Burgled in Philly on The Bygone Bureau is a crime story with some quirky details.
A word about the machine guns: one of them is mine, the other one is Matt’s, and they were for decoration. They were functional and we had ammunition, but they weren’t really for home defense or hunting. We thought they looked badass hanging on the wall — and they did.
If you get your bike stolen, this is one way to get it back, but please be sure it's safe before you do it.
A Colorado woman took matters into her own hands when her bike was stolen from outside of a Boulder sports bar. She tracked down her stolen bike on Craigslist, pretended to be an interested buyer and stole back her own bike.
I don't know if it was a coincidence, but Monday's Big Picture about Somali pirates works relatively well to illustrate William Langewiesche's Vanity Fair article about... Somali pirates.
Two lengthy excerpts from the interesting article:
If you added up the assets already available, or soon to be, the display of French power was impressive indeed. And it was arrayed against what? A band of barefoot natives, Fuzzy Wuzzies in rags, hip-firing their Kalashnikovs with poor aim, and worshipping some filthy G.P.S. as if it had fallen from the sky. They should have surrendered days before, even to the Canadians...They were not particularly bellicose or arrogant, but they refused to be impressed when they should have been. A warship coming at you is supposed to present an intimidating sight...It raised disturbing questions about the relevance of governments and the exercise of power. More specifically, a suspicion crept in that these pirates knew exactly what they were doing, and that they understood the forces at play with more sophistication than had been assumed. Fuzzy Wuzzies they were, but until Paris decided it could accept casualties among the Ponant’s crew, they had stymied the French national will.
Today, almost one year later, Somali pirates continue to ignore the increasingly urgent displays of national power. One of the ironies of the concern being shown is that the shippers being provided with naval protection are the very same people who for years have made a mockery of the nation-state idea. They know that whatever pirate tolls they pay will always pale in comparison with the taxes that would be imposed if global law and order ever actually prevailed. But there is little danger of that. In its place a convoy system has been instituted for crossing the Gulf of Aden. CMA CGM has ordered its cargo ships to use it when practical... Because of an increase in crew pay, insurance, and other piracy-related costs, the company has imposed a $23 surcharge on every standard-size container that it takes through—amounting to a quarter-million dollars for each trip by the largest ships. Given the margins built in, and despite the need for the occasional payout, this means that CMA CGM, its insurers, and its crews are profiting from Somali piracy.
The pirates are professional and don't typically harm the crews they capture because they know that the ship owners will pay a ransom, covered by insurance companies (AIG in this case) as opposed to allowing the military to mount an attack. This is especially so because everyone is profiting from the current arrangement.
A couple weeks ago, the New York Times had an article about an Alabama Sheriff who, underfed inmates in his charge and pocketed the difference.
And that is just what the sheriff, Greg Bartlett, did, to the tune of $212,000 over the last three years, despite a state food allowance of only $1.75 per prisoner per day.
Interestingly, an Alabama law allows lawmen to keep the money left over after feeding the prisoners so while underfeeding the inmates probably is illegal, keeping the money probably isn't.
Doing some rithmaticking, I figure that Sheriff Bartlett was feeding the inmates on about $1.10 per day or about 63% the daily food allowance. You want to take bets on how long until this guy has a weight loss / money saving reality TV show?
Unfortunately, Brightcove isn't letting me embed this so you'll just have to click this link to watch Brightcove decided to shut down the link to the most remarkable two and half minutes of the week (at least, if not the month). For those of you too lazy to click through Video embedded below. Saratoga Springs is full of horse statues. Here's one that gets knocked over after 2 minutes of two drunks in suits trying to mount it (really) while a woman who appears to be in a denim skirt cheers them on. My favorite part is how they are all smoking flamboyantly. Who smokes anymore? Now you have to watch it. This is simply remarkable.
TR the Realtor [the horse], owned by Roohan Realty in Saratoga Springs, was vandalized for a fourth time early Monday morning. This video is surveillance footage in front of the real estate office. (Christen Gowan/Times Union)
In the Esquire article about Roger Ebert a few weeks back, Ebert mentioned his interview interview with Lee Marvin as one of his favorites, and now they've republished it online.
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