Friday  23 Sep 2011           comment?

What my Joshua tree wants to be when it grows up.

Monday  19 Sep 2011           1 comment

Today's topic is lone property owners who don't sell to developers.

In China, houses that defy destruction are known as nail houses (钉子户) -- by analogy to nails that refuse to be hammered down. A celebrated example is shown at right, one house out of 280 whose owners resisted selling to developers of a shopping mall in Chongqing. After a while, the Chinese government wouldn't allow newspapers to report on it. Aerial view here.

The house in question had been in one family for several generations. The owners stayed for a while despite having their power and water cut off. They received supplies by a pulley system. "I represent the weak residents from this portion of the city who were relocated, I want to make the developer sympathize a little bit with them, make him a little bit more lenient," said owner Wu Ping.

Once upon a time (a few decades ago), a modest shack stood alone in the plaza before the Pacific Design Center, a monstrous edifice in Los Angeles. The shack housed Hugo's Plating, "established 1927". I loved that the shack's owners hadn't sold out, and I was sad when they finally did. I loved the contrast between the Pacific Design Center's showrooms of generally expensive items (no doubt including many chrome-plated metal parts) and an unassuming building where a small business did plating work.

To fully appreciate the contrast I'm referring to, it helps to have visited a plating operation--where you can see tanks of fuming, frothy solutions that any sensible person will instinctively keep a distance from. They give the impression that if you stuck your hand in for even a few seconds, bones would be showing when you pulled it out. I exaggerate, but only a little bit.

I don't have a pic of Hugo's Plating to show you, but YouTube hosts a delightful 10 minute documentary on the place that aired on PBS in 1990.

Finally, I note that I am grateful to live in a kind of island neighborhood, built on a few square kilometers of land that weren't sold to Los Angeles for water rights early in the twentieth century.

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Wednesday  14 Sep 2011           3 comments

I hereby solicit suggestions for a name for my snake.

He had a name when he was our office pet--a name chosen by a co-worker's daughter--but I never really liked it.

I often have trouble devising good names, hence this call for ideas.

Names used for other pets, fictional or otherwise, are a last resort; there are several I like (e.g., Basil, the snake in A Clockwork Orange) but I'd prefer a name invented de novo.

Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions.

Tuesday  13 Sep 2011           comment?

The essence of American presidential politics, in 8 seconds.

Monday  05 Sep 2011           2 comments

I had occasion to pass through Death Valley again this weekend. I love the place. It draws people from all over the world, not just tourists but also car manufacturers torture-testing their air conditioning and cooling systems; this afternoon I saw a car with camouflaged body panels.

Various areas around Death Valley have the kinds of desert roads that are just plain fun. They are empty and suitable for driving like hell. They sport dips that would've been graded out in more heavily-trafficked areas. They have road signs like this one, at a state border, which must not say anything too important:

And on the pavement nearby, this helpful indication of what state you're entering:

One more pic, this one from last weekend's travels. Death Valley ravens don't seem to mind that they are a suboptimal color for being out in the sun when it's blazing hot.