Nuke Waste, Guns & Plastic Bags

Digital Mosaics

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 ~ There's more here than initially meets the eye.

Click on the image to go to artist Chris Jordan's site to find that the image is composed of 67,000 photos of mushroom clouds.

Pterofin

Renewable Energy Using Biomimicry

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 ~ My friend Wally Kempkey has been working very hard on this for many years.



Not only is it incredibly cool and creative, the concept is very well-suited to slow currents. Faster currents can be harnessed by conventional turbines like those made by Hydrovolts and others, but such currents are comparatively rare. Slower currents can be found all over the world in watercourses both natural and man-made. While the power generated can be small, the Pterofin device would provide huge value in off-grid developing world locations for water pumping or trickle-charging batteries.

Want a scale model for your desk? Give some love on Kickstarter.

Crisis

Bipartisan Cooperation

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 ~ Is there a will to solve problems, or only endlessly to defer them?

It's hard to raise campaign cash from lobbyists when there are no big policy matters at stake.

Where's It Wednesday—CXV

Where in Seattle is this?

Answer next week.

Details on the weekly Where's It Wednesday puzzle here.
Other weeks' puzzles here.
Answer to last week's puzzle, after the jump.

Things I Learned from my Mum—V

Celebrate the Day

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 ~ I've lived in Washington for 30 years. My Mum lived in Toronto, with summers in PEI. Although she only traveled out west a few times, she kept in close touch the whole time. She called and she wrote. A lot. She sent cards to her grandkids for Easter, for Halloween, for no reason at all. She wrote letters at least every couple of months, and always on birthdays, and for Christmas. (I've saved every one.)

She never forgot a birthday, although she was eager to let hers pass without fanfare. Nonetheless, we celebrated her birthdays whether near or far, and despite her protests about being "too old for birthdays" she always enjoyed herself.

My Mum with 2 of her kids and their partners on her 60th birthday

So what did I learn? Stay in touch, and hoist a glass together whenever you can.

Thank you Mum.

Mary Ellen Leyerle
1/8/29 - 6/8/09
RIP

How to Get Stuff Done

Making It As Simple As ABC

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 ~ I've multi-tasked for many years, even though I've heard it argued that true multi-tasking is impossible. We can really only do one thing at a time, and trying to do several things at once simply results in doing several things not very well, and perhaps completing none of them. It leads to all quantity and no quality.

The argument is both true and irrelevant.

It's true inasmuch as we can't really focus on more than one thing at a time. It's irrelevant because it's not only unnecessary, but detrimental, and it's not really what people mean by multi-taasking.

How Green is Your Bailout?

I'm All Right, Jack

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 ~ Who will get the bailouts in the next crisis? Or in the sausage that comes out of the Congressional factory in the next ledge down the fiscal cliff?

Road Subsidies

Who Pays to Maintain Our Roads?

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 ~ Washington, like many other states, imposes a fee on owners of automobiles when they relicense their cars. The amount of the fee varies. It can be a flat fee, or it can depend on such things as the weight of the vehicle, its value, or its age. As a usage fee, however, none of these well correspond to the actual cost of suffering that vehicle's wear and tear on roads, the purpose to which those fees are generally put. The fee for operating the car does not correspond to the actual expense to repair and maintain that infrastructure.

Tracking Consequences

Let's Get Empirical

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 ~ The inaptly named fiscal cliff has been (temporarily) averted in a deal that, in part, raises taxes on the so-called job creators.

We've been hearing for years—decades even—that higher taxes on the rich would cause them to stop hiring and investment.

Now that their taxes have gone up, let's all pay attention to see whether they actually throw that petulant fit they've been threatening for so long. I'm guessing not.

Ice Follies—II

The Joy of Skating

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 ~ Last week, when my daughter and I went ice-skating, I meant to include in the post a picture of this piece of her art:

It is a self-portrait of course.

This picture, along with several others, have been made into greeting/Christmas cards. As the text ("About the artist") on the back reads in part:

[She] is a young adult with autism whose

drawings have been described as primitive, imaginative, and whimsical

with an amazing eye to proportion and detail.

The cards are available at finer stores. However, we have altogether too many big box monstrosities and not nearly enough finer stores, so contact me if you want to get some.

Where's It Wednesday—CXIV

Where in Seattle is this?

Answer next week.

Details on the weekly Where's It Wednesday puzzle here.
Other weeks' puzzles here.
Answer to last week's puzzle, after the jump.

Carbon Footprints

The Footfall of Countries Compared

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 ~ I love this infographic.

The most surprising one to me is Brazil. All that BRIC attention, all that deforestation of the Amazon, and still their footprint is smaller than Canada, South Africa, Mexico or Iran?

Central America as a region has the smallest footprint; smaller than the Caribbean even.

Once again, one has to admire Bhutan—happy with a small footprint.

Which ones do you find remarkable?

12 Predictions for 2013

Clarity Moving Beyond the Past

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 ~ The best part of 2013 is that there won't be a federal election. Consequently, some useful things will get done. There will still be way too much partisan malarkey for my tastes, but the electorate expects action on a host of things and the political dynamic will allow more progress than last year's gridlocked, posturing debacle.

This year's predictions:

My 2012 Predictions Revisited

About 3/4 Accurate

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 ~ So how good was my prognostication of the past year? Not bad, although I did make some creampuff predictions that boosted the grade. Using a scale of 1 (utterly wrong) to 10 (perfectly prescient):

Ice Follies

Skating

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 ~ Enjoyed ice skating with my daughter today.

The seasonal ice skating in Bellevue's Downtown Park continues every day through January 13. Skate as long as you want with rental blades for $10. As you can see from the video, the rink is covered from the rain.

Labor Burden

Looking For Something to Reform?

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 ~ I'd rather see us (temporarily) go over the so-called (and inaptly named) fiscal cliff than "reform" the core programs of the social safety net.

However, if we do end up reforming them, we should start by removing the arbitrary threshold above which earnings are not taxed. This is indefensible as sensible from either a fiscal or social standpoint:

There's lots else that could be done too, especially more equal taxation of labor and capital, but removing special treatment that benefits only the wealthy is really a no-brainer.

Where's It Wednesday—CXIII

...special Thursday edition! Apparently, due to a surfeit of eggnog or other facile excuse, I totally failed to provide a solution and a new puzzle yesterday, Wednesday, posting a brief political diatribe instead. Oh well. Here is what I meant to post...

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Where in Seattle is this?

Answer next week.

Details on the weekly Where's It Wednesday puzzle here.
Other weeks' puzzles here.
Answer to last week's puzzle, after the jump.

Like Night and Day

Not Alike

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 ~ Do you think the two parties are the same shade of gray? That they're just about the same? Can you imagine the GOP responding like this:

Actually, we don't need to imagine, because they don't. Instead, they act like this.

With a Little Help From His Friends

Thank Santas

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 ~ How does he do it?

Santarchy.

What I Want For Christmas

Peace, Hope, A Better Future and ...

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 ~ ...to stretch out with my back to the sand.