Eideard

What really caught my eye in TV coverage of this sterling event was – when was the last time you saw so many stiffs standing around looking like they’re prepped for a Sears, Roebuck Fall catalog photo shoot?

No, but midgets are.

Actually, that’s only correct if you’re discussing poop from non-herbivores.

Lots more over here.

Thanks, Mr. Fusion

The Federal Communications Commission is poised to release the first batch of unlicensed wireless spectrum in 25 years tomorrow, which could lead to “Wi-Fi on Steroids,” giving consumers, device makers, entrepreneurs and service providers more connectivity over wider areas.
 
The FCC is scheduled to vote tomorrow morning on a set of rules that will set the release of this so-called “white spaces broadband” into motion, giving device makers and others the guidelines on how they can use the spectrum. This could inject new competition in the wireless broadband space and provide a boost to technology companies hoping to connect more consumers. Just as Wi-Fi tapped unlicensed spectrum and untethered millions of consumers, white spaces could have a similar effect on a broader scale.

White spaces refers to the unused television spectrum that traditionally existed between channels as buffers or empty spectrum left over or vacated by TV stations through the transition from analog to digital TV. The FCC voted two years ago to approve the unlicensed use of whites spaces. Here’s what you need to know about white spaces.

Because of its lower frequency, white spaces can offer much broader reach and better penetration through walls than the current spectrum used for Wi-Fi…

The added range and performance could help connect rural communities, allow schools to light up entire campuses, help service providers relieve burdened cellular networks and could help with things like in-home video streaming and smart meter monitoring…

Since white spaces would remain unlicensed, the use of it could interfere with local broadcasters…so, of course…the National Association of Broadcasters has filed a lawsuit.

Though, no evidence of problems exists because the use of white spaces hasn’t yet started.

And here we are with the results of the vote and lots more detail.

Students at Grace Breckwedel Middle School

Officials suspended a fifth-grader in New Jersey who found a lighter on his way to school.

Jamesburg school superintendent Gail Verona told The Home News Tribune of East Brunswick the lighter had the potential to compromise student safety.

Zero tolerance stupidity – designed for bureaucratic hacks – afraid to think and make responsible decisions on their own.

But the 11-year-old boy’s father questioned why school officials consider the lighter a weapon.

Patrick Halpin called police Wednesday to say there were weapons on school property because teachers at the Grace Breckwedel Middle School had lighters in the building…

The superintendent says a weapon is anything that ”has the potential to cause harm.”

Jamesburg Police Chief Martin Horvath says he believes the school took appropriate action.

Which goes to say that the school superintendent and the police chief enjoy mutual political masturbation. On the taxpayer dime.

Gather up your expired meds. Saturday’s the day.

Less than a month into the Drug Enforcement Administration’s prescription drug “Take-Back” campaign, over 3,400 sites nationwide have joined the effort that seeks to prevent increased pill abuse and theft. Government, community, public health and law enforcement partners will be collecting potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs for destruction at these sites all across the nation o n Saturday, September 25 th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time. The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked…

This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. Many Americans are not aware that medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are increasing at alarming rates, as are the number of accidental poisonings and overdoses due to these drugs. Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet. In addition, many Americans do not know how to properly dispose of their unused medicine, often flushing them down the toilet or throwing them away – both potential safety and health hazards.

“The National Prescription Drug Take-Back campaign will provide a safe way for Americans to dispose of their unwanted prescription drugs,” said Michele M. Leonhart, Acting Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

It’s always pleasant to find a new avenue for disposal of all things which tend to accumulate and gain a life of their own.

You can find a location in your neck of the woods here: Collection Sites Search

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

A soft-spoken 14-year-old’s nose piercing has landed her a suspension from school and forced her into the middle of a fight over her First Amendment right to exercise her religion.

Ariana Iacono says she just wants to be a normal teenager at Clayton High School, about 15 miles southeast of Raleigh. She has been suspended since last week because her nose ring violates the Johnston County school system’s dress code.

”I think it’s kind of stupid for them to kick me out of school for a nose piercing,” she said. ”It’s in the First Amendment for me to have freedom of religion.”

Iacono and her mother, Nikki, belong to the Church of Body Modification, a small group unfamiliar to rural North Carolina, but one with a clergy, a statement of beliefs and a formal process for accepting new members.

It’s enough to draw the interest of the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which has contacted school officials with concerns that the rights of the Iaconos are being violated by the suspension…

On Tuesday, after her first suspension ended, Ariana went back to school with her mother — and her nose ring. She was suspended again, this time for five days. If she comes back to school on Sept. 21 with the nose stud, she’ll face a 10-day suspension or referral to ”alternative schooling,” Nikki Iacono said…

”We don’t worship the god of body modification or anything like that,” he said. ”Our spirituality comes from what we choose to do ourselves. Through body modification, we can change how we feel about ourselves and how we feel about the world.”

The church claims roughly 3,500 members nationwide, having started about two years ago, after adopting the name of a similar group that had been dormant for several years.

RTFA. Humorous, interesting. 99% of most Americans don’t have a clue what freedom of religion means in the broadly-held constitutional sense. I wouldn’t expect most school administrators to have any more of a clue.

Face it – this is a country that’s been going backwards for decades over religious crap, anyway.

Scientists from the California Institute of Technology and UCLA have discovered evidence of “universal ubiquitous magnetic fields” that have permeated deep space between galaxies since the time of the Big Bang.

Caltech physicist Shin’ichiro Ando and Alexander Kusenko, a professor of physics and astronomy at UCLA, report the discovery in a paper to be published in an upcoming issue of Astrophysical Journal Letters; the research is currently available online.

Ando and Kusenko studied images of the most powerful objects in the universe — supermassive black holes that emit high-energy radiation as they devour stars in distant galaxies — obtained by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.

“We found the signs of primordial magnetic fields in deep space between galaxies,” Ando said.

Physicists have hypothesized for many years that a universal magnetic field should permeate deep space between galaxies, but there was no way to observe it or measure it until now…

The researchers found that the average magnetic field had a “femto-Gauss” strength, just one-quadrillionth of the Earth’s magnetic field. The universal magnetic fields may have formed in the early universe shortly after the Big Bang, long before stars and galaxies formed, Ando and Kusenko said.

Bravo!

There’s more info about Kusenko’s research over here.

Abbott Laboratories has issued a recall of approximately 5 million cans of certain Similac-brand powdered infant formula due to the possibility of the presence a beetle.

Abbott spokeswoman Melissa Brotz said that the presence of a small common beetle was detected in the product produced at a manufacturing facility in Sturgis, Michigan. The company has since stopped production and shipment of the affected formula, and contacted the Food and Drug Administration to initiate the recall.

The recall includes certain Similac powder product lines that come in 8-ounce, 12.4-ounce, and 12.9-ounce cans. Abbott liquid formula is not a part of the recall.

The FDA said that this type of beetle, if ingested, could cause discomfort and irritate the gastrointestinal tract, causing the infant to lose appetite.

Just reading about it causes discomfort and irritates the crap out of me.

For the record – their servers and phone lines are blown out from the panic among parents. The link I provided hardly ever gets you through to the company.

Martin Gill (L) and his attorney, Robert Rosenwald
Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

Florida Governor Charlie Crist says the state will stop enforcing its law banning adoption by gay people after an appeals court ruled it unconstitutional.

Crist announced the decision Thursday after the ruling from the 3rd District Court of Appeal in Miami. It would take a decision by the state Supreme Court to strike down the 33-year-old law, the strictest of its kind in the nation.

The decision upholds a lower court ruling that there is no rational basis for the ban. The law was challenged by Martin Gill and his male partner, who adopted two young brothers.

Gill and the American Civil Liberties Union want the state to appeal to the state Supreme Court so that a final decision can be made for the entire state.

Overdue.

Meanwhile, Republicans and the teabaggers will continue their reactionary stand denying any declaration of civil rights for the gay community in Florida.

Yes – he lives at the bottom of my garden

Either the burglar was wearing a cunning vegetable disguise or this might just be the world’s worst ever e-fit picture.

The “likeness” of a man with what appears to be a lettuce halo was drawn by an artist for Hampshire police hunting a thief who stole £60 from an 85-year-old pensioner’s handbag.

The man was described as white, aged 40 to 45, with a round clean-shaven face, large eyes and wavy blonde to greying hair… .although in the picture his hair looks lime green…

The image even has a note on it warning: “This is an efit-v facial composite. It is not a photograph…”

Police hope the image, released yesterday, will help them trace the man after the burglary on August 27. A detective said: “We would like to hear from anyone who recognises the man in the e-fit image…”

He was unable to comment on the hair.

Har!