Latrovia Reed was arrested for fatally stabbing another woman in the neck during an argument near the check-in desk at Bally’s.

She looks filled with remorse doesn’t she?

Ms Reed was also charged with soliciting prostitution…. Hmmm. I wonder what the two women were arguing about?

What caught my eye wasn’t that some hooker stabbed someone, but this picture from the Las Vegas Sun

(Click on the picture for a larger image.)

Two questions spring to mind.
First: Which one answers to Bubba?
Second: If the two cops and the security guard were to run the hundred yard dash would you time them with a stopwatch or a sundial?

Anatomically correct dolls can be had at Claudia’s Kids.

Annie and her genitalia.

Tommy and his genitalia.

This doll on the other hand is too weird for words and could lead to a certain degree of gender confusion.

I have no idea who made this one. The only thing I could find after a quick search was this site.

PETA - the animal rights advocates - said they have a donor willing to put up the money to buy at least one of the three SeaWorld parks.

The organization which has long been at odds with the basic premise behind the SeaWorld theme parks and said if they are successful in their efforts to acquire at least one of the parks, they plan to move the former attractions to marine sanctuaries and where possible, return the animals to the wild.

The group says they won’t close down the park, but plan to replace the killer whales, sharks, dolphins and other marine life currently on display with virtual reality exhibits.

“Virtual reality exhibits?” I have trouble with the business model that says that people will pay the same kind of money to see what is in essence a collection of oversize wind-up toys or graphics out of a video game that they would pay to see live exhibits. –Quite obviously PETA’s objective is to use the money to shut down at least one of these parks not to run a business. So why do they pretend?

Peta jumped at this opportunity the second news broke that InBev, a company with no interest in running theme parks, had made a bid of $46 billion for SeaWorld’s current owner, Anheuser-Busch.

There is a very real chance that PETA will be able to buy a single park in spite of the fact that a company would normally prefer to sell the entire 10-park package to a single buyer. Given the current tough economic times, InBev may well be forced to consider selling the parks piecemeal.

There is a bar in Las Vegas at the corner of Nellis Blvd and Oakey called Sunrise Ranch Bar and Grill.

It’s being run by someone who has never run a bar before and who is convinced that by stopping most of the theft by the bartenders he has proven that he can run a successful business.

They have no kitchen. They had a roach coach sitting out back for a while, but this “successful business operator” wanted it there 24/7 when the people who owned it were losing money.

He is trying to bring in business by having Karaoke every Wednesday, a free BBQ every Sunday, an open jam on Tuesdays, and a wet T-Shirt contest every Saturday.

If you follow the link up above to their website you can see the “crowd” they attract. It certainly isn’t the Double Deuce from Roadhouse. There are no models anywhere to be seen, no real band, and in spite of a couple of fights a week, there’s no need for a room full of bouncers.

The place has more space behind the bar than around it. It’s dark and dingy and will never be anything but a local’s dive. “Dive” being the operative word.

This is not a place to bring your date. This is a place to go and drink after work with some of the guys, but not a place to go for any other reason.

And yet, this person who now runs it is convinced that it will make him thousands and thousands of dollars and that very soon he will literally own the joint.

In a world with a bar every few thousand feet and nothing to make this place inviting it will never be anything more than what it is. Especially without a kitchen.

–I wish him luck but I wouldn’t suggest that he give up his day job.

Reuters:
Russia has said it has pulled back the bulk of the tanks and troops it sent into Georgia earlier this month, but after that it intends to keep 500 soldiers in a “zone of responsibility” deep inside Georgia’s heartland.

Russian officials say the zone was established in principle in an agreement between Russia and Georgia which pre-dates this month’s conflict, but was never put into force.

The deputy chief of the Russian General Staff, Gen Anatoly Nogovitsyn, said that more than 2,500 “peacekeeping” troops with armoured cars and helicopters would remain inside Georgia for the foreseeable future.

Part of the problem is the vagueness of the EU-brokered ceasefire deal, which speaks only of “additional security measures” in “the immediate proximity of South Ossetia” - proximity being defined as a distance of “several kilometers”.

The end result is that Russian troops control an area that is as much as 40 kilometers inside Georgia and Georgian peacekeepers are being denied access.

This “zone of responsibility” also cuts the main east-west highway in two places. Effectively giving Russia control of trade, which fell 95% during the conflict, between Turkey and Georgia’s Black Sea ports.

Following a statement by the Russian defence ministy that the withdrawal was complete, US President George W Bush and his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, expressed their disatisfaction.

They agreed in a telephone call that “Russia is not in compliance” with the ceasefire pact and it should comply immediately, US officials said.

And if Russia refuses? What will they do? Declare war or just hold their breathes until they turn blue?

Russia is once again a major player in the game and the former Eastern Block countries are suddenly saying nice things about the West. –Strange how that works.

Russia is also threatening the Ukraine should they find a way to join NATO.

We have a warmongering administration who will lie to justify their invasions. We have the potential to have another warmongering administration follow them. And Russia is apparently trying to rebuild the old Soviet Union.

There is no peace in the foreseeable future. I just wonder how long it will be before US and Russian troops clash.

A War On Terror board game designed in Cambridge has been seized by police who claim the balaclava in the set could be used in a criminal act.

The satirical board game was confiscated along with knives, chisels and bolt cutters, from climate protesters during a series of raids near Kingsnorth power station, in Kent, last week.

The satirical board game was confiscated along with knives, chisels and bolt cutters, from climate protesters during a series of raids near Kingsnorth power station, in Kent, last week.

The board game included a spinner that could land on axis of evil. If the player got that they had to wear a balaclava with the word “evil” on it. The police said that the balaclava could be used to disguise a person’s face and therefore could be used in the commission of a crime.

Read the whole thing here.

I figure the cops wanted to play the game but were too cheap to buy their own.

A poster from the Metropolitan Police’s new advertising awareness campaign, asking the public to be vigilant about people taking photographs.

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Evidently the police in London have gone into full paranoid mode. They are not only harassing amateur photographers they’re encouraging others to do so by instituting a “snitch” program.

Why would you worry about a person carrying a camera when a terrorist could simply and inconspicuously take pictures with his cell phone?

For more details read this.
And for another story read this.

Now - given the level of paranoia shown by those in power - ask yourself how long before the problem in this country goes from the occasional anomaly to a state sponsored program.

 

This is from Thomas Hawk’s Digital Connection written by a photographer who was thrown out of the San Fransisco Museum of Modern Art for taking a photograph in an area in which photography was specifically allowed.

Simon Blint, Director of Visitor Relations at the SF MOMA is a first rate asshole.

Recently I blogged about my excitement regarding the San Francisco MOMA’s decision to begin allowing photography in their permanent collection after years of maintaining a closed no photography policy. Directly because of this change in policy, I decided to purchase a family membership in order to support the museum, both with my artistic energy and financially. I was excited to begin spending regular time exploring and documenting the museum.

Unfortunately, I should have known better than to really believe that the San Francisco MOMA was serious about opening up the art and architecture entrusted to them to the general public.

After purchasing my family membership and visiting the museum today I was forcibly thrown out of the museum by two museum security guards at the direction of the Director of Visitor Relations Simon Blint.

My crime? Taking a photograph from the second floor stairs in the SFMOMA’s atrium (an area where the SF MOMA’s own website explicitly says photography is allowed).

From the SFMOMA website:
Cameras
Photography is not permitted in the galleries. Flash photography is permitted only with a handheld camera in the Atrium.

Another quote from the blog:
Blint on the other hand was hostile, accusatory and refused to even examine my photographs or allow me to share with him what I was doing with my art. He accused me of using a “telephoto” lens to spy on his staff from the public staircase on the second floor. Blint obviously knows nothing of photography because the 14mm ultra wide angle lens on my camera body was about the furthest thing possible from a telephoto lens. He refused to discuss this, refused to examine my photographs, refused to consider it at all and simply had me ejected with two security guards.

As far as I know there has been no comment from the SF MOMA or from Mr. Blint.

We encounter people like Mr. Blint throughout our lives. They are little tin gods who think that the rules are whatever they say they are. (In this case it sounds like there may be more than a bit of paranoia.) But, how often do you encounter them in what is in essence a public relations position?

“Director of Visitor Relations.” Makes you wonder who he’s related to, or at least who he plays golf with.

Here is a link to the response from the SFMOMA

I don’t deny the possibility that the photographer,s actions may have been as described by the SFMOMA.
However, I’ve heard so many denials worded in exactly the same manner from other entities they will have to forgive me if I suspect that they are simply closing ranks and defending their own.

And if the verbiage was anything like what was described by the photographer I still think it shows a core of paranoia.

BTW: In most areas open to the public anybody can be photographed without their permission. The courts decided some years back that when people choose to be out in the public view they have “no reasonable expectation of privacy.”

A while back ATF told Vaune Dillmann -a small brewer- to stop using bottle caps that said “Try Legal Weed.” They said it was a reference to drug use and even funnier that it might mislead consumers into thinking that there is actually marijuana in the beer.
Now somebody has had enough common sense to reverse the decision.

(AP) A Northern California brewer who tangled with federal regulators over the caps on his beer bottles said Tuesday officials have given him permission to keep the message “Try Legal Weed.”

“Based on the context of the entire label, we agree that the phrase in question refers to the brand name of the product and does not mislead consumers,” said the letter, dated July 31.

A message left after-hours for alcohol bureau spokesman Art Resnick in Washington, D.C., was not immediately returned Tuesday.

The dispute started last winter after Dillmann sent the bureau Mt. Shasta Brewing Co.’s proposed label for its latest beer, Lemurian Lager.

He included the same bottle cap he’d been using on his other five brews. This time, the U.S. Treasury branch rejected it because of federal laws that prohibit drug references on alcoholic beverages.

The downside to all this fuss and bother has been massive amounts of stress. The upside is a large increase in sales.

Dillmann also drafted a letter thanking supporters. His message: “Weed fought the law and Weed won!”