Patricia Cornwell visits AFDIL

Mystery author (and former real-life medical examiner) Patricia Cornwell paid a visit to AFDIL yesterday. She was there researching her next book and a potential movie, and took some time out to have lunch with the AFDIL-ians and sign our books. "Always time for the scientists" she says.

What really happened

By now I'm sure you have read or seen the story of the prominant black scholar who was arrested in his own home at Harvard. I have read conflicting stories about whether he complied with the police when asked for his ID. Even our president mentioned it last night. If he did I guess he has a ligitimate gripe, if not he was lucky not to have recieved worse treatment. Some guys that worked for me set off a customers alarm and because of there legal status as citizens they left the scene when I heard about it I went to try to shut off the alarm, I got there just before the police arrived. I was in the house and looked pretty guilty of burgalary or worse. I was also scared to go outside and see the police who were busy surrounding the house and warming up there batons. just then the homeowner showed up and when he properly IDd himself the problem was defused. I am sure if there was any attitude diplayed in the first few tense moments of that episode there was going to be some rough treatment. Wood shampoos for both of us. I dont't know about Caimbridge but in Front Royal you don't mess with the po po regardless of who you are.

Documentary-athon

With Dara out of town last week, I Netflixed three documentaries.

• Man on Wire. The life story of tightrope walker Philippe Petit, leading up to his infamous walk between the towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. It was fascinating to track his obsession with the whole thing and the mechanics of how he and his cohorts managed to pull it off. Highly recommended.


• The Corporation. Tracks a bit of the history of corporations, but mostly their growing influence over our lives. This documentary reminded me of a book I read, When Corporations Rule the World. I have my own opinions about the role of corporations in the world today. I'm sympathetic to a lot of the points in this left-leaning documentary, but I found the lame attempts to appear balanced to be distracting and probably would have preferred a straight-up, honest hatchet job.


• Grizzly Man. A Werner Herzog documentary about Timothy Treadwell, who spent 13 summers living with grizzly bears in Alaska, but ended up as a pre-hibernation snack for one in the end. While the story was interesting, and there was great footage of grizzlies, Treadwell was just too much of a flake for me to relate to. Anthropomorphizing doesn't even begin to describe it. A good documentary, though, and I imagine different people will have quite different reactions to Treadwell, from noble to flake to hopelessly innocent.

Latinos and me

I have sort of been in the process of retraining myself at work, there are a lot of new skills to learn. With such a lengthy background in building the learning curve has been shallow, some things are more difficult than others, pipefitting was easily mastered, but I'm still working to perfect my welding technique. The one thing that still escapes me is to speak spanish enough to casualy converse with my co-workers. I can tell people what tool I need or to move in a specific direction with materials, and watch out for that object overhead, but I am unable to make any meaningful conversation outside of that. I am working on it however and plan to be more proficient soon. I am using a book that teaches "Spanglish" which is what most everyone seems to understand. I am also using Rosseta Stone which hasn't seemed to kick in yet but I'm sure it will someday. It has been fun learning and trying my spanish on guys I get some laughs but most seem to appreciate you trying. This is a skill I need since according to the media no Americans want to work construction anymore.

Fishing Report

You don't have to look hard to find some bad press regarding the Shenendoah River and fishing. For several years reports of unexplained fishkills, open sores on specimans, and the everpopular legend of male fish with female body parts including eggs have dampened my interest in fishing. It is strictly catch and release for anyone with any sense. Dan and his freind Kayla have shown some interest in fishing lately and have had some success, they have managed to reel in several very healthy looking small and largemouth bass. This got me interested so I went yesterday on my own and was shut out till what was to be my last cast and boom I landed a nice 3 lb largemout. Last night they wanted to go catfishing and managed to catch 7 between them, nothing to big but they really seemed to enjoy themselves and all the fish looked healthy and happy to be released. Even at the age of 14 they still seemed to need me to be the official untangler, fish remover, and bait manager, an obvious reason why I was unable to land any. Maybe because we have had so much rain this year and water levels are some higher than recent years or maybe the general health of the river is improving and making something of a comeback. Whatever the reason I feel the need to monitor it more closely and plan to do so by fishing more regularly. I encourage all of you to join me some weekend for a closer look.

Emergency Broadcast System II

In my inbox this morning, courtesy of the Redwood City Police Department.

Recently there have been several reports of so-called “acid bombs” in unincorporated Redwood City and in the City of Belmont. These are normally large plastic soda bottles containing caustic chemicals which are designed to create a chemical reaction and explode. These devices can be extremely dangerous, and they may detonate unexpectedly.

The Redwood City Police Department is advising the community to be aware of any such suspicious bottles, or other suspicious packages. Anyone who sees a suspicious object like this is strongly urged NOT to handle it. The proper action is to clear the immediate area and contact the Redwood City Police Department by dialing 911. Do not touch the bottle or any other suspicious packages.

Scary. I did read about this in the paper, so it's real (and a lot more exciting than the usual Atherton police blotter entries!). It's interesting that they notified us by EMail, especially considering that to my knowledge I never signed up for any notifications or provided the Redwood City Police with an EMail address. FWIW, I thought I'd pretty up this posting by including a picture of an acid bomb at the top, but when I googled it, I could see so much disturbing online information on the topic that I decided to use one of the bomb squad instead.

Dangers of Blogging

One of a set of updated WWII propaganda posters on Flickr.

Culture Shock

Dara is outside of the Bay Area bubble to attend Brent Beatty's wedding in Tennessee (first of the cousins in our family to get married). It's a well known fact that Dick Beatty and Al Gore are actually the only two liberals in Tennessee, and Gore's whereabouts have been uncertain ever since he launched the endless powerpoint tour. Dara does not like to take on the conservative argument machinery in Tennessee, and I think Dick has learned to keep his head down. For me, it is one of the highlights of a visit there. With that in mind, I provide below a rough reproduction of a text message exchange with Dara...

• Dara - Cal economy, world economy, healthcare, Obama massively spending, God. You're missing all the discussions.
• Me - Answers: 2/3 rule and Prop 13, thank Bush, public option!, WTF you should take an econ course!, flying spaghetti monster.

It's almost like being there!

Forensics of the Assasination of Alexander Litvinenko

Since Dad happened to stay at the Millenium Hotel shortly after Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned, I thought this article might be of interest to you all. I actually heard a talk on this by a member of Scotland Yard while at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences meeting this year. Interesting stuff.

What Is It with the Polo Stories?

Continuing the all polo all the time coverage, next up, courtesy of the Washington Post: urban bike polo. I don't think Britney will be doing any videos using these guys as a backdrop.

Even Britney Spears is into Polo

Totally random and weird, but check out Britney Spears' new music video that takes place on a polo estate and involves her oogling hot young polo players. Very bizarre.