A Walk In The Woods On A Warm Snowy Day

After weeks of days with the temperature wandering around the 0˚F mark, 30˚F seems really warm so we did a walk to Goose Lake and back. 

 

Student art I think in the woods

Fat tire bikers

We've had so little snow that there's still a fair amount of grass still up.

Cross country skiers on Goose Lake

It's Christmas. There should be something nice up.

Here are three pieces from the All Alaska Juried XXXIV exhibit at the Anchorage Museum of History and Art through February 3, 2013. I offer them for those who happen to drop by here on Christmas day.  (I know, I know, just because I liked them doesn't mean others will.  But at least the Juror agreed with me on the first one.)





There were two others similar to this one and the three won the Juror's Choice Award. Three powerful pieces.



















I'm  partial to encaustics after learning about the technique a few years ago. From  jocelynaudette:

Encaustic paintings are painted with beeswax, resin, and pigment. It is an ancient process that was used by the Egyptians and Greeks, and examples have been found in Egyptian tombs. Generally, the painting process involves using a hot palette to melt and mix the colored wax, painting it onto the panel using a brush, and fusing the layers with a heat gun. All paintings are on wood panels which provide a rigid and supportive surface.

While the encaustic paintings I've seen have depth, this piece takes that to another level.

This is a close up of one of Chad Harpel's pieces.  They sort of looked like something corporal but he took liberties.  Definitely a thought form.  Interesting. 

Have a good day.  Make some kind of genuine contact with your quirky relatives. 

Kindergarten Killers And The NRA

Here's what the NRA's LaPierre said:

And here's another dirty little truth that the media try their best to conceal: There exists in this country a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people.

Through vicious, violent video games with names like Bulletstorm, Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat and Splatterhouse. And here's one: it's called Kindergarten Killers. It's been online for 10 years. How come my research department could find it and all of yours either couldn't or didn't want anyone to know you had found it?

Kindergarten Killers

I decided to check up on this video game.  It's free to play online.  It's very cartoonish - not at all realistic.  Remember that the LaPierre's basic argument was that the only way to stop massacres is to arm the schools.  It's interesting to note what he didn't tell us when he used Kindergarten Killers as an example of vicious, violent video games:

• the guy with the gun is the school janitor AND 
• all the kids have guns!

Screen Shot from Kindergarten Killers

Yes, the man who said schools needed to be armed, had problems with this video in which the kids were armed.  Maybe it's because despite the kids with guns, the shooter can still carry out his vile act.

Video games are different from the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm.  Not because Hansel and Gretel and Little Red Riding Hood didn't have violence aimed at scaring little children.  They did.  

But in the video games, instead of being the victims, the players can become powerful and take on all the people who are making their lives difficult.  So, if someone were being bullied at school, I'm sure that Kindergarten Killer would give a kid a sense of power by getting back at his tormentors.

Screenshot from Kindergarten Killers

Do Video Games Cause People To Kill?  

I personally don't think that kids can play violent video games which include graphic acts of violence on the part of the player without it having negative effects on the players.  An LA Times article had an overview of research on the impacts of violent video games:

A number of studies have shown that watching a lot of violence on television or playing violent video games such as Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt produces aggressive tendencies in kids. Rowell Huesmann, a professor of communications and psychology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, says that the strength of the evidence is on par with data that say smoking cigarettes causes lung cancer.

Other researchers pooh-pooh such assertions and say that scientific findings have been decidedly mixed — with several studies finding no effects of violent video games on children and teens who play them.
In addition, such critics say, when effects are observed in studies, they have little or no relevance to psychological states that trigger violence in real-life situations.

It goes on to say the research has positive and negative findings, but looks to more longitudinal studies that will look at effects on the same kids over time.

Generalizing from any single study to the whole population of is always suspect.  Finding cause and effect relationships, when there are numerous other and often hard to determine  factors in the environment is tricky.  But if I had to put money down on what researchers will say in twenty years, I'd bet that they'll say something like:

• While the vast majority of kids who play violent video games may have immediate short term increases in aggressiveness, there is no danger that the games lead them to acts of illegal violence.  However, for some small number of kids with psychological issues, insufficient parent supervision, and/or a variety of other compounding factors, the games can lead to a greater likelihood of committing violent acts. [Don't quote this without the caveat above]

But then, the number of people who commit mass shootings is a tiny fraction of the people who kill people annually with firearms.  As a percentage of the whole American population, it would require so many zeroes after the decimal point that most people wouldn't even know how to say it.  (Over 30,000 people a year are killed by firearms in the United States.)

Also, most of the people who have committed mass murders in the last 30 years, didn't play violent video games as kids, because they weren't around.  

While I personally could live very happily in a world without violent video games,  I still don't think that banning them would significantly reduce the number of mass shootings. 


Antonin Scalia Gave Game Makers First Amendment Rights

Let's see now.  If I recall correctly, Scalia is considered one the most conservative members of the US Supreme Court.  Yet in 2011 he wrote the opinion that rejected the California (that home of Hollywood and many video games) law that restricted children's access to violent video games.  From the LA Times:

“Scalia dispatched all of the major arguments for the law. A technical but vital issue was whether the court must look at the law with "strict scrutiny," the practice in other free-speech cases. Scalia answered yes, meaning that the law had to serve a compelling state interest and be narrowly tailored to meet that purpose. Scalia found no such interest in the protection of children from imaginary violence. He ridiculed studies relied on by the state to show a link between playing video games and aggression in children. Referring to one expert, Scalia said that "he admits that the same effects have been found when children watch cartoons starring Bugs Bunny or the Road Runner."”

Other Issues

NRA vice president LaPierre's statement Friday is an interesting basis for doctoral dissertations in a number of fields from linguistics to criminal justice to media.  That was my realization as I started to review it Friday.  A quick analysis just wasn't in the cards.  But I hope to make a number of smaller posts, like this one, from it.

I would also add on this topic - violent video games - that LaPierre's attack on video games might have had some persuasive power had he:

1. Not convicted them ("a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people."), but simply raised the legitimate questions that should be raised.
2. Had not blamed them and a number of others (violent movies, politicians, the media, etc.) yet exonerated the one item without which these mass murders couldn't have happened as horrifically as they have - the guns that were used in them.  They are the single factor that is linked, without any question, to all the mass killings.  And, of course, had he not so emphatically exonerated the NRA. 

[I accidentally hit the publish button before this was finished and then deleted it.  On some blogs the link stayed up.  Sorry if you had trouble finding it.]

Wood Stove Is Off - That's A Good Thing

Our heating system has been a problem for a while now.  Our plumber had been out here way too often trying to figure it out.  He changed this, added that.  We got a new water heater.  But we were still having trouble.  When we got back from a trip early November, our house sitter only 12 hours out of the house, it was in the 40s F in the house and I couldn't get the boiler to fire up.  The pilot was on, but the rest wouldn't kick in.

Our old wood stove saved us that night and the plumber managed to get it working the next day.  But the waterheater kept showing ERR3 - which meant it wasn't getting hot water fast enough.

For a while, when we got ERR3, we could flip the switch that turned off the electricity and turn it on again, but it was happening more and more frequently.  During the film festival I was regularly coming home to a chilly house.

The plumber was out several more times to tweak this and that.  The last thing he did for us was lock the air vent open, "if it is closed, the heat won't fire up."

Jon Replacing Pilot Assembly

Yes, I was beginning to wonder if he actually knew what he was doing.  I didn't know anything about heating systems (I know a bit more now) but I do know about problem solving and his method didn't seem right to me.  Rather than thinking about the whole system and then identifying the possible problems and testing to eliminate the false leads, he seemed to be just trying this and that. Maybe he was just a poor communicator and he was really thinking a lot, but I don't think so.

Here's an example of not thinking beyond the immediate situation.  He was replacing the water heater.  He complained that there was a pipe placed so that you couldn't get the water heater out without taking the pipe off first.  When he got the new water tank in place, instead of redesigning the piping to leave an opening for the water heater, he just put it back the way it had already been.  When I asked about that, it was clear he hadn't even thought about it.  He said, 'Yeah, I could have done that, but I just wanted to finish the job.'  Later, when he had to play with that pipe again to put a pump on it, I suggested making the change while he was at it and he did.

So, a week ago today, flipping the switch after ERR3 wouldn't get the furnace to fire up.  I knew the plumber was closed on Sundays, but I left a message and started the wood stove again.  We caught it before the house had cooled down, so we were able to keep the house relatively comfy with the wood stove.

New pilot assembly going in

When I called the plumber Monday, they hadn't gotten the voice message.  When I expressed some concern about the tech who'd been playing with our boiler all this time and how he didn't seem to be getting to the heart of the problem, the message came back through the receptionist from the owner that if I wasn't happy with the tech, maybe I should find someone else to work on it.

Really.  That was the message.  I'd already been getting to that decision.  The company had come well recommended from a contractor friend, so I had given them the benefit of the doubt.

Jon taking off old gas valve

I called a friend who'd recently had a new heating system installed and got a name of another company that had 'Heating' in the name.

Jon would come out the next afternoon.  The wood stove was keeping us warm and we had plenty of dry wood.  Plus, the furnace had finally kicked in again when I flipped the switch (I'd been doing that with no result, but kept trying.)

Jon and I talked when he got here.  He asked me questions and finally said that it could be one of two things:

1.  The pilot assembly or
2.  The gas valve

Since the pilot assembly was cheaper, he tried that first.

We went twenty four hours before we got ERR3.  Flipping the switch got the heat back on. Called them back and Jon was out that afternoon with a gas valve.

It's been 48 hours now with no problems.  I'm waiting for two weeks before I declare a victory.  But I did let the wood stove burn out and cleaned out the ashes.  It was a wonderful heat that came from the stove and it could go all night on two logs.

Reconnecting gas pipe

Jon was a great technician.  He was thinking about this problem holistically and took the clues and narrowed it down to two possibilities.  But the parts were pretty expensive - the gas valve was $443.  And for this post when I tried to look it up to be sure my terminology was ok, I've found the part online for $161.  Even if the shipping cost me $40, that's a 100% markup.

So, I hope this might be of help to others.  While heating systems are reasonably complex with their mix of mechanical and electronic equipment, they aren't all that complicated and people who work with them should be able to solve the problems fairly quickly.

Screenshot form Pex Supply

And, if you (I'm thinking about people living in Alaska) can wait a week, you can probably get the part online a lot cheaper.  And if your tech company is reasonable, they won't insist on their supplying the part with 100% markup. 



I thought about using the names of the two companies.  I don't think the first company was conning me to keep getting business.  A lot of the trips I wasn't charged for.  I just think their tech wasn't much of a problem solver and the small company was in a bind and that the owner just doesn't know what to do either - in this case how to deal with a decent, but not real good tech.

And we've been dealing with problems with the heating system for so long now - at least a year - that I'm not ready to say things are all settled until it's been a lot longer.

But if anyone in Anchorage wants to know names, just email me.

Fight School Shootings By Arming Kids With Critical Thinking Skills

I've never met Alan Boraas, but whenever the Kenai Peninsula College professor has has a comment piece in the Anchorage Daily News, I know it's going to be well written and  cut right to the heart of the issue. 

In today's piece he did just that once again.  He starts right off by challenging most peoples' feel-good solution:

"If I thought banning assault weapons would help aver school killings, I'd be for it."

He goes on to say that Lanza (and others) could have done their deeds with conventional weapons.  He goes on to talk about a variety of things  - particularly "Call of Duty" video game.  How difficult it must have been for the unperfect Lanza to grow up in the perfect idyllic community. 

He ends by saying:

Banning guns or arming teachers won't do much.  But we can arm the curriculum with the power of analysis.  Teach how to deconstruct mythology that subconsciously effects behavior.  Bring to the surface the values embedded in movies, television, social media and video games.  Expose the message that the gun is not  the solution to problems, nor is the size of your pistol a measure of your manhood.
Arm kids with the knowledge that perfectville is not the only notion in a diverse world of possibilities.  Fight back with critical thinking.

Alan nails it.  


I'd link you to the article, but the ADN has begun to block their website unless you sign up.  I got a letter recently saying as a subscriber I could get in.  But the popup window they are using is one of the most annoying and impenetrable ones I've seen. I can't shut it down.  And they don't have a choice for me to say I'm a regular paper subscriber.  And their answer machine, after saying they are getting a heavier call load than normal and the wait will be long (I wonder why?), then says they are closed and not taking calls.  This is not the best way to initiate online registration.  More likely to send people to other sources of news.  

Peggy Shaw Took Me Inside Her Stroke

No one wants to go see a performance about a stroke, it sounds way too depressing.  But Peggy Shaw's bio already suggests she's not your run of the mill performer.  She's gotten three OBIE's* and several other impressive sounding awards, like a Lambda Literary Prize for Drama and Performer of the Year from the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Theater.




[LAST SHOW:  Saturday, Dec. 23, 2012 - 8pm Out North]

This is a serious performer who invited the audience into her brain through her monologue, her virtual on the wall band that appeared and disappeared throughout.  She had three large monitors with her script - memorizing is hard for people who have had strokes - which she shared with the audience.  She talked, she sang, she danced, and she exposed her lapses along with her powerful personality as part of the show.

The photo was taken after the show. The show is dedicated to Ellen Stewart, La Mama, who never allowed green on stage because it was bad luck.  Peggy had her stroke right after Stewart died, and in this piece uses this huge roll of green paper which seemed to be a loud declaration of independence from Stewart, despite the clear admiration and love for her. 

Things went from normal music and video to sounds and visuals that probably simulated what the world is like to a stroke victim.  There was a great 60 second or so spot on how to know you're having a stroke.   There were floating fish.  Audience members were asked to hold onto things for Peggy until she needed them.

After the show

There was an intro that warned us of things that might happen - like she could start coughing, in which case to just hold on until her cough drops take effect.  What that did for me and I think the others there, was to include us as part of the insiders rather than just being an audience.  It was as though she were relating things to a friend rather than to an audience of strangers.

For people looking for drama with a plot line, this isn't it.  For people who find drama, as I do, in a heart-to-heart with someone who shares their near death experience and its aftermath, this is definitely worth attending.  And the show I saw Friday night was only the second time this piece has ever been performed before an audience.  The first time was a dress rehearsal Thursday night.  Shaw is still getting aligned with all the audio-visual aspects.  Though I was pretty impressed by how most of the time she was already synchornized with  the sound and video.

Out North consistently gives Anchorage audiences these incredible opportunities to be on the inside of contemporary international art and theater.  Here's this serious, award winning, very New York performer with helpers from Australia and Boston here as they spent ten days in Anchorage getting this performance piece ready to take to New York and London.  It's amazing what we have here.


The performance made me think of Anchorage's Peter Dunlap-Shohl, the cartoonist who has been communicating with the world about his Parkinson's through his medium - comics on his blog.  Like Peter's work, Peggy's uses art to experientially, and with humor, share her stroke experience with the world. For me the content was interesting as was the presentation. For someone with a close friend or relative who's had a stroke, this is the artist's, rather than the doctor's story of a stroke, that helps you understand a little of what is going on.  And it follows the stroke's story line, which includes lack of clear direction, even knowing where one is, not Hollywood's neatly packaged kind of story line.


The second video is mostly Shaw's co-writer, director talking after the show.  This is just a snippet.  She's talking about the moving images that had been on the green space that I had thought were brain scans.  It turns out they were the signals from an actor's body that are used in animation to get the character's body movements right.  Then she talks about the band.

*The Village Voice OBIE Awards were created soon after the inception of the publication in 1955 to publicly acknowledge and encourage the growing Off Broadway theater movement. The VOICE OBIES were purposely structured with informal categories, to recognize those persons and productions worthy of distinction each theater season. The OBIE Awards are an important part of the VOICE's long history of championing Off Broadway and Off-Off Broadway productions. [From The Village Voice]

How Many Black Members in the 113th Congress?

The answer appears* to be 43 in the House, down from 44 in the 112th Congress.

The US Senate has one African American - Tim Scott, appointed to the position by South Carolina Governor Nicki Haley after Jim DeMint resigned in January 2013.  He's expected to run in the special election in 2014.  Shortly after Scott was appointed he was joined by African-American William "Mo" Cowan of Massachusetts who was appointed as Interim Senator to fill  John Kerry's seat when he became Secretary of State.  It was the first time ever there were two African-American US Senators at the same time.  Cowan did not seek election in June 2013 when Ed Markey was elected and took over Cowan's seat.  

[**UPDATE NOV 9, 2014:  After the midterm elections it now appears there will be 45 in the House of Representatives and 2 US Senators.  See the new list for the 114th Congress here.]

[**UPDATE OCTOBER 15, 2013:  African American Cory Booker is a candidate in the special election October 16, 2013 in New Jersey to replace Senator Frank Lautenberg who died  in January.  Booker is a Democrat in a heavily Democratic state running against Tea Party candidate Steve Lonegan.  One recent poll shows Lonegan gaining ground, but the Guardian sees it as wishful thinking by Republicans.  If Booker wins, he would become the second sitting Black US Senator and the only elected Black US Senator. (Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina was appointed.).]

[**UPDATE APRIL 14, 2013:  On March 18, 2013, William “Mo” Cowan (D-Mass.) was appointed to fill Senator John Kerry's seat when he resigned to become Secretary of State.  This is an interim appointment until the June 25 special election.  There are now two African Americans serving in the US Senate for the first time ever.] 


There will be 28[7] men and 15[6] women.  Two members - Eleanor Holmes of Washington DC and Donna M. Christensen of the Virgin Islands are non-voting members.

Six of the 112th's African American House members will not be returning for the 113rd Congress.  Three lost to white candidates after redistricting:

• California's Laura Richardson lost to another Democratic incumbent, Janice Hahn when their districts were merged.
• Florida's Republican Allen West lost to Democrat Patrick Murphy in a close race.
• Michigan's Hansen Clarke lost to another Democratic incumbent, Gary Peters, in the primary in their merged district.

Two were replaced by new African American candidates

• New Jersey's Donald M. Payne died.  His son Donald M. Payne Jr. replaced him.
• New York's Edolphus Towns retired and was replaced by Hakeem Jeffries.

One was reelected and then appointed to the US Senate.

• North [South] Carolina's Tim Scott

There were three new African American members elected from new districts:

• Texas' Marc Veassey. 
• Nevada's first African American member Steven Horsford.
• Ohio's Joyce Beatty.

[UPDATE APRIL 14, 2013:  Rep. Jesse Jackson resigned and was replaced on April 11, 2013 by Robin Kelly.  This doesn't change the number of black members of Congress, but it adds a woman.]

Tim Scott's House seat is now open, but, according to AP's Big Story site, it requires a special election.

With Tim Scott's move to the Senate, there will be no Black Republicans in the House and one in the US Senate.  [UPDATE April 14: two in the Senate with newly appointed Massachusetts Senator William 'Mo' Cowan.]


For details, below is a table I created to show each district, by states. (Alphabetical order by state abbreviations.) I've also included the percentage of the vote each member received in the November 2012 election. I've done this to help people see how districts have been gerrymandered to make these seats safe, as is the case for most districts. In some California districts,  both top candidates were Democrats. I've included % of minor candidates as well so the numbers should be very close to 100%.

You should be able to scroll it and enlarge it in the Scribd format below. 

Black Congress Members Dec. 2012 [Updated April 14, 2013]

This is a follow up to previous posts on this topic which I created when I found that there wasn't an easy way to get a list of Black members of Congress.

Feb. 4, 2008  How Many Black Members of Congress?  Original Post

Aug. 20, 2008  NPR Reports Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones Dies of Aneurism

Dec. 1, 2008  How Many Black Members of Congress:  Update

Dec. 16, 2008  How Many Black Members of Congress Update 

Nov. 4, 2010  How Many Blacks in Congress:  Post Election Update

Source of most election data:

2012 Congressional Election Results  District by district election results

Virgin Islands Results   These tended not to be part of most coverage.

Congressional Black Caucus Members

National Journal New Faces in 113th Congress - It seems I can only get you to the page with all the new members. There you can sort by "minorities" - which will show all the other new members with ethnic identities other than 'white'.  If you click on the individual  faces, you'll get a profile of that member. 


Information on districts where incumbents will not be in 113th:

Hansen Clark Race  On Michigan's 14th District Race

Edolphus Towns  replaced by Hakeem Jeffries

Donald M. Paine - On death of Paine Sr. and replacement by his son

Allen West race - On West's loss.

Tim Scott Senate appointment

Hakeem Jeffries  On Jeffries' replacement of Towns


New Districts:

Steven Horsford in Nevada's 4th District 

Joyce Beatty in Ohio's 3rd District

Marc Veassey in Teaxas' 33rd District



*Finding all the African-American Congress members is not easy.  That's why I posted my first post on this in 2008.  The Congressional Black Caucus website doesn't change it's list until after the new Congress begins.  I used that as the starting point for this list.  Then I checked the election of each of the current members.  But,  finding new members is harder.  I googled different possibilities which picked up Tim Scott, the Republican from South Carolina, did not join the Black Caucus.  When I thought I was done, I found the National Journal's list of the 113th Congress new members which allowed me to sort "Minorities" which yielded Horsford, Beatty, and Veassey.  I hadn't found them because they were from districts that were created after the 2020 Census.  So, I think this is reasonably complete, but if anyone finds someone missing or other errors, please let me know in the comments or  email me.

So, Will The World End Time Zone By Time Zone?

A hidden advantage of dividing the world into time zones, it seems, is that it's harder to destroy the world on any given day, because it becomes the next day at different times all over the world.

It's already December 21 in China.  And it appears that, at least in Anchorage, the world is still here. 

The way we divide time into hours and minutes and seconds and into time zones is a good example of social construction of reality.  It is based on physical reality - sunrise to sunset is roughly a day, the earth orbits the sun in roughly a year - but then humans went beyond 'natural' and designed systems that worked for them. We do that with everything that is human created. 

How we track time has always been dependent on technologies that could track the time better than watching the sun set and rise and where it is at noon.

It wasn't until the late 1800's that time zones were created, again, in response to technology - the telegraph and the railroad.  From Time and Date:

Trade, communications and transport became more globalized during the 19th century, which made it convenient that all maps and charts should indicate the same longitudes in whichever country they were produced, as being so many degrees east or west of a prime meridian. Moreover, the international telegraph needed at least a single standard to which all local times could be referred. 

American railroads maintained many different time zones during the late 1800s. Each train station set its own clock so it was difficult to coordinate train schedules. Time calculation became a serious problem for people traveling by train (sometimes hundreds of miles in a day), according to the Library of Congress. Every city in the United States used a different time standard so there were more than 300 local sun times to choose from. Railroad managers tried to address the problem by establishing 100 railroad time zones, but this was only a partial solution to the problem.

Operators of the new railroad lines needed a new time plan that would offer a uniform train schedule for departures and arrivals. Four standard time zones for the continental United States were introduced on November 18, 1883. Britain, which already adopted its own standard time system for England, Scotland, and Wales, helped gather international consensus for global time zones in 1884.

One could argue that since the people who are tracing the end of the world prediction to Mayans [and no one who knows anything about Mayan calendars seems to think they predicted the end of the world] it would make sense that if they had predicted the world's demise on Dec. 21, 2012, it would be on Dec. 21, 2012, Mayan time (Greenwich Mean Time -6).

I did try to figure out if there is a time when the whole world is the same day.  Wikianswers says:

Yes, everyday when it is point midnight on the International Dateline and midday on the Greenwich line (in London)

So, is this saying that for an instant, as the day changes at the international dateline, we are all the same day?  If that's the case, it would be the instant before the Asian side of the line changes to Dec. 22.

But if you look at a map of time zones - near the dateline - you see strange things.  First, as you cross the Date Line, you have to add 24 hours.  But as you scroll down the map, you'll see strange local time zones.  Tonga is GMT 13 and Tokalau is GMT 14, and American Samoa is GMT 15.  So there are places with extra time zones that wouldn't be on the right day.  I think.  It's all very confusing. 

Screenshot from Wikipeidia's Time Zone Map

It seems the only people who think the world might end on Dec. 21 are those who are (and these are not mutually exclusive categories) the uneducated, the easily persuaded, the people looking for any excuse to party, and the Republicans in the House who see no reason to back down on the "Fiscal Cliff" showdown,  because the world will end before January 1, 2013.  First they denied global warming, then they were certain Romney would win, then there's their denial of the connection between our gun policies and firearm deaths, so why shouldn't they believe twisted interpretations of the Mayan calendar? 

Maybe I'm being too hard on Republicans.  After all, even Fox News cites experts who say it ain't so.  But then, if it were arguing the world would end Dec. 21, how could they sell advertising spots for next week and beyond?

:)

Goodbye to Ravi Shankar and Daniel Inouye

There are two classical concerts I can think of that transported me into another world.  Two memorable times when I was transformed from my auditorium seat and disappeared into the music.  One was the year I was a student in Germany.  I was at a concert in a beautiful new auditorium in Florence and David Oistrack played magic on the violin.  The concert ended.  The audience mostly left but there were maybe 15 or 20 other people who must have been inside the music with me who continued to stand in the place and applaud in the now mostly empty auditorium.  And Oistrahk walked back onto the stage and played an encore for this small group.  It was amazing.

A few years later, in Thailand as a Peace Corps volunteer, I learned that Ravi Shankar was giving a concert in one of the hotel ballrooms in Bangkok.  Despite the uncomfortable folding chairs, the sitar strains entered into my body and took me to another world.

Probably my first introduction to Shankar was watching Sanjit Ray's Apu trilogy with my father, though at the time I wasn't aware of who he was or that it was his music in the films.   I became aware of Shankar, as a name and muscian. along with much of the Western world, through George Harrison. I had missed his concert at the Monterrey Pop Music festival, so I made sure I got into this Bangkok concert while I had the chance.  Another magical evening.  Here's some video of Shankar the same year I saw him.

From NY Times Obituary of Inouye

I never was, to my knowledge, in the same room as Daniel Inouye, but I remember 'meeting' him through radio and television when he was a member of the Senate Watergate Committee.  The whole committee was impressive - both Republicans and Democrats took their jobs seriously.  While the Republicans challenged any unsubstantiated comments or charges against Richard Nixon, they didn't deny the truth that was unraveling in the hearings.  They didn't attack their Democratic colleagues or raise red herrings to distract from the focus on the White House and its role in the Watergate break-ins.

 As a young graduate student studying public administration with the summer off, I was mesmerized by the hearings.  I was taken, along with the rest of the nation, deep into the workings of government in a way my classes couldn't match.  And I was watching a Senate committee that was working as it was supposed to - seriously, deliberately, and intelligently.  The committee - Republicans and Democrats - worked together closely to make sure justice was carried out.  We got to know each of the committee members and as a Californian whose knowledge of the South was coverage of the civil rights movement and the violent resistance to integration by many government officials, I discovered that there were indeed intelligent Southerners. 

Daniel Inouye was one of the most junior members, but he stood out as the only person of color on the committee.  He also was missing an arm from a war injury.   He impressed me and the nation with his sober questions and serious dedication to the unpleasant task.   His New York Times obituary says:

In 1973, as a member of the Senate Watergate committee, which investigated illegal activities in President Richard M. Nixon’s 1972 re-election campaign, he won wide admiration for patient but persistent questioning of the former attorney general John N. Mitchell and the White House aides H. R. Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman and John Dean.

Screenshot of Watergate Committee from MacNeil -Lehrer News on Youtube

The Watergate Hearings are my touchstone against which I compare the Senate and the US House today. If you watched the Watergate Hearings, you understand that despite the political divisions, the Senators at least acted like gentlemen and dealt with facts, even unpleasant ones, with dignity. That's not to say that they didn't scheme behind the scenes. But the Republicans didn't balk and stall because their president was being investigated.  Today's Senators and House members should all have to watch the Watergate hearings and the impeachment hearings to see how they are supposed to act.

Squirrels and Obesity, Sleazy State Hire - Good Reporting From Kathleen McCoy and Shannyn Moore

I want to thank two other monitors of the local scene for their good work. Shannyn Moore and Kathleen McCoy have been doing pushing the local journalism's boundaries for a while now, but I want to point out two recent contributions.

Kathleen got seriously interested in new media (a year studying it at Stanford) before going from the Anchorage Daily News to the University of Alaska Anchorage.  She's now combining both those worlds with regular pieces in the ADN in a column called Hometown U about the many interesting things UAA faculty are doing.  That's something I thought that the University radio station should have been doing for a long time.

Kathleen's stories bring to life the science and teaching going on at UAA.  She is taking complex stories and presenting them in an interesting and informative way.  She is NOT dumbing down the science, but she is making it accessible.  Here are a couple of snippets from recent articles:

"Arctic ground squirrels are the Olympians of hibernation, opting to sleep through the harshest weather of the year (just the time we humans would prefer a trip to Hawaii).
In torpor, they perch on the very brink of life and death at temperatures that would freeze water and blood; even a small cut on a paw can endanger their careful balance and tip them toward death."

This goes on to discuss the National Institutes of Health research microbial ecologist Khrys Duddleston is doing at UAA.   The piece goes on to show how Duddleston is looking for a way to use the squirrels' survival technique to combat human obesity. 

Or this one about a UAA class:

"UAA tried out a new biology class this fall, called exploration ecology.
Think of it as education outside the box, in real-time.
The polar opposite of one professor standing in front of a giant survey class, handing out a dusty syllabus and saying, "Read chapter six and then do the labs." 

All semester long, biology professor Douglas Causey and his 12 students have been tromping through fields, counting invasive plants, chipping out stream ice to see what's swimming underneath and hanging recording devices to capture bat echolocation -- all in the Three Rivers area near Girdwood, home to Twentymile, Portage and Placer rivers."

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2012/12/01/2710327/hometown-u-uaa-students-work-in.html#storylink=cpy

 The rest is here.

Her articles show not just the science but something about the scientist as well and her personal connections to her research.  While some scientists would argue that's irrelevant, others think it's important to understand how scientists choose their subjects and make their breakthroughs:

"Jocelyn Krebs got the call every parent dreads. Her son was 19 months old when it came. She had "known for a while that something was up with him," she said. Rhys -- pronounced Reece -- is now 4 years old.
As a molecular biologist at UAA, Krebs studies exactly how a one-cell fertilized egg develops into an incredibly complex adult. She's intimately aware of all the ways this miracle can go awry."

This is good journalism because it's good writing on an important but often unseen part of the community - university faculty working quietly on their research and with their students doing significant things here in Anchorage that most of us wouldn't know anything about without Kathleen's stories.


The second person I want to salute is Shannyn Moore - local television, radio, newspaper, blogging dynamo proved the importance of journalistic oversight with an opinion piece a couple weeks ago about a particularly questionable state hire for a workers' comp hearing officer.

"So why did Gov. Sean Parnell recently go all the way to Pennsylvania to fill a vacant Hearing Officer position in the labor department (you know, the department that promotes Alaska hire)?
And what Pennsylvanian did we bend over backwards to hire?
The answer to the second question is: an ex-judge named Paul Pozonsky, who is apparently under investigation right now by a Pennsylvania grand jury for destroying evidence in 17 criminal cases, which led to his being stripped of the ability to hear cases, and who was the subject of a year-long "Protection From Abuse" order for domestic violence."

 According to Lisa Demer's ADN story on Dec. 14, this article had an impact:

After reading Moore's column, [Gov] Parnell became concerned that the hiring process was flawed, Leighow wrote in an email this week.

After Pozonsky resigned,  Shannyn kept on asking why and how he was hired in the first place and the state is investigating that too. 

Thanks Kathleen and Shannyn.  

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2012/12/01/2709454/shannyn-moore-how-does-a-pennsylvania.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2012/12/15/2725458/hometown-u-uaa-molecular-biologist.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2012/12/01/2710327/hometown-u-uaa-students-work-in.html#storylink=cpy