"Family Guy" Writer Describes Being Arrested At Occupy LA

Some of the stories about the lead-footed chaos there are just coming out:

With us Occupy LA protestors, however, they set bail at $5,000 and booked us into jail. Almost none of the protesters could afford to bail themselves out. I’m lucky and I could afford it, except the LAPD spent all day refusing to actually *accept* the bail they set. If you were an accused murderer or a rapist in LAPD custody that day, you could bail yourself right out and be back on the street, no problem. But if you were a nonviolent Occupy LA protestor with bail money in hand, you were held long into the following morning, with absolutely no access to a lawyer.

Like Flying Squirrels, Or Space Shuttles, Or Something, But With Faster Decision-Making

I especially like some of these BASE jumping videos where the fliers somersault in midair, just to show they can!

Here, in the video above, there are endless close brushes with terrain.

Wind flow distorts as it moves past terrain - accelerating near the terrain in a sort of Bernoulli effect. They must be taking advantage of that acceleration, somehow. Faster wind speeds will help keep you aloft longer, if you fly into the wind. Otherwise, I see no great advantage to passing within a few feet of trees (besides getting the best camera footage ever).

These ravines! OMG! Have to think FAST! One error, and you're finished! And what if you collide with a pigeon? Or even a dragonfly?

Such decision-making. In the next video, the flyer decides to go right, instead of straight. If it was me, I'd probably go straight, and belly-flop right into the terrain feature. So, how did the flyer decide, and when?

Thelma & Clyde "Lockstitch"

Nice tune, that the BASE jumpers used in the second video I posted yesterday.

Baby Metal

It's late. The folks at WTF, Japan Seriously? will wake me up.

"This Christmas Day" - DMTC - Rock 'N' Roll Christmas 2011

"This Christmas Day" from DMTC's "Rock 'N' Roll Christmas", 2011.

A good subject, but not a particularly good video (the autofocus couldn't deal with the light fluctuations), but the audio is OK (excepting the last instant, when the camera's memory filled up).

Yearning To Fly

Just, wow!

But he's so close to the cliff face! It looks like one small error of judgment could be catastrophic! Maybe the wind helps....

I yearn to put one of these suits on, and jump off Sandia Crest. But are the Sandias steep enough? Dunno. Have to give it a try and find out!

Here are many BASE jumpers leaping at once!



Hmmm. List of fatalities.

The Thrifty GOP Primary - So Far

Apparently the 2012 GOP presidential primary election cycle is cheaper at this stage than the 2008 election cycle was:

Everyone knows that campaigns get more expensive every cycle; that is, we knew it until this year. As The Washington Post detailed last week, this has been the cheapest primary campaign in over a decade. Four years ago, the Republican candidates spent a total of $132 million through the September before voting began; this year they spent a mere $53 million. That combined total is less than one candidate, Mitt Romney, spent during that period four years ago. This year he spent a mere $18 million through September, compared with the nearly $54 million he spent through September 2007.

Kevin Drum speculates:

I can think of a few reasons why this might be:

• Despite the happy talk, GOP donors don't actually believe that Obama is that vulnerable. They don't want to waste their money on a lost cause, so they're reluctant to open their pocketbooks.
• The media landscape has changed more than we think, especially for conservatives. Over the past few years, they've discovered that they can run very effective campaigns by using free media (Fox News, talk radio, etc.) rather than paid ad buys on mainstream media. This is especially true in primary campaigns, where their sole audience is the conservative base.
• Big money donors don't have much of a dog in the race this year. This is because either (a) they like all the candidates and don't have a strong preference for any of them, (b) they dislike all the candidates and don't want to be associated with any of them, or (c) they just don't think it matters much because they're all pretty much saying the same things.
• These days, all the right-wing money is going into super PACs, which seem like a more effective force for promoting conservative goals than individual campaigns do.

Myself, I never understood why campaigns had to be so expensive in the first place. Maybe things are just getting more-efficient.

Dyer Went To Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge

Dyer takes the very best photos! Here, of Sandhill Cranes, at dawn.

Nancy Pelosi Knows About Newt Gingrich

It's all public, of course, but the details got hazy, and we need reminders:

Pelosi didn’t go into detail about Gingrich’s past transgressions, but she tipped her hand. “One of these days we’ll have a conversation about Newt Gingrich,” Pelosi said. “I know a lot about him. I served on the investigative committee that investigated him, four of us locked in a room in an undisclosed location for a year. A thousand pages of his stuff.”

Pressed for more detail she wouldn’t go further.

“Not right here,” Pelosi joked. “When the time’s right.”

FOX News Gets Extra NYPD Protection That Other Networks Don't

And it's not based on threat levels either. It looks like connections, and/or paranoia:

The Daily Beast has observed at least two, and up to three officers patrolling the News Corp. plaza with one or two police cars stationed in front of the 45-story building on a regular basis. A security guard inside the lobby of the News Corp. building said that the police presence out front “has nothing to do with Fox News,” and is there simply because it’s a “high-profile” area. Yet cops who spoke with The Daily Beast said that they are posted at the site to protect Fox News as part of a counterterrorism initiative. Most officers explained that Fox News is a sensitive location, and one even referred to it as a “political” network. Some ex-Fox News employees attribute the patrol to the “paranoia” of Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes.

Discreet New Mexico Bumblebee Makes Rare Appearance

Shhhh!:

The re-discovery of a rare species that hadn't been heard from in five decades is causing a buzz among scientists at the University of California, Riverside.

"Cockerell's bumblebee" was originally seen in 1913 when six specimens were found along the Rio Ruidoso in New Mexico.

University of California Riverside scientist, Douglas Yanega said Monday that only 16 were found over the years, all around Ruidoso and nearby Cloudcroft. The last one seen was in 1956.

Yanega says on Aug. 31, three specimens were found on weeds collected along a highway north of Cloudcroft. He says Cockerell's has the most limited range of any of the 50 bumblebee species in the world.

UCR scientists will use the specimens to attempt to prove Cockerell's is its own species and needs more attention.

A Plethora Of Heisenbergs

Andy send this article, describing another example of a 'real life Walter White' to add to the Cal State San Bernardino professor from last September.

You just know this is the tip of the Heisenberg iceberg. There is something about clandestine drug manufacture that appeals to the arrogant, misfit academic:

A 74-year-old math professor at two Boston universities is facing charges that she ran a methamphetamine lab with her son out of their home.

Irina Kristy, 74, teaches math at Boston University and Suffolk University, the Boston Globe reported Sunday. Suffolk University placed her on administrative leave last week after learning of the charges against her.

...Investigators searching the home they share in Somerville, Mass. -- about four miles northwest of Boston -- on Nov. 7 found evidence that meth was being made in the home. "A large amount of materials believed to be hazardous" were removed from the site, Somerville police said in a statement.

Deluka - Cascade (The Rapture Remix)

The Russians Will Supply Nome

Noel sends this article about a Russian Icebreaker that will try to break through the choking pack ice and supply Nome, Alaska with fuel.

Arctic weather is fine-tuned to defeat human intentions. It's so damned variable! Cold, winds, unexpected thaws: the Arctic has it all!

Several weeks ago, the fiercest storm since 1974 attacked the Alaskan shoreline. People lamented that the absence of pack ice was a true disaster. Some people blamed Global Warming for the ice's absence. Without the protection of the ice, the pounding surf caused by hurricane-force winds was gouging the shoreline. You couldn't even get close to the shoreline, with all the rocks and debris flying through the air.

But now, when it would be really nice to have ice-free seas to make fuel delivery convenient, THAT'S when the pack ice shows up!

Watch. When they lay out the fuel hose from the Icebreaker and start pumping fuel, THAT'S when the pack ice will start shifting. It's all part of the Arctic Maximum Inconvenience Principle:

The iced-in city of Nome on Alaska's western coast may be in luck: A Russian tanker that can plow through thick ice will try to deliver 1.5 million gallons of home heating fuel, gasoline and diesel fuel after a massive storm kept a barge from getting in before winter.

The vessel — which is certified to travel through ice 4 feet thick for long distances — delivers fuel to communities in the Russian Far East. The plan is for it to leave Russia this week and go to South Korea, where it will be loaded with fuel, and then travel to Nome, where it should arrive by late December.

If it can't make it into port, the tanker is equipped with a hose more than a mile for off-loading fuel.

It could save the 3,500 residents of the coastal city from a very costly winter, including predictions of $9-a-gallon gasoline if fuel had to be flown in.
Sitnasuak Native Corporation said Monday it signed a contract with Alaska-based Vitus Marine LLC to have the double-hulled Ice Classed Russian tanker, owned by Russian company Rimsco, deliver the petroleum products.

Sitnasuak board chairman Jason Evans said if the marine tanker succeeds, it will be the first time petroleum products have been delivered by sea in winter to a western Alaska community.

"It really came down to that one vessel that could possibly do the job. It just so happens it was available at the moment we needed it," Evans said.

Getting Spooked By The Low Precipitation

Not only is it drying out everywhere, but the forecast for this week seems to show that it won't rain or snow anywhere in the Lower 48 on Friday or Saturday. Anywhere at all!

La Niña is bitter and vindictive!

Meanwhile, In Japan

Trouble on the highway:

Eight Ferraris.

Two Mercedes.

One Lamborghini.

A rain-soaked highway.

And what one police officer described to the Bloomberg News wire as "a gathering of narcissists.”

The outing Sunday of luxury sportscar enthusiasts in Japan ended in a 14-car highway pileup, valued at more than $1 million, the Associated Press reported.

Amazing Drum Solo

Bumped into this while surfing StupidVideos.com.

Everyone Hates Them; No One Can Get Enough Of Them

The debt equivalent of hot dogs:

NEW YORK (AP) — Ask the people who invest billions for a living to name their favorite picks for 2012 and you'll get a smorgasbord worthy of a holiday party: Brazilian stocks, U.S. junk bonds, and government debt from Colombia. Ask them what they dislike and they'll name one of the top-performing investments this year: U.S. government bonds.

Investors can rattle off a long list of reasons to avoid Treasurys. They pay next to nothing and are bound to plunge in value whenever interest rates begin climbing from their historically low levels. It seems nobody likes Treasurys, yet everybody keeps buying them anyway.

...Bill Gross, the bond-world version of investment sage Warren Buffett, dropped nearly all Treasury holdings from the fund he manages at Pimco in early 2011. He argued that if Republicans held up lifting the government's borrowing limit, the country would risk default. Borrowing rates would spike as the world's investors dropped U.S. government debt, just as they have in Europe.

Most of what Gross predicted came true. The debt-limit fight raised worries about default and led to Standard & Poor's taking away the country's AAA credit rating in early August. But instead of spiking, U.S. borrowing rates plunged as traders sold everything else to buy U.S. government debt. The race into Treasurys helped drive the entire bond market up 3.8 percent from July to September. Gross got the big picture right but his big bet against Treasurys didn't pan out. Pimco's Total Return Fund lost 1.2 percent, its worst quarterly performance in three years.

...If there's so little to like about U.S. government bonds, why are the world's investors still buying Treasurys instead of dumping them? In a word, it's Europe.

As the crisis seemed to spread from country to country this year, the world's traders plowed more money into Treasurys. The higher the demand for U.S. debt, the lower the interest rate, or yield. So when it looked like Greece might default on its debts earlier this year, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note sank below 3 percent. And when attention turned to Italy and its government debts the yield sank even further, dipping below 2 percent in September. The shift of money out of Europe and into the U.S. has pushed Europe's borrowing rates to dangerous levels while causing U.S. interest rates to sink.

"You can hate the budget situation and hate the low yield, but if there's a panic it's the asset that outperforms," said Robert Robis, head of fixed-income strategy at ING Investment Management.

"Xanadu" Opened This Weekend

(Caption) Kitsch classic: Chloe Condon and Jesus Martinez in appear in the theatrical version of “Xanadu,” based on the campy 1980s cult movie starring Olivia Newton-John.





I can't wait to see "Xanadu"! Chloe is perfect for the role, and bound to do the show right!:

Dig out your legwarmers. “Xanadu,” the Olivia Newton-John movie musical from the 1980s, is rolling into The City — in a theatrical musical version in which roller skates and gaggle of Greek muses command the spotlight.

...The show, onstage in previews now, runs through Jan. 15 at the New Conservatory Theatre Center.

...“It’s a really funny show,” says Chloe Condon, who plays Clio/Kira. “People think of the movie and how strange and interesting it was, but this is pure fun.”

The story chronicles Sonny (Jesus Martinez) and his search for inspiration. Along comes Greek muse Clio and her sister muses — watch for clever casting — who disguises herself as Aussie-accented Kira (a la Newton-John) who dons roller skates, leg warmers and stops at nothing to help Sonny achieve his destiny of launching a hip roller disco.

...“What [the stage] lacks in length, it definitely makes up for in depth,” says Condon with a laugh about having to maneuver the space the actors to pull off some feats effectively.

“But to have to sing, act and roller skate all together … it’s been interest learning the new skills.”

...In the meantime, there’s only one more thing to know. Does Condon believe, as famed song goes, in magic?

“Of course!”

The CEO

The NY Review Of Books has an interesting article on Herman Cain. He sounds like a bit of an egotist:

The political press ascribes such failures to Cain’s inexperience, but his real problem is his vanity. An accurate assessment of his rise would have attributed it to conservative voters’ distrust of Mitt Romney first and foremost, and their looking to Cain for some of the reasons that have been noted here. But This Is Herman Cain! persuades me that the candidate saw his ascendance as inevitable, an electorate finally but merely coming to its senses. So he didn’t think he had to do anything more to close the deal. All those burgers hawked, all those manly pizzas peddled, all those millions banked; and yet, at the one moment in his life when he needed discipline the most, the CEO of Self crumpled.

Rock 'N' Roll Christmas - DMTC

Christmas music in the style of Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Andrea Eve Thorpe.

Helen Spangler and Ben Wormeli.

Jenny Reuter

Helen Spangler

Andrea Eve Thorpe

Gordon Jackson. (I haven't seen Gordon onstage since he performed in DMTC's "Big River", in 1999).

Ben Wormeli

Gordon Jackson, Scott Minor, and Josh Smith

Foreground: Andrea Eve Thorpe, Christina Gross, and Samantha Nakagaki. Background: Roger Clark, Ben Wormeli, and Jacob Hite.

Foreground: Gordon Jackson. Background: Jason Markel and Helen Spangler.

Hal Wright (who, incidentally, is my lawyer).

Most of the musicians and singers. Utsav Bhargava is unseen, at left. Left to right, Jason Markel, Helen Spangler, Andrea Eve Thorpe, Christina Gross, Gordon Jackson, Roger Clark (obscured), Jenny Reuter, Ben Wormeli, Joshua Smith, Jacob Hite (obscured), Samantha Nakagaki, Stacy Sheehan, Hal Wright, and Scott Minor.

Turn Your Back For A Minute, And: Leaves Everywhere!

Well, not precisely a minute. More like a long, windy week.

In any event, I now know how I'll spend my weekend!

"Tentacly"

A friend was conversing with me today, and she wanted to use the word "technically" in conversation. Oddly, the word didn't come out as "technically": it came out as "tentacly".

This was tentacly an error of speech, but it has much to recommend it - the imagery is great! - so I suggest we all adopt that usage, henceforth.

Thinking Tonight About Science Fiction

There was an interesting biography tonight on TV about science fiction author Philip K. Dick. Dick's paranoid style eventually won him many converts in Hollywood (Blade Runner; Minority Report), but he was only one of a large cohort of authors in the Sixties that shaped my worldview (e.g. Clifford D. Simak, Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov, etc.)

I stopped reading science fiction as a sophomore in college, so I hardly read much of what Dick wrote, but it got me to thinking about science fiction in general.

I remember being strangely affected by Philip Jose Farmer's short story called "Prometheus", first published in 1961, but republished in a 1971 collection of short stories called "Down In The Black Gang":

Prometheus is set in the 23rd Century and relates the misadventures of one John Carmody, a monk of the order of St. Jairus. Attacked by hoodlums in a zoo on Earth, Carmody has the misfortune to fall into the enclosure housing a horowitz - a giant bird from the planet Feral - which holds him down with one foot and proceeds to lay an egg on his chest! Carmody manages to escape from the closure, but discovers that the egg has put out tendrils and attached itself permanently to his chest!

Carmody's plight becomes a golden opportunity for zoologists, who believe the horowitzes to be the Galaxy's most intelligent nonsentient beings. Not only can they now study the embryo's development in the egg, but they also convince the hapless monk to go to Feral and impersonate a horowitz to help gather scientific data.

As a blogger, I sometimes feel like the hapless conman-turned-monk John Carmody, forced by accident to bear heavy burdens and destined to discover rather late in life his true calling: preaching to the Galaxy's most intelligent nonsentient beings. I can relate.

Progress Marches On

There once was a time, not long ago, when the rabble would shout insults at their betters, and their betters walked on, in blithe ignorance of the insults. But today, with the Internet, you can now irritate your betters, and they can hurl insults back. That's progress, of a sort.

My friend, Jetta, was skeptical of Roseanne Barr's argument in support of the Green Party, and she got a response:

@TheRealRoseanne In reality only one of these parties will win, your party is takeing away the Dems vote.

@JOstrofsky think again idiot-Im taking twice the votes from repubs-look into the fact that u can b smart and NOT a democrat

Progress!

Super Tush

Super size it!:

Florida police on Friday arrested a person suspected of administering dangerous and illegal butt-boosting shots – injecting at least one woman with a cocktail of substances including cement, glue and tire sealant.

The person is 30-year-old Oneal Ron Morris, who was born a man but who identifies as a woman. Morris is pictured above.

...“They agreed on the price of $700 for the procedure, which was intended for cosmetic purposes,” Bamford said.

What the woman got for her money was a series of injections containing a bizarre concoction of cement, super glue, mineral oil and Fix-A-Flat tire inflator and sealant, police said.

Bamford said that the procedure was conducted not in a clinic, but in a residential setting in Miami Gardens, and that shortly after the substance was injected into the woman’s body she developed what Bamford termed “severe complications.”

And what were those complications?:

She first went to Jackson North Medical Center in North Miami-Dade. The doctors looked her over, but were somewhat perplexed by her symptoms. She was afraid to tell them what she had done and left before they finished her exam. She then drove to North Shore Medical Center, where doctors also were mystified.

She again left before being treated and returned home. She unsuccessfully tried to reach Morris for several days.

Almost two weeks later, the victim’s mother saw a news report of a similar victim being treated at a hospital in Tampa.

With her daughter still sick, she drove her to Tampa General Hospital, where doctors treated her for what they believed was a staph infection. She finally told them what she had done and one of her doctors desperately tried to reach Morris to find out what was used so that they could treat the woman.

Jeesh, It Was Windy!

Bruce takes note of the ABQ wind:

[L]ink gives the low down and high down on strong winds in Duke City yesterday. They were really howling last night around our apartment in the Heights. Highest gust was 88 mph at Tram in Sandias yesterday afternoon, so they wisely shut it down.

However, we did have those incredible 135mph Santa Ana winds that blew off gas station roofs and knocked out power for more than 100,000 is LA and southern Calif. valley areas.

That’s interesting! It was pretty windy here in Sacramento too, as the low pressure system dug into the SW, but the winds here were not nearly as strong as in either S. CA, or it sounds like NM. Apparently Mammoth Mtn. saw winds in excess of 150 mph: so high they couldn’t accurately be measured.

Regarding precipitation, this winter season started promisingly enough in October, but since the beginning of November it's been so dry! La Nina's revenge! That damned equatorial phenomenon just won't quit! The dry weather is beginning to remind me of that dread drought year 1977 again. I hope things start looking up soon!

Frank Luntz Tries To Outflank The Occupy Movement

Struggling to catch up with the parade, by changing the meaning of all the language. But Luntz's cluelessness is telling. People know the bonuses are out there; it's just that they aren't getting any:

"I'm so scared of this anti-Wall Street effort. I'm frightened to death," said Frank Luntz, a Republican strategist and one of the nation's foremost experts on crafting the perfect political message. "They're having an impact on what the American people think of capitalism."

Luntz offered tips on how Republicans could discuss the grievances of the Occupiers, and help the governors better handle all these new questions from constituents about "income inequality" and "paying your fair share."

Yahoo News sat in on the session, and counted 10 do's and don'ts from Luntz covering how Republicans should fight back by changing the way they discuss the movement.

...BONUS:

Don't say 'bonus!'

Luntz advised that if they give their employees an income boost during the holiday season, they should never refer to it as a "bonus."

"If you give out a bonus at a time of financial hardship, you're going to make people angry. It's 'pay for performance.'"

E.'s Rescheduled Skelly Hearing Is In About Half An Hour

She is doomed!

The GOP Goes All Medieval On the Multimillionaires

Paul Krugman notes this:

In addition, Senate Republican leaders would go after “millionaires and billionaires,” not by raising their taxes but by making them ineligible for unemployment compensation and food stamps and increasing their Medicare premiums. Democrats said that this part of the Republican proposal was not serious, pointing out that high earners were already ineligible to receive food stamps.

Regarding The GOP Nominee Race

Bloggers offer their thoughts about Fox getting aggressive with Romney:

But Fox News is a really top down operation. And it plays favorites, just as much within GOP politics as between the two parties themselves. As I’ve mentioned before, one of the biggest undiscussed parts of the GOP primary process is the Murdoch primary. This is part of that.

And what does it say about Romney? It goes to a possibly pretty nasty line of attack against a newly vulnerable ‘frontrunner’ — basically that he can’t handle a fight or can’t take the heat. But in the always borderline-feral, gendered nature of campaign politics, even a bit more than that — that maybe Mitt’s not quite a man.

Nor is this out of character for Mitt. The guy doesn’t like getting questioned too hard or pressed too closely. That’s not altogether surprising given the life Mitt’s led. But he shows it. Remember the debate six weeks ago when Rick Perry finally took his geritol and managed to seriously get under Mitt’s skin on the illegal immigration issue? There’s a difficult to describe mix of surprise, put-off-edness and testiness that he exhibits in these cases.

For myself, I tend to look at these things from a regional point of view. Romney was going to be the Northern candidate. It was unclear who the Southern candidate was going to be, and after Cain and Perry both crashed, Murdoch decided to choose Gingrich. Both Murdoch and Gingrich are neo-Catholics, after all. They've shared a lot of history together.

Romney and Gingrich are probably about as evenly matched as they can be, so now it's up to the voters to decide who has the greatest national reach. If Fox is now in Gingrich's pocket, that's all the national reach he really needs to get the nomination.

Where this situation leaves ideological and social conservatives is unclear. Many seem to loathe both candidates. They seem to loathe Gingrich less, however, so who knows?