10 Thoughts for August 30, 2014

1. Google X officially unveiled its 2 year old skunkwork program, Project Wing: A really cool drone to deliver packages.  This drone is not like other drones you've seen, to be sure: It flies in horizontal position like a plane, which makes it extremely efficient in flight, but then orients itself vertically and releases a tethered package that drops rapidly at first, but slows down and gently touches down on the ground as the tether is released.  Cool stuff.  I'm still partial to my cats with drones, though.
2. Rationing?  Yeah, that'll work.  Not.  Venezuela, suffering from shortages in the first place because of price controls and other wrong-way policies, is going deeper into socialism and instituting finger-scanners to ration goods.
3. Silica in the water?  It's okay to ingest.  But it does create buildup of scaling -- the stuff you have to clean off your ceramics and glass wares.  It is the core reason why you use a rinsing agent -- the blue liquid that you fill into that little compartment in the door -- with dishwashers.
4. Have you seen Canada NATO's tweet?  It's gone viral.  I'm going with a new hashtag: #UkraineisnotRussia.
5. Vladimir Putin said the laughable: Don't mess with Russia because they're a nuclear super power.  That was a stupid boast, huh?  As a super power, using nuclear weapons against a smaller country that does not have nuclear weapons (like the Ukraine) would cement Russia's fate and isolation and would result in charges of crimes against humanity.  Against any other nuclear super power or its allies, Russia would seal a parallel fate of death and burning.  And every time Russia makes these threats, they only push former Soviet bloc / Warsaw Pact states closer to NATO and the west -- see Ukraine's request to join NATO and to fast track its application to the EU.  By pseudo-bravado, Putin ends up exhibiting vulnerability, that he must tell us the obvious.
6. The Finns, it seems, are slowly coming to realize just how much of a thug Russia has become, and have entered agreements for greater cooperation with NATO, while its defense minister suggested the need to join NATO.  That Putin has threatened World War III were Finland to join NATO, should demonstrate just how crazy Putin is.
7. Saw an awesome thing early this morning while riding the bike on the Eastside Esplanade: A DJ spinning tunes from a portable system, right next to the walkway.  The party never ends.
8. The next-generation high end CPUs are here: Core i7-5960X, i7-5930K, and i7-5820K.  We're talking 8- and 6-core CPUs with 2x multi-threading, so it's like 12- and 16-core machines when running multicore-supported software.  The best deal is the 6-core i7-5820K, at ~$400.  It's roughly comparable to the current i7-4960X, except that the older CPU costs ~$1050.
9. 105 -- The number of plays USC Trojans had against Fresno State.  Broke the PAC-12 record they did, and within a spitting distance of the all-time NCAA FBS record of 115.  The offense looked smooth and crazy loaded, with 10 different players catching the ball.  It didn't matter who was in there at wide receiver, every one of them was grabbing balls out of the air and gaining chunks of yards after the catch.  This was way more impressive than when Norm Chow was running the offense with Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart at the helm.  Sark's the real deal and the Trojans are going to be a tough opponent for Stanford, next week.
10. A word about the Fresno State game: I don't understand how, if the NCAA is trying to protect athletes, why they allow offensive line players to tackle below the knees, or allow them to roll on the ground to take out defensive line players.  Every time I saw this during the game, I held my breath, knowing next week USC would be playing Stanford.  These techniques are illegal in the NFL, so why does the NCAA allow it?  I call foul.

Russia in "full blown invasion"; cannot stop lying.

Today, Ukrainian officials claimed as many as 15,000 Russian soldiers were now invading Ukraine.

Separately, a top rebel leader boasted in a video that up to 4,000 Russian soldiers are fighting side by side in Ukraine.

On top of that, NATO released photos of a variety of Russian military vehicles and equipment flowing into Ukraine, setting up positions inside of Ukraine, and pointing towards Ukrainian positions.

A Russian solider lobbying group (Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers) has even said that Russian military personnel, sons and fathers, are being sent to Ukraine, often against their will, to fight for Putin's and Medvedev's war against Ukraine.

Additionally, we have video evidence of Russian heavy armor equipment columns.

There is no mistake: RUSSIA IS AT WAR WITH UKRAINE.

So what did Russia say in response?  They lied and said that they were not responsible.  Incredible.  Their personnel and equipment are caught in Ukraine, and they still deny what's going on.

You can't trust Russian President Vladimir Putin and you can't trust Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev; you just can't believe them anymore.  You simply cannot trust any Russian government official these days.

• They lied about the threat of Fascism, in order to justify the annexation of Crimea, even while Putin continued to talk about "Novorussia" -- an expansion of Russia's borders.
• They lied and provided fake evidence about the source of the equipment used to bring down Malaysian flight MH17.
• They refused to allow inspectors full access to their "humanitarian aid" shipments, and violated international law by entering Ukraine without permission, while lying about what was in those trucks.
• They lied about the participation of Russian soldiers in Ukraine, saying that they were across the border by accident.  Apparently Russian military personnel don't know how to use their GPS equipment, or maybe Russia is telling us that GLONASS is terrible?
• And now, despite photographic evidence provided, they're actively lying about their military personnel and equipment.  The alternative here, is that Russia does not care where hundreds of its equipment and weaponry and its supplies are -- or as I would suggest, let's go steal a hundred tanks!

The worst part about it all?  Russians still believe in the lies.  Russia has openly invaded Ukraine and they still deny what's going on.

The partners of Putin and Medvedev have officially restarted the Cold War.  Don't be surprised if there's a bipartisan push for the US and European allies to directly supply Ukraine equipment and supplies.

10 Thoughts About Zombies.

1. I'm watching Season 4 of The Walking Dead, on Netflix DVDs.  I'm starting to have doubts about the show once again.  In episode 2, they kill the sick piglets to lure the walkers away from the fence that's about to break.  It may seem like a perfect compromise, but in the end it was a waste of food.  They could have killed the sick piglets for meals by chopping the heads off, and roasting them.  They could have lured the walkers away from just the noise of driving around, killing them along the way.
2. Oh, and while I'm on the second episode, let me guess the plot for the season: Dealing with a traitors and treacherous actions in the midst and everlasting tribal dissension -- in other words, the continued story of man on man war, even in the face of total extinction.  I tend to think that, were humans to truly face extinction, we'd cooperate and come to an understanding that war against each other was verboten; that if we came to a disagreement, we'd either split our differences to reach a compromise or otherwise split into separate groups and keep to ourselves.
3. One last thing about TWD: It seems that when a main character goes off into a soliloquy and gets more focus, it spells their impending death -- I guess it's a writer's flaw, to want to give a character greater meaning the moments before their death.
4. Speaking of zombies, World War Z, the movie, is significantly different than the book.  The thing about the movie that drove me nuts, was that the zombies could physically move faster than the humans they once were, which is a physical impossibility.  Even if you had the capacity to ignore pain, you couldn't make your legs move faster when you're holding the same weight and limited to the same muscle structure as when you were alive; eventually you'd break all your ligaments and your legs could not move at all.  In the book, zombies did not move that fast.
5. If you really want to survive a zombie apocalypse, where would you go?  Well, I've already visited that scenario before.  Zombies cannot physically exceed the capacities of human physiology, so no matter what, no zombie can climb a ship's side that is anchored offshore.
6. If you are ingenious enough, you can use solar heating to distill salt water into fresh water.  Scaling it would require considerable ingenuity, but you're not trying to feed the thirst of thousands.  But consider the alternative of having to find large storage, and then transporting that water to your storage, as well as the issue of the quality of water.
7. Aside from fresh water, then the next critical thing you need is food.  Dehydrated food would work extremely well in the short term, but it's not self-sustaining.  You need fresh food which means that you need seeds to make plants.  Three months' dried food supply only gets you to month four -- you know who I'm talking to -- and if month four should happen to fall between September and February?  It's an ideal amount if you're dealing with a natural disaster, but if there's a deadly viral outbreak that results in societal breakdown, it's completely insufficient.
8. The only way to survive a zombie apocalypse -- aka deadly global viral pandemic -- is to go green.  That means using solar cells, solar heating, electrically-powered devices, etc.  Power generators require fuel and you'll probably need to go out to find fuel over time, on a regular basis.  Candles require replenishment of candles.
9. Don't worry about saving humankind's knowledge...it's already saved on -- generally speaking -- Google's servers.  If the viral pandemic passes, servers can be rebooted, while in the meantime that data is saved on a semi-permanent basis on those hard drives.
10. I leave you with one unanswered question in all zombie movies: What happens if you artificially inseminate a human female with zombie sperm?

10 Thoughts for August 26, 2014

1. Okay, first a huge deal: A 1TB SATA-III Samsung SSD for $390 after applying discount code (EMCPBHD22), through tomorrow (Wednesday, August 27, or until supplies run out).  If you've got a laptop and want to speed it up dramatically, but you only have one drive slot, this is the best investment you could possibly make.  This'll allow you to keep your laptop for a couple more years, and feel like it's still good enough to keep up.
2. I've been enjoying my 42" 720p plasma TV for the last 7 years, now.  Plasma is the way to go, but there aren't many plasma manufacturers anymore.  I don't like LCD screens, because they look bad, even with 1080p and 120hz+ refresh rates.  But a worthy upgrade will be here, soon: 4K OLED TVs.  If you're on the fence on whether to buy a new LCD screen or not, I tell you, wait for 4K OLED TVs to swamp the marketplace.
3. So why 4K, and why wait?  There is a convergence coming: Netflix (and other) 4K streaming content is building, while gigabit fiber is growing, just as OLED TVs and their luscious color saturation and contrast is making its way into the marketplace, but right now 4K content is limited, fiber is limited, and OLED TVs are very expensive.  Wait a year or two and these things will have converged.
4. When you're down in Eugene this (or next) week for the football game, go to the bookstore and look at the checkout counters...they're based on my original designs from a year ago.  They decided to go in a different direction from the final design submitted to the Duck Store.  The original design for the remodel was to make it a showcase to allow the store to remain a hot commodity for several more years until they moved with construction for a brand new building.  FWIW, this was the exterior display proposal at the Autzen stadium store.  
5. You know, you don't have to worry about extending voting hours or postponing precinct polling locations due to inclement weather, when you have vote-by-mail with ballot drop-offs.
6. I saw a headline about a "Douglas McArthur McCain" without stating that he was a terrorist. My first thoughts: The headline misspelled General McArthur's name and Senator John McCain was showing his inner General MacArthur by demanding that the US put boots on the ground in Iraq and Syria to eliminate ISIS.  It turned out this Douglas McArthur was an American terrorist who died in Syria.  I know people are concerned about Americans flying to Syria / Iraq to fight for ISIS, but the way I see it, it makes it easier to kill potential radicals before they can actually do anything in the US, no?
7. Years ago -- like, over a decade -- I was standing in line to get some photos printed, and this poor lady asks if there was any way to recover some photos out of the film strip that she had pulled out from her camera. I felt bad for her and the lack of understanding of why film comes in canisters.
8. If you've noticed, I'm cutting back on posting thoughts about stories that are fresh.  The reason is, because most stories that are breaking, haven't been vetted and are usually half-truths.  It's a terrible symptom of the modern age of Now, where news is reported live through social media, but is actually often self-serving propaganda.
9. Vontaze Burfict was mentored by many players and coaches to help him channel his destructive behavior.  Now, he's a poster boy of a guy who got it right.  Does Manziel have a support group that is pushing him in the right direction?  By his actions during the second preseason game, it doesn't appear to be so.  His comment, about being in the spotlight seems wrong, because it shouldn't matter if he was in the spotlight or not -- pointing the middle finger at the Washington sideline was a signal that he was easily pushed over the edge.
10. I saw that Breaking Bad won a lot of Emmys yesterday.  That was a great show, and I have to say that I miss it.  I also saw that OITNB didn't win any.  You already know how I feel about that show: Crap.  It's not that the actors are bad, but the protagonist's character is absolutely infuriating that I cannot watch the show without being aggravated by her idiocy, and as such, the prognosis of the show is poor, to me.

10 Thoughts for August 22, 2014

1. There's an argument that the US should consider paying the ransoms of Americans kidnapped by terrorists -- driven by the execution of journalist James Foley.  The way I see it, a journalist or a media outlet should be getting kidnap / ransom insurance when going / sending people into harm's way.  Government's got nothing to do with your free will, does it?
2. Or the US Government could pay the victim's family, upon death, 1/100th of the ransom demanded, with a minimum payout of $2M -- that would drive pirates and terrorists mad.
3. I find this interesting: An officer in Ferguson yelled at a video journalist to get back, and threatens to shoot him dead; the journalist starts asking him for his name and the officer tells him to "go fuck yourself"; the journalist then addresses the officer as "Officer Go Fuck Yourself".  I find it interesting because the pragmatic response of the journalist should have been to question the officer's anger or to walk away, but other people apparently believe that, never mind that he already had it on video, the journalist was in his right to stand there and taunt the officer.  So it seems, most Americans would fall trap to escalating the situation, themselves, and it could have easily escalated were it not for another officer pulling the offensive cop away.  It's weird, right?  I cynically distrust a police officer's actions that I would avoid escalating a confrontation, but others cynically trust police officers enough to escalate a confrontation.
4. FOX12 has a story about higher premiums due to the ACA, but avoided talking about Oregon.  Odd don't you think, that a Portland station avoided talking about Oregon?  OH THAT'S RIGHT, OREGON'S AVERAGE INCREASE IS A 2.5% DECREASE!  An inconvenient truth.
5. The two Americans infected with Ebola, have officially survived.  Great news, you see, because they now have the antibodies to fight another infection and, were they to go back to Liberia, won't have to deal with the threat of death from Ebola.  As it is, the situation remains out of control, and will probably explode this coming week, following this incident last weekend.  I'm tracking the outbreak, by the way.
6. Huh.  Myth Busters dropped Grant, Kari and Tory.  Thought I'd google Grant, and it turns out he was at USC while I was there.  It's neither here nor there, but just an interesting intersection.
7. Did you know that today marked the 13th named storm in the eastern Pacific?  Two more and we'll hit the average of 15 storms per season.  Going back to 1988, the busiest season was in 1992 with 24 named storms.  Last year, there were 18 named storms.
8. "Pay it forward" chains at fast-food / coffee stores, is not an effective social concept.  The length of the chain of people maintaining it, is supposed to be a feel-good story, but if you're paying for someone else's drink while yours is paid for, you're not accomplishing much.  If you want to pay it forward, buy scripts for meals and pass them out, buy food for people and hand them out, or buy drinks at places that keep a board of free drinks available to those who can't pay.
9. Have you watched Seattle Seahawks in the preseason?  The first game in Denver was a misfire with the team looking discombobulated.  But the 3rd game is the most important because this is the game where the starters will play the most in any preseason game.  First impression: WOW, they play fast and the offense is vastly improved over last year, while the defense doesn't seem to have lost a single step despite all the losses.  Second impression: Seattle and Denver have the two largest point (points for / points against) spreads in the preseason at this moment, and it seems like these two are setting up for a rematch on Feb. 1, 2015 in Super Bowl 49.
10. It's football season!  College fall camp is over this weekend and next week the first college football game -- Abilene Christian against Georgia State -- is on Wednesday.  But no one cares.  Thursday however, three PAC-12 teams -- Utah, WSU and ASU -- will be playing, so Thursday is the official start of the college football season in my book.  Go Trojans!

10 Thoughts for August 21, 2014

1. I have a new theme for encouraging growth in Oregon: "Veni, Vidi, Vivi."  Come, see, live.
2. Mark Begich.  According to this National Journal story, Republicans privately believe that Sullivan's chances of beating Begich are low.  Then again, CSM says that Begich is, " is fighting for his political life."  The chart shows Begish ahead, and the sole nonpartisan poll shows Begich up double-digits.
3. Speaking of politics, Mitch McConnell just offered up a warning to Americans who thought that government shutdowns were over: If Republicans win, they'll force more shutdowns to get their way with the President.  Don't count your chickens before they hatch, or in this case, McConnell just delivered the script for the DNC to drive voter participation rates up.
4. Textbooks are expensive.  Apparently, I got out just as it was growing mercilessly.  One thing that could help: Making it unethical for professors to require their own books to be purchased.  I had three kinds of professors: Those who would require their own textbooks to purchase; others who would assign textbooks that weren't their own; and the best kind were the ones who would offer up a photocopy printed collection of texts that were the cheapest of all.
5. Hamas finally admits openly, that it was responsible for the kidnapping and killing of those three Israeli teens, in hopes of sparking a Palestinian uprising.  No kidding, they called it a "heroic operation".
6. Did you know that there were TWO real life Walter Whites who were involved with meth?  The media has mixed up two different Walter Whites: One from Montana and another from Alabama.  What they all share in common: The Law caught up with them.
7. IDK, I think Rick Perry is trying too hard.  Today, he's called for an overwhelming use of force against ISIS.  But, exactly how do you use overwhelming force, when most of ISIS is in villages?  Do you put boots on the ground or do you bomb both ISIS and civilians?  Which brings me to the issue of having a Republican in the White House: What war wouldn't we have skipped?  Would we have been bombing with boots on the ground in Syria, Libya, again in Iraq, and stuck for forever in Afghanistan?  As unsatisfying as it may be, people really don't appreciate the Obama Pragmatism.  
8. An argument that never made sense to me: Black on black crimes are bad.  As if black on white or black on brown crime were acceptable?  Are they saying that, if you have to kill, don't kill the brother, kill the white guy?
9. More about that second Koch Brothers ad airing in Oregon, attacking Jeff Merkley: A PWC study shows that for 2014-2015 period, the average price increase on ACA plans in Oregon is ... wait for it ... it's good ... no really, it's a slap the back of the head funny ... -2.5%.  That's right: Most Oregonians with an ACA plan will see a decrease!  Koch Brothers couldn't have picked a worse state, you see, because Oregon's got the lowest price increase in the country.
10. This sounds like a good thing: One place to get some food from Rainbows Drive-In, KC Drive-In, Poke Stop and Hoku BBQ Chicken.  You can get your huli huli chicken, pork katsu, waffle dog and ahi poke on, in one order. So ono, broke da mouth, brah.

10 Thoughts for August 19, 2014

1. There's a G2 geomagnetic storm going on at this moment.  I sure would have loved to be in Jasper, Canada right now.
2. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, in an op-ed for Wired, explains what I've been saying for several years: "A single fiber-optic strand the diameter of a human hair can carry 101.7 terabits of data per second, enough to support nearly every Netflix subscriber watching content in HD at the same time. And while technology has improved and capacity has increased, costs have continued to decline. A few more shelves of equipment might be needed in the buildings that house interconnection points, but broadband itself is as limitless as its uses."  When I say it -- that capacity is fine and the issue is the ISP looking to improve profit margins -- everyone doubts me; when a CEO says it, hopefully some people will pay attention.
3. By the way, Google Fiber is not like the other ISPs.  How do I know this?  Because unlike the other ISPs, Google Fiber cohosts content providers such as Netflix, to ensure the fastest delivery possible of Netflix content.
4. With the SCAA certification of home coffee makers made popular, manufacturers have rushed to design for, and build to, SCAA's requirements.  Coming in a few months is this KitchenAid model.  Dunno about the glass carafe, though -- that seems like a minus, especially if it's priced higher than the upcoming new Bonavita model.
5. A potentially powerful automated encryption app for Android, that it'll make all of your interactions over open WiFi totally secure from anyone.  That's why you buy into an open source platform, and not a closed one.  Unless, that is, you're an Apple Insider fanboy, and believe the stuff you write.
6. Have you seen Nike's LED basketball floor?  Crazy expensive, I bet.  But hey, when you've got the money.  Speaking of Nike, I don't know why it is, but their t-shirts are the only ones that fit perfectly.  I was at the Nike Outlet store in Woodburn this weekend and I picked up a pair for $25.  Nice.
7. Executing a journalist won't stop the US or any other nation from prosecuting its war on ISIS.  It actually does the reverse.  By the way, have you noticed how quiet Republicans have been on the issue of the President's assertion of wide latitude to go after ISIS?  It's because they're afraid of taking a stand in a public vote on whether to authorize a war on ISIS.  On the one hand they don't want to be seen as standing down from overseas responsibilities, but on the other hand they don't want to look like war mongerers.  It's the same reason why bombing of Syria never came to a vote.
8. I'm guessing that with Ohio State's Braxton Miller out for the season, the Buckeyes are going to be mostly one-dimensional and therefore predictable, even if they have a dual-threat, 4-star redshirt freshman available.
9. You know who is Monica Wehby's worst enemy?  Monica Wehby. In her interview with softball journalist Laurel Porter, Wehby looks like she's on Prozac and conflates different talking points.  Just two weeks ago, she said that, "our labor force is smaller than it was five years ago," which is untrue: July 2014 = 156M; July 2009 = 155M.  What she meant to say is that the labor force participation rate is lower today than it was 5 years ago: July 2014 = 62.9%; July 2009 = 65.5%.  And why is this so?  Well, one might point to the continued push for trickle-down economics by Republicans who've blocked stimulus programs.  As has been noted often, Republicans in the past used increased federal spending through direct federal employment gains, to stop recessions, but with Democrats at the helm, have demanded shrinking federal employment -- and have gotten their way.
10. Sprint's Framily has died.  In its wake, a newer, more complicated plan.  Seriously, don't write that comeback story.  Wall Street saw the new plan and bolted for the doors -- S sank 4%.  Well, they might have bolted for the doors because they think that Sprint is about to post red ink as a result of price competition, but if you look at that chart, it's hard to tell just how much money, if any, you'd be saving.  I'm just saying, I don't see anyone leaving their current service for Sprint.

10 Thoughts for August 18, 2014

1. The other night at Kelley Point Park, I caught a glimpse of a bat flying just a couple of feet overhead.  It's been a while since I've seen a bat in Portland.  You can tell it's a bat, by the way they fly and the way their wings spread.  Don't ask we what kind it was -- it was dark.
2. So much for German outage at US spying.  It turns out, Germany had been spying on American officials and had arrested a German spy official who had informed the US about it.  Ouch.  Germany says that officials were accidentally recorded while Germany was spying on ... wait for it ... a NATO partner, Turkey.
3. To get an app through the Windows Store (for Win 8), it must go through a lengthy review process: "certification testers install and review your app to test it for content compliance."  So, how can it be that the store contains so many fake apps, including ones obviously involving copyright infringement?  Oh that's right, they're not concerned about other people's rights, just theirs.  Doesn't that also apply to Google?  Nope.  Google's got an automated scan for malware, but no curated process as the type used by Apple and Microsoft.
4. Some parts of the web are asking why Loren Thompson, as a Forbes contributing blogger (non-paid), got his critique piece against SpaceX pulled from Forbes, just days from posting it.  I guess I'm wondering why Loren Thompson remains a contributing blogger for Forbes despite the blatantly biased posts that say only good things about his employer's actions while introducing FUD against its competitors.
5. The Koch Brothers are discovering that their ads are not working in Oregon, so they've gone desperate and now claim that Jeff Merkley is lazy, having written just one bill that has passed.  In reality, that's actually an accomplishment.  It turns out, very few bills are passed (feel free to peruse the list of senators and their failures to pass bills), in particular, this Senate has had a bad record on passing bills.  Why?  Well, part of the problem, of course, is that Senate Republicans have blocked action on most bills, by way of filibuster (failure of cloture on a bill).  So, the guile of the Koch Brothers is exposed: Republicans block action on bills, so that they can complain that Democrats are ineffective.  I suggest attacking the Koch Brothers where it hurts the most, by pointing directly at the cause-effect: "Who blocked votes on judges, even though they supported them?  Republicans.  Who blocked votes on the very bills that they supported?  Republicans.  Who spent most of their time chairing politically-driven committees on issues that have produced nothing?  Republicans.  It's time to tell the Koch Brothers to stop wasting their money on a do-nothing party."
6. The saddest part of losing Robin Williams, to me, is thinking about the fear he must have felt at the thought of slowly losing his abilities to earn the laughter of people due to a neurological disease.  It's easy for everyone to say that they'd be there for him through it all, but it's another thing to see their smiles displaced by concern.
7. I'm not concerned with the "militarization" of police forces.  As first responders to mass shooting / existential threats, I believe that they actually do need this sort of equipment.  I'm not someone who wants to wait for the FBI to make an appearance at their discretion, hours later, to respond to an immediate threat.  The way I see it, the police response in Ferguson, was an issue of leadership and tactics.  Rather than deescalate, they chose to escalate with a show and use of force.  There's so much more on Ferguson and the Michael Brown story, but I'm waiting for the story to play out a bit more before offering a full write up of my thoughts.
8. When I saw the photos of the new, 49er Levi's Stadium, I was underwhelmed.  It looks like a stadium built on a shoestring budget, having realized that it looks like crap, was flooded with "tech" to try to make it better.  This is what the Atlanta Falcons are proposing.  Notice the gap in design.  Heck, CenturyLink in Seattle is still far sexier than Levi's Stadium.  When the Vikings stadium is completed, it'll blow the socks off Levi's...and cost less.
9. 12: The number of named tropical storms to form in the eastern Pacific.  15: The number of named tropical storms, per season, on average, to form in the eastern Pacific.  With still 3 months left in the hurricane season, if this is not an El Nino season, then you have to wonder what the heck is going on.
10. Wow, what a wrench in the system: Shin Bet apparently uncovered a Hamas plot to kill Fatah leader / Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.  Why it was just last week I was imploring online to distinguish the West Bank from Gaza, and how Hamas has only Hamas to blame for its current position.

Photos of the Day, August 17, 2014

Today's photos are all taken from a park that is often difficult to find...the main entrance's sign is barely noticeable: Smith and Bybee Wetlands Natural Area.  You could be forgiven for not knowing about it, as it is in the middle of industrial lands, with the never-used Wapato Prison on one side, and a city dump on another.

The most ideal ways to tour the park: kayak and bicycle.  Bicycles are only allowed on the perimeter, so bring a bike lock to hook your bike up to the bike parking.  Also, no dogs allowed within the natural areas.  I've only ever walked parts of the park, but eventually will take my bike the entire route and spend time doing photos with my regular camera, not my phone.  Lots of birds and wildlife.

Finally, the gates close at sunset, there is no charge to visit or park, and there are two unisex pit toilets -- no running water.

Side channel algae blooming

Side channel

Smith Lake from the canoe launch area

Closeup of algae / bacteria in Smith Lake edge

Photo of the day, August 16, 2014

More of a catch-up from the last couple days.

Spider looking to make an appearance in Grimm?

Kelley Point Park

South Waterfront

Photo of the day, August 13, 2014

Frost at Trader Joe's store, with Google's Auto-Awesome applied.

Photos of the day, August 8, 2014

I was headed to the Rose Garden up in Washington Park, but that plan was changed when I saw that there was a massive crowd growing for a free concert.  Instead I headed to the Arboretum.

Today's photos were exclusively taken using my D3200 and a fixed 85mm f1.8 lens with Fotodiox macro extension tubes.

Petals of a magnolia

Orange ladybird beetle in magnolia

I thought I knew what this tree was, but apparently I don't.

Queen Anne's Lace, after most of the tiny white flowers have bloomed

Picture of the Day, August 8, 2014

Close up of blooming ornamental grass bathing in sunrise light.

Picture of the Day, August 7, 2014

This post is on August 8, but this picture was taken yesterday morning -- I just didn't have the time to post it last night.

It's an empty lot on the transit mall, between the Greyhound terminal and the newly built Bud Clark Commons transitional housing building.  What's the importance of this picture?  It has been my long-standing argument that this city-owned property ought to be the R2D2 (Right to Dream, Too, homeless camp) relocated home.  I realize that the city probably has plans to build an expansion of the Bud Clark Commons, but maybe they don't need to; maybe a sparse infrastructure to support multi-level camps, is actually the bottom floor of the transition from homeless to employed and housed?

10 Thoughts for August 7, 2014

1. Did I mention that I won a GoPro Hero3+ Black edition?  Lucked out, from years of playing Daniel Terdiman's Picture of the Day Challenge.  It arrived Tuesday by FedEx, and I got to work figuring out how to open up the package -- yes, it requires work.  I got it charging, and reading the quick-start instructions, realized that I didn't have a Class-10 microSDHC card to use, and none came with it.  Luckily, I found a great deal for a 32GB card for $15 with free shipping.  It's supposed to arrive today so, this weekend I'll be GoPro-ing.
2. Oh, I also added this Cuisinart blender for $30 from Newegg, too (used the coupon to get the $30 price) to replace my oldish, difficult to keep clean Black and Decker blender that I threw out, earlier this year.  No rebate applications to mail in.
3. This chart of nut popularity is amusing to me, because it reflects nearly the opposite of my preferences.  My order of highest-to-lowest preference for nuts: Macadamia, Hazelnut, Pecan, Pistachio, Almond, Peanut, Walnut.  I know that Walnuts are prized for their woody flavor, but I feel as though I'm eating bark.
4. Photos from ESA's Rosetta, of comet 67P.  The close-up images stand in stark contrast to the far-away images that implied the surface of comet 67P was relatively smooth, with pock marks from incoming debris.  When you look at the pictures, remember that the comet is about 4km / 2.5 mi wide.
5. Stupid: Media telling people to change their passwords because 1.2B unique credentials / passwords were stolen.  Why it's stupid: Because these were stolen from several hundred thousand unpatched websites using an SQL injection.  Like the Heartbleed Bug, so long as websites remain vulnerable, any new password can be stolen again and again and again and...etc.  You're wasting your time if you rush to change your passwords, ahead of servers getting patched, if ever.
6. By the way, I'm really angry at both the NYT and Hold Security, for holding back the list of compromised servers and/or the list of user credentials that were compromised.  One of the best means to fight back against bad security / break-ins, is transparency.  Instead, the NYT was primarily focused on getting the scoop and not about helping consumers. 
7. Just saw the first of the Koch advocacy (anti-Merkley) ads in Portland -- advocating for balanced budgets.  Hilarious stuff, because as we all well know by now, Republicans enjoy arguing in the abstract, but can't seem to square away with the specifics.  Balanced budget?  You know who else advocated a balanced budget?  Herbert Hoover.  We all know how that ended.
8. Within 1700 miles of Hawaii, there are three hurricanes.  Genevieve is tracking upward like former hurricane Iki and Iniki did, but far west of the islands and moving away.  Iselle, within 24 hours of reaching land, is now projected to hit Hilo as a hurricane -- instead of weakening it has slightly increased strength.  Hmm...I recall warning people online not to assume that it would dissipate to a tropical storm as was projected.  Even though they live on Oahu, I told my parents to go shopping for emergency supplies (like duct / duck tape) on Monday, to avoid the rush that has now come, and shelves gone empty.  BTW, have you been to Hilo?  Much of it is under 30' elevation from sea level.  It's not just the water surge, but the sewer surge coming up from the pipes.  It's going to be really bad for Hilo.
9. It's called the Italian Triple-Dip, and it's not a good thing.  Yet another casualty of a unified currency in over two dozen countries.
10. Putin's answer to the west's sanctions?  Ban imports.  Did you hear that sound?  American and EU consumers just let out a little cheer at the thought of lower food prices -- food, after all, has to go somewhere.  Sure, I know that this means lower profit margins for American and EU companies, but you know who's suffering the most: Russians.  Stagflation could very well be in the near future.

Backlog of photos from this past week.

Acorns getting ready for fall.

Sprinklers at sunrise.

Hydrangeas basking in the morning.

Everyone's watching the movie in the park, I'm watching the ISS pass the moon

On the move in the morning.

Photo of the day August 6, 2014

New thing: Attempting to take at least one photo a day.  Today's photo, in the early morning under a half-cloudy sky, of asters -- "Black-eyed Susan".  Somehow that name annoys me.  I'd label them "Sunburst Eclipse".  Oh well.

20 lyrics from the 80s -- guess the tune.

I'm in the mood for some eighties.  Can you guess the song without Googling the lyrics?

1. "If you're going to do it, do it right, right, do it with me."
2. "Girl I'm leaving you tomorrow, seems to me girl, you know I've done all I can."
3. "Cause we're the party people, night and day, living crazy that's the only way."
4. "I want a little music now, let's hear some Marvin Gaye."
5. "So open your eyes, and see who I am, and not who you want for me to be, I am only myself, myself."
6. "The road is long, the are mountains in our way, but we climb a step every day."
7. "If I had another chance tonight, I'd try to tell you that the things we had were right."
8. "I was dancing in the dark with strangers, no love around me, when suddenly you found me, ohh."
9. "I was always reaching, you were just a girl I knew, I took for granted the friend I had in you."
10. "I gave you all the love I got, I gave you more than I could give, I gave you love."
11. "Out on the road today, I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac."
12. "I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar, that much is true, but even then I knew I'd find a much better place, either with or without you."
13. "I did my best but I guess my best wasn't good enough, cause here we are back where we were before."
14. "I was working part time in a five and dime, my boss was Mr. McGee."
15. "They say that the road ain't no place to start a family, right down the line it's been you and me."
16. "Goodbye my love, maybe for forever, goodbye my love, the tide waits for me, who knows when we shall meet again, if ever."
17. "I believe the children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way."
18. "I faced the nights alone, oh how could I have known, that all my life I only needed you."
19. "Maybe I'm wrong, won't you tell me if I'm coming on too strong, this heart of mine has been hurt before, this time I wanna be sure."
20. "One day is fine and next is black, so if you want me off your back, well come on and let me know."

Don't hate me if you've got a head full of earworms! :D

10 Thoughts for August 4, 2014

1. The absolute best deal in town (Portland) in classical music, is All Classical's *free* Thursdays @ Three. It's a free recital by professional musicians in a casual space -- no tie, no jacket, no worries.  Right now I'm streaming the recording from two weeks ago.
2. What do you think about the circumstances surrounding these health professionals who've contracted Ebola?  Being professionals or trained workers, they've taken the highest precautions to avoid transmission.  And yet so many of them have gotten sick, and many have died -- that's something I haven't been able to wrap my head around.  If what we are told about Ebola's transmissibilty is accurate, then few medical professional should be infected, especially not the top Ebola doctor in Sierra Leone.
3. The CIA implied that it broke federal laws when it spied on senate staffers who were putting together a report on CIA torture in Iraq, though we all know that no one will be prosecuted.  Then yesterday a report came out suggesting that the CIA censored most of the torture report, such that it may be postponed indefinitely.  This, of course, on top of the lies to Congress by the CIA director, who won't be prosecuted, either.  CIA 3 - USA 0.
4. By the way, who do you think is defending and obfuscating the question of torture by the CIA?  Nope, not Democrats; it's Republicans.  Mike Rogers said that he doesn't think the CIA spied on senate staff -- his reasoning shows either a total lack of knowledge or he's outright lying to Americans.  Saxby Chambliss said that waterboarding was not torture, that it yielded information that helped find Osama Bin Laden, and that he was against an investigation into waterboarding -- all of which makes you wonder, if waterboarding yielded useful intel, why did it take years after waterboarding had stopped, to find him?  The answer is, Chambliss is lying.
5. Apple Insider sinks to a new low, claiming that Androids are a big hit with Al Qaeda because they are insecure and therefore can be used for DDOS attacks as well as being used to target users.  That's about as stupid as you can get.  If the platform were insecure, using it would make the terrorists' phones all the more vulnerable.  The fact of the matter is, as the original source was referenced, the reason why Androids are so popular is because you can sideload your own apps which can make your phone safer than others.  For instance, you could sideload apps that only communicate with precise IP addresses you input, and block access to all other IP addresses, while using client-end encryption.
6. Perhaps God was upset with Putin?  I dare you not to laugh.
7. Speaking of Putin, Germany just exceeded the EU economic sanctions against Russia and stopped delivery of military-related technology.  The EU, in all of its fist-waving, had determined that military hardware and contracts that had been previously signed, would not be covered by their sanctions -- relieved was France, no less.
8. Have you seen the insane satellite imagery of storms in the southern Pacific?  It's a string of storms headed into the vicinity of Hawai'i, including Hurricane Iselle and Tropical Storm Julio.  This is crazy, folks.
9. As of this writing, Hurricane Iselle is a cat-4 hurricane and it won't start to weaken for another day, which, is cutting it really close.  On top of that, tropical storm Julio is just two days behind it, and will strengthen to a hurricane by tomorrow.  In 40+ years, this is the first time I've ever heard of two hurricanes in succession, in a single season, headed directly towards Hawai'i, let alone within a couple of days.  I'm almost sure this has something to do with global warming.  The odds are just to incredible to believe.  President Obama better rush back and get federal response teams ready, because this might be monumental.
10. Just got hit up by a pollster on Oregon elections and direction of the country.  Some questions aren't so easy to answer.  What effect have Merkley's economic policies had on the economy?  Not really, because they haven't been implemented with a no-show-do-nothing GOP.  What is my opinion of Monica Wehby?  I wanted to say neutral, but since her return to the public (in scheduled appearances) rather than seek the middle she's gone to the far right, which puzzled me, except perhaps the reason for her tactic can be explained by a quid pro quo with the Kochs who are pouring money into Oregon on her behalf?

Bonus: Natural and manmade features collide in this Google Maps / Earth section of Egypt.  The swirling and straight lines are vehicular tire traffic patterns.  The sinuous, fractal-like structures are probably ancient delta river deposits dating a few million years, remnants of a past path of the Nile.

The silliness of the GOP lawsuit, and the benefits of it.

On Wednesday, the GOP-led House voted to sue the President over the delayed implementation of a portion of the ACA.  Back in 2010, not a single GOP House member voted for the ACA, which makes this highly hypocritical and rather dumb.

After all, how can you take the high road and demand that the President follow through and carry out a law that Congress passed, when you didn't vote to pass it in the first place?

Republicans poking their own eyes out

Imagine if a Democratic Congress had passed the Poke All Republicans in the Eye Act without a single Republican vote in support.  A few years later the President, upon consultation with optometrists, ophthalmologists and cabinet members, determined that the PARE-Act needed to be delayed in implementation until rules could be properly drawn up to avoid serious eye injury.  Republicans, now in control of the House, understandably upset that they are unable to repeal the PARE-Act, decide to sue the President to enforce 100% of the PARE-Act without delay.

Well anyway, that's my perspective on what's going on, here.

History is not on their side, either.

A bonus for Democrats

Republicans hypocritically passed a bill that provided for unlimited spending of taxpayer dollars, without having to offset cuts anywhere else -- something Republicans in the House said they'd do, under their numerous balanced budget proposals.

A second bonus for Democrats

Greg Walden lied.  According to WaPo, he stated that, "The American people, especially independent voters, in the data we see, believe this administration has overreached time and again and they are clamoring for somebody to push back in a responsible way to get the administration to start following the law."  But we already knew a week ago from this CNN poll that 55% of independent / 57% of all voters were against a lawsuit.  In fact, the only group wanting to file a lawsuit, are Republicans -- 64% of them, as a matter of fact.

A third bonus for Democrats

Republican politicians are lying about who's pushing impeachment.  That same CNN poll shows that 57% of Republicans want to impeach the President.  Slate's Dave Weigel tracked the lengthy list of Republicans who've come out pushing impeachment.  Why?  Because Greg Walden told them that impeachment would be detrimental towards the GOP during the midterms.

A fourth bonus for Democrats

Republicans still believe that the midterms are a referendum on the ACA.  But as the data has shown, uninsured rates have suddenly dropped as a result of the ACA and both its expansion of Medicaid and the insurance exchanges.  In Kentucky, the number of uninsured has been cut in half.  In Massachusetts, the rate of uninsured residents has gone from 3.9% in 2013 to under 1% in 2014.  According to a Wallethub review of KFF projections, proactive states have all dramatically lowered their rate of uninsured.  So you know what this means: Democrats can now run on the effects of the ACA's repeal, were Republicans to win in the midterms.  Rather than talk about supporting "Obamacare" or the ACA, the new talking point is what happens when the ACA gets repealed by Republicans.