Expectancy
August 19, 2009
No, we’re not expecting. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.
Does anybody else see the irony in this? First, we get this huge health care debate thing going on, and then we see this article with a headline like “U.S. Life Expectancy Reaches All Time High.”
Old Age
March 14, 2009
I’m further into old age than I had previously thought.
Old age is often blamed for causing us to misplace car keys, forget a word or lose our train of thought.
But new research shows that many well-known effects of ageing may start decades before our twilight years.
According to scientists, our mental abilities begin to decline from the age of 27 after reaching a peak at 22.
Crap.
Unfortunate Mistake
March 14, 2009
Honestly, now. What prison guard could possibly make this mistake?
A 23-year-old inmate beaten to death at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary had been put in a cell with convicted killer he had testified against.
Prison spokesman Jerry Massie says Paul Duran Jr. fought with one cellmate and then was put in a cell with Jessie James Dalton.
Duran was found beaten to death about 15 minutes later.
The $100 Million Diamond Heist
March 13, 2009
This is a pretty interesting story. I hadn’t heard about it before.
In February 2003, Notarbartolo was arrested for heading a ring of Italian thieves. They were accused of breaking into a vault two floors beneath the Antwerp Diamond Center and making off with at least $100 million worth of loose diamonds, gold, jewelry, and other spoils. The vault was thought to be impenetrable. It was protected by 10 layers of security, including infrared heat detectors, Doppler radar, a magnetic field, a seismic sensor, and a lock with 100 million possible combinations. The robbery was called the heist of the century, and even now the police can’t explain exactly how it was done.
Read the rest of it. It’s long but really interesting. If you’ve seen Ocean’s Eleven, you’ll see that there are some parallels.
Keystone Kriminals
January 30, 2009
Two prisoners in New Zealand are facing more charges, and major embarrassment over an escape attempt gone bad.
The men were handcuffed together as they fled a courthouse, but apparently forgot that little fact as they ran to opposite sides of a light pole, with predictable results. The men slammed into each other and fell to the ground. End of escape.
Chicken
October 26, 2008
Seriously, what the hell!?
Three Oklahoma City men were arrested after playing “chicken” with a police car. Police said a 23-year-old man drove his car at the oncoming patrol car driven by Capt. J.D. Reid and didn’t move until Reid swerved out of the way. Reid then chased the car until it crashed. The driver was found inside the car, another 22-year-old man was found lying outside the vehicle and a third man was found hiding behind a traffic sign.
Two of the men were hospitalized and the third was treated and taken to the Oklahoma County jail where he’s being held without bond.
Police say the driver apparently decided on a whim to play chicken car and didn’t realize the car was a police car.
Oh, like it would have been more acceptable if it hadn’t been a police car. Idiots.
“Before you were formed in the womb …”
October 17, 2008
LAWSUIT AGAINST GOD DISMISSED for failure to obtain personal service. But Ilya Somin objects: “I’m not entirely convinced that the ruling is correct. After all, if God exists, he must be omnipresent and omnipotent. Therefore, it logically follows that he can be served with court papers anywhere; after all he is present everywhere in the universe at all times. Indeed, service of process is a pointless formality when it comes to God. Since the Lord is omniscient as well as omnipotent, he surely knew about Senator Chambers’ lawsuit even before any process servers were sent out. Indeed, he must have foreseen that Chambers would file the suit long before Chambers himself knew that he would do it.”
Yeah, wasn’t there something like that in Jeremiah? “Before you were formed in the womb, I knew you would sue me. . . .”
Barriers
October 12, 2008
I just finished watching an episode of Extreme Engineering called “Holland’s Barriers to the Sea” and it was pretty interesting. It was about how the Dutch have fought off tides and floods for the last 2000 years (undoubtedly the fault of President Bush) and they’ve had some major innovations over the past 50 years to help “stem the tide.” One of the interesting things is that they cut over to New Orleans for some comparisons and dire predictions. This episode was produced a year or two before Hurricane Katrina hit and they mentioned how the levees may not hold during a big storm, etc. It was pretty interesting, really.
Saguaro Chipping
October 12, 2008
I found this article about micro-chipping saguaros somewhat interesting.
Palin Speaks
September 3, 2008
I’m watching Sarah Palin address the Republican National Convention right now. She seemed a little nervous at first, for which I don’t blame her. I was rather impressed with her, overall. She had a few fun little digs on Obama, which is something that we were definitely expecting. I didn’t know, though, what else to expect. She seemed down to Earth and seemed to enjoy her time on stage. That’s a good thing because she has picked the wrong profession if she doesn’t like speaking in public.
All in all, I think she could have good future and would like to see her do well.
