Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Daily Kos: �Aqua Teens Terrorize Boston

Daily Kos: �Aqua Teens Terrorize Boston

"Chalk another win up for Chertoff. And chalk up a win for real terror. Because when a few plastic promo pieces with drawings of cartoon characters can scare Boston into a shell, you know that we're a fragile people."

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Brings Boston to a Halt

Aqua Teen Hunger Force Brings Boston to a Halt:
From krokruton on slashdot:

"Does anyone else think that there will be a minor backlash of ATHF graffiti and copycat light ads now that this happened?"

Adult Swim Ad in South Boston


Adult Swim Ad in South Boston
Originally uploaded by Vanderlin.
Hiding in plain sight for two weeks.

Flickr

This is a test post from flickr, a fancy photo sharing thing.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Disabled and Facing Discrimination??

The American Association of People with Disabilities,
(AAPD), would like to hear from you. It doesn't
matter if you've taken the case to court or not.

AAPD needs your compelling, real-life stories of
employment discrimination on the basis of disability
to help make our case to Congress that the Supreme
Courts narrow interpretations of the Americans with
Disabilities Act have harmed people with disabilities
in employment and that its time to restore the
original scope and intent of the ADA! AAPD, in
conjunction with the Consortium for Citizens with
Disabilities (CCD), will use these personal stories
in coming weeks to build bipartisan support
while educating members of Congress in a way which
they can readily understand and relate to about
the need for a legislative fix to the ADA.

Background:
* In recent years, a number of Supreme Court
decisions have significantly reduced the protections
available to people with disabilities within
employment settings.

* Courts are quick to side with businesses
and employers, deciding against people with
disabilities who challenge employment
discrimination 97% of the time, often before
the person has even had a chance to show that
the employer treated them unfairly.

* Courts have created an absurd Catch-22 by
allowing employers to say a person is too
disabled to do the job but not disabled
enough to be protected by the ADA.

* People with conditions like epilepsy, diabetes,
HIV, cancer, hearing loss, and mental illness
who manage their disabilities with medication,
prosthetics, hearing aids, etc. or mitigating
measures are viewed as too functional to have
a disability and are denied the ADAs protection
from employment discrimination.

* People denied a job or fired because an employer
mistakenly believes they cannot perform the job
or because the employer does not want people like
that in the workplace are also denied the ADAs
protection from employment discrimination.

This Is Not What Congress Intended When
They Passed The ADA in 1990!

Who can help: ANYONE who has experienced employment
discrimination on the basis of his or her disability.

* Both those who have AND havent brought their
claims to court

* Those who dont bother to go to court because they've
been told or believe they cannot prove they have a
disability

* Veterans with disabilities

What you can do: Send an email summary of your story
what happened, when it happened, and how it was
resolved (if at all).

* Denials of reasonable accommodations
* Hiring discrimination
* Discriminatory firing and layoffs
* Harassment

When you should do it: We have an immediate need
for these stories, so please send these stories ASAP!

Where to send your stories: Please send your
stories to Anne Sommers, Policy Counsel at
AAPD by email at aapdanne@earthlink.net.

(**We will not use your name or details of your
story without first receiving your express
permission.**)

For more information, contact:

Anne C. Sommers. J.D.
Policy Counsel
American Association of People with Disabilities
(AAPD)
(202) 457-0046 (V/TTY)
800-840-8844 (V/TTY) toll-free
aapdanne@earthlink.net


Monday, January 29, 2007

TheStar.com - Business - Vista's legal fine print raises red flags

TheStar.com - Business - Vista's legal fine print raises red flags

"Guttman focused primarily on the restrictions associated with the ability to play back high-definition content from the next-generation DVDs such as Blu-Ray and HD-DVD (referred to as "premium content").

He noted that Vista intentionally degrades the picture quality of premium content when played on most computer monitors.

Guttman's research suggests that consumers will pay more for less with poorer picture quality yet higher costs since Microsoft needed to obtain licences from third parties in order to access the technology that protects premium content (those licence fees were presumably incorporated into Vista's price)."

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Commentary: The Problems With Micro-Lending

From the Berkeley Daily Planet:
Former UN advisor Sally Wiliams comments on Micro-Lending.

"As Krishna Bhattacharjee pointed out in his commentary, micro-lending is now being implemented in 50 countries; but he did not explain that the conflict between do-gooders and profit minded do-gooders that defines the current debate in this new profitable market. Micro-financing has become a global market with micro-finance futures that tend to serve the “less poor” rather than serving as a channel out of desperate poverty. Banks such as Citigroup and Duetsche Bank have gotten into the game of helping the “un-banked” become new clients. Their goal is financial inclusion, not reducing poverty. Carlos Labrathe, CEO of Compartamos, the McDonald’s of village banking in Mexico, predicts that in five years 80 to 90 percent of all micro-finance institutions will be for-profit institutions."

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Jalil, Mannan react sharply to remarks by Prof Yunus

Comments by Grameen Bank founder Yunus bring a strong response from Bangladeshi pols.

Yunus: "It's about power, power to make money. There is no ideological thing, simply who gets the bigger booty," Yunus said of the recent tussle between the main political alliances in the country in a bid to influence the electoral process towards their own favour.
The 'banker of the poor', Yunus, also said, "Nothing gets done unless you pay the bribe. It's a part of life."

Pols:

At a news conference AL General Secretary Abdul Jalil said the comment of Muhammad Yunus on the politicians of his own country made his position controversial and questionable.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued last night BNP Secretary General Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan said the remark made by the only Nobel laureate of the country is not only unacceptable but also regrettable.



Friday, January 12, 2007

SchaeffersResearch.com - Trading Floor Blog

SchaeffersResearch.com - Trading Floor Blog

"For the last few months I have tracking the action in Novellus Systems (NVLS) with an eye toward whether the stock was forming a long-term bottom. So far that continues to appear true."

Friday, January 05, 2007

Thieves exploit phone system for the deaf - Lisa Myers & the NBC Investigative Unit - MSNBC.com

Thieves exploit phone system for the deaf - Lisa Myers & the NBC Investigative Unit - MSNBC.com

More significant, former AT&T and MCI operators Cathy Audia and Sheila Satterwhite say the system is being exploited by thieves.

"Eighty-five to 90 percent" of the calls Audia says she handled were scams. "The majority of them, very rarely did we get an actually hearing-impaired call," she says.

They say overseas thieves use stolen credit cards and the voices of relay operators to run up large orders from unsuspecting U.S. merchants who may let their guard down because they think they're helping a deaf person.

How much money do they think they helped steal from American businesses?

"Multi-millions," says Audia, "multi-millions."

"I felt like a criminal every day I left work," adds Satterwhite.

By law, every call has to be put through, no matter what the content is.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

NewsGator Daily: Seeing’s Believing: Videoblogs on the Rise

NewsGator Daily: Seeing’s Believing: Videoblogs on the Rise

Vlogs are all over the blogging map. For kids, there is “The JETSET Show," with reports from youthful correspondents around the country on subjects as varied as popularity, tennis-shoe art and music. “Goodnight Burbank” spoofs news in the post-“Daily Show” world. (And the site is trolling for fake-news correspondents.) “The Show with ZeFrank” (pronounced ZayFrank) features the aforementioned ZeFrank with his own unique perspectives on everything from putting fruit on your fingers to what you can do with newspapers after you read them. Not for the squeamish.

“WineLibraryTV” is just that, offering suggestions on which Beaujolais Nouveau is to die for or what wines to serve for the Thanksgiving Day feast. Amanda Congdon, the original host of “Rocketboom,” an early entry in the Vlog sweepstakes, and who just signed with ABCnews.com, is blogging her way around the country via “AmandaAcrossAmerica.” The episode we caught was an interview with technology guru Doc Searls. And political junkies can get their fix from “Bloggingheadstv,” where commentators and bloggers of various stripes argue their positions.