7000 - sonic transponder will translate vermin.

[scottobear]

Monet's Birthday

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Well... let's see. 7000 entries, in 1467 days.

My early days of heavy posting is skewing my count up to about 4.8 entries a day. Comments posted - 35,841 - That's 24 comments posted per day. I know I've had a few 100 days and a few 0 days.

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Busy-busy day on call yesterday.... makes me appreciate MM all the more.

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The Declaration of independence was signed a century before Germany and Italy became "Countries"

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Since I was on call, and couldn't do much online gaming, I hopped back a bit into GTA... Man, those Ambulance missions are hard. I would like to see a variant of it online, with team action.

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How to never miss an episode with BitTorrent and RSS (or, How I'll be getting episodes of lost in the future)

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The 1st DCA rules once again that the voucher law is unconstitutional.

The first sentence of article I, section 3 of the Florida Constitution is synonymous with the federal Establishment Clause in generally prohibiting laws respecting the establishment of religion. In addition to the Establishment Clause language, article I, section 3 also includes the language of the no-aid provision, which expands the restrictions in state aid and to religion by specifically prohibiting the expenditure of public funds "directly or indirectly" to aid sectarian institutions. For a court to interpret the no-aid provision of article I, section 3 as imposing no further restrictions on the state's involvement with religious institutions than the Establishment Clause, it would have to ignore both the clear meaning and intent of the text and the unambiguous history of the no-aid provision.

Full text here.

ACLU statement here.

(via flablog)

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Taking prednisone (for the allergic reaction I had) leaves a real nasty aftertaste in my mouth. bleh!

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Police Tasered truant girl, 12

A Miami-Dade police officer used a Taser to stop an unarmed, 12-year-old girl who was running away from him after she was caught skipping school, police acknowledged Friday night.

The incident happened Nov. 5, just over two weeks after other Miami-Dade officers used a stun gun to restrain a first-grader. In that case, police said the 6-year-old boy was holding a shard of glass and threatening to cut himself. Police Director Bobby Parker defended the decision to shock the boy because he could have seriously hurt himself.

But Parker said Friday that he could not defend the decision to shock the fleeing 12-year-old, who was apparently drunk.

''Under the circumstances, we thought that he should not have used the Taser,'' Parker said referring to the officer. ``It's likely that discipline will be forthcoming.''

According to the incident report:

Officer William Nelson responded to an anonymous complaint that some kids were swimming in a West Kendall pool, drinking alcohol and smoking cigars about 11 a.m.

Nelson said he noticed the girl was intoxicated and told her to get dressed so he could take her back to school.

''While walking [the girl] to the police car, [she] took off running through the parking lot,'' Nelson wrote in his report.

Nelson, 38, a 15-year veteran, said he chased her and yelled several times for her to stop. Nelson said he pulled out the Taser and fired when the girl began to run into traffic.

The electric probes hit the girl in the neck and lower back, immobilizing her with 50,000 volts.

Nelson said he fired ''for my safety along with [the girl's] safety.'' He could not be reached for comment.

Paramedics treated the girl, who went home with her mother.

Parker said department policy permits officers to use the Taser to apprehend someone, but he said he expected his officers to use better judgment -- especially when police had no plans to arrest someone playing hooky.

''If you use it to apprehend an adult, it would be an arrest kind of situation,'' said Parker, adding that the timing of the latest incident couldn't be any worse.

His department is already under fire for using a Taser to subdue the 6-year-old last month. That zapping has made national headlines and prompted calls from child advocates that Miami-Dade review its Taser use.

Parker said Friday night that his department will review its Taser policy. ''That doesn't mean that we're going to change it,'' he said.

County Commissioner Joe Martinez, a former Miami-Dade officer, said the policy needs to be tightened.

''When you have a 6-year-old who is on medication and very disturbed, maybe some of that crisis intervention training would be very handy,'' he said, referring to a program that teaches officers how to deal with the mentally ill. ``Now, when I learn that a 12-year-old girl was running away, truant, and was also Tasered, I think it's time we instruct the county manager to look at that policy.''

Asked if his officers had shocked any other kids, Parker said: ``I asked the same question, are there more of these out there that I'm not aware of? To my knowledge this is the only one.''

First a 6 year-old, and now this... Thank goodness they're carrying non-lethals!

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Photo Blog: Taking Falluja

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Work is pressuring me to take a vacation.... I'm debating where to go... I'm entertaining thoughts of just staying at home, the Austin Area, Washington DC, and Southern California. If I just stay at home, I may break the two weeks into ten three-day weekends.

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1 year ago - bollywood, pt, hooray for adhesives!

2 years ago - Male contraceptive, Dan met OJ Simpson, Newt-spoon Wrestling, peephenge, eating on the cheap.

3 years ago - evil news, gallimaufry , happiness machine recycled, writing apache modules

4 years ago - Bee-man lives, lucha, schizo-masons, Brian comment.

Comments

[juliabee.livejournal.com]

What happens when you are on call? Are you busy with work-related calls to other places constantly?

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

Well, when I'm on call, I can take phone calls from any of 17 states. I've got a clipboard that walks with me everywhere, from bedside to bathroom. When a call comes in, I take down the basic details of the case... if it's an abduction, a runaway, or a wandered off alzheimer's victim, etc. I then get a physical description, contact information for the police department, and other details that'll help me to plot out the case. Terrain plays a major part, especially if there's water nearby.

I hit satellite maps, plot out an area, make a voice recording, and them broadcast a message out to the region that the police are looking for a missing child, and then state the physical description, ask people to look out in their yard or complex, and to call the police if they have any information about the missing person. The broadcast can go out to about 1000 phones ever 60 seconds, give or take, depending on how robust the phone company is on the recieving end of the calls... Miami can do more, more rural areas can usally do a little bit less.

While the calls go out, I hit sexual predator information and make sure that the police know that there are any preds or offenders in the neighborhood... so they can knock on doors and check as many options as possible.

It's wildy variable. Sometimes, it's crazy-busy, and other times, it's dead... I haven't seen a rhyme or reason to what causes what, yet.

I was last on call from 8am Sat Morning to 8am Sunday this weekend, and I had approximately 12 missing kid calls (each take about 15 minutes to process), and about 10 recoveries (which takes about 2 minutes to process.)

I also launched a sexual predator alert for a region in North Florida where one just moved into a new neighborhood.

[juliabee.livejournal.com]

Heyyyy....and I got to see that same haystack painting of Monet's earlier this year. Saw two of his waterlilies and about 15 other paintings at a Monet exhibition. I'll tell you what...none of the prints that we see even compare to the real stuff. I knew there would be a difference, but I didn't expect to taken aback like I was. Take the waterlily paintings - don't match in color or intensity or detail at all. They prints are pale and washed out compared to the paintings. I'm surprised I haven't seen any that at least somewhat match in color. To actually get up close and see how he did his strokes (I'm not trying to be artsy here), was pretty wicked. People all around me were trying to get up close to eyeball the strokes.

I've seen some Van Gogh, Rothko, etc...etc. and their paintings looked pretty much like today's prints did - none of them surprised me like Monet's.

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

It *is* pretty amazing what depth and brushstrokes can do to make something really come alive, isn't it?

I don't know why they haven't tried to match the vibrancy? You'd think that they could be better duplicated in this day and age... photography has progressed quite a bit in the last 5 years, let a lone 20!

[silentyrs.livejournal.com]

oh they had a real Monet where I went to that wedding reception. It was tre' cool

[rosin-dubh.livejournal.com]

I'm with you 100% on the nastiness of the prednisone aftertaste. It would be so nice if they'd coat the things for our convenience. Same goes for a lot of generic meds too - few of those have any nice (or even just not nasty)-tasting coatings either.

At least you don't have to chew them! I can't even imagine... eeew.

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

oh, I don't even want to know what chewing them up would be like... asprin nastiness x 10!

[silentyrs.livejournal.com]

You should either stay at home for the vacation or you should... hmm... oh you should check out Niagra falls! That's a nifty place.

[scottobear.livejournal.com]

Niagra Falls is an interesting choice!

I've seen it from the New York side, but not the Canada Side. Maybe Newt & I could go over in a barrel!