IEEPA, Ireland, and Iran

The United States Department of Justice has announced that an Irish firm has been charged in a 25-count indictment for providing “sensitive technology” to Iran.  (Link.)  The charges are broken down like this:  there are two counts of conspiracy, nineteen counts of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers (IEEPA) Act, four counts of false statements, and forfeiture allegations.

The defendants in the case are: Mac Aviation Group; Thomas McGuinn; Sean McGuinn; and Sean Byrne.  All entities and people are located in Ireland, it appears. How then, does the United States find its extraterritorial jurisdiction, which expanded greatly under the Bush Administration?

According to the DOJ presser, it is alleged that helicopter engines and other aircraft components were purchased from U.S. firms and then transshipped to Iran using companies in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates.  The engines were manufactured by Rolls Royce in Indiana, and the “other aircraft components” include 50 “‘5th stage vanes’” and 32 bolts.  Yeah, bolts.

IEEPA is a tough little statute.  1977 Congress passed the legislation and, while it sought to clarify the President’s powers, it nonetheless gives the President an enormous amount of power.  One of these powers is to issue regulations relating to trade, including foreign entities which transship American products, and if a person violates those regulations, he can be punished with up to 20 years in prison.  See 50 U.S.C. § 1705(b).

One other thing: an AP story, which I think has been expanded in the Irishtimes.com, states that the United States is seeking the arrest and deportation of the individuals.  It would be awfully surprising if Ireland “deported” its own citizens to the United States for trial.  What is likely meant is “extradition,” which is a vastly different process.  And it’s worth noting, too, that Ireland has a reputation as a troublesome extradition partner of late, though that may be changing.

Medical Marijuana Legalized. Sorta.

Earlier this week, Attorney General Eric Holder announced at a press conference that the United States Department of Justice would no longer prosecute individuals for providing medical marijuana.  (Lots o’ links here.  The text of the press conference, however, is not online as of this posting, but C-Span has video of the conference here.  According to the Huffington Post, the exchange occures at about the 25:00 point.)

According to most reports, the policy is to stop raiding growers of legitimate medical marijuana in the states that have legalized medical marijuana.  However, if the grow operation is just a front, then all bets are off–such growers may still get prosecuted.  And, according NPR’s Weekend Edition, enforcement is still a confused situation, even in the states where it has been legalized, such as Maine.

Marijuana is a tricky drug.  According to the United States Congress, tetrahydrocannibols (THC is how this is shortened, and it’s the active chemical in marijuana) are Schedule I drugs, which “has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and that there is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.”  21 U.S.C. § 812.  However, one has to possess with the intent to distribute an awful lot of marijuana (1000 kilograms or 1000 plants) to be subject to the same punishment as possessing with the intent to distribute, say, 50 grams of crack.  So clearly, the perceived “danger” of marijuana is far less than the perceived “danger” of other controlled substances.  Furthermore, with certain states approving medical marijuana for certain circumstances, what does that have to say about “no currently accepted medical use”?

Anyway, this isn’t about whether marijuana is good or not, or whether it should be illegal or not.  It’s just information about an apparent policy shift that I happen to think is a positive step in the right direction.

IE8

Microsoft has taken Internet Explorer 8 out of beta and it’s rather “eh,” even though it is a big improvement over IE7.  I’m not sure why IE7 had such problems, but it really did.  What IE8 has going against it, however, is Microsoft’s decision to finally come around to web standards, which means that a lot of sites are getting broken.  Well, let me rephrase.  It’s not that IE8 is killing the sites, but rather, the sites look wrong unless you have them displayed in compatibility mode.  Based on my short time playing around and updating my website with it, I don’t think compatibility mode works quite right.  For example, my site looks fine to me using Firefox and Opera, but a little funny in IE8, even when compatibility mode has been enabled for it.

I’m really not certain what this means for browsing, but I guess sites are going to look a little funny for a while, until programmers figure out how to deal with IE8’s quirks.

IE8 doesn’t seem much faster than the previous generation (and indeed, when I tried one of its accelerator functions, a map took forever to load up).  But it doesn’t seem any slower, so speed seems to be a wash.

inPrivate mode seems to work okay, as it didn’t recall the sites I visited while in said mode.  I like the option to re-open tabs that it gives you when you close a tab, and then open a new blank tab.

All in all, I guess IE8 is fine, and better than its predecessor.  And it’s nice to see that Apple’s Safari got hacked and exploited in about 10 seconds, while it took hours to do the same to IE8 and Firefox.

New Shuffle

I’m not sure why Apple product releases always get top billing.  Okay, actually, I know why.  It’s because a lot of people own them.  And they’re really gleamy.  But they’re tied to iTunes, which, in my opinion, is a terrible program.  But that’s neither here nor there, I suppose.

In any event, Apple has released a new Shuffle, which is a wee little device, less than two inches tall, and just over a quarter-inch thick.  The Shuffle has always been criticized for not displaying the track names for you to consult, so, I suppose to counter those criticisms, Apple has included something called VoiceOver, which will say the name of the song.  I suppose that helps a little.  Storage has been bumped to 4 gigabytes, which is nice and roomy, and it costs about $80.  That’s a decent price, too.  The controls to the device, however, are stuck on the cord for the headphones.  This means that you’re locked into Apple’s headphones, which apparently aren’t terrible, or potential third-party manufacturers, and that if they fail, or you break them or lose them, replacement costs are going to be higher.

For my money, though, I think the Sansa Clip is a far superior product, if you’re not tied to iTunes.  It, too, costs about $80 for the 4 gigabyte model, but you get an OLED screen that allows you to see what’s playing, an FM tuner, a voice recorder, and an adjustable equalizer.  It’ll also play mp3s, oggs, flacs, wmas, and Audible files, and while it plays nice with Windows Media Player, it’s not necessary; you can drag and drop files to your heart’s content.  It also has a clip on the back that lets you just clip it on.

Full disclosure, I own a Sansa Clip, but I’m not a shill for SanDisk.

This is where we’re going…

CNET (and, as of 9:06a central, a few others) are talking about ZillionTV (link here or here), which purports to stream television shows and movies to you, without the need for subscription fees.  (ZillionTV will get its money through ads and/or rental fees and/or purchasing fees.)

This makes total sense.  Just as landlines are becoming things of the past, so will cable or satellite.  No doubt, the picture quality from cable or satellite is much better than streaming video via services like Hulu and Netflix, but the convenience factor can’t be denied.

There’s also one other benefit that may be realized as companies like Hulu, Amazon, and Netflix strengthen their profits: the reduction of piracy.  What incentive is there to spend the time downloading the content when it can be streamed to your computer almost instantly, with little cost, and with little interruption?

Boring

Apple has “updated” the non-portable Mac line.  In a word?  Boring.  In another word?  Over-priced.

Movin’ along…