The Column: January 2011

Friday, January 28, 2011

Drug wars bring a real blast from the past to the front

Weapons of yore: A catapult, much like this one here, was being used as a low-tech drug mule (Photo from Wikipedia)

-----

It seems Mexican drug smugglers have gone old school in moving their wares into the United States. Like, very old school.

According to Fox News, smugglers were using a catapult to lob dope over the fence.

Here's part of the story:

---

"National Guard troops operating a remote video surveillance system at the Naco Border Patrol Station say they observed several people preparing a catapult and launching packages over the International Border fence last Friday evening ... "It looks like a medieval catapult that was used back in the day," Tucson sector Border Patrol spokesman David Jimarez told Reuters ... Tucson TV station KVOA said Border Patrol agents working with the National Guard contacted Mexican authorities, who went to the location and disrupted the catapult operation ... the 3-yard tall catapult was found about 20 yards from the U.S. border on a flatbed towed by a sports utility vehicle, according to a Mexican army officer with the 45th military zone in the border state of Sonora ... the catapult was capable of launching 4.4 pounds of marijuana at a time ..."

---

What? They couldn't get an old cannon?

###

Kindle Books Now Outselling Paperbacks at Amazon

The future has arrived:

Kindle Books Now Outselling Paperbacks at Amazon

This is from the Mashable! site. Excerpt:

"In a statement, CEO Jeff Bezos said, “Last July we announced that Kindle books had passed hardcovers and predicted that Kindle would surpass paperbacks in the second quarter of this year, so this milestone has come even sooner than we expected – and it’s on top of continued growth in paperback sales.”... the company adds that for 2010, it sold 115 Kindle books for every 100 paperback books, and “three times as many Kindle books as hardcovers.” Those numbers don’t include free Kindle books, making the numbers all the more significant. The growth in e-books, as well as strong sales of the Kindle 3, helped Amazon achieve $10 billion in a single quarter for the first time in its history ..."

I don't know. While there's a lot to like about ebooks, you still can't beat the look, feel, and even the smell of a freshly-printed book. Or even an old book. And I do feel strange taking the laptop into the bathroom.

###

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Barter system gone awry

This picture message or video message was sent using Multimedia Messaging Service.

To play video messages sent to email, Apple® QuickTime® 6.5 or higher is required. Visit www.apple.com/quicktime/download to download the free player or upgrade your existing QuickTime Player. Note: During the download process when asked to choose an installation type (Minimum, Recommended or Custom), select Minimum for faster download.