First Looks category archive

BBC:

A man accused of murdering his girlfriend has refused to continue giving evidence because he needed a cigarette.

The judge adjourned the trial till tomorrow. It appears that there are no smoking areas at the courthouse.

I smoked for years. It is a nasty, dirty, dangerous habit, which delivers a little bit of pleasure now for a lot of hurt later. I support banning smoking in public places.

Nevertheless, tobacco is still a legal product; this smoking-areas-not-allowed is really going too far.

At the Guardian, Robert Skildelsky explains why Keynes was right and “classical economists” are wrong.

In Philadelphia, where else?

Unlike the one in Philly, this duck boat accident was on dry land:

A duck boat touring downtown Boston yesterday suffered a brake problem and was not able to stop before it plowed into six other vehicles, injuring five people, State Police said.

According to the story, the fuse box fell out from under the dashboard and jammed the brake pedal.

Thoreau defines Kool-Aid, as in “drank the Kool-Aid.” His summary. Follow the link for his reasoning:

So I guess that’s what the “kool-aid” is about: It’s about adopting a new idea, and treating whatever it is that you do (teaching or something else) as a way of adhering to the idea, rather than treating the idea as something that helps you do what you do.

And why should I care?

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Share it with Shaun Mullen, who’s researching them.

Please also relay Shaun’s request to your blog, your Facebook page, or your other social media channels.

Prompted by the continuing stream of heartbreaking comments from readers who lost their goldens long before their time, we’re researching a story on what work is being done to try to breed cancers out of goldens, as well as put unscrupulous breeders on notice who fail to alert buyers to the high risk of cancers and other fatal diseases in the breed.

To that end, we welcome your personal stories about your goldens — or those of family members or friends. Photographs in the form of .jpgs also are most welcome.

Museum.

Good news:

Officials announced Thursday that Philadelphia philanthropist H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest will donate up to $5.8 million to help save the ship, a storied but suffering ocean liner celebrated at a ceremony Thursday night on the Delaware River.

The money will allow the Washington-based SS United States Conservancy to buy the ship from Norwegian Cruise Line, a subsidiary of Genting Hong Kong, and maintain the vessel in its South Philadelphia berth for up to 20 months while redevelopment and refurbishment plans are completed.

Whooping cough is the “P” in “DPT“:

California Department of Public Health spokesman Ken August says as of June 30, there have been 1,337 reported cases of whooping cough in California. About 700 more cases are being investigated by local health departments.

Whooping cough was declared an epidemic in California after 910 cases of the highly contagious disease were reported as of June 15.

Network maintenance, backups, and all that good geeky stuff.

WIth apologies to Will Bunch:

See the sidebar

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for the non-closed-car temperature.

Here are some random photos from Filipino-American Friendship Day, celebrated on Saturday at Redwing Park in Virginia Beach. It was a most pleasant afternoon, so long as one spend most of it in the shade.

The reviewing stand, with the entertainment tent in the background. I got there after the parade:

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On the deck, which faces south, I have two potted roses. Last night, when the sun was well around to the west and the deck was covered by shade, I glanced out to see that some of the leaves on the roses were glinting gold.

I managed to snap a picture. Five minute later, the glints were gone.

My best guess is that the rays from the setting sun were bouncing off a window across the street and hitting the roses. Here’s a picture followed by a close up.

Full Disclosure: Because these were taken in evening light, I did tinker with the brightness, contrast, anti-aliasing (no, I don’t know what it is other than a menu choice either), and color balance in the GIMP to try to bring out the glints. The golden glints were not as pronounced in the photo as they were to the eye.

Redwing Park

Filipino American Friendship Day, July 3, Redwing Park, 1398 General Booth Blvd., Virginia Beach, Virginia, 9:30 a. m. till dark.

Details.

One too many quotes of the day.

I’m moving one elsewhere and will reuse it later.

[blush]

. . . the claims behind which have been totally discredited.

Whooping cough, also called pertussis, has killed five infants across California since the beginning of the year, officials said, though none of those deaths were in San Mateo County.

“There have been 35 pertussis cases reported this year, which is more than four times the number reported by this time last year,” San Mateo County Health Officer Dr. Scott Morrow said in a statement.

John Cole on Dave Weigel.

I remember hearing them on the Arthur Godfrey Show: