MetaFilter posts tagged with bill

“People never expect a youth to challenge the government".

jeffen — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 09:19:45 -0800

The Manitoba government's Bill C-18 compels all publicly-funded schools to accommodate students who want to form gay-straigt alliances. This bill has been met with resistance by religious schools, federal ministers and local clergy. Despite the furor, Education Minister Nancy Allan is not backing down, nor is sixteen-year old activist Evan Wiens.

Without Nick Fury, will the SHIELD Act Still Pass?

juiceCake — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 06:51:31 -0800

SHIELD Act introduced a second time to combat patent lawsuits that rely on those being sued going for settlements because the cost of defensive can be prohibitive. Though still a gamble, if SHIELD were in place and the defendant victorious, the patent holder would have to pay the legal costs. The bill is being reintroduced by Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Jason Chaffetz (R-UT). Arstechnica interviews DeFazio.

Reliving Groundhog Day

shivohum — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:05:09 -0800

Reliving Groundhog Day: On the 20th anniversary of the beloved Bill Murray comedy, it’s time to recognize it as a profound work of contemporary metaphysics.

What are the forces that prevent you from doing so?

notyou — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 12:47:37 -0800

Is there a man (or woman) among us with pluck enough to wear Big Bill Haywood's workingman's pants?

That is what I want to urge upon the working class; to become so organized on the economic field that they can take and hold the industries in which they are employed. Can you conceive of such a thing? Is it possible? What are the forces that prevent you from doing so? You have all the industries in your own hands at the present time. There is this justification for political action, and that is, to control the forces of the capitalists that they use against us; to be in a position to control the power of government so as to make the work of the army ineffective, so as to abolish totally the secret service and the force of detectives. That is the reason that you want the power of government. That is the reason that you should fully understand the power of the ballot. Now, there isn't any one, Socialist, S. L. P., Industrial Worker or any other workingman or woman, no matter what society you belong to, but what believes in the ballot. There are those--and I am one of them--who refuse to have the ballot interpreted for them. I know, or think I know, the power of it, and I know that the industrial organization, as I stated in the beginning, is its broadest interpretation. I know, too, that when the workers are brought together in a great organization they are not going to cease to vote. That is when the workers will begin to vote, to vote for directors to operate the industries in which they are all employed.

Ignorable.

roomthreeseventeen — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 11:16:27 -0800

How an apology from someone I had never heard of left me in tears. Bill Corbett (MST3K's Crow T. Robot) apologizes to the transgender community, in a damn classy fashion.

THOMAS

jeffburdges — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 09:42:23 -0800

Apparently, the USHOR Appropriations Committee feels uncomfortable about permitting convenient bulk access to THOMAS database of bills.

Bill Being Bill

glaucon — Wed, 23 May 2012 16:58:58 -0800

"I don't like to have a situation placed over my head." A very comfortable interview with Bill Murray in anticipation of Moonrise Kingdom. (Previously)

CISPA

jeffburdges — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 03:09:29 -0800

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) is a controversial surveillance bill that proposes broad legal exemptions for the U.S. government and private companies to share "cyber threat intelligence" that go well beyond the FISA Amendments Act which legalized the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program. The EFF has observed that CISPA undermines "established [privacy] laws like the Wiretap Act and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act [that] prevent companies from routinely monitoring private communications" by "creating a broad immunity against both civil and criminal liability". Any information obtained under these legal exemptions for cybersecurity is then explicitly permitted to be used for all other law enforcement purposes, potentially including copyright enforcement and censoring whistleblowers. In addition, CISPA has provisions allowing companies to take "countermeasures" on behalf of "cybersecurity purposes", which the EFF has labeled "ripe for abuse". They fear such purposes could include blocking websites, disrupting privacy tools like Tor, disrupting peer-to-peer technologies, or distributing spyware. Finally, CISPA creates a two year statute of limitations for suing the government and collaborating companies over privacy violations, potentially too short for the violation to even come to light, much less survive a legal challenge. CISPA's corporate supporters includes not only the telecoms who collaborated with the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program and defense contractors involved in intelligence work, but also many tech companies who helped defeat SOPA/PIPA, like Facebook and perhaps Google. These companies would gain the ability to sell their user data to government agencies and benefit from increased protections against lawsuits for privacy violations. In consequence, CISPA creator Mike Rogers (R-MI) has described protests against CISPA as "turbulence on .. landing".

Bill Ayers' dinner with Andrew Breitbart and Tucker Carlson

latkes — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 08:43:18 -0800

Dinner with Tucker Carlson seemed cheery and worthwhile compared to counseling a bunch of cringing liberals.

Killing techies, the Malaysian way

divabat — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 12:34:04 -0800

Malaysia is proposing a Computing Professionals Bill, based on the Registration of Engineers Act [.PDF] which makes it mandatory for all practicing "computing professionals" to be registered with a government body. Dealing in the IT industry, including sending “proposals, plans, designs, drawings, schemes, reports, studies or others to be determined by the Board to any person or authority in Malaysia” without being registered will incur a fine not exceeding RM20,000 (~US$6380) or 6 months in jail. Malaysian IT professionals and geeks are up in arms, and similarities have been drawn to Nigeria's law on computing professionals.

"What are you doing outside there?"

Fizz — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 09:01:15 -0800

COSBY NIGHTMAREZ [SLYT] David Lynch-esque Cosby Show mashup.

Dizzying Highs and Terrifying Lows

beisny — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 23:42:28 -0800

"Internationally, the league has never been stronger: It's the only American sports league that attracts stars from every corner of the world. Digitally, the league has been light years ahead of everyone else, embracing the revolution and staying ahead of the curve with social media and video content. It's also spent the past two decades carefully (and successfully) selling mostly black players to a mostly white audience, an ongoing conundrum that nearly submarined the league in the late-'70s and early-'80s. Throw in a killer 2011 Finals and everything looks fantastic on paper … except for the part that the league is losing money." - Bill Simmons analyzes the NBA labor dispute for his new website, Grantland.

Bill Gross' Investment Outlook

jimmymcvee — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 11:04:01 -0800

In his easily digested and insightful summary of America's long term outlook, Bill Gross writes that we're all living in Billy Joel's Allentown now and that the easy solutions, as is often the case, aren't necessarily the right ones.

Gimme an F! PH! Gimme an E! I! Gimme an A! S! Gimme a T! H!

muckster — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 15:01:05 -0800

"There was hookers, and hustlers, they filled up the room." It's a Phish Halloween tradition to play a costume set as another band. Last Sunday at Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall, they paid tribute to Little Feat's 1978 live album Waiting for Columbus. "Phish are repaying," David Fricke says in his Phishbill essay [pdf] "a lifelong debt to the band that has inspired and influenced them above all others." Saturday night was dedicated to an elaborate Led Zepplin trick, weaving Whole Lotta Love, Heartbreaker, Ramble On, and Stairway to Heaven in and out of Tweezer. Here's video of the entire Halloween costume set:

Yes to XXXXXAct ofXXXX!

swift — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:43:50 -0800

The XXXXXXAct ofXXXX bill passes the United States Senate.

Executive Decarbonization

kliuless — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 03:45:16 -0800

With the climate bill dead and blame portioned, Ezra Klein asks what happens when congress fails? He concludes that "regulations to reduce carbon emissions are alive and well. The Environmental Protection Agency can attack carbon as a pollutant, and the Obama administration's announcement that efforts to hamstring the EPA will be vetoed suggests that they mean to do exactly that." BONUS Global Warming Denial, Part 96 - How much is the inability to debate ideas hindered by a disagreement over simple factual data? Everything You Need to Know About Global Warming in 5 Minutes - Why are we arguing the issue? Challenging vested interests as powerful as the oil and coal lobbies was never going to be easy. Scientists are not naturally aggressive defenders of arguments. In short, they are conservatives by training: never, ever risk overstating your ideas. The skeptics are far, far more determined and expert propagandists to boot. They are also well funded. That smoking caused cancer was obfuscated deliberately and effectively for 20 years at a cost of hundreds of thousands of extra deaths. We know that for certain now, yet those who caused this fatal delay have never been held accountable. The profits of the oil and coal industry make tobacco's resources look like a rounding error. On global warming and techno-optimism - Sure, the argument goes, global warming is real. But it's a long-term problem. By the time it becomes a serious threat, we'll have more money, and more technology, to deal with it. Armageddon Wars: Overpopulation Vs. Global Warming - But global warming is different. The fact that carbon emissions are warming the planet doesn’t make it more expensive to produce those emissions. So companies do not have an ever-increasing incentive to emit less — the way they would if the problem were, say, a lack of oil. Global warming doesn’t solve itself the way that resource scarcity does. Ideas - A petroleum tax of $5 per barrel on every barrel of petroleum produced in America or imported, which would be put into place next year and increased by (my preference) $5 per barrel every year. Energy Transitions, Then and Now - From a new-ish paper on energy transitions, some fascinating data on the share of primary energy consumption by technology in the U.K. from 1500-2000. You can see the slow transition from biomass/food to coal, and then the faster one from coal to oil/natgas, etc. The other thing that struck me was that wind was a larger percentage of primary energy generation in 1700 than it is today. The Decarbonization Macro-Trend - As motors and power-plants of one sort or another have become more and more efficient, and as more carbon-dense fuels are replaced with less carbon-dense successors, the result has been the slow, 200-year 'decarbonization' of the world's fuel supply. The shift has been from wood to coal, coal to oil, oil to methane and, inevitably, methane to hydrogen.

The $600 Billion Challenge

grumblebee — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:28:49 -0800

"Bill Gates, Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffett are asking the nation's billionaires to pledge ... at least half their net worth to charity, in their lifetimes or at death."

Somebody bawl fo' Beulah

unliteral — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 20:11:06 -0800

The backstory to The Beulah Show. "After Beulah was cancelled, the three networks and independent television producers, fearful of being accused of perpetuating racial stereotypes, stopped casting Blacks in their shows almost entirely for the next fifteen years."

How Our Laws are made.

tomb — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 10:48:30 -0800

Nice graphic of the Bill to Law process Via The Sunlight Foundation.

Maher and Feather

Christ, what an asshole — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:57:43 -0800

Bill Maher's criticism of Obama? Be more like Bush. ...And just like Lindsey [Lohan], we see your name in the paper a lot, but we're kind of wondering when you're actually going to do something. Follow up of his statements with Keith Olbermann. ...But where's the beef? And it's easy to make speeches; what's hard to do is stand up against corporations. Corporations and their incredible strength are what have ruined this country so far, and this president -- we thought -- might be the one to stand up to them. I'm losing hope. I still have audacity, but my hope is fading.

Bill Peet

null terminated — Thu, 21 May 2009 00:52:47 -0800

Bill Peet (born Bill Peed) 1915-2002, was a Disney animator and children's book author. His work defined the Disney style, served as an inspiration for the movie Cars, and has amazed readers with the depth and expression of its characters. An exhibit of his work is running at the Art Institute of Chicago through May 24, 2009 (this Sunday). Peet worked at Disney for 27 years, where he was the only person to ever storyboard an entire film (and he did it twice, for The Sword and the Stone and 101 Dalmations). He was involved in ten films. Peet was also involved a number of shorts (all links youtube):

Goofy - Tiger Trouble (1945)
Goofy - African Diary (1945)
Goofy - Californy 'er Bust (1945)
Goofy - A Knight for a Day (1946)
Pluto - Wonder Dog (1950)
Lambert the Sheepish Lion (1952)
The Little House (1952) (adapted by Peet)
Ben and Me (1953) Part 1 Part 2
The Truth About Mother Goose (1957) Part 1 Part 2
Goliath II (1960) Part 1 Part 2

One short, Susie the Blue Coupe (1952) (Wikipedia), was "among the biggest design inspirations for" the Pixar movie Cars (pdf on Cars). The short deals with the selling into marriage, aging, abuse, alcoholism, and finally a happy ending (or deluded, dying hallucination) of a female car. The full 8 minute short can be seen here. Storyboards (more storyboards).

Peet had numerous disagreements with Walt Disey, detailed in his sprawling and award winning autobiography (See What was Walt like? (scans from the autobiography) and a fascinating interview about Walt and other topics).

Peet left Disney and published his first book, Hubert's Hair-Raising Adventure, in 1959. He would go on to publish 36 books.

Peet published the first environmental book for children, Farewell to Shady Glade in 1966. In 1970 he published The Wump World (full low-quality book scan). (The Wump was based on the Capybara, large rodents which Peet was "ashamed to admit" he owned as a pet). Both books bear similarities to The Lorax by Dr. Suess, which was published a year later.

For any cartooning nerds, more storyboards by Peet (all from Michael Sporn's blog):
101 Dalmations
Dumbo Bath from Dumbo
The Tar Baby scene from Song of the South (more)

More large scans from a blog talking about Bill Peet as an inspiration.

Peet was also involved in some of the most controversial of Disney's scenes, including the "Jim Crows" from Dumbo and the Tar Baby from Song of the South. He talks about this in the interview linked above. (This was intentionally pushed to the bottom so as not to become the focus of this post).

Henry Waxman and his band of Merry Mad Men

formless — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 09:00:41 -0800

The House passed H.R. 1256, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act a few days ago. The bill would put regulation of tobacco under the jurisdiction of the F.D.A. Some are critical of this bill, pointing out that Philip Morris is behind it. But the bill does contain many positive elements. Manufacturers would be required to disclose product ingredients to the F.D.A. and marketing to children would be further restricted. One aspect that hasn't been discussed much online is the impact this would have on the burgeoning hookah market. The hookah, or nargile, has a long history and culture associated with it. Recently, hookah bars have been popping up in the U.S., especially around college towns. The act specfically targets any flavored tobacco, including cloves, which would outlaw most Hookah tobacco or shisha. This could be seen both as an attempt to discourage smoking among young adults who may not see the health risks in hookah smoking and a move by big tobacco to eliminate new competition. There is one interesting exception from this flavor ban, menthol cigarettes.

In other news: Clay Aiken may be gay.

miss lynnster — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 11:58:58 -0800

Creator of the Cosby sweater acknowledges they're possibly the most horrible things you've ever seen. Please note: if you are a woman who bought a jacket from him a while ago, his cat may have died on the fabric. Just FYI.

Breakfast at Sulimay's

vronsky — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 13:13:36 -0800

Breakfast at Sulimay's with Bill, Moon, Joe and Ann: 1 featuring reviews of The Thermals, Joanna Newsom, The Decemberists, and Clipse. l 2 with The Knife, Deerhoof, and Paul Wall featuring 'lil Keke. l 5 with Asha, TI, Toby Mac. 6 with the Shins , !!!, and Common. l 7 with Bjork , Wilco , and Black Reble Motorcycle club. l 9 with Santogold, Portishead and Death Cab for Cutie! more (v) yt

Kind of Blue turns 50

Seekerofsplendor — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:22:27 -0800

As jazz fans know, fifty years ago on March 2, 1959, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, Paul Chambers and Jimmy Cobb met at the Columbia 30th Street Studios in NYC for the first session of Miles new album, Kind of Blue. (Link goes to the 50th anniversary collector's box set edition page at amazon.) It was the touchstone for many other future recordings bearing its mighty influence and it fostered several high profile careers, and a new modal sound for jazz. Kind of Blue went on to be certified platinum, selling 4 million records, the most ever for a jazz album. Bill Evans had left the band in late 1958, but was called back by Miles for the sessions, which included his new pianist Wynton Kelly on one track only, Freddie Freeloader. The tunes they did that day, "So What", "Blue in Green" (written by Evans, though credited to Miles) and "Freeloader" all became standards as did "All Blues" from the April session. Documentaries and entire books have been written on this one album alone. The phenomenon lives on. (previously on AskMeFi, but just on Trane and Miles.)