Levi Strauss had no children, but his company’s success provided his heirs with a fortune that they are funneling into a vast trove of local charitable acts. Walter Haas Sr. married the daughter of a Strauss nephew (a Stern), ran Levi Strauss & Co. for nearly 30 years, and set an example of community giving that his children have exploded into vast proportions. The five largest Haas foundations now hold well over a billion dollars in total assets. The largest, the Evelyn and Walter Haas Jr. Fund, has given away $268 million. Bay Area residents may not realize the extent of the family philanthropy that gave the city Stern Grove, turned a toxic military base into the beautiful Crissy Field waterfront, built SF’s Museum of Modern Art, kept the Athletics in Oakland, brings college opportunities to low-income students, funds gay and lesbian causes, and is about to transform the Presidio campgrounds with $15 million. Some of their larger gifts carry the Haas name, such as the significant UC Berkeley funding, but the Haas family likes their privacy. They give to progressive organizations, they give to disadvantaged children and women, they give to improve the region immediately around them.

A genetic study of cats has shown that felines were domesticated in “Fertile Crescent” of the Middle East at around the time agriculture began. They liked our rodents. We didn’t. It was a perfect match. The study comes to us from the Cat Genome Project.

Some YouTube highlights from this year’s Glastonbury Festival (“the largest greenfield music and performing arts festival in the world“): Dame Shirley Bassey wraps up her set with 10 minutes of pure diva power (and this diva is 70 years old!). Bjork and her killer all-female brass band perform Hunter. The Who, always amazing live, energize Who Are You? while sheets of rain pour down on the crowd. The oddest of the bunch, Rufus Wainwright and his band dance along to his cover of Judy Garland’s Get Happy. And if you want to see the sea of tents and mud that was Glastonbury 2007, catch a few minutes of “Getting out of Glastonbury 2007 in 5 minutes” wherein a coupla blokes video their drive out from the festival grounds.

The Julliard Manuscript Collection is a Flash-based online library of original manuscripts, sketches, engravers proofs, and first editions from folks like Mozart, Bach, Brahms, Wagner, Mahler, and yes, Beethoven.

Here are two Muppet items resulting from the San Francisco “Muppets, Music and Magic” event. First, Gonzo and “friend” (puppeteer) Dave Goelz answer a few audience questions captured in this 3 min 42 sec video. Second, the Chronicle took the opportunity to take a look back at “The Dark Crystal” and “Labyrinth.” Both movies have risen above their box office failures as fans return via DVD to visit the dark and complex world that Jim Henson envisioned in the style of the Brothers Grimm.

DIY glass milk bottle lamp. Don’t just recycle, re-use.

A parking meter that calls you when your time is almost up? Next up, crank calls from a parking meter.

FlavH20, a flavored water, has been out for a few years. BevNet updated their review to cover some new flavors and I noticed the unique plastic can. It’s got a plastic bottle body with an aluminum flip-top. Coca-cola tried out a similar “recyclable plastic can” in the 1980s. A few others have used the packaging since then but it’s an eye-catching differentiator rather than a trend.

Photos from the South Lake Tahoe fire from the San Francisco Chronicle. The Tahoe Daily Tribune’s continuous coverage page charts the devastating facts. Approximately 2,500 acres burned, 225 homes and structures destroyed, and 1,095 men and women fighting for full containment, currently estimated for July 1.

When architect Philip Johnson passed away in 2005 his New Canaan, Connecticut property became, by prior agreement, a part of the National Trust. The Glass House, in which Johnson lived and died, and the other structures on his 47-acres are now open to the public. Completed in 1949, the modern Glass House is complemented and supported by the Brick House which holds the mechanical systems for the clear, minimalist structure. Visitors are compelled to consider the carefully planned landscape and their own part in the transparency and reflection of the architect’s own home. Tours are already sold out for 2007, but tickets are being sold for next year. (sources: AP, Connecticut Post, Stamford Advocate, Washington Post)