Here is a lovely legal loophole for killers who don’t get convicted for murder on the grounds they were mentally ill. They can legally changed their name by deed poll during their stay at a prison psychiatric hospital so when they are released they will have a clean slate. Simply brilliant. That is what Michael Sorrell has done in his preparation for release in Sydney. He will be known as Michael Striker with no previous conviction of randomly slashing the throat of a stranger in 2002. Sleep tight people!

The Australian Taxation Office is continuing to look into a loophole linked to the Luxury Car Tax (LCT).

Earlier this month it was revealed that if licensed motor car traders (LMCTs) own a car for more than two years before it is sold for the first time then no LCT is due.

The LCT adds 33 per cent to every dollar spent above $57,180.

The threshold is raised to $75,000 for ‘fuel efficient’ cars – those that have a combined fuel consumption rating not exceeding 7.0 litres/100km combined.

LMCT holders can also avoid paying stamp duty on their new cars, and naturally the savings increase with the prices.

For example, a $64,340 Citroen C5 2.7 HDi Exclusive cops $2150 LCT taking it to an RRP of $66,490.

Stamp duty ranges from $2327.15 to $4321.85 depending on which state it is purchased in.

Something a little more luxurious, like a $216,100 Jaguar XKR Convertible, pushes the LCT out to around $47,500 and stamp duty to as much as $17,121.

And a $680,000 Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 Roadster E-gear gets a whopping $131,000 piled on in total.

Although it probably won’t bother you in the slightest if can afford the best part of one million clams for a Lambo anyway.

by Tim Beissmann

This morning’s chocolate craving was fierce, unrelenting, and entirely unexpected. I’m usually the one pining for her own Ikea desktop salt-lick. But the holidays are coming, and my palate is way ahead of the Bay’s Christmas window dressers. How can I concentrate with sleigh-bells ringing in my ears and thoughts of chocolate advent calendars - dose-a-day methadone clinics for chocolate addled brains – getting in the way? No chestnuts though, roasted or otherwise. I’m allergic to tree nuts. Therein lies the problem.

What sick, discriminatory urge drove the first person to mix nuts with chocolate, business with pleasure? What a waste. What a tease. Like this morning… when, just as my craving was peaking, I discovered two boxes of chocolates on our office kitchen counter. Oh sweet relief? One was chocolate covered almonds; the other was the biggest tease of all: Turtles. Ever since that one magical Christmas long ago, when I found a stash of Peanut-Turtles hidden on the bottom shelf of a Shoppers Drug Mart in Ottawa, every ‘pecan’ box has been its own disappointment.

I didn’t panic. I just did the one thing I’ve been tempted to do ever since I can remember:  The Loophole. Yes, I nibbled, ever so delicately, around the nuts. In theory, brilliant… In practice? I’m still alive, aren’t I (touch wood). What’s a little lip tingle in the grand scheme of things? People pay thousands for Angelina Jolie’s pucker. My genetics are primed to give me one for free. Nothing like the tiniest hint of anaphylactic action to sweeten a Thursday morning.

Kids are like tax attorneys:  give them a rule, and they’ll find a loophole.

My rule:  My teenage daughter is not allowed to have electronics in her bedroom.  No cell phone, no I-Touch, no internet, no cable t.v., no D.V.R. Not even a digital camera.  Why?  Because if she has that stuff in her room, she’ll never come out. 

Also, because of a 2008 study, from Stanford University, on the effect of cable t.v. and internet in teenage girls’ bedrooms. They studied 1,345 teenage girls, ages 13-17, and found that girls with cable and/or internet in their bedrooms were:

1) Likely to have significantly lower grades than girls with electronic-free bedrooms,

2) Twice as likely to use drugs and have discipline problems at school

3) Three times as likely to get pregnant during high school.

Alani has grumbled about the no electronics rule, but she accepts it.  Sort of.  Last Sunday I came upstairs and found her laying in the hallway, tucked in a blanket, just outside her bedroom door.  She’d propped pillows against the wall and was reading a book.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“It’s my bed-in-the-hall,” she said. 

Her trusty I-Touch and cell phone sat on the floor next to her.  Her hallway spot  – inches from her bedroom door – was the equivalent of those retail fireworks places that sprout up in Indiana just across the Michigan border, to evade the Michigan anti-firecracker laws. 

Well done, Alani. 

Oh, and that Stanford University study?  It doesn’t exist.  I made it up. 

Still, you know it’s true.

[Hey everyone! If you like this tutorial, check out my site iTweak.us, it's packed with great jailbroken iPhone/iPod Touch tutorials, and if we don't have one, you can request it!]

Sorry about the blog silence everyone, I spent the last week or so at Fort Huachuca, AZ. (I’ll post about that later today or tomorrow.) So here’s a little something to break the silence. I recently started contributing to CydiaUpdates.info (in the process of name change, for legal reasons, to Jailbreak News). So I thought I’d share my first contribution on here. It follows…

Many of you may have noticed that recently Kyek has put up a troll bridge on his popular site for downloading “crack apps”, Appulo.us. It’s only temporary until he finishes upgrading his server due to high traffic. (For those who don’t know what a troll bridge is: to access the site you have to answer a question only a certain group of people know the answer to.) The whole purpose is to reduce traffic and increase performance until they finish upgrading their servers by only letting in the “in crowd” and keeping out the “leeches”. Unfortunately, this leaves the average user high and dry. So we’ve published this tutorial for you to get around the pesky troll bridge.

Perform a Google search for the cracked app you wish to download and include “site:appulo.us” at the end. When your results come up, do not click the regular link to the page; instead, click the cached link. (This will allow you to access Google’s cache of Appulo.us, instead of Appulo.us itself.)It should look something like this.

After you have downloaded it regularly, you will need to install it through iTunes via File>Add Folder to Library. Then select the folder you unzipped and Sync your iDevice regularly.

Remember this is a temporary solution to a temporary problem. Kyek said it himself, the troll bridge won’t be there forever. For more information on the Appulo.us troll bridge click here.

Nick Hesson has been great to work with so far and I look forward to making further contributions to his site.

Well, that was some season! Yet another stunning FIA Formula One World Championship that created a fresh chapter of history.

Brawn GP, the Phoenix that rose from the ashes of Honda who sent shockwaves rippling through the sport after their sudden and unexpected withdrawal the previous December, became the first ‘new’ team ever to win their first two races (Mercedes-Benz, March and Wolf in 1954, 1970 and 1977 respectively had won their first) and go on to win both the drivers’ and constructors’ titles. They won eight races, took four one-twos and 15 podiums.

And by season end Jenson Button’s succession to Lewis Hamilton’s throne meant that for the first time ever two Englishmen – as opposed to two Britons – had won back-to-back titles.

Almost inevitably, 2009 began with controversies. First, there were the new regulations. Slick tyres were back. Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) were optional, and promised those who opted to pursue their multi-million dollar development in an era of cost cutting, such as McLaren, Ferrari, BMW Sauber and Renault, an extra 80bhp for six seconds a lap, and a potential gain of 0.6s in lap time.

And aerodynamic changes aimed at improving overtaking meant less bodywork ‘furniture’ such as bargeboards, smaller and higher rear wings, and wider and lower fronts which could be adjusted twice a lap through three degrees to cut down understeer while following closely in another car’s wake. Sadly, despite all the research that went into this, most drivers were sceptical about the overall effect.

It was the aero side, allied to the new rule banning testing during the season, which were to create the main talking points at the start of the season, because Brawn, Toyota and Williams all hit, through varying routes, on the idea of running a double diffuser. They had spotted the loophole in the regulations, and the FIA rejected protests from the likes of BMW Sauber, Red Bull and Renault after Button had wiped the floor with everyone in Melbourne.

The testing ban made it hard for others to catch up, though invariably they did after four or five races. By then Button had run amok. He won again in the rain-shortened Malaysian Grand Prix (and had that race run its course the latter part of his season might have been less stressful), in Bahrain, Spain, Monaco and Turkey. Of the opening seven races, only China, the third, fell to Red Bull, as Sebastian Vettel led home Mark Webber.

Button was third there, and for the first time the Brawn’s Achilles’ heel was exposed: an inability to generate the same sort of tyre temperatures in cool conditions (or rain in this case) as the Red Bull. The Adrian Newey-designed RB5 had the best lift/drag performance of any car, and in a year that would yield the Milton Keynes-based team six wins, four one-twos and 16 podiums, fearsomely improved reliability.

As Brawn and Red Bull thus set the pace, others struggled. McLaren’s MP4-24 was initially a major disappointment, with very poor aero performance. Ferrari’s F60 was beautiful, but likewise lacked aero ‘grunt’. The two big hitters were paying the price for throwing so much technological development into their 2008 title fight, whereas Brawn had been working on their car’s concept since February 2007.

Though BMW Sauber briefly looked strong in Australia until Robert Kubica was taken out in a clash with Vettel, they and Renault would soon find that their respective F1.09 and R29 offerings were not up to scratch. Thus the cars that showed promise in the wake of the two leaders were Toyota’s TF109 and Williams’ Toyota-powered FW31.

The second controversy was born in Australia but ultimately came to light in Malaysia. Lewis Hamilton inferred to the Australian Grand Prix stewards that Jarno Trulli had refused to let him repass after Trulli had briefly slipped off the road in Melbourne when the field was running behind the safety car, but the FIA subsequently ruled that radio transmissions proved that McLaren – in their first race under new team principal Martin Whitmarsh – had told him to hold station. The suggestion that McLaren were trying to get Trulli into trouble left a bad taste and led to the departure of their sporting director, Dave Ryan.

Continued in Part Two

Reference: F1.com

Last Saturday, I went to my regular bank, Standard Chartered Bank, which I thought to be a world class, high standard bank, where I do all my transactions. I had a shock of my life when I wanted to check on my account to see my balance. I approached one of the customer relation officer at one of the open concept station, sat down in front of her, gave her my bank account number and you know what she did? She simply log onto the computer, search for the account, wrote the balance on a piece of paper and loudly recite the amount to me! Everyone in the bank turned and looked and me, thinking out loud as if saying, “Wow! you have so little money in the bank, might as well keep it under your pillow!”

I went, OH MY GOD! I told her, “Have you ever thought that I might NOT be the account holder? I might have gotten the number somewhere and just handed it to you and there you just simply blurt out the balance without even first asking me for any identifications to make sure I am the rightful owner!”

She simply gave me that “why are you doing this to me” aghast look. She did not even recognized her confidentiality and security lapse and was trying to rebut by saying she was trying to be customer friendly and not to agitate the customers by asking too much questions.

Yes, I know she was being helpful by not asking too much, but as a professional especially in the financial industry, there is no excuse to overlook such things. Definitely I would not mind if she were to ask me all the security and identification issues. I would had felt much better coz at least I know my money is safe with them.

The banking industry still has a long way to go in terms of customers confidentiality. This incident had brought me back to another case where I was making some transaction at DFCU bank. Every teller has a money counting machine to assist the teller to count money. The most intriguing part was that the digital counter which shows the amount being counted was place in such a high position that the whole queue, or I should say, the whole bank can see how much money was being counted! Ha!

No wonder there are so much robberies and snatched thieves. They simply wait inside the bank to see who is going out with loads of money and then hijack them along the way.

I really hope those who are in charge of security in the banking industry see this post and to finetune the system and plug the loophole.

I felt sad or ashamed, not because that now everyone knows I am a poor bloke, but it was that the bank officer did not realized how serious the repercussion would had been but instead thinking that we as customers are making life difficult for them. Wrong attitude.

The Governor signed a law making prostitution illegal in Rhode Island, indoors or outdoors. I opposed this, but I hope I was wrong. I hope that Rep. Giannini and Prof. Donna Hughes and all those who conflated trafficking and prostitution are vindicated in their belief that this is the way to end the harm done to women and children by pimps and johns. I hope I’m wrong in my fear that this will drive the trade underground and drive the most desperate people further from help.

It all depends on how the law is used. So all of you who said your goal was to stop abuse–your work has just begun.

Providence Journal coverage here.

The Rhode Island legislature is moving to ban indoor prostitution. The most likely result will be arrests at the spas.  In police raids the women picked up are adults. They say they are in it for the money. Real trafficking is harder to find than through the doors of a storefront. If we want to fight trafficking, especially of children, we should be looking in the parks and under the highway overpass. The New York Times has a 2-part series this week on runaway children…

Around the country, outreach workers and city officials say they have been overwhelmed with requests for help from young people in desperate straits.

In Berks County, Pa., the shortage of beds for runaways has led county officials to consider paying stipends to families willing to offer their couches. At drop-in centers across the country, social workers describe how runaways regularly line up when they know the food pantry is being restocked.

In Chicago, city transit workers will soon be trained to help the runaways and other young people they have been finding in increasing numbers, trying to escape the cold or heat by riding endlessly on buses and trains.

Part 2 describes how girls are pressured to trade sex for shelter and affection, and then induced to work as prostitutes. Getting them out of that life can’t be done with just arrest. Sgt. Byron A. Fassett is one officer who works with girls at risk…

In 2005, Sergeant Fassett created the “High Risk Victim” unit in the Dallas Police Department, which flags any juvenile in the city who runs away from home four or more times in a given year. About 200 juveniles per year fit that description. If one of those children is picked up by the police anywhere in the country, the child is directed back to Sergeant Fassett’s unit, which immediately begins investigating the juvenile’s background.

The unit’s strength is timing. If the girls are arrested for prostitution, they are at their least cooperative. So the unit instead targets them for such minor offenses as truancy or picks them up as high-risk victims, speaking to them when their guard is down. Only later, as trust builds, do officers and social workers move into discussions of prostitution.

Repeat runaways are not put in juvenile detention but in a special city shelter for up to a month, receiving counseling.

Three quarters of the girls who get treatment do not return to prostitution.

Closing the loophole will not make the problem go away. To protect children and other vulnerable people takes commitment of time and money, and success is measured one child at a time. Do we have treatment for children that will keep them away from predators and pimps? Rescue by arrest hasn’t wiped out prostitution in other states. What will make Rhode Island different?

tonight a writer/artist gave a speech
i stole his language
to bring back to you:

fluxus
the robinhood of the avant garde
only instead of giving to one
it gives to all

subversive and select economy
loophole of copyright
archive of ephemera

all my writing is appropriated
everything is free
my dated rhetoric
taking us
to the summer of love

idealogy and practice
of radical distribution

fuck you
this is reserved for poetry
so leave me alone

we’re in the midst of a revolution
so large
we don’t even recognize it

they’re patroling
they’re vigilant
and they will screw you

and now for something completely different:

you were lucky
to have had
these fingers
passenger pigeon essays
hand-made lanterns casting glow into rainwet dark
ritual
honesty that began in berkely
this fist
chestgut ripped open
fearlessness
homework
determination and boxing gloves
earplugs
heat, blueprints, 12 year old boys worthy of documentation
falling apart barn dreams

me and a whole army agree
truth grenades
hooked to our beltloops

Three years ago a gathering of diverse groups and individuals formed the Coalition Against Human Trafficking. A year of work resulted in a bill against trafficking persons, and proposed amendments being debated in the legislature would strengthen that bill to offer better protections to minors.

The law sits unused. In hard financial times, with a Governor who has declared illegal immigrants to be the cause of all the state’s problems, where is the political will to rescue victims?

Much easier to go after the ‘spas’–the most visible face of prostitution in Rhode Island. It has worried me from the first that the workers in them– almost always female and Asian, had no voice in the effort to ‘rescue’ them. Now they are speaking, but too late. They are about to be put outside the law. Some of our legislators who have taken much unfair criticism for not ‘closing the loophole’ met with women to hear their opinions firsthand.

A woman who later identified herself only as Jasmine was among the most vocal.

Through a translator, she said she fell into prostitution three years ago after answering a newspaper ad.

“I was very hungry. That’s why I started,” said Jasmine, a petite woman of “older than 40” who wore a Ralph Lauren winter coat and now works at a Providence spa. “It’s better than stealing, or breaking the law. This is a way of life. There are people dependent on this.”

As Sunday’s meeting progressed, a collective sense of fear and frustration grew as the women realized an unwelcome political reality.

Many had hoped for a compromise that would protect them from jail. Jasmine suggested increased taxes on spas.

“For reasons that are hard for me to understand, the legislation is more harsh than we would like for the women,” Segal responded. “There’s still a small chance that the severity could be lessened… But you need to understand that’s a small chance.”

So it’s a case of bait and switch. We wanted to prosecute trafficking, we wanted to stop crimes like extortion, fraud, threats, kidnapping, rape and murder. Heinous crimes that urgently need to be prosecuted. Instead we get a law to arrest women.

There will be very few arrests of customers, because it will be almost impossible to prove the crime. When the city of Providence wanted to stop streetwalking, it was relatively simple to have undercover policewomen identify men who solicited them for sex. They didn’t have to entrap. These losers were cruising around bothering everyone. That’s why they were a nuisance.

But how on earth are they going to prove that a man solicits for sex indoors? Nope. They’re going to arrest some women and make a lot of lawyers richer.

The website of the Rhode Island Coalition Against Human Trafficking (RICAHT) hasn’t been updated since April. However, Happy Endings reports that RICAHT members were at the meeting to speak with the women. Prof. Donna Hughes started a splinter organization called Citizens Against Trafficking , allegedly because RICAHT didn’t support making prostitution illegal.

Meanwhile, real crimes of forced labor and forced prostitution are committed against those who have the least power to seek the protection of the law.

Polaris Project, a national organization against trafficking is active in Rhode Island, and they are working on behalf of victims, with many success stories. There are other advocacy organizations that reach out to people where they are, and quietly save lives. They will still be here when the moral crusade has declared victory and moved on.

Providence Daily Dose also covered the meeting.

Rhode Island’s Future has some constructive ideas on how to help trafficking victims.

In a related post on things no one should have to sell, ‘Desperately Selling a Kidney’. There’s always profit in finding new ways to use poor people as a human resource.

This is a good piece regarding Rep. Kaptur and Professor  Johnson’s appearance on Bill Moyers. Go to Bill Moyers’ site to see more. Here’s a snippet:
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10092009/profile.html

Simon Johnson, professor of Global Economics and Management at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, and Representative Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), explain to Bill Moyers that the outlook for the rest of America isn’t so rosy. Not only are many Americans still suffering the collapse of the housing market, they say, but Congress and the president haven’t made the changes needed to prevent a much worse catastrophe sometime in the future.

To highlight the disparity between bailing out the banks and helping homeowners, Rep. Kaptur points to her district, where she sees one of the now-profitable banks not doing enough to help struggling borrowers:
Let me give you a reality from ground zero in Toledo, Ohio. Our foreclosures have gone up 94 percent. A few months ago, I met with our realtors. And I said, “What should I know?” They said, “Well, first of all, you should know the worst companies that are doing this to us.” “Well, give me the top one.” They said, “JPMorgan Chase.”
Johnson adds that even bailed-out banks have little incentive to help homeowners:
I’m afraid that it’s pretty obvious, and it’s very tragic, that they have no interest in helping the homeowners. They make money with what they’re doing. They expected a lot of these mortgages they made to default, okay? It was in their models. A high default rate. Now, they didn’t expect house prices to come down so much. That’s where they got their losses. But they absolutely made these loans expecting they would have to foreclose on people. And figuring they would make money on that.
Too late to reign in the banks?
The problem, Rep. Kaptur and Johnson agree, is that Congress and the Executive Branch didn’t sufficiently reign in the banks because the banks have too much power in Washington. Responding to a recent ASSOCIATED PRESS report about Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s close ties to a few powerful bankers, Rep. Kaptur said, “Wall Street and Washington is a circuit. And because Mr. Geithner headed the New York Fed, that historic relationship, unfortunately, continues. And it gives them special access and special power to influence policy.”

Johnson agrees, arguing that these links are especially beneficial in a time of crisis: “And in a crisis, when everything is up for grabs, you don’t know what’s going on, the people who will take your phone calls, right, in government and the people who are going to be standing in the oval office, making the key decisions — that’s the heart of the system. That’s the heart of how you get your agenda through, by changing their worldview.”

Rep. Kaptur believes that Congress has also failed to use its power to hold the banks accountable for their actions: “Congress has really shut down. I’m disappointed in both chambers, because wouldn’t you think, with the largest financial crisis in American history, in the largest transfer of wealth from the American people to the biggest banks in this country, that every committee of Congress would be involved in hearings? [...] What we’re seeing is tangential hearings on very arcane aspects of financial reform [...] rather than hearings on the fundamental new architecture of reforming the American financial system.”

And now that the banks have stabilized, they may have successfully prevented any meaningful reform. Johnson explains that “the opportunity for real reform has already passed. And, not only is there not going to be change, but I’ll go further — I’ll say it’s going to be worse, what comes out of this, in terms of the financial system, its power, and what it can get away with.”

The noun loophole refers to a small mistake in an agreement or law which gives someone the chance to avoid having to do something. …

• Tax officials said this creates a loophole as companies may set artificially low ex-factory prices to minimise their tax burden by transferring profits to other related corporate entities further down the supply chain.
• In Chiang Mai, foreigners had used legal loopholes to exceed the limit on sales of condominium units, Ms Siriporn said.
• We just put the programme on hold as we want to solve all of the problems first and then close a loophole regarding the use of a huge sum of money for it,” he said.
• The rich can play around legal loopholes and pay corrupt officials to turn the other way. …

(From Bangkok Post)

I’m watching Fox & Friends and seeing a woman and her husband complain that baby formula is not tax-deductible.  Seems she had a double mastectomy a couple years back and could only feed her child formula.  They claim that formula is not tax deductible while Viagra, Dr. Scholl’s footpads and sunscreen, depending on the purpose, can be.  The couple is asking that baby formula be given a tax exemption, as well.

Now, I’m no fan of taxes but I’m even less of a fan of obscure tax loopholes.  I think our tax system is entirely too complex.  We need to reduce the number of deductible items, not increase them!  Concurrently, we need to lower our taxes.

Here’s how this can become a bigger problem: Formula is now tax deductible.  Maybe it’s done responsibly, where it’s only deductible for women who can’t produce enough breast milk, maybe not.  In any event, formula is deductible. So the next person asks, “well, what about children’s vitamins?” Soon children’s vitamins are tax deductible. Then adult vitamins.

Do you see where I’m going here?

Is it unfortunate that this woman had a double mastectomy? Yes, and I’m sorry she cannot breast feed. Should there be another tax deduction?

No.  We should have fewer loopholes and lower taxes.

Finding a loophole is different than breaking a law. While both are objectionable, the law is to blame for the loophole, not the individual.

Today’s post contains two things: How to get FREE apps such as VZ Navigator, and some general news about the homebrew scene. For the homebrew news, use CTRL-F and search for DEV207.

Ok, so by now most people have at least heard of VZ Navigator, right?

VZ Navigator is a GPS service/program that runs on your Verizon cell phone, giving directions to anywhere you need to go.

Of course it has its faults: Not all areas can be accurately detected by any GPS system (some less than others). However, for a small town guy like me, it can be really handy in bigger cities when I go on a trip.

Well, about three weeks ago during a late night browsing session, I came across a possible flaw in Verizon’s financial fortress here. Normally VZ Navigator would cost a monthly subscripton of $9.99. However, by devoting a little computing power with BitPim, it was apparently possible to gain VZ Navigator for FREE.

Before I proceed further, I’m morally obliged to offer this disclaimer: In no way, shape, or form do I endorse the act of piracy. It is both unlawful, and an insult to software programmers worldwide. In stealing any sort of software, be it VZ Navigator, a game, or even an OS, you are taking money away from good ole’ Tom the Intern who effectively pays his employer for the privilege of getting some experience on his resume. This information is offered exclusively for informational purposes. Personally, I tried this simply to see if it would actually work, and have since deleted the program from my phone. Also, it is highly possible to brick your phone if you do this wrong. I take no responsibility for damaged units.

First off, with your phone unplugged from your PC, download VZ Navigator. NOTE: This potentially works for any app, such as GPS Golf or MobileWiki.

Ok, so the next thing is to get BitPim (version 1.0.6 or later – Thanks Sir Thomas Fool!) to recognize your phone. When you first connect it and run BitPim, it’ll call it “Other CDMA Phone on Com ##”. What you must now do is go into your Edit -> Settings and change this to “VX10000 – Voyager”. This will not allow you to edit your contacts, however it WILL allow you to view the filesystem. Once you expand the filesystem, you should see a folder called “brew” (no quotes). With the VZ Navigator installed, right-click this folder and click “Backup entire tree”. “Backup directory” will NOT work. This will save the entire contents of the brew folder in a zip file to wherever you choose. Remember where this file is. This process may take around 15 to 30 minutes.

Once the folder is backed up, disconnect your phone, then go back in and cancel your subscription. This will remove the app from your phone. To check it is gone, try running it. It should play a video rather than run the application. You MUST do this within two hours of downloading the application.

Reconnect your phone, then open the filesystem in BitPim once more as explained above. Find your brew folder again, then right-click it and select Restore. Browse to the Zip file from earlier and select it. This will restore the contents of the zip file back to your phone.

Once this is done, Power-cycle your phone by powering it off then back on. Try to run VZ Navigator again. The application should run, and will likely ask to update again. This is normal, so allow it to update. Congratulations, you now have unlimited access to VZ Navigator without the need to pay Verizon ten dollars a month. Your mother would be so proud.

DEV207
Now on to a different note.

miketr commented on an earlier post of mine, as well as on the forums at envtouch.org that he was interested in developing free apps for the env touch. I’ve since sent an e-mail along with a reply on the thread at envtouch.org so hopefully we can get into full swing. According to him, he has 20+ years of coding experience, as well as several years developing for phones.

That’s one!

Again, I ask, anyone who would like to develop homebrew for this phone, please comment here, as well as follow me on twitter. As an avid tech lover, I’d greatly enjoy any developing for this phone.

That’s all for now, later days!

Elizabeth Roberts’ 17-year-old daughter was put through the bureaucratic wringer to get a summer job in her home state of Rhode Island this year.

Under state law, the teenager could not operate a power saw, work on ladders or even pump gas. The state also regulates how many hours and times of day minors can work.

But in Rhode Island, where Roberts is lieutenant governor, the teen — with a work permit — can take off all her clothes at a strip club, even those where adult men can touch the merchandise.

Just this week the Providence Journal revealed that a loophole in the state’s minor laws do not restrict girls as young as 16 from working as strippers, as long as they are home by 11:30 p.m.

This spring, while investigating a 16-year-old runaway who had been working at one of Providence’s notorious strip clubs, police discovered that they could not prosecute, because there were no local or state laws barring teens from working in the city’s thriving adult entertainment business.

“To think that any minor could just as easily be employed as a stripper is mind-boggling,” Roberts said. “This must end immediately.”

In other parts of the country, even in Las Vegas, there are age limits on strippers, according to the report.

“When I saw yesterday’s paper, I had a visceral reaction — it’s an outrage that we would ever have allowed this to happen — that anyone would hire a young person we are meant to protect,” Roberts told ABCNews.com.

“Everyone was completely shocked to learn it wasn’t against the law,” she said. “None of us was aware of it.”

Strip Club Described as ‘Dark and Dirty’
The 16-year-old runaway had been working at Cheaters, described by the Boston Strip Club Directory as “dark and dirty.”

Cheaters refused to comment to ABCNews.com.

“You get more contact here talking to a woman at the bar than you do in most clubs during a lap dance, and in the private rooms, anything goes for probably half the women working there, and the others will still make sure you leave happy,” reported one of its customers.

Now, amidst the embarrassing publicity in a state that has one of the highest unemployment rates and a reputation for corruption, Roberts is supporting a bill introduced by state Rep. Joanne Giannini, D-Providence, that would close that loophole.

Source: ABCNEWS