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January 31, 2013
February Yard Beautification Honorees
Awarded quarterly by Mission Springs Water District and the Community & Cultural Affairs Commission. The owners will be recognized at the next city council meeting, February 5.
The commercial honoree, Shodhan Dentistry at 11213 Palm Drive.
Filed under Desert Hot Springs | permalink | January 31, 2013 at 05:27 PM | Comments (0)
January 30, 2013
Golleeee!
Jim Nabors, age 82, finally married his partner of 38 years, Stan Cadwallader (a youthful 64) in Seattle, Washington. The couple lives in Honolulu and traveled to Washington just to get married.
The happy couple.
Filed under Gay Issues,Music,Television | permalink | January 30, 2013 at 08:19 AM | Comments (1)
39,000
That's the estimated number of firearms illegally in the possession of felons and the mentally ill in California. The law requires law enforcement to confiscate these weapons, but budgetary problems have prevented that. Stephen Lindley, chief of the Bureau of Firearms for the state Department of Justice, says it would take $25 million and three years to resolve that backlog. But in some unexplained magic math, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg says a bill allowing the Department of Justice to "dip" into a $20 million surplus of funds collected when gun buyers pay a fee for background checks could resolve it under a year! I like the magic math, if it would work in reality.
Filed under California,Public Safety | permalink | January 30, 2013 at 07:42 AM | Comments (0)
Boy Scouts Changing
With money and resources drying up, the Boy Scouts of America have had a re-think about their moral position and have decided that maybe those gay leaders could be acceptable. The Boy Scouts will now let local councils determine their own policy on gay Scouts and leaders. My guess, is that the majority of Scout troops will remain closed to gay members at first. It could be very interesting at some of those big Boy Scout campouts where troops from many areas come together. You'll be mixing the open troops with those that are closed to gay people. When it comes to the tug-of-war competition, I'd want the gay bears on my side!
This decision will also potentially allow open and accepting organizations (I'm thinking some United Methodist congregations, for example) to begin sponsoring Scout troops again, which will benefit all boys.
Update: I see that this decision will not be final until a vote on February 6.
Filed under Gay Issues | permalink | January 30, 2013 at 07:25 AM | Comments (0)
January 29, 2013
128 GB
Next week - $799 (Wi-fi only) or $929 (Wi-fi & cellular). For only $1099 you can get an iPad with 128 GB and they throw in a keyboard, but no cellular connectivity. The Air also lacks Retina display.
Filed under Technology | permalink | January 29, 2013 at 11:38 AM | Comments (0)
Nethercutt Collection & Museum
This past weekend I visited the Nethercutt Collection and Museum in Sylmar with the Long Beach/Orange County chapter of Great Outdoors. Completely free to visit, it's got cars, mechanical musical instruments, antique furniture that you can sit on, and tschotskes; all supported by profits from Merle Norman Cosmetics.
Wurlitzer organ, originally from the Denver Auditorium.
Some of the pipes for the Wurlitzer.
While playing, the Wurlitzer rises up about 18 inches from the floor. They've wired the Wurlitzer into a Windows computer that will record every action and then play it back exactly.
The second General Motors EV1 that I've seen. The Nethercutt maintains all of its cars in drivable condition. Fuel is in the tank, and the keys are in the ignition. They say they drive every car outside at least once a year. I wonder about the EV1, though. I thought General Motors imposed a condition that all existing EV1s be rendered somehow undrivable.
The first Tucker I've seen face to face.
This is a view from the newer Nethercutt Museum (all cars) across the street to the original Nethercutt Collection which includes the Wurlitzer on the top floor.
Gripes: in the Collection, they invariably placed the information placard square in front of the car, usually within 6 inches of the grill, totally ruining any attempt to see what the front view of the car looked like and get a photo. Velvet ropes, where they use them, are very close to the cars, making it almost impossible to get an unobstructed photo. The cars are packed very close together. The Collection is viewable only as part of a group tour. There were about 50 people on our tour, and they get you through in two hours, so browsing has to be quick. But I suppose the point of the collection is to be a collection, while showing it off to visitors is secondary.
Petersen's Automotive Museum, OTOH, was put together by people from the magazine publishing industry who have a lot stronger sense of how to set up a car for visual beauty. Petersen's is a much more enjoyable experience. But they don't have a Tucker and not all of their cars run, so you take your choices.
Filed under Automotive,Photography | permalink | January 29, 2013 at 08:14 AM | Comments (0)
January 28, 2013
Queen Beatrix To Abdicate
The abdication will be on April 30. She will be succeeded by Prince Willem-Alexander, age 45, who will become the first king of the Netherlands since Willem III who died in 1890. Queen Beatrix is 75 years old.
Here's an article about Prince Willem-Alexander competing in a toilet-hurling contest last April as part of festivities to mark the birthday of the late Queen Juliana, who was Queen Beatrix's mother. (The Dutch empire just isn't quite what it used to be.)
| permalink | January 28, 2013 at 12:38 PM | Comments (0)
Brazilian Nightclub Fire Recalls Rhode Island Nightmare 10 Years Past
The "Station Fire" in West Warwick, Rhode Island, in February 2003 was also started by pyrotechnics ignited by the performing band. One-hundred people died at The Station in the same way that 230 died at the Kiss nightclub fire.
After The Station fire, Rhode Island enacted strict new fire safety laws to prevent a recurrence.
A fire code enacted after the blaze means movie theaters, nightclubs and concert halls now must announce the location of emergency exits before each show.Many venues were forced to install sprinkler systems and make other renovations. One theater that shut down six years ago because it couldn’t afford the changes reopened on Saturday after raising about $200,000 to install new fireproof seat upholstery and other upgrades.
Filed under History | permalink | January 28, 2013 at 11:49 AM | Comments (0)
MSWD 60th Anniversary
Here's the almost-one-hour video of the Mission Springs Water District presentation at the Chamber of Commerce breakfast last week covering the history of the our water and the water district from Cabot Yerxa's first well to today.
Video provided by the DHS Historical Society.
Filed under Coachella Valley,Desert Hot Springs,History | permalink | January 28, 2013 at 10:47 AM | Comments (0)
Another Test Of The New Bay Bridge Lights
Scheduled to go full time beginning in March.
Filed under Architecture,Burning Man,California | permalink | January 28, 2013 at 09:55 AM | Comments (0)
January 27, 2013
Berlusconi Praises Fascism
And chooses to do it at at a ceremony commemorating victims of the Nazi Holocaust. "The racial laws were the worst fault of Mussolini as a leader, who in so many other ways did well." Berlusconi said Italy's involvement in the Holocaust was "initially 'partly unwitting.'" Is this a sort "we were just dumb Italians" excuse?
"Obviously the government of that time, out of fear that German power might lead to complete victory, preferred to ally itself with Hitler's Germany rather than opposing it," Berlusconi said, trying to excuse the alliance with Germany. Here are a few significant dates to remind people of the chronology:
March 1938 - Austria becomes part of Germany.
October 1938 - Sudetenland becomes part of Germany.
May 1939 - Italy and Germany sign the "Pact Of Steel" alliance.
August 1939 - Germany and the USSR sign the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact.
September 1, 1939 - Germany invades Poland, the date generally regarded as the beginning of World War II.
So, in Berlusconi's revisionism the Pact Of Steel becomes a sort of pre-emptive surrender - a surrender that no other European nation considered making.
Filed under History | permalink | January 27, 2013 at 08:21 PM | Comments (0)
Dollar General Is Open And Busy
Busy with regular people spending money. No city leaders posing for photos - yet. If you planned on buying a pink camp chair, you'll have to wait until they restock. I bought them all, but they still have other colors.
Filed under Desert Hot Springs | permalink | January 27, 2013 at 07:15 PM | Comments (0)
January 25, 2013
Illinois Republicans Being Interesting
Earlier this month Illinois Republican State Party Chairman Pat Brady endorsed and began lobbying for a bill that would grant equal marriage rights in the Land Of Lincoln. State party rules allow for the removal of the chairman with a three-fifths vote at a special meeting if 5 of the 18 central committee members will call for the meeting. As reliable as any knee jerk, state Senator Jim Oberweis began to try to get five central committee members to commit, but so far he has been unsuccessful!
Republican House Leader Tom Cross called a move to remove Brady "the worst thing we could do" as a party."It reaffirms people's worst fears about our party. I think we bragged about being the big tent party over the years. And there are going to be people that adamantly oppose gay marriage and people who support it. And we need to be the party that says, 'Hey, that's fine.'"
Various groups, including women, Latinos and young people aren't listening to Republicans, Cross said,
"In the last election, we lost Kane County, DuPage County, Lake County, Will County. And we lost almost all demographic groups," Cross said. "Old white guys aren't going to win the elections any more."
Filed under Gay Issues | permalink | January 25, 2013 at 08:42 AM | Comments (0)
January 24, 2013
Man vs. Subway
Could a man exit a Parisian subway train and, traveling only by foot, catch the very same train at the next subway stop? Eh, do you care? But what if I told you he did it with a GoPro Hero strapped on his head? Now, you're interested.
Filed under Cities/Urbanism,GoPro,Photography | permalink | January 24, 2013 at 09:54 PM | Comments (0)
Wardman Park Building Re-use
This Tuesday, January 29, at 6 PM in the Carl May Center there will be an unusual joint meeting of all three city commissions: Planning, Public Safety, and Community & Cultural Affairs. The sole subject will be the re-use of the Boys & Girls Club building in Wardman Park. If you're one of the people who has a proposal for its use, you've probably already been notified.
I heard someone suggest that preference should be given to ideas that come with their own solid self-financing plans. An idea I agree with.
Filed under Desert Hot Springs | permalink | January 24, 2013 at 06:59 PM | Comments (0)
One Very Late Photo From Burning Man 2012
Our group has had the good fortune to camp next door to George Post ever since we started going to Burning Man. Most years we get him to shoot a group photo of us on Saturday afternoon before the night of the burn. This is the 2012 photo which he forgot to send us (or we forgot to ask for), until I asked for it today. You can never get the whole group together, but this is many of us, plus a couple of visitors.
You can see lots of waaaaaaay better photos by George (Jorge de la Playa) by buying his book Dancing With The Playa Messiah: A 21-Year Burning Man Photo Album.
Filed under Books,Burning Man,Photography | permalink | January 24, 2013 at 06:09 PM | Comments (1)
January 23, 2013
Gleanings From The Economic Development Committee
- DHS unemployment is down ½% to 15.7%.
- Sales tax receipts for the most recent quarter are up 10% from the same quarter of 2011. This reflects an increase in sales of $2.5 million.
- Next week you will be able to shop at Dollar General. For those who missed the beginning of this story or forgot, Dollar General is NOT a dollar store. It's more of a general store with very reasonable prices and faster in-and-out than those multi-acre stores. Their C of C job fair got 8 DHS residents hired there, making up about half the staff. The manager is coming from the Yucca Valley store.
- Mission Lakes Plaza (no longer the Village At Mission Lakes) will probably be opening this spring with actual tenants.
- Highland Falls (Snellenberger) - that huge undevelopment west of 62 - has changed hands. It will remain residential, not wind power, at probably the same density as previously planned.
- Borrego Health Foundation will soon begin to put various health professionals into the Health & Wellness Center. A C of C job fair will be held for some of those positions.
- Borrego Health Foundation owns the Temple site now. That was approved at a recent closed session of the city council. Groundbreaking VERY soon (like next week, maybe). Then expect mad building. A C of C job fair will be held to help local residents get some of the very fine jobs at that new facility.
- The health facility that will be in the new county building between Vons and Park Lane will require well more than a hundred employees.
Filed under Desert Hot Springs | permalink | January 23, 2013 at 08:09 PM | Comments (0)
"Routine" Nuclear War Advisory
Al Jazeera reports that a warning published in Kashmiri newspapers this past Monday advising residents to build bomb shelters and lay in supplies was unprecedented. Kashmiri officials, however, said it was routine. Part of the advisory says
If in the open during a nuclear attack, a person should "immediately drop to ground and remain in lying position," the advisory said."Stay down after the initial shock wave, wait for the winds to die down and debris to stop falling. If blast wave does not arrive within five seconds of the flash, you were far enough from the ground zero."
"Expect some initial disorientation," the advisory added, "as the blast wave may blow down and carry away many prominent and familiar features."
If I had written the advisory I would have revised one part to read "If you are still alive within five seconds of the flash, congratulations! Purest luck put that blast far enough away from you."
Other helpful advice from the Kashmiris: "during a nuclear attack, motorists should dive out of their cars toward the blast to save themselves from being crushed by their soon-to-be tumbling vehicles."
Here's the complete advisory from Greater Kashmir:
Sorry for the poor readability but this is the highest resolution the paper permits. Takes me back to my childhood!
| permalink | January 23, 2013 at 05:41 PM | Comments (0)
The GoPro Hero3 Teardown
The teardown of the new GoPro Hero3 shows that one of the ways they shrank the camera was dispensing with those two metal heatsinks that were in the Hero2. You can see the previously posted Hero2 teardown here.
Filed under Photography,Technology | permalink | January 23, 2013 at 05:13 PM | Comments (0)
Energy At Burning Man
When you call your home on the playa "Camp Titicaca," some people would rightly expect that things could go overboard. But there's nothing like that at all in this video. No titi, no caca, not even any nudity that I spotted. It's all about the energy of forming a camp, making art and burning it with about 10% frenzy added.
Filed under Burning Man | permalink | January 23, 2013 at 09:50 AM | Comments (0)
