Jay Daverth's blog

03 Jan

Bill would stop TSA screeners from impersonating officers

in Homeland Security
WASHINGTON - OCTOBER 8:  A Transportation Secu...

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Right on.

The bill, which has drawn 29 co-sponsors in the few weeks since it was introduced, would prohibit any TSA employee "who has not received federal law enforcement training or is not eligible for federal law enforcement benefits from using the official job title of officer, or wearing a metal badge resembling a police badge or a uniform resembling the uniform of a federal law enforcement officer.

Admittedly, this is another one of those dog-whistle bills that have no chance of leaving committee, but the spirit is sound and hopefully a sign of growing distaste for low-level functionaries pretending to be law enforcement.

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13 Dec

The Violence Within: Bring the troops home

in Barack Hussein Obama, Capitalism, Corporatism, Foreign Policy, Marxism, Military

With the stroke of his talented larynx, Obama bids adieu to the Iraqi occupation by declaring that “those days are over.”  Aside from the physical relocation of America’s armed expression from one base to another, I’m not entirely sure what days he means.  Of course, all but his most fervent ideologues know that this is more of a pre-election year holiday salve than substantial shift in foreign policy.  A steaming pile of ho-ho-ho to maybe help forget this shameful conquest so we can go on pretending that we do not provide the mechanism for multi-national corporations to endlessly divert capital from periphery to core. 

But hey, score one for the bumper-magnet ribbon crowd who can now rejoice over years of straddling some imaginary line between abhorring the war yet supporting the troops. 

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06 Dec

Do you earn or do you profit?

in Capitalism, Economy, Marxism

As per youzsh, XKCD is the kink of visualizations and has done it again with the newest chart on money.  The teeny-tiny version below really needs to be viewed in full size to have any sort of grasp on how perverse pervasive the income gap has become. 

money

I though this made a timely contrast with Dan Gillmor’s recent insistence on rejecting the term ‘earn’ when it comes to the income of the 1%:

To be sure, one of the meanings of "to earn" is "to profit financially" – but it is not the only one. The other major meaning is related to whether someone has deserved his or her gain, which may or may not be about money. Because the word has both connotations, we tend to attach both when the topic is about financial profits.

If we know anything about the recent income and accumulated assets of the now notorious 1%, it is that much of this wealth, by any rational standard, is undeserved. This applies especially to the Wall Street bankers who looted the global economy with sleazy tactics and, sadly, also with impunity.

That is why, if I was the editor in charge of any news organisation, I would flatly ban the use of the word "earned", when "profited" or "made" (as in money) would be much more accurate, or at least neutral. I would not try to say who "deserved" profits; only that profits were made.

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles."

07 Oct

Imperial March on Floppy Drive

in Geek, Video

My brother-in-law sent me this one – totally worth it if you haven’t seen it yet.  Double-geeky really – combines Star Wars with obsolete once-ubiquitous tech!

06 Oct

So long, and thank you Steve Jobs.

in RIP

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.

steve_jobs3

Steve Jobs (1955 – 2011)

22 Jun

Wednesday Wish List – Super Spy Glasses!!

in Products, Science & Technology, Surveillance Society, Wednesday Wish List

The Eyez project is developing a pair of stylish specs with a hidden 720p video camera, mic and 8GB of memory.  But wait, that’s not all!  These badboys are also Bluetooth-enabled so, when coupled with a mobile phone, can stream live video out to the web.  Take that dirty cops!

Our engineering team at ZionEyez is currently developing Eyez, the latest innovation in personal video recording technology. Eyez embeds a 720p HD video camera within a pair of eyeglasses designed to record live video data. The recorded data can be stored on the 8GB of flash memory within the Eyez glasses, transferred via Bluetooth or Micro USB to a computer, or wirelessly transferred to most iPhone or Android devices. After a one-time download of the "Eyez" smartphone and tablet app, users can wirelessly broadcast the video in real time to their preferred social networking website.

15 Jun

Wednesday Wish List – We are Borg – your wrists will be assimilated

in Inventions, Products, Wednesday Wish List

roller_phone41 Ok, so not technically a real product yet, but until Amazon delivers my my retinal HUD lenses, I’ll have something more realistic to look forward to:

This concept from designer Alexey Chugunnikov is a combination time-telling device and telephone, doing both things in unexpected, futuristic ways. It looks like something out of a science fiction movie, yet it’s gloriously within reach. And you want one.

via forevergeek.