Friday, October 21, 2016
Unhappy With The Latest Weather Forecasts
They suggest rain everywhere in California early next week except for Sacramento, but I'll go with it, because rain is needed everywhere, and forecasts are sometimes wrong.
Disney Movie Sparks a Chess Boom in Uganda
Prodigies:
This is not an average chess academy. Wayward chickens wander around the boards balanced on rickety wooden benches in a cramped dirt alleyway, while neighbours look on from the porches of their tin-roofed homes.
This is Katwe, one of the largest slums in Uganda, and the scene of an unlikely chess revolution.
Since 2013, when Disney announced it was working on a feature film about a young Ugandan chess prodigy, the game's popularity has exploded here.
The Queen of Katwe tells the rags-to-riches story of Phiona Mutesi, a young, uneducated slum girl who first turned up at one of the Katwe Academy's chess sessions in 2005, mostly for the free porridge.
A few years later she became the first female winner of the country's junior chess championships and by the age of 17, she was representing Uganda at international competitions.
FEC Extends Election By 7 Months To Give Nation Chance To Better Get To Know Candidates
Let's kick this turd farther down the road:
“We believe the continuation of this election by just over half a year will provide Americans with the chance to fully acquaint themselves with both the character and policy positions of Secretary Clinton and Mr. Trump,” said FEC chairman Matthew S. Petersen, who expressed confidence that the American people would benefit greatly from over 200 extra days of election coverage, rallies, press conferences, and campaign ads. “Our commission has also worked with the CPD to schedule eight more presidential debates and three more town halls, so that there will be no question that every citizen is ready to cast their ballot by the time Election Day comes around on June 8, 2017.” The FEC added that it had not ruled out extending the election by an additional year if any U.S. voters were still undecided.
Mark Cuban Has A Theory
Mark Cuban's theory why Trump says the election is rigged is that Breitbart benefits:
‘We were there when the election was rigged, we had behind-the-scenes access. Come to Breitbart, come to our Breitbart TV online.’Basically, Cuban said, Bannon is working Trump.
Malheur Wormwood
One reason the FBI moved slowly against the militia that took over the Oregon bird refuge was they had infiltrated the group with 15 informants, and had no reason to move fast:
The trials of the first six defendants in the Bunditarian Militia Wildlife Refuge Liberation and Freedom Camporee is winding down, with closing arguments beginning today. The defense rested its case Monday, with testimony from a government informant who had infiltrated the group, saying he had overseen the shooting range the militia set up at the refuge, and that he taught the occupiers gun safety and “proficient use of a firearm.” The informant, Fabio Minoggio, who went by the name “John Killman” while with the Gang That Couldn’t Think Straight, must have done a pretty good job, since none of the marching morons accidentally shot him in the foot. The real surprise about the closing stages of the trial is the revelation that the government relied on 15 confidential FBI informants during the occupation, nine of whom were actually on site at the refuge at various points. That may be one reason the government didn’t move too aggressively to retake the refuge.
Needless to say, members of the “Patriot” movement are having themselves a fine old freakout about the number of informants, desperately trying to find out who the finks were and becoming even more paranoid than they had been. The Oath Keepers webpage, home of one armed pseudo-patriot group that seeks to overthrow the government, is sniffling that the government’s refusal to identify all the informants “contradicts the basic Constitutional right of the defendants to face their accusers”; the actual lawyers for the militia defendants offered the far more limited argument that they need to know the informants’ identities to mount an effective defense, since what if some of the more radical words and actions of the defendants were actually the result of provocation by a government agent?
Right-Wing Idiots With Their "Radical Islamic Terrorism"
This is EXACTLY why Obama, Clinton, and everyone with a clue never, ever says "radical Islamic terrorism." Uttering that phrase means the terrorists win, EVERY TIME! Just too easy to slip into a Crusader mentality and declare an unwinnable war against a billion people:
Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway strayed from her candidate's sober, even-minded approach to combating terrorism on Wednesday, saying that the Republican nominee would finally "defeat Islam" if elected president.
"Guys and Dolls" Memory
Attached a scanner to my computer, so stumbling back through time.Woodland Opera House's "Guys and Dolls", Oct. 19-Nov. 18, 2001.
'Gambler's Ballet'. Left to right. Lying down, Bruce Wallace and James Henderson. Standing and crouching, Tim Dannska, Dan Bello, Marc Valdez, Kyle Hadley, Ryan Gordon, Frank Hardin, Aaron Clemens, Lisa Gardner.
'Bushel and a Peck'. Clockwise from top, Sherri Dozier Adams (Adelaide), Jennifer Newman, Kathleen Reilley, Lisa Gardner, Elizabeth Hope. Center, Shanna Beauchamp.
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
Californians And Their Suicidal Ways
In California, people prefer guns for suicide more than homicide:
From 2009 through 2014, the number of people who used a gun to kill themselves in California actually outpaced the number who used a gun to commit homicide. That's largely because the homicide rate (3.2 per 100,000 in 2014) has fallen, while the suicide rate has remained steady (4.1 per 100,000 in 2014).
The California counties with the highest gun sales per capita also tend to be the counties with the highest firearm suicide rates, according to a Sacramento Bee review of state and federal data. In the 15 counties with the highest gun suicide rates, the annual rate of firearm sales between 2001 and 2015 was about 37 per 1,000 residents. That's more than triple the median rate in the 15 counties with the lowest gun suicide rates.
But correlation does not always equal causation. Suicide rates are highest among older, white men. So are gun ownership rates. Those two facts can both be true, but not related, if other factors are at play.
Monday, October 17, 2016
Worrisome Triple-Homicide
Worried about the nearby triple-homicide. This occurred outside the zone Bella and I used to frequent. One of the victims sometimes befriended the homeless, so if a homeless person's to blame, there's no reason why that person couldn't be nearby:
Ferrell said his son always befriended the homeless and lost or injured animals.
“James was a young man who would bring homeless people home,” said the elder Ferrell. “We would keep them for a few days. He was sensitive. He was always like that as a child.”
Wrong Clown
Homeowner reports knife-wielding clown. Police investigate and indeed find a clown, but it was the wrong clown. Police arrest homeowner on weapons and narcotics charges:
Deputies did discover a man with a clown mask hiding in some bushes a few blocks away from where the warning shots were fired — a sighting “unusual for that time of morning,” Myers said.
However, “the homeowner didn’t identify this clown as the correct clown,” Myers said. “His guy had a full clown costume and a mask, and the clown he saw was taller.”
A Night's Sleep Lost
Failed to ask myself what could go wrong with heaping helpings of Five Bean Soup.
"I Am A Big Fan Of Hindu"
Jeebus, save us! (good performances, though):
Last night, the Republican Hindu Coalition in New Jersey held a charity event titled Humanity United Against Terror, with Donald Trump as the chief guest.
The benefit was held for victims of terrorism in Kashmir and elsewhere in the subcontinent.
The event featured performances from celebrities across the Indian film industry, including Prabhu Deva, Shriya Saran, and Malaika Arora Khan.
Surprise! A Wet October in Sactown!
Rain total for October at Sacramento Executive Airport so far is 2.01 inches, well-above the average of 0.92 inches, and the best since 2009's 3.24 inches!
We have a good shot at beating the 2009 level. Forecasts show a Pineapple-Express-type system coming up in about 9 days, so the end of the month will be wet.
We have a good shot at beating the 2009 level. Forecasts show a Pineapple-Express-type system coming up in about 9 days, so the end of the month will be wet.
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