Meritricous does NOT mean meritorious.
Do not get mixed up on bar
Monday, June 30, 2008
Sunday, June 29, 2008
In four years of law schoole, I neever stopped putting an extrae "e" in "Judgement"
Jedegemenete eeeeeee. Getting it out of my system. M eye sees stem. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Judgment
Judgment
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Why did Nokia buy Simbian
To compete with iPhone, Windows CE, and Android (the Google platform)
Compete is probably the wrong word. Nokia is already leading in the handheld platform space and they'd like to keep it that way.
Actually, I really like the design of many symbian devices. Ironically this has nothing to do with the software platform but more with the London industrial design aesthetic. I guess there is nothing ironic about that. It's my birthday buddy Alanis Morisette confusing the concept of irony again.
For the record, "Irony" is the state of a shirt after its been ... y'know
Compete is probably the wrong word. Nokia is already leading in the handheld platform space and they'd like to keep it that way.
Actually, I really like the design of many symbian devices. Ironically this has nothing to do with the software platform but more with the London industrial design aesthetic. I guess there is nothing ironic about that. It's my birthday buddy Alanis Morisette confusing the concept of irony again.
For the record, "Irony" is the state of a shirt after its been ... y'know
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Wingardium ad litiem.
Wingardium ad litiem.
The charm cast upon a muggle child by a court of magical jurisdiction
The charm cast upon a muggle child by a court of magical jurisdiction
Monday, June 23, 2008
Why do people do this? Just to be there!
Check out the photo that goes with this article.
"Oh... when I was at Wimbeldon, I saw blah blah blah"
Dude, you were on the lawn outside watching on JumboTron. You were no more at Wimbeldon then the guy on his couch. Get the net.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Gideon's trumpet blows only for
Gideon's trumpet blows only for accused felons or where the jailer beckons
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Destiny (Card Game) - Dedicated to the Public Domain
If there is a card game like this, then only the "Destiny" elements of the game are dedicated to the public domain
Destiny (Card Game)
by William Li
Players At least three. Actually, this game came to me in a dream last night. I was playing this game with E, Pure Danger, and Jedi. It was late, in the dream I think that Dave and Trav had gone to bed but had played earlier. Also in the dream, Jedi was Chairman of the Federal Reserve and was incredibly good at the game. So... that's cool.
Wager aspects of game play
Destiny is a wagering card game. The wagering aspects of the game is like generally like Hold'em Poker, except that money may only be handled with the player's left hand (for reasons that are more apparent once the game play is explained) and other special rules as described below. Person to the left of the dealer pays a small blind, next player pays a big blind, then remaining players wager, then there is revealing of cards, then there is a final round of wagering until all players fold or call.
Special Rule for "All In"
An "All in" just means "Call irrespective of subsequent raises" it has no effect on what the remaining players must wager. This is because "All in" is an often abused stupid and lazy wager that smacks of hubris and destiny punishes hubris with death. "All in" is not eliminated, however, because when the chips are down, wager "all in" is a valid way to live to fight another day.
Card ranking
All 52 cards have a rank. 2->Ace, suits are: Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, Spades. e.g. 2 clubs is lowest and ace spades is highest. If there are jokers in the game then players must agree on ranking of jokers.
Object
Play the highest card each hand until the field is exhausted.
Field Set-Up
Deal out 25 cards face down in a 5 x 5 grid. The remained of the cards are in a deck, flip over the first card in the deck to start a discard pile.
Game Play Each Round
After the initial round of wagers, irrespective of the last player to call, the first player to the left of the dealer who hasn't folded plays first.
The play is as follows:
With the left hand, the player takes any card in the field that is not held down by another player's right hand, looks at it, and then holds it until all players have played. With the player's right hand, the player either places a finger on a face down card in the field not already held down by another player, thus "holding down" that card, or plays a "Benediction Hand" (not to be mistaken with the "Claw Hand") and says aloud that they will draw from the deck (technically they are holding down the top card in the deck which isn't already held down by another player). If there are no card to look at, the player does not look at any cards. If there are no cards in the field to be "held down" player must play the "Benediction Hand"
IMPORTANT POINT HERE: THE "HELD DOWN" CARD IS THE ONE WHICH WILL BE PLAYED. THE LEFT HAND CARD WILL BE RETURNED TO THE FIELD UNPLAYED.
Then the next player to the left who hasn't folded plays, going all the way around until every player who hasn't folded has played.
Once every player has played, each player must put the card in their left hand back in the field, face down in exactly the same place as it was. For sake of order, players should put the cards back in the same order as the game play (dealer's left) but this is not required.
Then players do a final round of wagers (see? the right hand is busy holding down a card, that's why it has to be the left hand), first wager(or chance to call or fold) going to the player to the dealer's left who hasn't folded and continues until call. IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION HERE: A player should not fold until it is his turn to bet. The proper way for a player to fold is to (1) remove hand from field or lower the "Benediction hand" (2) say aloud that he has folded.
Each player calls in order, this is a required rule. The reason it is a required rules is if more than one player is playing the "Benediction Hand" then the first player playing "Benediction Hand" plays the top card in the deck, the next "Benediction Hand" plays the next topmost card in the deck, etc.
Highest card wins the hand and the pot. Place all played cards (from the deck or field) in the discard pile. The player to the dealer's left is the next dealer. If the deck has fewer cards than the number of players in the game, then shuffle the discard pile into the deck, turn the top card over to start the next discard pile and continue. Cards from the field which are played never return to the field. The game is over when all 25 cards in the field have been played.
Comments
There is a minimum amount of dealing cards to other players in this game, none at all in fact. I've always been bad at that and I flip a card over by accident and then its a misdeal and everyone makes a face at me. Well, that's gone.
There is a combination of luck, skill and memory, so that's good.
The reason that there are blinds is that the blind players would otherwise have unfair advantage over the other players in the sense that they have the first oppurtunity to hold down the card that they held from the field in the previous round. If the later players in the initial round of wager bid like wild elephants, then it possibly indicates that they know where in the field at least three or more really good cards. At least, it indicates the player's appraisal of the value of the information known to players to their right.
With respect to the value of the information held by players. A player plays from in one of six scenarios:
1. Benedicition hand where the deck has no cards that had been in the field.
2. Benedicition hand where the deck has cards that had been in the field. In this scenario the optimum player will know what cards are in the deck from what had been played, but won't know the order. And the player will know what cards are in the field, but won't know the location.
3. Player plays a card in the field that neither he nor any other players have seen. The pronoun "he" is epicene, get over it. This increases everyone's knowledge of what's in the discard pile and not in the field.
4. Player plays a card in the field that he has seen and no other player has seen. This decreases the value of the knowledge held by that player. Optimally, this will result in a winning hand on a wager sufficiently large to compensate the value of the knowledge.
5. Player plays a card in the field that another player has seen but he has not. This decreases the value of the knowledge exclusively held by the other player.
6. Player plays a card in the field that he and another player has seen.
If I knew more stat and game theory, I would have better analysis of these scenarios, but as it is, I can barely do arithmetic.
One final comment: May the force be with you!
Destiny (Card Game)
by William Li
Players At least three. Actually, this game came to me in a dream last night. I was playing this game with E, Pure Danger, and Jedi. It was late, in the dream I think that Dave and Trav had gone to bed but had played earlier. Also in the dream, Jedi was Chairman of the Federal Reserve and was incredibly good at the game. So... that's cool.
Wager aspects of game play
Destiny is a wagering card game. The wagering aspects of the game is like generally like Hold'em Poker, except that money may only be handled with the player's left hand (for reasons that are more apparent once the game play is explained) and other special rules as described below. Person to the left of the dealer pays a small blind, next player pays a big blind, then remaining players wager, then there is revealing of cards, then there is a final round of wagering until all players fold or call.
Special Rule for "All In"
An "All in" just means "Call irrespective of subsequent raises" it has no effect on what the remaining players must wager. This is because "All in" is an often abused stupid and lazy wager that smacks of hubris and destiny punishes hubris with death. "All in" is not eliminated, however, because when the chips are down, wager "all in" is a valid way to live to fight another day.
Card ranking
All 52 cards have a rank. 2->Ace, suits are: Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, Spades. e.g. 2 clubs is lowest and ace spades is highest. If there are jokers in the game then players must agree on ranking of jokers.
Object
Play the highest card each hand until the field is exhausted.
Field Set-Up
Deal out 25 cards face down in a 5 x 5 grid. The remained of the cards are in a deck, flip over the first card in the deck to start a discard pile.
Game Play Each Round
After the initial round of wagers, irrespective of the last player to call, the first player to the left of the dealer who hasn't folded plays first.
The play is as follows:
With the left hand, the player takes any card in the field that is not held down by another player's right hand, looks at it, and then holds it until all players have played. With the player's right hand, the player either places a finger on a face down card in the field not already held down by another player, thus "holding down" that card, or plays a "Benediction Hand" (not to be mistaken with the "Claw Hand") and says aloud that they will draw from the deck (technically they are holding down the top card in the deck which isn't already held down by another player). If there are no card to look at, the player does not look at any cards. If there are no cards in the field to be "held down" player must play the "Benediction Hand"
IMPORTANT POINT HERE: THE "HELD DOWN" CARD IS THE ONE WHICH WILL BE PLAYED. THE LEFT HAND CARD WILL BE RETURNED TO THE FIELD UNPLAYED.
Then the next player to the left who hasn't folded plays, going all the way around until every player who hasn't folded has played.
Once every player has played, each player must put the card in their left hand back in the field, face down in exactly the same place as it was. For sake of order, players should put the cards back in the same order as the game play (dealer's left) but this is not required.
Then players do a final round of wagers (see? the right hand is busy holding down a card, that's why it has to be the left hand), first wager(or chance to call or fold) going to the player to the dealer's left who hasn't folded and continues until call. IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION HERE: A player should not fold until it is his turn to bet. The proper way for a player to fold is to (1) remove hand from field or lower the "Benediction hand" (2) say aloud that he has folded.
Each player calls in order, this is a required rule. The reason it is a required rules is if more than one player is playing the "Benediction Hand" then the first player playing "Benediction Hand" plays the top card in the deck, the next "Benediction Hand" plays the next topmost card in the deck, etc.
Highest card wins the hand and the pot. Place all played cards (from the deck or field) in the discard pile. The player to the dealer's left is the next dealer. If the deck has fewer cards than the number of players in the game, then shuffle the discard pile into the deck, turn the top card over to start the next discard pile and continue. Cards from the field which are played never return to the field. The game is over when all 25 cards in the field have been played.
Comments
There is a minimum amount of dealing cards to other players in this game, none at all in fact. I've always been bad at that and I flip a card over by accident and then its a misdeal and everyone makes a face at me. Well, that's gone.
There is a combination of luck, skill and memory, so that's good.
The reason that there are blinds is that the blind players would otherwise have unfair advantage over the other players in the sense that they have the first oppurtunity to hold down the card that they held from the field in the previous round. If the later players in the initial round of wager bid like wild elephants, then it possibly indicates that they know where in the field at least three or more really good cards. At least, it indicates the player's appraisal of the value of the information known to players to their right.
With respect to the value of the information held by players. A player plays from in one of six scenarios:
1. Benedicition hand where the deck has no cards that had been in the field.
2. Benedicition hand where the deck has cards that had been in the field. In this scenario the optimum player will know what cards are in the deck from what had been played, but won't know the order. And the player will know what cards are in the field, but won't know the location.
3. Player plays a card in the field that neither he nor any other players have seen. The pronoun "he" is epicene, get over it. This increases everyone's knowledge of what's in the discard pile and not in the field.
4. Player plays a card in the field that he has seen and no other player has seen. This decreases the value of the knowledge held by that player. Optimally, this will result in a winning hand on a wager sufficiently large to compensate the value of the knowledge.
5. Player plays a card in the field that another player has seen but he has not. This decreases the value of the knowledge exclusively held by the other player.
6. Player plays a card in the field that he and another player has seen.
If I knew more stat and game theory, I would have better analysis of these scenarios, but as it is, I can barely do arithmetic.
One final comment: May the force be with you!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Switch your browser font size settings to medium
If you can't read the blog title its your fault. YOUR FAULT!
Actually it's my fault. I am somewhere between knowingly and in reckless disregard of people who don't run IE with medium sized font on a 1024 width screen or larger.
Maybe I'm not culpable. Haven't I just described the ordinary reasonable prudent person who uses a web browser?
"Hey I use Mozilla Firefox"
Yeah... I'll think of some insult later.
Actually it's my fault. I am somewhere between knowingly and in reckless disregard of people who don't run IE with medium sized font on a 1024 width screen or larger.
Maybe I'm not culpable. Haven't I just described the ordinary reasonable prudent person who uses a web browser?
"Hey I use Mozilla Firefox"
Yeah... I'll think of some insult later.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Ment note. Drive s on
Ment note. Drive s on kirkwood rather than deal with construction traffic on i 10 feeder
Torty Badness
Torts: pain and/or loss caused by people who fall somewhere between stupid and evil, except for strict liability which is more like bad stuff better not happen or else.
How's that for inexecatitudes?
How's that for inexecatitudes?
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Punditry on 2008 Election
Now that the General Election is underway, I must say that I love the punditry of the 2008. Offering predicitions with absolutely no clear or credible analysis. Its like the personal whimsy of the pollsters with graphics. Because graphics is what makes it more believable. And if facts don't make it more believable, then maybe a table of meaningless numbers will. Or if a table of meaningless numbers don't convince people who don't like numbers, then how about making gross generalizations out of a few isolated incidents taken out of context paired with ... more whimsy? Very convincing. The cherry on top is to predict past the 2008 election. After every sentence you just wonder "oh yeah? why?" and the answer never comes. Just boldface assertion and unnecessary emphasis (oh... I seem to have put the emPHASis on the wrong sylABLe)
Well... any fool with a working understanding of Google Docs and the U.S. electoral college can play that game. And I am nothing, if not a fool.
Here now is bloviation!
As the guages clearly show, Obama is currently beating McCain. The obvious reason for this is that 232 is a larger number than 220. Because this number represents Obama, he is winning. Because you are so smart, you know that winning does not mean win. To win the US Presidential election, your score has to be 270 electoral votes or more. You caught me!
Okay, Mr. Pundit Man will now show you the secret of the numbers (4 8 15 16 23 42 AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!) and then you will have lots more information.
The states highlighted in gray mean that I don't think the other candidate can win the state but the candidate who I think will win it, can lose the state if that states voters' irrational dislike for their party's nominee overcomes their party loyalty.
The "battleground" states are the states where I think the most campaigning needs to happen for both candidates. During the Republican primary, McCain went out to the midwest and told unemployeed factory workers "Those jobs are gone and they ain't coming back. And my government won't give hand outs. Tough noogies. Straight talk!" Well, I'm not actually sure what he said, but I think I overhead somebody saying that they read about him saying something like that on the internet. Anyhow, if its a fact, I believe it. One would think that telling your constiuencies that you are dead set against them would be poison, but McCain is not you. For example, McCain was one of the most vociferous critics of the farm subsidy bill and Obama was one of its biggest backers (its rumored that Obama actually has a corn car), but all of the plains region farm states except Minnesota are almost certain to go to McCain.
McCain's biggest problem with the battleground states is that there are so many of them, he can't write any of them off, and he is woefully short on cash. Of the various different options on how to deal with this, the one currently rumored to be the favorite of McCains' strategists involve the merging of Ohio into Michigan and New Mexico into Arizona.
Obama will really need to win Missouri. This is because Missouri is neither in the mid-west nor in the southwest and therefore my punditry seems to be more geographically balanced. Also, I haven't talked much about what Obama needs to do win the election, so there you go.
Finally, although I believe that the midwest will decide this election, the future of both parties really depends on the outcome in Colorado, Neveda, and New Mexico. Why is this? Because
Well... any fool with a working understanding of Google Docs and the U.S. electoral college can play that game. And I am nothing, if not a fool.
Here now is bloviation!
| McCain | Obama |
As the guages clearly show, Obama is currently beating McCain. The obvious reason for this is that 232 is a larger number than 220. Because this number represents Obama, he is winning. Because you are so smart, you know that winning does not mean win. To win the US Presidential election, your score has to be 270 electoral votes or more. You caught me!
Okay, Mr. Pundit Man will now show you the secret of the numbers (4 8 15 16 23 42 AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!) and then you will have lots more information.
The states highlighted in gray mean that I don't think the other candidate can win the state but the candidate who I think will win it, can lose the state if that states voters' irrational dislike for their party's nominee overcomes their party loyalty.
The "battleground" states are the states where I think the most campaigning needs to happen for both candidates. During the Republican primary, McCain went out to the midwest and told unemployeed factory workers "Those jobs are gone and they ain't coming back. And my government won't give hand outs. Tough noogies. Straight talk!" Well, I'm not actually sure what he said, but I think I overhead somebody saying that they read about him saying something like that on the internet. Anyhow, if its a fact, I believe it. One would think that telling your constiuencies that you are dead set against them would be poison, but McCain is not you. For example, McCain was one of the most vociferous critics of the farm subsidy bill and Obama was one of its biggest backers (its rumored that Obama actually has a corn car), but all of the plains region farm states except Minnesota are almost certain to go to McCain.
McCain's biggest problem with the battleground states is that there are so many of them, he can't write any of them off, and he is woefully short on cash. Of the various different options on how to deal with this, the one currently rumored to be the favorite of McCains' strategists involve the merging of Ohio into Michigan and New Mexico into Arizona.
Obama will really need to win Missouri. This is because Missouri is neither in the mid-west nor in the southwest and therefore my punditry seems to be more geographically balanced. Also, I haven't talked much about what Obama needs to do win the election, so there you go.
Finally, although I believe that the midwest will decide this election, the future of both parties really depends on the outcome in Colorado, Neveda, and New Mexico. Why is this? Because
Monday, June 09, 2008
Ok ... Confidentally, I think
Ok ... Confidentally, I think the word "harbinger" is really silly. It sounds like some sort of compulsive behavior disorder.
My take on first amendment
My take on first amendment freedoms. Rachel Ray may be the harbinger of bad cooking but she can wear whatever damn scarf she wants
Sunday, June 08, 2008
Odds on
The most boring bookmarker assignment ever: odds on whether the texas bar will have guardianship question or a trust administration question
Friday, June 06, 2008
Hartford, Connecticut
A couple of things to say about the 78 year old victim of the hit and run who is ignored by onlookers. First, read the whole article and then watch the whole video on full screen mode.
Now my comments are in no particular order:
1. Hartford: World capital of insurance companies. "Its no problem, that guy is insured."
2. The police show up in 185 seconds. Pretty good first response.
3. Those video cameras all over Hartford are tax dollars at work.
4. Watch the victim getting hit very carefully: there is some kind of car chase happening. One car is chasing another, both swerve into the wrong lane of traffic and both speed around the corner and too the right. I'll come back to that.
5. Distrust my comment on #1. Yeah it looks bad when the video is small and grainy but when you look full screen you see the whole story. The lady who comes out from the street looks at the guy on the ground then walks away. She comes back later, out of the store, and is pointing at the guy. The guy who looks like he is holding his blazer and is walking away as he gets dropped off. That's not what happens. He comes off the sidewalk from the other side, stops a car going the other way, points at the victim, then continues crossing the street to get help.
6. The general tort rule: there is no duty to help someone who is hurt or in danger. Exception to the general rule, in torts, is that if you created the hazard then you have a duty to help. Exceptions can also arise outside of a common law torts context: certain types of care professionals have a special duty (special means particular) to give aid. Where there is that sort of special duty associated with a profession, there is normally a matching limit on liablity to the aid giver. In any case, many jurisdictions have "good samaratian" laws to protect the aid giver against liability. No jurisdictions have created a general statutory duty to reverse the general tort rule, although the last episode of Seinfield is essentially a hypothetical example of what would happen if there was one. I think that the setting for that episode was Hartford, Conn.
7. The victim of the hit and run was jaywalking. This is "mallum prohibitum" and is probably, therefore, strict liablity: if all the elements of his act and not all the elements of an exception are met, then he will get a fine irrespective of a culpable mental state (or mens rea)
8. Battery, in contrast, is mallum in se. Criminal battery is the nonconsensual, harmful touching, of another, with the intent to harm. Nonconsensual includes where consent is rendered invalid like through fraud, infancy, or incompetence of the victim. There is a general presumption against consent to be battered. Here, the fact that the victim was jaywalking should not be construed as consent. A similiar sounding (but actually different) analysis is that by jaywalking the victim accepted the risk. Acceptance of the risk is a doctrine of civil tort law that exposes a person to reasonably foreseeable risks. Normally its a defense against negligence or accident and it comes up in the context of, for example, baseball fields which have properly put up a protective barrier behind home plate: If you don't want to get hit by foul balls, sit behind the fence, otherwise you are accepting the risk of being hit by a foul ball, but you cannot accept the risk of being battered by a ball intentionally thrown at you. Back to the hit and run victim, jaywalking my excuse certain types of tortious negligence at common law, can't excuse criminal battery and likely won't excuse a violation of connecticut's rules of the road. Next, the harmful touching in a battery can be done with an implement. Here that impliment seems to be a car.
9. Back to the car chase. Let's say for a moment that the driver of the hit and run had robbed a back and the person who got hit dies. This will invoke the felony murder rule. The felony murder rule says that the requisite intent for a homicide to be murder is fulfilled if the victim's death was either in furtherance of the crime or a reasonably forseeable outcome of the risk created by the criminal act. Here, a high-speed getaway from a robbery is sufficiently risky such that death of pedastrians is a foreseeable outcome. The perpatrator can be charged with felony murder.
Now my comments are in no particular order:
1. Hartford: World capital of insurance companies. "Its no problem, that guy is insured."
2. The police show up in 185 seconds. Pretty good first response.
3. Those video cameras all over Hartford are tax dollars at work.
4. Watch the victim getting hit very carefully: there is some kind of car chase happening. One car is chasing another, both swerve into the wrong lane of traffic and both speed around the corner and too the right. I'll come back to that.
5. Distrust my comment on #1. Yeah it looks bad when the video is small and grainy but when you look full screen you see the whole story. The lady who comes out from the street looks at the guy on the ground then walks away. She comes back later, out of the store, and is pointing at the guy. The guy who looks like he is holding his blazer and is walking away as he gets dropped off. That's not what happens. He comes off the sidewalk from the other side, stops a car going the other way, points at the victim, then continues crossing the street to get help.
6. The general tort rule: there is no duty to help someone who is hurt or in danger. Exception to the general rule, in torts, is that if you created the hazard then you have a duty to help. Exceptions can also arise outside of a common law torts context: certain types of care professionals have a special duty (special means particular) to give aid. Where there is that sort of special duty associated with a profession, there is normally a matching limit on liablity to the aid giver. In any case, many jurisdictions have "good samaratian" laws to protect the aid giver against liability. No jurisdictions have created a general statutory duty to reverse the general tort rule, although the last episode of Seinfield is essentially a hypothetical example of what would happen if there was one. I think that the setting for that episode was Hartford, Conn.
7. The victim of the hit and run was jaywalking. This is "mallum prohibitum" and is probably, therefore, strict liablity: if all the elements of his act and not all the elements of an exception are met, then he will get a fine irrespective of a culpable mental state (or mens rea)
8. Battery, in contrast, is mallum in se. Criminal battery is the nonconsensual, harmful touching, of another, with the intent to harm. Nonconsensual includes where consent is rendered invalid like through fraud, infancy, or incompetence of the victim. There is a general presumption against consent to be battered. Here, the fact that the victim was jaywalking should not be construed as consent. A similiar sounding (but actually different) analysis is that by jaywalking the victim accepted the risk. Acceptance of the risk is a doctrine of civil tort law that exposes a person to reasonably foreseeable risks. Normally its a defense against negligence or accident and it comes up in the context of, for example, baseball fields which have properly put up a protective barrier behind home plate: If you don't want to get hit by foul balls, sit behind the fence, otherwise you are accepting the risk of being hit by a foul ball, but you cannot accept the risk of being battered by a ball intentionally thrown at you. Back to the hit and run victim, jaywalking my excuse certain types of tortious negligence at common law, can't excuse criminal battery and likely won't excuse a violation of connecticut's rules of the road. Next, the harmful touching in a battery can be done with an implement. Here that impliment seems to be a car.
9. Back to the car chase. Let's say for a moment that the driver of the hit and run had robbed a back and the person who got hit dies. This will invoke the felony murder rule. The felony murder rule says that the requisite intent for a homicide to be murder is fulfilled if the victim's death was either in furtherance of the crime or a reasonably forseeable outcome of the risk created by the criminal act. Here, a high-speed getaway from a robbery is sufficiently risky such that death of pedastrians is a foreseeable outcome. The perpatrator can be charged with felony murder.
Thursday, June 05, 2008
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
9 years later, the auto industry is finally getting around to it
For years I've groused about how they need some sort of car to car bluetooth thingy so that I can push a touch screen, get the face of the driver from an eyeball camera on his mirror and say, "Dude! Stop tailgating me!" and then the driver can say, "Hey! I'm late for work, get out of my way" then I can call the guy in the lane over and say, "Hey, let me in because the guy tailgating me is late for work"
Apparently the FCC thought the same thing nine years ago.
I mention this because the trade magazine which I get is running an article about it. Of the various photographs, only #8 really impresses me. Everything else just looks like a cludgely mess.
Also in this issue: Engineering the electrical banana. They call it mellow yello.
For a good example of how the comm system should work (and where I got my idea from originally) play Wing Commander: Privateer
Apparently the FCC thought the same thing nine years ago.
I mention this because the trade magazine which I get is running an article about it. Of the various photographs, only #8 really impresses me. Everything else just looks like a cludgely mess.
Also in this issue: Engineering the electrical banana. They call it mellow yello.
For a good example of how the comm system should work (and where I got my idea from originally) play Wing Commander: Privateer
Sunday, June 01, 2008
"This car doesn't owe you anything?"
The last time I drove my Mom in this car, I spent an hour cleaning the inside. She wrinkled her nose anyway.
"How old is this car," she asked?
I replied, "1996."
"This car doesn't owe you anything."
Indeed not, but I am sad nevertheless. This is my only real possession that is all mine. Purchased with my 2nd paycheck and a promise to give a portion of 60 more. I earned Jeep from late nights fixing server problems, from "here's something for the meantime" portion of ridiculous dotcom promises, and from "just be glad you have a job in Houston after Enron."
The Jeep lasted me through law school. I drove it 70 miles almost every day. Days which lasted from 5 AM to get the kiddos to school to 10 PM or later. Days which included two and a half hours of commute through eternal construction: debris, potholes, unlit roads, and unforgiving timetables for everyone on the road.
Yeah, its not a Steinbeck novel but it was still hard work, and a dispirting (if inevitable) end. If I was a different sort of person. I would put the car in the garage and then Jason and I would fix it together. Those sorts of people actually still exist and live in Houston, (one of them was in my evening section) and if I had paid more attention to Mr. Bray, I might have been one of those people too. Once Mr. Bray tried to show me how to fix a lawnmower. I got as far as re-drilling the push handle and changing the spark plug. In any case, cars are mostly run by computer sensors now, so the whole romantic idea is somewhat infesable. If you could hook up a controller to the computer in my Jeep, I would go "up up down down" and make it dematerialize and rematerialize behind all those jerks who tailgate at night with their highbeam.
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