Tag: DONE: Comments Imported

Sometimes I wonder, why is the Salton Sea worth saving?

Sometimes I wonder, why is the Salton Sea worth saving? It’s not like the Aral Sea or Lake Chad. It was created in an engineering accident 100 years ago. Until then it was a low area in the desert.

This article makes the case for restoration, or at least remediation. A century’s worth of agricultural runoff (which has made the lake too toxic for fish) has settled to the bottom. If it dries out, all that toxic sediment becomes wind-borne dust.

Dust rising: As California’s largest lake dries up, it threatens nearby communities with clouds of toxic dust

On Wandering.shop

@Alonealastalovedalongthe responds: Too Big To Fail : Lake Edition

Yeah, that’s…a pretty good description.

@mithriltabby wonders about bioremediation and just how salty it’s gotten.

Hmm, according to Wikipedia it’s currently around 56 grams per liter, which is saltier than the ocean, but not as salty as the Great Salt Lake. But it’s increasing by 3% each year.

Wikipedia: Salton Sea

Overloaded! Someone was trying to move boulders on wooden pallets for landscaping, and they seem to have been a bit much for the pallets to handle…

Overloaded! Someone was trying to move boulders on wooden pallets for landscaping, and they seem to have been a bit much for the pallets to handle…

On PixelFed.Social

Comments from Facebook:

Jim Vibber: Possibly. The pallet underneath looks okay, and the band around the boulder *might* be tight. I wonder if the upper pallet was intentionally smashed to keep the boulder from rolling back and forth during transportation.
Oct 28, 2018, 3:12 PM

Kelson Vibber: Hmm, that could be it.
Nov 1, 2018, 3:25 PM

That’s the roof of a gazebo sticking out of the water. Correction: it’s an information kiosk.

That’s the roof of a gazebo sticking out of the water. Correction: it’s an information kiosk. Same style of roof as the picnic shelters, but not as tall. #flooded

Photo taken at: Polliwog Park

That’s the roof of a gazebo sticking out of the water.

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Correction: it’s an information kiosk. Same style of roof as the picnic shelters, but not as tall. #flooded

eighteenbelow says:
Oh geez, that seems pretty extreme! I’d heard you guys got a lot of rain and flooding, but I hope it’s a good thing in the long run and helps alleviate the drought.

Thanks, I hope so too. Our part of town did pretty well. We had an inch of water in our garage, but it only went halfway back (apparently it’s not level) and the only things that seem to have any damage are an old suitcase that might dry out ok, and some empty boxes. Power only went out for about a minute before it came back on, and we drove through some flooded roads yesterday before holing up at home.

This park is a basin in the hills, and apparently used to be part of the same seasonal marsh system as the preserve I’ve posted photos from. It’s all playground areas, benches, and picnic shelters. A friend who used to live here says flooded during heavy rain when she was here, so I imagine it’ll be fine when it dries out. Muddy, but the area near the pond is usually covered in duck and goose dropping anyway. Not my favorite part of the park, let me tell you.

The local paper reported one death a few miles away, believed to be the same person who went missing during a rescue from a flooding homeless camp. Lots of mudslides, flooded garages and damaged stuff, but not much structural damage. A retaining wall a few blocks from us collapsed and crushed an empty car.

Other parts of the LA area fared a lot worse, especially near the mountains, and especially areas downhill from last year’s fires, but we’re ok here.

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Notes: Flickr album with more photos, other commentary and pics here.

We’ve been doing this for a couple of months now. Admittedly our vegetable garden’…

Tip #43: While you wait for hot water, collect the running water and use it to water plants.

We've been doing this for a couple of months now. Admittedly our vegetable garden's not that big, but we haven't needed to use the hose for watering in all that time (much to J's annoyance).

Found at https://wateruseitwisely.com/100-ways-to-conserve/

Lee Vibber This explains why he was so happy to help me water with the hose!

On Facebook

Party like it’s 1977…

Comments on Facebook:

Brion Vibber: I assume that’s playing the disco version of the Star Wars theme…
May 27, 2013, 12:00 AM
Kelson Vibber: Or the Cantina song.
May 27, 2013, 12:10 AM
Lia Brown: Oh man, those record players were the best. Does it still work?
May 27, 2013, 9:36 PM
Kelson Vibber: Believe it or not, it’s new. It turns out there’s a whole subset of the toy market for retro toys.It’s a bit different under the hood – I’ve had to fix it once already, and it’s actually chip-driven, not classic music box works. I figure it’s probably cheaper these days to make it with fewer moving parts.
May 28, 2013, 8:34 AM
Marisa Saam: I had one of those! 🙂
May 29, 2013, 12:58 PM

The old-school Curso de Photoshop sounds a lot better now.

Adobe is moving to an all-subscription model for its creative software. That means to use Photoshop, you’re going to have to keep paying them again and again, month in, month out. The old-school Curso de Photoshop sounds a lot better now.

Spamusement! Poorly-drawn cartoons inspired by actual spam subject lines! – Curso de Photoshop

Discussion from Google+:

Stacy: Wow. Just Wow. It’s hard enough for me to get $500 upgrades to the latest FrameMaker and Dreamweaver, let alone a new Illustrator license every three or four years. This pricing model is going to be hard on small-time users.

Me: I can only assume they don’t want small-time users anymore.

Stacy: Not smart to price yourself out of startups around here. You want to be the tool used from the beginning.

I went for a walk at lunch, and this was just sitting there taking up …

I went for a walk at lunch, and this was just sitting there taking up a zillion parking spaces. And no license plate to take down. Anyone recognize this vehicle?

And the spaces clearly say “compact.” On what planet is *that* a compact car?

Note: Wayne adds on Google+:

And how brazen! Emblazoning the USA logo on its side too! What’s that blue dot there…

Unknown Caller is still trying to call me twice a day.

Unknown Caller is still trying to call me twice a day. But I guess it must not be that important, since they can’t be bothered to leave a message, and they went to the trouble of blocking Caller ID so that I can’t call them back.

Wayne comments: I’ve been getting regular calls from an 800 number that also doesn’t leave a message. Wonder if they’re related. ;p

–GP

Finally picked up the “Unknown” caller who’s been calling 2-3 times daily and not leaving a message. They hung up immediately. #WTF

–T

I think someone’s confused about the concept of step-by-step directions.

I think someone’s confused about the concept of step-by-step directions.

Step 1: Following the above illustration and assemble the toddler bed. (Every single piece of the bed is shown in the single picture, below the text.

Wayne comments on Google+: Haven’t they heard of baby steps? sheesh

Lia comments on Facebook: Soon you will have your very own doomsday device. That is what those instructions are for, right?

Cross-posted (later) on K2R

Battling the stress of email.

Battling the stress of email. “[Professor Gloria] Mark jokingly calls it the “zombie” paper because, like zombies, no matter how many times you delete e-mails they keep on coming.”

Email ‘vacations’ decrease stress, increase concentration

Wayne comments on Google+:

Email management is definitely a mindset one needs to train. I remember when I first used email more frequently at UCI, I did feel that pressure of the immediacy possible and often consequently expected with email. I had felt I needed to answer every email immediately and would check it regularly so as not to disappoint my contacts.

It wasn’t until later (much later) that I realized I need to focus on priorities and that email isn’t a ruling factor of my life. My emotional state (and heart rate 😉 ) became much more stable as a result.

That’s not to say emails aren’t a major part of my life. I still do a lot of work and activities through them. (Today in fact wasn’t as productive, work-wise, due to email access issues.) But I don’t let them rule my mood for the day. I don’t let them be the determining factor of my life.

In this digital age, I think we often forget that email isn’t the only way we can communicate with someone. 🙂 Nor is it the only lifeline between two people.

Today, I watched a lunar eclipse, sunrise, and sunset. Probably a first.

Sunset over the ocean.

Today, I watched a lunar eclipse, sunrise, and sunset. Probably a first.

Venus & Jupiter just popped into view. It would’ve been nice to add Mercury too, but it’s below the horizon.

Also: I really should’ve brought gloves.

If I’d thought about it, I could have gone back to the spot where I watched the sunrise this morning to catch the moonrise for full symmetry. Oh, well.

On Facebook

Lia BrownCool! I don’t think it was visible here…and it was so cold last night I wouldn’t have had much patience anyway…

Dec 10, 2011, 7:38 PM

Kelson VibberYeah, I think you might have been able to see the beginning of it in your area, but not much else.

Dec 10, 2011, 11:06 PM

Wendi HeckathornWhere did you watch it at?

Dec 11, 2011, 2:10 AM

Kelson VibberI watched most of the eclipse from home (well, across the street), then went down to an area of Redondo Beach where a street runs along a bluff above the beach (Esplanade & Avenue A). I tried to watch the moon set while eclipsed, but the sky was too light by then to really see it at that point, so I drove over to an east-facing hill to watch the sunrise. I came back to Esplanade at the end of the day to watch the sunset.

Dec 11, 2011, 11:25 PM

Wendi HeckathornThat’s awesome! I’m bummed I missed it, but I did enjoy seeing the beautiful full moon. Thanks for sharing the gorgeouspics you took. 🙂

Dec 12, 2011, 12:36 AM

The user’s space has been used up

It’s rare that translating from English to (in this case) Chinese and back to English improves things, but “The user’s space has been used up” is clearer than “Mailbox over quota.”

Wayne suggests on Google+: lol might be because Chinese like to be more formal in their phrasing so Chinese probably translated to something like “The user’s space…”

Interesting theory: Amazon could buy Netflix, but wouldn’t want…

Interesting theory: Amazon could buy Netflix, but wouldn’t want to buy the current business with all its shipping centers in places where Amazon doesn’t have to pay/collect sales tax. If Netflix spins off the discs first, then Amazon gets Netflix’s catalog, technology…and most importantly, the zillions of TV sets and set-top boxes that have the streaming client included.

Netflix split to set up Amazon streaming merger? | ZDNet

Netflix’s move to separate its DVD-by-mail service may pave the way for Amazon to buy the company, argues an analyst.

Comments on Google+:

Brion: Possible… but I’ve always found netflix’s streaming catalog to be insufficient as is… best of a bad lot I guess!

Me: Yeah. That’s the main reason we still have the DVD subscription: 80% of our queue isn’t available streaming. In this theory, the big win for Amazon would be the install base.

Brion: Yep… hell, with any luck Amazon can strong-arm better deals with the studios. 😛 But I’d still love blanket non-exclusive compulsory streaming licenses: if the content’s out there for sale to the public on little plastic disks, anybody should be able to stream the same material for a nice standard fee (like ASCAP etc’s public performance, radio, & streaming systems… but maybe not as annoying. The reason Pandora doesn’t let you choose exactly which songs to play is to comply with the hoops necessary to qualify for the compulsory licensing, since they presumably think they can squeeze more money for on-demand services. A couple years out of date, but good overview of the lay of the land there from JWZ: http://www.dnalounge.com/backstage/webcasting.html )

Me: Wow. That is profoundly screwed up.

Updated Netflix thought: Dairy farms get together to raise prices…

9/15: Netflix thought: If dairy farms got together and hiked up the price of milk, would you blame your grocery store for raising their prices?

9/16: It must be the Netflix/studio milk/dairy farm analogy that’s got @Peerindex convinced that I write about breakfast cereal.

9/20: Updated Netflix thought: Dairy farms get together to raise prices, putting the squeeze on your local grocery store. The local store raises their prices to cover their higher costs. People blame the grocery store.

Then the grocery store responds by spinning off a separate store. One store will only sell milk in cardboard cartons and cheese. The other store will only sell milk in plastic bottles or yogurt. This is, of course, to make your life easier.

On Facebook

Of course, there’s always The Oatmeal’s explanation: https://theoatmeal.com/static/netflix.html

Brion adds:

One store pipes fresh delicious milk direct to your faucets, but only carries 1% because the dairy cartel is being paid by another grocery chain for an exclusive right to whole, skim, and 2%.

Some thoughts I had about when it’s better to post something online immediately, and when it’s better to hold off for a bit.

Some thoughts I had about when it’s better to post something online immediately, and when it’s better to hold off for a bit.

https://hyperborea.org/journal/2011/08/is-now-better/

Wayne: Good point. I’m a more later kind of poster mainly because I want to live in the moment. Posting as you experience an event can leave one distracted and I want to get my full “money’s worth” before I go talk about it otherwise I may not have much to talk about. ;p

Though I’ve always wanted to try a live twitter feed of a big presentation like the E3 press conferences with a laptop just for the fun of having the event flow from my fingertips. But that’s mainly because I wouldn’t need to move and I can type without looking at the keyboard. ;>

Me: Great point about actually experiencing an event rather than reporting on it.

I’ve liveblogged a couple of Comic-Con panels, which was kind of neat – but they were all annoucement/Q&A, like a press conference, so they were kind of built for that to begin with. It was neat interacting with people who weren’t there, though, as they offered comments and questions during the event.

Wayne: hehe exactly, I’ve been part of some live tweet sessions giving those comments myself which makes me want to try hosting one. As you said for news bytes they’re short blurts already. (Made for the ADD generation! ;p) So might as well blurt more on it and share. :>