(Published to the Fediverse as:
Butterfly at California Academy of Sciences #photo#butterfly Photo of a butterfly at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.)
By Robert Ellison. Updated on Wednesday, February 22, 2017.
I just learned that San Francisco's Recreation and Parks department plans to cut down thousands of healthy trees because they are non-native. I really don't understand this nativist movement. At one point San Francisco was part of Gondwanaland. A while before that it was a sea of super-heated plasma. We need more trees even if they were originally Australian. It's a city of transplants anyway.
San Francisco Forrest Alliance seems to be the main hub to try and shut this down. If you live here and like trees please do something.
Here's a letter I just sent to my Supervisor:
Dear Supervisor Yee,
I am writing to voice my opposition to the plan by the Recreation and Parks Department’s Natural Areas Program to cut down 1,600 trees on Mount Davidson. I have lived in San Francisco for over sixteen years and in your district for a little over two. I regularly walk my dog and take my children to Mount Davidson. We greatly value this park for its views and forest.
Beyond Mount Davidson specifically I am horrified by the thought of felling thousands of healthy trees because they are considered to be non-native. The mission of Recreation and Parks should not be to return San Francisco to its original state. As a taxpayer and homeowner I expect to see a focus on the needs of residents and a management plan that preserves our forested areas rather than denuding them.
Maybe some of the NAP budget could be diverted to fixing up the dilapidated West Portal playground or to pay for maintenance of neighborhood trees rather than their current plan?
(Published to the Fediverse as:
Save Mount Davidson #politics#mountdavidson#trees Don't cut down all the non-native trees, leave Mount Davidson the way it is.)
By Robert Ellison. Updated on Friday, February 24, 2017.
Company Town by Madeline Ashby
4/5
I've been occasionally checking in for the third part of Ashby's Machine Dynasty series and discovered that instead of finishing that off she wrote Company Town instead. Which is a good thing. This is fast paced and feels effortless. It's the story of a future town bought by a family dynasty and the bodyguard to the heir apparent. Hard to say too much more but I loved it.
Patriot (Alexander Hawke, #9) by Ted Bell
2/5
Warriors (Alexander Hawke, #8) by Ted Bell
1/5
Bell has a remarkable ability to fatally self-contradict himself in the space of a single sentence.
By Robert Ellison. Updated on Wednesday, February 22, 2017.
I do a fair amount of time-lapse photography as a hobby and one format I really love is the single frame time-lapse. This is where hundreds (or thousands) of images are stitched together into a single picture instead of a video. There are several examples on this blog including trippy clouds, cranes, a living room and a video which is a time-lapse of single frame time-lapses (made from 1,581,120 photos!)
Until recently I shot the frames like I would a regular time-lapse and then combined them into a single photo using some custom software. This is fairly tedious and so I've packaged up the entire process into an Android app. It can shoot from a minute to 24 hours using the front or rear camera and then saves the finished photo.
(It's the first project I've completed after upgrading my upgrade-proof laptop with a 1TB SDD, some cat fur and about a half pint of blood. I'm amazed it even boots. There is a tenth circle of hell for laptop designers who decide to hide the hard drive module under two tiny ribbon cables secured with ribbon cable eating tape. And thanks for the fake screws.)
(Published to the Fediverse as:
Bay Bridge Timelapse #timelapse#4k#video 4K timelapse of the San Francisco side of the Bay Bridge, black and white, gloomy)
(Published to the Fediverse as:
Golden Gate Bridge from Marshall's Beach #photo#ggb Photo of the Golden Gate Bridge between two rocks shot from Marshall's Beach, San Francisco, California.)
By Robert Ellison. Updated on Wednesday, February 22, 2017.
Every time I go back to the UK now I experience some sort of culture shock. A couple of years ago it was the matryoshka of Marks & Spencers. This trip, post-Brexit, I was expecting a J.G. Ballard style post-apocalyptic wasteland. But it was even worse - it's nearly impossible to buy tonic water without sweetener.
I'm unlucky (or maybe lucky) enough to be sensitive to aspartame and anything made with the stuff tastes foul to me. I can no longer have a gin and tonic in a pub because the full-fat tonic is as tainted as the diet stuff. It's not just tonic water, many other drinks are laced with the stuff. And kids in the UK now live on Fruit Shoots which are short on fruit and long on chemical warfare.
Is this some sneaky anti-obesity move I haven't read about? More likely the vile artificial stuff is just cheaper than actual sugar and it's a cost saving measure.
Oh, and I saw a crew of motorway workers washing traffic cones. In the rain.
(Published to the Fediverse as:
Methyl L-α-aspartyl-L-fucking-phenylalaninate #politics#uk#brexit#cone#sweetener#motorway Why does the UK insist on putting artificial sweetener in everything, even in supposed full fat beverages?)
By Robert Ellison. Updated on Friday, February 24, 2017.
The Night Stalker (DCI Erika Foster, #2) by Robert Bryndza
4/5
Decent police thriller, a notch up from the first in the series I thought. I'll buy the next one.
Professor Stewart's Incredible Numbers by Ian Stewart
4/5
A tour of mathematics through the device of looking at what's interesting about different numbers. Brought back all sorts of things I learned in school and university that are now slowly fading again.
The Girl In The Ice (DCI Erika Foster, #1) by Robert Bryndza
By Robert Ellison. Updated on Wednesday, February 22, 2017.
If David Cameron really cares about the future of the UK he needs to call an election instead of handing the reins over to (presumably) Boris in a few months.
A party which campaigned on a platform of ignoring the referendum and sticking with the EU would have a legitimate mandate to do just that. Especially if they bring back the good Miliband.
