Well, let's see. He set off several bombs that severely injured multiple people, including requiring at least one leg amputation, and evidence points to it having been done to distract police from their investigation of a woman who was murdered shortly after raising strong objections to Kimberlin's relationship with her preteen daughter.
So yeah. "Pedophile", "terrorist", and (at the very least) "accessory to murder" all seem to fit the known facts rather solidly, without coming anywhere near defamation territory!
Oh, there's no doubt that the guy had plenty of personal flaws, and the Ayatollahs didn't have to look too hard to come up with propaganda to incite people against him. But what he was doing for his country and his people was definitely, unequivocally good!
My mom and her family lived there for a while during that time (her father was an engineer doing contract work in Iran) and she says they knew they were outsiders, but no one really cared. It was a place where an American Christian family could live in safety and peace, the women as well as the men. And it wasn't just being deferential to foreigners; Iranian women have never had it so good, either before or since.
OK, this is a bit worrisome if you're familiar with local history.
For those who aren't, bear this in mind: the last time the guy in charge in Iran tried to make the place more civilized and improve the standard of living for everyone, and then started to be successful at it even though the ayatollahs didn't like what he was doing, he wasn't called "President;" he was called "Shah." And we all know how that ended: a violent revolution that cast the entire country into decades of barbarism that it's just now beginning to emerge from again.
As I mentioned, Google has had some successes in their core business areas, but most of their swing for the fence things and "innovative" ideas fail pretty solidly.
Yeah, but the thing is, neither email systems nor mobile phone operating systems were anywhere near part of Google's "core business areas" when they started working on them. They don't have "some successes in their core business areas;" they try new things, and the ones that are successful become core business.
Update: And... Carl Malamud of Public.Resource.Org has sent letters to all of the courts that had cases deleted, requesting copies of the deleted cases. We'll see how that goes.
Hmm. If an Executive agency doesn't respond to a lawful records request, you take them to court, as has been documented multiple times here on Techdirt. But what do you do if a court doesn't respond?
Does anyone expect anything different? This is literally the home of Wall Street, for heaven's sake. Trying to reduce the influence of money there would be like trying to establish mass transit in Michigan.
Re: Re: Button Press Too Hard? Try This One Easy Fix!
Are you seriously suggesting that if a cop needs to use the bathroom, perhaps at a public place such as the stereotypical donut shop, he should take his gun off? And do what with it? Leave it outside?
Come again? Granted, it's been a few years, but last I heard, "broken windows" policing was one of the most effective techniques ever developed for reducing serious crime, with people guilty of minor infractions frequently also turning out to have outstanding warrants, drugs, illegal concealed weapons, etc. A few years ago, getting these people off the street was bringing crime down and making even really some really scary neighborhoods a lot safer.
At my last job, the boss was an engineer. He reported directly to the CEO, who was not. Just about everything good, everything successful, that the company had ever done had my boss's fingerprints in it somewhere.
At my current job, the boss I work for *is* the CEO. He's an engineer. Things are pretty successful here. I don't think I'd ever want to work in a technical job for a boss who's not technical.
What would that rate be? And BTW, "13,000 bogus tickets!!!" is not a rate, it's a single data point. Over that same period of time, how many non-bogus tickets did the system produce?
I got rear-ended a while ago. Some idiot two cars back got spooked and swerved to miss a crazy driver he claimed he saw, that none of the witnesses noticed. He hit the guy behind me and pushed him forward into me. The other two guys' cars were a bit banged up in the bumper areas. Mine was completely unscathed. No one was injured.
I've never been in a T-bone accident (which preventing people from going through red lights is a very good way of preventing,) but I've seen one before. Guy in front of me had a green light, which meant he has the right of way in the intersection. A woman in the left-turn lane on the opposite side tried to turn. I don't know what she was thinking, because her car didn't even start moving until the guy in front of me was already well into the intersection, but she managed to T-bone him dead-on. It was ugly. Ended up with ambulances and traffic snarls and flashing lights everywhere, and that was from someone who started from a dead stop and was just getting into the intersection.
I can only imagine what it would have been like had the incoming car been going the speed limit. On the other hand, I'd probably prefer not to imagine it at all.
New technology that will trade T-bone collisions for rear-ends? I'm all for it!
The point I'm making is that, a few false positives notwithstanding, these cameras sure seem to be in the habit of catching the right people, and with a minor policy modification (revoke the licenses of repeat offenders) they would do some real good.
Just a few months ago, a woman with a bone growth condition that caused her skull to thicken out of control, putting horrible pressure on her brain, had her entire skull surgically removed and replaced with a 3D-printed prosthesis. The prosthesis is inert and not robotic, but... just think about that. There is a woman alive today, walking around as a functioning member of society, with an artificial skull!
Just five years ago, that would have been considered "something from a William Gibson novel." Today it's reality.
For decades now we've had people who are only alive because they have had an artificial heart or a cybernetic heart-control implant (pacemaker) added into their body. Now they're making pacemakers that run on software. What is a person bearing that if not a cyborg? That's reality today.
Well, I can't say much about Chicago--last time I was there, I was 12, and it was only for a few hours--but my uncle lives in DC, and he loves them.
He says that drivers in DC are absolute maniacs who think nothing of running red lights, blocking intersections, and blaring their horns at you if you refuse to endanger people by doing the same. More than once, he's had someone drive around him to block an intersection that he refused to.
One of his coworkers is an idiot driver who keeps getting caught by the cameras they've got in DC. He says the guy's received "something like 40" tickets by now, and he deserved every one of them. And frankly, with the traffic I have to deal with, I wish we had the same system here in LA, with one modification that DC's system apparently does not have if the story of my uncle's coworker is accurate: revoking the licenses of repeat offenders!
People who don't spend much time with these things view cybersecurity and technology as a kind of "magic." But it's not.
I dunno. As a programmer, I spend my days creating and fine-tuning arcane formulae composed of complex, often bizarre symbols, ordered according to cryptic rules and priorities that would drive a mere mortal mad to think about too deeply (or at least really, really confuse them) in order to produce incantations that, once invoked, perform effects that alter the world.
Google: Don't be evil. And we occasionally make bad decisions, but when called on it, we generally try and make it right.
Facebook: Don't even bother pretending. Build the system on someone else's stolen work, blatantly declare that "privacy means whatever I say it means" and "users don't care about privacy anyway," screw investors over with insider trading, support climate destruction, disappear critical posts, and laugh all the way to the bank.
Why doesn't Mark Zuckerberg just grow a big black mustache and twirl it while he's at it?
It does seem odd for someone who claims to be an anarchist and against "state violence" to then use copyright law to take down critical videos.
It's not odd at all; it's perfectly consistent with that view of the world, which for all its high-minded talk of principles generally has one overriding guiding principle at its core: "Me First!"
Afterall, if even their dear Supreme Leader, Ayn Rand, took government assistance when it benefited her, why shouldn't the rank and file do the same thing?
On the post: The Brett Kimberlin Saga: A Story Of Wacko Vexatious Lawsuits
Re:
So yeah. "Pedophile", "terrorist", and (at the very least) "accessory to murder" all seem to fit the known facts rather solidly, without coming anywhere near defamation territory!
On the post: Iranian Grand Ayatollah Issues Fatwa Against 'Immoral' High-Speed Internet Connections
Re: Re:
My mom and her family lived there for a while during that time (her father was an engineer doing contract work in Iran) and she says they knew they were outsiders, but no one really cared. It was a place where an American Christian family could live in safety and peace, the women as well as the men. And it wasn't just being deferential to foreigners; Iranian women have never had it so good, either before or since.
So yeah, seeing this now... it's a bit worrisome.
On the post: Iranian Grand Ayatollah Issues Fatwa Against 'Immoral' High-Speed Internet Connections
For those who aren't, bear this in mind: the last time the guy in charge in Iran tried to make the place more civilized and improve the standard of living for everyone, and then started to be successful at it even though the ayatollahs didn't like what he was doing, he wasn't called "President;" he was called "Shah." And we all know how that ended: a violent revolution that cast the entire country into decades of barbarism that it's just now beginning to emerge from again.
On the post: The Interesting Thing About Google's Delivery Drones Is Not The Drones, But Massive Societal Shift They Envision
Re: Re: Re:
Yeah, but the thing is, neither email systems nor mobile phone operating systems were anywhere near part of Google's "core business areas" when they started working on them. They don't have "some successes in their core business areas;" they try new things, and the ones that are successful become core business.
On the post: PACER Officials Give Weak, Nonsensical Excuse For Why PACER Deleted Tons Of Public Court Records With No Notice
Hmm. If an Executive agency doesn't respond to a lawful records request, you take them to court, as has been documented multiple times here on Techdirt. But what do you do if a court doesn't respond?
On the post: NY Times Endorses Tim Wu For Lieutenant Governor, But Chickens Out On Endorsing His Running Mate, Zephyr Teachout
Re:
On the post: Total Wipes A Total Failure: Sends Increasingly Ridiculous DMCA Notices To Wipe Out Unrelated Content
On the post: DailyDirt: Quantum Computers Are Both Here And Not Here...
Wow. That's essentially perfect Moore's Law growth. Another 20 years and they'll be mainstream. :P
On the post: Putting Body Cameras On Cops Won't Fix Misconduct, But It's A Good Start
Re: Re: Button Press Too Hard? Try This One Easy Fix!
On the post: The FBI's Criminal Database Is Filling Up With Non-Criminals And No One In Law Enforcement Seems To Care
Come again? Granted, it's been a few years, but last I heard, "broken windows" policing was one of the most effective techniques ever developed for reducing serious crime, with people guilty of minor infractions frequently also turning out to have outstanding warrants, drugs, illegal concealed weapons, etc. A few years ago, getting these people off the street was bringing crime down and making even really some really scary neighborhoods a lot safer.
What changed?
On the post: White House's Cybersecurity Guy Proud Of His Lack Of Cybersecurity Knowledge Or Skills
Re: Re: Re:
At my current job, the boss I work for *is* the CEO. He's an engineer. Things are pretty successful here. I don't think I'd ever want to work in a technical job for a boss who's not technical.
On the post: Shocking: Red Light Camera Company CEO And Chicago City Official Indicted On Corruption Charges
Re: Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Shocking: Red Light Camera Company CEO And Chicago City Official Indicted On Corruption Charges
Re:
I got rear-ended a while ago. Some idiot two cars back got spooked and swerved to miss a crazy driver he claimed he saw, that none of the witnesses noticed. He hit the guy behind me and pushed him forward into me. The other two guys' cars were a bit banged up in the bumper areas. Mine was completely unscathed. No one was injured.
I've never been in a T-bone accident (which preventing people from going through red lights is a very good way of preventing,) but I've seen one before. Guy in front of me had a green light, which meant he has the right of way in the intersection. A woman in the left-turn lane on the opposite side tried to turn. I don't know what she was thinking, because her car didn't even start moving until the guy in front of me was already well into the intersection, but she managed to T-bone him dead-on. It was ugly. Ended up with ambulances and traffic snarls and flashing lights everywhere, and that was from someone who started from a dead stop and was just getting into the intersection.
I can only imagine what it would have been like had the incoming car been going the speed limit. On the other hand, I'd probably prefer not to imagine it at all.
New technology that will trade T-bone collisions for rear-ends? I'm all for it!
On the post: Shocking: Red Light Camera Company CEO And Chicago City Official Indicted On Corruption Charges
Re: Re:
On the post: White House's Cybersecurity Guy Proud Of His Lack Of Cybersecurity Knowledge Or Skills
Re: Re: Cyber!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0Yg9wjctRw
On the post: White House's Cybersecurity Guy Proud Of His Lack Of Cybersecurity Knowledge Or Skills
Re: Cyber!
Just a few months ago, a woman with a bone growth condition that caused her skull to thicken out of control, putting horrible pressure on her brain, had her entire skull surgically removed and replaced with a 3D-printed prosthesis. The prosthesis is inert and not robotic, but... just think about that. There is a woman alive today, walking around as a functioning member of society, with an artificial skull!
Just five years ago, that would have been considered "something from a William Gibson novel." Today it's reality.
For decades now we've had people who are only alive because they have had an artificial heart or a cybernetic heart-control implant (pacemaker) added into their body. Now they're making pacemakers that run on software. What is a person bearing that if not a cyborg? That's reality today.
Heeeeeeeey, welcome to the future! Somehow it went and arrived on us while we were all busy in the present.
On the post: Shocking: Red Light Camera Company CEO And Chicago City Official Indicted On Corruption Charges
He says that drivers in DC are absolute maniacs who think nothing of running red lights, blocking intersections, and blaring their horns at you if you refuse to endanger people by doing the same. More than once, he's had someone drive around him to block an intersection that he refused to.
One of his coworkers is an idiot driver who keeps getting caught by the cameras they've got in DC. He says the guy's received "something like 40" tickets by now, and he deserved every one of them. And frankly, with the traffic I have to deal with, I wish we had the same system here in LA, with one modification that DC's system apparently does not have if the story of my uncle's coworker is accurate: revoking the licenses of repeat offenders!
On the post: White House's Cybersecurity Guy Proud Of His Lack Of Cybersecurity Knowledge Or Skills
I dunno. As a programmer, I spend my days creating and fine-tuning arcane formulae composed of complex, often bizarre symbols, ordered according to cryptic rules and priorities that would drive a mere mortal mad to think about too deeply (or at least really, really confuse them) in order to produce incantations that, once invoked, perform effects that alter the world.
What am I if not a modern-day mage?
On the post: Can We Create A Public Internet Space Where The First Amendment, Not Private Terms Of Service, Rules?
Google: Don't be evil. And we occasionally make bad decisions, but when called on it, we generally try and make it right.
Facebook: Don't even bother pretending. Build the system on someone else's stolen work, blatantly declare that "privacy means whatever I say it means" and "users don't care about privacy anyway," screw investors over with insider trading, support climate destruction, disappear critical posts, and laugh all the way to the bank.
Why doesn't Mark Zuckerberg just grow a big black mustache and twirl it while he's at it?
On the post: 'Anarcho-Capitalist' Stefan Molyneux, Who Doesn't Support Copyright, Abuses DMCA To Silence Critic
It's not odd at all; it's perfectly consistent with that view of the world, which for all its high-minded talk of principles generally has one overriding guiding principle at its core: "Me First!"
Afterall, if even their dear Supreme Leader, Ayn Rand, took government assistance when it benefited her, why shouldn't the rank and file do the same thing?
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