Some of my favorite pictures
by James on Nov.08, 2011, under Personal
This photo was taken at the aquarium in Camden, NJ. I don’t remember what kind of fish this was but it lives somewhere in the Amazon. It was just floating there staring and staring at me when I took this picture. No flash and a black and white filter give it the look of a monster peeking out of its lair.
I took this photo while sitting on the back porch of a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Georgia. Like most of my really good pictures, I wasn’t trying very hard when I took it but the composition turned out perfectly. I gave it a kind of dark sepia filter with center weighted highlights.
I took this a a rather dreary day at a “pumpkin patch” a ways up north. The place was rather deserted and, despite being in current operation, looked as though it had been abandoned for the last couple of years. I was standing by one of their “attractions”, a gutted school bus that had been turned into a sort of playground, when I noticed a really nice looking cloud formation coming in that lined up well with the old fence and the abandoned looking carnival rides in the background. I washed out some colors while sharpening others to give it a nice retro aged look.
The most interesting thing about all three of these pictures is that they were all taken with a cellphone. No fancy cameras here. While they are certainly limited in the types of pictures that can be taken, a carefully framed photograph can still come out looking great.
Don’t Go South for Any Reason
by James on Oct.28, 2011, under News
Always good advice and backed up with evidence. The most recent piece is the sad story of Teresa Culpepper who, after calling the Atlanta police to report that car had been stolen, was arrested on a case of mistaken identity. Oh such things happen but the best part is the only commonality she shared with the actual criminal is that many years ago both their parents named them Teresa.
Yup that’s it because they shared the same first name, the wrong Teresa ended up spending fifty-three days behind bars. That’s right a five followed by a three, damn near two months. In those two months she was kicked out of her home, car (which was by this point was in a police impound lot, and was having a hard time explaining why she missed fifty-three days of work.
What did the District Attorney have to say about this miscarriage of justice?
After investigating this matter thoroughly and discussing it carefully with the Atlanta Police Department, we have concluded that the wrong person was arrested.
Let’s see, different last names. Check.
Different addresses. Check.
Different descriptions. Check.
And it took fifty-three days for the investigative geniuses down there to figure all of that out.
Don’t Die Early
by James on Oct.28, 2011, under Uncategorized
Because if you do, they’ll want their money back. The Ministry of Defense (UK) has taken back £433 from the family of Lance Corporal Jordan Bancroft because he was inconsiderate enough to die before the end of the month. Bancroft had received a check for £1,493.04 for leave that he had not taken.
Of course, he thought he had found the perfect scam by dying before the end of the month which meant he had been payed 433 pounds that he had not earned. Luckily the MoD is sly to ploys like this and made his family return the ill gotten gains. LCpl couldn’t be reached for comment but his father had this to say about it.
When I read the letter, it felt like I’d been poked in the eye with a sharp stick. I think it’s undignified and very petty to be sent a bureaucratic letter like this.
I can’t imagine what it must be like to receive a collection letter from the government specifically because of the fact that your son had just died.
Another classic
by James on Oct.18, 2011, under News
It looks like the NYPD is determined to unseat the LAPD. I’m not sure why they can’t seem to be able to keep their officers under control. They way they have behaved since the protests started is utterly disgraceful.
NYPD and the Force Continuum
by James on Oct.06, 2011, under News
Here is another video coming out of the protests on Wall Street in New York City, in this video, a reporter and camera man for the local Fox affiliate are injured by a police officer during the protest.
One thing that I found interesting in this video is the police officer’s (captain in the white shirt) use of force. Most police, including the NYPD train with what is known as the Force Continuum (or Continuum of Force, etc). It details how violence escalates and which actions are to be used and it what order. I could not find an online source for the NYPD’s guide (though it is apparently on page 7 of the NYPD Academy textbook), typically you are supposed to use OC spray (pepper spray) before you start striking people with batons. This is because OC spray does no lasting harm while a baton can cause bruises, broken bones, and internal bleeding.
The other thing I found interesting is how the officer is swinging almost at random, frequently striking people in the back who are either trying to escape or are unaware of his presence.
On a final note with regards to the pepper spray itself. According to the Report of the Pepper Spray Committee (pdf), NYPD Patrol manual states that: “They are taught not to fire the spray from within three feet of subjects, not to use the spray on a windy day, and not to use OC in group settings or for crowd control; they are trained to fire a maximum of two one-second bursts of the spray.”
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Sit aut insanit , aut versus facit
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