The birthday he will wish he could forget.........

"I ma drive all the cars they have in one day.  Because I'm a gangsta like that.  Lol," stated Tavon Watson.








On April 12 2015, Tavon Watson, 24, was celebrating his birthday at the Exotic Driving Experience at Walt Disney World in Orlando FL and had boasted that he would be driving a Ferrari 458 Italia LSTRF.  He posted that as well as his wish to drive all the cars they had that day on his Facebook account along with a picture a friend took of him standing next to the car.

At 3:30 pm though, Watson crashed while driving a Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 on the track with instructor Gary Terry.  Terry, 36 died at the scene and Watson was taken to the hospital with only minor injuries.  The day at the track which offers ride-alongs and driving experiences was a gift from Watson's wife.

The track is a hybrid track that also hosts the Richard Petty driving experience with NASCAR drives and rides as well.  It opened in 1997 and four years ago it began offering rides and drives in exotic cars such as the Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche.  The experience starts as low as $99 for a ride along with an experienced instructor and goes all the way to a 50 lap driving experience with video.

The track is a closed track and because of that the driving rules are different than on the public streets.  The FHP was called to the scene of the accident though and they will be handling the investigation.  They plan to analyze the video from the drive to try and pin point what may have gone wrong.  It has been reported that Watson has been cooperating with the investigation and will face no charges because it had happened on a racetrack.  Watson, of Kissimmee FL, reportedly has driven at the experience in the past.



The preliminary report states that Watson failed to maneuver the car through a curve and then he crashed into a guardrail.  Both men were wearing suits, buckled in and had helmets on at the time of the crash.  A look at the overhead pictures from the crash show long skid marks on a straightaway section of the track leading into the the part of the track that cuts through the center of the oval.

It looks as though Watson lost control of the high powered vehicle and was sliding sideways on the grass for quite a distance.  The car then crossed a small paved dead end road before smashing into an unprotected guardrail with the passenger side of the car.  It is believed that Terry, his co pilot and instructor, died instantly in the passenger seat.

Gary Terry had been a life long sports car driver who took up instructing when he moved to Florida.  He and his two brothers grew up in St Joseph MI and he began racing in full size cars when he was only 15 years old.  He moved to Florida about 11 years ago and began working as an instructor and at the time of his death, he was also the operations manager at the driving experience.

He and his wife had just started a family while living in Davenport FL with a baby girl who is now about two years old.  He kept his love for adventure and the outdoors and still raced back in Michigan occasionally.  His family is stunned by his sudden death while doing what he loved to do.  He is remembered as a great father, friend, brother and buddy and many will miss him.  His younger brother Adam stated that he wishes he could turn back time and change the outcome of Sunday but he is glad that he has the wonderful memories of Gary.

Petty Holdings LLC and Disney have expressed their deepest sympathies to Gary's family and friends.  The track has been scheduled to close in June 2015 to make way for transportation, as in more parking lots.  the closure though was planned many months before this weekend's accident.








A gofundme site has been set up for the Terry family:
http://www.gofundme.com/garyterrymemorial?hc_location=ufi



http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/birthday-turns-tragic-fatal-exotic-racecar-crash-cops-article-1.2183388

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-disney-crash-death-richard-petty-20150413-story.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3036264/At-Disney-racecar-attraction-Lamborghini-crashes-kills-1.html

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-richard-petty-fatality-20150412-story.html

http://www.exoticdriving.com/drives/lamborghini-gallardo-lp560-4

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-disney-crash-death-richard-petty-20150413-story.html



Update April 14 2015:

The preliminary report states that gary can be seen on the onboard video trying to grab the wheel and counter steer the car right before it crashed.  The evidence so far indicates that the car Watson was driving spun three times before it hit the guardrail on Gary's side.  The FHP is estimating that the car was traveling about 100 mph when it went over the curb but a more complete report will be released after the investigation is complete.

They are still not certain if it was driver error, excessive speed for that part of the track or if there was any type of malfunction with the car. A spokesman for Petty holdings LLC has stated that the Richard Petty Driving Experience which uses the main track will reopen for NASCAR driving on April 20 2015 but the Exotic Car Experience will not reopen until May 1 2015.  It had been announced that both would cease operations in Orlando on July 1 2015 but it was stated today that it would actually end on August 9 2015.  There was no explanation for the difference in closing dates.

A Gofundme site has been established for the funeral costs, living expenses and education for Gary's wife Kathy and his 2 year old daughter Taylor.  It states that it has been started by a cousin of the family who is a lawyer and the intention is for a trust fund to be established and funds from the gofundme account will be sent there for management in the future.

Gofundme site:
http://www.gofundme.com/garyterrymemorial?hc_location=ufi



http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/racecar-instructor-grabbed-wheel-fatal-crash-fhp-article-1.2184979

http://www.mynews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/on-the-town/article.html/content/news/articles/cfn/2015/4/14/wdw_speedway_crash.html

Friendly fire.........

"It's shocking how fast the fire took hold," stated witness Heather Taylor.






On April 10 2014, the last demonstration firing of the trebuchet at Warwick castle came a little too close to the boathouse and lit it afire.  It appears as though sparks from the flaming cannonball fired from the wooden trebuchet landed on the thatched roof of the boathouse and at 5:45 the fire department was called to put the blazing building out.  Hundreds of tourists scrambled up the bank, many of whom were families and children because they had no idea if the fire would spread.  The fire was quickly put out after three engines and about 30 firefighters arrived at the scene.

The trebuchet is believed to have been first built by the Chinese around 300 BC and evolved from the stave sling.  It is powered entirely by gravity through the use of a counterweight.  The force of the counterweight dropping forces the throwing arm, which is usually four to six times the length of the counterweight arm, to multiply the arm and projectile.  The biggest difference between a trebuchet and a catapult is that it also uses a sling for the projectile giving it even more throwing power.

It is a highly accurate, powerful siege machine that required expert building and design skills.  They first show in historical records in England around 1216 they continued to be refined through the centuries.  They were still in use even after the introduction of gun powder in Europe.  The largest trebuchet ever built is believed to be the Warwolf that was ordered built in Scotland by King Edward Longshanks for use in the siege of Stirling Castle in the late thirteenth century.

Current measurements estimate that it was 300-400 feet tall and frightened the Scots so much that they tried to surrender before the siege ever began.  King Edward though seemed to want to at least give this monster a chance to work and turned down the surrender request.  He proceeded to accurately hurl 300 missiles that destroyed part of the curtain wall of the castle.  The average trebuchet could accurately hurl 200 pound projectiles 1,000 yards of more.

Not only were these incredibly accurate but they also allowed for any number of projectiles to be loaded into the slings and hurled.  Besides rocks and cannonballs to destroy walls, they were often loaded with objects to terrify those under siege.  These could have included, dead bodies, cattle or pigs, burning oil or sand, anything else that would burn or even body parts.

There came a time though when the cannon took the place of the trebuchet, most likely because it was much more mobile and the plans for construction were lost in history.  In 1989 Dr Peter Vemming constructed the first working trebuchet after years of research and planning.  He used notes and drawings from the 13th century to recreate it out of oak with a flexible ash throwing arm.

In 2005 his plans for the trebuchet at the Medieval Center in Nykobing Denmark were used to build the largest trebuchet in existence.  It was constructed so that it was historically accurate and comprised of more than 300 pieces.  It stands 59 feet tall, weighs 22 tons and routinely hurls 80 pounds about 1,000 feet, each and every day.  Unfortunately, this past week it also demonstrated how well it can destroy the newly renovated boathouse at Warwick Castle  Warwick England.

The trebuchet uses four men running in the hamster wheels to wind down the throwing arm.  Once it has been secured down with a pin, they have to unwind the rope that is wound around the axle so that it will fire correctly. once it is down the sling can be attached and loaded in a channel between the hamster wheels.  It is then cleared and the man firing pulls the pin by a rope remotely to release the arm and it's projectile.

It is incredibly accurate but the time it takes to set it up for firing prevents it from being anything close to a rapid fire weapon.  This may be why it was loaded with a few hundred pounds each time and it is devastating to have that kind of load incoming.  A trebuchet was also not a very mobile military piece and most often were built on the spot of the siege to fit the range needed.  They could be disassembled but could use up 20-30 wagons to move from the site of the battle.

Warwick Castle was built in 1068 by William the Conqueror and the original castle was rebuilt in the 12th century.  It was finally granted to Sir Fulke Greville in 1604 and it was the property of the Greville family, the earls of Warwick until it was sold in 1978 to the Tussauds Group.  It had spent several centuries as a country home but with the advent of tourism and the interest in castles, it was finally sold.  The boathouse was originally built in 1896 as an addition to the castle by the 5th Earl of Warwick, Francis Greville and had recently been restored

Today you are most likely to see working trebuchets during a punkin chunkin contest where various classes of machine are used to hurl pumpkins as far as possible.  In 2013 the trebuchet Yankee Siege II set a new world record by tossing a pumpkin that weighs between 8-10 pounds 2,835.81 feet.  That is almost 8 football fields long and while it won't crush the stone walls of a castle it is darn impressive from technology that is centuries old.  In comparison, the world record for a compressed air cannon in punkin chunkin is 4,694.68.  These cannons sport a huge tube that uses a combination of compressed air and it's length to shoot the pumpkin much like a standard cannon would and even with it's technological advances, it has not doubled the distance achieved by a trebuchet.

Hat tip to Bayou Renaissance Man for the tip on this story



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11529201/Warwick-Castle-cannonball-show-sets-fire-to-medieval-boathouse.html

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/warwick-castle-ancient-boathouse-hit-5497147

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9faom6z5dZ0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApwIGvUjZoE

http://www.lordsandladies.org/trebuchet.htm

http://web.grinnell.edu/courses/ant/S00/ANT154-01/vick/treb.html

http://www.yankeesiege.com/AboutYankeeSiege.html

http://www.sciencechannel.com/tv-shows/punkin-chunkin/videos/punkin-chunkin-trebuchets/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9TLiaT6Ito

It didn't just walk away...........

"We're kind of at a loss right now.  Like, seriously," stated Chris Hempel.





Gone are the days of cattle rustling, stealing another man's horse or even taking over his gold mine.  These days there seems to be another commodity worth stealing......... another man's home.  The Hempel's had found their own little piece of paradise in the woods in Loon Lake Washington until this past week.  They drove up on April 7th, to their property as they do every couple of weeks and found the gate had been cut open.

They drove onto the 20 acre property, named Hempel's Hideaway, and expected to find that their cabin had been broken into.  They thought that there might be some windows broken or maybe some items stolen from inside but they weren't expecting what they found.  They did not find anything....... yes that is correct.... nothing.  Their 10x20 cabin with it's contents and furnishings had been taken completely off its foundation and was gone.

Moose, Tyler, Kayla & Chris

The cabin was built by Birky's Better Built Barns, a Clayton company and featured tongue and groove and groove cedar walls and had two lofts inside of it.  It did not have electricity hooked up to and it was worth about $7,000 and they had owned it for about ten years.  Chris stated the obvious when she said that it isn't something you can just toss in the back of your car and drive away with.

Their neighbors state that they did not hear or see anything out of the ordinary so it is suspected that the cabin was stolen during the night.  It would have been easy enough to break open the gate and drive in with a large trailer to load the cabin onto.  It was not visible from the road though so they are left wondering how someone knew the cabin was back there.  The house thieves stole the small attached porch as well as the paving blocks that made up a small deck at the cabin.

The Hempel's contacted the sheriff's office to report the theft and put up flyers for the missing cabin, which they knew had been stolen some time between March 21st and April 7th asking for information.  The officer's were following a tip that came in and on April 9th, they found the stolen cabin.  It was located about 10 miles away from the Hempel's property, down the end of a private road east of Springdale.  The cabin was intact and had been placed up on stilts.  Officers report that it looks as though who ever had stolen the cabin was living in it and the property did have some heavy equipment on it.

While the cabin could have been removed with a trailer and other equipment, it was not something that could have been done without advance planning.  There would have been no issues with disconnecting lines from it since it was not hooked up to electricity or a sewer system.  their insurance would cover everything that was inside of the cabin but not the cabin itself because it lacked hookups.  the police state that they have suspects in the theft but they are not publicly naming them and they are waiting for warrants right now.

This is also not the first time a cabin has been stolen like that.  In Feb 2015 a cabin was stolen in Klamath County OR and was found not far from it's original location.  That cabin is now in the middle of a civil case as to who had the legal right to sell the cabin which was believed to have been stolen.



Related story on this blog:

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2015/03/found-it.html






http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/missing-log-cabin-found-stilts-rural-wash-road-article-1.2180402

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2015/apr/08/entire-cabin-stolen-foundation-baffling-owner/

http://www.syracuse.com/us-news/index.ssf/2015/04/missing_cabin_stolen_off_its_foundation_has_been_found.html

http://www.inquisitr.com/1996498/cabin-stolen-thieves-swipe-log-cabin-home-move-it-just-10-miles-from-owners-video/

Entitlements again?

"He called me at work and said that he was number six, and I initially dismissed it," stated Elizabeth Holtz.







Sam Holtz, 12, a sixth grader in Hawthorne Woods IL ended up tied for the top prize in ESPN's Bracket Challenge when Duke won the championship April 6 2015.  The contest assigns point values to wins in the bracket and then puts the top 1% of the winning submissions in a drawing for the grand prize.  This year the prize was a $20,000 gift card to Best Buy and a trip to the 2015 Maui Jim Maui Invitational.  The only problem seems to be that the contest was open only to legal US citizens who were 18 years old and up at the time of the entry.

Sam used his father's email address with his permission to submit about 10 bracket submissions.  It was one of those that landed him tied for the top spot.  The officials at ESPN notified Sam of his winning but being ineligible for the drawing for the grand prize which has left Sam's father irritated.  Sam finished tied for first place with a final score of 1,830 for his winning bracket.  ESPN stated that winning the contest does not mean that you will automatically win the grand prize and this year there are 115,700 entries that qualified for the drawing.

There are 67 games in the bracket and Sam only missed six of them.  He was perfect in picking the Sweet 16, Elite Eight and Final Four and managed to beat out many of the experts and 11.5 million who entered a bracket.  There are plenty of people who side with Sam's father with the feeling that ESPN should allow Sam to be in the drawing because he did so well.

The rules were clearly stated when he entered though and ESPN is under no obligation to allow Sam's entry to stay in the drawing.  They have told him that they are gathering together things to give him some sort of goody bag which is more than they are required to do.  If you put yourself on the other side of that equation...... say you lost in the drawing to Sam or another ineligible contestant who was allowed to stay in, would you be very happy?

Casinos regularly withhold major jackpots from underage winners and usually tack on a banishment and legal action.  If you win more than $1,300 at most casinos, you are liable for the taxes on it.  The casino then asks for a valid ID to fill out and process the tax form and if you are underage and managed to get inside to gamble, you lose.  The casino can and will be fined for underage gambling so they do not take breaking the rules lightly.  If the casino finds out that you used a fake ID to enter and win, the police will be the next stop on your loss of winnings.

Sam did a fantastic job of picking the teams in his bracket entry that tied for first but the lesson he should learn is that he did well but was not eligible to win the grand prize.  Teaching children that it is okay to break the rules or that they are owed something even though they broke the rules sets a bad precedent for the rest of life.  It feeds the sense of entitlement that seems to be spreading quicker each day.


Related stories on this blog:

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2015/04/set-me-up-to-whine-through-life.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2014/11/but-you-have-to-pay-stomp-stomp.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2015/03/but-i-am-right.html






http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20150407/news/150409098/

http://wgntv.com/2015/04/06/lake-zurich-sixth-grader-claims-best-ncaa-bracket-on-espn/

http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2015/04/08/12-year-old-wins-bracket-pool-but-is-too-young-for-grand-prize-drawing/#comments

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/espn-wont-give-boy-12-reward-for-winning-bracket-challenge/#postComments

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/bethlehem/index.ssf/2013/08/gaming_officials_say_gambling.html

Keep it close to home.......

"It's not a good situation all around," stated Sgt Dave Lewis.








Chalena Mae Moody, 25, met Eric Lee Gates, 49 through a mutual friend when he was serving time in prison.  They became pen pals and after he was released, they continued the friendship.  At the time, neither knew that they were related but they did discover that fact a few years ago.  They discovered that Gates was Moody's biological father but he had never known because he hadn't been her custodial father.

Instead of just trying to turn their friendship into a father daughter relationship, they chose to become lovers.  Moody had been married before and had three children already but did not have custody of any of them.  It has been reported that they had all been adopted.  The couple had been living in Springfield OR where the police learned that they were living as a couple and in 2013, had produced a child.  They moved then to Klamath Falls OR and had another child in the summer of 2014.  Both of the children had been born with severe mental and physical handicaps and were taken into state custody.

On January 17 2015, Gates pleaded guilty to incest with his daughter Moody and was sentenced to 10 days in jail.  He was also barred from having any contact with Moody, his daughter which he promptly broke.  In addition, Gates was ordered to repay the state the medical costs that have been incurred by the children.  He is back in jail serving the rest of his sentence for breaking his probation terms.  Moody was also sentenced to 10 days in jail for the same charge on March 27 2015 and she was released for time served.  She was also given 18 months probation with the same no contact order.

The second child had been taken by the state four days after it was born on June 2014.  Both Moody and Gates have asked an appeals court to overturn the initial ruling and have the child returned to them but that was denied this week.  They argued that their relationship posed no risk to their now four month old child.

The state argued that their relationship was a chaotic lifestyle, Moody had substance abuse problems and Gates had a fairly long criminal history.  Gates had done several fairly long stints in jail and that was why he was not there for his daughter, Moody, when she was growing up.  I am not sure about the chaos but Moody has had five children so far and does not seem to want to do anything to prevent it.

The state also argued that they expected that the second child would probably develop similar medical issues as it's sibling and their belief is that many of them may be caused by the close genetics of a father-daughter relationship.  Obviously these two can't stay away from each other and since the children are affected, genetically, they should have someone step in and prevent them from having more.  They call incest a crime for a reason and these two may be a prime example of it.




http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/dad-daughter-convicted-incest-lose-custody-child-article-1.2179555

http://7online.com/news/father-daughter-plead-guilty-to-felony-incest-/575511/

http://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/32958819-75/man-woman-convicted-in-incest-case-wont-get-baby-back.html.csp

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3032060/Biological-father-49-daughter-25-incest-relationship-lose-custody-second-baby-plagued-genetic-problems-taken-away.html

http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20150117/NEWS03/150119019

Give him a break for a "rough" childhood?

"Mr Rojano was born into and raised in a dysfunctional familiar environment," stated Orange County Superior Court Judge M Marc Kelly.







On June 4 2014, Kevin Jonas Rojano-Neito, now 20 years old, was playing video games in the garage of his home.  A three year old girl who is related to him wandered into the garage where he was playing and he became sexually aroused by the toddler.  He pulled down her pants and began sodomizing her.

At one point, her mother tried to get into the garage which Rojano had locked because she was looking for her little girl.  Rojano put his hand over the little girls mouth to prevent her from calling out to her mother then and the mother left to look for the girl at the neighbor's home.  He then continued the assault by having the little girl touch his penis.  When he was done, he unlocked the garage door and let her back into the house where her mother found her.  She did not realize anything was wrong until minutes later when the 3 year old complain about being hurt.

In December 3 2014, a jury convicted Rojano of one felony count of having sexual intercourse or sodomy with a child of 10 or younger and one felony count of lewd acts upon a child under the age of 14 years old.  The minimum sentence in the state of california for this conviction is 25 years to life.  On April 3 2015, Judge M Marc Kelly stated that the minimum sentence was unconstitutional because Rojano did not stalk or seek out his victim.  He chose instead to sentence Rojano to 10 years and gave a lengthy reason as to why he was being so lenient.

Kelly stated that after looking at the facts of Rojano's case and the manner in which the offense was committed, he felt that it was not the typical violent, brutal predatory sodomy of a child.  Rojano did not seek out or stalk the victim, she wandered into the garage where he was.  Kelly went on to say that Rojano became aroused by the little girl but did not consciously intend to harm her while he assaulted her.

He added that Rojano had a dysfunctional upbringing that featured family disruption.  That upbringing left Rojano an insecure, socially withdrawn, timid, and extremely immature young man with limited self esteem.  Kelly also said that he was not a typical pedophilic child predator and his crime did not constitute violence against the child.

When you look at the facts of the case, you can not come away with the same conclusions.  Rojano only stopped when he heard the 3 year old's mother looking for her and he continued the attack after she left.  I am not sure how a then 19 year old would be sexually aroused by a 3 year old.  You certainly can't say that she was dressed too provocatively or that she leaned into his ear and talked dirty to him.  What you have is a twisted young man who assaulted a child with little care as to how she felt physically or emotionally.  There is little or no cure for pedophilia, so keeping him in prison for a large part of his lifetime will keep him off of the streets and protect other young children that may wander up to Rojano and sexually excite him in the future.

I am not sure what Judge M Marc Kelly thinks he is doing by slashing Rojano's prison term.  I do hope that the Orange County prosecutors office follows through on their statement of appealing the sentence.  Any man who sodomized a 3 year old child was both violent and showed a callous disregard for the well being of that child.




http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/california-judge-undercuts-minimum-sentence-child-rapist-article-1.2177965

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/girl-656753-bokosky-child.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3030419/Judge-REDUCES-prison-sentence-man-raped-3-year-old-covering-mouth-didn-t-intend-harm-her.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/07/man-who-sexually-abused-3-year-old-girl-didnt-intend-to-harm-his-victim-california-judge-rules/

http://abc7.com/news/orange-county-judge-cuts-15-years-off-sentence-for-man-who-sodomized-toddler/638845/

Finally! He's back.....

"But other will be more than happy to hear that one of the most famous dinosaur genera of all time-Brontosaurus-is back," stated Emanuel Tschopp.



The Brontosaurus excelsus was named in 1879 and then later renamed has now been given the go ahead to return to it's former glory.  Paleontologist Othniel Marsh were working in the Colorado Morrison formation and in 1877 when Marsh discovered the huge bones to a new dinosaur he named Apatosaurus ajax.  In the rush to beat out rival paleontologist Edward Cope, he named his second discovery two years later, Brontosaurus excelsus as a separate species.

In the early 1900's yet another discovery of gigantic bones that were similar to both the previous ones led scientists to decide that they were all the same dinosaur and by the naming rules drafted in the 18th century, the first name had priority.  Brontosaurus disappeared and Apatosaurus reigned as the species until a recent new study of the various fossils that have been found.

Tschopp and his colleagues did not set out to prove that Brontosaurus did exist in their five year study.  They had planned to analyse the diplodocid family which contains about 20 species of giants to create a family tree.  They carefully examined nearly 500 anatomical traits within the various specimens worldwide and concluded that Brontosaurus was a separate species.

Several other dinosaurs in that group were shuffled around such as one receiving it's own genus and another was shifted back into a larger existing genus.  The race between Cope and Marsh had led to many of the same fossils being given different names by the pair in an attempt to create a larger record for themselves in "discovered" species of dinosaurs.  Science has advanced with incredible technology that allows scientists to reexamine fossils found decades ago and come to more accurate conclusions about their origins and family trees.

The Brontosaurus is back............ finally.

https://peerj.com/articles/857/

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/scientists-seek-reinstate-brontosaurus-genus-article-1.2176281

http://www.nature.com/news/beloved-brontosaurus-makes-a-comeback-1.17257