totally off topic -- just a lot of random stuff Showing 501-550 of 1,139

[Faith]

You may not have noticed this, but Goodreads is changing its home page. There is currently a beta test of the new page which can be reached by clicking on "new site design" at the bottom of every page. To return to the old design click on "old design" which is near the bottom of the right hand column (if your screen shows 3 columns) or the left hand column (if your screen shows 2 columns). The changes are explained in the GR blog, but GR took down the banner announcement for the beta test that was up for a few days. If you want to leave feedback on the new page there is a green feedback button on the right of the new page. Also see this thread:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[SherryRose]

I hate the new page!

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Hey, all of you crime writer people: someone needs to write a book about this:

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/...

[Angelo]

OK, so for anyone fed up with all the depressing and miserable news from around the world, I recently did a standup gig that you might find funny.

The stress is on the word might there...

I used to do standup comedy a lot, then took an extended break - in which wrote some books/short stories - but I'm getting back into it now.

Anyway, it's not related to crime (for some reason audiences really don't find murder that funny...!) but as this is an off-topic thread, you might want to take a look.

https://angelomarcos.wordpress.com/20...

Hope it makes you laugh!

:-)

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

All right, friends. I want to know what you think of this:

My husband has just finished the first book in a series -- I don't know who the author was (and didn't ask because he buys a lot of them on Kindle when they're on sale). Anyway, he read the entire thing, and right as the book was about to end, it said something along the lines of "and to find out what happens, you have to read book number two." I was flabbergasted -- has anyone else ever heard of this sort of thing?

[David]

Nothing like that but I read the fifth book in a series that slammed to halt on a cliff-hanger that required you to buy the sixth one to learn who got shot.

I never found out because that stunt irked me so much I never bought book six.

[Esther]

Nancy wrote: "All right, friends. I want to know what you think of this:
My husband has just finished the first book in a series -- I don't know who the author was (and didn't ask because he buys a lot of them ..."
Unsolved stories and cliffhangers are not unusual in fantasy and YA where books are often parts of a trilogy but I have never heard of it in a non-genre mystery.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Quillracer wrote: "Nothing like that but I read the fifth book in a series that slammed to halt on a cliff-hanger that required you to buy the sixth one to learn who got shot.

I never found out because that stunt ir..."

This one pissed off my husband -- same thing. Talk about making sure you get repeat customers!

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Esther wrote: "Nancy wrote: "All right, friends. I want to know what you think of this:
My husband has just finished the first book in a series -- I don't know who the author was (and didn't ask because he buys a..."

That's what I said!

[Wendy]

It had better be a darn good mystery with well written plots etc. because I would be pissed off enough NOT to read the next installment. It is a cheap and low class way to get people to read your books. If you are good enough, the Readers will Come AND recommend you.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

I just asked, and he said the mystery wasn't that good at all. So much for book two.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Is everyone else dying of heatstroke where you live? Today's heat index here is supposed to be 110! Ouch!

[Stephanie Hutabarat]

It's a bit strange weather now in my country,Indonesia. Should be hot until end of August but we just having rain almost everyday and really scary one, flood is almost everywhere. Really not nice.

[Thomas]

It's 75, humidity 63%, projected high 83 in western New York.

[David]

Finally broke a string of seven 90+ degree days here, but the humidity is still sky high.

[Bill]

About 80 degrees here, but there is a pretty nice breeze.

[Angelo]

We had a heatwave here in the UK lasy week which coincided with me having flu, hilariously enough.

Fortunately both have passed this week so its much more bearable... ;-)

[Angelo]

(And 110 sounds like some kind of endurance test!)

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Angelo wrote: "(And 110 sounds like some kind of endurance test!)"

I feel like I'm living in some sort of dystopian novel with this heat! We normally have rain every day in summer at 3 pm; I don't even remember the last time it rained here. Stephanie, you can send some rain my way.

[SherryRose]

Oddly cool here at 78 with humidity and clouds. we'll be hot again after today and in triple digits heat index by Tuesday. I'm just enjoying the break today.

[Thomas]

Everyone is welcome to move to western New York, mild summers and variable winters.

[Franky]

108 right now here. You know it is going to be a hot day when it is over 100 before noon. It is a dry heat, though, as they say.

Is it a dry heat too when the oven is turned on?

I guess I won't complain. It is probably at least 5-10 degrees hotter in Las Vegas or Phoenix.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Franky wrote: "108 right now here. You know it is going to be a hot day when it is over 100 before noon. It is a dry heat, though, as they say.

Is it a dry heat too when the oven is turned on?

I guess I won't..."

Dry heat is doable. It's when it's hot and humid that it's yuck.

[Franky]

Yeah, I don't think I could deal with any humidity. I went to Pennsylvania one summer and we had a stop off in Houston...wow...humidity is something I'm not used to at all.

[Bill]

That's why I was so glad to leave Ontario. Summers are always hot, hot, hot and humid for weeks on end. And then there are the black flies..

[SherryRose]

My friend is from a dryer climate. Her brother came to visit. He was laughing at her and calling her a wuss for having air conditioning. They went out for half a day and when they got back he was begging her to turn on the air! It's a town by the river in Iowa. The air gets so thick you can cut it with a knife. The weather man said we wear the air.

[Thomas]

There are days when our humidity and temperature are the same. But not often, fortunately.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Screamville! We finally have time to sit and watch tv and Amazon Video is down! Aaarrgh!

[Bill]

Nancy wrote: "Screamville! We finally have time to sit and watch tv and Amazon Video is down! Aaarrgh!"

That sucks...

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Bill wrote: "Nancy wrote: "Screamville! We finally have time to sit and watch tv and Amazon Video is down! Aaarrgh!"

That sucks..."

Yes, it did!

[SherryRose]

Double jeopardy?

[Wendy]

I was at the hair salon yesterday. Another customer brought up an unsolved murder. It came to mind, my "personal" experience long ago.
My orthodontist Robert Glasgal and his wife were brutally murdered in the 1980s.
His eldest son Russell was tried twice for the murders. One was a mistrial, the other acquittal.
My question is DNA is SO much better now than in the 80s. If they retested the DNA, and found Russell did indeed do it, what happens? Double Jeopardy is in play right?

[David]

I'm not 100% sure, but I seem to recall reading somewhere that if substantial new evidence that a person did in fact commit a crime comes to light, double jeopardy can be overturned and the person re-tried.
But perhaps an LEO or lawyer here on Goodreads can give you a definitive answer.
Any takers?

[Thomas]

I am not a lawyer, but a retired Customs Inspector. Double jeopardy cannot be overturned with new evidence unless there is jury tampering. I could be wrong about this. I think that prosecutors usually choose jury tampering charges rather than try to overturn double jeopardy. However, criminals can be prosecuted in federal court for civil rights violations(see Rodney King case). This is US law. Canada has a separate rule and does allow a second trial with substantial new evidence--extremely rare.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

And let's not forget --civil cases of wrongful death can bring some sort of justice since the burden of proof is not as exact as in criminal courts.

[Carol]

Wendy wrote: "I was at the hair salon yesterday. Another customer brought up an unsolved murder. It came to mind, my "personal" experience long ago.
My orthodontist Robert Glasgal and his wife were brutally murd..."

For double jeopardy to attach, you'd have to be charging a D with the same crime under the same statute under which he or she was charged the first time. New evidence isn't a basis for avoiding its application. ( you can imagine how worthless the bar on retrying and retrying a defendant would be if it were otherwise.) If you can find a different statute, you can avoid double jeopardy. Hence, the search for a federal statute or other criminal statute, to the extent the applicable statute of limitations hasn't tolled.

[Carol]

Carol wrote: "Wendy wrote: "I was at the hair salon yesterday. Another customer brought up an unsolved murder. It came to mind, my "personal" experience long ago.
My orthodontist Robert Glasgal and his wife were..."

And, yes, as Thomas noted, this is US law. The answer is different in many countries.

[Wendy]

I would love a web site that has these "cold cases". It would be great it cases like the one above, could be possibly solved. I read somewhere (??) that San Francisco has just received monies to assist in their cold cases. The team will be mostly part time retired cops.
At the opposite end of the spectrum:
On Facebook, I get notifications on all the Innocence Project news. (USA) They center on mainly Lifers or Death Row inmates who may have been wrongly convicted due to: no DNA at the time, wrong/bad eye-witnesses, bad or illegal police work. According to their web site, 342 have been exonerated, 20 of whom were on death row.

[Wendy]

Most countries no longer have the death penalty. But I am curious to find out if their countries judicial system is as messed up as ours.

[SherryRose]

Wendy wrote: "I would love a web site that has these "cold cases". It would be great it cases like the one above, could be possibly solved. I read somewhere (??) that San Francisco has just received monies to as..."

Wow! That's a very high number! People always say "everyone in jail says they're innocent." It seems to actually be a true statement.

[Stephanie Hutabarat]

Well,talking about death system, we have those punishment in my country,Indonesia. It's for people who bring narcotics or have transaction with that stuffs. It seem so naive i suppose while the goverment give that kind punishment to druggers but with other criminals such as pedophiles or corruptors, they're just locked them. Really really strange system. They're just 'punished' 4 of them last Friday. And really sad watching the news from TV..

[SherryRose]

Drug dealers are treated more harshly than pedophiles in the U.S. too. Maybe it's because the law thinks big money is more important than children. I don't understand it either.

[SherryRose]

Trump was stuck in an elevator for 30 minutes. LOL! He was with 10 other people. I assume he behaved or we'd have heard about it.

[Bill]

Sherry wrote: "Trump was stuck in an elevator for 30 minutes. LOL! He was with 10 other people. I assume he behaved or we'd have heard about it."

Love it!

[Bill]

Hi all. I'm going to start the next Group Read nomination thread in a couple of days. Following my trend, it'll be authors whose last name starts with the letter 'D'. Now I was thinking of making it D and E authors, as I don't know that there are that many E authors to make a separate poll next time I do one. What are your thoughts? Do you think I should combine D and E or do them each individually?

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Bill wrote: "Hi all. I'm going to start the next Group Read nomination thread in a couple of days. Following my trend, it'll be authors whose last name starts with the letter 'D'. Now I was thinking of making i..."

If you look at stopyourekillingme.com, there is a full page of "d" authors as well as a full page of "e" authors. So if you combine them, that's a lot of possibles.

[Carol]

Bill wrote: "Hi all. I'm going to start the next Group Read nomination thread in a couple of days. Following my trend, it'll be authors whose last name starts with the letter 'D'. Now I was thinking of making i..."

*raises hand for "combine"*

[Bill]

Carol wrote: "Bill wrote: "Hi all. I'm going to start the next Group Read nomination thread in a couple of days. Following my trend, it'll be authors whose last name starts with the letter 'D'. Now I was thinkin..."

Thanks, Carol. I'm definitely leaning that way.

Nancy wrote: "Bill wrote: "Hi all. I'm going to start the next Group Read nomination thread in a couple of days. Following my trend, it'll be authors whose last name starts with the letter 'D'. Now I was thinkin..."

Thanks for that, Nancy.

[Wendy]

I am curious. Is Stop You're Killing Me connected to GRs in any way? I see it recommended frequently. Personally I find the site a dated- or not updated esp in the international genre.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Wendy wrote: "I am curious. Is Stop You're Killing Me connected to GRs in any way? I see it recommended frequently. Personally I find the site a dated- or not updated esp in the international genre."

I don't think so, but who knows? They miss a lot of crime -- not just international, but vintage as well.