Look, I'm as revolted by some of the campaign finance scandals as anyone. But I'm also very cautious of well-meaning reform attempts that likely will have totally different effects once they work their way through. Laws always do -- wrongdoers adapt in generally undesireable ways. Worse, I fear the scandals and reform is just a deliberate smoke-screen for a power grab.

To my knowledge, the US and Japan are the only G-8 countries with independent legislators. Everywhere else, the parties control lists/seats because they control the money. The UK/ca/AU/nz Prime Ministers are effectively elected dictators -- remember how Tony Blair (UK-L) put down three successive (perfectly reasonable) backbencher revolts over Iraq? That does not in any sense resemble democracy.

I'm afraid if US Reps/Sens do not control their own funds & re-elections, the money/power vacuum will be filled by someone else, most likely the D&R Party Central Committees. Which will give them (the Prez) power, and remove the legislature as a check on the executive.

For those who worship the sanctity of contract, please remember one cannot legally contract slavery. And that is what long non-compete clauses amount to -- the inability to market your skills ties you to the employer. Trade secret protection is a very different thing used as a smoke-screen. Unequal barganing power and contracts of adhesion are further aggravations.

Recording visuals in California might be legal. Not sure -- they do have anti-papparazi laws. IIRC Recording voice is not legal there without all party consent.

However, the real legal problem with the tag scanners is not the scanning but their automagically accessing a database to determine car status. California has a law allowing access to the tag database only in pursuit of a proper police investigation. Not in pursuit of girlfriends or for others!

LAPD _has_ to [farcically|revealingly] claim everyone in "under investigation" for legal cover, especially to avoid "fruit of the poisoned vine" exclusion of evidence. Expect more "parallel construction" of false evidence origins. Whether this survives courts & appeals is just another indicator of the corruption of America.

BlueCoat may be the best of a bad breed, but that just encourages complacency. Far better to choose less-insecure software (anything-but-IE) and instill some security consciousness into users. Filters might have a "training-wheels" place for learners, but reliance is dangerous.

Look, in any filtering system there are going to be false positives and false negatives. Perhaps more with active systems because the true negatives have an incentive to get by, and so will adjust. (A certain actress and warm cereal is a /. example) The filterers will then have to clamp down, increasing false positives.

The whole thing has a whiff of Bruce Schneier's "security Theatre". Everyone serious knows it does not work, but it gives political cover of be able to claim an effort. Saving face at a price paid by other people. I try to avoid such predators.

I thought exactly business like ATM fleets would be RedHat's target -- people who need robust Linux with support -- all negotiable.

Call me naive, but isn't it the job of the US Federal Government to protect the US citizens and property against incursion and spying by foreign powers? We cannot know what they will do with their intercepts.

PRISM and similar "you spy on mine and I'll spy on yourn" programs smell like conspiracy to violate the US Consititution, if not out-and-out treason. That those programs continue can only be attributed to institutionalized endemic corruption.

... all the more reason for a "fruit of the poisoned vine" doctrine to be adopted in the UK. The whole stop should have been thrown out in the US if it were based on an unwarrented bug. Not that it will be, nor that "poisoned vine" is safe in the US.

Agreed on the judge's odd mention (reliance?) of a failure to declare. Looks weak, but something for the Lords (err...Supremes) to rule upon. Perhaps deliberately.

And fully agreed the length of time came from higher up. Easy enough to establish in a proper cross-examination if defense access to all the participants were allowed. Tough to keep a large conspiracy together.

This was obviously an in absentia railroad job.

... so it is "absurd" to expect a government to be other than hypocritical? "Absurd" to expect a government to obey laws it creates?

Perhaps so, but I am not so cynical. This "sovereign immunity" is purely predatory behaviour and utterly inconsistent with human rights and "consent of the governed". That does not mean it will stop soon, but it is chipping away.

BTW, how did they know it was GCHQ docs? Did he confess? or Were they unencrypted and GCHQ attested?

"survival" of the fittest is mostly a euphemism for reproduction. Numbers matter, but so does quality for it influences grandchildren and beyond.

So, are the scarce-gametes (women) attracted to nice guys? I don't see any evidence amongst all the feel-good unsupported normative prescriptions. I strongly suspect women are looking for men practicing optimum predatation. Although I doubt they are aware of this "goldilocks".

'fess up -- who amongst us has NEVER EVER used someone else's login credentials to do some task? Perhaps the inexperienced, yet to understand security hypocrisy.

The entire yelpdesk industry lives by taking Remote Control" of users' machines.

(with apologies to Python's 4 Yorkshiremen) ... now the youngsters only work 72 hours per week plus turnover. For safety reasons, nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

But seriously, what matters is the reason. For the right reasons, long hours are fine. For the wrong reasons or in the wrong environment, 40h can be too much. Decide what matters most to you and follow it.

Then you won't be getting up half an hour before you go to bed!

p-value is just the probability the data/observations were the result of a random process. So a great p value like 0.01 says the results were not random. They do not conform what made them non-random (ie theory).

Epistimology is elementary, and often skipped by those who wish to persuade. "Figures do not lie, but liars figure."[Clemens]

You are being horn-swoggled by a boss who is confusing two types of contract: A builder will _not_ fix the wall without more pay if s/he is hourly. They will only fix the wall "gratis" if they have a contract for a specified job. Said contract will have some [unstated] provision for rework and the expectation of profit (especially on the change orders).

There is risk in every job. If he wants a supplier (employee/contractor) to assume the risk, he has to pay for it. If he wants minimum cost, normally owners assume it for themselves and manage. Your boss wants to have his cake and eat it too. Disgusting overreach.