Bloodstar

Porn funds terrorism? you’re joking, right? Evidently not:

Porn funds terror?

That’s the justification the Department of Homeland Security used to invoke the Patriot Act and target the hardcore bondage site Insex.com.

The documentary GRAPHIC SEXUAL HORROR, which premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, explains how the government shut down the site in the name of fighting terror.

I always wondered what happened to insex, I figured they’d been bought out by another company. Evidently I was mistaken, but anyway…

I knew the people who first started and modelled at insex and unless they changed dramatically, they were about making money to make a living and get ahead in life. Of course this was back in 97 or 98.

Of course there are porn sites and places that are money laundering operations, however that’s because drugs are illegal, prostitution is illegal and other things that enable organized crime to make a killing, (literal and figuratively) if you legalized most of this stuff and taxed the hell out of it, you’d most likely have an amazing amount of revenue coming in for the government and lower all the other taxes out there.

Of course, that would imply that we have rational discussion about Drugs and *gasp* sex. which we know… isn’t going to happen.

Tags: Economics, bloodstar by bloodstar
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Before you go doing No Knock Drug Raids. That’s number two for Gwinnett County:

A drug investigation in Buford this week went awry when GBI agents raided the wrong duplex.

It was the second such mistake to occur during a Gwinnett County drug raid in the past two months.

A no-knock search warrant had already been obtained from a judge — allowing law enforcement to enter the suspect’s home without knocking or announcing their presence — because the duplex was in a known gang area, Bankhead said. However, the agents and officers mistakenly forced entry into a duplex adjacent to the suspect’s home.

No one was home at that unit, Bankhead said. The agents also banged on the door of the other unit in the same duplex, startling residents inside. Within minutes, Bankhead said the officers figured out that they were at the wrong building.

But of course, no one would ever have problems with the police barging into their house

Jainet Rios, 25, a Home Depot supervisor, said she was at work when the officers came to her parents’ home. She said her parents, her two sisters ages 18 and 19, and the 19-year-old’s infant baby were terrified when drug investigators began yelling at them with their guns drawn. She said the incident especially shook up her mother, who suffers from bipolar disorder and was recently released from a psychiatric treatment facility.

Rios said the frightening encounter with police brought her 46-year-old mother “back to square one” — causing her to panic over loud noises.

Come on people, Try to make sure you Read the address before breaking down the door.

Tags: Law, bloodstar by bloodstar
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Source: http://icanhascheezburger.com

Tags: Image of the day or Week, bloodstar, photography by bloodstar
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So, can confession change a witnesses memory?

Confessions are powerful evidence in court. But in our legal system, confessions are supposed to be just one more piece of evidence, weighed along with fingerprints and alibis and eyewitness testimony. Are judges and juries capable of weighing evidence fairly when they’re faced with someone proclaiming: I did it? Or is a confession so potent that it trumps everything else?

Legal experts are obviously very interested in this question, and psychologists have been working to piece together an answer. In a recent study, psychologists Lisa Hasel of Iowa State University and Saul Kassin of John Jay College wanted to see if eyewitnesses would be swayed enough by a confession to change their mind about their memory of the crime.

Read the results… it’ll surprise you.

Basically, they found that people remember things that couldn’t have been. and will change their mind and remember something else when presented with a ‘confession’ and claim their first memories were a mistake. (mind you, both memories in the study would have been impossible)

Interesting stuff.

Hasel et al. On the Presumption of Evidentiary Independence: Can Confessions Corrupt Eyewitness Identifications? Psychological Science, 2009; 20 (1): 122 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02262.x

Tags: Law, bloodstar, psychology by bloodstar
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From a Local TV Station:

Attorneys for the defense and prosecution talked to Portsmouth Commonwealth’s Attorney Earle Mobley Wednesday night, who gave them information about Jamal Skeeter.

It was “significant exculpatory information,” defense attorney James Broccoletti said.

Skeeter testified Tuesday that Frederick confessed in jail that he knew he was firing at police. He also said Frederick admitted he was high at the time.

Broccoletti said Mobley told him Skeeter is well-known to prosecutors for giving false testimony and is considered a “professional witness.”

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, giving people incentive to lie, will induce people to lie. And getting people who are very likely not very nice people a chance to screw someone else over so they can catch a break. What do you think they’ll do?

Right.

Is there any Prosecution witness that isn’t corrupted in some way shape or form in this Trial?

Tags: Law, bloodstar by bloodstar
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The Republican were once a full and vibrant political party, with theories on many subjects ranging across the board. They became a Political Party pigeon-toed into a pro-Life, pro-Christian lifestyle which sold tickets and bought them seats in congress during the fat times pre-modern. When you don’t hafta worry about job or the economy, you can let social policy dominate your landscape.

When the modern times came about, they promoted a Republican Canidate which was a little old-school but the party as a whole was still mired in the recent jump into the pro-Christian Right Wing. Voters could not identify the Republican Economic or Foreign Policies, and slowly those people drawn over to the Republican social policy were drawn away because they could not find comfort or faith in Republican Economic Policies.

A lot of people have assumed that the Republican Party have grown weak in matters that really matter, and even the GOP have admitted it. Truth or just bad advertising, a lot of people have lost touch with Republican policies. They tried to jump start us back into the idea with the deificication of Reagan, and they return to this idea with the most modern declarations of a back to basics approach.

Best thing that every happened to the GOP was loosing this election, maybe the next Republican Canidate will be a Republican instead of a Christian. If Palin is the future of the party, then the Democrats have very little to fear. In my mind, she is the past, which they need to escape from.

Tags: Axl, Political by Axl
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Really, are you surprised? The Republicans worked the ‘culture war’ card last election, only to find that really, when the economy is in the midst of a cratering, people stop giving a damn about gay marriage or Abortion, or if someone is black, or if someone is hispanic. And Gallup points out the damage done:

All told, 29 states and the District of Columbia had Democratic party affiliation advantages of 10 points or greater last year. This includes all of the states in the Northeast, and all but Indiana in the Great Lakes region. There are even several Southern states in this grouping, including Arkansas, North Carolina, and Kentucky.

An additional six states had Democratic advantages ranging between 5 and 9 points.

In contrast, only five states had solid or leaning Republican orientations in 2008, with Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Alaska in the former group, and Nebraska in the latter.

Here’s a nice tidy image to drive the point home

Tags: Political, bloodstar by bloodstar
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Why not take a course in it for college credit?

Course Description:
UC Berkeley students with an interest in real-time strategy games and the competitive gaming landscape are encouraged to participate in this class.

This course will go in-depth in the theory of how war is conducted within the confines of the game Starcraft. There will be lecture on various aspects of the game, from the viewpoint of pure theory to the more computational aspects of how exactly battles are conducted. Calculus and Differential Equations are highly recommended for full understanding of the course. Furthermore, the class will take the theoretical into the practical world by analyzing games and replays to reinforce decision-making skills and advanced Starcraft theory.

Class will start with lecture and usually include a special discussion topic having to do with the day’s lecture to inspire new and original thought. At the end of lecture, there may be time to analyze student-submitted replays to illustrate a point or to improve analysis. Homework will be assigned at the end of each class and is due at the beginning of each lecture.

Course Learning Objectives and Goals:
What may look like complex topics are just ways we want you to think more deeply about the game to derive a greater satisfaction from playing. Furthermore, this understanding should have applications in real life, to further synthesize new information from limited inferences. The primary goal is for students to learn, enjoy the art of competitive StarCraft, and have fun. Overall, students will be applying critical thinking, quick decision-making, and game theory skills throughout the sessions. Students will also learn what to look for in a replay or game to learn most effectively.

Maybe I should switch from Law School and go to Berkeley instead?

HT: (Coates)

Tags: Games, bloodstar by bloodstar
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Ouch:

Unadjusted for seasonal patterns, only 23,000 Americans bought new homes last month, with just 2,000 purchases in the Northeast region.

Double Ouch:

The supply of homes at the current sales rate jumped to a record 12.9 months’ worth.

I’m not sure where this is going, but as I said the other day, this is just more evidence that the Housing market isn’t going to recover anytime in the near future, and it looks like things could get much worse before they get better.

Tags: Economics, Financial, bloodstar by bloodstar
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Obviously, if I’m posting I’m alive I was going to write a little last night but forwhatever reason Comcast decided that teh interweb was going to be down at the house, so I did some Gran Tourismo instead.

So, back to the posting

Tags: Misc, bloodstar by bloodstar
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Well, Ambinder has a post on the increase in percentage of unionized jobs. And while I think he’s right about the basic reasons why:

The increase overall due to an increase in the number of government employees who belong to unions — and a corresponding slight shrinkage of the private sector relative to the public sector. During a recession, government often cuts jobs later than the private sector does. And — non-union employees generally have fewer protections against job loss than unionized employees with contracts do. The lowest-hanging fruit in a downturned economy are non-union jobs. I think.

I think there’s also a groundswell shift of attitude in America: People feel they’ve been taken advantage of.

The more people hear about large bonuses as a company goes under, or hear of people losing their jobs in mass layoffs even as executives get 7 digit parachutes, a sense of unfairness permeates through swaths of workers. The basic idea of, ‘why are we getting screwed over while they walk away happy and content?’ They see companies being driven into the ground and they or their friends are losing their jobs with no compensation except unemployment. So, they do the thing that comes naturally, band together, form a union, and make sure you have leveraging power versus a company.

Unions aren’t bad things. In fact in a free market society, I’d argue that Unions are critical to the health and well being of the market. After all, if Executives are primarily profit driven, relying upon Executives to ‘do the right thing’ with regard to reasonable compensation isn’t going to be terribly effective. Sure there are some companies that recognize that treating your employees well helps keep productivity up, morale up, and attract the best and brightest workers. But when times get tough, without some sort of check and balance, the first thing that will be cut are those very benefits and compensations, rather than risk a reduction of profit, or the salaries of the high end executives. Workers would be much more accepting of pay cuts if the cuts were across the board and, I hate using this word, progressive.

Unions can also get out of hand and hamstring a company. But Unions do serve a very important purpose in society.

Tags: Economics, bloodstar by bloodstar
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In Virginia some parents are upset over the changes in the schools that demand that an “A” be at least a 94%. Most schools count the “A” as being an achievement over 90%. But with the Fairfax County School System they wanted to raise the bar on students so that the standard for an “A” was higher.

This places many students at risk for losing good driver discounts, merit scholarships and other programs that depend on GPA standards. Colleges now are starting to place less emphasis on SAT scores in lieu of better GPA’s. So, in this one community students would face harsher standards than other school districts.

One can only wonder if this new grading scale will become more widespread over the course of colleges and universities where GPA is the end all for scholarships or getting into Masters Degree Programs.

As a student, one worries about past accomplishments being dumped in favor of the new system and seeing their GPA stagger from a 4.0 to something lower with a half point increase for the illustrious “A”.

Tags: Misc, sabradell by Sabradell
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I am a fan of relative nonsense and random facts (useless information is my specialty – pity you can’t major in THAT during college)…

My random meandering led me to here: StumbleUpon

It is my holy grail of random daily information, now.

The concept is simple.  You plug in some generalized interests and hobbies.  They give you a toolbar and relevant webpages are chosen at random when you press the button.

My first search yielded this:  Strange and Unusual Deaths in History.

Enjoy!

Tags: Misc, Random Posting, butterfly by butterfly
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Hardened arteries, anyone?

Tags: Food, Health, Misc, klossy, random articles by klossy
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Probably going to be a light blogging day. (you’d think not going to work would increase my blogging output, but really, I don’t even want to look at a computer screen without my head splitting)

However if things come up and I manage to feel well enough to put coherent thoughts together I will certainly put them up.

Otherwise hopefully some of the other intrepid writers and keep you folks entertained.

Tags: Uncategorized by bloodstar
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