Category Archives: Thoughts and Comments

  1. Tickets scalpers are making profit off Vampire Weekend concert at The Cellar Door in Visalia

    Whenever a popular show is in town, music promoters say, someone always takes advantage by selling tickets for more than face value.
    That’s what’s happening with Monday’s sold-out performance by indie band Vampire Weekend at The Cellar Door.
    The Visalia show is promoted by the local nonprofit Sound N Vision Foundation, whose goal is to bring top-notch [...]

  2. Rodger Doxsey, one of space telescope team’s first leaders, dies at 62 — baltimoresun.com

    Roger Doxsey, one of the earliest employees of the Hubble Space Telescope, passed away yesterday.
    Roger was responsible for the science operations of the Telescope both prior to and during its entire productive lifetime. As a young pup, I was involved in creating the earliest software in support of many aspects of the plan he developed.
    Along [...]

  3. Sharp Debate At High Court Over Cross On US Land

    Debate Mirrors Ongoing Porterville Controversy in Murray Park
    “I have been in Jewish cemeteries,” Eliasberg continued. “There is never a cross on a tombstone of a Jew.”
    From: Sharp debate at high court over cross on US land – Yahoo! News.
    This case mirrors a  current situation in Porterville,  one of many that our City has managed to [...]

  4. 13 Cities Post Unemployment Above 15 Percent

    Porterville-Visalia makes the Top 10- Again!
    Bureau of Labor Statistics releases monthly metropolitan-area data,
    via 13 Cities Post Unemployment Above 15 Percent – Yahoo! Real Estate.
    First, a little explanation of the chart in the link, then a comment or two.
    Although the chart says “Visalia, CA” at 15.4, it actually means VISALIA-PORTERVILLE METROPOLITAN STATISTICAL AREA (MSA).
    I wondered, with [...]

  5. Let fury have the hour, anger can be power

    D’you know that you can use it?
    It’s the best years of your life they want to steal
    No man born with a living soul
    Can be working for the clampdown
    I will have more to say in this space soon regarding yesterday’s Prop H8 decision, I am still gathering my thoughts.
    But these lyric from a song I know [...]

  6. Porterville Vets Well Over Capacity, Sick Dogs Suffer Needlessly

    Last night we noticed a lump under Thunder’s jaw, a lump the size of a doggie golf ball. This morning we called all the vets in town, starting with our regular vet, to take her in.
    No one can see her before Tuesday, a full 6 days from now, and some not until Thursday, one week [...]

  7. Flaming Kabob to offer new menu

    One of my two favorite restaurants here in Porterville, the Flaming Kabob on Henderson (between Starbucks and Quiznos), is planning to offer a buffet menu soon in addition to the existing menu.
    Steam tales are in place, and it looks like the change is set to occur next week sometime.
    Why are the Flaming  Kabob and Vientianne [...]

  8. More-Cities-Seeing-at-Least-15-Percent-Unemployment: Personal Finance News from Yahoo Finance

    Porterville has the 5th highest unemployment  level in the US in march among 310 population areas.
    13 of the top 18   areas are in California, including a nearly unbroken chain of population centers between north of the  Grapevine  to Sacramento,  and then north of Sacramento well into Oregon.

    Cities With Jobless Rates of 15% or More

    Metro Area
    State
    March [...]

  9. Finding a Show Before the Web: The Globe Poster

    Baltimore City Paper : Letter Men. is a wonderful article describing a look at how entertainment and other marketing used to be distributed by posters and banners before the era of the “banner ad”.
    Chris Landers writes lovingly of the remnants of a family owned Baltimore press that became a national institution and veritable museum of [...]

  10. A Welcome (and welcoming) Site

    It belongs to you: Please visit whitehouse.gov often

  11. It all follows from this:

    Obama: “We will restore Science to its rightful place”
    What have YOU done scientific today? What will you do tomorrow and the next day?
    Comments are open, let me know!

  12. Citrus Research Board: short (and long term?) plans

    The Citrus Research Board plans new labs throughout Southern California:
    The Citrus Research Board, a Visalia group funded by California citrus growers, has hired MaryLou Polek, a plant pathologist who earned her Ph.D at UCR in 1993. She will lead the fight against Asian citrus psyllid, an insect the size of a pea that can carry [...]

  13. El Futuro – Porterville’s #1 Entrepreneur?

    At last – a nice effort at actual entrepreneurship in Porterville. El Futuro, a local credit union with a primarily Mexican clientele, has a new program:
    The international remittance plan allows the transfer of money between the U.S. and Mexican credit unions and banks. It is a program supported by the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, Banco [...]

  14. Why No Tourist Facilities in Porterville and Springville?

    Porterville Recorder letter-writer John Keyes of Springville writes regarding the future of Giant Sequoia National Monument
    A Web site will help. Shirts will help. This quest is going to take a grand effort by the federal government plus Fresno, Kern and Tulare county governments. A real effort is needed to actually put money into tourism, not just more small bandages and [...]