Anyway, make sure you check out Laurel’s lol-speakage interpretation.

Heller asked and answered the question of whether or not the Second Amendment to the Constitution was an individual right, and to a lesser extent whether the Bill of Rights actually applies to the special magic place that is the District of Columbia.

The big question in McDonald is where or not the Bill of Rights applies to the states.

Yup, it’s come down to that. Went all the way to the supremes, too.

D.C. Snowstorm: How Global Warming Makes Blizzards Worse

stealthy re-spin title after they make themselves the laughing stock:

Another Blizzard: What Happened to Global Warming?

Guys, your preconceived notions on man-made climate change and your unethical web 2.0 publishing standards are showing.

Most of the walk is pretty easy, there’s about a foot of snow on the local streets thanks to the efforts of a private-hired company. The last 100 feet on a footpath was through knee-high snow.

I walked out to the main road. There was about 4 inches of packed down powder, with the remainder ploughed aside and no one around as far as I could see.

A few minutes later I see a SUV coming and I promptly got off to the side (mostly because I didn’t want to be anywhere near anyone obviously insane). Watching from behind the well packed snow berm, he drives by and holds up a 1/2 empty bottle of Miller High Life.

Desperate measures for desperate times, I suppose.

The government has your baby’s DNA

…

It’s simple, the pediatrician answered: Newborn babies in the United States are routinely screened for a panel of genetic diseases. Since the testing is mandated by the government, it’s often done without the parents’ consent, according to Brad Therrell, director of the National Newborn Screening & Genetics Resource Center.

In many states, such as Florida, where Isabel was born, babies’ DNA is stored indefinitely, according to the resource center.

…

I don’t even know what to write here, this is wrong on so many levels. Due Process? Medical Privacy? Secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects?

And to think we’re making such a stink over REAL ID. At least our future leaders will have all the tools they need to find themselves a good organ donor match, eh?

Update: a little quick research on Govtrack.us: S. 1858:
Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act of 2007. Totally under the radar for me. It looks like it passed by a voice vote in the House and it passed the Senate by Unanimous Consent, so ironically, no public records of the vote were kept.

Noted because of the “Mainstreaming of Survivalism“.

Edited to add: I almost forgot that they were talking on the radio today about having 3 to five days of “non-perishable food”. Now that’s real good advice to follow 365 days of the year, but they seem to be forgetting about the huge walk-in freezer I happen to have in my back yard. Trust me, If I lose power, (admittedly a possibility), keeping the contents of my fridge from spoiling will not be an issue. (I even have cleaning out the freezer on my todo list this weekend.)

02/03/10 19:06 Another severe winter storm, with near blizzard conditions, is forecast to hit Arlington Fri., Feb. 5 through Sat., Feb. 6. Be prepared to shelter in place for 3 to 5 days . Please stay off the roads. Snow crews will plow primary and secondary roads first for emergency vehicles. After severe storms (more than 10”), it may take 36-48 hours after the snow stops before County plows can get to residential streets. Removal and treatment may take several days. For cancellations, more info, tips, visit the County Website (http://www.arlingtonva.us/portals/topics/TopicsWeatherWinter.aspx)

Weather forecasters: well at least they’re pretty good at telling me when the precipitation will start, give or take six hours or so, but I wish they would remind me by ending the forecast with “…no more than an inch this time around, but what the heck do we know?”

You don’t want to call or email, that’s too easy. And you don’t want to mail anything, It’ll never get through the anti-anthrax screening on time. Faxes are best.

I haven’t settled on my exact wording, but I will be saying something about how disappointed I am about the backroom wheeling and dealing that’s not on c-span as promised. Oh and I won’t be mentioning the election results in Massachusetts, but I will capitalize on the timing. I’ll suggest scuttling the whole thing because we’ve strayed too far from the ideal bill. I’ll remind them that mid-terms are right around the corner and that I’m not interested in a bill that spends a lot of money we still don’t have and fails to do almost anything to control costs, like allowing overseas prescription drugs.

Just for the heck of it I thought I’d point out a few errors I’ve found in the pool.

G4D08. Which of the following connectors would be a good choice for a serial data port?
A. PL-259
B. Type N
C. Type SMA
D. DB-9

They say the right answer is a DB-9, but there really isn’t a connector called that (at least in common use). Your useless bit of trivia for the day is that the “B” stands for the size of the connector, and a nine pin D-shaped connector is actually called a DE-9 connector.

G6B02. What are the two major ratings that must not be exceeded for silicon-diode rectifiers?
Select Answer
A Peak load impedance; peak voltage
B Capacitive reactance; avalanche voltage
C Average power; average voltage
D Peak inverse voltage; average forward current

While the average forward current part is correct, you can go over the peek inverse voltage as long as the current rating of the diode is not exceeded. I’m being persnickety here because usually if you do exceed that reverse voltage, the “avalanche effect” virtually assures the current level will spike. See the w’pedia article for Avalanche diode where this effect is utilized.

I’ve searched around and found a list or two of questions that have been withdrawn because of errors already. Neither of these two questions are on those lists.

I can’t confirm the Chinese scuttled this barge, but it makes sense if this time around they were expected to kick themselves in the nuts, rather than just watch the US do it to themselves, like we did with Kyoto and Montreal.