Category — Uncategorized

CNN says that Authorities: Body of UGA professor identified

(CNN) — The body of a University of Georgia professor accused of killing three people was found Saturday buried in woods near Athens, Georgia, authorities said.

George Zinkhan, 57, is suspected of fatally shooting his wife and two other people last month outside a community theater in Athens, which is home to the University of Georgia.

Cadaver dogs discovered the body with two guns in a wooded area of northwest Clarke County, about a mile from where Zinkhan’s red Jeep Liberty was found last week, Athens-Clarke Police Chief Joseph Lumpkin said.

Athens-Clarke County police confirmed the identity of the body, citing results from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

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The BBC Magazine has a nice article, How one in 1,000 can equal 50%, about a different form of “framing”.

I have mentioned this sort of thing several times when addressing political claims, especially regarding the difference between average and median. With all of the political chatter going on over stimulus and budgets, as well as discussions about the flu problem, you have to look for people comparing apples and codfish, because they couldn’t prove their point if they tried their normal apples and oranges.

According to the Local Puppy Trainer, the warm and wonderful Bay County Commission, bless their hearts, has sent a letter to the Air Force saying that it’ll take the F-35 training center, if they get tired of dealing with the city of Valparaiso.

These are the same people who told anyone who would listen that the Air Force was going to shut down our airport, when justifying earmarks to finance their new facility. Bay County is to the East on the “bump in the Panhandle”, and includes Panama City and Tyndall AFB.

Lovely people.

If you are the FDIC, it’s: FirstCity Bank, of Stockbridge, Ga, Teambank National Association of Paola, Kan., and Colorado National Bank of Colorado Springs, Colo.

CNN-Money tells us that 3 banks fail – 20 so far this year

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Bank regulators closed three banks Friday, marking the 18th, 19th and 20th failures this year.

The FDIC estimates that the combined cost of the bank failures to its deposit insurance fund will be approximately $207 million.

The FCUA [FDIC for credit unions] wasn’t quite as hungry: U.S. seizes 2 big credit unions

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The federal government, in its latest effort to prop up the financial system, took over two big wholesale credit unions Friday with combined assets of $57 billion.

U.S. Central Federal Credit Union in Lenexa, Kan., and Western Corporate Federal Credit Union in San Dimas, Calif., were placed under conservatorship “to stabilize the corporate credit union system and resolve balance sheet issues,” according to the National Credit Union Administration.

These are credit unions for corporate credit unions, and being corporate they gambled instead of invested their assets.

In the Pensacola News Journal we read: Pensacola attorney suspended

— Elizabeth Aileen Broome, 1004 E. Jackson Street, Pensacola, suspended effective immediately, following a Jan. 15 court order. (Admitted to practice: 1988) In December 2008, Broome was found guilty of 13 felony counts of grand theft. She took legal fees but failed to provide the legal services for which she was retained. Broome was sentenced to six months incarceration and 10 years probation. She was also ordered to pay restitution to her former clients in the amount of more than $68,000. (Case No. SC09-62)

Suspended‽ Thirteen felonies and her license is suspended‽ What do you have to do to get disbarred in this state?

The Local Puppy Trainer informs us: Ex-city marshal hopes to return

DeFUNIAK SPRINGS – Ray “Buddy” Burgess, a former city marshal who retired under ethics complaints and criminal charges for falsifying documents, is trying to reclaim the office that has been vacant since Mike Adkinson became Walton County sheriff in January.

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The first dozen mushers are beyond Nikolai and the trail to McGrath. The first one to McGrath wins the Spirit of Alaska award that includes a custom spirit mask and a $500 air freight credit for PenAir.

Those in 13 to 31 places are in Nikolai. The rest are spread out back to Rainy Pass with the exception of Nancy Yoshida (3), who is in last place and has to await a new sled.

The temperature climbed to 40° in Nikolai today which is not good for the dogs or the trail. The dogs are better off at 20° and below. They will actually have heat related health issues at 40° and mushers will have to switch to running at night and resting during the day. Climate change is going to force the race to be scheduled earlier in the year. The warmer weather is going to turn the trail into slush during the day and a skating rink at night.

This is the current list of teams as of 12:46am CDT:

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The BBC History feed for today contained this:

1836: Mexican troops massacre the American garrison at the Alamo, an event that has entered US mythology.

The people in the Alamo were Texans, not Americans. They were residents/citizens of the Mexican province of Texas in revolt against their government. The event is history, not mythology, unless you insert the bit about there being Americans in the Alamo.

Texas became an independent republic before it joined the United States in 1845, just in time to provide an excuse for the Mexican War in 1846.

Update: Before someone brings up Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie – they were essentially what we would call “illegal aliens” today, or possibly “enemy combatants” if you were the Mexican government.

From Australian Broadcasting things you don’t want to hear on final approach:

Speaking over the address system as the Flybe flight approached Charles de Gaulle airport, the pilot announced to startled passengers “I am not qualified to land the plane” and turned back to Cardiff.

While is was a technical licensing issue, and not competence, it really is not a confidence builder.

Over at the Agonist there’s a piece called More Car Thoughts about how the US auto industry can be saved by acting like Steve Jobs.

One of the key points is that the Big Three should shut down all of their assembly plants and just put the actual production out to bid.

Of course, this might help stockholders and the executives, but it obviously screws the workers. No concern is given to the minor point – who will buy all of these wonderful, up-to-date cars that are being built wherever. The workers in the companies that would probably get the bids don’t make enough to buy a cup of coffee at a Dunkin’ Donuts, much less an expresso in the areas where there are Apple stores, so they aren’t going to be buying them. This will outsource even more jobs, and create an even deeper recession.

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The light blue/cyan and white areas are what is known in the weather business as “snow”, even though the city is New Orleans. The fluffy white stuff was in Houston last night. It’s not unknown along the Gulf Coast, but it is not a common winter occurrence.

They will be fishing the unfamiliar out of the bayous if the temperature stays down low enough for any of it to stick to the roads.

Over at CBS a bit of recognition: Nobelist: Blogs Might Have Stopped Hitler

(AP) The spread of information on the Internet has given the world a new tool to forestall conflicts, Nobel literature prize winner Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio said Sunday.

In his Nobel lecture to the Swedish Academy, the 68-year-old Frenchman said an earlier introduction of information technology could even have prevented World War II.

“Who knows, if the Internet had existed at the time, perhaps Hitler’s criminal plot would not have succeeded – ridicule might have prevented it from ever seeing the light of day,” he said.

Are you ready for LOLHitler? Accompanying the story is a picture of Hitler with the caption: “I can has Sudetenland?”

While listening to The World on the radio they ran a piece on The Churches Advertising Network in the UK that had a competition to explain the Nativity in a 30-second ad. The winner is on YouTube, but hit the “competition” link to hear the runners up. Pretty funny stuff.

If you have never seen it, you should also see Eddie Izzard’s “Cake or Death” routine on YouTube.

Via Paul Krugman the business world’s answer to I Can Has Cheezburger? : LOLFed.com.

The CBC story, Air Canada flight attendant helped land plane after co-pilot breakdown, isn’t as bad as most of the American coverage which says “stewardess”, but it is all pretty juvenile.

Yes, she had allowed her instrument rating to lapse, but she was still a licensed commercial pilot, although it is doubtful that she had been checked out on a 767. Suggesting that it was miraculous that she was able to act as a co-pilot during one landing, is fairly stupid. If you have a commercial license, you have flown multi-engine aircraft, and modern airliners are all quite similar by design, so that airlines don’t have to re-train their pilots from the ground up when they buy a new aircraft type.

The big hurdle is knowing what things are called, and what the basic instruments are telling you, because there is a check list for landing that tells you when to do things and in what order.  This is not exactly fodder for an Irwin Allen disaster flick.