Pretty interesting article in the NYT recently- arguing for allowing more open immigration from places like India and China to allow the talented knowledgeable people there to come here and buy up all the crappy houses (half kidding), work hard and eventually create more jobs in the process (not kidding).
Thought it sounded good, and began thinking about why it would never happen: these new immigrants don't vote! The unemployed American workers do, so the politicians who just wanted to get re-elected, will build up programs to put these unemployed Americans t0 work and protect their job security by not allowing talented people to come in. Not quite how this country was formed or made great....hopefully I'm wrong, but I bet it'll be somewhere in the middle.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Thursday, February 05, 2009
This is what happens to LA traffic in the rain.....
Imagine if these people had to drive in ice and snow!!!! I don't think anyone would ever make it to where they needed to go.
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Independance Day and... urban sprawl?
After staring at a computer screen for about 6 hours yesterday, I came home and mindlessly flipped through channels- and stopped for a bit on Independence Day, the horrible Will Smith flick dating back from 1996.
First a small rant.... so Will Smith sees large city-sized UFOs floating over Los Angeles, and being the ready Marine that he is, he gets dressed into dress uniform before heading down to the base, where he quickly enters the locker room to change into approximately what he had on at home. I just hate movies that try to be realistic, but are not.
Ok, so for the real observation here.... Will Smith's charachter is stationed out of El Toro Marine base, located in Tustin, Ca (so I'm not sure why he had a beautiful house that appeared to be in Malibu, but I'll drop that). There is a scene where a large group of alien ships come by and blow the shit out of the base... but what really caught my eye was the scenery surrounding the base, assuming the filming was actually done AT El Toro (stretch maybe?). But there was NOTHING. I mean.... nothing. It looked like it was in the middle of a desert. I ride through this base every Tuesday and Thursday morning.... it is completly and utterly surrounded by housing and the sprawl of shopping malls and shit now. The movie was only 12 years ago. A quick consult with google maps satellite shows that whenever they took those photos, only about half the sprawl was there (the other half is clearly already under construction- all the ground is leveled off and roads are there).
On the upside, though, the base has been decomissioned, and is on its way to being the largest urban park in the country.... though comparing it to Central Park is just... wrong... because they are very different- Central Park is surrounded by... buildings and ... culture, not just Starbucks and Target superstores.
First a small rant.... so Will Smith sees large city-sized UFOs floating over Los Angeles, and being the ready Marine that he is, he gets dressed into dress uniform before heading down to the base, where he quickly enters the locker room to change into approximately what he had on at home. I just hate movies that try to be realistic, but are not.
Ok, so for the real observation here.... Will Smith's charachter is stationed out of El Toro Marine base, located in Tustin, Ca (so I'm not sure why he had a beautiful house that appeared to be in Malibu, but I'll drop that). There is a scene where a large group of alien ships come by and blow the shit out of the base... but what really caught my eye was the scenery surrounding the base, assuming the filming was actually done AT El Toro (stretch maybe?). But there was NOTHING. I mean.... nothing. It looked like it was in the middle of a desert. I ride through this base every Tuesday and Thursday morning.... it is completly and utterly surrounded by housing and the sprawl of shopping malls and shit now. The movie was only 12 years ago. A quick consult with google maps satellite shows that whenever they took those photos, only about half the sprawl was there (the other half is clearly already under construction- all the ground is leveled off and roads are there).
On the upside, though, the base has been decomissioned, and is on its way to being the largest urban park in the country.... though comparing it to Central Park is just... wrong... because they are very different- Central Park is surrounded by... buildings and ... culture, not just Starbucks and Target superstores.
Monday, February 02, 2009
Google Earth
Just downloaded the new Google Earth 5.0- pretty sweet.... The feature allowing you to dive underwater is cool, but I haven't really found anything too cool with it yet. What I'm really blown away by is the new terrain- which I don't think is actually new for 5.0- just haven't used Google Earth in a while.
I mean... how cool looking is that. Moro Rock is a large exposed rock face that looks out into a large valley in Sequoia National Park. When Nicole and I were there it was snowy/rainy/misty/you couldn't see past 10'. So I checked out what we missed on Google Earth- pretty nice.
And of course had to have a peak at what we're up against when we go back to ROMO- Long's Peak... the highest point in the park.
I can't wait to be on top of that guy.
I mean... how cool looking is that. Moro Rock is a large exposed rock face that looks out into a large valley in Sequoia National Park. When Nicole and I were there it was snowy/rainy/misty/you couldn't see past 10'. So I checked out what we missed on Google Earth- pretty nice.And of course had to have a peak at what we're up against when we go back to ROMO- Long's Peak... the highest point in the park.
I can't wait to be on top of that guy.
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