Another day that is hot and humid, with some chance of rain. Didn’t rain yesterday but it sure was humid again.
Spent the morning cleaning and moving stuff, and the afternoon with D2 rearranging her room. She likes the result, and it is the end of several projects. We measured and modeled her room and furniture in Sketchup, we assembled a flat pack bookcase and painted it with her running a mini screw gun, and I turned an old VHS tape storage tower into a display for some of her small Lego kits. Took quite a bit longer to do all that than I thought it would. Then again, by the time we got home from school, and before having to start dinner, didn’t really leave a whole lot of time, and I lost a couple of Mondays to vacation and no school days. Not sure what the next project will be, maybe getting one of the 3D printers running.
Today I’ve got pickups and drop offs. And if I have time some work on my client’s project paperwork, or some more Halloween decor. Unless it rains.
And on Thursday I need to pick up in Austin. I won the parts truck in the auction out there. I’ve got all the stuff I’ll need for my Ranger, for a long time or until I sell the leftovers. Freaking tailgate is $400-600 and I got the whole truck for less than that. It’s everything the shop needs to fix my truck, and then some. Maybe I’ll offer it to them.
In any case, I’ll be busy this week. Moreso than normal.
Don’t know how much stacking I’ll do, other than the truck stuff. I’m starting to get nervous about seeds and fertilizer. I need to find time to hit up the Home Depot garden center. Like every other project going, the fall garden is looming.
So do as I say, not as I’ve been barely able to do… and keep stacking.
nick
74F and 96%RH. Tired. very tired. But time to make the donuts.
n
Used to ride my bike thru Dolton. Was about 95% white. I'm guessing that's not the case anymore. Anyone else think their relationship is closer than "ex-campaign worker."?
n
More details.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10130815/On-set-medic-Rust-reveals-heard-loud-shot-immediately-knew-wrong.html
n
@Nick
"The actor doesn’t have any authority to take corrective action."
If the actor is in a position to know that the safety protocols on the set have been compromised, and he is handed a weapon that is not shown to him to be COLD, then he can certainly take corrective action: Put it down and ask for it to be transferred properly.
You had no comment on my fix: Put it in his mouth and pull the trigger. Make the actor the beneficiary of any problem. Under your "rules" no one in Hollywood should have any objection. 3-4 seconds max. In parallel for large ensemble shots. Could have official music, or maybe just use Lawrence Welk: "A one, and a two, and a three…"
Big, big PR push to support poor Alec. "Experts" coming out all over opining that he won't be charged. That phone call that he made to his attorney sure resulted in corrective action.
Dolton is the next town over from Harvey, home of the Dixie Square Mall, which stood for over 30 years after the interior was effectively demolished for "The Blues Brothers". Yeah, I'd say that the demographics have changed in the area.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDlTHs1sPm0
The Interwebs has interesting material on the fate of the mall and the surrounding area. At one point, the school board, who inherited the property and held classes in one of the abandoned anchors even tried suing Universal Studios.
I took a serious look at getting footage of the building at the request of friends in Florida when I drove west in 2010, but, after researching the place, I came to the conclusion that just rolling through the parking lot during daylight hours wasn't a good idea.
I turned west at the giant Walgreens warehouse and stopped in Fairview Heights instead. Whether or not it was a good idea to spend the night there in general, I was safe. Within a couple of years, however, two significant violent race incidents, which made national wires, happened within walking distance of my hotel.
Illinois is in trouble in general. The big bailout in the Spring bought the state some time, but they will need another cash infusion before Congress changes hands. I wonder where the money will be hidden. Infrastructure?
"The actor doesn’t have any authority to take corrective action."
If the actor is in a position to know that the safety protocols on the set have been compromised, and he is handed a weapon that is not shown to him to be COLD, then he can certainly take corrective action: Put it down and ask for it to be transferred properly.
— That isn't corrective action. Again, common usage vs the legal. Corrective action for safety protocols not being followed was demonstrated in the stories of the AD being fired along with the armorer on a PREVIOUS set. He, the actor, has no authority to take that action and is therefore NOT a "competent person" under the statue. He has to both recognize the hazard, AND have the authority to correct it.
He can't order anyone to do anything. He can't direct them to do anything. He can ask that the prop be shown to be clear, but he can't do it himself. He can't order the prop master to do it. The janitor doesn't have any legal responsibility when the CEO is embezzling. The janitor can't order the CEO to open the books.
It 'corrects' a problem, that he missed seeing the prop being demonstrated as clear but it doesn't correct the HAZARD of incorrectly followed rules.
For an example of this, just read the statements. Crew members that WERE NOT in the chain of command of the Property Master, and therefore who lack authority to correct the hazard, filed complaints with THEIR chain of command and upwards on this and previous productions. Some of them took the ultimate step of removing themselves from the situation, one that is always available.
Tatgrrl should have been fired and escorted from set after the first unexpected discharge, like the AD and armorer had been on a previous production. THAT would have been 'corrective action' for not following the bulletins. TBB acting as Producer could have done that. He could have insisted that the bulletins be followed to the letter from that point on, if the stuntman caused the discharge, or the gun was found to have a problem without firing Tatgrrl.
As to your 'solution' I didn't think it needed any comment. As long as you are willing to personally be responsible for any bad outcome that results from your order, have at it. But based on my experience there is no shortage of people in Hollywood that would be happy to comply.
n
For an 11:33 time sink today you can watch a video of my trip to Germany and Norway in April 2013.
http://www.raymondthompsonphotography.com/Europe_2013.mp4
Enjoy, or not.
As a minimum, the entire Rust production should be hit with a massive fine for gross negligence. I expect Mr. Nick is right and the killing will be ruled a workplace accident. The safety rules are wrong if a real gub is being used. All should be trained in its use and checked before use from the armourer to the actor. The current rules were followed and a woman was killed. Not the first time this has happened.
The current rules were followed and a woman was killed. Not the first time this has happened.
–the current rules WERE NOT FOLLOWED. Tatgrrl broke so many of them you need to write down the list to keep it straight.
Aesop says '29' and I haven't double checked the number against the rules but you could summarize by saying "most of them."
The AD broke the rules. TBB did not, as far as we know from the statements released.
We also 'know' from statements that the AD has a history of playing fast and loose with safety. He was fired for a discharge on another production. The production company for this movie was going a low budget route, and you can't really do that without cutting corners, hence the distant location with non-union crew. It doesn't mean the crew is bad, but the low pay means they are all some degree of desperate. In normal times it's because they are f#ck ups, no talents, dangerous, has beens, or haven't yet beens. Given the shutdown for chinkyflu a lot of talented good people are desperate.
The AD seems to be all sorts of bad, and at least some of that had to be known to the people who hired him. "Hey man, we need to ram thru this schedule, without a lot of nonsense like crossing every t and dotting every i, are you cool with that???" "Why yes sir, I can do that…"
He's been characterized as impulsive, demanding, and willing to exceed his authority. So why not hire an inexperienced girl to run guns, she'll be easy to bully into breaking the rules, if she even knows better, with her massive resume' of ONE film.
——————————————————————————————–
There is enough fail in this story to go around, but we can't afford to fall into the same behaviour as our enemies when they howl for the blood of Kyle Rittenhouse, or the McKluskys and want to ignore the law because they hate the accused or what he stands for. We're supposed to be the side of blind justice, equality under the law, etc.
There's an uncomfortable to me amount of "we caught you this time you witch! Burn the witch!" in a lot of the comments (mostly elsewhere, but here as well).
If it's as cut and dried as "he pulled the trigger, he killed her" why have a trial or investigation at all? Drag him out back and shoot him in the chest. Save the time and effort. Then do Kyle too. And any cop who ever shot anyone, any shopkeeper, any homeowner, in fact, just owning a gun makes them suspect, don't you think? Who'd own a killing device like that if they didn't intend to use it. We need to act to save the lives they're going to take. It's win-win, we eliminate a threat, AND save all those lives.
And f#ck all those doctors too. You know how many of them kill people? At LEAST 250K deaths a year in the US alone from medical malpractice. We could save all those lives too.
It's gonna take a while to shoot them all one by one, so we better come up with a more efficient way to do it…. hmm, maybe there's some way to do it in groups.
I've noticed that most of those killer doctors are jews or wasps too. And they have degrees which makes them intellectuals…. maybe we better round up a few of those guys too. And their kids. If we leave the kids to grow up they'll just come after us in 10 years or 15…
It doesn't take long. Historically only a few years.
n
And now that I've gone all Godwin, I need to leave the room and do some work. Sorry about that.
n
re: Dolton and Fairview Heights
You confused me. They are 300 miles apart, both still in Illinois. One's a Chicago area suburb, one's a St. Louis, Missouri suburb. Fairview Heights is one of the white flight destinations from the decline of East St. Louis, Illinois. Fairview borders one of the worst crime cities in Illinois. Per capita, possibly worse than Chicago.
I grew up near there, and worked in Fairview Heights for 11 years.
Before I go,
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10131519/Electrician-describes-harrowing-moment-held-dying-Halyna-Hutchins-arms-shot.html
more comes out. I'd like to add that there were a bunch of people in that room. ANY of them could have spoken up about safety issues and ASKED that they be shown that the gun was cold. None of them but the propmaster, the armorer, and the directors had the AUTHORITY to do anything other than ask, but none of them asked either. That will likely haunt them for the rest of their lives too.
n
Ok, and this
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10130367/Investigators-recover-ammunition-Baldwin-movie-shooting-scene.html
Alas, we only know what is being published. We'll have to wait for the investigation. None of us were there. We'll have to disagree on all checking a real gub before it's use. A failsafe that probably would have saved the woman.
More info
https://hotair.com/allahpundit/2021/10/26/report-crew-members-on-baldwin-set-were-plinking-the-morning-of-the-shooting-n424873
Instead of driving to Harvey to look at the mall and heading out from there, I turned west at Walgreens HQ in Mount Vernon and spent the night in Fairview Heights.
I knew better than to stop closer to St. Louis, but the cr*p has obviously spread out further in the last decade.
Ok before I go out for real.
I have direct experience with some of these issues. I have acted as the company's safety officer on site. I wrote the OSHA required On Site Safety Policy, and our Working at Heights safety policy, and our Site Specific Rescue Plan on a multi million dollar project. Workplace safety is a whole field of study with accredited professionals. IT IS DIFFERENT from non-workplace safety concerns. I learned a lot about "competent persons" as a term of art for safety compliance, and it's sister "responsible persons". I WAS the 'competent person' as I had both the knowledge and the authority to act.
In a different position, I walked off a low budget, non-union made for tv production in San Diego for safety reasons. I discovered that I didn't actually have the authority I should have had in the position I was hired for. I was countermanded by my boss, the Department Head, on safety issues more than once. I had the responsibility to my crew to keep them safe, I had the knowledge to do so, but when push came to shove, I didn't have the authority. I packed my stuff and walked out that day. THAT is the final option. Remove yourself from the danger. I explained to my crew why I left, and encouraged them to leave the situation too. They were both desperate for the work and income. They literally needed it to eat. Non-union low budget productions (like any similar business) count on people like that not having choices, or they find guys like my boss who were willing to cut the corners. Although in his case, brain damage from years of alcohol abuse was a contributing factor. His short term memory was shot as one example. I mean that he didn't know where he was or what he was doing some times. Both of my crew were seriously injured on the job, one electrocuted and hospitalized for days because of it. The production eventually 'went union' and craftspeople from LA were brought on board because of poor working conditions overall. The department I was working for was left unchanged, which turned out to be a very bad choice.
Which brings me to another point. The people you get to work long hours in sh!tty conditions are not always the cream of the crop. Sometimes they are the guy who still takes your calls or the guy who answered the phone at the 106th number you tried. You learn to get whatever work out of those guys that you can, because they are what you have.
I did a special for a cable channel *cough* as a set carpenter. One of the other crew guys was a low functioning alcoholic. He drank a liter of Popov (super cheap vodka) every night and was so hung over and confused the next day you could not give him anything to do until after noon. For the next 5-8 hours he worked pretty well. Any longer than that and the need for a drink wiped him out. I am proud that I got good work out of that guy on the project. I also made sure not to give him any job that could end up hurting someone.
And on the same job I flat refused to do work that I thought would endanger our crew performers or audience. I had the authority to refuse the Art Director and did, despite what it did to my future prospects with him or the production company. MY boss backed me up. I was the expert. My boss was expert not at building scenery, but at GETTING it built. The Art Director did not have the authority to direct ME. We were all working in the Art Department, but all in our own areas, doing our own jobs.
—————————
When they depose all the other people that were on set when the accident happened, most of them will probably just be able to talk about their surprise when there was a loud bang. Everything leading up to that, most of them would have been doing their jobs, and focused on that. You learn to do your job regardless of the organized chaos around you, and trust that the others are doing theirs as well. Even on a 3 week shoot it becomes quickly apparent who can do the work and who can't.
n
We'll have to disagree on all checking a real gub before it's use.
— no disagreement at all. The difference is that on set, it's not the actors responsibility or job, nor are they qualified to do so, nor can they typically be made to be qualified in the time available. You do not want the monkeys poking at the prop. REALLY can't emphasize that enough. They are the kind of people that think putting a blank in a prop to "surprise" or "scare" people as a joke is funny.
In this case, Tatgrrl should have DEMONSTRATED for any interested party on set that the PROP was 'cold' and harmless. The AD should have witnessed that at a minimum, since some of the statements indicated they were relying on him as a final countercheck. It should not have left her custody until handed to the actor on set, JUST before it was needed. The AD shouldn't have handled the PROP at all on most sets, certainly not announcing that it was 'cold' unless he'd PERSONALLY done the check or witnessed it and it had been in HIS custody every moment since then.
Once it goes thru the armorer and the Prop Master, IN THAT PLACE AND IN THAT TIME, it's NOT a "real" gun. It's a gun-like tool to support the fantasy being created by the movie team.
That it caused a fatality and injury beyond pinched finger is BECAUSE the mandatory rules for checks weren't followed.
n
aw ffs, now I'm two hours late.
n
Consider that you do the opposite when you take a new shooter to the range the first time and introduce them to guns. You VERY DELIBERATELY load the gun with one round, keep custody until it's actually time to shoot, give them the gun and watch them like a hawk watching hamsters, and retrieve the gun immediately after, and confirm it's unloaded and safe… before proceeding.
n
The last person to handle the prop confirms that it is in a non-lethal state, hands it to the actor, watches them closely to make sure they don't put it into a lethal state, and then takes it back immediately when it's no longer needed for the shot. All that failed to happen in this case.
"Federal Government Collected Record Taxes in Fiscal 2021"
https://www.cnsnews.com/article/washington/terence-p-jeffrey/federal-government-collected-record-taxes-fiscal-2021
"(CNSNews.com) – The federal government collected a record $4,045,979,000,000 in taxes in fiscal 2021, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement for September, which is the final month of the federal fiscal year."
"Federal spending also hit a nominal high of $6,818,158,000,000 in fiscal 2021, up from the $6,551,872,000,000 that the federal government spent in fiscal 2020. However, when the $6,551,872,000,000 the federal government spent last year is adjusted for inflation from September 2020 dollars into September 2021 dollars it equals $6,905,040,760,000—thus, exceeding this fiscal year’s total of $6,818,158,000,000."
And the dumbrocrats want More, More, More !
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
I guess my last response was consumed by the ISE.
Summary: more sources are coming out (other than Liotta) that the actor should see the weapon opened. I don't know the rules, but anytime a *lethal* weapon is being used, the actor should be responsible to view the load. Rewrite the rules to include this and make it standard in the future. Again, if you are going to use a real *lethal* gub, responsibility is from armourer to actor.
In other news, plugs if confident the new almost $2 trillion "Build Back Worse" bill will pass. There is so much pork in this thing its ridiculous. Anything that starts with "climate…" should be eliminated. Our Congress is a joke. Even Musk is saying taxing billionaires will lead to taxing joe dirt when the money runs out.
If you boys don't quit bickering there'll be no fruit cup for you tonight.
Illinois is in trouble in general. The big bailout in the Spring bought the state some time, but they will need another cash infusion before Congress changes hands. I wonder where the money will be hidden. Infrastructure?
"Chicago poised to create one of the nation’s largest ‘guaranteed basic income’ programs"
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/chicago-poised-to-create-one-of-the-nation-e2-80-99s-largest-e2-80-98guaranteed-basic-income-e2-80-99-programs/ar-AAPWygB?ocid=uxbndlbing
"The Chicago City Council is poised to vote this week on what would be one of the nation’s largest basic income programs, giving 5,000 low-income households $500 per month each using federal funding from the pandemic stimulus package enacted this year."
Funny, they don't act like they are broke. Chicago has money to give away.
I guess you never read the *discussions* with Robert about FLASHLIGHTS, or LINUX. Lots of time there is disagreement, civil discussion, never changes anyone's position, but it is interesting.
I know nothing about gubs on movie sets. I do know a little about gubs in a personal environment. Lesson learned one time when I was 16. I looked down the barrel of my .22 rifle. I *KNEW* the gun was unloaded and thought about pulling the trigger, just because. I looked away, just because, and pulled the trigger. I have a small scar on my ear from the slug that went whizzing by the right ear.
Since that incident anytime I was handed a gub I treated it as loaded and would check it myself. Even if I saw someone unload the weapon, when I was handed the weapon I checked it myself. Same as I do at the bank when handed money, I always count it again, on the counter, in front of the teller, even though I saw the teller count the money. When something important changes hands it is up to the receiver to verify the state of the items.
Whether actors are that smart, up for debate.
Sure, someone will cover the pension obligations. They always do.
Pulled forward from yesterday.
The film has 12 producers, about half are “executive producers”, which probably means they either provided the money or arranged to get it.
Most of the time, the producers aren’t on set and many times not even in the same state. The “line producer” is the one that is around each day. They are responsible for HR, budget, and schedule oversight on a day-to-day basis. All the department heads report to the line producer. In effect, the other producers are the “board of directors” and the line producer is the CEO.
My brother worked on a bunch of films that the Weinsteins produced. He saw Harvey once and one of his sons once.
More info
https://hotair.com/allahpundit/2021/10/26/report-crew-members-on-baldwin-set-were-plinking-the-morning-of-the-shooting-n424873
If no one else, the set armorer has a major problem. The prop guns should have never been used for target practice. If she was not strong enough to stop this then she should have quit.
And the set armorer probably did not unload the gun after the target practice. That is a big time violation of common sense. If the armorer did not know that they were using the prop guns for target practice then oh my.
"Drive Failure Over Time: The Bathtub Curve Is Leaking"
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/drive-failure-over-time-the-bathtub-curve-is-leaking/
"As noted earlier, back in 2013, the 80% of the drives installed would be expected to survive four years. That fell to 50% after six years. In 2021, the life expectancy of a hard drive being alive at six years is 88%. That’s a substantial increase, but it basically comes down to the fact that hard drives are failing less in our system. We think it is a combination of better drives, better storage servers, and better practices by our data center teams."
So, today's hard drives are better than hard drives just from six years ago. I wonder what will happen when all of the helium drives start hitting their five year life ?
"Drive Failure Over Time: The Bathtub Curve Is Leaking"
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/drive-failure-over-time-the-bathtub-curve-is-leaking/
"As noted earlier, back in 2013, the 80% of the drives installed would be expected to survive four years. That fell to 50% after six years. In 2021, the life expectancy of a hard drive being alive at six years is 88%. That’s a substantial increase, but it basically comes down to the fact that hard drives are failing less in our system. We think it is a combination of better drives, better storage servers, and better practices by our data center teams."
So, today's hard drives are better than hard drives just from six years ago. I wonder what will happen when all of the helium drives start hitting their five year life ?
Maybe sail away. Up in the air in a beautiful balloon. Float On with the Floaters.
Take a Magic Carpet Ride.
I had more and went blank while typing.
"Congress has a new plan to fix Social Security. How it would change benefits"
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/26/social-security-what-a-new-plan-in-congress-would-mean-for-benefits.html
"The new version of the bill, called Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust, comes on the heels of the Social Security Administration’s latest estimates that the trust funds that support the program have just 13 years before they will be depleted. At that time, in the year 2034, 78% of promised benefits will be payable."
"Like Biden’s plan, the Social Security 2100 Act would set a higher minimum benefit for low-income workers. Benefits would be set at 125% above the poverty line and tied to wage current wage levels."
"However, the legislation does call for increasing Social Security taxes paid by higher wage earners. In 2021, those taxes are capped at $142,800 in wages, and in 2022 that will rise to $147,000. This proposal reapplies taxes on wages at $400,000 and up, which is also in line with what Biden has proposed."
This sounds like something for nothing.
Do you know how to tell when a politician is lying ? When their lips are moving.
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
Promised benefits definitely mean nothing. Two case precedents establish that Social Security payments are at the discretion of Congress.
Promised benefits definitely mean nothing. Two case precedents establish that Social Security payments are at the discretion of Congress.
I am eligible for Social Security in a few months. I would like for the system to be sound. This kind of jackery does not look sound.
"Asking the Tough Questions About Superheroes and Public Nudity" by Jame Davis Nicoll
https://www.tor.com/2021/10/25/asking-the-tough-questions-about-superheroes-and-public-nudity/
"When I play superhero RPGs or read comics, I cannot help but wonder how it is that certain superheroes manage to stay clothed. Specifically, the ones who were extremely durable whose clothing was not. How do they avoid being frequently naked in public?"
Yes, this reminds me of the old short story, "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex".
http://www.rawbw.com/~svw/superman.html
This was settled in "The Incredibles". They visit Edna Mole.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M68ndaZSKa8
“No capes!”
Pixar before Steve Jobs died was consistently awesome.
Huh:
Huma Abedin says she was sexually assaulted by a US senator around 2005 but was able to forget the incident until allegations against Brett Kavanaugh triggered her memory
I wonder if it was Kankles. And, "able to forget the incident…"?
I'll take "Smells like BS" for $200, Alex.
>> And, "able to forget the incident…"?
Same as the data on those failed disk drives @lynn was talking about earlier today. POOF, and it's gone.
"John Varley had the koof after vaccination"
https://varley.net/nonfiction/varleylog/what-a-year-this-has-been/
"I was in the hospital for two nights. And just like a few months before, there were no visitors allowed. I found I quite liked that. I know there are plenty of people who feel neglected and down in the dumps if their room isn’t full of well-wishers assuring them they will be better soon, but I’m not one of them. For future reference, if you are visiting my room to say howdy-do, ten minutes is about right, then I can go back to sleep.
It was reasonably quiet for a place where dozens of people were coughing themselves to death. I suppose it was the ventilators shoved down their throats, and the doors which were kept closed. But the first night was awful, as I had a roommate, Mark, who was even sicker than I was. We kept each other awake most of the night in alternating coughing fits.
But I did get to sleep for a while, until I was awakened by the creaking of a wooden wagon being pushed down the hall. And some guy with a bell was shouting:
“Bring out your dead!” … clank.
“Bring out your dead!” … clank."
"11 African Lions Test Positive For COVID At Denver Zoo"
https://denver.cbslocal.com/2021/10/25/covid-denver-zoo-lions-positive-tests/
All I want to know is, who stuck the cotton swabs up the Lion's nostrils ?
Hat tip to:
https://drudgereport.com/
God help him. He lives in Vantucky, and he's a patient at my wife's former employer.
@MrAtoZ
"I wonder if it was Kankles."
Need a lot of therapy to get by the mask.
@Nick
You appear to have one foot in the "workplace practices shield poor Alec" camp with the other in the "workplace practices on this set were a shambles".
I can understand why you'd feel conflicted about the first, but you shouldn't be there at all.
It was not only a shambles on the day of the death, but if Liotta and Dershowitz are correct, it was not properly organized from the beginning. If "workplace practices" were never put into place, there's no shield.
Alec Baldwin wears two hats and cannot divest himself of the Producer hat when he puts on the Actor hat. He has no "workplace practices" defense when he knows they never existed.
He was in a position to be aware of the danger and acted recklessly without regard for the consequences. He was in a position to put down the gun and walk away. I’d argue that qualifies as “corrective action” when dealing with such a universally recognized threat. There was no force making him pull that trigger.
Despite your contention, the bubble of a movie set is part of the real world. It has air, it has gravity, and when a loaded gun is pointed at someone and the trigger is pulled, bad things can happen. And did. That's as real as it gets.
Rick, the site looks good. I'm not sure just what you tweaked since a week ago, but the comment text is crisper and easier to read even on the low-quality display of my personal laptop.
@SteveF Thanks!
The main change was different fonts. And there were some subtle color changes. Plus the comment box text above the editor is smaller than before; and some text changes about the shortcut keys. The editor had a couple of buttons removed; one was the image button.
The 'recent comments' area was enhanced; now includes the date/time of the comment. The date/time shows up on a separate line on the main page, but is wrapped like it is supposed to be on the post page. Not sure why that happens; it's just a plugin. I'll figure it out, though, on the next update, which will also put a picture of our late host on the header image.
I don't know about a shambles. It's clear that the rules weren't followed. Doesn't mean the rules don't exist, or that the actor, in this case TBB, isn't a responsible or competent person for the sake of safety protocols.
I don't know why it's so hard for anyone to accept that the actor in that situation IS NOT responsible for the safety of the workplace or the tools he's given to work with. We have serial killer cannibals that are found to not be responsible for their actions due to other conditions surrounding their acts, why is it so hard to accept that no one in the industry, not the producers, guilds, or any of their various legal review teams that endorsed the Safety Bulletins, thinks it's a good idea and will improve safety to involve the actors in other than the most cursory, look but don't touch way. The protocols are very clear.
He's given a tool, that he is assured is fit for purpose, when used within certain bounds. When the tool turns out to be NOT fit for purpose, ie. PRETENDING TO BE A LETHAL WEAPON BUT NOT ACTUALLY A LETHAL WEAPON, the fault lies with whoever certified that the tool was fit. NOT with the actor using it. He used it exactly in the manner it was meant to be used, and it behaved in an unexpected way. Under those rules the actor has every right to expect that the tool is correct, and no further requirement to go beyond that.
He wasn't acting 'without due regard' or whatever the NM statue says. They had an armorer. They had a prop master. They had the accepted guidelines for safe use of 'firearms' on set. Had they taken it upon themselves to deviate from the established procedures then they would have exposed themselves to liability.
NOT following the procedures exposes Tatgrrl, and probably the AD to liability for their actions or lack thereof. TBB the actor skipped an optional step- watching the gun being inspected. The rest of the cast and crew missed their chance to insist on that protocol being followed on that day too.
TBB's liability as Producer is going to come down to his personal involvement in any decisions that negatively impacted safety. And he may not have any. The Producer (one of many) doesn't have direct authority over the crew or the cast either. If TBB exerted his personal influence, he'll have to account for that.
We'll see what the investigation reveals, and what the state decides to do eventually.
It's enough of a distraction, and too easy to let it suck up my time and attention when they need to be elsewhere. To me, having worked in the industry, and related industries, and held relevant positions wrt workplace safety, it seems pretty clear to me where the fault and blame lie, and it isn't with Baldwin the actor. Whether a court or investigation will see that, or do something else for 'reasons' even if they do see it that way, is out of my purview.
It's a fatal workplace accident. Needs to be treated that way. If criminal conduct was involved that led to the accident then that needs to be addressed as it is normally. But the death as it has been reported so far, isn't a criminal matter for Baldwin.
n
Ah shoot, that was weird. Had a whole thoughtful addition in the editor and then it vanished, must have timed out.
I don't have any "poor Alec" feelings, and it's insulting to imply that despite all the reasoned arguments I've made here and elsewhere that it's all driven by my love of a sh!tbag hypocrite .
I have grave concerns that people on the right are acting in exactly the way we accuse people on the left of acting, dancing in the blood of the dead and pre-judging a person based on their politics, not the circumstances. Kyle Rittenhouse comes to mind. To most of us, watching the video and the totality of the circumstances, it's a pretty clear case of self defense and admirable restraint. To the left he's a violent racist maniac who needs to be punished for his very existence. There is far too much "haha, antigun sh!tbag killed someone with a gun, ain't that sweet justice!" He killed someone ACCIDENTALLY with a malfunctioning prop in a place where it was supposed to be safe to do what he did. He isn't the city councilman popping an intruder in NYFC with an illegal gun. Schaden-boner over that one.
Just ask yourself if you'd be feeling the same and thinking the same if it was some no name extra, Cowpoke #3, who had the accident. If your answer isn't "yes, absolutely" then you are letting your feelings about TBB cloud your judgement.
I also see the potential for really serious unintended consequences across all industries, if there are no limits on authority and responsibility in the workplace. I put it to you that the people most familiar with the risks and potential mitigation are best positioned to make decisions about how to address those risks. ESPECIALLY in the case of firearms safety on set, where practically everyone in the industry has signed on to the SAME set of rules, agreed to the same limits on responsibility and authority, and they've been working for decades far better than the rules in other dangerous industries or workplaces. Three deaths in ~40 years INCLUDING THIS ONE, and one was a textbook example of why the industry doesn't trust actors with guns for a second longer than needed for the shot.
All things involving humans come down to human failure or success at doing them, and humans are fallible creatures. The Bad Baldwin is a hypocritical shitbag in his politics and stance on guns, but he doesn't deserve to burn for this if the facts and conditions don't support lighting the matches. We ALL hope to be treated the same before the law, and we have ample evidence that the hope is increasingly in vain, but I'm on the record for how I think this should proceed, based on what we think we know so far, and my background.
On the set, in the rehearsal, he did nothing wrong and shouldn't burn for it, just because people think he's a witch. Burn the witch sounds so very powerful and satisfying, until YOU"RE the witch. And who knows, maybe he'll change his tune about some aspects of gun use and investigation and prosecution for same, although I'm also on the record that he'll leverage this whole thing and come out harder against guns.
n
In completely other news. . .
Did I mention the $8 pc turned out to be a Dell with a Core i5, 7th gen, 12GB RAM, and a 1 TB harddrive? Or that they either ran the system restore to As Shipped, or it had never been used? Recuva didn't find any deleted files on the drive except some install files. Win10.
Paired it with a dell monitor, keyboard, and mouse from the pile, and now my wife wants to use it as the 'family' machine. Which means finding time to move all the stuff on the current, much upgraded HP All in One, to the new box. And not selling it of course.
As a plus it looks like a dell small business machine, so it has room and connections for additional drives, unlike my Costco dell.
Other than the increased work I'll have to do, it looks like a sweet deal. Oh, manf date is in 2018 so not even old.
n
Annnd, UFOs are back in the news.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10132309/UFO-video-shows-pulsating-orb-drop-sky-cruise-alongside-two-FedEx-pilots.html
n
I avoided commenting on this, hoping that more info was coming that would make it make sense. Doesn't look like that is happening.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10127021/Three-children-abandoned-inside-Houston-apartment-skeleton-sibling.html
n
The phone switch guy came in and restricted our voice mail to no outside calls today. He did not charge us for the last visit or this visit so we are experimenting. The office manager and I both had our voice mails forwarded to our cell phones so we dropped that feature.
He could not get into the voice mailbox so somebody changed the password. He had to reset the voice mailbox back to the factory settings so everything had to be re-entered.
So, I left the phone switch on tonight. We will see.
Survival Mom is talking about Hyperinflation today.
"Hyperinflation is the term for rapid, excessive, and out-of-control price increases for goods and services at a rate of 50% or more per month."
"One report I read quoted a grocery store chain CEO saying that prices in his industry had risen 10% in just the past 60 days. At that rate, we could see prices increase at a rate of 75% or more per year."
https://thesurvivalmom.com/13-ways-to-prepare-for-hyperinflation/
Her article is obviously a rework but, these things just don't happen. It takes years of mismanagement to truly screw up the number one economy in the world.
I must admit, I have been thinking about paying down our house mortgage or the commercial property mortgage. We do not have any other debt. I was thinking about building another commercial rental property but I cannot find anyone interested in building anything right now.
Even my wife thinks the time is coming very soon to dump all the cash into whatever tangibles like real estate are available.
She sees it on the supply side, and with manufacturers.
n
Not too far from me, yet in an entirely different world. Highway 6 near Westpark.