Fresh Halibut's In Town

$4 a Gallon Bikers

In a post the other day I used the phrase "$4 a gallon bikers" to suggest that while $3 a gallon gas didn't change driving habits, $4 a gallon does seem to be getting people to seek alternative forms of transportation.

This cartoonist in the June 5, 2005 Anchorage Daily News - I can't quite read the signature enough to confirm it on Google - seems to have the same perception. But I'm not sure whether this violates the Anchorage Daily News' or the cartoonist's copyrights. Like a photo, it is use of the whole piece, but I would argue I'm using it not simply to decorate my post, but as a reference that others also believe that somehow the $4 threshold reveals that the price of oil is indeed not inelastic, that there comes a point where consumers change their gasoline purchasing habits because of price. And that $4 is that threshold for a significant number of people. And that the phrase $4 biker has meaning to others besides myself. So, is the name ARIAZ? ARIA?

Recent Google Searches That Got People Here

Google is fantastic at helping us find things we never could have found otherwise. But it isn't perfect. The biggest problem I see is that it will grab words from unrelated posts. In the couple of lines you get, it isn't always clear that the words don't come from the same post. And as I've mentioned before, it's not totally clear how they pick which post to send people to. Some people who have googled "Vic Kohring" have gotten to one post, and other people to another post, or just to the main What Do I Know page.

Anywho, here are some recent searches that I found interesting for one reason or another:

• do any people speak english in anchorage
  From Australia. I wonder if reading my blog answered the question.
  

• being pressured to resign, what should i do?
  Sorry to hear this. It doesn't sound good. Unfortunately, this person got to a post about when corrupt politicians should resign. Close, but not quite what I suspect what the person needed.
  
  
• monks walk what do they do for swimming
  Any thoughts on what this person wanted? I'm sure the answer wasn't there.
  
  
• discovery channel no paid employees
  I got a number of these so there is obviously some sort of a story here. When I looked at some of the Google results, there didn't seem to be anything answering the question. They got to my post on the Discovery channel shelving the movie Taxi to the Dark Side
  
  
• chiang mai, thailand women resorts motels weather
  From Venice, California. (I guess I noted that because I went to Venice High) But I hope the person didn't find what he was looking for on my site. Actually, I probably should have done a post on the topic of foreign men and Thai women. It seems that there are a number of marriages that have resulted from foreigners visiting prostitutes and economically, I'm told it works out well for the women. But that doesn't balance out the damage done to girls and boys and women forced into prostitution.
  

• contact email and telephone numbers of all the mine in alaska
  This was from South Africa. Maybe someone is just looking for a job. But I bet there's an interesting story here.
  
  
• where do pigs get their energy?
  What is there to say? I have no idea how this person got to this site. [I did mention slurry pigs and I have an energy tag. And I'm sure I've used all the other words somewhere.]
  
  
• nus auditorium rental
  Here's an example of words from unrelated posts. NUS is the National University of Singapore, where my son is studying. The person (who was from Singapore) got to a post which included the rental fees for the Wendy Williamson auditorium at the University of Alaska Anchorage. They stayed a while, so maybe comparing prices was of interest.
  
  
• what do women do at conventions?
  Greely, CO. Your guess is as good as mine.
  
  
• why you may find indian hospitality uncomfortable
  Well, this person probably got what she was looking for. I did a post from India about the cross cultural mixed signals that Indian sales people give that make Americans uncomfortable
  
  
• airline oxygen mask for a fee
  Oh my. I suggested this in my list of absurd new fees airlines could create. But you'd have to be really warped to think about such a fee.
  
  
• morels of abortion
  Spelling errors can be so much fun. This person got a post on mushrooms. By the way, there are new morels in our backyard again this year.
  
  
• what was the biggest cyclone/hurricane/typhoon of all times to hit the world
  My post on the difference between cyclones, hurricanes, typhoons, and tornadoes has been getting a fair number of hits since I posted it. But I don't have the answer to this one.
  
  
• blogspot thoughts about sex
  From Moldova - I just discussed this one in the previous post.
  

六㆕

Today is the 19th anniversary of the Tianamen Square confrontation between the Chinese students and other Chinese citizens and the Chinese government. Just as Americans say 9-11 to signify the day of the Twin Towers attack, the Chinese say Liu Si or 6 六 - 4㆕. You can hear the two numbers in the audio.

6-4 Mandarin by AKRaven

The students I had in graduate class in 2004 mostly didn't know a lot about what happened on June 4, 1989.

OF ALL the taboos in modern China, the violent quelling of the Tiananmen Square democracy protests on June 4, 1989, remains the most sensitive.

Nineteen years later, China is now the world's fourth-largest economy, and proud host of this year's Olympic Games. But unlike other touchy subjects - Tibet, Taiwan and the Falun Gong group banned as a cult - there is no public discourse on the Tiananmen Square "incident". The real death toll is a state secret; more than a dozen protesters from that time, plus hundreds more dissidents, are in jail. (From today's Sydney Morning Herald)

I arrived in Hong Kong in 1989 about a month after June 4 and during the year I taught at Chinese University I heard a lot about what happened, including a first hand account by one of my colleagues who had been doing research in Beijing during the events. Of course, any individual's accounts are limited by where he was and what he saw.

In any case, I did want to note the day. You can see the Chinese characters for the numbers at AskAsia. This link will take you the character 一 (can you guess?) 1. There you can listen to someone say the character and then go on to the other numbers. I copied their recordings of six and four and mixed them on Jamglue for the audio. Thus it doesn't sound exactly right, but it's better than if I tried to say it. The Chinese have hand signs for the numbers and I'm sure you can figure out what the two at the top stand for. You can see the rest at Chinese-Tools.com.

More on blogrolls and my first poll

Well, I'm really glad Paul suggested yesterday (in the comments) I set up criteria for what blogs I put up on my list of blogs, because today I got an email from Thoughts About Sex suggesting we exchange blog links. Of course, I had to check it out if I would even consider linking to it. It's actually not a porn blog, the most lascivious picture is a woman eating a hot dog on a bun. And it isn't written by a native English speaker. It's not particularly special either. But the background graphic is nice.

Unfortunately, I haven't got my criteria yet. The other blogs on his links list already include:

Blogroll

* Anal butt plugs
* Anal sex toys
* Condoms
* Dildos - Sex toys
* Kamasutra Sex
* Sex toy - Masturbators
* Sex toys and adult dvd
* Sex toys - Realistic Dildos

Don't you think What Do I Know? would fit right in?

I started out thinking I would post this as a joke since I just yesterday posted about linking to other blogs and I haven't gotten an email about exchanging blog links since I first started blogging. But then I started wondering, hey, this is a chance to see how much sex makes a difference in blog hits. But won't they be disappointed when they find out I know nothing? And will it bring unwanted visitors here?

Well, what do you all think? I guess this is where I should have been paying attention to the stuff about putting a poll on my site.

Just back from checking out polls. Turns out there are lots of ways, but blogger has one built right in. So I can do my first poll to find out what you think. Oh, and I also found out how my new best friend got here. This was NOT in response to yesterday's post about exchanging blog links. He was googling for "blogspot thoughts about sex" from Moldova and got to my post on Eliot Spitzer. (It was on page 5 of only 631,000 hits. But that doesn't sound like that many hits, so maybe blogspot bloggers don't think about sex that much. The Spitzer post was, I think, so far, my only post on sex. A sad commentary I guess. But then I don't think of this post as being about sex. It's about blogging.) Then he sent me an email.

So it's now up to you. I have no idea where this poll will show up. I'm guessing not in the post itself, but on the side. Look for it.[It's in the upper right column] Vote. And if you don't like the choices, leave a comment with the choice you couldn't find.

From Bike Racks to Mt. View to More Biking - Why Blogging is so Hot and so Cool

I discovered Clark's Mt. View Forum tonight because he left a comment on my bike rack post. From what I've read on his site, I'd describe it as a local activist site that is keeping track of what's happening in Mt. View. He's got posts on the Heritage Land Bank's plans for the old Native Hospital grounds, debates over the lighting at the Bragaw and Glenn Highway intersection, pictures of the new Clark Middle School construction. This is a real service to the folks in Mt. View and perhaps a great model for other community bloggers to emulate. Great blog Clark!

His blog also sent me to a couple of commuter biking blogs that have thought about this sort of stuff much more thoroughly than I have.

You Just Don't Want To has some tips for experienced commuter bikers when giving advice to the new $4 a gallon bikers:

I suspect that most people wanting to give this bike commuting thing a try will more or less load up the old bike in the garage and head out instead of researching things a little. They probably don't read blogs like this until they get hooked. So I say to you, the knowledgeable, don't let your neighbor go forth to wreak havoc in the public arena alone with his inexperience. Engage him. Offer him your experience and wisdom. Avoid telling how much he needs to buy because his stuff is junk. Avoid pressuring him to ride every day, and under no circumstances make light of his fear of riding in traffic. Make sure he has the tools and knowledge to repair a flat tire. Failing that, make sure he knows where the buses go and how to use the front bicycle rack.

There's some wisdom here, but I also sense a bit of bike snobbism and no consideration at all that my neighbor might be a she. I seem to be doing ok on my ten or 15 year old piece of junk, but then I don't have too far to ride to get downtown or most places I want to go. But the patch kit advice is good, but I was able to get a bus with a bike rack home.

Discovering new (to me) Alaskan blogs raises a dilemma. I only have a few Alaska blogs listed in my links. The whole idea of exchanging links to increase your various blog ratings makes sense at one level, but then you get such a long list of blogs that it really doesn't mean anything. Maybe I could have a section that says "Blogs I check regularly" and one that says "Blog Link Exchange List". There are some Alaska blogs that are listed in almost every Alaska blog I go to. I started out by linking to blogs I read regularly and/or thought were unique and that (at least at the time) didn't get much attention. We're learning the 'rules' as we go, which is perfectly fine with me.

As a kid I despaired that I would never be able to read all the books in the library. But we accept the fact that we can't be friends with everyone in the world, or even all the people we really could spiritually connect with in the world, or even keep up with all the people we have met and do truly connect with. So, it's ok if we can't read all the blogs, or even keep up with the ones we've started reading. There's our own lives to live too. So, hi Clark, it was great to run into you tonight. And Smudgemo in Berkeley too. And Philip who went skinny dipping at Harbin Hot Springs today. Harbin is Anchorage's sister city in China, but Phil was in at a different Harbin - in Northern California.

How Many Days Does it Take to Clean a Street?

Day 1: We hear loud truck noises outside. Check the window. The street cleaner went by. I move the van out of the street and into the driveway. A little sweeper truck goes by and whirls dirt in circles. Oh well, guess we missed that one. Still lots of dirt in the street. The picture is after the last pass on Day 1. Mind you at this point I had no idea there would be a day 2, so I parked back on the street. The curb is on the left, the street on the right.







Day 2: Get home and see that the street cleaners were back. Who knew there would be a Day 2?

Day 3: What? They're back? Get out of bed, get on some pants and move the car again. No pics this time. It's cleaner than it was.


But I want to know:

1. Why three days to clean the neighborhood?
2. Why not have a system to notify people when they are going to clean? I know the maintenance drivers can't be happy when there are cars parked on the street, but how is anyone supposed to know they are coming? It's not like other cities where they clean once a week and there are signs saying "No Parking Tuesdays 9-11". But there is the internet. The city has a website. They do have a system of sorts for plowing after snow, but it has problems too. And just like the street cleaning, there's no way to figure out when they are coming to clear the berms.

Some suggestions:
1. The ASD has a way to call neighborhoods - they left us a message once about a situation in our nearby school. Why can't the public works have automated phone banks for when the snow plows or the street cleaners will be in a subdivision?
2. Or they could put it on the web - with plow and clean neighborhood list serves to email people when their street will be clean.
3. They could notify the tv and radio stations about their web sites and they could give snow plow and clean up information along with the weather.

I certainly want my car out of the way when they come to get the berms and when they come to clean the street. But I have to know when they are coming to do that. It's not that hard to do this. Please.

The Visitor

We haven't been to a movie almost forever - well since we left for Thailand in February. J wanted to go to a movie. The Visitor got the got the highest rating (4*) and had a bizarre enough description in the Anchorage Daily News that we decided to go.

A man sleepwalking through life discovers a way to open his eyes with the help of a Syrian man, his Senegalese girlfriend, an African drum and the myriad depths of friendship.

I guess that's all true, but Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) also play a big role in this. Anyone with an interest in immigration issues should see this movie. While it doesn't have anything good to say about ICE, it also raises some uncomfortable truths about the immigrants in the movie as well. But basically it tells the story from the perspective of the immigrants.

As a movie, it was a gem.

There were no actors - well, yes, there were. What I mean is that they were all totally the characters they were playing. The camera work was sublime. So much of what we needed to know unfolded naturally. Partly this was through the scenes the writers offered. Partly this was beautiful camera work and editing. We learn a lot about Walter in the scene in the office with the student. We learn his academic discipline through a poster at the conference.

I don't know how much longer it will be in Anchorage.

Elton John in Anchorage Video

Hughman pointed out in a comment on the Commissioner Irwin video AGIA post, that Viddler does NOT have a ten minute limit like other video sites, so I didn't need to divide that video into two parts.

Elton John fans benefit from that - if they can bear the few seconds where the sound breaks up do to the decibel levels - because I didn't force myself to keep this video under 10 minutes. (It's 11:52). I also took advantage of John's over-the-top lighting to rationalize that it was ok to experiment with some different transitions and video FX. BTW, one of the neat features of Viddler is that you can make comments right on the video. Click on the little plus (+) sign on the bottom to the left of MENU. It will give you an option to comment anywhere on the video!

Also, as you watch the video, keep in mind Jay's comments to the Elton John v. Talis Colberg post which concluded:

Anchorage should not give itself a pat on the back for having a fun night out. They should reserve that for themselves when they again fight the all too readily justified prejudice that still exists, so strongly, so widely, in the town I grew up in and know so well.

Blessings on you all, but one night does not make it all different. Not at all.

Watching the video should remind us that Elton John, if he lived and worked in Anchorage, would be Constitutionally forbidden to marry the man he loves, and that there are still plenty of people out there that would deny him spousal health benefits if he worked for the state. It seems ironic, if not hypocritical to cheer him on for his singing ability and yet deny him pretty basic rights were he a resident of Alaska. But I'm sure that the people at the concert all voted against the Constitutional amendment in 1998 banning same-sex marriage. (Is there an irony smiley face?)






Notes on the concert goers. I'd guess the average age was about 40 or more. There were some feather boas, big sun glasses, glasses that lit up, and fancy hats. People were incredibly loud, but also very compliant and cooperative with security.


I also wondered if Elton John gets such enthusiastic responses in Las Vegas. People here were completely unpretentious. They were appreciative that John came here and they had themselves a great time. And I suspect the concert was better and longer than it might have been because the audience and the artist fed each other. Thanks, Elton, for coming.



Here's the red shoe Elton John signed in the last part of the video. Patent leather is a bitch to get a good picture of if you want the signature and you don't have a polarizing filter. Anyway, if you move your screen around, you should be able to see it better.



Other posts related to this concert.

Bike Racks

When the price of oil hit $3 people groused, but didn't seem to significantly change their energy use patterns. But now that it's flirting with $4, I'm seeing friends who are reconsidering whether they can use their bikes to commute to work, at least sometimes.

For people to use bikes more, we have to have infrastructures that make bikes more convenient - like good and plentiful bike racks. Portland has lots of bike racks and they are often interesting designs.

Friday afternoon I used this bike rack at the Court building when i went to the wedding.

At the Sullivan Arena for the Elton John concert, we couldn't find the bike racks (I'm assuming there are some somewhere.) Neither could these folks.










Or these folks.




Trees and parking meters and no parking signs are fine right now, but when more people start using bikes, non bikers are going to get tired of bikes tied up to everything strongly fastened to the ground.


















And then I always wonder when I see a lock like this. Was the bike stolen? If so, why didn't they at least take the lock home? Or maybe these reflect people who lost the keys for the locks.