Randy Cassingham's Blog http://www.thisistrue.com/ en Copyright 2010 Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:00:00 -0700 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.32-en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Robbing Peter to Pay Paul A few weeks ago I grumbled in a newsletter about the lousy ads I was getting on one of my sites, which were bringing a whopping 4.8 cents per click. I said "I may try Bing ads instead if Google doesn't get me better [ads] soon."

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RandyCassinghamsBlog/~3/mhAs2lX3SLQ/blog-robbing_peter_to_pay_paul.html http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-robbing_peter_to_pay_paul.html Online Life Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:00:00 -0700 http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-robbing_peter_to_pay_paul.html The Life You Save May Be... A special "extra" story this week. I've pulled it out separately because it doesn't "really" fit in with True's theme. While it is a bit weird, it's certainly not about someone doing something stupid.

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RandyCassinghamsBlog/~3/ZojYgBaJFUU/blog-the_life_you_save_may_be.html http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-the_life_you_save_may_be.html Update Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:00:00 -0700 http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-the_life_you_save_may_be.html 1984 in 2010 My recent blog post analyzing a Zero Tolerance case (Patrick Timoney's "Gun") showed just how crazy people can get trying to control others, and their desire to punish non-transgressions just the same as if the person was actually doing something wrong. Most people fully got the point. Others, to my shock, didn't.

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RandyCassinghamsBlog/~3/MDniUSXf0Kk/blog-1984_in_2010.html http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-1984_in_2010.html Rants Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:00:00 -0700 http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-1984_in_2010.html Patrick Timoney's "Gun" The "zero tolerance" stories just don't stop, despite court decisions and legislators demanding "common sense". A 2" hunk of plastic isn't a gun, unless you're a hysterical grade school principal who demands that 9-year-olds in your care sign confessions when they bring a toy to school.

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RandyCassinghamsBlog/~3/hbyQaF-Y8OA/blog-patrick_timoneys_gun.html http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-patrick_timoneys_gun.html Zero Tolerance Mon, 08 Feb 2010 20:00:00 -0700 http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-patrick_timoneys_gun.html New Project: the Mug Shot Museum The last time I posted a police photo of someone I wrote about in True*, more than 10,000(!!) people went and looked.

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RandyCassinghamsBlog/~3/RiUlw-CGSZI/blog-new_project_the_mug_shot_museum.html http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-new_project_the_mug_shot_museum.html Other Projects Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:05:27 -0700 http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-new_project_the_mug_shot_museum.html On Stage with Penn & Teller This is the sordid tale of my having been exposed to Teller's bodily fluids.

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RandyCassinghamsBlog/~3/jF3NDnNdAJE/blog-on_stage_with_penn_teller.html http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-on_stage_with_penn_teller.html Away From Work Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:00:00 -0700 http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-on_stage_with_penn_teller.html Mystery Power Outage We have a pretty complex power system at our house in the country: critical systems (heat, fridge/freezer, and the office, including the computer network) are on backup power so we can run them for days in case of a power outage. The worst so far has been just a few hours, most recently when a pole on the edge of our property snapped when it was really, really cold (apparently the pole had rotted, and then couldn't take the cold). So I was really perplexed when I got an alert last night that the backed-up circuits had failed ...yet the rest of the house was on. Huh?!

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RandyCassinghamsBlog/~3/c4lo49GDl_s/blog-mystery_power_outage.html http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-mystery_power_outage.html Away From Work Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:00:00 -0700 http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-mystery_power_outage.html Ed Freeman and Political Manipulation I generally don't want suggestions for True's Honorary Unsubscribe feature; my usual problem is having far too many possibilities for the one slot each week. In July, a new trend started, and has not stopped (I got another last week): people wanting me to do an Honorary Unsubscribe write-up for Ed Freeman, a brave Vietnam War helicopter pilot who saved about 30 shot-up kids and was awarded the Medal of Honor -- the U.S.'s highest military decoration.

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RandyCassinghamsBlog/~3/WdTop6yHDxY/blog-ed_freeman_and_political_manipulation.html http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-ed_freeman_and_political_manipulation.html Other Projects Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:00:00 -0700 http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-ed_freeman_and_political_manipulation.html A Picture Worth 1,000 Anytime Minutes  

Update:

This page expanded into an Entire Web Site

Sure: a picture is "worth 1,000 words". Sometimes it's worth 1,000 minutes on your cell phone plan, as in this case. The story, from True's 27 December 2009 issue: ]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RandyCassinghamsBlog/~3/zMjjyjW6S9A/blog-a_picture_worth_1000_anytime_minutes.html http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-a_picture_worth_1000_anytime_minutes.html Photo Fri, 01 Jan 2010 20:00:00 -0700 http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-a_picture_worth_1000_anytime_minutes.html Avatar Movie Review I'm not sure if I've ever done a movie review in True before, and I won't be doing them that often, but I went to see Avatar this weekend, and I was very impressed. Over the past several weeks I saw a lot of the hype for the movie, including quite a few clips, and frankly none of it attracted me. I was intrigued that several actors who weren't in the movie were promoting it, apparently not sent by the studio or James Cameron; that said more to me than anything else.

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RandyCassinghamsBlog/~3/uU7qObWgFNg/blog-avatar_movie_review.html http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-avatar_movie_review.html Away From Work Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:00:00 -0700 http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-avatar_movie_review.html A Clever Disguise...? Once again, a picture is worth a thousand words. But I'm not sure that in this case, two pictures are worth two thousand words!

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RandyCassinghamsBlog/~3/HUHdlfX4htU/blog-a_clever_disguise.html http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-a_clever_disguise.html Photo Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:00:00 -0700 http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-a_clever_disguise.html Dell Hell and Dumb People I know This is True is about people doing dumb things, but it still amazes me when people do dumb things to me. (But no, this is not about a dumb reader.)

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RandyCassinghamsBlog/~3/dII3KqCzBoc/blog-dell_hell_and_dumb_people.html http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-dell_hell_and_dumb_people.html Update Fri, 27 Nov 2009 20:00:00 -0700 http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-dell_hell_and_dumb_people.html Paul Clarke and British Zero Tolerance  

Update:

Clarke Goes Free

Often when I include an article about "zero tolerance" in True, I hear from people outside the United States who claim some variation of "only in America!"

Not so, of course. Some of the most outrageous examples happen in the British Commonwealth countries, including England. Such was the case this week (the 15 November 2009 edition), with this outrage:

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RandyCassinghamsBlog/~3/dDgfghJR0tM/blog-paul_clarke_and_british_zero_tolerance.html http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-paul_clarke_and_british_zero_tolerance.html Zero Tolerance Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:00:00 -0700 http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-paul_clarke_and_british_zero_tolerance.html Lessons from a Strange Death Odd deaths are a staple story type in True, sometimes as a cautionary tale about what not to do, and sometimes as a way to point out how horribly we can treat others. There has been an update in a 2007 "weird death" story.

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RandyCassinghamsBlog/~3/s-iquGQIlLg/blog-lessons_from_a_strange_death.html http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-lessons_from_a_strange_death.html Update Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:00:00 -0700 http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-lessons_from_a_strange_death.html Noblesse Oblige Or, Was I Offensive to Little Girls?

There was a phrase in the previous blog entry on the 6-year-old kid, where I imagined the school staff: "Run in circles! Pull out your hair! Scream like a little girl!" Today Nancy in Illinois complained that was "sexist language".

]]> http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RandyCassinghamsBlog/~3/O_prHY6X3Cg/blog-noblesse_oblige.html http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-noblesse_oblige.html Language Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:00:00 -0700 http://www.thisistrue.com/blog-noblesse_oblige.html