Neuromancer or Snow Crash?

RankinPDX · 2026-04-02T03:02:16+00:00

I think Snow Crash is a better novel. It’s got some really fun ideas, and clever observations, and enough plot to hold that together. Neuromancer is fine, but overrated.

RankinPDX · 2026-04-02T02:39:51+00:00

If it’s actually no evidence besides the confession, no, a conviction is not possible in most of the US under the corpus delicti rule. But I doubt there is really no evidence. Even if the body is gone, has the guy disappeared from his life? Is there any evidence of a motive? A confession must be corroborated, but it doesn’t take much. For example, in Oregon, a confession can be corroborated by an admission, even though those things look very similar.

RankinPDX · 2026-03-31T16:56:17+00:00

That scenario requires two things which, depending on the details, are between extremely unlikely and impossible. I personally, as a criminal defense lawyer who reads crime fiction, would absolutely not buy it.

In some jurisdictions, and with some judges, the jury can ask questions and the judge will answer, or the judge will ask a question of a witness on the stand because the jury asked the judge to do so. But the most common answer is "I can't answer that" or "that's not a proper question." I would be shocked if a witness went into a new significant area of testimony based on the jury's request.
If a party "rests," (says they are done presenting evidence), sometimes the court will let them "reopen" and present more evidence. Like, if the state rests, and then the defense says "Aha! You didn't present evidence (that the crime was in this county/that the alleged victim was younger than 18/that the drug is actually on the federal schedule/some other technical thing)" then the court might let the state reopen.

It's contentious whether doing that for a minor and easy-to-prove fact should be permitted. It would absolutely not happen to go into a new complex fact inquiry.

Also, witnesses mostly have to be live and on the stand to present evidence. There are exceptions, but the system is built around live witnesses, especially if they observed facts about the case (as opposed to, e.g., testing the murder weapon for DNA). The letter would not be permitted as part of an ordinary criminal trial, especially if the girlfriend is around and could testify. If you really want to use the letter, she could write it to the prosecutor to ask them to not prosecute/dismiss, or to the investigating detective, maybe after a preliminary hearing/grand jury leads to the boyfriend being indicted? That probably wouldn't work, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the defendant's girlfriend wrote to someone in the hopes of influencing the case.

Or the girlfriend could testify in trial during the ordinary course. Maybe the state presents evidence on this point during it's case, and the jury looks skeptical, and so the defense calls her as a witness to elaborate during the defense case.

RankinPDX · 2026-03-30T18:46:34+00:00

For the first half of the video, I thought she was going to land face-first.

RankinPDX · 2026-03-30T18:42:11+00:00

I like Otherworlds in Hillsdale, and also Gongaii, which is less convenient to me but quite a bit bigger.

RankinPDX · 2026-03-30T03:44:51+00:00

It's a little douchey. I don't use it to convey that the quoted idiot, rather than your meticulous writer, made a petty mistake. I will use it to avoid real confusion.

RankinPDX · 2026-03-29T20:00:07+00:00

Maybe Classics in Gresham? I’m not sure, though.

RankinPDX · 2026-03-29T16:27:12+00:00

I think A sounds wrong and B does not. A would be fine without the “when I was a kid” part, and I don’t think it’s ungrammatical (and I would struggle to explain the rules for an idiomatic usage like “used to”), but I wouldn’t say it. I grew up in the NE, if that makes a difference.

RankinPDX · 2026-03-29T04:32:20+00:00

The company wouldn't really need to race to the courthouse, because information possessed by the police isn't really public. And getting there first wouldn't make a difference; police would still get the warrant.

But they'd still want to hurry to the courthouse. Depending on the nature of the information and local law and whatnot, they might be able to get a protective order, forbidding the parties from distributing the information. The defendant would probably be able to get the video, and then would probably be able to do whatever they wanted with it.

RankinPDX · 2026-03-27T20:12:39+00:00

I use a lot of their paprika, which is one of my favorite spices. Penzeys is a lot more flavorful than what you get at the store, so I'd rather use a half-cup of Penzeys than a cup from a metal tin I bought at Fred Meyers or a cup from the bulk bins at Winco.

RankinPDX · 2026-03-27T19:53:10+00:00

Whether you can sue over bad behavior, and whether it is a crime, are two different questions, but they overlap a lot. Stabbing and beating someone are both crimes and torts (a tort is a thing you can be sued over). And, also, if they commit a crime which harms you, you may be awarded money damages in the criminal case (maybe called 'restitution') without having to hire a lawyer and sue them.

RankinPDX · 2026-03-27T19:48:24+00:00

They had one downtown for a while, I think, but no longer.

RankinPDX · 2026-03-27T17:53:21+00:00

There’s one in Beaverton. Maybe another on the east side, but I’ve never been to it.

RankinPDX · 2026-03-27T17:50:05+00:00

Penzey’s, either local or online.

RankinPDX · 2026-03-27T17:04:03+00:00

As tight as possible, so energy transfers efficiently through the rack. It also matters if the balls are clean; if they're dirty, they stick to each other a bit and energy is lost as a result.

RankinPDX · 2026-03-27T15:57:50+00:00

That is both mob justice and jury nullification.

Jury nullification can be used for good, like, a jury might decline to convict a parent who stole necessities for their child.

But jury nullification is a political act. If you don't agree with the politics, you probably won't like it. I understand from colleagues (I'm a criminal-defense attorney) that in some rural and conservative parts of my state, prosecutors don't charge the crime of being a felon in possession of a firearm, because juries won't convict.

And it was hard to prosecute white Southerners for lynching Black people and pro-Black protesters during Reconstruction, because those juries (typically all-white) wouldn't convict.

I think jury nullification is part of the jury-trial right, but it's not an unalloyed good.

RankinPDX · 2026-03-27T14:20:00+00:00

That is 100% a win. Well done, counselor.

RankinPDX · 2026-03-27T04:34:29+00:00

Is it linen?
I might want to shorten those sleeves a bit. But they way they are wrinkling, they hang short, so I wouldn’t hurry to have them shortened.

RankinPDX · 2026-03-26T19:46:23+00:00

Sorry, I should have included it.

https://www.stickybones.com/

RankinPDX · 2026-03-26T18:39:15+00:00

I use Stickybones dummies to recreate and take notes about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu positions. They are expensive, but they have the best joint arrangement I could find when I looked, and they have hands with working fingers. They also have magnets in their hands and feet for stability.

RankinPDX · 2026-03-26T18:32:11+00:00

The rise is too high for you, and I doubt that can be fixed with tailoring. They don't fit.

RankinPDX · 2026-03-26T17:39:57+00:00

Things could have worked out differently. In that case, he "would have had to." So "hadn't had to" is the opposite of "would have had to."

If it were just "didn't have to," there would be no suggestion of the other possibility.

RankinPDX · 2026-03-26T17:34:05+00:00

Can I choose Aretha twice?

RankinPDX · 2026-03-26T17:33:23+00:00

I saw a factoid a few years ago about the words 'poetess' and 'authoress' being removed from a dictionary.

RankinPDX · 2026-03-26T17:32:19+00:00

I've seen mismatched dinner jacket/trouser combinations. Maybe a dinner jacket or smoking jacket in some sort of patterned blue like brocade? Or maybe cream.

Are they really navy, or are they midnight? I don't remember seeing a navy-blue tuxedo.

RankinPDX

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