Cat: 90%
Cow: 80%
Mouse: 75%
Fruit Fly: 60%
Banana: 50%
How is the above possible? Simple, all DNA is the same. It is the order that is different.
Also, if you go back far enough, you'll find that all life that we know about on Earth started with the first molecule of DNA that made the leap from so-called non-living minerals to living minerals. Then, it diverged and diverged and diverged, and it continues doing so today.
Just a few very tiny differences in the order of the letters in the DNA code can make all the difference in the world between different organisms.
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DAILY MAIL: WHITE EUROPEANS AND WHITES IN THE EUROPEAN DIASPORA ARE ONE BIG FAMILYYup, most of us are related to each other and spring from the same ancestors.
As we've reported before, about half of all Whites can find Charlemagne in their family trees.
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CITY LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS FOR CHARTER COMMITTEE
The CM PRESS is in favor of a properly written charter. However, we think the Council is making a tactical mistake in forming the committee with such a tight leash by the Council. This method just gives too much ammunition to the opponents of a charter.
Here's the relevant portion of a column that we sent over to the Daily Pilot more than a week ago (which the paper never published), with our ideas for how to form a charter committee:
How should charter committee members be
selected? If the council makes all of the selections, many voters will
claim that the committee is stacked.
Fortunately, we have an example in our daily lives of what,
with some modifications, might be a fair way to select committee members: the jury selection process.
With the juror selection process idea in mind as a general guide, we think the Council should consider doing something like this: Have a committee of 15 members with 20 alternates.
Let the council members each select one person to be on the committee. This person can and should be an advocate and stand-in for the councilperson. That's five members. Then, put the names of all others, who meet certain basic qualifications, in a hat and let the city clerk pull out 30 names. The first ten will join the already selected five to be the primary members of the committee. The second 20 will be alternates, and the order of the picking of their names will determine which alternates are to step in to take the place of primary members if necessary.
The reason to have so many alternates is because under this quasi-jury system--which lacks ordinary jury controls--some primary committee members may simply not show up, or may miss too many meetings, or show bad faith, or demonstrate a lack of ability to work with others, or may lack the intellectual capacity to do the work at hand, and may have to be excused. In addition, if any primary committee member misses three meetings, they should be replaced by an alternate.
This system should have a facilitator to keep things on track. # # #
COSTA MESA HIGH SCHOOLS--YEA! WE'RE NUMBER
Geez, CMHS ranks 1150 and Estancia ranks 1703 out of 2,000 high schools and the goody-two-shoes are sounding as though this is great. Sigh.
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STEPHEN HAWKING BACKS BOYCOTT OF ISRAELI ACADEMICS
Thinking people are starting to question the treatment of the Palestinians.
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WHO'S MINDING THE STORE IN LOOSEY GOOSEYVILLE?
At last night's City Council meeting, the Council voted 5-0 to buy 435 new desktop computers, at a cost of $358,110, to replace all desktop computers used by City employees.
The vote to make this purchase was based on a staff report that seemed vague and maybe a little misguided.
For example, on the first page of the staff report we read:
"The City currently has about (about?) 435 desktop computers throughout every City owned facility. Many (How many?) of these computers were last upgraded around (around?) 2003 and are beyond their life expectancy." (Emphases by CM PRESS and our questions in red)
Then, the report shows the computers being bought are Hewlett Packard Elite 8300 models. The problem with this is that there are many 8300 models. Some are all-in-one models and some have towers. Some have this and some have that. Now, it may be that someone on staff studied all the data sheets on the various models, but we bet the City Council didn't do that and probably doesn't know what it is they're buying or why they're supposedly needed.
Furthermore, common sense and best business practices dictate that you do not replace every computer at the same time in an organization. Instead, you usually replace no more than 1/3 at a time. So, you'd replace 1/3 this year and maybe 1/3 next year or the year after that and the last 1/3 after that. This way, you're always getting the newest technology.
And, do ALL employees need the newest and most powerful computers? What about employees that mostly just do word processing? What about employees in the maintenance yards?
The staff report also doesn't say what is going to happen to the 435 old computers.
BTW: The CM PRESS has now made a formal public records request to see the inventory list of existing desktop computers and records of when they were purchased. We'll let you know what we learn.
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IF THE ABOVE HAS YOU FEELING A LITTLE QUEASY, CHECK OUT THE VIDEO *OF THE MEETING, DURING WHICH ELEANOR EGAN ASKS SOME SERIOUS QUESTIONS ABOUT HOW THE CITY IS GOING TO INVEST OUR $40 MILLION DOLLARS
*[As of publication time, the Council meeting is not yet up on video, but it should be up later today HERE.]
When you watch the section with Ms. Egan, see if you can keep thoughts of Bob Citron, the City of Bell, and the embezzled millions from the NMUSD from just popping up in your mind. No, we're not saying that anything is wrong with what staff is asking the Council to do, but we do think Ms. Egan is asking the right questions and is sounding a proper cautionary note.
And, remember, the present Council is now pointing fingers at past Councils for the employee compensation mess that we now find ourselves in. But, is the present Council, itself, now engaged in the same loosey goosey do whatever staff says way of doing things? Let's not get into a position where future Councils will be pointing at the present Council because of poor investment strategies and use of our money.
Folks, the City Council has to do more than just rubber stamp everything that staff puts in front of them, and they have to stop simply relying on staff and volunteer committees to do their thinking for them. And, with regards to this investment of our money, the recommendations apparently came both from a volunteer committee of citizens and staff. But, the Council is ultimately responsible.
One of the major points that Ms. Egan brought up was that it seems imprudent to put all of our $40 million with one investment firm. She also questioned various specific provisions of the actual contract with the investment firm, which, according to Ms. Egan, seem to be at variance with the summary in the staff report. Folks, it is important that the staff reports correctly reflect what is in contracts, because the City Council members may simply rely on the staff reports and not read the contracts.
You can see the problem. If something goes wrong, and we lose our money, the Council will point at the committee and the committee will point at staff and staff will point at the Council and everyone will say that they're not responsible.
The way things generally happen in the real world with investments is that it often takes a few years for things to be discovered if they're going wrong. And, at that future time, the present Council may not even be on the dais and the volunteer committee may no longer exist. So, after the people who have helped invest our money have gone happily down the road, and someone then discovers that the investments made weren't good ones, who is left holding the bag? The citizens of Costa Mesa. Oooops. Time for more taxes, because someone wasn't minding the store and was spending our money like drunken sailors.
Folks there is a general principle that goes like this: You can always delegate certain of your authority, but you can never delegate your responsibility.
So, who is responsible--who has the ultimate fiduciary responsibility--to the citizens of Costa Mesa? It is the City Council.
We realize that the Councilmembers are part timers and that they all have jobs that take up much of their time, but we still believe that they have to ask the hard questions of staff so that mistakes aren't made.
And, one thing seems to be certain about investments: Don't put all your eggs in one basket.
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