Monthly Archives: September 2009

Paranoia Strikes Deep In the Heartland (V)

Posted on September 11, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

Countdown: Obama's Speech vs the Right Wing Indoctrination Freak Out | Video Cafe

Posted in Politics: Tinfoil | 2 Comments

Robotic Posting

Posted on September 10, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

Was it A Good Year for the Robots …

or maybe It was a great year?

Either way The Robots are up to something.

As The Robots have been for some time.

Perhaps all that is left to do is sing to the robots

Posted in Kultcha | Comments Off on Robotic Posting

Just Passing Through

Posted on September 9, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

camel1.jpgOne of the joys of campus life is that there is just about always something going on. There are lectures I'm too busy to attend. Concerts I mostly miss. Seminars I try to get to (we had a good one today).

And then there are the weird and wonderful things you pass by on the way to class. As I was loping towards Torts this afternoon, I came up what I first thought was a pair of horses being walked around the center of campus. But no. It wasn't a horse, except in the sense that it's what a horse would look like if designed by a committee.

There was a little stand that people could climb on in order to get on their backs, and have a little pony ride, or whatever the Dromedary equivalent might be. Apparently they were there to publicize Israel, or Jewish Studies, or something to do with Israel.

“Where did you get the camels?” I asked someone with a clipboard.

camel2.jpg“We rented them,” was the answer.

Camels-R-US? Rent-a-camel? Camel Depot?

The mind would boggle, if its legs weren't already taking it off to beat the necessity defense into submission.

Random camel fact: Camels are not kosher.

Posted in U.Miami | 9 Comments

Amazon Charges a Premium for Packages You Can Actually Open

Posted on September 8, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

I was buying a Kingston 4 GB microSDHC Class 4 Flash Memory Card SDC4/4GB from amazon.com, which seemed a good deal at $8.99 with zero-marginal-cost-shipping (Amazon prime, cough), when I noticed something pretty funny.

It seems Amazon also offers the same product in “Amazon Frustration-Free™ Packaging,” for just $10.56 — only $1.57 extra.

Pay more, get less packaging — something you can actually open. I guess it's a business model.

Posted in Shopping | 4 Comments

Fred Clark on the Cost of Being Poor

Posted on September 8, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

slacktivist: Same to you, buddy writes a great rant about the costs of being poor

Last year, U.S. banks collected about $36 billion in overdraft protection fees. This year, they expect to transfer about $38.5 billion out of customers' accounts in the form of such fees.

$38.5 billion. $105 million every day. $4.4 million every hour. $73,250 every minute. More than $1,200 a second. Transferred directly from the poor to the rich.

$38.5 billion.

And by the time he says,

The point here, I suppose, is that check-cashing fees may be an exploitative scam run by sleazeballs, but that they may turn out to be a more prudent option for the working poor than the even-more exploitative scam run by the more mainstream, but sleazier sleazeballs of the banking industry.

… the banks look far more exploitatrive than Wal-Mart charging $3 to cash a check.

Posted in Econ & Money | 5 Comments

Email Snooping States Claim for Tortious Intrusion Upon Seclusion

Posted on September 7, 2009 by Michael Froomkin

Evan Brown at Internet Cases has a good writeup of Steinbach v. Village of Forest Park, No. 06-4215, 2009 WL 2605283 (N.D. Ill. Aug. 25, 2009) which holds that email snooping can be a tortious intrusion upon seclusion.

My e-home is my (cyber) castle.

Posted in Law: Privacy | 1 Comment