Shadowscope

Apparently there is a site called whosarat.com which claims to be the largest online database of informants and agents and it’s starting to piss off judges around the country. You have to pay for membership so I didn’t peruse any of the information on the site.

According to the blurb on their “about us” page,

Who’s A Rat is a database driven website designed to assist attorneys and criminal defendants with few resources. The purpose of this website is for individuals and attorneys to post,share and request any and all information that has been made public at some point to at least 1 person of the public prior to posting it on this site pertaining to local,state and federal Informants and Law Enforcement Officers. This includes an Informant who makes his or her Informant status known to any person.

The problem with this site is that it’s going to get someone killed. The entire point of the Federal Witness Protection program is so that people can snitch and go into hiding not worrying about recriminations later on. If all of their information is out there for $7.99 that will damn sure give anyone second thoughts about testifying, particularly in high profile cases.

The premise is that criminals are untrustworthy sources and shouldn’t be allowed to bear witness against other criminals. I don’t think it’s quite as black and white as all that myself. I’m have no doubt that people will lie on the stand, but that they don’t necessarily have to be a convicted criminal to tell lies.

BUM!

Originally uploaded by scienceduck

Doesn’t leave a hell of a lot to the imagination does it? I will have some posts up later in the day. I ended up taking most of Monday off (as well as from real-life work) to read the new Harry Potter book. Finished it in about eight hours with a break for supper of course.

Former St. Louis Cardinal Mike Coolbaugh was struck in the head by a line drive and died less than an hour later yesterday evening. Mike spent his 17 years playing baseball mostly in the minor leagues but also appeared in 39 games with the Milwaukee Brewers and five games with the St Louis Cardinals. Since then he has been coaching in the minors

Technorati : Mike Coolbaugh, St. Louis Cardinals

You know you work in hell when after asking an employee to clean the filter on the ice machine he starts his sentence with “when I was in prison…” and then goes on to tell you all about breathing freon and how it makes you go “waaa waaa” and makes your legs weak.

I think perhaps investing in a lock for the cover of my ice machine is on the agenda for this next week.

I enjoy playing a nice game of poker. I think I’ve mentioned that my former neighbor built his own table (it was VERY nice) and would host games in his basement. Due to work hours and such I never got the chance to participate in one of his games, which I regret particularly since they moved out of state, but my son did play with them several times.

Although it has been awhile, I never did like playing with inexperienced players. It’s only partly about the money. I actually enjoy the sport of the game and it is much better with folks that also have a good level of expertise and enjoy playing the game as well. I have recently been invited to play with one of my managers and a couple of guys that he plays with but so far I have refrained. I wonder at how good of a player he is as he is always broke and has no money.

PokerOnAMac.Com has a new section on strategy that is a pretty good read, particularly if you want to learn more about the game and the psychology behind it. There are several different sections that deal with different aspects of poker strategies including Poker cash games, Poker tournament strategy, Online poker strategy, Poker theory, Poker math (a must read), and poker tactics.

My favorite is the Poker Cash Games section as it deals with what I like to play, long steady earning games that you won’t bust out of too quickly or easily unless you just don’t bring enough stake. Nowadays it seems that everyone is into tournament style games, but I learned to play at cash game tables and penny games. It has always been the type of game that I enjoy the most.

Probably my particular favorite which they deal with is Hi-lo or more specifically Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo. It’s a nice long game and if you are patient and methodical you can win fairly often at the game. I especially like that they deal with how to play strong, even when you aren’t, such as in the example that is shown with the A-2 showing and pretty much nothing in the blinds.

Anyway, it’s just one more site to suck on my limited time now as there are plenty of tips to read as well as blog updates. One of the things I haven’t had the chance to do much with is online poker, but I have started reading their strategies on that in an attempt to familiarize myself with it.

Technorati : Gambling, Poker