Dirac Angestun Gesept

The News Tribune (Tacoma, WA) has a great article Sordid, soulless no more on the way that urban planners have worked, and continue to work, to change the landscape to make it less inviting to criminals like Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer.

Two decades after the Green River slayings began, the strip in SeaTac is a different place. Some of Ridgway’s favorite haunts remain, but the scores of prostitutes who once thronged Pacific Highway South are almost gone, and the city’s per-capita rate of violent crime ranks among the lowest in the nation for communities surrounding international airports, said SeaTac Police Chief Scott Somers.

Changes in the landscape and streetscape are a key reason, SeaTac leaders say.

The results of SeaTac’s efforts show in crime statistics, he says. In 1996, police responded to 12,098 violent crimes, the majority of them along the strip. By 2003, the number had dropped to 9,916 - an 18 percent decrease, despite seven years of population growth.

Tacoma is using SeaTac’s techniques to help fight crime there, as well:

In 2002, Tacoma rewrote its land development code to require windows in new buildings in commercial areas, including Sixth Avenue, Hosmer Street and South Tacoma Way.

The idea is that clerks and customers inside a store should be able to see what’s going on outside. The code changes, for example, prohibit new buildings from having a blank wall facing the sidewalk and street.

The Nottingham “Soup row surgeon” has been reinstated by the Queen’s Medical Centre after his earlier suspension.

The BBC website has a story on a Nottingham brain surgeon suspended for taking too many croutons.

Dr Terence Hope, 57, a consultant at the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham, was sent home on full pay last Wednesday.

He is alleged to have taken an extra helping of croutons without paying for them, according to the Daily Mail.

Many opponents of same-sex marriage argue that, if it’s allowed, then polygamy (among other things) is not far behind. These are often the same folks who aver that “marriage has always meant one man and one woman” (including Mitt Romney, who should know better; Brigham Young had as many as 19 wives at one point).

However, apparently having polygamy doesn’t lead to same-sex marriage.

The UN wants to allow spousal benefits for same sex couples (if they’re from countries that already have such benefits, such as the Netherlands), but the Organization of the Islamic Conference is against the idea.

The United Nations has already recognized polygamy, a common practice in the Islamic world, as a legitimate form of marriage and permits employees to divide their benefits among their wives. But the decision to expand that right to same-sex partners has fueled intense opposition. Iran’s representative, Alireza Tootoonchian, speaking on behalf of the 56-member Organization of the Islamic Conference, said there was “no justifiable basis” for awarding benefits to same-sex couples. He demanded that the UN clarify its position. The OIC is “seriously concerned about extending the scope of the family definition for the purposes of entitlements,” he said.

Boston.com has an AP story reporting that Aliso Viejo, CA almost banned foam cups because they were made with a potentially dangerous substance that could “threaten human health and safety.”

Then they learned, to their chagrin, that dihydrogen monoxide — H2O for short — is the scientific term for water.

“It’s embarrassing,” said City Manager David J. Norman. “We had a paralegal who did bad research.”

The Daily Telegraph ran a story last month about a molecular biologist in the UK who is quitting to earn more money fitting gas boilers.

“My plumber was fitting my boiler and said he assumed I had loads of money because I had a PhD,” Dr Gensberg said. “I happened to have my pay slip to hand, so I showed it to him and he was absolutely gobsmacked.

“He said he earned £33,000 and some of his colleagues took home £50,000. I just thought what am I doing? My work is a combination of zero career structure, contractual abuse and pathetic pay, which is a pretty poor package.”

The last straw, however:

Dr Gensberg claimed that when he told the university of his plans, they said they might offer him a job as a gas fitter.

In the Boston Phoenix, Harvey Silverglate and Carl Takei’s Crossing the threshold points out how dangerous Ashcroft’s assault on habeas corpus really is.

In a world where many governments have the power “to lock them up and throw away the key,” habeas requires the judiciary to keep a spare key. In fact, the check habeas provides on executive detention powers doesn’t stop with the courts: the US Constitution grants power to suspend the writ only to Congress, and even then only in the event of “rebellion or invasion.”

SI.com has a copy of the UGA’s “Coaching Principles and Strategies of Basketball” final exam online.

I’m particularly impressed by question #8:

8. How many points does a 3-point field goal account for in a Basketball Game?
a. 1
b. 2
c. 3
d. 4

and the final two questions:

1. If you go on to become a huge coaching success, to whom will you tribute (sic) the credit?

and

1. In your opinion, who is the best Division I assistant coach in the country?

(I’ll give you a hint on the last one: the class was taught by an assistant coach.)

What A Difference A Year Makes: An Account of One Woman’s Rape and Assault at MIT

It’s powerful. It’s scary. What more is there to say?

Well, I’ve done my civic duty; today, I voted in the primary election. Now I’m a registered Democrat, at least until the Cambridge Election Commission receives my little postcard asking them to change me back to unenrolled.

Last time, I was a Republican for a few days.

Massachusetts is kinda weird that way. You can be a member of a “major party” (currently Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, or Green-Rainbow; this is basically any party or political designation that’s managed to get 3% in a statewide election or has 1% of registered voters) or you can have a “political designation” (effectively a party too wimpy to get their own primary ballot; minimum requirement, 50 voters), or be one of the “unenrolled”. I believe, but am not certain, that the latter two are effectively the same status for purposes of the primary.

if you’re “unenrolled” (what in most states would be “Independent”, but at one point there was an “Independent Voters Party” designation, and there is currently an “American Independent Party” on the list; incidentally, it’s illegal to use “Independent” alone as a designation per MGL 50-1) you get to pick any “major party” ballot in the primaries. In off-years, this has no effect; in presidential primaries, this enrolls you in that party.

In Cambridge, at least, they will happily give you a postcard that you can use to change back.

Fun statistics, from the Elections Division web site, follow.

Cambridge has:

• 31,561 registered Democrats (55.52% of registered voters);
• 4,047 Republicans (7.12%);
• 296 Libertarians (0.52%);
• 574 Green-Rainbow (1.01%);
• 20,253 unenrolled (35.63%);
• 3 Conservative Party;
• 6 Natural Law Party;
• 1 Constitution Party;
• 3 Reform Party; and
• 10 members of the Socialist Party. (In Cambridge! Who’d have thunk it?)

Oh, and 58 members of the “Interdependent 3rd Party”, whatever that is. We do miss out, though, having no members of the Prohibition Party, the America First Party, or the “Timesizing Not Downsizing” party. (That last has 29 members…statewide.)