- From the “Up Up And Away” Department – The SpaceX Falcon 9 spacecraft has launched and is on its way to the International Space Station. Congratulations to SpaceX on getting something off the ground. I hope that my grandchildren will look at space travel the same way that we look at intercontinental travel now. Of course, that’s what my grandparents hoped too, but this is definite progress.
- From the “Holes in the Desert” Department – Two men are being held by police after being accused of robbing people at a Las Vegas casino. Besides the stupidity of trying to take money away from the people who own casinos in Vegas, these guys need to learn that the chips they tried to steal would probably have been deactivated and worthless by the time they hit the sidewalk, had they been successful. Who’s got the over and under on whether these guys meet with a regrettable automotive accident the next time they try to start their cars?
- From the “Creepy” Department – A vial of President Reagan’s blood, taken after the 1981 assassination attempt, is up for auction. The seller tried to sell it to the Reagan Library and several government agencies, but was unsuccessful. Know what’s creepier? The bidding is up to almost $10,000. I’m a fan of Ronaldus Maximus, but do you really need a 30-year-old blood sample for your scrapbook?
- From the “Aw Hell” Department – A man in California has been arrested after police found that the squirt gun he was carrying had been modified into a single shot shotgun. The police are talking about how alarming it is that you can use a few dollars worth of hardware to make a zip gun. If they’re surprised by that, they ought to talk to anyone who works as a guard at a prison. The improvised weapons I’ve heard about are quite ingenious. Expect calls for licensing squirt guns and using an FFL to buy a squirt gun across state lines in 3…2…1
- From the “Only Minutes Away” Department – A 911 dipatcher in Washington was asleep at the switch recently when a woman called to report that her husband was having trouble breathing. Eventually, another dispatcher got on the line and assisted the woman. Now change that situation to read “Called to report that someone was trying to break into her home” and you’ll understand why I make sure that Irish Woman knows how to get to the guns and how to use them. It’s bozos like this that make the people who are actually trying to be a service to society look like crap. Hopefully he’s fired and finds a new career in the all-night gas station service industry.
News Roundup
Posted by daddybear71 on May 22, 2012
https://daddybearsden.com/2012/05/22/news-roundup-121/
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4 Comments
DaddyBear
DaddyBear’s Den 
Old NFO
/ May 22, 2012Yep, that is one hellva line up! 🙂
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ZerCool
/ May 23, 2012Stories like that one about the dispatcher infuriate me. The next-to-last sentence sums it up nicely, though: “[T]he dispatcher was an experienced uniformed firefighter who was 17 hours into a 24-hour overtime shift.”
Probably a jake who’s on light/limited duty due to an injury, and thinks dispatching is below him. Sleeping when on duty as a firefighter is one thing. Sleeping as a dispatcher? Big no-no.
Additionally, a 24-hour dispatch shift? That’s criminal on the part of the management. Our maximum is 16 hours, and I try hard to avoid those; experience has shown that my decision-making and processing abilities start to slide around 13 hours and are nearly gone at 14-15-16. Makes the drive home interesting, too.
Yes, he’s responsible and should be disciplined – up to and perhaps including termination – but the culture and agency policies need an exam too.
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Jake
/ May 23, 2012Okay, I give up – why would anyone bother stealing the chips? It’s not like they have any value whatsoever outside the casino, right?
Re: The dispatcher – When I was a dispatcher, our longest shift was 12 hours. Frankly, a 24 hour shift for anything where the workload is unpredictable is unacceptable. Not only are you likely to simply fall asleep at the first lull, but simple fatigue can cause life threatening errors. Anything over 12 hours is just asking for trouble.
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daddybear71
/ May 24, 2012Jake and Zercool – Thanks for giving that perspective. Having someone work that long when they have to be able to think and communicate with people who are probably having a hard time thinking and communicating is a bad management practice, and at least some of the blame for this one goes to whoever set up and enforced that schedule.
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