Archive for February, 2013

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Notes on film: The Rohauer Library

Thursday, February 14th, 2013

Over a number of years, Raymond Rohauer, a producer and distributor, accumulated prints of a number of films. His collection became known as the Rohauer Library, and contains “more than 700 titles”, according to the LAT.

The collection includes original nitrate camera negatives, prints and other materials that are unavailable elsewhere. Through licenses and contracts, the collection holds rights to the movies.

Mr. Rohauer died in 1987. The collection was purchased in 2011 by a man named Charles S. Cohen, who has aggressive plans to get the collection back into circulation.

Why does this matter? Here are some of the things in the collection:

And the list goes on. This could be the best thing to happen to movies since the Criterion Collection.

Posted in Clippings, Movies | Comments Closed

Quote of the day.

Wednesday, February 13th, 2013

“We expect behavior like this in Castro’s Cuba or the city of Bell, not in Newport Beach,” Stop the Dock Tax Chairman Bob McCaffrey said in a prepared statement.

You know, when your city is being compared unfavorably to a fifth-world dictatorship, maybe it is time to shut everything down and start over from scratch.

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

The further on the edge, the hotter the intensity.

Wednesday, February 13th, 2013

egress1

egress2

(This isn’t an actual F-16 cockpit, but a “cockpit egress trainer”.)

(We would also have accepted “You ever been in a cockpit before?”)

(Subject line hattip for the younger set.)

Posted in History, Photography, Planes | Comments Closed

Banana republicans on trial: February 12, 2013.

Tuesday, February 12th, 2013

Teresa Jacobo wrapped up her testimony yesterday in the Bell trial, and indicted former council member George Mirabal is testifying now.

Mirabel is pretty much echoing Jacobo: I didn’t know I was doing anything wrong, I thought it was okay because the city attorney said so, and I did a lot of work outside of meetings for the city.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Edward Miller questioned Mirabal about the day shortly after his 2010 arrest that he voluntarily told prosecutors that no work was done on authorities outside of meetings.
Mirabal said that if he had made such a statement, it was incorrect. He said he couldn’t remember what was said back then and “might have heed and hawed.”
“So it’s easy to remember now?” Miller asked.
“Yes, actually.”
“More than two years after charges have been filed, it’s easier for you to remember now that you did work outside of the meetings for the Public Finance Authority?”
“Yes, sir.”

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

Random notes: February 12, 2013.

Tuesday, February 12th, 2013

This Statesman story is notable because it avoids answering the key question: how does it smell?

Followup on the Tesla story: Elon Musk claims that the story is fake, and that the vehicle logs show something different than the NYT writer claims. The NYT vigorously denies this claim. Summary of the back and forth, with links, at Jimbo’s site.

The International Olympic Committee has decided to keep modern pentathlon in the 2020 Olympics. This makes me happy, as I have a fondness for modern pentathlon, the sport George S. Patton competed in. It strikes me as being a true test of all-around athleticism; the sort of sport true gentlemen compete in.

But wait, there’s more to the story: the IOC is keeping modern pentathlon…and dropping wrestling as a “core sport”. Yes, wrestling, a sport that was part of the first modern Olympics in 1896, and one that dates back to the ancient Greeks. I’m not a big wrestling fan, but this decision seems strange to me. Especially since the 2020 Olympics are also keeping taekwondo and field hockey.

The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history, continued:

Since arriving in Los Angeles from Japan in 1962, the Buddhist teacher Joshu Sasaki, who is 105 years old, has taught thousands of Americans at his two Zen centers in the area and one in New Mexico. He has influenced thousands more enlightenment seekers through a chain of some 30 affiliated Zen centers from the Puget Sound to Princeton to Berlin. And he is known as a Buddhist teacher of Leonard Cohen, the poet and songwriter.

Sounds like a great guy, right? 105 years old, charismatic teacher, hangs with Leonard Cohen?

Mr. Sasaki has also, according to an investigation by an independent council of Buddhist leaders, released in January, groped and sexually harassed female students for decades, taking advantage of their loyalty to a famously charismatic roshi, or master.

More:

When the report was posted to SweepingZen, Mr. Sasaki’s senior priests wrote in a post that their group “has struggled with our teacher Joshu Sasaki Roshi’s sexual misconduct for a significant portion of his career in the United States” — their first such admission.

Posted in Cars, Clippings, Law, Sports, Zen | 1 Comment »

Kübelwagen!

Tuesday, February 12th, 2013

kubel

(I have a short list of cars that I wouldn’t want as a primary daily driver, but would love to have as a second car just to knock around in. On that list: a VW Thing. Which I know isn’t strictly the same thing as the Kübelwagen, but close enough for a Nobel Peace Prize winner to order a drone strike.)

Posted in Cars, History, Photography | Comments Closed

A quick movie review for Valentine’s Day.

Monday, February 11th, 2013

This post over at Andy Ihnatko’s site reminded me of something I’ve been wanting to blog about. I’m going to put that after a jump, and politely suggest that you read Mr. Ihnatko’s post first, because what I’m going to discuss will ruin his elaborately set up punch line.

S’awright? S’awright?. S’awright? S’okay.

(You know, as a kid, I didn’t get Señor Wences. As an adult, I miss him.)

(more…)

Posted in Movies | 1 Comment »

Random notes: February 11, 2013.

Monday, February 11th, 2013

Benny’s stepping down from the Papacy is going to be one of the biggest news stories of the year. I wanted to note it here because it gives me a chance to plug a book I really liked: Thomas J. Reese’s Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church.

Reese devotes a fair amount of space to discussing questions about the papacy, such as: what happens if the Pope develops Alzheimer’s? What happens if he becomes totally incapacitated, say by a stroke? Or if he goes crazy? What happens if the Pope is in a coma (I know it’s serious)? And, can the Pope resign? I guess we have an answer to that last question: “Yes”.

I missed the 70th anniversary of the sinking of the troop transport Dorchester on February 3, 1943. You remember the story of the Dorchester, right? Or if you don’t remember the name of the ship…

For a long time, the story of the four chaplains was everywhere.
In classrooms, posters showed the men of different faiths, arms linked in prayer, braced against the waves engulfing the deck of their torpedoed troop ship on Feb. 3, 1943. They had given their life preservers to frantic soldiers and urged troops paralyzed with fear to jump into the icy North Atlantic before they were sucked down by the sinking ship’s whirlpool.

They were:

I didn’t get a chance to post an update from Friday’s Bell trial, so let me do that now: Teresa Jacobo is still on the stand, and they’re still going over the “working full time for the city” thing.

Questioned Friday by her attorney Shepard Kopp, Jacobo testified that Rizzo never mentioned that a full-time salary required additional work on authorities.
“Did anyone tell you that you needed to devote a certain number of hours per week, per month or per year to work on those authorities?” Kopp asked, referring to the various boards on which council members served.
“No,” Jacobo said.

In addition, nobody told Jacobo that “a certain number of meetings of those authorities” needed to be conducted at city council meetings, or that the meetings needed to last for a certain amount of time. Jacobo also claims that she gave out business cards with her home and cell numbers to her constituents; “Residents would often call her at all hours, she testified, for help with city issues.”

As I’ve said previously, a lot of the defense seems to be “it was all Rizzo”, as well as “nobody told me”, and “I assumed it was okay because the city attorney didn’t say it wasn’t”. I’m still thinking we’re going to end up with acquittals for the council members, and the bus is going to run over Rizzo, back up, and run over him again.

Posted in Books, California Über Alles, Clippings, History, Law | Comments Closed

Important reminder.

Monday, February 11th, 2013

The ejection seat is not a toy.

bangseat1

bangseat2

(Top: my sister’s youngest boy. Bottom: the middle boy, who you may remember from here. Not shown: the oldest boy, Sir NotAppearingInThisSketch, who had a band thing going on and didn’t make the trip with us.)

Posted in History, Photography | Comments Closed

Weasels ripped my flesh!

Sunday, February 10th, 2013

weasel1

weasel2

Studebaker M29 “Weasel”, Texas Military Forces Museum, Austin, Texas.

Posted in History, Photography | Comments Closed

Random notes in haste: February 9, 2013.

Saturday, February 9th, 2013

I’m a little tied up at the moment: my sister and brother-in-law are away, and my mother and I are riding herd on my three nephews. Today’s agenda included a field trip to the Texas Military Forces Museum. (Photos to come.)

Thing one: The LA County Sheriff’s Department had a program called “Friends of the Sheriff”. No, really. (It still exists, but the name has changed.) The basic idea was that applications to LACSD from people who knew the sheriff, or other department officials, would be reviewed through this program.

…having a separate hiring track for people who know sheriff’s officials actually helps prevent special treatment. After an FOS applicant’s background is investigated, he said, a final hiring decision is made by a special panel of commanders who are not informed of the applicant’s identity.

Among the people hired through this program: Justin Bravo, Sheriff Lee Baca’s nephew.

…Bravo was an FOS candidate, listed as “Sheriff Baca’s nephew” and noted as having a “459 arrest” — penal code for burglary — along with “DUI arrest, fight w/San Diego PD and theft.”

He was hired anyway. Wanna take a guess as to why this coming up now?

…the jail deputy is the subject of a Sheriff’s Department criminal probe into whether he abused an inmate. The incident, sheriff’s officials say, was caught on tape. Sources say FBI agents investigating the jails are also inquiring about Bravo.

A while back, I wrote about the case of Reverend John J. Hunter, who was transferred to the Bethel AME church, except Bethel didn’t want him for good and sufficient reasons.

Shoes are now dropping. Bethel AME officially fired Hunter. His petition to go back to his previous church, First AME in LA, has been rejected. And…

…Hunter has filed a civil lawsuit against church leaders in San Francisco for physically barring him from taking the pulpit.
The suit, which alleges assault, battery, libel and emotional distress, is the latest in Hunter’s public battle with members of the African Methodist Episcopal denomination. The 55-year-old pastor is seeking unspecified restitution exceeding $25,000.

And First AME, in turn, is suing Hunter, “alleging that Hunter, his wife and a small ‘cabal’ of church leaders misappropriated millions of dollars in church and nonprofit funds.”

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

Not ready for prime time motors.

Saturday, February 9th, 2013

I’m with Tam: I don’t care that much about a car’s power source, as long as it can do what I want it to do.

That said, I find this pretty amusing: a NYT reporter sets out to drive a Tesla Model S from Washington to Boston. Hilarity ensues.

The new charging points, at service plazas in Newark, Del., and Milford, Conn., are some 200 miles apart. That is well within the Model S’s 265-mile estimated range, as rated by the Environmental Protection Agency, for the version with an 85 kilowatt-hour battery that I drove — and even more comfortably within Tesla’s claim of 300 miles of range under ideal conditions. Of course, mileage may vary.

…

As I crossed into New Jersey some 15 miles later, I noticed that the estimated range was falling faster than miles were accumulating. At 68 miles since recharging, the range had dropped by 85 miles, and a little mental math told me that reaching Milford would be a stretch.
I began following Tesla’s range-maximization guidelines, which meant dispensing with such battery-draining amenities as warming the cabin and keeping up with traffic. I turned the climate control to low — the temperature was still in the 30s — and planted myself in the far right lane with the cruise control set at 54 miles per hour (the speed limit is 65). Buicks and 18-wheelers flew past, their drivers staring at the nail-polish-red wondercar with California dealer plates.

…

…I spent nearly an hour at the Milford service plaza as the Tesla sucked electrons from the hitching post. When I continued my drive, the display read 185 miles, well beyond the distance I intended to cover before returning to the station the next morning for a recharge and returning to Manhattan.

…

The displayed range never reached the number of miles remaining to Milford, and as I limped along at about 45 miles per hour I saw increasingly dire dashboard warnings to recharge immediately. Mr. Merendino, the product planner, found an E.V. charging station about five miles away.
But the Model S had other ideas. “Car is shutting down,” the computer informed me. I was able to coast down an exit ramp in Branford, Conn., before the car made good on its threat.

…

Tesla’s chief technology officer, J B Straubel, acknowledged that the two East Coast charging stations were at the mileage limit of the Model S’s real-world range. Making matters worse, cold weather inflicts about a 10 percent range penalty, he said, and running the heater draws yet more energy. He added that some range-related software problems still needed to be sorted out.

Posted in Cars, Clippings | 2 Comments »

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