:
MEDIA SNIPS (3#) -

# An Alt Weekly sued New Times' parent syndicate VVM successfully "under a California state law that makes it illegal to price product below-cost in an effort to put a competitor out of business. The Guardian contended that VVM used profits from its papers that don’t have a direct alternative rival to allow the Weekly to sell advertising below its cost." [E&P]

# New Media Hazards: An estimated 600 people viewed a YouTube video which showed the gang rape of a young mother with her two toddlers crying throughout her ordeal before it was removed by the host company. [sky]

# Belatedly Noted: Yesterday, WSJ
published a nice feature piece on Pete Hamill.

...

:
SoFlo: WHERE WE LIVE (4#) -

netable, notable & a sign of the times . . .

# By far, the story that has dominated the local news for me since dinner hour last evening, actually took place off shore and conveniently tucked away from the main highways here, so it was just off everyone's main radar screen...

Evening Commuter Traffic was snarled for about three hours last night on the Resort Strip, which is a long sandbar just off Florida's Atlantic Coast. SWAT and Hostage Negotiating Teams were called to the Ocean Drive scene where a man entered a law office late in the afternoon and demanded to see a lawyer, then put a gun to his own head, pulled the trigger, and committed suicide. The man has never been identified.

Most of the local MSM virtually ignored the story or treated it as a traffic nuisance, but I suspect we are going to see a lot more stories like this one because of foreclosures.

# Closet Cache Killer Convicted: For nearly three weeks, Moninger lived in the apartment with his dead roommate, Beth Berger, entombed in the hall closet. Her body was eventually found wrapped in plastic trash bags and stuffed into a cardboard box which was hidden away. [herald] and [sent] So, how well do you think you know your roommate, hmmm?

# Another ATM Toppled: "Thieves looking for loot knocked over an ATM in Lauderdale Lakes using a front-end loader." Not a very unusual type of story around these parts, where there's a lot of construction equipment laying around.

...

:
Bookish: DOUBLE-GLOVED & divers (5#) -

# Although I've watched Special Agent Dana Scully MD snapping on the latex, I've never been particularly interested in watching random autopsies. How about you? If you don't mind, Deborah Sharp from Fort Lauderdale posts a brief blog entry about her recent attendance at SleuthFest '08.

# Ghost Neighborhoods: Robert Frank writes... "I’m always amazed at how the richest neighborhoods are also among the most empty. If you walk down any side street along South Ocean Drive in Palm Beach, Fla., even at high season, the only people you see are landscapers and contractors." [Notable]

# SPOOKSPEAK: Ben Macintyre writes about spook jargon which has crossed over and is entering the general public discourse. A "small peek into the arcane world of... the strange, fertile and semi-secret language of spying... The real language of espionage and the invented language of literary spying are now so entwined that they cannot be untangled." Graham Greene, John le Carre, et al.

# The Observer's Peter Guttridge writes a feature piece about Tom Rob Smith who has written a novel about a serial killer in Russia, Child 44, which has garnered much acclaim. Ridley Scott of Blade Runner fame is "passionate" to make it into a movie.

# A world map graphic
that shows which social networks
online are popular in which countries.

...

:
NARRATIVES IN THE NEWS -

A poor translation triggers hysteria -

At 2am during the Sat/Sun overnight, I came upon this mess, but decided to get some sleep before posting about it. According to breaking news reports, the Israeli Government bombed and demolished the headquarters of the Hamas-led Gaza strip after an Israeli official had issued a dire warning which became mangled by most of the International Press.

But don't be too quick to blame the Wire Services, because I then came across a commentary at The Guardian by a philosophy professor from Oxford University which seemed to suggest that the ambiguous or maladroit translation originated at Ha'aretz, an English-language Israeli newspaper.

Excerpting from that commentary by Brian Klug:

*Referring to the rocket attack on Israel launched from Gaza, Vilnai warned that "they will bring upon themselves a bigger shoah because we will use all our might to defend ourselves." [ ... ]

What was he thinking when he uttered his remark? First, who did he mean by "they" and what did he mean by "bigger"?*

Who did he mean by THEY? He meant Hamas.

What did he mean by BIGGER?

The gist of it is: he meant that Hamas was, in effect, spitting into the wind, and that when they expectoration came back upon them, they would be feeling worse from it than they did before they spit.

He was positing the presumed premise that this cult which is dedicated to destroying Israel was firing rockets at Israel for that purpose.

I didn't read the article at Ha'aretz, but if it is true that they are responsible for this gaffe which sparked an international controversy, I think it behooves Ha'aretz to issue a public apology for causing this misunderstanding.

Various media then reported that the Israeli Government was sending a signal that they were planning a genocide. Whoa! There is a vast difference between demolishing a cult's headquarters and wiping out an entire people.

Lastly, those who have been following this topic need to keep in mind that some cults are suicidal. Heaven's Gate, the Sun Temple group in Switzerland, the People's Temple and others have committed mass suicide. It is possible that Hamas may belong to this category.

...

:
THEY SAID WHAAAT? -
Press Clips - (3#) -

# "Nearly 70 percent of Americans believe traditional journalism is out of touch, and nearly half are turning to the Internet to get their news, according to a new survey."

# "I just don't understand how a newspaper being the only daily newspaper on an island with more than 3 million people can have a circulation of less than 400,000 readers."

# "But the Report is often a refreshing change from the US mainstream media - all too often pompous, stuffy and self-important, and whose tail Drudge delights in tweaking."

# What about "Harry Wales" in Afghanistan?

I don't think that was a News story, since he is not the direct heir to the crown. Arguably, it's a Feature story. I do believe that the discretion of the British Press was warranted, if only to conserve the safety of the other men serving in
Harry Wales' outfit.

I don't agree with or approve of Matt Drudge publicizing the story, which, I feel, was a gratuitous intrusion on Harry Wales' privacy. I feel quite strongly that Harry Wales is entitled to some degree of privacy, just like anyone else.

...

:
LAND SHARKS -

Taliban militants blew up a telecommunications tower Friday in southern Afghanistan following a warning to phone companies to shut down the towers at night or face attack... the destroyed mobile phone tower was located along the main highway in the Zhari district of Kandahar province... it was owned by Areeba and installed at the behest of local sheikhs on behalf of their community... thousands are expected to be adversely impacted by the outage.

:: Assoc Press ::

...

:
BANANA IN THE EAR (2#) -

# Gunmen have kidnapped Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho of Mosul on Friday in the northern Iraqi city and killed his driver and two guards, police said.

# An Emily Litella Moment: Some British News Organizations in the "New Jerusalem" are using a mistranslation to condemn Israel.

:: [reuters] ...and... [ntl rev] ::

...

:
HAZMAT IN VEGAS (4#) -

A package of the deadly poison ricin
has been found in a Las Vegas hotel.

And a man who stayed in the room in which
it was found is in critical condition in hospital.

:: [CNN] ...and... [Fox-local] ::

Las Vegas is adjacent to Area 51, where the U.S. Federal Government reputedly keeps their cache of captured flying saucers. Supposedly, government agents vaporize trespassers. In fact, there are Shoot-to-Kill signs posted everywhere.

Paging ace reporter Carl Kolchak* --

*Carl Kolchak is a newspaper reporter with an abrasive personality that has gotten him fired ten times from various big-city papers. Now he's reduced to reporting for a relatively small-time paper in Las Vegas.*

Yeah, they walk among us . . .

...

:
Bookish: A READER'S NOTES (2#) -

# Otto Penzler describes some
contemporary Mystery magazines.

# A discursive anecdote about a man
named Flitcraft in The Maltese Falcon
captivates Chris Routledge. Brief, but
worth reading just for appreciation.

...

:
Florida: PRESS NOTES (2#) -

Sentinel & Orlando Weekly -

# Sun-Sentinel Parent Co: Sam Zell, the new owner, wants to consolidate the Tribune's Washington DC Bureau. This is standard operating procedure for a syndicate - there is nothing unusual or untoward about it. And it's more economical. [chi-trib]

# Orlando Weekly Stops Adult Ads: *In a plea bargain disclosed in court Wednesday, the Orlando Weekly agreed to stop publishing "Adult Services" ads, and Florida authorities dropped criminal charges of "aiding and abetting prostitution" against the alternative paper and three of its sales staff... advertising for escorts, massage parlors and other so-called "adult" services that [a local law enforcement agency] claimed were fronts for prostitution.*

+ Those ads are reputed to be a very lucrative source of revenue for some publications. But what is the real issue here for readers?

If you wanted to publish the writings of, let's say just for example, William Faulkner and intended to use such ads to finance that material, readers might be able to appreciate this rationalization being used to justify your course of conduct. But what if you are not using the revenue in order to publish Faulkner?

Discuss among yourselves.

...

:
SoFlo: HEISTS (3#) -

# "A man armed with nothing more than a fake driver's license and a phony uniform made off with 4,000 Sony cameras and camcorders worth $1.1 million early Monday morning, said Miami-Dade police."

# Police in Broward County are investigating an early morning robbery of 50 to 60 cellphones from a Davie store with an estimated value of about $11,000.00.

# Grave Robbers: Police have arrested a second man suspected of roaming around Broward cemeteries and robbing graves of their bronze vases to sell as scrap metal. The two men are believed to be members of a ring of such predators currently operating in the South Florida region.

...

:
AROUND FLORIDA (4#) -

# Goose Creek Incident: The trial of the two Egyptian college students, Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed and Youssef Samir Megahed from Tampa, who have been charged with transporting explosive materials, has been delayed until April 28th. It is expected to last up to two weeks.

# MIA Airport Bolter: That Middle Eastern man is a nightclub tour guide, not a terrorist. Faid Beydoun, 42, is being charged with possession of a half-gram of cocaine.

# Butterball Bob: State Rep Bob Allen, who was pressured into resigning his seat after he was entrapped by a stud muffin cop in a local restroom, has been replaced by a Democrat. Tony Sasso narrowly won by about 400 votes.

# On the Space Coast: Sheree who blogs at
Talk To Me recently expressed her surprise:

"The proposed cadre of Florida Today
citizen bloggers never materialized.
What's up with that?"

+ Well, I'm not very surprised. It looks like the pros may have to help these folks along by priming the pump a little. Perhaps the pros could generate and suggest some potential topics to stimulate the process.

...

:
Bookish: REMAINDERED -
A Reader's Notes -

Yes, it's leftovers from this past weekend:

"50 crime writers to read before you die"

I tried to get into the Telegraph's book section Sunday evening, but couldn't; I suspected their servers were flooded.

Their list gives a brief description and a recommended book for each author. Of course, their picks are disputable, but the value of the list for me is that I came across some authors I hadn't heard of before.

Telegraph's
:: Crime Writers List ::

...

:
THE BLACK HOLE THAT
SWALLOWED YOUTUBE (2#) -

"Service on Google Inc.'s YouTube Web site was disrupted around the world for several hours Sunday after a botched effort by the Pakistani government to block access to a video clip critical of Islam." [wsj]

"So instead of serving up
videos of skateboarding dogs,
it sent the traffic into oblivion."

...

:
SoFlo: NEWS ABOUT THE NEWS (3#) -

# "In a move designed to cut costs and improve distribution, The Miami Herald and the Sun-Sentinel were set to announce Monday they will begin delivering each other's products starting next month."

..... For a list of their "products," refer to the article itself - you may be surprised by the items involved.

# Orlando Sentinel readers respond to the question: "where they would steer the Sentinel." And Manning Pynn, their ombudsman, reports.

# A bit of fun: A UK journalist has published the first edition of a Journalese-English Dictionary on his Blog. These are cliched words used by the News Media, but not used in "Real Life" by the Public. Via Fleet St's Wire.

...

:
~~ SoFlo: FLY RIGHT ~~

Security incident this afternoon at Miami Int'l Airport when a Middle Eastern man with multiple identification papers bolted out of a passenger security checkpoint line and attempted to flee the airport, leaving his belongings behind. He was found to be unarmed when taken into custody for further questioning. Developing...

:: Miami Herald ::

...

:
TV ARGUMENT -

Meredith Kercher Murder -

Frank, the local Blogger in Perugia,
has just posted a new entry about
an Italian TV show, Porta a Porta,
which was recently broadcast
there about the case.

:: PERUGIA-SHOCK perma ::

...

:
FACETS OF MEZ HOMICIDE (3 of 3) -

The Meredith Kercher Murder in Perugia -

My own thoughts have undergone some evolutions
about this case.

First, I continue to wonder whether the costume Kercher wore to the Halloween party excited some homicidal deviate. The decorative collar and the location of the knife wound - was this merely a coincidence?

A collar can be associated with bondage-type activities; it can be a fetish item. And what of the destiny of this object? Where did it originate before it entered the party and its photos? And what has become of it? Where is it now? In whose possession is it? Has it become a "trophy?"

Another thought which has passed through my reflections: how many scenarios transpired at that crime scene? Could there have been more than one? Could there have been two separate scenarios there?

In Scenario I, she was murdered by an unknown perp.

And then, in Scenario II, the college kids arrive. Could they have disturbed the crime scene or tampered with evidence, and, if so, why? Could there have been a stash of illegal drugs at the scene the discovery of which they feared?

Since the time of death is still fuzzy, there is still a window with some wiggle room which might afford 2 sequential scenarios at that location.

The next official date for this case to appear on the Law Calendar is, I believe, April 1st. Until then, it will continue to be much discussed on True Crime Forums and Message Boards. And there are some Bloggers who continue to
track it.

...

:
FACETS OF MEZ HOMICIDE (2 of 3) -

The Meredith Kercher Murder in Perugia -

When reexamining the case, I have called into question some of the facile presumptions which are now accepted as established givens.

The motive is supposed to be sexual. But what other motives could have been involved?

One intriguing possibility: a twisted misperception resulting in a hate crime.

We've had a number of hate crimes in the US in which the victim was perceived to belong to a hated group by the perpetrator, even if he isn't in fact a member of that group. A victim may be perceived to be Japanese, although it turns out that he is actually Chinese.

In the case at hand, anti-semitism has been mentioned at least twice.

First, in Charles Mudede's article:

"The first time I met her, when I got the job here, she asked me if I was Jewish. I told her I was. She then screamed: 'My people killed your people,' and began laughing hysterically. I didn't know what to say. She just kept laughing about her Germans killing my Jews."

And it appears in an article by David Lohr:

*The video depicts a drunken Knox slurring and laughing, as she appears to be telling the cameraperson that she has only had one and a half shots of alcohol. The video also depicts a male friend in the background making an anti-Semitic comment.*

Could the murderer or murderers have perceived Meredith Kercher to be Jewish? And could she have been the victim of misdirected anti-semitism?

...

:
FACETS OF MEZ HOMICIDE (1 of 3) -

The Meredith Kercher Murder in Perugia -

Although I'm not obsessed with this crime, from time to time when I have a spare moment, I still do some research on the case and reflect on it. It seems to me at this point that those tracking and investigating this case have zeroed in on the three current suspects too quickly and exclusively.

Aspects of the case which were uncovered in the initial reportage now seem to be neglected or dropped altogether. For example, the mobile phone:

*Threatening phone call led to discovery of body... Police went to her house to return a mobile phone, which was one of two that had been found by an elderly woman living nearby... The woman answered a call on one of the phones, and received a threatening message. She reported the matter to the police who identified the owner of the phone as Ms Kercher and found out her address.*

Did the police try to trace that call?
Who was the caller? And what did he say?

It seems like a loose end which was never resolved.

...