And today it's making a comeback, courtesy of Steven Westlake and his alter-ego, "proprietor William A. Mays". Westlake has propelled National Police Gazette into the 21st century via the Internet and it is a scream of a good read! Aim here for the National Police Gazette website. And the website Ragazine has posted an in-depth interview with Westlake that provides even more history about this groundbreaking publication and its return.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
NATIONAL POLICE GAZETTE returns and brings back tales of ribaldry most foul!
Ten unbelievably awesome low-pass flybys
Okay, #3 is maybe all the more amazing for me 'cuz the pilot is flying upside-down. And I once saw a plane crash at an air show. It was in 1996 here in Rockingham County, and the dude in the cockpit was doing a low-altitude maneuver upside-down over the runway. It happened right in front of where we were sitting and it looked horrific. But he got out with just a few scratches and I heard that the plane was even flyable again not long afterward. But when we're looking at a multi-million dollar piece of military hardware doing the same thing... yah, gotta admire the cajones there!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Consolation for the UNC Chapel Hill fans
The Tarheels now finally have the opportunity to achieve something they've never earned before...
A National Invitational Tournament championship banner hanging from the rafters of the Dean Dome! :-P
"Recon": Post-episode reaction to tonight's LOST
So maybe that's affecting me somewhat, but I thought that "Recon", tonight's installment, was a bit of a step down. That's bothersome because there are only about ten hours or so left of this show's run to tie up all the loose ends. But I'll maintain faith in showrunners Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof: Lost has surprised the bejeebers out of us before. It's only fitting that it keeps doing it up 'til the grand finale.
Anyhoo, "Recon" wasn't the best of the Sawyer-centric episodes, but I found it fascinating all the same, and the flashsideways-es have finally begun to grow on me. We've seen Sawyer the con-man who was on Oceanic 815 when it crashed. "Recon" gave us Detective James Ford: the "Sawyer" that would have come about from the road not taken. I've long been intrigued by the notion of Schrodinger's cat. Well, that's the same kind of thing that I got out of "Recon" tonight: James "Sawyer" Ford is like a particle that you can't predict. He told Charlotte that he could have been a crook or a cop and he chose cop... but what made him be one in the "main" universe and be another in the alternate timeline?
What indeed? The thing that most comes to mind is choice: that most capricious of qualities.
And the more I think about it, "Recon" was an episode about choices and whether we have them. Does Sayid believe he has a choice? Does Claire, who seems to have chosen to put aside her hatred of Kate?
I couldn't help but notice that Kate didn't touch the fake Locke's hand when he extended it. Last week Richard told Jack and Hurley that his immortality was because Jacob had touched him long ago. Does the "Man in Black" possess a similar characteristic? Did Kate avoid something by not making physical contact with him?
Gonna have to watch this one again. In the meantime, I'll give "Recon" a 7.5 out of 10.
And in seven days apparently comes the episode that I thought we'd never see: Richard Alpert and his story. Dare we hope for a flashback to the Black Rock?!
I just opened my 2010 census form
Beginning with question #5, the form starts asking for explicit details about each person living at the location. The exact working is "Please provide information..."
The way I see it, you only have to answer the one question that is constitutional (for purposes of congressional apportionment). Everything else on the form is merely a request for optional information.
In other words, simply put "1" or "2" or "4" or whatever, and send the census form back without putting down any more information than what the government is supposed to collect.
Although if you wish to have some fun with it, I suppose one could put down "Klingon" as their race.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Google Fiber follies
Ummmm... why?
Even if Google Fiber is 100 times faster than regular broadband, what good will it be? Within the winning city the Internet might work at blazing-hot speed, but the "normal" speed of the outside world will be a debilitating bottleneck. At least until Google Fiber gets rolled out sufficiently enough to take on a bulk of the data traffic.
It's like trying to win a contest for an SR-71 Blackbird without having a runway to launch it from. No doubt that it'll look real purty sitting in your backyard, but what's the use if you can't even fly the thing?
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Peter Graves has passed away
Graves had a long run on Mission: Impossible, and appeared in Stalag 17. The most recent thing that I remember him being in was Seventh Heaven, when he played that preacher guy's father.
But a lot of people from my generation are going to know him best as Captain Ouver, the airline captain in the classic 1980 slapstick comedy Airplane!
So before you go looking for it, I've done the work for you. Here is Graves as Captain Ouver, asking Joey such things as "You ever seen a grown man naked?"
Farewell Mr. Graves, and thanks for the many thrills and laughs.
This is the greatest news headline in the history of anything...
Truly, we are living in the age of medical miracles!
(Thanks to Shane Thacker for spotting this.)
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Go see SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET at Weaver Academy this week!
(Awright, that's enough of the puns...)
Anyway, the students at Weaver have put together a very good show and I'm glad for the opportunity to have been able to catch this. Sweeney Todd plays again on March 18th, 19th and 20th at Weaver Academy, located at 300 South Spring Street in Greensboro. Showtime is at 7 and tickets are $12. The only thing I regret to inform my readers about is that complimentary meat pie is not served during the performance... but don't let that stop y'all from enjoying it as well! :-)
IRS harasses carwash for delinquent taxes of FOUR CENTS
So what was the Internal Revenue Service doing at Harv's Metro Car Wash, you may ask?
Here's the story from the Sacramento Bee...
The letter that was hand-delivered to Zeff's on-site manager showed the amount of money owed to the feds was ... 4 cents.Taking into account the gas that was burned for transport to and from the carwash, the salaries of the two IRS agents, the official paperwork describing the delinquent taxes (Lord only knows how much that is) and other expenses, it wouldn't surprise me if the United States federal government spent $400 in the pursuit of $0.04 from Mr. Zeff.Inexplicably, penalties and taxes accruing on the debt – stemming from the 2006 tax year – were listed as $202.31, leaving Harv's with an obligation of $202.35.
Zeff, who also owns local parking lots and is the president of the Midtown Business Association, finds the situation a bit comical.
"It's hilarious," he says, "that two people hopped in a car and came down here for just 4 cents. I think (the IRS) may have a problem with priorities."
President Obama wants to "overhaul" No Child Left Behind
As if making an admittedly imperfect health care system even more broken isn't enough, President Barack Obama now wants to "restructure" No Child Left Behind.
When the hell are we ever going to get a President that is going to be content to simply govern wisely, instead of being fixated on putting his imprint on everything?
So now Obama is determined to "improve" No Child Left Behind: one of the biggest blunders of the all-too-blunderful misadministration of George W. Bush.
Pssst... hey, Obama. Wanna do something for once that will make a lot of people sing your praises? Then don't "overhaul" No Child Left Behind, but instead scrap the whole damned thing entirely!!!
If Obama did that one thing, then I might entertain the notion of casting a vote for him in 2012.
Would he do that? Probably not. Far too many of our elected officials are fools to egotism rather than followers of wisdom, and the chief executive of the land is no different.
Friday, March 12, 2010
THE PEOPLE VS. GEORGE LUCAS premieres tomorrow at SXSW!
Man oh man, wish I could be going to this thing (I will be attending a production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street this weekend though :-). The People vs. George Lucas has already started garnering some high-profile attention and it's prolly gonna skyrocket after tomorrow night.
Here's the latest trailer for it. And yes: that is Melody Hallman Daniel from our own film Forcery that you see at 44 seconds into it!
Alexandre has told me that he wound up using Forcery quite a bit in The People vs. George Lucas. So, I am delighted that I got to make a bit of contribution to what will no doubt be a most excellent movie :-)
Anyhoo, if you're at SXSW 2010, check it out!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
UNC Chapel Hill loses 62-58 to Georgia Tech tonight! Tarheels out of ACC Tournament, aren't going to NCAA Tournament and probably WON'T be in the NIT either!!!
Most weirdest Star Wars-related post I've EVER made
I never want to have to write a summary sentence like that again.
Sophia Heesch, a teenager from Germany, was recently on a TV show in that country called Wetten, dass...? (translated into English it's "Wanna Bet...?") demonstrating her... talent. Sophia, without looking at it, can be given a Star Wars LEGO minifigure and just from sucking on it and feeling with her tongue, can tell whether the minifig is Han Solo or Yoda, and even more unusual characters like the ASP Droid.
Here is the clip of Sophia showing off her amazing powers!
Wetten, dass...? is a German game show, so apparently Sophia won some money. Remember that next time you yell at your kids for putting toys in their mouths :-P
Betty White to host SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE on May 8th
If you joined one of the many Facebook groups that have sprung up to get this to happen in the past month, give yourself a pat on the back.
Maybe this is what it takes to get something done in the world today: just start up a Facebook group, like "Let's See if this African Dung Beetle can get more fans than Glenn Beck!"
(For the record, I've not once listened to Glenn Beck or watched him on television, and only know what he looks like from the covers of his books.)
Sorta like that "electronic town hall" that Ross Perot suggested back in 1992. Who'da thunk that he was foreseeing Facebook? :-)