sfhiker.bsky.social
SF-based computational biologist, hiker, nerd. All things history/prehistory, science, tech, nature, and sustainability. Also SF and California politics.
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It's not Musk or Bezos who's keeping us from building new housing, building mental health facilities or prosecuting the bippers + drug dealers. It is our elected officials who are responsible, and we have only ourselves to blame for electing them.
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Pretty much everything we don't like about SF now -be it the cost of living, homelessness+mental health+fentanyl crisis or property crime- can be traced back to decades of progressive politics.
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We should tax the ultra-rich for sure. But if we don't diagnose the problem correctly, we can never solve it. Our problem is not lack of money. SF spends $1.2B on homelessness annually. What do we have to show for it?
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SF mayors don't have much power. It's the BoS who calls the shots. Past BoSs are responsible for many things that we complain about the city today.
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NIMBYs are not the rich. They're us, the people of SF, who voted for "progressive" politicians such as Aaron Peskin, Dean Preston, etc. SF politics has been dominated by progressives for decades. Let's not blame it on the rich.
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It's the NIMBYism that creates inequality. Artists had to move away because housing is absurdly expensive. It's expensive because we don't build enough. The Tech Boom made it worse, but it by itself is not the root of the problem.
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Ring Mountain is lovely. It's a great place to hike in any season. Would be a good to bring along a geologist. 8/end
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There are other rare species here, for example Oakland Star Tulip. 7/n
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TLM was identified in by a plant enthusiast in 1971. It is endangered and protected by the California Endangered Species Act. 6/n en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calocho...
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Luckily, I was able to find a better looking one. Doug mentioned that the TLM only grows here because of the unusual geology of the mountain. I guess the plant adapted to the high magnesium content in the serpentine soil and it can't spread elsewhere. 5/n
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They showed me a TML specimen. I was a few weeks too early, though. The flower hadn't bloomed yet -- the plant looked a stalk of grass. But they also pointed me to a trail where there are more of them. 4/n
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Tiburon Mariposa Lili (TML) blooms only for a few weeks a year, starting late May. There were a many wildflowers on the trail, but no TLMs. I was disappointed. Then I came across two Marin Parks volunteers: Doug and Belle. 3/n
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This area is interesting geologically as well as archaeologically. There are large boulders scattered around here some displaying petroglyphs carved by the Miwoks. I wasn't able to spot any though. I need to come back for it. 2/n
www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?...
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It's the local government, particularly, the Board of Supervisors, who destroyed the city, not them.
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😂
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"Lobaria pulmonaria is a large epiphytic lichen consisting of an ascomycete fungus and a green algal partner living together in a symbiotic relationship with a cyanobacterium—a symbiosis involving members of three kingdoms of organisms." [Wikipedia] 5/end
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Debris 4/
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More mushrooms 3/n
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Mushrooms #fungi #fungifriends 2/
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The downside is that you occasionally miss the calls from your dentist or doctor's office when they call from a different number.
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Check out the rest of the thread.
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...
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East Bay in the distance.
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More views...
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Flowers: seep monkey flower, coastal tidytips, poppies, hairy vetch, pacific false bindweed.
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Views...
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The preserve is in Tiburon. It's named after the church that was built in 1888. Never seen such a bell tower before. The small building next to it is the outhouse.
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SFPD couldn't do their job until recently bc there was too much oversight. It's probably back down to a normal level now. So there's accountability.
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It's a luxury to worry about privacy when the local grocery store locks up laundry detergent to prevent rampant theft; sideshows block the Bay Bridge for hours in the middle of the night; or bippers break into thousands of cars every year. We crossed that line long time ago.
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🤔
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The upside of the new tariffs will be fewer dead or wounded whales because there won't be as many ocean liners visiting the Bay. 🐳
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Sunol Wilderness.