Two illegal aliens, Ralphel Resindez 23 and Enrico Garza 26, probably believed they would easily overpower a home alone 11 year old Patricia Harrington after her father had left their two story home.

It seems the two crooks never learned two things, they were in Montana and Patricia had been a clay shooting champion since she was nine. Patricia was in her upstairs room when the two men broke through the front door of the house. She quickly ran to her father’s room and grabbed his 12 gauge Mossberg 500 shotgun.

Resindez was the first to get up to the second floor only to be the first to catch a near point blank blast of buck shot from the 11 year olds knee crouch aim. He suffered fatal wounds to his abdomen and genitals. When Garza ran to the foot of the stairs, he took a blast to the left shoulder and staggered out into the street where he bled to death before medical help could arrive.

It was found out later that Resindez was armed with a stolen 45 caliber handgun he took from another home invasion robbery. The victim, 50 year old David Burien, was not so lucky as he died from stab wounds to the chest.

Digg.com, a news aggregation site, has been overwhelmed today by protests resulting from the removal of an article.  The article, which posted code that can be used to crack the DRM of HD-DVDs, was pulled from the site because it violated intellectual property rights.  A posting on the site, supposedly by Digg co-founder Jay Adelson, noted:

“We’ve been notified by the owners of this intellectual property that they believe the posting of the encryption key infringes their intellectual property rights..In order to respect these rights and to comply with the law, we have removed postings of the key that have been brought to our attention.”

In response, Digg users flooded the site with other links to the code, articles protesting the decision, and other anti-DRM posting.  By some counts, the total number of diggs for these articles exceeded 50,000 - a high number considering top articles on the site are usually in the thousand-Digg range.

Late last night, Digg cofounded Kevin Rose left this note on the site.  Rose notes that:

“But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear. You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be.”

Rose’s article now has 24,000 Diggs, the most of any article this year, and possibly the most ever.

This looks like it will turn into a very interesting fight for the MPAA.  On one hand, the MPAA can demand that content that violates or threatens their IP be removed from a website - it would not be the first time by far.  But if Digg refuses to remove the articles, we are looking at a long battle in court, and possibly a change in the precedent of IP law.

I’m no lawyer - that is more of TJFKAK’s territory - but you have to respect Digg’s stand here and their move to quickly answer user demand.  One thing though, is Rose really willing to let ‘Digg go down fighting’?  It seems possible that a judge could order the site shut down while a battle is waged in court.  That could be the end of Digg, and a HUGE victory for the MPAA.  I mean, if Digg is shut down, no website will dare challenge requests for the removal of content.

Upscale is the new fusion.  Trust me.  Everything is going upscale now, from burgers to dogs to burritos.  Why, after all, open a traditional homestyle restaurant, when you can open a swanky upscale homestyle restaurant and charge 2x as much?

As such, it was not surprising to see that the T-Rex Barbeque in Berkeley took the upscale concept to BBQ.  We’re taking ribs and pulled pork on the same menu as grilled ahi tuna with tapenade and an organic mixed baby lettuce salad with endives.

T-Rex looks the part, with a clean modern industrial design, dark hardwood floors and sleek, slightly uncomfortable furniture.  The restaurant also features an impressive bar, with a thorough selection of vodkas, 10 beers on tap, and at least 30 in bottles.

I started with a drink whose name I can’t remember.  It was a play on the bloody mary, but with citrus infused smirnoff instead of normal vodka, a hint of ginger, freshly grated horseradish and tomato juice.  At $9, it was a bit expensive for a Saturday brunch, but well worth it.  The combination of sour, tangy and a bit of bitter worked well.  The drink was also the most impressively garnished cocktail I have ever seen, with skewered picked brussel sprouts, peppers, capers and turnips.

The food though was a bit of a letdown.  I went for the ribs of course, and I quickly discovered the flaw of upscale BBQ.  Instead of the messy half rack that I was expecting to see, my plate held 6 delicately sliced ribs neatly staged on a bed of BBQ sauce (note, this picture is not mine, it’s from Flickr, and it’s of a full rack, not the half rack that I had).  BLASPHEMY!  They were just too neat.  Ribs should be slathered in sauce, with fat and meat falling off the bones - the ribs at T-Rex are cooked to make sure your cuffs stay clean.  They were moderately tender - not bad - but not rich and fall-off-the-boney as I would have liked.

The flavor was also a bit disappointing.  From the looks of T-Rex’s kitchen, they don’t use traditional smokers - and it showed.  I should have expected as much when I first arrived and was not welcomed by the telltale smoke and BBQ aroma.

Now lets be clear, I’m no BBQ connoisseur.  But I know enough to call out T-Rex’s ribs - that’s for sure.  I mean, true, it’s a risk/reward situation.  T-Rex is less risky that driving to a real ribs joint in Oakland - but the reward is lower as well - especially true if you are looking for a ‘real’ BBQ experience.

And now to the grading:

-Food:  B-  T-Rex gets an A- for drinks, but the food in itself is disappointing.  Now let me say this, I love their attention to detail.  The homemade pickles in my drink were incredible.  The homemade chips and breads are impressive as well.  But a BBQ joint is a BBQ joint, and for this they get only a B-.  Their ribs are inexcusable - for all the work they do on their rest of the menu, I would have hoped they’d put as much effort into their core menu items.

-Selection:  B   A broad, yet weird selection.  Really, Tuna tapenade and ribs - they don’t really fit.  But again, the drink menu is impressive, while the main menu is only slightly better than average.    Keep in mind though, we did go for saturday brunch when they have a limited menu.  You can check out their other menus here.

-Service:  B   The service was decent - it took a while for the server to take our order, but she was attentive throughout the meal.

-Ambience:  B+  T-Rex has a nice open-air atmosphere, with a sleek modern design.  Nothing to complain about here, except the furniture which is slightly uncomfortable.  One problem though, the open air design lets in all sorts of bugs, and these guys were buzzing over our heads throughout the meal.

-Overall:  B  I think T-Rex is a great place to go for a nite on the town.  The drinks are plentiful, the place has a neat and fun atmosphere, and the food is very decent.  You’re not going to go to T-Rex just for the food, and the way this place is designed, it seems like everyone knows this.  The upscale BBQ joint is designed for the corporate lunch or yuppie night crowd, not discerning diners.

T-Rex Barbeque

1300 Tenth Street (Cross St. Gilman)

Berkeley, CA 94710

(510) 527- 0099