Where's Trump?

Take advantage of Trump's exclusion.

Dear GOP candidates, you're in luck, now that Donald has decided to exclude himself from the next GOP Presidential Debate, hosted by FOX.

Don't mention his name, don't allude to him, don't acknowledge his policies or his existence. Make it as though he was never part of the group in the first place. Out of sight, out of mind, people.

Seeing as you keep screwing up the art of rhetorical attack, this is probably the easier route to follow.

5 Thoughts for January 25, 2016

1. Google+: I hear the complaints from lots of people, about their Facebook feed; I don't use Facebook at all; I use Google+. In the early days of Google+, I was lucky to get an invite from someone on Lifehacker. I added friends and coworkers, but they don't use Google+. Instead, from that one guy's invite, I grew this one circle to a handful of folks, and these people post amazing things. While my friends talk about how Facebook is gossipy, silly and irreverent, my Google+ feed is absolutely fabulous.
2. Metromile: My auto insurance is coming up for renewal, so they sent me an email. According to the new terms, it looks like my new 12-month base rate will be $3 lower than this past 12 month period. If that $3 savings seems small, it is, but I'm already saving a ridiculous amount of money with Metromile, I had to laugh when I saw that. They could have increased it a few hundred dollars and I would still be saving an obscene amount of money over my previous rate with State Farm.
3. Interesting Coincidence: Two days after posting my design sketches for a vacant piece of property, the listing was removed. With its zoning, buyers were restricted to a single family detached house, so the price was 4x too high. If it had a different zoning, the price was in the ballpark of similar properties in the general area. Given the jurisdiction, I didn't think it would get a variance for higher density housing, so it didn't shock me that the listing sat there for 6 months or that it got pulled. 
4. Seattle Seahawks: Draft day is three months away, but I have two names for you to pay attention to, given the Seahawks' current salary cap and contract positions: USC's Soma Vainuku and Su'a Cravens. Vainuku's a bowling ball rolling downhill, opening up holes for the tailback to run through, and is well known on the special teams, whether it's blocking kicks and field goals, or blowing up returners; sometimes an opposing player will do something stupid and try to run into Vainuku, only to wake up a few minutes later, huddled over by the team doctor. Grab him if he's available in the 7th round. Su'a Cravens is the safety who could replace Kam Chancellor and still retain the role of punisher, plus, he's a better ballhawk -- 9 INTs in three seasons. If Cravens is still around by the third round, take him; at the least, you have options with Cravens at either LB or SS. And yes, he's like Troy Polamalu.
5. Super Bowl 50: Apologies to Denver fans -- you know who I'm talking to -- but despite my hatred for Carolina, I think the Broncos will be blown out by the end of the 1st quarter, and by halftime even Denver fans will be looking forward to the commercial breaks, just so that they can wipe the vision of the smirk on Cam Newton's face, out of their minds. The Panthers defense is opportunistic just as Seattle's was in SB 48, except in SB 48 Manning was in better health and the offense was humming along. If you hear Kuechly's name over and over again, it'll be a very rough night for Broncos.

Other design work.

Yeah. So, I do a lot of other design work.

This one is a preliminary 3D porcelain espresso cup, with the concept of a cup that a blind person could easily use, by way of sliding his / her hand along the table to feel the base, then sliding their hand up to where the tactile bumps are. The angled base also allows a blind person to find it again, when resting their cup, while preventing accidental spills.

This is what I do. Unfortunately, as I've mentioned, the 3D printed porcelain is a two-step process, so it's taking a really long time to get to production and back to me. I've got it ordered in celadon green, which should look really cool when filled with espresso, if you're not visually-impaired. If on the other hand you are blind, I think the tactile feel of the cup and the base will be an enjoyable experience. The only downer here, is that it's really, really, really expensive to print this.

Oh well, this isn't about mass production, anyway.

8 Hour Design Study.

Here's a snippet of some images from a post on my other blog. I did a -- relatively -- quick design study of an open lot, using shipping containers (40' high bay units) to form a house and an office as an accessory dwelling unit.

I probably overdid it. But if I had won the lottery, I'd go ahead and build it, then sell it, just for the hell of it, to show that container architecture can be really good.

After about 8 hours, spread over two days, I put the mouse down and stopped. It conveys the exterior spaces I wanted to create, and shows the spirit of the structures without getting fussy.

5 Thoughts for January 19, 2016

1. Electioneering: The GOP are trying to help Bernie Sanders. It's obvious why, the only question is, how naive are Democrats to believe ill-conceived poll results showing that Bernie would beat all GOP candidates by wider margins than Hillary.
2. Rats in the Pearl: I saw more rats in the Pearl District, two nights ago, and by more, I mean a family. They were screaming at each other, which sounds like high pitched squeaks. I'm not going to say what business they were hanging out at, but it's an eatery that had left its food trash in bags, outside on the curb for early Monday morning pickup, and whose spillage has stained the ground around it. Yes, I have the video evidence of these rats, but showing it would reveal the business where these rats were vacationing.
3. 3D Printing: I have ants in my pants, waiting for my latest batch of 3D prints from Shapeways. I ordered them January 9th, but they're not scheduled to ship out until February 5 -- I think it's because I have one print in porcelain, which is a two-step process (that prints a mold) and not direct-fab. Again, if I had all the money in the world, I would buy the most sophisticated 3D printers and open up my own fab shop.
4. SW The Force Awakens: So I saw the movie -- finally -- this past weekend, in 3D, and it was awesome. My only complaint, was that the script had a few too many SW cliche references. Other than that, I have long loved JJ Abrams' work, going all the way back to Alias, especially his ability to leverage emotions and bring reality to sci-fi. So of course, right now I'm listening -- via YouTube -- to a list of the soundtrack, from music posted by Disney's official VEVO, and casting it to my large speakers. John Williams continues his magic.
5. Seattle Seahawks: At the very end of Pete Carroll's season-end press conference, he included a mention about George Farmer. On the same day, Farmer was signed to a future-reserve contract. That he remains a part of the Seahawks future, might have to do with his perseverance through all of the things he's gone through, and his enduring competitive spirit, given the culture that Carroll has established in Seattle. That grit showed through when Seattle refused to give up against Carolina, and nearly came back to tie the game up after going 0-31 at halftime.

5 Thoughts for January 18, 2016

1. Seattle Seahawks: It is eerie how similar this game was to Oregon-TCU, except of course, Seattle fell short. Oregon was up 31-0 at the half, and so was Carolina. TCU shut out Oregon in the second half, and so did Seattle. The glaring difference is, TCU scored 31 in the second half while Seattle scored just 24. Losing is part of the game, but this one felt like it was avoidable if the team had adjusted sooner than later, or simply avoided self-inflicted wounds.
2. Democratic Debate: I had it on (streaming from Youtube) and I watched the first 30 minutes of it; after that, I mostly just listened in the background as I became engulfed in an online debate about Bernie's single-payer system. The debate on healthcare represents the ideological difference in the Democratic Party: Pragmatism or Dogma. What people refer to as "integrity", is the same complaint that triggered the Tea Party's growth on the far-right, that we're now seeing on the far-left. Most Democrats share the beliefs of Bernie Sanders, but those who back Hillary are more pragmatic about what can be done and how to accomplish them, while Bernie's backers are concerned with fidelity to dogma.
3. Bernie Sander's Single Payer Plan: Sanders just released his current plan for single-payer. He plans to raise FICA tax by 8.4 percentage points, in total (it's not exactly clear if he's using 100% FICA, but the descriptions make it seem so, by delineating employer-side and household side). Now, self-employed pay a self-employment tax which is basically FICA, but you're paying both your share and that which normally would be paid by your employer. An employer's paycheck shows a deduction for 6.2% FICA; the payroll tax adds another 6.2% for FICA and 1.45% for Medicare; a self-employed person pays 13.3%. Adding the 8.4%, this means self-employed will be paying 21.7% SE Tax, on top of their federal income tax. Assuming US median income, your effective tax rate may be close to 35%. Ouch.
4. Indifference in Michigan?: It's difficult to believe Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, when he says that he acted as soon as he could, to deal with what can only be called, Leadgate. In response to being asked why it took months to declare an emergency, he said, "There was some time period where we were offering filters, we were working hard to get water. All these kind of things. But not enough of it was being accepted." That makes no sense. If his three children had elevated levels of lead in their blood, I guarantee that he would have reacted immediately and decisively. Instead, we have a governor who waited half a year to declare an emergency, then started pointing fingers at others. Asked when he knew about elevated lead, he obfuscated. Why? Because he probably got caught lying, earlier. The effects on lead poisoning is life-long, for children; that he reacted slowly to a situation that will prove to be life-altering, is going to be very costly to the state of Michigan.
5. When Your Icons Die: Glenn Frey passed away, yesterday. Last week it was David Bowie. When you start seeing all of your icons die, it's a sign that you're getting older. Your mortality is staring at you, in the mirror, n'est pas? We are fleeting memories of distant past, dust and dirt of the Earth. Billions of people -- mere grains of sand on the beach of humankind.

5 Thoughts on this weekend's NFL playoff games.

1. Potential Divisional Setup: If the Broncos, Chiefs, Cardinals and Seahawks all win their respective games, then next weekend's conference championship games will be two teams from the AFC West playing each other and two teams from the NFC West playing each other. How will the rest of the country deal with getting shut out?
2. Predictions: The reason why I mentioned those four teams, is because they're the teams I think will win their games. Green Bay lost badly in Arizona, just three weeks ago, 8-38; I just can't imagine them winning on the road against a well-rested Arizona team. The Chiefs shut down the Texans, while New England's four losses have come in the last 6 games of the season, and it all points to a hobbled Gronk, which points to a big Chiefs win. Denver's probably got one of the easiest games, hosting the Steelers who will be without Le'Veon Bell (season) and Antonio Brown (concussion), while Big Ben's got a badly injured shoulder who might not make it through the game. The Seahawks will be -- I think -- sporting a huge advantage with a fully rested Marshawn Lynch, finally back from his sports hernia surgery, and while the Panthers are the favorite, the Seahawks are a very different team from when they lost to Carolina in Seattle, going on an 8-2 run.
3. Ranking of the Games: If you won't have the time to watch all the games -- I know I won't -- then here's the list of games, by order of closest matched / best game: (1) Seattle at Carolina -2.5; (2) KC at NE -6; (3) Pittsburgh at Denver -6.5; GB at Arizona -7. Obviously, the Vegas odds all favor home teams, but note that last weekend, all of the home teams lost.
4. Defense vs Offense: If you believe defenses wins games, then going by scoring defense rankings, Seattle, KC, Denver and Arizona should be favored to win their respective games. If you believe offenses wins games, then going by scoring offense, Carolina, Arizona, New England and Pittsburgh should be favored to win their respective games. Compare the two, and Arizona is the only team that seems to have both the better defense and offense, which is probably why they're favored to win by the widest margin.
5. The team no one wants to face: This phrase has been echoed many times over the last few weeks, in reference to Seattle, and you know, it's just not true. NFL players welcome challenges -- or at least the good ones do, and by the time you've reached the playoffs, the remaining teams are full of good players top to bottom. It's the fans who don't want their teams to have to play Seattle. The same holds true for Seattle fans, who might probably prefer to see the Seahawks not have to face Carolina, while the players are looking forward to playing Carolina. I want to see Seattle play Carolina, so that Seattle can crush them and wipe that smile off Cam's face.

6 Thoughts on Ted Cruz and the US Constitution.

1. The Motivation: I spent some time reading up and researching this, especially after some prodding in an argument online, on the historical record of the law regarding 'natural born'. I had always suspected that Ted Cruz might be ineligible, because I'd long known about the distinction between being born overseas on a US base, and not, but I didn't know the history of the concept of naturalization. My journey started with this constitutional law professor's post.
2. Common Law, Statutes, and the US Constitution: The US Constitution and the laws we have, were mostly (as one would rightly expect) conveyed from British Common Law. According to Common Law, 'natural born' referred specifically to those who were born on British soil. There were exceptions, namely, the children of those British subjects sent overseas by the King, in service of the King. In 1351, King Edward III issued a Statute that expanded the rights of citizenship to those who were born overseas to parents, both of whom were British subjects. 
3. Expansion of 'Natural Born' Definition?: While it has been said that British Common Law and the Statutes enacted prior to the passage of the US Constitution were considered to be the basis of the US Constitution (per SCOTUS in Patterson v. Winn) it should be noted that the British Statute in question, only expanded the scope of citizenship, not the definition of natural born. However, for argument's sake, if Edw III's Statute was the basis for interpreting the US Constitution, I think it comes out worse for Ted Cruz, because his father was not a US Citizen at the time of his birth, which, if strictly holding to the original British Statute, would mean that Ted Cruz should not be allowed US Citizenship.
4. Citizenship: There are four routes to citizenship: (1) Being born in the US and its territories which is a reference to jus soli, or 'right of soil'; (2) and (3) Acquisition and Derivation, references to jus sanguinis, or 'right of blood', where you either acquire citizenship because you were born to American citizens, or derived citizenship because you were born to naturalized parents; (4) Naturalization, where you apply for, and pass a test. Just a reminder, that these represent expansions of the path to citizenship, beyond the original US Constitution, and strictly speaking, jus soli is the only means towards citizenship that hasn't changed since the 14th Amendment.
5. Anchor Babies: In tonight's GOP debate, Ted Cruz suggested that, if we were to disqualify him, then other people on the stage would also be disqualified (Donald Trump and Marco Rubio). It was a baffling argument, because he was referring to his pet peeve, 'anchor babies'. Now, as noted above, citizenship is one part of the qualification to become President, but the critical half that was left out by Cruz, was being a natural born citizen. Furthermore, the citizenship clause that allowed for 'anchor babies' is clearly written in the 14th Amendment, as opposed to a disagreement on what it means to be 'natural born'. It's not just self-serving to exclude the part of the US Constitution that doesn't fit your needs, but it's hypocritical for an Originalist.
6. An Originalist or Not?: Ted Cruz considers himself an Originalist, that is, he believes that laws should strictly interpreted to the US Constitution's original meaning. No matter how you slice it, Ted Cruz does not appear to meet the qualifications to become President. If you take the original intention of King Edward III's Statute as an expansion of natural born, you have to also take the rest of the Statute that required both parents to be citizens. The interesting part of this, is that the 1790 Naturalization Act states, "the children of citizens of the United States, born out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States, shall be considered as citizens of the United States:   Provided, That the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons, whose fathers have never been resident of the United States." Passed around the time of the US Constitution, clearly the Framers never meant for someone like Ted Cruz, to qualify as a US Citizen! So if Ted Cruz is true to his Originalism, he can't run for President. So you see, Originalist or not, Ted Cruz is disqualified.

5 Thoughts on the $1.5B Powerball.

1. What if someone from the future came back and told the world what the winning numbers were, from the $1.5B Powerball draw? Everyone would rush to buy their ticket with those numbers, right? Roughly some 250M tickets were bought for tonight's jackpot, but if you split the $1.5B between that number of tickets, you end up with just $6 -- a net of $4 for each $2 Powerball ticket bought. You know that this person from the future is lying about those numbers, right?
2. I did it. I bought $20 worth of tickets. First time, ever, that I bought tickets, other than adding $5 here and there to a workplace pool. If I won the Powerball, I would set up a design office, equipped with a bunch of expensive prototyping CNC and 3D printing tools, hire a bunch of software and hardware engineers and designers, and just work all day exploring ideas. It'd be my version of Walt Disney's Imagineers. Is that weird, that other people play to retire rich, but I play to literally build my dream workplace and job?
3. It's not a waste of money. By buying lottery tickets, you're contributing to someone's dreams being fulfilled. In my opinion, what is a waste of money, is spending your winnings on superficial things like expensive cars, dream vacations, mansions, etc.
4. Aside from obviously setting up trusts for family members and some close friends, I would set aside roughly half the remaining money to funding different nonprofits, specifically, I would set up a $10M chair at my alma mater, and a $10M technology trust for my high school, and some other donations to arts and music charities. None of this matters of course, because the odds of winning are somewhere around 1 in 300M. Still, for $1.5B, there's a lot of good one can do, and just thinking about the good things you could do for others, makes you feel a little bit excited and happier about the idea of winning.
5. The cutoff time for buying a ticket to the current draw, is one hour before that draw. In line at the grocery store, 20 minutes before the deadline, people in line were panicking. A store employee started telling people about how the bar across the street has a machine and that there's no line, so some folks behind me up and left. I stood there reading my RSS feed in Feedly. As the time ticked down to 8 minutes before the deadline, the woman in front of me remarked that we won't make it in time, I assured her that, even if you don't, all that money rolls over into the next jackpot, so you're still going to be really rich if you're lucky enough. With one minute to go, I made my purchase. That's lucky enough, don't you think?

---

Well, I didn't win, so it's back to the computer and designing stuff...aka what I was planning to do, if I  had won. :D

4 hour design idea.

I found this piece of land -- not cheap at $170K -- and thought it was an ideal spot to build a home with shipping containers. The result is happens when I flesh out a random idea in four hours with my favorite design tool, SketchUp.

I left a lot of stuff out, obviously, but this was the minimum I get it to, before I was willing to leave it alone. It's 1600 sf outside dimensions; smaller inside.

5 Thoughts for January 12, 2016

1. Ad Malware: Ha! Forbes recently moved to block visitors who'd had their ad-blockers turned on, and I refused to oblige out of belief that websites should ask, not demand, that people turn off their ad-blockers. It turns out that this was the right choice as Forbes ended up serving advertising malware, even possibly the sort that did not require you to click on an ad in order to infect your computer. Ha!
2. Cheap Oil: West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures for middle of February, is currently sitting at roughly $31. If gasoline isn't below $2 a gallon by the start of March, something fishy is going on. I want to remind people, when gasoline hits sub-$2 levels, this is the time when you'll want to get that hybrid vehicle, as dealers will want to get rid of excess inventory, in order to fill up their lots with SUVs. This low price coincides with the lowest-driving months (January / February), so timing matters.
3. CFP Championship Game: A great game that was close throughout, right up until the Crimson Tide recovered a surprise on-side kick early in the 4th quarter, following a game-tying field goal. That fourth quarter was crazy, with the two teams combining for nearly half of all the scoring in the entire game -- 40 out of the combined 85 points. I guess this means that Lane Kiffin's redemption is halfway complete; if he wins the next game -- next fall's opener against USC -- his redemption will be complete.
4. Bernie's Problems: Bernie's got three problems. First, by an overwhelming majority, his greatest support comes from young adults -- those who are least reliable when it comes to voting. Second, Bernie has very little support from African-Americans, and his competitiveness with Hillary comes solely from White America -- a reminder that the Democratic Party isn't a majority White party. Third, the only political demographic (between Democrats, Republicans and Independents) to support Bernie with a majority, are Independents -- in many states they're not allowed to participate in primary votes of other parties.
5. Hillary's Problems: Hillary's got one just one problem: Ambivalent backers. If you look at general election match-ups, Bernie now outperforms Hillary against every GOP candidate. This tends to mean that while Hillary's backers have no problems supporting Bernie in a general election, Bernie's supporters are willing to sit out the election and allow a Republican to win the White House. This ambivalence means that if Bernie gains momentum early, Hillary's ambivalent backers may switch horses to build on that momentum.

Thoughts on 'Making a Murderer'

Don't read this, if you haven't watched Netflix's series, 'Making a Murderer', that is, unless you do not intend to watch the documentary.

How to understand the full story

Having binge-watched the entire show, I felt unsatisfied about what was presented. I made it a point to remain skeptical while watching the show, and it was clear to me that things had been left out, so I naturally searched online to find out more information about Steven Avery's case. That's how I found the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinal's Tom Kertscher's posts covering his own binge-watching and references to his own knowledge and coverage of the case. I strongly urge you to read what he wrote. I also urge you to read what the prosecutor had to say, after the show had been released, as well as speculation on who may have killed Teresa Halbach, as both come into play, below.

My take on all this, is probably very different than what you'll read from anyone else, or at least as far as I've been able to determine from researching the topic.

Understanding the show

The first thing to understand about the show, was that it covered things that the jury did not see, and it also skipped on covering many things that the jury did see. This alone made it difficult to put one's self in the juror's box, or to judge the verdict of the jury. Understand, therefore, that the invalidation of the verdict was not necessarily the intention of the filmmakers, which brings me to the second point.

The second, and probably most important point about the show's intention, was that it was presented as a demonstration of how the prosecution of individuals could go wrong. This second point, frankly, was nothing new to me; I've known for a long time that the judicial system, in particular the jury system, was highly imperfect. Having sat in a court room under voir dire multiple times, it was very clear to me that jurors were not selected by their impartiality; rather, they were chosen by any bias that could be exploited by one side or the other. The judicial system isn't a search for the truth; it is an adversarial system to exploit what is known, to seek a conviction. If you want to convict a black person for a crime against a white person, you choose a jury of white people. If you want to convict a Wall Street investor of fraud, you find a bunch of people who are poor or otherwise had been laid off recently.

The third point presented, was that the local sheriffs and investigators were like Keystone Kops, committing all sorts of errors along the way, motivated by tunnel vision, to focus on Steven Avery. Without this, the second point of the overzealous prosecution of Steven Avery could not have occurred. Of course, this sort of thing is fueled by the system itself which seeks to exclude smart people from becoming police detectives, and if you were to ask me, I would tell you that this is precisely why so many innocent people are convicted, and sometimes executed, only to be later exonerated.

A brief understanding of Steven Avery's case

According to the prosecutors, Steven Avery murdered Teresa Halbach with both a gun and a knife -- first with a knife, and then with shots to the head. To make their case, they pointed to Halbach's RAV4 being located on Avery's property, to his blood being found in the RAV4, to Halbach's vehicle's key in his residence, to bone fragments found in two separate fire pits on his property, and a single bullet fragment containing Halbach's DNA, found in his garage. A gun recovered from Steven Avery's home, supposedly matched the ballistics fingerprinting of the bullet fragment that was found in his garage.

The defense argued that, not only was Avery wrongfully targeted because of his past, but that the whole case was based on planted evidence and faulty methods of investigation that should have invalidated the evidence collected against Steven Avery. Furthermore, the defense offered up plausible explanations to refute the prosecution's case, by demonstrating when and how the local sheriff had opportunities to plant said evidence.

What prosecution possibly got wrong

The smoking gun, according to their closing argument, was the refutation, through FBI testing, that the blood found in Halbach's RAV4, had not been taken from evidence collected in a prior case.  Therefore, according to the prosecutors, Avery's blood in Halbach's RAV4 was not planted by the sheriff. In fact, Avery's DNA was supposedly found on the hood and trunk of Halbach's RAV4, which was left out of the documentary.

But there is one possibility that was never examined and therefore never excluded, as it related to Avery's DNA: Though the examiner may have concluded that the blood matched Avery's DNA, it in fact could also be that of a sibling.

"False matches are also more likely to occur with close relatives (for example, the brother of the person who committed the crime)." -- Forensic Genetics Policy Initiative

Furthermore, with recent studies, bullet forensics is more art than science, with the reliability under question.

"As with fingerprints, not enough research has been done to quantify the probability of error in ballistics matching. So it's impossible to say with certainty that the marks made on bullets as they are fired are truly unique to an individual gun." -- Popular Mechanics

If the homicide had been committed by one of Avery's siblings, it could easily explain why all of this evidence was scattered around his place, but yet, outside of that single bullet fragment, no other blood or DNA was found anywhere in Avery's garage or home -- no blood splatter of a gunshot, no pool of blood from knife wounds, and no luminol to highlight blood that was cleaned up.

Why the defense failed

The contention that local sheriffs planted evidence, was never going to fly. The more plausible idea here, was that they bungled their investigations from start to finish, because they had made up their minds of the narrative, then sought the evidence to support their narrative.

Were local sheriffs incentivized to plant evidence to thwart a multi-million dollar payout to Steven Avery? Sure. Could they have planted evidence? Sure. But without explicit evidence, you're merely speculating about a high offense, and doing so does not result in reasonable doubt. Reasonable doubt is a very high standard, so what the defense offered was simply not good enough.

Because the defense's strategy was to focus was on the planting of evidence by investigators / sheriffs, they had no bogeyman to pin the murder on -- something that many jurors probably needed to have, before they could find Avery innocent of the charges.

The other lesson to be learned

Testimony is not easy, if you're trying to do it from memory. If, like most of the people in this case, you were testifying from memory of events a year or more ago, good luck to you, because your memory is flawed and you will have conflated (mixed) memories which you believe to be real and true, though they are embellished.

If you've kept up with this blog, you would know that whenever I've witnessed a criminal act, I've rushed to document everything that I witnessed. In my documentation, I've tracked time, my actions, and my thoughts. Tracking one's thoughts, goes to your state of mind -- something that you'd want to track, in case someone wants to question your bias.

The same is true for police officers. Most of them will diligently document every critical detail in any encounter, on a little notepad, on the scene. At a later date, when they report to a court room, they are then able to pull out their notepad and recount what happened. If you do this, it will be harder for people to attack your credibility.

5 Thoughts on Seattle vs Minnesota

1. The Finish: Wow, in 100 kicks from the 9 yard line, maybe 3 of them would be missed -- this was one of those times. BUT, there was a reason why Minnesota's kicker angled it towards the left, and it's because Richard Sherman was 4 inches from reaching the prior field goal attempt. Angled away from Sherman who was coming from the right side, Walsh overdid it and Seattle won in a shocking finish. Sometimes you just get lucky, though, and unbelievably, it seems the Seahawks tend to be more lucky than not. 
2. Are You Superstitious?: I take no credit, but I'd been wearing a long-sleeve shirt over my Seattle Seahawks shirt all game long, that is, until late in the third quarter after the Vikings kicked their third field goal. I tore off my long sleeve, and the team's fortunes turned around. It wasn't my doing, of course, but the players obviously realized that nearing the end of the third quarter, they had to change gears and alter the direction of the game, ASAP, at the same point when I knew things needed to change. Still, I'm wearing my shirt proudly, next week. I think I might go buy myself a lottery ticket. :D
3. Live or Die by Wilson: Those sacks Russell Wilson took, were because he was trying to look down field to hit his deep receivers, but the problem was, Wilson was off-target on his deep throws, no doubt because of the temperature. And yet, there was that spectacular play when the ball was snapped past Wilson's head, and he scrambled to get it, then scrambled to his right and threw to a wide open Tyler Lockett. This is Wilson's team and the offense lives or dies by Wilson's heroics.
4. Cold Effect: It was obvious that Minnesota had practiced in the deep cold, while Seattle hadn't. Even while Blair Walsh's kickoffs were deep into the end zone, Steven Hauschka's kicks were much shorter, and returnable. Even Jon Ryan's punts were much shorter than usual, by about 10 yards. Obviously even Minnesotans don't want to be playing or watching outside in the cold, as their new stadium will be ready for the 2016 season and it sure looks like a gem, but they were well-prepared to play in the sub-zero temperature.
5. Minnesota's good: You don't go 7-9 in 2014 to 11-5 in 2015, without having a good team, and the Purple People Eaters have got great personnel all around, but most importantly, they've got tremendous speed that limited Wilson's runs, while making life difficult for Sherman and Chancellor. This was a defensive battle between two top-5 scoring defenses in the NFL, and it showed. Minnesota needs only to improve on offense -- spreading it out besides Adrian Peterson -- to take the next step.

+1 Thought: Separately, if you watched the Bengals-Steelers game last night, you saw what Vontaze Burfict did. I've written before about the downside of Vontaze Burfict, going back to when he was recruited by USC, but failed to get a decent SAT score -- that left Pete Carroll to drop his recruitment. There was never a question of his talent, but he's always had difficulty with discipline. He's the same undisciplined guy in high school that he was at ASU, that he was when he showed up at the NFL combine out of shape and was undrafted, to the guy who made the dumbest personal fouls that would lead to the Steelers kicking the winning field goal last night. It seemed like he was headed in the right direction once he made the Bengals team, but then he showed last night that he still couldn't control himself, and that's an awful shame.

Tracktown USA, parked next to homeless town.

I walked past Union Station when I saw this, and couldn't resist capturing the juxtaposition of the two.

Notice the tents behind the bus. Open air bathroom, 15 feet away (concrete barrier)

5 Thoughts on the Bundy - Burns situation.

1. Equal Treatment: Haven't you wondered why, even though the Bundys owe the federal government roughly $1M, they get to continue living a normal life, while poor people all around the US are routinely snagged by court fines that force them into debt and eventually a debtor's prison? Hmm.
2. Equal Treatment, Part II: I think it's actually a great thing that officials (local, state and federal) have shown incredible patience, allowing these folks to insult everyone, carry guns around, protest loudly with threats against others. Now, if only other officials around the US would apply a modest level of patience and stop killing unarmed African Americans, we might have fair, equal treatment!
3. The Liars: Even though Ammon Bundy said that the local sheriff controls things, and even though his brother Ryan Bundy has said that they would leave if the town asked them to, when the town folk and the sheriff asked Ammon Bundy and his band of militia to leave, they said they would not. And even though they've said that they want federal lands appropriated fairly to those who deserve it, when the Burns Paiute Native Americans said that these militia were desecrating their land and demanded that these militia folks leave, the Bundy folks have ignored the true owners of the land below their feet. Are they not liars, then?
4. The Existing Federal Giveaway: The BLM charges ranchers $1.69 AUM (sort of a per-head cost) for grazing on BLM land; the State of Oregon charges $14.23 AUM, and in 2013, private landowners in the west charged an average of $20.10 AUM. The BLM is practically giving grazing rights away, with these low prices. When anyone complains about the regulation of BLM lands, even though they're paying bottom prices for access, it makes you wonder what they really want, which leads to The Real Agenda.
5. The Real Agenda: It's clear now, that the real Bundy agenda, is to set a precedent for a massive federal giveaway -- land -- to just one group: Farmers. Assuming they got their way, one would suspect that this would be a violation of WTO rules on federal subsidies, and would be promptly protested by the EU, Japan, Australia and others.

January 4, 2016: Freeze-Thaw Day

5 Thoughts for January 5, 2016

1. Oregon Ducks Football: You know how that final Cody Kessler pass in the Holiday Bowl encapsulated the Trojans' season? A similar thing happened to the Oregon Ducks at the Alamo Bowl. As Vernon Adams' health goes, so do the Ducks' chances; when he got knocked out of playing because of a broken finger, Jeff Lockie came in and failed to win consistently; likewise, when VA got knocked out of the Alamo from a concussion, the team just collapsed. Never has a team in the history of bowl games, gone from leading 31-0, to losing -- the worst kind of record you want to be known for. As I told a friend, Jeff Lockie -- the quarterback who had been the backup in place for VA all this season -- might as well transfer if he wanted to continue to play football, because there's just no way he's going to play next year at Oregon as a starter, with Dakota Prekop coming in as a graduate transfer. As TCU head coach Gary Patterson commented after the game, once they saw that VA was out of the game, they decided to press their defense against Oregon's run game and force Lockie to beat them with his arm -- and it worked. Obviously they saw Ducks game film. Oregon Ducks had 376 yards of offense in the first half with VA; with Lockie, they managed just 23 yards in the second half, if you can believe that.
2. Seattle Seahawks: That dismantling of Arizona, 36-6, in Glendale was spectacular, and was completed in the first half of the game, when the score stood 30-6. It was also the first game where Seattle had all three phases of their game, working at 100%. Four punt returns for Tyler Lockett, averaging 39 yards, set up Seattle's offense for relatively easy scores against a pretty good defense. I think Seattle is poised to make it to the Super Bowl. Carolina is the hottest team, but is tops in just one category: Turnover margin. Assuming Seattle beats Minnesota (again) in Minneapolis (odds have Seattle the highest favorite of winning, of all the wildcard games), the match-up of Seattle and Carolina seems to favor Seattle's resurgent defense, ranked 2nd or 1st in all major categories (total defense, downs, rushing defense and passing defense) and Seattle's blistering offense in the last 7 games.
3. Burns Oregon: Seriously, why are people from out of state, sticking their noses into other people's business? Really, do they not see the irony of out-of-state people, protesting against federal control of lands, that were once Indian reservations for the Northern Paiute? Their grievance is tantamount to demanding that the feds give away someone else's land, to a bunch of white landowners. To highlight this irony, imagine if Native Americans showed up in protest against these outsiders, demanding that these outsiders end their illegal occupation of their land! Now, according to Ammon Bundy (progeny of Clive Bundy), the authority rests with the local sheriff, and though the sheriff has demanded that these folks leave immediately, they continue to remain, uninvited and unwelcome. What these folks are demanding, is a federal giveaway (of land that was set aside for Native Americans) to ranchers. Ridiculous! 
4. Saudi-Iran: Call this for what it is, a Sunni-Shiite fight for control of influence in the Middle-East. The reason why the Saudis didn't want the nuclear deal to go forward, was a fear that doing so would unleash Iran's economic influence in the region. You can see the same issues playing out in Yemen, where both Iran and Saudi Arabia are supporting two different sides in a 3-way conflict between the Sana'a gov't, Al Qaeda and the Houthi rebels. These people need to figure out how to get along and stop supporting extremism.
5. Music: The other week, I was browsing the Google Play Store's selection of free albums, and came across Andra Day, listened to it, and downloaded it for free. Absolutely fabulous singer, whose voice sounds like an R&B soul icon. I was completely blown away by her voice and music. I was embarrassed that I got her album for free, so I bought her Winter Wonderland song, which is itself a great recording! 

January 3, 2016: Snow Day

Happy New Years