Has as much relevancy as the movie "Battleship" does to the traditional children's board game.
11 years ago
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Intimate Saguaros
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| Together fro more than a 100 years |
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| Together for at least 50 years |
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| Carnegiea gigantea labia majorus |
Steak with a Side of Steak
I did a 10+ mile hike in the Estrella Mountains this morning from 6am to 1030am. The map shows it to be 9.4 miles, but, I happened to stray a bit off the main path. Not staying on the path used to worry me, but then I say This Hunting Map of the park on the official website, so the entire area is fair game now. I was hunting photos, not game, so there's no telling where I might have hiked.
Nice, since the ambient was in the 60s and 70s, and I needed some "me time". When I got home, I grilled myself one of THE BEST lunches I've ever eaten on my patio here in Arizona... or anywhere.. actually. Two grilled Double Check Ranch grass fed, hormone free, happy cow, rib eyes, wonderfully rare, and a bottle of Joseph JANOUEIX Pomerol. A steak, with a side of steak. It was fantastic.
76 degrees Fahrenheit, 20% relative humidity, a light intermittent breeze, clear sunny day, at the end of May - when the desert is typically in the 100s. A little too cool to swim, but excellent weather for sitting and listening to the birds, enjoying the breeze, digesting amazing steak, and savouring one of the best wines I've ever purchased and enjoyed drinking.
As a finisher, Dr Desert Flower brought out some manchego cheese that had a cinnamon & port wine skin to it, with her meal, and we polished that off as well.
I want to enjoy every beautiful day I can here in Arizona. Life is too short to not seize the opportunities one is given.
76 degrees Fahrenheit, 20% relative humidity, a light intermittent breeze, clear sunny day, at the end of May - when the desert is typically in the 100s. A little too cool to swim, but excellent weather for sitting and listening to the birds, enjoying the breeze, digesting amazing steak, and savouring one of the best wines I've ever purchased and enjoyed drinking.
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| Grilled to perfectly Rare pinkness - when you KNOW who raised & butchered your beef, Rare is entirely appropriate. |
I want to enjoy every beautiful day I can here in Arizona. Life is too short to not seize the opportunities one is given.
Monday, May 21, 2012
TED Shuns Truth, Facts, and Controvesy
The TED "Ideas worth spreading" speaker series can be insightful, but is often some really rich person pontificating about who it was their skills, their acumen, their vision that enabled them to succeed, and not the coincidences of When they were born, into What family they were born, or how lucky they got to be in the right place at the right time and make the right decision - 2/3rds luck, 1/3 ability at best, as opposed to the 99% ability vs 1% luck as the Lannisters who speak on TED often tend to state. There's a wide variety of TED talks on many different subjects, but often, the richest speakers are quite full of themselves.
But every now and then, a Ned Stark comes along, and proposes an idea truly worth spreading that the plutocrats REALLY Do Not want spread. Does TED post the speech on their website? Oh, poppycock! Of course not! (link here) But there's ideas like Nick Hanauer's - that it is the MIDDLE CLASS who create jobs, not the rich, which threaten to turn the commonly believed but completely wrong paradigm of "job creation" on it's head. After all, the Sun might actually NOT be orbiting around the Earth - or the Earth might be older than 6000 years too... ideas can be very dangerous things.
But regardless of TED's invertebrate timidity, the internet is a wonderful thing, and good ideas, the truth, tends to get out regardless of what "the powers that be" try to contain it (yeah, look out China, your filters are increasingly less effective). In fact, the tighter the clamp-down, the more leakage appears. You can join the other 1/2 million people who've already watched the Nick Hanauer speech here (link), on youtube. Or you can read the transcript here (link) or below... (for those who may have slow computers that don't like links or that don't like to play video).
Kudos to Jim Tankersley at The Nation for reporting on this (link here).
At the time of this blog posting, there's been almost 1/2 a million hits to the video below. That's 1/2 a million in 4 days. The top 20 videos on TED (link here) range from 2 million to 8 million. I hope Hanauer's 5 minute talk, in the next 6 months, moves those 'top 20' stats a little, proving that TED made the wrong move by not publishing it.
Complete Transcript here:
It is astounding how significantly one idea can shape a society and its policies. Consider this one.
If taxes on the rich go up, job creation will go down. This idea is an article of faith for Republicans and seldom challenged by Democrats, and has indeed shaped much of the economic landscape. But sometimes the ideas that we are certain are true, are dead wrong.
Consider that, for thousands of years humans believed that the earth was the center of the universe. It's not, and an astronomer who still believed that it was, would do some pretty terrible astronomy.
Likewise, a policy maker who believes that the rich are "job creators", and therefore should not be taxed, would do equally terrible policy.
I have started, or helped start, dozens of companies and initially hired lots of people. But if there was no one around who could afford to buy what we had to sell, all those companies and all those jobs would have evaporated.
That's why I can say with confidence that rich people don't create jobs, nor do businesses, large or small. Jobs are a consequence of a circle of life-like feedback loop between customers and businesses. And only consumers can set in motion this virtuous cycle of increasing demand and hiring. In this sense, an ordinary consumer is more of a job creator than a capitalist like me.
That's why when business people take credit for creating jobs, it's a little bit like squirrels taking credit for creating evolution. It's actually the other way around.
Anyone who's ever run a business knows that hiring more people is a course of last resort for capitalists. It's what we do if, and only if, rising customer demand requires it. And in this sense, calling yourselves job creators isn't just inaccurate, it's disingenuous.
That's why our existing policies are so upside down. When the biggest tax exemptions and the lowest rates benefit the richest, all in the name of job creation, all that happens is that the rich get richer.
Since 1980, the share of income for the top 1% of Americans has more than tripled, while our effective tax rates have gone down by 50%. If it was true that lower taxes for the rich and more wealth for the wealthy led to job creation, today we would be drowning in jobs. [applause] Thank you. And yet, unemployment and under-employment is at record highs.
Another reason that this idea is so wrong-headed is that, there can never be enough super-rich people to power a great economy. Somebody like me makes hundreds or thousands as times much as the median American, but I don’t buy hundreds or thousands of times as much stuff. My family owns three cars, not 3,000. I buy a few pairs of pants and shirts a year like most American men. Occasionally we go out to eat with friends.
I can’t buy enough of anything to make up for the fact that millions of unemployed and under-employed Americans can’t buy any new cars, any clothes, or enjoy any meals out. Nor can I make up for the falling consumption of the vast majority of middle-class families that are barely squeaking by, buried by spiraling costs and trapped by stagnant or declining wages.
Here’s an incredible fact… that if the typical American family still retained the same share of income that they did in 1970, they’d earn like $45,000 more a year. Imagine what our economy would be like if that were the case.
Significant privileges have come to people like me, capitalists, for being perceived as “job creators” at the center of the economic universe; and the language and metaphors we use to defend the current economic and social arrangements is telling. It’s a small jump from “job creator” to “The Creator”. This language obviously wasn’t chosen by accident. And it’s only honest to admit that when somebody like me calls themselves a “job creator”, we’re not just describing how the economy works, but more particularly, we’re making a claim on status and privileges that we deserve.
Speaking of special privileges, the extraordinary differential between the 15% tax rate that capitalists pay on carried interest, dividends and capital gains — and the 35% top marginal rate on work that ordinary Americans pay — it’s kind of hard to justify without a touch of deification
We’ve had it backwards for the last 30 years. Rich people like me don’t create jobs, jobs are a consequence of an eco-systemic feedback loop between customers and businesses. And when the middle-class thrives, businesses grow and hire — and owners profit.
That’s why taxing the rich to pay for investments that benefit all, is such a fantastic deal for the middle-class and the rich.
So ladies and gentleman, here’s an idea worth spreading…
In a capitalist economy, the true job creators are middle-class consumers. And taxing the rich to make investments will make the middle-class grow and thrive. It’s the single shrewdest thing we can do for the middle-class, for the poor, and for the rich.
Thanks you. [applause]
But every now and then, a Ned Stark comes along, and proposes an idea truly worth spreading that the plutocrats REALLY Do Not want spread. Does TED post the speech on their website? Oh, poppycock! Of course not! (link here) But there's ideas like Nick Hanauer's - that it is the MIDDLE CLASS who create jobs, not the rich, which threaten to turn the commonly believed but completely wrong paradigm of "job creation" on it's head. After all, the Sun might actually NOT be orbiting around the Earth - or the Earth might be older than 6000 years too... ideas can be very dangerous things.
Kudos to Jim Tankersley at The Nation for reporting on this (link here).
At the time of this blog posting, there's been almost 1/2 a million hits to the video below. That's 1/2 a million in 4 days. The top 20 videos on TED (link here) range from 2 million to 8 million. I hope Hanauer's 5 minute talk, in the next 6 months, moves those 'top 20' stats a little, proving that TED made the wrong move by not publishing it.
Complete Transcript here:
It is astounding how significantly one idea can shape a society and its policies. Consider this one.
If taxes on the rich go up, job creation will go down. This idea is an article of faith for Republicans and seldom challenged by Democrats, and has indeed shaped much of the economic landscape. But sometimes the ideas that we are certain are true, are dead wrong.
Consider that, for thousands of years humans believed that the earth was the center of the universe. It's not, and an astronomer who still believed that it was, would do some pretty terrible astronomy.
Likewise, a policy maker who believes that the rich are "job creators", and therefore should not be taxed, would do equally terrible policy.
I have started, or helped start, dozens of companies and initially hired lots of people. But if there was no one around who could afford to buy what we had to sell, all those companies and all those jobs would have evaporated.
That's why I can say with confidence that rich people don't create jobs, nor do businesses, large or small. Jobs are a consequence of a circle of life-like feedback loop between customers and businesses. And only consumers can set in motion this virtuous cycle of increasing demand and hiring. In this sense, an ordinary consumer is more of a job creator than a capitalist like me.
That's why when business people take credit for creating jobs, it's a little bit like squirrels taking credit for creating evolution. It's actually the other way around.
Anyone who's ever run a business knows that hiring more people is a course of last resort for capitalists. It's what we do if, and only if, rising customer demand requires it. And in this sense, calling yourselves job creators isn't just inaccurate, it's disingenuous.
That's why our existing policies are so upside down. When the biggest tax exemptions and the lowest rates benefit the richest, all in the name of job creation, all that happens is that the rich get richer.
Since 1980, the share of income for the top 1% of Americans has more than tripled, while our effective tax rates have gone down by 50%. If it was true that lower taxes for the rich and more wealth for the wealthy led to job creation, today we would be drowning in jobs. [applause] Thank you. And yet, unemployment and under-employment is at record highs.
Another reason that this idea is so wrong-headed is that, there can never be enough super-rich people to power a great economy. Somebody like me makes hundreds or thousands as times much as the median American, but I don’t buy hundreds or thousands of times as much stuff. My family owns three cars, not 3,000. I buy a few pairs of pants and shirts a year like most American men. Occasionally we go out to eat with friends.
I can’t buy enough of anything to make up for the fact that millions of unemployed and under-employed Americans can’t buy any new cars, any clothes, or enjoy any meals out. Nor can I make up for the falling consumption of the vast majority of middle-class families that are barely squeaking by, buried by spiraling costs and trapped by stagnant or declining wages.
Here’s an incredible fact… that if the typical American family still retained the same share of income that they did in 1970, they’d earn like $45,000 more a year. Imagine what our economy would be like if that were the case.
Significant privileges have come to people like me, capitalists, for being perceived as “job creators” at the center of the economic universe; and the language and metaphors we use to defend the current economic and social arrangements is telling. It’s a small jump from “job creator” to “The Creator”. This language obviously wasn’t chosen by accident. And it’s only honest to admit that when somebody like me calls themselves a “job creator”, we’re not just describing how the economy works, but more particularly, we’re making a claim on status and privileges that we deserve.
Speaking of special privileges, the extraordinary differential between the 15% tax rate that capitalists pay on carried interest, dividends and capital gains — and the 35% top marginal rate on work that ordinary Americans pay — it’s kind of hard to justify without a touch of deification
We’ve had it backwards for the last 30 years. Rich people like me don’t create jobs, jobs are a consequence of an eco-systemic feedback loop between customers and businesses. And when the middle-class thrives, businesses grow and hire — and owners profit.
That’s why taxing the rich to pay for investments that benefit all, is such a fantastic deal for the middle-class and the rich.
So ladies and gentleman, here’s an idea worth spreading…
In a capitalist economy, the true job creators are middle-class consumers. And taxing the rich to make investments will make the middle-class grow and thrive. It’s the single shrewdest thing we can do for the middle-class, for the poor, and for the rich.
Thanks you. [applause]
Unspectacular Solar Eclipse, 2012
Dr Desert Flower wanted to go see a movie Sunday afternoon, after I got the pool filters blasted clean & reinstalled. I told her that I wanted to stay home to see the solar eclipse that was supposed to happen between 5:45 and 6:45... so she reluctantly agreed. Solar eclipses happen like clock work, every 18 years (and X hours and Y minutes and Z seconds.. but I am not an astronomer, so you'll have to look it up or leave it as a comment below.) We tried to see if there was ANY visible eclipsing of the sun, using reflections from the windows, using digital cameras with various sensitive and in-sensitive settings... and nothing worked.
When the sun got close to our neighbors' roofs we walked out to the park across the street, and still, there was nothing indicative of a true eclipse. It was supposed to look like this (link). But instead, all it looked like was this:
In another 18 years, when I am nearing retirement and maybe a grand father, I'll go out proactively and get those $5 polarized glasses made out of welding glass materials so I can look directly into the sun instead of looking for reflections.and just getting frustrated... except I'll have to be in South Africa or Southern Australia, according to the NASA map (link here) in November of 2030 (link).
When the sun got close to our neighbors' roofs we walked out to the park across the street, and still, there was nothing indicative of a true eclipse. It was supposed to look like this (link). But instead, all it looked like was this:
Josh's Foraging Fowls, Fantastic!
When I got home, I cracked two eggs open for scrambling, and WOW! DARK DARK Orange yolks, as dark as or perhaps darker than any of the duck eggs I've had from Crooked Sky Farms. Incredibly rich in micro-nutrients, and so delicious! I sauteed up some organic portabellos, organic baby spinach, and organic yellow onions in a lil bit of butter, and then added these wonderful eggs. Josh's foreign fowls' eggs are fantastic!
Friday, May 18, 2012
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Cheesecake
Maybe it's because we watched a DVR'ed episode of Big Bang Theory tonight... I dunno. This came to me in the shower.. and has been running hilariously through my head ever since.
I've Been a Cub's Fan, but...
I've been a Cub's fan my whole life, and never really liked the Chicago White Sox. The games at Comiskey park I went to were plagued with Harry Carey's voice, the neighborhood was crime ridden, the games were all night games... so I grew up going to Cub's games. Day games at Wrigley Field. Jack Brickhouse was the announcer - until he died and then they brought Carey over, ugh. But I always enjoyed going to a Cub's game, parking in the Catholic church lot, not having my car broken into when we got back... it's a nice ball park, and it used to have good owners. But now this Rickett's guy owns it, and he's trying to buy nasty attack ads against Obama, race baiting him (link here). Ew. That sours my perspective on the place, the owner, the whole genre.
Ricketts owns TD Ameritrade too... I'm glad I don't have any money with them. I like making money too Joe Ricketts - I just don't like spending my money to try and tear down others because of my political ideology.
Ricketts owns TD Ameritrade too... I'm glad I don't have any money with them. I like making money too Joe Ricketts - I just don't like spending my money to try and tear down others because of my political ideology.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
From Angry Joe to Retired Joe to JustJoeP
My retired godfather Uncle Joe shared this link with me today... that really has absolutely made my day. Listening to the passionate, angry, insightful & inciting Vice President Joe Biden speaking in Youngstown Ohio, I almost began to tear up a little. My parents (and my godfather who is my mother's brother) grew up poorer than Dr Desert Flower and I did, and worked hard to provide for their families. My father and my Uncle Joe worked harder, in back breaking & strenuous labor intensive jobs, with multi-year skilled trade apprenticeships, retiring as card carrying union members, so I can relate to the content of Biden's speech.
"Jobs are coming back, and they're the kind of jobs you can build a middle class family on [sic]"
"They're manufacturing jobs, decent paying jobs, so you can live in a safe neighborhood."
"Own your home and not rent your home".(Mitt wants your foreclosure accelerated, so you can pay jacked up rent to rich investors like his country club buddies - link here)
"My mother and father dreamed as much as any rich guy dreams"
I enjoyed his acceptance speech, back in 2008, and found it inspiring (link here). This is the minute and a 1/2 version of that speech.
NPR keeps reporting this week about how housing starts are increasing in the us, and property values are going up by 20% in some of the hardest hit regions (NOT the West side of Phoenix though... no one wants to pay more than a $100K here)... and that illegal immigration has reversed to a net-zero balance. I just hope the Euro tanking doesn't drag the US down with it, and the Federal Reserve doesn't crank up the printing presses to bail out the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece & Spain)... we shall see.
"Jobs are coming back, and they're the kind of jobs you can build a middle class family on [sic]"
"They're manufacturing jobs, decent paying jobs, so you can live in a safe neighborhood."
"Own your home and not rent your home".(Mitt wants your foreclosure accelerated, so you can pay jacked up rent to rich investors like his country club buddies - link here)
"My mother and father dreamed as much as any rich guy dreams"
I enjoyed his acceptance speech, back in 2008, and found it inspiring (link here). This is the minute and a 1/2 version of that speech.
NPR keeps reporting this week about how housing starts are increasing in the us, and property values are going up by 20% in some of the hardest hit regions (NOT the West side of Phoenix though... no one wants to pay more than a $100K here)... and that illegal immigration has reversed to a net-zero balance. I just hope the Euro tanking doesn't drag the US down with it, and the Federal Reserve doesn't crank up the printing presses to bail out the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece & Spain)... we shall see.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Weight of the Nation
I am watching Weight of the Nation that I DVR'ed from HBO, but you can watch it for free here (link) online. It's both fascinating and depressing. Childhood obesity at record levels in the US. Fatty liver disease, in CHILDREN, found in autopsies... a disease that didn't exist 30 years ago is not found in 38% of obese children. 30 year longitudinal studies on entire towns. It's incredibly factual, stark, and enlightening. I'm only on episode 1 of a 4 part series.. but wow... should be required watching for ever American school child and every parent of a school aged child. I've never seen so many fat people on TV before... one after another after another.. in the school yard, on the bus, in the cafeterias, at the Dr's office, at buffets.... yikes. It's worse than a German vacation spot in Italy or the Canary Islands!
I hope being "the fat kid" that I was (3rd fattest kid in my parochial grade school class, from 2nd to 8th grade) didn't damage my heart and liver substantially in the long term, and that the almonds, red wine, desert mountain climbing, swimming, and stationary bike riding I am doing are reversing all that artery clogging franken foods my parents fed me as a kid.
I hope being "the fat kid" that I was (3rd fattest kid in my parochial grade school class, from 2nd to 8th grade) didn't damage my heart and liver substantially in the long term, and that the almonds, red wine, desert mountain climbing, swimming, and stationary bike riding I am doing are reversing all that artery clogging franken foods my parents fed me as a kid.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Hold On, I'm Comin'
Sam & Dave Classic. Donald Duck Dunn, the white guy playin da bass in the back ground died this week, at the age of 70. RIP Donald
Swedish Knife Wielding Eagle
It's well known that chimpanzees, gorillas, dolphins, and crows use tools - sometimes natural, sometimes human made - to get what they want or make their lives easier... but this is the first I've ever heard of a Golden Eagle stealing a knife. I just hope the eagle doesn't come back, wielding it in it's claws. (link to story here).
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| This is not photoshopped. |
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Sad Cellos - Game of Thrones
I purchased the box set of Game of Thrones at the Worst Buy big box store near my home late Friday night. Dr Desert Flower was in London at a conference, and I did not want to go out drinking alone - staying home with a full liquor cabinet was a much better option. Over Friday night, Saturday, and this morning, I've watched all 5 DVDs. The sadness of the cellos at the opening credits is haunting. It played in my head as I sculpted ocotillo Saturday, trimmed bougainvilleas, picked up carelessly discarded Marlborough cigarette butts in my driveway from my neighbors, trimmed lavender, wiped out spiders' webs, truncated aloe stalks, refilled hummingbird feeders, re-directed palm tree growth (I've just about got the technique perfected to steer the growth of pigmy palms), cleaned up the garage, did laundry, cleaned the kitchen, and pulled weeds - who needs a "honey do" list when your honey is gone and all these things are bugging you?
The cellos provide a resonating sadness, that when combined with the driving deep percussion behind it, tend to latch onto one's mind like almond butter to the roof of your mouth. Filmed in Malta and Northern Ireland, it's visually brilliant, well written, superbly acted, and deliciously presented. Add to that a few glasses of Tullamore Dew, and it made for excellent television.
If you'd not watched it yet... the end of Episode 4, Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things... Katherine Stark does a masterful, spectacular, powerful, beautiful rallying speech that had me cheering Saturday morning the first time I watched it - and the replayed it thrice, to see it again and again (something that the clumsy Netflix interface doesn't do well, in streaming video, but on DVD works as it is supposed it).
Friday, May 11, 2012
North Carolina Buch Learnin
I spelled "Book" as "Buch" because that's how some twenty boxes of "Books" were marked by the corporate movers when Dr Desert Flower and I moved out of South Carolina fro the first time in 1994. "Ya(h) shore dew have allodda booooks" the movers said.as they dollied out the boxes into the moving truck. South Carolina and North Carolina have similar demographics, economies, income distributions, and education levels. So when I saw this graphic today, I could relate on a personal level, having lived in South Carolina for 16 years of my adult life, and knowing, working with, and befriending many Tarheels from North Carolina. The whole state is not full of fearful idiots, but the rational thinkers are far out-numbered.
Stay in school, kids.
Bond Girls Over Time
I wanted this to be a Mother's Day related post.. but it's more of a Father's Day subject matter I guess. The following compilation are all the James Bond girls, updated over time. Time has been kind to some, cruel to others. In my personal perspective, Dr Desert Flower is even more lovely today than she was when I met her in the 80s, so time has been very kind to her.. =)
If the image doesn't show up in your screen large enough to be discernible, look here (link) for a larger version.
If the image doesn't show up in your screen large enough to be discernible, look here (link) for a larger version.
WTF is CISPA?
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