By David Pescovitz at 4:23 pm Saturday, Mar 21
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Over at
Orange Crate Art, Michael Leddy linked to a fun page of "Call Letter Origins" revealing the meaning behind the letters of many radio stations. Here are a few:
CILQ
Toronto, ON
CILQ='silk'
Note: was to be easy listening, silky smooth, now rock
HCJB(SW)
Quito, Ecuador
H)eralding C)hrist J)esus' B)lessings
Note: in Spanish - H)oy C)hristo J)esus
B)endice
KAND
Corsicana, TX
Wolf Brand Canned (KAND='canned') Chili
Company, wanted W)O)L)F) but FCC
regulations prohibited
Call Letter Origins
By Dan Gillmor at 2:55 pm Saturday, Mar 21
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Dan Gillmor is a BoingBoing guest-blogger.
Brad Friedman at the Brad Blog has been keeping up on the latest too-real news about the nation's voting machines and the people who sell, buy and operate them. Two recent postings send the outrage meter way into the red.
First is California's continuing effort to clean up the mess it's made over the last few years. It's going to be harder than anyone imagined. As we learn in this post:
Even the audit log system on current versions of Premier Election Solutions' (formerly Diebold's) electronic voting and tabulating systems --- used in some 34 states across the nation --- fail to record the wholesale deletion of ballots. Even when ballots are deleted on the same day as an election. That's the shocking admission heard today from Justin Bales, Premier's Western Region manager, at a State of California public hearing on the possible decertification of Diebold/Premier's tabulator system, GEMS v. 1.18.19.
Then there's the incredible charges in Kentucky, where officials are said to have literally changed votes after the fact:
The Kentucky officials arrested and indicted today, "including the circuit court judge, the county clerk, and election officers" of Clay County, have been charged with "chang[ing] votes at the voting machine" and showing others how to do it!
It all makes you wonder if we're ever going to have voting we can trust.
By Cory Doctorow at 12:49 am Saturday, Mar 21
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London cops have been given the power to "disperse" anyone under 16, gathered in groups of two or more, from almost all of central London, after 9PM. The police don't have to see the kids doing anything wrong, they only have to believe "the presence or behaviour of a group of two or more persons in any public place in the relevant locality has resulted, or is likely to result, in any members of the public being intimidated, harassed, alarmed or distressed."
If you’re observant, in central London, you may have seen this notice casually cable-tied to a lamppost. From afar, it looks like a council planning application, or parking bay suspension. It’s actually notifying you that you’re now subject to an anti-social behaviour order, and the Police (and the not-really-Police Community Support Officers) have special powers to remove you from this area if they feel like it. These dispersal areas cover large swathes of London, and other cities in England. There are now over 1000 such areas.
It’s ambiguously worded, but it institutes law that in other words may not seem so palatable. There’s a curfew for unsupervised under-16s, from 9pm to 6am. Any group of 2 or more people can be broken up and/or that the member of the group have to leave the designated area (if they do not live there). Crucially, police do not have to see actual anti-social behaviour, but a constable in uniform has reasonable grounds for believing that the presence or behaviour of a group of two or more persons in any public place in the relevant locality has resulted, or is likely to result, in any members of the public being intimidated, harassed, alarmed or distressed...
the kids are alright
(
via Wonderland)
