Mark Hongsbaum's account of the discovery, cultivation, and exploitation of the cinchona meanders too much to be captivating. The story wanders through thrilling and mysterious places: the cordillera, Tucuman, Kew Gardens, and Panama.
If there's one thing I learned from reading comix -- specifically, Sam Hurt's magnificent Eyebeam series -- it is that cold pizza has no ownership. Much to his chagrin, the fellow in the online story (videlicet) found that taking leftover pizza led to his termination:
I had been working for a mortgage company as a developer for 18 months and things were going well. Then, one day I saw that a different group in my company had just finished up a pot-luck and had some pizza left over. I thought they would probably end up throwing it away and I was kind of hungry so I went for it ... I took a slice of pizza.Apparently the employees who threw this pot luck were planning to take it home and were offended by my action. Now I thought we were all basically on the same team and if someone didn't like what I did they would tell me so and I would apologize and maybe offer to pay for the pizza. These employees ended up telling their manager, who told her vice president about what I did.
The worst part about this is that I wasn't told about any of this until a month after the incident. No warning, no second chance.
I know that I left an impression because to this day my former coworkers refer to unattended pizza as "programmer bait".
Jay's report on MNUI's shortcomings and coming problems appeared in the SPUR newsletter (link to pdf).
The jargon sometimes irks me, but jargon goes with almost any job.
Kepler's bookstore in Menlo Park has closed, after fifty years.
Bookstore closings bring sadness:
"It's like a relative in the family dying," Roy Borrone, owner of Cafe Borrone next door to Kepler's, told the Weekly late Wednesday morning. He said he relocated his restaurant from Redwood City to Menlo Park to be adjacent to Kepler's when it moved across El Camino Real to its present location in the late 1980s.
The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition fondly recalls some traffic calming measures in District 5 and thinks that the short-lived traffic circles were just the beginning. They call for the city to build a bike boulevard along this "quiet, residential" street, along the lines of what the City of Berkeley has done. After the inept design and construction of the traffic circles in the Lower Haight, I am none too eager for the City of San Francisco to undertake this.
A bicycle boulevard treatment applied to Page St. could dramatically reduce the volume and speed of traffic, and reduce or eliminate stop signs, making bicycling along Page much easier, safer, more efficient and pleasant. It would not "close" the street to cars- drivers would still be able to access every point along Page, but using this neighborhood street as a speedway or auto cut through would be a thing of the past. For example, a driver would not be able to use Page St. to get from Golden Gate Park to Market St. (Oak St. is a better alternative) as they might be required to turn left at Masonic and Divisadero. This would dramatically reduce through traffic on Page while maintaining resident and local access.
I do not like the Lower Haight traffic circles. Best intentions and all that, but no: these were a failure from the minute they were constructed, shabby pieces of workmanship in narrow intersections and without clear signs.
The Golden Gate Tranportation District plans to impose a $1 toll for cyclists and pedestrians on the Golden Gate Bridge. The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition strongly opposes this plan, as do I:
A bike/pedestrian toll is at direct odds with San Francisco’s transit-first policy, which encourages sustainable, non-congesting modes of transportation, such as biking, walking and public transit, over individual automobile trips. This proposed toll would send the exact wrong message about the priorities that San Francisco voters have approved.
A bike/pedestrian toll is environmentally shortsighted. We know that auto trips are a major generator of air and water pollution, and a major problem for the Bay Area. To discourage people from choosing sustainable modes of transportation, such as biking and walking, will result in increased pollution. This is unacceptable.A bike/pedestrian toll is an inequitable “user fee.” As an SFBC member pointed out recently in a “Letter to the Editor” in the SF Chronicle, bicyclists could, at most, be charged pennies, based on their weight and related wear-and-tear on the Bridge. For instance, if the average vehicle weighs 4,500 pounds and is charged a $6 toll, then the average bicycle at 20 pounds should be charged 2.5˘. Flipping this equation around, if a $1 toll is levied on bicyclists, this would equate to a $240 toll on auto drivers.
I sent a letter to Senator Migden:
I strongly support Assembly Bill 748 and any efforts to prohibit bicycle tolls on all public bridges and roadways.Walking and bicycling reduce traffic congestion, vehicle emissions, and oil dependency. In addition, bicycling and walking provide the kind of physical activity necessary to fight the growth in obesity, diabetes, and asthma.
AB 748 will encourage Californians to take advantage of the most sustainable and healthy modes of transportation possible, and ensure that they are not penalized for cutting down on traffic and harmful pollution.
I ride across the Bridge several times each month, to commute and for recreation. Were the toll in place, I will be less inclined to do so: I will ride elsewhere. Placing a monetary toll on activities which are good for tourism, the environment, and place little additional stress on the bridge infrastructure is simply not a good idea.
I strongly oppose the Golden Gate Bridge District's efforts to penalize people who walk and bike on the Bridge. Please support AB 748 and a healthier, safer Bay Area.
The San Francisco Chronicle published a nice feature article on cheap and friendly transit on two wheels in San Francisco, and the New York Times reported that the NYPD arrested 49 cyclists during last Friday's Critical Mass.
I cleansed the past few years of half-written journal ("blog") entries recently, and posted one which will no doubt appeal to Greg, and one for Anna about Critical Mass.
I also corrected the title in the post on yo; and realised that I really like Adam's photograph of an MBTA sticker and accompanying exegesis.
Jonathan Smolin's translation of Abdelilah Hamdouchi's The White Fly is available at the Words Without Borders web site.
Last night I spent about half an hour first waiting for a cab at the corner, and then slowly walking towards my destination, three miles away, keeping an eye peeled for a cab with its "For Hire" light illuminated. I walked for twenty minutes and saw not a one; I walked through densely-populated areas: the Lower Haight, the Castro, the Mission, until I pounced on a cabby who pulled over to make a telephone call.
From a four-year-old SPUR report:
The most pressing complaint about the San Francisco taxi system over the long run is its extremely poor reliability. According to the Police Department Taxi Detail’s annual survey for 2000, if a passenger telephoned for a cab, there was only a 40% chance that one would arrive. Of 588 test calls made, 170 were not even answered, and 20 callers were told there was no cab available. Of the remaining calls, just 237 cabs arrived, and there were 161 ‘no shows.’
The City of San Francisco Taxicab Commissionhas taken decisive action, but there are still no goddam cabs. And what we have are too damn expensive.