Oh, please don't get me wrong. Croupier is still an enjoyable movie its just that I found it a bit too much of a character study and musings on luck versus a movie that really dealt with a casino caper. Its more a character study with the trappings of gambling. The lack of film-noir lighting and film-noir camera angles may give us pause to consider the "neo-noir" tag but the characters conform to a traditional film-noir role. All streets are blind alleys, all females are gin-soaked temptresses that lead a man to his doom
We all knew why the dark glasses were being worn and that the shiner was probably her artfully applied make up. We all knew there was a bandaged wrist but probably a totally uninjured one. We knew it was to be a ploy to ensnare him into aiding a lady in distress. We knew the shoe would drop that very night. And it did.
Its a duality of human nature movie (he rapes Bella but her mind consents almost as quickly as her body does) yet he winds up with her. He does get the second installment on his services for being an inside man, but he gets it from an unlikely source that he had utter contempt for. Clearly the people closing in on him in the casino are there for a reason rather than being the random chance-happenings that his writer persona imagines them to be. His persona is that of a morally and emotionally detached but superior observer of the foolishness of gamblers yet in reality he is the one who has clearly been a poor observer of those around him. And although he has observed and even raised some questions about the activities at the casino and the involvement of casino personnel, it is he who has focused on a tree or two but entirely missed seeing the forest. All the while he was having contempt for the naive gamblers, he himself was the most naive gambler.
So its bemused and detached observer being revealed as a duped patsy but not truly an unhappy victim. And this makes him identical to the sorry gamblers he has been observing all the while.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Do you think French plastic surgeons have never heard?
Its an oft-repeated phrase: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
French surgeons found the man's prices to be unbeatable and his firm grew to be the third largest supplier of breast implants, but no one ever asked how he could possibly have such unbeatable prices. He closed down his butcher shop to become a manufacturer of breast implants and his prices were low because he used industrial grade rather than medical grade silicone. As a further testament to his character he had been banned from several poker rooms and casinos.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2078269/Interpol-launches-manhunt-breast-implant-butcher.html#ixzz1hbA6GjwB
French surgeons found the man's prices to be unbeatable and his firm grew to be the third largest supplier of breast implants, but no one ever asked how he could possibly have such unbeatable prices. He closed down his butcher shop to become a manufacturer of breast implants and his prices were low because he used industrial grade rather than medical grade silicone. As a further testament to his character he had been banned from several poker rooms and casinos.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2078269/Interpol-launches-manhunt-breast-implant-butcher.html#ixzz1hbA6GjwB
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Davina Lindgren
Davina Lindgren, 21. Found dead in her cabin aboard the M/Y Lauren L off Patong Beach, Phuket, Thailand.
RIP
RIP
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Extremely rare events can still be unacceptable.
The Quantas A330 uncommanded dive from FL37 which propelled dozens of unrestrained passengers into the overhead three years ago has been blamed on a computer glitch and the various press releases are stressing the overall reliability of the sensors and the fly by wire computer system. Yes, its a rare event but the computer code that allowed action based on inputs from one of three sensors without doing any data validation first was an unacceptable programming error. The malfunctioning sensor's data should be compared with immediately prior values and with values from other sensors before being acted upon. And a prior warning to the cockpit of sensor disagreement should be sent. Its truly rare, but it happens and a computer that automatically accepts and acts upon such errors is not safe. All those millions of miles flown and thousands of hours of operation without incident were lucky, but not safe.
The algorithm compared two angle-of-attack indicators. If the readings were close, it averaged the two values and declared that the value to be passed on to further flight control systems. If the two values differed greatly the algorithm did not enter into any evaluation mode to determine reliability or data quality it simply discarded each angle of attack indicator's data and defaulted to the angle of attack determination that had been made 1.2 seconds previously. Unfortunately one of the two angle of attack indicators starting releasing spurious values every 1.2 seconds and the algorithm defaulted to erroneous values that made the flight control computer think the plane was at a very high angle of attack and that a stall would take place if the nose were not lowered immediately.
The pilots were not able to counteract the error since the fly by wire system over rides any pilot input that is unsafe.
The algorithm compared two angle-of-attack indicators. If the readings were close, it averaged the two values and declared that the value to be passed on to further flight control systems. If the two values differed greatly the algorithm did not enter into any evaluation mode to determine reliability or data quality it simply discarded each angle of attack indicator's data and defaulted to the angle of attack determination that had been made 1.2 seconds previously. Unfortunately one of the two angle of attack indicators starting releasing spurious values every 1.2 seconds and the algorithm defaulted to erroneous values that made the flight control computer think the plane was at a very high angle of attack and that a stall would take place if the nose were not lowered immediately.
The pilots were not able to counteract the error since the fly by wire system over rides any pilot input that is unsafe.
Friday, December 16, 2011
Shirley McKie receives apology ...Public receives pablum!
Shirley McKie received a brief, pro-forma apology as the Forensic Services and Strathclyde police bask in whitewash. The official party line is now that fingerprint comparisons are merely the opinions of scientists and scientists are prone to disputes and conflicting opinions innocent of any underlying improper motivations.
The truth is simple.
Detective Constable Shirley McKie never entered the premises she had been guarding and therefore knew she could not have left her fingerprint on the jamb of the bedroom doorway. Her arrest and prosecution was almost certainly police retaliation for her having informed the defense lawyer of probable evidence contamination in a case that was embarrassing to the Strathclyde police. This was undoubtedly viewed by the police as a treasonous act of betrayal.
As to the two prints, it is now and always has been perfectly clear to anyone with the slightest training and experience in fingerprint examination that the impression made on Shirley McKie's official index card and the impression taken from the door jamb at the crime scene could not possibly have been made by the same finger. There is no valid basis for making any contrary claim and any expert who makes such a contrary claim does indeed do so on a basis other than a regard for the truthful reporting of his interpretations.
A photograph of Mike Tyson, a black male boxer, and a photograph of Paris Hilton, a white female media twit, bear several points of similarity but no matter how many such points of similarity are considered or what weight they are given no one would ever say that there is a forensic "match". And any Scottish inquiry that soft-pedals their questioning on such a matter does the Scottish public no good.
Shirley McKie was dragged thru the courts and railroaded into the poorhouse and the nuthouse by the Strathclyde Constabulary. She never entered the premises, she never had sex on the premises, she never lied about the case at all.
There is no question that the Shirley McKie case was a political one right from the start. As four Scottish experts testified that Shirley McKie had left the crime scene print there were five Scottish experts who were prevented from testifying that the crime scene print was not made by Shirley McKie and that any expert opinions to the contrary were clearly unsupportable. When the issue became an international one that extended to the entire fingerprint examination field, hordes of experts proclaimed that the crime scene print was definitely not from Shirley McKie. Many experts were also willing to add that anyone expressing an opinion that the crime scene print was that of Shirley McKie were not competent examiners.
Ian McKie: "We now have 13 experts proved to have made two misidentifications in the one case because of human error and frailty which they were able to sustain for nearly 14 years and in some cases still sustain. Throughout these years they were given countless opportunities to right the wrongs and accept their mistakes. Because of human error and despite having the most up to date identification tools available they were unable to do this and we must conclude innocently persisted with their provably flawed conclusions.
That not all these experts came from the same jurisdiction where it could be argued that the same culture, procedures and supervisory structures were in place only goes to reinforce the seriousness of the challenge fingerprinting faces from this report. We must assume that some of these conclusions were independently reached and did not result from some conspiracy, collective cultural arrogance or flawed organisational procedures. These were ordinary experts, many with a proven track record of excellence, who were able to get it wrong and persist in their erroneous conclusions."
The truth is simple.
Detective Constable Shirley McKie never entered the premises she had been guarding and therefore knew she could not have left her fingerprint on the jamb of the bedroom doorway. Her arrest and prosecution was almost certainly police retaliation for her having informed the defense lawyer of probable evidence contamination in a case that was embarrassing to the Strathclyde police. This was undoubtedly viewed by the police as a treasonous act of betrayal.
As to the two prints, it is now and always has been perfectly clear to anyone with the slightest training and experience in fingerprint examination that the impression made on Shirley McKie's official index card and the impression taken from the door jamb at the crime scene could not possibly have been made by the same finger. There is no valid basis for making any contrary claim and any expert who makes such a contrary claim does indeed do so on a basis other than a regard for the truthful reporting of his interpretations.
A photograph of Mike Tyson, a black male boxer, and a photograph of Paris Hilton, a white female media twit, bear several points of similarity but no matter how many such points of similarity are considered or what weight they are given no one would ever say that there is a forensic "match". And any Scottish inquiry that soft-pedals their questioning on such a matter does the Scottish public no good.
Shirley McKie was dragged thru the courts and railroaded into the poorhouse and the nuthouse by the Strathclyde Constabulary. She never entered the premises, she never had sex on the premises, she never lied about the case at all.
There is no question that the Shirley McKie case was a political one right from the start. As four Scottish experts testified that Shirley McKie had left the crime scene print there were five Scottish experts who were prevented from testifying that the crime scene print was not made by Shirley McKie and that any expert opinions to the contrary were clearly unsupportable. When the issue became an international one that extended to the entire fingerprint examination field, hordes of experts proclaimed that the crime scene print was definitely not from Shirley McKie. Many experts were also willing to add that anyone expressing an opinion that the crime scene print was that of Shirley McKie were not competent examiners.
Ian McKie: "We now have 13 experts proved to have made two misidentifications in the one case because of human error and frailty which they were able to sustain for nearly 14 years and in some cases still sustain. Throughout these years they were given countless opportunities to right the wrongs and accept their mistakes. Because of human error and despite having the most up to date identification tools available they were unable to do this and we must conclude innocently persisted with their provably flawed conclusions.
That not all these experts came from the same jurisdiction where it could be argued that the same culture, procedures and supervisory structures were in place only goes to reinforce the seriousness of the challenge fingerprinting faces from this report. We must assume that some of these conclusions were independently reached and did not result from some conspiracy, collective cultural arrogance or flawed organisational procedures. These were ordinary experts, many with a proven track record of excellence, who were able to get it wrong and persist in their erroneous conclusions."
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
At first glance...
Oh what a mess. Wisconsin to accept voter signature of Mickey Mouse and Adolph Hitler. What a terrible tidbit of news to come across while slurping my morning coffee. However, later examination of the issue clarified the matter a bit. Each candidate can challenge the signatures but the commission only looks at whether it is a valid address within the state of Wisconsin.
At first I thought it was that Adolph Hitler and Mickey Mouse were being accepted as lawful citizens entitled to vote in Wisconsin elections.
At first I thought it was that Adolph Hitler and Mickey Mouse were being accepted as lawful citizens entitled to vote in Wisconsin elections.
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Kimberley Ultramarathon ...
Those who recall my September fifth posting about an ultramarathon in the Kimberley that I felt should have lead to criminal negligence charges, may wish to donate to the recovery fund for the two most-injured runners, Kate Sanderson and Turia Pitt.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kate-Sanderson-Turia-Pitt-Donation-Page/290185740994771
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kate-Sanderson-Turia-Pitt-Donation-Page/290185740994771
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