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| The handheld caterpillar, April 2012 |
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| One of many local caterpillars, April 2012 |
April 27, 2012
Entomology Bleg, Yellow Caterpillar Category
A handful of these found in the backyard this morning.
April 18, 2012
April 13, 2012
Friday Funnyousness
Billy Crystal is 64. He isn't the last of the great East Coast storytelling Jewish comedians. That would be Myron Cohen, who's been gone awhile, and I have no idea who might be next in line. But he did grow up not just steeped, but marinated in that wonderfully fertile Jewish Catskills Broadway music business nightclub society that spawned the success of Cohen and the excess of, e.g., Jackie Mason. So he knows all the tropes by imitation, and he deploys them here to full force and effect, bringing it all to closure with what is not only a laugh but a lightly coded reference to all just kill me jokes.
The bear is awesome.
April 06, 2012
Yeah, I'll change yer flat tire, Merle. Don't you get your finger-picking hands all covered with erl…
Merle Haggard is 75 today. Happy Birthday, Merle. Keep on working, y'hear?
April 05, 2012
hashtag appleblossom
An audit of a Foxconn facility in China reveals serious and persistent violations of Chinese labor law at a plant in Zhenzhoug tied to the production of Apple Computer's products, products that lately have made the Cupertino company the richest in the world. Apple called for the audit in the wake of a tide of criticism of its dependence on the by-now notorious practices of the Taiwanese manufacturer. Apple CEO Tim Cook is on hand as well, taking the stern look.
Apple used Foxconn as an intermediary to extract labor from tens of thousand of Chinese workers making its enormously successful products, and those workers were worked hard by their bosses, excessively hard according to the Fair Labor Association, which conducted the investigation.
In other news, Apple Computer has announced plans to begin delivering quarterly dividends to its stockholders, beginning with a planned payout of $2.65 per share, and buying back $10 billion in stock over the coming three years, to be paid for out of the unprecedented hoard of cash ammassed by the Cupertino company, currently estimated to exceed, comfortably, 110 billion dollars, which is to say, $110 billion in cold hard cash in American money, itself the current nonpariel of monies. Apple plans to hand out $45 billion of its cash over the next three years persuing these ends, which, at the rate cash keeps accumulating at Apple, will be more than made up for, in the estimate of John Gruber at Daring Fireball. "At their current rate of generating earnings, even with these initiatives their cash war chest should grow."
He's estimating there that Apple will own significantly more that $110 billion in cash on hand in three years time.
Seems like it's bonus time for the workers who made Apple all that money. I mean, if guys who are trying to resuscitate the CDO market are getting bonuses at Goldman Sachs, shouldn't the people who, as it turns out, made Apple more money than it knows what to do with get a bonus for what they've brought about? Foxconn worked a lot of people like pack mules to fulfill orders for Apple's insanely popular line of products. Tim Cook should set up a card table at Foxconn's gate and shake the hand and pass over thousands in cash to every Apple worker who comes by, is what I'm saying.
March 27, 2012
Solaris Is A Novel Printed In Polish
tristero at Hullabaloo recommends Solaris The Definitive Edition, a recent translation made directly into English of Stanislaw Lem's Polish science fiction classic, Solaris, an edition commissioned by Lem's estate, and now available to read in Amazon's Kindle-delivered ebook format.
I understand that the version of Solaris I read years ago was only more or less adequately translated into English from somebody else's mediocre French translation of Lem's original, and not to be taken seriously for all the reasons. I don't remember it as a very remarkable read. Tarkovsky's Solaris, on the other hand, is a very good thing to see, even granting tristero's point that Tarkovsky is trying to make over Lem's material for his own purposes entirely, not to realize Lem's vison of Solaris on the screen, but to realize his own. Steven Soderbergh tried not to remake Tarkovsky's film, but fell into its gravity well and the result was an English language version inflected by a Russian version of Lem's Polish original, translated from print to screen.
Lem hated versions of Solaris, print and film. He stood by the original.
The Kindle audiobook of the new English edition is more readily available than the text itself, a sign that the Lem estate not only commissioned this edition but also gave Amazon some exclusive limited right to distribute the thing. A collector's item in the age of mechanical reproduction.
I understand that the version of Solaris I read years ago was only more or less adequately translated into English from somebody else's mediocre French translation of Lem's original, and not to be taken seriously for all the reasons. I don't remember it as a very remarkable read. Tarkovsky's Solaris, on the other hand, is a very good thing to see, even granting tristero's point that Tarkovsky is trying to make over Lem's material for his own purposes entirely, not to realize Lem's vison of Solaris on the screen, but to realize his own. Steven Soderbergh tried not to remake Tarkovsky's film, but fell into its gravity well and the result was an English language version inflected by a Russian version of Lem's Polish original, translated from print to screen.
Lem hated versions of Solaris, print and film. He stood by the original.
The Kindle audiobook of the new English edition is more readily available than the text itself, a sign that the Lem estate not only commissioned this edition but also gave Amazon some exclusive limited right to distribute the thing. A collector's item in the age of mechanical reproduction.
March 20, 2012
The Once and Future Beach in Santa Cruz
The San Lorenzo River isn't notorious for its length. If you stretched it out on a ruler it wouldn't be fifty miles long. But when winter rains reach Santa Cruz County the San Lorenzo collects a prodigious amount of water from the steep hills on either side of the narrow valley it courses through. Characteristically enough, 17 inches of rain fell in Ben Lomond, about ten miles upriver from Santa Cruz, between Tuesday of last week and the weekend. All the other spots along the river, Felton and Brookdale and Boulder Creek, contributed their fair share as well, and the river, which carries hardly a creek's worth of water in the summertime, surged heartily out of the enclosing valley as is its annual habit and down onto the marine floodplain where Santa Cruz sits waiting to receive it year after year.
The river goes where it can, and has had its way with Santa Cruz many times. This year the river took an unexpected turn on its way across the last two hundred yards or so of beach to its meeting with Monterey Bay. Instead of barrelling directly through the sandbar that normally blocks its mouth in the summer, it swerved hard right, threatening the foundations of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Earthmoving equipment was brought in to build a levee of sorts to persuade the river back onto its normal course, but the river and the ocean tide are combining to make that a hard sell.
The river goes where it can, and has had its way with Santa Cruz many times. This year the river took an unexpected turn on its way across the last two hundred yards or so of beach to its meeting with Monterey Bay. Instead of barrelling directly through the sandbar that normally blocks its mouth in the summer, it swerved hard right, threatening the foundations of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Earthmoving equipment was brought in to build a levee of sorts to persuade the river back onto its normal course, but the river and the ocean tide are combining to make that a hard sell.
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| The San Lorenzo River passes under a railroad trestle on its way to the shore of Monterey Bay, March 20, 2012 |
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| A temporary levee attempts to contain the San Lorenzo River, March 20, 2012 |
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| Ocean waves lap the black bulkhead of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, March 20, 1012 |
March 16, 2012
March 15, 2012
It's Not Not Raining Today in Santa Cruz, CA
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| Plant life from last week, prior to the current rain delay |
March 07, 2012
Near Pescadero, CA
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| Pescadero Creek empties into the Pacific Ocean, March 4, 2012 |
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| An area of bog extends to the north of Pescadero Creek, March 4, 2012 |
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| Two hovels hug the shore near Pescadero Creek, March 4, 2012 |
February 19, 2012
Just off Main, Watsonville, CA, Feb. 19, 2012
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| February in Watsonville |
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| Tule in February in Watsonville, off Main Street |
February 06, 2012
Public Service Announcement
Due to unforseen circumstances I was unable to watch the Super Bowl telecast this weekend, your honor. I assure you I made sincere plans to watch (in the company of others who might have served as witnesses should any question arise as to whether or not I'd conscientiously performed my necessary part in the thing again this year). Jury duty, yes your honor, that would be the other one.
Things came up. That's all I can say. No, not an excuse, your honor, no, I agree with you there: not an excuse at all. I did something else, plain and simple. Yes, your honor, I will as the court directs let people know I didn't see the game and bear the full benefit of their post-game insight into what exactly it was that transpired as one who is in no position to contradict anything they might venture to say on the matter for the rest of my natural days.
Things came up. That's all I can say. No, not an excuse, your honor, no, I agree with you there: not an excuse at all. I did something else, plain and simple. Yes, your honor, I will as the court directs let people know I didn't see the game and bear the full benefit of their post-game insight into what exactly it was that transpired as one who is in no position to contradict anything they might venture to say on the matter for the rest of my natural days.
January 10, 2012
Occupy Mitt Romney
The signal advantage of a Mitt Romney candidacy is that he is so archetypically the 1% Occupiers have wanted everyone to talk about all along. Let's turn our attention to what Mitt Romney and the 1% mean for ten months, please.
January 08, 2012
A Sand By Any Other Name Would Still Stick Swell
My mother, as a recent Albertan Chemistry graduate in the 1950s, published research on petroleum extraction from what back then was unhesitatingly referred to as the Tar Sands. If you’ve seen that shit, what is technically and politely referred to as Bitumen, you’ll understand the usage. Hint: Don’t step in it if you value your footwear.
Since then, in an effort to turn black sticky sand into clean refreshing profits, there’s been a furious re-branding in favor of “oil” not “tar”, ignoring what it looks like when it’s in the ground. In practice, this means that when anyone uses the term “oil sands” you can safely assume they’re in the pay of the pipeline promoters.
— Tim Bray, ongoing.
January 01, 2012
2012, Yours To Assemble. Have a Happy!
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| The Occupy Santa Cruz encampment on the San Lorenzo River benchlands below the County Government Center, Santa Cruz, Ca, December 7, 2011. |
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| The Occupy Santa Cruz encampment, on the San Lorenzo River benchlands below the County Government Center, Santa Cruz, Ca., December 7, 2011. |
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| Other people peaceably assembled, San Francisco, Ca., October 2, 2011. |
December 18, 2011
Warren Hellman, July 25,1934 - December 18, 2011
Warren Hellman is the only billionaire I've ever said a word to, and it was complimentary, mostly. I didn't bring up the part about the mayonnaise, which I abhor. His Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival was a grand patrician gesture, a weekend of free music in Golden Gate Park which greatly pleased the hundreds of thousands of people who attended each year. I don't know what provisions he's made for continuing the festival after his death, if any, and losing that would be a sad thing. I'm pretty sure they'll be putting his damn mayonnaise on everything forever and ever, though.
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| Mr. Hellman is wearing a red shirt and a two-tone ball cap in this photo taken at the Strawberry Music Festival, Camp Mather, California, 2007 |
December 16, 2011
Christopher Hitchens, April 13, 1949 – December 15, 2011
Christopher Hitchens was an extremist steeped in the refinements of London literary culture. He wrote well, especially in the key of opprobrium. He eviscerated Kissinger in print, and even took on recieved wisdom regarding Mother Theresa, complicating her sainthood with a contrary reading of her place in India.
Galvanized by their plight under Sadaam Hussein, Christopher Hitchens strongly favored the cause of the brutalized Kurdish people. It's a mugs game to pick sides in the Middle East, locus of the greatest concentration of aggrieved peoples per hectare in the world, and Hitchens saw the logic of his alleigance [sorry but i cant even spell the word —p.r.] put to the ultimate test in the runup to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. He couldn't help but hope the despised Hussein would be removed, and favored the war. He didn't relent when the causus belli was shown to be so much whole cloth soon after the invasion, followed almost immediately by years of score-settling on the part of all the aggrieved of Iraq, whose balance sheets stretch continuously back five millennia in recorded history now, creating, for example, in that band of foothills sloping eastward from Asia Minor to Persia north of Mesopotamia a coherent swath of culture that flowered emphatically with Urartu all those long years ago and by virtue of the vicissitudes in that same place became what Hitchens cared to call the Kurds, holders of the debt owed to them by their history, aggrieved to this day by its denial, who may yet benefit from what's said to have ended yesterday. But still.
Public argument has long been an institution in London, and Hitchens was a master of argument there before his arrival in America. In public Hitchens spoke with lucidity and force. His rhetoric was full of the jugular-seeking barb. Speech for him was often enough an offensive weapon pointed at his opponent rather than the topic at hand.
He was not a fool. He was widely read and could write coherently about the books he confronted. He liked to drink and smoke. He became a U.S. citizen after long residence here persuing a career as a renowned journalist. Cancer of the throat killed him. He died yesterday.
Galvanized by their plight under Sadaam Hussein, Christopher Hitchens strongly favored the cause of the brutalized Kurdish people. It's a mugs game to pick sides in the Middle East, locus of the greatest concentration of aggrieved peoples per hectare in the world, and Hitchens saw the logic of his alleigance [sorry but i cant even spell the word —p.r.] put to the ultimate test in the runup to the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. He couldn't help but hope the despised Hussein would be removed, and favored the war. He didn't relent when the causus belli was shown to be so much whole cloth soon after the invasion, followed almost immediately by years of score-settling on the part of all the aggrieved of Iraq, whose balance sheets stretch continuously back five millennia in recorded history now, creating, for example, in that band of foothills sloping eastward from Asia Minor to Persia north of Mesopotamia a coherent swath of culture that flowered emphatically with Urartu all those long years ago and by virtue of the vicissitudes in that same place became what Hitchens cared to call the Kurds, holders of the debt owed to them by their history, aggrieved to this day by its denial, who may yet benefit from what's said to have ended yesterday. But still.
Public argument has long been an institution in London, and Hitchens was a master of argument there before his arrival in America. In public Hitchens spoke with lucidity and force. His rhetoric was full of the jugular-seeking barb. Speech for him was often enough an offensive weapon pointed at his opponent rather than the topic at hand.
He was not a fool. He was widely read and could write coherently about the books he confronted. He liked to drink and smoke. He became a U.S. citizen after long residence here persuing a career as a renowned journalist. Cancer of the throat killed him. He died yesterday.
December 02, 2011
November 27, 2011
Details suggest taxpayers paid a price beyond dollars…
A fresh narrative of the financial crisis of 2007 to 2009 emerges from 29,000 pages of Fed documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and central bank records of more than 21,000 transactions. While Fed officials say that almost all of the loans were repaid and there have been no losses, details suggest taxpayers paid a price beyond dollars as the secret funding helped preserve a broken status quo and enabled the biggest banks to grow even bigger. —BloombergDo tell.
November 18, 2011
November 13, 2011
October 18, 2011
October 13, 2011
hashtag revolution
"Do you understand that 400 people in this country have more wealth than the bottom 150 MILLION? Does that sound fair to you?"
—fervent comment found here.
It depends on how well the bottom 150 million are provided for. For my money, the 400 can go ahead and be that wealthy if and only if the needs of those 150 million are adequately met, and when that happens, the 400 can go ahead and try to be as wealthy as the bottom 250 or 300 million, on the same plan, for all I care. It doesn't matter to me how much the 400 are worth compared to any other fraction of society so long as the 150 million, the 250 million, the 300 million, the 99% of us, don't have to eat shit for that to be the case.
October 10, 2011
The Polo Field To Date, October 2011
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| A View of the Polo Field From The East October 2, 2011 |
Fifty years ago, on October 7, 1961, the Polo Field in Golden Gate Park was occupied by one of the largest crowds in San Francisco history. By most accounts half a million people gathered there that day. I was one of them, squatting on the grassy berm above the playing field far across a vast sea of people from the stage where Father Peyton led us in the Rosary.
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| A View of the Polo Field From The North October 7, 1961, via |
A little more that five years later I was at the Human Be-in, held on that same field. It was a much smaller crowd that day, but in many ways equally impressive. There was a great deal of chanting on both occasions, I seem to recall.
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