subspaceinterferents

I really enjoy using and talking with A.I.s online. They seem to know a lot about a lot. In fact they have a long way to go before you can take them at their word. I was using Claude.ai, asking some questions about early film-making in California. I asked specifically about D.W. Griffith's 1916 film, Intolerance.

Where was it filmed in California?

I got this back from the AI:

• For the Judean story, D.W. Griffith wanted an epic landscape to depict the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. • He chose Point Loma in San Diego, specifically the hills above Cabrillo National Monument. This promontory provided a dramatic cliffside overlooking the Pacific Ocean. • The tall ragged cliffs of Point Loma provided a scenic backdrop resembling the hills of Judea. The endless ocean vista evoked the biblical landscape. • Griffith built a huge life-size cross on the cliffs, with access roads constructed to bring equipment and vehicles. • Extras were dressed in period costumes to play Roman soldiers and witnesses to the crucifixion. • Filming took place over a few days in May 1916 and must have been a powerful sight with the actual crucifixion acted out on the cliffs. • The completed scene provides a grand-scale depiction of Christ's crucifixion, using the stunning natural location to heighten the drama and epic sense of this pivotal moment. • The Point Loma crucifixion scene has become an iconic sequence in Intolerance and an example of Griffith's skill in using natural locations to expand the scope of his films. • So in selecting the heights of Point Loma, Griffith found an ideal spot along the California coast to stage the spectacular crucifixion scene for his ambitious epic Intolerance.

I was amazed, had never known that scene was filmed in San Diego, at Point Loma. The response was comprehensive and detailed. So just to be sure, I asked the AI if the answer was based on factual information. In so many words, it said, nope, just made it up.

I told the AI I thought it was a jerk move to do that. "If you don't know for sure, just say so" I said.

AI introduces a new dimension to the idea of Don't Believe Everything you Read on the Internet...

Rex's Roar: statue in front of San Diego Zoo.

If you're wondering where all the humidity and tropical flow are coming from, here's your likely suspect.

TL;DR: Operators of the De Anza Cove RV Resort have recently completed a cleanup and basic redevelopment of the De Anza Cove peninsula area. Public access, parking and landscape improvements have increased significantly.

...

In the late 1930s to mid 1940s, the State of California granted marshlands to the City of San Diego to be held in public trust for citizens' use. However, in 1953 the City leased the land to a developer to create a tourist area and trailer park, with the City collecting a percentage of revenues. Residents moved onto the land, establishing permanent mobile homes. Non-mobile-home residents were not welcome.

In 1980, the State Lands Commission found the land was not being used as mandated. The state legislature passed AB 447, giving San Diego until 2003 to transition residents and establish public use facilities.

San Diego opposed losing revenue and control. The City raised lease percentages, planning to profit before turning over the land. They envisioned a hotel development. However, permanent structures on the mobile home pads made relocation difficult. Many elderly residents had limited resources.

A 1978 Mobile Home Residency Law required a long process before park closures. It mandated cities to pay relocation costs. In 2003 San Diego pressured residents to quickly vacate for small payouts, waiving their rights. The City hired a firm experienced in park closures, which used coercive tactics.

Residents filed lawsuits. In 2022 a court ordered the City pay $3.6 million for mismanagement and harassment.

In July of 2023, the California Coastal Commission voted to allow the operators of the Mission Bay RV Resort to conduct a cleanup of the De Anza Cove peninsula and improve coastal access. The cleanup included repairing the bike/pedestrian path on the perimeter of the peninsula, creating public parking and installing signage, installation of electric vehicle charging stations, removing asbestos and abandoned mobile homes, and removal of temporary fencing, creating an open, parklike appearance to the area.

You should check it out. Nice place for a walk, bike ride, or a beach chair and a cool beverage. That 70 year wait? Over.

Awesome venue — went to see Kingfish Ingram and Buddy Guy with a friend. The setting is amazing: the city over here, the bay over there, Pt. Loma in the distance. The Shell itself looks like a glowing background from a 30s musical, or perhaps that schlocky 60s scifi "Time Tunnel." But the acoustics are very good; the amplification loud and clear. Seats were comfortable but not outstanding. We had clear skies and comfortable temps — a beautiful evening. Unfortunately, the musicians weren't on their marks. While they are talented bluesmen, they mostly phoned it in, and the show ran about 30 minutes short of the advertised length.

Cruised by the South Tecolote playground site in southeast Mission Bay Park. Looks almost complete. Set to open sometime this month. Looks like more fun for the kids and their parents. Will be a nice complement to the recently opened North Tecolote playground. :: So much money is spent (or wasted) on infrastructure and necessities we never see or think about; nice to have some spending that brings gladness.

SeaWorld still owes millions of dollars for the rent they did not pay during the pandemic. City says a contract's a contract. SeaWorld says "oh, we've been such good friends for so long, let's not rock the boat." The amusement park has enjoyed record profits — it's time for them to pay up. Attached photo shows San Diego taxpayers being hung-out to dry... . [https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/seaworld-still-hasnt-paid-12-2-million-in-back-rent-payments-san-diego-city-attorney/3300526/](News Article)

What's not to like at Paris Baguette? It's the Dunkin Donuts of South Korea. I dropped in to the Kearny Mesa store. Prices tend to be somewhat above my paygrade for general snacking, but exceptions were made.

Met these three at the bottom of Africa Rocks at the San Diego Zoo a few days ago. You never know what you'll see there.

Seen at Trader Joe’s in Mission Valley.

I've been thinking lately about the rats in San Diego, with respect to the arrival of the green bins. I joke with my friends that the green organic recycle bins are part of the city's "rat proliferation program." There is really nothing funny about it. Right now, the green bins are new, the lids tight, and the rats (that are already in the local environment) can only stare longingly at the unattainable meal tickets up in the green delicatessen. But — give it a few years, and the green bins, like every big plastic bin, will crack, be damaged by the trucks, lose a lid, and generally become a rat smorgasbord. Perhaps my rat proliferation program will come to full flower after all... .

• • • From the New York Times, 27Aug2023, on their rat problems:

Mayor Eric Adams of New York, who often uses public appearances to reiterate that he “hates” rats, hired a rat czar this year dedicated to exterminating them. As rat hater in chief, Mr. Adams has continued the long “war on rats” that New York City mayors have waged for decades, with limited success.

I’m an urban ecologist who’s studied New York City rats for 12 years, and I can say that the way the city and its residents have tried to exterminate rats, through traps and poisons, has been both ineffective and unnecessarily brutal. The black poison-bait boxes that have become a part of the urban scenery are a constant reminder that our forever war has long favored technological approaches to killing rats over population management solutions that might actually work.

The real enemy is not the rats, but our own behavior.

The first rats that climbed down from ships as Europeans arrived in New York Harbor thrived because there was plenty to eat on the filthy streets of the new colony. Today’s New York still has filthy streets, plus population density and aging infrastructure, making it a perfect home for its rats. The core strategy for managing these animals must be disrupting that perfect home by limiting their access to human food and buildings. Mr. Adams and Kathleen Corradi, his new rat czar, deserve credit for beginning to pursue this strategy, but it will take every New Yorker’s help to succeed.

City agencies have heavily relied on using rat poison; in 2021 alone, they applied over 60,000 pounds of rodenticide poisons. From 2015 to 2021, they doubled their use of anticoagulants that kill rats by slowly causing internal bleeding. The mass deployment of poison across our streets can hurt predators up the food chain as well. It takes only one unsecured bait box to poison a curious family dog.

New York City’s government has accompanied its arsenal of poisons with other macabre methods of rat extermination. Glue traps slowly suffocate their victims and classic snap traps crush their necks, sometimes without killing them immediately. While Mr. Adams was Brooklyn borough president, he showcased a bucket trap that drowns captured rats in a proprietary solution meant to preserve several rotting carcasses at once, producing a “mouse-gray stew.”

Trapping and poisoning are simply no match for the biology and math of rat reproduction. It takes only a small number of survivors or migrants to replenish a population. Female rats become sexually mature in around six weeks, and in good conditions on the street, each female can give birth to two or three dozen pups a year. Each rat then lives for about a year. Scientists have developed and tried birth control baits, but they have been both too expensive and ineffective in real-world conditions.

We also don’t have the data to prove that poisons and traps meaningfully reduce rat populations. The city government systematically monitors population sizes and disease threats from mosquitoes, but it does not have a similar rat program. Such data are crucial to understanding whether management efforts are succeeding beyond annual or seasonal fluctuations in rat populations, but few cities systematically collect such data. Complaints to the city’s 3-1-1 service phone line are often used as a proxy for changes in rat numbers, but these figures are highly imprecise because they depend on neighborhood norms and self-reported data. If you’re seeing rats every day, are you going to keep calling 3-1-1?

Given these failures, should we even bother trying to contain New York’s rat population? Beyond carrying disease and chewing through buildings and vehicles, the spread of rats around a city reflects racial and socioeconomic inequality, with rats thriving in poorer neighborhoods with older buildings. Their presence degrades the local quality of life as rat infestations exacerbate mental health problems among residents.

In my lab’s research, we found that rats have their own genetic “neighborhoods” that loosely map onto human ones. Rats usually stay close to their birth place, often traveling a few city blocks at most. In Midtown Manhattan, better trash pickup through business improvement districts has created rat food deserts, so fewer rats live there. We should prioritize strategies that target the way rats live in the city over responding in a scattershot manner to complaints.

Ms. Corradi, who was hired in part for her “general aura of badassery,” has already pushed the city’s rat management policy in the right direction. She has experience implementing policies that reduce food waste in New York City schools. The Sanitation Department commissioner, Jessica Tisch — who famously declared that “the rats don’t run this city. We do.” — shares Ms. Corradi’s zeal. Together, they are working to mandate more secure garbage containers, enhance trash pickups in targeted neighborhoods and remove food from the normal waste system through compulsory municipal composting.

However, government programs and other top-down initiatives can do only so much. Piling plastic bags on the street will always work against our efforts to manage rats.

For rats to go away, everyone in the city — plus our restaurants, schools, grocers — must be willing to address the fundamental issue of food waste. New Yorkers waste roughly 6.5 million pounds every day, which amounts to as much as a pound per person. To really have fewer rats, New York norms of takeout and eating outside would have to change. An adult rat can be healthy and reproducing with just an ounce of food gleaned daily from greasy wrappers, napkins or food containers. But better trash collection can go a long way, because underfed female rats will simply have fewer offspring.

New York will continue to have an uphill battle in managing its rat populations. Climate change has turned the city into a humid subtropical zone, allowing rats to breed for longer periods every year and to grow as a threat to our health and quality of life. New York’s infrastructure will continue to deteriorate, creating the tiny spaces rats use as nesting sites and travel corridors. Ending the forever war on rats will be long and challenging, but we must start by focusing on our behavior, not theirs.

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