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October 29, 2012

Tomb Of The Unknowns

You may have already seen this photo which has gone viral today because it purports to show the scene at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington, Virginia, during Hurricane Sandy. However, The Old Guard reports that this photo was taken back in September. They have have posted a few photos on Facebook to show today's conditions there.

Also on Flickr:

Spc. Brett Hyde, Tomb Sentinel, 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), keeps guard over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier during Hurricane Sandy at Arlington National Cemetery, Va., Oct. 29, 2012. Just like the Sentinel's Creed says "Through the years of diligence and praise and the discomfort of the elements, I will walk my tour in humble reverence to the best of my ability," Hyde lives by this creed. (U.S. Army Photo by Sgt. Jose A. Torres Jr.)

Filed under Photography | permalink | October 29, 2012 at 10:56 AM | Comments (0)

NWS National Radar Map

Filed under Science | permalink | October 29, 2012 at 09:21 AM | Comments (0)

NYC MTA Prepares For The Hurricane

New York City's MTA photographs its preparations for Hurricane Sandy.

Sandbags across the tunnel entrance at Lenox Terminal @ 148th Street.

Bowling Green Station.

Stillwell Yard at Coney Island evacuated.

The tunnel to Westside Yard in Manhattan, west of Penn Station.

Grand Central Terminal closed yesterday.

The subway system closed last night. This photo has been nicely photoshopped by Gizmodo who reports on the state of pumps in the MTA system. Peter Velasquez Jr. (head of the hydraulics team back in 2006) said:

"To give you an idea about how bad this could be, some of the oldest pumps in the NYCTA system were bought second-hand from the builders of the Panama Canal. I worked for the TA many years ago and even then the pumps were considered a serious problem. The Panama Canal was finished in 1914."

Motors are removed from track switches on the New Haven line.

Evacuation buses are staged in waterfront areas around the city. These are on City Island in The Bronx.

Filed under Photography | permalink | October 29, 2012 at 09:15 AM | Comments (0)

October 28, 2012

2007 Burning Man Arsonist Suicides

Paul Addis leaped in front of a BART train at Embarcadero on Saturday evening.

| permalink | October 28, 2012 at 10:45 PM | Comments (0)

Something Entirely Different From MIT

MIT Gangnam Style, which amounts to a little tour of the MIT campus.

Filed under Music | permalink | October 28, 2012 at 10:30 PM | Comments (0)

How The Socialists Did It In 1933

Image from the Flickr site of The U.S. National Archives

SOCIALIST PARTY OF AMERICA
Local Tompkins County, New York

Ithaca, New York
March 9th, 1933.

To the extraordinary session of the Congress of the United States of America called by our President to be convened on the above date.

Whereas the present economic crisis proves, beyound doubt, that our nations bankers and industrialists are unfit for the responsibilities vested in them, that they are unfit any longer to be the ruling class in society, and to impose their conditions of existence upon society as an over-riding law, and

Whereas Socialism offers the only orderly alternative to the existing disorder,

Therefore, be it resolved,
That we, the Socialists of Tompkins County in the state of New York, hereby petition the Extraordinary Session of the United States Congress to take immediate steps toward the socialization of the entire banking system, as the first logical move toward the socialization of our nation's entire economic structure.

With that subtle and clever reasoning, I'm surprised they didn't succeed.

Filed under History,Politics | permalink | October 28, 2012 at 08:34 PM | Comments (0)

Relaxed Aerial Video Of Burning Man

A relaxed, beautiful, slightly slo-mo aerial view of Burning Man at dusk, dawn and after dark by ZM Interactive. No hot days. Some flames, but no big explosions. Very nice music (no dance music) that they don't credit which is Sanvean by Dead Can Dance. but sounds Enya-ish to me. I'm sure some reader can nail it down for us. In one scene you see the other drone, if you are wondering about what equipment was used.

Naturally, this is best in HD, full screen.

Filed under Burning Man,Photography | permalink | October 28, 2012 at 10:57 AM | Comments (2)

October 27, 2012

GoPro Hero3 Test By Someone Who Does Not Have A Pet Whale

Andrew Whiteford has attached a homemade ego-stick to his helmet and shot this video on a new GoPro Hero3 in the vicinity of Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

He writes that the bike sequences were shot at 1440p/48fps, the rest at 2k/30fps. ProTune on, adjusted in Cineform, then shot out through Final Cut Pro. Those last two steps are critical to the look you see above.

Filed under Cycling,Photography | permalink | October 27, 2012 at 11:42 AM | Comments (0)

October 26, 2012

Pinterest

I don't know what the business plan is for Pinterest. You don't pay to use it and it has no advertising. Maybe it's going to be useful for data mining, but that seems even less scrutable than their business plan.

The way they imagine people would use it is to create various "boards" for various interests in their lives and then post thumbnails of images to those boards. The thumbnails link to the original photo out there some place else on the web. This could make sense for designers, I suppose. I might have one board for wedding designs for my daughter and another board for design ideas for that yacht I'm going to build. But I don't have a daughter and have no plans to build a yacht, so I'm left with nuthin'.

So the way I'm using Pinterest is I created a board and I called it "board" because I wanted everyone to appreciate my energy and creativity. On that board I'm simply posting thumbnail links to photos I like, G- and PG-rated, nothing more exciting than that. The thumbnails appear in reverse order, with my newest additions first. Neither you nor I can re-sort them. You can't do a slide show. You just have a great big page of thumbnails - of photos that I find interesting. Some are mine, but most are not. When you get to the bottom of the page and see a box that says "More Pins" click it and you'll get the next page of links. Pinterest calls links "pins," trying to make this like a corkboard that you've pinned photos to, I guess.

I could grant access to other people who could then begin to add their own thumbnail links, giving you a way to create a group design process for your daughter's wedding or that yacht you're going to build...potentially making both of them into camels, I suppose.

If somebody has a great insight into Pinterest, I'd enjoy hearing about it.

Filed under Photography | permalink | October 26, 2012 at 07:33 PM | Comments (0)

October 25, 2012

DHS Festival Committee - October 24

Just in time for Halloween the Desert Hot Springs Festival Advisory Committee pulls itself out of what would have been an untimely grave.

The committee last met on October 10. The meeting hadn't even adjourned before Mr. Don Vito had emailed the committee via Kristie Ramos that it would not be a problem to add a wellness component to his proposal, if the committee found that necessary. And about half an hour after that, Mr. Isaac also sent an email in which he withdrew his candidacy for the proposal. Thus, another meeting of the committee seemed to be required, and they met yesterday at 3 PM. Committee members Pollermann, Bradshaw and Ryan were present along with Chair Michaelz.

Chair Michaelz said he wanted to find out from the committee if they were interested in reviewing the situation further or did they still feel that their job was finished.

Sabine Pollermann brought the Powerpoint that she had put together and shown to the committee a few months ago. Committee members Bradshaw and Ryan had not seen it before, so she showed it to them. It includes suggestions for various wellness components as part of a two-day schedule, that would wrap up with a concert on the evening of the second day. Chair Michaelz said he thought Ms. Pollermann's ideas and Larry Don Vito's ideas together could be a seed that would grow. He suggested that the Hoteliers could take on the festival component and make a full day festival with a concert in the evening.

Mr. Michaelz didn't think the committee should simply award the event to Mr. Don Vito and let him run with it, despite his good track record in Lake Arrowhead. He thought that perhaps the Festival Committee could act as an overseer. Committee member Ryan said he thought this committee had to meet with Mr. Don Vito. The committee needs to know what he has in mind for the wellness component. Ms. Pollermann observed that his heart is in the music, not in the wellness. Mr. Bradshaw said the festival will take more than one person to pull off. Others from Desert Hot Springs must come forward to assist. Mr. Ryan asked if the committee should direct him to meet with the Hoteliers to come up with a more comprehensive plan.

Mr. Ryan said he thought the committee should meet with Mr. Don Vito again, but suggested that perhaps a phone call from the Chair to Mr. Don Vito to ask him to meet with the Hoteliers would be appropriate. The wellness component needs more meat on its bones.

Mr. Michaelz asked Kristie Ramos if the Brown Act would prevent him from meeting with Mr. Don Vito one on one. Ms. Ramos said it would not prevent that.

The committee agreed unanimously to meet as a committee with Mr. Don Vito. Mr. Michaelz said he would also meet with him one on one. The committee agreed to meet Wednesday, November 14. They expect to be able to make a final recommendation which will go to the City Council at its December 4 meeting.

Filed under Desert Hot Springs | permalink | October 25, 2012 at 03:19 PM | Comments (0)

Google Makes Wearing A GoPro Hero Look A Lot Less Nerdy

And they did it by creating the Trekker which you see in the photo below:

It's the wearable version of their Streetview photography system and its first application will be to bring us streetviews of Bright Angel Trail and South Kaibab Trail in Grand Canyon National Park.

We can hardly wait for the inevitable cool bits to come as they explore our National Parks: the grizzly attack, the avalanche, the snake bite, the flash flood.

Filed under Photography,Technology,Web/Tech | permalink | October 25, 2012 at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)

October 24, 2012

Burning Man: Saudade

Saudade:

is a unique Portuguese word that has no immediate translation in English. Saudade describes a deep emotional state of nostalgic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves. It often carries a repressed knowledge that the object of longing will never return. It's related to the feelings of longing, yearning. A stronger form of saudade may be felt towards people and things whose whereabouts are unknown, such as a lost lover, or a family member who has gone missing.

Paul French's virgin impression of Burning Man was saudade.

Burning Man was focused on impermanence. The importance of letting everything go. I was struck, obviously, by the primal value of the wildest party I’d ever seen, but knocked clean cold by the duality of the desert. I saw written on the playa’s Temple deep etchings of regret, remorse, sadness. Saudade. It was written ablaze on a metal sculpture called ‘Phoenix Risen’, built from the scraps of 2011’s Trojan Horse and in homage to Harley Payne, a burner who skydived into last year’s event and died, from heart failure, just a few hours later.

Filed under Burning Man | permalink | October 24, 2012 at 09:36 PM | Comments (1)

AQMD Hearing For CPV Sentinel Mitigation Funds Allocation - October 16

The audio recording of this meeting of the AQMD Administrative Committee is available here. This meeting was to get public testimony on the proposed allocations of the $53 million in air quality mitigation funds from the CPV Sentinel plant. Four members of the Administrative Committee sat at the dais in the meeting room at CVWD headquarters in Palm Desert. They were Chair Dr. William Burke, Dr. Clark Parker, Sr., Josie Gonzales and Ronald Loveridge. If you listen to the audio you'll notice that it's hard to hear the call to order. Despite their many years in politics, the committee members showed a reluctance to speak up and into their microphones. Staff and members of the public could be heard clearly, so I initially entertained the notion that the volume on the dais microphones had been set too low. But there was at least one CVWD staffer who was on his feet throughout the meeting making sure everything electronic was in order. He frequently adjusted the microphone for members of the public. The committee members developed better public speaking skills as the meeting progressed - or maybe everyone in attendance learned to stay very quiet when we saw lips moving.

It was only an alert, not an error.

Manuel Pérez

Assemblyman Manuel Pérez

Chair Burke introduced Assemblyman Manuel Pérez (who needs no microphone). Mr. Pérez suggested that in the future the AQMD consider also scheduling evening meetings. He acknowledged that the Sentinel plant was controversial, but that it was necessary to assure there was sufficient electricity to avoid blackouts. But this was not meant to detract from building renewable energy. He said there was NO opposition to the power plant as he developed the legislation. [IOW, the scatterbrained objectors are johnny-come-latelies.] He said he appreciated that the required proportions were respected by AQMD staff: 30% close proximity, 30% environmental justice, 40% up for grabs. He said if he could go back in time and revise his legislation he would have written in a requirement that more of the money go to non-profits. He asked the committee members to take another look at how non-profits could be funded better. He said there were seven non-profits who got assistance from the county and from AQMD staff to write their applications. He said a grant-writer would cost $10,000 to $15,000. He asked the committee to consider the purpose and mission of the non-profits.

Chair Burke said he thought Mr. Pérez's request to give additional consideration to non-profits was an excellent idea.

Staff Presentation

Philip Fine led this presentation. I want to address a picky issue. The legislation did not define "close proximity." Earlier this year AQMD staff said they adopted the definition of "close proximity" used for other sorts of regulation of power plants - and that's a radius of 10 km. 10 kilometers is 6.21371 miles, but that's usually shortened to 6.2 miles, which is a difference of only about 73 feet. It doesn't bother me if The Desert Sun or the average guy on the street wants to refer to that as 6 miles, but it does concern me that now all the AQMD literature says "6 miles." This would only really matter if somebody had a project in the outer two-tenths of a mile that got turned down, and that doesn't seem to be the case. But it does suggest a rushed sloppiness on the part of AQMD staff whose job is to keep a handle on all the precise and technical requirements of all manner of legislation and regulation. The difference between a 6 mile circle and a 6.2 mile circle is a little more than 24 square miles. In short, if you put in a proposal, get your scoring from AQMD and double check their arithmetic closely.

The exact amount of mitigation funds is $53,318,358.30. AQMD can use as much as 5% of that for administrative expenses, which lowers the amount to $50,652,440.39. 30% of that is $15,195,732.12. A minimum of $15,195,732.12 must go to the environmental justice areas and another minimum $15,195,732.12 to the close proximity area. Interest earned will be used "under the program" with the same guidelines.

AQMD reports that their recommendations (with 5 bonus points for local government) total

• $15,266,258 - close proximity [30.1%]
• $15,241,247 - environmental justice [30.1%]
• $20,144,935 - elsewhere [39.8%]
• $50,652,440 - total

Here is how the potential points were allocated on the technical criteria. A proposal had to get at least 70 points in these technical areas before they could be considered for the extra credit points which included things like being a small business, a local business, a minority-owned business, a woman-owned business, a Veteran-owned business, etc. etc.

• 30 points for "Aids in achievement of AQMD's regional air quality goals in the Coachella Valley."
• 30 points for "Experience and expertise or other evidence of capacity to complete the project."
• 20 points for "Job creation."
• 10 points for "Effective use of funds."
• 5 points for "Second benefits, other than jobs."
• 5 points for "Community/government support."

75 proposals were received that requested a total of more than $375 million. $173 million was requested in the close proximity area. $190 million was requested in the environmental justice areas.

• Solar requests - $132 million
• Alternative fuel vehicles and infrastructure requests - $41 million
• Air filtration requests - $22.5 million
• Paving requests - $27 million
• Gardening requests - $12.5 million [the equivalent of 4,480,286 packets of beefsteak tomato seeds]
• Weatherization requests - $20.5 million
• "Other" requests, "e.g., congestion relief & alternative energy"- $121 million

The proposals were evaluated on their technical qualifications by a 3-person panel that included no one who assisted anyone who was submitting a proposal. They were...

• 1 Deputy Executive Officer
• 1 AQMD Director of Technology Implementation, and
• 1 outside technical expert in Coachella Valley aire issues, former CAPCOA director & AQMD Senior Scientist

And what we really want to know, the panel was made up of...

• 2 Caucasians and
• 1 Asian/Pacific Islander

So I take it they've been sued at some time on that basis, but not on the basis of gender, disability, Veteran status, etc.

There are your clues, budding Sherlocks. You have 48 hours to Name Those Panelists!

AQMD staff recommended awarding 5 bonus points (after the technical points) for proposals from local governments, to put them on an even footing with local businesses, who already got 5 bonus points. AQMD staff also made unilateral decisions as the scalability of projects and recommended partial funding based on that.

With those 5 extra points the dust control proposal from Desert Hot Springs qualifies and gets its full $2 million. Without the 5 points, it doesn't make the cut and $1,929,742 gets added onto Mission Springs Water District's request for funding for a solar array near Indian and I-10, increasing it from $1,885,575 to $3,815,317. The balance of $70,258 seems to just go poof.

Other items affected by the decision to award 5 points to local government proposals are...

• The Coachella signal synchronization proposal which gained $40,000 from those 5 points.
• The 1E11 parkway proposal which would lose $1,350,092 without those 5 points.

If the AQMD Board decides not to award 5 points for local government proposals, then Angel View's request for $270,817.50 for CNG vehicles would increase from 0% to 100% funding and Renova Energy's solar proposal for $1,189,633 for solar at the Children's Discovery Museum would also go from 0% to 100% funding.

Summaries of Recommendations

• Solar & wind - 8 projects for $16.12 million (32% of total)
• Paving and dust control - 4 projects for $8.02 million (16%)
• Alternative fuel - 4 projects for $2.15 million (4%)
• Air filtration - 2 projects for $4.42 million (9%)
• Transportation (parkway & synchronization) - 2 projects for $19.95 million (39%)

I would have broken out that last item like this...

• Signal synchronization - 1 project for $2.55 million (5%)
• Parkway - 1 project for $17.4 million (34%)

Staff also recommended that the Executive Officer be authorized to negotiate contracts and to move to the back-up list of projects if contracts are not executed (rather than returning to the AQMD Board for a vote). And that AQMD negotiate with those two projects (in close proximity) that will generate grid-based electricity for either reduced electric rates in the Coachella Valley [extremely unlikely IMO] or profit sharing with AQMD who will use that money to fund "additional projects."

Committee member Loveridge asked where he could find the scores. Mr. Fine answered "The board letter has several attachments and those attachments include the scoring of all the proposals; the total score, technical score as well as the score with additional points. So, Attachment 2 of the board item is available to everyone here. Attachment 2 has the 'with 5 Point' scores [for government agencies] and Attachment 3 has it 'without 5 point' scores [for government agencies]."

Dr. Burke was concerned about partial funding of some proposals. He wanted to know how AQMD staff evaluated the ability of those proposers to raise the additional money to complete their projects. Executive Officer Barry Wallerstein said that staff had determined that those projects were scalable. This was a decision made unilaterally by staff and is something AQMD does frequently, he said.

In answer to a question from Dr. Parker, Mr. Wallerstein said that he wanted the board to approve staff's request to be able to go to projects on the back-up list without consulting with the board. He said that is what is usually done in AQMD. An exception would be made in the case of the two commercial power-generating proposals in the close proximity area (solar and wind). They are so large, if they don't come to agreement, he would come back to the board for an approval on how to re-allocate those funds. AQMD staff believes those two projects will proceed with or without these mitigation funds.

Public Testimony (with wild guesses as to names)

Sharon McGehee, superintendent of Desert Sands USD was the first speaker. They requested $27 million. AQMD staff recommended $174,000 for the CNG fueling station. AQMD staff said DSUSD could get more buses under AB923. She said the school district didn't qualify for that because that legislation only applies to pre-1994 buses and DSUSD doesn't have any of those. They also requested solar parking shade structures, solar pool heating, and efficient air conditioners.

Mr. Wallerstein said that staff would like to meet with DSUSD before the final decision of the board so they can work through the details of other funds that may be available.

Bruce Ray is with a manufacturer of formaldehyde-free building insulation. They worked on proposals for retrofits ["weatherization"] for 4,200 homes; 1,200 of them in the close proximity area; 3,000 in environmental justice areas. Quality Interiors would invest $675,000 of its own money. It has "ultimate scalability," he said. He felt their technical score was lower than it should have been. Their technical score was 70.3 plus 10 bonus points for a total of 80.3. They have been in business for 30 years. They got 10 bonus points for being a small business, but should have also gotten points for being a local business. They are based in Corona and will do all the work in the AQMD district.

Dr. Burke asked staff to double check those figures.

Debbie Levesee spoke on behalf of the Desert Cahuilla Wetlands (project #70). It scored only 52.3 points. It's the only proposal to address the Salton Sea. The proposal would have been to replace diesel with solar, creating 100 permanent jobs. But no one can quantify the pollutants from the Salton Sea. She asked for AQMD's assistance in quantifying the pollution.

Dr. Burke asked staff to speak to her and report back to him later.

Mayor Yvonne Parks spoke next. She first said all the nice things and thanked them for what we got, but then said she was dismayed that two projects totaling $7.8 million were award to privately held, for-profit corporations. Cities in the valley will be directly affected by the CPV Sentinel plant so we should get the funding. The private corporations can qualify for federal grants and loans. Neither project will generate sustained employment nor benefit us economically. The City of DHS can't seek large-scale federal funding like these corporations can. She said 15 points for local government agencies would have been better than just 5. The city's hire local/spend local policy assures the money stays in the valley. She asked AQMD to reconsider these awards to corporations.

Dr. Burke said her point was the same point that "some of us had a concern about." He asked for an additional briefing from staff on this subject after the meeting.

Gary Luders spoke in favor of the Whitewater Trail Parkway. He is a bicyclists and is on the board of the Community Trails Alliance and the board of the Desert Trails Coalition. He talked about the popularity of bike trails in Europe and many west coast cities. He said emissions would be reduced every time someone chose to ride a bike rather than drive a car. He suggested going for coffee or going to the gym or to pick up a few items at the market as activities that could be done by bike rather than car. He said it is dangerous to bicycle in the Coachella Valley.

Dr. Burke said he and Dr. Parker also serve on the California Coastal Commission. Their second or third most popular request for permits is bicycle trails.

Jim Rothwhite also spoke about the bike trail. He said the $53 million is like tossing a bone to a dog. He said the bike path will complement local green energy projects. He said it's especially dangerous to bicycle along route 111.

Rob Grummit spoke about project #39, a request for $12,466,163 from Desert View Power. They got 70.3 points. He believes there were several major errors in their scoring, but have been unable to discuss this with staff. He asked that a step be inserted in the process to allow for correction of gross errors. Staff could meet with proposers and review scoring. He asked that detailed scoring for each project be made public.

Dr. Burke asked him to clarify why he couldn't speak with AQMD staff. Mr. Grummit said he left a phone message and email and got no reply. Dr. Burke asked who he called. Mr. Grummit said he called Tracy. Dr. Burke said he didn't know Tracy. [Odd, I think everybody else in the room knows he meant Tracy Goss.] Mr. Wallerstein pointed out Tracy Goss for Dr. Burke's benefit. He went on to say that staff would respond to all emailed questions.

One committee member asked how many emails had been received by staff. Mr. Wallerstein said only about 25! An amazingly small number, I think. Based on preliminary reviews, staff does not believe they made gross errors.

Dick Parkus spoke next. He represented St. Elizabeth's Food Pantry, "the oldest and the largest food distribution center in Desert Hot Springs." He thanked them for approving their request for a CNG truck and support system. It will replace a 12-year old pickup. St. Elizabeth's did not, however, get its request for solar power approved. Their solar request got only 65.7 points - not enough to begin to qualify for any bonus points. He reminded them that the food pantry is a 100% volunteer organization.

Dr. Burke said he read something about food distribution at the Roy Wilson Resource Center and asked if St. Elizabeth's had any connection to that. They do not.

Gwenn Ford from FIND spoke about their request, proposal #36. They wanted to replace trips to their foodbank by other agencies using "non-compliant" vehicles by purchasing their own new compliant vehicles. She talked about all the good work they do. FIND got NO points and is in the list of 8 projects that were disqualified for not following RFP requirements. Ms. Ford said they did work with the technical staff on their proposal.

Mr. Wallerstein said this is another example where they should have a meeting to discuss it. He said their proposal was basically to replace gasoline vehicles with diesel, so there is no clear evidence of any emission reductions. Dr. Burke said staff could have suggested to them that they seek "a hybrid or something like that." Ms. Ford said they asked those questions of technical staff [I assume she means AQMD technical staff] and they were told to pursue and move forward. Vehicle manufacturers told them that the currently available CNG vehicles will not carry the load they have. [That was total misinformation. There are CNG vehicles all the way up to full size big rig trucks. If, however, she needs something like an aircraft carrier, then she's right, those don't come with CNG engines.] They travel more than 7,000 miles a month, she said, and there aren't enough CNG stations to refuel.

Mark Carla represents the Foundation For California Community Colleges which put forth proposal #48 for $23,500,000 for vehicle repair, retirement or replacement. They got 72 points. He said few of the other proposals have proven emission reductions. He didn't think he got proper scoring for a letter of support from Assemblyman Pérez, for being a local business, for creating jobs. He asked for a reconsideration.

Dr. Burke asked staff for an explanation. They said that the proposal could be funded from other existing programs. Mr. Carla said their proposal was only to include vehicles that were not eligible for other programs. Staff responded that this meant he was replacing vehicles whose emissions were not as great as those covered under other programs. Mr. Carla said they had met Moyer guidelines of cost effectiveness. They will take unregistered vehicles. Staff said this kind of a program should go to the state legislature. Mr. Wallerstein offered to meet with Mr. Carla.

Joe McKee spoke about his community garden project proposal #4, a request for $750,000 that got 67.7 points. He said he is concerned that some projects will be shorter-lived than the power plant itself. A vehicle might last 15 years, but the plant will last for 50 years. The garden project should last longer than most other projects. He also wanted to comment on points given for expertise. He said he hadn't seen any project submitted that couldn't be done by the people who submitted it. The garden project, for example, is very simple. All the other projects are based on existing technologies. No one proposed a cold fusion power plant, he said.

Barry Hughes spoke about his proposal #65, a solar project requesting $10 million that got 64.7 points. He said he thought they were underscored. They were not given points for being a local business. [But it had already been explained that the bonus points, like the ones for local business, weren't awarded if your project didn't get at least 70 technical points, and his had not.] The $10 million was to go on top of their own $40 million to build a robotic solar manufacturing facility in the Coachella Valley. They would use a new Down Corning product. It would create 110 full time permanent jobs with an average income of more than $45,000/year with health benefits. Twenty percent of their profits would go to cover 100% of the cost to install solar systems at "any non-profit that would like it."

Mr. Wallerstein explained that the proposal did not include information sufficient to reach the 70 point threshold. The proposal is asking AQMD to put itself in the position of a venture capitalist. Solar for the non-profits assumes the factory gets built, begins to operate, and becomes profitable. Dr. Burke said he would look into it.

Catherine Rips spoked about project #5, which has enough points to be recommended only if local governments do NOT get 5 bonus points. This is Angel View's request for $270,817.50 for CNG vehicles which got 87.7 points. They would replace diesel trucks for their chain of thrift stores with CNG trucks. Even though they are headquartered in Desert Hot Springs, they did not apply for close proximity status because "there was no local CNG." [This is not correct.] But if the proposal to upgrade the Mission Springs CNG [so she does know about that], it could not accomodate Angel View's proposed new vehicles. They thought that if they applied for close proximity consideration, they ran the risk of getting the trucks with no way to fuel them. [But outside close proximity their request goes up against the 1E11 pathway which outscored them by 0.3 points with a total score of 88 if local government bonus points are given]. Now she sees that if they had chosen close proximity they would have gotten funding and the CNG station is recommended for funding for an upgrade. She requested that AQMD take $270,817.50 out of the bike pathway and give it to Angel View, or that they do not give 5 points to local governments. Angel View's score was higher than the two corporate for-profit awards within the close proximity area - they each got 87.3. The bike pathway's affect on air quality mitigation is questionable and a long ways off. The benefit from Angel View's CNG vehicles would be immediate and verifiable.

Dr. Burke said she made sense.

Dean Gray spoke next. He said that in addition to being in close proximity, Desert Hot Springs is an environmental justice area. He said the $50 million needs to go to help the people of Desert Hot Springs. He asked the committee to say yes to Desert Hot Springs and no to the rich cities and special interests. They located the plant where they did because DHS is a poor city, he said. He said the plant is in a gerrymandered county area completely surrounded by Desert Hot Springs. He acknowledged that a little bit of Palm Springs is in the close proximity area. He said they should deny funding to the Fortune 500 projects and to approve the full request from Mission Springs Water District for their solar project. [Applause from the audience.] The pathway is designed to help the rich cities of Palm Desert, Indian Wells, Rancho Mirage, and Palm Springs. He thinks they should have the pathway, but that doesn't help Desert Hot Springs. [More applause.] Here Dr. Burke interrupted to instruct the audience not to cheer or boo. Dr. Burke went on to say he drove out to Desert Hot Springs the day before "and everything this man says is true." Mr. Dean did ask to have a couple minutes restored to his time for the interruption. [General laughter.] He said the golf cart path is a foolish plan. He said DHS is one of the poorest cities in California and the power plant will be there for generations to come.

Elizabeth Versace spoke for project #43, the request for $7,847,080 for solarization and weatherization of homes in Desert Hot Springs which got a score of 65.7. She thanked Tracy Goss and the staff for assistance. The city met a number of times with AQMD staff about this proposal. The city was given suggestions on how to improve it. There was no guidance that suggested the proposal was substandard. Other solarization/weatherization proposals that were similar got higher scores. She said the proposal was highly detailed. She talked about the poverty in Desert Hot Springs, saying that 20% of the families in DHS rely on food banks. "People choose between electricity and food in the City of Desert Hot Springs," she said. She asked them to reconsider the funding of the two corporate power projects. The per capita income in DHS is $14,000, so economic justice is key. "Our tax base is weak." The city's ability to help local citizens get solar power "is just not there." She asked to have AQMD staff tell the city at least what was weak in the application, so it can be redressed.

Ms. Versace said "This may be the only time in history I agree with that guy," referring to Dean Gray, which brought about a general uproar of laughter and applause.

Nancy Wright, President of the MSWD board, came to speak about project #62, the MSWD 3MW solar project which got 80.7 points and was recommended for partial funding. She said the project would benefit almost all the people in the close proximity area without the need for any negotiations over electric rates. She asked to have the balance of her time passed to the MSWD staff who had also come to speak.

Arden Wallum, General Manager at MSWD, came up to speak about project #62. He invited the committee to visit the lobby of MSWD's headquarters and observe the 600 to 1,000 visitors per week. Most of those people pay their water bills in cash because they are too poor to have checking accounts. He said Desert Hot Springs is the most disadvantaged community in Riverside County. He pointed out that the power plant was not located in La Quinta, Palm Desert or Rancho Mirage. AQMD staff cut $8 million from MSWD's request, but propose to give $8 million to a private, for profit, Fortune 500 company with $17 billion in revenue and $45 billion in assets. AQMD staff's proposal to negotiate for a reduced electric rate or a profit sharing plan with AQMD would mean that funding intended for the close proximity area would be used to subsidize power for people outside the close proximity.

John Soulliere from MSWD also spoke about #62. He said they were not scored in the environmental justice area. He said DHS had the lowest median income in two counties (Riverside and San Bernardino) and the wind obviously produces particulate matter. He doesn't understand why Rule 1309.1 doesn't include DHS in the environmental justice areas. [In earlier meetings AQMD has explained this is because they don't have an air quality monitoring station in DHS - the closest one is in Palm Springs - and they think their technical analysis shows that the air in DHS is the same as the air in Palm Springs.] MSWD's solar array would directly benefit the residents of DHS without a profit sharing contract. Offsetting MSWD's power costs keeps water and sewer rates in check for the life of the project. It will also assist in the development of the regional wastewater treatment facility, which would support economic development in the I-10/Indian area. Septic tanks cannot be put in that area, so development is on hold until a sewage treatment plan is put in place. He asked AQMD to take another look at the scoring, to consider the economic development potential of this solar array, as well as the demographics of the MSWD community.

Michael Thornton, contract engineer for MSWD, also spoke about project #62. He said it appeared that the scoring was incorrect. They did not give the 5 bonus points for being a government agency. The project got 80.7 points on both lists, the one WITH and the one WITHOUT 5 bonus points for local government agencies. He also expressed concern about allowing AQMD to negotiate with the for profit power companies for a profit sharing plan that would benefit people outside the close proximity area. The MSWD project would bring immediate benefits to local residents by offsetting water rates. He asked to be able to look at the scoring. MSWD has called and sent emails to AQMD, but received no reply.

Lynda Kerney spoke for project #62. She summarized that DHS is a severely economically disadvantaged community. The project is scalable, but the full benefit to the community only comes if the full amount is granted. She asked to be able to meet with staff. She reminded them that Assemblyman Pérez had asked them to look at the purpose of projects. The real purpose of MSWD's proposal is to make sure the community is taken care of.

Dr. Burke asked how he could be assured the water rates will go down in funding is awarded. [What a great listener he is! No one had suggested the rates would go down.] Ms. Kerney explained that electric power is one of the district's greatest expenses. Dr. Burke asked if their proposal included a promise to reduce rates by X amount. Arden Wallum came to the podium to explain that power is the district's second greatest cost. He said this project will reduce the district's power bill by more than $200,000 per year. He explained that the district is subject to the 218 process, which means their rates are limited to covering provable expenses for delivering the water. Reduced costs keep water rates from rising as much.

Then there was a 10-minute break.

Brent Gray from MSWD spoke about project #62. He would have spoken before the break, but Dr. Burke had inadvertently slipped his speaker request card into the already spoken stack. I have never before seen a meeting chair make that mistake. Mr. Gray said the project would provide direct benefit to a public agency in the area most affected by the plant's emissions. He explained that all water pumping in the valley requires electricity. Their project would offset the expense of that electricity while also offsetting the need to use power from the Sentinel plant. MSWD is not a Fortune 500 company motivated by global profits, he said. No as yet undefined profit sharing agreement is needed. The plant will support the regional wastewater treatment plant which is necessary to prevent groundwater contamination. This proposal is 100% financially viable, he said.

Margaret Chiriaco-O'Shea [I'm not sure about the name after "Chiriaco" but it sounded like "O'Shea"] spoke about project #40 which was for CNG and EV stations at Chiriaco Summit. The request for $800,000 did not qualify at all. She wanted to know why the request was disqualified. She talked about what a good idea it would be to put a CNG station at their unique location, the only gas station between Indio and Blythe.

Dr. Burke asked staff to let him know later why the request was disqualified.

Tracy Powers, General Manager of Angel View, spoke about project #5, CNG vehicles. They are the largest private employer in Desert Hot Springs. He described the work that Angel View does. They are the largest operator of charity thrift stores in the Coachella Valley. Last year they had $8 million in sales. All of the proceeds benefit the direct care of their clients. Their diesel trucks travel 200,000 miles in the Coachella Valley. Angel View will provide matching funds and services for their request from AQMD. He asked them NOT to award 5 bonus points to local governments, so that Angel View might get its funding.

Dr. Burke said what he had heard so far "makes my job worthwhile." He said he had heard from great people that really make America great. "It's changed my outlook on this money." "What you did today was God's work." He's just one vote, but will try to help with his colleagues. There were about 9,000 pages of proposals, and he said staff had done the best they could do.

Christina Mendez spoke next on behalf of California Rural Legal Assistance. They have a question about whether they can get the detailed scoring of every project. Also she wanted to know when detailed information on the negotiations with the corporate for-profit power generators would be available and at what point would the public be able to provide input.

Dr. Burke said that was a rational question, but he had a feeling things may shift around. So the real question, he said, is how much lead time do you get before it goes to the full board. He said it may more than one board meeting to settle it all.

Stephen [last name unclear] is a bicycling proponent. He is with a non-profit group. He was wearing a hat that said Nancy's Wild Rides, so maybe that's who he was representing, but that doesn't seem to be a non-profit. He spoke about the parkway, project #14. His group was involved in the original bikeway path in the late 1980s. There was more passion for it then. He said the money for the pathway should be put where the people would really like it and that's on city streets. He said that bicycling to get coffee or go to the gym is done along city streets, not along a single pathway. Safe bikeways and safe routes to schools and connective elements are what is needed.

Pastor Carl McPeters spoke about project #49 which was from Kyriakos Christian Center for a solar project and paving. The amount was $614,633 and got 65.3 points. He said they would provide matching funds. They are concerned about the amount of money going into the bike path. He didn't think many people would be on a bike path at 120°. He also takes objection to the fact that the City of Indio was not awarded any funds.

John Sanchez, Jr. also spoke about #49. He said the solar would power 13 air conditioning units. The paving is for a dirt road to the church.

Jose Marin spoke next. He works for Valley Clean Air Now. He does outreach for Tune-in/Tune-out. He worked on it in San Joaquin Valley. "You will have a tremendous benefit implementing that program." [I think he's talking about project #48.]

Dr. Burke asked the public if they would accept the committee eating lunch at the dais so that the meeting could continue without delay. The crowd assented. Not long after that Mr. Wallerstein announced that CVWD would not permit food in their meeting room, so there was a break of 15 or 20 minutes.

Sister Gabbie spoke on behalf of the funding of paving of dirt roads in the mobile home parks in environmental justice areas. She also talked about the toxic dump near Oasis on Pierce called the Lawson dump. It's been closed, but the dump spontaneously ignites during the summer. The recent flood caused the dump to sink more in the center, which will expose more combustibles. When they start to burn, they can last for a week. The fire department won't go near it any more because it is sinking. There is only one good road into the area now. She asked for an air quality monitor to let people in the area know when the air is dangerous.

Mr. Wallerstein explained that the AQMD is familiar with the Lawson dump. He suggested that the committee members speak to Supervisor Benoit about it as he is well familiar with it.

David Barrakian representing the City of Palm Springs spoke on projects #24A and B. 24A is rooftop solar on four public buildings, $,175,225, that got 83.3 or 88.3 points, depending on whether they give 5 points for local government. 24B was the cool roof program, $6,174,000, which got 69 points. He said Palm Springs followed the rules to the letter and hoped everyone else did likewise.

Caroline Krause said she represents People Over Pollution. She reported that the water was running on the faucet in the women's room. She is outraged about the plant being built. She is sick of clean coal and untapped national oil reserves and "nuclear energy blah, blah, blah." She's sick of hearing that burning fossil fuel and natural gas is the only alternative for this area. This area is "sun swept, windblown, windswept, sun drenched area." She then named several cities, streets, and casinos that reflected "natural, alternative, renewable, the geothermal phenomenon that we are named after." It's ridiculous that people say we don't have storage batteries. We subsidize the oil industry and we still have oil spills, "so what's the deal." She's outraged that people are bickering over $53 million. "According to this 478-page report from the California Energy Commission it should have been $150 million."

Dr. Burke asked where the $150 million figure came from. Mr. Wallerstein said he would look up the reference, but the power plant is paying $53 million.

Bob Terry, a small farmer from outside Desert Hot Springs, said he was there with People Over Pollution also. The plant will put out a million tonnes of pollution per year. A million tonnes of CO2 requires 302 square miles of pine or fir trees to be offset. He said the Coachella Valley is 300 square miles. He doesn't believe the bike path will offset that. The Sentinel plant will use 2,000 gallons/minute to be replaced by Colorado River water. The reason the plant is located there is because it's near a gas pipeline and the substation at Devers Hill.

Jim Ducatte, CEO of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Coachella Valley, spoke about project #74 which is for solar power. They applied to install it on three, but only two will be funded. Besides reducing electric demand and emissions, this will save them money. He thanked AQMD for its work.

Lou Stewart said he was from Occupy Coachella Valley. They consider the CPV Sentinel to be an example of social, economic, and environmental injustice. The law says awards are to be only for emissions reductions. But only 30 points are awarded for emission reduction. He wanted to know why we don't have continuing mitigation for the next 30 years. He referred to proposal #61, air filtration for schools proposed by ID Air. He asked why our schools need air filtration. What happens to those children when they leave school? Would it have been better to spend money on gas masks for each child? Project #124, the pathway, won't reduce emissions, he said, unless they expect the pathway users to die from pulmonary disease and become a form of carbon sequestration.

"You were doing so good," commented Dr. Burke.

Matthew Thomas, Director of Transportation at CVUSD spoke on project #41, school buses and fueling infrastructure. He explained how big the district is and how poor its residents are. He said under AB923 they would be eligible to replace only eight buses. Their bus fleet dates from 2000-2003. He is new at CVUSD and has been inspecting the buses.

Mr. Wallerstein said AQMD staff also wants to sit down and talk with CVUSD and discuss other funding sources for CNG buses and to retrofit some buses with particulate traps. He said that in the past AQMD has tried to award them funding for this, but the school district turned them down.

Dr. Burke said a study has shown that the air inside the school buses can be dirtier than what is coming out of the exhaust pipe.

Julie Arthur from PSUSD spoke about project #47 for solar on four schools in Desert Hot Springs. She is executive director of facilities and construction. She thanked AQMD staff for their assistance with that. She asked to be able to review her project with staff because she thought they missed some points that should have been awarded. She finds it curious that project #61, air filters in schoolrooms, was approved. The school district was not aware of that submission. Project #61 has no letter of support from PSUSD. They have no record of anyone at the school district speaking with the supporters of #61. It's a for-profit company installing its own products in classrooms. The school district is not familiar with their product. Will PSUSD be obligated to continue to purchase their products? How will it work with existing systems?

Dr. Burke asked how this came about. Mr. Wallerstein said AQMD has contracted with the company in the past, but if PSUSD doesn't want the filters, it's not obligated to accept them. Dr. Burke said it seemed they would have to have a letter from the school district. Ms. Arthur added that DSUSD and CVUSD were in the same position. She also said that MSWD's 3MW solar project was also a very worthy project.

Steve Hernandez, city councilmember from Coachella, describe the City of Coachella's involvement throughout this process. He said they have a request into MSRC for funds for one of their projects. He suggested the the city's request could be reduced by that amount (about $300,000) and given to some of the requests from non-profits. He also said that this is the first time for a lot of the non-profits to deal with AQMD. He thanked the staff for their technical assistance.

Mitchell Nieman also represented the City of Coachella. He detailed how much emissions reductions would be achieved by their projects along with Coachella's experience in managing projects.

Filipa [last name unclear] spoke via a translator. She spoke about project #37 which was SunLine Transit's request for $3,212,565. She resides at North Shore and is a leader of ICUC. When her grandson moved in with her he immediately developed asthma. She asked the committee to consider public transit in North Shore.

Sheila Gill from Indian Wells spoke against the parkway. She said the recreation and tourism benefits are obvious, but air quality benefits are far less obvious. She said CVAG's calculations are "complete lunacy." To achieve the claimed levels of reduction every resident of the valley (population 400,000) including babies and the elderly, would have to walk 30 miles on the parkway instead of driving. She said people will not walk it when it's too hot. Walking the parkway will never replace driving to the grocery store, the cleaners or city hall for her. The CVAG proposal also does not realistically address the problem of acquiring right of way. Acquisition is not on the project schedule.

Fred Bell, COO of Noble and Company, talked about an application submitted for CVWD that was not accepted due to a technicality. Steve Robbins, the General Manager of CVWD, fell ill which created incredible constraints. CVWD's consultant delivered the proposal just minutes after the deadline passed. There was some discussion about the rigidity of the deadline between Dr. Burke, Mr. Wallerstein and Mr. Bell. Mr. Wallerstein said the deadline is the deadline until the board votes to change it. Mr. Bell conceded the point on the deadline, but had two requests: he asked staff to make sure funds are spent on "hard improvements," not planning or administrative expenses. He also asked that if not everything gets funded, then the unspent funds be repooled and people be allowed to re-apply.

A woman whose name may have been Annette something spoke next. She said she was speaking on proposal #66, which was for $42,270,880 for a hydrogen plant. It scored 68 points. She said the proposal included three projects, but it seems that AQMD treated them as one. She said that Skyborne and the industrial area at I-10 and Indian are the most affected by pollution.

Alex McIntosh spoke next. He also spoke about project #66. He said stacks of the peaker plant are being erected in the backyard of Skyborne. He said Skyborne was being given no consideration. I had the impression that he possibly didn't know that Skyborne was part of Desert Hot Springs.

Jack Pryor, CEO of Access Solar, which submitted project #66 spoke next. He wondered how the $53 million figure was arrived at, since his calculations showed that it would only be enough to offset 2% of the emissions. He said his proposal was to build a nitrogen plant. I'm sure he misspoke. He said they would provide 2 buses to CVUSD and two to Palm Springs and that they would "run on pure nitrogen." So maybe he didn't misspeak, but I can't imagine how he would get nitrogen from the electrolysis of water and then somehow get the nitrogen to power a vehicle. "The residue of which you could drink." They would also provide "rooftop systems for all of the large commercial buildings in our neighborhood [Indian & I-10]." He did not say what the "rooftop systems" would do.

Mr. Wallerstein said that staff would break it up into its three components and re-score them independently.

Elizabeth Hutchison lives in Rancho Mirage and is chair of the Social Justice Committee of the Unitarian/Universalist Church of the Desert. She would have liked to have seen substantially more than 30% go to the environmental justice areas. She is thrilled that some of the dirt roads in the east valley will be paved. She hopes money can be found for CVUSD's buses. She hopes funding can be found to mitigate Lawson dump. She was surprised to see money going to for-profit corporations.

Nicole Van Dell is a mother concerned about the Sentinel plant. Once the plant is on line it will be impossible to get our air back, she said. There are elderly people in the valley who already have problems. She suggested the mitigation funds be used for a legal effort against the state, against Assemblyman Pérez, for putting up this plant against the will of the community. There was a back and forth between Ms. Van Dell and Dr. Burke in which he seemed to suggest that she needed to organize people or perhaps organize a referendum. She suggested using the Kyoto Treaty to stop the process.

Matt Ross said it seemed short term jobs were being favored. Paving will address dust problems, but not greenhouse gas or particulate matter. [Dust is particulate matter.] He suggested that AQMD contact the people who made proposals to find out if they think their projects are scalable.

George Scott spoke on behalf of the Whitewater bike path. He talked about the health benefits of bicycling. He says those who do not bicycle do not appreciate their ability to transform transportation. He recommended that they read Active Transportation for America" A Case for Increased Federal Investment in Bicycling and Walking which is available from the Rails To Trails website. He said the proposed bike path provides an impetus for improving the bicycling infrastructure.

Dr. Burke shared his observations on bicycling in China in 1972 and 1992. The drop in bicycle use has led to horrific air pollution there, he said.

Rosemary Mindeola works at Desert Sands USD. She spoke about proposal #63. She said she hopes there is some other funding for buses, because they don't qualify for AB932 funds. They also had a solar proposal.

Steve Trout was to be the next speaker, but Bruce Ray came up instead saying that Mr. Trout had been called away. This concerned project #38, the weatherization of 4,200 homes. He brought copies of Mr. Trout's brochures for the committee.

Roy Nokes from Thousand Palms said he had figured out that the funds will not mitigate the problem. He said Thousand Palms is getting only $312,000. I believe he referred to project #15, $314,584 for solar at the SunLine Transit facility there. He said he did the math and that comes to "1% of 1%." Mr. Nokes needs to check his math. It's actually 0.6%, or six-tenths of a percent. "1% of 1%" is one-hundredth of a percent, so he's pretty far off. He's all for the bike path, but the money for project #15 is for "the SunLine bus company that's owned by CVAG." Well, he's wrong there, too. He calculates that the "1% of 1%" has to be divided up among the 13 agencies of CVAG. He's not there to complain, but he thinks the distribution is unfair.

Lorraine Sallas said that there is no amount of money that makes it worth while to sacrifice our air. Nothing will mitigate this. She said General Electric will make a big profit from this plant. She asked where this natural gas is coming from. There are many questions and nobody has answers.

Aurora Wilson commended Dr. Burke, saying her late husband would do the same as Dr. Burke, arriving the night before, doing his homework, and listening to everybody. She said there is widespread support for the parkway. She yielded the remainder of her time to Tom Kirk, CVAG Director.

Tom Kirk said that a lot of the criticism of the parkway goes like this: "We know it's going to be great for tourism, but it's going to be too difficult to build. We know it's going to be great for recreation, but we're skeptical about the public health benefits, or skeptical about the air quality benefits." As for the issue of right of way, it didn't stop the Riverside Santa Ana River Trail. Nor did it stop "the bike trails along the beach." CVWD owns the right of way for the majority of the project, and CVWD supports it. To explain away the heat issue, Mr. Kirk said that Minneapolis is listed as #1 on the top 10 list of bicycling cities. New York City is #2. 3 and 4 are Portland and Seattle. San Diego doesn't even make the list despite the fact that it has great weather almost all year 'round. Most of the world does not have great weather all year, but people accomodate and adjust. The air quality benefits of the pathway project are "relatively modest," but they're long term. Moving just 1% of the motor vehicle trips off of highway 111 for the next 75 years would be a big deal, he said. He said every dollar that comes to the pathway project will go into hard costs, not government salaries, not planning.

Gloria Gulpin spoke about air filtration. "We have spoken to several different principals about the school project and providing air filtration." One assumes she is speaking for the company that put forth the air filtration proposal, but she did not say so. They collected data from individual schools. She acknowledged that they did not speak to the districts. They're proposal can produce a 90% improvement in the air quality breathed by children in about 12 months.

Ms. Gonzales asked Ms. Gulpin to tell them "who we is." She answered that it's project #61.

A staff member from Supervisor Benoit's office asked to speak as Mr. Benoit was delayed in traffic. She said the Supervisor's meeting that day had run long. Dr. Burke jokingly told her to tell him they had decided to cut out funding for the bike path.

Committee Member Comments

Mr. Loveridge said he thought the committee should meet again after they get more complete information. He also thought that staff should go back and review those projects that asked for it. He said that Assemblyman Pérez's point about favoring non-profits "is well taken." He said he thought that it would be appropriate to distribute more than 30% of the funds to the close proximity area.

Dr. Parker suggested that comments be directed to the elected officials who are on the AQMD board.

Ms. Gonzales asked the public to trust the skills of AQMD staff.

Dr. Burke directed staff to give them "a revised budget of awards, minusing out that $6.7 million that you gave to that big corporation for solar, then giving that to the local people." He also said that the company proposing to install air filtration in schools "has got a week to get you letters from the school districts, and any school district that's not participating, I want that money to go back in to the pot for the local non-profits and small businesses." He said he goes to church from time to time, but he's never heard this many good people in one spot in one day in his life.

Filed under Coachella Valley,Desert Hot Springs | permalink | October 24, 2012 at 08:44 PM | Comments (0)

Paving at Western & Scenic

Looks substantially complete, but I'm sure there's a lot of stuff that still needs doing before the city accepts it.

Filed under Desert Hot Springs | permalink | October 24, 2012 at 02:10 PM | Comments (0)

Grading For The New DHS Dollar General Store

Filed under Desert Hot Springs | permalink | October 24, 2012 at 01:59 PM | Comments (0)

October 22, 2012

Cadillac ELR

General Motors has announced an investment of $35 million in order to produce an almost-all-electric Cadillac. It will have an electric propulsion system powered by lithium cells. It could be compared to the Tesla, if General Motors was going to go out and build cool charging stations. But instead, GM has decided to put an internal combustion engine in it to charge up the lithium cells when they run low. This will allow the Cadillac to be compared to the Chevy Volt rather than the Tesla. Already the marketing success seems overwhelming!

Production is scheduled to begin in late 2013.

Filed under Automotive | permalink | October 22, 2012 at 09:13 AM | Comments (0)

For The Action Videographer Who Don't Need No Fancy Schmancy GoPro Hero

While supplies last, the Midland Sports Camo Action Camera for only $40. Comes with:

• Action Camera
• Handlebar Mount
• Visor Mount
• Tree Mount [WTF? Is this like a 50 foot rope or sump'n?]
• Bow Mount [unfortunately their engineers never could perfect the Arrow Mount
• USB Cable [like you need more]
• 2 AAA Batteries
• "Owner's Manual"

140° field of view, a lens made of glass, uses microSDHC. And here's a piece of resistance if there ever was one: max resolution 640 x 480, so it'll look great on that old TV your Ma has in her "mobile home."

Filed under Photography,Shopping | permalink | October 22, 2012 at 08:47 AM | Comments (0)

October 21, 2012

Steel Pass Into Saline Valley

Sure looks to me like a GoPro Hero was used to video this drive from Eureka Dunes into Saline Valley via Steel Pass Road.

Filed under California,Photography | permalink | October 21, 2012 at 05:42 AM | Comments (0)

October 20, 2012

A Virgin's View Of Burning Man

A longish write-up by Ray Ray Burns all about his first time at Burning Man with explanations, descriptions and advice. A friend asked him to come and join Camp Disorient.

I hedged shamelessly. Could I go for just two days? I suck at dancing. Isn’t it too hot in the desert? I don’t really have to take the drugs, do I? Do I have to camp in a tent? Isn’t this festival really for people half my age? No; that’s not completely true; no; absolutely not; no and no.

Supplies:

Roger, his son and I departed The Biggest Little City in America for points north. We traveled several hours, past the town of Gerlach, to (I’m not kidding) the middle of fucking nowhere Nevada. We had 5 large bags, 3 backpacks, 10 full shopping bags from the Reno Walmart, one tent, 3 chairs, 3 bicycles, 17 gallons of water, 10 gallons of freshly squeezed frozen lime juice that had been shipped from Dallas the day before in two huge coolers …and 9 cases of alcohol. That would be cases.

He doesn't say where he's from, but my guess is the Bay Area or about that latitude. He repeats the urban legend that the daytime temperatures reach 100°. It has never actually reached 100° in the six years I've gone, but the people from San Francisco sure think it does.

Night time fun:

Our first night, Roger intelligently turned in at 1am. Probably feeling guilty, his son, Peyton, invited me join a couple of his buddies to bike to a few other camps. As much to prove my stamina to myself as to him, I agreed. We biked hard for about five minutes, left our steeds, danced for about 20 minutes then moved on to a different section of the playa. We did this four times. Eventually, I ran out of gas, begged off, got on my bike, pointed myself in the general direction of home and started to peddle. And peddle. And peddle. After about 15 minutes I still couldn’t even see our camp. “I just can’t be in this bad shape,” I said out loud. More peddling. I was getting progressively more winded and still nothing looked remotely familiar. “You can NOT stop, you pussy!” I yelled. Still more peddling. Finally, in the distance – and about the size of a raisin – I spotted the 30-foot iconic inflatable cylinder of our camp. Ten minutes later, gasping like an old dog, I made it.

The next morning, I discovered I had ridden the entire way back on not one, but two flat tires. It is entirely possible (though I would never admit it under oath) that the single joint hit I took during my ride out with the boys had a tiny bit to do with my inability to recognize the pathetic state of my ride.

Things he would bring next year:

1. More Socks. The smart people brought two or three changes a day; the dust was that nasty.
2. Boots. I brought a good pair of hiking sneakers (that became so unsalvageable I left them in the RV). My treads were fine for a while, but the higher the boot, the less dust sneaks into them; mid calf is ideal.
3. Nasal saline solution. It is SO dry there (with dust compounding the irritation) I got several nosebleeds that took 20+ minutes to stop. Regular nasal blasts would have ameliorated the situation at least a little.
4. A couple of cases of Diet Coke. The beverage choices in camp were water, alcohol…and more alcohol. I would have killed for something fizzy and sweet – and anything that wouldn’t eventually have given me a headache.
5. Costumes. Since this is a celebratory place I felt embarrassingly underdressed (and boring) most of the time – especially at night. The coolest things I saw were prototype white plastic horns embedded with multi-colored LEDs that not only synched with each other, but also linked wirelessly to whatever lightshow a DJ was spinning to.
6. A bigger RV. We had a 24 footer, which was great. A 30+ footer would have been significantly better – with those cute little slide out units.
7. A portable icemaker. We “borrowed” one of those babies on our second day and placed in the center of our RV. It was easy to operate and an absolute lifesaver.
8. Mixers as Gifts. While I never make it a practice to contaminate my alcohol with ginger ale, seltzer, soda etc., I know many people do. Our Speak Easy completely ran out the first night and I wouldn’t be surprised if the same situation occurred everywhere else. Had I walked into any of the bars and presented a few bottles of mixers as a gift, I would have been hoisted onto shoulders. Or gratefully attacked by a crazed Amazon sex goddess.
9. Food. If you rented an RV, you got a fridge, freezer, tiny burners and a microwave as part of the deal. In the event you intentionally or unintentionally missed a meal (which I frequently did), it would have been a glorious thing to boil some pasta, munch on a carrot stick or, for that matter, toss a slab of meat on an outdoor hibachi.
10. My Very Own Art Car to tool around in (and offer a ride to whomever I liked). What a gas that would be! Biking was fun enough but could get ugly in the middle of a white out. Plus, you didn’t have the tunes.

Advice to those who have not been:

To be clear, if anyone reading this is contemplating a journey, I would advise them to do it.

There are people from all over the globe – really smart, (mostly) normal people – who believe Burning Man is one of the most important annual events of their lives. Not only cathartic and soul searching, opportunities abound to create profound, lasting connections with others. Oh…and it can be simply, spectacularly fun.

Filed under Burning Man | permalink | October 20, 2012 at 07:45 PM | Comments (0)

Tesla Supercharger

Ed Nixon videos the Tesla Supercharger station that opened on Thursday along I-5 at Tejon Ranch.

Here's the article in the Bakersfield Californian.

The official Tesla Supercharger site with a map showing how their charging stations will allow you to drive your Tesla over most of California and well into the Pacific Ocean. What a car!

Filed under Automotive,California | permalink | October 20, 2012 at 07:00 AM | Comments (2)