2/21/09

These two photos are of a used carbon pre-filter from one of my four Honeywell HEPA, CPZ air-filters. This pre-filter surrounds a particulate filter-drum that in-turn surrounds a gas filter-drum.

The filter was used for two and one-half weeks, from the end of January 2009 to Saturday, February 14th, 2009.

The filter is in a front room in my warehouse--the room is enclosed with its door closed much of the time.

The room is cleaned regularly.

 

This warehouse is immediately across from the French School playground.

 

 

 

This is the Honeywell 17450 HEPA, GPZ filter.

 

 

 

 

 

A source close to the Berkeley Bowl owners reports that they definitely plan to open the Potter Creek Bowl May 15th.

 

 

 

Pete's Potter Creek Rain Guage

2/6-.4, 2/9-.25, 2/10-.1, 2/11-.6, 2/12-.15, 2/14-1.4, 2/15- .6, 2/16-2.15, 2/17-.7, 2/18-.6 for a total of 6.95 inches. This makes up 29% of our average rainfall.

 

 

 

A physical description the Berkeley "sexual predator" and more appears atmercurynews.com.

"The victims have described the suspect as a white man in his early 20s with a medium build and short dark wavy hair. The victims said he was clean-shaven with a well-kept appearance, police said. He is 5 feet 6 to 5 feet 9.

Police have only a sketchy description of the suspect because he approaches the victims from behind.

Police ask victims who have not already reported a similar crime, or anyone who has witnessed any of these crimes, to contact the department's sex crimes unit at 510-981-5735." 

 

"Yelp.com Extortion Accusations Ignite a War of Words" is a story by JR Raphael, PC World.

"A California newspaper says online review site Yelp manipulates its reviews for money--and now, Yelp is fighting back against the accusations. Watch out, Web watchers: This cyberfight could get ugly.

Let's Get Ready to Rumble...

The whole thing started with a story published Wednesday by the East Bay Express, an alternative weekly based in Emeryville (a small town located about four miles southwest of Berkeley). The story, titled 'Yelp and the Business of Extortion 2.0,' makes some bold claims about Yelp's business practices."

 

 

 

"Santa Cruz: Where the Left and No-Growth Politics Meet" is a book review by Randy Shaw at beyondchron.org.

"Santa Cruz is known for the University of California, Santa Cruz, its beaches, and its historic Boardwalk and amusement park. But the city also has a striking, and, until this book, largely unreported political history, one that raises critical questions about the meaning of the terms 'left' and 'progressive' in the context of local politics. As

Richard Gendron and Bill Domhoff show in their provocative new book, The Leftmost City, self-identified 'socialist-feminists' have controlled the Santa Cruz City Council for over two decades. Yet the price of winning this control was an alliance with neighborhood activists that resulted in the city implementing strict 'no-growth' policies.

These policies have left the city among the least affordable in the state, with little racial diversity. Ironically, Santa Cruz was once a solidly pro-growth town whose political fate was redirected by the decision in the 1950's to place a new campus within the city limits. When 18 year olds won the right to vote in 1971, students at the University of California, Santa Cruz could decide local elections, which they have done with regularity ever since. . . .

If you are an alumnus of UCSC, you will want to rush out and get a copy of this book. It provides the most insightful analysis yet of the city's political and social development over the past four decades, with particular focus on students' role."

 

The Mayor emails the Bates Report. Here are excerpts

      The City Budget
The news about the economy and the state budget is unsettling, and it's in this environment that the City of Berkeley is discussing the next two-year budget, which will take effect July 1, 2009. The most current news about how the City is being affected by the economy and by state spending cuts is in this report that went the City Council on February 10.
The City Council is exploring all areas of the City's budget in a series of public meetings. For example, February 17 will focus on the environment, February 24 will feature public health, and March 10 will feature youth services. For previous reports and to see the full calendar, including the program focuses for each meeting, visit the calendar of public meetings.
You can also learn more about the City's budget at www.CityofBerkeley.info/budget.
 
 
Sign Up for Free Energy and Water Assessment
California Youth Energy Services (CYES) is a free energy and water home assessment and youth employment summer program. To learn more about CYES, watch this fantastic video on CurrentTV!
http://current.com/items/89627270/jobs_of_the_rising_sun.htm
You can visit www.risingsunenergy.org to sign up, or give them a ring at 510-665-1501 x10
 
 
Berkeley Teens ­ Summer Job Applications Now Available!
Berkeley youth can pick up summer employment applications beginning February 9, 2009 and have until March 31, 2009 to submit to the YouthWorks office.  This summer the City of Berkeley's YouthWorks program will place approximately 200 youth in summer jobs that last up to 10 weeks, beginning in mid-June through late August.  Included in this year's Summer Youth employment program is the Workplace Skills course at Berkeley City College, which last summer received high marks from employers, teens and families. 
Youth must be 14 years of age at the time of application and need to come in person to the YouthWorks office to pick up an application.
YouthWorks
(510) 981-4970
1947 Center Street, Basement
Office Hours:  8am- 5:00pm
Monday through Friday

 

 

 

"Berkeley boxing class makes kids contenders" reports Doug Oakley of the West County Times.

"Jump ropes cut the air with a high-pitched whir. Their rhythmic thwacks on the floor stop and start as young boxers begin to sweat.

'Jump, Luis, I wanna hear that rope,' Ginsi Bryant yelled from an adjoining room as she screwed together a pull-up bar.

'Hey, Sam, how you doin'? Go hit that rope.' It's a Friday afternoon at the Martin Luther King Jr. Youth Services Center in Berkeley, and the Youth Boxing Program is just getting under way. For the next two and a half hours, children ages 10 to 18 and a few older folks will jump, bounce, punch and spar.

The program is about to be expanded to a second recreation center in west Berkeley as part of an effort to increase opportunities for youngsters and keep them away from crime."
 

 

 

"No More Youth Parties at Gaia Arts Center" is a story by Riya Bhattacharjee of our Planet.

"Berkeley developer Patrick Kennedy announced at the Berkeley Zoning Adjustments Board meeting last week that the Gaia Arts Center in downtown Berkeley will stop renting out space for youth events in light of a series of out-of-control parties there, with the most recent one leading to shots being fired in its aftermath three weeks ago.
Kennedy, who leases the multi-level venue on 2120 Allston Way from real estate tycoon Sam Zell's Equity Residential, told the zoning board that the space was rented out to the Oakland chapter of the national nonprofit, Jack and Jill of America, Inc., for the Jan. 30 party with the belief that it would be 'tightly controlled in order to prevent any kind of overcrowding or other neighborhood nuisance.'

The Gaia Arts Center was labeled a nuisance by the Berkeley Police Department last October after a rowdy post-football party resulted in young men and women trying to gatecrash the event, with crowds spilling out on the sidewalk and blocking streets, leaving the venue susceptible to a fine from the city in the event a similar incident occurred there in the next three months.

As a result of the latest unruly party in January, Gaia's owners will be fined $750 for violation of the notice, with the amount subject to increase if the incident gets repeated. Additionally, a new 120-day nuisance notice will be posted at the location, officials said. . . .

At last Thursday's zoning meeting, Kennedy apologized for the inconvenience caused to local businesses when large groups of teenagers started to crowd the sidewalk and block the streets, forcing Cancun restaurant and Anna's Jazz Island on Allston Way to close." 

 

 

 

 

"Solar Energy Advocates Laud Berkeley Lab Study on Successful State PV Programs" reports businesswire.com.

"California, New Jersey Programs Lower Costs, Accelerate Deployment to Build Strong Solar Markets.

Solar advocates announced that Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) released a study today indicating that the installed cost of solar photovoltaic systems in the U.S. decreased nearly 28 percent between 1998 and 2007. Tracking the Sun, attributes the cost reduction in large part to effective state solar incentive programs, most notably in California and New Jersey. Advocates from the Vote Solar Initiative, the Solar Alliance and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) lauded the findings as evidence that effective renewable energy policy can advance a strong solar market in the U.S." 

 

 

 "Golden Gates Fields Fate Uncertain; Corporate Owner's Stock Plunges" is a story by Richard Brenneman of our Planet.

"After failing to raise enough cash to reorganize, the owners of Golden Gate Fields face the threat of liquidation-leaving the future of the Albany race track in doubt.

Magna Entertainment Corp. (MEC), the company created by Canadian auto parts magnate Frank Stronach after investors in his parts company demanded that he spin off his money-losing racing ventures, issued a warning to investors Wednesday."

 

 

"Who'll Stop the Pain?" opines Noble Laureate, Paul Krugman at nytimes.com.

"Earlier this week, the Federal Reserve released the minutes of the most recent meeting of its open market committee - the group that sets interest rates. Most press reports focused either on the Fed's downgrade of the near-term outlook or on its adoption of a long-run 2 percent inflation target.

But my eye was caught by the following chilling passage (yes, things are so bad that the summarized musings of central bankers can keep you up at night): "All participants anticipated that unemployment would remain substantially above its longer-run sustainable rate at the end of 2011, even absent further economic shocks; a few indicated that more than five to six years would be needed for the economy to converge to a longer-run path characterized by sustainable rates of output growth and unemployment and by an appropriate rate of inflation."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2/27/09

the west-Berkeley Bowl

"the grocery store"

a photo essay with permission of the owners

 

 

 

 

 

 

from my log

2/8/09--starting mid-day--off-and-on, SERIOUS irritant in front of warehouse and warehouse front, dry eyes, dry mouth, cough, slight "chlorine" like odor, guest for afternoon has headache, goes outside for a walk for "air".

2/9/09--off-and-on all day beginning at 6:00AM, VERY SERIOUS irritant in warehouse front, burning eyes, burning mouth, hacking cough, short breath, slight "chlorine" like odor, over-rides four HEPA filters, eventually leave.

2/12/09-6:00 AM--VERY SERIOUS irritant in warehouse, "dry" air, unburned "gas" odor, eyes and throat dry, cough, air out.

2/17/09--8:59 PM, SERIOUS irritant in front room, burning eyes, mouth, leave.

2/18/09--6:59 PM, SERIOUS irritant in front room, burning eyes, mouth, cough, burning throat plus strong "chlorine bleach" and "burning natural gas" odor.

2/19/09--1:07 PM, irritant in front room, eyes water, mouth dry. 1:36 PM VERY, VERY SERIOUS irritant in front room, burning eyes, mouth, nausea, light head, leave.

 

 

 

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 new Area Coordinator is Officer Karen Buckheit, Berkeley PD - 981-5774 kbuckheit@ci.berkeley.ca.us

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