I’m going to quote the lead of the week here:
Click through to the article at your own risk, especially if you are male.
Archive for November, 2013
Art, damn it, art! watch. (#43 in a series)
Friday, November 15th, 2013The Void.
Thursday, November 14th, 2013Which void is that?
The project’s leaders, who closed on the land this summer, have previously said the new park could fill the void that AstroWorld left behind.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back up here. What project is this?
What is Grand Texas? According to the HouChron‘s real estate blog:
Click2Houston has more details:
A minor league baseball stadium? Do they have a team that’s going to play in it? Or is this…if you build it, they will come? (Sorry.)
The sheer scope of this has me a little skeptical. Where is the money coming from? Who is behind this? Can they build all this out in roughly 15 months? (The Grand Texas website says “Spring 2015”. The HouChron has the water park in April 2015 and the theme park in December 2015. This makes me a bit more suspicious.)
But I blog this here for two reasons:
- The somewhat unfortunate artist’s conceptions included in the HouChron article. Quote from the comments: “am I to understand that the entire theme park will look like a drawing my kid did with his crayolas?”
- You may have noticed the HouChron‘s mention of something called the “East Montgomery County Improvement District”. Where have we heard of the “East Montgomery County Improvement District” before? Oh, yes: EarthQuest!
Can EMCID really sustain two theme parks? Did I just say that with a straight face?
(This reminds me: I haven’t heard from Soapboxmom since March. If she’s out there, I hope you’re doing okay, and just haven’t had anything to say. Feel free to send me an email.)
The DC chain saw massacre.
Thursday, November 14th, 2013Well, not a real massacre, except maybe of firewood.
Front page of the WP:
Chris Cox took the state of the Mall personally during the shutdown. In return, he gets a $1,200 chain saw.
My first reaction: “A $1,200 chain saw?! That had better be a Stihl!”
(click through to the article)
Yes. Yes, it is.
Nice picture, too. Second thought: damn, that’s a long bar, even for tree cutting.
Third thought: what’s he going to do when the team name changes?
Fourth thought:
5.2 kilowatts? That’s an odd way of stating power. Though, as it turns, out, it is:
- correct
- and apparently pulled directly from the spec sheet on the Stihl website
Fifth thought: even for a Stihl, $1,200 seems high. But I can’t find prices for new ones online; Amazon has chainsaws, but not the Stihls. It looks like you might be able to get one off eBay for half that amount, but would it have the same bar length? MSRP looks to be just a little under $1,200, so maybe so; it has been a long time since I had any reason to look at pricing for Stihl chainsaws.
(I’ve written about this elsewhere, but my father loved cutting firewood. What we didn’t burn in our fireplace got sold. He intended to get a Stihl chainsaw, but never got around to it.)
Journalism on fire!
Thursday, November 14th, 2013Will history blame the Internet, or the bees?
That quote makes it sound like the SFChron no longer produces their own honey. Do I have any readers in the area who can confirm this? Or, alternatively, send me a jar of SFChron honey in return for…something negotiable. Drop me a line. Address is on the contact page.
(Hattip.)
TMQ Watch: November 12, 2013.
Wednesday, November 13th, 2013When we were growing up in Houston in the 1970s and early 1980s, these were the rules:
- Root for the Houston Oilers over everyone.
- Root for the Dallas Cowboys over everyone except the Houston Oilers.
- After that, it was pretty much personal preference. At the time, we were fond of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, because we are suckers for underdogs, lost causes, and beautiful women. (Tampa Bay falls into two out of those three.)
Of course, that was a long time ago, in another country, and besides Tom Landry is dead. Jerry Jones runs the Cowboys. And, in this week’s TMQ, after the jump…
Random notes: November 13, 2013.
Wednesday, November 13th, 2013According to the WP, “the silencers were designed for the ‘AK family of firearms'”. The people who are under investigation claim they were intended for DEVGRU.
In February, the silencers were delivered to a Naval Research Laboratory warehouse in Chesapeake Beach, Md. NCIS agents seized the silencers two months later.
The silencers were unmarked and untraceable, despite a federal law requiring all firearm manufacturers to imprint them with a serial number and the name of the maker.
Yes, there’s nothing better when you’re running clandestine ops than having a serial number and manufacturer’s name stamped on your gear. (That is, assuming these silencers were actually intended for clandestine ops. “Officials with SEAL Team Six told investigators that they were unaware of any such order for silencers, according to court documents.” But if they weren’t intended for DEVGRU, what was the plan for them? We’re through the looking glass here, people.)
Today’s NYT has an article on the Industrial Trust Building in Providence. The Industrial Trust is the tallest skyscraper in Rhode Island – and now it’s vacant. The current owners want to convert it into apartments, but they need tax credits and breaks to do it; and the state isn’t inclined to give out those after the Curt Schilling fiasco.
This has a little bit of special significance to me. I used to travel to Rhode Island, and I remember this skyscraper. I’ve even stayed in the Biltmore (which you can see in the corner of the second photo in the slideshow).
It is a nice building. I’m sad to see it vacant. But I bet you Buddy Cianci could get something done with it.
Obit watch: John Tavener, classical composer.
Your loser update: week 10, 2013.
Tuesday, November 12th, 2013NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
None.
I can almost, but not quite, understand Miami losing to Tampa Bay. Surely the Incognito situation was a distraction. But still, Tampa Bay stinks.
As far as Jacksonville beating Tennessee, that’s just baffling.
Anyway, thus ends the loser update for the 2013 season. See you again in 2014, assuming we’re all still here.
That’s how they got Al Capone, you know.
Saturday, November 9th, 2013Obit watch: November 9, 2013.
Saturday, November 9th, 2013Dr. Michael Brown was taken off life support yesterday, and died in a Florida hospital. Dr. Brown had been in a coma for two weeks, apparently as the result of a suicide attempt.
I wrote about Dr. Brown a while back, but I didn’t do a very good job of keeping on top of the story. This is a shame, as it got even stranger after I wrote about it, and got really strange in the past month or so.
For those who don’t recall, Dr. Brown (no relation) was a Houston hand surgeon who built a chain of clinics. Then his wives accused him of domestic abuse and drug addiction and his behavior became increasingly erratic. Most recently, he was convicted of assaulting a flight attendant and sentenced to 30 days in prison. He also went into bankruptcy – apparently voluntary, but he engaged in a long series of disputes with the bankruptcy trustee. There are supposedly two suitcases full of cash missing from Brown’s assets, according to the current trustee.
One of the reasons I avoided writing about Dr. Brown was that the whole story is incredibly convoluted and bizarre. You would need an entire book to do justice to everything that went on. I hope someone (perhaps a HouChron or HouPress reporter) is working on that book right now; when it comes out, I’ll buy it.
It’s the classic story of the guy who had it all, but couldn’t control his personal demons. It wouldn’t make a good movie, because there’s really no redemptive arc. But as a true crime book, it should make good reading.
Justice?
Friday, November 8th, 2013I have written previously about the wrongful conviction of Michael Morton, and the prosecution of former Williamson County DA Ken Anderson for withholding evidence in that case.
According to the timeline at the Texas Tribune, Michael Morton was convicted on February 17, 1987, and released from prison on October 4, 2011. Microsoft Excel tells me that is 8,995 days. (I am not taking into account time Michael Morton served while awaiting trial, since I can’t find a good figure for that.)
The ten days Ken Anderson will serve, on a “contempt of court” charge, work out to 0.11% of the time Michael Morton served.
Hair Club for Mayors.
Friday, November 8th, 2013Perhaps one of the worst things about committing a crime, or even being charged with one, is all the background stuff that tends to leak out about you. Your tastes in porn, booze, interior decoration…all of those things come out at trial.
You may beat the rap, but you can’t beat the embarrassment of everyone knowing that you scammed money to pay for cheap vodka or lap dances from low-end strippers or Michael Jackson memorablia.
Or, in today’s example…
Here’s a photo of former Mayor Hernandez from earlier this year, if you want to judge the value Bell got for their money. Former Mayor Hernandez, by the way, was making “just under” $100,000 a year for what was a part-time job. WebMD says that hair transplants run between $4,000 and $15,000. Or you could buy lasers for $549.
And as for George Cole…
Cole’s top annual salary was $67,000, his attorney said. At the time, he was earning nearly $95,000 a year as chief executive of the Steelworkers Old Timers Foundation.
In 2004, the city paid the state pension system $36,648 to buy Cole an additional five years of service time. Cole was one of 11 Bell administrators for whom the city bought service time.
The Biggest Loser Resort in Malibu charges about $3,000 a week (though the longer you stay, the more of a break you get on the weekly rate).
Surely you would think that these folks could afford to pay for their own weight loss and baldness treatments. But they didn’t, and now everyone knows.
(And to be clear, I don’t throw stones at people who get hair plugs or go to weight loss resorts. I throw stones at people who scam money from the taxpayers to do those things. “Tax-fattened hyena”, indeed.)
The Adams Testimony.
Thursday, November 7th, 2013Were you wondering what Angela Spaccia, former assistant city manager of Bell, looks like wearing a bathrobe and smoking a cigar?
What does this have to do with corruption in Bell? Well, Spaccia texted that photo to Randy Adams, the former police chief, and it was introduced as evidence during Adams’ testimony yesterday. I think the prosecution’s intent is to establish that the Adams/Spaccia relationship went beyond the bounds of “professional”: not necessarily romantic, but perhaps a closer friendship than either one is letting on. (In turn, I guess this is intended to make the jury question Adams’ testimony for Spaccia.)
In other news, Adams was shocked, shocked! that the city of Bell was willing to pay him $457,000 a year to be Bell’s police chief. But Randy Adams appears to be much like the great Clay Davis: he’ll take any motherf—-r’s money if he givin’ it away!
It is perhaps worth pointing out that Mister Shocked, Shocked I Am:
…who had recently retired as Glendale’s police chief, wanted a salary in excess of $400,000.
It is also worth reminding folks that before he moved over to Bell, Adams was paid half as much in Glendale and ran a much larger department. And let’s not forget that little disability pension thing, but I suspect that will come out in the cross-examination.
I hate to jump to conclusions here, but I’m not sure calling Adams as a defense witness was the brightest thing Spaccia’s council could have done.
In the meantime, since you’ve got it stuck in your head anyway….
Art, damn it, art! watch. (#42 in a series)
Thursday, November 7th, 2013Dig if you will the picture.
Wednesday, November 6th, 2013Daring Fireball had two links yesterday to stories about the shutdown of Everpix.
I hadn’t heard of Everpix, either, but Gruber praises it pretty highly: “Everpix is how photo storage should work.” It might have been something I would have tried, if I had known about it. But I’d never seen even a mention of it anywhere until Gruber’s posts yesterday. This might explain why they are shutting down.
Everpix sponsored the DF RSS feed twice this year, which is how they first came to my attention.
I guess that demonstrates how effective sponsoring the RSS feed of a notorious Yankees fan is. Seriously, why were they not advertising on places like the On Taking Pictures podcast as well?
I don’t want to rub it in. It is sad that these people are losing their jobs and their money, especially if Everpix is all that and a bag of chips. But I do want to note one other thing from one of Gruber’s linked articles:
Here’s the Shaker website.
What differentiates this from, say, Second Life? A lack of giant dicks?
Here’s their blog. Enough said.
They got $15 million out of investors for this? I have got to work harder on schemes for separating fools from their money. Hmmmmmm…maybe a cross between Groupon and Second Life?
Edited to add: Ooooooh! Ooooooh! I know! Warcraft meets Google Offers! You kill monsters, and when they die, they drop special offers like “$15 for $30 worth of food at Mom’s“!
VC investors, the email address is on my contact page.
Banana republicans watch: November 6, 2013.
Wednesday, November 6th, 2013Politics depress me. In general and in specific. (I’m not sure how I feel about the Astrodome being declared dead.)
But there is at least one bright spot. Voters in the bankrupt municipality of San Bernardino threw out several elected officials in a recall election.
Those given the axe:
- “Longtime councilwoman” Wendy McCammack. This is interesting because Ms. McCammack was also the top vote-getter in the San Bernardino mayor’s race. However, there were a total of 10 candidates, and she got “just under” 25% of the vote. I wonder how many of the eight other candidates are going to throw their support to her, and how many will support “Carey Davis, an accountant and political newcomer”.
- City attorney James Penman. City attorney is an elected rather than appointed position? Interesting.
- Robert Jenkins, “charged with more than 30 felony and misdemeanor counts related to allegedly posting ads on Craigslist for sex partners and directing them to a former partner and another man”.
I haven’t been giving much attention to the Angela Spaccia/Bell trial. Most of what I’ve seen in the LAT has been the usual back and forth we’ve seen in the other trials: “City council approved!” “Did not!” “Did too!” “Rizzo’s a big poopy head and it was all his fault!”
(There have been a few amusing bits I missed covering. Among them:
The contracts in question being those for Spaccia and Robert “Ratso” Rizzo. This is interesting: while I can’t find the story now, I do recall reading that former Bell finance director Lourdes Garcia slipped contracts for Spaccia and Rizzo into stacks of other documents that were signed blindly by city officials.)
Things are getting a little more interesting. Randy Adams, the former police chief of Bell, is testifying for the defense today. You may remember former chief Adams from such hits as “I’m looking forward to see you and taking all of Bell’s money?!”, “Hire me and give me my disability pension“, and “I don’t know why he is not a defendant in this case”.
Note to self: stop off at grocery store on way home, stock up on popcorn.