I received a notice that the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) has plans to combat the Asian Citrus Psyllid (ACP) which has been detected on citrus trees near my location in Fallbrook, California. I scanned the letter, it’s a large PDF file of about 10 megabytes. In short, county agents will be spraying…
Continue readingCorporatism
Public knowledge and Patent Reform
Public Knowledge recommends some patent reforms, but is that all there is to public knowledge?
Continue readingSchool District Funding, high-speed Internet service?
Could local school districts get grants to become competitive broadband ISPs to their surrounding communities?
Continue readingHealth Care Reform is On The Table?
National Health Care Reform Begins?
Continue readingRetroactive Lawsuit Immunity Proposed for Phone Companies
According to a Washington Post news item of May 4, 2007, it appears that President Bush’s Justice Department is writing legislation to immunize the phone companies from lawsuits stemming from post-9/11 surveillance. ‘The proposal states that “no action shall lie . . . in any court, and no penalty . . . shall be imposed…
Continue readingAnother CEO scandal
Once upon a time, I bought and sold stock. During that time I used what is typically referred to as technical analysis and charting. I have a shelf of approximately 35 books about the subject, all of them read at least once, some of them studied closely. During the time that I traded, which I…
Continue readingHow the stock market works.
The following website has a slideshow that offers a reasonably good explanation of how the stock market and its clearing mechanisms works, with several case studies, as well as some commentary about the SEC placed in historical context. Rather than trying to synopsize it further, it’s offered for your perusal. The show lasts for about…
Continue readingSecrets & Hypocrisy: Never kiss and tell
The hypocrisy of the Executive Branch and their legislative cohorts is stunning. They want secrecy and privacy for their actions, but are unwilling to grant privacy to others. They seem to want citizens to have the perception of privacy, without the reality of privacy. They seem to want corporations to collect extra customer cash from…
Continue readingThe Ownership Society: Big Brother strikes again
AT&T is in the news, this time they are alleged to have updated their privacy policy to include language that grants them ownership over customers’ data according to an article by David Lazarus of the San Franscisco Chronicle. Yesterday, the Associated Press wrote about how police agencies across the country have been using private data…
Continue readingWarrentless Wiretapping: Prosecute Them
On Monday, while testifying at a congressional hearing investigating the Executive Branch’s authorization of without-a-warrant wiretapping of U.S. citizens, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said, “I gave in my opening statement, Senator, examples that President Washington, President Lincoln, President Wilson, President Roosevelt have all, uh, authorized electronic wiretapping.” I watched this on CSPAN, live, as…
Continue reading