My sister has a couple of new posts up at the Park City Snowmamas site:
Worship services at Park City.
And she stages her own version of “The Amazing Race”: snowborders vs. skiers.
Plug, plug, pluggity plug.
April 6th, 2012This is a Photoshop.
April 6th, 2012I can tell from the pixels, and from having seen a few ‘shops in my time.
And they might have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those meddling kids bloggers, and:
Edited to add: From the FARK thread, this Photoshop just about made me fall out of my chair laughing. But I’m a sucker for the tiny giraffe commercials.
Obit watch: April 6, 2012.
April 6th, 2012
Rough night for the Austin PD.
April 6th, 2012This is still a developing story, but a (currently unnamed) APD officer was shot and killed early this morning. I expect to have more to say about this as information comes in, but two immediate points:
- I drive past the location of this shooting (the Wal-Mart at I-35 and Parmer Lane) daily. This is not what we would call a “bad” part of town.
- This is the first APD death in the line of duty since 2004, according to the Statesman.
Edited to add: The deceased officer has been identified as Jaime Padron.
In other news, there was also a fatal officer involved shooting in East Austin last night.
And:
Just a random thought…
April 5th, 2012I have a subscription to the digital version of the NYT: partially for blog purposes, partially because I needed access to the archives for my final project in last year’s 20th Century History class. (The NYT offers a reduced rate for educational subscribers.)
When the LAT erected their paywall, I signed up at the initial 99 cent rate. I got a bill from them today at the new $3.99 a week rate. Even for blog purposes, and with no educational discount, I’m not paying $4 a week for the LAT. So I called them to cancel.
After I got to a customer service rep (note that they make it relatively hard to do so) and told her I wanted to cancel, she wanted to know why. I explained that the digital LAT isn’t worth $4/week to me.
At that point, they started playing “Let’s Make A Deal”. The initial offer was $2.99 a week. I turned that down. Then they offered me $1.99/week as their “final offer”. I agreed to that, but now I’m wondering if I could have gotten them down to 99 cents a week.
Point of this story, besides the LAT being willing to slash prices; I’d appreciate it if people would let me know if links to LAT stories don’t come up for you. The NYT, as I understand it, still has the hole in the wall that lets you read stories for free if they come from an external link, but I don’t believe the LAT offers that feature.
Also, talking about the LAT and bargain shopping gives me an excuse to use this picture, which tickles my funny bone:
Nobody beats the Los Angeles Times!
Speaking of New Orleans…
April 4th, 2012…the headline on this story had me all excited:
Then I clicked through. Apparently they mean something different by a “shotgun”, something involving music and house parties.
Too bad, because I think a shotgun near you is a good idea.
Worthy of note.
April 4th, 2012Former New Orleans Police Department Officer Robert Faulcon Jr. was sentenced today to 65 years in prison for his role in the Danziger Bridge shootings. Officer Faulcon shot Ronald Madison, a mentally handicapped man who was 40 years old, in the back with a shotgun. Faulcon was convicted of six counts of depravation of rights under color of law, three counts of using a weapon during the commission of a crime of violence, one count of conspiracy, one count of obstruction of justice, and one count of civil rights conspiracy.
Former New Orleans Police Department Sergeant Kenneth Bowen was sentenced to 40 years in prison for his role in the Danziger Bridge shootings. Bowen jumped out of a rented truck loaded with police officers and fired an “AK-47” at a concrete barrier that people were hiding behind. Bowen was convicted of six counts of depravation of rights under color of law, two counts of using a weapon during the commission of a crime of violence, one count of conspiracy, two counts of obstruction of justice, and two counts of civil rights conspiracy.
Former New Orleans Police Department Sergeant Robert Gisevius Jr. was sentenced to 40 years in prison for his role in the Danziger Bridge shootings. Gisevius was in the same truck, and also jumped out of it and fired a “M-4 rifle”. He also helped cover up the events at the Danziger Bridge. Gisevius was convicted of five counts of depravation of rights under color of law, two counts of using a weapon during the commission of a crime of violence, one count of conspiracy, one counts of obstruction of justice, and two counts of civil rights conspiracy.
Former New Orleans Police Department officer Anthony Villavaso II was sentenced to 38 years in prison for his role in the Danziger Bridge shootings. Villavaso was also in the truck, and also jumped out and fired an “AK-47” at unarmed people on the bridge. Villavaso was convicted of five counts of depravation of rights under color of law, two counts of using a weapon during the commission of a crime of violence, one count of conspiracy, one count of obstruction of justice, and one count of civil rights conspiracy.
Former New Orleans Police Department Sergeant Arthur Kaufman was sentenced to 6 years in prison for his role in the Danziger Bridge shootings. Kaufman was not actually involved in the shootings, but was convicted of having “authored several reports and draft reports containing false or fabricated information”; in short, assisting in the cover-up. Kaufman was convicted of four counts of falsification of records in a federal investigation, three counts of giving false statements, two counts of “civil rights conspiracy for false prosecution” (translated into English, I believe that means he tried to have innocent people falsely prosecuted to cover up what really happened), and one count of conspiracy.
(For those who are unfamiliar with the Danziger Bridge incident, one of the sidebars to the linked article is a handy PDF explaining what really happened. The short version is that during Katrina a bunch of trigger-happy NOPD cops shot a bunch of folks on the bridge and then tried to cover it up.)
Nits. Picked.
April 4th, 2012Excuse me, but antelope are not deer, thank you very much. There’s a reason the lyric is “where the deer and the antelope play”, not “where the deer and the deer play”.
Callooh! Callay!
April 3rd, 2012John Motlz, one of the small number of authentic geniuses the Internet has produced (right up there with Kibo, Roger David Carasso, and Jim Treacher), is back with a new website.
You may remember Mr. Moltz from such websites as Crazy Apple Rumors (and I swear some day I am going to visit Tacoma and stay at the Silver Cloud Inn), American Drink (which I don’t visit nearly as often as I should), and the occasional post at In The Line Of Duty.
But what of his new site, you ask? It’s very nice.
…money can only make you so happy. And writing, well, that can make you miserable forever.
I’d like to say something positive about the TSA for once.
April 3rd, 2012Jars of mayonnaise are also banned from carry-on luggage in the U.S.
Thank God for the TSA, protecting us all from the threat of mayonnaise, the vile emulsion.
Random notes: April 3, 2012.
April 3rd, 2012Sunday’s Statesman ran a couple of articles on rabies in Texas. Briefly, there was a 30% increase in reported cases over 2010; the drought is being blamed for that. Here’s an interesting list of the most rabid counties in Texas by way of the TM Daily Post. (That links back to one of the Statesman articles.)
The aspect of the coverage that intrigued me, as an amateur neurologist, was Brenda Bell’s article about treating rabies. As I’m sure many of you know, once symptoms develop, rabies has been pretty much 100% fatal. I recall reading that there was one documented case of a 6 year old boy in Ohio surviving in the 1970s, but other than that nothing. (And I can’t find a reference now.) (Edited to add: This site claims that there were actually three documented cases in the 1970s, all involving patients who were given vaccine before symptoms presented.)
This was the case until a few years ago, when a 15-year-old girl survived after being given highly aggressive treatment (an induced coma, combined with antivirals). That course of treatment became known as the “Milwaukee protocol”. There are two problems:
- It doesn’t always work, and nobody knows why. Four other people have survived treatment with the Milwaukee protocol: 32 have died.
- It is expensive; way too expensive for treatment in poorer countries, where rabies is most common.
(Edited to add: If you want to get really technical, here’s an article from the CDC’s “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report” (aka the lazy journalist’s friend; at least every other week, I can find an article pulled straight out of MMWR) about the 17-year-old patient in Houston mentioned by the Statesman.)
In other news, the NYT is sad that the black golf caddie is disappearing. Gee, I wonder why that is? Oh, yeah:
Plus, golf carts, and fewer caddie training programs. Plus:
Art, damn it, art! watch. (#28 in a series)
April 2nd, 2012Not really anything new, but by way of the Statesman, we learn that Damien Hirst is having a retrospective exhibition, opening on Wednesday at the Tate Modern.
You may remember Mr. Hirst as one of WCD’s favorite modern artists, responsible for such works as “The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living”:
Yeah, that one. I believe last time we touched on Mr. Hirst’s work, he was making wheel covers for 4x4s.
According to the exhibition’s website, the shark will be there. Which raises some questions: last we heard, the shark was not in the best of shape. (EtA: I forgot about the NYT article stating that they were replacing the shark.) And how do you move a tank full of formaldehyde with a shark suspended in it? (Answer: “Very carefully.” Thank you, I’ll be here all week.)
My other favorite quote:
“like flies over a cow’s head in a Damien Hirst installation” is my new favorite analogy, replacing “The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn’t.” I encourage people to join me in making frequent use of this turn of phrase.
“I haven’t laughed so much over anything since the hogs ate my kid brother.”
March 30th, 2012Current TV fires Keith Olbermann.
Raise your hand if you didn’t see this coming the moment his hiring was announced. Oh, wait: Ray Charles could have seen this coming.
But it gets better. Would you like to know who is replacing Keith Olbermann? Why, none other than Eliot “Client Number 9” Spitzer himself!
And if you’d like to read Olbermann’s response, you can find it here.
(And subject line hattip here.)
Random notes: March 30, 2012.
March 30th, 2012I don’t mind eels
And the way they feels.
—Ogden Nash
(One of our local restaurants has a poster of that poem hanging in the men’s room, which I’ve always found kind of odd. Personally, I’m very fond of eel sushi, and would be very happy to try elvers.)
Obit watch: Harry Crews. (NYT. A/V Club.) I haven’t read any of his work, though I had heard of him. With descriptions like “the unofficial poet laureate of bare-knuckled, white-trash culture” and “a world of hard-drinking, punch-throwing, snake-oil-selling characters whose physical, mental, social and sexual deviations render them somehow entirely normal and eminently sympathetic”, I may have to give the man a try. He almost sounds like a mainstream version of Charles Willeford.
The HouChron has apparently fired society writer Sarah Tressler for the grievous crime of…being a stripper in her spare time.
You know, I’m kind of in agreement with that. Really, what was the point, Houston Press? Page views for your dying alt-weekly?
Setting that to one side for the moment, the HouChron hasn’t had good luck with society writers recently; Douglas Britt, who covered both society and art for the paper, left after he basically went crazy (or was driven crazy by the Art Guys).
Question for the huddled masses: what is the point of having a “society” reporter any longer? I know it sounds kind of class-warfare-ish, but it seems to me that “society” is basically code for “an in-group of rich people who get together and admire each other, and occasionally raise money for their favored charities”. What is the point of continuing to give news coverage to these people? If an event is newsworthy, such as an art opening, let the writers on that beat (art, music, etc.) cover it. Why assign a writer to basically stroke the egos of the “beautiful” people?
Final note: the gun blogger who went by “Newbius” passed away suddenly this week. He wasn’t somebody I knew at all; our paths never crossed (I wish they had), though I did hear him a few times on Vicious Circle. By all accounts, he was a good man, and shall be missed. Jay G. is posting tributes here.
…and a pussy’s good for maybe six or seven at the most…
March 29th, 2012Taxing meat pies? Oh, the humanity!