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Canadian police investigate dozens of allegations against psychiatrist nicknamed for use of electricity to ‘cure’ gay soldiers.

A leading Canadian psychiatrist who kept accusations of gross human rights abuses in apartheid-era South Africa hidden has been charged in Calgary with sexually abusing a male patient and is being investigated over dozens of other allegations.

Is anybody really surprised?

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This is how the newest firmware update is described on the official PlayStation blog: “The next system software update for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) system will be released on April 1, 2010 (JST), and will disable the ‘Install Other OS’ feature that was available on the PS3 systems prior to the current slimmer models, launched in September 2009,” a Sony rep wrote. “This feature enabled users to install an operating system, but due to security concerns, Sony Computer Entertainment will remove the functionality through the 3.21 system software update.

“In addition, disabling the ‘Other OS’ feature will help ensure that PS3 owners will continue to have access to the broad range of gaming and entertainment content from SCE and its content partners on a more secure system.”

It’s pointed out that this update is strictly voluntary, although if you don’t download the new firmware you won’t be able to connect to the PlayStation Network, play any games online, play any games or Blu-ray movies that “require” the new firmware, play any files kept on a media server, or download any future updates. To put it simply, if you don’t grab the update, the system will become useless to you as a gaming or media machine.

The ability to run Linux was never available on the second-generation PS3 Slim hardware, but the problem is that now the option won’t be available in hardware that could previously install Linux. There is no reason for this, other than Sony decided it was no longer safe. While it’s hard to argue that running Linux was a major selling point of the system, we’ve heard from many people who enjoyed the feature. Now, to continue using their system as a gaming machine, they need to give up a feature that was advertised as part of the hardware they bought.

Sony was already on my blacklist, but the next right they claim… well, check the title of this post.

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Tomorrow the U.S. Supreme Court hears oral argument in a case that has gotten very little media coverage, on whether a private person protected by a restraining order may bring a criminal contempt action to enforce the order. The petitioner pled guilty to beating the respondent, on the condition that he not be prosecuted for a second beating inflicted after she obtained a restraining order. The respondent brought her own criminal action for contempt for the second beating, and the petitioner received more jail time. He asserts, however, that he has a due process right to be prosecuted by the government, rather than a private person.

Usually, criminal actions are brought by the government This case raises the question of whether private persons can be empowered to bring their own criminal actions, as well as practical concerns about how otherwise restraining orders can be enforced.

Go read the discussion at the link…. this is a subtle one..

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Karl Rove, the former chief of staff to President George W. Bush, held a discussion Monday night in Beverly Hills, California to promote his new book, “Courage and Consequences.” But the 100 or so people who showed up for the event, perhaps unsurprisingly, weren’t all fans of the polarizing strategist.

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The future of our industry now looks totally different than the past. It looks like a sheet of paper, and it’s called the iPad. It’s not about typing or clicking; it’s about touching. It’s not about text, or even animation, it’s about video. It’s not about a local disk, or even a desktop, it’s about the cloud. It’s not about pulling information; it’s about push. It’s not about repurposing old software, it’s about writing everything from scratch (because you want to take advantage of the awesome potential of the new computers and the new cloud—and because you have to reach this pinnacle). Finally, the industry is fun again.

Last week I gave presentations to more than 60 CIOs in various meetings throughout America’s heartland. My message to them: We are moving from Cloud 1 to Cloud 2, and the iPad is the accelerator. Many of them haven’t even made it to Cloud 1—some are still on mainframes. They are working on MVS/CICS, or Lotus Notes, and they have never heard of Cocoa, or even that there is now HTML 5. This is unacceptable. The next generation is here. The iPad that shows us what now is really possible—and that we all need to go faster. Unfortunately, some CIOs would rather retire than go faster.

(except that some software should remain on cloud 1 or mainframes…)

Just leave it to marketing to think that all a homeless person needs to get out of the gutter is a better sign.

and don’t get me started on his use of the word “bum”, and his entire “ha ha if this homeless guy was just smart like me” attitude

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One by one, as I predicted, the pathetic excuses of Joseph Ratzinger’s apologists evaporate before our eyes.

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Just days after President Obama signed the new health care law, insurance companies are already arguing that, at least for now, they do not have to provide one of the benefits that the president calls a centerpiece of the law: coverage for certain children with pre-existing conditions.

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The Daily Caller‘s Jonathan Strong has basically won the morning with a story about RNC Chairman Michael Steele’s lavish lifestyle on the road. Strong reports that Steele “once raised the possibility of using party money to buy a private jet for his travel,” and has run up some substantial tabs at some of our nation’s nicest hotels. But if you ask me, he sort of buried the lede… probably strategically! Because look what awaits you in paragraph six:

Once on the ground, FEC filings suggest, Steele travels in style. A February RNC trip to California, for example, included a $9,099 stop at the Beverly Hills Hotel, $6,596 dropped at the nearby Four Seasons, and $1,620.71 spent [update: the amount is actually $1,946.25] at Voyeur West Hollywood, a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex.

Oh, wow, awesome.

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The man who actually spent the money has been identified as Erik Brown, a Republican consultant. And the RNC maintains that Steele had no involvement whatsoever.

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The C++ Standard Committee has been hard at work defining the next version of the language. Here’s a provisional list of changes to be included

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The District’s 5-cent bag tax generated about $150,000 during the month of January to help clean up the Anacostia River, even though residents have dramatically scaled back their use of disposable bags, according a report city officials issued Monday.

In its first assessment of how the new law is working, the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue estimates that city food and grocery establishments issued about 3.3 million bags in January, which suggests a remarkable decrease. Prior to the bag tax taking effect Jan 1, the Office of the Chief Financial Officer had estimated that about 22.5 million bags were being issued per month in 2009.

Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), sponsor of the bag tax bill, said the new figures show that city residents are adapting to the law far more quickly than he or other city officials had expected.

“While it’s difficult to project the annual results based on just the first month’s experience, the report shows that residents are making great strides in reducing disposable bag use,” Wells said.