Even better, I can tie two threads together!
Chinese artist Zhu Cheng has sculpted a replica of the Venus de Milo.
Zhu Cheng is from Chengdu, which is also the home of China’s leading panda breeding reserve. Why is that significant? Guess what material Cheng used for his sculpture.
Wait, did I say “singularity”? I meant “Singletary”. As in Mike Singletary, out as 49ers coach.
In other firing related news, Gary Kubiak has lost Richard Justice. Not just “fire him”, but “fire him now, before next week’s game”.
I’m a little behind on this due to last minute shopping, but I think it is worth noting.
Late last night, an APD officer shot and killed a man after a foot pursuit. The officer and his partner originally were trying to make a traffic stop; the suspect fled, the officers pursued on foot, the officer in question found the suspect, the suspect stabbed the officer in the neck (with a knife he took from the officer’s duty belt), and the officer fired one killing shot. (The officer is still in the hospital.)
This is weird enough to be noteworthy; things like this don’t happen very often in Austin. But the story gets even stranger; the dead guy was Maurice Pierce.
For those of you outside of Austin, or those who don’t remember, Maurice Pierce was one of four men who were charged in the 1991 murders of four teenage girls at a yogurt shop in north Austin.
The “yogurt shop murders” were, and are, a big deal in Austin. So far, nobody’s been convicted in these murders; the case against Pierce was dropped when prosecutors said they didn’t have enough evidence against him. One other suspect was freed before trial; the other two suspects stood trial, were convicted, and had their convictions overturned by the Court of Criminal Appeals due to “unexplained DNA” that didn’t match any of the four suspects.
I’m not sure what to make of this; Pierce had earlier violent run-ins with APD and Lubbock police officers, according to the Statesman. Clearly, he wasn’t a choir boy, but nobody’s been able to come up with enough evidence to pin the murders on him. The only thing it seems like we can say is that this is going to make the truth about the murders much harder to find; I’m hoping APD doesn’t seize on this as a chance for “exceptional clearance“.
Okay, technically, the Chinese government has actually extended the lease on the National Zoo’s pandas while they try to work out a new deal. But did you know that there was a lease, and it had expired?
There’s something odd about that.
Blogging this also gives me a chance to bring up the odd conversation I had with my brother a few weeks ago; for some reason, he really seems to hate the giant panda. Part of his anti-panda rant included the statement that “any animal that can’t breed without assistance deserves to become extinct”. Which actually makes some sense, but the venom with which he delivered this was striking; the only other thing I can think of that he hates that much is seafood.
I’m sure TJIC will have a lot more to say about this story, (Edited to add: Ha! Told you so!) but there was one thing in the NYT article about Prichard, Alabama that jumped out at me.
Basically, the city’s pension plan has run out of money, so they’ve just simply stopped paying people. And because this is a municipal government, they aren’t subject to the same laws that private plans are: there’s no PBGC coverage, for example. (It does seem that it is illegal for the city to just decide to stop sending checks, but it is unclear from the NYT article what anyone is planning to do about it.)
Anyway, much like the LAT coverage of Maywood, the NYT spends a good bit of space tugging at the heartstrings, and glosses over some significant facts. The first small warning flag pops up in paragraph five: “The situation in Prichard is extremely unusual — the city has sought bankruptcy protection twice”
But the flares don’t go off until paragraph 18:
Yeah, municipal pensions are a ticking time bomb. But wouldn’t the NYT have been better served by profiling a city without a history of mismanagement and corruption?
Well covered elsewhere, but for the sake of the record, Steve Landesberg. Yeah, I liked Dietrich better than any of the other guys (except maybe Nick Yemana).
Also: “Old Man” is dead at the age of 32.
If you haven’t seen Fast, Cheap & Out of Control
And Amazon’s prices on the first season
Man, I wish I had one of those Drudge Report siren things to put up here.
Anyway, Katz’s Deli, an Austin institution famous for their slogan “Katz’s Never Kloses”, is closing January 2nd.
I need to get down there before the 2nd. They did a really good breakfast. And this reduces the number of Thanksgiving/Christmas Day dining options by one.
(Hattip: Mom.)
(Edited to add: A.T. actually sent this to me at 1 PM today, beating Mom by 2 hours and 38 minutes. However, Mom sent it to one of the accounts that goes to my phone, while A.T. sent it to an account I don’t read until I get home at night. So Mom gets the hattip, but A.T. gets an acknowledgment.)
Instead of a clever introduction to this week’s TMQ, I’m going to give you, my loyal readers, a fitting present for the holiday season. After the jump…
I had heard that Mike Leach was being considered for another coaching job. What I didn’t realize was that he was being considered because Maryland fired Ralph Friedgen on Monday (effective after the Terrapins play in the “Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman“).
Friedgen had a 74-50 record, and went 8-4 this year (better than UT did: at least Maryland is going to a bowl), though he also went 2-10 last year. I haven’t checked, but I wonder if the 2-10 record was caused by circumstances beyond Friedgen’s control.
If you’ve got a problem with Stringer Bell being in Thor, you’ve got a problem with me.
I don’t usually highlight XKCD in this space; I figure those who care already read XKCD, and nothing can persuade the handful of people in my circle who don’t care to read it anyway.
That said, I found today’s XKCD oddly touching and eloquent. (Also, nice callback, Randall.)
Megan McArdle, my favorite Certified NetWare Engineer, has discovered the fun of a game our circle of friends often plays: mocking silly stereo equipment on Amazon
“I haven’t laughed so hard since I saw The Room