Hat tip to Jeff Meyerson.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Once Again, Texas Leads the Way
CRIME Blog | The Dallas Morning News: "A naked man was taken into custody this afternoon after descending from a billboard on John W. Carpenter Freeway near Stemmons Freeway."
Liz Carpenter, R. I. P.
News 8 Austin | 24 Hour Local News | TOP STORIES | Former White House press secretary Liz Carpenter dies: "The road to the White House for journalist and author Liz Carpenter had its humble beginnings in Central Texas.
Carpenter died Saturday morning at University Medical Center at Brackenridge Hospital.
Born in Salado in 1920, Carpenter served on Vice President Lyndon Johnson's staff. She wrote the words that ushered him in as the president of the United States, at the death of John F. Kennedy."
Carpenter died Saturday morning at University Medical Center at Brackenridge Hospital.
Born in Salado in 1920, Carpenter served on Vice President Lyndon Johnson's staff. She wrote the words that ushered him in as the president of the United States, at the death of John F. Kennedy."
Judy and I met Liz Carpenter at a writer's conference once. She was a fine speaker, warm and funny, and she signed a copy of her book for me to give to my mother.
Seat Rage
Man shot after refusing to give up train seat - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): "A Russian policeman has shot and wounded two passengers during rush hour on the Moscow metro after a row about giving up a seat for a pensioner, the interior ministry said."
Hat tip to Walter Satterthwait.
Anna Nicole Smith Update
Playmate Anna Nicole Smith's heirs, left penniless: "A US federal appeals court ruled Friday that Anna Nicole Smith's heirs will not receive a penny of the more than 300 million dollars she claimed to her billionaire husband's inheritance.
The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals in California ruled in favor of E. Pierce Marshall, the son of Texas oil tycoon Howard Marshall, whom the late Playboy centerfold married in 1994 after meeting him while working at a strip club. She was 26 at the time and he was 89."
The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals in California ruled in favor of E. Pierce Marshall, the son of Texas oil tycoon Howard Marshall, whom the late Playboy centerfold married in 1994 after meeting him while working at a strip club. She was 26 at the time and he was 89."
No Comment Department
Teen Gets Carpal Tunnel from Texting - ABC News: "Nielsen Research: Average Teenager Sends 3,146 Text Messages Each Month"
Friday, March 19, 2010
This is Absolutely What the World Needs Now
Jennifer Lopez goes 'Overboard': "Jennifer Lopez is in talks to star in the remake of the romantic comedy 'Overboard,' which Overbrook is producing for Columbia."
Criminal Genius of the Week
Cops: Burglar Logs Into MySpace on Store Computer - ABC News: "A burglar who spent about five hours on a store's computer after breaking into the business gave police all the clues they needed to track him down. Investigators said the 17-year-old logged into his MySpace account while at Bella Office Furniture and that made it easy for them to find him. He also spent time looking at pornography and trying to sell stolen items, all while using the business' computer."
New York Leads the Way
Computer snafu is behind at least 50 'raids' on Brooklyn couple's home: "Blame it on a computer.
Embarrassed cops on Thursday cited a 'computer glitch' as the reason police targeted the home of an elderly, law-abiding couple more than 50 times in futile hunts for bad guys."
Embarrassed cops on Thursday cited a 'computer glitch' as the reason police targeted the home of an elderly, law-abiding couple more than 50 times in futile hunts for bad guys."
Cookie Rage
Man arrested for hitting door with hoe - UPI.com: "Florida authorities said an 80-year-old man was arrested for attacking his neighbors' door with a garden hoe because he thought they stole his cookies."
This Immortal
The world's only immortal animal | Yahoo! Green: "The turritopsis nutricula species of jellyfish may be the only animal in the world to have truly discovered the fountain of youth.
Since it is capable of cycling from a mature adult stage to an immature polyp stage and back again, there may be no natural limit to its life span. Scientists say the hydrozoan jellyfish is the only known animal that can repeatedly turn back the hands of time and revert to its polyp state (its first stage of life)."
Since it is capable of cycling from a mature adult stage to an immature polyp stage and back again, there may be no natural limit to its life span. Scientists say the hydrozoan jellyfish is the only known animal that can repeatedly turn back the hands of time and revert to its polyp state (its first stage of life)."
Once Again, Texas Leads the Way
Hacker Disables More Than 100 Cars Remotely | Threat Level | Wired.com: "More than 100 drivers in Austin, Texas found their cars disabled or the horns honking out of control, after an intruder ran amok in a web-based vehicle-immobilization system normally used to get the attention of consumers delinquent in their auto payments.
Police with Austin’s High Tech Crime Unit on Wednesday arrested 20-year-old Omar Ramos-Lopez, a former Texas Auto Center employee who was laid off last month, and allegedly sought revenge by bricking the cars sold from the dealership’s four Austin-area lots."
Police with Austin’s High Tech Crime Unit on Wednesday arrested 20-year-old Omar Ramos-Lopez, a former Texas Auto Center employee who was laid off last month, and allegedly sought revenge by bricking the cars sold from the dealership’s four Austin-area lots."
Forgotten Books: The Screaming Mimi -- Fredric Brown
Well, you guessed it. This is another free download from Munsey's. I can't seem to resist those things, even though I already own the books. This was my St. Patrick's Day book, and let me quote the fifth paragraph:His name really was Sweeney, but he was only five-eighths Irish and he was only three-quarters drunk. But that's about as near as truth ever approximates a pattern, and if you won't settle for that, you'd better quit reading. If you don't, maybe you'll be sorry, for it isn't a nice story. It's got murder in it, and woman and liquor and gambling and even prevarication. There's murder before the story proper starts, and murder after it ends; the actual story begins with a naked woman and ends with one, which is a good opening and a good ending, but everything between isn't nice. Don't say I didn't warn you. But if you're still with me, let's get back to Sweeney.
So how long has it been since you read a novel who's omniscient narrator addressed the reader directly like that? A long time, I'm sure, and Brown doesn't do it just at the beginning. He breaks into the narrative every now and then like that. And you know what? It works just fine.
Sweeney is a reporter who's been on a long bender, but when he sees a naked woman whose stomach's been slashed, he sobers up almost instantly. He manages to write a story about her, and then he begins his own investigation of the ripper killer who's on the loose in Chicago. If you read the excerpt above, you know pretty much what the book has in it, and how can you resist wanting to read it? The book must have been shocking and surprising in its time (1949), but today's readers won't find it so. Doesn't matter. It's still a great read.
And then there's the totally loopy movie version with Anita Ekberg (!), which is not to be missed. Supposedly the famous film Bird with the Crystal Plumage was also based on this book, though Brown's not credited.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
I'm Already Invisible to Servers in Restaurants
Researchers create 3-D invisibility cloak: study: "European researchers have taken the world a step closer to fictional wizard Harry Potter's invisibility cape after they made an object disappear using a three-dimensional 'cloak,' a study published Thursday in the US-based journal Science showed.
Scientists from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany and Imperial College London used the cloak, made using photonic crystals with a structure resembling piles of wood, to conceal a small bump on a gold surface, they wrote in Science.
'It's kind of like hiding a small object underneath a carpet -- except this time the carpet also disappears,' they said."
Scientists from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany and Imperial College London used the cloak, made using photonic crystals with a structure resembling piles of wood, to conceal a small bump on a gold surface, they wrote in Science.
'It's kind of like hiding a small object underneath a carpet -- except this time the carpet also disappears,' they said."
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