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PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard. This a sample (I didn’t make it)… new postcards go up on Sundays.
Californiawatch.org via Mapping zombie hotspots.
A reply to Carly Fiorina’s demon sheep (Carly Fiorina DEMON SHEEP, The Pink Floyd Remix) via RedState Demonsheep Part 2.
During the Study Session hosted by the Pacifica City Council on February 10th, one of the possible funding sources that was discussed was an Army Corp of Engineers program called “Section 103”. You can see Section 103 for yourself here, or hit the More link below for the full text.
After passing a pre-selection assessment, a municipality can request a feasibility study. The first $100K of the study is fully Federally funded, but all work after that is paid in a cost sharing arrangement with the local municipality responsible for 35% to 50% of the total, and a cap of $3 million.
The sense at the Study Session was that no solution that might require funds from Pacifica could be considered. It is possible that the Army Corp of Engineers could start a study with no promise of actually doing the work, as was reported in the Feb. 18 Pacifica Tribune story on MercuryNews.com Cliff issues explored in city study session; Agencies offer assistance explaining procedures and permits. This seemed unworkable at the Study Session, though I suppose nothing was ultimately ruled out.
The full text of Section 103, surprisingly readable, follows:
Monday February 22, 2010 – Weekend Update
For a complete chronology and links to many more photos see Evacuation underway at 330 Esplanade:
http://adequatebird.com/2009/12/17/evacuation-underway-at-330-esplanade/
See all of my pictures of the Esplanade crisis:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisd2006/collections/72157622920945823/
Pacifica has posted Tuesday’s Proclamation of Emergency to its website: City Declares Local Emergency by proclamation on February 16, 2010 for Esplanade area (PDF Link). Key phrase:
To deal with this threat the City is requesting a Federal Small Business Administration (SBA) disaster declaration so as to qualify the owners for SBA assistance to shore up the properties
Use the link above to see the original PDF file on the Pacifica website, or click “More” to read the text of the Proclamation here.
On a wide sidewalk that I walk on almost daily, off to the side near the curb, I’ve noticed five bricks lying haphazardly near each other.
The bricks are flatter and wider that the average brick, perhaps intended for paving. They’ve been lying there for at least one trip through the moon’s phases, maybe more.
This morning, they are up and at ’em.
Someone has made them be a bit of Stonehenge. Three standing on end, two laid across those three, and suddenly I’m looking down and seeing part of Stonehenge as I’ve seen it in aerial photographs. I’m thinking around the curve of the globe and back in time. However, those folks back then over there moved the Stonehenge stones and decided where to place them, it was awesome that they could and typically human that they wanted to.
Someone at play, yesterday or early today, helps me wake up bigger.
by Anne Herbert, from her website Peace and Love and Noticing the Details (title unknown).
One of the properties threatened by this winter’s bluff erosion event is the historic site of Mussel Rock, 6XBB / KTK: Dollar Radio (Dollaradio), an early radio communication site with many notable “firsts” in communications with ships in the Pacific. Long time owner Joan Levin is urgently seeking financial help for her historic home. Dollar Radio is located just north of the Pacific View Villas condo complex on Palmetto Ave. How historic is Dollar Radio?
Dollar Radio played a meaningful role in a number of historic events. Here is some information about just three of them.
From the Maritime Radio Historical Society, The Robert Dollar Story, Part 1 – By Edward Prather:
Admiral Richard E. Byrd took H & K equipment on his expedition to the South Pole in 1929. After he reached Little America, and set up his radio station 30 feet below the snow, he began communication with the Dollaradio station at Mussel Rock. Night after night the operator on duty would copy material from Admiral Byrd for relay to the New York Times for publication in the morning newspaper.
The Dollar Radio site operated as station KTK before World War II, and one occasion deliberately interfered with a Japanese transmission.
Communication Intelligence Summary, 21 October, 1941 General. — Traffic volume returned to about normal today. There was no dummy messages in the TOKYO broadcast. Last night this TOKYO to Fleet Circuit was interfered with by station KTK (Mussel Rock, California, Globe Wireless). This interference also bothered the Japanese for TOKYO shifted his frequency down 10 Kcs. to avoid it.
Source: Pearl Harbor attack : hearings before the Joint Committee on the investigation of the Pearl Harbor attack, Congress of the United States, Seventy-ninth Congress, first session, pursuant to S. Con. Res. 27, 79th Congress, a concurrent resolution authorizing an investigation of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and events and circumstances relating thereto .. (1946). Archive.org link.
Japanese RO-33 submarine. Date unknown, but before 1942. Source N. Polmar, D. Carpenter. Submarines of the Imperial Japanese Navy 1904—1945. — Conway Maritime Press, 1986
FROM: Radio Spies, Bart Lee, 2002, 2006, page 76:
On December 7, 1941, the radiomen at KFS heard, on 500 khz, the signal for submarine spotted (SSSS SSSS SSSS) then an S O S, then silence. Globe Wireless operators at KTK, at nearby Mussel Rock in Pacifica, also took the traffic. The ether thus carried some of the first signals of America’s Pacific war.
For a complete chronology and links to many more photos see Evacuation underway at 330 Esplanade:
http://adequatebird.com/2009/12/17/evacuation-underway-at-330-esplanade/
See all of my pictures of the Esplanade crisis:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisd2006/collections/72157622920945823/