XIAM007 - Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World: 03/29/11

Tuesday, 29 March 2011

Congress racks up $15,000 in Unpaid Parking Tickets - must pay their own tickets not permitted to use official funds -

Members of Congress have immunity from many routine parking tickets in the District of Columbia, but that doesn’t mean they can’t try to rack up fines.

According to a Roll Call survey of vehicles parked on Capitol Hill and at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, as of mid-March, lawmakers were carrying at least $15,000 in outstanding tickets — ranging from expired meters to speeding camera violations — and potentially thousands of dollars more.

Three-quarters of those tickets, worth about $11,500, were in default at the time of the survey, having gone more than 60 days, and in some cases years, without payment.

Roll Call canvassed Congressional parking facilities, as well as a special Members-only parking lot at the airport, and reviewed about 300 vehicles displaying a House- or Senate-issued Member parking tag.

Information on parking violations was obtained from the District of Columbia’s public ticket database, which is searchable by license plate and includes information on minor violations.

While many vehicles registered a single ticket, valued at as little as $20, a handful of automobiles reported several hundred to thousands of dollars in unpaid tickets.

Roll Call’s inquiry appears to have led some offenders to pay up.

Aides to Reps. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) and Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) said the lawmakers repaid their respective tickets after being contacted by Roll Call.

The District’s database showed Weiner received nearly $2,180 in tickets from 2007 to early March, including some instances in which he appears to have incurred multiple violations at the same time, such as failing to display current tags while parked in a taxi stand zone.

“All of the Congressman’s parking tickets have been paid. He is pleased to have helped decrease the D.C. budget deficit,” Weiner spokesman Dave Arnold said.

Thompson spokesman Lanier Avant likewise said the Mississippi lawmaker repaid $610 in outstanding tickets that his vehicle received from 2004 to 2010. During Roll Call’s survey, a second vehicle displaying Thompson’s Member parking permit also returned $250 in parking tickets, which Avant said were his own and were also repaid.

According to the House Administration Committee, Members must pay their own parking tickets and are not permitted to use official funds.

Mar. 29, 2011, MESSENGER captured this historic image of Mercury - first ever obtained from Mercury orbit -

First Image Ever Obtained from Mercury Orbit

At 5:20 am EDT on Mar. 29, 2011, MESSENGER captured this historic image of Mercury. This image is the first ever obtained from a spacecraft in orbit about the Solar System's innermost planet. Over the subsequent six hours, MESSENGER acquired an additional 363 images before downlinking some of the data to Earth. The MESSENGER team is currently looking over the newly returned data, whic

Read more - http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1907.html

10 places with some of the weirdest traffic laws - plenty of weird statutes around the world -

Driving through New Brunswick? Better stay off the roads — it’s apparently against the law to drive on them.

Wait, what?

Obscure and silly road laws are nothing new. In fact, there are plenty of weird statutes around the world that continue to leave many motorists scratching their heads, even if these laws are seldom enforced or obeyed.

Below are 10 places with some of the weirdest traffic laws:

10. Montreal: If you live in Montreal, you’d better be careful about where you leave your car when you get home. It’s against the law to park your car in such a way that it is blocking your own driveway. And forget about washing your car while it’s parked on the street, that’s against the law, too. If you’re an Ontarian passing through Montreal, make sure to remember that turning right on a red light is not allowed in the city — something that is largely legal in the rest of the country. Doing so will fetch you a traffic ticket.

9. Denmark: Checking all areas of your car before hitting the road is a good rule of thumb. But in Denmark, it’s the law. Motorists are required to check all lights, brakes, steering, and honk the horn every time they get in the car. Drivers are also required by law to check underneath the car to ensure there are no sleeping children.

8. Beijing: We know smog is a problem in many parts of China, but this seems like an overkill attempt to curb idling. In Beijing, drivers are liable to receive a fine of up to five yuan (or less than a Canadian dollar) and a warning for stopping at pedestrian crossings.

7. Ontario: In Ontario, there are a few statutes that, somehow, have stood the test of time. These outdated laws might not be so relevant today, but they’re still on the books. For example, if you ever find yourself riding an open-sleigh on the highway for some inexplicable reason (hey, maybe it’s Christmas), make sure you have the right number of bells attached. Having less than two could earn you a $5 fine. And if you’re a TTC rider in Toronto, remember that it’s illegal to ride a streetcar on Sunday if you’ve been eating garlic. Weird.

6. New Jersey: Motorists used to handling the pumps at gas stations could be in for a shock when pulling in for a top-up at any station in New Jersey. That’s because it’s illegal for drivers there to pump their own gas. Only gas station employees can pump gas in the Garden State — what’s known as “full-service”. The controversial law was passed in 1949 after lawmakers felt it was too dangerous to have untrained drivers pumping their own fuel.

5. Detroit: Motor City may be known for its love of cars, but over there, it’s strictly a no-no to make love in one. Couples are banned from having sex in a vehicle unless the act takes place while the car is parked on the couple’s own property.

4. California: Forget texting and driving. In California, it's against the law to shoot at wild game from a moving vehicle. As if stating the obvious wasn't enough, the Golden State had to go and create a law to dissuade drivers with itchy trigger fingers.

3. Maryland: Watch your mouth while driving in Rockville, Maryland. It’s illegal to curse in public, and this includes inside your car. So if you mouth off in a fit of rage while stuck in traffic, and the motorist next to you complains (or is a cop), you could be fined up to $100 or receive jail time of up to 90 days.

2. Saudi Arabia: It’s fairly well-known that in Saudi Arabia, women are barred from driving cars. But many don’t know that there are two highways near the holy city of Mecca: one for Muslims that runs through the city, and another for non-Muslims that goes around it. If a Muslim is accompanied by a non-Muslim, both are required to use the alternate highway. Violators caught driving on the wrong highway could face fines.

1. Minnesota: Remember the “Keep it beautiful” adage that used to adorn Ontario licence plates? Well, in Minnetonka, Minnesota, it’s the law to keep your car clean. It’s considered a public nuisance for “a truck or other vehicle whose wheels or tires deposit mud, dirt, sticky substances, litter or other material on any street or highway.” Failure to keep your wheels spic and span here could cost you up to $2,000.

World’s Largest Arms Importer is Now India, not China - and plans to purchase 250 Stealth Fighter Jets -

India has spent US$80 billion to modernize its military to keep up with China and now, India has become the world’s number one arms importer according to Swedish think-tank keeping tabs on global arms transactions. India makes up 9 percent of global arms purchases while China has 6 percent of market share in comparison.

"India has ambitions to become first a continental and [then] a regional power," Rahul Bedi, an analyst with London-based Jane's Defence Weekly, told AP.

"Just from what they have already ordered, we know that in the coming few years India will be the top importer," said Siemon Wezeman, a senior fellow at SIPRI told the International Business Times.

SIPRI’s report stated India’s defense budget for the coming fiscal year is in the region of $32.5 billion, 40 percent more than in 2009. In addition, India will spend over $50 billion in the next five years to modernize its military – including purchasing new fighter jets and aircraft carriers.

"The kind of purchases that India is buying, no country in the world buys,” added Bedi of Jane's Defence Weekly. India has also been importing 82 percent of its weapons from Russia and plans to purchase 250 to 300 advanced fifth-generation stealth fighter jets worth $30 billion in the next decade.

“More African American men are in prison or jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved before the Civil War began,” -

“More African American men are in prison or jail, on probation or parole than were enslaved in 1850, before the Civil War began,” Michelle Alexander told a standing room only house at the Pasadena Main Library this past Wednesday, the first of many jarring points she made in a riveting presentation.
Alexander, currently a law professor at Ohio State, had been brought in to discuss her year-old bestseller, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Interest ran so high beforehand that the organizers had to move the event to a location that could accommodate the eager attendees. That evening, more than 200 people braved the pouring rain and inevitable traffic jams to crowd into the library’s main room, with dozens more shuffled into an overflow room, and even more latecomers turned away altogether. Alexander and her topic had struck a nerve.
Growing crime rates over the past 30 years don’t explain the skyrocketing numbers of black — and increasingly brown — men caught in America’s prison system, according to Alexander, who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun after attending Stanford Law. “In fact, crime rates have fluctuated over the years and are now at historical lows.”
“Most of that increase is due to the War on Drugs, a war waged almost exclusively in poor communities of color,” she said, even though studies have shown that whites use and sell illegal drugs at rates equal to or above blacks. In some black inner-city communities, four of five black youth can expect to be caught up in the criminal justice system during their lifetimes.
As a consequence, a great many black men are disenfranchised, said Alexander — prevented because of their felony convictions from voting and from living in public housing, discriminated in hiring, excluded from juries, and denied educational opportunities.
“What do we expect them to do?” she asked, who researched her ground-breaking book while serving as Director of the Racial Justice Project at the ACLU of Northern California. “Well, seventy percent return to prison within two years, that’s what they do.”

Read more - http://www.laprogressive.com/law-and-the-justice-system/black-men-prison-system/