Yahoo Finance: New Mexico setting new records with drought.
Guardian.UK: Pioneering author’s body found mummified in New Mexico home.
“Her brother-in-law Louis Ponce found the body after he and his wife Edna, Salinas’ sister, drove from their home in California to check on her after two years of unreturned phone calls and letters.”
CELDF.org: First County in U.S. Bans Fracking and all Hydrocarbon Extraction.
Good for you, Mora County. Now batten down the hatches and get ready for the legal challenges.
GreatFallsTribune: Feds—Budget cuts to make wildfire season tougher.
“Jewell spent the past two days touring the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, the government’s national wildfire nerve center. She was joined by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who said the U.S. Forest Service alone will hire 500 fewer firefighters and deploy 50 fewer engines this season.” This sequester fallout will cost more money than it saves. Plain and simple.
SF New Mexican: Utility to test plan to pump water underground for use in dry times.
“If we’re able to store the water when we have it, then we’ll be able to use it when we don’t.”
SF New Mexican: Drought worsens in New Mexico; no relief in sight.
What alarms me most is, when I drove up to the Ski Basin the other day location scouting for a friend’s project … the snow-fed freshets were nonexistent. All the usual gushing creeks are trickling. The only one showing some life is the one that cuts through the center of the Ski Basin parking lot! This is terrible news. The Forest Service will have to shut the forests down before July 4, latest. Can’t take a chance on careless picnickers with fireworks and barbecue grills.
I keep saying to everyone in the area - if you want to hike our mountains, do it now. Don’t wait for warmer weather.
SF New Mexican: Bobcat Bite managers to leave over dispute with property owner.
Green chile burgers will never be the same.
Sorry for the slowdown.
Ridiculously busy these days, but having fun doing it. Links as I can.
Virga sunset.
Ran out in my socks again. Gotta stop doing that. At a certain point, you just can’t get the cactus spines out of socks … and have to toss ‘em.
Valet.: Quality Tonic Water.
Oh yes. Now I’m ready for the heat-switch on June 1.
Obviously, a busy morning.
Links eventually.
MIT Tech Review: Lab Reveals It Has Operated Quantum Internet For Over Two Years.
“Today, Richard Hughes and pals at Los Alamos National Labs in New Mexico reveal an alternative quantum internet, which they say they’ve been running for two and half years. Their approach is to create a quantum network based around a hub and spoke-type network. All messages get routed from any point in the network to another via this central hub.” Eventually, cyberattacks will be obsolete … ?
First American Art Magazine.
“First American Art Magazine, LLC (FAAM) is a new magazine dedicated solely to the arts of Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Order a print copy today! Issue No. 1 will be out in early August 2013.” Published in Santa Fe, of course.
Guardian.UK: Grand Canyon uranium mining set to go ahead despite ban from Obama.
“On the Navajo Indian reservation alone there are over 500 abandoned mines, the focus of a five-year clean-up effort by the federal government that ended last year and which many complain was flawed and ineffective.” It is not clean, it has not been remediated. Just … don’t.
Seen on the way home from a business meeting.
Middle of the street, a rattlesnake. Pissed off, scared out of its wits. A *spring* rattlesnake … as in early-season-lots-o-venom. Dude in a pickup truck pulls a U-turn, parks on the side, and grabs his windshield scraper (about six inches long) and starts to run across the road to do … exactly what, I don’t know. I slow down, roll down my window and yell “I wouldn’t do that if I were you!” I get the finger. Thanks, buddy. Senior in car behind me proceeds to try to ‘dodge’ the snake, and flattens it. End of story.
‘Tis getting to be warmer and sunnier.
My attention to this blog will begin to wane on weekends. Just a warning - don’t want my readers to waste a click unnecessarily. Those who access by RSS don’t need to concern themselves.
SF New Mexican: Cumbres & Toltec to roll out century-old, refurbished locomotive.
Yeow. They’re returning a K-27 to service. Gotta get up there and take some photos.
Treehugger: Massive deposit of lithium found in Wyoming could meet all U.S. demand.
‘Down-deeping’ pays off.
Yahoo! Finance: Centuries-old Spanish land grant fight in Arroyo Hondo.
“The 31-square-mile land grant, parceled out by the Spanish monarchy in the early 19th century to encourage settlement of the then-remote region, is at the heart of a bitter legal tug-of-war that has thwarted property owners’ efforts to sell or refinance their homes, or even buy insurance policies, while pitting frustrated neighbours against each other. Martinez is among those who finds himself in the legal quagmire after a group of descendants of the original landowners claimed they are the rightful heirs to the land.” I’ve mentioned before, my home purchase papers include a fuzzy xerox of the original Spanish land grant, signed by the King (I believe Charles II - been a while since I last peeked at ‘em). History runs very close to the surface here in NM.
NY Times: Restoring the Sea and the Romance to Mont-St.-Michel.
“The original idea was to leave passengers more than half a mile from the island, so they could walk over the oak planks of the new bridge and experience the sense of pilgrimage of the past. But merchants argued that the walk was too long and too slow, and that locals who like to come for a drink or dinner overlooking the sea would be put off.” Here in Santa Fe, we understand that problem very well. Tourists do NOT want to walk. They want to drive and park right in front of entrance doors. Yet to preserve our history, such conveniences cannot be accommodated.
SF Reporter: It’s Official! Author George RR Martin Purchases Cocteau Theater.
“This is the theater where I became addicted to putting Parmesan cheese on my popcorn.” It was famed for that little (enormous) delicacy.
The Taos News: Chevron sues U.S. on Questa mine cleanup.
This is why all extraction outfits need thorough vetting before you let them onto the land. How many times do we taxpayers have to float the cleanup costs before we learn?
SF New Mexican: George R.R. Martin reportedly plans to revive Jean Cocteau theatre.
Great news! It was a tatty but nice venue for seeing films. Hopefully they’ll suss the parking situation.
Silver City Sun-News: 85 year-old man leads Sheriff’s Department on early morning chase.
“I guess he just flipped out.” Local color.
