Sushi Semantics

Thank you for the article on bluefin tuna ("Maguro Madness," Cover Story, Feb. 4) and the need to preserve the species. Bringing this type of issue to light is the most important value of Metro and other "alternative" publications. However, in discussing this issue with a group of people this weekend, there is still confusion. The Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch, probably the most popular source of guidance on the subject, agrees that we should not be eating bluefin tuna. But it also shows yellowfin and bigeye tuna as having the "market name maguro." So, is there "avoid" maguro and "good alternative" maguro? What would be very helpful for all your sushi-loving readers would be a list of sushi items that are OK to eat. Then we simply know to avoid all else. Keep up the good work,

Russ Biswell
Campbell

Battery Assault

Elon Musk is a mixed bag ("Why Tesla's Elon Musk Could be the New Preston Tucker," Mashup, Feb. 4). He founded SpaceX. It is privately funded. It launched a satellite into orbit on its third try. That's truly amazing. Based on that success NASA gave them a contract to resupply the space station. The contract is worth billions.

The Tesla car company is, it seems to me, the mixed bag part of Musk's ventures. One of the claims for it is that it is much more effective in the use of a barrel of oil than any other transportation competitor. To prove that claim, Tesla used a source for generating electricity that is twice as efficient as the normal source. Tesla cooked the books to make that claim; it's just not true.

To make the Tesla go, they build a battery pack. That pack at last look contains over 6,000 ittty-bitty batteries. The battery pack weighs almost 1,000 pounds. The Lotus that the battery goes into weighs about 1,800 pounds with an IC engine. It weighs 2,500 battery powered. The cost of the battery pack must be very expensive to buy the components for, very expensive to put together, and it will be equally expensive to replace.

Tesla's decision to build their own body and chassis for the four-door is mystifying. It will be incredibly expensive to build a car from scratch.

SpaceX achievement is remarkable, Tesla's are questionable.

Bob Lockhart
Santa Clara

Free Mt. Hamilton

Every winter there are a few weekends on which hundreds of excited children all over town are bundled up in coats, boots and mittens and are driven toward Mt. Hamilton by their parents, all of them anticipating a fun day playing in the snow that is beckoning from the hilltops. Every winter the killjoy CHP is waiting for them there at Hall's Ranch, below the snowline, to dash their hopes and turn them away.

The reason for the road closure is cited as inadequate parking and limited turnaround areas. Fair enough. But it seems like it ought to be within our power to design some system which would allow San Jose residents to enjoy these rare opportunities.

What about a few buses to shuttle folks up to a suitable area? On weekends doesn't VTA have more limited service that would leave some of those new smaller "community busses" free for alternate service?

John Galt
San Jose

Recall Recoil

Today I joined countless others in helping Madison Nguyen's No Recall campaign. Wow, talk about a turnout—wall-to-wall cars in the parking lot and people in the headquarters, all to walk precincts (yes, in this weather!) and/or phone-bank for someone they deeply believe in.

 

It was good to see that she has so many supporters who know that she cares about and serves all people in District 7 and San Jose in general. Her decisions may not make everyone happy all of the time (what councilmember does?), but her heart and head are in the right place, for her constituents.

I only wish that we taxpayers who don't live in her district but have the "honor" of helping to foot the special election's sizeable cost could also go and place our vote.

Tina Morrill
San Jose