law

I am not sure that texting drivers can ever be stopped.

They use sneaky methods. They try to keep the phone below dashboard level. Or they merely prop their cell phone on their steering wheel and multitask.

Texting is just too important, isn't it? You have dinners to plan, children's pickups to organize, and friends to constantly tell about your latest amorous pursuit.

And yet Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is not giving up. He has dedicated $550,000 to a new method of spotting motorized texters, a method that governments have used since before John Le Carre began writing: yes, spies.… Read more

The law and Facebook have one thing in common: they are both repositories of large emotions.

Sometimes, though, they don't always work in tandem.

Word reaches me from Texas of a troubled happening after a court case in Mesquite. (The inhabitants are not called Mesquitos. Or are they?)

As CBS Houston tells it, the local police are up in arms after 30-year-old Melissa Welthall allegedly posted and spread photos of an undercover cop on Facebook.

Why would someone do that? This is a question so often asked before receiving a bafflingly human answer.

In this case, police say that … Read more

First of all, don't panic.

If Moore's Law came to an end and computers stopped getting steadily faster, plenty of companies would suffer. But an end likely would come with lots of warning, lots of measures to cushion the blow, and lots of continued development even if transistors stopped shrinking.

The hardest hit would be companies dependent on consumers replacing their electronics every few years and tech companies such as Google whose long-term plans hinge on faster computers, cheaper storage, and better bandwidth. And the continuing miniaturization of computers -- mainframes to minicomputers to PCs to smartphones -- … Read more

Mike Mayberry, perhaps more than anyone, is the guy who keeps Moore's Law ticking.

As the vice president who leads Intel's research team, he bears responsibility for making sure his employer can cram ever more electronic circuitry onto computer chips. Intel co-founder Gordon Moore 47 years ago observed the pace at which microchips' transistor count doubled, and Mayberry is in charge of keeping that legacy intact.

A lot rests on Moore's Law, which in a 1975 update to Moore's original 1965 paper predicted that the number of transistors will double every two years. That means a … Read more

Year in, year out, Intel executive Mike Mayberry hears the same doomsday prediction: Moore's Law is going to run out of steam. Sometimes he even hears it from his own co-workers.

But Moore's Law, named after Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, who 47 years ago predicted a steady, two-year cadence of chip improvements, keeps defying the pessimists because a brigade of materials scientists like Mayberry continue to find ways of stretching today's silicon transistor technology even as they dig into alternatives. (Such as, for instance, super-thin sheets of carbon graphene.)

Oh, and don't forget the money that'… Read more

There is no defense for rape.

And yet the classic tactic for defense lawyers is to turn the victim into someone who might have contributed to her own violation.

25-year-old Jennifer Bennett of Bend, Ore., was stunned to hear the tactics defense lawyers tried to use against her.

Having met Thomas Bray, an anesthesiologist and teacher at a local community college on Match.com, she thought her first date was going well.

Until she was subjected to a brutal five hours of being strangled, beaten, and sexually assaulted by Bray.

She pressed charges. The defense lawyers subpoenaed her computer records … Read more

Days after a strict cybersecurity law went into effect in the Philippines, the country's Supreme Court suspended it.

According to the Associated Press, the court issued a temporary restraining order to freeze the government's enforcement of the Cybercrime Prevention Act 2012. Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said the law will be suspended for 120 days. The court plans to hear oral arguments from the law's supporters and critics in January.

President Benigno Aquino III signed the law last month and it became official last week. There were no reports of anyone violating the law.

Thousands of people … Read more

People steal iPhones.

It's just a symptom of our times. We just can't get enough entertainment, you see.

So here is some footage, courtesy of the Sun and a store's surveillance camera, that appears to show how heartlessly some humans can be in their quest for a free smartphone.

The baby is 20-month-old Luella Reid.

Her mom, Danielle Hinngian, reportedly gave her the iPhone so that she could watch "Barney The Dinosaur" while mom shopped in Ormskirk, northern England.

What the footage appears to show is an older man sidling up to Luella's pushchair. … Read more

It's hard to know where to hold a party these days. Big venues are expensive. Small ones might even have a cover charge. And then there's all the legal responsibility.

Perhaps that's why some kids in Tega Cay, S.C., decided that it might be more, um, cost-effective to break into someone else's house and have the party there.

According to NBC Charlotte, the owners of the house were none the wiser. For they were out of town when the party allegedly happened. And when they returned they noticed nothing especially amiss.

That was, until their eyes were directed to some pictures on Facebook. Gosh, that house looked familiar. For indeed, it appears that pictures from the break-in party had been posted by the alleged miscreants. … Read more