Muted Bells

I like the precision of "Better Call Saul" shots. Just really hard to fine-tune these views. For example, in the episode 'Nailed,' an agitated Nacho calls Mike, asking to meet. The view faces out the windows of Loyola's Restaurant, with Nob Hill's bell-shaped street lamps in the distance.

In general, in "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul," bells signify danger, but despite Nacho's agitation, there is little real danger here: Mike has the situation fully in hand. So, how to defuse the danger symbolism of the bells seen in the distance?

What the film crew has done is to arrange that the mouths of most of the bells are obscured by the Venetian blinds. There is some danger here, of course, but it is muted.

Just arranging this shot must have taken some doing.

How to Draw an Elephant Using Trigonometry

This article is a big surprise to me. I would never have suspected it:

Steven Piantadosi of the University of Rochester has produced a simple equation with one variable that is “not novel mathematically” but can perfectly fit any set of scatterplot points.

As long as you pick your value of θ with extreme precision, this equation will provide a fit of any data, no matter how complex. Piantadosi demonstrates how this works by fitting a scatterplot of an elephant:

The Adventures of a Bum in Manhattan

Fake it till you make it:

That turned out to be a promise. Over the next few weeks, Delvey stopped by often to ask Neff’s advice, slipping her $100 each time. Neff would wax on about how Mr. Purple was totally washed and Vandal was for hipsters, while Delvey’s eyes would flit around behind her glasses. Eventually, Neff realized: Delvey already knew all the cool places to go — not only that, she knew the names of the bartenders and waiters and owners. “This is not a guest that needs my help,” it dawned on her. “This is a guest that wants my time.”

My New Nemesis

This crow buzzed me as I approached Step One. Apparently has people issues. Probably a mama bird, with a baby nearby:

Tuesday Afternoon Waiting On Tires

And wandering around downtown Sacramento, in particular, Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, Ballroom at Elks Temple, 11th & J St (I didn’t know anything about this room, but it was just cool that the doors were open), Sacramento Public Library, Cesar Chavez Park, and California EPA building.

Parisian Rescue

Blowout!

After visiting Erlynda and Chris in Granite Bay, it was time to head to Davis for two DMTC Committee meetings. I headed west on Interstate 80 across the top of town.

As I drove west at high freeway speeds (70 mph+) the truck began handling worse and worse. There was an intense vibration going on. I exited at Norwood Avenue and made a cursory inspection of the tires, but saw nothing, so I got back on the freeway. The vibration was worse than ever, so I abandoned the idea of driving to Davis. I exited at Northgate and started heading south, back to the house, on surface streets.

I didn't get far. POP!!! Blowout! I pulled into the parking lot of a Les Schwab tire store that just happened to be there. Must be fate. I bet they're having a "blowout" sale.

Helicopter circling nearby. Maniac wailing nearby in KFC parking lot. I see maniac; maniac sees me. Should be a fun evening. Decided to call AAA. If that failed, I would instead walk to light rail and head home.

AAA guy.

Response was pretty rapid.

This tire has seen better days.

The AAA guy changed the tire. He was hesitant about the spare tire - cracked and 25 years old - but it got me home, at least.

Time to buy tires.

Continuing To Work on New "Breaking Bad" Book

For November 2018 release.

"Bring Yo Body Come" - Voice Mail

Ah, the challenge of picking up choreography on the fly! (Margaret Gidding Memorial Service Reception - Step One, 5/26/18).

"The Rider"

A really good film. Set on the Pine Ridge Reservation of South Dakota.

Trumpnapping is the Next Step After Trump Steaks

Making bucks by pimping kids to campaign contributors:

Which story sounds better: Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions continue their white nationalist policies by destroying refugee and undocumented immigrant families, or Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions let missing children fall prey to sex traffickers? If you can’t figure out which is the better conspiracy, imagine any of this happening at this level—the missing children, the separation of families and lack of concern for finding them—under the Obama administration.

Memorial Service Reception For Margaret Gidding

Food from Los Jarritos.

Pepper Von MCs.

A slide show of people’s pictures of Margaret. This is my picture of Margaret with Laure Courtellemont.

Lots of dancing and socializing. — at Step I Dance & Fitness.

Today’s cleanup OCD challenge: organizing the weights.

Carolanne Marie has the strength and the willingness to rescue Pepper Von from harm. — with Carolanne Marie at Step I Dance & Fitness.

Memorial Service For Margaret Gidding

Laure Courtellemont’s Sacramento Workshop - May 25, 2018

Shannon Gilbert with Laure Courtellemont.

A Learning Process - Laure Courtellemont’s Sacramento Workshop - May 25, 2018

Dance Circle - Laure Courtellemont’s Sacramento Workshop - May 25, 2018

Not Enough Horns in the World

Horns go well with speakers (h/t Karen):

Teen Girls Acting Shady in Target

Pushing a shopping cart fast as if fearing pursuit. But what pursuit? By whom? The Big Red Ball? Rover from “The Prisoner”? The world of teen girls is a mystery.

Florida Outlook

Currently it looks like rains will start increasing in the Tampa area from the Caribbean storm about mid-afternoon Saturday - about 2 p.m.

There are indications the tropical low in the Caribbean is strengthening. The models split on how much strengthening will occur. The NVG model suggests the system will become a tropical storm by Sunday evening, and hover for awhile off the Alabama coast before either coming onshore near Pensacola on Monday evening, or sliding west towards Houston, TX. The GFS model suggests the system will remain too broad to be anything but a tropical depression, so no tropical storm. Either way, the tropical moisture superhighway will span Florida the entire time.

The Walter White of Wichita

He never went to college, but he became the evil genius behind fentanyl:

Fentanyl is so deadly that it’s nearly impossible to cut or create safely in a clandestine setting. But someone was doing just that: It appeared to investigators that an enterprising individual had cracked the prescription’s recipe in an illegal lab and was now selling his secret to drug dealers and other “cooks.”

They were right. Their man was a onetime science-fair champion and self-taught chemist in Wichita, Kansas, named George Marquardt.

...“I am not a pharmacist,” he said. “I am not an M.D. I'm a fellow that will manufacture a chemical compound if you have a sufficiently large quantity of money.”

More Birds, Less Evaporation

One a.m., and I was watering plants out front. A car approached and dodged around several parking barriers placed in the street for the inscrutable daily street construction. The car finally parked. A couple emerged, and the woman immediately began interrogating me with crisp directness. “Sir, why are you out here watering plants at one a.m.?” I was at a loss for words. “Why?” she persisted. I finally stuttered, “Because it seems like a good time to water plants.” She replied, “Is this when you also feed the birds?” Dun-dun-dun, she knows my daily habits! “No, that’s for the daytime,” I exclaimed, hoping to appear less daft than I act, without also explaining the embarrassing number of pigeons clogging the neighborhood telephone wires these days or the drawbacks of the nightly feeding habits of the local skunks. Her mate came to the rescue and said, “Less evaporation at night.” Yeah, like he said!

Basta!

Just love this!

Commemoration Coin

I like the Korean Summit Commemoration Coin the trump administration had struck, for a summit that may not happen because the North Koreans already got pretty much all they wanted.

Oklahoma Woman Killed by Pack of Seven Small Dogs

I'm not surprised something like this can happen. I remember an unsettling incident in Tucson in 2012. My friend was showing me her 5 dogs in her back yard, when the phone rang. She went inside to take the call and closed her sliding glass door, leaving me alone outside with the 5 unfamiliar, moderately-sized dogs.

The dogs began circling me and muscling me all around, probing for weakness. I moved slowly, and tried to avoid getting pushed over, potentially setting off a pack attack. Locked in the dogs' embrace, I couldn't manage to get over to the sliding glass door.

The phone call took forever. Eventually my host came back outside, and unaware there was any issue at all, distracted the dogs from their 'play.'

ARDMORE, Okla. -- Authorities are investigating whether criminal charges should be filed after an Oklahoma woman was mauled to death by seven small dogs, most of them possibly a dachshund-terrier mix.

Carter County Sheriff Chris Bryant says 52-year-old Tracy Garcia was killed last week near her home outside Ardmore, about 90 miles south of Oklahoma City.

Money Talked, And They Listened

Skyler needed to bank with these guys out of the Netherlands. I wonder if they’re a subsidiary of Madrigal?:

A Roseville subsidiary of a Dutch banking company was sentenced Friday for concealing flaws in its anti-money-laundering program and later providing misleading information about the program when investigated by federal regulators, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

As a result, the bank blocked or delayed investigations into roughly $370 million worth of suspicious transactions near the U.S.-Mexico border believed to be tied to narcotics trafficking and organized crime, the press release said.

The company, Rabobank National Association, is known as a leader in agricultural lending throughout California and employed more than 200 workers in Roseville in 2014, a Sacramento Bee story said. Its parent company, Rabobank Group, operates out of the Netherlands.

...Rabobank admitted to making the changes to its anti-money laundering polices in 2009. Over the next three years, those policies allowed transactions that were previously considered high-risk, such as high quantity cash deposits and withdrawals, check transactions, and electronic transfers, to go unreported or face delayed reporting to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

Meanwhile, the bank's branches in California's Imperial County depended on cash coming from Mexico that, according to the press release, the bank likely knew was tied to drug trafficking and organized crime. The bank continued to work with the cash-heavy customers from Mexico while ignoring proper procedures that address high-risk transactions until about 2013.

Who They Callin' Shorty?

Laure Will Be Here This Weekend!

These days, she's choreographing wonderful dances, like this one for SYTYCD - Next Gen:



Get registered for SACRAMENTO OR OAKLAND HERE!

Friday May 25 Sacramento

Sunday May 27 Oakland

Yes, I DO Need Curtains!

Weekend Wetness in Florida

First indication that the hypothetical system exists. Currently called Disturbance #1. National Hurricane Center (NHC) says:

Special Tropical Weather Outlook
NWS National Hurricane Center Miami FL
830 AM EDT Mon May 21 2018

For the North Atlantic...Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico:

1. Widespread cloudiness and showers extending from the northwestern Caribbean Sea across Cuba and the Florida peninsula are associated with the interaction of a large upper-level low with a weak surface trough. While environmental conditions are expected to be unfavorable for development during the next couple of days, some gradual development is possible later this week while the system moves into the central or eastern Gulf of Mexico. Regardless of development, locally heavy rainfall is possible across western Cuba and Florida over the next several days. For more information on the heavy rain threat, please see products issued by your local weather office. The next Special Tropical Weather Outlook on this system will be issued by 800 PM EDT tonight.
* Formation chance through 48 hours...low...near 0 percent.
* Formation chance through 5 days...low...20 percent.

Even though NHC believes chances of development are low, the system is a rainmaker, and there is a reasonable chance development might occur anyway. The forecasts continue to be scattershot regarding a path. Currently the GFS model brings the system directly over Tampa on the weekend, but the NVG model brings the system farther west, missing Tampa with the worst rain, and revving up to a tropical storm before crashing into the Biloxi, MS coast. So, it looks like this week will be wet in Florida, with the coming weekend particularly wet.

Rats!

"RBG"

Ruth Bader Ginsburg went about her work very methodically, laying down markers in the law as she went. Showing now at the Tower.

Oh, Beautiful Person, Wherefore Art Thou?

Spin-Dry That Cash!

Skyler needed to bank with these guys out of the Netherlands. I wonder if they’re a subsidiary of Madrigal?:

A Roseville subsidiary of a Dutch banking company was sentenced Friday for concealing flaws in its anti-money-laundering program and later providing misleading information about the program when investigated by federal regulators, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

As a result, the bank blocked or delayed investigations into roughly $370 million worth of suspicious transactions near the U.S.-Mexico border believed to be tied to narcotics trafficking and organized crime, the press release said.

The company, Rabobank National Association, is known as a leader in agricultural lending throughout California and employed more than 200 workers in Roseville in 2014, a Sacramento Bee story said. Its parent company, Rabobank Group, operates out of the Netherlands.

Santa Fe High School Shooting

Time to roll out the conservative excuses for inaction in the face of the most dire need.

Florida Rain Event Approaches

Forecasts are beginning to moderate, and become more-predictable. Currently, the forecast is for a tropical depression to emerge from the Caribbean, not a tropical storm, with a rain event covering southern Florida (including Tampa), starting Thursday evening, May 24th, with possibly a second rain event following up in early June.

Philanthropic Greed

Silicon Valley gives big to philanthropy, but that money gets locked up, not spent. Defeats the purpose of philanthropy:

Yet Sacred Heart Community Service, a San Jose nonprofit that helps low-income families with food, clothing, heating bills, and other services, actually received less in individual donations from the community in 2017 than it did the previous year. “We’re still not sure what it could be attributed to,” Jill Mitsch, the funds development manager at Sacred Heart, told me. It’s not the only nonprofit trying to keep donations up—the United Way of Silicon Valley folded in 2016 amidst stagnant contributions.

That’s not to say that Silicon Valley’s wealthy aren’t donating their money to charity. ... But much of that money is not making its way out into the community.

There are many reasons for this, but one of them is likely the increasing popularity of a certain type of charitable account called a donor-advised fund. These funds allow donors to receive big tax breaks for giving money or stock, but have little transparency and no requirement that money put into them is actually spent.

...Donor-advised funds are categorized by law as public charities, rather than private foundations, so they have no payout requirements and few disclosure requirements. Because they’re categorized as public charities, donors can give a higher share of their income to these funds than they could to a private foundation, which can help them avoid taxes.

Starry Night

Trump Appeases the North Koreans

Trump throws John Bolton under the bus. Probably not enough, though:

“The Libyan model isn’t a model that we have at all,” Trump told reporters during a photo session with the visiting secretary general of NATO. “We decimated that country.” By contrast, if the U.S. reaches a deal with North Korea, Kim will “get protections that would be very strong,” Trump said. “He will have very adequate protection.”

A Good Time To Pile On

Aaron Schlossberg, POS:

On his Linkedin profile, Aaron Schlossberg says he studied abroad in Madrid, Spain, while in college. He also writes that he speaks four languages, French, Hebrew, Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. On his law firm’s website, Schlossberg promotes his ability to speak those languages to his clients.

“Aaron M. Schlossberg doesn’t seem to mind people who speak other languages when he can make money from them,” one Twitter user commented. Another seconded that statement, tweeting, “For the record, I’d like to point out that when the ball bag Aaron M. Schlossberg wants your money, he gladly speaks numerous languages.” And a third tweeted, “Anyone else notice Schlossberg’s website? Does he call ICE after he takes your money? #DespicableHumanBeing”

Don't Underestimate Hawaiian Volcanoes

RIP, Margaret Gidding

Many fond memories. RIP, Margaret Gidding.

A short film clip of Margaret Gidding dancing with Laure Courtellemont on December 5, 2014. (I was outside the room because I had a cold.)



Margaret was also part of this PSA (filmed November 10, 2012; choreographer Krystle Morales):




And this film clip:

Checking In With The Cardio Doctor

I’d been pleased with my tolerance of blood thinner. Turned out, I was taking only half the recommended dose. D’oh!

Nice view of historic Ft. Sutter. Thar’s gold in dem dere medical suites!