For the historical record: Billy Graham.
Obit watch: February 22, 2018.
February 22nd, 2018There are many beautiful words in the English language.
February 20th, 2018Here are four of them:
World’s Most Corrupt Police Departments.
February 16th, 2018Coming up on the Justice Network.
(Well, they need to do something, now that those jerks have dropped the midnight Sunday “Most Shocking”.)
(Seriously, Justice Network: was anyone asking for a three hour block of “Rescue 911”? And why are you also airing another three hour block of “psychic” frauds?)
(But I digress.)
I’ve written before about the criminal Philadelphia police department. Latest development:
Of course the list is secret.
As the article notes, this isn’t unheard of: Seattle is cited as an example, and I seem to recall hearing that the LA district attorney’s office had a similar list. (Edited to add: link to recent coverage of the LADA list. Additional. Denton County has a list, too.) It seems to me, though (and if there are any legal experts out there, please correct me if I’m wrong) that the places that have these lists of problem officers also have a lot of other police related issues, too.
And as a by the way, you know who created the list? Seth Williams.
(Hattip.)
I’ve been sort of negligent in covering the ongoing Baltimore Gun Trace Task Force cases. To be honest, I’ve been a little busy, things have me down, and the most recent trial got pretty widespread national coverage. (Spoiler: two detectives were convicted on Monday.)
As you would expect, now that there’s convictions, there’s also weeping and wailing from the politicians. Which usually isn’t interesting, but:
My first thought: if you disband the Baltimore PD, where is David Simon going to get material for season six of “The Wire”?
My second thought: if you were going to disband a police department for being corrupt and out of control, B’more would not be my first choice. In order, I think I’d take Chicago, New Orleans, and Philadelphia before Charm City.
Accidentally like a machine.
February 15th, 2018By way of the Hacker News Twitter:
A list of things that were not intended to be “Turing Complete”, but are.
(For the non-initiated, “Turing Completeness” sort of explained here.)
Quick update.
February 15th, 2018I touched on the case of Hugh Barry and Deborah Danner a while back. Very briefly: Barry was a sergeant with the NYPD, he responded to a call about a mentally disturbed woman (Ms. Danner), she came at him with a baseball bat, he shot and killed her, and was charged with murder.
Yesterday, he was acquitted of all charges against him.
Obit watch: February 14, 2018.
February 14th, 2018A little late on this, but here’s your obit for Vic Damone.
After winning on the radio show “Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts” in 1947, he recorded some 2,500 songs over 54 years. He had his own radio and television programs, made movies, survived rock ′n’ roll and its noisy offspring and became a mainstay of the Las Vegas Strip, and nightclubs where audiences were so close he could almost reach out and touch them with his voice.
Along the way, he made millions, entertained presidents and royalty, refused a part in “The Godfather,” married five times, had four children and underwent analysis. He also survived a brush with the mob, four divorces, a custody fight over his only son and the suicides of two former wives. And he was still working as the millennium turned, with a voice that critics said had not lost its mellow subtleties.
Marty Allen is dead at the age of 95. He was most famous as half of the comedy team Allen and Rossi, who were big in the post Martin/Lewis era. (Steve Rossi apparently died in 2014: I don’t seem to have noted his passing here.)
Victor Milan, SF and fantasy author. I read Cybernetic Samurai not long after it came out, and kind of liked it.
Can’t afford it…
February 9th, 2018Mostly so I have a place to ride my pony. No, that’s not a euphemism. Actually, the whole reason I posted this is so I could embed a song I used to sing on my way out of Four Letter Computer Corporation on Friday afternoon. (Have I mentioned this previously?)
I love that line, “Kemosabi, kiss my ass, I’ve bought a boat, I’m going out to sea.”
(Hattip on Boaty McBoatface to Morlock Publishing.)
I have to say it…
February 9th, 2018Tweet of the day.
February 8th, 2018NOT THAT MANHATTAN BULLSHIT pic.twitter.com/VUvWPLPCjR
— Colin Duffy (@TheRightDuff) February 8, 2018
That Manhattan bullshit. When I am made God Emperor over All Creation, the use of tomatoes or a tomato based broth in clam chowder will be outlawed. A first offense will land you in the stocks, and people will be encouraged to throw rotten tomatoes at you. A second offense will result in public execution by being force fed stuffies.
Nostalgia is (kind of) a moron…
February 8th, 2018Back when I was a small child, I loved “Emergency“.
Now that I’m an adult, and have the chance to work from home some days, I can watch the show on one of those retro TV networks. And you know…I hate to admit this…and maybe it is just the episodes I’ve caught…but it’s not as good as I remember it.
There are two episodes that I recall, but haven’t seen come round yet: one where Dr. Brackett and the paramedics have to do emergency field surgery on a guy who fired a grenade round into his gut, and another where the paramedics may have to do a field amputation to rescue a man trapped by a building collapse. (I don’t remember if they actually took the guy’s leg off or not.)
What brings this to mind? About six months ago, Collin County (where Plano is) realized they had a problem: there’s a lot of construction going on, and with that, a lot of potential for workers to become badly trapped by construction accidents. Collin County firefighters worked with a local hospital (Medical City Plano, also a Level 1 trauma center) to develop something called the “pre-hospital amputation team” in case it was ever needed.
Last week, it was.
Firefighters called Gamber on their way to the accident scene. He summoned trauma surgeon Al West, who arrived by helicopter 41 minutes after the accident.
He carried a black plastic toolbox that held everything he would need to free Palma: a saw, scissors, clamps, dressings. This was the first time in his 20 years operating on trauma patients that he wouldn’t have a sterile operating room.
…
…
The guy’s still in critical condition, but expected to live. The doctors say there’s about a 75% chance he’ll be able to walk normally with a prosthetic leg. Here’s his GoFundMe, if you feel like kicking in a few bucks for the family.
Hattip: SwiftOnSecurity.
Imagine how many systems and procedures that work to mitigate or completely avert tragedy which you take for granted. That you have no possible awareness of. Intention iterated over decades, by people whose only aspiration is to do a better job. They who rarely get hagiographies.
— SwiftOnSecurity (@SwiftOnSecurity) February 8, 2018
Obit watch: February 8, 2018.
February 8th, 2018I haven’t found a good mainstream source for this yet, but John Perry Barlow, former lyricist for the Grateful Dead and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, passed away yesterday.
EFF. Mike Godwin’s Twitter feed has a lot of good tributes.
Edited to add 2/9: NYT obit.
TMQ Watch: January 6, 2018.
February 7th, 2018So, it has come to this: the ultimate Tuesday Morning Quarterback of the season.
And just in the nick of time, too, as we are entering one of the busy periods of our year, in which we are booked with meetings (with people!) three out of five days of the working week through May.
But enough about that. After the jump, this week’s TMQ…
Jarndyce v Jarndyce.
February 5th, 2018Charles Dickens, call your office, please:
It seems fair to say, 11 years after James Brown’s death, that his estate planning has failed in its major mission: to distribute his wealth efficiently.
Not a penny has gone to any of the beneficiaries of his will, who include underprivileged children in Georgia and South Carolina, to whom Mr. Brown sought to donate millions, perhaps tens of millions, of dollars.
Historical note, suitable for use in schools.
February 5th, 2018Saturday was the 75th anniversary of the sinking of the Dorchester.
The NYT has a nice article about the annual mass at St. Stephen’s in Kearny, New Jersey.
…
But keeping the memory of the four chaplains alive is growing more difficult. Each year, the number of living World War II veterans shrinks. According to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 558,000 of the 16 million Americans who served in World War II were still alive in 2017.
They are dying at the rate of 362 per day, the department reports. Among the survivors of the Dorchester disaster, only one remains alive: Bill Bunkelman, who is in a nursing home in Michigan, Ms. Beady said.
…
In Mr. Hoffman’s pocket was a folded family tree that included the fate of Father Washington’s six brothers and sisters. One brother died in the war. Another went missing in action, but was later found shellshocked. His sister died as a teenager of a disease. His father died in the 1930s.
“I always think of his mother, and her suffering,” Mr. Hoffman said. “To me, that’s a forgotten part of the story.”
Historical note, emphatically NOT suitable for use in schools.
February 1st, 2018I didn’t realize this until I got a chance to look at today’s WP, but:
50 years ago today, Eddie Adams took that photo.