it let a family divide them up according to their individual preferences, and gave you the names of each, so you could (at least hypotheically) buy boxes of just the ones you like.
(I say hypothetically because I never saw boxes of the individual candies being carried in the stores that sold the samplers.)
The answer to those questions are rarely viewed in a void -- much like asking our fired NSF worker if she participated in seditious groups.
Unless you admit to active participation (illegal drugs or sedition) It's just a springboard used to conduct the interview.
People who were also a member of that organization were members of a separate organization, which did. She did not make the connection, because in her mind the answer was emphatically "no, I certainly have not".
Then she's too fucking stupid to have her NSF job, because she was prison pen-pals with one of the armored truck robbery murdering members of M19CO.
If she can't "make the connection" then she's as dumb as a box of hammers.
Yup.
Also high on the question list for any sort of sensitive job is your financial position - if you've got the sort of debts that would make you more susceptible to bribery.
My last government interview was as a reference for a friend going to work for CBP. They wanted to know if he used drugs -- and truth stranger than fiction, I believed he never had. They wanted to know if he was in any financial trouble - nope, he's your classic old-Honda-driving-retirement-saver. They wanted to know if he was involved in any seditious groups - to which they were not amused when I asked if spending 20 years on and off in the US Army counted. They essentially asked those same questions about his family -- could his mother or brother be bribed to make him a pawn for a Mexican cartel.
In most cases, they wanted to make sure my answers lined up with his - make sure he was truthful with them.
Intel CPUs are not defective, they just act that way. -- Henry Spencer
