Elves Clear Snow - Thank You!

It snowed yet again last night.  It was coming down heavily in very tiny light snow.  And the weather forecast on the radio suggested it had continued all night.  Nine or ten inches they said.


But when I looked out this morning to see how much I had to shovel, I saw that our driveway and street in front had already been cleared.  I'm guessing the elf came in the guise of our neighbor Roy.  So thanks.  I'll go out and look for you today to say it in person. 

Roy and I have seen a lot of each other this year as I'm out shoveling my driveway and he's with his snow blower clearing a long stretch of street where people park across the street.  Ten days ago I got this shot when he came over and cleared in front of my car parked out front after I'd done the driveway and part of the street in front.

Thanks Roy.  It's great having good neighbors.  And great snow.  And if it was someone else, thank you!

Recycle Your Calendar: 1984 = 2012

Somehow we've hoarded a bunch of old calendars, some were used and some not. And I've thought that some of these must work again in future years, but I never worked hard at it.  I guess this is good for recycling and trees, but not so good if you have a capitalist society where spending boosts the economy. 

But knowing that people have put all sorts of information onto the web, and Google helps us get to these places, I checked yesterday to see what year calendar starts on the same day as 2012. This one is tricky, because it's a Leap Year.

I quickly found Time and Date, a website with a number of potentially useful ways to play with time and dates. One page allows you to pick a year and see all the other years that have the same calendar.  Here's the list for 2012 and beyond.

Year	Compared to year 2012	Since last
1928	84 years before
1956	56 years before	+ 28 years
1984	28 years before	+ 28 years
2012	selected year	+ 28 years
2040	28 years after	+ 28 years
2068	56 years after	+ 28 years
2096	84 years after	+ 28 years
2108	96 years after	+ 12 years

Please note that holidays will not match exactly.

So,  we have to go back 28 years to George Orwell's ominous 1984 to find a calendar that will match 2012.  Or, if you have a 1956 calendar, that will do as well. 

So I went downstairs and pulled out all the old calendars I could find.  And I actually had a 1984 calendar.  This was given to me by a relative who knew I had an interest in plants.  It's a Wild Flowers of Chile calendar.  (In Spanish and English.)

This turns out to be an unused diary style calendar.  But I imagine if you have a used calendar, it might be interesting to see what you did in that previous year as you mark down this year's events.  You just have to find a distinctively colored pen for this year.



So, if you have a pile of calendars, here are some of the years that will work for the next five years.

Current Year	Old Matching Calendar Years
2012	1928, 1956, 1984  (Leap Year)
2013	1985, 1991, 2002
2014	1986, 1997, 2003
2015	1987, 1998, 2009
2016	1932, 1960, 1988  (Leap Year)
2017	1989, 1995*, 2006

HTML Tables

*See comments Dec 17, 2016

There are also some interesting patterns.  Leap Years seem to return every 28 years (though after 2096 there's a 12 year bump.)  For the other years, there are lots of 11 and 6 year bumps.

There are a lot of interesting things on Time and Date and they appear to all be free.  Here's some info from their Founder's Page:

About Steffen Thorsen

Steffen Thorsen is the CEO of Time and Date AS, the company that maintains timeanddate.com. Steffen lives in Sandnes, near Stavanger, Norway.

My company

This site is operated by "Time and Date AS" which is a private Norwegian company.
Steffen and his staff can be contacted at: webmaster@timeanddate.com. If you have any queries or comments, email is the preferred way of communication initially.

My intentions with this site

I want this website to be a free, informational, continuously updated and accurate service available all over the world. Over the years, timeanddate.com has gone from a hobby project to my primary occupation, which encompasses enhancing and developing new services, as well as responding to emails from users worldwide. However, these are not my only tasks. I have other responsibilities in proactively ensuring that the company meets its annual goals and objectives. As the company’s leader, I am responsible for utilizing, fostering and expanding our resources and ensuring smooth operations within the company. Ultimately, I want to provide value to the people who use this website. The project originally started in 1995, with the World Clock, Calendar and countdown to year 2000 on my old Unix account, which I used when I was a university student. In 1998 and 1999 the services gradually moved to the timeanddate.com domain, and the services on the old account were eventually discontinued in 1999. On May 24, 2008, we celebrated the 10th anniversary of timeanddate.com. You can read about timeanddate.com’s 10th birthday, which also provides the history of this website. Also see the history behind The World Clock.

Chinese Television - Amazing Acrobats

When we lived in Beijing for 3 months we watched a lot of CCTV (Chinese Central Television). There's even an Engish channel you can listen to. I didn't see a live feed, but there are lots of programs to watch in English. So when this one popped up the CCTV was familiar. This particular example of Chinese acrobatics is pretty exceptional though. Amazing. Trust me on this - just hit the play button and watch 20 seconds before you move on. 




It shows what humans can do if we really put our minds to something. But I also know that these kids led a pretty rigid life practicing mercilessly to be able to do this. The movie Mao's Last Dancer offers a look at kids being groomed to be ballet dancers. The trailer only shows a bit of that training. The movie itself was very worthwhile watching.

Beginning of Winter for Some, But Beginning of More Light for Alaskans

While today is the official first day of winter, for Alaskans it's the end of shortening days and the beginning of more light.  At first it's slow - seconds a day.  But before long we'll be gaining 5 minutes of light a day.   So in a way it's our spring, our turning point. I do have one blooming plant in the house.  This little begonia never quits. 


But even with the begonia, the arrival of a Park Seed catalog the other day was like being at the grocery store after fasting all day.  I want everything.  But I went downstairs and pulled out the seed packs from last year that are still unopened.  I need restraint at the time of the solstice.

The earth is changing its tilt today.  Bad Astronomy puts it this way:

The Earth is tilted about 23 degrees, so that sometimes the North pole is tipped toward the Sun, and other times the South pole is pointed more toward the Sun. From here on the Earth, this means the Sun moves north and south about 46 degrees over the course of the year. In the summer, the Sun is very high in the sky, but in the winter it never gets as high; the difference is that very same 46 degrees (about 1/4 of the way around the visible part of the sky!).

[I'd note that Bad Astronomy seems to be northern centric in the second part since the opposite is true in the Southern Hemisphere.]

I've written about the solstice and Jean Meeus before.  He's the man who determined the way to figure the exact time this change happens.  When I checked a few days ago, it said December 22 this year.  I should have looked more carefully.  It's December 22 at 12:30am - East Coast Time.  So that means it's December 21 for the rest of the US -  specifically 8:30pm Alaska time. 

Enjoy the end of the darkening and know that from now until mid June, each day will be brighter.  Not as dramatically as this far north, but brighter nevertheless. 

Sometimes I Wonder What I'm Doing Here

Intense blogging events like the recent film festival are like going on a busy business trip.  I'm still in Anchorage, but I'm constantly busy watching movies, meeting folks, and posting, and I act as if I'm out of town, passing up all other activities.  But it's over and I have had time to think about where this is all going. 

What To Do With All Those Posts?
But it also makes me wonder where all this blogging is going.  Blogger says I have 3279 published posts.  The clutter war moves out of the closets and onto my blog.  I'm wondering if I should pause a bit and look back at what I have and whether I can do something with it all.

The Blogger label function (that long list of words on the lower right) would be a lot better if there could be a hierarchy of topics.  For instance, I could have a Birds label and if you clicked that you could see Eagles, Ducks, Ravens, etc.   Part of me thinks I should get rid of all the labels that only have one post.  But then I see people finding that one post and linking to it.  And Blogger doesn't listen to me when I suggest fixing labels up a bit. 

I still have room for more pages on the tab bar on top (you can have ten.) I've used the current ones as annotated tables of contents to posts on specific topics - Redistricting and Film Festival.   I thought I might use a few more to offer links to some of my favorite posts now lost somewhere in the 3279.

In a sense the blog has been a journal of what I'm seeing, doing, thinking, and people I'm meeting.  It's been a place to jot notes on topics as the ideas come.  It seems that going through my notes might be a good idea.   Are there some ideas that could be combined into something longer - perhaps an article or two?


The Photos
What about all the photos?  I sometimes make cards with them to send to friends and thought I might offer readers the opportunity to get cards, but would they want the ones I pick and would it be worth my time to let people pick the photos they want?  Probably not.

I've been thinking of making calendars for friends too.  But haven't yet.  I could also make those available to readers.  Then I could make some money off the blog, at least enough to buy a sound cards for my camera once in a while.   But I'm not sure anyone is interested. 

And the film festival has inspired me to try to use the video I've taken over five years of Anchorage International Film Festivals and make a movie for next year's festival. I know it's a bit incestuous, but it doesn't have to be in competition.   I think I need to move up from iMovie to Final Cut for that. And looking at all the people in the credits of even the two minute movies, I'm going to have to reach out to others.  But the film maker workshops let me know those others are out there waiting to do the same.  I have video of Travis Betz' workshop and also Richard Cunningham's and I try to get those up before long. 

Not Becoming Consumed By The Blog
I tend to rationalize that the blog is merely an electronic journal to record things that interest me anyway.  I just take my camera with me when I go places.  And blogging gives me an excuse to talk to folks I might not otherwise talk to.  But it's also a good excuse to avoid other things I need to do.  Longer writing projects mostly, but also liberating a room downstairs and the garage from the clutter monster.

Who Are You All?
Some people who visit here regularly I know because they sign their names when they comment - Jacob (aka Jay), Ropi, Dianne, alaskapi, Tomás, Mark M, m, Iatto, Kathy in KY, and many others now that I think about it.  Some of these folks I've met only via the blog.   But there are 33 followers listed and most of you I don't know.  Or if I do, I don't know you by your blogger ids.  Some folks have sent emails to say hi. (Thanks)  Others leave friendly comments to say they've been by.  Some people tell me when they see me that they read the blog.

Many visitors get to very specific posts via Google.  It's nice to know that someone has found something helpful - like those who google "my linksys router was hijacked"  or "snow leopard causes black screen."  Or, "can you use fluorescent lights with dimmer?"  Or "hiking trail to Doi Suthep." But those folks are coming for one thing and they probably won't be back.

But if you stop here more than once a month, when you feel comfortable, say hi - either in the comments or by email.  (I know the comments aren't always that easy to use.  There's an email link in the upper right side bar.)

And do give me feedback about cards and calendars.  I'd do cards by hand and at cost plus shipping and a small profit.  I'd do calendars through one of the online operations.  It's a bit late for calendars for 2012, but in the future?  Or if you have other ideas, let me know. 

AIFF 2011: Landscape with Duck Filmmakers Patrick and Michele Neary

Screen Shot from Landscape with Duck

One more of the animated films in competition was Landscape with Duck by Portland filmmakers Patrick and Michele Neary.  It's about a duck who missed the flock's departure for the south from (Alaska?) and finds alternative transportation.  There were so many really good animated films, displaying a wide range of techniques.  This was simple (nothing's simple in animation) first rate, hand drawn work. 

I was able to catch Patrick and Michele at the Awards dinner of the Anchorage International Film Festival Sunday Dec. 11.

AIFF 2011 - Peter Pasyk's Dueling Posters in "The Pole"

[The Anchorage Film Film Festival ended Sunday, Dec. 11, followed by three more days of Best of the Fest. I'm trying to put up video I didn't get to during the festival.]

I got to see The Pole as part of the supershorts before the Awards Dinner/Ceremony Sunday Dec. 11. Then I met the director, Peter Pasyk, and got him briefly on camera. I don't know about Peter, but I was getting tired and I used up most of my questions on other folks. Thanks Peter for putting up with my camera in your face with grace and humor and not too big a smirk.



The Pole is a nice super short which shows the competitive spirit of two young men who work putting up posters on Toronto street poles.  I can see it as a case study in a business or public administration class.  It raises lots of questions about free enterprise and government regulation. The fact that I was totally absorbed in the story suggests that he did all the technical stuff just right. I didn't even think about it.


The Pole could also be a nice metaphor for the US Congress today.
 The young men get so caught up in their short term goals, they lose all perspective and start engaging in self-defeating behavior in an attempt to out do each other. They pause and try a little cooperation, but that quickly falls apart too. If I were a better journalist, I would have asked him about whether he had intended this to be lesson for more than pole posters. If I remember correctly, he said this stemmed from personal experience.

Here's a clip of the movie from the YouTube site of the musicians Freres Lumieres.

Do Americans Know More About Lohan than Pakistan?

Map from Lonely Planet

[The Lohan-Pakistan comparison is at the end.]

Declan Walsh is a Guardian reporter who's been in Pakistan for the last seven years.  Here are a couple paragraphs from an overview article he wrote for the Guardian on what's happening in the country December's Atlantic calls "The Ally from Hell."

But Pakistan is Afghanistan's neighbor as well as Iran's, India's, and China's. We need to know.  And reading a few articles like this will at least get you to know more than 90% of Americans. 

So I offer these excerpts of the article - emailed to me by a Pakistani friend - in hopes that you might be tempted to read the whole article. which is headlined:

Pakistan: bombs, spies and wild parties

After seven tumultuous years reporting from Pakistan, Guardian correspondent Declan Walsh reflects on the inspiring figures, the jaw-dropping landscapes, the deep corruption – and the day the Taliban came to town . . .

. . . Pakistanis swerve into heavy traffic without looking, don't stick to their lane or indicate, which makes it hard to predict where they are coming from or going to. Social graces are rare – horns honk, headlights are impatiently flashed – but social hierarchy is observed: hulking four-wheel drives (increasingly armour-plated) barge through the swarms of matchbox cars. Off to the side, the police are taking bribes.

But pull off the road and everything changes. Pakistanis are welcoming, generous and voluble. They insist you stay for tea, or the night. They love to gab, often with glorious indiscretion – national politics and local tattle, cricket scandals, movie stars and conspiracy theories. This is fun, and good for the business of journalism.

While Islam is technically the glue of society, you learn, the real bonds are forged around clans, tribes, personal contacts. To get anything done, the official route is often pointless – the key is sifarish, the reference of an influential friend. Journalists use sifarish a lot; occasionally they are called on to dispense it too. . .

and further down

When I arrived in 2004, Islamabad was a somnolent, reliably dull city. By night, the sons of the rich drag-raced their daddies' cars along deserted streets, swerving to avoid wild boar ambling from the bushes. Foreigners mocked the capital for its provincial feel. "Islamabad – half the size of a New York graveyard but twice as dead" went the diplomats' tired gag as white-gloved waiters served gin and tonic on manicured lawns.

Then the Taliban came to town. It started with the bloody siege of the Red mosque complex in July 2007, just before Pakistan's 60th birthday. Bullets zipped through the leafy streets; I dusted off my flak jacket. Then came the bombs: at markets, checkposts, the Naval headquarters, UN offices, the five-star Marriott hotel. Up the street from my house, Benazir Bhutto gave speeches from behind barbed wire, during a brief-lived house arrest. Weeks later she drove out to Rawalpindi, where she was assassinated.

Today the blasts have stopped, mostly, but the city is cloistered in concrete. Fortified walls rise over the streets, vehicles slalom through elaborate checkposts, hotel entrances resemble prisons with gold-buttoned guards. Embassies are retreating into a sandbagged, Green Zone-style enclave; the presidency and even ISI headquarters are similarly isolated.

I suspect people are more inclined to check out rock stars than Pakistan.   I did check Google Trends to see how many average hits Pakistan gets compared to Lohan.  It's not a pretty picture.

Click to enlarge and see clearly
 

Note that the scales for the two graphs are different.  I had to raise Lohan's graph so the level 2 on each would match.  Also note that Lohan goes up to 6 and Pakistan only goes up to 3.

We just got the last troops out of Iraq (or so they say.)  From Fort Bragg via a South African television website (for a different set of reader comments):

The war killed 4 500 US troops and at least 60 000 Iraqis. Obama said on Tuesday the war would cost more than $1 trillion all told.

 Those are the costs we know now.  How will having Mom or Dad gone for long periods affect their kids long term?  What about all the medical costs for the veterans?  And the costs for the families of the 60,000 dead Iraqis? 

We went into that war, in part, because people knew more about 'personalities' like Lohan than they knew about Iraq.  Pakistan isn't going away.  It behooves us to know more about it than we do, so we aren't cowed by DC experts with classified proof of the need to go to war. 

Of course I don't need to worry about regular readers at this blog.   But for those who got here accidentally to learn about Lohan's trip to Pakistan, please try to read the whole Guardian article before you read your Facebook wall.   And maybe the Atlantic article too.  Then link to them on Facebook. 

OK, You Hate Congress, But Are You Still Voting For Your Own Congress Member?

In a recent show, Morning Edition reporter Andrea Seabrook talked to Cincinnati voters about Congress.

None had anything good to say.  Here's how it begins:

ANDREA SEABROOK, BYLINE: These days, when I stop people in the street, there's this thing that happens all the time.
I'm a reporter with NPR in Washington. Anyone interested in talking about Congress?
BILL BELLMAN: Congress - there's nothing good to say.
SEABROOK: People's instant reaction to the mention of Congress is: Ugh, what a mess; there's nothing good to say.

Here's the audio.





She asked all these people how they felt about Congress, but SHE DIDN'T ASK:


 "Are you going to reelect your own Congress Member?"



That seems to be the key problem.  All the other guys are bad, but we like our own Congress Member.

Let's remember that the people in Congress got more votes than the other candidates, so the people to blame for Congress are those who voted for the winning candidates and those who didn't vote at all.  

I've been voting against my Congress Member for 30 years, so, while you might say I've been ineffective, at least I'm not part of the group that's responsible for re-electing Don Young.  But people like me need to work harder to retire the problem Congress Members.

Of course, you can pull all the dandelions you want, but more still pop up.  Getting rid of bad Congress Members and reelecting new bad ones isn't the answer. We need to plant Congress with representatives who promise NOT to take pledges that restrict their votes and promise to work constructively with ALL the other Congress Members for the public, regardless of threatened political consequences.  Better yet, there should be negative political consequences for being a hack and good ones for being a mensch. 

Not all incumbents are problems.  When they campaign, make them demonstrate how they worked with others, how they bucked the party when its dictates weren't for the good of the public, how they advanced, rather than blocked, needed legislation and confirmation of appointed officials, and how they did NOT play brinksmanship with the US budget and our country's credit rating.  

Hold all candidates to reasoned cooperation. (Ask them how many members of the other party they had over to their home for dinner this session.) Hold them to voting for the long term benefit of the United States (and the world) and not to voting based on how they think it might affect the next election cycle. (Did they vote against needed legislation or to add toxic amendments so the other side had to vote no?)   Their only pledge should be to vote for the needs of the public, not of their party, not of the lobbyists and their clients. 

Do your homework.  Check out your representative and senators.  Here are some websites that give you information.  Check different perpsectives:


Vote Smart
The Washington Post's The US Congress Votes Database
Don't know who your congress person is?  Who's My Rep?     My Senator?
Big Marine Fish's Friend or Enemy of Fish?
C-Span's Researching Your Members of Congress
Congress Link's How Influential Is Your Member of Congress?
The American Conservative Union's Congressional Ratings
National Journal's Vote Rating 2010
ACLU's Congressional Scorecard
The Hill has Lists of Ratings from Different Groups for Each Lawmaker

Then ask your representative to explain his votes.

When you find a good candidate, you need to give her some money and some time.  

Or, if there are no good candidates, run yourself. 

AIFF 2011: Skype Chat from Holland With Best Animation Winners

All the animated films I saw were good in some way.  This was the category I tried to know best and I've gotten some video on most of the film makers whose films were in competition.  I had this conversation with Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter Dec. 7 (Anchorage time).  They were delightful to talk to and they give us a sense of the life of serious animators.  They are currently in Holland on a grant for animators.



Ru lived in Anchorage for a couple of years as a child when her father, who worked for Japan Airlines, was located here.  She clearly was disappointed that she couldn't be here for the festival, but they promised to submit what they are working on now when it's done in 2013.

And you can see the film that won Best Animated Film at the Anchorage International Film Festival last week.