Chez Chesler

Angela Onyeador had claimed that she had made a deal with a Miss World agent to put up $360,000 as a guarantee for the pageant's World gala fund-raising dinner at London's Grosvenor House Hotel in return for 60 percent of the profits. But Justice Robert Reid said Wednesday that Allianz Nigeria Ltd., the company with which Onyeador made the deal, was not an agent for Miss World. The company was run by Fidelis Anosike, "someone who might reasonably be described as a thoroughgoing con man," the judge said. The company has now gone out of business and Anosike could not be reached for comment.

Alrighty then.

The 9/11 Commission has been in the news. There's confusion as to if and when Dick Cheney ordered fighter planes to shoot down the jetliners, and an implication that if Boston Center had called the military sooner, they could have shot down the planes before they hit the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Now, having seen what the damage the planes did, we think that might have been the right choice. Suppose all four planes had been shot out of the sky? Lacking the ability to prove what would have happened, what would be the fallout from our killing several hundred of our own civilians? Nevermind the ethical question. I'm also thinking that the hijackers were able to do what they did in the "sterile" environment because they had knives. (I've heard allegations from Ms. Lemack that they had more.) So box cutters are banned from the "sterile" area now, and knitting needles and scissors and nail files. Suppose the next band of hijackers are Ninjas. Instead of killing flight attendants by slitting their throats, they are killing them by breaking their necks or other forms of unarmed hand-to-hand combat. Isn't the system equally vulnerable? Or if the system is not vulnerable because pilots wouldn't fall for that again, cockpit doors are reinforced, and so forth, why bother banning knitting needs and scissors and nail files?

Many window fan have a thermostat that shuts off the fan after the room is cooler than a certain point. That's nice for turning the fan on in the evening and letting it run overnight, without making the room too cold by morning. But that doesn't do any good when it is hotter outside than inside. If somebody is in the room, moving around the slightly hotter air can make it more comfortable than less hot still air. But if the room is unoccupied, one would rather not run the fan until the early evening (or after the afternoon thunderstorm.) Window fans ought to come with a second thermostat, or thermocouples and a tiny amount of intelligence, so the fan runs only when two conditions are met: The room is too hot, and the outside air is cooler than the inside air. (Other modes would move air around, or intake fresh air, for occupied rooms; and vent hot inside air to the outside, for unoccupied upstairs rooms.)

Please see BostonHerald.com, June 8, 2004, "Cape pol arraigned in domestic assault":

A Cape Cod politician running for state representative from Sandwich was arraigned yesterday on charges of assaulting his girlfriend, authorities said. ... "She said he grabbed her by the arm, she had a visible red mark on her right wrist," [Sandwich police Sgt. Michael] Nurse said. Blank told police, who responded to a 911 call from the home, that his girlfriend hit him first, but authorities could find no injuries on him, Nurse said. The mark was apparently made by a bracelet worn by the woman...

I understood that one is permitted to use force in self defense, proportionally against force or threat of force. Is there a different standard in Sandwich that one may use force in self defense only after the aggressor has left you with a visible injury?

Boston.com / News / Nation / Stabbing near Chicago leaves girl dead

A man stabbed five people at a suburban strip mall, killing a 1-year-old girl, before a bystander clubbed him over the head with a flashlight and restrained him until police arrived, authorities and witnesses said.

But at least the baby wasn't shot, and this poor guy who also burned down his house may yet be rehabilitated. Gun control is guaranteeing safety as well in Chicagoland as in Japan.