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Heroes of Fukushima

“The good of the many outweighs the good of the few, or the one.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about the heroes of Fukushima Prefecture in their battle to restrain the invisible fire of radiation from the damaged reactors. As of this writing little is known about what is really going on there, except for one thing. The people going in and staying to work on taming the runaway reactors are heroic.

Take a few minutes to read the riveting description of the Chernobyl disaster in Wikipedia. A story worth knowing today. The names of their heroes are posted here. Again, worth reviewing.

Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus have been burdened with the continuing and substantial decontamination and health care costs of the Chernobyl accident. More than fifty deaths are directly attributed to the accident, all among the reactor staff and emergency workers. Estimates of the total number of deaths attributable to the accident vary enormously, from possibly 4,000 to close to a million.

Knowledge is power, against the unseen.

Downwind, it’s Really Redding.

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What to do when the gas runs out?

Check out these actual local fuel prices:
Redding Ca fuel pricesFuel has been going up steadily. Today we hear of riots in Saudi Arabia to add to the Middle East storm brewing. Stocks are in the tank, even if gas isn’t. What if…?
Possible fuel scenarios in Redding CA
Hey, check out the latest in rail transportation from Japan. The high speed Hayabusa.
You don’t build a life raft after a flood. You plan ahead. This train was terribly expensive, but will serve Japan for generations to come. They planned ahead.

There was a huge earthquake in Japan yesterday. Thousands, perhaps millions of lives were saved by the most strict building code regulations on the planet. They didn’t wait for the 5th strongest earthquake in history. They planned ahead.

Meanwhile back home, we aren’t planning for the coming energy shock. Rail improvements here make no sense. Unless, you know, we as a culture were planning ahead for an unavoidable and abrupt end to our oil addiction, or something. Gosh, we’ll always have airlines, won’t we?

Happy motoring, Redding.

The people of Japan are in our hearts and prayers today.

 

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Redding League of Women Voters forum on Open Government

How much is too much Open Government? Can there even be too much open exchange in a free democratic society? Serious questions in an era of Wikileaks, with its demonstrated effects on some governments. Ponder these important questions and more at this Public Forum sponsored by the Redding League of Women Voters on Thursday March 24rd at the Redding City Council Chambers. Be there, or be uninformed! More about Redding’s League of Women Voters at the The Voter.

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Anderson Church of Christ

Anderson Church of Christ

“The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts.”

So says the message board today outside the Anderson Church of Christ on North Street in Anderson. Words of wisdom. This below, is from their website:

“The church of Christ is a non-denominational church. This means we are not under the authority of anyone or anything other than God, and his word given to us through the Bible. We do have elders who oversee the spiritual well-being of the congregation, but we are all submissive, one to another.”

It would appear from the website that baptism plays a role in their faith traditions. There are videos online. There is also a blog online, with a link to a Fishing Report, which seems appropriate.

“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”
Mark 1:17

The church is located right next to the Sacramento River, so I walked over and took this photo. It was a beautiful day, for fishers of all sorts.
Sacramento River at North Street Bridge

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Redding alt rockers Hollow Ln

Redding alt rock band Hollow LnHere’s a band performance image from the now closed Downtown Eatery. Hollow Ln is a Redding based (and Redding named) 3 piece outfit; guitar, bass, drum, and vocals. Tight, tight, tight, power trio originals are filled with thoughtful lyrics. Brandon Bausell works it hard on Vocals and Guitar. Nick Braun punctuates the tunes with insanely creative drumming. Not your 4 on the floor stuff! Max Bausell provides the solid basis for the often staccato melodies on Bass. Head over to Reverbnation and play their 12 well recorded demos all in a row. Awesome. Surprising. They’re playing Bombay’s March 23.

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High Speed Rail will never be cheaper

Storm clouds in distant oil producing countries push all commodities up
It should be an easy call. Pay a lot now, or pay a lot more later. Either way, you’re going to pay. Will it ever be cheaper than now?
We could use the jobs. The infrastructure construction will boost the economy and leave behind a transportation system that will serve long after the oil runs out.
And one way or another, the oil will run out.
 

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Night photo of a downtown Redding building

Night view of Redding BuildingHere’s a building that looks lovely in night lighting. Lots of architectural detail in contrast to the night.

I think this is a Cal Trans office. I believe they moved here from the former shampoo factory in the Mountain Lakes Industrial Park. A building we recall as Jhirmac, long ago. In relocation, I heard they saved this building’s owner from financial peril, since it was recently built and had no tenants in our present harsh economy. Vacancy is a bad thing indeed for spec building. Getting Cal Trans there was quite the prize. Unfortunately for the owner of the now vacated shampoo building, the financial peril transferred to them. Without much warning, either. Or so I’ve heard. Anyway, this downtown Redding building is quite lovely at night.

Architecture by the warm orange glow of sodium lighting, it’s Really Redding.

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So I’m a Singularitarian

Remember the Weird Al parody song, “I lost on Jeopardy?” I was thinking about that song as humans lost to a computer this week on the TV show Jeopardy.


Humans may have lost more than we know.
And we may have gained something incomprehensible.

The idea has been around for some time. That we may build a computer or a program more intelligent than a human.

I have always thought so. If you cannot imagine a self-aware computer smarter than a human, you have a limited imagination.

That breakthrough may happen at any moment. It may have happened already. How would you know?

For more information on the implications, there is a decent 5 page introductory article to The Singularity, currently in Time Magazine, available online here.

Like 9/11, you will always remember where you were when you first realized the Singularity was here.

Ken Jennings

Edit: So I post this entry, just as my “smartphone” beeps a message. Odd coincidence. Will we learn of the Singularity by phone?

Perhaps “Watson” was bored, waiting what must seem an eternity for the next Jeopardy question, and decided to mess with me.

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Shasta County is open for business

The Shasta Association of Realtors recently hosted a presentation by Mark Lascelles, the President of the Economic Development Corporation. That organization is tasked with spearheading local efforts to bring good jobs to our community. Our town has so much going for it, but sometimes our pro-business message gets lost. Still, the EDC has done much good, and has exciting projects in the “pipeline.” The Shasta MLS has made the webcast of yesterday’s presentation available. The audio runs about 30 minutes, and is well worth your time if you are considering relocating your business to Redding. We also have this slide presentation as a pdf at the link below:
EDCPresSCBofR

Mark Lascelles
Mark Lascelles of our EDC

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Quantum Swirl, a new video features our music

Here’s and video by a French artist made using music by Craig Padilla and me. Quantum Swirl is from our CD Analog Destination, and is one of my favorites.

You can even watch it in HD 720p. Enjoy!

This is a mash-up. Media created by mixing elements. French artist Zrnho did this without asking our permission, but in fact we were flattered. What’s the harm? Some other musicians we know were not so kind, and made him take down some of his pieces. Just bad ju-ju, I say. Online mash-ups recycle art into new forms. All part of our digital age. Thanks, Zrnho. We embrace the chaos…