The LAT is still covering the LACMA boulder.
And (ahem):
The rock is on schedule to arrive at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art early Saturday morning, barring technical difficulties.
Rock, rock, baby, baby.
March 9th, 2012Yo ho maties!
March 8th, 2012Setting aside for a moment just how incredibly awesome this is: wait a second. MIT, a school in Massachusetts (the cradle and grave of liberty), offers a class in pistol shooting? And:
I did a quick Google search to see what kind of pistols were being used; I did find the course listing, but it didn’t help much. It looks like, from reading the range rules, that this is air guns and .22 rimfire target guns. I also found the MIT Pistol and Rifle Club, the MIT Sport Pistol Club (the competition team) and the MIT Varsity Rifle Club. I had no absolutely no idea MIT had such an active shooting culture: once again, my faith in humanity is restored for the next hour or so.
Obit watch: March 8, 2012.
March 8th, 2012Leslie Cochran, described by the Statesman as “the city’s flesh-flashing, cross-dressing, attention-loving, frequently homeless mascot, unofficial ambassador and sometimes mayoral candidate”, has passed on.
I’ll out myself as one of the people who voted for Leslie for mayor, but that was more of a protest vote: Kirk Watson was running without any opposition except Leslie.
Terra Never.
March 8th, 2012Ever heard of Project Rex/Dinosaur City? What about EarthQuest?
No?
Back in 2006, a guy named Don Lessem, who claimed to be both an entrepreneur and a “nationally recognized dinosaur expert” announced plans to build a huge theme park in the southeastern part of Montgomery County. Originally, this started out as Project Rex/Dinosaur City, which was supposed to take up 50 acres and cost $50 million. The project eventually evolved into EarthQuest, expanded to 1,600 acres, and hit a $1 billion cost projection.
Guess what?
(EMCID = East Montgomery County Improvement District.)
It looks like the whole “Project Rex” plan was really a way to get municipalities to pony up land and money for a proposed theme park; the developers would pick up consulting fees, while the locals would take all the risks and front all the expenses:
The hattip on this goes to BlogHouston (good to see those guys active again) which offers an excellent roundup of The Tribune‘s coverage. In another story, Cynthia Calvert discusses the economics of the EMCID’s EarthQuest bonds:
And what if EarthQuest doesn’t get built?
That’s just the EarthQuest bonds. EMCID has also sold bonds on other unrelated projects, and when you add those bonds into the picture, those figures go up considerably:
Edited to add: Some possibly relevant links:
- Houston Dinosaur Park. “Information about the new EarthQuest North Houston Dinosaur Park being developed near New Caney, Texas.”
- EarthQuest Institute.
- This appears to be Don Lessem’s personal web site. I debated about including this, since reports indicate that he’s left the project, and there’s nothing about EarthQuest that I can find on his site. But I decided to err on the side of inclusion, especially since Lessem still shows up on the EarthQuest site.
Edited to add 2: Lawrence reminded me that he’d also done a post on EarthQuest. I’ve also been doing some thinking about the $1 billion estimated cost for EarthQuest, and how that compares to Disney World, but I’m not sure I want to post those thoughts yet.
Some things that have been rattling around that I’d like to point out.
March 7th, 2012A few days ago, the News @ Y Combinator Twitter feed linked to this article, misleadingly titled “24/192 Music Downloads…and why they make no sense”. I say “misleadingly” because the article is actually a very good introduction to the theory of digital audio, touching on such subjects as the human ear and how it works, how we know that humans can hear between 20 and 20,000 Hz, Nyquist sampling, and ABX tests.
Holy cow! You mean, there are audiophiles out there who actually believe in science and double-blind testing? My faith in humanity is restored.
The Hon. John Gruber pointed out a post by Chris Hofstader about disability advocacy groups (in particular, the National Federation of the Blind) and how they treat corporations:
It isn’t just ebay: Hofstader points out that the NFB has been harshly critical of Apple (a company that has done a great deal to promote accessibility) while promoting Google’s Android (which, per Hofstader, has poor accessibility).
I’ve been seeing a lot of promotion of something called “Kony 2012”, which appears to be tied to a campaign by a charity called “Invisible Children” targeting Joseph Kony and his “Lord’s Resistance Army” in Uganda. From what I can tell, Kony is a scumbag who recruits children to fight his battle against the Ugandan army. I think he deserves to be killed; and apparently, we (that is, the United States military) have sent forces to kill him in the past. But the whole “Kony 2012” campaign seems to be, from what the supporters state, about raising money and “awareness”. As far as “awareness” goes, what good is that going to do? As far as money, money for what? Hiring mercenaries to kill Kony?
“Kony 2012” may be a worthwhile cause. But before you jump on the bandwagon, I’d like to suggest that you read the “Visible Children” Tumblr blog, which offers an alternative and skeptical take on the cause. (I will point out one problem with Grant Oyston’s entry: Invisible Children currently has three stars on Charity Navigator, not two Edited to add: I misread Oyston: IC has three stars overall, but he is correct in stating that they only have two stars in the specific subcategory of “Accountability & Transparency”.)
TMQ watch: March 6, 2012.
March 7th, 2012TMQ generally does not publish outside of the NFL regular season (though Easterbrook does do a couple of columns around draft time). But as soon as the Saints scandal broke, we were expecting TMQ to say something, because:
- Gregg Easterbrook has been out in front about player safety issues in the NFL, especially concussions.
- The scandal intimately involves the man TMQ refers to as “the tastefully named Gregg Williams”.
We’ve been watching Page 2 for a couple of days now, but oddly, the first notice we had that Easterbrook’s commentary was up came by way of Pope Jim the First on his Twitter feed. We’ll get to that in a moment. Let’s get started with this special edition of TMQ:
Pi Day 2012 is coming!
March 7th, 2012We are one week out!
Can you feel the excitement? I said, “Can you feel the excitement?”
Just to get everyone pumped up, I’ve added the awesome Wolfram Alpha “Digits of Pi” calculator to my sidebar. No, no, don’t thank me: I’m here to help.
Obit watch: March 7, 2012.
March 7th, 2012William Heirens, Chicago’s “Lipstick Killer”, has passed away at 83, after spending 65 years in prison.
Heirens was also convicted of killing a six-year-old girl, Suzanne Degnan. He was arrested while committing a burglary in the girl’s neighborhood, and the police claimed his fingerprints were on a ransom note left at the scene of the Degnan kidnapping. While in custody, he allegedly confessed to the Degnan, Ross, and Brown murders, and pled guilty in order to get three life sentences rather than the death penalty.
Obit watch: March 6, 2012.
March 6th, 2012I did not know Dr. Duvall; I was sent this obit by a family member. But Dr. Duvall sounds like someone I would very much enjoyed knowing, and taking classes from.
(I do wonder how much overlap there is in the Venn diagram of “English professors” and “Marines”. I also wonder how many of the people who fit in both categories teach at W&L.)
“N” is for New Yorker.
March 6th, 2012Hey, remember A.G. Sulzberger? We wrote about him, and his struggle to find vegetarian food in Kansas City, back in January.
Well, according to Jimbo (actually, Jimbo is linking to a report on another website that I have a policy of not linking to), he’s leaving Kansas City and going back to New York “to work on the Metro desk”.
Boy, that was quick.
Art, damn it, art! watch (#27 in a series)
March 6th, 2012There’s a market in everything. But did you know there was a substantial market in paintings of dogs?
There’s even a dog painting specific auction (which takes place after the Westminster Dog Show, and where the above sales took place) and a dog painting specific gallery in Manhattan. (That’s one thing I love about New York; say what you will about the city, but no matter how esoteric and specific your interest is, there’s almost certainly a store in the city catering specifically to it.)
Cutting off the punchlines…
And in case you were wondering, Lawrence, Labradors and golden retrievers are apparently the most popular dog painting subjects today. Personally, I’m wondering how anyone gets a golden retriever to sit still long enough for a painting, but perhaps that’s just me.
Maybe I should change the name of this blog to “Random Crap Clearinghouse”.
March 6th, 2012Mike the Musicologist and I were exchanging emails last night about Highlight, the latest “social” application
designed to help you connect with people you don’t know just yet: your Facebook friends of friends.
I observed at the time that what used to be considered creepy stalkerish behavior now had an app for it, and that there was probably a blog post in that. It turns out that, yes, there was a blog post in that – and Tam beat me to it. (Stupid Capstone class. Grumble. Grumble.)
It has been one year since Prakashanand Saraswati disappeared, ahead of his sentencing on charges of indecency with a minor. How close are we to catching him? It looks like law enforcement thinks he’s in Baja, and that he’s running out of funds. Plus, we’re talking about an 82-year-old guy in a wheelchair…
The NYT reports from Whiteclay, Nebraska. You may remember Whiteclay as the wide spot in the road near the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation where beer is sold, leading the Oglala Sioux tribe to file a lawsuit against various parties (including the Whiteclay stores and several brewing companies).
At some point, I need to write a longer and more thoughtful post about this issue. I can almost understand what the goals of the Sioux are, given how hard the reservation has been hit by drinking. At the same time, the Libertarian side of me says “Look, this paternalistic, Prohibition-driven approach to the problem clearly is not working. Maybe you need to find another approach.”
(And I wonder: if the Whiteclay stores stop selling beer, how long will it be before folks start brewing their own beer on the reservation? I’d be shocked to find out it isn’t happening already.)
Edited to add: Oops. Forgot something. “Terra Nova” is dead, and I’m delighted. But what will TMQ have to kick around next season?
More on the Kerry Max Cook case.
March 5th, 2012I went around and around about posting this, because I was worried about spoiling the broth boring my readers. But I think this is worth noting.
Over the weekend, David Hanners, the Dallas Morning News reporter who did the early coverage of the Cook case, posted a long comment in response to Michael Hall’s post, “What the ‘Tyler Morning Telegraph’ Failed to Tell You about Kerry Max Cook”. The Texas Monthly blog promoted that comment to a full post (in the process cleaning up the formatting so it is more readable): that post is here.
Summarizing, Hanners also has issues with the daily paper’s coverage of the case, and doesn’t believe Cook is guilty.
Hanners also mentions a couple of things about the police investigation that I didn’t know, and are frankly shocking. The police apparently did not interview the victim’s co-workers until they complained, then “the detectives went out to the school and basically waited for people to come to them—in full view of Mr. Mayfield. [the other suspect in the case -DB]”
Then there’s the missing stocking. Police initially found just one sock at the crime scene. The prosecution claimed that the killer mutilated Linda Edwards body, and took body parts away from the crime scene in one of her stockings. Apparently, there were no body parts taken…
And, now that there’s DNA pointing to someone else…
Your “Spider-Man” update for March 5, 2012.
March 5th, 2012Just in case you haven’t had your fill yet, Patrick Healy in the NYT covers the latest filing in Julie Taymor’s court case.
Healy links to the actual filing, but unfortunately that link is blocked at my office, so I haven’t been able to read all of the emails Taymor submitted. Healy quotes some interesting bits; for example
Of course, these are carefully selected emails representing one side of a lawsuit, and should be taken in that context.
What’s My Betting Line?
March 2nd, 2012This is to publicly document that I’ve bet Lawrence $5 that the Chicago Cubs will win the World Series this year.