Calm Before The Storm

Sunday (I'm so far behind here)  in San Francisco was beautiful and I went along with my son's family and two other couples with kids to Mussel Rock - which turned out to be a hang gliding spot.

If you look closely, there's a hang glider in the upper right hand corner. Gliders are easier to see in the next shot. I'd note that we're technically in Daly City and that water curves right at the top and under the Golden Gate Bridge.     

This was also January 1, 2023,  the day after San Francisco had record rains and headlines said things like "California brought to its knees by weather."  Clearly we were fine, the weather was great and we didn't pass any flooded streets.  Beware of headlines, particularly about disasters.  The photos tend to show the one or two extreme examples.  Of course, there are actual disasters where there is widespread damage.  

As you can see from the background, this is the same spot.  

And the first moonrise of 2023 was happening above the houses on the cliff above the beach area.  I'm sure these houses have great views of the ocean.  But I grew up in LA and remember houses like this siding down the side of the hill.  

And another sign nearby showed that the parking lot where I took the first pictures from was right on the San Andreas fault line.  What could go wrong?  But I'm the sort of guy who sees a glass near the edge of a table and I see it getting knocked off the table.  And move it toward the middle of the table.  

Monday more rain was predicted and there was some drizzle as we headed back down to LA.  We had wanted to go back down Highway 1 through Big Sur to look once more for condors and then to the elephant seal beach again.  But there was a rockslide a bit north of the elephant seal beach.  Coming down Highway 101 was easier and we could cut back to the coast to Cambria and be about 15 miles south of the targeted beach.  

It was a bit windy and chilly and there was some rain watching the seals.  But I think it would take a long time for me to get tired of watching them.  There were a lot more and this time we could see lots of little pups. 

 

   

I checked several sites because I'd assumed that the ones with the elephant like noses were the miles and the internet confirmed that.  So this is a male with the baby that was exploring and generated an attack from a nearby female.  The male just put his considerable weight on the pup to keep it from scooting off into trouble.

They work really hard moving on land.  You can see this one's trail up out of the water.

So that gets us to Monday afternoon.  We spent the night in Cambria again.  

 

Springing On Bainbridge

Saw my first crocus yesterday.  

Spending lots of gramp time with my newly turned 9 year old.  She's such a mix of mature and thoughtful and silly and mischievous.  Listening to her mom and grandpa talking about their students, she explains that sometimes kids in her class don't answer the teacher's question because they don't clearly understand the question - even though they know the answer.  I so wish people would realize kids know so much more than adults think they do and would talk to them with respect and listen.  They will surprise you.  After all, when adults ignore their ideas, they discuss them (and the adults) with their friends.  Just like adults do.  

She also hid my wallet in a drawer yesterday and it took forever to find it when I had to pay the plumber today.  

First I had them both with the words on top.  But that didn't seem right.  Then I flipped the bottom on so you can better see this was one piece of sidewalk art in Bainbridge Island's 1% for the arts program. Words are by Margi Berger.  Artist is Carolyn Law with Benson Shaw.  

The library had a display of books for Black History Month.  

Our disgraced former president has encouraged all those damaged souls with who must put others down to feel good about themselves - whether highly educated or not - to voice their hatreds and condemn those who are fighting for an opportunity to live their lives without fear of being harassed because of the color of their skin.  That so many people are so angry and so willing to do his bidding is a sign of how sick our system is.  The accumulation of money covers so many sins - from T himself to the oil companies that continue to fight against meaningful action to slow down climate change, to the Sacklers, and so many others.  We see people rot in prison because they smoked a joint, but so may of those with money buy get out of jail free passes with fancy lawyers.  

These are people who don't want truth about the US to be read by their children.  Or yours.  

Hatred is a burden not only for the oppressed, but also the oppressor.  It's a disease of the heart, in the sense of dis-ease.  How many of T's rabid supporters were abused - physically and/or psychically as children?  Were abandoned physically or mentally by a parent?  That leaves big scars and anger that searches for a target.  Yet others so badly treated find love somewhere else and heal.  

Read some good books.

And look at the moon and sky - an experience that links you to humans (and non humans) going back to before history.  

 

When Our Sphere Gets Shrunk, There's More Time To See What's Still There - The Sun And The Moon And Merton

 Last night, when I went outside, the moon was already big.  And a little googling helped me set my camera so it wasn't washed out.  

And today the sun streamed through the windows to highlight parts of this bouquet KS dropped off the other day.  

I love how flowers go from youth to old age in a week or so, revealing wonders before returning their atoms to the earth for other flowers to use.

I didn't mention flowers in the post title, mostly because what struck me was how the sunlight changed them.  I think of these pictures more about light than the flowers.  But, yes, the light spotlights details of the flowers.  

And tonight I watched the moon through the bare branches of a birch in the back yard.

And let me slip in this last picture - from one of the Olé classes I'm taking this month - Thomas Merton.  I first learned about Merton on an early Talk of the Nation show.  I was stunned by all the people who called in to talk with host Ray Suarez about this modern monk/philosopher, people who were moved and inspired by his words in his many books.    I learned that I had a couple of 'connections' too Merton.  (We can connect with people in odd ways because our paths have crossed, sort of.)  Merton died in Bangkok in 1968, electrocuted in a shower.  At least that was the story I heard.  I was in Thailand teaching English as a Peace Corps volunteer.  If I read about his death at the time, I don't remember at all.  I didn't know who he was and probably would have passed over it quickly.

Image from Kathleen Tarr's Olé presentation

Merton also spend some time that year at a monastery in Eagle River, Alaska, a community that is part of the Municipality of Anchorage.  

I got a chance to talk to Ray Suarez some time after the Merton show when he was visiting Anchorage and told him how remarkable I thought the Merton show was.  He said that was an early show, but when the Merton call-in was so wildly successful, he knew that Talk of the Nation would be a success.  It turns out that Kathleen Tarr, who's teaching the class is a serious Merton scholar and that has added to the richness of that first class.  Three to go.  

On a more somber note, something I'd hoped this post would stay away from, I learned, as I was looking up Merton's death just to confirm the details, that a book was published in 2018 saying that his death was murder, not an accident.   The story of his death by electrocution in a shower in Thailand was very plausible to me.  Someone I knew had been knocked unconscious in a shower when the light went off and he tried to turn it back on.  Fortunately, he got up shortly and was fine.  

And enjoy the sun, the moon, and even think about reading a book by or about Thomas Merton.  It's something I look forward to myself.  

Big Bright Vernal Equinox Moon Greets Us After Move To Amend Panel

After attending a  panel discussion on "The 28th Amendment" we walked out to see this giant moon pushing up over the mountains and not quite out of the clouds.

Here it's a little higher and we're out of downtown.

I'm still fighting my camera when the auto settings can't figure out what to do.  The manual settings just aren't intuitive and I use them so rarely.  The moon wasn't - as I remember it - so yellow.  

The panel was interesting and very civil.  The basic concern is with the impact of Citizens United and the problems of unlimited money from corporations and other non-human entities on elections in the United States.  The key objection I heard was that by limiting constitutional rights to human beings (Citizens United ruling was based on their First Amendment Right to free speech) organizations will be stripped of important rights, such as due process.  In response, Dr. Sharman Haley (standing at the mic in the picture) argued that such organizations are created and sanctioned by states and it is there, not in the constitution, that their rights should be established.  At least that's what I understood.  

To learn more, check out  Move To Amend.  

Another idea that was raised to make elections less contentious was ranked voting.  Dr. Haley argued that first, this would eliminate the need for primaries.  And second,  if candidates want to win, they have to be listed second on a lot of ballots.  Thus taking an extreme stand will likely lose them the election.   There's more on ranked choice voting here.

Camera Fun With Lunar Eclipse

I found a great website that gave me exact instructions on how to use my camera to shoot a lunar eclipse in 2014. You can see the eclipse pictures I got then at this link.  (There were three posts that night and there are links to the other two there.)

But that link (to how to shoot an eclipse with a Canon rebel) doesn't work any more.  I learned a bit more tonight about my camera, but not enough.  And my little tripod just isn't steady enough.  But here are some shots.

Sometimes not being able to keep the camera completely still offers more surreal pictures.

Here's the blood red moon in complete shadow.

I did a much better job in 2014 and recommend looking back there.

Big Science Stories 2019 -Space, Metric System, Antarctica, Opioids, Periodic Table, Climate Lawsuit, Moon, Gene Editing, Gun Research

We get so much news, so fast, and so superficially covered, that it's hard to separate the trivial from the truly significant.  We knew, back in 1969, that landing on the moon was a major change for human beings in their relationship with space and with humans' self image.  But today such earth-shattering (certainly in a figurative sense the moon landing was) events whiz by our consciousness.*

So I'm offering you some predictable science events coming up this next year as outlined by Deborah Netburn, Melissa Healy, Julia Rosen in the LATimes today under the title, "Nine stories to watch in the new year."  Of course, the article itself has a lot more details on each project/event.  And it has cool pictures too.

I'm going to put this list on the refrigerator, so when these become news stories, I will remember they were coming and have a more holistic sense of them all together.  And I can add other key stories that aren't on this list.  

1.  New Horizons pays historic visit to Ultima Thule: While you’re sipping champagne this New Year’s Eve, a spacecraft 4 billion miles from Earth will be making history.

2.  "Redefining the metric system: On May 20, the international metrology community will change the definitions of four basic units of measurement: the kilogram (mass), the Kelvin (temperature), the mole (amount) and the ampere (electrical current)."

3.  "Antarctica gets ready for its close-up: It’s summer in Antarctica, which means it’s the season for science. In January, two big expeditions will begin to explore pressing questions about how the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is changing — and what that means for the rest of the planet."

Sorry, can't skip this comment from the Antarcica story without my own comment:

"In addition, scientists will “collaborate” with seals by outfitting them with monitoring equipment that gathers data as they forage."

Even with the quotes around collaborate, this is still misleading.  They are using seals to further their research.  Whether the actual experiment is ethical or not, using 'collaborate' makes it sound much more like the seals are eagerly in on this and getting something out of it too.  (And the research may well be intended to help the seals long term, but the seals surely are not willing collaborators.)

4.  "New ways to prevent opioid abuse: The statistics of opioid dependency and death remain grim. And let’s not sugarcoat this: The data suggest things will probably get worse before they get better. In 2019, government agencies, health policy experts and medical researchers will be looking for ways to change the trajectory of this American crisis."

5.  "The periodic table turns 150: It’s time to step back and appreciate one of the great marvels of science. That’s why the United Nations has designated 2019 the International Year of the Periodic Table.
The choice wasn’t arbitrary: 2019 marks the 150th anniversary of the theory around which the table is organized. Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev discovered the cyclical pattern — or periodicity — in how the elements behave as they increase in atomic weight." 

If subtracting 150 from 2019 is a challenge, that gets us back to 1869.  So, no, Abraham Lincoln never heard of the Periodic Table because he was assassinated in 1865.

6.  "Youth climate lawsuit may finally go to trial: A landmark climate lawsuit has been inching closer to trial for four years. And in 2019, it may get its day in federal court at last — unless judges toss the case once and for all.
The suit was brought by 21 young people who say the U.S. government is violating their constitutional rights by promoting the use of fossil fuels in spite of the dangers posed by climate change." 

7.  "A traffic jam on the moon: If you thought going to the moon was passe, think again.  In 2019, China, India and Israel are all expected to land unmanned spacecraft on the lunar surface, while NASA steps up its efforts to return a human crew to the moon by 2028."

8.  "How to move forward with gene editing: Few were expecting that 2018 would see the birth of twin girls whose DNA had been edited in the lab when they were just days-old embryos. But it did, and now the scientific and bioethical questions raised by gene editing promise to be front and center in 2019."

9.  "Will money start pouring in for gun research? If the trend continues, the coming year will bring more school shootings and more mass shootings. And those will keep the complex of related issues — gun access and storage, mental health and violence prevention — front and center.
Philanthropies have responded to nearly 20 years of federal funding limits on firearms research with new private investments , and that money has begun to nurture a generation of public health researchers with expertise in these subjects."

 

*As a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand in the late sixties, I watched the moon-landing in a Thonburi classroom.  That was one event that garnered plenty of attention in - then - far away Thailand.  But I learned during those years that not hearing the US daily news wasn't that big a deal.  Things that were truly important, I would learn about.  The rest - like car crashes and routine murders - were just variations of the same story with different details that I really didn't need to know.  Exceptions like the Sharon Tate murder, I did find out about eventually.

Afternoon Trip To Alaska

I picked up my car Friday from the repair place, but they hadn't quite figured out the problem, but it did need to be driven, so if I took it for the weekend and drove it, that would help them.  I'd taken it in Wednesday evening and they were supposed to fix it Thursday. The key issue was that the yellow trouble light was on.  But Thursday is when the truck hit the bridge near Eagle River and shut down the Glenn Highway.  And the mechanic assigned to my car was stuck in the giant traffic jam.  Or so they told me.  No problem, I don't use the car much anyway.

An old gag about Anchorage is that "it's alone about 20 minutes from Alaska."  So, since the car needed to be driven, I wanted to head down the Seward Highway, maybe even take a short hike if the snow and ice weren't too bad.

The trail turned out to be mostly ice at the steepest part - just past the bridge - and even though we had grippers and poles, we decided it wasn't worth it.  Our grippers work fine on flat ground, but not up a steep incline.  But here are some pictures.



Turnagain Arm from McHugh Creek.














Here's a closer picture of the ice floating on the tide.

Here's McHugh Creek from the bridge just before the icy incline.  



















And here are those icicles closer up.





















Another part of the creek.












And the moon was out too.



Oh yeah, the yellow trouble light went back on in the van.  Who knows when they're going to figure out what's setting it off.

Slack Line Juggler Santa Monica Beach

This post is dedicated to my friend JK.

Another day with workers putting in moulding, doing electrical work, and various odds and ends at the house.  Phone calls to arrange further stuff, moving furniture, figuring where to hang pictures, and other work preparing my mom's house for rental for most of the year when we're at home in Anchorage.

I couldn't wait to get on the bike and ride down to the beach and then north along the beach bike trail.   I try to go earlier, because it gets more crowded as it gets closer to the sunset.  Today I had to stop and take some pictures. First, they had a much longer slack line than I've seen there before - it's the first one you see in the video.  Then on another wire was a juggler.  I also pan on the trail so you can see the traffic I have to navigate in this section of the trail, just south of the Santa Monica Pier (which you can see in the background.  Watch for the roller coaster.)



That spot on my camera is getting annoying. Sorry.

Once I get past the pier, the traffic thins out.  There is one short row of houses, separated from the beach by the public bike trail.

And there was a film crew camped out in one of the parking lots.

And I was getting back to the point where I leave the beach and head home, the almost full moon was rising to the east.

And to the west the sun was slipping down toward the ocean.

Here's why I did the video - you can see that a still shot just do this juggler justice.  You need to see the balls moving while the juggler goes up and down on the slack line.

"Films Worth Freezing For" Was True This Week

The Anchorage International Film Festival's motto is 'Films Worth Freezing For" and this week we had fresh snow and cold.

This thermometer is in Fahrenheit.  (-18˚C)

And yes, the films were worth going out into the cold to watch.

[Yes, I did play with the hoarfrost picture in Photoshop.]

Jelly Fish, Puffins, And Starfish Lunch

jelly fish

jelly fish

early morning over Seattle

tufted puffin

starfish eating a fish

Got to go with my granddaughter and daughter to the Seattle aquarium between flights today. 

When I flew in, just the peak of Rainier was showing in the distance.

And when I left in the afternoon.

And a little closer as we flew by.