tintedpane.com

Ars is reporting that the yellow/amber phase of ticket camera lights may be significantly below state laws in order to generate more revenue for local city governments. There has been one city in Tennessee that has had to refund all it’s fines for a particular intersection that was nearly a second shorter than the 3.9 second minimum set by the state government. There are also reports that the traffic engineers in Dallas have done the same. Shame on them.

I recently got a ticket in the mail for a supposed run. It was interesting that they also had a video of it. I was actually making a right turn on red and the camera thought I ran the light. The wording on the “citation” said that other than a $75 fine, it wouldn’t go on my record or be reported to the insurance company. It’s a 100% revenue generator for the city.

According to the article however, recently the cities have had to pay 50% of the revenues to the states, and now with the accusations that they’re shortchanging the lights, hopefully we’ll see less and less of these stupid camera systems.

I hate to be such an Ars tail wagger, bet they just give me news that others are unwilling to dig up. It seems the e-voting thing is rearing it’s ugly head again, with lack of transparency and audit mechanisms being a very serious and unacceptable design flaw. According to ars, the burden of providing and proving a fair election should rest on the state/government officials and should not need public outrage to bring about evidence for an audit. And that’s probably the extent of my knowledge on this matter for now, but it’s something I feel is very important to our democratic process.

RealID is being shoved down our throats by the DHS who still feel that they can determine who a “terrorist” is by whether or not the yet to be produced “tamper-proof” ID is valid or if they’re in a nationally query’able database. Has history shown most of the attackers of 9/11 to have any criminal history? Isn’t this why the de-facto way of screening is now by skin color? Or am I totally off base here? Why is our government so paranoid? Is the DHS even necessary? Have people forgotten about that P.A.T.R.I.O.T. act?

In other news, the TSA (which I still feel has no positive effect on making me safer when flying) still sucks at keeping our personal information safe. Persons who were seeking redress and trying to have their names taken off “terrorist lists” had their data exposed for over four months before any action was taken.

And what is up with all these damn no-bid government contracts? More mercenary groups like Blackwater? Maybe this was before my days of listening to NPR, but I just found out their right to operate in Iraq was revoked by the national government there.

Looks like this local Dallas girl got her picture taken and released by the photographer (her youth pastor, Mr. Wong). Virgin Mobile in Australia picked it up and used it since Mr. Wong allowed commercial use with attribution, thanks to the Creative Commons license he chose. Fast forward to her seeing her photo on Flickr and now suing Virgin Mobile for defamation since they never got a model/parental release. Someone didn’t do their job correctly at VM . Funny ad though.

What a very small world we live in. John, I think your sis might knows her.

Sourced from TOP

Update (2008-01-10): Washington Post has an article on this.

Our consecutive 3-pointer streak continues with Maurice Ager hitting two in the last 90 seconds of regulation. We were able to do it last year with Diop’s three in the closing minutes against the Clippers.

I was disappointed to hear that the appeal for internet radio stations to bypass royalties on copyrights was denied today. I love my DI and Sky. I’ve supported them in the past but this sucks. Anyone remember soma.fm? They went “off-air” the first time the ruling passed and was able to make it back on the internet airwaves, but this might be the final blow. I hate how much weight big companies can throw around through their advocacy and lobby groups. Internet radio is good stuff. Forget clearchannel.

First time since I started keeping track of my scores that I failed to score at least 150 in any game for the night. Must mean my nerves are not made of steel as I got a traffic citation on the way to the bowling alley.

Two officers cited me for 15mph over in a 40mph zone as well as a “failure to pull over” violation. Anyone know what the requirement is when they start flashing lights? One friend says I’m supposed to slow down and then pull over when I find a location that I feel safe in. I’m trying to find evidence to support that claim right now. I did slow down when I saw the strobes but did not pull over immediately as I was on the bike and didn’t want to stop on the street or in a side street that wasn’t lit. My goal was to get to a convenience store about ½ mile up the road so I signaled and got into the left lane where I trudged along at 25mph. The cop decided I wasn’t cooperative and pulled up alongside and in front and forced me into the left turn lane that was coming up. Almost dropped the bike when I saw them use the car in such a way. Then both guys jumped out and one of them grabbed at my throttle grip and tried to push the bike into the lane (which caused the engine to immediately rev) while the other (who was probably the more senior cop shadowing the younger guy) turned the ignition off and took the keys. The younger cop was yelling expletives at me telling me how I should’ve pull the **** over when I saw the lights. The other guy was pretty huffed up but didn’t lose his cool like the younger guy. They had me walk the bike forward into the left turn lane and I almost dropped it again cause I forgot the kickstand wasn’t down. Got my license and insurance and saw that they couldn’t pin anything on me beside my alleged speeding since the bike was registered, inspected, insured, and I was a licensed rider. When the older cop came to give me the citation he said under his breath that I was going faster but he only cited me for 55. What crap is that? Another friend said I was profiled cause I was on the bike hunched over since it was a brisk evening out and I was wearing a mesh jacket. Gonna fight this one. Looking for lawyers you can recommend.

On the way back from the alley, I saw 4-5 other motorists pulled over by cops. Must be a Easter quota thing.

Some further thoughts:

• Why didn’t the cops use their megaphone to tell me to stop if they wanted me to pull over immediately? They could’ve made me drop the bike or worse, ran me over with their tactics. I wonder who’d pay for the bill if the bike dropped or if they hit me.
• Do all cops get a power kick when they pull people over? I tried to stay as calm as possible while they were the ones screaming and yelling. These guys didn’t seem like they knew what they were doing. Didn’t even tell me to pull my helmet off. Wonder if that could be useful. How do you ID someone when they’re face isn’t even fully exposed.
• Are there any consequences for me posting this? Could this be used in a court proceeding?

Findings after speaking with a lawyer:

• There is no “feel free to stop wherever you feel.” You gotta stop immediately.
• They don’t have to warn you when they pull the “power move” to try to get you off the road.
• Since I gave them my license, it’ll be worse to try and pull a “that wasn’t me” argument in court.
• In Dallas county, it’s almost always best to go to court since they’ll almost always cut you a deal with deferred adjudication if the verdict doesn’t go your way.
• So it looks like I’ll take this to court and leave defensive driving for last resort case.
• The advice was free, but even with a car club discount, this particular incident will cost $200 if I retain his services. Granted, it’s for two items, but it’s still quite a pricy penny.

According to ars, states are starting to enact laws that limit or ban the national ID system that’s supposed to come into effect in 2008 if there is no opposition. I for one, am very glad to hear this. Give the gov’t an inch, and they’ll take a foot, just like how they said SSN’s weren’t for identification purposes…

Additionally, anyone ever heard of free speech zones? I never knew the gov’t enforce such a constraint.