Archive for May 11th, 2010

Hackwork.

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

I’ve been a big fan of Tom Shales since I started reading the WP online. Only a small handful of people – Roger Ebert, Shales, and possibly a few others – can do a negative review well.

But this review of the PBS series “Need to Know” is lousy hackwork.

  1. Starting off with a riff on A Tale of Two Cities is a cliche you’d expect from a lousy writer such as myself, not a Pulitzer-prize winning media critic.
  2. Shales spends three and a half paragraphs ranting about…computer viruses? before getting into the actual subject of his review.
  3. His main point seems to be that computers and the “digital revolution” are responsible for displacing Bill Moyers. I won’t get into my personal feelings about Moyers, and I never watched his show. But Shales seems to be basing much of his dislike for the show on his idea that Moyers was forced out.
    I realize that this is a popular conspiracy theory, but it isn’t true. As PBS Ombudsman Michael Getler has noted, more than once, “Bill Moyers Journal” ended because Bill Moyers wanted to end it. Shales may not believe that, but it would be nice if he at least acknowledged there was a difference of opinion on the subject.

“Need to Know” may indeed stink. But Shales hasn’t proven it.

Posted in Clippings, TV | Comments Closed

Battle of the Network Billionaires.

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

I generally avoid linking to stuff that’s already on FARK, but this is too good and too relevant not to note here.

Ross Perot, Jr., who owns 5% of the Dallas Mavericks, is suing Mark Cuban, the majority owner of the team. Perot Jr. claims that the team is “insolvent and/or in imminent danger of insolvency”. Cuban states “The Mavs operations and debt are guaranteed by me. There is no risk of insolvency. Everyone always has been and will be paid on time.”

Cuban has a blog, and blogs about the Mavericks from time to time, but there’s nothing there yet about this case. I’ll try to update if he does make a statement, though I suspect his lawyers are advising him to play it close to the vest.

Posted in Law, Loser | Comments Closed

Obit watch.

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

I don’t really have a lot to say about Frank Frazetta or Lena Horne, but just for the record, here’s links:

Frazetta LAT obit. Frazetta NYT obit.

Horne LAT obit. Horne NYT obit.

Posted in Clippings, Obits | Comments Closed

Stonehenge.

Tuesday, May 11th, 2010

I’ve been clicking through some articles on Jimbo’s site about the Seattle P.D. stomping incident, and ran across some things that made me go “Hmmmm.”

From the linked article:

Police records show that about 1:15 a.m. that night, four Hispanic men walked up to a man in the China Harbor parking lot and told him to give up his money. One pulled a 3-inch machete.

A three inch machete? I ran that past Lawrence, and his response was, “Did the bad guy also pull out the action figure that came with it?”

The same article links to the Seattle P.D. report on the incident. From that document:

<redacted> said that Suspect 1 pulled out a 3′ machete.

Three feet is a bit more convincing. But let’s think about this. Three feet is 36 inches, or the size of a yardstick. Wikipedia defines a typical machete as being 12.8 to 24 inches long. Three feet is getting more into broadsword territory. How do you conceal something like that? Stuffed down a pant leg? What does the draw stroke look like?

Lawrence pointed out that Jason’s machete in the Friday the 13th movies is three feet long; all the reproductions of that I can find online are not sharpened, though I suppose that can be fixed easily with a grindstone and some time.

I spent a great deal of time trying to find the Spinal Tap Stonehenge video on YouTube, but the only version I found does not appear to be embeddable. So I’ll leave you with this:

Not a 3" machete.

Posted in Clippings, Law | Comments Closed