Live Free or Die

One of the ridiculous reasons I'm a vegetarian is a sense of general unfairness for the fate of farm animals. It boils down to this, billions of animals are raised in this country and they basically have zero chance at a full life, they either die on the feed lots from disease or accident or their lives are prematurely ended at the slaughter house. At the very least there should be some sort of lottery or death match event where one cow, or one pig, through intelligence, or brawn, or something, manages to secure it's freedom.

Which is why this story brings a sense of joy to my heart;

Last week, she [Molly the cow] successfully dodged her fate of being reincarnated as umpteen New York cheeseburgers when she bolted from a Queens slaughterhouse and proceeded to star in her very own wild west cattle drive up 109th Avenue.

...

For a moment Molly's life hung in the balance. Would she be returned to the slaughterhouse or rewarded for her hutzpah? Whether as a nod to her new found fame or as an act of true altruism, her owner relinquished the 400-pound dairy queen to animal-care workers and the promise of greener pastures.

Which reminds me of this incident of years gone past.

I will decline to answer that officer.

I tend not to get overly libertarian on this blog (trying to keep it real, yo) but it is very important that we protect ourselves against self incrimination, since that can get serious very quickly.

My brother who is an attorney recommend to me at a young age, to never talk to cops. If they want to interview you, just clam up and ask to speak to a lawyer, regardless if you have done something wrong or not.

But cops are very good at making you talk. For example, what do you say to a question like "Do you know how fast your were going?"
a) Yes (you sound like an ass)
b) No (you sound incompetent)
c) 99 (you just confessed)
d) 35 (you're lying)
e) Nothing (you sound like an ass again)

This 27 minute video I found on youtube (skip part two, it is informative, though only mildy interesting) might help you understand why a simple statement like, 'I decline to answer that question', or a return asking 'Am I legally obligated to answer that?' is your best bet. It'll piss off the cop but they are trying to get you to say something that will, in the end, cost you money and time.

Remember we all have a job to do. The job of the police job is to catch criminals, and with a literally an unknown number of laws on the books, we are all criminals. Even telling the truth to the police about a crime you did not commit can have consequences.

It is our job to protect the constitution by exercising our rights, including the right to not incriminate oneself, even or especially if you are 'innocent'. We protect the constitution but using the rights granted in the constitution. Those rights are eroded when we choose to not exercise them.

(The next post will be about something mellow like unicorn power and related subjects.)

Helvetica

I just finally went back to finishing Helvetica this weekend after having paused halfway through late one night last year. As most of my friends are in the design world much of the stuff in the film will not be particularly surprising to them. However, even if you aren't interest in the film (designer and non designer alike) I'd recommend starting it at about 35 minutes only to watch this one guy go into his critic of Helvetica. I swear, I wish I had the gift for dialouge in my first language that he has in his second. Incredible humourous.

And for all you non-designers I'd recommend it as well, just get and idea of the ubiquitousness of the use of the font and also to get and idea of the world before Helvetica (BH as it were).

It is a netflix watch-it-now movie and is pretty short at 80 minutes.

More on the Helvetica font can be found on wikipedia.

Finally, non-barrier male contraception?

CTV.ca News Staff

An injection for men appears to be just as effective at preventing pregnancy as the birth control pill, finds new research that could revolutionize contraception.

In testing in China, only one man in 100 fathered a child while on the injections, the study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism reports.

The contraceptive is a form of testosterone that is injected into the buttocks once a month. It works by temporarily blocking sperm production.