The worst thing about censorship is **********

The UK government is trying to institute a "policy" of blocking internet content that would make the Chinese dictatorship proud.  As with "filtering software" of the 1990s, the UK government's censorship is not about blocking "obscenity", it is about blocking content that differs from the governing party's religious and political views.  Allowing sites that promote hate while censoring sites that promote human rights is not the act of a free and democratic state, it is the act of a group of thugs.

Alan Turing has been pardoned...sixty one years too late

Crack the Enigma code and enable the allies to defeat the Nazis?  Nope, not good enough.

Inventing modern computing?  Nope, not that either.

The only gross indecency was the false conviction and hypocrisy by his own government.

And as for "suicide", even that is debatable and questionable.  I won't be surprised if it's someday revealed that he was murdered.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/alan-turing-granted-royal-pardon-for-gay-sex-conviction-1.2474916

Alan Turing granted royal pardon for gay sex conviction

Mathematician Alan Turing, who helped Britain win the Second World War by cracking Nazi Germany's "unbreakable" Enigma code, was granted a rare royal pardon on Tuesday for a criminal conviction for homosexuality that led to his suicide.

Defining stupidity

I watched a documentary on stupidity.  It posed the question of "What is stupidity?" but never defined it, probably because it's too nebulous to define.

The best definition I can think of is this:

stupidity (n.)

1. To act in contradiction to reality, facts, and/or one's own interests

2. To deny and ignore reality and facts in pursuit of one's desires or ambitions

It's not a perfect catch-all, but it fairly well describes things most educated would call stupid:

• "daredevils" and other physically dangerous acts
• religion, creationism, climate change denial, political hypocrisy
• obsession and fanaticism (music, movies, sports, etc.)

The War On Cyclists and Pedestrians: Father arrested for walking to his kids' school

How ludicrous has the US become where parents are NOT allowed to walk to schools and pick up their children?  Or that parents are REQUIRED to have cars in order to do so?

"Just doing his job" is second only to "disorderly conduct" on the list of make-it-up-as-you-go-along police work.  It's not about "laws", it's about demonstrating and exerting authority (read: bullying the populace).

Libertarian clowns are trying to get mileage out of this story, but the real issues are parents having the right to see their own children at any time, and that cars are prioritized over pedestrians.

http://www.wate.com/story/24005228/cumberland-county-parent-releases-video-of-his-arrest-by-a-school-resource-officer

Cumberland County parent outraged by his arrest

A Cumberland County father didn't want to wait in a long line of traffic to pick his kids up from school. That led to a series of encounters last week at South Cumberland Elementary, and now the dad's facing charges.

The War On Cyclists and Pedestrians: Squash player deliberately murdered, minimal charges for the driver

Labelling such killings as "accidents" is done to minimize the actions of the perpetrator and to blame the victim.

At the very least, the killing of Adrian Dudzicki was manslaughter, if not second degree murder, and the driver should face that charge and the prison sentence that comes with it.

The media label the killing of cyclists and pedestrians "accidents" to blame the victim and to protect "car culture".  Remember that if you kid is ever run over by a car on a sidewalk - your child will be labelled the guilty party, the driver will be deemed innocent.

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/sports/Squash+player+from+Ottawa+dies+Toronto+cycling+accident/9191830/story.html

Amanda Berry is alive, and Sylvia Browne is dead

People say when someone dies, you should only say good things about them.

Sylvia Browne is dead.  Good.

Browne's track record of "prediction" was so bad that random dice rolls produced better results.

http://fox8.com/2013/11/20/tmz-sylvia-browne-dead-at-77/

There are thousands of other frauds willing to cheat the uneducated out of their money, but at least Browne won't be doing it anymore.

Assaulting and/or killing cyclists is a "minor" offense

In the New York Times on November 9, writer Daniel Duane asked, "Is It O.K. to Kill Cyclists?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/10/opinion/sunday/is-it-ok-to-kill-cyclists.html

The anecdotes mounted: my wife’s childhood friend was cycling with Mom and Dad when a city truck killed her; two of my father’s law partners, maimed. I began noticing “cyclist killed” news articles, like one about Amelie Le Moullac, 24, pedaling inside a bike lane in San Francisco’s SOMA district when a truck turned right and killed her. In these articles, I found a recurring phrase: to quote from The San Francisco Chronicle story about Ms. Le Moullac, “The truck driver stayed at the scene and was not cited.”

In stories where the driver had been cited, the penalty’s meagerness defied belief, like the teenager in 2011 who drove into the 49-year-old cyclist John Przychodzen from behind on a road just outside Seattle, running over and killing him. The police issued only a $42 ticket for an “unsafe lane change” because the kid hadn’t been drunk and, as they saw it, had not been driving recklessly.

Good riddance to bad rubbish...I mean, bad business practices

Blockbuster Video, the lackluster rental company, is finally and permanently closing its doors.  It won't be missed.

http://business.time.com/2013/11/09/the-end-of-an-era-blockbuster-ceases-rentals-in-advance-of-closing/

The company may have been a giant, but became one at the expense of other companies and of consumers.  Its poorly written and inconsistent policies, its excessive late fees and its sheer arrogance made it easy for a competing business like Netflix to arise.  On top of that lackluster...I mean, Blockbuster failed to see the writing on the wall of their brick-and-mortar business.  Digital distribution was the future, and they failed to see it until five years too late.  I certainly won't miss them.  If I rented their movies more than five times during their existence, I would be surprised.

I preferred the mom-and-pop rental shops, and not just because they were locally owned.  They tended to be reasonable and responsive to problems, and not treat human beings as an inconvenient part of doing business.

The War On Cyclists and Pedestrians: Five children run over, no charges for the driver

http://www.streetsblog.org/2013/09/12/running-down-five-children-on-a-sidewalk-is-legal-in-new-york-city/

Running Down Five Children on a Sidewalk Is Legal in New York City

DNAinfo is reporting that the driver who jumped a curb and hit five kids in Maspeth this morning, an incident captured on video, probably will not be charged.

A surveillance tape shows a group of kids on a Grand Avenue sidewalk when the driver of a Honda SUV runs one of them over, missing the others by inches. Witnesses lifted the SUV off at least one of the victims. One girl reportedly suffered a broken leg and another a broken hip. One boy has a leg injury and another was treated for a swollen arm. The victims were age 12 to 14. From DNAinfo:

Obituary: Opera web browser, 1994-2013

Opera was an innovative and customizable web browser.  It created many features adopted by other browsers (e.g. tabbed browsing, gestures, extensive right-click menus among others).  It never attained a large market share for a variety of reasons, none related the browser's functionality or reliability (see also: Beta videotape).

Opera's demise was a voluntary decision of the company to stop making a web browser, and instead create an overlay for Google's Chrome browser (similar to Rockmelt and Iron, or Maxthon based on Internet Explorer).  It is no longer a browser, but instead an attempt to cut costs, an admission of defeat by a company that once led the field in innovative thinking.

There is only one thing to say about Michael Shermer

Michael Shermer has been accused of sexually assaulting or perhaps raping one or more women.  The veracity of any such claims is beyond my knowledge, so I have no comment on whether it is true or not.

But you have to wonder why Shermer's response is legal action to silence criticism, rather than a presentation or explanation of his interactions with the woman who accused him (or women, since a second has come forward).

Worse yet, Shermer is openly grateful to someone who is raising money for his legal costs - a person who has openly told rape jokes to get laughs.  Shermer endorses such a person instead of distancing himself from him.  Rape is not something to joke about.

Why I don't watch baseball

When I say that I do not watch baseball, I am only talking about "Major League" baseball.  I love watching the Pacific League from Japan, or even the Korean Baseball League.  They play at a very high level but without steroids.

 And when I say that I do not watch baseball, it is not steroids that put me off.  Yes, steroids are ruining the game and the owners of MLB teams are encouraging players to take them, but that is beside the point.  (If you disagree, ask yourself why there is such a  focus on "macho" crap like strikeouts and home runs.  Just like the olympics, records are what sell tickets, not the event itself.)

The MLB owners could easily fix the game and get rid of steroids at the same time.  It would not require drug testing, nor would it require any changes to the rules.

What is would require is for baseball to enforce rules that are already on the books.

Why I don't watch football, part 1: children and concussions

When I say football, I am talking about the North American game, not the world game.

Football is a brutal, full contact game.  It is rife with injuries to the feet, knees, back, arms shoulders, and worst of all, the head and neck.

Last fall a news item talked about concussions in football and the danger involved in repeated head strikes, even without a diagnosed concussion.  Reading that item put me off watching football altogether.  I have always known about the risks to the players, about the potential of gladitorial sport watched by mobs too cowardly and out of shape to suit up and play themselves.

Annoyances #1: Psycho-phants

When a person writes something and posts it publicly (a blog, a news item, whatever), if there is a way to give feedback to the writer, then inevitably someone will disagree.  Aside from "water is wet", there will always be someone who disagrees.

That's not a problem.  What is a problem are people who allow comments but then don't want to hear them.  They made it possible for people to disagree, then got upset because someone did disagree.