It’s All About the Water

Recently there were two articles about the water (or lack of it) that caught my attention. The first one appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on Wednesday, February 21, 2018 titled “California plans ban on waste of water”, written by Kurtis Alexander. It starts: “Sprinklers that splash more water onto the sidewalk than the lawn, which have increasingly drawn scornful looks in drought-distressed California, are about to be banned forever. Same goes for hosing down a driveway or patio, or washing a car with a garden-variety hose.” If the regulation by the State Water Resources Control Board will pass wasting water could trigger a $500.00 fine. This can be a good idea to help all of us to save more water and keep the cost down. We can blame the rainless winter or Global Warming, or the President of the United States, or God, this will not change anything – our conservation will. For instance, taking shorter showers or turning off the water while applying shampoo and conditioner, can help with water conservation.

One of the major consumers of water is the agricultural industry. And in this area, California with the thirsty population close to 40 million is cooperating with Israel, a small country with the population of about 8 million. Online I found out that “Israel plans to recycle 95% of its waste water for irrigation purposes by the end of 2025.” One of the examples of the cooperation between California and Israel is the 1 billion water desalination plant Israel’s IDE Technologies is building to provide 50 million gallons of water daily in San Diego area. This bring us to the next article which appeared the following day, Thursday, February 22, 2018 in The Wall Street Journal written by Seth M. Siegel titled “Cape Town May Dry Up Because of an Aversion to Israel”. Turns out that “Cape Town, South Africa, has designated July 9 ‘Day Zero’. That’s when water taps throughout the city are expected to go dry, marking the culmination of a three-year drought. South African officials aren’t responsible for the lack of rain, but inept management and a devotion to anti-Israel ideology needlessly made the situation worse.”

The article continues, “Israeli Foreign Ministry recognized the problem and alerted national, provincial and local governments in South Africa. Israel has trained water technicians in more than 100 countries, and it offered to bring in desalination experts to help South Africa.” Instead, because “The leadership of South Africa’s dominant political party, the African National Congress, aligns itself with the Palestinian cause.” South Africans turned to Iran for help. “Unlike Israel, Iran is not known for its water-management expertise. Anger over water shortages was a feature of the recent Iranian protests. Even before the South African visit, a former Iranian agriculture minister predicted that as many as 50 million Iranians – around two-thirds of the population – would need to be uprooted because of growing water scarcity.”

In life we all make choices. When it comes to water, be wise – save.

P.S. Since we see water everywhere, often we do not notice it. Therefore I am sharing with you four images of water which might surprise and delight you.

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It’s All About the Women

When I was growing up in Riga, Latvia, March 8^th was an official holiday called International Women’s Day. I remember the first gift I gave to my mother on that day. I was probably about eight or nine. Somehow I was able to save enough money to buy her a chocolate bar. For some reason I still remember how it looked and tasted (it was my favorite brand). It seems that in the United States the gift giving to women moved to the Valentine’s Day, which became more commercialized. Both holidays are focused on women for different reasons.

International Women’s Day started in Russia out of a massive demonstration that took place on the eve of the Russian Revolution in 1917. It was a protest against the deteriorating living conditions, a lack of basic food supplies and the shortage of goods. A majority of the demonstrators were women. In commemoration of this demonstration, since 1922, the Soviet Union has celebrated Women’s Day on February 23rd (or on March 8^th, according to the Gregorian Calendar). Until the mid 1970s, it was primarily celebrated in socialist countries. In December 1977, the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a “United Nations Day for Women’s rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by Member States, in accordance with their historical and national traditions.” As of 2014 IWD is celebrated in more than 100 countries.

Actually the events that led to the 1917 protests started earlier. In some accounts, there was a demonstration in 1907 when about 15,000 women working in needle and textile marched through New York City.

On February 28, 1909 the first Women’s Day was held across the United States. A year later, The Second International Conference of Women was held in Copenhagen during which it was suggested to have an “International Woman’s Day”. Over a hundred years later, the position of women in society all over the world has changed. Women became head of certain countries, like Golda Meir who was elected Prime Minister of Israel on March 17, 1969.

Today there are thirteen countries in the world with a female as the head of state. Online I found the list of the 15 top female tech entrepreneurs who are “blazing the way for the many generations of female start-up founders who are sure to follow.”

I am blessed to have been surrounded by strong women all of my life. Thanks to my wife Elfa and our daughters Alona and Tamar, I became who I am today, what I am very happy to share with you.

P.S. In spite of the progress, the Women’s Marches and Protests continue with the new messages. Some of them took place in San Francisco, where I was able to capture four images to share with you.

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Cheers,

The Sea Ranch is Calling

A few weeks ago I wrote that to celebrate my 71^st birthday we went to The Sea Ranch. We started coming here in 1989, and Max is our third dog to enjoy this remarkable place. The actual reason to take six days vacation was the need to refinish the kitchen floor in our house. Since we could not stay there during this process, we decided to use the opportunity to visit again The Sea Ranch. To buy a birthday cake, we drove to a pastry shop in Anchor Bay, about a half an hour away. After a long evening walk with Max on the ocean trail, and getting exhausted after running and playing with him on the beach, we settled down in front of the TV to watch the Father Brown series and to have tea with cake. This was the best birthday celebration I could wish for.

The Sea Ranch has an interesting history. Online I learned that “For hundreds of years before Europeans ever saw the northern Sonoma coast, the gentle Pomo Indians made seasonal tracks for the coast to hunt, fish and gather foodstuffs. In the spring of 1812, Ivan Kuslov, a peg-legged officer of the Russian American Fur Company, was the first white man to walk this coast. In 1839 the Russians sold their holdings to a Swiss rascal named John Augustus Suter, “who also owned large areas in the Central Valley, where gold was later discovered setting the California Gold Rush.”

In 1963, after changing hands many times, 5,200 acres of the Rancho del Mar was purchased by Oceanic California Subsidiary of the Hawaiian company Castle and Cooke for 2.3 Million Dollars to develop a second home community. You can read more about The Sea Ranch on their website – tsra.org.

Today you can buy a lot to build your own home here, within the forest and oceanfront for anywhere between $25,000 and $550,000. If you prefer to buy an existing home, it might cost you between $750,000 and up to $2,000,000.

P.S. After many years of photographing in The Sea Ranch, I have thousands of images in my computer. The beauty here is so overwhelming; it is new experience every time. These four images of two sunsets and two sunrises are just the proof.

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Cheers,

What Does Wayne Gretzky Have In Common With Steph Curry?

After I finished working on my story about the basketball game last week, I realized that I still had some images left of the spectators watching the game, that I thought you might be interested in seeing. I decided to check the Sporting Green section in the February 10^th edition of the San Francisco Chronicle for story ideas and to read about the game I attended on Thursday night. Instead I found an article titled “Gretzky’s been on road Curry’s Taking” written by Scott Ostler. The article points out that “the king of ice hockey”, Gretzky, “was always the slowest and weakest player on his team”. The article compares the two great athletes. “Gretzky broke in as a 6-foot, 160-pound shrimp; Curry as a 6-2, 170-pound string bean. The big, mean guys would’ve killed ’em if they could’ve caught ’em.” Gretzky has been to a couple of Warriors games and he acknowledged, “Listen, I don’t know a lot about basketball, but I know one thing – he is fun to watch. I’ve had an opportunity to watch him warm up, and the stuff he does in warm-ups is sensational”.

As I pointed out last week, Curry is the highest paid player on the team, but during the game he looked like a midget next to the 6.9-7 ft tall guys. But how does one find high performing players? “We always look for the perfect athlete”, Gretzky said. “How big he is or how fast he is or how strong he is. But we can never measure the mentality of an athlete. You can test and say, ‘How does this guy play under pressure? How will he do when his back’s against the wall?’ Either you have that or you don’t.” Perhaps it was a coincidence (in which I do not believe in) on the same date in the Bay Area Section of San Francisco Chronicle there was another article written by Peter Hartlaub titled, “S.F. Warriors get off to low-key start – in Daly City”. It turned out the event, which attracted about twenty thousand fans to a game between the Warriors and Mavericks on Thursday had a humble start on October 23, 1962. “The first San Francisco Warriors game was at the Cow Palace in Daly City on Oct. 23, 1962, was pushed back to 9 p.m. in hopes that in the boxing match there would be an early knockout at the Gene Fullmer vs. Dick Tiger fight at Candlestick Park – and fans would trickle over to watch basketball.”

The article continued, “The Warriors struggled financially in San Francisco, and moved to Oakland in the early 1970s… When they return to San Francisco in 2019, it will be a very different scene. They’re a top Bay Area entertainment draw, and the future is no longer in doubt”.

As I pointed out last week, I believe that any sport game is a part of the entertainment business enterprise, which requires good management, excellent employees/players, and of course consumers/sport fans. And it helps from time to time to win the game.

P.S. It was fun for me to photograph four Warriors’ fans, some of whom even travelled from Japan and Korea, others came to have good time with their children and wearing Steven Curry fan t-shirts, a player, who scored 20 points to justify his value to the team which won the game.

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This Is Just A Game

There are those who are into sports, and those who are not. I belong to the latter group. While growing up in Riga, Latvia, I played soccer and basketball. I also practiced Roman wrestling, fencing, and then in the college (I attended the Riga Polytechnical Institute), I became a mountain-climber. I never succeeded in any of these activities. From time to time, my father would take me to soccer games, but these opportunities did not implant any sports bugs in me.

Nevertheless, when a friend offered me a free ticket to a basketball game between the Golden State Warriors and the Dallas Mavericks (or Dubs vs Mavs), I said, “Yes”. Prior to this, I visited the Oakland Coliseum a few years ago, when Chase Bank invited me to a basketball game at the VIP lodge. Other than watching the game, we were surrounded by free food and the cheerleaders would visit us in the breaks for photo ops.

This time, my experience was different. My friend has had great season tickets in the middle of the arena in the 6^th row by the aisle, for the last twenty years. Thus, I was watching the game from the best spot.

If someone were to watch a basketball game for the first time, they would observe ten tall men in two different uniforms running from one side of the court to another, and from time to time throwing a ball into a basket, while 19,596 spectators yell and scream when the ball goes through the net.

There are huge screens high up in the middle of the arena, where one can see the action much better. During the game, loud music blasted and names of different companies would up on the light panels surrounding the space. From time to time vendors would peddle different snacks, beer, water and popcorn. Meanwhile, cheerleaders would jump and shake their bodies, or other performers would entertain the public.

Two season subscriptions can cost as much as $30,000 a year for 41 games and the players’ are compensated many millions of dollars. When I researched the Golden State Warriors Team’s payroll, I learned that over the 2017-18 season 29 year-old Stephen Curry’s compensation is $34,682,550, and it increases year after year. For this year alone, the total compensation of eighteen players is $137,494,845. When ancient Rome ceased to exist about 2500 years ago, a Roman poet Juvenal wrote, “Two things only the people anxiously desire – bread and circuses.” The government kept the Roman populace happy by distributing free food and staging spectacles.” The only difference is that now we have to pay for the tickets, beer and hotdogs. For me, going to a basketball game is just another form of very expensive entertainment where ten talented basketball athletes had fun playing their game.

P.S. Though I had enough images with the basketball players and the ball thrown through the net, I’ve chosen four images of other participants in the game who you might not have noticed or remembered, and who made this spectacle more entertaining and secure.

P.P.S. Today, Friday the 16^th, the Chinese communities around the world are preparing to celebrate the most important holiday in the Chinese calendar – their New Year, which follows the lunar circle. Each year is provided an animal according to the Chinese Zodiac. This year’s zodiac animal is the dog. My friend Dr. Angela Wu sent me instructions (attached) on how to start this new cycle.

A Special Gift From Wu’s Healing Center

There is a Chinese saying, “a good start is halfway to success.” Dr. Angela C. Wu and the entire Wu’s Healing Center staff wish to offer you the precious gift of how to properly start this year on the Lunar New Year’s Day (solar calendar February 16^th, 2018). This first step on that day plays a significant role for the rest of year. Both the timing and direction of your initial exit from wherever you are on February 16^th, 2018 are of utmost importance.

This is what to do on that day:

On the morning of February 16^th, 2018 pay special attention to personal hygiene and the initial exit direction from the building in which you are. The most auspicious time to go out is between 12am to 1am, 3am to 7am and 9am to 3pm. To welcome good luck, walk in the Northeast direction. To invite divine help, walk in the Southwest or Southeast direction. To invite wealth-spirit, walk in the North direction.

If you would like to burn incense or pray, please do so between 12am to 1am, 3am to 7 am and 11am to 3pm.

If you live or stay in an apartment building, walk in the desired direction at these following exits: your bedroom, front door, elevator (if your building has one), and finally the door to the outside.

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Cheers,