Giorgio's back! And Karina will soon be here! Apply that Latin to Roseville!
With Pepper and crew completely decamped across the country in Orlando, we needed an aerobics substitute, so we got Kristen from U-Jam Fitness, based at Diversity Dance and Fitness, in Elk Grove.Hey Marc: Why is it so cool here in SC this summer?!?!? Yesterday it was 63 at noon! In august! And, we haven't hit 95 yet all summer!I had woken up from a fitful sleep, so I answered:
Usually it is because the position of the long wave trough shifted westward, directly over SC, compared to usual of the coast. Will check later. Strange things have been afoot all summer. Started with the unusual breakdown of the polar vortex into 2 vortices, and has continued with slow tropical storm season. And no matter what else happens, drought in NM.Still the question gnawed at me. What was up?
August 15, 2013, 12Z (7 am EST). High over Ohio is about 1023 mb. Vigorous flow from the NE. Cold air funneling from New England.
August 12, 2011, 12Z (7 am EST): High over Ohio is about 1017 mb. Similar to 2013 situation, but weaker.
I decided to water the embankment in front of my house at 1:10 a.m. (The sprinklers don't reach there and it's so nice and peaceful out.)
Gabe says it's a metaphor for my life: going around in circles. He also suggested: "It's like that marvelous Boris Karloff film, 'The Juggler of Our Lady' (1958). Remember that?:Medieval times. A juggler has little success making a living; he puts on a hair shirt and becomes an ascetic, but attracts only other ascetics. Finally, in desperation, he becomes a monk. He visits the other monks, who all glorify the Lady with their skills: cooking, painting, sculpture, etc. He tries helping them, but botches it. A festival is held for the Lady, and each of the monks offers his gift, but the juggler has nothing. Frustrated, he juggles for her, all night, alone.So, this is the gift of the squirrel?
I like the idea of a metaphor from the heavens the best: going around in circles."More. More. More. How do you like it? How do you like your love?" That's all there was.Sometimes I wish I was back in the mid-1970's. Best. Era. Ever.
A new golden patch on the back lawn. It's from a small cotton wood tree in my back yard. Suddenly it's dropping most of its leaves. 
The eucalyptus tree next door decided to offload a bunch of leaves too. That tree has grown so tall in just a few years. It worries me for the future. What goes up must come down - but where? On my bedroom?While these days we hear more about heroin and prescription drug abuse in New Mexico, meth is still huge in this region.
...In 2008, the year "Breaking Bad" started airing, officials seized 2,241 kilograms of meth in the Southwest region. In 2012, it was 10,137 kilograms. The DEA credits better enforcement.
But Kevin Abar with Homeland Security Investigations here in Albuquerque today says they're seeing an increase in something really concerning.
"We're seeing a high grade, pharmaceutical quality meth that's coming into our communities. We're seeing meth with purity rates anywhere from 98 to 99 percent pure meth, which is just unbelievable that we're seeing those qualities," Abar said.
That pure, potent meth is exactly the kind of product Walter White or "Heisenburg" make in his Albuquerque lab.
In real life, it's coming into the United States from Mexico. They're doing it in labs, with white coats, as if they're making Viagra or anything else.
I don't understand this workplace stuff. That's why they put me in hidden corner, I suppose.
Kate prepares us to hold up banners wishing Josh a speedy recovery.
Along with a tidal wave of press celebrating the final eight episodes of the best TV series ever, a wonderful article in the New Yorker!:When I spoke with Ball, the Candy Lady, about the influx of interest in the state’s more sordid affairs, she told me that she doesn’t see a downside to it. She also told me that last year, just as her sugary narcotics made national news, her daughter-in-law died from a meth overdose. The reality of her life and that of the show are constantly in collision, in a way that might make other people turn away and look forward to its end. But she doesn’t want “Breaking Bad” to be over. She’ll keep selling blue rocks as long as the people arrive. “The whole world can see Albuquerque now,” she says. “They see us with all our problems. We’re not shy about it, just as I’m not shy about mine. But the people … they also see the sky. They never knew!
It is clear that Bitcoin can be used as money. It can be used to purchase goods or services, and as Shavers stated, used to pay for individual living expenses. The only limitation of Bitcoin is that it is limited to those places that accept it as currency. However, it can also be exchanged for conventional currencies, such as the U.S. dollar, Euro, Yen, and Yuan. Therefore, Bitcoin is a currency or form of money, and investors wishing to invest in BTCST provided an investment of money.
Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries, Koch Industries.Or, as E.: might say:
MMMMMAAAAARRRRRCCCCC! Koch Industries!
“When you include their name in the search, it draws attention to it and lets the reporter know that you mean business and you’re going to hold them responsible,” McCarthy told me over the phone. For another seafaring client, the National Fisheries Institute, he bought Google ads against the names of three Vogue reporters — and their editor, Anna Wintour — who wrote about high levels of mercury in fish.Holy crap, if they distrust me enough, they'll buy ads on the Internet saying I'm a sniveling, lying, unreliable blogger.
...Targeting reporters where they hang out online is McCarthy’s grating specialty. He went after ABC News, on behalf of the Formaldehyde Council, with ads ... on Mediabistro’s TVNewser. “It was virtually a guarantee that they and all their competitors were going to see it,” McCarthy told me with more than a little relish.
The 10,000-year-old desert is changing, scientists say. Grasses are in a cycle of collapse, overwhelmed by hardy and long-lived shrubs such as mesquite and creosote.According to Drought Monitor, at least things improved enough in Socorro this summer to move from 'Exceptional' to 'Extreme' drought. Celebrate what little progress there is....
Have the Koch brothers--the super wealthy conservative king makers--been holed up this week at the posh Hyatt Tamaya resort in Bernalillo? Seems so. Readers turned sleuths have been on the trail. A Senior Alligator came with this after we ran a pic Monday of GOP US Rep. Paul Ryan at Chicago's O'Hare airport preparing to catch a Sunday flight to New Mexico:
I wonder if Paul Ryan was going to stop by and say "hi" to the Koch Brothers who, may or may not be sequestered with a few of their friends at Hyatt Tamaya. A source told me, not confirmed, that the Hyatt kitchen has been taken over by personal chefs. They also say that everyone working this week had to pass background checks, that all rooms and facilities are rented but not necessarily occupied.
And take a look at this from the Hyatt Tamaya reservations page:We would like to inform all of our guests that we will be fully occupied from August 3rd through the afternoon of August 6th. During these dates there will be no access to the resort and overnight stays, restaurant reservations, spa and salon appointments, fitness center, horseback riding and golf tee times will be unavailable.
It's advertising, I know, but it's also true. In my view, the prime driver is the use of Compact Fluorescent Lights (CFLs). They save a ton of energy and money!Hey Marc,I had seen the article in the press:
I just saw this article on reddit. My initial reaction was skepticism but it appears to be true. If that is the case it is astounding. this is the sort of thing we were always told happened in the USSR or East Germany. And the real problem is that, with the federal government denying that it is monitoring all phone calls and internet use, how did they even get the information to conduct this travesty of justice? Is this what America has become?
John
[T]hey were peppering my husband with questions. Where is he from? Where are his parents from? They asked about me, where was I, where do I work, where do my parents live. Do you have any bombs, they asked. Do you own a pressure cooker? My husband said no, but we have a rice cooker. Can you make a bomb with that? My husband said no, my wife uses it to make quinoa. What the hell is quinoa, they asked. ...I reply:
Have you ever looked up how to make a pressure cooker bomb? My husband, ever the oppositional kind, asked them if they themselves weren’t curious as to how a pressure cooker bomb works, if they ever looked it up. Two of them admitted they did.
Yes, this is what America has become. It just means that truly private thoughts should never be entered into a keyboard and truly private actions should never be done in the presence of a cell phone. If you want to keep travels private be careful about the Feds watching your itinerary. Any kind of GPS instrumentation is risky, and there are instruments in any modern car. Better to go on a bike. We've twisted the concept of espionage too, to mean any unauthorized release of data, whether to an identifiable foe, or not. There will be consequences of all this, but just what they are isn't clear yet.
Here are the locations of the billboards.
– Lead & Broadway
– Montano & I-25 (in Car Crafter’s parking lot)
– Eubank & Candelaria (Silva’s Lanes Bowling parking lot)
– San Mateo & Prospect (just south of Menaul, facing north)
– Osuna & Vista Del Norte – across from Sandia Prep, facing EAST
– Unser & Wellspring in Rio Rancho, just north of the ABQ city line in front of Presbyterian Rust Hospital
- Rust Hospital as well, other side of the billboard.
Yesterday, I wrote the West Nile people: "I'm writing to inform you that I missreported the location of the dead crow. It is not at 920, but rather, across from 911 20th Street, Sacramento, CA 95811. I put it in a white plastic garbage plastic bag, but did not move it to a secure location, because I didn't really have one." (Plus, the last thing I wanted to do was take a potentially-diseased corpse home, which is a secure location, but which I've also been trying to keep Scrub-Jay-friendly.)
Dozens of operatives working for the Central Intelligence Agency were on the ground in Benghazi on the night of a Sept. 11, 2012 attack upon a U.S. consulate post that left Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others dead, CNN reported Thursday:Since January, some CIA operatives involved in the agency's missions in Libya, have been subjected to frequent, even monthly polygraph examinations, according to a source with deep inside knowledge of the agency's workings.
The goal of the questioning, according to sources, is to find out if anyone is talking to the media or Congress.
It is being described as pure intimidation, with the threat that any unauthorized CIA employee who leaks information could face the end of his or her career.
TALLAHASSEE — Tony Bennett resigned Thursday as Florida education commissioner following two days of raging controversy over school grading in his home state of Indiana.
...Coming to Florida from the Hoosier State in January, Bennett had faced mounting calls for his resignation in the wake of revelations, first reported by the Associated Press, that he interceded on behalf of an Indiana charter school run by a prominent Republican Party donor. On Thursday, he called those reports "malicious and unfounded" but said, "I don't think the children of Florida, the state Board of Education or our governor deserve me constantly having to deal with this while commissioner."
...His tenure encountered some early bumps in June, when superintendents leaned on him to institute a "safety net" to prevent school grades from dropping dramatically. Bennett had some misgivings, but ultimately conceded.
The exercise sparked a statewide dialogue about the validity of school grades, which dipped despite the padding. One member of the state Board of Education questioned if the state had to release grades at all.
Amid the controversy, scathing emails published by the Associated Press showed that Bennett had made changes to the school grading formula in Indiana after learning that a high-profile charter school would be awarded a "C" grade.
"They need to understand that anything less than an A for Christel House compromises all of our accountability work," Bennett wrote in one email.
The formula was tweaked and Christel House received an "A."
Bennett has denied that the decision was motivated by politics. He said he ordered the change because Christel House lost points for not having a graduation rate, despite only enrolling students from kindergarten through 10th grade.
A dozen other schools benefited from the change, he said.
"It is absurd that anyone would believe that I would change the grade of school based on a political donor, or based on trying to hide a school from accountability," Bennett told reporters Tuesday. "It's fictitious, at best, and it's totally unfounded. What we did do is make sure we were getting a transparent policy right for Indiana schools and Indiana schoolchildren."
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says it’s extremely disappointed in Russia’s decision to grant asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.Give me a freakin' break!
White House spokesman Jay Carney says Snowden isn’t a whistleblower or a dissident. He says it’s not a positive development for U.S.-Russia relations and says the move undermines Russia’s record of law enforcement cooperation with the U.S.
Carney says the White House is re-evaluating whether a planned fall summit with President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin should still occur.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) called Russia's decision to grant NSA leaker Edward Snowden temporary asylum Thursday "a slap in the face of all Americans."The last thing the United States should ever - EVER! - do is push for missile defense completion. All those missiles do is aggravate tensions and protect no one of consequence. And we should never, NEVER, EVER - EVER! - expand NATO to include Georgia. The last time we were in the situation when NATO was considering expansion, Georgia proceeded to attack Russian territory, precipitating the 2009 war where Russia handed Georgia its ass for its troubles. Georgia is the loosest of loose cannons. It will invade Russia at the slightest pretext or encouragement, and getting free nuclear protection from the United States via NATO would be just the trick. When you go around invading nuclear powers, there might be hell - and I do mean HELL - to pay! Russia didn't release nukes in 2009, but who knows about the future? I would like to get through my lifetime without a nuclear war, thank you. It would be safer giving Charles Manson nuclear warheads, for chrissakes.
...“The first thing we should do is significantly expand the Magnitsky Act list to hold accountable the many human violators who are still enjoying a culture of impunity in Russia. We should push for the completion of all phases of our missile defense programs in Europe, and move expeditiously on another round of NATO expansion, including the Republic of Georgia," he continued. "We should challenge the political convictions and detentions of Russian dissidents such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Alexei Navalny. And perhaps most importantly, we should speak out on behalf of the many people in Russia who increasingly are finding the courage to peacefully demand greater freedom, accountability, and rule of law in Russia."
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. judge ruled on Wednesday that the Federal Reserve ignored the intent of Congress regarding a controversial cap on debit card “swipe fees” that are part of a dispute between banks and retailers.
The 2010 Dodd-Frank law called for the Fed to cap such fees, which banks charge to retailers when their customers use debit cards to make purchases.
Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia sided with retailers, who argued the Fed’s 21 cent cap was higher than Congress intended.
“The Board has clearly disregarded Congress’s statutory intent by inappropriately inflating all debit card transaction fees by billions of dollars and failing to provide merchants with multiple unaffiliated networks for each debit card transaction,” Leon wrote in his ruling.
...“From the very beginning, retailers and restaurants knew the Federal Reserve Board of Governors had grossly misapplied the swipe fee law,” Mallory Duncan, general counsel at the National Retail Federation, said in a statement after the ruling.
“They failed to heed Congress’ call to set fee standards that were ‘reasonable’ and ‘proportional’ to the actual cost of a transaction,” Duncan said.
But when it comes to a prescription for the party’s electoral ills, a majority of GOP voters said their leaders should move further to the right, not the center. Fifty-four percent of Republicans told Pew that party leaders should move in a “more conservative direction,” while 40 percent said they should take a “moderate direction.”
With regard to the issues dominating Washington these days, more Republicans believe that the party’s positions are not conservative enough. By a roughly two-to-one margin, more Republicans said the party’s position on immigration is not conservative enough than those who said the position is too conservative. The margin ballooned to four-to-one when it came to the party’s position on government spending.
On gay marriage, slightly more Republicans (31 percent) said the party’s position is too conservative than the number who said it’s not conservative enough (27 percent). Gun policy was the only issue tested by Pew wherein a majority (58 percent) said the party’s position was about right.
LA SYLPHIDE is one of the world's oldest surviving romantic ballets, dating back to August Bournonville's 1836 version based on an adaptation of an 1832 French ballet of the same name. The version presented today has been adapted by choreographer Johan Kobborg and gleams anew at the Bolshoi Ballet. Starring Ekaterina Krysanova, Vyacheslav Lopatin, Anna Rebetskaya and Denis Savin, the human realm of a small Scottish village becomes transformed by the appearance of beautiful, winged spirits.Here is a delightful video featuring Ekaterina Krysanova. Loved her musicality!
Here is a pleasant scene, across from 920 20th St. in Midtown - except for one detail. Walking back to work from Subway after lunchtime, I stumbled across a dead crow. It was disturbing, because this location, right next to a sidewalk, is in a high-traffic area, full of passersby, and their dogs. So, realizing the dangerous and contagious nature of the West Nile virus that has swept through the area in recent years, I reported the dead crow to the Authorities.
There's the dead crow.
Now, in a plastic bag.LIVE. THOSE WHO LIVE AROUND HERE BLAME THE LEVEE FOR THE OVERWHELMING FLOODING. THEY SAY IT BROKE... OVERFLOWING THE ARROYO AND SENDING WATER RUSHING THROUGH STREETS. TAKE A LOOK AT THIS STOP SIGN RIGHT HERE -- LIFTED UP OUT OF ITS FOUNDATION -- AND KNOCKED DOWN IN THE RAIN AND WIND. AND THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING OF THE DAMAGE.Blame the levee all you like: it's not the responsible party. Take a look in the mirror, maybe.
Joyce Daza's garage is filled up with about half a foot of mud. She says this is the 2nd time since she's lived here that flooding has damaged her home. This time it's worse because that levee we think broke and the levee is made of Earth, so, it brought all of the mud this time NOW FACING 100 THOUSAND DOLLARS WORTH OF DAMAGE, DAZA IS TURNING TO NEIGHBORS FOR HELP... CLEARING DIRT FROM FRONT YARDS AND USING SANDBAGS TO PROTECT HOMES FROM THE NEXT MAJOR RAINFALL to shore up the houses for the next onslaught that's coming from the South. NEIGHBORS SAY THE FIRE DEPARTMENT WAS HERE TODAY... ASSESSING THE DAMAGE AND TRYING TO FIND THE BEST WAY TO CLEAR STREETS. IN CORRALES LAURA THOREN KOAT ACTION 7 NEWS. ACTION 7 NEWS REACHED OUT TO THE CORRALES' MAYOR'S OFFICE TO FIND OUT WHY THE LEVEE WAS NOT MAINTAINED... OUR CALLS WERE NOT ANSWERED.If they make the levee out of concrete, the water will eat through the sandy soil and undermine the concrete foundations. Concrete is not the solution. Nor is it weather modification. Prayer won't help either.
Flossie's center of circulation will glide over or near the "Big Island" of Hawaii Monday. This will lead to gusty winds and the potential for some tree damage, higher swells reaching east-facing shores, and an attendant threat of rip currents.
You probably remember KTVU’s royal eff up with reading obviously fake Asian names for the pilots of the Asiana crash. Names like “Wi To Lo” and “Ho Lee Fuk”.
It looks like a Korean news agency is having some fun at KTVU’s expense. After the landing gear failure of the Southwest flight at LGA they showed this graphic with American pilot names “Captain Kent Parker Wright”, “Co-Captain Wyatt Wooden Workman”.
They even went as far as making up fake names for people to interview. Flight instructor “Heywood U. Flye-Moore” and skeptical passenger “Macy Lawyers”.
Well played Korean TV, well played.
Corinne and Margaret waiting for a ride at Step One.
KO1 Fitness - Hayward.
Singing in the park, right behind the flowering tree, across the street.
Pepper Von wasn't present, but his evidence was everywhere.
Master class (Nina, Corinne, and Martin in foreground).
Tyehimba bangs the skins.
Posing for pictures after the Master Class.
Remarkable still life.
For the past year or so, the ISO has been engaged in a series of disputes with JPMorgan over the investment bank's trades and other business practices. The disputes are being refereed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has generally sided with California in a series of preliminary rulings.So, does the Sacramento Bee's Dale Kasler come to blindingly-obvious conclusion? No, he does not. When FERC is under the control of Republicans (as in 2001) efforts to recover damages are impossible to achieve. Only when Democrats have a dominant voice (like in 2013) is justice even possible.
Among other things, FERC suspended JPMorgan's authority to trade electricity at a profit for allegedly lying to investigators about its California trades. The commission also ordered JPMorgan to stop obstructing the renovation of two Huntington Beach power plants; state officials said the renovations could prove critical in avoiding blackouts in Southern California this summer.
In March, FERC officially warned JPMorgan of a "possible enforcement action" over its trading methods, according to a regulatory filing.
After consistently denying any wrongdoing, JPMorgan appears ready to settle. The total settlement, covering the firm's operations in California and the Midwest, could reportedly surpass $500 million.
Never before has there been a recorded sighting of a Rufous-necked wood-rail in the United States, but for the last two weeks one of the birds has been right at home among the cattails at Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge. Typically, the species is found along the coasts and in tropical forests in Central and South America, far from parched New Mexico.
...The phones have been ringing off the hook at Bosque del Apache since the bird, about the size of a small chicken, was first spotted on the morning of July 7.
..."It's way cool. We have people flying into Albuquerque every day, from Florida, California, the East Coast," Mize said. "There are people coming in renting cars and driving down because it's such a neat and rare event."
Legendary birder Sandy Komito was there last Tuesday and Wednesday to see the wood-rail. He holds the "big year" record for seeing or hearing the largest number of bird species in North America in a single year.
Throughout his 73 years of bird-watching, Komito had seen only one other Rufous-necked wood-rail. Last Tuesday, he gave up after spending 11 hours at the refuge and getting more of a suntan than he wanted. He wasn't happy. He heard it was spotted again late in the evening so he raced down the next morning and there it was. His camera sounded like a pneumatic jackhammer as the shutter fired, capturing close to 200 shots of the bird.
...Refuge officials also recalled the story of an Iowa man who flew into Denver, rented a car and drove down to see the wood-rail only to be disappointed. After driving back to Denver and turning in his rental, he got a phone call that the bird had reappeared. It was enough for him to change his flight, get another rental and drive back down.
Walter may have wanted us to believe — and may, at moments, have convinced himself — that he was a decent man driven by desperate circumstances to do terrible things, but that notion was either wishful thinking or tactical deceit. ... “Breaking Bad” reveals itself as the story of a man mastering his vocation and fighting to claim his rightful place in the world. Its dark, morally scandalous vision has been imposed on the kind of tale that is, more conventionally, an inspiring parable of entrepreneurial gumption. This formula turns out to be well suited to the times.
Here's where this song is so amazingly prophetic. Looking at it now, through the lens of the crash, you can see how it envisions the American economy as nothing more than an elaborate Choctaw bingo enterprise, with lots of flashing lights to lure in the unwary and the unlucky, a system that, for all its fancy formulas and talk of risk assignment, is nothing more than a sucker's game. And later in the song, McMurtry explicitly names the scam at the heart of it: subprime mortgages.
