Friday, April 10, 2009

Barry and the Pirates

This was posted today over at www.americanthinker.com:

By Lance Fairchok

It is the stuff of movies, a high seas drama, where for the first time in 200 years, pirates attack an American vessel, the Maersk Alabama. In the best traditions of America's merchant seamen, its brave crew fights back and regains control of the ship. To ensure the safety of his crew from the pirates, and at great personal risk, the noble Captain offers himself as hostage. The freighter is filled with humanitarian relief for Kenya, not weapons, cars, electronics, or luxuries. Luckily, an American warship, the USS Bainbridge was nearby. It is a moment for leadership and resolve, where America asserts her might and dignity, where she takes the lead against lawless marauders, and our President stands up full of pride and righteous anger and says.... Well, what he said was, exactly, nothing.

Oh, his administration mumbled, made half-hearted condemnations, and pandered a bit. John Kerry called for hearings, Hillary Clinton voiced her "concern" and cackled uproariously about the situation during a press conference with the Moroccan Ambassador, whose country ironically was once a pirate power that seized American ships and enslaved our crews in the late 1700s. Hillary botched the details, but did decisively state: "We think the world must come together to end the scourge of piracy."

There was a measured and nuanced press conference by a State Department spokesperson, Robert Wood, as Secretary of State Clinton was otherwise engaged. "Our militaries - the U.S. military and the militaries of other countries are cooperating, trying to see what we can do to prevent these types of piracy acts from happening. But, this is going to take time. We are all working very closely to try to do what we can." He further stated: "We've been trying to provide support for the transitional government there (in Somalia); we've encouraged others to do so...but this is a question for the entire international community to deal with..."

This is what we have come to. Unilateral action, even if it is as clear cut as defending US interests against pirates, must be avoided. Murderous Jihadist terrorists get civil rights and government lawyers while US taxpayers pick up the bill. Pirates, who board US shipping and threaten American seamen, get treated like simple criminals that do not warrant so much as a mention by the President. One would have thought it was a no-brainer for the Manchurian President, a populist win-win to paint Obama as a decisive leader, a chance to inspire confidence that he was up to the challenge. It was a chance to warn aggressors, pirates or otherwise, away from international shipping. It was also a chance, now squandered, to reassure friend and foe alike that America had not lost her nerve or reneged on her exceptional role as a world leader.

But no, it's all just a distraction from the greater work of wealth redistribution, "social justice," and remaking America into the utopian vision of a narcissistic socialist academic with a nice speaking voice. No pompous speeches and meandering lectures this time, the implications of piracy on trade and sovereignty are beyond Obama.

When asked by a reporter about the Maersk Alabama during a White House event, President Obama responded to the question with: "Guys, we're talking about housing right now," translated as "don't bother me with trivialities." Obama has no clue what is required of a world leader and his advisors less so. A mere three months into its first term, the Obama administration is turning out to be just the embarrassment and bumbling disaster, we feared it would be.

I've already noticed people taking Obama stickers off their cars. They can only pad the polls so long. Pirates are easy, what's going to happen if we are attacked again, or Iran, Pakistan, or North Korea use a nuke?

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Maersk Alabama hostage situation

Two words: Navy Seals

The quest for free Wifi continues

atthemall Well, well, free Wifi at the mall. The Mall at Turtle Creek, to be specific.

I went to the Barnes & Noble Starbucks to ask about the Starbucks card that presumably gets you 2 hours of free Wifi a day at any Starbucks. But they don’t sell the Starbucks card there. Instead, they push a Barnes & Noble card that has no Wifi perks.

However, the friendly barista offered, there is free Wifi in the food court.

I figured that was way too good to be true, but I had to check it out to be sure.

Damned if there aren’t two unsecured mall wireless networks: turtle-creek-1 and turtle-creek-2.

So who needs the Barnes & Noble ambiance at $2 an hour when I can buy my coffee there and walk about 60 yards to the food court to drink it and surf for free?

There is a downside, of course. There always is. I don’t see any electrical outlets, so I’m on battery when I’m in here. Fortunately, the Mini 9 has about 4 hours of battery life.

Blowing smoke or taking me seriously?

I got this response from Books-A-Million this afternoon from my email of this morning suggesting they seize the opportunity to snatch Hastings customers here by offering free Wifi.

It reads like a stock reply, but I remain guardedly optimistic.

Thank you for your email to feedback@booksamillion.com.

I have passed your suggestion to our home office for them to review.

I hope that you will continue to provide such feedback, as it is the only way to know whether we’re succeeding or failing in meeting your expectations. If I can ever be of further assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Our Customer Relations Hotline is (800) 876-4510.

Sincerely,

Ouida Johnson

Customer Relations

Doggy drama

Not our dog, not our cupcakes.

Rain, yardwork, and free Wifi

april9rainThe Weather Channel radar shows the rain has reached Jonesboro and will be here soon, so it looks like my yard work is done for the day.

I chainsawed several tree trunk segments last night and hauled them away with the lawn tractor/wagon in a couple of loads this morning.

Since we got the wagon last weekend, I've been able to make some serious progress in clearing the debris from our yard, but there is still much to do.

I also lodged email and telephone complaints with Hastings's corporate offices about the month-long free Wifi outage at their Jonesboro store.

At the same time, I fired off an email to the corporate offices of Books-A-Million, which has a bookstore and cafe a block south of Hastings, suggesting they have an opportunity to capture those of us set adrift by Hastings if they offer free Wifi. I also suggested they could make a dent in the customer base of the Starbucks at the local Barnes & Noble, since the Wifi there is free only to AT&T cellular customers and users of Starbucks cards.

That said, I don't really expect anything to change at Hastings or Books-A-Million. I've probably used up my luck for influencing businesses with the change I affected in our Weather Channel Local on the 8s listings.

But it never hurts to try.

Wednesday, April 08, 2009

They're still keeping the faith

ringopaul

Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr headlined a concert the other night at Radio City Music Hall to raise money for scholarships so at-risk people can learn Transcendental Meditation.

I know because an old TM friend, with whom I recently reconnected on Facebook, was there and waxed ecstatic about it on her Facebook page.

I know her from my TM days in Indianapolis. I learned TM on the first course ever offered in Indianapolis back in November, 1969. I threw myself into the TM program and our house was the first real TM center in Indianapolis. We hosted weekly meetings and introductory lectures and initiations on a regular basis for a couple of years until the TM movement got big enough to rent half of a duplex two doors down from us. That was the center for a few years until the movement ponied up $100,000-plus for a mansion in the 3400 block of Washington Boulevard. That was big money in those days - the mid-1970s - and it was a pretty deluxe place. There was even a carriage house out back where the sidhas did their flying program. (Go look it up. I don't feel like explaining it here.)

Anyhow, I drifted away from the TM program in the mid- to late-1980s and every now and then I run into someone from those days who is still on the TM bandwagon - like my friend who went to the concert.

I can't decide who's the fool here - me for moving on or them for keeping the faith. All I know is that by all measurements that I can think of, TM failed to live up to the promises Maharishi Mahesh Yogi made for it. He sent packs of sidhas to prop up failing dictatorships in Iran and the Philippines and promised world peace. They failed anyway.

He promised "Cosmic Consciousness" to anyone who meditated regularly for 5-7 years. I know of no one who achieved that goal in 20 years.

Those of us who took the sidhi course were led to believe that we would be able to levitate. As far as I know, nobody has ever gotten past the hopping stage.

That said, TM kept me and millions of other people drug-free, because recreational drugs and meditation are not compatible.

But I gave up the belief that it is destined to solve all of the world's problems a long time ago. The world has too many crazies and hate-filled loons who won't let that happen.

Maharishi was from the Kshatriya (warrior) caste, and he surely knew that.

And as far as raising money for TM "scholarships" goes, Maharishi always said the reason he charged for the technique was to make people value it and feel a commitment to it. If you give it away, people don't take it seriously and don't stick with it. The idea of "scholarships" seems to undercut that principle.

Monday, April 06, 2009

Why the New York Times deserves to die

I can't top this

I've been thinking about blogging something about this situation for several weeks, but Bob nails it with this rant:

More ice storm expense

cart

We stopped at Lowe’s on the way home from the Memphis Airport yesterday and bought one of these 17 cubic foot dump carts.

I spent a couple of hours in the afternoon assembling it and was pleased to find it’s even better at hauling tree debris than I had hoped.

Steve was a huge help on Saturday morning, chainsawing and helping to haul debris to the growing brush pile in front of our house. Now that it’s just Maria and me, the daunting task of clearing our yard of the Jan. 27 ice storm debris seems much more do-able now that we have the cart to pull behind the lawn tractor.

Maybe I’ll paint it John Deere green after it accumulates some scrapes and scratches.

Grandparenting

johnlisakitchen Steve and Lisa have gone home to Las Vegas and we miss them already.

This was their first trip to Arkansas, so now it’s time for us to return the favor and visit them in their new home in the West.

Considering that Lisa is only 4 years and 10 months old, she has an astonishing amount of emotional maturity and poise. She has that rare ability to step outside of herself in emotional situations and recover her equilibrium. I’ve been blessed with it, so has Steve and, happily, so has Maria.

The top photo was shot Saturday morning as I worked on the laptop in the kitchen and Lisa came in to greet me.

The bottom photo was shot Friday afternoon at the big public park on the south side of Jonesboro where we exchanged high-fives after Lisa scaled the big climbing rock in the lakeside playground.

I think I like this grandparent thing.hi5

Saturday, April 04, 2009

At O'Charley's

Coloring on the kids' menu. She rode here in the del Sol with the top off, so her hair is a little disheveled.

Friday, April 03, 2009

Lisa goes Arkansas

 lisacamo Lisa tried on a camo flotation vest at the Crowley's Ridge Nature Center yesterday.

She had a great time at the nature center.puppet

trail

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Hey, they fixed it!

weatherchannel

I sent an email to the Weather Channel back on March 17, pointing out that the regional observations list in my Local on the 8s included Blytheville and Eaker AFB.

I noted that Eaker AFB ceased to be a U.S. Air Force installation in December, 1992. It's now a civilian airport. Most of the time, it was listed as having "no report." It's also at Blytheville, which makes its data mostly irrelevant.

I got an email reply within 24 hours and a couple of days later I noticed that Eaker AFB was gone and there was a new listing for "Arkansas Intl"  for its current incarnation as Arkansas International Airport.

Thanks, Weather Channel!

Lisa arrives today!

DSC00454 My granddaughter Lisa and son Steve are coming for a four-day visit this evening.

They're arriving at the Memphis Airport, a place I've not yet been, so I have the route laid into my GPS and have studied maps of the airport parking and terminal areas, so I'm good to go.

Since the airport has free Wifi, I'll leave a little early and take my Dell Inspiron Mini 9 for entertainment.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Why I cringe whenever I hear some moron jabbering about "man-made global warming" as if It were an established fact

Here is a lengthy, but thorough explanation, of why the notion of Anthropogenic (man-made) Global Warming (AGW) is bullshit junk science, being pushed by those who have something to gain from this imagined crisis. It's from www.americanthinker.com:

 

By Gregory Young

Mathematical Modeling is used throughout our world to help forecast the future in many arenas of life, including economics, biology, medicine, and yes, climate change.  Like all modeling, one attempts to study the past through scientific observation, accurately and unbiasedly collect the data, and then fit the data to a dynamic computer model that is meant to predict, to some degree of accuracy, some measure of tomorrow.  In this way scientists hope to discover trends that not only document the past, but could forecast the future. 

Virtually all climate models are basically mathematical models, built upon a series of mathematical equations.  Change just one equation, or the number of variables in an equation, or how they relate to one another, and the results of the model can change dramatically.  Unfortunately, unlike many other forms of modeling, climate models have yet to prove their wanted accuracy. 

For the most part, the reasons for their ongoing failure have everything to do with climate complexity.  The climate is such an extraordinarily difficult dynamic system to be approximated by mathematical equations.  There are literally thousands of components, all interacting in ways that we don't fully understand. Added to the cacophony of being terrifically circuitous, and involving reciprocating feedback loops with a multitude of leveraged factors nested within interdependent systems of energy exchange, some of these energy systems are not just confined to earth.  Therefore, in changing the profile or weightiness of just one variable, the model's ability to forecast results can shift critically, and indeed, can mistakenly and regularly portend catastrophes.

As Professor Ian Clark, Department of Sciences, University of Ottawa tells it: "If you haven't understood the climate system, if you haven't understood all the components -- the cosmic rays, the solar, the CO2, the water vapor, the clouds, and put it all together -- if you haven't got all that, then your model isn't worth anything."  As in most computer models, the adage of "junk in -- junk out" remains true for climate models.

Compounding the Problems of Climate Modeling:

In addition to the difficulties mentioned above, is the late arriving Anthropogenic (man-made) Global Warming (AGW) prejudice that has set the evolution of climate modeling back a few decades.  Previously known and accepted climate components have been summarily stripped from the equation --  such as the dominant factors involving the Sun and the importance of water vapor in the atmosphere as the dominant greenhouse gas.  This is because in the cause to acquire lucrative AGW-biased government grants, many scientists have opted to blatantly skew their climate models to amplify AGW-favoring evidence and amplify anthropogenic CO2 importance.  In this manner, they then qualify to receive funding and ensure publication. 

Describing the compounded inaccuracies of these Johnny-come-lately modelers who would rather be funded than scientifically astute, Dr. Tim Ball, a former climate scientist at the University of Winnipeg sardonically clarifies: "The analogy that I use is that my car is not running that well, so I'm going to ignore the engine (which is the sun) and I'm going to ignore the transmission (which is the water vapor) and I'm going to look at one nut on the right rear wheel (which is the Human produced CO2) ... the science is that bad!"

Dr. Balls analogy has never proved clearer than when examining the climate models used by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).  As just noted, the inaccuracy of those models cherry-picked by the IPCC revealed that the largest and most robust variables of climate change and their antecedents were intentionally dismissed and dropped from inclusion in their investigations, including the variables of solar activity, water vapor and cloud formation in the atmosphere, major ocean currents, as well as other vital components. 

If you're thinking that without due consideration of the known and most weighty variables in the climate system, the forecastable conclusions should prove to be fallacious and wrong, you would be right.  Yet, that hasn't stopped the UN's IPCC from driving the propaganda of AGW, emphasizing the wrong deductions while deliberately disregarding the bigger picture altogether.

Ironically, model worthiness and accuracy can be quickly assessed by simply plugging in yesterday's numbers and seeing if the model actually yields results that are aligned with the known history.  Yet to date, climate models have failed miserably.  Though there is hope for further improvement, there is no current climate model that can, when applied to the  documented past, accurately re-forecast the known historical record, much less portend what could be happening to the weather next week, least wise the next century.  Climate modeling has yet to rise to a level of sophistication that allows us to accurately predict the future.

Knowing the primitive state of climate modeling, it is at least irresponsible, even not maleficent, to use such flawed methods to intentionally affect global public policy-making.  It is morally reprehensible, if not criminal, to promote the panicking of dire climate consequences and extinction scenarios authored by climate models known to be verifiably defective.  This tyranny of appearance has yet to be toppled.

Further Undermining Model Accuracies:

Aside from climate models not working, how they are "applied" and "used" in order to affect public opinion offers us insight into yet another scientific infraction.  For instance, AGW studies notoriously measure "short-term trends," from which they then attempt to derive long-term forecasts.  This is tantamount to predicting whether a building should be built upon a piece of ground by analyzing the topsoil alone, while ignoring the absence of any underlying bedrock.  Real risky!

When it comes to climate change, which has been ongoing for at least 4.5 Billion years, measuring short-term trends alone, such as 10-50 years at a time, is absolutely worthless.  It's worthless because short-term trends are typically just that, "short-term."  They are quick to change.  Only in the long-term does the variation of many contiguous short-term trends gradually give way to the more important real climate changes noted in the historical records.  From the short-term view point alone, nothing is really revealed except aberrant blips reflecting common statistical variation of the data pool. 

Also, depending on what side of the short-term trend we choose to initially measure, the respective forecasts can be 180 degrees out.  For example, the last ice-age persisted until 11,400 years ago when the temperatures rose dramatically some 10 degrees Centigrade in just 2-3 years. An accurate forecast depends on what side of the apex of the trend you happen to measure (for a variation on this theme, see René Tomes: Catastrophe Theory), just as one would when trading a stock on Wall Street.

Mind you, all of the climate change that ended the last ice-age happened without man's influence, and it was still a few degrees warmer then, than it is today.  Further, no such exemplary temperature-rate-differentials are in evidence currently.  Most agree that we are on track to add approximately 1.0 degree Centigrade of warming over the next century.  Then again, recent short-term trends of cooling are now documented.  The lesson:  short-term analysis is generally unreliable to produce meaningful long-term forecasts.

Awkward for warming alarmists, long-term modeling does not reflect AGW.  Thus, most of the predictions that account for AGW are derived solely from the short-sightedness of short-term models.  Though such narrow and myopic targeting of the timeline gives little to no accurate indication as to what the long-term climate trends will be, it does allow alarmists to spin data to their own favorable conclusive ends through the finding of false-positives.  Indeed, depending on where AGWers want to start and stop measuring, the results can be so contrived to be anything they want them to be.  But the prejudice of a favored outcome, or an apparent coin-toss, should not be at the helm of climate modeling.  This is not the kind of modeling that good science makes.

Corrections to Recent Climate Modeling Undermines the AGW Cause:

Next, let's consider the ongoing corrections made to various climate models due to error in data accumulation, data fabrication and exaggeration and the discovery of outright forgery delightfully explained in this video of Professor Bob Carter of James Cook University in Australia, who demonstrated that on the basis of published studies, the IPCC modeling notions of AGW is not only undermined, but fatally torpedoed.

From Evidence of Modeling Bias to Spinning Propaganda:

Compounding the problems of inaccuracy in climate models is their subsequent and de facto publication, virtually assured if the study is favorable to AGW. Reporting in the journal Energy and Environment, Volume 19, Number 2, March 2008, Evidence for "publication Bias" Concerning Global Warming in Science and Nature by Patrick J. Michaels has found significant evidence for the AGW penchant in his survey of the two premier magazines, namely Science and Nature.  Astoundingly, he found that it's more than 99.999% probable that Climate studies' extant forecasts are biased in these two publications.  In contrast the AGW party-line believes that there is an equal probability that published findings will raise or lower extant forecasts. 

This is akin to believing the MSM is fair, objective and balanced.  Michaels rightly warns that such bias "...has considerable implications for the popular perception of global warming science, for the nature of ‘compendia' of climate change research, such as the reports of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change, and for the political process that uses those compendia as the basis for policy." 

And such bias did, does, and will continue to influence world politics.  This predicament has been vigorously exposed by Lord Monckton, who previously revealed through consummate analysis that a whole bevy of proven modeling errors yet to be have been corrected, willfully resisted, and pugnaciously ignored by the IPPC continues to this day to prejudice world opinion in favor of AGW.

Monckton specifically found that errors "via 30 equations that computer models used by the UN's climate panel (IPCC) -- [models] which were purposely pre-programmed with such overstated or falsified values for the three variables whose product is ‘climate sensitivity' (temperature increase in response to greenhouse-gas increase)  -- resulted in a 500-2000% overstatement of CO2's effect on temperature in the IPCC's latest climate assessment report, published in 2007."  

Accordingly, and in total agreement with other published opinions,  Lord Monckton stated most recently that there is an "overwhelming weight of evidence that the UN's climate panel, the IPCC, prodigiously exaggerates both the supposed causes and the imagined consequences of anthropogenic ‘global warming;' that too many of the exaggerations can be demonstrated to have been deliberate; and that the IPCC and other official sources have continued to rely even upon those exaggerations that have been definitively demonstrated in the literature to have been deliberate."

Thus, because of (1) complicit distortion and overstatement of climate related data-values, (2) repetitive denial of published corrections of exaggerated IPCC data-modeling, (3) deliberate direct and indirect fabrications of data input through falsified methods of interpolation and extrapolation, (4) willfully and overtly creating data forgeries and conclusions, and (5) other man-made errors introduced into climate warming models, from (6) faulty data collection methods from U.S. National Weather Service pedigree measuring stations to (7) the basic corruption of data analysis itself, all climate modeling to date has been woefully inaccurate, the manipulation of which has become the basis of a deliberate IPPC self-fulfilling prophecy concerning AGW. 

Nevertheless, IPCC members remain unrepentant.  They openly and truculently refuse to appropriately inculcate the corrected published data into their own conclusions because this would change their conclusions and dispel warming alarmism.  It is "priestcraft" in its darkest form.  Warming alarmists are acting as skilled magicians that can make a rabbit come out of any hat ... as long as we let them supply the hat!

The Tide is Turning:

But there is a silver lining in the clouds of despair sown by the warming alarmists.  Elsewhere, in a painstaking review of the literature accessing the scientific consensus about climate change involving 539 papers published between 2004 and 2007, Schulte and Klaus-Martin in the journal Energy and Environment, published in March 2008, found no actual evidence in any of these papers  regarding specific "catastrophic" climate change due to man.  Nada.  None.  Zero.

Additionally, from this most recent study we learn that less than 50% of the papers endorsed any notion of AGW, and only 7% did so explicitly.  This means that over half of these studies did not endorse AGW.  This is in contrast to just a few years ago when 75% of reviewed published papers between 1995-2003 suggested that the warming of the 50 years previous was likely to have been anthropogenic, or man-made.  This reversal is big news.

This study indicates that the tide is changing and the dissent from AGW markedly growing.  As AGW climate models are being continually scrutinized and vetted, there appears to be diminishing evidence witnessed en masse in the learned journals to justify the current climate-change alarm. 

Though we shall fight on, now the trick is to begin the even harder task of changing the politicians' minds ... politicians who are already salivating for, and grown used to the idea of, a lucrative carbon-tax, and the additional power they will likely inherit with it.  Science alone will not likely defeat the rapaciousness of Washington.  Any suggestions?

Dr. Gregory Young is a neuroscientist and physicist, a doctoral graduate of the University of Oxford, Oxford, England, whilst previously completing postgraduate work at King's College, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, and having taught graduate-level Statistical Analysis and Mathematical Modeling.  He currently chairs a privately funded think-tank engaged in experimental biophysics.

At the bank

marleigh I had to go to the bank this morning to order more checks.

Ordinarily, I'd just do it online, but the online site wouldn't let me make the address and phone number changes I wanted on the new batch.

The teller looked kind of familiar and then I read her nametag and realized I had photographed her for the Sun.

She was a member of Arkansas State University's A-Team, a dance squad that performs at athletic events and I got a shot of her working with some girls in a peewee dance clinic for girls in K-6th grade back on Jan. 19, 2008.

She placed the check order for me and said she remembered the photo.

His name is Jim, but we called him Bo

moa6 This is Jim Bradshaw with his BMW R??RS at the 2000 BMW MOA National Rally in Midland, Mich.

My recollection is that it's a project bike that may or may not have started out as an R100.

Jim lives in Atlanta, Ga., but he grew up a block away from me in Delphi, Ind. and graduated from Delphi High School a year after I did.

We run into each other at BMW rallies every few years - Bike Week in 1993, Midland in 2000, the BMW RA rally in Birmingham, Ala., in 2003.

I rather expect to see him at the BMW MOA National Rally this year in Johnson City, Tenn.

Happy Colorado dogs

colodogs

Don't you love seeing dogs riding in cars and trucks?

Sunday, March 29, 2009

The ShamWow Guy and the Hooker

 From thesmokinggun.com:shlomi

MARCH 27--Meet Vince Shlomi. He's probably better known to you as the ShamWow Guy, the ubiquitous television pitchman who has been phenomenally successful peddling absorbent towels and food choppers. Shlomi, 44, was arrested last month on a felony battery charge following a violent confrontation with a prostitute in his South Beach hotel room. According to an arrest affidavit, Shlomi met Sasha Harris, 26, at a Miami Beach nightclub on February 7 and subsequently retired with her to his $750 room at the lavish Setai hotel. Shlomi told cops he paid Harris about $1000 in cash after she "propositioned him for straight sex." Shlomi said that when he kissed Harris, she suddenly "bit his tongue and would not let go." Shlomi then punched Harris several times until she released his tongue. The affidavit, a copy of which you'll find here, notes that during the 4 AM fight Harris sustained facial fractures and lacerations all over her face (she is pictured here in mug shots hookersnapped following busts in 2008 and 2005). After freeing his tongue, a bleeding Shlomi ran to the Setai lobby, where security summoned cops. Harris refused to cooperate with officers, who recovered $930 from her purse. "Both parties had a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting from their persons," police reported. In a brief telephone interview, Harris declined to answer TSG questions about her run-in with Shlomi, though she did say she is considering a lawsuit against the pitchman. Asked if she worked as a hooker, Harris declined comment. As seen in the below mug shot, Shlomi was also injured during the fracas and, court records show, was treated at Mount Sinai Medical Center. While Shlomi and Harris were both arrested for felony aggravated battery, prosecutors this month declined to file formal charges against the combatants. Police records list Shlomi's occupation as "Marketing," but make no mention of his affiliation with the ShamWow or the Slap Chop, both of which sell for $19.95 (plus shipping and handling)