James Duane, a professor at Regent University School of Law, gave an excellent talk in May about why you should never, under any circumstances, talk to the police… even if you are innocent. It sounds counter-intuitive at first, but it really does make sense.
In summary:
Everything you tell the police can be used AGAINST you, but it can NEVER be used to help you (because it’s hear-say at that point).
There is no way talking to the police can help you.
You may admit guilt (even if innocent) with no benefit in return.
Even if you are innocent, it is easy to get carried away and tell a small lie, which can destroy your credibility.
Even if you are innocent, and only tell the truth, you will always give the police information that can help convict you.
Even if you are innocent, only tell the truth, and say nothing incriminating, the police may not recall the conversation with 100% accuracy.
Even if you are innocent, and only tell the truth, mistakes in your answers can incriminate you (either by misspeaking or drawing simple conclusions).
Even truthful answers can be contradicted by mistaken or unreliable evidence, destroying you credibility.
(requires Adobe Flash plugin… click HERE to watch it on YouTube)
I found the second part of the lecture especially interesting, where a veteran detective (George Bruch) backs up Duane’s arguments. Definitely recommend this one to friends.
(requires Adobe Flash plugin… click HERE to watch it on YouTube)
The Sydney Morning Herald has a great piece on a computer malfunction that showed up during the 2008 Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing. The dreaded “Blue Screen of Death” (BSOD), familiar to Windows XP users, was projected on the stadium ceiling when one of the display computers crashed. Here’s one of the images:
It seems that Lenovo (the PC supplier for the games) chose Windows XP instead fo Vista. From the article:
Lenovo chairman, Yang Yuanqing, was quoted as saying that because of the complexity of the IT functions at the Games, it was decided to not use the the more recent operating system. “If it’s not stable, it could have some problems,” he said.
Ironically, former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates was in the crowd (he can run but he can’t hide).
Gizmodo has some more images and links to the incident.
On February 20th, 1991, during Operation Desert Storm, the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt was conducting flight operations in the Persian Gulf. Early that morning, the crew was preparing to launch an A-6 Intruder off the flight deck when things went terribly wrong for petty officer J.D. Bridges.
That morning, Mr. Bridges was training a new recruit. The recruit successfully secured the plane’s front landing gear to the catapult, and Mr. Bridges went in to verify the recruits work. However, in a momentary lapse in judgement, he got too close to the jet intake and was sucked inside. Luckily, he put his arm up which helped get him wedged into the intake for a few seconds… those few vital seconds it took for his helmet to damage the turbine blades after it was sucked off his head. His helmet caused the blades to slow down and lessen the pressure inside the intake long enough for the pilot to shut the engines down. Miraculously, he crawled out under his own power.
I’ve embedded 3 videos of the incident (in the following order): a quick clip of what happened, a longer segment from Spike TV, and a much more detailed segment from the History Channel. Enjoy!
(requires Adobe Flash plugin… click HERE to watch it on YouTube)
(requires Adobe Flash plugin… click HERE to watch it on YouTube)
This last video requires you to wait a few seconds for the person to change the channel
(requires Adobe Flash plugin… click HERE to watch it on YouTube)
About
Tom Distler is a senior software engineer at Pelco. He has a beautiful wife and a baby on the way. He enjoys playing the drums and writing about himself in the 3rd-person (not really :-)). Read more...
