10 Thoughts for May 24, 2014

1. The original backers (including tech companies who'd called for such reform) of a House bill to scale back NSA domestic spying have bailed because of the amendments to it.  You see, if you look closely at it, the bill now codifies bulk collection of data with very few limits by using vague language to describe the limitations.  This is the same sort of wool over the eyes of Congress that happened when the Patriot Act came up for a reauthorization vote.  The NSA and President Bush said it did one thing, but the vague language codified what had been previously illegal.  Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on...Congress.
2. Are you paying attention to Mark Cuban's latest foot in mouth episode?  Let me sum it up for you: In trying to explain why he's bigoted and that he's comfortable with his level of bigotry, he ended up realizing that he was a bigot and apologized for being a bigot.
3. And unlike Mark Cuban, I don't cross the street to avoid anyone.  Never have.
4. Google fixed Chrome when casting video from a tab.  The last month or so, casting a tab with video -- such as Colbert Report -- then trying to go to full-screen, would not allow you to use your computer for anything else, otherwise it would automatically resize itself back to normal.  Now, everything actually works better than before the bug was introduced.
5. I think it's funny, that Republican politicians can't figure out shifting demographic trends.  Whether it is immigration reform or just bad targeting of money, Republicans just can't seem to embrace data that contradicts their echo chamber information.
6. Boil order for Portland.  Meh.  What we didn't know for the last three days, was that there were two other positive tests for e coli, yet we were all drinking the water then.  Today, following the boil order, has anything really changed?  No.  But people ran to the stores and cleared out all the bottled water, such that chains were redirecting supplies from outside of the affected area.  Panic and hording.  Classic.
7. I'm not sure what Microsoft's Surface 3 is, in an existential way.  Chromebooks, we know, are targeted at the low end (for now) as a thin, mobile, sync'd cloud client.  Eventually though, if you're running on a gigabit network, top end hardware can be useful.  Is the Surface 3 a replacement of ultrabooks or laptops?  It's too weak to beat out high end laptops, though.
8. The natural comparison of the Surface 3 is the 12.2" Samsung Galaxy Note Pro.  Both come with a stylus, both have 12" screens and they're priced at the same level.  But the Note Pro's screen has a far better resolution (2560x1600 vs 2160x1440), is 1.1mm thinner than the Surface 3, the Note Pro is also 47g lighter, and again, battery life is substantially longer (13 hrs vs 9) with the Note Pro.  The only spec where the Surface 3 wins out, is the CPU.  But if a top end CPU is your desire, why would you want to settle for a device running a power-sipping CPU?  I'd want a separate, dedicated 17.3" laptop running an i7-4900MQ.  So that's the issue right there: The Surface 3 is a compromise device that does not excel in anything.  In fact, it leaves out some things that the Note Pro has: GPS and LED flash.
9. I'm calling bullshit on the NYT's assertions that Amazon is engaged in monopolistic behavior by holding off Hatchette titles from pre-ordering.  Hatchette was one of the publishers caught by the DoJ in the Apple price-fixing scandal.  Hatchette, Apple and the other major publishers forced Amazon (and all other retailers) to use the agency model for minimum prices.  In other words, consumers were being hurt by Hatchette limiting our choices through the elimination of price competition.  In the case of Amazon limiting Hatchette titles, it does not harm consumers as all of the other retailers have their titles available for pre-order, allowing price-conscious shoppers to find a lower price and to place their orders months in advance.  Labeling Hatchette as a victim, is rather pathetic on the part of the NYT.
10. I'm deeply troubled and concerned that the Obama Administration isn't standing up for Eric Shinseki, much like how the Bush Administration basically trashed Shinseki's assessment of the poor prospects of going to war in Iraq.  The allegation has been that one or more VA facilities falsified documents to cover up the actual wait times.  Even as the investigation has expanded into many more facilities, it does not imply that the cover up was systemic, but that they are looking to see if there was evidence of systemic problems or not.  Just because he doesn't emote outrage, doesn't mean you should be outraged at him. 

10 Thoughts for May 21, 2014

1. The NFL awarded Minneapolis the 2018 Super Bowl.  Did the NFL learn their lesson about awarding northern cities, despite the snow threat?  I say no.  Even though the new -- completed in 2016 -- stadium will be covered much like the Metrodome was, it won't matter if there's a blizzard and 10 feet of snow outside.
2. Speaking of the NFL, they're facing a class action lawsuit that it allowed a permissive -- even possibly illegal -- environment allowing teams to drug up players for broken bones without telling them that they had broken bones.
3. The FDA recently issued an update on its investigation into complaints over tainted dog treats from China.  As a result, today Petco announced that it will stop selling treats made in China.  Suffice to say, I stopped buying all chicken jerky, including those sold at Costco, years ago.  Almost all of them are from China, and as we've seen in the past, China has issues of quality control.  
4. Portland's city council is set to vote on a road tax.  I don't see why everyone has to pay for a tax for a product (roads) that isn't treated equally by all.  Some of us who rarely drive (and those who don't drive at all) are subsidizing the actions of those who use studded tires or otherwise use heavy vehicles under single occupancy.  That's about as regressive as you can get, reeking of the conservative flat tax.
5. If people are upset at the VA, then maybe we should take conservative pundit Rich Lowry's prodding and privatize it.  We'll squarely pin the idea of VA privatization on conservatives and let them take the heat for it, including the even-longer wait times.
6. Or we could stop going to wars for the next 50 years, and dismantle the defense industry, so that the number of veterans requiring extensive care will not continue to increase faster than the population.
7. PAC-12 presidents sent a letter to the presidents of the other four major NCAA conferences (SEC, Big-12, Big-10, ACC) outlining a massive reorganization of the league.  Because it essentially splits the league into the haves and have-nots, I expect a push and rush to expansion of the five major leagues to reach 16 teams, each.  And expect minimum qualifications to include the size and capacity of each school to fund their expenses under the new regime.
8. EBay got hacked; all passwords were compromised.  Serendipity: EBay gave me the finger last year and deleted my account because I had left it inactive for several years.
9. Monica Wehby blew out Jason Conger in the GOP primary.  She's going to lose the general.  The unofficial results show that Democrats lead Republicans by 8 percentage points in registration.  Merkley received more votes in the Democratic primary than was cast for all candidates in the GOP primary.  I hope Republicans waste spend tens of millions of their money on this race.  More money in the local economy = more money in the local economy.  Same old, same old as the 2012 election when Republicans wasted spent their money in Oregon hoping to turn it red.
10. Call it justice?  No.  We know that there are 22,000 Americans who illegally evaded paying taxes.  Super rich Americans.  The 0.1%.  I would have shaken the tree until all the roaches fell out.  Then I would have seized all of their assets until a full investigation could be completed...say in about a year or so.  At that point, these roaches would have reached out to their other foreign assets, and the trail of tax evasion extended.

Fallout from revelations on Monica Wehby?

What a weird twist in Monica Wehby's campaign.  Today ballots are due, but it doesn't really matter at this point, after the last four days; even if she wins, she's not going to have a chance to win come November.  Let's recap.

The relationship 

Previously, Oregonians had learned that Monica Wehby was involved with Andrew Miller, who'd been behind a slate of separate political action committee advertisements backing Wehby.  Those ads showed numerous photos of private family moments.  These all brought about suspicions (followed by formal complaints) of campaign violations banning coordination between PACs and candidates.

Last Friday, Oregonians were informed that Wehby's relationship with Andrew Miller had actually gone sour 13 months ago, leading to Miller calling 911 to complain that she'd been stalking him and harassing his employees.  What triggered the formal complaint?  Miller had come home to find Wehby in his home.  That's almost psycho scary, but leans towards salacious gossip.

Run and hide

That day that we learned about this incident, Wehby refused to answer any questions about it at a non-televised debate at the City Club of Portland.  Following the debate, she left abruptly and disappeared from all public appearances aside from an issued statement on the matter.

Suddenly this issue had traction.  If you have nothing to hide, you don't hide, especially on the weekend before ballots are due.  On the other hand, she was exhibiting the same tactic that led her to avoid any televised debate, instead relying on ads to curate her image.

Yes, it got worse

Over the weekend though, we discovered that in 2007, as she was going through a divorce, Wehby and her soon-to-be ex-husband got into a tussle a few weeks before their divorce would be finalized.  In separate reports, Wehby complained that her husband had yelled and swore at her, and he complained that she had thrown objects at him, pulled his hair and slapped him.

Once officers had explained what an arrest and restraining order would involve, both sides declined to make official complaints, even though a report was required -- hence why we have this report available.

But there's more

In 2009, Wehby and her ex-husband got into another tussle, when she was looking to say goodbye to their children prior to her going on a trip.  According to the formal police report, she was supposed to get permission to see their children.  Instead, she had apparently let herself into her ex-husband's home several times previously without permission, to visit with their children.  On this particular night, she refused to go away until she got to say goodbye to their children.

Consequences

While Senator Jeff Merkley refused to comment on the issue aside from calling it a private matter for Monica Wehby, it's gone from lurid gossip to character issues, now that it has been established that Wehby's had a series of lapses in judgement.  We're not talking decades ago but incidents as recently as one year ago.  When you run for political office, all of your transgressions are played out, eventually.  You can either run and hide from them, or tackle them head on.  Wehby chose to run and hide until her team could come up with a sufficient statement to issue.

Does this mean she'll lose today?  Hard to say, given that ballots had been coming in for the last several weeks, though most ballots tend to come in during the last weekend of the election.

But let's say that she does win today, even without Merkley commenting on her character flaws, she still has to face the public and the media.  When she calls it a personal issue, she's telling us that her personal flaws don't have relevance in politics, which is at odds with the reality of politics.

And she's still a one-trick pony candidate, running against the ACA and Cover Oregon.  Lately she's been running ads attacking Merkley, saying that politicians "like him" have created the $17T debt.  That's weak sauce.  Were she to get elected into Congress, she'd own the $17T debt, too, as any budget vote in favor of anything other than a balanced budget would add to that total.  The first vote she takes on timber payments would single her out either as hypocritical or anti-Oregon; she can't not vote on it either, as a non-vote signals a lack of support for the issue.  She talks balanced budget, but she's never had to vote on the cuts required to make a balanced budget.

I think she loses in a landslide in November.  People seem to forget that Oregon voted in Merkley to replace another GOP moderate in Gordon Smith -- a guy that was about as inoffensive as apple pie.  With these character flaws and her one-trick pony, she's not going to survive November's general election.

10 Thoughts for May 19, 2014

1. AT&T wants to buy out DirectTV -- assuming the FCC and the DOJ approve.  Not content on expanding U-Verse, they're looking to consolidate half of the satellite TV market with their share of the fiber optic market.  This comes on the heels of Comcast trying to buy out TWC to concentrate cable market share.  It makes you wonder, therefore, if Google Fiber's big expansion plans have anything to do with this; are these old monopolists under threat and therefore responding by increasing leverage?
2. Speaking of Google Fiber, it looks like all of the cities on their expansion list have submitted and completed the first part of the application.  I got that email last week saying that the City of Portland had submitted their checklist response.  Some things apparently got by the wayside, but the May 1 deadline wasn't a hard one.
3. Having read the opposition to Google Fiber by some folks, I fear a repeat of the Trader Joe's fiasco in North Portland.  All it takes is for a small handful of vocal opposition to screw up the process and detrimentally affect all of us.  Look at what happened to the affluent suburb of Overland Park, KS. Which by the way, explains why Seattle didn't make the cut list, and might never make it.  Some people just can't help but look a gift horse in the mouth.
4. It would be ironic if it turns out that the Portland style gentrification allows once-poor neighborhoods to qualify for free 5Mbps internet for everyone including the poor.  With heavily mixed-income, high-density neighborhoods, surely almost all will qualify.  Now, all we need to do is solve the lack of computing devices issue.  I humbly suggest refurbished Chromebooks.
5. I hope people watched the first part of PBS Frontline's United States of Secrets...very good stuff in there.  Part II is this Tuesday, May 20th.
6. The Right has misplaced intentions by attacking Hillary Clinton, especially this early.  Not only does it exhibit weakness (by going on the offensive a whole two years ahead of the primaries), but it also reflects shortsightedness.  She was the odds-on favorite right up until Obama gained traction in the primaries.  I suspect the next Democratic nominee will be someone other than Hillary.  I can think of a half-dozen candidates who'll re-energize the base.
7. I'd been building on a thesis of why this year's early predictions of a GOP takeover in the Senate was misplaced.  As I was searching for data, one part of the thesis fell apart while a completely different portion took hold.  It's quite interesting and I think it plays a key role into understanding why the GOP may lose seats in the 2014 general election, rather than take over.  I was in the process of writing it up, but I sort of lost interest -- no point in writing about it before the primaries have ended and we've gotten a month of polling data to chew on.  For now, I'll just say that the key appears to be the trend of party-affiliation, including registered independents.  The approval rating of Congress registers a cognitive bias and cannot be taken at face value.
8. You know, Vladimir Putin has once again stated that Russian troops are being pulled back from the Ukrainian border.  That should make most people laugh cynically, after all, how many times can you pull back from the same position that you'd previously said you weren't in?  This is how Putin has played it so far:
1. We don't have troops at the border.
2. We don't have troops at the border.
3. I never said we didn't have troops at the border; of course we have troops at the border.
4. We'll pull back the troops.
5. We'll pull back the troops.
9. FWIW, I voted 10 years ago against the Oregon constitutional ban on same-sex marriage.  It just never seemed to me to make sense that the state (and generally people) had any right to dictate that marriage be limited by the gender of your spouse.  I understand any given religion's right to be against same-sex marriage, but it does not provide any given religion the power to dictate that all people within and without must abide by their beliefs.  That's where the Establishment Clause comes to bear, I suspect.  The reason for commenting about this, is that the Oregon Supreme Court US District Court in Eugene is expected to throw out the ban in a couple of hours, following the SCOTUS ruling last year throwing out DOMA.  (Update: Done.) (Update 2: Emergency stay denied.)
10. This sort of stuff keeps coming up, pointing to the reality that racism is alive and well in the United States.

Costeja Mario Gonzalez, the EU and the "right to be forgotten".

Some 16 years ago, Costeja Mario Gonzalez, a Spaniard who lost his home due to debt owed to the government, had his name printed in the newspaper La Vanguardia, as part of an ad detailing an auction of his home.¹

A decade later, La Vanguardia digitized its print and made it available on the internet.  It was then, that Mr. Gonzalez discovered that his photo, name and details of the seizure and auction of his home was available on the internet.  He filed a complaint to have Google remove search results that linked him to his past actions, with the Spanish data privacy authorities (AEPD).  The case eventually made its way up to the EU's highest court.

Prior to issuing its ruling today, the EU's Advocate General for the top court advised that the justices should not require Google to remove search links to his information, as it would, "entail interference in the freedom of expression of the editor of the website" and was, "tantamount to censorship of content published by a particular."²

While the top court generally accepts the interpretation of the Advocate General, this time it contradicted the AG, and in fact jumped the gun and created its own law.  The AG had correctly established that EU law did not observe the "right to be forgotten", a concept that has been discussed for a few years in Europe.  In fact, it was part of a proposal within the 2014 EU Data Protection Directive, but was yet to be officially passed and incorporated into EU law.^{3, 4}

The court chose to make bad law, in my opinion, once it stated that a search engine was "obliged to remove links to web pages that are published by third parties...even, as the case may be, when its publication in itself on those pages is lawful."⁵

The court suggested that, by appearing in a search engine's results, Google had made Mr. Gonzalez's information much easier to access.  Well sure, but what is the internet if not a bunch of linkages between each other?  If the direct link is erased, it does not remove the indirect link to the legally-appearing information.  Furthermore, anyone performing due diligence on an individual would not simply rest on one's laurels after completing a simple name search.  If provided enough incentive, I can find most anyone, and Google search is just the first step of many other steps to find information.  The court reeks of superficiality of knowledge.

Mind you, Mr. Gonzalez has no problem with being famous at all; he just wanted to be able to control how the world saw him.  Irony notwithstanding that his public lawsuit placed his name and his past debts into the spotlight, exceedingly more so than Google's single, obscure link to an ad in La Vanguardia.  In related news, Hitler called and requested that all past information written about him in a negative light, be removed from Google's search results.

The court, realizing that perhaps public officials might want to do exactly this -- curate their public image to suit their needs -- suggested in a obtusely generalized way, that privacy must be balanced against "the interest of the public in having that information".^ibid

However, the court seemingly forgot that before politicians and judges become public figures, they too were once private individuals.  If search engines are made to eliminate past references of transgressions, then all politicians in the future will have completely sanitized histories in the image of model citizens.

And finally, there is the question of moral hazard.  If one's actions are inconsequential, what's to stop people from repeating the same errors over and over?  It leaves a bad taste in the mouth, to think that one can walk into a church and absolve himself from sins, then go out that same night to commit more.  Like it or not, social pressure from public embarrassment has long been a critical part of lawful conformity.

Really, the EU should call it for what it is: The Right to Selective Memory.


Sources:

1. El Pais.
2. La Vanguardia.
3. EU Data Protection Law website.
4. EU press release.
5. EU Court press release.

Some interesting blog stats from this past month.

I hardly ever check my blog stats; it's not as though I get enough clicks to matter.  It just dawned on me that it might be worth checking out to see which countries were reading my posts, particularly in light of the sort of stuff I'd been writing about, lately.

I had thought that, because of my blogging about Russian (Putin) aggression, my stats from Russia might be down once I began posting about the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

To my surprise, Russian viewing has surged!  Thanks, Russians, whoever you are.  (Hope you're not the FSB and searching for targets to hack, though.)  Come to think of it, this is the very first time I've had more readers from outside of the US.  I'm officially global!

By the way, if you stare closely at the image of the world, Google does not recognize Crimea as part of Russia.  Nyet!  (Or "not yet!")

PSA: The dozen insults you should never say or think.

In light of some recent foot-in-mouth syndromes, I thought I should issue a PSA on a dozen insults that you should never say or think, especially when someone's got a smart phone on them:

1. You're only smarter than the average zombie, and that's after eating a dozen brains.
2. You're as bright as a candle on the sun and I'm the sun.
3. Darwin was wrong and you're the proof.
4. Well no, the Constitution doesn't prohibit stupid people from expressing their opinions, so you go right ahead while I daydream.
5. It doesn't matter which part of the lower 98% you're at, you're still part of the lower 98%.
6. I wish I could lose half my brain, just so that we could communicate on the same level.
7. Your mama called -- she wants you back in the womb because it turns out your brain was only half-baked.
8. Tina Turner was wrong and love's got everything to do with it, otherwise I wouldn't be with stupid.
9. I'm thinking of becoming an actor; I've been acting dumb all this time to make you feel better about yourself.
10. Do you know what the difference is between you and a brain-dead person?  I don't know, either.
11. Don't stand so close to me; your dumb might be contagious.
12. Earth to dumb: Just accept your dumbness and stop talking already; we already have too much hot air.

Remember, these are things that you're not supposed to say, even if humorous.

The construction process, realized. (cross posted)

We're just finishing off the construction of All Classical KQAC radio station's new home.  Over the period of construction, I've taken periodic photos of the reception area, and here's a layout of this process, shown from bones to finish.

After stripping down existing, the metal studs come up.

The soffit (curved) is built separately and lifted into place.

Add sound insulation and gypsum boards; ceilings get ducts and pipes.

Some things get painted, prior to flooring.

Flooring installed, all walls painted.

Built-in and custom furniture, and lighting is installed.

Draft Grades of the NFC West, and Seattle's picks.

A compilation of various grades:

	SI	CBS	Yahoo	Kiper	Walterfootball	SB Nation	Bleacher	Fansided	ave
SF	B+	A	A	A	B	A-	A+	A+	A
StL	A-	A	A	A-	C+	B+	A-	A-	A-
AZ	B	B+	C	B	C+	A-	B	B+	B
SEA	B-	B	C	C+	A	B-	C	C+	B-

Let's review, shall we?

Draft selections:

Paul Richardson (rd 2, #45);

Justin Britt (rd 2, #64);

Cassius Marsh (rd 4, #108);

Kevin Norwood (rd 4, #123);

Kevin Pierre-Louis (rd 4, #132);

Jimmy Staten (rd 5, #172);

Garrett Scott (rd 6, #199);

Eric Pinkins (rd 6, #208);

Kiero Small (rd 7, #227).

Free agent signings:

Dion Bailey;

Brock Coyle;

Chase Dixon;

Garry Gilliam;

Bronson Irwin;

Jackson Jeffcoat;

Jimmy LeGree;

Keith Price;

Andru Pulu.

I'm disappointed that Pete traded down and took Richardson, rather than take Marqise Lee with the final pick of the 1st round, and here's why:

While Richardson was 1/10th of a second faster in the 40-yard dash, Lee had a 1/5th second lead on the short shuttle which displays his shiftiness.  Further, Richardson never performed bench presses, and at 175# there's questions on his ability to block down field and take hits as a slot receiver. Lee grabs balls out of the air.  True, he sometimes allows passes to deflect off his hands and turn into INTs, but watch Lee's and Richardson's tapes and you'll see every one of these distinctions highlighted.

Why were Lee's numbers down in 2013?  Because he was injured through the entire season, never at 100%.  Does that make him injury prone?  Well, Richardson sat out an entire season for a torn knee ligament.  You can't raise the injury question on Lee without doing the same on Richardson.

And you know Seahawks fans wanted Marqise.  With the clock started on the 32nd pick, the fans were chanting, "Marqise, Marqise, Marqise."

I think Cassius Marsh, Justin Britt and Kevin Pierre-Louis could contribute right away, especially Marsh.

I'm not sure about Kiero Small, though.  If he's as so strong as scouts suggest, why is it that he could only bench press 23 times?  At 5'-8" and 244#, if that were all muscle he should have been clearing 30 presses, no? The image of his bulked up muscular frame implied that he could press far more than 23 times. Okay, so watch his tape.  Good blocker no question, but he is slow at times and when he goes for the legs, some of the better defenders bounce back up to make the tackle.

I would have picked USC's Morgan Breslin.  Breslin was another Trojan who had a steep dropoff in 2013 because of injuries.  In 2012, Breslin was tied with Jadeveon Clowney for 5th in the nation in sacks.  In 2013, despite playing in just 6 games, he had 4.5 sacks (and he was hobbled in some of those games as he came back too early).  Compare that to Clowney who played in 11 games but only registered 3 sacks.  Breslin was a steal for the 49ers as a signed UDFA.

With regards to Seattle's signed undrafted free agents, I believe Dion Bailey, Brock Coyle and Jackson Jeffcoat stand a solid chance of making the 53-man roster if not the practice squad as they were solid defensive players in college.  Bailey is like a Malcolm Smith, who seems to always be around the football.

---

Separately but in the same theme of NFL drafts:

Seahawks, pay atttention to USC's FB Soma Vainuku for 2015 or 2016 draft.  As a high school senior, the guy benched 225# 30 times, and when he hits you, you're going down. His special teams play is spectacular with his half-dozen blocked kicks and nasty as hell tackling on kickoffs.

Stanford's Trent Murphy's two sacks against USC in 2013, all occurred when Vainuku was on the sidelines -- I bring this up because SF Gate's caption for this photo says that Murphy was a handful for Vainuku, but look at that photo closely and it was Murphy (6'-6") who was crouching down below Vainuku (6'-1") to gain leverage.  Vainuku blocks well and often, all the way down the field on a play; if you want Beast Mode to continue to take down opposing defenses, you'll want Vainuku leading the way.

10 Thoughts for May 10, 2014

1. Watch an opera, any time, on your TV.  There are hundreds of full operas on YouTube and you can stream any of them to your TV using Chromecast.  Mind you, it's not the same as going to an opera, but on balance it's awfully nice to be able to hit 'pause' when needed.  
2. 11 USC Trojans; 3 drafted.  The rest signed free agent contracts.  Okay, so the one that excites me the most: Dion Bailey signed with Seattle.  Duh.  This one's got "special" written all over it.  Bailey was solid in coverage and a big part of USC's defense the last two years.  You know what's got me bummed, is that Morgan Breslin signed a free agent contract with the 49ers...would have loved to see him sign with Seattle instead, and show that always-on motor.  He's undersized as an end but as a linebacker he'd be ideal.
3. Speaking of the draft, for the first time since 1937, not a single Texas Longhorn was drafted.
4. Speaking of universities in the NFL draft, despite a surge of draft picks this year, Notre Dame still trails the top school: U S C.  The Trojans remain the top NFL factory of all time.
5. The US Postal Service is caught in a series of conflicting interests.  The more it cuts delivery service and raises prices, the faster people stop using their services.  They convey a necessary service but do not hold a monopoly to ensure its survival.  They accepted burdens in the 90s placed on them by politicians that weren't sustainable, but are now told by politicians that they cannot operate independently to slash costs as they see fit.
6. This, an awesome and hilarious comment, obtusely, on the naivete of the conservative SCOTUS justices who gave governments the right to invoke Christian prayers before meetings.  If you don't read it, you're depriving yourself.
7. Think about this for a moment.  Inequality has been rising in the US for several decades, now.  I was certain that we were on the precipice of a popular uprising, a la Watts Riots and Rodney King Riots.  But then Democrats took control of Congress in 2006 and the nation elected Barack Obama in 2008.  Even with the tumult of the last 6 years, Democrats were able to pass some legislation to push for some greater progressiveness in taxation and passed demand-based economic stimulus (backed of course, by supply-side Fed policies).  That seemed to stave off any popular response to inequality in the US.  But we're facing a possible -- though I really don't see it in the polls -- takeover of the Senate by Republicans.  I fear Obama will capitulate and break out the cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security while leaving defense untouched.  Without Democrats in control of at least one chamber of Congress, these cuts will be enacted.  Will we see an all-out uprising outside of the political process (voting) at that point?  I think that it is possible.
8. To recap the Oracle v. Google fight: An appeals court ruled this past week that APIs can be copyright protected, contrary to the EU's highest court and to district court judge Alsup's extensive ruling and considerations.  So, apparently open sourcing an API means nothing, because you're still required to pay out to Oracle the API's owner.
9. If anyone is listening, Petfinder's mobile website is badly broken, i.e. it doesn't work.
10. You're going to love (or fear) this report explaining the social networking involved in a chimp civil war that was heavily documented by the famed Jane Goodall.  In our human world I'd be the leader of a third group (a much smaller group) -- the one that left the confines of this conflict for better, greener pastures, in search of social justice and parity.

10 Thoughts for May 8, 2014

1. Who needs ESPN to watch the NFL draft, when you can cast a Chrome tab through your Chromecast, of the NFL's own live video?
2. Speaking of the draft, how can it be that, if you're picking first and the clock has started, you need the full 10 minute allotment to make your selection?  If there were any deals to be had, there were months available to make them.  If I had the #1 pick, I'd have taken Clowney too, even with doubts about his motor.
3. So Seahawks traded down just slightly.  There is a lot of talent still on the board -- Xavier Su'a-Filo, Marqise Lee, Louis Nix, Cyrus Kouandijo, Kony Ealy, Marcus Martin, Scott Crichton and David Yankey -- for the second round.  I'd call it a good move to trade down to the 2nd round, if they can get three of these eight guys in the next two rounds. Of course, I'd really love to see Marqise Lee in the slot, alongside Percy Harvin.  Remember that Lee's greatest productivity came when playing with Robert Woods on the field.  If you slot him next to or opposite Harvin, it's going to be crazy how much offense this team puts out.
4. This Pew survey in Ukraine is going to roil international politics, for sure.  It turns out, except Crimea, Eastern Ukraine overwhelmingly wants to remain a part of Ukraine and not join Russia.  More on this whole survey in a separate post, because it's a whopper and very long.
5. Once you start using a lot of open (i.e. expired copyrights) clip art, your eyes open up and see the wide use of it, everywhere.  In turn, it makes one appreciate original artwork, truly.  Same thing goes for stock photos, which is to say, no matter how much or little one pays for art, if it's not original it dulls the senses.  I like to grab clip art, but then to add and embellish them, such that they're not in any way, shape or form, resembling clip art.
6. Benghazi.  It wasn't enough that the House Oversight Committee, Senate Homeland Committee, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, State Department's Accountability Review Board and  Department of Justice all investigated Benghazi.  Republicans insisted on creating a special committee to investigate it, six times over.  Now remember, the whole dust-up here is over the question of whether or not the White House lied about the cause of the attacks, not because anyone committed malfeasance.  Well, unless Republicans have now declared that malfeasance shall be expanded to political messaging over the Sunday news circuit -- in that case, the whole of Congress should all be prosecuted, no?  This is how the Republican party wishes to spend taxpayer dollars.
7. I've been dragging my feet on building an online portfolio site for several months now.  The concept was to use a blend of custom HTML coding with pre-built, responsive jquery coding to create a minimalist site.  The thought of having to do so much learning of HTML5 to do the hand coding was the cause of my procrastination.  But I think I found a better solution: modifying a minimalist design HTML5 / CSS3 template to fit my needs and design preferences.  Here's the demo of the template I'm planning on using, although this one also caught my eye.  Personally, I'm a front-end designer, not a back-end coder, although at one time I was capable of creating Flash websites with Actionscript; once Apple declared Flash dead, I had no choice but to drop it, as I can't ignore half the world.
8. Speaking of online portfolio, shhh...I'm putting off working at an office.  I'm not a corporate kind of dog, I think.
9. Google Play Music Labs has a Chromecast Fireplace Visualizer which casts a video loop of a fireplace on your TV while you fire off music to your Chromecast.  That's nice and all for the months of November through January and especially around the holidays when you're playing a playlist of seasonal music, but I really want Winamp-type visualizations.
10. You know you're a grown up when: You actually spend the time to create an IRA and then access your other retirement account to reallocate to more aggressive funds.  Next thing you know, you'll stop wearing hoodies.  Nah.

10 Thoughts for May 7, 2014

1. Dogs that are both deaf and blind -- I was thinking about the kind of life you'd have to give them.  True, dogs use their sense of smell first and foremost, so their handicap isn't that overwhelming.  But you can't ever get angry at them and the only acceptable response to every one of their actions, is love and patience.
2. I often read that Russians believe America is behind some scheme to box Russia in, harboring a cold war mentality.  But for better or worse, Americans really don't care that much about Russia.  Oh sure, online there are volumes of comments on the subject, but in the offline world no one ever asks me to explain what Russia's doing in Ukraine or otherwise expressed concern about Russia.  There are no grand protests or hearings.  Had Russia not intervened in Ukraine, most Americans wouldn't have known where Ukraine was.  The truth is, since Russia stopped being an existential threat following the breakup of the USSR, Americans have stopped paying attention.
3. Watching PBS News Hour, I had to laugh when Stephen Cohen (yet again with his feudal-based outrage) said that Russia is facing an existential threat.  Bull.  They have nuclear weapons.  Maybe Russian influence in the world, long under decline, faces an existential threat, but Russia and its culture will never disappear.  And no, the west has no hidden agenda to make Russia its lapdog.  
4. Tuesday was ChromeOS day, with every Google ChromeOS partner showing off their plans and devices (Chromebooks, Chrome Box, Chrome AIO) for this summer.  We're talking Lenovo, Acer, Asus, HP, Dell, Toshiba, LG and Samsung.  The general plan for this summer includes chromebooks with Intel's Core i3 processors, and wider use of touch screens.
5. I watched half the games between the Portland Trailblazers and Houston Rockets.  The conclusion I reached: the Trailblazers have the talent and therefore capacity to beat anyone, but they can't seem to operate anywhere close to 100% at 100%.  They'd be at the point of breaking the game wide open, and then suddenly go cold and unfocused.  Instead of 6 passes around to find the open man or run a play, they'd rush into a quick shot, inevitably off the mark.  Suddenly, layups became missed easy opportunities.  Mental errors.  This is not a championship team, yet...but I hope I'm proven wrong.
6. I know many people around the world, and especially here in the US, dispute anthropogenic climate warming.  Farmers.  When they start seeking annual compensation for crop damages, it'll be too late to avoid the worst-case scenario and its effects.  We're going to be stuck with a substantially different planet in a few decades, and we're well on our way.  Worse, the cost to both adapt and at the same time reverse these effects will create economic and global chaos.  Thank goodness I'll be dead by the time the worst of the effects will be here.  But just a reminder: I did my part to reduce my carbon footprint; I didn't pass down global warming to the next generations.
7. YES, Net Neutrality does matter.  Comcast is arguing that it should have the right to slow speeds down because it has limited bandwidth.  This is untrue, however.  We still have a lot of dark fiber -- unused -- laying in the ground.  Furthermore, the cost of traffic is down to pennies per MB, and once you have fiber optic lines, the cost to increase carrying capacity comes down to upgrading the ends of the fiber to divide light into smaller bandwidths and not laying new lines of fiber; fiber optic is not like copper or coax.  Furthermore, Comcast is already charging customers for an advertised speed on traffic going one way -- from content hosts to you -- so your traffic has already been paid for.  Finally, let's say Comcast gets its way and is paid by content hosts to stop throttling speeds -- do you really expect Comcast to lower your bill?  No, that double-billing goes to Comcast's profit margins and acquisition costs to further spread its monopoly.
8. I've briefly written about Videostream for Chromecast before.  It keeps getting better with fewer bugs.  Also, it turns out that if you pay for it, you can add playlists -- perfect for music videos.  Videostream is painless and is much smoother than casting a tab from Chrome then dragging a video file onto it.  There remains some drawbacks of Videostream, but it is absolutely a dream app to have.  It's so good, I somehow expect Google or someone else to buy out the devs.
9. I did not know that, up until this week, our friends up North didn't have Google Play Music.  Wow.  If you have Android devices, Google Play Music is a must-have app.  One of these days I'll write up a separate piece on how I've reached Nirvana of home networking, with Google's services at the center of it all.
10. In the middle of the punch list at the radio station, I stopped and listened to streaming music (from Portland Radio Project) on some KRK Systems studio monitors.  I've been depriving my ears, apparently.  I could have sat there all day long and listened to music.

Alderperson demonstrates better wisdom than SCOTUS.

The conservative majority of the Supreme Court of the US ruled that it was okay to specifically use Christian prayers at the start of public meetings.  Relying on the notion that the original framers of the Constitution held Christian prayers at the start of Congress, they ruled that prayers at public meetings needn't be stripped of specific Christian references for more generic references to a god / higher power.

In its opinion they speculated:

"It is doubtful that consensus could be reached as to what qualifies as a generic or nonsectarian prayer. It would also be unwise to conclude that only those religious words acceptable to the majority are permissible, for the First Amendment is not a majority rule and government may not seek to define permissible categories of religious speech."

We should all mock them.

After all, we have a word for this type of prayer: Nondenominational.  We've been living with agreed-upon, generic, nonsectarian prayers for the last 150 years.  We have churches built upon the very concept of nondenominational.  We have entire communities of Americans who describe themselves as agnostic who attend nondenominational churches.  We also have Unitarian Universalists, looking to give individuals the freedom to find their own spiritual path, non-specific to Christianity.  All this history in the US, and the conservatives of SCOTUS dare tell us otherwise?

And given how the conservative wing of the SCOTUS has deviated from past rulings (unsettling settled law) on a variety of subjects, specifically Citizens United v. FEC with regard to the First Amendment, it sure seems folly that they assert this notion that a majority rule hasn't sought to change its interpretations.  If this weren't the case, why did conservatives raise hackles when President Obama made his appointments to SCOTUS?

So I present this excerpt from a Chicago Tribune beat writer, who spoke to an elderperson from a small community, Diane Gutenkauf of Elmhurst:

"Once you begin introducing any particular religion then you have the burden of having to meet the needs of all religions," she said. "That's a bigger burden than most communities can bear." 

She said she thinks people should offer a silent prayer if they want. She doesn't like the idea offered that anyone who doesn't want to be present during a prayer at a city meeting to leave during it. 

"Why put that burden on people of having to leave?" she asked. "I don't think the justices fully understand the weight and burden of this decision."

 Here we have an elected person expressing the need for Separation of Church and State along the need for inclusion of all, contrasted against the conservative wing of SCOTUS looking to grant legitimacy to its view...by majority rule no less.

Who's the wiser?  I vote Gutenkauf.

But if you want to really tweak a conservative, remind them that Thomas Jefferson was an atheist and Benjamin Franklin was agnostic at best -- two signatories of the US Constitution.

Ignore the Blah-blah-blah-gate and watch the whole video.

The incident

Some conservatives expressed outrage recently over Willamette Week's action to kick Mark Callahan from the editorial board's interview with Republican candidates, over his refusal to play by WW's rules.  The national media has taken to calling WW a liberal rag, but funny thing is, WW has frequently endorsed Republican candidates and gone against liberal ballot measures.  Notably, last election cycle they were against the Portland Arts Tax -- something I supported.

In the video the dust up came at 1:06, but at 0:53 he first raised his voice and complained about the "Monica and Jason show", then popped off again at 1:04, saying, "You're not being fair".

When given a chance to talk (jump to 0:57), he spoke like a right-wing nut, calling the Obama Administration the gestapo, saying that the department of energy should be turned over to the private sector (hey, Enron anyone???), and referring to Common Core as socialism.

When pushed, he admitted that he would have to perform additional research on the issue of what the energy department does.  Sad, no?

You can understand why WW was dismissive of his presence.

But you know, this isn't some liberal thing.  Lars Larson also dug into him, exposing Callahan's inconsistencies and opportunism.

No time?

Okay, so maybe you don't have all the time in the world to watch the entire 100 minutes.  Let me surmise it for you:

Monica Wehby's the big shot in the primary, not because she's a big shot name, but because she's the one attracting all the money into her campaign such that she's backed out of the only televised debate.  She believes that she can defeat her main opponent -- state Rep. Jason Conger -- in the primary without having to defend herself in front of voters.

So who is Monica Wehby?

Monica Wehby is a moderate running on a one-trick pony: repeal (and replace) ACA.  She generally accepted Senator Ron Wyden's plan -- which was never brought to a vote -- though her own plan is nothing like Wyden's plan and in her interview she cannot establish how she'd lower medical costs other than to help provide indirect tax credits through pre-tax HSAs and nebulous promises of tax credits.

She supports gay marriage but is opposed to marijuana legalization (apparently her support for state's rights goes only so far).  She believes in global warming, but obfuscates on the role humans have played in it.

The rest of what she has to say on the issues is all a bunch of towing the national conservative line, of course, without getting into the details: Too much gov't waste, but doesn't know where the waste is; thinks we should be tougher in foreign policy but won't use red lines or force, and can't delineate what she would have done differently to make other countries take us seriously.

The rest

Jason Conger is a politician running as a conservative.  He's against gay marriage and the legalization of marijuana.  Elsewhere (from the Oregonian) he's stated that he's against abortions.  He pragmatically voted to establish Cover Oregon, but said that he was against the ACA.  Like Wehby, Conger knows that there is waste in the government but can't point to where it is.

Tim Crawley wasn't prepared, but at least he was very courteous.

Jo Rae Perkins was generally inaudible, but measured everything against the US Constitution, so she's probably in the wrong party.

None of the above
If Wehby had stated that she wanted to modify the ACA to look more like Ron Wyden's HHA plan, she'd have a very strong shot at beating Merkley, even if she faced tough odds of winning the GOP primary. Instead, she's pinned her proposal to the national GOP talking points plan of repeal and replace.  Everything else about her screams independent moderate, which is the necessary starting point to be competitive in statewide elections in Oregon.

Jason Conger was at some point the top candidate, but he doesn't have the money to keep up with Wehby and he has zero name recognition outside of Bend, Oregon.  Without name recognition and money to spread his name, I can't see how he's supposed to win.

2014 April employment numbers -- a closer look (ignore the MSM)

The headline news: 288,000 jobs created in April and the unemployment rate plunged from 6.7% to 6.3%.  No surprise, given that the end of Snowpocalypse was supposed to result in a surge in employment.

It was higher than consensus estimates (~210K - 215K), but those consensus estimates were based on preconceptions of the previous months' numbers -- see below.  At the time of these estimates, they were looking at an average of 194.5K jobs the last two months.

	1st estimate	2nd estimate	3rd estimate
11/2013	203	241	274
12/2013	74	75	84
01/2014	113	129	144
02/2014	175	197	222
03/2014	192	203
04/2014	288

So it turns out even during Snowpocalypse, job growth was strong.  And as I keep explaining, the media only pays attention to the headline number, not the final number.

Myth #1 -- Main driver of growth is retail (low paying jobs)

The common myth has been that the majority of jobs growth has been in low-paying sectors, typically retail (aka McJobs).  But this is absolutely untrue.  Comparing healthcare, professional and retail, retail job creation has trailed much higher paying jobs.  Under Obama (since Feb 2009) job growth hasn't been driven by retail.

Myth #2 -- Federal employment crowding out private

Aside from the 2010 census spurt, federal employment, as measured in total numbers of workers and as a percentage of total private, nonfarm jobs, has been shrinking fairly steadily.  Under Obama (since Feb 2009) there are about 100K fewer federal workers.

Myth #3 -- Bush's tax cuts resulted in higher job growth

This will probably drive a lot of people angry, but the two presidents with the highest job creation in the last 30 years, from the start of their administration, were Clinton and Carter.  The worst to date, was George Bush and his twin tax cuts in 2001 and 2003.

Obama's record, in terms of total job growth, ranks above Bush, but let's consider that we're talking about the worst recession since the Great Depression.  The chart shows cumulative job creation since the start of each president's administration, which makes it all the more remarkable that Obama's administration's job creation record is nearly on par with Bush'24.

With the predictions of surging employment growth through the rest of the year, Obama's administration may exceed Reagan's record!

Myth #4 -- The unemployment rate drop came primarily from lower labor participation

Actually, this is half-true.  Without a doubt, the total labor participation rate dropped, which contributed to the decline.  But the participation rate has been dropping for years, regardless of the direction of the unemployment rate -- this points to an interesting divergence.

It appears that when looking at the non-seasonally adjusted data (the only data available for this particular set of numbers) of the participation and unemployed rates, you can see some clear changes in the work force.

The labor force, as measured from age 16+, hasn't grown much, but the 65+ portion of the labor force has.  Much more people are trying to work past retirement age, than before.

A look at the change in the participation rate since Feb 2009 shows that 65+ participation has grown while the total 16+ demographic has decreased.  Both groups have shown an increasing reduction in the unemployment rate since Feb 2009.

So the unemployment rate for 65+ has gone down because there are a lot more seniors working today, even as more of them remain in the work force.  Whereas the unemployment rate for everyone else has gone down because fewer people under age 65 remain in the work force.

In essence, older (retirement-age) workers are partially crowding out all others; their crowding out is only partial, of course, because their total numbers are relatively small in comparison to the total work force.  However, we should remember these changes in the nature of employment as baby-boomers continue to reach retirement age in larger numbers, in part because income disparity is the likely driver of old-age continued labor.  Without correction in income disparity, we'll see more retirement-age adults crowding out more employment.

The bottom line is, we're experiencing very good job growth -- to date, better than under Bush and from trough to current, a rate that is comparable to all other presidents the last 30 years -- and we may yet hit spectacular numbers shortly.  But it's not enough; we really need even stronger job growth -- Fed mandate on inflation notwithstanding -- to prevent a lost generation of nonworking Americans, crowded out over the next 30 years.