A woman's severed head was found
floating in a Broward County canal on . . .
April 28, 2007. DNA enabled the establishment of the victim's identity. She was a 41-year-old resident of New York who had seemingly vanished after buying a money order at a Waldbaum's supermarket. Now, a grotesque dispute has erupted over jurisdiction which is necessary in order to proceed with the prosecution of the case.
All too often these days the victim of a homicide seems to get submerged under a mountain of evidence or the polemic performances of the lawyers.
Tobias Jones has written an essay on Ross Macdonald included in this week's Guardian Book Review which happens to highlight this issue.
:: Head Case :: Paula McMahon, Sentinel ::
:: Jones on Macdonald :: Guardian ::
...
Saturday, August 1
Friday, July 31
Bookish: Trawling
at the Dark End (6#) -
Literary or Cheap Thrills? Sometime it seems, the most a crime writer can hope for is faint praise. Stuart Evers want to know why. I don't like the genre being referred to as Crime; I prefer Mystery. Be that as it may, he's stimulated quite a comment thread to discuss the matter at The Guardian Book Blog.
# Floaters: Fictional detective Jack Leightner operates in Brooklyn. There's a profile of the mystery series and its author, Gabriel Cohen, at NPR.
# Also there: Provincetown's fictional
detective, Frank Coffin, authored by Jon Loomis.
# If the Midwest is more your style, they have a writeup on author John Sanford whose fictional detective, Lucas Davenport, operates in the Twin Cities Minn area of the country.
# Jeffrey A Trachtenberg profiles emerging author Victor LaValle who writes edgy multi-cultural surrealistic potboilers. His latest is Big Machine.
# Catching up with: Earlier this month, Sarah Weinman wrote a good article about a female French Mystery author called Fred Vargas, which I've meant to point out.
...
# Floaters: Fictional detective Jack Leightner operates in Brooklyn. There's a profile of the mystery series and its author, Gabriel Cohen, at NPR.
# Also there: Provincetown's fictional
detective, Frank Coffin, authored by Jon Loomis.
# If the Midwest is more your style, they have a writeup on author John Sanford whose fictional detective, Lucas Davenport, operates in the Twin Cities Minn area of the country.
# Jeffrey A Trachtenberg profiles emerging author Victor LaValle who writes edgy multi-cultural surrealistic potboilers. His latest is Big Machine.
# Catching up with: Earlier this month, Sarah Weinman wrote a good article about a female French Mystery author called Fred Vargas, which I've meant to point out.
...
Iran: Arbaeen & Pix Nix (8#) -
Yare Dabestani . . . "My Classmate" . . .
Thursday was the 40th day ("arbaeen") since Neda Agha Soltan’s death. Clashes erupted as security forces confronted thousands of demonstrators trying to commemorate the traditional mourning occasion. [cnn]
Demonstrations were not limited to Tehran,
but took place in several cities around Iran.
:: guard :: - - :: FT :: - - :: al jaz ::
:: A few photos from the memorial.
# How do citizen journalists in the field and
professional journalists in the studio work
together to deliver information to the public?
# "sending pictures to enemy media" [cpj]
...
Thursday was the 40th day ("arbaeen") since Neda Agha Soltan’s death. Clashes erupted as security forces confronted thousands of demonstrators trying to commemorate the traditional mourning occasion. [cnn]
Demonstrations were not limited to Tehran,
but took place in several cities around Iran.
:: guard :: - - :: FT :: - - :: al jaz ::
:: A few photos from the memorial.
# How do citizen journalists in the field and
professional journalists in the studio work
together to deliver information to the public?
# "sending pictures to enemy media" [cpj]
...
Wednesday, July 29
Some Consequences
May Not Be Unintended -
On Sunday, a local News Pundit . . .
finally got around to addressing the issue of the recent sharp rise in the cigarette taxes here. The price of cigarettes has nearly doubled since I moved down here a few years ago.
Kingsley Guy, the aforementioned pundit, expects the consequences to be: more truck hijackings, cigarette smuggling, and "an even greater strain on the criminal justice system."
But he covered only half the story.
When they jacked up the price of cigarettes up North, people continued to buy cigarettes, but they no longer bought newspapers.
The circulation of the local metro-regional newspaper plummeted, and, in due course, they lost their newspaper. There are now entire communities up there which have gone dark - they get no news coverage whatsoever, as if they don't even exit.
Who benefits from this? Corrupt politicians benefit from the reduced or eliminated scrutiny. And the pharmaceutical companies hope to benefit by selling their patented versions of nicotine substitutes.
The Domino or Cascade Effect: All that money that used to circulate throughout society, no longer will. Gradually, many of the elective goods and services you've casually taken for granted will disappear because an entire sector of the public no longer has that discretionary income to spread around; it's all going just for cigarettes. Your quality of life will become considerably more austere and you will have to do without many things you used to enjoy.
:: Sun Sentinel ::
...
finally got around to addressing the issue of the recent sharp rise in the cigarette taxes here. The price of cigarettes has nearly doubled since I moved down here a few years ago.
Kingsley Guy, the aforementioned pundit, expects the consequences to be: more truck hijackings, cigarette smuggling, and "an even greater strain on the criminal justice system."
But he covered only half the story.
When they jacked up the price of cigarettes up North, people continued to buy cigarettes, but they no longer bought newspapers.
The circulation of the local metro-regional newspaper plummeted, and, in due course, they lost their newspaper. There are now entire communities up there which have gone dark - they get no news coverage whatsoever, as if they don't even exit.
Who benefits from this? Corrupt politicians benefit from the reduced or eliminated scrutiny. And the pharmaceutical companies hope to benefit by selling their patented versions of nicotine substitutes.
The Domino or Cascade Effect: All that money that used to circulate throughout society, no longer will. Gradually, many of the elective goods and services you've casually taken for granted will disappear because an entire sector of the public no longer has that discretionary income to spread around; it's all going just for cigarettes. Your quality of life will become considerably more austere and you will have to do without many things you used to enjoy.
:: Sun Sentinel ::
...
SoFlo: Hunger on the Hoof -
:
A shooting war may be about to break out around here because there are people out on the street crying and begging for food. And horse owners are determined to protect their pets from being butchered.
Meanwhile, the News Media here seems completely disconnected from this reality. This area is turning into a tropical sequel of the devastated South Bronx, but with palm trees this time.
:: WABC Local 10 ::
...
A shooting war may be about to break out around here because there are people out on the street crying and begging for food. And horse owners are determined to protect their pets from being butchered.
Meanwhile, the News Media here seems completely disconnected from this reality. This area is turning into a tropical sequel of the devastated South Bronx, but with palm trees this time.
:: WABC Local 10 ::
...
Lite Banter (4#) -
Iran: More Agony
Scripts Expected (3#) -
:
The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards is demanding that tapes of forced confessions from recent detainees be broadcast to the public on TV after the practice was widely condemned as illegal.
...
The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards is demanding that tapes of forced confessions from recent detainees be broadcast to the public on TV after the practice was widely condemned as illegal.
An underground network providing foreign media outlets with photos and footage of the post-election unrest has been identified and arrested in Iran... At least two members of the group have confessed..."Those who are behind bars are being forced to confess under torture," Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri said on his website.
...
Tuesday, July 28
A Good Read -
:
From the Aug 13th online issue of the NYRB . . .
Michael Massing does an outstanding "State of the Newsy Internet" article, containing recent trends and developments, with a long list of who's-who links to explore further.
Well written and researched. And thoughtfully presented.
:: Massing - NYRB :: -- [via]
...
From the Aug 13th online issue of the NYRB . . .
Michael Massing does an outstanding "State of the Newsy Internet" article, containing recent trends and developments, with a long list of who's-who links to explore further.
Well written and researched. And thoughtfully presented.
:: Massing - NYRB :: -- [via]
...
Sunday, July 26
Iran's Thriller Script Doctors (6#) -
Hello, Gorgeous! Get Me Rewrite . . .
I happen to catch Ira Glass's
NPR radio program at noon on Saturday.
The first segment featured Omid Memarian describing the circumstances of his False-True Confession in Iran.
It all started because of the No Fly List.
But the preliminary version was beaten out of him by the regime's thugs. And, as such, it wouldn't do at all; it was regarded as too prosaic and boring.
So, they called in a Script Doctor to add some pizazz. His assignment was to introduce colorful elements like International Espionage, Conspiracy Theories, and Intrigue to make Omid's "confession" more entertaining, because it was intended for eventual broadcast to the public.
I've never heard of Script Doctors
being used for torture confessions before.
:: This American Life :: Episode 386 Fine Print ::
:: Omid About ::
**************************************
"I've spent the last seventeen hours living inside a cyberpunk novel. A libertarian cyberpunk novel. It’s been a weird and awesome experience."
:: NoiseNedaNetNoise ::
**************************************
# Hundreds of demonstrators took part in protests Saturday in Tehran, but police intervened immediately to disperse the crowd, witnesses said. [DPA]
# Worldwide day of protest against Tehran regime.
:::: France24/AFP ::::
# "All is not well in the state of Iran."
:::: Editorial :: Khaleej Times ::
...
I happen to catch Ira Glass's
NPR radio program at noon on Saturday.
The first segment featured Omid Memarian describing the circumstances of his False-True Confession in Iran.
It all started because of the No Fly List.
But the preliminary version was beaten out of him by the regime's thugs. And, as such, it wouldn't do at all; it was regarded as too prosaic and boring.
So, they called in a Script Doctor to add some pizazz. His assignment was to introduce colorful elements like International Espionage, Conspiracy Theories, and Intrigue to make Omid's "confession" more entertaining, because it was intended for eventual broadcast to the public.
I've never heard of Script Doctors
being used for torture confessions before.
:: This American Life :: Episode 386 Fine Print ::
:: Omid About ::
**************************************
"I've spent the last seventeen hours living inside a cyberpunk novel. A libertarian cyberpunk novel. It’s been a weird and awesome experience."
:: NoiseNedaNetNoise ::
**************************************
# Hundreds of demonstrators took part in protests Saturday in Tehran, but police intervened immediately to disperse the crowd, witnesses said. [DPA]
# Worldwide day of protest against Tehran regime.
:::: France24/AFP ::::
# "All is not well in the state of Iran."
:::: Editorial :: Khaleej Times ::
...
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