Ron's Log

Okay To Taze, Bro

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigated the tazing of Andrew Meyer at John Kerry's appearance at the University of Florida. And, guess what, they said it was okay! The full report can be read in this PDF, in which you will not fail to notice, the names of Mr. Meyer and other students have been redacted by someone who had a really dull black crayon and never learned to color inside the lines. Basically, it looks like a kindergarten class was in charge of the formatting.

Buried Lede In Desert Sun

The buried lede in this Desert Sun story is that councilmember Mary Stephens responded to an inquiry from the newspaper!

The rest of the story is that an $80,000 check from Landmark Holdings LLC, the Palmwood developers, to the city of Desert Hot Springs that was intended to reimburse the city for its expenses in the lawsuits over the development bounced. Michael Crosby, who is Landmark Holdings LLC, sent an email to city manager Rick Daniels last week:

"I have been abused and misused long enough," Crosby's e-mail stated.

"I am associating myself and Palmwood with the county from this day forward. ... My relationship with DHS is over."

Since that heated message, however, Mr. Crosby has retracted his words and believes "the future of the city is very, very bright and further believe[s] Palmwood can become the city's shining star." He also covered the $80,000 check, blaming it on a bookkeeping error.

Finally, city manager Daniels had this to say:

Daniels said it's typical for cities to require a deposit from a developer for expenses the city incurs related to a development. The account is then restocked by the developer as necessary, he said.

Desert Hot Springs officials, however, last year chose to incur Palmwood-related costs and bill the developer - "for reasons I don't understand," Daniels said.

I suspect Mr. Daniels is being diplomatic but, if in fact he doesn't understand why the financially strained city bore the expenses, I think he will begin to understand it more as he continues to work for the city. Let's hope full understanding doesn't come in a surprise "job review" with the city council, as it did for Ann Marie Gallant.

Impressive

The Eye-Fi card, $100 at Amazon. Looks just like a 2 Gb SD card. Same dimensions as an SD card. But it costs so much more than other 2 Gb SD cards because it includes Wi-Fi and access to the Eye-Fi servers.

You can configure the card so that when it comes within range of your wi-fi network, the card automatically uploads your photos to your computer or preferred photo sharing site like Flickr.

Article at Technology Review where they like the Eye-Fi card, but point out that the automated system can't determine the subject of the photo, nor its quality. So you'll need to be careful with nude subjects, and you'll need to rotate and edit after the photos are uploaded.

Eye-Fi's own website.

UPDATE: Digital Photography Review gives their impressions of the Eye-Fi, including some screenshots of the setup process.

5.6 Near San Jose

A magnitude 5.6 earthquake was reported at 8:05 PM tonight, epicentered near San Jose. USGS map:

Google map of epicenter.

Boy Playing With Matches

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's department says that a 38,000 acre fire near Santa Clarita was started by a juvenile boy playing with matches. No further details were given, and the article does not mention whether the California law that lays the expense of extinguishing the fire on the person who started it has any exceptions for juveniles.

A Reason To Vote For Yvonne Parks

Follow along and tell me if I'm wrong...

After the election Yvonne Parks will still be on the Desert Hot Springs city council, either as mayor or as councilmember.

Each of the candidates for mayor have some fine characteristics (even Yvonne - really!), but all are less than ideal. However, the field of candidates for city council includes several good, well-rounded, fully qualified individuals.

If Yvonne is elected mayor, then we draw three new city councilmembers from a field of good people (I'm not going to even entertain the idea that Mary Stephens or Hank Hohenstein will get re-elected). End result is a city council made up of Yvonne, Scott Matas and three new good people.

If she's not elected mayor, she's still on the council, still getting one vote (same as the mayor). We would have two good, new city councilmembers, plus a mayor with drawbacks.

The deciding factor is whether you think your preferred mayoral candidate would be better on the city council than the third most popular candidate for city councilmember.

Good News/Bad News At Disneyland

The good news is that Disneyland's Small World will be shut down for a year beginning in January! The bad news is that it will re-open a year later after the waterway is deepened and the buoyancy of the boats is increased in order to accommodate today's heavier Americans.

Origins of HIV

A scientific study released yesterday says that HIV first entered the human population in the 1930s in Africa. It got to Haiti about 1966 and then moved on to the U.S. about 1969.

Visit To The DHS Spa Hotel

"Chasing Bluebirds" did a weekend at the Desert Hot Springs Spa Hotel to celebrate her birthday and enjoyed the waters, in spite of the crowd of fire evacuees that were also staying there. Her story and photos here.

Nothing To Do This Saturday?

If you've got nothing too important scheduled for this coming Saturday and would like to enjoy a day of sun and fresh [maybe] air with other friendly, happy people here's your chance: volunteers are needed to help clean up the Salton Sea this Saturday. It's the bi-annual clearing of the dead fish and trash. They are looking for donations of tools, rakes and garbage cans. Really, really big garbage cans. BYO facemask and lavender scent.

It starts at 6 AM (yikes, they are serious!), and afterwards the volunteers are treated to a big, old-fashioned fish fry hearty thanks!