Reason Morning Links: Google's New Competition, Sotomayor Clears First Hurdle, Debate Over Rorschach Cheat Sheet

- Microsoft, Yahoo reach deal on search engine to compete with Google.

- Senate Judiciary Committee approves Sotomayor, vote moves to full Senate.

- Congress considering legislation to give plane passengers the right to dis-board when stuck for hours on an airport tarmac.

- Obama administration faces possible landmark court challenge over Gitmo detainee.

- Interesting face-off looming between psychologists and Wikipedia over publication of the original 10 ink blots used by Hermann Rorschach.

Comments

[Spoonman]

What the hell legal ground do they have to remove the plates from the site? Trade secrets, which are widely available for $110?

[People wanna know]

Where's the link about Gates?

[Fascitis Necrotizante]

The ink blots are all designed to look like vaginas. Just to make you feel like a perv.

[PantsFan]

The madness has crossed the border!

Man bites Winnipeg officer while being arrested

Police say when the driver, 35, began demonstrating aggressive and irrational behaviour, the officers placed him under arrest for causing a disturbance. While in custody, the man bit one of the officers in the shoulder, police said, noting the officer did not require medical attention

Nationally, about 10,000 charges of assaulting a peace officer were laid by Canadian police forces in 2008.

[kinnath]

The Times is months late in reporting this fight between psychiatrists and Wikipedia.

I've been to Wikipedia and seen the inkblots. They are interesting.

[robc]

I thought one of the standard Rorschach blots was blank. Guess not.

[Gunboat Diplomacy]

"? Obama administration faces possible landmark court challenge over Gitmo detainee."

Good times. Good times.

[Lamar]

Easy solution: Make the full ten inkblots available, but only put a small thumbnail on the main wiki entry page. Put a warning under the thumbnail that says you won't be able to take a real Rorschach test if you view the image because your results will be skewed. Nobody wants to take the test or keep their options open gets surprised, and people who will never take a Rorschach test have access to the public domain materials.

[hmm]

dis-board
deplane
deboard
disembark (the best)

There really needs to be a consensus on one word to describe getting the fuck off a plane.

[Nick]

3 hours is too long to sit on the tarmac. If the plane can't leave the ground in 60 minutes, take it back to the gate and allow everyone to get off and find other arrangements if they want. The lack of foresight by the airports and airlines with regard to such lengthy delays, usually caused by weather, is ridiculous. The lack of concern for their customers is even worse.

The airlines need to pool their resources and fund a GPS based ATC system so they can actually provide good service and stay in business. I don't mind paying an extra 10 bucks per flight for a better system. They spent 787 billion on the stimulus while this is actually one place, maybe THE one place, some of that money could have been well spent. Standard libertarian disclaimer: they never should have wrote the bill at all.

[kinnath]

There really needs to be a consensus on one word to describe getting the fuck off a plane.

"Saunter" seems to cover the assholes in front of me when I need to make a connecting flight.

[hmm]

? Interesting face-off looming between psychologists and Wikipedia over publication of the original 10 ink blots used by Hermann Rorschach.

Why cheat? The look on the docs face as you say things like, "looks like a monkey raping a football" or "A zombie alien hybrid eating the brains of a kitten." is far more fun. Might as well destroy what ever statistical analysis they plan to use by shooting for the outlier slot. And have fun doing it.

[cmace]

un-ass deplane

[Joe_D]

I don't know that you can pick a single time-frame that's appropriate for sitting on the tarmac, except maybe when you've landed at your destination.

One time, we sat on the tarmac waiting to take off for about 1.5-2 hours. Eventually, we took off. It was good we waited, because otherwise I would have been stuck in Houston and would have gotten home the next afternoon rather than around midnight.

[some dude]

3 hours is too long to sit on the tarmac. If the plane can't leave the ground in 60 minutes, take it back to the gate and allow everyone to get off and find other arrangements if they want. The lack of foresight by the airports and airlines with regard to such lengthy delays, usually caused by weather, is ridiculous. The lack of concern for their customers is even worse.

Not to ever defend the honor or integrity of US air carriers, but existing regulations have a big impact on what the airlines can or cannot do after an aircraft has pushed back from the gate.

It is not a simple matter, to just roll back to a gate and let the passengers off the aircraft. The gate you departed from has more than likely been filled by another aircraft. There probably isn't another gate open anywhere else at the airport -- they stay pretty well booked solid through out the day. It is highly unlikely that the airline or the airport has staff available to meet the aircraft if they could find an open gate.

So in summary, the feds regulate the hell out of the airlines, the logistics of supporting the aircraft make it nearly impossible to unload all the passengers stuck on the aircraft, and the airline scheduling practices leave absolutely no margin for error -- so bad weather means a huge cluster fuck for everyone.

As bad as the situation is today, I have complete confidence that the US congress can find a way to make the situation worse overall.

[J sub D]

"The more test materials are promulgated widely, the more possibility there is to game it," said Bruce L. Smith, a psychologist and president of the International Society of the Rorschach and Projective Methods,...

Hate to be the one to break this to you Doctor Smith, people (including sharp 12 year olds) have been gaming psychological tests for as long as there has been psychological tests. Many of the ignorant masses are unimpressed with your talismans and fetishes as wise counsel is available from many sources* that have just as good of track record as your profession.

* e.g. clergy, matriarchs, bartenders and prostitutes.

[ewwbl]

***? Congress considering legislation to give plane passengers the right to dis-board when stuck for hours on an airport tarmac.***

Aren't FAA regulations responsible for passengers being stuck on the plane in the first place?

[SugarFree]

The Rorshach and the MMPA2 are not tools for diagnosing mental illness, but rather for diagnosing mental illness in stupid people. Anyone with half a brain could make a shrink think they were raving loons by answering the right way.

[Citizen Nothing]

I hate the airlines with a white-hot hate. But I hate the TSAr even more.

[Citizen Nothing]

(Not that I'm claiming that the TSAr is responsible for tarmac delays, although, if they somehow were, I wouldn't be surprised.)

[hmm]

Anyone with half a brain could make a shrink think they were raving loons by answering the right way.

...the right way consistently. MMPI is based on consistency as well as statistical relation to the answers.

[ktc2]

Remember when they gave Rorschach the Rorschach test in Watchmen? LOL. Good example of how worthless and moronic that test is.

[SugarFree]

hmm,

But it is still series of redundant questions. Even while I was taking it, I realized it was only about eight questions asked a dozen different ways. To inconsistently answer "Do you hear voices?" and "Do you often hear voices urging you to do things?" takes stupidity, not insanity.

[Hugh Akston]

I don't know what the big deal is about publishing the inkblots. Why would anyone want to look at abstract pictures of my father in a dress doing various yoga poses?

[R C Dean]

"Do you hear voices?"

All the time. I'm hearing one now, if fact.

"Do you often hear voices urging you to do things?"

Sure. The one I'm hearing now is urging me to answer inane questions.

[Rich]

> Where's the link about Gates?

Doesn't disorderly conduct factor into detention at Gitmo?

[Rich]

> Where's the link about Gates?

This is better:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/32200089#32200089

[Gunboat Diplomacy]

"To inconsistently answer "Do you hear voices?" and "Do you often hear voices urging you to do things?" takes stupidity, not insanity."

I am a musician. I frequently hear human voices in my head. But they never urge me to do anything beyond noting them in a score.

[MP]

They should not even allow people on a plane unless they think they're going to take off within the hour. I've been stuck on a plane for 6 hours before. On a flight from NYC to Boston. I could've driven faster. I think that any passenger stuck on the plane for two hours after they close the doors should be entitled to a full refund. That'll get the airlines to implement a different policy.

There are some issues where the consumer has no leverage. This is one.

[SpongePaul]

Hmm I see Ink Blots, not animals or people or anyhting, just ink blots. no pictures, guess my housian brain does not like abstract. i would say its fucking ink blots for 1-10

[Gunboat Diplomacy]

BTW, birther Lou Dobbs is going to be on O'Reilly tonight (8:00 pm ET). O'Reilly is going to ask, "What the hell is wrong with you?" Last night O'Reilly said that there were birth announcements of Obama's birth in the Hawaii newspapers (they're archived). I can't wait to hear how Dobbs reconciles that with his birtherism.

[hmm]

But it is still series of redundant questions. Even while I was taking it, I realized it was only about eight questions asked a dozen different ways. To inconsistently answer "Do you hear voices?" and "Do you often hear voices urging you to do things?" takes stupidity, not insanity.

I agree, it's a lil more than 8 and more than a few are similar, but not the same outright. I was just talking trash cause I was bored. =)

[SugarFree]

hmm,

Well, I wasn't being as hostility as I sounded. I'm bored and it makes me mean.

[SugarFree]

or as hostile even...

[R C Dean]

Last night O'Reilly said that there were birth announcements of Obama's birth in the Hawaii newspapers (they're archived).

The Just One Minute blog (sorry, no linkee from workee, stupid firewall) has the most exhaustive/ing coverage of the whole birther thing.

Which still begs the question: why hasn't the original birth certificate been released? Either

(a) There is something fishy with it, or
(b) Obama thinks there is some advantage in keeping this stirred up.

(b) is much more likely, but (a) is not ruled out until we actually see it.

[R C Dean]

There is, of course, no possibility of Obama being removed from office if it turns out that he isn't native born. But the hit to his credibility and political capital would be beyond fatal.

Of course, I have little doubt that Hillary's operatives didn't look at the original certificate during the primary, and decide there was nothing there.

[Nick]

I know it's the FAA's fault, but this is where the airlines, if they want to surive should tell their governing body who would not exist without their success, to stop helping, and let us fix this ourselves. MP is right they should not let the plane leave the gate unless there is a reasonable expectation to be able to actually leave the ground within the hour. The logistical problems could be remedied easier than we think. The airports have stairs on wheels so they can get people off planes without a gate, and they can walk to one of the many service doors and sit in the sirport terminal where there is food and restrooms. The airlines need to foresee these things earlier but even if they don't, it's not unrealistic to expect to not be kept on a plane for hours against your will unless its in the fucking sky, which would presumably not be against your will anyway!

If this happened to me I would try to convince another agitated passenger to get himself into enough trouble so they have to take the damn plane back to the terminal and arrest him, so the rest of us can get off. I really think the policy of keeping people on grounded planes for hours is the real reason the government won't let guns on board. 9/11 wasn't the catalyst. They didn't let them on before that.

[Nick]

I have little doubt that Hillary's operatives didn't look at the original certificate during the primary, and decide there was nothing there.

Exactly. No way they let him interfere with her chances if there was any hope they had of derailing him.

[JB]

3 hours is a good cut-off. Anything past that is just too damn long.

[Rich]

> (a) There is something fishy with it, or
(b) Obama thinks there is some advantage in keeping this stirred up.

Are you alluding to BO being MJ's love child?

[jtuf]

If your shrink is too lazy to make his own orginal ink blots, you should find a new shrink.

[One of Tony\'s Reason Rubes]

"sorry, no linkee from workee"

Fuck you RC Dean!

NLNT. NLNT.

- just kidding ;0)

[Tulpa]

Which still begs the question: why hasn't the original birth certificate been released? Either

(a) There is something fishy with it, or
(b) Obama thinks there is some advantage in keeping this stirred up.

You forgot

(c) He doesn't want every idiot in the country to have access to his personal documents.

which I would expect would be the first reaction a libertarian would have.