Saturday, August 30, 2008

Verlaine May Powless

UPDATE: A stop light has been added to this crosswalk recently.

19 y/o Verlain May Powless was struck and killed on July 25 2008 at 8:45PM while crossing South Las Vegas Blvd at Wigwam. The driver, a Detroit Michigan man, is in Clark County Jail awaiting manslaughter charges. Verlaine was in a pedestrian crosswalk that is marked with flashing yellow lights in each direction to warn drivers of the pedestrians in the area. Apparently one car stopped and as she crossed in front of it a second car went around the first one stricking Verlaine and killing her instantly.

I "HAD"

They demonstrators were using the crosswalk to stop traffic on Las Vegas Bld by conducting a round robin in the crosswalk from one side to the other. After a short time it was obvious that the tension between the demonstrators and the drivers was increasing quickly. There were shoving matches between drivers and demonstrators and one demonstrator was bumped by a vehicle. Keep in mind the the set up for this is that any pedestrian, protestor or not, has the right of way while in the walkway. Of that there is no doubt.

Before long the police showed up and you could tell they were unsure what to do. After a few moments they developed a plan and here you can see therm starting to impliment it:
Formulating a plan

Their plan, a smart one in my opinion, was to allow the protestors to block traffic for a few moments so long as they did not linger on the walkway, then they would allow traffic to flow for a bit. Then the protestors were allowed to shut it down again.

More crossings

LVMPD

Standing guard
An officer stands guard as they begin to allow trafficto flow.

Potester
A demonstrator displays pictures of 19y/o victim Verlaine MAy Powless.
More crossings

Shut down
Officers escorting demonstrators as they shut down South Las Vegas Blvd.
Friends

Concerned Citizen

News Media

Star Trek:The Experience

I'm not sure why my pictures did not embed correctly on this post and I'm too lazy to fix it....If you want to see them you just need to click on the links for the missing ones.



We should have went as soon as we heard it was closing.....such is life. Most of the stores were closed. A t shirt would have been nice.

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This is the entrance to Quarks Restaurant. We almost did not eat there because the line was pretty long, but as we were leaving we noticed that the line had all but dissapeared so we went in. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Lets start at the begining.
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This is the bar that sits outside the enterance to Star Trek:The Experience:
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Probably one of my favorite characters on Star Trek is Q seen below:
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This drink is called Warp Core Breach.

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This drink is called the James Tea Kirk.

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A Klingon Female.

IMG_5105A Frengi got loose in the restaurant.

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There were also two rides at The Experience. The line for the "Borg Invasion 4D". If you have ever been to Universal Studion and gone on the Terminator Ride you know what this ride was like. It was a mix of live acting and video 3D effects. All in all it was a good ride.

The second ride was Klingon Experience. The line for this was huge. Originally we had decided to skip it(we are not big on standing in lines). Later though the line was much shorter and we decided to go in. Having been on the ride we now know why the ride was soooo long. Again from Universal Studios, if you have ever been there, it compares to the "Back To The Future" ride there. Very intense and well done.


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Hundreds of people left notes on the wall to let the Hilton management know what they thought about Star Trek: The Experience closing down.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

I thought this was funny!

"HOW ELECTRICITY REALLY WORKS!"

A sheet of paper crossed my desk the other day and as I read it, realization of a basic truth came to me. So simple! So obvious we couldn't see it! Professor Leo Martin of Hiawatha Electric Division had discovered how electronic circuits really work. He says that smoke is the real thing that makes electric circuits work because every time you let the smoke out of the circuit, it quits working. He claims to have verified this fact with thorough laboratory testing.
I was flabbergasted! Of course! Smoke makes all things that are electronic work. Remember the last time smoke escaped from a capacitor? Didn't it quit working? I sat and smiled like an idiot as more of the facts became apparent. I remembered when I had witnessed the awful destruction of an EV-1 transformer. The transformer leaked out so much smoke that it cracked and stopped working.
Yes, I now know that Leo's theory is in fact truth. It's the conductor that carries the smoke from one electronic device to the next. It begins with the battery charger which pumps smoke into the battery. The smoke is then sent to the lift truck via the heavy power cables. The lift truck requires large amounts of smoke to operate, this is why the conductors cables are so large. If these cables spring a leak, it lets the smoke out and the lift truck will stop working.
WOW, WHAT A BREAKTHROUGH!!

Courtesy of this site.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Stardate 62112.9

The Star Trek Experience at the Hilton is closing Sept 1st (Stardate 62134.8)because they can not settle on a new contract. Despite the fact that it has been one of the longest running , most profitable shows in Vegas. Well ok, its not really a "show", but still. I had been planning on going but at $33 a person for Nevada residents it is a bit pricey. Its not that we couldn't afford to go, it was a question of value for the money. But since it is closing AND because sent us the money to go(thanks Betty) we are going to go today. I've always been a Trekkie at heart. Although a bit dated by todays standards, I still enjoy the original Star Trek series and to a greater degree Star Trek TNG. Soon our landing party will be departing for the surface of the Hilton Resort located on the planet Earth. I will be posting holographic images from our trip to the surface.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Live and learn

I learned a new way to "enhance" photos in Photoshop.
Here is the before picture:
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All in all not a bad picture. Good contrast, exposure, and color.

Here it is after the "orton" blur is applied:

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I think its a nice change. Its only my first try at this method, so hopefully I'll get better with more practice.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

It has been quite a week


for the esteemed Mayor of Detroit. The so called "Hip Hop" mayor. He has spent a night in jail for violating his bond conditions that were imposed upon him during his release on 8 charges obstruction of justice and perjury. He now is wearing a tether to ensure that he meets his new bond conditions. Upon being released from jail he was charged with 2 counts of felonious assault on a peace officer resulting from his alleged shoving of two police officers who were trying to serve a subpoena. All together he is facing 10 felony counts that could put him behind bars for over a decade.

Detroit must be very proud!!!
Really we all know its just another example of the "man" trying to keep him down......

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Time to find another job....

Karen is working at
1. Bed and Bath
2. Lane Bryant
She was also hired at the Jocky store last week and will start there in about a week.
The managaer at the Coach store asked her to come work for him.
Tonight while getting ready for work at Bed and Bath, the M & M store called her to come in for an interview, and they pay the highest so far. Its not too bad when you get to pick and choose the jobs you want.
We did see an add for jobs at "In & Out", which is a burger joint, for $10/hour which seems pretty good for flipping burgers. I think Karen is more suited to working retail that slaving in a hot kitchen all day though.

I need another job now so she isn't beating me. Especially since it has been soooo slow at my work this week. I have yet to get in 8 hours on any day this week. If that keeps up Karen will have to get a fourth job.....lol All kiding aside, thats just the way this job goes. Next week we will not be able to keep up. We do have a guy going on vacation so that should help some. In addition we have just gotten another large fleet account so that should help some too. Its been my experience that we get a slow week(though never THIS slow) and then get slammed for the next month.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Clark County Wetlands Preserve

On Saturday Karen and I decided to scope out the eastern side of Vegas. I kind of also wanted to see if I could locate the C.C. Wetlands Preserve. I knew it was off of Tropicana, but I wasn't sure where. We eventually found it and decided that neither of us were ready to go hiking at that time as it was in the afternoon and very hot out. On the way though, we did discover something that we have not seen in Vegas before, a party store:
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Karen asked the clerk about the lack of party stores in Vegas and she asked us what part of town we lived in. When Karen told her she laughed and said you wouldn't find any in that part of town.....

We continued on that day to Lake Las Vegas. Lake Las Vegas has recently filed for Bankruptcy with bedts estimated at between 500 million and 1 billion dollars.
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Sunday I finally made it out the the Clark County Wetlands Preserve. I must say it is a pretty nice park. I spent about 2 hours out there. About 11AM it just became too hot!
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As shown below the park is in the middle of renovation:
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It somewhat reminded me of Crosswinds Marsh back in Michigan, albeit much smaller.
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It is actually part of the Las Vegas Wash. It was created to help control and clean the water that comes through the wash:
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This is a Great Egret flying and in the backgroud is what I believe to be a Snowy Egret:
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Below is a Great Egret just about to land:
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Here is a Blue Heron and the Great Egret.
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Here are some Glossy Ibis landing in the mash area:
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Here is a closer shot of the Blue Heron:
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I really only explored about half of the park. There are quite a few trails available, most of which I missed this time.

I also spotted a hummmingbird, many swallows, and some sort of raptor/bird of prey that was greyish in color. I was un able to get pictures of any of them.

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