I think that's (more than just) a first

Unless I'm mistaken, facebook reports the first of Vern and Naomi's great-grandchildren is "in a relationship".  I find myself wondering with Miranda about the "brave new world" from The Tempest.  Wondering not just that the three-year-old I once twirled happily around the back yard is so grown up, but also that I can know about that from half a continent away, and even see an image of the couple within hours, all as a result of an update to somebody's database.

We all give up a bit of privacy when we use these web 2.0 thingies.  I hope we do it as in Lost Horizon, in moderation, so that we can enjoy it as if inhabitants of Shangri-La.

something else Steve does ...

I keep getting the last word in articles like this one in Smithsonian's Air & Space.

So from my entries here thus far it seems I'm partial to saving marine life forms and legal/technical tricks to keep the sun overhead at noon.

Despite being registered Republican does that make me a bleeding-heart left-coast liberal?

what Steve does ...

For a look at one piece of what I do, see what Wired is showing about DEIMOS.

The Democrats and Detroit

I think I finally figured out the enigma of the democrats going through a fruitless and inane exercise last week re Detroit. Their attempt at aiding Detroit is obviously a required payback for union help in the last election; that I figured out a while ago. But I couldn't understand why they'd be attempting political suicide; polls show roughly 75% or more of the electorate opposed to a Detroit bailout. Then the light bulb went off in my head. By going through this charade now, with no chance of success given the position of Bush and the republicans, they can say to the unions "well, we tried our best, but we couldn't pull it off." Then come January, GM will have gone bankrupt or other events will have transpired that will let the democrats off the hook with the unions. So they're not as dumb politically as I had thought.

it's like Kurosawa

On youtube, Sarah Palin gets her Thanksgiving turkey
I note this here because I'm pretty sure that I had not sat still to watch Saturday Night Live until the family reunion with Naomi at Rich's place in 1980. The local news managed to frame this scene even better than SNL. I especially like the question from the reporter about state programs on the chopping block.

congratulations MBA 339

It is about a half hour walk to get to the beach, only a little bit farther away than Gill's middle school (and during the summer days walking is faster than seeking parking).  Starting from the closest beach it is a short scramble over the rocks to the beach with Rodeo Creek, which drains our property (or at least it tries, when it can out compete the sand bar).  I've been there with the girls a lot.  The form of the beach varies seasonally, for as winter storms start up they pull out at least a meter deep of sand, which slowly returns after the storm season ends.  The full or new moon at the end of December provides one of the best times, for then the tide can be more than a meter below its usual low, and many life forms are evident clinging to the rocks.  Alternatively, during high tide and a storm the waves crash up onto the roadways, once inundating a bus.

From the beach there are always marine mammals visible.  During the season the whales sometimes come in close, and also the Stellar sea lions.  Porpoises are a pretty common sight.  Once we found a dead elephant seal.  But there are almost always sea otters basking in the sun while clinging to the kelp.  These last two were both highly endangered by human hunting.  Indeed, after the elephant seal was considered extinct a Smithsonian expedition found a handful on a beach and killed them to bring their carcasses to museums.  (In a fashion typical of humans who survive so long, one of the scientists justified his actions in a paper 30 years later.)

Today's entry is prompted by a story of successful human intervention, one of Monterey Bay Aquarium's human-raised orphan otters is now a successful mom.

I watched with disgust the hearing yesterday in the House on the possible Detroit bailout. I knew our congresspeople weren't the best and brightest, but I didn't know they were plain stupid. One after another, they showed their complete ignorance of what is going on and how they waste time and money with posturing and inanity.

We're talking here about an incredibly important matter of policy that deserves really serious consideration and incisive analysis. What penetrating questions did our congresspeople ask? Several of them asked about their own cars and the problems they had getting service. Others wanted the Detroit CEOs to say they'd use any money they got to support their dealers (and of course one of the many structural problems Detroit has is too many dealers), as if Congress wasn't capable of crafting a law that would accomplish that. Others harped on protecting the workers (i.e., unions), whose refusal to share the pain is, of course, a major part of the problem.

I wanted to throw up, or move to Canada (or somewhere). You don't believe it's that bad? Watch some of the hearing and decide for yourself.

I've been going around telling people I voted for McCain because he's white. That isn't true, but it's interesting to see people's reactions. Usually, there is a look of disapproval, but politeness keeps people from saying what many of them are thinking, namely "you're a racist!" For those who actually wish to discuss the matter (not including most liberals, who have trouble cogently defending their positions), I point out that 90% or more of blacks voted for Obama because - lo and behold - he's black. So if I'm a racist, so are most of those black voters.

Is that true? I don't think so. The problem is that the term "racist" is now commonly used to discredit any contrary viewpoint on any subject that involves race. But human beings are wired to belong to groups. We have an ingrained affinity for our alma mater, our country, our fellow employees, etc., etc. If I vote for a citizen from my home state because he's from my home state, that doesn't mean I hate the candidate from the other state.

If I vote for the white (or black or brown or whatever) candidate because his color is like mine, that's not racist. It's racist if I vote against a candidate because I don't like people of his color. Put another way: If I always vote against a candidate who is black, regardless of qualifications, I'm probably being racist. If I always vote for the white candidate because I think he'll do more for people like me, I'm probably not being racist.

Why is this important? Because laws and regulations involving race are legitimate only if they deal with and attack real racism, not if they simply reflect white guilt and political correctness. The latter are no more than restrictions on liberty and individual choice that impose the will and views of one group on another without any compelling societal justification. And to boot they too often produce irrational and unintended results.

You gotta break some eggs

If your schooling included Chaucer's Canterbury Tales then you recognize the name of my street.  Over half a century ago this neighborhood was one of the largest chicken ranching areas in the state.  The local historians tell stories explaining how chickens and the very deep lots around here are related.  Our residence is one of many which was built in the back yard, the chicken yard, behind an earlier house along the street.

Along the street there are still some large vacant lots, the biggest of which has long been owned by the county with the intent of creating a park.  Recently there has been some progress toward that goal.  Last year the county demolished a former childcare center and two houses of inferior quality.  This month they demolished the penultimate set of tiny residences formerly inhabited by the farm hands.  All of these had been rented out by the county for years.  But one moderate-sized residence of obvious quality remains on the site.

It was always evident that the elementary school attended by the girls was named for a young man who died too  young.  Neither of the girls was told that story in the school.  It became clear by combining two things.  First, the county outlined the plans for the park.  The house remaining on the park site will become part of the park -- it was the house owned by the parents of the boy who died.  I found the second part at the school fundraiser.  I asked the retired principal, who had started teaching there before I started school.  She pointed out that the current board chair and music teacher was the son of the dead boy's sister, the grandson of the house owners.

What about the eggs?  With a few exceptions all the chicken ranches moved to the central valley.  As a result of Proposition 2 in the election this month those chicken ranches are in today's news.  Soon we get to vote with our dollars.  Cage free eggs from California?  Or cheap, large-scale eggs trucked in from elsewhere?

Murder Capital of the World

Based on Rich's expectations, I'm suppose that the local news will prove a rich source of inspiration for entries in this blog.  I'll start.

Anyone who comes for a visit here will find a place where the redwoods meet the beaches, raptors and coyotes patrol the meadows, deer and bobcats patrol the forests.  Today's news shows a darker part of the past -- our local paper once styled this place as the Murder Capital of the World.  The article is written by one of the young staffers of the paper who had to consult the archives for content.  (The sad state of local news in general is that there aren't any reporters left who have any seniority or first hand experience of the past.  They've all been let go as part of the newspapers business model changing to giving away the news in URLs.)

That era was still being remembered when I arrived here.  The homicidal epithet was trotted out again when Kiefer Sutherland (lately of 24) was around town filming The Lost Boys.

Things are better now.  There haven't been any mass murders lately.  I'm not so sure about the vampires.

administrivia

Here is the blog, hosted courtesy of google's blogspot and blogger.  I'm pretty sure that this provides the lowest barrier for entry to those who, unlike me, don't already have more online identities than I can count.  We can move to a new site later if we find that preferable.

Getting a blogger identity is relatively easy, it is the same as a google account.  That identity does not require getting a Gmail address or calendar (although it opens the door to those options); it can be based on any existing e-mail address.  I don't have the URLs that lead to the google account handy, but I think they are only a few clicks away from anyone who is reading this.

I have no affection for the current theme and layout, but I also have insufficient exposure to art to want to manipulate the CSS that provides the style.  I'm willing to add anyone else as a blog admin as well as a blog author, so if you have notions for HTML/CSS that would make it prettier then come right along and change it.