Using The Right Word - Burgeoning

Often students would write their graduate papers using words they would never say, and which, quite often, they used incorrectly.  When I'd ask, they'd tell me they found a word in the thesaurus, that this was grad school and they wanted to sound more academic.  Did you look the word up?  No, it was in the thesaurus so it was a synonym.

Well, usually synonyms have a related meaning, but they don't all mean exactly the same thing.  So when I read this sentence in the paper this morning about the Alaska railroad, my antennae began to twitch.

"The stronger 2017 revenue figures were driven by continued growth in the railroad's passenger service — largely attributable to Alaska's burgeoning tourism industry." (emphasis added)

Burgeoning?  Alaska's tourism industry is 'burgeoning'?  It's been strong and growing since I moved here over 40 years ago.  So, just to check whether my own internal dictionary is accurate, I looked up the word at dictionary.com:

"verb (used without object)
1. to grow or develop quickly; flourish:
The town burgeoned into a city. He burgeoned into a fine actor.
2. to begin to grow, as a bud; put forth buds, shoots, etc., as a plant (often followed by out, forth)."

It's the quickly part that rings false here.  There's no real transition from one thing into another as in the first example.  Here are the stats from a study I found at the Alaska Travel Industry Association website:

This long term slow growth isn't exactly the way I understand the word 'burgeoning.'

Take Home:  If you use a thesaurus to find a different word to use, be sure to look it up in the dictionary before you actually use.  Most synonyms are exact substitutes for each other.

Randy Bryce's Response To His Opponent - Paul Ryan - Dropping Out Of The Race

It's been a while that I've been following Randy Bryce on Twitter.  I think I saw a video of him talking about his campaign to unseat Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.  If I weren't following him on Twitter I wouldn't be aware much of how hard he's been campaigning.  I was beginning to think that it was possible for him to win.  As he says in the video, who would have believed that a man working on a construction site a year ago could take on the Speaker of the House.

Well, it seems that Speaker Ryan thinks so too.  Here's Bryce's tweet and video response to the announcement that Ryan will not run for reelection.  I'm sure that the strength of Bryce's campaign had to play a role in that decision.

.@SpeakerRyan knew he couldn’t beat this campaign. Not in 2018. So he’s quitting now rather than losing in November.

Enjoy your “retirement,” Paul. I’ll be busy here in #WI01, fighting for all of the working people who don’t have the luxury to “retire” at the age of 48. pic.twitter.com/zUeB6u4DRc

— Randy Bryce (@IronStache) April 11, 2018

Impressive Student Art At Anchorage Museum

When my granddaughter was here last we, we visited the museum to see the children's art exhibit.




Conlan Cantrell
Grade 5
Sand Lake Elementary[Commenter 2/26/21 says Conlan went to Chugiak, not Sand Lake]

This is a close-up of the picture.

Katherine Reinbold

Grade 5

Sand Lake Elementary

Randy Lee
Grade 4
Williwaw Elementary
Saxophone

Emory Banker

Grade 12

West High

Amaeli Kam-Magruder

Pink Rose

Grade 7

Mears Middle School

Ada Bjorkman
Self Portrait
Grade 8
Rilke Schule German Charter School

Abigail Barios

Grade 8

Wendler Middle School

Ann Bebauer
Lichen
Grade 12
Service High School

Francis Giovanni Anino

Cousin JoAnne

Grade 12

Service High School

Brian Cuevas Fuentes

High School Wolf

Grade 9

West High School

Kristine Felipe
La Muerte
Grade 11
West High School















This is by no means a selection of the best.  There were lots and lots of works of art.  These were a few that caught our eye.  And a friend had strongly recommended that we visit the polar bears, and it was a great idea.  These are real kid magnets and the guard watched carefully as we walked into the room (in the new addition that was completed last year.)  But my munchkin had lots of self control.

Paola Pivi’s Polar Bears

What The Internet Does Well - Make Things Available Like Old 78 RPM Recordings - Listen to Josh White, House Of The Rising Sun

From Archive.orghttps://archive.org/details/78rpm

"78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings
The Great 78 Project! Listen to this collection of 78rpm records and cylinder recordings released in the early 20th century. These recordings were contributed to the Archive by users through the Open Source Audio collection. Also the Internet Archive has digitized many.
Artists available here include Ada Jones, Caruso, Eddie Cantor, Edison Concert Band, Harry MacDonough, Len Spencer, Paul Whiteman, and many others.
MORE"

Josh White, 1942 recording of House of the Rising Sun.

Today's ADN Opinion Pages Fodder For A Dozen Posts From Salmon To Bears To Legislators

One problem with blogging is picking something worth writing about from the many things out there.  Today I'll just do a quick take on several items from today's newspaper.

Stand For Salmon Or Stand For Alaska

A former member of the Alaska Board of Fisheries, Tom Kluberton, writes a column in favor of an initiative that would force resource developers (and others I assume) to prove that their projects won't hurt Alaska's salmon fisheries.

Next to that column is one by the vice chairman of the Doyon, Ltd. board of directors and a former chief of Allaket, PJ Simon.

Alaskan's won't vote on this until August or November*, so we have plenty of time to hear about this initiative, and we can be sure that we will.

*From Alaska Statute 15.45.190

Setting Dates For Ballot Initiatives in Alaska

The lieutenant governor shall direct the director to place the ballot title and proposition on the election ballot of the first statewide general, special, or primary election that is held after (1) the petition has been filed;  (2) a legislative session has convened and adjourned; and  (3) a period of 120 days has expired since the adjournment of the legislative session.  Our primary election is August 21, 2018.  So if the legislature adjourns (including special sessions) more than 120 days before that (roughly around April 27), it will be on the primary ballot.  Otherwise on the general election ballot in November.  That's a whole other issue - having important propositions on primary ballots when relatively few people vote. As I say, we have time to learn more about this, but I was struck by PJ Simon's column which portrayed him as a simple man - " I am just a regular guy. I am not a high-powered lawyer or professional environmentalist paid by outside interest groups. I'm sandwich meat, the guy in the middle, the guy who works for wages to support my family." But despite the fact that he says he can't read all that fine print, he knows for a fact the initiative will "kill construction jobs and hurt Alaska's economy." Alaska has long been a colony for outside corporations to come in an exploit.  I've written about this in different posts, particularly The Vampire History of Alaska when we had another initiative on the ballot that would have taxed the oil companies more. It's very easy for large corporations to come into a small (population) state or country and buy off some locals to push their mega projects. John Perkins outlines the process in his book Confessions of an Economic Hitman.  Alaskans will recognize the process when he spells it out.  You can see him explain it in this video.  So when self-professed common folks like JP Simon side with the big development corporations, I can't help but wonder what he gets out of it.  What Doyon gets out of it.  But that's another story. In any case, I need to learn more about this initiative, but it reminds me of the law the legislature passed some years ago blocking public participation on development projects along the coast line.  My first assumption here is this is people fighting back for the power that's been taken from them.  But the devil is in the details.  We'll see. "Undeveloped Anchorage Bowl Area Being Managed For Bears" In a letter to the editor, Jim Lieb of Palmer rants against retired state biologist Rick Sinnott's commentary on keeping bears in mind in our wilderness areas.  I want to focus on the word "undeveloped" here.  He uses it again in the letter:  "It's hard not to conclude that the undeveloped portion of the Anchorage Bowl is being primarily managed for bears and their well-being." Think about it - the "undeveloped portion."  It's like that part of Anchorage isn't finished yet.  It doesn't have many roads, or buildings.  It's like trees and rivers and bushes and animals are there temporarily until we need their land.  I think about those areas as 'natural' or 'wilderness' or 'respites' from traffic and building and concrete.  And people have documented the benefits of nature to human health. I wrote a post a while back about the meaning of the word 'empty lot' which pointed out that no lots were actually empty waiting to be developed. Words matter. "Voter Turnout Was Awesome" In the same letter to the editor section (same link as above) Donna K. Daniels lauds Anchorage voters for dispelling her doubts about Anchorage's first 'vote by mail' election.  She's excited because 76,000 people voted.  Yes, that's more than any past Municipal election.  But it's technically only 35.6% of registered voters.  To me, that isn't awesome at all.  It's depressing.  Voter turnout like that is how democracies die.  (I said ' technically' because not all the people on the voter rolls are still living in Anchorage - some have moved, some have died, but they're still on the voter rolls.  But even if that number were 40%, it would mean that the election was decided by about 20% of the voters.   I think this is what people mean about 'the new normal.'  Compared to a 20% turnout, yeah, it's awesome.  But that's starting at a really low bar. "Alaska Legislators Would be Fired By Now In the Real World" I guess what Jim Bell means by "the real world" is the business world, or at least an organization that is hierarchical and someone has power to fire workers.  But the legislature is elected by voters (that same small portion in the previous section who vote).  They can be fired by the people in their districts. My concern here is putting the blame on the legislators instead of the electorate. I'm also concerned when everyone is blamed for the misdeeds of only some.  Republicans, supported by organizations like Koch Brothers funded Alaskans for Prosperity, complain about deficits, yet won't raise revenue.  They're obsessed with the notion that the less government the better.  But the less government simply means that rogue corporations get to do what they want because government doesn't have the capacity to monitor their behavior. Just read the book I mentioned above - Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. (I do strongly recommend it.)  And that kids in foster care or in dysfunctional family situations can't count on the state to protect them from abusive situations because social worker case loads are way beyond what they can reasonably handle. More help for these kids means lower crime and fewer prison cells in the future.  I see the Democrats being much more responsible by calling for a modest income tax to start gaining more income.  And the Republicans are barricaded against an income tax.  In Oklahoma we are now seeing the results of Republican tax cutting, as schools only teach four days a week and teachers are on poverty level wages.  That's our future if we don't go to the polls and elect responsible legislators.  That means NOT firing the ones that are already responsible.  But people have to pat attention to more than party labels and propaganda and they need to vote. That's just from one page in the Anchorage Daily News.

Finally Made It To The New Writer's [Block] Bookstore and Cafe [UPDATED]

[UPDATE April 8, 2018 9:30am -  Grrrr! It's Writer's Block Bookstore, not Writer's Bookstore.  But I know how it happened, sort of.  Spell check.  Block got misspelled, then I somehow turned it into Blockstore which spellcheck didn't like, and then Block disappeared altogether.  I woke up with this floating in my head and now I finally came to check and sure enough, Block had been dropped.  Is this a variant of writer's block?]

What used to be an adult bookstore is now a comfy little bookstore and cafe on Spenard.   I had two separate pictures of the front and merged them into one.   That's not quite what it looks like.  The angles were too different.


But my renderings of the inside are more accurate.

There aren't a lot of books, but it looks like they were carefully chosen.  (I'm sorry, but I think the word 'curated' is much overused.  It used to be about putting together a museum exhibit and now you can 'curate' any combination of things.  I'm sure there are curated garage sales now.)


You can also get snacks and beverages.

The bookstore's website has much more beautiful pictures than mine and more information about other activities at the bookstore.











I also took a couple of pictures of books whose covers and titles caught my eye.

Checking With The Reporters On A Couple Of Amazing Claims They Made

There were two lines in the Anchorage Daily News today that caught my attention.  "Really?  How do they know that?"

The first was a line in Erica Martinson's story about Alaska's two US Senators' relationship with the President.  It talked about how they didn't support him, but they are getting policies that help Alaska. (Of course, what helps Alaska is open to interpretation and to whether one is looking short term or long term.)

Martinson wrote:

"More than 500 days have passed since Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. Alaska's Republican senators didn't vote for him . . ."

Wow!  They didn't vote for the presidential candidate in their own party.  (I have to say that it was a safe bet in Alaska, where their two votes were not going to swing the state to Clinton.)  But to tell people?  I assumed that Martinson had evidence, so I emailed her asking if she meant in the November election (which is what the sentence would seem to say) and if yes, how she knew this.

I got a quick response:

"I meant in the Nov. 2016 election.
I wasn't in the voting booth, but that's what they told me and others at the time. Sullivan said he was going to write in Mike Pence's name. Murkowski said she was going to write in a name, but she never did say who, at least to me.
https://www.adn.com/politics/2016/10/08/u-s-sen-lisa-murkowski-in-interview-said-decision-on-trump-was-instantaneous-after-seeing-video/
https://www.adn.com/politics/2016/10/08/alaska-sen-dan-sullivan-calls-on-donald-trump-to-drop-out-of-presidential-race/They both resigned their positions on the Alaska Republican Party's central committee until after the election because they would not support Trump: https://www.adn.com/politics/2016/10/11/alaska-republican-party-is-sticking-with-donald-trump/Not sure if it made it into a story that day (I think we ran a day-of blog?), but I spoke to both Senators about it on or around election day and they had not changed their plans."

I guess during the election coverage I missed this or forgot it.  Had I read the story on-line instead of in print, I'd have seen the link, but I didn't do that until I was getting the link for this post.

 

The second line that jumped out at me was from an article by Marc Fisher, also in the ADN, reprinted from the Washington Post, about Trump's campaign against Jeffrey Bezos - the Amazon head and owner of the Washington Post.

"But others who have heard Trump rail against Amazon as a “monopoly” say his central complaint is based more on a cultural gap than a financial one, deriving from the fact that the president has never been known to shop online and does not use a computer — and has therefore never experienced what has drawn so many Americans from local storefronts to Amazon and other online retailers." [emphasis aded]

That jumped right out at me.  The president doesn't use a computer!  I remember the uproar when George H. W. Bush expressed amazement at a demonstration of supermarket scanners.that checkers use.  (This Snopes assessment suggests the New York Times played up that story to Bush's detriment.)  I was thinking that the US president doesn't necessarily get too much time going to the supermarket and he'd been VP for the eight years before he became president.

But in 2018 it seems remarkable that the US president doesn't use a computer.  And if he doesn't, how can he tweet every day.  So I emailed Marc Fisher my questions - did he mean by 'computer' a laptop or desktop?  Surely Trump uses a smart phone or he wouldn't be able to tweet.  Before I sent the email I googled the topic and found quotes about Trump feeling no computer was secure to use.

I also got a quick reply from Marc Fisher:

"Yes, Trump uses a phone, primarily for voice calls and for tweeting, which he does only on his phone or by dictating to his digital politics advisor. What he does not and has not ever used is a desktop or laptop computer. He has, for example, never used email. As for his reasons, when he’s been asked about his avoidance of computers, he says he doesn’t have the time. Not a terribly enlightening answer, but there it is."

Given that a smart phone today is a mini-computer with access to the internet, I guess it isn't as shocking as it originally sounded.

What is shocking - and would seem to be illegal - is the possibility that Trump is intentionally using the office of the presidency to damage someone because he's offended by what Bezos' newspaper writes about him.  (Fisher cites several WP people who say Bezos plays no role in the content of the paper.)

"Later in the campaign, Trump complained that “every hour, we’re getting calls from reporters from The Washington Post asking ridiculous questions, and I will tell you, this is owned as a toy by Jeff Bezos.” Trump said Amazon was using The Post “as a tool for political power against me. . . . We can’t let him get away with it.”

"Amazon’s stock value declined by more than 5 percent after the president’s recent attacks but has gained ground this week."

"A Wells Fargo analysis concluded that although 'the arguments made by the president against Amazon have been undermined by third-party fact checkers . . . the president’s actions [could stir] additional scrutiny of Amazon beyond the federal government.'” 

"But Politico media critic Jack Shafer argues that Trump is right to connect Amazon, Bezos and The Post, because the retailer’s wealth made Bezos’s purchase of the paper possible. “If Amazon didn’t exist, it’s unlikely the Washington Post would exist in its current form,” wrote Shafer, whose wife, Nicole Arthur, is The Post’s travel editor. Shafer rejected the notion that The Post is lobbying on behalf of Amazon but said that by linking The Post to Amazon and driving down Amazon’s stock price, Trump had found a way to try to punish a news organization that he otherwise couldn’t harm."  [emphasis added]

 If a company is misbehaving, the president of the United States can say something about that.  and even call for an investigation.  But he's got to be careful not to bias that investigation.  But if the reason for the president's attack on a company is criticism in a newspaper whose owner also owns the other company, it seems to me there are real First Amendment issues being raised.

In any case, I was pleased that both these reporters were quick to respond to my questions and to have information to back up what they wrote.  Fisher clarified what using a computer meant, but didn't say how he knew about the president's computer use.  But when I looked back at my original email, I didn't ask that of him.  And it should be pointed out that Fisher works for the Washington Post, which is the target of the president's attacks.

Misc. Reading: Engaging Your Kids With Their Disabled Peers, Abortion Facts, TransCanWork, Pot Monopoly, And Thai Restaurants

1.  Thoughtful advice on how you and your children can engage a disabled child you run into by a father.

From  Daniel T. Willingham in the LA Times:

"Embarrassed parents will try to distract their child, or drag him away, probably delivering a “don’t stare” lecture once out of sight. But you can’t blame a 4-year-old for staring at a child who looks different. His curiosity is natural.
Staring at people feels wrong because it’s how we respond to an object — a skyscraper, or a waterfall. When we look at people, we usually send a social signal — a smile, for example — that acknowledges their humanity. Staring isn’t staring if you’re smiling. Or waving. Or if you say hi. That turns staring into a bid for interaction. So don’t try to stop your little one from looking at Esprit. It probably won’t work anyway, and it may be interpreted as indicating there’s something dreadful or forbidden about her. Just tell your child to wave. And don’t worry if he asks an awkward question, like, “Can’t she talk?” That’s a welcome chance for us to introduce Esprit."

2.  Do you need numbers when you're discussing abortion?  Abortion Study by National Academies Of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Offer Data on Abortion In The US


3.  As Anchorage defeated Prop 1 at the April 3 election, I thought this LA Times article was a good one today.  (Prop 1 would have reversed existing protections for transgender folks.)  It's about Michaela Mendelsohn who owns the Pollo Loco franchise in LA and transitioned to a woman 11 years ago and was thrilled to learn that one of his managers had hired another transgender woman.

"This prompted Mendelsohn to found TransCanWork, a nonprofit organization that trains businesses in best practices for hiring transgender workers and helps transgender people have equal access to employment.
“Trans people of color are over three times more likely to be unemployed and over seven times more likely to be living in poverty, under $10,000 a year, because of difficulty in getting employment,” Mendelsohn said. 'And so when I heard her story, I realized how fortunate I was to have transitioned as the boss of my own company.'”

4.  Is BioTech Institute LLC getting a patent that will allow it to take a cut of all cannabis sold?  Here's from a long CQ story by Amanda Chicago Lewis:

"According to Holmes, a secretive company called BioTech Institute LLC had begun registering patents on the cannabis plant. Three have already been granted, and several more are in the pipeline, both in the U.S. and internationally. And these are not narrow patents on individual strains like Sour Diesel. These are utility patents, the strongest intellectual-property protection available for crops. Utility patents are so strict that almost everyone who comes in contact with the plant could be hit with a licensing fee: growers and shops, of course, but also anyone looking to breed new varieties or conduct research. Even after someone pays a royalty, they can’t use the seeds produced by the plants they grow. They can only buy more patented seeds.
“Utility patents are big. Scary,” Holmes said. 'All of cannabis could be locked up. They could sue people for growing in their own backyards.'”

5.  The Surprising Reason that There Are So Many Thai Restaurants in America

This article credits the number of Thai restaurants in the US (and the world) to a Thai government agency that promotes them as part of a tourism campaign that began in 2000.  I would just note that when I got back to LA after my Peace Corps service in Thailand in 1970, there were NO Thai restaurants in LA.  But soon there would be one, then two, the three, then things just exploded.  It was only much later that I learned about the  Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (H.R. 2580; Pub.L. 89–236, 79 Stat. 911, enacted June 30, 1968, also known as the Hart–Celler Act.  From Wikipedia:

"The Hart–Celler Act abolished the quota system based on national origins that had been American immigration policy since the 1920s. The 1965 Act marked a change from past U.S. policy which had discriminated against non-northern Europeans.[2] In removing racial and national barriers the Act would significantly, and unintentionally, alter the demographic mix in the U.S.[2]"

The US' doors were then opened to Thais and others.  Thai immigrants began opening restaurants, and because their food and hospitality are so good, the soon spread to all parts of the US.  That was 30 years before the Thai government started promoting Thai restaurants and helping their owners.

Where Are The Steepest Ten Streets In The USA?

An LA Times columnist, Steve Lopez, answers this question in a story on the problems on Baxter Street in LA's Echo Park.  It seems that driving short cut apps like Waze are routing people onto this street and lots of people have trouble navigating it, especially when it rains.

The problem is that Baxter, with its Himalayan double dip between Allessandro Street and Echo Park Avenue, is not a normal street, and it was never meant to be a thoroughfare.
It was designed for goats, not people or cars.
Whoever built it, more than 100 years ago, must have gone on to design roller coasters. A video of a daredevil skateboarder blasting down Baxter has had nearly 1.2 million views on YouTube.
The Times has reported that Baxter ranks as the third-steepest street in Los Angeles with a 32% grade, behind 28th Street in San Pedro (33.3%) and Eldred Street in Mount Washington (33%).
Still, it’s on the list of the 10 steepest streets in the United States, seven of which are in California, and four of which are in Los Angeles, with Fargo Street in Silver Lake joining the others. Only two of the top 10 streets are in San Francisco, which is often thought of as a city of hills, and the famous Lombard Street (27% grade) doesn’t crack the list. The steepest streets in the U.S. are in Honokaa, Hawaii, (45%) and Pittsburgh, Pa. (37%).

OK, I'm embedding the skateboard video just so you can see this street.  The soundtrack is a bit raunchy so if you're showing it to little kids you probably should turn off the audio.  

First Anchorage Election Results - Mayor Winning Reelection, Prop 1 Losing, All The Other Props Winning [UPDATED 4/5/18 7:30PM]

With the new voting by mail, I'm not quite sure what these tallies mean.  It says all precincts reporting.  And 23% is in the ballpark.  Last year's MOA election had a 23% turnout.  This first set of results should reflect the ballots cast at the few polling stations, at the drop off boxes through - maybe yesterday or earlier today, maybe even those in the boxes by 8pm.

That would leave those mailed in probably before Friday or Saturday.  So if there are 4% still out there, that would be about 8,000 votes left.  If the Yes vote for Prop 1 got 60% of the remaining votes (not likely) they'd add 4800 votes and the no votes would add 3200 votes.  So I'd guess that Prop 1 has been defeated.

The Prop 1 vote means that Anchorage no longer supports discrimination against GLBT folks.  Let's hope Jim Minnery finds a new hobby that doesn't involve disrupting other people's lives.

And if there are 8000 votes left, there is no way that Rebecca Logan could catch up with Mayor Berkowitz, even if she got all 8000 votes.

This is the closest school board race.  Tasha Hotch is less than 400 votes behind Alisha Hilde.  If there are 8000 votes still to be counted, even 4000, this race could change.

The other school board races had much bigger margins with

70% for Deena Mitchell
57% for Elisa Snelling

All the other propositions won with 60% or more.

You can see all the results at the official site here.   [UPDATE 4/4/16 - This link went to the PDF of the early results.  It doesn't update.  Here are the results as of 4:27pm today.  Everything seems to have stayed more or less the same with 8,000 more votes.  There must still be some outstanding votes, but I doubt that they will change any results.  This page has the link to the latest election results.]


[UPDATE 4/5/17 - There are more results today.  As I glanced over them the margin based on vote totals seem to increase slightly in most races while the percentage gaps decrease slightly.  Prop 1  has a 4035 vote gap now, but is now yes = 47.12 % and no= 52.88%.  They've counted 70,961 of 218,388 (32.49%).  There are probably some more mail in ballots trickling in. I don't see how they can change any of the races.]