Archive for September, 2011

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Shame! Come back, shame!

Monday, September 19th, 2011

I forgot to stick this in the loser update update, but it may merit a separate post anyway.

Someone (I forget who; it may have been the bloggers at Jimbo’s old site) alerted me to Taylor Branch’s “The Shame of College Sports” in the October issue of The Atlantic.

I think this is worth your attention, even though it is long. I’m still digesting the article, but there’s quite a bit of interesting material in it about the NCAA’s past (and current) legal battles; the information Branch brings out makes me more convinced that we’ll see the end of the NCAA in the next decade.

Posted in Clippings, Law, Sports | 3 Comments »

Loser update update.

Monday, September 19th, 2011

The Monday night game is between two 0-2 0-1 teams, so look for the loser update tomorrow.

In other news, the Astros hit the 100 loss mark, but not 101, over the weekend. They’re currently at 52-100, which means 110 losses is still in play: if they lose all ten of their remaining games.

I started to blog the 100th loss over the weekend, but Reno (and some other things) had me too upset and distracted to be able to blog. Sorry.

Posted in Loser, Sports | Comments Closed

God bless our troops. Especially our snipers.

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

Dakota Meyer has been awarded the Medal of Honor.

According to the military, on Sept. 8, 2009, Meyer was in the Ganjgal Valley in Afghanistan’s Kunar province when his unit was attacked by 50 enemy combatants. Meyer charged through enemy fire five times in an armored Humvee to save 13 Marines and Army soldiers and 23 Afghan troops who were pinned down.

Meyer is credited with killing at least eight attackers despite being wounded in his arm by shrapnel.

By the way:

Meyer also recovered the bodies of four friends killed in action.

At the time of his actions, Meyer was a corporal. He

…currently serves in the Inactive Ready Reserve of the Marine Corps as a sergeant. He is a Marine infantryman and scout sniper.

(Post title borrowed from LaRue Tactical.)

Posted in Clippings, Heroism | Comments Closed

Obit watch: September 15, 2011.

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

Bill Muehlberger, longtime geology professor at UT, and the man who trained the NASA astronauts.

Back in 2009, WCD linked to the Statesman‘s profile of Professor Muehlberger. The Statesman website is acting hinky at the moment, and we’re not sure the original piece is still up. If we find a link, we’ll update this post.

Posted in Clippings, Geek, Obits | Comments Closed

What China needs…

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

…is strict ax control laws.

(Apologies to Weer’d for stepping into his territory.)

Posted in Clippings, Guns | Comments Closed

Nasty, big, pointy teeth!

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

Carry your damn guns, people.

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Monkeys, Primates | Comments Closed

Worst. Team. Ever.

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

To be clear, that’s worst Astros team ever, not worst baseball team in general.

Number 98.

Posted in Loser, Sports | Comments Closed

TMQ Watch watch.

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

Last December, TMQ Watch responded to TMQ’s assertion that “Favre’s 297-game streak will never be broken”, offering Peyton Manning as an example, and stating

…we are willing to bet TMQ $5 that Peyton Manning breaks Favre’s record. If WCD and TMQ can agree on someone to hold the bet in escrow until Halloween 2016, WCD will put our $5 up now.

TMQ never contacted us to agree on terms. However, we are honorable people, and we clearly lost that bet. Accordingly, in lieu of paying TMQ $5 directly, we are making a donation to A Call To Men, an organization TMQ praised in that same column.

Posted in TMQ watch, Wagers | Comments Closed

Leadership Secrets of Non-Fictional Characters (part 7 of a series).

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

Ranger Up is one of my preferred clothing vendors. (As I may have noted previously, I am partial to my “Mr. Grenade” shirt, since that phrase gets a lot of use around the office.)

Anyway, I was poking around the site this morning (looking at the new MAC-V SOG shirt) and ran across Nick’s Rules on Leadership. I think these are linkworthy. There is a lot of overlap with other entries in the leadership series, but this is the kind of thing that’s good to have in one place, maybe so you can print it out and drop it on someone’s desk.

(I would like to note, for the record, that I do not currently feel any need to print this out and drop it on someone’s desk. I note this because certain someones have mentioned that they read this blog. This is also one of the reasons I do not talk very much about my work life.)

(I would also like to note, for the record, that I haven’t abandoned the leadership series, even if there haven’t been any recent updates. I post stuff when I find it, and when I think it is worth posting.)

Posted in Clippings, Clothing, Leadership, Shirts | Comments Closed

Holy cow, this is the most hilarious thing I’ve seen in weeks.

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

The Atlantic‘s Vladimir Putin photo gallery.

See:

Someone should have told this man, “Look. “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension” was not a documentary. And you’re not Peter Weller. Okay?”

(Hattip: America’s greatest Mac pundit and vodka drinker.)

Posted in Clippings, Photography | 1 Comment »

TMQ Watch: September 13, 2011.

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

This week in TMQ: the Chronic-what-les of Narnia?

No, we’re not kidding. And we’re not going to call Gregg Easterbrook Aaron Burr, either. After the jump…

(more…)

Posted in Clippings, Explosives, Sports, TMQ watch | 1 Comment »

Noted without (much) comment.

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said her campaign is among those that may have been “wiped out” by a Burbank-based Democratic campaign treasurer who was arrested on federal fraud charges earlier this month.

Posted in Clippings, Schadenfreude | Comments Closed

Special non-sports firings watch.

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

Back in March, we noted that the Miami PD had shot a bunch of folks, and some people were upset over this.

Miami Police Chief Miguel Exposito was fired on Monday. The reason for his firing does not appear to involve shootings:

…[City Manager Johnny] Martinez suspended Exposito for disobeying an order not to demote three high-ranking police officers. The chief chose to reassign and strip the officers of their authority — though not their rank and pay — anyway.

The City Commission voted 3-2 in favor of firing Chief Exposito, and is calling for amendments to the city charter. But don’t cry for the Chief:

Exposito, who was scheduled to retire in January, leaves the city after stints in the internal affairs and sex crimes divisions. The chief, who earned $196,000 a year, will walk with close to $900,000 in banked pension pay and unused sick and vacation time. He turned 57 on Saturday. When the clock struck midnight at City Hall, he received muted happy birthday wishes.

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Firings | Comments Closed

Art, damn it, art! watch. (#24 in a series)

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

Alex Schaefer is a painter.

Alex Schaefer likes to paint banks.

Alex Schaefer likes to paint banks on fire.

Alex Schaefer was questioned by the LAPD because, supposedly, someone “felt threatened” by Mr. Schaefer standing in front of a Chase bank branch and painting it on fire.

Schaefer said he explained that the artwork was intended to be a visual metaphor for the havoc that banking practices have caused to the economy.

Alex Schaefer just sold that painting to a guy in Germany for $25,000. Mr. Schaefer sold another painting of a burning Bank of America branch on eBay for $3,600.

The LAT does not mention where Mr. Schaefer has his accounts.

Posted in Art, Clippings | Comments Closed

Your loser update: week 1, 2011.

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

The Astros won last night. Now all they have to do is go 15-0 the rest of the season to avoid setting a new record, and .200 to avoid losing 110 games. I’m still pretty confident that they’ll hit 100 losses, but not 110.

But you don’t really care for music baseball, do you?

NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:

Miami
Pittsburgh
Cleveland
Tennessee
Indianapolis
Kansas City
Denver
NY Giants
Dallas
Minnesota
New Orleans
Tampa Bay
Carolina
Atlanta
Seattle
St. Louis

Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »