I can’t help thinking about the math, as I watch the federal government fight over a budget.
One thousand seconds is just over 16 minutes. A million seconds is just over 11 days. A billion seconds is 31.5 years. And, since this number is bandied around more, a trillion seconds is 31,688 years.
The numbers are staggering and to so many of us, they are almost incomprehensible words with a hard to understand vastness. It’s hard when you see the numbers of federal spending and debt managed by people who don’t seem to understand them also. I liked Bill Maher’s comment this week that Congress spends like a broke teenager trying to fill up an empty gas tank. They pass budgets by the month? Can’t they plan better?
Some good news got me thinking about all this as well. Billionaire MacKenzie Scott donated $2 million to The Community Health Trust of the Pajaro Valley and another $2 million to Jacob’s Heart. For that, I salute her.
Loudmouth fellow billionaire Elon Musk had another view of Scott, who is Jeff Bezos’s ex-wife: “Super rich ex-wives who hate their former spouse” should be listed among “Reasons that Western Civilization died,” he tweeted and then deleted.
He proves once again you can’t use money to measure intelligence. Scott didn’t reply except to announce that she’s donating $640 million to 361 different charitable organizations, well more than twice the $250 million she pledged to give away last year.
In total, she’s donated $17.2 billion dollars to needy nonprofit organizations in the past five years, setting the bar high and wonderfully reaching Santa Cruz agencies. In years of seconds, for those who can do the math, that’s 54, a miraculous number.
This being Good Times, I’m happy to share some good news. We’ve got more in this issue. A new music festival with upcoming bands; and more great world music from Omar Sosa and Los Straitjackets.
There’s one troubling story about how live music is being shut out of some local venues and I hope that will be a call to action to let your elected officials know you aren’t happy about that. Live music is one of the best things about Santa Cruz. We have way more than cities 10 times our size and it should be supported as a community backbone.
One of the best things about the pandemic was closing streets and letting restaurants serve outside. Why take that away and why not help restaurants continue to thrive in a challenging environment?
Brad Kava | Editor
PHOTO CONTEST
SLOW RIDE Turtles sunbathing at Roaring Camp. Photo Maria Choy
GOOD IDEA
The Santa Cruz COE is hosting a contest that invites students in grades 8 and up to use AI tools to enhance their creative expression.
Whether by creating a poem, story, song, or work of art, the contest aims to showcase students’ creativity and innovation while using AI tools to supercharge their own unique style and voice. Top projects will be announced at the ThinkBig! AI & Me event on April 11, hosted in partnership with Santa Cruz Works.
Submission deadline is 4pm, April 2. For rules: sccoe.link/thinkbig24.
GOOD WORK
A previously announced 24-hour closure of Highway 1 in Capitola is postponed until April 6 from 7pm until 7pm April 7 because of bad weather.
Updated project information for the improvements on Highway 1 between the Bay Ave./Porter St. and State Park Drive interchanges can be found on the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission’s website at:
http://sccrtc.org/projects/streets-highways/hwy1/bayporter-statepark/
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“The best customer of American industry
is the well-paid worker,”
—Frankin D. Roosevelt, 1936
