Category Archives: Everything Else

A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

Month-long Traffic Jam Expected in China

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The Beijing-Tibet Expressway is currently on day 9 of a 60-mile long traffic jam…. and the gridlock is expected to last a month more, as construction on a parallel roadway continues. (Where’s the Doctor when you need him?)

This is not just slow moving traffic. The roadway is at a standstill, and highway-side markets have sprung up to keep the people trapped in their vehicles fed:

Truck drivers interviewed by Chinese state media said they were forced to buy instant noodles at four times their original price from local residents while they sat for days playing cards or just resting in their vehicles.

Traffic is rapidly becoming a major problem in China — the traffic has a spill-over effect off the highway, as delays in delivery lead to delays in production and manufacturing, not to mention that any perishable goods will be ruined long before the current traffic jam is over — but the government has some creative proposals for how to address the problem. I’m skeptical about whether the Straddling Bus will work as well in practice as it does in theory, but it still looks pretty darn cool:

Proposed by Shenzhen Hashi Future Parking Equipment Co., Ltd, the model looks like a subway or light-rail train bestriding the road. It is 4-4.5 m high with two levels: passengers board on the upper level while other vehicles lower than 2 m can go through under. Powered by electricity and solar energy, the bus can speed up to 60 km/h carrying 1200-1400 passengers at a time without blocking other vehicles’ way. Also it costs about 500 million yuan to build the bus and a 40-km-long path for it, only 10% of building equivalent subway. It is said that the bus can reduce traffic jams by 20-30%.

-Susan

We Cannot Afford to Be Tolerant Towards Islam When Our President is a Muslim: The Rise of Islamophobia Under the Obama Administration

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Is there a connection between the increasingly anti-Muslim tenor of American political discourse and the persistent rumors of Obama’s secret Islamic faith?

There’s no way to empirically prove the connection that I can think of, but I do wonder if the paranoia over Obama’s religious beliefs and location of birth have contributed to the current hostility towards Islam, culminating in the “Ground Zero Mosque” controversy.

Under Bush, the hysteria over Muslims as a whole was not as prominent. The hysteria over Muslim terrorists was pretty high, yes, but there was a firm distinction drawn between “Muslims” and “terrorists.” Bush’s political message was, in general, focused on outreach to and inclusion of the Muslim majority while characterizing Al-Qaeda and other terrorists groups as “a fringe movement that perverts the peaceful teachings of Islam”:

I also want to speak tonight directly to Muslims throughout the world. We respect your faith. It’s practiced freely by many millions of Americans, and by millions more in countries that America counts as friends. Its teachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah. The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself. The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends; it is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, and every government that supports them.

For Obama, however, such inclusiveness and tolerance comes at a much higher political cost and meets with greater resistance and anger. Although he did publicly defend the building of Park51 — a step I was surprised to see him take, and do give him credit for — it came at a very high cost in terms of the poll numbers.

Bush could defend the rights of Muslims and be thought of a just and respectful man for it; but no one believed Bush was secretly born in a Muslim nation, and he was overwhelmingly known to be a Christian. He also took a hawkish approach to foreign policy and national security, and had the Republican branding on both those points to back him up.

Although Obama is no dove — and, if anything, he has simply continued the national security strategy of the previous administration — he is viewed as weaker on national security by default for being a Democrat. He has done a good job of giving his critics very little ammo on this front, though, and by and large the “Obama is a weakling dove” meme hasn’t taken hold, because Obama’s policies haven’t given the media any chance to spin him out as a coward who won’t use force when it’s require. However, the “Obama is an Anti-American Islamosocialist” meme is out in full force, and it polarizes any political issue that touches on Islam.

In fact, 1 out of every 5 Americans believe Obama is a Muslim. And if you narrow the sample down to Republicans, a whopping 1 in the 3 believe he is. This is stupidly, crazy high.

And in an America where nearly 20% of the population thinks their president is a “secret Muslim,” there is less room for tolerance and nuance in political messaging. I do suspect that the fact Obama is president is a large part of why — compared to eight or nine years ago — expressions of anti-Muslim sentiment have increased and been met with greater acceptance, and I suspect it is also why the Ground Zero Mosque controversy came to exist at all.

-Susan

Paper Towel Dispensers and Restroom-User Confusion

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Via the Trademark Blog, is it a trademark violation to put paper towels in a paper towel dispenser, if the paper towels are manufactured by someone other than the paper towel dispenser?

Answer: Maybe. Or at least, there’s enough of a question there to survive summary judgment.

GP licenses the ENMOTION towel dispenser to distributors who license it to restroom operators. The restroom operators are contractually obligated to use only ENMOTION brand toweling. Von Drehle created compatible (and allegedly inferior) paper for the ENMOTION dispenser. Fourth Circuit reverses lower court’s dismissal of GP’s trademark infringement cause, as GP may be allowed to show actionable post-purchase confusion by the non-purchasing public: namely restroom users who expect ENMOTION towels to come out of an ENMOTION dispenser (GP argued that this was analogous to expectations that COCA COLA is dispensed from a COCA COLA-marked soda fountain.

So no, it’s not a problem that the “consumers” here are restroom patrons that pretty much have no choice about which kind of paper towel they would prefer to use. The court accepts the analogy that what the Defendant is doing is like a hotel lobby that dispenses complimentary generic cola out of a Coca-Cola branded machine. As the consumers are expecting to receive a tasty trademarked beverage, they will be confused when instead they get some brackish generic knock off.

Because the 4th Circuit found there was a disputed question of fact, it remanded the case. GP managed (somehow) to find three experts who could testify that public restroom visitors expect there to be a correlation between the kind of dispenser and the kind of paper towel that comes out. I am exceedingly dubious about those studies’ validity, because I can’t imagine anyone out there seriously expects to be getting “brand name” paper towels. While the Defendant won’t get its summary judgment, I have an awfully hard time believing GP can prevail on this claim before a jury.

As noted on the Trademark Blog, the concurrence at page 25 is pretty entertaining: “oh hey GP, btw, if you win this whole trademark infringement, watch out on that whole ‘tying arrangement’ deal, that’s maybe kind of an antitrust violation you got going on there.”

Also — I don’t think I’ve ever seen an opinion where, as here, rather than writing out the word marks or assigning names for the logos, the actual stylized marks are shown. Is this a common practice that I’m just unaware of because I’m almost always reading from Lexis or WestLaw?

It’s annoying as hell, and doesn’t look very professional. I’m not usually the crotchety type about this kind of thing, but I don’t like it.

-Susan

New Titi Discovered in the Amazon

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A pair of White-eared Titis. Not the newly discovered species, but they are cuter, so I used a photo of them instead.

A new monkey species has been discovered in Colombia—

A scientist first glimpsed Callicebus caquetensis—a type of titi monkey—in the 1960s. But political strife in the southern Caquetá Province kept scientists away until 2008, when an expedition finally confirmed the bearded monkey as a new species.

The cat-size primate is “fascinating” because it mates for life, an unusual trait among monkeys, said expedition leader Thomas Defler, a primatologist at the National University of Colombia in Bogotá. Pairs are often spotted sitting on branches with their tails intertwined.

The Caquetá titi has, somewhat unoriginally, been named for the Colombian province it was discovered in. Back in 2004, another newly discovered monkey species got a much more interesting name — the GoldenPalace.com Titi, Callicebus aureipalatii. The naming rights to C. aureipalatii were auctioned off, with the funds going to a non-profit organization. You can probably guess who the winner of that auction was.

-Susan

Major Defect of Washington, D.C. To Be Cured

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As a native Atlantan, I consider Chick-fil-A to be an important staple of a healthy diet. On road trips between Atlanta and D.C. with other friends from home, Chick-fil-A is generally the only acceptable fast food stop. In the search of delicious chicken burgers, we have been known to push the gas gauge until it’s pointing past empty, refusing to turn off the highway until we hit an exit with a Chick-fil-A sign. (Under my Rules of Driving, you’re only allowed one pit stop the whole trip, so it’s important that you don’t stop to fill up until you find decent food.)

So I was pretty pleased to see that Chick-fil-A is planning to open up “Urban Store,” including a Washington, D.C. location:

The College Park-based chain’s 1,500th store, opening Thursday, is about two blocks from the Coliseum in downtown Los Angeles, adjacent to the University of Southern California. Urban stores also are planned for Chicago and Washington, D.C. The company has fewer than two dozen “in-line” stores — part of an urban block as opposed to stand-alone stores or food courts.

Although to be fair, there actually is a Chick-fil-A in D.C. already. It’s in the GW foodcourt, which was pretty handy during law school, even though it was more like a Chick-fil-A-lite — if you wanted something other than a basic sandwich or chicken nuggets, you were out of luck.

-Susan

Victory Over Japan Day Still Exists? For reals?

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Today is the 65th anniversary of the day on which Fat Man, the second atomic bomb, was dropped on Nagasaki.

It also happens to be VJ Day. That is, “Victory Over Japan Day,” commemorating Japan’s surrender to the Allies. And it’s a state holiday in Rhode Island.

I had no idea such a thing even existed past the 1940’s, until a friend living in RI mentioned it. Rhode Island is, at least, the only state to celebrate this rather anachronistic holiday, but it’s really sort of awkward that it exists at all. There’s just something bizarre about having a holiday celebrating a military victory over a Major U.S. ally.

Although back in 1990 the Rhode Island GA passed a resolution helpfully clarifying that VJ Day is “not a day to express satisfaction in the destruction and death caused by nuclear bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” all other attempts at revoking the holiday or at least renaming it have failed.

I suppose it’s just too risky of a political activity, with too little gain, for any politician to try very hard at getting rid of it. Although it’s kind of embarrassing, it doesn’t cause any real harm, so people are content to let it be. Otherwise, any politician that does give a “yes” vote to nixing the holiday will forever after have to deal with charges from opposing candidates that “Politician X is against supporting U.S. veterans,” or deal with campaign trail questions of, “Why do you think America should not celebrate its victories and pay its respects to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice?”

-Susan

Brilliant People Agree With Orin

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Here is a superb and extremely insightful post from Orin Kerr, the World’s Most Reasonable Person:

One of the consequences of confirmation bias is that we are overly impressed by ideas that we happen to share. It’s a natural instinct, if not watched carefully. If you read something that reflects or resonates with your own views, you’ll agree with it. Upon agreeing with it, you’ll think it is highly persuasive. And if it’s highly persuasive, it’s probably brilliant.

I agree with everything you have ever written, Orin. Except for maybe that one grade in Computer Crime, I think you were maybe a little tiny bit half-a-grade wrong then, possibly. But everything else you are right about.

-Susan

A Mosque in Manhattan

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The 9/11 terrorists did not carry out a strategic assault aimed at weakening America’s military capabilites, but instead made an attack on the abstract concept of “Americaness” itself. The Twin Towers were the chosen target not because the World Trade Center was literally or factually involved in the United State’s perceived transgressions, but because they were an iconic symbol of America as a whole.

To the terrorists, it was irrelevant that the towers were full of people who were just going about their daily lives, 99.9% of whom did not have the slightest thing to do with America’s involvement in the Middle East beyond the fact they mostly happened to share a nationality with those who were.

I think that’s what kills me the most about the absurd sturm und drang that has sprung up around the construction of the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque.” Ignoring the most absurd parts of the debate — (1) The Muslim center is not actually in the Ground Zero area, but is several blocks away, and (2) Hello, anyone remember the First Amendment? — it’s the way that the anti-Mosque faction has adopted the same narrow mindset as the terrorist groups that is the most bothersome. For both groups, the thinking goes something like this:

The Twin Towers were a prominent symbol of the idea of America; certain American initiatives abroad were wrongful interferences with the affairs of other nations or were perceived as such by radical terrorist groups; ergo, the Twin Towers should be destroyed. A mosque is a prominent symbol of Islam; certain Islamic groups carried out horrific attacks on the Twin Towers; ergo, mosques are prohibited from ever existing in lower Manhattan.

The logic, or rather lack thereof, is the same in both cases.

That prominent American figures have bought into this political synecdochism is embarrassing and wrong-headed, and is costing us a rather excellent opportunity to show the world who the better man is. Americans have a Constitutional right to build a Mosque wherever construction of a similar structure would be permitted, but this goes beyond basic legal rights; the idea that the Cordoba House is to be punished merely because it happens to have the same descriptive label — “Muslim” — as some people who once did something bad to the U.S. is a fundamentally un-American belief. In contrast, I cannot imagine a better symbol for the American ideal than that of a Mosque, quietly co-existing with its neighbors, close to where the Twin Towers once stood.

-Susan

WikiLeaks Takes Out An Insurance Policy

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Last week, WikiLeaks released the Afghan War Diary, a collection of 77,000 classified U.S. military documents regarding the campaigns in Iraq in Afghanistan. Pfc. Bradley E. Manning is the primary suspect in the leak, and has been accused of providing WikiLeaks with State Department diplomatic cables as well as a video of a U.S. army helicopter attack in which unarmed civilians.

A few days ago, WikiLeaks quietly added up a new file to its page, 1.4GB, heavily encrypted, and given the mysterious and intriguing title of “Insurance file.” Speculation has run rampant as to what exactly it contained in the file, when or if it will be decrypted, and what the purpose behind it is. It’s hard to tell, though, if this is all a high tech cloak-and-daggers kind of move, or if it’s just smoke and mirrors being used to simply keep the DoD and DoJ on their toes:

The file, “insurance.aes256,” is ten times the size of the seven other files combined. Appears to be encrypted with AES Crypt. Wonder if it includes the 15,000 Afghan files withheld, or the original raw files, or perhaps much more, pre-positioned for public release (“insurance”) against an attack expected to come from DoD and Justice or parties unknown. A passphrase to be distributed or published widely in case of a takedown.

The “15,000 Afghan files withheld” are the files that Julian Assange alleges were withheld in order to protect extra-sensitive information.

The best guess I have seen is that the Insurance file is a mirror of the whole of WikiLeaks. It’s a more boring explanation, but it does make a certain amount of sense — this way, no matter what government officials do, WikiLeaks will continue to exist in the form of thousands or even millions of mirror copies spread out on computers all around the world.

As for Assange, there’s been a manhunt on for him for months now, but Assange has avoided making any appearances in the United States. It’s pretty clear that if they ever do find him, the DoJ intends to take legal action against him — prosecution for various security violations does not seem unlikely.

-Susan

You Know How If You Repeat a Word Too Many Times it Loses All Meaning?

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It turns out there’s actually a term for that: semantic satiation.

The explanation for the phenomenon was that verbal repetition repeatedly aroused a specific neural pattern in the cortex which corresponds to the meaning of the word. Rapid repetition causes both the peripheral sensorimotor activity and the central neural activation to fire repeatedly, which is known to cause reactive inhibition, hence a reduction in the intensity of the activity with each repetition. Jakobovits James (1962) calls this theory the beginning of “experimental neurosemantics.”

There is also a reverse but related phenomenon, semantic generation, which describes an increase in the intensity of meaning of a word when it is repeated:

It would seem at first that semantic generation and semantic satiation are contradictory phenomena, since at one time repeated exposure leads to an increase in the intensity of meaning and at another time to a decrease. This seeming paradox can be resolved by presenting a frequency law (see Jakobovits & Lambert, 1963, and Jakobovits & Hogenraad, 1967) which states that the relation between the intensity of a response and the frequency of exposure of the stimulus approximates an inverted U-shaped distribution. The rising part of the curve represents the semantic generation phase, indicating an increase in intensity of meaning during the initial stages of repetition. The falling part of the curve represents the semantic satiation phase, indicating a decrease in intensity of meaning as exposure continues. The point where the curve changes inflection is referred to as the “critical point” and marks the stage after which exposure results in an inhibitory rather than a facilitative effect.

-Susan