Quality Policing Podcast and Blog

Then and Now: Fall River (II)

Another one from Fall River. This one isn’t so bad. At least the bank building is still standing. Of course pretty much everything that has changed is not a change for the better. Notice, if you zoom on the old picture (best to go to the Shorpy site for this), you can see in front…
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Breakfast in Bangkok

So off the main road you make a right at the train track next to the highway and walk down the tracks a short distance to the first food stand and get a papaya salad. There’s a bunch of cops sitting at one table eating and drinking. I befriend them and ask for a picture…
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Less Prison, Less Crime

Newt Gingrich and Pat Nolan in the Washington Post on the need for less prison. We urge conservative legislators to lead the way in addressing an issue often considered off-limits to reform: prisons.

Vacation

It’s my nameday, school is out, and my wife and I are whizzing through the air in an amazing flying machine that but 110 years ago, was an unimaginable fantasy. (When this post comes out, we’ll be on our way to Dubai, en-route to Bangkok.) My second book, In Defense of Flogging, is all-but done.…
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Then and Now: Fall River

This one is almost too much to believe. And not for the normal reasons of becoming abandoned. Fall River, Mass, is still doing OK, I think. But not what used to be the heart of downtown. And now. It doesn’t look like the same place. But it is. Where’s that beautiful building on the right…
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Word Frequency

I’m ran the latest draft of my book through a word-frequency count. 47 uses of “simply”?! That’s simply too many, and I got that down to 11 (mostly just by deleting them–it’s interesting how often “simply” simply isn’t needed). Now I’m working on “certainly,” “of course,” and “actually.” It’s very easy to fall on such…
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NYPD Releases Misdemeanor Data

Sort of. And only in response to a lawsuit. Here’s the Times story. Why not just give out the raw data so academics like me can actually use it? It might actually help the NYPD and the city. Just sayin’…

Rigid Feminine Pleasure Device

From the Chicago Sun Times: Sex toy defendant arrested for failing to show up to court. Warning: there’s a picture of Ms. Bildsten, 56, of Gurnee, Ill. Here’s how she first came to our attention.

People Who Touch Your Junk

I love Venn Diagrams. This is a good one: It’s from a site I need to visit more, Chartport.org.

Text-to-voice software

If you’re not a writer or a computer nerd, just skip this. Really. I’m editing my book (and being doing so for a long while). It’s very near done and still a very slow process. About six hours ago, I bought a text-to-speech program online for $50 (NaturalSoft, for what it’s worth. I have no…
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