June 14, 2004

           JZ says we are to paint the garage an off-white color and repair some shutters. Okay, I've never done that before. He wants a hand tomorrow picking up five gallons of paint but I'm really not that much help. I have to sit down every five minutes, still. It says here I spent $180 repairing my Cadillac and that I made $200 on some stocks. And that I told JZ I won't ride in his truck until he puts new tires on the thing. The notes on my calendar are very scant, but a least I'm writing things down again. Apparently JZ and I later went to a pub called the "Buccaneer". I don't recall that place at all.

           This is the Univac, the first general purpose computer, unveiled today in 1951. Oddly, if you know what to look for, not that much has changed and there have really been no new ideas or breakthroughs in the basic operational doctrine of computers or the designs that make them work. I can actually see the various control panels on this old unit that match items that I've laid out on my work desk in the previous few years. The first home computers did not begin to arrive for another 30 years. Until they actually appeared on the market, I had no idea that somebody had not already invented them. That's how backward a town I was raised in.

           It was around today in 1966 that the Miranda rights were established. A man named Miranda was arrested for a rape he probably didn't commit, but unaware he did not have to talk to the police, was coerced into a confession. Many people to this day still think their right to remain silent begins when informed so by the police. Wrong, you are born with the right to remain silent. The police only want you to think if you plead the Fifth that that means you are covering up something--and they have become experts at conveying that message. The Fifth is the most advanced legal protection you will ever get. Citizens of other countries admire this provision.
           Today's trivia is about Miranda. The state-appointed lawyer who "defended" him at his trial was 73 years old. Miranda was stabbed to death in 1976 after a poker game. Miranda died in an Arizona bar men's room.

           For reasons unknown, my calendar of this day bears this code ROS:606-Short. I record it for posterity. Year's later, I still have not decoded the meaning. Today's blog is generated from notes on my 2004 desk calendar.
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