Brain Protection: Not Just for Football Players and Construction Workers

Amazon sells this $79 lead cap hood

People who wear tin-foil hats have been mocked for nearly a century, but they weren't crazy, just ahead of their time.

Headline: When Your Boss is Tracking Your Brain

Over the years, these electroencephalogram, or EEG, devices, along with the software and algorithms that power them, have gotten better at tracking brain-wave signals and decoding people’s emotions and cognitive skills. Some employers use the devices to monitor employees’ fatigue and offer brain-wave tracking as part of wellness programs designed to decrease stress and anxiety.

My mental alacrity has diminished significantly from when I was in high school, and I'm glad that I retired before employers' brain-scanning devices could document the degradation.

If I ever do go back to work, I'm wearing a lead hoodie purportedly to hide my balding pate, but you and I will know the real reason, dear reader.

The Pity of The Preening

(Image from Brewminate)

Beginning in 2016 the City of San Francisco prohibited travel to and business with states that disagreed with progressive values. (The restrictions applied to the City and its employees.) The list of banned states that had different laws on LGBTQ, abortion, and/or voting rights has mushroomed to 30, and San Francisco has found itself greatly inconvenienced.

a new city report said the law has been ineffective and cumbersome....The report also found the law adds costs and complexity to city contracting...

“It’s an ineffective policy that complicates the business of San Francisco government and makes it very likely that we pay more than we should for goods and services,” [Supervisor Rafael] Mandelman said in an interview Monday...

Supervisors established the boycott in October 2016 when they approved a law that banned city-funded travel to states that had restricted LGBTQ rights in the wake of the 2015 Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. The law also prevented the city from approving contracts with companies based in the banned states.

In subsequent years, supervisors expanded the boycott to include states that passed laws to limit abortion access and voting rights.

Your humble blogger believes that it is perfectly within the City's right to conduct its affairs according to its own moral code. But the City had another objective--to convert other jurisdictions to San Francisco values by withholding business. Accomplishment of the latter has been nil.

[City Administrator Carmet] Chu’s office said in its Friday report that it could not find any concrete evidence that the states targeted by the boycott had changed their laws because of San Francisco’s actions.

The law “has created additional administrative burden for City staff and vendors and unintended consequences for San Francisco citizens, such as limiting enrichment and developmental opportunities,” Chu’s report said. “Few, if any, other jurisdictions implement travel or contracting bans as expansive as the City’s.”

Lectures and threats rarely convert anyone to a cause, though San Francisco may have had a chance if it was excellent in its governance. However, its widely publicized failures in dealing with crime, homelessness, and drug use, plus the exodus of middle-class families and businesses, have put paid to that notion.

The pity of this preening is that it wasted money, squandered moral capital, and made fellow Americans less inclined to help San Francisco when it needs it, and that day will assuredly come.

It's Not Really About Shoes

(WSJ montage)

The Nike Dunk Low Retro White Black (aka "Panda Dunk") was a hot property with aficionados until the shoes became ubiquitous:

The sneakers illustrate the primary conundrum of limited-edition items: Enough have to be available to become a mass-market phenomenon, while remaining rare enough to seem exclusive...

The Panda’s frequent restocks were too much for Miami-based event producer Norma Moreno, who got a pair when the model first came out but decided to give them away after they became too common.

The 32-year-old said the sales represented how streetwear culture has been watered down. “No one is showing that off,” referring to the Panda Dunk, she said.

If the shoes are comfortable, durable, look nice, and are not too expensive (currently over $200 on Amazon), then I would be in the market. Despite the disdain from some quarters, there's still a significant social-status premium embedded in the price of Panda Dunks, so I'm not interested.

COVID Guidelines for Worship

The Diocese' current COVID guidelines for worship are: [bold added]

1) Masking is strongly encouraged as an individual choice. This protects the individual from catching a virus AND it insures that the individual won’t be the cause of spreading any viruses.
2) Being up-to-date on one’s vaccination status regarding COVID and pneumonia shots is always a prudent health practice, whether in church or elsewhere.
3) Using a hand-sanitizer when entering church is strongly encouraged.
4) Keeping the church as well-ventilated as possible when people are gathered for worship or other indoor activities.

The take-away is that none of these guidelines are mandatory.

Generally speaking, everyone under 60, about half today's congregation of 25 people, were not masked. The choice was the individual's, not the bishop's or priest's.

The Episcopal Church is a strong advocate of free will and claims that it tries to minimize the occasions where beliefs and behaviors are mandatory. It's nice to see it following this principle with regards to COVID.

Apple Visitors Center

The $5 billion mothership: close but out of reach.

The last occasion to visit Apple's headquarters was during a shareholders' meeting ten years ago.

The office buildings on Infinite Loop were well-appointed low-rises, but not noticeably different from other Silicon Valley companies.

The $5 billion circular headquarters building has been open for five years, and, since we were in Cupertino, it was time to check out the Apple Park Visitor Center.

It took less than 15 minutes to stroll through the main sections.

The rooftop terrace provided a view of the mothership. Movie images (Men in Black, ET, Independence Day, the Day the Earth Stood Still, etc.) of flying saucers are familiar, but being in the presence of something large, tangible, and circular does stimulate an emotion akin to awe. Millions of iPhone sales went into the headquarters construction.

Having just picnicked, we didn't spend much time in the café. Nor did we linger in the exhibit room, which had a scale model of the headquarters, visitor center, and the rest of Apple Park. The exhibit was distinguished by virtual reality technology; pointing an iPad at any section of the model called up an audio-visual presentation. It's quite an advancement over the cassette players that we used to rent for museum tours.

What I found most impressive were the lavatories, which were pristine and high-tech throughout. There was minimal touching of the fixtures. Even the corridors (pictured) had a futuristic-but-sterile feel. The $80 million (per Wikipedia) for the Visitor Center had to be spent somewhere.

At the Apple Store we bought T-shirts and an iPhone 14 Pro with specifications that we couldn't find at the Apple Store near our house. After basking in the ambience of Apple Park we were indeed privileged to spend money (using Apple Pay, of course) at the Apple Visitor Center.

Successfully Claiming the Middle Class Tax Refund

The California Middle Class Tax Refund (MCTR) card came three weeks ago. It was time to get the money.

From news reports scammers are able to drain the account after the card is activated, so I delayed that move until I was ready to use the card.

At the local Citibank branch this afternoon, I phoned the 1-800 number on the sticker and dutifully typed in the last six digits of my social security number. A computerized voice instructed me to create a 4-digit PIN, at which point it specified the card value.

The teller asked me to insert the Citibank ATM card, input its 4-digit PIN, then insert the MCTR Visa card and type its 4-digit PIN. I said that I wanted the entire amount transferred to my checking account. The teller said that the maximum daily amount was $600 (unclear if that was a card or Citibank limitation). He transferred that sum immediately and suggested that I come back tomorrow to claim the rest.

Fearful of waiting another day, I drove to the Bank of America branch to deposit the remaining funds. After I inserted the BoA ATM card and PIN, the teller inspected my driver's license, then processed the MCTR card. She took more time with the forms than the Citi teller. In the end all was well; the rest of the money was put into the checking account.

Comments:
1) Neither bank imposed a transaction fee.

2) The fund-draining scam clearly isn't occurring at the bank branches but at other venues, like online merchants, where Visa cards can be used.

3) Today the IRS finally ruled that the MCTR payments are not taxable by the Federal government (California declared them not to be taxable by the State last year).

4) I don't see why the Franchise Tax Board couldn't issue checks, like it did in the old days. Theft losses will still occur, but the crooks will have a much harder time.

Know Your Place, Peasant Developer

When bureaucratic channels and conventional protests fail, hunger strikes are used as a last resort. Normally they're a tactic of the poor and powerless; the strikers hope to garner media attention and elicit public sympathy.

The complexity of compliance with government red tape has made a Silicon Valley developer resort to a hunger strike. The circumstance was so unusual that it captured today's Mercury News headline:

Navneet Aron, founder and CEO of Aron Developers, says he hasn’t eaten since last Friday morning. He has spent every weekday since then camped out in City Hall with a sign proclaiming, “On hunger strike until death!”

He’s protesting the city’s decision to stop construction of 18 townhomes on North Fair Oaks Avenue after his team forgot to obtain an approval from Santa Clara County’s Department of Environmental Health. Aron worries that fixing the issue could take months, which could mean the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars in delayed construction costs.

His sin is that he didn't get permission from Santa Clara County to install a required vapor barrier before doing it; his paperwork with the City of Sunnyvale is apparently complete.

At issue in Aron’s case is a sheet of plastic, less than an inch thick, installed beneath the foundation of his townhomes. The plastic, called a vapor barrier, is designed to mitigate health risks. It prevents toxins in the soil from rising as vapor through the foundation and into the home, potentially impacting the residents. Aron installed those barriers, but he failed to get the county’s Department of Environmental Health to sign off before he did so.

City spokesperson Jennifer Garnett wrote in an emailed statement that the city has no intention of letting work proceed until the county has given the OK. “Developers are ultimately responsible for having a compliant project. The city had to issue a stop work order because Mr. Aron failed to meet health and safety conditions for his project,” Garnett said.

I used to think that ignorance of the law is no excuse. Now that the law consists of complying with dozens, if not hundreds, of regulations from multiple departments across different jurisdictions, ignorance of the law is assured.

"The city has no intention of letting work proceed until the county has given the OK." Know your place, peasant.

I Still Wouldn't Trade My Life for Theirs

Woody Allen: "80% of success is
showing up." Truer than ever.

To those of us who worked long hours for modest pay increases and sometimes just to keep our jobs, getting ahead today seems almost effortless: [bold added]

common-sense moves that might once have been considered standard—meeting people in person, doing small favors for colleagues, hitting deadlines even if it means occasional late nights—are now seen as exceptional in the current work climate...

Consultant Alec Agana, a senior associate at KPMG in Los Angeles, says he knows that long hours in the office were a baseline expectation for many of his predecessors. Now he says he scores points by showing up in person a few times a week, even though he is often required to go in just once.

Every generation thinks that the succeeding one has it easy, and yes, we boomers have become our parents and grandparents.

Reaching My Price Point

Oahu home prices have dropped closer to my price point (sarcasm):

The median sale price of previously owned single-family homes on Oahu has fallen below the $1 million mark that was first eclipsed in August 2021 and consistently met or exceeded until January.

January’s median price was $970,000, down 8% from $1,050,000 in the same month in 2022, according to Honolulu Board of Realtors data released Monday.

Everything's relative. The prices in my Bay Area neighborhood are north of $1.5 million, so if we sell our house and pay the income taxes (and in our case there still will be some after the $500,000 Section 121 exclusion), we'll have enough to pay cash for a home on Oahu.

If we want to downsize, as well as add to the nest egg, we could buy a condo:

The number of condo sales in January sank 50% to 275 from 552 in the same month a year earlier. A string of falling year-over-year sale volume began in June with a 14% decline that grew in size over the second half of 2022 to around 40% in November and December.

Condos sold for a median $495,000 in January. That was down 3% from $510,000 a year earlier. The record was $534,000 in June.

Malasadas and plate lunches can be expensive.

Speaking of Holes

Don't call it a manhole, you sexist pig.

This headline puzzled your humble blogger:

Body found in ‘sewage hole’ near Jack London Square in Oakland

My initial reaction was that a "sewage hole" must be a new element of the wastewater system. Is falling into a sewage hole another danger we must avoid? The entire story (below) did not provide clarity.

A body was found “lodged inside of a sewage hole” near Jack London Square, according to the Oakland Police Department.

The person was found unresponsive inside the hole at about 7:40 a.m. Saturday in the 300 block of Broadway, the police department reported. Oakland firefighters helped remove the person, and though paramedics tried to render aid, the person was pronounced dead at the scene.

The circumstances surrounding how the person ended up in the hole, and how long that person had been in there, remain unclear. The person’s name has not been released, pending notification of next of kin.

Anyone with information about the death can contact Oakland police at 510-238-3821 or 510-238-7950.

Understanding came with the realization that the new stylebook tries to eradicate all traces of gender from ordinary language. "Manholes" should be called maintenance, utility, or sewage holes.

IMHO, the replacement of "sewage hole" for "manhole" obfuscates meaning, substitutes a multi-syllabic phrase for a perfectly fine two-syllable one, and makes unnecessary work for a reporter who has to look up which system the hole leads to. And that's why I never understood or did well in the language arts.

An Unsettled Spirit

Café Terrace at Night

Vincent Van Gogh has been celebrated in film and song for more than half a century.

His paintings command the highest prices in auction, his striking style is commonly recognizable, and his personal story--mental illness, unrequited love, self-mutilation, suicide--is the stuff of drama. Less popularly known are his Christian faith and the Christian themes that run throughout his oeuvre.

Van Gogh’s explicitly Christian works include “The Raising of Lazarus,” “The Good Samaritan” and two versions of “Pietà,” one of which hangs in the Vatican. Others are at least implicitly religious. About 30 versions of “The Sower” show a peasant at work. They also suggest the parable from the Gospels. Renderings of gardens and olive trees invoke Gethsemane. Paintings of irises may simply be paintings of irises—but the flowers tend to bloom around Easter and many believers associate them with the resurrection of Jesus.

Close-up of "Last Supper" section
of Café Terrace at Night

“Café Terrace at Night” is another magnum opus with a possibly hidden meaning. It arguably belongs to the starry-night genre, with its glimpse of the cool heavens above a warmly lit coffeehouse in Arles. Near its center, a man stands before a window with muntins that form a cross and beneath a gas lamp that could be a halo. A dozen seated diners surround him. A shadowy 13th figure darkens a doorway. Independent researcher Jared Baxter has called this Van Gogh’s “Symbolist Last Supper,” representing Jesus, the apostles and Judas.

Great artists try to convey deep truths in their work, and the act of doing so can make for an unsettled spirit.

Light Me Up Some Loco Weed

(Image from Veriheal)

There's some evidence that cannabis can help late-stage Alzheimer's patients: [bold added]

Approximately 6.5 million Americans, or 1 in 9 people aged 65 and older, are living with Alzheimer’s dementia. Agitation, aggression, wandering, delusions, hallucinations, mood disturbances and repetitive vocalizations are very common symptoms as the disease progresses. There are no FDA-approved pharmaceuticals to treat the condition, so when behavioral techniques fail, doctors use off-label medications such as antidepressants, mood stabilizers or antipsychotics. Antipsychotics become necessary when the patient risks harming themselves or others due to the severity of the agitation, but they are only modestly effective and carry a black box warning for increasing the risk of death in this population.

Recent research suggests that cannabis may help to relieve agitation by regulating neurotransmitters, reducing brain inflammation and improving circadian rhythm disturbances seen in dementia. It is thought that cannabis binds with receptors located in the same regions of the brain implicated in dementia agitation. A study in mice further found that THC (the major psychoactive component in cannabis) may prevent the harmful plaques associated with Alzheimer’s from accumulating between neurons. Further research may yet determine whether cannabis has the potential not only to treat Alzheimer’s symptoms but to halt the disease’s progression.

I never touched the stuff when younger, but trust the science. If I get Alzheimer's agitation, my caregivers are authorized to light me up some loco weed.

Oroville at 65%

Lake Oroville's water level has certainly seen its ups and downs:

Built in the 1960s by former Gov. Edmund “Pat” Brown, Jerry Brown’s father, Oroville reservoir holds 3.5 million acre feet when full — enough water for about 18 million people a year. The massive reservoir in Butte County captures water from the Feather River watershed. Its dam is the tallest in the United States. At 770 feet, it towers more than 200 feet higher than the Washington Monument...

Over the past 20 years, Oroville has filled to the top seven times: 2003, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2012, 2017 and 2019. It is currently holding 2.3 million acre feet of water.

The Mercury News' "juxtapose" illustration shows the change in Oroville's water level between September, 2021 (22% full) and January, 2023 (65% full). Just drag the bar up and down with the cursor.



As noted above Oroville "filled to the top" in 2017 and 2019. In 2017 the snowmelt was so plentiful that the dam almost collapsed. Yet in 2021 the water was so low that "for the first time since it opened in 1967, its power plant had shut down."

Years alternate between extreme drought and heavy rains, as they have throughout California's recorded history. One of these decades I hope that we'll get leaders who will invest in water infrastructure instead of chasing windmill dreams.

Groundhog Day, 2023

Today is Groundhog Day, when Phil, the groundhog from Punxsutawney, PA, predicts the weather for the next six weeks (cold if he sees his shadow, warm if he does not, and he did see his shadow.)

Today also celebrates the 30th anniversary of the movie, released on February 4, 1993. Groundhog Day was well-received when it came out and has grown in esteem to the extent that it is now considered to be one of the top films of all time. At its center is a vision of the meaning of life, but it is enclosed in a comedic wrapping that can be enjoyed on its own merits. As I wrote seven years ago:

Groundhog Day was a quirky custom in an out-of-the-way town--it didn't rise in the popular consciousness until the 1993 film.

I came across the movie on HBO in 1996. At first glance it was a cleverly written comedy about a jaded, world-weary weatherman who mysteriously must re-live Groundhog Day over and over again.

Bill Murray's character, Phil Connors, is trapped. Even when he despairingly "kills" himself he wakes up the next morning in the same hotel bed to the strains of Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe" on the clock-radio.

Phil-the-human cannot escape, yet in a sense he is totally free. He can commit any number of sins without consequence because he will have a fresh start tomorrow. No one but he remembers what he did.

Repeated viewings struck a chord. The movie plumbed deep waters. And I'm not alone in that realization.

In the years since its release the film has been taken up by Jews, Catholics, Evangelicals, Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans, and followers of the oppressed Chinese Falun Gong movement. Meanwhile, the Internet brims with weighty philosophical treatises on the deep Platonist, Aristotelian, and existentialist themes providing the skin and bones beneath the film’s clown makeup.

theology professor Michael P. Foley wrote that Groundhog Day is “a stunning allegory of moral, intellectual, and even religious excellence in the face of postmodern decay, a sort of Christian-Aristotelian Pilgrim’s Progress for those lost in the contemporary cosmos.”

The movie ends on a hopeful note. Phil makes positive changes of his own free will, without expectations of a reward. Only then is he released from the prison of endless repetition.

Part of the genius of Groundhog Day, the movie, is that it doesn't pummel you with philosophy. It invites you to think, but if you just want to laugh, that's ok, too. As Jonah Goldberg observes,

We’re talking about the movie in which Bill Murray tells a big rat sitting on his lap, “Don’t drive angry,”

Further musings in 2023 about Phil Connors' journey and our own:

In the film — written by Danny Rubin, a Zen Buddhist, according to Ramis’ DVD commentary of the film — Phil reincarnates each day, but he also transforms his behavior over “time.” He takes self-centered advantage of his unique predicament — robbing bank trucks, stuffing his face with angel food cake, tricking a woman into bed — but eventually perfects the day with creative self-improvement tasks and compassionately helping others. Once he becomes the best possible version of Phil Connors, he is released from his temporal prison, while simultaneously winning the love of his virtuous producer, Rita...

But something does change every day, even if it’s imperceptible. It’s ourselves. And we can choose how this day will unfold, and how we will slowly evolve. There might even be a “Groundhog Day”-inspired resolution: memorizing French poetry, playing the piano, figuring out how to help others more often. Like Phil, we can utilize creativity and compassion to change a glass-is-half-empty paradigm, to half full. The pursuit of meaning is itself meaningful. And today, as well as everyday, can be your first day of spring.

Wow, that's heavy! But putting it in perspective, Groundhog Day is also just about a big rat.

Cause for Celebration

One month ago your humble non-meteorologist stated that it felt like the drought was over, though no authorities made such a declaration. The Sierra snowpack provides another piece of evidence: [bold added]

The snowpack was 205% of its historical average for this time of year on Wednesday....The last time there was as more snow, 28 years ago, on Feb. 1, 1995, it was 207% of normal.

The huge bounty is the fourth largest statewide since 1950, when consistent statewide records began, according to a Bay Area News Group analysis of historical data. Only 1952 (267% of average) and 1969 (230%), and 1995 (208%) had larger amounts on Feb. 1.

In a few places, like Highland Meadow in Alpine County, the snowpack is the largest in recorded history.

Around Lake Tahoe, stop signs and fire hydrants have been buried in snow. Ski resorts that struggled during three years of drought, wildfire and COVID are seeing a banner year. The snow base Tuesday at Palisades was 11 feet deep. At Kirkwood it was 12 feet. And at Mammoth Mountain, south of Yosemite National Park, it was nearly 20 feet deep.

The good news is that, even if the winter rains stop, the Northern California water supply is in good shape for the current year:

“The storms could shut off,” said Jay Lund, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at UC Davis. “That’s the worst case. But even in the worst case, we’re still going to have a good snowpack. Most of it is in the bank, and will appear as streamflow.”

More heavy rains could cause flooding, however.

But if California receives big, warm, soaking storms that park over the Sierra, much of the snowpack could melt suddenly, causing mayhem.

The ideal water scenario would be the following:

If the rest of the spring plays out well, moderate storms will come in, with dry spells in between, allowing reservoirs to gradually continue filling just as summer is starting and the risk of floods is ending.

It's not enough for Californians that the December and January precipitation has chased away extreme drought. We want the storms to be "moderate" and short-lived so that the reservoirs fill while no floods occur.

There's no harm in hoping for the best, but hope should not turn into disappointment if we don't get a perfect rainy season. The water we've received so far is enough cause for celebration.