February 16, 2013

Why Almost Everyone in Russia Has a Dash Cam

I was in Prague a while back, and a Russian friend of mine picked me up from the airport and drove me around the city. The weird thing was that he kept the video camera rolling on his smartphone mounted on the dashboard. He had an app that would keep a rolling record of the last 15 minutes or so of video.

"Why?"

"Just because. Everybody does this."

"But why?"

"Just because."

He couldn't explain it to me, and the question came back to me this morning with all of the dash cam videos of meteor photos...

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2013/02/russian-dash-cams/

How is it possible that a dozen different motorists around the Russian city of Chelyabinsk were able to capture video of a massive meteor flying through the sky? Because almost everyone in Russia has a dash-mounted video camera in their car.

February 13, 2013

The 4th Amendment, Police, Deadly Force and the Rule of Law

I guess what some people think of as the "Rule of Law" is whatever they want it to be.

Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985)
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/471/1

Where the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a threat of serious physical harm, either to the officer or to others, it is not constitutionally unreasonable to prevent escape by using deadly force. Thus, if the suspect threatens the officer with a weapon or there is probable cause to believe that he has committed a crime involving the infliction or threatened infliction of serious physical harm, deadly force may be used if necessary to prevent escape, and if, where feasible, some warning has been given.

Majority White, joined by Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun, Powell, Stevens
Dissent O'Connor, joined by Burger, Rehnquist

It is worth noting here that Justice Brennan is most famously known for his longstanding and eloquent dissents against the trend in the 1970's toward greater police power.

February 13, 2013

Memorial Service Today For Michael Crain

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2013/02/michael_crain_riverside_p.php

Crain is survived by a wife, a 10-year-old son and a 4-year-old daughter. Funeral services are scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Grove Community Church in Riverside, followed by interrment at Riverside National Cemetery.

February 11, 2013

LAPD "Block Bingo" Prize At One Million!

That's right, with thousands of blocks and a one million dollar prize, who will be the lucky winner to pick the one where Dorner is hiding, and claim the one million dollar prize.

You can't win if you don't play, so call in and stake your claim to be the winning tip!

February 10, 2013

"Iron Sky" on Netflix

Don't let the capsule description about Nazis hiding on a secret moon base fool you. This is not your run of the mill Nazis-on-the-moon picture. While easily mistaken for another piece of B-movie flotsam, which is what I was expecting, this film is a window into the deepest fears of its international production crew about the American political psyche.

The film is set in a 2018 US which has elected a vacuous, egotistical woman as president who decorates her office with animal carcasses while crafting a media image as a downhome, folksy patriot.

Sound familiar? Oh, yes. And she looks familiar too.



It's election season, and she has set her hopes on being the first president to put a black man on the moon. Unfortunately, the mission doesn't succeed, and she is looking for some other way to boost her rootin', tootin' cred. However, unknown to earth, the mission did reach the moon, and our African American astronaut has been captured by Nazis who have been planning to stage a triumphant return to earth in the Gotterdamerung, an immense space battleship. The battleship is nearly operational, but the Nazis have not been able to perfect the control system for it.

By a remarkable stroke of luck, the Nazis confiscate the astronaut's iPhone and find that it is the missing piece of the control system they have been seeking. Unfortunately, the remaining charge in the iPhone is used up during testing, and so they must mount an expedition to earth, in order to visit an Apple store to obtain another one.

These Aryan Apple fanboys are just the ticket needed for the president's media advisor to find a way out of her career-ending moon landing PR debacle, not to mention inflaming her unusual romantic inclinations.

Many of the scenes are satiric takes on classic movie moments, including one absolute killer take off on the granddaddy of internet movie scene memes that is just not to be missed.

So, forget what you think this movie is about, and give it a look-see. You'll thank me later.

February 6, 2013

Mag 8.0 Solomon Islands

Check your warnings bonobo and asahina

February 1, 2013

Sandy Hook "Truthers"

As some members of our community take offense at the label "truthers" now being applied to various theories about events impacting politics, in the manner that "-gate" has become a suffix for all manner of political scandal, I would like to propose that we use a sui generis term for this manifestation, and call them:

Hookers.