Do Landlords in Berkeley Discriminate Against Irish Students?

Posted on by
Reply

The short answer is No. There have been a lot of claims in social media and the press that landlords in Berkeley will no longer rent apartments to Irish students because of the balcony collapse at Library Gardens downtown that resulted in the deaths of 6 Irish college students. These stories are untrue. I have been a landlord in Berkeley for over 40 years, and nearly all my tenants are U.C. Berkeley students. I know a lot of other Berkeley landlords, and none of them blame the victims for this tragedy. It is true that there were far more people on that balcony when it collapsed than was prudent; however, engineering reports showed that the cause of the collapse was poor construction resulting in wood rot and that had the balcony been properly built, it could have supported the weight of those students. The sympathies of all the landlords I know are with the families of these students. Yes, it is hard for Irish students to rent apartments in Berkeley for the summer, but not because they are Irish. There is a severe rental housing shortage in Berkeley, and because of our local rent laws, most leases in Berkeley prohibit sub-leasing. The Irish counsel general in San Francisco has investigated claims of discrimination against Irish students in Berkeley and has concluded that these stories are baseless and has said so publicly.

Have You Ever Heard of a ‘Fatberg’?

Posted on by
Reply
fatbergLast month, I had an article about flushable products in this newsletter. Somebody who read that article suggested that I look into ‘fatbergs’. Although I think I have a fairly good vocabulary, I had never heard the word ‘fatberg’ before. A fatberg is a congealed lump of kitchen fat and flushable products. Flushable products are products that manufacturer claims are safe to flush but which do not dissolve in water like toilet paper. Fatbergs have been found in sewer pipes all over the world. They are often round and get bigger as more and more flushable products become incorporated in them, much the same way that a snowball gets bigger as it rolls downhill. Fatbergs can clog up even the biggest sewer pipes. In New York City, a fatberg weighing 10 tons was removed from a sewer pipe. Try to picture that – a hard round ball made up entirely out of kitchen fat and used baby wipes and sanitary napkins and weighing 10 tons. How would you like to have the job of removing something like that from a sewer pipe? Major cities all over the world are spending huge sums of money removing fatbergs from their sewers. Recently, a fatberg the size of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet was removed from a sewer in London! Below is a photo of an 8 ton fatberg that rolled into a turn in a sewer pipe in Sydney, Australia, sealing off the flow of sewage. I have been looking at photos of fatbergs on Google images, and I must admit that some of them look strangely beautiful. Of course, I am looking at them at a distance. I strongly suspect that fatbergs are not as pretty to look at (or smell) up close.

The word ‘flushable’ has no legal definition. Right now, any manufacturer can say that any product is ‘flushable.’ I think Congress should create a legal definition for the word ‘flushable’ just as they did for the words ‘organic’ and ‘gluten-free.’ To repeat what I said last month – never, never flush so-called flushable products.

A Trip to the Egyptian Museum.

Posted on by
Reply
I collect exceptionally badly written essays from my students. Here’s a goodie from the past:

“My family visited the Egyptian Museum in Cairo last summer. The thing that impressed me the most were these 2 giant statues of some pharaoh. There was a doorway between them. The statues were identical, especially the one on the right. I think the statue on the right must have been made first. That’s because even though the statue on the left was identical to the one on the right, the statue on the right was even more identical.”

Hmmm. I have a couple of cousins in Cincinnati who are archaeologists and who have been to the Egyptian Museum. I’ll check with them and see what they say. They are professionals, so I’m sure they will know which of these statues is ‘more identical’ than the other.

New in the Chocolate Room.

Posted on by
Reply
California Granola. I am making a new granola mix. It contains almonds, raisins, walnuts, and dates. I call it California Granola because nearly all of all the almonds raisins, walnuts, and daCaliforniaGranolates grown in the United States come in California. I have it in 8 ounce and 16 ounce jars. Most people, even people here in California, don’t realize how much of our nation’s food comes from California. Nearly 100% of the following crops come from California: apricots, artichokes, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, figs, garlic, grapes, kiwifruit, nectarines, olives, clingstone peaches, pistachios, plums, pomegranates, and strawberries.

Don’t Use Your Toilet As A Waste Basket.

Posted on by
Reply
Tossing bits of personal care products down the toilet may seem harmless. After all, there is a big drain hole under the toilet and most stuff immediately disappears when you flush it. However, just because a piece of dental floss that you threw in the toilet vanished when you flushed it doesn’t mean that it made it all the way to the sewer line under the street. It is possible that it got caught on a joint or elbow or something else in the drain line under your floor, and because dental floss doesn’t dissolve in water, it can catch other things going down the toilet until your toilet isn’t flushing at all. Remember, if a plumbing repair is the result of your misuse or abuse of the plumbing, your landlord can make you pay for that repair. When a Roto Rooter man cleans out a clogged toilet line, the hooked blade at the end of his snake brings back whatever it was that caused the clog. It is quite often dental floss. If the stuff that clogged up your drain line could only have come from you and shouldn’t have gone in your toilet in the first place, you will have to pay for that Roto Rooter visit, and those visits can be very expensive. The ONLY thing that should go in your toilet aside from human waste is toilet paper. Do not flush paper towels. Toilet paper is designed to disintegrate in water. Paper towels are designed to hold together when wet. Do not flush tampons. Some of the worst toilet clogs are caused by flushing tampons, especially the kind with a string in the middle of it. As I said, if you are flushing anything but toilet paper, it could cost you a lot of money! Also, flushing stuff that shouldn’t go in your toilet is very bad for the environment. Separating out non-biodegradable junk at sewage treatment plants is a huge expense for water districts everywhere.

IS IT SAFE TO FLUSH FLUSHABLE PRODUCTS?

The short answer is No. There are a lot of products sold in supermarkets that say ‘flushable’ on the label, including facial and baby wipes, cosmetic applicators, and cleansing cloths. In 2014, Consumer Reports tested a variety of wipes that were labeled ‘flushable’ and concluded that it isn’t safe to flush any of them. Here’s a short video from Consumer Reports explaining why: Are They Really Flushable? You should put flushable products in your trash can, not the toilet. As I said before, the only product that is safe to go in your toilet is toilet paper.

AREN’T FLUSHABLE PRODUCTS GUARANTEED?

Yes and No. Nearly all flushable products are guaranteed not to clog up your drain line; however, these guarantees are virtually worthless. All they say is this – if our flushable product clogs up your drain line, we will refund your purchase price. Now what does that mean? It means that if you pay $3 for a package of flushable wipes, and you flush them, and they get stuck in your drain line, and you have to to pay a plumber $300 to get them out, and you complain to the manufacturer about this, then they will send you a refund check for $3 – the price you paid for the wipes. They may also send you a letter of apology, but that is all they are going to send you. They won’t pay your $300 plumbing bill. None of the manufacturers of flushable products will pay your plumbing bill if their products clog up your drain line. And if you complain to the supermarket that sold you the wipes, you probably won’t even get your $3 back. The most you will likely get from them is a sympathetic letter from some faceless vice president in charge of health and beauty products telling you to take your complaint to the manufacturer. So remember – when you flush flushable products, you do so at your risk, not theirs.

Worthless Guarantees.

Posted on by
Reply
A lot of products come with worthless guarantees. Remember, product guarantees are written by lawyers working for product manufacturers, not consumers. I sometimes read guarantees on products with a suspicious eye when I am in stores. (My Uncle Maurice used to do this with me. He was good at finding dubious guarantees.) Here are 2 of my favorites. California Fire Logs. There used to be a convenience store next to Berkeley Bowl that sold fake fireplace logs. You have probably seen these in stores. Fake fireplace logs are shaped like logs but are made out of sawdust and wax. This store sold a brand called California Fire Logs. On the front label of these logs it said in a big starburst: “New and Improved! Now guaranteed not to explode in normal use.” I remember thinking: “Hmmmm. Now exactly what does that mean? If this log explodes in my fireplace and burns down my house, who gets to decide what ‘normal use’ means? Do I get to decide that or do they?” The other product is Star of India Cobra Repellent. I have a box of this somewhere in my house. This product was made in India for sale in India. On the front of the box it says: “Warranty. If our product fails to keep cobras out of your house, we will refund your purchase price.” I thought: “Hmmm. If this product fails to keep cobras out of my house, who gets the refund check? My estate?”
 

Is There Lead In Hershey Bars?

Posted on by
Reply

This is another Yes and No. The State of California is threatening to sue Hershey for failing to put Prop. 65 warning labels on their chocolate bars telling consumers that Hershey bars contain lead. Well Yes, there is lead in Hershey bars, but Hershey doesn’t put lead in their chocolate. Why would they? The fact is that all cacao beans contain a small amount of lead. As Hersheys explains: “All foods that are grown in nature contain small amounts of elements and minerals, such as cadmium and lead, which occur naturally in all soils because they are found in the Earth’s crust.” You may have seen stories in the press over the past year about this and thought about switching to a different brand of chocolate. That won’t do any good. There is a trace amount of lead in all chocolate. In addition to Hershey, California has also filed or threatened to file Prop. 65 lawsuits against Trader Joes, Green and Black, Lindt, Whole Foods, Kroger, Godiva, See’s, Mars, Theo, and Ghirardelli. There’s no decision yet. (P.S. – There is also a surprisingly large amount of nicotine in eggplant, but that’s a story for another day.)

Will Businesses Replace Workers With Machines If The Minimum Wage Goes Up?

Posted on by
Reply
It frustrates me whenever I hear politicians debating this question, and politicians debate this question this all the time. The people who claim that businesses will replace workers with machines if the minimum wage goes up usually just don’t understand economics.

The simple fact is this – As soon as a machine is invented that can do the job of a worker, it is just a matter of time before that worker is replaced by that machine. The national minimum wage is now 25% lower than it was when Lyndon Johnson was president, adjusted for inflation, but tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs since then anyway due to automation. Consider automobile assembly plants. 50 years ago, when Lyndon Johnson was president, the floor of an auto assembly plant needed hundreds of workers in order to function. Today, auto assembly plants have hundreds of robotic arms making cars with just a handful of workers. Was this because of increases in the minimum wage? No. Auto factory workers were never paid minimum wage. They always made more than that. All my life I have heard politicians say that raising the minimum wage would lead to millions of people losing their jobs, but that has never actually happened. However, this time, maybe it will. California is raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, phased in over several years. I am confident that expensive French restaurants in Silicon Valley will be able to absorb this cost, but what about businesses in the Central Valley? Cities in the Central Valley like Stockton and Modesto were poor before the financial meltdown of 2008, and they never recovered from that. Frankly, I am very skeptical that small businesses in the Central Valley will be able to pay $15 an hour and stay in business. We will see.

The bottom line is this –  regardless of whether the minimum wage goes up or not, businesses will continue to replace workers with machines as soon as those machines are invented and are practical. This is has been going on continuously ever since James Watt invented the steam engine in 1775, which kicked off the Industrial Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution had nothing to do with minimum wage laws. They didn’t have minimum wage laws in the 18th Century.

 

Can You Really Improve Your Eyesight By Eating A Lot Of Carrots?

Posted on by
Reply
The short answer is No. Although carrots are rich in Vitamin A and other nutrients, you can’t actually improve your eyesight by eating carrots. Although we don’t know the origin of most popular myths, we do know the origin of this story (a story that I used to believe was true.) The myth that people who eat a lot of carrots have excellent eyesight was started by the British government during World War 2 as a trick to fool the Germans. It wound up fooling everybody.

carrotsDuring World War 2, the British government didn’t want the Germans to realize just how important radar was to their national defense. Radar was the principle reason why the RAF (Royal Air Force) won the Battle of Britain. The British Air Ministry built a chain of radar stations along the southern coast of England before World War 2 began. Because the Air Ministry had these radar stations, the RAF knew exactly when German bombers were headed their way, and they knew it long before the planes arrived. Fortunately for Britain, neither Hitler nor Goering (the head of the German air force) understood how radar worked or how important it was. The British Air Ministry didn’t want Hitler to figure this out, but the RAF was shooting down a tremendous number of German airplanes, and the Air Ministry needed some sort of plausible explanation for this. They started running stories in British newspapers claiming that their aircraft spotters had exceptional eyesight because they ate a lot of carrots, which supposedly gave them the ability to see German airplanes at night, in total darkness, and at great distances. As preposterous as this story was, a lot of people believed it! The Air Ministry released stories throughout the war about British aircraft spotters, most of whom were women, along with pictures of them eating carrots while looking for German airplanes at night. This disinformation campaign was so persuasive that a lot of Englishmen started eating carrots in the belief that it would help them find their way around English city streets during the nightly blackouts. The story spread around the world and is still widely believed to be true. Even now, people everywhere with poor eyesight eat carrots in the belief that it will improve their vision. The truth is that you cannot improve your eyesight, cure eye disease, or develop the ability to see in total darkness by eating carrots. On the other hand – eating carrots won’t hurt. (Above is a World War 2 American propaganda poster claiming that eating carrots improves the night vision of American soldiers.) There are a lot of other commonly accepted myths that started off as World War 2 propaganda. Perhaps I will cover some of the others in the future.