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With homeowner in doghouse, bobcats move in
David Kelly, Los Angeles Times
With real estate values plummeting and foreclosed homes sitting empty, a family of bobcats apparently decided the time was right to pounce.
So last week, they slipped out of the parched foothills of Lake Elsinore and into a spacious, vacant home in well-groomed Tuscany Hills.
Residents of the development got their first look Aug. 27 when the feline squatters — at least two adults and three kittens — lolled atop a wall outside the Spanish-style house.
Someone called 911, reporting mountain lions. Four police cruisers showed up and officers ordered everyone inside. But soon they were out snapping photos along with the neighbors.
Bobcats are not known to attack humans, said Monique Middleton of Animal Friends of the Valley, which provides animal-control services.
“But are they pussycats? No. Can they do a lot of damage? Yes,” she said. “They usually look for a food and water source, and there is an old koi pond in the backyard and that’s where they are headed.”
She said she expected the animals to move on in a few weeks, when the kittens are old enough to travel.
Tuscany Hills has been hit hard by foreclosures, and the house on Vista Palermo has been empty at least six months, neighbors said.
(5 September 2008)
As one person said at TOD’s Drumbeat – James Kunstler will love this one. The original has a wonderful photo of the bobcats lolling about in suburban splendor. Don’t miss their eyes. -BA
Solar panels are hot for the stealing
Eric Louie, Valley Times (California)
… the growing number of solar panels being installed on roofs of government buildings, private businesses and homes are becoming a hot commodity in a way many say they didn’t expect.
East Bay law enforcement has been seeing a number of solar panel thefts. One industry expert said it was an uncommon crime, but there was a brief spree of thefts six weeks ago throughout the Bay Area.
“The solar panel thing is pretty new,” said Contra Costa County Sherriff’s Office spokesman Jimmy Lee of the thefts. “We’re seeing an increasing number of cases.”
(29 August 2008)
“Robin Hoods” steal at the store, give to the poor?
Renee Maltezou, Reuters
ATHENS – Greek anarchists stormed a supermarket on Thursday and handed out food for free in the latest of a wave of raids provoked by soaring consumer prices.
About 20 unarmed people, mostly wearing black hoods, carried out the midday robbery in the northern city of Thesaaloniki, police said.
Local media have labeled the raiders “Robin Hoods” following previous raids.
They take only packets of pasta, rice and cartons of milk which they drop in the middle of the street for people to collect, a police official said.
“They have never stolen money or hurt anyone. They ask people to remain calm but use ambush tactics, jumping over cash desks,” he said.
“When they attack without hoods, people are surprised to see that they are mostly women.”
(4 September 2008)
Don’t leave us hanging, Reuters. Tell us more! -BA
Blackouts force power-free surgery
Andi Hajramurni, Jakarta Post
The families of three patients undergoing surgery shared a frightening experience Wednesday when the electricity went out for more than an hour at the Labuang Baji General Hospital in Makassar, South Sulawesi.
Not only did the electricity fail but the hospital’s generators, designed to provide limited electricity to essential services, have not been working for a year, leaving the families with no choice but to hope the medical staff could handle the situation.
The three patients were having abdominal, orthopedic and ear-nose-throat procedures.
Without electricity, surgeons and nurses had to proceed and manually monitor the patients’ vital signs.
… The head of hospital operations, Muhammad Darwis, said the hospital immediately cased the Makassar branch of state-owned electricity firm PT PLN for an explanation.
“We asked whether the blackout was on purpose to avoid a blackout in the evening.
“PLN said they had had to cut the power to let more water collect at the Bakaru hydropower plant so there would be enough water to generate power in the evening,” he said.
Darwis said he regretted that PLN did not inform the hospital beforehand about the planned blackout.
(4 September 2008)
Contributor W writes:
The things that help keep civilization “civil” are coming under increasing pressure as this article from Indonesia indicates.
The Take-Us (self-published book)
John Raymond Takacs, book website
THE TAKE-US, a Novel by John Raymond Takacs
John Christenson, an ex-paratrooper, a former high-rise ironworker and widower develops an idea and then invents an automobile that uses no gasoline. Instead, the auto (the Take-Us) creates its own motive power, electricity as it travels down the road. He realizes his invention has the potential to change the power structure of the world. No longer would progressive nations be enslaved to the oil producing countries of the world.
He with the help of Leena, a beautiful television reporter (who complicates things by falling in love with John, who has taken a holy oath pledging his own life to see his invention come to fruition) develops a simple plan. Drive the Take-Us from New York City to San Francisco with out using any gasoline and have the adventure captured on live television.
The plan, simple to implement but damned hard to finish, in a world where the price of life is measured by the cost of a barrel of oil. Like so many other promising solutions, freedom’s enemies need to seize and control it. Many countries and companies band together and try to kill them and destroy the Take-Us once again proving it to be just another over-hyped worthless technology.
With pursuers, both in front and behind them John and Leena must fight their way thru ambushes from Indiana to Nevada and even a firefight in his own home in California. The fast-paced story concludes in downtown San Francisco to an explosive an unexpected finish.
The Take-Us was written in novel form to offer the world a real life solution to the ongoing problems of price gouging. The continued threat of oil supply disruption and of course religious persecution brought on by oil producing countries mostly thru their proxies. Terrorists. Over the last century, millions of lives have been lost because of the dark black hate that lies below the earth’s surface.
John Raymond Takacs is an inventor, adventurer and avid outdoor enthusiast. A combat wounded veteran he was awarded a purple heart during the Vietnam War while serving with the 101st Airborne Division. He resides on the west slope of the Sierra-Nevada Mountains in California.
(September 2008)
The conventional publishing world isn’t paying much attention to peak oil, so independent authors like Takacs are self-publishing. -BA
