[Quote]:

3. Why is my iPhone logging my location?

The iPhone is not logging your location. Rather, it’s maintaining a database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location, some of which may be located more than one hundred miles away from your iPhone, to help your iPhone rapidly and accurately calculate its location when requested. Calculating a phone’s location using just GPS satellite data can take up to several minutes. iPhone can reduce this time to just a few seconds by using Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data to quickly find GPS satellites, and even triangulate its location using just Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data when GPS is not available (such as indoors or in basements). These calculations are performed live on the iPhone using a crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower data that is generated by tens of millions of iPhones sending the geo-tagged locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple.

… how long it will take before the right wing denies that the released birth certificate isn’t real.

Oh, wait:

[Quote]:

Six years after Savory passed away, his collection was acquired by the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. And jazz experts were stunned. The extent and quality of the Savory collection was beyond anything they had imagined.

“I figured there was maybe 50 to 100 unreleased recordings,” says Loren Schoenberg, the museum’s executive director. “I expected to see one box. Instead, I saw dozens of boxes. The Savory collection comprised about a thousand discs of the greatest performers of all time. And all of this was unknown music. It was immediately clear this was a treasure trove.

Among the treasures: Coleman Hawkins, the first great tenor saxophonist in jazz, playing multiple ad-lib choruses on the classic “Body and Soul.” Billie Holiday, accompanied only by piano, singing a moving rubato version of “Strange Fruit,” a chilling musical condemnation of lynching. The Count Basie Orchestra performing at the world’s first outdoor jazz festival, the 1938 Carnival of Swing on Randall’s Island in New York City. Basie’s tenor sax stars, Lester Young and Herschel Evans, sharing solos on “Texas Shuffle.” Benny Goodman and Teddy Wilson—on harpsichord instead of his usual piano—performing “Lady Be Good!” And the list goes on.

The collection is, in a word, historic. “It is a wonderful addition to our knowledge of a great period in jazz,” says Dan Morgenstern, director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University in Newark, N.J. And, Morgenstern says, “the sound quality of many of these works is amazing. Some of it is of pristine quality. It is a cultural treasure and should be made widely available.”

The question, however, is whether that will happen anytime soon. And if it doesn’t, music fans might be justified in putting the blame on copyright law. “The potential copyright liability that could attach to redistribution of these recordings is so large—and, more importantly, so uncertain—that there may never be a public distribution of the recordings,” wrote David G. Post, a law professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, on the Volokh Conspiracy blog. “Tracking down all the parties who may have a copyright interest in these performances, and therefore an entitlement to royalty payments (or to enjoining their distribution), is a monumental—and quite possibly an impossible—task.”

The primary purpose of copyright law is not so much to protect the interests of the authors/creators, but rather to promote the progress of science and the useful arts—that is—knowledge. Or that’s how it’s supposed to be. It is failing badly.

[NYTimes editorial:]

Republican legislatures and governors across the country are rewriting voting laws to make it much harder for the young, the poor and African-Americans — groups that typically vote Democratic — to cast a ballot.

(…)

Eight states already had photo ID laws. Now more than 30 other states are joining the bandwagon of disenfranchisement, as Republicans outdo each other to propose bills with new voting barriers. The Wisconsin bill refuses to recognize college photo ID cards, even if they are issued by a state university, thus cutting off many students at the University of Wisconsin and other campuses. The Texas bill, so vital that Gov. Rick Perry declared it emergency legislation, would also reject student IDs, but would allow anyone with a handgun license to vote.

Say, maybe the Democratic Party (and the NAACP, AARP, etc.) should hold gun licensing drives in Texas?

[Quote]:

Add Microsoft Windows Phone 7 to the list of mobile operating systems that silently transmit the precise physical location of the device back to a central database.

[..]

Both Apple and Google have said their phones report their location, but only when the devices’ location services are turned on, in keeping with previous disclosures. Neither Apple nor Google has disclosed that location information is also stored on the handset.

Any smartphone brand left? Want to bet Blackberry has this as well?

[Quote]:

How ironic. This type of marketing says everything about RIM’s corporate delusion.

[Quote]:

Congress should consider cutting multibillion-dollar subsidies to oil companies amid rising concern over skyrocketing gas prices, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said on Monday.

"It’s certainly something we should be looking at," Boehner said in an ABC News interview. "We’re in a time when the federal government’s short on revenues. They ought to be paying their fair share."

"Everybody wants to go after the oil companies and frankly, they’ve got some part of this to blame," he said.

But Boehner said he also wanted to "see all the facts" first.

And those fact come in the form of numbers.

Numbers on campaign-donation checks.

[Quote]:

Canny Kiwis were given a Good Friday bonus when a computer system automatically opened a supermarket to all comers.

The Mill St Pak ‘n Save in Hamilton, New Zealand should have been shut for Good Friday, but the godless computer system overrode a manual command to shutter up, and flicked on the lights and threw open the automatic doors at 8am despite a complete absence of any staff.

[Quote]:

British authorities prepping for the nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton say they will likely use random stop-and-searches, closely monitored closed-circuit cameras spread throughout London and "pre-emptive policing," which means police can arrest someone for a terror charge-even planning or inciting a terror act-before they have all the evidence related to it, to enforce order and maintain safety.

Even the uploading of photos to a new iPhone app is being restricted within the vicinity Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace on the wedding day.

[Quote]:

Apparently a SWAT team raided the home of an innocent guy, accusing him of downloading child porn:

Lying on his family room floor with assault weapons trained on him, shouts of “pedophile!” and “pornographer!” stinging like his fresh cuts and bruises, the Buffalo homeowner didn’t need long to figure out the reason for the early morning wake-up call from a swarm of federal agents.

That new wireless router. He’d gotten fed up trying to set a password. Someone must have used his Internet connection, he thought.

“We know who you are! You downloaded thousands of images at 11:30 last night,” the man’s lawyer, Barry Covert, recounted the agents saying. They referred to a screen name, “Doldrum.”

“No, I didn’t,” he insisted. “Somebody else could have but I didn’t do anything like that.”

“You’re a creep … just admit it,” they said.

It seems that law enforcement folks now admit that they screwed up, but the “lesson” they’re getting out of it seems completely backwards. They’re saying the lesson is that you should protect your WiFi router. That may be a good idea for some people, but there are plenty of legitimate reasons for offering an open WiFi connection. Furthermore, as noted, some people don’t know how to set up their WiFi security.

But the bigger questions are:

1. Why is law enforcement sending in a SWAT team for child porn downloads? You could potentially see it in cases of production, but with downloads, can’t they just do a standard arrest?
2. Why didn’t they do a simple check beforehand to see if the router was open before bursting into the home with assault weapons and unproven assertions?
3. How come none of the “cautionary lessons” involve law enforcement folks realizing that they overreacted?

What’s really disturbing is that the thrust of the original article is all about how this is a cautionary tale for wireless router owners, rather than a cautionary tale about overaggressive law enforcement.

[Quote]:

A leading Rhode Island lawmaker who criticized the Legislature by invoking images of pot-smoking immigrants is facing drug charges in Connecticut.

Police in East Haven, Conn., say East Greenwich Republican Robert Watson, the House Minority Leader, was stopped at a police checkpoint Friday and charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia and driving under the influence.

According to a police report, authorities found a bag of suspected marijuana and a pipe in Watson’s pocket. Watson was released on $500 bond.

Watson issued a statement Monday acknowledging that police discovered “trace evidence” of marijuana but said he wasn’t driving under the influence.

Watson drew fire in February when he said lawmakers had their priorities right “if you are a Guatemalan gay man who likes to gamble and smokes marijuana.”

[Quote]:

n other words, if you’re pulled over by the Michigan State Police for anything — an improper turn, a partially obscured license plate, or an officer’s whim — they can search your cell phone using a device called theCelleBrite UFED. That means text messages, photos, videos, contacts, who you’ve called, what apps you’ve downloaded, GPS data that reveals where you’ve been, even deleted data.

Fortunately, the American Civil Liberties Union was able to invoke the Freedom of Information Act to learn all about the details of the program. Oh, wait:

ACLU learned that the police had acquired the cell phone scanning devices and in August 2008 filed an official request for records on the program, including logs of how the devices were used. The state police responded by saying they would provide the information only in return for a payment of $544,680.

[Quote]:

(Newsroom America) — A Transportation Security Administration screening agent who worked at the Philadelphia International Airport has been arrested and charged with distributing more than 100 images of child pornography via Facebook.

Authorities arrested Thomas Gordon Jr. of Philadelphia, 46, of Philadelphia, a screener who routinely searched airline passengers. Federal officials allege he uploaded pornographic images of young girls to several Facebook accounts and that he posed in one such image wearing his blue TSA uniform.

Neither the indictment nor the news release from the TSA mentioned that Gordon’s job was to search airline passengers, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

The charges against Gordon come as the TSA is already under fire for its pat down procedures. Just last week a YouTube video showed a female TSA agent’s invasive pat down of a 6-year-old girl at an airport in New Orleans. Her parents said she was “groped,” but TSA officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, have defended the procedure.

The indictment against Gordon alleges he used as many as six separate Facebook accounts and multiple names “to upload and store images of sexual exploitation of minor children.”

Federal officials acted on a tip by the Delaware County District Attorney’s Office. Federal agents began investigating Gordon March 10, the Inquirer said.

The paper also said Gordon’s job was on the line last year as well for unrelated reasons, an online newsletter of the American Federation of Government Employees said.

[Quote]:

Even with ACTA supposedly in a “final” state, it appears that the negotiators just can’t resist keeping up their level of stifling secrecy. Glyn Moody points us to the news that the EU’s main backer of ACTA, Commissioner Karel De Gucht, has refused to turn over some “preparatory documents” concerning ACTA that were requested by European Parliament Member Francoise Castex. As the article notes, the European Commission is required to turn over such documents, as per the Vienna Convention, but De Gucht apparently has a different interpretation of all of that, saying that as long as he answers questions by MEPs, he has no obligation to turn over the documents.

It’s really quite stunning how tone deaf ACTA supporters are on these issues. People have been asking for a modicum of transparency on this highly questionable agreement, and the response has been to be even more secretive. Of course, all this does is highlight that they know they’re pushing an industry agenda, and they’re ashamed of it. If you actually were putting together a proposal that benefited everyday citizens, they wouldn’t be hiding all the details.

[Quote]:

But it’s long been clear that this is Obama’s understanding of "a nation of laws": the most powerful political and financial elites who commit the most egregious crimes are to be shielded from the consequences of their lawbreaking — see his vote in favor of retroactive telecom immunity, his protection of Bush war criminals, and the way in which Wall Street executives were permitted to plunder with impunity — while the most powerless figures (such as a 23-year-old Army Private and a slew of other low-level whistleblowers) who expose the corruption and criminality of those elites are to be mercilessly punished. And, of course, our nation’s lowest persona non grata group — accused Muslim Terrorists — are simply to be encaged for life without any charges. Merciless, due-process-free punishment is for the powerless; full-scale immunity is for the powerful. "Nation of laws" indeed.

[Quote]:

A cache of classified military documents obtained by the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks presents new details of their whereabouts on Sept. 11, 2001, and their movements afterward. The documents also offer some tantalizing glimpses into the whereabouts and operations of Osama bin Laden and his Egyptian deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

The documents, provided to European and U.S. news outlets, including The Washington Post, are intelligence assessments of nearly every one of the 779 individuals who have been held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 2002. In them, analysts have created detailed portraits of detainees based on raw intelligence, including material gleaned from interrogations.

Detainees are assessed “high,” “medium” or “low” in terms of their intelligence value, the threat they pose while in detention and the continued threat they might pose to the United States if released.

The documents tend to take a bleak view of the detainees, even those who have been ordered released by the federal courts because of a lack of evidence to justify their continued detention. And the assessments are often based, in part, on reporting by informants at the military detention center, sources that some judges have found wanting.

Three Texans died and are at the pearly gates of heaven. St. Peter tells them that they can enter the gates if they can answer one simple question. St. Peter asks the first Texan, “What is Easter?” The Texan replies, “Oh, that’s easy! It’s the holiday in November when everyone gets together, eats turkey, and are thankful and stuff…” “Wrong!,” replies St. Peter, and proceeds to ask the second Texan the same question, “What is Easter?” The second Texan replies, “Easter is the holiday in December when we put up a nice tree, exchange presents, and drink eggnog.” St. Peter looks at the second Texan, shakes his head in disgust, tells her she’s wrong, and then peers over his glasses at the third Texan and asks, “What is Easter?” The third Texan smiles confidently and looks St. Peter in the eyes, “I know what Easter is.” “Oh?” says St. Peter, incredulously. “Easter is the Christian holiday, that coincides with the Jewish celebration of Passover. Jesus and his disciples were eating at the last supper. Then the Romans took him to be crucified and he was stabbed in the side, made to wear a crown of thorns, and was hung on a cross with nails through his hands. He was buried in a nearby cave which was sealed off by a large boulder.” St. Peter smiles broadly with delight. Then the third Texan continues, “Every year the boulder is moved aside so that Jesus can come out…and, if he sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter.

[Quote]:

My favorite part of the Bible is where Jesus gives money to the rich, tells the poor to suck it up and asks for Caesar’s birth certificate.

[Quote]

[Quote]:

Contrary to claims by Chiquita Brands International that its payments to Colombian paramilitary and guerrilla groups over more than a decade were extorted, internal company documents released here Thursday strongly suggest that the transactions provided specific benefits to the banana giant.

The documents, which were published by the National Security Archive (NSA), an independent research group, raised questions about the factual basis for a 2007 plea agreement between Chiquita and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) under which the company was fined $25mn for paying the United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), which was designated a terrorist group by the State Department in 2001.

[Quote]:

German police officials announced on Wednesday that Abu Ameena Bilal Philips, a hardline Islamic preacher from Jamaica who defends use of the death penalty for homosexuality, had been ordered to leave the country and asked never to return.

The officials said that immigration authorities had issued an order – prior to Philips’ address to some 2,000 spectators in Frankfurt – instructing the 60-year-old Islam convert to leave Germany within three days, claiming his professed beliefs infringed on federal laws.

German law allows for the expulsion of visitors who "incite hatred against parts of the population" or advocate the use of violence against them. In a sermon published on the video website, Youtube, Philips can be heard defending the death penalty as a justified punishment for proven homosexual acts.

[Quote]

In eclipse, I click the “Debug” button but my program still has bugs. Anyone else seen this?

[Quote]:

In Kyrgyzstan, legislators have sacrificed seven sheep to drive out evil spirits out of the parliament chamber.

The meat will be given to the elderly and the disabled, according to Parliament press officer Shairbek Mamatoktorov. The evidence of the evil spirits included disagreements between the two parties that came to an actual brawl recently on the floor. Sounds familiar.

[Quote]:

WHEREAS, the state of Texas is in the midst of an exceptional drought, with some parts of the state receiving no significant rainfall for almost three months, matching rainfall deficit records dating back to the 1930s; and

[..]

NOW, THEREFORE, I, RICK PERRY, Governor of Texas, under the authority vested in me by the Constitution and Statutes of the State of Texas, do hereby proclaim the three-day period from Friday, April 22, 2011, to Sunday, April 24, 2011, as Days of Prayer for Rain in the State of Texas. I urge Texans of all faiths and traditions to offer prayers on that day for the healing of our land, the rebuilding of our communities and the restoration of our normal way of life.

I’m torn between several possible ways to react.

1) /facepalm

2) let’s pray to $random_deity for drought, and decide once and for all who’s the more powerful one

3) If it takes three days of prayer for someone to be “divinely inspired” that our climate is really changing, and they can do something about it, then it was time well spent.

[Quote]:

The average American’s net worth is $96,000. But the average Senator’s net worth? $13.4 million. For House members that sum drops to “just” $5 million.

Does this represent your community?