News of the Day: Facebook Nation

Facebook is acting like a sovereign nation

The Atlantic Wire, May 24, 2o11

In Paris, today, French president Nicolas Sarkozy rubbed shoulders with tech industry superstars, including Eric Schmidt and Mark Zuckerberg, for the inaugural eG-8 meeting. The two-day event intends to prime the conversation at the Group of Eight summit set to take place later this week in Normandy. Sarkozy took a hard line in urging governments to better regulate the Internet. "Don't let the revolution that you've begun threaten everyone's basic right to a private life and full autonomy," he told the conferences attendees. "Full transparency… sooner or later runs into the very principle of individual freedom."

Dutch Jewish Groups Face Off Against Animal Activists
Opening Serve: Thieme, one of only two members of Dutch parliament representing the "far-left minority" Party for Animals, introduced a bill back in April that, according to Chabad.org, "would effectively outlaw kosher slaughtering in the Netherlands," including kosher slaughtering practices which require "that an animal be conscious when its throat is cut." Radio Netherlands Worldwide reported when the bill was first introduced that "The Animal Rights Party fervently believes that animals should not have to endure what they call torture in order to accommodate religious beliefs." In an op-ed at Radio Netherlands Worldwide entitled, "An Animal Doesn't Care About Its Killer's Faith," Thieme wrote that, despite the fact that the Qu'ran and Torah both "describe how animal products should be prepared in such a way that no such suffering is inflicting on humans or animals ... based on new insights, their methods of slaughter are in need of reform today. Religious believers can no longer justify a method that was ahead of its time 3000 years ago."

Fukushima out of control: melting down, contaminating sky and sea, being covered up.

10 Free Ways to Speed Up Computer

Computer boot up and Web page loading too slow? If computers are running slower, here are some things to do to get “old reliable” running in tip-top shape again. Of course, budget-savvy Nerd Chicks are always looking for ways to save some dough, so we’ve made sure they are all FREE.

Palin lets her religion show, confuses prophecy with history
(Commentary) Sarah Palin never seems far from saying things that invoke god's name or a biblical allusion. She has been known to be as blunt when sharing her religious beliefs as she is about most other issues. She spoke with Fox News' Jeanine Pirro on Saturday, telling her that Pres. Barack Obama was on the wrong side of history -- and god -- with his policy positioning on Israel. He announced that position during Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington. "Anyone who studies history," Palin told Fox News, "studies the Old Testament, studies geography, understands that Israel now is surrounded by enemies at all times. It should be now that America takes a stand in defending our friends in Israel."

• Housekeeper's estranged husband speaks out
• "Planet of Apes" actress arrested in Los Angeles
• Pawlenty's Uncourageous Stand Against Ethanol
• Democrat Kathy Hochul wins upstate New York race
• WRONG: Simply Eating Less Fat May Cut Diabetes Risk
• Awaiting the Next Crash
• Royal Exchange: On Second Visit, Obamas Improve Gift-Giving Skills
• U.S. sues big oil traders for 2008 manipulation

Mad as L: Red light camera tickets (video)

The audio is the famous speech from the film "Network"

Smile. The telescreen is watching. Red light camera traffic tickets are a scam.

But it's not Big Brother watching. He's rented out the job to a private company. It's still spying -- family member against family member, and no one is safe (unless maybe you have government exemption plates).

The private for profit corporation that sold intersection cameras and exclusive maintenance contracts to cities across the country did so with promises of free money.

But the offense is rarely for dangerously running a red light. The money to be made is for automatically generating thousands of tickets for rolling stops at yellow lights. The "California roll" may not be safe but it is hardly something to be punished with a ticket that can run $500. And it is widely practiced.

Pitching the promise of preventing motorists from running red lights and causing intersection disasters, these private camera companies have in fact gone overboard. They send out representatives to train municipalities how to set their leased cameras to catch conscientious motorists on a technicality.



(Even if the cameras cause more accidents by people stopping short while trying to avoid getting ticketed, cities just want to see the returns they were promised that have never materialized).

The motive on both sides -- between the camera company and the cities, because the motoring public does not figure into the equation -- is easy: profits. Whose profits? Not the city's, the company's. And they have been very successful riding the backs of overtaxed drivers.

• Charlotte speed cameras could unwittingly cost city $4.6 million
  

Some drivers are as mad as niraya and are not going to take it anymore! Others don't mind being gouged as punitive fees for first time offenses skyrocket to refill municipal coffers drained by the economic downturn. At a time when everyone has less income to spare, the ticket fines are going way up. That leaves one between a rock and a hard place.


What can a person do after being ticketed by mail?