You have to pick one of these ebook readers up to appreciate the difference between reading on an LCD and reading on epaper - epaper is significantly higher res (800x600 compared to the old PDA standard of 320x240 or 480x320) and is easy to read in direct sunlight, where LCDs wash out and become unreadable. Then there's the battery life issue; PDAs will last maybe 5 hours on a charge, where ebooks will last long enough for weeks worth of reading. Sure, you can't surf the web or read in the dark the way you can with a PDA, but for people who read a lot of plain text, an ebook is actually a really great device to have.

Is public lewdness if there is no "public" around? If a man moons in the forest...

From the limited details I've found online, it seems to me that Walmart paid these folks for their archiving services along the way - and there is no dispute about back money owed as near as I can tell. What happened is that Walmart decided to stop using the service and because there was no written agreement between the companies, the video company decided to basically blackmail Walmart with release of the internal videos that they had already paid to have made. When Walmart didn't offer as much as they wanted, they opened up the footage for public sale. That's about the same as if your doctor decided to publicly release your medical records when you decided to start seeing another doctor.

If Walmart and this company had a written agreement it would have undoubtedly covered the footage as "work for hire" and Walmart would have had the rights. Whether or not the release of the footage by Flagler is legal, it's unethical. I'm with Walmart on this one - and I don't see why they should be criticised for making a "lowball" offer. It was their footage to begin with and it was already paid for.

I've always been more a fan of the long con genre - anyone know of a similar book about that side of the con?

Incidently, for those who haven't seen it the BBC show "Hustle" which played on AMC in the US is actually pretty good. A mix of short and long cons with some fun twists. Well, the first season anyway, and only up to the point where they get all moralistic. But it's worth watching if you like the con genre.

I'd like to point out that cdoctorow.com/org/net are all available for interested parties....

I like the steampunk aesthetic as much as any person, but this jump-the-shark material.

Of course, the total area of Manhattan is bigger than Manhattan as well - probably 8-10 times as big.

There is a difference between developing a theory based on facts and groundless conjecture. We know that:

1) she likely died of asphyxiation
2) she died in police custody
3) the story by the persons at fault makes no sense

My theory works forward from those facts. Your speculation works backward from the assumption that official sources are telling the truth, and that one way or another Carol was responsible for her own death. That's just trying to fill in holes in their story; the story of those whose actions led to Carol's death. I am not quick to believe the word of the accused just because it wears a badge, and nor should anyone else be.

That's asinine and insulting, Timkuo. She's the daughter-in-law of the 2nd highest elected official in New York City. She's the mother of three young children. She's never has any trouble with the law that we know of. I'm sure the media and the cops would love to paint her as either a trouble-making problem child or an entitled Manhattan Liberal-Elite, but to slander her as a druggie is a new low.

@phasor3000: note that I said homicide, not murder. I have an open mind, but to facts, not to the statements of those who may have committed a crime.

I don't think it takes a forensic scientist to figure out that it's completely implausible that she strangled herself with her own handcuffs.

As someone quite familiar with police brutality investigations, I can tell you that the one thing we can learn about the case from the story about strangulation is that indeed asphyxiation is likely the cause of death - cops aren't stupid, and they know a lie that's the closest to the truth is the one most likely to be believed (or at least get them off). I'm guessing choke hold is the cause of death here.

I think it's also important not to take any part of the cop's story as truth, from the cause of arrest to the cause of death. As we've seen from many other similar cases, they always play up the person as being crazed, irrational, and violent. They always throw in the chrage of resisting arrest too, which is usually a red flag for me. We'll know more in the coming days (hopefully), but taking any of the statements of the police or TSA as fact is a mistake at this point. It's a homicide and the perpetrators should not believed.

Condolences to the family.