#oakland hills fire

[if-i-am-not-for-me]

I can smell smoke in the air outside.

Today is the 33 anniversary of the Oakland Firestorm, also called The Tunnel Fire or the East Bay Hills Fire.

It was a conflagration that lasted 5 days, killed 25 people, injured 150, and destroyed thousands of homes.

This was an event that left a mark on my parents, especially my mother, who has described to me having an infant and a toddler (my older sisters) and being prepared to evacuate the home they were living in at the time, as the fires threatened to crest the hills over my hometown. I can see the post-traumatic reaction in her whenever wildfires occur near our home, again. She begins to stress about how to collect the cats into their carriers, and which way to drive. She takes stock of where important documents and devices are.

She doesn't even realize she's doing it.

Normally this anniversary passes without notice, though. So many fires, larger and more deadly, have occurred in Northern California in the intervening years.

But this year, there is a fire burning in the Oakland Hills again. The day before the anniversary. I can smell smoke in the air outside.

This time, fire fighting teams managed to contain this fire more quickly, despite the weather being so similar to the devastating conditions that made 1991 so terrible. As of the last update they describe it as contained, but not yet controlled. Property damage and destruction is yet to be calculated.

A lot of the most devastating impacts of climate change are physically far from me, the rising sea levels and the most horrific droughts. But wildfires are right at my doorstep, and it is terrifying and infuriating.

That's all. I can smell smoke in the air outside.

[trendsnaw420]

Oakland Hills fire in California damages 2 homes, sparks evacuations

Read more

[anarchopuppy]

FESTIVALS OF RESISTANCE: ORGANIZE TO OPPOSE TRUMP

January 11

Chicago, Illinois: A training about fighting deportations, as part of the week-long “Regroup and Strategize” series.

Sacramento, California: “Call to Action” conference and gathering, featuring a “day of skillshares and trainings” along with workshops, panels, and a keynote presentation from anarchist author Dean Spade. You can find more information and a full schedule here.

January 18

Atlanta, Georgia: A mass mobilization and day of resistance on the two-year anniversary of the murder of Tortuguita.

Brooklyn, New York: A community gathering including workshops.

Carbondale, Ilinois: A community event, currently in the planning stages.

Cleveland, Ohio: 3 pm Coventry Peace Park, 5 pm Rhizome House

Dayton, Ohio: 5 pm, Union Hall, 313 South Jefferson; a community discussion followed by music

Durham, North Carolina: The Triangle Festival of Resistance, a weekend-long festival focused on community defense, resilience, and liberation. For updates and information about how to contribute, consult Triangle Radical Events.

Gary, Indiana: A demonstration against mass deportations.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin: 6 pm at Nice Hair, with workshops on trans defense, migrant defense, self-defense, and movement defense

Minneapolis, Minnesota: A screening of Fell in Love with Fire with letter writing to prisoners and a discussion about the next phase of struggle at the Seward Cafê at 6:30 pm.

Portland, Oregon: A gathering in a COVID-safer, sober space. Families with and without children are welcome to attend. Food will be provided. You can also find updates about event organizing in Portland here.

Providence, Rhode Island: 3 pm - 9+ pm, AS220

Oakland, California: A march to a community assembly, departing from Wilma Chan park next to the Lake Merritt BART at 1 pm.

Olympia, Washington: The People’s March, 12 pm, departing from Heritage Park; followed by the Festival of Resistance.

Phoenix, Arizona: 3-8 pm, Margaret T. Hance Park, featuring a Really Really Free Market, food, literature tables, and a number of educational workshops

Richmond, Virginia: A community assembly involving panel discussions, workshops, and food, followed by a benefit concert.

Events are also being organized in Salt Lake City, Utah and elsewhere.

January 19

Chapel Hill, NC: The second day of the Triangle Festival of Resistance.

January 20

Indianapolis, Indiana: A Mutual Aid Convergence at Ujamaa Community Bookstore.

January 21

Arcata, California: A march departing from Arcata Plaza at noon—against Donald Trump, in solidarity with Palestine, and in memory of Tortuguita.

January 25

Tampa Bay, Florida: A community gathering and organizing fair for “politics beyond the ballot box.” “Organize with your community to fight for transformative change! Connect with a local project from anti-capitalist orgs, labor and tenant unions, mutual aid orgs, and more!”

Click here for the call to action and most up-to-date list

[odinsblog]

“How do you enjoy life as the world burns? When the planet is on fire, and the country is falling apart, and the cops shoot another teenager, and half your neighbors are getting evicted or deported, and Bill Maher is still speaking out loud on television, what do you do? I go to the water park with my nephew Miles.

Miles is 12 years old. He is a brilliant, bow-legged troublemaker. I love him despite the fact that he's 12 and still has a rat tail. It's really not that cute anymore, dude. We're not related by blood, but Miles' dad, Kevin, is like a brother to me. So Miles calls me Uncle Josh.

Uncle Josh, when are we going to the Warriors game? Uncle Josh, will you show me how to open that car with a hanger again? Uncle Josh, Uncle Josh, since I'm half Black and half Asian, does that make me Blazian? No, Miles, that makes you Oakland.

It's August, and it's hot, which for the Bay Area, means anything above 67. Today, it's 91. I'm over at Kevin and Miles' place, sitting in no AC, in our tank tops and boxers, watching Key and Peele.

I say, guys, we gotta go somewhere to cool off. Cooler than the movie theater, cooler than the mall, I'm gonna take us to East Bay's water world. Miles' face lights up. But then Kevin says, I don't know you guys. I mean, those water parks, you know, they're so wasteful.

My man Kevin is the worst kind of Bay Area environmentalist. He's that type of dude who will come over your house and use the bathroom, not flush, but instead write a note on your toilet paper telling you how much water he just saved you. That's a true story.

I say, Kevin, it's so hot out here, I could fry an egg on your face, which I will if we don't go to East Bay Water World. Miles says, please dad. I say, please dad.

Kevin says, fine. Go have fun at the park, but take my car. It's a hybrid.

I grab the keys and soon me and Miles are driving through Oakland. We pass by the Trilingual Liquor Store, the farmer's market that accepts food stamps and we make our way through the tunnel and the hills. We emerge on the other side in the valley.

The further we get from the coast, the ground is drier and drier, browner and browner. The only green is the manicured lawns of the suburbs, the golf courses, the empty field of the sprawling county jail. And then we see it and we arrive at our Mecca, our oasis in the California desert, East Bay Water World. And it's even more beautiful than I imagined. There's four wave pools, there's a 50-foot water park, the air smells like chlorine and sunscreen and funnel cake. Delicious.

Miles' mouth is wide, staring at all these things he's never seen before. Carnival games, Dippin Dots, girls in bikinis, Uncle Josh, this place is awesome. I know, Miles. I know.

We go and we jump in the wave pool, we float down the lazy river, we spin through the whitewater rapids until we're totally drenched, grinning ear to ear and surprisingly thirsty. So I go to the funnel cake vendor for something to drink.

Can I get a bottle of water, please? He says, no problem. That'll be $7. $7 for a bottle of water? He looks at the bottle. It says, and he literally read off the bottle, it says this here is bottled and purified up near Lake Tahoe.

This is California water. California water. I buy two bottles and walk back to where Miles is pointing up towards the sky. I follow his gaze and then I see it. There, staring down at us from the tallest point in the park is the biggest water slide I've ever seen. The tallest slide in Northern California, the Annihilator.

The Annihilator is a seven-story, 80-foot freefall drop down all in just under five seconds. It's one of those slides that's so vertical, your back comes off the ride when you go down, so you feel like if you lean over just a little bit, you're done. It's the type of slide that's illegal in 27 states and most of the European Union, but hey, this is California.

I look and see Miles. His mouth is watering in anticipation. We go and get in line.

Now, the worst part of the Annihilator isn't the ride down. That's only five seconds. The worst part is the 30-minute wait in line, standing in the stairs watching and hearing every kid go down the slide, hearing every scream, every shriek, every, oh, sweet baby, Purple Jesus. The That's a direct quote from a nine-year-old. Shout out to Purple Jesus.

Miles is nervous. His hand is clenching the railing. Uncle Josh, is this thing safe?

Before I can answer, I hear a voice shouting from the top of the stairs, Hands up! Put your hands up!

Hands up!

It's the lifeguard, a tall white teenager in red shorts. He's yelling at the girl about to go down the slide. I'm telling you, it's way more fun if you put your hands up.

And the words hit me like a tsunami. It's August, two weeks after Ferguson, after Mike Brown. After those words, hands up became the calling cry for a movement.

In Missouri, people are putting their hands up to protest the police murdering another black boy in America. In California, I'm watching kids put their hands up as they go down a water slide called the Annihilator, and my nephew asks me if it's safe here. It's August in America.

In Detroit, they're shutting off poor people's water. California is suffocating of thirst. Half of my friends are putting buckets of ice over their faces on Facebook. Israel is bombing water treatment plants in Gaza, and in America, we have water parks in the desert. Industrial Almond Farms in the desert, prisons in the desert, my family, me and my nephew right here in the desert looking for anything that could be called an oasis. And Miles asked me if it's safe here.

What am I supposed to tell him?

I don't want to lie to my nephew. I want him to know that yes, some people will always see him as a threat, but I also want him to laugh and play and go get on this crazy ass waterslide.

How do you enjoy life as the world is burning? How do you teach your nephew to hate the park but love the ride? The thing is called the Annihilator. I think it might be trying to tell us something.

And now we're next in line. A girl with blonde pigtails is shaking her head. The lifeguard says, it's okay, you don't have to do it.

She backs away and now Miles is up.

He steps to the edge of the slide, puts his feet in the rushing water.

I can see the brown hills in the distance, Oakland and all its beautiful contradictions waiting on the other side. I wave at Miles, say, you got this. You got this, dude.

And he waves back at me, and when he does, he lets go of the railing. His hand shoots up in the air and the rushing water carries him away. He lets go. He shoots out and disappears over the edge. My nephew!

I rush to the side and look over, and there's Miles at the bottom of the slide, safe and alive and pulling up his bathing suit. He jumps up and runs to get back in line, and the cycle continues. Water, blood, life, death, and maybe rebirth.

I'm still on the top platform of the slide.

I walk to the edge, look down at California, lift my hands, and let go.”

—Mr. Josh Healey

[saturnwisteria]

"My Heart Is Inflamed With Burning Anguish"

(Yasutaro Soga)

For the HBO Rewatch Prompt Family, I introduce Bianca Umezaki. This excerpt of what will undoubtedly be a longer piece references Executive Order 9066, wherein all persons of Japanese ancestry living in the western parts of California, Oregon, and Washington, as well as some parts of Arizona, were forcibly relocated from their homes and incarcerated farther inland in various concentration camps. TW for period-typical racism and language, including the J-slur.

---

It's not the first time she's heard it, and it certainly won't be the last. Always the same vitriolic disgust clinging around the single syllable, the ending plosive ringing in her ears.

"What the fuck's a Jap doing here?"

Bianca knows better than to respond. She's always been level-headed, knows how to reel in her emotions before they get the better of her. Unlike her fellow pilot, who's head whipped to the offender, eyes narrowing on her target. Rory is always ready to jump into fights that aren't hers by right--this is Bianca's problem to deal with, it's her neverending fight--and one day it's going to bite her back. Bianca places a firm hand on Rory's arm, ever the cool water to her raging fire.

She tells the sneering man the same thing she always does: "I'm an American."

It makes her want to scream. This churning mess of pride and fear and forced shame is one she knows intimately; she's lived with it since she was a child, running rampant through the streets of Oakland, California with her brother, Bill. She'd lived in a bubble then, surrounded by other Japanese Americans in what they lovingly called Lil' Yokohama.

She had lived on a little corner, sitting slanted midway up a steep hill. At the very top of which, if she stood between the buildings just right, she could see the Pacific Ocean. Her family owned a little grocery store on that corner, living in the apartment above. She loved how the evening light would slant through the windows, setting the crates of vegetables and fruits aglow. How her father would give her a boost up onto the sales counter when she was still too short to peer over it.

Her soft-hearted father, who wore his heart on his sleeve; the heart that was made of overripe fruit, and that only ever got bruised for his troubles. She'd lived in a bubble of Issei and fellow Nisei, hardly ever seeing a white person until she went off to college. Yet Bianca had still come face to face with prejudice in that little corner store.

Bianca had always wondered if people would have taken issue with her father if he'd just been a Black man; if the part they couldn't sit with had been that he was a Black man married to a Japanese woman.

Not everyone in Lil' Yokohama had minded. Plenty of their neighbors loved her father, and who wouldn't? He was shy and soft-spoken, but if you got him on the topic of whatever book he was reading this week, he could ramble for ages. He loved poetry and baseball, and languages. When he'd tuck Bianca into bed at night, one of her favorite stories was how he had met her mother.

I was walkin' down the quay when I heard the voice of an angel. She was laughin' with her girlfriends, it was pure music, Bebe. I didn't understand a lick o' what they was sayin' but I knew I wanted to listen for the rest o'  my life.

He'd immersed himself into her mother's culture, learning her language, her traditions. And she had fallen for his determination to know her in her entirety. They shared pieces of each other in the salty air of the harbor, where she would ask him things about America that she'd been too nervous to ever voice before. She'd teach him basic bits of Japanese, and he'd help her learn how to read in English.

He had taken her mother's last name when they eloped.

Bianca's heart aches at the memories, but none of it makes a difference anymore. Both her father and that little corner store of her childhood are gone.

Bianca had been in her last year of college when it happened, right before the end of the semester. Pearl Harbor had sent shockwaves through the whole country, but it seemed only the people like her were dealing with the aftershocks. Friends looked at her with pity, with distrust, with suspicion. Most people side eyed her as if she was hiding something, as if she'd pounce on them at any second. Even professors wouldn't look her in the eye. It cut her to the quick, and she had prayed that this war would pass quickly.

Her naivety then made her laugh bitterly in remembrance, just a few months later. She still recalls the deep pit of dread that had opened up in her stomach when she'd read the order, posted on the walls of the lecture halls at Berkeley: "Instructions to all Persons of Japanese Ancestry..."

She had rushed to find a phone, dialed home and didn't breathe until she heard Bill's voice trickle through. Both she and Bill, as first generation Americans of a Japanese mother, were Nisei. But Bill was also a Kibei--a Nisei who had gotten a college education back in Japan before returning to America.

"I'm guessing you've seen the order?" He drawled through the phone.

"Yes, yes," her mind was still reeling, thoughts all out of order, "Can they really do this? Just-just move us somewhere else? Why?"

"Bebe, you know why. They think we're going to sabotage this war somehow. I'm pretty sure they think the Issei are going to pledge their undying loyalty to the Emperor and rampage or some shit," Bill sighs over the phone. He's the eldest, her big brother by a gap of four years.

"Does mom know?" Bianca chews her lip. Their mother was Issei, part of the class of Japan-born immigrants who had chosen to move to America. Some had gained citizenship, but some still held the status of resident alien.

"Yeah, she heard it from the Iriki sisters. She's figuring out what we can take right now. Listen," there's shuffling, and Bill must be taking the cord and hiding in the pantry, like he used to do when he was a teenager calling girls up late at night. Whenever she caught him, he would sneak her a cookie as a bribe to keep quiet. "I know things must be rough for you at Berkeley right now. But don't come home yet. Finish your degree first. You're too smart to drop everything at the last minute. They are letting you finish your exams, right?" Bianca hums in affirmation. "Good. Mom's worried about you, but I've been telling her you can take care of yourself. She's scared if you don't come back right now they'll keep us apart, but I've been talking with Toshi Mora and John Okada--you remember those guys?--and they say we should be kept together as long as I register us for evacuation. So please, take care of yourself. I'll let you know what happens as soon as I can."

"How can you be so calm about this? We're being asked to cooperate with the violation of our fundamental rights!" She was seething, hands gripping the receiver tight enough it creaked under her hand. On the other end, Bill sighed deeply, tinged with exhaustion. She could imagine him rubbing his thumb between his brows, same as he did when she would protest something as a young teenager, replying that there were things she just didn't understand yet.

"Bebe, I'm not okay with this anymore than you are. They're doing this because they believe we're disloyal because of our blood. If we don't go along with this, they'll just see it as a confirmation that we are disloyal to this country."

Bianca's heart had sunk in her chest, and then grown cold. Sometimes she's not sure it'll ever warm up again.

Standing in the middle of this shitty Officer's Club in Nebraska, eyes all around the room pretending not to eavesdrop on this exchange, she feels more tired than ever.

I'm an American. Maybe someday she'll actually be treated like one.

The lieutenant opens his mouth again, a leering smirk twisting his face. "You know what they say. A Jap's a Ja-"

He doesn't get to finish before Rory's fist connects with his face. She's half his height, but he stumbles back from the blow, hand coming up to touch his mouth, the blood welling up where her fist split his lip open.

"Don't talk to my copilot like that," is all she says, turning on her heel to walk over to the bar and order a drink.

She remembers how she had tried hard not to feel humiliated as she left her last exam with a suitcase in hand and made her way down to the buses. The diverse array of faces around her had made the whole thing seem surreal. Some were long and empty; some smiling while chatting with friends, eating the free food the Church had provided; some were bored or nodding off, as though their entire lives weren't being uprooted. But then, what was there to do about it?

She feels that same surrealness settle over her now. The band picks back up, filling in the shocked hush that had descended on the room, and just like that everyone turns away again. The lieutenant's friends come to lead him away, muttering about that rabid bitch.

There are some days where she regrets volunteering when the opportunity came around. Why fight for a country that can so easily strip citizens of the certain inalienable rights they're endowed with? It's hard not to feel helpless, and easy to feel alone. But then there are the days where someone steps up and shoulders part of the burden.

Bianca feels a little spark ignite, smoldering ash reawakening in the tundra of her heart. She follows Rory over to the bar, and takes a seat.

[democracyunderground]

IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN FROM NEW YEARS FIREWORKS

"Hikers and outdoor enthusiasts have long been drawn to Skull Rock north of Sunset Boulevard in Pacific Palisades.

A relatively short hike on the Temescal Ridge trail reveals the skeletal-shaped Skull Rock and dramatic Pacific Ocean views.

Now, this area is the subject of an investigation as a potential starting point for the Palisades fire, which burned thousands of structures last week.

It's unclear where the fire started, and its cause is under investigation.

The general area was the site of a small fire on New Year's Eve that burned for a few hours before fire officials said they snuffed it out with help from a water-dropping helicopter.

Sources with knowledge of the investigation told The Times that officials are aware of the earlier fire and its general proximity to the Palisades fire. They are looking into whether that could be the cause. Because the area is frequented by the public, the sources said it's possible a new fire was somehow sparked there on Jan 7.

The earlier fire appears to have been sparked by fireworks, officials said.

As for the Palisades fire, the sources — who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly — said it appears to have human origins, but that the investigation is ongoing.

After dropping his kids off at school around 8:15 a.m. on the day the Palisades fire started, Darrin Hurwitz drove to the area to hike.

He did a five-mile loop that took him up above Skull Rock, and surveyed the burn scar from the New Year's Eve fire.

"Around the same time, I noticed a bit of a smoky smell. I didn't make much of it. I figured it was either coming from somewhere else or was the remnants of the fire itself," he told The Times.

He had done another hike recently in Malibu where the Franklin fire had burned a few weeks earlier and noticed a "faint ash smell." But the smell on that day near Skull Rock was stronger, he said, and he wondered whether the wind had rustled up ash.

One of his neighbors also smelled the smoke, he later learned.

"The timing of this was about an hour before the fire," he said. "Now, what that all means, I don't know. Could it be possible that there were still some embers that weren't out and the winds were kind of rustling them up?"

The fire was first reported about an hour later from the address on Piedra Morada Drive where Nic Libonati’s family lives. In an interview with The Times last week, Libonati confirmed that he was the first to call 911 and that he went to alert his neighbors to the fire.

When Libonati and his sister first spied the fire, he said, it was about two miles from their home. But he knew they were in trouble when he tried to hose down their plants and the wind blew the water back into his face. Libonati realized the flames were headed in their direction.

A specialized team from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives began processing the scene Monday.

Los Angeles Police Department Asst. Chief Dominic Choi said no causes have been ruled out in the Palisades fire: "There's been no definitive determination that it is arson at this point, but we're looking at every angle."

Law enforcement sources said there are power poles charred nearby but it's far from clear that they were the point of origin.

If it turns out the Palisades fire was caused by a rekindling of the earlier fire, it would fit a pattern.

The massive Oakland Hills fire of 1991 — which destroyed more than 2,500 structures — exploded after firefighters thought they had contained it. That fire was originally six acres and was declared contained but not out. Firefighters left equipment at the scene but did not monitor it at all times. Winds picked up and then flames quickly consumed homes.

The devastation of the Palisades fire extends to the trail and rock formations.

The Times listed Skull Rock as a top Southern California hike, describing it this way: "Enjoy heavily shaded switchbacks under oaks and coastal chaparral hillsides as you ascend on the Temescal Ridge trail toward panoramic viewpoints that stretch from Santa Monica to the Channel Islands on a clear day. Skull Rock and its boulder buddies are the midpoint of your geological journey and a great locale for some rock scrambling to a picnic perch."

Hurwitz hiked the trail near his house at least three times a week.

"That trail is spectacular," Hurwitz said. "It's just a little bit of everything. It's really great scenery. It's definitely one of the more popular trails in L.A. People drive from all over the city to hike it."

[darkmaga-returns]

While the stunned nation watches, LA burns. In the background, the smart financial people have been murmuring about California’s insurance crisis. Many major insurers have been cutting back their exposure in California or even pulling out of the state, due to the onerous state regulations. It’s difficult for most of us to feel sorry for insurance companies, but they do provide a necessary service. Last night in a comment I quoted Scott Adams’ ruminations on what could be coming for the LA area in terms of rebuilding:

1. It can take years to get anything approved in normal times in California. The backlog from the fire could push it out a decade. 2. The cost of building a custom home in California is roughly double the market value of the home when done. 3. The new home will get a property tax step-up to become unaffordable for anyone who owned the original home for a decade or more. 4. The fire risk will return once everything regrows, and insurance companies will not come back. Here I assume continued state incompetence. 5. There are not enough qualified builders to rebuild. 6. Owners would be rebuilding in the midst of unchecked and growing crime.

As one tweeter noted, there are still empty lots in the Oakland Hills, 30 years after that disaster.

[tetw]

10 Essential Sports Articles

Friday Night Lights by Buzz Bissinger - Outside, the August night was cool and serene, with just a wisp of West Texas wind. Inside, there was a sense of excitement and also relief, for the waiting was basically over...

The Trading Desk by Michael Lewis - For the past four years, working with one of the lowest payrolls in the game, the Oakland A's have won as many regular-season games as almost any other team. How on earth did they do it?

Federer as Religious Experience by David Foster Wallace - The world of top-flight tennis, and arguably its greatest exponent

Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer - I understood on some dim, detached level that it was a spectacular sight, but now that I was finally here, standing on the summit of Mount Everest, I just couldn't summon the energy to care

The Last American Hero Is Junior Johnson. Yes! by Tom Wolfe - Ten o'clock Sunday morning in the hills of North Carolina. Cars, miles of cars, in every direction, millions of cars...

The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved by Hunter S. Thompson - I got off the plane around midnight and no one spoke as I crossed the dark runway to the terminal. The air was thick and hot, like wandering into a steam bath..

A History of Flight by Wright Thompson - Michael Jordan might not be the most famous person on the planet anymore, decades after he last put on those shorts and took the court, but as the person has faded, the idea of him has somehow remained powerful and bright...

Off Diamond Head by William Finnegan - To be thirteen, with a surfboard, in Hawaii

The Istanbul Derby by Spencer Hall - Soccer, fire and a game at the world's crossroads

The Sea of Crises by Brian Phillips - On sumo, ritual suicide and the death of samurai culture

[sterek-ao3feed-archive]

The Earth Shook The Sky Burned

https://archiveofourown.org/works/52178347 by LoveStiles Derek Hale is 30. He is wealthy. He lives in a huge mansion on the top of Nob Hill in San Francisco. Stiles Stilinski is 28. He is a young architect. He lives in a small house on top of a hill in Oakland, across the bay from San Francisco. Stiles designs a modern house for Derek. And they fall in love. And the year is 1906. Disaster awaits the residents of the city. Words: 2698, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: Teen Wolf (TV) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: Stiles Stilinski, Derek Hale Relationships: Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski Additional Tags: historical fiction - Freeform, San Francisco Earthquake of 1906, earthquake and fire, Rebuilding, Happy Ending read it on AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/52178347

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

Tonight (May 2) I���ll be in Portland at the Cedar Hills Powell’s with Andy Baio for my new novel, Red Team Blues.

On May 5, I’ll be at the Books, Inc in Mountain View with Mitch Kapor; and on May 6/7, I’ll be in Berkeley at the Bay Area Bookfest.

#10yrsago Why “connecting the dots” is the wrong way to think about stopping terrorism https://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/02/opinion/schneier-boston-bombing/index.html

#10yrsago Homemade laser pops 100 balloons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuceDT2R4f4

#10yrsago OpenWorm: an artificial life sim of an earthworm https://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2013/05/openworm-artificial-life.html

#10yrsago Running on a long, deep pool of ooblek https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHlAcASsf6U

#10yrsago Jello Biafra and The Guantanamo School Of Medicine’s “White People and the Damage Done” https://memex.craphound.com/2013/05/03/jello-biafra-and-the-guantanamo-school-of-medicines-white-people-and-the-damage-done/

#10yrsago Easy win for publishing: network and systematize PR and marketing https://locusmag.com/2013/05/cory-doctorow-improving-book-publicity-in-the-21st-century/

#5yrsago Mashup Maker: Another entry for the Catalog of Missing Devices https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/05/mashup-maker-another-entry-catalog-missing-devices-eff-supporter

#5yrsago Facebook has repeatedly fired stalker employees, then covered it up https://www.vice.com/en/article/bjp9zv/facebook-employees-look-at-user-data

#5yrsago Oakland passes groundbreaking municipal law requiring citizen oversight of local surveillance https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/05/oakland-passes-strongest-surveillance-oversight-law-in-us/

#1yrago The Democrats’ self-immolating fetish for means-testing https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/03/utopia-of-rules/#in-triplicate

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Mountain View, Berkeley, Portland, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, DC, Gaithersburg, Oxford, Hay, Manchester, Nottingham, London, and Berlin!

[home-inspiration-blog]

Response time for Oakland Hills fire delayed due to recent budget cuts, station closures

OAKLAND, Calif. (KRON) — A fire broke out in Oakland Hills Wednesday off of Lochard Street. Fire crews were delayed in their response time due to budget cuts and closed-down stations. KRON4 went to the home and spoke with the chief and neighbors. The home appears destroyed and all that is left is debris. Another great concern pertaining to this fire is its location. It’s surrounded by thick…

[wanderervenom]

From FOX 2 Detroit - Barricaded situation wraps up with no injuries in Farmington Hills

Barricaded situation wraps up with no injuries in Farmington Hills

[wedryrestoration]

Ortonville is a charming village in northern Oakland County. Nestled within the beautiful rolling hills and forests of southeastern Michigan, Ortonville offers a serene escape from the rush of city life. Ortonville is known for its small-town charm and strong sense of community, making it an ideal place for those seeking a quieter, more rural lifestyle.

Unfortunately, even the most idyllic town is vulnerable to natural hazards. When water, fire, and mold damage impact your home or business, the impact can be devastating. When disaster strikes, a professional restoration crew can bring your Ortonville property back from the brink, allowing you to recover as quickly as possible.

weDRY Restoration is here to help! Our professional restoration technicians can handle any disaster. We are confident that we can bring your property back to its pre-damage state. Our team of trained professionals is on call 24/7, contact us anytime and let us handle the stress of cleanup for you!

[the-final-sif]

I want to add further information:

A random tumblr user is not qualified to "vet" fundraisers. If you do not personally know them, even if they are a popular blog or "well-known" they are equally capable of being a scammer, not knowing how to properly vet a fundraiser, being scammed themselves, etc. Even if you do personally know them, they can very easily be scammed.

Anyone that you do not follow or know, who randomly sends you a message asking for donations to a fundraiser is a scammer/bot. 100%, without doubt. This is a well known scam bot behavior on tumblr, and it has been here for ages. The old version of it would be "my sick cat". They just changed the message sent.

"I couldn't find the image after reverse searching it" is not in any way meaningful for vetting scams. There are a million ways to get unique photos/videos of children in bad circumstances, including paying very small amounts for them, or as explained by the link above, human trafficking.

People's accounts can and do also get hacked/stolen/etc and then used to link to fake scams. It's terrifyingly common.

Yes, it is gross as fuck for scammers to exploit horrific situations, it is also incredibly common. Fires, mass shootings, wars, etc. It happens for all of them.

GOFUNDME ONLY ALLOWS WITHDRAWALS FROM CERTAIN COUNTRIES, IF A PERSON DOES NOT HAVE A BANK ACCOUNT IN ONE OF THOSE COUNTRIES, THEY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO GET FUNDS. ANYONE WHO IS ORGANIZING A FUNDRAISER OUTSIDE OF THOSE COUNTRIES IS EITHER A SCAMMER OR WILL HAVE TO REFUND DONATIONS.

You'll notice that Egypt, Gaza, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, etc are all not on this list. The majority of gofundmes I've seen, largely from people claiming to be one of those locations, are either scams or will be forcibly refunded since according to their own story they are not in a place where they could withdraw the money being sent.

Falling for scams does hurt people, actually

TW: Human trafficking, SA, torture, discussion of scam farms

I see a whole bunch of people arguing that they would rather risk giving to a scammer than ignore someone's gofundme. I also see people saying things like "I can't believe some sick people are profiteering off genocide" and like, me neither, but I feel like you guys really don't understand who actually runs these kinds of scams and what they are.

Scams of noticeable scale-- like scam asks being sent from hundreds of accounts to every user on Tumblr!-- are typically related to organised crime in poor countries, not Susan from Milwaukee who wants a new coat and has no scruples. People get trafficked by gangs to scam farms in Asia and Africa where they're worked to the bone and tortured trying to get idiots in wealthy countries to part with their money. Genocide profiteering is pretty much the least evil thing these people do.

Here's a UN article on it. Obvious warnings for content related to human trafficking and SA.

When you donate to a scammer, you fund these organisations and give them a reason to exist. It's possible some of the fundraisers are legit. I honestly find it unlikely given I'm not seeing any from any other countries where urgent fundraisers would seem to have great reason to exist but which haven't captured the same level of attention on Tumblr-- the number of Sudanese, Congolese, Ukrainian, Burmese or Uyghur fundraisers in my DMs is a fat 0. In any case, there are safer ways to help.

If you want to help (which is great!) you don't have to take the risk of paying for human trafficking. Donate to legitimate charities which have the resources to safely and effectively ensure the money and help is getting to the right people. Funding human trafficking rings in Myanmar is not a good risk to be taking while trying to help.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 10.20 (after 1960)

1961 – The Soviet Navy performs the first armed test of a submarine-launched ballistic missile, launching an R-13 from a Golf-class submarine. 1962 – China launches simultaneous offensives in Ladakh and across the McMahon Line, igniting the Sino-Indian War. 1973 – Watergate scandal: "Saturday Night Massacre": United States President Richard Nixon fires U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus after they refuse to fire special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who is finally fired by Solicitor General Robert Bork. 1973 – The Sydney Opera House is opened by Elizabeth II after 14 years of construction. 1976 – The Luling–Destrehan Ferry MV George Prince is struck by the Norwegian freighter SS Frosta while crossing the Mississippi River in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana. Seventy-eight passengers and crew die, and only 18 people aboard the ferry survive. 1977 – A plane carrying the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd crashes in woodland in Mississippi, United States. Six people, including three band members, are killed. 1981 – Two police officers and a Brink's armored car guard are killed during an armed robbery carried out by members of the Black Liberation Army and Weather Underground in Nanuet, New York. 1982 – During the UEFA Cup match between FC Spartak Moscow and HFC Haarlem, 66 people are crushed to death in the Luzhniki disaster. 1986 – Aeroflot Flight 6502 crashes while landing at Kuibyshev Airport (now Kuromoch International Airport) in Kuibyshev (now present-day Samara, Russia), killing 70 people. 1991 – A 6.8 Mw earthquake strikes the Uttarkashi region of India, killing more than 1,000 people. 1991 – A massive firestorm breaks out in the hills of Oakland and Berkeley, California killing 25 people and destroying more than 3,000 homes, apartments and condominiums. 1995 – Space Shuttle Columbia launches on STS-73. 2002 – Top Gear, the revived popular British TV motoring magazine premiered on BBC. 2003 – The Sloan Great Wall, once the largest cosmic structures known to humanity, is discovered by students at Princeton University. 2005 – The general conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) passes the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. 2011 – Libyan Crisis: Rebel forces capture Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi and his son Mutassim in his hometown of Sirte and kill him shortly thereafter, ending the first Libyan civil war. 2017 – Syrian civil war: The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) declare victory in the Raqqa campaign. 2022 – Liz Truss steps down as British Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party amid the country's political crisis, serving for the least time of any British Prime Minister [49 days].