Tasers. Or: how I’m not scared of afros and learned to love the stun.

Amnesty International has recored over 150+ deaths from tasers.

In Canada, there have been 3 taser related deaths in the last 45 days.

In the United Kingdom, a man was tasered for being unresponsive when approached by armed police units. This was because he was in a hypoglycemic coma at the time.

On the internet, there are numerous videos of people being tasered. One involving a driver refusing to sign a traffic ticket –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMaMYL_shxc

And one involving a university student posing an errant question –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bVa6jn4rpE

These items show a dangerous trend on how the line between lethal and non-lethal force are being blurred. But the problem isn’t trigger happy officers (though that -is- something of a concern), rather, it’s how these devices are perceived.

The state holds a legitimate right to use lethal force because there is a system of checks and balances. A taser throws off this system because, to many, a taser is ‘non-lethal’. It’s an alternative to stopping someone with a .45mm and falls outside of the checks we have in place. (A cop has to write several pages every-time they upholster their firearm). A taser is also ‘clean’. It has the same stopping power as a billy club to the temple, but, it’s less visceral.

What we need to do is start talking about how visceral a high voltage weapon can be.

Technorati Tags: Taser, Canada taser useage,

Beat headline of the year:

Hamlet shaken by murder then suicide.

Get a Mac? Get a grip.

I converted to the Mac OSX – for a lack of a better word – paradigm last year. I have a macbook which I use exclusively for school work and a PC at home. OS X has its flaws, but a lot of them are being fixed in every new release. I like the operating system. I find it intuitive and sometimes faster than Windows.

I don’t, however, see OS X, or any os, as being objectively better than others. To me, they’re are the manifestation of the different philosophies on how to interact with an immensely complex machine. There isn’t really a point to competing, it’s just a matter of finding the right ‘fit’. That being said, these ads are getting a little stale.

Technorati Tags: OSX, GetAMac,

Return a stolen laptop, get lifetime supply of beer.

In an attempt to get their laptop back, the Croucher Brewing Company of New Zealand is offering a lifetime’s supply of beer.

Dirty Sexy Money

Aside from some very attractive stars like Samaire Armstron (Entourage), the show’s got a lot of great lines and well thought out characters. Life, and this show are my new fix.

Give me print selection on mac!

Leopard is coming out, but this simplest of features is not there.

Update: Print selection is available in Firefox.

Technorati Tags: OSX, Print Selection, Mac Printing

Best. Nobel Prize. Reaction. Ever.

I need to start reading Lessig:

“Doris Lessing pulled up in a black cab where a media horde was waiting
Thursday in front of her leafy north London home. Reporters opened the
door and told her she had won the Nobel Prize for literature, to which
she responded: “Oh Christ! … I couldn’t care less.”" (via WaPo)

Technorati Tags: Noble Prize, Doris Lessing, Washington Post

JBL Reference 220 Earphones

I just bought a set of these from Best Buy (special thanksgiving sale netted me a 35% discount). The construction of these earbuds seem pretty good and I particularly like the cloth-wrapped cord. However, The sound is a bit strange. Maybe I was expecting the earbuds to have the sound of angels for their retail price, but phones’ shrilly high-ends are really disappointing. The bass is really strong while the high and mid ends (particularly in the vocals) are weak. Maybe I’ll need to burn them in.

Still, this was a nice little treat for hours at the library. Combining that with my new messenger bag, I am kinda liking going to school. Moot, here we go.

Technorati Tags: JBL, Reference 220, Earbuds

Michael Clayton

What a great movie. Some how, Sydney Pollack managed to weave a tale of deception, redemption, and dirty dirty agri-corruption into an accessible tale. In 119 minutes, I learned more about every character and their motivations than most films I have seen this year.

I enjoyed this film because of its plot and how the story was told. Michael Clayton is about an in-house fixer in a giant New York law firm. The story starts off with Clayton being tasked to reign in a partner who went crazy after he realizes the client he is defending was indeed culpable in a toxic-pollution class-action. The tale then unfolds with Clayton having to decide between helping this partner bring the client to justice, or looking the other way in exchange for a solution to his own financial problems.

The film does a great job in portraying the stress and realities of the characters who are involved. The movie not an apology for corporate malfeasance. Instead it gives a nuanced look at why we do the evil things we do, and how we react to the realities in front of us. Go see it.

Here’s to interesting times

Gentle readers, I’ve looked at my last few posts recently. Please don’t think that this blog has degenerated to nothing but a site full of rants that don’t even belong on Speaker’s Corner. Personal writing has not been high on my to-do list lately. I am in the process of job interviews. To crib RFK: I love this interesting time and I’ll chronicle it in due course.