How Old Is Yosemite Valley?

Above, an early morning view of Yosemite Valley. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

It was while I was in fourth grade that I first learned about Yosemite National Park in California. It was there that I learned about Yosemite Valley and the prominent mountain formations such as El Capitan, The Three Brothers and Half Dome.

Scientists have been studying the formation of Yosemite Valley and have new estimates on its age and how it was formed.

An article in the Lake County News begins with:

BERKELEY, Calif. — First-time visitors to Yosemite Valley gape in awe at the sheer granite wall of El Capitan and the neatly sliced face of Half Dome, aware, perhaps vaguely, that rain and glaciers must have taken a long time to cut and sculpt that landscape. But how long?

Did it all start 50 million years ago, when the granite through which the valley cuts was first exposed to the elements? Was it 30 million years ago, when data suggest canyons in the southern Sierra Nevada began to form? Did the valley only begin to form after the Sierra tilted toward the west some 5 million years ago, or was it mostly due to glaciers that formed in a cooling climate 2 to 3 million years ago?

Geologists from the University of California, Berkeley, employed a novel technique of rock analysis to get a more precise answer, and concluded that much of Yosemite Valley’s impressive depth was carved since 10 million years ago, and most likely even more recently — over the past 5 million years. This shaves about 40 million years off the oldest estimates.

Rivers performed the initial carving in a preexisting shallow valley, they determined, and then both rivers and ice contributed recently.

While the scientists are unable to be more precise, the new estimate is the first to be based on an experimental study of the granite rocks in and near Yosemite, rather than on inferences based on what was going on elsewhere in the Sierra Nevada.

To read more, go here. 

Classic Rock Music Monday

The stuff that now passes as "music", particularly rock 'n roll, leaves me cold. So, to start off the week, here's a video of a classic rock artist.  

Here's is the audio video of the English band, Jethro Tull performing "Cross-Eyed Mary" in Berkeley, California in 1971 from their Aqualung album of the same year. The band is still active today. To go to their official website, go here.

Liberal Lunacy: Berkeley Bans Natural Gas

The Looney Left Report

Each time I see a story like this coming from the People's Republic of Commiefornia, the more glad I am that I moved out. The lunatics have taken over. No wonder people are fleeing the state.

The latest comes from Berkeley (or, as some call it, Berserkley).

From Daniel Turner of Fox News:

From sanctuary cities to brutally high taxes, California is the undisputed center of gravity for today’s far-left. If you want to see how liberal policies would look on a national level, you don’t have to imagine it. You can just look at the thousands fleeing the once-great state. 

In the latest chapter of California’s descent into liberal madness, the city of Berkeley – a hotbed of radical liberalism – became the first city in America to ban natural gas from new homes and businesses, including restaurants that use natural gas for stoves. 

Environmentalists are reportedly hailing this development as a major victory, and it might not be an isolated incident. More than 50 other cities in California are considering following Berkeley’s lead. 

While it’s unsurprising that Berkeley – a city that’s already banned plastic straws – would ban natural gas, that’s little consolation to the citizens who have not yet fled. 

Natural gas is a critical fuel used by homes, both for cooking on gas ranges and for heating. Berkeley’s new law hurts homeowners both by depriving them of freedom and by forcing them to use more expensive alternatives, notably electric stoves and heating. 

There are major advantages to gas cooking. Those include finer temperature control, quicker temperature response times, easy cleaning, and reliability when the power goes out. Ask anyone who watches the Food Network or who works at a restaurant whether they’d like to use a gas range or an electric range.

A friend in Southern California wrote:

Nearly everything in the homes here is gas.  I pay $34 a month for gas.  If these morons get their way, we would have to revamp everything and the guy that built our house lives next door and talked to us and said not to go solar - it will never repay the cost of putting it in, even after thirty years.  These people are insane! 

I couldn't have said it better!

To read more, go here.

Prosecute Them For Sedition!

18 U.S. Code § 2384 - Seditious conspiracy 

If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

From riots brought by Black Lives Matter, UC Berkeley radicals and others to Barack Obama's "shadow government" by sabotaging the Trump Administration and the financing of these and other acts by radical billionaire George Soros, it is time to arrest and PROSECUTE these conspirators under the sedition statute of the United States.

As National Review wrote:

From time to time over the years, the eminent historian Daniel Pipes has lamented that treason, not just as a crime but as a concept, appears defunct in the West. The question of bringing treason charges against jihadists has been raised from time to time. Often its very asking proves Dr. Pipes’s point: Most radical Islamic terrorists are not American citizens; as to them, treason is not a cognizable offense because traitorous conduct is central to the crime.  

Even against American jihadists, a treason charge is of dubious usefulness. The 1996 overhaul of federal counterterrorism law codified crimes tailored to terrorism that are easier to prove than treason. The aim of an indictment in a national-security case should be the surest route to the severest sentence. The point is not to teach a civics lesson, regrettable as our education system’s default has been in that regard.  

Yet what is true of treason is not true of sedition. There are charges to bring against those who would destroy our society. They should be brought. Case in point: the University of California at Berkeley. 

As our National Review editorial observed in the aftermath of this week’s Berkeley rioting, “there is within the American Left an increasingly active element that is not only deeply illiberal — fundamentally opposed to free speech — but also openly violent.” I’d further contend that the problem is not confined to this increasingly active element that is not only deeply illiberal — fundamentally opposed to free speech — but also openly violent.”

I’d further contend that the problem is not confined to this increasingly active element, the Left’s “progressives in a hurry.” Whether it is Berkeley or Benghazi, it is standard operating procedure among the most influential, most allegedly mainstream Democratic politicians to rationalize rioting as mere “protest.” In their alternative reality, violence in the name of sedition is “free speech” — a passionate expression of political dissent — while the actual political speech they so savagely suppress is the atrocity.

If evidence turns up that former President Barack Obama is involved in the sabotage of any federal agency by bureaucrats left over from his administration and/or aiding unlawful "protesters", then he should also be prosecuted and jailed if found guilty.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/444596/berkeley-riots-sedition-laws

Homophobic, Racist Xenophobes Riot At Berkeley

It seems like the late 1960s and early 1970s all over again. Except for one big difference. Last night, fascist mobs rioted at UC Berkeley and there were no police to be found.

Where was Governor Jerry Brown during all of this?

According to Fox News Opinion:

The birthplace of the free speech movement has become its graveyard. 

Hundreds of liberals rioted at the University of California Berkeley Wednesday night -- burning stores, throwing Molotov cocktails and clashing with police.

The rampaging mob forced the university to shut down an event featuring gay conservative firebrand and Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos. 

“I’m outraged that Milo has been given a platform at UC Berkeley, and there should be no place for him here,” visiting assistant art professor Samara Haplerin told the Daily Californian. “He should be scared that people aren’t going to stand for this.” 

Ironically, Milo had planned to deliver remarks defending free speech.

Back during the riots of the late 1960s and early 1970s, then-Governor Ronald Reagan put an end to the violence at Berkeley with the National Guard and Highway Patrol.

President Trump is considering cutting off federal funding to the university. If the fascist mobs and their supporters thought Gov. Reagan was tough, they ain't seen nothing yet!

To read more, go here. 

"Jimi Plays Berkeley" Coming July 10

Source: Sony Music Entertainment

'Jimi Plays Berkeley' Coming July 10th

Experience Hendrix and Legacy Recordings are proud to announce three very exciting releases coming up on July 10, 2012. A restored and newly expanded edition of the magical performances from Jimi Plays Berkeley, on Blu-ray and DVD is coming up on July 10! This edition premieres more than 15 minutes of previously unseen documentary and performance footage of Hendrix classics including "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)," "Machine Gun" and "Hear My Train A Comin'" not featured in the original film release. Also included is a 5.1 surround stereo soundtrack! In addition, the second set from May 30, 1970, will be released on CD and on 200g (All Analog) 12" vinyl as Jimi Hendrix Experience: Live At Berkeley (The Second Set). As if this wasn’t enough, Legacy Recordings will release the Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Child film for the first time on Blu-ray. Pre-Order Now »