Demerol, Michael Jackson & Dr. Conrad Murray-A Young Woman and Fatty Arbuckle June 29, 2009

The Killer?

Much of the speculation making the rounds regarding the death of Michael Jackson involve Demerol and Dr. Conrad Murray. Gossip pages are running amuck.  TMZ cites a Jackson family member as a source, saying that Jackson had a daily demerol shot and had one just prior to his death.  Even some mainstream press organizations are jumping on board.   However, the lawyer for Jackson physician/cardiologist Dr Conrad Murray says his client never gave prescriptions or injections of demerol or oxycontin.  It’s all speculation but there must be some reason that the Jackson family wants a second autopsy. 

I’ve had demerol before, after shoulder surgery.  I could have an injection every 3 hours.  I could set my watch by it.  From the time of the injection, I became very sleepy and quickly was snoozing.  Every time I awoke, it was exactly 3 hours and 1 minute from the time of the injection.  It’s powerful.  Now, I know of someone who suffered from migraine headaches.  Doctors prescribed demerol.  I’ve since found studies that say its not the proper solution due to the high risk of addiction and long term toxicity.  Death happened almost instantaneously.  The amount of demerol found in the system was theraputic but there was a huge toxic level in the liver.  The lab results took a long time.  If the cause of death of Michael Jackson is demorol, my limited experience would say that its from long term use, not a single lethal injection.  If a layman like me is aware of this risk, then one would think a physician would also be aware of such a risk.

On This Date in History:  When anything happens involving a big celebrity like Michael Jackson, the public can’t get enough.  This has been true for as long as there have been performing celebrities in America.  When things went well for actor/director Fatty Arbuckle, they still went bad.  He was a big star.  So, big that he signed a 3 year contract with Warner Brothers for a million dollars in 1921.  Really huge money in those days.  When he signed the deal, he had a party. At that party, a young starlet was found drunk and bleeding in Arbuckle’s room.  He was accused of rape and murder after the woman died of a punctured bladder 3 days later. It was Hollywood’s big scandals and William Randolph Hearst made it into a media circus.  Hearst didn’t care about the facts, he was in the business of selling papers and he made it into one of the first trials “of the century.”  He is quoted as saying that the scandal “sold more newspapers than any event since the sinking of the Lusitania.” 

Mugshot of Fatty

The judge found no evidence of rape but determined that Arbuckle could be tried for manslaughter.  In fact, the whole case isn’t nearly as cut and dried as I had been led to believe.  There are numerous instances of bribes by the prosecutor, false testimony and doctored evidence.  Twice juries were hung 10-2 in favor of Arbuckle with some interesting circumstances. The third trial ended in acquittal but, the prosecutor and newspapers tried Arbuckle in public with wild, unsubstantiated salacious charges and false accusations.  The main witness wasn’t allowed to testify because she was so unreliable.  During the 3rd trial she didn’t even show up as she had been found to be planning to extort money from Arbuckle from the night of the party and besides that, she was too busy on the lecture circuit spreading her tales.  They were inadmissible and unfounded in court but good enough for the stage. 

Women Couldn't keep their hands off Fatty

Though acquitted, Arbuckle’s movies were banned in the US for something that he may not have even done.  On this date in 1933 he was signed by Warner Brothers to make a feature length film.  Perhaps it was too much for the not-so-slender Fatty.  That night he had a heart attack and died. 

Maybe he would have been better off not signing contracts with the Warner Brothers.

Weather Bottom Line:  After a week of August-Like conditions we get a nice break.  We’ve also had a lot of rain.  June official numbers come in at 9.22″ which is less than an inch shy of the all-time June record of 10.11″ set back in 1960.  Wonder if there was a remnant of a tropical cyclone back then.  This year, that was not the case, just a hot and humid pattern that lent itself to storm activity.  That pattern has shifted with a big trof setting up in the east and a semi-staitionary low in the Great Lakes.  That will put us in a northwest flow which is tough to get much rain out of.  It also will drag down dry air.  Look for lows this week in the low 60′s with some folks in the upper 50′s on Tuesday morning after a reinforcing shot of dry air filters through following a cold front quietly sneaking through Monday evening.  The models want to toss out a few showers from time to time during the week but I find that a tough solution considering the relatively dry air.  High temperatures will only be in the low 80′s.  I suppose if we were to get some isolated activity popping up, the best chances wouldn’t get started until late in the week as we warm somewhat and a front to our south tries to move northward a bit.  That would be ahead of the next system that will get ejected eastward across the plains and increase storm chances on Sunday.  Right now, the 4th of July looks pretty good.  Invest 93L is dead in the tropics.

Peace That Brought War; 6 Flags Decapitation & other Accidents; Tropical Storm In Gulf? June 28, 2009

Keynes Had it Going

On This Date in History:

The photo above is typically called “The Big Four.” It may be better called “The Big Dummies.” If you don’t know which one is President Woodrow Wilson, then shame on you. The guy with the big moustache is French President Georges Clemenceau. The one whose face you cannot see if British Prime Minister David Lloyd George who is talking to Italy’s Vittorio Orlando. Wilson had his 14 points at the end of World War I. This was his outline of what to acheive in a peace treaty. But Clemenceau wanted big reparations against Germany and make Germany the scaepgoat for the war. They ended up with something closer to what Clemenceau wanted. On June 5, 1919 British Economist John Maynard Keynes resigned his position at the Paris Peace Conference representing the British Treasury. He said that the harsh terms of the treaty would result in collapse of Germany, a revolution and followed by a later war involving Germany that would destroy that “civilization and progress of our generation.” He later wrote a book about it.

The “Big Four” went ahead and forced Germany to sign the Treaty of Versailles on this date in 1919.

Keynes’ forecast was right on target for most historians agree, the seeds of World War II that destroyed much of Europe, parts of the Middle East and parts of Asia were sewn on this very date in the form of a “Peace Treaty.” It was perhaps better called a declaration of a future war. Keynes went on to live with a stellar reputation and continue his claim that the idealistic President Wilson was “the greatest fraud on earth.” Let us hope that should we get another idealistic president that future events would not necessitate the same analysis.

An interesting part of this is that Wilson did not include anyone from the Senate in his negotiations. This kinda po’d the Senate who had to ratify the treaty.   Particularly incensed was Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge.  A version of the treaty was eventually voted on but there were lots of amendments attached.  No matter, for the first time in US history, a peace treaty was rejected by the US Senate.  So, when reading history one can’t blame the Congress for the failure of the Treaty of Versailles.  Like Keynes, and not like Wilson and the other 3 leaders,  Congress actually was right about something.

This Part of Batman was fatal to those who got in the way

On This Date a year ago:  After Six Flags’ Kentucky Kingdom had the incident in 2007  in which a young girl had her feet severed, a teenager got his head removed by a roller coaster at Six Flags’ Atlanta park. This one clearly was the park goer’s fault, but I never found out how it played out in the courts if it ever made it to court. Here’s the story from the time:

Six Flags Over Georgia Decapitation

Here’s a link to Youtube video to get an idea of what the ride is like. You can tell how close it comes to the ground.

Six Flags Batman Video

Here is a Sunday morning  after the accident version of the Six Flags Over Georgia Roller Coaster Death  It appears that this was not the first death associated with that particular ride.  In 2002, an employee went into the same restricted area and was killed, though I don’t think that decapitation was involved.  Theme park accidents are more common than you might think.  This person has a website devoted to nothing but theme park and carnival ride accidents.  A little interesting perhaps but certainly thought provoking.

Satellite view 1215Z Sun June 28, 2009

This is probably not going to develop. It’s a system that has been hanging around near Cancun but has moved onto the Yucatan.   On Saturday morning it looked like it had potential to me but none of the hurricane models had really picked up on it enough, which surprised me a bit.  By Saturday evening, some of them had.  I think it was something like 8 of them with 6 taking it up to tropical storm strength.  About half took it across the southern Bay of Campeche with the rest having some oddball routes that crossed the Gulf.  On Sunday, with the storm centered over land, the hurricane models have lost interest again.   Even some of the conventional models don’t even show it living very long.  But, those that do take it into northern Mexico and keep it pretty pedestrian…say something between 1008 to 1o12 mb.    It’ worth watching though.

Weather Bottom Line: Late Saturday night there was an extremely impressive line of t’storms in the northern plains that looked poised to pounce on the Ohio Valley as a cold front was moving down.  With the cool of evening, the line pretty much pooped out.  Now, you see that the SPC has the slight risk for severe storms in Eastern Kentucky.   The idea is that the front will be southeast of the Louisville region in the heat of the day when the storms may  refire on that front.  Unless the front is pokey or backs up, then we should have temperatures reduced somewhat with a little lower humidity which a much more noticeable difference for the week ahead.  I would think that the only cause to pause would be the prospect that the front stays south of our area but not far enough to take the 850mb front out of our area.  In that case, we might want to keep an eye out for elevated storm developing on the 850 front.  Not a great possibility, but not out of the question.

Invest 93 or Tropical Storm Paloma? Lincoln’s Catch of the Day? Quote of the Voting Day? November 5, 2008

for a more recent update on Tropical Depression 17 that will probably become Tropical Storm Paloma or possibly Hurricane Paloma, CLICK HERE

Great Quote From a Great American: The old sage, transplanted Kentuckian to Texas Mike Weaver offered me this observation from voting day in Tejas. It’s something I wanted to share with you.

“I walked right in, nobody suicide bombed me, nobody tried to snipe at me, or coerced me, or had a thing to say, nice and peaceful. I could have early voted, or mailed it in, but I wanted to go to the polling station today, stand in line, (only 3 deep at 11:20) and do this on ELECTION day.

My forefathers fought and died for this right, so me taking a few minutes of time and few gallons of gas is a incredibly small price to pay for the privilege. I wish they were here to see it all and for me to say thanks, but they are not. How many hundreds of thousands died for the privilege of our sovereignty!

So today I cast my vote not for me but for those Vets, and for the others who can’t vote… like my two boys. God HAS blessed America.”

NAM SFC 1108 00Z

Our Weather and Another Tropical System? After the past few days, some of you may have thought that fall and winter were over with. Nope. Front is still on schedule with rain late Thursday night into Friday morning. Cooler air is lagging behind but expect below average temperatures for the weekend. If you notice the map above, it is the surface map from the NAM at 00Z Saturday 110808. That is Friday evening. Two things to notice. You see green to our east in a line. That is the front that will have passed through. You see green to our northwest. That is rain to our northwest and is indicative of wrap around clouds. As mentioned previously, we’ll probably see some clearing late Friday with clouds moving back in for Saturday. The sun will break out to some degree again on Sunday but it will still be rather cool. Okay…all of that is something that probably doesn’t surprise you.

Invest 93L IR Satellite 1104 2145Z

But take a look at the lower right corner of the map. See that blob of green there?

Invest 93L Spaghetti Model 1104 18Z

By that time we may be looking at least at Tropical Depression 17 and possibly the long awaited Tropical Storm Paloma. I kept waiting on Paloma a few weeks ago and was stood up. Right now, it’s just called Invest 93 like a woman in a bar through the eyes of a man drinking heavily, its getting better looking with time. Seriously, it is looking a bit better organized. It is drifting NNW. Now, the reason why I posted the 84 hour NAM surface is to illustrate the frontal boundary that will be to our east. The trof associated with that feature will probably be far enough south to perhaps pick up the system as coriolis parameters and

Invest 93L Spaghetti Model Intensity Graph 1104 18Z

weak steering currents move it toward the grips of the trof. A number of the computers on the spaghetti model does exactly that. Given the slow movement of the system in relation to the oncoming front, this scenario would probably take the storm east of Florida. But, it’s not totally out of the question that it might move across a portion of the peninsula. However, if the trof does not pick it up, then it probably just stays put in the NW Caribbean. 11 models make it a tropical storm, one makes it a hurricane and 3 keep it below the Tropical Storm threshold. It’s worth watch. Hurricane season does not end until November 30.

On This Date In History: On this date in 1842, Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd. She was considered

28 Year Old Mary Todd

quite a catch in her day. I don’t think they had a “catch and release” program back then.

She actually is a rather interesting figure and there have been several biographies about her and numerous…hundreds…..written about Lincoln which delve into their relationship, how it affected his presidency. Its probably a good idea to read several to get some sort

Mary Todd at 43...Didn't Age A Bit!

of perspective because each author will come at it from different perspectives and sometimes with a preconceived agenda or notion of what they want to say. Jean Baker has one of the more recent biographies of Mary Todd and it paints a very sympathetic portrait by often using late 20th century sensibilities and transporting them back to the 19th century. If you look closely, you find that Professor Baker received funding from the Elizabeth Connolly Todd Foundation. Like I said, biographers look at subjects from different perspectives and different photos…the one adorning the Baker portrait of Todd is not the same presented above.

On this date in 1965, speedster Craig Breedlove’s wife, Lee Ann, tried to steal his thunder when she became the first woman to drive more than 300 mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats. I’m not sure if Craig got mad, but he certainly made sure he shared the spotlight. Just few hours later, Craig Breedlove got in his car and shattered his land speed record by reaching over 555 mph in his Spirit of America jet powered car. I don’t have a photo of Lee Ann.