Oracle: Not Going to Take it Any More

In the latest blow to the Bay Area economy, Oracle is moving its headquarters from Redwood Shores to Austin.

Oracle HQ at Redwood Shores, 2004

2017: Buildings added, plus marine craft.

Oracle joins numerous Bay Area companies that have moved their headquarters to Texas in recent years or months, including Charles Schwab, McKesson and Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

Other companies, including Apple and Dropbox, are keeping their Silicon Valley headquarters, but expanding their presence in Texas...

Oracle occupies 3.5 million square feet of Silicon Valley office space, concentrated in its Redwood Shores complex, Santa Clara and San Jose. The company has listed 263,000 square feet for lease at Redwood Shores and 449,810 square feet for lease in Santa Clara, according to marketing materials.

Its name is on the Giants’ ballpark in San Francisco, a deal that runs through 2039.

The company opened its Austin campus in 2018 and said it would eventually house 10,000 employees there. It leases 1.3 million square feet in the Texas city, according to real estate data firm CoStar. Oracle has 135,000 total employees and a market capitalization of $182.5 billion...

[Chris Thornberg of Beacon Economics] said the “preposterous degrees of regulation and controls,” coupled with the lack of affordable housing could be reasons. And the pandemic has only worsened the economic outlook, with state-level regulations constantly moving goalposts.

Oracle founder Larry Ellison is one of those colorful billionaires who likes to make waves, figuratively and literally, by competing in the America's Cup, building a distinctive glass corporate headquarters, and buying the island of Lanai. Now he's moving his company headquarters, which is not a decision to be made lightly given all the personnel, financial, and legal agreements that have to be broken, initiated, and renegotiated.

Oracle is the largest company yet to move out of California. Its market capitalization of $182 billion makes it the 13th most valuable company in the Bay Area and the 34th most valuable in the country (see table below).

With the tax base eroding and environmentalists and socialists tightening their grip, look for California's taxes and "preposterous" regulations only to increase. There's an excellent chance that Oracle will not be the last of the top-15 Bay Area companies to leave, and I hope I'm wrong.

The "Doctor" is In

Joseph Epstein ( David Kanigan)

Mr. Joseph Epstein, with only a B.A. from Chicago to his name, stirred a hornets' nest by advising Jill Biden to drop the "PhD" and "Doctor" honorifics while she's First Lady. The blowback was instantaneous---worse than any tweetstorm from the current President when anyone insulted or even mildly criticized him.

Of course, that prompted your humble blogger to read Mr. Epstein's short essay. The first paragraph alone likely was sufficient to prompt an avalanche of negative letters:

Madame First Lady—Mrs. Biden—Jill—kiddo: a bit of advice on what may seem like a small but I think is a not unimportant matter. Any chance you might drop the “Dr.” before your name? “Dr. Jill Biden ” sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic. Your degree is, I believe, an Ed.D., a doctor of education, earned at the University of Delaware through a dissertation with the unpromising title “Student Retention at the Community College Level: Meeting Students’ Needs.” A wise man once said that no one should call himself “Dr.” unless he has delivered a child. Think about it, Dr. Jill, and forthwith drop the doc.

Mr. Epstein's offense was compounded when he dissed the education and social science establishments' credentialism:

In contemporary universities, in the social sciences and humanities, calling oneself Dr. is thought bush league.

I've always been impressed by Jill Biden, not only because of her talents but also her character and strength. IMHO, she doesn't need to put the letters in front or at the end of her name, but has the right to do so, and Joseph Epstein has the right to voice his opinion as well. Putting the future First Lady aside, what about his other points?

To me the piece is written in a light hearted tone. The general theme is that the proliferation of educational credentials and the appending of them to one’s name is off putting to a lot of people. I agree.

If one is well-known because of something that’s got nothing to do with one's degree, the credentials are displayed only on rare occasions. Both Shaquille O’Neal and Bill Cosby have earned PhDs in education but don’t insist on being called “doctor.”

There’s a guy at my church whom I like a lot but for years signed all his emails with “PhD”. The degree was in hard science and he needed it to establish credibility in the engineering community, but for church? C’mon, man!

It’s one's right to put the letters after one's name, especially to get a job or establish credibility when giving a speech, and Mr. Epstein seems only to be suggesting, not demanding, that one use judgment about when to do so.

Paul Gigot, the WSJ editorial page editor writes:

By the way, the Journal editorial page’s longtime style is to use “Dr.” only when referring to medical doctors. Henry Kissinger gets a “Mr.” Lynne Cheney, wife of Dick Cheney, is Mrs. Cheney despite her Ph.D.

For the record I don't think that Joseph Epstein wrote a strong essay. It was unnecessary for him to spend as much time on his personal success at Northwestern; it's more effective to mention his own story in a throwaway line then talk about other successful people who didn't go on to graduate school. He made a mistake by using "kiddo", because many people did not know the diminutive is a favorite of Joe Biden's and took it as an offense to Jill. Finally, inveighing against the spread of honorary degrees has nothing to do with Mrs. Biden, who earned her degree.

Display your educational achievements if it helps you accomplish your goals; in general, it's better to omit them because in America no one likes an elitist (though many of us are, in our heart of hearts).

Unconditional Love

"Love is patient, love is kind," says the Good Book. Patient love is easy to print on a coffee mug but difficult to achieve.

The love that First Corinthians is referring to is unconditional. How many of us can truly say "no matter what you do I will always love you"? Unconditional love is so exceedingly rare that it's considered an aspect of the Divine.

Conditional love is common. We see it behind family estrangements and, of course, in couples splitting up. One also sees conditional love at the beginning of people coming together. It's the stuff of romantic drama, as lovers take tentative steps toward each other, wondering if they can trust.

Rodgers and Hammerstein's musical, Carousel, celebrated its 75th anniversary this year. A huge hit in its day, Carousel is largely unfamiliar to younger audiences, though You'll Never Walk Alone and If I Loved You are still popular.

Which brings this post back to the original topic. If one Googles "conditional love music", at the top of the search is If I Loved You, which, if one is only familiar with the song, is a revelation when one listens to the entire 11-minute set-piece ("the bench scene") of dialogue and music. Below is a YouTube clip of Broadway stars performing it in studio and street clothes with just a piano accompaniment.

Effective As But Safer Than Bleach

(WSJ gif)

Until the vaccine arrives [momentary flash on Didi and Gogo] we've been abiding by the recommendations of the health professionals, i.e., wearing masks, frequent hand washing, and social distancing. Yes,there's some dispute about the effectiveness of masks, but for us the discomfort and inconvenience are a small price to pay when measured against the potential benefit.

If in-person meetings are unavoidable, we hold them outdoors. We also take Vitamin D and zinc supplements.

Now arises some evidence that using mouthwash should be added to the list of preventive measures:

Reducing virus particles in the mouth could help fight against the pandemic, the companies said, because Covid-19 can be spread through droplets generated when an infected person coughs, sneezes or speaks. Both companies [Unilever and Colgate] said the mouthwashes dissolve the outer protective layer of virus particles, preventing them from attaching to cells and infecting them.

But based on tests so far they can’t definitively say how long the benefit would last or what impact coughing would have.

The article is something of a let-down to those focused on coronavirus avoidance for themselves; the benefit of using mouthwash, even if it works, is to protect the people with whom the garglers interact, not themselves.

Your humble blogger gargles daily anyway to prevent infection from using a steroid inhaler.

Now I can say that I'm doing it out of care and concern for the health of others; in this Peninsula community of staunch recyclers and electric cars, I need all the virtue points I can get.

‘Best day ever at Mavericks’

25 miles south of San Francisco, Mavericks, the mecca for big-wave surfers since 1992, had its "best day ever" on Tuesday.

Word spread quickly in the big-wave surfing community when it was learned that Kai Lenny was coming to Mavericks. He’s the best in the world, deeply respected and admired by all, and the 28-year-old Hawaiian savored the notion of surfing Tuesday’s big swell.

Lenny’s appearance was brilliant, but by day’s end, there was much more to the story. “All things considered,” said San Francisco’s Grant Washburn, “I think this was the best day we’ve ever had at Mavericks.”

That’s a voice of authority. Washburn has surfed and documented every significant Mavericks swell since January 1992, when the surfing world became aware of the once-secret spot off the coast of Half Moon Bay. His claim is certainly debatable in the wake of so much history, but this was a day when all of the crucial elements reached optimum level. “Definitely all-time top three, for sure,” said longtime photographer and water safety expert Frank Quirarte.

The best surfers in the world fly to Mavericks during the winter to take advantage of

the combination of ideal weather, favorable wind, swell direction, [and] wave faces of 50-plus feet.

After a year of COVID-19, contentious politics, and economic hardship it's nice to talk about something that's beautiful, inspiring, and dangerous (where no one got hurt).

San Francisco Getting What They Wanted: One Year Later

Chesa Boudin (KQED photo)

It's been a year since public defender Chesa Boudin was elected to the position of San Francisco District Attorney. In keeping with Mr. Boudin's progressive philosophy (after his parents were jailed he was raised by Weather Underground icons Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, and he worked for Venezuela's Hugo Chavez) crimes against property are accorded a low priority, and "minor" crimes such as car break-ins are not prosecuted at all. The results were easily foreseen by anyone with any life experience.

Smashed car windows have become so common in San Francisco that many people don’t even blink as they step over the crushed glass. And those victimized by break-ins frequently lament a lack of response from police and prosecutors.

San Francisco resident Jesse Hunt posted a video of twelve cars parked on his block, all with smashed windows.

After viewing the video, San Francisco Police Department spokesman, Officer Adam Lobsinger, said it appeared to show the 1700 block of Green Street and that the department had not yet received any reports by late morning.

IMHO, the car owners are behaving rationally. Why bother filing a report when the police aren't going to do anything about it?

As we've commented before, San Francisco residents keep electing guys like Chesa Boudin to public office. The ones who don't like the current state of affairs are leaving, so expect more of the same indefinitely.

Gawking Harder

190 Sea Cliff sold for $24 million (Chron)

When taking visitors along San Francisco's 49-mile drive, I liked to peer at the houses on Sea Cliff Avenue. These mansions were well out of the reach of this poor salaryman.

With the advent of the coronavirus and the well-publicized exit of middle- and upper-class families from the Bay Area, one might have expected the prices of such high-end houses to come down, but one would be wrong. [bold added]

sales of luxury and ultra-luxury homes in particular have jumped to historic highs in almost every part of the region, according to new data from the brokerage firm Compass Real Estate and the California Association of Realtors.

In the Bay Area, real estate agents define luxury homes as those valued above $3 million and ultra-luxury homes as those valued above $5 million. According to Compass’ report, luxury home sales in the Bay Area jumped 46% this year. Affluent and ultra-affluent buyers have substantially increased as a percentage of sales since the pandemic began, helping pull up the median prices to record highs for the region as well. That data closely aligns with numbers from the California Association of Realtors, which reports that sales in the luxury home sector this year have increased by 41.4%.

Breathing a sigh of relief are county governments, whose coffers will be boosted. For example, the 190 Sea Cliff Ave. house that sold for $24 million had, before the sale, an assessed value of $8.7 million and annual property taxes of $104,720 according to Zillow.

The annual property taxes payable to San Francisco will nearly triple because of the transaction. And don't forget the real estate transfer taxes of $464,000 and $26,400, payable to San Francisco and the State, respectively.

When I'm up in the area again, I'll gawk even harder.

300 Million Dollar Bash

(WSJ photo)

Bob Dylan has sold his entire music catalog to Universal for more than $300 million. He's the rarest of celebrities who have been in the public eye during the lifespan of the baby boom generation. Growing up in then-remote Hawaii, even we grade-schoolers knew the words to 1962's Blowin' in the Wind.

Given its enormous impact and the prices paid for other cultural influences, the Dylan songbook seems underpriced. Perhaps there was some financial structuring involved. ("Name the price, and I'll set the terms.")

The WSJ briefly discusses some of the financial considerations: [bold added]

In selling his copyrights, Mr. Dylan creates more tax certainty and potential benefits for himself and his heirs. He likely will pay a one-time capital-gains tax of 23.8% in addition to state taxes, as opposed to paying 37% plus state tax on the annual income his catalog generates. Doing the sale now means he pays the capital-gains tax in accordance with today’s rates and rules rather than facing the potential higher rates and tighter restrictions that Democrats have proposed on both capital gains and ordinary income. For his estate, he can plan tax strategies on his remaining assets without his heirs and the government engaging in a lengthy fight over the value of the copyrighted assets after his death.

Frankly, it would be surprising to your humble blogger if this were an all-cash deal. Bob Dylan's financial representatives would not be doing their job if they didn't capture for their client some of tomorrow's upside from streaming and other technologies barely imagined. Tomorrow is a long time.

Comforted by Limitation

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek reflects upon the "deeply strange" nature of carbon- or radioactive-dating. [bold added]

What makes radioactive nuclei such ideal clocks is that they are reliably unreliable. An isotope’s half-life can be determined accurately by observing lots of decays. For instance, radioactive carbon, which is used to date organic material, has a half-life of about 5,700 years. But it’s impossible to predict when any individual nucleus will decay. In fact, an individual nucleus is a kind of anti-clock: It does not register the passage of time at all. There is no observable difference between old and young nuclei.They remain ideally young, we might say, until they suddenly and explosively die. By monitoring decays within this homogeneous population we measure time statistically, with confidence.

(Graphic from toppr)

In other words scientists can very accurately predict the behavior of a large group of atoms but cannot tell how a single atom will behave.

Of course, it's very easy to analogize this principle of quantum physics to the science of human behavior.

The study of the behavior of groups and whole societies has made significant advancements, but the Holy Grail seems to be predicting how an individual will behave; an immense amount of data has already been stored about each human being who owns a cellphone.

From his eye movements, demographic characteristics, and social networks it would be logical that an algorithm could predict what a person was going to buy, who he would vote for, and whom he will marry.

But hooray for free will, which the ancients said limits the omniscience of a Deity or which moderns might say will constrain the emerging singularity.

If scientists are having difficulty predicting the decay of a single carbon atom, then they are sure to have trouble with a human being. Despite my admiration for science and progress, I am comforted by that idea.

Sandwiches Last Sunday

After 15 minutes, that's all that was left.

Following up on last week's post, there were 55 people at Sandwiches on Sunday at the Fair Oaks Community Center on Middlefield Road in Redwood City.

The number of attendees was about average. They didn't have to be asked twice to take the remainder of the 80 bag lunches and 80 bottles of water.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions we could not serve a hot lunch of lasagna or baked chicken, so the cold lunches were all we had.

This was the first time we were responsible for the sandwiches. Next time we'll make more.

Dog Bites Man

A Moraga man was bitten by a coyote: [bold added]

Kenji Sytz (LinkedIn)

That was until the end of their workout, when [Kenji] Sytz felt a sudden, sharp pain in his left leg. From a push-up position, he quickly rolled over to find a coyote clamped down, hard, on his shin and calf.

In a matter of seconds, Sytz jerked up his knee, wound up and slapped the coyote in the face to convince the animal to release him.

At first, it didn’t budge. It took nearly a minute for Sytz and his two workout partners to shoo the animal back into the Friday morning darkness.

Jack Wakileh, one of Sytz’ friends, said all of his years watching animal documentaries on the Discovery Channel prepared him for that moment. He chased the coyote from the football field’s 20-yard-line to an open gate on the other side. It would run 10 yards, pause, then stare back at Wakileh, he said.

It wasn’t until Sytz rolled up his jogger pants that he saw the deep puncture wounds, and dangling fatty tissue. Wakileh said Sytz tried to play it off as a minor flesh wound.

“I’m like ... ‘you need to go to the hospital,’” Wakileh said. “That’s not broken skin — I see your muscle.”

But Sytz said he was in good condition Friday after getting treatment at a hospital for the puncture wounds left by the coyote’s fangs in his leg — including rabies shots. Sytz said the shots were more scary than the bite. He said he’ll limp for some time, and lamented having to miss a planned 10-mile run this weekend.

“I’m an avid outdoorsman. I was more afraid of the needles,” he said.

Comments:
1) The coyote didn't attack an isolated target but a member of a three-man running group. Both mountain lions and coyotes are becoming more brazen and/or hungrier.

2) Kenji Sytz is an Engineer, Berkeley grad, and family man per his social media profiles. He showed grace under pressure; it's nice to know that macho-ness--not the blustering and boastful kind---is still alive in a few young men.

"NASDAQ is Nuts"

You would comply if your Zoom board meetings looked like the above  (alderkoten image)

NASDAQ has proposed a diversity rule for corporate boards of directors: [bold added]

the rules would require most Nasdaq-listed companies to have, or explain why they do not have, at least two diverse directors, including one who self-identifies as female and one who self-identifies as either an underrepresented minority or LGBTQ+. Foreign companies and smaller reporting companies would have additional flexibility in satisfying this requirement with two female directors.

An "underrepresented minority" is defined as "Black or African American, Hispanic or Latinx, Asian, Native American or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, [or] two or more races or ethnicities."

Companies may be excused from compliance by "explaining their rationale for not meeting that objective", but it's probably easier not to get on the wrong side of the woke crowd. Just add a board seat or two and fill it with someone who checks the appropriate boxes. Your humble blogger qualifies to be in this group and respectfully raises his hand to be included in this gravy train necessary correction to the long-standing biases of corporate America.

The WSJ editorial board lets Warren Buffett, the greatest investor in American history, do the talking: [bold added]

The more we think about the new racial, gender and LGBTQ mandates for corporate directors that Nasdaq announced on Tuesday, the more absurd they seem.

How is a company supposed to find out if a board candidate is gay if that isn’t already known? Is it supposed to hire private detectives to look into it? Once that person joins the board, does the company then have to broadcast his or her sexual orientation in the annual report so progressives can be satisfied that the quota is met? We could go on.

For a dose of sanity, we thought readers might enjoy Warren Buffett’s views on what he looks for in a director. The following is from the legendary investor’s 2006 letter to shareholders in Berkshire Hathaway’s annual report:

“In selecting a new director, we were guided by our long-standing criteria, which are that board members be owner-oriented, business-savvy, interested and truly independent. . . .

Can't we all just get along?

“Charlie [ Munger, Berkshire vice chairman] and I believe our four criteria are essential if directors are to do their job—which, by law, is to faithfully represent owners. Yet these criteria are usually ignored. Instead, consultants and CEOs seeking board candidates will often say, ‘We’re looking for a woman,’ or ‘a Hispanic,’ or ‘someone from abroad,’ or what have you. It sometimes sounds as if the mission is to stock Noah’s ark. Over the years I’ve been queried many times about potential directors and have yet to hear anyone ask, ‘Does he think like an intelligent owner?’

“The questions I instead get would sound ridiculous to someone seeking candidates for, say, a football team, or an arbitration panel or a military command. In those cases, the selectors would look for people who had the specific talents and attitudes that were required for a specialized job. At Berkshire, we are in the specialized activity of running a business well, and therefore we seek business judgment.”

Nasdaq is nuts.

Tastes Like...

(Chronicle photo)

San Francisco privately owned Eat Just has developed laboratory-grown chicken meat that has been approved in Singapore. [bold added]

The futuristic notion of grocery store butcher cases lined with meat grown in a lab is becoming a reality...

That makes the chicken — created from animal cells instead of a slaughtered bird — from San Francisco’s Eat Just the first of its kind in the world to be approved for sale.

Singapore is the first country to regulate this groundbreaking industry — often referred to as cultured, cell-based or cultivated meat production — and Eat Just’s chicken will debut at a yet-to-be-named restaurant there soon, though the exact timing is unclear. The product cannot yet be sold in the United States.

(WSJ photo)

We are familiar with Eat Just's predecessor company, Hampton Creek, whose plant-based mayonnaise tasted like the real thing. However, Hampton Creek was beset by lawsuits insisting that the product was not "mayonnaise" because, according to Federal regulations, it did not contain egg yolks.

Cultivated meat is yet another origination category that consumers will have to become familiar with, in addition to organic, non-GMO, and plant-based protein.

It's neither fish nor fowl. (Hey, write your own blog.)

To SF Politicians: Save Your Breath

San Francisco can forbid and allow whatever activities it wants just because it can: [bold added]

S.F. bans tobacco smoking inside apartment buildings, allows cannabis smoking

A perfectly fine principle

San Francisco residents who live in apartment buildings with three or more units will no longer be allowed to smoke tobacco inside their homes — but they can still smoke cannabis, under a new ordinance the Board of Supervisors passed on Tuesday.

The board voted 10-1, with Supervisor Dean Preston dissenting. San Francisco is now the largest city in the country to ban tobacco smoking in apartment buildings.

“One should not have to live in a single family home to be able to breathe clean air,” said outgoing President Norman Yee, who wrote the ordinance. “That right should exist for every single person and family, regardless of where they live or what their income is.”

The ordinance is intended to protect residents from secondhand smoke. The original proposal sought to ban residents from smoking cannabis in their apartments, but supervisors voted 8-3 — with Yee, Gordon Mar and Ahsha Safaí opposed — to exclude cannabis from the ordinance.

The fine speech about the right to breathe clean air means that cannabis smoke is harmless, right? According to the American Lung Association

But don't pretend that principle matters

Smoke from marijuana combustion has been shown to contain many of the same toxins, irritants and carcinogens as tobacco smoke...Secondhand marijuana smoke contains many of the same toxins and carcinogens found in directly-inhaled marijuana smoke, in similar amounts if not more...

Smoking marijuana clearly damages the human lung. Research shows that smoking marijuana causes chronic bronchitis and marijuana smoke has been shown to injure the cell linings of the large airways, which could explain why smoking marijuana leads to symptoms such as chronic cough, phlegm production, wheeze and acute bronchitis.

The cannabis exclusion was justified, according to advocates, because marijuana smokers have no choice but to smoke indoors because the activity is not permitted in public spaces.

San Francisco supervisors caved when one of their favored interest groups requested an exemption. OK, that's politics, but please spare us the noble language when you forbid tobacco with one breath and allow marijuana with the next.

Beware the (Home) Office Turtle

Office turtle with ironing board (WSJ image)

Working from home didn't require special accommodations initially, but we're entering month 10 of shelter-in-place. If this is indeed the new normal, employees and employers are trying to figure out how to adapt to WFH for the long haul.

Those at home are often plunking down in broken chairs, using desks that are too shallow or even experiencing foot pain from walking around barefoot. Or worse, they’re just not getting up at all.

“We need to get people moving,” says Brian McEnaney, an ergonomist at Sunnyvale, Calif.-based NetApp, whose 10,000 employees are set to work remotely until at least July. Before the pandemic, Mr. McEnaney’s team received requests for help from about 10 workers a week. That’s ballooned to more than 100. The technology company has rolled out online classes on recovery breaks—short midwork stretching sessions that focus on gentle motions and deep breathing—as well as “ergonomic open office hours,” where employees can drop in with questions and concerns.

Mr. McEnaney says you don’t need to get fancy to correct many problems. Simple hacks, like sitting on a pillow to raise your body, can help. He also implores workers to avoid rounding their spines and pushing their necks out, an injury-prone position he calls the Office Turtle. Back at the actual office, he used to employ a 6-foot cutout of a turtle to get his message across.

Your humble semi-retired blogger spends an average of four hours a day on the laptop: personal finance, charity work, writing, continuing professional education, and purposeless web-surfing--not necessarily in that order--comprise the vast bulk of the activity.

I do have desks and tables, but moving from the couch would be an admission that life has turned serious again. And it's really not that serious, not until the orthopedist tells me that I look like a turtle.