ostrich algorithm in energy policy

An especially compelling op-ed article about energy policy in the New York Times.

The McCain-Clinton gas holiday proposal is a perfect example of what energy expert Peter Schwartz of Global Business Network describes as the true American energy policy today: "Maximize demand, minimize supply and buy the rest from the people who hate us the most."

Microsoft

This Microsoft building went up recently... within the past year.

Chimney

From the Hacienda entrance to  Almaden Quicksilver, this chimney is the most prominent feature of the landscape. It doesn't exactly tower over the parking lot, but it is pretty visible.

Snake

Should employ this guy to do some plumbing work around the house.

Almaden Quicksilver

Almaden Quicksilver park in San Jose used to be the site of the second largest mercury mine in the country. The state-of-the-art methods for extracting mercury from cinnabar polluted the area sufficiently that you can't eat the fish in Almaden Reservoir.

Interesting recent article on this area: http://www.tommangan.net/twoheeldrive/index.php/almaden-quicksilver-county-park-hiking-through-history/

Ambrosia Salad

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Ambrosia-Salad-II/Detail.aspx
Serve with pork rinds and Coors Light.

Pear del Sol

I think I still have several more fruit sculptures to go on documenting the Plaza.

Adobe Creek 1989

View of Adobe Creek to the north, from Middlefield. Mountain View. I'm sure it's a lovely creek when not channelized.

Lengua Tacos

Tacqueria Marlen on California near Showers, in Mountain View, has remained my favorite tacqueria over the years. There is a market, butcher shop and bakery next door, too. The agua frescas vary, but you can almost always get horchata. Mexican Coke is $1.49.

Siddartha

Planet of the Apes alternate ending.

California Poppy

In mid April, in Santa Clara County, the prevalent flower on the tour of California native gardens will be the golden poppy. The garden tour was fun, but after going to a few, we started to get the idea.

tired of flash ads.

I just started trying this out.

http://flashblock.mozdev.org/

A cross-platform flash vulnerability was just found recently, anyway:

http://www.matasano.com/log/1032/this-new-vulnerability-dowds-inhuman-flash-exploit/

Roofing Tiles

Three of the four Town and Country buildings near downtown have been tore down. Razed. They are saving the roofing tiles, it appears. Not a big surprise to me, as I think this would be a rather expensive item. They did take care in removing the tiles before the buildings came down.

Water Temple

So the park was closed for two years and finally reopened last year. When we rode out there for lunch, we discovered that water no longer flowed through the water temple.

I don't know if the one in Sunol was modified in a similar fashion. It is only open on weekdays.

Inscription: "I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people." [from Isaiah 43:20]

Tax Day

The Mountain View post office downtown on Hope Street now sports a shiny new machine for self-service on such things as certified mail. Yesterday the line for the automated machine was about one-fourth the wait for the line to see a postal clerk about the same service. However, there were three postal clerks serving the latter line, so it moved along fine. Plus, people weren't exactly speedy when they got up to the self-service machine.

I'm thinking that the self-service machine is the way to go, if you're willing to go late at night when nobody else is there.

Private Sculpture

If you bike north on Canada Road from downtown Woodside, you can catch a glimpse of this sculpture just before you pass under the first I280 underpass. After passing by the spot many times, I realized that that's about the only place where one can see the sculpture -- it is effectively hidden from most other directions.

The intersection is Runnymede Road, and I noticed on Google Maps that it is right acroos Canada Road from Canada College. It appears to be on private land.

Textures

Admittedly, I don't care for these in my lawn. But they can be fascinating to look at up close.

Help wanted

Willingness to abuse power tools a plus.

Big Cherry

Yet another photo of Sunnyvale's lovely Plaza del Sol skate park, this one highlighting one of the mildly whimsical fruit sculptures that adorns the park. OK, it's not really a skate park, but what do you expect it to become when most of the park surface is concrete?

The new downtown is continuing to move along at its stunningly glacial pace.

Steer clear of these guys

Pleasanton Ridge open space preserve has a staging area right on Foothill Road, south of the Castlewood Country Club. According to maps, there is a disjunct section of the park to the north as well.

End of the line

The looks like it was part of a spur to the nearby tracks that run
through the golf course on Castlewood. If you look at the satellite
view of Pleasanton on Google Maps, you can see that this piece of
track aligns directly with the end of Railroad Avenue three blocks
north.

budha

I ride my bike to ride my bike.

Pico revival

http://www.picoproject.org/

405 Northbound

Normal Sunday afternoon traffic.