07/30/08 12:37 - 75ºF - ID#45190
California - Earthquake Fodder
A book I've ranted and raved about, and suggest every single California resident read, is A Crack In The Edge Of The World, by Simon Winchester. The book is a historical study of the San Andreas fault, how settlers approached living through natural disasters, how dramatically such a seismically active area can affect the landscape, and most beautifully he recreates the morning of the "big one" using historical accounts from survivors. Mr. Winchester is an Oxford-trained geologist and an author of many excellent books - his writing style is captivating and engrossing. Why do I bring up the book? Because he studies the historical nonchalance with which Californians choose to approach any risks to living where they do. This mindset, according to Mr. Winchester, originated with the risk-averse settlers that put everything on the line to migrate to the mine fields in the mid-19th century. Also, he mentions something very, very prescient to current events.
Yesterday, southern California was struck with a magnitude 5.4 earthquake, the epicenter of which was a few miles east of downtown Los Angeles. In Winchester's book he mentions in particular that seismologists have undertaken revealing studies about how very seismically active areas often suffer smaller earthquakes before a much larger one. Lo and behold, today an article discusses the subject.
One of the most alarming facts of this situation I have found was from a different article in the SF Chronicle, which was special report regarding the exodus of the middle class in their fair city. SF residents are becoming a dramatically richer demographic as a result of high property values. Many regular folks simply can't afford to live where they work, and the statistics are alarming. The article is a good read in any case, but in particular I found this a very, very scary situation -
High housing prices are also a key reason that among 2,227 sworn police officers in San Francisco, only 675 live in the city, a little more than 30 percent, said Gary Delagnes, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Association.
The nightmare consequence of this would be an evening earthquake that shuts down BART and bridges, blocking two-thirds of the city's police officers and large percentages of other first responders from quickly attending to life-threatening building collapses, injuries or fires.
In other words, it is certain that a vast percentage of law enforcement and first responders will not be able to access the city during the time of its most vital need when an earthquake strikes. If you live in SF, you better think carefully about that. It seems apparent that if another massive quake hits the Bay Area that San Francisco may very well suffer just as badly, if not worse, than the city did in 1906 despite all of the better construction techniques and warning systems. If many first responders cannot access the city, how will a massive fire like North Beach suffered in 1906 be stopped? How can an orderly evacuation be conducted, if at all? What about triage? I hope their first responder plan is water tight despite what seems to be an alarming weakness. Part of the warning system relies on seismologists monitoring murmurs that indicate an earthquake is coming, but there is no way to predict exactly when an earthquake will strike.
The good news for ol' Frisco is that the area truly due for a big one is southern California. Los Angeles suffered an earthquake in the early 1800's that, based on survivors' accounts, was at least as severe if not more severe than the one that struck in 1906. La La Land is overdue, but in truth the San Andreas Fault could rupture anywhere and the scientists say that enough pressure has built up along the fault line to expect another big one within 30 years.
Permalink: California_Earthquake_Fodder.html
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Category: politics
07/28/08 12:53 - 75ºF - ID#45171
Mutiny in the Op-Ed of the Wash. Post?
A certain segment of our society loves pointing to polls suggesting that is the express wish of the American people for the Iraq war to end, and stomp their feet like spoiled children when their candidates teeter even slightly... especially when men who know what they are talking about (such as Gen. Petraeus) give that candidate information they find politically offensive. So much for "fact finding." I just have one simple question. Why is Speaker Pelosi ignoring the will of the American people on one issue while simultaneously trumpeting the will of the American people to justify her stance on another issue?
You see, Speaker Pelosi is playing a dangerous game on an issue she is dead wrong about. Forget this non-sense about opening the strategic oil reserve - it is a fallacious argument because these liberal politicians argue themselves that drilling won't affect price. Putting 90 billion barrels of oil on the market, they argue, will not affect price accordingly but putting 70 million barrels on the market is somehow a better solution in their eyes. Not only is this argument insulting to the intelligence of the American middle class who are being hurt incredibly by gas prices, but it defies even the most basic tenets of supply and demand. Even the length of time it would take to put the oil on the market has been incredibly overblown. Details aside, this is what the American people clearly want and if she doesn't allow the vote backlash against Democrats will be enormous, albeit unfairly for certain Democrats who, unlike Speaker Pelosi, respects the will of the American people.
Speaker Pelosi is willing to watch Rome burn to make a point and to stay true to the environmentalists she is beholden to. Even papers such as the Washington Post are now standing with mouth agape at Nancy Pelosi. She and she alone is to blame for preventing a vote, which she can do by decree as Speaker, which is a vote that would likely pass. What Americans want only matters to her when Americans agree with her. If she continues she will not be Speaker in another year and will be forced to walk the plank for potentially endangering the majority they currently enjoy.
Trent Lott lost his position for much, much less. If defying the will of the American people based on ideology is treasonous in the context of George W. Bush (sound familiar?), then in this context it is equally applicable as well. People should not be surprised to see that Congress is less popular than President Bush, and under the current leadership it is truly miraculous that in two years Democrats have proven that their leadership is even more haphazard than when Republicans ran things. It has only been two years! When Americans watch and listen to the leaders of Congress, can it be possible that by removing the incompetent Republicans that things have actually gotten worse? Watch and listen to Speaker Pelosi and judge for yourself.
Permalink: Mutiny_in_the_Op_Ed_of_the_Wash_Post_.html
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07/25/08 10:02 - 69ºF - ID#45134
Love Affair Over?
London Times mocks Obama in ways only the British can -
American press corps admits realities of Obama campaign's arrogance, stoking suspicions many Americans have always had of the man. FNC? National Review? Try The New Republic -
Permalink: Love_Affair_Over_.html
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07/24/08 10:22 - 66ºF - ID#45120
Endless eBay Frustration
I've posted about this before - this is where (e:paul) would find the old link and leave it here but I'm not that industrious.
For years now, I've been looking for a very specific copy of Jack Kerouac's On The Road. I've owned and read several copies previously and I suppose you could say that to me this is more than just a book. My interest in Beat literature has evolved from voracious reading to voracious reading with an additional wish to collect paperback copies with original cover art. Some examples -
I just bought The Subterraneans from another guy on eBay a month ago. Now I wish I would have waited... or maybe I'll buy this one and donate my copy to a local library or a friend.
This is a copy currently up for bid. THIS IS WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR. Cruelly (at least in my view) I just missed out on a copy like this a half-hour ago, for a third of the price. The guy who won? The guy who sold me The Subterraneans! Still though, this is a slightly nicer copy and is three years older (fourth edition, 1960). Even with the picture a bit fuzzy it is hard to believe that this is a 48-year old paperback. Is it worth up to $30? Had I not missed out on bidding I could have gotten the other copy for $11, including shipping. That is the frustrating bit - on eBay more often than not auctions get "bidded up" by armies of resellers. These people test maximum bid limits on honest people to bid up their auctions - I lost an auction on a similar copy of On The Road to a guy who got screwed like this to the tune of $64. Buyers with names such as f***e, a***r, t***a, etc. kept ratcheting up the auction to trigger this guy's maximum bid at the last minute. On other occasions I've seen someone flat out bid up on an auction within seconds from $4.50 to $20 - why would somebody increase the price they have to pay for the book? If you ask me, this kind of activity is borderline criminal and at the very least is completely unethical. Really, when the sellers cry about eBay's rules I laugh. Where else can people be readily ripped off and the company facilitating it all has no rules to protect buyers from predatory tactics like I've described?
So now somebody with a similarly anonymous name has bid on this copy I'm watching.... and I wait.
Permalink: Endless_eBay_Frustration.html
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07/14/08 03:15 - 74ºF - ID#45014
Quick News
It will be interesting to see what happens if in fact the riskiest stuff wasn't on the balance sheet.
2. John McCain states that the figure he tries to model himself after is Theodore Roosevelt. While I wouldn't exactly call it a direct comparison, he might be the closest guy around. Teddy Roosevelt was far more intellectual than McCain is - Roosevelt had a brilliant, brilliant mind. He was a true Renaissance man and if you ask me is the single most interesting president we've ever had, with the possible exception of George Washington. Actually I'd skip the article about McCain and go straight to Theodore Roosevelt's Wiki page - it is much more interesting.
Permalink: Quick_News.html
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07/01/08 11:49 - 69ºF - ID#44837
Coquille St. Stench w/ baby bok choy
Permalink: Coquille_St_Stench_w_baby_bok_choy.html
Words: 93
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On a side Note I haven't been there since I was a young kid and it would be great to go back again. To bad you didn't get any Chocalate. I went to a trader Joes in Carolina and they had there own beer there, it seemed like a pretty nice place.
(e:peter) - Hey man, I'm not criticizing you for having an opinion. I think you know that. It's well thought out. I'm just saying that I've heard these things in the past and feel that it is a lot of supposition. I think we got caught with our pants down in a major way in a disaster that many said was inevitable. It was only inevitable that the poorest among the citizens would have the hardest time in a disaster like that, and I think it would be true regardless of where the disaster occurred. I visited NO a year after Katrina happened - I saw exactly what happened to the city because we drove through those poor neighborhoods. Seeing many black people suffering live on TV stirred up a lot of racial bitterness that has always been seething - then people say "well if it were white people this would have never happened!" We don't know that! That is absolutely bogus and I reject that kind of supposition. People have to remember, EVERYBODY suffered greatly in that region of the country and it doesn't help that this particular region is bar none amongst the poorest in the USA. People are almost equating the response to Katrina as some kind of genocide that the government intentionally reacted slowly to fix - that is absolutely insane. The single greatest embarrassment that Katrina laid bare as proof was that the richest country the world has ever seen has little capability to protect its most vulnerable when a disaster occurs. White, black, brown, whatever - that is a scary thought for all of us.
So far I think (e:sara) has the most logical explanation for the mindset - the bigger events are so spread apart that the risk seems minimal in the context of time. I suppose the frequency is tempered with the eventual scale of the disaster. Quakes are just one problem that Californians deal with - mudslides, droughts, power grid issues (brought upon entirely by themselves, I might add), but it is clear that people work through it because of the greatness of everything else.
(e:peter) - I'm not buying the racial/economical crap. I knew someone was going to go there.
as a NY-tranplant living in Southern California, I have felt exactly one earthquake in 7 years, and at the time, I could've sworn someone ran into the garages under my apartment with their car - a big "bang" and the room swayed..that's about it.
Some of my friends here in the office felt a bit yesterday, while I, who sit 100 feet away, felt nothing.
I know a few people here who have lived through very bad earthquakes in other areas of California, and of course it's a crazy horrific terrible thing.
I'm still waiting though. I always tend to get a little pissed when I don't feel it. Not that I want the Big One, but fuck!
In regards to post-911 NY activity, and granted I was not in NYC when that happened, but it seemed to me that things didn't exactly go smoothly at first, and that first responders absolutely did have a hard time getting to ground zero. What are you gonna do? That's life.
You also note in your comment that "some things are impossible to plan for" and that's just it. As regular citizens we can do our best. As City planners and emergency preparedness crews we can do our best, but you can't plan for everything. That's where faith comes in, but that's just my opinion.
Of course, and this is the real impetus of my comment, it never ceases to amaze me how people who have lived here (CA) their whole lives, and who have experienced semi-serious earthquakes don't worry about it one bit. When I tell them I'm from Buffalo, they look at me like 1) what a poor soul, and 2) I must be crazy. When I tell them I miss the weather, I must be crazy. Their whole thing is that Buffalo winter is sure to come every year, whereas you could have a good 10, 20, 30 years with no even quasi-serious earhquake, so to them it's a no-brainer. You will probably have the same gut-reaction I did at first (well, fuck, at least I won't die with my fucking house on top of my head, gosh, put on some gloves, you'll be fine). But, seriously, you're right, it's not thought about that much at all in terms of fear.
The bottom line, I think, is that people become accustomed to what they know. Talk to old people in Buffalo and that's the first they say about living in Californa - EARTHQUAKES!!! Just about anyone I know here would much rather deal with that risk occasionally than have the surety of a shitty winter.
I'm somewhere in between...take it as it comes, whaddya gonna do?
In other words, it is complicated! I love the state of California and feel as if it is a second home, and the more I have learned the more concerned I've become regarding what might happen if another big quake struck in a densely populated area. New Orleans didn't have the amount of complications that SF would in the event of a natural disaster. Katrina proved that we had our pants down in a major way, and I worry about the fact that despite learning as much as we can from our mistakes that a disaster in the Bay Area could be just as ugly, if not worse. First responders would make the difference between life or death for many if a big quake hit... could you imagine 9/11 with limited triage and limited ability to maintain law and order at the outset? That is a serious concern if it is true that a large majority of public servants in SF do not actually live there.
The place and the people are magic and I don't want to see people die as a result of something that *might* have been prevented. I want to live there one day as well, which affects my interest. I'm not saying that their plans are inadequate - I'm just saying that some things are impossible to plan for, and when a vulnerability comes to light people should know about it.
More interesting is your passion on the subject.
Where did it come from?