Monday, May 19, 2008
FOXNews.com - 2 Colorado Men Exchange Taser Shots in Confrontation Over Parking Boot - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News
Monday, May 19, 2008
BOULDER, Colo. — It wasn't exactly pistols at 30 paces, but police say a security company supervisor and a restaurateur shot each other with Tasers in a "bonehead" confrontation over parking.
Officers said neither man needed medical attention after the Saturday confrontation, but Harvey Epstein, co-owner of Mamacitas restaurant, was arrested on suspicion of felony menacing and using a stun gun.
A police report said Epstein and Casey M. Dane, a supervisor for Colorado Security Services Inc., were arguing over a metal boot that one of Dane's guards had clamped on a wheel of a van parked behind Mamacitas.
Dane told police he was afraid Epstein was going to hit him with a 2-foot-long pair of bolt cutters. Epstein told police he had only tried to remove the boot with the bolt cutters and hadn't threatened anyone with them.
Epstein told police Dane put his hand on a holstered pistol and threatened to shoot him. Dane told The Associated Press by telephone that he did put his hand on the holstered pistol but never threatened to shoot Epstein.
Both men drew Tasers.
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Labels: Just Because, News, WTF
Peter Thiel Makes Down Payment on Libertarian Ocean Colonies
By Alexis Madrigal Email 05.19.08 | 12:00 AM"
Illustration: Valdemar Duran
Tired of the United States and the other 190-odd nations on Earth?
If a small team of Silicon Valley millionaires get their way, in a few years, you could have a new option for global citizenship: A permanent, quasi-sovereign nation floating in international waters.
With a $500,000 donation from PayPal founder Peter Thiel, a Google engineer and a former Sun Microsystems programmer have launched The Seasteading Institute, an organization dedicated to creating experimental ocean communities "with diverse social, political, and legal systems."
"Decades from now, those looking back at the start of the century will understand that Seasteading was an obvious step towards encouraging the development of more efficient, practical public-sector models around the world," Thiel said in a statement.
It might sound like the setting for the videogame Bioshock, but the institute isn't playing around: It plans to splash a prototype into the San Francisco Bay within the next two years, the first step toward establishing deep-water city-states, or what it calls "seasteads" -- homesteads on the high seas.
Labels: Environment, Just Because, News, Ocean, Technology
Sunday, May 18, 2008
More News of Interest: At least to me...
Montana teen is in a class by himself ... literally Jeff Greenwood is only student to graduate from his high school this year
Disney Attraction Puts Guests in Eye of Hurricane Charley
11 questions for Indiana Jones' whip trainer
Labels: cuba, Just Because, News, Technology, WTF
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
The Denver Post - Checking in with Papa on Key West
I had come to Key West before the start of the college football season and found its most famous resident, who wrote 90 percent of his work while living here from 1931 to 1940, sitting in his old haunt. The bar's name had changed. So had the town.
Maybe that's why Ernest had this sullen, brooding look on his face when I approached him. He looked as if he was going to hit me."
Labels: cuba, Environment, Just Because, Key West
Monday, July 16, 2007
Time Waster of the Day: Get the Glass!
Saturday, July 14, 2007
A Gate-Crasher's Change of Heart - washingtonpost.com
By Allison Klein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 13, 2007; B01
A grand feast of marinated steaks and jumbo shrimp was winding down, and a group of friends was sitting on the back patio of a Capitol Hill home, sipping red wine. Suddenly, a hooded man slid in through an open gate and put the barrel of a handgun to the head of a 14-year-old guest.
'Give me your money, or I'll start shooting,' he demanded, according to D.C. police and witness accounts.
The five other guests, including the girls' parents, froze -- and then one spoke.
'We were just finishing dinner,' Cristina 'Cha Cha' Rowan, 43, blurted out. 'Why don't you have a glass of wine with us?'
The intruder took a sip of their Chateau Malescot St-Exupéry and said, 'Damn, that's good wine.'
The girl's father, Michael Rabdau, 51, who described the harrowing evening in an interview, told the intruder, described as being in his 20s, to take the whole glass. Rowan offered him the bottle. The would-be robber, his hood now down, took another sip and had a bite of Camembert cheese that was on the table.
Then he tucked the gun into the pocket of his nylon sweatpants.
"I think I may have come to the wrong house," he said, looking around the patio of the home in the 1300 block of Constitution Avenue NE.
"I'm sorry," he told the group. "Can I get a hug?"
Rowan, who lives in Falls Church and works part time at her children's school, stood up and wrapped her arms around him. Then it was Rabdau's turn. Then his wife's. The other two guests complied.
"That's really good wine," the man said, taking another sip. He had a final request: "Can we have a group hug?"
The five adults surrounded him, arms out.
With that, the man walked out with a crystal wine glass in hand, filled with Chateau Malescot. No one was hurt, and nothing was stolen.
The homeowner, Xavier Cervera, 45, had gone out to walk his dog at the end of the party and missed the incident, which happened about midnight June 16. Police classified the case as strange but true and said they had not located a suspect.
"We believe it is a true robbery," said Cmdr. Diane Groomes, who is in charge of patrols in the Capitol Hill area. But it's one-of-a-kind, she said, adding, "I've never heard of a robber joining a party and then walking out to the sunset."
The hug, she said, was especially unusual. "They should have squeezed him and held onto him for us," she said.
Rabdau said he hasn't been able to figure out what happened.
"I was definitely expecting there would be some kind of casualty," Rabdau said this week. "He was very aggressive at first; then it turned into a love fest. I don't know what it was."
Rabdau, a federal government worker who lives in Anne Arundel County with his family and lived on Capitol Hill with his wife in the 1980s, said that the episode lasted about 10 minutes but seemed like an hour. He believes the guests were spared because they kept a positive attitude during the exchange.
"There was this degree of disbelief and terror at the same time," Rabdau said. "Then it miraculously just changed. His whole emotional tone turned -- like, we're one big happy family now. I thought: Was it the wine? Was it the cheese?"
After the intruder left, the guests walked inside the house, locked the door and stared at each other. They didn't say a word. Rabdau dialed 911. Police arrived quickly and took a report. They also dusted for fingerprints -- so far, to no avail.
In the alley behind the home, investigators found the intruder's empty crystal wine glass on the ground, unbroken.
"Labels: Humor, Just Because
Sunday, June 03, 2007
15 Reasons Mister Rogers Was the Best Neighbor Ever
mental_floss magazine - Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix: "Back when I was in 7th grade I stood up in front of my English class and delivered a tongue-in-cheek, poorly researched presentation on why I thought Mister Rogers should be the next President. I ate up the first few minutes zipping up my cardigan, and putting on some sneakers, and then I proceeded to mock him roundly. It was a riotous success. Fourteen years later, I’m using this post to repent. The following are 15 things everyone should know about Fred Rogers:"
Labels: Fun, Just Because
