The Quick and the dead.

October 23rd, 2012

This was on FARK, but it touches on so many things covered here, and is such a fascinating story, that I wanted to make note of it.

Thomas Quick was perhaps the most prolific serial killer in Scandinavia. During the 1990s, he confessed to over 30 murders, and was convicted of killing eight people.

Except his name wasn’t Thomas Quick. It was Sture Bergwall.

And he was being fed diazepam while he was confessing to the murders.

And he probably never killed anybody. There is a total lack of physical evidence linking him to the crimes. In several cases, he was convicted based only on his confessions, and in spite of the fact that there was physical evidence directly contradicting those confessions. (For example, in one case, recovered DNA didn’t match Quick/Bergwell’s DNA.)

And he was probably being fed information – information he used to build his false confessions – by the cops. (Henry Lee Lucas, call your office, please.)

There’s a book on the case that, as far as I can tell, does not have a US publisher. I’m hoping it finds one, as this is a heck of a story. (There’s also a good story behind the book; the author was a prominent documentary filmmaker/”investigative journalist” who started looking into Quick’s case, discovered the inconsistencies and other issues, and ended up having Quick/Bergwall tell all to him. As I understand it, this was the author’s first book. He died of cancer three days after finishing the manuscript.)

(Is this, like, a thing in Scandinavian countries? Dying before your book is published?)

Posted in Books, Clippings, Law | 1 Comment »

TMQ watch: October 23, 2012.

October 23rd, 2012

Before we start in on this week’s TMQ, we want to note a story from today’s New York Times that bothers us. We think it is appropriate to talk about here, as it deals with things TMQ has been hammering on as well. After the jump, we’ll get started…

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Clippings, Firings, Food, Movies, Neuroscience, NFL, Safety, Sports, TMQ watch, TV | 1 Comment »

Weirdness.

October 23rd, 2012

This is a “chocolate pudding parfait” I purchased from our little lunch spot/snack bar downstairs at work.

It kind of looks like they had some issues with the topping.

Indeed, I might even go so far as to say that they were having…whipped cream difficulties.

(Thank you. I’ll be here all week.)

Posted in Food | Comments Closed

Formula 1 is slightly less heckish.

October 23rd, 2012

I wrote previously about the proposals to close large swaths of downtown streets, including Congress Avenue, so people could party when Formula 1 came to town.

We have a deal. The Congress Avenue proposal (from an independent promoter) has been dropped, and that festival is merging with the official F1 “Fan Fest”.

Unfortunately, Congress Avenue is still going to be closed, but it looks like the closures will be for a shorter period than under the original “Experience Austin” proposal.

A bigger festival for 2013 could be held at the circuit in southeastern Travis County, Carroza said. “As COTA becomes more and more finished, it becomes apparent that people will want to spend more and more time there.”

This sounds like a fine idea to me, assuming there is an F1 race here in 2013. I wouldn’t recommend counting that chicken until it hatches, though.

Posted in Austin, Cars, Clippings, Sports | Comments Closed

Speaking of things that make me want to go full Nelson…

October 22nd, 2012

…in the “Ha ha!” sense:

Parking in New York City is also expensive. Especially near Yankee Stadium on game days.

Good news: there’s a train! And a subway!

Bad news for the people who own the parking lots: they didn’t plan on having a train stop near the stadium.

Bronx Parking Development Company, the operator of the lots, has defaulted on nearly $240 million of its bonds because of overambitious forecasts and less expensive transportation alternatives for fans, like the subway and Metro-North Railroad.

More:

If new revenue is not found and costs are not cut in the coming months, the company could go bankrupt even though the city provided more than $200 million in subsidies, some of which were used to replace parkland where parking lots now stand. The company’s next debt payment is due in April.

I find myself wondering where “new revenue” is going to come from, unless BPDC blows up the train and subway tracks. Come to think of it, this is New York; they could probably find a couple of guys who’d do that for a price.

Interestingly, the city’s Industrial Development Agency issued the bonds for BPDC, but the city does not have to pay if BPDC defaults. I’m not clear on how that works. But, “the company owes the city $25.5 million in rent and payments in lieu of taxes accumulated since 2007.”

Also, just to be clear: BPDC is a separate company from Satan’s minions, the New York Yankees. The Yankees don’t own the parking and have no say over it. Which is a shame; at least the Yankees could manage a team into the playoffs, so why not let them have a shot at parking?

Posted in Cars, Clippings | Comments Closed

Banana republicans watch: October 22, 2012.

October 22nd, 2012

Gas is expensive in California.

Even as gasoline consumption has declined in California in recent years because of high unemployment and increased vehicle fuel efficiency, refiners have been able to keep prices about 35 cents a gallon higher than the rest of the country.

Gee, I wonder why that is?

…the reason refiners made a killing while retailers such as Arya lost their shirts isn’t conspiracy, it’s economics. Oil companies operate what amounts to a legal oligopoly in California — an arrangement that probably will contribute to more wild gas spikes in the future.

You don’t say? Tell us more, Los Angeles Times.

That’s because the Golden State’s gasoline market is essentially closed. The state’s strict clean-air rules mandate a specially formulated blend used nowhere else in the country. Producers in places such as Louisiana or Texas could make it, but there are no pipelines to get it to the West Coast quickly and cheaply. As a result, virtually all 14.6 billion gallons of gasoline sold in California last year were made by nine companies that own the state’s refineries. Three of them — Chevron, Tesoro and BP — control 54% of the state’s refining capacity.

But why doesn’t someone come into the California market and open new refineries? Or re-open some of the mothballed ones?

Refiners contend that the price of gas reflects the higher cost of doing business in California. It costs as much as 15 cents a gallon more to refine the state’s clean fuel blend, and green regulations chip away at the bottom line. Fuel taxes, too, are higher than in many other regions.
“It’s a very difficult, challenging market,” said Tupper Hull, spokesman for the Western States Petroleum Assn., whose members include most of the region’s oil companies and refiners.
In August, the group released a report predicting that state rules to limit greenhouse gas emissions and push alterative fuels could force as many as eight of California’s refineries to close in coming years.

By the way:

At the same time, the number of refineries operating in California has declined to just 14 today from 27 in the early 1980s.

Posted in California Über Alles, Cars, Clippings, Law | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: October 22, 2012.

October 22nd, 2012

Russell Means, controversial Indian activist, actor, Libertarian Party presidential candidate, and vice-presidential nominee during Larry Flynt’s attempt to get the Republican nomination in 1984, has died. (LAT. NYT.)

Noted:

Told in the summer of 2011 that the cancer was inoperable, Mr. Means had already resolved to shun mainstream medical treatments in favor of herbal and other native remedies.

How’s that working for you?

I thought I’d give the George McGovern obits a day, which is why I didn’t post them on Sunday. For the record: NYT. LAT. WP.

Posted in Clippings, Obits, Politics | Comments Closed

Also worthy of immortalization.

October 22nd, 2012

Another exchange from the weekend:

Me at the gun show, looking at a Remington XP-100: When I was six years old, I thought that was the coolest gun in the world.

My nephew: Why?

Me: Because I was six years old.

My nephew: (nods sagely, as if this actually makes sense to him).

(I still want an XP-100 chambered in the original .221 Fireball caliber. The one we were looking at was rechambered to .223, which I will admit is a lot more practical. However, the asking price on it was $1,300, which is much more than I’m willing to pay.)

(I also want a S&W Model 53, even though .22 Jet is even more impractical than .221 Fireball. I keep meaning to sit down and do the math to determine if you could actually do a .221 Fireball conversion of a Smith; off the top of my head, I think the cartridge length would require an N-frame or X-frame sized cylinder, so it wouldn’t exactly be a compact field gun like the Jet…)

Posted in Guns | Comments Closed

Art, damn it, art! watch (#32 in a series).

October 22nd, 2012

Once upon a time, there was an art gallery in New York City called Knoedler & Company.

Knoedler & Company made more than a fair amount of money selling art. As a matter of fact, they made a lot of money selling art supplied by one dealer, Glafira Rosales.

Between 1996 and 2008, the suit asserts, Knoedler earned approximately $60 million from works that Ms. Rosales provided on consignment or sold outright to the gallery and cleared $40 million in profits. In one year, 2002, for example, the complaint says the gallery’s entire profit — $5.6 million — was derived from the sale of Ms. Rosales’s works.

But there are some problems. Ms. Rosales’s “collection of works attributed to Modernist masters has no documented provenance and is the subject of an F.B.I. investigation.” One of the works that passed through her hands, a Mark Rothko painting, was sold by Knoedler for $8.3 million dollars, and has now been declared a fake.

At the moment 14 works Ms. Rosales brought to market — 9 of which were handled by Knoedler — have been judged as fake by authenticating bodies.
A company called Orion Analytical also conducted forensic tests on at least five Rosales paintings and reported that materials on the canvasses were not available or were inconsistent with the dates on the works.

Knoedler stopped selling works from Rosales in 2009, and immediately started losing money. They closed in 2011.

Posted in Art, Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

Juxaposition.

October 22nd, 2012

Waves of about 4,300 cyclists were taking trips of up to 100 miles long in the Livestrong Foundation’s 15th annual Ride for the Roses, raising $1.7 million for cancer research, organizers said.

I’m glad folks are out there doing this: cancer sucks. However, the Statesman doesn’t discuss how this figure differed from last years: did they get about the same number of riders, more, or less?

Meanwhile, Lance Armstrong is no longer a Tour de France winner. I wish I had something profound and insightful to say about this, but I need time to think.

Posted in Clippings, Sports | Comments Closed

Quote of the weekend

October 21st, 2012

From dinner Friday night:

I was going to buy you a book, but I figured you already had one.

–my mother

(This is somewhat more amusing if you’ve seen my library. What she meant was that she had considered buying this for me, as I guess the author spoke at her DAR meeting, but she decided to wait and see if showed up for less than $30. It looks like something that’d be up my alley, but my sister suggested it will probably show up at Half-Price soon.)

I would post a runner-up quote of the weekend, but:

  1. It would mostly be incomprehensible screaming, and
  2. I wasn’t there for it, since I left my sister’s house shortly before the end of regulation in the Texas Tech – TCU game. Between that and the UT game, I have to ask; has defense become a lost art?

Posted in Books, Sports | Comments Closed

Breaking!

October 19th, 2012

Big Tex, the iconic symbol of the State Fair of Texas, has apparently caught fire and burned to the frame.

A friend of mine sent me a Facebook link to photos of the fire, which is also being reported by a Dallas TV station. However, I do not have any working links yet.

Edited to add: HouChron. Statesman. WFAA (probably has the best photos so far). Dallas Morning News.

Posted in Clippings | Comments Closed

Your Austin nightclub legal update: October 19, 2012.

October 19th, 2012

When last we left the Brothers Yassine, two of them had been convicted of money laundering; the third brother, commonly known as “Steve” had been acquitted on the money laundering charge, but still faced drug charges.

The Statesman is reporting that “Steve” just pled guilty to a single drug charge, with the prosecution recommending a year and day sentence (with credit for time served). All of the remaining drug and weapons charges against him will be dropped under this plea agreement.

The guilty plea came exactly one week after a U.S. District Court jury found Yassine not guilty of money laundering. Much of the evidence presented at that trial would likely have been introduced in the drug and weapons trials, as well, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregg Sofer told [U.S. District Judge Sam] Sparks this morning.

Additionally, “Steve” will be deported after he serves his time.

Posted in Clippings, Law | 1 Comment »

Banana republicans watch: October 18, 2012.

October 18th, 2012

We may need a banana republicans police blotter, too.

The mayor of the city of Hawthorne has been charged with two counts of perjury.

[Daniel] Juarez is the second mayor of the South Bay city to be charged by the L.A. County district attorney’s public corruption unit and the third member of the council in recent years.

The charges against Juarez allege that he took a $2,000 cash contribution from the manager of a Gold’s Gym in Hawthorne, and didn’t report it. This was in 2010:

The gym closed in 2012 after filing for bankruptcy protection and defaulting on a $2.5-million loan from the city.

Which makes me say, “Gold’s Gym needed a $2.5 million loan from a municipal government to open? They couldn’t get a private loan? Doesn’t that…I don’t know…tell you something?”

Meanwhile, L.A. County Assessor John Noguez has been charged, along with two other gentlemen, with taking bribes to lower property taxes.

Last year, distric attorney’s investigators began probing secret, improper tax breaks granted to more than 100 wealthy Westside property owners since Noguez’s election. They also started looking into complaints from assessor’s office employees who claimed they were under pressure to lower property taxes for clients of prominent Noguez contributors, like [campaign contributor Ramin] Salari.

Salari, also indicted, allegedly “loaned” Noguez $180,000, and contributed $5,000 to his campaign. The indictment apparently alleges that the contribution and the “loans” were actually bribes; supposedly, bank records show that repayment of the “loans” started after the LAT began asking questions.

(The third person indicted is Mark McNeil, Noguez’s aide.)

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

Random notes: October 18, 2012.

October 18th, 2012

Now that we’ve had the better part of a day, here’s the Statesman‘s coverage of Lance Armstrong’s resignation, as well as his dumping by Nike, Trek, Radio Shack, and 24-Hour Fitness.

As soon as USADA brought charges against Armstrong in August, questions emerged about what would happen to Livestrong. But since Aug. 23, the foundation has received 16,468 donations at an average of $97, twice the normal levels, said spokeswoman Rae Bazzarre.

On the other hand, the Ride for the Roses (Livestrong’s major annual event) is coming up this weekend; did that cause a donation spike, or is the increase in donations over and above the normal run-up to the event?

The HouChron has been running articles on events at the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas. There’s a controversy over the organization’s grant approval process: the organization gave M.D. Anderson an $18 million grant to work on commercial production of cancer drugs, over the objections of various scientists who did scientific reviews and grant evaluations for the institute. Now, the agency’s two leading scientific officers (both of whom are Nobel laureates) and all of the other reviewers have resigned.

By the way, CPRIT is a state agency, established by a constitutional amendment in 2007, and funded with $3 billion in state issued bonds. And guess who was behind the campaign for CPRIT?

Newsweek has snuffed it. At least in print. The magazine is going all digital, which should be interesting; why would I pay for a subscription to a magazine that summarizes all the news I read online the week before?

Posted in Clippings, Media, Sports | Comments Closed

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