Wednesday, June 04, 2003

Bad Call. Cell phone bans are all the rage, thanks in part to this mess in Washington. The National Transportation Safety Board is bent on blaming youth (though the driver was 20, not 16) and obsessive cell phone use (for some reason, it is relevant that the driver received 15 calls in the four hours before the crash). In my experience driving through cell-phone-wary and ticket-happy NYC, cell phone bans only add another distraction from the road; between driving and talking, motorists also have to keep an eye out for cops. Of course, if cell phones need to go, so do screaming kids, morning coffee, FM radio and climate control. This AAA report rates cell phones surprisingly low on a long list of more hazardous distractions. [Hit & Run] As it happens, this idea of cell phone bans is already addressed by an existing law: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abriding the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemle, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. First Amendment, Constitution of the United States of America 7:32:09 PM    comment () Ontario also won't enforce Canadian gun registry law. Ontario is refusing to prosecute anyone who fails to register a rifle or shotgun because it's a dumb law, Attorney-General Norm Sterling said yesterday. Ontario joins Nova Scotia and three Western provinces in refusing to have anything to do with the federal gun registration law that so far has cost more than $1 billion. Sterling told reporters if Ottawa wants to prosecute the 'misdirected' law, then it should fall to federal prosecutors. 'They should take the responsibility for a badly flawed piece of legislation, which really persecutes the wrong people, innocent people, good people who want to use long firearms for hunting and recreational use. It is a piece of legislation which is totally misdirected,' Sterling said. [FirearmNews.com] Note that Canada only has ten provinces, so half of them have now refused to enforce the law. Good for them! 2:43:49 PM    comment () Groove Casestudy. Ray points to an extensive casestudy on the usage of Groove at the Naval Postgraduate School. [Jeroen Bekkers' Groove Weblog] It's rather interesting, and most of the concepts would apply just as well to any normal "institute of higher learning," and especially well to groups of home-schooled students. However, the lack of a Mac (or even OS X) version of Groove would probably keep most schools from using it. Perhaps informal study groups whose members happen to have PCs might get some ideas from the case study, though. 2:36:57 PM    comment () Fallout. The continuing failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is taking a political toll abroad, and possibly at home. Jim Lobe of the Inter Press Service has written a useful roundup of recent developments. [Hit & Run] More on the government's lying about Iraqi weapons. I think it's a little silly for the media to be making a big deal about this now, when it's been obvious all along that the government was lying. 12:44:24 PM    comment () My Pismo is back, and at first glance it appears to be fixed. The real test will be if it still works after my commute home, though. 12:18:27 PM    comment ()

© Copyright 2006 Ken Hagler. Last update: 2/15/2006; 1:54:53 PM.