Walking in Wunderlich Park….a gift from the Federal Government – in a very round about way

Bay Area Walks, San Mateo County

Yesterday, we went for a walk in Martin Wunderlich Park. According to San Mateo County, "Martin Wunderlich….graciously tendered it for public recreation
by deeding 942 acres to San Mateo County for use as park and open space." There are not many people who own 942 acres and even less who give it away – thank you, Mr. Wunderlich.

According to a story my dad used to tell, and everything I can confirm on a short trip to Googleland, Martin Wunderlich was a very rich man and he got rich because he was very smart and very, very lucky. In the late 1930's, Wunderlich was the owner of a company doing a small construction job on the Panama Canal. Then WWII started and the job got much bigger and turned into a cost-plus job. By 1943, Wunderlich had made a $4,870,000 profit – in 1943 $s (probably like $50mil now) from the work.

After the war, the US Army – which ran the what we call the Air Force today – had thousands of planes with nothing to use them for. So, they put them up for sale with the proviso that the buyer couldn't actually fly them. Wunderlich started buying plans and – my dad's story went – drained the tanks and sold the aviation gas for more than he paid for the planes. By 1947, he had the second largest Air Force in the world. Bigger than the USAF and second to the Soviets. Where the planes were stored in Arizona, was the largest concentration of airplanes the world has ever seen.  

P_noseartaahm1 

One of the things that Wunderlich was able to buy with all that money was this nice piece of land that is now a park. The park is in Woodside and runs from the bottom of the Santa Cruz Mountains – or the top of the alluvial plain between the mountains and the bay – and runs up to the top of the ridge. At one time, it was a redwood forest thousands of years old, but was logged out, probably more than once, starting in 1850.  

A walk in the park starts by walking along a wall made by Chinese stone masons in 1872. Now the wall is covered in moss and ferns which are very happy this time of year.

Wall

Then it is up the towards the ridge.

Path -1 

And past Acacias which are just starting to bloom – so it must be February.

Acacia

And up through second or third growth redwoods. Pale imitations of the giants that used to live here.

Path -2

Still a nice place to walk.

 

Watching the Superbowl and thinking about the Forbes top twenty five Web Celebs

Television

As Michele and I watched the Superbowl, I kept thinking that I should care more about who wins. But, with the Jets out of it, I really don't care who wins. I know, I know, because Bush ignored New Orleans, I really should be rooting for the Saints. It is the only American thing to do.

But I am really thinking about the Forbes top Web Celebs. Forbes knows more about making and keeping money than I do. And now they are telling me that they they know more about the web than I ever will. Forbes just unveiled reveled published a list of the the twenty five biggest web celebrities, or, as they say,

For the Forbes Web Celeb 25, we track the biggest and brightest stars
on the Internet, the people who have turned their passions into new
media empires. From stay-at home-moms to geek entrepreneurs, these are
the people capturing eyes, influencing opinion and creating the new
digital world.

I've heard of the first guy on the list, gossip blogger Perez Hilton, but I don't think that I have been to the blog. I ran into this List of 25 when I read a columnist at the guardian.co.uk writing about the List and saying that Perez pioneered the  upskirt shot and then goes on to make him sound even less appetizing.

The second guy, Michael Arrington, I have never even heard of but his blog, TechCrunch, does look sort of interesting and Michele says that it sounds familiar. The third guy, "media wunderkind" Pete Cashmore ditto – ; the fourth spot is held by the Twitter guys so, at least, I have heard of them. 

Then it is a complete blank until # 17 which is the Drudge Report. On the way to #17, several of the people (blogs) look interesting, like dooce®. But, it isn't until #20, that I run into anybody that I actually know anything about and I think that is only because I have heard John Dvorak on NPR. Then, at #21, I finally hit paydirt. Ana Marie Cox, a political blogger who started The Wonkette. A snarky, leftist blog which she sold at a big profit – I think.

I believe them that these are the people capturing eyes, etc, etc but I
really feel Forbes must be wrong because the list is so far from my own
experience. I also realize that the web, life for that matter, is like
highschool in that we are all stuck in our own group. Our own little
feedback loop. And that these 25 people are not in my feedback loop.
But….still. How come I have only heard of a couple of these
luminaries.

I want to know where my people are. Andrew Sullivan: a slightly hysterical, Catholic, conservative, gay, Obama fan. Tom Ricks: the writer of Fiasco who pretty much defined the first half of the Iraq war. 3quarksdaily: who always have something interesting to say. Te-Nehisi Coates: a black blogger who I find  fascinating.  Or Alyssa Rosenberg where I found this great Superbowl related video:

Save the date…another try

Uncategorized

About a week ago, I put this on my blog, then the video went blank. So I took it down. At the time, I thought that it was that the video host site crashed because the video was going viral and, now….well, I guess that I am going stick with that theory. And maybe help it along.
When I was young and something big was coming up, we would tell people in an, sort of informal, verbal off handed manner. Then, as I got older, people started sending out Save the Date Cards.
Now it is Save the Date Videos and, I must say, some of them are very impressive. Here is a great Save the Date Vid.

Formula One

Cars

Formula One is the most over the top car racing ever conceived of by man. No, really. It is what happens when guys with unlimited budgets race cars. It is nuts!  And, for me at least, hugely fun to follow. 

This week about half the F1 teams started their winter testing. A big deal for us fans – sort of like baseball's spring training, I guess.

When I was a teenager, Formula One cars looked like this and one of the great drivers was Sterling Moss – shown here driving a Mercedes Benz W-196 in 1955. Moss was one of my real heroes, so much so that I had a picture of him on my wall.

Stirling_Moss_W196 

Fifty five years later, the cars have become insanely fast and they have become so complicated that the steering wheels look like this.(Double click on the image for more detail and check out the windshield.)

2010_f1_test_3 

Instead of a short sleeve polo shirt and lightweight helmet, the drivers wear fireproof long underwear, a fireproof driving suit, and a helmet that covers their whole head including their face. For the first time since 1955, Mercedes is back with their own Formula One car. Their number one (I guess I should say die nummer ein) driver is Michael Schumacher – probably the best driver ever, I am somewhat reluctant to admit – who came out of retirement to drive for Mercedes.

Valencia-day-3-michael-schumacher-8

I can hardly wait for the season to start in March.

 

 

Another political ad….

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It is hard to watch this ad from the Carly Fiorina campaign and not think that it is, on purpose, a joke.
Maybe done by Jon Stewart. Not only is it completely, goofily, over the top; but it is 100% negative, and, most improbable of all, it presents the good guys (good republicans that it) as sheep.
This is a person supposedly running for Senator and this is her idea of a good ad. This, presumably, is her idea of smart thinking. Not so surprisingly, HP – who fired her – is contributing to the Boxer campaign.

During the last six months, or so, I have talked to several people, mostly George Bush conservatives, who think Carly Fiornina would make a fine senator.I just don't get it – I mean she was fired from her job at Hewlett Packard.