Random notes: March 9, 2010.

March 9th, 2010

H.L. Mencken once said, “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” Apparently, this applies to New Zealand as well.

The WP has a brief review of The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History, which actually sounds like a fun book. I do wonder if it mentions “Drowning Mona“. (Edited to add: Yes. Yes, it does.) (Edited to add 2: Also reviewed in Slate. Hattip: Lawrence.)

The papers of David Foster Wallace are going to the Ransom Center at UT.

Obit watch: Malcolm Glover. Yeah, you probably never heard of him, unless you lived in San Francisco. Glover spent 56 years working for the Examiner and the Chronicle, most of those as a police reporter. This is a guy who was hired personally by William Randolph Hearst at the age of 12 (he didn’t start working for the papers until he was 16). Glover must have had some amazing stories. I hope someone wrote some of them down. (Hattip: Jimbo.)

Houston’s Clear Thinkers links to an article from Spiegel Online about the crash of Air France Flight 447. The current theory of the crash (they haven’t recovered the black boxes yet) seems to be that the pitot tubes iced up; those tubes are a major component of the system that drives the airspeed indicators, so when they iced up, the airspeed indicators started giving bad readings. Worse yet, the airspeed indicators were feeding bad information to the Airbus flight computer; this may have resulted in a loss of control which led to the crash.

This is the kind of accident that chills me. There’s very little even an experienced pilot can do to get out of this type of failure, especially at night, over water, with almost no visual references. For me, the most disturbing segment of Charlie Victor Romeo is the Aeroperú 603 crash, which happened under similar (but not identical) circumstances. If you read the CVR transcript, or hear it performed live, the crew’s confusion and desperation comes across pretty clearly. (The same incident was also used for an early episode of the Air Emergency series, which goes by several other names as well.)

Posted in Books, Cars, Clippings, Movies, Planes, Stupid | Comments Closed

Generalities.

March 7th, 2010

I was having lunch with The Usual Suspects earlier today. The TV on the wall in front of me was tuned to some ESPN channel; probably ESPN 8, “The Ocho”, since they were showing a Harlem Globetrotters/Washington Generals game.

The question came up; have the Generals ever won a game?

The answer is; yes, and no.

Here’s the (I know) Wikipedia entry on the Washington Generals. Apparently, they last won a game on January 5, 1971, but they were playing as the New Jersey Reds at the time.

“They looked at us like we killed Santa Claus.”

I was also previously unfamiliar with the term “kayfabe“.

By the way, the Nets are now 7-55, for a 0.113 percentage. Projected wins for an 82-game season: 9.266.

Posted in Loser | Comments Closed

They beat him up until the teardrops start, but he can’t be wounded because he’s got no heart…

March 5th, 2010

It looks like the Los Angeles Police Department is going to fire Detective Michael Slider, who has been on the force for 22 years.

Did he beat up a suspect on camera? No.

Did he kill someone? No.

What did he do to get fired? Detective Slider accessed case notes on an internal LAPD computer system, printed a copy, and gave it to a lawyer.

That sounds pretty bad. But there’s a catch.

The case notes were for a robbery case involving Detective Slider’s niece, Khristina Henry. Ms. Henry accused a prominent high school football player. Tyquan Knox, of the robbery. Ms. Henry and her mother, Pamela Lark (Det. Slider’s sister-in-law) were allegedly threatened by Knox and his associates after filing charges. Ms. Lark was eventually killed; Mr. Knox has been charged with her murder and the robbery of Ms. Henry, but the jury in the first trial was unable to reach a verdict on those charges. Mr. Knox is currently awaiting a retrial.

Detective Slider apparently believed that the detectives assigned to Ms. Henry’s case were not taking the threats seriously, and complained to their supervisor several times before the murder.

After the murder…

Saying he was blinded by grief and anger, Slider told the three-member disciplinary panel he had hoped leaking the internal document would help spur an investigation into the detectives’ handling of the case.

He said he was not motivated by the possibility of winning a monetary award — a claim the head of the panel said he believed.

This is a hard case. The LAT article, it seems to me, clearly wants to invoke sympathy for Detective Slider. And my first reaction is to be sympathetic. I can’t condone leaking internal LAPD documents to people outside the department, but I can easily believe that Det. Slider, motivated by grief and anger, made a mistake. I can easily argue that, under the circumstances, the LAPD should make allowances and impose some form of punishment short of firing.

I could even make an argument that, if Det. Slider felt the case was mishandled, felt that he had exhausted all remedies inside the department, and felt that the detectives supervisors were covering up their mishandling of the case, he had a right—even a duty—to bring police misconduct to the attention of outsiders.

The problem is that all we have right now is the LAT version of the story. Given the way the paper has covered the LAPD in the past, I don’t know how much of this story to believe. I can’t trust my initial reaction because I can’t trust the information I have right now. That’s the real tragedy of American newspapers.

I’m hoping that someone like Patterico (either himself, or in a guest post by “Jack Dunphy”) will add something to the LAT story.

Edited to add: Speaking of the LAPD, why is the 2010 California Homicide Investigators Association Conference being held in Las Vegas? Not that I have anything against Las Vegas (unlike Barack Obama) but it just seems strange.

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Cops, Law | 4 Comments »

Random notes: March 5, 2010.

March 5th, 2010

Serdar Argic, call your office, please.

Edited to add: Popehat is on a roll. Go here for more Armenian genocide commentary. Meanwhile, Ken has what I’ll go ahead and call the quote of the day:

Perhaps there is some equivalent in Louisiana law, which is cobbled together from the legal traditions of the French, the Deep South, riverboat gamblers, corrupt cops, bead-and-tit based economies, and people who clean up vomit for a living.

Ah, fair food. (Okay, so technically the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo isn’t a fair. I consider it to be close enough for government work.) Chicken-fried meatballs from the Mandola family.

Edited to add: The HouChron has thown up (and I use “thrown up” in multiple senses of the phrase) a slide show of items being sold at the rodeo. (Warning! Slide show!) By my count, of the 24 distinct items shown, six are “on a stick”. What’s that sound I hear? Oh, that’s my arteries slamming shut.

I was working on a post about this list of the “100 best crime books ever written” but I’m not sure I’m going to go through with it. The general tone of the post came across as kind of dickish and show-offy to me, plus I think The Rap Sheet says all that needs to be said. (Especially Ed Gorman in the comments.)

Instead, have this link to Terry Gross interviewing Henry Scott about his new book: Shocking True Story: The Rise and Fall of Confidential. I picked this up last week and haven’t had a chance to do much more than skim it, but it looks like a rather interesting book. I know at least one of my readers openly doesn’t care about Hollywood, or anything related to Hollywood gossip; even if you’re in the same boat with him, I still think there’s a fascinating aspect to this story. This is the only time in recent history (that I’m aware of; I welcome correction) that a government actually tried to put a magazine out of business through criminal prosecution, merely because some people didn’t like what that magazine was publishing.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Food, Geek, Law | Comments Closed

Quote of the day.

March 4th, 2010

You tend to attract what you put into the world, and every second you spend being a dick is a second wasted. I’m 37, and while I’ve looked back on times I was a dick with great regret, I’ve never thought to myself, “You know, I really wish I’d spent more time being a dick to people.”

—Wil Wheaton

Posted in Clippings, Leadership | 1 Comment »

Academic update: Spring 2010.

March 4th, 2010

Grades are in for my advanced networking and computer security class.

Out of a possible 899.9 points, I got…899.9 points, and a final grade of 100.

This is a good thing, given my interests. Anything less would have been dishonorable.

Posted in School | 2 Comments »

Apropos of nothing in particular…

March 3rd, 2010

I’m wondering if any of my readers have the same reaction I do:

The more hype you hear for something, the less likely you are to actually partake of that something.

For example, I got so fed up with hearing about ET and Raiders of the Lost Ark that I’ve never seen either one of them. Likewise, I haven’t seen any Star Wars film other than the first.

This isn’t reliable: I have all five seasons of The Wire, but that also has something to do with being into David Simon’s work before Homicide (the TV series).

Really, this doesn’t have anything to do with anything in particular.

Posted in Lazyweb | 2 Comments »

Book notes: March 2, 2010.

March 2nd, 2010

And happy Texas Independence Day, everyone.

The problems with The Last Train from Hiroshima have reached critical mass: Henry Holt, the publisher, is withdrawing the book from circulation. Here’s a link to the NYT article. And here’s a link to a LAT article that I think goes into a little more detail.

There is no evidence that one person who appears in the book actually existed; Pellegrino says that he knew that already because he’d invented a pseudonym and forgot to mention it. Maybe there is as simple an explanation for the concerns over his C.V.: Pellegrino’s website says that he earned a PhD from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, in 1982, a detail that has not been confirmed.

I find this odd. Pellegrino isn’t exactly an unknown author; if I remember correctly, at least one of his Titanic books was a Times bestseller. So why are these concerns coming up now?

Edited to add: I was going to mention: if you go to Amazon’s page, they still have the book in stock (3 copies as of 11:37 AM Central), but they’ve added a note, and the text of Holt’s statement, to the page.

Also in the LAT: a fun interview with John McPhee, who is finally filling in some of his personal history.

There’s a standing joke about the New Yorker running “a three-part series on corn by John McPhee” or some sort of other essay that sounds equally silly. Funny thing is, I’ll read pretty much anything McPhee writes, including that three-part series on corn; I always know that I’m going to find something in McPhee’s work that I didn’t know but am glad to know now, or that shakes up my world view. In the next couple of days, I’ll try to post a brief review of the most recent McPhee book I’ve read, Uncommon Carriers, which is interesting but a little bit frustrating.

Posted in Books, Clippings | 1 Comment »

Here’s an interesting legal question.

March 1st, 2010

(I’m hoping that the good folks over at Popehat might have an answer for this, but I welcome comments from other sources.)

The Eighth Amendment states:

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Question: Is one million dollars bail on a misdemeanor charge “excessive bail” in the Eighth Amendment sense?

Edited to add: So now his bail is down to $100,000, and he’s scheduled to be released, in return for taking the sign down. This doesn’t change the question, but I did want to make sure that update got in.

Posted in Law | Comments Closed

I heartily endorse this event or product. (#4 in a series).

March 1st, 2010

LaRue Tactical.

I blame my great and good friend Other Brian for this. It all started last week when he pointed out that day’s shirt.woot to me. I figured, “Hey, as long as I’m ordering that shirt, I might as well order some of the other shirts I’ve been putting off, too.” Not that there’s anything wrong with my ThoseShirts shirts; when, over the course of a single day, three complete strangers walk up to you and tell you “I love your shirt“, you know you’re doing something right. But I did need to put some variety into my wardrobe.

Anyway, one of the shirts I ordered was the snazzy LaRue Tactical t-shirt, along with one of the Tactical Beverage Entry Tools. I will confess that I did think the $9.99 for Priority Mail shipping was slightly steep, but, on the other hand, Brownells charged me even more to ship some DVDs, so I could live with that.

So what happened?

  1. I placed the order on Thursday. It arrived on Friday. Granted, LaRue is in Leander, and I’m in Austin, but I would have figured it would take a day or two to get the package together and shipped out.
  2. In addition to the shirt and tool, the good folks at LaRue threw in, for free:
    * a snazzy LaRue Tactical hat.
    * a bottle of LaRue barbecue spice rub.
    * and a couple of LaRue Tactical bumper stickers.

How cool is that? They don’t know me from a hole in the ground, and (as far as I know) they have no idea that I have a blog. Maybe this is something they do for every first time order. I don’t know.

What I do know is this; I have a stripped AR lower in the gun cabinet, waiting for me to decide what I want to do with it. (I haven’t decided between doing some sort of heavy barrel National Match type rifle, or an M4 clone.) I’d pretty much decided that I didn’t want to try to assemble an upper from parts (at least, not this time around) so once I get the lower the way I want it, I’m planning to go looking for an upper that meets my needs.

The first place I’m going to go when I go upper shopping is LaRue Tactical.

Posted in Endorsements | 2 Comments »

Random notes: March 1, 2010.

March 1st, 2010

Obit watch: John Reed, of the D’Oly Carte Opera Company.

…for a generation of fans, Mr. Reed was the memorable embodiment of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “little man” roles, among them John Wellington Wells, the title character of “The Sorcerer”; Major-General Stanley, the very model of et cetera from “The Pirates of Penzance”; Ko-Ko, the nebbish turned lord high executioner in “The Mikado,” a part he also played in the 1967 film version.

The LAT magazine profiles the man who brought Tiki to America: Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt. Mr. Gantt is perhaps better known by the name he acquired later in life: Donn E.R. Beachcomber.

Edited to add: I intended to blog this on Friday, but didn’t have anything to put with it, and it slipped my mind when I was preparing these notes: David Parker’s eulogy for his father, Robert B. Parker.

My father, at that moment in a cut-off sweatshirt covered with muffin crumbs, bacon grease, Flintstones Jelly and beer stains replied without dropping a beat–“Yeah, I’d like to see something by Twyla Tharp, I understand she’s quite innovative”.

(Hattip: Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind.)

ETA2: Also forgot to blog the most recent entry in Derek Lowe’s “Things I Won’t Work With” series: dioxygen diflouride (also known as FOOF).

The paper goes on to react FOOF with everything else you wouldn’t react it with: ammonia (“vigorous”, this at 100K), water ice (explosion, natch), chlorine (“violent explosion”, so he added it more slowly the second time), red phosphorus (not good), bromine fluoride, chlorine trifluoride (say what?), perchloryl fluoride (!), tetrafluorohydrazine (how on Earth. . .), and on, and on. If the paper weren’t laid out in complete grammatical sentences and published in JACS, you’d swear it was the work of a violent lunatic.

Also recommended: the “How Not To Do It” archives. Especially the story of the liquid nitrogen tank at Texas A&M.

Both the pressure relief and rupture disks had failed for some reason in the past, so they’d been removed and sealed off with metal plugs. You may commence shivering now.

Posted in Clippings, Explosives, Geek, Mixology, Music, Obits | Comments Closed

Art, damn it, art! watch (#3 in a series).

February 26th, 2010

One after the next, they trudged through the horizontal-blowing snow on Thursday, most focusing more on the icy sidewalk than on the body of a naked woman, who stood in a gallery window in Greenwich Village.

Posted in Art, Clippings | 1 Comment »

It’s a long way to the top if you wanna polka.

February 23rd, 2010

I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m a libertarian  (well, 99 44/100ths percent libertarian). For that reason, I fully support the arrest and prosecution of people who make polka videos; I believe the production of said videos violates the non-aggression axiom, much like the production of bagpipe recordings.

(Hattip: Balko.)

Posted in Clippings, Law, Music, Sarcasm | Comments Closed

“Would you say the time has come for us to crack open each other’s heads and feast on the tasty goo inside?”

February 23rd, 2010

As of this moment (7:55 AM Central) snow is falling outside my office window.

This means, of course, that we’re all going to die!

More later.

Edited to add: Statesman. Photo and video to come.

ETA2: More Statesman:

A large band of snow, which should bring more consistent snowfall, is expected to arrive mid-afternoon in Travis and Williamson counties, with snowfall subsiding sometime between late afternoon and after midnight.

But we are getting non-stop flights to Branson. I confess; I’m tempted to take advantage of the $49 special and blog the experience.

ETA3: Did you know “Nanook of the North” was public domain?

Posted in Hysteria | 3 Comments »

Book notes: February 22, 2010.

February 22nd, 2010

Kim Stanley Robinson in the LAT.

Slate has an interesting article by Deborah Blum about the government’s deliberate poisoning of alcohol during Prohibition. Based on Sarah Weinman’s recommendation, I had already ordered The Poisoner’s Handbook; reading Blum’s Slate piece makes me even more happy I did so.

Edited to add: Lawrence suggests that I may have seen this on Megan McArdle’s blog. I honestly do not remember where I ran across Blum’s piece first; it is a top-billed story on Slate at the moment. But I’m always happy to give a hattip to my favorite Certified Netware Engineer.

Edited to add 2: I missed this story over the weekend; The Last Train from Hiroshima appears to have some problems. As in, one of the author’s sources seems to be a liar. (Hattip: Insta.)

Posted in Books | Comments Closed

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