PLACES LIKE NEW YORK CITY AND THE BAY AREA always will be more expensive than other places in the country. It is easy to see why: Both New York and the Bay Area are global economic powerhouses, because they are international finance, media and technology hubs. Given the level of economic activity and talent in […]
Bruce Robinson: The echo chamber
BACK IN THE DAYS WHEN I WAS GROWING UP, radio broadcasters used a special-effects technique called “the echo chamber.” Mystery programs like “The Shadow,” for instance, began with an echo-chambered male voice asking, “Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?” Then, the same voice would answer, “The Shadow knows!” and promptly break […]
Crewmember Report: Benicia, California, Spaceship Earth: The benefits of bicycling
BESIDES THE OBVIOUS BENEFITS OF BICYCLING related to fun, health and inexpensive transportation, there is “gold” in those bicycle wheels for a wide sector of the economy. Who knew? I’ve mentioned in past articles that one of the many goals the Community Sustainability Commission has set to work on for 2013-14 is a Bicycle Guide […]
Matt Talbot: Economic revival
I THINK IT IS MORE OR LESS BEYOND DISPUTE that the economy has been stuck in low gear for far too long. The recession officially ended in mid-2009, but the employment situation has been very slow to improve. While the official unemployment rate in January of this year was 6.6 percent (the February number is […]
Dennis Lund: If not for the Browning, I might never have found Donnie again
“When a man passes from this world, if he has five people whom he can count as true friends, he can consider himself to indeed be a lucky man.” — Jonathon Winters THE ABOVE WORDS WERE SPOKEN AT THE MEMORIAL SERVICE of Dr. John Silverthorne many years ago by his long-time friend, the late Jonathon […]
Jerome Page: On the heartbreak of Rex and Dick
FIRST TODAY, I BRING YOU THE HEARTRENDING STORY of a man who has labored all his life to achieve his heart’s desire, a lovely home in Denton, Texas, a Dallas suburb, only to learn it was facing the desecration of a fracking water tower in the neighborhood. (For water supply, not actual fracking.) It is […]
Global warming — facts, not attacks, please
A POLITICAL BATTLE IS RAGING ACROSS THE U.S., indeed across the world, over “global warming.” Unfortunately most of this debate consists of folks calling each other names — without any recourse to facts. Are there any facts available to help judge this debate? For example, what does the United States Historical Climate Network (USHCN) temperature […]
Crewmember Report: Benicia, California, Spaceship Earth: ‘Packing for Mars’
LAST APRIL, WHILE I WAS IN MINNESOTA WITH MY SISTER, my colleague Roger Smith filmed author Mary Roach in conversation with Michael Krasny at Dominican University of California. I just spent last week reading Mary’s book, “Packing for Mars,” which was the focus of the One Book One Marin program for 2013. I love the […]
Matt Talbot: Truth in song
I’VE RECENTLY DISCOVERED A RELATIVELY NEW SINGER-SONGWRITER ON THE SCENE, a man named Mike Rosenberg, who is better known by his stage name, Passenger. He’s explained that his nickname describes his approach to songwriting: He’s a passenger going through life, describing what he sees out his window. And what he sees is — or, more […]
Jerome Page: On the thrills of trashing climate science
FEW ISSUES HAVE SO ENGAGED THE SOUND AND FURY of the Republican Party, as representated by party and congressional leadership, as the notion of climate change or global warming being advanced by liberal “hoaxers.” Of these Republican statesmen, none so captures the zeitgeist of the current GOP grasp of atmospheric realities as the senator from […]