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Wednesday, February 29, 2012

'It's A Sunshine Day' in Mass. Federal Court

NEW YORK, NY - OCTOBER 15:  Singer Elle Varner...Image by Getty Images via @daylife"Steal My Sunshine" sang Len in 1999. A New York-based performance artist has filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts alleging that two entertainment companies have done just that.

In Maya Hayuk v. RCA Records, Inc. & Sony Entertainment, Inc. (Case No. 12-cv-10357), the plaintiff alleges a work of art she created in September 2010, entitled "Sunshine" that figured prominently in a music video of the same name by Rye Rye was used without her permission in an October 2011, music video "I Only Want to Give It to You" by Elle Varner.

Hayuk's six-page complaint alleges copyright infringement (17 U.S.C. sec. 101 et seq.) and seeks attorneys' fees, statutory damages, an injunction against the defendants and impoundment of the Varner video. To paraphrase Bill Withers, "Ain't No Sunshine" (without pay).

Tip of the hat to Courthouse News Service, which first reported on this case.
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Tuesday, February 28, 2012

UPDATE: Ind. Appeals Court Asks Trial Judge to Review Order Unmasking Anonymous Blogger

The Indianapolis StarImage via WikipediaThe Indiana Court of Appeals last week ordered Marion County Superior Court Judge S.K. Reid to review her ruling last March to compel the Indianapolis Star to identify an online anonymous poster whose comments are part of an ongoing defamation suit (see "TUOL" post 3/4/11).

The Indianapolis Business Journal reported that to preserve the proper balance between First Amendment-protected anonymous speech and unprotected defamatory speech,  the appellate court ordered Judge Reid to apply the test articulated by a New Jersey appellate court in Dendrite International Inc. v. Does 1-14, 2001 WL 770406 (N.J. Super. A.D.) (Case No. A-2774-00T3). Under the five-part Dendrite test, a party seeking to identify an unnamed Internet poster, must: (1) try to contact the poster and allow the person a reasonable amount of time to respond; (2) identify the poster's precise statement(s) at issue; (3) state a prima facie case in his or her complaint; (4) present sufficient evidence concerning each element of his or her claim; and (5) the court must balance the First Amendment interest in anonymous speech against the strength of the prima facie case and the necessity of disclosure of the anonymous individual's identity. Adapting the Dendrite standard to comply with Indiana law, the Appeals Court is requiring supporting evidence only for the elements of  of the prima facie case that are not dependent on the identity of the poster.

In her initial ruling, Judge Reid said Indiana's shield law [Ind. Code sec. 34-46 1,2] did not protect media defendants against having to divulge the identity of an anonymous blogger who is a potential defendant in a defamation suit. The Star was the lone media outlet among  the Indianapolis Business Journal and WTRV-TV Channel 6 that refused to comply with Judge Reid's ruling to identify individuals who posted comments on the media entity's Website.

The Indiana appellate court said a crucial question in the case is whether the pseudonymous commenter DownWithTheColts is the source of any information given to a news outlet under the Hoosier State's shield law. The appellate panel found DownWithTheColts' comments libelous, but noted that the plaintiff in the underlying defamation suit, Jeffrey M. Miller, former CEO of Junior Achievement of Central Indiana, had yet to prove that the offending statement was false and published with actual malice.

In the appellate decision, Indiana Court of Appeals Judge Nancy H. Vaidik wrote: “While we do not want defamatory commenters to hide behind the First Amendment protection of anonymous speech, we must balance the prospect of too readily revealing the identity of these anonymous commenters.”

The Appeals Court remanded the case to Judge Reid to determine under the jerry-rigged Dendrite test whether Miller meets the requirements to unveil DownWithTheColts.
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Monday, February 27, 2012

Lawsuit Follows When Twitter Followers Follow Tweeter to New Job

phonedogphonedog (Photo credit: Brad Weikel)In a 13-page complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California alleging misappropriation of trade secrets, conversion and intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, a Delaware corporation based in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, is suing its former editor and video blogger who jumped to a rival company with 17,000 Twitter followers in tow.

USA Today reported on the case, PhoneDog, LLC v. Noah Kravitz (Case No. 3:11-cv-03474), in which the plaintiff, an 11-year-old company that provides information, news and reviews concerning phones and related technology, sued the defendant, who went to work in December 2010, for PhoneDog rival TechnoBuffalo. Not to go off-topic, but what is this technogeek obsession with the animal kingdom?

According to the lawsuit, PhoneDog has analogized Kravitz's  faithful Twitter followers to a proprietary customer list and wants the defendant to kick in $340,000, or $2.50 apiece for the 17,000 followers over an eight-month period. The plaintiff's Website also asserts that the defendant previously promised not to use the Twitter account to say sweet things about technology companies other than PhoneDog.  Kravitz contends PhoneDog over-inflated the worth of the followers, and that Twitter, not PhoneDog, is the true owner of the Kravitz account at issue.

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Fox News: Facebook Means 'Business' Peeking at Smartphone Users' Text Messages

Česky: Logo Facebooku English: Facebook logo E...Image via WikipediaAs it readies its own personal messaging service, social media monolith Facebook's research apparently includes poring over smartphone users' text messages, according to a London Times' article cited by Fox News.

Smartphone users of the Facebook app have been providing helpful intelligence to the social networking platform. Facebook offered assurance that users will be prompted to grant permission for the company to access personal text messages once Facebook's message service goes beyond the trial phase and is up and running. The Fox News story, however, notes a London Times-commissioned survey by YouGov in which 70 percent of smartphone users polled admitted they never review terms and conditions of use when downloading an app.

From a privacy standpoint, Facebook's "it's just business" rationale is akin to a locksmith walking in on people showering in their homes as part of his research into developing a better bathroom door lock.
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Pacific Paywall: LA Times Online Adds Subscription Fee in March

Partial front page of the Los Angeles Times fo...Image via WikipediaBeginning March 5, visitors to the Los Angeles Times online edition can only read 15 free articles a month before having to pony up for a subscription.

After a special introductory four-week subscription rate of 99 cents, online readers will be asked to pay $1.99 a week to read the Times' daily and Sunday edition, the paper announced last Friday. Subscribers to the print version of the daily can access the online edition free of charge. Digital-only viewing cost $3.99 a week.

Besides erecting a paywall, the Times print version is consolidating its Food, Home and Health sections into a Saturday "Lifestyle" section.

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Friday, February 24, 2012

Mug Shots Not for Public Consumption, Appeals Court Rules

Seal of the United States Court of Appeals for...Image via WikipediaIn World Publishing Co. v. U.S. Department of Justice (Docket No. 11-5063), the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit this week unanimously decided that prisoner "mug shots" are not subject to production under the Freedom of Information Act [5 U.S.C. sec. 552 et seq.].

As reported by the plaintiff Tulsa World, the 10th Circuit three-judge panel in a 15-page decision joined their brethren on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in ruling that inmates' photos are exempt under the federal act.  The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit previously reached the opposite conclusion, suggesting that the issue may reach the Supreme Court sooner or later.

The Tulsa daily sought mug shots of six prisoners, arguing that the proliferation of camera phones, video and the like in modern society serve to diminish the prisoners' expectation of privacy, but the 10th Circuit wasn't buying. In fact, Judge Paul Kelly turned the World's argument around, noting that the widespread availability of photos elsewhere negates the paper's need for the prisoner photos.

The appeals court upheld the ruling of United States District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma Judge Terence Kern, who last year exempted federal inmate mug shots under the FOIA. The Tulsa World sued the U.S. Marshalls Service in 2009 to obtain the photos.
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Thursday, February 23, 2012

Knox Appeals Slander Conviction

PERUGIA, ITALY - NOVEMBER 24:  Amanda Knox spe...Image by Getty Images via @daylifeFive months after an Italian appellate court overturned her 2009 murder conviction in the brutal 2007 slaying of her English roommate Meredith Kercher, 24-year-old Amanda Knox is asking the appeals court in Perugia, Italy, to reverse a slander conviction.

According to online stories by Reuters and MSNBC, Knox, a former University of Washington student currently living in Seattle, was on the wrong end of an action for slander brought by Diya "Patrick" Lumumba, a bar owner whom she implicated in Kercher's death. He was released after two weeks' incarceration for lack of evidence.  Knox claims police, during their interrogation, coerced her into pointing the finger at Lumumba, according to press accounts.

No timetable has been set for when the Perugia court will take up the appeal.

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Publisher Projects Paywall Proliferation

Gannett Logo used until March 2011.Image via Wikipedia"Good fences make good neighbors," poet  Robert Frost wrote in Mending Wall (1914), but McLean, Virginia-based media conglomerate Gannett Co. believes the 80 paywalls it plans to erect by the end of 2012 for the online editions of the 80 community newspapers it owns will make annual subscription revenues climb 25 percent.

Forbes Magazine reported yesterday that Gannett's Robert Dickey, president of community publishing, said a metered payment system will be in place for Gannett newspapers that likely will offer from five to 15 free articles monthly before Website visitors have to pay for content. Presently, six Gannett dailies have digital paywalls in place (see "TUOL" post 7/1/10).

The Forbes article noted that Gannett's leaky flagship, USA Today, will not follow the paywall route of its sister publications for now, as the nationwide paper is in the throes of upgrading and making over its Website.
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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

UPDATE: Public Giggs

LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 28:  Ryan Giggs (L) and ...Image by Getty Images via @daylifeWelsh soccer star Ryan Giggs, Manchester United's left-winger, this week in London's High Court consented to lifting the anonymity injunction issued last April by Mr. Justice (David) Eady that prevented The Sun from identifying him as the married celebrity allegedly romantically involved with Imogen Thomas, the former Miss Wales and Big Brother competitor.

The Guardian reports that Mr. Justice (Michael) Tugendhat noted anonymity in the matter had been inapplicable since February 1.  That Giggs purportedly engaged in a six-month affair with Thomas was not a state secret as not only did the foreign press "out" him [see "TUOL" post 5/18/11], but also, Brits gleefully tweeted about the relationship and Democrat MP John Hemming identified Giggs in the House of Commons, where he was shielded from the court order by parliamentary privilege.

Mr. Justice Tugendhat is weighing Giggs' claim for damages against The Sun for allegedly invading his privacy.

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Syria Conflict Claims Lives of Two Western Journalists

English: President Bashar al-Assad, Aleppo, Ab...Image via WikipediaSunday Times foreign correspondent Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik were killed by a mortar blast in Homs, Syria, The Washington Post reports.

The American-born Colvin, twice a recipient of the British Press Awards' Foreign Correspondent of the Year, lost an eye to a shrapnel wound in 2001 while covering a story in Sri Lanka. The Syrian government has a lockdown on information, making difficult to independently verify the circumstances of the journalists' deaths, the Post account stated.

Not including Colvin and Ochlik, eleven journalists have been killed in 2012, a half-dozen of whom were confirmed to have died in the performance of their duties, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Google's Safari Hijinks Prompts Congressmen to Seek FTC Inquiry

Apple Safari iconImage via WikipediaFederal Trade Commission Chair Jon Leibowitz last Friday received a letter from Congressmen Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Joe Barton (R-Texas) urging the agency to probe whether social media giant Google has engaged in "unlawful privacy practices" by using source code chicanery to bypass Web browser Safari's privacy settings, Jurist ( reports.

Responding to a Feb. 17 article that appeared in The Wall Street Journal, the Representatives, who serve in the Congressional Bi-Partisan Privacy Caucus, queried the FTC concerning whether Google's actions that enabled it to track Safari users without their consent ran afoul of a 2011 settlement agreement between the FTC and Google occasioned by the social network Google Buzz's breach of privacy rights during its launch. The accord prohibits Google from misrepresenting its privacy policies to users and requires user consent before the sharing of personal information with third parties.

According to the Journal article, Google employed special computer code that deceived Safari, Apple's Web browsing software, into allowing Google to monitor Safari users, neutralizing Safari's default settings that block user tracking. The Journal article claims Google disabled the code soon after the Journal contacted the social media company for the article.

Google is set to implement its new privacy policy March 1. The company was targeted earlier this month in a lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia by the Electronic Privacy Information Center against the FTC (Case No. 1:2012-cv-00206). The suit, filed under the Administrative Procedure Act [5 U.S.C. sec. 706(1)] seeks injunctive relief that would compel the FTC to enforce the consent order of October 13, 2011, in In the Matter of Google, Inc. (FTC File No. 1023136).

Google is also under fire from the European Union, which this month sent a letter to Google urging it to delay implementing its new privacy policy until the EU fully investigates it.

Readers taken aback by Google's behavior in this matter are well-advised to heed comedian Bill Maher's reminder that it's no accident that within the name Google is the word ogle.

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Federal Appeals Court Says NY Shield Law Protects Former WSJ Reporter

English: Logo of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc....Image via WikipediaIn a 12-page decision, a three-judge panel of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit last week ruled an ex-Wall Street Journal reporter was protected by New York's shield law from having to testify in a former client's civil suit against Goldman Sachs.

In Baker v. Goldman Sachs et al. (Case No. 11-cv-1591), the appellate court affirmed U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Barbara Jones's quashing of a subpoena of former WSJ scribe Jesse Eisinger, whom the court held was  privileged against having to testify under New York Civil Rights Law sec. 79-h.

Eisinger was targeted for a deposition based on articles he wrote for the Journal on February 16, 2000, and in August 2000, concerning Belgian software company Lernout & Hauspie. Some of the company's executives were jailed for misrepresenting the company's revenues and the entity went bankrupt. Plaintiffs James and Janet Baker, whose company, Dragon Systems, produces Dragon Dictation voice-recognition software, sued Goldman Sachs for allegedly failing to exercise due diligence regarding Lernout & Hauspie, which merged with the Bakers in a stock deal. The L&H shares became worthless after the company went belly-up.

Eisinger's articles at issue concerned a Lehman Brothers analyst who raised doubts about L&H's stock valuation and revenues and quoted sources regarding L&H's Asian earnings, respectively. Under New York's shield law, reporters have a qualified privilege against having to disclose unpublished information not obtained under a promise of confidentiality, but are absolutely privileged when news is acquired under a promise of confidentiality.

The Second Circuit panel said the Baker case involved a qualified privilege, which the plaintiffs did not overcome, the Court held, because they failed to show a critical need for the information, that the information sought was material and relevant to their lawsuit and that the information in question was unavailable from an alternative source.

The case is reported on in depth by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Website (
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Friday, February 17, 2012

UPDATE: Ecuador High Court Upholds Libel Judgment for President Correa

PRESIDENTE RAFAEL CORREA EN EL CIUDADANO TVPRESIDENTE RAFAEL CORREA EN EL CIUDADANO TV (Photo credit: Presidencia de la República del Ecuador)A $40 million libel judgment awarded last July to Ecuador's President Rafael Correa against  the El Universo daily newspaper and its ex-opinion editor Emilio Pallacio has been upheld by a three-judge panel of  the Latin American nation's highest court, CNN reports.

The 48-year-old Correa, who has led Ecuador since 2008, sued when the defendant published an article accusing him of ordering security forces last September to open fire in a hospital filled with civilians. (See "TUOL" post 1/26/12.)

The Committee to Protect Journalists blasted the court decision in a statement issued from its New York headquarters.  Pallacio, who not only is responsible for $30 million of the judgment, but also faces a three-year jail term under the court ruling, presently is seeking asylum in Miami, according to CNN.
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Burroughs Co. Sues Comic Book Publisher that Apes Tarzan

Česky: Edgar Rice Burroughs English: Edgar Ric...Image via WikipediaIn Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. v. Dynamic Forces Entertainment, Inc. et al., filed this week in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, the family-owned business that holds the copyrights to Edgar Rice Burroughs' literary icons, Tarzan and John Carter, has sued a comic book publisher and entertainment company for publishing unauthorized works based on the characters.

Defendants Dynamic Forces Entertainment and Dynamite Entertainment have yet to respond to the 33-page complaint that includes 10 counts, ranging from claims of trademark infringement [15 U.S.C. sec. 1114(1)] and unfair competition [15 U.S.C. sec. 1125(a)] to copyright infringement and deceptive trade practices. As reported by the Law Blog of The Wall Street Journal (, the suit initiated by ERB, Inc., a company created by the author in 1923, 27 years before his death, that is owned principally by his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, alleges the defendants' Lord of the Jungle and Warlord of Mars comic book series infringe on Burroughs' Tarzan the Ape Man and John Carter of Mars. ERB is based in Tarzana, California (no, seriously).

Dynamite Entertainment, which was founded in 2005, publishes licensed franchise comic book series adaptations based on famous literary figures, including Sherlock Holmes, Dracula and Zorro. Time will tell whether the defendant this time slipped on a banana peel by purportedly "aping" the lovable vine-swinging lug who has appeared in books, comics, television series and nearly 90 films.

"Me process server, You sued."
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Thursday, February 16, 2012

AP Targets Aggregator Meltwater News in Copyright Infringement Suit

Image representing Meltwater Group as depicted...Image via CrunchBaseWire and wire clippers are natural foes, which explains the 41-page copyright infringement complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York yesterday by The Associated Press, the 166-year-old news agency, against 11-year-old Meltwater News, a San-Francisco-based news clipping service.

As reported by Reuters, the New York Post, the Above the Law blog and elsewhere, AP, a New York nonprofit corporation, sued Meltwater, a Delaware corporation that digitally clips news stories to enable clients to track their own press coverage, in a six-count complaint that includes claims for copyright infringement and hot news misappropriation.

AP alleges the defendant is stealing its copyrighted content and selling the information to Meltwater clients without paying AP a licensing fee.  There's no love lost here, as AP President and CEO Tom Curley released a statement branding Meltwater "a parasitic distribution service that competes directly with traditional news sources without paying license fees to cover the costs of creating those stories." The lawsuit seeks damages and injunctive relief.

AP last July, partnered with The New York Times, The Washington Post, and more than two dozen other news organizations to launch NewsRight, a licensing service that monitors the use of copyrighted content on Internet outlets, including blogs and Websites.
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No Brotherly Love for Philly Journos as Layoffs Loom

The sign above the entrance to The Philadelphi...Image via WikipediaThe Philadelphia Media Network ("PMN"), owner of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News and will resort to layoffs if a voluntary buyout program available to employees through the end of the month doesn't yield three dozen fewer workers, reports.

Newspaper Guild leaders received the grim news yesterday that PMN needs to slash its workforce by 37 positions that may come from across-the-board and include reporters, cartoonists, photographers, editorial writers and copy editors, among other classifications. The number of staffers who opt for the buyout will dictate how many layoffs occur, according to

The respective newsrooms of the Inquirer, Daily News and will merge when they relocate, which is scheduled for June. PMN is looking to unload the media properties via auction (see "TUOL" post 1/31/12).
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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Criminal Libel's 'Rockie' Future in Colorado

Colorado state welcome sign, along Interstate ...Image via Wikipedia
Politics makes for strange bedfellows as a  Colorado Republican legislator, backed by the ACLU and the state's press association, has filed a bill to eliminate the offense of criminal libel, a class 6 felony.

The Associated Press reports that Sen. Greg Brophy, who represents the Eastern Plains, wants to repeal the 19th century law that has been applied seven times over the past two years, including against Howling Pig editor Thomas Mink (see "TUOL" posts 12/15/11, 6/6/11 & 7/22/10). Critics argue the law suppresses First Amendment freedom of speech as it subjects individuals who broadcast or publish defamatory comments about another to up to 18 months in the hoosegow and a maximum $100,000 fine for a first offense.

Pursuant to Colorado Revised Statutes Title 18-13-105: "A person who shall knowingly publish or disseminate, either by written instrument, sign, pictures, or the like, any statement or object tending to blacken the memory of one who is dead, or to impeach the honesty, integrity, virtue, or reputation or expose the natural defects of one who is alive, and thereby to expose him to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule, commits criminal libel."

The Colorado Press Association and the ACLU support Brophy's repeal effort, while the state's District Attorney's  Council has remained neutral, according to the AP account. Brophy is quoted in the wire service story as saying: “I think it tramples on the First Amendment rights of people to write and/or post online things that they want to post, and so I’m just seeking to strike the statute. Pretty plain and simple.”
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UPDATE: Stalin's Grandson Strikes Out in Court Again

Joseph Stalin, seated outdoors at Berlin confe...Image via WikipediaThe Russian Information Agency ( reports that Moscow's Tverskoy District Court has thrown out a libel suit against deputies of the lower house of parliament (State Duma) brought by Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, grandson of Josef Stalin, who ruled the Soviet Union for 25 years with an iron fist and a bushy mustache.

Dzhugashvili is expected to appeal the ruling, which sought a refutation of claims that his infamous grandpa presided over the execution of more than 20,000 Polish Officers and civilians imprisoned in Katyn, a blintz throw from Smolensk, Russia. The Soviet Union maintained for years that the Nazis were responsible for the mass murder in 1941, but former Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990 turned over classified documents to the Polish government, admitting the execution of the prisoners occurred in 1940 and was carried out by the NKVD--the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs, the secret police who engaged in political repression during the Stalin regime.

The Russian News Agency reported that Dzhugashvili  sued the Duma for 100,000,000 rubles ($3.3 million) after the lower house of parliament declared in November 2010, the Stalin regime was to blame for the Katyn slaughter, but that lawsuit was tossed by the court, which said he failed to provide evidence to support his damages claim. The litigious grandson previously stumbled in a libel suit against the Novaya Gazeta newspaper in 2009. which had called Grandpa Jo a "bloody cannibal." (See "TUOL" posts 10/14/09 & 9/9/09).

Apparently, the air of a dictator is more powerful and successful than the heir of a dictator.
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Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Is Speaking Ill of the Dead Protected by the 1st Amendment?

English: An study guide for embalmers publishe...Image via WikipediaThe Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court is expected to decide in the next three months whether a funeral home embalmer's First Amendment rights were violated when a Commonwealth regulatory agency revoked his license over published controversial remarks concerning corpses.

The SJC heard arguments January 6 in the case of Troy J. Schoeller v. Board of Registration of Funeral Directors and Embalmers (Docket No. 10980) in which the 35-year-old Schoeller sued after the state board pulled his license in 2010 for allegedly violating 239 C.M.R. sec. 3.13(7) that bars embalmers and funeral directors from commenting on the condition of any human body entrusted to their care.

According to an Associated Press account, Schoeller, an embalmer specializing in reconstructive art who plied his trade in Florida and Massachusetts for more than 13 years, was twice interviewed for a 2006 article in the alternative weekly newspaper, The Boston Phoenix prompted by his opening a clothing store called Horror Business. During his second interview, which occurred in a restaurant, Schoeller allegedly made several offensive comments concerning his work, such as purportedly expressing distaste for embalming fat people and allegedly likening an infant's body to a "bearskin rug."

Schoeller's counsel contends his client is the first embalmer in the Commonwealth ever to be disciplined for such conduct and claims the regulation at issue is over-broad and violates Schoeller's freedom of speech. He also argues that funeral directors and embalmers discuss their work in trade journals and other publications as a matter of course because of public interest. The assistant attorneys general representing the Commonwealth, however, suggest Schoeller's conduct was unprofessional and his purported comments were insensitive.

Although he maintains he didn't say anything that was untruthful, Schoeller cedes in the AP article that he might have been more artful in his choice of words.  Perhaps it's an occupational hazard that those who spend their work day among the dead forget how to speak to the living.

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You are here

Blum and the conservative "colorblindness" crusade

June 12, 2013

Edward Blum is the subject of yet another profile this week. This latest is from NBC News: “Meet the Supreme Court matchmaker: Edward Blum.”

Blum, the one-man operation behind two of the biggest cases heard by the Supreme Court this Term, seems to be a source of fascination for the media. His work recruiting the ideal poster-child plaintiffs for Supreme Court challenges makes for a good Washington process story.

Point of order, though: haven’t his plaintiffs actually been astonishingly weak?

Shelby County, Alabama, the plaintiff Blum groomed to show why the South doesn't need the Voting Rights Act, turned out to be Exhibit A as to why it still does. The county's spotty record on voting rights gave the liberal Justices some of their fiercest lines during the oral argument. “Why would we vote in favor of a county whose record is the epitome of what caused the passage of this law to start with?” asked Justice Sotomayor, who went on to point out that the Voting Rights Act prevented 240 problematic laws in Alabama during the last reauthorization period.

Abigail Fisher, the affirmative action plaintiff, has been something of a media darling, but her case is chock full of holes.  While she claims that she was denied admission to the Univeristy of Texas at Austin because of her race, the facts suggest that Fisher was denied admission to UT because of her academic record, and not because she is white.  Indeed, according to University records, even if Fisher had received perfect marks on her personal achievement score – the part of the admissions process in which race is considered – she still would not have been admitted.  That led Justice Ginsburg to ask if “this person would have not have been accepted, then how is the injury caused by the affirmative action program?”

But these weaknesses mask the graver problem with these cases, captured in NBC’s final quote from Blum: "The goal in all of this is to restore the original colorblind principles to our nation's civil rights laws.”

The "colorblind Constitution" is a catchphrase that's become dogma for conservatives in the civil rights arena. However, it's based on a fundamentally flawed reading of constitutional history and the Reconstruction Amendments, as CAC has written many times. The Framers of those  Amendments were the originators of affirmative action. Even as they were drafting the amendments that would give equal protection of the laws to all persons, the Framers repeatedly approved race-conscious assistance to African Americans, passing laws that provided educational assistance to newly free slaves as well as to African American soldiers, helped to ensure that African American soldiers received bounties for their service in the Union army, and provided benefits to poor, destitute African Americans.  The Framers recognized a basic constitutional difference between oppression and assistance.

The popular conservative history conveniently forgets these episodes. Perhaps it’s not surprising that Blum's crusade is based on incorrect constitutional history and analysis. (And a crusade it is—see the strange Lepak case, not mentioned in the NBC profile.) Blum’s background is the world of finance, not constitutional scholarship. The Justices, however, are held to a higher standard, and obliged to look first to the Constitution’s actual text and history. As Doug Kendall and David Gans write:

”The conservative Justices have no answer to the basic, incontrovertible fact that the Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment wrote the Equal Protection Clause as a broad guarantee of equality for all persons and not as a flat ban on the use of race by the government.  Indeed, as the Court’s conservatives have refused to recognize, the Framers of the Fourteenth Amendment enacted the nation’s very first affirmative action programs.  The universal equality of all persons under the law, not colorblindness, is what drives the Fourteenth Amendment.”

Ultimately, the Constitution’s text and history point towards a clear conclusion in both of these cases.

The Court should announce its decisions in both cases in the next two weeks, with rulings as early as Thursday. The test will be whether the conservative Justices wrestle with Constitution’s actual history, or are content to sing from the conservative hymnal about it.

Case Reference:

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text:
DODGE Viper SRT10 Exhaust Port Bezels 2pc

PART ACC-972005

PARTS INCLUDED:  2 x Stainless Bezels,  1 x Adhesive Promoter Tube, 1 x Tape Test Kit

Your new covers come to you with a protective liner. Do not remove liner until installation is complete.

These new bezels are made of high polished stainless and are a 26 gauge metal which will allow you to form them nicely into place with very little effort in just a few simple steps.

1.  The first step will be to prepare the mounting area for installation. Thoroughly scrub clean the circular opening with alcohol to remove any and all road grime dirt and wax.

Then swipe the area once with the adhesive promoter provided.

2.  The bezels come to you preformed however it WILL be necessary to further shape the bezel by hand until you achieve a nice contoured fit. The most critical area will be towards the bottom and will require the most effort. Since the metal is very thin you will be able to smooth the bezel with your fingers pressing it into the shape using your thumb.

3.  You will notice that each of the bezels have a line that indicates the top. You will also notice that the bezels have a larger side to the oval shape. This larger side will face the front of the vehicle. Once you have the proper bezel you can begin the hand shaping.

4.  Now that you have successfully formed the bezels simply remove the red release liner from the back of the bezel and firmly press into place starting at the bottom and working your way to the top. Remove the clear protective liner.

Chrome Exhaust Tip sold separately

TheViperStore.com a HotCarAccessories.com website

Copyright 2005 - 2017
13 copyright


text:
The family of former NHL defenseman Derek Boogaard has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the league, alleging that the NHL is to blame for the brain damage Boogaard suffered during his playing days and the painkiller addiction that ultimately led to his death.

In the suit, the family claims the league and its doctors pumped Boogaard full of painkillers to keep him on the ice, where he was a noted brawler. After years of crippling head injuries and a couple of treatment programs, Boogaard died of a painkiller overdose in May 2011 at the age of 28.

"The NHL drafted Derek Boogaard because it wanted his massive body to fight in order to enhance ratings, earnings, and exposure. Fighting night after night took its expected toll on Derek's body and mind," the Boogaards' lawyer, William Gibbs, said in a statement. "To deal with the pain, he turned to the team doctors, who dispensed pain pills like candy. Then, once he became addicted to these narcotics, the NHL promised his family that it would take care of him. It failed. He died."

After Boogaard's death, he was found to have suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative brain disease caused by repeated head trauma. During his short career, he racked up 589 penalty minutes and took part in an estimated 174 fights.

The suit, filed Friday, names the NHL, the NHL Board of Governors, and league commissioner Gary Bettman as defendants. According to the suit, Boogaard received more than 40 prescriptions totaling 1,201 pills in the 2008-09 season alone — including 150 oxycodone pills — and another 366 the following year.

He died shortly thereafter.

From The New York Times' John Branch:

His last game was on Dec. 9, 2010, when Boogaard sustained a concussion — one of dozens, the family believes — during a fight in Ottawa.

The next April, after stumbling on the ice during a Rangers workout, Boogaard was sent to drug rehabilitation a second time. It was during that stint that he was granted two extended, unsupervised recesses. He died in his Minneapolis apartment on the first night of his second leave. [New York Times]

The lawsuit is much like those brought in other sports in recent years, as researchers continue to explore the link between head trauma and irreparable neurological damage. Gibbs' law firm is also representing the family of former NFL player Dave Duerson, who killed himself in 2011 after sustaining at least 10 concussions during his playing days, in a class action wrongful death suit.

Boogaard's family is not seeking a specific dollar amount in terms of damages. They filed a separate $9.8 million suit against the players' union last year, though a judge threw out that case earlier this spring.


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"Grandma isn't scared of Paul Ryan," says Aaron Blake at The Washington Post. A game-changing new poll from the Post and ABC News shows that 50 percent of seniors view Mitt Romney's running mate favorably, compared to the much shakier 41 percent favorability rating Ryan enjoys among all Americans. The results surprised many political observers, given that Democrats, including President Obama, have repeatedly argued that Ryan's proposed overhaul of Medicare would deep-six the popular entitlement program as we know it. Here, four explanations for the seniors' unpredictable reaction:

1. The Democratic attacks aren't working
"Democrats' attempts to turn Ryan's Medicare proposal against the GOP haven't stuck yet among the most pivotal group: Seniors," says Blake. "If a Medicare attack was working, after all, seniors would likely be the first group to start deserting Ryan." More worrying for Democrats: A solid 33 percent of seniors "say they hold strongly favorable views of Ryan," which suggests they are "less likely to be swayed into the negative camp," says Alana Goodman at Commentary.

2. Seniors don't think Ryan's plan will affect them
Ryan and Romney have been "fairly successful at spreading the news" that their ideas for Medicare reform "wouldn't impact anyone over the age of 55, says Goodman. "As long as seniors know that their own current coverage won't be touched, they can look at the reforms with much more open minds." However, health-care experts argue that the Ryan plan would inevitably lead to higher out-of-pocket costs for seniors over 55.

3. They've been duped into thinking Obama is cutting Medicare
Romney "keeps talking about how Obama is 'robbing' Medicare of $716 billion" to finance ObamaCare, says Michael Tomasky at The Daily Beast. The claim is dubious at best. Obama's cuts affect reimbursements to hospitals and private health insurance companies — not benefits for seniors — and restoring the $716 billion would increase out-of-pocket costs by hundreds of dollars and cause Medicare to go bankrupt in four years. Furthermore, Ryan's own proposed Medicare overhaul includes Obama's cuts. But seniors believe Ryan and Romney "will restore funding to Medicare," while Obama has undercut it, says David Weigel at Slate.

4. Ryan is too adorable to be frightening
Ryan "just isn't scary," says Goodman. With his clean-cut looks and beseeching blue eyes, "he's the kind of guy grandparents usually love." Democrats can air ads saying he wants destroy Medicare and would roll Grandma off a cliff, but all the "Mediscare" tactics in the world may not resonate with seniors who've "listened to Ryan talk for more than five minutes."

Sources: BrookingsCommentary, The Daily Beast, Michelle MalkinThe New York Times, SlateThe Washington Post (2)


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‘Courageous 12’ honored on 50th anniversary of lawsuit

Courageous 12, featured

ST. PETERSBURG – It’s been 50 years since the Courageous 12, a group of African-American police officers, took a stand and sued the City of St. Petersburg for discrimination, and won.

The Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum, located at 2240 9th Ave. S., was packed Sunday evening all to honor the 12 men who changed law enforcement in St. Petersburg, and to show support for its members.

Even amongst rising tensions between the black community and officers nationwide, the sacrifices that law enforcement makes every day, regardless of their race, cannot be forgotten.

“Last year 51 police officers were killed nationally in the line of duty,” said State Representative Darryl Rouson. And at a time when some officers are under attack all across the country, Rouson wants the work of the majority to not be overshadowed. “Today we want to honor the good men and women of law enforcement.”

The event was a mix of who’s who in St. Petersburg, from Reverend Kenny Irby, also the Senior Faculty of Visual Journalism and Diversity at the Poynter Institute, giving the invocation, to judges, prosecutors to Mayor Rick Kriseman who took a moment to speak.

“We can’t be a city of opportunity without the work they do on our behalf,” he said speaking of today’s police department and the historical significance of what 12 courageous men did 50 years ago to build a stronger network within law enforcement. It “was above and beyond the call of duty.”

“City Manager Lynn Andrews was very much in control of the police department,” said Former Mayor Don Jones seen here standing in the middle of Crawford (left) and Jackson (right). “He and I had two entirely different views of what the future of St. Petersburg should be like.”

“City Manager Lynn Andrews was very much in control of the police department,” said Former Mayor Don Jones seen here standing in the middle of Crawford (left) and Jackson (right). “He and I had two entirely different views of what the future of St. Petersburg should be like.”

It was 1965. Racial tensions were high in St. Petersburg, when a group of black police officers, later named the Courageous 12, filed a suit against the city demanding the right to patrol white neighborhoods, to make arrests and not be limited by the color of their skin. They wanted to be integrated fully into the police department. Backed by two lawyers, James B. Sanderlin and Frank Peterman Sr., the Courageous 12 stood up for basic human rights.

“Officers today stand on their shoulders because of the work they did,” said Rouson. By standing up and calling attention to the hidden injustices in local law enforcement, the Courageous 12 paved a path for local legends in the making, such as Police Chief Eric Ward of the Tampa Police Department and Police Chief Anthony Holloway here in St. Petersburg to be treated as citizens and not looked down upon because of their race.

Former St. Petersburg Police Chief and Deputy Mayor Goliath Davis also stand on the shoulder of these 12 great men. Being St. Petersburg’s first black police chief, he acknowledged in 2012 at another celebration for the Courageous 12 that: “If they hadn’t stood up, I couldn’t stand here tonight and tell you that I was able to reach the highest pinnacle in the City of St. Petersburg Police Department. If they had not stood up, then we would still be fighting that fight.”

There are only two remaining survivors of the original 12, Freddie Crawford and Leon Jackson. Jackson, the first black St. Petersburg officer to be assigned to a white unit, discussed what it was like when he was in the police academy. Integrated, if only slightly, 20 plus white officers with two black officers, Jackson doesn’t recall many issues.

“Little racial things were said, it didn’t bother me,” remembered Jackson, “my mind was on studying.”

After graduating, the true discrimination took hold and Jackson realized that the police department was not integrated at all. Black officers were only being assigned to black neighborhoods, no desk jobs for African Americans.

“We could not investigate complaints from whites, we couldn’t arrest whites,” said Jackson. Some of the younger folks in the standing room only crowd shook their heads in disgust. It seems almost unbelievable. “Promotion was nonexistent,” continued Jackson. There was one black sergeant and he was in charge of the black police officers. He was not permitted to supervise the white police officers.

But the 12 men were tight. Ten of them played football together at Gibbs High School, already a team. So after repeated attempts to discuss the issues with their chief and gain equality in the workplace, the Courageous 12 soon realized they were being shunned.

“The only thing the man would say was ‘I’ll get back with you,’” explained Jackson. Knowing that the racial issues at hand were not going to be addressed in the conventional route, Crawford suggested suing the police department.

“We decided to try to equalize the playing field,” said Crawford who admits it was a long arduous battle to embark upon, but well worth the struggle. “We were just determined to do it all the way, take it to the limit.”

From the 12 officers, to the two lawyers who fought for them, and to the family members who stood by them during one of the most tumultuous times in St. Petersburg’s history, all agree that fighting for the respect of the community was the right thing to do.

Also at the program in 2012, Peterman, Sr. gave an account of the mistreatment black officers received from sadistic comments to getting hand me down uniforms.

“Those were times when just standing for what was right would put your life in jeopardy,” Peterman told the crowd. “It’s just that simple.”

Peterman recounted how he and Sanderlin endured threats from the Klu Klux Clan. “They told me what they were gonna do and I said, ‘bring it on. I’ll give you a warm welcome.’”

And while the road to equality has been long and hard, St. Petersburg’s African-American community knows the importance of keeping the history alive, no matter how painful the memories are. When audience members were permitted to ask Crawford and Jackson about their experiences, one supporter in the crowd couldn’t withhold his passion.

“It’s not just the black officers that help us; it’s the white officers too,” he said adamant that police need to get out to the schools and spread the word that building a relationship with law enforcement, no matter the color of skin, is pertinent to solving some of today’s issues. “We’ve done this city an injustice by not applauding them; we should be sitting them on a platform.”

Something Assistant Police Chief Luke Williams can concur with. He believes that the youth of today need to be made aware that law enforcement is a viable career choice and one that would make the 12 young men who stepped up 50 years ago proud that their sacrifice continues to be recognized today.

“This isn’t about any one individual,” Williams said. “In order to be part of the solution, you have to be part of the issue.”

Mayor Kriseman presented Crawford and Jackson with awards for their service to the St. Petersburg Police Department. Other awards were given out honoring current police department members Sergeant Larry B. Hordge, Sr., Lieutenant Frank J. Williams, Captain Adrian Arnold and Deputy John Patrick.

Pictures of the Courageous 12 are being donated to the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum. Residents, both young and old are encouraged to stop by and delve into a local history that helped shape the nation.

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Wednesday, June 4, 2014

North Carolina Gobbler Cross Up

(Originally published at Good Hunt.)

Since I'm a forthright and honest guy who wants to write off this trip for tax purposes, I feel I must come clean about other events that occurred in North Carolina at the end of April. If you recall, I had a shotgun mishap on the second day of the hunt that caused me to miss a nice gobbler. Add this to a miss the Opening Weekend of Florida's season, and 2014 was a pretty humiliating and painful year for errors and screw-ups.

Well, this wasn't quite as bad as that, as I actually put feather on the ground...let's make it short and sweet, because that's how the hunting tale unfolded.

Harris and I had flown to North Carolina to hunt gobblers on property that I've deer hunted for a decade, thanks to Uncle Dennis and his family. 10 years ago there were almost no birds. Over the years we noticed more and more thanks to re-introduction practices by NWTF. One piece of farming land known as Uncle Harry's was especially loaded. (None of these people are actual kin to me by blood; through the course of 20-odd years hunting together, though, the difference is only academic.)

Leading into Uncle Harry's is what's named the Sleepy Hollow Road, a meandering path along a creek splitting agriculture fields and a large block of planted pines. The turkeys will roost in these pines or along the water.

After arriving at Dennis' camp Thursday evening and getting our things settled, Harris and I collected our gear and set out for Harry's to roost a gobbler or perhaps get a shot on one.

We slowly walked down Sleepy Hollow, calling periodically. On the first field on the left we noticed a hen trotting towards the woodline, clearly spooked. I told Harris I would be shocked if the next field didn't have a bird in it - it always holds birds. With enough brush and small trees growing out of the creek and vines snaking down from the pines, we would be pretty well-screened as we advanced down the road.

Sure enough, there was blood-red head visible through the tangle.

Harris and I both dropped to the ground and started to crawl to a spot where we could close the distance for a shot . Harris, though, did not see the tom and was unsure when or where to move and elected to stay put. All I could see was that red head and whiffs of his dark body. I called once or twice, and he'd break into strut but never gobble. Trying to keep trees and brush between us as much as possible, I elbowed to a spot where I could get a clear poke if he were to accommodate his positioning.

For a solid 5 - 10 minutes I held on all-fours, vicious Sampson County skeeters darting my plumber's crack. The gobbler would sift in and out of view between the fresh green Spring-unfurled leaves as he moseyed parallel to the creekbank searching for his love as I attempted to will him into a pie-plate gap in the vegetation where I'd have a clean shot. I would pull the trigger if his still-bright red noggin would center in that space. In a quick motion, I'd have to flip to a sitting position and quickly shoot. One thing was certain, my knees and back weren't taking much more abuse bent over trying to hold steady. The gobbler had grown nervous, too, as no hen ever emerged from the road.

For once, things worked out as he meandered to the gap, head down and slightly angled away as he was sneaking to safety. The jig was up, one way or the other. I committed to Kill Mode, flipped around and fired in about a second, flopping him in the field. It was a fine piece of shotgunning with the 835 that would betray me the next evening.

Until this point, Harris still had not seen the bird but had picked up on him thrashing about and noticed his tail feathers on the edges of his fan were shorter than those in the middle. I had no idea as I fought across the ditch and raced into the field to claim my first NC gobbler, only to find that instead of 8 - 10 inches of beard there was 4 - 5...and that's being generous. Serious ground-shrinkage, friends.

I never in a thousand years would've guessed that was a jake. Hunkered down in the road within shooting distance but with an obscured view, I didn't take the time to check if in fact he had a long beard. When he did strut, I couldn't make out his entire fan. But he looked big and dark and strutted. The other jakes I'd seen the previous weeks of hunting were mousy critters, not animals holding fort fanning in the middle of a field where dominant birds could easily locate and spur them down the totem pole. Excited and with poor visibility is usually a bad combo, and that held true to form on this day.

Nothing was illegal, just not my preference for this trip. Discouraged, yet still pumped about executing a fun hunt, I jogged back to Sleepy Hollow and attempted to toss the jake across the creek so I could navigate it myself. Well, he rolled down into the water, and in my efforts to retrieve him I managed to yank out all of his tail feathers. Impressive photos, he did not make. Matted down and soaking-wet scrawny, it was a hard sell to make-believe he was anything but a jake after the fact, nubby spurs and stunted beard notwithstanding.

Had he wandered in clear view like a trio would the next morning, he would have lived. While I hate making excuses, these things happen. But the more I considered the situation, the more disappointment waned. It was an excellent spot-and-stalk hunt on a treasured piece of property with a good friend. I guess I'm not as embarrassed as I thought, and it'd be wrong to diminish that bird because of a few inches of beard.

Just need to be more careful next time on target identification.

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

An Osceola in the Rain

(Originally Posted at Good Hunt)

The rain was no surprise - hell, it seemed to pour on every other hunt this turkey season. At this point, it was laughable, and the mirthful radar displayed waves of yellow and red rolling in from the southwest straight into the Big Bend.

The property of scrub and planted pines and cypress heads in Rosewood I hunted the last weekend of Florida's Spring Turkey was more of a bog. Without any major creek systems or ditches to move water combined with a solid sheet of limestone 20-ft. underground, the persistent downpours over the previous six weeks had nowhere to go other than through merciful evaporation.

So, rain - no surprise. The shock was my ability to stave off complete inebriation. When it's raining, I'm a full-blown pessimist. In these surroundings with these conditions, the only reasonable thing to do - in my sick mind - is swale bourbon, laugh too loud, and eat a huge steak by nightfall. Beyond the safety and legal ramifications of this, once the whiskey starts flowing with any rapidity, my feet are kicked up and the hunt is over. Call it advancing maturity, call it triumph of the human spirit, call it the bloodlust to kill one more turkey, but I avoided this urge. I just felt I'd have a chance at action later in the day if I kept it between the buoys, as Alan Jackson would say.

I can't say it was easy being trapped in the cabin, despite its comforts. The Friday morning hunt was cut short by howling winds - my turkey calling attempts blew away only slightly faster than the sideways pine needles. And from previous conversations with Mike, the owner of the property, the gobblers hadn't been all that vocal this year, dampening my enthusiasm further. Back in camp before nine, we settled down for breakfast and watched Bay News 9 reveal our fate via iPhone.

(Quick aside - if someone had told you 20 years ago that there would be a device that let you talk, text, check e-mail, sports scores, weather stations, and other websites - wink-wink - how much would you have predicted it'd cost? $10,000? More?)

By 10:30 there was a solid downpour. We looked through hundreds of trail camera pictures of drier days to bide the time. The hogs on this property are ridiculous. You almost never saw the same one, yet the property is under 90-acres. And we noticed most of the gobblers moved after noon and later into the evening.

In particular, we noticed one large tom sporting a rainbow of a beard. He was clearly a mature animal that had been recently ambling between two locations from 2 to about 5pm. Three jakes were frequently photographed, as well, and at this point, that would be game on. I set it to my mind that I could get one of these birds if given half-a-chance, and maybe a pig, too.

At four, the rains ceased. The radar had showed a break in the weather. Dad and I hurriedly donned our gear and set to the woods. I chose one of the areas where the gobbler had been seen in the last few days, and set up in the only dry place I could find, a treestand. Adding to this unconventional arrangement, I was toting my Ruger No. 1 .25-06. I'll happily debate another day the political correctness of turkey hunting with a rifle, but with the pigs and coyotes on the property, I wanted to be ready for anything.

It didn't take long. After settling in, I loudly yelped a few times. Within minutes, one of those jakes came splish-splashing down a trail, poking around for a potential lover. He sadly found it. That Ruger loves killing turkeys. I shot him very carefully in the neck to avoid ruining any breast meat, and he dropped in a puddle at 20-yards, soaking his feathers. All turkey are worthy opponents to me; hate to see them all drowned-rat-like. Of course, with the weather conditions he'd endured this Spring, this was probably a constant style for him.

I suppose I could have let him pass and held out for the bigger gobbler. I could have...but a bird in the hand and all that. Actually, Dad shot immediately after me. He had spooked a few hogs off while walking into his area, but things had settled down and he watched as that tom started closing the distance. At my shot, the gobbler changed directions, and Dad fired a desperation round. He should have been carrying a rifle.

We got back to camp soon after dark. I selfishly pined for a pig to wind down the day, but one never ambled by. As we packed our things away, the rain began to spit again. I stowed the jake in a trash bag and put him on ice to clean at the house and show the kids. As is my tradition, I did not get out of bed to hunt Saturday morning, my last of the season in Florida. The sheets were too comfortable, the 6-week season plenty long and exhausting, and I finally got to those drinks I'd be meaning to enjoy.

This time, though, they were of a celebratory nature and not dedicated to the rains.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Get Ducks or Die Trying

Originally Posted at Good Hunt.

I’m not sure if I should blame Obama or Phil Robertson for the difficulty in finding duck hunting ammunition this year. Last year – almost to the day – I moaned about the shortage of waterfowl rounds in local stores, begging them to stock up for 2013-14. I said then not to blame Obama, but the beginning of 2013 witnessed an ammo grab unlike anything we’d witnessed since the ’90′s. Folks were literally snatching whatever they could off of shelves as panic spread that the President was going to restrict firearm ownership, a threat no one should have taken too seriously, in hindsight, since he actually put VP Biden in charge of the duty.

So while my plea may have been heard, it’s possible there was little retailers could do as manufacturers simply could not keep up with the demand. While the factories have been churning out the goods as fast as possible, supplies stretched pretty thin into this season. Even the big online stores were bare come mid-December. Unless a 10-gauge was your idea of a teal gun, options were slim.
All of this has coincided with an upturn in duck hunter numbers. I’d have to see Duck Stamp sales to be certain, but there’s been a palpable increase in people banging away at birds this year. Three years ago I argued that the popularity of duck hunting was about to explode. It wasn’t my best post – I mean, I quote Britney Spears; who does this? – but my theory has largely been correct, and that was without anticipating the arrival of Duck Dynasty, a phenomenon unlike any other to hit the hunting world, Swamp People included.
Assuming you’ve not been in a coma over the last 18 months, I’ll go ahead and skip over the rise and potential fall of that show, but will say that you’d think a major corporation like Wal-Mart could help out actual sportsmen and stock their shelves with whatever steel shot they could get their hands on given the program’s popularity and, presumably, studying hunting market trends. The Robertsons are so featured in your local Wally-World, it’s entirely conceivable that they constitute a branch of the Walton Family Tree. For Rudolph’s sake, cashiers wore Santa hats with duck bills on them throughout the holidays…but try finding a box of 12-gauge #4 steel anywhere in a Central Florida store location. The irony is not lost on me.
But some people have had them stockpiled – there’s been a lot of blasting this year on public waters.
My first inkling that we might be in trouble was for the September Teal STA draws in late-summer. These used to be a cinch to pull. When our group produced one permit out of a dozen of us applying, we surmised something was up. But, hey, it’s hot September in South Florida and online applications are easy to fill out. When rubber hits the road and skeeters, surely more than a few folks would pull up lame and leave available spots open for the few walk-in hunters willing to sacrifice a pint of blood and sweat for four teal.
Fast forward to Harris and I sprinting down a line of two dozen vehicles all there to register for a teaspoon of open spots. We entered our names at the last second and watched those openings fill with fellows sporting the Uncle Si beards and DD shirts. A whole horde of luckless hunters wheeled back home in the dark that morning.
It’s also possible I’m suffering the early onset of post-traumatic stress disorder after a hunt down at STA 1-W a few weekends ago. We got surrounded – as in we would have been the bulls-eye on a dart board – by other hunters taking it to the plug on ducks near and high, but mostly high. Anything slower than a teal had no chance of making it to us within AA-Gun range. I watched a hen shoveler tightly circle far overhead several times and had hopes she’d decoy. She finally circled too far and went totally vertical amid the shower of steel coming off the barrels of a group who was incapable of docking the duck calls in their shirt pockets and whose shot rained on us every time they pulled the trigger. They had pulled such shenanigans all morning. The shoveler was the lucky one.
But the STA’s have become well-known over the last five years as word has spread about their productivity. What really caught me off-guard has been the hunter activity along the West Coast this fall. What was once a lonely, often unproductive, game of merganser and diver hunting for those crazy enough to brave the salt spray, extreme tides and oyster bars has become a little crowded. Not, of course, by public lake standards, but never have I seen so many frond blinds on the tips of mangrove islands. And twice this year we’ve been cut off by newbies wailing on mallard calls hoping to turn passing mergies. Fun times.
This is all a double-edged sword. It’s wonderful that so many people have taken up this sport. Allies are being recruited even as we duel for the same hunting spots and curse over skyblasting. I don’t watch Duck Dynasty nor purchase their shirts, hats, band-aids, or board games, but I will confess to being overjoyed to see young people at ramps and check-in stations so intrigued with that crew that they’re willing to plunge into a duck blind on a cold morning, Jack.
For our group, the increase in hunters has caused us to spread out and try new places this year with a great deal of success, I might add. The duck hunting bubble will burst for a number of people as they spread their wings into other outdoor pursuits. For our group, not much slows us down when it comes to ducks. Except, of course, a lack of shotgun shells.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

The Thanksgiving Boar

Originally posted at Good Hunt
It is an autumn of Anything Can Happen. Witness Auburn, for God sake. After a year of trying to catch up with him, I had no illusions of killing this boar on this day or any other. But, there he stood in broad daylight behind my 16-ft. ladder stand Thanksgiving morning, nose up in the crisp 30-degree air, attempting to sniff out any danger.
Since he started visiting our lease last fall, I have collected hundreds of pictures of this boar, always around midnight. He survived that hunting season without being noticed. I bragged in a post back in February that he’d be BBQ by mid-March. By late-March we set a trap only for him to disappear and us losing interest in driving down to check it every other day. When he did pop back up over the summer, he religiously visited a particular corn pile every night. I picked a day on the calendar with a full moon, planning a lunar assault on this stud. Luckily, before I sacrificed sleep and blood to the skeeters, I checked the trail camera the day before the hunt to find him vanished once more.
Though I prefer doing so for deer, I could no longer dump corn on the ground. He siphoned it up too quickly when present and accounted for. He’d show up periodically through late summer and early bowseason, but the timed tripod feeder just didn’t interest him as much as the all-night buffets. Good riddance, I thought. Though he was a trophy animal, corn is too expensive these days to waste on him.
The uninitiated generally don’t understand – or just don’t care – how hard it is to hunt big boars in a free-range, non-dog hunting situation. Nocturnal is their MO. By the time they develop their swagger and linebacker shoulders, trophy boars have had run-ins with hunters, predators, hog dogs and other boars. While they’re tough as can be, big boars are also pretty cagey and pay close attention to their surroundings to avoid confrontations. Those noses are not easily fooled. Their eyesight is limited but still capable of discerning an excited hunter in a tree.
This is why I held my breath and Ruger No. 1 still while his nose periscoped the atmosphere for signs of alarm. Fortunately, he was not heading towards the feeder. The wind was blowing right towards it and a little button buck who could not have cared less. The boar would have cared and been gone before I could have clicked the safety off, I guarantee.
Where he was going, I can’t say. While the corn feeder is a plus, my stand is positioned at an intersection of game trails that run North to South on the property. If there is a weakness for wild boars, it is that they have a tendency to use the same two or three trails on the way to feeding to bedding and back again. I had noticed he’d been wearing down this trail in recent weeks, though the camera on the feeder wasn’t revealing his presence. Per usual, the trick was being in the right spot at the right time, in this instance right after a cold front had pushed south, plummeting the Central Florida temps into the 30′s. It’s weather to get most animals on their feet in the mornings.
Once the boar was satisfied the coast was clear, he continued on the trail, badly limping. It appeared his front right shoulder had been injured. About 10 minutes prior, I had heard a shot from the orange grove to the south. Was I finishing off the walking wounded?
I settled the .25-06 behind his shoulder. At 15 yards, he filled the Nikon glass, even on 3X. I squeezed the trigger, and he never broke stride or left the trail. For a moment, I thought I had missed. The No. 1 being a single shot, I frantically reached into the box of Remingtons for another round, but it was unnecessary.
The boar wandered 30 yards down the path, spun in a circle and dropped. I hurried down the stand, rifle reloaded to ensure he’d given up the ghost. Satisfied it was over, I pulled out my iPhone to snap a picture to send to people. As I leaned in for the photo, he let out a final grunt and lunged up, but that was the end of it – the King was dead and my pants very nearly soiled.
In 20 years of hog hunting, I’d say he’s in my Top-3 boars – certainly my best in the last 10 seasons. I loathe to estimate a hog’s weight, but he was a solid 250-275 lbs. I’ve shot smaller hogs with bigger cutters, but his were a very respectable 3 1/4-inches with worn wetters. He stunk only like big boars do, and his front right leg had been broken at the shoulder and not by another’s bullet. An eight-inch long thin scar appeared indicative of him getting that leg caught in wire of some kind, either from a fence, trap, or snare. Perhaps this injury is why he’d disappear for such lengths of time – he just couldn’t get around like he used to, though he clearly wasn’t missing many meals.
While I’m thrilled to have finally caught up with the boar, it is kind of depressing to know he won’t be on the trail camera in the future; however, I know it’s only a matter of time before another takes his place. I’ll get that one, too.

Saturday, November 30, 2013

The 2013 North Carolina Hunt

Also published at Good Hunt.

I returned home from Sampson County, North Carolina last Thursday with three deer in the coffin cooler. A doe and cowhorn spike were felled in the normal fashion on the final evening, blessedly topping off the Igloo. The other deer, though – well, that was a doozy.
That Monday morning I invited Dirty J to hunt with me in the stand I had drawn, the same stand from which I got the two bucks last year. It was Dirty’s birthday, and we don’t hunt together much anymore. Well, soon after legal light a doe bailed into the field to my right followed by a buck. We glassed him and determined he was a shooter – easily had antler an inch or so beyond the ears. At under 100 yards, it was Dirty’s chip shot to make.
Problem was, the deer came from downwind and got spooky. He pranced to the middle of the field as I was imploring Dirty to shoot. By the time the buck came to a rest he was directly between the stand and the fledgling sunrise, and there was apparently just enough glare in the scope to prohibit a shot. The buck kept on moving away towards the creek bottom on the opposite side of the field.
Up until this point, my .300 Win. Mag. had been leaning against the corner of the stand. I slid a round in the chamber, heaved the heavy-barreled Savage, and settled into a solid rest. By the time I picked up on the deer, he was at the farthest edge of the field, 300 – 350 yards, and I told Dirty I had the shot. Standing in the early morning dark of the far treeline, I could barely make out the outline of his white tail. When I thought I had him adequately squared up for a broadside shot, that 180-grain XP3 boomed across the open with an audible whack! when it hit the target. Dirty said he saw the buck kick up and run nose down into the woods.
It was still early so we held tight and discussed what had happened. We had the deer marked well where he went into the woods and were excited to put hands on antlers. I did mention how odd it was that the buck held up on the edge and didn’t enter the woods after being spooked. We watched a young doe piddle around a feeder for a while before walking down to check things out.
We found the trail easy enough and the buck shortly after. I called up to Dirty, who had beaten me to the animal, to give me a tine report. He called back, “It’s a spike!”
I trotted up, in complete disbelief, and sure enough, it was a younger deer with a whole 2 inches of antler poking off his head.
I was stunned. We went through all kinds of ludicrous scenarios: someone else had shot the deer the night before, maybe a poacher or farmer. But we would have heard the shot from camp since you can’t hunt on Sundays. Plus, this was a fresh trail, not one that had sat over night. We walked past the deer looking to see if the blood trail continued as if the buck I intended to shoot ran past this one. It took at least 15 minutes to come to terms with the fact that I had downed this deer. There was no denying the evidence.
So what happened? Well, there’s no question the original buck was a different animal. We put binos on him and agreed he was a shooter well before anyone raised a rifle. Best we figured was the buck did in fact go into the woods, and this was a different deer we had not seen prior. I simply lost track of the big one in the shuffle of rifles and can’t say what Dirty was doing in the interim. The dead deer had acted all spooky before the shot leading me to believe he was the bigger one. The bigger one probably boogered him, though, making him all antsy. At the distance and the dark – and we weren’t dealing with a 150-class buck to begin with – I simply failed to notice the antlers, concentrating more on a steady shot behind the shoulder.
There was another possibility that I knew those in camp would go for – it was all BS, and we had buck fever. Hand to Bible, that was not the case. I’m still stupefied as I write this but certainly pleased to have the venison. And it was the longest shot – easily – I’ve made on a deer. The three longest shots I’ve made have now come from that stand.
So that cross-up was a first for me, but it was that kind of week. Camp Rookie Alex shot a 7-pt in an antler, concussing him enough that Alex was able to get a second shot and ground him. Can’t say I’ve seen that before. Darin, uncharacteristically, shot a button buck. Gene, even more uncharacteristically, failed to check his zero before that morning’s hunt and promptly missed a nice buck. His pattern was 7-inches off.

Tim Long with a coastal North Carolina 8pt.
Others did it right. Don killed a dark 6-point, and Tim shot a pretty 8-pt. Several does were added to the pot. A couple other smaller bucks were taken.
I did see one monster buck Tuesday morning. I was overlooking a cut cornfield while sitting in a Porta-Potty stand when a big ol’ boy with tall tines and lots of them came boiling into the open from the highway at a considerable distance. Something had spooked him because he was getting after it. At his closest point, he may have been 250 yards. But with him moving too fast, at that distance, and one screw-up under my belt already, I was in no mood to start slinging lead and possibly wounding him.
Plus, as much as I love big bucks, the deer hunting on this trip is always incidental to the friendships around that camp. We’ve been hunting together a long time but only see one another once or twice a year anymore. Thankful we can all still make this trip. It snowed Tuesday night which made it hard to get out of bed Wednesday morning. Even having been in Montana the week before, that was the coldest I’d been in a while, certainly unexpected for coastal North Carolina.
Already looking forward to next year and to seeing everyone again. Maybe I’ll catch up with one of those bigger bucks then. If not, it’s always a good hunt.


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Sijo Masters in Translation

Korean Sijo by Im Che

(1549 - 1587)

Im Che was a talented Korean writer in both prose and verse. He frequently pursued his great interest in women, but his nonconformist life style kept him from advancing significantly in governmental service. On his way north to Pyongyang, where he had been given an administrative post by King Sonjo, he stopped in Kaesung to pay tribute at the grave of the noted kisaeng Hwang Chin'i. On that spot, he is said to have composed this sijo extemporaneously. He died at the prime age of 39. His pen name was Paekho (White Lake).

Do you still sleep in this valley,
at rest under thriving grass?
Where have those rosy cheeks gone,
do your bleached bones remember?
I brought good wine for us to share—
Here, I'll pour it on the grass.

Visit the new Sijo Master of the Month.

Read more Masters in Translation

Go here to learn more about Sijo.

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All Rights Copyright 1996 by Larry Gross. Please do not reprint without written permission.

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Foolproof Methods To Fix Your Golf Mental Game Problems

It is important not to underestimate the importance of the mind in all sport. Golf is certainly no exception and over the years there have been many instances of even the best golfers folding under the pressure of the situation. Golf is a strange challenge because it asks for several pieces of concentration for a short time then releases the player to walk to the next shot.

The process of switching on again over the next shot and clearing your head of any distractions needs practice. You must never get ahead of yourself and just think about a single stroke at a time. It comes more naturally to some than others. There is no doubt that practice helps everyone in ‘educating’ their body and mind to perform on the course. It is important to be able to relax; the brain is apt to allow anxiety to creep in particularly if you are faced with a difficult shot or you are scoring well and the nerves are building up.

You must focus positively on what you want to achieve with each shot and decide the best way to complete the shot successfully. At the same time your course management is called into question; on a familiar course you will know the hazards and how best to try to avoid them.

The mental ‘game’ involves:

  • Focus
  • Concentration
  • Visualisation
  • Clearing your mind
  • Course Management
  • Controlling emotions such as anger and frustration

You must be relaxed in order to play good golf. You must not be worried walking towards your ball about the things that can go wrong. Likewise once you have played your shot you should try to give yourself a short break from thinking about the next challenge. If you are in a friendly fourball that is perhaps easier than if you are going head to head in matchplay.

While you are walking give yourself the once over. It is unlikely that you will actually be shaking but are there any other signs that you are tensing up? If you have had success in the past on the golf course that is something to draw from. The experience that provides should calm you down when you seem to be struggling to control your emotions. If you succeed it will be another experience to provide you with positive thoughts when you are in a similar position again.

Are You a Future Golf Star?

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Altamont Wins Frosh-Soph Game

Published on August 21 2012 11:09 am
Last Updated on August 21 2012 11:09 am
Written by Millie Lange

ALTAMONT -- Altamont played host to Shelbyville in freshman/sophomore baseball action Monday and claimed a 9-2 win.

Altamont leaped out to a 5-1 opening inning lead. The Indians had 14 hits in the contest led by B. Runge and D. Shephard with three singles and three RBI each and N. Bowlin with a single, double and two RBI.

At Altamont

Shelbyville      100  000  1  --  2-  5

Altamont         511  002  x  --  9-14

Sims and Gottfriedt; Armstrong and Bowlin

Shelbyville -- Sims, single, double; Gottfriedt, single; Pullen, single; Coleman, single

Altamont -- Biggs, single; Childerson, single; Armstrong, 2 singles; Runge, 3 singles, 3 RBI; Pemberton, single; Shephard, 3 singles, 3 RBI; Bowlin, single, double, 2  RBI; Brown, double; Vaughn, 1  RBI


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Olympic Village Forum - Feb. 22

Olympic Village

It's been a year since we hosted the Winter Games and the public is still asking what went wrong (and right) with the Olympic Village project? What could have been done differently? What are the housing, planning and other policy lessons?

Think City held a special Olympic Village forum on Tuesday, February 22 to review the lessons from this high-profile project. How can the Olympic Village experience improve the way we do housing, development, and planning across the Metro Vancouver region?

The expert panel included developer Michael Geller, UBC Associate Vice President Nancy Knight, SFU Professor Doug McArthur, and city councilor Geoff Meggs. The forum was moderated by Vancouver journalist and blogger Frances Bula and was co-sponsored by the Planning Institute of BC and Simon Fraser University's School of Public Policy.


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Renminbi internationalisation: an opportunity for hedge funds?

Renminbi internationalisation: an opportunity for hedge funds?

In the first of three articles on China’s financial market opportunities, Julien Calavia, Analyst, Hedge Funds, discusses China’s attempts to make the renminbi a truly international currency and the potential opportunities for hedge fund investors.

For most of this year, financial headlines coming out of China have been dominated by the performance of the country’s stock markets. However, in our opinion, those headlines represent the tip of the iceberg. The first development worth looking at – and the recent cause of much market disruption – relates to attempts to internationalise the renminbi.

The arrival of Xi Jinping as China’s president and the subsequent roadmap that was drawn during the ‘Third Plenum’ have just started to yield a number of pro-market reforms. This should result in an entirely new economic framework for the country with an ultimate goal of transitioning to a market-based approach of allocating capital resources.

To achieve the aim of making the renminbi a truly international currency on a par with the US dollar, China is progressively moving towards opening its capital account and liberalising its interest rates – essentially, allowing its rates to be determined by market forces. At the 2014 National People’s Congress, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang stated, “China will accelerate renminbi convertibility under capital account.” By this year, he was proclaiming, “China will achieve renminbi convertibility under capital account.”

Meanwhile, Chinese officials have been sending very strong signals regarding their wish to raise the Chinese currency’s profile on the international stage. Mr Li formally asked the International Monetary Fund (IMF) earlier this year to include the renminbi in the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) basket. This is the international reserve asset of the IMF made of a mix of US dollars, euros, sterling and Japanese yen.  Membership of this SDR basket is largely symbolic and neither necessary nor sufficient for the renminbi’s acceptance as a global reserve currency. But it is seen as a vital stepping stone on the way to China’s currency aims.

One of the main conditions to join the SDR basket is for the currency to be “freely usable”. This is further defined by “widely used” and “widely traded” though this does not necessarily mean it has to be freely floating or fully convertible, according to the IMF1. The IMF will complete a technical assessment on whether to include the renminbi in the SDR by the end of the year.

China’s financial reforms are expected to continue at a steady pace until the political leaders achieve their goal of genuine renminbi internationalisation.

Even if the decision goes against China, this shouldn’t trigger a U-turn in terms of the reform agenda. The renminbi is already the second-most widely used currency for trade finance – 25% of China’s trade is conducted in the currency – and it is the fourth-most used global payment currency2

Meanwhile, the recent creation of the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank and the opening of new swap lines between the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) and major central banks will likely further strengthen the position of the renminbi in the international financial system.

The PBoC move that shocked many in August involved several changes in the fixing level of the currency against the dollar, resulting in a notable depreciation. The PBoC will also factor in the market closing rate when setting the fixing rate of the following day, adding an element of market pricing. As a result, the renminbi is edging closer to a fully-floating market-determined system.

While the reason behind this move may be a desire to boost trade thanks to currency depreciation, it is also supportive of the currency’s inclusion in the SDR basket. Chinese authorities have also recently announced the extension of the onshore renminbi trading hours to 23:30 Beijing time (15:30 GMT) in order to ease IMF’s concerns on renminbi liquidity during London trading hours. The foreign exchange value of SDR basket currencies is calculated at noon, London-time by the IMF.

The capital account opening will be a key element for hedge funds to capture direct opportunities. This will result in a more freely accessible onshore equity market and the onshore bond and derivatives markets will become available to foreign investors for the first time.

Moving closer to a fully-floating exchange rate mechanism would increase currency trading opportunities as price moves wouldn’t be constrained within the current +/- 2% band. Price trends would become more supply & demand driven as opposed to engineered by the Chinese authorities.

If China is successful in its aims, we anticipate this endeavour could result in some attractive new macro trading opportunities for hedge funds.

1 http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/survey/so/2015/POL080415A.htm

2 https://www.swift.com/about_swift/shownews?param_dcr=news.data/en/swift_com/2015/PR_RMB_special_edition_sibos.xml

Article 3: Macro hedge funds the yuan way to access china

Article 2: Welcome to China’s financial markets

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Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Why Haven't Wheels Evolved (or Have They?)

In a mailing list discussion, the topic of the evolution of wheels came up. Basically, if wheels are relatively simple and extremely useful devices, why haven't biological organisms evolved them?

The Straight Dope pretty succinctly covered the various responses to this question in 1998.

Response #1: It's impossible to gradually evolve a wheel

Biological features generally evolve gradually, and a quarter or half of a wheel would not only be useless, it would probably actively hurt the fitness of an organism. Cecil says the problem with this argument is that some organisms already have evolved wheels (which we'll get to in a minute), which doesn't really address the actual issue. The gradualist argument has been famously used for all sorts of complicated structures, such as the vertebrate eye. What good is a quarter or half an eye? Well, Richard Dawkins does a great job of demolishing this objection (see The Blind Watchmaker). Half an eye is extremely useful. Even if all it does is let you distinguish light from dark patches, it gives you a selective advantage over members of your own species who can't see a damn thing at all.

Another famous example is the wing. What good is a proto-wing? Ask the organisms that have one (e.g. a flying squirrel). Even if you can't fly, gliding can be really useful, especially if you live in the upper tree canopies. And often in evolution, a feature that was used for an entirely different purpose gets co-opted to serve a different function. My favorite example of this is the hammer, anvil, and stirrup, the little bones in your ear that let you hear. Those were once jawbones in a primitive ancestor, and they got recruited for hearing.

So I don't buy the argument that the impediment to evolving wheels is the impossibility of the evolutionary trajectory. Many organisms have much more complex, labyrinthine structures that were evolved gradually.

Response #2: They've already evolved!

Cecil points out the mother-of-pearl moth, Pleurotya ruralis, which will curl into a ring structure, head-to-tail, if attacked, and roll backwards at about 40 cm/s, much faster than its crawling speed. Wikipedia has a nice entry on other examples, including organisms that use gravity to locomote via rolling, such as the web-toed salamander and the golden wheel spider, and those that are self-propelled, such as the mother-of-pearl moth, the mantis shrimp, and the scaly anteater (shown here).

But the objection is that these aren't true wheels, in the sense of the artifacts, with axles. Cecil points to the bacterial flagellum, which is a rotary mechanism that bacteria use to whip a tail-like structure and move through liquid environments. While the structure is more like a wheel than the multi-cellular organisms above, the function is less like a wheel, which we normally associate with locomotion on a hard substrate.

While I think these examples are interesting, I don't think any of them demonstrate the existing evolution of a biological wheel.

Response #3: It's impossible to evolve an organic wheel because of biological constraints

Cecil's response is a nice explanation:

A more complex creature couldn't evolve the wheel. Every time the thing turned, the nerves and blood vessels serving it would get hopelessly twisted." Science writer Stephen Jay Gould makes essentially this argument in his book Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes.

But this may not be an insurmountable obstacle. A flesh-and-blood wheel might use the umbilical hookup found on some merry-go-rounds. Tape one end of a piece of ribbon to a tabletop and the other to the bottom of a compact disc. Turn the CD over so that the ribbon drapes over the side. Now move the CD so that it "orbits" the ribbon clockwise, at the same time rotating the disc clockwise, two rotations per orbit. (Not the easiest thing to explain without diagrams, but think of it as an IQ test.) The wheel turns, but the ribbon doesn't twist. Would it be easy for a living wheel to evolve something along these lines? Maybe not, but who's to say it's impossible?

Right. I don't buy this argument either. Nature has found all sorts of ingenious workarounds for seemingly insurmountable engineering problems. I don't think the problem is the inability for the system to supply nutrients to a wheel-like structure.

Which leaves us with...

Response #4: Wheels are great for roads, but they suck for natural terrain

This seems like the most likely explanation. Natural terrains are chock full of divots, rocks, crevices, and so forth. When it rains, wheels get stuck in the mud. And for those terrains that are nice and flat (e.g. ice), wheels wouldn't work all that well.

An ancillary argument that I haven't seen expressed is that limbs typically serve more than one function, besides locomotion. Whether animals are on the top or bottom of the food chain, they tend to use their limbs as weapons, either to claw or kick. Wheels probably wouldn't work quite as well for these secondary functions.

Also, the ability to fold limbs inward gives most vertebrates the ability to tuck in their limbs to protect them from attack, and also the ability to assume different postures. Wheels likely wouldn't tuck or fold as easily as limbs.

So I think the best answer is the simplest: Selection pressure in natural environments on earth does not favor wheels, and it's that reason, and not constraints on physiology or the evolutionary process, that they have not evolved.

Of course, all of the constrains, the environment, and all selection pressures can be manipulated in a virtual environment. I think it would be very cool to set up an artificial environment and test an encoding system in a situation that allowed for wheeled structures to evolve and study how it happens.

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October 12, 2013

Hong Kong photo diary - Part 1

It's finally here! I managed to finish editing all the pics from my trip to Hong Kong, and I've cut it down to fit into 2 posts. As usual, it was tricky. Hong Kong is definitely a country I'd love to go back to some day. I weirdly felt right at home the minute I landed. The food was delicious, the people were so friendly (I managed to learn a few words in Cantonese!) and the shopping was amazing! I preferred the markets over the main department stores because I didn't want to travel to another country just to go shopping in the same stores I have at home. The markets were crowded but heaps of fun, and there were so many unique items - a great spot for souvenir shopping!

The sightseeing and culture of Hong Kong was also amazing. I pretty much spent my entire trip exploring all the sights I possibly could, and going to different locations every day. I was actually surprised by how much there is to see in this country! There was never a boring moment, which I loved. Travelling to Hong Kong has now made me even more excited to explore Chinese culture further, and plan my trip to Beijing! Not sure when I'll be going yet..

So, here are some photos from my first few days in Hong Kong. I hope you enjoy part 1 of my photo diary! Part 2 will be up later this week :)

The view from my hotel room... Got the best of both Islands - Hong Kong & Kowloon :)
 Taking a cable car to Lantau Island to see the world's largest outdoor Buddha!
 Reaching the top - the village of Ngong Ping was beautiful! Can you spot the Buddha statue in the background?
 Walking up to the giant Buddha! A long and steep walk, but definitely worth it.
View from the top:
 On the way to Macau!
It was crazy busy in Macau! Definitely a popular holiday spot for Chinese tourists.
 Everything was written in Spanish! It felt like Europe - and a world away from Asia.
 Let's not forget the hundreds of casinos in Macau! The Grand Lisboa is one of the largest casinos. And everything inside was pretty much gold! Gold chairs and lounges, tables, stairs, doors etc. Amazing.
I stayed at the Harbour Grand hotel in Hong Kong and it was stunning! The room was large, had heaps of facilities, overlooked the harbour and the beds were the most comfortable hotel beds I've slept in! I'd definitely recommend this hotel if you're planning on taking a trip to Hong Kong.
Streets of Hong Kong Central:
While walking around the city, I had to stop at the HSBC building. The architecture was really cool, and it's one of the city's most popular buildings. No surprise since it's a financial hub in Hong Kong.
 One of the many markets in Hong Kong. I love finding bargains and souvenirs here!
 I went on the world's longest indoor escalator! Weird, but true. It went for almost 4 blocks! Great way to see the busy streets below without having to walk through them ;)
Man Mo Temple - the largest temple in Hong Kong:
 Avenue of Stars! This is pretty much like the Hollywood walk of fame but instead has famous actors from Hong Kong - mostly in the genre of martial arts. There were heaps of names, but I only knew 2 of them - Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan :)
 Jackie Chan!
Popcorn stand! Or at least I thought it was... until I read "Shredded Squid" - must be their version of popcorn.
 The famous Bruce Lee statue!
NAILED IT! hahaha..
 It's also an amazing spot to see the harbour and the city skyline of Hong Kong.
 As sunset approached, the lights were switched on!
 I know, random pic.. but this pig was just too cute :)
 City skyline of Hong Kong at night - absolutely stunning.
 The Sampan! A traditional Hong Kong boat :)
 Every night, the city lights up in a show called the "Symphony of Lights". Music plays along the harbour, while around 15 buildings on each side of the harbour participate in the show and switch on their laser lights.
It's quite similar to "Wonder Full" - the light show at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore (which is also amazing!).

Well, that's it for part 1! I hope you guys enjoyed it. Stay tuned for part 2 later this week :)

Have you travelled to Hong Kong? What were your favourite sights?
Have any questions? Let me know in the comments below!


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