Random notes: January 8, 2010.

January 8th, 2010

Congrats, Warren St. John.

The Statesman has decided to share with us our local constabulary’s list of “most frequent bars for suspected drunken drivers“. I, personally, am a little bit shocked not to see my own favorite Austin bar on this list.

The Gilbert Arenas story is being well covered elsewhere, but I’d like to note that the NYT is all over this story like a hungry man on an all-you-can-eat buffet. Three stories today, in addition to yesterday’s coverage? For a non-New York team?

Firings: Jim Leavitt at the University of South Florida, who allegedly hit a player.

Breaking, by way of Lawrence Person, who provides the following:

When the GM says “Goodbye”

And everyone knows good and why

That’s a Mora…

Edited to add: from the linked article, “Seattle was decimated by injuries and inconsistency and finished 5-11.” Really? The Seahawks lost one out of every ten players?

Posted in Clippings, Firings, Guns, Loser, NFL | Comments Closed

Random notes: January 5, 2010.

January 5th, 2010

By way of Roger Ebert, we learn of Matthew Dessem, a man with a goal; to watch every single movie in the Criterion Collection, and write about them.

Understand that Dessem’s essays are advanced and ambitious. These aren’t three-paragraph plot summaries. He watches the extras, reads the literature, provides detailed analysis, find still photos and grabs individual shots from a computer screen.

I had a chance to read some of the essays on Dessem’s site, and I agree with Roger; these are serious essays, not hack work.

Best quote from the article:

“My absolute favorite commentary track on any Criterion title so far,” he said, “is the one with NASA consultant Dr. Joe Allen and asteroid consultant Ivan Bekey (as well as the cinematographer, Joe Schwartzman) talking about ‘Armageddon.’ It’s basically two-and-a-half hours of these guys saying, over and over again, ‘We told Michael Bay that this scene was completely scientifically inaccurate, but he went ahead and did it anyway’.”

If you’re going to read just one of Dessem’s reviews, I recommend the Armageddon one. The movie’s an easy target, but I think he does a good job of trying to engage with it, while at the same time not neglecting the movie’s many stupid moments.

Yesterday’s WP had a nice article about Betsey Apple, wife of the late NYT writer and bon vivant R.W. Apple. She’s preparing to auction off his wine collection:

And yes, Betsey says, they all belonged to her husband and not to his employer, an important distinction given that he was a legendary expense account artist who may or may not have buried a fur coat on one of his expense reports when he was posted in Moscow.

and also promoting his new book.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the legendary Mr. Apple, Calvin Trillin’s New Yorker profile is available online, and well worth reading.

Posted in Clippings, Movies | Comments Closed

And so it begins…

January 4th, 2010

Zorn. Gone.

Not much more to say; everyone knew it was coming.

Lawrence is now arguing that retaining Kubiak is the right call. I’m not sure I agree with that. I agree more with Laurence Simon that the Texans are a mediocre team, and will remain so as long as the current coaching and management structure are in place.

Edited to add: It just gets better. Buffalo has purged their entire coaching staff. It’s like something out of Stalin’s Russia.

Edited to add 2: From the local Buffalo paper: “Drunken Bills fan passes out, leaving three children crying.” The jokes, they write themselves.

Edited to add 3: From the HouChron:

The Bills released an awkwardly worded statement, saying members of the team’s current coaching staff have been informed that their obligations for this season have been completed, and they now “have the opportunity to seek positions elsewhere.” The release said their status will then be determined by the Bills’ next head coach.

Despite how the Bills phrased the release, a person familiar with the team’s decisions told The Associated Press that the staff has been fired.

Edited to add 4: And the Bears take out a full-page newspaper ad apologizing to their fans. (Hattip: E&P in Exile.)

Edited to add 5: Jets Giants fire defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan.

Edited to add 6: Bears fire offensive coordinator Ron Turner, and five other offensive coaches.

Posted in Firings, Loser, NFL | Comments Closed

The Elves of Dalton, GA (and other tales from Christmas).

January 1st, 2010

Just be patient, it will all come together in the end.

A few weeks ago, one of my cow orkers sent around this photo, just for fun. It prompted a discussion among some of my other cow orkers about their first computers. I was sitting there listening to these guys talking about their 386 machines with 4 MB of memory, and thinking to myself, “You bunch of pikers. My first computer had 4K of memory. Not 4 MB, 4 KB. As in, 4,096 bytes total. And I used cassette tape for mass storage.” You tell that to kids nowdays, they just don’t believe you. (Well, except maybe the cow orker who sent around that photo; I suspect he actually got his start sometime in the System 360 days.)

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Posted in Books, CompScI, Geek, netbook, Retrocomputing | 3 Comments »

Bloodletting.

December 30th, 2009

Mike Leach is now officially gone.

In February, Leach and the school agreed to a five-year, $12.7 million contract. According to terms of the deal, Leach was due a $800,000 bonus on Dec. 31 if he were still the head coach at Texas Tech

For the record, here’s a link to the Texas Monthly cover story from earlier this year. (Link does require registration; cypherpunks@mailinator.com/cypherpunks may work.)

Here’s a longish “web extra”,  also from TM that doesn’t require registration.

The local Lubbock paper appears to be slammed right now.

My view? I’m not a huge Tech or Leach fan, but I need to see more evidence before believing he did something wrong (for reasons I outlined yesterday). This sounds to me more like a power struggle, combined with disappointment over an 8-4 season, combined with not wanting to pay a huge bonus.

Posted in Firings | Comments Closed

The curse continues.

December 29th, 2009

Texas Tech coach Mike Leach hasn’t been fired yet.

But he has been suspended. The father of one of his players is accusing Leach of treating his son in an abusive and improper fashion after the player suffered a concussion and couldn’t practice.

(The player in question, Adam James, is the son of Craig James, an ESPN announcer.)

I have a feeling this is going to turn into a strange story. First of all, there’s the whole “he said, he said” aspect to it; I find it very hard to believe that, after all the attention being given to concussions at the pro level, any coach who wanted to keep his job would pull this kind of crap. Add to that the involvement of an ESPN staffer (Tech is playing on Saturday in the Alamo Bowl, which is being broadcast by ESPN), stir, and we have a mess.

Posted in Firings | Comments Closed

Saturday Dining Conspiracy updates.

December 28th, 2009
  • Added November and October of 2009.

Posted in Food, SDC | Comments Closed

Weapon test and evaluation: NERF N-Strike Vulcan EBF-25

December 25th, 2009
Caliber 10 mm x 70 mm NERF
Operation Electric (full-auto) or pneumatic (pump)
Cyclic rate 180 rpm (depending on charge)
Feed 25 round belt
Weight 7.5 lbs
Dimensions 30.5” long x 8.5” high x 14” wide (without tripod)
Barrel Smoothbore
Barrel length 12.5”
Sights Post front, limited adjustment for elevation; fixed notch rear
Finish Orange and yellow
Furniture Plastic
Optional accessories Tactical rail accommodates N-Strike line
Price $54 (MSRP), $40 (street)
Manufacturer Hasbro

The  Nerf N-Strike Vulcan EBF-25 is Hasbro’s first attempt at a Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW). It was a surprise to many people that a company specializing in handguns and rifles, with no previous experience in the full-auto realm, would even compete for the contract, and there was considerable controversy when Hasbro won the competition. Our testing and evaluation showed many rough edges on the EBF-25; we hope that these are just early production issues that will be ironed out in the field.

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Posted in Guns | 4 Comments »

Otters?

December 24th, 2009

Seriously? Otters? In your cargo hold? It’s more likely than you think.

Posted in Clippings | Comments Closed

Warren Beatty dies at the end.

December 24th, 2009

Obit watch: Loren Singer, author of The Parallax View, which was adapted into an Alan J. Pakula directed movie.

Posted in Clippings, Movies, Obits | 2 Comments »

Giggle. Snort.

December 23rd, 2009

Remember the drunk woman from Wimberly who walked into the offices of Triton Financial brandishing a gun and a bottle of wine? Remember that I noted Trition Financial had an interesting history?

That history just got more interesting; the SEC is suing them for securities fraud, and the State of Texas is attempting to revoke their investment advisor registration. I expect this to be an amusing show.

Edited to add: Oh, look, a link from the HouChron. A rather short link, but it does mention the SI article. You know, this one. The one that the Statesman article ignores. Even though one of the co-authors of the Statesman article (the Stateman‘s golf blogger) took the trouble to interview Trition Financial officials and provide their rebuttal after the SI article ran. Nor does the Statesman mention the drunk woman from Wimberly. Interesting lack of context there, guys.

Posted in Clippings | 1 Comment »

More brains!

December 22nd, 2009

More Henry Molaison brains, even. But this NYT article is mostly about the mechanics of brain sectioning.

The blade peeled off the top layer, rolling it up in slow motion like a slice of pale prosciutto.

Did they really have to say “prosciutto“?

To prepare a brain for dissection, Dr. Annese first freezes it in a formaldehyde and sucrose solution, to about minus 40 degrees Celsius. The freezing in the case of H. M. was done over four hours, a few degrees at a time: the brain, like most things, becomes more brittle when frozen. It can crack.

I think I had one of those sucrose solutions the other day from Sonic, and yes, my brain did feel like it was going to crack.

An entire brain produces some 2,500 slices, and the amount of information in each one, once microscopic detail is added, will fill about a terabyte of computer storage.

Earlier in the article, it states that the slices are 70 microns thick, so that implies the brain is about 6.8 inches from the very top to wherever the researchers are stopping; but it isn’t clear how far down they’re going. Are they going to section just the lobes, include the cerebellum, or go all the way down into the medulla?

It’s kind of neat to think that all of that data can fit on a single $69 hard drive from Fry’s. (I hope they’ve got RAID. And backups. And restores.)

Posted in Clippings, Geek, Neuroscience | Comments Closed

Word of the day: simony.

December 21st, 2009

No, simony isn’t what happens when you finish in third place on Jeopardy and your consolation prize is a year’s supply of Simoniz.

n.  The buying or selling of ecclesiastical pardons, offices, or emoluments.

I hadn’t heard of anyone being charged with simony since Martin Luther and the Reformation. At least, until yesterday:

Simony was a common transgression in the Middle Ages, when simonists were condemned to hell in Dante’s “Inferno.” The modern consequences aren’t quite so dire, but in the most serious cases they can include a priest’s suspension.

Suspension? I would have expected excommunication.

Posted in Clippings, Media | Comments Closed

Open thread: Christmas music that drives you nuts.

December 18th, 2009

The umpteenth repitition of “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree” last night started me thinking, and I figured I’d do an open thread: what holiday music do you particularly loathe?

My thoughts, other than the aforementioned tripe (Hannah Montana did a cover? We are doomed, doomed I tell you!):

  • “Wonderful Christmastime”. Never been a real big fan of Paul McCartney solo. Sorry.
  • I don’t really care that much for “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, but if you look into the history of the song, the original lyrics are actually much more suited for the present.
  • I actually kind of like “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer”, in an ironic “This is so bad, it’s almost good” campy hipster way. I’d punctuate that statement by slamming back a cold Pabst Blue Ribbon, but I don’t have one on hand right now.
  • Edited to add: I say this as someone who likes Springsteen; that version of “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” is tiresome.
  • One that I actually like: on my home machine, I have a wonderful cover of “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” sung to the tune of “Folsom Prison Blues”, but Google doesn’t turn up a link. Any help here?

So, dear readers, what songs would you like to see kicked around the Christmas tree until they stop twitching?

Posted in Music | 1 Comment »

Random notes: December 18th, 2009.

December 18th, 2009

Someone swiped the “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign (which weighs 90 pounds and is 16 feet long) from in front of Auchwitz. This is the kind of work that doesn’t set you free; this gets you a short term in a pound you in the ass prison, and a long term in one of the lower circles of Dante’s Hell.

Three from the NYT:

  • Obit watch: C.D.B. Bryan, author of  Friendly Fire.

    He will be cremated in advance of a memorial service early next year, St. George Bryan added; until then, his remains are to be stored in martini shakers.

  • A touching and sad article about a retired policeman in Japan who spends his days trying to keep people from killing themselves.

    Mr. Shige and a group of volunteers he put together have saved 222 people so far, a tally that has made Mr. Shige a national figure in a country that often seems apathetic about its high rate of self-destruction. But he has also met with criticism from a conformist society that can look dimly on people who draw attention by engaging in activism, even of the most humanitarian kind.

  • Finally, on a much happier note, a review of “Chestnuts Roasting on the Flaming Idiots“. I saw one of their “last” shows at Zach Scott a few years back, and it wasn’t what I expected; I was totally blown away, not only because they’re talented performers, but their performance style is clearly influenced by people like Ricky Jay. I’m delighted to hear that they’re back; even better, they’re coming back to Austin.

Posted in Clippings, Geek, Loser, Media, Obits, Stupid, Theatre | Comments Closed

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