Here's the Google Cam "Vehicle"
Thursday, November 15, 2012
Monday, October 22, 2012
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Friday, October 5, 2012
"I made a mistake, but there are people who behave even worse."
Antonio Piazza captured on CCTV taking revenge after being fined for repeatedly leaving his car in a disabled parking spot
Local politician
Anonio Piazza had been parking in the disabled spot for three years
before finally being fined €80 and forced to move. Photograph: Sean
Dempsey/PA
Antonio Piazza, a member of Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom party, parked his car in the spot outside his office in Lecco for three years and was incensed when police officers finally fined him €80 (£64) and made him move his car to make space for disabled driver Giuseppe Scuderi to park his Renault.
Half an hour later, after the police had left, Piazza returned with a knife and slashed Scuderi's two front tyres, forgetting he was being filmed by CCTV, before later repenting and offering to fix them.
The episode caps a series of scandals at local government level in Italy, stretching from Piedmont to Sicily, which have caused public faith in municipal and regional politicians to plummet – notably in the Lazio region, where the governor has resigned and a senior official in Berlusconi's party has been arrested over embezzlement allegations.
Piazza at first tried to appeal against his parking fine, claiming he had given a lift to a disabled person, but has now grudgingly resigned from his job running a regional housing agency under pressure from his party, claiming: "I made a mistake, but there are people who behave even worse."
I don't know what it is about this that really sticks in my craw, the arrogance, the cheek, the ethos. He's like one of those damn Mussolini black shirts from the thirties.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Friday, September 21, 2012
Google Cam
"Google Street View"
Google Street View displays panoramas of stitched images taken from a fleet of specially adapted cars. Areas not accessible by car, like pedestrian areas, narrow streets, alleys and ski resorts, are sometimes covered by Google Trikes (tricycles)[3] or snowmobiles.[4][5] On each of these vehicles there are nine directional cameras for 360° views at a height of about 8.2 feet, or 2.5 meters, GPS units for positioning and three laser range scanners from Sick AG for the measuring of up to 50 meters 180° in the front of the vehicle.[6] These are used for recording a rough 3D model of the surroundings, enabling faux-3D transitions between distinct panoramas where the environment images are momentarily mapped onto this 3D model while being crossfaded to create an animated perspective change as the user travels from one panorama to another. There are also 3G/GSM/Wi-Fi antennas for scanning 3G/GSM and Wi-Fi hotspots.[7] More recently, high quality images have been based on open source hardware cameras from Elphel.
Friday, September 14, 2012
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
"Why this Fat Cat Likes Obama's Tax Plan" NORMAN LIZT
Full Page ad in the NYT newspaper August 20, 2012 Full text
I certainly don't qualify for the Forbes 400 Richest Americans list, but it surely feels that way. With my income averaging close to eight figures annually for the past seven years and with personal expenditures comprising about 2% of such income(thereby qualifying me for a potential Forbes list of America's wealthiest tightwads), I have built a net worth far above anything to witch I ever aspired. I simply don't know how to spend money(nor do I enjoy doing so), having purchased only one residence (a condo) in the past 40 years, one used car in 25 years, and detest wasting my time shopping. My one passion, travel, accounts for about half my expenditures.
I find my work as a sole, private equity investor challenging and intellectually stimulating and especially enjoy mentoring and interacting with my small staff of trusted employees. My father long ago taught me that individuals are nothing more than custodians of their funds, ultimately to passed down to future generations, especially the less fortunate. I have taken this to heart and have aspired to a legacy goal of ultimately leaving $50 million to various charities. And with continued good fortune, perhaps higher.
My one significant regret (profoundly shared by my fiancee, Rachel Martin) is that my diligent and compulsive pursuit of my goals does not leave enough time to smell the rose. She wishes to travel more and she may very well achieve her wish! Assuming Barack Obama wins reelection and successfully achieves his redistributionist tax agenda ( with 39%+ marginal rates plus a 3.8% tax on investment income plus substantially high dividend and capital gains rates), I will find myself, when my high California taxes are added in, at a marginal rate of taxation well over 50%. This represents the crossing of an inviolate threshold to me and is entirely unacceptable. I realize paying taxes is a form of charitable giving in a sense, but if I'm the one that's doing the work and tendering the money, then I want to be the one who chooses the charity.
Consequently, should these tax laws go into effect, I probably will simply shutter my business and say my sweet farewells to half a dozen great employees (who are unlikely to equal their current remuneration elsewhere... if they are fortunate enough to get new jobs in this economy). I will then take my money and instead of productively employing it in venture capital, will stick it in short-term U>S. Treasuries, providing me with a moderately safe, extremely low-yielding investment on which the high tax rates are moot since there's virtually no income to tax.
And Rachel will get her dream come true, since I will finally be free of my compulsive financial pursuits, and health permitting we will live the luxurious lifestyle we both feel we deserve.
To the many charities which ultimately will have to settle for about half of what they could have received... my profound and deepest apologies. For the medical innovations which may be years delayed, the music which may never be performed, the shelter that might not be offered, I grieve. To Barack Obama, I say thank you... for freeing me form the yoke and bondage of my current endeavors and providing a new found freedom. I just hope, however, that there are not thousands and thousands of others in the same position as I am in... the multiplier effect on jobs, the economy and charitable giving could be devastating!
Norman Lizt
La Jolla, CA
PO Box 1423
The United States is screwed........wahh, wah wah, don let the door hit your fat cat ass on the way out.
I certainly don't qualify for the Forbes 400 Richest Americans list, but it surely feels that way. With my income averaging close to eight figures annually for the past seven years and with personal expenditures comprising about 2% of such income(thereby qualifying me for a potential Forbes list of America's wealthiest tightwads), I have built a net worth far above anything to witch I ever aspired. I simply don't know how to spend money(nor do I enjoy doing so), having purchased only one residence (a condo) in the past 40 years, one used car in 25 years, and detest wasting my time shopping. My one passion, travel, accounts for about half my expenditures.
I find my work as a sole, private equity investor challenging and intellectually stimulating and especially enjoy mentoring and interacting with my small staff of trusted employees. My father long ago taught me that individuals are nothing more than custodians of their funds, ultimately to passed down to future generations, especially the less fortunate. I have taken this to heart and have aspired to a legacy goal of ultimately leaving $50 million to various charities. And with continued good fortune, perhaps higher.
My one significant regret (profoundly shared by my fiancee, Rachel Martin) is that my diligent and compulsive pursuit of my goals does not leave enough time to smell the rose. She wishes to travel more and she may very well achieve her wish! Assuming Barack Obama wins reelection and successfully achieves his redistributionist tax agenda ( with 39%+ marginal rates plus a 3.8% tax on investment income plus substantially high dividend and capital gains rates), I will find myself, when my high California taxes are added in, at a marginal rate of taxation well over 50%. This represents the crossing of an inviolate threshold to me and is entirely unacceptable. I realize paying taxes is a form of charitable giving in a sense, but if I'm the one that's doing the work and tendering the money, then I want to be the one who chooses the charity.
Consequently, should these tax laws go into effect, I probably will simply shutter my business and say my sweet farewells to half a dozen great employees (who are unlikely to equal their current remuneration elsewhere... if they are fortunate enough to get new jobs in this economy). I will then take my money and instead of productively employing it in venture capital, will stick it in short-term U>S. Treasuries, providing me with a moderately safe, extremely low-yielding investment on which the high tax rates are moot since there's virtually no income to tax.
And Rachel will get her dream come true, since I will finally be free of my compulsive financial pursuits, and health permitting we will live the luxurious lifestyle we both feel we deserve.
To the many charities which ultimately will have to settle for about half of what they could have received... my profound and deepest apologies. For the medical innovations which may be years delayed, the music which may never be performed, the shelter that might not be offered, I grieve. To Barack Obama, I say thank you... for freeing me form the yoke and bondage of my current endeavors and providing a new found freedom. I just hope, however, that there are not thousands and thousands of others in the same position as I am in... the multiplier effect on jobs, the economy and charitable giving could be devastating!
Norman Lizt
La Jolla, CA
PO Box 1423
The United States is screwed........wahh, wah wah, don let the door hit your fat cat ass on the way out.
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