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Month July 2016

Entries 5 Total

Molt Montana’s Postmaster Intrigue

Jul 16, ’16 1:31 AM

I like to follow my hometown’s local news. It’s tonic to the long series of bad news from everywhere else to read small town news. But like the proverbial moth to the flame I do find myself drawn to the darker stories. My favorite is reading the police blotter. It’s a daily record of mystery and tragedy and suspicion and I like it.

But after all the bad news this week, the narrow pages of the IR didn’t satisfy my need for small scale misery so I cruised over to the Billings Gazette and got what I was looking for: Molt Postmaster Admits Stealing Money

Molt is tiny, I had never heard of it. So I looked it up on Wikipedia:

Molt is an unincorporated rural village located in Stillwater County, Montana, and has a post office serving ZIP code, a hardware store, a cafe and several granaries. The elevation is 3,966 feet. Molt appears on the Molt U.S. Geological Survey Map

Don’t think that just because it’s a small town (unincorporated rural village) it’s going to be overlooked, oh no. The post office is listed first so you know it’s important.

From the article:

…agents with the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General audited the Molt Post Office in August 2015. …

The audit found that Reinholz, 59, who was the postmaster, had issued herself 39 money orders between March 2015 and August 2015. She eventually paid for 25 of the money orders, but not the remaining 14 money orders, for a loss totaling $7,879, Sullivan said.

Like I said, this is just what I was looking for. But it’s sad huh? Tiny town, working in the post office with $20,000 in credit card debt. I’m sure she was staring at those money orders for months before she wrote the first one. But that’s just how it goes isn’t it? You let the devil get his foot in the door and before you know it he’s moved in and stinking up the place.

She’ll pay it all back and it doesn’t look like they’ll make her spend any time in jail. Lucky her there’s no jail in Molt. Then again, in a town that small, I’m sure she’ll never live it down.

I wonder what she bought in the first place. Avon? Presents for her kids? Was it worth all that? I doubt it. But then again I never worked in the post office in Molt so who am I to judge?

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Apollo 11 Source Code

Jul 11, ’16 8:44 PM

Add this to the list of things I don’t understand but I like. Code junkies / NASA nerds just released all of the Apollo 11 mission’s computer code online for people to look at and comment on and use however they like.

In 2003 it first appeared online as a series of image scans on some MIT server someplace. First of all I know how hardcore it is to stand over a scanner and scan in a book. But look at this sucker. That’s a lot of pages to scan in.

AB_Upload_Photos

And Get this!

All those pages were transcribed by hand.

The AGC code has been available to the public for quite a while–it was first uploaded by tech researcher Ron Burkey in 2003, after he’d transcribed it from scanned images of the original hardcopies MIT had put online. That is, he manually typed out each line, one by one.

So now that it’s online what’s happening with it?

Not too much I guess. There’s not much use for it without the cool hardware that it was built for. There is an interesting simulation of it. But it’s interesting in the sense of “hey someone made that” rather than “I wish it was available for my phone.”

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How to Be Polite

Jul 7, ’16 10:57 PM

It may be a surprise for some, but I’ve gotten in trouble for being polite before. So when I read this article on politeness I thought there might be a cautionary tale in there somewhere. But, nope. Just a nice article on the benefits of social kindness. Polite

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This Little Bunny Stayed Home

Jul 7, ’16 10:03 PM

IMG_5977

I passed on a chance to play the Lost Wheels of Time show in Poland this weekend. The idea of 13 hours on a bus to make a 45 minute performance seemed a little tedious. It was a good chance to meet folks but in the end it just didn’t seem right. So this bunny stayed in Ljubljana.

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American Wizard Schools

Jul 7, ’16 10:23 AM

This morning I’m reading a new short story by JK Rowling about the American wizarding school: Ilvermorny! It’s pretty fun as far as it goes. Did you know the American school was founded by the Irish? But there are some problems.

wizard

Native American wizards didn’t have wands before the school started?

Two more magical boys from the Wampanoag tribe had been joined by a mother and two daughters from the Narragansett, all interested in learning the techniques of wandwork in exchange for sharing their own magical learning.

Phooey.

Also the school is in Massachusetts which I suppose is OK, but come on, a wild west wizard school would be better.

Think about it:

  • Santa Fe
  • Pueblo wizards build a school into a cliff face
  • Wands are bird wings, turtle rattles
  • Spanish wizards are beautiful but gold hungry
  • Cowboy wizards want to leave it all behind, sing beautiful songs and move cows
  • Rattlesnake Parseltongue
  • Ghost Riders in the Sky

Maybe I should get into writing fan fiction. I think I’m on to something here.

 

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