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photos by Gary D. Brune copyright (c) 2008
These shots came from my latest bus ride home including; "As presently designed, the new transit center seems about as useful as costume jewelry. It dazzles and looks to be designed for the politicians to feel good and not for the bus riders to use."
photo by Gary D. Brune copyright (c) 2008
One of the invited guests that presented the economic problems of the indicated California budget deficit to Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi, California State University, Chico Professor of Economics David E. Gallo made the point that the deficit is analogous to The Perfect Storm.
"My projection for Butte county is for the growth rate to drop from the 4.91% average growth rate between 2001 and 2005 to less than 0.5% for the next year," Gallo said in an email this morning after citing same yesterday.
This morning's report that the expected deficit is projected to be $20 billion. Gallo said it " is maybe a scare tactic designed to get everyone's attention regarding the severity of the problem." He expects the actual deficit to come out at between $12 to $14 billion. The discrepancy in figures comes from the unanticipated collapse of the real estate bubble.
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Photos by Gary D. Brune copyright (c) 2008
The budget situation for California State Universities is serious as Lieutenant Governor John Garamendi visits with President Paul Zingg and invited guests at Chico State's Free Speech area on a fact-finding visit earlier today as two sets of protesters silently express their points of view.
I asked the Lieutenant Governor later what he would tell Bill Gates in light of the proposed budget cuts and Gates seeking to import technically educated people from India in order to get cheaper labor than the CSU system can produce.
Garamendi said that he needs to help the CSUs get the funding/investment they need to produce technical students in California alluding to a conversation he had with an official from Seagate Technologies.
There is a problem pointed out by City Editor Steve Schoonover's article in last Friday's Enterprise Record. Since I addressed the unmet needs hearings in Paradise and Chico, I've run into a number of problems that Butte County Association of Governments have failed to address ...
photo by Gary D. Brune copyright 2008
..now, or in the last five years and it is time for me to get to work on this. BCAG brought us “transit centers” in Chico and Paradise (I will address that further in this essay), consolidation, as a means I submit to save money for the bus system rather than improve service for the riders, and adjustments in existing schedules.
photo by Gary D. Brune copyright 2008
Following in the tire tracks of its big brother ceremony in San Francisco, the early Friday evening was descended upon by about 200 bicycle riders in Chico's own Critical Mass. Riding in an orderly, law abiding manor, some of the riders chanted as they passed through Normal Street on Second.
Critical Mass is a leaderless event where its riders do not proceed on a fixed route. They are trying to assert greater rights and awareness for bicyclists in a way to protest the domination of the automobile in modern American society.
These riders were unescorted by Chico and California State University police officers, even while passing in front of the Chico State police office.
photo by Gary D. Brune copyright 2008
This squirrel is celebrating spring at Chico State. He is one of many that attend the college for their own education.
photo by Gary D. Brune copyright 2008
While watching Lobsang Samtem put together his sand sculpture and finish it at the Bell Memorial Union of California State University, Chico, I had the opportunity to ask the Buddhist Monk a few questions. In light of the recent events in Tibet, the last question seems appropriate.
It took Samtem took over a month to put together the mandala 9which means circles) by hand. I asked him what he wanted people to take w\away from his design.
He said, "Peace. Why not?"
There is a report that there are at least 265,000 surveillance cameras in Beiging alone. China Daily reports that “from recent reports, many cities in China have established extensive surveillance systems with the help of the latest technology including the Internet and satellite.”
photo by Gary D. Brune copyright 2008
One of four of what appeasr to be surveillance cameras at the intersection of Second and Normal in Chico perches atop the streetlight.
This sounds familiar, doesn't it? I wouldn't be surprised if the cameras depicted in this essay were made in China
Recently when the House of Representatives passed a bill which will set rules on how telephone companies and internet service providers will handle government surveillance requests for phone calls and e-mails in the face of President George Bush's promised veto, the Washington Post also reported that the FBI faced Congressional review concerning their misuse of administrative orders.
Reporter Dan Eggen wrote “The FBI has increasingly used administrative orders to obtain the personal records of U.S. citizens rather than foreigners implicated in terrorism or counterintelligence investigations, and at least once it relied on such orders to obtain records that a special intelligence-gathering court had deemed protected by the First Amendment, according to two government audits released yesterday.”
photo by Gary D. Brune copyright 2008
What appears to be a surveillance camera at the intersection of Normal and Second in Chico perches atop the streetlight
photo by Gary D. Brune copyright 2008
Last Saturday, Buddhist Monk Lobsang Samtem closed out the Wheel of Time mandala he had been working on since the beginning of February in the Bell Memorial Union at California State University, Chico. Meaning circles, the mandala, or sand sculpture, was authorized by the Dalai Lama at the time of the full Moon Eclipse in the beginning of the month.
Samtem is one of 100 people worldwide who can do this type of art. It is extremely rare for an individual to do this project solo from begining to end. Using his four years of experience in studying the art form, Samtem laid every design by hand using a pair of chapkus to apply the sand.
At the end of the project, Samtem lead a prayer of several hundred people at the BMU who helped him sweep up the sand. His group of 12 assistants gathered it up into tiny envelopes and handed them out to those in the audience. He led a group out to the Chico State Amphitheater where they returned a supply of the sand to the Big Chico Creek setting it on its way back to the ocean.
I will post a couple more photographs with more of this story in the coming days
About Me: Let's rake it up.
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