Comment Re:The old idea fallacy (Score 1) 268
Awesome Captain Kirk impression.
Every Weapon, Armored Truck, and Plane the Pentagon Gave To Local Police 191
v3rgEz writes You may have heard that the image-conscious Los Angeles Unified School District chose to return the grenade launchers it received from the Defense Department's surplus equipment program. You probably have not heard about some of the more obscure beneficiaries of the Pentagon giveaway, but now you can after MuckRock got the Department of Defense to release the full database, letting anyone browse what gear their local department has received.
Comment The only thing that Comcast and Time Warner need . (Score 1) 114
... is to be disbanded.
Comment Re:Wake-up call (Score 1) 24
I really hope you are trying to be funny.
One can always hope, but it seems we've managed to go from "climate change isn't real" to "it causes everything bad that happens."
Of course, a big enough eruption would actually trigger a global cooling trend for a while. Think Krakatoa and Mount Pinatubo.
One can always hope, but it seems we've managed to go from "climate change isn't real" to "it causes everything bad that happens."
Of course, a big enough eruption would actually trigger a global cooling trend for a while. Think Krakatoa and Mount Pinatubo.
Uber's Android App Caught Reporting Data Back Without Permission 234
Zothecula writes Security researcher GironSec has pulled Uber's Android app apart and discovered that it's sending a huge amount of personal data back to base – including your call logs, what apps you've got installed, whether your phone is vulnerable to certain malware, whether your phone is rooted, and your SMS and MMS logs, which it explicitly doesn't have permission to do. It's the latest in a series of big-time missteps for a company whose core business model is, frankly, illegal in most of its markets as well.
Chrome 39 Launches With 64-bit Version For Mac OS X and New Developer Features 67
An anonymous reader writes "Google today released Chrome 39 for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The biggest addition in this release is 64-bit support for OS X, which first arrived in Chrome 38 beta. Unlike on Windows, where 32-bit and 64-bit versions will both continue to be available (users currently have to opt-in to use the 64-bit release), Chrome for Mac is now only available in 64-bit. There are also a number of security fixes and developer features. Here's the full changelog.
Comment Re:More detailed ratings are a good thing (Score 3, Insightful) 642
>A private entity cannot enforce anything upon the populace
You need to watch This Film Has Not Been Rated, buddy, and learn all about that private, non-governmental ratings board from the MPAA that ABSOLUTELY controls what films get seen and made and how.
Comment Re:Keep reading to see what Bennett has to say. (Score 0) 246
Exactly.
I actually only clicked to come here to state for the record that I will never fucking "keep reading to see what Bennett has to say" again.
Comment Okay, that's it. (Score 1) 200
I read that as "A Woman's Mind in a Leggy Body."
I'm going to bed now.
I'm going to bed now.
British Spies Are Free To Target Lawyers and Journalists 184
Advocatus Diaboli writes British spies have been granted the authority to secretly eavesdrop on legally privileged attorney-client communications, according to newly released documents. On Thursday, a series of previously classified policies confirmed for the first time that the U.K.'s top surveillance agency Government Communications Headquarters has advised its employees: "You may in principle target the communications of lawyers." The country's other major security and intelligence agencies—MI5 and MI6—have adopted similar policies, the documents show. The guidelines also appear to permit surveillance of journalists and others deemed to work in "sensitive professions."
Australian Courts Will Be Able To See Your Browsing History 182
An anonymous reader writes A series of slips by the nation's top cop followed by communications minister Malcolm Turnbull has made Australia's data retention bill even more of a potential horror than it seemed when it was introduced last week, writes Richard Chirgwin in an article about Australia's new legislation. "Lawyers are already gathering, telling the ABC's PM program that metadata could be demanded in family law cases and insurance cases." It continues, with the inevitable result that your internet browsing history will be used against people trying to resist demands during divorce. "What's depressing is that Australians probably won't take to the streets about this issue."
Comment Re:just another Mickey Mouse search engine (Score 1) 164
"Mickey Mouse" search engine.
Heh.
Heh.
Comment Re:So they patented this because....? (Score 1) 164
I just love how bribery is called "lobbying" in the US.
As an American, I don't. Like it that is.
Comment Re:Makes you wonder... (Score 2) 187
Technically, what they care about is control of distribution, because in their (relatively tiny) minds, that equates directly to profit. Loss of control is likewise perceived as inevitably causing loss of profit. That they might make even more money with a less dickish business model is way outside their comfort zone, because all they understand is what always worked before.
So yes, they are analogs to the recording industry. Those legitimate customers who are harmed by the quest to control content distribution are acceptable collateral damage.
So yes, they are analogs to the recording industry. Those legitimate customers who are harmed by the quest to control content distribution are acceptable collateral damage.
Statisticians Study Who Was Helped Most By Obamacare 739
HughPickens.com writes We know that about 10 million more people have insurance coverage this year as a result of the Affordable Care Act but until now it has been difficult to say much about who was getting that Obamacare coverage — where they live, their age, their income and other such details. Now Kevin Quealy and Margot Sanger-Katz report in the NYT that a new data set is providing a clearer picture of which people gained health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. The data is the output of a statistical model based on a large survey of adults and shows that the law has done something rather unusual in the American economy this century: It has pushed back against inequality, essentially redistributing income — in the form of health insurance or insurance subsidies — to many of the groups that have fared poorly over the last few decades. The biggest winners from the law include people between the ages of 18 and 34; blacks; Hispanics; and people who live in rural areas. The areas with the largest increases in the health insurance rate, for example, include rural Arkansas and Nevada; southern Texas; large swaths of New Mexico, Kentucky and West Virginia; and much of inland California and Oregon.
Despite many Republican voters' disdain for the Affordable Care Act, parts of the country that lean the most heavily Republican (according to 2012 presidential election results) showed significantly more insurance gains than places where voters lean strongly Democratic. That partly reflects underlying rates of insurance. In liberal places, like Massachusetts and Hawaii, previous state policies had made insurance coverage much more widespread, leaving less room for improvement. But the correlation also reflects trends in wealth and poverty. Many of the poorest and most rural states in the country tend to favor Republican politicians.
Despite many Republican voters' disdain for the Affordable Care Act, parts of the country that lean the most heavily Republican (according to 2012 presidential election results) showed significantly more insurance gains than places where voters lean strongly Democratic. That partly reflects underlying rates of insurance. In liberal places, like Massachusetts and Hawaii, previous state policies had made insurance coverage much more widespread, leaving less room for improvement. But the correlation also reflects trends in wealth and poverty. Many of the poorest and most rural states in the country tend to favor Republican politicians.
