Archive for March, 2013

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I have no joke here, I just like saying…

Saturday, March 16th, 2013

…there are snakes in Ireland.

During the Celtic Tiger boom, snakes became a popular pet among the Irish nouveaux riches, status symbols in a country famous for its lack of indigenous serpents. But after the bubble burst, many snake owners could no longer afford the cost of food, heating and shelter, or they left the country for work elsewhere. Some left their snakes behind or turned them loose in the countryside, leading to some startling encounters.

Posted in Clippings, Reptiles, Snakes | Comments Closed

“…a community of knife geeks”

Saturday, March 16th, 2013

Just noticed in the LAT (sorry): a profile of Jonathan Broida.

Mr. Broida runs a shop in Venice (California, not Italy) called Japanese Knife Imports. But:

Walk into his shop as a novice and he won’t just sell you a knife. He’ll want to sit down at the low table in the center of the room, preferably over genmaicha tea served in a lovely ceramic tea bowl, made by his wife Sara’s family in northern Japan, and explore your relationship to knives. Call him a knife shrink. What sorts of things do you like to cook? How are your knife skills? What kinds of things do you cut? What sort of cutting board do you have? What other knives do you own? How comfortable are you with sharpening your own knife?

Mr. Brodia used to be a professional cook, and caters to that community.

With a degree in Asian studies, he had started cooking for a living, and at one point went to work in Japan. There, he asked his chef to show him how to sharpen his knife. Big mistake. Soon he was expected to sharpen everybody’s knives, he says with a laugh. But he learned, and he got better at it.
Every chef he met had a different technique. But they were still chefs who sharpened knives, he explains, not professional knife sharpeners. And there’s a big difference. As he got more interested, he sought out craftsmen who could show him more. During that process he found father-son professional sharpeners who were the best he’d ever seen. And he still goes back every year to work with them.

And that’s the key to his shop. He’s less interested in selling you a knife:

The most important thing, he says, is knowing how to sharpen. He can do it for you, but it’s better if you learn yourself. “There’s always a level of disconnect with your tools if you don’t sharpen your own, and that bothers me.”

This is one of my many character flaws. My father tried to teach me to sharpen knives on a whetstone when I was younger, but I didn’t have the patience to learn. These days, I think I could sharpen a knife if I had to, but I have a lot of trouble holding the knife at a constant angle. I’ve tried various gadgets, but what I end up doing is taking my knives to a local knife shop or the gun show when they need to be sharpened. That’s the lazy man’s way of working; I feel like I should be better than that.

And, interestingly, Japanese Knife Imports has a YouTube channel with sharpening demonstrations.

I’m not going to California any time soon (I don’t have a passport, so I can’t travel outside of the United States), but this place sounds like somewhere I could drop a lot of money fast.

Posted in Clippings, Food, Geek, Knives | 2 Comments »

Some people have all the luck.

Friday, March 15th, 2013

For example, former Harris County DA Pat Lykos, who escaped grand jury indictment once again.

The Harris County grand jury’s decision to end its term without action ends a yearlong probe. It was initiated when the Texas Rangers asked for a special prosecutor to look into allegations that members of the Lykos administration had investigated members of another grand jury who spent six months looking into evidence collected by the Houston Police Department’s troubled breath alcohol testing vehicles.

More background is available by clicking the “HCDA” category. Also, Murray Newman has a few words to say.

Posted in Clippings, HCDA, Law | Comments Closed

Your loser update.

Friday, March 15th, 2013

For the record: Grambling played their SWAC tournament game Wednesday night…and lost, finishing the season 0-28.

Meanwhile, Liberty University (of Jerry Falwell fame) started the season 0-8. But:

With four consecutive upsets, each one a little more astounding than the last, Liberty won the Big South tournament and barged into the N.C.A.A. tournament with a 15-20 record.

(I don’t place bets before the brackets are announced, but I’m thinking this is Gonzaga’s year. Just an aside.)

Posted in Clippings, Loser, Sports, Wagers | Comments Closed

Austin area blogmeet March 23rd?

Friday, March 15th, 2013

Lawrence and I are discussing doing an Austin area blog meetup on Saturday, March 23rd. We’ve tentatively discussed meeting at 6 PM at the Mangia Pizza on Mesa Drive. (I can provide directions if anyone needs them.) I think we’d both be open to other venues; however, we do want to stay away from downtown Austin due to SXSW, so we are kind of thinking either somewhat north or somewhat south.

Does this date work for folks? Is there general interest in doing a blog meetup and dinner? Let me know by email (stainles [at] gmail.com works well) or in the comments here.

Posted in Admin | Comments Closed

…saves you from trial!

Thursday, March 14th, 2013

A while back, I wrote about the case of Robert Carroll Gillham, who set fire to a Gallery Furniture store, doing $20 million in damage, and was diagnosed with a brain tumor while awaiting trial.

The HouChron has an update on the case. Good news: Mr. Gillham’s brain tumor was removed.

Good or bad news, depending on how you look at it: Mr. Gillham probably will never stand trial on the charges.

“An expert has found him incompetent and unlikely to regain competence and neither side is disputing that,” said Brett Podolsky, his attorney. “Both sides are working on an agreed order for a lengthy civil commitment.”

Summarizing, the damage that the tumor did before it was removed, the side effects of the removal, and Mr. Gillham’s age have left him in a state where both sides agree he’s not competent to stand trial.

Noted:

Gallery Furniture and [Jim] McIngvale, its colorful pitchman, are well-known Houston icons. He said Wednesday he was disappointed by the development, but had no quarrel with the criminal justice system.
“We wanted to get this behind us, and get some closure on this,” McIngvale said. “But the court system is the court system and if they say he’s incompetent, we certainly respect whatever the court system rules.”

That’s actually a pretty classy statement for a man who had $20 million worth of stuff burned up.

Posted in Clippings, Law, Neuroscience | Comments Closed

Banana republicans on trial: March 14, 2013.

Thursday, March 14th, 2013

The jury is still out in the Bell trial.

The LAT‘s “LA Now” blog ran an article yesterday speculating on the possibility of deadlock.

Over the last 2-1/2 weeks, they have struggled to reach a verdict that would answer the basic question: Could those salaries — which approached $100,000 — be excessive and still be legal?

Wouldn’t that be a kick in the head?

The general rule of thumb when it comes to deliberations tends to be one day for every week of testimony, said veteran defense attorney Paul Wallin. Anything longer, he said, is a strong sign of a hung jury or at least a deadlock on some counts.

Yesterday was day 13 of deliberations, according to the LAT. (It looks like they’re not counting the week of deliberations which ended with one juror being replaced and the judge ordering a restart.)

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

Happy Pi Day!

Thursday, March 14th, 2013

My celebration is subdued this year, for various reasons, but I hope all of you have a good day. I also hope that you have some pie today, whether you go out somewhere or bake your own. (And if you feel like baking your own, once again I’ll link to the King Arthur Flour pie crust video.)

Also, the good folks at O’Reilly are offering 50% off on “science and math” ebooks today, just in case you see something you’re interested in.

Posted in Books, Geek | Comments Closed

And as long as we’re on the subject of California…

Tuesday, March 12th, 2013

I have often heard the accusation that the Better Business Bureau is more interested in money than protecting customers. That is, if you’re a business that pays enough money to the BBB, you’re guaranteed a high rating, and customer complaints against you might just magically disappear.

I’ve never been able to prove that to my satisfaction. But in at least one case, I don’t have to.

The BBB of the Southland was expelled Tuesday from the national organization, losing the right to use the BBB name and logo.

The BBB of the Southland is the branch that covers LA and the surrounding area. Why did they get kicked out? Some folks may remember this:

In 2010, a group of Los Angeles business owners that had been critical of the BBB conducted a sting operation by paying dues for fake companies, including one named after the Palestinian organization, Hamas, which the U.S. government considers a terrorist group.
The fake businesses were all accredited and given ratings, according to the ABC News report. Hamas received an A-minus rating.

Ken over at Popehat covered this in more detail at the time. I haven’t seen an update from him, but I don’t blame Ken, as he’s been tied up with the whole Prenda Law saga. (If you haven’t been following Prenda Law, I recommend checking Popehat; the entire saga is way to complex for me to summarize here, and Ken’s done a pretty good job of doing so over there.)

Posted in California Über Alles, Clippings, Law | 1 Comment »

Banana republicans on trial: March 12, 2012.

Tuesday, March 12th, 2013

I’ve been thinking about posting an update for a couple of days now, but have held off. Why? The update boils down to: the jury is still deliberating.

Today’s events: one of the jurors is sick, so they’re taking the day off. More updates will follow as things happen. At this point, I’d bet on a mistrial.

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

Failed cities.

Tuesday, March 12th, 2013

How did Detroit get where it is today? How inept do you have to be at running a city to get there?

…recent findings from a state-appointed review team and interviews with past and present city officials also suggest a city that over the years was remarkably badly run.
The state review team found in recent months that the city’s main courthouse had $280 million worth of uncollected fines and fees. No one could tell the team how many police officers were patrolling the streets, even though public safety accounted for a little more than half the budget. The city was borrowing from restricted funds and keeping unclaimed property that it was required to turn over to the state. In some city departments, records were “basically stuff written on index cards,” as one City Council member put it.

Posted in Clippings | Comments Closed

Lying liars who lie.

Monday, March 11th, 2013

Yesterday’s NYT ran an article about conflicted gun owners, “For Some, Owning Guns Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Liking Them“.

The article leads off with Michael Kundu:

Mr. Kundu is a master marksman from rural Washington who owns pistols and assault rifles for self-defense, all while claiming to detest the presence of guns in his life and in the broader American culture.

More:

In Mr. Kundu’s case, the conflict is that he enjoys competitive shooting even as he perceives danger in what he describes as a local arms race that he feels powerless to escape.

I would have gone after this story yesterday, but I didn’t for two reasons. I was out and about much of the day, and Sebastian already did.

You see, there’s no evidence that Kundu is a competitive shooter:

Kundu claims to be a master marksman in Washington State. The governing body for that kind of shooting is the NRA or WSRPA. Most competitive shooters will have match results online somewhere, especially at that level. So I decided I would start digging. If he is truly ranked Master in high-power, someone should have heard of him, or shot with him, and there should be a record. When you do that kind of competition, and are ranked highly, you’ve shot with an awful lot of people in an awful lot of matches. I couldn’t find any match results indicating this guy is a serious competitor, but what I did find destroys the whole NYT narrative.

Yeah, it gets better. Kundu is also involved with the Sea Shepherd people. You know, the anti-whaling activists? The ones that the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals calls “pirates”?

There’s more over at Shall Not Be Questioned, including what it really takes to get a handgun in California. (Hint: it isn’t easier than getting a iPhone, unless you’re a lying liar who lies, like John Flores and Patricia Speed.) I encourage you to go read the whole thing. My hope is that Sebastian has made the NYT public editor aware of Susan Saulny’s dishonesty; not that I think it will matter much, but I haven’t had all hope beaten out of me yet.

Posted in Clippings, Guns, Media | Comments Closed

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