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<title>Blizza Blizza</title>
<link>http://chrislawson.net/blog/</link>
<description>...because everybody else has one.</description>
<copyright>Copyright 2011</copyright>
<lastBuildDate>Fri, 25 Mar 2011 11:02:19 -0500</lastBuildDate>
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<docs>http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss</docs> 

<item>
<title>Sleeping Controller Hysteria</title>
<description><![CDATA[<p>The New York Times on <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/25/us/25airport.html">the sleeping controller at Washington National Airport a few days ago</a>:</p>

<blockquote>

<p>In fact, the vast majority of the nation’s 19,000 airports do not have control towers. At those smaller airports, typically used for general aviation, pilots are responsible for logging into a specific frequency to broadcast their position and their intention to land. Airports that have scheduled commercial traffic, however, are required to have a tower that is staffed.</p>

</blockquote>
]]></description>
<link>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000989.php</link>
<guid>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000989.php</guid>
<category>aviation</category>
<pubDate>Fri, 25 Mar 2011 11:02:19 -0500</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>Memo to Sarah Palin</title>
<description><![CDATA[<p>Ronald Reagan, quoted in a <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/01/12/132856601/palin-its-irresponsible-to-apportion-blame-for-arizona-rampage">Sarah Palin press release</a>:</p>

<blockquote>

<p>It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Memo to Sarah Palin: If you're going to quote Reagan in a press release decrying "the left" "blaming" you for Jared Loughner's massacre, you should probably be willing to accept personal responsibility for using over-the-top rhetoric and imagery in campaign literature and admit that you shouldn't have done that when you were called out for it EIGHT MONTHS AGO.</p>

<p>We don't let people off scot-free who hire hitmen merely because they didn't pull the trigger themselves. Inciting violence is wrong, too, and apparently you don't realize this, or simply aren't willing to admit that people might have interpreted it that way.</p>

<p>Also, stop being childish by prohibiting NPR from embedding the video. You're clearly unfit to be anything more than a modern celebutard.</p>]]></description>
<link>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000988.php</link>
<guid>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000988.php</guid>
<category>politix</category>
<pubDate>Wed, 12 Jan 2011 14:37:44 -0500</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>The HIG is Dead; Long Live the HIG</title>
<description><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://mjtsai.com/blog/2011/01/07/twitter-for-macs-ui-design/">Michael Tsai</a>:</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Custom UI makes sense when you have a problem that the standard controls and conventions don’t solve, but too often there doesn’t seem to be any design benefit from the deviations.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Exactly. This is why <a href="http://daringfireball.net/2011/01/uniformity_vs_individuality_in_mac_ui_design">Gruber</a> is wrong -- as is Apple's iTunes, to name just one particularly egregious example -- and <a href="http://readthefuckinghig.tumblr.com/">Read the Fucking HIG</a> and <a href="http://riscfuture.tumblr.com/post/2626504717/app-store-twitter-ui-failures">Tim Morgan</a> are so right.</p>]]></description>
<link>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000987.php</link>
<guid>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000987.php</guid>
<category>computing</category>
<pubDate>Fri, 07 Jan 2011 12:40:11 -0500</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>Voter Fraud in 3...2...1...</title>
<description><![CDATA[<p>The local state senate race is shaping up to be one of the more interesting races this fall, because longtime Representative Robert Jones, who was running on the Democratic ticket against Republican Tonya Schuitmaker, died a couple of weeks ago. Of course, all the ballots had already been printed, and many absentee ballots had already been distributed. Local Democratic freaking-out aside, this caused a great deal of consternation and confusion, since Michigan law discards any votes for a deceased person.</p>

<p>The solution for absentee voters determined by The Powers That Be, apparently, was as follows:</p>]]></description>
<link>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000986.php</link>
<guid>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000986.php</guid>
<category>politix</category>
<pubDate>Thu, 28 Oct 2010 18:50:19 -0500</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>The Internet Death Penalty</title>
<description><![CDATA[<p>If you are one of those people who adds every single e-mail address that passes through your inbox to your address book, and then sends out <em>totally irrelevant</em> forwards and pleas for charity assistance to <em>every single address in your address book</em>, you deserve the Internet Death Penalty. No e-mail, no Facebook, no MySpace, no sports scores, no stock quotes, no YouTube, no Farmville, no NOTHING for five years. If you so much as <em>see</em> the Internet in use, you owe $100 to the continent of Africa.</p>

<p>This has been a public service announcement brought to you by the Free and United Champions of Keeping E-mail Respectable and Safe. We now return to your irregular and unscheduled blogging.</p>]]></description>
<link>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000985.php</link>
<guid>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000985.php</guid>
<category>computing</category>
<pubDate>Wed, 13 Oct 2010 20:32:28 -0500</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>Dumbass of the Day</title>
<description><![CDATA[<p>If you are high on crack, drinking alcohol, and driving around lost without a valid license, the last person you should ask for directions is probably...<a href="http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/officer-32743-flags-arrested.html">a police officer</a>.</p>

<p>Of course, this is only a hop, skip, and jump away from <a href="http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/wife-32658-milton-fire.html">the lady who set her husband's go-kart on fire after they watched a Jennifer Lopez movie</a>, so maybe we shouldn't be all that surprised.</p>

<p>(Hat tip to Dave Barry for both links.)</p>

<p><?php include_once '/homepages/16/d93546748/htdocs/RFDR.php'; redFormanDumbassRating(4); ?></p>]]></description>
<link>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000984.php</link>
<guid>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000984.php</guid>
<category>d&apos;oh, the humanity</category>
<pubDate>Fri, 10 Sep 2010 19:27:43 -0500</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>Whoops</title>
<description><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/us/politics/31flag.html">The New York Times</a>:</p>

<blockquote>

<p>That means no pennants baring sports team logos, no Jolly Rogers, no rainbow banners celebrating gay pride and no historic flags showing a coiled rattlesnake bearing its fangs.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Indeed, I'm sure that were rattlesnakes capable of written language, they'd have written themselves a constitution granting the right to bear fangs, especially since fangs are an inherent trait of their species and all, but I do believe the copyeditor over at the old Grey Lady somehow managed to interchange "<a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bare">baring</a>" (uncovering or showing, often in a display of aggression) and "<a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bear">bearing</a>" (bringing or carrying) in this sentence.</p>

<p>(The article has since been fixed.)</p>]]></description>
<link>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000983.php</link>
<guid>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000983.php</guid>
<category>language</category>
<pubDate>Tue, 31 Aug 2010 19:53:02 -0500</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>A Modest Proposal</title>
<description><![CDATA[<p>I love soccer, and I'm fully aware that 90% of Americans don't care about it, but how's about FIFA grant the ability to the referee, in consultation with the linesmen, to award a goal when an opposing defender (say, Uruguay's Luis Suarez) commits an intentional handball within the six-yard box, and said infraction is the last line of defense between the ball and a certain goal?</p>

<p>Heck, limit it to within the lateral limits of the goal mouth if you want. But it's pretty clear to all involved that what Suarez did was a (legal, under the current rules) deal with the devil that cost Ghana the match. If that goal is awarded, Gyan doesn't miss a penalty, and Uruguay is forced to score in the last few seconds of the game. Suarez himself said <a href="http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/story/_/id/5351326/ce/us/fifa-study-handball-determine-ban-uruguay-luis-suarez">the red card and automatic one-match suspension were "worth it"</a>, and no one would argue otherwise -- without that handball, the match for which Suarez would earn his suspension would be some meaningless international six months down the road with Uruguay out of the World Cup.</p>

<p>Life isn't fair, but sport is man's attempt to construct a framework of fair competition. Awarding only a penalty as compensation after a defender has illegally prevented a certain goal is, well, unfair. Memo to FIFA: fix it.</p>]]></description>
<link>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000982.php</link>
<guid>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000982.php</guid>
<category>sports</category>
<pubDate>Mon, 05 Jul 2010 20:56:17 -0500</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>Memo to the BBC</title>
<description><![CDATA[<p>"<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/2/hi/world/asia_pacific/10252165.stm">Australia in sex-tourism campaign</a>" does <em>not in any way</em> mean the same thing as "Australia launches a nation-wide advertising campaign to accompany tough new laws against sex tourism."</p>]]></description>
<link>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000981.php</link>
<guid>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000981.php</guid>
<category>language</category>
<pubDate>Mon, 07 Jun 2010 11:24:13 -0500</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>Useless Error Message of the Day</title>
<description><![CDATA[<p>My mom was trying to send a .zip file of photos to my aunt and my cousin tonight. Easier than e-mailing a folder, especially since my aunt uses Hotmail and my cousin doesn't have a Mac. Gmail's SMTP server threw up this ever-so-helpful error in Eudora (which is <a href="http://mail.google.com/support/bin/search.py?ctx=en%3Asearchbox&amp;query=review+our+attachment+guidelines">not addressed at all in Gmail Help</a>):</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Couldn't send message; server says "552 5.7.0 review our attachment guidelines. f6sm13922652anb.16".</p>

</blockquote>

<p>The same attachment sends just fine if you change the extension from .zip to .txt.</p>

<p>The ultimate solution? There isn't one. Gmail, for whatever reason, does not like this file, which was created by Control-clicking a folder of a few JPEG images (all with the ".jpg" extension) in Finder and choosing "Compress". Hey, Google, <em>a folder full of JPEGs created on a Mac is not a security risk</em>.</p>

<p><?php include_once '/homepages/16/d93546748/htdocs/RFDR.php'; redFormanDumbassRating(3); ?></p>]]></description>
<link>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000980.php</link>
<guid>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000980.php</guid>
<category>computing</category>
<pubDate>Sun, 23 May 2010 22:33:13 -0500</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>More on the Underwear Bomber</title>
<description><![CDATA[<p>Patrick Smith's <a href="http://www.salon.com/tech/col/smith/2010/01/05/askthepilot346/index.html">"Ask the Pilot" column this week</a> is another must-read.</p>]]></description>
<link>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000979.php</link>
<guid>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000979.php</guid>
<category>aviation</category>
<pubDate>Fri, 08 Jan 2010 02:01:53 -0500</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>The Ironical Hypocrite</title>
<description><![CDATA[<p>Someone hand Jim DeMint, the junior Senator from South Carolina, a dictionary with the words "irony" and "hypocrite" highlighted, fast:</p>

<blockquote>

<p>[Southers] will not give me a straight answer [as to whether he would allow TSA employees to have collective bargaining rights]. This is all about politics and not security.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>This is the same Jim DeMint who has been <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/01/04/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry6054235.shtml">blocking the nomination of Errol Southers</a> as head of the TSA because, as Joe Sharkey <a href="http://joesharkeyat.blogspot.com/2009/12/let-new-security-hysteria-begin.html">so eloquently put it</a>, "DeMint, a former market researcher, has surveyed the situation and identified the real terrorist threat to America: Unions."</p>

<p>Now who's about politics, Jim?</p>]]></description>
<link>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000978.php</link>
<guid>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000978.php</guid>
<category>politix</category>
<pubDate>Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:09:39 -0500</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>2009 Going Out On Ironic Note</title>
<description><![CDATA[<p>From the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/31/world/americas/31cuba.html?pagewanted=all">Grey Lady</a>:</p>

<blockquote>

<p>“If the American government really wants to advance relations with Cuba, I recommend they leave behind the conditions of internal governance that they are trying to impose on us and that only Cubans can decide,” Raúl Castro said in his assembly speech.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>So, Raúl, how about letting Cubans actually, you know, <em>decide</em>? No population in the history of the world has ever voted to uphold a Communist or totalitarian government in free and untainted elections, and it strikes me as unlikely that it'll happen this time. (As far as I can remember; readers are free to point out obscure exceptions in the comments.)</p>]]></description>
<link>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000977.php</link>
<guid>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000977.php</guid>
<category>politix</category>
<pubDate>Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:11:05 -0500</pubDate>
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<item>
<title>Truly Sharing Our Shared Resources</title>
<description><![CDATA[<p>The latest ruckus here in the Great Lakes area is about the Asian carp that are on the threshold of invasion. Chicago, and by extension, the rest of Illinois, claims they aren't a big problem and aren't as close as all kinds of scientific evidence says they are, while Michigan outdoors types are quite literally foaming at the mouth at the idea of 100-pound carp invading the already-devastated (zebra and quagga mussels, sea lampreys, etc.) Great Lakes ecosystem. <a href="http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/12/wisconsin_attorney_general_joi.html">Wisconsin is the latest of the Great Lakes states to file an amicus brief</a> with the US Supreme Court in Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox's request for an injunction to close a major shipping canal in Chicago. Minnesota and Ohio have already filed briefs in support of the injunction.</p>

<p>Notably absent from the list is Indiana, the state with the least shoreline along the Great Lakes. Of course, Indiana has <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=13903534">already demonstrated it doesn't give a crap about Lake Michigan anyway</a>, when it issued a permit to BP/Amoco to dramatically increase its pollution output from the Whiting refinery south of Chicago.</p>

<p>So the two states with the shortest coastlines on the Great Lakes get to destroy them for the rest of us? Yeah, screw you, Illinois, and that Hoosier horse you rode in on.</p>]]></description>
<link>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000976.php</link>
<guid>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000976.php</guid>
<category>general</category>
<pubDate>Wed, 30 Dec 2009 20:41:29 -0500</pubDate>
</item>
<item>
<title>On the Pants Bomber</title>
<description><![CDATA[<p>I don't really have anything to say here that <a href="http://millionmileflyer.wordpress.com/2009/12/27/epic-stupidity-the-straw-that-broke-the-camels-back/">this guy</a> and <a href="http://joesharkeyat.blogspot.com/2009/12/let-new-security-hysteria-begin.html">Joe Sharkey</a> haven't already said.</p>

<p>Just to reiterate, though: if the bomb gets on the plane, we've already lost. Once it's there, no procedure <em>anyone</em> can ever invent is going to stop someone from succeeding in bringing down an airplane.</p>]]></description>
<link>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000975.php</link>
<guid>http://chrislawson.net/blog/archives/000975.php</guid>
<category>aviation</category>
<pubDate>Sun, 27 Dec 2009 22:29:11 -0500</pubDate>
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