10 thoughts for December 6, 2013

It's official: I'm a lazy bum who prefers to jot down these 10 daily thoughts than write long form.

1. One by one, each county in Hawai'i is passing a ban on GMO ag.
2. 7% -- That was a huge drop in the unemployment rate, from 7.3%.  This coincides with the government shutdown and subsequent reopening.  Or more precisely, the number for October -- 7.3% -- probably would have been 7.1% if you extrapolate for the general trend this year, were it not for the government shutdown.  Thus, the last six months were: 7.6% -- 7.4 -- 7.3 -- 7.2 -- 7.3 -- 7.0.
3. An interesting point-counterpoint to the lower unemployment rate / good jobs report, is the question about why the markets jumped.  Surely a good jobs report portends a Fed tapering of quantitative easing.  But a good jobs report on top of the good GDP report means that the economy is rebounding well.  As I see it, if the economy is performing well, the tapering -- were it not revealed publicly -- would probably go unnoticed.
4. The IAEA says that one option for the Fukushima plant's lower-radioactive waste water, is to dump it into the ocean.  Huh.  On a pragmatic scale, we do this with all sorts of -- literally -- crap already.  Right now though, I can already hear companies along Portland Harbor will be saying: "Well, all we need to do is dilute our waste!"
5. I did it...went outside with 10°F / -12.2°C wind chill, with shorts on!  Twice!  It's 27°F / -2.8°C, but the wind is gusting fairly strong. Walked around for 20 minutes, in fact.  Ran into an issue: Modern sports-related shoes are built for lightness and breathability, but it also means that your toes freeze.  Yikes!  And I did it twice!  :-O
6. Speaking of cold, it's not just cold, but very dry...so dry that the inch of snow that fell this morning simply dried up and left the sidewalks completely clear by the afternoon.  It snowed a lot everywhere (Corvallis had 9 inches!!!) except in Portland.  Dammit!
7. I just know some people will again point to the cold temps and mock global warming.  For those folks, I suggest going back to half a century ago to compare the annual snowfall records.  We are living in a completely different era.
8. That American vet who went to North Korea as a tourist and ended up getting arrested and held, was finally released.  It's probably no coincidence that his release followed a shakeup of leadership where Jong-un Kim had his uncle and associates disappear.  Power struggles are like that, in dictatorships.
9. Someone pinch me...Portland Trailblazers at 17 - 3?  The best season ever was 1990 - 1991, when the Trailblazers finished 63-19 and a .768 percentage.  Right now they're at .850.  I might have to go check out a few home games.
10. Portland's Pearl District is fighting with City Commissioner Amanda Fritz.  She unilaterally decided that she could relocate a homeless camp to an area under a bridge ramp, a block away from a hotel going up.  Now she's throwing a stink that district leaders have found an empty building that would require renovations.  I don't understand her tantrum, except that she's just not a team player, and her superficial attempts to help the homeless needs to be reexamined under current weather conditions with wind chills projected to be near-0°F / -17.8°C.  Even without heat, an empty warehouse is warmer than being outdoors with no protection from the winds.