1. Autofocus – The ridiculously fast autofocusing of today’s top DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) cameras is an incredible improvement – even if you DON’T have “aging eyes.”
2. Digital Chip – Once the quality and speed (ISO) passed film, there was “no holding back!”
3. Electronic Flash (Strobes) – “It seems like it was just yesterday when you had to calculate the distance of your subject to your flash to figure out the proper f-stop.”
4. Fast motor drives – Once upon a time, you had to advance film, manually!
5. Fast lenses – The use of internal focusing has given us the faster, lighter, and sharper lenses that we have today.
6. LCD Review Screen – ‘Photographers looking at their LCD screen in between snaps has even created its own word, chimping. It’s not in the dictionary, but it is in Wikipedia, which says: “Chimping is a colloquial term used in digital photography (especially when using a digital single-lens reflex camera) to describe the habit of checking every photo on the camera display (LCD) immediately after capture.”’

If you are young enough not to remember some of the things Lachman discusses, you are lucky, indeed. Most of us are quite satisfied with developments in digital photography, and we have little desire to “go back!”

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

You can view higher-resolution photos at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle® contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. All locations are accessible from here. LIKE Cheshire Cat Photo on Facebook here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.

(I wrote about photography at ANOTHER series of preserves, the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge comples, north of Sacramento, in October of 2007.)

On Friday, the photography department of Consumnes River College and Canon hosted a free, two-hour seminar with bird and wildlife photographer George Lepp. On Saturday, stations were set up to photograph birds with telephoto lenses of 200mm  through 800mm (mercy!) – the cameras and lenses were provided by Canon for free! Photographers were asked to bring their own memory cards.

The Consumnes River Preserve is 20 miles south of Sacramento, on Interstate 5 and one of the largest preserves and land partnerships in the region. All in all, the partners manage over 46,000 acres! Local farmers flood their fields in the winter to provide additional feeding grounds and nesting areas. Over 250 species of birds have been recorded on the preserve.

If you are a bird photographer, the Department of Fish and Game and California Watchable Wildlife sponsor a photography contest with cash and merchandise prizes. The contest runs until Feb. 29, 2012.

And for goodness sake, take your tripod!

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

You can view higher-resolution photos at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle® contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. All locations are accessible from here. LIKE Cheshire Cat Photo on Facebook here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.

Lately, I have been working with the nice folks at Thomasville of Dublin, CA, who are partnering with some local art organizations to host a display of about 60 pieces of art from January 20-30 in their showroom on Dublin Boulevard. We will be receiving and hanging art tomorrow for the show. Once again, I have probably taken too big a chunk of the work for myself, but I believe this is going to be a wonderful show, with paintings, drawings, several types of 3D art, and photography. The show follows a successful show that Thomasville hosted in November.

I still have more work to do tonight, and students to teach tomorrow, so I will just attach a slightly amended press release about the show. I hope that you local folks can attend. I will have two pieces in the show, so that Cheshire Cat Photo will be represented.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 20, 2011
Thomasville of Dublin partners with local art groups for exhibit January 20-30
“Art is the HeART of the Home, Part 2”

Dublin – From January 20 through 30, during store hours, Thomasville of Dublin (7460 Dublin Boulevard, Dublin, CA 94568; 925-479-9630) will host the “Art Is The HeART of the Home, Part 2″ exhibition. Artists from the nonprofit organizations, EkowArt/Say Thanks, the Livermore Art Association (LAA), and the Pleasanton Art League (PAL) will exhibit their artworks throughout the Thomasville showroom. Most artworks are for sale. The event is free and open to the public, and refreshments will be served. For more information call Jaclyn Zoccoli at 209-839-0889.

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

You can view higher-resolution photos at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle® contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. All locations are accessible from here. LIKE Cheshire Cat Photo on Facebook here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.

… ’cause I’m thinkin’ like Brian.“(YouTube video) – ZZ Top, “PCH”

The first in a weekly series on characteristics of creativity on CNN, this one written by Todd Leopold, focuses on Brian Wilson, age 69, of The Beach Boys. A short video is included.

No, I won’t rehash the very well-written feature article.

The elusive quality of creativity can probably best be characterized through examples, as we “dance around” the concept. I have worked in several environments that largely lacked creativity and in at least one where creativity was a way of life. My current contact with very creative artists stands in utter contrast to some of those insipid environments of my past, so much so that when I hear a comment that reminds me of ancient mind-numbing interactions, I sort of cringe.

Sometimes, you can recognize creativity by its absence.

“The creative struggle of Brian Wilson” article explores the apparently real relationship between creativity and mental illness.

“Highly creative people are probably highly creative because of certain cognitive mechanisms that also would predispose them to symptoms of mental disorder if they didn’t have additional protective factors,” says Harvard psychology instructor Shelley Carson, author of “Your Creative Mind.”

Their childhoods often “force them to spend time in their inner world. … They can develop their own ideas about things rather than being dependent upon the ideas that are sort of forced down their throat.”

Another thought….

“Big-C creators do not necessarily think differently than the rest of us, but they are more open to new ideas, acquire some degree of domain expertise and are highly motivated to pursue an idea until they have realized its creative potential,” says psychologist and creativity expert Dean Keith Simonton.

In November, the Capitol Records label issued “The Smile Sessions,” a collection of multiple CDs, two vinyl LPs, a 60-page book, a collection of photos, and a light switch that illuminates the store pictured on the cover. I wrote about an earlier tour by Brian Wilson in August of 2008.

In the early days of the Beach Boys, Brian Wilson took creative control and became the “Stalin of the studio,” according to Mike Love. Brian wrote the songs, sometimes with collaborators, picked the studios, and directed the musicians.

“You have to have what I call a ‘persistent obstinacy,’ ” says Julie Burstein, creator of the public radio show “Studio 360″ and the author of “Spark: How Creativity Works,” which profiles 35 creative people and partnerships. “It’s a willingness to say, ‘I don’t care what you think. I’m making this happen.’ “

The CNN article discusses the importance of the “Smile” album, some of the characteristics of Brian Wilson’s creative genius, and Brian’s love of George Gershwin‘s “Rhapsody in Blue.”

Significantly, “…putting aside years of enmity, the surviving Beach Boys recently announced they’ll be reuniting for an extensive 50th-anniversary concert tour in 2012, along with a new album.”

Life is short. Some unfinished tasks require completion.

Read the article.

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

You can view higher-resolution photos at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle® contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. All locations are accessible from here. LIKE Cheshire Cat Photo on Facebook here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.

An “Alice” Mad T Party (vs. Mad Tea Party), Disney, and California Adventure….

What could be more “Californian” than THAT!

Heck, I even have a good friend who WORKS for “The Mouse,” as they say at that company!

There is even an element of serendipity – another thing in which I believe strongly (another New Year’s revelation)!

A nightly dance party that was created at the last minute (ah, there is the serendipity part) to entertain huge crowds of idle people who were waiting for the wildly successful “World of Color” water show, back in 2010,  at Disney California Adventure in Anaheim has, as the L.A. Times described it, “…turned into an ever-evolving mainstay that might just become an accidental institution.”

It is a good idea to entertain large crowds. Otherwise, they might become part of the “Occupy Movement.” The ancient Romans had something similar….

Evolution is ANOTHER thing in which I believe. Of course, it is easier for me because I am a biologist at heart (and academically), and I have friends who have engineered new species. (Note added January 14, 2012: No, none of those friends are remotely “godlike.”)

First, to entertain the masses, there was Glow Fest to entertain all of those happy, tired folks waiting on the water show. THEN, there was the ElecTRONica dance party, which not only entertained the masses, but ALSO “plugged” the “Tron: Legacy” movie. (I use the word “film” much more sparingly. ) The ElecTRONica dance party is expected to run through April 2012.

The Mad T Party is themed to Tim Burton‘s “Alice in Wonderland” movie that starred Johnny Depp. A LIVE BAND will replace the ElecTRONica DJ booth. (One bumper sticker that I remember from my days in Madison, WI [graduate school] stated: “Go Disco Tonight! – Put 10 musicians out of work!” ) Son-uva-gun! The band members will wear costumes reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland characters: a Mad Hatter singer, a Cheshire Cat drummer (sure, the Cheshire Cat DID NOT ATTEND the Tea Party, but “poetic license,” and “a buck’s a buck!”), and a White Rabbit disc jockey! I know. The White Rabbit wasn’t at the Tea Party either, and it looks like Disney INSISTS on a DJ. Maybe we need to bring in Elmer Fudd, too! After all, “It’s Wabbit season!”

Hey! Let’s not forget the alcohol! Maybe some of the folks at the Mad T Party might forget that they are waiting for the water show and relieve overcrowding!

According to the L.A. Times:

“The House of Cards lounge, replacing ElecTRONica’s End of the Line Club, is expected to serve playing-card-themed cocktails amid a royal red and purple nightclub setting evocative of the foul-tempered Queen of Hearts. A small stage in the lounge will feature dancers wearing outfits festooned with hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades. A nearby catering truck will serve Wonderland-themed foods and non-alcoholic beverages.”

Flynn’s Arcade will be replaced by an interactive video gaming area.

You can see photos of the Mad T Party, which “…promises to combine live music, dancing and cocktails into a psychedelic outdoor rave located in the Anaheim theme park’s Hollywood Pictures Backlot” HERE!

(Note added January 14, 2012: Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, anything remotely “psychedelic” would have gotten you THROWN OUT of Disneyland! How times have changed! Walt is probably rolling over in his liquid nitrogen! )

Accompanying article in the L.A. Times online include descriptions of Radiator Springs Racers, Luigi’s Flying Tires, and Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree. If you have any money left, we have ways of relieving you of that “burden” in California!

I always tell visitors, “Welcome to California! I hope that you brought CASH!”

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

You can view higher-resolution photos at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle® contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. All locations are accessible from here. LIKE Cheshire Cat Photo on Facebook here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.

holdup: noun

1: delay

2: a robbery carried out at gunpoint

Millions of dollars in renewable energy projects to provide power to California’s national parks and forests are sitting IDLE because of an ongoing disagreement (apparently) with Southern California Edison (SCE). A solar power system at the U.S. Forest Service‘s new facility at Mono Lake, a new $800,000 solar project at Death Valley National Park, and photovoltaic panels at the visitors center at Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area are among dozens of taxpayer-funded projects in Southern California that are ON HOLD as federal agencies try to resolve differences with Southern California Edison, so that the projects can be connected to the California electrical grid! Although the “stumbling block” APPEARS to be contract restrictions that are required by federal law, SOMEHOW other utility companies in California have signed SIMILAR agreements with little or no delay!

“There’s 24-plus systems in the Southern California Edison area that have been installed in the last three years that we have not been able to negotiate an interconnection agreement on,” said Jack Williams, who retired this month as the National Park Service‘s Oakland-based regional facilities manager. “We think we are close at times, but then nothing. We were successful with PG&E, but with Southern California Edison…. They have been a bit more difficult. We’ve raised the flag many times. It’s an issue for all federal agencies.”

An Edison spokesperson, who cited ongoing negotiations, declined to discuss the projects.

Thomas Alva Edison, that boy from Milan, Ohio, may well be “spinning in his grave.”

The “impasse” has prevented parks from meeting renewable energy goals at a time when federal agencies are trying to comply with orders to reduce carbon footprints. Nevermind the fact that TENS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS (sorry to “shout” – someone is “hard of hearing”) in savings on utility bills have not been REALIZED during the time that negotiations with Edison have occurred. (It looks like agencies might have been equally effective arguing with Thomas Alva Edison! )

Park officials in Death Valley had hoped that the new visitors center would shave $31,828 (70%) from the annual electric bill of $45,724! A solar plant in the Santa Monica Mountains that was designed to power a dormitory has been offline since October 2010!

“It is disappointing to see this big investment sitting idle when we could easily flip the switch and produce benefits,” said park superintendent Woody Smeck, who called himself “an administrator here trying to do the right thing.”

“We are purchasing electricity from SCE, whereas we could be using renewable energy from the sun and returning power to the grid. Until we can get the interconnection agreement approved, the switch is off and we can’t benefit.”

According to the L.A. Times:

“Federal agencies generally may not sign contracts that would leave them liable for unknown future damages because they would be committing money that Congress hasn’t allocated. In some instances, government departments use contracts based on the federal torts process, the legal mechanism to bring liability claims against the government. But so far, the federal agencies have been unable to get SCE to agree to such contract provisions.”

California Governor Jerry Brown‘s office has sent Michael Picker, the governor’s advisor on renewable energy, to meet with all parties to hammer out differences, since the stalemate also affects the Veterans Administration and the Department of the Navy!

The Forest Service has been equally ineffective in trying to draft an agreement using a standard U.S. General Services Administration utility contract.

Sometimes, it can be hard to reach an agreement unless BOTH parties WANT to AGREE!

The Forest Service, in addition to the Mono Lake project has been waiting for a year to connect its solar panels at the San Dimas Technology and Development Center, which houses the agency’s top engineering and development center for wilderness firefighting equipment. The solar plant there would be subject to rebates for the excess power it generates, according to officials!

In Death Valley, which seems, to me, to be the IDEAL place to “kill” an agreement, superintendent Sarah L. Craighead said the park’s solar projects have been unplugged since she took the job 21/2 years ago.

“We want to turn these things on,” she said.

Even though the solar projects in Death Valley have not been able to be connected to the power grid, the park’s concessionaire has managed to install a one-megawatt photovoltaic plant that will provide one-third of the power needed to run the park’s hotels, restaurants, golf course, offices and employee housing.

In (STARK) contrast, ANOTHER of California’s utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric, connected Yosemite‘s $5.8-million photovoltaic project at El Portal. The project was completed in February 2011, and the park signed the interconnection agreement four months later.

Go figure!

The L.A. Times says:

“The 2,800 solar panels should produce approximately 800,000 kilowatt-hours per year. Yosemite officials estimate the system will save $50,000 per year on electricity bills and generate an energy rebate of $700,000 from PG&E over the next five years.”

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

You can view higher-resolution photos at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle® contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. All locations are accessible from here. LIKE Cheshire Cat Photo on Facebook here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.

Today, HUNDREDS of surfers from around the world paddled to a circle in calm waters off Huntington Beach, and off Hawaii’s North Shore, Tavarua Island, and China in memorials to the revolutionary wave forecaster and founder of surfline.com (1), Sean Collins, who died of a heart attack at age 59 on December 26 in Newport Beach. Collins’ sons Tyler and A.J. joined the memorial at Huntington Beach. Collins transformed surfing by developing a proprietary method to monitor ocean swells.

The forecasts made by Collins were so well respected that surfline.com was monitored by “…lifeguards, surf companies, television and movie crews, and even the U.S. Coast Guard and National Weather Service.” Surfline.com gets 1.5 million hits each month! Collins was named one of Surfer magazine’s 25 most influential surfers of the 20th century, and he was inducted into the Surfers’ Hall of Fame in Huntington Beach in 2008.

According to the L.A. Times:

“Surfers paddled to calm waters, sat in a circle atop their boards and celebrated Collins’ contributions to the sport with stories and memories.”

According to surfline.com, Collins recently had this advice for novice surfers:

“Follow your passion, try to be a really good person and a good judge of character and then just surround yourself with a great team and really good people. Add lots of luck and all kinds of great things can happen!”

Good advice for anyone….

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

You can view higher-resolution photos at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle® contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. All locations are accessible from here. LIKE Cheshire Cat Photo on Facebook here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.

Every now and then, I feel as though I have had my head buried in the sand.

In glancing through the online version of The Santa Cruz Sentinel tonight, I learned about the Gail Rich Awards, created by the folks at the Sentinel to honor the memory of Gail Rich, a writer, radio programmer and volunteer who, “with her boundless curiosity and artistic appetites, represented the best part of the artistic community” in Santa Cruz County, and who died suddenly in 1996. The Gail Rich Awards became an annual photographic showcase of the faces of members of Santa Cruz County’s artistic community.

Last fall, The Atlantic magazine named Santa Cruz County the FIFTH most artistic place in America, measuring ONLY the visual arts. In order, the top FOUR were: New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. DUH! As the text (by Wallace Baine) and the photos (by Shmuel Thaler) point out:

“Santa Cruz County is, in fact, a patchwork of entwined artistic subcultures that reaches across a dazzlingly diverse range of activities from aerial dance to reggae music to improv theater. It was in 2011 that the rest of the country got to see not one, but two products of this vibrant artistic community in the television-fueled ascendance of singers James  Durbin and Chris Rene.”

Wallace Baine notes, correctly, I believe, that Santa Cruz County has created the kind of environment that makes creative people in business, academia, and the arts want to live there! I may yet retire there, if I can find a way to afford it.

The article profiles the 2012 winners, including Judy Stabile, an artist who has made the journey from jewelry making to stone carving to printmaking to painting to encaustic art. Then there is Steve Hosmer, a graphic artist and sign maker, whose most famous image is the silhouette of a girl (his daughter served as the model) on a cruising bicycle, holding a surfboard. Musician Rhan Wilson, who conceived an “Altared Christmas” in which familiar Christmas songs have been reworked in minor keys, is also on the list. Fiction writer, Elizabeth McKenzie is there as well, the author of a short story collection, “Stop That Girl,” the acclaimed novel, “McGregor Tells the World,” and a teacher at De Anza College and her alma mater UC Santa Cruz, and the editor for the Chicago Quarterly Review. Percussionist Jim Greiner is among the 2012 winners, too! Greiner made his mark as a drumming workshop leader, traveling all over the world, going into corporate and other company settings. He also makes instructional DVDs that promote his mantra of using drumming to reach the “three C’s”: community, communication, and celebration. The last on this list of 2012 winners is John Larry Granger, who will retire this year after 21 years as the music director and conductor of the Santa Cruz County Symphony. Soon after coming to Santa Cruz, Granger signed up to lead the youth symphonies in both Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, and he has also embarked on a new orchestra in collaboration with the Santa Cruz Ballet Theatre‘s annual production of “The Nutcracker.”

The Sentinel article also lists the past winners of the Gail Rich Awards, from 1997 onward.

The 2012 Gail Rich Awards will be presented on Tuesday, January 24 at 7:30 PM in The Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz (Google Map). The tickets are FREE! Details are HERE!

The 2012 Gail Rich Awards ceremony seems to me to be even more proof that “The Best Things in Life are Free” (1948; YouTube) - The Ink Spots (No, I did not know that this song is in BioShock, and no, I was not yet alive when the original was released in 1948).

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

You can view higher-resolution photos at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle® contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. All locations are accessible from here. LIKE Cheshire Cat Photo on Facebook here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.

The young male gray wolf was dubbed OR7 by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife after wildlife biologists captured him and gave him a GPS collar.

OR7′s photo was taken on November 14 by an unmanned trail camera set up in the woods east of Butte Falls, Oregon, by Allen Daniels, a blacktail deer hunter.

The Oregon Wild conservation group thought that OR7 deserved a better, more personable name (no kidding! ) and started a children’s contest to name the wolf, which attracted entries from around the world. The winning name was announced yesterday and was submitted by two kids, a 7-year-old from Mountain Home, Idaho and an 11-year-old from Dickinson, North Dakota.

Now, the lone wolf has a nickname: “Journey.”

If he is looking for a mate, he likely won’t find one in California.

Journey’s GPS coordinates put him in eastern Siskiyou County. He rested for a few days, according to the California Department of Fish and Game, and has started moving south again.

If OR7 (“Journey”) remains in California, Fish and Game may give him his own official name to distinguish him as the first resident wolf in the Golden State in modern times.

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

You can view higher-resolution photos at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle® contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. All locations are accessible from here. LIKE Cheshire Cat Photo on Facebook here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.

A group of orcas (killer whales; [Orcinus orca]) has been cruising up and down the coast of Southern California! Experts who track the killer whales say that most of the sightings have been of the same two family groups of orcas that are searching for seals and sea lions. On Sunday and Monday, the observers who have  been cataloging the huge increase in migrating gray whales from the Point Vicente Interpretive Center saw 10 killer whales off the Palos Verdes Peninsula! TODAY, the whale-watching vessel, Dana Pride, spotted 7 to 10 killer whales off the Orange County coast! Such sightings are extremely rare!

“Seeing killer whales is once in a lifetime,” said Donna Kalez, general manager of Dana Wharf Sportfishing & Whale Watching, which had two excursions in a row encounter killer whales outside Dana Point Harbor on Tuesday afternoon. “That’s unheard of. We’re very excited.”

Alisa Schulman-Janiger, head of the California Killer Whale Project said that the visiting orcas are believed to be part of a transient population of killer whales most commonly seen around Monterey and include seven members of one orca family, known as “CA 51″ and three members of another, called “CA 140.”

Schulman-Janiger said that, last month, some of the same killer whales were seen near the Channel Islands, off the coast of Ventura and Newport Beach, and back in Monterey Bay (photo above). She said that the orcas were basically Monterey Bay-based killer whales on an excursion that are finding a lot of sea lions to prey upon, and not much competition!

Those of you in Southern California right now, enjoy the rare experience of seeing killer whales!

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

You can view higher-resolution photos at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle® contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. All locations are accessible from here. LIKE Cheshire Cat Photo on Facebook here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.

Happy New Year! January 1 was an unbelievably gorgeous day in my part of California, so I took my wife’s invitation to accompany her to the coast. Thousands of our closest friends had the same idea! The high temperature was around 65 degrees F as we made our way, hiking around in the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, eating ice cream sundaes in Half Moon Bay, and walking along the beach at Pescadero. It was my kind of day – a blue-jean-and-T-shirt kind of day! Sure, I took the camera!

It is ALSO time for YOUR “Top 10″ most-requested Cheshire Cat Photo Blog entries for all of 2011, and time to compare the list with that for the first half of 2011. It would also be interesting to compare the list with those for all of 2010, the first half of 2010, or those for all of 2009, or even earlier!

Here are YOUR Top 10, with my comments:

10. Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk • Sunday, February 10th, 2008 The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is a VERY popular destination in my part of California, and products decorated with a photo of the boardwalk have been very popular in the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Store on Zazzle®!

09. Mission San Francisco de Asís (Dolores) and Basilica • Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores), named after the patron saint of San Francisco, Saint Francis of Assisi, was founded in 1776 and completed in 1791,  and is the oldest remaining building in San Francisco and the oldest intact Spanish mission in California. This photoblog entry might make you very interested in visiting the Mission in person!

08. 3 guns and a dog • Friday, April 8th, 2011 Democratic Governor Jerry Brown told a room full of police officers in April 2011 that he owns “…three guns and a dog” in response to those who characterized his plan to move convicts from state prisons to county jails as a “Get a dog; buy a gun.” plan. Governor Brown said that it is perfectly natural for people to have those items in their homes, anyway! (… and he’s RIGHT, this time!)

07. Mission San Carlos Borroméo de Carmelo • Thursday, December 27th, 2007 The Mission in Carmel was Father Junípero Serra‘s favorite mission, his base of operations, and is his final resting place, at the foot of the altar. In 1961, Mission Carmel was designated a Minor Basilica by Pope John XXIII, and in 1987, Pope John Paul II visited the Mission in his tour of the United States. I hope that you enjoy this photoblog entry!

06. Mission Santa Inés • Sunday, August 16th, 2009 (Photo of altar is above.) I fell in love with La Misión de Santa Inés (Mission of St. Agnes) on my first visit. The rich history of the Mission, its ongoing function as a parish church, and its beautiful interior and garden, all caused me to EXTENSIVELY photograph the Mission, and links to most of the photos are in the photoblog entry!

05. Mission Santa Cruz • Saturday, April 12th, 2008 A half-scale replica of a mission church and an aging adobe building are all that are left of the ill-fated Mission Santa Cruz. The Mission was plagued by a flood, an earthquake, and by looting by white settlers. In May of 2011, the Mission was on the list of 70 California State Parks to be closed because of the state budget crisis.

04. Adobe: Zero-day hole in Flash Player • Monday, September 13th, 2010 Adobe Systems warned of a critical, zero-day vulnerability in Flash Player 10.1.82.76 AND EARLIER VERSIONS for Windows, Mac, Linux, Solaris, and Android. The hole in Flash Player is being exploited in the wild and could allow an attacker to take control of a computer. The critical vulnerability also affected Adobe Reader 9.3.4 and earlier versions for Windows, Mac, and UNIX and Adobe Acrobat 9.3.4 and earlier versions for Windows and Mac. In its security advisory, Adobe said that it is not aware of any attacks exploiting the hole in Adobe Reader or Acrobat (at the time that my blog entry was published).

03. For a few tons more…. • Friday, November 26th, 2010 A “bust” on Thanksgiving Day of 2010 resulted in the arrest of at least nine suspects, the seizure of between 20 and 30 TONS of marijuana, and the discovery of a “sophisticated” tunnel between an eat-in kitchen in Tijuana, Mexico and TWO warehouses in San Diego, California.

02. US Attorney General: CA pot to stay illegal • Saturday, October 16th, 2010 U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says that the federal government will enforce federal marijuana laws, even if California voters vote to make California the first state to legalize the drug in the November election. (California voters voted AGAINST legalization in that election.) Meanwhile, marijuana wars continue, and people (mostly on the Mexican side of the border) continue to die.

And the number 1 Cheshire Cat Photo Blog entry of 2011 was:

01. California ammunition law AB 962 found unconstitutional • Wednesday, January 19th, 2011 In January of 2011, Fresno Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Hamilton ruled that the AB 962 statute that would have banned mail order ammunition sales and required all purchases of so-called “handgun ammunition” to be registered (and purchasers thumbprinted), was unconstitutionally vague on its face. The Court enjoined enforcement of the statute, so mail order ammunition sales can continue unabated to California, and ammunition sales need not be registered under the law. I wrote about AB 962 becoming law in October of 2009 (“One out of two ain’t good” • Monday, October 12th, 2009). At that time, then-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had VETOED another “goofy” California bill, SB 585, which was a resurrected, previously-defeated bill to ban firearm sales at the Cow Palace in Daly City, CA. HOWEVER, Governor Schwarzenegger SIGNED AB 962 into law. The ruling by Superior Court Judge Hamilton is just another (but very significant) battle against the California Legislature’s (overwhelmingly controlled by Democrats) ongoing attempts to strip Californians of their Second Amendment Rights.

Wishing you the very best in 2012….

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

You can view higher-resolution photos at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle® contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. All locations are accessible from here. Be a “Facebook Fan” of Cheshire Cat Photo here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.

Starting on April 1, 2012 (no foolin’! ), Pershing Hall, once the quarters for Army officers on San Francisco‘s Presidio, will open as a hotel for visitors, the Inn at the Presidio! The 22 contemporary guest rooms, many with separate sitting rooms, come with front porches and rocking chairs. According to the Web site:

“All guest reservations include a daily complimentary continental breakfast buffet and wine & cheese reception. Overnight self-parking is available for a fee of $6 per night. Guest rooms at the hotel will be outfitted with the latest technology and amenities, in addition to gas fireplaces available in most rooms and all suites.”

Many who are familiar with parking rates in San Francisco will swoon at the $6 overnight fee alone!

The new hotel at 42 Moraga Avenue (Google Maps) is within the main post, which was also the site of the original Spanish military base established in 1776! The Spanish base fell to Mexico and then became a U.S. Army base in 1846 and part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in 1994.

Most of the hotel’s rooms are single-bedroom suites, and prices will range from $195 to $350 a night. On-site amenities include a gym, trampoline park, rock-climbing wall, indoor pool, and miles of cycling and hiking trails.

At the Presidio, itself, are historic buildings, the coastal bluffs and marshlands of Crissy Field, spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Walt Disney Family Museum.

Nearby, of course, is all of San Francisco!

The Presidio Trust, which is a federal agency that oversees the former Army base, spent about $10 million over 18 months to upgrade the property and selected Waterford Hotels and Inns to manage the property. Waterford also operates the posh Cavallo Point lodge on the site of the former Fort Baker in Sausalito.

Reservations are currently being accepted at the hotel’s Web site or by phone at (415) 689-4287.

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

You can view higher-resolution photos at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle® contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. All locations are accessible from here. Be a “Facebook Fan” of Cheshire Cat Photo here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.

Sutter Brown, First Dog (first of the MANY dogs to be found at the State Capitol! ), has his own Web site with his biography next to those of the Governor and First Lady Anne Gust Brown. A political animal, his religious affiliation is Zen Jesuit, and his political party is Whig.

The dog belonged to Brown’s sister, Kathleen, a Goldman Sachs executive who moved from San Francisco to Chicago last year, and the governor had been reluctant to adopt him. Brown’s longtime pet, a black Lab named Dharma, died last year — and by comparison, the governor said, Sutter resembled “half a rat.”

“I don’t like small dogs as a general rule,” Brown said.

I understand, Governor Brown. We have always had large dogs, from labrador mixes to a Rottweiler. But through a convoluted series of events, we wound up with our current small dog, a “rescue” named Lucky (apparently part Chihuahua and part corgi), who was already named when we got him.

Small dogs can “grow” on you.

I thought that I was fortunate (I was!) when I could take the Rottweiler puppy to work at Netscape! Governor Brown’s corgi has the run of an area of gubernatorial offices called “the horseshoe” at the state capitol. The capitol press corps has posted Twitter updates on Sutter since the new administration took office.

I suppose that, in a state like California, it is a good way for the press to “stay positive.”

Even some Republicans like him! Bob Dutton, a Republican dog-lover from Rancho Cucamonga, is so fond of Sutter that he carried the canine to a GOP caucus meeting last month.

“He’s a cute little guy,” Dutton said. “These are not real pleasant times for anybody. Sutter kind of makes you feel like it will be all right.”

And THAT, my friends, is perhaps the most POSITIVE statement that I have heard from Sacramento is a long time!

Of COURSE, Sutter has a Facebook page. (How else could folks track his “social graph?” ) He also has an UNOFFICIAL Twitter account. Sutter even helps the Governor stay in shape with his pushups!

Check out Sutter’s video here. Of course, I “LIKED” him on Facebook and added him to Cheshire Cat Photo’s Facebook page favorites!

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

You can view higher-resolution photos at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle® contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. All locations are accessible from here. Be a “Facebook Fan” of Cheshire Cat Photo here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.

The article is interesting in two ways:

1. Its LATENESS with regard to the technology being deployed, and
2. The “mixed signals” about the capability of the technology, within the single article!

Since many businesspeople in America are not known for their innovation, that fact might explain #1. Some privacy advocates might be consoled (foolishly) by #2.

First, a quick rundown of the six “slides” in the article, then, some analysis.

1. Intel AIM Suite digital signs that use facial “detection” (they really mean “recognition”) cameras and software to determine age and sex (“gender” is for nouns!) of their customers to tailor the ad displayed. The AIM Suite “… is designed to detect broad age ranges: 18 and under, 18-34, 34-59, and 60 and over.” According to the article, “the software cannot, however, record images or recognize specific faces.” (More about THOSE two details, below.) The signs send information back to advertisers about how long they are watching a particular advertisement and how far away from the sign they are standing. ‘Brian Huseman, senior counsel for Intel, estimates that of the “millions” of digital signs around the world, AIM Suite is in a “low single-digit percentage” of them.’
2. Facial “detection” sensors and software by a company named SceneTap that determine the number of males and females in a bar or club and the average age of the males and females. The demographic data is compiled and sent to the SceneTap smartphone app in real time. As we learned last week at a facial recognition conference set up by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in Washington, you “opt in” to participate by choosing to walk into the club! If you don’t want to participate, choose another club or stay home! Look for the decal at the entrance though, SceneTap is currently set up in 50 bars and clubs in Chicago. Since the total number of people in the venue is ALSO computed, I wonder whether it recognizes INDIVIDUALS (to avoid counting people twice or more) or infrared “hot spots” for this measurement.
3. Software by Affective Interfaces seeks to understand how you are FEELING from moment to moment, by tracking your facial expressions. “Though the product is currently in a closed, test stage, CEO Jai Haissman said that the company has worked with beer maker Anheuser-Busch InBev to determine test subjects’ reactions to commercials in real-time. Haissman believes the technology’s possibilities go beyond advertising.” <So do I!> Haissman envisions video games that become more challenging in response to your boredom and iTunes playlists that match music to your mood, as well as the detection of regional hotspots of sentiment that scientists could use to determine their cause. (Hmmmmm… “The natives are restless” in Chicago – let’s send them medical help [or a SWAT Team ].)
4. Google uses facial recognition in its Picasa app (starting several YEARS ago) and in refining searches. Google detects (it appears to be “detection” this time) faces in Google Maps Street View and BLURS them. The Google app, Find My Face scans the photos of users and friends for faces (“recognition”) and suggests name tags using profile photos and tagged photos. The latest version of the Android OS can use facial recognition to unlock the phone. (Hackers have “beaten” this TYPE of unlocking in systems by other manufacturers – hopefully, Google’s is better.) Google CHOSE NOT TO IMPLEMENT facial recognition in Google Goggles (there is a typo in the CNN article). which would have allowed people to snap photos and search for their identities on the Web. Although the technology clearly EXISTS, Google said that it was concerned about privacy implications.
5. Ah, yes… Facebook. The social network with 800 million users and billions of photographs is the largest single repository of photographs in the world and, according to CNN Money “… has singlehandedly made facial recognition a viable business.” “We wouldn’t exist without Facebook,” said Gil Hirsch, CEO of Face.com, a preeminent provider of facial recognition technology on the Internet. “By far the biggest scale for face recognition is your friends on Facebook.” Facebook’s own Photo Tag Suggest application automatically “opts in” users. When the app was quietly turned on in December 2010, without being announced to users, it drew a lot of “fire” from privacy advocates and regulators. Facebook’s apology and way to “opt out” did not come until JUNE of 2010. (Maybe they had gotten most of the photos that they REALLY wanted by then. )
6. Find Your Facemate searches for a potential love interest for you among users of the service who LOOK like you! “Research shows that people are more likely to be attracted to others whose facial features are similar to their own,” the company says on its site. “Find Your FaceMate is a revolutionary new dating site that uses facial recognition technology to identify partners more likely to ignite real passion.” This page also mentions one “fun” toy and Fareclock which is described as a “practical tool” that scans the faces of employees to determine when they engage in that quaint relic of the Industrial Age, (1) punching in” on a time clock.

OK, why is this CNN Money article so LATE?

About a year-and-a-half ago, on July 4, 2010, I wrote a blog entry entitled, “Freedom, in a Technical Age.” That entry describes the difference between (crude) facial “detection” and much-more-sophisticated “facial recognition.” (Facial recognition HAS to be more sophisticated, because it does face “detection” FIRST.) The persistent use of “detection” instead of “recognition” by authors APPEARS designed to assuage the fears of those who are (justifiably) concerned about their rapidly-vanishing privacy.

The recognition (identification) of individual faces in crowds was possible (and used) even earlier than 2001, when 19 people with pending arrest warrants were identified in the crowd of over 72,000 people who attended Super Bowl XXXV. The technology has obviously IMPROVED over the last DECADE. The ability to identify individuals is OBVIOUSLY possible for some of the applications mentioned in the latest CNN Money article, in order to WORK!

Even earlier, in March of 2010, I wrote a blog entry entitled, “While you watch the ads watch YOU…” That blog entry discusses electronic signs in Tokyo that used facial recognition to do the same things as the “NEW” Intel AIM Suite described above. Back in March of 2010, the latest technology could guess a person’s age TO THE YEAR. Is it really surprising that Intel’s AIM Suite is only in the “low single-digit percentage” of these millions of “smart” signs worldwide, with Intel so late to the market? Of course, a HUGE company like Intel can sometimes afford to lag behind the “bleeding edge” and still capture (or acquire ) market share. The March 2010 blog entry also discusses the HISTORY of facial recognition technology and some similarities of the “smart signs” with the movie “Minority Report,” in which signs in a mall scanned the retinas of Tom Cruise as he was running through, and offered him appropriate ads.

So, if identification of individuals by facial recognition existed so long ago, why do some of the new products above identify only the sex and age GROUP of the people scanned (if this is indeed true)? I suspect that the answer is to make the introduction of the technology more palatable to privacy advocates and to avoid a regulatory backlash until the products are firmly implanted into our cultures, and we have come to accept them. Such “dumbed down” technology can be accomplished in hardware by deactivating capabilities on a chip, but is better accomplished in software, so that the CAPABILITY for full facial recognition still exists in hardware and can be “switched on” by a later (or “SILENT”) software update.

Why “test market” in Chicago?

I’m not sure. Maybe the demographics are “good” (more representative) in Chicago, or maybe the population is less “techno-savvy” (the politically-correct term [marketing phrase] would be “accepting of new technologies” [blindly!] ) than, for example, San Jose or San Francisco… or maybe San Jose or San Francisco accepts new technologies more blindly because the Bay Area is so used to them!

The new software by Affective Interfaces (it would be interesting to learn the SOURCES of their funding ) seems to continue a trend in the never-ending search for the ability to read minds. I got a mental image of a helicopter with Arnold Schwarzenegger in it, flying over food riots in Bakersfield, CA  (Hmmm… The “natives” ARE restless! ) in the movie “The Running Man,” in which he was smeared as “The Butcher of Bakersfield.” A pleasant scenario for the future…. (Note added December 20, 2011: I had another thought this morning [I know, AMAZING, huh]! Since many computers and phones have built-in cameras that face the user, software like that of Affective Interfaces that gauge the emotions and mood of the user could be used to “check in” on you, depending upon what kind of “opt-in” language is buried in the paragraphs of legalese! It could be used to make games more challenging, or to flash words or photos and note your facial response! [We actually participated in an early experiment like this over 30 years ago, with our infant son - just pictures, no words, of course!] Let’s see how Bill is doing today!)

The fact that Fareclock (a pun on “Fair Clock?” ) can still MAKE MONEY by selling brand-new technology to update the “ancient” time clock practice and keep employees from having someone else “punch in” for them, to business owners who seem to be living in the 1800s, suggests to me that we have not advanced far beyond the days (1843) of Ebeneezer Scrooge! The fact that time clocks still exist seems further proof!

On the “plus side,” facial recognition technology might eliminate the word “paranoia” from the dictionary! (Much to the dismay of some psychiatrists…!) What would be an “unreasonable fear?” “Opting IN” might be as simple as turning on your computer, leaving it turned on, turning on the cable TV, BUYING a cell phone or a land line or computer or networked gaming device, or setting foot outside of your home (like SceneTap, where you opt in by seeing the decal and walking in the door of the club, anyway)! With thermal imaging, staying INSIDE your home with NO technology (a cabin in Montana comes to mind) would not ensure privacy, either! Opting in MIGHT mean something as simple as choosing to live in a particular location or country. California likes to IMPRISON a large number of people (China does, too! ). It would certainly be CHEAPER if people CHOSE to “imprison THEMSELVES” in their own homes, so long as they continued to pay for the rent or mortgage, utilities, and food! Oh, and taxes….

In biology classes, I learned that “every culture sows the seeds of its own destruction.” We are well on our way! Although individual “traps” and “pitfalls” exist for EACH of us, the trap of GREED has already ensnared quite a few!

All in all, facial recognition technology has given me an EVEN GREATER reason to love “The Great Outdoors” though – FEWER CAMERAS! (I’ll still have the one around my neck. Don’t forget the satellites and Predators, overhead! [They're supposedly unarmed, for now.]) (Note added December 18, 2011: Unarmed for those of us in the United States, of course. Those of you in Pakistan, Yemen, and other places KNOW better!)

`All right,’ said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone.

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

You can view higher-resolution photos at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle® contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. All locations are accessible from here. Be a “Facebook Fan” of Cheshire Cat Photo here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.

Tonight, I attended the Pleasanton PTA Council 9th Annual meeting for the National PTA Reflections Art Recognition Program 2011-2012, at the Firehouse Arts Center in neighboring Pleasanton, California. I had judged the second phase of the competition in photography, for submissions by children of a wide range of ages. As I looked at the visual art, I saw my friend, Pat Smith, who is currently President of the Pleasanton Art League. I learned that she had judged the other visual art submissions.

The theme of the art was: “Diversity is…”

As we talked, Pat brought up the topic of the imagination and creativity of children, and how both are often lost with age. I brought up the Picasso quotation above, and mentioned how creativity and imagination are sometimes “educated” out of us. I told her that, in a particularly thrilling day that I spent with 4th graders, then 1st graders, then 5th graders, all in the same day this week (while continuously adjusting my sense of humor ), three 1st grade kids gave me drawings. One was a drawing of a reindeer, which looked like a cross of a Picasso and a Dr. Seuss (who actually was a visual artist as well as an author), under a blazing yellow sun and blue sky. A second was a pencil drawing of a fish, that reminded me a bit of the tank of fish with human faces in Monty Python‘s “The Meaning of Life,” with the faces “head-on” and the bodies “in profile.” A third was a drawing of a snowman in top hat and a wrapped present with bow. The three snowballs of the snowman (top-to-bottom) were colored orange, green, and yellow, and the wrapping paper was striped green, pink, and red – with a black bow. The snowman was signed “For Mr. H, Love ___ , with a student number. I still don’t understand the use of numbers for children in the schools, and I try not to think of the kids that way!

The drawings will join a large and growing collection of art from kids.

Pat and I sat on the edge of the auditorium of the Firehouse Arts Center, and we watched the recognition of the contributions of children in visual arts, photography, literature, musical composition, film/video production, and dance choreography – with slides of the visual art forms and performances of the literature, music, and dance.

There was a lot going on. The children in the audience were generally very patient, even the very young ones, perhaps as patient as some of the adults. The works were fascinating and revealing and RICH with imagination!

Working with children provides not only a “retrospective” of one’s own life, but also a glimpse of what could be. At a time in America when we might first sense that the world that we are passing to our children is WORSE for our having owned it, the freshness and optimism of children, as expressed in their art, serve to counterbalance our own fatigue and realism.

The wings of their own imaginations may yet allow us to take flight.

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

You can view higher-resolution photos at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle® contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. All locations are accessible from here. Be a “Facebook Fan” of Cheshire Cat Photo here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection operates eight Predators on the northern and southwestern borders of the United States, BUT they don’t just use the drones for immigration and smuggling cases. In what SEEMS like a major case of “overkill,” Nelson County (eastern North Dakota) Sheriff Kelly Janke went looking for six missing cows on the 3,000-acre Brossart family farm on the evening of June 23, until three men with rifles chased him off. So Janke called in the state highway patrol, a regional SWAT team, a bomb squad, ambulances and deputies from three other counties… and a Predator B drone! As the drone circled lazily overhead, its sensors pinpointed the three men and showed that they were unarmed.

The police rushed in and made the first known arrests of U.S. citizens IN the U.S. that were assisted by a Predator drone.

You KNEW it was coming.

The use of a Predator B drone in an alleged cattle-rustling incident is particularly disturbing in a year in which we have seen the 93-7 passage, in the U.S. Senate, of Bill Number S.1867 for the 112th Congress (2011-2012), The National Defense Authorization Act (NDA act) for Fiscal Year 2012. Anonymous, in a “Message to the American People,” states:

This bill, passed late last night in a 93-7 vote, declares the entire USA to be a “battleground” upon which U.S. military forces can operate with impunity, overriding Posse Comitatus and granting the military the unchecked power to arrest, detain, interrogate and even assassinate U.S. citizens with impunity.

Wikipedia notes that:

A recent provision in the NDA act for 2012 has received critical attention [2] because Section 1031 allows for the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens[3], an unconstitutional provision[4]. As passed, the 2012 bill includes language in Sec. 1031 & 1032, stating the intent is not to change existing law (such as Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, and Hamdan v. Rumsfeld) regarding the detention of Americans and resident aliens, and excludes Americans from the ‘requirements’ in sec 1032.

The Wikipedia article on the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 states:

The Udall Amendment[7] forbidding the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens was rejected by a vote of 38-60.[8] A later amendment to preserve current law concerning U.S. citizens, lawful resident aliens, and others captured within the United States, sponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, was accepted 99 to 1;[9] Senators Carl Levin <D, Michigan>, Lindsey Graham <R, South Carolina> and others have argued that current law authorizes indefinite detention of American citizens detained in the United States; Dianne Feinstein <D, California> is among those who have argued that it does not.

The White House has threatened to veto the Act,[10] arguing that “the authorities granted by the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists, including the detention authority, are essential to our ability to protect the American people… Because the authorities codified in this section already exist, the Administration does not believe codification is necessary and poses some risk.”

Well, it looks very much like “the 1%” are paying attention!

Meanwhile, back in North Dakota….

Local police say they have used two unarmed Predators based at Grand Forks Air Force Base to fly at least two dozen surveillance flights since June. The FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration have used Predators for other domestic investigations, officials said.

“We don’t use [drones] on every call out,” said Bill Macki, head of the police SWAT team in Grand Forks. “If we have something in town like an apartment complex, we don’t call them.”

I don’t know “Why NOT?” Working class (there IS NO “middle class” anymore) taxpayers are PAYING for the drones and their use!

Congress authorized Customs and Border Protection to buy unarmed Predators for the first time back in 2005.

Officials in charge of the fleet cite broad authority to work with police from budget requests to Congress that cite “interior law enforcement support” as part of their mission.

In an interview, Michael C. Kostelnik, a retired Air Force general who heads the office that supervises the drones, said Predators are flown “in many areas around the country, not only for federal operators, but also for state and local law enforcement and emergency responders in times of crisis.”

But former Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice <California>), who sat on the House homeland security intelligence subcommittee at the time and served as its chairwoman from 2007 until early this year, said no one ever discussed using Predators to help local police serve warrants or do other basic work.

Harman has gone on record with her opinion that using Predators for routine law enforcement without public debate or clear legal authority is a mistake.

“There is no question that this could become something that people will regret,” said Harman, who resigned from the House in February and now heads the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a Washington think tank.

In 2008 and 2010, Harman helped beat back efforts by Homeland Security officials to use imagery from military satellites to help domestic terrorism investigations. Congress blocked the proposal on grounds it would violate the Posse Comitatus Act, which bars the military from taking a police role on U.S. soil.

Wikipedia notes:

Contrary to popular belief, the <Posse Comitatus> Act does not prohibit members of the Army from exercising state law enforcement, police, or peace officer powers that maintain “law and order”; it simply requires that any orders to do so must originate with the United States Constitution or Act of Congress.

Privacy advocates believe that simplifying the surveillance of U.S. citizens invites MORE of it.

“Any time you have a tool like that in the hands of law enforcement that makes it easier to do surveillance, they will do more of it,” said Ryan Calo, director for privacy and robotics at the Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society.

“This could be a time when people are uncomfortable, and they want to place limits on that technology,” he said. “It could make us question the doctrine that you do not have privacy in public.”

Bill Macki, head of the police SWAT team in Grand Forks <North Dakota> said:

“Anything where we need an advantage, we try to give them a call,” said Macki, who declined to specify how often or where he has used the Predators. “We are very fortunate to have them in our area willing to assist us.”

The L.A. Times article tells the story of the arrest of members of the Brossart family, with assistance of the Predator drone. The article makes fascinating reading. According to the article:

The six adult Brossarts allegedly belonged to the Sovereign Citizen Movement, an antigovernment group that the FBI considers extremist and violent. The family had repeated run-ins with local police, including the arrest of two family members earlier that day arising from their clash with a deputy over the cattle.

So what is the outcome of the incident?

Rodney Brossart, his daughter Abby and his three sons face a total of 11 felony charges, including bail jumping and terrorizing a sheriff, as well as a misdemeanor count against Rodney involving the stray cattle. All have been released on bail.

I wonder what U.S. taxpayers paid for the Predator B drone’s flight and staff?

(Note added December 20, 2011: National Guard troops on the southwest U.S. border with Mexico will be reduced in number from 1,200 to 300. However:

In a news release announcing the change, the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon did not cite exactly how many troops would be pulled from the border, but said the “new strategic approach” will increase border security. That approach includes “adding a number of new multi-purpose aerial assets” equipped with the “latest surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.”

Does this sound like Predator B or some other drones to you? I hope that U.S. representatives Ted Poe and Lamar Smith, both Republicans from Texas who are quoted in the article, are happy with the aerial surveillance of Texans.)

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

You can view higher-resolution photos at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle® contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. All locations are accessible from here. Be a “Facebook Fan” of Cheshire Cat Photo here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.

Today, my wife and I woke up at 5 AM to travel to Pacific Grove to participate in the 2011 Jingle Bell Run/Walk of the Arthritis Foundation®. The national sponsor is Abbott, a company that I visited on business once, north of Chicago, IL. In the photo above, I am the big elf in the back (center) with the University of Wisconsin/Bucky Badger sweatshirt (graduate school) – Go Badgers! Any resemblance to Santa in the front row is strictly coincidental! (There is also one “rocket scientist” in the group.) My daughter assembled the team because her daughter, our granddaughter, has had juvenile idiopathic arthritis since she was about 1 year old.

The staging area for the “race” was Lover’s Point Park in Pacific Grove (Google Map), another one of those beautiful, memorable places on the California Coast.

The 3.1-mile (5K) course followed along Ocean View Boulevard, home to simple, small, $4-6 million homes (location, location, location!) and Bed-and-Breakfast inns and hotels, beyond where Ocean View becomes Sunset Drive (near the Point Piños Lighthouse (1) Reservation, and back to Lovers Point.

The weather was just about perfect for the run/walk: temperatures in the 50s (F) with a high of 58 degrees, hazy sunshine (sunshine always feels warm in our part of California, in contrast to the winter sunshine of the Midwest), and no breeze. Large waves were rolling in, smoothly and majestically, and crashing on the rocks with fountains of spray. Tomorrow, a little afternoon rain is forecast for Pacific Grove. (Hopefully. It is that time of year!)

Most of our team ate pizza at Gianni’s Pizza at 725 Lighthouse Avenue in Monterey (not a recommendation, but it is ALWAYS delicious!) Afterward, my wife and I drove north along the coast to Rio del Mar and Santa Cruz. Since she was at the wheel (and since I can sleep just about anywhere), I slept most of the way to Livermore – a perfect close to a very busy week.

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

You can view higher-resolution photos at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle® contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. All locations are accessible from here. Be a “Facebook Fan” of Cheshire Cat Photo here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.

The Merced River, in Yosemite National Park, is one of the most beautiful rivers I know.

But its rushing waters in spring can be deadly and without mercy….

I wrote about the deaths of three young people who were swept over Vernal Fall in July of this year, by the extraordinary volume of water from record snows.

“The three Yosemite visitors, Ramina Badal, 21, Ninos Yacoub, 27, and Hormiz David, 22, had gone over or around a guardrail upstream of Vernal Fall at the top of the Mist Trail, to stand in knee-deep water. After photographing each other and playing in the water, Badal slipped, and all three were pulled over the 317-foot waterfall.”

In recent days, two bodies have been found where the three hikers were swept over 317-foot (96.9-m) Vernal Fall. The body of Hormiz David, of Modesto, was recovered in August about 240 feet (73-2 m) from the base of the waterfall.

In a statement today, park officials said that the body found in the Merced River about one-half mile from the base of the waterfall by a park ranger last Tuesday was determined to be that of Ninos Yacoub of Turlock, California.

A third body was found on Saturday, near the location where Yacoub’s body was discovered, according to park rangers today. Authorities are likely to make a positive identification within the next several days.

We extend our sympathies to the families and friends, and we hope that the next few days brings some closure to those who have suffered from their loss.

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

You can view higher-resolution photos at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle® contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. All locations are accessible from here. Be a “Facebook Fan” of Cheshire Cat Photo here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.

The collection of CNET photographs includes apothecary jar lids, the busts of hand-painted porcelain dolls, a container for charcoal toothpaste, a photo of the original Transbay Terminal demolished in 2011, a figurine of a hunting dog, painted and glazed children’s marbles. glass ink bottles, ink wells and glue bottles from New York, toothbrushes made of animal bone, a lid to a jar of perfume, a pulley wheel from the former Risdon Iron Works factory, a transfer print blue saucer from England, historic glass bottles, a hand-painted blue soup terrine and serving platter from England, and a copper-plated spoon.

Enjoy!

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

You can view higher-resolution photos at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle® contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. All locations are accessible from here. Be a “Facebook Fan” of Cheshire Cat Photo here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.

Pepper spray, also known as OC spray, OC gas, and capsicum spray is a chemical compound that irritates the eyes, causing tears, pain, and even temporary blindness. The “OC” comes from “Oleoresin Capsicum.” The inflammation causes the eyes to close, taking away vision temporarily, which allows officers to more easily restrain subjects. Although pepper spray is considered to be a less-than-lethal agent, it may cause death in rare cases, and there have been a number of deaths in which being pepper sprayed might have been a contributing factor.

My one-and-only exposure to pepper spray occurred as I walked  with two friends across the Oval at Ohio State University in Columbus in the spring of 1970, and a gust of wind blew a speck of the dust into my left eye, DAYS after protests there had left white patches of pepper spray and tear gas on the grass of the open space. The left eye wept uncontrollably, while the right eye did not, and it was necessary for my friends to help me to find a place to sit down. Unlike tear gas, which can be washed away (at least a bit) with water, pepper spray is pretty much “immune” to water. I hope that the students who received large “doses” of pepper spray received proper medical attention afterward, so that no deaths occur, and I hope that police receive additional training in the proper use of the agent, including having it sprayed down the throat of the offending officer(s). With attending physicians being present, of course….

The afternoon ended with 10 arrests, nine of them students, according to the Associated Press. According to Annette Spicuzza, the UC Davis police chief, students were surrounding police officers, cutting off officers from their support. She told the Sacramento Bee:

“It’s a very volatile situation.”

Yes, it is. When Ohio National Guardsmen at Kent State University found themselves in a position in which they felt threatened (even though they had the “high ground”) on May 4, 1970, they fired live ammunition into the crowd, killing some that were only walking to class. No, we will never forget.

UC Davis chancellor Linda Katehi has formed a task force to investigate the police action. She said:

“The use of the pepper spray as shown on the video is chilling to us all and raises many questions about how best to handle situations like this.”

AFTERWARDS is a heck of a time to THINK about such things, chancellor! You should have a plan in place IN ADVANCE that anticipates the use of crowd-control agents and what you are willing to accept on your campus.

At a news conference later on Saturday, Katehi said what the video shows is “sad and really very inappropriate.” The events surrounding the protest have been hard on her personally, but she had no plans to resign, she said.

Do not expect high-ranking bureaucrats to resign. They will FIRE anyone beneath them that they can, first!

I would just like to help answer some questions that UC Davis students had on Friday afternoon:

1. “Whose university?” THEIR university! YOU, like generations of students BEFORE you, only help to FINANCE it! Universities are Big Business! They are mostly about money (and “prestige,” which attracts money), including donations from rich alumni of the 1%, but also about attracting GRANT money for research and projects. As you can tell from the UC presidents who are receiving 6-figure RAISES to their 6-figure SALARIES, the MANAGEMENT of the universities are the principal financial beneficiaries, along with the corporations who can license inventions and discoveries OWNED by the universities. Students have seen their tuition and fees TRIPLE since 2002-2003. If you graduate, you will receive a piece of paper that may help YOUR financial situation incrementally as well, at least until age discrimination sets in, sometime in your 50s.
2. With regard to the police – “Who do you protect? Who do you serve?” It is pretty obvious that, in situations like Friday’s, that the police protect the wealthy and the powerful, and that they serve the cause of the “status quo.” After all, money continues to flow to the university and its management – what could be wrong? Police are present to stabilize the situation and maintain order. If you want to talk about JUSTICE, you had better wait until you go to court. It is the Judiciary Branch, not the Executive Branch, that CARES about such things, at least some of the folks in the Judiciary do.
3. If you think that UNIVERSITIES are corrupt, wait until you enter the world of corporations.

I hope that helps.

If it does not, return to the sidewalk and sit on the pavement and get pepper-sprayed and arrested repeatedly, until you understand. (Listen to the lyrics of Steppenwolf‘s “Monster” and “You Can’t Win” by Iron Butterfly, if you are an “auditory learner,” BUT take the lyrics as a CHALLENGE, not a prediction. The rest of the 99% are with you.)

(Note added November 20, 2011: Two UC Davis campus police officers have been placed on indefinite paid administrative leave after their controversial use of pepper spray on student protesters.

Mark G. Yudof, the UC system president, said he would be talking to the 10 campus chancellors, as well as experts and other campus groups, “to conduct a thorough, far-reaching and urgent assessment of campus police procedures involving use of force, including post-incident review processes.”

“Free speech is part of the DNA of this university, and nonviolent protest has long been central to our history,” Yudof said. “It is a value we must protect with vigilance. I implore students who wish to demonstrate to do so in a peaceful and lawful fashion. I expect campus authorities to honor that right.”)

(Note added November 21, 2011: Chief Annette Spicuzza, the police chief at the University of California at Davis, has been placed on administrative leave while offiicials investigate the use of pepper spray against protesters. From CNN:

“As I have gathered more information about the events that took place on our Quad on Friday, it has become clear to me that this is a necessary step toward restoring trust on our campus,” UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi said in the statement.

Photography and videography have become two-edged swords in 21st-century America. Although the surreal proliferation of cameras and facial-recognition software have infringed our liberties, the placement of video cameras in cell phones, and the ability to upload the videos produced, have applied pressure in cases such as THIS one to seek justice. Thank you, amateur videographers, for risking your own safety to bring all of us the truth.)

Note added November 26, 2011: Lieutenant John Pike of the University of California, Davis Police Department has now drawn the wrath of Anonymous!)

-Bill at

Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”

You can view higher-resolution photos at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle® contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. All locations are accessible from here. Be a “Facebook Fan” of Cheshire Cat Photo here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.