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Submission + - US Government confiscates passport of citizen while overseas, doesn't say why (motherjones.com) 1

Submitted by Faizdog
Faizdog writes: The US State Department has confiscated the passport of a US citizen who is overseas. Due to that, he is in a precarious situation regarding his legal status.

The State Dept. has given no explanation for their actions.

Federal law requires that US citizens be granted a hearing before their passports are revoked. According to the man’s attorneys: “Having a passport is part of a citizen’s right to international travel, because without a passport you’re not able to move about or return to the US they can revoke it if they believe it has been obtained fraudulently. But here, there isn’t any allegation of wrongdoing.”

How does one answer the question “papers please?” when they government has taken your papers?

Comment Saracasm is one of the best ways to poke fun (Score 1) 2

by UnknownSoldier (#46729961) Attached to: Ideas for protesting Ballmer's graduation speech?

Make fun of Ballmer's lack of intelligence:

i.e.

"if 'Linux is a cancer' then it is funny that Android is a "failure" by it being on 1 billion devices"

"As of September 2013, one billion Android devices have been activated."

References:

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...

--
Microsoft doesn't know what the fuck they are doing with UI. Who the hell puts a Menu in all UPPERCASE ?? Apparently they never got the memo that we stopped reading books in all uppercase ...

Submission + - Ideas for protesting Ballmer's graduation speech? 2

Submitted by fsterman
fsterman writes: Apparently Ballmer is speaking at my graduation upcoming graduation. As a proponent of direct-action, FLOSS fanatic, and software patent hater, I would like to inject something intelligent into whatever retrospective his speech delivers.

Any suggestions?

Submission + - Can You Buy A License to Speed in California?

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Alex Mayyasi writes that in the parking lots of Silicon Valley’s venture capital firms, expensive cars gleam in the California sun and a closer look reveals that the cars share a mysterious detail: they nearly all have a custom license plate frame that reads, “Member. 11-99 Foundation.” Are the Bay Area’s wealthy all part of some sort of illuminati group that identifies each other by license plate instead of secret handshakes? The answer is the state highway patrol — the men and women that most people interact with only when getting ticketed for speeding. A number of the frames read “CHP 11-99 Foundation,” which is the full name of a charitable organization that supports California Highway Patrol officers and their families in times of crisis. Donors receive one license plate as part of a $2,500 “Classic” level donation, or two as part of a bronze, silver, or gold level donation of $5,000, $10,000, or $25,000. Rumor has it, according to Mayyasi, that the license plate frames come with a lucrative return on investment. As one member of a Mercedes-Benz owners community wrote online back in 2002: “I have the ultimate speeding ticket solution. I paid $1800 for a lifetime membership into the 11-99 foundation. My only goal was to get the infamous ‘get out of jail’ free license plate frame.”

The 11-99 Foundation has sold license plate frames for most of its 32 year existence, and drivers have been aware of the potential benefits since at least the late 1990s. But attention to the issue in 2006-2008 led the foundation to stop giving out the frames. An article in the LA Times asked “Can Drivers Buy CHP Leniency?” and began by describing a young man zipping around traffic — including a police cruiser — and telling the Times that he believed his 11-99 frames kept him from receiving a ticket. But the decision was almost irrelevant to another thriving market: the production and sale of fake 11-99 license plate frames. But wait — the CHP 11-99 Foundation also gives out membership cards to big donors. “Unless you have the I.D. in hand when (not if) I stop you," says one cop, "no love will be shown.”

Submission + - 200 million social security numbers possibly stolen in Experian breach (mercurynews.com)

Submitted by Beeftopia
Beeftopia writes: A 2012 breach at credit reporting company Experian may be much larger than first reported. The article states, "In what could be one of the biggest data breaches in history, the federal government and authorities in several states are investigating the criminal sale of Social Security numbers, bank account data and other personal information for up to 200 million U.S. citizens."

The investigations stem from the 2012 case of Hieu Minh Ngo, who sold names, addresses, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, places of work, duration of work, dates of employment, state driver's license numbers, mother's maiden names, bank account numbers, bank routing numbers, email account names and addresses and other account passwords, court records show.

Submission + - Supporters Rally After Teacher Removed For 'Dangerous' Science Projects

Submitted by Hugh Pickens DOT Com
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes: Howard Blume reports that Greg Schiller, a popular Los Angeles high school science teacher, has been suspended after students turned in projects designed to shoot small projectiles that appeared dangerous to administrators, spurring a campaign calling for his return to the classroom. One project used compressed air to propel a small object, but it was not connected to a source of air pressure, so it could not have been fired. (Fun Fact: In 2012, President Obama tried out a more powerful air-pressure device at a White House Science Fair that could launch a marshmallow 175 feet.) Another project used the power from an AA battery to charge a tube surrounded by a coil. A school employee saw the air-pressure project and raised concerns about what looked to her like a weapon and both projects were confiscated as evidence. "It is the practice of the Los Angeles Unified School District to reassign an employee to a non-classroom setting when there are allegation related to student safety," said a statement by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). "We will always err on the side of protecting students." Hundreds of students and parents have rallied around Schiller after his suspension and organized a rally on his behalf at the campus, gathered hundreds of signatures on a petition calling for his reinstatement and set up a facebook page called "Free Schiller." “As far as we can tell, he’s being punished for teaching science,” says Warren Fletcher, president of United Teachers Los Angeles.

Submission + - Australian bank NAB's Bitcoin ban a symptom of the digital currency threat (theconversation.com)

Submitted by oztechmuse
oztechmuse writes: The move of banks like Australia's NAB to close accounts of businesses trading in Bitcoin is being justified on the basis of risk whereas the more likely motivation is guarding against a currency that threatens their own business. The issue of risk is largely a smoke screen — especially when compared with the $2.1 trillion that is involved in crime globally — most of which goes through the banking system. This compares to the less than $10 billion in total capitalisation of cryptocurrencies.

Comment Re:I think he's right... (Score 1, Flamebait) 292

There are many things that Science doesn't have a clue about:

* The 2 missing fundamental forces
* White Holes
* Actual Intelligence (not that joke that passes for Artificial Ignorance)
* Bi-Location
* Teleportation
* FTL
* Mineral Consciousness
* Plant Consciousness
* Animal Consciousness
* Time Travel
* The true purpose of dreams
* The Soul
* What happens before life
* What happens after death

At least these stupid troll articles will finally end in 2024 when we no longer have to worry about this crap.

Submission + - James Lovelock reflects on Gaia's legacy (nature.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: "A lot of investment in green technology has been a giant scam, if well intentioned."

The quote, and entire interview, are significant for two reasons. First, the interview is seeped with many skeptical opinions about human caused global warming, is very critical of that movement's effort to politicize science, and the person being interviewed is James Lovelock, the founder of of the concept of Gaia, a former strong advocate of global warming but now a skeptic.

Most significant however is where the interview is published. It is in Nature, one of the most important and influential science journals, which previously has been aggressively pushing global warming politics for years. That they allowed these politically incorrect opinions within their walls and then broadcast them to their readers signals a major cultural shift within the science community. It is beginning to be acceptable to be a skeptic again!

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