From Seattle to LA, From Grand Daughter to her Great Grandmother

It looked like it might be a nice day again in Seattle as we rode the light rail out to the airport early this morning.

But by the time we were in the air it was cloudy.  There's a bit Mt. Rainer showing between the lower clouds and the upper clouds. 

Here we're flying low over LA as we circle to land.  Below is Westwood - the Veterans hospital and cemetery - UCLA to the right of the green srip in the middle, and the Getty Musuem in the halls. 










And I've gone from my granddaughter to my mother - a gap of 91 years. 

"If Love Is Deep Much Can Be Accomplished" Suzuki Plus Benaroya And Chihuly

 We went to a recital that two of the boys played in yesterday at Benaroya Hall.  Not being from Seattle, I had to look him up to find out who he was.  (And since I'm really crunched for time, I'm settling for the Wikipedia bio instead of looking for something better.)

Jack A. Benaroya (July 11, 1921 – May 11, 2012) was a noted philanthropist and prominent civic leader in Seattle, Washington. He supported cultural, educational, and medical groups, with his donations. He attended Seattle's Garfield High School. He was a former director of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce and the United Way of King County (Seattle).
The largest commercial real estate developer in the state of Washington, Benaroya established the family-owned Benaroya Company in 1956. In 1984, the company turned its focus to venture capital investments and philanthropic endeavors. Noted major donations include:

• Benaroya Hall, Seattle, Washington — facility for the Seattle Symphony; opened in 1998
• Benaroya Research Institute, Virginia Mason Medical Center, Seattle; opened in 1999

Benaroya was a supporter of:

• Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International
• The University of Washington Medical Center
• Children's Hospital and Medical Center, Lakeside School
• The Jewish Federation and Council of Seattle

Benaroya was an early investor in Starbucks. (Wikipedia)

This was a Suzuki recital with pianists, violinists, a violist, and a couple of cellists.  Probably around 80-90 kids altogether from four years old to 18.






From The Suzuki Association of the Americas:

"Shinichi Suzuki, the man who developed the Suzuki Method, was born on October 17, 1898, in Nagoya, Japan. He was one of twelve children and his father owned a violin factory. Shinichi and his brothers and sisters played near the factory and saw instruments being made, but the children never realized what beautiful sounds could come from a violin. When he was seventeen, Shinichi heard a recording of Schubert’s Ave Maria, played by a famous violinist named Mischa Elman. He was amazed that a violin could make such a beautiful tone because he had thought it was just a toy!

After this, Shinichi brought a violin home from the factory and taught himself to play. He would listen to a recording and try to imitate what he heard. A few years later he took violin lessons from a teacher in Tokyo. Then, when he was 22 years old, he went to Germany and studied with a famous teacher named Karl Klingler. Shinichi also met his wife Waltraud in Germany. They married and moved back to Japan, where he began to teach violin and play string quartet concerts with his brothers."

If love is deep - from the program

Here's a bit about the method from a different page on the Suzuki association website:

"More than fifty years ago, Japanese violinist Shinichi Suzuki realized the implications of the fact that children the world over learn to speak their native language with ease. He began to apply the basic principles of language acquisition to the learning of music, and called his method the mother-tongue approach. The ideas of parent responsibility, loving encouragement, constant repetition, etc., are some of the special features of the Suzuki approach.

Parent Involvement

As when a child learns to talk, parents are involved in the musical learning of their child. They attend lessons with the child and serve as “home teachers” during the week. One parent often learns to play before the child, so that s/he understands what the child is expected to do. Parents work with the teacher to create an enjoyable learning environment.

The other principles listed (each has more description) include:

• Early Beginning

• Listening

• Repetition

• Encouragement

• Learning with Other Children

• Graded Repertoire  (The description suggests this means steps not evaluation.)
  
• Delayed Reading.
  
  

This system must work, because the music was really good. 



I also noticed in the Bill and Melinda Gates Lobby this gigantic Chihuly chandelier.

 

To get a sense of the size, you can see it in context in the lobby in the lower right of the picture. From that angle it looks a little like a champagne glass.  

Born in 1941 in Tacoma, Washington, Dale Chihuly was introduced to glass while studying interior design at the University of Washington. After graduating in 1965, Chihuly enrolled in the first glass program in the country, at the University of Wisconsin. He continued his studies at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he later established the glass program and taught for more than a decade.
In 1968, after receiving a Fulbright Fellowship, he went to work at the Venini glass factory in Venice. There he observed the team approach to blowing glass, which is critical to the way he works today. In 1971, Chihuly cofounded Pilchuck Glass School in Washington State. With this international glass center, Chihuly has led the avant-garde in the development of glass as a fine art.
His work is included in more than 200 hundred museum collections worldwide. He has been the recipient of many awards, including eleven honorary doctorates and two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. (There's a lot more where this came from on the Chihuly website.)

Chance To Tell The Airport What You Think About Their Plan

The Department of Transportation and Public Facilities sent out a press release saying there would be an online public Open House March 22 - April 5, 2013. 

The DOT usually has a very professional public input process with lots of posters, lots of people explaining.  If people have minor changes that they can accommodate within their plan, they seem to be receptive.  But even if 80-90% of the public input is opposed to the project - like putting Bragaw/Elmore through the university land - that won't stop what they want to do.  They'll just put some make up on it, but they'll do what they planned.  At least that's my experience. 

Anyway, here's the notice.  I'm not sure if there are any actual in-person sessions, I would think so, but if it's at the airport and you stay more than 30 minutes you'll have to pay for parking.  Here's the press release:

Notice of Public Online Public Open House:  Anchorage Airport Master Plan Update

(Anchorage, Alaska) - Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC) will hold an online public Open House from March 22 to April 5, 2013 to provide an opportunity for interested individuals to participate at their convenience. In the online public Open House, you can view the March 21^st meeting posters and presentation and leave comments for the Master Plan Update team. The Online Open House will be accessible at www.ancmasterplan.com from March 22 to April 5, 2013.

It is the policy of the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOT&PF) that no person shall be excluded from participation in, or be denied benefits of any and all programs or activities we provide based on race, religion, gender, age, marital status, ability, or national origin, regardless of the funding source including Federal Transit Administration, Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Highway Administration and State of Alaska Funds.

 Persons who believe they may have experienced discrimination in the delivery of these federally-assisted programs or activities may file a confidential complaint with:

Alaska DOT&PF Civil Rights Office
2200 East 42nd Avenue, Room 310
Anchorage, AK 99508
Telephone 1 907 269 0851
Toll Free in Alaska Only 1 800 770 6236
Fax 1 907 269 0847

A Few Leftover Seattle Images

Batman and friends at Emerald City Comicon

Been busy catching up on errands and projects.  Here are some photos that didn't fit into other posts.  Last Sunday coming back from the hike we passed the Emerald City Comicon.  

Ferry Car deck coming into Seattle

Ethan Currier sculpture Winslow Harbor

More Comicon

Two Seattle statues

One of these statues moved. 

Coincidentally Meeting Victoria Amazonica and Chico Mendes

The etymology dictionary defines a coincidence as "a concurrence of events with no apparent connection." A related word is coincide.

We dropped M off at the UW Medical Center where she had an appointment.  In the lobby I saw this painting, which, because of the lights and a glass frame, was hard to photograph.   Here are parts.  I wasn't completely taken.  I liked the birds - and there are other animals as well - but I wasn't sure about the style.  But then I read the caption. 

"If you look closely you'll see the noble face of Chico Mendes peering out of the rain forest.  Mendes was the Brazilian rubber harvester who fought to defend the Amazonian forest.  In 1988 he was murdered by timber interests who resented his efforts"

 The painting is by Alredo Arrequin who came to Washington from Mexico when he was 23 to study at the University of Washington.

A New York Times book review of two books about Mendes says:

In life, Mendes was a unionist who defended the rights of his fellow Amazonian rubber tappers to live in the forest and harvest rubber and nuts. In Acre, where 130 ranchers expelled an estimated 100,000 tappers from the forest, Mendes fought back, rallying families to stand in front of chain saws and bulldozers. In death, Mendes, an international eco-martyr, became the catalyst for popularizing the concept that the wealth of the Amazon resides in its profusion of plant and animal life, not in its thin, sandy soil.
''In leading this struggle to preserve the Amazon, Chico Mendes had made a lot of trouble for a lot of powerful people,'' Andrew Revkin writes in ''The Burning Season.'' ''He was to the ranchers of the Amazon what Cesar Chavez was to the citrus kings of California, what Lech Walesa was to the shipyard managers of Gdansk.''

 So, now I know Chico Mendes because an artist painted a picture dedicated to him and it ended up on the wall of a Seattle medical center.

So we had time and took Z for a walk around the campus.  We stumbled into the greenhouses where we saw Victoria Amazonica.

 From Tree of Life Website:

"The most interesting thing about this flower is the large leaves that it creates. The leaves can grow up to 46 centimeters in size and can hold up to 136 kilograms, the leaves are flat before growing rims at the edge of the leaf. The leaves are strong and stiff thanks to the strong bottom of the leaves. The bottoms are covered with spines to help support the ribs. The bottom of the leaf is maroon in colour. The Giant Water Lily does not grow year round in areas where it is not a native species, such as Great Britain; it only grows and reproduces in the summertime when the climate is warm. However, in its native Brazil and in the Amazon it grows all year long, due to the optimum conditions."

Some other plants we saw in the greenhouses:

Then we wandered around the campus before meeting back up with M.

Where Can I Ride A Trained Polar Bear? More (Mostly) Google Searches

A few of the more interesting search terms people used to get here since December.  Some are here because I'm just pleased to be able to provide information to people seeking very specific information like the first three. 


the establishment of fire breaks northern thailand - This is a pretty specific request and I just happened to have attended a ceremonial opening of a fire break in Northern Thailand when I was a volunteer with the Northern Peasants' Association which helped to organize the work. The Australian search got to this post Fire Break Construction Ceremony Chiang Dao

Photo from fogonazos

where can i ride a trained polar bear - This Florida googler got to this picture of
swimming with polar bears in a post called Polar Bear Rehap and Training.




canterbury cathedral diagram - I admit to a perverse pleasure when someone from Canterbury comes to this Alaskan blog to find a diagram of the Caterbury Cathedral.  I also recently had someone from the Congressional Information Office come to my post on the number of Black members of the 113th Congress. 



he relationship of sugar to population-level diabetes prevalence: an econometric analysis of repeated cross-sectional data -This one got to  “This study is proof enough that sugar is toxic. Now it’s time to do something about it.”  That makes sense.  A good hit.  But what makes it noteworthy here is the IP Address included "Nat Soft Drink Association."  Why do I think they are looking at this to find ways to deny it rather than to improve their products?

 do mormon missionaries fall in love on their mission -A good starting point for a short story this searcher from Sweden using a Swedish language computer.  Is she hoping they do?  And he will with her?  She got to a post about the movie The Falls about two Mormon missionaries who fall in love with each other. 

san francisco giants,native american bead work  -  Maybe they were looking for the Giant's logo in bead work.  I don't know.  I have several posts with Native American bead work and a post from the Giants stadium before the second game of last year's world series.  But this searcher got to a post on Detroit.  There is a photo about Native American beadwork at the Detroit Institute of Art.  And the word 'giant' is in the description of the Tigers' ballpark.  And San Francisco is listed among the many labels in the right column.

loneliness and enemy next to a stove - A great line to start a story.  I don't think they got what they wanted from here, just a page with December 2012 posts that had enemy, lonely, and stove scattered among different posts.  

how to make an outline using cottoncandy -  I'm sure this made sense to the searcher.  Not sure they got what they wanted.  They got to Romney's cotton candy acceptance speech"

what time does the world end in sc - This South Carolina search came just before the predicted Mayan end of the world date.  They got to an appropriate post called So, Will The World End Time Zone By Time Zone?


does it snow on mountains -  Alaska tour guides like to collect the most ridiculous questions they get from tourists.  One of my favorites comes from tourists either on a boat on the ocean or standing next to the ocean or body of water connected to the ocean, "What altitude are we?"   I'm going to give this Alabama googler the benefit of the doubt and assume it's someone under the age of ten.  He or she got to A Beautiful Fall Day:  Fresh Snow on the Mountains that included a picture of snow on the mountains.


does the first amendment take precedence over the second It would be nice to think that freedom of speech and religion take precedence over the right to own guns, but the amendments to the constitution are numbered chronologically, not necessarily in order of importance.  The searcher got to a post entitled "What Takes Precedence for Americans:  The First Amendment or the first Commandment?" 

you can't tell the players without a program meaning - Got a post You Can't Tell The Players Without a Program - Baseball Cards For Politicians.  I didn't define the expression and I'm not sure the reader would know more after reading the post. 



does higher cc mean faster trucks - This went to a current post Which Is More Important? Right To Life? Right to Bear Arms?  This make no sense to me whatsoever.  I tried to duplicate it by searching the phrase on google but just got truck sites.


--------  -  There's no search word, but the ISP is Naval Ocean Systems Center and the city is listed as USAF Academy in Colorado.  They've been looking at the post Airshows And The Cost Of Military Fuel.  Will sequestration mean the end of military air shows?

World Climate Like An Athlete On Steroids

"'I think one of the best ways of thinking about it is imagining that the base line has shifted,' Tim Flannery, the commission’s leader, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “If an athlete takes steroids, for example, their base line shifts. They’ll do fewer slow times and many more record-breaking fast times.”

'The same thing is happening with our climate system,' he said. 'As it warms up, we’re getting fewer cold days and cold events and many more record hot events.'" (NY Times "Report Blames Climate Change For Extremes in Australia")

 His evidence:

"At least 123 weather records fell during the 90-day period the report examined.  Included were milestones like the hottest summer on record, the hottest day for Australia as a whole and the hottest seven consecutive days ever recorded.  To put it into perspective, in the 102 years since Australia began gathering national records, there have been 21 days when the country averaged a high of more than 102 degrees Fahrenheit (39 Celsius) and eight of them were in 2012."

Of those who denied global climate change for years and years and now accept that it is happening, many still deny that it is human caused. Of those who acknowledge human's contribution, many believe there is nothing we can do about it except work on mitigating the effects.

The concerns I have with Arctic oil drilling are not simply concern about the possibility of an oil spill in the Arctic Ocean.  My longer term concern is that we continue to go after energy sources that exacerbate climate change and make the long term damage worse.  The $5 billion that Shell says they've already invested in Arctic drilling in Alaska would have been much better spent on developing affordable alternative energy.

But those whose aptitudes and expertise are geared toward drilling oil, and who work for multinational oil companies whose infrastructure is aimed at drilling oil, are like addicts in denial.  Their life work, not to mention their life style, are all built on the belief that they are doing the world good by supplying us with oil.  To accept the idea that they are also contributing to climate change which could lead to the submergence of island nations and low lying geography like Florida and Manhattan, is in conflict with who they are and what they do. 

And while they gained wealth and privilege through their oil work, even the enormous wealth of the oil companies cannot compensate for the damage that will come.    

Wag It, Then Go Kaleidoscopic

Caught this sticker on the back of a car at the Little Su hike parking lot.  I want one of these.  It says it all. 


Not only that, but this post offers you another treat.  Trust me - go to this link and let your inner child play a little.  (Or let your outer child play if you have one around.) 

Frosty Sunrise

We have a great view every morning where we're staying, but this  morning (Monday) it was particularly nice.  Those are bufflehead in the water. 

 
I thought it was supposed to get warmer in March, but we had frost for the second morning in a row.

This Is Going To Be Big: Eulerian Video Magnification Shows The Invisible

Screenshot from NY Times article

We tend to think of 'invisibility' as some magic trick that hides things we normally should  see, like Harry Potter's Cloak of Invisibility. 

But really, invisibility just means things that are beyond the range of our eyes to detect.  There are lots of things that we can't see.  From a promo for a BBC television show "What The Human Eye Can't See":

“The human eye is a remarkable piece of precision engineering, but all around us is an astonishing and beautiful world we cannot see. Some wonders are outside the visible spectrum, others are too fast, too slow, too small or too remote for our eyes and brains to interpret.”

Wavelength image from Universe by Freedman and Kaufmann, posted on NASA website

The chart to the right shows what a small range of colors the human eye can actually see. 



Throughout history humans have found or invented ways to see things the human eye couldn't see.  A simple example is a mirror, allowing people to see themselves.  More complex are microscopes, telescopes,  and X rays.

The New York Times article  "Scientists Uncover Invisible Motion in Video"
reports on a new process that finds tiny variations in color or motion that are too small for the human eye to detect.  The process then magnifies the variations so that they become visible to humans. 

The example in the video above (I couldn't find a way to embed the video, you'll have to go to the article to see it)  captures a very slight variation in the color of the baby's face - ever so slightly redder.  This variation is magnified 100 times so it looks bright red.  Then, bingo, you can see the baby's pulse.  They have another example of a baby breathing.  The actual breathing is barely visible, but when the movement is magnified, you can see it clearly.  There are other examples as well, but since I've been spending so much time with my new granddaughter, the baby examples resonate with me. 


Why is this big?

Any time you can see things that used to be invisible, there is a big potential to learn a lot more about the world we live in.  I'm sure there are millions of situations where there are variations in color or movement that humans don't see, but if we could see them, we would understand 'why' about many, many things.  This will allow us to see so many missing puzzle pieces.  Where we think there is no reaction, we now have the opportunity to see that there is.  We'll be able to detect minor changes sooner to alert us to events - something about to fall, catch fire, explode, spill - earlier.  The video suggests lots of medical uses.

And there will be ominous uses of this technology as well.  I'm sure that our faces give out lots of now invisible signals about how we feel or think that will be detectable in the future.  This can be put to good and evil use.

The researchers have made the code for using this method available so that anyone - with some, apparently, more than basic digital abilities - can experiment with this.  I predict using this process we will expand our knowledge of the world greatly and find many, many practical ways to use it to make our lives easier.  And there will be plenty of silly uses as well. 

Thanks to LL for the tip.