Friday, October 29, 2021

Breaking news: breaking dam in Northern Idaho

 

This map was in the Register Guard today without adequate explanation. Apparently the heavy rainfall (depicted in green) in the NW has breached dams in northern Idaho, spilling southeast. This is a visual depiction of Nature's system of planet balancing (GAIA). 

Perhaps, like you, I am wondering why THIS particular imbalance was the first modern example of Nature "balancing forces" to achieve conditions favorable to life.

I agree with Nature that the concentration of hostile, armed and pathologically misguided citizens in such a small area was a strange anomaly. And no Google search to date has explained WHY there? and WTF?

But we must applaud any attempt by Nature to re-balance this suffering planet and it's still extant life forms .

Here is an explanation of the Gaia hypothesis, which does not mean that it is WRONG. It may be bad, or not science. It may even qualify as a religion. If so, I am going to see if it is a 501c3 under US Tax Laws, and if so, I am going to ramp up my climate related contributions dramatically. Also, in light of THIS intervention, I will redirect my political contributions to a force which appreciates our threatened democracy and has proven it's determination to ACT NOW.  

Thursday, October 28, 2021

Much can be "learned" on line

The scare quotes in the title are shorthand for when learned information is actually DIS. Yeah, you learned something alright. Now you are effed.

 A few paragraphs down in a WaPo article about China vowing to discontinue building coal fired plants for developing economy countries. I found these two paragraphs:

"Even as richer nations look to drive down carbon emissions to net zero, many low- and middle-income nations remain hesitant to set similarly stringent targets, in part because doing so would mean often abandoning the most readily available source of electricity: coal.

That reluctance is a problem for any hopes of a global solution to the climate crisis in Glasgow."

I had to reread that final sentence, as I was unaware of a climate crisis in Glasgow. I think the "in Glasgow" should have come following hopes.

Of course this awkward wording was unlikely to reinforce a prior belief in Glasgow's imminent tornado, flooding from a dying glacier, or other climate crisis looming over the gloaming (geographical fusion humor).

No, today I am turning my serious concerns (wrapped in my self described wit) to activate your alerts to the more subtle and hence more embedded  misinformation we absorb on line while intending to learn something.

1. This is everywhere: in photos of people, famous and not, wearing some form of a covid inspired face covering either a) not actually a useful mask (bandit bandana) or b) a potentially useful mask worn so as to fail. Notable examples of that include 1) tucked under the nose and 2) with obvious gaping gaps at the cheek level. Every one of these photos should include the disclaimer: VERY FEW COVID DROPLETS WERE PREVENTED FROM DOING THEIR WORST BY THE PICTURED "MASK".

2. Tilt-a-Whirl nutrition information. Photos of recommended healthy servings are thick on the ground and often oddly deficient nutritionally for the aesthetics of the photo. This annoyance in addition to the yoyo recommendations such as coffee good/not good/excellent, tea better, red wine good, but doesn't grape juice have the same anti-oxidants? Oatmeal with blueberries is an excellent breakfast. But will FOUR berries do it?

Petty nit picks? I suggest not. I suggest these seemingly harmless visuals imprint in minds and lead us astray. I also read that Dr. Fauci is trying to kill puppies. A photo of this atrocity being performed would lend that seemingly unlikely accusation much more weight for those difficult to delude.

 

 


Saturday, October 23, 2021

Truth in geography

I believe it is seriously past time when we step up and call it like it is when we name anything on planet earth. Erudite people have long grasped the transience of our planet's crust, aka, where we all live. For example, the proper designation for an ocean beach is: temporary depositional feature. This is one of the few facts I retain from my college geology course (also, that going west into the foothills from Ft. Collins, you can identify the oldest formations easily as they are the grayest - but this is not universal).

This idea of being truthful popped into my head when I checked the NOAA weather site as I do daily. Often, in addition to asking for the Eugene SWAG (scientific wild ass guess) I also check out Florence as my dream of where to be during hot spells (aka, coming climate).

I was interested in the details underlying the Sunday-Tuesday high wind and coastal flooding alerts. This caught my eye under PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

"In southwest Washington similar conditions in the past have resulted in 
significant flooding in Raymond, erosion to homes and roads near Washaway
Beach along Highway 105 near North Cove, and/or erosion to campsites near 
Cape Disappointment."

NOW that's an honest, unadorned, and reassurance-free name for a beach! And likely a Cape.

We need a more honest name for Eugene such as:

Allergy Central, Hippie Dale, Gluten Gap, or Ungovernable?

But don’t worry about your address labels, we cannot agree to much of anything.

Frank and Ernest by Bob Thaves
See how much disappointment can occur with dishonest or poorly researched place names?
 

 

 
 

Thursday, October 14, 2021

Losing another touchstone to my youth.

But first, think about the recent task force created by President Biden: "Supply Chain Disruption Task Force". Maybe it is just me, but it sounds as if their task is to further disrupt the beleaguered supply chain. Apparently clarity of intent is not only of little concern, it may well be deliberately ambiguous in case it's outcomes tilt toward a worsening of the identified problem. Actually, a necessary and convenient fall-back interpretation of what the task force was indeed tasked with. Much like tasking Jared (of the untroubled mind) with sorting out that pesky Middle East. It has, in some way, been maximally sorted; as women of Afghanistan will confirm.

Now to the larger scale problem at hand: my sole remaining college electronic device has reached an untimely end. Yes, perhaps, a stereo component having a problem-free useful-life of over 55 years may seem remarkable. And I bet it is. Will the more au courant versions of this component have even a quarter of this long and faultless life span? Probably not, as we now expect electronic thingies to prematurely age, become unsightly, and embarrass us in the company of Early Adopters (common name: Beta Testers).

But I am this to my very core: a lazy, frugal Luddite. I already have much more technology than I know how to operate. WHY would I speed up my relentless slide toward technological incompetence and penury? NO!  This girl just wants to be able to play her CD's. I despise streamed music as I don't have complete control of what I will hear. I want to hear my favorite albums in their published form without interruption, or worse, scrambled with some algorithm-identified tunes. ENOUGH! If I want an anarchy of undesired audibles, I will tune in a radio channel. 

The electronic old war horse I mourn today is my Marantz Model 1030 Console Stereo Amplifier

I tried to disconnect it entirely, but was unable to trace back to the wall plug. Here is a photo of it "in situ" but askew. I just googled that silly description and got this:

Scholarly articles for askew in situ

Saturday, October 2, 2021

An old concern put to rest

In a blog post on February 9, 2019 I expressed some concern that the traditional Presidential Library might be a poor fit for the then occupant of the presidency. But I think this political cartoon from the WaPo has the answer: 

Cartoonist Mike Smith 10/2/2021
In addition to the rich trove of tweets, videos of incoherent repetitive  rallies of misguided fans, and combative reality-free press "conferences" from the White House,

THERE WILL ACTUALLY

          BE BOOKS

Perhaps not books that informed the Former Occupant, but absolutely on his favorite topic:   

 🎆🎉🎈HIMSELF 🎇🎆🎊