Museum Volunteer

After 15 years I have resigned my jobs at the Museum in Crockett. I'll still be a member, use its resources, write for the Signal and all that good stuff. But, for various reasons, I can no longer commit to Wednesday and Saturday. If any Crockett people read this blog, the Crockett Historical Society can use your help.

Presidential Campaign

Generally I have avoided any comments or messages reflecting my political position. This message is simply to state that I am rooting for Obama to be the Democrat nominee.

Powerful quake inevitable in next 30 years, odds show - ContraCostaTimes.com

One of Crockett's advantages is that the Hayward-Rogers Creek fault does not bisect the town. But it runs just west of us by a couple miles. Oh well, ......................

Two faults that we are particularly concerned about with respect to high
probabilities are the southern San Andreas and the Hayward-Rogers Creek," Field said. "Both have elevated probabilities relative to their long-term
averages."

FOXNews.com - Huge Oil Reservoir May Lie Under Northern Plains - Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News

Well, its a lot less than the 200 billion barrels some folks have forcast but as technology advances, so grows the resource. I stll beats ethanol.

"The government estimates up to 4.3 billion barrels of oil can be recovered from the Bakken shale formation in North Dakota and Montana, using current technology. The U.S. Geological Survey calls it the largest continuous oil accumulation it has ever assessed.
An assessment by USGS in 1999 found the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge had 10.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil, said Brenda Pierce, a geologist for the agency The Bakken Formation encompasses some
25,000 square miles in North Dakota, Montana, Saskatchewan and Manitoba."

SALMON SEASON GONE

For any of you expecting fresh, newly caught northwestern salmon, it will be a long wait. Might be the time to buy an ocean going skiff....

Salmon Fishing Banned in U.S. Northwest
Donna Gordon Blankinship in Seatac,
WashingtonAssociated Press
April 11, 2008

West Coast fisheries
managers voted Thursday to cancel all commercial salmon fishing off the California and Oregon coasts this year. The Pacific Fishery Management Council decided to allow limited recreational fishing of coho salmon on holiday weekends off the Oregon coast, but no recreational fishing off California after several members of the
panel argued that every salmon counts.Scientists and government officials are expecting this year's West Coast salmon season to be poor because of the collapse of Sacramento River chinook, one of the West Coast's biggest wild salmon runs.Although commercial salmon fishing off the Washington coast is scheduled to begin May 1, fisheries managers do not predict a good season off either the north or south Pacific coasts."For the entire West Coast, this is the worst in history," said Don McIsaac, executive director of the Pacific Fishery Management Council.The council's decision still must be
confirmed by NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service, the federal agency in charge of salmon management.Relief for FishersEven before the vote, however, officials were on to the next step: disaster relief for fishers, said Mariam McCall, an attorney with the marine fisheries service.The governors of Washington, Oregon, and California have already signed letters seeking a disaster declaration. Congress will be asked to make a fast decision on money to alleviate the suffering of fishers and any other negative effects the cutback might have, said Brian Gorman, a NOAA Fisheries spokesperson.Scientists are studying the causes of the Sacramento River chinook collapse, with possible
factors ranging from ocean conditions and habitat destruction to dam operations and agricultural pollution. But a proposal to allow limited fishing for scientific purposes was struck down by the panel.Last year average quotas for the southern coast were allowed, while fishing was restricted north of Cape Falcon to the Canadian border.

Norwegian Wisdom

The Oslo newspaper is worth reading from time to time.

'The worst US president'A Norwegian professor who's considered one of the country's leading experts on US politics has ranked George W Bush as the worst US president in history. The best: Abraham Lincoln.
Professor Ole O Moen, who has followed American politics most of his career, has just written a book about all the US presidents. Aftenposten's weekly magazine A-magasinet asked Moen to choose who he thinks are the five best presidents and the five worst.
Two members of the Republican party landed as both the worst and the best presidents. Bush, in Moen's opinion, is the worst.
"His administration stands for a dangerous blend of arrogance and ignorance," Moen told A-magasinet, claiming that Bush has lacked an ability to listen to and cooperate with other heads of state, and with the US Congress.
Moen cited the invasion of Iraq, the resulting chaos that has erupted in the country and the intelligence reports that Bush's basis for the invasion (alleged weapons of mass destruction) didn't exist. Bush also defied international opinion on a host of other issues, from
the Kyoto agreement to rules for an international court, and his tax measures have widened the gap between rich and poor.
A federal budget surplus inherited from the Clinton administration has turned into a huge deficit and now the US is widely believed to be heading into a recession. Bush's approval ratings are currently at a low point in the US, but Bush himself has indicated that he doesn't care about his legacy.
Moen's choice for the "next-worst" US president is James Buchanan, a Democrat, whose term ran from 1857-1861 and who is often called the father of the American Civil War. Buchanan is followed by
Warren G Harding, a Republican who was president in the early 1920s and whose isolationist policies destabilized the world economy and helped fuel Germany's desire for military revenge.
Moen chose Calvin Coolidge, president from 1923-27) who continued an isolationist strategy, as the fourth-worst president,
and Andrew Johnson (1865-1869) as the fifth worst, because he allowed defeated southern states into the union without insisting that they reform themselves.
The Norwegian professor's favorite president is Abraham Lincoln,
also a Republican, who insisted on a government "of the people, by the people and for the people," and who rose from a poor background to save a nation that had descended into civil war.
Franklin D Roosevelt is Moen's choice as second-best president, for bringing the US out of the Depression, launching social reforms and leading the nation to victory in World War II. George Washington, the country's first president, was ranked third-best, Thomas
Jefferson fourth and Woodrow Wilson fifth.

Aftenposten's reporterLars KlugeAftenposten English Web
DeskNina Berglund

Only in California

California Town Digs for Ideas for Historic Ditch Story by Margaret Foster / Jan. 8, 2008

In California, where water is king, an irrigation ditch can have more historic clout than Plymouth Rock.
A Southern California group wants to create parkland around a historic 12-mile-long ditch, built in 1819 in Redlands, Calif.
Located in San Bernardino County, the Zanja, which is Spanish for ditch, delivered water to the local Spanish mission, San Bernardino Asistencia; it has been a flood-control channel for the past 80 years.
A third of the trench has already been cemented over and erased by apartment buildings and other development, so now is the time to act, says Sherli Leonard, executive director of the Redlands Conservancy, which will welcome the public's ideas in a Jan. 28 meeting.
"It's so important to the history of this community that we feel we ought to do something about it," Leonard says.
Last year, the city bristled at plans for an apartment building that would have taken down trees and redirect part of the Zanja, which has been listed on the National Register since 1977.
To create an eight-mile-long park with a trail, interpretive signs, and parks the Redlands Conservancy wants to buy and place easements on the privately owned sections of the Zanja, Leonard says. It also plans list the entire stretch on the local register, which offers more protection than the state and National Register.
"We'd have to find foundations or agencies that would support this project," Leonard says. "I'm really hoping we can get it all done by 2019. We're in the very early stages."
© Preservation Magazine

Another Victory for Life

New Jersey is now my favorite state. They recently eliminated the death penalty as a punishment for crimes. Hopefully other states will have the courage to take similar action.

Undocumented Immigrants

If our elected leaders would set aside their political motives and get to solving some of the real problems facing us, we might be more optomistic about the state of U. S. affairs.

It was a lousy Thanksgiving for the Miechkota family in International
Falls, Minn.

About 700 Canadian citizens were deported back to Canada during 2006, said
Tim Counts, public affairs officer for the U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) office in Bloomington, Minn. The office assumed a portion of
the Immigration and Naturalization Service's duties after that office was
dissolved in 2003.

Read the entire item from the Grand Forks Herald.

Real Global Warming Results

I sus pect the residents of Kivalina, Alaska are not sympathetic to those who discount the reality of global warming effects. This small village will be gone in a few years. Check it out on the web.

Kivalina is an Inupiat community first reported as "Kivualinagmut" in 1847 by Lt. Lavrenty Zagoskin of the Imperial Russian Navy. It has long been a stopping place for travelers between arctic coastal areas and Kotzebue Sound communities. It is the only village in the region where people hunt the bowhead whale. The original village was located at the north end of the Kivalina Lagoon but was relocated.
In about 1900, reindeer were brought to the area and some people were trained as reindeer herders.
An airstrip was built at Kivalina in 1960. Kivalina incorporated as a city in 1969. During the 1970s, a new school and an electric system were constructed in the village.
Due to severe erosion, the City intends to relocate again to a new site 12 km (7.5 miles) from the present site.

We Used to Go to Winnepeg

Wow. Who would have thought that traveling from Canada to North Dakota to shop would be like heading to Mexico to look for bargains.

FLU SHOTS

Everyone at our house has had their flu shots. Have you had yours? If not, why not?

Earthquake

At 8:04 pm, Tuesday, Oct. 30, we had a 5.6 earthquake centeres near Alum Rock, near San Jose. The sideway shaking scared Bear (our dog) more than me. But now, for the next 7 days, when there is a high liklihood of another quake, I will probably jump at anything feeling like a shake.

Viking remains found intact

Viking remains found intact

So, imagine! 1200 years ago this relative of our reigned over a bunch of maurauding Vikings. Which side of the family do I spring? Uff-dah!

Labor Day

It seems to me that over the years we, as a nation, have drifted away from the real value and role of "labor." This item came from the Library of Congress blog.

"Folklorist Archie Green, upon whom the Library recently bestowed a Living Legend medal, has spent a lifetime studying the history and culture of the labor movement. The award was accepted by his son during a two-day symposium devoted to “laborlore.” (More information about the event and the Library’s laborlore collections can be found here.) Green, who coined the term “laborlore,” is also regarded as the founding father of the Library’s American Folklife Center (AFC). He spent a decade lobbying Congress to establish a center to preserve and present American folklife. His vision became a reality on Jan. 2, 1976, when President Gerald R. Ford signed the bill establishing the AFC."

Tradeoff - Money for Fish

As I get older I seem to become more concerned about what is left on this earth when I leave. Mining company owners have said they are prepared to spend more than a billion dollars to develop this property. No doubt they see enormous profits for them and their stockholders. I can't believe we as a nation won't oppose this proposal with vigor.

Alaskan economy faces a fork in the river - Los Angeles Times: "Opponents say a proposed Pebble mine would destroy one of the planet's last sustainable fisheries, dry up spawning streams, and poison lakes and groundwater with acid runoff. Biologists have found that salmon's genetic radar, which enable the fish to return from the bay to the very streams where they were spawned, can be ruined by microscopic particles of copper dust."

SOME DAYS ARE BETTER THAN OTHERS

FROM TIME TO TIME I CAN'T HELP BUT WONDER WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THE THE US USERS "JUST SAID NO." Or if more of our national efforts were focused on the problems at home rather than on the otherside of the globe.



BBC NEWS South Asia Afghanistan opium at record high

A Different View

I was astounded to learn about the number of Chinese children adopted by American families. More astounding was the information about the cooperation of the Chinese government in this process. Maybe, if we in this country were to focus on making adoption easier, we would have a greater impact on reducing abortions than by the constant effort to make abortion illegal.


Adopted as children, Chinese in America - International Herald Tribune: "Since 1991, when China loosened its adoption laws to address a growing number of children abandoned because of its national one-child policy, American families have adopted more than 55,000 Chinese children, almost all girls. Most of the children are younger than 10, and an organized subculture has developed around them, complete with play groups, tours of China and online support groups."

Graduation Memories

This was taken about the time I graduated from San Jose in 1957. It was taken in Aunt Esther's backyard. From the left - Harley, Esther, Patricia, Keith. Clint McCready sent it to me recently. Wow. How things change!

ContraCostaTimes.com - Blast isn't past

How sweet it is. I will refrain from saying "I told you so." At least for awhile.


ContraCostaTimes.com - Blast isn't past: "I've finally emerged from the dog pile of sportswriters who pounced on Barry Bonds' quotes after home run No. 756. And just in time to see No. 757 make a splash 23 hours later in Wednesday's encore, a 5-0 Giants win over the Washington Nationals at AT&T Park. That one lacked the panache of No. 756, however, so gather around as we auction off memories from Tuesday's record-breaking night:"