Another Dumb Criminal, + How Ticket Sites Could Work

I read this bizarre story on the train this morning, and am convinced now more than ever that the intelligent criminal is the rarest of species. This guy accuses a recently-fired employee of having an affair with his fiancee, and fires a few shots at him with his shotgun. But the defendant claims that it was an accident, he was going to offer the shotgun (and a big-ass knife) as a parting gift to the ex-employee, who he considered "a real woodsman", when he tripped and the gun went off. Riiiight! Maybe he meant to say that he was going to offer the shotgun slugs to the guy's chest, and the knife to his back? To top it all off, the defendant runs an nonprofit organic farm that provides food for soup kitchens. Apparently even the most charitable among us aren't immune to crimes of passion. Once again, I'm sure glad I live in the City and not the County - those County people are nuts!

As I continue the saga of trying to obtain Police tour tickets, I came upon mention of Scarlet Mist, one of several UK-based ticket sales and exchange sites, upon which users can only buy and sell tickets at face value. What a fantastic idea, and it seems to work too! Granted, for most of the listed events no tickets were currently on sale, but there was some availability for big names like Ricky Gervais and Justin Timberlake. I couldn't find a U.S. equivalent; can we get one of these sites over here?

In

Welcome back to the Tourney, Terrapins. Not that there was too mouch doubt, with they way they'd been playing for the last few weeks, and with at least one likely win left on the regular season schedule. But tonight's win over #5 Carolina removed any lingering aprehension. This is an easy team to watch, (although I had to resort to listening on the radio tonight b/c our DirecTV was knocked out by the snow & ice) they simply never give up on a game. Now it just remains to be seen - how high of a seed can they earn?

Someone Explain To Me Again, Please

How huge monetary contributions to political campaigns equals free speech? This DailyKos post says it all: "cash rules everything". That, along with the sobering realization that the only people who could really fix the problem are the politicians who benefit from all the largesse, and it's hard to blame the millions of Americans who choose to ignore a public sphere that they have little hope of influencing.

Africa, Part II - The Animals

I've meant to write some additional Africa-related entries well before now, but I think that talking with so many people about it since we've gotten back, I was experiencing a bit of safari-stories overload. I'm better now. I was also inspired by this article about West African chimpanzees making weapons for hunting. Those chimps are so smart, I'm sure their weapons are of an intelligent design.

The strangest thing, by far, of seeing so many exotic animals in their natural environment, is how quickly one takes them for granted. I was struck by how odd it was, that by the third day, an elephant or giraffe sighting was no longer cause for celebration, but just another day in the safari vehicle. An elephant didn't even warrant a photo at that point, unless it was particularly close, particularly young, or was doing something of note (sharpening its tusks, tearing the bark from a tree, etc.). Not to say that they still weren't cool to see, it was just very easy to get used to the presence of these animals. Our first night at a safari camp, there was an elephant wandering around not even 50 feet from our tent. That's just how it was - they were there, you were a visitor in their world, so get used to it or spend the whole trip with your mouth open in astonishment (not good, lots of flies).

We were visitors, yes, but we certainly weren't unnoticed, especially by certain species. Impalas, zebras, many species of gazelle - they couldn't care less that we were there. Elephants too - they don't have much in the way of predators, once you remove 'humans with guns' from the list. Warthogs, hyeenas, cheetahs, baboons, wildebeests; they all were quite aware of our presence, although the reaction ran the gamut from disinterested to curious to wary to terrified, and varied even within species. We encountered hyeenas who were jolted out of their mud baths by our approach, and the next day our Land Cruiser raced a few hundred yards in the middle of the Serengeti alongside a younger hyeena who looked to be just having a good time. Wildebeests scattered en masse whenever our vehicle approached, while some gazelles and baboons, and zebras waited until they were almost roadkill before giving way. We frightened away a timid herd of Eland (Ben, our guide, said that they're all timid), only to be approached by a born-that-day baby Eland, still nearly blind, who mistook our Land Cruiser for a parent and bleated at us pathetically.

Yes, we did see lions, but not up close, and none that were active. It seems as though the typical savannah lion is about as lazy as your common house cat, lounging and sleeping most of the day. We were fortunate enough to watch - from a distance - a female cheetah at the hunt, although she whiffed on a Thompson's Gazelle. Two days later, we saw her up close in the same general area , a few feet from a road, with her three three-month old cubs. We also saw a serval slinking along the road one morning, that was kinda cool.

All said, there was rarely a day where we went very long without seeing something, whether it was one or more of the plentiful gazelle, hippos floating in a pool, warthogs scurrying around somewhat nervously, or one of dozens of species of birds. Still, it certainly wasn't anything like a trip to the zoo; more like a journey to another planet, where we were welcome but still alien visitors.

A Scrimmage?!?

So the Police might not end up playing Baltimore because of a Ravens/Redskins scrimmage? That's just not right. Who gives a shit about an NFL scrimmage anyway? You know, I was starting to come around on the Ravens, since Modell sold the team and Ray Lewis hasn't killed anyone recently, but this is simply unacceptable. And to the Baltimore Sun - your cute headline referencing Roxanne? Gimme a break. Whoever wrote that headline should be fired.

Quality Sunday Night TV

First, from 5 to 7, the Terps captured an all-to-easy "must-win" against their arch-rivals.

Then, while I was waiting for the evening's main event, I caught a bit of 60 Minutes - just my opinion, and I know it's early, but I have a difficult time picturing an '08 Democratic ticket without Obama somewhere on it. And did anyone else know that Ravi Shankar is Norah Jones' father?!?

Then, the Police opened the Grammys with Roxanne. Awesome. They have a press conference scheduled for 11 PT today; it's assumed that they'll be announcing their 30th anniversary reunion tour! Now, I'm sure there's a ticket price that I wouldn't be willing to pay to see them in concert, but I think I'll wait and see what tickets cost before deciding on that price...

Africa, Part I - Jet Lag

I don't think I've ever had a serious case of jet lag before now, but I guess that the combination of flying across eight time zones, plus going from mid-nineties temperatures to the teens here at home, took its toll. It's been 3+ days since we've been back, and I still don't feel right. Hopefully the weekend will help with the recovery process.

I'm not going to try to squeeze all my thoughts on our trip to Tanzania into one post, because that post would end up being too damn long. So over the next week or two I'll probably divide it into several shorter entries, one for wildlife, one for people, one for locations & accommodations, maybe one other one also. That should ensure that any remaining readers will be driven from this blog permanently, leaving only my loving parents, and maybe my siblings.

Jenny already has some photos online - elephants mostly - and she's be adding more in the next few days. I have some short (15 second) video clips taken with my Sony still camera (the video camera stopped working on day 2 of our trip) that I'll try to upload to YouTube at some point also.