I wonder what is their species. Does anyone know? Are they related at the crazy yellow ant (Wikipedia)? Sounds pretty nasty; invasive species are one of the prime drivers in the loss of biodiversity.

I'll have to try the flashlight-spider thing. Finding scorpions with UV lights (blacklight) is great fun, however. Their bodies fluoresce quite dramatically under UV. And then you never walk barefoot again.

For human camera detection, I prefer the mask approach. Or the social-engineering method: "I understand you've been having some problems with your CCTV, could you point out the cameras?"

pork musket: Although Virgin America is a separately run company, they are using the same brand name, licensed from Virgin Group. I think boycotting all Virgin Group holdings would be reasonable. If others in the Virgin Group will tolerate one company abusing their customers while maintaining their branded ties, then they all deserve to sink together.

As a former high school teacher it certainly seems to me that punishment is suspect, at least if the news report is the whole story. What possible purpose could the punishment have, other than to suck all the fun out of school? Gold stars for the students indeed, and I am writing the principal's name on the board. (I'd send him to the front office, but who would he talk to?)

I concur that it is graffiti and should not be tolerated. The message here may be more in line with our sensibilities, but I don't see how this could be acceptable while "anarchy4evAr!!!" slogans (or "Limbaugh4President") are not.

Fortunately, we can count on the new chief of Heathrow security: A former loss preventions officer from the duty-free shop, who is (at least allegedly) in a relationship with the airport managing director. (Daily mail article pulled from Fark).

Well, as the economy tanks, at least we can count on bolstering business through intellectual property rights lawsuits--America's new growth industry!

What is the constitutionality of such actions? If the government effectively prohibits certain actions, when does that become an question of liberty under the fifth amendment (the taking of which requires due process)?

Wow, when I was a kid they gave skittles to kids for the vitamin C.*

Keeping junk food out of schools: good idea. Suspending students who buy candy: bad idea. If only they would ask me before making policy.

*Skittles contain 45% of the DV of vitamin C per serving (1.8 oz).

It seems like, from the linked article, the 2.1 trillion refers not to the value of orphaned loans, but to the value of bundled loans (some of which may be well tracked). Regardless, this is a huge amount (on the order of 15% of the US GDP, in round terms).

The relative responsibility of Mr. Lents, to my mind, pales in comparison to the responsibility of managing such a sum of money. Mismanagement on the order of trillions of dollars could cause widespread effects, so to do so on the basis of personal gain is reprehensible.

Good idea: Conduct job interviews from behind this desk.

Better idea: With people unfamiliar with the Star Wars movies.

A cop who loses his temper talking to teenagers? He should definitely not be a cop.

Thank goodness I was always suave and timelessly stylish through my late teens. My wavy blond mullet was both attractive and functional for all occasions, formal and informal. (At least the internets were not around then to attest otherwise.)

These guys are kids (maybe early 20s), and like all kids, they think they're the new hotness. No different than this guy or these guys (SFW: modern picture of leisure suit and greasers) were in their day.

I, for one, welcome our new peach overlords.

I concur with the spook theory here, although not necessarily due to an error. A known break in the cable may be the cover to install tap in the cable elsewhere (assuming that tapping an optical cable interrupts it if it is operating).

It rather puts an interesting spin on the Weird Al Yankovic song "Canadian Idiot"

How long until the only way to listen to music legally will be from a personal CD player on inner-ear headphones, with noise canceling headphones on top of them to make sure that no hint of music escapes them to the outside world?

I checked. That's slated for a week from Tuesday.

What is interesting to me is that it was a fairly unlikely event that they were caught. It is possible this is an isolated incident, and lacking evidence to the contrary, it should be treated as such. But what supervisor would ask an intern to create an photo of a dog in a santa hat ex nilio, or when presented with such an image (from an intern who would not have means to have independently created it), not asked where the image came from? If I were a betting man, my money would be on responsibility above the level of an intern, and a problem wider than a single image.

The best response (whatever the case) is not to sue Fox for infringement (at least not simply "to give them a taste of their own medicine, as it were"), since this only validates their tactic (even though the circumstances here are different).

Instead the opportunity is to draw up a reasonable list of 'demands' (things like "We (Fox) will carefully review any material used in our program for copyright infringement," and "we won't claim a copyright over material which we do not own." etc.--things which they could hardly say no to and ought to be doing anyway) in exchange for allowing use (post facto). The acceptance of public agreement to these demands will read as an apology, at least to the public. If they turn down an agreement to do what they are obligated to do anyway, that is also newsworthy. It probably won't change a thing at Fox, but will attract positive attention to copyright issues and excesses.