Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

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“Twitter has the capacity to ignite revolutions and enable small acts of kindness, but there’s also a darker side to the microblogging network,” according to Mashable.

“Floating Sheep, a group of geography academics, created the ‘Geography of Hate,’ which maps racist, homophobic and ableist tweets in the U.S. After searching for all geotagged tweets in North America between June 2012 and April 2013, students at Humboldt State University manually read and coded the sentiment of each tweet to determine if a specific word was used in a positive, negative or neutral way. In a blog post, Floating Sheep cited ‘dyke’ as an example: While the word is a homophobic slur against lesbian people, it can also be used positively (e.g. “dykes on bikes #SFPride).

“In total, over 150,000 geotagged tweets contained a hateful slur that was deemed negative. Using the data, Floating Sheep determined the ratio of hateful tweets to overall tweets in each county.

“‘Hateful tweets were aggregated to the county level and then normalized by the total number of tweets in each county. This then shows a comparison of places with disproportionately high amounts of a particular hate word relative to all tweeting activity,‘ the group said.

“Orange County, Calif., for example, has the highest absolute number of tweets containing slurs, but due to its high level of overall Twitter activity, the hateful tweets are less prominent, and therefore are not that conspicuous on the map.

“Floating Sheep has three main categories of hateful tweets — homophobic, racist and disability — under which are subcategories for specific slurs.

Click through the detailed map, here, including our area.

And for in-depth analysis of the results, read the entire blog post, here.

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I was unloading our truck in Grass Valley with our son and left my wallet and iPhone on top of the tonneau cover during the task. Fine — except I forgot to collect them before the ride home.

“Look Dad,” my son said, pointing to the iPhone sitting on top of the truck’s tonneau cover as we pulled in front of the house about 10 minutes later. OMG.

Luckily, the phone had survived the 4-mile ride from Grass Valley to Nevada City on surface streets, and the 55 mph drive on the freeway.

The wallet was gone, but we retraced the route and found it on the shoulder of the freeway near Idaho Maryland Road. I picked it up, and nothing was missing.

Do not try this at home, but I was impressed that even a thin iPhone didn’t bounce off the top.

Needless to say, my wife was not so impressed at our adventure. “I’m going to glue them to your head,” was the response.

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(Photo: Sarah Miller, Grist)

“You may have read about some hardworking, smart, and civic-minded students who, back in 2011 and 2012, fought to keep their local river park open. Fought and won, actually. Well, students from that same school, Grass Valley Charter in Grass Valley, Calif., are now on to another battle — with the help of students from other area schools, they want to push Nevada County to put a ban on single-use plastic bags and start charging for paper bags. These kids are unstoppable,” as Grist is reporting.

“They are starting their campaign in the county seat, Nevada City, and made their desires known at a Nevada City Council meeting on May 8 when several of them presented some rather sobering research they have done on the subject of single-use plastic bags. One kid talked about the Pacific gyres, massive globs of plastic waste in the Pacific Ocean, and the effect this was having on the health of the oceans in general and most acutely, on sea life. Another pointed out that Californians use 400 plastic bags every second. Another read a list of the 75 California communities that have already made similar proposed laws around single-use plastic bags and urged Nevada County to join them. Another posed the question, ‘Do you really want me to grow up in a world without sea turtles?” Who could say yes to that?’

The rest of the article is here.

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Editor’s note: Gov. Brown just slapped proponents of AB32 (the “global warming solutions” act) in the face, and at the same time, provided supporters of Prop. 23 (the failed effort to suspend AB 32) with fodder for an “I told you so” rant.

“Gov. Jerry Brown sparked controversy Tuesday when he proposed to shift $500 million out of the state’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and loan it to the state general fund as part of the effort to balance the budget,” the L.A. Times is reporting.

“The money would come from a program to limit carbon emissions by factories and other big polluters. The program allows firms to buy credits to produce more than their share of carbon emissions. The credits can be purchased from the state and other businesses that don’t use their full share.

“Lending that money would be ‘extraordinarily disappointing,’ said Kathryn Phillips, director of Sierra Club California. “The governor will be delaying opportunities to use those funds to actually get critical reductions in global warming pollution,” she said.

“If the state delays using the funds for reforestation and energy efficiency projects, that will delay the positive environmental effects of those efforts, she added.

“Brown’s Department of Finance said in a letter to lawmakers that proceeds from the cap-and-trade system were originally proposed for programs to reduce greenhouse gas that could be funded by the general fund.

‘“The loan is appropriate because the agencies need further time to design and develop their programs to ensure that when the programs receive funds they will further the purposes of AB 32 and maximize long- term greenhouse gas reductions,’ the Brown administration wrote.

The rest of the article is here.

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I got the scoop on Hotmail back in 1998. Hotmail is an old saw; gmail is “hot.”

Around here, I still see a lot of people with Hotmail accounts, however. As a result, I hope people know that Microsoft is migrating active Hotmail users to Outlook.

The details are here.

BTW, Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer is the same guy who wants to snap up the Kings and move them to Seattle.

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The 56th Annual Penn Valley Rodeo will be held on May 17, 18, 19, behind the Fire Station on Spenceville Road at Penn Valley Drive.

Admission: Adult Tickets at the Gate $15– $5 Children 6 to 12-years-old/free under 6-years-old
$10 Advance Adult Tickets online at http://www.pvrodeo.com Penn Valley Chamber of Commerce 530 432-1802.

The 56th Annual Penn Valley Rodeo comes rip roarin’ into town for a weekend of exciting pro rodeo and family fun. Friday and Saturday rodeos feature hard-bucking horses and ornery bulls of the Four Star Rodeo Company, hardy cowboys and cowgirls of the California Cowboys Professional Rodeo Association, and professional rodeo announcer Don Jesser.

Gates open 5:00 p.m. on Friday, in time to enjoy tasty BBQ with hearty cowhand fixins’ and cold beverages before Grand Entry at 7:00 p.m. Expect plenty of clowning high-jinx along with bulls, broncs, steer wrestlers, ropers and barrel racers. Penn Valley’s own Gold Express Equestrian Drill Team performs precision horseback maneuvers, and the James Slack Band rocks the rodeo with country/western tunes for listening and dancing.

Saturday’s Rodeo Parade rolls onto Penn Valley Drive at 3:00 p.m. An array of horses, horse-drawn wagons, floats, marching groups, bands, and antique tractors travel the route from Western Gateway Park to the Rodeo Grounds. All are welcome to enter the parade; there’s no entry fee just contact the Chamber of Commerce, 530 432-1802, or show up at 2:00 p.m. in the staging area of the park. Join the fun, represent yourself or bring a chair and watch the parade under shady heritage oaks.

Saturday gates open at 3:00 p.m. with a petting zoo and bounce house among kid’s attractions. Free rodeo tickets were distributed May 1st to children in Nevada County elementary and middle schools. The Snack Shack offers soft drinks and treats and the Cook House opens at 4:00 p.m. for BBQ dinner. Grand Entry is at 5:00 p.m. A rider-less horse will represent this year’s Grand Marshall, Dale Baptie, a Board Member who passed away last summer and is being honored.

On Sunday at 10:00 a.m. the 1st Annual Community Rodeo Playday begins. Admission is free. This is a day of fun rodeo and gymkhana events for all ages. Arrive early to enter your favorite events at 8:30 a.m. or enter online at http://www.pvrodeo.com. At 9:00 a.m. Cowboy Church on the Wells Fargo stage features old-time worship with Kip Holbrook and the Hale Family & Friends. Breakfast is available at the Old Firehouse from 7:30 to 11:00 a.m.

Adult tickets for Friday and Saturday night are $15.00 at the gate. Children 6 to 12-years-old $5.00/ under 5-years are free. $10.00 Advance Adult tickets are available at: Pearson Feed, The Tack Room, Caleb’s Creamery, Plaza Tire, Crazy 4 Yogurt, Wildwood Barbers, and The Farm Store, in Penn Valley. Ridge Feed and Salon 174, and Grass Valley Feed in Grass Valley. 49er Feed and Hay Barn in Lake of the Pines. The Boot Barn in Yuba City, and Cotton’s Cowboy Corral in Marysville, Tri-Counties Bank branches and Chambers of Commerce in Penn Valley, Grass Valley and Nevada City. PayPal tickets online at: http://www.pvrodeo.com. The Penn Valley Rodeo is sponsored by Bud Light, RAM Rodeo and Wells Fargo.

—Territorial Dispatch

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Editor’s note: I’ve been wondering if The Union was ever going to address this issue, in the aftermath of complaints from users on the Nevada County Peeps Facebook page earlier this month. NC Peeps is now a “closed group.”

Some seasoned journalists are exploring the issue. Vince Duffy, chairman of the Radio Television Digital News Association, discussed this with some journalist friends:



One woman said (and yes, she was warned I would quote her) – “In my view, quoting a published comment (from Facebook) is no different than quoting an author or writer of prose, poetry and the like. We do THAT all the time, and rarely ask the author for their permission!”



Another reporter disagreed – “With very few exceptions, I do not believe Facebook pages should be used for quotes without confirming the source of the comment and the context. It’s so easy to hack, impersonate or assume someone’s identity on Facebook that I just wouldn’t trust an unverified quote. To me this would be similar to quoting the bumper stickers on someone’s car – yes, it is public, but how do you know who put it there or why?”



One of the reporters who had his Facebook post published summed up the discussion well when he said, “It raises questions of privacy and courtesy, but the main problem is that it’s lazy.”


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