Internet origins red and blue
Dear ER:
I would like to correct Bob Pinzler’s “Net neutrality and the South Bay” (ER Nov.19, 2014), especially because of the important contributions of the Los Angeles area in the development of Internet.
The Internet had its origins in an ARPA project in 1969 (it was ARPA before it was renamed DARPA), which led to a revision in 1981 using the TCP/IP protocols we still use today. Even by 1989, the NSF removed its”academic only” constraint on the backbone and allowed commercial traffic. We had an Internet well before Gore’s involvement in 1991, which, while supportive of that long evolution, was not the birth of anything. Los Angeles was instrumental in this development. The first ARPAnet software was developed at UCLA and the DNS was invented at USC.
The first browser was invented by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN, called WorldWideWeb then later renamed Nexus. Mosaic was one of the more popular (but not only) successors. The FCC’s right to regulate the Internet was challenged by the Supreme Court in January of 2014. “Common carrier” is only one of a variety of ways the Internet might be regulated, but not the only one that would be “network neutral”.
I hope this helps correct some of the minor issues with what is otherwise a useful article.
Joe Touch
Postel Center Director
Research Assoc. Professor of CS and EE/Systems
USC/Information Sciences Institute
No savior needed
Dear ER:
Recent letters to the editor, and even some ads, have suggested that the oil company, E&B, “saved” Hermosa Beach from bankruptcy.
I served on Hermosa’s City Council from 1993 to 2009. I can tell you categorically that the city never faced bankruptcy while I was on the City Council. Furthermore, in the years since 2009 there was never a monetary judgment against Hermosa Beach by any court in connection with oil drilling, much less one that threatened the city with bankruptcy from which it needed to be “saved.”
On the other hand, at least one party to the settlement agreement between E&B and the City of Hermosa Beach has considerable experience with bankruptcy.
E&B’s president Steve Layton knows about bankruptcy. In 1998, as CEO of Equinox Oil, Layton filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy following a devastating oil blowout that sent a geyser of oil and sand 300 feet into the air for 11 hours, covering more than 1,200 acres of Louisiana’s coastal wetlands in oil, according to NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. How big an area is 1,200 acres? The entire city of Hermosa Beach is less than 1,000 acres.
E&B is no savior. Hermosa Beach never required a savior.
J.R. Reviczky
Hermosa Beach
Wrong time, wrong place
Dear ER:
When we think about resource extraction – if we thought about it at all – we usually think of sparsely settled places far from cities. This was true during the gold and silver mining days in the 1800s and with oil in the late 1800s early 1900s. Thus, the (seemingly) sudden appearance of an oil boom in Hermosa Beach has taken many of us by surprise.
Like all resource extraction, oil drilling is dangerous and dirty, which is of particular importance because it is our role to anticipate and address the long term implications for the health and welfare of our citizenry and our community.
The risks of the proposed oil drilling extend beyond the houses that immediately abut the drilling site. They extend to the roads leading to the 34 wells, on which anticipated large 18-wheeler trucks will drive daily, putting everyone in danger; to the pipelines the oil will flow through; and to the underground pipes in which the wastewater will be pumped back into the well or transported for disposal.
As concerns have been raised, those opposed to oil drilling have been characterized as “NIMBYs” (Not In My Back Yard) and worse. But that’s not the case. If we look at the objections raised, we are really talking about the health, safety and quality of life, all concerns supported by substantive evidence. Are you really willing to sacrifice your health, safety and quality of life? I’m not. Vote No on Oil!
Andre Sharp
Hermosa Beach
Back to the tab
Dear ER:
Hooray and Happy New Year. My beloved Easy Reader has gone back to being an easy to read, independant local paper. When the broadsheet format came out last April, I put in a call to Easy Reader to protest. Publisher Kevin Cody Kevin picked up on the first ring and explained that he was no longer the decision maker and I was not the only reader unhappy with the huge, hard to hold and read paper.
At first I thought the January 1 edition was a special issue to kickstart the new year. Then I read, “Back to the tab” and will joyfully resume reading my favorite local paper.
Linda Smalley
Manhattan Beach
Out with the new
Dear ER:
I am a long time reader of the Easy Reader and I want to thank you for going back to the tabloid format. I was greatly disappointed when you changed your format and became part of Freedom Publications. This resulted, in my opinion, in losing the personal South Bay and Hermosa Beach community touch. As a 60 year resident of Hermosa Beach, I was so elated when I pick up today’s Easy Reader from my drive way to see the “Old” Easy Reader staring back at me. What a great way to begin the New Year. Keep up your excellent reporting of South Bay news and remember that “new” isn’t always better.
Dennis A. Tafoya
Hermosa Beach
Easy to read, again
Dear ER:
Congratulations Easy Reader. We in the South Bay are so glad to have you back, format and all. I was able to read the “punch line” under the “Making It” cartoon now that it is back to it’s full size ad full color position. “Waterfront Watershed” (ER January 1, 2015) was an excellent summation of what we Redondo-ians(?) have gone through and are anticipating. “A Real Handful” (ER January 1, 2015) by entertainment editor Bondo Wyszpolski didn’t miss a single art show that I was in during 2014. And last but not least the Tamale recipe by Meyer (Hi, Dora!) included at the end of her well written history, that as she said, must be a part of the making of her mother Carmen’s Sonora Tamales. I have been invited many times to come to the house and learn to make them. I never have and thought, “Now I don’t have to.” But I think I will take her up on the offer, as they seem like a lot of work.
Patty Grau
Redondo Beach
Happy New Year
Dear ER:
So happy to see Easy Reader is getting back to what you were. Now we just need to maintain the oil ban and Keep Hermosa Hermosa and it will really be a Happy New Year.
Phyllis Pennings
Hermosa Beach
Refreshingly restored
Dear ER:
I am so glad to have the old Easy Reader back. Ever since becoming part of that “refreshing non-liberal” newspaper group, Easy Reader was a pale, hard-to-read shadow of its former self. I’m glad things are truly back to local control.
I also hope you will expand the letters section through the March elections, considering their are two major, local issues on the ballot. And I hope there is still a wall between advertising and editorial and that the ER could act as a bit of a fact checker, even if that runs against the wishes of E&B and AES. So far, no one has had the nerve to do a real profile of the two principals in E&B, which would be eye-opening for a lot of people. Why don’t you do it?
And, as to letters, last week’s issue had a letter from “South Bay Jane”. This seems counter to your full disclosure.
Allan Mason
Hermosa Beach
Hot tamales
Dear ER:
After a fantastic week of exploring nature at Mt. Charleston, Nevada we returned home to find Easy Reader on our yellow brick walkway. We were pleasantly surprised to see Easy Reader has returned to being a tabloid we were completely awe-struck at finding the story inside about my mother’s tamale recipe.
Chuck and Dora Perez Meyer
Torrance
