Kent England
a Bob Kubik photo from Carol
and Bob's trip
8/23/10
"Local student has a science summer at
Cal-Berkeley" from
the Opelousas Louisiana Daily World.
"Laramie Lemon of Leonville
has just returned after spenting her summer participating in a
prestigious summer research fellowship at the University of California-Berkeley.
'The best thing about this
program is that I got to focus my entire summer on a research
topic I was interested in,' said Lemon, an Opelousas Catholic
graduate and a biology major at Northwestern State University
in Natchitoches.
Working at Berkeley, which
she described as one of the nation's top schools for scientific
research, was a dream come true."
"Omnivores' dreamworld:For the taking,
grown year round, to eat or prepare: everything from the everyday
to the exotic" by
Patricia Borns at boston.com.
" 'I didn't like organically
grown health food. It just didn't taste good,'''says Alice Waters
in her office as she plans her restaurant's 40th birthday. Waters
says she was 'into cafes and politics and salad after dinner'
when she opened Chez Panisse in 1971. Her idea was simple, and
at the time, not simple at all: to bring the market culture she
loved in France to her California backyard. Now her vision of
the table - where the freshest local ingredients seduce the palette
- is a cultural phenomenon. 'I've always had a slow food restaurant,
I just didn't know it,'''she says.
But Chez
Panisse isn't the only reason north Berkeley is large on today's
culinary scene. From here to Oakland, young foodies are opening
restaurants and markets with the speed of latter-day dot-coms.
Let the food crawl begin."
"Training Pastors, Rabbis, and Imams at
the Same School"
by Elizabeth Dias, time.com.
"When Jerry Campbell
became president of California's renowned Claremont School of
Theology four years ago, low enrollment and in-the-red books threatened
to close the 125-year-old institution. But since Claremont is
the only United Methodist seminary west of Denver, Campbell resolved
to find a way to stay open.
Drawing from classic American
entrepreneurial wisdom - when faced with extinction, innovate
- and a commitment to engage today's multi-faith culture, this
fall Claremont will commence a first on U.S. soil: a "theological
university" to train future pastors, imams, and rabbis under
one roof. The experiment to end isolated clerical training brings
together Claremont, the Islamic Center of Southern California
(ICSC) and the Academy for Jewish Religion California."
"For Imam in Muslim Center Furor, a Hard
Balancing Act",
Craig Ruttle, Associated Press.
"Not everyone in the
Cairo lecture hall last February was buying the imam Feisal Abdul
Rauf's message. As he talked of reconciliation between America
and Middle Eastern Muslims - his voice soft, almost New Agey -
some questioners were so suspicious that he felt the need to declare
that he was not an American agent."
Our Kerstin Fischer is a
classically trained soprano and next Sunday, August 29th, she
is giving a lieder recital.
Kerstin and her accompanist,
Paul McCurdy, are performing Frauenliebe und Leben and
Mignon Lieder by Robert Schumann and 7 Lieder by Clara
Schumann.
Their recital will be given
at the Trinity Chapel, 2320 Dana Street (corner of Dana and Durant)
next Sunday, August 29th at 4:00 PM.
admission is free though
donations are welcome.
West-Berkeley's best-kept
food-secret is the chicken soup at Gallego's Mexican Food.
Now on the south west corner
of Allston and San Pablo Gallego's makes what is certainly the
best chicken soup I've had. A family owned restaurant, now at
its new expanded location, makes a simple old-fashioned, even
rustic, chicken soup. It is a hearty dish that is dense with
savory chicken-chunks, rice, carrots, potatoes and more. And not
at all bland, it pops with flavor.Made with love it's delicious
and is good for you and what ails you.
I've had the it to-go, in
about a quart container, with hot tortillas, chips and garnish
at around $8.00--good for two or three hearty servings.
" Gallego's Mexican Food Moves" writes a patron at chowhound.com.
"My favorite hole-in-the-wall
Mexican joint has moved to more hospitable digs. Although I always
enjoyed telling people it was next door to Tito's Machine Shop,
Gallego's old location (also nextdoor to a discount liquor store)
made it seem not so safe after dark and I believe was the motivation
for closing early.
They have now moved to the
SW corner of Allston and San Pablo in the spot formally occupied
by a Peruvian restaurant. I visited the new location for the 1st
time yesterday and Gallegos is every bit as good as before.
I decided to forego my favorite,
complex mole for a big bowl of albondigas: 4 large meatballs bound
with rice and chunks of carrot, potato and cabbage. Condiments
were chopped onion and cilantro and their watery but fiery red
salsa. As I worked my way through the bowl, the muddling of the
meat, vegetables and condiments made the broth that much better.
A very satisifying lunch and I didn't regret my decision to forego
the mole.
Hours have been extended
from late morning (10?) to 8 PM Monday thru Saturday. There is
a small parking lot and it is walkable from University Avenue."
our Darryl Moore emails (excerpts)
(Funny, I'd have titled it
"Let's Help Celebrate Deaf Kids". RP)
Want to Help Deaf Children?
The Center for the Early
Intervention on Deafness (CEID) is an organization that has always
been near and dear to my heart. They provide an amazing
and unique service to children with significant hearing loss.
CEID intervenes at a very young age, and because of this, they
have a tremendous impact on early childhood development and rest
of the child's life. Each child that they take in is a life
changed. Please join me in celebrating their 30th year of
bettering the lives of hearing impaired children from all over
the state.
Save The Date!
CEID's 30th Anniversary Gala
October 16th, 2010
The Pavilion at Jack London Square
The Center for Early Intervention on Deafness (CEID) is celebrating
our 30th Anniversary of providing early childhood educational
and supportive programs for young children who are deaf, hard
of hearing, or have other communication disorders. To commemorate
the occasion we are hosting a gala celebration on October 16,
2010 at The Pavilion at Jack London Square. We are thrilled
that award-winning composer and pianist Gabriela Lena Frank will
be performing at our event!
CEID provides a comprehensive and intensive program of early intervention
services including home visits, parent education, morning special
education nursery school classes, medical outreach and training,
and all day childcare at our inclusive Sunshine Preschool and
Childcare. Our center is known across the state for its
outstanding results in strengthening the social, emotional, physical,
and intellectual growth of young children who until just a few
decades ago would most often have been consigned to silence and
isolation.
The theme of our event is Imagine and it really speaks to the
core of our work: 30 years ago, we at CEID saw babies who
passed the crucial early months of language and intellectual development-and
thus were handicapped for life not by a hearing impediment but
by a failure in diagnosis. We saw children whose parents
could not communicate with them because they could not afford
to learn how. We saw doctors who didn't realize that over
12,000 babies are born in this country each year with a profound
hearing loss, and didn't understand how easy it was to reverse
the social and intellectual deficits that can needlessly result.
We imagined - and we set to work.
Today, California requires hearing tests for all newborns.
CEID has developed educational and outreach programs for doctors
and other medical providers. Our family support services
include weekly sign language classes, educational resources, and
advocacy training - all free of charge to our families, who are
mostly low-income.
We greatly depend on the generosity of our community supporters
to sustain and grow our essential programs for children with special
needs. Over the past 30 years, our community partners have
helped us to positively impact the lives of well over 2,000 young
children and their families.
If you have any questions or would like additional information,
please feel free to contact Carrie Dern at carrie@ceid.org or
call 510.848.4800 ext. 330. I hope you can join me to support
CEID's wonderful work.
West Campus Summer Hours
As some of you may know, West Campus public swim hours have been
expanded to the weekends for the summer months, from 1-4pm on
Saturdays and Sundays. The summer schedule was originally
scheduled to end by August 27th, but now has been extended through
Labor Day weekend, with its final day being September 5th.
After September 5th, normal fall schedulingresumes.
"Betty White scores Emmy win for `SNL'
hosting gig" by
Lynn Elber, AP Television Writer.
"The Betty White phenomenon
keeps getting bigger.
White won an Emmy Award for
best guest actress in a comedy series for her turn as 'Saturday
Night Live' host. The honor came Saturday at the creative arts
ceremony that is precursor to the main Aug. 29 Emmy show."
8/24/10
Still, when all is said and
done, for comfort food, urban cuisine, some originality, and more,
all prepared with love and as art, it's hard to beat Potter Creek's
very own, 900 GRAYSON. And of course the owners, the Saulnier brothers,
and staff serve it with flare and even a little melodrama.
All-in-all, heartily recommended.
900 GRAYSON'S
opening week,
2006
Check out
their
website.
"San Francisco newscaster Dave McElhatton
dies" is a report
at sfgate.com.
"Dave 'Mac' McElhatton,
who was the voice of major San Francisco Bay area news stories
for nearly 50 years, has died."
"Innovative project cleaning sewage the
natural way" is
a story by Hannah Dreier at miamiherald.com.
"While a family of ducks
threads its way through the wetlands here and a green heron fishes
on the banks, a furious process is churning underneath.
Plants, dirt, birds and fish
have all been enlisted to clean Discovery Bay's wastewater as
part of an experimental constructed wetland project.
Facing $100,000 in fines
for copper contamination, the town three years ago partnered with
University of California Berkeley scientists to determine whether
the latest advancements in artificial wetlands could help clean
the town's sewage."
"Berkeley Lab to work with Pressure BioSciences
on oil spills" in
the San Francisco Business Times by Steven E.F. Brown.
"Lawrence Berkeley National
Laboratory will use technology from Pressure BioSciences Inc.
to study deep sea oil plumes and oil reservoirs in hopes of learning
how to clean them up better."
"Live
Chat: UC-Berkeley MBA Admissions:Haas' Stephanie Fujii will field
questions on the No. 10 B-school and strategies that will improve
your chances of being accepted" at businessweek.com.
"Guest: Stephanie Fujii,
senior associate director of admissions at the UC-Berkeley Haas
School of Business
The University of California-Berkeley
Haas School of Business (Haas Full-Time MBA Profile) accepted
11 percent of the 4,064 applications it received in 2009. If you
want to be among the accepted, you don't want to miss our next
live chat event on Aug. 26 at 1 p.m. EDT. Stephanie Fujii, senior
associate director of admissions at Haas, will take your questions
about everything from campus culture to the application essays."
"Thousands Of UC Berkeley Freshmen Move
In To Dorms" is
a story at cbs5.com.
"It's an annual ritual
at UC Berkeley as thousands of incoming freshmen began moving
in and setting up shop in their new dorm rooms on Sunday.
Many rolled in their stuff
in huge carts, excited about the start of college life.
UC's Marty Takimoto said
it will be more than 4,000 freshmen, many coming from farther
away than usual."
8/26/10
Check out our new City of
Berkeley BPD website "Who
are these Crooks?"
"University Head's Housing Raises Ire" Adithya Sambamurthy of The Bay Citizen.
Blake House, the traditional
residence of presidents of the University of California, in Kensington.
a Bay Citizen photo
by Steve Fainaru
"Five minutes before
midnight on June 30, movers hauled the last boxes from a spectacular
rented home in the Oakland Hills. The tenant's lease was about
to expire, and in his haste to get out, he left behind thousands
of dollars of damage to the hardwood floors and Venetian plastered
walls.
The tenant was Mark G. Yudof,
president of the University of California. His midnight move was
the latest chapter in a two-year housing drama that has cost the
university more than $600,000 and has drawn senior U.C. officials
into an increasingly time-consuming and acrimonious ordeal over
the president's private residence."
"New Microbe Discovered Eating BP . . .
Oil" is a report
at commoditysurge.com.
"A new study from Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, led by Terry
Hazen, has discovered a new oil-eating microbe in the Gulf of
Mexico munching on oil from the BP . . . spill."
"CU In California: Buffs To Stampede Golden
State Prior To Cal Game"
is a story at cubuffs.com.
"The University of Colorado
will Stampede The State of California the week leading up to the
CU vs. Cal football game, with activities starting south in San
Diego on Tuesday and making their way north for the game Saturday
in Berkeley, Calif.
CU Athletic Director Mike
Bohn will headline the tour as the stampede starts in San Diego
on Tuesday, September 7, and works its way north as game time
approaches with stops in Orange County, Sacramento and San Francisco.
'We are excited about the
opportunity to tour California,' Bohn said. 'Obviously with the
impending move to the Pac-10, we look forward to visiting all
these great communities around the state. Our game at Cal this
season will give us an opportunity to jump start that process
and meet with all of our great constituents around California
as we continue to build our support network nationwide and specifically
on the West coast.'
The San Diego stop starts
with a happy hour at the Proper Gastro Pub and will also include
a baseball game between the San Diego Padres and L.A. Dodgers.
CU fans who wear CU gear can purchase tickets in a special section
for half price.
Wednesday, the tour continues
with an Orange County Breakfast at the ESPN Zone in Anaheim. The
tour will then get some northern momentum with a stop in Sacramento
and a happy hour reception at Brew It Up! on Thursday and conclude
Friday in San Francisco with a happy hour reception at the Westin
San Francisco.
The Buffs will then take
on the Bears at California Memorial Stadium in Berkeley, Calif.,
at 1:30 p.m. (MT/12:30 p.m. local time). The game will be televised
nationally on FSN."
"Brilliant essay on the state of California"
is at sfbg.com.
"Vast treatises have
been written about the California mess and how we got where we
are today. But a professor at UC Berkeley's school of public policy
sums the whole thing up in one brilliant, short letter to his
students. You can read the whole thing here (thanks, Calitics),
but the gist is that today's generation of California kids is
the collective victim of a massive swindle:
Swindlewhat happened?"
"Riveting update of 'Macbeth'" Robert Hurwitt, Chronicle Theater
Critic.
8/27/10
In the 1960s in addition
civilian policing, Berkeley PD found itself more and more involved
in internal security.
Of this period Alfred E.
Parker writes in the 1971,The Berkeley Police Story. "The
Fourth Platoon was the Berkeley Police Department's answer to
the city manager's directive. . . . On October 1, 1966, the designation
Fourth Platoon came into being. . . . Duties of the Fourth Patrol
(in part) include: handling problems the beat officers are unable
to cope with; provide a crowd control unit, especially for racial
riots or civil disturbance, provide undercover surveillance, .
. . " RP
"Campus, city police form joint safety
patrol" by
Caleb Dardick, UCB Government and Community Relations.
"A new joint police
patrol by the University of California Police Department and the
Berkeley Police Department will target improving public safety
at night in the city's Southside neighborhoods as well as after
UC Berkeley home football games.
The patrol is unique because
it teams up in each of two squad cars one city and one campus
police officer who will patrol neighborhoods near campus. Starting
this semester, the patrols will take place Thursday through Saturday
nights between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. Additional joint teams will
be deployed before and after home football games.
Like all patrols city and
campuswide, the new joint patrol's main charge will be to suppress
violent and other crimes and to keep the peace."
Check out today's update
at our BPD website "Who
are these Crooks?"
Dave Kruse forwards an email
from Lisa Kruse "from my favorite food blog"
The duo behind Lalime's,
Sea Salt, T-Rex Barbecue, Fonda, and Jimmy Beans, Haig Krikorian
and Cindy Lalime, have just opened "Paisan" a pizzeria
on San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley. Look for thin-crust pizzas from
the Earthstone wood-fired oven with California toppings (like
pesto, rocket salad, Sausalito springs watercress, and Grana Padano,
$15.50). The menu is rounded out with rustic Cal-Ital items like
eggplant caponata, romano beans, and arancini, and larger dishes,
like porchetta, half a roasted chicken (only $11.75), and roast
pork belly and pork loin with balsamic onions and plum mostarda.
The large 18-seat bar will feature variety of both classic and
original cocktails, 10 beers on tap, and a wine list put together
by Stephen Singer. According to an SFoodie post, the pizzaiolo
is Francesco Pece, from Naples. Additional details: there's a
rear patio and full bar. Dinner will be served Wed-Sun. 2514 San
Pablo Ave. at Dwight
"A Lutheran turned vegetarian" by Linda Kernohan at salon.com.
"I once tried for the
holy grail of veganism. My husband's depression made me reexamine
my relationship with meat.
I became a vegetarian when I was 15. It was health-related at
first; I had begun to notice an unpleasant, heavy feeling in my
stomach after eating meat, and when I didn't eat it, I felt better.
But while researching vegetarian nutrition in order prove to my
worried mother that I could get enough protein without meat, I
encountered the ethical arguments for not eating animals, and
the first seeds of bleeding-heart liberalism took root. In the
space of one short year, I went from making meatloaf whimsically
sculpted into the shape of a pig, to pestering my high school
classmates at lunchtime with such charming questions as 'How can
you make your stomach a graveyard for innocent animals?'
My parents were surprised
and dismayed; I came from a typical American meat-and-potatoes
family -- we were Lutheran, after all. Some of my favorite foods
growing up included Spam, sliced ham slathered in barbecue sauce,
and hamburgers without the bun. As for vegetables? I mostly hated
them, . . . "
"Violamania at Freight & Salvage in
Berkeley" Joshua
Kosman, Chronicle Music Critic.
"What do you get if
you pack dozens of violists into a single performance space? Well,
maybe a bit of overdue respect.
That, anyway, is the hope
lurking behind Violamania, a celebration of the most maligned
- or at least overlooked - member of the orchestral world.
The event, which will inaugurate
the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra's new classical concert series
at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley, is designed to bring together
the Bay Area's far-flung violists and viola aficionados for one
single-instrument blowout. Even the 'orchestra' assembled for
the evening is a viola-only affair."
"Passions that drove couple chronicling
Dust Bowl migrants examined in new book" is a book review at kansascitystar.com.
"Dorothea Lange and
her husband Paul Taylor chronicled Dust Bowl migrants in California
more the 70 years ago.
Lange did it in photographs
- women keeping house in ragged tents, men at the wheel of cars
packed with all they owned.
Taylor, a lesser-known labor
economist, did it in writings and speeches that appealed to a
nation's compassion amid the Depression.
Their work is the subject
of a new book by Jan Goggans, an assistant professor of literature
at the University of California, Merced, published by the University
of California Press."
"Westerners vs. the World: We are the WEIRD
ones" opines Adam
McDowell, National Post.
"The Ultimatum Game
works like this: You are given $100 and asked to share it with
someone else. You can offer that person any amount and if he accepts
the offer, you each get to keep your share. If he rejects your
offer, you both walk away empty-handed.
How much would you offer?
If it's close to half the loot, you're a typical North American.
Studies show educated Americans will make an average offer of
$48, whether in the interest of fairness or in the knowledge that
too low an offer to their counterpart could be rejected as unfair.
If you're on the other side of the table, you're likely to reject
offers right up to $40.
It seems most of humanity
would play the game differently. Joseph Henrich of the University
of British Columbia took the Ultimatum Game into the Peruvian
Amazon as part of his work on understanding human co-operation
in the mid-1990s and found that the Machiguenga considered the
idea of offering half your money downright weird - and rejecting
an insultingly low offer even weirder.
"I was inclined to believe
that rejection in the Ultimatum Game would be widespread. With
the Machiguenga, they felt rejecting was absurd, which is really
what economists think about rejection," Dr. Henrich says.
"It's completely irrational to turn down free money. Why
would you do that?"
It turns out the Machiguenga
- whose number system goes: one, two, three, many - are not alone
in their thinking. Most people from non-Western cultures introduced
to the Ultimatum Game play differently than Westerners. And that
is one clue that the Western mind differs in fundamental ways
from the rest of humanity, according to Dr. Henrich."
"Deep-Sea Oil Plume Goes Missing" by Janet Raloff, Science News.
"In May, researchers
began reporting that the massive jets of crude emanating from
BP's damaged Deepwater Horizon well were creating deep, diffuse
plumes of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Since then, chemical oceanographers
have been probing the plumes for indirect clues about how quickly
native bacteria might be gobbling up the oil.
Microbial ecologist Terry
Hazen of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California now
thinks he has a surprising answer: very quickly.
He's part of a broad team
of scientists from two Department of Energy national labs and
two universities that has been collecting plume samples continually
for months. In a paper posted online August 24 in Science, the
team reports data from late May to early June showing that those
deep-sea plumes enticed a hitherto unknown cold-wateradapted
bacterium to rapidly chow down on the oil."
"Solar Power: Brighter Long-Term Investment
Outlook" at msnbc.com.
"Energy standards requiring
U.S. utilities to use solar power could drive growth for companies
ranging from inverter makers to installation financiers.
With utilities adopting standards
to increase the amount of solar-generated electricity in coming
years, the U.S. could bolster its presence in the global solar-power
market. The quickening growth pace could present attractive opportunities
for investors, according to some professionals. "
Kubik emails a good news
excerpt
Average Credit Card Debt
Falls Below $5,000, Lowest Level in 8 Years
The average combined debt
for bank-issued credit cards for American consumers fell below
$5,000 in the three months that ended June 30. That amount
is down more than 13 percent from just a year ago and it marks
the lowest level in more than eight years as consumers continue
to pay off debt during the down economy. "Credit card debt
remained the highest in Alaska, but slid 7 percent there to $7,148,"
the Associated Press reported. "A total of 22 states
recorded debt higher than the national average." Alabama
residents paid off the most debt over the past year, dropping
their average balance by 27 percent. During the same period, the
number of cardholders who were 90 days or most past due on their
accounts fell to 0.92 percent, the first time it has been below
1 percent since 2007, showing that consumers are more concerned
with making sure they maintain a good credit score. "That
concern reflects several economic factors, from the fear of unemployment
to the fact that the collapsed housing market means it's harder
to cash in on home equity when money gets tight," according
to the Associated Press. The delinquency rate was highest in the
states hardest hit by the housing crisis: Nevada, Florida, Arizona,
and California.
8/29/10
"Suspect arrested in police officer's shooting" Matthai Kuruvila, Chronicle Staff Writer.
"As a Fremont police
officer clung to life Saturday, the suspect in his shooting was
captured in San Diego just one block away from the U.S.-Mexico
border by a sharp-eyed police officer."
"Berkeley Police Awarded Grant To Fight
Alcohol-Related Crime" by
Alisha Azevedo, dailycal.org.
"For the seventh year
running, the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control
awarded the Berkeley Police Department with a grant to combat
alcohol-related crime throughout the city, beginning July 1.
The department originally
applied for $93,000 and received $78,000 - $3,000 more than it
did last year. Over 200 law enforcement agencies statewide submitted
grant proposals to the ABC in March and 32 were selected, including
the San Francisco Police Department, Alameda County Sheriff's
Office and Oakland Police Department."
"Judge pans Calif.'s mentally disabled
inmate care" by
Don Thompson, Associated Press Writer at sfgate.com.
"A federal judge says
in a sharply worded tentative ruling that California's prison
system still does a poor job of identifying and caring for developmentally
disabled inmates nine years after the state agreed to improve
services."
"CA's Juvenile Justice System Ill-Equipped
to Care for Girls" at
thecrimereport.org.
"California has been
unable to meet the needs of the rising number of girls in the
juvenile justice detention system, found a new report, "Gender
Responsiveness and Equity in California's Juvenile Justice System."
Findings by researchers at the Berkeley Center for Criminal Justice
include: gender-specific programs for girls were one of the least
available program types, the nature of girls' violence is more
often relational and that girls are more often referred to court
on prostitution charges than boys.
"Regulators Give Green Light To Solar,
Wind" is a story
with audio at npr.org.
"Construction is now
under way on the world's biggest wind farm in California's Mojave
Desert. Federal and state regulators have given the green light
to several large solar thermal projects in the Mojave as well.
Ira Flatow and guests discuss the future of clean energy in the
U.S."
"Grant to Pay for Research Into Solar Power
Projects' Effects on Desert Plants" a report at sunpluggers.com.
"A research study intended
to provide more information about the effects of renewable energy
projects on desert plants has been awarded a grant from the California
Energy Commission."
"North American continent is a layer cake"
at dnaindia.com.
"A new study by seismologists
at the University of California, Berkeley, has revealed that the
North American continent is not one thick, rigid slab, but a layer
cake of ancient, 3 billion-year-old rock on top of much newer
material probably less than 1 billion years old."
Geez, and I thought we were
a pizza. RP
post from the past
9/16/09
the foodnet
yesterday, setting up for
the taping of "Diners, Dives and Drive-ins" at 900 GRAYSON
photo essay here
return to 8/29
"Livescribe updates smartpen with new Echo"
by Jefferson Graham, usatoday.com.
"Mark Hunter, a doctoral
student here at the University of California, uses a new kind
of pen to take notes in class. His Livescribe Pulse digital pen
writes on special paper, records lectures with audio at the same
time, and transfers it all to his computer as a digital copy."
8/30/10
Richmond Ramblers MC member
Cliff Miller emails
Prayer for Grandpa
Dear God,
Please send clothes
for all those poor ladies on
grandpa's computer.
Amen
"Will tech always be a boys 'n' toys club?"
by Chris Matyszczyk,
news.cnet.com.
"I hear wailing, screeching,
and the sound of a Zimmer frame scratching on an old wooden floor.
I hear the downhearted and
downtrodden banging hard on the door of the inner temple, begging
to be invited inside. I hear the dark accusations of sexism, ageism
and even, it seems, dumb-and-dumberism echoing around the halls
of the Web.
Yes, it is time to examine
tech's navel and wonder why it is that navel is smooth, male,
and full of Special K and croissant crumbs.
You see, this week, important
sectors of society have been expressing their pain at being shut
out from the start-uppy, uppity world of tech.
First, there was Vivek Wadhwa,
a University of California at Berkeley academic, who was so pained
and appalled that he produced both words and charts to offer the
view that older, more experienced engineers are being tossed onto
Silicon Valley's large (but, no doubt, green) scrapheap in favor
of the young, the cheap and the unwashed.
It seems that older engineers
have families, carpal tunnel, and varicose veins, all attributes
that seem a little too cumbersome for our thrusting, dynamic tech
companies that value dynamism and lissomness above all else."
Before one could even organize
a chauffeur to take us to the wake of tech's over-40s, along came
members of the female population, young and old."
"Pluots pack the best of both plum and
apricot" is a story
by Rebekah Denn at seattletimes.com.
While many still don't know
what a pluot is, those who have discovered the sweet luxury of
this hybrid of a plum and apricot clamor for more. While they
make good crisps, they're really good all by themselves, eaten
at the summer peak of their season.
Unadorned, a pluot is as
good a fruit as it gets, offering sweet flavor without some of
the astringent aftertaste a plain plum can have.
In the Beinning, not much
was as basic as fruit. Eve ate an apple in the Garden of Eden.
The sundae had a cherry on top. Good things were peachy-keen.
Now, it's more complicated
for growers of one sweet summer bite. 'I'm amazed when I mention
them to people in passing, how few people still know what a pluot
is,' says Mike Miller of Goosetail Orchard, who farms four acres
of the plum-apricot hybrid."
"Policy Options Dwindle as Economic Fears
Grow" opines Peter
S Goodman at nytimes.com.
"The American economy
is once again tilting toward danger. Despite an aggressive regimen
of treatments from the conventional to the exotic - more than
$800 billion in federal spending, and trillions of dollars worth
of credit from the Federal Reserve - fears of a second recession
are growing, along with worries that the country may face several
more years of lean prospects."
Merryll sent this link. RP
"Fremont officer critical after 2nd surgery" Benny Evangelista, Chronicle Staff Writer.
"A Fremont police officer
who was shot and critically wounded while attempting to arrest
a man in Oakland was improving Sunday after undergoing a successful
second round of surgery to repair his bladder.
But Officer Todd Young, 39,
remained under heavy sedation and in critical condition at Highland
Hospital in Oakland, and will probably need more surgery this
week, said Fremont Police Chief Craig Steckler."
KTVU reports that Officer
Young's condition has been up graded from critical to serious.
KTVU news also reported this
morning that violence has increased recently in People's Park
with confrontations and beatings including an incident when a
young woman was attacked by twenty-some people.
8/27/10--11:45 AM--irritant
in front room dry eyes, itchy skin. 12:00 Noon--similar but worse.
12:45 PM--SERIOUS irritant in warehouse front and front of warehouse,
mucus membrane irritation, eyes water, sinus irritation, nose
runs, eyes plugged and ringing, nausea, light head., LEAVE. 6:48
PM--SERIOUS irritation in front of warehouse, cough nasal congestion,
Marsha same. 8:27PM SERIOUS irritant in front room, similar symptoms.
8:49 PM--similar. 9:17 PM--similar, with asbestos odor, over rides
three HEPA filters.
8/28/10--late afternoon,
SERIOUS irritant in warehouse front, dry dirty air, burning eyes,burning
throat, short breath.
8/29/10--8:43 AM--VERY SERIOUS
irritant in front room and in front of warehouse, dirty air, dry
eyes, itchy skin, nasal congestion, ringing ears, light head,
headache, over rides two HEPA filters, leave.
from my log
8/18/10--7:48 AM--VERY SERIOUS
irritant in front room, dirty air, SERIOUS mucus membrane irritation,
watery eyes, SERIOUS nasal congestion, sneeze regularly. Marsha
similar,leave.
8/20/10--12:31 PM--VERY SERIOUS
irritant in front room, dirty dry air, watery eyes, dry itchy
skin, "chlorine bleach" odor, wear respirator.
8/27/10--11:45 AM--irritant
in front room dry eyes, itchy skin. 12:00 Noon--similar but worse.
12:45 PM--SERIOUS irritant in warehouse front and front of warehouse,
mucus membrane irritation, eyes water, sinus irritation, nose
runs, eyes plugged and ringing, nausea, light head., LEAVE. 6:48
PM--SERIOUS irritation in front of warehouse, cough nasal congestion,
Marsha same. 8:27:: SERIOUS irritant in front room, similar symptoms.
8:49 PM--similar. 9:17 PM--similar, with asbestos odor, over rides
three HEAPA filters..
8/28/10--late afternoon,
SERIOUS irritant in warehouse front, dry dirty air, burning eyes,burning
throat, short breath.
The irritants sometimes experienced
cause coughing; dry/burning eyes, nose, mouth; light head; occasional
short breath; occasional nausea.
Though the irritants we experience
sometimes over ride as many as four HEPA filters, our SO Safety
respirators with 8053-P100 Cartridges seem to filter "all"
the irritant. These are filters for organic vapors, chlorine,
chlorine dioxide, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride.
I am left to conclude that
possibly (probably?) some of the irritants we regularly experience,
those that our SO Safety 8053-P 100 cartridges successfully filter,
are identifiable, ironically, by their absence when using the
respirator. The HEPA filters don't remove them, the SO Safety
filters do. So what they remove--chlorine, chlorine dioxide, hydrogen
chloride, hydrogen fluoride--must be some of the irritant.
Though the respirator-filters
largely prevent inhalation of the irritant, it is clear from "health
effects" that irritants can enter the body's system through
the skin.
"I feel like ants are
crawling on me" said Marsha.
I've noticed recently some
neighbors have similar symptoms, some more severe--redness of
the eyes, nasal congestion. And neighhors stopping-by in front
to talk have experienced watery eyes and coughing.
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.