Former Chef, current non-profit person working on Farmers' Markets.
Born and raised in Berkeley, now in Oakland.
Due to the killing of CJNG cartel leader "El Mencho" today, Jalisco state (incl. Puerto Vallarta) has active roadblocks with burning vehicles, shootouts & explosions.
US Embassy & Canadian gov't advise: shelter in place until further notice. No taxi/rideshare. Flights cancelled.
If planning travel, delay & monitor travel.state.gov or travel.gc.ca. If already there, stay indoors & follow local authorities.
originally.
since they had right of way for all the tracks and already had poles for telegraph, they first just ran copper, then fiber for telephony along the same right of ways.
wiltel (Williams Telecom) used empty natural gas pipes filled with fiber as their entry into the telphony world.
Fun Fact: For many years the recorded voice that would explain each step on one of the most popular automatic defibrillators was Vic Perrin, who had a very long career as an actor and voice over artist, including both for the original "Star Trek". Remember the guy who told Kirk that their planet's dilithium crystals held great power, and they would die as a race to prevent them being misused in the classic "Mirror, Mirror" episode? That's him.
More to the point here, he was the uncredited "Control Voice" for the original 1960s "The Outer Limits", who provided an often philosophical monologue at the start and end of (almost) every episode. I always found a certain satisfaction that the same guy who was ostensibly controlling your TV each week for the show was also telling you how to save lives.
"...According to a chart in Tesla’s Q4 2025 earnings report showing cumulative robotaxi miles, the fleet has traveled approximately 500,000 miles as of November 2025. That works out to roughly one crash every 55,000 miles.
For comparison, human drivers in the United States average approximately one police-reported crash every 500,000 miles, according to NHTSA data.
That means Tesla’s robotaxis are crashing at a rate 9 times higher than the average human driver..."
"My husband complains about the cold," the man said. "Can you teach me a spell to keep him warm?"
"I can teach you to bind hair into a net to catch heat," the wizard said, "using arcane counting and a pair of fine wands."
After a while, the man said "Isn't this knitting?"
"This, too, is magic."
In better and less weighty* Canada/US news, the beloved rock Portable that went missing from its home in the Squamish, BC bouldering area last fall was just found in the Californian desert (Bishop, CA), wearing a toque and goggles.
It's on its way home to BC now.
*Only about 32kg/70lbs. A boulder the size of a small boulder.
[CBC] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/squamish-missing-rock-found-in-california-9.7053851
[climbing-specific at Gripped] https://gripped.com/news/stolen-squamish-boulder-found-in-bishop/
Did You Know... we have a lot of stuff?
sometimes, we get things that are broken or un-usable. sometimes things break and are not fixable or not worth fixing.
those things go into the e-waste pile of doom, from whence they are eventually taken to the Colorado Hard to Recycle Materials Facility.
howEVER, this time around we decided to add another step in that process. we'll be doing a "Take Our Stuff, Please!" free rummage on the porch on January 31 from 2-4 PM.
everything from letterpress type to broken circuit boards to partially scavenged computer towers to textbooks from the 80s - all free, for whatever use you might have for it...
save the date! bring your own bag or box! take whatever you want!
(edit: one of our high school volunteers made a poster)
(new edit to say: event over, was a smashing success, thanks to all who came by!)
Luke
Regina Kammer
Michael Barthel / MiBaWi
Paul_IPv6
Lauren Weinstein
AI6YR Ben
Micro SF/F by O. Westin
Deb Chachra
media archaeology lab