Happy Earth Day

Remember, my conservative friends, the issue has nothing to do with how hot or cold it is on any particular day where you live vs. ‘normal’.  It has everything to do with the fact that the entire Earth is getting warmer.  That’s why it’s called Global Warming.  It’s not called Milwaukee Warming!  And to think that human activity and the burning of fossil fuels has nothing to do with the major climate change going on around us is…well, like putting your head in the sand.

What’s the big deal admitting you were wrong, that the science is now indisputable, and that we need to move forward with the acceptance of what is happening to this beautiful and spectacular planet of ours?  

Millennium

I’ve been meaning to post photos of the meal I recently enjoyed in SF at what The Daily Meal anointed in January as the top vegan restaurant in the world:  Millennium.  To the dismay of many loyal fans/foodies, the restaurant will be open for just another 11 more days, after 21 years in operation, before closing for good (their hotel landlord decided not to renew the lease).  Fortunately, chef Eric Tucker and general manger Alison Bagby have found new investors, partially as a result of a very successful Kickstarter campaign, and will be opening a new restaurant in Rockridge across the Bay in Oakland.

Crusted King Trumpet Mushrooms, with Gochujang dipping sauce (a customer favorite over the years):

Grilled Citrus Salad with red quinoa and Belgian endive:

Juniper & Mustard Seed Glazed Tempeh:

And finally, all of Millenium’s deserts are dairy-free, hard to believe when you put some of this in your mouth:

5 Things

1.  The world is changing so fast. New mobile apps, like Periscope, can come out of nowhere, and hit it out of the park, and instantly disrupt things (look at how Meerkat’s usage has plummeted in just two weeks).  Link

Wanna be a voyeur?  Wanna jump into someone else’s life?  Periscope is for you.  It is, without question, The Next Big Thing.  I got my ass handed to me last year when I shorted Twitter right after their IPO.  But actually, it was more of a timing call, because the stock did come down, it just took some time (and I have no patience).  But now that they have launched Periscope, all bets are off with Twitter.  Twitter is never going to go up from here much as a 140 digit messaging tool, but they wisely spent some money they had in the bank and are developing ‘other’ stuff. 

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2.  Two lessons from above: There are still opportunities for startups to become unicorns (which is a terrific thing, ain’t capitalism great), and that’s the problem, cause all these startups think they’re worth pre-money a zillion dollars.  Honestly, I am pretty much done with it as an angel, even with my Darth Angel reputation.  The people that just put in money in Meerkat (Jared Leto, Greylock Partners) a mere month ago are screwed!   Also, there is an emerging ‘rule’ with apps:  if it doesn’t take off organically in the first 30 days, you’re done.  You just can’t change the trajectory.  See the link in 1.

3.  The pressure to stay in touch, keep informed, live a ‘great’ and balanced life, to show everyone just how awesome it all is, to be ‘heard’, to absorb it all, to maintain those Facebook and Tumblr and Instagram shrines to ourselves, is just incredible.  I just don’t know how kids can do it.  And make money at the same time?  Oldsters like me can rationalize by tuning out, but kids?  Very tough. 

4.  New store in Scottsdale, near True Foods (which we love, by the way - ’to go’ orders ready in 15 minutes).  How ironic.  But at least this store is honest.  I know I wrote about it in my book, but sugar is fucking everywhere; it’s taken a lot of work for me to reduce my intake, but I will have binges and my post ingestion blues have me pissed about it.  We all have choices to make, but this stuff is unavoidable.

5.  And finally, in the ‘Just Saying’ category, if you are a startup in the healthy smoothie space, the clock is ticking and the space is getting very, very crowded in front of our eyes:  small bottles, huge bottles, powdered products that used to be all about protein shakes now all about equivalents of lots of servings of fruits and vegetables reduced into….well, powder, that when added with water tastes pretty darn good.

700 and Time for a Party!

I am on the balcony of a very cool inn in northern California called the Benbow Historic Inn, after a great meal at the bar, doing something I’m not supposed to be doing within 25 feet of a building per California rules, celebrating hitting a milestone a few hours ago:  identifying 700 species of birds in what’s called the ABA (American Bird Association) Area, which is the U.S. and Canada, not including Hawaii.  After arriving in San Francisco yesterday and heading north last night, today was able to find a Code 4 (Code 6 being extinct so you get the idea) vagrant, a Brown Shrike from Asia, just north of Manchester, right near the ocean.  Was with four other birders, Adam and the Willets (I presume you can Google this), so it was a group high five when I found the bird (an added bonus).   Photo of bird courtesy of Google Images, although I am assured by Adam he will send me a photo he digiscoped of the actual bird we saw today on the hillside.  Ready for this beauty?  Here it is, my #699:

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I then travelled three hours north, along the coastal highway, to a place called Garberville, and headed east to scope out a place where Sooty Grouse (not a rare bird, but one I needed after the Blue Grouse had been split into two species awhile back) had been heard along this country road in the last couple of weeks.  I had already made a reservation at the Benbow Inn, with the plan that I would get up early tomorrow and get out and hope to hear the male calling, and maybe, just maybe, track down the bird and see it.

But nope, the Bird Gods had different plans for me, and as I was heading back as the sun was setting, I saw a pair of grouse fly into a tree in front of my car.  I stopped, got my scope out, and got great looks at bird #700!  This photo below will always mean something to me.  The grouse landed toward the top of the first tall tree on the left, then headed over to the tree on the right, then after about five minutes, flew off. (Note how fried my eyes are after driving the curviest roads in California and birding hard all day)!

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Two final photos before I turn in and a quick comment:  the coastal areas north of San Francisco have perhaps the best Natural Beauty/People Ratio on the planet.  It’s just extraordinary to be in such great surroundings with such few people (you guys who know me best will get this)!

Time for a party!

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Not If, But When

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We are approaching the tipping point.  Yesterday, Sen. Lindsey Graham:

“Before we can be bipartisan we gotta figure out where we are as a party. What is the environmental platform of the Republican party?,” Graham asked a silent crowd at an event at the Council on Foreign Relations. “I don’t know either.”

Senator Graham when on to say what people like Rick Scott and Scott Walker are in denial about: that climate change was real and that human activity was contributing to it.

Mark my words: Now that the economy is in the best shape since the financial fiasco of 2008, the issue of global warming will become a significant campaign issue.

What’s going on at Target?

In all the years I visited Kohl’s stores as EVP-Stores, I never once remember seeing one store with as many complete out-of-stock meltdowns as this local Target we visited on Saturday.  Back in the 90′s, Target always seemed to have problems with getting stock-to-sales ratios figured out, particularly during their grand openings, but this kind of situation, in 2015, is striking.  Something is not right.

Run, Ted, Run!

Ted, it’s time to now sprint, as fast and as hard as you can, to the most extreme right corners of the universe!  And bring the rest of the BSC Brigade along for the ride!  The further right you pull everyone toward in the primaries, the harder it will be for the eventual winner to tack back toward the middle in the general.    And please, please keep denying those pesky things called ‘facts’ and ‘science’; it makes you sound so smart when you talk about things like global warming and evolution!  Run, Ted, run!

The Last Get of this Tour

The ‘Find the New Bird’ Tour capped off today in southern Texas with perhaps the best get of the five new lifers:  Hooked-billed Kite!  We arrived at Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park aware that the morning ‘flyover’ of a dark morph adult hadn’t happened for six days straight, not a good sign.  But this morning was a new day, and quickly found out that the day before a photo had been taken by Luciano Guerra at the nearby National Butterfly Center yesterday around 11:00 a.m. (it’s below, and it’s awesome)!  A search of the area did not find the bird this morning, so I ended up driving around to areas the bird might be hunting for snails, based information provided by the folks at Bentsen.  And sure enough, at around 2:30, about half a mile northwest of the park, saw two adult kites (not a dark morph) flying over an agricultural field and then briefly landing on a tree.  Great looks!  #697.

On the Rio Grande with another New Rule

In Texas today.  Added another lifer east of Harlingen, a pair of Aplomado Falcons.  This bird just got added as a ‘countable’ species by the ABA.  I had dipped last time I looked for it, so it was great to get this in the list (photo below from Google Images).

Later, southwest of McAllen, Captain Johnny took us on a boat ride on the Rio Grande in search of a Hook-billed Kite.  Not an easy bird to find, and we dipped today.  But the ride was beautiful and there were lots of raptors all around, just not the kite.  The search continues tomorrow!

While on the river, and getting great views of both the Mexican and U.S. ‘borders’, you get a real reality check.  And with that check, another New Rule:  You are not allowed to have a hardline, unequivocal position about ‘securing the borders’ and ‘building the dang fence’ until you have physically been to the Rio Grande and have seen it in person.

How in the heck can you possibly build a fence along the marshes, and inlets and natural habitats that create this border?  It’s impossible. 

Not saying we can’t make dramatic improvements regarding the immigration issue, but building a fence?  Rhetoric and bluster aside, it’s never gonna happen, no matter who is in office. 

Wild Geese Chase!

And what a chase it was, avoiding NYC rush hour last night after adding Tufted Duck as the sun was setting up in Bridgeport, CT., and today adding two lifers this afternoon within an hour of one another, both ABA Code 4’s, on the eastern part of Long Island, just north of Calverton.  And both were geese - Pink-footed Goose, and my nemesis bird, Barnacle Goose (photos of birds from Google Images).  Pretty cool when both your ‘gets’ are the only ones listed for all of North America for today:

Nova Scotia

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Quick trip to Halifax on Friday in search of two truly rare birds that had been seen and reported on NARBA (North American Rare Bird Alert).  And while I was there, to also hopefully track down three alcids (in the auk family) that I have yet to see.  First, the really good news:  saw the two rarities - Eurasian Kestrel, yesterday on a golf course on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean (the bird was perched on top of the spruce tree on the right in the background, photo above); and yesterday morning, traveling two hours each way through the woods on snowy roads to visit the home of Kathy and Blane in Apple River, who have had a Fieldfare (from Europe as well) feeding on their one apple tree in the back yard for the past several weeks (bird photos above from Google Images)!

The still very good ‘but’ news:  driving around the bays and inlets around Halifax, ended up seeing two of the three alcids (Thick-billed Murre, and Black Guillemot (photos by Google Images below), but dipped on the Dovekie.  Next time.

And two last photos showing the extent of the snow and ice buildup around Halifax; this is at a parking lot of a very popular dog park.  That morning I must have driven by a hundred families with ice chippers of various types and configurations in their driveways chipping away.  


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This place is beautiful, first time visit for me.  But what if I needed money?!


Riffs From the Road

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Finished a six day birding trip to Texas and Florida, picked up five new birds, only four of which will eventually count toward my ABA Area list (a first time ever arrival to the U.S., Striped Sparrow, present in a thicket alongside the San Gabriel River northeast of Austin, breeds in central Mexico and historically has been very sedentary, so the Records Committee that reviews these finds will probably conclude that this bird is an escapee and was somehow released in the wild after being caged and brought into the country; but I went to see it anyway, just in case it was ‘approved’).  But the other four should count: Gray-crowned Yellowthroat, Common Crane, Key West Quail-Dove and a Smooth-billed Ani, which has been a bit of a nemesis bird for me, having dipped the three previous times I’ve tried to find it.  Saw the ani on Snake Road west of Ft. Lauderdale.  Above is a photo from Google Images, as well as a selfie taken (below) of assembled birders after seeing it, that includes a  rock star in these circles - Neil Hayward (far left in the photo), who won the 2013 Big Year (http://accidentalbigyear2013.blogspot.com) with 747 species and 3 provisionals:

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Lots of time to reflect on things during my travels, in no particular order:

Brian Williams - Brian became our go-to TV news guy after Tom Brokaw retired, but in the last few years I soured on his decision, as Managing Editor of NBC Nightly News, to stick his head in the sand and deny the existence of man-made global warming (he asked Jim Cantore “What’s going on?” one too many times when increasingly their lead stories involved fires from drought, and more powerful hurricanes, and sounded like an idiot in the process).  If you haven’t noticed, I’ve had it with false equivalence BSC stuff, particularly with people who supply me with the news.  Furthermore, the fact that Brian clearly liked being in the spotlight on shows like Lettermen and Fallon only made me more uncomfortable.  And then we got introduced to 'Vice’, and it became all to clear that we could do so much better with our time.  Now, as more stuff starts to hit the fan, it’s become apparent that Mr. Williams has a serious psychological issue involving embellishment to such excess that he’s unquestionably lying.  It’s not 'conflating’, it’s lying.  Does he really have a piece of the helicopter than crashed during the bin Laden raid?  Really?   And consider he projected these mistruths in front of recording devices.  In front of millions of people.  I mean, how bad is that?  Really, really damaging for a guy in his position.  And wait, I bet there is still a lot more that hasn’t yet been reported.  I just don’t see him coming back. 

Car Traffic - In one of my books I wrote about how well we have perfected the art of rationalization, to include the absolute insane amount of time people spend in their cars commuting around major metropolitan areas and now simply traveling in busy travel corridors (http://jeffrusinow.com/btruth8).  My experiences heading down to the Florida Keys and back was a real reminder of just how much automobile congestion on highways degrades our quality of life. It’s a mess, and how this changes in the next 25-50 years, I don’t have any idea.  It’s one of the big, big problems out there with no solution.  It’s times like those I am so happy to live in Wisconsin, even when it’s cold (OK, that’s my rationalization now coming out)!

David Carr - His passing should come as no surprise to anyone, should it?  He’s appeared to be ailing for such a long time.  The outpouring of testimonials to his impact on the discourse and to his incredible word smithing skills at The New York Times prompted me to dig in and learn more.  Just finished watching the 2011 documentary on the NYT 'Page One’, which featured Carr.  Wow, I don’t know how I missed this one.  Highly recommended for people into business models (in this case, the newspaper industry crisis) and specifically how things work at the Grey Lady.  Really, really good stuff.

More to come.  I’ll close with a photo, again from Google Images, of a Common Crane, which I saw last Wednesday in the Panhandle of Texas near Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge, hanging out with about 2,000 Lesser Sandhill Cranes (my photo is of them roosting at the shores of a lake).  An Asian vagrant, this bird is really big when flying (7 ft. wingspan) with the other cranes: