From the Archives

Combing through my draft posts from years past, I've found some interesting stuff that never saw the light of day. Below, a sampling.  I'll do more of this later.

10/24/07  The Joys of Labor

Here's actual text (translated from stilted scholarly Russian) that I've been taking in for a project I'm working on (and they're not paying me half enough). From the journal Defense and Security.

"When carrying out special operations Ministry of the Interior employees must come into contact with professionally prepared and equipped criminals, who know well the tactics of law-enforcement agents, the composition and structure of their armaments, as well as defensive measures to minimize the damage from any special means employed."

I.e. tear gas, pepper spray, what have you. That's all kind of intuitive, but here's something truly fun:

"Another thing that diminishes the effectiveness of special measures is the fact that the combatants are also under the influence of psychotropic narcotics."

The implication is that the forces of law and order have to figure out the right cocktails of "non-lethal weapons" to get around whatever drugs the baddies are taking. They've been working on this.

10/18/07 E to 53rd @ Park
28ish rail-thin Asia-hip Chinese woman reading McKinsey Report ("The Asset Management Opportunity in China") on the train. I have not yet opened that McKinsey email.

28ish woman in high heels and a skirt bending forward like a cripple as she walks up the stairs from the E Train. Turns out she was not a cripple. It was the shoes.

28ish guy with pasty skin and a suit with no tie sucking on a Starbucks Iced Venti like it was his mother's teat. I too was inspired to buy one.

28ish corporate blonde comes up to the cashier at Starbucks and wonders if she can get a receipt. Reminds me to get one.

At work (where I'm doing a project), 28ish Duke grad doesn't even know where He's Not Here is. Redounds to his credit, but also means he probably didn't get much.

Ahhhh... To be 28ish again.

5/15/07
SEC has sent out warnings about people impersonating its inspectors. Very Gogolian.