The rock arrived safely at LACMA.
And the LAT has collected a bunch (but I don’t think all) of their coverage here. Just in case you want to relive the story from the beginning.
Next phase, new wave, dance craze, anyways…
March 12th, 2012Burn it to the ground and start over. (Part 3)
March 12th, 2012It is possible, according to the linked article, that thousands of drunk driving convictions may be thrown out because the equipment wasn’t properly tested. I wonder if those people are going to get retroactive refunds on their auto insurance premiums?
How and why did this happen?
“just too lazy”.
You may remember, about a year ago, the SFPD had problems with undercover officers lying on reports (among other things), and had to drop charges in dozens of drug arrests. If you don’t, the link above should serve as a reminder.
(Hattip: Insta.)
All these planets are yours except Mars. Attempt no movies there, Disney.
March 12th, 2012Now that Lawrence has actually seen the movie and he and Howard have written their review, I feel free to post “John Carter” related content. For example, this NYT article, headlined “‘Ishtar’ Lands on Mars”.
And:
Sorry, that just makes me giggle.
Now that the bracket is out…
March 12th, 2012…I still don’t care about college basketball.
But I am picking Gonzaga to go all the way, again, just because I like saying “Gonzaga”. Try it yourself.
(Actually, I’ve seen some speculation on ESPN that this might just be Gonzaga’s year.)
Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of gambling.
March 9th, 2012I don’t know why, but I find this NYT story sort of mordantly amusing.
Basically, greyhound racing tracks in places like Iowa and Florida saw business declining. So they wanted to add things like slot machines and poker tables, in addition to greyhound races. The states said, “Sure! But the money from slots and poker has to go to subsidizing greyhound racing!”
Well, now greyhound racing is all but dead, and the track owners want to shut down the races while keeping their slots and poker. What makes this kind of amusing is that the track owners are aligning themselves with animal rights groups who think greyhound racing is cruel, and the greyhound racers resent being used as a tool for the expansion of unrelated forms of gambling.
How bad have things gotten?
That’s an average of $159 (roughly) per person. And I do wonder what day of the week that was; it seems odd that the NYT wouldn’t mention if it was a weekend or weekday, or how many races Bluffs Run has daily.
Rock, rock, baby, baby.
March 9th, 2012The 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.
Yo 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.