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A traffic warden was caught ticketing innocent motorists - because he couldn’t tell the time.

He used a calculator to work out the expiry time of Dave Alsop’s ticket, without realising the device worked in decimals and not minutes and hours.

Mr Alsop, 29, parked near Torquay harbour, Devon, at 2.49pm and paid £1.20 for 75 minutes, covering him until 4.04pm.

But when he returned at 3.41pm, he discovered a £50 fine on his car. He found the warden and showed him the parking ticket, which clearly had time left on it.

The warden disagreed and tried to prove his point with a calculator.

He tapped in 14.49 and added 0.75 to produce a total of 15.24, claiming this meant Mr Alsop’s ticket had expired at 3.24pm, some 17 minutes before he returned to his car.

Mr Alsop, of Torquay, said: ‘I tried to explain but he didn’t have a clue. He just carried on doing other cars parked there.’

Happily for Mr Alsop, Torbay council waived the fee and apologised. It said: ‘The civil enforcement officer is new.

‘We have provided additional training to prevent this happening again.’

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Originally this article was supposed to be a book review of the upcoming O’Reilly title Subject to Change, but I was so appalled by its content that I felt compelled to shift focus to the more important issue of ethics in publishing. This book reflects a sinister trend in the tech book publishing industry that favors vapid, tedious material that serves to advise readers without revealing the big secrets. The purpose is for the authors (usually a group of writers, and most of them high-level managers) to promote their company and its services by giving readers just enough information. If they want the advanced material, they need to buy the rest at a premium price by going straight to the company for its professional services. Meanwhile, the publisher bathes in a sea of money while the authors relentlessly promote the book on their blogs and in their conference keynotes and panel discussions. Tech books have increasingly become corporate marketing vehicles, sacrificing the exciting A-list technical material that regular tech book buyers and enthusiasts have come to expect from companies like O’Reilly Media and Pearson Education. This isn’t the first book I’ve seen that gives readers a 20,000-word marketing pitch — that honor belongs to Enterprise Ajax (and it’s about three times longer). I’m bothered — sickened — to see that not only is this trend continuing unabated, but it’s actually become a habit.

Subject to Change is written by four people who hold high positions at a company named Adaptive Path. You’ve probably heard of that company because its CEO, Jesse James Garrett, is credited with coining the term Ajax in an essay he wrote a while ago. Other than that, there isn’t anything particularly remarkable about Adaptive Path, other than the fact that it seems to be a successful consulting firm. But from reading this book, you’d think that Adaptive Path was the second coming. Its logo is splattered across every cover surface, larger and more prominent even than O’Reilly’s. The authors speak in the first-person (usually plural, sometimes singular) and turn nearly every subject into a plug for their company.

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The stories in the news about inappropriate relationships between teachers and students have been overwhelming. There was even a substitute teacher in New Port Richey who got in trouble after investigators say she had a relationship with an underage student.

Well, another Pasco County substitute teacher’s job is on the line, but this time it’s because of a magic trick.

The charge from the school district — Wizardry!

Substitute teacher Jim Piculas does a 30-second magic trick where a toothpick disappears then reappears.

But after performing it in front of a classroom at Rushe Middle School in Land ‘O Lakes, Piculas said his job did a disappearing act of its own.

“I get a call the middle of the day from head of supervisor of substitute teachers. He says, ‘Jim, we have a huge issue, you can’t take any more assignments you need to come in right away,’” he said.

When Piculas went in, he learned his little magic trick cast a spell and went much farther than he’d hoped.

“I said, ‘Well Pat, can you explain this to me?’ ‘You’ve been accused of wizardry,’ [he said]. Wizardry?” he asked.

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Taser International has fired a warning shot at medical examiners across the country.

The Scottsdale-based stun gun manufacturer increasingly is targeting state and county medical examiners with lawsuits and lobbying efforts to reverse and prevent medical rulings that Tasers contributed to someone’s death.

That effort on Friday helped lead an Ohio judge’s order to remove Taser’s name from three Summit County Medical Examiner autopsies that had ruled the stun gun contributed to three men’s deaths.

What a great country the USA is…. where else can a corporation get a lawsuit about torture to go their way, and dictate medical procedures….

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Adams School District 50 is defending its decision to punish a third grader for sniffing a Sharpie marker.

Eight-year-old Eathan Harris was originally suspended from Harris Park Elementary School for three days. Principal Chris Benisch reduced the suspension to one day after complaints from Harris’ parents.

Harris used a black Sharpie marker to color a small area on the sleeve of his sweatshirt. A teacher sent him to the principal when she noticed him smelling the marker and his clothing.

[..]

Benisch stands by his decision to suspend Harris, saying it sends a clear message about substance abuse.

“This is really, really, seriously dangerous,” Benisch said.