Archive for September, 2010

Friday loser update.

Friday, September 3rd, 2010

We’re a little less than a week away from the start of the football season, and about eleven days from the start of the NFL loser update, for those of you playing along at home. In the meantime…

Pittsburgh’s at 44-89, .331 winning percentage, 53.622 projected wins. That’s about 108 losses; we can consider the 110 loss goal still in play.

Baltimore’s at 49-85, .366 winning percentage, 59.292 projected wins.

And the Astros have moved into third (3rd!) place in the division, with a 62-71 record, .466 winning percentage, and 75.492 projected wins.

Noted without comment.

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

I’ve been involved in a discussion over at Jay G’s site about famous mass murders that didn’t involve guns. As part of that, I went over to Wikipedia to refresh my memory about a couple of famous incidents and discovered the following interesting bits of information.

The Happy Land social club fire:

Found guilty on August 19, 1991, of 87 counts of arson and 87 counts of murder, [Julio] González was sentenced to 174 twenty-five year sentences, to be served consecutively (a total of 4,350 years) . It was the most substantial prison term ever imposed in the state of New York. He will be eligible for parole in March 2015.

The Dupont Plaza Hotel fire:

Of the three employees accused of the fire, only one, Héctor Escudero Aponte, is still in prison. Armando Jimenez and José Francisco Rivera Lopez were released from federal prison in 2001 and 2002 respectively.

(And if you want to read about something both horrible and forgotten, look up the Bath School disaster.)

Art, damn it, art! watch. (#15 in a series)

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

The Cardiff Botanical Society, in Cardiff-By-The-Sea, California, spent $120,000 to put up a 16-foot statue of a “surfer”. That is, for values of “surfer” that look a lot like…well, maybe, me on a surfboard.

Hilarity ensues, complete with people using the “Cardiff Kook” (as the statue is known) as a jumping off point to create their own works of art.

(Hattip: Reason’s “Hit and Run“.)

Sweet, sweet lead.

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

Because this broke while I was tied up with Armadillocon, I haven’t had a chance to blog it before now: the proposed EPA lead ammo ban appears to be as dead as the Roman Empire.

At least, for now. What was that someone said about the price of freedom?

Clippings: September 1, 2010.

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

Obit watch: Laurent Fignon, two-time winner of the Tour de France, and the man who lost the Tour to Greg LeMond by eight seconds in 1989.

Is it just me, or do Tour winners tend to die relatively young? (Yes, I read the obit. Yes, I’m aware Fignon blames his drug use. I’m trying to avoid painting all the Tour winners with the same broad brush.)

Kim Severson profiles Roger Ebert, rice cooker chef.

I wanted to blog this yesterday, but didn’t get a chance: the Barnes and Noble across from Lincoln Center is closing. People are sad, though it sounds like many of them were getting their books elsewhere. Remember when people were indignant that Barnes and Noble and Borders were destroying the little bookstores?