- Nothing like a little FBI document dump after a person’s death to add some extra spice to the way their life is remembered. I don’t know if there is an official protocol for when the Federal Bureau of Investigation will release previously classified documents after a person passes away, but whatever rules they use, the bureau released a 400-page file Wednesday on former New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who died in July. Included among the documents are reports that the special prosecutor in the Watergate case expressed "extreme interest" in a 1970s criminal investigation of Steinbrenner for illegal campaign contributions. In a memo dated Aug. 16, 1973, FBI director Clarence M. Kelley directed the Cleveland office of the FBI to ensure that the case "receives the same, immediate and preferred handling" as others growing out of the Watergate scandal. In 1974, Steinbrenner pleaded guilty to two charges in connection with illegal corporate campaign donations to both Nixon and Democratic lawmakers and was fined $15,000. Even though he’s no longer with us, this revelation adds a new twist and level to Steinbrenner’s legacy. Known as a bombastic, egotistical tyrant who would stop at nothing in his endless quest to accumulate as many World Series championships as possible for his beloved Yankees, it’s interesting to see that he tried to wield the same sort of influence and clout in the political world. If only George had decided to take his talents to the political arena instead of the sports and business worlds, who knows what sort of tall tales and legendary happenings we could have to talk about now that he’s gone. Should you want to read the entire file, the Freedom of Information Act should make it fairly easy for you to get your hands on a copy of it. Happy reading………
- Uh-oh! North Korea is cranky again and now the communist kooks on the Korean peninsula are threatening to launch a "sacred war" after South Korea completed large military exercises near the volatile inter-Korean border. "The revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) are getting fully prepared to launch a sacred war of justice of Korean style based on the nuclear deterrent at anytime necessary," North Korea's defense minister Kim Yong Chun said Thursday in a prepared statement. "The South Korean puppet forces perpetrated such grave military provocation as renewing their shelling against the DPRK during their recent exercises for a war of aggression in the West Sea of Korea. This indicates that the enemy's scenario for aggression aimed at the start of another Korean War, has reached the phase of its implementation.” Them are fightin’ words, or at least they would seem to be to the casual observer who hasn’t been down this very road many a time. For veterans of the “dealing with the crazy Kim Jong Il and his crew” wards, it’s the same old, same old. Count U.S. officials in that group of people nonplussed by the threats. "Unfortunately, North Korea is back to its old belligerent tricks," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley tweeted. "We need constructive actions, not heated rhetoric." The military exercises have been on the agenda for months and have been billed as the largest land and air winter drills in South Korean history. They were also conducted just 15 miles from the North Korean border, which is probably one of the primary reasons for the rancor in Pyongyang. The sight of more than 800 military personnel, fighter jets and anti-tank missiles taking part in the exercise in Pocheon was the perfect opportunity for the North to beat its chest, let out of a few primal screams and try to make itself look as intimidating and hostile as possible. A cynic might argue that the drills should be none of North Korea’s business because they took place on undisputed South Korean territory, but anyone making that argument just isn’t well-informed. The North and South have been firing verbal and actual salvos back and forth for months, but so far it has merely been posturing and talk. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak kept that battle going with some stern words for North Korea on Thursday. "In the case of another surprise attack, the country must launch a merciless counterattack," Lee said. Let the rest of us know when this verbal pissing contest is over, Koreas, and we’ll all move on………
- Don’t you just hate it when famous people can’t get along and fight over who should be richer? Even better when those fights overshadow a massive natural disaster that has ruined the lives and livelihoods of tens of thousands of people in one of the United States’ poorest areas. So take a bow, Stephen Baldwin and Kevin Costner, for waging a massive court battle over who owes whom what money made from oil-separating technology that the Field of Dreams star pushed to help solve the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Baldwin and his pal Spyridon Contogouris have filed a lawsuit in Louisiana District Court alleging that they entered into a joint agreement to help market the technology to BP following the spill. The technology was officially developed under the Costner in Nevada Corporation (CINC), but Baldwin and Contogouris claim Costner excluded them from a meeting with BP that resulted in an $18 million down payment for the CINC technology. After being confronted with those claims, Costner reportedly used the $18 million to buy them out of the enterprise, forcing them to give up approximately $2 million of their shares one day prior to BP’s $52 million purchase of CINC technology. In the lawsuit, Baldwin is seeking $3.8 million in compensation and Contogouris is suing for $10.64 million. Both plaintiffs are claiming securities fraud and misrepresentation, which I’m guessing means that Costner won't be receiving a Christmas card from either of them. Still, there’s nothing quite like watching a bunch of rich guys quarreling with one another over who should have made the most money cleaning up a ginormous disaster that ravaged the Gulf Coast, took jobs away from tens of thousands of people and ruined the region’s ecosystem for years to come. If I could be so bold as to suggest something here that would a) settle this lawsuit and b) actually give the money to people who need it, how’s about these three take all of the profits from their business deal and donate it to the people of the Gulf Coast as they try to put their lives back together? Everyone wins……….
- Beware the feces-bombing birds of Indianapolis. Residents in the 5900 block of Riva Ridge in Indianapolis found out the hard way that these birds are not to be trifled with after the foul fowl dropped what was initially believed to be human excrement, from small droplets to much larger chunks, falling from passing planes. Local resident Tom Curtis tells the story and explains why anyone would believe that planes would be dropping human excrement on unsuspecting people below. "Our yard, our cars, trash cans and everything is just covered in a bunch of red crap," Curtis said. "It looks like poop, got a bunch of red stuff in it, too. There's some big chunks laying down in here." Hmm….feces with red stuff in it, odd. I still don’t understand why locals would assume it fell from planes, but they called local government officials, who in turn called the Federal Aviation Administration. FAA representatives visited the area on Thursday and through some ace detective work, determining that planes were not the culprit. Amazingly, the agency said it frequently investigates such claims and that most times, the droppings are from birds. Representatives from the FAA pointed out that pilots don't have the ability to dump sewage from bathroom holding tanks and ruled out the possibility that the dropping could have come from some large airliners that use red grease to lubricate landing gears and flaps. That left bird sh*t as the only possible option - just don’t expect Curtis and other Riva Ridge residents to like that option. That's disgusting," he fumed. "We have three girls who we can't let them come out and play." Well, unless they like playing with bird feces, in which case Christmas just came early for them………
- Sometimes, God just doesn’t do a good enough job to satisfy the needs of the U.S. Army. For example, those socket-embedded spheres that the good Lord calls eyes work fine in most settings, but with the Pentagon wishing that soldiers could see dangers lurking behind them in real time and determine that nature of those objects immediately, eyes just won't do. To address this shortcoming, Darpa, the Pentagon's far-out research branch, unveiled the Soldier Centric Imaging via Computational Cameras effort, or SCENICC, today. The project is essentially a suite of cameras that digitally capture a kilometer-wide, 360-degree sphere, representing the image in 3-D onto a wearable eyepiece. The system will allow a user to see all around them and zooming in at will, creating a "stereoscopic/binocular system, simultaneously providing 10x zoom to both eyes." Best of all, these actions would be done hands-free by either speaking a command of pre-programming one. But wait…..there’s more. Darpa also wants the eyepiece to include "high-resolution computer-enhanced imagery as well as task-specific non-image data products such as mission data overlays, threat warnings/alerts, targeting assistance, etc." In other words, they want to bring the Terminator to life. The "Full Sphere Awareness" tool literally sounds like a sci-fi fantasy, giving soldiers "muzzle flash detection," "projectile tracking" and "object recognition/labeling." The tool will also have "integrated weapon sighting" function that locks your gun on your target when acquired. SCENICC also hopes to create a "networked optical sensing capability" that incorporates images taken from nodes worn by "collections of soldiers and/or unmanned vehicles." Sending video and still images from hardware like unmanned drones would also be a part of the process and the entire system would, in its final design, be ultra-lightweight, weighing less than 700 grams for the entire system -- including a battery powerful enough to "exceed 24 hours [usage] under normal conditions." If the concept becomes reality, it will represent a ginormous leap forward from any technology the Army currently possesses. It has asked three different companies -- Raytheon, Rockwell Collins and General Dynamics -- to undertake the project, to be known as Nett Warrior. The Army hopes to choose one of the Nett Warrior designs by March and begin producing and testing sample units. The system will then need a few years of testing before it is field-ready. Along with mapping technology, delivered onto a smartphone or some other handheld mobile device, the Army is clearly making a concerted effort to integrate a wealth of new technologies into its combat operations and stay one step ahead of the enemy in the process…………
No comments:
Post a Comment