International Herald Tribute:

On a talk show last autumn, a prominent political analyst named Mikhail Delyagin offered some tart words about Vladimir Putin. When the program was televised, Delyagin was not.

His remarks were cut and he was digitally erased from the show, like a disgraced comrade airbrushed from an old Soviet photo. (The technicians may have worked a bit hastily; they left his disembodied legs in one shot.)

Delyagin, it turned out, has for some time resided on the so-called stop list, a roster of political opponents and other critics of the government who have been barred from television news and political talk shows by the Kremlin.

The stop list is, as Delyagin put it, “an excellent way to stifle dissent.”

More:

And it is not just politicians. Televizor, a rock group whose name means television set, had its booking on a St. Petersburg television station canceled in April, after its members took part in an Other Russia demonstration.

When some actors cracked a few mild jokes about Putin and Medvedev at Russia’s equivalent of the Academy Awards in March, they were expunged from the telecast.

Political humor in general has been exiled from television here. One of the nation’s most popular satirists, Viktor Shenderovich, once had a show that featured puppet caricatures of various politicians, including Putin. It was canceled in Putin’s first term and Shenderovich has been all but barred from television.

Senior government officials deny the existence of a stop list, saying that people hostile to the Kremlin do not appear on television simply because their views are not newsworthy.

In Utah, there’s a move afoot to make it a crime for a teacher to answer unapproved questions in sex ed.

There are still tribes in the Amazon with no contact with the outside world.

They’re suing Chicago little leagues for using team names in common with MLB teams. Not logos; just the names; MLB is insisting they own the idea of a baseball team named, for example, the Giants, or Tigers, and that in order to use those names the little leagues must buy their uniforms from MLB’s much more expensive provider. Gee, thanks.

Fortunately, Techdirt and Stephen Colbert are on the case.

Apparently, the oldest mamallian cell line is a transmissable canine tumor spread sexually. Yup: this means it’s an immortal, cancerous STD. Yikes.

Unlike most other contagious cancers such as cervical cancer in humans, CTVT isn’t spread by a virus but (as recently proved) by cancerous cells themselves. Genetic analysis suggests the tumor originated in an individual wolf or domesticated dog, probably in east Asia, between 200 and 2,500 years ago. This long-dead canid’s much-mutated cells are still alive and being passed along during coitus (or sometimes through casual contact) centuries later, making it the longest-lived mammalian cell line known.

The Japanese police hid a bunch of dope in some random traveler’s bags and then turned loose the dogs to train them — and then lost the hash. Score!

They announced today that they would begin charging $15 for the first checked bag from any passenger.

There’s a new educational notion floating around called “Minimum 50 grading,” the gist of which is that any numerical grade lower than a 50 is “rounded up” to 50. This is so stupid it makes my head hurt; John Gruber has more. From the story:

“It’s a classic mathematical dilemma: that the students have a six times greater chance of getting an F,” says Douglas Reeves, founder of The Leadership and Learning Center, a Colorado-based educational think tank who has written on the topic. “The statistical tweak of saying the F is now 50 instead of zero is a tiny part of how we can have better grading practices to encourage student performance.”

But opponents say the larger gap between D and F exists because passing requires a minimum competency of understanding at least 60% of the material. Handing out more credit than a student has earned is grade inflation, says Ed Fields, founder of HotChalk.com, a site for teachers and parents: “I certainly don’t want to teach my children that no effort is going to get them half the way there.”

Reeves, as Gruber points out, is either incredibly stupid or incredibly craven here, especially with his line about students having a “six times greater chance of getting an F.” Um, no. Grades aren’t random; they reflect classroom work, pedagogy, and effort. Students are not six times more likely to get an F than some other grade (obviously! in a class with 10 students passing, do 60 students fail, on average?).

I’m not insane. I understand that, with sufficiently low grades, a student may be doomed to failure by mid-semester. But a grade is supposed to show, roughly speaking, percentage mastery of the subject. What sort of lesson are we teaching if showing up, literally, guarantees half credit? The only reason for policies like this seems to be improving passing rates — but, like the post title says, it’s not real. It’s juking the stats — a methodological hip-check to the pinball machine of education that results in shiny numbers with no corresponding increase in actual education.

Comcast is buying them. Given their track record, we imagine Plaxo to become little more than a giant address/social network mine for them, and user preferences be damned.

From DFW:

A man has been accused of attempting to pass a $360 billion check, which he claims was given to him by his girlfriend’s mother to start a record business, Fort Worth police said.

Charles Ray Fuller, 21, of Crowley, was arrested on April 22 on an accusation of forgery, police said.

Police responded to a report of a man attempting to pass the check about 4 p.m. that day at the Chase bank in the 8600 block of South Hulen Street, Fort Worth police Lt. Paul Henderson said.

The personal check was not made out to Mr. Fuller and when the bank contacted the check owner, the woman said she did not write a check for $360 billion.

Mr. Fuller was also accused of unlawful carrying of a weapon and possession of marijuana, Lt. Henderson said. He may also face a theft charge in Crowley.

Lt. Henderson said he did not know if Mr. Fuller and his girlfriend were still together.

Only two weeks after the 65th anniversary of the most interesting bicycle ride ever, Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann has passed away. He was 102.

It appears we missed some sort of set-to in re: Miley Cyrus’ pix in Vanity Fair. The whole thing is confusing as hell, since obviously the Mileys (like the Birtneys before her) sell at least partially on sex appeal, aspirational and otherwise, but whatever.

Thankfully, Defamer is on the case. Allow us to summarize their excellent summary of the whole affair, and the proper reaction thereto:

ZOMG111!!!!!!1 TEENAGERS FUCK!!!!! HORRORS! Meh.

Thank you, and good night.

This fantastic prank letter gives me hope for the future.

Can someone please explain to me why other countries get cool stuff like this while we putter along with the world’s ugliest currency?

Others have noticed.

What they didn’t include in the movie is that apparently Private Ryan and his family lost all military benefits because he got pulled from combat. From the AP:

FRESNO, Calif. – Forced to leave the combat zone after his two brothers died in the Iraq war, Army Spc. Jason Hubbard faced another battle once he returned home: The military cut off his family’s health care, stopped his G.I. educational subsidies and wanted him to repay his sign-up bonus.

It wasn’t until Hubbard petitioned his local congressman that he was able to restore some of his benefits.

Ah, Ohio:

BELLEVUE, Ohio — Police said an Ohio man has been arrested for allegedly having sex with a picnic table.

Police arrested Arthur Price Jr. after an anonymous tipster dropped off three DVDs that reportedly showed Price in the act.

According to NBC Toledo, Ohio, affiliate WNWO-TV, the videos show Price tilting the metal round picnic table on its side and then laying up against it to have sexual intercourse with the table. Afterward, he can then be seen cleaning the table and the deck.

During questioning, he reportedly admitted to having sex with the table. Police said he also admitted to bringing the table inside his home for sex.

Price faces four counts of public indecency. He was freed after posting $20,000 bond, authorities said.

Granted, if this had been in Alabama, it would have been his first cousin’s picnic table.

They’ve found actual California wolverines in Tahoe again; the species was thought extinct since 1922.

(Other possible jokes for this post: references to either SNL or bad cold war movies.)

As it turns out, if you’re smarter, richer, and better educated, you’ll be much, much better at finding accurate information on the Internet. What it basically boils down to is critical evaluation of sources, which is an aspect of research skills anyone who’s done a term paper should have internalized a long time ago.

The divide played out in interesting ways when it came to searching for information. Those who searched at Yahoo and MSN were evenly distributed across income groups. Over half the high-income parents, however, used Google, while only 8 percent of low-income parents did–they apparently preferred AOL search. The authors suggested that this difference arose from the fact that high-status parents were over four times more sensitive to search engines returning irrelevant results (the authors consider Google the gold standard for search engines).

The AOL vs. Google thing is the Internet version of the slow kid in your 8th grade English class not understanding why Readers’ Digest isn’t as good a source as The Economist.

Other aspects of the divide extended beyond choice of search engine. 70 percent of high-status parents went back to the original list of search results after hitting an irrelevant site; less than half of low-status parents did the same. They were also twice as likely to tweak search terms when they ran into a set of results they were unhappy with. Finally, those higher up the socioeconomic ladder were more likely (43 percent) to trust information from universities and research organizations than those at the bottom (16 percent).

The good news is that this enormous and unprecedented information resource is available for less than the cost of cable TV, which pushes it pretty far down the socioeconomic spectrum. The bad news is that, like other forms of information, those with poor educational backgrounds are ill-equipped to use it well and capitalize on its power.

Al Copeland, the flamboyant founder of Popeyes Famous Fried Chicken, is dead.

DC police are conducting “voluntary” house to house searches for handguns.

For years now, UT — and all state colleges and universities in Texas — has been subject to a state law that requires them to guarantee admission to the top 10% of every high school’s graduating class.

This may sound like a good idea, but it’s really not. In essence, it penalizes students who go to very good high schools and rewards students who don’t. A friend of mine has her daughter in one of the best private high schools in Houston, which means that UT is pretty much off the table for her — but elite private schools like SMU and Vanderbilt are, bizarrely, completely reasonable possibilities because of the girl’s credentials (National Merit, etc). These credentials would put her in the top 10% of pretty much any public school’s graduating class, but in a more elite private school, where the entire class is at a higher level of achievement, that 10% is significantly harder to crack. Because of this, it’s not unheard of for students to transfer to easier, less demanding high schools for their senior year, in order to pad their rank, if admission to UT (or any other state school) is desired.

I had this conversation with Leesa yesterday, and was reminded of it by this story in the Chronicle that notes:

Eighty-one percent of the students being offered admission to UT’s 2008 fall freshman class got in because they graduated in the top 10 percent of their high schools. That number is up 10 percent over 2007 figures and likely will rise to include all students in the not-too-distant future, William Powers Jr. warned.

A 2004 story at CBSNews included the stories of students Elizabeth Aicklen, of Austin, and Laura Torres, of San Antonio:

Not fair is exactly how Elizabeth Aicklen describes her experience with the “Top 10” plan.

“Everyone in my family has gone to U.T. I’ve lived in Austin for my whole life. I love it,” says Aicklen, who took a lot of advanced placement classes to improve her class rank.

Elizabeth’s problem, if you can call it that, was that she went to Westlake, the most competitive public high school in Austin, filled with overachievers from upscale families.

Did kids talk about their ranking all the time? Were they thinking of it constantly? “All the time,” says Aicklen. “After every test or every final, people were pulling out their calculators.”

Aicklen had a 3.9 GPA, and she still didn’t make the top 10 at her school.

But 80 miles away in San Antonio, Torres’ high school, Fox Tech, was vastly different. There were fewer challenging courses, less competition, and many kids from poor families. Torres had a 3.4-3.5 GPA, which put her in the top 10 percent of her high school. She didn’t take any advanced placement classes.

If Torres had gone to Westlake, she’d barely have made the top 50 percent. And if Aicklen had gone to Fox Tech, she might have been the valedictorian. As for SAT scores, Aicklen also scored hundreds of points higher than Torres.

N.B. that this rule doesn’t allow for other factors at all. No extracurriculars? No problem. Shitty SAT? No one cares. Took only the minimum classes required for graduation? Come to Austin! If it results in a full incoming class, with no room for out of state students or otherwise qualified kids outside the 10%, its proponents don’t care. If it results in good students going elsewhere while nebulously qualified kids from terrible high schools skate in, they don’t care. It’s just freakish.

Yeah, the whole intimidation thing worked, and New Jersey will not be getting an independent audit of the Sequoia machines thanks to Sequoia’s legal threats.

Even so, they’re getting plenty of critical coverage, so in the end it’s probably not a win for them. Why would any government consider a voting machine maker that intimidates analysts into NOT examining the machines that would count our votes, and which have a history of misbehavior?

So, New Jersey is apparently evaluating Sequoia’s voting machines, and the corporate drones got wind the state might let Princeton prof and voting machine security expert Ed Felton examine them.

This, clearly, scared the bejesus out of said drones, so they sent Prof. Felton a threatening letter, which was of course immediately leaked to the web, and which as elicited a great deal of ridicule and comment. Techdirt has more.

If you follow the gossip sites — shut up; I know you do — you may have heard the story about Paris Hilton giving away diamonds, which was of course gobbled up by all the celeb outlets.

Turns it, the whole thing was staged as part of Ashton Kutcher’s new project, a sort of meta-media version of Punk’d designed with the celeb-focussed media, not celebs themselves, as the butt of the joke:

Pop Fiction, an eight-episode series, is a prank show targeting paparazzi and gullible media outlets. It’s made with the eager help of stars, who were the laughing stocks of Kutcher’s former MTV show. This time the shoe’s on the other foot, and the series has been kept so tightly under wraps that E!’s own website fell victim to the Hilton hoax and other planted stories that producers won’t yet divulge.

It’s really, really hard not to like this idea a whole lot.

Very, very small monkeys.

The TSA? Turns out it’s full of thieves. Some $31 million bucks worth of goodies have vanished from baggage in the last 3 years. Nice.

From the NYT Obit:

William F. Buckley Jr., who marshaled polysyllabic exuberance, famously arched eyebrows and a refined, perspicacious mind to elevate conservatism to the center of American political discourse, died Wednesday at his home in Stamford, Conn.

The oil heir, father of the American conservative movement, defender of fascists and McCarthyites, prototype of countless rhetorical bullies, vanity publisher, and general reactionary tool died today in his office. He was 82.

More: Alex Balk, writing at Radar, reminds us of Buckley’s civil rights record with his brilliant headline: William F. Buckley goes to White People Heaven.

Even more, from Making Light:

“The central question that emerges…is whether the White community in the South is entitled to take such measures as are necessary to prevail, politically and culturally, in areas where it does not predominate numerically? The sobering answer is Yes–the White community is so entitled because, for the time being, it is the advanced race.” –William F. Buckley, National Review, August 24, 1957

There’s your “refined, perspicacious mind” for you. The one that, we’re told, “elevated conservatism to the center of American political discourse.” Racism and power-worship–and, from first to last, uncompromising defense of the idea that society should be structured into orders and classes.

Preach on, Patrick.

Clarence Thomas hasn’t [asked a single question](“One thing I’ve demonstrated often in 16 years is you can do this job without asking a single question,” he told an adoring crowd at the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group.) during a Supreme Court case in more than two years. Quoth he:

“One thing I’ve demonstrated often in 16 years is you can do this job without asking a single question,” he told an adoring crowd at the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group.

We find this both disturbing and, ultimately, unsurprising. Why ask questions when Scalia will tell you how to vote?

Over at TechDirt, we find information about an idea from ABC to combat DVRs by providing the bulk of their programming via video-on-demand, with embedded commercials and no ability to fast-forward.

Read that again. We’re not kidding. The quote:

Anne Sweeney, the president of the Disney-ABC television group, claims: “You don’t need TiVo if you have fast-forward-disabled video on demand. It gives you the same opportunity to catch up to your favorite shows.”

It gets better:

Then there’s Ray Cole, who owns some ABC affiliates. He says: “As network and affiliates, we both have an interest in slowing down the explosive growth of DVRs. This is about combating DVRs. As we developed this at every stage, there was an agreement that however we put this together, disabling the fast-forward function was key.” I’m curious as to how Mr. Cole thinks offering a product that does much less and deliberately takes away a key feature will “slow down” the “explosive growth of DVRs.” You don’t compete by offering a worse product. You compete by offering a better product. Taking away one of the key selling points of a product is not exactly a major selling point.

We own Tivo at our house in no small part BECAUSE we can skip commercials easily. Why on earth would we pay money for a device that does less? Clearly, the quality of the dope at ABC is stellar.

The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled unconstitutional a Texas statute banning the sale or promotion of sex toys.

Regular Heathen will recall that a Mississippi TV station tried to stir up a controversy over a similar law there not terribly long ago; as Mississippi is part of the 5th circuit, it seems unlikely said law will be enforced anymore. That leaves Alabama (in the 11th circuit) alone in its ongoing prohibition of such devices.

Enormous Jesus struck by lightning.

The Senate has capitulated on retroactive telecom immunity. Of our three Senatorial candidates:

• McCain voted for immunity;
• Obama opposed it; and
• Clinton did not bother to vote.

If your Senator is a Republican (all of whom voted for immunity), or a crossover Democrat (list in link), call them and let them know what douchebags you think they are. For what it’s worth, the House version of the bill still lacks this provision, so there’s some hope left.

More via BoingBoing.

The secret sex life of wombats.

“Got more than one checked bag? That’ll be $25 each.”

The choice between security and privacy is one our officials have been making quite a lot since 9/11, but they’re framing the discussion in a completely wrong way. The real question is liberty vs. control. Go, read, and share, and keep in mind that all governments eventually abuse the powers they’re given.

Oops.

LONDON (Reuters) – A chain of retail stores in Britain has withdrawn the sale of beds named Lolita and designed for six-year-old girls after furious parents pointed out that the name was synonymous with sexually active pre-teens.

Brits are stupid, too. Apparently a full quarter of them think Churchill was a myth.

Some sad-sack ratings-seeking “consumer” reporter at the Jackson TV station (“Kandiss Crone,” who appears to be trying to live up to her surname) has done a hard-hitting expose on the fact that an adult bookstore was selling illegal sex toys. Madcap hilarity ensues, probably because it’s hard for anyone who’s not a TV news douchebag (or raving nutbird fundie) to supply even fake outrage over violations of such a ridiculous prohibition. Really, Kandiss? This is the best you can do?

Perhaps our favorite part is this quote from Jackson Vice, supplied when Crone went to JPD for comment: “The adult store is not a priority for our vice and narcotics officers. We will do the best we can. Citizens would rather see us using our resources to get drugs and prostitutes off our streets and work to decrease violent crime.”

Believe it or not, it’s therefore the State the comes off (marginally) better here. The “news” dorks, however, remain worthless wastes of oxygen.

(Via BB.)

(Sidenote: the anchor in the first part of the story, one Howard Ballou, was the m.c. a couple years back for the JDRF gala we attend. When introduced (“Heathen, this is Howard Ballou, he’s our MC tonight” was all I got), I had no idea who he was. I shook his hand and made with the cocktail chat, which — much to my brother’s amusement — included me asking about his line of work. If you ever want to have fun with these pseudocelebs, apparently one of the best ways to make them nearly spit-take is to be unaware of their identity.)

The Navy now has railguns.

Nationwide, the 2007 foreclosure rate was 79% over the 2006 rate.

In Texas, though, the 2007 rate was 4.6% LOWER than the 2006 rate. Less speculative real estate price runups –> fewer folks overstretching to buy a modest home –> fewer folks in fuck-you ARMs –> fewer folks getting screwed now –> fewer folks in foreclosure. Score.

One defense a small party has against a huge corporate SLAPP suit (or any bogus suit, particularly in this age of over-reaching copyright claims) is the publicize the legal bullying, and the first step has traditionally been to share the ill-considered and legally bogus cease-and-desist letters with the Internet at large, so that everyone can see what fucktards Big Company X is being.

Large corporate interests would prefer their bullying not be so widely known, so they’ve been working to try to find a way to keep it all quiet, inspired no doubt by the whole national security letter bullshit promulgated by the Bush administration. One particularly absurd argument is that the letters are copyrighted material, and that unauthorized distribution is an infringement on that copyright. This ought not even pass the risibility test, but, sadly, some judge has actually bought the argument.

If this ruling stands, the implications for free speech in America are dire indeed.

Of the many fine restaurants with the Heathen Seal of Approval, one of our personal favorites is the DC-area tapas (no, not topless) joint Jaleo, named for the striking Sargent painting hanging in (but thankfully not stolen from) the Isabella Gardner museum in Boston (small pic at right; the real deal is more than 7 feet tall and 11 feet long; go see it). Their food is fantastic, but their sangria is out of this world.

They’ve had enough success, even, that Jaleo has locations outside the District, in Bethesda and — and this is where the trouble comes in — in Virginia. As it turns out, Virginia still has post-prohibition-era laws that make it illegal to mix hard liquor and beer or wine, which means the sangria in the Virginia locations is, well, a crappy approximation of the real thing. People have noticed this bullshit law, and there’s an effort to change it, but the real shocker is that there apparently some goatfuckers in the Virginia legislature who think the law’s fine the way it is.

At least it’s not Mississippi.

A Nebraska deputy pulled seized $69,000 during a routine traffic stop during which the driver was neither arrested nor ticketed.

Investigators don’t know if they will be able to connect the money to a drug operation, [Sheriff Tim] Hanson said, but the important work already has been done.

“The big thing is he grabbed 69 (thousand dollars) and took it away from them,” Hanson said of the money seized. “That’s going right straight to the heart of the matter.”

No, Tim, the heart of the matter is that you just stole money without any judicial oversight, finding of guilt, or other evidence. The heart of the matter is that you presumed a large amount of cash was illicit with no other indicators that was the case. The heart of the matter is that you’re making it de facto illegal to have a bunch of cash, unless the owner can prove the money is legit. That’s a long-ass way from “innocent until proven guilty,” don’t you think?

The heart of the matter is that asset forfeiture rules allow so-called law enforcement agencies to profit by confiscating what they want from suspects without trial or recourse. The heart of the matter, Timmy boy, is that people like you and your jackbooted deputy are causing far more harm to our nation than the drugs you claim you’re so zealously fighting.

(Via Radley.)

…and hello to waaay more police misconduct. At least, that’s the way Radley Balko reads the upcoming Supreme Court ruling. The case, involving a Virginia man stopped for speeding who was found to be driving on a suspended license:

Virginia law bars police from making arrests for misdemeanor traffic offenses. In this case, the cops illegally arrested the guy, then forced him to take them back to his hotel room. There they searched him, and found some crack in his pocket, for which he was arrested and convicted.

The Virginia Supreme court threw out the conviction, explaining that evidence obtained from a search following an illegal arrest can’t be used at trial. The state of Virginia appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. From the tone of the questioning this week, it looks as if the Roberts court is prepared to rule for the state–that evidence seized in searches resulting from illegal arrests should be admissible at trial. Which means the court is well on its way to either overturning the Exclusionary Rule, or limiting it to the point where it’s basically useless. Virginia’s attorney general was asked if, consistent with this case, someone could be (illegally arrested) for jaywalking, then have his home searched pursuant to that illegal arrest, then have the evidence found in the search used against him at trial. He said yes.

Previous court rulings have held that evidence gleaned from illegal searches must be excluded at trial, on the grounds that no other set of rules is likely to produce sufficient motivation for police to act properly. Segments of the Court, particularly Scalia, have disagreed, and seem poised to do so again. Balko continues:

I’ve argued that while the Exclusionary Rule isn’t perfect, it’s necessary, because it’s really the only effective deterrent to Fourth Amendment abuses. History has shown us that bad cops in fact aren’t properly disciplined by their departments or by prosecutors. The doctrine of qualified immunity and the tendency of judges, jurors, and police administrators to show deference to police, victims of illegal searches and excessive police tactics rarely if ever recover any damages–if their case is fortunate enough to even get by summary judgement.

Which brings me back to the Virginia case argued before the Court this week. The state of Virginia and the U.S. government (siding with Virginia against the Fourth Amendment) once again brought up the argument that disciplining and firing police officers who perform unlawful searches is a better remedy than the Exclusionary Rule.

That raised the question: What happened to the police who performed the illegal search in this particular case? NPR found the answer (listen to the tail-end of the audio). Not only were they not disciplined, one of the officers was named his city’s “Cop of the Year”–the same year he took part in the illegal search.

THIS is the kind of court we get when you fuckers vote GOP. Stop it.

Security Guru Bruce Schneier has a couple winners this week:

• What do Chicago-fire era public fire alarm boxes and modern-day geiger counter regulations in NYC have in common? At the time of the Chicago fire, the public boxes were kept locked to prevent false alarms; as a consequence, the first alarm wasn’t pulled until the fire was already raging out of control. Today, in NYC, it’s against the law for private citizens to own or use chemical, biological, or radiological hazard for precisely the same reason. If there was a lesson learned in Chicago, it’s clearly been forgotten by the NYC authorities.

• Bruce runs his network naked: “Whenever I talk or write about my own security setup, the one thing that surprises people — and attracts the most criticism — is the fact that I run an open wireless network at home. There’s no password. There’s no encryption. Anyone with wireless capability who can see my network can use it to access the internet.” Read more.

Go read this long piece by John Hockenberry about his experiences trying to get NBC to do interesting journalism at Dateline, followed by his successes at MIT. It’s a fascinating indictment of TV news (as if TV news needed another one).