Maiko Kawakami Says It Ain't True

She says the lamb/poodle scam was a complete fabrication. Too bad. It's a great story, but if it ain't true, it ain't true.

W-H-A-T???? People in the news media make things up completely out of thin air? NO!!!!:

The British tabloid The Sun reported that the scam came to light after Kawakami complained on a television talk show that her new poodle refused to bark or eat dog food and that she was devastated when told it was a lamb.

"Ms Kawakami is very surprised by how much this has spread overseas. She was just recounting on television how she had heard of such a story while she was at a nail salon," a spokeswoman for her talent agency said.

"Ms Kawakami does not even own a poodle," she said.

As a result of the international coverage, Kawakami - who starred in Takeshi Kitano's Japanese thriller Violent Cop - appeared on television again today to deny the reports.

Police in Sapporo, where the fraudulent company was reportedly based, also denied the tale.

"We have had inquiries from so many media - CNN, CBS among others - and all I can say is that that article is completely made up," a spokesman said.

Nesting With The Nestling

I know you like salmon. Do you like peanuts? Here, I'll wash the salt off these AM/PM specials....

Do you like lumpia? Has lots of rice and hamburger. Do you like rice?

Do you like the stuffed toy kookaburra? Kookaburra says "Hoo hoo hoo, ha, ha, ha!" Here let me squeeze it so you can hear it.... I know it's an Australian bird, but it looks vaguely like a Scrub Jay.... I know the toy sounds sinister, but the real bird doesn't - more like Hollywood's idea of what a jungle sounds like.....

Your real nest is just outside the bedroom window. Can you hear your mom? Let's hope she remembers you, even though you now reek of salmon.

Boy, you're growing fast! You have more feathers today than yesterday....

Twilight Of The Republican Party?

William Buckley wonders:

When the Romans were challenged by Christianity, Rome fell. The generation of Christians moved by their faith overwhelmed the regimented reserves of the Roman state. It was four years ago that Mr. Cheney first observed that there was a real fear that each fallen terrorist leads to the materialization of another terrorist. What can a “surge,” of the kind we are now relying upon, do to cope with endemic disease? The parallel even comes to mind of the eventual collapse of Prohibition, because there wasn’t any way the government could neutralize the appetite for alcohol, or the resourcefulness of the freeman in acquiring it.

General Petraeus is a wonderfully commanding figure. But if the enemy is in the nature of a disease, he cannot win against it. Students of politics ask then the derivative question: How can the Republican party, headed by a president determined on a war he can’t see an end to, attract the support of a majority of the voters? General Petraeus, in his Pentagon briefing on April 26, reported persuasively that there has been progress, but cautioned, “I want to be very clear that there is vastly more work to be done across the board and in many areas, and again I note that we are really just getting started with the new effort.”

The general makes it a point to steer away from the political implications of the struggle, but this cannot be done in the wider arena. There are grounds for wondering whether the Republican party will survive this dilemma.

Are You My Mommy?

Preparing to walk Sparky about 4 a.m., I cast a flashlight around under the nest where the baby birds had been falling out that afternoon, hoping that they had ceased doing so after the nest fix earlier in the day.

No such luck. Splat on the driveway gravel was a very cold, very baby bird. Presumably this was the weaker bird, pushed out of its nest by its stronger sibling. It was clearly going to die soon. I tried giving the bird some of Cloudy the Rabbit's banana, but the bird didn't react. What to do? So, I cupped the bird in my hands as I juggled the pooper scooper, and gave Sparky a brief walk around the neighborhood, not even travelling as far as our usual jaunt to the 24th Street Theater. At 24th Street & 2nd Avenue, I located a small slug on the sidewalk outside the cafe there and fed it to the bird. I quickly returned home. I located a second, larger slug in the back yard and brought it inside the house.

What to do? I decided to sleep with the bird. I cut a sock in half and put the bird inside the bottom end. Then I placed the sock inside the rigid ring of a roll of masking tape, minimizing the chances that I'd roll over and squash the bird in the night. I prepared a syringe of water, to hydrate the bird, should it need it.

The second slug vanished somewhere in the bathroom: I doubt it moved fast, but it had incentive to hide. So, what to feed the bird? In the refrigerator we had some Harry and David smoked salmon, purchased at Christmastime at the Roseville Galleria, salmon that E. refused to eat, because we discovered only too late that the purchase date had long passed: it was apparently from 2001. I nevertheless figured that smoked salmon should last, and that salmon is very nutritious: I know I'd prefer old, dead salmon to new, live slugs any day. So, I opened up one of the packages of salmon and started feeding the bird.

She's (he's?) so cute. She'll be all curled up, and quietly chirping in her sleep, then suddenly she'll open up her big, gaping mouth, like Audrey II, and ask to be fed.

I woke up shortly after 6 a.m., and found my T-shirt and covers were smeared with bird poop. Didn't quite understand how that happened, but since this morning I now have a better idea - they just stick their rear ends outside the nest in order to take care of business. So efficient!

So, I've brought her into work. I'll likely run out of the salmon I brought, so we'll both dine out today at lunch. Maybe I'll check out the cracks in the sidewalk again over at 24th Street and 2nd Avenue.

She seems to be a Western Scrub Jay, a common bird which can eat many things, so salmon won't hurt, and there are likely many other things I can feed her - even slugs.

I wonder how to deal with issues like introducing her to her kin, teaching her to fly, etc.?

The Magic Chair

Thunder Valley was a canyon of despair Sunday night. At one point, I was down $1,300.00 playing blackjack.

Then I sat at a table and the only other patron said this is a good table. Sure enough, luck turned, and I began climbing again. After he left, I took his chair, reasoning that it was the chair. After awhile, I was only $300.00 down.

Nothing lasts forever. The chair was good, but wore thin. Final loss: $1,152.00.

"Urinetown - The Musical" - River City Stage

Photo copied from the River Stage Web Page. Photo features 'Bobby Strong' (Kevin Caravalho), leader of the rebellion at Public Amenity #9. To left is 'Josephine Strong' (Monica Parisi). Behind her is 'Hot Blades Harry' (Scott Woodard). On floor on right in front is 'Little Becky Two Shoes' (Amanda Morish). In the background, hands over face, is the kidnapped 'Hope Cladwell' (Maggie Elizabeth May). 'Little Sally' is at right (Francesca Jimenez).


Excellent show at River Stage! Fine dance routines choreographed by Pam Kay Lourentzos. Many friends in this show, at their very best.

Pam's choreography featured many trademark moves (even a 'shimmer'): fast-paced, representing the music faithfully and strongly. A real workout!

It's interesting whom the audience will identify with. Especially in an ensemble show, it's often not the whom you might expect - the leads. I sat with J. behind five trim, sophisticated women in their fifties. When Monica Parisi, who in make-up appeared to be in the same age range, came jamming down the fire pole like any other 20-year-old, all the women gasped and said "ooh!"

I tended to identify with Scott Woodard. When he came right to the edge of the stage, and without the benefit of much space did a double outside pirouette, followed immediately by an inside jazz pirouette, I gasped and said "ooh!"

Roger McDonald was superb as the smug and corrupt, but not entirely-evil 'Caldwell B. Cladwell'. Maggie Elizabeth May (aka Maggie Roesser) was excellent as well as his daughter, 'Hope Cladwell'. Roger and Maggie last performed together in 2001 in DMTC's "Peter Pan", with Maggie as 'Wendy' and Roger as 'Captain Hook'. Kevin Caravalho was also very strong as 'Bobby Strong', the male romantic lead, and Martha Omiyo Kight as 'Penelope Pennywise'.

Andrew Hutchinson was perfectly cast as 'Officer Lockstock'. Both he and Franchesca Jimenez ('Little Sally') expanded upon and narrated portions of the show. Some may wonder whether Little Sally's cloying innocence would have been better played by a child (Megan Sandoval, who played 'Tiny Tina' can nail 'child' better), but for myself, college-aged Jimenez played the part faithfully and well. I agree with Marcus Crowder at the Sacramento Bee that I wish we had seen more of 'Officer Barrel' (Kevin Menager).

Special moments: Roger's own special dance. Monica's tap dance. Amanda Morish's sly facial expressions, which were variations on the theme of "I'm bad." Jabriel Shelton counting his pee fee coins on his fingers. Kevin waving a TP banner from a roll placed on an extra-long toilet plunger. And of course, the big send-up of "Fiddler on the Roof's 'Bottle Dance.'

The musical itself has great songs, but the writing is a bit weak - too simple - OK for only certain kinds of musicals. The romance between Bobby Strong and Hope Cladwell is written to be too rote, too abstract. The age compromise between casting together the younger Maggie Elizabeth May and the older Kevin Caravalho didn't matter in the end, since the writing itself wasn't as good as it could have been (although I do admit to liking the verbal imagery of interlocked veins and arteries).

"Urinetown" is a 'metaphysical' concept, meaning any town - your town - is Urinetown. Nevertheless, I kept thinking about the towns and cities of Australia's Darling Downs. Last year, the city of Toowoomba (population 100,000), known for its elaborate gardens, voted down a serious plan to recycle sewage directly into drinking water. You just know that somewhere in the city's planning department, civil engineers are yelling at the wall, demanding to know how they are expected to find enough water for the idiot voters, given the severity of the drought. And next year, the City of Brisbane, which is larger than Sacramento, will finally exhaust its supply, Lake Wivenhoe, and face a conservation bludgeon no city of its size has ever faced.

Indeed, today's news from Queensland has uncomfortable echoes to the 'Senator Fipp jetting off to Rio' part of "Urinetown":

PREMIER Peter Beattie jetted overseas yesterday, three hours before a report revealed the southeast was moving quicker than previously known towards water Armageddon.

The sobering report showed construction of the region's recycled water pipeline, designed to take purified wastewater from Brisbane to Wivenhoe Dam, had fallen further behind schedule. It will also deliver only two-thirds of the water originally forecast.

...Mr Beattie's final public announcement before jetting off to Hong Kong on a trade mission outlined a new plan to enlist prisoners to build up to 50 rainwater tanks a week. Massive demand for tanks and other water-saving devices has caused huge delays and blown out the cost of the Government's water rebate scheme to $50 million.

The developments came as the weather bureau and SEQWater revealed Brisbane City received a miserly 3.2mm of rain last month.

In the catchment areas of the region's three main dams, only 10mm of rain was recorded – the worst on record. The worst news, however, was that the 200km recycled water pipeline – the centrepiece of the Government's strategy to keep the region from running dry late next year – would deliver far less than the 210 million litres of water previously announced.

That was due to residents cutting water consumption, reducing flows to waste treatment plants.

"The full effect of level 5 restrictions may result in total volumes of approximately 142 million litres a day," the commission's report said.

...Mr Beattie meanwhile announced that the Government was looking for a private sector partner to help manufacture water tanks at the Woodford Correctional Centre near Caboolture.

..."Prisoners will help the community get through the drought," Mr Beattie said.

Reality is beginning to imitate art!

Bad Blue Bird Architecture

On Saturday, about noon, I was sweeping and raking just outside the gate to the back yard, when I looked down and received a shock: a baby bird was writhing around in the gravel of the driveway, overheating in the sun. I scooped up the featherless, closed-eye baby, took him into the kitchen and washed him off under the water tap in order to cool him down. I even put a little water in his mouth and heard him cough. Then he opened up his mouth and silently implored for more than just water.

What to do? No earthworms anywhere!

I made E. hold the bird as I got the ladder to put the bird back in the nest. "M-A-A-A-A-R-R-R-C! It's a baby blue jay!" she shouted as she got paper towel, in order not to actually come into physical contact with the bird and with whatever diseases it might carry (although I suspect the bird has far more to worry about from us, diseasewise, than us from it). I put the bird back into the nest, which was lodged in the hedge, as the mother bird a few feet away screached her displeasure in my ear.

On Sunday, heading to Pam Kay Lourentzos' ballet class, about 11:30 a.m., I opened the back gate. On the ground next to E.'s car were two baby birds writhing around in the gravel of the driveway. Both were alive, but one bird was significantly cooler than the other. Neither looked well, and they both were very young.

I was getting exasperated. Sunday morning ballet class is the holiest of holies, and I was going to be late. My religious obligation on Sunday is doing plies and pirouettes, not this preservation-of-life stuff. So, once again, I made E. hold the birds as I got the ladder to put the birds back in the nest. "M-A-A-A-A-R-R-R-C! Baby blue jays!" she shouted as she got another paper towel in order not to actually come into physical contact with the birds. I put the birds back into the nest as the worried mother bird watched from a nearby power line.

This time, I took a closer look at the nest, and noticed that even though the nest was well-built, it was nowhere near level - maybe 40 degrees from level. No wonder the baby birds keep falling out! This is a bad place for a nest - this kind of hedge has few horizontal surfaces of any sort. In order to keep this from happening many more times, I would have to help out Mommy and Daddy Blue Jay with some engineering consulting.

I obtained a strip of cloth to attach to the hedge branch on which the nest sat precariously. I also obtained an underinflated wheelbarrow tire to act as a weight. I tried tying the wheelbarrow tire to the hedge, but the weight was too heavy. I dropped the wheelbarrow tire and it bounced off the hood of E.'s car like a basketball (hope those streaks on the black paint aren't scratches in the paint!)

Instead, I used just the strip of cloth to bend the supporting the branch and tied it to the supporting trunk, so the nest isn't much more than 10 degrees, or so, from horizontal. Hopefully that will be stable enough for the moment. Hope the siblings continue to get along, and hope the flying trials go well, and come summertime hope we'll have two healthy flying baby blue jays to show for interrupting the holiest of holies!

The Chile Lab

In New Mexico, of course!:

LAS CRUCES, N.M. — Jit Baral, a researcher at New Mexico State University, stepped into the lab and pulled a plastic gas mask over his face. He and two students strapped on heavy rubber gloves and lab smocks. They activated an exhaust fan to cycle air quickly from the room.

Then Baral gingerly lifted the object that triggered all the precautions — a small, wrinkled red chile. This was no ordinary pepper. Baral was about to prove that the bhut jolokia, originally from northeastern India, is the hottest chile in the world.

He plopped it into an electric grinder, and caustic fumes filled the room. Next, Baral ran the powder through a machine to measure its spiciness, which registered as 100 times that of a typical jalapeno. The research landed the pepper in the Guinness World Records and was another coup for a school with an unusual academic flavor.

...The school houses a Chile Pepper Institute to educate the public about the plant. Agriculture professor Paul Bosland founded the Institute in 1992 after he and other professors were deluged with e-mails from people worldwide with hot pepper inquiries. The most common question: How does one get rid of the sting on the skin after chopping chiles? The answer: Douse your hands in milk.

...Bosland won Harvard's "Ig Noble Prize" for dubious achievement in science after developing a heatless habanero, which is used to thicken salsa. "I got e-mails accusing me of selling my soul to the devil after that one," Bosland recalled.

...Early last century, a Mexican-born NMSU agriculture professor, Fabian Garcia, virtually created the state's chile industry by breeding a milder pepper that would appeal to Anglo palates. One strain was taken by a farmer to Southern California, where, to the chagrin of New Mexicans, it became known as the Anaheim chile. The other strains were planted in the lush fields that follow the Rio Grande as it winds past Las Cruces.

...But since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, the state's chile crop has plunged almost 50% as cheaper foreign imports from Mexico, Peru and China pushed local growers out of the market. Chile farmers are selling to developers who replace fields with subdivisions.

"This is an industry we can't afford to lose," said Gene Baca, president of the New Mexico Chile Assn., a trade group. "Losing the chile industry in New Mexico is the equivalent to Napa Valley losing grape growing and wine production."

...Capsaicinoid, the chemical in chile peppers that generate spiciness, is also the active ingredient in pepper spray.

The Indian military drew NMSU's attention to the bhut jolokia. Without explaining why it had been investigating the fruit, the Indian military announced that it believed the pepper was the world's hottest. A friend of a Chile Pepper Institute member traveled to India and bought the seeds at a local market. Bosland and researcher Baral grew the peppers and tested them late last year.

David Broder - The Ultimate Put-Down!

Slap that pundit upside the head!

Think about where the Democrats were when Harry Reid became their leader in the Senate. Think about where they are now. Think about David Broder's recent prediction of a Bush comeback; his touting of Bush's response to Katrina; his praise for Cheney and Rumsfeld; his claims that journalists should apologize to Karl Rove for saying he did something he did; his call for fewer details and less discussion of policy from candidates; his defense of Richard Nixon; his prediction that if Joe Lieberman lost his primary, Democrats would perform poorly in the general election; his double standards in his coverage of candidates personal lives; his suggestion that Bill Clinton should have resigned because he "may well have lied" about sex; his unwillingness to say that a "lawless" president who "repeatedly defied the Constitution" should step down; his elitist and arrogant statement that he and his pals care more about being lied to than you do; his hypocritical statement that Kerry's and Gore's "arrogance rankled Midwesterners such as myself."

Think about all that, and ask yourself: If you were David Broder, wouldn't you -- just maybe -- think twice before accusing someone else of "bumbling" and "ineptitude"?

Tedium

After a stressful week and disorienting weekend so far, I'm now at a loss for things to do. The boredom settles in as the clock ticks on the wall. You only live once, like they say. But what to do with the yawning expanse of time?

I suppose I could read a book. Or see a movie. Maybe go to the mall. Better yet, try something new, something fresh. But what? I don't know, exactly, but I'll think of something....

"Heck Of A Good Buy"

But without new product and improved message, this brand is facing obsolescence:

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's unpopularity and a string of political setbacks have created a toxic climate for the Republican Party as it struggles to raise money and recruit candidates for its drive to retake control of Congress.

...With their clout diminished after November's midterm election losses, the Republicans' national committee and House and Senate campaign committees together raised the same amount as the Democrats in the first quarter of the year -- and Democrats ended the period with more cash in the bank. At this point four years ago, Republicans had more than twice as much money as Democrats.

"The reality is the Republican brand right now is just not a good brand," said Tim Hibbitts, an independent Oregon pollster. "For Republicans, the only way things really get better ... is if somehow, some way, Iraq turns around."

...While Republicans have recruited many solid candidates in their effort to retake Capitol Hill -- and they have more than 18 months to improve their fortunes -- the environment could get worse.

...When voters five years ago were asked which party they identified with, neither Democrats nor Republicans held an advantage. Now, however, 50 percent of voters say they are aligned with the Democrats, and only 35 percent with Republicans, according to a survey released last month by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

And in New Hampshire, nonpartisan pollster Dick Bennett said the atmosphere is so sour that he is having a tough time getting Republicans to participate in surveys. The war, high gas prices and unhappiness with the Bush administration all have dampened their interest sharing opinions, he said.

...Republicans do hold some advantages in the 2008 congressional elections, however, including district lines for many House seats that have been redrawn in their favor.

More than 60 Democrats will have to run in districts where voters backed Bush in 2004, Republicans say, suggesting that many will prove to be too liberal to win. By contrast, they say, only seven Republicans are defending seats in districts that went for Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry.

Moreover, GOP officials say conditions probably will improve once the party settles on a presidential nominee -- who they believe will eclipse Bush in the public eye and diminish the drag he is placing on Republican prospects.

...Rep. Brian P. Bilbray, R-Calif., was more blunt, describing Bush as "a millstone that most members will not have to be carrying around (once the Republican presidential nominee emerges.)"

...The GOP's weak fundraising totals for the first quarter also could complicate the party's re-election effort, wrote Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report in a recent assessment. While it can be dangerous to read too much into these early signals, she wrote, "A weak bank account doesn't just make a bad headline; it also makes an incumbent more attractive to a potential challenger."

...Overall, Republicans now resemble "a beaten-down stock," said Cole of the GOP House campaign committee. But he said he was optimistic about party fundraising and candidate recruitment.

"We're a heck of a good buy," he said, "if anyone knows how to evaluate the stock."

Grudges

Not very productive:

When the neighborhood dry cleaner misplaced Roy Pearson's pants, he took action. He complained. He demanded compensation. And then he sued. Man, did he sue.

...He says he deserves millions for the damages he suffered by not getting his pants back, for his litigation costs, for "mental suffering, inconvenience and discomfort," for the value of the time he has spent on the lawsuit, for leasing a car every weekend for 10 years and for a replacement suit, according to court papers.

Pearson is demanding $65,462,500. The original alteration work on the pants cost $10.50.

...The plaintiff, who says he has devoted more than 1,000 hours to represent himself in this battle, says that as a result of poor service at Custom, he must find another cleaner. And because Pearson does not own a car, he says he will have to rent one to get his clothes taken care of.

...According to a statement filed by both parties in the lawsuit, Pearson dropped off one pair of pants May 3 so he could wear them to his new job May 6. But on May 5, the pants weren't ready. Soo Chung promised them for early the next morning, but when Pearson arrived, the pants weren't there.

At this point, I should let you in on the subject of hundreds of pages of legal wrangling. Custom Cleaners at that time had two big signs on its walls. One said "Satisfaction Guaranteed," and the other said, "Same Day Service."

..."This case shocks me on a daily basis," Manning says. "Pearson has a lot of time on his hands, and the Chungs have been abused in a ghastly way. It's going to cost them tens of thousands to defend this case."

...Pearson has put the Chungs and their attorneys to work answering long lists of questions, such as this: "Please identify by name, full address and telephone number, all cleaners known to you on May 1, 2005 in the District of Columbia, the United States and the world that advertise 'SATISFACTION GUARANTEED.' "

...In a closet of a lawyer's office in downtown Washington, there is a pair of gray wool pants, waiting to be picked up by Roy Pearson.

"We believe the pants are his," Manning says. "The tag matches his receipt."

Tawdriness

This columnist doesn't like it:

Our media and our minds are filled with celebrity affairs, celebrity marriages, celebrity honeymoons in celebrity resorts, followed by celebrity adoptions (the approved method of celebrity parenthood, in that they can cast the child as they would a kid for a movie - as opposed to taking the pot luck of conventional pregnancy) followed by revelations of trips to celebrity rehabs and celebrity divorce in celebrated brawls conducted by celebrity lawyers.

...Semi-talented rock stars, boof-headed rugby players who treat women like dirt and gross businessmen whose claim to fame rests on obscene salaries join the conga line of those notorious for their notoriety.

What's going on here? Are our lives so meaningless, so lacking in imagination or energy that we have to waste our time, money and neurons on this human trash? It's a serious social illness -- if for no other reason than these useless idiots distract us from the achievements of people who really are worthy of our attention.

...You wonder whether the weather is, after all, the greatest of human crises. Isn't the gush and tosh of celebrity culture (sic) every bit as threatening?

With climate change, we might all be drowned by rising sea levels. But wouldn't you rather drown in seawater than in the rising tide of celebrity bullshit?

Thank you very much, but I'd prefer to drown in celebrity trash. It's easy to make it all go away (just don't watch). Once The Pacific is in your living room, however, good luck making it leave!

Beginning To Rain On The Darling Downs

It's not much, but better than nothing....

NOx And Lightning

Left: The worldwide distribution of lightning strikes. Each flash produces a tiny puff of NOx, individually negligible, but adding up to as much as 20 trillion grams per year when summed over the entire globe.



An old grad school classmate, William Koshak, pops up in NASA's Science News!:

"Atmospheric chemists are very interested in trace gases produced by lightning, particularly nitrogen oxides ('NOx' for short)," explains William Koshak, a lightning researcher at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. NOx includes nitric oxide (NO), a toxic air pollutant produced by automobile engines and power plants, and nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a poisonous reddish-brown gas with a sharp odor.

"We know that lightning is the most important source of NOx in the upper troposphere, where our weather takes place," Koshak continues. "NOx indirectly influences our climate because it partly controls the concentration of ozone (O3) and hydroxyl radicals (OH) in the atmosphere. Ozone is an important greenhouse gas, and OH is a highly reactive molecule that controls the oxidation of several greenhouse gases."

While the output from cars and industry can be measured, lightning is a wildcard in models of regional air quality and global climate because it is difficult to realistically model several important lightning characteristics--e.g., lightning energy and the thermochemical yield of NOx produced by a lightning stroke. As such, the global production rate of lightning NOx is still uncertain, and ranges anywhere from 2 to 20 teragrams per year (1 teragram = 1 trillion grams).

Climate Can Change, In Fits And Starts

The Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) can make stuff happen in Alaska:

Left: [The figure] shows clearly that this trend is non-linear: a linear trend might have been expected from the fairly steady observed increase of CO2 during this time period. The figure shows the temperature departure from the long-term mean (1949-2006) for all stations. It can be seen that there are large variations from year to year and the 5-year moving average demonstrates large increase in 1976. The period 1949 to 1975 was substantially colder than the period from 1977 to 2006, however since 1977 little additional warming has occurred in Alaska with the exception of Barrow and a few other locations. The stepwise shift appearing in the temperature data in 1976 corresponds to a phase shift of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation from a negative phase to a positive phase. Synoptic conditions with the positive phase tend to consist of increased southerly flow and warm air advection into Alaska during the winter, resulting in positive temperature anomalies.

Environmental SEMs

Frank has been studying ice fog formation in the Fairbanks, AK area, and trying to see if there are connections with the high levels of wintertime PM2.5 sulfates measured in the area. He located this article featuring an Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) image of Fairbanks ice fog crystals (left).

Only one, BIG problem - SEMs operate under near-vacuum conditions, and with samples possessing conductive coatings. These ice crystals don't meet these criteria. So, it shouldn't even be possible to obtain this image. How was it done?

Starting in the 1980's, an Australian research group pioneered ways to keep samples at one pressure, while keeping the rest of the electron gun assembly at much lower pressures, and also to remove the necessity of having conductive samples altogether. So, an entire new universe of imaging became reachable with what are now called Environmental SEMs. Quite impressive! I didn't know anything about all this!

The wonders of SCIENCE!

The write-up below regarding Environmental SEMs implies the methods aren't perfect. Still, it's amazing! I am reminded of the (very non-PC) quote by Samuel Johnson, which I adapt:

A[n Environmental SEM] is like a dog's walking on his hinder legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all.

Here is the interesting write-up:

The Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM) or 'wet' SEM is the latest version of one of the most powerful analytic tools available to scientists. Like all scanning electron microscopes, the ESEM offers the ability to image specimens at very high spatial resolution; as high as 2 nanometres in some cases. However, conventional SEM's have two important constraints: the specimen chamber must be kept under high vacuum conditions, and the specimen must either be electrically conductive or given a conductive coating. The ESEM, on the other hand, permits a small amount of gas in the specimen chamber, up to 20 torr. Although this gives rise to a number of practical considerations, the main points are that the ESEM can examine uncoated insulating specimens as well as wet materials, including unfixed biological tissues. Thus, the range of specimens that can be examined and the types of investigations that can be performed are vastly increased as compared to what can be done with conventional scanning electron microscopes.

Building such a microscope requires that two main considerations be overcome. First, the electron gun and most of the optical column must be maintained under high vacuum conditions .... If the chamber is to be held at several torr of pressure, a very steep pressure gradient must be sustained. ... Second, conventional secondary electron detectors are also designed to operate under high vacuum conditions. Therefore, a new type of secondary electron detector must be employed....

In the ESEM, the pressure gradient between the specimen chamber and the electron optics is achieved by creating a series of differentially pumped vacuum zones, separated by pressure limiting apertures. These apertures are sufficiently large to allow the electron beam to pass through, but still small enough to severely limit gas flow from one compartment to the next. ... The pressure zones created by the apertures are then pumped by various means with increasing efficiency as the gun is approached. Mechanical roughing pumps are sufficient for the specimen chamber and lower column regions. Most of the electron column is pumped by either diffusion pumps or turbo-molecular pumps, depending on the specific model. For instruments with lanthanum hexaboride filaments or field emitters, the gun chamber is connected to an ion pump sufficient to achieve pressures of 10-6 and 10-9 torr, respectively. Thus, pressure gradients of up to 10 orders of magnitude can be realised over a distance of about 50 cm!

If water vapour is used as the gas in the specimen chamber, wet specimens can be maintained in a hydrated state. In fact, liquid water can be brought into thermodynamic equilibrium with the vapour phase. ... Thus, typical working conditions in the ESEM might be something like 2ºC and 5.3 torr of water vapour. If the specimen temperature is held constant, increasing or decreasing the partial pressure of water vapour results in condensation or dehydration, respectively. This ability to control the hydration state of a specimen has allowed us to explore a large number of application areas, ranging from examining gels and emulsions to the drying of thin film coatings and studying the structure of ice cream!

"Making It Rain"

So, is THIS the backstory of the worst incident during the now-infamous All-Star Weekend in Vegas? It's surprisingly stupid:

When "making it rain" goes bad, you end up with three people shot, as happened at Minxx strip club during All-Star Weekend. Authorities claim trouble-magnet and recently suspended (for a year) Tennessee Titans cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones came in the club with a trash bag full of cash and began tossing $1 bills on the stage. When one of the strippers started to grab the money, the five-time arrestee allegedly got mad, sparking a brawl. Police say a man connected to Jones retrieved a gun from the parking lot and started shooting. Tragic.

I'm not sure what Jones thought would happen. Minxx is a strip club. The woman was a stripper. She gets paid to undress. Somehow the dots didn't connect. Misdemeanor and felony charges are possible for Jones. And in the irony of ironies, for "making it rain," he might need the umbrella of legal cover.

Time To Visit The Country Cousins

Too urban for their own good:

Thousands of Japanese have been swindled in a scam in which they were sold Australian and British sheep and told they were poodles.

Flocks of sheep were imported to Japan and then sold by a company called Poodles as Pets, marketed as fashionable accessories, available at $1,600 each.

... The scam was uncovered when Japanese moviestar Maiko Kawamaki went on a talk-show and wondered why her new pet would not bark or eat dog food.

She was crestfallen when told it was a sheep.

Then hundreds of other women got in touch with police to say they feared their new "poodle" was also a sheep.

One couple said they became suspicious when they took their "dog" to have its claws trimmed and were told it had hooves.

Japanese police believe there could be 2,000 people affected by the scam, which operated in Sapporo and capitalised on the fact that sheep are rare in Japan, so many do not know what they look like.

Slow Scientists

Anthropomorphism is a scientific sin, of course, but really, haven't any of them ever had a dog? Someone should study the scientists!:

When dogs learn new tricks, they do not simply copy what they see, but interpret it, suggests a new study, which provides evidence that man's best friend possesses a human-like ability to understand the goals and intentions of others.

In the experiment, a well-trained Border collie bitch demonstrated to untrained dogs how to pull a lever for food using her paw. If she did this while carrying a toy ball between her teeth, the dogs in her audience would instead tug the lever with their mouths when their turn arrived. These animals appeared to be thinking that she used her paw only because her mouth held a ball, say researchers.

Maybe A Bit Of A Stretch

Left: Photo by Sarah Gerke/Copied from the Movable Buffet Blog.


From Outword Magazine comes this audition announcement. Time to start touching the toes and doing side stretches!

Cirque du Soleil is seeking new talent for its 13 current productions and upcoming creations, and will be holding auditions for dancers in San Francisco in May 2007. The Cirque du Soleil Casting team is continually on the lookout for talented new artists. Their scouts search the globe for outstanding performers who are ready to embark on a new adventure.

Since 1984, Cirque du Soleil has carved out a special niche for itself in the world of performing arts. Through a mix of street performance, circus arts, dance, theatre, music and song, Cirque du Soleil has given life to a magical new universe.

Holding auditions is the primary means by which Cirque du Soleil recruits new talent. The Casting team is eager to return to California to discover local talent and the best way to do so is to give artists the opportunity to meet with us directly.

While in San Francisco, the Cirque du Soleil Casting team will be specifically seeking professional dancers with strong technique, stage experience, improvisational skills and versatility. Contemporary, Jazz, Classical, World and ethnic, Male strippers, Street and Hip Hop/B-Boy. Auditions based on video demo evaluation. Submission details for artists: www.casting.cirquedusoleil.

Whoops...Wait! We're Undercover! That's The Ticket!

Some 'splainin' to do:

What happens in Vegas doesn't necessarily stay in Vegas after all.

San Mateo County Sheriff Greg Munks and his undersheriff were swept up in Las Vegas prostitution sting over the weekend, authorities said today.

Munks, who was sworn in as sheriff in January, and Undersheriff Carlos Bolanos were briefly detained and questioned at a massage parlor that police contend was a front for a bordello, according to Las Vegas authorities. They were not arrested.

Munks called the incident a "personal embarrassment" and apologized today to sheriff's officials, the county and his family for his "lack of personal judgment."

"I believed I was going to a legitimate business," Munks said, reading from a written statement. "It was not."

Munks said he and Bolanos were both questioned by authorities and released. Bolanos was still outside the establishment when it was raided, Munks said.

"I would not, nor did I, break any laws," Munks said. "Neither did the undersheriff."

He declined to answer questions.

The two top law enforcement officers for San Mateo County were caught up in "Operation Dollhouse," a sting aimed at prostitution and human trafficking, according to Las Vegas authorities. Federal agents and Las Vegas police raided eight locations Saturday after a two-year investigation into a prostitution ring with suspected links to Asia, police said. Seven people were arrested.

"Salmon With Soy Glaze Sauce"

Steve called and said he and Jan are having a fabulous time today sitting with the Sac State alumni at the luncheon featuring Carol Channing. All the big muckety-mucks are there and they are all very nice.

Review Of Alanis Morissette's "My Humps"

Funny!:

No doubt realizing it would be impossible to make the song even dumber than it already is, Morissette pretends to take it seriously. Her version is nearly dirge-like, with sad-sack pianos and a vocal that sounds as if it were recorded at the bottom of a dark, damp well. "Whatcha gonna do with all that junk, all that junk inside that trunk?" she wails, inflicting existential angst onto what was once a playful dance-floor tease.

All that ass inside them jeans, Morissette suggests, all that breast inside that shirt isn't emancipating this woman at all—it's imprisoning her, trivializing her. Ironically (isn't it?), the biological markers of womanhood infantilize the song's narrator, reduce her to grotesque baby-talk. By decelerating lyrics like "Tryna feel my hump hump/Lookin' at my lump lump" to the point where you actually have to listen to them closely, Morissette makes such lines sound even more like a talking chimp's plaintive, terrified attempts to alert the world to the sexually abusive tendencies of its handler than they do in the original.

But that's just part of the Morissette version's charm. Along with tweaking Fergie, Morissette satirizes her own serious-artist pretensions as well. In the one scene in her video that doesn't have an antecedent in the original, Morissette is crouched on the floor, her body enveloped in a slow-motion storm of feathers as she sobs hysterically and great torrents of mascara run down her face like the Mississippi in flood season. "You don't want no drama!" she howls, but it's clear that's all she has to give—drama, drama, drama. So fervently introspective, so relentlessly vigilant about maintaining her integrity as an artist she can even suck every molecule of fun out of three minutes of pure pop-fluff mindlessness!

...Fittingly, Fergie's response to her new doppelganger was to send her a gushy fan note—imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, after all—and a cake shaped like an ass. And, really, is there any more astute commentary on the video than that? "My Humps" allows the erstwhile pop tart to have her feminist cake and shake it too.

...What's gone largely undiscussed about the music video resurrection, however, are the specific qualities of the videos that repeatedly prove to be the most popular. In the early days of MTV, it was all about crazy New Wave haircuts, matching suits and the absence of anyone who looked remotely like David Crosby from your line-up. Today, three key elements pop up again and again amongst the web's most popular music videos: familiarity, humor and dorky white people dancing. Long before the advent of the web, it turns out, "Weird Al" Yankovic had already discovered the secret to success in the YouTube Era.

Familiarity is necessary because there's too much content on the web. When thousands of music videos are always just a click way, why try to tempt viewers with something completely new? It's a battle you'll rarely win. Instead, use something familiar.

Sturm und Drang, Drang und Sturm, Sturm und Drang, Drang und Sturm, Sturm und Drang, Drang und Sturm, Sturm und Drang, Drang und Sturm, Sturm und Drang, Drang und Sturm, Sturm und Drang, Drang und Sturm, Sturm und Drang, Drang und Sturm, Sturm und Drang, Drang und Sturm

Missing It All

Coachella.

Dry To The Bone

I'm surprised these towns are the ones being considered for evacuation. It seemed to me there are drier areas to the northwest. There may be something of a dry spot in the Warwick area, like a Bermuda Triangle for rain:

TWO towns on the Darling Downs face evacuation because they have almost run out of water and cannot afford to indefinitely cart supplies.

Senior state bureaucrats have discussed the possibility of moving residents from Leyburn, population 200, and Killarney, home to 1500 people.
One of Leyburn's two bores has run dry and there are fears the other could follow.

...The threat of evacuation has outraged locals, including former Bronco Shane Webcke, who owns Leyburn's only pub.

"I'll move from my hotel when Peter Beattie moves from Brisbane," he said.

"Imagine if you said no one can live in Kenmore, everyone in Kenmore has to go."

Warwick Shire Mayor Ron Bellingham called evacuation an "Armageddon solution", but admitted it was a possibility for Leyburn.

"Annie Get Your Gun" Review

Bev's review is out in The Davis Enterprise (but so far, just in hard copy - she generally posts here, though). Let's see what she didn't like:

The mere fact that the writers of a musical create encore numbers - to be performed when the number itself gets lots of applause, and the audience obviously wants more - does not mean that said encore numbers should be performed routinely, as part of the show.

Well, that's a matter of opinion, of course. Long encores can be hard on the audience. But they are in the show, and to be faithful to the script, they remain.

Director/choreographer Ron Cisneros is doing the original 1946 version of the Irving Berlin classic, with book by Herbert and Dorothy Fields. The show was updated by Peter Stone in 1999 to be more politically correct, particularly in its depiction of Native Americans.

Actually, there is a notation at the front of our scripts indicating that we are following the 1966 revival script: "For this production Irving Berlin wrote one new number while minor book revisions by Herbert and Dorothy Fields included the elimination of two secondary characters, their songs and ensuing romance."

I don't know anything about the 1999 update. Still, what many perceive as the insufficient political correctness of the 1966 update, particularly the adoption scene, is itself a phenomenon of note.

Political correctness is a form of shorthand to guide polite behavior on controversial subjects. Like all shorthand, however, political correctness is not a perfect guide, and often lacks subtlety. My opinion is that political correctness should never guide the content of theater. Instead, political correctness is itself another object that theater can toy with, use or discard, emphasize or neglect, as seems useful.

First, as with anyone, it is imperative to be polite to Native Americans, yet people in general remain remarkably ignorant about Native Americans, and approach them from a variety of not-very-polite attitudes ranging from stereotypical naivete to outright hostility. These stereotypes were much harder in the last decade of the 19th Century, with the fresh memories of shed blood, when the events dramatized in the show occurred. Regarding the adoption scene, Bev writes:

In 2007, and especially on the heels of the recent Don Imus incident, this scene can be uncomfortable, despite the fact that it's designed to be humorous ... or perhaps because it is designed to be humorous.

Theater - good theater anyway - should make people somewhat uncomfortable, because that discomfort heightens awareness. If people laugh and cringe at the same time, that is for the best. The adoption scene underlines how much-improved our attitudes are to Native Americans today. Despite the gripes people have had over the years, political correctness actually has done a lot of good. The Don Imus analogy doesn't really apply here, however, because no Native Americans are being singled out for unmerited and thoughtless opprobrium, as was the case with Don Imus and the Rutgers women's basketball team. A subtle point, maybe, but important.

Yet, for the most part, Bev liked the show. Yay!

RIP, Michael Smuin

This is a huge shock for the ballet world:

Choreographer Michael Smuin, a major force in the San Francisco dance world and one of the region's most prominent and audacious showmen, died of an apparent heart attack Monday morning after collapsing while teaching a Smuin Ballet company class.

...Known for the vibrant, expressive and brassy work he created for his own company, for various regional companies, on Broadway and in Hollywood, Smuin was co-artistic director of the San Francisco Ballet from 1973 to 1985. He danced with that company from 1953 to 1961 and later with the American Ballet Theatre, where he was both a principal dancer and choreographer.

Smuin won a Tony Award on Broadway in 1988 for his choreography of "Anything Goes" and was nominated for a Tony in 1981 for "Sophisticated Ladies." He received an Emmy Award in 1984 for "Great Performances: Dance in America." He choreographed pieces for Dance Theatre of Harlem, Milwaukee Ballet, Pacific Northwest Ballet and Washington Ballet. His film choreography credits include "Rumble Fish," "The Cotton Club" and "So I Married an Axe Murderer."

...Smuin's 1977 production of "Romeo and Juliet" for San Francisco Ballet helped raise the company's national and international profile. The production aired on PBS' "Dance in America" the following year. "He made San Francisco Ballet a company to take seriously," said dance critic Allan Ulrich, who covered Smuin's work for the San Francisco Examiner and later for The Chronicle.

Despite various setbacks, including a traumatic break with San Francisco Ballet when his contract was not renewed in 1985, a failed production of "Shogun: The Musical" that he directed and choreographed on Broadway in 1990 and critical misgivings about his work, Smuin remained vital and productive. In the 13 years he ran Smuin Ballet, he choreographed more than 40 pieces. He was at work on a new season, which will open as scheduled in May, when he died.

...Smuin was born on Oct. 13, 1938, in Missoula, Mont. His mother was a Mormon, he told The Chronicle in 2001. His father worked as a Safeway butcher. Michael studied tap dancing as a child and caught the dance fever for good when his mother took him to see the touring Ballet Russe at the University of Montana. He attended Missoula's Hellgate High, where he lettered in boxing in his freshman year. At age 14, he moved to Salt Lake City on a dance scholarship at the University of Utah. San Francisco Ballet director Lew Christensen recruited him in 1953, when Smuin was 15. He eventually received his high school degree from Galileo High in San Francisco.

After dancing with San Francisco Ballet for eight years, Smuin married a fellow company member, Paula Tracy. The couple moved to New York in 1961. Smuin was cast in a Broadway musical, "Little Me," directed by Bob Fosse, in 1962. Smuin and Tracy mounted a night-club dance act, which they toured around the country and overseas. First Smuin and then Tracy joined American Ballet Theatre in 1965. Smuin choreographed "Pulcinella Variations," "The Catherine Wheel" and other pieces for ABT before the couple returned to San Francisco. They divorced in 2000.

..."He absolutely loved what he did," said Amy Seiwert, a Smuin Ballet dancer for the past eight years. "It's been a very intense morning, but I think it's very beautiful that we were all there with him at the end." Seiwert recalled something Smuin said to her once and that she often repeated back to him. " 'If I only did the things I was supposed to do,' " Smuin told her, " 'I would never do anything.' "

"Hair" - First Runthrough, Second Act

On Sunday, MikeMac suggested that if I couldn't help him and Chris Neff build the "Hair" set during the day, maybe the early evening would work. I dallied, and didn't show up till 9 p.m. I figured I couldn't help that much, but I did want to tell Chris Neff my dream from the night before and see what he thought of it.

I was too late, of course, but I did get have the privilege of seeing the first runthrough of the second act of Artistic Difference's "Hair" (Erik Daniells, Producer; Maggie Hollinbeck Director; Elaine Lord, Musical Director). I recognized a few of the actors - Jerry Lee, Ryan Adame, Inertia DeWitt, Lindsay Grimes - but many were new and unfamiliar to me.

I've never seen "Hair" before, so I didn't know quite how I would react to this musical's portrayal of the Counterculture Sixties and its complicated legacy.

My first two reactions were:

• this cast is way too young to be singing about these matters; and,
• I am extremely uncomfortable about this subject material.

In other words, from a theatrical perspective, Act II has a promising start.

I did have some trouble understanding people speak in The Space - mostly an acoustic difficulty, from too much echoing. Part of the trouble is that the roof is zinc-plated metal. Tapestries might help, but I don't know if that is practical, given their flammability.

The fundamental tension of the CounterCulture, between political involvement (the Berkeley pole) and the departure from rationality (the Haight-Ashbury pole) was never satisfactorily resolved in real life, so it would be hard to expect "Hair" to resolve the tension on stage in just a couple of hours. Nevertheless, the musical ends with what amounts to a deep, almost-intuitive understanding that the irrational pole is the most important, and the most enduring - just like the CounterCulture found in real life:

Let the sunshine
Let the sunshine in
The sunshine in

The War in Iraq and the War in Vietnam have so much in common that "Hair" has rarely been more topical and pertinent. The tricky part is figuring out whether the differences matter more than the similiarities. Important differences are:

• 540,000 troops in Vietnam vs. 140,000 in Iraq - the scale of the involvement destabilized 1960's America, whereas it hasn't done so yet in this decade;
• Despite rigid Cold War-liberal ideology, Indochina was never central to U.S. security (the biggest lie of the 60's), whereas Iraq might be central to U.S. security, simply because most of the world's oil resources are nearby;
• The Administration in the 1960's prided itself on its supposed 'rationality', whereas today, the Administration prides itself on its ability to create its own reality (the biggest lie of this decade).

The similarities are so glaring, however, that it's important to recount:

• The 1950's were a remarkably passive period in American history, as was the period just after 9/11;
• Elite opinion was paralyzed. LBJ did the trick by offering conservatives what they wanted (War in Indochina) and liberals what they wanted (The Great Society and Civil Rights), thereby co-opting everyone who mattered. Bush did the trick by grossly exaggerating Al Qaeda's threat, by corrupting the lazy corporate media, and through authoritarian intimidation. New voices had to break through the logjam, from the fringes, and they had to resort to new approaches to do so.
• Similar wars within just 40 years suggests that American society's ability to face the world has broken down in an important, fundamental way that will require a long time, perhaps a century, to resolve.

My best guide to the Sixties was my girl friend (1992-95), Katherine Arthur, who moved to San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district in the Summer of Love, and whose career faithfully reflected the journey of her generation. She died not long ago (reminisces here).

At a gathering after Katherine's death, friends told a story I had never heard, how she once lost her temper with Janis Joplin at the Fillmore over a man, so apparently there were limits even to the Summer of Love (it may have been Grace Slick - I only heard the story once!) In the early 70's, she relocated to the country, as so many others did. She adopted the Buddhist religion and became its advocate. She raised her family in Marin County's Monte Rio, and in the Sierra Nevada's Nevada City, before relocating to Sacramento in the mid-80's, to attend law school. She eventually passed the California bar, and ultimately ended up in the Peace Corps in Ukraine before being disgnosed with breast cancer. CounterCulture, through and through, to the end.

Katherine taught me to be more intuitive than I would otherwise be.

I always fancied myself to be post-Boomer, not from the Sixties generation - more responsible, less radical. But when the center is paralyzed, when silence means being complicit, the Sixties approach of throwing caution aside, breaking taboos, and directly challenging authority really is a better solution. A damn sight better, anyway, than just sitting still. Like the radicals of the Great Plains used to say, "Raise Less Corn, And More Hell!"

One can sympathize, to some extent, with the befuddlement of the World War II generation when facing its own rebellious children. Even objects of CounterCulture derision, like General Curtis LeMay, with his obsession with nuking Indochina, was at least speaking from an understandable martial tradition that prized taking the initiative against the enemy. With apologies to the estimable 'Daily Show' crew, the reptiles in power today in Washington don't even merit derision - just contempt.

Anyway, where was I? Yes my dream. On Sunday, Chris Neff and I had discussed how we navigate in our daily lives. I use dead-reckoning based on the sun's position, whereas Chris tends to ignore direction, and thus is prone to getting lost. We both also saw a squirrel get run over while driving through Davis Sunday afternoon. And we both have roles as Indians in DMTC's "Annie Get Your Gun."

I dreamt Chris and I, in our Indian garb, were kidnapped and taken through a combination shopping mall and U.S. Marine Base and placed in a suburban ranch-style house in the Mojave Desert, where a furtive ax murderer lived in the shadows. I escaped briefly, but was captured and brought back to the desert prison by an unfamiliar back road. An American version of Patrick McGoohan's "The Prisoner" ! To me, the dream seems to resonate with various Sixties themes, but maybe it was just that unfortunate squirrel....

In any event, "Hair" will be at The Space, 2509 R Street, from May 3 - 26, at 8 p.m., on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, with two midnight performances, on May 12th and 19th.

Vegas Defies Gravity

An insatiable demand for hotel rooms and condos:

LAS VEGAS — Stephen A. Wynn, the hotel and gambling impresario, still remembers the first time he was asked if he and other developers had lost their minds building so many casino hotels here. It was the mid-1970s, when Las Vegas had about 35,000 rooms.

He was asked that same question in the 1980s, while building the 3,000-room Mirage, and again in the early 1990s. By that time Las Vegas was home to more hotel rooms — 106,000 — than any other city in the country.

And so now, with Las Vegas in the midst of another big building boom, Mr. Wynn only shrugs when people suggest that the nation’s premier gambling center, with 151,000 rooms and counting, simply cannot absorb any more new hotels.

...But even Las Vegas has never witnessed anything quite like what is going on today. “This is the most outrageous, over-the-top expansion” ever, Mr. Wynn said.

Americans — and an increasing number of foreigners — can’t seem to get enough of Las Vegas. The current construction craze is driven by a 95 percent weekend occupancy rate — and rates that approach 100 percent at the city’s newer properties. Last year, even the weekday rate fell just shy of 90 percent, partly because of the city’s success in positioning itself as an attractive convention destination.

Fueling the current boom as well are the enticing riches to be made catering to a new kind of guest: aging boomers entering the empty-nest phase of their free-spending lives.

And contrary to some predictions, the opening of American Indian casinos and other gambling outposts in more than 30 states has not hurt Las Vegas.

Far from it. The smaller, more prosaic gambling halls stretched across the country have actually helped the boom, casino executives say, serving as a kind of a feeder system for Las Vegas as people gain a taste for gambling and then aspire to a touch of the big time. The soaring popularity of poker has also helped drive growth as the game has drawn a younger crowd to the city.

“I suppose one day Las Vegas will reach its limit,” said Anthony Curtis, president of LasVegasAdvisor.com, a local travel site. “But that day is nowhere in sight.”

...Even competitors marvel at the scope of the CityCenter project, which MGM calls the most expensive privately financed project in American history. This minicity bordering the Las Vegas Strip will feature six towering buildings that reach as high as 61 stories. Covering 67 acres, it will include a 4,000-room hotel, a sprawling convention center, a half million square feet of retail space and 2,700 condominium units.

The changing demographics have led the designers of the new Vegas to push a sleek and modern aesthetic, along with amenities like luxurious spas, in place of the gilt and gaudy properties that reigned in the 1980s and 1990s. But their owners’ ambitions are greater than ever.

...Even more than hotel construction, a boom in condominium development has increased the number of construction cranes crowding the skies.

...The Vegas Strip But MGM and other developers see themselves as competing for buyers far beyond the Las Vegas market. “We see these as third homes,” said Alan M. Feldman, a spokesman for MGM.

...In a perverse way, though, the city’s current boom helped developers here avoid the kind of frantic overbuilding that plagues condominium developers and condo owners in cities like Miami and Washington. John Restrepo of the Restrepo Consulting Group, a real estate firm based here, said that a “gold rush fever” had swept through the Las Vegas condo market, with more than 100 luxury condo projects, totaling 72,000 units, announced since 2005.

But escalating land prices and a steep rise in construction costs, Mr. Restrepo said, “caused most of these guys, who were never much more than a Web site and a dream, to fade away.” Today, there are just 22 luxury condo projects, representing 10,000 units, under construction, he said, “and a large portion of those units have been sold.”

...The scale of Las Vegas’ hotel industry and the size of its properties put other cities to shame. Even the massive 2,000-room casino resort Mr. Wynn is building next to Wynn — it would rank as New York’s largest hotel — will not crack Las Vegas’s top 15.

Not to be outdone, Fontainebleau Resorts recently announced plans for a $2.8 billion, 3,900-room resort on the northern end of the Las Vegas Strip. And developer Ian Bruce Eichner has raised $3 billion to build a 3,000-unit condo-hotel, the Cosmopolitan Resort and Casino, on the Strip.

[And there is the likelihood of more large-scale projects on the horizon. Yesterday, Goldman Sachs paid $1.3 billion for the four Nevada casinos owned by Carl C. Icahn’s American Real Estate Partners, including the Stratosphere Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, but also a precious 17 acres of undeveloped land on the Strip.]

Even without the new hotel properties, the 151,000 guest rooms in the extended Las Vegas area, according to Smith Travel Research, a lodging industry data broker, are nearly twice the 80,000 rooms in New York City. Orlando ranks second to Las Vegas with 111,000 rooms.

And yet Las Vegas has more new hotel rooms under construction (11,000) than any other city in the country, as well as more rooms on the drawing boards (35,000).

...Concerns over future limits on water supplies might ultimately slow development here. Eventually, tourists might tire of fighting the daily traffic jams that snarl the Strip and nearby freeways, or grow frustrated negotiating McCarran International Airport, which seems in a perpetual state of crisis.

But those problems have not hampered Las Vegas’s success so far. The city had just under 39 million visitors in 2006, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority — an 86 percent increase over the 21 million visiting the city in 1990.

And in anticipation of handling even larger hordes of tourists, McCarran is in the first year of a five-year, $4 billion makeover. Meanwhile, officials are looking into adding a second airport at Ivanpah Valley, 30 miles from Las Vegas.

“People have been predicting dating back to 1955 that Las Vegas will reach a saturation point,” said David G. Schwartz, author of “Roll the Bones,” a history of gambling, and director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “But me, I wouldn’t bet against casino growth.”

Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) Betrays Australia Again

Can't catch a break, it seems:

As storms lashed Sydney on Sunday night and yesterday, a key weather indicator predicted another dry winter.

The Southern Oscillation Index had been rising towards neutral territory, a sign that drought is weakening, but in recent weeks it has plunged dramatically and it reached a five-month low yesterday of -13.1.

The only consolation is that the SOI can change direction rather dramatically, so not all is lost.

Listening on Brisbane radio, the DJs joked about today's "chances for showers" forecast, and said they had heard the same thing for the last four years....

My guess: rain by next weekend.

I know, I know, "the same thing for the last four years...."

New Campaign Ads From The NSRC

I second Atrios - the new NSRC ads are great!

Like a commenter states:

if the NRSC had been tasked to try and market New Coke after it had already been rejected by the public, i imagine their ad would have said over and over, "New Coke tastes like ass. New Coke tastes like ass. New Coke tastes like ass. Drink more New Coke."

RIP, David Halberstam

"The Best And The Brightest" is among the very best books ever written about the disaster of America's intervention in Vietnam. Which book about the disaster of America's intervention in Iraq will rival Halberstam's work is yet unknown, but Halberstam won't write it - car accident.

Crisis! Crisis!

Last year, Social Security was going to go bankrupt in 2040.

Now, it's 2041.

Wanna bet next year it's 2042?

A Reason Why I Can't Win Aussie Radio Contests

The spelling of the word "nook" is "knook"....

Or maybe the radio folks can't spell....

Weekend Of "Annie Get Your Gun"

Busy weekend. I wish I could remember where I left my camera....

It's been a struggle. A lot of material, and what seems like a short rehearsal period. Partly as a result, I'm concerned that we in the ensemble (including myself) are afflicted with poor singing, shoddy dancing, etc. We'll need to keep after this....

Lauren and MikeMac are strong, though: a saving grace....

Apparently the Indian Dancing is more effective than I first thought it would be. People said nice things about it. The ultimate non-PC activity, of course, and staged right in the heart of the People's Republic Of Davis, but no one appears genuinely upset - a tribute to the audience's indulgence!

Mysterious Disturbance

It's odd when the police have to shoot the patrons of a posh resort.

CyberKylie vs. Dr. Who

This sounds dreadful. I can't wait to see it:

KYLIE Minogue is reportedly set to return to the small screen - as a cyberwoman out to snare Dr Who.

The News of the World said yesterday filming would start in July on the Dr Who Christmas special which could revive the TV career of Minogue.

"Kylie jumped at the chance to be in the show and is really looking forward to acting again," the newspaper quoted an unnamed BBC insider as saying.

Requiem For A Squirrel

Run! The neurons did fire
Halfway across Fifth you bound
Bounced from the rolling tire
Sedan, front left, westbound

Reversed course, outlook dire
Scamper back to DQ
Car behind, rolling tire
Popped skull, a day to rue

Services brief, trash can
Emptied soon, I'm hoping
Didn't stop first to scan?
What were you thinking?

"Annie Get Your Gun" Opening Night

This musical seems so-o-o-o long! Or, the rehearsal period was so-o-o-o short! One or the other!

One of the consequences was - there we were, 6:30 p.m. on opening night, starting to choreograph the end of one of the dance sequences. Fortunately it wasn't the entire ensemble, just three of us, and even though the timing was slightly tricky, the dancing itself wasn't terribly complicated, but even walking across the stage can be a challenge if it's only the second time you've ever done it. My frame of my mind going into opening night was that it was going to be an interesting evening.

Actually, the problems seemed to fairly-manageable. There were some glitches. I forgot to open the traveller curtain in the back from half to full open for the Indian dance number. Getting unified motion in the Haley-ha-blu-eh-ey section of the dance was a challenge, as well as with the most-recently choreographed section, but the dance allowed enough time for correction that nothing bad happened.

The singing in 'Sun In The Morning...' could have been better. And the dancing too.

Apparently the key to the gun case got lost, or something, so the gun-tampering scene got abbreviated. Whatever it was, I didn't have enough time to change back into my Indian outfit for the last scene. I barely got my shirt tails tucked in. I also failed to get my belt buckled, or to zip up my zipper. So there I was, standing right next to the audience, with a dangling buckle and an open zipper. The consolation was I had a blanket wrapped around my shoulders, so I didn't think anyone could notice. So I'm standing there, in the interminable last scene, trying not to telegraph my discomfort, or to unwrap the blanket inadvertently, which worked until the final bow, when I finally opened the blanket. By then, I was in the back, so I hope no one noticed.

I guess we all had things to hide. At one point, I heard a rude noise on stage.

Still, set changes seemed to go smoothly - always a danger spot on opening night.

One stellar portion: - newcomer Jennifer did a great job with the light board. Lights have always been a challenge for DMTC openings, but Dannette got them finished early, and Jennifer applied herself hard, and so what few glitches they had were so minor as to be unnoticeable.

And Lauren and MikeMac were fantabulous!

Classmate Pops Up In News

Unfortunate context, however:

HOUSTON (April 20) - A NASA contract worker took a handgun inside an office building Friday at the Johnson Space Center and fatally shot a hostage before killing himself, police said. A second hostage escaped with minor injuries.

...Christine Reichert, space station flight controller at the space center, said employees were initially told to stay in their buildings. That restriction was lifted a few hours later.

Michael Zolensky, who studies cosmic dust at the space center, said workers were gathered around a television watching news reports of the situation.

Richard Gere, Shilpa Shetty, And The Rabbits

Social commentary from the TV-watching bunnies.

"Annie Get Your Gun"

Starring Lauren Miller as 'Annie', and Michael McElroy as 'Frank Butler', opens tonight at DMTC! Come see the show!

I know I'll be there!

"Ballets Russes" DVDs

Not sure when they became available - presumably last October - but I bought five and just received them. I will pass them out like candy at Trick or Treat to all my bunhead friends!

(Boy, that sounds really bad - let me reword: I will make gifts of the DVDs to my friends who really like ballet!)

Keith Wise's Website

Left: Keith (and Yoda, apparently)


Keith Wise, who created the Bush Antichrist image I posted two years ago, now has a Web Site, where he offers talismans, tarot readings, and other items on the occult side of life.

Take a look!

Brain Fitness, And Musical Theater

MikeMac has an interesting post regarding a study concerning the benefits to the brain of doing theater:

The team argues that their results demonstrate that theater training -- even over a relatively short time period -- can help prevent cognitive decline associated with aging. They even speculate on some of the reasons why it is effective: Theater, they claim, requires sustained attention to the task in a way that other activities do not. Actors must stay in character for the duration of a scene, unlike studying visual art, where viewers might "rest" in between viewing different images. Also, the participants consistently remarked that theater was "new" to them, and novelty appears to be a key component of brain fitness.

I think there is a lot to this idea. Theater exercises many cognitive functions, often simultaneously.

Personal examples abound. For example, in the last scene change in DMTC's "Annie Get Your Gun" (which opens tonight), I wrap a blanket around my shoulders and try not to knock my hat off while walking across a stage scattered with occasional obstacles that is rapidly being filled by people, including running children - in the dark. Despite not speaking, singing, or dancing at all, brainwise, there is a lot going on with all this multitasking. Start layering the other activities on, and the brain has to fight to retain control, no doubt developing all kinds of alternative neural pathways and fail-safe methods in order to do so. The alternative pathways might help delay the onset of illnesses like Alzheimer's Disease.

For myself, musical theater helps with my inability to recall names, not only by providing an arena where there are many people whom I don't know very well (Bill? Bob? Sorry, Betty!), but separate, new character names for all these unfamiliar people as well. Oh joy! Find some new memory for that overloaded name buffer!

The limitation of theater is fatigue. Sleep often goes by the wayside while adhering to rigorous theater schedules, and nothing cripples cognition like lack of sleep. Crap diets don't help either.

The well-rested thespian on a proper diet is a step above common humanity, a wonder of nature, a black-belt brainiac!

Another Empty Bush Slogan Reaches Its Shelf Life

"As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down.":

Military planners have abandoned the idea that standing up Iraqi troops will enable American soldiers to start coming home soon and now believe that U.S. troops will have to defeat the insurgents and secure control of troubled provinces.

Training Iraqi troops, which had been the cornerstone of the Bush administration's Iraq policy since 2005, has dropped in priority, officials in Baghdad and Washington said.

...Pentagon officials said they know of no new training resources that have been included in U.S. plans to send 28,000 additional troops to Iraq. The officials spoke only on the condition of anonymity because they aren't authorized to discuss the policy shift publicly. Defense Secretary Robert Gates made no public mention of training Iraqi troops Thursday in a visit to Iraq.

In a reflection of the need for more U.S. troops, the Pentagon decided earlier this month to increase the length of U.S. Army tours in Iraq from 12 to 15 months. The extension came amid speculation that the U.S. commander there, Army Gen. David Petraeus, will ask that the troop increase be maintained well into 2008.

U.S. officials don't say that the training formula was doomed from the start. But they said that rising sectarian violence and the inability of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to unite the country changed the conditions. They say they now must establish security while training Iraqi forces because ultimately, "they are our ticket out of Iraq," as one senior Pentagon official put it.

...Throughout 2006, U.S. commanders and top Bush administration leaders touted the training as a success, asserting that eight of Iraq's 10 divisions had taken the lead in confronting insurgents.

But U.S. forces complained that the Iraqi forces weren't getting the support from their government and that Iraqi military commanders weren't as willing to embrace their tactics.

Most important, insurgents and militiamen had infiltrated the forces, using their power to carry out sectarian attacks.

In nearly every area where Iraqi forces were given control, the security situation rapidly deteriorated. The exceptions were areas dominated largely by one sect and policed by members of that sect.

Just like Vietnam, and just as likely to succeed! As long as the Republicans remain in power, and even if someone like Hillary Clinton (the new Nixon; same as the old Nixon) gains power, we will STAY in Iraq, no matter what anyone SEZ!

15th Anniversary Of Benny Hill's Death

From Wikipedia:

Alfred "Alfie" Hill was born in Southampton, where he and his brother attended Tauntons School. During the Second World War Hill was one of the scholars evacuated with the school to Bournemouth School, East Way, Bournemouth. After leaving Tauntons School, Hill worked variously as a milkman in Eastleigh, bridge operator, driver and drummer, before he finally got a foot in the door of the entertainment industry by becoming an assistant stage manager. Inspired by the 'star comedians' of British music hall shows, Hill set out to make his mark in show business. For the stage, he changed his first name to 'Benny', in homage to his favourite comedian, Jack Benny. Hill began appearing at working-men's clubs and Masonic dinners before graduating to nightclub and theatre jobs. Hill auditioned for Soho's famed Windmill Theatre (home of Revudeville, a popular show of singers, comedians and nude girls), but he was not hired. Benny's first job in professional theatre as a performer was as Reg Varney's straight man, beating a then-unknown Peter Sellers for the role.

Benny worked compulsively and had only a few friends, although colleagues who knew him closely insist that he was never lonely, but content with his own company. He never married, although he did propose to two women — one the daughter of a British writer — and was rejected by both. He never owned his own home, nor even a car, instead preferring to rent a small flat in Teddington, a convenient walking distance to the Teddington Studios, where he taped his shows. His mother lived with him until her death shortly before his.

Travelling was the one luxury he consistently permitted himself. Hill became a first-degree Francophile, enjoying frequent visits to Marseille. Until the 1980s, he could enjoy the anonymity of France's outdoor cafes, public transport, and socialising with local women. Besides mastering French, Benny also could 'get by' speaking German, Dutch and Italian in his travels. Hill's overseas holidays were often gathering missions for comedic material, some newly inspired by foreign surroundings, or borrowed from regional acts.

...Following his death, rumours circulated that despite his celebrity and on-air lecherous characterisations, Hill was very shy when it came to women.

...The English comedian Charlie Chaplin who died in 1977 and the American singer Michael Jackson were avid fans of Hill's work: Jackson found time to visit Benny in hospital when Hill was recovering from a heart attack in February 1992. Hill had earlier discovered that his childhood idol Chaplin was a fan when he was invited to Chaplin's home in Switzerland by Chaplin's family and discovered that Chaplin had a vast collection of Benny's work on video. Apparently, Hill and Dennis Kirkland (a friend, and director of Hill's show for many years) were the first people outside of family to be allowed into Chaplin's private study.

...Hill's health began to decline in the early 1990s. Weighing 238 lbs (108 kg) at 5 feet 10½ inches (1 m 79 cm) tall, he suffered heart problems related to his obesity. On February 11th, 1992, doctors told him that he needed to lose 28 pounds, and recommended a heart bypass. He declined, and was diagnosed a week later with renal failure.

Benny Hill died on or about April 20th, 1992 (Easter weekend), alone in his flat at 7 Fairwater House, Twickenham Road, Teddington, at the age of 68. On 24 April, concerned neighbours had called the police, who then found the deceased Hill sitting in his armchair in front of the television. He was buried at Hollybrook Cemetery near his birthplace in Southampton.

...In October 1992, following rumours that he was buried with large amounts of gold jewellery, an attempt was made by thieves to exhume his body. However, when authorities looked into his open coffin the following morning, there was no treasure within it, and consequently, only the culprits know for sure whether anything valuable was inside. Hill was re-buried with a new coffin lid and a solid slab placed across the top of the grave.

God Helps Those Who Help Themselves

Even against the drought:

SOUTH Melbourne priest Bob Maguire says church leaders across Australia can pray for rain "until they go black in the face" but it won't solve the water crisis.

..."Now I know a lot of people won't like it, particularly if people are making their prayers over a nice bottle of Grange, but this water problem is bigger than all of us boys and girls down here on ground level."

Father Maguire, of St Peter and Paul's Parish, is among many Melbourne priests warning drought-stricken farmers not to pin all their hopes on divine intervention.

"Praying for rain is great and we will be doing it in our services, but we have to be prepared to work on finding solutions to the problem ourselves," he said.

Anglican priest the Rev Howard Langmead, of St John's Church in Brunswick West, said rain prayers had regularly been included in weekend services.

"Certainly, we will continue to plead the cause, but I don't believe God will always do what we ask him," he said.

...Bentleigh Uniting Church minister the Rev Dr Ji Zhang said that part of his weekly service would be dedicated to praying for rain.

..."But sometimes God will not intervene because we need to take action ourselves by coming together as a community to support those in need, like our farmers."

Bedtime For Gonzo?

Left: A protester displays how many times Gonzales testified today that he didn't recall an event. Photo by Dennis Cook, AP.








Bad day for Alberto Gonzales on the Hill:

But even conservative Republicans expressed outrage at how Gonzales had handled the issue, putting his continued tenure at risk. Sen. Thomas Coburn (R-Okla.) asked the attorney general, "Why should you not be judged by the same standards you judged these U.S. attorneys?" When Gonzales said, "We all make mistakes" and asked for time to correct his failings, Coburn replied, "Mistakes have consequences."

Disavowing allegations of partisan motive in the firings -- "I know that's the politics of the blood sport that we're playing," he said -- Coburn argued, "The best way to put this behind us is your resignation."

...In a case-by-case litany, Gonzales was asked to explain why each of the eight attorneys was let go.

Of Carol Lam in San Diego, the attorney general said there had been complaints that she was not vigorously prosecuting gun and immigration cases. At a time when border security was a national concern, he said, "I felt we should do better, much better, in this effort."

...The Lam dismissal generated considerable anger among Democrats. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) objected to Gonzales' rendition, reading a series of commendations showing that Lam was instrumental in lowering crime and in vigorously prosecuting immigration cases.

"If this is the reason for the firing of a distinguished U.S. attorney, shouldn't somebody talk to her … and give her an opportunity to respond?" Feinstein asked. Gonzales responded that Lam "was acutely aware of the concerns."

But Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y) all but accused Gonzales of lying, saying that neither Lam nor Sampson recalled any warning from the Justice Department over not prosecuting enough immigration cases. The attorney general replied that she had to know of Washington's concerns about her immigration numbers, in part, because various members of Congress had written to complain.

Schumer replied that letting members of Congress deliver the news was hardly professional, Gonzales agreed, saying he had recommended that no U.S. attorney ever be fired in the future without a meeting with officials in Washington.

Barely containing his anger, Schumer also accused Gonzales of lying about whether he had objected to administration plans to bypass Senate approval for U.S. attorneys. The attorney general said he "never liked this idea" because U.S. attorneys "lock heads" with top political figures in their states and need the imprimatur of a presidential appointment and Senate confirmation.

...[Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.)] also said he did not buy the attorney general's argument of "limited involvement" in the decision to fire the attorneys, believing instead that the eight had "personality conflicts" with officials in Washington and that "you made up reasons to fire them" afterward.

He also warned Gonzales that he needed to patch up his relationship with Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), who believes that Gonzales lied to him about the attempt to appoint Tim Griffin as U.S. attorney in Arkansas over his objection.

..."To this day, we do not know who selected the people on that list," Feinstein said. Noting several conversations with White House political advisor Karl Rove and one with the president, she added, "How can you say the White House did not play a role in adding or taking names off the list?"