June 29, 2008
07:32 pm
Rosalind Aguilar
I knew Ros for only a couple of years, but I loved her. That’s enough to clue you in about how special she was. She was special in many other ways as well, from her musical passion to her hard work at creating a better life for her kids. And I’ll miss her very much.
I just wanted the world to know this and to remember her.
I knew Ros for only a couple of years, but I loved her. That’s enough to clue you in about how special she was. She was special in many other ways as well, from her musical passion to her hard work at creating a better life for her kids. And I’ll miss her very much.I just wanted the world to know this and to remember her.
posted by Gene Cowan | category Life… Don’t talk to me about life.
comment on this entry (9 comments) | permalink | digg it
comment on this entry (9 comments) | permalink | digg it
June 30, 2008
05:31 pm
Some of us can move on, others can’t
I’ve been in a weird state all day — I arrived at my desk without having remembered driving to work, floated through my day alternately pissed off and morose, snapped at the CEO more than once in a meeting. Just as one never expects the sudden death of a friend or colleague at such a young age, one also never knows how they’re going to react.
I sat staring to space for much of the day, and then finally decided to tip toe back to twittering and writing on the blog. I didn’t really want to write about how I feel because it’s not about me, it shouldn’t be about me, it was never about me.
So let’s change the subject and shine the spotlight on stupidity in the whackadoo religious right, one of my favorite subjects here. Ros would have loved it.
From the Carpetbagger Report today:
I’ve been in a weird state all day — I arrived at my desk without having remembered driving to work, floated through my day alternately pissed off and morose, snapped at the CEO more than once in a meeting. Just as one never expects the sudden death of a friend or colleague at such a young age, one also never knows how they’re going to react.
I sat staring to space for much of the day, and then finally decided to tip toe back to twittering and writing on the blog. I didn’t really want to write about how I feel because it’s not about me, it shouldn’t be about me, it was never about me.
So let’s change the subject and shine the spotlight on stupidity in the whackadoo religious right, one of my favorite subjects here. Ros would have loved it.
From the Carpetbagger Report today:
Note to the religious right: auto-replace is not your friend
Auto-correct can be a very helpful feature of any word-processing program. But when conservatives use it, they run the risk of embarrassing themselves.
Some far-right sites that subscribe to the Associated Press feed, for example, will use auto-correct to change “Democratic Party” to “Democrat Party.” This, of course, is because they have the temperament of children.
But the American Family Association’s OneNewsNow website takes the phenomenon one step further with its AP articles. The far-right fundamentalist group replaces the word “gay” in the articles with the word “homosexual.” I’m not entirely sure why, but it seems to make the AFA happy. The group is, after all, pretty far out there.
The problem, of course, is that “gay” does not always mean what the AFA wants it to mean. My friend Kyle reported this morning that sprinter Tyson Gay won the 100 meters at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials over the weekend. The AFA ran the story, but only after the auto-correct had “fixed” the article.
That means — you guessed it — the track star was renamed “Tyson Homosexual.” The headline on the piece read, “Homosexual eases into 100 final at Olympic trials.” Readers learned:
Tyson Homosexual easily won his semifinal for the 100 meters at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials and seemed to save something for the final later Sunday.
His wind-aided 9.85 seconds was a fairly cut-and-dry performance compared to what happened a day earlier. On Saturday, Homosexual misjudged the finish in his opening heat and had to scramble to finish fourth, then in his quarterfinal a couple of hours later, ran 9.77 to break the American record that had stood since 1999. […]
Homosexual didn’t get off to a particularly strong start in the first semifinal, but by the halfway mark he had established a comfortable lead. He slowed somewhat over the final 10 meters-nothing like the way-too-soon complete shutdown that almost cost him Saturday. Asked how he felt, Homosexual said: “A little fatigued.”
posted by Gene Cowan | category Right = Wrong
comment on this entry (0 comments) | permalink | digg it
comment on this entry (0 comments) | permalink | digg it
June 27, 2008
01:12 pm
Dody Goodman
Another face we all knew, gone but with us forever on film.
Another face we all knew, gone but with us forever on film.
Dody Goodman, the delightfully daffy comedian known for her television appearances on Jack Paar’s late-night talk show and as the mother on the soap-opera parody “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” has died at 93.
Goodman died Sunday at Englewood (N.J.) Hospital and Medical Center, said Joan Adams, a close family friend. The actress had been ill for some time and had lived in the Actors Fund Home in Englewood since October, Adams said.
Goodman, with her pixyish appearance and Southern-tinged, quavery voice, had an eclectic show-business career. She moved easily from stage to television to movies, where she appeared in such popular films as “Grease” and “Grease 2,” playing Blanche, the principal’s assistant, and in “Splash.”
The actress performed regularly on stage in the 1940s and early ’50s as a chorus member in such musicals as “Something for the Boys,” “One Touch of Venus,” “Laffing Room Only,” “Miss Liberty,” “Call Me Madam,” “My Darlin’ Aida” and “Wonderful Town,” in which she originated the role of Violet, the streetwalker.
“I had to make so many transitions into other things,” Goodman said in the AP interview. “When I first came out of dancing, I did revues.”
It was the early to mid-’50s, when small, topical nightclub revues flourished. Goodman, a natural comedian, thrived in them. She performed in shows by Ben Bagley and Julius Monk, and in Jerry Herman’s first effort, a revue called “Parade.”
In more recent times, she appeared on David Letterman’s late-night talk show.
“He understands my sense of humor. I will do a dumb thing for fun. That’s how I got the reputation for being dopey and dumb. I don’t like dumb jokes but I will do dumb things for a laugh,” she said in the AP interview.
Goodman, who never married, is survived by seven nieces and nephews, 11 great nieces and nephews and 15 great-great nieces and nephews, Adams said. [AOL]
posted by Gene Cowan | category Life… Don’t talk to me about life.
comment on this entry (0 comments) | permalink | digg it
comment on this entry (0 comments) | permalink | digg it
June 22, 2008
11:57 am
Evolution of a neighborhood
This morning, for no apparently good reason, I have been looking at maps. The brilliance of the internet is the ease with which one can move from link to link, the connections that lead one to make interesting discoveries. For example, I started out looking at a Google Earth map of the Cerne Abbas Giant, which led me to finding the Upper Boat studios where they make “Doctor Who” and “Torchwood” just north of Cardiff. From there I came back around the globe to San Jose where I looked at the AT&T Long Lines microwave tower on Communications Hill; which was once called Oak Hill.
I kept surfing and linking, connecting to historic preservation in San Jose, learned that San Jose has the largest collection of historic fire fighting vehicles west of the Mississippi, and then I learned that patrons of the San Jose Public Library have access to historic insurance maps.
And that’s where this entry begins. Because I found my street in the maps and worked backwards.
I know that my house was built in 1937, so I started looking at what was here before and since. Here’s the (future) corner of my street in 1915:
There was a farm here, and anecdotes claim that where we live now was once a pig wallow. Here we can see that my house is built a few yards from where a dairy used to stand. Across the street is a hay barn. A few hundred feet to the west, where there is now a Best Western, was a distillery. The Arthur Lachman & Co. Santa Clara Distillery No. 325, to be exact.
45 years later, in 1950, here’s what my street corner looked like:
And that’s pretty much what it looks like today.
Oh, there are some differences, obviously — there is no more American Home Foods, Inc. (Clapps Baby Food Div.) down at the east end of the street by the railroad tracks. As of a year or two ago, that’s now expensive condos. The pie bakery a few blocks away is now some kind of custom kitchen fabricator, but the plumbers are still there.
And my little house in 1950 looks the same as it does in 2008.
This morning, for no apparently good reason, I have been looking at maps. The brilliance of the internet is the ease with which one can move from link to link, the connections that lead one to make interesting discoveries. For example, I started out looking at a Google Earth map of the Cerne Abbas Giant, which led me to finding the Upper Boat studios where they make “Doctor Who” and “Torchwood” just north of Cardiff. From there I came back around the globe to San Jose where I looked at the AT&T Long Lines microwave tower on Communications Hill; which was once called Oak Hill.
I kept surfing and linking, connecting to historic preservation in San Jose, learned that San Jose has the largest collection of historic fire fighting vehicles west of the Mississippi, and then I learned that patrons of the San Jose Public Library have access to historic insurance maps.
And that’s where this entry begins. Because I found my street in the maps and worked backwards.
I know that my house was built in 1937, so I started looking at what was here before and since. Here’s the (future) corner of my street in 1915:
There was a farm here, and anecdotes claim that where we live now was once a pig wallow. Here we can see that my house is built a few yards from where a dairy used to stand. Across the street is a hay barn. A few hundred feet to the west, where there is now a Best Western, was a distillery. The Arthur Lachman & Co. Santa Clara Distillery No. 325, to be exact.
45 years later, in 1950, here’s what my street corner looked like:
And that’s pretty much what it looks like today.
Oh, there are some differences, obviously — there is no more American Home Foods, Inc. (Clapps Baby Food Div.) down at the east end of the street by the railroad tracks. As of a year or two ago, that’s now expensive condos. The pie bakery a few blocks away is now some kind of custom kitchen fabricator, but the plumbers are still there.
And my little house in 1950 looks the same as it does in 2008.
June 21, 2008
05:18 pm
The Vast Wasteland
There are only two weeks left for this year’s run of Doctor Who, and there won’t be a full series next year — just a few specials. Torchwood will only have a 5-episode run next year.
Lost is over until 2009. Battlestar Galactica is on an extended hiatus until 2009, and then the series ends.
I don’t know about you, but I’m going through a severe television withdrawal and I don’t know if I will survive.
Thank goodness for Netflix. They’re my supplier, my dealer. RIght now they’re filling the gap with 1980s television like Remington Steele.
Ah, sweet, sweet candy.
There are only two weeks left for this year’s run of Doctor Who, and there won’t be a full series next year — just a few specials. Torchwood will only have a 5-episode run next year.
Lost is over until 2009. Battlestar Galactica is on an extended hiatus until 2009, and then the series ends.
I don’t know about you, but I’m going through a severe television withdrawal and I don’t know if I will survive.
Thank goodness for Netflix. They’re my supplier, my dealer. RIght now they’re filling the gap with 1980s television like Remington Steele.
Ah, sweet, sweet candy.
posted by Gene Cowan | category General Annoyances
comment on this entry (1 comments) | permalink | digg it
comment on this entry (1 comments) | permalink | digg it
June 18, 2008
12:49 pm
People should not be scenery
Barack Obama’s staff evidently wouldn’t allow a woman in a head scarf to be part of the crowd behind him in a photo op. For obvious reasons, such a photo would simply hand ammunition to the reactionary weirdos out there.
Here’s my solution to the whole issue: let Obama change the face of politics once again by abandoning this ridiculous practice of creating a backdrop out of human beings. It’s a Karl Rove-ish tactic that takes a page from fascist rallies where hand-picked boosters are employed to make someone look popular and beloved. I’ve always detested this trend (along with the network TV bug and the newschannel crawl) that became a de-facto requirement over the years.
I think it’s time for Obama to start appearing in front of a plain blue backdrop with no crowd… no slogans or logos repeating in a grid pattern… no projection screens with animated graphics. How about letting us focus our attention on the candidate for once?
Barack Obama’s staff evidently wouldn’t allow a woman in a head scarf to be part of the crowd behind him in a photo op. For obvious reasons, such a photo would simply hand ammunition to the reactionary weirdos out there.
Here’s my solution to the whole issue: let Obama change the face of politics once again by abandoning this ridiculous practice of creating a backdrop out of human beings. It’s a Karl Rove-ish tactic that takes a page from fascist rallies where hand-picked boosters are employed to make someone look popular and beloved. I’ve always detested this trend (along with the network TV bug and the newschannel crawl) that became a de-facto requirement over the years.
I think it’s time for Obama to start appearing in front of a plain blue backdrop with no crowd… no slogans or logos repeating in a grid pattern… no projection screens with animated graphics. How about letting us focus our attention on the candidate for once?
posted by Gene Cowan | category Right = Wrong
comment on this entry (0 comments) | permalink | digg it
comment on this entry (0 comments) | permalink | digg it
12:39 pm
The conservatives are too liberal
One of the (many) things that bug me most about today’s Republican Party is the hypocrisy. If only Republicans were actually interested in fiscal conservatism, in less government interference in our lives, well, then I’d vote for them. But when their idea of less government interference in our lives means more interference in our bedrooms, well…
Anyway. Andrew Leonard in Salon writes about the off-shore drilling debate, and therein lies a perfect illustration of the mismatch of Republican rhetoric with Republican action.
One of the (many) things that bug me most about today’s Republican Party is the hypocrisy. If only Republicans were actually interested in fiscal conservatism, in less government interference in our lives, well, then I’d vote for them. But when their idea of less government interference in our lives means more interference in our bedrooms, well…
Anyway. Andrew Leonard in Salon writes about the off-shore drilling debate, and therein lies a perfect illustration of the mismatch of Republican rhetoric with Republican action.
…the most fascinating aspect to the debate about offshore drilling — to this profound choice between two worldviews, two ways of being on the planet — is the harsh light it sheds on the value systems at the heart of how political identity is traditionally seen in the United States.
Republicans have made hay for decades by portraying Democrats as spendthrift, reckless liberals. Their side is supposedly “conservative” — sober-minded, prudent, levelheaded — while their opponents are “radical” — dangerous, risky, foolish.
But what is the truly “conservative” position on offshore drilling, or energy policy in general? Recklessly exhausting all available resources now, and letting the future take care of itself — or conserving those resources, investing carefully for the future, and thinking about the long term? Where does prudence reside — in attempting to shave a few pennies off of gas prices now, or on planning on how to cope with high gas prices for the foreseeable future?
If you’re looking for a metaphor, try the competing fortunes of Toyota and General Motors on for size. George Bush and John McCain are like the fin-de-siecle executives of GM, living only in the present, catering to their customer’s worst impulses in pursuit of maximizing profit in the short term. But Democrats are like Toyota, making a bet on what makes economic sense for the future.
Presumably, Toyota’s shareholders are a lot happier than GM’s, right now. As shareholders in this planet, what do we want? A good quarter now, at the risk of financial disaster next year? Or a long-term ecologically healthy path to sustained prosperity?
That’s what the debate over offshore drilling is really about.
posted by Gene Cowan | category Right = Wrong
comment on this entry (0 comments) | permalink | digg it
comment on this entry (0 comments) | permalink | digg it
June 17, 2008
05:37 pm
Wii… press A… press A… Fit
Finally got my Wii Fit today, and immediately did my first workout. First impression: too much damn exposition and confirmation. For example, if you press A to start a workout, you then have another screen after it for no good reason showing little Miis. Then you press A to go to another screen, where you stand there waiting to start. Then you press A to start AGAIN. This is two more button presses after you press the first button to start.
Press A.
Every time there is some message on the screen, it spells itself out letter by letter, then you press A to dismiss it.
Press A.
I did a 30 minute workout, and it took 59 minutes to accomplish it. This is a problem — it’s tough enough to devote time to workout, but when the preliminaries to actually doing it take as much time as the workout itself, well… that’s not motivating in the least.
Press A.
There’s also no way to tell it to skip all the silliness and the confetti and the top scores and just move on to the next exercise, which means you either have to exercise holding the remote in your hand, or do all the A button stuff and then put the remote down and retrieve it every time another A button needs to be pressed.
Press A.
There are too many steps for everything in the Wii interface, it shows a complete lack of machine intelligence. For instance, if only one player is registered for the Fit, why does it bother displaying the only player and then asking me to pick a player?
Press A.
Now, a complaint about yoga in general: you know that tree pose, where you bend your leg and put your foot against your thigh and your hands clasped above your head? What the hell do they think I am, a gecko? I don’t know about you, but my foot will not simply stay on my inner thigh unless I put some kind of glue on the sole.
Continue? Press A.
That said, I’m sweating after thirty minutes of exercise interspersed with twenty-nine minutes of Wii housekeeping. Let’s see how long I will keep this up, even if only to make the most of my investment — I bought it via an Amazon reseller, who charged an extortionist price (although still half that of the unscrupulous people selling USED Fits for THREE TIMES the retail price).
Return to Wii Fit Plaza. Press A.
Finally got my Wii Fit today, and immediately did my first workout. First impression: too much damn exposition and confirmation. For example, if you press A to start a workout, you then have another screen after it for no good reason showing little Miis. Then you press A to go to another screen, where you stand there waiting to start. Then you press A to start AGAIN. This is two more button presses after you press the first button to start.
Press A.
Every time there is some message on the screen, it spells itself out letter by letter, then you press A to dismiss it.
Press A.
I did a 30 minute workout, and it took 59 minutes to accomplish it. This is a problem — it’s tough enough to devote time to workout, but when the preliminaries to actually doing it take as much time as the workout itself, well… that’s not motivating in the least.
Press A.
There’s also no way to tell it to skip all the silliness and the confetti and the top scores and just move on to the next exercise, which means you either have to exercise holding the remote in your hand, or do all the A button stuff and then put the remote down and retrieve it every time another A button needs to be pressed.
Press A.
There are too many steps for everything in the Wii interface, it shows a complete lack of machine intelligence. For instance, if only one player is registered for the Fit, why does it bother displaying the only player and then asking me to pick a player?
Press A.
Now, a complaint about yoga in general: you know that tree pose, where you bend your leg and put your foot against your thigh and your hands clasped above your head? What the hell do they think I am, a gecko? I don’t know about you, but my foot will not simply stay on my inner thigh unless I put some kind of glue on the sole.
Continue? Press A.
That said, I’m sweating after thirty minutes of exercise interspersed with twenty-nine minutes of Wii housekeeping. Let’s see how long I will keep this up, even if only to make the most of my investment — I bought it via an Amazon reseller, who charged an extortionist price (although still half that of the unscrupulous people selling USED Fits for THREE TIMES the retail price).
Return to Wii Fit Plaza. Press A.
posted by Gene Cowan | category The War with the Customer
comment on this entry (0 comments) | permalink | digg it
comment on this entry (0 comments) | permalink | digg it
03:04 pm
Google searched and searched, and finally got lucky
And there it is: my first appearance on Google’s GIS offerings. Over the years I’ve managed to avoid being caught on Google Maps, then Google Earth, and up until today, Google Street View. They finally caught up with me sometime in the last month with this shot of my car parked in front of my office.
And there it is: my first appearance on Google’s GIS offerings. Over the years I’ve managed to avoid being caught on Google Maps, then Google Earth, and up until today, Google Street View. They finally caught up with me sometime in the last month with this shot of my car parked in front of my office.
June 16, 2008
12:59 pm
Equality Rocks
In only 4 hours, any two adult human beings in California will be allowed to marry. Man and woman… woman and woman… man and man. What does it matter? If a couple loves each other and wants to spend their lives together, that can’t be anything but good.
I mean, what threat is posed by Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, who once again will be first to tie the knot in San Francisco? (They were first in 2004, when the city briefly allowed marriages for same-sex couples.) Phyllis and Del have been together since 1952. Their relationship has lasted 56 years, and any straight couple who feels threatened by same-sex marriage should take a lesson from this kind of commitment.
I am a terminally single gay man, only a few years away from “mid-40s”, and I don’t foresee marriage ever coming my way. Sad, but true. But until today, it wasn’t really even a possibility. Now? Rather than being a societal aberration or a marginalized minority because of my in-born sexuality, I am instead a regular, ordinary, run-of-the-mill loner and bachelor for life. It’s ironically reassuring and I couldn’t be more delighted.
In August, I will be the best man at my own ex’s wedding. The fact that two men are getting married will most likely be the least bizarre part of that event. I’ll be struggling with the psychological rollercoaster that this wedding will present, but the world has turned, finally, and I won’t be worried about symbolism or making a civil rights statement. It’ll be just like any other wedding — fraught with stress and worry about food and centerpieces, raw nerves and temper tantrums, family quirks and exhaustion.
And ordinary, extraordinary love. I hope the rest of the nation moves toward that as well.
In only 4 hours, any two adult human beings in California will be allowed to marry. Man and woman… woman and woman… man and man. What does it matter? If a couple loves each other and wants to spend their lives together, that can’t be anything but good.
I mean, what threat is posed by Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, who once again will be first to tie the knot in San Francisco? (They were first in 2004, when the city briefly allowed marriages for same-sex couples.) Phyllis and Del have been together since 1952. Their relationship has lasted 56 years, and any straight couple who feels threatened by same-sex marriage should take a lesson from this kind of commitment.
I am a terminally single gay man, only a few years away from “mid-40s”, and I don’t foresee marriage ever coming my way. Sad, but true. But until today, it wasn’t really even a possibility. Now? Rather than being a societal aberration or a marginalized minority because of my in-born sexuality, I am instead a regular, ordinary, run-of-the-mill loner and bachelor for life. It’s ironically reassuring and I couldn’t be more delighted.
In August, I will be the best man at my own ex’s wedding. The fact that two men are getting married will most likely be the least bizarre part of that event. I’ll be struggling with the psychological rollercoaster that this wedding will present, but the world has turned, finally, and I won’t be worried about symbolism or making a civil rights statement. It’ll be just like any other wedding — fraught with stress and worry about food and centerpieces, raw nerves and temper tantrums, family quirks and exhaustion.
And ordinary, extraordinary love. I hope the rest of the nation moves toward that as well.
posted by Gene Cowan | category Life… Don’t talk to me about life.
comment on this entry (1 comments) | permalink | digg it
comment on this entry (1 comments) | permalink | digg it
June 14, 2008
08:18 am
All Along the Watchtower
If you haven’t seen the mid-season finale of Battlestar Galactica yet, read no further. Spoilers there be, matey.
So, at the end of the episode our intrepid heroes are standing in a ruined wasteland, and when the camera pans it becomes apparent that they are standing in Brooklyn. Holy Planet of the Apes, Batman! Of course, it’s just sort of an impression of Brooklyn, so we can’t be sure of it.
It was only natural for me to fire up Google Earth to take a look at what might be in that spot. In the show there is a ruin that looks like the Temple of Pythia; I wanted to see if there was some comparable circular structure in Brooklyn in real life. Turns out there isn’t. But I did discover something far more interesting. At that spot just west of the Brooklyn Bridge where the Galactica crew were standing is the headquarters for the Jehovah’s Witnesses. And the name of that building is far more than a simple coincidence.
The building at 25 Columbia Heights is named “Watchtower”. As you recall, the four Cylons aboard Galactica were revealed after they all heard the song “Along the Watchtower” playing in their heads. That plot point was reinforced again in last night’s finale.
A few interesting lines from the Wikipedia entry on Jehovah’s Witnesses:
Just sayin’.
If you haven’t seen the mid-season finale of Battlestar Galactica yet, read no further. Spoilers there be, matey.
So, at the end of the episode our intrepid heroes are standing in a ruined wasteland, and when the camera pans it becomes apparent that they are standing in Brooklyn. Holy Planet of the Apes, Batman! Of course, it’s just sort of an impression of Brooklyn, so we can’t be sure of it.
It was only natural for me to fire up Google Earth to take a look at what might be in that spot. In the show there is a ruin that looks like the Temple of Pythia; I wanted to see if there was some comparable circular structure in Brooklyn in real life. Turns out there isn’t. But I did discover something far more interesting. At that spot just west of the Brooklyn Bridge where the Galactica crew were standing is the headquarters for the Jehovah’s Witnesses. And the name of that building is far more than a simple coincidence.
The building at 25 Columbia Heights is named “Watchtower”. As you recall, the four Cylons aboard Galactica were revealed after they all heard the song “Along the Watchtower” playing in their heads. That plot point was reinforced again in last night’s finale.
A few interesting lines from the Wikipedia entry on Jehovah’s Witnesses:
The vast majority of Jehovah’s Witnesses expect to live on a renewed paradise on Earth.
Witnesses believe that during the imminent war of Armageddon, the wicked will be destroyed, and survivors, along with millions of others who will be resurrected, will form a new earthly society ruled by a heavenly government and have the possibility of living forever in an earthly paradise.
The Witness contend that the Bible has always condemned the mixing of religions because there can only be one truth from God. They believe that all other religions fail to meet all the requirements set by God and will be done away with.
Just sayin’.
June 13, 2008
07:54 pm
San Jose Smokin’
San Jose is yellow right now — not from the weird yellow streetlights we have, but from smoke. Yet another wildfire, this time in Monterey county, is putting out plumes of smoke that are covering our skies. I went outside to take pics — it’s bizarre out there.
At first I thought it was from the Martin fire, in the mountains to the southwest of here, but:
San Jose is yellow right now — not from the weird yellow streetlights we have, but from smoke. Yet another wildfire, this time in Monterey county, is putting out plumes of smoke that are covering our skies. I went outside to take pics — it’s bizarre out there.
At first I thought it was from the Martin fire, in the mountains to the southwest of here, but:
A dark cloud that drifted across the Silicon Valley on Friday evening alarmed some residents, who peppered local and county fire and police agencies with phone calls.
The cloud was smoke from the Indians Fire in the Ventana Wilderness of the Los Padres National Forest, said Steve Anderson, forecaster with the National Weather Service in Monterey.
“It’s showing up very well on our satellite images,” Anderson said. According to the CalFire web page, the Monterey County fire was 23,575 acres late Friday.
He said forecasters did not see any smoke from the Martin Fire in Bonny Doon on satellite photos.
posted by Gene Cowan | category Life… Don’t talk to me about life.
comment on this entry (0 comments) | permalink | digg it
comment on this entry (0 comments) | permalink | digg it
06:09 pm
Quake Time of the Month
The 13th… the middle of the month… I’m telling you, my theory is proving correct, isn’t it?
A powerful 7.0-magnitude earthquake rocked northern Japan early Saturday, swaying buildings and forcing authorities to close highways and stop high-speed trains. News reports said some people were cut by broken glass.
Authorities said two nuclear power plants in the area were not damaged and continued to operate normally, national broadcaster NHK reported. There was no danger of tsunami.
The 8:43 a.m. quake was centered in the northern prefecture of Iwate about 280 miles north of Tokyo.
The meteorological agency issued a warning of a second quake, and a 5.6-magnitude aftershock hit the same area, but it was unclear whether the warning preceded the aftershock. Japan is experimenting with an earthquake warning system.
The 13th… the middle of the month… I’m telling you, my theory is proving correct, isn’t it?
posted by Gene Cowan | category Life… Don’t talk to me about life.
comment on this entry (0 comments) | permalink | digg it
comment on this entry (0 comments) | permalink | digg it
June 11, 2008
03:41 pm
They go together
As soon as I saw the headline…
… I knew I’d find an (R) in the story.
Update: As people have begun to look into this little scandal, it looks less and less like Republican hypocrisy and more and more like an ordinary guy who rightly has expectations of privacy; it seems likely that this has been blown out of proportion. Lawrence Lessig:
As soon as I saw the headline…
… I knew I’d find an (R) in the story.
… he was appointed at age 35 to the bench by former President Ronald Reagan … [SF Gate]
Update: As people have begun to look into this little scandal, it looks less and less like Republican hypocrisy and more and more like an ordinary guy who rightly has expectations of privacy; it seems likely that this has been blown out of proportion. Lawrence Lessig:
Here are the facts as I’ve been able to tell: For at least a month, a disgruntled litigant, angry at Judge Kozinski (and the Ninth Circuit) has been talking to the media to try to smear Kozinski. Kozinski had sent a link to a file (unrelated to the stuff being reported about) that was stored on a file server maintained by Kozinski’s son, Yale. From that link (and a mistake in how the server was configured), it was possible to determine the directory structure for the server. From that directory structure, it was possible to see likely interesting places to peer. The disgruntled sort did that, and shopped some of what he found to the news sources that are now spreading it…
His son set up a server to make it easy for friends and family to share stuff — family pictures, documents he wanted to share, videos, etc. Nothing alleged to have been on this server violates any law. (There’s some ridiculous claim about “bestiality.” But the video is not bestiality. It lives today on YouTube — a funny (to some) short of a man defecating in a field, and then being chased by a donkey. If there was malicious intent in this video, it was the donkey’s. And in any case, nothing sexual is shown in that video at all.) No one can know who uploaded what, or for whom. The site was not “on the web” in the sense of a site open and inviting anyone to come in. It had a robots.txt file to indicate its contents were not to be indexed. That someone got in is testimony to the fact that security — everywhere — is imperfect. But this was a private file server, like a private room, hacked by a litigant with a vendetta. Decent people — and publications — should say shame on the person violating the privacy here, and not feed the violation by forcing a judge to defend his humor to a nosy world.
When it comes to government invasions of our privacy, we are (and rightly) a privacy obsessed people. We need to extend some of that obsession to the increasingly common violations by private people against other private people. There is nothing for Chief Judge Kozinski to defend because he has violated no law, and we live in a free society (or so he thought when he immigrated from Romania). A free society should feed the right to be left alone, including the right not to have to defend publicly private choices and taste, by learning not to feed the privacy trolls.
posted by Gene Cowan | category Right = Wrong
comment on this entry (0 comments) | permalink | digg it
comment on this entry (0 comments) | permalink | digg it
June 10, 2008
05:46 pm
‘Cos it’s a dry heat
One of the glorious things about living in California (versus DC) is the weather — warm, sunny, dry, with low humidity. But with that comes fire.
Last year, fire marched up the hill where my friends lived, stopping only blocks away from their house. Last month, fire consumed thousands of acres in the mountains south of San Jose, where my company’s CEO owns property; we gazed stunned at the photos he took of flames shooting hundreds of feet into the sky. And today, a fast-moving, wind-blown fire came with a few blocks of friends in Stockton.
I generally feel safe from fire, living here in a little green enclave near downtown San Jose. But today’s fire came very close to friends who live on a lake, so I don’t think that green surroundings are much of a buffer when the temps are in the 90s and the humidity is in the teens.
One of the glorious things about living in California (versus DC) is the weather — warm, sunny, dry, with low humidity. But with that comes fire.
Last year, fire marched up the hill where my friends lived, stopping only blocks away from their house. Last month, fire consumed thousands of acres in the mountains south of San Jose, where my company’s CEO owns property; we gazed stunned at the photos he took of flames shooting hundreds of feet into the sky. And today, a fast-moving, wind-blown fire came with a few blocks of friends in Stockton.
I generally feel safe from fire, living here in a little green enclave near downtown San Jose. But today’s fire came very close to friends who live on a lake, so I don’t think that green surroundings are much of a buffer when the temps are in the 90s and the humidity is in the teens.
posted by Gene Cowan | category Life… Don’t talk to me about life.
comment on this entry (0 comments) | permalink | digg it
comment on this entry (0 comments) | permalink | digg it
