Would rather be out swimming, running, or camping. Works in state government. Spent a youth reading genre-fiction; today, he is making up for it by reading large quantities of non-fiction literature. The fact that truth, in every way, is more fascinating than fiction still tickles him.
Once native to the island of Gaum, the tokudae was first documented in 1931, roosting with another bats species on the island, the larger and much more common Marianas flying-fox.
Very little is known about the species. The local people, Chamorro, who hunted the bat always considered it a rare catch. The Guam Flying Fox was a small megabat with a body length of about six inches and a wingspan just over two feet. The top of the head is greyish, the back, throat, and underparts brown or dark brown and the side of the neck golden-brown. It is unknown where or how the tokudae lived.
Holotype skin of Pteropus tokudae. AMNH 87117, adult male, from Guam, collected 10 Aug 1931 by W.F. Coultas
Only three specimens of this bat have ever been collected, the last in 1968. There have been no confirmed sightings since then. It is unclear what exactly lead to the extinction of the tokudae, the introductions of exotic species, forest alteration and degradation, and excessive hunting have all been proposed.
I wish I had more time to dedicate to this. But life is crazy and I don’t see it being anything other. If you disagree please express yourself in the voting booth and not in my feed
First, some commentary
There are four bonds on this ballot. Since 2000 the voters have approved more than $100 billion dollars in bond sales. Many of these projects are worthy and should be funded. But I’m beginning to worry that using the credit card is not the best way.
Take for example the $9 billion approved in 2016 for school construction. That money could have come from the general fund over the course of 10 or 20 years and the state could have avoided all the interest payments… As it stands now, $1 of every $2 going to an infrastructure project is to pay debt payments.
The people of this state really need to think hard about their priorities and wants and start investing to make sure those priorities and wants are met. And, the way you do that is by taxes. Taxes are how we as a society express what is important to us. This isn’t the “government” stealing from you. This is all of us investing in our community. In the places we want to live and flourish. Do you want good schools? Do you want good roads? Do you want housing for your friends, family, and neighbors? Then you need to pay for it. And, together we can. Cheaper in the long run than if we borrowed in the long run… Though not as expedient for everyone involved in the democratic process.
Anyway, here’s to the Propositions
Prop. 1 – $4 billion in bonds to fund existing affordable housing programs. The final cost to us is $5.9 billion over 34 years. The housing crisis is dire in this state. Ask anyone who isn’t already an owner. This is low-hanging fruit and I wish we could expect more from our legislators. – Support.
Prop. 2 – Allows funds from Prop. 63 (all the way back in 2004) to fund statewide housing projects for the homeless and mentally ill, like No Place Like Home. Getting the mentally ill into housing and on to programs that will help them is desperately needed. – Support.
Prop. 3 – Authorizes $8.877 billion in bonds for various, mostly water related, infrastructure projects. The final cost to us is $17.2 billion. This is pork belly propositioning at its finest. There is something for everyone in this thing (38 pages long) and all the people/groups who support it get something specifically out of it. Not to mention we past water/enviro bonds in this year (Prop 68) and in 2014 (Prop. 1) This is a prime example of how the state could fund these projects without doubling the cost to all of us. – Oppose.
Prop. 4 – Authorizes $1.5 billion in bonds for the expansion, construction, and renovation of children’s hospitals. The final cost to us is $2.8 billion. The majority of these funds (70+ percent) would go to non-profit private hospitals. The state passed similar propositions in 2004 and 2008. This won’t cost you like Prop. 3 will but the fact that most of the money goes to Hospitals that while non-profit are profitable and could do this on their own bothers me. – I don’t know. Probably Oppose.
Prop. 5 – Allows property owners over the age of 55 or those who are severely disabled to transfer their property tax rate to a new home when they sell their old one. Thing is you can already do this in California. As long as your new property is valued equal to or less than your current, it’s in one of 10 counties, and you can only do it once. This is to ensure that people are just playing the market. This proposition. was put on the ballot by the Realtors Association and is nothing but a giant handout to people who have already benefitted the most from the unfair provisions of Prop. 13. Bonus it will further gut local tax bases. – Oppose.
Prop. 6 – Repeals the provision of SB1. SB1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act, passed last year and updated the state’s transportation funding model for the first time since 1994. I get it, we all hate taxes. Somehow expecting advanced civilizations to exist on mere wishes and spite alone. Roads cost money. Quite a bit of money. California has a lot of roads. They’re all desperately in need of repair. This fix only gets more expensive the longer we delay. Taxes are the price we all pay for a smooth ride. – Oppose.
Prop. 7 – Daylight Savings is dumb. It was a dumb idea then. It’s a dumb idea now. Arizona was right never to adopt it. There is some talk about kids going to school in the dark if this passes. I can assure that as a kid myself at one point that was already the case. – Support.
Prop. 8 – Regulates the amount outpatient dialysis clinics can charge for treatments. Look another FUBAB situation because our country seems incapable of coming around to the not that radical notion that health care shouldn’t drive you into the poor house or the morgue… Sadly, I don’t think this will fix anything. Just make our health markets more complicated, more expensive and more concentrated in a few hands – No idea.
Prop. 9 – Doesn’t exist because even the dumbest people on the planet can be super rich in this crazy reality…
Prop. 10 – The “Rent Control” proposition. Which it isn’t. This proposition, if passed, would mean local governments could decide for themselves if rent control could play a role in solving their housing difficulties. I tried to do research on rent control. You think there’d be some studies. Turns out there aren’t that many. And all of them seem to contain some pretty big flaws or conjectures to twist data to preconceived notions. I don’t think having another tool in the toolbox will hurt. If it does it locals can always change their mind! Democracy! It works, sorta – Support.
Prop. 11 – Requires private EMTs to remain on-call during work breaks. Hey! When you don’t like court rulings and have a boatload of cash why not just re-write the laws to suit you? Pesky labor laws always getting in the way of profit! Why even try and negotiate with your employees? – Oppose.
Prop. 12 – Creates new minimum standards for confining chickens, pigs, and calves. We did this already once in 2008 (Prop. 2) those requirements are still being implemented and we’re already changing the game? As long as you eat meat you have to realize that you are responsible for some amount of suffering. I prefer to have the animals I eat have some semblance of normalcy and happiness before they become a meal but I know I pay a premium for that. And I am happy to. Many people do not have that luxury. And I’m not yet comfortable pricing them out of the market. – Oppose.
There you have it. Now you can tell me how awful or wonderful I am. (Please don’t)
The Great Auk was a flightless bird endemic to the North Atlantic until the late 19th century. The animals range once extended from Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Ireland and Great Britain. With some records indicating that it traveled as far south as Spain in Euroasia and Florida in North America.
You might recognize the first word in the Auk’s Latin binomial, pinguinus, which is where we get our word penguin. The penguins we know today are named after the Great Auk, though the two birds are not closely related.
The Great Auk stood between two and three feet tall and weighed around 11 pounds. Its feathers were a glossy black and white, black on the upper and white on the lower, with a pattern of white feathers on both sides of the head between the beak eyes. Their beaks were black with white grooves along it. Its feet and claws were black and webbed. Juveniles had less prominent grooves in their beaks and had mottled white and black necks.
Great Auks were excellent swimmers, using their wings to swim underwater. Their main food was fish.
Taxidermied Great Auk
The Great Auk went extinct around the mid-1850s. The bird was hunted for its down feathers, for food, and even as an alternative fuel. As the bird became increasingly rare it became more and more attractive to the wealthy of Europe as a collectible and museums for their specimen cabinets. The last Great Auk in Great Britain was reportedly beaten to death with a stick on the suspicion that it was a witch. The last North Atlantic colony was eliminated when the last two adults were strangled for their pelts and their lone egg crushed under bootheel.
Goff’s Pocket Gopher was a true gopher endemic to Brevard County Florida in the United States. Like other pocket gophers, Goff’s created burrow systems and were ecologically important as prey and in influencing soil, plant and habitat diversity.
The last time Goff’s Pocket Gopher was seen in the wild was 1955. It is believed that human encroachment on its habitat the species is now extinct.
