Fear of fire, and other random notes for February 15, 2012.

February 15th, 2012

I just do not understand this. I get that prisons in other countries are overcrowded and not up to US standards. But I just can’t wrap my mind around that many people dying in a fire in the modern era.

Some stuff from the NYT:

They caught Edward Maher in Missouri last week. Who?

On Jan. 22, 1993, the authorities say, Mr. Maher disappeared along with an armored car he was driving for Securicor. It was found abandoned a half mile from Lloyds Bank in Felixstowe, on England’s east coast, emptied of £1 million in bills and coins.

His wife and 3-year-old son had already left for the United States. The money was never found.

Coach Susan Polgar is leaving her championship program at Texas Tech and going to Webster University in St. Louis. Worse for Tech, she’s taking the top ten players on her team with her to Webster’s program.

By the way, Coach Polgar is the chess coach.

Last April, Texas Tech won the Final Four of Chess, a competition in Herndon, Va., among the top collegiate teams in the country. It was Texas Tech’s first championship since Ms. Polgar arrived at the university.

Posted in Clippings, Law, Sports | Comments Closed

The Worm Ouroboros.

February 14th, 2012

Reading more of In the Land of Invented Languages got me to wondering. Here’s what Wikipedia turns up:

I don’t know why; this just tickles my fancy somehow.

Edited to add: In case you were wondering (and I got to wondering after posting that): there was a Klingon Wikipedia, but it was locked by Jimmy Wales in August of 2005. (A non-locked version exists here.)

Posted in Books, Geek | Comments Closed

Plug plug pluggity plug.

February 14th, 2012

New post by my sister over at the Park City Snowmamas site: a review of The Ski House Cookbook.

Posted in Books, Endorsements, Food | Comments Closed

Happy Valentine’s Day.

February 14th, 2012

Two Coffee Travelers for my office: $28.04 with tax.

Receipt: free with purchase.

Sending a clear message to the gun banners: priceless.

There are some things money can’t buy. Like schadenfreude. People have to earn that. And in this case, the gun grabbers have.

Posted in Guns, Schadenfreude | 2 Comments »

This goes out to Mike the Musicologist…

February 13th, 2012

…aka “My one reader who is a Frank Lloyd Wright fan and doesn’t read Balko’s blog“:

Frank Lloyd Wright’s doghouse design.

I wonder how many architects have done doghouses; I know that a few years back, Frank Gehry offered a doghouse design in a benefit auction, but I can’t find out it if was built, or if his design is online anywhere.

Posted in Art, Clippings, Gehry | Comments Closed

Let us enrage you.

February 13th, 2012
  1. Sunday’s Knoxville News Sentinel ran a long piece on former judge Richard Baumgartner. Baumgartner presided over the high profile cases of Channon Christian/Christopher Newsom and Raynella Dossett Leath. He was also a bad guy: Baumgartner shook down his staff for OxyContin and other painkillers, became involved with a former defendant in his court (and had her procure drugs for him), and apparently engaged in even more misconduct (hidden in sealed TBI files). And Baumgartner’s erratic behavior went on from at least 2007 to 2011. Four years of an addict presiding over criminal trials. (Hattip: Insta.)
  2. Also by way of Insta:

    A three-month Sun Sentinel investigation found almost 800 cops from a dozen agencies driving 90 to 130 mph on our highways.
    Many weren’t even on duty — they were commuting to and from work in their take-home patrol cars.

  3. And from Balko, for a change-up: the story of Scott Henson, who was stopped and detained by nine Austin Police Department officers while walking his five year old granddaughter home. Henson is white: his granddaugher is black, and they were stopped by the APD immediately after a previous encounter with a deputy constable.
    So far, this is outrageous. Of course we only have one side of the story, but does Henson have any reason to lie about this? I hope he pursues this. I hope he forces a full investigation by an external third party, not APD. And if all of this is true, I hope people loose their badges and jobs over this. Including Chief Acevedo.

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Law | 1 Comment »

As a liberatarian…

February 13th, 2012

…I am generally opposed to the use of my tax dollars for things other than the basic functions of government: police, courts, and the military.

However, if the government is going to spend my tax money on other things, I prefer that the government spend it on cool stuff: things that go fast, things that explode, things that go fast and explode, or just simply engineering marvels.

Like the 50,000 ton forging press.

Its 14 major structural components, cast in ductile iron, weigh as much as 250 tons each; those yard-thick steel bolts are also 78 feet long; all told, the machine weighs 16 million pounds, and when activated its eight main hydraulic cylinders deliver up to 50,000 tons of compressive force.

According to Alcoa’s web site, the Fifty is back in service. And they have video (which I can’t watch on my work machine).

I wonder if they offer tours? If not to the general public, to polite bloggers who agree to wear a hard hat and safety goggles, and promise not to put their hands in the press?

(Hattip: TJIC on the Twitter.)

Posted in Clippings, Geek | Comments Closed

Obit watch: February 13, 2012.

February 13th, 2012

Nello Ferrara, of the Ferrara Pan Candy Company.

I like Lemonheads okay, but I’ve got a serious soft spot for Atomic Fireballs. They’re bad for my teeth (and other things) but I still indulge every once in a while. (I had to stop buying the big tubs of them at Sam’s, though.)

Posted in Clippings, Food, Obits | Comments Closed

Obit watch: special “Crack is whack” edition.

February 11th, 2012

Whitney Houston, dead at 48.

Posted in Clippings, Music, Obits | 3 Comments »

Bad signs.

February 11th, 2012

I picked up a copy of Arika Okrent’s In the Land of Invented Languages, a history of Esperanto, Loglan, Lojban, and other invented languages.

Now, this may be a fine book; I haven’t finished it yet. But I am a little put off by her opening sentence:

Klingon speakers, those who have devoted themselves to the study of a language invented for the Star Trek franchise, inhabit the lowest possible rung on the geek ladder.

Bzzzzz! Wrong! As we all know, the lowest possible rung on the geek ladder is occupied by “People Who Write Erotic Versions of Star Trek Where All the Characters Are Furries, Like Kirk is an Ocelot or Something, and They Put a Furry Version of Themselves as the Star of the Story.”

(Seriously, as much as I hate Trek, I have a lot of respect for people who can speak Klingon, or any other invented language. I don’t know anybody who looks down on the Klingon speakers.)

Posted in Books, Geek | 3 Comments »

Obit watch: February 11, 2012.

February 11th, 2012

Jeffrey Zaslow, prominent author. (Link goes to the WSJ, but I don’t believe they’ve put this behind a paywall.)

The first time I heard of Zaslow, it was in the context of the legendary contest to replace Ann Landers (after she left the Sun-Times for the Tribune). Zaslow was assigned by the WSJ to cover the contest, entered it on a lark (and to get an angle for his story)…and won, writing an advice column for the paper for the next 14 years.

After that, it seems like he went on to books, mostly as a collaborator with other folks. The best known, and I think the most successful (also the only one I’ve read) was his book with the late Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture, but he also did books with Chesley Sullenberger and Gabrielle Giffords.

Also: Jill Kinmont Boothe, the skier who “The Other Side of the Mountain” was based on.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Obits, Sports | Comments Closed

No roses for Donna Lee Kelly.

February 10th, 2012

Donna Lee Kelly was killed in 2004. Her body was found stuffed in the trunk of her car.

No arrests were made until a few days ago, when the LA County Sheriff’s Office arrested Richard Allan Munnecke. According to LACSO, they have DNA evidence that links Munnecke to the murder.

This would ordinarily be a cold case of the type I don’t usually cover, but there’s two things that make it interesting:

  1. Munnecke is a former director of the Tournament of Roses parade. “Munnecke was music committee chairman for the Tournament of Roses in 1998-99 and Bandfest director in 1997.” It is believed that Munnecke and Kelly met, and developed a romantic relationship, while both worked on the parade.
  2. In spite of the fact that LACSO has DNA evidence, and apparently DNA evidence that was strong enough for them to make an arrest, the DA is refusing to file charges. This just seems odd to me. Maybe I don’t understand the way cops and the DAs office work, but I would have figured that LACSO would have gone to the DA with their evidence (especially on a cold case) in advance, and said, “Look, if we make an arrest, will you prosecute, given what we’ve got?” Am I wrong? Do they not talk to each other?

Edited to add 2/11: Longer followup story in the LAT, which goes into more detail about the evidence and the DA’s rejection.

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

Stuff your sorries in a sack, Mister!

February 10th, 2012

Sorry, folks. Yesterday got a big hole blown in it due to a flat tire and associated wrangling, but there really hasn’t been much going on.

At least, not much that hasn’t been well-blogged elsewhere, such as the “tuba raid” story. (No, “Tuba Raid” is not a sequel to the great John Varley story “Air Raid”. But I’d love to see someone write “Tuba Raid”. I’d suggest the idea to John Scalzi, but I suspect he’s busy editing the “Stunning Stoat Stories” anthology.)

I was doing a bit of research for a post snarking on Mexico’s confiscation of 15 tons of meth. However, Jacob Sullum got there ahead of me. (There was a great discussion somewhere, earlier this week, involving people pushing back against new laws requiring prescriptions for pseudoephedrine-containing drugs. I swear it was on “Hit and Run” but I can’t find it now.)

Lawrence asked me a few days ago if the news that Carolyn McCarthy’s district was going to be axed had me doing the happy dance. Short answer: no. When she’s out of office, then I’ll do the happy dance. With an AK-47 that has a 30-round magazine. And a shoulder thing that goes up.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Guns, Music | Comments Closed

Quintana update.

February 10th, 2012

The final charge (criminal mischief) against former APD officer Leonardo Quintana was dropped Thursday.

As you may recall, Mr. Quintana was acquitted by juries on three other charges; he was also fired by the APD and reinstated by arbitrators several times before his most recent termination (which seems to have stuck).

Posted in Clippings, Cops, Law | Comments Closed

Roland the Headless CNN Correspondant.

February 8th, 2012

CNN is suspending political analyst Roland Martin for tweets during the Super Bowl that the network said were “offensive” and that some critics said were anti-gay.

Actually, I don’t care that much about Roland Martin, CNN, or Twitter. But I couldn’t pass up a chance to make a reference to my own personal favorite Warren Zevon song. As a matter of fact, why don’t we listen to it now?

Posted in Clippings, Music, TV | 1 Comment »

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