This is a surprisingly hard question to find an answer for, but the best information I’ve been able to find seems to point to Cuba moving steadily westward as the Atlantic Ocean widens and South America pushes upwards towards North America, until eventually (some 250 million years from now) the continents reassemble themselves as Pangea Ultima and Cuba is sucked under what’s left of the Atlantic Ocean.
Then again, that may not have been the question the NYT had in mind…
There hasn’t been much in the news the past couple of days, and I’ve been depressed and upset for various reasons that the readers of this blog won’t care about.
I don’t have a lot to say about the DOJ report on “Fast and Furious”. I haven’t had time to go through the report myself, and I’m expecting that a lot of people who are smarter than I am will have smarter things to say than I do, once they’ve had a chance to go through it.
The Astros have crossed the 100 loss barrier, and are still on track for 110 losses. Woot.
Today’s NYT has two articles I found kind of interesting. One is about problems with the United Network for Organ Sharing and kidney allocation:
Story number two is about the Spirit Lake Indian Reservation in North Dakota:
And:
And the mayor of Central Falls, Rhode Island, resigned yesterday. He’s also agreed to plead guilty on federal charges that “he took illegal gratuities from a friend and political supporter who received lucrative work from the city boarding up abandoned buildings”.
“Some homes were boarded up even though people were still living there.” In completely unrelated news: gee, I really miss Buddy Cianci.
I would have sworn I had written about the Virginia Samuelson murder case last year, but I can’t find it. Maybe I sent it to Weer’d Beard for the “Gun Death” files instead.
Short version: Shaun Samuelson got into an argument with his mother, Virginia, and hit her several times. EMS was called, and while Mrs. Samuelson was on a stretcher, being loaded into the ambulance, Mr. Samuelson drove his pickup into the group (including Mrs. Samuelson, the EMTs, and an APD officer) killing her. (APD and the EMTs apparently ducked out of the way and avoided serious injury.)
Mr. Samuelson will serve a life sentence, as the prosecution did not seek the death penalty.
This weekend was the grand opening for the new Half-Price Books in Round Rock.
As they usually do, Half-Price was distributing coupons: 40% off one item on Thursday, 30% off on Friday, 20% off on Saturday, and 50% off on Sunday. (I heard one clerk complain that those coupons were only supposed to apply to the Round Rock store, but they made them valid for all the stores in error. I think that clerk was full of it, but that’s just my opinion.)
Anyway, I picked up a few interesting things Thursday through Saturday, including a copy of An Economist Gets Lunch: New Rules for Everyday Foodies
Today was 50% off day. I had some things I was thinking about picking up, but then I got lucky. Fortunately, I had two coupons…
The new (2010) of Bill Warren’s magnificent book, Keep Watching the Skies! American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties, The 21st Century Edition
Hoglegs, Hipshots and Jalapenos
Squee!
(Insert obvious joke about shooting at the Bill of Rights here.)
Onward. According to the LAT, one of the crew members accidentally “grabbed a box of buckshot ammunition after the Amazing Grace ran out of blanks”.
Two people were injured, apparently not critically.
So off the top of my head:
This appears to be the Amazing Grace’s website. I was trying to figure out what kind of guns it had, and how they worked; it kind of sounds like they may use commercial shotgun cartridges, instead of muzzle loaders like you’d see in the movies. The site isn’t helpful, but the “Ship’s Log” is good for a chuckle.
It sounds like this was part of the Toshiba Tall Ships Festival. “Back by popular demand again this year, children can take part in Cap’n Jack’s School for Scallywags. Watch as your young buccaneers learn to walk, talk, and sing like a pirate!” That sounds like it would get annoying. Fast.
Previously on Whipped Cream Difficulties:
Previously on WCD, I wrote about the Mangia Pizza bankruptcy hearing, and the proposal by “Cloud Cap LLC” to take over the remaining restaurant (and the stand out at the airport).
Today’s Statesman informs us that Cloud Cap won. Apparently, the Mesa location has been closed (I had not noticed that, but I have not been up that way recently); Cloud Cap plans to re-open it, and is hiring former Mangia employees.
In answer to our question about what would happen to the two independently owned location if Cloud Cap got control; those have been rebranded as “The Pizza Bistro”, which strikes me as being a pretty stupid name. However, I suspect we’ll end up doing dining conspiracies at both “The Pizza Bistro” and the new Mangia once they have a chance to settle down. (Generally, SDC policy is to allow three months from opening before visiting a restaurant.)
This was covered some on FARK yesterday, but I kind of feel like it is important enough to mention here.
On April 15, 1989, at the Hillsborough Stadium (located in Sheffield), 96 people were crushed to death. The initial inquiry on the deaths basically blamed the fans for what happened; that was a controversial verdict.
The British government agreed to a new inquiry in December of 2009. The results of that inquiry were issued yesterday.
More:
And further:
Additionally, the report suggests that at least some of the people who died may have lived, if they had been given prompt medical treatment:
Ramiro Pozos Gonzalez, a “founding member” of the La Resistencia drug gang, has been captured.
Ordinarily, I don’t note the capture of every cartel member that comes down the pike. But the HouChron article includes a charming photograph of Mr. Gonzalez’s gold-plated “AK-47”, which was also captured with him.
I can sort of, vaguely, understand plating the gun. But the magazines? That’s just a waste of money. Magazines are disposable items. You should be prepared to trash them if they don’t feed; gold-plating them just makes the decision that much more difficult.
Amy Bishop took a plea. She’s going away forever. Good.
Speaking of plea deals, one of the suspects in the Austin nightclub case has also pled out to charges of selling and distributing cocaine. He’ll do 46 months in prison, and three years of “supervised release”. The cases against the other suspects are proceeding, but it looks like at least one of them is on the run.
Obit watch: Dr. Thomas Szasz, noted critic of psychiatry.
This is interesting to me on a personal level: there’s a shopping center at the corner of North Lamar and 38th Street that has what is easily one of the Top Ten worst parking lots in Austin. The tenants in that center have been told that they need to move out: apparently, someone plans to demolish that center for new development.
The other thing that makes this interesting to me (besides the loss of the horrible parking lot) is that one of the anchor tenants is Precision Camera, a regular stop for me on Saturday and (as far as I know) the only real camera store in Austin. Even better, they’re moving to a location at Burnet and Anderson, almost within walking distance of my apartment.
Preach it, brother! I’m excited about this move, in case you couldn’t tell.
First TMQ of the new season. What can we say: we’ve got high hopes.
After the jump, oops, there goes another rubber tree plant…
Bitter much?
I’m sure it comes as no great shock to anybody that California isn’t the only place in the country where corruption runs rampant.
Also arrested were the mayor’s brother, Ralphiel, and Joseph Giorgianni, described as a “sandwich shop owner” and “convicted sex offender”.
It appears that Giorgianni was the bagman for the mayor, and that he couldn’t keep his mouth shut. The “Boss Tweed” line above is a direct quote from Giorgianni. Other great quotes:
More:
“We’re not greedy. We’re corruptible.” That’s got to be a quote of the year right there.
And by way of the awesome Jay G., we learn that the not greedy, but corruptible, Mayor Mack was also a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns. So he’s for gun control, but apparently had no problem with Giorgianni, who…
(Giorgianni and some other folks (not including the mayor and his brother) are also charged with selling oxycodone, and Giorgianni is also being charged with “weapon possession by a convicted felon”, speaking of illegal guns.)
(I’m linking to the WP rather than the Trenton papers, because I looked at the two Trenton newspaper sites that came up in Google, and their coverage wasn’t good.)
An article from this week’s NYT Magazine:
Unfortunately, the article isn’t about couches with knife-like edges on the underside, but rather about the alleged dangers of flame retardant chemicals used in couch foam.
The big problems are:
One question sort of implied, but not explicitly asked, by this article: many of these standards, like TB 117, were implemented at a time when far more people smoked, and smoke detectors were far less common. The idea was to keep Grandpa’s cigarette from setting the couch on fire if he dozed off in front of the TV set. Now that smoking has decreased dramatically, and smoke detectors are everywhere, do these standards continue to make sense? And shouldn’t this be a consumer choice? If you have kids, buy a couch with all natural fabric and stuffing. If you smoke and drink in front of the TV set and frequently doze off, get a couch that you couldn’t set on fire with a blowtorch and napalm.
Friday’s LAT had an interesting article about the tensions between LAPD beat officers and the homeless in downtown LA. Specifically, the homeless beer vendors:
Yeah, yeah, illegal, yeah, yeah, alcohol drives crime on skid row, yeah yeah. But I have to admit that my first reaction was “Damn, I wish Austin’s homeless were that entrepreneurial.” Seriously, it’d be kind of nice to be able to walk down the street and pick up a cold bottle of something to sip on for $2.50 or so. (This being Austin, you couldn’t get away with selling that Colt 45 or Steel Reserve crap on the streets. You’d have to go with the local craft brews; Shiner Bock in bottles, maybe some Fat Tire. Leave the malt liquor to the gas stations.)
Come to think of it, you don’t even have to limit yourself to beer, and all the problems associated with that. There are times when, if that guy on the street corner wasn’t panhandling for cash, but had a cooler full of ice and cold sodas and bottled water, damn sure I’d give him at least $2 bucks for a cold drink when it is 103 degrees out there. I know someone who tried this experiment a while back, but I’ll let him report in comments if he wishes.
(And before you jump on my case: I know the problem is more complex than I’m making it sound, and selling bottled water and sodas on street corners isn’t a surefire way to get folks from homelessness to prosperity. But providing a useful good and/or service to a willing customer beats begging for bucks in my mind.)
At least it will be in downtown Austin in November.
“But they aren’t racing in downtown!” No, they’re not. The racetrack is out near the airport.
But the city is considering three applications that involve closing downtown streets for up to a week during the festivities. The closures would include seven blocks of Congress Avenue, the main downtown artery.
The next question: who and why? The people who are organizing the race have requested two of the three pending closures.
…requested lane closures on Trinity between East 15th Street and East MLK from Friday through Sunday of that week for the scores of shuttle buses that will ferry fans to and from the race. There will also be similar operations at the Travis County Exposition Center and at another yet-to-be announced location.
“They’ll be loading 12 buses at a time,” said Gordon Derr, assistant director of the City of Austin’s Transportation Department. “There may be one through-lane open, which we may close intermittently.”
I’m actually semi-okay with this. I’m not sure they need to close the entire street, but I’ve never tried to run shuttle busses for 30,000 people. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on this one.
Next:
…centered on the Warehouse District west of Congress, will be the site of Fan Fest, which will “celebrate Formula One the sport,” circuit spokeswoman Julie Loignon said Thursday.
Loignon said the Fan Fest, which will run from the evening of Friday, Nov. 16, through early Monday, Nov. 19, will feature music, food vendors and other elements that she declined to specify. Circuit officials plan to announce details of the event in the coming weeks, she said.
If the permit is granted as currently contemplated, Congress between Second and Fifth streets would close in stages starting Thursday evening, Nov. 15, and would open before rush hour on Monday, Nov. 19. Parts of West Second, Third, Fourth and Colorado streets would also be closed for several days.
I’m less wild about this: it seems like fan wankery for the eurotrash that come in for these kind of events. But it is in the Warehouse District, and they’re only asking to close a few blocks of Congress for what amounts to a long weekend. Number three:
The other pending closure application is for Experience Austin, a festival organized by Run-Tex that will run through the race weekend. It would close Congress from Seventh to 11th streets, as well as parts of Eighth, Ninth, 10th, 11th, 12th and Colorado streets. Some of those closures would last almost a week because of the time required for setup and breakdown of the festival.
Alexandra Stewart, community events coordinator for Run-Tex, said it will be “your typical Austin street festival,” with food, drink, music and artists. “Think Pecan Street.”
Pecan Street doesn’t close Congress Avenue for a week, you maroon! And why do we need both this and the “Fan Fest”? I can’t see a good reason, except that “Experience Austin” sees a way to make a few bucks by screwing up downtown traffic for a week.
In case you were wondering:
By comparison, at this year’s SXSW Music Festival, 36 downtown blocks were fully closed, most for four days. Those closures did not include Congress Avenue.
I’ve got some frequent flyer miles on the former Continental Airlines. Cleveland in November is beginning to sound nice.