Obama, Who Evidently Has Not Read the Controlled Substances Act, Denies That He Has the Power to Reclassify Marijuana – Hit & Run : Reason.com

Wow.

Apparently Obama forgot too. Obama often speaks as if he is an outside observer of his own administration—condemning excessively long prison sentences while hardly ever using his clemency power to shorten them, sounding the alarm about his own abuses of executive power in the name of fighting terrorism, worrying about the threat to privacy posed by surveillance programs he authorized. Now here he is, trying to distance himself from his own administration’s refusal to reclassify marijuana.

via Obama, Who Evidently Has Not Read the Controlled Substances Act, Denies That He Has the Power to Reclassify Marijuana – Hit & Run : Reason.com.

H1N-What? Wading Through the Alphabet Soup of Flu Names | Molecules to Medicine, Scientific American Blog Network

Judy Stone of SciAm explains the alphabet soup that describes flu viruses.

Muddled about all the new flu viruses?

It’s hard to keep up with the changing names in the news. H1Nwhat? Bird flu. Pig flu. MERS. SARS. Here is a quick overview of this dizzying, dyslexia inducing array, with what you need to worry about, even if some aren’t yet in your backyard.

via H1N-What? Wading Through the Alphabet Soup of Flu Names | Molecules to Medicine, Scientific American Blog Network.

Davos to Detention: Why I Hate Coming Home to America

‘Murrica is broken, folks. Our lovely little security state has gotten out of control.

After a 14-hour trip, I wanted to stretch my legs. So I stood up, anxious to find myself back in the room, especially after having written to the DHS. “Take a seat,” the officer at the door sternly said to me. I told him I wanted to stretch my legs after the long flight. He told me I wasn’t allowed to stand up. You are also not allowed to use your phone or electronic equipment. I was also slightly surprised to find as many children in the room as there were cameras.

“Sir, I’m a U.S. citizen who wants to stand while being detained. Am I not allowed to stand?” I said, pointing to the Asian man and Pakistani woman standing with their toddler strapped to the man’s chest. Anyway, there were only two empty seats in the room with a capacity of 60.

“Sit down!” he repeated for the sixth time, and came and confiscated my phone, which I was using to try to text my coworkers who were waiting to share a car home.

via Davos to Detention: Why I Hate Coming Home to America | Ahmed Shihab-Eldin.

Atlanta Snow Storm – POLITICO Magazine

Two inches of snow caused massive gridlock and laid bare the governmental fault lines of the Atlanta region. It was Raleigh 2005 all over again. I know I took a dig at the Wake County Public School System for its Tuesday closure but it’s certainly better than gridlock.

As an Atlantan, I’m concerned that this storm revealed just how unprepared we are in case of real disaster. If Atlanta, the region, wants to get serious about public safety, its mayors, county officials, and state officials will need to start practicing regionalism instead of paying lip service to it. And whether threatened by a dangerous pandemic, a major catastrophe, or just two inches of snow, we need to have ways to get around—and out of—the city other than by car.

via Atlanta Snow Storm – POLITICO Magazine.

Kevin Smith describes Prince World

In my reading about Prince’s latest lawsuit faux pas, I found a hilarious video from filmmaker Kevin Smith from his appearance at Kent State University last year in which he describes a week he spent with Prince working on a documentary. Smith spices his talk with plenty of profanity but the story he tells is hilariously funny and quite bizarre.

Smith is an unparalleled storyteller. It’s thirty minutes long but well worth the time!

Prince Sues 22 Fans For $1 Million Each For Linking To Bootlegs In Laughably Confused Complaint

Is it safe to say that Prince is pretty much the music world’s version of Dennis Rodman?

There was a time, not even that long ago, when it seemed like Prince might have been the first musician to actually "get" the internet. He had done a few things that seemed really focused on embracing the internet, spreading his music more widely, and making revenue from alternate streams, such as concerts, sponsorships and fan clubs. But… it quickly became apparent that he was going in the other direction, and in an extreme manner — in part, because it seemed like for all of his ideas, he failed at following through on most of them. Then, rather than blaming his own lack of execution, he seemed to lash out at the internet in almost every way possible. He insisted that the internet was over and that he’d never put any of his music online. He even claimed that digital music was bad for your brain.

via Prince Sues 22 Fans For $1 Million Each For Linking To Bootlegs In Laughably Confused Complaint | Techdirt.

Update: The lawsuit has been dismissed.

Validating email alerts about school closures

I just got this emailed alert (allegedly) from Wake County Public Schools, announcing that school was closed tomorrow (we have an inch of snow tonight with another six possible by daybreak):

From: notify at …
Subject: Wake Schools Closed Wed, Jan 29
To: notify at …
Reply-To: webadmin at …

All Wake County Public School System schools will be closed on Wednesday, January 29, due to inclement weather. Athletic and extracurricular events are also canceled. The safety of our students, parents and staff remains our top priority.

Make-up dates for this missed day of instruction will be announced as soon as possible.

(I’ve replaced the wcpss.net domain in the above email addresses to thwart spammers)
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Metal thieves busted!

IMG_9755

Woohoo! About an hour ago I caught these dudes stealing manhole covers from the construction site next door and called RPD. Minutes later they were rounded up. Score one for the good guys!

What’s more, I got photos and video of them on-site and was able to show the responding officers where the suspects left their footprints. As they were detained with the stolen property still in their truck, I assume the case against them is strong enough for them to plead guilty.

I probably would’ve never noticed them if the driver hadn’t been so sloppy making his u-turn, driving up into my neighbor’s yard.

Retablature

I spent a little time voiding the warranty of my Lenovo Ideapad K1 tablet last week. I’ve owned it for over a year and like the idea of tablets but I grew increasingly frustrated at Lenovo’s lack of software updates. Finally, I got determined enough to flash it with a new ROM, just like I did with my Samsung Galaxy Epic Touch phone.

A number of web searches later and I had Cyanogenmod 10.2 running on it, with the latest Android 4.2.2 under the covers. My tablet speed tests report a speed boost of a whopping 25%, too. What’s more, I can transfer files with it much easier than with the stock rom, making it far more useful.

This kind of stuff is another example of the power of open source: if a company can’t (or won’t) do the right thing, customers have the power to do it themselves. (The corollary to this is: if you don’t have the right to hack it then you don’t really own it.)