This Week's Program: 
Mike-Harrigan -- Tesla Electric Car Story and Demo
 

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(Real) LATE EDITION

INTRODUCTIONS.  After a rousing patriotic song, “This Land is Your Land”, led by Kim Copher, guests were introduced. However our stalwart President-Elect JOHN’s face was not to be seen, for his boss at Agilent had other plans for today that didn’t include LARC. Visiting Rotarians came from as near as Niles/Fremont and as far away as Mobile, Alabama.

By offering a “free lunch” PAST PRESIDENT BOO even managed to bring along his cousin, Jim Yarner, District Governor and member of the Pearl Harbor Club. Jim encouraged us to follow the example of his District members whose donations to The Rotary Foundation average $230 from each Rotarian in the District.

Today, JACK KELLY’s guest was Dave Donahue, President of the SJSU Alumni Club. CINDY WEMYSS introduced her daughter Nicole who had competed very cleverly in last week’s speech contest. PAST PRESIDENT CINDY again introduced Bonnie Burdett, and MARLIS MCALLISTER introduced her husband Steve Silski.

ANNOUNCEMENTS.  By special request, Los Altos Mayor-Elect VAL CARPENTER announced that the city’s Special Events Policy will be reconsidered at the March 13 City Council meeting. Currently the city subsidizes 50% of use permit fees.  LAREF’s Fine Art in the Park show benefits from this subsidy which may soon be eliminated. The public, including Rotarians, are encouraged to attend the meeting and make their opinions known.

Other announcements were made by TOM LISTON who reminded us of the Los Altos/Mountain View Rotary Poker Tournament on March 9 at the Historic Adobe Building in Mountain View. Space is limited, so contact KAREN OWEN immediately if you’d like to participate. (pictures from the tournament below)

KENDRA GJERSETH represented JEANNIE MACVICAR (on safari in Africa) and encouraged us to mail in cards to establish Los Altos as a Colon Cancer Free Zone.

STEVE SHEPHERD invited us to District 5170’s April 16 Golf Tournament; it sounds like there’s a $100 prize awaiting “any team that beats us”.  

PAST PRESIDENT MARY reminded RAP members to attend tonight’s meeting at the Community House to plan for the AIDS Symposium scheduled for March 29.

PAUL NYBERG was recognized for the Town Crier Holiday Fund’s generous contributions this year of $15,000 to Partners for New Generations and $15,000 to the RotaCare Free Clinic. He thanked DICK HENNING as the first donor when the Holiday Fund was established in 2000.

PAST PRESIDENT MARLENE encouraged us to purchase $5 chances to ride along with MIKE HARRIGAN in the Tesla car he will drive to LARC next week; two winning tickets will be drawn March 15, so be sure to bring your ticket stubs and/or purchase more tickets next week. The ticket proceeds will benefit LAREF.

MARLENE also invited all single Rotarians to attend the second event sponsored by the new Rotary Singles Fellowship: dancing at the Saddle Rack in Fremont on Thursday, March 15 at 7 pm.

And finally, PREZ SAM reminded Red Badgers (and all LARC members) that they are invited to attend LARC’s Board of Directors meeting, next scheduled for 7:30 am March 14 at First Republic Bank when Rotary youth protection training will be discussed. He also encouraged us to sign up with the Prez himself for the first (and possibly the last) Club Talent Show.

Last week, Linda Ankeny, RN, OCN from Good Samaritan Hospital spoke to us about Colon Cancer.  We have put some additional information on our website.  Take a look at the Colon Cancer Fact Sheet and Colon Cancer Free Zone information.  It will eventually be linked to our new Health section of our website.

In the next few days,  you will receive an email from President SAM requesting that you RSVP to the March 29th Club luncheon. The program will be presented by the RAP Committee.  We expect to have a large number of visitors. Our caterer Frank would like to have an idea of how many Rotarians and guest to expect.  So, please RSVP when you receive this email. 

DISTRICT 5170 ANNUAL GOLF TOURNAMENT  PP MEL KAHN, STEVE SHEPARD, JERRY and BILL MOISON have signed up as one team coming from the Los Altos Rotary Club.  They challenge other teams from our Club to sign up also.  Anyone who has a NCGA handicap is eligible to play in this tournament on April 16 at the exclusive Castlewood Country Club in Pleasanton, CA.  LARC members need to complete a registration form and pay the fee of $175 to Rotary District 5170 Golf Tournament. The pdf version of the flyer is on our website here for further information.

DISTRICT CONFERENCE. PAST PRESIDENT CINDY reminded us to attend the District Conference in Monterey April 20-22. Be sure to phone the Portola Plaza Hotel (tel. 888-222-5851) immediately to secure the special room rate of $149, which will rise to $229 after March 20. This is a beautiful locale; you’ll enjoy fellowship and see fabulous “Dancing with the Stars” exhibitions. “You Otter Be There”!

RECOGNITION.  Finemaster ALAN LAMBERT called on nearly every member whose attendance is sporadic (or who has left the club), hoping to extract money, but surprisingly enough, they were almost all absent today!  Only MIKE HARRIGAN was present, and he joined the President’s Club while explaining that joining the Tesla Corporation one year ago had something to do with his difficulty in attending LARC meetings (but he will drive a beautiful Tesla speedster to show us on March 15). Finemaster ALAN put our powers of comprehension to the test with his complex description of the “game” for today with “hard/easy/pass” fining options. He actually managed to extract money from a few.  SCOTT FLEMING  joined the President’s Club for closing his first real estate deal and becoming an uncle; STEVE YARBROUGH is growing his practice and moving to the same complex as SAM HARDING on El Camino; in addition to the fine, STEVE offered $100 to The Rotary Foundation in honor of his first grandchild born yesterday to his son and wife.  JOHN MCDONALD was fined for raising the rent, according to STEVE YARBROUGH.  SHIV SHASTRI surprised us all by not knowing the definition of “palucid” (Does anyone actually care what it means?) Other unlucky folks who drew equally mysterious “hard” words to define were DAVID BERGMAN, FRANCIS LAPOLL, and KAREN OWEN.

WARMING PROGRAM NOTES. Gary Latshaw Ph.D. presented a fascinating program on climate change. His Stanford Ph.D. in Physics was recently polished by training in Al Gore’s climate change company and “An Inconvenient Truth”. Through a series of charts, graphs, beautiful photos, and summary statements, we learned some of the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found at www.ipcc.ch.

“What determines climate?” It’s the balance between incoming radiation absorbed from the sun and radiation we emit here on earth. The time delay of any change we may effect will take 50-100 years due to the massive volume of the earth’s oceans, so any steps to reduce heat production should be made ASAP.  Dr. Latshaw described evidence for “Substantial Anthropogenic Interference” is found in the CO2 content of air bubbles trapped in Icelandic ice caps formed some 150,000 years ago.  Eleven of the last 12 years rank among the 12 warmest years since 1850.  That’s scary!  What are the climate consequences of this warming trend?  More moisture rises off water and land masses, thereby increasing storm intensity and affecting the amount of rainfall. He cited Hurricane Katrina of Aug. 29, 2005 and the 2003 heat wave in Europe that claimed many lives. Our climate is subject to catastrophic, essentially irreversible events such as the melting of the Arctic ice cap and the break-up of the Larsen Ice Shelf in Antarctica. One out of every 20 people in the world live on coasts, so gradual flooding of centers like New York City, London, and of course the San Francisco Bay Area, would be disastrous. Critical related issues focus on the increasing price of gas and oil and the growing gap between our use rate and the discovery rate of new fossil fuel reserves. Does Business As Usual (BAU) make economic sense?  No, so wind power, solar and new nuclear designs should be adopted. Finally, Dr. Latshaw urged us to take action by supporting initiatives and candidates that aim to reduce heat production on earth.

And the Joke is: An old man walks up to the White House. The Marine guard meets him and asks, “May I help you?” The man says “I’d like to see President Hillary Clinton. She lives here in the White House.” The Marine says, “I’m sorry, Sir, but Hillary Clinton is not president, and she does not live in the White House.” The man thanks the Marine and walks away. Next day, the man returns to the White House and is greeted by the same Marine. The man says “I’d like to see President Hillary Clinton. She lives here in the White House.” The Marine says, “I’m sorry, Sir, but Hillary Clinton is not president, and she does not live in the White House.” The man thanks the Marine and walks away. Next day, the man returns to the white house and is greeted by the same Marine. The man says “I’d like to see President Hillary Clinton. She lives here in the White House.” The Marine says, “I’m sorry, Sir, but Hillary Clinton is not president, and she does not live in the White House. And Sir, is your memory all right? You’ve been here three days in a row, asked me the same question and I’ve given you the same answer” The man says, “I know. I just love to hear you say that!”  

Los Altos Rotary and Mountain View Rotary Poker Tournament

And the Winner is: BERT from Mountain View Rotary (of course it was their casino hall)