Police lie about drug dogs to rob drivers' rights. Mark Frauenfelder: Florida's Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of restrictions on the use of drug sniffing dogs. Rex Curry, the defense attorney in the case, has written an interesting piece on the way cops use drug dogs to illegally "fish for drugs."

Drug dogs are covers for lies. Here's how -

1. Cops tell drivers that they should consent to a search of their car because radio dispatch "has a drug dog on the way over." It is often a lie told to induce drivers to consent to search. There is no dog on the way.

2. If a dog is or is not "on the way," cops add additional lies to make drivers think that there will be a long wait and that the driver must stay until a dog arrives. Cops rely on driver ignorance of the fact that evidence will be suppressed if drivers are detained longer than it takes to complete the traffic stop (e.g. write the ticket). Drivers are induced to consent to search to avoid a long wait based on lies.

3. If a dog is enroute, cops let drivers think that they are obliged to stay even when the cop has no reason to detain drivers any longer. The cop's rationalization is that drivers loiter roadside with cops for no apparent reason or because drivers enjoy waiting for dog sniffs. Cops take advantage of drivers who are too stupid (or too meek) to ask if they are free to go, so that drivers "consent" to unwarranted detention by not leaving.

Link (via Farber) [Boing Boing]

Intimidation by police is one of their greatest weapons. Even knowing all these things, it would be very difficult to leave a police officer if he did not want you to. Heck, I get nervous if a police car gets in the same lane as me, until it passes. And I have nothing to hide. I think. I guess An Innocent Man influenced me too much.  11:41:03 PM    

Christian creationists bully IMAX theaters over evolution. Xeni Jardin: Boing Boing reader Dave sez, "IMAX theaters in the southern USA are refusing to air documentaries that merely mention evolution. One of the sad parts is that the theaters in question are in museums and science centers -- institutions of science, not faith." Link to NY Times story "A New Screen Test for Imax: It's the Bible vs. the Volcano." [Boing Boing]

Anti-science at work in Texas? Well, I guess when marketing people are making the decisions regarding science documentaries, the only acceptable movies will be Hemo, the Magnificent. I wonder if evolution is even mentioned in many of these 'science' museums in the South. I guess this all comes from the wonderful Scots-Irish 'tradition of of disregarding formal education', as James Webb said in his Parade Article Why You Need To Know The Scots Irish. A culture of ignorance is not one that will have much success in the world of high technology. But it seems many people do want just such a culture. A shame.  11:28:01 PM    

The Senate Puts Orrin Hatch In Charge Of Writing Copyright Laws. You may remember Orrin Hatch from such backwards thinking proposals as destroying computers of any copyright violator or telling the FBI they should work on civil copyright cases or (most recently) his plan to make the iPod illegal with his INDUCE Act (though, he eventually agreed to exceptions for the iPods, plenty of other technologies would become illegal overnight). He's also the guy who tried to defend the INDUCE Act by admitting it might not be a good idea, but he that's fine as long as he does something. Yes, he believes in legislating for the sake of legislating even when it might make things worse. Well, it now turns out that good old Senator Hatch has been put in charge of the Senate panel that writes copyright laws. In other words, we should have another couple years of silliness in copyright laws coming out of the Senate.

[Techdirt]

I expect that the antics we are seeing in the government indicate that the political arena will be one of the last to make the transition to the Networked society. At least it will still be making bad laws until the very end. Hope I am wrong.  11:08:58 PM    

The Internet Is A Communications Platform, Not A Content Platform. It seems that any time you hear someone saying they're trying to reach the "middle ground" on an argument, you might want to suspect their motives. That was the case a few months ago when some think tank wanted to reach a middle ground on file sharing, which was really a thinly veiled explanation for why the entertainment industry should control the internet. We've now got another one, which is even scarier. TheRegister has published an excerpt from a paper supposedly about "media literacy" which claims its looking for a "middle ground" between "etopians" who want the internet to remain open and the regulate and control crowd who want to ban and filter everything. However, the conclusions are anything but a middle ground. They're saying that people are stupid and can't handle the internet as is, and that there should be a separate internet that is more like TV, with acceptable providers handling the content, and acting as the guides to all the content out there. This is mischaracterizing the debate. It's not a middle ground at all, but a fairly radical solution. There's already a TV out there. This is designed from the wrong mindset. The internet is not a content platform, but a communications one. This article flips that around and assumes that it's a content platform -- for the sake of the content providers.

[Techdirt]

A fundamental way to separate the old dinosaurs from the new mammals. The Internet is a tool that makes the movement of information easier, it lowers the friction. What that information is, is of no concern to the Internet. The movie studios could all disappear, as well as the music studios, and the Internet would still be an incredibly useful tool. Because it helps create novel social structures that could not exist otherwise. It brings people together in ways that were unachievable before. It is a social platform, a platform that provides easy communication between groups. Content is largely irrelevant.

So, to survive on the internet, a company needs to help create social interactions. All the killer apps for the Internet (email, web, even MRPGs) all increase the ability of humans to interact. Amazon created a social community, as has Google, and iTunes. This is a critical aspect of any success on the INternet. When the content providers figure this out, they too will see success from the Internet.  11:06:32 PM    

" parallels between the rhetoric of the Chinese cultural revolution and that of modern conservatives" [Daypop Top 40]

This stuff seems overblown until you realize the House is having hearings on whether baseball players used steroids, instead of dealing with real issues. When IMAX theaters at museums of history and science in Texas are not showing science movies that mention evolution because fundamentalists might not like it. When the federal government intervenes in a state matter dealing with a family issue yet the President signed into law, while he was a governor, legislation allowing doctors to make the decision to remove life support OVER the objections of the family. The power of the state is so open to abuse, whether by left wing communists or right wing neocons. To the people affected, it matters little what the political philosophy is.  10:57:28 PM