* So it looks like they’re going to charge Zimmerman after all. Which makes sense. Take all the racial angle out of it and just look at what happened: a guy chased after an alleged – what? Trespasser? Just shady dude? Why exactly? – anyway, the guy chases said whatever AFTER THE POLICE DISPATCHER TELLS HIM NOT TO, then shoots said dude who was unarmed. That right there is a prima facie case for manslaughter, if not murder-two, and the whole “Stand Your Ground” nonsense doesn’t even enter into it. And without a single reference to the race of either participant. There you have it.
* So it looks like Apple and most major book publishers are catching a collusion case for teaming up to try to stop Amazon undercutting their profits on e-book sales. This is going to be interesting. I don’t know if Amazon’s share of the e-book market rises to the level of a monopsony (the opposite of monopoly, where there’s only one customer rather than one vendor) but it’s interesting that the publishers felt the urgency to break Amazon and were able to partner with Apple to do it. When Apple enjoyed a similar position in the world of digital music (and may still), the labels were unable to muster much of anything – but then again, the principal competitor to the iTunes Music Store was piracy. Maybe it’s just all the labels could do to ensure somebody was paying something for their product.
* Not particularly worried about the case on AAPL’s behalf, anyway. When you have $100 billion in the bank – that’s a hecto-Instagram, note – you can probably pay to make this go away with a minimum of fuss. Besides, the iBookstore (is that what we call it now) is not a profit center – just like the iTunes Music Store before it, it’s a way to guarantee that a product type will be available for your iPad in the event Amazon someday decides to pull the plug on the Kindle for iOS app. Once again, as God is Scarlett O’Jobs’s witness, AAPL will never be hungry again.
* London Landscape TV has disappeared from the iTunes Music Store, which is a shame, as it was a great 720p video podcast of just stuff in London. Fortunately most of them are downloaded on my hard drive at home, but it’s a shame to lose a fine HD video podcast just as I get a high-definition-friendly iPad.
* I really need to test out the iPad shoulder rig in a live situation. Maybe Saturday when I’m engaged in round 3 of the great BBQ smoker experiment. Actively contemplating a cigar for this one, since the pipe smoking went south in a hurry. True story, don’t leave your pipe tobacco in a drawer for two years before you smoke it. But just in case the shoulder holster is untenable – a very real possibility – I got a Timbuk2 extra-small Quickie sleeve for $19.
* I broke out the suede trucker jacket – I think Levi’s must have invented “trucker jacket” because I don’t remember ever seeing it before, but it certainly covers the whole “jean jacket not actually made of denim” category in a succinct manner. I want that classic American work jacket look, and this would actually do it until you get right up on it and see that it’s, well, “Seattle Suede,” some specially-tanned Eddie Bauer nonsense that’s supposed to make it rainproof. And honestly, I think that’s what I struggle to get past with this coat – the look is right, the water resistance is acceptable, there are hand warmer pockets and it’s comfortable with some heft to it (so obviously not for those 48-walking-out-the-door-and-70-at-lunch days), but it’s feckin’ suede. Which just screams “I need to look like a man of the people even though I never lift anything heavier than money.” And while that may be true, especially now, the Romney look is not what I’m going for. Hell, I had to quit a job that required steel-toe boots because it wrenched my knee into arthroscopic surgery, and I had a forklift license, so my card’s punched, hotshot.
* Having come back from a Lent with no soda, I’m finding it increasingly difficult to drink the stuff in quantity. I didn’t even get a go cup at lunch today and I struggled through the second glass of Coke Zero washing down my bacon cheddar omelette sandwich. Possible healthy development? Not as much as the fact that I’m running my fourth 5K in 13 months on Sunday. When the hell did I become, you know, a runner?
* I’m with Josh Marshall on this one: the fact that Romney’s out there trying to peddle “Obama’s War on Women” is a sure sign they’re playing defense – because the gender gap is real and it’s huge. It’s not like they’re going to reverse it either – the best they can hope for is to muddy the waters and wait for the ever-reliable press to dutifully regurgitate their Golden Mean “opinions differ” shtick. But with plenty of footage of GOP anti-contraception talk already in the can and things like the Lily Ledbetter Act (signed on day one, natch) to point to, that dog probably won’t hunt no matter how many times the Sabbath Gasbags shake their heads mournfully.
* Um, Allen West, your mouth is moving. You might want to look to that. Besides, it’s no good unless you can say “I hold in my hand a list of 57 known Communists,” etc. Looks like keeping Good Night and Good Luck on the iPad was the move after all. I know Texas is the biggest internal threat to America, but once we glass the steers, can we start in on sawing off Florida and letting it drift to Cuba?
* Verizon’s LTE holds a steady 20Mb-plus all the way through my Caltrain commute, enough to watch the latest “Adultolescence” video from Hannah Hart. That tears it. AT&T is getting the boot as soon as a new iPhone drops. Meanwhile, with the experiment successful, it’s time to turn off the data service and see how well I get on with just Wi-Fi on the trip to New York.
* Recent reads/re-reads: The Night Circus, American Gods, Neverwhere. Trend developing? Magical realism? Urban fantasy? Maybe I really am gearing up for a career change to “whatever the urban version of a druid is”…
* And speaking of books, I had no idea that Herbert Asbury (Gangs of New York, Gem of the Prairie, The Barbary Coast, etc) had a book about New Orleans, but there it is: The French Quarter, arriving just in time to read by the smoker. Winner winner pork shoulder dinner!