News that makes us laugh, cry, or both

[MGuy]

Its not SUPPOSED to be though T.T . America has a saying "Kicking your ass and taking your stuff for the Greater Good" Wait no that isn't it. I know we have one that sounds nice.

[Neeeek]

I hate the dictatorship of the judical (for life) legislators.

I assure you, the California Supreme Court Justices are not appointed for life.

[Draco_Argentum]

Pure democracy ultimately leads to tyrany of the majority.

Thats what the judiciary is for. To sit there and say 'Don't give a fuck about the vote, its unconstitutional'.

[tzor]

I hate the dictatorship of the judical (for life) legislators.

I assure you, the California Supreme Court Justices are not appointed for life.

I sit in front of my terminal corrected; they have a 12 year term. I thought when the decision was made there was a comment on the news that the only way to get rid of them was to run a recall petittion. I suppose the people commenting weren't willing to wait until the next election cycle.

[violence in the media]

Pure democracy ultimately leads to tyrany of the majority.

Thats what the judiciary is for. To sit there and say 'Don't give a fuck about the vote, its unconstitutional'.

And really, it's amazing how many people get pissed off when it actually works this way.

[TOZ]

Not amazing at all. Try telling someone they can't have it the way they want it and see how reasonable they are. The people who can say 'that's too bad, oh well' are quite the rarity.

[Maxus]

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRel ... BW20090831


Bloody. Fucking. Hell.

Edit: Er, yeah, the link doesn't say in the text. But it looks like Disney is buying Marvel.

Which is really stunning to me.

I wonder if Disney's going to flex any creative control or some shit like that. "Oh, wait, get rid of Carnage. He's not family-friendly enough. And nix Tony Stark being an alcoholic, that's sending the wrong message to the children."

[Neeeek]

Edit: Er, yeah, the link doesn't say in the text. But it looks like Disney is buying Marvel.

Which is really stunning to me.

I wonder if Disney's going to flex any creative control or some shit like that. "Oh, wait, get rid of Carnage. He's not family-friendly enough. And nix Tony Stark being an alcoholic, that's sending the wrong message to the children."

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Disney also owned Miramax in their heyday.

[Heath Robinson]

Cat's out of the bag about CCTV. Now the authorities are reduced to saying things like "but they make people feel safe!"

You know what else would make people feel safe? Being safe.

[tzor]

Cat's out of the bag about CCTV. Now the authorities are reduced to saying things like "but they make people feel safe!"

I'll play devil's advocate here ... how many crimes were possibly prevented because pepople, knowing that they could be caught, didn't even bother to think about committing the crime in the first place? Perhaps it is the appearance of the cameras alone that does the trick, in which place turning them off but not telling anyone about that would provide the same benefit at a reduced cost.

[Heath Robinson]

Cat's out of the bag about CCTV. Now the authorities are reduced to saying things like "but they make people feel safe!"

I'll play devil's advocate here ... how many crimes were possibly prevented because pepople, knowing that they could be caught, didn't even bother to think about committing the crime in the first place? Perhaps it is the appearance of the cameras alone that does the trick, in which place turning them off but not telling anyone about that would provide the same benefit at a reduced cost.

One crime per thousand cameras benefit from the CCTV footage. That's not even so many extra crimes being solved because of CCTV footage - that many use the CCTV footage to assist the investigation at all. The number of additional crimes solved because of CCTV footage? Negligible, it appears. Why would criminals react to a negligible possibility?

My father had his bike stolen within view of five CCTV cameras and not a single one was checked. Why? Because the criminals don't stop committing crimes when they might get caught from CCTV footage - they just wear balaclavas or tights over their heads, or just trust that the police won't bother checking CCTV footage. We spend £500 million, they spend a few pounds. Sometimes.

CCTV cameras have a cost - £500 million - and they have an oppurtunity cost. How many Bobbies could the Met have employed with their share of £500 million? They could employ additional admin staff to handle reports to get their Bobbies out on the streets more. They could overhaul the Met IT infrastructure. All of these would probably have been more beneficial than the CCTV investment.

[angelfromanotherpin]

Edit: Er, yeah, the link doesn't say in the text. But it looks like Disney is buying Marvel.

I guess Disney's change jar was full?

[Maxus]

Edit: Er, yeah, the link doesn't say in the text. But it looks like Disney is buying Marvel.

I guess Disney's change jar was full?

Well, seems like the deal was $4 billion dollars, all the Marvel stockholders get money for their stock AND stock in Disney...

Also, looking at what you quoted, I need to look at what I've typed before I hit submit. Also, I really need to get in my doctor's office and see him about getting my ADHD meds adjusted...

[tzor]

My father had his bike stolen within view of five CCTV cameras and not a single one was checked. Why? Because the criminals don't stop committing crimes when they might get caught from CCTV footage - they just wear balaclavas or tights over their heads, or just trust that the police won't bother checking CCTV footage. We spend £500 million, they spend a few pounds. Sometimes.

I think this shows the problems right there. If there are all these cameras and people are running around wearing "balaclavas or tights over their heads over their heads" then those cameras are worse than useless. If there is no commitment to actually use a system then often that system is worse than no system at all.

[Cynic]

Correction, they still own Miramax along with part of Dreamworks and Lifetime.

Disney owns Dimension films - maker of amityville, bad 1408, and adventures of sharkboy and lava girl in 3d.

They also own Crossgen comics.

I fully need to see three things from the Disvell (or Margey) merger for it to succeed or fail. I'm really not sure which yet.

A lifetime movie featuring Mr. and Mrs. Pym.

An abc channel primetime show of the Savage Land made by J.J. Abrams.
And John Lassetter making a marvel animated epic of Pixie.

I think this would be ok.

--

This sort of reimagining would be good or bad, I don't know.

old Fans would cry foul and new fans would be pulled in.

Edit: Disvell and Margey actually sound creepily like what could come otu fo this. Disvell,the marvel half of the twin offspring, and Margey -- the Disney half of the twins.

[virgil]

I have the advantage of not being invested much at all in the current Marvel universe. I have yet to hear contrary opinions about the comic book industry needing fresh blood because of an aging demographic; so if Disney did get kids buying comic books in droves by making Tony Stark a fan of virgin White Russians, I doubt it would be a bad thing to the industry itself in the long run.

[Cynic]

--SNIP--
so if Disney did get kids buying comic books in droves by making Tony Stark a fan of virgin White Russians
--SNIP--

Forgive me for having to think about this. It seemed strange as I had always thought that he already was a fan of virgin white Russians.

[violence in the media]

She looks maniacal.

[Cynic]

She looks maniacal.

1. SHe comes from the country of people riding bears

2. She used to be an undisputed chess champion

3. She dresses like Santa's Elf.

4. You put 2 and 3 together and you would wonder why someone hasn't just plied her with this and made her just a White Russian.

5. That's because She plays chess, you dorks!

[mean_liar]

This is a Chess Grandmaster:




Of course, the true badass is...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judit_Polgar

Her whole family is a testament to Tom Strong-style skill > talent childhood training regimens, and I cannot wait to use their methods to transform my kids into kung fu death machines.

[Count Arioch the 28th]

I wouldn't mess with her, because women in general seem to know too damn much about what I'm thinking most of the time, a woman who was trained to think 15 moves ahead would be waaaaaaay more than I could handle.

[Heath Robinson]

My father had his bike stolen within view of five CCTV cameras and not a single one was checked. Why? Because the criminals don't stop committing crimes when they might get caught from CCTV footage - they just wear balaclavas or tights over their heads, or just trust that the police won't bother checking CCTV footage. We spend £500 million, they spend a few pounds. Sometimes.

I think this shows the problems right there. If there are all these cameras and people are running around wearing "balaclavas or tights over their heads over their heads" then those cameras are worse than useless. If there is no commitment to actually use a system then often that system is worse than no system at all.

Bear in mind that bike thieves aren't particularly easy to track down after the crime. They hit bikes stored in public when there are no witnesses around. My home city is British (in particular, it grew mostly during the Georgian period), and is therefore a twisted mass of road and totally pedestrian thoroughfares. There are quite a number of side passages and relatively untouched backalleys. We draw quite a lot of people during the summer months (tourist city) so we can't put places to lock a bike up in the well-trodden areas (i.e. within public view).

But I believe that the major contributing factor to the police not bothering with the CCTV footage was that they're responding in a rational manner to the fact that criminals are not easily identifiable on CCTV footage. The cameras are easy to circumvent as a security measure and the criminals have been pressed into circumventing them because of their wide deployment. In responde the Police have stopped using the footage and the cameras ended up being useless.

Anyone who understood the technology and understood people could have forewarned the government that criminals would just adapt to a passive defense measure. I think that we all too often ignore the people side of the equation when we try to improve law enforcement capabilities.

[erik]

I wouldn't mess with her, because women in general seem to know too damn much about what I'm thinking most of the time, a woman who was trained to think 15 moves ahead would be waaaaaaay more than I could handle.

Heh, most chess players, even grand masters, don't bother trying to look so far ahead unless the paths are really simple. It's more about setting up patterns and relationships. Create good options while shutting your opponent's best doors, or leaving doors open to bad plays and making them look inviting.

This seems especially true for her by the little blurb about her playing style in that wikipedia article. Playing tactical positions and disrupting the player rather than just playing "perfect chess." In my experience those players are more swingy. Beating tougher opponents but sometimes losing to weaker opponents. They are by far the most fun though.

[Maxus]

Caught this on the news at work today when I was taking a breather.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp ... 7#32665867

[Maj]

Wow. Just wow.