11232195.1Going Green: #359.    "Eco-luxury"   It's the latest thing in Seattle. What you do is pay some poor people .. a couple of villages worth if you've the means, and of course we all do around these parts .. pay the poor people to eat dirt and live on scarcely nothing, which they would mostly do anyway, so you can transfer the carbon credits and get that 43rd floor Bellevue condo and buy a new jet. Macherat


posted by Rick at 10:11 PM

11232194.1The End is near.    That guy, the one wearing rags, a long beard and carrying the usual sign? He may have been right, just a few years early. You've been talking to Customer Service tonight, haven't you? Why yes, how did you know? Just a guess. Which one? Two Actually, Albertsons and Barnes & Noble. Ah, I believe both of those have female interactive voice phone trees? Yes, and I think it's the same lady. And you can never get out of them or get anywhere useful? Yes .. And at the very, very end at the tip of a tremendously long branch of that tree she/it tells you the Customer Service Agent assistance closed at 12:00 midnight, EST, which was approximately two minutes ago? Yes, yes! Oh God yes! That's exactly what happened. Relax. It isn't the end of the world. Just the beginning of the end.

Okay, what about the RFID's then? I read today where they have made some that are .05mm by .05mm. While I'm not exactly metric-challenged, I am definitely metric-resistant, so .05mm is something I can't don't handle. Put in more sensible terms, the latest RFID's are only 2.424237e-06 furlongs by 2.424237e-06 furlongs. That means they can put them in Anything ... your food even, and track them (you) forever. Furthermore, just think about this: as spooky as The Forbin Project was, they hadn't even imagined these devices - only 37 years ago.

Glad I'm old. Macherat


posted by Rick at 9:20 PM

11232193.1Little man so spic and span ..    I should be watching. He's on television right now, the tiny President of Iran. Brother is watching, and he is very agitated. I don't want to get agitated; that's the bottom line, I reckon.

Some day, if there's still television, the few people who are left can have a forum where they talk about the day they heard him. Since I don't expect to be among them, well ..

I remember the day my mother told me she believed in the devil. It was a surprise, #1 because she was a highly educated woman and #2 because the subject hadn't come up until I was fifty and she was seventy-five. I don't believe in the devil, unfortunately, still viewing the whole concept as the bogeyman conjured up to frighten children into behaving. If I did, though, that little troll Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would be one of his Devil Helpers for sure.

Incidentally, the "little man so spic and span" reference is only on the internet eight times (nine now.) Jeez, didn't anybody else go to summer camp fifty years ago?
Macherat


posted by Rick at 11:49 AM

11232192.1More then and now.    I like Boeing, the hometown company - sort of. They just got a small contract from the Air Force to install a digital communications package on the B-52 fleet. Now, I'm sure this is more complicated than the two-hour job to install a wireless network and internet connection in my house but,


according to the release, it is going to take 11 months to do one plane, after which they will move on to the rest of the fleet. Well, I have a perspective on this: back in 1957 when I lived on the first base to receive the B-52, Boeing was cranking out about 100 of those behemoths every 11 months, the whole plane! From building 100 from scratch to adding a doodad on one in the same period of time - where we've come in 50 years. Oh sure, I understand what's involved and how it all works, still ... Macherat


posted by Rick at 9:52 AM

11232191.1Misc Fri Musings.    Brother was back in his room, watching a movie. I passed by and couldn't help going in to annoy/amuse him briefly. "Oooo, kewl. A submarine movie." "No [patiently].. it's The Titanic, actually A Night to Remember (1958, black-and-white.)"

"Oh no! Look ... the Carpathia has set off another flare rocket and it's coming directly for the lifeboat with all the surviving stars in it! Oh, the humanity." No comment from Brother.

Finally, as the camera panned in the last scene over the weary survivors aboard the rescue ship, I noticed a familiar face. "Say, isn't that the guy from that show? You know, with the spies?" observed I. "Illya Kuryakin, Man From U.N.C.L.E.," replied he.

Now, how did he come up with that name? He's supposed to be "retarded," for pete's sake. Brother can enter a huge book store and within a few minutes go directly to the book he's after without ever looking at the signs which direct customers to the appropriate sections. I don't know how he does that either. Does the same thing with television, and that can be a little spooky. He subscribes to TV Guide, but I don't know why because he never uses it. Somehow he knows where something good is on and finds it - in this case, a movie way up on Channel 523, a channel I didn't even know we had. Oh, well.

Speaking of ... Did you hear about Ford's new hydrogen car, The Humanity?

A friend's blog went TU today. He sent an e-mail to his regular readers which I thought was kind of him. Only thing, it was entirely cryptic and mysterious. He could have just as easily said he was bored with it. Made me wonder how my blog will end. It surely has outlasted a great many readers, all of whom have died, sadly. I suppose eventually I will too, die that is, and at some point afterward a machine will simply delete it. All that typing. Sigh ... Macherat

posted by Rick at 11:27 PM

11232190.1Tony.   Is this a great picture or what?


Mark J. Terrill / Associated Press
Dang, you can't really tell, but Tony is the only one looking right at us and he's looking with that look. Macherat


posted by Rick at 10:31 PM

11232189.1Sooweeee.    Do a lot of the things going on with the economy mystify you? Don't feel alone. Even Alan Greenspan didn't see the housing/mortgage crisis coming, and that is alarming (because I did.) How can so many people make so much money not doing anything and spend so much on crap and all the while the system just sails along. Is it magic? No. But relax and go with it, because there isn't anything you can do. We're just being fattened up is all. Macherat


posted by Rick at 9:54 PM

11232188.1Sorry.    Packages came today - products of a latenight online shopping spree a week or so ago. All but one come from China. All but one stinks .. a stink that ... I tell you what, just type China Stink in the search box above and you'll get the blogs that I've typed on that subject. Then multiply the experience by five. I did go outside for some air. It helped. Afterward, I made brother take the boxes, assorted fillers and the gawdawful tape that sticks it all together, go down the street and put them in the noisy neighbor's trash can. I'm old, okay? We get to be a little antisocial sometimes, especially when it comes to stink.

Oh, and one package was short 14 fracking screws! I know it was deliberate as hell; I would get the one slacker employee out of a billion. Message to that person, whichever one you are,


I hope you find a rat turd in your rice. That happened to me once, and it told me I must have really ticked somebody off in this or a previous life. Macherat


posted by Rick at 10:47 PM

11232187.1Member Since 1967.    Just received in the mail another in the series, American Express Credit Card Information Updates. It's long, and it is eventually signed by Kenneth J. Ciak, President and Paul R. Johnson, Secretary. Ordinarily, I would claim that these are invented names and no such individuals exist, but in this case I happen to know they are real. Whether they actually read this thing before signing it, well you know. I only put their names in for when they search Google to see how famous they're getting to be. Like we all do.

As for me, I read it. Mostly. My normal reading comprehension is Fair to Somewhat Good, but in this case it was Nonexistent. I could at least tell that it was frightening and threatening and the only safe thing to do is not use the American Express card at all, pretty much my policy since about our 25th anniversary.Macherat


posted by Rick at 9:55 PM

11232186.1Sir Jim.    Our perpetual Congressman, Hon. Jim McDermott (D-Seattle) has been knighted by the King of Lesotho. Henceforth, he may add to his list of honors: Knight Commmander of the Most Dignified Order of Moshoeshoe. Since he is congressman-for-life here locally, he is able to spend most of his time in Africa. He is a psychiatrist.

You might remember:

Friday, April 20, 2007. In Washington State, we care about the fish and animals, and hang the cost, doggone it. One million dollars per salmon? Yur darned tootin,' whatever it takes. For example, the multimillion dollar project to reintroduce pygmy rabbits to the scrub flats of Eastern Washington is not going to be deterred by the fact that 14 of the first 20 rabbits were quickly devoured by predators. So long as the money and new GPS devices to replace those also apparently eaten holds out.

There's news. Federal officials have approved a plan for the rescue. I read it. There may be news, but I'm afraid I cannot tell you that there's hope. The press release uses the word "managing" three times in quick succession as well as "program," "collaborating" and "developing." Nowhere in the vast scale of the exercise is there any hint of "going outside." So, they're not getting into boots and rugged clothing and crawling around in the sand and sagebrush, looking for tiny rare rabbits? Rabbit. There's one rabbit left. No, I'm so sorry; it's all memos and meetings. In fact, can you imagine what it would take to get a Washington bureaucrat from there to the wild badasslands of Eastern Washington? The best part of the whole plan is this:

As part of the draft recovery plan, federal officials will continue to pursue cooperation with land owners in the rabbit's historic range under a "safe harbor" agreement which allows landowners, after a survey of their land for any wild rabbits, to pay $50 for a permit to be absolved of any harm for violating the Endangered Species Act if they incidentally kill or hurt a rabbit while operating their farm.

The remaining rabbit would probably appreciate that.

The new hotel in Dubai, the one with the giant sail ... I checked on a standard room, wife and kids: $4,084.74 a night. "Published Rate is subject to 10% Municipality Fee and 10% Service Charge and is inclusive of complimentary parking and access to the beach." I wonder if we'll get pillow mints?

There was a house advertised in the real estate section which I couldn't believe: 3br/2ba, meticulously remodeled, only $215,000. Then I noticed the address: 17711 - 648th Lane Northeast. A bit out of the way.

Finally, residents were evacuated for about five hours when David Hahn,


the "Radioactive Boy Scout," was caught trying to steal a smoke detector. Once again, ignorant hysteria. Nuclear energy is perfectyl safe when employed properly.Macherat


posted by Rick at 9:40 PM

11232185.1The Warlord.    He was Magnificent, and his title was just as Magnificent and it was expected that one would employ it, being careful to include all the honorifics and nuances, when addressing His Magnificence. I always did anyway. This day he was energized, enthusiastically reviewing the grand plans for his new city, and he finally decided upon the alignment for our Grand Boulevard which was pretty much the key to the whole plan. Now, things could move forward. I didn't imagine at the time that a question about the statue would end up being so important. As it happened, the Boulevard, when extended, pointed directly at a small statue of Jesus on a nearby hillside, and His Magnificence asked about it. Somebody explained, briefly, and we moved on.

Who would ever have expected it? Later, I'm not sure how much later, in a vast, fine gathering of All Who Were Important, Noble and Well-dressed, His Magnificence announced that his subjects would be converting to Christianity, as he only just had, and furthermore he planned to introduce human rights, universal suffrage, capitalism and a few other things which I can't remember now. It was heady stuff, and this made persons in the assemblage heady as well, though I remember thinking as some of the questions grew slightly more impertinent than usually would be dared that all it would take would be a slight shift of mood and heady might end up being headless. I stayed out of it anyway and just listened.

Later, he presented a large map to a group of advisers (I was there too) which he had drawn himself. The map showed the proposed boundaries of our kingdom (somewhat expanded from what I remembered our extent as having been) relative to the boundaries of the adjoining kingdoms. I think there were three neighbors on the map. He had written a rather crude threat and added something like, "This is how it's going to be from now on, fellas," right on the map and, so he told us, he had already mailed it to the other three kings. So, I thought, it's Christianity, Freedom and now War. Quite a week.

Through this adventure there are incredible costumes and pageantry, horns announcing arrivals, feasts and the usual royal stuff. Oh, and did I mention that we were all Japanese? Pretty impressive, taking place as it did from the time I got up to pee at about 5:10am and an hour or so later when the alarm went off. (See: Norvasc, side-effects, vivid dreaming.) Macherat


posted by Rick at 10:47 AM

11232184.1Consider this.    You know how you'll sometimes get an idea but not have time to explore it, so the way to keep it alive is to make a brief start of a post and then save that thought in Draft? No? Well, I do that occasionally, and this is one of those times. Trouble is, a day later, the idea is often so mind-dullingly stale that you can hardly wait to get it deleted. This is one of those times. However, I had already typed an entire sentence, so ...

It has to do with investing and making money at a level which you and I can't fathom. Do you realize that a handful of men, maybe 70, around the world have the means to put an employee of theirs in the accounting department of every Fortune 500 company and pay them, say, $100,000 a year just to spill an occasional tip, phone in a number just a few hours early, maybe make a tiny mistake once in awhile? Doing the math, this would cost a mega-investor Fifty Million Dollars a year. Easily made up in one or two phone calls. Think about it. Even scaled down tremendously, the possibilities mean that you and I have no chance in hell in that casino.

On the housing/credit crunch, so-called. In case you start to worry about this, just remember that it's poor people losing their houses and fabulously rich greedy people who are losing the money. While losing a house is sad, it's really just converting equity (precious little at that) back to rent and moving on just like any other move-out. Not a tragedy. But the idea of a bunch of filthy Euroes and worse losing billions is almost too wonderful ever to hope for. So, there's that. Macherat


posted by Rick at 11:59 AM

11232183.1Aunt Sue.    My great-great-Aunt Sue was a writer and I've suspected maybe a bit depressed. This morning, I was telling my own great-grandchildren, Lancelot and Genghis, about her. They're a little young yet, perhaps, for Sue, who I understand had many issues. She dedicated her best volume,

With sorrow in my heart
and
Much pity for the weak
WHO PUT STUMBLING BLOCKS IN MY PATH
and
Wished my life a perpetual
SLOUGH OF DESPOND
I respectfully dedicate this volume.
The Author

and soon thereafter, in 1907 actually, she moved to San Francisco where she no doubt enjoyed a joyless life in the rubble.

Sometimes I think I am becoming my great-great-Aunt Sue. Years ago, when I first opened this book and first tried unsuccessfully to read much of it, the sentiment seemed very strange. Half a century or so later, it really doesn't. Been fighting an urge to move to Banda Aceh.Macherat


posted by Rick at 11:37 PM

11232182.1Good sense.    There has been considerable coverage this week on the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Looking at the (still) messed up New Orleans, I just have to shake my head. People, people ... why do you have to build right where the hurricanes come, year after year? Even as we plan to pour more billions into the Gulf coast, projections are that New Orleans will be an island by the end of the century, a below-sea-level island completely surrounded by levees. Good levees, we can only hope.

I'm just so very glad to live where I do. Why just now I'm leaning back and admiring my lovely view across the bay and city, towards ..


My goodness, we didn't realize that volcano was so huge! What volcano? Oh, you must mean The Mountain. Not to worry, completely harmless. Macherat


posted by Rick at 9:57 PM