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While Greece is struggling…

Posted on March 19th, 2010 at 12:54 by John Sinteur in category: ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]

The 2010 culture programme reveals £366 million will spent on a host of events to promote wind instruments, “hip hop” dance and circus skills.

The European Laboratory for Hip Hop Dance will net £900,000 to “improve the recognition and visibility of hip hop dance in Europe” and “encourage connectivity between hip hop artists”.

[..]

Other bizarre projects include The Project of Generosity which will get £180,000 to “spread the movement of reaching out and sharing.”


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  1. I’m happy to hear that money is going to culture.

Court bars charges against teen who posed semi-nude

Posted on March 19th, 2010 at 7:55 by John Sinteur in category: What were they thinking?, ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]

A federal appeals court rebuked a Pennsylvania district attorney who threatened to file felony child pornography charges against teens who were photographed semi-nude unless they attended an “education program.”

In a unanimous decision issued Wednesday by the appeals court in Philadelphia, a three-judge panel said the threat amounted to a “Hobson’s Choice” that would retaliate against one of the girls and her family for exercising their constitutional right to free speech. A rare dose of government-issued sanity in the prosecutorial crusade against teenage ’sexting’, the ruling upheld a lower-court order issued last year in the case.

The case stems from “inappropriate images of minors” found by officials at Pennsylvania’s Tunkhannock School District, that included, among other things, a girl posing in her bathing suit. In late 2008, Wyoming County District Attorney George Skumanick told an assembly of about 20 students and their parents he would bring felony child pornography charges against them unless they completed a six- to nine-month program.

For female offenders, that meant attending classes designed to help the participants “gain an understanding of what it means to be a girl in today’s society,” and require them to write a report on what the students did and “why it was wrong.”

Skumanick is no longer District Attorney.


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  1. What does it mean to be a girl in today’s society? WHAT WE GODDAMN TELL YOU!

    Why was it wrong? BECAUSE WE SAID SO!

“I got mine, so go fuck yourself and anyone else that dares take any of mine!”

Posted on March 18th, 2010 at 11:36 by John Sinteur in category: ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]

In a scene reminiscent of non-violent civil rights confrontations from the 1960s, Ohio Tea Partiers quickly turned ugly when facing off with health care advocates in front of Ohio Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy’s office Tuesday.

In shocking video taken by a Columbus Dispatch reporter Doral Chenowith yesterday, Tea Party protestors mock a seated counter-protestor with a sign indicating he has Parkinson’s disease. They then proceed to hurl wadded up bills at him shouting, “I’ll decide when to give you money!”

On March 17th outside of Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy’s (D-OH15) district office teabaggers mocked and scorned a man who had a sign stating that he had Parkinson’s. They told him “he’s in the wrong end of town to ask for handouts”, called him a communist and threw dollar bills at him to “pay for his health care”.


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Mass. doctor pleads guilty to research fraud

Posted on March 15th, 2010 at 8:14 by John Sinteur in category: ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]

A doctor accused of faking research for a dozen years in published studies that suggested after-surgery benefits from painkillers including Vioxx and Celebrex pleaded guilty Monday to one count of federal health care fraud.

An attorney for Dr. Scott Reuben said the anesthesiologist will have to repay $361,932 in research grants and forfeit assets worth at least $50,000 as penalty for his conduct following a plea hearing in U.S. District Court.

He managed to do this for twelve years before he was caught. He was wrong, but so were the magazines publishing the results, the local hospital that was supposed to check the results, and Pfizer for claiming they just gave the money and were not “involved” in the research.


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  1. I don’t know whether the following case is connected with this doctor, but it may be interesting to note. Sad as it sounds, this doctor is probably only a very “small fish” in the shark pool of industry-produced scientific “results”.

    Pharma multi Merck produced a whole scientific so-called peer-reviewed “journal”, which was de facto advertising for Merck products:

    http://blog.bioethics.net/2009/05/merck-makes-phony-peerreview-journal/

French bread spiked with LSD in CIA experiment

Posted on March 13th, 2010 at 21:59 by John Sinteur in category: ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]

In 1951, a quiet, picturesque village in southern France was suddenly and mysteriously struck down with mass insanity and hallucinations. At least five people died, dozens were interned in asylums and hundreds afflicted.

For decades it was assumed that the local bread had been unwittingly poisoned with a psychedelic mould. Now, however, an American investigative journalist has uncovered evidence suggesting the CIA peppered local food with the hallucinogenic drug LSD as part of a mind control experiment at the height of the Cold War.


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  1. “Nonsense About LSD”- Sounds like a hoax.
    “But no matter. I think we can dispose of this new book and its author pretty quickly. Just take a look at some of his scoop” – http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2010/03/11/nonsense_about_lsd.php

  2. nice find, thanks!

Jeffersonville middle school student suspended for touching pill

Posted on March 11th, 2010 at 13:25 by John Sinteur in category: What were they thinking?, ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]

The parents of a Kentuckiana seventh grade student say their young daughter was suspended from school for doing exactly what she’s been taught to do for years – to just say no to drugs.

Rachael Greer said it happened on Feb. 23 during fifth period gym class at River Valley Middle School when a girl walked into the locker room with a bag of pills.

“She was talking to another girl and me about them and she put one in my hand and I was like, ‘I don’t want this,’ so I put it back in the bag and I went to gym class,” said Rachael.

The pills were the prescription ADHD drug, Adderall. Patty Greer, Rachael’s mother, said she and her husband are proud of their daughter for turning down drugs, just like she’s been taught for years by DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) instructors at school.

“I’m proud her conscience kicked in and she said, ‘No, I’m not taking this. Here you can have it back,’” Patty Greer said.

But just saying no didn’t end the trouble for Rachael. During the next period, an assistant principal came and took Rachael out of class. It turned out the girl who originally had the pills and a few other students got caught. That’s when the assistant principal gave Rachael a decision.

“We’re suspending you for five days because it was in your hand,” said Rachael.

[..]

We wanted to know what would have happened if Rachael had told a teacher right away. Bell said the punishment would not have been any different. District officials say if they’re not strict about drug policies no one will take them seriously.

Dude, don’t look now, but… nobody is taking you seriously!


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  1. Suspending the student in this situation is tantamount to saying she’s guilty. If I were her and her parents, I’d sue the school and school district for defamation of character and slander, and insist on a public apology from the school officials involved in this decision.

Romanian street sign warns drivers of ‘drunk pedestrians’

Posted on March 11th, 2010 at 7:57 by John Sinteur in category: ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]

Street signs warning Romanian drivers to be careful of drunken pedestrians lying on roads were erected by road safety chiefs worried about the “despairing” levels of accidents.


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  1. Arrrgh! I love that sign! Anyone know where I can get one for my house? :-)

Holland proposes giving over-70s who ‘consider their lives complete’ the right to die | Mail Online

Posted on March 10th, 2010 at 11:45 by John Sinteur in category: ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]

Assisted suicide for anyone over 70 who has simply had enough of life is being considered in Holland.

Non-doctors would be trained to administer a lethal potion to elderly people who ‘consider their lives complete’.

The radical move would be a world first and push the boundaries even further in the country that first legalised euthanasia.

The Dutch parliament is to debate the measure after campaigners for assisted suicide collected 112,500 signatures in a month.

Euthanasia has been available for the terminally ill in Holland since 2002 in cases of ‘hopeless and unbearable suffering’ certified by two doctors, but this would be a far bigger step.

Supporters say it would offer a dignified way to die for those over 70 who just want to give up living, without having to resort to difficult or unreliable solitary suicide methods.

Okay, couple of points.

1. This in the daily mail. That should already be enough for you to dismiss this article.
2. Our government fell recently which means that any controversial topic is likely to be voted as ‘controversial’ (duh) and that means that it’s postponed till after the elections in June. This also means that no minister can propose any controversial law because it’s simply never going to pass.
3. This is about a “burgerinitiatief” – a rule that says that any group that gets 40,000 verified signatures of adult Dutch citizens can get parliament to talk about them, and the committee that verifies requests like this can deny it based on “it contravenes deeply held values of dutch society”. And if they approve it, all parliament has to really do is talk about it. Quite a bit away from “creating a law”, actually
4. The largest party in the Netherlands for the past decade has been the CDA. The “C” in there stands for “Christian”. You figure out the rest.
5. This isn’t something that happened “in a month”, the foundation that drives the signature collecting has been doing this since 2002.
6. They don’t have 112,500 signatures, they have something like 70,000 during that 8 years.
7. All the so-called “details” in the article, such like non-doctors doing the work, are utterly made up out of thin air.
8. See point 1.


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Navy dogs in ‘deplorable’ conditions with contractor

Posted on March 7th, 2010 at 18:11 by John Sinteur in category: ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]

The task probably seemed innocuous enough when a small team of U.S. Navy personnel accepted it last fall. They would trek out to a private security contractor in Chicago to pick up 49 dogs, then transport them to a nearby military base.

But what they found when they arrived was shocking, according to internal Navy e-mails: dirty, weak animals so thin that their ribs and hip bones jutted out.

[..]

The company says it is owed more than $6 million for its services and for the animals. The Navy appears to have gained little from the deal besides the dogs, which Securitas bought for roughly $465,000, according to the owner of the kennel that sold them.

The Navy wouldn’t disclose what it has actually paid out under the botched contract; officials would say only that they’re still working to determine exactly how much the Navy owes Lockheed Martin, the defense giant that subcontracted the K-9 work to Securitas.


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Italy’s cabinet passes decree over election chaos

Posted on March 7th, 2010 at 17:41 by John Sinteur in category: ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]

Italy’s cabinet passed a decree on Friday aimed at reinstating candidates from Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s party stripped from ballots in two key regions due to irregularities in presenting their candidacies.

Opposition politicians said the legislation, approved by an emergency cabinet meeting late on Friday, was unconstitutional because it interfered with electoral law ahead of the March 28-29 regional polls.

However, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said the decree did not change electoral rules but aimed to ensure they were interpreted “in the correct way” by magistrates.


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  1. Just to underline the WTF aspect of the story, back in year 2000 elections won by the left party were invalidated because the list was presented too late (just what happened now). A new vote was held and Berlusconi’s party won the election. Obviously the Berlusconi government avoided to intervene…

  2. Update: yesterday the regional court (TAR) ruled that the exclusion of PDL’s list in Lazio is confirmed, since the region has his own electoral procedure that cannot be overrun by Berlusconi’s “interpretative decree” (in Lombardy there was no regional law, so state law had to be applied, with the interpretation stated in the decree emitted the same morning of the court audience).

    Unfortunately, the mess is far from resolved.

    PDL, the party of Silvio Berlusconi, announced that the ruling will be appealed at the Council of State, whose ruling may be later appealed at the Appeal Court, and later appealed again… at the TAR, the one who made the first ruling! (sorry but my english legalese is quite lacking)

    Ministro degli Interni Roberto Maroni yesterday stated that the ruling will be respected. After the statement of the TAR, he changed his mind and announced the appeal.

    Moreover, many regions are claiming the unconstitutionality of Berlusconi “interpretative decree”, since it’s basically an amendment of the electoral law not voted with the right procedure, and is an illegal violation of the decisional powers of regional government.

    In PDL, no one is willing to admit that the trouble started all with their candidate that forgot to deliver the candidacy in time, and are changing daily their position, accusing opposition, judges, tribunal clerks and basically everyone but Alfredo Milioni and the roman PDL men, the ones who made the mess in first place.

  3. Mr N, how do you think the voter is going to react to all this – in a proper democracy, the PDL would lose a lot of votes..

  4. Don’t know, but I fear PDL won’t lose a single vote.
    The PDL voters pool is mainly composed of uninformed and “casual” voter, that gives lot of credit to news and opinions he get from television. Since television is half controlled by Berlusconi and half controlled by the government, most of those voters will consider this situation a minor impediment, or even a plot by the “communist judges” (a line brought forth by the newspapers controlled by Berlusconi and other PDL bigwigs).

    Consider that the director of TG1, the primary news source of the national television, ordered to avoid any news about the last couple of Berlusconi sex scandals…

Ionia kindergartner suspended for making gun with hand

Posted on March 6th, 2010 at 10:30 by John Sinteur in category: What were they thinking?, ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]

To the little boy’s mother, it was just a 6-year-old boy playing around.

But when Mason Jammer, a kindergarten student at Jefferson Elementary in Ionia, curled his fist into the shape of a gun Wednesday and pointed it at another student, school officials said it was no laughing matter.

They suspended Mason until Friday, saying the behavior made other students uncomfortable, said Erin Jammer, Mason’s mother.

School officials allege Mason had displayed this kind of behavior for several months, despite numerous warnings.

Well, it appears you have to go to Grand Rapids or Lansing for a Starbucks, so the kid is probably not aware of what’s he’s doing.


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  1. That happened to me when I was in a montessori school in San Francisco. I made the shape of a gun with my hand and “shot” another kid. All innocent fun for me, but not for the school who called my parents out of work for an emergency meeting. My parents after having heard what the situation was removed me from that school before they could suspend me…

  2. Well, we can’t have students being uncomfortable in school. I remember when I was a kid, teachers often made me uncomfortable with those f@*king pop quizzes. I feel those other kindergartner’s discomfort…they couldn’t have known whether that thing was loaded or not. I wonder if Mason was uncomfortable with the suspension. Oh, hell, now I’m uncomfortable with the paradoxes of life.

There’s being stupid..

Posted on March 4th, 2010 at 14:42 by John Sinteur in category: ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

and then there’s being this guy.

Darwin award, anybody?


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  1. Not likely…it’s turning into a tough competition this year. In E. Ontario alone in the last 2 weeks 2 people were killed in separate incidents after driving trucks onto ice-covered rivers and another disappeared wandering onto a frozen lake. Notwithstanding climate change, it’s still cold out there, people.

An Eyewitness News investigation talks to a police officer who reveals the pressure they are under to make quotas

Posted on March 3rd, 2010 at 11:27 by John Sinteur in category: ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]

An Eyewitness News investigation talks to a police officer who reveals the pressure they are under to make quotas.

When Officer Adil Polanco dreamed of becoming a cop, it was out of a desire to help people not, he says, to harass them.

“I’m not going to keep arresting innocent people, I’m not going to keep searching people for no reason, I’m not going to keep writing people for no reason, I’m tired of this,” said Adil Polanco, an NYPD Officer.

Officer Polanco says One Police Plaza’s obsession with keeping crime stats down has gotten out of control. He claims Precinct Commanders relentlessly pressure cops on the street to make more arrests, and give out more summonses, all to show headquarters they have a tight grip on their neighborhoods.

“Our primary job is not to help anybody, our primary job is not to assist anybody, our primary job is to get those numbers and come back with them?” said Officer Polanco.

Eyewitness News asked, “Why do it?”

“They have to meet a quota. One arrest and twenty summonses,” said Officer Polanco.


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Michaelsoft Binbows

Posted on March 2nd, 2010 at 15:14 by John Sinteur in category: Great Picture, Microsoft, ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

(Binbows is a pun on the Japanese word 貧乏 (binbou – poor). The sign says it is a super cheap used PC shop.)


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CNN: this is Hawaii

Posted on March 2nd, 2010 at 14:57 by John Sinteur in category: What were they thinking?, ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ


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  1. They must be using very slow old aeroplanes to get there. My flight from LAX was at least 5 hours long. Maybe it’s the headwinds or something.

  2. A quick google also reveals that half of young Americans can’t locate New York on a map. Perhaps playing this at least 1000 times may help.
    http://www.minijuegosgratis.com/juegos/hwdykyworld/hwdykyworld.html?3e31=edf

  3. What are all these effing tortoises doing here? Where are the hula girls?

Imagine the political world’s reaction if a Democratic senator had done this in, say, 2002.

Posted on March 1st, 2010 at 14:18 by John Sinteur in category: ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]

In a Congress when Republicans’ obstructionist tactics have become scandalous, and a discredited GOP minority has effectively shut down the American policymaking process, Sen. Richard Shelby (R) of Alabama still stands out for his brazenness.

Shelby, you’ll recall, placed a blanket hold on several dozen administration nominees, holding them hostage until the senator was paid off in earmarked pork. He eventually backed off, at least in part, though he continues to block Senate votes on three top positions in the Air Force.

CNN’s Dana Bash asked the right-wing senator yesterday whether his actions are justified.

BASH: I spoke with Geoff Morrell over at the Pentagon and just asked him what the impact is of not having these three people in place — one of whom, as you know, is the number two at the Air Force. He said, “Without these people, we’re not firing on all cylinders.” And he also said, “It does adversely affect the organization.”

Are you worried about that? This is a time of war –

SHELBY: The Pentagon is a big place. I don’t think one or two will affect anything except on the margins.

BASH: Do you think that the nominees you have holds on are qualified?

SHELBY: Oh, I don’t have any idea.

In a sane political world, this would put Shelby in an impossible-to-defend position.


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Lobbying run amok: Eight health care lobbyists for every member of Congress

Posted on February 25th, 2010 at 18:23 by John Sinteur in category: ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]

For every member of Congress, there were eight lobbyists working to influence health care reform last year, according to research by The Center for Public Integrity.

That’s about 4,525 total lobbyists from 1,750 companies that include 207 hospitals, 105 insurance companies and 85 manufacturing companies.


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Official Google Blog: Serious threat to the web in Italy

Posted on February 24th, 2010 at 14:42 by John Sinteur in category: Google, ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]

In late 2006, students at a school in Turin, Italy filmed and then uploaded a video to Google Video that showed them bullying an autistic schoolmate. The video was totally reprehensible and we took it down within hours of being notified by the Italian police. We also worked with the local police to help identify the person responsible for uploading it and she was subsequently sentenced to 10 months community service by a court in Turin, as were several other classmates who were also involved. In these rare but unpleasant cases, that’s where our involvement would normally end.

But in this instance, a public prosecutor in Milan decided to indict four Google employees —David Drummond, Arvind Desikan, Peter Fleischer and George Reyes (who left the company in 2008). The charges brought against them were criminal defamation and a failure to comply with the Italian privacy code. To be clear, none of the four Googlers charged had anything to do with this video. They did not appear in it, film it, upload it or review it. None of them know the people involved or were even aware of the video’s existence until after it was removed.

Nevertheless, a judge in Milan today convicted 3 of the 4 defendants — David Drummond, Peter Fleischer and George Reyes — for failure to comply with the Italian privacy code. All 4 were found not guilty of criminal defamation. In essence this ruling means that employees of hosting platforms like Google Video are criminally responsible for content that users upload. We will appeal this astonishing decision because the Google employees on trial had nothing to do with the video in question. Throughout this long process, they have displayed admirable grace and fortitude. It is outrageous that they have been subjected to a trial at all.

What was the video shot on? Maybe they can press charges on some Sony employees for making cameras too.


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London councils sue themselves for parking offences

Posted on February 22nd, 2010 at 12:06 by John Sinteur in category: ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]

“If they ever make a sequel to the film Dumb and Dumber I would suggest that the producers look no further than Islington Parking Department for the starring roles.”


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Comments:

  1. Well … for the Top 1 prize of “Dumb and Dumber” they have a fierce competitor. Half a year ago, Wells Fargo Bank also managed to sue itself … they hired a law firm to file a lawsuit against themself. The madness didn’t stop here: They then hired another law firm to prepare defense against their own lawsuit:

    http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/al-lewis-wells-fargo-bank-sues/

    This would be funny, but only if it wouldn’t be exactly these guys who handle our financial system. So much for ‘competence’ of our banks.

Reboot Scheduler

Posted on February 16th, 2010 at 9:24 by John Sinteur in category: Software, ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

Whine about Apple about closed systems and lack of multitasking all you want, but at least there’s no need for an app like this.


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Comments:

  1. No need? As in: never has memory leaks, crashing programs or freezes? Hmm, Google seems to disagree, but then again, Google may be biased too ;)
    http://www.macworld.com/article/133078/2008/04/tco_iphone_freeze.html
    I suppose iPhone users are more forgiving to start with. The closed system helps in minimizing crashes, but as an effect, it also seriously lacks functionality. What we want is both, so with MS we marvel at all the possibilities the system has, and whine about the bugs and crashes and poor UI, and with Apple we marvel at the UI and design, and whine about the closed system and lack of functions.

  2. It’s hard not to argue with you, John. The existence of this app for WebOS doesn’t imply that it’s necessary, nor that some folks wouldn’t find it useful on their iPhone.

    Clearly the memory leaks in WebOS are more visible than on the iPhone due to multitasking, apps able to run in the background, etc, but that’s not to say that the iPhone isn’t without its own issues. AFAIK, the only app on the iPhone that runs in the background is the browser, and the memory leaks in that certainly caused issues. An anti-Apple critic might argue that the iPhone doesn’t multitask because Apple can’t get it right (even on MacOS – closing windows doesn’t close the app). I personally recognize that it is a design choice, but I won’t be surprised if Apple eventually caves into pressure to add multitasking, especially on the iPad.

    To add to the other Jim’s point, there’s an argument that folks who are most in need of occasional reboots are the ones who have installed homebrew apps – such as the homebrew app you mention here. On WebOS, this is a simple process which doesn’t compromise your system security, and Palm doesn’t deliberately re-lock your phone with every update. It allows “enthusiasts” to push their phones to limits beyond the stock apps and system, with less risk on WebOS than similar operations on the iPhone. Apple’s design feels like they’re only addressing a single user persona who, fortunately for Apple, loves the product as-is.

    In the worst case, I’m not familiar enough with the iPhone to know what happens if you have to do a factory reset. On WebOS, a factory reset restores all prefs and apps. There are of course arguments for and against this, but to me it means that if I hack my own phone too much, I can restore it without fear of having to start all over.

    To be fair, Palm had plenty of time to learn from Apple’s innovations and mistakes, and they made something that I personally feel is a better product. I’m not whining about the iPhone – instead I’m helping Apple innovate by buying something else.

    Now, to argue with the other Jim – Windows Mobile, are you crazy? I couldn’t stand the sketchy multitasking in 6.1, hoping that my other app wouldn’t close itself while I was hopping over to read email. Listening to podcasts was at best a crap shoot, hoping that my podcatcher wouldn’t close itself while Media Player loaded. No issues like that with my Palm Pre.

    (And here come the Blackberry and Android fans…)

  3. You make a lot of good points, so I’m going to limit myself to a few corrections.

    AFAIK, the only app on the iPhone that runs in the background is the browser, and the memory leaks in that certainly caused issues.

    One word: mail. allright, a few more words: push notification service, location service, and a few others – the iPhone is running a lot of different processes at the same time, they just happen to be non-app related processes

    there’s an argument that folks who are most in need of occasional reboots are the ones who have installed homebrew apps

    As a developer – I’ve got *lots* of home-brew stuff on my iPhone. Literally brewing it in my home for a lot of them. I don’t need reboots any more than a regular user: hardly ever. Could be that I’m a great developer, of course, but it says something more about the robustness of the OS than it says about me.

    closing windows doesn’t close the app

    That has nothing, and I do mean nothing to do with multitasking. The iPhone OS is a unix variant, perfectly capable of multitasking up the wazoo. It’s a deliberate choice to not allow it to apps.

    happens if you have to do a factory reset

    On the iPhone, you get an utterly clean phone you need to refill with a backup of your data via iTunes.

  4. Oh, and let me show you a crash-dump from one of my own applications during development, cutting out a lot of irrelevant detail, and let’s see if you can spot the multitasking:

    Incident Identifier: CE9D9F8B-9D3A-480E-8CCE-818100395524
    CrashReporter Key:   a73094962c416501fe86be41a4f5ebbf67fc01d3
    Process:         Smiley Ping! [118]
    Path:            /var/mobile/Applications/AFE3F799-EE06-4C6D-995E-AEF1C92F8B93/Smiley Ping!.app/Smiley Ping!
    Identifier:      Smiley Ping!
    Version:         ??? (???)
    Code Type:       ARM (Native)
    Parent Process:  launchd [1]
    
    Date/Time:       2010-01-12 09:27:06.068 +0100
    OS Version:      iPhone OS 3.1.2 (7D11)
    Report Version:  104
    
    Exception Type:  EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)
    Exception Codes: 0x00000000, 0x00000000
    Crashed Thread:  0
    
    Thread 0 Crashed:
    0   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x00090b5c __kill + 8
    1   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x00090b4a kill + 4
    2   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x00090b3e raise + 10
    3   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x000a7e64 abort + 36
    4   libstdc++.6.dylib             	0x00066390 __gnu_cxx::__verbose_terminate_handler() + 588
    5   libobjc.A.dylib               	0x00008898 _objc_terminate + 160
    6   libstdc++.6.dylib             	0x00063a84 __cxxabiv1::__terminate(void (*)()) + 76
    7   libstdc++.6.dylib             	0x00063afc std::terminate() + 16
    8   libstdc++.6.dylib             	0x00063c24 __cxa_throw + 100
    9   libobjc.A.dylib               	0x00006e54 objc_exception_throw + 104
    10  Foundation                    	0x0000202a __NSThreadPerformPerform + 574
    11  CoreFoundation                	0x000573a0 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 1908
    12  CoreFoundation                	0x00056c18 CFRunLoopRunInMode + 44
    13  GraphicsServices              	0x0000436c GSEventRunModal + 188
    14  UIKit                         	0x00003c28 -[UIApplication _run] + 552
    15  UIKit                         	0x00002228 UIApplicationMain + 960
    16  Smiley Ping!                  	0x00002946 main (main.m:13)
    17  Smiley Ping!                  	0x000028bc start + 44
    
    Thread 1:
    0   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x000014b8 mach_msg_trap + 20
    1   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x00004094 mach_msg + 60
    2   CoreFoundation                	0x00057002 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 982
    3   CoreFoundation                	0x00056c18 CFRunLoopRunInMode + 44
    4   WebCore                       	0x000846f0 RunWebThread(void*) + 412
    5   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x0002b7b0 _pthread_body + 20
    
    Thread 2:
    0   libobjc.A.dylib               	0x00004d70 _class_hasCxxStructorsNoSuper + 8
    1   libobjc.A.dylib               	0x00005128 object_cxxDestructFromClass + 20
    2   libobjc.A.dylib               	0x00008238 objc_destructInstance + 12
    3   libobjc.A.dylib               	0x000050fc _internal_object_dispose + 12
    4   libobjc.A.dylib               	0x000050e4 object_dispose + 4
    5   Foundation                    	0x00048afc NSDeallocateObject + 100
    6   Foundation                    	0x00048a8e -[NSObject(NSObject) dealloc] + 2
    7   CoreFoundation                	0x00065d9c -[NSInvocation dealloc] + 88
    8   CoreFoundation                	0x0003963a -[NSObject release] + 28
    9   Foundation                    	0x00047990 NSPopAutoreleasePool + 238
    10  Foundation                    	0x0004c15a -[NSAutoreleasePool release] + 10
    11  Smiley Ping!                  	0x0001ec1c -[ASIHTTPRequest loadRequest] (ASIHTTPRequest.m:893)
    12  Smiley Ping!                  	0x0001c63e -[ASIHTTPRequest main] (ASIHTTPRequest.m:503)
    13  Foundation                    	0x00063946 -[NSOperation start] + 338
    14  Foundation                    	0x00053ac6 -[NSThread main] + 42
    15  Foundation                    	0x00001d0e __NSThread__main__ + 852
    16  libSystem.B.dylib             	0x0002b7b0 _pthread_body + 20
    
    Thread 3:
    0   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x000014b8 mach_msg_trap + 20
    1   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x00004094 mach_msg + 60
    2   CoreFoundation                	0x00057002 CFRunLoopRunSpecific + 982
    3   CoreFoundation                	0x00056c18 CFRunLoopRunInMode + 44
    4   Foundation                    	0x0005a998 +[NSURLConnection(NSURLConnectionReallyInternal) _resourceLoadLoop:] + 172
    5   Foundation                    	0x00053ac6 -[NSThread main] + 42
    6   Foundation                    	0x00001d0e __NSThread__main__ + 852
    7   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x0002b7b0 _pthread_body + 20
    
    Thread 4:
    0   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x000262f0 select$DARWIN_EXTSN + 20
    1   CoreFoundation                	0x000207e2 __CFSocketManager + 342
    2   libSystem.B.dylib             	0x0002b7b0 _pthread_body + 20
    
    Thread 0 crashed with ARM Thread State:
        r0: 0x00000000    r1: 0x00000000      r2: 0x00000001      r3: 0x383443cc
        r4: 0x00000006    r5: 0x001df71c      r6: 0x2ffff2a4      r7: 0x2ffff2b4
        r8: 0x3841bcac    r9: 0x0000000a     r10: 0x00000001     r11: 0x00107fd0
        ip: 0x00000025    sp: 0x2ffff2b4      lr: 0x327bdb51      pc: 0x327bdb5c
      cpsr: 0x000f0010
    
    Binary Images:
        0x1000 -    0x4cfff +Smiley Ping! armv6  <1b535e8f6b22c0d92037901e17f5d36f>
    /var/mobile/Applications/AFE3F799-EE06-4C6D-995E-AEF1C92F8B93/Smiley Ping!.app/Smiley Ping!
    
  5. John, thanks for the response and the extra info. I think we agree that the BSD-based iPhone OS is technically capable of multitasking. My point is more that Apple chooses not to expose that to the user, and, where they’ve chosen to implement it, it has caused problems, if not outright user confusion.

    Closing the browser on the iPhone, in the user’s mental model, closes the app. Closing the window for an app on MacOS, in the user’s mental model, closes the app. Neither of these is technically true, and Bad Things can happen as a result. It’s a cheap shot for me to take – well, really, two cheap shots – as the iPhone browser issue was widely publicized, and the app-with-no-windows issue has long caused user confusion for those not familiar with MacOS. (I had to support Mac users on system 7, in the days when memory wasn’t cheap and plentiful, and frequently had to remind them to File->Quit apps they weren’t using to free up memory so they could play Bolo.)

    The iPhone does lots of things well. It kicked the phone industry into a new paradigm the same way the original Mac did to the PC industry. It sounds like they’ve done great things with memory management. However, to dismiss a request for user-facing multitasking as whining displays the same arrogance that has led them to keep user-confusing behavior as a core part of their desktop OS for the past 20 years. Where Apple is superior, the Apple smugness can be overlooked. Where Apple only _thinks_ they’re superior, it makes “the rest of us” cringe.

    I hope I haven’t offended you – your blog continually offers one of the best (IMHO) cross-sections of world events in terms of politics, humor, technology, and other fun things like game theory. You also debate well. However, you diss my boy WebOS, and it’s on! ;-)

    MVG,
    -JimM

  6. I hope I haven’t offended you

    Nope, no worries.

    the app-with-no-windows issue has long caused user confusion for those not familiar with MacOS

    Oh, absolutely, but that’s really a user-interface problem, and not multi-tasking.

    However, to dismiss a request for user-facing multitasking as whining

    I usually group all the iPhone complaints when I talk about whining. Talking about a request for user-facing multitasking specifically can be whining if all you do is “but I want multitasking whaaaaa!”. It’s not whining if you say something like “I want multitasking because I need it for X, Y or Z”. And as you said, the OS does multitasking fine, it’s just user-facing multitasking people miss. So all you need is a good multi-touch interface for it – can you think of one? Make sure you don’t make the same “app-without-a-window” mistake that the desktop Mac OS does… Bonus points if you keep the information resolution correct.

  7. It’s all about the user experience – the arguments over multitasking (co-op or pre-emp, processes or threads) have been settled technically.

    Information resolution – sounds like a really cool concept, I’ll ask our UX specialist at work for more info.

    Regarding multitasking, I don’t have a specific set of use cases, but I feel like I use it all the time on my phone. Play a game, get notification of email, go read it, open a browser link, open another card from that one, then close them all down and go back to my game. I only interact with a single app at once – but I can switch between them with a swipe or 2. How is that different from the iPhone? Does every app auto-park itself, or do some of them “start over”? Is there at least a place where the most recent apps are listed?

    Perhaps there’s a question of definition – if I have several apps open, such that I can easily switch between them, but only view / interact with 1 at a time – does that constitute multitasking? It’s comparable to tabs – see 1 at a time. Or does multitasking require multiple different apps to be displayed at once? Do widgets count? I have yet to see widgets that don’t reduce the UI to busy noise.

    I think the Palm Pre has the best overall phone UI I’ve seen – but I haven’t extensively used the iPhone. Let me know if you want to trade for a week.

  8. An interesting read from both of you. To add one point to the multitasking discussion here, John, you said:
    [i]I don’t need reboots any more than a regular user: hardly ever. Could be that I’m a great developer, of course, but it says something more about the robustness of the OS than it says about me.[/i]
    I think it has nothing to do with the robustness of the apps or the OS, it tells me more about how you use the device. Here’s me: I turn on the audio player or web radio streamer, which connects to my A2DP bluetooth carkit – it plays either MP3’s or web radio on my car stereo. Then I switch to iGO8, enabling navigation whilst the music continues. I could have iGO chat through the music, but I prefer to keep that turned off.
    When I take the train, I open my calendar app (pocket informant, easily the best there is imo) and check my appointments. At the same time Opera is loading webpages, and I can type an SMS, switching instantly between these apps. I can use the time spent waiting for the webpage to load (however short that may be) to mail, sms, update my appointments, read/edit word documents or play games.
    I have no idea if this can be done on an iPhone too, but afaik that is going to be tricky.
    @JimM: it’s like I said: Windows Mobile is a little shaky and it’s UI is seriously lacking. But you can do almost anything you like with it. It’s true it can be a pain to get it stable and set up just right – but when you do, I believe it’s the most versatile system available.

  9. Actually John, my friend would have loved to have an app like that when his iPhone froze and he had to wait half a day without a phone until he could get to computer with iTunes on it.

  10. hold the home button and the power button both for 10 seconds, and your iPhone will reboot. No app required,

  11. when I get into my car, the phone auto-connects with my car radio via bluetooth, and I can use the iPod app to start playing my music. I then start up tomtom for my route – if I get a call along the way, my car radio is also a hands-free kit. After the call I get back to tomtom automatically. Of course I use email and calendar extensively, and I get a lot of pings from friends. Sounds not too different from your usage.

  12. With all due respect John, I personally held if for him about 1 minute just out of curiousity :)
    The apple was still grinning. :)

  13. I’m curious, what was the cause of the crash in Smiley Ping!?

  14. The one I’m showing the dump for? I don’t quite remember, I think this one was an error in one of the nib files.. Usually I don’t look at the crash dumps, but I just catch the error in the debugger during development, so linking one particular crash dump to a particular debugging session isn’t easy looking at it weeks later.

New National Security Distraction: Arabic Language Students

Posted on February 12th, 2010 at 8:37 by John Sinteur in category: Security, ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]

Yesterday, the ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of Nick George, a Pomona College student who was detained and aggressively interrogated by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) authorities, by the FBI and by Pennsylvania police when he tried to board a plane carrying Arabic language flash cards.

You heard right: Not liquids, not matches, not a bomb. Flash cards.

George, a physics major who’s studying Arabic, was pulled aside for secondary screening at the Philadelphia International Airport as he tried to go through security. When he emptied his pockets, the inspector saw his flash cards and he was arrested, handcuffed, locked in a cell for hours and aggressively questioned. Because of some flash cards.

The following exchange took place between George and a TSA supervisor who questioned him:

TSA Supervisor: You know who did 9/11?

George: Osama bin Laden.
TSA Supervisor: Do you know what language he spoke?
George: Arabic.

At that point, the TSA supervisor held up George’s flash cards—which had words such as “to smile” and “funny” and on them—and said: “Do you see why these cards are suspicious?”

Ah, the smoking gun.

Nobody had better tell the TSA about Arabic numerals.


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Because if there’s one thing they desperately need in Haiti, its…

Posted on February 9th, 2010 at 13:43 by John Sinteur in category: ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]


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Comments:

  1. They make a good, washable, lightweight (low airfreight cost) mattress for people who might suddenly take a fancy to sleeping outdoors, say.

  2. Michael beat me to it. You’re being a bit dense here, John.

  3. Good find!

  4. Even though the other comments are very cogent, the sign is still a hoot!

Thermos leads to highway closure, evacuations

Posted on February 3rd, 2010 at 22:48 by John Sinteur in category: ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]

A suspicious package reported Friday at a bank in Mt. Angel led to the three-hour closure of Highway 214 and the evacuation of a city block.

Mt. Angel Police Department responded to a call from a U.S. Bank employee at 5:30 p.m.

Chief Brent Earhart said the employee found a suspicious-looking sack holding a cylinder-shaped object in the lobby underneath a counter.

Bank employees were evacuated to the Mt. Angel Fire Station where they were interviewed by police.

The Oregon State Police Bomb Squad was dispatched and Mt. Angel police and fire personnel evacuated the block surrounding the bank located at 250 N. Main St.

[..]

Earhart said the object in the bag turned out to be a food and beverage thermos. The streets were reopened at 8:30 p.m.


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Comments:

  1. What do you expect? The idiots are fed a steady diet of sensationalist “news” and a never ending stream of evening crime shows with their numerous one hour terrorist plots all solved by beautiful looking 20 somethings. All this raises the collective fear level to a state of paranoia about everything. Result? The national collective IQ falls to the floor and nation of morons marches on. Burn your TV and read.

Tourists decry decision to close Lost Dutchman State Park

Posted on February 2nd, 2010 at 17:25 by John Sinteur in category: ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]

Winter visitors who spend weeks, if not months, at the iconic Lost Dutchman State Park don’t understand why Arizona would sacrifice tourism revenue to cut the $3.2 billion state deficit anticipated in the coming fiscal year.

Plans to close the park – the closest state park to Mesa — on June 3 have left visitors wondering if it will reopen and whether they will have to go someplace else next winter, taking their money with them.

[..]

Lost Dutchman, the state’s eighth most popular park and the closest to the East Valley, lost $9,545 in fiscal year 2008-2009. The biggest loser was Oracle State Park near Tucson, which lost $253,262. In contrast, popular Slide Rock State Park near Sedona turned a $254,249 profit.

But Stephen Filipowicz, Apache Junction’s economic development director, said the Arizona State Parks Department estimates that Lost Dutchman generates $4 million a year in tourism revenues each year.

[Quote:]

So while the park costs the state $10k to operate, it brings in $4 million in tourist revenue to the surrounding community. But because it didn’t break even on its operating expenses, the tax-obsessed clown posse at the state lege is shutting the park down.

I swear. The sheer lunacy in this kind of thinking is so surreal. Not only are they shutting down a beautiful state park that provides entertainment and recreation for tens of thousands of people in the state in order to save $10k in operating expenses, they are throwing away millions of dollars in tourist revenue in the process. This is the party of fiscal responsibility at work in our state.


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Bard too bawdy for Nashville parents

Posted on January 26th, 2010 at 21:18 by John Sinteur in category: ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]

Toronto’s Classical Theatre Project has discovered that Shakespeare is a little too bawdy for some parents in the city of Nashville, Tenn.

The company, which has performed productions of Twelfth Night, Macbeth and Oedipus Rex to more than 100,000 Ontario high school students, is in the country music capital this week to perform Romeo and Juliet.

Artistic director David Galpern says he was astonished by the reaction of some teachers and parents who saw the production Sunday night, when it was in dress rehearsal.

“They came to us with what appeared to be a list of objectionable moments that they wanted us to tone down before the students came on Monday,” he told CBC News on Tuesday.


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GOP candidate: People on public assistance ‘like stray animals’

Posted on January 25th, 2010 at 15:52 by John Sinteur in category: ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]

South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, who is running for the Republican nomination for governor, has compared giving people government assistance to “feeding stray animals.” “My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed. You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that. And so what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to curtail that type of behavior. They don’t know any better,” Bauer said.

Just like Jesus said. Don’t help the poor or they’ll breed like rabbits.


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Comments:

  1. “My grandmother was not a highly educated woman” — neither is the grandson

  2. …no but he does have a point.

  3. Actually, no, he doesn’t.

    You know the number one way to decrease a birth rate amongst a poor population? Uplift. By making them less poor and better educated (particularly the females).

  4. “… you’ve got to curtail that type of behavior. They don’t know any better.” This particularly applies to governors of said state and trips to Argentina with their “mistresses”. Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer is obviously rushing towards this office and this “side benefit” as fast as his mouth can carry him.

  5. You don’t make people less poor and educated by throwing money at them.

  6. Actually, the world cannot sustain more right wingers as it is, and we’ll have floods to prove it.

‘Whites only’ basketball league announced

Posted on January 23rd, 2010 at 16:50 by John Sinteur in category: ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]

The Augusta Chronicle reported on Tuesday that the All-American Basketball Alliance plans to kick off its inaugural season in June and hopes that Augusta will be one of 12 cities to host teams.

But here’s the kicker: According to a press release the newspaper and other Augusta media outlets received from the new league, “only players that are natural-born United State citizens with both parents of Caucasian race are eligible to play in the league.”

That’s right. Lewis, who calls himself the commissioner of the AABA, will exclude blacks and all foreigners from his new league, which the newspaper said will be based in Atlanta.

According to the Chronicle, Lewis said he wants to emphasize “fundamental basketball” instead of “street ball” played by “people of color.”

“There’s nothing hatred about what we’re doing,” Lewis told the paper. “I don’t hate anyone of color.”

Let me guess… some of your best friends are people of color, right?


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Comments:

  1. I have a feeling he is going to run head-on into a variety of anti-discrimination laws. What a maroon!

  2. A Maroon, is that some special kind of redneck?

  3. Is he really admitting that white guys can’t jump and need protecting from competition? Presumably he wants honkies to get their own ’special’ games of all kinds that no-one will be interested in. I think ‘fuckwit’ is the word you’re groping for, no?

  4. Hah, you’ve all been trolled.

Mom forces son to kill hamster for bad grade

Posted on January 23rd, 2010 at 16:49 by John Sinteur in category: ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]

As punishment for bad grades, a Georgia mother forced her 12-year-old son to kill his pet hamster with a hammer, police said.
Meriwether County Sheriff’s Offi Lynn Geter, 38, is accused of forcing her 12-year-old son to kill his pet hamster for earning a bad grade, according to Steve Whitlock, Meriwether County sheriff.

The day after he was forced to kill his pet, the child told his teacher, Meriwether County Sheriff Steve Whitlock told the AJC Thursday evening.

The teacher reported the incident to DFCS authorities, who contacted police, Whitlock said. The pet’s death allegedly took place at the family’s Warm Springs home.


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US Mercenaries Set Sights on Haiti

Posted on January 23rd, 2010 at 9:06 by John Sinteur in category: ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]

We saw this type of Iraq-style disaster profiteering in New Orleans, and you can expect to see a lot more of this in Haiti over the coming days, weeks and months. Private security companies are seeing big dollar signs in Haiti thanks in no small part to the media hype about “looters.” After Katrina, the number of private security companies registered (and unregistered) multiplied overnight. Banks, wealthy individuals, the US government all hired private security. I even encountered Israeli mercenaries operating an armed checkpoint outside of an elite gated community in New Orleans. They worked for a company called Instinctive Shooting International. (That is not a joke).

Now, it is kicking into full gear in Haiti


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East Boston cat called to jury duty

Posted on January 9th, 2010 at 10:51 by John Sinteur in category: ¿ʞɔnɟ ǝɥʇ ʇɐɥʍ

[Quote:]

Someone is getting called for jury duty…but it’s no human.

A family is trying to figure out how their pet cat was summonsed for jury duty.

“I said, Sal, what’s this? You know, I don’t believe it I was shocked,” said Guy Esposito, Sal’s owner.

Sal’s owners, Guy and Anna Esposito, think they may know the source of the mix up: Sal really is a member of the family, so on the last Census form, Anna Esposito listed him under “pets”.

“I just wrote ‘Sal Esposito’, scratched out the ‘dog,’ and wrote, ‘cat,’” said Anna.

Anna filed for Sal’s disqualification of service. However, the jury commissioner was unmoved and denied the request.

Sal’s service date at Suffolk Superior Court is set for March 23. Anna said that if the issue isn’t cleared up by then, she will simply have to bring the cat to court.


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