So This Happened
12:17 Thursday, 14 November 2013
Words: 598
A couple of days ago, the NY Times prominently featured one of their "Snowfall"-type articles on the front page of their web site, Two Gunshots on a Summer Night. It's a joint report with Frontline, and I understand their version will be broadcast this evening. (The report is available online at this time.)
To make a long story short, it's about the death of a young woman, a botched police investigation, and allegations of homicide and a cover-up by law enforcement.
In response to the article, the St. Johns County Sheriff's office has released a raft of documentation relating to the case.
To make another long story short, the Sheriff's office alleges that investigator misconduct on the part of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and irresponsible journalists in search of a sensational story have unfairly tarred the reputation of the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office, one of their officers, and inflicted emotional suffering on the family of the deceased.
Since I live here, I feel inclined to offer my thoughts.
First, I'm very sorry for the loss of the O'Connell family. In all of this, one perhaps loses sight of this tragedy,
Second, I applaud the Sheriff for making the documents publicly and easily available. It was the right thing to do.
I read the article, and I came away with the distinct impression that Michelle O'Connell had likely been murdered, and SJSO was covering up for one of their own. Truly, a newsworthy report, if true.
I learned of the SJSO's response through local media, and I went to the web site to see what documentation they made available.
After reading most of the material, I have a distinctly different impression about the death of Ms. O'Connell. While perhaps only one person knows for certain, the information contained in the material from SJSO does support the idea that Ms. O'Connell took her own life, and does so more convincingly than the theory offered by the reporters from the NY Times and Frontline.
That said, nobody comes off looking good in all this sorry mess.
Nobody.
It hardly instills confidence in law enforcement that the initial investigation was rather carelessly handled, given the circumstances of the event.
It hardly instills confidence in law enforcement that a review by an outside investigative agency, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, appears to be just exactly what the Sheriff's Office is alleging it to be.
It hardly instills confidence in law enforcement and the administration of justice, that for most people, when investigations are made just like the one the SJSO alleges the FDLE conducted, the alleged perpretrators don't have the entire police department standing by to defend them; instead, just a poorly paid, inexperienced public defender.
It hardly instills confidence in law enforcement that young men are placed in positions of authority to use deadly force, equipped to do so, and apparently lack the training and discipline to secure their weapons in their homes.
It hardly instills confidence in The New York Times and Frontline that their reporting seemed more intent on delivering a juicy story than in uncovering the truth. I subscribe to the Times. I, for the most part, have high regard for the quality of their reporting. But, as with the Judith Miller controversy, lack of journalistic integrity, i.e. a commitment to the truth, doesn't simply undermine confidence, it destroys the value of a free press.
There's a story here. But it's not the one The New York Times and Frontline are reporting, and the SJSO is refuting.
Someone should write that story.
Normal
11:12 Tuesday, 14 November 2023
Current Wx: Temp: 63.68°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 90% Wind: 17.27mph
Words: 392
Our house guests have departed, and the ensuing laundry effort seems to have dampened (heh) Mitzi's enthusiasm for a ventless dryer. I'll wait a while and revisit the issue.
The other battle I'll have to fight is what color to paint the house. She loves the current (dark) color. It's no longer on the approved list, (the architectural review committee has "freshened" the list of approved colors) but I'm concerned she's going to want a dark color.
Dark colors absorb heat. Even with insulation, that adds heat load. It's a choice that will cost money and/or energy for years after you've made it.
Choices have consequences, and we keep making them as if they don't. Consequences often borne by others.
It's interesting, our house guests didn't seem to have any anxiety about the future of civilization. They're both busy in their careers, raising a young daughter with another child on the way. It's possible they just don't have time. In the brief amount of time we kind of discussed it, they seemed confident that technology would fix whatever challenges we might face.
Oy.
They live in San Diego and they have a gas furnace. When they got a quote to replace their HVAC system (they also have central air), they included the furnace! I think I convinced them to just go with a heat pump. The prices in California are very high, but there are some incentives. They also have gas hot water, gas dryer and gas stove! I told them about the house that exploded in Pennsylvania, but I don't think it made any difference.
The biggest impact you can make in terms of your CO2 emissions, if you're a daily commuter, is replacing your ICE vehicle. But they were saying something about waiting until they had rooftop solar before they bought an EV!
It was a holiday, and they're Mitzi's family, so I didn't engage very much. But I was surprised by how little the climate emergency seems to factor in their thinking. Maybe we gave them something to think about though. Planted a seed, or something.
Also, given the amount of natural gas being pumped in and around their house, and the greenhouse potential of "natural" gas, getting rid of that might be more effective than getting an EV, to say nothing of the health and safety benefits.
✍️ Reply by emailTube: Chemistry
12:18 Tuesday, 14 November 2023
Current Wx: Temp: 64.83°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 90% Wind: 13.8mph
Words: 96
I don't know if Lessons In Chemistry will return for another season. I suppose I could look, I'm sure someone knows. But it feels as though it was designed to be a "limited series," and it wrapped up all the loose ends in the finale.
I loved it.
I am disappointed we didn't get more of six-thirty's internal monologue, and that one episode does seem kind of odd because of it. And I'm sure there are many things that one might criticize, but I can't think of any.
I'm glad Slow Horses returns this week.
✍️ Reply by emailTube: Monarch
12:25 Tuesday, 14 November 2023
Current Wx: Temp: 65.05°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 90% Wind: 13.8mph
Words: 97
Monarch is pretty good. I'm ambivalent about these franchise efforts, like Star Wars, Star Trek, the MCU and DC and so on. The debates about "the canon" in all these efforts seem tedious and foolish to me, but I'm officially a grumpy old man now.
And frankly, I get tired of seeing the same stuff repackaged over and over again, mostly to provide easter eggs to the fans.
But this still feels fresh enough, despite being nearly 70 years old, to be entertaining. I'm sure they'll ruin it soon enough, but for now it's a worthwhile diversion.
✍️ Reply by emailMX-1 vs. XZ-2
12:34 Tuesday, 14 November 2023
Current Wx: Temp: 65.05°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 90% Wind: 13.8mph
Words: 225
After everything settled down yesterday, while the sun was still out, I tried to take a couple of shots with the XZ-2 and the MX-1 to see how similar they might be.
Not very, it turns out.
The most interesting thing seems to be the way the RAWs are handled.
I expected some differences in the JPEGs, so I compared a RAW image from both cameras. If these are the same lens/sensor systems from the same OEM, then Olympus chose to do some lens corrections in the RAW file (suffix .ORF). There is visible barrel distortion in the MX-1 RAW image (DNG format), which is corrected in the JPEG. With the XZ-2, there is no such visible distortion.
I'm willing to believe they're doing lens corrections in the RAW file, because the JPEGs and the RAWs have never been identical in terms of coverage. They differ by one or two rows of pixels at the long side, shifting the image left or right in portrait, up or down in landscape. There is data there, so it would seem there is some tiny crop involved.
I didn't mount the cameras on a tripod, so I can't compare the actual coverage of each one. I may do that later. Crappy weather today, though I could do it in the house I suppose.
✍️ Reply by emailANSI Social Media In Emergencies
15:30 Thursday, 14 November 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 77.85°F Pressure: 1011hPa Humidity: 72% Wind: 8.05mph
Words: 27
Never thought I'd see something like this. Of course, at $124.00 for the pdf, it's very likely I never will.
You can view the table of contents.
✍️ Reply by emailA Place to Land
15:33 Thursday, 14 November 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 77.85°F Pressure: 1011hPa Humidity: 72% Wind: 8.05mph
Words: 261
I've been thinking about the Finger Lakes place was our climate haven. But as a pair of aging seniors with some health concerns, perhaps it's not ideal.
Before we get too committed, it's probably wise to review other options. Selling this place, makes many options available. We could leverage the sunk cost of the FLX house to our advantage, but it's not the only play.
You can download a pdf of a Cumulative Resilience Screening Index (CRSI) for Natural Hazards, and kind of survey the landscape. I was pleased to see Schulyer County in the top half of the 25 counties in EPA Region 2, while of the 25 highest-rated counties in EPA Region 4 (basically the southeast), only three of them were in Florida.
I'll have to study this document, because some of its analysis is unclear to me, and I wouldn't recommend anyone to jump to any conclusions. Region 4 has a 100% inland flooding risk, but only a 12% coastal flooding risk. It's unclear to me how that's reasonable.
Similarly, this is a 2020 update of a 2017 report. The Fort Lauderdale event (25" of rain in 24 hours without a hurricane) was in 2023. I don't know if the data set this analysis was based on includes these high-intensity/long duration rainfall events (HILDRE - I just made that up.) that are beginning to manifest all over the world. I'm guessing it doesn't and we're probably due for an update.
It's anyone's guess if one will be forthcoming with the new (old) administration coming into office.
✍️ Reply by emailThat Was Interesting
18:25 Friday, 14 November 2025
Current Wx: Temp: 38.93°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 68% Wind: 4.94mph
Words: 636
Yesterday and today, I undertook a fairly comprehensive review of the marmot. For reasons that remain unclear, much of the content in the Tinderbox file has had the date and time stamps associated with the notes altered. There are two main discrepancies.
The most common is a 12-hour advance, where my morning posts have had their times changed from a.m. to p.m. When this occurs in the occasional post I that wrote in the afternoon, it pushes the date and time to the following day, which makes "On This Day in the marmot..." a bit, well, off. This affects probably the majority of the posts before early 2024.
The second most common discrepancy is a 12d 20h regression. There are hundreds of posts with this discrepancy. This makes "On This Day in the marmot..." meaningless.
There are a few discrepancies that are in neither category, but they are very limited in number. There were a few weird cases, where posts in the Tinderbox file are out of order, even considering the time discrepancies. There are whole months with one discrepancy or the other, and some months with some of each. Most of the 2024 posts I examined in an old copy of the marmot exhibited no discrepancies.
For what it's worth, the html files on the server, with one exception, all seem to exhibit no discrepancies. There was one month, I think in January or February 2024 or 2023 when I was posting without noticing that the $PublicationDates were all in the past. (I could check, but I closed the file because it's so easy to get confused with two open Tinderbox files that look identical. I discovered an error in the Archive page with links to all the posted months, and ended up correcting it in the copy of the file that I was inspecting and marking up, which ended in November of 2024. So the archive page now ends at November 2024, and I need to fix it with this copy. Sigh.)
I've forwarded the reviewed copy to Mark Bernstein hoping that he might be able to identify what mechanism could have altered these timestamps. $Created is a System Attribute, and shouldn't be able to be altered, yet they were. $Created would have been the backstop to fix all the $PublicationDate attributes exhibiting a time discrepancy, but whatever the mechanism was, it affected $Created as well.
It's very strange, and there was no clear pattern visible to me.
Anyway, I'm thinking of just changing "On This Day in the marmot..." into a "Random Blasts From the Past..."
It was exhausting looking at all of these posts, and I wonder just who the heck I think I am that I wrote all this stuff? Most of it has been written in the past few years. I should get a different hobby.
In other news, an electrician came by and installed the interlock and generator breaker into the power panel. We tested the EcoFlow Delta Pro 3 and it easily handled the mini-split and the well pump. We should be ok in an outage. If I can get the little generator working, I can recharge the batteries when they get low. It'll take a few hours to charge both the DP3 and its expansion battery, but that'll be manageable. I gather I could even run down to Watkins Glen, assuming they have power, and use the EV chargers to charge it back up.
Anyway, had the panel inspected today and it passed. Should get a letter saying it's all up to spec soon.
Hopefully back to normal tomorrow. I have a knot between my shoulders from sitting hunched over this computer for the past two days. I need to take a nice long walk. Hopefully we get a bit of sun tomorrow.
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