Let’s Backtrack: Georgi Markov was assassinated on September 7, 1978

Georgi Markov died on September 11, 1978, but he was assassinated on September 7 in London when a KGB operative stabbed him in the leg with an umbrella.  The tip contained a hollow pellet containing Ricin.  Markov’s assassination was one of the most high profile murders of the Cold War, and the case where the name Ricin appeared in the news.

The prime suspect is Francesco Gullino, a Danish national of Italian origin.  Though police have questioned him, he has never been arrested and remains free, last seen in Austria.  No one from Bulgaria or the USSR was ever held accountable for the crime.  Here is a documentary about the case:

In 2000, Markov was honoured posthumously with Bulgaria’s Order of Stara Planina for his “significant contribution to the Bulgarian literature, drama and non-fiction and for his exceptional civic position and confrontation to the Communist regime.”

In 1979, the Scottish band Fingerprintz released the song “Wet Job”, about the assassination of Georgi Markov.  “Wet work” is espionage parlance for assassination.

He got out of bed and had his breakfast
He kissed his wife goodbye
As he was waiting for a bus
He got it on the sly

I got out of bed and had my breakfast
What is all this fuss?
In the rush hour rush.

Wet job. It’s a scoop
Foreign body’s in a suit
Wet job. It’s a hit
And it wasn’t them all with a syndicate
Foreign Office in the shit

‘Just a job’ the coroner said
A dirty needle in the back of the leg
Hot shot hit its spot
Sneaky little micro dot

Wet job. Catch your death
Foreign body’s in a grave
Wet job. It’s a sin.
Foreign office dirty linen

He got out of bed and had his breakfast
He kissed his wife goodbye
As he was waiting for a bus
He got it on the sly
Wet job

Wet job. It’s a scoop
Foreign body’s in a suit
Wet job. It’s a hit
And it wasn’t them all with a syndicate
Foreign Office in the shit

 

Rise And Shine: No, my second tattoo doesn’t mean I ‘got religion’

A few months ago, I got my second tattoo, and intend to get more in the future.

Yes, it’s a symbol of a religious mythology.  No, it doesn’t mean I “got religion”.  No, you don’t get to see my first tattoo unless you’re a boyfriend, doctor, or come with me to the beach.

But please don’t tell me it’s cultural appropriation.  It’s bad enough that the artist made a (fixable) mistake without having to remove the whole thing.

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Let’s Backtrack: The Jericho Mile premiered on March 18, 1979

The first of two about memorable 1979 sports films.  No prizes for guessing the other.

The Jericho Mile is a 1979 film starring Peter Strauss, written and directed by Michael Mann, one of his earliest films and the one that made his career.  Made For TV movies were common in the 1970s and 1980s, and The Jericho Mile is considered one of the best.  Strauss received an Emmy award for his performance.

Strauss plays Larry “Rain” Murphy, convicted of first degree murder (shooting his father after finding him rape his step-sister).  Murphy remains a loner in prison, running to keep mentally free.  One of the prison staff secretly times him, noting that Murphy’s mile times are near Olympic level, the story building to the point where Murphy is considered for Olympic trials.  The story contains several subplots of support, opposition, and manipulation –  the prison administration, prison gangs (Brian Dennehy as leader of the white gang), USOC officials.  The only ones fully on his side are his lone friend in prison (R.C. Stiles, played by Richard Lawson) the state track and field coach who trains him (Ed Lauter).  Others have done better and longer writeups, so I’ll avoid spoilers and let their words speak for themselves.  The cafeteria scene is still a tearjerker.

Rotten Tomatoes: The Jericho Mile

Running Movies: The Jericho Mile

Peter Strauss was 32 at the time of filming and trained for the role with UCLA coaches and runners.  He was reportedly running a 4:30 mile at the time – not good enough to qualify for the Olympics, but fast enough that you can suspend disbelief for a movie.  Sports movies vary in believability.  Some actors look the part and you can believe they are doing it (e.g. Rob Brown in “The Express”), others not so much (too many baseball movies to mention).  Strauss definitely looks the part.

For now, the full film can be found on youtube.  It’s worth watching.

Moral Support: How Taiwan is helping Hong Kong’s protesters

Hong Kong protesters successfully made the puppet “leader” and mass murderers in Beijing back down from the proposed “extradition” law that would allow legalized kidnapping of people in Hong Kong (citizens and foreigners) and enable secret trials that violate human rights.  But the protesters didn’t back down or assume everything was finished.  They continued their protests to make it clear they wouldn’t stand for a second attempt later nor any other criminal “laws”.

The PRC fought back, first with corrupt police aggression in uniform, then with organized gangs of thugs in white shirts to violently assault the protesters.  Reportedly the gangs were both out-of-uniform police and triad gangs)

Hong Kong students in Taiwan and Taiwanese people are showing its support by organizing a helmet collection campaign. Motorcycle helmets, new or used, are being collected and will be shipped to Hong Kong to distribute to protesters. Many protesters suffered head injuries when the PRC’s jackbooted thugs attacked.  Helmets are not weapons, so this is clearly not an act of aggression, it is a response to one.

Here’s an amusing piece of art coming from Hong Kong:

I don’t like quoting the linked site as a source” given the poor quality of the writing and the site owner’s open sexism and bigotry.

Taiwanese contribute helmets to Hong Kong protesters

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — As clashes between Hong Kong protesters and law enforcement officers continue to escalate, an initiative to donate helmets as a means of supporting the anti-extradition bill demonstrations has begun in Taiwan.

Hong Kong students based in Taipei organized two helmet donation events in the city last week, collecting nearly 200 new and second-hand helmets on Thursday (July 25), and 500 on Sunday (July 28). Known as the Hong Kong Outlanders, the group helped organize a number of solidarity protests in Taipei throughout June.

[…]

Hong Kong online news outlet Stand News has also reported the issue. Nearly 20 shops on Taobao, one of the biggest online shipping websites in China, have openly said they refuse to sell and deliver “sensitive” equipment to Hong Kong, including helmets, masks, and other protective gear, the report said. According to the report, this is in response to anti-government protesters vandalizing Beijing’s Liaison Office in Hong Kong on July 21.

[…]

The Hong Kong Outlanders have so far declined to reveal how they plan to send the collected helmets from Taiwan to Hong Kong, citing fear of interference. They said they would keep the public updated once the helmets arrive safely in Hong Kong.

Let’s Backtrack: Murder a doctor, get only ten years in prison

The second of my facebook posts migrated here….

In May 2017, Joseph Esmaili murdered Patrick Pritzwald-Stegmann after Pritzwald-Stegmann told Esmaili not to smoke in a hospital.  Esmaili responded with a sucker punch that caused Pritzwald-Stegmann irreparable brain damage and death.  In November 2018, Esmaili was convicted only of manslaughter and sentenced to a maximum of twenty years in prison, possibly an earlier release than that.  Imagine if Patrick Pritzwald-Stegmann wasn’t a surgeon, just an average person – Esmaili might have gotten only manslaughter or maybe even parole.

If you take the time to look, there is a long string of cases where smokers perpetrated violence (assaults, murders) against those who told them not to smoke where it’s illegal to smoke.  It’s not just cruel people burning others and children with cigarette butts, though there is plenty of that.

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Let’s Backtrack: Visicalc turned 40 in November 2018

I said in a backchannel email that I had been writing mostly on facebook while I was away. It was suggested I post some it here, so this is the first. (Finally, a useful facebook feature: you can download your entirety of posts and comments to look at them.)

November 1978 marked one of the most important moments in the history of personal computers: the invention of Visicalc, the first “killer app”, a process, tool or purpose that justifies spending large amounts of money to accomplish a single task. The telephone’s killer app was communication over distance, and the internal combustion engine was speed (trains and automobiles). Huge computers were built for military purposes such as bombing and codebreaking (Bletchley Park’s computer breaking the Nazi’s Enigma Code), but it was Visicalc that justified owning a personal computer.

In the fall of 1978, Dan Bricklin was attending Harvard’s MBA program after graduating from MIT. One of his accounting classes involved case studies on business accounting, a process which involves large sheets of paper with many amounts and calculations and is prone to errors – one mistake can ruin and entire sheet. I know, I’ve done this stuff the hard way.

Bricklin had the idea to create an electronic calculator which allowed him to change one value, and all other values connected to it would change automatically. Errors would be eliminated, changes could be made quickly, and different scenarios could be tried. He envisioned the world’s first spreadsheet program.

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