Shake & Wake Earthquake: I Feel The Earth Move and Jessi Sleeps Through It

(Photo from: USGS)
Fault scarp of the Calaveras Fault in San Felipe Valley in the Diablo Range. The lone Oak Tree provides scale for this nearly 4 meter (12ft.) high fault scarp.

It's Monday... A little after 10am...

So?... And Your Point Is?...

I'm still warm, cozy and barely semi-conscious under the covers of my bed.

The hustle and bustle of people and vehicles outside my windows is slowly but surely growing louder... I smile to myself... I've lived here long enough that I've fine-tuned my ability to block the daily cacophony out.

I cautiously peek out towards the windows... Ouch! My mistake... Brilliant, blazes of sunlight are streaming through the gaps in the tops of my curtains (although, mercifully, missing me entirely) and striking the far top walls of my room.

I move my leg and feel Jessi The Dog curled up and sleeping on my right side, towards the foot of the bed.

I smile and close my eyes again....

Moments later I'm awakened by the sharp Flap!... Flap!... Flap! sounds of Jessi violently shaking her head. I recognize this sound as one she makes when her ear is tickling her. I turn to face her and rub her ear for a few moments as she leans into my kneading knuckles. When she's had enough, she turns her back to me and flops down to go back to sleep (You're Welcome.).

I turn around so my back's to her and - feeling confident that I can fall back asleep - I close my eyes and begin to drift off...

I've barely gotten cozy again when I'm jerked back to full-consciousness...

I haven't opened my eyes, but I'm awake... and I can feel my bed moving... jerking... And, it's isn't the little Bump...Bump! disturbance that I've come to recognize as a passing MUNI bus hitting just the right spot out on Haight Street.

My first thought was that Jessi The Dog was causing the shaking. Sometimes, if she sits up and scratches her ear with a hind paw while I'm laying down - it makes the bed shake.

I open my eyes as I lift my head just high enough to see Jessi... whom, to my growing surprise, is still laying with her back to me... still fast asleep.

(Huh?!)

I'm semi-awake and slightly puzzled... Maybe I was imagining it? I laid my head back on the pillow to check for movement...

Not only was my bed still noticeably jerking back and forth... It was doing it harder...

And, then, I heard two unmistakeable sounds that I immediately recognize as all-too-familiar earthquake sounds:

1.) The walls of my room began to audibly creak with the jerking motion I was feeling through the bed
and
2.) A solid wood table that my TV sits atop started to creak along.

For some unknown reason, in spite of the fact that I was now fully-awake and fully-aware that we were having an earthquake, I felt completely free of fear, panic and anxiety.

I sat up and looked at Jessi laying in serene slumber - just as the shifting plates of Mother Earth gave one hearty "Happy Monday" shove-off... followed by movement of quickly decreasing intensity... until I felt nothing but stillness once more - My Amazing Dog: She slept right through it all. (Good Dog!)

I climbed over Jessi and reached for the TV's "On" Button.

The epicenter was about 11 miles from a town called Morgan Hill.

Estimated between a 4.4 and 4.6 on the Richter Scale.

No, it definitely wasn't The Big One That We Know Is Coming... It's Really Coming!... It Could Happen!... Any Day (or Night) Now!... Causing - Within Seconds - Massive Destruction, Interrupted Communication, Power Outages and Fires!...

...Or Not.

No. I am not making light of it.
(But, I am making fun of it.)

It's a serious and ever-present threat for those of us who find ourselves in The Golden State.

But, I enjoy a certain degree of security in knowing that my Beloved Home is @ 100yrs. old. She not only survived The Great Earthquake and subsequent firestorms... She survived the 1960's and every quake/movement since. (Thank Goodness!) and She sits on solid ground/bedrock - unlike the Ritzy(See: $$$.) Marina District or Embarcadero.

My parents have long told me that, "Little earthquakes are good. Really! They allow the built-up pressure to be released that otherwise would be held back and built up until there was a Great Big Earthquake."

Hmmm...

Sounds logical... Yes, I find it somewhat comforting... But, is it True? I don't know.

What I do know is this:

If You Are Interested in Finding Out How To Prepare For/Respond To/Recover From an Earthquake or Any Number of Potential Disasters...

There's Helpful and Trustworthy Information on 'How To Prepare' and 'What To Do If' in many different and difficult situations at 72hours.org.
(It's designed for San Franciscans, but there's a link at the bottom of the page for other Bay Area Counties.)

Peace.
L.

P.S.~
I actually wrote this Blog just after the event. I was just Previewing it when we experienced a Blackout on Haight Street.
So, my Blog and all the shop interiors were thrust into darkness. Sadly, I hadn't saved it, so when the power returned - my Blog did not.

I do not believe the earthquake and the blackout were connected in any way. They happened a few hours apart and only Haight Street seemed to be affected.

One of my astute neighbors - when I asked if he knew the cause of the 1-2hr. power failure - said this:

"Incompetence."

'nuff said.
L.

Schumer Declares His Support for Same-Sex Marriages

In the heartbreaking aftermath of the passing of Proposition 8 (which would ban same-sex marriage by changing the CA State Constitution) - the State Supreme Court is expected to decide whether Prop. 8 simply amended the state Constitution or revised it and, regardless, numerous legal battles are lining up - hearing that N.Y. Senator Charles Schumer publicly announced on Monday that he now supports gay marriage is a welcome relief and encouraging development.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's assertive and unapologetic action calling on City Hall to provide marriage licenses for same-sex couples was a move that could have been potentially disasterous - as far as any ideas that Mayor Gavin may have been entertaining about replacing The Governator.

Although I personally don't care for him as our Mayor, I was pleasantly surprised by Gavin's enlightened and passionate support for same-sex marriage. It was most unfortunate that the anti-equal protection/pro prop. 8 lobby raised enough money to saturate commercial TV - both day and night - with a merciless barrage of ads that used a video clip of Mayor Gavin in one of his less than democratic-sounding moments to rally support for it's dogma of discrimination.

The so-called 'Civil Unions' that some wishy-washy people declare as being 'as good as being married' are actually a weak facsimile. They do not guarantee the Same Rights, Protections and Priviledges as Marriage.

The Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prohibits states from denying any person the equal protection of the laws.

For me, same-sex couples' ongoing struggle to secure their equal rights recalls another long and hard struggle that was finally won in 1967:

"I think marrying who you want is a right no man should have anything to do with. It's a God-given right," - Mildred Loving.

In June 12, 1967, the Landmark Supreme Court Decision in
Loving v. Virginia legalized interracial marriage across the country, striking down anti-miscegenation laws in Virginia and 15 other states.

(Even after the decision, the unenforceable laws remained on the books in a number of states — South Carolina only removed
theirs in 1998, and Alabama's ban lurked around until 2000!)

That you, as an American, have the right to marry the person you love, regardless of race is Constitutionally-protected and recognized nationwide.

I'm eagerly anticipating the moment - May It Be Soon - when same sex couples are finally granted what should already be theirs...
Equal Rights and Constitutional Protections that are nationally-recognized.

Peace.
L.

(From: nytimes.com)



Schumer Declares His Support for Same-Sex Marriages

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 23, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senator Charles E. Schumer said on Monday that he now supports gay marriage.

“It’s time. Equality is something that has always been a hallmark of America and no group should be deprived of it,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement. “New York, which has always been at the forefront on issues of equality, is appropriately poised to take a lead on this issue.”

The gay rights group Empire State Pride Agenda said that Mr. Schumer expressed his views at a dinner on Sunday with the organization’s executive director and others.

Mr. Schumer previously supported civil unions, which give same-sex couples some of the same rights as married couples. In 1996, he voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, a law that forbids federal government recognition of same-sex marriages.

Three openly gay New York Assembly members, Micah Kellner, Deborah J. Glick, and Daniel J. O’Donnell, said they attended the meeting with Mr. Schumer and were pleased to hear his new position.

Mr. Kellner, a former aide to Mr. Schumer, said Mr. Schumer did not just express mild support.

“This was, ‘I’m going to be out front and take the lead on these issues,’ ” Mr. Kellner said.

New York’s other senator, Kirsten E. Gillibrand, also supports gay marriage, as does Gov. David A. Paterson. Both are Democrats.

Mr. Schumer is up for re-election next year.

FBI Finds Lotta Nada For 2 Out Of 3 FOIA Requests And... Wins The Rosemary Award! Congrats!

... And we wondered how the Feds could have missed the fact that two of the 9/11 terrorists were listed in the phone book?

The National Security Archive has just awarded the F.B.I. its Rosemary Award for the worst Freedom of Information Act performance by a federal agency.

What gives?

Well, the F.B.I. defends it's request results by saying that the seemingly excessive number of "no such records exist" responses are mostly due to a relatively recent new national pastime: that of filing a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) Request for one's own file/dossier... when you are - more or less - Jane or Joe Law-abiding Citizen and therefore, they have no files on you.

Yeah... Sure... Sounds Reasonable to me.

Riiight.

Well I, for one, haven't filed a FOIA request for any F.B.I. files referencing myself. Nor do I know anyone who has... and admitted it, anyway.

But-
That's not to say that I haven't thought about doing it.
I did think about it, a few times in the past - when things were... uh, weird (long story - not here.).
But, I finally thought better of it.

A wise associate of mine had pointed out that:
a.) They - in all likelihood - have no file on you. And...
b.) If they don't... Why would you want to go and do something that might call unwanted attention to yourself?

Ahh, yes. Good ol' Logic. Gotta love it.

So, my two cents' worth:

1.) Don't File A FOIA Request on Yourself Because You're Bored... or because you've gotten paranoid due to all of the surveillance cameras... or because your initially innocent curiosity about those Conspiracy Theory-based websites has blossomed into full-blown Sleep Dep... Please.

2.) That said - If you happen to be someone who has a legitimate reason to file a FOIA Request with the F.B.I. or any other Federal agency... Be Specific... Be Very, Very Specific. They won't look for anything, for anyone or look anywhere that you don't specifically state in your Request.

And, let's be honest, even if you specifically request it... they still might not bother to do it. Be persistant.

Squeaky wheels and all.

Peace.
L.


(Circa: 1973. Rose Mary Woods, President Richard Nixon's secretary at her White House desk, demonstrates the "Rose Mary Stretch" which could have 'accidentally' resulted in the erasure of part of the Watergate tapes.)

(From: The Boston Globe)

F.B.I. Finds Nothing For 2 Out Of 3 Who Seek Records

By Michael J. Sniffen
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON D.C. — If information were a river, the FBI would be a dam.

Two out of every three people who ask for FBI records under the Freedom of Information Act are told by the bureau no such documents exist -- a failure rate five times higher than at other major federal agencies, a private study finds.

The FBI is using an outdated and deliberately limited search process to avoid full compliance with the records law, the National Security Archive asserts. The Archive is a private group that publishes declassified government documents and files many FOIA requests.

The Archive awarded the FBI its Rosemary Award for the worst Freedom of Information Act performance by a federal agency. Named for former President Richard M. Nixon's secretary, Rose Mary Woods, the award is given annually around Sunshine Week, when journalism organizations promote open government and freedom of information. Woods is best known for re-enacting her claim to have accidentally erased 18 1/2 minutes of a White House tape recording when she stretched to answer a phone.

"The FBI knowingly uses a search process that doesn't find relevant records," Archive director Tom Blanton said Thursday. "Not only does this woeful performance lead to unnecessary litigation, but the bureau apparently uses the same searches in its criminal investigations as well."

The Archive said FBI records show that over the past four years the bureau told 66 percent of requesters -- 37,342 out of 56,530 requests -- that it found no responsive records. The 33 large federal agencies that receive the bulk of all FOIA requests responded that way only 13 percent of the time on average, the archive calculated.

In 2008, only 89 requesters, 0.5 percent of the year's total, got everything they asked for from the FBI; 2,276, 13 percent, got part of what they sought.

David Hardy, chief of the FBI's FOIA section, has said the bureau checks FOIA requests against the names on an electronic index of its files.

The electronic index contains names of individuals, organizations, companies, publications, activities and counterintelligence programs. It includes the main name for each file and other names in the file -- or cross-references -- that case agents think might be useful in the future, but not all names in every file. The electronic index for searching only goes back to 1980s; earlier records have to be searched by hand on paper.

The FBI checks the main names on the index, Hardy has said. It does not check cross-reference names unless specifically asked to, and does not check the entire file. It won't look at paper or field office records unless specifically asked to.

Blanton said modern information systems use electronic search tools that scan the entire text of a document. "The FBI process, in contrast, is designed to send FOIA requesters away frustrated, and no doubt has the same effect on the FBI's own agents."

Hardy told The Associated Press on Thursday the indexing system is designed to support bureau investigations.

"The names our agents pick to put in the index mean something to our investigators," Hardy said. "We're not building a library. If you have something of meaning to the FBI, it's going to be there."

But Blanton responded: "No FBI agent is omniscient. They can't always know what names would be important to another field office or make or break an investigation in the future."

Two men who turned out to be Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist hijackers lived in San Diego and associated with an FBI informant before the attack, but if the agent only indexed the informant's name, they wouldn't find the two hijackers, Blanton said.

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said "the reason for the huge number of no-records responses is that it's become a cult phenomenon to ask the FBI for records on yourself, and most people don't have FBI records."

But FBI searches frustrate other requesters. Salt Lake City lawyer Jesse Trentadue wanted to know whether bureau documents showed a link between his brother's death in custody and the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building.

Trentadue asked for a Jan. 4, 1996, message from FBI Director Louis Freeh's office to the Oklahoma City and Omaha, Neb., offices that discussed the federal building bombers (the FBI's OKBOMB case). His request supplied the correct date for the memo, the names of the sender and two recipients and a newspaper story with direct quotes from it, but the FBI told him no records matched his request.

Trentadue later found the very memo he wanted had been released to another FOIA requester, so he sued the FBI for a better search. Hardy told the court the FBI had used the search term "OKBOMB" to try to find the January 1996 message; bureau officials couldn't say why that search failed to produce the Freeh message, in which the first listed subject was "OKBOMB."

Hardy told AP the law requires reasonable, not exhaustive, searches. "If we were to try to chase down every name with a full text search, the entire Russian army couldn't finish the work in a timely manner," Hardy said. "We think our system is reasonable."

Hardy said the FBI now has the shortest pending times for FOIA requests in its history, no backlogged requests older than three years and fewer than 1 percent older than two. But Blanton said the FBI's average response times of 109 days for an expedited request and 374 days for a complex request are still among the highest in government.

Blanton said the FBI has avoided processing requests by demanding privacy act waivers from any living individual referenced. He said the bureau stopped a student journalism project on the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan by requesting a privacy waiver from al-Qaida leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a U.S. prisoner in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

"We are supposed to use common sense and waive that rule," Hardy said. "But we correct our errors. We're processing the Pearl documents now."

Do You FreeCycle? No? Interested? Here's How...

Have You Heard of FREECYCLE?

No, it has nothing to do with bicycles.
Nor is it a new form of home exercise equipment.

... It's Much, Much Better!

"The Freecycle Network™" is made up of 4,700 groups with 6,504,000 members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them's good people). Membership is FREE."

To Look For A Group In Your Community - Go To: http://www.freecycle.org/.

Members freely give (and get) every kind of item. From moving boxes to mattresses to furniture to kid's toys to clothing to books to electronics/hardware/cell phones... kitchen sinks, etc.

For Example:
I'm need of a digital voice recorder and - although I initially hesitated - I finally decided to be completely honest about the reason why.

Here's my most recent 'WANTED' posting:

I hear dead people (Seriously).
I've made numerous EVP recordings, confirmed by multiple witnesses.
But, sadly, my recorder has died.
I'm searching for a Digital Voice Recorder with a USB-direct port (to upload files to my computer.).
I thank you and 'They' thank you (I've told 'them' to leave me alone until I get another recorder.).

Any San Francisco FreeCycle Member with an available one responds via email.

It's That Easy.
And, Yes... It's Really Free.

Check FreeCycle out.

Peace.
L.

Are You Wiping Out Virgin or Ancient-Growth Forest When Wiping Your A**?

Mr. Whipple was on the right track with his cry of:
"Please Don't Squeeze The Charmin!".

To This I Would Add...
"Please Don't Buy The Charmin."

... Or any other chlorine-bleached, virgin forest-based, ancient/old growth forest-based toilet tissue - for that matter.

Why Not?

Because...
If you insist on wiping your a** with one of the massively marketed brands of chlorine-bleached, triple-ply, quilted, ultra-, mega-, softer-than-a-baby's-butt bathroom tissues...

Then...
You are contributing to the decimation of virgin and old-growth forests to a degree that is even more damaging to our shared environment than if you were driving your gas-guzzling, negligible mileage-getting, Stupid Urban Vehicle to CrapDonald's for some super-sized fast faux food.

Not only that...
You are a Boil on the Buttocks of Humanity.

(Hopefully Not.)

"Recycled tissue products help protect ancient forests, clean water, and wildlife habitat. It's easier on the Earth to make tissues from paper instead of trees." - Greenpeace
(Greenpeace's website offers a Recycled Tissue and Toilet Paper Guide.)

"In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations."
- From the Great Law of the Iroquois

Peace.
L.


(Greenpeace image)

From: www.guardian.co.uk/.)

American Taste For Soft Toilet Roll Is 'Worse Than Driving Hummers'
- Extra-soft, quilted and multi-ply toilet roll made from virgin wood causes more damage than gas-guzzlers, fast food or McMansions, say campaigners -

By: Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 26 February 2009 18.29 GMT

The tenderness of the delicate American buttock is causing more environmental devastation than the country's love of gas-guzzling cars, fast food or McMansions, according to green campaigners. At fault, they say, is the US public's insistence on extra-soft, quilted and multi-ply products when they use the bathroom.

"This is a product that we use for less than three seconds and the ecological consequences of manufacturing it from trees is enormous," said Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defence Council.

"Future generations are going to look at the way we make toilet paper as one of the greatest excesses of our age. Making toilet paper from virgin wood is a lot worse than driving Hummers in terms of global warming pollution." Making toilet paper has a significant impact because of chemicals used in pulp manufacture and cutting down forests.

A campaign by Greenpeace seeks to raise consciousness among Americans about the environmental costs of their toilet habits and counter an aggressive new push by the paper industry giants to market so-called luxury brands.

More than 98% of the toilet roll sold in America comes from virgin wood, said Hershkowitz. In Europe and Latin America, up to 40% of toilet paper comes from recycled products. Greenpeace this week launched a cut-out-and-keep ecological ranking of toilet paper products.

"We have this myth in the US that recycled is just so low quality, it's like cardboard and is impossible to use," said Lindsey Allen, the forestry campaigner of Greenpeace.

The campaigning group says it produced the guide to counter an aggressive marketing push by the big paper product makers in which celebrities talk about the comforts of luxury brands of toilet paper and tissue.

Those brands, which put quilting and pockets of air between several layers of paper, are especially damaging to the environment.

Paper manufacturers such as Kimberly-Clark have identified luxury brands such as three-ply tissues or tissues infused with hand lotion as the fastest-growing market share in a highly competitive industry. Its latest television advertisements show a woman caressing tissue infused with hand lotion.

The New York Times reported a 40% rise in sales of luxury brands of toilet paper in 2008. Paper companies are anxious to keep those percentages up, even as the recession bites. And Reuters reported that Kimberly-Clark spent $25m in its third quarter on advertising to persuade Americans against trusting their bottoms to cheaper brands.

But Kimberly-Clark, which touts its green credentials on its website, rejects the idea that it is pushing destructive products on an unwitting American public.

Dave Dixon, a company spokesman, said toilet paper and tissue from recycled fibre had been on the market for years. If Americans wanted to buy them, they could.

"For bath tissue Americans in particular like the softness and strength that virgin fibres provides," Dixon said. "It's the quality and softness the consumers in America have come to expect."

Longer fibres in virgin wood are easier to lay out and fluff up for a softer tissue. Dixon said the company used products from sustainbly farmed forests in Canada.

Americans already consume vastly more paper than any other country — about three times more per person than the average European, and 100 times more than the average person in China.

Barely a third of the paper products sold in America are from recycled sources — most of it comes from virgin wood.

"I really do think it is overwhelmingly an American phenomenon," said Hershkowitz. "People just don't understand that softness equals ecological destruction."

• This article was amended on Wednesday 4 March 2009. We mistakenly referred to virgin forests when virgin wood, which includes that from planted, managed forests, was meant. This has been corrected.