12/27/10
posts from the past
9/25/03
So now just where is our namesake,
Potter Creek? According to a City of Berkeley, Department of Engineering,
1990 Map it runs underground in a 2ft culvert entering Potter
Creek, the neighborhood, at the southeast corner of San Pablo
and Heinz, runs along Heinz and directly under the Scharffen Berger
factory, turns southwest at just before the corner of Heinz and
7th, and leaves Potter Creek at Potter Street and the railroad
right of way.
Thank you David, Peter, and Melody.
12/26/03
HAPPY KWANZAA!
If
you didn't yesterday,
today check out Drop
Me Off in Harlem.
&
Check out the Kwanzaa web site.
12/28/03
"Candidate's
recollections differ from historians' views of a turbulent decade"
writes the Washington Post's Paul Farhi in "Dean
Tries to Summon Spirit of the 1960s." When reading this, remember that history
is written by the victors, and it is my memory that Berkeley lost
The Insurrection.
Someone
set fire to a pine tree in the middle of the École Bilingue
playground on Christmas night. Since this is Berkeley, I'm not
sure if it was a prank by the neighborhood kids or part of a rite
by Nature worshipers.
And
a belated, Happy Winter Solstice to all!
Saturday afternoon, I took my bike to the "Canned Food Store"--they
have a great price on double-boxes of Corn Flakes. As I was locking
up my bicycle another old man was unlocking his. While locking
and unlocking, we exchanged glances and then broke into smiles.
"How are you" he asked. "Fine" I said "And
how you doin'?" "Pretty good for an old man" he
said. And then as old men will do, we talked about how everything
has "gon ta hell in a hanbasket." Then, as he was ready
to leave he stopped and offered "I worked in the shipyards
but now I'm retired and do volunteer drug counseling. It can be
real depressing, but sometime you reach someone--just sometime.
Maybe one in hundreds. But, it's worth it." "Happy New
Year" he said as he left. "Happy New Year to you, too"
I said.
end posts from the past
Penndorf's Miscellaneous
Ramblings
Things happened here in 2010.
While surrounding cities
and towns are in financial difficulty including bankruptcy, Our
Town is somewhat financially stable in large part because of the
policies and administration of our City Manager, Phil Kamlarz.
Yet unfunded liabilities loom large.
For the first time in over
thirty years, the new Police Chief was chosen from outside the
department. The full effect of this is yet to be felt.
Our West-Berkeley Bowl has
become wildly successful, as has its traffic plan largely drawn
up under the guidance of our city workers.
The composition of our City
Council has remained the same, for all incumbents were re-elected--boring.
The results of our West-Berkeley
Project affirm Leon Trotsky's axiom "A camel is a race horse
made by a committee." (Apologies to the city workers who
labored long and hard to bring some sort of order out the political
mishegas.)
In less than a year our,
our Chamber of Commerce has gone through two Chief Executive Officers
and at last count had not yet found a third, proving that success
in business does not necessarily include "playing well with
others."
And the Ed Roberts Campus
has opened, allowing its members to do their good works, affirming
that indeed "The meek shall inherit the earth."
And there is in 21st Century
Berkeley something to live-by in addition to "Do unto others
as you would have others do unto you." Which would be "That
which you resist, persists."
Yet, we all seemed to have
survived and are more or less well.
"Indian-American Kamala Harris 'female
Obama' in making" is
a story at hindustantimes.com that through its characterizations
shed some light on our continuing racism.
"Indian-American Kamala
Harris, California's next Attorney General, is the 'female Obama'
in making and likely to be a national figure shortly, a media
report said on Saturday. Daughter of an Indian mother and African-American
father, Harris is being called the future of the Democratic Party,
a
rising political star in the mold of one of her big supporters
- President Barack Obama, the 'Politico' said in a lead story.
'At first glance, the President
and Harris have much in common: Both are mixed-race children of
immigrants raised by a single mother; both are eloquent, telegenic
big-city lawyers with strong liberal credentials who catapulted
from relative obscurity to the national stage.' "
end Miscellaneous Ramblings
"Apartment construction jumps, single-family
home building plummets" staff
and wire reports at mercurynews.com.
"Researchers develop reactor to make fuel
from sunlight" is
a report at guardian.co.uk.
"Scientists raise hopes
for a large-scale renewable source of liquid fuel with a simple
reactor that mimics plants.
A simple reactor that mimics
plants by turning sunlight into fuel has been demonstrated in
the laboratory, boosting hopes for a large-scale renewable source
of liquid fuel."
"Students being taught to talk things out"
is at upi.com.
"Restorative justice
programs, an alternative to punitive treatment for student misbehavior
like suspensions and expulsions is effective, U.S. researchers
say.
Mary Louise Frampton of the
University of California, Berkeley's School of Law's Thelton E.
Henderson Center for Social Justice, says the dialogue-based restorative
justice programs encourage young people to take responsibility
for their actions, repair harm done to victims and improve and
strengthen relationships. Zero-tolerance policies, typically lead
to suspensions and expulsions, which increase the risk of going
to juvenile hall or jail, Frampton explains."
12/28/10
Penndorf's Miscellaneous
Ramblings
Our Chamber of Commerce is
holding a news conference this afternoon, Tuesday at 2:30, downtown
at Revival Bar and Kitchen, 2102 Shattuck.
They will announce their
new CO-CEOs, one a "politician" the other a "business
person."
end Miscellaneous Ramblings
"Facebook,
PayPal tycoon embraces sci-fi future" by AP reporter
Marcus Wohlsen at news.yahoo.com.
"In the movie The Social
Network, the character of Peter Thiel is played as a slick Master
of the Universe, a tech industry king and kingmaker with the savvy
to see that a $500,000 investment in Facebook could mint millions
later.
Reality is a little more
rumpled.
On a recent December night,
Thiel walked, slightly stooped, across a San Francisco stage to
make a pitch to an invitation-only audience of Silicon Valley
luminaries - investors and innovators who had scored sometimes
huge fortunes through a mix of skill, vision and risk-taking.
The billionaire PayPal co-founder
didn't tell them about the next big startup. He wanted them to
buy into a bigger idea: the future.
A future when computers will
communicate directly with the human brain. Seafaring pioneers
will found new floating nations in the middle of the ocean. Science
will conquer aging, and death will become a curable disease.
If anything can transform
these wild dreams into plausible realities, he believes it is
the entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley - the minds and money that
have conjured the technological marvels that have already altered
everyday life."
"The college transfer squeeze" by Rob Kuznia Staff Writer, dailybreeze.com.
"Gerson Monzon wasn't
exactly an overachiever in high school. Three years ago, he barely
graduated from Narbonne High School in Harbor City with a 2.0
GPA.
But he buckled down as a
student at El Camino College near Torrance, and this fall transferred
into UCLA, where he majors in political science, and where the
GPA of the average freshman is a sky-high 4.25.
The possibility of transferring
into the school of one's dreams from a junior college has long
been an option, but, thanks largely to the lackluster economy,
awareness is growing. This means that while it's still easier
to get into the top UC schools as a transfer student than as a
freshman out of high school, the gap between those two methods
is narrowing. In short, more students are pursuing the transfer
option, which is creating more competition for the openings.
This story takes a close
look at UCLA and the University of California, Berkeley in part
because they are the state's most prestigious public universities,
but also because they tend to provide more data on applicants
and admissions than other schools."
"UC class melds photography, protest"
Debra Levi Holtz, Special to The
Chronicle.
"Think of it as a crash
course in the culture of protest at UC Berkeley, or as an antidote
to teenage apathy.
A new freshman seminar that
combines photojournalism with political awareness was inspired
by recent conflicts on campus over rising tuition and funding
cuts. It is designed to teach students about the role of photography
in political activism."
"Weighing
the Risk of a Chemical in Tap Water" at nytimes.com.
"Low levels of hexavalent
chromium, an industrial chemical used in the production of stainless
steel and chrome plating, have been found in drinking water supplies
across the United States, a new study by an environmental group
has found.
Those who saw the 2000 film
"Erin Brockovich" will remember hexavalent chromium,
also known as chromium-6, as the chemical spreading in a plume
beneath the town of Hinkley, Calif., from a disposal site run
by Pacific Gas & Electric. The company ultimately paid $333
million in damages for the contamination after a class-action
lawsuit.
The chemical has been linked
to increased cancer risk. But Allan Smith, a professor of epidemiology
at the School of Public Health at the University of California,
Berkeley, said the concentrations reported by the Environmental
Working Group were probably no cause for concern."
12/29/10
Pete's Potter Creek rain
gauge showed 1.7 inches for the storm of which 1.5 had fallen
by 10 PM. By 11:30 PM the rain had turned to showers.
You can find information
about our current weather conditions including real-time radar
at www.wunderground.com
Of the local TV weather reports,
Channel 2 is the most fact-filled, accurate and responsible. Channel
4 the least, often given to melodrama.
post from the past
12/20/03
"The Berkeley Public Education Foundation is
celebrating its 20th year by giving teachers in the city's 17
schools $137,235 in classroom grants" writes Meredith May
in her "School
Notes" in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Who IS this
guy's schneider?*
end post from the past
*tailor, Yiddish
Penndorf's Miscellaneous
Ramblings
Casa Batlo Barcelona, Spain
a Judi Quan photo
Browsing printed media is
pretty much lineal, that is it's two dimensional. You go back
and forth. Computer browsing, in addition, can easily be three-dimensional,
links allowing you to move through space. Should you write differently
because of this? Maybe.
end Miscellaneous Ramblings
"New yeast strain 'cuts major drawbacks
of biofuel production methods' "
at oneindia.in.
"Scientists at the University
of California University of Illinois, the Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory and the energy company BP have found a new yeast strain
that eliminates many major shortcomings of current biofuel production
methods."
12/30/10
Penndorf's Miscellaneous
Ramblings
A Tavis Smiley conversation
not to be missed is his most recent half-hour with Quincy
Jones. It's full of warmth, humor and good advice. Definitely
check
it out!
fes, Morocco
a Judi Quan photo
And the Charlie Rose hour
with Spanish actor, Javier Bardem and Mexican director, Alejandro
González Iñárritu is a refreshing
journey to a fully Latin world. It's about about Spain, Mexico
and their new movie 'Biutiful'."
RollingStone writes of "Biutiful".
"Quan's Journey:Many say it was her focus,
tireless work to help those in need that boosted her to Oakland's
top office" is a
story by Cecily Burt in the Oakland Tribune.
Not to take anything away
from Mayor-elect Quan but the immediately reason for her success
was her savvy use of rank choice voting through an arrangement
with another city council candidate Rebecca
Kaplan in which they agreed to recommend each other as second
choice on the ballot.
After the November election,
Ms Quan appeared at a victory celebration for our council members
Jesse
Arreguin and Kriss
Worthington.
California Watch explains
"Ranked-choice, or instant-runoff, voting is supposed to
save taxpayers millions by eliminating the need for local primaries
and runoff elections. Advocates say it also boosts electoral competition,
because candidates have to raise money for only one election per
cycle, not two or three.
Here's how it works: In choosing,
say, a mayor for Oakland, voters vote for three candidates, ranking
them in the order of preference. A candidate who gets more than
50 percent of the first-choice votes wins outright. If that doesn't
happen, the election department's computers then count up the
second-place and third-place votes until a winner emerges."
More from californiawatch.org
here.
"Berkeley
co-ops cracking down on drug use" by Matt Krupnick at
insidebayarea.com.
"Nine months after a
UC Berkeley student overdosed on drugs, the university's 20 student-run
cooperative houses are making it easier for residents to report
substance abuse among their peers.
This month the Berkeley Student
Cooperative, whose 1,250 members are largely UC Berkeley students,
adopted new procedures to review whether a resident has a drug
or alcohol problem. The new rules will streamline that review
once a resident has reported a problem."
The co-op at which "UC
Berkeley student overdosed on drugs" has a Potter Creek connection
as they lease warehouse space here.
end Miscellaneous Ramblings
posts from the past
10/14/04
Tom Bates, our casually dressed,
low-key mayor gave a friendly presentation Tuesday morning before
a standing-room only audience at Caffé Trieste. In his
forty-some minute talk, he covered issues he felt of interest
to those assembled. (Many, it seemed, the "usual suspects.")
The Mayor began by assuring all, that though times were tuff,
fourteen million dollars in cuts had been made in the City budget,
many the result of union cooperation. He then stressed the real
need to expedite city permit issuance, while observing that permit
applications had been up 50% and so issuance was slow. He also
alluded to some structural problems, though not specifically.
Crime, he said in Berkeley is at an all time low--although there
have been some high profile cases, and assured us that though
a new Chief will be appointed soon, "community policing"
will be continued. He is excited about the development of San
Pablo Avenue in Berkeley, making it a first class business area,
and mentioned that Caltrans money will contribute to the project.
Against Measure Q, he offered "Bad for women, bad for the
City." And the Berkeley Bowl issue he felt would be resolved
next year. Finished with his talk, he opened the meeting to questions.
John Curl wanted to know if, when, and how the West Berkeley Plan
will be reviewed. (This development plan, drawn up in the '80s
is, in some areas, now wildly out of sync with our time. It completely
missed computerization and only through a revision mentions work-live
development.) The mayor thought that it would probably be reviewed
later than sooner. He concluded by stressing the need to support
Loni Hancock and Maudellle Sherik's "replacement." My
Caffé´Trieste espresso was excellent as usual.
2/13/08
the quiet but deadly Bob
Kubik emails
2/1/09
"Bay Area mourns upcoming loss of Scharffen
Berger" reports
Janis Mara at contracostatimes.com.
" 'It's terrible,' said Marilyn Rinzler of Berkeley as she
stood outside the soon-to-be-closed Scharffen Berger manufacturing
facility here with an empty chocolate sample container in her
hand.
Hershey Co., which bought
Berkeley-based premium chocolate maker Scharffen Berger in 2005,
announced plans this week to close the West Berkeley plant. Most
of the chocolate will now be made at a Hershey plant in Robinson,
Ill., which has actually been the case for some time, according
to Hershey.
'This is a Berkeley enterprise.
It should stay in Berkeley, just as Peet's Coffee is a Berkeley
enterprise and continues to be in Berkeley,' Rinzler said."
end posts from the past
12/31/10
Penndorf's Miscellaneous
Ramblings
Marsha W's quote of the year,
"Toe-Pick!"
Next month, "Harpsichord"
John is going to Northern Europe on business. Ah, Denmark in Winter.
"Northern California fishing report"
by Tim Goode at mercurynews.com.
"Berkeley:Boats have
been tied up for two weeks. In the new year, there will be crab
forays."
Aw s#%t, "UC
execs demand more benefits" at San Francisco Business
Times.
"Executives at the University
of California are threatening to sue the university system if
it does not spend millions to increase their pensions, a that
that has sparked anger among state officials, the Mercury News
reports."
Bacheeso's is no longer serving
dinner.
Second time this week, I
got a meatball sub at Subway on Hollis. And with everything on
it for five dollars and change --good for two meals!
end Miscellaneous Ramblings
post from the past
8/1/08
our "secret movie studio"
crew
partying after Beverly
Hills Chihuahua rap
end post from the past
"Man wants Oakland Fox Theater builder
to get full credit" Angela
Woodall, Oakland Tribune.
"Having reached the
age of 80, Jack Biringer has found a new purpose in life: to set
the record straight. The record that needs straightening, according
to Biringer, is the identity of the true architect of the Fox
Theater.
He has combed through mountains
of paperwork and written countless letters in the pursuit to prove
that his mentor and family friend Maury Diggs is responsible for
designing and building the movie palace more than 80 years ago.
According to the official version today, Diggs designed everything
but the theater; a team of two men, Charles Peter Weeks and William
Day, deserve credit for that.
It is a notion Biringer refutes.
According to his version,
Diggs had to hide behind Weeks and Day because of his checkered
past including prison time. The very married 26-year-old architect
-- and son of a politically prominent family -- had taken a 19-year-old
mistress from Sacramento to Nevada for a romantic rendezvous,
at that time a criminal offense known as white slavery."
"CSU assistant chemistry professor Amy
Prieto's research sounds like something out of a science-fiction
film or a comic book" reports
coloradoan.com.
"A battery 1,000 times
more powerful than any other battery on the market and that lasts
10 times longer. And, of course, what good would a super battery
be unless it was cheaper than the standard battery out there?
These are lofty goals for
the fledgling company - Prieto Battery - heading into its second
round of investment funding and stage 2 of its prototype next
year.
The battery, named after
Prieto, is projected to perhaps one day revolutionize the cell
phone, military, automobile and health-care industries by providing
a steadfast, reliable power source that can capitalize on a battery
with a larger surface area, resulting in a higher power density.
Born in Bogota, Columbia,
Prieto, 36, moved to the United States at age 4 and grew up in
Michigan. She attended Williams College in Massachusetts, where
she earned degrees in chemistry and philosophy. She got her doctorate
at the University of California, Berkeley, and completed her postdoctoral
work at Harvard."
from my log
12/23/10--2:05 PM--SERIOUS
irritant in front room dry dirty air with "burning gas"
odor, mucus membrane irritation. 3:00 PM--similar.
12/24/10--2:39 PM--SERIOUS
irritant in front room, dirty, dry air, nausea, light head. Marsha
has cough attack. 3:29 PM--Marsha has cough attack.
12/25/10--2:00PM--SERIOUS
irritant in warehouse front and IMMEDIATELY in front of warehouse,
dry dirty air, cough, mucus membrane irritation. Marsha similar.
12/28/10--5:46 PM--VERY SERIOUS
irritant in front front, dry dirty airm watery eyes, mucus membrane
irritation, leave.
12/29/10--off-and-on all
day, irritant in front room, dry dirty air, watery eyes, mucus
membrane irritation.
Eternally useful
links
Bay Area home prices from sfgate.com
Bay Area foreclosures from sfgate.com
Our City Council update is
here.
Our Planning Commision update
is here
You can find more information
about our current weather conditions than is good for you at www.wunderground.com
Want to see weather coming
in, going out, beautiful sunsets, and much, much more? Check out
http://sv.berkeley.edu/view/
This very hip site was in an email from reader and contributor,
Tony Almeida. Read Tony's Jimi Hendrix story on the only page that routinely gets
more hits than Scrambled Eggs.
Best gas prices in 94710,
as well as all of US and Canada, are here
at gasbuddy.com
Kimar finds Costco routinely
has the lowest price.
Richmond
Ramblers' motorcycle club member, Cliff Miller emails a very
useful link
If you ever need to get a
human being on the phone at a credit card company or bank, etc.,
this site tells you how to defeat their automated system and get
you to a human being within a few seconds.
http://gethuman.com/
Markets
is not just a reference for Berkeley-Hills radicals with 1.5 mil
homes and considerable portfolios.
Our City of Berkeley Boards
and Commissions page is here--redone
and friendly.
Berkeley
Police reports at insidebay area.com are here.
Our Berkeley
PD Site with crime statistics and more is here.
Crime Log for 94710 is
here
This site is NOT affiliated
with Berkeley PD.
Take time to report
crime!
All reports
of crime-in-progress should first go to Berkeley PD dispatch--911
or non-emergency, 981-5900. THEN make sure you notify EACH of
these City people.
The contacts
are below:
Our Area
Coordinator is Officer Karen Buckheit, Berkeley PD - 981-5774
kbuckheit@ci.berkeley.ca.us
AND check out BPD feature
"Who
are these Crooks."
Angela Gallegos-Castillo,
City Mgr Off - 981-2491 agallegos-castillo@ci.berkeley.ca.us
Ryan Lau,
aid to Darryl Moore - 981-7120 rlau@ci.berkeley.ca.us
Darryl Moore,
City Councilman dmoore@ci.berkeley.ca.us
More
Scrambled Eggs & Lox, here
and
Stories about Berkeley and stories about recorded-music
are at
Journal of Recorded Music 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
ronpenndorf@earthlink.net
The original owner of all
posted material retains copyright. The material is used only to
illustrate.