In the name of blogging research only

I started this blog to find out about the blogging world. Now I've run into this particular blog several times and so I have put up a link and filled out their form. The Bestest Blog Ever is another of those blogs set up just to increase blog traffic. I'm really not sure if this is a good thing or not. Visually, it's the used car lot of the blogosphere. It's a guy in the green plaid suit that never fit. Maybe it's the weather affecting me.

By the way, based on the sitemeter referrals, so far the site that has generated the most hits (not counting the new stream coming in from Google) was from my Maytag repair thread on automaticwashers.com.

Google finally kicks in

I started this blog just to see how blogs work. One of my early questions was about how the giant search engines, especially Google, find you and then get you reasonably close to page one. I read some of the Google help information, did get confirmation they knew this blog existed, and even was able to find myself through Google if I used the right combination of very particular search words. But after a week or so even that didn't work. When I learned about the specialized blog search engines, I resigned myself to being found that way.

But as I was looking at the site-meter report yesterday, there were suddenly 'lots' of people getting to the site through Google. Not sure how or why.

About site-meter. I got that up mid-October and anyone can check out the site traffic. Just click on the counter number at the bottom of the right hand side of the blog. You can see all the information that sites get about their visitors.

Infamous versus Capote

We saw Infamous tonight at Bear Tooth. It isn't too often that we get to see two different contemporary takes on the same story. Yes, we have remakes of old films, and copies of successful non-English films by American film makers, but not two crews working on the same story, independently at the same time. And getting both out into theaters. Both these movies follow Truman Capote's trips to Kansas to cover the murders for his book In Cold Blood. I thought the first one to come out - Capote - was a strong movie. But Infamous seemed significantly better. I'm still trying to figure out why. I think it just felt more natural. The photography wasn't as dramatic, and Toby Jones as Capote seemed to become his character and make it believable that this unusual man could win the trust of his informants. In comparison, Philip Seymour Hoffman seemed to be working hard throughout the movie to keep in character.

The story also raises questions about the relationship between the writer and the subject - a relationship I've been keenly aware of while writing a blog and one my daughter raised questions about the other day.

Ultimately I was struck by this opportunity for film students to see the final products of two good crews working on the same story.

Corina and Toby's Baby Shower

So I went to my first baby shower Saturday. (Men were specifically invited.) Kathryn, the soon to be father's sister, formally known as Katy, organized much of it, including a soup she called borscht, but which had so little beet in it, that it wouldn't have qualified as borscht in my family, but also meant I could try it. It was good. And four loaves of no-knead bread.

As they opened the gifts, all sorts of thoughts went through my mind.
-Just the cute bag that gift was in cost more than most Indians make in a day.
-What if they made those clothes for adults? Particularly men. It would be interesting.
-That kid has more clothes than we had for a month in India.
-This isn't as bad as I expected
-This baby is going to have great parents

Just as we were all sitting eating, the snow plows pulled into the cul-de-sac with all these cars parked against the snow berms. Toby ran out with two plates of cake for the drivers, but they'd just eaten. But they said they'd come back in if people would move their cars for five minutes. So their street got plowed.

I think it's great to have a prebaby party and getting presents for their new baby. Everyone was friendly and there were lots of laughts. There were no embarrassing games. In the context of modern day Anchorage, it was probably a fairly understated event. But having recently been in India, and living in a state where many rural Alaskan villages don't have running water and sewer systems, this kid got a lot more than he will need. And Toby and Corina are, I'm sure acutely aware of how 'rich' they are. Corina grew up in Moldova and they help people there all the time. So, I'm not being critical here, I'm just musing.

[These pictures were taken earlier. I forgot my camera at the shower. I trust you can figure out who is who.]

The Reality Isn't

When people say, "The Reality Is" they are really saying, "I'm interrupting this conversation to bring you THE TRUTH." Don't let people get away with that. That is just a mild form of shaping reality, the kind of thing George Orwell warned about in his classic 1946 essay "Politics and the English Language" in which he discussed, among other things, how politicians shaped public opinion through the use of metaphors. George Lakoff's work on framing is a modern day version of that.


The Union of Concerned Scientists' recent study "Smoke, Mirrors & Hot Air: How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco’s Tactics
to Manufacture Uncertainty on Climate Science" gives another glimpse of how people's reality can be shaped:

In an effort to deceive the public about the reality of global warming, ExxonMobil has underwritten the most sophisticated and most successful disinformation campaign since the tobacco industry misled the public about the scientific evidence
linking smoking to lung cancer and heart disease. ... Like the tobacco industry, ExxonMobil has:
• Manufactured uncertainty by raising doubts about even the most indisputable scientific evidence.
• Adopted a strategy of information laundering by using seemingly independent front organizations to publicly further its desired message and thereby confuse the public.
• Promoted scientific spokespeople who misrepresent peer-reviewed scientific findings or cherry-pick facts in their attempts to persuade the media and the public that there is still serious debate among scientists that burning fossil fuels has contributed to global warming and that human-caused warming will have serious consequences.
• Attempted to shift the focus away from meaningful action on global warming with misleading charges about the need for “sound science.”
• Used its extraordinary access to the Bush administration to block federal policies and shape government communications on global warming.



How people know what they know is clearly something school children should be learning from Kindergarten on. After all, if they are in school to learn, they should be learning about how people learn. But they should also be learning to understand how others attempt to influence what they know and believe. If democracy is to really work, and not inevitably be taken over by large corporations who can pay scientists - as the tobacco companies and Exxon do - to pervert data that is not in their interests, or to raise doubts about things like evolution, then we have to be savvy consumers of data. We need to know how to spot the bullshit and raise appropriate questions. This goes for any sort of dogma whether it be on the left, right, east or west. This starts with recognizing phrases like "The reality is..." and interrupting them immediately.


Of course, as the pictures (top from today's Anchorage Daily News, bottom one I just took of our indoor/outdoor thermometer) in this post prove, the reality is that global warming isn't happening.

The House of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves

Our guide in Goa pointed to this building way up on the top of the hill. "That is the house of Ali Baba and the 40 thieves," he said. Then he smiled. "It is the building of the legislature of Goa - we have 40 legislators." People seem to have similar feelings about their legislators everywhere. But, I guess in a democracy, our legislators reflect the people who elect them. If people don't take the time and effort to support honest candidates, they get Ali Babas.

More Beautiful Snow - Getting up the driveway

One of the things I checked before we moved from LA to Anchorage almost 30 years ago, was annual precipitation. Anchorage gets about 16 inches - about the same as LA (15.06 inches.) OK, no problem. But snow piles up a lot higher than rain. According to today's paper, December was the 4th snowiest on record - 36 inches. Mind you, the average ANNUAL snow fall is 69.5 inches. Matt Rosenberg, on About: Geography, says, "Generally, 10 inches of snow produces one inch of water. However, it can take up to 30 inches of loose, fluffy snow though as little as 2-4 inches of wet, compact snow can produce an inch of water." Well, today's snow is light and fluffy.



So, we are a two car family with a one car garage. After any significant snow fall, the city is supposed to plow the streets. This year, they've barely had time to plow, and no time to clear the snow. . That means I need to get my VW Van off the street or get plowed in. (My wfe's 4 wheel drive Subaru with studded tires gets the heated garage - that's a whole nother story on indicators of successful marriages.) We have about a 7 foot snow berm in front now, so when I park on the street now, there isn't much room for cars to go by. So it seemed to make sense to put my car in the garage till the street gets cleared. But we have a relatively steep - if short - driveway. Getting my car into the driveway means clearing the snow and sometimes putting down some gravel. Right now, my car really needed the comfort of the garage - so the sliding side door can unfreeze and I can get my skis in and out easier. You can see the skid marks as I barely made it up the driveway and into the garage after about an hour and a half of shoveling snow. I don't mind - it's a good workout. But you can also see how much snow fell while I was shoveling it clean.




And for those of you who have seen my December pictures of snow on our back deck, I want you to know that I cleared the deck down to the wood just the other day. Here's a picture from about noon today.

I got the Anchorage weather data at a NOAA site. There's a lot of interesting Anchorage weather data there. The LA weather data also came from a NOAA site, but it was only rainfall stats.

Anchorage Daily News

Proximity is all important in the world. Yesterday I called Rich Mauer at the ADN to see if he'd be on a panel on legislative ethics January 20 that I'm helping with for Alaska Common Ground and the Alaska Women League of Voters. He won't be in town - he's headed to Iraq for six weeks! But later in the day I got a call from a reporter doing a piece on Gov. Murkowski's trip to Asia a month before leaving office. Was it ok for him to do this? Well, I can't answer a question like that, but I could discuss some factors to consider. If he had some projects to finish up that would benefit the state, then it could be a reasonable trip to make before leaving office. On the other hand, if he (and his entourage) are using the trip to set up business for after they leave office, then it would be a different story. Since I didn't have any details, I certainly couldn't make a judgment. If I were the reporter, I'd want to know what they accomplished. Did they get any contracts signed? Did they arrange any future programs between Alaska and Asia? He said they had stuff like, 'increased interest in Alaska trade." That's pretty vague, I replied, it is up to the Governor's office to document what they specifically accomplished. There are state ethics laws prohibiting doing business on projects you worked on while in office. Probably a year, don't know the details.

Well, on today's front page I saw this:

Farewell Asia tour cost state $100 grand
MURKOWSKI: Former governor says trip pushed trade and tourism.
By RICHARD RICHTMYER
Anchorage Daily News

Published: January 3, 2007
Last Modified: January 3, 2007 at 10:42 AM

Former Gov. Frank Murkowski's international trade mission in the waning days of his term cost the state about $114,000, according to expense records Murkowski and other state employees filed in connection with the three-nation tour.
In response to a request for information under Alaska's public-records law, the governor's office furnished a 1-inch-thick stack of receipts, travel authorization forms, itineraries and other documentation incurred by Murkowski and a dozen state employees who made at least part of the trip.
The paperwork shows a running tab of typical travel expenses: airfares, meals, lodging and ground transportation.
Gov. Sarah Palin said she was concerned about the trip's reported price tag.
For more go to: here.



Actually, not sure what you have to do to get into the story - the ADN has been making it difficult to get stories beyond the first week. This should be ok today, but I don't know about next week. So I'll give you a little from the end so you can see that Richtmyer did a reasonable job in conveying what I said.


The lack of specificity in the state's explanation raises some questions as to the value of the trip, said Steve Aufrecht, a University of Alaska Anchorage professor who has a particular interest in governmental ethics.
"It's up to (Murkowski) to tell us what he actually did," Aufrecht said. "Were any programs finalized, were any contracts finalized, or were they spending money to further private interests he's going to be pursuing after he's out of office?"
Murkowski has said he planned to set up shop as a business consultant in Fairbanks focusing on resource development and Asia.
In an interview before he left office last month, Murkowski said he hadn't lined up any clients yet. The October trip was one of many trips he made to Asia during a 26-year career as a U.S. senator and governor, so he already has plenty of contacts, Murkowski said.

So what has this got to do with proximity? Well, if I hadn't called Rich Mauer, he wouldn't have thought of me when Richard Richtmyer asked him about someone to call for his story.

Bambolim Beach Resort - Part II

I had a brief post on our stay at Bambolim BeachResort back in November. I wrote at the time, "The place hovers between elegant and shabby" and always felt guilty about using the word shabby. It isn't shabby. But it is the difference between the antiseptically cleanliness of American style hotels and the more relaxed Indian style of doing things. Everything isn't perfect. On the other hand, the staff were incredibly friendly and we learned a lot about India and Indian life when we talked to them.

The view from our room. The Arabian Sea is that grey area in the background.




I also promised some pictures of the Resort. The first three and the last picture in the post Goa Pictures are from right around the hotel. But here are some more.



The pool.

This is the Banyan Restaurant, anchored by this enormous tree. The main part is under the thatched roof behind the tree.






In the distance you can see a point. The Resort is there behind the trees. This beach was basically sand and shells, no rocks. The water was calm. I would have preferred some surf, but the beaches we saw with surf were extremely crowded and having the beach here to ourselves was great.






Again, you can see a point in the distance. Here we are on the beach on the other side of the point in the previous picture. Again, a quiet picturesque beach. The shells in the Goa Pictures link (link above) were from here.

There was another restaurant, totally out in the open overlooking the rocky beach in the previous picture.








Raiendra was one of the waiters we became friendly with. He's from the North. His family has a farm - goats, cows, water buffalo. He has been working on a plan for his life. He worked in Nepal for a number of years. His wife is going to nursing school, while he is here earning money. When she's done, he'll go back to school.

And while I said this resort was not as antiseptic as the typical American style hotels, there was someone spraying pesticide regularly. While this keeps the rooms pretty much free of ants and other insects for now, I can't help but think about a) the insects developing immunity to the spray over time and b) all this pesticide washing down into the beach just below where he's spraying.

Note: See also Goa Pictures

Christian Heppinstall

I met with Christian about a week ago to talk about India, particularly our visit with Winnie Singh. Christian had emailed her that we were coming and we had a very enjoyable lunch with her and her husband and daughter and another friend of theirs at their home in New Dehli. Christian met Winnie through an AIDS prevention chat room. Christian developed an AIDS education program that used high school students to write a play about AIDS. The students then performed the play at a number of high schools in Anchorage. The play would be followed up with questions and answers about AIDS. Christian is hoping to replicate the program in India. Winnie is the director of a non-profit organization that works to prevent AIDS in India -
Maitri. Maitri means something like 'loving kindness." There are some pictures of our visit to Winnie's in one of the early posts from India.

Christian is an actor, theater director, and general activist. He has a masters degree in Theater and directed Rocky Horror Picture show and Little Shop of Horrors here in Anchorage this fall. He also lived in Budapest for a number of years where he worked on AIDS prevention. I met him when he took a couple of public administration classes at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA). He's won a number of awards recently for his AIDS education program - from the Municipality of Anchorage, from Planned Parenthood, and from an association of volunteer organizations in town. You can get to his website by clicking the title of this post.