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Wednesday, August 18, 2004

Africanized Killer Bees arrive in Orange County!

Now I have been hearing that the killer bees were on their way here since 1980, and I must say: those warnings were rather frightening to an eight year old. It would seem that everyone forgot all about them over the last 10 years...everyone except the bees, who were slowly making their way here. To little fanfare, they attacked last week. Nobody noticed, except for this small blurb in the Orange County Register. According to this article, they've been here since 1999. I had no idea.

Wednesday, August 18, 2004 Santa Ana bees were Africanized

Thousands of bees that boiled from a massive hive in Santa Ana last week were Africanized bees, state tests showed.

State agricultural officials performed DNA tests on the bees, which stung more than a dozen people after children threw rocks at their hive in an apartment building wall. A four-block area was cordoned off Aug. 12 while firefighters doused the estimated 120,000 bees with water. Bee exterminators followed up later.
Orange County was declared fully colonized by Africanized bees in 1999. County Agricultural Commissioner Rick LaFever said the bees' DNA is checked only after multiple-sting incidents. Africanized strains are more aggressive than domestic bees.

– Pat Brennan

I wonder if they eat mosquitoes.

Saturday, August 14, 2004

I really hope my tax dollars didn't fund this study.

NEWPORT BEACH — One of the state's priciest cities also has the lowest percentage of residents who identify themselves as multiracial, according to a report released Friday.

As usual, registration to the LA Time website is required...free and worth every penny. Other brilliant article highlights include: "Newport Beach is an expensive place to live..." and: Glendale, at 10.1%, was the "most multiracial," according to the report. The city has a large Armenian population that checked "some other race" and wrote in "Armenian" on the census form, Johnson said.

Did anybody else know they were allowed to write in "Armenian"? These census forms really need an overhaul.




Monday, August 02, 2004

I'm only $5,000,000 short of the world's coolest house. If I remember later, I'll post a picture. Until then: http://www.beachcalifornia.com/sunset7.html

A towering home in Seal BeachAn 85-foot-tall former water tower, redesigned as a tri-level residence, has come on the market in Seal Beach, bordering Sunset Beach, at $5 million.The tower, part of the water system of Huntington Beach until 1975, is also being offered in trade. It was originally built in the 1800s to store water for steam engines but was rebuilt for Huntington Beach in 1945. In 1984, it was auctioned off and turned into a home.Gerald Wallace, a retired firefighter, has owned the tower for about 10 years. He refurbished it, installing electric window shades and fire sprinklers.Other features of the tower include a third-floor observation room that doubles as a movie theater and has a 25-foot-long wet bar and a 7-foot retractable table that reveals a fire pit.The tower has two bedrooms and maid's quarters in 2,200 square feet. The kitchen has a dumbwaiter. The ground floor has two-car parking, a spa, skylights and an elevator. There are views of the Pacific Ocean, Huntington Harbour and the San Gabriel River.Mike and Vanessa Colonna at Star Real Estate, Sunset Beach, have the listing.