This photo was taken in Baja California just south of Rosarito Beach.
This one was taken in Rio de Janeiro. The one in Baja is newer, more colorful, closer to the road and much closer to Los Angeles.
Motmot
On the last day of any dive trip we have to take an excursion because we can’t fly within 24 hours of diving. This year we took a very long van trip to Chichen Itza to see the temple which was interesting but even better was the rare Motmot bird we saw while at Chichen Itza.
The photo is from Mangoverde world bird guide and was supplied by Mike F. Mike is the official naturalist of the Codger Divers
Washing Machine Cows
These excellent “Washing Machine Cows” were created by Aldo Santini and are on display at outside the Giorgio Santini Art Gallery (tel 011 52 661 614 1459). They are located south of Rosarito Beach in Baja California. It is an easy 45 minute drive from the border south to the art gallery. Get off the toll road at Rosarito and drive south another 15 minutes. The gallery has some excellent art and the “cows” are a site to behold. You can own a “cow” for not a lot of money and you get a threefer: Art, recycling and promoting art in Mexico.
Agassiz Rock
This is a picture of Agassiz rock in Yosemite Valley taken from an article in the WSJ. It is off the Four Mile Trail from the valley to Glacier Point and stands about 30 feet tall. Contrary to reports and expectations it is still standing but the brush and trees have grown up aroud it so that the views are not the same as the picute above taken in 1978. What struck me was Agassiz Rock’s remarkable resemblence to my garden fountain:
“Art imitates nature.”
Public Art in Downtown LA
Statue detail
Michael Several lead a group of us on a tour of some of the public art in downtown LA. Click here to see a selection of pictures on Flickr.
The pool by the Library
One of the new buildings
It was a wonderful way to spend a few hours. We commented that this is the kind of tour we take when we travel to other cities but we had never seen LA this way before. Thanks to Michael for making this possible. Click here to see the good photos
Codgers in Cozumel 2/07
The Codger Divers had a great trip to Cozumel, QR Mexico last week. We stayed at the Iberostar Resort on an all inclusive package and it was excellent.
We dove with Dive With Martin and it was near perfect. Roberto was our dive master and Jorge was the boat captain.
Nobody drowned and we learned to drift dive.
We saw some large sharks
Tijuana Dogs
These are some dogs we saw in Tijuana on Tuesday:
A Mexican Brown Dog who looks just like my dog Missy.
A pack of Chihuahuas living on a roof.
A white fluffy dog on a rare leash.
You can tell a lot about a country by how they treat their dogs. Mexican dogs have a lot more freedom than American dogs but in general they have a much harder and shorter life.
To see more about the Tijuana Expedition click here or Here
International ID Card
There has been more talk lately in the US about creating a national ID card. The congress has passed a bill that will over the next few years make the States issue drivers licenses that are more uniform and are harder to replicate. It seems to me that this is another instance where the governments are again behind private industry. We already have multiple choices of Internatonal ID Cards. Here are a couple:
And of course Mastercard. Giant corporations carefully collect data on who is credit worthy and make very few mistakes. A nation that wanted to securely ID all of its citizens could pay the credit card issuers to issue cards to all of the people who don’t already have one.
- For those who don’t want or don’t deserve credit the card could be for ID purposes only
- Private ID cards would solve the civil liberties questions because the governments would only have access to the data on a need to know basis, just like a merchant.
- The cost would be low because the infrastructure is in place.
- It would help to move us toward a cash free economy.
- The various issuers would compete to provide the service and drive prices down.
Another win win idea.
Praise for the Mini Cooper
We were at the Autry Museum for their exhibit of painting of Yosemite. In the parking lot we saw this lady loading a life size plaster deer into her brand new convertible Mini Cooper. With ingenuity you don’t need a pickup truck.
Jellyfish
When we were in Carmel on the day after Christmas we went to visit the Monterey Bay Aquaruim. It was incredibly crowded, but that is a different story. I went because I wanted to see the Jellyfish display again. This time I took some very nice pictures. Here is one:
But even more importantly I bought a DVD made by a company called Ambience Visuals that is one hour of jellyfish swimming past the camera. It is fabulous. I call the concept “background video.”
Many years ago I had the idea for background video and it nice to see that someone has done it. The model I visualized was different than theirs. Ambient Visuals sells the DVD outright. I thought that a cable company would broadcast it free on one of their open channels and it could be monetized by selling a watermark in the lower left to a sponsor like Pepsi.
Discover HD has Sunrise Earth on every weekday morning.
Some other background videos I’d like to see are:
- A year in the life of a tree
- A busy park bench on a beautiful day
- Koi in a pond
- A freeway interchange
- Children playing in a park