Why I Live Here - Giving Guests A Great Meal And A Near Moose

We had some out of town guests - up on a cruise - to entertain for the evening.  We decided on Kincaid Grill because it's near Kincaid Park, and maybe we could find them a moose.  They seemed very pleased with the meal and I was too. 

This was my salmon - one of the evening's specials.






But we couldn't find them a moose at Kincaid.  But Glen Alps was the next destination.  We walked to Powerline trail and I did find them a couple of moose grazing way, way out in the distance that you could see in the binoculars.  Not great, but the view was spectacular along Powerline Pass and there were two moose.




And then on our way back to drop them off at their hotel, we passed a moose on the side of the road and they got as close to a moose as they could reasonably want to be.

Generally, I try to confirm people's beliefs that Anchorage is the frozen wasteland year round.  But a great dinner followed by a walk in the mountains and a near moose is one of the reasons I still live here.

I don't usually have two "Why I Live Here" posts in a row, but sometimes I just can't help myself.  

Why I Live Here - Salmon, Politics, and Food

It's another beautiful sunny Anchorage day.  Mid 70s, blue skies, like yesterday when I went for a bike ride to stretch my muscles a bit.  There were salmon coming up Campbell Creek. I didn't get a good picture with fish, but here's the creek, looking toward Lake Otis Blvd from one of the bridges. People are in the water in the background.

Then, not too far away, a group of folks were holding signs for Russ Millette who's running for governor as a Tea Party Republican.  I'd talked to Russ on the phone when I posted about his signs being defaced and this was the first time I got to meet him.  It was very cordial.  I'm convinced that if you meet the right way - and that includes being respectful - you can have decent relationships with people even if you disagree with them politically.  A lot of the acrimony today, I'm sure, is from people feeling unrespected as a human being.  And that leads to returning disrepect.  Until things are much harder to repair. 

I even suggested to Russ that his name was too small on those signs for drivers to catch as they go by.  He agreed and said Governor needed to be bigger too.  Russ in in the red and white plaid shirt.

And then, just a minute or two down the block, I stopped at Namaste, which has changed hands, to get some take out 'Himalyan' food.  

The prices might look a bit steep, but the food was delicious and the portions enough for another meal - for us anyway. 

If it looks like I'm giving Millette a lot of attention here, it's not intentional.  A lot of times I simply post what I happen to see along my path. 

The Alaska (in name only) Film Awards Shrinking List Of Winners

The 2014 'winners' are now listed for this 'Awards' scheme.  I've written about this ripoff of the name Alaska film event at length and been threatened by their attorney.

Their only link to Alaska was a "suite" at a commercial mail forwarding company in Anchorage, some of the photos on their website (and I'm not sure of their Alaska authenticity), and the names of some of their awards.

There is no festival (they did change their name to 'awards') and no showing of films.  They do tell film makers there is no festival, but the Alaska name is highly misleading and confuses people who think they are sending films to the legitimate Anchorage International Film Festival.  (To be completely transparent, I'll mention that I cover the AIFF on the blog here, the festival links to my blog, and they give me a pass to the festival.)

Below is a list of the Film Awards winners.  Note:  there is a total of eleven winners in the film competition and four in the screenplay competition.  This is a sharp decline from their 47 film awards and 15 screenplay awards in 2010.

I'd like to think this reflects more awareness among filmmakers that this is really a vanity film festival where people can pay for awards.  But it's hard to tell, since there is no list of films that were submitted.  We don't know if every film submitted got an award or not.

 

Film Competition

Grand Jury Award: A Frenchman in Barrow directed by Paul Peterson
Special Jury Award: Parallel Maze directed by Ya Hua
Kodiak Award: Slushamed directed by Marisa McInnes-Taylor and Mara De La Rosa
Denali Award: Reestablishment directed by Shi Qin
Best Narrative Feature: Let's Play Ghost directed by Damien Dematra
Best Documentary Feature: God Has Arrived directed by John Urich-Sass
Best Director: Deep Water directed by Daniel Zagaevsky
Best Narrative Short: Roulette directed by Christine Kelly
Best Student Film: Shtax'heen Kwaan: A Rededication directed by Kristin Galla
Best Music Video: Fade Away directed by Jethro Rothe-Kushel
Best of Alaska Award: The Meaning of Wild directed by Ben Hamilton

Screenplay Competition

1st Place Screenplay - "Grace" written by Lynda Lemberg and Jeffrey Allen Russel
2nd Place Screenplay - "Taco Day in Heaven" written by Paul Peterson
3rd Place Screenplay - "Polar Bear" written by Alexander Norton
4th Place Screenplay - "Zoo" written by Annemarie Lawless

I've contacted some of the winners listed here and they've confirmed that, again, this year, in order to get their prizes they have to pay for them - not a practice of legitimate film festivals.  One of the directors listed said he didn't even know his film had been submitted, let alone that it won, though he allowed that someone else involved may have submitted it.

My hope is, as I mentioned above, that the declining number of winners means film makers are more aware of scam film events and aren't submitting to them.  If you look at the film that won the Grand Jury prize, you'll see that the quality of films isn't great.  (It's apparently a student film from Barrow and as such is fine, but it's hardly a Grand Jury prize winner.  And one might ask the Alaska International Film Awards folks who exactly makes us their Grand Jury?  And even if there is a Grand Jury?  Or is that just some fancy name with no actual Grand Jury?

Some of the other winners do seem to be serious films that have won prizes at legitimate festivals and would have been accepted in the serious Anchorage International Film Festival.  A number of these films have Alaskan themes and were purposely submitted to what they thought was an Alaska based film festival.  Deep Water was filmed in Alaska as were a couple of others.    These are films that would have been submitted to the Anchorage International Film Festival where people in Anchorage would actually have been able to see them.

I should note that there are also some other, smaller, legitimate Alaska film festivals such as the Indigenous World Film Festival.

Back Into Anchorage

We flew in a little after midnight.  It's nearly the end of July, over a month past the solstice,  but it was still early twilight.  The bump on the horizon in the middle is Denali.  Anchorage is the foreground - most of Anchorage is actually to the right of the actual picture.  The 'lights' in the Matanuska Valley across the inlet from Anchorage, in the background,  are small bodies of water reflecting the sky.

A little earlier, we were over Prince William Sound and Denali and Foraker (to the left) were more visible. 

My better camera was in the overhead, so I had to make do with my Canon Powershot. It's a little grainy, but you get a sense of the magical view I had.

I'm starting to feel like my life is one continuous departure, but it was good to see my mom and, on the way home, my daughter and granddaughter and the rest of their family.

Blogging Payoffs - Getting Help On Details Of Anchorage Ice Sculpture For French Book On Carl Nesjar

I've learned that blogs can get bits of information out into the world where others can find them.  I don't have to write a book, I can just post tidbits that others sometimes find useful.

Yesterday I got an email from Dr. Thierry Kozak in Paris.  He said he is writing a catalog of Carl Nesjar - who is now 94 - ice fountains and he found my pictures and brief description of the Anchorage ice sculpture and asked for help getting more documentation.

Nesjar Fountain Anchorage - Winter

So, I'm posting this in hopes that others who know about the sculpture and its origins and history might email me to make contact with Dr. Kozak.

The book will have two parts:

Part 1:  An overview of all of the 20 Nesjar fountains in the world.  (Four are in the United States.)

Part 2:  A history of each individual fountain.  (This will be the bulk of the book.)

For Anchorage, he only has, so far, my 2009 blog post.  Below I've paraphrased some of the things he'd like to know from us about the Anchorage sculpture:

If there are:

• drawings
• preparatory studies
• maquettes (Carl often made little models of his fountains)

Also: 

• the name of the owner of the fountain [I think the Municipality owns it]
• the name of the agency who commissioned the work
• the sizes of the fountain
• the dates (commission, completion, inauguration, restoration of the monument...)
• official letters between Nesjar and the organization
• list of the authors who have written about the work

In my original post, artist Catherine Senungetuk mentioned in a comment that she met Carl Nesjar when he was in Anchorage working on the sculpture because her friend Robert Pfitzenmeier helped Nesjar build the fountain.  Unfortunately, Catherine is no longer with us, but I'm trying to contact Pfitzenmeier.

Nesjar Fountain Anchorage - Summer

I'm sure there are people in Anchorage - at Loussac Library, the Municipality, the 1% for the Arts program, the museum, other artists, the group that raised funds to restore the fountain - who can offer bits and pieces of information that would be helpful to Kozak.








Here's a bit of video with Carl Nesjar, some of his fountains, and there's even a bit with Dr. Kozak. Don't worry about it being in French. They don't say much. It's got lots of
pictures. 

 


I'm hoping people reading this will alert them about this so they can respond.  This is good for Nesjar, for awareness of northern art, and for Anchorage too.  People travel for many different reasons - to see famous sights, to see birds, to climb mountains, etc.  I imagine that there will be people who come to Anchorage to see the Nesjar sculpture when the read about it in Kozak's book.  At least it will be one of the reasons they come here instead of somewhere else.



It's always rewarding to learn that someone, somewhere finds the scraps I'm posting to be useful. 

Blogging Payoffs - Getting Help On Details Of Anchorage Ice Sculpture For French Book On Carl Nesjar

I've learned that blogs can get bits of information out into the world where others can find them.  I don't have to write a book, I can just post tidbits that others sometimes find useful.

Yesterday I got an email from Dr. Thierry Kozak in Paris.  He said he is writing a catalog of Carl Nesjar - who is now 94 - ice fountains and he found my pictures and brief description of the Anchorage ice sculpture and asked for help getting more documentation.

Nesjar Fountain Anchorage - Winter

So, I'm posting this in hopes that others who know about the sculpture and its origins and history might email me to make contact with Dr. Kozak.

The book will have two parts:

Part 1:  An overview of all of the 20 Nesjar fountains in the world.  (Four are in the United States.)

Part 2:  A history of each individual fountain.  (This will be the bulk of the book.)

For Anchorage, he only has, so far, my 2009 blog post.  Below I've paraphrased some of the things he'd like to know from us about the Anchorage sculpture:

If there are:

• drawings
• preparatory studies
• maquettes (Carl often made little models of his fountains)

Also: 

• the name of the owner of the fountain [I think the Municipality owns it]
• the name of the agency who commissioned the work
• the sizes of the fountain
• the dates (commission, completion, inauguration, restoration of the monument...)
• official letters between Nesjar and the organization
• list of the authors who have written about the work

In my original post, artist Catherine Senungetuk mentioned in a comment that she met Carl Nesjar when he was in Anchorage working on the sculpture because her friend Robert Pfitzenmeier helped Nesjar build the fountain.  Unfortunately, Catherine is no longer with us, but I'm trying to contact Pfitzenmeier.

Nesjar Fountain Anchorage - Summer

I'm sure there are people in Anchorage - at Loussac Library, the Municipality, the 1% for the Arts program, the museum, other artists, the group that raised funds to restore the fountain - who can offer bits and pieces of information that would be helpful to Kozak.

I'm hoping people reading this will alert them about this so they can respond.  This is good for Nesjar, for awareness of northern art, and for Anchorage too.  People travel for many different reasons - to see famous sights, to see birds, to climb mountains, etc.  I imagine that there will be people who come to Anchorage to see the Nesjar sculpture when the read about it in Kozak's book.  At least it will be one of the reasons they come here instead of somewhere else. 

It's always rewarding to learn that someone, somewhere finds the scraps I'm posting to be useful. 

Happy Birthday To Ropi, And Alex

And everyone else who shares a July 24 birthday.

This image comes originally from a wonderful painting by Andrew Glass.

Insect Art

About the artists:

Adult leaf miners can be moths, beetles, or flies, and the tunnelling patterns of their larvae vary depending on the nature of the insect. For example, an aspen serpentine leaf miner creates winding or meandering tunnels whereas a birch leaf miner creates large blotches. Serpentine miners are also known to attack herbaceous perennials such as columbine. For most deciduous ornamentals, leaf mining has a negative effect on appearance rather than on plant health. However, leaf miners also attack an array of vegetable crops and can have a detrimental effect on yield due to defoliation. They are particularly damaging to vegetable crops in which the leaves are consumed such as beet, spinach and Swiss chard.

A little more about the artists - they work in British Columbia.  These pieces are from summer 2014.   (There's some photoshopping of the background, but not the miner's mazes.)

Untangling The Oil Tax Wars - Wednesday July 23, 2013 7:30pm Loussac

One side would have you believe that the oil companies are great corporate citizens who love Alaska, generously provide lots of jobs and funding to local organizations and would reluctantly have to leave the state if the old tax regime were to continue.

The other side would have it that the oil companies are just to profit, could care less if it comes from Alaska or Nigeria, will grab the oil at the least possible cost, protect the environment only to the extent they're forced to,  and will do whatever it takes to buy politicians to pass legislation that helps their bottom line.

As I see it, the pro-oil company faction does its best to hide that discussion by focusing the debate on whether ACES or SB 21 will more likely produce oil and revenue for Alaska.

You can hear some of the most knowledgeable speakers from each side in a debate next Wednesday, July 21 at Loussac Libray.  It's an ISER (Institute for Social and Economic Research) event.  Here's from an email I got the other day.

Invite someone who disagree with you on Prop 1 for dinner first, then the debate.

Forum On the Oil-Tax Referendum: Hear Both Sides

Sponsored by Alaska Common Ground

Co-Sponsors: Institute of Social and Economic Research, UAA 

League of Women Voters of Anchorage • League of Women Voters of Alaska

Anchorage Public Library • Alaska Integrated Media

Last year the Alaska Legislature made a controversial change in the oil production tax, which is the >state’s largest source of revenue. In the primary election scheduled for August 19, Alaskans will vote  on whether to keep or repeal the new tax system—commonly known as Senate Bill (SB) 21. Alaska Common Ground and several co-sponsors (including ISER) are holding a forum on the oil-tax referendum on Wednesday, July 23, in the Wilda Marston Theatre of Anchorage’s Loussac Library, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The forum is free and open to the public. Speaking in favor of repealing the new tax—a “yes” vote to repeal—will be Bill Wielechowski, a state senator from Anchorage, and Gregg Erickson, a long-time Alaska economist. On the opposing side, supporting the new system—a “no” vote to keep the new tax—will be Brad Keithley, an oil and gas policy consultant, and Roger Marks, a veteran petroleum economist. Gunnar Knapp, the director of ISER, will moderate the forum.

This event will differ from a number of others that have been held on this issue, because it will focus on getting each side to answer the other side's questions. Please join us to hear what both sides have to say.

When: Wednesday, July 23, 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Where: Wilda Marston Theatre, Loussac Library

3600 Denali Street, Anchorage

Alaska Common Ground is a non-profit organization that works to engage Alaskans in conversations about major public policy issues facing the state.

For more information, go to www.akcommonground.org or call (907) 952-3353.

Men Were Already "Becoming Less Masculine" In Britain 100 Years Ago

There's been a lot written in recent years about men becoming less masculine. Various reasons are cited (and most of these links below cite and discuss other studies).

For example:

• Are Men Becoming Less Manly?  Masculine jobs are disappearing and men have to become less masculine to fit into less masculine jobs.
  
• Are Men Really Men Anymore?   They have less testosterone.
   
• Are Men What They Used To Be?  Men want more commitment, want kids, and they wear cosmetics.
  
• Fox News says Feminism is feminizing men    The title says it.
  
• Why Are Men Becoming More Like Women?   Men's attitudes more like women's - the result being that women and men have more choices

So as I was reading Erik Larson's Thunderstruck, I found his brief discussion of this topic - in Britain just before World War I - an interesting perspective.  It begins with a mention of a best selling book in 1903 - Erskine Childers novel, The Riddle of the Sands, which looks ahead to a German invasion of Britain.  It ends:

 "'is it not becoming patent that the time has come for training all Englishmen systematically either for the sea or for the rifle?'

"But this question raised a corollary:  Were the men of England up to the challenge?  Ever since the turn of the century, concern had risen that forces at work in England had caused a decline in masculinity and the fitness of men for war.  this fear intensified when a general revealed the shocking fact that 60 percent of England's men could not meet the physical requirements of miliatry service.  As it happened, the genral was wrong, but the figure 60 per cent became branded onto the British psyche. [emphasis added]

Blame fell upon the usual suspects.  A royal commission found that from 1881 to 1901 the number of foreigners in Britain had risen from 135,000 to 286,000.  The influx had not merely diminished the population;  it had caused, according to Scotland Yard, an upsurge in crime.  Most blame was attributed to the fact that Britain's population had increasingly forsaken the countryside for the city.  The government investigated the crisis and found that the percentage of people living in citizens had indeed risen markedly from the mid-nineteenth century but had not caused the decay of British manhood, though this happy conclusion tended to be overlooked, for many people never got past the chilling name of the investigative body that produced it, the Inter-Departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration.  A month later the government launched another investigation with an equally disheartening name, the Royal Commission on Care and Control of the Feeble-Minded, and discovered that between 1891 and 1901 the number of mentally defective Britons had increased by 21.44 percent.  There was no escaping it:  Insane, weak and impoverished, the British Empire was in decline, and the Germans knew it, and any day now they would attempt to seize England for their own."

This is probably a perennial topic among human beings.  And a lot of it hinges on how a culture defines 'masculinity.'  Methinks the less that we measure masculinity against the roles played by John Wayne, the better off we'll all be. 

My Love/Hate Relationship With Sitemeter

The Love Part

Sitemeter has a visit detail page that looks like this:

[This is an image so the links don't work]

 

Google Analytics gives me charts which aggregate information in different categories, so I can see, for example, a list of each place people came from and how often, or a list of pages people looked at and how often.  But I haven't been able to see, with those reports, the correlation between where people are, how they link to the site, and what page they look at.

But Sitemeter also gives me an individual, detailed report (above) about each individual visitor.  This can show me how an individual (and I almost never know who the individual is) behaves.  For instance, I have been able to see that someone from the Department of Justice or FBI was using google (or an email link) to look at what I'd written about a trial DOJ was involved in.  Or that the Congressional Information office was looking at my post on the number of black Congress Members.   I don't know how I could get that sort of information from google or other stat counters.  That doesn't mean they don't offer it, I just don't know how to see it.  

For instance, in the one above, I can tell that someone in San Bernadino, California linked from facebook to my post  "Tina Delgado is Alive, Alive." The time spent is misleading though.  If they only looked at one page, the time is always "0 seconds."  They calculate the time between links used by the visitor.  But if the visitor doesn't use a link, they don't catch the time.  So the time on last page viewed isn't captured.  

I think they should be able to capture that.  If I look at the "Who's On?" option, it shows me the current time and the time the visitor began.  I can't believe that some smart techie couldn't figure out how to use that information to figure out the real time for each visitor.  

The Hate Part

Sitemeter is so frustratingly slow at times.  Often, I can click on a link on Sitemeter and I get the next page immediately, but far too often it takes 20 seconds, even minutes.  Today was so frustrating that I checked Is It Down Right Now?  a site that lets you know if a website is down for everyone or just you.  Here are some of their charts:

 

 Actually, Sitemeter was available for me, but it was taking minutes to download a page, which I guess counts as unavailable.

 

This chart gives a sense of how long the wait times are.  

And this last chart shows me some other similar websites - in this case other stat counters - that I can check out to see if I can find an alternative that does what I like at Sitemeter, but doesn't do what I don't like. 

When I first started using Sitemeter, I got emails back from "webmaster@sitemeter.com" and they were signed by David Smith addressing my question quickly.
 


But he sold the company and the new owners don't care about it the way he did.

Now I get unresponsive emails from smsupport@sitemeter.com like this:

Steve,
Your request has been received and a member of our support staff will
review it and reply as soon as possible. Listed below are details of this
request. Please make sure the Ticket ID remains in the subject at all
times.

        Ticket ID: ZMU-187705
        Category: Technical Issue
        Priority: Normal
        Status: Open


Please let us know if we can assist you any further,

Site Meter Support

And I've stopped asking for help because there never is any follow up.   I found this comment on "Is It Down Right Now?" that says Sitemeter was bought by My Space.

Ellen Meister · 5 August 2013 - 05:46

United States · Optimum Online

Doesn't matter if you send a hundred report to Sitemeter. No one reads them. No one is minding the store. They don't even monitor the site to see if it's working. FYI, Sitemeter owned by MySpace, so if you want to reach an actual person, file a report there.That's the only way to even let them know the site is down. It's quite unbelievable.

I'd note that I eventually decided to pay the annual fee for Sitemeter which gives me a lot more data and apparently saves me from other problems that other people report - like horrible pop-up ads.

Hush Lake Rest Stop Flowers

There was an abundance of wildflowers at the Hush Lake rest area not far south of Prince George.  Here are some we saw.  Probably the most showy was the Columbia or Tiger Lily. 

Hawkweed are those dandelion-like flowers that grow in small clusters on long stems, like the orange hawkweed below.

Linda Wilson  at the British Columbia Ministry of Forests and Range, Forest Practices Branch,  Invasive Alien Plant Program has written an extensive report with detailed pictures and drawings of various hawkweeds.  She writes:

The eight known invasive species in subgenus Pilosella include meadow hawkweed, orange hawkweed, mouse-ear hawkweed, whiplash hawkweed, kingdevil hawkweed, queendevil hawkweed, and tall hawkweed (Table 2)  [emphasis added]

.

The Pond (Indian) Lily from Steve Michael at Oregon - Like No Other

"This native aquatic plant gives off alcohol instead of carbon dioxide as it takes in oxygen. Native Americans ground the seeds for flower and also roasted them as popcorn. It was also used medically for numerous illnesses, including colds, tuberculosis, internal pains, ulcers, rheumatism, chest pains, asthma, heart conditions, and cancer."

From Intangible Northwest:

"The Paintbrush evoked the Native American legend of a young brave who tried to paint the sunset with his warpaints. Frustrated that he could not match the brilliance of nature, he ask for guidance from the Great Spirit. The Great Spirit gave him paintbrushes laden with the colors he so desired. With these, he painted his masterpiece and left the spent brushes in fields across the landscape. These brushes sprouted the flowers we now so wonderfully love!"

I'm not sure what these two clusters of little white flowers are.  (I thought I knew the lower one when I took the picture, but it escapes me now.)

A wild rose.

Wild blackberries I believe, but they could be some other type of berry.

I believe this is a type of wild grass.

Lightning Fires In Oregon

5:15pm PDT July 17, 2013

I need a little help here identifying where this is.  I think it's Mt. Hood, but I'm not sure.  We were flying on Alaska Airlines from Seattle to LA.  The plane seemed to be flying a more western route than normal.  I'm putting the times on the photos and maybe Oregon readers can confirm the locations.

5:10 pm

 

5:11 pm

5:12 pm

5:18 pm

I'm guessing the picture above is the Three Sisters.

5:25 pm

And I have no idea about this peak.  [UPDATE Aug. 10, 2014:  Victoria (who has great photos up) left a comment identifying this as Mt. Thielsen.  Thanks Victoria.]

Crater Lake (east side) 5:27pm

For more information on fires in Oregon, go to this link.

How Do Water Striders Stay On Top Of The Water?

On a hike the other day with little kids, we checked out the water striders in a pond. 

From the National Wildlife Foundation:

"Water acts different at the surface. Water molecules are attracted to each other, and like to stay together, especially on the surface where there is only air above. The attraction between water molecules creates tension and a very delicate membrane. Water striders walk on this membrane.
The secret of the water strider is its legs! The legs have tiny hairs that repel water and capture air. By repelling water, the tiny water striders stand on the water’s surface and the captured airs allows them to float and move easily." [There's a lot more at the link.]

 The Fairfax County Public Schools website adds this (and some great photos):

Common Water Striders eat living and dead insects on the surface of the water. Some are aquatic (water) insects, such as mosquito larvae coming up from the bottom, and others are terrestrial (land) insects, such as butterflies or beetles that accidentally land on the surface.
Injured dragonflies are a favorite food, as are worms that fall in the water. Water striders have a sharp mouthpart, called a rostrum, to suck up body juices from prey.

The FCPS site also explains why the striders very quickly moved to the far side of the pond when I moved just a slight bit.

"Common Water Striders have very good vision and move quickly on the water."

"But, Son, the thing is, Thula wants you to stay here. "

Joe gets home one evening from school to find the rest of the family packed up in the car.

"What's up, Pop? Where are we going?" Joe murmured.
Harry looked down at the boards planking the porch, then raised his eyes and gazed off into the dark, wet woods over Joe's shoulder.
"We can't make it here, Joe.  There's nothing else for it.  Thula won't stay, at any rate.  She's insisting."
"Where are we going to go?"
Harry turned to meet Joe's eyes.
"I'm not sure.  Seattle, for now, then California maybe.  But, Son, the thing is, Thula wants you to stay here.  I would stay with you, but I can't.  The little kids are going to need a father more than you are.  You're pretty much all grown up now anyway."

 Joe was ten at the time.  It was 1924 in timber country near Seattle.  Joe's life wasn't easy.

The Boys in the Boat slips back and forth between Joe's time on the University of
Washington crew team as they push themselves to the limit in hopes of making it to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and his challenging life growing up as a kid whose mother dies and whose step-mother really can't deal with him.  And then, from the passage above, how he scrambles to survive as best he can on his own.

Along the way we get a good deal of Northwest history - the 1920s and 30s.  We visit downtown Seattle's Hooverville.  Joe helps  build the Grand Coolie Dam, and we get intimate with the anatomy of spruce.  A second track, though much shorter,  carries us through the planning of the 1936 Olympics, particularly the role of film maker Leni Riefenstahl.  Along these two tracks are two stories headed for a collision at the end of the book.  We know, going in, what's going to happen.  It's the telling of the story that keeps the pages turning.

There's a good reason this book is selling well.  Even though author Daniel James Brown covers the seamier sides of things, this really is a fairy tale where Cinderella is going to marry the prince in the end.

Here's the clip of the final rowing event at the 1936 Olympics with Joe in the winning skull, from Riefenstahl's movie glorifying Nazi Germain and, the way Brown writes, the first really spectacular media event Olympics. It makes much more sense after you've read the book.

Sign Wars - Who's Messing With Russ Millette's Signs?

Photo Taken Sunday July 13

I passed this sign Sunday, as I went by it, I noticed that the candidate information had been painted out.  So I took this picture. 










A week ago, I posted this picture of Russ Millette's campaign sign. 

Photo taken Sunday July6

I decided I should call Millette and ask what was going on. 

He suggested I call the Alaska Republican Party.  (He was elected to be chair of the party in 2012 by a large influx of Tea Party attendees, but Party regulars had more meetings and recaptured control of the Alaska Republican Party.)
He said he had another sign just like it on Knik - Goose Bay (he said KGB ] Road in the Valley and that sign is wasn't just defaced, it was stolen.  When I asked if he had any ideas about who did that, he told me to call Cathy Tilton, since she had a new sign up about 12 feet from where his sign had been.  Did he know anything about whether she did it, or just the link between her sign going up when his went down?  No he didn't.

I called the Republican Party and talked to Christy who said, after I explained who I was and what I was calling about:

"I don’t know why we would know.  Signs get destroyed and stolen all the time, it’s not uncommon.  We don’t know all the candidates' sign’s locations."

I also called Cathy Tilton (a Republican candidate for state house in Matsu District 12) who sounded much more concerned.  (From my notes, slightly paraphrased)

No one in my camp would even consider anything like that.  I know how much that costs.  A friend of mine owns that land - Mike Foster - and there were three other signs up when I ut up mine - Ron Arvin (her opponent in the Republican primary, Millette's, and Stoltz (candidate for state senate, who's redistricted House seat Arvin and Tilton are running for. 

Millette said that he'd put a banner up on the sign on Lake Otis Monday morning.  When I told him I was in Seattle at the moment, he said he'd email me a picture of the newest sign.  And here it is below.

Photo taken July 14 - supplied by Russ Millette

He also said these signs cost about $250 each.   

Millette is running for governor against the incumbent in the Republican primary.  He and the Tea Party group made a successful bid to take over the Republican Party a couple of years ago, only to have the Party establishment find ways to invalidate his election.  I don't think one can blame him for thinking the sign damage goes back to the Republican Party, but getting proof is another issue. 

Seattle Sunset

I took this picture as we landed at SeaTac Sunday at 9 pm.

We normally take the train into town, but we were hoping we might catch the 9:45pm ferry to Bainbridge and took a cab who liked the challenge and got us to the ferry on time.  I think we got an assist from a huge crowd of happy Seattle Sounders fans were getting on the ferry too and departure was delayed a bit to accommodate all the soccer fans.

Good gramping today.  With good friends from Chicago who met us there.   She never got a nap but she was great the whole time.  Toward sunset Monday, we discovered the bike rack.  At first she was very hesitant to go under the loop, but after a few tentative tries, she started having fun  and we spent over 20 minutes walking through and over the metal loops.

The sunset picture is directly from the picture with no post photo manipulation, except cropping.  

What's the Number of Pedophile Cardinals, Bishops, And Priests?

The BBC attributes the following quote to Pope Francis:

"Among the 2% who are paedophiles are priests, bishops and cardinals. Others, more numerous, know but keep quiet. They punish without giving the reason," Pope Francis was quoted as saying."

So how many actual clergy does that come out to?

From a Georgetown website I was able to get a chart of numbers for the United States over five year intervals from 1965 to 2014.

Click to enlarge

The chart lists total priests (not bishops or cardinals) in 2014 as 38,275.  Two percent of that equals just about 765 paedophile priests in the US. 

That, of course, assumes that the 2% figure is uniform from country to country, which I doubt is an accurate assumption. 

Today's Catholics reported in 2011,

"The Vatican said the number of bishops in the world increased to 5,065 from 5,002; the number of priests went from 405,178 to 410,593, increasing everywhere except Europe."

That gives us a total of 415,595 bishops and priests (in 2011).  Again, we can't assume that the 2% figure is the same for priests and bishops, but the number of bishops is so low, comparatively, that it shouldn't matter.  A ballpark figure would be 8,300.  

Before hitting the 'publish' button I reviewed the original article to see if it answered some of my questions - like whether this was a statistical or actual number.  This post is a good example of why people should read before they blog.  The original article answers the questions I was asking. 

"In the interview, Pope Francis was quoted as saying that the 2% estimate came from advisers. It would represent around 8,000 priests out of a global number of about 414,000.
While the incidence of paedophilia as a psychiatric disorder in the general population is not accurately known, some estimates have put it at less than five percent."

On the positive side, I did get pretty close to the Pope's estimated figure.


So, What Comes Next?

Administratively, the Vatican has quite a challenge on its hands to identify clergy who are pedophiles and then take action.  For those who have been accused, identification is easy - though not certain.  For those who have not been accused, it will be much harder. 

Prevention through education of everyone in the clergy on how to identify signs and what actions MUST be taken would seem essential.  This should include ways for clergy to get counseling and safely and honorably out of the church for those who find themselves tempted, but haven't yet acted on their temptations.  Education of parents and children on appropriate and inappropriate behaviors would also go a long way. 

Obviously, the church needs to put children's safety above the rights of clergy.  By that I mean, it would seem a greater harm to have a child molested than to have an innocent priest removed from a position where he might molest a child.

Once someone has been identified (accused), removal from any contact with children seems to be step one.  Investigation and determination of appropriate action seems to be step two. 

If the numbers are accurate, it will be a real challenge to replace that many priests.

My guess is that women are less likely to be pedophiles than men.  Could the loss of 2% of the Catholic clergy be the tipping point that allows women to become priests?  I don't know nearly enough about Catholic doctrine and policy to hazard a guess.

1.5 Million Lbs. Of Potatoes And Other Things I Learned At The Gov's Picnic

The Goose Creek correctional facility at Point Mackenzie produces 1.5 million pounds of potatoes a year, according to someone at the Department of Corrections booth at the governor's picnic Saturday.   They also had rhubarb, zucchini, and tomatoes on display.  It's used to feed the prisoners there and at another facility.  It's grown by the inmates under the guidance of a local farmer. 

It was the produce that got me talking to corrections officer Rodney Ramirez, who does recruiting and training at the Academy.   Our talk was wide ranging and I walked away impressed with his attitude toward the prisoners.  And if I had any doubts, they were obliterated when a guy called out 'Ramirez' and talked to him with obvious respect about how he was doing now that he was no longer incarcerated. 

I have to say that after I finished photoshopping five photos together, I thought maybe this guy looked like the rapper, DOC.  But he had the black uniform and sunglasses.  But the photo gives him a lot more attitude than he had.  In fact he had none.  If my son were incarcerated, I'd feel better knowing Ramirez was in charge.  You can see the rhubarb on the right in the background. 

In addition to growing food, inmates also crochet, make quilts, and wooden toys which, I was told, are donated to poor families for Christmas presents.  A poster also had pictures of service dog and pet obedience training.  Ramirez mentioned apprenticeships for carpentry, welding, and other trades. 

I'm sure the governor's office sees absolutely nothing wrong with his picnic having lots of corporate sponsors - like ACS in this picture - but I can't help thinking if the governor can call on them to do favors like this, what kind of favors do they get from the governor?  These are for profit corporations whose goal is maximum shareholder profit, so they aren't doing this unless they think it's going to increase that shareholder profit. 

Of course, we don't need to wonder about what favors the governor has done for Conoco-Phillips or BP.  Some folks are trying to take back his biggest favor to them by having people vote to repeal SB 21 in the August election.  And the oil companies are spending millions to make sure Prop. 1 doesn't pass.  You can see what millions can do when pass all the No on 1 signs around all over Anchorage. 

The highlight of every governor's picnic is the free barbecued hot dogs and hamburgers.  And people were willing to wait a long time for them.  The lines looped around and around. 

There was a separate, shorter line for seniors. 

You could get on this simulator (in the background)  and experience an earthquake.

The Unified Command Center trailer can be used at emergencies or situations where there are large crowds.  The man inside said they'd been to the Arctic Man.  It can only be used on the road system.  He didn't give me any examples of actual emergencies where it was needed and I wondered whether this was really just a fancy toy they bought in the name of emergency planning. 

Here's the inside.  There were two big screens showing the picnic just outside.  I suggested a window would help, but he showed me how he could use the cam to look around and zoom in.  He could even see if the outhouses were vacant or not.  (He told me they didn't have a bathroom in the command - because then everyone would be wanting to come in to use it.)  There was a table people could sit around and a second modular room.

I don't really know whether this was a good investment, I'm just asking questions at this point.  The NACS website FAQs has a little on the costs of vehicles like this:

What is the price range for a mobile communications vehicle? 

NACS builds units that range in size, type, and capabilities. Pricing of the unit is determined by the Chassis type and the installed communications capabilities. The chassis can be a custom-built towable unit, gasoline powered unit or diesel powered unit. Installed communications equipment can range from simple agency radios to full-scale Mobile EOC. Our expertise is maximizing the vehicle based on the budget and communications needs of the agency. Since we install and integrate all of the available technology ourselves, we carefully manage cost and control the quality of the finished product. Price Range is $100,000.00 to $750,000.00.

The FBI booth looked like one of the most fun.  In addition to getting to wear flak jackets they had some footprint identification activities.










 

As I was leaving this poster caught my attention.  Every three hours.  That would be eight per day or 240 a month or 2880 a year. 

I found a site that gave vehicle-train collision information.  I took the last two years and the first two on the list.  The incidence of such collisions has declined significantly.  Their number isn't that high,  but it looks like this doesn't include person-train collisions. 

Year	Vehicle-Train Collisions	Fatalities	Injuries
1981	9.461	728	2,293
1982	7,932	232	944
2012*	1,971	232	944
2013*	2,087	251	929

http://oli.org/about-us/news/collisions-casulties
*The last two years weren't finalized numbers

I have to say that I like the idea of a governor's picnic each year.  There are smaller events in other communities.  It reflects the advantage of living in a state with a small population where anyone, literally, can get in to see the governor if they really want to.