Colorado Legalizing Marijuana Leads to Denver's Superbowl Debacle

That's the kind of simplistic cause and effect thinking we see so much of on the web.  Our tendency to, without any thought,  use events, to support what we believe, has become rampant.  (OK, I'm not sure it's more rampant now than in the past, but the net lets us see it more.) 

But given that Washington State also legalized marijuana, they should have lost badly too, by the title's logic.  But if you really want to believe that legal marijuana is the devil, you could still argue that Colorado is far ahead of Washington in terms of actually selling it. 

Or, we could leap off another illogical cliff and say legalizing marijuana will get your team into the Superbowl. 

Michele Norris Talks Race At UAA

For people who listen to NPR at lot, getting to see a familiar voice, like Michele Norris', is an interesting reckoning of what your ears hear and your imagination conjures up.

Norris spoke at UAA on January23, 2014


Below is a bit of video of her talk.


)

The main focus was race and her Race Card Project - which asks people to send her 6 word stories about race.  Here are some examples from the race card website:

Place change in my hand, please.

I trusted adults that taught hate.

I don’t know my Native language.

Unlawliness: One of my White Luxuries.

Momee, why did you hit me?

 Many have longer explanations and comments.  At the Race Card Project website you can add your own card or comment on other folks' cards. 

In the video she talks a bit about topics like "post racial" and whether 'race' is bad, the end of racism, how to make people comfortable about talking about race,  and how people overseas find the US's multicultural imagery as very attractive.   It was  a surprisingly warm and comfortable evening discussing a topic that isn't normally so easy, especially in mixed company. 


[UPDATE March 12, 2014: Viddler video replaced by YouTube]

"I want to dance with you in the worst way"

I didn't get my last book club book (Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals) until the day after the discussion, but I started it anyway, at least until I get a copy of the next one.   As I understand it so far, the book is about the potential Republican candidates for president in 1860, who Lincoln brought together in his cabinet.

I don't have much to tell you yet - and I'm not sure how far I'll get in this huge book - but I thought this anecdote was cute.

"The story is told of Lincoln's first meeting with Mary at a festive party.  Captivated by her lively manner, intelligent face, clear blue eyes, and dimpled smile, Lincoln reportedly said, "I want to dance with you in the worst way."  And Mary laughingly told her cousin later that night, 'he certainly did.'" 

If You Want To Believe TSA Is A Farce, You'll Love This Article

We all tend to be a little easier on things that confirm what we believe, so I'm trying to be extra skeptical about this piece from Politico.  The writer is billed as an ex-TSA worker.   Here's an excerpt:

We knew the full-body scanners didn’t work before they were even installed. Not long after the Underwear Bomber incident, all TSA officers at O’Hare were informed that training for the Rapiscan Systems full-body scanners would soon begin. The machines cost about $150,000 a pop.
Our instructor was a balding middle-aged man who shrugged his shoulders after everything he said, as though in apology. At the conclusion of our crash course, one of the officers in our class asked him to tell us, off the record, what he really thought about the machines.
“They’re shit,” he said, shrugging. He said we wouldn’t be able to distinguish plastic explosives from body fat and that guns were practically invisible if they were turned sideways in a pocket.

We quickly found out the trainer was not kidding: Officers discovered that the machines were good at detecting just about everything besides cleverly hidden explosives and guns. The only thing more absurd than how poorly the full-body scanners performed was the incredible amount of time the machines wasted for everyone.
It worked like this: The passengers stood between. . . [the whole article is at Politico.]

 Here's a bit more:

But the only people who hated the body-scanners more than the public were TSA employees themselves. Many of my co-workers felt uncomfortable even standing next to the radiation-emitting machines we were forcing members of the public to stand inside. Several told me they submitted formal requests for dosimeters, to measure their exposure to radiation. The agency’s stance was that dosimeters were not necessary—the radiation doses from the machines were perfectly acceptable, they told us. We would just have to take their word for it. When concerned passengers—usually pregnant women—asked how much radiation the machines emitted and whether they were safe, we were instructed by our superiors to assure them everything was fine.

 I've written on this subject extensively already.  My most generous assessment is that this is the result of people who simply can't think of a better way to do this.  They can't lure the more educated and intelligent workers Holland and Israel use, so they rely on faulty machines.  My least generous assessments are that it's designed to

• intimidate passengers and make us all more docile 
• make money for some companies selling scanners to TSA
• enable sadists and molesters to find work with high job satisfaction

As I say, we tend to believe things that confirm what we already believe.  For those people who are right, there's nothing wrong with that.

This piece sounds totally believable to me.  The writer is Jason Edward Harrington,
a former TSA agent who has a blog on this topic called Taking Sense Away.  It was anonymous until yesterday when this piece was published at Politico. 

• Twitter

About

Photo from Politico

Chicago native. MFA candidate working on my first novel. Frequent contributor to McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. My humor pieces have been recommended by the New Yorker, the Boston Globe, Gizmodo, and have been chosen as among the year’s best by the Awl’s Splitsider.com.
Work also featured in Politico. I occasionally review things. Other stuff here and there. I once got to play Joseph Heller on the Bygone Bureau, which was fun.
Follow me on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/#!/Jas0nHarringt0n
If you would like to contact me directly, drop me a line at jason.e.harrington@gmail.com.

Is it genuine?  There's nothing in the TSA descriptions that sound unlikely.  His descriptions of his experience as a blogger sound familiar, though I haven't had to fear for my job.  

He's even posted his picture at the end of the article, where he turns in his uniform, leaves the TSA to study creative writing.  I imagine it will be a challenge to write something more amazing than what he saw as a TSA officer.

Welcome the New Year of the Horse

We've been in places where there are celebrations of the Chinese New Years often - last year in Seattle.  Today, we're in Anchorage and we have a Chinese teacher living in our house.

From Hanban.com, on this year's astrological symbol:

Chako's 2002 Year of the Horse card

The Year 2014 is considered as the Year of the Horse as per the Chinese Zodiac Calendar which begins on January 31, 2014, and ends on February 18, 2015. 2014 according to Chinese Astrology Calendar. it is the Year of Wood Horse.  Wood is related to tree or green, so it is also called Year of Green Horse. 2014 is the jiăwŭ (甲午) year.The Chinese zodiac calendar comprises 12 animal signs and horse is the seventh among all of them. In Chinese culture, the Horse is a symbol of nobility, class, speed and perseverance.  People born in the Year of the Horse are smart, fabulous speakers who have a gift for getting through to other people. People bearing the horse sign strive towards seeking freedom and happiness. In general, 2014 would be a better year for those people who were born under The Year of the Horse.

The Common Personality of People Born in Horse Year
People born in the year of the horse are extremely animated, active and energetic. Horses love to be in a crowd and like entertainment, they have a deft sense of humor, they love to take center stage and delight audiences everywhere. They are trustworthy, friendly and like to be surrounded by their relatives and friends. They usually have a large circle of acquaintances, but they never rely on their friends too much. Sometimes, the horse is a little self-centered, but it doesn't mean that he will not be interested in any problems except his own. However, a horse person is really more cunning than intelligent, that is probably due to the fact that most horse people lack confidence. Sometimes, they are very independent and rarely listen to advice

I couldn't find any good pictures of horses in my own files.  Moose, yes.  Horse, no.  Tempted as I am to give this year an Alaska flavor, I just can't do it.

I did find a 2002 card that our friend Chako made.  I've played with it modestly in photoshop.

"I want to add your birthday to my calendar" Scam?

I got an email from a good friend with this request.   I'd recently called her, coincidentally, on her birthday and I apologized for not knowing her birthday after all these years.  So she was just getting mine in return, maybe.

But my big brother antennae went, "One more piece of the puzzle to pull all my info together for the internet info scavengers."  I would pass.

Then I got an email from my friend saying her email had been hacked and she hadn't asked for the information.


I looked to see whether spam sites have identified it.  It seems to be a Facebook App that has gone viral.  Business Insider wrote January 3, 2014:

We asked Facebook why this app persisted, attracting tens of millions of users.
"This app is not in violation of any of our policies, and there aren't enough people marking it as spam for it to trigger our detection systems," a spokesperson told us. "If an individual finds the app to be spammy, they can hide or remove the app stories from their News Feed or block the app."
K-Factor Media cofounder Jing Chen did not respond to a request for comment via her LinkedIn profile.

That'snonnsense.com writes that the scam warnings are nonsense:

"This warning circulating virally across Facebook warns users of an apparently malicious application that "retrieves data from all profiles".

The warning is mostly false, clearly written by someone with no understanding of how Facebook Apps work.
At the time of writing there is an application with a similar name spreading across Facebook which is lending credibility to this false message. The application, which goes under the name "I want to add your birthday" or "MyCalendar - Birthdays" is simply an application that posts reminders to Facebook users about upcoming birthdays. In reality the App is totally redundant since Facebook offers an inbuilt service that does that any way, so even though this App is not really that malicious (just spammy) we would still not recommend installing it."

 I look at it this way.  Every time  another bit of personal information gets connected to your name in an insecure place online, it's one more way for any scammer to start gathering what they need to hack into your credit cards, bank accounts, email, etc.  Does that make me safe?  Of course not.  But it's like locking your car door.  A thief would rather steal a car (or from a car) that's unlocked.  As long as others are leaving their virtual doors unlocked, if I don't, I'm a little ahead.  Besides, do you really need to have automated birthday cards sent to you?  Well, I guess in this family-scattered world, some people do.  And others exploit that need.

I got another request today, so I thought it was time to put this up.

Keystone Name Not Doing So Well These Days

The Keystone Pipeline has been the target of environmentalists for a while now because of the particularly dirty tar sands oil it will carry, the environmental damage necessary to get that oil, and the concern for spills along the route through the US.   TransCanada, the company building the pipeline, of course, touts the line as

"the safest and most advanced pipeline operation in North America. It will not only bring essential infrastructure to North American oil producers, but it will also provide jobs, long-term energy independence and an economic boost to Americans."

Meanwhile, in Alaska, the Keystone Canyon on the Richardson Highway, the only road into the town of Valdez, has been shut off by a massive avalanche.

Alaska Department of Transportation Photo

 Here are two videos from the Alaska Department of Transportation:








 For those who are just thinking of the names here and not the meaning of the word, from the Oxford Dictionary:

• 1a central stone at the summit of an arch, locking the whole together.
  More example sentences

  1.1 [usually in singular] the central principle or part of a policy, system, etc., on which all else depends:
  cooperation remains the keystone of the government’s security policyMore example sentences

So, when there's problems with the keystone, everything else it holds up is in danger too.  


Should other 'keystones' worry?  Not because their name is Keystone.  The title here is to point out how easy it is to generalize from two examples to the universe.  If any of the other organizations named Keystone have problems, I'm sure it's not related to the name.  Though, if there is some terrible scandal related to a particular name, people will think about that name differently when they encounter it.  The name Monica, for example, took a beating in 1998.

There's enough organizations named Keystone that you could probably set up a town and be self-sufficient.  And only a few on this list are in  The Keystone State.  Here is a sampling:  

Keystone Cinemas
Keystone Technologies
Keystone Resort
Keystone Industries
Keystone College
Keystone Electronics
Keystone Symposia
Keystone Credit Union  and Keystone Bank
Keystone Substance Abuse Services (does that include oil?)
Keystone Sporting Arms
Keystone Realty
Keystone Cement
Camp Keystone  and Keystone Camp
Keystone Cafe   (There are lots of these)
Feeney-Hornak Keystone Funeral Homes
Keystone Rugby Club
Keystone Chiropractic
Keystone Church

Clutter War - Recapturing Old Territory For T

Monday T moved in.  He's a teacher at the Confucius Institute at UAA.  He's a warm, curious, bright, and funny young man.  An ulterior motive was that we'd have to totally reclaim the downstairs storage room, a battle, without a strong motive, we had been losing for ten years. 

Here's an image I posted in December.

December 20, 2013

And here's what the room looked like on Sunday. 

January 26, 2014

And now we have to learn how to adjust to having a new member of the household.  But he's making that very easy so far.  And we have to decide how much of a role he'll play on the blog here.  He decided he liked having a photoshopped mask like I've been using on my granddaughter.

Thank You Sen. Gardner and Rep. Josephson

Alaskan Republican law makers - along with the Governor - tell us that we have to cut spending.  Our revenues are declining and will continue to.  (Despite the fact that the Governor got his bill passed last year to return $2 billion a year to the oil companies so that they will increase oil production and the revenues.)  But there's at least one project that nobody in the neighborhood wants, but which was earmarked $20 million at the very last minute in the legislature last year. 

The extension of Bragaw (now Elmore on one end) through the University of Alaska Anchorage campus is a project only the Department of Transportation, the Mayor, and Republican legislators want.

Every public meeting on this project resulted in overwhelming rejection by people in the neighborhood.

Who wants this project?  My guess it's the construction industry.  It seems the one area where the governor has no problem spending money is construction.

Here's what Cheryl Richardson, head of the Anchorage Citizens' Coalition, and a community watchdog on transportation issues for years and years wrote:

Twenty million dollars to fund the Bragaw Extension showed up in the state’s capital budget at 11 p.m. the night before the session ended, April 14.
Until then, elected officials representing neighborhoods directly affected by the cut through were confident they had protected their constituents’ desire to prevent it. Every community council surrounding this road objects to its construction.
But there it was, a last minute addition of $20 million in a state capital budget that had been slashed from 2012’s $2.5 billion to 2013’s $1.3 billion. In a capital budget where a $2 million project was considered “huge.”
Who has the power to fund such a huge, unpopular project? No one is taking credit at this point.
Charles Wohlforth recently devoted an hour on talk radio to explore the UMed Bragaw cut through. He invited the Municipality who asked for the funding, the Alaska Department of Transportation who is managing the money, and Dowl Engineers who are contracted to produce the design and construction studies to discuss the issue.
Not one person from the state, the muni or Dowl was free to speak on Wohlforth’s program. It was too “controversial.” In decades of building “controversial projects,” this is a first. Not one official representative was willing to go on the record.

I'd note that Dowl, who Richardson says here "are contracted to produce the design  and construction studies" are also the company that conducted the public hearings that invited public comment and presented those findings.  Dowl clearly has a conflict of interest here because their recommendations for building the road, despite public opposition, lead to further income for their firm.  And they subcontract with most of the companies likely to do the actual construction of the road.  The public testimony was overwhelmingly against the project, but not doing the project was not an option. 

If they were instructed to build the road no matter what the public says, then we should know who gave those instructions and what the purpose of the citizens participation was. 



But two Democratic legislators - Sen. Berta Gardner and Rep. Andy Josephson - both representing the area where the road is scheduled to be built, and representing the Senate and House seats where I live, introduced a bill to take back the funding for the road.  They've heard, they say, enough opposition from their constituents, that they have filed this legislation.   (See an American Planning Association reprint of a Sunday Anchorage Daily News report.)

I'm not sure how Republicans can support this road with a straight face.  They complain that we have to cut back education spending and that our revenues are declining and that government spending in general is too high.  But they are supporting the spending of $20 million to build a road no one in the community wants.

No one has identified the people who are so powerful that they got this money tacked on to the budget in the waning minutes of the legislature.  I'm guessing that if we check the campaign contributions to the mayor of Anchorage and to the legislators who added this money into the budget, we'll probably see the names of people and companies that will end up with parts of the $20 million contracts to build the road.  Who else wants it?  Possibly Providence Hospital but my understanding is that the University of Alaska Anchorage, while going along at the end, was not an instigator of this.  And if you had taken a vote of the faculty and students it likely would have been against the road.

At the meetings I went to, the posted evidence for the road, wasn't compelling.  They showed in one display various intersections near the University and showed how many minutes a car would save if the new road were in.  The savings were in prime time.  The most savings were 3 minutes as I recall.  And these are obviously calculations.  So to save  rush hour drivers (rush hour is about an hour, four days a week when the university is in session) 3 minutes, we will destroy an intact ecosystem where moose and other animals can freely travel.  And spend $20 million from a budget which the Governor has claimed was way too high.  Actually, it looks like it's at least $20 million more, not to mention continuing maintenance costs and I'm guessing expansion from two to four lanes not too far down the line.

I think about this as Anchorage's Central Park.  It's large, relatively undisturbed area in the middle of urban Anchorage, and area that is becoming less and less urban every year.  In thirty years, this will be seen - if any of it is left - as an urban oasis.  The fact that it's been preserved this long is fantastic.  Imagine how much it would cost to buy the land to make Central Park in New York now.  It would be simply impossible.  We have that land already preserved, but the Department of Transportation and the people the funnel construction money to want to rip right through it for a road.  I'm not saying the road won't be a little more convenient for some people, but I'm saying the price (in the intact system that will be disrupted) is way too high.  And after they added the $20 million into the law, we learned that it will actually cost another $20 million actually.

They simply want to rip through that land now so they've got the damage done, and then come back to 'clean it up.'  Again from the ADN report reprinted at the American Planning Association website:

Miyashiro said it's likely a two-lane road, less than a mile in length, will be built. He said he expects costs to fall under the $20 million budget, although early, leaked, estimates pinned some routes at nearly double that. 
They're even doing it without federal money so they can avoid environmental impact studies as they go through a boggy wetland.  

So I want to salute Gardner and Josephson for their action.  As minority party members I suspect this bill will have little traction, but the majority party will have to hide it in a committee somewhere and it will eat a little bit of more of their souls.  

[A reader called me last week saying that the Governor's proposal on education in his State of the State must have gotten to me because he thought my post showed a little more emotion in my response than usual.  I'm sure that he'll think it's more true of this post.  But I see these actions as doing serious damage to the social and physical fabric of our state.  It's like people going into the Louvre and tossing out the great art and turning the building over to one of their donors.  AND they are going to pay the donor to refurbish the building.

If I sound a bit less restrained than usual, it's because I've been watching what I think is a crime taking place for the last couple of years.  It's politicians transferring public money to corporations for a project that the most directly affected citizens do not want and have made that clear repeatedly.  And not only are they 'stealing' public money, they are destroying a well loved and environmentally sensitive natural area that will be forever scarred by a road cutting right through it.  

I can hear the engineers at Dowl who conducted the public hearings and at the DOT pointing to reasons why this needs to be done.  My response is:  if they are wrong, it can never be undone.  If I'm wrong, the road can still be built in the future. 

"Follow the money" is a phrase popularized by the movie All the President's Men about Watergate.  Deepthroat, the under cover informant repeatedly tells this to the Washington Post  reporters trying to tie the Watergate break-in back to the White House.   

Alaska needs a crew of citizens and journalists doing nothing but following the money.  When a million or ten million is appropriated for projects such as this road - or the indoor tennis courts, or the Knik Arm Crossing - we need to track which companies and individuals actually end up getting that money.  I suspect we'll see that ideology and public good play a much smaller role in Alaska spending than does private gain.  (If it didn't, it would make Alaska unique.)  But unless people can follow the money trail, they can't evaluate 1) whether we're getting good value for our money, 2) whether the project really needed to be done, and 3) which politicians are merely funneling money and other favorable treatment to their bigger financial supporters.

The Corrupt Bastards Club disbanded less than ten years ago. 

For those of you who read this blog, like my caller, because you see it as more objective and even handed than other blogs, I ask your indulgence.  Consider this post as notes, as a draft, as preparation for posts on the topic that will have more hard facts.  On the Bragaw extension through the University land, I assure you,  I've been to three public hearings and read countless documents, and talked to some of the players.  I've given you some links that support what I say (and saw), but a detailed report on all of this is beyond my time constraints right now.    But rest assured, I wouldn't take the strong position I'm taking here if I hadn't looked at this closely and didn't feel confident about my position.

And I want to thank my caller for telling me his thoughts.  It makes the time and care I try to put into most posts worth the effort.  So thanks.]

What Are The Odds? A Good Story About How The Unlikely Does Happen

I was in a Persian grocery store in LA.  I wanted to buy something for Gita who had translated for Pourya and Mona, the Iranian film makers whose film, Everything is Fine Here, got honorable mention for features at the Anchorage International Film Festival.   Here's a short post and video (in Farsi) from early in the festival.

I explained to the clerk that I had a Persian friend in Anchorage and I wanted to bring back something she would like, but probably can't get in Anchorage.  She was having trouble figuring out what I wanted.

Then a young man came up to me and said, "I lived in Anchorage for two years, what do you want?"  I explained the situation.

"What's your friend's name?,"  he asked.
"Gita"
Big smile.  "I know Gita, I've eaten at her house."

He suggested three things that would be hard to get in Anchorage - fresh bread, fresh dessert, and barberries (Zereshk).  But, he said, wait until just before you leave, so they'll be fresh.

And then I asked him what he did for two years in Anchorage.

"I taught at the College of Business and Public Policy at UAA."

It turns out he was there - where I taught - after I retired.  But we had lots of common friends and I walked out of the shop in amazement at my good luck.


People talk about things being destined to explain such things, and I like that notion.  I'm skeptical though. 


What are the odds?

A million to one?  100, 000 to one?  !000 to one? 

There are lots and lots of Iranians in LA and a good place to run into them is an Iranian grocery store.  If he goes to the grocery once a week the odds suddenly don't seem so remote.

The store is open seven days a week, 13 hours a day (12 on Sunday). (I just called and checked.)   So they are open  90 hours a week.  Say he spends 15 minutes in the small store per visit.  There are four quarter hours per hour, so I have one chance in 360 to be in the store when he is in any given week.  That's much better odds than most lottery tickets. 

It's a small store so the odds are good he could hear me talking to the clerk.

The odds that an Iranian who had lived in Anchorage for two years would know Gita are probably very high - there aren't that many Iranians in Anchorage, and Gita's been here a while. That he had worked where I worked?  A little lower. 

I also think about how easy it would have been for us both to be in that store together and not connected.  If I hadn't said anything about Anchorage to the clerk, we never would have met.  Or if did we meet at the checkout - which we did - would we have found out about our one degree of separation? 

And I wondered about how many times we've been right near someone but didn't know it.
The odds of this happening are great enough - at least in people's minds - that if I wrote it in novel, people would find it a little far-fetched.   But it happened.  And Gita came and got all the goodies we brought back right after we got home.  And she loved the story.    

When she gets the translation done, I'll do another post.  We had an interesting conversation.  You don't get to talk to Iranians coming right from Iran in Anchorage every day.

And while we're talking about links and degrees of separation, here's a video of a Kevin Bacon TED talk on how he responded to the Kevin Bacon Six Degrees game by setting up Sixdegrees.org to get people to donate to charities.