I've Been Experimenting With Taking Fewer Showers

With this intense California drought, 2014 is going to be a tough, tough, tough time! Time to start adapting, just like the Iranian who hasn't taken a bath in sixty years.

I went four days this week without a shower (although I do wash my hair and face daily in the sink) - not yet up to a sixty years hiatus. Still, the period did encompass two Fierce Funk workouts at the gym.

In years past, I've developed a rash on my calves every winter: usually at its worst in March. Despite my upper-body greasy skin, the rash seems to develop because of (or is aggravated by) too-frequent bathing. This year, the rash is quite mild. Less bathing is good for you!

I still haven't taken up smoking a pipe filled with animal dung. The trending term for pyrolyzing any old garbage leaf is "biochar". I'll leave that habit to take up in 2015. The ultimate in recycling!

Australian TV Commercials of the Sixties

Australians have colorful expressions that work well in advertising. I remember a can of dog food of the discount variety. The label featured a terrier and proclaimed "CHUM - with Chicken." Chum's motto was: "So Chumpy, You Can Carve It!" Best slogan ever!

"Her" As Eliza Doolittle

Good point!:

Samantha grew with Theodore until she began to grow outside of him. When she starts to focus on her own needs, when her existence no longer depends on Theodore, he becomes increasingly unhappy — even jealous.

Report On "Metástasis"

Here's an interesting report on the Spanish-language version of "Breaking Bad", called "Metástasis". Since "Breaking Bad" was so popular in Spanish-speaking countries, there was lots of skepticism to overcome regarding this knock-off. Myself, I think it's a nearly-impossible task, which I guess is what makes it an interesting project:

"The hardest part of the show to translate, though, may be the defining trait of "Breaking Bad": its moral complexity, the way it leaves your sympathies constantly seesawing between Walt and his victims. In this, it could hardly be more different from that staple of Latin American programming, the telenovela, with its frothy mix of dashing heroes and dashing rogues."

Chinese New Year, Of Course!

MoreonTV

Missouri Rules

States Rights for me but not for thee:

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri's attorney general has asked a federal court to strike down a California law regulating the living conditions of chickens, setting up a cross-country battle that pits new animal protections against the economic interests of Midwestern farmers.

The lawsuit by Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster takes aim at a California law set to take effect in 2015 that prohibits eggs from being sold there if they come from hens raised in cages that don't comply with California's new size and space requirements.

Koster said Tuesday that the California law infringes on the interstate commerce protections of the U.S. Constitution by effectively imposing new requirements on out-of-state farmers.

"If California legislators are permitted to mandate the size of chicken coops on Missouri farms, they may just as easily demand that Missouri soybeans be harvested by hand or that Missouri corn be transported by solar-powered trucks," Koster said.

...California voters approved a ballot initiative in 2008 that required egg-laying hens, pigs and calves to be raised with enough space to allow the animals to lie down, stand up, turn around and fully extend their limbs. The measure gave farmers until 2015 to comply with the provisions.

...Missouri farmers produce about 1.7 billion eggs annually and sell about one-third of those — about 540 million eggs — in California, according to Koster's lawsuit. He said that makes Missouri the second-largest egg exporter to California, behind only Iowa.

Many of Missouri's hens are raised in tight cages that won't meet California's new standards. Koster said Missouri farmers would have to spend about $120 million to remodel their cages or forgo sales to one of their most important markets, which could force some Missouri egg producers out of business.

Ruben Navarrette Unimpressed With The GOP

Legal status would do, but there is no assurance of getting that:

In the preamble, there is the absurd claim that immigration laws "are not being enforced."

Really? With President Barack Obama and the Department of Homeland Security on track to have deported 3.5 million people by the time Obama leaves office, how much more enforcement would Boehner and other Republicans like? Unless, of course, their goal is to remove every single illegal immigrant from the United States — all 11 million — and anything less than that signals a lack of resolve. If so, good luck reaching that goal.

Also, Republicans declare that border security and interior enforcement must come first.

...Massey notes that the walls and fences we've built in the last 20 years have made it more difficult for undocumented immigrants in the United States to return to Mexico even for a visit because they're afraid that it will be too difficult to re-enter. So they stay put on this side of the border, where they start families and put down roots.

...As for what we should do with illegal immigrants who are already here, the Republicans hit the sweet spot by offering what the undocumented really want (legal status) without bothering with what many of them don't care about (citizenship).

For so-called "dreamers" — young people brought here by their parents — Republicans do even better by offering a path to legal residence and citizenship if they join the military or get a college degree. Sound familiar? It's the DREAM Act that the majority of Republicans voted against in 2010. Now the GOP leaders are onboard.

Or are they?

Lots Of Weather Records Were Set In January

Tom Meyer cartoon.



Too many records were set:

The capital city broke record high temperatures on eight days and tied four records, according to the National Weather Service. Another astonishing fact: Daytime high temperatures were above normal every day.

“We rewrote the history books,” said Brooke Bingaman, a weather service meteorologist in Sacramento. “The fact that we had so many record-breaking phenomena in one month indicates an abnormal situation.”

California's Sudden Vulnerability Means Political Attack

It's going to be a grim year:

Meanwhile, the House Republicans have decided to rip into California's soft underbelly:

The agricultural interests that are behind the Republican bill see the water that is being allocated to environmental protection as wasted. There are a number of complicated issues involved in California's water problems. However, this is a major environmental issue and one that will continue to be at the center of the political controversies.

Memory From 1970, And A Hope

During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, my dad bought the family a portable radio, to help us survive nuclear annihilation. It sat in storage until 1969, when I discovered it could receive stations from nearly a 1,000 miles away, and thus was a portal to a much-wider world. I started listening to rock-and-roll AM radio (KQEO - Albuquerque).

This song was extremely popular in early 1970, but for some reason is rarely-mentioned when Oldies come up. It's never played on the radio these days. It represents my hope for the approaching storm this weekend in northern California:

Still Annoyed By The Fairly-Xenophobic Reaction To The Super Bowl Coca Cola Ad

Still annoyed by the fairly-xenophobic reaction to the Super Bowl Coca Cola ad. One of the singers, Christy Bird, is from Santo Domingo Pueblo, New Mexico. She sings America the Beautiful in Keres, a language only spoken there:

Many in the Native American community are rallying around Christy Bird, who sang in the Keres language in the commercial, saying they’re proud of what she did.

Several of the scenes in the extended ad were filmed in New Mexico. It's part of the United States! It's been a state for a century! Widen your horizons a bit!

Fun Historical Photos

Fun stuff!

"First morning after Sweden changed from driving on the left side to driving on the right, 1967"

Oh, Tennis!

Seven a.m. E. wakes me up to make a Big Announcement:

"The Sacramento Kings are leaving town, for Las Vegas"

M.: (Mmmppphhh? That doesn't make any sense. They've kept the NBA out of there for years, because of the gambling.)

(Later, I get up and look at the paper.)

M.: Where does it say the Sacramento Kings are leaving town?

E.: Right here. See?

The Sacramento Capitals of World Team Tennis called it a match Tuesday, saying they would leave town after a lengthy run that included six league championships but plenty of financial turmoil, especially in recent seasons. The team has been renamed the Las Vegas Neon.

E.: Oh, tennis! Never mind!

Psychotines

E.: MMMMMAAAARRRRCCCCC! Am I going to die?

M.: No, you're not going to die.

E.: What are these psychotines?:

In H1N1, the country is confronting a particularly virulent strain of influenza. Once in the lungs, it replicates more quickly than other strains, triggering the body’s immune system. The immune system then overreacts to the force of the virus. A phenomenon called a “cytokine storm” kicks in. Cytokines are proteins that promote inflammation in response to infection.

Normally, cytokines help the body by flushing out fluids from blood and lymphatic vessels. But, Kasirye said, “When the vessels are inflamed, they start to leak fluid, and so people get more fluid in their lungs. It creates a perfect storm. The immune system reacting to the virus goes haywire and attacks the body.”

M.: It's like an inflammation. The flu doesn't kill you directly. It gets your body to overreact, and that's what kills you.

E.: You and C. are barbarians! You go outside and touch the rake and the ground and then you come inside and touch the food!

M.: (Blowing nose) Well, that's how....

E.: Eeeee! Germs!

RIP - 31 Years Ago

Colbert On The "It's Beautiful" Coca-Cola Video

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Video Archive

Hell Hath No Fury Like A Canadian Health Regulator Scorned

Global Pharmacy Canada was revealed to be based in Belize, with the drugs shipped from India, and offices in Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic (June, 2013 link). There is also now a booming business in dogging online pharmacies on behalf of Big Pharma. The logic has some merit - maintain high standards in drug regulation - but the effect is to maintain indefensibly-high drug prices in the United States. So, the ethics are complicated. Real complicated.

Also interesting is that most Global Pharmacy customers were well-aware the drugs weren't coming from Canada. Apart from the Canadian address, the company has been honest and forthright about what it does. The Robin Hoods of the world often are forthright:

Global Pharmacy is in business to assist our global customer base with access to low cost worldwide pricing on medications. Many of our customers are on a limited incomes, finding room in their budget for medications sometimes is a difficult one. People should not have to make the choice about putting food on their table or purchase their needed medications. By using our services they do not have to make this choice.

Working On The Non-Functional Sprinkler System, With Joe The Plumber

Sitting in the Carl's Jr. on El Camino, near Del Paso, on Superbowl Sunday:

M: Do you have a favorite in the game?

Old Man: No, not a team; just the sport. I was a high school athlete! I just love it!

M.: That's nice!

J.: Like I was saying, things were fine in America until the Europeans came. Then they whipped our asses. But that's only because the Hebrews were whipping their asses. That's why, when Hitler first came along, he made a lot of sense. People didn't get that he was going to whip their asses too. Like I'm going to do with this guy here.....

(All this time, a patron at a nearby table was laughing. And twitching. Laughing and twitching. Twitching, and laughing, and nearly falling over. In most restaurants, patrons would slowly get up and ease away and maybe even call the police. This was the 'hood, however, where people are made of sterner stuff. So, families with little children quietly sat and politely ignored the Laughing Twitching Man as he stood up, bent over as if pretending to be a bull, and started running up and down the aisles of the restaurant.)

J.: Did I ever tell you that I had amnesia?

M.: That time you got beat up at the Stoney Inn and went to UCD Med Center for a week.

J.: No, not that time. When I was in the military!

M.: No.

J.: They feed you food that makes you forget. So you never, ever question orders.

M.: How do you know for sure?

J.: Good point.

Inappropriate Nazi Analogy Of The Day

"Naze Jedi" (Marysville Blvd. & Bell Ave., near Del Paso Heights).

Can't these people spell?

Prairie Oysters!

You know you're missing the "Cabaret" cast when all you think about when trying to decide what to do with the show's leftovers are Prairie Oysters.

Yum!

It's Albuquerque!

Highly-amused that at least one image in the extended highly-controversial Superbowl Coca-Cola ad is taken from the immediate neighborhood of "Breaking Bad" sites in Albuquerque, NM (4th & Pacific SW: h/t Miguel S. Jaramillo), and there may be others. I was a supporter of this ad before, but now I'm a raging supporter!

Update: Continuing to stoke the New Mexico patriotic theme in the extended Coca-Cola video:

Stop and Eat Drive-In, Highway 84/285 & Oñate, Española, NM.

Moonlight Rollerway, 5110 San Fernando Rd., Glendale, CA.

1960 Australian Coca-Cola Ad

Hard To Believe The "It's Beautiful" Coca-Cola Ad Is Controversial

But it is!

There has been a vigorous discussion regarding the ad over on Nick Gerlich's Facebook page (Gerlich is a Marketing professor, so it's right up his alley). Most of the negatory posts concern whether a potentially-controversial ad should be aired at all when it should have been known in advance that there might be trouble.

I maintain that controversy was the point. Pepsi and Coca Cola are locked in eternal combat, and it's hard to make an advance without taking risks.

Besides:

"The average Mexican drinks more Coke products than the average American, British, Indian, and Chinese combined. On average, Mexicans drink 665 servings of Coke products each year. Americans drink 399, British 202, Chinese 32, and Indian 9 -- which comes out to 642 servings"

I went hunting for Australian Coca-Cola controversies involving ethnicity or nationalism. They've had controversies involving environmentalism, gay marriage, and casual sex, but so far have avoided others (witness a studious avoidance of aborigines or immigrants in their ads). This is about the closest, where a potentially-controversial rhetorical question is posed (and answered) but as far as I know, not controversial:



[Update 1: Highly-amused that at least one image in the extended highly-controversial Superbowl Coca-Cola ad is taken from the immediate neighborhood of "Breaking Bad" sites in Albuquerque, NM (4th & Pacific SW: h/t Miguel S. Jaramillo), and there may be others. I was a supporter of this ad before, but now I'm a raging supporter!]

[Update 2: Continuing to stoke the New Mexico patriotic theme in the extended Coca-Cola video:

Stop and Eat Drive-In, Highway 84/285 & Oñate, Española, NM.

Moonlight Rollerway, 5110 San Fernando Rd., Glendale, CA.]

[Update 3: Still annoyed by the fairly-xenophobic reaction to the Super Bowl Coca Cola ad. One of the singers, Christy Bird, is from Santo Domingo Pueblo, New Mexico. She sings America the Beautiful in Keres, a language only spoken there:

Many in the Native American community are rallying around Christy Bird, who sang in the Keres language in the commercial, saying they’re proud of what she did.

Several of the scenes in the extended ad were filmed in New Mexico. It's part of the United States! It's been a state for a century! Widen your horizons a bit!]

Seventeen-Year-Old Olivia Newton-John Sings About Australian Christmas

Rez Chick Pickup Lines

Same thing, different place.

Sh*#t NDN (Indian) Girls Say

Here is a video that fascinates me. It's Northern NM Native Americans (or Indians - NDNs), likely from a variety of Pueblos, and the Navajo 'Res'. The accent is half northern NM - half not - maybe too Hispanic for the Navajos. The world of regional pow wows has become very big and important in recent decades, so they mention other tribes (e.g., Crees, in video #2 of this series) that they never, ever would have mentioned traditionally. One girl even mentions Vine Deloria, an influential Sioux writer, whose lawyer brother, Sam Deloria, was my next-door neighbor in the mid-Seventies! So, many, many influences crashing around!

How To Speak Posh

How To Speak Bristolian English

Year Of The Horse

"Breaking Bad" Touches One Of The Deep Mysteries Of The Southwest

"Breaking Bad" takes the viewer on a dark journey through the drug underworld, but it also touches something deeper. In Season 5a, episode 5, "Dead Freight", Lydia is kidnapped and taken to a basement. To save her life, she describes a railroad radio dead zone by pointing at a map. Where she points has no railroad, however. What is at that point?

Pueblo Pintado.

Here is a wonderful documentary about the Anasazi of Chaco Canyon. The section between 39:10 - 41:40 is most significant. As Robert Redford narrates: "From no one building, and at no one time, would a person see this pattern. It's as though this intricate symmetry of relationships to the sky and the Earth was drawn on the landscape, but only to be held in the minds of the people." Like "Breaking Bad" itself!

Puzzling False Alarm At 10th And J Streets

Baffled firefighters mingled with baffled nightclub goers at 10th and J Streets on Friday evening, about 10 p.m.. Someone called in a fire, but there was no fire in sight. "This is 1009 10th Street," offered a nightclub doorman. "1009? We're looking for 1001," said a fireman. But there was no such address.

No smoke, no flames, but the nightclub crowd was growing by the minute.

Who would have an incentive to call in a false alarm? There was one woman on the sidewalk who seemed to have an incentive: "Hose me down, baby! These firemen are HOT!"

Dramatic faceoff: Fire engine faces west on J Street; everyone else faces east.

Some of the fire engines regrouped on 10th Street between F and G Streets, where they busied themselves for a few minutes ousting a homeless person from a doorway. Still, no flames.

Oscar Nominated Animation Shorts

À La Française

Competition strong in the Oscar-nominated animation shorts!:

Bleeding Apple

Engineers at Apple are trying to contact me regarding my failed ITunes installation. Apparently it's topical today.

"Cabaret" Strike

Thursday Train

Mars Rover Opportunity Looks Pretty Dusty

Went native!

Here's a side-by-side view of the solar panels from December 2004 (left) and today:

Climbing Transmission Towers

Fierce Funk Class, In The Groove

I missed this fun last week. In the foreground, the girls in red, Steph (with the Fierce Funk labeled pants) and Sadie (the blonde) look particularly good. Sadie's considering three trips to various parts of the world next year. It sounds wonderful!

Still Haven't Got A Flu Shot

I'm pretty complacent about getting a flu shot. How could I get sick? I feel so good! On the other hand, it took only four days for H1N1 to terminate a healthy 46-year-old:

These were Nancy Pinnella’s last days: On Jan. 21, she felt sick, leaving work early. On Jan. 22, she went to a doctor, hardly able to speak or breathe. By 6 p.m. that day, she was in intensive care at Sutter General Hospital in Sacramento. Her kidneys were failing, her lung capacity severely reduced. Doctors sedated her, induced paralysis and put her on a ventilator and dialysis.

...On Friday, a bright spot: her kidneys and vital signs got better. Then, between midnight and 6 a.m. Saturday, Pinnella suffered three severe strokes in three different parts of her brain. On Sunday, the family said goodbye and took the 46-year-old advertising executive at KXTV News10 off life support.

Water Shortages Already Starting

It isn't even February yet:

The state department of health has identified 17 communities across the state that are running out of water and need help to keep their residents supplied with healthy and available water. It's what many fear may be just the tip of the iceberg as California's drought gets worse.

Four of the communities are in the Sacramento area, including the Whispering Pines Apartments in Mariposa County, the Jackson Valley irrigation district in Amador County, Washington Ridge Conservation Camp in Nevada County and a tiny group of cottages known as Ophir Gardens in Placer County near Auburn.

Ophir Gardens began running out of water late last year.

"The difficulty that they're facing is low yield from their single well," said Brent Smith, with the Placer County Water Agency.

Smith said the well is only able to provide one gallon of water a minute.

The parks owner has begun bringing water in by truck, an expensive process that has so far kept the 16 small cottages from running dry.

Residents like Rita Bainbridge are dreading what may happen if the system runs completely out of water.

"Cutting back on showers and dishes and stuff. And I won't like that...at all," said Rita Bainbridge, who has lived at Ophir Gardens for about nine months.

National Review Death Watch

There's a chance climatologist Michael Mann's defamation lawsuit against the National Review might succeed in bankrupting the magazine. Scientists in general, and climatologists in particular, are ill-equipped to handle brazen slander; a world where anything goes. Here's hoping!:

Scientist Michael Mann is suing the Review over statements made by Canadian right-wing polemicist and occasional radio stand-in for Rush Limbaugh, Mark Steyn. Steyn was writing on the topic of climate change when he accused Mann of falsifying data and perpetuating intellectual fraud through his research.

Steyn went on to quote paid anti-climate science operative Rand Simberg — an employee of the right-wing think tank the Competitive Enterprise Institute — who compared Mann to Penn State’s convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky.

Mann, Simberg said, is “the Jerry Sandusky of climate science, except that instead of molesting children, he has molested and tortured data.”

Strangely Enough, The Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) Seems To Correlate Better With Precipitation In Albuquerque Than San Francisco

Friend Jerry notes:

I see that some people are blaming the harsh winter in the eastern US on the PDO.

But he's skeptical:

Preliminary analysis: correlation between subzero days in South Bend, Indiana vs December-January-February PDO index = 0.08. Correlation with average PDO index for previous year = 0.07.

ABQ Annual Precipitation vs. Annual avg. PDO * 10, 1949-2013. R-squared = 0.20. (To my surprise, according to National Weather Service (NWS), ABQ precepitation was nearly normal last year - 9.32 inches. According to NWS:

"This was the 6th year in a row with below normal precipitation, although 2013 was only 0.13 inches below the official 30 year normal of 9.45 inches (1981-2010). The long term annual normal precipitation (1892 to current) is 8.56 inches. 2013 was the 76th driest (46th wettest) on record since 1892."

Similarly, San Francisco Precipitation vs. Annual Avg. PDO*10, 1960-2009. R-squared = 0.04 (corrected for July 1 - June 30 water year - labeled in end year).

Jerry describes his efforts:

I also tried correlating the average FALL PDO index with the occurrence of subzero temps in South Bend, to see if there was any PREDICTIVE value in the index. Result: Rsq = .00001. I'm concluding that the PDO index is about as useful for forecasting as the Farmer's Almanac.

I'm not quite so ready to throw the PDO away:

I'm intrigued about its usefulness for Southwestern drought. Some connections work - Eastern Australia's precipitation swing from 2006 - 2011 vs. ENSO, for example.

Jerry warns about the seductions of ENSO:

I think that the usefulness of the ENSO index is what has misled some people into thinking that the forecasting problem can be reduced to the calculation of indices.

When I saw "some people", I include a local TV weathercaster. He attributes the harshness of this winter to the fact that the PDO is in its negative phase, conveniently forgetting that the previous two winters, during which the PDO index as also negative, were mild, with NO subzero temperatures at all.

Yes, consistency is a silly thing!

"Breaking Bad" Locations - Incremental Update

Every few of months, I do an incremental update to my "Breaking Bad" Locations Web Pages. I've finished another incremental update today to all my Locations posts. (Much of the update involves sneaking over to Shayne's and Marius' Web Sites and quietly copying a few of the spectacular art images there.)

The biggest changes were to the final post. What I was doing during the run of "Breaking Bad" was collecting and posting elsewhere on my blog the best of "Breaking Bad" reviews, videos, photos that I was running into on the fly. I take that blog collection and drop them onto this Web Page. In the event you missed them the first time around, or just like it all in one place.

Infrequent Posting As Of Late

I'm preparing an incremental update to my Breaking Bad posts.

The Smell Of Approaching Rain

It's a real thing:

There's a name popularly ascribed to this range of post-precipitation scents: petrichor. Petrichor was first described in 1964 by mineralogists Isabel Joy Bear and R. G. Thomas of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization. As they defined it, it occurs when airborne molecules from decomposing plant or animal matter become attached to mineral or clay surfaces. During a dry spell, these molecules chemically recombine with other elements on a rock's surface. Then when the rains came, the redolent combination of fatty acids, alcohols and hydrocarbons is released.

Australian Fire Tornado

Steve sends this amazing video of a whirlwind on FIRE!

SNL "Her" Parody Trailer, "Me"

Pope Francis Is The Catholic Church's Obama

Like that's a bad thing:

Pope Francis is undergoing a popularity surge comparable to the way Barack Obama was greeted by the world in 2008. And just as President Obama has been a disappointment for America, Pope Francis will prove a disaster for the Catholic Church.

...Much is being made of his ‘compassion’ and ‘humility,’ but kissing babies and hugging the sick is nothing new. Every pope in recent memory has done the same, yet only now are the media paying attention. Benedict XVI and John Paul II refused to kowtow to the liberal agenda, and so such displays of tenderness were under-covered.

Francis is beating a retreat for the Catholic Church, and making sure its controversial doctrines are whispered, not yelled – no wonder the New York Times is in love.

...Francis not only panders to enemies and professional grievance mongers, but also attacks his allies. Just as Obama snubs Britain and Israel, Pope Francis swipes at practicing Catholics.

So not only has he insulted, and severely damaged the work of, pro-life and pro-marriage groups with his comments, he has also gone on the attack, dismissing Catholics who attend the older rites in Latin as ‘ideologizing’ and being guilty of ‘exploitation.’ Apparently “Who am I to judge?” doesn’t apply here.

...Apart from the fact that there is no major nation practicing unfettered capitalism (like Obama, Francis loves attacking straw men) there is more real tyranny in socialist cesspools like Francis’ home of Argentina than in places where capitalism is predominant.

In the document he rejects the free market and calls for governments to overhaul financial systems so they attack inequality. In doing so he shows himself painfully misguided on economics, failing to see that free markets have consistently lifted the poor out of poverty, while socialism merely entrenches them in it, or kills them outright.

List Of Rainy Season Dry Spells

The National Weather Service in Sacramento compiled a handy list of the worst dry spells during rainy seasons ever recorded since records started in the 1870's. The current spell will likely last until next Thursday, making it, at 53 days, far and away the worst of these dry spells:

(will likely reach 53 days): Dec. 8, 2013-current
44 days: Nov. 15-Dec. 28, 1976
42: Jan. 17-Feb. 27, 1899
41: Dec. 18, 1962-Jan. 27, 1963
38: Nov. 4-Dec. 11, 1959
38: Nov. 8-Dec. 15, 1940
38: Feb. 15-March 24, 1883
36: Nov. 26-Dec. 31, 1989
36: Dec. 18, 1960-Jan. 22, 1961
36: Nov. 15-Dec. 20, 1958
34: Dec. 16, 2011-Jan. 18, 2012
34: Dec. 5, 1956-Jan. 7, 1957

People Forget So Fast!

Looking Longingly At The Pop Culture Conference In Albuquerque In February

Nick and Lori are hosting, Miguel is presenting, Jennie is coming - maybe Kirika too. Maybe a reunion opportunity....

This Is What Catastrophe Looks Like

NAM, The Rebel

Interestingly, the NAM model is beginning to rebel against the model consensus, and suggesting rain in a week, on next Thursday. I like the NAM model – better than GFS – so here’s hoping it’s right!

Meanwhile, Fairbanks, AK, has been shut down by freezing rain, which in January, is utterly absurd

"Her"

Interesting movie! Falling in love with an operating system! Both Jetta and Joe the Plumber liked it (Jetta loves it; Joe's heartbroken and left afterwards to commiserate with some spirits).

Afterwards, I started asking Siri numerous questions, including, "Do You Love Me?" She parried the question well.

Cast featured Joaquin Phoenix as Theodore Twombly (a professional writer of faux-personal letters), Rooney Mara as his estranged wife Catherine, Scarlett Johansson as Samantha, the OS voice, Amy Adams as neighbor Amy, plus Olivia Wilde as the Blind Date, Portia Doubleday as the Surrogate Date Isabella, with contributions from Bill Hader, Kristen Wiig, Director Spike Jonze, and others. The scene is near-future Los Angeles, with a marked California vibe. Music by the ever-versatile Arcade Fire!

Speaking Of Ekaterina Krysanova....

I was wondering why I found the Bolshoi Ballet's Ekaterina Krysanova so attractive, and then I realized she looks a lot like Kylie Minogue. Hmmmm. I wonder if I have subconscious templates of what the Perfect Woman looks like. There must be a blonde template there somewhere in my head, but as far as brunette template goes, Ekaterina will do....

"Le Corsaire" - Bolshoi Ballet - Tower Theater - Pathé Cinema

Le Jardin Animé, "Le Corsaire".

Six months ago, Sally urged me to go see "La Sylphide" as performed by the Bolshoi Ballet, and presented at the Tower Theater by Pathé Cinema. Pathé distributes movies of very recent ballet performances, in the manner that live opera is sometimes shown in local cinemas. The number of showings is small (sometimes just one), and the entrance price considerably-higher than for most movies, but for the discerning viewer, it's the next-best thing to being in Moscow to watch the performance itself. Sadly, the Bunhead crowd can't seem to afford it, or maybe they haven't heard about it, so it was an old crowd (but Elaine was there!), but really, these films are the best way for young American dancers to keep tabs on what is happening in Moscow these days, and learn just who is who. After watching "La Sylphide" I had a crush on Ekaterina Krysanova.

Tonight, we went to go see "Le Corsaire": A brief synopsis:

Ballet in 3 acts and an epilogue on a libretto written by Jules Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges and Joseph Mazilier together with Marius Petipa.
Created on the 23th January 1856 at the Théâtre Impérial de l’Opéra, Paris
This new choreographic version has been created on the 21th of June 2007 at the Bolshoi Theatre of Moscou.

Ballet broadcasted live in cinemas thanks to Pathé Live

Music : Adolphe Adam

Conductor : Pavel Klinichev

Choreography : Marius Petipa
Scenography and new choreographic version : Alexei Ratmansky, Yuri Burlaka
Sets : Boris Maminsky
Costumes : Elena Zaytseva
Lights : Damir Ismagilov

Médora: Svetlana Lunkina (réserve : Ekaterina Shipulina)
Conrad: Ruslan Skvortsov (réserve : Mikhail Lobukhin)
Seyd, le Pacha : Alexey Loparevich
Birbanto : Andrey Merkuriev (réserve : Denis Savin)
Zulmea : Kristina Karaseva
Gulnare : Nina Kaptsova (réserve : Chinara Alizade)
Isaac Lanquedem : Gennady Yanin
Gardien de Seyd : Andrey Sitnikov

Ballet of the Bolshoi Theatre
Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre

Directed by Vincent Bataillon
Produced by François Duplat – Bel Air Media / Pathé Live – Thierry Fontaine

New Look at an Old Ballet

This Bolshoi Theatre production is intended for those who still seek for miracles in theatre. ... And if, in addition, you are as passionate about ballet as was Petipa, who embellished the old Paris original with marvelous choreographic tableaux and numbers of his own and if you love it as much as do the creators of the Bolshoi-2007 version of Le Corsaire – Alexei Ratmansky and Yuri Burlaka who have attempted to revive – here the creations of their famous predecessor – there – simply his signature, you will become a devotee of this ballet and attend performances of it just as regularly as you do those of La Bayadere or Swan Lake.

This is real “grand ballet” where there is enough dance for virtually the whole company at once, while the prima-ballerina proves her right to this title almost without a break. And although this Le Corsaire is far removed from its literary source (Byron’s poem of the same name, dear reader), its libretto is quite capable of satisfying society’s love of the pirate-romantic genre.

A great deal of work was involved in launching this Le Corsaire. The creators of the ballet studied archive material in Moscow’s Bakhrushin Museum and in the St. Petersburg State Theatre Library; with the assistance of the Paris Opera, the original score was retrieved from La Bibliotheque national de France; the old costumes and sets were reproduced, while, having deciphered the original dance notation in the Harvard Theatre collection, Ratmansky and Burlaka added dances of their own, their aim being in no way to sin against the spirit of that age when the last of Petipa’s Corsaires loved, drowned and finally ended up safe and sound – the 1899 revival. Just over one hundred years later – might be a suitable title for this hazardous and one hundred percent serious romance between the Bolshoi Theatre and grand ballet.

...Le Corsaire was an unfailingly popular ballet throughout Europe in the 19th century. Its grandest staging was in Paris in 1856 but it soon arrived in Petersburg, was much revised, its first score by Adolphe Adam given a patchwork of interpolations. It survived, variously corrupt, in Russia, and in London we rejoice in the Mariinsky’s madcap account – by Groucho Marx out of Ali Baba. Now Alexey Ratmansky, director of the Bolshoi Ballet, and Yury Burlaka, a specialist in dance reconstruction, have made a production that seeks to show the ballet as Petipa finally transformed it in 1899. The plot may, fragmentarily, be Byronic but it is really a romp for pirates, slave girls, assorted eunuchs, and with a shipwreck to round matters spiffingly off. The score has been cleaned.

The scenery, by Boris Kaminsky, is brilliantly of-the-period in suggesting Adrianopol under Turkish rule. The costumes by Yelena Zaitseva rework those designed in 1899 and are admirable. Ratmansky and Burlaka have restored a text, recapturing much of what I sense is the Petipa manner, and filled it with dance delights. The result is fascinating, and was given on Thursday and Friday nights, when I saw it on the Bolshoi’s New Stage, with exultant zest.

Svetlana Zakharova, as the heroine Medora, was enchanting, witty and beguiling in step and manner, and she sailed with adorable grace through ferocious choreography. (At the second performance, Svetlana Lunkina was also a delight). The celebrated Jardin anime is revealed as a far longer scene than heretofore, the stage a riot of danseuses with roses in baskets, bouquets, parterres, garlands, looking exactly like the photograph in the programme of the 1899 staging.

The shipwreck is tremendous and scary, and Gennady Yanin scuttles about the stage like an anxious crab, brilliantly comic as Medora’s venal father. And the piece lasts 3 hours. ....

by Clement Crisp
The Financial times, 06/25/2007

Adolphe Adam was the same composer as for the ballet "Giselle", so in a way, despite their disparate styles (spare and classical vs. sumptuous and character), "Giselle" and "Le Corsaire" are cousins.

I was really struck by "Le jardin animé", partly because of the costumes, partly because the music so-closely parallels "Giselle" (with the garland-bearing dancers echoing the Wilis), and partly because of the sheer number of dancers. There were no surviving notes regarding the costumes for this part of the ballet, so costumer Elena Zaytseva had to create them from scratch. Interestingly, the angle of the skirt on the dresses in "Le jardin animé" almost-perfectly matches that of Morning Glories. We had those kind of flowers in Corrales, New Mexico when I was growing up as a little kid, so one odd effect on me of "Le jardin animé", with all the dancing Morning Glories, was a strange form of home sickness.

I think this is my favorite ballet now. It's so much better than so many!

Film Trailer




Fortunately, a pas de deux from this version of "Le Corsaire" is on-line!

Le Corsaire pas de deux - Svetlana Lunkina and Ruslan Skvortsov




Svetlana Lunkina Discusses Giselle

Trouble In My Neighborhood On A Monday Night

Looks like an auto accident.

"Cabaret" - Third Weekend - DMTC

Just one more weekend to go!

I haven't taken any pictures till Saturday, just because I worry about stuff derailing on my Stage Manager watch.

Afterwards, we went to Woodstock's Pizza in Davis. From our perch, we could observe pizzas being made.

Shoe Tossing Near Where I Live

These shoes mark the West End of what I suspect to be a Drug Zone.


I was mystified why people in my neighborhood toss shoes on electrical lines. So, time to consult Wikipedia:

Shoe flinging or "shoefiti" is the practice of throwing shoes whose shoelaces have been tied together so that they hang from overhead wires such as power lines or telephone cables. The shoes are tied together by their laces, and the pair is then thrown at the wires as a sort of bolas. This practice plays a widespread, though mysterious, role in adolescent folklore in the United States. Shoe flinging has also been reported in many other countries.

...A number of criminal explanations have been proposed as to why this is done. ... Some also say that shoes hanging from the wires advertise a local crack house where crack cocaine is used and sold (in which case the shoes are sometimes referred to as "Crack Tennies"). It can also relate to a place where heroin is sold to symbolize the myth that once you take heroin, you can never "leave": a reference to the addictive nature of the drug. Others claim that the shoes so thrown commemorate a gang-related murder, or the death of a gang member, or as a way of marking gang turf. ... However, the practice also occurs along relatively remote stretches of rural highways that are unlikely scenes for gang murders, and have no structures at all to be crack houses.

These shoes mark the East End of what I suspect to be a Drug Zone.


I rather like the drug-sale explanation offered on Wikipedia, because these shoes bracket a location where I often see mysterious people waiting in the shadows, and where there is mysterious traffic. A decade ago, I remember a Big Raid here, where a swarm of police shut them down at gun point. My guess is either that they have returned, or it's a new group resistant to the lessons of the past.

Good for what ails you....

I Never Did Solve A Rubik's Cube

I wonder if magic ponies do Sudoku?

Nice Work, If You Can Get It

These people are nuts:

One hundred million dollars for failure. That may be the total payout to Henrique de Castro, the number two executive at Yahoo, who was brought in just 14 months ago to boost growth and digital advertising revenue. De Castro, the chief operating officer who was lured away from Google with a $62 million deal, has been fired by CEO Marissa Mayer. According to The Wall Street Journal, De Castro will depart Yahoo with “a severance package that could be worth more than an estimated $42 million.”

The turnaround effort at Yahoo has been disappointing since Mayer took over in the summer of 2012. Some Wall Street analysts turned negative on the Internet firm, as sales dropped slightly last year. Mayer, who took the helm in July 2012, has attempted to revamp Yahoo with new exclusive content on its websites, redesigned email and other innovations. De Castro was criticized for failing to convince advertisers to spend more money with Yahoo.

Single-Payer Might Not Work In This Country, Because The United States Is Too Corrupt

So, we will be stuck with Obamacare:

"I have not advocated the single payer model here," he said, "because our government is too corrupt. Medicare is a large insurance company whose board of directors (Ways and Means and Senate Finance) accept payments from vendors to the company. In the private market, that would get you into trouble."

The key to a single-payer system is that the government sets prices. Usually, it empowers boards of independent experts who set those prices low. Reinhardt's argument is that in the United States, health industry interests have so much sway over Congress that the prices would end up being set by health-care interests.

"When you go to Taiwan or Canada," Reinhardt said, "the kind of lobbying we have here is illegal there. You can’t pay money to influence the party the same way. Therefore the bureaucrats who run these systems are pretty much insulated from these pressures. Here you have basically a board of directors in the House Ways and Means Committee that gets money from lobbyists both at the regulatory writing stage and during normal operations. And they can call an administrator and demand they stop something from happening."

...Still, Reinhardt's argument is a reminder that the simple fact that a policy worked in another country does not mean it will work in this country. His point about the importance of independence is particularly crucial.

"Stand Your Ground", In Practice

The Tampa Bay Times is keeping a database of all Stand Your Ground cases in Florida, fatal and non-fatal alike. Here are the fatal ones. Looks like a lot of gang bangers are using SYG to stay out of prison. The case of Muñoz seems the most poignant.

The U.S. And Iran Have Common Interests

Time to lose the hatchet:

While the two governments quietly continue to pursue their often conflicting interests, they are being drawn together by their mutual opposition to an international movement of young Sunni fighters, who with their pickup trucks and Kalashnikovs are raising the black flag of Al Qaeda along sectarian fault lines in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen.

The United States, reluctant to intervene in bloody, inconclusive conflicts, is seeing its regional influence decline, while Iraq, which cost the Americans $1 trillion and more than 4,000 lives, is growing increasingly unstable.

At the same time, Shiite-dominated Iran, the magnetic pole for the Shiite minority in the region, has its own reasons to be nervous, with the ragtag army of Sunni militants threatening Syria and Iraq, both important allies, and the United States drawing down its troops in Afghanistan.

On Monday, Iran offered to join the United States in sending military aid to the Shiite government in Baghdad, which is embroiled in street-to-street fighting with radical Sunni militants in Anbar Province, a Sunni stronghold. On Sunday, Secretary of State John Kerry said he could envision an Iranian role in the coming peace conference on Syria, even though the meeting is supposed to plan for a Syria after the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad, an important Iranian ally.

...Yet even Iranians outside the reformist camp see the shared interests as undeniable. “It is clear we are increasingly reaching common ground with the Americans,” said one of them, Aziz Shahmohammadi, a former adviser to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. “No country should have an eternal enemy, neither we nor the United States.”

With Iran as an island of stability in a region plagued by violent protests, sectarian clashes and suicide bombers, there are not that many options left for Washington, experts here say.

“We face the same enemy, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” said Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, a prominent Iranian reformist journalist who closely follows the Arab world. He recalled how Iranian intelligence operatives gave reliable information to American Special Forces troops battling Iran’s enemy, the Afghan Taliban, in 2001.

I Didn't Realize San Diego Mayor Maureen O'Connor Was Laid Low By Gambling

I saw it in the AARP newsletter, but this article gives more information. One billion dollars in losses? The mind boggles:

She won about $1 billion from 2000 to 2009, according to winnings that casinos reported to the Internal Revenue Service, but lost even more. Iredale said her net gambling losses topped $13 million.

Extreme Drought Awareness Is Beginning To Settle In

2014 is going to be agonizing:

Similar high-pressure zones pop up all the time during most winters, but they usually break down, allowing rain to get through to California. This one, ominously, has anchored itself for 13 months, since December 2012, making it unprecedented in modern weather records and leaving researchers scratching their heads.

...The current high-pressure ridge is even stronger and more persistent than a similar ridge that parked over the Pacific Ocean during the 1976-77 drought, one of the driest in the 20th century.

..."I wish I had a really good answer for this," said Daniel Cayan, an oceanographer and atmospheric scientist with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla. "It's unusual for the pattern to have not broken down to allow some relatively active, vigorous winter storm systems to track across California."

...Last year was the driest calendar year in recorded history in California in most cities, with records going back 160 years. The first snowpack reading in the Sierra Nevada earlier this month found a snowpack of just 20 percent of normal.

Meanwhile, major reservoirs in Shasta and Oroville are each 36 percent full, about half of normal for this time of year. San Luis Reservoir near Los Banos is 30 percent full, 42 percent of normal. Major Bay Area water agencies haven't yet called for mandatory summer water restrictions but are expected to make the decision in the next month or two, depending largely on whether the high-pressure ridge breaks down and rain falls.

State Department of Water Resources Director Mark Cowin told members of the California State Board of Food and Agriculture in Sacramento a week ago that his agency is likely to recommend that Gov. Jerry Brown declare a drought by Feb. 1, which would make it easier for water transfers between agencies and for emergency loans and other assistance.

...Since July 1, San Francisco has received 2.1 inches of rain -- just 20 percent of normal; San Jose has received 1.57 inches, or 26 percent of normal; and Oakland has received 2.08 inches, or 22 percent of normal.

Meanwhile, the Sacramento area is beginning to respond:

Faced with historically low water levels on the American River and a long-range forecast providing little relief, the Sacramento City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to enact severe water rationing on residents and businesses, while also boosting enforcement efforts against water scofflaws.

The council approved what city officials described as a “stage 2 water shortage plan,” requiring those who live and work in Sacramento to reduce their water use by between 20 percent and 30 percent.

...“We’re the river city and yet here we are having to make very difficult decisions,” said Councilman Allen Warren.

...The American River’s flow out of Folsom Dam is at its lowest point since 1993, putting it in “crisis mode,” Brent said. Folsom Lake is so depleted, remnants of a Gold Rush-era mining town buried by water for years have emerged in the barren lakebed.

Air Pollution Impacts From Wildfire Impacts

What is curious here is not how high the pollution levels were - pollution levels can be much, much higher in places like Fairbanks - or how long a period - they can last much, much longer in places like Fairbanks - but how they seem to detect an effect with such a small sample size. Disturbing, if the study can be taken at face value:

The research, conducted by UC Davis and the California Air Resources Board, found that rhesus macaque monkeys born at the university’s Primate Research Center in the summer of 2008 – an unusually intense fire season – had depressed immune systems compared with those born a year later.

...During late June 2008, PM 2.5 levels spiked at ARB measuring stations in Davis and Woodland, not far from the primate research center, said Lisa Miller, professor of veterinary medicine at UC Davis and a researcher at the primate center. Smoke had drifted into the Central Valley from more than 2,000 fires ignited by lightning strikes. More than 1.2 million acres burned.

“In 2008, monitoring locations had readings of 75 micrograms per cubic meter for a 24-hour period,” said Miller. “That is extremely high.”

The current national standard for safety is less than half that amount. Additionally, wildfire smoke also causes higher ozone levels, which are linked to asthma, lower birth weights and heart problems.

The effect of that particulate matter was measured on 50 monkeys – 25 that were born in 2008 and 25 in the mostly quiet fire season of 2009. Use of the primates is seen as a crucial model for establishing the effects of toxins and environmental effects on humans.

The young monkeys, which live outdoors at the primate center, were between 1 and 3 months old when they were examined. Researchers took blood samples and did lung function studies. “The idea behind this is that if we detected any changes in the animals this information might translate as a biomarker that can be used for kids,” said Miller, whose specialty is childhood respiratory diseases.

The outcome proved surprising, Miller said. Conventional medical wisdom says that smoke and other irritants cause immune systems to kick into high gear. This study, however, found the opposite.

“When we took blood samples and put them in a tissue culture dish and treated that culture with a mimic of an infectious organism, we found that the blood from animals exposed to wildfire smoke responded in a reduced manner when compared to the control group from 2009,” said Miller. “That means the ability of the animals to respond to a real pathogen was reduced.”

The Relentless Rise Of Lake Enriquillo

Calamity in the Dominican Republic:

Theories abound, but a conclusive answer remains elusive as to why the lake — as well as its nearby sibling in Haiti, Lac Azuei, which now spills over the border between the two on the island of Hispaniola — has risen so much. Researchers say the surge may have few if any precedents worldwide.

The Future Is Jellyfish

Jellyfish everywhere!:

How could jellyfish take over the ocean? “One bite at a time” Gershwin says. And there may be no way back. A new balance may be struck, one in which jellyfish rule:

We are creating a world more like the late Precambrian than the late 1800s—a world where jellyfish ruled the seas and organisms with shells didn’t exist. We are creating a world where we humans may soon be unable to survive, or want to.

So Now It's New Mexico's Turn

Irresponsible gun owners everywhere. So many that we'll never be safe with guns around:

Just before 8 a.m., authorities say, a boy some described as an outcast opened fire in the crowded gym. Seconds later, a teacher coaxed him to lay down the weapon and he was taken into custody. But two students lay gravely wounded.

A 12-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl were flown to a hospital in Lubbock, Texas. The boy was in critical condition and the girl was in serious condition, New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez said at an afternoon news conference at the isolated middle school, which sits atop a bluff at the northern edge of this town of 50,000 people.

By nightfall, officials had released their names: Nathaniel Tavarez, who remained in critical condition after two surgeries, and Kendal Sanders, whose condition had been upgraded from serious to satisfactory after surgery.

Here Comes The Cocci!

Valley Fever is a big deal in Arizona, but it's also a big deal in California:

In 1977, the San Joaquin Valley—the swath of agricultural land that runs through central California—was designated a disaster area. Record-low runoff and scant rainfall had created drought conditions. At the beginning of Christmas week, the weather was normal in Bakersfield, the city at the Valley’s southern end, but in the early hours of December 20th a strong wind began to blow from the Great Basin through the Tehachapi Mountains. Hitting the ground on the downslope, it lofted a cloud of loose topsoil and mustard-colored dust into the sky.

...The Tempest from Tehachapi, as one researcher called it, spread dirt over an area the size of Maine. Twenty hours afterward, the dust reached Sacramento, four hundred miles north of Bakersfield, in the form of a murky haze that hung in the air for another day, stinging the eyes and noses of the residents. On the twenty-first, it started raining in Sacramento, which turned the dust to mud, coating the cars and sidewalks, and marked the end of the drought.

Over the next several weeks, Sacramento County recorded more than a hundred cases of coccidioidomycosis, otherwise known as valley fever, or cocci, a disease caused by inhaling the microscopic spores of Coccidioides immitis, a soil-dwelling fungus found in Bakersfield. (In the previous twenty years, there had never been more than half a dozen cases a year.) Six of the victims died.

'Stand Your Ground' Defense In The Theater Texting Shooting

Charming! An ever-elastic, get-out-jail card that can used for any conceivable purpose.

"Nebraska" Serendipity

The trailer is more interesting with German subtitles.


Monday evening, I picked Joe the Plumber up (on obscure Del Paso Heights street corner) and he bought me dinner at the Mongolian Barbeque place off Truxel. Then, it was off to watch 30 minutes of previews before "Nebraska" (starring Bruce Dern, and featuring Bob Odenkirk of "Breaking Bad" fame) at Arden & Ethan.

Just before showtime, guess who showed up? Jetta and Lela! Apparently we independently settled on exactly the same plan. This is the first time that Jetta has met Joe the Plumber (she had refused meetings before this, because my stories painted Joe as dodgier than she would tolerate).

"Nebraska" is a fine film. "Extremely mellow," according to Jetta. I liked the cinematography of this black-and-white film. Reminiscent of "Breaking Bad", but with a different look, just because the northern plains of Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Nebraska are different than New Mexico.

Bruce Dern is a marvel!

Sympathy For Kim And Kanye

Troubles never end:

Kim was at a Beverly Hills medical building when she was swarmed by photogs. We're told the guy allegedly tried to help Kim get in the building, as he started screaming, "F**k these fa**ot-ass n****rs"" -- referring to the paparazzi. Kim then told him it was not appropriate to use the N-word. We're told he then screamed at her, "F**k you bitch. Just trying to help you. Shut up n****r lover, stupid slut."

Apparently that got Kim hot as fish grease ... she watched the guy walk into an office. As they were walking we're told the guy continued berating Kim. She dialed Kanye on his cell, and when the guy realized Kanye was on the phone he allegedly said, "F**k you N****r." Kanye -- who had just arrived at the building -- then met up with Kim.

Sources say Kanye and Kim rushed into the waiting room of chiropractor Richard Hill and found the 18-year-old sitting there. Witnesses say Kanye punched the guy and Kim screamed, "We have it all on tape."

If I was Kanye West, I'd have done the same thing.

It's all very calculated and cynical too. (Verse 2 of Britney Spears' "Piece of Me"):

I'm Mrs. 'You want a piece of me?'
Tryin' and pissin' me off
Well get in line with the paparazzi
Who's flippin' me off
Hopin' I'll resort to startin' havoc
And end up settlin' in court
Now are you sure you want a piece of me?

The Bimbo Jones Remix showcases Britney at her brilliant, humorous best!

Erik Flags "Terrible PR Pictures from the Theater of the United States"

This almost looks local.

Water Meter Going In, And An Era In Sacramento Ends

When my house guest left the house this morning for the airport, I could hear jackhammering down the alley.

In a few minutes, the jackhammering was right behind my house. I went out in my pajamas to challenge the workers.

Turns out, it's a new water meter. They've been installing these things all over Sacramento for years now. I had thought they had forgotten about me.

Sacramento is located at the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers. There was a time in Sacramento where we could defy the rest of the state and waste water with abandon, even in the toughest of droughts. No more.  And era has ended.

Concrete box and metal plate, cleverly hidden behind a plywood board so no Homeless Recycler will ever discover them.

The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend

Let's be realistic here. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. If the choice is between the Sinaloa Cartel and the Gulf Cartel (including psychotic Los Zetas), as it seems to be, then it's better that the U.S. work with the Sinaloa Cartel. We don't have to like the Sinaloa folks to do business with them:

An investigation by El Universal has found that between the years 2000 and 2012, the U.S. government had an arrangement with Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel that allowed the organization to smuggle billions of dollars of drugs in exchange for information on rival cartels.

...There have long been allegations that Guzman, considered to be "the world’s most powerful drug trafficker," coordinates with American authorities.

..."The DEA agents met with members of the cartel in Mexico to obtain information about their rivals and simultaneously built a network of informants who sign drug cooperation agreements, subject to results, to enable them to obtain future benefits, including cancellation of charges in the U.S.," reports El Universal, which also interviewed more than one hundred active and retired police officers as well as prisoners and experts.

...El Universal said that the coordination between the U.S. and Sinaloa peaked between 2006 and 2012, which is when drug cartels consolidated their grip on Mexico. The report ends by saying that it is unclear whether the arrangements continue.

I make the point in Comments here, but I'm not sure people understand.

More Questions Than Answers

Who are these Chosen People? What is this Promised Land? And why do we have to switch the Golden Calf for Blue Crystals?

This Bridge Scandal Is Just Starting!

Apparently it's about money - Big Money - but the exact connections are still murky. For reasons that are still unclear, Christie was trying to - and is still trying very hard to! - hold hostage the billion-dollar Hudson Lights project:

The Hudson Lights project is a billion dollar project because it offers unparalleled access to the George Washington Bridge. But take away that access and it’s no longer a billion dollar project.

...We know that because of its location, the long-term viability of this project could be threatened by any permanent changes to the GWB toll lanes that negatively impacted the on-ramp adjacent to the site.

...In other words, even though the permits were in place, the zoning approvals were done, the designs were finished, there was one last thing to lock down: the money.

...Moreover, the most crucial weeks that would decide whether this project would be capitalized are coincident with the weeks between when the traffic shut-down was ordered and when the traffic shut-down was lifted. It was only after Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye learned of Baroni and Wildstein’s shenanigans that the financing was finally sewn up. In fact, it was the very first business day after the lanes were re-opened that the developers announced they’d raised $218 million.

...I find it hard to believe that would-be investors in this project weren’t alarmed by the prospect that Port Authority officials had decided, without warning, to begin running experiments to see what would happen if local access to the GWB was temporarily, and then permanently, restricted. And in light of Mayor Sokolich’s first question to Chris Christie during their face-to-face meeting in Fort Lee this past week, asking the governor to promise not to exact revenge on Fort Lee for the trouble this scandal is causing, it seems even more significant that the governor was musing about making permanent changes in public during his December 2 press conference in Trenton. The cat was completely out of the bag on whether there had been a legitimate “traffic study,” and yet the governor persisted in characterizing the allocation of toll lanes as something that gave an unfair benefit to Fort Lee at the expense of the rest of the human race. Even in December, it seemed, Fort Lee and this project still faced a threat.

...I think that begins to get at what was going on here. We now know that a major redevelopment project, one that depends on Port Authority assets and relationships, was put in jeopardy at a vulnerable financial moment, and in a way that put the viability of the entire project at risk.

But we still don’t know why.

"Breaking Bad" Wins Big At The Golden Globes

That was to be expected, since "Breaking Bad" is the Best TV Series Ever.

This was unexpected, though: Jennifer Lawrence apparently not wanting to intrude into Taylor Swift's interview, yet capturing the attention anyway.

Similar to many people, I like Taylor Swift, but love Jennifer Lawrence.

Dinner With the Ettensohns

A good time catching up with the fambly.

Time To Repair Relations With Iran

Bad relations with Iran never made much geopolitical sense. We have too many interests in common. It's time to reboot.

Amber - If You Could Read My Mind

I like Amber's cover of Gordon Lightfoot's song. She had been part of the Starz 54 trio. Here, she is at a fashion show.




These guys lip sync over her solo studio recording (from 2000, or so). Disconcerting, but one can always choose not to look, and listen instead.

How "Breaking Bad" Broke All Of Biggie Small's Crack Commandments

Follow these rules, you’ll have mad bread to break up
If not, twenty-four years on the wake up