Category: Odds and Ends

Border wars

Amazing coincidence that I hear this story on the Canadian/US American border after posting this.

Ira Glass tells the story of a little-known treaty dispute with far-reaching ramifications for our understanding of executive power. The dispute is between the President and one of his appointees…to the International Boundary Commission with Canada. This little-known commission carried out its function without fanfare or incident for over a hundred years, until a couple of retirees in Washington State built a wall in their backyard and, quite literally, set off an international incident. (23 minutes)

Source: The Prez Vs. The Commish.

Border scar

Who decided to slash through the forest just to denote an artificial border?

http://www.gregorturk.com/49thparallelproject.htm

For 1,270 miles (2,043 km.) a section of the U.S./Canadian border is formed by the 49th parallel. A 20-foot (6 meter) wide clear-cut (or “vista”) demarcates the line along with 912 survey markers. As the world’s longest straight international boundary, this section of the border runs from the Lake of the Woods (Minnesota/Manitoba) to the waters of the Pacific (Washington/British Columbia). In 1992, I traveled by foot and bicycle along and nearby the course of this line. As a result of my travels, a substantial body of artwork and a documentary video were produced. The video is available on DVD for $17 (includes shipping in U.S. & Canada).

Hanging in Chad

Fantastic audio on scamming the 419 scammers.

Three guys who go by the names Professor So and So, Jojobean and YeaWhatever spend part of each day running elaborate cons on Internet scammers. They consider themselves enforcers of justice, even after they send a man 1400 miles from home, to the least safe place they can bait him: The border of Darfur. The three self-made enforcers tell Ira their story. For more on what they did, along with photos, maps and phone recordings, go here.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/363/enforcers/act-one

419 scambaiting forum

The power of the thick blue line

You will be crushed if you speak out against the police brotherhood – and are a policeman. The consequences are dire and may even be fatal.

For 17 months, New York police officer Adrian Schoolcraft recorded himself and his fellow officers on the job, including their supervisors ordering them to do all sorts of things that police aren’t supposed to do. For example, downgrading real crimes into lesser ones, so they wouldn’t show up in the crime statistics and make their precinct look bad. Adrian’s story first appeared as a five part series in the Village Voice, written by Graham Rayman. (41 minutes)

Source: Is That a Tape Recorder in Your Pocket, or Are You Just Unhappy to See Me?

Big bucks no whammies!

Fascinating tale as told on This American Life 412 about a man, Michael Larson, who figured out how to win at a TV game show that I used to watch.

Apparently it was the beginning of a long line of get rich quick schemes that he used, but ultimately failed at.

 

Here’s the anniversary edition:

I wonder now, with all the publicity, if the whole Michael Larson incident was staged.

Niagara Falls are fake – or at least not 100% natural (real)

The falls are very engineered and far from their natural form.

Niagara Falls might be at its most spectacular in winter. Over the recent holidays, the icy cascade captured the public’s imagination: numerous newspapers ran stories about the frozen wonderland, and social media posts about the falls were widely shared.

Source: How Niagara Falls is a wonder of natural — and artificial — beauty | Toronto Star

Thanks – I think

these guys look like proud parents

While I am grateful that are borders are guarded from the barbarians at the gate (Americans?), I scratch my head and wonder if this “seizure” of “illegal” drugs is something to crow about – as if a cure for cancer was found.

Rook went on to point out how significant the drug seizure was: “I want to stress to you just how big it is. If this cocaine were street ready, it would have been enough for over 100,000 hits.”

The CBSA’s Kim R. Scoville praised the officers for keeping dangerous drugs from entering Canada, “Had this quantity of illicit narcotics made its way into our communities undetected, the impact could have been devastating. The CBSA is truly Canada’s first line of defence, and this record seizure is a prime example of how frontline officers are actively protecting Canadians every day.“

Source: Record-breaking $8 million worth of cocaine seized from semi at Canadian border | CDLLife

Of course, I’m not even sure if the story is true, but it makes you wonder if they saved all these “victims” from a certain euphoria – and perhaps destined for looking for hits from legal pharma sold out of peoples’ medicine chest excesses?