Am I crazy?

March 14th, 2014

I know, I know, but seriously: am I crazy?

John Gruber linked to an interview with “The Setup” (“What do people use to get stuff done?”) by John McAfee. Yes, that John McAfee.

In the photo, it looks like he’s holding one of those GSG MP-5 clones in .22 LR. I’ll admit I could be wrong about that: it may be one of the Umarex guns instead, but I am 99 44/100ths percent sure it is one of those two .22LR clones. (The magazine is a dead giveaway.)

Quoth Mr. McAfee:

My tools for national security consulting are primarily a semi-auto .22 rifle with a silencer. They are virtually completely silent and can pierce car doors and other light armor. They are perfect for urban environments.

I will confess that I have not had a lot of occasion in my life to shoot through car doors. After all, I am not a tactical operator operating tactically in operations with tactics.

But a silenced .22 penetrating one? Yeah, I’m sorry. I’m going to have to see the Box of Truth or somebody shoot through a car door with a silenced .22 before I believe that.

Posted in Clippings, Geek, Guns | Comments Closed

Happy Pi Day, everyone!

March 14th, 2014

I’ve been messing around a little with QuickPi 4.5 on my free time at work; that’s a fun little program.

And here’s a Pi Day article from the LAT which includes complaints from the usual bunch of whiners who think pi should be replaced by tau. I bet these same people think Pluto isn’t a planet.

These people are why we can’t have nice things any longer.

Edited to add: So apparently, Tau Day is June 28th. Interesting. You know what else June 28th is? That’s right: Gavrilo Princip Day!

Edited to add 2:

o Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3740QM CPU @ 2.70GHz detected
o Processor speed measured at 2.70 GHz
o Single processor with eight cores and 2-way SMT per core
o 4.0 GB of memory available
o Using custom training data

Computation of Pi to 1,073,741,824 digits
Method used : Chudnovsky
Started : Fri Mar 14 10:07:24 2014

Series size : 75713477 (1,073,741,838 digits)
Computing series, time : 2144.09
Computing final value, time : 397.05

Total time : 2541.15 seconds (42 mins, 21.15 secs)
Total memory used : 4,259,072,015 (3.97 GB)

Total disk space used : 3,319,660,544 (3.09 GB)
Time spent swapping : 198.01 (153.65 reading, 44.36 writing)

Processor utilization : 274.33%

Posted in Clippings, Geek | Comments Closed

Howard Waldrop, call your office, please.

March 12th, 2014

By way of Popehat on the Twitter, NPR’s counterfactual series, “What If World War I Had Never Happened?”

“Do you think Sarajevo is full of assassins?” I can’t lie; this made me smile, as did “a very Austro-Hungarian problem” and “Is this how you greet visitors, by throwing bombs at them?”

(See also. Also, I have to admit to some curiosity; what kind of sandwich?)

Edited to add: Well. Well well well. Well.

Also, wouldn’t “Gavrilo Princip’s Sandwich” be a great name for a band?

Posted in History, Radio | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: March 11, 2014.

March 11th, 2014

Joe “Fatal Vision” McGinniss.

Edited to add: LAT obit. Not sure why I didn’t link this one this morning; I want to say that the obit I saw when I was doing my morning rounds was a crappy AP one.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Law, Obits | Comments Closed

Yet another legal update.

March 8th, 2014

Last June, I wrote about the Samuel Kellner case. Summarizing briefly, Mr. Kellner believed his son had been molested by a Hasidic cantor. He collected evidence and managed to get the cantor charged with and convicted of sexual abuse: however, the cantor’s conviction was later overturned, and Mr. Kellner was charged with extortion and bribery.

Yesterday, a judge dismissed all of the charges against Mr. Kellner at the request of the prosecution.

The two key witnesses against him “lack credibility to such a degree that their testimony cannot be trusted,” an assistant district attorney, Kevin O’Donnell, told the court, adding, “The people do not have a credible case.”

Obviously, I wasn’t there, and only know what I’ve read in the NYT. But this smells a lot like a failed attempt at revenge by the cantor’s supporters, possibly with help from the Brooklyn DA’s office.

Last summer, another key piece of evidence against Mr. Kellner fell away. Prosecutors learned that the young man who said Mr. Kellner had paid him to lie had been getting financial assistance from Mr. Lebovits’s supporters.

And:

Shortly after Charles J. Hynes was voted out as district attorney in November, two of his prosecutors called Mr. Kellner’s lawyers to tell them that they lacked evidence to proceed. They were demoted.

Posted in Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

Discuss amongst yourselves.

March 7th, 2014

Kraftwerk’s “Trans Europe Express” is the most important pop album of the last 40 years, though it may not be obvious.

Posted in Clippings, Music | Comments Closed

Rock rock baby baby.

March 7th, 2014

Not much going on, but I wanted to drop this in.

The head of the U.S. Border Patrol announced new rules Friday to limit agents from shooting at moving vehicles or people throwing rocks or other objects at agents, reversing a controversial policy that has led to at least 19 deaths.

And this:

1a) Never throw shit at an armed man.
1b) Never stand next to someone who is throwing shit at an armed man.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Cops, Law | Comments Closed

Legal update.

March 6th, 2014

I have written several times in the past about the case of Robert Middleton, who was set on fire by a neighbor boy when he was eight years old and died of cancer (possibly related to skin grafts) when he was 20.

Latest update: a judge has ruled that Donald Collins, who set Middleton on fire (and who was 13 at the time) can be tried as an adult for murdering Middleton.

Montgomery County Attorney J.D. Lambright called the ruling a “tremendous victory” for the Middleton family. He said the prosecution will now be turned over to the county District Attorney’s Office, which will try to indict Collins for murder. Lambright’s office is responsible for matters involving juveniles.

It is worth pointing out here that Collins has not actually been charged yet, as Lambright notes. The DA has some hurdles to overcome, since Middleton is dead, and there were no other witnesses to the attack. And if Collins is convicted, his attorney can appeal both the conviction and the ruling allowing Collins to be tried as an adult.

Posted in Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

Obit watch: March 5, 2014.

March 5th, 2014

Noted French film director Alain Resnais. LAT. NYT.

Dr. Sherwin B. Nuland, perhaps most famous for his book How We Die. I haven’t read that, but I did read (and was extremely impressed by) Doctors: The Biography of Medicine.

Posted in Books, Clippings, Movies, Obits | Comments Closed

The Island of Mayor Moreau.

March 1st, 2014

That would be Charles D. Moreau, the former mayor of the bankrupt city of Central Falls, RI.

Former mayor Moreau is out of prison now after serving one year. (Previously.)

What’s interesting about this is how his release went down. Mayor Moreau originally pled guilty to a charge of taking “illegal gratuities” from a “friend and political supporter” who was given a contract to board up abandoned buildings.

However, a federal appeals court apparently ruled sometime last year that “accepting gratuities” was not a crime. No, really, I’m not making this up:

…in 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit found in an unrelated case that it is not a crime for a government official to accept gratuities. A gratuity is a reward for a future or past act, as opposed to a bribe, which is a quid pro quo meant to influence an official.

So Moreau’s people moved to have his conviction thrown out, the prosecution said “Let’s make a deal”…and Moreau got the “accepting gratuities” conviction thrown out, and then pled gulity to a bribery charge.

Yep. You read that right. Why would he do that? Because the sentence on the bribery charge was basically “time served” (see below) so he got to walk away a more-or-less free man, and the prosecution got to chalk up a felony win.

Other penalties from his previous conviction stand, as a result of Moreau agreeing to plead guilty to bribery. That includes the $25,000 fine, which has been paid, three years’ probation and 300 hours of community service that must “redress the harm caused by the defendant’s criminal conduct in Central Falls.”

I think the key takeaways here are: try the veal at Joe Marzilli’s Old Canteen, and remember to tip your government official.

Posted in Clippings, Law, Rhode Island | Comments Closed

You know what China needs?

March 1st, 2014

Strict knife control.

A group of knife-wielding men attacked a train station in southwestern China on Saturday, leaving at least 27 people dead and another 109 injured, the official Xinhua News Agency said, making it one of the deadliest attacks in China in recent years.

Posted in Clippings, Guns | Comments Closed

Free Bubble-Up.

February 28th, 2014

Preservationists are raising money to buy, restore and move the boxcar to the Kern County Museum in nearby Bakersfield, which is just under a two-hour drive from Los Angeles.

You may be wondering why this boxcar is so important to preservationists. After all, aren’t there plenty of boxcars in the world?

Yes. But this isn’t just any boxcar: this is Merle Haggard’s childhood home.

Though the house was intended to be temporary, the remodeling was a family effort: James Haggard added a pop-out dining area, a wash house and a hand-poured concrete bathtub and front steps; his wife, Flossie, planted fruit trees, climbing roses and a backyard grape arbor, drying raisins for pies on the roof.

I wanted to drop some Haggard into this post, but I had a lot of trouble finding a performance of “Rainbow Stew” or “Fighting Side of Me” on YouTube that allowed embedding. So how about this: Merle Haggard in 1978 on “Austin City Limits”.

Posted in Clippings, Museums, Music | Comments Closed

Banana republicans watch: February 27, 2014.

February 27th, 2014

Somebody has been looking very closely at California police departments.

Five San Francisco police officers and a former officer have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges including extortion, dealing drugs, stealing computers and other property from suspects and searching residential hotels without legal justification.

The criminal indictments appear to be a result of this series of events:

Officers Arshad Razzak, 41, Richard Yick, 36, and Raul Eric Elias, 44, all formerly assigned to the Southern police station at the city’s Hall of Justice, are accused of conspiring to threaten and intimidate residents of single-room occupancy hotel rooms by entering them without legal justification by using a master key.

Razzak and Yick are also accused of falsifying incident reports.

Sgt. Ian Furminger, 47, Officer Edmond Robles, 46, and former Officer Reynaldo Vargas, 45, of Palm Desert, engaged in “multiple criminal conspiracies,” including dealing marijuana, stealing money, a $500 Apple gift card, and other items from suspects, and stealing money, drugs and other valuable items that were seized on behalf of the city, the indictment said.

Other high points:

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Cops, Law | Comments Closed

Leadership Secrets of Non-Fictional Characters (part 11 in a series)

February 26th, 2014

“He was always such an a—— to people working for him,” one insider says of the bombastic Brit. Morgan’s last show is likely to be this week, but no specific date has been set. We hear it was low ratings and a bad attitude that killed it, and the decision was made by network boss Jeff Zucker. “The makeup girls suffered the worst — he was rude and belligerent,” says our source. “The general feeling is Morgan didn’t show any respect to anyone working under him — the people who were trying to make him look good.”

Yes, this is a gossip column in a NYC paper. As much as I dislike Piers Morgan (and hope he spends time in prison for phone hacking), I would recommend taking the report itself with a grain of salt.

It does, however, give me an opportunity to make a point.

I don’t remember who originated this quote: I want to say it is a Dave Barry-ism, but I could very well be wrong.

Anyway: “If someone is nice to you, but rude to the waitress, they are not a nice person.”

Posted in Clippings, Leadership, Media | Comments Closed

You come at the King (City), you best not miss.

February 26th, 2014

The LAT has a second-day story on the King City PD arrests, noted in this space yesterday.

There are several interesting new aspects to the story:

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Cops, Guns, Law, Media | Comments Closed

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