A small business owner on Ross Avenue pleads his zoning case ...

Hinga Mbogo pleads his case

Hinga Mbogo?s professional fate rests in the hands of the Dallas Plan Commission, a group of appointed officials that deal with zoning issues.

Mbogo, who emigrated from his native Kenya in the 1970s, has run a car repair shop on Ross Avenue for many years. He has a reputation for honesty and fair dealing, which is a good thing for Bryan Place-area residents who need their cars fixed.

City Hall powers-that-be have informed Mbogo that he and his modest business, which sits next to Dallas ISD headquarters on Ross, are no longer welcome. The strip is now zoned for redevelopment into apartment buildings, restaurants and shops. The real estate community and its City Hall agents refer to Ross Avenue as a gateway to downtown Dallas that needs to be brightened up. (Translation: We need to make some money.)

A couple of months ago, I wrote this story ?about Mbogo?s struggle to maintain his business despite this push for ?progress.? ?After getting word from City Hall that he was being zoned out of existence, he swallowed hard and then coughed up several thousand dollars to appeal the zoning decision.

Mbogo will plead his case before the plan commission at a hearing scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Thursday, June 6. He will represent himself and tell the story of a small businessman and African immigrant who came to America to make something of himself.

Proponents of upgrading property values along Ross Avenue will say the city has given Mbogo plenty of time to move his business to a new location or make other arrangements for himself. But it?s just not that easy for a 60-year-old guy to start new. He just wants to make it to retirement in a few years.

The Mbogo case is important to contemplate. He is emblematic of hundreds of minority (read black, Hispanic and Asian) immigrants who arrived in Dallas starting in the 1970s and found buildings abandoned by white business people who left the inner-city to chase suburban customers.

This is a moral and ethical issue. Is it right to shoo them out of their stores and offices along Ross Avenue or Jefferson Boulevard in Oak Cliff just because bankers and real estate developers have the power to target their neighborhoods for redevelopment?

Source: http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.com/2013/05/a-small-business-owner-on-ross-avenue-pleads-his-zoning-case-before-the-dallas-plan-commission.html/

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Aiming To Make You More Productive, Focus@Will Launches A Music App For iOS

I've always been impressed by people who can listen to music while they write. I mean, I'll do it every once in a while, especially when one of my co-workers is being particularly distracting, but in general I've found that music just slows me down. Well, there'a startup called focus@will aiming to solve that problem, and today it's following the launch of its website and Android app with the release of an app for iOS.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/ATQIUbYVVoA/

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A look at HBO's Family Tree | Schmoes Know?

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by Josh Macuga

Get Your Place In The Family Tree

I watch a lot of TV. I personally don?t think there?s anything wrong with that, but I?m sure my mother in the 5^th grade disagreed, hence the rigorous summer reading program. Seriously my Mom treated summer reading like NFL players treat their off season workout plans, arrests outside mini malls and club girl pregnancies. But that?s another story for another day. The reason I bring up my Mom and television is that I recently started watching HBO?s new show Family Tree starring the ever charming and average guy next door, Chris O?Dowd.

I have absolutely no idea where O?Dowd was before Bridesmaids, but he?s killing it right now. He?s got a face like that lonely dog in the neighborhood that everyone loves, which makes him just the right amount of attractive to be a loveable loser down on his luck searching for meaning. That was perfect casting by Christopher Guest.

Did the promo sell the show? No. Am I a HUGE Christopher Guest fan? Sure? I mean if I said no, the collective GASP in Schmoeville would be heard from that hot air balloon the dude in the RedBull suit jumped from. (Congrats on falling to earth bro, nice flat brimmed hat) I obviously can?t overlook what Christopher Guest did for the comedy community. He perfected and basically invented the Mockumentary genre and paved the road for The Office, Parks and Rec and Modern Family, for which John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer should sacrifice their first born to Guest.

What Christopher Guest has cleverly and intelligently done is make fun of Britain in his own weird way. He pokes fun at the absurdity that is the monopoly held by the BBC and invented characters that are all in their own ways very real and TOTALLY absurd. None more than his best friend Pete Stupples played brilliantly by, again nobody I?ve ever seen before, Tom Bennett.

This dude is the breakout star of the show and his name is Pete Stupples! Pete Stupples?! Pete friggin Stupples!! If my girlfriend cheated on me with a guy named Pete Stupples I?d throw myself into traffic. Pete Stupples works at a zoo shoveling sh*t, as is said in the show, however in reality I?m pretty sure Christopher Guest went to a zoo and saw a man with a name tag that read Pete Stupples and thought? ?it writes itself?.

The reason I was inspired to write this is because of the two episode rule. If you?re not familiar with the two episode rule it reads as such: if the show still blows after two episodes it?s gonna blow forever. There are always exceptions, but I?d give the two episode rule a solid 97% success rate. The pilot episode was a bit slow, but the 2^nd episode is good like an afternoon tea at a whore house and now I?m hooked. Looks like HBO did it again and Christopher Guest continues to hold court as King of the Weird. Even if you don?t like British comedy, which I do not, this show makes fun of British comedy while being a British comedy. Which is something very difficult to do and even harder to sell and lobby to British actors. I?d give the show thus far 4 out of 5 Schmoes? so there?s that?

Hugs and Fit Birds,

Josh Macuga ? follow Josh on twitter @joshmacuga

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Source: http://schmoesknow.com/a-look-at-hbos-family-tree/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=a-look-at-hbos-family-tree

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Fast-moving New Mexico blaze causes evacuations

PECOS, N.M. (AP) ? A fast-moving fire in New Mexico's Santa Fe National Forest prompted evacuations of homes and campgrounds, threatened cabins, and closed a state highway Friday.

Officials asked residents in 140 homes ? mostly used for the summer ? to leave as crews battled the 3.1-square-mile blaze near the communities of Pecos and Tres Lagunas, about 25 miles east of Santa Fe.

They also evacuated campgrounds and closed trailheads around Pecos, Las Vegas and Santa Fe as they worked on containment lines in hopes of preventing the fire from moving toward the capital city's watershed and the Tres Lagunas community.

Officials said the fire doubled in size by Friday afternoon and was still totally uncontained. That prompted New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez to declare a state of emergency in San Miguel County to free up state funds to fight the fire.

New Mexico State Forestry spokesman Dan Ware said the evacuations came after the fire jumped state Route 63.

"Fire activity is picking up this morning, and because of expected high winds, low humidity and increasing temperatures, the spread potential is high," Ware said.

Officials said a downed power line ignited the blaze Thursday. It's the first major wildfire this year in New Mexico, which is in its driest two-year period in nearly 120 years of record keeping.

"It has been a slow start to the season, until this point," said State Forester Tony Delfin. "Now we expect the conditions to go on until the monsoons come or the weather changes the pattern."

Martinez said about 40 people, mostly hikers and campers, have been evacuated from the area.

Meanwhile, firefighters gained ground on a wildfire in the mountains north of Los Angeles. Crews took advantage of cool morning weather to make progress Friday, but scattered flames continued to climb hillsides.

The 2.2-square-mile wildfire was 15 percent contained, and as many as 500 firefighters hoped to make further progress before the day turned hot and dry, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Nathan Judy said.

A flare-up prompted authorities to briefly evacuate about 25 homes along a canyon road in the Angeles National Forest in the morning, but residents were later allowed to return.

"Right now the fire's not doing a whole lot. It's just making small runs here and there," Judy said. "There's no large fire front."

He said the blaze was burning near power lines, although utilities reported no damage.

In New Mexico, a helicopter helped with efforts to secure the western perimeter of the fire Friday morning, but it was grounded by late morning due to high winds.

Nearly 300 firefighters were working on the blaze, which was being fueled by winds from the north and northwest.

Duane Archuleta, forest fire management officer for the Santa Fe and Carson national forests, said if winds pushed the blaze toward an area that burned in the 2000 Viveash fire, it might help efforts to contain it.

"The fire could run and hit that ridge and kind of die out on that ridge," he said.

No structures had burned and no injuries were reported, but the fire was burning near Tres Lagunas, an upscale community of cabins and vacation homes.

"They're really working that hard and holding onto that," Archuleta said.

Among those evacuated were a group of seventh-graders staying at the Panchuela Campground.

Some homeowners in the Pecos Canyon area couldn't reach their houses Thursday because emergency crews had closed state Highway 63.

Tracy Bennett, manager of Hidden Valley Ranch guest ranch north of Pecos, said he evacuated his four guests as soon he saw smoke Thursday.

"The power's out and with all this going on, it's just unnerving," he said Friday as he watched the blaze from the roadblock.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fast-moving-mexico-blaze-causes-evacuations-164157954.html

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SmartThings opens up its home automation platform to developers

To say SmartThings' Kickstarter campaign was a success is an understatement: the Internet of Things outfit, which offers a clever array of home automation sensors, routers and smartphone apps, raised more than $1.2 million (over four times the company's original goal), nabbed over 6,000 backers and quickly sold out of its first batch of kits. Naturally, the company isn't stopping there -- it's making good on its goal of providing an open-source platform for developers, as it announced the availability of its Developer and Inventor Toolkit. Now, interested parties can create and develop their own SmartThings, and can collaborate with like-minded folks to come up with even more ways to take advantage of the platform. Additionally, it supports several types of wireless standards, such as WiFi, Bluetooth, ZigBee and Z-Wave, giving it interoperability with various home automation systems.

As a refresher, SmartThings connects a large number of household items -- appliances, automatic door locks, thermostats, humidity sensors, presence sensors, power outlet switches, IR remotes, secret bookcase doors and plenty more -- to a central router which then can be controlled through a smartphone app. Thanks to the openness of the platform, the number of use-case scenarios is rather significant, which certainly makes it more appealing to users. If you're interested in learning how to get started, head below to the press release and go here to get the whole enchilada of information.

Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals, Mobile

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/30/smartthings-developer-toolkit/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Arizona mom Yanira Maldonado out of Mexico prison; drug allegations dropped

Yanira Maldonado, who was charged with smuggling drugs in Mexico, is reuniting with her family after a week in jail. She was released shortly before midnight. NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports.

By Erika Angulo, Gil Aegerter and Erin McClam, NBC News

Yanira Maldonado, the Arizona mother held nine days in Mexico on suspicion of drug smuggling, was back on American soil Friday after she was released from jail and into the arms of her husband.

?I?m free. I?m free. I?m free,? she said, beaming. ?I was innocent.?

Maldonado, 42, was in Mexico with her husband for a funeral and was detained May 22. Soldiers said they had found 12 pounds of marijuana taped under her seat on a bus that she was taking back to the United States.

She was released after court officials reviewed security footage, also seen by NBC News, that showed the couple boarding the bus carrying only blankets, bottles of water and her purse.

With a shrug, she told reporters Friday in Arizona: ?Someone smuggled those in there, and I probably sat in the wrong seat.?

Maldonado, who was born in Mexico and is a naturalized American citizen, shared a long embrace with her husband, Gary, thanked her lawyers and was driven back across the border. She said that she would return to Mexico, but not for some time.

Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake posted on Twitter late Thursday that the U.S. consul general had confirmed Maldonado?s release.

Maldonado and her family had proclaimed her innocence ahead of her release.

?I just want to be back home right now with my family, my kids and my husband,?? Maldonado told Miguel Almaguer in an interview that aired Thursday morning on TODAY.

"I wanted to find a way out, and I?m telling them I?m innocent, I?m innocent. I keep saying what happened, and I?m still here, so I just have faith in the Lord.?

As Arizona mom of seven Yanira Maldonado's court hearing on drug smuggling charges begins in Nogales, Mexico, she is speaking out for the first time, saying her "spirit is good," but she just wants "to go home." NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports.

Maldonado and her husband were married a year ago. She said before her released that she believed she may have been set up at the military checkpoint, where soldiers initially accused her husband of smuggling the marijuana before detaining her instead.

Soldiers staffing a checkpoint stopped the bus in Hermosillo, about 170 miles from the U.S. border.

NBC News' Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.

Related:

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This story was originally published on Fri May 31, 2013 4:56 AM EDT

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Whale Baleen Bends and Weaves to Snag Food

Baleen in a flowtank showed that it naturally twines together when water rushes through to create a net that efficiently strains food. Marissa Fessenden reports.

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Baleen allows the non-toothed whales to strain seawater for their fish and crustacean prey. Alexander Werth of Hampden-Sydney College in Virgina avoided a Jonah-like journey and still managed to analyze how baleen works.

Two kinds of whales sport baleen. Balaenid whales, such as the bowhead, have long, springy plates with a delicate fringe. They filter water continuously. Groove-throated whales such as humpbacks have dense baleen that looks like a folded accordion. They gulp water to feed.

For the tests, Werth submerged racks of humpback and bowhead baleen in a flow tank. Plastic beads represented food. As water streamed by, filaments from neighboring baleen plates naturally twined together and trapped the beads. The bowhead's long fringe formed the more effective filter?perfect for catching tiny krill. But the humpback baleen still nabs plenty. The study is in the Journal of Experimental Biology. [Alexander J. Werth, Flow-dependent porosity and other biomechanical properties of mysticete baleen]

If you?re going to be a massive carnivore without teeth, evolution has to be especially creative.

?Marissa Fessenden

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast]???

Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=whale-baleen-bends-and-weaves-to-sn-13-05-31

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