Who could have predicted?

The happy couple

Via ABC News

George Zimmerman was released without charges today after his wife called 911 to say Zimmerman punched his father-in-law in the nose and threatened to shoot him and his wife. 

Zimmerman, acquitted in July of the murder of teenager Trayvon Martin, claimed that he was acting in a "defensive manner" during the incident, according to police. 

Zimmerman was handcuffed and questioned by police in Lake Mary, Fla., according to Lake Mary Police Chief Steve Bracknell. 

He was later released without charges when his wife and father-in-law refused to press charges or give police a sworn statement. Police said they are reviewing surveillance video from the home and reserve the right to file charges later based on the video. 

Shellie Zimmerman called 911 shortly after 2 p.m. today and reported that her husband assaulted her father, Colin Morgan, and was waving a gun around and threatening her and her relatives, according to police in Lake Mary, Fla. 

Lake Mary police took the call "extremely seriously" and sent eight units, including officers in tactical gear with ballistic shields, to the home, according to Bracknell.
In the 911 call, Shellie Zimmerman tells a dispatcher that her husband was in his car raging, adding "he continually has his hand on his gun and he says step closer…" When Shellie Zimmerman trails off the dispatcher asks "step closer and what?" to which Shellie responds "a Step closer and he'd shoot us." 

Zimmerman, who claimed self-defense after he shot and killed Martin, told police in a statement that he was acting in "a defensive manner" during the incident and did not have his hand on his gun, according to Lake Mary police spokesman Zach Hudson. 

Shellie Zimmerman and her father said they do not want to press charges, Bracknell said. Both Shellie's lawyer, Kelly Sims, as well as George Zimmerman's lawyer were at the home, ABC News has learned. 

The 911 tapes describe a terrified Shellie Zimmerman. On the call to a police dispatcher she told police that her husband punched her father in the nose, smashed her iPad, cut it with a pocketknife and raged, "one step closer and he'd shoot us." 

"I don't know what he's capable of. I am really, really scared," she told the dispatcher.

Really? You don't know what he is capable of? You mean you don't know if he's capable of shooting someone who isn't an unarmed black child, don't you?

Roger E.

With all that is being written in praise of Roger Ebert upon his passing---what a great film critic he was (NOT movie reviewer, a HUGE difference), his vocal support of progressive politics, and so on. For me, he most moved me with this piece from his blog in August of 2009: My Name is Roger and I'm an Alcoholic. It had a huge response (almost 1400 comments and still counting) both positive and negative, and is still to me one of the most honest and courageous writings on the subject of recovery from alcoholism I've ever read.

The first sentences of the post set the tone:

In August 1979, I took my last drink. It was about four o'clock on a Saturday afternoon, the hot sun streaming through the windows of my little carriage house on Dickens. I put a glass of scotch and soda down on the living room table, went to bed, and pulled the blankets over my head. I couldn't take it any more.

If you haven't been there, then this passage probably means little to you. If you have, then you can remember the desperation and terror of not being able to stop drinking, and yet knowing you can't continue. He went on further in the post to preemptively answer the charges of violation of the tradition of anonymity thus:

An A.A. meeting usually begins with a recovering alcoholic telling his "drunkalog," the story of his drinking days and how he eventually hit bottom. This blog entry will not be my drunkalog. What's said in the room, stays in the room. You may be wondering, in fact, why I'm violating the A.A. policy of anonymity and outing myself. A.A. is anonymous not because of shame but because of prudence; people who go public with their newly-found sobriety have an alarming tendency to relapse. Case studies: those pathetic celebrities who check into rehab and hold a press conference.

In my case, I haven't taken a drink for 30 years, and this is God's truth: Since the first A.A. meeting I attended, I have never wanted to. Since surgery in July of 2006 I have literally not been able to drink at all. Unless I go insane and start pouring booze into my g-tube, I believe I'm reasonably safe. So consider this blog entry what A.A. calls a "12th step," which means sharing the program with others. There's a chance somebody will read this and take the steps toward sobriety.

Still, the comments are rife with those who take him to task for outing himself in a public forum, but I believe he knew he was closer to the end of his life than the beginning, and he wanted to offer his experience, strength, and hope to those who might be helped. His chance of relapse was certainly small, and at one point he even commented to a criticism of his public statements "Did you miss the part about how I am now physically unable to drink?"

But all that is really beside the point. This was a vital and beautiful bit of "Twelfth Step" work; reaching out to the still suffering alkies, most of whom he would never meet. What a wonderful man! Thanks again for everything, Roger. You are a true hero.

This is taking reality TV too far:

(From Huffington Post)

NEW YORK — "The Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith is scheduled to have a colonoscopy Wednesday, with live reports planned as he undergoes the procedure at a New York hospital.

CBS says it will be the first time an anchor has had a colonoscopy live on network television.

Uh, can we hope this is not a trend, and it will also be the LAST time?

The level of the healthcare debate

(Via Huffington Post)

A particularly outlandish example of a U.S. editorial, printed in the Investor's Business Daily, claimed that renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, who is disabled, "wouldn't have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless."

Hawking, who was born and lives in Britain, personally debunked the claim. "I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS," he told The Guardian newspaper. Investor's Business Daily has since corrected the editorial

I guess you DO have to be a genius to figure this out . . . .

Two words I didn't expect to see widely used in the main stream media:

autoerotic asphyxiation

. . . . and what an embarrassing way to go, grasshopper!

What's in a name?

Just for fun, check out the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator. What would Sarah have named you?

"Stupid, misfortunate placenta"

(Via Metafilter)

If this is what brain damge does for ya, I'll take some!

Adventures in Pixarland

I had a pretty special adventure yesterday, having the opportunity with my voice over training school to visit Pixar Studios in Emeryville, right outside of San Francisco.

The campus there is closed, so it is a rare chance to visit what for me as an aspiring voice actor is a sort of Mecca.



Yes, that's the "Pixar" sign from the inside of the gates.

The building itself is fairly non-descript, looking like a old factory more than anything else. But the inside was very amazing, filled with mementos and examples of animation and models from Ratatouille, Toy Story, Bug's Life, Finding Nemo, and many other of the studio's films. Unfortunately, I didn't feel comfortable bringing my camera into the building, as they were very protective of secrecy in terms of their creative process. Inside was like a grown up amusement park/shopping mall, with video games, people skateboarding, and food and drink for the crew to celebrate the end of the week. If I have to work in heaven, I want it to be at Pixar.

We spent a couple of hours listening to Kevin Rehr, who has been involved with Pixar from the beginning and has worked in various capacities on The Nightmare Before Christmas, Toy Stories I & II, The Gumby Movie, and many other productions. It was a real treat to hear him relate anecdotes from his work, as well as to get a little peek behind the walls of such an amazing place. And to let him know how much I love the fruits of his and the many other Pixar people's labors.

At one point he remarked that there was a fear when they were making Ratatouille that the humor was too dark and sophisticated for younger kids; that the parents and older children would get it, but the 5 and under set might lose interest in it. I got to tell him how much my 4 1/2 years old grand daughter loves it. It is her favorite DVD right now, having supplanted Cars (another Pixar product) as her most watched film. He seemed genuinely happy to hear that.

The whole experience was wonderful, from the friendly guards at the security gates to the clay models and beautiful cartoon murals throughout the facility. One of my fellow students took a picture of me with some of the life (?) sized models from Monsters, Inc., which I hope to get back soon.

Pixar is a class act!

Fox is Fucked!

(Via Crooks and Liars)

At last night’s 59th Annual Emmy Awards, Sally Field, who won Best Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Nora Holden Walker in ABC’s “Brothers and Sisters,” was censored by FOX as she was about to make a point about the Iraq War.

“Surely this [award] belongs to all the mothers of the world. May they be seen, may their work be valued and raised. Especially to the mothers who stand with an open heart and wait. Wait for their children to come home from danger, from harm’s way, and from war. I am proud to be one of those women. If mothers ruled the world, there would be no….“

“…god-damned wars in the first place.”

Field on being censored by Fox: ”I have no comment other than, ‘Oh, well.’ I said what I wanted to say.”

And if truth ruled the world there would be no god-damned Fox!

Einstein's Brain

(Via Neatorama)

After his death in 1955, Einstein’s brain [wiki] was removed - without permission from his family - by Thomas Stoltz Harvey [wiki], the Princeton Hospital pathologist who conducted the autopsy. Harvey took the brain home and kept it in a jar. He was later fired from his job for refusing to relinquish the organ.

Many years later, Harvey, who by then had gotten permission from Hans Albert to study Einstein’s brain, sent slices of Einstein’s brain to various scientists throughout the world. One of these scientists was Marian Diamond of UC Berkeley, who discovered that compared to a normal person, Einstein had significantly more glial cells in the region of the brain that is responsible for synthesizing information.

In another study, Sandra Witelson of McMaster University found that Einstein’s brain lacked a particular "wrinkle" in the brain called the Sylvian fissure. Witelson speculated that this unusual anatomy allowed neurons in Einstein’s brain to communicate better with each other. Other studies had suggested that Einstein’s brain was denser, and that the inferior parietal lobe, which is often associated with mathematical ability, was larger than normal brains.

The saga of Einsteins brain can be quite strange at times: in the early 1990s, Harvey went with freelance writer Michael Paterniti on a cross-country trip to California to meet Einstein’s granddaughter. They drove off from New Jersey in Harvey’s Buick Skylark with Einstein’s brain sloshing inside a jar in the trunk! Paterniti later wrote his experience in the book Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein’s Brain

In 1998, the 85-year-old Harvey delivered Einstein’s brain to Dr. Elliot Krauss, the staff pathologist at Princeton University, the position Harvey once held:

… after safeguarding the brain for decades like it was a holy relic — and, to many, it was — he simply, quietly, gave it away to the pathology department at the nearby University Medical Center at Princeton, the university and town where Einstein spent his last two decades.

"Eventually, you get tired of the responsibility of having it. … I did about a year ago," Harvey said, slowly. "I turned the whole thing over last year [in 1998]."

Just one of 10 Strange Facts About Einstein you'll find here. It seems that Al was quite the lady's man . . . .

Latest Candy Bar

(Thanx and a tip o' the hat to Gabby)

All Anna Nicole Smith, All the Time

(Via Think Progress)

The death of Anna Nicole Smith yesterday was a feeding frenzy for the national media, and coverage of the war was drowned out: NBC’s Nightly News devoted 14 seconds to Iraq compared to 3 minutes and 13 seconds to Anna Nicole. CNN referenced Anna Nicole 522% more frequently than it did Iraq. MSNBC was even worse — 708% more references to Anna Nicole than Iraq.

The lop-sided coverage largely ignored many key developments in Iraq, including the sixth downing of a U.S. helicopter in the past three weeks, the allegations that a deputy Iraqi health minister was aiding a Shiite militia in its attacks against U.S. troops, and the death of four Marines.

(Via Bob Harris)

Condolences to those few directly affected by Anna Nicole Smith's sudden demise.

Still, while CNN and FOX go into 24/7 wall-to-wall dead Playmate mode, here are a few other things they could be talking about today:

• North Korea may agree to disarm its nuclear program.

• Hamas and Fatah have reached an accord giving the Palestinians a united front.

• NATO's top commander in Afghanistan says more troops will be needed to fight the Taliban, but many large NATO nations don't want to send them.

• Iran has just tested a missile which can strike US ships in the Persian Gulf, and they promise to retaliate for any attack. Still, Bush's advisers are pushing for war.

So you can see why Anna Nicole's death is getting all the coverage. Slow news day.

Arnie got his ass kicked . . . .

Before Election . . . . . After Election