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Chris Jacob
Typical LA. Letting all their shitty smoke blow over into the valley. Well, it's not so bad as the last one but it's still coming over here.
Might as well throw out that I hate SF too. They claim to have no polution because the sea breeze blows it ALL over here. We actually have a sickness names after "us", "Valley Fever". Maybe that's why we have one of the highest autism rates in the nation, but I digress. What were we talking about?
@UnderLoK: Talk to a teacher. Identifying a learning disability is not a simple matter, especially in minority communities. A number of busy people have to spend a lot of time and money over a year or so. I suggest you look for other reasons for these apparant epidemics. That's what science is attempting to do. Of course that would require some effort and wouldn't have the appeal of a prejudical snap judgement.
@PaddyDugan: I appreciate your understanding of the process, and how much effort people put in. But I think what "Underlok" is trying to say is (from wikipedia), "The number of people known to have autism has increased dramatically since the 1980s, partly due to changes in diagnostic practice; the question of whether actual prevalence has increased is unresolved." And he thinks the diagnostic is being too easily applied to people. Which, I have to say I also agree with, especially with ADD and ADHD... we use to just call that a curious/energetic kid... now theirs a disorder for it.
@EventHorizon: All I can say is that if you're really interested, go down to the closest school and look at a student folder to see how much paperwork and how long it took to arrive at that conclusion. From an educator's perspective, the fact that children were blamed as lazy or stupid for decades before the concept of differentiation in learning modes was realized is a shameful part of our past. Very few laymen go beyond the labels and the misunderstanding/prejudice that seems to inevitably bond with those labels. The easiest way to deal with needy kids is to dismiss them with popular notions regarding behavior. Brain science is a fascinating and valuable, admittedly developing field. Don't mean to get all preachy, but you seem intelligent and I simply ask that you take the time to become better informed before rushing to judgement on such an important issue. I can recommend text?
It's obvious that you are one of the people that perpetuate this waste of time. Lazy kids and or parents that can't accept the fact that their kid is an idiot results in good kids falling through the cracks and the kids that actually need the help have to deal with less of it.
Some kids are stupid. Some kids are lazy. But more often than not the parents are to blame for not taking responsibility for their children and blaming everyone and everything else for their kids problems.
@madog: Define "They" in SF, or we hate you back for your fabricated pile of bullshit. Btw, you might want to look into the links between autism and pesticides or thimerosal in common vaccines before you start imagining the weather from San Francisco moving South. Either way, you certainly win the douche bag of the day award...congrats.
@Shamoononon: My feet stink.: Oh no no, that was the group of hippies that we managed to ship off to the East Coast! That's how we were able to elect Reagan, you know.
Don't think that Woodstock was for nothing. "Everything has its purpose." ;)
Besides, I like to think that I live in the safe, sane side of the Bay Area, and that would be San Jose. :P
@valkilmerisawful: How about no hurricanes or ice storms. Beautiful oceans and weather and just about anything you want from snow boarding to surfing all within a few hours drive?
I've been through several of these fires and have been evacuated three times. A friend of mine had their house burned down in the last one. It doesn't sway us.
I must say though that the overabundance of hippie liberals get on my nerves sometimes but every place has it's share of pests.
@Shamoononon: My feet stink.: True, I am a MA transplant... left the snow and cold behind - I suppose it keeps me for reasons other than work. I haven't gotten used to the earthquakes, and I think I'd take one of those over a hurricane ANY day.
@sonicsurge: As someone who's lived for quite a while in Las Vegas, I've always kinda 'enjoyed' the California fires myself.
Sometimes the smoke is so thick, that even all the way into southern Nevada, it blocks out the sun over Vegas, like the fires of Mt. Doom blots out the sky over Mordor and Gondor.
There was this one fire a few years back (2003/2004 or something), that made the daytime sky look like just after sunset . . . at high noon. It was dark all day for two or three days.
There was this other year where I was on the outskirts of town, watching the dark cloud of smoke coming in from the distance, I could just imagine the armies of Mordor marching on Las Vegas under the cover of the artificial darkness.
Of course knowing Vegas, they'd just welcome the hordes of Mordor with open arms, and turn the entire thing into a family themed attraction at the Las Vegas Hilton . . . Middle-Earth: The Experience.
It has been smelling awful ever since last weekend and I live in the in the northwest corner of the valley. Pretty shitty all around with the ash on my car and the gloomy red sun poking through the smoke.
@Mad as a Hatter: Yeah, sorry about that. Looks like the greasemonkey script for gawker comments finally outlived its usefulness. I hit submit, didn't get a preview of the post, nor did the submit button change color. So I thought it was my browser lagging and hit it again. Refreshed the page, didn't see my post, hit the button again, and ... now we're here.
I live in Altadena a few blocks from the fire's edge. What's amazing to me is that the smoke plumes are so large that they are actually creating their own thunderheads. You can see them in the sat photo, those two white spots above the smoke. Those are clouds, not smoke, created by the rising heat of the fire. What's absolutely crazy is that these thunderheads are starting to generate dry lightning. It's like the fire has grown so large that it is now self-aware, and trying to spawn offspring asexually. No matter, the impending hurricane will come and put it all out. Natural Disaster Battle! (next reality show?)
@ShikhaTriarius: I saw that white cloud from Burbank. There's even a name for it, if I remember right it's "pyrocumulus." I'm sure I heard thunder late yesterday afternoon.
@ShikhaTriarius: Really cool. I was wondering why so white and clean at the top. Keep safe from flames my friend. We're OK down in southbay, just all that crap spread out over this whole place yesterday and today.
I can't imagine what it must be like for people actually in California dealing with those fires. I'm in Colorado and it's wreaking havoc on my allergies.
@etwarrior: My lungs hurt and I've been using eye gel like there's no tomorrow. The neighborhood smells like a wet campfire and there's ashes all over everything. And we're not that close to the fires. On the LA Times map [www.latimes.com] we are about where the 5 and 134 freeways cross.
09/06/09
09/04/09
Might as well throw out that I hate SF too. They claim to have no polution because the sea breeze blows it ALL over here. We actually have a sickness names after "us", "Valley Fever". Maybe that's why we have one of the highest autism rates in the nation, but I digress. What were we talking about?
09/05/09
In this day and age if a kid isn't cool he obviously must be autistic. If he sucks at school he must have ADD. The list goes on and on and on.
09/05/09
09/05/09
09/05/09
09/05/09
It's obvious that you are one of the people that perpetuate this waste of time. Lazy kids and or parents that can't accept the fact that their kid is an idiot results in good kids falling through the cracks and the kids that actually need the help have to deal with less of it.
Some kids are stupid. Some kids are lazy. But more often than not the parents are to blame for not taking responsibility for their children and blaming everyone and everything else for their kids problems.
09/05/09
09/06/09
@madog: Define "They" in SF, or we hate you back for your fabricated pile of bullshit. Btw, you might want to look into the links between autism and pesticides or thimerosal in common vaccines before you start imagining the weather from San Francisco moving South. Either way, you certainly win the douche bag of the day award...congrats.
09/04/09
09/04/09
@(Starman) AnalysisDialysis: You know, I'd rather face fires any day than the shit you have to deal with.
09/04/09
Don't think that Woodstock was for nothing. "Everything has its purpose." ;)
Besides, I like to think that I live in the safe, sane side of the Bay Area, and that would be San Jose. :P
09/04/09
09/04/09
09/04/09
09/04/09
I've been through several of these fires and have been evacuated three times. A friend of mine had their house burned down in the last one. It doesn't sway us.
I must say though that the overabundance of hippie liberals get on my nerves sometimes but every place has it's share of pests.
BTW, I'm not even a California native.
09/04/09
09/04/09
Sometimes the smoke is so thick, that even all the way into southern Nevada, it blocks out the sun over Vegas, like the fires of Mt. Doom blots out the sky over Mordor and Gondor.
There was this one fire a few years back (2003/2004 or something), that made the daytime sky look like just after sunset . . . at high noon. It was dark all day for two or three days.
There was this other year where I was on the outskirts of town, watching the dark cloud of smoke coming in from the distance, I could just imagine the armies of Mordor marching on Las Vegas under the cover of the artificial darkness.
Of course knowing Vegas, they'd just welcome the hordes of Mordor with open arms, and turn the entire thing into a family themed attraction at the Las Vegas Hilton . . . Middle-Earth: The Experience.
09/02/09
09/02/09
09/02/09
09/02/09
09/02/09
Cough, wheeeeeze........ (sky to the north of us about 11am yesterday) Yes, that is the actual color.
09/02/09
09/02/09
09/02/09
09/02/09
09/02/09
09/03/09
09/02/09
09/02/09
09/02/09
09/02/09
09/02/09
09/02/09
Here. Fixed it.
09/02/09
09/02/09
09/02/09
09/02/09
09/02/09
09/02/09
09/02/09
09/02/09
cough, wheeeeeze...........
09/02/09
09/02/09