FineThings60: October 2010

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Switch Me

Switch Me:

Switch me is a humble salt and pepper shaker which allows one to switch between salt and pepper at t..(Read...)

Jan Kriwol

Jan Kriwol:

The work by Jan Kriwol, Cool!..(Read...)

Staple City

Staple City:

100,000 staples arranged over 40 hours! ..(Read...)

GPS dog locator tracks your pooch up to 3 miles away

GPS dog locator tracks your pooch up to 3 miles away:

Almost.

Almost ready, that is, for Gray Cat and me.

I'm thinking about another year till it's scaled down small enough that my petite 7.5 lb. furball can manage with it unperturbed.

"12"-24" collar fits most dogs."

$279.

[via Marshall Minshew]

Girard-Perregaux Opera Three plays Tchaikovsky on a built-in drum set and keyboard

Girard-Perregaux Opera Three plays Tchaikovsky on a built-in drum set and keyboard:

Got $625,000?

Then you can own this nifty timepiece, which has an interior music box made of a keyboard with 20 keys and a drum set with 150 hand-assembled pins.

It also plays Mozart.

[via mens-watches-guides.com]

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Urban Trail Mix — by Roz Chast

Urban Trail Mix — by Roz Chast:

I hereby initiate a campaign to declare the cartoonist a National Treasure.

Nobody does it better.

Wild Mandarin Duck

Wild Mandarin Duck:

As seen on Bing worldwide.

Photo caption: "Wild Mandarin Duck on dark green lake, UK."

By David Slater/DanitaDelimont.com.

[via Joe Peach who wrote, "This picture is part of Windows (Bing) wallpaper/screen saver. I was entranced by its plumage, it 'zenned' me when I first viewed it on my 28" monitor! ... I wish you could see it without icons on a big screen!"]

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Has McDonalds unlocked the secret of immortality?

Has McDonald's unlocked the secret of immortality?:

New York photographer Sally Davies decided to buy a McDonald's Happy Meal, put it on a table, and photograph it every day until it disintegrated.

Don't hold your breath.

According to an August 26, 2010 post on Grub Street, "That was 137 days ago and the end is nowhere near: the fries look as fresh as the day they came out of the fryer and the burger — minus a little patty shrinkage — is virtually unchanged."

Caveat eator.

[via Cary Sternick]

Hello Kitty x Ferrari

Hello Kitty x Ferrari:

From Carscoop: "This is by far the most tasteless (and blasphemous) attempt to personalize a Ferrari we have ever laid our eyes on.

And if you think the 'Hello Kitty' decals and logos on the windows, mirror covers, engine lid and license plate holder as well as the customized exhaust tips are revolting, just wait till you see what the owner of this Ferrari 360 Modena, spotted in Jakarta, Indonesia, did to the supercar's interior.

Get ready to weep."

[via Nuclear Toast]

Contractor Pen

Contractor Pen:

Level and plumb bubbles, drywall and angle gauges, ruler, magnetic strip and Fisher Space Pen.

7" long.

$21.25.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

"I Was Certain, But I Was Wrong" — by Jennifer Thompson

"I Was Certain, But I Was Wrong" — by Jennifer Thompson:

Thompson's June 18, 2000 above-titled New York Times Op-Ed page essay is so valuable that I have reposted it annually since its first appearance here in 2004.

Last year I featured "Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption," a book co-authored by Thompson and Ronald Cotton (below),

the man whose positive I.D. by Thompson sent him to prison for 11 years — for a crime he didn't commit.

Here's the Times piece.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I Was Certain, but I Was Wrong

In 1984 I was a 22-year-old college student with a grade point average of 4.0, and I really wanted to do something with my life. One night someone broke into my apartment, put a knife to my throat and raped me.

During my ordeal, some of my determination took an urgent new direction. I studied every single detail on the rapist's face. I looked at his hairline; I looked for scars, for tattoos, for anything that would help me identify him. When and if I survived the attack, I was going to make sure that he was put in prison and he was going to rot.

When I went to the police department later that day, I worked on a composite sketch to the very best of my ability. I looked through hundreds of noses and eyes and eyebrows and hairlines and nostrils and lips. Several days later, looking at a series of police photos, I identified my attacker. I knew this was the man. I was completely confident. I was sure.

I picked the same man in a lineup. Again, I was sure. I knew it. I had picked the right guy, and he was going to go to jail. If there was the possibility of a death sentence, I wanted him to die. I wanted to flip the switch.

When the case went to trial in 1986, I stood up on the stand, put my hand on the Bible and swore to tell the truth. Based on my testimony, Ronald Junior Cotton was sentenced to prison for life. It was the happiest day of my life because I could begin to put it all behind me.

In 1987, the case was retried because an appellate court had overturned Ronald Cotton's conviction. During a pretrial hearing, I learned that another man had supposedly claimed to be my attacker and was bragging about it in the same prison wing where Ronald Cotton was being held. This man, Bobby Poole, was brought into court, and I was asked, ''Ms. Thompson, have you ever seen this man?''

I answered: ''I have never seen him in my life. I have no idea who he is.''

Ronald Cotton was sentenced again to two life sentences. Ronald Cotton was never going to see light; he was never going to get out; he was never going to hurt another woman; he was never going to rape another woman.

In 1995, 11 years after I had first identified Ronald Cotton, I was asked to provide a blood sample so that DNA tests could be run on evidence from the rape. I agreed because I knew that Ronald Cotton had raped me and DNA was only going to confirm that. The test would allow me to move on once and for all.

I will never forget the day I learned about the DNA results. I was standing in my kitchen when the detective and the district attorney visited. They were good and decent people who were trying to do their jobs — as I had done mine, as anyone would try to do the right thing. They told me: ''Ronald Cotton didn't rape you. It was Bobby Poole.''

The man I was so sure I had never seen in my life was the man who was inches from my throat, who raped me, who hurt me, who took my spirit away, who robbed me of my soul. And the man I had identified so emphatically on so many occasions was absolutely innocent.

Ronald Cotton was released from prison after serving 11 years. Bobby Poole pleaded guilty to raping me.

Ronald Cotton and I are the same age, so I knew what he had missed during those 11 years. My life had gone on. I had gotten married. I had graduated from college. I worked. I was a parent. Ronald Cotton hadn't gotten to do any of that.

Mr. Cotton and I have now crossed the boundaries of both the terrible way we came together and our racial difference (he is black and I am white) and have become friends. Although he is now moving on with his own life, I live with constant anguish that my profound mistake cost him so dearly. I cannot begin to imagine what would have happened had my mistaken identification occurred in a capital case.

Today there is a man in Texas named Gary Graham who is about to be executed because one witness is confident that Mr. Graham is the killer she saw from 30 to 40 feet away. This woman saw the murderer for only a fraction of the time that I saw the man who raped me. Several other witnesses contradict her, but the jury that convicted Mr. Graham never heard any of the conflicting testimony.

If anything good can come out of what Ronald Cotton suffered because of my limitations as a human being, let it be an awareness of the fact that eyewitnesses can and do make mistakes. I have now had occasion to study this subject a bit, and I have come to realize that eyewitness error has been recognized as the leading cause of wrongful convictions. One witness is not enough, especially when her story is contradicted by other good people.

Last week, I traveled to Houston to beg Gov. George W. Bush and his parole board not to execute Gary Graham based on this kind of evidence. I have never before spoken out on behalf of any inmate. I stood with a group of 11 men and women who had been convicted based on mistaken eyewitness testimony, only to be exonerated later by DNA or other evidence.

With them, I urged the Texas officials to grant Gary Graham a new trial, so that the eyewitnesses who are so sure that he is innocent can at long last be heard.

I know that there is an eyewitness who is absolutely positive she saw Gary Graham commit murder. But she cannot possibly be any more positive than I was about Ronald Cotton. What if she is dead wrong?

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Thompson's essay was a clarion call that heralded a cascade of evidence over the past decade calling into question the believability of eyewitnesses — even when they are dead certain.