Archive for January 3rd, 2014

Legal update part 2.

Friday, January 3rd, 2014

Gerhard Becker has pled guilty to involuntary manslaughter and been sentenced to serve one year in jail. With time served and time off for good behavior, it seems likely he will go free in six months.

I’ve written about this case previously. For those who don’t recall: Becker was an architect who remodeled a home in Hollywood Hills. After the final inspection, and after having lied to the inspectors, Becker installed fire pits designed for outdoor use inside the home. The home eventually caught fire, and Glenn Allen, a firefighter with the LA Fire Department, was fatally injured while fighting the fire. Allen’s death resulted in the charge against Becker.

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TMQ watch: December 31, 2013.

Friday, January 3rd, 2014

More “we’re just not feeling the clever this week”. Might as well just open the box. After the jump, this week’s TMQ…

(more…)

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Legal update part 1.

Friday, January 3rd, 2014

The lawsuit by Alexander Calder’s heirs against his former dealer has been dismissed.

In a decision dated Dec. 23, Judge Shirley Werner Kornreich wrote that “all of these allegations are so patently inadequate that the court can only conclude that they were brought solely for the purposes of harassment or embarrassment, without any consideration of their legal sufficiency.”
The judge also invoked the statute of limitations, writing that the plaintiffs were trying to litigate issues that stretched back “decades without any personal knowledge or contemporaneous records, where nearly all of the people who had personal knowledge of the facts are dead.”

(Previously.)

(I expect to have a second legal update later today; I’m just waiting on events.)

Posted in Art, Clippings, Law | Comments Closed

New year, new list.

Friday, January 3rd, 2014

I wasn’t all that wild about what the NYT did with this year’s “The Lives They Led” obituary roundup.

But this, this is a swell article:

But the diesel engine was too loud, and the Anna Mary, on autopilot, moving due south at six and a half knots, was already out of reach, its navigation lights receding into the night. Aldridge shouted once more, panic rising in his throat, and then silence descended. He was alone in the darkness. A single thought gripped his mind: This is how I’m going to die.

One aspect of this that fascinates me: the Coast Guard’s use of computers in search and rescue.

The Coast Guard has used computer simulations in search and rescue since the mid-1970s, but Sarops has been in use since only 2007. At its heart is a Monte Carlo-style simulator that can generate, in just a few minutes, as many as 10,000 points to represent how far and in what direction a “search object” might have drifted. Operators input a variety of data, from the last known location of a lost mariner to the ocean currents and wind direction. Sarops then creates a map of a search area — in this case, of the ocean south of Montauk — with colored squares representing each potential location for the search object. Red and orange squares represent the most likely locations; gray squares represent the least likely.

Posted in 2014, Clippings, Food, Geek, Lobsters, Reading list | 1 Comment »

Firings watch.

Friday, January 3rd, 2014

Carol Ross, head coach of the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks, was fired yesterday.

Well, actually, she was laid off. Along with her staff. And the entire front office staff.

And the team’s current owner has said that they are “no longer in a position” to continue with the team.

Asked if the Sparks would field a team for the 2014 season, or if the franchise would fold, [WNBA President Laurel] Richie repeatedly said that several entities have expressed an interest in owning a WNBA team and the league is exploring those options regarding the Sparks.

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Random notes: January 3, 2014.

Friday, January 3rd, 2014

WE’RE ALL GOING TO DIE!*

(* Offer not valid outside of New York City.)

I’m not sure I understand the point of this article. Ostensibly, it is about the supposed economic impact on the neighborhood businesses of “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” closing.

But even a full house at the 1,930-seat Foxwoods, the biggest Broadway theater, is just a drop in the bucket of the roughly 400,000 people moving through Times Square daily at this time of year.
And it can be hard to determine just where audience members for “Spider-Man” — some 89 percent of whom are from out of town, according to the show’s most recent research — have been spending their dollars, though some businesses popular with tourists seeking a classic Broadway experience say the show’s absence will be felt.

So it doesn’t seem like the NYT has any way to quantify the impact, just a bunch of anecdotes from businesses in the neighborhood. Some of them expect reduced business, others say they expect people (especially actors) to keep showing up. Is there a point?

Strippers. Always with the strippers.

The new agreement freed the 16 clubs involved in the lawsuits from abiding by the 1997 law and required the owners to contribute $1 million annually to a unit in the Houston Police Department devoted to fighting human trafficking. But a number of religious leaders and advocates for sex-trafficking victims have opposed the deal. They said it sent the wrong message about Houston’s tolerance for such entertainment, and allowed the 16 clubs to buy their way out of complying with the law. The Houston Area Pastor Council is considering suing the city over the agreement.

Is that $1 million from each club, or $1 million total? And is it just me, or is there something odd about private businesses giving money to the police department to enforce the law?

Posted in Clippings, Hysteria, Law, Theatre | Comments Closed