Beautiful Photos...

I found these on a German website, and I have no idea what the context is. But … I do know that if you go here and just keep scrolling, you're in for a real visual treat!

Bearly Hanging In There...

From the photo, things don't look too good – but this story has a happy ending. Here's the beginning:

According to the Truckee BEAR League’s Dave Baker, a medium-sized bear jumped the railing of Rainbow Bridge, a 100-foot concrete arch near Donner Summit, on Saturday afternoon.

“The bear was crossing the bridge as cars were coming from the east and west,” said Baker. “[The cars] pinched the bear up and over the guard rail.”

The bear apparently jumped to avoid the cars, then found itself trapped in the concrete girders beneath the highest point of the bridge from 3 p.m. Saturday until its eventual rescue at noon Sunday.

“I’ve been on a lot of bear rescues, and this is the most intense bear call that I’ve been on,” Baker said.

One of the first on the scene, Baker said he saw claw marks etched into the concrete railing where the bear leaped and then scrambled for a secure hold to prevent falling about 80 feet.

You can read the whole story (and see more photos) here and here. This all took place on 9/15/2007.

America's Greatest Generation

Stephen Ambrose (historian and very popular history writer), I believe, is the man who first called the Americans who were of adults during World War II the “Greatest Generation”. Like many others, he was moved and impressed by their incredible courage, unstoppable optimism, and frank patriotism. I share those feelings, and my parents are members of that Greatest Generation.

Someone who was 25 in 1945 would be 87 years old today, if they are still alive. In not so many more years, America's Greatest Generation won't be here to share their experiences.

Simi L., one of my faithful (and patient!) readers, sent me a link to a tribute to the veterans of World War II, created by a doctor in San Antonio, Texas. He was motivated by observing that his elderly patients often had experiences in their lives that were surprising; he has come to cherish meeting them, however briefly, in his emergency room duties. One example:

There was a frail, elderly woman who reassured my young enlisted medic, trying to start an IV line in her arm. She remained calm and poised, despite her illness and the multiple needle-sticks into her fragile veins. She was what we call a "hard stick." As the medic made another attempt, I noticed a number tattooed across her forearm. I touched it with one finger and looked into her eyes. She simply said, "Auschwitz." Many of later generations would have loudly and openly berated the young medic in his many attempts. How different was the response from this person who'd seen unspeakable suffering.

Do go read (and see) the whole thing…

Lost Cat!

A beautiful and much-loved cat has gone missing:

My daughter's adored cat disappeared 7/14/07. He is friendly, curious, and doesn't know how to get back home. He is a marbled bengal, brown/gray with black swirls, short coat. She is heartbroken. She will pay a reward. We would be eternally grateful for his return. Please call 669-0314, home and message machine, or leave comments on the blog. Thanks, Ellen and Marley.

Do you know anything about this cat? Please let Ellen or Marley know if you do…

An Important Ruling

Earlier this week, I read about an appeals court ruling that I thought was a very important one. I'd planned to post about it, but the Wall Street Journal beat me to it, with an editorial that captures my reaction better than I could have done myself:

You probably haven't seen it reported, but the Guantanamo trial system for enemy combatants won a big victory earlier this week. A military appeals court overturned a much-ballyhooed decision in June that had dismissed all charges against Omar Ahmed Khadr, an al Qaeda operative captured on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2002 after killing an American serviceman with a grenade.

The June decision was widely portrayed as a repudiation of the Bush Administration's antiterror legal policy, so perhaps this should be described as vindication. Under the 2006 Military Commissions Act, a panel called the Combat Status Review Tribunal makes a threshold determination of whether or not terror detainees are enemy combatants, before they are moved into military tribunals. Judge Peter Brownback ruled in June that the Review Tribunal had only screened for "enemy combatants," not "unlawful enemy combatants," thus giving his court no jurisdiction.

Never mind that "enemy combatant" is defined in a way that is inherently "unlawful" -- i.e., someone who is part of an international terrorist organization and engages in hostilities against the U.S. in violation of the laws of war. The legal hitch was not using the magic word "unlawful."

The appeals panel agreed that the Review Tribunal had not specifically determined that Khadr was an unlawful enemy combatant, but it also ruled that it wasn't obliged to. Rather, it said Judge Brownback ought to have considered the unlawfulness of Khadr's conduct under common courts-martial procedures, as defined by the Military Commissions Act. To do otherwise, let alone dismiss the charges, was "contradictory to the statute's clear structure, wording, and overall intent."

There's little doubt how the coming trial will turn out. There is a video, for instance, of Khadr preparing explosives to be used against American forces. But in the media's current terror narrative, it's only worth celebrating when the Bush Administration's judicial rules are overturned. When they're upheld, almost nobody notices -- so we thought you'd like to know.

How so many Americans believe we should coddle our enemies, and grant them the same rights as American citizens, is beyond my ken. Even more astonishing to me is how so many Americans don't even seem to realized that we're engaged in an existential war with radical Islamic fundamentalists. The American media, reflecting and amplifying this left-leaning bias, was very quick to report (and laud) the lower court ruling that limited our country's ability to prosecute its enemies. That ruling generated giant, joyful headlines across the country.

Reading the last couple of sentences back, I'm filled (again) with wonder at the self-destructive – suicidal, really – beliefs of my fellow countrymen.

The appeals court ruling, by contrast, is virtually uncovered in the lamestream media. I found one brief mention on Fox News, and a few mentions in the foreign press (mostly as a disaster report there). I found out about the ruling not through the lamestream media, but rather through one of the law blogs I read daily. This is so sad – an important ruling that helps this country defend itself, and the media just doesn't seem to care. Of course, the real problem is that the appeals court ruling doesn't fit their narrative at all, because that ruling vindicates the Bush administration's original position vis a vis the Guantanamo detainees' legal status.

Sigh…

Dog Found!

Dr. Christine Wilson and the folks at Steele Canyon Veterinary tell me that they have a dog that's in desperate need of finding its owner. From their email to me:

We have a dog that was found on 09/20/07 by a man who lives in Jamul off Lyons Valley Rd. The dog is an Akita Shep X, Spayed Female and brindle in color. The dog was found with tags and turns out that this dog was a patient of ours belonging to a different owner. When contacted about the dog they explained that they had adpoted the dog to someone in jamul....names and residence are unknown. The dog is very friendly and on the chance that there is a family in Jamul missing her we would like to get her back home.

If this sounds like it might be your missing dog, or if you know of anyone whose dog is missing, please give the Steele Canyon Veterinary Clinic a call, at 619/669-7274.

Photo of the Day

From the Botany Photo of the Day mailing list (which you can join by going here – just put your email address in the box at the upper right, and click the button!).

Who Said This?

Jim M., almost certainly my only reader from the mountains of northern New Mexico, sent me this little message:

Who said this?

1. "We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."
   
   
2. "It's time for a new beginning, for an end to government of the few, by the few, and for the few, and to replace it with shared responsibility for shared prosperity."
   
   
3. "(We) can't just let business as usual go on, and that means something has to be taken away from some people."
   
   
4. "We have to build a political consensus, and that requires people to give up a little bit of their own turf in order to create this common ground."
   
   
5. "I certainly think the free-market has failed."
   
   
6. "I think it's time to send a clear message to what has become the most profitable sector in (the) entire economy - that they are being watched."

Now you might think these were the famous words of the Father of Communism, Karl Marx. And you would be on the right track in thinking so. But you would be wrong. These pearls of socialist/Marxist wisdom are from none other than our very own, home-grown Marxist…

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Comments made on: (1) 6/29/04 , (2) 5/29/07, (3) 6/4/07, (4) 6/4/07, (5) 6/4/07 , and (6) 9/2/05 .

Be afraid, be very afraid!

These actually seem sort of tame to me, compared to her rantings about socialized health care.

Jamul Casino Update

The effort by the Jamul Indian tribe to build a casino on State 94 has hit another roadblock: CalTrans has told the tribe that they need to supply more information before CalTrans can decide on their application for a permit to install a signal light and turn lanes on State 94, in front of the proposed casino's driveway. From the San Diego Union article:

Jacob said last week that the tribe should be treated the same as any other developer. She wants Caltrans to keep the tribe from using its historic driveway for a casino, even if it adds a stoplight there.

“If the tribe thinks that would create a safe situation on Highway 94 to use that driveway, they are dead wrong,” she said. “That would create a huge traffic-safety problem.”

Jacob noted that a developer building houses across the road from the tribe had to move access up to Melody Road and close its original driveway.

County Public Works Director John Snyder, who deals with roads and negotiates with Indian tribes over gambling projects, said it's a stretch to say the county wouldn't approve a casino driveway off Melody Road.

Previous applications by the tribe haven't had enough information for a proper environmental review, Snyder said.

“I haven't made up my mind,” he said.

Caltrans isn't taking a position on the suitability of the casino, agency spokesman Edward Cartagena said.

“We're sort of in the middle,” he said.

The agency's focus, he said, is to ensure the highway is safe. That includes taking into account whether the road can handle the number of cars the casino would likely add.

Like most residents of Jamul, I am very much opposed to this casino. I'm hoping that recent events incline the financial backers to give up on the project. This particular event looks to me like one more of the proverbial “death by 1000 cuts”. I hope so…

Orbital Turkey

My 3.5 long-term readers have heard me rail about the waste and uselessness of the U.S. manned space program, and my rants about the funding it steals from the far more productive robotic space programs. Well, I'm not the only one who feels that way – Steven Weinberg, Nobel Laureate and renowned particle physicist, had this to say (this past Tuesday):

“The International Space Station is an orbital turkey. No important science has come out of it. I could almost say no science has come out of it. And I would go beyond that and say that the whole manned spaceflight program, which is so enormously expensive, has produced nothing of scientific value."

Orbital Turkey. That's a much better moniker for the ISS!

Dr. Weinberg went on to say this about the manned space program:

"No important science has come out of it. I could almost say no science has come out of it. And I would go beyond that and say that the whole manned spaceflight program, which is so enormously expensive, has produced nothing of scientific value. Human beings don't serve any useful function in space. They radiate heat, they're very expensive to keep alive and unlike robotic missions, they have a natural desire to come back, so that anything involving human beings is enormously expensive.

I think the public imagination gets very rapidly bored with the sight of humans in space knocking golf balls around. On the other hand, [the public] was fascinated by the kinds of things done by rovers on Mars. I think our political leaders underestimate the intelligence of the public in thinking they won't be fascinated by real scientific discoveries. I think enormous sums are wasted on manned spaceflight that continually crowd out science missions."

Aside from those scientists whose funding depends on NASA's manned space program, most scientists seem to hold similar views as Dr. Weinberg – though most are also far less eloquent and forthright about it. NASA is, after all, a major source of science funding. The views of such independent scientists – especially their assertions that little worthwhile science is getting done by the manned space program – puts the lie to the usual political justifications. The truth is that the manned space program is yet another political boondoggle, motivated by some combination of pork treats (e.g., major contracts issued to favored constituents), geopolitical posturing (my space program can piss further than your space program!), and fuzzy-brained romanticism (mankind can't be locked into just one planet!).

Personally, I'm so frustrated by the huge waste of my tax dollars by NASA that my preferred solution is to just kill it – shut down the whole damned thing. I'm convinced that once a bureaucracy achieves the scale and political power that NASA has, reform from within is nearly impossible. The country would be better served by a hiatus in the space program, followed by a new, trimmer, smarter program that addresses high-value science and research on fundamentals (such as alternatives to chemical rockets)…

News stories on Dr. Weinberg's remarks can be found here, here, and here. I'll leave you with a quote from The Register (a UK paper):

Here at the Reg, we don't quite know what to think. The idea of manned spaceflight is frankly more appealing than just sitting here on Earth looking at the rest of the universe until the end of the world, maybe sending out robots now and again. On the other hand we're not terribly impressed with the idea of chemical rockets as the only propulsion technology for the foreseeable future, which is mainly what NASA plans on.

Maybe if the boffins got loads of cash for atom-smashers, deep space Einsteinian-physics-bender probes, etc, they might finally come up with hyperspace drives or antigravity or something. Then there could be a proper space exploration effort. It could be worth playing the long game.

Another Photo

Here's another photo from the series...

Photo of the Day

A friend sent a small collection of spectacular images to me by email. These have been circulating on various lists, none of which seem to provide attribution. That's a shame, because whoever this photographer is deserves some recognition…

I'll post the rest of the collection over the next week or so. Click on the small picture to see a full-sized version.

Free Lunch

My mother sent me this little parable:

Free Lunch

There was a Chemistry professor in a large college that had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Prof noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back and stretching as if his back hurt. The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student Told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country, who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist government.

In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a Strange question: "Do you know how to catch wild pigs?"

The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line.

The young man said this was no joke. "You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come everyday to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence They get used to that and start to eat again. You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat, you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd.

Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught. Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America . The government keeps pushing us toward Communism/socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc. While we continually lose our freedoms - a little at a time.

One should always remember "There is no such thing as a free lunch!"
Also, "You can never hire someone to provide a service for you cheaper than you can do it yourself."

Also, if you see that all of this wonderful government "help" is a problem confronting the future of democracy in America , you might want to send this on to your friends. If you think the free ride is essential to your way of life, then you will probably delete this email, but God help you when the gate slams shut!

Most politically-aware people in America reading this would immediately associate the fence-building with the Democratic party, and not without reason. However, in point of fact the Republican party is also guilty of much fence-building, especially in the regulatory sphere. In more recent years, it's sometimes been hard to distinguish between the two parties on the basis of their fence-building (think Medicare drug supplements and tax policies).

The only serious political party that has consistently positioned themselves against this sort of fence-building is the Libertarian party – but unfortunately it seems to be infested with lunatics and fractured by multiple agendas so disjoint they make the Democrats look unified. The probability of the Libertarians winning any real political power is close to zero.

So the only real hope any of us who would like to see fewer fences have is to reform one of the two major parties, to get them on board with the fence-demolition project. If your only practical choice is between the Republicans and the Democrats, clearly it is much more likely that we could move Republicans in that direction.

But, sadly, I think the real problem is nearly intractable. It is this: each metaphorical fence that is built represents more power for the political class. Conversely, to pull down a section of the metaphorical fence requires some elements of the political class to relinquish power – something that most humans are not inclined to do. Here's a concrete example: one of the biggest metaphorical fences we have right now is the federal income tax. Its regulations, hulking size, and mind-boggling complexity warp our behavior and reduce our free choices in many ways. The “flat tax” is a credible alternative, with the attractive virtue of utter simplicity. If any business faced a similar opportunity to dump the current tax code and adopt the flat tax, it would be an absolute no-brainer: the flat tax would be implemented immediately.

But consider this: switching to the flat tax would mean that a veritable army of bureaucrats at the IRS would have no job, that one of Congress' cherished tools for controlling our behavior (tax exemptions and credits) would be removed, and another army of tax accountants (who are big contributors to political campaigns) would be out of a job. From a politician's jaded perspective, there's nothing good about switching to a flat tax. Aside from a very few elected officials with genuine beliefs of their own, just about the only politicians who support the flat tax are those who are struggling to win their first election, or those who are threatened in their incumbency and need some way to attract voters. All the other politicians see the flat tax as a threat (to themselves, of course) or a reduction in their power – and they will resist its implementation with all their might, no matter what their public posturing is (much like the recent move to expose earmarking to public scrutiny has been successfully resisted, despite public statements to the contrary).

The little parable has an important message. I believe those fences are being built, and they threaten our freedoms far more than the Patriot Act or its ilk ever did. The only way I can think of (with any real chance of success) to demolish those fences is to reform the Republican party. I really hate to say this, but I'm not very optimistic about the chances of that reform – too many people in this country are attracted by that free corn, and are comfortable with it. And so far, their consistent history is to vote for the politicians who promise the most free corn…

Hell Is Over

Michael J. Totten – one of the extraordinary independent journalists in the Middle East – has filed a new report on his blog, full of excellent photos like the one at right, detailing his recent observations in Anbar province, Iraq. It is one of the most compelling pieces I have read about the current situation in Iraq – if you have any interest at all in events over there, you should read this post. Here's a tiny teaser for you:

I saw so many pictures of crazed Iraqis wearing ski masks and carrying rocket launchers and Kalashnikovs before I went to Baghdad and Ramadi that I slowly started to think, against my better judgment, that such people are typical. I never once saw anyone like that. They are around, obviously, but they are not in any way typical.

These are the typical faces I saw in Iraq.

They are the ones I now think of when trying to figure out what the United States should do in Iraq. They are the ones who will have to suffer the consequences the longest.

Don't miss reading the whole thing – and while you're there, please hit his tip jar; he depends on contributions to keep up his fine work…

Quote of the Day

By Karen Toggery:

“They say we're supposed to have fair and equal justice,” she said. “Where is it?”

Karen is one of the Jamul Indians evicted from her own reservation on March 10. Protesters at that incident were roughly treated, and had asked for criminal charges against the tribe and their security people. Yesterday District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis finally issued her decision about those charges: she declined to file any, saying that it was a civil matter, not a criminal matter. From the San Diego Union report:

“Tribal governments are recognized as sovereign nations,” she said. “Our office is authorized by Congress to prosecute state crimes committed on Indian reservations, but we have no jurisdiction over civil matters. An eviction process is a civil matter.

“Based upon this unique and unusual set of circumstances, our office has declined to file criminal charges against any of the persons involved in the events of March 10, 2007 on the Jamul Indian Reservation.”

Dumanis won't answer questions about her decision, spokesman Paul Levikow said.

I'm no lawyer, and I don't know what the “right” thing to do here is, from a legal perspective. Speaking as an American citizen, though, I can't see any way to claim justice has been served through this decision. Basically our District Attorney has just endorsed all manners of behavior in such “civil” matters. Now that the tribe has learned they can act with impunity, protesters on the reservation can expect to be treated violently. If the casino is ever actually built, protesters will be taking their lives in their hands to protest on the site…

Does that sound like America to you?

Route 94 Improvement Plans

In this morning's San Diego Union:

People concerned about the condition of state Route 94 will have a chance to tell Caltrans planners what they think of a plan for improvements on an 18-mile stretch from Jamul to Tecate.

Officials with the California Department of Transportation will be available to explain the proposal and take comments in a meeting scheduled from 4:30 to 8 p.m. today at Jamul Primary School, 14567 Lyons Valley Road in Jamul.

The proposed improvements include passing lanes, widening the road and realigning curves, said project manager Sam Amen, who estimated they would cost $90 million to $100 million to build.

There isn't enough money for the project in state and federal budgets right now, he said, but the planning is important for any eventual improvements. More information is available online at www.rural94.com.

I checked out the web site above; there's a bit of information, but nearly all of it is included on the map I've linked to above (click on it for a full-sized view). All of the improvements listed are for the section of 94 that lies between Jamul and Tecate, so for all of us who commute from Jamul toward San Diego, these have no benefit at all. It's another story altogether for those folks who travel between San Diego and Tecate, Campo, or points beyond – this stretch of 94 is (and has been for years) a notoriously dangerous route. Adding large numbers of trucks from Mexico isn't going to make it any safer, either…

Light Posting

You may have noticed that I haven't been posting much. My feeble excuse is that I've just started a new job, and I've been devoting much time to coming up to speed there. Losing some sleep, too, as the work is quite interesting…

My new title, at the moment, is my all-time favorite (which I'd love to keep forever!): “TBD”

That pretty much describes my entire career!

Puzzler Update

Only two people even guessed at the name of the first microcomputer kit, and both got it wrong. The kit was called the "Jolt", and it was a very simple 8008-based design with just a numeric keypad and two seven-segment LED displays as I/O.

This week, back to science and technology.

Imagine that you had access to an infinitely powerful, infinitely fast digital computer. Which of the listed tasks would be impossible for even this computer to perform?

Update: Gunfire in Jamul

A few days ago, I reported on the gunfire that led to the closure of 94 for about an hour. Last night I received the following email from a woman who notes that she is Scott Amerman's mother:

Regarding Jamul man jailed for allegedly shooting in Transient Camp. You might be interested in some background: 2003 My son came to nurse me for 8 months after doctors gave me 2 mos to live. Deplorable state of vagrant camp behind my (not his) mobile home upset him. Once he was hit over the head in the grove, robbed and left for dead. Scott moved on when my health was restored. My Mobile Home Park was overrun with rats. 2006 I launched campaign to clean up the olive grove. Responses: Fire Dept, "call if you smell smoke." Immigration -"got green cards." Sheriff -"no crime. " DEA-"can't find anything." Vector Control gave me traps. County Health- "Yes, bacteria count in creek's high." It's gone on for years! Sent DVD's of campsites to everyone. Duncan Hunter directed me to a Santee meeting. Heather Lucas (Ch 8 News) did a spot on me. People began to listen. Was directed to Code Enforcement. They fined the owner. He cleaned up acreage. Hurrah! Rats gone! Short lived victory. Visiting me, Scott found they're back, lighting campfires in that tender box environment. My daughter lost her home and narrowly escaped with her life in 2003 Alpine fire. Campfires 40' from my home aren't acceptable to Scott. Criminal element of drug runners is intolerable. He felt he had to protect me since no authority does. Took his life in his hands to single handedly go tell them to leave. Incredible -about 30 patrol cars rushed here! Couldn't get them here after real criminals until after they'd gone. Scott surrendered peacefully. All charges were dropped. I don't know if the illegals & vagrants are still there. I'll ask a Sheriff to go with me so I can take photos and start the process again - if I don't get burned out first. Question: What do you do when the system is broken and no longer functions to protect you? Sheriff said get a petition signed by park residents and send it to the owner saying we hold him responsible. So….doesn’t that still put it back in our lap…and if the owner doesn’t cooperate, it’s another useless paper like the ones the Sheriffs give the transients.

Scott's Mom

Transients and illegals lighting campfires is one of our nightmares out here in the chaparral. The Horse Fire last year, and the Pine Fire (97% contained as of 6 PM last night) were both started by such campfires. Assuming the account by Scott's mom is accurate, the asymmetry of the law enforcement response to the prior complaints versus the gunfire is appalling – and infuriating to anyone who cares about the lives or property of residents here. It's easy for me to understand how Scott could be very angry and frustrated in that situation. If I saw a campfire on my property (or on a neighbor's) in our current dry fuel conditions, I'm not at all certain that my reaction would be civil, level-headed, or within the bounds of the law…

Pine Fire

Update (9/13 morning):

This morning we can see no smoke, either from our yard or from the cameras on Lyons Peak. Either the fire is greatly reduced, or it has burned much further away from us. The MODIS satellite this morning shows “hits” moving southeast from the eastern flank we saw last night, and no hits on the western flank (the only possible threat to us). This is all good news.

Not so comforting: the MODIS data shows a new fire this morning, just east of Tecate, right on the border with Mexico. I have no other news of this fire, and I cannot see any smoke from it on the Lyons Peak cameras, so my fond hope is that this fire has been put out since the satellite made its last pass…

Original Post (9/12 evening):

Today while I was at work, Debbie called with the kind of news we dread hearing: a wildfire, not very far from our home, sending up big plumes of smoke. Fortunately for my state of mind, I could see from the Lyons Peak cameras that the fire posed no immediate threat to our house.

It's been dubbed the “Pine Fire”, and it's already up on the CDF Incident page – 0% containment and 1,000 acres burned so far. On my way home from work this evening, they reported a single injury to a bulldozer operator, suffered when the winds shifted suddenly. When I got home, the fire's smoke plume loomed over the mountains surrounding Lawson Valley – but the wind was blowing northward, away from us.

The map at right shows a chunk of San Diego County that's roughly 22 miles (34 km) across. The four red hatch-marked areas are one-kilometer “hits” from the infrared-sensing MODIS satellite, which show approximately where the fire was burning when the satellite last passed over. The purple fuzzy spot is the town of Pine Valley, and the green fuzzy spot is where we live.

I also heard on the news that the suspected origin of the fire was an illegal alien's camp fire. Again. The Corte Madera area (south of Guatay and Pine Valley, and south of I-8) we know well – we used to drive and hike there in the late 1970s and early 1980s, before the coyotes and the illegals practically took it over. When we started hearing the Cleveland National Forest rangers advise people to travel in the area only in groups, we stopped going. Apparently so did most other legal tourists, because (according to the news) the illegals far outnumber the legals there now. Sigh.

But I saved the best news about this fire for the last: according to the reports I've heard so far, no homes have burned or are threatened. Let's hope it stays that way…

Listen...

I've mentioned Michael Yon many times in my posts. I consider him the single best independent source of information on military affairs in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is a former Special Forces operative turned independent journalist, and he has the respect of, and access to, our military forces from the foot soldiers to the commanding generals. When Michael Yon speaks, I listen carefully – especially when he is giving his considered opinion.

This morning I received an email from Michael Yon (not because I'm special, but simply because I'm on his mailing list). I've received many such emails, usually simply telling me that he has posted a new dispatch. This one was different, and I reproduce it below in its entirety.

Greetings:

Successes are occurring, and accruing, in Iraq. Al Qaeda is still a powerful enemy, but they cannot be happy with their Iraqi franchise this summer.

Readers of my dispatches have gotten first hand reports of the kinds of positive indicators that General David Petraeus described in his progress report.

The atmosphere is changing in Iraq and I've been posting dispatches and videos that illustrate just how profound this change is in some cases.

I was the first to say Iraq was in civil war, and many readers were angry to hear me say it. Well, I'll be the first to say that I predict some sort of milestone for the war in Iraq will occur early in the next year. It's dangerous to predict like this, but something fundamental has changed in Iraq.

There is one important qualifier: this will only happen if General David Petraeus is supported by our elected officials to implement his proposed plan, without meddling from those same elected officials. Oversight and accountability are not the same thing as backseat driving after siphoning out half of the gas tank.

Please read: Hunting Al Qaeda

v/r
Michael

Michael has reported positively on General Petraeus, whom he has known personally for many years. He predicted, months before it began, that the tactic known as “the surge” would likely be successful, including a detailed prediction of the reaction of the Sunnis – all borne out by actual events. Read him yourself (his posts are all archived at his site), and please join me in urging your Senators and Representatives to allow General Petraeus to finish the job they sent him off to do…

AWNAA

Faithful masochist reader Simi L. sent me our morning political humor:

LAW PENDING IN CONGRESS: Americans With No Abilities Act (AWNAA) WASHINGTON, DC - Congress is considering sweeping legislation which provides new benefits for many Americans. The Americans With No Abilities Act (AWNAA) is being hailed as a major legislation by advocates of the millions of Americans who lack any real skills or ambition. "Roughly 50 percent of Americans do not possess the competence and drive necessary to carve out a meaningful role for themselves in society," said Senator Barbara Boxer. "We can no longer stand by and allow People of Inability to be ridiculed and passed over. With this legislation, employers will no longer be able to grant special favors to a small group of workers, simply because they do a better job, or have some idea of what they are doing."

The President pointed to the success of the US Postal Service, which has a long-standing policy of providing opportunity without regard to performance. Approximately 74 percent of postal employees lack job skills, making this agency the single largest US employer of Persons of Inability.

Private sector industries with good records of nondiscrimination against the Inept include retail sales (72%), the airline industry (68%), and home improvement "warehouse" stores (65%). The DMV also has a great record of hiring Persons of Inability (63%), and fast food restaurants (93%).

Under the Americans With No Abilities Act, more than 25 million "middle man" positions will be created, with important-sounding titles but little real responsibility, thus providing an illusory sense of purpose and performance. Mandatory non-performance-based raises and promotions will be given, to guarantee upward mobility for even the most unremarkable employees. The legislation provides substantial tax breaks to corporations which maintain a significant level of Persons of Inability in middle positions, and gives a tax credit to small and medium businesses that agree to hire one clueless worker for every two talented hires. Finally, the AWNA bill contains tough new measures to make it more difficult to discriminate against the Nonabled, banning discriminatory interview questions such as "Do you have any goals for the future?" or "Do you have any skills or experience which relate to this job?"

"As a Nonabled person, I can't be expected to keep up with people who have something going for them," said Mary Lou Gertz, who lost her position as a lug-nut twister at the GM plant in Flint, MI due to her lack of notable job skills. "This new law should really help people like me." With the passage of this bill, Gertz and millions of other untalented citizens can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Said Senator Ted Kennedy, "It is our duty as lawmakers to provide each and every American citizen, regardless of his or her ambition ability or adequacy, with some sort of space to take up in this great nation." The Senator's office at the same time issued this statement: "The Senator fully identifies with the people this legislation is designed to help."

At least, I think it's humor. On reflection, it doesn't actually seem all that unlikely…

Highway 94 Closure in Jamul

Update II:

From 10 News, a much more detailed report of this incident:

A Jamul man was behind bars Tuesday for allegedly firing a pistol toward a transient camp out of drunken anger over its presence in his neighborhood, a sheriff's official reported.

Scott Andrew Amerman, 39, surrendered peacefully to deputies outside his trailer-park home at State Route 94 and Proctor Valley Road about an hour after Monday's non-injury shooting, Sgt. Manuel Diaz said.

A resident of the shantytown near Amerman's trailer made an emergency call shortly before 5:30 p.m. to report seeing a man in the area with a pistol in his hand, Diaz said.

While the witness was talking to deputies, four shots rang out from the direction of the mobile-home park, according to the sergeant.

Sheriff's personnel surrounded the complex and closed down a stretch of SR-94 while trying to locate the gunman.

About an hour later, Amerman walked to the entrance of the park and surrendered. A search of his trailer turned up two handguns and two pellet guns, Diaz said.A man who had been with Amerman at the time of the shooting said the suspect was "very intoxicated" and upset about "the local transient camp problem," according to Diaz.

"The trailer park and transient camp were checked for victims, with negative results," the sergeant said.

Amerman was booked on suspicion of discharging a firearm in a grossly negligent manner.

The decision this country has made to make some immigration illegal, but then not enforce those laws, has numerous consequences. What Amerman allegedly did isn't something I would defend – but I will point out that such incidents are inevitable in the context of the immigration laws, policies, and pressures facing this nation.

From a moral perspective, making some immigration illegal but then not enforcing the law is the only wrong choice – it would be far more moral to either have those laws and enforce them, or to make all immigration legal. Readers of this blog know that I favor the latter, with certain conditions about immigrants assimilating into American culture.

Update:

The San Diego Union Tribune is carrying this brief story:

EAST COUNTY: State Route 94 was closed in Jamul for nearly an hour yesterday until sheriff's deputies arrested a man suspected of firing a gun near a transient camp.

A witness reported seeing a man with a handgun near the camp near Route 94 and Lyons Valley Road about 5:30 p.m., sheriff's officials said.

Deputies were talking to the witness when they heard three to four gunshots from a mobile home park, sheriff's Sgt. Manuel Diaz said. Deputies surrounded the park, and a sheriff's helicopter crew flew overhead warning residents to stay indoors.

The man came out of his mobile home about 7 p.m. and surrendered after a friend first came out and told deputies that the 39-year-old man had not fired at anyone. The friend said the shots were fired in frustration over the transient camp near his home.

Diaz said the man was jailed on suspicion of illegal discharge of a firearm.

Original Post:

This morning's news brings this story (from NBC San Diego):

Highway 94 was shut down in Jamul for less than an hour Monday night as the San Diego County Sheriff's Department investigated reports of a suspicious person with a gun.

The incident began at 6:20 p.m. Monday evening. The California Highway Patrol closed the 94 between between Lyons Valley and Jefferson roads at the request of the sheriff's department.

The CHP said there were some motorists in the area who were told to remain in their cars until the area was secured. The road was reopened around 7:10 p.m.

Sheriff's deputies told NBC 7/39 a middle-aged man, described as being distraught, was walking around the vicinity of a mobile home park with a gun. He was taken into custody, officials said.

The investigation is ongoing.

I did not see this myself, and I don't know anything beyond this news report. The image above is satellite imagery of the area in question – click for a larger view. I've marked the closed section of road in orange, and also circled the trailer park mentioned in the news report. If you know more about this incident and its resolution, please leave a comment…

Six Years...

Bumped for September 11...

This coming Tuesday is September 11, 2007 – the sixth anniversary of the awful day when 2,996 Americans died during the despicable terrorist attacks by Bin Laden's al Qaida organization. In those six years the Bush administration has prosecuted the global war on terror, targeting not only al Qaida, but also other terrorist organizations and those countries that support or harbor them. There are many legitimate criticisms that can be raised about exactly how that war has been prosecuted. But despite those criticisms it is nevertheless still true that America has not suffered another such attack in all those six years – an accomplishment that Bush's opponents and detractors are eager to belittle, but which I am most grateful and thankful for.

There are also some disappointments, including the mainly symbolic and emotional disappointment that we have not yet managed to capture (or better yet, to kill) Osama Bin Laden himself. We have bled his organization until it is a mere shadow of its former self, but we not yet wiped out the root of that evil. Pragmatically I think this matters little – but it certainly would feel good to know that evil bastard was dead. Preferably painfully dead.

In any case, the anniversary of such an important event is a good excuse to pause, remember, and ponder. In that spirit, I offer you two links. First, a tribute page for Nicolas P. Rossomando – a brave member of the New York Fire Department who lost his life on 9/11 while rescuing innocents from the carnage at the World Trade Center. Second is a collection of photos from around the world, taken in the days immediately following 9/11, when for a brief time it seemed that the entire world shared the pain, grief, and anger of America. Note that there are multiple slides (pages) of these photos; use the links near the top of each page to navigate between them.

Second Course

Two of my friends have already commented (snidely, of course) on my previous post. They seem to think that I live-blogged my dinner, but such was not the case. The second course came along a couple of hours after the first course, after the scallops had settled a bit…

My beautiful bride outdid herself for the second course, creating another simple, perfectly finished seafood dish: pan-fried salmon with a sauce of fresh lemon juice and zest, fresh dill, garlic and butter, served over bow-tie pasta with pesto, fresh-grated Parmesan, and pine nuts.

I ate until I was near bursting. And because of that, the dessert course shall be postponed until another evening. Now I must go drink a large glass of a fine Cabernet…

Ahhhh… Now if I could only convince the wench that every day was my birthday!

Birthday: First Course...

Today is my birthday, and this year I'm as old as some of the dirt in my yard. Since 9/11, I can't help but associate my birthday with that awful day – today I celebrate getting older; tomorrow I remember and honor the ghosts of 9/11.

But today my lovely bride is doing her best to help me celebrate. We just finished the first course of what will be a long, drawn-out celebratory meal. For this course, she cooked one of my favorite foods – sea scallops – and they were simply spectacular. Note the past tense: those scallops are now happily lodged in my stomach.

She fixed them in a very simple manner, but oh, my they were delicious. She first fixed a light sauce with a touch of garlic, fresh tarragon, lemon zest, and salted butter. She drizzled this over the scallops and then broiled them for just a few minutes. The tops were lightly browned, and they were absolutely perfectly done (and that's quite tricky with scallops, as I know from many times that I've overcooked them). Yum!

I can hardly wait for the second course…

This Week's Puzzler

This week we delve a little into the history of technology – relatively recent history, which I am ancient enough to have personally participated in!

The ubiquitous personal computer is based on a “microcomputer chip” such as an Intel Pentium. Microcomputers first appeared in the 1970s, initially as the brains behind primitive four-function electronic calculators. Several companies produced early microcomputers powerful enough to be considered a general purpose computer, but arguably the first such microcomputer was the Intel 8008 – a primitive and slow little computer that was nevertheless quite a revolutionary device.

Unlike most earlier digital computer technology, the 8008 was cheap enough to be accessible to the hobbyist community, and a tiny little company produced an 8008 kit within weeks of the chip's initial release. This kit created quite a stir in the hobbyist community, and hundreds of nutcases like myself bought one. The kit was really just a bag of parts and a schematic – to assemble the kit required mainly wire-wrapping, a bit of soldering, and the ability to provide an adequate power supply.

I had my kit assembled and running in two days, and I was thrilled – I actually personally owned a computer! At the time, I was a DS (computer repair technician) in the U.S. Navy, and the computers I worked with there were the size of a large refrigerator – and yet not as powerful as the little 8008 that I kept in a cardboard box. I'm sad to say that I've long since lost that assembled kit. Advances in technology were fast even then, and it was only a year or two until that kit was obsoleted by a succession of more advanced microcomputer systems, based on chips like the 8080, Z80, 6800, and 6502.

What was the name of that wire-wrap 8008 kit? Display your geekiosity, and vote your answer at right...

Flying Pigs at NASA!

This has turned out to be quite a week of flying pigs! NASA/GISS has released the source code for their global temperature data aggregation – something that many climatologists and many anthropogenic global warming skeptics have been demanding for years. Jim Hansen, the GISS chief scientist (don't even think about getting between him and a liberal reporter), noted the release in a particularly grumpy ungracious email – he really does act more like royalty than he does a scientist…

I found two good posts about this release: one on Climate Skeptic (a new blog dedicated to anthropogenic global warming skepticism, written by the same guy who writes CoyoteBlog), and one on Steve McIntyre's excellent Climate Audit site. Steve is the ‘amateur’ climatologist who's been asking tough questions for the past couple of years – and getting mostly incoherent anger from the likes of Jim Hansen as a result. To me, Steve is the epitome of a professional scientist. Jim (how dare you question me!) Hansen, on the other hand, dishonors his profession on a regular basis by displaying exactly those attitudes and behaviors that are supposed to be avoided by scientists: opacity (e.g., the secret data “adjustment” methodologies), intolerance of debate, and a reliance on faith instead of reproducible experiments and verifiable facts.

The just-released data and programs are available at this link on NASA's site. I took a quick look through them; nothing exhaustive. It's a mish-mash of Python, Fortran, C, and shell scripts; from this software engineer's perspective it looks like something cobbled together by a convention of drunken chimps. My starting assumption, were I to review this in detail, would be that it is badly broken. The challenge would be to prove that assumption wrong, and my guess is that it would be a daunting challenge. I'll let someone else tackle that one!

Time Synchronization...

Geek Post Alert!

If you are not a geek interested in synchronizing the clock on a Linux or Windows host, then you should avert your eyes from this post, as it may cause damage to your brain.

If you've ever implemented NTP peering (the NTP daemon, in other words) on a Linux system, then you know it's quite easy to keep the Linux host's very accurately synchronized to atomic clocks. Really the only challenge is to locate some good NTP servers – and now a project has come along to solve that problem by creating known good NTP server pools. The member NTP servers in these pools are continuously checked, so you've got much better assurance that you're synchronizing to good NTP servesr than was previously possible. See the NTP Pool project's home page for more details, and this Wikipedia article for some background.

Using the NTP pool is almost ludicrously simple. In your ntp.conf file, today you might have several entries like this: “server a.b.c.d” (with real IP addresses, of course). To use the pool, you simply replace those entries with “server 0.pool.ntp.org”, “server 1.pool.ntp.org”, etc. That's all there is to it – after restarting your ntp daemon, you're using the NTP pool!

While reading through the information on the NTP Pool's home page, I came across something else that looks very useful: a full-on port of the ntp daemon to Windows (where it becomes a Windows service). So I tried it, starting from the port's download page. At this point I've only tried it on two Windows hosts (both running Windows XP Pro), so I certainly can't claim to have exhaustively tested it. But…unlike an earlier port I tried, this one worked first time after a flawless installation with a very professional looking installer. Better yet, an accompanying utility gives you a nice GUI-based monitoring tool. And even better, the whole thing is open source and free! Beats the heck out of the standard (but perverted) Windows Time Service…

Flying Pigs Alert!

Every Brit I've ever met has defended his country's strict gun controls. The British press seems to reflect this attitude perfectly, with a determined defense of the British policies and self-righteous condemnation of the American “Wild West” and its allegedly out-of-control gun culture.

So when I read the headline of a column this morning in the London Times, by Richard Munday, I was quite surprised – and even more surprising was the contents. The column is headlined Wouldn't you feel safer with a gun?, and it starts like this:

Despite the recent spate of shootings on our streets, we pride ourselves on our strict gun laws. Every time an American gunman goes on a killing spree, we shake our heads in righteous disbelief at our poor benighted colonial cousins. Why is it, even after the Virginia Tech massacre, that Americans still resist calls for more gun controls?

The short answer is that “gun controls” do not work: they are indeed generally perverse in their effects.

I fear that this heresy puts Mr. Munday's British citizenship in danger of revocation. By Monday morning, it's likely he'll be seeking asylum at the U.S. Embassy in London.

But it gets even better:

Virginia Tech reinforced the lesson that gun controls are obeyed only by the law-abiding. New York has “banned” pistols since 1911, and its fellow murder capitals, Washington DC and Chicago, have similar bans. One can draw a map of the US, showing the inverse relationship of the strictness of its gun laws, and levels of violence: all the way down to Vermont, with no gun laws at all, and the lowest level of armed violence (one thirteenth that of Britain).

Here's a liberal commentator, in a liberal newspaper, in a liberal country, citing the uncomfortable facts that liberals around the world struggle mightily to suppress and deny. What the heck is going on here? I have no doubt now that pigs are flying between the skyscrapers in London!

Here's the column's conclusion:

As late as 1951, self-defence was the justification of three quarters of all applications for pistol licences. And in the years 1946-51 armed robbery, the most significant measure of gun crime, ran at less than two dozen incidents a year in London; today, in our disarmed society, we suffer as many every week.

Gun controls disarm only the law-abiding, and leave predators with a freer hand. Nearly two and a half million people now fall victim to crimes of violence in Britain every year, more than four every minute: crimes that may devastate lives. It is perhaps a privilege of those who have never had to confront violence to disparage the power to resist.

Mr. Munday asks, “Wouldn't you feel safer with a gun?”

Well, Mr. Munday, speaking as a gun owner in the American Wild West, I can tell you this: even though I live in an area with statistically and historically very low rates of crime, my wife and I do indeed feel much safer with a gun. Several guns, actually. We own three firearms: a seven-shot Smith & Wesson revolver, a six-shot Beretta semiautomatic shotgun (a so-called “riot gun”), and a 22 gauge Remington rifle (a “varmint gun”). The guns are all legally purchased and licensed. Both my wife and I have attended formal training and have practiced on the range; the varmint rifle gets regular use on our property (mostly against ground squirrels and gophers).

The police emergency response time to the area where we live is around 30 to 60 minutes – not because the police are incompetent, but because we live quite far from any police station. If some bad guy showed up on our doorstep, dialing 911 and waiting for the police to show up is a recipe for becoming a victim. Our guns are much more likely to succeed in defending us, either as a shock-and-awe deterrent (that shotgun would punch some impressive holes in a vehicle!) or in violent self-defense.

Does that make us feel safer? Of course it does. As it should anyone whose brain hasn't been muddled with liberal claptrap…

Petzalooza!

It's time for you to meet some of our furry companions... First up: Halala Pala, whom we think is at least part Maine Coon cat:

Then there's Miki, the wonder-puppy (who's 18 months old now!):

And how about these two best pals? That's Maka Lea on the left, and Boots on the right:

Here's Kama, who just a year ago was a feral cat who wouldn't come anywhere near us. We trapped him and then very patiently acclimated him to human presence. He's now a mostly-integrated part of our household, with only the occasional regression to his aggressive wild cat persona:

Last but not least: Lea (our oldest field spaniel) and Maka Lea share a food bowl in the morning. The bowl is filled with dog food, which most of the cats disdain – but Maka Lea for some reason seems to enjoy having a piece or two for breakfast. Lea shares her food without any protest, something that neither Mo'i nor Miki would ever even consider.

Good Democrats

One of my faithful readers (Simi L.) sent this piece along. I'm really not sure whether to laugh or cry…

22 Ways to be a good Democrat:

1. You have to be against capital punishment, but support abortion on demand.
   
   
2. You have to believe that businesses create oppression and governments create prosperity.
   
   
3. You have to believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding Americans are more of a threat than U.S. nuclear weapons technology in the hands of Chinese and North Korean communists.
   
   
4. You have to believe that there was no art before Federal funding. Ed. And that the “art” purchased with Federal funding actually IS art!
   
   
5. You have to believe that global temperatures are less affected by cyclical documented changes in the earth's climate and more affected by soccer moms driving SUV's.
   
   
6. You have to believe that gender roles are artificial but being homosexual is natural.
   
   
7. You have to believe that the AIDS virus is spread by a lack of federal funding.
   
   
8. You have to believe that the same teacher who can't teach 4th-graders how to read is somehow qualified to teach those same kids about sex.
   
   
9. You have to believe that hunters don't care about nature, but loony activists who have never been outside of San Francisco do.
   
   
10. You have to believe that self-esteem is more important than actually doing something to earn it.
    
    
11. You have to believe that Mel Gibson spent $25 million of his own money to make The Passion of the Christ for financial gain only.
    
    
12. You have to believe the NRA is bad because it supports certain parts of the Constitution, while the ACLU is good because it supports certain parts of the Constitution.
    
    
13. You have to believe that taxes are too low, but ATM fees are too high.
    
    
14. You have to believe that Margaret Sanger and Gloria Steinem are more important to American history than Thomas Jefferson, Gen. Robert E. Lee, Thomas Edison and A.G. Bell.
    
    
15. You have to believe that standardized tests are racist, but racial quotas and set-asides are not.
    
    
16. You have to believe that Hillary Clinton is normal and is a very nice person.
    
    
17. You have to believe that the only reason socialism hasn't worked anywhere it's been tried is because the right people haven't been in charge.
    
    
18. You have to believe conservatives telling the truth belong in jail, but a liar and a sex offender belonged in the White House.
    
    
19. You have to believe that homosexual parades displaying drag queens, transvestites, and bestiality should be constitutionally protected, and manger scenes at Christmas should be illegal.
    
    
20. You have to believe that illegal Democratic Party funding by the Chinese Government is somehow in the best interest of the United States.
    
    
21. You have to believe that it's okay to give Federal workers the day off on Christmas Day, but it's not okay to say “Merry Christmas.”
    
    
22. Last but not least: You have to believe that this message is a part of a vast, right wing conspiracy.

Laughing is much better for me, though…

Unequal Tomatoes...

All tomatoes are not created equal.

Out here in California, the tomatoes we can buy in our stores and vegetable stands – even those very expensive tomatoes marked “Vine Ripened!” – have the flavor and texture of a piece of slightly moistened polystyrene foam. We use them on our sandwiches and in our guacamole mostly to honor and help remember the good tomatoes we've had in the past.

This morning I had a tomato experience of the delightful variety: a perfectly ripe New Jersey tomato, at room temperature, sliced in a sandwich. The bread was toasted Dudley's potato bread (quite possibly the best commercial bread on the planet), with mayonnaise and a little fresh tarragon. Heaven. Sheer heaven.

And I have three more of these perfect crimson orbs, sitting on my kitchen table. Tomato sirens, torturing me with their voluptuous beauty and promises of exotic pleasures. The four temptresses are a gift from my parents, in celebration of my birthday and advanced age.

New Jersey tomatoes are the only reason I can think of why America shouldn't give that pathetic excuse for a state to the first taker. It would make a terrific “New World” colony for any number of countries – Libya, North Korea, Iran, or France, for example. Just imagine what lessons those countries could learn from New Jersey's financial black holes, ecological disasters, political corruption, and civil incompetence! So long as I could still visit my parents (who would most likely still choose to live in a French New Jersey), I'd be happy to let another country have whatever they could find in New Jersey.

Except New Jersey tomatoes. I want to keep those tomatoes American!

Dog Found!

Update and bump:

I received this email note from the fellow who found the dog:

HI TOM. THANKS FOR YOUR EFFORTS. I POSTED SIGNS AND HAD TWO RESPONSES, BUT THE DOG WASN'T THE ONE. ANYWAY THE DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY, AFTER THE DOG ATE IT VANISHED AGAIN. I BELIEVE IT IS OUT LOOKING FOR ITS OWNER ITSELF. NICE OLD DOG, BUT OBVIOUSLY SAD AND NOT INTERESTED IN HANGING AROUND. IT WAS NOT THE FIRST ONE THAT TURNED UP HERE. I THINK THE BARK IT OUT THAT WE FEED GOOD. ANYWAY, SO FAR WE HAVE RETURNED 6 OR MORE DOGS TO THEIR OWNERS WITH A WORD OF ADVICE. "IF YOU WANT THE DOG TAKE CARE OF IT, ITS PART OF YOUR FAMILY NOW"

Yes, indeed, folks – our four-footed friends are very dependent on us despite their wild ancestors. My wife and I are saddened all too often by the loss of a neighbor's dog or cat to a genuinely wild predator, or a car. We are very careful with our own “family” of three dogs and eight cats – the dogs are outdoors in our fenced yard only when supervised, and our cats are either strictly indoors or are outside in a cattery that is predator-proof. We're especially careful when there are thunderstorms, as one of our dogs (Lea) is terrified by the sound and completely loses her mind. If we let her out in the yard when there was thunder, it's easy to imagine her running away in sheer terror, with no idea where she was going and paying no heed to cars, bobcats, rattlesnakes, or mountain lions along the way…

Original post:

I received this email concerning a dog found near the Lyons Valley Trading Post:

FOUND LARGE, OLDER BROWN RETRIEVER. SCARED OF LIGHTNING. LYONS CREEK ROAD, NEXT TO TRADING POST. 468-3853. POSTED SIGNS. THANKS.

I'm trying to find out more, but that's all I know at the moment.

If that dog is anything at all like Lea (our female field spaniel who is terrified of lightning), then it sure will be glad to see its owners again...

Lost Dog

Just received this as a comment:

Lost Yellow Lab, Friendly 11 year old missing since Sunday morning if found please contact the number on her tags OR call 916-7521 OR 994-1609

Ahhh....

Last night, for the first time in nearly a week, we opened our windows to the lovely, cool, crisp air of an evening in the desert. Along with the cool air came the perfume and sounds of the chaparral.

We've been having a bit of a heat wave the past week, with temperatures reaching 110F (43C) – though thankfully that extreme was very brief! We had several hours on several afternoons of temperatures over 100F (38C), with very low humidity – but still, all we could do was hide in the house with the air conditioner. But the worst were the hot nights – two nights with the temperature running almost 85F (30C) all night long – so we kept the air conditioner running all night long.

Until last night. The heat wave broke very abruptly around 3pm yesterday afternoon, and last night was very pleasantly cool. As I write this, it is almost 9 am and it is still very pleasant outside.

Ahhhhh…

Rain!

Rain. Yesterday afternoon, it rained. A glorious, if brief, downpour dropped 0.16" (about 4mm) of water on our parched patch of desert. Oh, it was wonderful! Big, fat raindrops splatting all around us. The ground actually got wet. The dust sloughed off the chaparral's leaves. The air filled with the delicious aroma of wet earth. The temperature dropped by 10 or 15 degrees (F) in just a few minutes. A rainbow crossed Lawson Valley. And the fuel moisture shot up to over 20% – so, if only for a few days, our fire danger is greatly reduced.

There's a 20% chance of rain each day and night through Monday. We're hoping for more!