2013-03-30

 

Vae Viator37


BBB Maxella Trash Fix??

The photograph above documents the situation at the Maxella AV and Lincoln BL stop on their number 3 Line.  It is the sort of work one would expect from the LACMTA.  They taped or caused to be taped shut the aperture in the plastic pipes associated with power poles.  These pipes were used as improvised trash cans. BBB N.B. The stop still needs a trash can!

Su Topo will lead every post with the above until BBB corrects the problem.

White Line Incursion Series 

Su Topo uses video to highlight the problem of scofflaw drivers endangering Metro bus passengers yet, no authority seems to want to take ownership of the problem.  The issue is not unique to the particular site which this Mole documents, but is illustrative of a general problem.  Your Mole encourages you to report similar problems to the appropriate agencies in your area(s) and hope that you will have better luck than he.  In the youtube.co videos linked below one can see exactly what happens when the policing agencies fail to enforce traffic laws.

The videos linked below document that, and this is important, a never ending stream of vehicles fail to use the lane as required by law. 

Neither are the policing agencies active when it comes to protecting us by bringing these obvious and frequent traffic law violations to an immediate halt.  The LACMTA is derelict as well, in that they fail to use the near hourly proof of the violations captured by the on board cameras, mentioned here and discussed at length in the posting of 2012-05-31. 

In the following video we can see two (2) vehicles cross the white line and cut ahead of a bus which has stopped to discharge passengers.

Su Topo feels that it is appropriate to dedicate each one of these vehicles to two specific agencies.  So, in sequence, the scofflaw cars are dedicated to (1): Airport (LAWA) Police & the L.A.P.D. and (2) the L. A. County Sheriffs Department & Mr. A. Leahy who is CEO of the LACMTA.

Which CEO could easily have a composite of these incursions created from the on-board cameras and show it to the policing agencies mentioned above while serving donuts and coffee.  Then simply ask them to solve the problem for you.  But you were probably already thinking along those lines, right?, Mr. Leahy??

But wait, there is more!  Virtually every time the 111 bus makes  a stop at Airport BL and 96th ST, cars, taxis and etc., are always ready to cut in front of it.  On this trip it is a Yellow Taxi followed by a civilian car.  The dedications remain the same, i.e., to (1): Airport (LAWA) Police & the L.A.P.D. and (2) the L. A. County Sheriffs Department & Mr. Art Leahy.

Here are the top 15 Metro systems in the world; which city do you think is NOT represented?

<<Les jeux des enfants ne sont pas jeux.>>  

Michel de Montaigne: (1533-02-28~1592-09-13)
[The games of children are not games.]

 The Mole reads the papers and other things, obviating the necessity of your doing so.

The Los Angeles Times covered (Lelyveld) "the good old days" with an article which drew on the reminiscences of an 88 year old man. I have found a link to the piece, it is available in the Works Cited section of this post. One woman at a talk about the old days commented how riding the trolleys felt like "a big-city thing to do."  It is a nice piece, but, however great the Red Cars were they were not rapid transit.  Had a predecessor to the LACMTA actually visited a big city and learned how things were done, then today we might already have a subway to the sea and a rapid transit link to LAX.  The LACMTA, more frequently than not, takes an anachronistic approach to transportation development.  Large cities require rapid mass transportation.  We can see that the plan for a Broadway streetcar is itself an anachronism; which plan calls for a linkette which this Mole sees as too short, too expensive and unnecessary.

The New Yorker featured a piece(Mitchell) entitled Street Life in which the author travels around Manhattan and the Buroughs documenting what he sees.  Su Topo felt an immediate affinity with this writer, a staff member of the New Yorker from 1938 until his death in 1996, who traveled by bus on his excursions. He describes riding the subway and leaving the station “… and get on the first bus that shows up going in any direction and sit on the cross seat in back beside a window and ride along and look out the window at the people and the flowing backdrop of buildings. He goes on to describe his bus rides, I frequently spend an entire day on New York City buses, getting off at junction points and changing from one line to another as the notion strikes me and gradually crisscrossing whatever part of the city I happen to be in. I might ride in a dozen or fifteen or twenty different buses during the day.  Mr. Mitchell does a good deal of walking in addition to his bus riding.  It is great writing, illustrated with some photographs taken in an America which no longer exists; I encourage everyone to read the article.  Copies can be found at our wonderful, city and County libraries.  Dont forget National Library Week, April 14~20, 2013.  Neither should we forget the hard-working librarians and staff who provide service these important venues.  April 16, National Library Workers Day, is the day during the week devoted to them.

This is from CNN, but since I read it from the bottom of the screen crawl, I will count it as a “Reads” item.
Anderson Coooper’s 360 broadcast on 2013-03-25 was describing how little progress has been made in the promised “bullet train”.  It turns out that our “Bullet Train” [I’ll pause while you laugh] is the only such project and as such, it qualifies as being the farthest along.  This is your Mole’s summary of the items covered, not Anderson Cooper’s nor anyone else from CNN. 

It turns out that after more than four (4) years and an expenditure of $12 BILLION, there are no bullet trains; one of the projects discussed was in Washington State.  What they accomplished after spending $0.8 BILLION was to speed up the train from Seattle, WA to Portland, OR by 10 minutes.  One person commented that it was faster and cheaper to ride the Greyhound bus for that trip!

Oh. The crawl said “Billions spent on projects, little to show for it.”  Can you think of another agency to which that crawl might apply?  This Mole can.  :-)

Su Topo does quite a bit of work as he travels by bus.  The germ of the idea which led to his being able to store bus schedules on his mobile phone sprouted on a bus which had no schedules aboard.  AND the fact that schedules could be opened and read from metro.net, but could not easily be saved for later reference.  So here is ONE solution to the problem:

How to make up for the deficiencies in the Metro app

Well, one deficiency anyway.  Viz., not being able to down and retain schedules to the iPhone.  If the metro app could so this it was a well kept secret.

 First you must go to the app store and download at iBooks app.

Once it is installed you can follow these instructions to down load any schedules.

  1. Set the URL in Safari to www.metro.net

  1. In the left column under the large circled M select Maps & timetables.

  1. Navigate down and select the grouping which subsumes the route for which you want a schedule.  E.g., to select a schedule for the 40 Line, fist select the To/From Downtown Los Angeles, the 1-99 grouping.

  1. When that grouping appears, navigate down to the 40 Line and select it.

  1. Quickly now, when the open in iBooks appears in the upper right portion to the screen (right under the search entry block) press it.

Open in iBooks”♪


  1. Above is a sample of the what you can expect.  I missed it at first because I wasn't expecting it, but you are prepared! :-)

  1. So after you download your schedule one by one you can access them by clicking on the iBooks icon, which icon appears as below.

 
iBooks icon

  1. The books don't have covers so in order to find the correct schedule in your pdf library when you see the bookshelf view (Figure i) below,   place your finger on an empty shelf and make a downward sweep gesture, then you will see the screen shown in Figure ii.


 Figure i

 




Figure ii

 
  1. Press the three lines next to the four squares and you will be presented with a listing view as shown in Figure iii below.  To display a view sorted by Line number, press Categories which is visible on the lower right of figure iii.

 
Figure iii

 
I grant the LACMTA and anyone else as well, use rights to my methodology detailed above, limited to points 1.~9,  BUT, they must include the following in any use Thank you LA Metro Mole! http:lametromole.blogspot.com in any description of the methodology.

¿Musica? Lets listen to Mariachis Reyna de Los Angeles with Guadalajara. This is a beautiful and talented group of women! I saw them perform Guadalajara on Univision on March 7th 2013, around 7:00.

Thank you Groove Shark!  You can find lots more music by the Mariachis Reyna de Los Angeles here.  www.groveshark.com

 Ear (and Eye) to the Rail 

Cautionary Note: Those employed by the LACMTA should NOT view the following videos.  The speed of the trains in the videos, because they are truly rapid transit, their quietness, the clarity and sound level of the onboard announcements will likely make you dizzy, nauseous and frighten you.  Additionally, the concept of having a DIRECT LINK to the airport should place you in a state of cognitive dissonance, which occurs when two cognitions complete.  Cognitive dissonance results in the case where Cognition 1, It is impossible to directly link a city to its airport and cognition 2, many cities are directly linked to their airports”.  The Los Angeles Times

One can learn more about cognitive dissonance here.  But again, I must caution LACMTA management and staff that they should not try this sort of psychological study at home and definitely not without the involvement and guidance of a trained professional.

What people headed to the airport want to hear is one seat, one ride not what we are forced to say here in Los Angeles, viz., at minimum, three seats three rides. 

Here is a link to a ride on the CTAs(Chicago Transit Authority) Orange Line to Midway Airport.

Youtube.com, thank you so much for complementing my words with videos!

 Thank you too, eyetube21for the download!

 
While the LACMTAs latest plan for an asymptotic approach to LAX, is to wait years until they can build yet another bad idea, the Crenshaw Line, which is, as usual, more Mass Transit NOT Rapid Transit which falls short by quite a good deal, as always, of actually arriving at LAX.

You can see one version of the plan here:

Whether it is a current plan or not is somewhat immaterial in that if the plan does not discharge passengers at LAX terminals, it is simply a lie to call it transport to the airport.


Cosmology

High speed gas moving at near light-speed?  Please see this article.
 
 

Following this link will provide you with information about the Schwarzschild radius, the point at which something cannot escape being swallowed by a black hole.  The black hole at the center of our galaxy is estimated to be 3 to 4 million times the size of our sun.  Some black holes are thousands of times larger than ours! 


The Mole rides again, so you dont have try and figure out exactly where you are in the system and how to get back to your missed station.

(All times are expressed in the 24 hour system.)









Japan Rail Station Signs
 

Shown above is a typical rail station sign seen in Japan.  They all follow a similar format but may vary somewhat in size, type style and other details.  Here we have a picture of a modern sign from a rail line in Tokyo Station.  It is written using English and two versions of Japanese: Hiraga and Kanj (Chinese Characters).  The two topmost characters indicate Tokyo.  To the extreme right two smaller characters indicate Yama-Ku or Yama Ward the district which subsumes Tokyo Station.  Below Tokyo we see five Hiragana characters which spell out Tokyo, intended for school children so they can find their way to their home station.  Below that is an arrow which shows the station from which you have come -the prior station, written in Kanji, (in the left body of the arrow) and the next stop on the line, written in Kanji, (in the right body of the arrow, near the arrowhead).  Below the Kanji for the prior station (Yūrakuchō) is Yūrakuchō written in English with some diacritical marks to help with pronunciation, this is intended for foreigners.  The same pattern repeats for the next station, Kanda.  Finally, on what I will call the foreigners row, between Yūrakuchō and Kanda we see Tōykō.

 This sign is information dense with something for almost everyone. Above we had a link to a packed commuter train some passengers of which cannot see much due to the crowding but they have on board video signs and clear well enunciated audio announcements to help them navigate.

You can understand why this Mole finds the LACMTAs idea of signage risible. Now had the LACMTA been truly professional when the original Blue Line was designed AND had it been staffed by professionals we would likely have more meaningful signage system wide. 

Also, we would not have such a jumbled MESS of light rail which is mass transit but NOT, with the exception of the Green Line, rapid transit.

Then too, we might have a design that linked some lines at logical points without the necessity of the Downtown Compactor, er, I mean Connector.  This project is pouring good money after bad, it is totally unnecessary and will be unable to provide a one seat ride in all but the most unlikely scenario. California seems to be prone to building mass, not rapid transit lines; this is probably due to several factors: (1) the lets build the cheapest thing we can and then tell everyone how great it is; (2) the real transportation expertise reside east of the Mississippi River; and (3) politicians play a role in design that is out of proportion to their abilities to make a positive contribution.  Now the Crenshaw Line is in some stage of building and what do we find?  That although the route and station locations were pretty much laid out by the LACMTA, the people dont like it!








 
Hawthorne/Lennox? Where is it, exactly?


2013-03-05 On board a 40 Line bus: Now, here is an example of ineptitude and lack of regard for its ridership by the LACMTA.  The 40 Line has a short-line version which is NOT shown on the map below. The bus leaves the ITC and follows La Brea until it becomes Hawthorne BL, then instead of dropping passengers at the Hawthorne Green Line Station, it turns left on to (I believe, this is from memory) 111th Street, travels east on 111th St. to Prairie where it turns right and follows Prairie to Imperial at which point it turns right and heads west to Hawthorne, where it turns right and heads north until it drops its passenger load just short of the Hawthorne Green Line Station. 

Some detour huh?  If you are not confused, some passengers certainly are because the stop at Lennox and Hawthorne is ASAS announced as Connection to the Green Line [in that same laconic voice that is patched in on other routes]  which I worked out to mean that we arent going to be at the Hawthorne Green Line Station in say the 2~3 minutes which it will normally take, so you had better get off here and walk about two LONG blocks if you dont want to face the convoluted trip that the LACMTA has in store for you!

A reliable source gave me a brief explanation as to why the short-line route had to be what it is; in short, it is more convenient for the drivers.  This Mole believes that the short-line should NOT make any left turns after Lennox, rather it should proceed to the Hawthorne Green Line Station, drop its passengers and then do whatever it has to, to position itself for the return trip.  People riding this bus in the time periods around 7:00 need to get to work, not loop around blocks and have their precious time wasted.  This useless pattern seems to be modeled on the needlessly loopy 232 Line.

What about it Mr. Leahy?  Cant you focus your organizations best and brightest minds on routing buses in a way that makes sense to your ridership?  Why dont you ride some of you buses and learn what we experience on a daily basis?  ¡Tenemos muchas quejas!

 I arrived at the LAXCBC and left my bus at the usual drop-off area on the south-west corner of the island. That is, Bay 14 in the layout diagram below (Sourced from: http://www.metro.net/riding_metro/maps/images/green_aviation_lax.pdf ).

2013-03-12 The Green Line is stop-and-go.  The operator makes only a single too brief unintelligible announcement.  By watching what happens I come to understand that we are single tracking.  I transfer to the Silver Line (Its a bus), face standing room only and wonder why they dont use articulated buses on this run.  I am standing in front of a woman who is holding a baby in a basket on her lap.  Playfully, the baby pulls at the blanket which serves as a shade.  The woman tells her neighbor that she is taking the baby to a hospital for an operation.  The neighbor asks, Its not serious?  The woman answers with her expression, that it is serious.  Your Mole feels a wave of emotion and moves away.  Such a cute small baby, such a sad thing.

Returning on the Blue Line a young child reads to her mother from a book; both smile. There is joy in life, although it does not always counterbalance the sadness.

 
Current LAXCBC Layout


Pictured above is the LAXCBC layout as it exists today which has not been updated to reflect the current situation so I borrowed it.  The LACMTA is not known for many things but, incremental improvement should be near the top of the "We are not known for the following" list.  This means that they dont revisit operational areas, with an eye toward making improvements, e.g., updating this particular document to show that the 42 and 40 lines no longer serve Bay 13, it is the 102 line which does stop here.  In the layout above you can see that Bay 14 is relatively far from any Metro Bus Bay which often results in a run along the entire length of the island only to be refused entry to the bus you want to ride or worse yet, to have the driver pull out just as you near her vehicle. 

There are too many of this a sort of driver, one who derives pleasure from inconveniencing passengers.   

 
Proposed LAXCBC Layout

 Your Moles proposed LAXCBC layout is shown above.  After correcting the 42/40 vs 102 Line changes, I moved the Culver City #6 stop from Bay 10 back to Bay 9.  This move frees up Bay 10 to be a more centrally located drop-off point.  Which point offers a shorter average distance to other bays and a greater likelihood of being able to board your ongoing bus without running.  Importantly, the proposed drop-off area offers a much shorter distance to three out of the four other Merto buses which stop at the center.   Su Topo has carefully thought through his recommendations and although he has anticipated some minor complaints about the proposed layout, none are insurmountable.

At a time early enough to be considered rush hour, my Blue Line train turns around at Wardlow Station which is far short of Downtown Long Beach.  This should be noted under the rubric Metro working for you, but not very well.  It seems that the pasajeros ALWAYS come last!  About twenty of us wait on the cold platform for the train which will cover the final distance.  Your Mole thinks broken system, broken journey.

 In la Taupes travels he often is able to capture 1,000 words in a picture which tells a story, here are some of those pictures.



Basura at Sepulveda and Santa Monica Boulevards

Here, at the busy bus stop located on the south-east corner of Sepulveda and Santa Monica Boulevards one finds yet another overflowing trash container.  Is this a stop serviced by a contractor?  Then it is a failure of the LACMTA to properly supervise its contractors.  Or is it simply a failure of the LACMTA to keep these areas clean? 


 
Bus shelter incursion at Airport BL and Westchester Parkway

A bad day for the drivers of two vehicles which crashed sending one of the cars into the bus shelter.  It would have been a much worse day for any people who happened to be waiting at the stop.

 Not satisfied to passively view this photo, your Mole suggests that, after too many unnecessary deaths at bus stops, bus stops be protected by barriers such as the ones linked aqui. 

 Thank you! to the Whole Building Design Guide, a Program of the National Institute of Building Sciences whose site hosts the photo and where one can find lots of related information. Please see: 
 
 
 

Century BL and 405 Fwy Exit 42B

Caltrans is, your Mole believes, responsible for cleaning up these areas.  And a cleanup is badly needed at this Inglewood exit from the south bound 405.

This mess in Inglewood has also been featured in the 2013-01-01 post.  Please take special note of the Cow Path photo.  At this point some clean-up has been accomplished, but much remains unchanged.

 
Century BL and 405 Fwy Entry ACROSS from 42B

Too, cleanup is badly needed at this Inglewood freeway access to the NORTH bound 405 diagonally across from the junk, which is depicted above, at the 42B(?) exit.

 
LAXCBC Palm Fronds on the Roof

 Speaking of poor clean-up, this photo can bookend the one above, which shows the basura at the Sepulveda/Santa Monica bus stop.  Both brought to you by the agency which has lots of money to waste on projects which contribute not an iota to passenger service and/or comfort, e.g.,  on-time buses, restrooms at transit centers, clean bus stops and etc., but they spend freely on window dressing, NextBus, oops, NexTrip comes to mind.

 2013-03-20 Early: I ride to the (still unclean) ITC and change to a 40 Line bus, which is headed to the Hawthorne/Lennox Station.  The ASA inexplicably announces the Lennox Av stop as Green Line Connection in a much less than pleasing drone and does so again when we arrive at the actual as Green Line Connection. 

This Mole has finally understood that the LACMTA has been thrown into an even deeper state of confusion by their station renaming program.  Someone who obviously doesnt have a good grasp of Los Angeles geography thinks that the Hawthorne/Lennox Station is located at the intersection of Hawthorne BL and Lennox AV and so designates the stop Green Line Connection.  Yet a few minutes later there is a real Green Line Connection so that stays in, too.  If only they rode mass transportation, but then again, that would probably not do it either.  As Ive said before in other ways, this is not a Primero Clase organization umm, maybe ¿quinto clase?

2013-03-27 Whenever I see a passenger like the one pictured below, you know, relaxed and uncaring about others, I cant help but think back to my time in Japan.  There, even small children know that they must remove their shoes if they are going to stand or place their feet on the train/bus seats.

 

Sobre La Silla
 
Imagine an nicely dressed lady who uses the same seat on which this guy placed his feet.  Imagine that he has gum or dios knows what on his shoes and it ruins her dress?  Got the picture?
 
2013-03-28 early morning:  Your Mole arrived at the LAXCBC and moments later a civilian car drives in and parks diagonally across two of the entry lanes, leaves the vehicle asks the driver something, undoubtly  he is lost and needs directions.  Unfortunately he is placing his passenger, who remained in the car, 
in danger as well as incoming bus passengers and their driver.  The sinage here is poor and it is difficult for people who are unfamilar with the area to figure out exactly where they can and cannot be.  Especially in the early morning darkness the signs which are only barely visable in daylight, simply disappear.

The driver leaves, after discussing his problem with the bus driver for two or three minutes.  Seconds later, another vehicle pulls into the LAXCBC and starts to go the wrong way around the central "island" sees his error and leaves.  Sooner or later these "lost" drivers are going to be involved in an accident involving a bus!

Why?  Because the LACMTA won't mark the entrance and exits so that automible drivers know that this is a "NO ENTRY" area.  Su Topo has provided a basic plan for them that is, how do I phrase this?, a no brainer (Please see the posting of 2012-01-31, "Can you see me now?").







I.D. Numbers of buses with Out of Order Fare Boxes: 8307;Note: No or few entries above do not necessarily mean all fare boxes are in operation. 
I.D.Numbers of Distracted Drivers: xxxxx (i);
None included here, but observations of a minor nature may be included in the main posting;
Codes: (i) Extended conversation(s) with passenger(s) or (ii) cell phone call(s).  Frequently, details can be found in the text above, (ii*) cell phone call(s) which are aggravated by some other action, (iii) Self-distracted.  Codes (ii*) and (iii)  will ALWAYS be explained in the posting.
I.D. Numbers of Buses Defaced by WhoIs stickers: xxxx;
~UR or +UR = (+UR) whois sticker and the ugly residue left after passengers partly remove the sticker. (~UR) = Only the ugly residue left after passengers almost completely remove the sticker. +L = an old (legacy) sticker black letters on a plain white background –these are the original form of the defacement.
* Another reason for displaying the operator's ID on the internal display and the headsign.
ID numbers of Buses whose Head and Tailsigns disagree: xxxx; xxx/xxx;
Format is Bus number followed by Headsign number/Tailsign number.
ID numbers of Buses without Braille signs: XXXX;
  
METRO drivers Basic Technical Skills Report
The format is Driver number F[{Y/-n/+n} C[{Y/N+/-}].  Meaning of F if Y the driver stopped with the Bus stop “flag pole” somewhere between the bus front door frames.  A negative number, e.g., -3 is the approximate distance in metres (think yards dear readers) between the nearest bus door vertical frame member and the flag pole signifying that the bus stopped short of the flag.   A positive number, e.g., +3 (metres) is the approximate distance between the nearest bus door vertical frame member and the flag pole signifying that the bus stopped past the flag.  The value for C[{Y/N}], “Y” tells us that the driver stopped within an easy step from the curb to the bus, “N” means it was NOT an easy step from the curb to the bus.   It is this Mole's belief that an average experienced good driver should be able to control his bus so as to position in near the curb and with the flag pole slightly to the front of the bus.  
34016 F[+10] C[Y]; xxxxx F[Y], C[Y]; xxxxx F[Y], C[Y]; xxxxx F[Y], C[Y];  N.B. distances are in metres, think yards.
nnnnn* = Contract Driver
I.D. numbers of drivers who are almost guaranteed to give you a Rough and Jerky (R & J) ride.  xxxxx;
I.D. numbers of drivers who will give you a potentially life-threatening ride.  XXXXX(-); XXXXX(-);
Codes: S = not wearing seat belts; J = bad judgment (unsafe driving practices).
  La Taupe's Abréviations
ADADO = Automatic Destination Announcement (on) Door Opening. This feature is installed on many buses and operates on extremely few.  Another “money down the toilet” LACMTA investment.  La Taupe that this is intended for the visually impaired because people who can see can read the “head signs”.
ASAS = Automatic Stop Announcement System the GPS (Global Positioning System) driven mechanism for generating audio for the upcoming stops. N.B. Because of the low power (read weak) processors used in the on-board stops may be too close to identify stops separately.  This is known as a granularity problem.  Then too, if the driver operates the bus at speed above the speed limit you will find the system “back announcing” stops which you have already passed.  I find that this will NOT keep some drivers from complaining “that you didn’t signal (ring) in time.  They don’t understand their relationship to the system and how, by driving faster than the GPS computer, they can bias it.
BBB = Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus
CC or CCMBL = Culver City (Municipal) Bus (Lines)
CCTC = Culver City Transportation Center this is the place formerly known as
 
FHMTC = the Fox Hills Mall Transportation Center (Sepulveda & Slauson)
FFE = Full Fare Equivalent (presently $1.50)
GMBL = Gardena Municipal Bus lines
ITC = Inglewood Transit Center
LAXCBC = the LAX City Bus Center.
OCTA = Orange County Transportation Authority.
Rapid Transit = does not compete for right of way, that is, it will not run at grade unless it has EXCLUSIVE DEDICATED USE of the right of way).
R & J = Rough and Jerky [ride].
TT = Torrance Transit.
T1 = the normal type of driver/staff.
T2 = is the non-stop talker type of driver/staff, on the phone or to passengers.
T3 = the uncommunicative type of driver/staff, sometimes surly.
WLATC = the West Los Angeles Transportation Center (Fairfax & Apple)
Su Topo’s Disclaimer and apologia
 Your Mole always attempts to write an easy-on-the-eyes page using text input.  Blogger.com however, has other ideas and will often not stay with a single font type or point size, produces extraneous spacing and etc.  I wish I had time to debug the HTML which they produce, it is NOT the straight text which I pasted into the form, but I don’t.  Therefore, I apologize on behalf of Blogger.com for the changes which they make, of which I do not approve.  Sometimes, what I see, thankfully you don’t, is 24 point type –it is giant and other times they swallow my text, although it still seems to be there.  In fairness to them, things seem better, although this is partly because I do understand which of their “features” do the most damage to me and consequently do not use them.  Communicating these problems to them, for me, is something like having teeth extracted without the benefit of anesthetic, actually it is less fun than that.  By their design, there is no simple e-mailing them with "Please look at my say, posting of 2009-06-28, it is weird!” I am hoping that one of their developers will someday read this, copy my code and improve their text to HTML engine.  Until then, lo siento.
Mole’s Copyright Statement
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Your Mole’s Conflict of Interest Statement
This  is to certify that I, the blogger who is known as the LAmetroMole, with respect to this blog, except as described below, am not now nor at any time during the past year have been, nor it my current intention to ever be:
1) A participant, directly or indirectly, in any arrangement, agreement, investment, or other activity with any vendor, supplier, or other party doing business with any of the entities about which I have written, which has resulted or could result in personal benefit to me.
2) A recipient, directly or indirectly, of any salary payments or loans or gifts of any kind or any free service or discounts or other fees from or on behalf of any person or organization engaged in any transaction with any of the entities about which I have written. 
Any exceptions to 1 or 2 above are stated below with a full description of the transactions and of the interest, whether direct or indirect, which I have (or have had during the past year) in the persons or organizations having transactions with any of the entities about which I have written.
There are no exceptions.
Date: 2009-06-24                  S/LametroMole
 
Works Cited
Lelyveld, Nita. “Traveling to an earlier L. A.”. Los Angeles Times. Mar. 13, 2013:1.  Print. Web. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-beat-red-car-regret-20130312,0,4034536.story  
Mitchell, Joseph. “Street Life”. New Yorker. Feb. 11 & 18, 2013:62.  Print.
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The above is  ### 30 ###  in Braille




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