tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59274562024-03-19T02:00:32.234-07:00Views by the BayA journal from what was once the most beautiful place on EarthStephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.comBlogger5753125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5927456.post-38951167655838094912024-03-19T02:00:00.000-07:002024-03-19T02:00:00.132-07:00Toe Spacing: More Important Than You Probably Thought<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPwg2wc-R00eHxDfjc1E8dcApDU4spNFu-OdZRbAtoTuGgJplV40E5iSbQ8yvDNOej4UVFoID46MVzs8c72fH9FRz_aMx8kXWN3jfKQ-GMHPYBYK_q4mnXlHhxXBHUszvP9zhrUjn_i4are3t1WbataZz2xe2fK4NwDR0qO1UdmGGHybMVyW0FUQ/s1330/Screenshot%202024-03-18%20at%209.14.33%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="clear: right; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1330" data-original-width="1126" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPwg2wc-R00eHxDfjc1E8dcApDU4spNFu-OdZRbAtoTuGgJplV40E5iSbQ8yvDNOej4UVFoID46MVzs8c72fH9FRz_aMx8kXWN3jfKQ-GMHPYBYK_q4mnXlHhxXBHUszvP9zhrUjn_i4are3t1WbataZz2xe2fK4NwDR0qO1UdmGGHybMVyW0FUQ/s320/Screenshot%202024-03-18%20at%209.14.33%E2%80%AFPM.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Toe spacers can be built into socks (bottom right</i>)</td></tr></tbody></table>
The hot new fitness device is <a href="https://www.wsj.com/lifestyle/fitness/toe-spacers-foot-flexibility-balance-ed1ce761?st=pb9cg9hty2gndi8&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink">toe spacers</a>.
<blockquote>The pursuit of perfect toe alignment has made the humble toe spreader the new must-have training tool after previously being associated mainly with pedicures and bunions. You place it between your toes to improve alignment, like braces. The items can cost under $10...
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The foot should act like a tripod, with weight evenly distributed between the center of the heel, the ball of the big toe and the base of the little toe.
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The spacing should be widest at the toes, says Dr. Dennis Cardone, a sports medicine specialist at NYU Langone Health in New York City. When the toes get scrunched, the foot tripod narrows, which can affect our balance, he says.
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Tight shoes that cramp the toes can lead to deformities, such as bunions, where the big toe is pulled toward the smaller toes, and hammer toes, where the toe becomes bent at the middle joint. The wrong shoes can also cause inflammatory conditions like plantar fasciitis...
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A study published in the medical journal Clinical Biomechanics linked the presence of toe deformities, combined with toe weakness, to increased falls in older people...
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The devices can be made from felt, foam or silicone gel. You can find basic toe spreaders in drugstores, while foot specialists sell versions for up to $65. Companies are designing colorful spacers in aqua and plum, and blingy spreaders shaped like gemstones.
</blockquote>
Several in our household wear special orthotics indoors. I don't need them--yet--but toe spacers look like an inexpensive preventive device that can pay huge dividends.
Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5927456.post-58011338316229862482024-03-18T19:29:00.000-07:002024-03-18T19:29:19.670-07:00Sites Reservoir May Come On Stream in 2032<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0BKr4C4RWD-BnZt2PF0l0CF5zWy4KR6PIQ2a203Ct8sIGUIYyt7FljBmu0986XTUYVhgCnnlYG63kUPlJsasA8a7ISDMmmL-mD3Qgqv_6FXJ6ixz8T6T9pB-68vcL1HFjVLPznKFzpL9jnWDiGZ7snl_d_yHPvEd_gcVOplumwUcNM3l6QVhYKA/s1438/Screenshot%202024-03-18%20at%206.36.37%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="clear: right; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="876" data-original-width="1438" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0BKr4C4RWD-BnZt2PF0l0CF5zWy4KR6PIQ2a203Ct8sIGUIYyt7FljBmu0986XTUYVhgCnnlYG63kUPlJsasA8a7ISDMmmL-mD3Qgqv_6FXJ6ixz8T6T9pB-68vcL1HFjVLPznKFzpL9jnWDiGZ7snl_d_yHPvEd_gcVOplumwUcNM3l6QVhYKA/s320/Screenshot%202024-03-18%20at%206.36.37%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Sites Reservoir will cover some of this<br/> area in Colusa County (Merc photo)</i></td></tr></tbody></table>
The long-delayed <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/17/largest-new-reservoir-project-in-50-years-in-california-gains-momentum/">Sites Reservoir</a> will start construction in 2026 and come on stream in 2032, all contingent upon overcoming objections by the usual suspects:
<blockquote>If the project overcomes opposition and a lawsuit by environmental groups, the 1.5 million-acre-foot Sites Reservoir would be California’s eighth largest. It would be four times the size of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park, which is the main water supply for San Francisco and the Peninsula. It would provide water to 500,000 acres of Central Valley farmlands, and 24 million people, including parts of Silicon Valley, the East Bay and Los Angeles.</blockquote>
The $4.5 billion project will be funded from a half-dozen different sources and has been "discussed on and off since the 1950s." With over 90% of the financing in place, and with a signoff from all major State and Federal agencies, Sites looks likely to happen. It's nice to know that California can still get things done.Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5927456.post-36082519722968027892024-03-17T22:25:00.000-07:002024-03-17T22:25:53.846-07:00Unexpectedly Nice<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2xi_VJbe2Jg8jfMV8pfUeOjSs29nubQWWA-C-BzHE7rLi6xIkayeUQGkvz9nbtOq8LxEklO7DYgKKzxA7vZ-YVaOHo8QOKBRPETBN-uVAxu6AEVJZLewVjXfehOLB1C5Xni1PJSSGYhAfjoqLuoV7qczxrX9y51CIy_MUFlLxk8pIWLyUM6G18g/s2610/Flowers%20on%20Trail%20%281%29.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="2610" data-original-width="2098" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2xi_VJbe2Jg8jfMV8pfUeOjSs29nubQWWA-C-BzHE7rLi6xIkayeUQGkvz9nbtOq8LxEklO7DYgKKzxA7vZ-YVaOHo8QOKBRPETBN-uVAxu6AEVJZLewVjXfehOLB1C5Xni1PJSSGYhAfjoqLuoV7qczxrX9y51CIy_MUFlLxk8pIWLyUM6G18g/s320/Flowers%20on%20Trail%20%281%29.jpeg"/></a></div>
Every 500 feet on its portion of the <a href="https://mtc.ca.gov/operations/regional-trails-parks/san-francisco-bay-trail">Bay Trail</a> the City of Foster City has placed benches for people to take in a view of the lagoon.
<br/><br/>
Some kind soul placed a bottle of flowers at one bench to brighten everyone who chanced to rest there. <br/><br/>I don't wish to over-praise the effort or its importance, but it was an unexpectedly nice public-spirited gesture in a world that could use more of them.Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5927456.post-63176342151553722472024-03-16T22:31:00.000-07:002024-03-16T22:31:58.013-07:00Light at the End of the Tunnel<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGXbJeq7dqPTYmY36u8R4vkjWJn22fNqYebjFuJQt5Xa7HIqAeZakWLBrrb-ruri2bcksvnm2-eomuCMvTQBCe5L4Shm5W39NaPEFhRfDjRoLMvv8e6YGsmRk474ed3emp5NeCZyqNsVf0-GrHGOKNmfa3Z3T0xE_T_J6PS6Wr11W1pSWTa7Lfzw/s1174/Screenshot%202024-03-16%20at%2010.27.46%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="clear: right; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="664" data-original-width="1174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGXbJeq7dqPTYmY36u8R4vkjWJn22fNqYebjFuJQt5Xa7HIqAeZakWLBrrb-ruri2bcksvnm2-eomuCMvTQBCe5L4Shm5W39NaPEFhRfDjRoLMvv8e6YGsmRk474ed3emp5NeCZyqNsVf0-GrHGOKNmfa3Z3T0xE_T_J6PS6Wr11W1pSWTa7Lfzw/s320/Screenshot%202024-03-16%20at%2010.27.46%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="384" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>The future Fresno station: too bad we'll never see it. (Chron)</i></td></tr></tbody></table>
We were skeptical of the high-speed rail project when it was announced <a href="https://viewsbythebay.blogspot.com/2012/07/high-speed-rail-from-middle-out.html">in 2012</a>. As cost estimates tripled, milestones got pushed out, and expectations were massaged down, we became convinced it would never be completed. <a href="https://viewsbythebay.blogspot.com/2018/03/as-easy-as-predicting-sun-will-rise-in.html">From 2018</a>:
<blockquote>I'd bet money on this: we will put a human being on Mars before anyone travels from LA to SF on high-speed rail.</blockquote>
In 2024 harsh realities are at last<a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/ca-high-speed-rail-100-billion-18979091.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=copy-url-link&utm_campaign=article-share&hash=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2ZjaHJvbmljbGUuY29tL2JheWFyZWEvYXJ0aWNsZS9jYS1oaWdoLXNwZWVkLXJhaWwtMTAwLWJpbGxpb24tMTg5NzkwOTEucGhw&time=MTcxMDY1MjgyNDA0Mw%3D%3D&rid=NWNhZmJlYTAtNzVjMC00YmNiLTg5NTctZTQ2OTMxN2YxNjE4&sharecount=NA%3D%3D"> sinking in</a>.
<blockquote>the project remains about $7 billion short of the cost to complete the initial segment from Merced to Bakersfield.
<br /><br />
The rail project also needs about $100 billion to make the original vision of linking San Francisco and Los Angeles via bullet trains a reality. And some of the project’s watchdogs say state leaders need to decide soon whether to commit to the entire project — or abandon it.</blockquote>
In an election year no one in power will admit to this multi-billion-dollar disaster, much less allow the project to be cancelled. Nevertheless, we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel---and it's not an oncoming train.Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5927456.post-27162717177294233202024-03-15T19:35:00.000-07:002024-03-15T19:37:26.258-07:00Nyet to Neti Pots<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmRZh9vvOJ74V6S4oIvzCmx6ZpImWAw083I3qPAK-mcMUANHBzjp3_pzJOG2opTbpGIiXJ3MBHHlOhqMZkUZDoMIBpBVz0Gv4xiojAJlD64COmkp2_LDtcQ_07LdG8MNawY7NqdicXrgJEGSbMp7sKE_vkevZ9OM1uUCRJf9v1hDGnu7-CLQ4TUw/s1426/Screenshot%202024-03-15%20at%205.24.38%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="clear: right; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="974" data-original-width="1426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmRZh9vvOJ74V6S4oIvzCmx6ZpImWAw083I3qPAK-mcMUANHBzjp3_pzJOG2opTbpGIiXJ3MBHHlOhqMZkUZDoMIBpBVz0Gv4xiojAJlD64COmkp2_LDtcQ_07LdG8MNawY7NqdicXrgJEGSbMp7sKE_vkevZ9OM1uUCRJf9v1hDGnu7-CLQ4TUw/s320/Screenshot%202024-03-15%20at%205.24.38%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Neti pots (Mercury News/AP)</i></td></tr></tbody></table>When the hay fever gets intense and when the pills and inhalers don't provide relief, allergy sufferers can rinse their nasal passages with saline solution. However, the appliance of choice, <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/03/15/another-dangerous-amoeba-has-been-linked-to-neti-pots-and-nasal-rinsing-heres-what-to-know/">the neti pot</a>, now comes with a warning from the CDC: [bold added]
<blockquote>Neti pots are one of the better known tools of nasal rinsing. They look like small teapots with long spouts, and usually are made of ceramic or plastic.
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Users fill them with a saline solution, then pour the liquid in one nostril. It comes out the other, draining the nasal passage of allergens and other bothersome contaminants...
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More than a decade ago, health officials linked U.S. deaths from a<b> brain-eating amoeba — named Naegleria fowleri</b> — to nasal rinsing. More recently, they started to note nasal rinsing as a common theme in illnesses caused by <b>another microscopic parasite, Acanthamoeba.</b>
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Acanthamoeba causes different kinds of illness but is still dangerous, with a 85% fatality rate in reported cases...
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This amoeba can be found naturally all over the environment — in lakes, rivers, seawater and soil.
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It can cause diseases of the skin and sinuses, and <b>can infect the brain, where it can cause a deadly form of inflammation.</b> The microorganism also has been connected to non-fatal, but sight-threatening, eye infections, sometimes through contaminated contact lens solution.
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U.S. health officials have identified about 180 infections from the single-cell organism since the first one was diagnosed in 1956.
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In the vast majority of cases, researcher don’t know exactly how people became infected. But in reviewing cases in recent decades, CDC researchers increasingly received information that a number of the cases had done nasal rinsing, Haston said.
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Research also has indicated it’s common in tap water. A study done in Ohio in the 1990s found more than half of tap water samples studied contained the amoeba and similar microorganisms.</blockquote>
I use a neti pot occasionally, and warm tap water brings relief when nasal passages are swollen. However, I'm going to switch to distilled or pre-boiled water. I've lost enough brain cells already.Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5927456.post-91282967142986430402024-03-14T20:39:00.000-07:002024-03-14T20:39:02.606-07:00Her Honesty Research Was Dishonest<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS57-UDKa1JRy75Euc5JNhV8RuyPFr8ybcr-mQTFQTSc9oGR1pnReU2WNeJn2k15rHXT-5Hu5yS6H8rC0PWjwqRJMrBLYM_ssexsGQX4svkPg_UJsRetjZvkEvsEuk6fLQ3ZvhndpMo6EE259hZ3RPKJUviIbpMBEQW8RhQ9JqlyGNMbJnN4mCCA/s430/Screenshot%202024-03-14%20at%208.32.06%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="clear: right; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="430" data-original-width="354" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgS57-UDKa1JRy75Euc5JNhV8RuyPFr8ybcr-mQTFQTSc9oGR1pnReU2WNeJn2k15rHXT-5Hu5yS6H8rC0PWjwqRJMrBLYM_ssexsGQX4svkPg_UJsRetjZvkEvsEuk6fLQ3ZvhndpMo6EE259hZ3RPKJUviIbpMBEQW8RhQ9JqlyGNMbJnN4mCCA/w164-h200/Screenshot%202024-03-14%20at%208.32.06%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="164" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Francesco Gino</i></td></tr></tbody></table>
You can't make this stuff up.
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Harvard University has found that "prominent" researcher Francesco Gino, "known for her research into the reasons people lie and cheat", <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/harvard-investigation-francesa-gino-documents-9e334ffe?st=79sn1juo6i9uj3n&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink">manipulated her data</a>.
<blockquote>The investigative committee that produced the nearly 1,300-page document included three Harvard Business School professors tapped by HBS dean Srikant Datar to examine accusations about Gino’s work.
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They concluded after a monthslong probe conducted in 2022 and 2023 that Gino “engaged in multiple instances of research misconduct” in the four papers they examined. They recommended that the university audit Gino’s other experimental work, request retractions of three of the papers (the fourth had already been retracted at the time they reviewed it), and place Gino on unpaid leave while taking steps to terminate her employment. </blockquote>
After this incident and the <a href="https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/1/3/claudine-gay-resign-harvard/">Claudine Gay fiasco</a>, it would be nice if Harvard people became less insufferable, but don't hold your breath.
Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5927456.post-75549469108816453482024-03-13T23:24:00.000-07:002024-03-13T23:24:48.545-07:00A Straw to Grasp<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGiPW83vYEEIwK4kXS_5Ns-YtdDRLmXbmNxH-FtTM6bTTzwxtP4M9oRtuiZ5Ix59csbKe3CRgVIucZlmekTYFnvkoSMF4V-GTuvngrUX1-5_8jwAjrglWWZHvjEi4mhzIy4gqJzENOjkU77Ci8HGOLStrLYLrTT65HS3wUMkYS2qS1LjHu2wZIzg/s1350/Screenshot%202024-03-13%20at%2011.21.30%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="clear: right; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1350" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGiPW83vYEEIwK4kXS_5Ns-YtdDRLmXbmNxH-FtTM6bTTzwxtP4M9oRtuiZ5Ix59csbKe3CRgVIucZlmekTYFnvkoSMF4V-GTuvngrUX1-5_8jwAjrglWWZHvjEi4mhzIy4gqJzENOjkU77Ci8HGOLStrLYLrTT65HS3wUMkYS2qS1LjHu2wZIzg/s320/Screenshot%202024-03-13%20at%2011.21.30%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>2023 gathering in Dolores Park (Chron)</i></td></tr></tbody></table>
When I hold losing stocks, I often seize upon any positive bit of news to justify holding on (and rationalizing my poor buy decision). Here's a <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/s-f-population-exodus-over-18972239.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=copy-url-link&utm_campaign=article-share&hash=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2ZjaHJvbmljbGUuY29tL3NmL2FydGljbGUvcy1mLXBvcHVsYXRpb24tZXhvZHVzLW92ZXItMTg5NzIyMzkucGhw&time=MTcxMDM5Njc2NTgyNg%3D%3D&rid=NWNhZmJlYTAtNzVjMC00YmNiLTg5NTctZTQ2OTMxN2YxNjE4&sharecount=Mw%3D%3D">straw</a> for die-hard San Francisco believers to grasp:
<blockquote>San Francisco’s pandemic exodus is over, and its population grew slightly last year, new census data shows.
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The city’s population increased to an estimated 808,988 residents as of July 2023, up 0.15% from the prior year’s revised 807,774, according to census data released late Wednesday. It remains far below its pre-pandemic level, down nearly 65,000 people or an estimated 7.4% compared to April 2020, after seeing some of the heaviest losses in the country.</blockquote>
Going up by a thousand people hardly signifies a turnaround--or even a bottoming out--of San Francisco, especially in the face of macro data:
<blockquote>There are other signs that the city is still struggling: Apartment rents are still below 2019 levels, making San Francisco an anomaly. Retailers are still shuttering downtown, citing lack of foot traffic. A record number of vacant offices are listed for lease.</blockquote>
The artificial-intelligence hiring boom isn't broad enough to offset the losses in non-AI tech, retail, finance, and travel and leisure, but hope springs eternal.Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5927456.post-27484146991504772372024-03-12T22:18:00.000-07:002024-03-12T22:18:13.444-07:00Checking and Refilling Tires: Easier Than Ever"That tire looks flat." More often than not, that statement from a stranger is what usually prompted me to check the air pressure on car tires for over 50 years. (I won't be too self-deprecating; I always checked the water, oil, and tires before leaving on an out-of-town trip.)
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh23-LOrgTmd2eiYmeoSZTPfiCr_vrN7nfmuQcsfGLbGVihfKTLSuoM-B-eWc3W71Lkf7yCK3bpujaX86NDlN0mxOlRci5O58TBgc_pHYkcUuDjTjjLl1xy8U4MMKlbbryGhn-CKPi3_7uqUXYyjH2A5RxfslSE5tFv4Y0Z4mLiyhUWLO3jvrPxw/s1154/Screenshot%202024-03-12%20at%209.40.32%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="880" data-original-width="1154" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh23-LOrgTmd2eiYmeoSZTPfiCr_vrN7nfmuQcsfGLbGVihfKTLSuoM-B-eWc3W71Lkf7yCK3bpujaX86NDlN0mxOlRci5O58TBgc_pHYkcUuDjTjjLl1xy8U4MMKlbbryGhn-CKPi3_7uqUXYyjH2A5RxfslSE5tFv4Y0Z4mLiyhUWLO3jvrPxw/s200/Screenshot%202024-03-12%20at%209.40.32%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="200" /></a></div>
Fast forward to 2024. The dashboard on the Lexus flashed the warning light (right). One or more tires had low pressure. Sure enough, the tire pressure gauge showed all four tires to be in the 27-29 PSI range, when they all should have been at 33 PSI.
<br /><br />
When I started driving, every service station had an air pump that customers used for free. When self-service became the norm, the air pumps began costing at least 50 cents, and if the customer wasn't quick the machine would turn off after 5 minutes, and he had to feed in more quarters.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV2Gw4Q9V4jLMPJihZ8MM9D1wb8FNr__OFyQYDGsrLEvSaK5NRLFf_69fSfcGBGNjC_UMSlB2UKh_cYwPT1u-kQM-t6WT4L4cj3_-Bz3EBtTq5TZbVxuS4WXzdzLHCyM5C5pYgRDMa5AfjrL0ml8eJA8riDS4cwPNkTkIKtvWPCnaMuHDp0ZiSpw/s4032/Costco%20Air%20Pump.jpeg" style="clear: right; display: block; float: right; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV2Gw4Q9V4jLMPJihZ8MM9D1wb8FNr__OFyQYDGsrLEvSaK5NRLFf_69fSfcGBGNjC_UMSlB2UKh_cYwPT1u-kQM-t6WT4L4cj3_-Bz3EBtTq5TZbVxuS4WXzdzLHCyM5C5pYgRDMa5AfjrL0ml8eJA8riDS4cwPNkTkIKtvWPCnaMuHDp0ZiSpw/w240-h320/Costco%20Air%20Pump.jpeg" width="240" /></a></div>
Today there is only one service station in Foster City that has a free air pump, and there is usually a line of cars waiting to use it.
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But refilling tires has also moved into the 21st century. The local Costco has installed two air pumps by the tire center. No ID required: just input the pressure target, in this case 33 PSI, affix the end of the green tube, and the machine fills the tire until it hits the mark, beeps, then turns off. Repeat three times, <i>et voila</i>, properly pressurized tires. The dashboard warning light switched off.
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Costco even uses <a href="https://www.jdpower.com/cars/shopping-guides/should-i-use-nitrogen-instead-of-regular-air-in-my-tires#:~:text=Nitrogen%20causes%20less%20wear%20and,highly%20beneficial%20for%20speed%20racers.">pure nitrogen gas</a>, which causes less wear and tear than ordinary air.
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I'd still shop at Costco even if it didn't have the fancy Nitrogen air pump, but amenities like these only make customer loyalties stronger.
Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5927456.post-25417995514291905212024-03-11T23:24:00.000-07:002024-03-11T23:24:32.933-07:00Easy Risk Evaluation<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://viewsbythebay.blogspot.com/SFCenter.JPG" style="clear: right; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="408" height="400" src="http://viewsbythebay.blogspot.com/SFCenter.JPG" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The now half-empty San Francisco<br/>Centre was filled in <a href="https://viewsbythebay.blogspot.com/2003/12/san-francisco-centre.html"><i>2003</a></i></td></tr></tbody></table>
It's no surprise that <a href="https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/commercial/global-span-of-banks-commercial-real-estate-problem-starts-locally-5c33a66f?st=hnvw0qd2t0avld0&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink">banks are experiencing losses on property loans</a> in U.S. cities: [bold added]
<blockquote>two banks that have reignited worries about property lending in recent days are one based in the New York region, New York Community Bancorp, and one based in Japan, Aozora Bank. Shares of both banks plunged this past week after they reported increased credit concerns related to commercial property risks in the U.S...
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At Aozora, the at-risk property loans identified were concentrated in big cities. Of the 21 nonperforming U.S. office loans, with $719 million outstanding, that it reported this past week, the largest chunks by city were $171 million in <b>Chicago</b> and $127 million in <b>Los Angeles</b>. “The volume of property sales remains very low,” the bank wrote about Chicago’s office market in a presentation.
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In a January report, Moody’s Analytics found the biggest percentage-point increase in office vacancies among U.S. metro areas over 12 months was in <b>San Francisco</b>, followed by <b>Austin</b>, Texas.
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Other concentrations of problematic real estate loans were in <b>New York</b> and <b>Los Angeles</b>. Note: every single one of the cities named in the article has a Democratic mayor. Were your humble blogger a bank risk officer he would simply deny real estate loans to cities that had Democratic leadership. (Yes, I'd miss out on some profits in, for example, Knoxville, TN or Columbia, MD, but in banking big write-offs are to be avoided more than profits on risky loans are sought). Then I'd go home and have an untroubled sleep.Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5927456.post-47298984329023003352024-03-10T21:00:00.000-07:002024-03-11T12:32:00.600-07:00The Hell of Our Imaginings<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnHby-0lgU5OGzjh0WWmV7CI5RPHOqXwo31LLsidmPeWX-NJJGNbY7mjEWZTwseyZtcpwBjCbwtfM-8j9aEwaZ_iwIORB6IIJB4AGoiHxETKB9uzL_4_bzPHDwvEYWUKstxwPd4fU_J9vD91f7uk8KSC8JWSh6Ww0esYGwoyg-UGxX_g2845LWVw/s1520/Screenshot%202024-03-10%20at%2011.18.21%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="clear: right; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1520" data-original-width="1024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnHby-0lgU5OGzjh0WWmV7CI5RPHOqXwo31LLsidmPeWX-NJJGNbY7mjEWZTwseyZtcpwBjCbwtfM-8j9aEwaZ_iwIORB6IIJB4AGoiHxETKB9uzL_4_bzPHDwvEYWUKstxwPd4fU_J9vD91f7uk8KSC8JWSh6Ww0esYGwoyg-UGxX_g2845LWVw/s400/Screenshot%202024-03-10%20at%2011.18.21%E2%80%AFPM.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">(From <a href="https://infernodotblog.wordpress.com/2017/12/15/meaning-of-symbolism-and-allegories-in-dantes-inferno-of-his-divine-comedy/">infernodotblo</a>g)</td></tr></tbody></table>
There are as many--perhaps more--<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-we-think-about-hell-has-the-old-concept-of-fire-brimstone-gone-out-of-business-338271c7?st=fau1meuzboiv1pi&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink">visions of hell</a> as there are of heaven. They range from the elaborately constructed nine circles of <i>Dante's Inferno</i> to an infinitely large room of emptiness.
<blockquote>Is the eternal fire a metaphor? If so, what does it mean? Is hell a physical place or a state of mind? Is there such a thing as eternal life—and if God’s verdict goes against you, does that mean a life of everlasting torment? Is it possible to believe in hell if you don’t believe in God, or is hell the terrible solitude of living without God?
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Pope Francis himself has defined hell as “eternal solitude.” By contrast, Jean-Paul Sartre, the pontiff of existentialism, wrote that “hell is other people.” Which is it?
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Evelyn Waugh proposed a darkly witty version of hell in his novel “A Handful of Dust.” It ends with the hero, an English gentleman lost in the Amazonian rain forest, held prisoner by an illiterate mixed-race Guianan who happens to own a complete set of Dickens and forces his captive to read it aloud, over and over again, without hope of release.
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Hell expanded centuries ago from theology into literature. Great writers have had a crack at it. Dante set the standard. Milton’s “Paradise Lost” is magnificent, although, as Samuel Johnson remarked, “no one wished it longer.” Milton’s fallen Lucifer sounds unexpectedly modern when he cries, “Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell.” Is it the case that we make our own hell?</blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiku6ye5nfVMfrlU_VJ5oViTGohiP5OYLL7u6rFPotxw4XGG5kCiDZ-6XzEnj80UdmSiPdC5ziuSW_mJEXz2-NibYTZ8dcnlaPNrL2tySPsbw77c3wPgYgQBEAA9U-4LU92q0PEoUdkaoZRPyAmB5M9ee-LIjDbZJER8cdP2Cd28yYbQrkxfvCAdw/s876/Screenshot%202024-03-11%20at%2012.24.12%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="148" data-original-width="876" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiku6ye5nfVMfrlU_VJ5oViTGohiP5OYLL7u6rFPotxw4XGG5kCiDZ-6XzEnj80UdmSiPdC5ziuSW_mJEXz2-NibYTZ8dcnlaPNrL2tySPsbw77c3wPgYgQBEAA9U-4LU92q0PEoUdkaoZRPyAmB5M9ee-LIjDbZJER8cdP2Cd28yYbQrkxfvCAdw/s320/Screenshot%202024-03-11%20at%2012.24.12%E2%80%AFPM.png"/></a></div>
Whatever our visions of hell, it does seem that we are much less concerned with the afterlife than were our ancestors. The rewards of heaven and the miseries of hell don't seem to motivate people's behavior. As for me, as I enter the winter of my life, the reasoning of <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pascal-wager/">Pascal's Wager</a> appeals, so I may as well try to be good and do good.
Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5927456.post-77490354512158678192024-03-09T21:07:00.000-08:002024-03-09T21:07:45.218-08:00One Sign That Inflation is Abating<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHCZ5Uc1uj-EHKZgvXjQbUwkfC-QepbcTQl_Y1gE8bjzpuMva3jLTu-eY_L51ufbrM1D97QnI4Vsof4M7rYC8ee2M4n324YytyKegeMjXuswNNdgxSd519U_zGSU9NU6-un-VYxrlO6m2dRMhAvOawYGYw6iopq7NwKAdrcAbYLPL4Rkm7kRIoEQ/s4032/Spam%20Sale%203-5-24.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHCZ5Uc1uj-EHKZgvXjQbUwkfC-QepbcTQl_Y1gE8bjzpuMva3jLTu-eY_L51ufbrM1D97QnI4Vsof4M7rYC8ee2M4n324YytyKegeMjXuswNNdgxSd519U_zGSU9NU6-un-VYxrlO6m2dRMhAvOawYGYw6iopq7NwKAdrcAbYLPL4Rkm7kRIoEQ/s320/Spam%20Sale%203-5-24.jpeg"/></a></div>
Spam is on sale again at Costco. At eight cans for $17.99, it's the same price as it was <a href="https://viewsbythebay.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-spam-signal.html">17 months ago.</a>
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For comparison sake pre-COVID prices were <a href="https://viewsbythebay.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-spam-hypothesis.html">$14.99 in 2019</a> and <a href="https://viewsbythebay.blogspot.com/2018/03/less-steak-more-spam.html">$13.99 in 2018</a>.
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Inflation <i>is</i> abating, but hopes for disinflation back to 2019 price levels is not going to happen any time soon. But that's ok. I have plenty of Spam to tide me over.Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5927456.post-25235508737622958382024-03-08T17:00:00.000-08:002024-03-09T12:41:21.791-08:00Fill the Bottle, Shake, Pour<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipcZ6ObqZ9piMG7fQQN-371mkD0KcTZtp7yS0oi66KB-IK-oD_1DLoZvK2zCbvqkclPiIiP1rUuE4P1RX8D3yiKF9o9agfSEZg7Qo9GkeOQlz0tu5QgEO25g_mPQjMgilh5gBOB7gx82HRRLJl8x3N5ehp3mOC-XBYrLxCUAiQyUs3kI2PVnnV2w/s3627/IMG_3140.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="3627" data-original-width="1955" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipcZ6ObqZ9piMG7fQQN-371mkD0KcTZtp7yS0oi66KB-IK-oD_1DLoZvK2zCbvqkclPiIiP1rUuE4P1RX8D3yiKF9o9agfSEZg7Qo9GkeOQlz0tu5QgEO25g_mPQjMgilh5gBOB7gx82HRRLJl8x3N5ehp3mOC-XBYrLxCUAiQyUs3kI2PVnnV2w/s320/IMG_3140.jpeg"/></a></div>
I've given blood and urine samples before, but this time the urologist wanted samples covering a 24-hour period.
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The orange bottle came with detailed instructions about collection, refrigeration, shaking the bottle for one minute, pouring samples into other containers, labeling and sealing the bottles, putting them in plastic bags, and completing the accompanying forms. When leaving home, I carried the bottle in a discreet shopping bag. It was a relief dropping off the samples (but not the orange container) early this morning.
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The lab thought of everything. There were instructions (below) to get a second bottle if the first, which held about one gallon, was insufficient to hold the day's production. One orange bottle was more than adequate.
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If I made a mistake on any step in the process, I would have to do it all over again. This was a test in more ways than one. I hope I passed.
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0uhWlhT4jX1zQ7lnGoOXOE5jRfuBGyPgj4E-PfdPGGYJYYt8dniIGtF_ECc8A0DIxQoiyAc9znAjhAgLiw9U859C9sVvaDREWBWJyjS8skjAD-CKJVOIBYxoEGBsYizOausVVJpzSFYbisS9G5kpFBUJynEWtqIpRnmxbp-GrPJ8r2lBx7Svujg/s1606/Instructions%20%281%29.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" height="320" data-original-height="1606" data-original-width="1440" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0uhWlhT4jX1zQ7lnGoOXOE5jRfuBGyPgj4E-PfdPGGYJYYt8dniIGtF_ECc8A0DIxQoiyAc9znAjhAgLiw9U859C9sVvaDREWBWJyjS8skjAD-CKJVOIBYxoEGBsYizOausVVJpzSFYbisS9G5kpFBUJynEWtqIpRnmxbp-GrPJ8r2lBx7Svujg/s320/Instructions%20%281%29.jpeg"/></a></div>Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5927456.post-60655743112154609822024-03-07T22:00:00.000-08:002024-03-08T15:31:00.392-08:00Life's Purpose: A Psychiatrist Has the Answer<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3RdvAPEb7MZNaS5BSe5mnmCv8kRIJdDvwFVkLETaRrOblBtSYw31EJoNF9Dh7atA_zNC5_PSWWQSEjuRI_GnvZn2ZSuQ4Yqp8Fxw8Xlecs7oJYFrdPeX2cSnEYHBDbncBCmxH5OwIyTuKwbkgfEYUEdyE1pZiBj_3Bq0XAqFk_eYfWMrMM8lp9g/s1788/Screenshot%202024-03-08%20at%2012.06.07%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: right; float: right;"><img alt="" border="0" width="320" data-original-height="1126" data-original-width="1788" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3RdvAPEb7MZNaS5BSe5mnmCv8kRIJdDvwFVkLETaRrOblBtSYw31EJoNF9Dh7atA_zNC5_PSWWQSEjuRI_GnvZn2ZSuQ4Yqp8Fxw8Xlecs7oJYFrdPeX2cSnEYHBDbncBCmxH5OwIyTuKwbkgfEYUEdyE1pZiBj_3Bq0XAqFk_eYfWMrMM8lp9g/s320/Screenshot%202024-03-08%20at%2012.06.07%E2%80%AFPM.png"/></a></div>
I'm always interested in hearing what people have to say about life's purpose (while noting that a sizeable number who are overwhelmingly atheist assert that life has <i>no</i> purpose).
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Yale Associate Professor of Psychiatry <a href="https://news.yale.edu/2024/03/05/what-lifes-purpose-yale-psychiatrist-looks-science-answers?utm_source=YaleToday&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=YT_Yale%20Today%20Alum%20no%20Parents_3-7-2024">Samuel Wilkinson</a> thinks he has found the answer based on his studies of evolutionary biology and cognitive psychology.
<blockquote>In an interview with Yale News, Wilkinson discusses what inspired his fascination with understanding life’s purpose, how nature instills in humans a “dual potential,” and the evolutionary forces that spur us to be our more altruistic selves.
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“When you combine the concept that we are free to choose with the dual potential of human nature, to me this strongly implies that life is a test,” said Wilkinson, who is also director of the Yale Depression Research Program. “The purpose of life is to choose between the good and evil impulses inherent within us.
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“This seems to be written into our DNA.”
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...I totally acknowledge we have a capacity for selfishness, but in other ways we also have a deep capacity for altruism. In a way that was unexpected to me, evolution has shaped us such that we are pulled in different directions. This is a core example of how nature has left us conflicted, what in the book I call the “dual potential” of human nature.</blockquote>
Prof. Wilkinson has a scientific explanation for the selfish and altruistic duality of human behavior--it's built into our DNA. But I'm still at a loss to see why one is necessarily better than the other, or why life is a "test" to see whether we will choose altruism. Who is the Grader?
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Science is excellent at explaining why things work, but it's so far been lacking in determining answers to basic questions, for example, if I died today did my life have value? By the way, by what criteria does one determine that value?
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Or maybe I had value because I left children behind. So that's it: propagate the species? If so, individual rats and cockroaches do more for their species than I did for mine. And so on and so forth.
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For now I'll search for answers in the writings of philosophers and theologians rather than psychiatrists. One good things about Prof. Wilkinson's attempt is that it prompted me to get cracking on reading Paul Tillich and Teilhard de Chardin while there's still time to do so.
Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5927456.post-79677692091572064702024-03-06T10:00:00.000-08:002024-03-07T08:29:58.929-08:00Upper Arlington High School Orchestras<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZrqCJBPzPEbeyINHDVjsTxkGTLH_pzvGjjBxJPAjh9IMOjuKwbUt5NPiiXtlIrI59KOTYx77jhksKnrPPU3kwViUEtryEXGYqfNmaD29S4Oy_FGcIz39hxHqqlWTnDN4WuIdbBKfIkDGnZIoEoi02jUehr258nzr9YMgXpo88ZR-Iq3zDXsEtMw/s4032/Upper%20Arlington%20Orchestra%20Ala%20Moana.jpeg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; clear: left; float: left;"><img alt="" border="0" width="600" data-original-height="2161" data-original-width="4032" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZrqCJBPzPEbeyINHDVjsTxkGTLH_pzvGjjBxJPAjh9IMOjuKwbUt5NPiiXtlIrI59KOTYx77jhksKnrPPU3kwViUEtryEXGYqfNmaD29S4Oy_FGcIz39hxHqqlWTnDN4WuIdbBKfIkDGnZIoEoi02jUehr258nzr9YMgXpo88ZR-Iq3zDXsEtMw/s600/Upper%20Arlington%20Orchestra%20Ala%20Moana.jpeg"/></a></div>
On one of my <a href="https://viewsbythebay.blogspot.com/2024/02/hanging-out-at-ala-moana.html">visits</a> to the Ala Moana Shopping Center last month, I stopped to listen to the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/108368855857699/">Upper Arlington High School</a> (Ohio) orchestras. Their intonation was good, they watched the conductor assiduously, and half the string players had decent vibrato.
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After the second orchestra took the stage, I asked one parent (she was wearing one of the UAHS aloha shirts) whether there was any difference between the two. She said that both were equally talented, which is something I would say if I were in her place. It turned out that the first was a full orchestra with brass and woodwinds, while the second was all strings. For my money, the latter seemed more skilled but I'm biased because my instrument was the violin.
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Both orchestras ended with a patriotic medley bookended by the usual standards America the Beautiful and the Star-Spangled Banner. When I was a kid (hey boomer), everyone stood when the national anthem was played, but on this day no one budged from the chairs. To be fair, most of the seated were elderly, and some looked like they could be foreign visitors. Nevertheless, in today's America accepted cultural understandings are exceedingly rare, as are excellent public high school orchestras.Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5927456.post-46553043439288533662024-03-05T18:00:00.000-08:002024-03-06T18:48:44.392-08:00Primary Election Day
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ofnEMpv8n51KrF0kSvufarppsxF5DWr6yFpWBctmgOL0SWwH4Er0Qz0bR3SRgDWsQBRzAi_fLky2ouw7k8Vb3lCfBIwGNgJxk-GyemUSuxjKgy-DKjWcpJ9V9_WyH5wAnaCIpqJgoUhxkf5xAnOnph6WREd3u6RonSuluCX1Fu5nJuvWj5DriQ/s2192/Screenshot%202024-03-06%20at%206.45.54%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="clear: right; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="998" data-original-width="2192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ofnEMpv8n51KrF0kSvufarppsxF5DWr6yFpWBctmgOL0SWwH4Er0Qz0bR3SRgDWsQBRzAi_fLky2ouw7k8Vb3lCfBIwGNgJxk-GyemUSuxjKgy-DKjWcpJ9V9_WyH5wAnaCIpqJgoUhxkf5xAnOnph6WREd3u6RonSuluCX1Fu5nJuvWj5DriQ/s320/Screenshot%202024-03-06%20at%206.45.54%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Foster City Library</i></td></tr></tbody></table>
I did my civic duty and cast my ballot in person earlier today at the Foster City library.
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There were a limited number of offices to vote on, and only one proposition, <a href="https://calmatters.org/politics/elections/2024/03/election-result-proposition-1/">Proposition 1</a>, a $6.4 billion bond to build mental health treatment facilities and housing for the homeless. I voted "no" on Prop. 1, not because I don't want to spend money on mental health and/or the homeless but because I have little faith that the monies will actually help the intended recipients. They'll probably be diverted to consultants, planners, government agencies, and non-profits. We've been fooled before: in 2014 Californians approved a <a href="https://viewsbythebay.blogspot.com/2023/01/water-storage-funding-fooled-again-for.html">$7.5 billion bond measure </a> to build more water storage; ten years later not one reservoir has been built.
<br /><br />
The U.S. Senate race I also found interesting because of the way in which Democrat Adam Schiff "picked his opponent," Republican Steve Garvey. In California the top two vote getters in the primaries face off in the general election, and Adam Schiff ran ads that warned against Steve Garvey's conservatism, boosting the latter's profile amongst Republicans and some independents. A Democrat like Katie Porter would have likely proved a tougher opponent in November. If one is a fan of political strategy, one has to give credit where it's due.
Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5927456.post-18152936272767504552024-03-04T21:00:00.000-08:002024-03-05T08:49:59.095-08:00Living Fossils<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6g2eegljwaBxI8F2m38eRF_XyvhKS_rR34Fg4R1LCC1C741fx-1wx3nF1_Ts2FKXr9_B7X3KHbN0QdvcJ7sKhl9319EYALbXGnLuGygZReh4NYI-SRoTBprbglWpMmJPv8qe4qIskAuoXHvUQCljaanpBq1oIDhknw2w9xl8ZlKf8Qh5I7yiSow/s1938/Screenshot%202024-03-05%20at%208.32.19%E2%80%AFAM.png" style="clear: right; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1090" data-original-width="1938" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6g2eegljwaBxI8F2m38eRF_XyvhKS_rR34Fg4R1LCC1C741fx-1wx3nF1_Ts2FKXr9_B7X3KHbN0QdvcJ7sKhl9319EYALbXGnLuGygZReh4NYI-SRoTBprbglWpMmJPv8qe4qIskAuoXHvUQCljaanpBq1oIDhknw2w9xl8ZlKf8Qh5I7yiSow/s320/Screenshot%202024-03-05%20at%208.32.19%E2%80%AFAM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Alligator gar (<a href="https://news.yale.edu/2024/03/04/study-slowly-evolving-living-fossils-reveals-key-genetic-insights?utm_source=YaleToday&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=YT_Yale%20Today%20Alum%20no%20Parents_3-5-2024">Yale News</a>)</i></td></tr></tbody></table>
No, this isn't a post about politics.
<br /><br />
"Living fossils," (Darwin's term) specifically the gars, have little species diversity and have evolved so slowly that their genome is nearly the same as gars during the age of the dinosaurs. Importantly, understanding gars' cellular mechanisms <a href="%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E">could lead to a cure for cancer</a> (!).
<blockquote>The researchers speculate that gars have an unusually strong DNA repair apparatus, allowing them to correct somatic and germline mutations — alterations to DNA that occur before and after conception — more efficiently than most other vertebrates.
<br /><br />
If confirmed, these findings could have profound implications for human health, said [Prof. Thomas J.] Near, the Bingham Oceanographic Curator of Ichthyology at the Yale Peabody Museum.
<br /><br />
“Most cancers are somatic mutations that represent failures of an individual’s DNA repair mechanisms,” he said. “If further study proves that gar DNA repair mechanisms are extremely efficient, and discovers what makes them so, we could start thinking about potential applications to human health.”
</blockquote>
Another <a href="https://nesslabs.com/eureka-moments">Eureka moment</a> in science, this time from a species that is little changed from its ancestors a hundred million years ago.
Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5927456.post-24372392921699351362024-03-03T17:40:00.000-08:002024-03-03T17:40:38.051-08:00They Won a Battle in a Long War<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWvOxaS_qw5meDI4PqodriVuojwJHAUZYCEieeP_OS7ABOwldkGdM5SjlvwnFo1-fsvvseKOwW6_nGUFMKk4YG18ooGn-SS5g_gx-U66SP0qLpr34U4iVTshgQyD_lOu-lrvIsMjkOKshyphenhyphengQuJMuH5B1ngAjinlUOeKq4P9uIhBfm9kDbGWFMBvw/s994/Screenshot%202024-03-03%20at%205.37.27%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="clear: right; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="668" data-original-width="994" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWvOxaS_qw5meDI4PqodriVuojwJHAUZYCEieeP_OS7ABOwldkGdM5SjlvwnFo1-fsvvseKOwW6_nGUFMKk4YG18ooGn-SS5g_gx-U66SP0qLpr34U4iVTshgQyD_lOu-lrvIsMjkOKshyphenhyphengQuJMuH5B1ngAjinlUOeKq4P9uIhBfm9kDbGWFMBvw/s320/Screenshot%202024-03-03%20at%205.37.27%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>St. Mary's College (Bettag/WSJ)</i></td></tr></tbody></table>
St. Mary's College, a 180-year-old Catholic college for women in Indiana, had announced that transgender women would be admitted in 2024. Several undergraduates started a petition to reverse the decision, then alumnae and parents signed on. Finally the Church weighed in.
<blockquote>“Saint Mary’s departs from fundamental Catholic teaching on the nature of woman and thus compromises its very identity as a Catholic woman’s college,” Bishop Kevin Rhoades of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend wrote in a Nov. 27 statement. The bishop added that his duty is to “promote and assist in the preservation and strengthening” of the college’s Catholic identity. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “each of them, man and woman, should acknowledge and accept his/her sexual identity.”</blockquote>
The Board of Trustees and President Katie Conboy rescinded their original decision, making St. Mary's one of the few women's colleges that has refused to bow to Progressive theories about gender.
<blockquote>Commitment to Catholic teaching on sex is what distinguishes St. Mary’s from nearly all colleges across the country. Twenty-three women’s colleges admit “at least some” transgender-identifying male students, according to Campus Pride, a national pro-transgender organization, while only three don’t. The outcry over the policy shows there’s demand for a school that’s different because it’s firm in its faith and principles.
</blockquote>
One has to admire the two undergraduates, Macy Gunnell and Claire Bettag, who brooked the opposition of many students, most faculty, and the dominant trans-women-are-women ideology to stand up for what they felt was right. They won this battle because there are enough stakeholders at St. Mary's who adhere to Catholic teachings, but it's only a battle in a long war.
Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5927456.post-90471456758101139372024-03-02T21:22:00.000-08:002024-03-02T21:22:54.217-08:00Portland, OR: Where the People Get What They Want<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipDJ01e3kE7XQFFDqZ2V26X04MtT-1OeSq2yzH1wFFRAxr8GRFcKG5_OEzH-P7CR55rArvJQnGb0jqM-O8Lscuv0vzANvKSh2esPV_OWLdG8zH-3D5tdDaSOllvId_Vf_O8OTct9fS1KO-SdlmnELiRheEnh9w14b5wtjtC-GCUoYEEijWJU5iMg/s1558/Screenshot%202024-03-02%20at%209.16.28%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="clear: right; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="812" data-original-width="1558" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipDJ01e3kE7XQFFDqZ2V26X04MtT-1OeSq2yzH1wFFRAxr8GRFcKG5_OEzH-P7CR55rArvJQnGb0jqM-O8Lscuv0vzANvKSh2esPV_OWLdG8zH-3D5tdDaSOllvId_Vf_O8OTct9fS1KO-SdlmnELiRheEnh9w14b5wtjtC-GCUoYEEijWJU5iMg/s320/Screenshot%202024-03-02%20at%209.16.28%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>One of an estimated <a href="https://www.governing.com/assessments/portlands-curious-case-of-urban-discontent">800 encampments</a> in Portland</i></td></tr></tbody></table>
<a href="https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/oregon-drug-law-hard-drugs-criminal-2030d040?st=tsx2z4p11hkipj4&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink">Portland reverses</a> its 3-year Progressive experiment on "victimless" drugs.
<blockquote>Oregon’s political leaders...are now on the cusp of ending a three-year experiment as the first and only state in the nation to allow people to freely use drugs from heroin to cocaine to fentanyl...
<br /><br />
Backers of the 2020 ballot measure, which passed with 58% support, successfully convinced their fellow residents of the left-leaning state that decriminalization would mean fewer nonviolent drug addicts in prison and more in treatment.
<br /><br />
But while the first part of the prediction proved true, the second didn’t. Without the threat of imprisonment, few people have proved willing to take advantage of the expanded addiction services the measure funded. Instead, public drug use has become rampant, as people can now smoke fentanyl and use other drugs on sidewalks with no consequences.
<br /><br />
Residents, business owners and law-enforcement officials have become infuriated, and a poll last year found most people wanted to reverse course and make drug possession a crime again. Advocates said they would try to put a measure on this year’s ballot ending decriminalization if the legislature didn’t act.</blockquote>
Up and down the West Coast people are realizing that these nostrums don't work. Homelessness, property crime, and deaths from substance abuse are all up because of the Progressive belief that "carceral" systems not only unjustly punish but are racist to boot. The whole episode has a silver lining: democracy works, because the voters got what they wanted in 2020, and now they're getting what they want in 2024.
Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5927456.post-59008072905605734442024-03-01T23:02:00.000-08:002024-03-01T23:02:14.875-08:00New Name for an Old Problem<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinxOJ0hbyMasGYAVhyphenhyphenPGcGEvGT3I3KOvw6P8_a0363Fcza_HxNgiSvGGWubYENFiutOyzqUiKT3eXvpg3d7qD9yrq-fxSVKy-km8K4MNFYnns7_61_7i-CNpCmFxMql9YyJSKBem1Cx_jf34dmqV0b5MPJqpec5XiTl_1wuis7WUWbCAk1Y3ltPw/s1792/Screenshot%202024-03-01%20at%2010.57.08%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="clear: right; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="994" data-original-width="1792" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinxOJ0hbyMasGYAVhyphenhyphenPGcGEvGT3I3KOvw6P8_a0363Fcza_HxNgiSvGGWubYENFiutOyzqUiKT3eXvpg3d7qD9yrq-fxSVKy-km8K4MNFYnns7_61_7i-CNpCmFxMql9YyJSKBem1Cx_jf34dmqV0b5MPJqpec5XiTl_1wuis7WUWbCAk1Y3ltPw/s320/Screenshot%202024-03-01%20at%2010.57.08%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Legacy systems guy (<a href="https://www.bairesdev.com/blog/problems-with-legacy-systems/">BairesDev</a> photo)</i></td></tr></tbody></table>
"<a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/the-invisible-1-52-trillion-problem-clunky-old-software-f5cbba27?st=hzmuv4hmpif94m3&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink">Technical Debt</a>":
<blockquote>an accumulation of quick fixes and outdated systems never intended for their current use, all of which are badly in need of updating.
<br /><br />
Technical debt manifests in myriad ways, from system failures and slower innovation, to security breaches...
<br /><br />
This technical debt would require $1.52 trillion to fix, and costs the U.S. $2.41 trillion a year in cybersecurity and operational failures, failed development projects, and maintenance of outdated systems, according to a 2022 report by a software industry-funded nonprofit. </blockquote>
Let's face it: management is highly incentivized to come out with new products and features, not to spend resources on making old software more secure or efficient. If management is lucky, potential weaknesses will never become actual weaknesses and see the light of day.
<br /><br />
There's never been a better time to start a business when the old competitors are burdened by legacy software and customers are stuck doing things the old way,Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5927456.post-55277261175614738262024-02-29T22:03:00.000-08:002024-02-29T22:03:15.919-08:00Sad Denouement<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOIkM13Aj0z_LqpbdPjDal6E3pWz0v_qZEWBAeCXIFFtyAwwSE7_0ChLj-euiaSa9TyI2RlabeQnOfvyrRiAc7HBs7iFIjuYMEl6-6HbAnabfkiGnCTlk0EUBCcAvmxppNTUjavQ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2017-12-01+at+3.10.28+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="507" data-original-width="409" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOIkM13Aj0z_LqpbdPjDal6E3pWz0v_qZEWBAeCXIFFtyAwwSE7_0ChLj-euiaSa9TyI2RlabeQnOfvyrRiAc7HBs7iFIjuYMEl6-6HbAnabfkiGnCTlk0EUBCcAvmxppNTUjavQ/s320/Screen+Shot+2017-12-01+at+3.10.28+PM.png" width="258" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Jose Inez Garcia Zarate</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
After <a href="https://viewsbythebay.blogspot.com/2017/11/two-lives-intersect-one-dies-millions.html">nine years</a> the Kate Steinle murder case reaches its sad <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/man-acquitted-kate-steinle-murder-deported-18696700.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=copy-url-link&utm_campaign=article-share&hash=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2ZjaHJvbmljbGUuY29tL3NmL2FydGljbGUvbWFuLWFjcXVpdHRlZC1rYXRlLXN0ZWlubGUtbXVyZGVyLWRlcG9ydGVkLTE4Njk2NzAwLnBocA%3D%3D&time=MTcwOTI3MDQ5MzU5OQ%3D%3D&rid=NWNhZmJlYTAtNzVjMC00YmNiLTg5NTctZTQ2OTMxN2YxNjE4&sharecount=Mw%3D%3D">denouement</a>:
<blockquote>U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to deport a Mexican national who was acquitted in the high-profile 2015 murder of Kate Steinle in San Francisco, the New York Times reported.
<br/><br/>
Jose Inez Garcia Zarate, who is undocumented, was acquitted by a jury in 2017 of murder and manslaughter charges but convicted of being a felon in possession of a gun. The trial drew national attention and was used by politicians as a talking point in immigration debates.
<br/><br/>
Steinle, 32, was fatally shot while walking along Pier 14 with her father.
<br/><br/>
According to Garcia Zarate’s attorneys, he found a gun along the waterfront and accidentally fired it – causing the bullet to ricochet off the pavement, striking Steinle in the back. The gun was stolen from a federal Bureau of Land Management ranger’s car.
<br/><br/>
Garcia Zarate’s gun conviction was later overturned by a court of appeals in 2019.
<br/><br/>
Garcia Zarate remained in prison for federal probation violations until February, the New York Times reported. In mid-February, Garcia Zarate was transferred to ICE custody and the agency plans to deport him to central or southern Mexico within the next week, a Department of Homeland Security official told the New York Times under the condition of anonymity.
<br/><br/>
Before the 2015 shooting, Garcia Zarate had been deported five times. He was in federal prison on a conviction of felony re-entry into the U.S. but instead of deportation, he was brought to San Francisco, where he was wanted for a possession of marijuana charge. That charge was dismissed and Garcia Zarate was released from custody under the city’s sanctuary policy, which limits local law enforcement’s cooperation with federal immigration officials. Federal immigration officials had requested he remain detained until they could pick him up and were not notified of his release.
<br/><br/>
Former President Donald Trump used the case to criticize sanctuary cities.
</blockquote>
Kate Steinle's death did not cause "sanctuary cities" to renounce their policy of non-cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). And so it is that illegal immigrants continue to be arrested and released by local authorities before they can be turned over to ICE, and some go on to kill American citizens.
<br/><br/>
The <a href="https://people.com/laken-riley-killing-court-documents-reveal-brutal-details-8600923">murder of Laken Riley</a> in Georgia last week by an alleged Venezuelan illegal threatens to become Kate Steinle 2.0 this political season. The problem was never solved but only grew worse, and it will be surprising if the voters don't exact a price this November.
Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5927456.post-51501957922561145692024-02-28T20:50:00.000-08:002024-02-28T20:50:25.986-08:00Mourning Macy's<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5ofVcnmfFI_Cmn9aNnhyphenhyphen3fdjsSx5eFEFmc8roh3EyBo8LM14jdEOjSwVN4bwYY1OsClgZL3I9kiOX6yS6XbQFrMruf0R2j0vj6kTJlZODpmSe3ApUK3xy31fsZr5oxhvp2_WXQtThATasrugajqpmlwlNiaS-ojcGg29IZL_jxqSOSPtyqQFM1g/s1170/Screenshot%202024-02-28%20at%208.42.13%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="clear: right; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="662" data-original-width="1170" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5ofVcnmfFI_Cmn9aNnhyphenhyphen3fdjsSx5eFEFmc8roh3EyBo8LM14jdEOjSwVN4bwYY1OsClgZL3I9kiOX6yS6XbQFrMruf0R2j0vj6kTJlZODpmSe3ApUK3xy31fsZr5oxhvp2_WXQtThATasrugajqpmlwlNiaS-ojcGg29IZL_jxqSOSPtyqQFM1g/w400-h226/Screenshot%202024-02-28%20at%208.42.13%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>December, 1972: Union Square glitters (Chron photo)</i></td></tr></tbody></table>
As alluded to in yesterday's post, the loss of Macy's is <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/macys-union-square-icon-18690349.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=copy-url-link&utm_campaign=article-share&hash=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2ZjaHJvbmljbGUuY29tL3NmL2FydGljbGUvbWFjeXMtdW5pb24tc3F1YXJlLWljb24tMTg2OTAzNDkucGhw&time=MTcwOTE3NjQ2OTUxOA%3D%3D&rid=NWNhZmJlYTAtNzVjMC00YmNiLTg5NTctZTQ2OTMxN2YxNjE4&sharecount=MQ%3D%3D">the end of a San Francisco cultural icon</a>.
<blockquote>Department stores were already cultural hubs in San Francisco when Macy’s opened in 1947. The working class Emporium on Market Street had been the center of San Francisco holiday celebrations, hosting a Santa Claus parade and placing rides on the building’s roof. Union Square’s City of Paris department store was the upscale king, with its stained glass atrium roof and 70-foot Christmas trees.
<br /><br />
But Macy’s San Francisco was the juggernaut that managed to eclipse and outlast all comers. Taking up three-quarters of a city block, it felt like the epicenter of retail in San Francisco, if not the entire state.
<br /><br />
With the success of the San Francisco flagship, Macy’s California expansion was swift. By 1978 there were 22 stores in California, with plans for more. Profits were so high that Macy’s California President Ernest Molloy was sent to bail out the struggling New York stores, later becoming CEO of the entire company.
<br /><br />
..Tuesday’s announcement will land harder on San Francisco residents than the recent departures of other major retail outlets like Nordstrom and Old Navy. Macy’s is where San Franciscans bought their back-to-school outfits and their first suits and prom dresses. In some cases, it’s where they took the 38 Geary during Christmastime to ogle the store’s elaborate window displays and make their first San Francisco memories, period.
<br /><br />
As the city tries to reinvent its downtown core, and perhaps the identity of its entire shopping district, Macy’s San Francisco will be the hardest void to fill. </blockquote>
Retail reached its zenith at the end of the 20th century. Out-of-town shoppers flocked to Macy's and the other stores on Union Square; there was nothing like them in the rest of the Bay Area.
<br /><br />
The suburbs grew more affluent, the malls got bigger and glitzier, and San Francisco became grimier and unpleasant. There was no reason to fight the traffic into downtown and pay $20 for parking.
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Those of us who were there mourn the City that was, and the wonderment that was lost.Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5927456.post-35442145372513097602024-02-27T22:54:00.000-08:002024-02-28T20:40:51.007-08:00Macy's on Union Square<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZa-hXc5mnSUzqj9hflqvJP3-vb482smkkOAfl7t6Iz5V9-gC_NL5StGZnqvxFiFJYYRxh2hPRl8qnPUQ1_nG_bubKQwvTf1rpRvnADmOng5fdWKf6hxDxTFx0crpgjrITtD_C2Ds41oPPILJFS9veO43xojJkbpm_Qml_zGtyyuu08UOTXRrEJA/s1178/Screenshot%202024-02-27%20at%2010.48.13%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="clear: right; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="782" data-original-width="1178" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZa-hXc5mnSUzqj9hflqvJP3-vb482smkkOAfl7t6Iz5V9-gC_NL5StGZnqvxFiFJYYRxh2hPRl8qnPUQ1_nG_bubKQwvTf1rpRvnADmOng5fdWKf6hxDxTFx0crpgjrITtD_C2Ds41oPPILJFS9veO43xojJkbpm_Qml_zGtyyuu08UOTXRrEJA/s400/Screenshot%202024-02-27%20at%2010.48.13%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>After Macy's bought the I Magnin store (white building center left)<br/>in 1994 it had the entire south side of Union Square (Chron photo)</i></td></tr></tbody></table>
Nearly a year ago the belief that San Francisco was in an inescapable <a href="https://viewsbythebay.blogspot.com/2023/04/san-francisco-gloom-and-doom.html">doom loop</a> became widespread.<a href="https://viewsbythebay.blogspot.com/2023/05/slow-to-build-quick-to-destroy.html"> In seeming confirmation a month later</a> Nordstrom, the anchor store of the San Francisco Centre, announced that it would close.
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But subsequent events bred hope. In the fall the City banished homeless encampments near several major conventions and heavily patrolled the areas so that conventioneers wouldn't be victimized. Last week there were reports that <a href="https://viewsbythebay.blogspot.com/2024/02/san-francisco-signs-of-optimism.html">tech employers were hiring again</a>, and that some investors were buying at what they saw as the bottom of this real estate cycle.
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However, trend lines never move smoothly in one direction. Today San Francisco received retail news that was worse than Nordstrom's departure.
<blockquote>Macy’s will close its massive flagship store in Union Square, San Francisco officials said Tuesday, a major setback to the city’s premier shopping district and its larger downtown recovery efforts during an election year.
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The store will remain open until the company finds a buyer for the property, Mayor London Breed said in a statement Tuesday morning. The Chronicle has learned that the store will remain open until at least 2025...
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Macy’s massive, 400,000-square-foot Union Square store — which spans nearly an entire block fronting Geary Street between Powell and Stockton streets — is the company’s last outpost in San Francisco. Macy’s presence in the city dates to 1947 and its store is a landmark on the south side of Union Square. Its loss marks one of the biggest retail closures the city has ever seen, on top of the loss of a nearby Nordstrom that had been open since 1988 and dozens of smaller retailers since the pandemic.</blockquote>
Union Square dates back to San Francisco's founding and is the unofficial heart of the City. Macy's is the dominant retailer of Union Square. If its building goes dark, it will deal a severe blow to Union Square and the revitalization of San Francisco.Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5927456.post-22212171082889042072024-02-26T16:34:00.000-08:002024-02-26T16:34:41.515-08:00Seeing the Light<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU6x-etuEORgaSN2ebi5s90FqhtfprQGvWlFJLLJVipJ8IiexHRcXBXD90TCcd40wy3A8m-NqDcLKf-08kVHwReL1m31815LDk-tPBOELLW9aT0MZ9B78xzDv-MHUkijTk6awli_hKylEbLG4nEyVn9X7yUCHYSINV6N2AOotlDDGg_RU_5e1czQ/s570/Screenshot%202024-02-26%20at%204.14.59%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="clear: right; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="348" data-original-width="570" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU6x-etuEORgaSN2ebi5s90FqhtfprQGvWlFJLLJVipJ8IiexHRcXBXD90TCcd40wy3A8m-NqDcLKf-08kVHwReL1m31815LDk-tPBOELLW9aT0MZ9B78xzDv-MHUkijTk6awli_hKylEbLG4nEyVn9X7yUCHYSINV6N2AOotlDDGg_RU_5e1czQ/s320/Screenshot%202024-02-26%20at%204.14.59%E2%80%AFPM.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Poor little lambs who have lost their way with social justice,<br/>diversity, equity, and inclusion, Yale may be returning to<br/>its motto light and truth (<i>lux et veritas</i>)</td></tr></tbody></table>
After a four-year hiatus Yale University is again <a href="https://news.yale.edu/2024/02/22/yale-announces-new-test-flexible-admissions-policy?utm_source=YaleToday&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=YT_Yale%20Today%20Alum%20no%20Parents_2-23-2024">requiring standardized tests on admission applications</a>. [bold added]
<blockquote>After four years with a test-optional policy that allowed applicants to decide whether or not to submit test scores, Yale will <b>resume requiring scores</b> of all applicants. But it will expand the list of tests that fulfill the requirement to include AP and IB exams in addition to the SAT and ACT.</blockquote>
Dean of undergraduate admissions Jeremiah Quinlan:
<blockquote>we found that test scores have continued to predict academic performance in Yale College. Simply put, <b>students with higher scores have been more likely to have higher Yale GPAs, and test scores are the single greatest predictor</b> of a student’s performance in Yale courses in every model we have constructed.</blockquote>
A <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/yale-reinstates-standardized-test-scores-for-admissions-d9eb6b70?st=eoog8ie9tqotgv6&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink">similar study</a> by Dartmouth and Brown also showed that test scores were an accurate predictor of college grades, and that applicants who did not submit test scores performed less well.
<blockquote>It found that students who didn’t submit scores earned college grades equivalent to students who earned a 1307 or an ACT of 28. The average scores at highly selective schools generally top 1500 on the SAT and 34 on the ACT.</blockquote>
Dartmouth and Yale are the two Ivies who reinstated standardized testing this month.
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When my high-school class sat for the exams a half-century ago, there was a different, undoubtedly naïve, perspective about testing. We were asked to perform the best that we could, but on the other hand we wanted to go to schools that were the right "fit." For example, I knew that my science and math skills weren't sufficient to do well at MIT or Caltech, regardless of my scores.
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There was very little advance preparation. Your humble blogger took the SATs, six Achievement tests, and four Advanced Placement exams. Our teachers told us that we couldn't really prepare for the Scholastic <i>Aptitude</i> Tests--and I didn't know anyone who did--but because the ACH and AP tests were presumably based on subject knowledge, I did spend a few hours reviewing textbooks and lecture notes; unlike students today I didn't take practice tests or six-week prep classes or had a tutor.
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I did well enough to get into some good schools and ended up going to one where I was in the middle of the pack. The important take-away was that I didn't encounter anyone who didn't have the smarts to do the work, and that I attribute to the testing screens.
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It's comforting to know that Yale and Dartmouth have seen the light. Perhaps others will follow.
Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5927456.post-3752301635736164892024-02-25T23:00:00.000-08:002024-02-25T23:00:17.433-08:00Notre Dame:: Continuing the Tradition<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU9aHu-DsgiMF2K3Oam9LfQ27D47r7cc3Gx9eabx34d_eeupG7Eve8h0u0HrSMWGDuOoKJJUxzDfkDRoIjy4-gIGiAGQvP9FowvgODAMZPmqrc69LDDCNegxZ0zuc111GUveHh4vpRrd7yayBRn_YbFvFdlrSA7jfHMWwjc_WwETp4xNi-oKySQQ/s1280/Screenshot%202024-02-25%20at%2010.07.06%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="clear: right; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="938" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU9aHu-DsgiMF2K3Oam9LfQ27D47r7cc3Gx9eabx34d_eeupG7Eve8h0u0HrSMWGDuOoKJJUxzDfkDRoIjy4-gIGiAGQvP9FowvgODAMZPmqrc69LDDCNegxZ0zuc111GUveHh4vpRrd7yayBRn_YbFvFdlrSA7jfHMWwjc_WwETp4xNi-oKySQQ/s320/Screenshot%202024-02-25%20at%2010.07.06%E2%80%AFPM.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1966 <a href="https://www.friendsofnotredamedeparis.org/the-stained-glass-of-notre-dame-de-paris/">windows</a> by Jacques le Chevallier</td></tr></tbody></table>
<a href="https://viewsbythebay.blogspot.com/2019/04/not-gone.html">Four years ago</a> Notre Dame Cathedral miraculously survived a devastating fire. Not unexpectedly there has been <a href="https://viewsbythebay.blogspot.com/2021/12/reconstruire-mieux-non.html">disagreement</a> surrounding the reconstruction of the over-800-year-old national monument.
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The latest controversy is over the replacement of the Chevallier stained-glass windows that were not damaged by the fire. These windows are <i>grisaille</i> (“shades of gray” accented with color). In addition they do not depict scenes from the Bible or saints (<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-new-threat-to-notre-dames-wondrous-windows-ee2c7f7c?st=cj700w79h89ikd4&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink">"non-figural"</a>), and didn't have defenders when their replacement was authorized by both the Catholic Church and the government.
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Now there are petitions to leave the windows intact. Your humble blogger has no dog in this hunt, but I do think that, based on history, if the windows are replaced they will be beautiful.
Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5927456.post-47861217458552015912024-02-24T21:54:00.000-08:002024-02-24T21:54:45.545-08:00It Still Has Heft<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjktOMAjocbQZGmNgYJ9Zd0saXGD-qS_oXHuYi32vUFqoyfETUoO7RHDP3W-U6Fo98cz7Oz_SyS2psccgAoBMXnfSDvcX5qvQSQycZCKVSFOzmjsSv7Fh6KrFHTPv2FV-SMhFGVCplpoDU3un9Br8fYA2UY6gQrkHeGMhkMFfkzutX0-S_RPfOn7A/s1422/Screenshot%202024-02-24%20at%209.48.34%E2%80%AFPM.png" style="clear: right; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="1422" data-original-width="1118" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjktOMAjocbQZGmNgYJ9Zd0saXGD-qS_oXHuYi32vUFqoyfETUoO7RHDP3W-U6Fo98cz7Oz_SyS2psccgAoBMXnfSDvcX5qvQSQycZCKVSFOzmjsSv7Fh6KrFHTPv2FV-SMhFGVCplpoDU3un9Br8fYA2UY6gQrkHeGMhkMFfkzutX0-S_RPfOn7A/s400/Screenshot%202024-02-24%20at%209.48.34%E2%80%AFPM.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Three ways to spot a fake: with a machine, with a pen<br/>or by checking the small banding on the bill. (WSJ)</i>
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Something I didn't know: there are <a href="https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/american-dollar-currency-100-bill-c6a47c79?st=bgu3uqqqw8d4e4v&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink">more one-hundred-dollar than one-dollar bills in circulation</a>:
<blockquote>The $100 bill is far and away the most common U.S. paper currency, dwarfing even the $1 bill. The number of bills bearing Benjamin Franklin’s mug more than doubled between 2012 and 2022, faster growth than any other denomination, according to the most recent Federal Reserve data
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For all its prevalence, the $100 bill is more effective for storing money than spending it. Even when cashiers do accept the bills, they hold up checkout lines to verify they aren’t counterfeits...
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One reason they have become so prevalent is that they enter circulation far quicker than they leave. They can last over a decade longer than $1s and $5s, partly because people are more likely to hold than spend them.</blockquote>
One hundred dollar bills are harder to spend because cashiers eye them suspiciously, perform tests to make sure they're not counterfeit (picture), or even refuse them. Fast-food restaurants often post signs that they will not accept bills larger than twenties.
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If I have to break a hundred, I walk over to the nearby Lucky Supermarket and use the self-checkout machine, which makes change without any hesitation.
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However, the friction of using a Benjamin is more than made up by its (still) psychological heft; upon receiving a C-note as a gift, the recipient usually sends a real thank-you note, not a text or email.
Stephenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07941019100618060950noreply@blogger.com0