Johnson Tire Closure - Some Background

The ADN has had articles Thursday and today  on the closure of Johnson Tire.  This is a particularly critical time as people are changing their tires from summer to winter tires.  According to the article, people had left their snow tires at Johnson Tire and now they can't get access to them.

Kelly Gaede 2010 Leg Hearing

I  posted on Kelly Gaede back in 2010 when I was blogging the legislature.  He had proposed a mandatory winter tire bill which Rep. Harris had introduced.  At the hearing it was clear that this was a bill that would give Gaede and his company Johnson Tire a lot more business.  Rep. Tammy Wilson aggressively questioned the bill and how it would impact her constituents.


The state now lists inactive business licenses for Johnson's Tire Service - one for Dennis Gaede in Fairbanks and Kelly P. Gaede in Anchorage.

Here's a link to that old post:  Mandatory Winter Tire Bill.  One of the commenters - Anonymous July 7, 2010 - seemed to have more detailed personal information about the history of Johnson Tires and Gaede.  I can't vouch for the accuracy of the comment, but it seems like it's worth checking out.

Nordstrom's Great Marketing Department

My step-father died about thirty years ago.  My mom just last summer.

Today I opened a letter addressed to my step father that included two new Nordstrom credit cards.

Meanwhile, I'm still battling with Feedburner problems. (I know, I need to find a new RSS feed.  I will, I will.) I posted yesterday about why I thought Rep. Johnson had filed to appeal the decision of the Superior Court to allow Gov. Walker's Medicaid expansion even though though the legal counsel told Sen. Gary Stevens that such a move required a vote of both houses.  It didn't make it to other blogrolls.  So if any one is interested you can get to it here.  I tried to put the issue into context.  It also includes the complete contract between the Alaska Legislative Council and the DC law firm Bancroft PLLC.

And for people who do come here when they see the new post links at other blogs, if you don't see anything for more than a day, you might just want to check anyway.  Or you can subscribe and get your own reminder - those seem to be working.

You can subscribe in the upper right - as you can see in the image to your right.

The A, B, C's . . . Y, and Z's of the Farmer's Market

We're back in LA trying to do more work on my mom's house.  Despite all we've given and thrown away, it still looks packed with things.

But we have to eat, so we biked up to the Virginia Park Saturday market in Santa Monica.  It was cool in the shade and warm in the sun.





My alphabet isn't going to start with A.  There's a technical blogging problem.  When other blog rolls include a photo from the latest post of the blogs they list, it's always the first photo in the post.  Often that's not going to be the best or most interesting. (I know, I should only put up 'best' photos.)  So I have to decide if I should sneak in a better picture on top or keep the order the story would dictate.  So I'm giving you these Root vegies, mostly strange carrots I think, instead of the apple butter which isn't as interesting, though maybe it is to you.   (What's a blog roll?  If you look in the column to the right I have several, starting with Alaska Blogs.  But I only include the title, not a picture.  Maybe I should add pictures too.)



OK, now the Apple Butter. (See not a bad picture, but I guess I like the jumble better than the order.)

And the Bitter melons. 

 and the Cabbage.















And Daikon.   I like the daikon's sharp radish flavor and since they're much bigger than a radish, you can cut them up into little chips more easily and they're munch healthier than, say, chips or crackers.  I took this, and a couple other pictures, at home, after I'd thought of this alphabet theme.  But don't worry,  we won't do the whole alphabet.

 

Grapes.

And then we found the Longan!   I actually remember these from Thailand as Lamyai or  ลำไย. 

Tricky, I can't enlarge the ล in the word because it's written with the vowel attached. ำ ('um' ) (the broken circle indicates where a consonant has to be typed in) gets attached to the consonant, so in this word we have ลำ (lum).  I know I spelled it lam, but it really sounds like 'um' and not 'am' as in 'I am.'  In Thai vowels can go before, after, over, or under the consonant, or a combination for one vowel sound.  The second syllabus (yai) has the 'ai'  (ไ) vowel sound  before the 'y' (ย) consonant sound.

The folks at this stand said they grow the lamyai near San Diego.  Note, two similar fruit (with a skin you peel and a skinned grape-like fruit and pit inside)  are the  Lychee which is more commonly known, and one of my favorite Thai fruits the  Rambutan, or in Thai, gno.  

I found a video that will show you more about the longan or lamyai - what the trees look like, how to eat them, ways to use them, the seed, and the nutrients. 




Lots of Persimmons for sale today. 

The highlight of this market for me is getting to eat Bertha's jalapeno vegie Tamales.  So good fresh and hot.  We got a half dozen, two to eat  at the market, and the rest to take home. 

And here's one of the rows of Vendors.   (Is it cheating, if it's not food?)

 And finally the Yams and the Zucchini.

 [More Feedburner issues, so reposting and deleting the original.  Sorry]

Humans Versus Robots Answering Phones - LADWP Human The Worst

This past week I've been going through my mom's mail and calling different government agencies, insurance companies, utilities, etc.

I'm totally fed up.

I'm tired of machines asking for account numbers.  Or giving me five choices.  Then three more, then two more, none of which fits. 

Even though they are getting more sophisticated ("If you need more time to find the number, just say 'need more time'), most of the time I really need to talk to a human because I have issues the computers aren't programmed to handle.   And sometimes they don't even work - "When you're ready, say 'ready.'" just kept playing the music even though I said "ready" several times with increasing volume.

If it were simple, I'd just do it online in most cases, simply to avoid the machines answering the phones.  I'm calling because my issue needs a human.

Most of the humans I eventually talk to are really good.  To give you a sense of my . . .  well frustration isn't quite right because my expectations are so low now.  Exhaustion is probably closer.

The LA Department of Water and Power (LADWP)- There was a bill that was due Tuesday.  Since we only got here Tuesday, I hadn't seen it or paid it. 

I just called to see if they had a grace period of a few days.   When I finally got to the human, I told her my mom's name.  Well, the account was in my step-dad's initials (just the middle initial was different from my mom's).

Steve:  Well, it's my mom's account.  She just died.   The name you have has been dead for thirty years.   I'm just trying to find out the grace period or if there's a place near by where I can pay this.
LADWP:  If the account holder is dead we have to close the account and open a new account.
Steve;  That's fine, but for now I just want to pay the bill right now and I'll change it later.
LADWP:  If the account holder is dead we have to cut off the service in three days unless there is a new account and it will cost $19 to change it.
Steve:  The account holder has been dead for over 30 years, I don't see how another week or month is going to matter.
LADWP:  Once we've been notified we shut off services after three days unless it's changed.

You can imagine how I'm feeling now.

Steve:  Look, I just called so I could pay this bill on time and now you're threatening to shut off the water and power?
LADWP:  I'm sorry that is the policy.  Please give me your social security number.

When I hesitated, she repeated the turn off the service threat.  "We need it to check your credit."  OK, I can understand, and credit checking is one of the reasons one has to give a social security number, but it doesn't mean, in this identity theft era, that I like it.

She put me on hold.  When she came back I had collected myself and voiced my dissatisfaction in a mostly calm, but impatient voice.

Steve:  Look, I've been calling lots of organizations since my mom died.  You are the first person I've talked to who hasn't had the decency to say something like, "I'm sorry for your loss."  And all the other places have been understanding and offered me extra time if I needed it.   You, in contrast,  are threatening to shut off the water and power in three days if I don't do everything you say.  I might as well be talking to a robot who isn't programmed to understand human beings and have some discretion or decency.  

At that point she changed her tone.  She apologized, gave her condolences, but also said they deal with thousands of people every day and don't know what the circumstances are.  In the end, she said I could mail it in and not go to the office and stand in line to pay that day.

My assumption is that LADWP is putting lots of pressure on employees who answer phones, and that is reflected in how this woman responded.  I'm sure there are lots of people who skip out on unpaid bills, but that's no reason to treat me like they did.  In the end she acknowledged this was a long time account (my family moved into this house in 1956) and that the bills were always paid on time.

I'm inclined to think the problem really rests on LADWP.  They're known for scandals about hig employee salaries and  their billing as well as over expenditures and secrecy.

I don't think they should get any rewards for customer service either.

And let me say that every other person I've talked to over the phone since my mom died has immediately stopped and offered condolences and been extra nice and accommodating in handling the issues.  It hasn't always been quick and there have sometimes been problems down the line (although Verizon lowered the rate to $96 a month - tv on vacation hold - the new bill was for $335), but when I've called back they've been gracious and helpful.

NOTE:  I started this several days ago.  Saturday this letter arrived from LADWP addressed to [initials] Deceased [last name].  Maybe I should put it on my mom's ashes until she decides what to do with it. (I've already sent them a check.)  Except it's not to my mom, but my step-dad whose been dead over 30 years.  I could take it to the cemetery and tape it to his memorial. 

I've smudged the initials, last name, address, etc.

We've had letters addressed to my mom, and to her estate, but not with 'deceased' as part of her name.  More reason to believe this is an insensitive organization and it wasn't simply the operator I got. 

LA Gas Prices, Freeway And Weather Notes

Last December, I reported on LA gas prices.  We'd just gotten gas fpr $2.39/gal at Costco and I compared that to Anchorage prices (lowest then was $2.83) where the tax is significantly lower.

I also remarked that the Anchorage Costco prices were not even the same.  (Costco told me then, that price depends on the competition near the stores.)


I caught this Chevron sign this afternoon as we were coming back from visiting relatives in the valley.

Lowest price at this station is $3.78.   This is noteworthy because J filled the tank last night at the nearby Costco for $2.99.  I wonder about all the folks who let stations get away with this sort of price difference.  I realize that location is important.  Costco isn't far from my mom's place, but there is also something called planning.  Especially with an 80 cent per gallon difference!  But with the way prices fluctuate, getting gas last week at Costco may not have been such a bargain now.

By the way, I checked on Anchorage Gas Prices and the lowest in Anchorage is $3.13 right now.  But with such websites, people can find the lowest nearby prices easily.  And if they only shopped within ten cents of the lowest local price, I guarantee that 80 cent spreads would disappear soon.

We got home fairly quickly after we got past the jam behind this accident on Ventura Freeway. (Sorry, I'm old school and still call them by their names, not by their numbers.)

By the way, the temperature for where we visited is predicted to be only 101˚F (38˚C) by 4pm today (in 30 minutes).  It's supposed to be only 88˚F at my mom's by 4pm.   It doesn't feel that much cooler - the humidity here (closer to the beach) is 47% but only 21% in the valley. 

The Opposite Of Home Depot - B&B; Plus DTOAR Mural

You need a damper for your old . . . did he say furnace or water heater?  B&B is an old, old neighborhood hardware store in Culver City.  It's ramshackle, doesn't have everything you need, but has things others don't have.  Like these dampers. 

And the people who work there know what they're doing.  I was working on the shower knob for my mom and I also needed a new stem.  Fernando, in the plumbing department, saved me a ton of money last time I did repairs for my mom, so I went back to him again for his sage advice before tackling the project. 

There's a sense of community here that I don't get at Home Depot or Lowe's.  Having thirty types of everything isn't as good as having exactly what you need and someone who cares that you get it for a fair price along with a really deep knowledge of (in this case) plumbing. 

I didn't realize that people still use waterbeds.  And this kit looks like it's from the days when waterbeds were big.  (I did look online and you can get this from Sears for a couple dollars less (plus shipping) and from others for a couple dollars more.) 







And there was one more part they were out of so on the way to another local hardware store, I passed this mural.

And using the DTOAR that was on the lower right of the mural, I found this:

DTOAR / Mural in Venice California of the singer Lissie
Painted and Conceptualized by Gianni Arone and Angelina Christina

Doing lots of paper work and house stuff while I'm here as well as getting in some Mom time, so this will be a relative quickie.

"Never climb a tree or fence, or do anything awkward with a loaded firearm."

And other things I learned checking out this ad in the Saturday morning's Alaska Dispatch News.  It fell out as I pulled the paper out of the plastic bag.  [The quote in the title is from the safety chart below.]


The back side of the flier has stuff about Anchorage  and shows the engraving on the right (Petroleum Industry) and left (Fur Traders) cylinders and says

"Only 100 will be made in the edition."

If layaway starts at $200, what's the total price?

So I called and got a recording.  I looked on line.  There was a safety page and that got me to thinking - if this is a fancy 'heritage' revolver, wouldn't I want to display it?  How could I do that and be safe at the same time.  While I was mulling that over, the phone rang and it was a guy from American Legacy Firearms.

I asked about the price.  The full price, he said . . . it's gold plated and engraved, is $2495, but there's a special promotion, $300 off.  So it's $2195.  And only 100 will be made.

Then I asked about how one would safely display such a gun, since one is buying it because it is a special beautiful piece.  Well, they don't actually advise on that - was I thinking of a wall display, a display case?  A glass case, with a lock is possible, but it could be broken and the gun stolen.  We've had some customers who got really high quality glass that couldn't be broken and cemented it in - really elaborate.  It would be unloaded, of course.  You could put on a gun lock, but a big burly lock wouldn't look very good.  You could have a gun smith remove the firing pin, but then you wouldn't be able to use it.

I asked how long the discount would be in place.  There will be only 100, so when they are sold it's over.  25 have been ordered already and we hope to have them sold by the end of the year.


I looked further on line to see what safety storage options there might be.  The Kruger website sent me to the National Shooting Sports Foundation site where I found this from Project ChildSafe (from the National Shooting Sports Foundation):

"The decision to maintain a firearm in the home for self-protection is a serious, personal matter. Unlike passive safety devices, such as alarm systems, firearms used for home protection require significantly more involvement by the owner. Any added safety benefit that may be derived from a firearm depends in large measure on the owner’s commitment to appropriate training and a clear understanding of safe handling and storage rules. Are your security concerns realistic and consistent with local crime rates? Do other adults in your household support the decision to maintain a gun in the home? If they will have access to the firearm, will they join you in a firearms training and safety program? What precautions will be practiced to safeguard children? Do risk factors such as drug and alcohol abuse exist within your household? In addition, issues such as individual temperament, reaction to emergency situations, and specific family circumstances should also enter in the decision.

If you must have quick access to a loaded firearm in your home, you need to take special safety measures. Keeping a gun to defend your family makes no sense if that same gun puts your family members or visitors to your home at risk. Home firearms accidents can occur when unauthorized individuals – often visitors – discover loaded firearms that were carelessly left out in the open.

If you choose to keep a firearm for home security, your objective should be to create a situation in which the firearm is readily available to you, yet inaccessible or inoperative to others. Special lockable cases that can be quickly opened only by authorized individuals are options to consider.

You must exercise full control and supervision over a loaded gun at all times. This means the gun must be unloaded and placed in secure storage whenever you leave the gun in your home or elsewhere. Secure ammunition separately.

Your most important responsibility is ensuring that unsupervised children cannot encounter loaded firearms. The precautions you take must be completely effective. Anything less invites tragedy and is a serious violation of your responsibility as a gun owner."

I looked for safe storage.  Number 3 below is

"Firearms should be unloaded and securely stored when not in use."  But how exactly?

Here are basic safety rules from Ruger.

Click to enlarge and focus

These are all very reasonable and logical in the abstract, but, for example, will the person who's had a few drinks heed this kind of advice?

Click to enlarge and focus

I finally found this chart on safe storage (p.16). The commentary lists some of the problems.  There aren't any perfect solutions - especially if you want a gun for self-defense at home at night. The cable can be cut.  Electronic lock boxes won't work if their batteries die.  And all say to keep keys or combinations away from children and unauthorized people.  Easier said than done.

I also wanted to know how much this revolver would cost without the gold plating and the engraving.  I found this auction site that listed this sort of gun.  They ranged, as you can see, from $450 to $679. 

I don't know how many folks are ready to plunk down $2100 for one of these - though I'm guessing a lot more than I imagine.  But someone suggested that with the "petroleum industry" engraving, it might make a great retirement present for oil company employees in Alaska 

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.

Excessive Packaging

I bought a new beard trimmer the other day at Costco.  This is one of the biggest packaging wastes of space and material I recall. 

Everything I needed from this big box and all that cardboard fits in the little black bag. 

Bad Survey Design

I got an email survey about a Credit Union I have an account in.  Here's the first question:

I haven't used any of them in the last 30 days, so I clicked on the 'next' button and got this:

So, my choices are to 1.  click here and go back to the first page or just quit.  I have no option to say, "I haven't used any of them in the last 30 days."   Perhaps they are only interested in the last 30 days, but then there should be an option to say, "None" and then they could thank me and say the survey is done and not left me in a catch-22 loop.  And if the survey has more general questions than just the last 30 days, they've lost my input. 

Why Many Of My Videos Won't Work For A While

Viddler, a site similar to Youtube in that you can put videos there and then embed them into your blog post, recently notified me they were shutting down the free accounts.   I posted about this once March 2, 2013.

I used YouTube in the beginning, but uploading was very slow and videos had to be very short.  So one day I discovered Viddler and found they uploaded faster, they had sharper images, and you could upload longer videos.  So I switched over.  That was back in August 2007. 

In 2010 Viddler sent out emails to members saying they were going to convert to paid accounts only.  I told them about my blog, that I was an early adopter, and all the trouble it would cause me to replace all the video on my blog. I suggested they let me continue free as an early adopter.  I'd even put up my only ad for them as a sponsor of my blog.  They agreed in concept, but it turned out they just backed down on closing down the free accounts.  But I got the message.  Meanwhile, Google had bought YouTube, and the quality there was much improved.  So I started using YouTube as my main server for video on the blog.  Once the video is on the server, you can get the embed code and put that in your blog (or on your website) and the video appears.

So about a month ago, I got the new email that they were now closing down the free part of their website.  I had 478 videos on Viddler.    So I've been busily downloading.  I had some problems and the staff were very prompt and helpful.  They even offered me a way to batch download the videos, but I couldn't make it work.

In any case, with the exception of about a dozen videos in December 2008 which had some sort of problem they've said they'd try to fix, I think I have everything downloaded.  Today was the deadline, but they assured me that they wouldn't shut down my page until I had it all done.

So now I'm uploading videos to YouTube so I can swap out the Viddler hosted videos for Youtube hosted videos.  In the near future, the ones that were Viddler will probably stop working.  I'm starting to replace the most recent ones - and I really haven't used Viddler that much recently.  So I think I might get 2014 and 2013 taken care of before the account closes.  Most of those I saved originally to YouTube.  It's the older ones that will take a while and may be unviewable until I get them swapped out.  If I can do ten a day, I could get them done in a couple of months.  

Today's Apartheids

Intro

1. The Anchorage International Film Festival is getting all my attention this week, at least here on the blog, and I haven't commented on other important issues or events.  I think good art (even bad art)  tells us about everything that's important, so covering the festival isn't trivial, but still I feel pulled in different directions.
2. This blog covers a wide array of topics, because, as I told someone this week, "everything is related."  And I hope that's clear below

The Boycott

The Boycott of South Africa is getting lots of attention this week in the wake of all the memorials for Nelson Mandela.  But at the time a boycott was considered completely radical, anti-business, anti-American, harmful to the US economy, and it wouldn't have the desired effect anyway.

People knew that Aparteid was fundamentally wrong and they persisted - mainly younger folks who got their universities to divest from companies doing business in South Africa.  Legislation was passed and the conservatives' hero Ronald Reagan vetoed it.  But the Boycott movement had worked hard and effectively and Reagan's veto was overridden.  

Why Divest?

The basic point is that companies should not be making money by supporting oppression or other things that cause serious harm to humans or to the planet they live on.   We have laws against prostitution and drugs basically for the same reason - some moral values trumps the capitalist goal of making as much money as possible.  Even conservatives in the US have pushed hard to get a boycott against doing business with Iran and in Alaska very conservative legislators wanted to divest the state's funds - like the Permanent Fund - of companies doing business with Iran.

The underlying principle is that we value certain things above money.  Slavery was abolished even though it hurt slave owners economically (not to mention morally and spiritually.)

Corporations' appropriate goals, according to an old Michigan Supreme Court decision and supported by Milton Friedman, and quite probably today's US Supreme Court, but challenged by others, is to maximize shareholder profit.

They do this by taking resources and creating products or services they can sell.  Degradation of the environment - so long as it doesn't hurt their bottom line - is acceptable.  Exploitation of workers is not an issue as long as it doesn't hurt their bottom line.  The same with exploiting customers.  (Think banking late fees and punishing interest rates or airline fees for changing reservations.  Think of 'pre-existing conditions' clauses in health insurance policies. Think the housing crisis.)

When companies make big profits while violating more important human values, they have to pay their employees well to keep them doing their damaging work.  'Well' is a relative term.  They don't have to pay much to get very poor people to work, even in jobs that put the employees at risk.  Much higher salaries and benefits than the prevailing salaries get professionals to sell their souls for morally questionable business. 

We know that people are able to believe any stories that justify their right to get what they want, even when it is morally reprehensible.  German soldiers justified their work at concentration camps with stories of Jews undermining pure German culture.  Slaveowners used the bible and their beliefs that Africans werea lesser form of human.  Roosevelt allowed internment camps for Japanese-Americans because American prejudices saw them as threats to our security.  Communists tolerated, at first, Stalin's purges because they were necessary for the revolution.  Civil Rights leaders discriminated against women in their movement. Often short term benefits and costs are cited as trumping long term and uncertain benefits. 

Today's Apartheids

In hindsight, it's relatively easy to see who was right and who was wrong (though there are still Nazis in Germany and white supremacists in the US.)   To figure out where action needs to be taken today, we should look at situations where important values are being compromised  to make money.

1.  Future human survival as global climate change causes more severe weather events, shifts in geographic ranges of flora and fauna leading to diseases to spread to new areas and crop destabilization and drought.  Those are just a few of the impacts we are already starting to see. 

Fighting this with the same sort of arguments used to fight the Aparteid boycotts are the biggest traditional energy corporations - mainly oil, gas, and coal.  Alternative energy sources can't fill our energy needs, they tell us.  Business would be crippled.  If we don't produce these fuels, others will.  And, by the way, there is no such thing as global warming, and if there were, it wouldn't be caused by humans, just natural climate cycles.  In Alaska, their well paid employees, somehow justify their contribution to the future degradation of the planet, by buying into those specious arguments    When we have public  hearings on oil taxes in Alaska, nearly all the people testifying for the oil companies are people working for the industry, claiming their livelihoods and standard of living would be gone if the oil companies were taxed at current levels. The standard of living of the next generation must take care of itself is the implication. 

2.  Privatization and Chemicalization of Our Food.   Large corporations destroy our long term food growing environments through factory agriculture - high fertilizer and pesticide use - in the name of shareholder profit.  They systematically destroy small local farmers, introduce GMO food, and fight against labeling because GMO's are perfectly safe and labeling them would harm their business.  And patent seeds to gain a monopoly on food. 

3  Continued Manufacture and Profiting From Weapons.  Why are we responsible to bring peace around the world?  As humans, we have an obligation to help those who can't help themselves.  We help babies and children, we help victims of storms and earthquakes, it's a basic value of every religion.  But there's yet another reason - much of the death around the world is caused by weapons manufactured by the US and other nations, for war and acquired by anyone with money and connections.  If Second Amendment extremists feel they need protection, then we need to raise a society where people have fulfilling lives and don't need to steal from others to live decently.  And then if people persist with personal arsenals, we can give them the mental health care they obviously need. 

4.  Corporatized media, used not as watchdogs, but as attack dogs.  Our ability to know about and understand how well or poorly governments, corporations, and other institutions of great power operate, is dependent on getting accurate information about their performance.  It also requires an ability to understand what they report.  So education that raises free and thinking citizens needs to replace education that produces obedient consumers and employees.  Instead our media and corporate culture distract us from the real problems with sports, celebrities, and other trivia. Even movies, some, but not all.  Not film festival movies.:)


Everything is Related

American consumerism fuels our need for oil that is destroying our environment and making the pursuit of money or credit our paramount reason for living.  Our failures to earn enough to feed this insatiable consumption leads to crime, addictions (besides consumption), family break ups, and the justification to work for companies and industries we should all be boycotting.  It's all related.


And the film festival gives us a different way to see how these things interact.  Films take us into the lives of people we otherwise would never know.  Here is a list of just a few films at the festival that raise the issues to greater or lesser degrees.  All give us one more piece of the puzzle to understand the interconnections among us all.  OK, I realize that each of us will see these movies with our own filters and many will come away with far different conclusions than do I.

• Tales of the Organ Trade looks at the illegal buying and selling of human kidneys. 
• Fatigued was filmed by soldiers in Afghanistan who told us they were there for different reasons, but mostly to get things like health insurance or to escape unemployment and poverty. All they could think about, they tell us, is  'getting out of this shithole and back home." (I'm not sure what message they intended to send, but I was closer in reaction to a contractor quoted in the movie, "They are a bunch of whiners."  But the movie didn't mention the huge disparity in pay between the soldiers and the contract employees which allowed this contractor to pay off her house, car, and all other debts.)  
• Gold Star Children talked about the tens of thousands of US children who have lost a parent in the Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan wars, and how little attention is given to their huge losses.  
• Lion Ark looks at the mistreatment of animals in illegal Bolivian circuses and the rescue of 27 lions.   
• We Can't Eat Gold - looks at the tradeoff between the Pebble Mine and the great salmon runs.
•  Not By Sight - looks at how one woman's group takes offshore oil to task.
• Backyard - looks at how the world view of a conservative couple was changed when their neighborhood was fracked. 
• De Nieuwe Wereld (The New World) looks at one tiny part of the human disruption caused by economic exploitation and the arms industry, by looking at asylum seekers in a detention center in Amsterdam.
• Detroit Unleaded shows us the deadening life running a gas station/store in a high crime neighborhood in Detroit. 
• Everything Is Fine Here - shows us the impact of rape on a young Iranian woman. 

We will never have perfect, problem-free societies.  But I believe we can do significantly better than what we have now.  Go see a movie at the film festival - not to be distracted from the world's problems - but to be energized into taking them on. 

An Egyptian Adventure at Venice Beach

Riding on the bus from LAX to my mom's, we meet a man who'd just opened a new shop on the Venice Beach boardwalk.  An Egyptian shop.  His name is Peter and he invites to come see the shop and have a cup of Egyptian tea. 

It was in the brick courtyard on the boardwalk that used to be Charlie Chaplin's house where he invited his friends to stay, he told us.  Hmmm, I know where the Frank Gehry house is, why have I never heard of the Charlie Chaplin house?  Since this is on my bike to the beach route, I said I'd try to come by.

So Monday morning, after riding down to the Venice pier on a great day for a bike ride, I stopped at the brick courtyard on the way home.

Here's what it looks like from the bike trail.  517 Ocean Front Walk.














And as you go into the courtyard, it looks like this.  It's cute and quaint, but apparently it was never Charlie Chaplin's.


I had looked it up and found a site called Westland that had a post titled:   Debunking Venice's Historic Myths.  

The writer says that he's:

 "operated a Venice history display and postcard stand along Venice's Ocean Front Walk since 1979."

He talks about the many stories about Venice Beach and then goes through many of them and tells us whether they are true or not.  In one section, he talks about whether celebrities really once lived somewhere.

"517 Ocean Front Walk - Charlie Chaplin - NO

The current owner named the commercial courtyard the Charlie Chaplin Courtyard under the mistaken belief that it was built by the silent movie star. The Sea Spray Apartments were built in 1922 as exclusive apartments."

No matter.  I find Peter and get introduced to his Egyptian partner Saber.  They met in Egypt.  And, I forgot to mention, when Peter got off the bus, he then got his bike off the rack, and rode home.  Maybe after setting up this shop he can't afford a car, but I'd like to think his use of public transportation and a bike is his environmental consciousness. 

Saber and Peter at their Egyptian Shop

I'm invited in and shown around.  Since I forgot my little pocket camera in Seattle, I've taken along my big new camera.  I tell them I'm a blogger and take pictures.

I'm a little disappointed with these pictures.  I think there is so much detail in each item that it all gets lost in a picture that tries to get too much.

There's lots and lots of items for sale.  I've never been to Egypt, but I'm guessing this looks a lot like the tourist shops around the big attractions in Egypt.  All the kinds of images of Egyptian art we know from museums, television shows, and books on ancient Egypt.

Peter gets me some tea. (I took some photoshop liberties with the background.)  I know in India that shop keepers often bring tea out for their customers.  And I think it's pretty common in the Middle East.  It's the first hook the salesman puts into his customer.  I should have had my first warnings.

Then Saber starts talking to me about my family.  He pulls out a scroll and says, "This is a family tree."  It's a painting of, apparently, a family.  He asks my name and gives me a chart of the Latin alphabet with their hieroglyphic equivalents.  S.  He points to the hieroglyphic on the chart and then writes it in marker on the scroll he's holding.

Uh oh.  Now what?  I think I'm caught on his line.  Soon he's written my family members' names all over the top and bottom borders.  I've lost round one, now it's just a question of how much I'm willing to pay for this.

Sure, this is a risk he's taking as a salesman, but I'm also in awe of his salesmanship.  He's a pro.  I've met these guys before - in Greece, in Israel, and particularly in India.  But this guy is really good.  He's written my family all over this painting - I've got to buy it, right?  What's he going to do with it if I don't?  That's confidence.

So he tells me that because I'm going to write a story about the shop he will let me pay whatever I want.  But before I offer $10, he takes me to a small painting on the wall and asks me, "Which one is bigger?"  My (see, I've already accepted that I'm buying it) painting is about three times the size.  The painting on the wall is priced at what I thought was $22.  He corrected me.  It was actually $220.  Well that's absurd.  I'm out for a Monday morning bike ride and I'm being hit up for something I don't even want for $220.  I tell him I'll pay $30.  He tells me that the paintings are done by poor Egyptian students and it takes about three weeks to make one like mine.

"My" Scroll Before He Wrote On It

$30 is still way more than I need to spend on this.  But it's a new store, some of the money will somehow, I rationalize, go back to people in Egypt, though I have no idea whether his family is connected to the military dictatorship, the Muslim brotherhood, or any of the other factions and who will get the money.

I have no cash.  They credit card reader on Peter's iPhone isn't working right so I end up at an ATM at a shop nearby.  When I get back Saber tells me to write a good story about the shop.  Will he like this?  If he doesn't will he reclaim his papyrus?

As I ride home with my new scroll, I'm asking myself:  Is it a dry erase pen he could just clean off if I didn't buy it?  (It turns out to be permanent ink.)  Is it really painted or just a print that costs them a dollar or two each, so that marking up one is worth it if they sell two out of every ten they mark?

I don't know.  I don't really care.  I'm not easily separated from my money by salesmen like this, but he was really good.

I did go online today to see how much Egyptian papyrus paintings cost.  At Pyramid Imports you can get an 8"x12" painting for from $13 to $14 reduced to $5.99-%6.99.  This is about the size of the one they had marked as $220.
A 13x17" painting sells for $14.99 reduced to from $6.99 to $7.99.
A 13x33" painting sells for $24.99, no reductions.

And all these prices will add shipping but no tea and no banter.   And the online sales folk don't have to pay rent for a highly trafficked tourist spot. 

Mine is 17.5" high and I'm guessing at least 36" wide. (It's all rolled up and well wrapped and I don't want to open and have to rewrap it.)  So I probably paid a fair price for it.  If I wanted it.

I first encountered serious bargaining in Greece as a college student.  Storekeepers would tell you how much you were robbing them and they would fight tooth and nail over a price.  But if you met the shopkeeper socially, he would treat you with utmost generosity.  A little later I was in the flea market in Rome and wanted to buy a pot of geraniums for the American family I was staying with.  Since it was a gift, I erased the chalked price on the flower pot, as I gave it to the salesperson, who promptly wrote a lower price on the pot.

As a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand, I got much more skilled at the fine art of bargaining, though the Thais are much less serious about this than the Greeks or Indians.  And, I'll add now, Egyptians.

Saber was a pro.  It was like watching anyone really skilled at what he did.  Say, like watching a magician make the money in my pocket mysteriously jump to his pocket.  I knew he was doing it, yet I couldn't stop him. 

As regular readers know, I'm trying to get rid of things not buy new ones.  But now I have an Egyptian family painting with all the names of my immediate family members written on the border in hieroglyphics in felt pen.

So, I do recommend you at least stop in this shop if you're on the Boardwalk.   The address is 517 Ocean Front Walk shop number 16 in the courtyard.  The buildings were NOT built or owned by Charlie Chaplin, but it's a good possibility that he walked by them at some point.  It's south of Rose about four or five blocks. 

After thinking things over, I know that I would be much more interested in modern Egyptian art and posters that reflect what's happening in Egypt today.  These copies of ancient art are nice, but I'd rather see and buy art that connects me with today's Egyptians and their struggle for democracy. 

I'm guessing this shop is as close as many people will get to stepping into a tourist shop in Cairo.  Just check out the prices of Egyptian stuff online and don't pay anything close to the prices marked on the goods in the store.  Remember, don't ever feel like you've been cheap.  If they sell it to you, they're making money.  If your price is too low, they'll say no.  And if you are too easy, it's no fun for them.  The prices marked on things are just the beginning points of an elaborate bargaining process.  Your best weapon is knowing what these things go for and checking online makes that pretty easy. 

And these are, I'm convinced, two decent men trying to pay their way in life and support their families with this store.

Alaska Wine Guy Coming Soon Next To Sagaya's

Yamato Ya was in this space for years and years and moved out last year across the intersection and so as I walked my bike by the entrance and saw someone inside I was curious what was coming next.  I was too close to the building to see the new sign right above me.  Tom Faughnan came out and explained that the Wine Guy would be opening - if all goes well - some time in September.  He explains it all in the video.

)

The mid-September seems a bit optimistic considering where they are now.

This video is an example of trying to avoid other things I should be doing.  I had pulled back so I could see the sign, but Tom's head was then this tiny blob at the bottom.  So thinking about how to make it more interesting, I thought I might just drop the head from near the sign.  Well, that was kind of dumb until I thought about putting in wine bottle.  It looked much better when I was editing it in iMovie.  I put it up on YouTube, but the result messed up the sound synch with the picture.  Commercial videographers need not fear any competition from me. 

[Youtube video replacing Viddler video 3/11/14]

Did You Know That Tom's Of Maine Sold To Colgate? In 2006?

At the dentist yesterday, my hygienist commented that Tom's of Maine - the green toothpaste begun in 1970 - was now owned by Colgate.  She'd gotten a sample with a Colgate shipment and that's how she learned this.

When I checked online it turned out Colgate bought Tom's for $100 million!

 Organic Consumer wrote in 2006:

Best known for toothpaste, Tom's of Maine got its start in 1970 by
making a phosphate-free laundry detergent. Over the years, cofounder Tom Chappell, 63, poked fun at major brands like Colgate, saying they put artificial additives in their toothpastes while Tom's of Maine used natural ingredients.
Chappell said he will continue to run the brand from its Kennebunk headquarters. None of the privately held firm's approximately 170 jobs will be lost, he said.  ''We'll be a stand-alone subsidiary," said Chappell. ''And we have a commitment from Colgate that our formulas will not be tampered with.

Tom's of Maine's website paints a public service oriented company image:

"Tom’s of Maine is a leading manufacturer of natural and environmentally–friendly products, including natural toothpaste, alcohol–free mouthwash, natural dental floss, natural deodorant and antiperspirant and natural bar soap. Founded in 1970 in Kennebunk, Maine, the company is inspired by and committed to sustainable business practices as well as supporting people and communities. Each year, Tom’s of Maine gives 10% of its profits back to organizations that support human, healthy and environmental goodness and encourages employees to use 5% (12 days) of employee time to volunteer. Tom’s of Maine products are vegan, Kosher, Halal–certified and all packaging is recyclable through a partnership with upcycling leader TerraCycle or participating municipalities."

Natural Society  sees it differently:

"In fact, Tom’s of Maine isn’t even from Maine, and it’s owned by a well-known corporate giant — Colgate-Palmolive of New York. Purchasing an 84% stake in Tom’s back in 2006 (yes, they have owned Tom’s since 2006!) for 100 million dollars, Colgate-Palmolive’s share of the global toothpaste market has risen to 44%. In the United States alone, Colgate-Palmolive controls 35% of the market. Unfortunately, part of the companies success relies on a patented gingivitis formula which contains a toxic chemical substance called triclosan that reacts with the chlorine in tap water to become chloroform — a deadly chlorinated aromatic.

Shockingly, the result of the reaction is similar to the dioxins found in the compound Agent Orange that was responsible for 400,000 people being killed or maimed, and 500,000 children born with birth defects after being used in Vietnam by the U.S. military as a herbicide. This is the chemical reaction taking place in your mouth when using Colgate’s gingivitis formula. Interestingly enough, Agent Orange was developed by the biotech company responsible for the rampant genetic modification of the world’s food supply — Monsanto.
It gets worse. Triclosan is only one of the hazardous chemicals found in oral care products. One visit to the Tom’s of Maine official website and you will see the invitation to view all of their product ingredients, organized from A to Z. There is even a statement declaring that not only are all ingredients “naturally sourced,” but that they are “sustainable and responsible.” A look at the ingredients list, however, and you will find that Tom’s of Maine was not being very responsible or sustainable with ingredients such as titanium dioxide and zinc chloride added to their products."

There may be problems with Tom's, but Natural Society's post has its own problems.  If Tom's isn't from Maine - their website says they are in Kennebunk, Maine and they get their water from a Maine aquifer - where are they from?  A recent post at Grist says the potatoes for new packaging are from Maine and that Tom's is in Maine.  Greenbiz writes:

The research [to turn potatoes to plastic] is part of a partnership that includes the University of Maine and the Sustainable Bioplastics Council of Maine, which are seeking ways of recapturing local agricultural waste.

Natural Society seems to be doing a little sleight of hand here - in one hand Tom's and in the other hand Colgate.  Tom's isn't from Maine because Colgate is headquartered in New York.  From what I can tell, Colgate has left Tom's to do its own thing.  It may be that Colgate uses Triclosan, but Natural Society hasn't actually said Tom's does and I don't see it listed in the ingredients of my tube.  Nor is it listed on the website for the tube I have.   

Ingredient	Purpose	Source
Sodium monofluorophosphate 0.76% (0.15% w/v fluoride ion)	Decay prevention	Fluorspar (calcium fluoride), an ore
Calcium carbonate	Mild abrasive	Purified calcium from the earth
Water	Consistency	Maine aquifer
Glycerin	Moistener	Vegetable oils
Sodium bicarbonate	pH adjustment	Purified sodium bicarbonate from the earth
Carrageenan	Thickener	Seaweed (Chondrus crispus)
Xylitol	Flavor	Birch trees or corn
Natural Flavor	Flavor	Peppermint (menthe piperita) leaves
Sodium lauryl sulfate	Dispersant	Derived from coconut and/or palm kernel oil

It may also be true that some of the zinc products Natural Society cites from the Tom's website may be in other products, but I don't see them in the toothpastes.

There are also complaints online about dropping the aluminum tubes for plastic tubes, but I suspect the potato based plastic tubes are in response to that.

I found one other webiste that had problems with Tom's of Maine:  The Cornucopia Institue does health research related to small farms.  Their website says:

"The Cornucopia Institute will engage in educational activities supporting the ecological principles and economic wisdom underlying sustainable and organic agriculture. Through research and investigations on agricultural issues, The Cornucopia Institute will provide needed information to consumers, family farmers, and the media."

Their problem is that Tom's uses carrageenan, which is one of the ingredients in my tube and it's listed above.  

There is simply no way around it: dozens of scientific, peer-reviewed studies used food-grade carrageenan and found it caused gastrointestinal inflammation, ulcerations, lesions and even colon cancer in laboratory animals.  Most of these recent studies were funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health.

They cite their March report "Carrageenan: How a “Natural” Food Additive is Making Us Sick."  Carrageenan is made from one kind of seaweed and is used in lots of products as a thickener - soy milk, almond milk, ice cream, canned soups, frozen pizza - and the Center for Science in the Public Interest has put downgraded its rating:

CSPI also downgraded the seaweed extract carrageenan from "safe" to "certain people should avoid." Used as a thickener and stabilizing agent in many dairy products, a World Health Organization committee concluded that it is inadvisable to use carrageenan in liquid formula designed for infants under one year of age. Carrageenan is still used in some varieties of Similac, though not varieties sold in the U.K.

 I'd say that the at this point the food industry is not concerned with carrageenam, but some researchers have found reasons to be concerned.

So, that's what I've learned about Tom's.  I can't blame someone who has worked hard for 40 years for taking $100 million for his company.  It's easy to call someone else a sellout, but not many people would turn down an offer like that.  You can do a lot of good in the world with that much money.  But it's also an example of the shrinking of competition, that basic driver of a good market system.