Archive for November, 2014
Friday, November 28th, 2014
This is still a breaking news story, so details are sketchy. I note it here because…well, it is strange, and there may be some lessons to draw from it. Also, I’m not sure how much coverage it will get outside of Austin.
Early this morning (around 2 AM), somebody started driving around downtown Austin shooting at buildings. According to the Statesman, he shot at the Mexican consulate, the Federal courthouse, and APD headquarters.
He did not injure or kill anyone, as far as is currently known. The shooter was confronted at or near APD headquarters by the police and killed. There are rumors that he may have had an explosive device in his vehicle, and possibly one on his person, but these rumors are not confirmed.
Don’t know what to say about this, beyond: trouble can happen anywhere, and where and when you least expect it. I’ll add updates if I see anything substantial.
Edited to add: more from the HouChron, which claims “more than 100 rounds” were fired, and that the gunman tried to torch the Mexican Consulate.
I threw together a quick and dirty Google map, just to illustrate (for the benefit of my out of town readers) the locations in question.
Posted in Austin, Clippings, Cops, Law | Comments Closed
Thursday, November 27th, 2014
Noted English mystery writer P.D. James has passed away. She was 94.
Posted in Clippings, Obits | Comments Closed
Wednesday, November 26th, 2014
Two of our new favorite things in the world:
- Kickended, an archive of failed Kickstarter projects. And when we say “failed”, we don’t just mean “didn’t meet their goal”; these are projects that attracted no pledges at all.
- The Clickbait Headline Generator. The real genius of this is the “View This as a Fake Website” function.
We actually want to write the “Three Types of Fun You Should Never Have With a Freelance Nurse” article, as we have some ideas for that. Unfortunately, those ideas make us cringe so badly we can’t bring ourselves to start writing.
In other news, this week’s TMQ, after the jump…
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Posted in Cars, NFL, Safety, Sports, Theatre, TMQ watch | Comments Closed
Tuesday, November 25th, 2014
Spam Nation: The Inside Story of Organized Cybercrime-from Global Epidemic to Your Front Door
, by Brian Krebs.
Blogger, with occasional Krebs.
I actually haven’t read the book yet. (It is at the top of the pile.) But Krebs did a signing here in Austin last night, and he came across as a really nice affable guy. I didn’t get a chance to talk with him much: I’d estimate there were 150 people there for the signing, many of whom were purchasing multiple copies of the book, so time was limited. But he signed everyone’s book, and even posed for photos with those who wanted, and in general it was just a swell experience. Based on that, I have few qualms about recommending that you purchase the book.
Posted in Books, Endorsements, Geek | Comments Closed
Friday, November 21st, 2014
You had one job, Kansas City. One job. And you blew it.
NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16 this season:
None.
With this, our hopes turn to the NBA: Philadelphia is now 0-11.
Posted in Loser, Sports | Comments Closed
Monday, November 17th, 2014
I’ve sort of hinted at this, but now the full story can be told.
Mike the Musicologist and I went on a road trip to Oklahoma the weekend of November 8th.
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Posted in Art, Beef, Books, Food, Guns, History, Mammals, Museums, Photography, project_e, Thanks, Travel | 1 Comment »
Monday, November 17th, 2014
NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Oakland.
The Raiders play Kansas City at home on Thursday. I’m a little nervous about this one.
And in other news, Philadelphia is the only team that has a chance to finish the NBA season 0-82. (Currently, the 76ers are 0-9.)
For the record: Will Muschamp out as coach of the University of Florida Gators. The Miami Herald is representing this as a resignation; reading between the lines, it sounds like he jumped before he could be pushed.
Posted in Firings, Loser, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed
Sunday, November 16th, 2014
Posted in Photography | Comments Closed
Friday, November 14th, 2014
Clif Bar, the people who make Clif Bars, gives out sponsorships to various athletes. There are a whole bunch of sponsored athletes in various sports, including mountain climbing.
Recently, the Clif Bar folks decided they were going to stop sponsoring five of those athletes. Four of them are mountain climbers, and one is a BASE jumper. According to the company:
Over a year ago, we started having conversations internally about our concerns with B.A.S.E. jumping, highlining and free-soloing. We concluded that these forms of the sport are pushing boundaries and taking the element of risk to a place where we as a company are no longer willing to go. We understand that some climbers feel these forms of climbing are pushing the sport to new frontiers. But we no longer feel good about benefiting from the amount of risk certain athletes are taking in areas of the sport where there is no margin for error; where there is no safety net.
One of the funny things about this is that several of these climbers were recently featured in a documentary, “Valley Uprising”; Clif Bar was a major sponsor of the documentary.
The NYT has more coverage of this issue, including quotes from the athletes in question.
This is an interesting debate, at least to me: Clif Bar isn’t saying “don’t do this stuff”; they’re saying “we won’t sponsor you to do stuff that we think is too far out on the edge”. And you can sort of understand that they don’t want to be associated with some guy who reduces himself to a thin red smear while BASE jumping. On the other hand, it doesn’t seem (from what the NYT is saying) that there’s any shortage of companies that are willing to step in where Clif Bar left off. On the gripping hand, if everyone free-soloed a rock, would you? Does it matter that other sponsors are stepping in; isn’t Clif just taking a moral stance? But if it is a moral stance, what about this documentary? Should they still be attaching their name to it?
I’ve got no idea. I just think it is an interesting debate.
Posted in Clippings, Sports | 1 Comment »
Friday, November 14th, 2014
Gus Vlahavas, owner of Tom’s Restaurant in Brooklyn.
Noted here because this is a great example of the kind of obit the paper of record does well. Also because there’s a lot of dust in the room:
Mr. Vlahavas lived for Tom’s, almost literally so. To make sure he arrived promptly at 5 a.m. to fire up the grill, he bought a brownstone around the corner at a time when few people were moving into the neighborhood. His dedication was reciprocated by the loyalty of his neighbors, who by the 1960s were mainly blacks from the American South and the Caribbean, who replaced the Irish, Italians and Jews. During the blackout of 1965, when rioting erupted, local people formed a human chain to protect Tom’s.
“All my neighbors, my black American friends, they all held hands around the store, 70 of them,” Mr. Vlahavas told The Daily News in 2009. “It made me feel terrific because these people were very thoughtful and kind enough to protect me,” he continued. “This doesn’t happen every day in anyone’s life.”
Also among the dead: Jane Byrne, former mayor of Chicago.
Posted in Clippings, Obits | Comments Closed
Friday, November 14th, 2014
When asked whether disparities in treatment were based on race, gender, rank or nepotism, officers overwhelmingly said they believed decisions about discipline revolved around an officer’s rank and whether he or she was well liked by their superiors in the department. Command-level officers routinely received slaps on the wrist or no punishment, while lower-ranking officers were suspended for similar misconduct, officers wrote.
From the LAT archives, some spectacular photos of firefighters responding to a DC-6 crash.
Former Seattle Sonic Robert Swift has been charged with a gun crime one month after police claim to have seized drugs, guns and a grenade launcher from the Kirkland home where he was living.
What I find interesting about this story is that, with the exception of the standard “junk on the bunk” photo, all the weapons photos are of guns “similar to one police say was seized from Bjorkstam’s Kirkland home”. No photos of the actual guns? Also, heroin dealing must not be that lucrative if all you can afford is a Taurus.
Posted in California Über Alles, Clothing, Cops, Guns, Heroism, Law, Photography, Planes | Comments Closed
Wednesday, November 12th, 2014
I haven’t forgotten about TMQ, and I hope to have this week’s TMQ Watch up by tomorrow night.
I’m also working on an after-action report for my recent travels, and I’m hoping to have that done by the weekend.
I’ve just been busy with various minor annoyances, as well as putting in a few extra hours at work, and haven’t been able to devote all the time I would like to these things. Real soon now, I promise.
(There will probably also be another post somewhat related to events of the past weekend, but it is looking like that will be a ways down the road.)
Posted in Admin | Comments Closed
Tuesday, November 11th, 2014
On this date in history, 40 years ago, the Minnesota Vikings beat the L.A. Rams 28-24 on Monday Night Football.
Of greater historical significance, my younger brother was born during halftime of this game.
Happy birthday, Doug.
Posted in NFL, Sports | Comments Closed
Tuesday, November 11th, 2014
Sorry this is late. Sunday was busy (but fun) and yesterday was a travel day.
Anyway, NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Oakland.
And in other news, Philadelphia is the only team that has a chance to finish the NBA season 0-82. (Currently, the 76ers are 0-7.)
Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed
Friday, November 7th, 2014
Hey, if Lawrence is going to do it, I’m going to do it. (Though technically mine is not a selfie.)
Edited to add: Okay. This is absurd. The photo imported off the phone and into Shotwell in Ubuntu displayed upside down using Google Chrome and the WordPress interface. I flipped it 180 degrees using WordPress. Now it displays correctly in Google Chrome and Firefox under Ubuntu, and on the Kindle…but displays upside down on two iPhones. What is going on here, he said, slamming his head against a wall?
Edited to add 11/11: Okay. Now that I’m back home and can use iPhoto, let’s see how this comes out.
Posted in Guns, History, Museums, Travel | Comments Closed
Wednesday, November 5th, 2014
Authentic games. Voting. Space: not a frontier, at least for man. All this and more in this week’s TMQ, after the jump…
(more…)
Posted in Geek, Mixology, Movies, NFL, Politics, Sports, TMQ watch | Comments Closed
Wednesday, November 5th, 2014
Happy Guy Fawkes Day. While you’re out and about, please remember poor Guido, the last man to enter the Houses of Parliament with honorable intentions.
It seems kind of fitting that that the holiday falls today. Beyond that, I don’t have much to say about the elections for reasons of time and inclination. Battleswarm is a good place to go if you’re looking for that.
I will be updating the contact pages on this site, but I’m going to wait until after the runoffs are over, everyone is sworn in, and they actually have pages to link to. If this does get past me for some reason, please yell at me until it gets done.
I’m going to avoid my usual “what China needs” snark here, because this is a little scary: Brittney Griner attacked in China by a man with a knife.
Griner sustained a small cut when she was attacked by a man while boarding a bus after practice Monday in Shenyang. The man, who followed the players onto the bus, also stabbed one of Griner’s teammates. She was wearing two jackets and wasn’t injured because the knife didn’t go through.
How did Peter Siebold (the other Virgin Galactic pilot) survive a bailout from 50,000 feet without a pressure suit? Bonus: quotes from Bob Hoover. The Bill Weaver story is also touched on briefly: a fuller account can be found here.
Things may be slow from Thursday until Monday. We will see.
Posted in Admin, Austin, Clippings, Guns, Planes, Politics, Sports, Texas, Travis County | Comments Closed
Monday, November 3rd, 2014
Tom Magliozzi, of “Car Talk” fame. NPR. Preliminary LAT obit. A/V Club. Car Talk.
A long time ago, I was a huge fan of “Car Talk”. My Monday nights were not complete without listening to the latest episode, and I tended to get cranky if that schedule was interrupted. (Kids, ask your parents about the time before podcasts.) I even – hold on to your hats, folks – donated money to our local NPR station at one point so I could show my support of “Car Talk”. (Oh, yeah. Like you never did anything stupid when you were young.)
Then our local station changed the schedule around so “Car Talk” was on at an inconvenient time, and I kind of dropped away from it. Then Tom and Ray started taking truly idiotic political positions (for example, advocating a federally enforced limit on horsepower to weight ratios) and I stopped being a “Car Talk” fan. As a matter of fact, I began to find the show grating. Not quite “I’d rather listen to Prairie Home Companion” grating, but grating enough. And frankly, I don’t understand why it is still on the air, since it has been nothing but re-runs since 2012. (Actually, I think I do understand why: I guess it brings in the bucks at pledge time.)
On the other hand, 77 is too damn young. Alzheimer’s sucks. I do kind of want to hear the tribute show. And he had a great beard.
Posted in Cars, Clippings, Obits, Radio | Comments Closed
Sunday, November 2nd, 2014
Didn’t pay much attention to today’s games because reasons.
NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Oakland
Posted in Loser, NFL, Sports | Comments Closed
