On cnn.com today:
Luther Vandross dead at 54 - Jul 1, 2005
“…Of ‘Dance With My Father,’ he once said that title song ‘was very emotional for me and, yes, it is based on my own experience.
“‘It’s not just about losing one’s father, but about missing someone who is gone — for whatever reason — and the longing you feel for that moment in the past when you were together,’ he said.…”
01 July 2005
RIP
How Supremely Appropriate
On WorldNetDaily, a few days ago:
Supreme Court justice faces boot from home?
“…According to a statement from Clements, the proposed development, called ‘The Lost Liberty Hotel’ will feature the ‘Just Desserts Café’ and include a museum, open to the public, ‘featuring a permanent exhibit on the loss of freedom in America.’ Instead of a Gideon’s Bible in each room, guests will receive a free copy of Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged, the statement said.
“Clements says the hotel must be built on this particular piece of land because it is a unique site – ‘being the home of someone largely responsible for destroying property rights for all Americans.’”
Not quite what Supreme Souter had in mind, I’ll wager.
25 June 2005
Did They Really Do That??
From LiveScience.com:
Lions to the Rescue! Big Cats Save Kidnapped Girl
“…‘They stood guard until we found her and then they just left her like a gift and went back into the forest,’ Wondimu said, adding he did not know whether the lions were male or female.”
22 June 2005
Pluribus or Unum?
From snopes.com recently:
Urban Legends Reference Pages: Politics (Richard Lamm on Multiculturalism):
“A Frightening Analysis
We all know Dick Lamm as the former Governor of Colorado. In that context his thoughts are particularly poignant. Last week there was an immigration-overpopulation conference in Washington, DC, filled to capacity by many of American's finest minds and leaders. A brilliant college professor named Victor Hansen Davis talked about his latest book, ‘Mexifornia,’ explaining how immigration — both legal and illegal — was destroying the entire state of California. He said it would march across the country until it destroyed all vestiges of The American Dream.…”
Read the whole piece. It’s not politically correct in the least, which is to say it’s firmly based in reality, and it’s pretty scary.
19 June 2005
Pondering Around
We went on the San Francisco Bay Area Koi Club’s annual pond tour yesterday. What fun!!
The first ponds we saw were at a place in Los Altos Hills. The first “pond” was more like a lake: 250,000 gallons! It had about 15? good-sized koi lazing around, and tons and tons of tiny ones, too. The next pond on the path, near the house, was the hospital/quarantine pond; not a tank, mind you, but a permanent installation. (I want one!) The “house pond” was on the back porch/deck. Lots of big koi, and lots of big rocks and ledges for them to swim over and around and under.
Our next stop was just up 280 in San Mateo. This house had a relatively small back yard with a in-ground swimming pool. They had a very nice waterfall/stream arrangement, down the side fence, into a gravity-feed arrangement to the koi pond next to the side of the house.
We had planned to visit the pond in Hillsborough, just up 280 from our 2nd stop; the ticket-taker in Los Altos Hills mentioned that that pond was not available, due to an emergency.
Instead, we headed over 92 and arrived at “the moat”. In this backyard, the waterfall was in the back corner, and the water split around an “island” where there was just enough room for a standing umbrella and a few chairs. The two waterflows met across from the waterfall, where the goldfish and koi live.
This was our favorite pond of the bunch! Such a clever idea, the noise level of the waterfall was just right; if we didn’t already have a pond, I’d be lobbying heavily for something along these lines. OTOH, maybe we can sneak one in somewhere…
17 June 2005
Our Across-the-Pond Cousins’ Take On It
From the Sun Online this morning:
News: Quake hits California:
“RESIDENTS of northern California were this morning lucky to escape injury when the region was hit by an earthquake of magnitude 6.4.…”
This One, We Felt
On SFGate.com this morning:
Two aftershocks rattle California:
“…Seismologists said the latest quake, which hit at about 10:21 p.m. Thursday some 127 miles west of Eureka and about 6 miles beneath the sea, most likely was an aftershock to the magnitude 7.2 shaker that rumbled to life Tuesday on the ocean floor west of Crescent City. …”
The Santa Cruz City Council Did Something Right?
From MercuryNews.com yesterday:
Santa Cruz council backs arts project:
“A $43 million project aimed at injecting new life into Santa Cruz’s struggling arts community won unanimous support from the city council early Wednesday after dancers, sculptors and glass-blowers begged the council to give them a cool place to live and work.
The Tannery Arts Center may soon become the heart and soul of the city’s arts community, as artists and performance venues move closer to Santa Cruz’s quirky but vibrant downtown. It’s also expected to draw “cultural tourists,” adding to the tens of thousands who come to Surf City each weekend to lounge on the beach.…”
Oh, Dear, the “Ethicists” Aren’t Going to Be Happy with BusinessWeek…
From BusinessWeek Online today:
Commentary: Color-Blind Drug Research Is Myopic:
“…‘It’s imperative that we look at racially specific differences,’ says Dr. Esteban González Burchard, assistant professor at the University of California at San Francisco. ‘The one-size-fits-all approach to developing drugs is no longer valid.’ Certainly there is growing evidence that a number of drugs seem to offer different benefits — or pose different risks — depending on race. Studies have shown that hypertension drugs called ACE inhibitors are less effective in black patients than in other groups. The lung cancer drug Iressa has shown higher rates of effectiveness in Asians. And when GlaxoSmithKline PLC warned of a possible link between its asthma drug Serevent and life-threatening asthmatic episodes, the problem appeared to be more common in blacks.…”
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
1497 - Battle of Deptford Bridge - Forces under King Henry VII soundly defeat troops led by Michael An Gof
1579 - Sir Francis Drake claims a land he calls Nova Albion (modern California) for England
1631 - Mumtaz Mahal died during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, then spent more than 20 years to build her tomb, the Taj Mahal
1839 - In the Kingdom of Hawaii, Kamehameha III issues the Edict of Toleration which gives Roman Catholics the freedom to worship in the Hawaiian Islands. The Hawaii Catholic Church and the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace is later established as a result
1885 - The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor
1928 - Aviator Amelia Earhart starts her attempt to become the first woman to fly in an aircraft across the Atlantic Ocean. She was a passenger; Wilmer Stutz was pilot and Lou Gordon, mechanic
1944 - Iceland becomes independent from Denmark and forms a republic
Births
1818 - Charles Gounod, French composer (d. 1893)
1882 - Igor Stravinsky, Russian composer (d. 1971)
1898 - M. C. Escher, Dutch artist (d. 1972)
1917 - Lena Horne, singer
Deaths
1696 - John III Sobieski, king of Poland (b. 1629)
1940 - Arthur Harden, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)
1986 - Kate Smith, American singer
Holidays & observances
1944 - Icelandic Independence Day, from Denmark
On This Day
From the BBC:
2001: Catholic leader Cardinal Winning dies
1961: Russian dancer in freedom dash
16 June 2005
Why, Do You Think?
From Gear Live, today:
OSX on a Dell? Over Steve’s Dead Body!:
“Michael Dell, of Dell Computers, has noted that should Apple “decide to open the MacOS to others,” they’d be glad to offer it up over at Dell.
Over Steve Jobs’ dead body,…”
You don't suppose it’s because Steve has nightmares about the Dull, er, Dell Dude hawking OS X?? OTOH, “Offer it up” doesn’t have quite the ring I’d be looking for in a business arrangement…
Southern California Gets Back Into the Act
From Reuters.com today:
Moderate earthquake shakes Los Angeles area:
“…The temblor was the third significant seismic event in California this week and came two days after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake off the coast of northern California that briefly triggered tsunami warnings and four days after a 5.2 quake shook the Anza-area of Riverside County.…”
From the Daily Press in Victorville:
Moderate earthquake shakes Los Angeles area
15 June 2005
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