Call Me “Skeptical”

Well, today my employer informed me that they only cover two days a year for jury duty, so the judge released me from service. This is good for me, I guess, but how does this play out in the larger scheme of things?

If professionals, entrepreneurs, business owners, and other professions that derive direct income for their time and are not compensated by their employers for jury duty: How is one assured that their jury is truly a jury composed of their peers, especially if their profession is one of the above?
More troubling, though, is how can we be encouraged [as a possible defendant] with the knowledge of that leftover, happenstance citizens may composed our jury ? Not reassuring at all. The reasons why our nation has such an incredible amount of incarcerations is much more clearer to me now.

Mathematically speaking, I am skeptical that the calculus would result favorably for the defendant when faced with fighting an uphill battle against the basic human nature of those jurors actually chosen. However, I can see how this could be as good a system as any that a society of fallable humans could compose.

Call Me “Juror #6″

Well, today I was chosen from among my county peers to decide a man’s fate who is charged with murder.

Of course I can’t talk about the case, but I do find the system of elimination in choosing jurors quite interesting. While many potential jurors have professional reasons why they can’t serve on a three week case, others had “justified” reasons and those were taken in stride. But a couple had personal, and even moral, reasons which the judge would dismiss them for.

It’s my opinion that if you can sit, you should. It’s a key pillar of our entire democratic system, and one we should all count ourselves lucky to be afforded. We can only hope that some competent fellow citizens are sitting in “the box” (as they informally address our new residence) IF the occasion arises for us, too – regardless of guilt. This exposure to our actual legal system at work is quite a learning experience.

Internet Growth Slows, With This Generation

Robert X. Cringley writes on his, PBS hosted site i, cringley, that Internet growth is slowing. Although 71% of the US has access, Cringley states that to become ubiquitious a generation of users must essentially replace the non-users. And for this group to adopt these technologies they must see no other alternatives. Here’s some of the future trending he sees.

Geek Squad To The Rescue!

My mother has been completely frustrated since her computer gave her the “Blue Screen of Death” — for those PC users out there, you know what I’m talking about. After adding some of her cable modem company’s software it craashed, saying she may have a virus or be low on memory (probably from the software.)

For someone who doesn’t know about or want to fix your computer, check these guys out: Geek Squad.
1-800-GEEK SQUAD (of course)

Check Out This Photo Blog

I saw the author of Bluejake.com, Jake Dobkin, on the Brian Lehrer tv show last night. What Jake does is post only one photo every day on his blog from around NYC during the course of his day. The point of this is to glean one best shot from maybe 30 or so images a day for a viewer to appreciate.

In a world where quantity is the focus, doesn’t taking a few extra moments to appreciate one artistic quality image seem refreshing?

Here’s today’s image:

Here’s an archived image:

Check Out This Podcast

I just discovered a new podcast that is laugh-out-loud funny, called Keith and The Girl. One blogger describes it as, "Very New York. Very Jewish. Crude, rude, with lots of ‘tude."

PS – If you don’t have iTunes yet, enter the 21st century here.