“The Falcons are, in every way, the Epic Fails.”
Someone would like a word with Gregg Easterbrook. (Sorry, Infidel.)
All this and more in this week’s TMQ, after the jump…
TMQ Watch: October 24, 2017.
October 25th, 2017Obit watch: October 25, 2017.
October 25th, 2017Man, what a career.
I’d love to see that. I’m sure it exists…in an archive…somewhere in New York City…
Fizzle.
October 23rd, 2017Travis County prosecutors dropped all of the remaining charges against longtime state Rep. Dawnna Dukes on Monday, court filings show.
I expect longer, more detailed stories tomorrow morning. In the meantime, quoted without comment:
Obit watch: October 23, 2017.
October 23rd, 2017Federico Luppi, noted Argentinian actor.
He was also the lead in Guillermo del Toro’s “Cronos” (which I have seen) and is in “The Devil’s Backbone” and “Pan’s Labyrinth”. (I have not seen the latter two, but “Devil’s Backbone” is scheduled for this Saturday.)
Yeah, having seen “Cronos”, describing Luppi’s character as “monstrous” is more than a bit of a stretch. Especially compared to Ron Perlman’s character. Further deponent sayeth not, because spoilers.
Edited to add:
Mr. Luppi played a sympathetic vampire in 'Cronos,' Guillermo del Toro's directorial debut https://t.co/CwepUsckq8
— NYT Obituaries (@NYTObits) October 23, 2017
NYT writers, meet the NYT Twitter feed. Hope you guys get along.
Your loser update: week 7, 2017.
October 23rd, 2017Apologies for this being later than usual, but I was waiting for a couple of things to come together.
NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Cleveland
San Francisco
How about that titanic battle of the Browns/Titans offenses, eh? I was actually a little worried there.
And the NBA regular season has fired up, so you know what that means:
NBA teams that still have a chance to go 0-82:
New York Knicks
Chicago
Philadelphia
Dallas
Phoenix
And it is pretty early in the season, but we already have our first firing: Earl Watson out as coach in Phoenix.
He was 33-85 over “two plus” seasons.
On the importance of having a good backup strategy.
October 19th, 2017I’m shocked that Borepatch and ASM826 aren’t on this like flies on a severed cow’s head at a Damien Hirst exhibition. But apparently it falls to me, as the ex-backup guy.
A non-profit organization in NYC called Bronx Defenders wants to study the NYPD’s asset forfeiture records. They filed a request for this information (under New York’s Freedom of Information law) in 2014, and litigation is ongoing.
The latest revelation? Not only is the NYPD saying they don’t have the technical capability to pull the data Bronx Defenders wants…
More from Ars Technica:
…
Adding to this, the NYPD now actually disputes that the PETS database runs on DB2:
Okay. So it doesn’t run on DB2. What the frack does it run on, and why are there still no backups?
(It looks to me like both Backup Exec and Commvault have DB2 agents. But I’ve been out of the business for a while, and can’t tell if those have been deprecated.)
Edited to add: Now the NYPD is saying that PETS is backed up:
Which, I guess, is good for the NYPD. But as Ars points out, it isn’t consistent with the statement in court that there are no backups of the forfeiture database, unless that database isn’t stored in PETS after all. That seems like the more likely explanation, but it raises the questions: where is it stored, why isn’t it backed up, and why is the NYPD so secretive about those first two questions?
Promoted.
October 19th, 2017By way of great and good friend of the blog Joe D, in the comments: a record store owner in Michigan decided to pull a prank on his customers and make them think he only had one album in stock.
And what album was that?
You’ll have to click through to find out, though I will give a hint: it was one that is thematically appropriate for this blog.
Firings watch.
October 19th, 2017Tom Jurich, athletic director at Louisville, was officially fired yesterday.
He joins Rick Pitino, who was officially fired “for cause” on Monday.
Mr. Pitino, of course, denies that he knew anything about payments to athletes. Even better: he’s suing Adidas. The discovery process in that lawsuit should be interesting.
In other news, another APD officer has been fired. Interestingly, his firing was for “insubordination”: specifically, he didn’t show up for interviews with Internal Affairs.
And why was he being interviewed by IA? He’s been charged with making false statements about his wife and her eligibility to receive SSI. (Previouly.)
According to the Statesman, he and his lawyer said they wouldn’t do interviews with IA until the criminal case was resolved. The rules say: you can’t do that. You have to come in and answer IA questions, or you get canned. Whatever information IA gets can’t be used against you in a criminal case; it can only be used for internal discipline. (This is why officers are required to submit to IA questioning. This is also why some things, like officer-involved shootings, are investigated both by IA and the Special Investigations Unit: SIU handles any possible criminal aspect of the case, can seek charges if warranted, and the subject has the standard legal protections. IA investigates internally: the union contract says officers have to answer IA questions, but any information gathered can’t be used to build a criminal case.)
Anyway, IA said “this won’t be used in the criminal case”, the lawyer apparently said, “okay”, and they still didn’t show up. Twice. Which makes it “you’re fired, do not pass ‘Go’, do not collect $200” territory.
TMQ Watch: October 17, 2017.
October 18th, 2017Every once in a while, instead of being all snarky and stuff, we like to ask you to go out and read something else on the Internet that we think is interesting or important or both.
“the depression thing” by Zach Holman.
Therapy basically got me rubber duck debugging myself. Even when I’m not programming I’m fucking programming, I can’t get away from it, ha. But it’s true: the mere notion that I’d have to discuss my life with someone else later meant that I became far better at self-analysis than I ever had been.
That was one of the many neat realizations I had during this whole experience. Therapy tricks you into becoming better at therapy.
After the jump, this week’s TMQ…
Your loser update: week 6, 2017.
October 15th, 2017NFL teams that still have a chance to go 0-16:
Cleveland
San Francisco
What the heck, Denver? You had one job.
At least I don’t have to feel that bad for Infidel de Manhatta: it doesn’t look like the Giants will get that first draft pick, but maybe they’ll end up getting a relatively high one.
I still like Cleveland’s chances.
From the legal beat.
October 12th, 2017Two quick notes:
1) Remember our old friends Detective Jeff Payne and Lt. James Tracy? The guys who arrested a nurse for refusing to let them draw blood from an unconscious patient without a warrant?
Detective Payne has been fired. Lt. Tracy has been demoted to “police officer III”.
“In examining your conduct,” Brown wrote to Payne, “I am deeply troubled by your lack of sound professional judgment and your discourteous, disrespectful, and unwarranted behavior, which unnecessarily escalated a situation that could and should have been resolved in a manner far different from the course of action you chose to pursue.”
Brown was similarly critical of Tracy, saying his lack of judgment and leadership was “unacceptable,” and, “as a result, I no longer believe that you can retain a leadership position in the Department.”
Both men have five days to appeal the decision. The criminal investigation into their actions is ongoing.
(Hattip: Reason‘s “Hit and Run”, and Patrick Nonwhite on the Twitters.)
2) The Travis County DA has dropped one of the 13 felony charges against Dawnna Dukes.
Apparently, one of the analysts with the Texas DPS crime lab “examined the wrong date” when looking at Ms. Dukes’s travel activity, leading to “a felony count that erroneously stated Dukes turned in a falsified voucher for Dec. 22, 2013.”
The touch.
October 12th, 2017Once again, I’m asking you to help somebody out.
Great and good friend of the blog, and founder of Operation Blazing Sword, Erin Palette, was pretty seriously injured Tuesday night. Erin is recovering at home, but has expenses and will probably have more.
You guys know the drill: tomorrow’s payday, and I plan to donate as soon as the direct deposit shows up. I won’t ask you to give to a cause I won’t give to.
Quote of the day.
October 12th, 2017Firings watch.
October 11th, 2017John Farrell out as GM of the Boston Red Sox.
Gary Andersen “mutually parted ways” (read: you can’t fire me, I quit) with Oregon State on Monday. Anderson and Oregon State:
Which is noteworthy, because:
TMQ Watch: October 10, 2017.
October 11th, 2017Yes, we’re late. We got tied up on Tuesday.
But, in our defense, TMQ isn’t timely this week either.
After the jump, 2,000 words, no pictures (except the header), and one subject in this week’s TMQ…