Stylin' And Profilin'

CdM "Rent" Lawsuit Settled

Photo by Matt Coker

Caption: Karyl Ketchum and Mike Wiggins talk about the hell their 17-year-old daughter Hail endured at Corona del Mar High School last school year.



Lawsuit settled, and one of DMTC's favorite daughters, Hail Ketchum-Wiggins, finally goes public:

Three varsity football players at Corona del Mar High School posted a video on the school's Facebook page in January in which they describe how and where they would rape now 17-year-old Hail Ketchum-Wiggins before disclosing the manner in which they would shoot her to death. The video also includes homophobic remarks directed at another student.

Immediately after seeing the video, which was posted with the profile of a fourth male student, the girl's parents met with vice principal Duncan McCulloch, who assured them all four boys would be punished. As far as the Ketchum-Wigginses know that never happened, because within days of their meeting with the school official, the boy with the profile page confronted their daughter on campus and threatened her again.

The family also contacted the Newport Beach Police Department and the Orange County District Attorney's Office. The case was apparently kicked back down to a district security official, who essentially told the Ketchum-Wigginses it had been determined the boys could not carry out their threats because they had no access to guns.

About a month after the video was posted, the football players received honors from their school for their athletic prowess. Hail, whose crime in their eyes was expressing disappointment on Facebook that her theater class' production of the musical Rent had been cancelled, had to change her daily routine, switch classes and take other precautions to avoid contact with those still among her who'd threatened to rape and kill her.

It was only after the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and a Pasadena firm that specializes in First Amendment issues filed a lawsuit in March that alleged McCulloch, then-principal Fal Asrani, Newport-Mesa Unified School District superintendent Jeffrey Hubbard and the Newport-Mesa board tolerated sexism and homophobia on campus that serious efforts to protect the girl were finally taken.

With today's announced settlement of the suit, Hail has gone public with her identity. Her tormentors remain protected under a cloak of anonymity due to their ages.

Citing the "uncommon courage" of Hail, who was bedridden with the flu and could not attend today's announcement at the ACLU's office in Orange, and her family, Hector Villagra, director of that office, expressed pride in announcing the settlement "that will ensure the safety of all students at Corona del Mar High School."

Under the terms of the agreement forwarded to an Orange County Superior Court judge today, the district must:

-Provide eight hours of mandatory training for 30 district administrators into protecting students based on their sex and gender identification;

-Create a team of administrators certified to train others about the same;

-Provide four hours of mandatory training about the same for all teachers, staff and students at Corona del Mar High School.

(The Long Beach/Orange County office of the Anti-Defamation League was assigned to administer all training and make sure the district and high school live up to the terms of the settlement.)

-Conduct a district-administered survey of all Corona del Mar High students to determine the level of bias against others that exists on campus so that reforms can be implemented.

Mike Wiggins, Hail's father, estimated that the video featuring details of the proposed execution-style killing of his daughter had been seen by 600 students at the school and an undetermined number of others off campus before it was finally taken down.

His wife, Karyl Ketchum, said that while it is too late for the settlement to protect members of Corona del Mar High's Class of 2009, or to give certain members of that class much-needed lessons in tolerance, her daughter is pleased that measures will be taken for current and future students there.

Wiggins later read a statement from his absent daughter saying she was happy with the settlement because other kids will not have to go through what she did. She also hoped that the arrival of a new principal will allow students to feel safe and hate speech to end on campus. (Asrani was reassigned but, as Ketchum later disclosed, McCulloch remains at the school, something "that still concerns us.")

A women's studies professor at Cal State Fullerton, Ketchum said the atmosphere at Corona del Mar High was part of a tolerated hatred of women, since violent sexism and homophobia was directed at girls and violent homophobia was directed at boys deemed "not masculine enough."

She added that a larger problem remains at the school that district administrators should address: classism. Among the wealthiest families in the county send their children to Corona del Mar's middle and high schools.

Alongside Ketchum was Ron Martin, the Corona del Mar High theater teacher who wanted to stage Jonathan Larson's Rent--a hugely popular Broadway musical that follows impoverished young artists and musicians, some of whom are gay and HIV-infected, struggling to live in New York City's Lower East Side--to temper the rampant homophobia on campus.

That blew up in his face when Asrani canceled the spring production, blaming the teacher for failing to provide her a script to review and approve. Her move drew widespread condemnation and national headlines. After Martin presented a script for a toned-down, high school-friendly version of the musical, Asrani allowed the show to premiere on April 23. The production brought TV news crews and protesters to the school, including the Kansas Christian ministry of the Rev. Fred Phelps of "God hates fags" fame.

As Ketchum-Wiggins was being harassed and school and district officials seemed loathe to do anything about it, Martin contacted the ACLU, which filed the suit "over a sexist and homophobic atmosphere that officials permitted to flourish at the school."

"Our voices were heard," Martin said of today's announced settlement. "Bigotry is not going to be tolerated on the Corona del Mar High School campus."

...Asked if they considered transferring their daughter out of Corona del Mar High, the Ketchum-Wiggines said they talked about that with Hail but that she decided it would be better not to give in. They also decided as a family against lawsuits seeking damages, saying this was never about money. They only wanted to achieve what is said in the ACLU suit: to stop the district and school officials from "permitting and sanctioning an atmosphere that is hostile to female, lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender students in general, and has led to despicable threats of violence against one student in particular."

As for that one student, other than being ill at the moment, she is doing well as a theater arts major at Loyola Marymount University, reports her mom. She learned a lot from the ordeal, Ketchum said of her daughter, including to always stand up for what is right.

He Came From The Primordial (But Nevertheless Very Fertile) Ooze Of The Central Valley...

As they have done for a number of years now at the California State Fair, TV News 10 took TV camera photos of fairgoers standing in front of one of their TV 'blue screens', together with either a sports or weather projection in the background.

I was wearing blue jeans on Labor Day, apparently very similar in appearance to the projection 'blue screen'. As a result, the resulting photo looks as if I'm emerging from California's Central Valley.

Troubled Times For (Former) Assemblyman Duvall

I'm always baffled by these crises. Like, what did he think would happen?

Mangled English Top Ten

This is worth reproducing in full.

Too bad Donald Rumsfeld is in this list with this comment, because, as we know, on this matter, he's right. His appalling reaction to the looting of Baghdad - "stuff happens" - was acidic irony at its best, but it's not mangled, so doesn't belong on this list. Maybe a better quote is: "If I said yes, that would then suggest that that might be the only place where it might be done which would not be accurate, necessarily accurate. It might also not be inaccurate, but I'm disinclined to mislead anyone."

Or whatever. Like Donald says, "I'm not into this detail stuff. I'm more concepty":

FORMER US president George W Bush topped a poll of the worst examples of mangled English, followed closely by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Donald Rumsfeld.

French footballer-cum philospher Eric Cantona and former US president Bill Clinton also produced prime examples of gobbledegook, according to the online poll of 4000 people inspired by the Plain English Campaign.

Notoriously language-challenged Bush romped to the top accolade for his: "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

Second came bodybuilder-turned-actor-turned-California governor Schwarzenegger, who during an election campaign in 2003 minted the puzzling: "I think that gay marriage should be between a man and a woman."

The rest of the top 10 in the poll, commissioned by an insurance company after it won an award from the Plain English Campaign, were:

3. Rumsfeld, in February 2002: "Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns: the ones we don't know we don't know."

4. Murray Walker, motor racing commentator: "The lead car is absolutely unique, except for the one behind it which is identical."

5. John Motson, football commentator: "For those of you watching in black and white, Spurs are playing in yellow."

6. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, explaing budget plans to lawmakers in July this year: "Total spending will continue to rise and it will be a zero per cent rise in 2013-14."

7. Clinton, in 1998 grand jury testimony about Monica Lewinsky: "It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'is' is. If 'is' means 'is and never has been' that's one thing – if it means 'there is none', that was a completely true statement."

8. Cantona, 1995: "When the seagulls follow the trawler, it's because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea."

9. Bush, July 2001: "I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe – I believe what I believe is right."

10. London mayor Boris Johnson, on British satirical gameshow Have I Got News for You in 2003: "I could not fail to disagree with you less."

Smiling Doves

At home every morning and evening, the smiling doves trustingly gather on the telephone and power lines above, as I distribute their favorite seeds on the pavement below.

That made this article in the "Living Here - Food and Wine" section of the Sacramento Bee somewhat jarring to read:

Doves, the fast food of the hunting world, become an afternoon meal in a matter of minutes.

Pluck, marinate, grill, done – instant, tasty gratification.

The hunt for those doves, however, lends itself to the exact opposite of the fast-food concept: a large social gathering that unites family and friends for the kickoff of fall bird hunting.

That's a recipe for the first feast of fall.

Andy Donald of Woodland usually goes out on "dove opener" with friends from his duck club.

"It's pretty social," he said. "You don't have to do a lot of camouflaging and hiding – it's pretty much stand around and talk. And shoot."

Having so many hunters around also means that cleaning is a breeze.

"If your group shoots 30 birds or more, you can sit around on the tailgate of your truck and clean the birds in another 30 minutes," he said.

...For Brad Ostman of Mountain View, the tradition of family and feast for the dove opener goes back to his childhood when he, his brother and his dad would go out with their cousins and uncles.

"It was the more, the merrier," he said. "We would have eight, 10, 12, 15 guys out there shooting."

...For Ruth Dwight Adams of Sacramento, everyone in her family seems to have a recipe for dove, but she likes to keep it simple: "We pluck them, stuff them with a chili pepper, wrap with bacon, put them on the grill and have a glass of wine," she said.

"I think the flavor of a dove is so unique. I just call it a flying backstrap."

For Adams, everything about the dove hunt is special.

"I enjoy the flavor, the hunt, the challenge, being outdoors. Having your shoot, then enjoying it. It's so fresh."

Slob Confounds The Police

There but for the grace of God go I:

The awful stench coming from a Queens apartment on Monday was so bad that cops thought they would find a body inside.

But when firefighters busted down the the door, they found tenant Ming Li Sung was very much alive - and living with rotting garbage piled floor to ceiling.

"When they started trying to clear away some of the trash to get in, he popped up inside, yelling, 'Get out! Get out!'" said Ray West, who lives across the hall.

Cops first noticed the horrible smell when they were called to the Ravenswood Houses in Long Island City in the early morning for a domestic dispute.

"They thought he was DOA," said West.

The apartment looked like a landfill, with trash jammed top to bottom and pressing up against the flat's front door and rear window.

A broken fan, an old watering can and scores of sodden plastic grocery bags stuffed with wet garbage could be seen among the detritus.

When an FDNY haz-mat team arrived to start excavating the garbage, an army of cockroaches poured out into the second-floor hallway, West said.

"The police were throwing up," West said.

Sung, 69, was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center for psychiatric evaluation, police said. He does not face any charges.

Sung's next-door neighbors have moved out because of the smell, which had been a problem for years, West said. He and his wife, Robin McNeil, are still on a long waiting list for a transfer.

"We're stuck here," said West, a veteran who returned just over a year ago from 18 months fighting in Afghanistan, only to spend his time fighting city bureaucrats over the rancid stench.

West said he called 311, the city Housing Authority and even the Health Department to complain, but he kept getting bounced from agency to agency.

"Everybody kept saying, 'We don't deal with that' and told me I had to call somebody else," he said.

Is It Good News, Or Bad News?

Or a little of both?:

The Federal Reserve reported Tuesday that consumers in July ratcheted back their credit by a larger-than-anticipated $21.6 billion from June, the most on records dating to 1943. Economists had expected credit to drop by $4 billion.

July’s retreat translated into an annualized decline of 10.4 percent. That followed a cut of $15.5 billion in June, or a 7.4 percent annualized drop, and was the most since a 16.3 percent decline in June 1975.

The latest cut still left total consumer credit at $2.47 trillion.

Wary consumers and hard-to-get credit both factor into the scaled-back borrowing. But economists are split on which force — lack of demand by consumers or lack of supply from banks — is having the bigger influence.

...But Erik Hurst, economics professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, says it is impossible to know for sure. “We are seeing declines in demand for loans from consumers but also declines in the supply of loans from banks. How much of the credit cutback is due to the decline in supply or demand, you can’t really tell.”

...In Tuesday’s report, demand for non-revolving credit used to finance cars, vacations, education and other things fell by $15.4 billion, also a record decline. That 11.7 percent pace was on top of an 8 percent annualized decline in June.

Consumers’ appetite for revolving credit, primarily credit cards, declined by $6.1 billion in July, an annualized rate of 8 percent that followed a 6.4 percent drop in June.

The magnitude of the drop surprised analysts. Some thought the Cash for Clunkers program — which began in July and aided auto sales and car loans — would have blunted cutbacks in other lending areas.

...“As great as the clunkers program has been, it’s tough to head out and buy a big ticket item when you don’t have a job,” said Richard Yamarone, economist at Argus Research. “Don’t expect consumer credit to increase any time soon; the job situation is dismal, at best.”

The View From Britain

They can spot loathsome from across the pond:

There are few tribes more loathsome than the American right, and their vicious use of the shortcomings in the NHS to attack Barack Obama's attempts at health reform are a useful reminder.

I was thinking of this during a visit to my 91-year-old dad who is still in an NHS hospital after three weeks, recovering from a broken hip. He has had fantastic care, including a new metal hip, blood transfusions, different antibiotics to match every aspect of his condition; all administered by nurses who remain cheerful even when asked to perform tasks on men – the lethal combination of pain and old age makes some in the ward exceedingly grumpy – that I would not want to do for £1,000 a time. If he was in an American hospital he'd be using up half his life savings to get that standard of care, and few ordinary Americans could afford the insurance that would provide it. (This is because health insurers spend a large part of their income on PR against the "socialised medicine" and on sending pro forma letters explaining why your policy doesn't cover actual illness.) All over the US there are people whose lives are being destroyed for lack of proper health care provision, and there is no sight more odious than the rich, powerful and arrogant trying to keep it that way.

Heavy Metal Velcro

Not just direct a cannonade of Velcro-covered kids against the wall, and have them stick there, but Metaklett-covered cars too:

A square metre of the new fastener, called Metaklett, is capable of supporting 35 tonnes at temperatures up to 800 ºC, claim Josef Mair and colleagues at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. And just like everyday Velcro it can be opened up without specialised tools and used again.

...Mair thinks his spring-steel fastener is tough enough to be used for building facades or car assembly. "A car parked in direct sunlight can reach temperatures of 80 °C, and temperatures of several hundred °C can arise around the exhaust manifold," he says, but Metaklett should be able to shrug off such extremes.

The fastening is made from perforated steel strips 0.2 millimetres thick, one kind bristling with springy steel brushes and the other sporting jagged spikes.

Metaklett can support maximum weight when pulled on in the plane of the strips, and a square metre can hold a perpendicular load of 7 tonnes, says Mair.

Giant, Razor-Clawed Bioengineered Crabs Pose No Threat

Experts Agree Giant, Razor-Clawed Bioengineered Crabs Pose No Threat

Charo At The 2009 MDA Jerry Lewis Telethon

California State Fair 2009

Wild, Wacky, Wonderful California was the theme at this year's California State Fair.

The California bear is put to work for this year's State Fair theme.

View of Cal Expo from the monorail.

Morning view of the midway from the monorail. John, Keith and myself rode three rides at the midway: Pole Position, Tilt-A-Whirl, and Viper (located in the lower-right of this picture). We didn't ride any of the four rides at the State Fair that hailed from Michael Jackson's Neverland, but we all thought those rides looked excellent, and reflected well on Michael Jackson's taste.

Riding through a plume of fair-food grease smoke churning out from the rectangular stack exit in the lower right of this photo.

Left: The Cal Expo monorail path, from below.

Below: Chef Tyler Stone prepared peach crepes on behalf of Del Monte Foods at the California State Fair.



Candy Mountain.

Don't neglect your candy ration! Don't worry, I won't!

Left: I instantly recognized this amiable-looking parrot as being a galah, after seeing flocks of them sitting on fences and telephone wires near Brisbane, AU, in 2006.

Below: Fanciful giraffe.



Detail of the 100,000-toothpick, San-Francisco-themed, toothpick sculpture.

Three tenors.

Dress parade.

At the County Exhibits, the California Department of Water Resources, in the conjunction with one of the counties (Stanislaus? San Joaquin?) assembled this rather-frightening looking (but wild and wacky themed)robot to sell their Delta Corridors concept to help solve water-quality issues in the Delta.

Mendocino County exhibit.

Sacramento County exhibit.

Popular SMUD chalkboard.

The FMX Freestyle Motocross motorcycle jumping competition featured amazing mid-air tricks!

Phoenix Monsoon Report

Deborah reports:

























I reply:

"Hats! - The Musical" - Stage Nine Theatre

Every Labor Day seems to present the same entertainment conundrum: should I finally go to see disco star Kristine W (who faithfully returns to Sacramento every year at this time) at Rainbowfest, or should I see community theater star Mary Young in her latest performance?

Unfaithful Kristine W fan that I am, I always seem to choose the second alternative.

Ths year, Mary is in "Hats! - The Musical" at Stage Nine Theatre in Folsom.

Left: Accompanist Mark Ferreira, with his amazing women's bodice hat, together with Sally Forment.


Mary wasn't the only friend in "Hats!" Kathleen Flint, Eileen Beaver and Connie Mockenhaupt Jimena were also in the cast.

It was great seeing Mark Ferreira again. I wondered what he had been doing since Garbeau's Dinner Theatre folded in May.

In fact, Garbeau's didn't precisely fold, but rather got abstracted into cyberspace, or wherever theaters go when they lose their brick-and-mortar connection. Since Mark owns the Garbeau's name, it goes wherever he goes, and right now he will be collaborating with the Stage Nine folks to present both their shows, and his own shows under the Garbeau's name, at Stage Nine Theatre.

Sunday evening, Mark was presenting the first of his Mini Concerts, featuring two singers (one of whom is Jessie Stein).

Left: Lady (Mary Young), Contessa (Connie Mockenhaupt Jimena), and Baroness (Eileen Beaver). Note the excellent costumes (by Costume Designer Eileen Beaver) and the red hats!


The "Hats!" synopsis is as follows:

Hats! concerns a 49.999-year-old woman, MaryAnne, who reluctantly faces the inevitable 50th birthday. In the production, MaryAnne (Kathleen Flint) warms up to her 50th once she meets several remarkable women who show her about fun and friendship after 50. Hats! is based on the ideas of The Red Hat Society."

The show is full of post-50 uplift, with references to a variety of life landmarks.

Women must naturally be more inclined to celebrate life events and to dwell on retrospective thoughts. Natural historians, they are. I'm post-50 myself, and I like history, but if there is the male equivalent of the Red Hat Society, I'm unaware of it. As Wikipedia explains:

The Red Hat Society (RHS) is a social organization founded in 1998 for women approaching the age of 50 and beyond. As of July 2009, there are nearly 40,000 registered members and almost 24,000 chapters in the United States and 25 other countries. The Red Hat Society is the largest women’s social group in the world.

...The founder of the Society is artist Sue Ellen Cooper, who lives in Fullerton, California. In 1997, Cooper gave a friend a 55th birthday gift consisting of a red fedora purchased a year earlier at a thrift store along with a copy of Jenny Joseph's poem "Warning." The opening lines of the poem read:

“ When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat that doesn't go and doesn't suit me.”

Cooper repeated the gift on request several times, and eventually several of the women bought purple outfits and held a tea party.

Cooper never set out to ignite an international phenomenon. However, after spreading by word of mouth, the Society first received national publicity in 2000 through the magazine Romantic Homes and a feature in The Orange County Register. Cooper then established a "Hatquarters" to field the hundreds of e-mail requests for help starting chapters. She now serves as "Exalted Queen Mother", and has written two best-selling books about the Society.

The Director of the show, Susan Mason, was called upon, starting this weekend, to play the character 'Duchess'.

"In the song 'My Oven's Still Hot', 'Duchess' needed a male plant in the audience upon whose lap she would sit at the end of her number. She chose my lap. Afterwards, she thanked me for being a good sport. I thanked her for the unexpected excitement.

Several musical numbers stood out, particularly 'Celebrate', led by 'Lady' (Mary Young). I also liked the interesting word play in 'Just Like Me', sung by 'Princess' (Jeanette Hall). The cast had a lot of energy, and Eileen's costumes were wonderful (particularly Susan Mason's dresses).

Every show has its bobbles. At one point, in 'Yes We Can', control was lost over a ball of yarn, and it rolled into the audience. I tossed the ball of yarn back onstage, and the amused singers could could barely keep character.

Kathleen Flint played an affecting MaryAnne, the 49.999-year-old woman approaching the Big 5-O. MaryAnne's monologue drives the pace, particularly at the beginning of the show. At first, in order to keep the show from dragging, Kathleen kept a smart pace (maybe a touch too fast for post-50 sloths such as myself), and slowed down later as her character evolved, from tension to relaxation, from apprehension to acceptance, of the landmark age.

After the show, we all repaired to the nearby Hacienda Mexican restaurant, for a convivial Old-Folsom good time. We ate upstairs, outside, on the veranda.

While we ate, on the neighboring street, a solo motorcyclist headed into a curve while riding downhill, lost control approaching the traffic light, and was forced to lay his cycle down in the street. The sound of scraping metal on the pavement caught everyone's attention, and there was certainly damage, but it appeared as if injuries to the rider were fairly minor.

Why Is Scientific Progress So Slow?

There are lots of impediments:

Dutch police had already proudly announced they had found more than 47,000 cannabis plants, with an estimated street value of about $7.6million, concealed in a cornfield in the Flevoland province east of Amsterdam.

They mowed down half the plants only to be informed they were the property of Wageningen University and Research Centre, a respected agricultural school.

The field contained a new strain of hemp that researchers hoped could be a sustainable source of fibre, said Simon Vink, a spokesman for the executive board of Wageningen University and Research Centre.

The World's Fastest Indian

Using Google to hunt down Aussies at the Bonneville Salt Flats, I ran into this fun Anthony Hopkins trailer.

Managing The Creative Element

Every performing arts organization has days like this.

Here's To You!

Here is last month's Round Table Pizza commercial, featured on Sacramento channels 13 and 31, that incorporates portions of my video of Jetta singing karaoke, and wins us a free pizza in the process (the coupon was at first misdirected, but I'll have it in a few days).

Jetta calls me her agent. This is our first collaborative venture.

I submitted the video in a hurry - I only became aware of the contest on the last day of submissions, and just barely beat the deadline. I had only two videos of Jetta - both shot with my Olympus camera in the dark confines of karaoke clubs. It's not a bad little camera for $140.00, but still, it's substandard for trying to get those fine details in poor lighting.

Still, I'm pleased. A free pizza for very little work. What more could one ask?

Jetta, however, is livid that she can't be seen well, and more importantly, heard at all over the Round Table voiceover. She even considers her treatment to be unfair (winning the contest got her excited, you see, and she got her friends unnecessarily excited too), and if circumstances permitted, would even consider litigation.

Well, those are the breaks. It's not as if we ever had full creative control anyway. Stardom was never promised. The TV station was under no obligation to consider our entry. It's something nice for the resume; little more. Plus, there's a free pizza. A free pizza! And Round Table makes good pizzas! What more could one ask? If anyone's to blame, it's me for having the wrong tool for the task.

I dunno. Maybe I need a new camera? Maybe she needs a new agent? Maybe we all need a new perspective?

A lawsuit. Now THAT's the ticket!

Green Tree, And The Mobile Home Mortgage Ripoff Market

Since I'm now in the business of selling a mobile home in New Mexico, this story (via that endless fount of real estate horror stories, the Housing Bubble Blog) about Green Tree Servicing and the little ghetto of the mobile home mortgage business really caught my attention:

There are two widely accepted villains in the story of the housing market crash: greedy banks making predatory loans and greedy homebuyers buying McMansions. A third group gets less attention: people on society’s margins who had few housing choices except for high-interest mobile home loans.

On that list of 25 servicers was Green Tree Servicing, LLC, a Minnesota company that is the nation’s largest servicer of mobile home loans. According to Treasury Department figures, the mortgage modification program makes Green Tree eligible for more than $91 million in taxpayer money.

“That’s crazy. That’s really crazy,” Santa Fe bankruptcy lawyer Tami Schneider says.

To understand why Schneider thinks it’s so crazy, first understand Green Tree, a company that draws vitriol on sites like pissedconsumer.com, where a borrower calls the company “corporate bloodsuckers.” The company has faced allegations of predatory lending since the 1990s.

“Green Tree did a lot of bad shit,” Homewise Executive Director Mike Loftin says.

For a time, Schneider says, Green Tree was a creditor in most of the personal bankruptcies she handled. And among Santa Fe County mobile home owners in default, “you rarely see another lender,” she says.

...Green Tree not only services mobile home loans for other lenders; until 2003, it made many such loans itself. According to its 2008 “fact book,” Green Tree has 15,241 units under management in New Mexico, worth $496 million.

...Those residents’ financial troubles differ from the overextended McMansion set. Unlike many middle-class borrowers, mobile home residents have always been at risk of eviction.

“My perception is the rate of [mobile home] repossession is not appreciably different this year,” Green Tree general counsel Brian Corey says. “These are not the same types of credit you hear about in the mortgage market, where people were acquiring real estate without being able to pay for it.”

That may be half true. In its 2008 report, Green Tree boasts about its aggressive collections practices, thanks to its “personal relationships” with borrowers. That means “field visits”—rather than just phone calls—when a borrowers falls three months delinquent.

Those “personal relationships” mean Green Tree can make money even when borrowers default. They don’t mean the company shows mercy, as one recent and egregious local case demonstrates.

In 2000, Christina Gutierrez purchased a new double-wide Redman manufactured home with her then-boyfriend David Baros and his mother, Bernice. The home was installed at the Sierra Vista mobile home park on Zepol Road, a tidy neighborhood where many mobile homes have handmade “for sale” signs in the windows.

According to court documents, the home itself cost $61,600. Green Tree’s finance charge was more than double that amount: $128,700. That’s a nearly 10.72 percent annual interest rate. “It’s obviously high,” Loftin says. “People originating subprime loans don’t inform the borrower, ‘You could pay half the interest rate.’”

The buyers put $7,500 cash down and agreed to make 360 monthly payments of $509, plus property insurance, also from Green Tree.

Four years later, with $116 to her name and thousands in credit card and other debts, Gutierrez filed for bankruptcy.

At the time, she took home $1,600 a month working at what is now CHRISTUS St. Vincent Regional Medical Center, and the monthly home payment was by far her biggest single expense. Gutierrez could not be reached for comment.

Bankruptcy documents show Gutierrez surrendered her equity in the home. Nevertheless, Green Tree named her in its April 2009 lawsuit against the Baros family when they failed to make payments. As of April, they were $1,600 behind in payments on the mobile home. They still owed Green Tree more than $60,000—meaning they’d already paid more than the value of the home. David Baros, a trucker, lost his livelihood when his semi broke down, his mother tells SFR.

“My son was really trying. It really hurt him to lose his mobile home. That was his home; that was his independence. It was all he had,” Bernice Baros says.

...Such massive finance charges on mobile homes are typical, as several other local cases confirm. Bernice Baros says another family member was “harassed” by Green Tree for two years after trying to get out of a mobile home contract. Green Tree charged one Santa Fe woman $19,600 in finance charges on an $18,700 mobile home loan; it charged another $87,400 in finance charges on a $41,800 loan.

“I see people paying on mobile homes where the resale value is 10 grand and they’re paying these outrageous amounts of money,” Schneider says.

Furthermore, mobile home owners rarely own the land on which their homes sit.

“When you consider the payment on the house, plus the space rent, it’s a lot of money for what you’re getting,” Turetsky says.

...According to the Treasury Department, Green Tree offered to renegotiate the terms of 4 percent of its eligible loan portfolio through the mortgage modification program. Corey says mobile home loans aren’t eligible unless the borrower also owns the land. Which means Santa Fe’s approximately 2,500 trailer park residents aren’t about to get a break, even as the feds shovel millions of dollars at their creditors.

Two Items From Last Month: Item 2 - Ryan Warren

Left: Ryan Warren, second from left.


There were two theater-related items that I wanted to mention over the last month, or so, that I didn't blog about at the time because of NM-travel distraction.

The second news item regarded a feature in Inside The City on Ryan Warren:

After his sixth-grade acting debut as a Wizard of Oz flying monkey, Warren made a decision to start his own theater company. At the age of 13, and with a little help from his friend, River Park resident Julie Soto, Warren rounded up an all-star cast of kids who would sing, dance, act, write, direct, design and otherwise manage the production of live theater performances. Nine shows and six years later, Warren is now a Sacramento City College student running a full-blown, student-run theater company appropriately named after his first big break: Flying Monkey Productions.

"Everything is completely done by kids my age or younger," said Warren. For instance, River Park residents Riley O’Toole and Meghan Vanderford are high school juniors at Jesuit and St. Francis respectively. Both were also set designers for Warren’s production of Into the Woods, which was performed last spring at the Veterans Memorial Center Theater in Davis.

"My main mission from an artistic standpoint is to give students the opportunity to direct a show," says Warren. "When I was younger, my passion was leadership in theater, but there wasn’t much opportunity for me. So I felt that I needed to create that for other people." And that he has done. Warren beams when he talks about discovering a "boy genius and computer graphics whiz kid": 10-year-old Sierra Oaks Vista resident Jake Randle. (Randle does all the posters, fliers and computer art for Flying Monkey.)

And Warren lights up when he talks about Rio Americano High School student Blake Thomas, who at the age of 15 directed his first Flying Monkey production, Alice in Wonderland.

"There’s nothing like watching the kids you are working with as they learn, grow and become both skilled and confident right before your eyes," Warren says. "For me, sitting in the theater watching a show I have directed with the kids who love theater, watching those kids get so good at what they do, that’s like an out-of-body incredible experience."

...Warren also believes it’s best to spread the love. He’s a firm believer that actors learn best from a variety of directors, so he’s insistent on stepping aside so others can try their hand at directing. "I love seeing more kids getting the opportunity to student-direct a show," he says. "When I see what Blake did as a director, I am amazed. He learned a lot. All the students learned a lot.

..."I may be the leader on paper of this company, but the kids in the company are leaders, too, and they are not far behind me," he says. "That’s my main goal: to hone skills and build leaders for our community."

Two Items From Last Month: Item 1 - John & Juan

There were two theater-related items that I wanted to mention over the last month, or so, that I didn't blog about at the time because of NM-travel distraction.

The first news item regarded good friends John Hancock and Juan Ramos:

A proposed law to recognize a growing number of same-sex marriages performed in other states and countries is winding its way through California's Legislature.

...The bill's sponsor contends that his proposed changes to state family law are consistent with the California Supreme Court's nuanced decision in May to uphold Proposition 8.

...A same-sex couple in Sacramento with a stake in Leno's bill got married in Canada in 2007 before gay marriage was legal in California.

John Hancock, president of the California Channel, which airs government hearings, is married to Juan Ramos, who restores historical documents for the California secretary of state's office.

Ramos, 56, and Hancock, 55, wed in Vancouver, British Columbia, during a trip to celebrate Hancock's recovery after a drunken driver nearly killed him.

"I had skin grafts, scars. I was broken. And to have someone want to marry you and show you that devotion, I can't tell you what that does for you," Hancock said. "I want to demonstrate to people that I value my commitment."

Phoenix Rain Report

Deborah reports about last night's rain:

Tons in valley but a good solid one here, too!

I reply:

I wasn't sure whether it had rained where you were last night or not. On the radar it looked like a near-miss, and for some reason Sky Harbor Airport is just reporting a trace, but it also looked clear that some portions of the Valley were getting hammered. Nevertheless, a good, solid monsoon evening in the Valley!

Science says you will get a storm this evening about 6:30 p.m., with a couple of follow-up showers later on. May the Rain Spirits infuse the Science with Meaning!

Deborah replies:

And there shall be harmony in the Force!

Fighter Aircraft Just Fail In Civil Wars

In some ways, it might be better to ban the use of fighter aircraft altogether, these most inappropriate of tools. And note the initial, reflexive lies about the people they struck being Taliban. Like they say, truth is the first casualty of war:

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan (Reuters) – A U.S. warplane summoned by German troops fired on hijacked fuel trucks in Afghanistan before dawn Friday, killing as many as 90 people in an incident that could trigger a backlash against NATO.

NATO initially said it believed the casualties were all Taliban fighters, but later acknowledged that large numbers of wounded civilians were being treated in hospitals in the area.

Villagers said their relatives were siphoning fuel from the hijacked trucks and were burned alive in a giant fireball. Patients arrived in hospitals completely covered with burns.

...Lieutenant-Commander Christine Sidenstricker, press officer for the U.S. and NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), said Afghan authorities had reported two fuel trucks hijacked. NATO aircraft spotted them on a river bank.

"After observing that only insurgents were in the area, the local ISAF commander ordered air strikes which destroyed the fuel trucks and killed a large number of insurgents," she said.

ISAF spokesman Brigadier-General Eric Tremblay later said: "It would appear that many civilian casualties are being evacuated and treated in the local hospitals."

A U.S. defense official said the strike was carried out by an American F-15 jet. Germany's Defense Ministry said permission to fire had been granted by a German commander on the ground.

...Preventing civilian deaths has been one of the main themes of the new ISAF commander, U.S. Army General Stanley McChrystal, who took command in June and says the main goal of the war is to defend Afghan civilians, not hunt down insurgents.

Under orders he issued in July, aircraft are not supposed to fire unless they are sure there is no chance civilians can be hurt, or they are responding to an immediate threat.

The United Nations deputy envoy in Kabul, Peter Galbraith, said an investigation must answer "why an air strike was employed in circumstances where it was hard to determine with certainty that civilians were not present."

Thus Sprach Zarathustra - Early School Rehearsal Version

The sound quality is - indescribable. As if all those man-apes in 2001: A Space Odyssey were using their cache of leg bones to club mating cats.

Pac-Man Rap

More From Our (Supposedly) Liberal Media

Inquisitor

Gonzales Cantata

Pretty, but a bit melancholy. What they need is the Teabag Tabernacle Choir to give it a bit of grandiosity:

An opera, with the lyrics taken directly from the transcripts of the Alberto Gonzales hearings on the U.S. attorney scandal, will be performed this weekend in Philadelphia.

The "Gonzales Cantata," playing at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, is a 40-minute work made up of songs such as "I Don't Recall," "You Don't Recall," "What Is One To Think," and "This Is Not About Alberto Gonzales."

Losing One's Mind

This explains a lot:

Talking to an attractive woman really can make a man lose his mind, according to a new study.

The research shows men who spend even a few minutes in the company of an attractive woman perform less well in tests designed to measure brain function than those who chat to someone they do not find attractive.

Researchers who carried out the study, published in the Journal of Experimental and Social Psychology, think the reason may be that men use up so much of their brain function or 'cognitive resources' trying to impress beautiful women, they have little left for other tasks.

...Women, however, were not affected by chatting to a handsome man.

This may be simply because men are programmed by evolution to think more about mating opportunities.

Psychologists at Radboud University in The Netherlands carried out the study after one of them was so struck on impressing an attractive woman he had never met before, that he could not remember his address when she asked him where he lived.

Researchers said it was as if he was so keen to make an impression he 'temporarily absorbed most of his cognitive resources.'

To see if other men were affected in the same way, they recruited 40 male heterosexual students.

Each one performed a standard memory test where they had to observe a stream of letters and say, as fast as possible, if each one was the same as the one before last.

The volunteers then spent seven minutes chatting to male or female members of the research team before repeating the test.

The results showed men were slower and less accurate after trying to impress the women. The more they fancied them, the worse their score.

I Wonder Where E. Is?

It's supposed to be a work week, but....

On Monday morning, she arrived home at 4 a.m., but left by 7 a.m. On Tuesday morning, she complained of having been sick all night, and stayed home from work. On Wednesday morning, she complained of a terrible back ache, and could hardly walk, but stumbled off to work anyway. And that was the last time I saw her.

Hope she's all right.

Burning the candle at both ends, and in the middle too....

AZ Rainfall Potential

There is a nice 'dryline' (dry to the SW; moist to the NE) running through the Phoenix area right now. These tend to pump up storm energy - like those building up right now over the Superstitions.

Here's hoping!

I Like These U of A Rain Forecast Animations

Some of these rain forecast animations suggest storms will come by Ahwatukee (Phoenix) evening. The NAM run suggests the rain will just miss Ahwatukee, but this RUC run suggests sprinkles at least.

Some scattered showers are forecast for the Four Corners.

Brevity Is Golden

My favorite Paul Krugman sound-bite:

Fox Business News is available in 49 million homes and has 21,000 viewers.

That is all.

Sunset In Boulder, Colorado

And so, whatever happened to all that smoke from the large fires in southern California?

Lisa sends this photo from an acquaintance named Greg Summers at www.coloradophotos.com.

Greg calls this ominous photo "Sunset in Haze".

Jimena Dithers In Guaymas

Jimena has been a very puzzling storm so far. It has entertained by behaving differently than the forecasters first thought.

Yesterday, the storm crossed over Baja California from the Pacific. Last night, Jimena sat over the Sea of Cortez, suffered some mid-latitude wind shear, and weakened. Today, it is dumping lots of rain on Guaymas, Sonora.

According to weather forecasts, the weakening storm will change direction and head west tomorrow, crossing back over Baja California. I'm dubious about that forecast, since the storm shows little inclination to go west as of yet, but the storm's exact path from now on is less important, since it is fragmenting.

What is important is that the storm is dumping lots and lots of tropical moisture into northern Mexico, and not that far from Arizona. Today, the high-level moisture is streaming east into Big Bend country. The low-level moisture is likely to head north, however, and rejuvenate the monsoon this weekend. So, this may be a good weekend for rain in the Four Corners area, and into early next week.

Whither Jimena?

The models seem to agree that Jimena will slow down on its northward advance, then stop. The models disagree about what happens after that.

Just over half the models think Jimena will then turn west. The minority of models think Jimena will turn east.

No model seems to think Jimena will continue going north. Nevertheless, if only to cause confusion, that's what I think Jimena will ultimately decide. It's possible Jimena will follow Nora's example and move up the Sea of Cortez, and stealthily enter Arizona from the SW when no one is looking.

Of course, Jimena doesn't have to enter Arizona to strongly affect the weather there. All it has to do is pump lots of tropical moisture into the state, and that may suffice to rejuvenate the monsoon. Maybe it's better that way - lots of rain, but without the floods!

Which Way Jimena?

Ha! I've never seen such a divergence of modeling opinions about the path of any tropical storm! The models are suggesting Hurricane Jimena could go in ANY direction!

The NOGAPS model suggests that Jimena will approach the Arizona/ Sonora border from the south, but then balk, reverse direction, head back south again, and then eventually head west. Amazing what an international border can do! Mother Nature flinches!

The trouble is that the storm is likely to enter this perfect little zone, where the southwesterly winds just match the pressure gradient from the northeast. So, the storm can't go west, or go east, or for that matter, can't go north or south either. So, like some out-of-control washing machine, the storm flings apart and breaks up in place, drowning the unfortunate Sonorans below in the process.

Nevertheless, I find this scenario implausible. The storm WILL go somewhere, just not very fast.

Here's hoping it goes north, like it's supposed to. You know, the natural order of things....

Half-Lobster, Half-Man

When at Lake Tahoe last Sunday, I apparently didn't spread enough suntan lotion on just the left half of my body.

I feel like I belong in that old Star Trek episode, where Frank Gorshin ran around the Enterprise divided into two halves.

American Meritocracy

On the occasion of Jenna Bush Hager joing the Today show, Glenn Greenwald comments on our American Meritocracy:

They should convene a panel for the next Meet the Press with Jenna Bush Hager, Luke Russert, Liz Cheney, Megan McCain and Jonah Goldberg, and they should have Chris Wallace moderate it. They can all bash affirmative action and talk about how vitally important it is that the U.S. remain a Great Meritocracy because it's really unfair for anything other than merit to determine position and employment. They can interview Lisa Murkowski, Evan Bayh, Jeb Bush, Bob Casey, Mark Pryor, Jay Rockefeller, Dan Lipinksi, and Harold Ford, Jr. about personal responsibility and the virtues of self-sufficiency. Bill Kristol, Tucker Carlson and John Podhoretz can provide moving commentary on how America is so special because all that matters is merit, not who you know or where you come from. There's a virtually endless list of politically well-placed guests equally qualified to talk on such matters.

About this latest hiring by NBC, Atrios observed: "if only the Villager values of nepotism and torture could be combined somehow." The American Prospect's Adam Serwer quicky noted that they already have been: "Liz Cheney." Liz Cheney is really the perfect face of Washington's political culture, a perfect manifestation of all the rotting diseases that define it and a pure expression of what our country has become and the reasons for its virtual ruin. She should really be on every political TV show all day every day. It's almost as though things can't really be expressed thoroughly without including her. Jenna Bush as a new NBC "reporter" on The Today Show -- at a time when every media outlet is firing and laying off real reporters -- is a very nice addition though.

UPDATE: Just to underscore a very important, related point: all of the above-listed people are examples of America's Great Meritocracy, having achieved what they have solely on the basis of their talent, skill and hard work -- The American Way. By contrast, Sonia Sotomayor -- who grew up in a Puerto Rican family in Bronx housing projects; whose father had a third-grade education, did not speak English and died when she was 9; whose mother worked as a telephone operator and a nurse; and who then became valedictorian of her high school, summa cum laude at Princeton, a graduate of Yale Law School, and ultimately a Supreme Court Justice -- is someone who had a whole litany of unfair advantages handed to her and is the poster child for un-American, merit-less advancement.

Utah Caveman's Example

All you need is focus and determination:

He may be the only man in America who has not lost a cent to the recession. That is because Daniel Suelo, a 48-year-old hermit from Utah, decided eight years ago to stop using money. He has spent the past three years living in a cave but still manages to record his experiences in an internet diary.

...Judging by some of the responses to the website and blog that he maintains via a free computer at a public library in Moab, Utah, plenty of Americans wonder if he is also totally without sense.

“You live in a cave?” commented one of his readers. “Forgive me if this doesn’t sound like the future of mankind.” Another added: “You are out of your mind.”

...It was during a trip to Alaska more than a decade ago that Suelo first realised he did not need money to live off the land. With a Basque friend named Anders, “we speared fish, ate mushrooms and berries and lived very well ... then we hit the road, hitchhiking, and realised how generous people were”.

Suelo, who was raised in a strict evangelical family, said he had long wondered why so few Christians who considered themselves devout were prepared to adopt the ascetic lifestyle espoused by Jesus. After a visit to India and Thailand he became fascinated with Tibetan Buddhism and Hindu sadhus, the holy men who wander the country without money or possessions.

Suelo began to wonder if he could become an American sadhu — a wandering ascetic in “one of the most materialistic money-worshipping nations on earth ... to be a vagabond, a bum, and make an art of it — this idea enchanted me”.

In 2001, fed up with a series of low-paying jobs in Colorado, he turned his back on civilisation and headed to the hills where he has lived, on and off, ever since. His home is a 5ft by 15ft cave in a desert canyon an hour’s hike from Moab.

...Living off a diet of desert plants, squashed animal carcasses and leftovers scavenged from rubbish bins, Suelo alternates long periods of solitude in his cave with hitch-hiking trips around the country.

“I’ve eaten squirrel, raccoon, rabbit and deer,” he said. “I’ve also eaten ants, grubs, grasshoppers, crickets, termites, lizards and snakes.”

He is used to being treated with contempt when restaurant owners catch him going through their dustbins, but Suelo retorts that what is really contemptible is how much perfectly good food Americans routinely throw away.

While much of his blog and website is filled with unreadable anti-corporate rants and long meditations on “the institutionalised bastardisations of Christianity”, he also provides a useful primer on living rough, from which tree bark makes the best tea to the tastiest parts of the thistle.

There are plenty of provocative asides that have generated spirited internet discussion. Many have identified with Suelo’s remark that “as I let go of useless possessions, I found more and more that I needed less and less ... It was like a tree dropping its leaves”.

He has also ignited an angry backlash from others who complain that he is only too happy to make free use of the costly internet facilities that others are paying for through their taxes.

“Who do you think pays for the internet at the library where you write this blog?” complained one reader. “You have the qualifications to get a job but, instead, you choose to leech off society.”

Suelo said he had no idea how long he would continue to live in his cave: “But the more I live this way, the more absurd it seems to go back to living in the prison of money. I was unhappy with money and I’m happy free of it.”

The Concern Troll Leaps Into Action

The 'reconciliation' approach would be very, very bad for Democrats! (Funny, reconciliation didn't bother the Republicans when they were in the majority.) And as Alexander knows full well, Americans continue to strongly support health care reform, despite Republican efforts to pack town hall meetings with their strident shills:

Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) on Tuesday said a partisan approach to health reform this fall would "wreck our healthcare system and wreck the Democratic Party," raising the stakes of a go-it-alone strategy that Democratic leaders are considering.

At 59 votes with the passing of Sen. Edward Kennedy (Mass.), Democrats have said they will consider the use of a legislative tactic called reconciliation that could allow chunks of health reform legislation to be passed with a simple majority of 51 votes, instead of the 60 that normally would be required to overcome procedural obstacles.

Alexander said that town hall meetings last month demonstrated most Americans are opposed to reform and that Democrats should heed the message.

"The intensity on this across the country is something that I haven’t seen before," Alexander said. "If they thought that one party was going to try to ram through a proposal that would increase the debt, there’d be a minor revolution."

Alexander also predicted such a strategy would yield a "Swiss cheese" approach because the Senate parliamentarian would be forced to prohibit votes on large sections of the bill that may be considered irrelevant to deficit reduction.

Pure Republican Condescension

Like Steve Benen says:

Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R) of Kansas has, all of a sudden, started making quite a name for herself. Last week, the far-right lawmaker said she hopes to see a "great white hope" step up to defeat President Obama and congressional Democrats. Now a clip is making the rounds with Jenkins sharing her thoughts on the plight of the uninsured.

In this clip, taken at a July town hall meeting, Jenkins is confronted by a constituent named Elizabeth Smith -- a full-time waitress with two young kids. Smith's employer doesn't provide insurance, and she can't afford private coverage. Smith's not looking for a handout; she's looking for an affordable choice.

"I want an option that I can pay for," Smith told her representative. "I work. I pay my bills. I'm not a burden on the state. I pay my taxes. So why can't I get an affordable option? Why are you against that?"

Jenkins responds, literally chuckling at the question, "A government-run program is going to subsidize not only yours but everybody in this room. So I'm not sure what we're talking about here."

Jenkins went on to tell Smith that "people should be given the opportunity to take care of themselves with a refund, or an advanceable [sic] tax credit, to go be a grown-up and go buy the insurance."

"Be a grown-up"? The taxpaying constituent Jenkins was blithely dismissing works full time and takes care of two young kids. She is a "grown-up." Indeed, tens of millions of Americans are lacking coverage -- some due to pre-existing conditions, some because their insurers dropped them through rescission, some because they can't afford it -- and it's not because they haven't "grown up."

I'm trying to remember the last time I saw a member of Congress take such a condescending attitude towards struggling American families. Nothing comes to mind.

Later, Smith explained she hasn't been able to take her two-year-old son to a doctor in 21 months, except for emergency room visits for ear infections. "I am frustrated," she said. "In a functioning, civil society, people take care of each other."

I keep wondering if there might be one game-changing moment in the debate, a turning point in which one person stands up and becomes a symbol for the larger cause. That's probably not realistic, though I thought we might have seen such a moment recently when Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) callously rejected the concerns of a woman whose husband is a brain-injury victim. It got a little attention, but in general, people didn't care.

Maybe Elizabeth Smith's plight will gain more traction? She doesn't want charity; she wants an affordable choice for her and her family. Democrats want to give her one. And yet, here we have at least one Republican lawmaker who finds the idea of giving struggling families a choice laugh-out-loud funny. Indeed, she'd like to see Americans who can't afford coverage do more to "go be a grown-up."

Billionaires For Wealthcare

They Keep Shifting Jimena To The East

Dagnabit, the NOGAPS model keeps shifting Jimena to the east, which would send most of the rain into Sonora and NM, rather than AZ. Nevertheless, hope is not lost, because the models disagree about the storm's exact path, and also because there is some suggestion that the storm's passage could reinvigorate the monsoon even if it didn't cross AZ. As always, we will see what happens.....

SoCal Firefighting Dilemma

OK, we've changed our minds:

When the Station fire barreled toward their community in the Gold Canyon area, they refused to leave.

But then firefighters set backfires in the area, and now the five residents are asking to be rescued, according to authorities.

The problem is there is no way to get to them. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department considered sending a helicopter up to get them, but fire officials advised it would be too dangerous.

Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said the department is now monitoring conditions and figuring out how to get them.

The Tilt Of Hurricane Bill's Eye

Frank sent this interesting link regarding Hurricane Bill.

I remember learning in dynamic meteorology that, as one goes from lower to higher elevations in closed circulations, there is a marked tilt of the circulation towards colder air, with the magnitude of the tilt dependent on the horizontal temperature gradient.

Hurricane Bill’s radar reflectivity diagram actually shows the rightward tilt of the eyewall, consistent with colder air being located towards the right.

Evolutionary Dead End In Missouri

Survival of the fittest apparently means the death of light-hearted humor:

Sedalia — T-shirts promoting the Smith-Cotton High School band’s fall program have been recalled because of concerns about the shirt’s evolution theme.

...Designed with the help of band director Jordan Summers and assistant director Brian Kloppenburg, the light gray shirts feature an image of a monkey progressing through various stages of evolution until eventually becoming a human. Each figure holds a brass instrument that also evolves, illustrating the theme “Brass Evolutions.”

“I was disappointed with the image on the shirt,” said Sherry Melby, a band parent who teaches in the district. “I don’t think evolution should be associated with our school.”

But other parents were just as dismayed that the shirts were taken away from students at the Sedalia school.

“Whatever happened to the separation of church and state?” asked Alena Hoeffling, who was furious about the decision. “If I wanted my children to be sheltered, I would have enrolled them in private school.”

After practice Friday afternoon, band members piled the shirts on a table. Sophomore band member Denyel Luke said the reaction by some to the evolution theme was a little extreme.

“It’s not like we are saying God is bad,” Luke said. “We aren’t promoting evolution.”

Jimena Arizona Update

The forecast looks real interesting right now. They are shifting the forecast track east a bit, meaning that the Colorado River Valley may not get much rain. Still, the rest of the state should get some rain, with some places getting a LOT of rain.

As the storm crosses Baja and comes ashore on the desert Sonoran coast, it's forecast to break into two parts: the central part of the storm heading into Arizona on a beeline from Nogales to Monument Valley, and the secondary part heading NE over the Sierra Madre towards El Paso, and the Organ Mtns. near Las Cruces, NM.

You Suck At Photoshop

Via Skynoise, a number of episodes regarding the life of Donnie Hoyle.

Lemmings Of The Alps

Swiss weirdness:

In the picturesque Swiss village of Lauterbrunnen, the locals are worried.

Dozens of alpine cows appear to be committing suicide by throwing themselves off a cliff near the small village in the Alps.

In the space of just three days, 28 cows and bulls have mysteriously died after they plunged hundreds of metres to rocks below where they were killed instantly.

Message From Meyers, California

A hometown shoutout to Jaycee Lee Dugard.