December 2012

There were 39 posts published in December 2012 (this is page 3 of 4).

Amplifying murder

Thinking more of Roger Ebert thoughts about the media’s role in mass murders, I have to agree that he’s right. The media perpetuates this behavior. If the media was more responsible in its coverage there would be less incentive for these mentally ill individuals to kill.

Mass murders are terrorism, plain and simple. A terrorist’s goal is to promote fear. Promoting fear requires the attention of the media. If terror isn’t spread by the media or other means, the terrorist fails.
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Last man standing

Two things happened at Thursday’s Parks board meeting/holiday social. We bid farewell to long-time board member and previous chair Jimmy Thiem, who has served his full six years on the board. It’s been great working with Jimmy and we will certainly miss his parks expertise. I hope we can put him to use on upcoming parks committees like one for Dix Park.

There’s another aspect to Jimmy’s “retirement” from the Parks board that I only realized afterward: I’m now the senior member of the board. This boggles my mind as it seems like only yesterday that I was a fresh-faced newbie on the board. Now I’ve seen all of the previous boardmembers rotate off to be replaced by fresh faces.
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I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother

This is a great read from a mother with a mentally ill son.

America needs to start giving mental illness the attention it deserves.

Three days before 20 year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother, then opened fire on a classroom full of Connecticut kindergartners, my 13-year old son Michael (name changed) missed his bus because he was wearing the wrong color pants.

“I can wear these pants,” he said, his tone increasingly belligerent, the black-hole pupils of his eyes swallowing the blue irises.

“They are navy blue,” I told him. “Your school’s dress code says black or khaki pants only.”

“They told me I could wear these,” he insisted. “You’re a stupid bitch. I can wear whatever pants I want to. This is America. I have rights!”

“You can’t wear whatever pants you want to,” I said, my tone affable, reasonable. “And you definitely cannot call me a stupid bitch. You’re grounded from electronics for the rest of the day. Now get in the car, and I will take you to school.”

I live with a son who is mentally ill. I love my son. But he terrifies me.

via I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother.

Media glory

In the wake of yesterday’s horrendous mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, I have avoided most of the associated media coverage. I did find this quote from film critic Roger Ebert to be insightful (courtesy of Boing Boing):

Let me tell you a story. The day after Columbine, I was interviewed for the Tom Brokaw news program. The reporter had been assigned a theory and was seeking sound bites to support it. “Wouldn’t you say,” she asked, “that killings like this are influenced by violent movies?” No, I said, I wouldn’t say that. “But what about ‘Basketball Diaries’?” she asked. “Doesn’t that have a scene of a boy walking into a school with a machine gun?” The obscure 1995 Leonardo Di Caprio movie did indeed have a brief fantasy scene of that nature, I said, but the movie failed at the box office (it grossed only $2.5 million), and it’s unlikely the Columbine killers saw it.
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Gangster Style

Today I read a disturbing account of how a software developer became the target of Chinese hackers after he sued China for pirating his software. The hackers nearly destroyed the man’s business:

An independent analysis later found that four of the five active filters were copied almost verbatim from CYBERsitter and that Green Dam could not operate correctly when those filters were disabled. It’s possible the code was stolen in an earlier hack, but Milburn believes the thieves simply bought a copy and broke the encryption protecting the code.

In interviews with reporters, he said he was considering a lawsuit and vowed to pursue an injunction.

On June 24 — 12 days after Milburn went public with his legal intentions — the hackers made their first appearance. Working from her home office 150 miles south of Santa Barbara in Orange County, Jenna DiPasquale, 39, who is Milburn’s daughter and Solid Oak’s one-woman marketing department, received a carefully forged e-mail containing hidden spyware.

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ReadWrite – Have You Or Someone You Know Ever Fake-Liked Something On Facebook?

ReadWrite says its fake Facebook Likes story really struck a nerve. The magazine is asking others for their stories:

Meanwhile we’re looking for more examples of fake likes. Our writer, Bernard Meisler, put his story together by asking people he knew on Facebook to look out for fake likes and send him examples. Now we’d like to find even more.

Apparently this is happening a lot, and nobody seems to know why.

Facebook told us it must be people accidentally pressing a “like” button on their mobile app. But can there really be that many people pressing the wrong button, all the time?

If you have a theory, we’re all ears.

via ReadWrite – Have You Or Someone You Know Ever Fake-Liked Something On Facebook?.

ReadWrite – Why Are Dead People Liking Stuff On Facebook?


I had thought that there would be no more news on the Mitt Romney Facebook hacking phenomena. Turns out I was wrong. ReadWrite’s Bernard Meisler shows ths fake likes are still happening on Facebook:

Last month, while wasting a few moments on Facebook, my pal Brendan O’Malley was surprised to see that his old friend Alex Gomez had “liked” Discover. This was surprising not only because Alex hated mega-corporations but even more so because Alex had passed away six months earlier.

The Facebook “like” is dated Nov. 1, which is strange since Alex “passed [away] around March 26 or March 27,” O’Malley told me. Worse, O’Malley says the like was “quite offensive” since his friend “hated corporate bullshit.”

via ReadWrite – Why Are Dead People Liking Stuff On Facebook?.

SolarIndustryMag.com: Costs Of Solar Energy Dropping

For all the right’s whining about Solyndra, the dropping price of solar materials is good news to most everyone else.

I’m thinking it might be time to get another quote for panels on our home.

The installed price of solar photovoltaic power systems in the U.S. fell substantially in 2011 and through the first half of 2012, according to the latest edition of Tracking the Sun, an annual PV cost-tracking report produced by the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).

The median installed price of residential and commercial PV systems completed in 2011 fell by roughly 11% to 14% from the year before, depending on system size. In California, prices fell by an additional 3% to 7% within the first six months of 2012.

These recent installed price reductions are attributable, in large part, to dramatic reductions in PV module prices, which have been falling precipitously since 2008, according to Berkeley Lab.

via SolarIndustryMag.com: Costs Of Solar Energy Rapidly Declining Throughout U.S. Market.

Raleigh to begin planning Dix park

I was quoted in Saturday’s Midtown Raleigh News about the planning process beginning for Dix Park.

“We’re going to see design talent from all across the country competing for this opportunity,” said Mark Turner, chairman of the city’s parks and greenways board. “You’ve got this land next to a large city. It’s going to attract attention.”

Turner said he would not rule out any possibilities, including an extension of Pullen Park or a spur that would allow the Pullen Park miniature train ride to cross Western Boulevard and enter the Dix campus.

“It’s the public’s park, and the public should get to decide,” Turner said.

While I think the idea of connecting Pullen and Dix is intriguing, logistically it would be difficult to do. I guess at the time I was interviewed I had gotten caught up in the euphoria!

via Raleigh to begin planning Dix park – Raleigh – MidtownRaleighNews.com.

Suddenly buried in gadgets

Well, that didn’t last long. I was all set to eschew getting more stuff when local PC manufacturer Lenovo had its public warehouse sale on Saturday. I wound up buying a new laptop and an IdeaPad K1 tablet. Much of my Copious Free Time has been spent getting these set up, leaving me less time for blogging. I hope to be able to post more starting this evening.

In my defense, this is the first brand-new laptop I’ve ever bought. This explains why there are so many non-working old laptops lying around the house. That, and I’m a packrat and a geek!