ATABOY ISLAND SOUTH OF CATALINA
Catalina Island is just 26 miles off the coast of Southern California. The weather is warm there and Avalon is it's only village. Not too far away there are several other small and uninhabited islands, except for Ataboy. The residents of Ataboy Island lies about 45 miles southwest of Catalina. It's not as well known but it has an interesting history. Years ago when the indians first arrived they named the island Ataboy. The name was meant to be a light hearted joke but in no time at all it was adopted as official. Ataboy is the tip of an undersea mountain that rises 1,230 feet out of the sea. It's 10.2 miles long and at it's widest part it's only 8 miles across. Like Catalina, Ataboy has one natural harbor on the lee side and another on the windward side.
The first settlers on Ataboy were a tribe of indians paddling canoes as the traveled north following the California coast. Late one afternoon a heavy mist fell upon them without warning and the lost sight of the land. The sun dropped rapidly and the mist turned to a dense fog. They turned their canoes toward land and hoped they would sight it before darkness. They didn't know it but they had become disoriented and were actually headed westward and away from the coast. The night became very dark, the fog lay on the ocean surface. The fog thickened and they began to lose sight of one another. To stay together they had to rig rope lines between their canoes. The ocean surface swelled easily with a gentle rolling motion as they paddled on. After many hours passed and it was the darkest part of night they heard barking noises ahead. Within minutes they landed on a narrow beach among sea lions napping, barking and roistering on the sand. They had landed at the southern end of what became known as Ataboy Island.
When morning arrived the fog lifted well above the sea but remained a dense layer that filtered the warming sun. The indian tribe and the sea lions woke at almost the same time. As the indians looked up and down the beach they were surprise to see several hundred sea lions lazily basking in the warming sand. The indians gathered and compared their levels of exhaustion and complained about the increasing noises of their barking and squawking neighbors.
The tribe was happy and anxious to press on up the coast of the island. They got back in their canoes and began following the island's shoreline northward. They remained disoriented but confident that they could paddle close to shore until a more suitable place for breakfast was found. After a several hours they reached a small natural harbor with an excellent sandy beach to land on. They pulled their canoes up on the land and wasted no time finding a place to make a fire pit. They had trolled as they came up the coast and caught several fish. The sooner they could get them on a spit and cooked, the better. They were very hungry. A shallow pit was dug and a fire started on a bottom of rocks and out of the wind. The leader asked a few of them to go inland a ways and collect larger rocks to set the perimiter of their fire. They did so and on their return breakfast was served.
The next day the fog lifted and wisped away with a gentle wind leaving the brilliant and unfiltered sun to warm and great theor awakening. The leader gathered a council of elders who decided to send a few of the tribe to look for more firewood, and a few others to find an area to establish some huts for sleeping, and still a few more to follow the course of the trickling fresh water stream up the mountain to it's source.
Each of the crews was successful. The first came back with enough wood to support the fire. The wood they collected came from a small grove of trees located in a hidden canyon not a mile from the beach. The wood cutters made four carrying platforms and loaded as much as they could on each one and returned to the fire pit. On the way back they spotted many land birds as well as sea birds and saw goats far in the distance up the mountain. There was obviously enough wildlife to keep them well fed.
Catalina Island is just 26 miles off the coast of Southern California. The weather is warm there and Avalon is it's only village. Not too far away there are several other small and uninhabited islands, except for Ataboy. The residents of Ataboy Island lies about 45 miles southwest of Catalina. It's not as well known but it has an interesting history. Years ago when the indians first arrived they named the island Ataboy. The name was meant to be a light hearted joke but in no time at all it was adopted as official. Ataboy is the tip of an undersea mountain that rises 1,230 feet out of the sea. It's 10.2 miles long and at it's widest part it's only 8 miles across. Like Catalina, Ataboy has one natural harbor on the lee side and another on the windward side.
The first settlers on Ataboy were a tribe of indians paddling canoes as the traveled north following the California coast. Late one afternoon a heavy mist fell upon them without warning and the lost sight of the land. The sun dropped rapidly and the mist turned to a dense fog. They turned their canoes toward land and hoped they would sight it before darkness. They didn't know it but they had become disoriented and were actually headed westward and away from the coast. The night became very dark, the fog lay on the ocean surface. The fog thickened and they began to lose sight of one another. To stay together they had to rig rope lines between their canoes. The ocean surface swelled easily with a gentle rolling motion as they paddled on. After many hours passed and it was the darkest part of night they heard barking noises ahead. Within minutes they landed on a narrow beach among sea lions napping, barking and roistering on the sand. They had landed at the southern end of what became known as Ataboy Island.
When morning arrived the fog lifted well above the sea but remained a dense layer that filtered the warming sun. The indian tribe and the sea lions woke at almost the same time. As the indians looked up and down the beach they were surprise to see several hundred sea lions lazily basking in the warming sand. The indians gathered and compared their levels of exhaustion and complained about the increasing noises of their barking and squawking neighbors.
The tribe was happy and anxious to press on up the coast of the island. They got back in their canoes and began following the island's shoreline northward. They remained disoriented but confident that they could paddle close to shore until a more suitable place for breakfast was found. After a several hours they reached a small natural harbor with an excellent sandy beach to land on. They pulled their canoes up on the land and wasted no time finding a place to make a fire pit. They had trolled as they came up the coast and caught several fish. The sooner they could get them on a spit and cooked, the better. They were very hungry. A shallow pit was dug and a fire started on a bottom of rocks and out of the wind. The leader asked a few of them to go inland a ways and collect larger rocks to set the perimiter of their fire. They did so and on their return breakfast was served.
The next day the fog lifted and wisped away with a gentle wind leaving the brilliant and unfiltered sun to warm and great theor awakening. The leader gathered a council of elders who decided to send a few of the tribe to look for more firewood, and a few others to find an area to establish some huts for sleeping, and still a few more to follow the course of the trickling fresh water stream up the mountain to it's source.
Each of the crews was successful. The first came back with enough wood to support the fire. The wood they collected came from a small grove of trees located in a hidden canyon not a mile from the beach. The wood cutters made four carrying platforms and loaded as much as they could on each one and returned to the fire pit. On the way back they spotted many land birds as well as sea birds and saw goats far in the distance up the mountain. There was obviously enough wildlife to keep them well fed.
The second crew looked for a protected clearing near the woods where they could erect sleeping huts. They found flat clearing nested up against a fifty foot high rock wall on one side and trees on the other. The clearing was on elevated land with drainage all the way back to the beach should it rain. It was small, only 50 ft. by 200 ft., but would do very nicely as a building site.
The third crew followed the trickle stream up hill. It was a hard climb in a few places, but they managed to reach a small lake after four hours of hiking. It was the fresh water source and they decided that it was probably fed by an underground supply. They couldn't be sure but it wasn't important anyway. There was enough fresh water that the tribe would never run out.
The third group was the last to return. They had climbed four hours and it took nearly as long to return. The devoured the fish cooked for them as it had been nearly a day since they had anything but berries and water from the stream.
It had been an excellent day. They had a fire and they had fuel to keep it going. They had food from the sea and the promise of foods from the land. They had found a place to stake primative huts to protect them from the night and the wind and the rain. It was time to establish their community.
WIND FARMS SCAM
Driving to Palm Springs you must pass the San Gregornio Wind Farm. Now isn't wind farm an odd name for a forest of rusting windmills rising out of the desert? I idly wondered if these ugly machines actually worked. They don't. There are thousands of them in this farm and generally speaking, only about 40% generate electricity - once in a while. Theoretically there are enough machines to provide electricity for the entire Coachella Valley if they all could function everyday. They can not. Even if they could, are they a viable alternative energy source. No, they are not. It turns out that our earmark happy government has to heavily subsidize these things - but they still can't be cost effective. Maybe if gasoline was priced at $30.00 per gallon, but that doesn't seem likely very soon.
Looking out over the wind farm I noticed that about one in four was standing idle, and I wondered why. It turns out that most of these machines were put in place in the 1970's and 1980's. They have simply worn out. Maintenance is difficult and expensive and a lot of owners did little or none. Some of the early machines were of dubious quality and value. They just didn't last.
Then I found out that about 40% of those with propellers turning with the wind and supposedly sending electricity to a power grid someplace, were actually just spinning freely and delivering nothing. If I was an investor looking over this so called wind farm, I'd be discouraged.
What about the math? If there are about 5,000 of these wind mills in the Palm Springs farm, and each of them costs roughly $300,000, then I lam looking at somebody's $1,500,000,000 mistake.
And this is supposed to save the environment?
******
NEW SCHEDULE CHRISTMAS 2010
6:00 am Breakfast Calories
Orange Juice / Cereal 200
8:00 am Go for coffee & health bar (1 hour) 100
9:00 am LA Fitness (1 hour)
10:00 am Computer time (1 hour)
11:30 am Lunch Mon-Tues & Thurs-Fri and 500
Kiwanis on Wed (800 calories)
1:00 pm Home chores (2 hours)
3:00 pm Computer time (1 hour)
4:00 pm One Glass Wine or Beer & tv time 200
5:30 pm Linda home
6:00 pm Dinner
Small portions anything 900
8:00 pm Snack 100
====
Calories/Day 2,000
******
THE DEATH PENALTY
I'm for it - but with many reservations. In our prison system we have inmates who have been wrongly convicted. One is too many, but actually it is estimated that we have more than one hundred who have been wrongly convicted. Our judicial system allows errors to happen, not on purpose and not by accident either. The system just isn't perfect.
Until recently identification of guilty people has relied on fingerprints, witness observation, and other hard evidence. Today quilt or innocence has been made even more definitive and proven correct by the introduction of dna as "positive proof".
Experts tell us that dna evidence is infallible. On that basis criminals in jail have been re-tested and compared with old evidence AND FOUND NOT GUILTY. This dna confirmation is at once a wonderful tool - and a disastrous indictment of previous judicial failures.
(1) If capital punishment is to be continued should we not require
dna testing of all criminals on death row?
(2) In the future should dna testing be required as one more confirmation
of guilt?
(3) In capital murder cases should we not retest death row inmates as
a condition of proof positive of their implication?
********
I've written some really bad blogs recently. Just can't get into the mood and tired of all the left-right politics. I had an epiphany a few days ago. A light bulb went off and I instantly understood that a government, any government, must of necessity be part left wing and part right wing. Government just won't work otherwise.
Assuming there are some sort of borders and our mythical government is to function within them, let me explain myself further. I'm talking about big governments and small town governments and every entity in between.
The normal left liberal view is that BIG government should control all functions of it's citizens. Now if you think carefully about that statement - it's stupid.
The normal right wing view is that SMALL government should be employed only to do only those tasks that an individual can not do. That to is a stupid statement.
Our own Founding Fathers designed a government system composed of both left liberal and right wing assignments. Viola! Simple. What is so hard to understand?
Of course it makes sense for government to provide the common protection of all it's citizens. One individual certainly can't do it. In our American example one state can't do it either. The same thinking was applied to other potential dangers. That's why we have a national Food & Drug Administration, system of commonly owned national parks, a national Department of Health & Welfare that guarantees equal treatment for all citizens, and so forth. These and many others are typical of the kinds of protective functions we expect our national government to handle.
Most important in this list of correct responsibilities of the national government is the assortment of entitlements we have managed to combine with what we consider our natural and vital freedoms. Our founding documents say they are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Ever since the date of our nation's founding, there has been a constant effort to expand the number of freedoms. To some degree this continueing effort has been successful. We now expect our national government to guaranty and pay for our right of free speech, right of assembly, right to a fair and speedy trial, right to a minimum wage, right to a guaranteed retirement supplement, right to medical care, right to a paupers funeral, if necessary, and right to a prison with television and conjugal visits. This list goes on and on. Only the first three were intended by our Founding Fathers.
So where did they come from, and why?
NEW SCHEDULE CHRISTMAS 2010
6:00 am Breakfast Calories
Orange Juice / Cereal 200
8:00 am Go for coffee & health bar (1 hour) 100
9:00 am LA Fitness (1 hour)
10:00 am Computer time (1 hour)
11:30 am Lunch Mon-Tues & Thurs-Fri and 500
Kiwanis on Wed (800 calories)
1:00 pm Home chores (2 hours)
3:00 pm Computer time (1 hour)
4:00 pm One Glass Wine or Beer & tv time 200
5:30 pm Linda home
6:00 pm Dinner
Small portions anything 900
8:00 pm Snack 100
====
Calories/Day 2,000
******
THE DEATH PENALTY
I'm for it - but with many reservations. In our prison system we have inmates who have been wrongly convicted. One is too many, but actually it is estimated that we have more than one hundred who have been wrongly convicted. Our judicial system allows errors to happen, not on purpose and not by accident either. The system just isn't perfect.
Until recently identification of guilty people has relied on fingerprints, witness observation, and other hard evidence. Today quilt or innocence has been made even more definitive and proven correct by the introduction of dna as "positive proof".
Experts tell us that dna evidence is infallible. On that basis criminals in jail have been re-tested and compared with old evidence AND FOUND NOT GUILTY. This dna confirmation is at once a wonderful tool - and a disastrous indictment of previous judicial failures.
(1) If capital punishment is to be continued should we not require
dna testing of all criminals on death row?
(2) In the future should dna testing be required as one more confirmation
of guilt?
(3) In capital murder cases should we not retest death row inmates as
a condition of proof positive of their implication?
********
I've written some really bad blogs recently. Just can't get into the mood and tired of all the left-right politics. I had an epiphany a few days ago. A light bulb went off and I instantly understood that a government, any government, must of necessity be part left wing and part right wing. Government just won't work otherwise.
Assuming there are some sort of borders and our mythical government is to function within them, let me explain myself further. I'm talking about big governments and small town governments and every entity in between.
The normal left liberal view is that BIG government should control all functions of it's citizens. Now if you think carefully about that statement - it's stupid.
The normal right wing view is that SMALL government should be employed only to do only those tasks that an individual can not do. That to is a stupid statement.
Our own Founding Fathers designed a government system composed of both left liberal and right wing assignments. Viola! Simple. What is so hard to understand?
Of course it makes sense for government to provide the common protection of all it's citizens. One individual certainly can't do it. In our American example one state can't do it either. The same thinking was applied to other potential dangers. That's why we have a national Food & Drug Administration, system of commonly owned national parks, a national Department of Health & Welfare that guarantees equal treatment for all citizens, and so forth. These and many others are typical of the kinds of protective functions we expect our national government to handle.
Most important in this list of correct responsibilities of the national government is the assortment of entitlements we have managed to combine with what we consider our natural and vital freedoms. Our founding documents say they are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Ever since the date of our nation's founding, there has been a constant effort to expand the number of freedoms. To some degree this continueing effort has been successful. We now expect our national government to guaranty and pay for our right of free speech, right of assembly, right to a fair and speedy trial, right to a minimum wage, right to a guaranteed retirement supplement, right to medical care, right to a paupers funeral, if necessary, and right to a prison with television and conjugal visits. This list goes on and on. Only the first three were intended by our Founding Fathers.
So where did they come from, and why?
No comments:
Post a Comment