A friend told me the other day that he averaged 60 miles or so per day over 13 days in France on his bike this summer. I've been doing much shorter rides. But he got me thinking I should do the Moose Loop - a loop along the Anchorage bike trails that remembers, physically, the outline of a moose's head. Most of it is on trails but there is still a gap between the end of Campbell Creek trail and the Kincaid trail. It's about 32 miles altogether if you do the northern loop.
My brain has been wandering. I've got half a dozen posts either in draft form or in that wandering brain. But sitting down to type them up here has been a challenge. For one thing, I just got a copy of the 2022 Anchorage International Film Festival (AIFF) poster.
I think it looks great and I'm trying to find out the artist [UPDATE: Jessica Thorton] so I can give credit here. The festival will be all live this year, not much Bear Tooth, a lot of museum if I remember right.
My summer biking Anchorage trails in real life/from Istanbul to Cappadocia in my head is complete.
Actually, Cappadocia is a region with several major towns.. The biker whose map I was following on RidewithGPS ended up at the far end of Cappadocia in the town of Avanos. Here are some pictures from https://visitmyturkey.com/en/avanos/.
These are out in the country side nearby. From Wikipedia:
"Old Avanos is riddled with a network of small underground "cities" which may once have been residential but are now mainly used by the many pottery enterprises. Although there is no documentary evidence to prove when these structures were carved out of the earth, it is probable that work on some of them began in the Hittite period.
As Venessa, the ancient Avanos was the third most important town in the Kingdom of Cappadocia (332BC-17AD) according to the geographer Strabo.[5] Although it was the site of an important temple of Zeus, nothing remains of it today. [5]In Roman and Byzantine times Avanos had a large Christian population who were responsible for the rock-cut Dereyamanlı Kilisesi. [6]Unusually, this is still occasionally used even today."
Avanos, by the route map I was following, is 891 km from Istanbul. I made it to 897 km on Saturday and today went on to 912 km. (900 km = 559.23 miles) Weather permitting, I'm now hoping to hit 1000 km (621 miles). I thought that was pretty good for the summer until I talked to a friend the other day who did over 600 miles in 13 days in France. Oh well.
But I'm hoping that by 2024 at the latest I will have been to Istanbul and Avanos in person.
Then there's the follow up on the Words in the Constitution post.
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| Dimitrios Alexiadis |
And more. But the bike, the yard, Netflix (watching the rescue of the Thai soccer team from the flooded caves series now - finished two episodes and the international cave divers have reached the boys, and there's still a bunch more episodes to go; enjoying trying to catch as much Thai as I can; don't think this is a spoiler since we saw this live in the news a couple of years ago), and other things steal from blogging. Oh yeah, got my bivalent booster and flu shot the other day too. Slightly sore arms, but that was all.
[The point here is the excerpt below from an LA Times story. But I ended up putting a lot of context before the excerpt. You an skip down to the quote if you think you know all the introductory thoughts already. And, of course, you don't need my permission to do that, or whatever you want.]
I've watched enough prison movies and read enough books and articles to know that the US prison system doesn't work very well*. First of all we top the world in prisoners per 100,000 population:
Our justice system massively discriminates against people of color.
"Nationwide, Black people are locked up in state prison at a rate of 1,240 per 100,000 residents, as compared with 261 whites. That’s 4.8 times greater incarceration of Black than white people, based on 2019 data from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. On average, one of every 81 Black Americans is in a state prison.
In California, it’s worse. One of 62 Black Californians is in state prison."
The editorial goes on to counter the traditional response that it's because people of color commit more crimes, but rather it's discrimination throughout the justice system.
When people make lascivious remarks about what evil things might happen to a young defendant when he reaches prison, do you smile or do think that something is wrong with prisons? If you smile or if you're the one who makes the joke, you're part of the problem.
What about people who are wrongly convicted? The Innocence Projects around the US have gotten 399 prisoners exonerated. Those are just the people who were able to get enough evidence to prove their innocence, even though it's guilt that is supposed to be proven in court.
The 13th Amendment to the Constitution abolished slavery, EXCEPT for prisoners.
"Thirteenth Amendment
Section 1
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."
Prisons and companies who get prisoners to work for them take advantage of this exception.
So all that was preface to this excerpt from an LA Times story that appeared last week about the Mexican Mafia (their term) that has operated in San Bernardino for decades (again, according to the story).
This excerpt truly tells us of how truly corrupt and failing these prisons are. (Yes, I know they depict this in tv shows and movies regularly, but still it's shocking.)
Moreno was Rodriguez’s “secretary” — a role once typically filled by women who were not in prison, who used visits and letters to pass messages from Mexican Mafia members to their underlings. But the proliferation of contraband cell phones in the state prison system has proved a “game changer,” testified Lt. Eddie Flores of the San Bernardino Police Department. Prisoners can now communicate directly with one another to arrange drug deals, order assaults and organize collection rackets, Flores testified.
Phones are smuggled in by correctional officers and “free staff” — plumbers, electricians, food preparers, Goo Goo testified. “I’ve seen nurses bring ‘em in, I’ve seen ‘em flown in on drones.”
A phone costs about $1,200 in prison, he said. “You kind of learn how these things work, the economics. If you’re bringing in too many cell phones, flooding the yard, the price drops.”
Goo Goo described his daily routine as Rodriguez’s man on the street: “I’d get up in the morning — it’s like going to work, having a job,” he told the jury. First he would call someone in the prison system, usually Moreno.
From his cell at the state prison in Calipatria, where he was serving 10 years for possessing an assault rifle, Moreno would tell Goo Goo what needed to be handled that day. “Patch this up here, that there,” he recalled. Deliver drugs. Pick up money.
That's from LA Times, but if you can't get in, it's also on Wildlandfire News.
*Whether the prison system 'works well' or not, of course, depends on whose objectives you measure it by. The official objectives to get dangerous criminals off the streets so they can't keep committing crimes, to mete out justices, to rehabilitate offenders, or the objectives of other players like the prisoners who are well connected, the owners of the private prisons, or the various people who work in the prison who can double and triple their salaries by smuggling in contraband.
"If an explanation contradicts the sense of who a person is, it can be damaging. There should be more attention paid to the way people describe their own distress."
This comes from a September 18, 2022 LA Times interview of writer Rachel Aviv [Mental illness, as told by the patients]. The book features four people with mental health problems, talking from their own experience.
There are lots of interesting thoughts, but this one grabbed my attention most.
I couldn't help but think about gay and transgender people having other people trying to deny their stories. And it hit me.
People who react so strongly to LGBTQ folks are trying to deny evidence that contradicts their own world view. Making LGBTQ people disappear, helps keep their own world view whole.
Of course, that goes for lots of other attempts to censor, oppress, and otherwise hide that which contradicts people's dogma. In these four tales, people with mental health problems are disbelieved because people want to believe that science can cure them or perhaps to deny the possibility they may be or become mentally ill without a way out. Defund the Police disrupts peoples belief that police will protect them. The Catholic Church denying Galileo's proof that the earth goes around the sun. Everyone who ridiculed Darwin because Evolution was at odds with the story of creation.
Of course, though maybe not obvious, the first part of the quote refers not only to the patient (in this case) but also to the person who denies the patient's story.
People say there may be no reasoning possible with hardcore Trump supporters. But perhaps simply asking them to explain their world view might make their grievances understandable. You needn't believe it, you probably can't alter it. But listening is the first step. For them and for us. I know a serious conversation for an hour might help a true believer see this "liberal" as not embodying their stereotypes.
That's it. That's all I have to say.
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| Image from BikeAnchorage |
With vaccinations people are feeling more secure that COVID won't kill them. I see fewer masks indoors these days.
The State went from daily reporting to weekday reporting to Monday, Wednesday, Friday, reporting to once a week reporting.
But people are still dying of COVID, right here in Alaska. 28 new deaths were reported this week. (Although there's a new report each week, deaths seem to get accumulated over a period of time and then are reported in bulk. These were the first deaths reported since August 24, 2022)
I'm still reporting these every week, but not in the main part of the blog. They're reported in the Alaska Daily COVID-19 Count 3 tab just below the blog header.
Here's my latest report from that page:
Wednesday, September 14, 2022 - I'm getting this up on Thursday. People are treating COVID as though it were gone. To the extent that I even forgot to update this yesterday. But the numbers are a reminder that this isn't over. And that people are still dying of COVID, even here in Alaska.
25 new deaths were reported this week. These are the first deaths reported in three weeks because, I'm assuming, it takes a while to gather these numbers. It would be truly shocking if these were all in the last week. It would be useful to know what the vaccination status of those dying was. They may report that somewhere, but I'm not digging deeper than the main dashboards now.
21 more people were hospitalized in the last week. Actual number of COVID patients in the hospital reported as 66, up four from last week. Number of vents is down two to zero.
Number of ICU beds available statewide is 21 (down from 34 last week) and one in Anchorage (down from two.) I believe this is not a COVID specific number, but includes all ICU beds in the state regardless of illness.
Even new resident cases are up - 980/950 compared to last week's 879/902. Ditto for non-resident new cases: 544 new cases, up from 519 last week. A regular warning on these last numbers - many, if not most, tests are self tests which tend not to be reported, so the reported numbers don't tell the whole story.
COVID Home Test Expiration Extension
Are your at home COVID tests expired? The FDA has extended expiration dates. My June - Aug 2022 expired home tests are now good to Dec 2022 to February 2023. Check yours here: https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-covid-19-and-medical-devices/home-otc-covid-19-diagnostic-tests#list
A little ways down it has a list of many different products for home testing. Each has a link to see the updated expiration dates. That's where you'll find the details.
Anchorage has been getting a lot of rain this summer.
Biking yesterday, Campbell Creek was definitely higher than about a week ago. I'm not sure it's obvious in these two pictures,
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| September 5, 2022 |
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| September 13, 2022 |
There were lots of areas along the trail with standing water - the ground too saturated apparently to absorb more water.
The first contest on this blog was in July 2009. That was a pretty passive contest. The winner was the person who was listed as visitor #123,456. We had one winner and some that were close. The winner, BonzaiJay, later sent me a picture of his prizes.
The second contest was in May 2012. That person had to guess how many dandelions were in the bag I'd collected in my front lawn. She won a dinner at the Thai Kitchen. But she'd moved to Juneau and I don't recall she ever collected her prize.
So it's been ten years since I've had a contest. This one requires more work. Here's an intro:
The Supreme Court's majority has made a lot of noise about strictly following the original text of the US Constitution. So I pulled up an online version of the Constitution and searched it for some key words.
Reviewing the Constitution this way, it's clear that all USians should read the Constitution at least every six months, if not more frequently. [I saw someone use that term and I'm trying it out as a substitute for Americans when I only mean people in the US and not all of North, South, and Central America. I've been using US residents, but USians is so much easier]
So to encourage you, here's the CONTEST.
Make a copy [take a screen shot or a photo] of the chart below and fill it out. You can just guess. Or you can go to an online copy of the Constitution and search the terms. There will be prizes for the top three submissions.* You can email your answers my email address: whatdoino (at) alaska (dot) net. You can try this link but I can't make it work in my draft - Email me.
In Constittuion? | How often? | ||
YES | NO | ||
MAN (MEN) | |||
WOMAN (WOMEN) | |||
CORPORATION | |||
INDUSTRY | |||
PERSON | |||
CITIZEN | |||
LIFE | |||
LIBERTY | |||
ECONOMY | |||
CAPITAL | |||
CAPITALISM | |||
MARKET | |||
MARRIAGE | |||
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE |
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BUSINESS | |||
TAX | |||
VOTE | |||
COMMERCE | |||
BANKRUPTCY |
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SECURITIES |
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SEX |
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RELIGION |
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CHRISTIAN |
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WELFARE |
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THE PEOPLE |
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GOD |
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| Queen Elizabeth II from National Portrait Gallery |
Polo laments the impossibility of accurately describing these cities. He raises questions about how to merge the past and the present, the apparent and the invisible, the body and the soul of the cities he's visited. Nothing is as it seems, or at least nothing of importance is. His stories remind me of ethnographer Clifford Gertz' 'thick description". The stories would suggest caution taking too seriously the people explaining the meaning of Queen Elizabeth II's passing.
Let me give you an example. I also ask you to slow down. Calvino wasted no words. Read each word. Maybe even read the passage twice.
"In vain, great-hearted Kublai, shall I attempt to describe Zaira, city of high bastions. I could tell you how many steps up the streets rising like stairways, and the degree of the arcades' curves, and what kind of zinc scales cover the roofs; but I already know this would be the same as telling you nothing. The city does not consist of this, but of relationships between the measurements of its space and the events of its past: the height of a lamppost and the distance from the ground of a hanged usurper's swaying feet; the line strung from the lamppost to the railing opposite and the festoons that decorate the course of the queen's nuptial procession; the height of that railing and the leap of the adutererer who climbed over it at dawn; the tilt of the guttering and a cat's progress along it as he slips into the same window; the firing range of a gunboat which has suddenly appeared behind the cape and the bomb that destroys the guttering; the rips in the fish net and the three old men seated on the dock mending nets and telling each other for the hundredth time the story of the gunboat of the usurper, who some say was the queen's illegitimate son, abandoned in his swaddling clothes there on the dock.
As this wave from memories flows in, the city soaks it up like a sponge and expands. A description of Zaira as it is today should contain all Zaira's past. The city, however, does not tell its past, but contains it like the lines of a hand, written in the corners of the streets, the gratings of the windows, the blisters of the steps, the antennae of the lightning rods, the poles of the flags, every segment marked in turn with scratches, indentations, scrolls."
Queen Elizabeth is like a Calvino city. Her death is not simply the death of one human being. It's a death in a monarchy that goes back more than a millennium. It's the death of the heir to an empire that ruled much of the world, claiming the riches and labor of the people who were subjects of that ruling royal family. While Queen Elizabeth II reigned longer than any other monarch in her family, she also reigned over the sharp decline of the empire and of the family's power and scope.
Henry VIII image Wikipedia "Queen Elizabeth II is the Church of England chief, officially known as the Supreme Governor, and sits at the helm of a centuries-old British institution established by the monarchy. Its founder was Tudor monarch King Henry VIII, one of the country's most infamous leaders, who created the breakaway institution after turning his back on Catholicism. Centuries later, the Queen has emerged as another landmark ruler who continues to honour the former King's religious practices. But people have questioned whether the two figures who share a throne also share blood.. .
While there is no direct line between the two, the modern royals have a distant connection to the Tudors.
They owe their existence to Queen Margaret of Scotland, grandmother of Mary Queen of Scots, and King Henry VIII's sister." (From Express)
Henry VIII lived from 1491 - 1547.
What is real and what is imagination? What is real, but incomplete? How many Queen Elizabeth IIs are there? The one seen by her father King George VI? Her's sister's Elizabeth. Her husband's. The views of her children and grandchildren. There's Gandhi's Queen Elizabeth. Nelson Mandela's? John F. Kennedy's? Churchill's? Marilyn Monroe's or Elton John's? And every British subject has their own version of the Queen.
Shakespeare wrote a plays about Henry VIII. Netflix aired a television series about Elizabeth II.
Where lies the true Elizabeth II? Nowhere and everywhere would be Calvino's Marco Polo's answer.
Invisible Cities also includes descriptions of conversations between Kublai Khan and Marco Polo.
In this excerpt I'm only using Kublai Khan's thoughts. For perspective, Khan lived from 1215 - 1294. Calvino wrote about him in the 20th Century.
"From the high balustrade of the palace the Great Khan watches his empire grow. First the line of the boundaries had expanded to embrace conquered territories, but the regiments' advance encountered half-deserted regions, scrubby villages of huts, marshes where the rice refused to sprout, emaciated peoples, dried rivers, reeds. "My empire has grown too far toward the outside. It is time," the Khan thought, "for it to grow within itself," and he dreamed of pomegranate groves, the fruit so ripe it burst its skin, zebus browning on the spit and dripping fat, veins of metal surfacing in landslips with glistening nuggets.
Kublai Khan from WikePedia Now many seasons of abundance have filled the granaries. The rivers in flood have borne forests of beams to support the bronze roofs of temples and palaces. caravans of slaves have shifted mountains of serpentine marble across the continent. The Great Khan contemplates an empire covered with cities that weight upon the earth and upon mankind, crammed with wealth and traffic overladen with ornaments and offices, complicated with mechanisms and hierarchies, swollen, tense, ponderous.
"The empire is being crushed by its own weight," Kublai thinks, and in his dreams now cities light as kites appear, pierced cities like laces, cities transparent as mosquito netting, cities like leaves' veins, cities lined like a hand's palm, filigree cities to be seen through their opaque and fictitious thickness."
This summer's goal has been to bike from Istanbul to Cappadocia. By my initial calculation, that was 750 kilometers (466 miles). So that was my target until I found a site (Ride with gps) where people track their bike rides. I found someone who had made my trip. Ending up in Avanos. But he was taking a longer route - it looks like he tried to avoid the main highways that would have more traffic. His route was a total of 889 kilometers (552 miles.)
So yesterday I got up to 751.8 kms. Using the Ride with gps site, you can find exactly where that is. You can toggle between km and miles. You can see the distance (and other factors) by putting the cursor along the route. I can see I'm riding along a lake, but on the biking map there wasn't a specific place to look up. Had to go to Google maps to find Aksaray and some pictures. This seemed the nicest.
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| Photo from Google Maps |
Of course, I'm doing this along the bike trails of Anchorage - anywhere from about 6km to 20km on any given day. To make it to Avanos, I've got about 140 kms left to go. Cappadacio is a region of Turkey where there are lots of caves. Here's a link to a site with a short video that gives you a sense of the other-worldly landscape of the area and some of the towns there.
But I only have pictures of the Anchorage bike trails, but they're pretty amazing too. So here are some from the last several days of biking mostly along Campbell Creek trails.
“White bread in particular has no real nutritional value, so while birds may find it tasty, the danger is that they will fill up on it instead of other foods that could be more beneficial to them,” says a spokeswoman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
