April 3, 2011
BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.
April 3 is … Tweed Day and Don't Go To Work Unless It's Fun Day
April is Autism Awareness Month. Please go to the web site listed below. Perhaps you will learn something or maybe you want to help. This cause is very important to my wife. She is involved in the treatment, training and education autistic children receive. She also provides training to educators who work with autistic children. She is well known and respected in her field. I am very proud of her.
The White Sox won again, so did Butler and UConn. It will be Butler v, UConn Monday night for the NCAA basketball Championship. I like Butler.
Here is something I pulled off the Internet. If you like puzzles or are good at encryption, the St. Louis police could use your help in solving a 12 year old homicide.
Calling all code crackers, sleuth wannabees and puzzle lovers the FBI needs your help. On June 30, 1999, officers in St. Louis found the body of 41-year-old Ricky McCormick, who had been murdered and dumped in a field. The lone clues regarding the homicide were two encrypted notes found in McCormick's pants. Now, investigators from the FBI’s Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit (CRRU) and the American Cryptogram Association are seeking the public’s help in breaking the encrypted code found in the notes on the body of the murdered Missouri man.
"We are really good at what we do," CRRU chief Dan Olson said in a statement. “But we could use some help with this one." The notes contain more than 30 lines of coded material, using a variety of letters, numbers, dashes and parentheses. McCormick, a "street smart" high school dropout who was able to read and write had used such encrypted notes since he was a boy, but none of his friends or relatives can decipher the code, according to the FBI. Investigators believe the notes were written up to three days prior to his death. "Breaking the code could reveal the victim’s whereabouts before his death and could lead to the solution of a homicide," Olson's statement continued. "Not every cipher we get arrives at our door under those circumstances." Several CRRU examiners who are experts at breaking codes have been stumped over the years while applying a variety of analytical techniques to the notes in search of an answer or clues in McCormick's murder. "Standard routes of cryptanalysis seem to have hit brick walls," Olson's statement continued. "Maybe someone with a fresh set of eyes might come up with a brilliant new idea." To advance the cold case, investigators are searching for another sample of McCormick's coded system, or a similar one that might offer context to the notes or allow for comparisons to be made, Olson said.
The FBI is not offering a reward for assistance in the case, "just a challenge and the satisfaction of knowing that your brain power might help bring a killer to justice," according to a March 29 news release on the notes. To get you started, here's a basic tip: Breaking any code involves four basic steps, including determining the language used; determining the system used; reconstructing the key; and reconstructing the plain text. Anyone with information on the codes or the McCormick homicide is asked to write CCRU at the following address: FBI Laboratory, Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit, 2501 Investigation Parkway, Quantico, VA 22135, Attn: Ricky McCormick Case. "Even if we found out that he was writing a grocery list or a love letter, we would still want to see how the code is solved," Olson said. "This is a cipher system we know nothing about."
We could have used this guy in our intelligence service before his unfortunate murder.
Did the White Sox just score again?
Man’s best friend? Why have enemies? Bites from a relentless pack of dogs killed a 55-year-old man with a history of seizures who was found lying unconscious along the side of a road in Arizona while the animals mauled him, a medical examiner's report said. McKinley County deputies had to chase the dogs away so emergency medical technicians could help Larry Armstrong, who was found lying on the ground Dec. 8 in the small community of Sundance, on Navajo Nation land near Gallup. "The dogs tried to come back, so we had to use pepper spray to keep them away while the EMTs attended to the victim," sheriff's Lt. Tom Mumford told KOAT television in December. "The dogs, they were downright angry. You could see their ribs sticking out." Armstrong later was pronounced dead at a hospital. The state Office of the Medical Investigator found multiple puncture wounds, tears and scrapes on his head, neck, abdomen, arms and legs. An autopsy report said Anderson suffered from seizures and had been taken to the hospital because of that problem the day before his death. Medical investigators wrote in their report that they didn't know whether Armstrong suffered a seizure before the dogs attacked or whether he was conscious when they started mauling him. His death was ruled an accident. Rob Platero, the Navajo Nation's chief of criminal investigations in Window Rock, Ariz., said a number of dogs were rounded up and killed after Armstrong's death. He could only say "several" dogs were involved in the attack and he did not know how many animals from the area were destroyed. Samples from the dogs were sent for examination to check for rabies or other diseases, Platero said.
This item appeared on Aol under Weird News on March 31, 2011. The legislator likely has some strong support but probably not a majority on this one. There are victims of drunken driving. And, according to one Montana legislator, there are victims of drunken driving laws. While speaking out against a proposed bill that would make DUI laws stricter for repeat offenders, state Rep. Alan Hale, R–Basin, said drunken driving regulations hurt local businesses and are "destroying a way of life." "These DUI laws are not doing our small businesses in our state any good at all. They are destroying them," he said in a speech on the state House floor. "They are destroying a way of life that has been in Montana for years and years."
Hale, who, according to his campaign website, runs a bar in Basin, says pubs are important gathering places in his rural Montana district, important gathering places that are only accessible by car. I real did not think he ran a Church or Funeral Home. "These taverns and bars in these smaller communities connect people together," the first-term lawmaker said in a statement reported by the Montana news blog, The Lowdown. "They are the center of the communities. I'll guarantee you there's only two ways to get there: Either you hitchhike, or you drive, and I promise you they're not going to hitchhike." Current Montana regulations establish a five-year "look-back period" for drunken driving offenses. The new bill, which passed the state House 88-12, extends the cutoff to 10 years, giving authorities a greater ability to crack down on repeat offenders.
On his campaign site, Hale describes himself as a "fiscal conservative" who "would propose cuts in spending, taxes and most importantly, regulation." But drunken driving laws are one kind of regulation that Hale shouldn't be looking to cut, according to the president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. "It's crazy to make a statement like they are hurting small businesses," MADD National President Laura Dean-Mooney told AOL News. "He needs to do a little more fact checking before he makes statements like that and insults those who have lost loved ones to drunk driving." Dean-Mooney said laws that extend "look-back periods" are generally good ways to keep dangerous drivers off the road.
I will have to side with MADD on this one although the DUI Laws have swung too far in the penal and cost direction. Forcing a bar or two out of business is not a reason to go back to where it used to be. A middle ground exists if we would legitimately look for it and treat the simple, uneventful DUI differently than the DUI death accident. They are not the same being.
BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2011
VISIT ANY OF THE SITES LISTED FOR LEGAL SERVICES, REVIEW, RESEARCH, ORDERING MY WRITING PRODUCTS OR TO CONTACT ME.
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Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan. It is still a good time to purchase any of my books. The books are interesting and inexpensive reads. My third book should be available later this year, in late 2011. More information will be forthcoming.
http://www.ebookmall.com/ (Do search by my name or book Title)
www.barnesandnoble.com (do a quick search, Title, my name)
www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search.
Book Titles:
Holmes the Ripper
A Revengeful Mix of Short Fiction
"Spring in the world! And all things are made new!" Richard Hovey
