Great Cougar Pic

This amazing shot of a mountain lion was posted on the ACT mailing list this morning with a caption reading in part, "Photo taken by JPL employee Wednesday,1-16-08, looking down into the Arroyo Seco from the bridge from the JPL east parking lot to the JPL campus."

PSN focus on Education

Pasadena Star News deserves credit (clicks and eyeballs) for giving us a dedicated Eduction section on their website to complement their new Tuesday section on the same subject.

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/education

This kind of substantial reporting about PUSD that goes beyond the scandal-du-jour is to be commended. Please vote with your clicks and visit it every week.

(One day maybe they'll even give us the Education article RSS feed I've been asking for)

Jack Scott at ATC meeting tonight

from http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/search/ci_6921705

State of the State address in Altadena

ALTADENA - State Sen. Jack Scott, D-Pasadena, will give a State of the State address at tonight's Altadena Town Council meeting, which begins at 7 at the Altadena Community Center, 730 E. Altadena Drive.

Scott will speak at 7:30 p.m.

For more information, call (626) 398-6174.

Pasadena Now: scooping the pulp press

I just read a Dormitas post in which s/he makes this aside: "This from Pasadena Now (the most consistent coverage of Pasadena news we have):"

I couldn't agree with Dormitas more.

Pasadena Now, the news organization that recently made the headlines by outsourcing journalism to India, seems to be scooping the old guard Pasadena pulp press.



Pasadena Now shows some technical rough edges, probably hallmarks of being a small operation. For examples, the fact that their home page CSS doesn't render properly on all browsers, and their Flash content throws non-fatal errors (see screen image above). At first I was dismissive of PN based on their lack of technical polish, but then Jill Davis Doughtie pointed out their Headlines RSS feed:

http://www.pasadenalivingmagazine.com/_ArticleManager/publish/rss.xml

Yesterday's high over 109 °F

Yesterday the Stonehill News weather station recorded a high of 108.1 °F but we lost power and Internet during the hottest part of the day. The mercury thermometer topped out between 109 °F and 110 °F (approximately 109.5 °F, but I don't want to state it too precisely as the mercury thermometer has lower resolution than the digital one).

ID	Location	High
KCAALTAD1	Top Of Lake Ave	108.3 °F
KCAALTAD2	Stonehill Dr	108.1 °F
KCAALTAD3	N. Mount Curve	104.1 °F
KCAALTAD7	Zane Grey	104.4 °F

The other three Altadena weather stations all seemed to have stayed online through the day yesterday. Above are yesterday's local highs as recorded on WUG.

Last year, July 22 is the day (not) to beat with a high of 112.5 °F recorded at Stonehill News.

It seems that we may have the dubious distinction of being the hottest place in Altadena =)

I considered the possibility that my temperature gauge was out of calibration, but it generally agrees with the mercury one. I guess it's possible they're both reading high, but not likely. They are both positioned in the shade on the north side of the garage, and never see direct sun. Assuming that the thermometers are reading correctly, I assume that there is some micro climate effect having to do with the orientation of the Gooseberry Canyon (watershed)

Altadena August 2007 Fire (Video and Links)

Media Coverage: CBS News Report, ABC7 News Coverage, Story from KTLA, Pasadena Now
Pasadena Star News

Yes, they made it look easy today, but lest anyone doubt how serious things were before the fire was extinguished, take a look at this photo of about 20 fire fighters (lower left) on the ridge just south of the fire. Look how intense the flames are just beyond the ridge. According to the Pasadena Star News, the people in the photos are 20 specialized fire fighters known as the "The Bear Divide Hot Shot Crew."




After analyzing the photos, Isaac and Jeremiah's best estimate is that today's fire burned approximately in the area of this Google Map marked in red.



Here is a montage of the tankers reloading in the Rubio Catch Basin:

Gull Lake Postcard

Yes, a Xacti E1, iMovie and an Internet cafe is all I need to stay fully geeked out on Summer vacation.

Wish you were here!



PS: Just heard about today's Altadena wild fire when I logged on to post this video. From all accounts, the weather is cooperating, and they're hitting it hard with air power from the start (unlike '94). Fingers crossed.