Cheshire Cat Photo Blog (... said the Cat: 'we're all mad here....')

California housing market improves

Bill — Fri, 18 May 2012 05:03:44 +0000

From the Bay Area to Southern California, the state’s housing market showed strength as median prices ROSE and sales outperformed the same month last year! The median home price in California (the median is the point at which half the homes in the state sold for more and half for less) increased 6% in April to $264,000 according to DataQuick of San Diego. In BOTH the Bay Area and Southern California, the share of home sales that were foreclosures declined significantly. Foreclosures tend to drag prices down.

The LA Times reports:

“It appears that the market is taking a step in the direction of normalization, but only a step,” DataQuick President John Walsh said. “The mortgage market is critical, as is market mix and the receding importance of foreclosure resales.”

In April, a total of 38,241 newly built and previously owned homes, condominiums, and townhouses sold in California. The figure was UP 2% from March and UP 8.6% from April of 2011. DataQuick also notes that the total was the HIGHEST for any April since 2006 and the ninth consecutive month that sales have improved year over year!

Sales of foreclosed homes made up 30.3% of resale homes last month, down from a revised 32.8% in March and from 36.4% in April 2011. Short sales statewide made up 18.3% of the market, down from 19.1% in March but up from 16.9% in April 2011.

In Southern California last month, the median home price rose 3.6% from a year earlier to $290,000 and sales rose 5.1% to 19,284. The Bay Area’s median home price rose 8.3% to $360,000, and sales rose 13.1% to 7,675.

Needless to say - this is good news for California homeowners!

-Bill at

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

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Spontaneous combustion of beach rocks?

Bill — Thu, 17 May 2012 05:37:13 +0000

The scientist in me hopes that they publish a follow-up article to this one!

The children of a 43-year-old woman collected rocks from Trestles Beach. The woman stuffed them into the pocket of her shorts. On Saturday afternoon at around 3:30 PM, while the woman was standing in her kitchen, the rocks somehow CAUGHT FIRE, burning the woman’s right thigh and knee, according to Captain Marc Stone of the Orange County Fire Authority.

The woman tried to stop, drop, and roll to put the fire out, but she was unsuccessful. Her husband got second-degree burns trying to pull the shorts off. The rocks, which were described as about the size of hamburger patties and were orange and green, fell from the shorts onto the wood floor, igniting the floor and filling the house with smoke! When firefighters arrived, the husband was hosing down his wife on the front deck.

Paramedics treated the woman for severe second- and third-degree burns on her right leg from her thigh to her knee and on her right arm, Stone said. The husband also was treated for second-degree burns on his arm.

Both were taken to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana. Firefighters took the rocks with them to show to doctors, Stone said.

“I talked to the paramedic who treated her, and in his 27 years in responding to calls near the beach, he’s never seen this,” Stone said. “The rocks were still smoking when firefighters took them to the hospital.”

There is phosphorus that occurs naturally in sand at the beach, according to Stone, but nobody has ever heard of pants catching on fire. Tests are expected to take a few weeks to find an explanation.

-Bill at

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

Aaron Sorkin movie will cover Steve Jobs biography

Bill — Wed, 16 May 2012 05:39:42 +0000

I started reading the Walter Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs today, while I was multitasking on a photography job. I don’t mind being a little late, since I object to paying full retail for a book and I wanted the “excitement” to settle down a bit. I was based in Internet Services at Apple for a year in Valley Green 5 and 6, as a Netscape employee. I had no desire to meet with Steve Jobs (individual meetings with Steve Jobs are usually a BAD thing ) but I had NO doubt, as I stood 50 feet from him in Café Mac, that he knew who I was, how much Apple paid to have me on site, and whether I was doing my job. I had two “one-on-ones” with Eddy Cue, VP of Internet Services, – one on entry, one on exit. I heard Steve speak to the troops at the introduction of the first version of MacOS X, for which I have a “Gold Master” and the MacOS X T-shirt given to Apple employees. Now, the rumors have been confirmed that the Academy Award-winning screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin (for “The Social Network”) has accepted a Sony offer to write a screenplay based on the life of Steve Jobs.

“Steve Jobs’ story is unique: he was one of the most revolutionary and influential men not just of our time but of all time,” co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment Amy Pascal said in a statement today. “There is no writer working in Hollywood today who is more capable of capturing such an extraordinary life for the screen than Aaron Sorkin; in his hands, we’re confident that the film will be everything that Jobs himself was: captivating, entertaining, and polarizing.”

Sorkin is best known for his Academy Award-winning adaptation of “The Social Network,” which is based on Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. However, Sorkin has also written several other films, plays, and TV shows, such as “The West Wing,” “Moneyball,” and “A Few Good Men.”

Sony has the rights to the Walter Isaacson biography, “Steve Jobs” shortly after Jobs’ death at 56 of a rare form of pancreatic cancer. According to the Web site, “Film,” Sony closed the deal for $1 million. Steve Jobs was Amazon’s best-selling book of 2011. In addition, the biography was #1 among bestselling hardcover books by a 2:1 margin, with sales of 2,246,569 in 2011, according to Publisher’s Weekly.

Rumors suggest that Sony was looking to get George Clooney or Noah Wyle to play the role of Jobs.

-Bill at

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

LIVE! From Yosemite National Park…!

Bill — Tue, 15 May 2012 04:09:28 +0000

No, I’m not at Yosemite tonight.

Happy thought, though!

The TV news tonight mentioned LIVE (well, ALMOST live: a 30-second delay) webcams from Yosemite that you will want to check out AFTER the sun comes up on America’s West Coast! The webcams are on the Web site for the Yosemite Conservancy, and they include webcams for:

As with many images (like MINE ), THESE are COPYRIGHTED, and we photographers have our lawyers. Nonetheless, there is no harm in LOOKING at one of the greatest natural international attractions in California and the U.S. – Yosemite National Park!

The Web site says:

Yosemite webcams are maintained through the generous support of Yosemite Conservancy donors. Webcam image is uploaded every 30 seconds, click refresh to update webcam view. You can help support these webcams and provide for the future of Yosemite by becoming a Friend of Yosemite today.

The Friends of Yosemite page tells about discounts and benefits that you get with your donation, and lists the Yosemite Conservancy’s tax ID. These people do a lot of good. Read their Web pages, and see whether you would like to be a member.

Enjoy their webcams! Then plan your trip to California! See you then!

-Bill at

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

Amgen Tour of California: Stage 1 to Peter Sagan of team Liquigas-Cannondale

Bill — Mon, 14 May 2012 04:09:11 +0000

With six miles of the grueling 116-mile Stage 1 of the Amgen Tour of California (Map: PDF) yet to go, Peter Sagan, 22, of Slovakia experienced a flat tire. His mechanic had trouble replacing the wheel, which cost the world’s 4th-ranked rider time. Sagan’s teammates controlled the final miles, to help him win the opening stage of this eight-day event, the premiere cycling event in the United States.

Sagan won by two bike lengths in a wild finish, completing the stage in 4 hours, 42 minutes, and 36 seconds.

Fred Rodriguez, a Berkeley resident who came out of a 1 1/2-year retirement in June, took 3rd place behind 2nd-place finisher, Garmin-Barracuda’s Heinrich Haussler.

Santa Rosa‘s Levi Leipheimer earned the “most courageous rider” award today after finishing 46th of 128 riders for team Omega Pharma-Quick Step. Leipheimer returned to training only 2 1/2 weeks ago after suffering a broken leg on a training ride last month.

Watsonville‘s Ben Jacques-Maynes, 33, placed 5th and earned the “most aggressive rider” award for the stage.

Monday’s Stage 2 (PDF) runs from San Francisco to Aptos.

Tuesday’s Stage 3 (PDF) runs from San Jose to my hometown of Livermore.

A RadioShack spokesperson said today that he couldn’t confirm whether manager Johan Bruyneel was issued a federal subpoena upon arriving at San Francisco International Airport for the race. Two outlets for cycling news reported that the former manager of Lance Armstrong’s Tour de France teams had been met by federal agents.

-Bill at

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

California deficit hits $16 billion; Governor Jerry Brown calls for cuts.

Bill — Sun, 13 May 2012 06:15:21 +0000

California’s deficit has hit $16 billion.

Not bad for a STATE, huh…?

Actually, it’s going to be pretty bad for THIS one!

Governor Jerry Brown released a revised deficit figure of $16 billion to give the state “something to chew on” before he presents his revised budget plan, with even DEEPER cuts, on Monday. The dramatically higher figure was released in a YouTube video on the Web today. Brown’s budget plan released in January had projected a $9.1 billion deficit for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

Administration officials declined to provide specific details on how they arrived at the new estimate or what would be included in the deeper cuts. The video was released by Brown’s campaign team for his November ballot measure to increase the income tax on high earners and the sales tax on everyone.

“Brown concluded his campaign statement with a call for Californians to join him in working to pass the measure, which the administration estimates would bring in $9 billion in additional tax revenue. He warned that if the measure fails, it would result in “severe damage” to public safety and schools.

Well, taxing the rich is certainly a good start. The state should ALSO consider increased taxation of companies that have OFFSHORED many of California’s jobs, which would otherwise employ Californians who pay state income and sales taxes. The state should ALSO consider taxing corporations who keep a lot of their cash banked overseas. As for public safety, California unconstitutional firearms laws have already severely damaged public safety, by tipping the balance to criminals who, by definition, don’t obey laws. Anyone who has been paying attention to budget cuts (and tuition increases) in the schools might be surprised that California’s educational system could be damaged any further!

Since passing the budget last June, Brown and Democratic legislative leaders have touted their work, saying they had slashed the $26 billion deficit left by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger by nearly two-thirds. However, that budget plan relied on a number of risky assumptions, including a projection that tax revenue would grow by an additional $4 billion.

Most of that money never materialized, and federal officials and the courts have blocked proposed cuts to the In-Home Supportive Services program for the elderly, blind and disabled, along with rejecting increases in co-pays for hospital and emergency room visits for people on Medi-Cal.

The California Legislature has turned down about $1.5 billion for welfare and child care services as well as reductions in the Cal Grants program that provides financial aid to college students.

California legislators must pass a balanced budget by the July 15 deadline, but there is a June 5 primary that has their attention right now.

Want to place any bets that all of the ideologues in the California Legislature will MAKE the deadline? Even though the state has a huge Democratic majority that could pass a budget by itself…?

One of the biggest fights will be over the “trigger cuts,” or automatic spending reductions if the governor’s tax proposal is rejected by voters in November.

The proposal would increase the sales tax by a quarter of a cent for four years. It also would boost the income tax for seven years by either one, two or three percentage points for people making more than $250,000 per year. The highest rate increase would affect those making more than $500,000 per year.

Under the governor’s January budget proposal, the automatic cuts would fall almost entirely on K-12 public schools and community colleges, with the UC and CSU systems also receiving significant midyear cuts. It is not clear if that would change under the governor’s revised budget.

Senator Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, chairman of the Senate Committee on Budget and Fiscal Review, said the new deficit “is as bad as our worst fears have been.” You may remember Leno as one of those in the Legislature who repeatedly re-introduces his failed legislation year after year (particularly as related to firearms shows at the Cow Palace), wasting time and adding to the cost of government.

Governor Jerry Brown will release the revised state budget on Monday at 10 AM in a Capitol news conference that will be streamed live on the California Channel, www.calchannel.com

-Bill at

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

Dr. La Donna Porter REMOVED from state medical panel by governor

Bill — Sat, 12 May 2012 03:50:47 +0000

When I read scientific journal articles, I read the “Materials and Methods” section first, to see whether to bother with anything else!

Most of us in California have learned to read, very QUICKLY from the “bottom up,” when watching political commercials on TV (not that anyone is trying to DECEIVE us! ). Midway through the paragraph on the bottom is usually where major contributors to the ad are listed. A recent ad that opposes Proposition 29 (which would RAISE taxes on cigarettes, increasing the price by about a dollar a pack) appeared to me to be a “red herring,” and I was not surprised to find that major contributors to the anti-29 campaign were (BIG surprise! ) Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds!

Governor Jerry Brown has not taken a position on Proposition 29. The governor recently received a $26,000 campaign contribution from Philip Morris USA. Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds together have contributed nearly $40 million to the No on 29 campaign.

You may remember the doctor in the “No on 29″ ads, Dr. La Donna Porter, who appeared in a doctor’s smock in the “No on 29″ commercials that bombarded TV viewers for three weeks. On Wednesday, the ad was pulled and the doctor was replaced with an actor in a lab coat.

After critics complained about her ties to the tobacco industry, Gov. Jerry Brown approved her removal Thursday from the Proposition 65 Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee, along with four others who’d been previously appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The committee identifies toxicants known to be harmful to fetuses and infants.

Plans had been in the works to overhaul the seven-member panel, administration officials said, but intense pressure began building to remove the Porter after news reports revealed that the 46-year-old family physician at San Joaquin Hospital near Stockton had done previous work for the tobacco and chemical industries.

“Changes had been under discussion long before the Proposition 29 ads,” said Sam Delson, deputy director at the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, which oversees the committee. “But it’s fair to say attention to those ads may have focused attention on reviewing this panel and making changes.”

The Mercury News found, on researching Dr. Porter’s past, that she had faced two bankruptcies, in 1998 and 2008, and that her home in Wilton, a rural town 30 miles south of Sacramento, is scheduled for a foreclosure auction on May 23. Dr. Porter previously appeared in a tobacco industry-backed ad opposing Proposition 86 in 2006, which would have imposed a $2.60 per pack excise tax on the retail sale of tobacco cigarettes, as well as levy a similar excise upon the sale of other commercial tobacco products, such as cigars and chewing tobacco. Proposition 86 was defeated. In 2002, she took the side of the chemical industry against health advocates. Dr. Porter became a key opponent of an EPA-proposed regulation of perchlorate, a water pollutant that environmentalists say has harmful effects on infants and children.

This week, the proponents of Proposition 29 aired a TV ad with an image of Dr. Porter, obscured by smoke, entitled “Smokescreen.”

-Bill at

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

CA AB 1844 prohibits employers from demanding Facebook, Twitter, etc. passwords

Bill — Fri, 11 May 2012 06:04:36 +0000

The California Assembly Bill AB 1844, which would prohibit employers from requiring an employee or prospective employee to provide their username and password for Facebook, Twitter, or other social media accounts, just passed the state assembly UNANIMOUSLY by a 73-0 vote. The bill now heads to the state senate.

Assemblymember Nora Campos (D-San Jose), who authored the bill, calls AB 1844 a “preemptive measure” that will offer guidelines to the accessibility of private information behind what she calls the “social media wall.”

I KNOW that we like LAWS in California (some folks even believe [foolishly] that they influence BEHAVIOR ), but bills that pass the state assembly unanimously are relatively rare. (We also like to ARGUE in California! )

Such a law would not even be needed, if it were not for the corporate folks with the obsessive “need to know” who mistakenly believe that “knowledge is power.” These “control freaks” simply do not know when to mind their own business.

“Our social-media accounts offer views into our personal lives and expose information that would be inappropriate to discuss during a job interview due to the inherent risk of creating biases in the minds of employers,” Campos said in a statement. “In order to continue to minimize the threat of bias and discrimination in the workplace and the hiring process, California must continue to evolve its privacy protections to keep pace with advancing technology.”

Campos’ office said that 129 cases currently before the National Labor Relations Board involve employer workplace policies around social media. Capmos introduced AB 1844 in THIS form on February 22, 2012.

Nationally, a bill known as the Password Protection Act of 2012 (PDF) was introduced in the U.S. Senate yesterday. The bill “…seeks to prohibit employers from forcing prospective or current employees to provide access to their own private account as a condition of employment. It would also prohibit employers from discriminating or retaliating against a prospective or current employee should that employee refuse to provide access to a password-protected account.”

Employers that violate the act may face financial penalties, perhaps the ONLY things that they understand.

(Now we need action about employers who ask prospective employees to provide their W2′s as a condition of employment – something that was required of ME way back in 2005.)

-Bill at

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

Fewer California high school grads attending $tate Univer$itie$

Bill — Thu, 10 May 2012 06:25:19 +0000

Now THERE’$ a $hocker!

According to figures released today by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, the percentage of high school graduates who attend University of California or California State University campuses fell by 20 percent from 2007 to 2010. The trend developed along with California’s budget problems that dramatically increased university tuition and caused schools to turn away qualified applicants.

“Fewer than 18 percent of California high school graduates ended up at a Cal State or UC campus in 2010, down from 22 percent in 2007. And 55 percent of the most highly prepared students enroll there, down from 67 percent.“

Other private and public universities in California and throughout the U.S. have seen significant increases in the numbers of applicants from California, since the UC and Cal State tuitions have risen spectacularly in recent years! The report’s author, Hans Johnson, reports that one in 10 applicants who REJECT offers from the state schools choose not to go to college at all!

“It seems pretty clear that if you go to college somewhere else, you’re likely to end up somewhere outside of California (after college),” Johnson said. “It’s bad to increasingly lose students to other states.“

Now THAT has got to help California’s long-term economic outlook!

The Santa Cruz Sentinel continues:

Each university system was hit with a $750 million budget cut last year. Both the 23-campus Cal State system and UC’s nine undergraduate campuses have tried to slash their student bodies by turning away applicants from their campus of choice, even if they meet minimum systemwide requirements.

The article states that “college choices have increasingly come down to money.” Well, so did mine, for both undergraduate and graduate school. Kids today face unprecedented challenges financially though with regard to higher education, and I worry a lot about the 10% who choose not to attend college at all after rejecting offers. “Dumbing down” the populace is NOT in America’s best interest.

The article also speaks to “California’s public universities, which once were higher-education models admired by other states and countries.” I remember that time, myself. I would like to see continued unbiased financial analyses of how that status ERODED into the situation we have today.

-Bill at

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

Clueless on Wall Street…

Bill — Wed, 09 May 2012 06:15:32 +0000

… but YOU knew that!

Yeah, Facebook is about to go public with a $100 billion IPO, and what is one Wall Streeter complaining about? Mark Zuckerberg’s hoodie! Nevermind the fact that the Wall Streeter is likely to make BIG BUCK$ from the IPO…!

Bloomberg’s Mark Milian quotes Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter: “Mark and his signature hoodie: He’s actually showing investors he doesn’t care that much; he’s going to be him. I think that’s a mark of immaturity. I think that he has to realize he’s bringing investors in as a new constituency right now, and I think he’s got to show them the respect that they deserve because he’s asking them for their money.”

Sure… we know where the capital is coming from, but let’s not forget where the hard work and the innovation are coming from! Bozos in suits placing side bets on someone else’s survival, while sitting on their wallets, never earned a lot of sympathy from me. Did you ever suspect that these Wall Streeters might have a “closet urge” to “ditch” their ties?

The whole story reminds me a lot of one of my former Silicon Valley bosses who thought that blue jeans were unprofessional – nevermind that blue jeans are part of the “uniform” of Silicon Valley. (In fact, Zuckerberg is wearing them with his hoodie in the accompanying photo! ) Nevermind that the company we both worked for got acquired, largely because of management incompetence, even though everybody “dressed well….” My boss’s lack of “blue-jean-and-T-shirt attire” meant that he would never have “credibility.”

CNET notes:

What, no bowing to the bankers who are waiting in line to get in on the IPO and are in awe of the almost-28-year-old who owns 18.4 percent of the company and 57 percent of the voting shares?

and

Pachter can’t be that concerned about Zuckerberg’s wardrobe. He had enough respect for what Zuckerberg and team built to set a price target for Facebook at the higher range, $44, and gave the company an outperform rating.

The CNET article has a photo showing that Zuckerberg knows when to wear a suit – when talking to the President of the United States!

As for my blue jean-minus boss and I – I got the heck out of that company when I had the chance; my boss got out of there a little bit later, before the company was acquired.

I have a photo taken in a public area of that company, of a sign on a door telling employees to dress appropriately, since customers may be present.

Too bad THAT company is no longer around…. Maybe it would be, if it had focused on the IMPORTANT stuff….

-Bill at

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

Two American hikers held in Iran marry in California!

Bill — Tue, 08 May 2012 05:27:23 +0000

Sarah Shourd and Shane Bauer, who along with Josh Fattal were held in Iran after straying across the unmarked border between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran in July 2009, were married on Saturday near the ocean. According to Ben Rosenfeld, a San Francisco attorney, the couple was surrounded by around 200 family and friends.

“Friends and family assumed roles at their wedding, in the same spirit of community which suffuses Sarah and Shane’s everyday lives, and which characterized the tireless broad support they received throughout their ordeal. Friends traveled from around the globe to be present. The group danced outside under the amorous cross-rays of Venus and a ‘supermoon,’” he said.

Shane Bauer proposed while in prison. He created an engagement ring from a thread from his shirt.

Shourd was released in 2010. Bauer and Fattal were released last year after 781 days of captivity and a trial for espionage.

The newlyweds are now on their honeymoon.

-Bill at

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

Shooting the (Super)moon!

Bill — Mon, 07 May 2012 05:26:36 +0000

An article in SFGate.com (home of the San Francisco Chronicle) presents a slideshow of photos of the Supermoon, taken worldwide, and a video explaining the cause of last night’s “larger” than normal full moon.

“Tonight’s moon is set to appear 14 percent larger and 30 percent brighter from our perspective on Earth. The Supermoon lines up much closely with perigee — the moon’s closest point to Earth. The 2012 May full moon falls some six minutes after perigee, the moon’s closest point to Earth for this month. At perigee, the moon lies only 221,802 miles (356,955 kilometers ) away. Later this month, on May 19, the moon will swing out to apogee — its farthest point for the month — at 252,555 miles (406,448 kilometers) distant.“

Enjoy!

-Bill at

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

Chance meeting at Patterson Pass

Bill — Sun, 06 May 2012 06:33:16 +0000

I love the international flavor of California, especially that of some of the cities, like San Francisco. Today, however, after tutoring a math student in the morning and signing a bunch of checks for artists in the late afternoon, I decided to use the rest of the time before supper to attempt a panorama and some short 1080p HD movies at the high point of Patterson Pass Road through the Altamont. The point offers sweeping views of hundreds of wind turbines and of the Central Valley, beyond!

I set up the tripod, mounted the camera, remote shutter release, and stereo microphone and, almost immediately afterward, heard the sound of gravel being disturbed behind me. A lean and fit bicyclist dismounted and said hello, in a strong German accent. I learned that he has a Ph.D. in physics (almost common in Livermore ), but that he was in the middle of a three-week vacation and lived in Dresden – formerly in East Germany, which was the target of a very controversial Allied bombing and firebombing raid in the last months of World War II that destroyed 15 square miles of the city center and caused the deaths of thousands of civilians. I made a reference to the bombing, so that he was aware of my knowledge of Dresden.

We talked a bit about his travels in the United States and compared points of interest in California. We talked about the way Americans work too much and are not given enough vacation to lead balanced lives. I noted the Garmin GPS on his bicycle and told him that I have a mount for mine on my motorcycle. He said that he had bicycled to Livermore from Berkeley today and would return in the evening. I told him that Patterson Pass Road east is an interesting one, and that the first Tour of California that passed through Livermore included Patterson Pass Road going WEST… a long uphill run for most of its length.

We parted ways after he took some photos and I shook his hand and gave him my business card. Later this week, he will visit Big Sur.

I took my still shots and a couple of short high-def movies. I used a “dead cat” this time, which is a “furry” (fake fur) “sock” that fits over the stereo microphone to serve as a wind screen and reduce wind noise. We shall see how effective it was.

This evening, I parked along Tesla Road to photograph the “Supermoon” that rose tonight. The full moon appears 14% “larger” than usual. We shall see how well the photos turned out.

My life has been full of chance encounters like today’s, and it has been enriched by them. International visitors to California have merely broadened the scope.

-Bill at

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

To Kill a Mockingjay

Bill — Sat, 05 May 2012 05:05:07 +0000

Why mess with genetic engineering when you can use a robot?

Some may want to stock up on shotgun shells (better for target practice in the “country”) …

…or modified paintball guns for urban settings, which would be quieter, and could be fully automatic.

Back in February of 2011, I wrote about the Nano Hummingbird, a tiny, battery-powered robotic drone that flies by flapping its wings and is built to look like a hummingbird (with a tiny camera in its belly) for surveillance in urban areas (oh… in the western hemisphere, which is the only place that hummingbirds live). The Nano Hummingbird is built for the Pentagon by AeroVironment, Inc. of Monrovia, California.

Now, aerospace engineering researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have:

“… duplicated the control functions that allow birds to successfully perform a soft landing–in this case, perching on a human hand.”

… or on that telephone wire or tree branch outside your window!

There are a lot of brilliant people at the University of Illinois. I know, because I remotely managed a project team at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications there. (The Mosaic team, which later developed the Netscape browser, also had its origins there. It’s also where my configuration manager at the time [thanks, Hei-ming]!] bought me a copy of The Dilbert Principle [an invaluable guide to corporate America, initially based upon Scott Adams' experiences at Pacific Bell] at the university bookstore. ) Besides academics, there is not a lot to do in Urbana-Champaign – drinking comes to mind!

The academic paper (if you love math, you will LOVE this one! ) “… presents the underlying theoretical developments and successful experimental demonstrations of perching of an aerial robot.”

But it’s not all “theory…” CNET notes:

It turns out that this project was not inspired solely by academic curiosity. In fact, there appears to potential military application, which is probably why the work was funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

One of the researchers, Jo Chung, adds this:

“There’s a lot to learn from bio systems,” Chung, who originally wanted to study the flying patterns of bats, said in a University of Illinois story about the project. “Bats can fly with damaged wings. They are so agile and highly maneuverable; they can make rapid 180-degree turns autonomously and they can fly indoors without colliding with obstacles. These qualities are desirable for small aircraft that could be used in surveillance, particularly in urban settings where obstacles hamper movement and satellite control is blocked.”

Those of us who “missed our chance” to live in the former “surveillance society” of East Germany may yet get an opportunity for something similar (or even much WORSE), between the engineering efforts of folks like those above, and FBI agitation for mandatory backdoors for surveillance on social networks, Voice-over-IP, and providers of Web email.

(Note added May 5, 2012: I was in a classroom with middle schoolers yesterday, and I asked them what happened in history on May 4. When nobody knew, I told them briefly about the National Guard shootings on the Kent State University campus in the spring of 1970, with the unarmed students who were killed and wounded, guilty of the heinous crime of “walking to class” or “watching a protest.” One incredulous student said, “They must have been drunk or something.” I assured him that they were not, and that he could read more in Wikipedia. Human memory, especially of events that we would rather forget, is a very short-lived thing. It seems that the FBI might be fighting back in a “turf battle” against encroachment by the NSA, which has been granted unprecedented powers to operate domestically in the United States in recent years [and seeks MORE - isn't that the funny thing about "power?" For those who seek it, it's NEVER enough!]. From personal experience, I have found the personality types of folks who operate in the “security” field to be “guarded” (if not paranoid), “competitive,” and INTENSELY “territorial.”)

-Bill at

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

Veterans Affairs researcher in SF dead from bacterial infection

Bill — Fri, 04 May 2012 05:20:00 +0000

Dead, 17 hours after his blood stream was infected…

Some days, I have conflicts about the subject of my daily blog. A few days ago, I suggested (“tongue-in-cheek”) that a 17-year-old who rappelled into a luxury car dealership, stole a Lamborghini, and was ultimately arrested in the investigation of a shooting incident in Marin County, might make good Silicon Valley CEO material. Today, we learn that Yahoo’s CEO, Scott Thompson does NOT have a bachelors degree in computer science, as Yahoo misrepresented last week in a regulatory filing. On the other hand, the artist in me wants to talk about the auction of Edvard Munch’s “THE SCREAM” yesterday for $119.9 million.

But when I want to rank events by importance, I remember the way that one of my friends and former directors, a three-tour-of-Vietnam Green Beret, used to dismiss UNIMPORTANT matters by saying, “Nobody has DIED here.”

Well, somebody has died here. And my M.S. in Bacteriology has won the debate….

Richard Din, 25, of San Francisco was a young research associate at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Din died over the weekend after he became infected with a bacterium with which he had been working. Din lived on Treasure Island. He died Saturday 17 hours after he came down with a blood stream infection by the bacterium, Neisseria meningitidis, a species that can cause blood infections and meningitis.

SFGate.com says:

For the past six month, he had been working for the Northern California Institute for Research and Education, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing veterans’ health research based at the San Francisco VA hospital. He had been handling the bacterium for several weeks before his death.

Despite the unlikely chance that Din could have contracted the illness from another source, the cause of his death remains under investigation. Officials from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the bacterium is linked in the United States to the deaths of about 75 people a year, but is a comparatively common cause of infection and death in sub-Saharan Africa.

The California Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the death and has up to six months to do so. Din’s coworkers, who have been treated preventatively with antibiotics, have described Din as “fastidious,” a good adjective for a medical microbiologist.

A “town hall” meeting was held Monday at the VA medical center to inform employees about what happened and to offer grief-counseling services, said Dr. Harry Lampiris, chief of infectious disease at the hospital. Lampiris said Din’s parents, who are not from this area, attended the meeting.

We extend our sympathies to the friends and family of Richard Din, and we remind the public of the limits of human science and medicine in a very dangerous world.

-Bill at

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

Sighted: A new subspecies? :-)

Bill — Thu, 03 May 2012 04:02:31 +0000

Over the past week or so, I may have sighted a new subspecies of the California maroon!

I have written definitively, but not exhaustively, about these folks on CA highways.

I use the term “maroon” because “moron” is a derogatory term.

Maroon is a “cartoon” term!

I have not yet compiled my “field guide.” I keep finding new types!

The natural habitat of this potentially new subspecies of the California maroon is on I-580, between Livermore and Dublin/Pleasanton exits. Although the subspecies varies in plumage from Mercedes Benz to Toyota Corolla (a smaller but equally engaging variety), the subspecies can be recognized by the fact that it is driving about 40-45 miles/hour in an area with a speed limit of 65 (a mere “suggestion” in California ) and that it leaves about 200 to 500 yards of empty space in the lane in front of it (and MILES of bumper-to-bumper cars stacked up BEHIND it, unable to pass)! I usually see MORE individuals of this subspecies when I am on my motorcycle than when I am in my automobile, because, when I am on FOUR wheels, I am usually bogged down in bumper-to-bumper traffic BEHIND these maroons!

Today alone, I saw THREE of these maroons, in the span of 15 minutes during the morning commute! One was of Toyota Corolla plumage; one was of the domestic pickup truck variety, and a third was of the 18-wheeled coloration. The last type may have been moving slowly and leaving about 300 yards of empty space in front of it to avoid KILLING some of the OTHER types of maroons on that stretch of highway!

I have learned that I am not the only one interested in the slow-moving, “leave-football-fields-worth-of-space” subspecies of maroon, however. One particular morning, I saw a California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer on a motorcycle PULL OVER one of these maroons for driving TOO SLOWLY in the “number 1″ lane (that is the left-most lane to you non-Californians)!

Hopefully, the maroon was ticketed, tagged, and released to a safer environment than the California Interstate Highway system, where it could be easily hurt.

If you see one of these maroons on I-580 in the morning, HONK your appreciation at seeing a new and fascinating subspecies!

-Bill at

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

Filming of “Star Trek” sequel occurring now at Lawrence Livermore Lab

Bill — Wed, 02 May 2012 04:36:04 +0000

This week, folks are filming some scenes for the new J.J. Abrams “Star Trek” movie at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Thinking back a few years ago when my wife and I stood on the hilltop above and watched a green laser shoot skyward from “The Lab,” I muse, “Where could be a better place to ‘beam up?’”

“We do have a film crew on site, known only as the HH project. We are not allowing media on the set, per their request,” lab spokeswoman Lynda Seaver said in an e-mail Tuesday.

The crew is filming segments in the National Ignition Facility (NIF), according to Dale Kaye, president of the Livermore Valley Chamber of Commerce and a Livermore Valley film commissioner. The NIF is where scientists are using ultraviolet laser light from the world’s largest laser (how would WE know? ) to produce thermonuclear ignition at temperatures and densities similar to those in the sun.

The NIF building could house three football fields. (Presumably AFTER they would move out the equipment! )

Many local hotel rooms have been booked to accommodate the cast and crew. Good for Livermore!

The movie is scheduled to open in May of 2013 The film is the sequel to the blockbuster 2009 film (which was a prequel to the original “Star Trek” TV series) and stars Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana and Benedict Cumberbatch as the latest villain.

Reporting live from Livermore, California, I am…

-Bill at

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

Stolen $200,000 Lamborghini found in 17-year-old’s storage container!

Bill — Tue, 01 May 2012 04:02:45 +0000

The 17-year-old unnamed minor is from San Rafael!

The storage contain is located in Point Richmond!

A stolen 2008, canary-yellow Lamborghini Spyder Gallardo convertible (1) one of the “most distinctive and longed-for cars in the world,” is owned by Guy Fieri, a Santa Rosa chef who stars in the NBC game show “Minute to Win It” and Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.” In the latter show, Fieri explores “greasy spoon” restaurants around the U.S. in his red 1967 Camaro SS convertible. His Lamborghini was stolen in 2011, on March 8, from the Bentley, Lamborghini, Lotus dealership on Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco (Google Map). (“All things come to he who waits….“) Police reported that the thief climbed to the roof of the dealership, attached a climbing rope, and rappelled in the showroom. The thief cut the lock to the dealership’s garage and drove off with Fieri’s Lamborghini!

Daring! Maybe they should have had motion sensors, or maybe, if they did, everyone was just too SLOW! You have to be fast to catch a Lamborghini!

Later in the week, the Lamborghini was seen on security cameras blazing across the Golden Gate Bridge, rolling into Tiburon, and out again (yes, the wealthy people of Tiburon petitioned their city to install a camera that records the license plates of all people driving onto and off of the peninsula).

(The car can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in under 4 seconds. The less-expensive, all-electric Tesla Roadster can accelerate from 0 to 60 in 3.7 seconds. Choice is GOOD! )

Wait, it gets BETTER!

Marin County (one of the wealthiest counties in the country) sheriff’s investigators had gone to the Point Richmond storage site in the investigation of a shooting on Miller Avenue in Mill Valley (Google Map). A motorcyclist dressed in all-black clothing and wearing a black helmet fired a gun into a parked car, in which two people were injured from flying glass. The 17-year-old boy was arrested on Saturday in connection with that shooting. The boy had a loaded handgun in his possession when officers arrested him. His name has not been released because he is a minor.

Busy, busy, busy….

In addition to the Lamborghini, officers found a motorcycle and other items associated with the shooting, in the storage container!

I think that this young man MAY be Silicon Valley CEO “material!”

“I would like to thank the Marin County Sheriff’s Office and the Mill Valley Police Department for their hard work and effort in the recovery of my car,” Fieri said in an e-mail statement. “I’m glad we can put this behind us, and feel better knowing that justice is being served.“

-Bill at

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

Chevron reports $6.47 billion quarterly profit!

Bill — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 05:01:57 +0000

I don’t know about you – Big Oil company profits just make me angry.

Angry because Big Oil profits at the expense of economic recovery in other sectors….

Goods that move by ship, plane, or truck go up in price because of fuel costs.

Travel (or even just commuting to work) goes up in cost for all of us.

San Ramon, California-based Chevron reported a first-quarter profit of $6.47 billion, aided by rising oil prices and margins for refinery operations.

“Compared with the year-ago quarter, Chevron’s profit rose 4.2 percent. Sales and other operating revenues totaled $58.9 billion, Chevron stated. Those were 0.8 percent higher than the same quarter a year ago.”

The people who live in their wallets on Wall Street were not pleased, however. The “per-share” profits reported by Chevron fell 11 cents BELOW Wall Street’s predictions! (It always struck me as “interesting” that companies are penalized for failing to achieve BAD ESTIMATES. I wonder if the people who PROVIDE the bad estimates are similarly penalized…. ) Chevron’s overall per-share profit, including the gains, was $3.27.

“Legal issues also hound Chevron in the wake of oil leaks near the coast of Brazil and petroleum contamination in the Amazon jungle of Ecuador.”

No kidding!

The profit for Chevron’s “upstream” business (exploration, development, and production) rose 3.2% and totaled $6.17 billion.

“Profit for the downstream business — refinery, retail and transportation operations — totaled $804 million, a 29.3 percent jump. The U.S. downstream unit, which includes the company’s refineries in Richmond and elsewhere, produced a profit of $459 million, up 3.8 percent from a year ago.

Chevron is now producing earnings of $26.79 a barrel, the company told analysts Friday during a conference call. That’s $7 ahead of its closest competitor on that key benchmark.

These kinds of profits have helped Chevron amass a cash pile of $20 billion.”

And they did it the “old-fashioned” way… without resorting to the kind of creativity and innovation that propelled Apple to amass ITS (much larger) pile of cash! While improving the lives of many of “the rest of us….”

Chevron also announced that it would increase its dividend, its third increase in a year. That has CERTAINLY got to make some of America’s wealthiest 1% even wealthier.

“Dividends are a very important priority in terms of our use of cash,” Patricia Yarrington, Chevron’s chief financial officer, told analysts. “It is, in fact, the No. 1 priority.”

I’ll BET it is!

-Bill at

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

Newport Beach, CA to Ensenada, Mexico Regatta: 3 dead and 1 missing

Bill — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 05:48:12 +0000

The Aegean, a 37-foot sailboat in the sailing regatta from Newport Beach, California to Ensenada, Mexico DISAPPEARED today. Race officials called the Coast Guard. Then, around 10 AM, vessels near the Coronado Islands, Mexico, reported seeing debris in the water. A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and a response boat were dispatched to search the area.

According to a U.S. Coast Guard news release, the bodies of three crew members of the Aegean were turned over to the San Diego County Corner this afternoon.

Coast Guard crews aboard a Jayhawk helicopter, a 45-foot Response Boat, and a C-130 Hercules aircraft as well as the Coast Guard Cutter Sea Otter, a Mexican Navy vessel and civilian vessels are searching for the remaining sailboat crew member.

Over 200 boats entered the Lexus Newport to Ensenada Yacht Race, which spans April 27-29.

The Coast Guard is currently reviewing the deaths of crew members of the Low Speed Chase, which was driven onto the rocks off the Farrallon Islands after two rogue waves swept the deck in a yacht race off Northern California.

-Bill at

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