Archive for June 30th, 2010

Legal watch.

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

We have a couple of interesting cases going on at the moment.

First of all is the sentencing retrial of Laura Ashley Hall. Ms. Hall was convicted of evidence tampering and “hindering apprehension” in the death of Jennifer Cave; however, her five-year sentence was overturned on appeal. The killer, Colton Pitonyak, is serving a 55 year sentence for the murder.

I’m sort of fascinated by this case; I can’t even get women to date me, and this loser Pitonyak is able to find women who will help him cut up bodies? What’s his secret?

Interesting case #2: The cops have arrested Maurice Michael McKnight on his outstanding manslaughter warrant.

Mr. McKnight is a dancer at our local LaBare strip club. LaBare does appear to be a chain of strip clubs that cater to women; I am not personally familiar with these clubs, but to each her own. As a side note, I can remember when that strip club was a series of fairly decent restaurants, including a Serrano’s. I can also remember when that strip mall was actually a nice place to shop.

Anyway, Mr. McKnight is alleged to have gotten into an altercation with a male patron of the club. (A reliable source tells me that the fact there was a male patron of LaBare is pretty odd by itself; in her experience, LaBare does not encourage male patronage.) Allegedly, Mr. McKnight struck the other gentleman (specifically “slapped [him] in the face”), who died several days later of a brain hemorrhage.  It seems odd that a “slap in the face” would result in a brain hemorrhage, unless the slap resulted in a fall; if that is the case, that detail is missing from the Statesman coverage.

On a more serious and sadder note, Jonathan Green’s execution has been stayed by the Court of Criminal Appeals, as there are some questions about his mental competence. Green was convicted of killing a 12-year old girl, Christina LeAnn Neal.

Edited to add: Statesman comment:

You can buy all the materials needed to properly dismember a body at Home Depot. I read about it in a book about Jeffery Dahmer R.I.P. and also saw it on the hit teevee show “Breaking Bad”. I won’t divulge details here b/c there are some real sicko’s on the internets…

I see. So the “sicko’s on the internets” can’t read books or catch “Breaking Bad” reruns on the teevee?

The stupid, it burns.

Art, damn it, art! watch (#11 in a series).

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

A former Royal Navy Sea Harrier jump-jet that saw active service in the skies over Bosnia has become the centrepiece of an exhibition at Tate Britain.

The plane, which would have cost £12 million when new, has been suspended from the ceiling in one of the grand sculpture galleries, looking more like a trussed bird than a deadly piece of kit.

Indeed, all of the plane’s wartime paintwork has been stripped off to reveal a reflective metallic surface so visitors ‘can’t detach themselves from their own reaction’ to the lethal machine.

Banner’s previous work has included written transcriptions of the frame-by-frame action in Top Gun and an installation of Airfix models of all war planes currently in service in the world. She has also made sculptures of punctuation marks.

Photos of the installation at the first link.

(Hattip: Bayou Renaissance Man.)


Miscellaneous crap.

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

The City of Austin has flushed the low-flow toilet rebate program. However, you can still get a free low-flow toilet: you just have to fill out an application and, if you’re approved, pick up your toilet from an approved toilet vendor.

The 2010 Bulwer-Lytton contest results are out.

Edited to add 1: Oh, what the heck. By way of Ace of Spades, a WP review of the greatest concert ever. Where “greatest concert ever” is defined as “complete disaster”.

Edited to add 2: Derek Lowe has a new post up in the “How Not To Do It” series. It appears that a lab at the University of Missouri underwent explosive renovations after some hydrogen and oxygen got together for a hot date. Photos of the aftermath at the link.

Edited to add 3: The HouChron has interrupted their “WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!” watch to let us know that Dr. Demento is ending his radio show. Why, yes, this is the same story that Slashdot and Lawrence brought you almost a month ago.

Edited to add 4: As I’ve noted in the past, my newspaper reading during the weekends can be spotty. So I missed this Ben Wear article in the Statesman about the MetroRail ridership figures. (Hattip: Blue Dot Blues, by way of Battleswarm.)

Edited to add 5: Headline from the HouChron: “Dear Abby says what to do when grandma spoils the kids”. Somehow, I suspect Dear Abby’s answer does not involve a Taser.

Speaking of Popehat, I think this is a great post by Patrick, but I’m a very bad person; whenever I read the phrase “Res Ipsa Loquitur”, all I can think of is “Ipsa this, you p—y little b—h!