the auction is over, warren gets lunch.
man, that’s some serious snackage.
bid history is interesting:
Jul-05-04 18:42:05 PDT US $202,100.00 jchoo9
Jul-05-04 19:50:03 PDT US $202,000.00 mpabrai
Jul-05-04 19:49:53 PDT US $200,000.00 mpabrai
Jul-05-04 19:49:44 PDT US $175,000.00 mpabrai
Jul-05-04 18:09:54 PDT US $100,000.00 mpabrai
Jul-05-04 17:14:45 PDT US $55,000.00 jchoo9
Jun-29-04 19:42:49 PDT US $50,099.98 mpabrai
Jun-29-04 19:27:18 PDT US $49,999.98 adotutu
Jun-29-04 19:42:15 PDT US $49,900.00 mpabrai
Jun-29-04 11:44:37 PDT US $45,000.00 mpabrai
Jun-29-04 19:25:59 PDT US $39,999.99 adotutu
posted by roj at 12:59 am
every once in a while you run across a “tree hits car” story, and reading that a 7-year-old kid is trying to buy a gun manufacturer definitely fits into that category… brandon maxfield is trying to buy the manufacturer of the gun that made him a quadriplegic:
A child paralyzed as a result of Bryco Arms’ defective gun design has raised enough money to make an initial bid to shut down the gun factory and prevent 75,000 defective guns from hitting the streets. With the support of its many donors, Brandon’s Arms will offer an initial bid today of $175,000 to a Florida federal bankruptcy judge.
it’s a little deeper story, but i want to highlight a little bit from an ap story on the story…
Bryco founder Bruce Jennings and his Nevada-based distribution company were ordered to pay $24 million of a $51 million judgment in Maxfield’s lawsuit. Maxfield has received $8.7 million none of it from Jennings or Bryco from others named in the suit.
Days after the verdict, Jennings moved across the country to Florida, where he purchased a $500,000 annuity and a $900,000 home and hangar in Daytona Beach. He filed both for personal bankruptcy and bankruptcy for Bryco in Florida, where state law allows debtors to keep their houses.
Jennings also reportedly owns a Lamborghini and other expensive cars and aircraft, which Maxfield’s attorneys are pursuing.
it’s going to be a rare moment, but in this case, the meta-roj blog applauds the attorneys. that comes with the caveat: brandon’s lawyers better not end up owning lamborghini’s when this is all over. do the right thing.
drop by brandon’s arms for more on the story and yet another amazing kid doing something in this world.
update: brandon is outbid
posted by roj at 12:44 am
A judge on Friday dismissed all charges against five anti-war activists who were arrested last year on their way to President Bush’s ranch.
The five were convicted in February of violating the city’s protest ordinance and fined $200 to $500. But McLennan County Judge Tom Ragland ruled the ordinance was overly broad and violated the First Amendment.
The ordinance required 15 days’ notice and a $25 fee before the police chief could issue a permit for a protest. Crawford officials have since amended the ordinance to require seven days of notice.
we talked about the convictions here earlier, it’s nice to see someone in the machine can still read the constitution.
posted by roj at 12:29 am
a local [orlando-area] domestic security task force is recommending training “firefighters and other workers who regularly go into homes to report terrorist activity they see on the job.”
just an aside, it’s been a long time since i’ve had a firefighter in my home – at least one on duty.
they’re also interested in drugs and sex.
A brochure for the Citizen Awareness Program says a potential sign of international terrorism activity could be “multiple adult males living together, usually of Middle Eastern appearance and between the ages of 18 and 45, with little or no furnishings.”
…
Signs of narcotics use, according to the Sheriff’s Office brochure, include “unusual power bills, high or large spikes in usage,” as well as “unusual odors or chemicals present.”
Indicators of sexual predators of children include “large collections of untitled video tapes or tapes with sexually explicit titles,” sexually explicit literature or “tape, rope, handcuffs, or wire, usually kept in a garage that may be hidden in a closet,” the brochure warns.
so the wars on sex, drugs and porn are going well in florida. once everyone’s either an informant or in jail, we’ll all be safe.
posted by roj at 6:12 am
[with apologies to bo diddley, fire up some deep blues riffs while you read this]
i’m picking this up a bit late, but trust is always an interesting subject.
A consumer-focused study conducted by the Ponemon Institute and the nonprofit TRUSTe reveals that eBay is the most trusted company for privacy in America. Other companies listed in the top ten include (in descending order) American Express, Procter & Gamble (all brands), Amazon, Hewlett Packard, U.S. Postal Service, IBM, Earthlink, Citibank and Dell.
so does this survey measure trustworthiness or the ability of a company to manage perception?
posted by roj at 5:46 am
“We teach doctors how to be a good doctor to kids”
just another amazing kid story… i’ve got a lot of personal reasons for being interested in the role of “patient advocate” in this modern american medical system, so when a 9-year-old does something about it, it’s an important thing to notice.
madison wrote a book. that book is available online [pdf].
madison’s foundation has all the details.
for more, good morning america did a story on madison over here.
posted by roj at 5:39 am
Payroll records of “numerous service members, ” including Bush, were ruined in 1996 and 1997 during a project to salvage deteriorating microfilm by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, the newspaper [the New York Times] said, citing the Pentagon
well, i guess these sorts of things happen once in a while. in the meantime, since you can’t read those records, maybe you’d like to read an analysis of the records that are available.
posted by roj at 5:04 am
in stark contrast to the meta-roj music store which is still entirely vapor (although investors are welcome), they might be giants have a real music store. real, as in, up and running and taking your money and producing bits.
what’s interesting is that tmbg seems to have realized the value of distribution on the net without drm. of course, the industry will tell you that they’ll be out of business in weeks as everything they put up gets scooped up into pirate networks and sucks all the listeners away from their own (costly) option.
i’ll tell you that loyal tmbg fans will be back for more.
and i’ll also tell you that the revenue-split on the 99-cent tracks and $9.99 albums is much better in this store than it is on, for example, itunes. at least as far as the musicians are concerned.
posted by roj at 4:24 am
wired has the story, anil nailed the nigritude ultramarine search-engine gaming contest.
i’m at #389 at the moment, with this. which is ok. i’m comfortable with that, because i PWN polyphenyls still.
posted by roj at 4:14 am
Dan Chappell, known to listeners of radio station KHFI as “Lunchbox,” walked around the store narrating events on air using a phone before buying a pack of gum and leaving. He was arrested a short distance from the store, police said.
Chappell, 22, was charged with making a terrorist threat and faces up to a year in jail and up to a $4,000 fine. He did not immediately return a phone message Thursday.
Although no verbal threats were made, store clerk Atif Akhlaque said he thought he was going to be robbed and pressed the silent alarm.
stupid? definitely. terrorist? you have got to be kidding me.
posted by roj at 7:07 pm