This clip has been making the rounds on the Internet, so odds are you’ve seen it. If you haven’t, you should watch it, preferably in HD at Vimeo. At the very least, click the title of this post to see it full size. 
The premise is simple: Matthew Harding took a trip to 42 countries to film short clips of him doing a silly dance, sometimes alone, sometimes with lots of local folks, often in beautiful locations. The result is this 4:28 video.
I’m proud to share the fact that this guy is from Connecticut. They don’t call us nutmeggers for nothing.
Update: The song is (called Praan) is available at Amazon’s MP3 store.
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Why we need a war on the war on drugs.
This is unbelievable in a lot of ways. The headline made me wonder if the judge had some novel argument, but after reading the details, it’s clear that she’s ignoring what the law actually says.
I’m still reading, but this is worth passing on. More comments on this later.
This is stupid. I don’t know how you fix it, though. The new rules make this process more transparent, but there’s still a human factor. People need to read the bills they’re passing…
Not really sure how to react to this. I mean, it’s absurd she was arrested, but she shouldn’t have done this, either.
Excellent explanation of the current divide between those of us who want to follow due process and those that don’t. If there’s a left/right, liberal/conservative, or whatever debate on terrorism, it’s really between those who trust everything the government says and those who treat it all with skepticism. Ironically, I don’t believe this follows any traditional left/right divide, but the fact that so many of the President’s supporters choose to fall in line with the Administration’s statements that they take the authoritarian position simply out of partisanship. very dangerous.
Of course, this is why the political compass makes sense. We’ve been taken over by authoritarian right wing folks, pretty much the complete opposite of a libertarian left like me.
Interesting developments. I don’t see why online poker sites wouldn’t be affected similarly.
I probably shouldn’t comment on this because of what I do, so I won’t. I will say, go read this: Judge: Fantasy leagues may use MLB names, stats
Fantasy baseball leagues are allowed to use player names and statistics without licensing agreements because they are not the intellectual property of Major League Baseball, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
Baseball and its players have no right to prevent the use of names and playing records, U.S. District Court Judge Mary Ann Medler in St. Louis ruled in a 49-page summary judgment.
St. Louis-based CBC Distribution and Marketing Inc. filed a lawsuit against MLB after CBC was denied a new licensing agreement with the baseball players’ association giving it the rights to player profiles and statistics.
Major League Baseball claimed that intellectual property laws and so-called “right of publicity” make it illegal for fantasy leagues to make money off the identities and stats of professional players.
But even if the players could claim the right of publicity against commercial ventures by others, Medler wrote, the First Amendment takes precedent because CBC, which runs CDM Fantasy Sports, is disseminating the same statistical information found in newspapers every day.
“The names and playing records of major league baseball players as used in CBC’s fantasy games are not copyrightable,” Medler wrote. “Therefore, federal copyright law does not pre-empt the players’ claimed right of publicity.”
The ruling brings some relief to more than 300 businesses that run online fantasy leagues and have awaited the outcome of the lawsuit. In fantasy sports leagues, fans draft major leaguers and teams win or lose based on the statistical success of the actual players in major league games.
It wasn’t immediately clear what impact the ruling would have on existing agreements, such as the ones MLB has with CBS Sportsline.com, Yahoo Inc., ESPN.com and others. MLB also may appeal; a spokesman for the league did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
An ESPN spokesperson said Monday that the company would have no comment on the ruling.
Excerpt:
The American Bar Association recently joined the debate with the release of a Report by a bipartisan task force on presidential signing statements and the separation of powers. As one of us has noted previously, a number of aspects of the Report are very timely and worthwhile. In particular, we agree with the Report’s emphasis on the need for transparency
whenever the executive branch declines to execute a statute or construes that statute in a manner that appears to be contrary to its text and congressional intent. But we were surprised by, and disagree with, certain of the Report’s central conclusions…
Excerpt:
SMART gamblers know when to quit and when to hold their nerve and let bets run. The holders and folders who invest in internet gambling firms were given much to ponder with the arrest in America on Sunday July 16th of David Carruthers. The British chief executive of BetonSports was detained while changing planes in Texas en route from London to the online gambling firm’s base in Costa Rica. The next day many shareholders showed they weren’t prepared to risk their investments. Shares in BetonSports plunged. So did the value of other online firms that rely on American punters.
…
But the relevant laws largely predate the internet era. Legal opinion is divided over the extent to which the 1961 Wire Act, a statute designed to stop gambling over the phone, can be applied to betting over the internet. In this case, that may not matter. BetonSports—unlike most of its rivals—takes wagers both online and over the phone. Moreover, it accepts bets on American sports events as well as running casino-type games. Though BetonSports faces charges concerning both types of gambling, other online firms that do not run a sports book remain confident that they are safe from prosecution.
I was interviewed by Jodi Latina from WTNH 8 (the local ABC affiliate) this morning while picking up my morning bagel. I was completely not expecting this, and on top of that, I had never thought about this issue. So, of course, I said something not so clever.
Basically, the town council passed a voluntary sticker program that would allow parents to apply a sticker to the cars used by their new teenage drivers. This would help cops and other drivers identify a young driver. Parents apparently asked for this program, though I can’t really imagine why (more on that in a sec) and the West Hartford Police like it because it makes it easier for them to enforce a new CT state law that bans new drivers from having passengers in the car aside from parents/guardians or experienced drivers. The law also imposed new time restrictions on young drivers with some exceptions for work, religious activities, etc.
I was just trying to express my initial reaction which was, why the heck would parents do something like this? I hate to sound like an old man, but when I was a kid, my parents taught me to respect the law, not live in fear of it. It was enough that they asked me to be home by midnight. Even if I were concerned my kid might not listen to me, why in the world would I want the police involved? Down that road lies higher insurance premiums, fines, etc.
Maybe I’m missing something, but I can’t think of what the parents who asked for this new program were thinking.
Regardless, the program is voluntary. We’ll see how many stickers they give out and how many stickers I see around town. I’m willing to bet the program will not be that popular, especially after a report hits the news about a kid getting caught because of it.
The war on privacy | Economist.com
THE demands of security frequently square up against the desire for personal liberty. Most recently, on May 30th, the weighty matter seemed to rest on the scales of the European Court of Justice, Europe’s highest court. At issue was an existing European Union agreement to provide American officials with many personal details of airline passengers who cross the Atlantic. The Americans want the data for the sake of public safety. But some European politicians complain that the demands are so great they might even break strict European privacy laws. In fact, the court objected to the transfer of data on a legal point and did not consider, in this instance, the issue of passengers’ privacy rights.
Good article covers some recent schemes to defraud folks. Arizona is apparently the worst place to be if you’re concerned about identity theft.
