It’s March 21st, and that means Apple’s about to reap what it sowed.

Nearly 20% of Pennsylvania Democratic Primary voters say they’d vote for John McCain should their candidate lose.

My money’s on the Pope.

Brilliant.

Science-fiction pioneer Arthur C. Clarke has passed away at the age of 90.

UPDATE: HAL 9000’s shutdown.

Being a student of history that has focused his studies on China, I find the recent protests in Tibet and China’s response (as well as its actions leading up to the Olympics) fascinating.  DJ McGuire has a great post about how this may cast a shadow over Taiwan’s upcoming elections.

RIAA got its hands on $400 million worth of settlements from Napster and others, but the musicians they supposedly represent haven’t seen a dime:

“Some of them are even talking about filing lawsuits if they don’t get paid soon.”

Record label sources said corporate bosses are still deciding on how best to split the money. In determining the payout, they said not every artist is owed money and it must be calculated with regard to the level of copyright infringement for each artist.

What’s more, these sources said that after the labels recouped their legal expenses, there wasn’t much left to pass along to the artists.

But a source on the artists’ side said that is an argument heard all too often in the music business.

Credit’s not going to matter much if the dollar’s in the tank.

Scott White wrote a great bit on the 4th Amendment in response to last Friday’s post, “DC Police Want To Search Your House If That’s OK:

It’s called a “consensual encounter”.  We, as police, do it all the time.  You would be surprised at the number of people, when asked, will let you (me) search them, their car or home.  And yes, they do so knowing there are drugs and guns and dead bodies or whatever in there.  This type of encounter is completely NORMAL and the only part of it that is “out of the norm” is the offer of amnesty.

What part could snowball?  If they say they aren’t going to charge you for possession of a gun, then they won’t.

If I ask to search your home, and tell you that if I find guns or drugs in the home you will not be charged and you agree, and I do in fact find guns and drugs and charge you, it completely nullifies the “consensual” nature of the encounter and violates your 4th Amendment rights.  Any charges that would be brought under this light would be pitched.  The guns and drugs would be considered “fruit of the poisonous tree” and not admitted into evidence, therefore the charges could not be proven.  Police are allowed to lie to you but they are not permitted to promise you something like this and not honor it.

Now if I say the same thing and go in there and find what I know to be stolen car parts, then we have a different story.  At that point I would STOP the search, freeze the “scene”(not let anyone in or out including police) and go get a search warrant, but only for the car parts. The original “consent” would stop at that point.  But I could continue to search, with the warrant, for the car parts.  There would be no amnesty for the possession of stolen goods.

Here are a couple of interesting “what ifs”.

What if I go in the house under the consensual search umbrella as above and retrieve a couple of guns, some marijuana and lay them out on the kitchen table.  Then I see the stolen car parts.  Because I would be “freezing” the house until a warrant could be obtained to search further, and in effect, the consensual search has ended, can I still take the guns and marijuana under the original agreement?  The answer is yes.  The consensual search was valid up to the point I saw the car parts, and by me moving the contraband to a different place than where it was, I have already completed the seizure.  The seizure and amnesty would stand.

What if I have a signed consent form as above from a homeowner and go in the house.  I find a room full of weapons.  Military style assault rifles, MAC 10s, a couple of MP 9s, fully auto Bushmasters, and 18 kilos of neatly packaged heroin.  The agreement was amnesty.  Do I still have to grant amnesty in this case?  I’ll leave this one open for discussion.

Finally, even the most conservative of Supreme Court Justices have stated that the 4th Amendment is sacred.  Nearly a deity to be protected and guarded with everything we have.  I agree.  I  have and will let a criminal walk away from me completely before I would violate his/her constitutional rights.  To me, those rights are the very reason I am out there.

DC Police are going to start asking residents if it’d be cool if they came inside for a little looksie and if they find guns, well, that’s cool, they’ll take ‘em and you’ll get amnesty:

“If we come across illegal contraband, we will confiscate it,” Lanier said. “But amnesty means amnesty. We’re trying to get guns and drugs off the street.”

Fenty (D) and Lanier announced the plan as part of a new strategy to deal with the prevalence of firearms in a city that has one of the strictest gun control laws in the nation. The Supreme Court will hear arguments next week in a case challenging the constitutionality of the D.C. law.

Residents who agree to the searches will be asked to sign consent forms. If guns are found, they will be tested to determine whether they were used in crimes. If the results are positive, police will launch investigations, which could lead to charges.

Ah, yes, but if they happen to come across, say, a bag of pot or* illegal cable, what then?

What if you say no and arouse the suspicions of police, does that count as “probable cause” and allow them access anyway?

This is a very bad idea that sets a very dangerous precedent for intimidating the public.

*UPDATE: Thanks to Scott for pointing out that I missed this the first time around:

The offer also applies to drugs that turn up during the searches, police said.

Kottke.org is ten today and blogger Jason Kottke takes readers on a tour of the look of the site over the years.

Yes, this is real. And it’s from Canada.

“At Virgin Mobile,” the ad goes on to say, “you’re more than just a number. When you call us we’ll treat you like a person, not a client. Whether you’re #9 or #900, you’ll get hooked up with somebody who’ll finally treat you just how you want to be treated.”

Maybe it is easy being a boy named Sue:

“They were very proud of their names, almost overly proud,” Mr. Sherrod said. “We asked if that was a reaction to getting pummeled when they were little, but they said they didn’t get that much ribbing. They did get a little tired of hearing the same jokes, but they liked having an unusual name because it made them stand out.”

Google Sky let’s you see the stars.

Pi = 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510…

It also equals a delicious dessert.

Happy Pi Day!