Saturday, December 01, 2007

CrimeScene.com

This looks like a nifty website, fun for all. They challenge you to solve crime case files. Website states: "Each week our detectives post evidence from the current investigation. You participate by reviewing the interviews, evidence reports and other documents, and discussing them with your fellow web investigators. Learn More"
Here's a sample:

Blackmailer
Murdered

Victor Jennings, 48, was found dead in his home of an apparent stab wound to the chest. Jennings was accused of blackmailing Hollywood power couple Michael Hawke and wife Samantha. START THE CASE...

Labels: , , , , , ,

Big Brother Wanted to Track Your Used Book Purchases

Government Drops Pursuit of Online Used-Book Buyers

Federal prosecutors have withdrawn a subpoena seeking the identities of some people who bought used books through Amazon.com, newly unsealed court records show.

The withdrawal came after a judge ruled that the customers have a First Amendment right to keep their reading habits from the government.

The subpoena's "chilling effect on expressive e-commerce would frost keyboards across America," U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker wrote in a June ruling.

"Well-founded or not, rumors of an Orwellian federal criminal investigation into the reading habits of Amazon's customers could frighten countless potential customers into canceling planned online book purchases," the judge wrote in a ruling he unsealed last week.

Amazon, based in Seattle, said in court documents that it hopes Crocker's decision will make it more difficult for prosecutors to obtain records involving book purchases. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Vaudreuil said yesterday that he doubted that the ruling would hamper legitimate investigations.

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE HERE.

Hey! Big Brother and Uncle Karl's Sock Puppet/Current-Occupier-of-the-White-House! I JUST BOUGHT SOME USED BOOKS AT AMAZON! Come and get me you big bullies! You can kiss my all-American ass, you idiots. I am descended from Robert Treat Paine, who signed the Declaration of Independence and I'm not giving up one iota of my G-d given rights to paranoid jerks like you! Screw you. And if that's a federal crime, then COME AND GET ME.

Meanwhile, I'll keep reading and whatever the hell it is I'm reading is none of your damn business.

For the rest of you, I'm currently reading Nelson DeMille's "Wild Fire," which is shaping up as a right-wing extremist's wet dream. The villian in the story sounds a helluva lot like some of the rich powerful right-wing extremist garbage that's currently ruining this country.

Labels: , , , , , , , , ,

Writers Guild of America on strike

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Beware of Fake Screenwriting Gurus

The Artful Writer blog is very informative about what actually goes on in the biz. One of their most valuable postings is a warning about "screenwriting expos" and the so-called gurus of screenwriting who will be happy to critique your logline or script... for a fee. It's a scam.

These bottom-feeders troll writing messageboards, trying very hard to impress the impressionable with their genius and inside knowledge. If you spend any time at these boards, you might begin to wonder how is it possible that this uber-busy professional-in-the-movie-biz has so much time to hang out at messageboards for writing newbies? Know what I mean, chili bean?

Heh heh... in any event, the fakers sure do get their panties in a wad when you pull that curtain back.

Labels: , , , , , , , , ,