Nature's Reminder That Our Winter Isn't Over Yet

Our mild temperatures and all the bare pavement we've been enjoying have lulled a lot of folks into thinking spring was almost here.  I've even been thinking about planting some sweetpeas in the flower box on the deck at the beginning of April.   

But this week the temps have dropped, and this morning it was 2˚F (-16˚C) on our indoor/outdoor thermometer.  And after almost two weeks of sunshine, it's grey, and there was the thinnest possible dusting of snow on the deck.

Blue skies still reigned last night.  Here's the O'Malley trailhead about 6pm with an anemic snow covering. 

And a view of Flat Top from the trail. 











But it is The Ides of March, so while today we take a hit, my computer weather forecast suggests this is just a blip on the way to spring and summer.  (In Anchorage spring tends to happen pretty quick though there are subtle signs to indicate different stages of summer.) 

On closer look, it says our range for today should be 19˚F to 23˚F,  yet it still says we're at 1˚F.  So keep those coats handy just in case. 

"Hold on, Millie Martindale (Raven Bonniwell)! You got some ‘splainin’ to do."

"You’ve just tried to break a date with your husband’s boss’ awful wife Kitty Sunderson (Karen Lange) by pretending you had an appointment with a butcher on U Street – and now Kitty wants to go to the butcher with you! How are you going to get out of that?!!
And not so fast, Bob Martindale (Andrew Keller)! You got some ‘splainin’ to do too. You’re in charge of the State Department program to root out communists on the payroll, and your boss Ted Sunderson (Zach Brewster-Geisz) has just put you in charge of a new program to get rid of all the sexual deviants in the State Department – and you’re one of them yourself!
Although you have a sham marriage to Millie, you actually live in unholy bliss with your neighbor Jim Baxter (Kiernan McGowan), who is legally married to your secretary Norma (Natalie Cutcher) – who is in reality Millie’s lover! How are you going to get out of that?!!"

So begins a 2013 review of Topher Payne's play Perfect Arrangement in the DC Theater Scene.

I knew nothing about the review, but I did know the play was coming to Anchorage, when I stopped by Out North to see about tickets for next Thursday's  (March 19) opening of the play.    The box office wasn't open, but two of the producers (and actors) were inside, the set was ready, and Krista Schwarting and Jay Burns told me about the play. 




In the video they briefly discuss the play - a West Coast premiere.  Maybe you can hear some hints of playwright Topher Payne's Mississippi childhood in this post's title.  The story takes place in the 1950s as homosexuals, following the purge of communists, were being rooted out of the State Department.  We're getting the play here in Anchorage because Krista knows a friend of the Topher Payne.  And  Topher Payne will be here for the opening.

This was happened in the early 1950's - about the same time that Alan Turing (see Imitation Game)  was arrested in England for being a homosexual.   A commenter on the review that opens this post wrote:

"The man sitting next to me said “Young people have no idea … Everyone should see this play.” I totally agree, and only wish these people could also be there: the woman I know who was an Army nurse in Korea and had to stand by, with her lover, and watch her friends being routed out and dishonorably discharged, and the woman who was the best record promoter in Chicago in the 60s who got caught trying to escape from a police raid of a second floor lesbian bar and lost her career. This is a fabulous comedy that touches on their tragedies."

People growing up today have trouble grasping what 'in the closet' meant back then.  And perhaps they can better understand the negative reactions many in the older generations against gays because of what they were taught when they were young.   This trailer for a movie about the time gives a little sense.  (I was way too young at the time to be aware of any of this.)





The Reemergence of Out North

I'm delighted this enchanted piece of real estate at Primrose and Debarr is coming back to life. The building started as some sort of electrical station. When we got to Anchorage in 1977 it was Grandview Garden library, a wonderful funky old library. When Loussac library opened in 1984, Grandview was scheduled to close. The community kept it open a bit longer, but eventually it was shut. But the building was reincarnated as Out North by Jay Brause and Gene Dugan.  And Jay and Gene (and their successors) always brought thought provoking performances - whether from Outside or from Anchorage or around Alaska - to their stage.  Stuff that made you rethink things you thought you knew.  You can read some more of the history here in the description of the Out North now housed at the University's Archives and Special Collections.

Demboski Would Support Tribes, Veto Gay Rights, Darden Wired To God

A fairly new community group - We Are Anchorage - organized, as I understand it, by Ma'o Tosi, held a mayoral forum at UAA's Wendy Williamson Auditorium Thursday night.  It was one of the more interesting political forums I've gone to.  Except for some technical glitches at the beginning with the sound, it went very smoothly.

[We Are Anchorage said they'd have the transcripts up Friday (today) on their website.  As someone who has done transcripts for this blog, I think that Friday is probably optimistic.  But when they're up, I'll check to make sure I'm accurate in what I say below.]

The focus was on violence in Anchorage and how the candidates would address it.

The basic answer from everyone was:  More Police.  Dan Coffey always mentioned that, of course, it's dependent on funding.  Lance Ahern said there was lots of money that could be found in the Muni budget.  Someone else (I think it was Halcro) said that since there was no snow plowing this year, there's plenty of money in that budget.  Demboski bet everyone a piece of pizza that the Muni will have a surplus this year. (If I thought I would lose a bet, I might bet the whole audience a piece of pizza, but I don't know what I'd do with all that pizza if I won.)

There was a set of questions that had been given to all the candidates in advance - Dan Coffey had typed up answers that he left for people in the lobby.  But he only made 40 copies and I guestimate there were about 140 in the audience.  The questions were fairly detailed about strategies to fight violence in general, about violence against Alaska Native women, about the green dot program, the link between staffing levels and crime, etc. Questions were drawn randomly.  Most of the questions were drawn and asked of three or four different candidates.  A few questions were gathered from the audience as they entered the auditorium.  At the end, audience members asked questions.   Some of the candidates were well prepared with specifics and others spoke more in generalities.  Given they had the questions in advance, the latter group just didn't do their homework.

There was a lot of basic agreement on things like the need for more police.  Much of the difference was in style and emphasis.  So I'd like to focus on what stood out for me. 

Notable remarks

Amy Demboski.  Of the candidates that the media seems to peg as the contenders, Demboski was the one who stood out as the most different from the pack.  (It would have been nice to have seen more women on the stage.)

Tribes. The talk about tribes, especially coming from the candidate who bills herself as "the conservative choice" (March 9 video) was a surprise.  Conservatives have been vigorously fighting the concept of tribes in Alaska.   In answer to a question about domestic violence, Alaska Native women, and involving Alaska Natives in solutions, Demboski said she loved this questions, that she was already talking to Tribal Elders, that we should engage tribes because they have access to federal funding and medical care. We can't talk just about individuals, why not talk about tribes?   It wasn't clear.  Is she recognizing the importance of tribes to Alaskan Natives?  Or is it a way to tap into federal funds?  I'm not sure.  It was unexpected.

Liz Medicine Crow, Moderator

Personal Responsibility.  While she talked about dealing with tribes over individuals, she also seemed divided between "people have to take responsibility for themselves" when discussing homeless people and also acknowledging we have a responsibility to help.  I suspect 'individual responsibility' is one of her core values.  It's one that psychologist Jonathan Haidt says is important to conservatives.  (It's in the link - go down to where it says,  "In the Social Science Space interview.")  They don't want to coddle leeches and mooches.  I suspect that Demboski is trying to make a distinction between those who are just being irresponsible and those who are truly needy through no fault of their own.  What she doesn't seem to see is how the system works for some people and doesn't work for others.  There's a combination of genetic predispositions and family and social nurturing that prepare people to cope or to fail.  While I would agree that some people seem to repeatedly make stupid decisions, I tend to believe that if we were omniscient, we would understand that these were not so much irresponsible decisions (which they are on one level) but also decisions programmed by social, political, and economic systems.  It would be interesting to hear Demboski's explanation of how to determine who are just irresponsible and who are deserving of help.

Diversity.   The question was about how to make the Anchorage Police Department look like the diverse population of Anchorage.  Other candidates talked about recruiting candidates from the different ethnic groups of Anchorage.  Demboski said, that diversity, to her, doesn't mean race or religion or economic status.  The police department is already diverse, they're her neighbors (she lives in Chugiak.)  That sounds like someone who says I don't see race, I'm colorblind.  The mixed audience wasn't buying it.  (I'd note, of course, that we're really talking about skin color.  Race used to refer to Italians, Irish, Jews, etc.)

Discrimination Against Gays.  When asked by an audience member about reports that she would veto a gay rights ordinance if mayor, Demboski first pointed out that her campaign didn't put out that ad.  But she did, then, say she would veto such an ordinance.  She wasn't discriminating against gays, she suggested, but rather preventing religious discrimination.  People only had a minute (and later only 30 seconds to answer.)  My interpretation of that is that she's identifying with people whose religions say that homosexuality is sinful and who would not want, as a merchant, to have to do things that advanced the idea that homosexuality was okay.  I understand a person who embraces the bible literally including those sections fundamentalists point to as proof that homosexuality is a sin, feeling conflicted when they are asked to photograph or cater a gay wedding.  I understand their claims that they feel it would endorse something they disagree with.  And I certainly wouldn't want someone who thought I was an abomination to take the pictures or make the food for my wedding.  But if you live in a small community where there is only one photography store or one good caterer or bakery, being denied service because of how you were born (and I know others will say it's a choice) is against the basic principles of equal rights that we celebrate with "All men are created equal."  (And, of course, there is irony in that time has made the word 'men' there anachronistic.)  And when it comes to landlords or employers having the right to discriminate against gays - even when their presence is not about advancing homosexuality - is even worse.
Dustin Darden added the concern about pastors having their freedom of speech abridged if they spoke out against gays.  I don't know of any gay rights ordinance that says people in non-public settings can't offer the opinion that homosexuality is wrong. 
I can understand that reasoning, but I can't agree with it.  Religion has been used to justify drowning so called witches, and slavery as well.  I had a number of issues with Demboski as a potential mayor, and this issue is reason enough for me to consider Demboski unacceptable as a mayor.
What wasn't addressed in this discussion was the relationship between religious condemnation of gays and the disproportionate amount of violence gays are subjected to and how violence against

Don Megga and Timer

gays would be dealt with. 

Phil Stoddard.  Phil's solution to everything was the mantra: "Education is the key and jobs are the answer."  He promised to dramatically increase manufacturing in Anchorage by making this lowest priced electrical grid in the US.  Every time he had a question, he got his mantra into the answer. 


Dustin Darden paused before each answer, eyes looking up as though he were waiting to channel God, and he did say several times that God was the answer.  His most passionate moment was when he vowed to shut down Planned Parenthood.  He didn't actually name them, but he did talk about ending abortion and identified their corner on Lake Otis Parkway.

At the end of the randomly selected question, each candidate was asked what their most important tool for ending violence was.

• Darden:  Pray
• Stoddard:  Jobs
• Berkowitz:  Fundamentals and basics - prevention, policing, prosecution - alone won't eliminate violence.  We all have to do it together - We Are Anchorage.
• Huit:   Spiritual solutions - "though not to where Dustin [Darden] is" - we have leadership problems
• Ahern:  Use new technologies - smart phones - 911 doesn't take advantage of people's ability to text and send photos of the person bothering them.
• Coffey:  Agrees with Ethan on fundamentals, but then need someone who can do it effectively and then he suggested he could.
• Bauer:  Incorporate what everyone else said plus the inability of people to deal with others in a civil manner - thus education
• Halcro:  Become Anchorage again, come together as a community
• Demboski:  Wish I had a simple answer.  Communication - start with people talking to each other.

I walked away thinking there were four candidates who spoke knowledgeably about the issues and with recognition that there were other valid points of view besides their own - Dan Coffey, Ethan Berkowitz, Andrew Halcro, and Lance Ahern.  Ahern is the least well known of the four and his knowledge of Anchorage comes from a shorter span of experience.  He's head of IT at the Municipality now and has law enforcement experience.  In his area he seems well informed and is well spoken.  (I'm sure there are people at the Muni who dispute this and I don't know for sure.  He seemed genuinely open and I'm inclined to believe him, but always "trust, but verify."

One unexpected issue raised by the audience was the future of Uber in Anchorage.  Halcro was quick to say that he would be pushing for innovative firms like Uber much more than the man - Dan Coffey - who had been the attorney for the taxi industry.  Coffey responded that he was open to Uber, but was concerned with guaranteeing public safety.  Halcro also countered Demboski's promise to veto a gay rights ordinance by touting his own bringing the head of the national gay Chamber of Commerce to speak to the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, the first 'regular' chamber to invite the head of the gay Chamber of Commerce to speak to them.  Berkowitz gave several spirited responses - in one case, after Paul Bauer talked about reawakening a moribund task force to study homelessness, Berkowitz held up a study on policing in Anchorage and said, there have been enough studies, it's time to implement them.  If I were to go by audience applause, Berkowitz probably was the winner, though Halcro got his share of applause too.  (There actually wasn't that much applause, though Darden's brother applauded loudly each time Dustin spoke.)

There was a positive vibe in the room.  Candidates treated each other, for the most part, with respect and the audience listened carefully.  The whole event was well organized and I got a good sense of the candidates. The APOC lists several other mayoral candidates who weren't there:

• Samuel Joseph Speziale III
• Yeilyadi Olson
• Jacob Kern
• Christopher Steven Jamison
• Jonathan Harrison  (is listed for both mayor and school board)

The Imitation Game Versus American Sniper

We just saw The Imitation Game.   And I haven't seen American Sniper, so I'm taking a bit of a leap, but play along a bit. 

The Movie

The Imitation Game  is about a mathematical genius, Alan Turing, whose mind brilliantly unravels codes, but misses human non-verbal, even verbal, cues.  He's also sexually attracted to men.

The movie, while telling the story of the secret British team led by Turing that cracked the German Enigma machine, also shows us, in the background, bits of Turing's life.  Being bullied as a school kid, because of his differences from the other students, his total lack of empathy for the other decoders working with him during the war, and to how the British courts treated him (prison or take hormonal treatments to stop his homosexuality.)


Thought One:  Abstract Ideas vs. Concrete Action

The movie portrays Turing's superiors as constantly trying to shut down his program.  He had lots of qualities that made him  unpleasant to others.  Mostly a total lack of any empathy for other people - he didn't listen to them, he didn't hear them, he had no regard for their feelings.  My sense was he just was physiologically deaf to all that.

Was he just some crank who was spending lots of money and time on some impossible dream or was he a genius who had to be nurtured and tolerated for what he could do?  It's easy to see in hindsight, but I'm sure at the time it was not.

The point I'm coming to is this:  His weapon, if you will, to win the war, was an idea, a concept.  Something that could not be proven until it was completed, and even then it was difficult to explain, though eventually, the results - the ability to decode the German messages - would be very tangible.  But even then, the fact that they could decode the messages, had to be kept secret so the Germans wouldn't simply find a new way to encode their messages.

Turing's contribution, as depicted in the movie, was to end the war two years faster and to save million lives.  But he had an even more profound contribution to our lives:  the computer.

Jack Copeland, the author Turing:  Pioneer of the Information Age in a videotaped lecture  at Stanford , tells us:

In 1936, in his very early twenties, he completely unexpectedly invented the fundamental principle of the modern computer.  Turing was working on an abstract problem in the foundation of mathematics - the Hilbert decision problem.  No one could have guessed   such abstruse arcane work could have led to anything of of any practical value whatsoever, let alone to a machine that would change all our lives, but it did.  [link added.]

Which leads to

Thought Two: The Importance and Productivity of Pure Science

We don't know how knowledge will accumulate and result in great contributions to human kind.  Politicians like to cite titles of obscure research projects funded by government money, to ridicule scientists and government spending.  Much research by scientists will not lead directly to world altering discoveries.  Yet the published articles of scientists are available to all, and we never really understand all the ways that one idea sets off another idea.  But I'm convinced that the many so called unproductive ideas are more than repaid for by the fewer highly productive ideas.  And many of the unproductive ideas actually close off dead ends so that the others need not wander down them.

Of course this film is also an example of how people work to fulfill their own internal inspiration.  No one could get an idea out of a person like Turing simply by paying him lots of money or threatening to punish.  Rather, you have to find the right people and just give them an environment where they can just do their thing.


Thought Three:  Our Cultural Divide Encapsulated In Two Films

I haven't seen American Sniper, but it's clear that it's about someone who shoots individual enemy targets.  Something really tangible and easy to understand.  We hear all this rhetoric about the sniper being a great hero.  (And my understanding is that the film does raise issues that make him a more complex human being.)

I think these two films represent much of the cultural conflict in the US today - the intellectual, possibly a peculiar and awkward person who works with ideas that have powerful effects versus the simplistic good guy/bad guy hero who uses violence to win.

Thought Four:  How Humans Attack Those Who Are Different

The film also raises the issue of how human groups treat people who are different, in odd ways, from others.  We tend not to be very accepting of them.   Turing was persecuted for his oddness as a kid by his peers, disliked and disdained as an employee by his colleagues and bosses, and persecuted agains, as a citizen, by his government.  I would add that it isn't a trait of all human beings, but enough to make it a serious human problem.

Thought Five:  Our Strange Combinations of Gifts And Gaps

Finally, it raises the issue, not unrelated to Thought Four above,  of how humans who have great gifts in one area may also be lacking in talents that average people have.  And how they get judged on what they don't have rather than on their amazing gift.

NOW, ON THE POSITIVE SIDE

Of the eight academy award nominated films for best picture, TWO were about intellectual geniuses - people whose ideas are way beyond what most people are capable of.  The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything.   A third nominated film - Selma - was about yet another genius whose power was built on an abstract idea - overcoming oppression through non-violence.

This illustrates, in my mind, progress of a sort.  Yet even the movies that focus on intellectual heroes use emotion and distort the facts to tell the story.  And this too may be an important lesson about how humans learn lessons through good stories.

Here's a  review of the movie   by a self-proclaimed Turing expert on what's accurate (not much apparently) and what's inaccurate in the movie. His conclusion is that while the facts might not be accurate, it is, nevertheless, a good movie.  And while many of the specific incidents in the movie may have been fabricated to make the film more dramatic, the lessons are no less valid. 

Seattle's Politicians, Unlike Alaska's, Don't Fawn Over Shell And Arctic Drilling

The Stranger has an article that says Seattle Mayor (and the city council is also on board):

". . .  directed the Seattle Department of Planning and Development to investigate the Port of Seattle's decision to make Seattle the homeport for Shell's Arctic drilling fleet.

"Any project of this apparent significance to our industrial lands must go through the appropriate review," Murray said in a statement. 'It's important that the public and surrounding businesses are informed of all the possible impacts of this lease—both economic and environmental—and that these impacts are sufficiently disclosed and evaluated. This is why I’m directing DPD to conduct a thorough review of the Terminal 5 proposal and determine if the anticipated activities at the terminal involving the Shell drilling fleet require new permits before it can proceed.'"

Did you get that?  'It's important that the public and surrounding businesses are informed of all the possible impacts of this lease."  Our former governor was doing everything he could, along with his then Attorney General/Commissioner of Natural Resources, now Senator Sullivan, to prevent local communities from knowing and having a say about anything. 

Some politicians, it seems, think beyond the short term possible job bump, to the bigger issues. 

Are we now going to start hearing about Seattle overreach from some of our Alaskan politicians? 

Thanks S, for the link. 

Interview With Ethan Berkowitz, Mayoral Candidate

I'd been to a meet and greets for,  and did videos of, mayoral candidates Dan Coffey and Andrew Halcro, so I thought I should track down Ethan Berkowitz too.  So I went to the opening of his campaign headquarters last week.

His key issues were "fundamentals" like a safe community, housing, keeping the fiscal house in order, infrastructure for the 21st century, and education.   Housing and fiscal issues were also important to the other two candidates.  But Berkowitz said 21st century a couple of times and as he talked it did seem to me he was looking forward, perhaps, more than Coffey and Halcro - he talked about better broadband, and LED street lighting,  and he was not keen on building a road through the university.

[Disclosure: of these three candidates, I know Berkowitz better and feel most comfortable with him.  And I made a contribution to his campaign.  But you can view the videos and judge for yourself.]

I also need to mention that while I usually have the camera in close, this is a little extreme.  But he didn't pull back and you won't get any closer to him. 




[Note:  it will say in the video March 6, but it was really March 5]




Here's a reasonably close transcript of the video.

Steve:  Why do you want to be mayor?
Berkowitz:  Because it’s a great time to be mayor.  Washington DC is totally dysfunctional, Juneau is acting like it’s broke, so if anything is going to happen in this community, it’s going to happen at the mayoral level.  So I think there are terrific opportunities in front of us and I just didn’t see anyone coming to the fore who had that vision of where Anchorage should go.  So, now is the time.

Steve:  What are your top priorities?

Berkowitz:  We have to deal with the fundamentals, make sure Anchorage is a safe community, a secure community, a strong community, and that is public safety, making sure our fiscal house is in order, and houses are available for people to move into, and when you talk about a strong community you need the right kind infrastructure for the 21st century, and you also have to make sure our education system is, sorry, I’ve got kids running by, speaking of the educational system, robust enough so they’re able to compete and succeed in the 21st century
 
OK, that’s a lot of general kinds of things, what are the specifics, like, what about housing?

So, with housing, I don’t need to lead or reinvent the wheel.  There are studies which talk about how to provide affordable housing for folks who want to move into it.  There are all kinds of studies about how we address the homeless issue.  It’s time to implement these plans instead   of studying.  Anyone who’s hung out down in Fairview and seen the tent city that’s sprung up there, knows we’ve got a major problem that’s gotten worse in the last six years.  You’ve got to actually lead if you want things to change.  So that’s what’s going to happen.  You have to do  more Housing First models, you have to make sure you have denser housing in the core areas where people want to live.  So that’s just a question of making those things happen.

When it comes time to provide safer streets, lets just hire more cops.  This insane notion that you can do more with less, is just that - insane.  If you want more cops, we gotta find a way of bringing them on and there’s ways we can do that.

We can pay for them by taxing marijuana, which is now a legal substance.  We can do it by finding savings in our municipal budget, One saving, for example, is we have 20,000 lightbulbs in Anchorage, we put LED lights on 5000 of them.  That saved $2 million a year.  Let’s go save another $6 million and put LEDs on the other 15,000. 

I can go up and down the city budget, there are opportunities to find efficiencies, to find savings, but we’ve gotta to know where we want to go. 

Steve:  All right.  One of the questions I’ve asked the other candidates I’ve talked is:  there’s $20 million sitting there to build a road through the university.  All the community councils in the area have voted overwhelming against the road.  Where do you stand on this?  Can you use that $20 million for something else?

Berkowitz:  I’ve got to see if there’s a tail on that $20 million, if it has to be there, but I’m not in favor of that road.  And my feeling about any of these infrastructure projects is before you get to the merits of whether you like the road or don’t like the road, whether you like the Knik bridge or you don’t like the Knik bridge, how are you going to pay for it?  You wouldn’t go to the bank and say, “Hey, I’ve got enough for the foundation of the house I want to build, I don’t know how I’m going to get the rest constructed or how I’m going to pay for it once I move into it, but give me a load for the rest.  That goes no where for an individual.  The Municipality has to be held to the same standard. Don’t start a project unless you know how it’s going to be finished.  Don’t start a project if you don’t know where the operations and maintenance money are coming from. 

Steve:  All right, any other issues?

Berkowitz:  There’s a LOT of other issues.

Steve:  Well, give me two. 

Berkowitz:  If we want to compete in the 21st century, we need more robust broadband, so I think that’s a major factor  Right now we have 6 mb per second coming down the pike.  We ought to have 100 like they have in Korea . . .  That’s one example.  We need to have the ambition to be much more energy efficient.  We ought to produce more energy locally, geothermal, the wind, tidal, we need to be on the cutting edge of that.  We need to integrate our school with our university system more than we have.  We have to make sure the cultural vibrancy of Anchorage is as robust as it can be - the food scene, the culture scene.  There’s a lot going on here.  We just have to do more of it and make it more accessible to more people.

Steve:  How are you going to be different from the other major candidates.

Berkowitz:  I bring a different vision, and I don’t know where they are on these things.  The vision I have is of an active mayor    I also believe on relying on smart people, intelligent people, informed people, who live here and see what they want, following the plans they crafted  We just need to do things.  I’m so sick and tired of studies.  It’s time we just start doing things and we’ll be fine when we do that.

Potter Marsh And Beyond - Gettin' Out

For one reason or another, we haven't gotten out much this winter.  Partly because we've been traveling so much and other poor excuses.  Yesterday I took advantage of the ice free pavement and sidewalks to take a bike ride.  Today we drove down to McHugh Creek and back via Potter Marsh.

Clouds covered the sun as we meandered south of town.

  Above we're looking south from Potter Marsh. 

The base of the Alaska range.

Bubbles in the ice.

 The McHugh Creek lower parking lot was full, with cars waiting for people to leave.  The upper level was gated off.  You'd think we'd be smart enough to figure out a way to keep the area open when people want to use it.  

Steve Heimel Unleashed

I don't remember when I became aware of Steve Heimel.  He's been broadcasting the news at KSKA for a long, long time.  And I don't know when Steve became aware of me, but we knew each other before I started blogging the political trials in 2007, but the memories are vague.  Probably I knew his wife, Johanna Eurich, first.  We both had lived in Thailand.   At the Federal Court House, Steve encouraged my forays into covering the trials on my blog.  When the media were allowed to bring computers into the court room - for the Kott and Kohring trials - and I asked the other news folks how to get a press card, I'm pretty sure it was Steve who said,
"Do what we did."
"What's that?"
"Get on your computer and make one."
And that's how I got my press card that allowed me to take my computer into the court room.
Steve was the other reporter who regularly got to the court by bike. 

Steve is a journalist who lives his own unique life and reports on what he thinks is important - and he's got a good sense of what is important.  (That just means it coincides with my sense of that.)  All things are on his radar and he's brought that wide interest to KSKA for years and years.  I was glad that his goodbye party was when we were in town.

My sense has been that Steve was chafing at the growing bureaucratization of Alaska's public media conglomerate and I'm looking forward to seeing what he's going to do without the leash.  I'm hoping he'll find a niche where we can all continue to benefit from his experience and insight and ready laugh. 

Here's a bit of video from his goodbye party.

How Are You Celebrating "National Weights and Measures Week"?

I got a press release from the The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOT&PF) announcing that

The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (ADOT&PF) joins the National Conference on Weights and Measures to observe National Weights and Measures Week, March 1-7, 2015. Accurate and reliable weights and measures protect buyers and sellers in virtually all sales of goods in the United States, including Alaska.

I know this sounds a little strange, but weights and measures is one of those invisible government functions that nobody ever things about until they fill up their half empty gas tank with a lot more gas than it should have taken and they start wondering - could I really have needed 35 gallons of gas?  My tank only holds 15. 

You probably never think about these things - I tend not to - but it's part of what makes a market economy work.  The trust that things are accurately measured allows us to buy and sell without spending extra time and resources to confirm the measures.   Few of us seriously question the scales at the supermarket or a whole slew of things that get measured by standard measures, supervised by government employees. 

Much of government works that way.  We don't realize it's there until it doesn't work.  It runs smoothly in the background. 

And when 'cut gov' advocates start slashing away, they're not all that different in their thinking than when terrorists destroy ancient artifacts.   In both cases, they aren't aware of the greater value of what they are destroying in their blind faith in an ideology.  Fortunately, this week in Washington, cooler heads prevailed and Homeland Security wasn't left unfunded. 

The press release goes on to say:

The theme of National Weights and Measures Week 2015, “On the Path to Tomorrow,” recognizes that weights and measures inspectors must continually strive to keep pace with advancing technologies. A rapidly developing science for MS/CVE regulatory officials is the evaluation process of new measuring devices that supply alternate energy resources such as natural gas, hydrogen and electricity for rechargeable motor vehicles.
Today’s inspectors receive continuous training to insure that accuracy testing is performed to national standards, whether they are inspecting a 21st century scale used in the salmon industry, a high-tech fuel delivery meter on an oil delivery truck or the precision scales used to buy precious metals.

According to the blog post by Carol Hockert on the US Department of Commerce website

"It’s held annually during the first week of March to commemorate President John Adams's signing of the first U.S. weights and measures law on March 2, 1799. . ."

Who's Hockert?  She was appointed as the director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in 2006 after serving in a similar post in Minnesota.  The blog post goes on to say they are now working on standards for electric car batteries.  


So get out there and weigh and measure.  Saturday's the last day.  The official dessert for this week is pound cake. 

Snowfree Lawn, Street Showing Pavement - Good Reason To Go To CCL Saturday

This is what our street looked like March 20, 2011 from the corner.  The snow and ice were starting to melt, but there was plenty of snow still in the street. 

Here's t our street looking to that same corner yesterday, March 4, 2015.  The middle of the street had large swaths clear to the pavement with hard ice on the sides.  (There was a slick surface in the morning as the overnight temperatures dipped below freezing and met the street surface, damp from melting ice.)  At the corner (you see in the picture above) the pavement was clear and dry.

Below is our front lawn.  Usually at this time of year it's still well covered with snow.  A few patches might be bare under the tree.  Toward the middle or end of the month the sidewalk and front might start to clear and we get a little excited.  Then comes another several inches of snow to cover everything back up. 

No, this one year doesn't prove global warming is here and real.  However, this year, plus all the weird weather around the world for the last 20 years, plus the studies of many, many climate scientists, does.

Denying climate change and human's role in climate change is like saying, "The speedometer is wrong" when you're going 90 miles an hour toward the cliff.  You're either drunk, delusional, or you have some vested interest in not believing.  Could the speedometer be wrong?  It does happen, but we can also see the landscape going by our windows really fast.  And maybe they've put a giant water balloon at the edge of the cliff so we will stop safely.  But slowing down seems like a much more prudent approach.  Even if you'll be late for your appointment. 

Still have doubts about climate change?  Or want to do something to slow it down?  The Citizens Climate Lobby meets Saturday at UAA's Rasmuson Hall at 8:30 am in room 220. [I just learned that this month the meeting has been changed to Wed. evening.] We'll hook into the national telephone link with the other nearly 300 chapters around the US, Canada, and beyond.  So, if you aren't in Anchorage, you can find a local chapter.   These folks are amazingly well informed, well connected, and run interesting and efficient meetings.

You can find your local chapter here.   Really, they will be pleased to see you.  Times are different in different time zones.  The phone call is at 10am Pacific Time.  You want to be there for that.