When the house owns you

In many regions, buying a house has gotten so expensive that it's time to turn around the terminology.

You don't own the house. The house owns you.

People that I know who have bought houses seem like they have fallen into black holes. They disappear from community activities for the most part. Having to work two jobs to pay the mortgage, all the repairs around the house, painting, yard work, gardening. The house owns you.

It's kind of like going back to the time of the native Americans when there was more of a tendency to feel like the land owned you, rather than you owning the land.

Now home ownership is bounded more by environmental regulations than before, burning bans, noxious weeds, noise ordinances, water issues, building permits, zoning, you name it. The world is getting more crowded and these things must come to pass. More pressure to be stewards of the land. Also renting isn't so bad after all.

Sign says wear your helmet

Along a popular road for bicycling, Lake Samish Fire District reminds folks to wear their helmets. Good idea. I've got mine.

Oops, the "I" has dropped in bike.

Welding art at Bellingham Technical College

Amazing what can be found serendipitously when bicycling. Not that far from where I live. Looking through fish scales at the technical college. Sculptures all over so I took a few photos. Just caught the tip of the iceberg, but it's my favorite tip.

Decided to add some photos from that relaxing peddle in the afternoon to my Flicker account.

Abandoned filling station sign says ride your bike

Filling station torn down, but sign remained for a while. Site now has leaking tank mitigation.

I have seen some posts that there's a don't buy gas "Gas Out Day" on May 15 to protest high gas prices. Guess what, May 18 is Bike To Work And School Day. Maybe the two days should merge.

Bike Away From Work

Budding lilacs with pine in the background.

May 18 is Bike To Work Day in Bellingham, but some people might feel it's another obligation.

"As if work isn't enough, now they expect me to bike there after working overtime and so forth," some will say.

So, bike away from work.

For some people, piling a bike trip on top of an already overburdened day is just another "should do." For others it's a relaxing and refreshing change from sitting at work. A breath of fresh air and a way to stretch one's legs. For some, biking will be a treat to and from work, but it isn't the same for everyone.

Biking away from work is an answer also. That means using the bike for recreational trips such as weekends or after work. Biking when there isn't as much pressure to "get there on time" can be a joy.

Americans tend to be overworked anyway. For some, the bike would just be another task. For others it's a welcome break from the tasks.

As a culture, we could also use more vacation time and break from the work-a-day world. If nothing else, better health could be justified in terms of increased productivity and lower medical costs, but why turn all our choices over to the bean counters?

Maybe we should just bike for the fun of it. If one finds it too much of a burden to bike to work, how about biking more on your time off? As long as it's biking, it's good.

Personally, I live so close to my job that there is no point carrying my bike down the stairs to ride it that short distance. I just walk to work.

My biking is during time off work. I've biked across America, but one doesn't even have to be capable of that. Just biking anywhere is worth while. Spring is starting to unfold.

Cell Phones and The Slow Lane

Some people complain about cell phones, but before cell phones, I didn't like regular phones.

Preferring to think about what I am saying, I write letters. The phone forces one to think on the fly.

Even before cell phones, I would write a letter to another person in town, rather than pick up the phone. People may have thought I was strange. The phone was just too fast for me.

Email still allows me to think about my letter. Delivery is just faster. The best of both worlds.

It's not technology that's the problem, it's "the speed of business."

Phones are always interrupting. They turn face to face conversation into disjointed sound bytes between the phone calls. When ever you get a good conversation going with a friend, the phone rings.

Phones often lead to multitasking. One reason why I am reluctant to phone people is it seems like you get the quick brush off from about half the folks you call. Everyone's multitasking with a second call on line two.

Cell phones bring the phone to more places, like trails and the wilderness. That can be good for safety reasons, but it also can mean the work world is just a ding-a-ling away.

I do bring a prepaid cell phone with me on my long bicycle tours. It is fun to share the tour, as it happens, with friends and family. No, I am not against cell phones. They can be kind of fun.

It is best to be stopped when your talking. Even on a bicycle, multitasking and driving isn't good.

When I make a call, I like to talk a long time, but I don't wish to interrupt my contemplative life to make lots of little calls.

During my childhood, people used to complain about "transistor radios" in the forest. Contaminating the natural experience with used car ads was not considered PC. Youth camps often had bans on radios.

These days, about the only "phone free zones" where people can meet face to face for uninterrupted conversations are in saunas, steam rooms and hot tubs. That is until they develop cell phones which can be cooked in an oven and submerged in water.

I don't really have anything against cell phones compared to regular phones. I just don't use either that often. When I do use them, I try to not be hurried.

Bellingham YMCA Building Turns 100 Years Old

Construction site with large steel columns and foundation walls, 100 years ago. If you look real closely, there's a horse cart parked by the old Bergs Pharmacy across what is now called State Street. The view across Holly has changed also. Click on image for larger version.

Sometime around 2006, 2007 someone can say that Bellingham's main YMCA building turns 100. It depends on whether one counts from start of construction, grand opening or what ever.

The building didn't start as a YMCA. It was an office building. At first, it was called The Exchange Building. Back then, the Y was across Holly Street in a building that later became the Odd Fellows. That place still stands as apartments today.


Before becoming a Y, the Exchange Building was offices and stores. State Street was called Elk Street back then. Notice the horse carriage headed up Holly St.

Next the Exchange Building became "Hotel Henry." That was in the mid 1920s. The 1940s saw that building become a Y. From what I read, the building was donated, to a large extent, for the Y.


Hotel seen from alley before gym was added. Image taken from an inventory book that was produced around 1927.

The gym and pool was added around 1951. There has been many remodeling projects over the years; including quite a few recent projects. They are always doing something.

After the year 2000, a second climbing wall was added to the south side. Newest climbing wall is 65 feet tall. First climbing wall was added during the mid 1990s.

On March 6, 2006, Bellingham Herald did a historic feature on the building. That's still available in archives.

There are quite a few old photos around. These images are two of my favorite that I scanned while working on the custodial crew.

Is God Hiding in the Dark Matter or the Dimensions of String Theory?

Our perception of the universe keeps getting larger and larger. In ancient times, it seemed like Earth was "center of it all" and not even all of Earth was known about. The Romans had no idea that the Americas existed.

There were also many things, like thunder, that were unexplained. They were attributed to the gods.

As our knowledge grew, we started explaining things in more mundane terms. We could make statements like, "thunder is not angry gods, but more explainable events in the atmosphere."

Science has a tendency to demystify things. It tends to push the idea that "something is caused by a god" farther from the picture as understanding advances.

Does that mean science can explain God totally out of the picture?

Not really, at least in my opinion.

Here's a reason why.

While scientific understanding tends to explain God out of our little world, it also tends to expand our world. As the known world grows, the unknown world grows also.

The unknown world may even be growing faster than the known world.

The universe that we try and comprehend is much larger today than the Romans would have imagined. Not only is Earth larger than the Romans thought, it's also just a tiny speck in something even bigger. Billions and billions of stars, planets and galaxies, as Carl Sagan would have said.

There's still plenty of room for mystery. Plenty of room for God, or even gods, to hide in.

Just in case you thought the billions of stars and galaxies aren't enough mystery, I read that possibly 95 percent of the stuff in our universe is totally invisible to us. It's the so called "dark matter" and "dark energy."

What is dark matter and / or dark energy?

No one knows.

We don't see the light from it, but many astronomers think it's got to be there because they see the effects of its gravity on the stuff that we do see.

Dark energy seems to be repelling the galaxies apart at an ever increasing rate while dark matter is arranging and tugging the galaxies around in various ways.

It's like invisible hands pushing and pulling things around, but we don't see what's doing this.

For now, we can leave dark matter and dark energy in the pile of unknown. That's the pile where we toss God also.

Even without that 95 percent of the universe people call the dark stuff, there's still a lot of the visible universe that's mysterious. Billions and billions of galaxies and lots of unexplained stuff. Even unexplained stuff right here on earth. Unexplained stuff in our ecosystems, brains, what ever.

As soon as we pull some new understanding out of the pile, we find that pile of "unknown" just gets even larger. We never seem to explain God into a corner or out of existence. The universe is far too large for that.

If our world was as small as the Romans must have perceived it to be, we would be well on our way to explaining away God. We would have explained thunder, much of weather, the flowing of streams, the chemical reactions that cause fire, evolutionary theory leading to the variety of species and so forth. Basically, we would eventually run out of mystery.

Still thinking inside the box of the Romans, God's corner is getting quite small.

As it is, we are no where near running out of mystery as our perception of the size of the universe just keeps growing along with our understanding of certain things around us.

Falling off the edge yet? Image from one of my bicycle trips down the Oregon coast.

There is a phrase that goes something like:

"The more we know, the more we know that we don't know."

There is still plenty of "place," on this huge stage we call reality, for God. More place all the time as the pile of unknown seems to grow faster than the pile of known.

It's like we're loosing ground.

It's also kind of like we are getting more humble all the time.

Yes, more humble.

In many ways, we seem to be less arrogant than the ancients who thought that man (for the most part not even women included) was the center of the universe.

Here's an analogy that I thought about this while I was mopping the floor. My custodial job gives me time for contemplation.

Ancient man sat in a room of darkness. He kept hearing a rustling sound that he thought was a mouse in the room.

"Mouse" means "God" for the terms of this analogy.

He kept hearing the rustling, but couldn't see anything due to the darkness. He thought, "it's got to be a mouse till he turned on a light."

No mouse visible.

"So, the mouse must be around the corner, behind the dresser, under the bed?"

He turns on more lights. He lights up a bigger area.

He sees under the bed. No mouse. Behind the dresser, no mouse.

Soon the entire room is lit up. No mouse can be seen and he realizes that the rustling is coming from a window shade.

Yes, there's a window shade. It's making a rattling sound in the wind.

Seeing the window for the first time is when ancient man first gains the concept that there is such a thing as an "outdoors."

In the dark room, he thought the little room was all of reality. Now he sees more. "There's such a thing as an outdoors!"

Now there's more room for mystery to lurk.

He can now ask questions like, "where does the wind come from?"

Yes, science tends to demystify a lot of things, but at the same time, it keeps pushing the frontiers of knowledge out into much larger worlds. Bigger worlds where mystery still abounds.

As the world of unknown keeps growing, I also read about many scientists describe the world that we do know in poetic and even artistic terms. Sort of like, "even the world that we do know is not really that totally mechanical either." It can be described more like a work of art than just the grinding of some impersonal machine, at least according to many scientists who I read about.

That's another whole tangent of thinking and it's quite fascinating.

It seems to me like we may have all but "proven out of existence" the god of the small world that fundamentalist religion was born out of.

That god, who is said to have "created the Earth in 6 days." Now days, he seems to be just about folk tale. That's the god who's "6 day creation special" defies geological findings.

A little while ago, I heard that, "on the 7th day, God ordered pizza."

It's believable, especially when the priest owns stock in a pizza delivery company.

The true universe is much larger and more mystical than folks living in that small world of Biblical times even imagined. Maybe they had some useful insights that we can still benefit from today, but the world is much larger and even more mysterious than that.

Now, as if that unseen 95 percent of our universe, we call dark matter and dark energy, isn't enough, there is String Theory.

Folks working on "String Theory" could be opening yet another "picture window" on the great unknown.

More dimensions.

10, or maybe even 11 dimensions!

More dimensions than just the familiar "up / down," "this side, that side" of a cube.

We can picture 3 dimensions. We can even (almost) picture the fourth dimension.

Yes, the fourth dimension.

That's the dimension which "relativity folks" describe as being "Time."

We have 3 spacial dimensions and a 4th dimension we call time.

Einstein talked about "Space Time."

Hard to imagine, but I can almost wrap my brain around it. Well not really.

String theorists even talk about something called "Brains." Yes, brains, like in our heads? Or maybe more like membranes?

No, I don't really know what the concept of "brains" means either.

So, what about the 4, or even 5 additional dimensions?

It's dimensions beyond our current conceptions.

Yes, String Theory seems to explain a lot of things in this universe that are now, you guessed it, mysteries.

String Theory is supposed to unify the world of "Quantum Physics" to the world of "Relativistic Physics."

Don't ask me why. I just know that for String Theory to work, "they" say it has to have 10 or 11 dimensions.

10 or 11 dimensions. Wow.

Then we ask, "why?"

All these dimensions have to be there because some physicists say so. A lot of physicists. Theoretical physicists with mathematical equations that look like gobble-de-gook to me.

Well, I take their word for it. That's all I can say. I got a "D" in basic algebra.

So far, String Theory, or even dark energy and dark matter have not been totally proven. It's just that a lot of scientists think we are really on to something. On to something rather profound in explaining more of this universe.

We just keep asking more and more questions. Our world keeps getting larger and larger and there always seems to be plenty of room for something folks can call a god.

I guess one can say, "it can truly be seen as an artistic, fantastic and mysterious world out there."

Liberal talk may not work on radio since people listen in their cars. Driving brings out the conservative in folks

A tower I drew while I was in college, probably while I should have been taking notes in class.

Media full of news about Imus firing from CBS.

Also people full of questions, "why is radio talk so mean spirited?" "Why don't liberal talkers do as well in the ratings on commercial radio?"

Well, maybe it's because a big share of the radio audience is driving. Yes, driving and fighting traffic. People often say that they become a different person when they get behind the wheel of their cars. More angry, mean spirited, hurried. "Move it buster, don't take all day."

That may influence which stations get tuned in.

I know some drivers who want soothing programs, but maybe they are more apt to go for music, rather than talk radio. Classic KING FM (in Seattle) for instance.

As for me, I listen to radio a lot, but I don't drive.

My dial is often set to gentle and educational talk. Talk like one finds on NPR and Seattle's KUOW.

Also on some other stations like Canada's kind and gentle CBC Radio One with CBU out of Vancouver, BC. Even KGO out of San Francisco, CA. has some good talkers, but being a commercial station they do have some yellers as well.

Drive till you qualify drives sprawl

Qualify for a mortgage that is, and or just an affordable place to live.

One of the most senseless realities of economics in regards protecting the environment.

Drive out from the city till you find an affordable place to live. Drive out till you qualify for a mortgage. Lower income people having to move farther out usually means more driving and sprawl into rural environments.

This may be one of the biggest environmental problems we face. Things need to be done to remedy this bad economic reality.

Solutions include:

* In-filling in the cities and towns to provide more affordable housing for both renters and owners.

* Population control.

* Public transit, rather than automobiles, out to some of the hinterlands so people who live out there don't have to drive so much.

* The Internet and tele-commuting to cut down on that long commute to work.

* Clustered development in the hinterlands.

* People not expecting to live in such large houses or yards.

* Higher gas prices and / or lower property values, thus creating a different market environment so "drive till you qualify" no longer makes economic sense.

Economic sense and environmental sense need to match up in a better way.

Here is a cartoon idea about low and moderate income people facing two monsters.

Monster in the city is high property values / rents and mortgages.

Monster in the country is rising gas prices.

My favorite kind of socialism / welfare state

Let the machines do the work and pay the taxes while humans enjoy the "welfare state."

Of course maybe us humans need balance, rather than not working at all. We can let the machines do most of the work and let us work "part time."

It's my kind of socialism and I am not really a socialist.

Actually, I would consider myself a part socialist. I believe in a large public sector, but also advocate a more or less "free market" economy.

"More or less," that's balance.

My scale is tipped toward calling myself a socialist when the prospect of having the machines do most of the work is suggested.

Maybe we should still work part time for balance, but really ... The machines can do a lot of mundane and repetitive tasks better.

Why have human bank tellers when machines can do it? Miss that human smile at the bank? Well, that smile is short lived when there's a long line of customers that have to be hurried through the line.

Hurried, harried?

Can't we just do our mundane banking by machine and then head to the beach where our former "bank teller now artist" hangs out? On the beach we might have more time for long philosophical conversations.

Yes, my kind of welfare state. Machines do the work and people enjoy a benevolent society.

We can even program the machines so that they don't grumble when they pay the taxes.

The only time I remember an older man coming on to me as a child.

All the media talk about Catholic priests, predatory web sites and parents afraid to let their children bike to school has brought up a memory from my childhood.

It's too bad there's so much fear out there. So much fear that parents often don't allow kids to bike places. Obesity is on the rise.

Is the problem really that bad, compared to traffic hazards, for instance?

Still I remember an encounter. I hadn't thought about it for a long time, but all this recent talk in the local media has brought back the memory.

One weekend I was riding to a nearby town to have a picnic in the city park. Maybe I was in early high school, but my memory is a bit foggy.

Anyway, this fellow, in grubby overalls, struck up a conversation with me. Of course, "grubby overalls" - the stereotype.

He was a construction worker. Working on one of the dams on the Snake River. They were building dams back then so a lot of the workers lived in the area.

Being a kid, I started asking a bunch of questions. I was interested in dam construction.

How thick is the concrete? How does the coffer dam work? How deep are the foundations? When do they start putting the generators in?

Instead of being a "font of information" about the dams, this man I met in the park just invited me into a nearby restroom.

I wondered what he was trying to show me; concrete work, pluming examples, electrical conduit?

Instead, he pointed to the nasty graffiti on the stalls. The sexual graffiti. He started asking, "Do you do this?" "Have you done that?"

I just said "no" and "huh?"

I didn't know what to make of the conversation so I left.

He wasn't giving me very much information about the dams on the Snake River. I wasn't interested in the graffiti, it just seemed kind of dirty, or nasty, to me. The dam construction interested me more, so I just left. I got on my bicycle and rode away. The bicycle can be a good escape.

It didn't seem like that big a deal.

Sometimes I wonder if the fear is worse than the problem. Not that the problem is good, it's just that the fear can really be traumatizing and crippling.

It's always good to be careful and use common sense, but when fear starts to rule, everyone needs to stop and take a deep breath; so to speak.

CAFE Standards, A Waste Of Effort?

Car flipped over. I saw this one day walking downtown with my camera. Luckily no one hurt.

CAFE stands for "corporate average fuel economy." Trying to get car makers to increase the gas mileage in the cars they make, but the whole effort could be a waste of time. Better to just get people to drive less, rather than bother with trying to regulate the auto industry in this way.

One way to make a car more efficient is, of course, to make the car smaller and lighter.

Well, I can see why people still buy the bigger cars. Who wants to be crushed in a little cracker box during an accident? And thousands upon thousands of people die each year in accidents.

Why do people go for larger vehicles? A bit of extra gas is a lot cheaper than hospitalization. It makes sense.

There may be some other magical "technology fix" that improve gas mileage, besides reducing car size and or weight. Maybe CAFE standards can "drive" some innovation in this technology, but we keep looking for that magic potent. We keep looking, as if the corporations are God. Do the corporations really have a magic wand that they just don't want to use out of belligerence?

Well, what about the stubbornness of the American people who insist on driving?

I recently heard Congressman John Dingell (from Michigan) say, in a radio interview (if I remember correctly), that Europe doesn't have CAFE standards.

Yes, Europe doesn't have CAFE standards?

Interesting.

They put higher taxes on gasoline, rather than bothering with CAFE.

I guess that would be "Europe as a block" or most European nations?

Europe doesn't bother trying to regulate auto efficiency. Instead, they put stiff taxes on gasoline. When gas is more expensive, the market favors more efficient cars. Also (I might add) the market uses more public transit, bicycling and walking.

Here in USA, fuel prices fluctuate. When prices go up, fuel efficient cars become a short lived fad. Auto makers start tooling up for the new market reality; roads filled with tiny vehicles.

Then gas prices drop before factory retools can even make it off the drawing board! Big cars with more padding and safety come back into style. Our roads become a scary mix of gas conscious tinderboxes versus road hogging monsters.

When it comes down to survival of the fittest, who wins? Not the gas conscientious.

Well, maybe I win when I am riding a Greyhound bus.

On my bicycle, I am usually out of the battle, for the most part, if I can find a shoulder. Maybe that's not as safe as Greyhound, but it's much better than being in the traffic pattern on a motorcycle, for instance.

Most of the time, gas is still a bargain in USA. Gas is an amazing bargain when compared to the costs of hospital stays and health insurance plans.

Curbing immigration?

It doesn't look like our nation of immigrants can curb immigration. America is a nation of immigrants.

The underlying issue is too much world population growth.

Now that we have more Democrats in Congress, I hope there can be a more friendly attitude toward domestic and international family planning agencies.

Did Iraq have anything to do with September 11 terrorist attacks?

Yes.

Here's one connection. I hear, in the news, that Osama Bin Laden was mad at USA, in part, because our troops were occupying holy land in Saudi Arabia during 1990 - 1991 Gulf War period. It was Desert Shield followed by Desert Storm. Apparently this situation is one of the things to cause Bin Laden and followers to turn against US with a vengeance.

Why were our troops there?

There's a connection. We were in Saudi Arabia trying to deal with a problem related to Iraq.

We're always trying to "fix" the Middle East. Maybe we would have been better off learning to live without Persian Gulf oil. Or at least we would have been less likely to piss people off.

Of course, some folks are always pissed off, but we can try to stay out of it. Let the pissed off people quarrel amongst one another.

Unfortunately we're a bit pissed off also. We're a bit spoiled by cheap energy.

4th anniversary of Iraq War?

Or is it the 16th anniversary?

16 years since 1991 Gulf War that may have not really ended, but left Saddam Hussein in power. Much of that time folks in USA must have felt guilty about leaving Iraqi people caught between Hussein and UN sanctions.

Or back even farther?

When we gradually became more and more dependent on Middle Eastern oil.

Rainbow Flag over Western

As I was biking through Western Washington University campus, I noticed the rainbow flag flying proudly. On top of a tall tree in front of chemistry and biology buildings.

Interesting.

Must be a story behind that, but I haven't heard the story. Not sure if it's "official" or not. Rainbow banners have been official along Davie Street in Vancouver, BC and they look nice.

Rainbow flag related to gay community.

Then a friend of mine is traveling in Peru, South America. A rainbow flag flies high over the cathedral in Cusco. It's the official flag of Cusco long before it became an international symbol for gay parades.

Just a coincidence.

He says Cusco is talking about changing it's flag.

Mercator Projection. The Cold War. The War on Terrorism

Our "world view," influenced by how we map the world.

Is George Bush a member of the "Flat Earth Society?"

The Mercator Projection is a type of map that was common when I was a kid. Hung on the classroom wall, it made the world look flat. Also distorted reality, as every world view does.

A world view is always limited. True reality is beyond perception.

Showing a round globe on a flat map is problematic. Map makers have several different types of "projections" that they use to try and do the trick.

Due the trick at least part way.

Sometimes the globe gets cut up into slices; like apple slices.

The Mercator Projection was very common. Didn't slice the world, or distort the border shapes. Looked nice and flat on a map; on the classroom wall, but it distorted the size. It distorted the size and possibly the importance of certain nations.

Nations near the north pole look a lot larger than they really are. The old Soviet Union shown in red. That was way north, not far from the north pole. The Mercator maps made it look massive and ominous.

The "Evil Empire "

Then there was the little guy, like in "David and Goliath." The good guy USA. Blue, like the pure sky. The foothold of hope and freedom.

USA, Canada, Western Europe, Australia and a few frontier outposts like Japan, South Korea and South Vietnam were blue.

Blue and red were faced off.

The red was a growing blob, a menace of totalitarianism, slavery, marching from China to Eastern Europe.

The "Soviet Block."

We had to hold the line in Vietnam, or where ever. Prevent more nations from turning red like dominos falling. The domino theory.

It's true that the Soviet Union was largest country in the world, in land area, but Mercator map made it look even bigger. Bigger than Africa.

In reality, the Soviet Union was around 8 million square miles while Africa is over 11 million square miles. Doesn't look like that on a Mercator map.

Then China has the biggest population in the world. It all looked "bigger than life" due to the Mercator Projection on the classroom wall.

Scary.

Now we have "Red States" and "Blue States," but that's a little bit of a different game.

What about the rest of the world? South America, Africa, The Middle East? They are all white or nondescript in color. Potential for one side or the other. Pawns in the battlefield.

Then there's Antarctica's ice. Look how big that looks. Close to the south pole. Many Mercator maps just excluded Antarctica.

Why are there bands across Greenland? It's part "freedom" because it's owned by Denmark, but mostly it's useless ice. Look how big Greenland looks on the map.

Now Greenland plays an important role in the "global warming" discussion, but that's another story.

I drew this map to try and capture the "feeling of geography" in my grade school classrooms. Grade school classrooms during cold war times.

Yes, that was quite a compelling world view. Lead to such concepts as "The Domino Theory."

"If one more nation falls into the Soviet Union's iron grasp, more will follow." "Evil Empire will slowly unravel the world."

"Vietnam was the "finger in the dike."

It is a convincing world view. Scary.

I can see why people "bought it."

Some students even hid under desks during air raid drills, but that world view started to unravel.

China and Soviet Union started quarreling with one another; as early as the late 1960s. The block softening?

By the mid 1970s, when we gave up on Vietnam, the domino theory didn't happen. Instead there was conflict between Vietnam and Cambodia. Two different brands of evil?

Eventually even the Soviet Union crumbled under it's own bureaucratic weight?

The US had less land area, but what people call a "beacon of freedom" brought a climate of innovation.

Could the Soviets invent the Internet?

Is control of land and resources the only road to prosperity?

Is there a similar "world view" influencing our "War on Terrorism" today?

Should we be calling it a war, or might it be better thought of as an issue of law enforcement?

Is there an "Evil Empire," an "Axis of Evil" or is there just a potential for crime and terrorism to break out anywhere in the world, including at home?

Who is best equipped to fight terror?

The military?

The police?

Intelligence?

Charity?

Anger management?

Just some ideas to think about.

Speaking of innovation, does the military even have enough nerds to study foreign languages for good intelligence gathering?

Oh, many of them were kicked out by "don't ask don't tell" policy on gay people in the military.

Condo Conversion In Reverse?

In some cities, there is a worrisome trend of converting apartment buildings into condominiums thus reducing the number of rental units available. Making housing less affordable.

Then I hear that a lot of condominium units are not "owner occupied." The condo owner is renting out the unit to tenants.

Would this be "condominium conversion in reverse?" "Condo" actually used as "rental."

There was a recent article in the Herald about local condominiums that are not "owner occupied." A large percentage of them.

Could be good news for renters.

I don't think we have a problem with condominium conversion here in Bellingham. They are building a lot of condos, but it is "new construction" for the most part. Elbow room. Some people don't like seeing new construction, but at least it can create "elbow room," or "breathing room," if one would rather say that.

Especially as population keeps growing.

They say some condo owners have bought early before retirement. They bought before they actually plan to live here. They don't want to leave their "real jobs" yet and come to Bellingham where there doesn't seem to be much enterprise beyond "education," "retirement" and "retailing."

That gives us locals some breathing room. The scary stories about skyrocketing rents and condo conversion from other locations isn't too bad here yet.

A somewhat soft economy, in terms of wage scales, has some benefits. It's a bit more mellow. Maybe not quite as much of a "rat race" even though it seems like a rat race at times, especially looking at the traffic.

I feel like it's kind of a treadmill that goes nowhere.

"Treadmill to nowhere," that's what a lot of the commercial economy is about, everywhere. Especially noticeable here where we don't have a lot of enterprise outside of local retailing.

Few big export industries.

There's always so many gift shops, massage therapists, restaurants, dance studios, opening up and then struggling. Selling to one another's employees. Lots of "preaching to the choir" here, it seems like. Running on that treadmill trying to get ahead, and then closing.

Box Store Dodge Ball

Bellingham, Ferndale, Whatcom County, Lummi Reservation. The game is on to avoid being hit, or to catch the ball - box stores.

Bellingham dodges with a ban on box stores, but the ball is still in the air.

Ferndale temporarily dodges and so does Whatcom County.

Now it looks like Lummi Reservation may be poised to catch the ball, or a Walmart Superstore at least.

Who's winning? Who's loosing? Why are people playing?

The automobile plays. It plays a big role in box store economics. Plenty of space for parking.

Then there's also the "one with the most toys wins" cheer.

Volume discount.

That's why people are playing, to a large extent.

Next question.

Is anyone winning, or losing?

In Washington State, dodging a super store could mean losing lots of tax revenue. We don't have a state income tax, so our state and local governments derive a large percent of their "revenue score" from sales tax.

On the other hand, catching the ball can mean traffic, other problems.

Traffic crosses jurisdictional lines as well. Can the referee do anything, call a time-out?

Sitting in the grandstands, I am not too worried. I just try and go where the traffic isn't, or at least there's a wide enough shoulder to cushion my bicycle.

Dodge ball with the cars can be deadly.

I haven't used Slater Road that frequently, since they built Silver Reef Casino, out by where there's talk of a possible Walmart.

Years ago, I cycled along those lowlands, where birds flew, but traffic changes the scene. Yes, there's a shoulder on Slater, but a trip on parts of I-5 is better. A wider shoulder. If Slater is going to be busy anyway, might as well take a trip on I-5's wider shoulder.

Narrow shoulders on Nooksack River bridges can be a problem.

As for catching a few "trail building" dollars, there is a new bike trail, near that area, which is quite delightful. Along east dike of Nooksack River south from Hovander Homstead Park, near Ferndale.

Part of the score is in how our people play the game. Try to live a sustainable lifestyle.

What's that? Read on, my blog.

Global Warming and Antarctica, does that argument hold water?

A radio talk show host was questioning global warming by saying that Antarctica's ice is getting thicker as we speak. It was on a Dori Monson show over KIRO in Seattle.

That's no argument against the existence of global warming. It just might mean that precipitation is increasing in parts of Antarctica. Much of that continent is considered desert anyway. An increase in precipitation would mean thickening of the ice. When the normal cold temps, toward the center of Antarctica go below -112 F., the ice could still be thickening, even if the center of Antarctica gets a bit warmer.

A bit warmer, like say -106 F.

Increased precipitation would still be snow at -106 F. It's still "warming." -106 F. is warmer than -112 F., but it's still ice.

If the ice thickens, maybe it will "hold water" and prevent some of the rising ocean levels.

Get it, "hold water." Still, that argument doesn't hold water as a dispute of global warming.

Global warming could just mean a slight rise of a few degrees in much of the world. Just that little bit is still enough to melt many of the mid latitude glaciers that we depend on, such as here in the Pacific Northwest where much of our hydroelectric power comes from glacier fed stream flows. Also slight changes in global climate can wreak havoc on those colored bands that I used to see in world maps at my grade school. Colored bands for different climates like, "Mediterranean," "West Coast Marine," "Steppe Breadbasket," "Continental Moist," "Taiga Forest," "Tundra" and so forth.

The positions of these bands have been fairly reliable in our the past. A foundation for much of the global economy.

If those color bands start moving around, it could be at least a "bad stock market day."

Al Gore's Big House

Or houses?

Media has had news about the allegedly "global warming" utility bills for Al Gore's residences; the preacher against global warming.

I saw his movie, "Inconvenient Truth." It's one of the few movies I have seen since I am not one for Hollywood, celebrities and their big houses.

I liked the movie.

Yes, the message is important, we do need to address global warming. My main complaint about the movie was not seeing bicycles. I don't think he mentioned bicycles. One can walk away knowing we have a global warming problem while feeling helpless about solutions.

Yes, celebrities, politicians and so forth live in big houses all too often. Would you listen to some cleaning lady, or janitor, like me?

Not long ago, I heard someone on the radio complain that Wikipedia wouldn't allow articles about "just anyone down the street." Try doing an entry for the cleaning lady.

Does someone have to live in a big house to have a voice?

Also, just about everyone drives.

We all live in Al Gore's big house, it's our Planet Earth.

Conversation about The Compact

The compact to not buy new things was a topic on KUOW Radio's "The Conversation" yesterday (February 26). A group of folks making a compact not to buy new things except for a few exceptions such as food. This can reduce consumption. They have a Yahoo group and so forth.

Interesting idea.

I haven't taken any pledge against new items, but I don't consume as much as most folks around me.

One caller worried that such movements could put folks out of work. Less consumption means less manufacturing and retailing.

Here is where we can connect two movements. There is a movement for "shorter work week." A quote I once saw said, "work less, buy less, live more fully."

Having a family can make downsizing more difficult. Kids are often influenced by peer pressure and advertising for shiny new products. They can become like "Trojan horses" residing in the household and bringing demands for things they see on TV or at friend's places.

Still, several callers with kids said that their children were understanding and going along with the program, so to speak.

My lifestyle is quite austere. I have no one's demands to worry about, but myself.

Being single has advantages.

Single living is be more the story of my lifestyle than being gay. While listening to that show, I checked my email and found this piece about how to tell you are gay.

Here are the 3 top items that came to view in that email.

You know you are gay if:

1. You wear appropriate underwear for each of your dates.
2. You understand the subtle differences between at least 20 brands of vodka.
3. You understand the immense importance of good (or bad) lighting.

Much of identifying with various strands of culture revolve around consumption. Whether you are an SUV driving "soccer mom," or a fashion conscious gay male, the stereotypical norms of our culture are often defined by the products we buy.

Here are some questions to ponder.

Does downsizing make one a loner in this culture?

Is being a loner necessarily bad?

Is having a nice car, clothing, furniture, living space a prerequisite for dating and being in a relationship (either gay or straight?)

Are there other ways of feeling connected besides being in a relationship; being the top catch for a date?

One Thousand Two Hundred and Eight Plastic Forks

sadly stuck into the grass in front of poor "Old Main" administration building of Western Washington University.

1208 per hour.

I rush by. "Is that 1208 more mouths having to be fed each hour on planet Earth?" Over population. The grass sure does look tired and trampled. It's been winter. Lawns look beet up, dormant, full of dog droppings, litter, plastic forks.

Not yet the vibrancy of spring.

Next day, I look again. "NO." It's not 1208 more mouths, it's 1208 people who die each hour, from malnutrition related causes.

1208 each hour. Could be you or I.

It's a fund raiser for university students to go with out eating for 30 hours and donate $2 to some hunger relief fund.

I remember a similar campaign during my college days, so many years ago.

It still seems like the poor old Earth is too crowded and burdened. One can feel overwhelmed. Ready to walk on by and forget.

It's nice to be generous and charitable, but an ocean of hunger can be deeper than even Earth's "fished out" oceans. Of course fish farming and better distribution of wealth can bring more to the table of satisfaction.

Still, it seems like we're losing ground.

Also found on tired lawns, just before Spring's vibrancy begins:

Old condoms.

Another thing sprouting all over Bellingham:

New condominium developments.

Of course compact condominiums are better than single "family values" acres of sprawl. And condoms are one of many good ideas.

Let's put two and two together and address the world population explosion.

Alternative Fuels Raceway?

There are some folks who want the State of Washington to help fund a Nascar racing track in Kitsap County. Bad idea, as I am not into competition and all that oil consumption.

There is another proposal, in the Legislature, to use our state motor vehicle fleet for giving a push to locally produced bio-fuels. Money for converting school buses, state cars and so forth to alternative fuel.

I put two and two together. How about a state subsidized "alternative fuel race track?"

If the state were to fund something like this, it might be justified as a way to "drive" new technology. Western Washington University has a program for building cars that run on alternative fuel. They have built electric cars, solar cars and so forth. Often, I read that these cars are entered into competitions in various parts of the world.

Maybe even this wouldn't be a good idea.

I hear bio-fuels aren't that good. The amount of energy consumed in growing the crops can cancel the benefit. Today's Bellingham Herald had an article about dairy farmers who are worried that bio-fuel demand is pushing up corn prices, thus raising the cost of producing milk.

I have to have reasonably priced chocolate milk to run my bicycling.

Forget the bio-fuels and the idea of a competitive Nascar track, even my thoughts about an "alternative fuel" race track. I've got to have my chocolate milk.

Oil On The Brain

Title of an interesting book. I heard the author, Lisa Margnelli, interviewed today on KUOW's show called "The Beat."

Interview is still in KUOW Radio archive for The Beat, February 20 07. It's about half way through that hour long show.

Pictured on right is drilling rig I saw off southern California coast during my 2003 bicycle tour.

She talked about how much our oil economy is driven by the consumer.

Following the pipeline all the way from filling stations striving to keep the customer happy to gas truck drivers "doing what it takes" to make sure the station remains stocked. She met one driver who wore shorts in the truck because gas spilled on one's leg is better than gas soaked pants. That can turn one into a human torch.

Volatile.

Then there's the refineries. There's all that effort placed in cracking geological formations to get out the increasingly hard to tap reserve.

She even visited some oil exporting nations such as Iran, Nigeria and Venezuela. In Venezuela, she described one woman who was waiting in a cardboard hut for over 20 years for her promised benefit of a new house from government oil revenues.

The interview describes it much better than I. It's quite interesting.

Of course the conclusion involved trying to use less oil. She mentioned things like tele-commuting, more efficient cars, car-pooling.

I would add to this the story of my lifestyle. I've never driven a car! Bicycling, walking and public transit has met that the only time I "filled up at the pump" was for a lawn mower. That was part of a lawn mowing job I had in college.

Viking Biker Rune passed through Bellingham before crossing Canada in winter

Last November, a person named Rune passed through Bellingham on his way around the world. Traveling by bicycle. He was headed for Canada, to bike across that country in the winter.

Yes, the WINTER. Rune's home country is Norway.

By now, he is crossing prairie provinces and one can follow the trip on his blog, Vikingbiker's Diary. Lots of interesting pictures, Youtube videos and so forth.

An interesting contrast to my kind of cycling. His sleeping bag cost $800, while I lucked out and found mine at the Grocery Outlet (of all places) for $10. Of course, mine is only good in temperatures above 45 F. I only bike tour in the summer. His has to be good in weather down to maybe 30 F. below zero.

I forgot the exact number, but cold.

His kind of biking is more extreme than mine. Not only is he crossing Canada in the winter, he headed north (after crossing the Canadian border) to Prince Rupert, BC. before starting his eastward trek across the country.

Wanted to get even farther north, I guess.

His dramatic trip is generating a lot of media coverage; newspapers, TV and radio stations. In the media, he often says he wants to see the world now. See the world now because after one gets married, one basically stops doing things like this.

I guess that would be "going from one extreme to another." "World traveler" to "nester."

As for me, I prefer more moderate cycling. One or two month "summer vacation" trips while keeping my job and rented room, here in town. I've been across the USA, but only in the summer. I'm not planning to marry, but have met bike tourists who do travel as a couple. Others leave their spouses at home while doing a tour. For moderate trips at least.

I've done nothing as extreme as biking around the world or crossing Canada in the winter, but bike touring remains a part of my lifestyle; year after year.

Everyone is different.

Rune is having a great time and it's fun to follow his progress on the web. One of his Youtube videos with snow blowing across the road is quite memorable.

Pacific Northwest outgrowing it's hydroelectric resource

Image: power line near Bonneville Dam.

Governor Gregoire has signed an executive order called "Washington Climate Change Challenge."

Someday they might come up with a better name.

Basically this challenge means "rolling back greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2020."

Good idea, but a hard step to take due to population growth.

Yes, population growth is a big factor.

Most Northwest electricity used to be "non greenhouse gas emitting" hydro-power.

Dams on the rivers.

We've built just about all the dams we can, but our population and economy keeps growing.

We've outgrown our rivers!

I hear that the percentage of power which the Northwest gets from
hydro-electric sources keeps dropping. It's been dropping for years.

New people means having to get power from new sources.

If we can't build anymore dams, "new sources" has been natural gas, coal and nuclear.

That is in the past at least. Hopefully we can also be adding some new power from green energy sources such as wind and solar.

Washington State Initiative 957 has just been filed

It would require heterosexual couples to have kids within three years or else their marriage would be annulled.

I doubt it would get enough signatures to make the ballot, but it's sure succeeding in starting a lot of conversations.

Let us add to that conversation a link between "sexual politics" and "environmental politics."

Population, procreation; it doesn't make sense to persecute alternative lifestyles, such as gay lifestyles, while the world's getting too crowded and the north pole is melting. Look at all the traffic.

So, let the conversation roll and let's start talking sexual politics linked to environmental politics.

I doubt that Initiative 957 is a serious initiative. It is basically a conversation starter. Filed in response to a recent Washington State Supreme Court ruling against gay marriage.

Court ruling called Andersen V. King County.

This decision, declared that a “legitimate state interest” allows the Legislature to limit marriage to those couples able to have and raise children together. Because of this “legitimate state interest,” it is permissible to bar same-sex couples from legal marriage.

This initiative to also bar "child free" heterosexual couples from marriage may not go real far, toward the ballot, but it's going a long ways in editorial pages, blogs and radio talk shows. Now that the conversation is starting, it is time to link this discussion to environmental issues. How much procreation do we want to promote in this world, or do we want to embrace some alternatives?

Oil well near a Taco Bell drive through

Production not far from consumption.

While most oil for US lifestyles is imported, some is produced locally in places like Southern California.

Thinking about my last post for a tax on imported oil.

Domestic oil production would be exempt from such a tax.

A tax on oil imports is a good idea overall, but would not be without side effects. For instance it would likely encourage drilling for oil in places like Alaska's Anwar Arctic Wildlife Refuge. Maybe that wouldn't be the end of the world.

American's tend to rail against the drilling consequences of oil consumption, but then drive home from the protest.

I saw this interesting juxtaposition of land uses during my 2003 bicycle trip down the west coast. This was in the Huntington Beach area. Ironically, very nice bike paths in that area. Much of Southern California has real nice paths along the beaches and other spots.