Alaskan Seemantham

We were invited to a Seemantham ceremony Sunday afternoon here in Anchorage. This was a first for me.  A delightful first.  But I claim no expertise.  I can just show you some pictures and offer some information from some sites I found. 

[S]eemantham is a function celebrated in the bridegrooms house by parents of bride ,when their daughter is in her first pregnancy usually 7th month before bringing her to their home for delivery relatives and friends are invited ladies put colourful glass bangles on the pregnant ladies hands bangles are also given to lady guests. [From Desitwist]

There are lots of sites giving different and/or verbatim information.  One said eight months and some have lots of details.  Some are forums where people are asking for information because they would like to put on such a ceremony.

Our friends' parents were here from Bangalore, India and the mother began and then the sister and then other women guests followed suit. 

A Tamil-Brahmin site had a very specific list of things that were needed:

Requirements for pumsavanam and seemantham:
Turmeric powder 50 gram; sandalwood powder 10 gram; kumkumam 10 gram; plantain fruit 25;Betel nut 100 grams; betel leaf 200; plantain leaf 6; thodutha pushpam 5 meters; mango leaf bunch 10; ghee 500 grams; haaram for the Aala mokku 6 nos; couple 2; for brass kudam 1; wheat 2kg; raw rice 2 kg; black gram 300 grams; gingilly seeds 100 grams; vraaty 10 nos; sraai thool 2 kilo; cow's milk 200 milli; scented sticks 1 pocket; camphor 1 pocket; Brass kudam 1; vasthram for brass kudam 1; Bell 1; aasana palagai or thadukku 8 nos; visiri 1; kuthu vilakku1; oil for deepam and thiri and match box; Vasthram for aalamokku paal piliya; pethy leaf bunch 1; panri mul 1; paady 50 grams well drenched in water a day before; Veena music CD 1; pancha pathra uthirini 1; elakkai; pachai kalpooram vilamichai root; krambu; coconut 6 nos; ammi kulavi 1; sambhavanai for the kanya girl who crushed the aaalamokku; small brass sombu for punyahavachanam;

As you can see from the pictures that some of these things had been gathered. 

"'Spring Awakening' makes sex strange again"

So wrote Charles Isherwood in the New York Times about the play Spring Awakening in 2006.

Six years later, the Anchorage production at Out North manages to do the same.  

I'm uncomfortable in the role of public critic.  I'm not an expert here and can only say what I like and don't like.  I know that local productions use part time actors and have miniscule budgets.  I want to say nice things and encourage them.  But I don't want to mislead readers either.  So if I really didn't like something,  I just won't write about it.

Sometimes a production overcomes all the obstacles and I can unabashedly gush.   But more often there's lots that's good in an imperfect whole.

It's when I really like something, but know it's not completely fulfilled that I'm most conflicted. 

So, that said, I want to recommend Spring Awakenings to readers, but also let them know it's not perfect.  [It plays Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 3pm until August 5 at Out North.]

In this production, there were a number of things that didn't quite work for me, but overall, I thoroughly enjoyed being part of the energy and enthusiasm of the cast and the musicians and the audience.  It was the excitement of local theater, with mostly young actors and crew, reaching high and making it enough times to make the night more than worthwhile.  I think you can see some of the tension and energy in the photo of Moritz (Joey Chu on the right) and one of the other school boys. (Please someone fill in his name*.)


The most potent parts of the musical were what made this play scandalous in Germany when it was originally banned in the 1890s.  We see on stage how, as the NYTimes critic writes, "the discovery of sex temporarily disorders everything."  While technologically we've become a far different world  in the 120 years since the play was written, sex still scares the shit out of parents, teachers, and preachers, as well as the kids themselves.  And the adults' inability to handle the topic only makes things worse.  

The excitement and energy and uncertainty of sexual awakening is present throughout the play.  And the parts that didn't quite work for me were ok because experimenting and sometimes not getting it quite right is also an important part of adolescence.  Sometimes a singer couldn't quite get the high note.  And I felt I'd seen a series of scenes more than a whole play.  The adult roles (that's how they were listed in the program) were played by the same two people throughout.  Amanda Winkelman was wickedly good.  But it was a little confusing, particularly at first.  I thought, for example, that Melchior's mother was also the teacher.  Some little but obvious change in costume might have helped.  And a fair amount of time was spent with the actors front stage on the floor - or on a small riser - which made them almost invisible in Out North's crowded bleachers.  

Latin Lesson before it explodes

For me the scene that worked best, came fairly early - the Latin lesson in the boys school that explodes into a terrifically choreographed expression of adolescent frustration and anger and pent up energy.  

Another fully realized scene came when Melchior is confronted by the teachers, and knows he's trapped.  You can see him squirm.  There's no escape.  He bursts out in a very appropriate song, "I'm Fucked."  It works perfectly.  We've all been there.

There are some great voices in this cast - Ashley Glore as Wendla - for example. Coleman Alquire was a perfect Melchior and Joey Chu made Moritz's struggles very real.  *Despite the fact that among the characters were the names of both my grandfathers, who would have been adolescents generally in that period in Germany, I had trouble, except for the lead roles,  keeping track of names.

Sitting in the audience, even having trouble seeing everything,  I felt a part of an exciting undertaking.  (Have I said 'exciting' enough yet?) The live music, the young cast, the murals on the wall, I couldn't help feeling that Out North is doing exactly the right thing by giving a relatively young director and cast the chance to reach for the moon.

And in small local theaters like Out North, you can talk to the cast and crew afterward.  And so I stuck my camera in the face of director, Caleb Bourgeois, in the one spot of light in the dark theater afterward.  He gives more overview about the play and its history and conveys the infectious excitement of the evening. 




UAA's Northern Lights reporter, Heather Hamilton, does a good job of giving more background about the three lead actors.

Slick Medical Marijuana Marketing Hits Anchorage

OK, when we moved to Alaska 35 years ago, it was legal to possess a small amount for personal use though the law is less clear today.  It's technically illegal, but hasn't been challenged, and it doesn't get a lot of law enforcement attention in small amounts.

ADN Medical Marijuana Insert

What got my attention was a slick flier in the Anchorage Daily News on Wednesday announcing a three day clinic in Anchorage - July 18-20.

"Need your medical marijuana card? 

Get Legal Now!

After reading the flier - and having recently been reminded that 'real journalists' call people to find out more -  I contacted a doctor I know  and asked what he knew about this - like, could any doctor get someone a marijuana card?

He said that he understood that a licensed doctor could apply to the state to be licensed to prescribe medical marijuana, but that the head of his group had told the doctors that he would not approve any of the group doing so.  He has prescribed Marinol on occasion.

Then I called the number on the flier and got Mike Smith who said he owned this business.  He's very upbeat, but asked if I'd been to the website.  Damn, I'm calling.  But of course I should have checked the website first.  I will get this straight eventually.  But he was very nice about it.

Smith is from Seattle and was in Anchorage for the three day clinic along with two doctors.  One, Dr. John McGroarty (see comment below from Bill Fikes), who he brought up from Seattle with him and is licensed in Alaska, and a second doctor whose name wasn't being advertised.  I wasn't sure if the second doctor was a local or not.  He said most doctors don't want to be associated with marijuana, they're still using morphine and other drug company products.

He also referenced an Alaska Dispatch piece Jill Burke did last week.  There's a lot more in that piece and I'll limit myself to what I learned that I didn't see in the Dispatch article.  He did say the Dispatch article seemed to inflate their income from this because it didn't consider the costs.  The Dispatch wrote:

With 700 clients assisted so far this year, he's roughly pulled in $250,000. How much of that revenue ends up as profit isn't known.

I was curious where, once one got a medical marijuana card, one could then get the prescription filled.  It's illegal to sell marijuana in Alaska, according to Smith, but someone with a medical marijuana card can legally give away a clipping to someone else with a card.  He spoke of there being something like a coop among local medical marijuana card holders where people share what they have. 

Smith mentioned that the federal government has the patent (Patent No. US 6,630,507 B1)
for cannabis and that I could find it on their website.  He also said the government had given the patent to a New York firm.  After Googling around, it seems to be a little more complicated.  As I read the Patent abstract later, I noticed that it mentions  "nonpsychoactive cannabinoids." The patent is on the compounds that do not cause the buzz that recreational users are after.  And Wikipedia explains the patent and the licensing of the patent, probably better than the various, more promotional, medical marijuana sites:

U.S. Patent no. 6630507

On October 7, 2003, a U.S. patent number 6630507 entitled "Cannabinoids as Antioxidants and Neuroprotectants" was awarded to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, based on research done at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). This patent claims that cannabinoids are "useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases such as ischemia, age-related, inflammatory, and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia."^[46][47]

On November 17, 2011, in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 209(c)(1) and 37 CFR part 404.7(a)(1)(i), the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, published in the Federal Register, that it is contemplating the grant of an exclusive patent license to practice the invention embodied in U.S. Patent 6,630,507, entitled “Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants” and PCT Application Serial No. PCT/US99/08769 and foreign equivalents thereof, entitled “Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants” [HHS Ref. No. E-287-1997/2] to KannaLife Sciences Inc., which has offices in New York, U.S. This patent and its foreign counterparts have been assigned to the Government of the United States of America. The prospective exclusive license territory may be worldwide, and the field of use may be limited to: The development and sale of cannabinoid(s) and cannabidiol(s) based therapeutics as antioxidants and neuroprotectants for use and delivery in humans, for the treatment of hepatic encephalopathy, as claimed in the Licensed Patent Rights.^[48]

On June 12, 2012, KannaLife Sciences, Inc. signed an exclusive license agreement with National Institutes of Health – Office of Technology Transfer ("NIH-OTT") for the Commercialization of U.S. Patent 6,630,507, "Cannabinoids as Antioxidants and Neuroprotectants" (the "'507 Patent"). The '507 Patent includes among other things, claims directed to a method of treating diseases caused by oxidative stress by administering a therapeutically effective amount of a non-psychoactive cannabinoid that has substantially no binding to the NMDA receptor. Cannabinoids are any of a group of related compounds that include cannabinol and the active constituents of cannabis (marijuana).

I'd seen the commercialization of pot in LA, but this was the first time I've noticed it here. 

And Fairbanks, you buy your cards August 3 and 4 at Pike's Waterfront Lodge.  That's the one owned by former Republican legislator  and Lt. Governor candidate Jay Ramras, right?  Unlike in Anchorage where they had their clinic in a law firm that defends, among other folks, people on drug charges, I guess in Fairbanks they had to pay for space.   That might explain why prices in Fairbanks are $50 more for those with their medical records and $25 more for those without.  I guess the law firm where they had the clinics in Anchorage gave them a better deal. 

Can We Talk About Aurora Shootings Rationally?

The news says that twelve people are dead and many more wounded.  The death of anyone, especially when unexpected, especially when the person is in the prime of life, and even more so when the death is intentional, does serious damage to the lives of the people around them.  There is the loss of the years the slain would have lived.  There is the inability to tie up loose ends - try to work out disruptions in relationships, get projects completed, raise children.  There are the financial and emotional impacts on surviving family members and friends.  There are the impacts in the victims' workplaces - the work undone, the need to replace the victim, and the emotional impacts on co-workers.

My brother died as a young man in an unexpected accident and that has left a hole in my life forever.   I feel for those killed in Aurora and the unfairness of having their lives cut short.  I feel even more for the people left behind who now must continue their lives without them.  I also feel for those who were wounded.  Some may have relatively minor injuries that will not interrupt their lives too significantly or for too long.  But the emotional and psychological impacts will last a long time.  Others will have injuries that severely disrupt their lives for a long period of time, maybe forcing them to make permanent adjustments in how they live.

I hope I've made it clear that I do not take this lightly.  This is, what some call, a significant emotional event.  Louisa May Alcott is credited with this truism:

“Painful as it may be, a significant emotional event can be the catalyst for choosing a direction that serves us - and those around us - more effectively. Look for the learning.” ― Louisa May Alcott

While I can find a number of references to 'significant emotional event' on line, most are from people using the concept, say in management for example.  But I'm having trouble finding good, empirical, original sources.  One I did find that looks at prisoners says:

Without positive intervention following significant emotional events, particularly when they were traumatic in nature, all resorted to self-medicating, diverting, and/or burying their childhood pain. Every individual had been, is, or will be a victim in some way or other to trauma that causes loss of meaning. One in every two men in this study experienced the death of a loved one as a significant emotional event. One in every three listed growing up in a single-parent home; in most cases the custodial parent was the mother. And one in every five listed experiencing some form of traumatic physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse in childhood. When questioned later, four in every five verbalized acceptance of childhood abuse as "normal' and therefore did not list it as significant in their list of Steppingstones. Many also accepted as normal parents self-medicating with illicit drugs in their presence. Without therapeutic intervention shortly after these events, they became at greater risk for antisocial behavior, low self-esteem, depression, low educational attainment, underemployment, substance abuse, mental illness, and suicidal ideation. The Intensive Journal enabled them to deal with their issues in a safe, supporting environment.

This study says that we need positive intervention for these events.  I'm not sure how those of us not directly impacted by a horrifying news story can use this sort of collective significant event to reexamine our values.  It used to happen on network news, but now we all retreat to those cable news programs or websites that cater to our biases.  But let me think out loud, let me look for the learning. 

1.   What is the impact of violence in our popular culture?  There's lots of research in this area, though it's difficult to prove clear cause and effect relationships. If watching violence is so bad, why don't most people commit such crimes?  Some might argue that the incidence of domestic violence is quite high.  But domestic violence existed before graphic Hollywood violence.  Is there more now? Are there some people who are more likely to copy the violence they see on the screen or video games? What are their characteristics?  How do we discover the important factors and even more vexing, how do we apply that knowledge to people who have committed no crimes?  Is film violence even therapeutic for some?

The movie was graphically violent.  From a description of The Dark Knight Rises posted on Wikipedia:

Kyle attempts to flee Gotham but is arrested on kidnapping charges while Bane traps the majority of Gotham's police underground, setting off bombs throughout Gotham, killing the Mayor in the process, and destroying any means of exiting Gotham by land. Converting Wayne's project into a nuclear bomb, Bane arms an anonymous citizen with the trigger who will detonate the device should anyone leave Gotham – unbeknownst to the citizens, the bomb will detonate regardless in five months. Bane also frees the prisoners of the Dent Act – reading Gordon's stolen speech – while members of Gotham's high society are dragged from their homes and sentenced to death by Jonathan Crane. A small resistance is mounted by Gordon, Blake and other remaining police officers who primarily track the Bomb's location as it is transported throughout the city in one of three trucks. A failed incursion by Special Forces results in the federal government blockading Gotham, turning it into a "No Man's Land."

I can't help but ponder the irony of a theater full of people who went to see two and a half hours of graphic screen violence being confronted by real life violence.   A macabre twist on The Purple Rose of Cairo.  It will be interesting to hear what the shooter says about how he picked that audience.


Despite the MPAA rating,  ("PG-13  -  Reasons:  Intense sequences of violence and action, some sensuality and language")   The Guardian quotes one eyewitness,

"There was gunfire, there were babies, there were kids, there was blood everywhere." 

What is our attraction to ever more realistic scenes of people being massacred?  Were there any people in the theater who also enjoyed the real violence?  Or do we all have a good grip between fantasy and reality?   What about the shooter?  How does seeing these things impact us?  What can we learn from the Iraq and Afghanistan vets who come back with PTSD and other disorders and those who don't?

2.    How should we approach the availability of guns in our society?

How has the National Rifle Association come to have such power over our lawmakers that gun control can't even be debated these days?  Why are so many people so emotionally attached to free access to guns of all sizes?  Who is funding all this?  Why?

This question is worth a whole blog (not just a post, but a blog or twenty) to pursue.  As I try to find such blogs it appears most have staked a strong position against gun control and a few are strongly for.  (Am I wrong in my sense that there are more anti-gun control blogs and websites than pro-gun control ones?)  I would point out to advocates of open and concealed weapons who argue that

Criminals aren’t stupid - “gun-free zones” are the safest places to kill people and that’s why most of the mass murders in our nation take place at these locations. [from Right Remedy]

that Colorado is a state that allows concealed weapons and open weapons.   A call to Cinemark theaters was diverted to an answer machine by the operator, and hours later, hasn't been returned.  The person who answered the phone at my local Century 16 theater said there is a sign in the box office saying that no weapons are allowed in the theater.  I've never noticed the sign and no one is searched.  Nor have I heard that anyone pulled a gun and shot back in Colorado.  In any case,  the shooter was prepared for people with guns since he reportedly was wearing full body armor.
 

3.  Why do the deaths of 12 people in a US movie theater get as much or more media attention and affect us more than the massacres in other countries?

ThinkProgress reports that nearly 3000 Syrians were killed in June.  That's an average of 100 a day.  But President Obama and Candidate Romney did not stop campaigning because of their deaths.  They did for 12 deaths in the US.

I'm guessing that US residents can relate more to the people who died in a mall theater because most can imagine it happening to them.  They can't relate as well to Syrians. Is that OK?  How does it affect US foreign policy? 

4.  How many violent deaths in the US have been caused by the stereotypical Islamic terrorist and how many by white Christians?

I don't know the answer.  Maybe it doesn't matter.  How did you imagine the shooter when you first heard, before there was a name and a face?  There are a number of websites that address the question in different ways.  This Wikipedia page looks world wide, for example.

What's critical is that we work to understand what causes people to commit such crimes.  Some are mentally ill, such as schizophrenics who hear irresistible voices telling them to kill. I'm guessing we'll find out that is the case here.  If so, will that bring more money to study and treat mental heath issues?  But I'm inclined to believe that most violent anti-social behavior can be traced to how people are treated in their early lives.  How much love and approval did they get?  How much abuse did they endure?  Did their parents take them to violent films because they couldn't get a babysitter?  (In this case I think it's the parents' sacrificing their kids' needs in favor of their own that most bothers me.)


None of these questions have easy answers.  I'm afraid that most people will find ways to use such events to justify and maintain their own existing beliefs.  They won't stop to consider whether their approach to making the world a safer place (that's what both pro- and anti-gun advocates, for example,  claim is their goal) should be re-examined.  Too many people will think this is the kind of event that should cause 'the other side' to reconsider, not them.  But given the huge rifts among people in the US today, it's clear that everyone needs to rethink how effectively they are able to communicate with people they disagree with. 

Ethiopian Children with hula hoops and other Google Searches

I think this has been hanging around as a draft long enough.  Here are search terms that people used to get here.  Some got exactly what they were looking for, some google (most are google, but sometimes another search engine

ethiopian children with hula hoops - No Ethiopian kids, but there were some hula hoops at the post they got.

what do egyptian people look like  - The was from a computer at the Egleston's Children's Hospital in Atlanta, so let's assume it was someone young asking this question.  They got to a post with some pictures of Egyptian statues in the Berlin Museum.




things to know about alaskan backyards -  This Kiwi got to a post on moose in the backyard.  Alaska's a big place and some places, like Juneau, don't have moose.  But it's certainly something to know about Anchorage backyards. 



how do you make teotihuacan mask from egypt - It's not easy, since Teotihuacan is in Mexico. They did get to some Egyptian mummy masks in Berlin's Neues Museum.

as an artist, diego rivera related the concerns of, a.) the u.s., b.) the government, c.) workers, d.) women-  Sure looks like a test question.  The answer's on the post about the Detroit Institute of Art's Rivera room, but he or she'll will have to figure it out. 


how big does a glacier have to be - To qualify as a glacier and not an ice cube?  To not melt in the next 50 years?  Wonder what the person wanted to know?  Google did the best it could and got him He got to the post How big is big?  Child's Glacier


2zghx ch`ด' - This was a Babylon search and it showed me what the person got:

What Do I Know?: November 2008
Nov 30, 2008 ... Lévi-Strauss, in Myth and Meaning ponders in a chapter called "When ... The ones in this chapter are particularly relevant to Alaskan since they ...whatdoino-steve.blogspot.com/2008_11_01_archive.html - 379k - Similar pages

 I checked the archive page this was on.  I have no idea why my page showed up.  There are other posts which have Thai script on them including the letter 'ด' but I couldn't find one on this page.  This Lévi-Strauss post does mention Thailand.  The searcher was from Chile.

baskin robbins halal certificates -Sometimes even I am surprised at what all is on my blog.  This person in Malaysia found a photo of the IFANCA (Islamic Food And Nutrition Council of America) certificate in a Baskin Robbins shop in Klang, Malaysia in this post.

woodpecker shoes pakistan - Lots of thoughts went through my head.  Can't be woodpeckers wearing shoes. . . . Until finally the most logical would be really pointy toed shoes, like a woodpecker's beak.  But who knows?  They didn't get either, but they got to this inspiring story:  Pakistani Official Tends Sikh Shoes and Toilets To Atone Muslim Killing Of Sikh.

Mimas tiliae

Mimas tiliae - Sometimes this blog is like a little bookstore that has obscure titles hidden away, just waiting for the one person who will want that particular book. It's been two years since I posted this one and finally someone from Denmark came looking for it: Instead of a real post - here's Mimas tiliae 


what is interim plan - I recognize that I sometimes report on things that have a lot of jargon.  I have explained more than once, say, terms used by the Redistricting Board, knowing that many readers haven't read the previous posts.  But I didn't think I needed to explain 'interim.'  I can't help but say to myself, "Get a dictionary."  But google does serve that function too.  And bloggers can't be choosers.  I should be saying thanks to the  several people  who got to this Redistricting Board post where I mention the interim plan and I say the Board adopted an Amended Plan and "an Interim plan in case the Amended plan doesn't get all the approvals it needs in time for the June 1 candidate filing deadline."  Do you think that's enough context for them to figure it out? 

rubber ring blender on top or bottom of blade - There's a long colonoscopy post which includes having to buy a new osterizer and then finding out all I needed was the rubber ring.
Maybe the picture helped this person answer the question.


a five column chart for nectarines using your five senses - This was an image search. Something about a chart I had up distracted them from nectarines. They got to a chart on Reported Rates of Voting and Registration: 1996 - 2008 post on Senate candidate Scott McAdams 

yhgujniolmpw - This person, from the Philippines with a US-English language computer, got to an archive page that had a story about an Anchorage man we know who was back from Afghanistan.  It had a word with 'yh' in it. Was this just random typing?

He was in a FOB (Forward Operating Base) in Iskandiriayh most of the time.

That's my best guess why they got to this blog.

batman in arabic -  Another direct hit.  This person got this picture from a post on a hot day in Chicago.   If you enlarge the picture enough and you know Arabic, I think you can see it.


anybody record if i sex with my wife through skype? - I'm not sure if this guy is worried that someone might record them or is looking for someone to record them. I suspect the former. He got to my post on Call Recorder which lets you record skype conversations and video. Your own conversations only.  But he's right to be concerned.  I could tell from his footprint here that he was checking from Vancouver, Canada and his computer is set up to use Indian English.

english mass nouns two gallon gasoline - It took me a bit to figure this one out. But it makes sense and this searcher got to a post on countable vs. mass nouns called "amount of people employed as an architect" 

kosti nohy - 
ayak kemikleri -  I've learned (with the help of online translation websites) that kosti nohy is foot bones in Czech and ayak kemikieri is foot bones in Turkish.  For some reason, I get hits at my post on J's broken foot in Czech and Turkish (and English), but not other languages.



can i copy verbatim from a press release? -Hmmm.  Is this from a newspaper writer?  A blogger?  Got to my follow up post on this exact practice.

what are those cotton like things floating in anchorage - And this person got to a post which answers the question - cottonwood seeds.

porno beauti - First, how does Google offer an image titled 'looking up cactus" to someone seeking 'porno beauti'? Second, why would a porn seeker choose that image over the others that come up? This is definitely a kink I've never heard of before. But once I actually looked at the image I realized it does have some phallic qualities, but really . . .




a travel club of musicians,poets,dancers all come together have a art festival - I had no idea where that might have gone, but the Spenard jazz festival poetry and dance turned out to be related to the search.

only chinese people like kenny g - This is terrible, but I have to admit I laughed. It got to a post on Pat Metheny's view on kenny g. Actually, this almost calls for a whole post to discuss. Let's say I think this person makes kenny g seem better than he is and Chinese people worse than they are.






what is the term for vampire arousal -  We should have a contest to answer this.  It got to my post on Thanksgiving Neckrophelia. I thought maybe I'm just behind the times so I googled "vampire arousal" and looked at the first to sites that popped up:  Vampire Seduction Guide  and Vampire Sexual Secrets.  Neither seemed to have a special term for vampire arousal.

Chester Creek Flows Red-Orange

Photo credited to [Brendan Babb]  Julia O'Malley's
FB post

[UPDATE July 27:  Julia O'Malley has a follow up in the ADN.  She also credits the picture here to Brendan Babb.]




This morning I got an email with a link to a Facebook post with a picture (credited to Julia O'Malley[UPDATE: she credits it to Brendan Babb in ADN update.]) of Chester Creek at Valley of the Moon Park yesterday morning.




This was a follow up of a call I got yesterday afternoon - did I want to bike down the Chester Creek Trail and check on a report about the Creek being red?  It was supposed to be at Valley of the Moon Park.  East of the park was supposed to be clear.   It was one of the nicest days all summer and I'd been home waiting for the plumber, so I jumped at the chance, leaving the plumber working on the hot water tank. (Another post maybe.)

So, off I went, heading west to Valley of the Moon Park.  Here's the creek near Mulcahy Stadium.

Here's the creek at C Street.  The orange in the background is plastic fencing, not water.

And as I go through Valley of the Moon Park, the creek looks the same.  Although it looks brown, the water itself is clear and you can see the bottom (which is why, I guess, it looks brown.)  There was another bridge over the creek just past (west of) the park and E street.

Looks ok to me.  Whatever it was, was gone.











For folks unfamiliar with Anchorage, this greenbelt goes right through Anchorage between downtown and midtown.  A beautiful strip of natural escape in the middle of the city.


This morning I found a  KTUU report yesterday that said  (in part):

Images taken by Brendan Babb of the creek near Valley of the Moon Park in Midtown at about 11:15 a.m. show brightly hued water flowing beneath a footbridge. Babb says the coloration had passed when he saw the creek again two hours later.
A city biologist investigating the incident believes that someone may have introduced the unidentified contaminant upstream.

[Did O'Malley post Babb's photo?  I don't know.]

What pressures were on the people who got rid of their red-orange gunk into this beautiful creek, not far from where it flows into Westchester Lagoon?  What were they thinking?  Are they totally ignorant of the idea of pollution?  Were they pressured by their boss to get rid of it?  Were they trying to avoid fees or lines at the city's disposal sites?  Will we ever find out?

Who knows?  But the ride did reveal that the city had been busy along the Chester Creek Trail yesterday (or maybe the day before) cleaning out homeless camps.  Here are three collections that were at the edge of the trail waiting, I presume, to be picked up.

By the way, if you saw the previous post and the video was missing, I've fixed that.  Really, go back and check the video.  It will make up for this depressing post.

Seize The Limitation - Shaky Artist Finds Ways

I went from a Pentax film camera with a 200 mm telephoto lens to a tiny digital Canon Powershot with 3X optical zoom. I've been telling myself that I should make the limits of the camera into assets. Poets who write sonnets have a very strict structure - 14 lines of iambic pentameter (ten beats per line - du dah, du dah, du dah, du dah, du dah), and a strict rhyme scheme. . . well you can see more here. 

Despite those limitations, or maybe because of the limitations, poets have written great poems.  So I've been thinking about my camera as the limits of a sonnet structure.  A sonnet writer can't write a novel,  a short story, or even haiku.  But within those constraints poets have created a wide variety of sonnets.   So with my camera.  There is a lot I can't to, but I see my task as to push it, within those limits, as far as I can.  

My motto became, once I heard this quote, "The best camera is the one you have with you" and my Powershot fits in my pocket and goes with me all the time.

Screen shot from Phil Hanson: The art of the Imperfect

So watching this video tape was more than inspiring.

Here's this guy who wants to be an artist, except he has a tremor in his hand that's so bad he can't make a straight line.

He drops out of art school.  But several years later he feels compelled to go back to art and so he has to reinvent what being an artist means.

The Ted video is only 4 minutes long.  Trust me here.  Once you see the first 30 seconds, you'll watch the whole thing.  This is how humans got beyond hunting and gathering, by seizing the limitation. 
[UPDATE: July 19 - just saw that the video isn't there. I fixed that. Really, it's worth watching.]




Of course, you can look at the great work that Anchorage artist, Peter Dunlap-Shohl, still does with Parkinsons Disease. He's found ways to continue being an artist and blogs his art to help people understand Parkinsons Disease.  He also has a blog of his non PD cartoons.

Finding a Pale Beauty in the Shower

There she was, a beguiling light green, sitting on white tile.   I found it quickly in Dominique Collet's Insects of south-central Alaska though the antenna feathering in the book's photo is much thicker than in my photo.

It's a Pale Beauty or Campaea Perlata.

Bug Guide tells us it can range from pale green to grayish-white, fading to yellow.  They are found from

"Alaska across Canada to Nova Scotia; south to central California, Arizona and Colorado; in the eastern U. S. south to North Carolina.(2)"

Their habitat is:

"coniferous, mixed, and deciduous forests and shrubby areas; adults are nocturnal and come to light, but in the arctic where summer nights are short or absent, adults fly during the day"

This one had come in to the light of the bathroom when it was as close to dark as it gets outside this time of year.

"[L]arvae have been reported to feed on leaves of 65 species of coniferous and deciduous trees and shrubs, including alder, ash, basswood, beech, birch, blueberry, Buffaloberry (Shepherdia canadensis), cherry, fir, elm, hemlock, maple, oak, pine, poplar, rose, spruce, tamarack, willow [list taken from Handfield, 1999]"

And how do they survive the winter here?  Bug Guide says about the life cylce:

"two generations per year in the south; one generation in the far north; overwinters as a third-instar or fourth-instar larva, likely exposed on bark and branches"

Here's a picture showing this moth on the four inch square tile so you can see its size.

 You can tell a moth from a butterfly by the antennae.  Moths have feathered antennae (see top photo) and butterfly antennae are plain with a little knob on the end.  Enchanted Learning lists some other differences.

Former Anchorage Resident Now Has Dual Citizenship

I got an email announcing that Jay Dugan[-Brause], who has evolved into Jacob Dugan[-Brause], now has a British passport to go along with his US passport.  He became a British citizen July 12. Jacob and his partner Eugene founded and ran Anchorage's Out North Theater. 

The idea of dual citizenship is difficult for many Americans to get their heads around, including me.  People whose parents were forced out of Nazi Germany, if they meet the right conditions, can get German citizenship.  The benefits include being able to live and work in the European Union (EU) without going through complex work permit paperwork.  My son, after dealing with the Danish bureaucracy while working there for a year has suggested it would be nice to have.

For those of us who think of ourselves as citizens of the world and believe that human beings are human beings wherever they live,  perhaps getting a second citizenship is the first step to living that ideal.

The US State Department says:

The concept of dual nationality means that a person is a citizen of two countries at the same time. Each country has its own citizenship laws based on its own policy.Persons may have dual nationality by automatic operation of different laws rather than by choice. For example, a child born in a foreign country to U.S. citizen parents may be both a U.S. citizen and a citizen of the country of birth.
A U.S. citizen may acquire foreign citizenship by marriage, or a person naturalized as a U.S. citizen may not lose the citizenship of the country of birth.U.S. law does not mention dual nationality or require a person to choose one citizenship or another. Also, a person who is automatically granted another citizenship does not risk losing U.S. citizenship. However, a person who acquires a foreign citizenship by applying for it may lose U.S. citizenship. In order to lose U.S. citizenship, the law requires that the person must apply for the foreign citizenship voluntarily, by free choice, and with the intention to give up U.S. citizenship.
Intent can be shown by the person's statements or conduct.The U.S. Government recognizes that dual nationality exists but does not encourage it as a matter of policy because of the problems it may cause. Claims of other countries on dual national U.S. citizens may conflict with U.S. law, and dual nationality may limit U.S. Government efforts to assist citizens abroad. The country where a dual national is located generally has a stronger claim to that person's allegiance.
However, dual nationals owe allegiance to both the United States and the foreign country. They are required to obey the laws of both countries. Either country has the right to enforce its laws, particularly if the person later travels there.Most U.S. citizens, including dual nationals, must use a U.S. passport to enter and leave the United States. Dual nationals may also be required by the foreign country to use its passport to enter and leave that country. Use of the foreign passport does not endanger U.S. citizenship.Most countries permit a person to renounce or otherwise lose citizenship.
Information on losing foreign citizenship can be obtained from the foreign country's embassy and consulates in the United States. Americans can renounce U.S. citizenship in the proper form at U.S. embassies and consulates abroad.

Looking around the web, I see that some liken dual citizenship to bigamy. I think for some it's more like a Yankee fan also rooting for Boston.  But what if you have dual citizenship with a close ally of your home country?   More and more countries are allowing dual citizenship, though some, like Holland, are pulling back.      
 
Californians elected dual-passport holder Arnold Schwartzenegger (Austria) and but Michele Bachman (Switzerland) decided keeping her Swiss passport wasn't a good idea when she was running for president.

Clearly, it's a very emotional issue for people whether they are for it or against it.  Anyone perceived as leaving 'their group' whether it be a business, a religion, or a country may be perceived by some members of the original group to be a traitor.  I suspect that has more to do with the offended person's issues than those of the person leaving.  And, of course, dual citizenship isn't actually leaving. 

Congratulations to Jacob. 

Local Anchorage TV Station Fights Citizens United With Free Airtime For Candidates

Jeremy Lansman, the owner of KYES television in Anchorage, and, from what I can tell, one of the few independent and locally owned television stations in the country, sent out emails to candidates yesterday.  He emailed those candidates running for the legislature who have emails listed with the Alaska Division of Elections.

Jeremy is a friend of mine and the information for this post comes from conversations and emails, including a Skype chat I recorded Monday evening July 16, which you can listen to below.

Essentially, as I understand this, each candidate can make video spots of 30 seconds.   Jeremy is allocating 10% of his ad time to this project. That comes to about two per hour.  If he has two candidates send him videos, that air time will be divided by the two equally.  If 30 respond, the available space will be divided evenly among all 30 of them.

This is a new project and there are still some things to work out.  It depends on the response.  He will allow people to turn in more than one video, or new ones as time goes by.   Any changes will be made at the next weekly schedule.   

His motivation comes, in part, from his lifelong interest in using radio and television to promote the democratic process. Jeremy, I've learned over the years, is something of a legend among those who know about community radio in the US.  You can read about more about his past here.

The free tv time is stimulated now by the threat of huge amounts of money anonymously spent on ads to attack candidates that seems to be the most talked about outcome of the Supreme Court's 2010 decision Citizens United.  

Just last night, the US Senate, on a party line vote, The Disclose Act, was voted down 51-43. (It used to be that a seven person margin was enough to pass a bill.  Remember those days?)  The bill would have required the disclosure of the names of people who contributed more than $10,000 to independent groups that air so called issue ads that are aimed at affecting elections. 

There was a late night Democratic telethon for the bill on CSPAN and apparently it will be reintroduced Tuesday.  The picture is a screenshot of Sen. Merkley of Oregon explaining how the Supreme Court has changed the Declaration of Independence opening words from "We the People" to "We the Powerful" in the mostly empty Senate chambers.

While the topic is important, I must admit it was not riveting television.  They had more time to talk than they were prepared to fill well.   Limiting politicians to 30 seconds, as KYES proposes,  while forcing a certain amount of superficiality, will also require candidates to distill their most important messages.


I was hoping to get this up as an audio file, but I'm having troubles doing that.  So it's video format, but just audio.  It's most of a conversation I had with Jeremy about how exactly he plans to make this work.  It gives you a sense of Jeremy's motivation and the experimental nature of this.