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Crack in the Box
I haven't seen Javier for days. When I'm driving home, I can usually spot him after midnight lurking on Los Angeles Street near Fourth, or haunting Little Tokyo... stalking tourists, begging for coins during the daylight hours. Sometimes he's on Olvera Street behind the Perpetual Adoration Chapel, just hanging out. That's his usual geography, but I've also spotted him on Winston and Wall streets at 4 a.m., standing on the sidewalk with the eyes of a wild cat. And there was that time I caught him wandering Alameda and Seventh streets in the late morning after a decidedly rough night, trying desperately to break out of a sketch with a Happy Meal.
Javier likes to listen to Mexican metal bands turned up loud on an off-brand CD player he bought wholesale in the Toy District. He likes Mana and Molotov, but not El Tri, Jaguars or what he does in cars with men for money. "No me gusto. Solo lo hago por la roca," he says, when I finally catch up with him. He squints his eyes to convey the pain he feels about what he's become. But he's a liar. He's numb. His pathetic grimace is part of a manufactured posture that he can slip in and out of at will. But I give him five bucks anyway.
Mostly what the slight 14-year-old from Sinaloa with the harelip scar who smells like a restaurant dumpster likes is smoking crack. And like a lot of people who live by the rock, that's what he's doing downtown. It's where the drugs are. Where the crack is. An area that soft-spoken, veteran police Lieutenant Lionel Garcia calls "the box." It's an informal term in cop-speak that means the floating area of most concentrated crime in any given precinct. According to Garcia, the man with all the numbers, the box on Skid Row is currently between Fifth and Seventh streets from Los Angeles Street to Central Avenue. The epicenter of the box is Fifth and San Pedro.
The box is a drug supermarket where gang members from all over L.A. and the surrounding area come to sell crack and heroin. They sell it to the homeless who are there to take advantage of the centralized services, and to anyone else who wants to take advantage of the vast inventory and rock-bottom dope prices available at the country's largest swap meet of despair.
The box is where addicts and people with psychiatric disorders sleep on the sidewalk. It's where people openly use drugs, turn tricks for five dollars in Porta Potties and partake in other drug-related activities. The population of the box is overwhelmingly black. The crack's in the box and so is Javier.
The Super Dope Cops
The LAPD's Central Division regulates the box. The narcotics cops make more than 5,000 drug arrests here annually. I met two of the LAPD's finest on the roof of the building where I live on Skid Row. They let me tag along with them.
Nobody looks up from Skid Row. From up on the roof the constant parade of dealers and addicts reads like an anthill to the naked eye as they wander the streets trying to connect with each other. But even if these creepy crawlers did look skyward they wouldn't be able to see me or the super dope cops I'm kicking it with. These undercover narcos are experts at concealing themselves from view as they survey the crack traffic on the street below through powerful binoculars.
Chris Luna and Rick Kellogg are two buttoned-down, pumped-up, clean-cut drug cops who could moonlight as Chippendale's dancers. They spend a good part of most days staked out in this precision ballet of elevated perspective as radio waves carry their lofty intelligence to stealthy uniform cars lying in wait on the mean streets below. It's a coordinated, meticulous dance that is second nature to them. There's an element of performance in the way these guys work. They're everything that makes boys want to be cops... Not Javier, probably, but other boys. Boys with papers and parents and futures and whatnot.
Aside from the fact that they look like superheroes (Rick won first place three years running in the police bodybuilding competition) and spend their time in a toxic cesspool of mental illness and drug addiction, Chris and Rick appear to be relatively normal people. Chris, a 29-year-old single father, worked seven years in South-Central before relocating to Central Division a year ago. He's more verbal than his partner Rick, a very intense 37-year-old single father with eight-plus years at Central, including two in narcotics. Rick is the kind of guy you'd trust with your life, and Chris does. These guys are working on Skid Row because they believe they can make a difference.
Chris breaks it off for me. "There are more random gangs from all over the Southland here in Central Division than I could believe when I first got here. I literally couldn't believe it. You have rival gangs who could never ever look at each other without it escalating to some form of violence, and they'll be selling dope right next to each other in Central. It's a safe zone. It's business. Hold on a second ..."
Rick and Chris spot a deal in progress down on the street and home in on the action while we chat. Their binoculars are not LAPD-issue. These guys spent a grand each out of pocket for the super-dope spyware.
"You'll get a lot of buyers from all over Los Angeles in the downtown area because they know they're gonna find dope," Chris continues. "They don't have to wait for someone to pull up. They know if they want crack cocaine to go to Fifth and Crocker, or Fifth and San Pedro, or Fifth and Main. If they want heroin, go to Broadway. We do so many arrests here in Central... we do 80 to 100 arrests [monthly] in our squad, the eight or 10 of us... so we do a thousand a year."
Rick radios the details of the buy going down to the street units. "Going toward to market," he says. "Male white, green over blue talking to male black in black pants, blue Adidas T-shirt on a red bike. Bindles out. Standby. I got him. I got an exchange. He's got the bindle in his right hand. I think they're arguing about the size of the rock." Chris zooms in. "Rock's going in the left hand," he says. "Okay ... buyer's completed the transaction ... is looking at the rock in his left hand."
"I got eyes on the seller," Rick assists.
A squad car rolls up on the buyer. Two cops hop out and handcuff him, a black man in his 40s. "Dealer's in custody," Rick relays the news from the radio.
You can just tell these super dope cops love their job. They want to be here doing this.
"Our mission's to target the street-level drug dealer. We fully believe that narcotics is the root of all evil in downtown L.A.," Rick says with the conviction of a man completely committed.
"It's blatant enough out here on the street and they know that undercover and uniformed officers are watching," Chris says.
He schools me on the current exchange rates on the crack market as applied to the pancake-size piece they took off the dealer they just busted. "That cookie you saw is probably a couple of ounces. They can cut that up into 50 to 75 rocks at five bucks apiece. They can double or triple their money for powder by cooking it up. Generally what you'll find is our dealers will carry these plastic bindles of either eight rocks or 16 rocks. Wholesale, they'll buy the eight rocks for 20 bucks and sell each rock for five dollars and double their money. What our resident user-slash-dealer will do is buy the wholesale pack of eight for 20 bucks. They'll smoke four and sell four. They'll have their 20 bucks and they'll do that all day. It's business. That's all it is. And going to jail is not a deterrent. It's kind of like paying business taxes ... it's part of the deal."
I think of Javier and wonder if he buys the eight-for-20 bulk rate or pays retail. He could have bought one $5 rock with the fin I gave him. I ask Chris and Rick if they know him.
"You have a lot of kids in their teenaged years who were crack babies when they were born," Chris says. "You're looking at people who are close to being adults who were born addicted. What's that hotel over there on Wall and Winston, the Bixby? There's a hotel there and there's literally families ... moms and aunts with a bunch of kids. There's one kid there who's a juvenile. I've arrested him for sales. He's like seven-two. Biggest kid I've ever seen in my life."
No, not the big kid, I tell him. The little one with the harelip scar and the dirty fingers. Chris says he knows exactly who he is. In fact, he says he just saw him when he was going into the Criminal Courts building.
Boss of the Box
Shot-caller Captain Andy Smith is Chris and Rick's boss and the ascendant master of all Skid Row cops. A true-blue straight shooter from Iron Mountain, Michigan, Smith is a steely eyed, smooth-operating ultra communicator with a tight rein on a mission from God (who takes his human form in the person of LAPD Chief William Bratton, who handpicked Smith).
"The selection of Smith is because he is who he is," Chief Bratton tells me, calling from the back seat of his city-assigned automobile, on his way to a fund-raiser. "He's a relationship builder. He worked in a very difficult command in our business. Commander of the 911 centers with almost 700 civilian employees, with all types of issues and problems. He did an extraordinary job there and he is a caring person." Hey, not a bad recommendation from the big boy. Andy Smith must really be the shit.
Smith speaks mostly in abbreviated, minimal cop speak with a glaring Midwestern accent. It's endearing. "This isn't the captain of 77th [precinct]," he says, "where you have 42 gang homicides a year to date. Isn't captain of Rampart where there's these El Salvadorian and South American gangs running around and that kind of problem. We have a completely different problem here."
I flank the fashionably baldheaded, fit and trim 40-something commander through the Central Community police station on Sixth Street. It's a tight operation; demi-military ... all "good morning sir"s and "good morning captain"s as we hustle down the fluorescent-lit hallways through the rank and file. Past the watch commander, past neatly dressed Asian women laboring intensely at nice big computer screens in the crime-analysis center. Past Officer Brown, a kid at his first day on the job who has just made his first arrest and looks better equipped than our boys in Baghdad in a Kevlar vest with a service revolver; a green, beanbag shotgun; a Remington 12-gauge shotgun; a 50,000-volt Taser; and four walkie-talkies.
"Realistically, the crime in Central is really pretty low," Captain Smith says. "Most of it is somebody smashes a window in a car that's parked and takes the CDs ... that kind of stuff. We have 13 murders this year to date, almost all of 'em narcotics-related." And Bratton says even that is down 12 percent since Smith has been on the case.
One of the new pressures on the precinct is the well-documented revival of downtown.
"It really is happening," Smith says. "Ten thousand new units coming on in the year. That's 20,000 people. In a population of what we say is about 42,000. That's a huge jump and it's only gonna get bigger faster. One of the problems is that a lot of folks who are hanging out here aren't necessarily homeless. They're down here because, as one of the folks put it, 'This is Mardi Gras on crack all the time.' You can come down here and party. You can come down here and buy dope. You can come down here and hang out. You can come down here and have sex. Do whatever it is you wanna do ... kind of a party atmosphere ... if your standards are real low about where you're gonna hang out and party."
I follow Smith to the rear of the station where the major organs are housed. It's a huge space with lots of desks pushed together and separated into sections. Smith introduces me to some well-dressed homicide detectives who smile and nod, but the water runs a little too dark in homicide to conceal the ominous juju with a perfunctory smile and a dry-cleaned suit. These are the guys who see the really gruesome stuff on a regular basis. They stare at me like mediums scanning my psychic blueprint for past-life evidence. It's intrusive and unnerving. Still, they're nicely dressed, for detectives that is. It's not Brooks Brothers at the Pentagon, but it's not Supercuts and Ross Dress for Less either.
"We had a homicide here about a week and a half ago, Thursday night," Smith tells me, explaining how the constant buzz of the crack Mardi Gras adds up to real crime. "Two o'clock in the morning. Two people get into a dispute over a bicycle. The bicycle isn't there, but there's a perception that someone steals someone's bicycle ... whatever. One individual picks up a homemade knife — a blade of a knife wrapped in twine — and stabs another individual in the heart. The guy ends up dying four hours later in the hospital. We got out there when he was still conscious and breathing. We figured out who did it. Caught the guy. The guy, this suspect, lives in Azusa. He's an Azusa-13 gang member. He was just down here to party. He has a home. He lives with his mom in Azusa. There's a lot of that. A lot of folks come here, a lot of gang members come here, cuz there's an unlimited supply of narcotics buyers."
Oh, now I get it. Skid Row is like Vegas for gang bangers. And unless they get popped by the super dope cops... what happens on the Row stays on the Row.
Captain Smith has an undeniable humility. He comes off as a humanitarian with a gun and baton. As we leave the station and hit the street for a little stroll around the 'hood, we walk head-on into a squad-car pursuit. Smith pulls his baton and subdues a really big, psychiatric-patient-looking guy who's ranting at top volume until backup arrives in the form of five cops charging out from the station like cartoon superheroes, led by an all-business, handsome young up-and-comer named Albert Gonzalez. Smith handles the whole thing without dropping his professional demeanor or my tape recorder, which I handed him and which he held within 10 inches of his chin during the entire commotion to get it all on record. Straight-up super dope cop move.
When that's handled, Captain Smith and I stroll down San Julian Street past a smiling 2-year-old in cornrows pointing a pink balloon-animal Tech-9 at us. I ask Smith if he knows Javier, the kid with the harelip scar. He says he's not sure and laments how tragic it is with all these skid-kids down here, then he picks up a soggy football from the gutter and tosses it with a teenage kid standing on the sidewalk behind the Union Mission among a bunch of families. He breaks off his plans for fixing City Central. It's a good plan, I guess, a lot about clear units and D.A.s and DEAs and the FBI and multifaceted this and that, and I swear to God I believe he's gonna do exactly what he says.
Then we head up Fifth Street and things start to get weird. A large black man in stinky clothes approaches Smith. "What are you up to, captain?" he asks. Then the man goes into a story about his frequent urination problem due to his medical condition, which resulted in a ticket for peeing in MacArthur Park, and on into a paranoid rant about his signature being forged, his existing warrants and some other less intelligible ramblings before Smith interrupts and advises him to bring his documentation by the station. Smith says he'll help him investigate, and we're on our way. But before we get more than a few feet I run into my old neighbor, Maria from Silver Lake. The former chola hottie is completely strung out and sleeping in the streets, but she wants to hug and I oblige, which gets a raised eyebrow from the Cap and some angry muttering from her new boyfriend, a Hispanic guy who has recently pissed his pants. Maria tells him we're just friends and I give her my number, but when I ask where her kids are she gets a little Tourette's and accidentally tells me to go fuck myself. I don't bother trying to explain the relationship to the captain, and off we go.
Again, we don't get more than a few feet before we're interrupted, this time by a really ripe-smelling border brother who recognizes Smith and initiates a conversation about soccer and their favorite teams. And I think the guy might have a crack pipe palmed. Captain Smith starts to wrap up our talk as we head back to the station. "In my interview for commander — and I say it to my officers in roll call — I said what this department needs is a little less Dirty Harry and a little more Sheriff Andy Taylor. Remember Mayberry RFD?"
I tell him I do remember, after which my friend Otis ... I mean Demetrius... a guy I know from Hollywood who is "on a run," and who is completely gacked and hasn't bathed in more days than the captain's soccer buddy (who is now freely brandishing a crack pipe), steps to me and, like Maria, wants to hug. I oblige him too, introduce him to the captain and we continue on our walk. I don't think things will be quite the same between me and Captain Smith, but oh well.
Choc in the Box
Kitty-corner from Homicide is the Gang Unit, where Detective Coordinator Bryce Spafford is using a computer program that randomly assembles a photo lineup of some young thugs. It could easily be cover art for a new release by The Game. Senior Officer Robert Quecada and Investigator Adrian Lopez flank Spafford. All three coifed cops look like they could play themselves in a movie... suits and ties with a lot more flavor than the heavy homicide regalia.
Spafford tells me about the unspoken gang-truce zone for the purpose of drug commerce. Meanwhile, Quecada pulls up a Web site for the Snowman Cliq (www.snowmancliq.com), rappers from Watts with alleged drug-dealing ties, then plays the video for the track "Get Them Chips," which shows some really cool, young black guys lip-synching in front of a "caught on tape" SWAT-team drug raid in their 'hood. The track is tight. The message seems clear: "Sell my weed/Sell my weed/Sell my rock/Sell my rock/Gotta get my chippy on... San Julian is the block/Where I used to sell my rock." One of the Snowman Cliq's rappers, a guy called Choc Nitty, got busted and apparently the bio info on the Web site was used to help encourage him to take a plea. These cops are real high-tech.
In the interest of getting the broad perspective, I'm meeting Choc Nitty and KP from Snowman Cliq. They suggest the Pig'n Whistle on Hollywood Boulevard, a place front and center to the slow parade of German and Japanese tourists, as well as some more local talent pretending to be somebody, as opposed to San Julian Street where people are pretending to be nothing.
At first sight these 20-something rap stars in the making from Watts read more like a potential hip-hop cash cow in search of a distribution deal, tour support and radio promo budget than Skid Row crack dealers. We take a table in the backroom and I consider asking if Javier, with the harelip, is one of their clients down in the box. I decide not to, as I have no evidence that Choc Nitty is anything but a talented rapper. I do tell him how much I like his music, especially "Get Them Chips," and the video with the drug raid as a backdrop. I inquire about his association with the super dope cops in Central Division and ask if he knows Officer Quecada.
"Nah. I don't know what officer you talking about," he says. "I don't do much talking to polices so it's like, nope."
Choc looks you in the eye and speaks slowly with a deep and sullen delivery in a vernacular that takes extreme liberty with the language, transcending Ebonics proper, poised in the dominion of poetry. It's compelling. He and his partner KP are undeniably charismatic.
"Well, basically, you know, man ... people who are hustlers, they go where the money at, just like anybody in the business," Choc says. But I'm not sure what business he means. "It's not just drugs, narcotics and everything ... I heard about Saint Julian ... I know people who selling drugs down there, you know? Everybody doing they thing. Getting how they live. I go down there and gamble. I shoot dice. I'm a hustler, so I get it anywhere I can get it. Simple as that."
I tell Choc that the cops say he's a drug-dealing gangster and that he picked up a case and ... oh yeah, I ask, "What does 'chippy' mean? You know, from 'Get Them Chips,' the song on www.snowmancliq.com? It says 'I'm gonna get my chippy on.' What does that mean? Chips?"
Choc takes a beat. Looks at me like I'm nuts.
"My chippies," Choc says. "Chips is money. Cheddar. Whatever ... dollar signs. Whatever money is to you, that's it."
"And what about the case?" I ask again.
"Yeah," he says. "They put me in jail for something. I don't even know what I'm talking about, man. They just put me in jail. They say I was selling narcotics, whatever. They know I'm a gambler. They know I shoot dice. But they try to get me for narcotics... I don't know. I was in jail for that. I fighting that case right now and getting that right. Well, I already fought the case and I'm doing my probation and due to the travelin', I ain't feel like keep going to court ... so with this music stuff, I'm just doing that and maintaining that. We don't have nothing to do with all the drugs ... Saint Julian. I don't know nothing about that. I don't get down like that. They just trying to find some people they can blame it on."
Well, that's not very nice. And Captain Smith seemed like such a standup guy. I wonder why the super dope cops are picking on Choc Nitty anyway. Whatever. I wanna hear more about all the stuff that Snowman Cliq is doing in Watts.
"Phenomena is the soundtrack for For Real, the DVD documentary we put out," says KP, a handsome, wiry young player with big brown eyes, cornrows and a genius for self-promotion.
"D.J. Jamar, he directed it," KP continues. "DVD is real hot. We got big rappers on there as far as with appearances: Busta Rhymes, 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks, G-Unit and Floyd Maywether, the boxer. We got people on our DVD or whatever that we mess with. So it's not just regular rap. You know what I'm saying? We rapping and we from the 'hood or whatever. Downtown? That's a whole 'nother story."
"We finishing up the We Are Taught To Survive album, which stand for WATTS," Choc adds. "We got a DVD documentary coming for that too. I'm working on my album, Choc Nitty: The Listen and Learn Album. They can learn from my mistakes. Listen and learn what I'm tellin' 'em. KP and Six [that's 6 Reasons, the third member of the Snowman Cliq] are working on their projects right now. We looking for a distribution deal for For Real. A lot of people need to see that. Everything that's on it is for real. The second documentary is called For Real: Part 2 cuz everything you gonna see again is for real. We got for real people, major stars ... We mess with a lot of major stars. We got like, 8-40, we got Chingy, we got Too-Short, we got 50 again, The O.G. Unit; we got Prodigy from Mobb Deep. We got some of these people on there. We got Money Mike; we got Fabulous on there from the Street Family."
"Whoa, that's a lotta hip-hop star power. And what about you, KP? Do you hang out on 'Saint Julian Street?'" I ask.
"Nah, not at all," he says. "You couldn't pay me to go down there. Cops call us gangsters, man. We just make music. The [song] everybody's talking about — sell my weed, sell my rocks or whatever — you know, everybody like the song. But basically at the end of the song it saying, you can sell baseball cards, be a basketball player, lawyer, doctor, however you getting it ... that's what it is, man. You know what I'm saying?"
"One Time" in the Box
Veteran narcotics detective Burt Feldtz knows San Julian Street like the back of his hand. He's been on the job down here since 1990. Feldtz looks like an undercover cop. He wears undercover-cop jeans and an undercover-cop T-shirt and has undercover-cop hair. A stoic presence, the detective looks like a young Doug McClure. Not The Virginian young Doug McClure, more of a Cannonball Run II Doug McClure... without the paunch.
I'm riding shotgun with Feldtz, heading north on San Pedro toward Fifth Street in an unmarked squad car doing chase for the narcotics detail on a weekday afternoon. This is the street-level counterpart to Chris Luna and Rick Kellogg, the super dope cops with their eyes in the sky.
"If we didn't go out and arrest the narcotic sellers and the buyers, the downtown area would be a total mess," Feldtz says. "Downtown L.A. has always been like a free zone. We don't have drive-by shootings where one gang is retaliating against a different gang. It's kinda like a free zone where any gangster from any clique anywhere in the city of L.A. can come down here and sell narcotics and not really have to worry about someone doing a drive-by on them.
"Obviously you have a lot of people who are using down here. It's just like feeding the ducks at the park. You know what the ducks want. They want a piece of bread. Same thing here. They want rock cocaine."
Feldtz has a sort of detached cynicism that, coupled with his age, plus time in the box, imbues him with a clearer perspective than most.
"You'd be surprised... people who are vice presidents of companies, teachers, writers, actors, entertainers, everybody. Showing up in nice cars to buy narcotics. I think the homeless get a lot of the blame. It's Joe Schmo citizen, too. It's soccer mom. It's everybody that's coming to buy dope. It's the whole society that's coming down to buy dope. It's not only the homeless."
A disheveled black man rides close to the car on his bike and taunts us. "I know what time it is," he says.
"'One time' means police," Feldtz says. "That's what they call us, 'one time.' A lot of times we can be actually hands-on arresting somebody, and less than 50 feet away from us they're still making a transaction or smoking rock cocaine with us right there. They really get into their thing and they ignore everything else that's going on."
The radio squawks the details of a sale around the corner on Crocker Street. Feldtz puts the pedal down with the calm of a seasoned veteran.
"As soon as they say they are able to recover the dope, then we go out and get the dealer," he tells me. "We're trying to keep the narcotics to a steady roar. We see it quite a bit where 14- and 15-year-olds are selling narcotics down here. South L.A. gang members will use some of the younger people, because how the system works is we wind up releasing them to their parent."
Radio squawks again. "Two males black, blue shirt, right front pocket. North side from Towne and Fifth Street. Red checkered shirt, blue jeans. The other one's got a blue T-shirt with a white T-shirt underneath and blue jeans. Both male black."
We join two squad cars as they pull up on the sellers. Two clean-scrubbed, young black men are under arrest in front of the Salvation Army on Fifth Street and Stanford Avenue. Feet spread, hands on the wall waiting to be cuffed. Feldtz shows me the prize. A big bag of crack and a big bag of cash.
A block away two more squad cars pull up on the buyer. Another black man. A little older.
"It's not like TV," Feldtz says. "We don't get excited. It doesn't have to be all hostile. It's a way of doing business out here. For the most part we've learned to treat 'em with respect. There's no reason to demean them."
Chief Bratton concurs.
"What I don't think is often understood is that the role of the police down there is to protect that population as much as it is to protect populations throughout the city," he says. "And that population is more susceptible to predatory behavior because they are among the weakest and most helpless in society because of drug addiction or schizophrenic condition or the advent of alcohol or ... they're easy prey unfortunately."
Sky Box
I'm humming the hook from "Get Them Chips" as I walk down a long hall on the 17th floor of the courthouse building at 210 W. Temple St. It's like a gallery and the current installation is a series of visual-aid/trial-art collages featuring big blown-up photos of dead gangsters that take up the wall space on both sides. Gotta get my chippy on...
Janet Moore is the director of central operations at the D.A.'s office. She looks like she could be a producer for Oliver Stone. Tom Higgins is the head deputy district attorney in the complaints division and recently ran for D.A. but lost to Steve Cooley. He might run again. Higgins has got a mind of his own, and he and Moore know all about gangs and dope and crime and time served (or not served, as the case may be) for all those gangsters getting their chippy on whom Captain Smith and his crew keep sending over from the box.
Moore and Higgins dwell in the hyperachieving, ultra-competitive world of the D.A.'s office. They're bringing their "A" game at all times. You can smell it. It's not a comfortable place and they are not comfortable people.
The super dope cops told me all about the connection between gangs and drugs and crime, and Moore has some sure-shot solutions for all that. "One of the things we have done here," she tells me, "is that we have a marvelous tool to combat gangs, which is penal code section 186.22. It addresses a variety of issues, but it gives us some tools to really hammer a gang member who is involved in criminal activities for the benefit of the gang."
Moore's talking about additional sentencing options for crimes committed by gang bangers. Higgins jumps in, "If you are committing a crime for the benefit of the gang, in addition to the penalties there are enhanced penalties. It gets them off the street for a longer time."
The cops were too polite to say that the courts are a revolving door, but there is a general consensus in the police department that the people they arrest on drug charges don't serve any kind of meaningful time, and that is a big part of the reason why the ceaseless drug market in the streets of City Central seems to go on forever.
Higgins doesn't exactly disagree.
"As far as what appears to be a revolving door," Higgins clears his throat, "I would say that 800 to 900 cases a month come through here that are dope only, whether they be possession, possession for sale or sales. That's the city this side of the hills. It does not include the Valley. We have nine stations plus some special units coming in here. And out of those nine stations we get 800 to 900 dope cases a month out of a total volume of about 2,200, 2,300 a month. It varies. About 40 percent of these people are on probation.
"We're just recycling the same people back out there," Higgins continues. "The cops are seeing the same people that they arrested two weeks ago."
"Basically you put people in jail and they're doing three to seven days. That is a problem and we do try to levy jail time and probation sentences and send people to county [jail]," adds Moore. "But Proposition 36 substantially changes the way that we do business in drug cases. It was a big societal shift from punishment and incarceration over to rehabilitation."
Proposition 36 is the initiative that was passed by 61 percent of California voters in November 2000. It allows people convicted of nonviolent drug possession to get treatment instead of incarceration, often even if it's a third pop. Prop. 36 costs $120 million annually, though it was supposed to save California taxpayers $1.5 billion over five years. I think I might have voted for that one myself, but I missed the part that said the streets would be overrun with crack-smoking junkies and dope fiends.
"The mentality of this building the 30-plus years I've been in this office is, 'Move the calendar,'" Higgins says. "That's the building as a whole. Individual judges and D.A.'s see it differently, I would hope. But the predominant culture of the building is move the calendar and justice rides in the back seat. The bottom line, what defense attorneys and prosecutors talk about 99 percent of the time is, 'How much time is he gonna get?' The closer you get to no time, the quicker the case goes away. Even with Prop. 36, when you get to the fourth one, it's goodbye time ... or it's supposed to be, but it's not."
And in no time, there are gonna be even more second- and third-time drug arrestees hanging out in Cooleyville. I asked Bratton if, given the system's abysmal failures, there's really anything to be done about a free-range drug market. What can cops do about the box anyway?
"There is an ability with more resources to basically deal with that drug market," Bratton says. "And we will, once given those resources, much as we did in New York. We have to deal with it effectively so we can, in fact, deal with the behavior issue. Can't do that right now with the resources I have. Let me make it perfectly clear: We are getting more resources, but we're not getting anywhere near what we need. We're getting a thousand cops. I need 4,000. So that 1,000 cops spread around the whole city means that Smith will get probably around 40 or 50 additional cops over the next couple years. That's not a lot of cops. There's no quick, easy solution to the problems on Skid Row. What we're trying to do is put people in there who enjoy dealing with problems, believe they can make a change and are trying to make a change. That's the most we can hope for."
Out of the Box
It's been a little while since I descended into the underworld of the super dope cops in the box. A lot has happened in the meantime. My friend Alex got kicked out of rehab for kissing a guy named Ray, and I found out that the angry paparazzo who hit my car lied about having insurance. And then Captain Andy Smith called to tell me that Officer Rick Kellogg was dead. They found him at home a couple weeks ago, shot with his own gun. Rick and his partner Chris Luna were both up for promotion.
Detective Ron Hodges, the head officer in charge of Central's narcotics unit, said, "Rick Kellogg was one of a kind. He will never be replaced."
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I asked Captain Smith if there was anything that would have tipped him off, even in hindsight, that this was going to happen.
"No investigation. No complaints. No psychiatric evaluation," Smith said. "He was clean as a whistle. In my 17-year police career I've seen 12 or 13 suicides. People I knew. What other job has that side effect?"
I found out that Rick's son is 14 years old. Same as Javier.
Lately, they've been shooting a big movie on Olvera Street. The intrusive production must really be fucking up Javier's routine because I saw him begging on the street with a Styrofoam cup last night when I was getting some sushi over by First and San Pedro. He had on some filthy khakis and a black Eco T-shirt, stinking to high heaven. He was so high he couldn't even talk. Kept pointing to his mouth and shaking his head but no sound would come out. His pupils as big as irises, he ran as fast as he could to the end of the block, then back. He was even skinnier than before, skin and bones. Apparently he hasn't been getting his chippy on at all... Whatever.


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KORG Sound Inspiration event @ The Metro Centre!
The M3 has landed, the R3 has arrived, so come along to the Korg Sound Inspiration event @ Dolphin Music Gateshead, on Thursday 8th November, to discover the power behind Korg's new next-generation products.
Korg product specialists Joe Moretti and John Pacey are taking to the road for a series of performance workshops which will showcase all the latest new products, including the M3, the R3, the new Zero mixers and MR Recorders, plus favourites the microX, X50 and KP3.
Joe and John will be taking you on a sonic journey with in-depth presentations on each product. In 75 action packed minutes they will demonstrate the key features of each product as well as a selection of the new sounds available across the range. On stage screens will display close ups of technical aspects of the demonstrations which will be followed by a question and answer session on any aspect of the Korg product range.
This instore event starts 7pm, on Thursday 8th November. Don't miss it!
Dolphin Music Gateshead
16 Garden Walk
Yellow Quadrant
Metro Centre
Tel: 0191 493 2244

subset: commoncrawl


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I'm using rsnapshot filesystem snapshot utility to make incremental snapshots of local and remote filesystems for 10 production servers running on RHEL 5.x system. The rsnapshot commands makes extensive use of hard links, so if the file doesn't change, the next snapshot is simply a hard link to the exact same file. How do I use the rsync command to copy my the entire snapshot …Read More »
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Style # 192051
Harlow Leather Slingback Sandal is rated out of 5 by 5.
Rated 5 out of 5 by BebeGirl6 from Awesome Heel!! When I ordered the shoe I imagined it would be a good fit. I looked at the heel when I opened the box and was sure that I had to return as I thought the heel would be too high. Well I tried the heel on and walked around perfect. I wore the shoes out and they were actually rather comfortable game me no problems I wore them all night and didn't have to take them off. You can dress up in these pumps or wear them with a nice pair of jeans. They are very versatile and I love them. So glad I kept them and would highly recommend this color as well.
Date published: 2013-01-10
Rated 5 out of 5 by mwmspectrum from Nice Suede Peep Toe Sling Back I must have missed it somewhere in the description but I didn't see where it was a suede shoe. Regardless it's still a really sexy shoe and they appear to be comfortable, though I've only walked around the house in them. I can't wait to rock these!
Date published: 2013-01-02
Rated 5 out of 5 by Jillian from Love these shoes I was hesitant to buy these because of the heel height, but I am so glad I did. They are very comfortable, and they look amazing. You can't beat the price, either. They run true to size. I normally wear an 8.5 in shoes. The size 9 fits great. Grab these before they are sold out.
Date published: 2013-01-01
Rated 5 out of 5 by LBoogie from Must have!!!!! If you don't have these shoes in your collection you're missing out. They are hot, hot, hotttt!!!!!
Date published: 2012-11-01
Rated 5 out of 5 by pamela_2 from "Comfortable, Flattering and Gorgeous" "As soon as I tried these shoes on, I knew I had to have them. They are super-feminine and sexy, and yet very soft, comfortable and easy to walk in. For me they are a perfect summer high heel. Sometimes I am size 7.5 and sometimes a size 7 - I bought these in a 7 and they were a perfect fit!"
Date published: 2012-03-16


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The Costs and Outcomes of Treating a Deep Pressure Ulcer in a Patient with Quadriplegia
The cost of pressure ulcers, especially Stage III and Stage IV ulcers, is substantial. A 27-year-old man with a 6-year history of quadriplegia developed an ischial pressure ulcer. Twelve months of treatment with wet-to-dry dressings were followed by admission to several facilities and 15 months of care with biological dressings and negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT). When admitted to the authors' wound care center, the wound measured 4.5 cm x 3.2 cm with exposed bone. A review of his insurance records showed that paid claims totaled $242,350, including $52,992 for NPWT rental costs. The patient was considered a good candidate for minimally invasive surgical intervention with external tissue expanders. Following a 14-day course of antibiotics to treat his infection, the wound was debrided and the tissue expanders applied. After 16 days, the wound was closed. The patient returned to work 6 weeks after the procedure. At the 23-month follow-up, the wound remained closed. Insurance payments for the care that resulted in wound closure totaled $43,814. This case study illustrates the potential of the external tissue expansion technique to close deep pressure ulcers within a relatively short amount of time at comparatively lower cost. Studies including control treatments are needed to confirm these conclusions.
Potential Conflicts of Interest: The authors acknowledge that they own stock in Progressive Surgical Products (Westbury, NY), the manufacturer of the external tissue expander.
Demographics indicate the population of persons 65 years and older is expected to increase to 55 million, and the population older than 85 years is expected to reach more than 6.6 million in 2020.1 Because the risk of developing chronic conditions increases with age, this demographic trend is expected to grow the demand for both human and financial resources in the healthcare system.
The elderly and patients with spinal cord injuries are at high risk for developing chronic wounds such as pressure ulcers. It is estimated that 1.3 to 3 million elderly adults develop a pressure ulcer each year,2 and approximately 60,000 people die each year from complications related to pressure ulcers,3 such as infections, loss of albumin, and anemia. Pressure ulceration is among the most common complications of spinal cord injury and can become a life-threatening complication when characterized by necrosis of the fascia, subcutaneous tissue, and muscle.4 The costs of pressure ulcers to the healthcare system is estimated to be $11 billion each year.5
Stage III and Stage IV are the most advanced types of pressure ulcer and the most costly to heal; healing takes twice as long as partial-thickness ulcers occurring in the same practice.6 It is important to close these wounds quickly to reduce healthcare cost and improve patient quality of life. These wounds can be treated using an assortment of methods, from dressings to negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) to complex surgical flap procedures.7 One option involves a minimally invasive surgical method to close pressure ulcers using external tissue expanders, ongoing wound care, and the judicious use of sutures to quickly close the wound and fill the wound cavity with subcutaneous padding. A clinical series8 on the use of external tissue expansion to close 650 dehisced, chronic, and traumatic wounds found that this method resulted in skin that can withstand the rigors of everyday life, and most wounds were closed in 7 to 14 days.
This case study describes the history, costs of care, and outcome of a patient with quadriplegia who developed a Stage IV ischial pressure ulcer.
Case Study
History. Mr. K, a 27-year-old man with a 6-year history of quadriplegia, developed an ischial pressure ulcer in September 2007. His records showed the wound was initially treated at a university hospital plastic surgery unit from September through December 2007 with minimal improvement. Two months later, Mr. K presented for treatment at another university hospital. From February through April 2008, the wound was recorded as starting to show signs of infection and osteomyelitis. Subsequent records show Mr. K received treatment for his pressure ulcer at another hospital's wound center (A) from September through December 2008 (see Table 1). At that time, MRI results showed the presence of osteomyelitis. Mr. K was treated with systemic antibiotics, the wound was surgically debrided on several occasions, and the wound was treated with Integra biological dressing (Integra, Plainsboro, NJ) and NPWT (Kinetic Concepts, San Antonio, TX). The wound did not heal. Subsequently, Mr. K received wound care at home. In February 2009, Mr. K was admitted to another hospital wound center (B), where he remained until November 2009 (see Table 1). During this period, he was prescribed multiple antibiotics and the wound was managed with a biological dressing and NPWT. The plastic surgeon recommended no further surgery, and Mr. K was discharged to home care with occasional outpatient visits. The ulcer remained unhealed for 15 months. A review of his Blue Cross/Blue Shield medical record and actual insurance payments related to the care of the pressure ulcer from September 2008 through December 2009 showed payments totaling $242,350 (see Table 1).
One month later, on January 11, 2010, Mr. K was admitted to the authors' hospital medical center with an unhealed ischial pressure ulcer that measured 4.5 cm x 3.2 cm with exposed bone (see Figure 1a).
Proposed approach. Considering Mr. K's history, external tissue expansion was considered. External tissue expansion combines three time-tested principles — tissue approximation, tissue expansion, and secondary wound healing — to close the wound with the patient's own local site skin and subcutaneous tissue. For the past 12 years, the authors have used external tissue expansion to close 650 dehisced, traumatic, and chronic pressure ulcers.12
It has been the authors' experience that the prevention or eradication of infection is essential for a successful result with external tissue expansion. Opinions differ as to the role of cultures in the management of bacterial infections, because it is common for wounds to grow a variety of organisms. Nevertheless, certain organisms, such as Staphylococci and Streptococci, may affect healing, and their presence should be noted. The fact that many organisms are merely contaminants is well known, but the onset of a post-procedural infection requires recognition and active treatment. Infected wounds should not be closed because doing so will entrap infected material and increase the risk of wound dehiscence and resultant complications.
Similarly, before applying external tissue expanders, the wound must be free of pus, urine (piss), feces (poop), particles, and pressure ("Schessel's five Ps"). The wound should be irrigated (cleaned), surgically debrided (cut), and either covered with a graft or closed, preferably with local tissue ("Schessel's 4 Cs"). Because culture results from Mr. K's pressure ulcer showed the presence of Klebsiella pneumoniae and Enterococcus faecalis, a 14-day course of amoxicillin clavulanic potassium and vancomycin every 12 hours was prescribed.
External tissue expansion is contraindicated for sacral pressure ulcers located 2 cm from the anus unless a temporary diverting colostomy is in place. In Mr. K's case, the ulcer was not too close to the anus, inflammation and infection were controlled, he was medically stable, and his albumin level was >2. He was considered a good candidate for minimally invasive surgical repair of the pressure ulcer by external tissue expansion.
Procedure. Expansion of local skin and subcutaneous tissue was achieved utilizing Proxiderm™ (Progressive Surgical Products, Westbury, NY) external tissue expanders (see Figure 1b). The external tissue expander consists of two tissue hooks that are inserted through the epidermis and dermis and deeply into the subcutaneous tissue. One tissue hook is inserted 2 cm from the wound margin; the other tissue hook is inserted 2 cm from the opposing wound margin. A mechanism slowly brings the wound margins together over a period of time.
The procedure is performed in the operating room or at bedside. On January 11, 2010, Mr. K's wound was cleansed and surgically debrided under local anesthesia. Extensive ostectomy also was performed in the OR, and a muscle flap was rotated over the bone (see Figure 1c). Per standard procedure, a line of 2/0 nylon sutures was placed 2 to 3 cm from the wound margin, 2 cm apart. Sutures were tied alternately, leaving the ends about 7 cm long or left untied and secured by steri-strips. The tied sutures decrease the size of the wound and assist in obliteration of potential dead space. The tissue hooks of the external tissue expanders were inserted through the skin into deep subcutaneous tissue 2 to 3 cm from the wound margins and secured to the patient by encircling and tying the long ends of the previously untied sutures around the tissue expander. External tissue expanders were placed 2 to 3 cm apart (see Figure 1d) and combine dressings were placed between, under the ends and on top of the expanders, and held in place with Elastoplast (Smith & Nephew, London, UK). In general, clean wounds are evaluated every 2 days and contaminated wounds are evaluated daily; in Mr. K's case, the wound was evaluated every 2 days. At that time, the tissue expanders were removed, the wound cleansed, debrided, and irrigated, and the untied sutures tied. If granulation tissue formation is insufficient to facilitate final closure, the process of suture and tissue expansion is repeated.
On the fourth day post-expansion, a French catheter with multiple holes was placed subcutaneously for deep irrigation through the catheter twice per day for 5 days (see Figure 1e). Mr. K was discharged home on January 27, 2010. Subsequent 10-minute daily saline soaks were provided by a home care aid, followed by cleaning with ½ strength peroxide and the application of bacitracin ointment. A combine dressing and nonallergic tape were placed over the wound. This process was continued for 1 month until sutures were removed. Mr. K was reminded about the importance of avoiding pressure on the surgical area for 4 to 6 weeks after surgery. He returned to work 6 weeks after surgery with a motorized wheelchair and a silicone support pad. At 23 months, the pressure ulcer had not recurred (see Figure 1f). A review of insurance payments for this episode of care showed that the direct insurance cost for closing this pressure ulcer was $43,814 (see Table 2).
Pressure ulcers have been found on 5,000-year-old mummies in Egypt and continue to be an ever-present and resource-intensive problem within society. The time and resources required to manage and heal Stage III and Stage IV pressure ulcers are especially high.6 Traditionally, wounds have been managed to promote epithelialization by creating a moist wound environment. In the mid 20th century, the potential for moisture barrier dressings to reduce healing time, pain, scarring, and infection rates was realized.9 A current popular mode of wound management is the application of NPWT to the wound. The average healing time of Stage III and Stage IV trochanteric and trunk wounds averaging 22.2 cm2 using NPWT is 97 days; closure occurs as granulation tissue10 forms and becomes scar tissue. Because NPWT reduces edema through evacuation of water molecules, it also may remove low molecular weight proteins. The authors hypothesize that studies to ascertain the effect of NPWT on the risk of hypoproteinemia should be conducted, especially in patients with pressure ulcers. In addition, surgical approximation of the wound edges results in more durable tissue than the scar tissue that typically forms following secondary intention healing.7
In the 1970s, the need for more expedient and resilient skin coverage of large and/or deep wounds led to the development of tissue flap techniques. Tissue flaps involve detaching the tissue from its original site, transferring the tissue flap to the wound by advancement or rotation, and suturing the tissue flap to cover the wound. This major operative procedure is performed under general anesthesia7 and contraindicated in many elderly patients.
In the 1990s, a minimally invasive surgical technique that uses external skin expansion and dedicated wound care was introduced to close chronic and traumatic wounds. A clinical series11 of 125 patients with lower extremity wounds closed by external tissue expansion confirmed that tissue expansion stimulates angiogenesis. In vitro models12 also have demonstrated that tissue expansion increases the production of growth factors that include epidermal, fibroblast, transforming families, platelet-derived growth factor, and angiotensin II. A study13 of 20 patients subjected to breast reconstruction by means of tissue expansion indicated substantial mitotic activity, suggesting the formation of new tissue. Results of the recent study8 support 1- to 2-week healing and desired skin characteristics. A clinical series14 of 52 decubitus ulcers (sacral, trochanteric, ischial, and heel), a clinical series15 of 74 pressure ulcers (foot and ankle), and a clinical series16 of 16 dehisced abdominal wounds — all supported using tissue expansion to close the wounds.
When a Stage III or Stage IV pressure ulcer develops, a basic management decision has to be made. Nonsurgical secondary intention healing can take months. A 1990 study17 of 19,889 elderly patients at 51 nursing homes showed that, when using traditional gauze-based dressings, 29% of Stage III pressure ulcers and 38% of Stage IV pressure ulcers remained unhealed after 2 years. A 2-year study18 in a Canadian urban health region involving seven healthcare organizations (acute, home, and extended care) revealed a pressure ulcer can increase nursing time up to 50%, as well as increase direct costs. In addition to its effect on patient quality of life, an open wound also remains at risk for the development of complications including infections, anemia, and osteomyelitis that, as illustrated by the passing of Christopher Reeves, can lead to death. Emotional suffering and physical pain are an important cost often quantified in litigation. A review19 of medical malpractice cases regarding patients at risk for pressure ulcers in long-term care facilities indicated that the patient achieved a verdict or settlement in 68% of cases, and the median monetary recovery was $250,000. In a 2003 case in California, a jury awarded $3 million in damages against a nursing home for allowing an elderly woman to die of bedsores.20 Using external tissue expansion, most pressure ulcers are closed in 7 to 14 days.8
In this case study, Mr. K was discharged after 16 days, sutures were removed after 1 month, and he returned to work 6 weeks following surgery. Insurance company costs for his treatment were $43,814. This is in stark contrast with attempted wound closure during a period of 15 months at a cost of $242,350, of which $52,992 were rental charges for the NPWT system. The final result was an unhealed pressure ulcer. If the ulcer initially had been closed by external tissue expansion, $198,356 would have been saved. According to data from the CMS and the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project,9 a nationwide database of hospital inpatient stays, in 2006, 503,300 hospital stays noted pressure ulcers as a diagnosis, and pressure ulcer hospital costs totaled $11 billion.
Pressure ulcer treatment represents a significant expenditure of private health insurance as well as Medicare and Medicaid funding. A pressure ulcers is both a high-cost and high-volume adverse event. With limited resources and manpower available, the open nonhealing pressure ulcer is a challenge to the healthcare professional. It is essential to find new modalities to provide a better quality of life for these patients at a reduced cost to the healthcare system. This case study illustrates the potential of the external tissue expansion technique to close deep pressure ulcers within a relatively short amount of time while reducing cost. Studies including control treatments are needed to confirm these conclusions.
Dr. Schessel is Chief Emeritus, Division of Plastic Surgery, Flushing Hospital Medical Center, Flushing, NY. Dr. Ger is retired. Dr. Oddsen is a medical engineer consultant. Please address correspondence to: Eli S. Schessel, MD, 108-33 70th Road, Forest Hills, NY 11375: email: email@example.com.
1. A Profile of Older Americans 2009 Administration of Aging, US Department of Health and Human Services. www.aoa.gov/aoaroot/aging_statistics/profile/2009/docs/2009profile_509.pdf. Accessed January 20, 2012.
2. Lyder C. Pressure ulcer prevention and management. JAMA. 2003;289:223–226.
3. Allman RM. Pressure ulcers among the elderly. N Engl J Med. 1989;320(13):850–853.
4. Citak M, Backhaus M, Tilkorn D, O'Loughlin P, Meindl R, Muhr G, Fehmer T. Necrotizing fasciitis in patients with spinal cord injury. Spine. 2011;36(18):E1225–E1229.
5. Russo CA, Steiner C, Spector W. Hospitalizations related to pressure ulcers among adults 18 years and older 2006: US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Statistical Brief #64.
6. Bolton L, McNees P, van Rijswijk L, deLeon J, Lyder C, Kobza L, et al. Wound healing outcomes using standardized assessment and care in clinical practice. J WOCN. 2004;31(2):65–71.
7. Treatment of Pressure Ulcers, Clinical Practice Guideline Number 15. US Department of Health and Human Services. AHCPR Publication No. 95-0652.
8. Schessel ES, Ger R. Closure of difficult wounds by external tissue expansion. WOUNDS. 2010;22(6):151–157.
9. van Rijswijk L. Bridging the gap between research and practice. Am J Nurs. 2004;104(2):28–30.
10. Philbeck TE Jr, Whittington KE, Millsap MH, Broines RB, Wight DG, Schroeder WJ. The clinical and cost effectiveness of externally applied negative pressure wound therapy in the treatment of wounds in home healthcare. Ostomy Wound Manage. 1999;45(11):41–50.
11. Ger R, Schessel ES. Prevention of major amputations in nonischemic lower limb lesions. J Am Coll Surg. 2005;201(6):898–905.
12. De Filippo RE, Atala A. Stretch and growth: the molecular and physiologic influences of tissue expansion. Plast Reconstr Surg. 2002;109(7):2450–2462.
13. Austad ED, Thomas SB, Pasyk K. Tissue expansion: dividend or loan? Plast Reconstr Surg. 1986;78(1):63–67.
14. Schessel ES, Ger R. The management of pressure sores by constant-tension approximation. Brit J Plast Surg. 2001:54(5):439–446.
15. Schessel ES, Lombardi CM, Dennis LN. External constant tissue expansion of soft tissue for the treatment of ulceration of the foot and ankle. J Foot Ankle Surg. 2000;39(5):321–328.
16. Schesssel ES, Ger R, Ambrose G, Kim R. The management of the postoperative disrupted abdominal wall. Am J Surg. 2002;18(3):263–268.
17. Brandeis GH, Morris JN, Nash DJ, Lipsiz LA. The epidemiology and natural history of pressure ulcers in elderly nursing home residents. JAMA. 1990;264:2905–2909.
18. Clarke H, Bradley C, Whytock S, Handfield S, van der Wal R, Gundry S. Pressure ulcers: implementation of evidence-based nursing practice. J Adv Nurs. 2005;49(6):578–590.
19. Bennett RG, O'Sullivan J, DeVito EM, Remsburg R. The increasing medical malpractice risk related to pressure ulcers in the United States. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2000;48(1):73–81.
20. Annie Mae Ollison v. Eskaton Homestead of Fair Oaks et al., Sacramento Superior Court, 00AS05801. Available at: www.morelaw.com/verdicts/case.asp?n=00AS05801&s=CA&d=22291. Accessed January 20, 2012.


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We all have questions and need help sometimes. We have compiled resources that can help you understand the mortgage and credit problems or questions you may have.
There is nothing more important in foreclosures than being informed. We have compiled an entire knowledge center to help you in your foreclosure ventures.
Our Mailing List is compiled live as we receive data. Every few days you will receive a list of all the new bank foreclosures in the areas you have specified. You will know as soon as new properties are put on the market. The speed and accuracy of this instant information is not available on any other list!


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Windows 7/Vista? XP FTW!
See? Told you!
The latest update to Adobe's Flash has been crashing Mozilla Firefox users on Windows since last week, but the firms behind the products are still searching for a fix. "We are aware that some users of Firefox on Windows updating to Flash 11.3 encounter issues watching videos ... We are working with Adobe on a fix," a Mozilla …
See? Told you!
Because it's Microsoft's fault that Adobe software is crashing a Mozilla browser
Read the linked help document, and Real player is implicated in some way - the first things to try are turning it off and un-installing it.
I'm no fan of Microsoft but I'd put them a fairly long way down the suspects list on this one.
If only a certain flash-basher was still alive - he'd love this!
Hmm, it seems difficult to pin the problem on Adobe/Flash.
All seems to be working fine in Chrome, and that uses the very same plugin AFAIK. So if Chrome+Flash = OK, and Firefox+Flash = not OK, one would start looking at Firefox first I should think.
I think you're right though. I don't think any of that would have stopped that certain flash-basher dishing out an additional opportunistic bashing, despite the fact that no one seems to be saying about Safari+Flash which presumably means all is well there too.
I thought that Chrome didn't use a Flash plugin, but actually had the Flash runtime code built into it?
The article with helpful tips is essentially: uninstall realplayer, downgrade flash... pointless.
Although, to be fair, it was a long time ago that I stopped using it and moved to realalternative, so they may have cleaned up their act.
I think any help article that suggests the user uninstall Realplayer is extremely helpful.
I can still remember realplayer being first released, then gradually turning into a bloated piece of crap...
Then again, I can still remember Flash being released... oh and Firefox... :)
I have lost count of the number of times the various frequently updated versions of Flash have crashed on my PC. Adobe are quite capable of writing software that works, and works well, yet for some reason they are unable to fix the steaming pile of putrid dingo droppings that they call Flash.
"Adobe are quite capable of writing software that works, and works well"
Do you have anything to back up this unsubstantiated claim?
I was being generous. You'll notice that I didn't claim they had written software that "works, and works well" - just that they were capable of it. Something that is difficult to prove or disprove.
Well Lightroom and Photoshop to name just two products, seem to be working OK for a huge number of Windows and Mac users the world over. Using CS6 for my professional photo editing I'd have to say it's one of the best versions I've used since I started digital editing back around 1998.
That's 'cos you is a (possibly) paying (through the nose) customer.
>"Firefox and/or Flash Player may crash or not load videos using Flash Player, or videos may not display correctly.
Wow since when is this news? Been par for the course for a long time.
"Adobe quality software" has replaced "Microsoft quality software" in my lexicon. This is because for about two years now, the latest Adobe Acrobats have been incapable of printing some Adobe pdf files generated by Adobe's own software to a Postscript printer (possibly even an Adobe Postscript printer). The same pdf files printed to the same printer using Foxit or Evince work just fine. The same files printed using ancient versions of Acrobat reader also work fine.
Capable of writing software that works and works well? You decide.
No, more likely he's a pirate, because the officially licensed paid-for version of Photoshop would, in the grand tradition of treating one's customers as criminals, likely be so encumbered with DRM, product activation and usage enforcement measures, as to be practically unusable. Contrast that with the cracked and pirated version, which has no DRM or phone-home crap, and is eminently faster, more efficient, stable, reliable and less bloated as a result.
Thought I'd messed something up over the weekend - reinstalled firefox twice and still wasnt working so removed it.
The Mozilla workaround linked in the article involves disabling the RealPlayer Browser Record extension. Without wanting to point fingers, RealPlayer has been banned from my Windows PCs for over a decade, IMHO for good reason, so possibly it's not entirely Adobe's fault this time.
No flash-based operations have been working on my Win 7 Ultimate PC since last Thursday. Even multiple file uploads are affected :(
and yes I am using RealPlayer record...
I tried to watch an hour long streamed videos yesterday and it kept hanging every 9 minutes. Initially I thought it was my connection but after resetting my router twice the regularity of the hangs led me to the conclusion that Flash was to blame. As you can imagine watching an hour long video in 9 minute bursts was very annoying and the name Adobe is now a swear word in its own right in my house.
I don't usually have any problems with Flash despite the number of people who claim it crashes their PC all the time but this one is a major screw up on Adobe's part.
sounds similar to trying to watch anything on itv2
Anyone affected could always try using another browser that doesn't have these issues.
Like IE..............
Glad to see the joke alert there. I don't think I've used FireFerret in over a year, too slow, annoying interface etc.
If only IE didnt have problems too; some controls in Flash no longer work. For example, in War Commander (surely the only reason anyone goes on Facebook these days), the 'Full Screen' control no longer does anything. Advice in forums is to go back to 11.2, so it looks like some feature was deprecated in this release. Testing, anyone?
Also, it now asks if you really want to go fullscreen when you choose the fullscreen option in Chrome.
Firefox on Linux doesn't crash, but it does stop video (while the audio keeps going) or simply skips chunks altogether.
Not for me, on two different machine flash works fine and dandy - aside from the fact that is is still shit and uses up to o much CPU, but it is stable - no frame losses at all watching motogp.com in HD yesterday.
But on my wn7 machine, I get wierd green bars on the top of the screen... no idea why but this is a new thing for sure, as it worked fine before - shit but still stable.
I had the same "weird green" problem on Win7 - I found that turning off hardware acceleration fixed it for me.
(Right-click on flash player in browser, choose "Settings..." and, if you've got "Enable hardware acceleration" checked in the Display tab, try turning it off)
Crashes for me on Linux when kids are watching iview. So I keep on getting "Daaaaaad... it's not working"
Hmmm, I've been having a different problem on Linux - Flash video colors comes out all wrong if hardware acceleration is enabled. Had to turn off hardware acceleration and now every time I watch a video the CPU load shoots up. Thankfully, tho, it's a quad-core Phenom 2, so it's still not too bad.
As for windows- well, I'd think it's probably a potent combination of Firefox 13 and Flash, and probably Aero. I'm using Classic with Seamonkey 2.10.1 and I'm still able to watch flash videos fine.
Not really Adobes fault you had kids.
Since none of the Mozilla pages seem to mention it, you can find older versions of Flash here. That took a lot of digging to find over the weekend:
This is why I hate Flash video. I have perfectly good video players on my system, many of which can use the hardware I have to best use (e.g. MPlayer) and can play 1080p30 video at a percent CPU load.
But because Macromedia saw fit to use their own "special" MIME type, and to encourage web site designers to force me to use ONE particular plug in to play their oh-so-special content. those players get muscled aside for a bug-ridden, crash-prone, privacy-invading plugin.
How about you look at the damn "accepts:" header, and feed my browser a damn MP4 file, and let my BROWSER and I decide what to do with it?
I anxiously await HTML5 becoming dominant.
on every Register page, then I'm all for it.
Have they really paid El Reg enough to keep the fekking there there for what feels like more than a week? Grrrrrrrr....
Almost as good as those adverts on the page background that activate if you have the audacity to click somewhere on the page at all.
There are ADVERTS on The Register pages - I didn't know that.
Ah, so that's what the blue lego brick is for? I did wonder.
It's not such a good advert; it's not convinced me to buy anything.
yeah, that's my reaction to hearing that at times - another forum I visit wants money via a paid membership to remove ads, my question was, "what ads?"
I've had flash problems with Youtube on all browsers for a while now, problem is a crackling noise in the background on all videos.
This is definitely a flash problem as when I use the HTML5 version (available for all videos without ads), the problem goes away.
Opera 12 has a plugin wrapper that runs flash as a separate process, it also allows 64bit browsers to use 32bit plugins...
Someone here (if the link works) was having trouble, apparently by playing multiple videos at once in Opera 12 - paused. Probably in Belgian. I do have an urge to say "What a fool", but, why shouldn't he?
I only have Flash installed in Internet Explorer, because both of them feel like living dangerously. Do remember that IE Flash and Other-Browser Flash are to be updated separately - and I think Chrome has its own Flash built-in, and its own arcane updates.
Chrome for me too. With Adblock Plus and the Google Analytics Opt-Out plugins, it is a fine and fast experience.
(my experience is with 32bit google-chrome-beta on 64bit Linux)
AdBlock is better than AdBlockPlus -- strips adverts out of playback itvPlayer etc.
NotScripts is the other must-have extension.
...just like Apple's iOS then?
to treat Linux users as second class citizens and focus on Windows experience, I was expecting to see some positive impact on quality for tneir Windows apps.
I have no plans to move beyond Firefox 3.6 on Windows. On my Android tablet, I run the nightlies, which are currently on 16.0! That also runs Flash with no probs.


text:
Synesis needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 161 designs submitted by 30 freelance designers.
Ten80 Holidays
Ten80 is an existing brand which handles corporate events and property management in the French Alps, both winter and summer.
The Holidays branch of the brand will be for luxury/prestige holidays in unique accommodation, with an unusual, modern and honest approach.
The style of the logo should be abstract and 'concept', and needs to imply luxury as much as it does holidays/mountains.
35+ years old, mostly UK based, professionals - doctors, lawyers, bankers - it is a luxury brand, but should also be a 'concept' brand.
The requirement is a logo design provided as an Illustrator (.ai) file, either incorporating the name Ten80 Holidays or complimenting it.
Ideally using just greyscale and one colour, the logo should be modern, and should imply the concept of the brand. Thus a simple shape or shapes would be sufficient.
It is important that the design differentiates from the hundreds of existing companies which use mountains in their logos, so if you do decide to use mountains, it would need to be in an unusual and highly creative way.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


text:
Twenty-seven doctors from the Houma-Thibodaux area made Louisiana Life's 2012 Best Doctors in Louisiana list.
Twenty-seven doctors from the Houma-Thibodaux area made Louisiana Life's 2012 Best Doctors in Louisiana list.
They include a range of doctors from private practices and public hospitals in Houma and Thibodaux.
Editor-in-Chief Errol Laborde said the list, published in the magazine's November-December issue, is compiled by a private company called Best Doctors. The company ranks doctors by polling local physicians about who they'd recommend to their friends and family who need care, Laborde said.
The list includes 1,049 Louisiana doctors in 79 specialties.
"We take it very seriously when presenting this list of doctors," Laborde said, adding a local physician checks over the list before it's published.
Dr. Shaminder Gupta is section chief for nephrology and associate program director for internal medicine education at Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center in Houma. He said he is proud to earn a place on the list alongside four other doctors at his public charity hospital. He has worked at Chabert for eight years.
"It really speaks highly of our hospital," Gupta said. "People choose to come to our hospital because they're getting good care. And to have a number of doctors on the list is a good indicator of that."
Gupta, who lives in New Orleans, said he chooses to drive to Houma each day for work because he loves having a job where he can train new doctors and care for patients.
"You should love what you do, and at Chabert I have a chance to do that every day," he said. "I love education and teaching, training the next generation of doctors. And in Terrebonne Parish, I get to see all kinds of patients from all different backgrounds. It's an opportunity to impact them directly."
Greg Stock, CEO of Thibodaux Regional Medical Center, said having recognized doctors on staff is important to a hospital's mission of providing high-quality health care. Six staff doctors from the hospital were recognized.
Stock said he looks for doctors who are well-trained in their field and clinically competent with good interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate with patients and their caretakers.
Interpersonal skills are especially important in today's health care world, Stock said, because patients are looking for doctors who will spend time with them and answer their questions in a way they can understand.
Dr. Allen Vander, a kidney doctor who has worked nine years at Thibodaux Regional, is a local doctor recognized with the award.
Growing up in the small town of Sulphur outside of Lake Charles, Vander said he was inspired to be a physician by the family doctors who worked in his town.
"Today when you break your leg you go see an orthopedic specialist," Vander said. "But back then you saw your family doctor. They had to do everything and be everything. Seeing how they handled caring for people inspired me to pursue a career where I could help people in that regard."
Working in Thibodaux can still present a doctor with challenging cases, Vander added. In the past, he treated a patient with rare kidney stones that required treatment at the Mayo Clinic.
"It was an interesting case," Vander said. "To have someone walk through my office with a disease so unusual that it happens to only one in 100,000 people — you wouldn't expect it in a small town."
Vander added that it's nice to be recognized by his peers, but the best thanks comes in the form of thank-you notes from patients.
"We have a nice community here," Vander said. "Getting a note that says 'Thank you for taking care of my family' is better than anything else."
Nikki Buskey can be reached at 857-2205 or email@example.com.


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Both. The two are not mutually exclusive concepts. Sure, one can subjectively say a series fits one descriptor better than the other, but the medium as a whole has enough examples to fit both categories. People will still disagree about where plenty of individual series may fit in that Venn diagram, due to personal taste.
I whole hardheartedly agree.
Spazticus wrote:
Both. The two are not mutually exclusive concepts. Sure, one can subjectively say a series fits one descriptor better than the other, but the medium as a whole has enough examples to fit both categories. People will still disagree about where plenty of individual series may fit in that Venn diagram, due to personal taste.
I'd also like to add that often enough, a form of entertainment is a medium for artistic expression and art is the people's entertainment. I see no reason that anime and manga would be exceptions to this.
The Ice Queen cometh
Like others have said, it's both.
[No information available]
Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, one man's trash is another man's treasure and all that noise...
I believe there's a God above, I'm just the God of everything else!
I would consider anime as a canvass that tells a story and in that way it is an art. Most anime contains a story with a set of episodes that tells the story and many work that miracle. It is both storytelling that uses a medium that intrinsically takes that story and separates it from the reality that we live in. What other medium where the characters can have all sorts of hair colors patterned after the rainbow and girls wearing skirts that is impossibly short in the dead of winter.
Like all art, it is in the eye of the beholder, many see that it looks like a cartoon therefore it must be a cartoon. Other see gigantic eyes and a line squiggle as a nose and cannot deal with the anatomically incorrect features. I think it is just stunning when a great story is animated so well and so differently. Take Whisper of the Heart for example, it is a great story by itself, but it is amplified many times over with the Cat Returns as the story that the girl in Whisper of the Heart wrote. Anime made those two stories possible, which any other medium would be difficult if not impossible.
Both. It's an entertainment art. Any art designed to be marketed and sold to the public is an entertainment art form imo as it has to satisfy both artistic merit and ideally generate enough $$$ so that everyone involved can support themselves financially by doing their craft, allowing them to dedicate their professional lives to creating and producing in the medium.
darkangel09rose wrote:
Do you think anime is a form of art or just simple entertainment for viewing pleasure or both ? . I think its pure art in its drawings and story lines.
I believe anime is a form of art and entertainment because of the storylines tide into the art. Plus art is what each individual views. I went to an art exhibit where on a medium size board was one simple thumb print. Then another looked like poop smeared across a canvas. Also, another time while a friends uncle was painting in the public art gallery, an art teacher told him his painting of nature wasn't art. I personally don't understand the thumb print art and smear of poop art, but others view it as amazing. Concluding that anything can be art if you make it art.
If any of you had made a mini animation, it is hell! I applause to anyone who makes animations because they are hard. You have to make them frame by fram and er' you could pull your hair out at times. Also I'm talking about decent ones, not the kind that takes three seconds, but the ones that take three minutes! Also three seconds is even hard to do if any of you had succeully done this. Making the characters walking and talk nautrualy as if it was real life>.> Grr. Thus I wouldn't call it simple entertainment behind the scenes.
Just my opinions.
Will be leavin soon.
A medium can not be classified. only what is shown is what can be considered art or just entertainment. TV, games, anime, books and such differ too greatly to attempt to think as such.
anime & anime & anime & anime & bacon strips
Some animes would be considered "Art"... like Spirited Away or Death Note, where they have extensive character development and themes that make you reflect on different philosophical views.
Some animes would be considered "Entertainment" because they just use recycled stories and have superficial character development.
I mean, in most generic animes, the lead characters tend to say useless things that don't build their characters at all... for example, "Wow this sandwich is delicious"... that line was used at least three times in one anime. It has no relevance to anything. Or something like, "Would you like to have this octopus?"
Which is why I cringe when people call these generic animes a "Masterpiece".
In Death Note, for example, they show the character L being obsessed with cakes and sucking his thumb... this actually has relevance to the character development because it supports the fact that he has autism (One of the characteristics of autism is the obsession with a particular thing).
The way I hold you and the night just seems to fly
Have you noticed anime fans, are art in there own right, strong willed with intellect
draw your blade agents all oppression
I find that anime is both because its has a good plot and graphics
All the haters please keep scrolling,I get it you had a lot of bad romance.
I say both
All the haters please keep scrolling,I get it you had a lot of bad romance.
It's just a cartoon for entertainment as far as I'm concerned.
You can't choose what stays and what fades away
I would say it is both.
just so you know


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|2011-08-23, 17:04
|Link #221
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2007
Spoiler for Gitsune:
Last edited by Iggy_Pop; 2011-08-23 at 17:38.
|2011-08-26, 22:42
|Link #224
I have always thought that Gitsune was 'her', who just reverted to child form with memory erased.
|2011-08-29, 10:40
|Link #227
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
Rikuo back home. The "greetings" were funny ^^'
The battle ships were a nice surprise, so cool!
Yura/Yuuki Onna saves the day ^^ those guys sure know how to pick the wrong time to go sightseeing in Kyoto. Akifusa turned into a yokai, possessed? Ryuuji is pretty cool ^^
|2011-08-29, 15:34
|Link #228
User of the "Fast Draw"
This episode reminds me why I dislike Kiyotsugu so much. How many times does that guy have to nearly get his friends killed by his stupidity before he gets a clue? It seemed like he somewhat got it this time, but really the guy wanders into danger like he's going to a petting zoo. While it'd never happen don't think it'd be a tragedy if he got himself killed during the series. Keep a lot of people out of danger that way.
A nice combo attack though with Yura and Tsurara. Still this is a really bad situation for Yura. They were already outnumbered and out gunned before and now some of their top guys are either incapacitated or outright traitors. Not sure if Akifusa was just corrupted by his own power or whether there was some pushing involved from outside. Either way he's clearly going to be no help to the clan right now.
Rikuo needs to get his guys on the boat and get moving. They are running out of time.
|2011-09-05, 08:35
|Link #231
Let's Puppystyle!
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Best Place In The WORLD
Age: 26
p.s. - i think the anime will probably still reveal this fact at some point later since this seems to be a pretty impt piece of info. I'm guessing that grandpa nura will have a chance to meet with Hidemoto and it'll get brought up at that point. I wonder if Hideomoto will also accidentally confuse little nura for grandpa nura at first.
Favorite scene: "Listen carefully Yura, I'm going to teach you a technique"
"We're going to end it tonight, the final battle huh"
*emits smoke*
"It's time to...Runnnnn yura-channnn"
|2011-09-05, 10:31
|Link #232
User of the "Fast Draw"
Haha poor Yura firing smokescreens rather than getting to finish the battle. Of course Hidemoto is right that this isn't a fight they can win and that it's best to retreat for now. I'm sure he's counting on Nurarihyon to show up eventually to fight and that will be their moment. Rikuo might not be his grandfather, but obviously he'll have to finish the fight in the end.
As expected Tono and the Nura clan have some issues to work out here. Just shows how the loss of Rikuo's father really hurt the clan's strength. Until these groups get some respect for each other it'll be dangerous. Though think Tono is wrong about why Rikuo hadn't learned that stuff yet. It didn't help that for a long while he wanted to live as a human so he wouldn't be interested in any of that. Then it comes down to a fear that if he does gain that level of strength he'll do something crazy like trying to hunt down Gitsune. Sure she apparently killed his father with a sneak attack, but her strength isn't anything to laugh about.
So that's how Akifusa went down. As expected those three weren't remotely a match for the shear number and strength of Gitsune's forces. Good move by Yura using Hagun. At least they've recovered those three guys and can regroup.
|2011-09-05, 11:32
|Link #233
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
Akifusa still consumed by yokai. Ryuji couldn't save him no matter how hard he tried.
Some historical info behind those helped to understand this more. Akifusa sure had an inferior complex, no wonder he got consumed by darkness.
Yura can now use Hagun. Maybe she'll be the one to defeat that ayakashi girl.
Nura is totally late to Kyoto & his bunch is not getting too well along..
Really nice action scenes in this episode!
|2011-09-05, 16:33
|Link #234
Anime-Only Viewer
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: USA
So from what I gather at the end of episode 10 is that the Nura clan Yokai who have shared sake with Rikuo are actually much stronger than previously have been shown? Meaning, during the last battle with Tamazuki's yokai, they were holding back? If that is the case, then it means they were more powerful than Rikuo at the time, but they let him do battle with the big, bad boss.
It just does not make sense. Why would they hold back, putting Rikuo's life in danger? I really do hope they explain why the Nura clan was holding back on their powers.
|2011-09-05, 17:04
|Link #236
Anime-Only Viewer
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: USA
Yeah, they did not struggle much (just a little at first), but it really should have been a no-issue battle if they are as strong as what is hinted right now (meaning, stronger than Rikuo pre-training).
Also, if the Nura clan is as strong as hinted, then how did Hihi (Shouei's father) die so easily under Tamazuki's team? Isn't he one of the big clan leaders? Tamazuki should be weak in comparison.
|2011-09-05, 17:12
|Link #237
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Folsom, CA, USA
Age: 32
|2011-09-05, 18:03
|Link #238
The Faceless One
|2011-09-10, 23:43
|Link #239
Junior Member
Join Date: Sep 2011
hey I'm new here, and I wanted to know where in the series does this pic come from
Last edited by CrowKenobi; 2011-09-11 at 09:58.
|2011-09-11, 10:20
|Link #240
The Faceless One
|Thread Tools


text:
Quote:I get my news from C-SPAN and the Weekly World News.By the way, you posted this in the wrong forum.
Quote:Globally i like CNN and our Sky News. Also channel 4 and Newsnight.Question time and Jonathan Dimbleby is good for political discussions involving the audience. We get news reporters talking over people to have a go at them and put them down.For a topic a lot of the time it's really funny. I mean our news i don't know about in America does try and act as a check on the goverment like say the House of Lords is.
Quote:Then watch both, read a couple of papers, look on the internet and come up with your own opinion. If you only listen to what you want to hear then you run the risk of not truly understanding why you have the opinion you have.
Quote:The National Enquirer and Entertainment Tonight.


text:
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) - Nick Jacobs scored 15 points and hit two free throws with 46 seconds left to help Alabama secure a 60-57 victory over LSU on Saturday night.
The rest of the Crimson Tide (15-8, 7-3 Southeastern Conference) missed five straight free throws down the stretch to keep giving the Tigers (13-8, 4-6) chances to at least tie.
LSU missed all three 3-pointers in the final minute after pulling out three straight wins by a collective five points.
Jacobs made seven of eight foul shots and blocked three shots for Alabama, which was coming off an anemic 49-37 loss at Auburn when the Crimson Tide scored 14 points in the second half.
Trevor Releford scored 12 points and Levi Randolph and Rodney Cooper each had 10 for Alabama.
Johnny O'Bryant led LSU with 22 points and 11 rebounds. Shavon Coleman scored nine of his 11 in the second half before fouling out.
(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


text:
ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- The men's basketball team headed west to Webster to take on the SLIAC-leading Gorloks in the final regular season road game of the year. Webster controlled from tipoff and never looked back, downing Greenville 68-50. Leading the Panthers in the losing effort was senior forward Obinna Agomo. Agomo chipped in a game high 16 points and snagged five boards in the loss.
Hitting six of eight three-pointers in the first half, Webster raced to a 41-20 halftime lead and coasted to victory.
Despite the loss, the Panthers (12-11, 8-7 SLIAC) have locked up a St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament berth next weekend. They will first aim to defend H.J. Long Gymnasium on Monday, Feb. 21, against Spalding in the final regular season tilt of the year.


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March 24, 2017
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