A blog about Marinwood-Lucas Valley and the Marin Housing Element, politics, economics and social policy. The MOST DANGEROUS BLOG in Marinwood-Lucas Valley.
Saturday, December 7, 2019
Friday, December 6, 2019
Marinwood CSD votes new taxes in five minutes at a special meeting
Marinwood CSD votes for new taxes in five minutes at a "special meeting" that few noticed. It was held on a rainy Tuesday night at 6:00 pm before the Thanksgiving Holiday.
The Marinwood CSD has the option to stop this endless tax increase but as you can see, they regard it as an automatic increase in revenue.
Wouldn't it be great if they used their time to examine how the CSD can spend our resources more wisely instead of sticking it to the community every year?
For example, the CSD board approved about $60,000 in repairs to a storm drain WITHOUT COMPETIVE BIDDING. The job took 1 1/2 days and despite Marinwood CSD manager, Eric Dreikosen's presentation, MANY QUALIFIED CONTRACTORS could have performed the repairs. Do you think competitve bids might have reduced costs?
Likewise, the Marinwood CSD is continuing to employ former CSD Director, Bill Hansell as the architect for the Marinwood Maintenance Shed project despite billing FIVE TIMEs original cost estimates.
It is time for a rigorous inspection of the CSD business practive for fraud, corruption and incompetence. No tax increases should be approved by the voters until this happens.
Thursday, December 5, 2019
YouTube CEO Wojcicki: We've Cut Amount Of Time Americans Watch "Controversial Content" By 70%
YouTube CEO Wojcicki: We've Cut Amount Of Time Americans Watch "Controversial Content" By 70%
Posted By Ian Schwartz
On Date December 2, 2019
Story video link HERE
YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki tells Lesley Stahl what the video platform is doing about hate speech in an interview Sunday on the CBS newsmagazine program '60 Minutes.'
Wojcicki told '60 Minutes' that Google employs 10,000 people to focus on "controversial content." She described their schedule, which includes time for therapy. Stahl also said there are reports that the "monitors" are "beginning to buy the conspiracy theories."
"What we really had to do was tighten our enforcement of that to make sure we were catching everything and we use a combination of people and machines," Wojcicki explained. "So Google as a whole has about 10,000 people that are focused on controversial content."
Lesley Stahl: I'm told that it is very stressful to be looking at these questionable videos all the time. And that there's actually counselors to make sure that there aren't mental problems with the people who are doing this work. Is that true?
Susan Wojcicki: It's a very important area for us. We try to do everything we can to make sure that this is a good work environment. Our reviewers work five hours of the eight hours reviewing videos. They have the opportunity to take a break whenever they want.
Lesley Stahl: I also heard that these monitors, reviewers, sometimes, they're beginning to buy the conspiracy theories.
Susan Wojcicki: I've definitely heard about that. And we work really hard with all of our reviewers to make sure that, you know, we're providing the right services for them.
Wojcicki on Section 230, stopping 70% of controversial content:
Lesley Stahl: Once you watch one of these, YouTube's algorithms might recommend you watch similar content. But no matter how harmful or untruthful, YouTube can't be held liable for any content, due to a legal protection called Section 230.
The law under 230 does not hold you responsible for user-generated content. But in that you recommend things, sometimes 1,000 times, sometimes 5,000 times, shouldn't you be held responsible for that material, because you recommend it?
Susan Wojcicki: Well, our systems wouldn't work without recommending. And so if--
Lesley Stahl: I'm not saying don't recommend. I'm just saying be responsible for when you recommend so many times.
Susan Wojcicki: If we were held liable for every single piece of content that we recommended, we would have to review it. That would mean there'd be a much smaller set of information that people would be finding. Much, much smaller.
Lesley Stahl: She told us that earlier this year, YouTube started re-programming its algorithms in the U.S. to recommend questionable videos much less and point users who search for that kind of material to authoritative sources, like news clips. With these changes Wojcicki says they have cut down the amount of time Americans watch controversial content by 70%.
Tuesday, December 3, 2019
Sunday, December 1, 2019
The Proposed Maintenance Facility is TWICE the size of Neighboring Houses
In this drawing of the proposed Maintenance facility, you can clearly see the comparable size of the Marinwood CSD maintenance facility next to the fence. It spans TWO house lots and is TWICE THE SIZE. The building has a shed roof and a sheer face 15 feet high or roughly equivalent to the height of neighborhood houses. The combined distance of the facade/ fence is 150 feet. It is massive and roughly FOUR TIMES the size of McInnis Park maintenance facility.
The big footprint means that trucks will occupy most of the land outside the building next to the creek for moving materials. The interior of the facility will have restricted movement because of support columns.
In other words, despite a slick facade, the Hansell Building is terribly inefficient and expensive for our staff of three and their vehicles. A conventional garage is far more servicable.
Here is an approximation of the footprint of the Maintenance Shed in white. No wonder they are calling this the White Elephant.
The big footprint means that trucks will occupy most of the land outside the building next to the creek for moving materials. The interior of the facility will have restricted movement because of support columns.
In other words, despite a slick facade, the Hansell Building is terribly inefficient and expensive for our staff of three and their vehicles. A conventional garage is far more servicable.
Here is an approximation of the footprint of the Maintenance Shed in white. No wonder they are calling this the White Elephant.
Beautiful Garage maintenance sheds that deliver high value for Marinwood Park
Sheds built with standard designs improved with architectural details will save hundreds of thousands of dollars that can be invested in Marinwood Park and our employee pension debt reduction instead.
This attractive design is built with cement siding for long life.
Vehicles must be "shoe horned" every day
It will take our three workers an extra 1/2 hour every day to move vehicles inside the facility. They will need to avoid other vehicles, support columns, materials and people. There will be accidents. This will be very costly over time.
Why does the architect insist on his impractical facility instead of a conventional side access garage found at every other parks department in Marin County? Side access garages are preferred for their easy access, flexible floor space and cost efficiency.
Workers need accessibility and efficient work space design. The current Marinwood Maintenance Compound design is a FAIL.
This is why the Maintenance Compound is known as the "White Elephant".
Sign Petition HERE
FABLE: THE FOX AND THE GRAPES
THE FOX AND THE GRAPES
[20] A FOX one day spied a beautiful bunch of ripe grapes hanging from a vine trained along the branches of a tree. The grapes seemed ready to burst with juice, and the Fox's mouth watered as he gazed longingly at them.The bunch hung from a high branch, and the Fox had to jump for it, The first time he jumped he missed it by a long way. So he walked off a short distance and took a running leap at it, only to fall short once more. Again and again he tried, but in vain.
Now he sat down and looked at the grapes in disgust.
"What a fool I am," he said. "Here I am wearing myself out to get a bunch of sour grapes that are not worth gaping for."
And off he walked very, very scornfully.
There are many who pretend to despise and belittle that which is beyond their reach.
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