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This would be a genius move on Wal-Mart's part. A stroke of absolute brilliance.
The PR value alone is astonishing. Got a community that is resisting that shiny new Supercenter you're trying to develop? Promise them an E85 filling station. Got people busting your ass for your wages or hiring practices? Point out your valuable contribution to liberating the country from dependence of foreign oil, and helping to minimize the call for farm subsidies. Someone accusing you of using illegals or playing too much hardball with supplies? Point to those pumps, wave the flag, and carry on.
Wal-Mart May Start Pumping Ethanol, Retail Giant Owns And Operates 383 Gas Stations In U.S. - CBS News
(AP) Wal-Mart Stores Inc. may offer ethanol made from corn at its 383 U.S. gas stations, a company spokesman said Wednesday.Wal-Mart stressed it is not ready yet to make any announcements, but corn growers said Wal-Mart's entry into a market now mainly made up of scattered independent gas stations would be a significant boost to a budding new fuel industry.
06-06-2006 04:29:22AM - Permalink - Comment [11] - Trackback
To me, tonight's local news broadcast on KHBS (the ABC affiliate) is a perfect example of how far "journalists" can sink into alarmist nonsense.
First off, this was supposed to be the start of a series about identity theft. A valid topic for discussion, and certainly worthy of investigation... good for them.
Then reporter Mike McCormick announces that he'll be exploring identity theft in the context of... wait for it... Myspace. That caused me to cock an eyebrow, but I decided to ride out the story and see if he had a point. Surely this wasn't just another bit of sensationalist nonsense. So what was the first thing out of his mouth?
"If you're one of the 70 million people on Myspace, your safety and career are at risk."
It's important to note that the emphasis there is his, not mine. He intoned "at risk" in an ominous, theatrical fashion normally reserved for a cheap '50s horror flick. Had I not been watching the screen, I would have thought he was being sarcastic... but no, straight face and everything.
It gets worse.
They begin to profile one Scott Sharp, local Myspace user, gullible soul, and apparent knit cap aficionado. Get this, folks... he was on Myspace for a few days, and someone started trying to hot-chat him! And that someone turned out to not actually be who she claimed to be! And had even represented "herself" with photos she grabbed from someone else's site! I'm shocked, I tell you!
Now, in fairness, I bet Scott's a nice kid... and other than a really odd use of the word "malicious" in his interview, he might even have a story worth telling.
But it had nothing to do with identity theft. Some fifty year old accountant from Des Moines decided to have a little gender-bending fun with him, and that's it. Annoying? Absolutely. Embarrassing? You betcha. But it's just standard operating procedure on the web, a state of affairs that long predates Myspace.
Next, McCormick introduces the notion of "identity theft" and your employer. Someone can copy your Myspace profile, and then write a bunch of stuff about donkey sex under your name... just think what'll happen when Mr. Jenkins at work sees it?! Our intrepid reporter recommends immediate withdrawal of all personal info from Myspace, and contacting local police if you have any trouble.
Sheesh. Let me help you out with a few things, Mikester. Okay?
- Copying someone's Myspace profile isn't identity theft, because a Myspace profile isn't an identity. It's a document, and this is called "copyright infringement". If I stick a copy of The Shining online, I haven't stolen Stephen King's identity; I've stolen his work.
- In young Mr. Sharp's case, the supposed "identity thief" was using photos taken from someone named "Catherine" and passing himself (?) off as "Kaitlyn". That's not ID theft... that's just lying. Or in the case of the previous analogy, plagiarism.
- My blog has pretty decent Google Pagerank, so it's possible that future searches for "Mike McCormick" may turn up this article, and prospective employers may be turned off by my analysis of Mike's work. By his logic, that would mean that he should pull himself off the air and hide in a closet... wouldn't want some sub-literate programming director to believe the first thing he reads about someone online, would we?
- Contacting your neighborhood cops about a copied Myspace profile is either going to result in you being utterly (and appropriately) ignored, or in some god-awful overreaction by a publicity-seeking loser with a badge. Either way, you lose.
The piece ended with anchor Craig Cannon giving McCormick an attaboy for his hard work. I'm not sure which is worse... the reporter's lack of research and fundamental misunderstanding of the subject he's addressing, or his boss cluelessly encouraging such behavior.
05-11-2006 03:25:53AM - Permalink - Comment [0] - Trackback
I'm torn here. I hate to see uninvolved relatives of a dead man punished for the dead man's vile behavior. On the other, I damned well expect someone to pay for what was done to an innocent man.
CNN.com - Jury: Investigator must pay ex-death row inmate - May 5, 2006
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia (AP) -- A federal jury on Friday awarded $2.25 million to a Virginia man who claimed a police investigator fabricated a rape and murder confession that sent him to death row.05-07-2006 04:10:10PM - Permalink - Comment [0] - Trackback
If you're of a mind to keep an eye on how your elected representatives are voting, washingtonpost.com has a service for you.
Basically, follow that link and drill down to your (least) favorite rep/sen. You can either bookmark the resulting page, or even better, subscribe to the associated RSS feed... that way, every time there's a new vote, you'll know it.
05-02-2006 02:12:31PM - Permalink - Comment [0] - Trackback
Life is so short, it just kills me to write something like this. But man...
I cannot fucking wait for 2008.
Gonzales calls for mandatory Web labeling law | CNET News.com
Web site operators posting sexually explicit information must place official government warning labels on their pages or risk being imprisoned for up to five years, the Bush administration proposed Thursday....
During his speech, Gonzales also warned that Internet service providers must begin to retain records of their customers' activities to aid in future criminal prosecutions
04-24-2006 02:13:58PM - Permalink - Comment [1] - Trackback