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Mar. 28th, 2012 04:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydion* It turns out the lead investigator in the Trayvon Martin murder filed papers for arrest what with Zimmerman's story not adding up, but got over ruled by higher ups at the state's attorney's office. The police continue to leak things like school records (covered by a right to privacy under state and federal law) and pro-Zimmerman stuff to the press as part of their argument that Zimmerman is the real victim here, his life now being ruined because he justifiably stalked murdered an unarmed teen because his mere existence was so scary it warranted his murder in self defense. After all his pattern of repeatedly calling in "suspicious people" reports on black and brown men minding their own business doesn't in any way suggest a bias. Riiiiiight.
* This is the thing: I get that criminal investigations can take time. Skye's murderer was free for a year before his arrest. The thing is there that they needed air tight forensics because his murderer wasn't caught in the act. Forensics do take time, even if you have a suspect and probable cause for taking samples. I have no doubt that he'd have been arrested right away if he'd been found standing over the body with a smoking gun. As frustrating and upsetting as it was to wait, I had faith that the police were investigating and that blood and fiber kits were working their way through he state lab. This faith was bolstered by obvious activity in the case and the occasional report of how the case was moving forward. Similarly, the second year of waiting through various postponements was nerve racking, but the murderer was in jail and delays are normal on the part of defense in cases like that. I could console myself he was behind bars.
The thing is, the police decided not to do any forensics testing in Zimmerman's case, not bothering to take and bag his clothes for corroboration and examination to see if residue patterns and damage matched his story, nor did they run toxicology, nor even take a few pictures so that witnesses are now disputing if his nose was bleeding or shirt wet or not. This is really basic stuff here. As they declined to do any of the normal evidence gathering there is no year wait for things like DNA testing, and there being no signs of any investigation whatsoever, I think impatience is fucking justified.
* Re: Obama and the Russians. Look, there is no diplomacy without flexibility. There is nothing to be gained by threatening or invading Russia and much to be lost. Of course he has more flexibility after the next election. Of course he'll have more to offer if he has a Congress post-election that will actually work with him rather than block everything no matter how sensible. It's not a scandal. No, he didn't say he's going to give them the store. It just means he'll be in a better position to work out deals. Can we untwist the panties now and stop clutching the pearls? This is how diplomacy has worked since the beginning o civilization. It's sausage, and this meant to happen behind closed doors. Given how well the President has danced across the mine fields so far can't we put a little faith in him, especially when you compare his record to his predecessor.
* They are having a protest that involves knitting vaginas and uterii to send to male government representatives who think they should be making birth control choices for women with notes that say things like, "Now you have your own uterus, stay out of mine!" If you need knitting and cloth patterns you can click through on the site: http://www.governmentfreevjj.com/
* il_volpe found, "'A Test You Need to Fail': A Teacher's Open Letter to Her 8th Grade Students:" https://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/03/23-8#.T3GCi1tPzDx.livejournal
* Dude: http://host-47.242.54.159.gannett.com/news/article/198347/158/PHOTOS-Batman-Pulled-Over-By-Police-In-Md
* Interesting speculation on why we became bipedal: http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-03-reveals-ancestors-bipedal-power.html
* A list of homid fossils it would be helpful to find: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/hominids/2012/03/top-ten-hominid-fantasy-finds/
* Israelite figurines: http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/artifacts-and-the-bible/apotropaic-guardians-ancient-symbols-divine-icons-or-children%E2%80%99s-toys/
* A interesting thing on cultural practices that helped Icelanders survive: http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-03-conservatism-iceland-catastrophe.html
Given how things worked out in Greenland, I'm fascinated to look into the counter example.
* Museum in Boston acquires the biggest classical statue in the US, a Juno: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304450004577279650134903754.html
* Re: the latest round of Alexander's death speculation: The water borne pathogen theory makes as much sense as any other leading theory, being logical and fitting ancient world sources and speculation, but so do some other leading theories. (Ancient world writers differed amoung themselves as to what happened and the political implications of various ancient world theories mean everyone had good reasons to pick one theory over another). I think it's worth the exercise of examining the event with modern scientific knowledge, but I don't expect this to be a solvable mystery, short of his body turning up, and even there, it will be hard to prove it's really him. That is the way of history sometimes.
For some of these mysteries, there will be pretty strong evidence on one side or another, which is why I do take sides on things like the murder of Lord Darnley or the little Princes and the death of Dudley's wife. (In order: Likely Earl of Bothwell's henchmen; henchmen of one of the Tudors, probably Henry VII; and cancer. It's not 100% proved, but I'd bet money on it if we could time travel and check, and so would most historians). In Alexander's case, I have a bias, but no objective reason to prefer a particular theory, and there is no theory that a strong majority of Hellenistic scholars favour. There is also a history of Alexander specialists taking sides then recanting. So yeah... I'll call this theory as plausible given the data, and consider it one of the more compelling arguments as it makes scientific, medical, and political sense, but I'm not putting money on any Alexander theory without a lot more proof.
* Hector mostly let me sleep. Mostly. I'm still tired from day after day of it, but I have hopes we're on the upslope. I gave them extra goosh on the strength of it. Unfortunately, it was at this point I discovered they'd trashed the apartment while I was asleep. I say "they" as the Junior Beasts ran amok in Squirrel's room. I'm not sure who trashed what in the common areas, though there was evidence Hector was also involved.
* Is it just me, or does Lionel Richie look exactly the same as thirty years ago? Is he hiding an aging portrait in his attic?
* Random thought #2: Is Justin Long the cut rate Keanu Reeves?
* This is the thing: I get that criminal investigations can take time. Skye's murderer was free for a year before his arrest. The thing is there that they needed air tight forensics because his murderer wasn't caught in the act. Forensics do take time, even if you have a suspect and probable cause for taking samples. I have no doubt that he'd have been arrested right away if he'd been found standing over the body with a smoking gun. As frustrating and upsetting as it was to wait, I had faith that the police were investigating and that blood and fiber kits were working their way through he state lab. This faith was bolstered by obvious activity in the case and the occasional report of how the case was moving forward. Similarly, the second year of waiting through various postponements was nerve racking, but the murderer was in jail and delays are normal on the part of defense in cases like that. I could console myself he was behind bars.
The thing is, the police decided not to do any forensics testing in Zimmerman's case, not bothering to take and bag his clothes for corroboration and examination to see if residue patterns and damage matched his story, nor did they run toxicology, nor even take a few pictures so that witnesses are now disputing if his nose was bleeding or shirt wet or not. This is really basic stuff here. As they declined to do any of the normal evidence gathering there is no year wait for things like DNA testing, and there being no signs of any investigation whatsoever, I think impatience is fucking justified.
* Re: Obama and the Russians. Look, there is no diplomacy without flexibility. There is nothing to be gained by threatening or invading Russia and much to be lost. Of course he has more flexibility after the next election. Of course he'll have more to offer if he has a Congress post-election that will actually work with him rather than block everything no matter how sensible. It's not a scandal. No, he didn't say he's going to give them the store. It just means he'll be in a better position to work out deals. Can we untwist the panties now and stop clutching the pearls? This is how diplomacy has worked since the beginning o civilization. It's sausage, and this meant to happen behind closed doors. Given how well the President has danced across the mine fields so far can't we put a little faith in him, especially when you compare his record to his predecessor.
* They are having a protest that involves knitting vaginas and uterii to send to male government representatives who think they should be making birth control choices for women with notes that say things like, "Now you have your own uterus, stay out of mine!" If you need knitting and cloth patterns you can click through on the site: http://www.governmentfreevjj.com/
* il_volpe found, "'A Test You Need to Fail': A Teacher's Open Letter to Her 8th Grade Students:" https://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/03/23-8#.T3GCi1tPzDx.livejournal
* Dude: http://host-47.242.54.159.gannett.com/news/article/198347/158/PHOTOS-Batman-Pulled-Over-By-Police-In-Md
* Interesting speculation on why we became bipedal: http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-03-reveals-ancestors-bipedal-power.html
* A list of homid fossils it would be helpful to find: http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/hominids/2012/03/top-ten-hominid-fantasy-finds/
* Israelite figurines: http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/artifacts-and-the-bible/apotropaic-guardians-ancient-symbols-divine-icons-or-children%E2%80%99s-toys/
* A interesting thing on cultural practices that helped Icelanders survive: http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-03-conservatism-iceland-catastrophe.html
Given how things worked out in Greenland, I'm fascinated to look into the counter example.
* Museum in Boston acquires the biggest classical statue in the US, a Juno: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304450004577279650134903754.html
* Re: the latest round of Alexander's death speculation: The water borne pathogen theory makes as much sense as any other leading theory, being logical and fitting ancient world sources and speculation, but so do some other leading theories. (Ancient world writers differed amoung themselves as to what happened and the political implications of various ancient world theories mean everyone had good reasons to pick one theory over another). I think it's worth the exercise of examining the event with modern scientific knowledge, but I don't expect this to be a solvable mystery, short of his body turning up, and even there, it will be hard to prove it's really him. That is the way of history sometimes.
For some of these mysteries, there will be pretty strong evidence on one side or another, which is why I do take sides on things like the murder of Lord Darnley or the little Princes and the death of Dudley's wife. (In order: Likely Earl of Bothwell's henchmen; henchmen of one of the Tudors, probably Henry VII; and cancer. It's not 100% proved, but I'd bet money on it if we could time travel and check, and so would most historians). In Alexander's case, I have a bias, but no objective reason to prefer a particular theory, and there is no theory that a strong majority of Hellenistic scholars favour. There is also a history of Alexander specialists taking sides then recanting. So yeah... I'll call this theory as plausible given the data, and consider it one of the more compelling arguments as it makes scientific, medical, and political sense, but I'm not putting money on any Alexander theory without a lot more proof.
* Hector mostly let me sleep. Mostly. I'm still tired from day after day of it, but I have hopes we're on the upslope. I gave them extra goosh on the strength of it. Unfortunately, it was at this point I discovered they'd trashed the apartment while I was asleep. I say "they" as the Junior Beasts ran amok in Squirrel's room. I'm not sure who trashed what in the common areas, though there was evidence Hector was also involved.
* Is it just me, or does Lionel Richie look exactly the same as thirty years ago? Is he hiding an aging portrait in his attic?
* Random thought #2: Is Justin Long the cut rate Keanu Reeves?