Daily Archives: July 30, 2015

Blue moon tonight……..


On Friday, much of the world will have the opportunity to observe a Blue Moon: A somewhat rare occurrence that doesn’t have anything to do with the moon’s color.

During most years, the Earth experiences 12 full moons, one in each month. But some years, such as 2015, have 13 full moons, and one of those “extra” lunar displays gets the label of Blue Moon.

The lunar or synodic month (full moon to full moon) averages 29.530589 days, which is shorter than every calendar month in the year except for February. Those extra one-half or one-and-one-half days accumulate over the year, causing some years to have 13 full moons rather than 12. [Video: What’s a Blue Moon, Is It REALLY Blue?]

To see what I mean, here is a list of full-moon dates in 2015: Jan. 5, Feb. 3, March 5, April 4, May 4, June 2, July 2, July 31, Aug. 29, Sept. 28, Oct. 27, Nov. 25 and Dec. 25. In 2016, the first full moon falls on Jan. 23, and each calendar month has only one full moon.

The expression “once in a blue moon” has a long history of being used to describe rare events; but it was also used in the Maine Farmers’ Almanac to describe the third full moon in a season that has four (normally, a three-month season will only have three full moons).

In 1946, Sky & Telescope magazine published an article that misinterpreted the older definition, defining a Blue Moon as the second full moon in a calendar month. This has become the most recent and perhaps most widely accepteddefinition of a Blue Moon. And hence, the full moon on July 31 is referred to as a Blue Moon, because it was preceded by the full moon on July 2. By this definition, a Blue Moon occurs roughly once every 2.7 years.

The full moon appears to last for at least the length of one night, but technically speaking, it is an instantaneous event: It occurs when the sun, Earth and moon fall close to a straight line. It takes place at the same instant everywhere in the world, whether the moon is above or below the horizon.

The full moon on July 31 occurs at exactly 6:43 a.m. EDT (1043 GMT).

So, when you look at the Blue Moon on Friday morning, don’t expect to see a different color scheme (although it is possible for the moon to appear to have a bluish hue). Just be aware that the so-called Blue Moon is a byproduct of the contrast between the calendar month and the lunar month.

Dipshit of the day: Mia Farrow puts lion dentist’s address on Twitter

Mia Farrow took some Twitter heat Wednesday for joining other angry social media posters and blasting out the business address of the dentist who killed thebeloved lion Cecil in Zimbabwe.



Some apparently thought the actress had listed Walter Palmer’s home address in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, calling for her verified Twitter account to be suspended under the site’s terms of service.

A Twitter spokesman said the company does not comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons. He directed The Associated Press to official Twitter rules and policies that allow wiggle room on disciplinary action when information was previously posted or displayed elsewhere on the Internet prior to being put on Twitter.

The Farrow account deleted the original missive amid the outrage questioning whether the intent was to ensure Palmer is physically tracked down by haters. But the deletion did little to calm Twitter nerves.

One tweeter clucked back at Farrow, “Maybe Donald Trump should give out your phone number,” referring to Trump doing just that for a GOP rival, Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Another tweeted: “I hate what he did, but giving out his address isn’t the way to go.”

Farrow’s manager did not immediately return an email Wednesday seeking comment.

If you have a cause protest, speak your mind, but do not involve yourself in behaviors that are worse than what you are protesting.

You will lose credibility and take the attention off of what you are trying to accomplish

Court says drug-sniffing dog fails the smell test


Lex the police dog from central Illinois is far from top dog in drug-sniffing skills.

That’s the core finding of a potentially influential new ruling from the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which considered the question of how much police should rely on their K-9 partners to justify searches when a dog’s own competence, as in Lex’s case, is itself suspect.

The opinion stems from an appeal by Larry Bentley Jr, a St. Louis man serving 20 years in prison for drug possession. He argued the 20 kilograms of cocaine Bloomington police found in his car during a 2010 traffic stop derived from an illegal search triggered by Lex.

While the court upheld the conviction, it disparaged Lex and suggested it might have considered tossing Bentley’s conviction if police had relied solely on Lex’s nose.

“Lex is lucky the Canine Training Institute doesn’t calculate class rank,” a 15-page opinion said. “If it did, Lex would have been at the bottom of his class.”

Lex’s trainer at the Bloomington-based dog school staunchly defended the 10-year-old Belgian Malinois on Wednesday, a day after the court’s decision.

“The opinion is unfair and very one-sided,” Michael Bieser said in a phone interview. He added about Lex, who remains on the job, “He is a very, very good dog.”

As a consequence of the decision, he added, some effective drug-sniffing dogs could be kept out of service for fear their performance records will be similarly misconstrued by courts.

Tuesday’s ruling pointed to records showing Lex nearly always signals drugs are present — 93 percent of the time. And it cited other figures that indicated he is frequently wrong — more than 40 percent of the time.

“Lex’s overall accuracy rate … is not much better than a coin flip,” the ruling says.

Bieser argued Lex’s alert and false-positive rates on the street are misleading because they don’t factor in times he detects drug residue or larger quantities police simply fail to find. Lex’s success rates in controlled tests required for certification have been over 90 percent, he said.

He conceded Lex did fail one controlled test during the evidence-gathering stage of Bentley’s case, calling it an anomaly. As a result, Lex was pulled from service for a two-week refresher course.

The court said it upheld Bentley’s conviction in part because other indications at the traffic stop, including his contradictory statements, may have separately justified a search. It added that Lex’s overall performance likely rose just above minimally acceptable levels according to criteria laid out by the U.S. Supreme Court.

But the judges make clear their concern that dogs that almost always signal for drugs could potentially provide police with a “pretext” to search anyone’s car.

They also highlighted the practice of Lex’s police handlers giving him a reward — a toy hose stuffed with a sock — each time he alerts, whether he’s right or wrong about drugs, saying that “seems like a terrible way to promote accurate detection.”

Lex’s trainer says the institute doesn’t instruct police to reward dogs after each alert. But dogs are so eager to please, he went on, they perceive pats or even encouraging tones of voice as a reward, so whether they get a toy reward is irrelevant.

Still, he says the Bentley case has forced the institute to alter one recommendation to police: From now on, while dogs are out on a job, never offer them a reward.

“We didn’t do it because we agree rewards confuse dogs,” he said. “But they will use the practice against us in court.”

Dogs can be a valuable tool in Police work but are only as good as the handlers. The dogs wanting to please so badly can be manipulated by a handler like any other tool in the officer’s bag.

Simply put if the officer wants a positive hit the dog will do it regardless of the presence of drugs or contraband.

Man shoots down drone hovering over his backyard

The way William Merideth sees it, it’s pretty clear-cut: a drone flying over his backyard was a well-defined invasion of privacy, analogous to a physical trespassing.

Not knowing who owned it, the Kentucky man took out his shotgun and fired three blasts of Number 8 birdshot to take the drone out.

“It was just right there,” he told Ars. “It was hovering, I would never have shot it if it was flying. When he came down with a video camera right over my back deck, that’s not going to work. I know they’re neat little vehicles, but one of those uses shouldn’t be flying into people’s yards and videotaping.”

Minutes later, a car full of four men that he didn’t recognize rolled up, “looking for a fight.”

“Are you the son of a b***h that shot my drone?” one said, according to Merideth.

His terse reply to the men, while wearing a 10mm Glock holstered on his hip: “If you cross that sidewalk onto my property, there’s going to be another shooting.”

The men backed down, retreated to their car, and waited for the police to arrive.

“His only comment was that he hoped I had a big checkbook because his drone cost $1,800,” Merideth added.

The Kentuckian was arrested Sunday evening in Hillview, Kentucky, just south of Louisville and charged with criminal mischief and wanton endangerment. He was released the following day. The Hillview Police Department did not immediately respond to Ars’ request for comment.

A measured approach?

The report of the downed drone comes a month after Ars reported on a similar incident in Modesto, California. But in that case, the drone operator was flying his drone over his parents’ farm, and it was shot down by a neighbor.

Here, Merideth, who operates a local trucking company, said that he had seen “two or three” different drones in his backyard previously over the last year and was disturbed by their presence. “What recourse do we have?” he asked.

The 43-year-old man claimed that law enforcement officials, including the county jailer, told him privately that they agreed with his actions. “The people who own the drones and the people who hate guns are the only ones that disagree with what I did,” he said. “Now, if I’d have had a .22 rifle, I should have gone to jail for that. The diameter of those things are going to come down with enough force to hurt somebody. Number 8 birdshot is not. Number 8 is the size of a pinhead. The bottom line is that it’s a right to privacy issue and defending my property issue. It would have been no different had he been standing in my backyard. As Americans, we have a right to defend our rights and property.”

So what’s next in this bizarre tale?

“We have a lawyer and there’s a court date and then there’s going to be a hearing,” Merideth said. “It’s not going to stop with the two charges against me, which I’m confident that we’ll get reduced or get dismissed completely.”

And what would Merideth like to tell this errant drone operator when he meets him again?

“I would just like [him] to get some education on his toy and learn to respect the rights of the people,” he said. “It’s fine and dandy, and I think it’s cool there’s a camera on it, but just take it to a park or something—he’s not a responsible drone owner.”

The laws never keep up with technology, hovering a drone over my back yard and looking in my windows is no different from a peeping tom. The lawmakers are always slow to act on these things.

Dipshit of the day: 911 dispatcher Matthew Sanchez

Dispatcher hangs up on 911 caller, teen dies

A New Mexico dispatcher has resigned after hanging up on a panicked woman who was trying to save a teenage shooting victim’s life, Albuquerque Fire Department officials confirmed.

After authorities were made aware of the June call, dispatcher Matthew Sanchez was reassigned on Monday. However, on Tuesday, Sanchez “tendered his resignation of employment from the Albuquerque Fire Department,” Rob Perry, the city of Albuquerque’s chief administrative officer said in a statement via email to USA TODAY Network.

Sanchez received a call that 17-year-old Jaydon Chavez-Silver had been shot and was barely breathing, according to the AP. Chavez-Silver was shot at a friend’s house party in Albuquerque.

In the 911 call, Sanchez repeatedly asks the caller if Chavez-Silver was breathing.

“He is barely breathing, how many times do I have to (expletive) tell you?” the unnamed woman says.

“OK, you know what ma’am? You can deal with it yourself. I am not going to deal with this, OK?” Sanchez says.

It appears that Sanchez then hangs up on the caller. Chavez-Silver later died at the hospital of his injuries.

Police have not named a suspect in the teen’s death and have made no arrests, AP reported.

Perry said in the emailed statement that Albuquerque Fire Department emergency response units had been dispatched prior to the call being disconnected.

What a fucking idiot…….

AT&T will require working FM radios in its Android phones

You might think that conventional radio is becoming less relevant as time marches on, but AT&T begs to differ. It’s requiring that Android phone makers not only include active FM radio chips in their devices from 2016 onwards, but that they switch on chips in as many existing phones as possible. There’s no immediate explanation for the throwback, and we’ve reached out for more details. However, it may boil down to matters of efficiency and utility. FM radio reduces the need for streaming audio if you’re not picky about content, and it can be an important source of news during emergencies, when data networks might be down or oversaturated. We’re sure that manufacturers won’t be happy, since they’ll have to work on FM support just to get handsets on AT&T’s store shelves. All the same, it’s nice to see providers enabling features for a change… even if they’re ones that you’re not very likely to use.

Retro of the day: Peaches and Herb

“Reunited” was a hit song for R&B vocal duo Peaches & Herb. Released from their 1978 album, 2 Hot, the song was a huge crossover smash, topping both the pop and soul charts. It spent four weeks at number one on both the R&B singles chart and the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in 1979[1] and sold over 2 million copies. Billboard ranked it as the No. 5 song for 1979.

 

 

The song was written by Dino Fekaris and Freddie Perren, and was the sequel song to the duo’s 1968 hit “(We’ll Be) United”, which was itself a cover of The Intruders’ original 1966 hit.

Sales and certifications

Region

Certification

Sales/shipments

Canada (Music Canada)[8]

 Platinum 10,000^

United Kingdom (BPI)[9]

 Silver 250,000^

United States (RIAA)[10]

 Platinum 2,000,000^