Last Weei in Weird (August 10, 2014)
Last Week in Weird
datelines 8/1/2014--8/8/2014 (Part I)
[Links, chronological, on Extended page]
Copyright 2014 by Chuck Shepherd. All rights reserved.
Weird--the Rule of the Amateur Climatologists: The professional climatologists have mostly agreed that greenhouse gases bumped up by population and technology growth have made Earth’s atmosphere more dangerous. (In fairness, the amateur climatologists pretty much agree, too--that it’s a liberal hoax, but, hey, agreement is agreement.) Last week, a commentator took the view that no matter what dire, near-impossible gov’t regulation of carbon is enacted across the globe, the Earth will still be in trouble because of . . meat-eaters, i.e., because of cattle farming and cattle farts. Ounce for ounce, baked crickets are far superior food. On the regulatory front, if San Diego weren’t so scared about spacing out the medical marijuana shops, people could walk to buy their dope instead of driving, and the Union of Medical Marijuana Patients has sued. (Buried Lede: There is a Union of Medical Marijuana Patients.) And New Zealand granted residency to a refugee family from nearby Tuvalu on the ostensible ground that if forced to return to that island, they would soon be climate-change-flooded.
Not Ready for Prime Time: Bad: If you must use your car to haul marijuana plants, and branches stick out the window, cops can see them. Worse: A guy in Seattle tried to rob a restaurant (turned down), tried to steal from several customers (refused), tried to kick one door open to leave (locked, bouncing him on his butt), tried to steal a woman’s car keys (abandoned when she started to record him on her cellphone), tried to jack another car (declined, but the owner offered him a lift), and finally left with the tip jar contents ($15). Worst: Joshua Pawlak, 27, Woodbridge, N.J., four attempted store robberies, three polite refusals to cooperate--and only $2 from the tip jar.
Can’t Possibly Be True: Two alleged killers of a Border Patrol agent, in a hot escape, were arrested in Raymondville, Tex., while asleep in a shed. They had knocked on a lady’s door at 12:30 a.m. one night and asked for a drink of water and if they could charge their cellphones. Why, sure, the lady said to the total strangers; come on in. Want to get some sleep? There’s a shed out back. She wet her britches a little later when police swarmed the area looking for the suspects.
Funny When You Do It to a Bank, But When It Gets Done to You--: Andres Carrasco won a low-five-figure settlement from an insurance company, which the company has partially paid off with 17 plastic buckets of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.
The Way The World Works: AOL revealed it has 2.3 million dial-up customers, still. At $20 a month, that would be $552m/yr income.
First, Clear a Path to the Lifeboats: A professor at Rome’s La Spienza University talked Capt. Schettino (of the Costa Concordia) into delivering a guest lecture on “panic management.” [Answer: Remember Sullenberger, and do the exact opposite.]
R.I.P.: Mr. Nathaniel Horn, 40, of Billings, Mont., was allegedly murdered (neck slashed) by an acquaintance who had become fed up with the pair’s arguing whether the Army or the Marines is the superior military service. (Elsewhere, police in the Bronx said a 37-yr-old “actor” making a rap video at 1 a.m. was still alive but had five gunshot holes in him put by a fellow cast member in a dispute over which of the two was the “star.”)
Perspective: A beloved nun was accidentally mowed down by a hit-and-run driver in 2012 in well-to-do Water Mill, N.Y., and the road was honorarily designated “Sister Jackie’s Way.” Q: Who could object? A: Almost everyone. (When visitors come, we don’t wish to recall that tragedy again; we have to explain who Sister Jackie was all over again; we need to move on.) Down it comes. Sister Jackie fan: “On this road [are] all one-percenters . . . rich, spoiled people.”
People Who Are a Mess: (1) First-year teacher Lorie Hill was discovered inside her Wagoner, Okla., classroom on opening day . . drunk and pantsless. (2) Anthony Rodgers, charged in a Clintonville, Ohio, bank robbery, had all his bad tattooing decisions recorded by mugshot--including a large cross on his forehead separating the words “Truly” and “Blessed” [sic].
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/04/climate-change-impact-vegetarian
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/business/jiminy-cricket-bugs-could-be-next-food-craze.html?_r=0
http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/08/07/70189.htm
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11303331
http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/weird/2014/08/06/clearwater-marijuana-pot-plants-car/13663061/
http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattle911/2014/08/01/failed-intl-district-robbery-carjackings-shows-man-maybe-isnt-cut-out-for-delinquency/
http://www.nj.com/middlesex/index.ssf/2014/08/edison_man_charged_in_series_of_knife-wielding_robbery_attempts_in_woodbridge.html
http://www.630wpro.com/common/more.php?m=58&ts=1407390602&article=9EAD5E5B1DB311E4B51EFEFDADE6840A&mode=2
http://news.msn.com/us/california-insurer-pays-out-in-buckets-literally#tscptme
http://qz.com/245585/aol-still-has-2-3-million-dialup-subscribers-and-theyre-very-profitable/
http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/costa-concordia-captain-francesco-schettino-sparks-outrage-over-boat-safety-lecture/story-fnizu68q-1227016010976
http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/court-documents-man-s-neck-slashed-in-laurel-coroner-names/article_03fb181e-7d71-5a5f-879a-0bc17ec89658.html
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/porter/valparaiso/porter-county-animal-shelter-director-charged-with-owi/article_e038ccde-af33-5e11-9bb7-ec8b1482bcfc.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/man-shot-multiple-times-shooting-rap-video-bronx-article-1.1889779
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/08/05/sign-honoring-hit-run-victim-in-the-hamptons-to-be-taken-down-following-complaints/
http://houston.cbslocal.com/2014/08/06/police-teacher-found-in-classroom-intoxicated-without-pants-on-her-first-day/
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/08/05/justice-insider-bank-robbery-defendant-truly-blessed.html
datelines 8/1/2014--8/8/2014 (Part I)
[Links, chronological, on Extended page]
Copyright 2014 by Chuck Shepherd. All rights reserved.
Weird--the Rule of the Amateur Climatologists: The professional climatologists have mostly agreed that greenhouse gases bumped up by population and technology growth have made Earth’s atmosphere more dangerous. (In fairness, the amateur climatologists pretty much agree, too--that it’s a liberal hoax, but, hey, agreement is agreement.) Last week, a commentator took the view that no matter what dire, near-impossible gov’t regulation of carbon is enacted across the globe, the Earth will still be in trouble because of . . meat-eaters, i.e., because of cattle farming and cattle farts. Ounce for ounce, baked crickets are far superior food. On the regulatory front, if San Diego weren’t so scared about spacing out the medical marijuana shops, people could walk to buy their dope instead of driving, and the Union of Medical Marijuana Patients has sued. (Buried Lede: There is a Union of Medical Marijuana Patients.) And New Zealand granted residency to a refugee family from nearby Tuvalu on the ostensible ground that if forced to return to that island, they would soon be climate-change-flooded.
Not Ready for Prime Time: Bad: If you must use your car to haul marijuana plants, and branches stick out the window, cops can see them. Worse: A guy in Seattle tried to rob a restaurant (turned down), tried to steal from several customers (refused), tried to kick one door open to leave (locked, bouncing him on his butt), tried to steal a woman’s car keys (abandoned when she started to record him on her cellphone), tried to jack another car (declined, but the owner offered him a lift), and finally left with the tip jar contents ($15). Worst: Joshua Pawlak, 27, Woodbridge, N.J., four attempted store robberies, three polite refusals to cooperate--and only $2 from the tip jar.
Can’t Possibly Be True: Two alleged killers of a Border Patrol agent, in a hot escape, were arrested in Raymondville, Tex., while asleep in a shed. They had knocked on a lady’s door at 12:30 a.m. one night and asked for a drink of water and if they could charge their cellphones. Why, sure, the lady said to the total strangers; come on in. Want to get some sleep? There’s a shed out back. She wet her britches a little later when police swarmed the area looking for the suspects.
Funny When You Do It to a Bank, But When It Gets Done to You--: Andres Carrasco won a low-five-figure settlement from an insurance company, which the company has partially paid off with 17 plastic buckets of pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.
The Way The World Works: AOL revealed it has 2.3 million dial-up customers, still. At $20 a month, that would be $552m/yr income.
First, Clear a Path to the Lifeboats: A professor at Rome’s La Spienza University talked Capt. Schettino (of the Costa Concordia) into delivering a guest lecture on “panic management.” [Answer: Remember Sullenberger, and do the exact opposite.]
R.I.P.: Mr. Nathaniel Horn, 40, of Billings, Mont., was allegedly murdered (neck slashed) by an acquaintance who had become fed up with the pair’s arguing whether the Army or the Marines is the superior military service. (Elsewhere, police in the Bronx said a 37-yr-old “actor” making a rap video at 1 a.m. was still alive but had five gunshot holes in him put by a fellow cast member in a dispute over which of the two was the “star.”)
Perspective: A beloved nun was accidentally mowed down by a hit-and-run driver in 2012 in well-to-do Water Mill, N.Y., and the road was honorarily designated “Sister Jackie’s Way.” Q: Who could object? A: Almost everyone. (When visitors come, we don’t wish to recall that tragedy again; we have to explain who Sister Jackie was all over again; we need to move on.) Down it comes. Sister Jackie fan: “On this road [are] all one-percenters . . . rich, spoiled people.”
People Who Are a Mess: (1) First-year teacher Lorie Hill was discovered inside her Wagoner, Okla., classroom on opening day . . drunk and pantsless. (2) Anthony Rodgers, charged in a Clintonville, Ohio, bank robbery, had all his bad tattooing decisions recorded by mugshot--including a large cross on his forehead separating the words “Truly” and “Blessed” [sic].
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/aug/04/climate-change-impact-vegetarian
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/business/jiminy-cricket-bugs-could-be-next-food-craze.html?_r=0
http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/08/07/70189.htm
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11303331
http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/weird/2014/08/06/clearwater-marijuana-pot-plants-car/13663061/
http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattle911/2014/08/01/failed-intl-district-robbery-carjackings-shows-man-maybe-isnt-cut-out-for-delinquency/
http://www.nj.com/middlesex/index.ssf/2014/08/edison_man_charged_in_series_of_knife-wielding_robbery_attempts_in_woodbridge.html
http://www.630wpro.com/common/more.php?m=58&ts=1407390602&article=9EAD5E5B1DB311E4B51EFEFDADE6840A&mode=2
http://news.msn.com/us/california-insurer-pays-out-in-buckets-literally#tscptme
http://qz.com/245585/aol-still-has-2-3-million-dialup-subscribers-and-theyre-very-profitable/
http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/costa-concordia-captain-francesco-schettino-sparks-outrage-over-boat-safety-lecture/story-fnizu68q-1227016010976
http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/court-documents-man-s-neck-slashed-in-laurel-coroner-names/article_03fb181e-7d71-5a5f-879a-0bc17ec89658.html
http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/porter/valparaiso/porter-county-animal-shelter-director-charged-with-owi/article_e038ccde-af33-5e11-9bb7-ec8b1482bcfc.html
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/man-shot-multiple-times-shooting-rap-video-bronx-article-1.1889779
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/08/05/sign-honoring-hit-run-victim-in-the-hamptons-to-be-taken-down-following-complaints/
http://houston.cbslocal.com/2014/08/06/police-teacher-found-in-classroom-intoxicated-without-pants-on-her-first-day/
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/08/05/justice-insider-bank-robbery-defendant-truly-blessed.html
Comments
climate change- Hell yes it is a fraud. Now they want us to kill all the cows too.
robbers- If you are so non-threatening that people turn down your robbery request perhaps you should try another line of work.
nice lady- She is also very lucky as well. Those men could have been a lot more violent.
company pays in change- That is unbelievable, the judge should come back with an amended settlement for 10% more since it costs that much to use a coin star.
dial up- Out in the boonies internet.
arguments- Some people should just agree to disagree and go home.
teacher- Drunk, pantsless and stupid is no way to go though life!
robbers- If you are so non-threatening that people turn down your robbery request perhaps you should try another line of work.
nice lady- She is also very lucky as well. Those men could have been a lot more violent.
company pays in change- That is unbelievable, the judge should come back with an amended settlement for 10% more since it costs that much to use a coin star.
dial up- Out in the boonies internet.
arguments- Some people should just agree to disagree and go home.
teacher- Drunk, pantsless and stupid is no way to go though life!
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 08/10/14 at 06:32 PM
Climate Change A) It's been changing, in fact, it never stops changing but what the Gorites are crying about is bullsh1t!
B) As far as the US being 'the problem' or causing 'the solution' by some arbitrary regulation; anyone who has been behind the iron curtain (or the leftover states) or seen videos from China should know better using simple??? logic.
Paid in Pennies The metal is worth more than the monetary value of the coins by something like 50%.
R.I.P. Rapper Could this be the start of a trend? Please!
B) As far as the US being 'the problem' or causing 'the solution' by some arbitrary regulation; anyone who has been behind the iron curtain (or the leftover states) or seen videos from China should know better using simple??? logic.
Paid in Pennies The metal is worth more than the monetary value of the coins by something like 50%.
R.I.P. Rapper Could this be the start of a trend? Please!
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 08/11/14 at 01:24 AM
As a geoscientist myself, I'm here to tell you that anthropogenic climate change is real and it's almost certainly too late to avoid its effects. Our best bet is to cut emissions precipitously while engaging in geoengineering to counteract warming and ocean acidification. Unfortunately, geoengineering is going to take a lot of research. And it's hard to secure research funding to combat a problem when HALF THE COUNTRY IS DELIBERATELY UNEDUCATED AND MISINFORMED AND INSISTS THAT THE PROBLEM DOESN'T EXIST. It's like trying to administer chemotherapy to a guy who insists that cancer is a liberal conspiracy.
For the record, though, the bit about getting rid of livestock is dumb. It's not cow farts that are the problem so much as it is land use reducing primary productivity and carbon fixation. We can still have livestock; we just need to be smarter about it.
For the record, though, the bit about getting rid of livestock is dumb. It's not cow farts that are the problem so much as it is land use reducing primary productivity and carbon fixation. We can still have livestock; we just need to be smarter about it.
Posted by venomlash on 08/11/14 at 11:21 AM
What about China's part in this????
What about the other old Soviet countries where there is no emissions control?
What about the fact that data doesn't support your ravings?
What about the fact that just a couple of decades ago your ilk was warning of an impending ice age?
What about the fact that there has been NO TEMPERATURE increase over the past several years? (Decades?)
What about the supposition that that dinosaurs died from a meteorite strike and didn't fart themselves to death?
What about the other old Soviet countries where there is no emissions control?
What about the fact that data doesn't support your ravings?
What about the fact that just a couple of decades ago your ilk was warning of an impending ice age?
What about the fact that there has been NO TEMPERATURE increase over the past several years? (Decades?)
What about the supposition that that dinosaurs died from a meteorite strike and didn't fart themselves to death?
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 08/11/14 at 11:30 AM
In case anyone still believes in the anthropogenic global warming fraud/myth --
NASA finally admitted that CO2 is actually a coolant --
"For the three day period, March 8th through 10th, the thermosphere absorbed 26 billion kWh of energy. Infrared radiation from CO2 and NO, the two most efficient coolants in the thermosphere, re-radiated 95% of that total back into space."
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/22mar_saber/
One of the most fascinating scientists in the world is Reid A. Bryson. He virtually invented the science of climatology --
He’s a member of the United Nations Global 500 Roll of Honor—created, the U.N. says, to recognize “outstanding achievements in the protection and improvement of the environment.”
...
“All this argument is the temperature going up or not, it’s absurd,” Bryson continues. “Of course it’s going up. It has gone up since the early 1800s, before the Industrial Revolution, because we’re coming out of the Little Ice Age, not because we’re putting more carbon dioxide into the air.”
...
"In the first 30 feet of the atmosphere, on the average, outward radiation from the Earth, which is what CO2 is supposed to affect, how much [of the reflected energy] is absorbed by water vapor? In the first 30 feet, 80 percent."
"And how much is absorbed by carbon dioxide? Eight hundredths of one percent. One one-thousandth as important as water vapor. You can go outside and spit and have the same effect as doubling carbon dioxide."
http://www.wecnmagazine.com/2007issues/may/may07.html
You might also want to look at history. At a point before Gore's conveniently chosen window for "analysis," global CO2 was 12 times what it is now, and that was during an ice age.
For those who aren't up on terminology, 'geoscientist" is on a par with astrologers, aromatherapists, and dog psychologists.
NASA finally admitted that CO2 is actually a coolant --
"For the three day period, March 8th through 10th, the thermosphere absorbed 26 billion kWh of energy. Infrared radiation from CO2 and NO, the two most efficient coolants in the thermosphere, re-radiated 95% of that total back into space."
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/22mar_saber/
One of the most fascinating scientists in the world is Reid A. Bryson. He virtually invented the science of climatology --
He’s a member of the United Nations Global 500 Roll of Honor—created, the U.N. says, to recognize “outstanding achievements in the protection and improvement of the environment.”
...
“All this argument is the temperature going up or not, it’s absurd,” Bryson continues. “Of course it’s going up. It has gone up since the early 1800s, before the Industrial Revolution, because we’re coming out of the Little Ice Age, not because we’re putting more carbon dioxide into the air.”
...
"In the first 30 feet of the atmosphere, on the average, outward radiation from the Earth, which is what CO2 is supposed to affect, how much [of the reflected energy] is absorbed by water vapor? In the first 30 feet, 80 percent."
"And how much is absorbed by carbon dioxide? Eight hundredths of one percent. One one-thousandth as important as water vapor. You can go outside and spit and have the same effect as doubling carbon dioxide."
http://www.wecnmagazine.com/2007issues/may/may07.html
You might also want to look at history. At a point before Gore's conveniently chosen window for "analysis," global CO2 was 12 times what it is now, and that was during an ice age.
For those who aren't up on terminology, 'geoscientist" is on a par with astrologers, aromatherapists, and dog psychologists.
Posted by Phideaux on 08/11/14 at 03:29 PM
Expat, it's only old pennies whose metal is worth more than face value, and it's illegal to melt them down. Post-1982 pennies are worth about six tenths of a cent.
Posted by ges on 08/11/14 at 11:10 PM
Yea, Venomush, what Phideaux said! 😠
@Ges: Well, then, he's got his work cut out for him to find the old ones. Winter's coming on and it will keep his hands busy during the BIG FREEZE that's coming!
@Ges: Well, then, he's got his work cut out for him to find the old ones. Winter's coming on and it will keep his hands busy during the BIG FREEZE that's coming!
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 08/12/14 at 12:57 AM
Valiant effort @venomlash, but there was a recent study on people who deny generally accepted scientific consensus (such a vaccinations being far more beneficial than harmful, for example). These people would be shown the overwhelming evidence refuting their presumptions, and often - in that moment of revelation, at least - accept the preponderance of evidence. But when they were surveyed later many of them reported not only continuing to maintain their false beliefs, but actually becoming more extreme and entrenched in that position. The researchers theorized that this belief had become an integral part of their self-identity, and confronting them on it so threatened their egos that they essentially 'doubled-down'.
Thus it goes with the climate-change deniers. Show them 99 out of 100 climatologists confirming the existence of man-made climate change, and they'll tout the 1 dissenter as if it had equal weight. Even as the evidence piles up and it becomes increasingly hard to explain away things like slideshows of dramatic glacial retreat over the last several decades, satellite imagery of consistent yearly polar ice shrinkage, actual measurable sea-level rise, record high temperature reports from around the world, etc., etc., you'll get this fairly consistent pattern of continuing rationalization, which goes like this:
1. Global warming is a lie
2. OK its happening but its not man-made
3. OK it appears to be man-made, but its not us First World consumers of grossly disproportionate fossil fuels and related tech, its those other guys over there
4. OK its us but hey, maybe climate change is a GOOD thing
5. OK maybe worldwide crop failures and extreme natural disasters are not worth having a milder winter, but now its too late so we should live it up while we can
6. OK so maybe driving a hummer and cranking the AC down to 65 was not worth living out my elder years in the hellish distopia predicted by Soylent Green, but at least the euthanasia centers are very nice...
Thus ends the world, not with a bang, but a "Nuh uh! You're just some libtard commie pinko jealous of my ridiculously gluttonous lifestyle!"
Thus it goes with the climate-change deniers. Show them 99 out of 100 climatologists confirming the existence of man-made climate change, and they'll tout the 1 dissenter as if it had equal weight. Even as the evidence piles up and it becomes increasingly hard to explain away things like slideshows of dramatic glacial retreat over the last several decades, satellite imagery of consistent yearly polar ice shrinkage, actual measurable sea-level rise, record high temperature reports from around the world, etc., etc., you'll get this fairly consistent pattern of continuing rationalization, which goes like this:
1. Global warming is a lie
2. OK its happening but its not man-made
3. OK it appears to be man-made, but its not us First World consumers of grossly disproportionate fossil fuels and related tech, its those other guys over there
4. OK its us but hey, maybe climate change is a GOOD thing
5. OK maybe worldwide crop failures and extreme natural disasters are not worth having a milder winter, but now its too late so we should live it up while we can
6. OK so maybe driving a hummer and cranking the AC down to 65 was not worth living out my elder years in the hellish distopia predicted by Soylent Green, but at least the euthanasia centers are very nice...
Thus ends the world, not with a bang, but a "Nuh uh! You're just some libtard commie pinko jealous of my ridiculously gluttonous lifestyle!"
Posted by Daldude on 08/13/14 at 06:28 PM
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