Alaska Democratic Convention Post 7: Benson and Berkowitz Speeches

I posted a clip from Ethan Berkowitz' speech earlier. But I didn't have anything from Diane Benson's speech. (They are the two Democratic candidates for the US House Race.) David Shurtleff of APRN offered me his audio copies of the two speeches. I've mentioned the cooperation and helpfulness of the Anchorage media and this is a great example of it. Thanks David. So I'm getting them uploaded as I write now

Benson's Speech by AKRaven



Berkowitz Speech by AKRaven

Alaska Democratic Conference Post 6 - Delegate Candidates

The delegate candidates are going up and giving 10 second speeches on why the others should send them to the Democratic National Convention in Denver. The video gives you a sense of what things are like right now. There are lots and lots of candidates. Kay Brown just told me there were 265 to start with, but many have withdrawn or just aren't here and are being dropped from the ballot. But it does seem to indicate the excitement here that so many people have signed up to be among the 18 delegates to go.



I'm saving this next video at higher quality, so the download will take a bit longer. People are still telling the convention why they should be chosen to be one of the delegates. The last candidate - Zipkin - just did her talk and now the very last one, a write-in candidate who was accidentally left off the ballot.

You might also what to check the ADN blog, Sean Cockerham is across the table writing.

Alaska Democratic Conference Post 5 - The Official Delegate Count

OK, so they have counted the delegates here and that determines how many Obama and Clinton delegates go to the Democratic convention. I'm not sure how this works out since there were about 77% of the votes for Obama. But you can listen to the video and hear the details. I can barely keep up with my videoing, uploading, posting, and paying attention to what's going on.

Right now the Obama and Clinton delegates here are supposed to be voting for the delegates who will go to the National Convention in August.



I'm balancing off speed and quality, downloading these clips at lower quality so that I can get them up faster. Sorry.

Alaska Democratic Conference Post 4 - counting Obama delegates

I tried to video directly to youtube from the camera. It worked, but you can see that the video quality is low. This was the counting of the Obama delegates.

Alaska Democratic Conference Post 4 - Random Shots

It appears that Viddler is down and so all my viddler videos are (temporarily, I hope) not working, including the first post here. So I've switched to YouTube.
Talking to state rep Max Gruenberg.






Ron Z a delegate from my district talking to Assembly member and University Professor Sheila Selkregg chatting.

Alaska Democratic Conference Post 3 - Katie Hurley

From Hold This Thought, here's a brief bio of Katie Hurley:

Katie Hurley, Chief Clerk to Alaska's Constitutional Convention. Katherine Torkelsen Alexander Hurley was born in Juneau to Norwegian immigrants on Seward's Day. She has been a public servant in the territory and state since December 1940 and is the proud mother of three children and four grandchildren. Despite her 86 years, she remains a vigorous activist.

Alaska Democratic Conference Post 2

Figuring out how to do this is going to take a bit. I'm going to save the videos at a low quality so it all goes faster. Right now people are dividing up into precincts. Here's the video of Ethan Berkowitz, US House Candidate. Unfortunately I got here too late to capture Diane Benson's speech. Maybe I can get her to say something directly to the blog later. [Both speeches are now posted here thanks to David Shurtleff at APRN.}





[viddler seems not to be working so I'm reposting from youtube.]

Alaska Democratic Conference Post 1

I'm at the Alaska Democratic Convention now as a delegate. This is the closest to 'live blogging' I've been. At the court I had to go out and down to cafeteria for the wifi, but here in Raven Hall at the Alaska State Fairgrounds
It was raining and we needed gas to get to Palmer.

You can figure out the rest. This is what I was all trying to deal with as we drove out and found Raven Hall and got registered as a press rep for the conference.



As I'm posting, Obama is talking to the conference via I'm not sure what, but I hear his voice. He was introduced by Heather Kendall Miller, an incredible Alaska Native attorney who went to law school with Barack Obama.


Before that, a Congresswoman from California (so I was told) whose name I couldn't catch, explained why Hillary should be the nominee to a skeptical, but friendly audience.


Diane Benson was giving a stirring speech as we were registering and before I got my bearings. Then Ethan Berkowitz and by then I was together enough to get a little video which I'll post soon.

20 More Ways for Airlines to Charge

American, Cutting Back, Plans $15 Bag Fee:

American Airlines said Wednesday that it would soon start charging passengers $15 to check their first bag each way, or $30 round-trip, if they are flying on a discounted fare. The airline’s new policy — to take effect June 15 — comes only two weeks after many major carriers, including American, began charging $25 each way for checking a second bag.

The new fee is just the latest example of airlines adding charges on top of rising airfares, even at the risk of angering travelers further, to make up for the billions of dollars they are losing as fuel prices soar. . .


American Airlines executives said they had little choice but to impose such fees, given that the price of jet fuel is up more than 80 percent from a year ago.

These executives need some training in logical thinking. What they meant to say was:

"Jet fuel has gone up more than 80% from last year, therefore we have to do something to lower other costs or raise other revenue."

This wasn't the only option. They had choices. Imposing "such fees" was the one they chose. One choice is to come clean with the costs. Publish all the expenses - including executive salaries and perks (including how much you pay the people who say they had no choice) and show us how much it really costs to fly from one place to another listing every cost, per passenger. And how much an extra piece of baggage costs. Then we can all look at possible ways to cut costs. If there aren't any, then we have to face reality and fork over more money if we want to fly.

From one perspective, the new charge makes sense. If extra luggage means more fuel is used, then perhaps you could justify an additional fee to those who bring extra suitcases. Those who don't use the service shouldn't pay. But by that logic, we should weigh every passenger and charge by the kilo.

But we are also human beings, and there is a reason that the phrase "nickel and dimed" has come into our language. And for me, and it sounds like many others too, it applies here.

The market is supposed to work to keep prices in line. When something gets too expensive, people are supposed to change their buying habits. I'd like to see if anyone has studied the distortion effects that unlimited credit card debt and a growing sense of universal entitlement have had on the demand side.

We are like the airline execs who say, "We had no choice." Sure we have a choice and
in the case of driving and flying, cutting back could also help the environment. We need to just say no. Find things to do close to home. Talk to our loved ones via Skype instead of flying to see them. Or not leaving them in the first place. No one flew in a plane to get anywhere before 1908. Very few people had actually flown anywhere even in 1960. I recall being shocked by learning that something like only 20% of the US population had flown in an airplane in 1960. Finding that sort of information now is not easy, but I did find this:

Whereas only 10 percent of the adult US population had ever traveled in an airliner during the late 1940s, 63 percent had done so by 1977...

and this:

The growing pervasiveness of air travel can be seen by the increasing numbers of people who have flown on a commercial jet: less than 50 percent in 1975 compared with more than 80 percent today. [ Last modified: April 29, 2008 15:55]

Still today then, 20% of the population has survived without ever flying in a commercial jet.
Life without jets is possible. If flying becomes inconvenient enough and expensive enough, we may find that returning to trains (though more hi-tech than those that lost out to planes) and traveling overseas by ship may once again become more comfortable and make more sense. Only those with urgent speed needs would fly.

But, in case we can't say no, here's my list of:

20 More Ways for Airlines to Charge

1. Seat reservations (hmmmm, Air Asia already does this)
2. Bathroom tokens $3 each - auctions for those who want to go to the head of the line
3. Surcharge to use a bathroom that gets cleaned between flights
4. $5 to view flight arrival and departure information board
   
5. Extra for seats - others stand like in a subway, or for a lower charge get to sit on wooden benches, maybe discount fairs will mean flying in the baggage compartment
6. $5 exit fee to get off the plane
7. Entrance fee to the baggage pick up area
8. Service charge for using the light, head phones, call button which is calculated by an onboard computer plus an administrative fee for that
9. $1/minute fee (rounded up to the nearest minute) for all flight attendant service - smiles extra
10. Overhead luggage space will be converted to pay lockers
11. Surcharge to cover cleaning the plane between flights
12. On time arrival surcharge
13. Charge passengers by the kilo
14. Trash pick up service charge, fee for empty barf bags, much bigger fee if you fill one
15. Life vest surcharge and fees for the flight emergency instructions card
16. Extra $3 if you want to open the window shade
17. $10 extra if you want a seat with an overhead oxygen mask
18. $3 for a clean head rest cover
19. $10 for wheel chairs
20. $5 a minute for screaming kids

Brief Guide to Ten (10) Common Birds of Chiang Mai

We got to know a number of birds pretty well after our two and a half month stay in Chiang Mai. I'm only a casual birder so we were dependent on bird books and the internet to identify most of these.

The pictures are from my pocket Canon Powershot so most are just good enough to help you identify the birds. Since I have the pictures, I thought it might be nice for visitors to Chiang Mai to have a brief guide to some common birds they might see or hear. We were in Chiang Mai from early February to late April, so I can't guarantee these birds are all around or sound the same at different times. Regular visitors to this site have seen most of the pictures and videos as they came into being. But here they are all gathered in one post.

#1. Red Whiskered Bulbul


This is one of the easiest to spot because of its distinctive black crest and because it is so common. It's a red-whiskered bulbul. You can see it better in the video below. From the Honolulu Zoo:

The Red-whiskered Bulbul has a distinct red ear patch, and red tail coverts. Both features are very distinctive from other birds. This bulbul averages seven inches in length and can weigh from 23 to 42 grams. The birds are brownish above and white below their stomach region from birth until an age six months. The head is black with a pointed crest and there is a red patch, the "whiskers", behind the eye. The beak is slender and notched. Their nostrils are ovalshaped, and have bristles. The legs and toes have little strength and are usually short. The wings are short and rounded and the tail shape varies from rounded to squared. Immature bulbuls resemble adults except that they lack the red marking on the head.

And for better pictures, check here, and here.


#2. Racket Tailed Drongo

The racket tailed drongo has a number of different calls. One call is on the video below. The long trailing feathers give it away.

From Wikipedia we learn:

The species is well-known as a very accurate vocal mimic, and according to Goodale and Kotagama (2006) appears to learn its alarm calls through interactions in mixed-species flocks. This is quite unusual, as avian vocal mimicry has hitherto been believed to be ignorant of the original context of the imitated vocalization (parrots are known to use imitated human speech in correct context, but do not show this behavior in nature). This drongo's context-sensitive use of other species' alarm calls is thus analogous to a human learning useful short phrases and exclamations in a number of foreign languages.

#3. Black Drongo

A black drongo's tail is more forked and doesn't have the long trailing feathers. For more see www.oiseaux.net.

#4. Greater Coucal

You are more likely to hear than see this bird. It makes a deep toop-toop sound. It's faintly in the background of one of the videos below. It also has a long tail. You can see clearer pictures at nagpurbirds.org.

#5. Magpie Robin
The magpie robin is also pretty distinctive with the white streak on the black wing and white underbelly.

#6. Common Myna

Common Myna.

#7. Spotted Dove

You can hear the spotted dove coo-coo-cooing on one of the videos below.

#8. Pigeon

Pigeon landing.

#9. Scarlet backed flowerpecker. These are tiny and move around a lot. But the red head and back are good tips this might be what you are seeing flitting in the leaves. For much better pictures go to pbase.com

#10 Koel

In this video you can hear the dove and bird #10 the koel (this is a great collection of Thai birds, the koel is in the first row), and one of many calls of the racket-tailed drongo. I did manage to see a few koel, but never managed to get a picture. They're not easy to spot unless they fly, but their voices are very distinctive and very common, at least during the time we were there. You can also see a greater coucal's fuzzy silhouette with its long tail. These are pretty big birds, maybe two feet long,



In this video you can see a red whiskered bulbul, a greater coucal, and a black drongo. You can hear the coucal very, very faintly in the background when the bulbul is on. There is a comment when it starts - put your cursor on the light grey dot on the blue playbar (I know, what's a playbar? I'm trying to figure out a simple way to describe the line that shows where you are on the video. There are two such comments on the first video too.)