JCM 11/26/2019 5:56:48 AM

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Why this Seattle judge filed a complaint against himself

Short version. A while back this judge threw the book at a homeless, drug addict repeat offender.

The enabling prosecutor was upset the offender was released ... again. And publicly complained about the judge.

So the judge took the public complaint and filed an ethics complaint, against himself.

He has been cleared of any wrong doing.

This is a slap in the face of King Co. Prosecutor and Seattle Attorney and their catch and release policies.

Occasional Reader 11/26/2019 6:07:58 AM

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Reply to JCM in 1:

just curious, does your new job require you to stay in Seattle? Because that city iseems to be spiraling ever further down the toilet.

JCM 11/26/2019 6:12:39 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 2:

Job is across Lake Washington in Bellevue. Bellevue deals with the homeless and drug addicted, doesn't enable them.

Amazon is building a new campus a little farther over in Redmond, which also deals rationally with the problem. The plan is to increase the amount of time I can work at home.

I can avoid Seattle entirely.

vxbush 11/26/2019 6:18:13 AM

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In #3 JCM said: I can avoid Seattle entirely.

That sounds like a very good idea. 

Morning, campers. 

Occasional Reader 11/26/2019 6:18:26 AM

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JCM 11/26/2019 6:25:06 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 5:

Love the smile on her face!

vxbush 11/26/2019 6:39:27 AM

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In #5 Occasional Reader said: Feel-good story of the day.

Nice! I really do need to start weightlifting, but I just can't seem to get into the groove of it. Stories like this one prove the value of it, though. 

lucius septimius 11/26/2019 7:01:32 AM

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Response to something Kosh posted last night:

"But I never understood why a condenser was important in a steam engine until I read some books about ocean liners, and noticed they described the condensers by how much vacuum they produced. The vacuum at the exhaust improves the efficiency. You can transfer heat before the condenser, but the condenser needs to be there."

Condensers were key to improving engine performance.  One problem designers discovered was that they were far less efficient in the tropics -- because of higher water temperatures there was less vacuum.  The Japanese had engineered their powerplants in the expectation that they would be operating in warm waters; the allies had not (the one exception being the Dutch) which meant that British and American ships in the Pacific war could not achieve the same speeds that they could in the north Atlantic. The speed penalty could be as much as 3 knots, which doesn't sound like much, but could have significant tactical effects.

Another problem was silting.  In the early days of WWI, before the base at Scapa Flow was properly developed, the British fleet frequently suffered "condenseritis" as Adm. Jellicoe called it.  Mud and silt would clog the condensers and there were no facilities at Scapa to clean them out.

revobob 11/26/2019 8:59:37 AM

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buzzsawmonkey 11/26/2019 9:06:00 AM

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Reply to revobob in 9:

"The Ship that Found Herself" is good.  It's similar to (though more detailed than) Kipling's story ".007," which is about a railroad engine "finding itself" among other engines.   I'd also recommend his "The Devil and the Deep Sea," which details a crew of British oyster pirates captured in the South Seas rebuilding their ruined engines from scratch to make their escape.

revobob 11/26/2019 9:36:06 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 10: (revo is trying to picture oyster pirates...coming up with some weird images) I've just finished re-reading a book titled 'A Separate Star' which is an anthology by some well known sci-fi writers playing off of some of Kipling's futuristic stories, so Ole Rudy has been somewhat in my mind of late. I think one of the most endearing things about him (to me at least) is that it is so easy to picture Rudyard with 'is sleeves rolt up an grease in the creases o 'is callused hans. His understanding of and appreciation for the grimy nuts and bolts that really make the world go round is, in my admittedly limited literary experience, unique among wordcrafters of any era.

Occasional Reader 11/26/2019 9:46:42 AM

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In #10 buzzsawmonkey said: Kipling's story ".007,

And here I always thought Ian Fleming invented that character...

/

Occasional Reader 11/26/2019 9:49:03 AM

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Occasional Reader 11/26/2019 9:50:55 AM

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In #11 revobob said: revo is trying to picture oyster pirates...coming up with some weird images

You’ve never heard of Captain Bluepointbeard?

buzzsawmonkey 11/26/2019 10:11:04 AM

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Reply to revobob in 11:

Jack London was an oyster pirate for a time.  

It is my understanding that oyster piracy was less for the oysters themselves (though oysters were an extremely popular and much-less-expensive food in the late 19th/early 20th century) than for the purpose of finding pearls.  Recall that pearls were not produced through "culture" until the late-19th/early 20th century; pearls had to be found "in the wild," and they were much more expensive than they are today. Oyster pirates raided oyster beds for vast quantities of oysters in order to illegitimately grab the pearls they hoped were in the shells.

When you see a reference to "Tecla pearls" in early-20th century writing (e.g., "Gonna wear my stickpin, it's a Tecla pearl..." from the '20s song "Got a brand new suit, brand new tie, brand new girl"), it refers to the early cultured pearls.  Somerset Maugham's short story "Mr. Know-All" also turns on natural-vs.-cultured pearls.

Occasional Reader 11/26/2019 10:20:17 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 15:

Buzz, I can state as a literal fact that I do not know of anyone else who knows this stuff like you do.

buzzsawmonkey 11/26/2019 10:35:22 AM

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"Brand New Suit" by Fats Waller

Watch for the "stickpin/Tecla pearl" line.  Louis Armstrong also does this song, but clearly doesn't know what he's singing; he pronounces it "Teeeeecla pearl."

buzzsawmonkey 11/26/2019 11:26:24 AM

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In #16 Occasional Reader said: Buzz, I can state as a literal fact that I do not know of anyone else who knows this stuff like you do.

Thanks---but it appears that I'm slightly incorrect.  According to the Wiki entry for "oyster pirates," such pirates---on both the East and West coasts of the US---were after the oysters as foodstuffs.   The crew in Kipling's story "The Devil and the Deep Sea" were actually pearl-poachers---the story makes this clear---rather than oyster pirates, even though the same mollusks were at issue.

revobob 11/26/2019 12:15:30 PM

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In #18 buzzsawmonkey said: it appears that I'm slightly incorrect.

revo dramatically sweeps forearm and hand over eyes in expression of deep shock and sadness, at the discovery that Buzz' stores of esoteric and eclectic knowledge are NOT after all bottomless!

revobob 11/26/2019 12:16:12 PM

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vxbush 11/26/2019 12:23:10 PM

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In #20 revobob said: well that didn't work the way I expected!

Now I'm embarrassed.....

/averting my gaze