A Win for Private Property Owners

The Hennepin County Board voted Tuesday to partially roll back the county's smoking ban, according to media reports.

Commissioners voted 4-3 to exempt traditional bars from the ban, which went into effect nine months ago. The ordinance prohibited smoking in all indoor areas of food establishments, including bars and restaurants.

But bar owners complained that the ban was cutting into their profits. Under the scaled-back ban, traditional bars will be eligible for exemptions, which run through July 31, 2007.

Score one for small businesses.

Phillistines!

The Register is reporting that Apple may be removing FireWire from it's upcoming intel-based iBooks. They speculate that it might be a fiscally sound move when one takes into account the number of people who use FireWire.

Phillistines! Peasants! Curse you damned plebians and your inferior USB 2.0! Do you know how hard it is to find a decent-priced external hard drive with FireWire? FireWire is superior!

Aeon Flux was Boring

There's nothing wrong with the plot, writing or acting in this movie but it failed to capture my interest. I nearly fell asleep watching this one. Charlize Theron is pretty to look at but she lacks the attitude necessary to pull this one off. A younger Sigourney Weaver would have been much better suited to this role.

Small Scissors: Back on Board?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Small scissors and screwdrivers - banned after September 11 - will be allowed back on airplanes as U.S. security policy changes focus to target bomb threats, government officials said on Thursday.

...Small scissors with blades less than four inches and tools like screwdrivers that are less than seven inches will be removed from the long list of banned items. Box cutters and other tools with cutting edges, crowbars and hammers remain off limits.

Read it all here.

When a hammer is all you have, every solution looks like a nail but not if you're flying because hammers aren't allowed. Nails larger than 10d are also not allowed.