Monday - 12 June 2000
King Kamehameha Day. It's King Kamehameha Day. A state holiday. So the only thing I'll be doing today is going to the beach to get some sun. I hope everyone else has a good day also. See you tomorrow.
Aloha!
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Tuesday - 13 June 2000
"Too Damn Old." The US Supreme Court opined yesterday (REEVES v. SANDERSON PLUMBING PRODUCTS, INC. (99-536), 197 F.3d 688, reversed, see it here) that a worker bringing a discrimination suit need not provide direct evidence that their employer intended to discriminate against them in hiring or promotion.
Rather, the court said workers must show only that an employer's explanation for a rejection or firing is false. Juries would then be allowed to decide whether the real motive behind the decision was discrimination.
In this case, the reason given for the firing was poor record keeping on the part of the employee. However, the employee was able to show this to be untrue. In addition to showing this falsehood, the employee entered circumstantial evidence to indicate the true reason was age discrimination. Justice O'Conner, the author of the ruling, writes;
In appropriate circumstances, the trier of fact can reasonably infer from the falsity of the explanation that the employer is dissembling to cover up a discriminatory purpose. See, e.g., Wright v. West, 505 U.S. 277, 296. Moreover, once the employer's justification has been eliminated, discrimination may well be the most likely alternative explanation, especially since the employer is in the best position to put forth the actual reason for its decision. Cf. Furnco Constr. Corp. v. Waters, 438 U.S. 567, 577. Such a showing by the plaintiff will not always be adequate to sustain a jury's liability finding. Certainly there will be instances where, although the plaintiff has established a prima facie case and introduced sufficient evidence to reject the employer's explanation, no rational factfinder could conclude that discrimination had occurred. This Court need not-and could not-resolve all such circumstances here. In this case, it suffices to say that a plaintiff's prima facie case, combined with sufficient evidence to find that the employer's asserted justification is false, may permit the trier of fact to conclude that the employer unlawfully discriminated.
The unanimous ruling restores a $100,000 damages verdict won by a 57-year-old factory supervisor in Mississippi who was fired after his boss told him he was "too damn old to do his job."
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Hump Day Wednesday - 14 June 2000
Insert Disclaimer Here. The following are my personal opinions and do not reflect those of my employer.
Book'em Dan'o. Murder One. Seven months ago (Nov. 2, 1999), Byran Uyesugi, killed seven of his Xerox co-workers. Yesterday, in an amazaing example of how the court system can move with dispatch when conditions are right, a jury of his peers convicted him of murder in the first degree. It took the jury just 80 minutes to complete their deliberations.
While none of this will bring back the fathers and sons to their bereaving families, perhaps the healing can now begin. By the way, Hawai'i does not have the death penalty so he will receive a mandatory sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
Shopping for Courts. Is it just me? It seems rather seedy to see Microsoft trying to get to the US Court of Appeals while at the same time the Justice Department is trying to bypass them and go directly to the US Supreme Court. Talking about shopping for a venue. Each has their own reasons for picking the court of their choice. And both are wrong for those reasons. But personally, I don't see any particular reason to bypass the Court of Appeals. Let the process work and quit trying to get what you want through political maneuvering.
Aloha!
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Thursday - 15 June 2000
Blowing Smoke. Excuse me why I inhale. Oh, right. I'm writing something. Hmmm. Can't remember what though. </Just Kidding>. The medical marijuana bill passed by the state legislature was signed into law yesterday. Unfortunately, while it is now legal to possess, use, and grow marijuana for a select few. None can legally buy it in the first place.
Who are these select few? A person diagnosed by a licensed physician to be suffering from a debilitating illness such as cancer, AIDS, or glaucoma. However, federal law prohibits the sale of marijuana. Thus the Catch-22. I guess I'll just have to go to Kona and gather (see Burning City) some.
Out of Luck. [Insert disclaimer here.] So how does a county official, making about $30K a year, drop USD $11.9 million into Las Vegas slot machines? According to the morning paper, he does it the old fashioned way. He embezzles it.
He has bogus invoices made up that show moving costs where none existed. He forces vendors to kick-back a portion of monies paid to them. And then he covers things up through his political connections. And comes up with a lame story of how the money was actually spent on environmental clean-ups. It's people like this that give government workers a bad name. Sigh.
Car 54 Where Are You? What do garage door openers going mad and police microwave transmitters being jammed have in common? Here's a hint: RIMPAC. RIMPAC? Yes, Rim of the Pacific, a major naval exercise in the Pacific Ocean in the vicinity of Hawaii. The exercise brings together maritime forces of Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, the Republic of Korea and the United States for training operations. While doing their exercises, they radiate all kinds of electronic signals. Some of which is in the frequencies used by garage door openers and police communications links.
Speaking of RIMPAC. Here's an interesting high speed photo of a shell leaving the muzzle of the 5-inch, 54-caliber lightweight gun aboard the destroyer USS Fife (DD 991). Click on the image to see the high resolution version. Then look to the far left of the frame and you can see the shell itself in flight. (Picture here).
M-16. No. Not the rifle. It's the 16th milestone alpha/beta build of Netscape's much delayed Navigator 6.0. The thundering herds are there right now so downloading is a bit slow. But if you want, you can stand in line and get it here.
***** Noon Update *****
Realistic Views. Radio Shack is teaming with LunaCorp to fund a un-manned mission to the moon. Let me repeat that. Radio Shack is going to the moon (see the NY Times story here).
RadioShack said on Thursday it will co-sponsor the first commercial lunar landing, a robot probe for ancient ice that could reveal secrets of the solar system, provide rocket fuel for deep space missions or allow human colonies on the moon.The Icebreaker Moon Rover is the brainchild of LunaCorp, a privately held Arlington, Va.-based start-up that plans to launch the moon prospector in late 2003.
``There is going to a space frontier populated by lots of different companies. There is no reason that space needs to be a government program any more,'' said LunaCorp President David Gump.
LunaCorp plans to fund the mission through corporate sponsors as well as exclusive television deals, Internet portal fees and government contracts.
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Aloha Friday - 16 June 2000
It's Friday!
The Heat is On. Not to try to compare the problems on the mainland, but yesterday, the temperature here hit a sweltering 87°F (30.5°C). The humidity was about the same as the temperature. I will definitely have to go to the beach this weekend and cool off.
Speaking of Hot. An already crowded local PC market will get even hotter when Gateway, Inc. enters into the fray. The San Diego-based computer maker plans to open one store by the end of the year and to redo four OfficeMax stores to be Gateway stores-witin-a-store by August. There are six states, including Hawai'i that do not have Gateway stores. The other five are Alaska, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Wyoming.
I'm leaving early today to take care of some business so I need to run. If I have the time, I'll do a Noon Update (as I did yesterday). If not, I hope you and yours have a good weekend. And here's to Dr. Keyboard, stiff upper-lip old chap.
***** Noon Update *****
Home Court Advantage. A lot of people are saying the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team will beat the Indiana Pacers this evening to win the National Basketball League championship. I think they are wrong. I think the home court advantage, and Indiana knowing this could be the last game, will lift them to victory. If so, they go back to LA to play again. If not, the season is done.
Now, don't get me wrong. I'm a Lakers fan through and through. But I have to believe that Indiana will not let themselves be disgraced by losing twice on their home court.
Watch Your Step. The New York Times has an article on the clearing of minefields in Afghanistan (see the story here. Note that there is a free, one-time registration if you have never been to the site). Sometimes, it's easy to forget that there are areas in the world where it is an adventure just to walk through your front yard. And I have to agree with an Australian quoted in the article about how he is not against the use of mines. That in fact, if you are being invaded, you have the right to use whatever you have to defend yourself. But as he says, remove the mines when the risk is no longer there.
Good News Story of the Day. Every once-in-awhile, it's nice to see a story that is uplifting. Rather then getting mired in the problems that surround us (see New York City). So here's one from the San Jose, California Mercury News (see it here) that shows not all high school students are drug taking, rap talking, no-goods. These folks are philanthropists bent on helping others. Now if they could only learn about the joys of investing and keeping the principle and interest separate, the story would be complete.<G>
Aloha!
© 2000 Daniel K. Seto. All rights reserved.