props

Congratulations to Zetetical for finishing the Boston Marathon. He did it for the children.

uncertainty

Question: If the runner from second base passes the runner from third base en route to home plate and the umpires do not see it transpire, is the runner out?

Answer: Not necessarily. At least not if the all umpires are busy watching a fly ball in the outfield and miss the call on the fly ball. In this particular case, after the umpires receive a verbal lashing from the manager of the ball club, and then meet and determine the right call, the baserunners are put back where they would have been had the correct call been made.

Editorial: This missed call followed by a reversal ultimately worked in the favor of the Atlanta National League Baseball Club. Had the umpire made the correct call initially, two runs may have scored considering that the bases were loaded with players from the New York National League Baseball Club.

What puzzles me is why Angel Pagan of the New York Metropolitans, who was the runner on second base, took off running on a ball hit in the air with less than two outs. The reason he passed Ryan Church, who was the runner on third base, was that Church went a third of the way to home and looked back to see the umpire's call. Church was running the bases like a professional baseball player aware of the game and inning situation. Pagan seemed to make a bush league base running error. Had a center fielder with just a little more range than Mark Kotsay, e.g. Andruw Jones, made the catch cleanly, Pagan would have been out and the Mets little rally would have been no more. Now, if the umpire had made the right call initially and Pagan run the bases like a professional, Church would have scored the second run of the play and Pagan ended up on third base with less than two outs.

Misdirection

From The Beaufort Gazette:

"We've had 4,000 soldiers killed in Iraq as of last week. Since the start of the Iraq war, we've had 30,000 American children commit suicide, get murdered or die from child abuse. Yet you haven't heard a word out of Washington."
-- Michael Petit, founder of Every Kid Matters, a Washington advocacy group

I am glad to see that someone is paying attention.

Oops! Pow! Suprise!

C:\>java
Registry key 'Software\JavaSoft\Java Runtime Environment\CurrentVersion'
has value '1.5', but '1.3' is required.
Error: could not find java.dll
Error: could not find Java 2 Runtime Environment.

Conduct Unbecoming

Recently, a video taken from the dashboard camera of a South Carolina State Trooper captured a disturbing incident. After a traffic stop and a rudimentary car search, a trooper found an open container and firearm in the backseat of a vehicle. When he instructed one of the three suspects to place his hands on the car, the suspect fled on foot. During the ensuing chase, the trooper yelled, “You better run, nigger, because I’m fixin’ to kill you.” [Article from The State] Now, there are two key problems with he trooper's outburst: One, there is no place in law enforcement for derogatory racial epithets; two, there is no place in law enforcement for death threats.

The use of a racial epithet by a law enforcement agent while in uniform doing official business is deplorable. It reflects poorly on the organization, the political entities they represent, and most importantly the judiciary. Even if an incident like this is handled summarily by supervision, damage is done to anyone who wears the uniform of the agency in question. Put into question is their ability enforce the law without regard to race, class, religion, etc.

Furthermore, a death threat made to a suspect during the course of an investigation is absolutely unacceptable. Citizens need to able to trust and respect law enforcement. Without that trust and respect how are citizens expected to pull over for a blue light and cooperate with authorities? How can citizens be expected to trust that law enforcement has the greater good in mind during the carrying out of their duties?

The fallout from this incident demonstrates impact of one trooper in uniform with blue lights flashing saying, “You better run, nigger, because I’m fixin’ to kill you.” First, the governor, Mark Sanford, has replaced the top two officials responsible for the South Carolina State Highway Patrol. This move was applauded by current and former troopers of both races who were tired of the nepotism and corruption they perceived as infesting state law enforcement.

Subsequently, since the poor actions of one trooper in uniform reflect poorly on the entire agency, all the practices of the Highway Patrol have come into question. Video of troopers using their vehicles to chase suspect who are on foot have surfaced. While this may be standard procedure of many law enforcement agencies, an agency where a trooper says, “You better run, nigger, because I’m fixin’ to kill you,” this practice begins to look like a human rights violation. As a result, the state senate and the Federal Bureau of Investigation has become involved. [Article; Article; Article]

Ultimately, the South Carolina State Department of Public Safety and its subdivision, the South Carolina Highway Patrol, have a lot of work to do to clean up after this, but this incident is not endemic to the highways of South Carolina. Law enforcement everywhere has to understand that while there are many good men and women with uniforms and badges the sinister proclivities of a few tarnishes the image of the majority who perform their duties with professionalism and respect.

sans nostalgia

There is some music for which I have no nostalgia:

Onomatopoeia

Currently I have the album 10,000 Days by Tool in heavy rotation. After being introduced to Lateralus, Tool's previous album, by Zetetical when we shared an office, I have continued to follow Tool and count myself as a fan. I cannot seem to get enough of their brand of progressive metal. Who can argue with exquisitely crafted music with thought provoking lyrics written in un-common time signatures?

I however have not given myself over to the progressive metal genre completely. While I appreciate the energy and complexity of the music, when I listen to a group like Mastodon; the vocals bug me. Maybe I am off base about (prog-)metal, but I do not think that vocals need to be screamed all the time. Sure, you can scream some, or even a lot, but not all the time. The screaming detracts from excellent musicians playing intricate, complex rhythms and melodies in the rest of the song.