Tag: TODO: Blog Import

>The latest storm was the third “thousand-year” event — one with a 0.1% likelihood of occurring in any given year — to hit So…

The latest storm was the third “thousand-year” event — one with a 0.1% likelihood of occurring in any given year — to hit Southern California this winter.

— LA Times in an article on trying to balance flood control and stormwater capture.

The current flood control system managed to handle 60% of average LA’s annual rainfall hitting in the space of three days. The current stormwater capture system can’t: 80% of that water is heading straight to the ocean. Projects to improving it are in the works, but increasing that capture is only going to get more important.

—

Note: combine with locally-sourced water and link to water-management

Yeah, I realize my explanation for why I’m out here is a bit Farfetch’d, but it’s the truth. You wanna make something of it?

A birdlike Pokemon carrying a leek over its shoulder inserted into a photo of a nature scene with tree branches, reeds and an empty field.

Yeah, I realize my explanation for why I’m out here is a bit Farfetch’d, but it’s the truth. You wanna make something of it?

#pokemon #nature #farfetchd #reeds #marsh

On PixelFed.Social

People complaining about a non-binary actor being cast as Desire in Sandman. Did they even read the comics?

People complaining about a non-binary actor being cast as Desire in Sandman. Did they even read the comics?

Don’t like the ‘woke’ casting of Netflix’s ‘Sandman’ series? Neil Gaiman doesn’t care
The comic was a genre-busting, gender-bending horror-ish fantasia that simply didn’t care about convention. So when self-proclaimed fans objected to the show casting nonbinary and Black actors, how did they think Gaiman would react?

On Wandering.shop

And not surprisingly they’re also complaining about Black actors, both in roles where the race isn’t a key characteristic and in roles where the character doesn’t technically *have* a race (ex. any of the Endless, who aren’t even human, they just appear in a form familiar to whoever is seeing them – I mean, we’ve seen some of them as cats and Martians).

On Wandering.shop

And the idea that Gaiman is somehow capitulating to “wokeness” or progressiveness…again, did they even read the source material that they claim is being sullied?

On Wandering.shop

Sandman was about stories and change. Dream’s main character arc is realizing that he needs to change, but can’t.

And it was groundbreaking in who it included and what stories it told in the medium…30 years ago.

Freezing the form of the story would be kind of weirdly metatextual, but not nearly as awesome as making something that’s groundbreaking *today* could be.

On Wandering.shop

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

Surely a coincidence this is increasing under the administration of a man who launched his political career by accusing the President of falsifying his natural-born citizenship.

Surely a coincidence this is increasing under the administration of a man who launched his political career by accusing the President of falsifying his natural-born citizenship.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/us-is-denying-passports-to-americans-along-the-border-throwing-their-citizenship-into-question/2018/08/29/1d630e84-a0da-11e8-a3dd-2a1991f075d5_story.html

It’s never been only about hardened criminals or “illegal immigration.” They’re deporting undocumented people w/no criminal record & legal immigrants w/past misdemeanors. They’re revoking naturalized citizenship & deporting natural-born citizens, claiming fraudulent birth certs.

They’re not even claiming the certs are forgeries. They’re real, official birth certificates. The claim is that the midwives or OBs put false information about which side of the border the baby was born on.

The people caught in this have lived their ENTIRE LIVES as US citizens.

Even if they’re not deported, this rejection of their citizenship status puts them in a legal limbo, and of course disenfranchises them from voting.

And you know how much the GOP loves to stop people from voting.

How Los Angeles Could Source its Water Locally

Interesting article on ways Los Angeles can source more of its water locally in the future.

Stormwater capture is a big one. In the early 20th century, the area built a flood control system to deal with the massive deluges that hit every decade or so, but during off years (and especially during drought years) it only serves to flush water out to sea that we’d be better off using to replenish reservoirs or ground water.

How Los Angeles Could Source its Water Locally

A new report challenges the city to think bigger about its plans to source more water locally.

note: combine with third 1000-year-storm when importing.

H2O: Walking By The Los Angeles River

Los Angeles has a weird relationship with water. Most years there isn’t enough rain to support the region’s population, agriculture and industry without importing it from surrounding areas. Some years there really isn’t enough. And some years there’s so much rain that floods are a greater threat than drought.

The region’s flood control system is built around that threat, channeling storm water out to sea as quickly as possible. In many places, rivers are lined with concrete, typically with a narrow channel in the middle to keep it flowing during dry spells and a wider channel to prevent flooding. This stretch of the Los Angeles River in Studio City is a good example:

Lots of people walking along a path above a wide concrete-lined trench. Trees on either side, blue sky beyond.

Other parts of the river are much nicer, even navigable at times, but this stretch really is just a concrete drainage ditch inside a bigger drainage ditch.

Unfortunately what’s needed in flood years ends up hurting us in drought years, sending too much of the rain we do get into the ocean instead of collecting it. In recent years they’ve been testing systems to recharge groundwater reserves, but if drought becomes more common — and indications are that it will — we’re going to need to revamp the system.

Raven and Poe: Partners for (n)evermore

Life-sized bronze(?) statue of Edgar Allen Poe walking, carrying a briefcase, with a raven emerging from the case. It's covered with a green patina, and situated on a brick-paved walkway on a city street with trees in the background.

Last September I visited Boston to attend a friend’s wedding. While there I took a guided walking tour of the Freedom Trail, and also wandered the city a bit on my own. I stumbled on this statue with a pair of unconventional partners: Edgar Allen Poe and a raven.

I particularly like how they’ve balanced it so that the raven appears to be flying out of the briefcase as the writer’s papers burst out. My photo album on Flickr has another angle of this statue, plus another 15-odd sightseeing shots.

Sunset in the Corner

Sunset Silhouette

When I have time to compose a scenic photo, the rule of thirds is usually on my mind. Even if I’m not putting an object off-center, I’m trying to line up visual borders with the 3×3 grid — a horizon, or the top or side of a building, or a treeline. Sometimes symmetry works better, though…and sometimes I’m just trying to get a snapshot of someone or something.

In this case, I stopped by a store after work and arrived just as the sun was about to set, at the top of a hill, giving me a clear view to the west. When that happens, you don’t go inside, you stop and watch!

(What I really wanted was to catch a nearby farm-style windmill silhouetted against the sun, but unfortunately the best place for that was in the middle of a crosswalk across a busy street, and I wasn’t going to trust in my ability to stop, aim, take a few photos, and get back to the side.)

Photo challenge (WordPress): Rule of Thirds