Missed this previously, but Mike the Musicologist pinged it over to me.
Patrick Wojahn, the former mayor of College Park, Maryland, took a guilty plea.
Sentencing is scheduled for November 20th, per the article.
Quick hyena update.
August 22nd, 2023Obit watch: August 22, 2023.
August 22nd, 2023NYT obit for Inga Swenson, for the record. (Previously.)
John Devitt, Australian swimmer who won two gold medals in the 1960 Olympics…and there’s a story behind that.
...beyond Australia he may be best remembered for his part in the finish of the 100-meter freestyle final in Rome, one of the more freakish moments in sports history. It led to an overhaul of the way the placings and times for swimming races were decided, with electronic timers and photos replacing judgment calls.
Devitt, at 23 and a lean 6-foot-1 in 1960, was captain of the Australian men’s swimming team for the second consecutive Olympics and the race favorite. One opponent was Lance Larson of Monterey Park, Calif., a 20-year-old sophomore at the University of Southern California.
In the eight-man final, Devitt was clearly ahead until the last 20 meters, when Larson, in an adjoining lane, caught up to him. They touched the finish wall almost together, with Larson seemingly slightly ahead. Each congratulated the other, and they then both waited for the official results. The wait was excruciating — almost 10 minutes.
In that era, the rules called for three judges to choose first place, three other judges to choose second, and three others to choose third. Each lane had three timekeepers, but their timing, by hand, was almost incidental in determining who finished where. There was no starting beep or automatic touch pads or accepted electronic timing or replays, as there are in major swimming competitions today.
When the judges were polled after the race, the results were unusual. Two of the three first-place judges had picked Devitt as the winner, and one had picked Larson. Two of the second-place judges had picked Devitt for second, and one had picked Larson. The three timekeepers for Devitt’s lane had all timed him in 55.2 seconds. The three in Larson’s lane had timed the American in 55.0, 55.1 and 55.1.
And a newly introduced automatic timing machine — which was started electronically but stopped manually, and which was to be consulted only when judges were tied, as they were in Rome — had Larson in 55.10 seconds and Devitt in 55.16.
It seemed obvious that Larson had won — until the chief judge, Hans Runstromer of Germany, interceded and voted for Devitt.
American officials protested the decision to the jury of appeals, saying the rules did not give the chief judge a vote. Runstromer disagreed. Besides, he said, he had been standing on the finish line and had seen the whole thing. A Sports Illustrated photograph, however, showed that he was 25 yards away at the time and had viewed the finish at an angle.
The appeal failed. The Americans appealed three times more in the next four years and lost every time. As Larson said, “It was a bad deal.”
…
In 2009, a paper in the journal Physical Culture and Sport: Studies and Research concluded that “Runstromer’s decision undoubtedly sanctioned untruth.”
In other words, the study said, Larson had won.
Since the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, all international swim races have been timed electronically.
John Warnock, co-creator of Postscript and co-founder of Adobe.
Maxie Baughan, linebacker.
He came in second in the league’s United Press International rookie of the year balloting and was named to his first of five Pro Bowl selections with the Eagles.
After a trade to the Los Angeles Rams in 1966, Baughan picked up where he had left off. The Rams’ coach George Allen named him the team’s defensive captain and signal caller. Behind the quarterback Roman Gabriel, the Rams reached the divisional round of the playoffs twice over the next five years, with Baughan cleaning up on defense behind the team’s heralded defensive line, known as the Fearsome Foursome, starring Deacon Jones, Lamar Lundy, Rosey Greer and Merlin Olsen.
He would notch four more Pro Bowl appearances during his Rams tenure, adding to an N.F.L. résumé that also included five years as a second-team All-Pro and one as a first-teamer.
Reggie Chaney, former forward for the University of Houston basketball team. He was 23.
Bagatelle (#93)
August 21st, 2023Brief police beat news.
August 21st, 2023Austin Police chief Joseph Chacon is stepping down and retiring from APD after two years as chief.
I really don’t have anything much to say about this: Chief Chacon didn’t do anything in his time to really rise to my attention, either positively or negatively. There are things to be said about poor police response time, ongoing issues with the homeless, and other things going on within the department. But I feel like many of those issues are the results of poor decision making by our city government, and were out of Chief Chacon’s control.
I wish him well in his next endeavors, and I think a Fist Rockbone Brian Manley for mayor/Joseph Chacon for city council ticket would be a fantastic idea.
Obit watch: August 21, 2023.
August 21st, 2023Ron Cephas Jones, actor. THR. Other credits include “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”, “Law & Order: Organized Crime”, and “NYPD Blue”.
Chris Peluso, theater actor.
Randy Minniear, former running back for the New York Football Giants.
After playing fullback at Purdue, he was selected by the Giants in the 20th round of the 1966 NFL Draft and would first play in 1967, when Earl Morrall was the quarterback.
“They rate him as the greatest backup quarterback of all time,” Minniear told the Thursday Night Tailgate podcast in 2021. “And that’s one of the things they say about me. I was the greatest benchwarmer of all time. I will tell you this, while I was down there on the end of the bench by the water bucket not one was stolen in five years.”
“The Peripheral” and “A League Of Their Own” at Amazon Prime. Both of these shows had been renewed for a second season (though “ALOTO” had only been given a four-episode run) but Amazon is apparently re-evaluating their plans in light of the strike.
I don’t care much about the baseball show. I was slightly interested in “The Peripheral” because Big Bill Gibson. But I haven’t watched any of the episodes, and am kind of thinking maybe I should read the book first.
Short movie snack.
August 21st, 2023Remember that movie from back in March? The one that I won’t even name, because the trailer sent me into a state of apoplectic rage?
It opened this weekend…
…and finished fifth at the box office, having been beaten by “Blue Beetle” (a movie about a minor tier DC superhero), “Barbie”, “Oppenheimer”, and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem”.
Heh. Heh. Heh.
Wikipedia cites the estimated budget for this pile of crap at $46 million, which means it needs to gross $92 to $138 million to break even. With an opening in fifth place, I’m thinking this is going to turn out to be one of this year’s biggest dogs, and I remain hopeful this will destroy the careers of everyone involved.
Obit watch: August 18, 2023.
August 18th, 2023I haven’t done any obits for the past few days, for reasons I don’t want to go into here.
But a few people have sent me some, and it would be rude not to acknowledge them.
Sir Michael Parkinson, British talk show host. (Hattip: Lawrence.)
Darren Kent, actor. IMDB. Other credits include “EastEnders”, “Les Misérables” (the TV series), and “C.O.O.L.I.O Time Travel Gangster”. (Hattip: Lawrence.)
Paul Brodeur, longtime New Yorker writer.
Mr. Brodeur also reported on the possible dangers of radiation from microwave ovens, computer terminals and electromagnetic power lines. But this reporting was not as widely accepted as his work on asbestos and CFCs.
In 1997, the National Academy of Sciences found little to no evidence of any risk from power-line radiation. Other studies have been far from conclusive. (Mr. Brodeur noted, however, that the World Health Organization classified microwave radiation from cellphones to be a possible carcinogen.)
James L. Buckley, former Senator from New York (and brother of William F. Buckley Jr.).
Random gun crankery bookmark.
August 18th, 2023I wanted to quickly bookmark this article from the American Handgunner website, even though it is basically an advertisement for an upcoming Rock Island Auctions event.
It provides a useful introduction to a couple of this blog’s ongoing obsessions:
- The Smith and Wesson Registered Magnum
- Ed McGivern
You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyena! (#108 in a series)
August 18th, 2023One of last year’s big flaming hyena stories was about Harry Sidhu, the mayor of Anaheim, who resigned over land deals with the Los Angeles Angels (and his “illegal registration of a helicopter“).
I kind of lost track of this story because California newspapers. But thanks to the Field of Schemes blog, I found out: former mayor Sidhu is taking a guilty plea.
…
…
Really, seriously, just shut the f**k up.
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…
Remember, my people: the coverup is almost always worse than the actual crime.
Even more hoplobibliophila, plus previews of coming attractions.
August 17th, 2023First, a preview of something that I hope to post very soon.
You may remember a while back – April of 2022, as a matter of fact – I said I was special ordering a gun from my local gun shop for Buy a Gun Day.
It came in…on August 3rd. Yes, this year. I actually waited longer for this than Someone Who Isn’t Me expects to wait for their Form 4 item. (Don’t ask. I will not be taking questions at this time.) Not that I blame my local gun shop for this. As I understand it, there are reasons for the delay related to the manufacturer. All will be revealed soon, I hope.
In the meantime, let no man say that I am not PC.
After the jump, some more gun books for my loyal reader…
TMQ Watch watch.
August 15th, 2023Gregg Easterbrook posted a new Tuesday Morning Quarterback on August 1st. We missed it because we were preparing for our trip.
What does he have to say?
Well, that sounds ominous.
Doing a copy and paste into Word as plain text gets us a word count of 4,210 words. That doesn’t seem too bad by the standards of previous TMQs, but this is a “preview”, not a regular season column.
And here’s the nut graph:
The Gun Book Club.
August 14th, 2023Would you believe I actually got to engage in a little bit of recoil therapy this weekend? Thanks to KR Training for letting us use their range after the class, and thanks to Greg Ellifritz for putting on a great class: “The Explosive Threat: Recognizing, Detecting, and Neutralizing the Terrorist Bomber”.
I didn’t do a lot of shooting because it was hotter than the hinges of Hell, and we didn’t have a lot of time before our dinner engagement. But I did manage to function check a couple of carry guns, and am reasonably satisfied with their performance.
I finished Ammunition, Demystified: The (non) Bubba’s Guide to How Ammo Really Works on my trip. My opinion hasn’t changed. I absolutely do recommend it. But you should be aware that there’s some pretty heavy duty math in the book. I think most folks could probably benefit from it even if times tables give them a headache. My only other issue with the book came when Mr. Siewert discussed some ballistic work he did back in the day with a company that was making air rifle pellets. My issue? “Where were you when I was a teenager, Mr. Siewert?”
And now for some more gun books from the stack…
DEFCON 31 notes, part 3.
August 14th, 2023There’s a story in The Register about the Johannes Willbold “Houston, We Have a Problem: Analyzing the Security of Low Earth Orbit Satellites” presentation at Black Hat.
But I’m not going to link it. Instead, I’m going to link the Hacker News discussion of the story, which I think is more interesting (and contains a link to the story itself).
There was a suspicious package discovered on Saturday night, and DEFCON was evacuated until it was dealt with. There’s a lot of speculation floating around that I don’t want to link to, so I’m only providing the official statement.
Here’s a really detailed and clear write-up of “A Pain in the NAS: Exploiting Cloud Connectivity to PWN Your NAS”.
And here’s more on “All Cops Are Broadcasting: Breaking TETRA After Decades in the Shadows”, including the team’s paper for the USENIX Security Symposium.
I know I pointed folks to the media server the other day for preliminary presentation slides, but I want to call this presentation out specifically: “Private Keys in Public Places”.
Obit watch: August 14, 2023.
August 14th, 2023Shelley Smith, actress. Other credits include the 1989 “Dragnet” revival, “Magnum P.I.” (the original), and “Cover Up“.
Linda Haynes, actress. Other credits include “Judgment: The Court Martial of Lieutenant William Calley”, “In Like Flint” (uncredited), and “Paper Moon” (the TV series: yes, there was a TV series based on the movie. It lasted 13 episodes.)
Short random gun crankery, with a patriotic and historical bent.
August 12th, 2023One of the guns that is currently high on my want list is a Smith and Wesson Model 53.
The Model 53 is a weird gun. It was designed and chambered to shoot the .22 Jet cartridge, which is a .357 Magnum necked down to take a .222 bullet. This was a relic of the time when people were experimenting with odd .22 caliber wildcat cartridges in revolvers.
I’ll probably write some more about the Jet when I get mine, but for now I’ll just say the .22 Jet and the Model 53 were not a complete success. Fortunately, the Model 53 can also bet set up to fire .22 LR: either by swapping out the .22 Jet cylinder for a .22 LR cylinder (it was fairly common for the guns to ship with both) or by using special inserts in the .22 Jet cylinder.
The 53 shipped with 4″, 6″, and 8 3/8″ barrels. I’m pretty set on getting one with a 8 3/8″ barrel, as that seems ideal for varmint hunting.
I’ve actually just found a really nice Model 53 with an 8 3/8″ barrel and both .22 LR and .22 Jet cylinders…that I won’t be buying.
Why?
Three reasons:
1) The estimated auction price is between $60,000 and $90,000.
2) It is really really really nice. Too nice to shoot.
3) (related to #2 above): it was Elvis’s gun.
“Elvis’ Guns: The Bicentennial Smith & Wesson” from Rock Island Auction.
RIA lot number 1504: Elvis Presley’s Exhibition Quality S&W Model 53 Revolver.
I saw this gun, up close and personal like, at the 2022 S&WCA Collector’s Association Symposium. it is a beautiful gun, and if any of my readers have a spare $90,000 I encourage you to submit a bid. Better photos than I can take are in the RIA listing.