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Flaming hyenas updates.

Tuesday, February 18th, 2020

A couple of quick things from the weekend that I’m just now getting around to:

Catherine Pugh’s sentencing hearing in the “Healthy Holly” scandal was last week. The government is asking for five years. Her lawyers are asking for a year and a day.

The statement of facts accompanying Pugh’s plea in November described how Pugh defrauded businesses and nonprofit organizations out of nearly $800,000.
Prosecutors said Thursday that Pugh’s “personal inventory” of Healthy Holly books never exceeded 8,216 copies. But through a “three-dimensional” scheme, they say, she was able to resell 132,116 copies for a total of $859,960. She gave another 34,846 copies away.
“Corporate book purchasers with an interest in obtaining or maintaining a government contract represented 93.6% of all Healthy Holly books or $805,000,” prosecutors said.

Also, this would kind of amuse me, if it wasn’t so sad:

Included in the sentencing memorandum is a scene from an April raid on Pugh’s home. FBI agents came to seize, among other items, her personal cellphone. Prosecutors say Pugh handed over a red, city-issued iPhone, but investigators said they wanted her personal phone, a Samsung. She told them she had left it with her sister in Philadelphia.
An agent then called the Samsung phone.
“Almost immediately, the agents heard a vibrating noise emanating from her bed. Pugh became emotional, went to the bed and began frantically searching through the blankets at the head of the bed. As she did so, agents [started] yelling for her to stop and show her hands,” prosecutors wrote.
Pugh had grabbed the phone from underneath her pillow, and the agents took it from her.

In other news, remember Mohammed Nuru, indicted San Francisco Director of Public Works? This broke over the weekend: the current mayor says she used to date him, “20 years ago”.

I wouldn’t consider that “bad” or “newsworthy” by itself, but this is: she also took “a gift” from him.

The mayor said her 18-year-old car broke down and Nuru took it to a private mechanic who fixed it up. Nuru also helped her get a rental car. Breed said the value of those favors was about $5,600.

But she claims this isn’t “a gift that she had to report under the city’s ethics laws”, even though accepting gifts from your underlings is questionable in any environment, and possibly illegal under ethics laws.

Also, and I say this without snark, having been in this position myself recently: Mayor Breed, if your 18 year old car is going to cost $5,000 to fix, maybe you need to be looking at another car instead.

Posted in California Über Alles, Cars, Law, Politics | Comments Closed

Obit watch: December 21, 2019.

Saturday, December 21st, 2019

Junior Johnson, legendary NASCAR racer. NYT. ESPN. News and Observer. NASCAR.

“The Last American Hero Is Junior Johnson. Yes!” by Tom Wolfe.

In the Korean War, not a very heroic performance by American soldiers generally, there were seventy-eight Medal of Honor winners. Thirty-nine of them were from the South, and practically all of the thirty-nine were from small towns in or near the Appalachians. The New York metropolitan area, which has more people than all these towns put together, had three Medal of Honor winners, and one of them had just moved to New York from the Appalachian region of West Virginia. Three of the Medal of Honor winners came from within fifty miles of Junior Johnson’s side porch.
Detroit has discovered these pockets of courage almost like a natural resource, in the form of Junior Johnson and about twenty other drivers. There is something exquisitely ironic about it. Detroit is now engaged in the highly sophisticated business of offering the illusion of Speed for Everyman—making their cars go 175 miles an hour on racetracks—by discovering and putting behind the wheel a breed of mountain men who are living vestiges of a degree of physical courage that became extinct in most other sections of the country by 1900. Of course, very few stock-car drivers have ever had anything to do with the whiskey business. A great many always lead quiet lives off the track. But it is the same strong people among whom the whiskey business developed who produced the kind of men who could drive the stock cars. There are a few exceptions, Freddie Lorenzen, from Elmhurst, Illinois, being the most notable. But, by and large, it is the rural Southern code of honor and courage that has produced these, the most daring men in sports.

Randy Suess. He and Ward Christensen built the first computer bulletin board system in 1978.

Posted in Cars, Geek, Obits, Sports | Comments Closed

And speaking of Christmas…

Friday, December 20th, 2019

I’ve been good this year, Santa. Do you think you could bring me one of these?

I don’t need the tactical operator: just the truck and the minigun. You can even leave it in the driveway along with the ammo, so you don’t scratch up the hardwood floors.

Posted in Cars, Christmas, Guns | Comments Closed

Merry farking Christmas, y’all.

Saturday, December 14th, 2019

I was cautiously optimistic, tending almost towards excitement, about Christmas this year. I’m mostly getting along with almost everyone, and Daddy didn’t spend the Christmas money on brakes this year. (As a matter of fact, Daddy got his car inspected without any issues, got the oil and filters changed, got a minor repair done, and Daddy’s new vehicle registration is in the mail and should get here before Christmas.)

You know what depresses me at this time of year, though? (“Almost everything!” cries the peanut gallery.) They’re not too far off. But one thing that gets under my skin is car wrecks.

We live in a part of town where car wrecks are a distressingly common sight. The roads are heavily trafficked and carrying more than designed capacity. But car wrecks at Christmas really get me down.

I see someone with the whole front end of their car smashed to heck: obviously, this is a total loss. The ambulance is standing around nearby, and even if it doesn’t look like anyone was badly hurt, I’m thinking to myself what a shame it is. The kids were looking forward to that Playstation 5 (sorry, Playstation V) or the XBox 720 (“now with tint control!”) or the new Banana PCJR Pro, Mom goes out to the grocery store, and both parents come home hours later. “Sorry, kids. No Christmas this year. The car’s totaled and we’ve got to get a new one.”

I know I’m probably stretching a little: out here, I think everyone has comprehensive on their cars, and they’re probably not out more than the deductible (and the gap, if they don’t have gap insurance). But it still bothers me.

The other problem out here, oddly enough, is deer. The hooved rodents are belligerent and numerous, there’s strong opposition to doing anything about them (“They’re so cute! How dare you trap them!”), and people frequently have unpleasant encounters with them, even on heavily trafficked roads like RM 620 or SH 71. Our next door neighbor hit one a few weeks ago: it didn’t do a lot of damage from what I could tell, but her car was in the shop for a bit.

Last night, it was my turn. We were driving back from dinner down a two-lane road that’s a shortcut between US 290 towards Dripping and SH 71 towards Lakeway/Bee Cave when one bounded across the road in front of us. I saw it out of the corner of my eye as it was crossing the road towards the driver’s side but didn’t even have time to react: we clipped it pretty solidly on the passenger side.

The good news is, the car’s driveable: there’s some loose plastic around the passenger side wheel, and a fairly large dent in what I’d call the under-bumper. But there’s no hood damage, the headlights still work, and I think the front running light on that side does as well. There’s no evidence that the engine compartment took a hit, and I don’t see any fluids leaking. And the airbags didn’t go off.

I know it could have been a lot worse: we could have hit it square on and done more damage, it could have ended up going through the windshield into the passenger compartment…as I said, the car’s driveable, we have coverage, and Mom’s calling the insurance company Monday morning. We may even have dashcam footage if I can find it.

I guess what I’m trying to say this holiday season is: be careful. Look both ways. Turn with a light when you can, even if it takes you a little out of your way. Don’t pull a U-turn in the middle of the highway.

And if you’re in an area where it is hunting season and you have a license, take as many deer as you legally can.

Posted in Cars, Christmas, Mammals | 1 Comment »

Obit watch: August 30, 2019.

Friday, August 30th, 2019

James R. Leavelle.

He was the man standing next to Lee Harvey Oswald when Jack Ruby shot Oswald.

Ningali Lawford-Wolf, Australian Aboriginal actress. She was perhaps most famous as the mother in “Rabbit Proof Fence“.

Official NYT obit for Jessi Combs.

Ms. Combs was a lifelong racing fan whose love of cars and the sport led her into television, with a short run of appearances on “MythBusters,” the popular science program, and continuing hosting roles on “Xtreme 4×4,” a show about off-roading, and “Overhaulin’,” a show about revamping cars.

Ms. Combs was killed on Tuesday while attempting to set a land speed record.

Posted in Cars, History, Movies, Obits, TV | Comments Closed

Obit watch: July 3, 2019.

Wednesday, July 3rd, 2019

Lee Iacocca.

Max Wright. He has an interesting back story: Mr. Wright knocked around a lot in television, movies, and theater.

His other television credits include appearances on “Murphy Brown,” “Quantum Leap,” “Misfits of Science,” “Cheers,” “Buffalo Bill,” “Taxi” and “The Drew Carey Show.”
He also appeared in early episodes of “Friends” as the manager of Central Perk, the coffee shop where the show’s main characters hung out, and played Norm Macdonald’s boss on the ABC sitcom “Norm.” His film credits include “All That Jazz,” “Snow Falling on Cedars,” “Reds,” “The Sting II,” “Soul Man” and “The Shadow.”

…

On Broadway he was the Second Murderer in “Richard III,” starring Al Pacino, in 1979; a neurotic landlord in Jean Kerr’s “Lunch Hour” in 1980; and an accident-prone clerk in an Andrei Serban production of Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” in 1977…
He made his Broadway debut in 1968 in the original production of “The Great White Hope,” Howard Sackler’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play based on the life of the heavyweight boxer Jack Johnson, which starred James Earl Jones and Jane Alexander. He earned a Tony nomination for best performance by a featured actor in a play for his role as Pavel Lebedev in the Chekhov play “Ivanov” in 1998, a performance that also earned him a nomination for a Drama Desk Award.
He performed Shakespeare regularly; one of his most noted roles was Sir Andrew Aguecheek in the Lincoln Center Theater production of “Twelfth Night” in 1998.

Sadly and tragically, he was best known as the father on “ALF”, one of the worst television series ever to pass across the small screen.

By the time the show’s four-year run ended in 1990, Mr. Wright told People magazine in 2000, “I was hugely eager to have it over with.” In fact, on the last day of filming, his colleagues told People, he grabbed his things and got into his car without even saying goodbye.

Lawrence sent over this THR obit for Milton Quon. Speaking of back story, wow: Mr. Quon was one of the Golden Age Disney animators (he worked on “Fantasia” and “Dumbo”).

The Chinese American Museum in Los Angeles presented a retrospective exhibit of his work in 2005; he was one of five artists featured in ” ‘Round the Clock: Chinese American Artists Working in Los Angeles” at the Vincent Price Art Museum in Monterey Park, California, in 2012; and he received the Golden Spike Award from the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California in 2013.
And in 2017, he was featured in a father and son art exhibition in Red Bank, New Jersey, with his son Mike and in a solo exhibition at Santa Monica College’s Emeritus Gallery.

He also had a career as an actor and extra: he may have been best known as “the old Asian guy on the bus” in “Speed”. Mr. Quon was 105.

Posted in Cars, Movies, Obits, Theatre, TV | Comments Closed

TMQ Watch: December 4, 2018.

Tuesday, December 4th, 2018

If we had thought ahead (and hadn’t been putting out fires all day long) we would have scheduled this week’s TMQ Watch to post at 4:20 PM.

Why? After the jump, this week’s TMQ…

(more…)

Posted in Cars, NFL, Sports, TMQ watch | Comments Closed

Obit watch: November 7, 2018.

Wednesday, November 7th, 2018

Kitty O’Neil, noted stunt woman and holder of the women’s land speed record.

The Motivator accelerated rapidly, though silently for Ms. O’Neil; she was deaf. Her speed peaked briefly at 618 miles per hour, and with a second explosive run measured over one kilometer, she attained an average speed of 512.7 m.p.h., shattering the land-speed record for women by about 200 m.p.h.

For Ms. O’Neil, her record — which still stands — was the highlight of a career in daredevilry. She also set speed records on water skis and in boats. And, working as a stuntwoman, she crashed cars and survived immolation.

Posted in Cars, Geek, Obits | Comments Closed

CanCon.

Monday, August 27th, 2018

That’s “Canadian Content” for those of you in my audience unfamiliar with the term.

I don’t remember how I stumbled across this, but yesterday I discovered “The Devil at Your Heels”, a 1981 documentary by Robert Fortier which is available at the National Film Board of Canada’s website.

Perhaps surprisingly to some people, this is not a movie about blues music. “Devil” is a documentary about Ken Carter, a semi-famous Canadian stunt driver, and his attempt to jump a car from the Canadian side of the St. Lawrence River to the US side: a distance of about one mile.

According to the background blog entry on the film, Fortier originally intended this to be a short documenting the jump.

It took five years just to get to the point where Carter was actually able and ready to make the attempt. And Fortier kept filming in spite of the setbacks: rain interfering with construction of the jump ramp, exploding rocket fuel tanks, Carter’s attempts to raise money…

I “watched” about 55 minutes of it yesterday while puttering around doing other things, and plan to finish watching it in the next couple of days. There is a twist at the end which I spoiled for myself, but I won’t do that to you. (If you search for “Ken Carter” or “The Devil at Your Heels” on Wikipedia, you’ll find the twist.) From what I saw, I think this is another Canadian documentary that’s worth your attention. It isn’t quite as bat guano insane as “Project Grizzly“, but it’s still fun.

The whole movie is also available in high-def on YouTube, again thanks to the NFB:

Somehow, while searching around looking for more stuff about Ken Carter and the jump, I ran across this article on AutoFocus, a Canadian auto news site, about Jacques Ostiguy. Ostiguy was a Canadian designer, noted for his work on the Chrysler Cordoba and for Bombardier (the company that made Ski-Doo snowmobiles).

I wanted to note this because I love this quote in the article:

A visit to Carleton after his retirement confirmed his fears that the “pseudo-intellectuals” had taken over, Ostiguy said in 2009. “Fourth-year students were working on projects like a solar-powered slipper-heater [or] walkers for the elderly built from recycled cow-shit,” he ranted. “The future of design in Canada is next to nil because of them—they’re as dangerous as Ayatollah Khomeini.”

(Content warning: article may not be 100% safe for work in some environments. There are no explicit drawings in the article itself, but some people might take offense at the headline.)

Posted in Cars, History, Movies | Comments Closed

DEFCON/Black Hat updates: round 2.

Thursday, August 9th, 2018

Another Ars story based on another Black Hat panel:

Life-saving pacemakers manufactured by Medtronic don’t rely on encryption to safeguard firmware updates, a failing that makes it possible for hackers to remotely install malicious wares that threaten patients’ lives, security researchers said Thursday.

The presentation in question is “Understanding and Exploiting Implanted Medical Devices” by Billy Rios and Jonathan Butts. No slides or white paper yet, so I don’t want to comment very much. But: I do also want to point out this article, “The $250 Biohack That’s Revolutionizing Life With Diabetes“. Why? Well…

The DIY pancreas movement would never have happened if not for a Medtronic blunder. In 2011 a pair of security researchers alerted the public that the wireless radio frequency links in some of the company’s best-selling insulin pumps had been left open to hackers. Medtronic closed the loophole after the researchers warned of risks to patients, but it never recalled the devices, leaving thousands in circulation.

Some additional interesting looking work:

  • “TRITON: How it Disrupted Safety Systems and Changed the Threat Landscape of Industrial Control Systems, Forever” by Andrea Carcano, Marina Krotofil, and Younes Dragoni. “In 2017, a sophisticated threat actor deployed the TRITON attack framework engineered to manipulate industrial safety systems at a critical infrastructure facility. This talk offers new insights into TRITON attack framework which became an unprecedented milestone in the history of cyber-warfare as it is the first publicly observed malware that specifically targets protection functions meant to safeguard human lives.” Slides. White paper.
  • “There will be Glitches: Extracting and Analyzing Automotive Firmware Efficiently” by a whole bunch of people.
  • And it just wouldn’t be a security conference in 2018 without a Tesla attack: “Over-the-Air: How we Remotely Compromised the Gateway, BCM, and Autopilot ECUs of Tesla Cars” by Ling Liu, Sen Nie, Wenkai Zhang, and Yuefeng Du. White paper is at the link: slides are broken.

That’s all I’ve been able to turn up today. More tomorrow, I hope.

Posted in Cars, DEFCON, DEFCON 26 | Comments Closed

Public service announcement.

Friday, July 27th, 2018

If you need to do something with a car title, like a title transfer, please be aware of the following facts:

Universal Auto Title Service on Justin Lane in Austin is “permanently closed”. Their former location has a sign in the window directing you to the county tax assessor’s office on Airport Boulevard, which is open from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM.

While it is true that the Airport Boulevard office is open from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM, they will not do any transactions involving vehicle titles after 4 PM.

If you are thinking about going to one of the many tax assessor’s satellite offices, such as the one in Oak Hill, those are all “temporarily closed” (except, I believe, the one in Pflugerville). (I did a sorry job of covering this, for which I apologize: there was a flap, with several arrests, because some employees of the various satellite offices were apparently diverting money into their own pockets.)

There is apparently a title and registration service still open in Oak Hill. I’ll report later on.

Posted in Cars, Politics, Texas | 2 Comments »

Let’s go!

Friday, July 13th, 2018

More car related updates and thoughts.

First of all, RoadRich left an excellent and thoughtful comment on the last post which you should go read.

(more…)

Posted in Bluetooth, Cars, Endorsements, Geek, Radio | Comments Closed

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