Duke LAcrosse Story

....Okay, I see my process here. I am no neutral observer. For me it is a time machine. I remember being on the fringe of school and resenting those who were thriving, especially the male athletes who were almost uniformly giant A-holes [well, the golf team stoners were okay :) ]. Anyway, that is how I picture this event: a party thrown by and for a bunch of pampered A-hole athletes, who are about to get fast-tracked into a world I will never know. This party was a bad idea from the start, yet it is endorsed or at least tolerated by the parents and coaches.

So one of the bigger A-holes knows some hookers/strippers and calls them up. The girls get there and the energy levels climb. Over-sexed, under monitered, cash-heavy, male juveniles in a group trying to out-stupid each other. How could anything go wrong?

Somebody gets ugly, somebody gets hurt, somebody calls for help and the cops show up. The strippers have no representation and the guys have legal teams paratrooping in out of the sky. Even with that David and Goliath advantage, the girls get some press and some representation and make it to national news. At no time do the parents team leaders say, "...okay, we f'd up. Let's cut a big check and make this go away. Our guys f'd up and we need to do the right thing."

My problem is in two distinct parts:

1) I object to the labeling of these athletes as innocents. They were drinking, partying, hiring prostitutes and behaving like cave-men. Been there. Shit happens. I don't really care who was raped and how or how many. That was for the cops and the courts. As a teacher and a fervent promoter of the STUDENT-athlete, though, I just believe that this was a mistake from the start and it should be dealt with accordingly. Not like some hit and run: "...I swear, your honor! These black chicks just came out of nowhere and started telling stories about us! We didn't do nuthin'! I mean, fersher....!

And,

2) I know next to nothing about the real story and have made my version up from tortured parts of my own twisted and lonely past.


MORE later...C19 out

Disaster Preparation

BRIAN MCNAMEE, CPA

Private Mortgage Banker

Wells Fargo Home Mortgage | 1 Montgomery St, 1st Floor | San Francisco, CA 94104
MAC A0177-012

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From: Charles Gagan [mailto:cgagan@usfca.edu] 

With all the earthquakes that have happened around the globe it does not hurt to know what to do just in case.........a
 

I figured it wouldn't hurt to re-send this email once again just as a refresher on what you need to do in the event of an earthquake.  Please read it. The old methods we were taught like getting under a desk or doorway have been proven to be wrong.  Pease pass this email on to anyone you know. This new information may save your life or the lives of those you love.   Subject: Where to Go During an Earthquake This is the text version of my earlier email styled 《Save your life with "The Triangle of Life"》(see below) further elucidating on the life-saving concept of "The Triangle of Life"....     Folks, please SHARE, SHARE, SHARE this with your loved ones: Where to Go During an Earthquake Remember that stuff about hiding under a table or standing in a doorway? Well, forget it! This is a real eye opener. It could save your life someday. EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP'S ARTICLE ON 'THE TRIANGLE OF LIFE' My name is Doug Copp. I am the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager of the American Rescue Team International (ARTI ), the world's most experienced rescue team. The information in this article will save lives in an earthquake. I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings, worked with rescue teams from 60 countries, founded rescue teams in several countries, and I am a member of many rescue teams from many countries. I was the United Nations expert in Disaster Mitigation for two years, and have worked at every major disaster in the world since 1985, except for simultaneous disasters. The first building I ever crawled inside of was a school in Mexico City during the 1985 earthquake. Every child was under its desk. Every child was crushed to the thickness of their bones. They could have survived by lying down next to their desks in the aisles. It was obscene -- unnecessary. Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the weight of the ceilings falling upon the objects or furniture inside crushes these objects, leaving a space or void next to them - NOT under them. This space is what I call the 'triangle of life'. The larger the object, the stronger, the less it will compact. The less the object compacts, the larger the void, the greater the probability that the person who is using this void for safety will not be injured. The next time you watch collapsed buildings, on television, count the 'triangles' you see formed. They are everywhere. It is the most common shape, you will see, in a collapsed building. TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY 1) Most everyone who simply 'ducks and covers' when building collapse are crushed to death. People who get under objects, like desks or cars, are crushed. 2) Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl up in the fetal position. You should too in an earthquake. It is a natural safety/survival instinct. You can survive in a smaller void. Get next to an object, next to a sofa, next to a bed, next to a large bulky object that will compress slightly but leave a void next to it. 3) Wooden buildings are the safest type of construction to be in during an earthquake. Wood is flexible and moves with the force of the earthquake. If the wooden building does collapse, large survival voids are created. Also, the wooden building has less concentrated, crushing weight. Brick buildings will break into individual bricks. Bricks will cause many injuries but less squashed bodies than concrete slabs. 4) If you are in bed during the night and an earthquake occurs, simply roll off the bed. A safe void will exist around the bed. Hotels can achieve a much greater survival rate in earthquakes, simply by posting a sign on the back of the door of every room telling occupants to lie down on the floor, next to the bottom of the bed during an earthquake. 5) If an earthquake happens and you cannot easily escape by getting out the door or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal position next to a sofa, or large chair. 6) Most everyone who gets under a doorway when buildings collapse is killed. How? If you stand under a doorway and the doorjamb falls forward or backward you will be crushed by the ceiling above. If the door jam falls sideways you will be cut in half by the doorway. In either case, you will be killed! 7) Never go to the stairs. The stairs have a different 'moment of frequency' (they swing separately from the main part of the building). The stairs and remainder of the building continuously bump into each other until structural failure of the stairs takes place. The people who get on stairs before they fail are chopped up by the stair treads - horribly mutilated. Even if the building doesn't collapse, stay away from the stairs. The stairs are a likely part of the building to be damaged. Even if the stairs are not collapsed by the earthquake, they may collapse later when overloaded by fleeing people. They should always be checked for safety, even when the rest of the building is not damaged. 8) Get near the outer walls of buildings or outside of them if possible - It is much better to be near the outside of the building rather than the interior. The farther inside you are from the outside perimeter of the building the greater the probability that your escape route will be blocked. 9) People inside of their vehicles are crushed when the road above falls in an earthquake and crushes their vehicles; which is exactly what happened with the slabs between the decks of the Nimitz Freeway. The victims of the San Francisco earthquake all stayed inside of their vehicles. They were all killed. They could have easily survived by getting out and sitting or lying next to their vehicles. Everyone killed would have survived if they had been able to get out of their cars and sit or lie next to them. All the crushed cars had voids 3 feet high next to them, except for the cars that had columns fall directly across them. 10) I discovered, while crawling inside of collapsed newspaper offices and other offices with a lot of paper, that paper does not compact. Large voids are found surrounding stacks of paper. Spread the word and save someone's life... The entire world is experiencing natural calamities so be prepared! 'We are but angels with one wing, it takes two to fly' In 1996 we made a film, which proved my survival methodology to be correct. The Turkish Federal Government, City of Istanbul , University of Istanbul Case Productions and ARTI cooperated to film this practical, scientific test. We collapsed a school and a home with 20 mannequins inside. Ten mannequins did 'duck and cover,' and ten mannequins I used in my 'triangle of life' survival method. After the simulated earthquake collapse we crawled through the rubble and entered the building to film and document the results. The film, in which I practiced my survival techniques under directly observable, scientific conditions , relevant to building collapse, showed there would have been zero percent survival for those doing duck and cover. There would likely have been 100 percent survivability for people using my method of the 'triangle of life.' This film has been seen by millions of viewers on television in Turkey and the rest of Europe, and it was seen in the USA , Canada and Latin America on the TV program Real TV.   Subject: Save your life with "The Triangle of Life" "Triangle of Life": Without listening or reading, simply by looking at the following self-explanatory photos, you can learn more than in a thousand words about how to protect yourself during a major earthquake... If you are inside a vehicle, come out and sit or lie down next to it. If something falls on the vehicle, it will leave an empty space along the sides. See below: Source：國際救援小組（ARTI），網址：http://www.amerrescue.org/ American Rescue Team International（ARTI）is said to be the World's most experienced rescue team and disaster management-mitigation organization.

Regarding Barry and His Drug Problem

Seed for a story I probably won't write:

"Hello Mrs. Sam,

Regarding Barry and his drug problem: We are so far past the crisis point no one knows when it was. Barry every moment is dominated by his need to get his fix. Now he is pushing aside higher priority items like getting in  fights and how he spends his money, because nothing is as important to Barry as drugs."

Take it, it's yours. No charge. I wanted to write something about the president's speed on Tuesday, and got stuck here. You have the con.


The president was pushing education as a remedy. I dunno. We've got an ocean of drugs crossing the border north and a freaking waterfall of money and guns going south. What kind of a teacher do you need to get THIS CLASS to sit down, make nice and follow the rules?

Copy boy!

C19 out

Pet and animal policy for military evacuations

No. This is really where my libertarianism comes out. Policies like this just breed trouble and confusion and despair. Being a pet guardian is a big job, and just one of many. To think that you may ask someone's son or daughter to stay in harm's way while your chihauhau rides safely out seems like a poor application of priorities. And I am no fan of people. But we have a long precedent of putting humans first, and lacking compelling evidence this should remain in place. That being said, a local official should be able to wiggle around these rules for extreme situations. This is a lose, lose and then die situation. But changing policy like this is not a good fix. DD

Epigramatic

I don't at all know if I am spelling it right, but Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) just used it on a CBS interview. Epigramatic: the ability to write like Hemingway in your tweets.

ep·i·gram·mat·ic  [ep-i-gruh-mat-ik] Show IPA

–adjective

1.

of or like an epigram;  terse and ingenious in expression.

2.

containing or favoring the use of epigrams.

Use epigrammatic in a Sentence

See images of epigrammatic

Search epigrammatic on the Web

Also, ep·i·gram·mat·i·cal.

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Origin:
1695–1705;  < Latin epigrammaticus  < Greek epigrammatikós,  equivalent to epigrammat-  (stem of epígramma ) epigram  + -ikos -ic

—Related forms

ep·i·gram·mat·i·cal·ly, adverb

ep·i·gram·ma·tism  /ˌɛpɪˈgræməˌtɪzəm/ Show Spelled[ep-i-gram-uh-tiz-uhm] Show IPA, noun

non·ep·i·gram·mat·ic, adjective

non·ep·i·gram·mat·i·cal·ly, adverb

un·ep·i·gram·mat·ic, adjective

un·ep·i·gram·mat·i·cal·ly, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged
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aphoristic, apothegmatic

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World English Dictionary

epigram  (ˈɛpɪˌɡræm)
— n
1.	a witty, often paradoxical remark, concisely expressed
2.	a short, pungent, and often satirical poem, esp one having a witty and ingenious ending
[C15: from Latin epigramma,  from Greek: inscription, from epigraphein  to write upon, from graphein  to write]
epigram'matic
— adj
epigram'matically
— adv

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All good so far, here by the beach

First two surges off of the Japan Tsunami have left us unaffected here 100 feet above street level in the Fillmore district of San Francisco, CA.

Crescent City, several hundred miles north and Santa Cruz, 50 miles to the south are having some damage to boats and areas near the water line. Ongoing, but biggest issue as usual, is human panic by those least prepared and informed. Inform yourselves, people! Start with the Hard Work Hour on Blog Talk Radio and the hard Work Hour with Douglas Douglas on Blogger.

Namaste!

Respect the ocean!

DD

Libya, of course. Horrible stories across this huge, complicated country. Rumors of Security Forces firing on crowds from airplanes and even from AMBULANCES! "Pray for peace, people everywhere."

...and LAUSD revokes charter for schools that break rules of test preparation. Implication? End of world. The center has no mass. The fucking SCHOOLS are teaching the kids to cheat. Why? Because we told them to. More Much Later.



In Pakistan, Christians are being killed with popular sanction. We can learn much from this intolerance. Anyone (including myself) who believes in capital punishment or state-sanctioned violence may see another perspective here. The shoe is definitely on the other foot.



Commonwealth Games. Corruption chargesfor administrators of troubled games. Future?



Bilingual Rocks! Study shows that infants as young as 9 mo can distinguish between English and French (even when they don’t know either language!), as long as they are exposed to two languages in the home. If you were raised with two languages, thank your parents.


Considering a Six Continents blog. What? You don't even have ONE? Lemme know whatcha think.

Much more later,

C19 out