2/16/11
Penndorf's Miscellaneous
Ramblings
Pete's Potter Creek rain
gauge showed 1/2 inch for Monday and 1.2 inches yesterday through
this morning.
You can find more information
about our current weather conditions than is good for you at www.wunderground.com
There's increased activity
in west-Berkeley commercial real estate. More property is being
shown and with banks beginning to lend, real offers are being
made and sales completed. "I haven't seen this kind of interest
in two years" said a very reliable source.
KRON's Stanley Roberts finds
Berkeley Behaving Badly
"Surprised Drivers Get Ticket for our Unwritten
Parking Rule"
for video roll down to headline
The Gitmo-detainees-measure
was defeated by our city council, 4-1 with 4 abstentions.
And our City Manager Phil
Kamlarz said ". . . federal law explicitly prohibits the
transfer of Guantanamo detainees to the United States."
History of Cincinnati Chili
Outside of the state of Texas,
Cincinnati, Ohio, is the most chili-crazed city in the United
States. Cincinnati prides itself on being a true chili capital,
with more than 180 chili parlors. Cincinnati-style chili is quite
different from its more familiar Texas cousin, and it has developed
a cult-like popularity.
What makes it different is
the way the meat is cooked. The chili has a thinner consistency
and is prepared with an unusual blend of spices that includes
cinnamon, chocolate or cocoa, allspice, and Worcestershire. this
is truly the unofficial grub of Cincinnati.
The people of Cincinnati
enjoy their chili spooned over freshly made pasta and topped with
a combination of chopped onions, shredded Cheddar cheese, refried
beans or kidney beans, and crushed oyster crackers. If you choose
"the works," you are eating what they call Five-Way
Chili. Make sure to pile on the toppings - that's what sets it
apart from any other chili dish.
To test a restaurant for
authenticity, ask for a Four-Way. If the server asks you whether
you want beans or onions, you know this is fake Cincinnati chili,
since Four-Way always comes with onions.
Macedonian immigrant Tom
Kiradjieff created Cincinnati chili in 1922. With his brother,
John, Kiradjieff opened a small Greek restaurant called the Empress.
more history and recipe
here
Our Town's new street-only-paper
is the Berkeley Times.
A family-friendly local news
sourse not unlike berkeleyside.com but for younger readers,
"It's time to subscribe
to the Times
It's time to subscribe to the Berkeley Times, and to support the
local hometown paper in Berkeley. The pilot edition is scheduled
for publication on Thursday, September 9, 2010. You won't find
it online, instead look for the first edition delivered to your
front door (or very close to it).
In each printed edition of Berkeley Times,
subscribers will read local stories about what matters most to
citizens: the education of its children, the safety and conditions
of its streets, its homes and its parks, prep sports and the local
art scene. Most of all, people will find stories about themselves
some of which will be submitted by its readers, those with
something to say about Berkeley. There will be announcements of
births, engagements, weddings and deaths. Obituaries in the Berkeley
Times will be elaborate when appropriate and published at no charge
to grieving families.
An independent newspaper, the Berkeley Times
will be entertaining, humor-filled and kid-friendly; after all,
this paper is especially intended to attract young readers. Overall,
the tone will be warm and friendly and remind readers why they
love living here.
Though Berkeley Times will have a website,
editions will not be available on line. For that reason, non-subscribers
seeking the news of Berkeley or a specific story must find a printed
copy or better yet, subscribe. Independent newspapers are
rare in America these days, and for good reason. Advertising revenues
in this economic climate cannot sustain them. For that reason,
for this community newspaper to become a reality in Berkeley,
its citizens must underwrite its operations."
Our Loni Hancock, State Senator
from Berkeley, is at the bottom of the list of senators'
spending for transportation--her
last year's total only $1500.00.
DYING TO MEET YOU
is a recent book by Kate
Klise and our Sarah Klise
of which Michele Shaw, Quail
Run Elementary School, San Ramon, CA writes
"When former best-selling
children's author I.B. Grumply moves into a Victorian mansion
in Ghastly, IL, to write the latest installment in his 'Ghost
Tamer' series, he is hindered by more than just his overwhelming
case of writer's block. He is dismayed to find the mansion already
occupied by an 11-year-old boy named Seymour Hope, his cat, and
Olive C. Spence, a ghost living in the cupola who is unhappy because
she never managed to publish her books in her lifetime. Similar
to the Klises' other offerings, the story is successfully told
through letters, newspaper clippings, drawings, and related devices.
Although Grumply has written ghost tales, he himself is a nonbeliever,
and Olive and Seymour attempt to convince him. They then collaborate
on a book about their own experiences, including the possibility
of the demolition of the mansion, a ghost who falls in love with
the occupant of her house, and Seymour's parents and their lack
of responsibility for his care. This first title in a new series
will appeal to readers, especially reluctant ones, as it moves
quickly and leaves its audience eager for book two, which is announced
in this ghastly and fun tale."
Much to my amazment, traffic
to our "Almost Daily Scrambled Eggs and Lox" pages continues
at two-to -three times the pre "Miscellaneous Ramblings"
rate.
Well, Ok then.
Our Jim Novosel is the architect
for the restoration of the
building on the south-east corner of University and San Pablo.
This is the Weisbrod Building.
Designed by Spiveck and Spiveck, it was constructed in 1930 and
was designated a City of Berkeley landmark in July 1985.
end Miscellaneous
Ramblings
post from the past
12/9/05
Architect, Jim Novosel emails about his 2817 8th
Street project
Without too much architectural, planning language
bs, I want to outline to you why I feel this project should be
supported from a neighborhood perspective. It mostly goes to size
and style, i.e., the project's size is reasonable and significantly
less than what the zoning rules would allow, and the building
looks like it belongs in the neighborhood.
Consider:
1. The project is only 4 units whereas 6 units could
be built.
2. The project is 6,228 square feet of building whereas nearly
11,000
square feet could be built. The zoning rules would allow a developer
to
construct a project that could have 1 1/2 times the square footage
of
its land size, where as our project is only .85 of its land size.
3. The project is two stories in the front and rear, and three
only in
its center. A full 3 stories could be constructed across the property.
4. The style of the buildings fit the neighborhood's scale and
is
"friendly" to the historic look of adjacent homes. Our
front unit has an
entry door and living room on the street level that faces the
neighborhood similar to the older adjacent residences. The recent
projects at 8th and Pardee, though well designed in the "high
architecture" style, are closed off and have little street
connection to
the existing neighborhood context.
To think that in most Berkeley developments, the
zoning envelopment is being pushed by developers to have bigger
and denser projects than would be allowed by the zoning rules.
Here, the Potter Creek Neighborhood is
looking at a housing project in reverse of that trend.
Thank you, Jim Novosel. 510.420.1484
end post from the
past
"UC schools need remedial work on open
government" opines
mercurynews.com.
"It's disconcerting,
to say the least, that the University of California flunked a
transparency test from a major open-government group. But the
Bay Area's four California State University schools -- including
San Jose State -- got an A-plus.
May we suggest some peer
tutoring? "
"Tick population plummets in absence of
lizard hosts" is
a story-release by Sarah Yang, Media Relations, UC Berkeley.
"The Western fence lizard's
reputation for helping to reduce the threat of Lyme disease is
in jeopardy. A new study led by researchers at the University
of California, Berkeley, found that areas where the lizard had
been removed saw a subsequent drop in the population of the ticks
that transmit Lyme disease."
"Gasoline From Water? It Could Happen:Major
Effort Is Under Way in California to Use Sunlight to Split Water
Into Fuel" at abcnews.com.
"A worldwide competition
is under way to develop technology that will revolutionize the
way we power everything. from our laptops to our cars, and the
United States, at the moment, has a substantiive lead.
The goal is to produce fuels
-- hydrogen, methane, maybe gasoline -- by vastly improving on
the photosynthesis that provides the fuel for plants and algae
and all sorts of living things to grow.
The end goal: Turning ordinary
water into fuel by beating nature at its own game. To do that
you need sunlight, water and various catalysts to produce different
kinds of fuel. The catalysts will likely be unlike anything seen
today. "
"In a galaxy far away, Indian-origin scientist
finds her calling"
is a story at indiatimes.com.
"US-based Indian origin
astrophysicist Sukanya Charkrabarti has found her calling 260,000
light years away in a galaxy that can barely, if at all, be seen.
Galaxy X, at a distance which is modest on the cosmic scale, is
where she is perfecting her theoretical skills.
Dealing with structures of
the Milky Way that seem to exist more by their gravitational signature
than by actual observational fact, Chakrabarti, of the University
of California , Berkeley , has perfected a technique that could
give scientists some key answers to deeply troubling questions.
The most baffling of them relates to dark matter, which forms
over 80 per cent of the universe.
Dark matter is a mysterious
matter that cannot be seen because it does not interact with light.
Its presence is inferred by the gravitational forces it exerts
on matter that can be seen. "
"Four young faculty members to receive
$50,000 Sloan Research Fellowships" by Gretchen Kell, Media Relations, UC Berkeley.
"Four faculty members
from the University of California, Berkeley, have been awarded
prestigious Sloan Research Fellowships, given annually by the
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to scientists, mathematicians and economists
who are at an early stage of their research careers."
"Amazon plays hardball with state taxers" at ocregister.com.
"California legislators
should look at a fight going on between Texas and Amazon.com as
they make another run at getting taxes from sales on Amazon, Overstock.com
and other out-of-state retailers.
The Texas Comptroller Susan Combs in 2010 sent Amazon a bill for
$269 million in taxes plus penalties and interest for sales made
through Amazon to Texas residents from 2005 to 2009, the Statesman.com
reports.
Amazon responded this month
by announcing it will close its physical presence in Texas and
take 119 jobs with it. That presence is a warehouse that is one
of 52 fulfillment centers the Seattle-based online retail giant
maintains. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that states cannot
force online and mail order retailers to collect sales tax in
states where it has no stores, warehouses or other physical presence
(called nexus for those who speak bureaucratese).
Amazon doesn't have that type of physical presence in California,
so the bill introduced in January by Assemblywoman Nancy
Skinner, D-Berkeley, is targeting California-based websites that
earn commissions by directing some of their traffic to Amazon
and other large online retailers. There are an estimated 25,000
such Amazon affiliates in California."
2/17/11
Penndorf's Miscellaneous
Ramblings
900 GRAYSON's Courtney is going to the NBA All-Star Game
in LA this weekend . . .
and to the parties.
"Childhood sleepovers opened eyes to possibilities"
by Meredith May, sfgate.com.
"When I started elementary
school, I was surprised to discover that my new friends had their
own bedrooms.
From age 5 to 10, I shared
a bedroom with my newly divorced mother and younger brother in
my grandparents' home."
Meredith
May introduced me to
the poetry and writing of Raymond
Carver. I knew Ms
May briefly when she worked in Chronicle's Qakland bureau.
Raymond Carver
SUNDAY NIGHT
Make use of things around you
This light rain
Outside the window, for one.
The cigarette between my fingers,
These feet on the couch.
The faint sound of rock-and-roll,
The red Ferrari in my head.
The woman bumping
Drunkenly around in the kitchen . . .
Put it all in,
Make use.
American Idiot won the Grammy
for Best Musical Show Album. Produced by Billie Joe Armstrong,
the recording features Green Day and the original Broadway cast.
The musical features music from Green Day's most recent albums,
American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown.
Tavis Smiley's conversation with Wynton Marsalis is worth watching.
"Eight and nine-time
Grammy winner Wynton Marsalis discusses the long-term price Americans
are paying for abandoning arts in education and analyzes their
confusion of entertainment with arts."
Aw jeez, . . . this week's
four-hour-plus Berkeley Ciy Council session video is
here.
end Miscellaneous
Ramblings
post from the past
3/27/08
new cutie in Potter Creek?
sort'a
Jada is Courtney's daughter.
end post from the
past
"Layoffs
are coming to Berkeley City Hall:City makes cuts to offset a $1.8
million budget deficit" by Doug Oakley, Berkeley Voice.
"Facing a sickly economy
and weak tax revenue, Berkeley will lay off seven city employees
in April, put off road repair and other projects and make cuts
to city departments to fill a $1.8 million Faing a sickly economy
and weak tax revenue, Berkeley will lay off seven city employees
in April, put off road repair and other projects and make cuts
to city departments to fill a $1.8 million budget deficit, City
Manager Phil Kamlarz said Tuesday.
The Police Department, which
has been spared from budget cuts the past couple of years, likely
will take a hit in the next fiscal year starting in July when
the city will have to cut $11 million more, partly because of
rising pension and health care costs and low tax revenue.
Pensions for retired city
workers will cost the city about $32.7 million in fiscal year
2013."
"Green Jobs Fair Coming To Northern California"
at greenjobsready.com.
"Numerous websites centered
around news pertaining to the various green industries, including
EarthTechling, are abuzz over the recent announcement that the
Green Jobs Network is currently planning a Green Jobs & Entrepreneurship
Fair aimed at unemployed potential green jobs industry workers
in Northern California.
The fair, which is set to
be held on February 16 at the David Brower Center on Allston Way
in Berkeley, California, will include a Resource Fair, which will
host representatives from many major organizations "relevant
to green job seekers and entrepreneurs," according to the
fair's website. These organizations include the Alameda County
Small Business Development Center, Bay Area Green Tours, the San
Francisco Department of the Environment, Skyline College, and
the Solar Living Institute, among other institutions."
"U.C. Berkeley to spend $500,000 boosting
foreign language classes" by
Steven E.F. Brown at bizjournals.com.
"The University of California,
Berkeley, plans to spend $500,000 creating more foreign language
classes in the next academic year.
Ultimately, this push will
result in 30 new language courses at Cal. Provost George Breslauer
said the school is keen to spend some of the money it's getting
from fee increases "to protect and enhance the quality of
undergraduate instruction." More money is also coming in
because of increasing out-of-state and international student enrollment
(these students pay much more to go to U.C. Berkeley than California
residents)."
2/18/11
"Relic of St. Mary Magdalene coming to
Berkeley parish"
by Angela Hill, Oakland Tribune.
"Encased in glass and
held in tender reverence, a partial tibia believed to be that
of St. Mary Magdalene will be at a Berkeley parish Thursday as
part of the relic's monthlong California tour.
'It's not something that
happens every day, so it's a rather extraordinary experience to
view something like that,' said the Rev. David Farrugia, pastor
of Berkeley's St. Mary Magdalen Parish. 'Mary Magdalene is not
only the patron saint of our parish, but also considered the second
patron of the Dominican order. So this is very special.'
"
"Across the Country, Food Co-ops by the
Students for the Students" Barry
Estabrook, theatlantic.com.
"When Panda Express,
a 1,300-outlet Chinese fast-food chain, announced plans to open
a branch on the campus of the University of California-Berkeley,
a group of students protested (not surprisingly, given that their
city is the heart of all things local/seasonal/organic). What
is surprising is that the students not only defeated the chain
but also took their victory one step further by raising $100,000
to replace the proposed Beijing Beef, Honey Walnut Shrimp, and
Kung Pao Chicken joint with a student-run co-op carrying fresh,
local, healthy, sustainable, and fairly produced food that would
be sold at affordable prices.
Youthful naiveté?
Think again. After two and a half years of planning, the Berkeley
Student Food Collective opened late last year. According to Yoni
Landau, one of the organizers, the collective resembles any small
convenience store or market, featuring grocery items and prepared
sandwiches that harried students can grab on their way to or from
classes. Prices are kept affordable with the help of volunteer
employees. "We won," said Landau in an interview."
"Crude reality" is a story at boston.com.
"Will a Middle Eastern
oil disruption crush the economy? New research suggests the answer
is no -- and that a major tenet of American foreign policy may
be fundamentally wrong."
Penndorf's Miscellaneous
Ramblings
Pete's
Potter Creek rain gauge shows 1.55 inches from Wednesday mid-day
'til Thursday mid-day.
"Sailing Anarchy 'Where the Status Quo
Blows' " is a site
worth checking out.
"When we see something
we like . . . we love to show it. Last week we featured Paul Bieker's
newest I 14.
And then we saw his new Riptide
35 MK II."
The Fourth Street Apple Store
will fundamentally change the street and neighborhood. Particularly
in the evening, when the store by itself will draw more people
creating a vibrant night-life.
CVS
is looking at the former bingo parlor on Gilman and San Pablo
as a site for another one of their "pharmacies."
Our Becky O "Gets it"
with her Daily
Planet editorial about "berkeleysides' polling-of-the-west-Berkeley-proposed-code-change."
Seems that our Open
Town Hall website asked readers to express their opinion about
"code changes in west-Berkeley that would allow expanded
R&D use." Of the couple hundred replies almost all favored
changes.
BUSTED, bad social science.
The respondents were self-selected.
That is, those who replied chose to.
For a result that was more
than gossip, a random survey by street-address or telephone-number
would have to be conducted. I would have limited it to those affected--those
in west-Berkeley. A carefully constructed, value-neutral question
would be formed and asked. The tabulated result would thus fairly
and accurately reflect opinion of those questioned. Even then,
the radical mixed-use of west-Berkeley would mitigate.
But those randomly questioned would
still accurately reflect the make up here.
Our Councilman Darryl Moore,
who did graduate work in Sociology, seems to have understood the
conundrum,
for in his email, that I posted, in which he suggested poll-participation,
Mr Darryl made it clear that the results would in no-way by-themselves
determine his position.
While pensing about west-Berkeley,
I'm left with the conclusion that the proposed LBNL facility would
pay to Our Town in fees, taxes, etc. "Whatever it wants!"
Which doesn't mean that its
presence here wouldn't be an economic windfall.
And, I believe the Open
Town Hall website as it's constructed to be not-very-valuable.
just south of Potter Creek
a Patricia Dreher
photo
Hygenic Dog Food Co
"All You Need to Know About Why Things
Fell Apart" by Michael
Lewis at bloomberg.com.
"A surprising number
of my fellow citizens appear to be unaware of my service these
past 18 months as a member of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission.
Thus it may come as news
that I have declined to sign the report issued by the majority,
or the dissent by the three- member minority, or even the dissent
from their dissent, written by the now-immortal Peter J. Wallison.
I hereby dissent from the dissent from the dissent. My dissent
is different from all those other dissents, which is why I am
dissenting.
I do this, of course, not
to call attention to myself. Still less do I seek to enhance the
status of my application for employment with JPMorgan Chase. I
seek merely to inform the general public of the true causes of
our so-called financial crisis.
The task is not a simple
one. In limiting me to a mere two pages at the end of their 633-page
book, the majority and the other dissenters have suppressed not
only several apt metaphors, but deep truths.
Here, in a far-too-brief
executive summary, they are:
Financial Crisis Cause No.
1: Wall Street's shifting demographics.
In the commission's report
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke describes recent events
as 'the worst financial crisis in global history, including the
Great Depression.' The event, in other words, was unprecedented.
To understand an event that has never before occurred, we must
logically begin with those factors that have never before been
present. On Wall Street, the most obvious such factor is women.
"
"Eadweard Muybridge - a man and photos
in motion" Sam Whiting,
Chronicle Staff Writer.
"Standing at the entrance
to South Park, you can feel Eadweard Muybridge's rage
137 years ago when he figured out that his wife, Flora, was fooling
around with theater critic Harry Larkyns.
The inventive photographer
and Flora lived in a home facing San Francisco's first planned
residential tract, and he had set up his tripod in the middle
of the street to capture it, not knowing that this would be the
exact place where Larkyns would first captivate his wife. When
Muybridge put this together, after seeing a picture of his infant
son Floredo with the inscription 'Little Harry' written
on the back in his wife's hand, he tracked Larkyns up to St. Helena.
'I have a message from my
wife,' were his words.
The message was a bullet
delivered at close range. At trial, Muybridge (pronounced MY-bridge)
was acquitted of the murder, on a defense of anguish and insanity,
with a little bit of 'he had it coming.'
This is the way things were
done in the decades after the Gold Rush, an era that will take
over the entire third floor of the San Francisco Museum of
Modern Art when 'Helios: Eadweard Muybridge in a Time of
Change' opens on Feb. 26."
Kate and Sarah Klise's third
book in the "43 Old Cemetery Road" series, "Till
Death Do Us Bark" is scheduled for a Spring release.
end Miscellaneous
Ramblings
2/19/11
Penndorf's Miscellaneous
Ramblings
Thursday evening and just
another
Potter Creek sunset
end Miscellaneous
Ramblings
posts from the
past
10/5/10
"Why California is Still America's
Future" by Michael
Grunwald at time.com.
"California, you may
have heard, is an apocalyptic mess of raging wildfires, soaring
unemployment, mass foreclosures and political paralysis. It's
dysfunctional. It's ungovernable. Its bond rating is barely above
junk. It's so broke, it had to hand out IOUs while its leaders
debated how many prisoners to release and parks to close. Nevada
aired ads mocking California's business climate to lure its entrepreneurs.
The media portray California as a noir fantasyland of overcrowded
schools, perpetual droughts, celebrity breakdowns, illegal immigration,
hellish congestion and general malaise, captured in headlines
like "Meltdown on the Ocean" and "California's
Wipeout Economy" and "Will California Become America's
First Failed State?" (See pictures of the clean-up after
California wildfires.)
Actually, it won't.
Ignore the California whinery.
It's still a dream state. In fact, the pioneering megastate that
gave us microchips, freeways, blue jeans, tax revolts, extreme
sports, energy efficiency, health clubs, Google searches, Craigslist,
iPhones and the Hollywood vision of success is still the cutting
edge of the American future - economically, environmentally, demographically,
culturally and maybe politically. It's the greenest and most diverse
state, the most globalized in general and most Asia-oriented in
particular at a time when the world is heading in all those directions.
It's also an unparalleled engine of innovation, the mecca of high
tech, biotech and now clean tech. In 2008, California's wipeout
economy attracted more venture capital than the rest of the nation
combined. Somehow its supposedly hostile business climate has
nurtured Google, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Facebook, Twitter, Disney,
Cisco, Intel, eBay, YouTube, MySpace, the Gap and countless other
companies that drive the way we live."
Regarding West-Berkeley-manufacturing
And just what is the commodity that Berkeley possesses in abundance,
that Berkeley manufactures in as great or greater quantities than
anywhere else on the planet? Would that be brainpower? And how
best to channel it in 21st Century West-Berkeley? Invention and
innovation through research and development jumps to mind.
our Swerve
loaded for Ed
Roberts Campus* production
*The Ed Roberts Campus mission
is to ensure that people with disabilities can live independently
and without discrimination.Located at a fully accessible transit
hub, the Ed Roberts Campus will be a national and international
model dedicated to disability rights and universal access.The
Ed Roberts Campus will commemorate the life and work of Edward
V. Roberts, an early leader in the independent living movement
of persons with disabilities. Ed believed in the strength of collaborative
efforts: He called it "working toward our preferred future."
Swerve reception desk
for the Campus
Four groups of the Campus'
seven will be furnished by Swerve. They are Center for Independent
Living (CIL), Computer Technologies Program (CTP), Bay Area Outreach
& Recreation Program (BORP), and Center for Accessible Technology
(C4AT).
Swerve's designs were accepted
because their flexiblity will meet the needs of many different
people.
end posts from
the past
"Robbery shakes faith of merchant who gives
to his community" "
reports the Doug Oakley of the holdup of Mi Tierra's owner.
"A west Berkeley grocery
store owner was robbed of $30,000 in cash outside his store Thursday,
a crime that puts his business on shaky ground and has him questioning
his faith in giving back to the community.When at-risk youth came
looking for a wall on which to paint a mural, Jesus Mendez, owner
of Mi Tierra Foods on San Pablo Avenue, offered his. When local
schools like Nia House, Rosa Parks Elementary School, Willard
Middle School and Berkeley High School have fundraisers, Mendez
gives money. He gives money to the south and west Berkeley senior
centers. So when two men stuck a gun in his face as he was
returning from a nearby Wells Fargo with cash for his store's
check cashing operation, the pain went deep."
"Chile's First Female President to Teach
Seminar at UC Berkeley"
by Alisha Azevedo, Daily Cal Staff Writer.
"Beginning Friday, former
President of Chile Michelle Bachelet will teach a four-session
seminar at UC Berkeley, drawing on her experiences as a leader
and marking her third visit to the campus in the past four years.
"
2/20/11
post from the past
Potter Creek in the
1970s
a Margret Elliot photo--copyright
end post from the
past
Penndorf's Miscellaneous
Ramblings
I was seated next to Transit
Board member and attorney Greg
Harper at 900 Friday. During our animated conversation, that
sometimes interferred with eating, we found much in common.
Greg emails
I had a great time . . . at the lunch counter, and those Mary
Morris photos are magnificent! Will review your site in greater
depth in coming weeks; vinyl, motorcycles, and politics gotta
be good.
Greg's wife, Archana Horsting,
is the Director of Kala Institude and his daughter, while in high
school, wrote a paper-about women in the Black Panthers. Archana
emailed it to me. I went over the paper several times and found
it a fascinating, well researched, even brilliant work.
Merryll emails(excerpt)
If you are a reporter and
know the facts [ you should ] let us know when we're misguided
or as you say BUSTED. As a reporter aren't you obligated to tell
us the truth of the situation? Isn't that what news is?
In response to my email
"You and I are at Google
Maps schmoozing on the southwest corner of 8th and Grayson. Click
on 2743
8th St to view."
David replies (excerpt)
Holly s#%t . . .1984 and
then some.
an Edsel
a Patricia Dreher
photo
next to the Hygenic Dog Food
Co
The Grocery Outlet--the Canned
Food Store--has less variety and higher prices than in the past.
Under the new ownership, the prices seem to be 50 % to twice the
former and the stock is no longer fitted to our neighborhood.
All-in-all, yesterday's shopping was a disappointment. It's no
longer our neighborhood store but a generic cheap-food chain.
Yesterday's storm left snow
in the Berkeley hills along Grizzly Peak and closed Tllden Park.
end Miscellaneous
Ramblings
"City of Berkeley To Provide Green Jobs
Training" greenjobsready.com.
"According to a press
release hosted by PRWeb and reprinted by the San Francisco Chronicle's
online edition, SFGate.com, the California city of Berkeley's
Inter-City Services, Inc. (ICS) is set to offer various training
programs for citizens to both master green technologies and the
skills necessary to obtain employment in any of several rapidly
expanding green industries, such as solar installation procedures
and the process of LEED certification."
"Hopkins astrophysicist wins Einstein Meda" at baltimoresun.com.
"A Johns Hopkins University
astrophysicist has won the 2011 Einstein Medal for his discovery
of a mysterious force dubbed 'dark energy' that is accelerating
the expansion of the universe.
Adam Riess, 41, will share
the prize with Saul Perlmutter, of the University of California,
Berkeley, whose team published similar results just after Riess'
team. The prize has been awarded since 1979 by the Albert Einstein
Society, in Bern, Switzerland, recognizing outstanding scientific
work linked to Einstein's."
2/22/11
Penndorf's Miscellaneous
Ramblings
Our Karen Steeber emails
a link to an almost completely
irreverent site about politics including "Texas
Gov Shovels Cow Pies About California.
Rick Perry, the blow-dried
blowhard recently re-elected as the Republican governor of Texas,
was back at it last week, trying to puff up his national political
prestige by dumping all over California."
And the more insightful,
Charlie Rose
conversation with Chris Matthews must be seen. Ostensibly
about Matthews' Bill Clinton documentary, it is much more as he
wanders through memories of political Washington. The stories
about President Reagan and Tip O'Neal are touching.
And Arianna
Huffington and AOL' Tim Armstrong's Charlie Rose conversation
is about Internet news which they believe to be our future.
Certainly inspired by the
monumental and recently reposted "Writer strips the Twinkie
of all its secrets"--see below--Berkeleysides' Francis D
offers "Alice
Waters this ain't: the Berkeley restaurant that fries everything,
including Twinkies'
Jason Sum specializes in
fried Twinkies. And fried Oreos. And fried pizza. And fried macaroni
and cheese."
Today's Merryll Saylan report
grows out of the tagging of her building, one of five vandalized
over the holiday weekend.
"The art of clearing taggers' work in San
Francisco" Edward
Guthmann, Special to The Chronicle.
"Joe Padilla oversees
the painting of all structures and removal of graffiti in more
than 200 San Francisco parks.
Nobody knows more about graffiti
than Joe Padilla. The paint-shop supervisor for the San Francisco
Recreation and Park Department, Padilla oversees graffiti removal
for all of the city's 220 parks."
And Merryll's friend, Carolyn
Jones writes at sfgate.com "S.F.
blues guitarist--dies.
Johnny Nitro's life ended like one of his gigs: in an old North
Beach bar, on a Saturday night, surrounded by fans.
Mr. Nitro, whose raspy voice
and low-down rhythm guitar made him a beloved fixture in the Bay
Area blues scene, died Saturday evening in his apartment
upstairs from the Saloon on Grant Avenue, where he performed regularly
for decades.
'The paramedics came. It
was chaos. But when they brought his body down wrapped in a white
sheet, everyone just got quiet and started applauding.' "
end Miscellaneous Ramblings
posts from the
past
1/28/11
When Kimar, Moe, I and several
others flew to London in the '80s, Kimar, my old friend, had Pan
Pam's flight attendent serve me Twinkies as we flew over the North
Pole. I've loved Twinkies since childhood in Milwaukee.
"Twinkie, Deconstructed: My Journey to
Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown,
Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated into
What America Eats
2/24/08
"Writer strips the Twinkie of all its secrets:Man
overcomes nature, 'vice president of cake' to learn snack's origins"
reports Suzanne Bohan in our Times.
"When Steve Ettlinger
donned a hard hat, a head lamp and emergency breathing equipment
before his alarming descent 1,600 feet into Wyoming mine shaft,
he wondered whether his quest to find the natural sources of all
39 ingredients in Hostess Twinkies'had gone too far.
'As a food writer, I'd really
gone astray," he told a crowd of about 100 Google employees
earlier this month at the company's Mountain View headquarters.
To complement the author's
talk, chefs at Google prepared organic versions of Twinkies for
the event, using locally-raised or procured products to make the
almond-flavored, cream-filled pastries.
Ettlinger traversed the country
and hopped the globe, touring plants, mines and refineries to
find the actual origins of the almost unpronounceable ingredients
used to make Twinkies. His young daughter's puzzlement over a
strange-sounding one called polysorbate 60 listed on her ice cream
bar label inspired his quest, which led to
the publication of his book, "Twinkie, Deconstructed."
The hardcover version was released last year, and the softcover
book is due out on Feb. 26.
'This is a terrific book
that really opened my eyes, and I don't know of another book quite
like it,' said Michael Pollan, the Berkeley-based best-selling
food and nature author, most recently of 'In Defense of Food:
An Eater's Manifesto.'
Although Ettlinger chose
Twinkies for his in-depth exploration on food additives, he's
quick to point out that the book is a treatise on processed foods
in general."
Hostess Twinkie's ingredient
list:
Enriched bleached wheat flour
[flour, ferrous sulfate, "b" vitamins
(niacin, thiamine, mononitrate (b1), riboflavin (b2) folic acid)],
sugar, corn syrup, water, high fructose corn syrup, partially
hydrogenated vegetable shortening (contains one or more of: soybean,
canola or palm oil), dextrose, whole eggs, contains 2 percent
or less
of: modified cornstarch, cellulose gum, whey, leavenings (sodium
acid
pyrophosphate, baking soda, monocalcium phosphate), salt, cornstarch,
corn flour, corn dextrins, mono and digylcerides, polysorbate
60, soy
lecithin, natural and artificial flavors, soy protein isolate,
sodium
stearoyl lactylate, sodium and calcium caseinate, calcium sulfate,
sorbic acid (to retain freshness), color added (yellow 5, red
40).
May contain peanuts or traces of peanuts.
Google alternative recipe:
Organic cake flour, sugar,
organic cream, organic butter, organic
eggs, organic milk, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract,
almond
extract, baking powder, cream of tartar, salt.
end posts from
the past
"Accident at Berkeley's Apple store red-tags
two neighboring businesses" by
Tracey Taylor at berkeleyside.com.
"The semi-collapse of
two walls at the site of Berkeley's emerging new Apple store on
Fourth Street at 10am this morning led to a call-out for the Berkeley
fire department and the closure of two neighboring businesses.
A wall from the Apple site fell against the neighboring building
leading to its evacuation by the fire department."
"Berkeley Wine Fest Pops Its Cork Again" reports the eastbayexpress.
"It's hard to believe
that Berkeley didn't have its own wine festival until last year,
but it's true - and (better late than never) the second annual Berkeley
Wine Festival, a three-month extravaganza celebrating the wines
of France, Italy, and California, starts this Friday at the Claremont
Hotel, Club, & Spa.
The festival starts with a grand opening reception featuring more
than fifty different wines, presented at tasting booths by representatives
from the wineries that bottled them, and paired with salads, soups,
entrées, and desserts created by a collander-wielding confab
of acclaimed Berkeley chefs."
"Scripps president Richard Lerner, who
brought research institute to Jupiter, to step down next year" by Jeff Ostrowski, Palm Beach Post Staff
Writer.
"The scientist who led
the Scripps Research Institute's $579 million expansion to Jupiter
will step down as president next year, the organization said today.
Scripps President Richard
Lerner will be replaced Jan. 1 by Michael Marletta, a biochemist
at the University of California, Berkeley."
2/23/11
Penndorf's Miscellaneous
Ramblings
Pete's Potter Creek rain
gauge showed well over 5 inches for last week's storm, of which
3.4 fell since the 18th.
There's a possibility of
snow in Berkeley later this week as we experience a weather pattern
similar to the one that produced the snows of the '60s and '70s.
"Freight & Salvage's living roof is
tops" Joe Eaton
and Ron Sullivan at sfgate.com.
"Our personal priorities
are fundamental, so we enjoyed the (finally!) comfortable seats
in Freight & Salvage's new building through several concerts
before we knew about its living roof.
We've loved the venerable
music venue through three locations but missed most of its first
year here, so we hadn't heard anyone bragging about this garden."
our Swerve's " (finally!)
comfortable seats"
at Freight & Salvage
Celebrating "the final
city council meeting about west-Berkeley " Berkeleyside has
posted a slideshow"West
Berkeley: A pivotal moment." Among others, it features
snaps of Potter Creek businesses, including the West-Berkeley
Bowl, V&W Window, and Adams and Chittenden Scientific Glass.
Here's the video of the "the
final city council meeting about west-Berkeley."
But don't bet on it, this
is Berkeley.
end Miscellaneous
Ramblings
"New studies come up with best alternative
to fossil fuels"
at esi-africa.com.
"A combination of rising
costs, shrinking supplies, and concerns about global climate change
are spurring the development of alternatives to the burning of
fossil fuels to meet our transportation energy needs.
Scientific studies have shown
the most promising of possible alternatives to be liquid fuels
derived from cellulosic biomass. These advanced new bio-fuels
have the potential to be clean-burning, carbon-neutral and renewable.
Some could also be delivered through existing pipelines and used
in today's engines, replacing gasoline on a gallon-for-gallon
basis with no loss of performance."
2/24/11
Penndorf's Miscellaneous
Ramblings
Something to reflect on after
our city council's "last session on west-Berkeley"
from Collier and Horowitz's
"Destructive Generation; Second Thoughts About the Sixties."
Chapter Eight "Slouching Toward Berkeley; a Tale of Socialism
in One City," p248.
"Indeed, a large part
of Berkeley's problem appears to be that so many people are deeply
involved in city government. All those not permanently alienated,
it is tempting to say, are involved--but involved in a febrile,
almost obsessive way. This involvement encouraged by the radicals
has led to cynicism rather than citizenship, to a pervasiveness
of civic exhaustion rather than a sense of the rewards of
creative civic participation. It is an involvement based on anger
and animosity, and it has produced few benefits and many casualties,
chief among them the painstakingly evolved techniques
for handling conflict, that, along with its native imagination
and tolerance, once made Berkeley not only a great city but
a unique one as well. What has replaced that, . . .
is an atmosphere that is moralistic rather than moral, coercive
rather than persuasive. The most salient accomplishment of radical
governance has been to polarize instead of reconcile; to transform
common political ground into a barren no-mans land of unremitting
combat."
full-blossom
time
in Potter
Creek
end Miscellaneous
Ramblings
2/25/11
post from the past
3/7/10
our Tak emails
On March 4, our City Council
representative Darryl Moore
arranged a meeting to introduce Berkeley's new Police Chief, Michael
Meehan. He comes to Berkeley from the Seattle Police Department
though
he grew up in Southern California. The meeting was lightly attended
with only about 20 people present.
Having heard him speak and
answer questions for over an hour, I am
both optimistic for the future of the BPD and saddened by his
assessment of its current state. Chief Meehan is a very frank,
plain
spoken person. My impression is that his management philosophy
is in
the mold of William Bratton, the former police chief in Los Angeles
and New York City. The latter was under NYC Mayor Rudy
Giuliani. He will bring modern, goal oriented management
principles to the Berkeley Police Department based on improved
data
collection, analysis and interpretation.
Chief Meehan praised both
the history of the BPD as a pioneer in many
police innovations and the professional quality of the men and
women
of the force. But he pointed out that the innovations for which
BPD is
known stopped almost a century ago.
http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/police/History/history.html
He sees the current department
as inward looking, based on routines
developed over time and not necessarily very effective ones at
that.
He sees that the BPD doesn't communicate well on both the
technological level (via radio/net) or on the organizational level
with
other law enforcement agencies. He sees that the department is
non-transparent, hesitant to open up and communicate or relate
with others.
Chief Meehan is saying that there's a certain defensiveness in
the culture of the department.
He points out that even he
can't get good day to day data on what the
police department is doing or on what crimes are occurring. This
means
that no one in the BPD is getting this information let alone the
front
line officers on the street. Chief Meehan called this "policing
by
anecdote."
While he praised the professionalism,
qualifications and hard work of
the officers, he pointed out that they receive very little continuing
education and training. He pointed out that because there's no
data,
there can be no specific quantitative goals for the individual
officers and for supervisorial staff to strive for. I interpret
this to mean that he thinks that there's
a poor managerial culture in the department.
Chief Meehan said that he
wants a department that is goal oriented,
respectful and accountable. He meant that in the interactions
between
the police and the public, officers are to show respect to everyone.
Police officers should take actions based on the actual behavior
not
on the way a person looks. He wants everyone in the department
to be
accountable for achieving the goals that they set.
In looking at Berkeley, he
pointed out that even excluding the crime
around the UC campus, that Berkeley has a total crime rate HIGHER
than
Richmond. He thought that there was denial or complacency about
this
glaring fact in the community.
These points are what I can
remember of the long discussion. There
were many more points he made.
It is unfortunate that his
grim assessment of the current state of BPD
rings true for me. I have only had very good encounters with
individual officers. I've found them to be personable and
professional. But it has always been frustrating to deal with
the
police department as a whole.
Chief Meehan points out that
he's "all in" on this job. He's moved his family to
Berkeley. His two children attend Berkeley public schools. (He's
not too impressed by his first impression of the schools his children
attend.) He will not get a pension from Berkeley.
I think that the City Manager,
Phillip Kamlarz and the City Council
made a good decision to look outside the department for a new
police
chief. They deserve credit and our support for this choice. If
Chief Meehan can carry out his reforms
in this terrible budget climate, I think that Berkeley will be
better
off for it.
Tak Nakamoto
end post from the
past
Penndorf's Miscellaneous
Ramblings
Berkeley PD is expecting
their preliminary PERF Study report in a week or so. The PERF
(Police Executive Research Forum) is a resource allocation/staffing
and deployment study commissioned by our Chief Meehan early in
his administration. The analysis should enable our department
to operate efficiently and realistically. A previous PERF Study
was done years ago, the results of which though implemented, are
probably now out of date.
from the Anchorage PD PERF
Study
OVERVIEW AND SUMMARY
Introduction
Staffing the APD
Patrol Staffing
Investigations
Dispatch
Evidence
Records
Staffing for Units with Internally Generated Workload
Administration and Support
Deploying by Geography
Assigning Personnel by Time
Organizational Structure
Community Policing in Anchorage
UNIT BY UNIT REVIEWS
Thursday afternoon a film
crew shot a commercial at the Sawtooth on 8th and Parker--crew,
trucks, tents, in abundance, even auxilary power.
"Neighborhood Blight"
is a video-report by CBS 5's Don Knapp about an abandoned house
on 6th Street. To read it, search Don Knapp on the
CBS5 Video on Demand page.
With her present interest
in graffiti Merryll Saylan found and emailed this link We
Fight Blight in North Oakland and South Berkeley.
Several reliable sources
emailed that our holiday-weekend tagging was not gang-releated.
The tagging continues, however.
Hopefully Our Town will work
with Apple, the property owners, and the neighbors to solve the
Fourth Street Apple Store construction-burp in a fair, effcient
and timely manner. The reality is commanding, they are a flagship-tenant
world wide.
The Berkeley Apple Store's
north-wall collapses during construction--are we still working
off '60s Karma?
I'm told the Bauman
College, now across from 900,
is moving to University Avenue between
9th and 10th next to Primier Cru--the move planned for March.
film editor, Viva Barrows
emails
There is a screening of "Losing
Knowledge: fifty years of change" on March 14th at the
PFA theater in Berkeley. This documentary is set in the mountain
town of Talea in Oaxaca, Mexico where Professors Laura Nader and
Roberto Gonzalez have done their fieldwork. Laura has been going
to the region since 1957, Roberto for the past decade.
This is their eyewitness
account of the impact that NAFTA and other industrializing forces
have had on a once isolated and self reliant community. The changes
are startling and rapid in Talea, and yet this is just one example
of a larger global problem of forgetting long acquired knowledge
under the imposition of foreign forces of 'progress'.
written/directed by Laura
Nader and Roberto Gonzalez
Director of Photography: Kike Arnal kikearnal.com
Editor: Viva Barrows
"Misty Copeland"
is a guest on the Tavis Smiley Show with transcript only
here.
"Misty Copeland is one
of the world's top Black ballet dancers. Widely credited as the
first African American soloist at American Ballet Theatre-one
of the three leading classical companies in the U.S.-she rose
to stardom despite not starting ballet until age 13. By age 15,
she was winning awards. Copeland joined ABT's Studio Company in
'00, became a member of the corps de ballet in '01 and was appointed
a soloist in '07. Last year, she was handpicked by Prince to appear
in one of his videos and perform during his global tour."
Kubik emails a link to Aljazeera.
Understanding their genesis, the site is still worth a critical
viewing.
end Miscellaneous
Ramblings
"UC Berkeley to expand Jewish, Israel studies" at jta.org.
"The University of California, Berkeley, School of Law is
expanding its Jewish and Israel studies with the launch of a new
institute.
The Berkeley Institute for
Jewish Law and Israeli Law, Economy and Society, funded by a $750,000
seed gift from The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, is
an interdisciplinary initiative including faculty and student
research, new course offerings, speakers and symposia, and collaboration
with Israeli universities and academics.
It will offer separate programs
in Jewish law, and in Israeli law, economy and society. "
"Meditation beats dance for harmonizing
body and mind" by Yasmin
Anwar, newscenter.berkeley.edu.
"The body is a dancer's
instrument, but is it attuned to the mind? A new study from the
University of California, Berkeley, suggests that professional
ballet and modern dancers are not as emotionally in sync with
their bodies as are people who regularly practice meditation."
"Solano County teens to be taught financial
literacy" contracostatimes.com.
"University of California,
Berkeley's Destination College Advising Corps, the Solano County
Educational Consortium Program and Travis Credit Union partner
to prepare students for college and financial literacy.
More than 200 Solano County
high school students will get critical new tools to help them
succeed in college and life after high school thanks to a new
partnership between Travis Credit Union, Destination College Advising
Corps (DCAC) and the Solano County Educational Consortium (SCEC),
and two UC Berkeley, college preparation programs."
"RICS Report Underscores Sustainability
Benefits" newyorkrealestate.com.
"The financial performance
of green office buildings is shifting from anecdotal to well-documented
case studies, a testament to sustainable practices impact on creating
long-term value and competitiveness.
The conclusions are part
of a new report by Piet Eichholtz and Nils Kok of Maastrict University,
and John Quigley of the University of California, Berkeley. The
report was released this week at the New York University's Schack
Institute of Real Estate, Center for the Sustainable Built Environment's
1st Annual Conference on Sustainable Real Estate."
"Fuel Cell College Crew Winning Awards"
by Pete Danko, earthtechling.com.
"Berkeley is the top-dog
research institution in the University of California system and
probably always will be, but UC Riverside has been making a lot
of noise recently. Recently, we heard about the Chinese entrepreneur
Winston Chung giving $10 million to support cleantech research
at the university's Bourns College of Engineering. Now comes word
of a group of engineering students winning honors around the country
for their work on creating a more affordable hydrogen fuel cell."
"Chip Makers Fight Dwindling Gains in Efficiency" by James Niccolai, pcworld.com.
"The latest generation
of graphics chips have 3 billion transistors and consume about
200 watts of energy. The numbers are impressive -- until you consider
that the human brain has the equivalent of a trillion transistors
and consumes just 20 watts of energy, or far less than it takes
to run a light bulb.
Semiconductor makers are
looking at the brain with envy these days as they deal with the
latest challenge to their industry -- dwindling gains in power
efficiency. It's long been a concern for chip designers, but it's
taking on new urgency as the common techniques of scaling down
power usage are losing their effectiveness."
"State to collect sales tax on medical marijuana" at latimes.com
"California's tax collectors
want their share of the burgeoning medical marijuana business.
"The state Board of
Equalization announced Thursday that medical marijuana dispensaries
are not exempt from paying sales tax.
The decision reaffirms current
policy that the selling of medical marijuana involves taxable
tangible property, the board said.
The decision, reached in
a vote Wednesday, involved the Berkeley Patients Group Inc., a
Northern California dispensary, which maintained that marijuana
should have the same exemption from sales tax as other medicines
prescribed by doctors. Audits conducted for the period of July
1, 2004, through June 30, 2007, found that the Berkeley Patients
Group owed the state in excess of $6.4 million in taxes and interest.
The decision underscores
the need to regulate and tax marijuana distribution and sales,
said board Chairman Jerome Horton, who represents Los Angeles
County."
"The Public Worker Gravy Train" at wsj.com.
·"Leaders across the country are proposing restrictions
on public employees' pay and benefits in order to put their budgets
on a more sustainable path. The political left's counterattack
is that government workers aren't overpaid compared to those in
the private economy. Who's right?
Consider a study released
last October by the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamics at
the University of California, Berkeley, which concluded that Golden
State public employees "are neither overpaid nor overcompensated.
'The Economic Policy Institute has generated reports arguing that
government workers are underpaid.' "
2/26/11
Penndorf's Miscellaneous
Ramblings
There's talk these days in
west-Berkeley about the genesis of our Potter Creek Berkeley Bowl.
Who supported it, who opposed it, "why, when, and where"
have been tossed about with abandon these last few days--a spin
off it seems of Internet reports about our last city council meeting.
For answers, not gossip or mis-memories, go to Scrambled
Eggs and Lox Archive atGoogle.
Really, there's more there than is healthy.
Google lists over two hundred
Berkeley Bowl references on our Scrambled Eggs pages. To easily
get all 212 go to the last page and click on "repeat the search
with the omitted results included."
I've been looking at our
stats from 2009 and 2010. Traffic on the site is up fourteen percent
overall from 2009 to 2010.
In a brief look at January
2010 and January 2011, I find visitors spend more time and down
load more material this year. Still an anomaly is the two to three
times increase in the "Almost Daily Post" pages traffic
after I began Penndorf's Miscellaneous Ramblings. It continues
into February, but that large an increase is hard to explain.
Lipofsky's "People just have too much free time at work"
doesn't quite make it.
I AM a blog.
Merriams's offers "a
Web site that contains an online personal journal with reflections,
comments, and often hyperlinks provided by the writer; also :
the contents of such a site."
Who aren't blogs are berkeleyside.com
and eastbayexpress.com, both regular and irregular links in sfgate's
Berkeley Blog Box. Either they're gaming the system or Merriam's
wrong.
Berkeleyside.com and eastbayexpress.com
are better defined as Internet news sites with adverts, writers
and news-site like formats.
Blog is a "contraction"
of web log.
My Scientific Glass neighbors
are spiffing up special for their annual shindige.
end Miscellaneous
Ramblings
"Dublin hoping to join suitors wooing new Berkeley
lab campus" by Robert
Jordan, Contra Costa Times.
"It may not boast bayfront
views, but Dublin officials are banking on state recognition and
the success of two national laboratories located nearby to help
lure Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory to open a second campus in town.
The City Council on Tuesday
is expected to agree to provide a letter of support for SunCal
companies' bid to land the 2-million-square-foot campus that is
scheduled to open in December 2015. The council will meets at
7 p.m. at city hall, 100 Civic Plaza.
Proposals are due March 4
and Lawrence Berkeley Lab expects to make a decision by June."
"All of California now linked up to immigration
enforcement network"
at cctimes.com.
"The federal immigration
agency has finally linked all California police agencies to reveal
immigrants -- legal or not -- arrested for violating laws and
subject to deportation.
The action, announced Friday
morning in Southern California, enables U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, or ICE, to tag arrests and travel to all of the state's
county jails to pick up immigrants accused of committing crimes.
In essence, local police,
willingly or not, have become an arm of the federal immigration
agency."
March 2011
here
from my log
2/23/11--5:25 PM--irritant
in warehouse front and IMMEDIATLY in front of warehouse, dirty
dry air, watery eyes, light head overrides three HEAP filters.
2/26/11--2:10 PM--irritant
IMMEDIATELY in front of warehosue, dry dirty air, watery eyes,
blury vision, light head. 2:55 PM--similar.
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.