From here

GLENROCK, Wyo. — Officials in the small Wyoming town of Glenrock have upheld the firing of two police officers who chased and Tasered a 76-year-old man driving a tractor in a parade.

The Glenrock Town Council voted Monday night to uphold last year’s terminations of Officer Michael Kavenius and Sgt. Paul Brown.

According to a state review of the incident, Bud Grose was shocked five times with Kavenius’ Taser during Glenrock’s annual Deer Creek Days Parade in August.

Grose was driving an antique tractor in the parade and disobeyed Kavenius’ traffic command, police said. Brown pulled a police vehicle in front of Grose’s tractor, and the tractor collided with it.

About damn time.

A sci-fi thriller with no special effects, a cast of four and a single location used with Hitchcockian economy, “Timecrimes” boasts the kind of smart, resourceful filmmaking that champions ingenuity over spectacle.

Just a quick note of a couple of interesting things. While the movie (Timecrimes) isn’t perfect, its pretty good. Its worth a rewatch or two, but thats about it. Still, next year an American remake will be coming out. I rolled my eyes when I first heard this, but if the screenwriter for Children of Men is onboard, it gives me hope. Children of Men is an awesome movie – to be perfect, it just needs to be 3-5 seconds shorter.

Adhering to its own hermetically sealed logic, “Timecrimes” is cerebral enough to attract David Cronenberg, who signed on as the prime-choice director of an up-coming remake.

With no time machine at our disposal, we’ll just have to wait to see if Cronenberg’s version (adapted by Timothy J. Sexton, the screenwriter of “Children of Men”) offers any tantalizing improvements.

4 out of 5 stars.

A witty, engaging, science fiction mystery. Its a time travel movie, though far from the best that I’ve seen. (Memento has that honor – which while not technically a time travel movie, in practice it is).

Poor slob sees a girl undressing in the woods (boobies! Always a plus in a movie). He goes to investigate. He gets stabbed in the arm. He runs. Soon there are three of him running around.

Then it gets confusing, until it isn’t.

And, he pays a terrible price in the end – though not the most terrible that gets paid.

Its a touch odd.

I’m pure profit to them.

I have the cheapest plan (I pay either 4.99 per month, or 5.99 per month. I can’t remember which). I’ve had the same movie (Timecrimes) since May of 2009. Under the cheapest plan I can rent exactly two movies per month (Or watch about 2 hours of streaming video), and I can only have movie out at a time. So, I’ve paid 30 bucks so far, for this one lone DVD to sit in my house collecting dust. Because I HAVEN’T WATCHED IT yet.

How about streaming movies, you ask? I’ve watched Corpse Bride, Jason and the Argonauts, and Read or Die (first episode) in that time. Thats it.

But, I have my reasons for having it, and I won’t give it up. Its worth the 5 bucks or so a month. (Though I wish I could find Timecrimes right now, I want to watch it, return it, and get started catching up on some stuff).

Normally its Harley macaw who rants. Tonight, its Kermit, and boy, is she on a roll. Lots of mimic-ing me is going on, with periodic loud(er) bouts of grumbling.

I always wonder whats going through these guys minds when they do this.

And earlier tonight, when I was trying to read, Harley was planting himself in my lap for head scritches. I would put my book down, and give him the head scritches for a few. Off he would go. I would pick up my book (actually a manga graphic novel) and here he would come back. Silly bird.

Back when I got Harley macaw, I was more intimidated by him. Mostly that big ass beak of his, which he is quite willing to use to get his way. Back then, he had a favorite game. “Dancing fat man” – he would charge my bare feet, smacking at them with his beak, while I danced from foot to foot staying out of his way.

Then I came to a realization. He’s mostly bluff. Sure he bites, on occasion, but its pretty rare. And he rarely does any degree of damage. Some redness, a minor bruise, etc. He’s really not capable of doing very much (especially since he isn’t allowed on my shoulder, and rarely in reach of my face). At his worst, he could break a finger.

So, I stopped the dancing. He would race at my bare feet, and grab a toe – then roll his eyes upward to make eye contact. With no response, he would proclaim OW! and wander off in a huff. Eventually he just took to ignoring my feet, for the most part. Though last summer, I was propped up on the railing of my back porch, watching the world go by. The door was open, and Harley was out (he is on the only one of my birds reasonably safe to be loose outdoors). I felt something grab my toe. While it scared me half to death (I had no idea he was around) I didn’t jump. I looked down, met the mischievous gaze, and with an annoyed harrumph, off he wandered.

I hadn’t really thought about this change until this morning. Harley was out, wandering around. I was standing in the hall trying to decide what to do first. Harley wandered down the hall, stepped on a toe as he was passing by, and went on down to see if the dogs had left any food in their dish. They had. He emptied it, and threw the food bowl down the stairs.

So, as some things change, others stay the same.

Weighing your birds and recording the weight on a semi regular basis is suppose to be a good thing. It helps you spot problems. I’m a slacker, and stopped doing it some time ago. So, since its a new year, I decided to pick it back up.

I weighed two of the birds tonight – Harley and Kermit. Kiwi isn’t weighable at the moment. She is fully in the grips of spring hormones and isn’t hand-able tonight. I’ll try her again tomorrow. (Harley and Kermit are also hormone hyped, but are a bit calmer than Kiwi right now).

Kermit (Blue Crowned Conure)
11/20/2007 150 grams
01/07/2008 139 grams
01/16/2010 157 grams 5.54 ounces .34 pounds

Yes, I totally missed 2009. I’m ashamed. I’m not the worlds best parrot owner (though I’m miles above the worst). I’ve had Kermit 3.5 years – she was hatched on August 17, 2006. I’ve got her eggshell around somewhere. This is the first year I’ve seen any sign of Kermit having hormone issues (and they are mild) so its possible that she has hit puberty. Conures hit puberty around 2-4 years or so, I think. I’m not really sure.

Harley (Blue and Gold Macaw)
01/23/2008 1065 grams
01/16/2010 1057 grams 37.28 ounces 2.33 pounds

Almost two years! Mind, he got to where he didn’t trust the perch I use to weigh them. I overcame that this time, with food. Harley is also 3 months or so shy of having been with me three years. He is 17-18 years old.

Darpa is claiming that the US geek shortage is a national security risk.

The Pentagon’s far-out research arm Darpa is soliciting proposals for initiatives that would attract teens to careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), with an emphasis on computing.

Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/01/darpa-us-geek-shortage-is-a-national-security-risk/#ixzz0cokTrPjA

Now, take a look at this (I added some bolding, to help with the more interesting stuff

SAN DIEGO — Students were evacuated from Millennial Tech Magnet Middle School in the Chollas View neighborhood Friday afternoon after an 11-year-old student brought a personal science project that he had been making at home to school, authorities said.

Maurice Luque, spokesman for the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department, said the student had been making the device in his home garage. A vice principal saw the student showing it to other students at school about 11:40 a.m. Friday and was concerned that it might be harmful, and San Diego police were notified.

The school, which has about 440 students in grades 6 to 8 and emphasizes technology skills, was initially put on lockdown while authorities responded.

Luque said the project was made of an empty half-liter Gatorade bottle with some wires and other electrical components attached. There was no substance inside.

When police and the Metro Arson Strike Team responded, they also found electrical components in the student’s backpack, Luque said. After talking to the student, it was decided about 1 p.m. to evacuate the school as a precaution while the item was examined.

——- further down

About 3 p.m., the device was determined to be harmless, Luque said.

Luque said the project was intended to be a type of motion-detector device.

Both the student and his parents were “very cooperative” with authorities, Luque said. He said fire officials also went to the student’s home and checked the garage to make sure items there were neither harmful nor explosive.

“There was nothing hazardous at the house,” Luque said.

The student will not be prosecuted, but authorities were recommending that he and his parents get counseling, the spokesman said. The student violated school policies, but there was no criminal intent, Luque said.

Anyone else seeing the dots connecting here?

Gah, damn! You gotta be careful of what you read, when. Here I am, middle of the night, can’t sleep. Which is a rare problem for me. So I’m up for a few, just looking to relax for a few, and get untense so I can get another hour or so of sleep before starting the day. Since its the middle of the night blahs, I’m looking for something intriguing, or amusing. Like his “Here be Dragons”.

So I pick up one of the Zelazny volumes I just splurged on. There are some short, short stories in those things, and lots of poetry. I’m not a fan of poetry (though I’m finding that reading it aloud improves it). Since its the middle of the night blahs, I’m looking for something intriguing, or amusing. Like his “Here be Dragons” – which is actually a children s story.

The story I read was “Hands across the galaxy”, which is maybe two pages long. In that two pages is one pathos filled, bleak glimpse into the downside of a nasty future. It was NOT what I was looking for. Its damn good, even though its not really a story. Its a mirror of sorts. I think I’ll copy it out at some point and send the copy to Amy Marie – she can appreciate it, I think.

Geez.

One of my vague New Years resolutions, is to teach my birds a trick or two. And I’ve got to revamp how I’m working with Harley macaw. My tactic of kindness only has been, at best, partially successful. I’ve got a fairly impressive hematoma (blood knot) on my forearm from him right now. I had forgotten that he always bites harder through cloth. I was wearing a long sleeved shirt when he stepped up from a place he would have preferred staying. So whap! he got me. On the other hand, its the first time that rolling my arm hard has actually worked to make him let go and concentrate on keeping his balance. The trick is to not wuss around with the arm roll. Roll your arm hard and fast for several inches.

But, the way I’m going to change my approach is to concentrate on motivating my birds with something far more primal than attention. Food! All parrots that I’ve ever met are gluttons. Mine are certainly no exceptions!

I don’t have formal new years resolutions this year (I never even remotely keep them, so no reason to have them). But I do have an informal one to watch more movies/tv. So, in browing Netflix last night, I stumbled across two things that look interesting…

In modern-day London, Dr. Jekyll’s last living descendant, Tom Jackman (James Nesbitt), carries on his famous ancestor’s legacy. Tom believes he can control his dark side and protect his wife and children, but a secret society that’s followed the Jekyll family line for a hundred years has plans for both halves of Tom’s personality. Gina Bellman and Michelle Ryan co-star in this offbeat adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic.

Its about a TV show (the only lasted 6 episodes) called Jekyll.

The other is an Anime series – hard science fiction (not space opera) which is a particular interest of mine.

n the distant future, humanity has begun to colonize the solar system. But in order to make further advances, a mountain of trash must be cleared out of Earth’s orbit. Traveling faster than bullets, these millions of bits of debris can perforate a spaceship. That’s where the Planetes come in: They’re trash collectors. Through their point of view, we see the social and political changes brought about by access to this new frontier.

I’ll be looking into both in the upcoming year.

Stumbling across the start of the six volume set of the Collected stories of Roger Zelazny started me to thinking about two of my favorite works of his. Jack of Shadows, and Lords of Light.

“For six days he had offered many kilowatts of prayer, but the static kept him from being heard On High.”

So I started looking for my copies of the books. And, not finding them. Good books – defined here as simply any book that you enjoy – move. They don’t stay in one spot. My paperbacks have one specific spot that they are suppose to call home. Its down by the basement door. There is a long ledge there, which is perfectly sized for keeping paperbacks. This is in the U shaped area in the stairwell right before you reach the door to the basement. Its still in the main house. The house was designed with that area there, and that area was designed for paperbacks.

But the books don’t stay there, for the most. I go past them at least twice per day, seven days a week for the most part. Once in the morning, bleary eyed, to put the dogs in the basement. Once again in the evening, somewhat tired, to take the dogs out of the basement. (And usually once again in the evenings, putting the dogs back down there for a few minutes so that they can take care of any prebedtime business out in the sideyard, which connects to my basement). Its not uncommon for a book to latch on to me during these trips, and ride me back up like a giant cockleburr.

Its mostly specific passages that snag out little thorns, and which get read far more than the entire book. Normally they aren’t anything particularly important or engaging to most. Those little barbs are specific to me. I like reliving how Jack of Shadows (who is, overall, an Ass) overcomes the Rock that Eats. Thats a barb.

What it means though, is that books move from where they are put. A bit part of cleaning up for me is putting these errant books back where they belong. And, it explains why I can’t find my copies of those two books tonight, when I went looking for them.