Ron's Log

Routes 14 & 58

Now I understand why there's no gas station or services of any kind at the rather busy intersection of routes 14 & 58 near Mojave: bald-faced government corruption.

Arcata, California

Earlier this year A&E TV had a special episode on their Intervention series called "Intervention In-Depth: Pot City, USA." A&E synopsis:

A lot of people think that Humboldt County in northern California is an American paradise. Small towns in the county like Arcata look like they've been plucked right out of a Norman Rockwell painting. But the town has a dirty little secret--law enforcement officials say that over 1,000 homes there may be growing marijuana illegally. Capt. Mark Chapman and the Humboldt County Drug Task Force are determined to take back the town, house by house. Our cameras follow as they make busts and fly over forestlands searching for hidden marijuana groves.

Here the Eureka Times-Standard gets the mayor's reaction:

"Seeing the title and the trailer, I was a little fearful that they were sensationalizing things," [Mayor Mark] Wheetley said Tuesday of the special, Arcata-centric episode of the A&E show "Intervention," which aired Monday. "But, in the end, I felt it was a pretty balanced overview of things. In particular, I think it highlighted some of the laments of the reality of what went on."

And now the Sacramento Bee has a long, informative article on the marijuana industry in Humboldt County. Although the state restricts marijuana to "six mature or 12 immature plants and 8 ounces of pot at one time" for those with a physician's recommendation, local governments can have looser limits. Humboldt County's limits are "three annual indoor harvests of 100 square feet, 99 plants and up to 3 pounds of dried marijuana at any one time." The city of Arcata itself has limited growers to 50 square feet of growing space and have set limits on electricity use. I wonder if "electricity use" for purposes of this law is measured at the electric meter. IOW, could a grower get past that limit by supplementing his bought electricity with solar or wind power, or that most reliable of power sources: a diesel generator in the backyard.

"It is the source of income for the county of Humboldt. Nobody wants to say that," [Humboldt County Sheriff's Sgt. Wayne Hanson] added. "But there is no logging here anymore. Fishing is sporadic. And people make their living growing marijuana."

Some Free National Park Maps

Less than some, actually. "Few" is the better word. They're available from DesertUSA. There are three in California:

Death ValleyJoshua TreeMojave National Preserve

They've also got a few more for parks in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and Utah. The maps include enough detail to actually be useful, but not so much as to be cluttered.

Feinstein's National Monuments

The L.A. Times has an informative article about the two national monuments that Senator Feinstein will propose today. One is the Sand to Snow National Monument mentioned at the most recent city council meeting. The other one, much larger, will be the Mojave Trails National Monument, which will protect some of the gap between the Mojave Preserve and Joshua Tree National Park. Go here for a map showing the locations of the proposed national monuments.

California Opinion Poll On Nudity

Commissioned by the Naturist Education Foundation, conducted by Zogby International, the poll surveyed 889 California adults, margin of error ±3.4 points.

1. Do you agree or disagree that people should be able to enjoy nude sunbathing on a beach or other location that is designated for that purpose? 79% agree, 16% disagree, 6% not sure. The percentage of those who agreed hit a peak of 92% in the Sacramento area. In San Diego and Orange counties the percentage who agreed was 78% and 70%, respectively.
2. Do you agree or disagree that areas should be set aside for people who enjoy clothing-optional recreation such as nude sunbathing and swimming? 70% agree, 25% disagree, 5% not sure.
3. Do you agree or disagree that people have the right to be nude in their homes or on their property, even if they may occasionally be visible to others? 68% agree, 30% disagree, 2% not sure.
4. Do you agree or disagree that the California Department of Parks and Recreation should exercise the legal authority it has to designate clothing-optional areas in state parks? 62% agree, 33% disagree, 5% not sure.
5. Do you agree or disagree that you are personally offended by the non-sexual nudity of others? 37% agree, 60% disagree, 3% not sure. The majority answered this "Disagree" throughout all age groups. "Those with college degrees are less likely to agree that they are offended by nudity (26.4%) than those without college degrees (43.9%)."
6. Have you, personally, ever gone "skinny-dipping" or nude sunbathing with others? 40% yes, 56% no, 3% refuse to answer, 1% not sure. Other national polls with a similar question get about a 25% yes rate.

The State of California recently spent roughly $40,000 to ban nudity at San Onofre State Beach.

Saline Valley Radar Image

A radar image of Saline Valley from NASA. I added the note to indicate the approximate location of the springs. If you'd like to see it without that note, go here.

This is a three-dimensional perspective view of Saline Valley, about 30 km (19 miles) east of the town of Independence, California created by combining two spaceborne radar images using a technique known as interferometry. Visualizations like this one are helpful to scientists because they clarify the relationships of the different types of surfaces detected by the radar and the shapes of the topographic features such as mountains and valleys. The view is looking southwest across Saline Valley. The high peaks in the background are the Inyo Mountains, which rise more than 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) above the valley floor. The dark blue patch near the center of the image is an area of sand dunes. The brighter patches to the left of the dunes are the dry, salty lake beds of Saline Valley. The brown and orange areas are deposits of boulders, gravel and sand known as alluvial fans. The image was constructed by overlaying a color composite radar image on top of a digital elevation map. The radar image was taken by the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C/X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) on board the space shuttle Endeavour in October 1994. The digital elevation map was produced using radar interferometry, a process in which radar data are acquired on different passes of the space shuttle. The two data passes are compared to obtain elevation information. The elevation data were derived from a 1,500-km-long (930- mile) digital topographic map processed at JPL. Radar image data are draped over the topography to provide the color with the following assignments: red is L-band vertically transmitted, vertically received; green is C-band vertically transmitted, vetically received; and blue is the ratio of C- band vertically transmitted, vertically received to L-band vertically transmitted, vertically received. This image is centered near 36.8 degrees north latitude and 117.7 degrees west longitude. No vertical exaggeration factor has been applied to the data. SIR-C/X-SAR, a joint mission of the German, Italian, and the United States space agencies, is part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth. Sensor: Space Shuttle/SIR-C/X-SAR.

Google satellite view centered on the coordinates NASA gives above.

Culinary Tour of Bombay Beach

Anthony Bourdain of No Reservations visits Bombay Beach and eats his first patty melt. I'm wondering how a world-traveling food critic avoided eating a patty melt for this many years.

Here's my own photo of the Ski Inn.

Low Altitude Training In Saline Valley

You may have to strain sometimes to see the jets, but that's life in Saline Valley. It's very hard to photograph them. The great advantage this video has over any others is you get to listen in to the radio traffic between the jets.

Another Non-Voting Republican Running For California Office

In addition to Carly Fiorina (Republican for Senator) and Meg Whitman (Republican for Governor), Damon Dunn, a Republican who (at age 33) has voted only once in his life, wants to be Secretary of State. He has never held elective office before. I would expect someone running for statewide office to have an interest in politics and government. An interest in politics and government should lead, naturally, to at least occasional voting.

Citrus Quarantine

The Desert Sun is reporting today that the California Department of Food and Agriculture has extended the citrus quarantine throughout the entire Coachella Valley to protect against the Asian citrus psyllid (Diaphorina citri). This is based on a November 24 press release that other media reported on that day or even earlier.

The press release says, among other things, "Residents and people moving through the quarantine zone are urged not to remove citrus fruits with leaves and stems from the area." But in a November 18 press release on the subject of expanding the quarantine area in northern San Diego County it says "The quarantine requires that local residents not move home-grown fruits and vegetables from the property of origin and to consume fruits and vegetables on-site." In addition, the Desert Sun article quotes Steve Lyle, the Food and Agriculture Department's public affairs director, saying "Residents who have citrus trees in their yards aren't allowed to remove the plants, plant parts or fruit from their property."

That's a fairly extreme limitation that, if the California Department of Food and Agriculture really means it, will require some intensive education. It bans the traditional practice of sharing citrus fruit with your neighbors and friends. It would also ban the dumping of excess citrus fruit, or even citrus fruit waste, into your trash to be hauled to a landfill. Would it be okay to run that fruit waste down into your garbage disposal, or do people have to start composting their citrus waste on site?

Here is a pamphlet [PDF] with photos of the insect and the damage that can be caused by Huanglongbing disease, which can be carried by the psyllid, but has not yet been found in California.