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.

Hey, Let's Politicize Global Warming!

Surprised? Not particularly. Frustrated? Absolutely. I like Pelosi's idea of a new committee to address global warming, but other than that, the Democrats' and enviro-lobbyists' ideas about waiting a year or two to start working on this are maddening:

That is why some environmentalists want Pelosi to delay until she can send a bill to a more sympathetic president in 2009, and why some Democrats want her to delay so they can use the issue against Republicans in 2008.

Don't get me wrong, I have no love for any Republican, but to quote well-known political commentator Eric Cartman, "Democrats piss me off!"

Colbert v. O'Reilly

I didn't see part one of this stroke of marketing genius - I wouldn't even know which channel Fox News uses to pollute DirecTV's signal - but Jenny and I did stay up for part two on the Colbert Report, and it was worth it. The best dig at O'Reilly was probably the Barnes & Noble 30% off sticker, which covered O'Reilly's head on the book cover. And the comment about Jon Stewart being a sexual predator, that was wonderfully vicious. I must admit, O'Reilly was a surprisingly good sport - still a pompous windbag, but a good sport nonetheless.

Brzezinski Tells It Like It Is

This opinion piece by Carter's National Security Adviser is the best - and most succinct - deconstruction of Wednesday's presidential speech that I've read thus far.

Big Three Still Clueless

It's really no mystery why U.S. car companies lose money these days - they employ chief economists who choose to take residence - along with our current administration - in a 'denial-based' alternate universe. No wonder Toyota continues to crush these clowns.

Ah, Winter

So I go out running on Saturday morning, and then following that, I take Marty over to the park for her walk. Now, it's around 70F, I had just run 7+ miles, so I'm obviously wearing shorts. That must have been the reason that local human-interest TV news reporter dude (for the city's NBC affiliate) comes over to me and wants to ask a few questions about the weather. I'm caught off guard, but I don't want to be a jerk, so I agree. What followed was an exercise in banality, as he asks me what I think of the weather (um, it's warmer thasn usual?), isn't it weird to be wearing shorts in January? (uh, yeah), et cetra, ad nauseum. I'm not sure whether it was the dumb questions, or the fact that he didn't look the least bit interested in my oh-so-profound responses, but the whole thing was a bit annoying. Plus I wasn't looking as pretty as I could have, because I had just been out running. Then the cameraman wants to get a shot of Marty, who by this point is really impatient to get on with her walk, and is wondering why this camera guy won't give her a treat in return for her allowing him to film her. Anyway, we were out in DC that night, and weren't even home to see the evening news, but Liz & Jarriel's friend Derek saw it, and I got a call from Jarriel the next day.

Now Marty think she's a TV star, and is demanding a limo to the park and the expensive dog food. And while this morning (32F) felt a bit more like winter, our BGE (gas & electric) bill for December was less than $26. We should probably get used to these winters, because even if we do figure out how to stop global warming in our lifetimes, how are we going to reverse the damage that's already been done - build a big ice maker in Greenland that spits iceberg-sized cubes towards the North Pole?

UFO Sightings

There have been two supposed UFO sightings in the past few months, a recent one in South Africa last Saturday with a lone witness who claims she saw a crash, and one at O'Hare in Chicago back in November that was witnessed by several United Airlines employees.

The Chicago Tribune article also claims that the politically-correct/preferred term for UFO is now UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena).

Continuing with the Comics Theme

Here's a list of the top ten lamest superheroes. Since I only recognize one character (#10, Cypher), I think it's a pretty weak list. Shouldn't a list like this only be populated by superheroes that people might actually have heard of? Just off the top of my head, I would think Aquaman would have to make the list (a rip-off of the Sub-Mariner, who debuted two years earlier, FYI), also Jubilee from the X-Men and Ant Man from the Avengers.

Best & Worst Film Adaptations of Comic Books

Inspired by a recent email thread, I'm soliciting opinions about the best and worst film adaptations of (reasonably well-known) comic books, preferably of the costumed/super-hero variety.

1. My top three, in no particular order: Batman Begins - Christian Bale is the best Batman, period (slight edge over Keaton), and the rest of the cast is awesome also; can't believe Frank Miller didn't get script credit though, plenty of nods to Year One and Dark Knight Returns. Tank Girl - fun movie, well-integrated comic-art cut scenes. Spider-Man 2 - both of Raimi's spider-movies are excellent, I'm just picking this one b/c Doc Oc was always one of my favorite baddies. Just missed my cut: Tim Burton's Batman, X-Men 2.

2. Worst three - so many to choose from here, and I haven't even seen the Fantastic Four or Hulk yet (although I know several people who really liked Hulk). And I'm not even going to link to Catwoman. I'm gonna have to go with Superman IV, which introduced us to Nuclear Man (anyone remember him?). Batman Forever, one of Schumacher's disasters, has to be next; could acting talent be wasted any more than Tommy Lee Jones' was as Two-Face? Fortunately, not many people saw the 1990 version of Captain America, which featured J.D. Salinger's actor son Matt as Captain A(wful).

Upcoming films, which certainly have the potential to make these lists:

• Jon Favreau-directed Iron Man, starring Robert Downey Jr., due out in 2008.
• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, 2007 release.
• Ghost Rider, starring Nicholas Cage. This could be spectacularly terrible.
• Wonder Woman, directed and written by Joss Whedon. Intriguing...
• Spider-Man 3, with Venom! I'm stoked, dudes!
• The Dark Knight, the next Nolan Batman, with Heath Ledger as the Joker (2008).
• X-Men prequel, Wolverine, 2008.
  

Tunneling

A big part of my job right now is building and running simulations to support the design of sewer overflow storage tunnels in DC. There are similar tunnel systems in Detroit, Chicago, and a handful of other places, and most of them are massive. DC is no exception; tunnel diameters from 15 to 30+ feet, depths of up to 100 feet below the surface. They're built using tunnel boring machines (TBMs), which are used for all large diameter tunneling projects these days, including road/transit tunnels.

Maybe I'm just a big engineering geek, but these things are pretty damn cool. They're custom-made for each job, taking into account desired diameter and rock/soil conditions. They not only do the drilling, but the apparatus behind the drills lines the tunnel also. And my understanding is that since they're usually expensive to extract once the job is done (plus since they're custom-made, re-use isn't likely), they're left in the ground when the drilling is complete. Eleven of these beasts were used on the Channel Tunnel.

Here's a promotional video that shows how these babies work.

The Wizard of Ounce?

OK, I'm not the biggest Wizard of Oz fan, and I've never read any of the original books, but I was still surprised that I had never heard of this take on the story.

Am I alone here, or is this a new chunk of trivia for most people?

Last Minute Shopping Idea, Courtesy of SNL

Don't know what to get that special someone this Christmas? Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg have a suggestion (from last night's hilarious episode).

Here are a few more highlights. If NBC was smart, they'd replay this next weekend in prime time, instead of stale old Christmas cartoons (other than the Grinch, who kicks ass):

Opening Monologue Christmas Song w/Alvin & the Chipmunks

Cup-O-Soup/Homelessville

Celtic Solstice

Yesterday, Barry and I ran in the 7th Annual Celtic Solstice Five Miler in Druid Hill Park. It was a new race for both of us, and we both enjoyed it. Nice weather, fantastic course layout, and - unlike other races of mine this year - I was very pleased with the result; an overall time of 40:27, with all five mile splits faster than 8:30. No, I didn't set any land speed records, but those are decent numbers for me, and that's all that really counts, right?

Any runners or would-be runners out there, I would highly recommend this race. The course is of moderate difficulty but very manageable, the field is large but not too large (about 2K registered runners, 1500+ finishers), the premium is awesome every year, and the post-race food & beverage spread is top-notch. Plus, several people run in kilts, and there are a bagpipes player and drummer out on the course. Also, you run right past the statue of William Wallace that's at one end of Druid Hill Lake. Very Scottish. We certainly got lucky with good weather, but I personally think it still would have been fun if it were below freezing (like last year, when it snowed).

Blogger Upgrade, Tags, Site Feed

I just recently upgraded my blogger account to Blogger Beta, which lets one add tags to blog posts (among other new features). I've been slowly going through and adding tags, but when I do that it seems that the RSS feed considers it a new entry. So if use use a reader, sorry about that.