A Very Google Christmas

 

Google, everybody’s favorite invader of privacy – well, maybe tied with Amazon – has a holiday gift for you. Click here for a no-cost – other than your personal information  – tour of Christmas windows in New York. Enjoy!

New Career Opportunities

The state of California estimates there are 102 million dead trees within its borders. Beetle infestation and a lack of water from the state’s five-year drought – climate change? – have rampaged through the forests like a plague. Add to that unrelenting fire suppression, in large part to protect property owned by people who think a home in the woods is the way to commune with nature. The forest is filled with dead and dying trees that otherwise would have been recycled by fire.

The state is paying as much as $1,000 each to have dead trees felled and removed. Logging is again a growing industry. It’s also the most dangerous. Loggers are more likely to meet their demise on the job than any other occupation.

Read about one contractor who can’t keep up with the demand for his services.

Postcards From Aleppo

U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power speaking from the United Nations floor to her counterparts representing Syria, Russia and Iran:

“When one day there is a full accounting of the horrors committed in this assault of Aleppo — and that day will come, sooner or later — you will not be able to say you did not know what was happening, You will not be able to say you were not involved. We all know what is happening. And we all know you are involved.”

Aleppo’s population is/was about that of Houston, but people have inhabited it for about 6,000 years longer than Texas. Click here for some “Then and Now” photos from the besieged city.

True Meaning of Christmas… and Bananas

santaconAmong the many things that Portland, or Portlandia if you prefer, claims to have originated or is the leader of, is Santacon. Supposedly inspired by the “Santa Rampage” in San Francisco, the first “Santacon,” a pub-crawl of revelers dressed as Santa Claus crowded the sidewalks and streets in 1996. The initial event ended in a standoff with police who barred their entrance into the Lloyd Center shopping mall. Santacon was organized – if ‘organized” is the right word – by a group called The Portland Cacophony Society.

Continue reading “True Meaning of Christmas… and Bananas”

Malibu Update

FILE - This Aug. 3, 2002, file photo shows people walking past a sign stating that this beach, in Malibu, Calif., is private property. A Superior Court judge upheld an action by the California Coastal Commission on Tuesday, July 12, 2011, to provide public access to Carbon Beach in Malibu. Judge James C. Chalfant upheld a Commission-issued cease and desist order, which directed Lisette Ackerberg and the Lisette Ackerberg Trust to allow opening up of the public entry from the Pacific Coast Highway to the beach, and to remove a number of items blocking the entry. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)Wealthy property owners on California’s coastline have been relentless in their efforts to keep the common people away from the beaches fronting their expensive real estate. California law is explicit that beaches are public. Regardless of the law, beachfront owners believe they are the rightful owners and do what they can to deny access to hoi polloi. Two owners have received a setback as the California Coastal Commission fined them more than $5.1 million for blocking access to the beaches at Malibu.

After fighting for nine years, Warren and Henny Lent were penalized $4.2 million for “diverting a public easement to private use.” Simon and Daniel Mani, owners of the Malibu Beach Inn received a $200,000 fine and were ordered to build required stairways to the beach, install a $425,000 crosswalk with signals and pay $300,000 to a local conservation agency.

Meanwhile, up north at half Moon Bay, near San Francisco, is considering using eminent domain for the first time in its 78-year history. Sun Microsystems co-founder Vinod Khosla is demanding $30 million to reopen access to Martin’s Beach. He closed access after purchasing the fronting property in 2008.

More About Less Sand

miamiviceThe world is running out of sand. The right kind of sand that is.

Miami Beach is in danger of losing its main tourist attraction: pristine sandy beaches. In fact, most of its sand was imported from the Bahamas. Rick Scott, who prior to his election and re-election as Florida’s governor was best known for the largest Medicare fraud ever, is on record the he is not a scientist and has not seen enough evidence the climate change is real. He therefore has banned Florida state employees from using the term “climate change.”

(Photo by: John Francis Peters/Esquire Network)
(Photo by: John Francis Peters/Esquire Network)

 

Meanwhile the water rises and the sand erodes.