Nuclear power for cars

As fossil fuels lead to global warming, I remember thinking that nuclear power may make a comeback as more vehicles go toward using electricity. For the electric car, the power has to be generated somewhere.

The disaster in Japan is likely to put a chill on future expansion of the nuclear power option. That leaves us with other choices such as solar power and wind farms. In many ways, solar is ideal, but it's fairly hard to collect thus making it somewhat expensive. Similar problem with wind power.

There's also the T Bone Pickens plan to use natural gas in vehicles. It's cleaner than oil based gasoline from a global warming standpoint, but still a global warming fuel. I once heard that natural gas is about 40% cleaner than oil when it comes to greenhouse emissions. Maybe my figures aren't exact, but ballpark idea.

Looks like we may have to adjust the economy to the reality of more expensive energy. The automobile is one of our biggest energy hogs so switching it over to electricity may be problematic. That's one of the reasons why I've kept advocating bicycling, walking and public transit. Making our residences more compact, rather than sprawling countryside living. Having jobs and errands within walking distance of at least the bus line is a great way to plan.

Ironically, we may have to live more like the Japanese. Use less energy per capita and rely more on public transit. One reason why Japan uses a lot of nuclear power is the fact that they don't have much domestic energy. They have to import just about all their fossil fuel.

The US started out as a large oil provider and built it's infrastructure around cheap gasoline. Now the US must import most of it's oil as well. The US is sometimes still called the "Saudi Arabia of coal." We could go back to burning coal and then generating electricity to switch gasoline running cars to coal; I mean electricity.

Someone wrote to my blog once calling electric cars "coal cars."

Maybe the greenhouse gas from coal can still be sequestered into the ground, rather than spewed into the atmosphere, but that ads to the cost of energy also; if the technology even becomes available.

Nuclear is still an option and the newer designed nuclear plants would be a lot safer than the older technology. I read that the plant in Japan that's having problems was built in 1971. Safety technology has come along way since then, but nuclear would be a hard sell.

We may just have to figure out how to have an economy that is less dependent on cheap energy. Ironically, like the Japanese who have been used to living on an island with little fossil fuel resources, we may have to rely more on public transit, walking and bicycling to combat global warming; rather than some magic "electric car" fix. Learn to build our suburban areas more compact. Live in smaller and better insulated homes. More of us live in apartments. My brother doesn't live in an apartment, but he does have solar panels on his roof. Gets a large part of his electricity from the sun.

Technology can still create magic, but it needs to be more "low energy per capita" style of magic. We should think about the advent of light emitting diodes, for instance.

Keyboards are getting so cheap in spite of the oil plastic connection

This friend of mine got a new keyboard for her computer. It was only $15 at a local box store. Wow. Keyboards must be coming down in price.

She was reluctant to just go out and buy a new keyboard as she lives frugally. Striving to be environmentally conscious, she reuses, recycles and repairs what she can, but her keyboard died a few days ago.

These days, repairing doesn't make a lot of sense. The cost of labor is often higher than the cost of buying new items. In an average household budget, rent (or mortgage payment) has gotten so high that it far out shadows purchase of new products. If keyboards only cost $15, one can buy 40 of them per month for the cost of renting a $600 apartment. There's not much incentive to save things and do repairs anymore.

Keyboards usually have a lot of plastic in them. Some folks feel that as oil prices rise, our world, which is largely from of plastics, will crumble. Well, I doubt that's likely to happen. From what I read, plastics only account for less than 7% of the oil consumption. Driving automobiles is a much bigger user of oil.

For most people, driving is a large blind spot. They keep driving their cars because they have to get to work, pay their high housing costs and put their kids through college and so forth. In the face of that household picture, $15 for a keyboard is nothing. Since time is often thought of as money, most people don't have the time to fiddle with repairs.

My frugal friend, who finally had to break down and buy the new keyboard, does save a lot on oil. Like me, she rides her bike everywhere. That's where the real oil savings comes in.

My keyboard has lasted 5 years and it's still going strong. It and the monitor are on their second computer. In 2009, I kept old peripherals when I got a new "box." The monitor is still flat screen.

Lettering has worn off some of the keys on my old keyboard so I'm guessing where the Es, Ss, and Cs are. I could do a simple repair job using tiny squares of paper and writing the letters with felt pen. If I do this, I would then tape the letters to the keys with scotch tape.

Do I have time for this, or should I just go out and buy a new keyboard? My rent is real low and my job is not very demanding. Maybe I do.

Repairs for my friend's keyboard wasn't so easy because the problem was electrical.

I hate to toss out this keyboard because all the electrical parts still work fine. I'd feel guilty because it's served me so well and doesn't deserve to be tossed in the trash. I know it's not alive, but it still feels kind of disrespectful to toss something that's working so well.

Maybe you don't have time to read all these details as you live in the world of cheap products, high rents, stressful jobs and busy lives. That's what we really need to change if we want to slow down consumption.

Back when I was a kid, my mom used to darn socks. Now days, people wouldn't be likely to know what darning socks is. If I remember correctly, my mom fixed holes in a sock by stretching it over some bulbous shaped wooden tool that looked like a spindle. She would then use needle and thread to sew up the hole.

That was back when a nice big house could be bought for around $25,000 and only one wage earner could support the whole family on less than $18,000 per year.

Today, socks are so much cheaper, relative to other things like housing and health care, that we just buy a packet of 6 tube socks for practically nothing.

I don't know if I'd want to go back to the days of darning socks, but having family members spending more time at home, or at play, while spending less time in the workplace seems desirable. When I was a teenager, I had lots of time to play with my radios and fantasies. I didn't have to work in a fast food place.

Biking up Sehome Hill over the years, If I'm slower, I don't notice since I don't have a stopwatch

A favorite hill climb of mine handy to where I live. I've ridden up there many times over the years since college back in the late 1970s.

Does it feel any different now? Not that I notice. I've never brought a stopwatch with me so I've never noticed how long it takes.

They say it's supposed to take longer as one gets older. Maybe it does, but I haven't ever timed it so I've never known the difference. It feels the same and it feels good. The "sports" mindset can spoil things. Maybe I'm a bit slower, but without the stopwatch it's hard to tell.

As for aces and pains, I haven't noticed that either. Most likely because I keep doing little trips like this. Most people aren't that motivated to keep doing the little trips. If they aren't winning the grand race, they aren't motivated. It's that sports mindset again.

Some folks workout on treadmills, but most modern treadmills track one's heart rate and speed with great accuracy. It's like bringing the stopwatch on the hill climb. Over the years one can chart inevitably declining numbers into the grave.

Still, I guess the treadmill is good if one is slowly charting improving numbers from couch potato to fitness.

Then there the news of the 16 year old high school basketball player who died after he made the winning basket. He died a hero while some of the rest of us just plod along.

Haxton Way Trail in Lummi Nation

I heard there was a new bike trail near Lummi Casino so I rode out there on a nice day a few weeks back.

The trail goes along Haxton from Slater to Kiwina Roads. About 2 miles. It's not that long, but it's paved and even has solar powered street lights.

Some might ask, why spend money for this trail, but I read that since 1988 there have been 16 deaths along Haxton. Car accidents, car pedestrian and car bike accidents.

I don't ride out in Lummi lands very often because of narrow roads and traffic, but the situation is improving. Might as well have a safe "non car" route to the Casino which is a large employer at Lummi.

I accessed the north end of the trail from Slater Road which does have a shoulder. Then I rode south along the trail to Kiwina, turned around and road north back to Slater. Trail runs along west side of Casino Parking lot and then south to Kiwina.

Little by little, the green healthy ways of getting around continue to grow.

Great 7 minute documentary video on the trail. Link added October 2013.

I'm not participating in National Day of Unplugging since I get lots of face to face contact anyway

I get a lot of non cyber "face to face" interaction because I live in town and I go out a lot. Much of the reason for this day is to encourage people to turn off technology and go for more face to face interaction.

"Face to face instead of Facebook."

A lot of the problem keeping us away from so called "real" contact is not about technology. It's about how we build and use our living environments. Unlike many Americans, I live where there are sidewalks and trails so I can bump into folks walking places. Others are trapped in their homes and cars.

It's easy to walk to the YMCA where spontaneous conversations can start in the sauna area.

During warmer months, people go to Bellingham Farmer's Market for more reasons than just shopping. Who knows who you might bump into.

There are often things like gallery walks and discussion groups within an easy walk or bike ride. That's one advantage of living in density and also being open to whoever might come along.

Strangers sometimes talk on the bus.

We don't have to unplug the net for face to face contact. It's more about how we build our living environments.

Do we use meeting places, or are we "insular" in our isolated homes?

Do we go out for more reasons than just shopping?

Are there places to go without having to drive a long ways?

If we don't have these face to face opportunities, it's probably better to have the net than nothing.

Why teachers aren't paid as much as lawyers

Because there are a lot more teachers than lawyers. Lawyers, doctors and some other professionals make up an elite class that tend to get paid way more than most folks. People sometimes wonder why we pay lawyers more than teachers. There are a lot more teachers than lawyers so we couldn't afford to pay all the teachers as much as we pay the lawyers. Maybe we pay the lawyers too much.

Also, when you think about it, there are too many lawyers. There are too many lawyers, but still not as many lawyers as there are teachers. We need more teachers than lawyers. Teachers are more of a "bulk" class. It's just a numbers game. Hard to be considered "elite" when you're a fairly large percent of the population.

Here in Bellingham, our largest employers are Western Washington University, Bellingham school district and Saint Joe's hospital; possibly not in that order. Two of our largest 3 employers are educational institutions. Other metropolitan areas tend to have somewhat different demographics, but educational institutions are often a big share of the economic base.

There are elite folks in the economic system that it could be argued make too much money. Corporate CEOs for instance and of course those pesky lawyers. As for the rest of the masses, including teachers, we can't all be close to the top. Life can still be of quality, but we all can't be "top dogs." I once saw this quote on someone's profile that said, "even if you win the rat race, you're still a rat."

I consider myself a Democrat, but I can still remember a concept that former President Gerald Ford, a Republican, illustrated in one of his speeches about inflation back in the 1970s. Ford said, inflation was like a football game where everyone is sitting comfortably in the stands until a few folks stand up to get a better view. When they stand up, it starts blocking the view of other folks who now have to stand up to see over the heads of the first folks who stood up. Pretty soon everyone is standing up to see and no one has a better view than they did when everyone was sitting down.

Even with these thoughts, I still don't see any reason to take away collective bargaining rights. That's a different topic.

On the other hand, the majority of people in our economy aren't unionized.

Even if one has collective bargaining, there's little to bargain for when budgets are tight.

Now, I just got to thinking, if population growth was slower and there were less kids, there wouldn't have to be as many teachers. With less teachers, we could afford to pay them more. Their profession would be more of a rare elite.

Whatcom County's population now over 200,000

I made a note of it when USA's population passed 300,000,000. Now it's Whatcom County's turn where Bellingham is located. Recently passed the 200,000 mark.

One way to reduce illegal immigration is to allow more legal immigration. The quota for legal entries to this country is a number that can stimulate discussion. It kind of reminds me of Bellingham's contentious "20 year growth estimate."

That's a number also.

Any value, set for that number sparks discussion. How much do we want Bellingham to grow? How should we plan the city if it does grow; density, parks, transit? Will future residents still be able have a big yard, or drive a car? What's desirable? Denser cities often mean each resident has a smaller footprint on the environment. Less apt to own a car for instance. People also talk about increasing cultural vitality.

Of course there are no absolute answers to these questions, but public discussion is interesting. Washington State Growth Management law requires cities to come up with projected growth estimates. Where that number is set always becomes a "political football." And that's just an estimate. Still, it creates very interesting discussion.

Another aspect of immigration reform is discussion of a "guest worker program." I hear, from listening to the radio a lot, that many people just want to work in USA temporarily and travel back and forth to their home country. In some cases, people might be trapped in this country by fear that they couldn't come back if they went to their home country for part of the year. A guest worker program could "ironically" mean more people going back to their country of origin for part of the year.

It's kind of like the college students in Bellingham. That segment of our population tends to just be here for part of the year.

Then there is the idea of building a fence on the border to cut down on illegal immigration. Could be effective, but not the most compassionate way to go. Also could lead to an economic barrier. In Bellingham, there are people who talk about building a wall across I-5 to keep out new residents.

The issue is basically about population growth and how to avoid it, or adjust to it.

Hope to see democracy flourishing in the Arab world

Hope they can get rid of Gadhafi soon.

It looks like things are turning out good in Egypt so far, according to the news. There's hope for Libya. Democracy seems to be taking hold in Eastern Libya so far.

This is a paradigm shift for a large region of the world. Even though many have died, it looks encouraging. Like when the Berlin Wall came down.

Hopefully the west can do without low priced oil temporarily. Some of those dictatorships were propped up by efforts to maintain a stable oil supply. My overhead is low so even as our economy takes it's bumps from world events, I don't have a lot of bills. Glad my rent remains low. For transportation, of course, I ride my bike as I always have. I'm a non driver.

What's the price of democracy? For those who are fighting for it, a lot including possibly death. For us in the west, possibly a slight and temporary bump in oil prices.

Best news to come out of Middle East for a long time.

Popular uprisings for less repressive regimes and more democracy. Popular uprisings from the grassroots level. Normally I hear a lot of bad news from the Middle East, but now more of the news sounds encouraging. Hurray for the popular uprisings toward more democratic societies. The Arab Spring.

Questioning Obama's citizenship brings back faint memories of another politician from Hawaii

During Watergate Hearings, while I was in high school, Senator Inouye, from Hawaii was called "that little Jap" by a lawyer. The lawyer was John Wilson who's client was John Ehrlichman. This was in a heated exchange after Inouye called Ehrlichman a liar.

There was some uproar in the press following those comments. I vaguely remember my mom saying that Wilson dug the hole a bit deeper by mentioning he would have said the same thing if Inouye had been an American. At that point, someone pointed out that Inouye is an American, born in Hawaii, but of Japanese ethnicity. Easy to misstate in the heat of discussion.

Obama was born in Hawaii also. A different look at the birther issue.

My mom and I followed the Watergate hearings and I remember her describing Erlichman's lawyer as "that feisty lawyer." When I came back from a summer camp I ask my mom if anything new had happened in the hearings. She said, "not much except that feisty lawyer had ruffled a few feathers" and she went on to explain.

Too long a wait till September in Egypt

It's a long tedious wait till Egypt's president Mubarak's planned departure from office in September. Meanwhile the country is turning itself inside out. He should push up his departure, maybe March 2011 instead of making people wait till September.

Hope Egypt goes more democratic and doesn't go some other way that would be more dictatorial or violent.

Free speech doesn't have to cost much, but other economic improvements take a lot of patience. Bringing 80 million people out of poverty sounds like a daunting task. Especially as recent protests in Egypt has slowed the tourism industry. There's plenty to worry about including availability of water in Egypt as other countries down the Nile make claims to scarce water as well.

Making new wealth can be hard, but incomes can also be better distributed. Technology can help in squeezing new wealth out of scarce resources. Freedom of speech and Facebook can be seen as wealth. One can't eat Facebook, however.

Rain, rain, rain

Window display at Hilton's shoe store in Bellingham.

Bellingham weather is often cloudy and drizzly while harder rains are less common. It's usually just threatening to rain.

Lighted peace sign yard art

Lighted peace sign near Key Street in Bellingham.

From the back side it almost looks like a new moon.

Nice yard art.

How being a locavore might add to global warming

A locavore is someone who tries eat foods that are mostly grown locally, like within 100 miles from home, but in much of USA, local agriculture is cattle ranching. Beef cattle.

Cattle grazing is a lot of what one sees within 100 miles of towns in places like eastern Montana. Not the best place to grow tomatoes, but cattle can graze. Problem is, cattle create methane which is a greenhouse gas. One recommendation for reducing greenhouse gas emission is to eat less beef. That might mean being less of a locavore for folks living in the vast areas of USA where cattle ranching is easier to do than growing, say, avocados.

Maybe beef isn't all bad. I hear that folks are working on modifying the cow's digestive tract to create less methane. Science can come to the rescue.

Meanwhile, there are many reasons to increase fruits and vegetables in our diet while reducing beef consumption. Health reasons as well as the global warming worries. In winter, that most likely means food being shipped from distant places like southern California.

Some people try growing tomatoes here in Bellingham, WA. but our summers are a bit too cool and cloudy. The slugs get them. We just aren't the best place for tomatoes, except maybe in hothouses. Some years, people have good tomatoes, but it seems rare.

Maybe we can have a diet of kale in the winter. Kale is nice, but might get boring after while.

Shipping from distant places creates greenhouse gas as well. Trucks, rail and so forth. Hopefully this isn't as big of an emitter to greenhouse gas as the driving that average Americans do each day.

Being a locavore may not do that much for reducing global warming. Eating less beef does more. Also figuring out how to live without driving, or at least less driving. Possibly living near the bus line or a bike path.

Buying local has some advantage for supporting local business and farming. Also increasing one's social life knowing the producers and meeting folks at places like farmer's markets.

Speaking of cows, I love locally produced Twin Brooks Dairy with it's returnable glass bottles. For some reason, it seems to taste better. I often start my day with their chocolate milk. It's my version of morning coffee.

I don't drink coffee. My reason for not drinking coffee is not because it doesn't grow around here. I just never learned to like the flavor.

Interesting to follow uprisings in Egypt and other parts of the Arab world on the news

Hope it goes in the direction of more social freedoms.

Social freedoms can bring more economic prosperity by encouraging innovation, but economic prosperity may be slow in coming. Even if improved economic conditions don't come that easily, a society of greater freedom can still take place. Greater diversity in lifestyles, religion, human rights and free expression doesn't necessarily have to take a lot of natural resources or bring more material wealth, but it's an improvement in quality of life.

Piano stairs

Making the healthier route fun. Steps of the staircase are like piano keys and play notes as they are stepped on.

One of my Facebook friends found this and shared it. I decided to add it to my blog also.

Food shortages may be less of a problem than other things due to peak oil

Blog post I put on the Transition Whatcom web site. Transition Whatcom members can post. Everyone can read. That discusses strategies for building new lives and economies as availability of fossil fuels diminish. Many fear food will be in short supply as oil is used in agriculture. I have a different take. Food may not be as impacted as some fear.

Re localizing manufacturing more than agriculture

Screenshot, NPR Science Friday.

Buy local.

That's the mantra for many folks seeking a better world. With so much of our manufacturing done in China and salads nicknamed "the thousand mile salad" because of foods coming from far afield, "local" is cherished.

A yearning for return to local "farm to market" commerce has been around for years. Gives rise to farmers markets and places advertising food from within 100 miles.

Manufacturing is another activity that can come back to local communities and we may have more luck localizing this than we do food.

I recently saw this segment of NPR Science Friday on the 3D printer. Interesting little video.

3D printing is getting versatile enough to even make a lot of things in the home shop. I think Alvin Toffler has discussed the term "prosumer." Consumers who can produce a lot of the products they consume.

Home gardeners can be called prosumers as well, growing some of what they eat. Re localizing the production of food is an idea that has been around for years, but we may have more luck re localizing other things than food. The problem with agriculture is climate. Most things grow outdoors and stuff like oranges don't grow in places like Washington State. We've become addicted to a very diversified diet and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'll keep drinking orange juice.

Maybe someday, more food will be grown indoors, but the cost of that would be prohibitive for now.

Like the convenience of the automobile, it's hard to give up the great diversity of food we now enjoy. I've lived without the automobile, but I'm rare. Most folks wouldn't give up their cars and it seems unlikely their diets either; except maybe going to healthier diets. Fresh lettuce and tomatoes from places like southern California is hard to beat since lettuce doesn't grow here (Washington state) in the winter. The thousand mile salad will be hard to drop, but other things, like manufacturing, may come easier, with new technology.

Local food production is great. I enjoy Twin Brooks Dairy (here in Whatcom County), but salad greens from southern California are awful nice this time of year.

Printing out lots of household items like bottle openers.

Unencumbered by the confines of what will grow in this climate is manufacturing. New technologies are coming that can decentralize some of the manufacturing sector. Less products will have to be shipped from places like China. Local people may be closer to the process again.

As home manufacturing develops some of the work will be done by hobbyists. By prosumers spending less on being consumers.

One reason behind the call to re localize is our depletion of cheap fossil fuel and the related problem of global warming. Shipping food and products worldwide can take energy, but in some cases economies of scale means reduced energy consumption per unit of production. Big farms may not be as bad as some folks fear, while local agriculture can have it's problems as well. Small farming can mean putting more people in rural settings. Often I've thought that it takes less energy to ship an apple across the globe than it does to ship people who live in a small apple orchard to work if they have to work in the city to pay for that apple orchard.

For years, people have spoken for the virtues of local food production. The idea has caught on a bit, but propensity to seek vast diversity in diet keeps this from going real far. At the same time, we may see a revolution for the decentralizing of many other services such as manufacturing. Technology is likely to drive this revolution in future years.

Other services, such as banking may be "ripe" for a bit of decentralization as well. While there are some advantages to financing on a global scale, we should have learned recently, with the problems caused by loans being sliced, diced and bundled all over the world, that bigger isn't always better. Local bankers will often know local consumers best; doing business face to face.

So "buy local" may catch on more and more in the future, but I would guess, unlike what some others might think, it's leading edge will be in other sectors besides food production.

Economy and traffic picking up

Seems like businesses are starting to get busier again and traffic is backing up more. I'm reminded of the gas ceiling that the US economy labors under. As things pick up, oil gets more expensive.

Supply and demand.

Since we import so much oil, it's a tax on the American people. Money sent overseas. Rather than a glass ceiling it's a gas ceiling.

Change to a less fossil fuel based economy comes too slow.

One piece of good news: Canada benefits as we import a lot of oil from Canada.

Sarah Palin could say she is getting a shellacking

That would be taking a page from Obama's play book. Instead, Palin is taking a different stance. Rather than bowing to criticism and seeking compromise, she's defending the heated rhetoric of her campaign style in spite of so many people's comments that vicious politics can be loosely associated with the shooting spree in Arizona.

She did take the symbols of gun sites off her web site however. Those symbols that were posed over congressional districts where she wanted to see democrats defeated.

She's still fighting and basically standing up for her campaign style. Whether that's good or bad, it's different than Obama's reaction to the 2010 election after republicans gained so many congressional seats.

Should Obama take a page from Sara Palin's play book and defend his stands more aggressively?

Compromise and backbone. Two somewhat opposite poles of a spectrum. Both have their virtues and drawbacks. Seems like democrats are on the defensive more often than republicans.

Painted entryway to dance space of Presents Studio

One of the places I like to dance. Free form jam session. Too bad nothing is planned for New Year's Eve at that studio, but looking forward to things next year. See you next year.

Evolution of car phones to cell phones

Back in the 1980s, cell phones were new, but they were usually called car phones. Now they are called cell phones which is better since the car is not the best place for them; especially the moving car.

Last bastion of the middle class - public employment

The gap between high income elite and low income masses is more pronounced in private sector. A larger percentage of public sector employees seem to be middle class. Not wealthy, but still having pretty nice benefits like health insurance that's more likely to be missing in private sector employment.

As the middle class disappears in private sector, it will get harder to sustain it in the public sector as well. Following leads from Facebook friends, a video from CBS News 60 Minutes came to my attention. Sure points out how far in the hole so many state governments have gone borrowing from their own pension funds and so forth. Looks like a lot of the pensions that were negotiated by state employee unions were unsustainable. Some are generous by private sector standards, except for the golden parachutes near the top of private sector. One governor was quoted saying that if he talked about needs to trim state employee pensions, many of his constituents would say, you mean there are still people who have pensions?

Yes, it's hard to justify middle class living in the public sector when many of the taxpayers are no longer living in the middle class. Part of the energy behind the Tea Party movement; no doubt.

As the gap between wealthy and low income becomes wider, in private sector, it's harder to maintain an economic "middle ground." in the public sector.

On another note, I remember how the middle class was derided during hippie movements of the late 60s and early 70s. Middle class was seen as materialistic, stuffy, the suburbs, conservative, mainstream and living in little boxes made of ticky tacky.

Now, the middle class is being missed by quite a few folks on the left. Folks are holding protest signs for "family wage" jobs. Even Lawrence Welk (a pastime in many middle class homes of the 1960s and 70s) is now remembered with fondness and nostalgia by folks who often derided the show in it's day.

Farthest artificial object from Earth

Launched September 5th 1977, while Jimmy Carter was still president. Voyager 1 spacecraft has traveled more than 10 billion miles in space. It's now well past the orbit of Pluto and still sending data back to Earth about the boundary area between solar wind and interstellar space.

Artist's rendition of Voyager from NASA and Wikipedia.

Traveling at 10.5 miles per second (that's from around downtown Bellingham to Ferndale every second!) it's moving. The universe is so large that it would still take this craft over 80,000 years to get to the nearest star.

Why is it making news now?

Scientists are confirming that it has reached another goal in it's long journey. A region where the outward motion of solar wind stops. Probably just a few more years till this probe reaches the environment of interstellar space.

What does that mean? Lot's to astronomers. Instruments on board the craft are still measuring the nature of charged particles. Learning about the energy and magnetic environment farther and farther away from the sun.

33 years of science from one spacecraft launched when I was in college and more to come. On it's way out of the solar system, Voyager 1 passed Jupiter and Saturn returning lots of photos.

There's also a sister ship named Voyager 2. After also taking pictures of Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 2 sped past Uranus and Neptune getting the only close up images we've had of those distant planets. Neptune in 1989. Voyager 2 is also headed out of the solar system, but on a different route so it isn't as far out as Voyager 1. It went the "scenic route" past Neptune; so to speak.

That's a lot of scientific "bang for the buck."

How are these spacecrafts powered?

Well, they are just coasting out into space. Without air resistance, they can just coast once being revved up to speed. The electric power to run their radios and instruments comes from plutonium generators. Like little nuclear reactors, the plutonium in their "RTG" units keeps giving off energy. Eventually the heat will run out, but NASA expects these spacecraft to have several more years of life.

Several more years of learning about the outer reaches of our solar system.

When launched in 1977, scientists put some information on a plaque and I think even a CD (new technology back then) which was placed on board the spacecrafts. This is an "information brochure;" so to speak in case its ever found by some alien civilization. It's basically a "hello" and introduction to Earth as it was in 1977.

Kind of a cosmic version for "chamber of commerce brochure."

That's catering to a possible audience which may not read the brochure for thousands, or even millions, of years.

It's called long range planning. Thousands of years beyond the next quarter's profit statement. Now that's human thinking at it's finest.

Don't ask don't tell victory for Obama's strategy

With the filibuster finally breaking and DADT passing the Senate, it looks like victory in the lame duck session of Congress. The White House's strategy, which just a few weeks ago got some flack from us "liberals," did pay off.

Congress worked. Amazing.

Actually it wasn't just liberals that were skeptical that Congress would act. It was Log Cabin Republicans, the gay Republican organization that was leading a court challenge against DADT. When the justice department of the Obama administration temporarily defended DADT against that court ruling, many wondered what was wrong with the Obama. If Obama opposes DADT, why didn't he just go with the court ruling that tossed it out instead of waiting for Congress to act? It didn't look like Congress would do anything; especially in light of Republican sweep of the 2010 elections, but Obama held out.

Obama held out hope that the lame duck session of Congress would do something and it looks like he was right.

Now all that wrangling over strategy seems like "water under the bridge."

There are several ways to "skin a cat" as the old saying goes. Court challenges is one strategy, Congress is another. It looks like the Congressional strategy finally worked for Obama and DADT will be repealed.

There's still some life in the Obama Presidency.

DADT isn't one of my biggest issues, even though I am more attracted to men than women. Personally, I wouldn't have desire to serve in the military, but I do support basic fairness for those who do. DADT wasn't one of my top issues.

Still, I've tried to not become too cynical about President Obama. It's frustrating at times, and compromise tends to rule most often in just about any politics. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I see why they say that following the process of legislation is like watching the making of sausage.

Hopefully it's now water under the bridge and another step forward. Time to take a deep breath and do some cautious celebration.

Not enough healthy people paying into America's health insurance pools

Broadening the base toward universal coverage; that's one way other industrialized nations bring down their health insurance costs. Getting more people to pay in, so when someone is sick, a larger pool can cushion the blow.

That's what insurance is supposed to be about and President Obama has tried to work toward that goal, but a federal judge has ruled against him.

Judge Hudson's recent ruling tossed out the part of Obama Care that would go into effect by 2014 requiring most Americans to buy insurance; a provision known as "the individual mandate." If this ruling stands up to appeal, it's likely to cripple the whole bill since lots of healthy people need to pay into insurance to cover the sick people taking money out of insurance.

In light of this ruling, it looks like the "Obama compromise" between private health insurance and government "single payer stile" plans is dead.

Single payer "government based" insurance may be the way to go.

Maybe it's unconstitutional to require Americans to buy a particular product, or service, but it isn't unconstitutional to levy taxes. If we want coverage, especially for those sicker than average, we all will have to pay, if not premiums then taxes.

One good thing about taxes is that they can be put on a sliding scale. "To each, according to ability to pay, from each according to need." Sorry for quoting Marx, but that's what insurance is about.

Private enterprise is great, but there isn't profit in caring for the needy.

In the past, private insurance models worked somewhat well, but that was when there wasn't such a wide disparity of income between different groups of Americans. Today, the costs are higher and large segments of the population can no longer afford the premiums. This means lots of folks are left out of the system, including healthy people that could pay in more than they take out, but they can't afford the premiums.

Obama's plan attempted to put more folks into insurance pools, but subsidize the costs for lower income folks. At best, this plan was held together with duct tape and bailing wire.

Trying to maintain everything from the spirit of universal coverage to the current system of private corporations to the idea of not raising taxes is an improbable act of juggling.

No one wants to give ground.

There are a lot of people making good livings in the health insurance industry. Lobbyists on Capital Hill, for instance, but there's more to it than just that.

Some fear that government based insurance would be too much of a "one size fits all" solution. It could threaten marketplace innovation.

Yes, innovation is good, especially when the goal is healthier people in a healthier society. That's what healthcare should be about; healthier people.

Private companies have done some innovation. Offering free free gym memberships, for instance, to promote healthier lifestyles among members of their insurance pool. The goal: more healthy people paying in, less sick folks taking out.

One problem with private companies is the fact that public health is such a large picture that one company's efforts is just a mere "drop in the bucket" when it comes to improving the health of the nation. Governments are larger so when it's in their interest to invest in healthier societies, they can make a difference.

Sure, a private firm can buy gym memberships for it's policyholders, but usually we look to government to fund such things as a bike path system all over town. Governments tend to do a better job investing in things like public parks, education and sanitation.

Private insurance can innovate, but it seems like it's biggest skill is "risk assessment." That's figuring out how to cut off sicker people and target healthy folks for inclusion in the pool.

I'm sure a lot of talented people are employed in risk assessment. Figuring out how to deny care to folks with preexisting conditions. Learning how to steer around the "gauntlet of regulations" so as to "target market" your insurance pool to healthy folks. This brings down average costs.

I think there's even a term called "risk corridor."

Imagine that. Probably work for lots of demographers.

It's figuring out which demographics to target your insurance company toward and how to write your rules to keep out folks that would drive up your costs. Driving up costs, that is, not counting the money you pay your own bloated corporate executives.

Lots of innovation and energy goes into risk assessment. It may help to keep people on their toes. Keep folks working out at the gym so as not to fall outside the preferred "risk corridor."

Still, there's a problem. What do we do with folks who's care costs more than they could ever hope to pay in. Do we slam the door in their faces? Tell them to die early? Dump their care onto the taxpayers?

Maybe the taxpayers just need to be part of the solution all along.

Without government to prop it up, home prices keep falling

Hardship for some current owners, but could also be good news as the home market seeks balance with the job market thus setting the groundwork for increasing affordability. One line says, "buyer tax credit that expired in July is sorely missed." That means Without government to prop it up, home prices keep falling.

Relative prices for various things. Yahoo finance article about are Americans as poor as they feel

I found an interesting article on Yahoo about what I've been thinking a long time. Inflation rates vary widely depending on what is being measured. Housing and health care costs have gone up, but prices for many products as well as food and energy have gone down relative to average incomes.

Public sector ivory tower?

Part of the Obama stimulus plan went to state and local governments to keep them from having to layoff as many folks as would have been laid off given their dwindling budgets. This kept more teachers, police and so forth on the payroll so their services could remain mostly intact while those incomes could continue to provide customers to local business. It was partially a strategy to keep pumping life into consumer spending so the business downturn would be less sharp.

What made sense economically didn't work politically, however.

This plan may have backfired leading to part of the Republican sweep of 2010 elections. It looked like public employees were exempt from the belt tightening of this recession. The old "ivory tower" issue. People grumbling that government workers are exempt from the needed belt tightening that is happening across other parts of our economy.

Politics of the ivory tower has been around for a long time. When I was a student at Western Washington State College, back in the mid 1970s (changed to WWU my last year), there was something called "Reduction in Force." Layoffs of campus personnel during lean times and also adjusting to what was then a drop in student enrollment.

Reduction in force had the acronym "R.I.F" which folks picked up and called "Ripoff in Force."

By the mid 1980s, mindsets were changing. Education funding was getting strong champions in high places. In spite of the Reagan and Bush Sr. presidencies, large pay raises were being proposed for university faculty by (here in Washington state, if I remember correctly) an advisory body called the Council For Post Secondary Education. Our Democratic governor, at the time, was a man named Booth Gardner. He joined the call of these advisory committees with proposals for large teacher and faculty pay hikes.

I don't know if all of that pay raise ever actually materialized, but the suggestions were circulating in media back then. It was an era of "brain drain worry." Government and public sector pay scales trying to catch up with what was perceived as much higher salaries in the private sector. Also competition with pay scales in other states. Fear that talent was being "brain drained" away to higher paying positions elsewhere.

The grass is always greener on the other side.

Back then, even Reagan administration officials were testifying before Congress about the need to increase salaries for key government officials. They feared loosing staff to the likes of such things as "mega Washington, DC law firms" with starting salaries higher than even Supreme Court justices were making at the time.

Congressional salaries were going up also, pegged to various government pay scales that were recommended for raises in order to keep up with comparable jobs in the private sector.

Ironic for the Reagan administration being champions of "small government."

I remember, at that time, wondering why these pay scales needed to be raised. Here in Bellingham, jobs in the public sector and at the university were much sought after. They were among "cream of the crop" in local job offerings.

There seemed to be a disconnect. Part of the problem was that Bellingham was not Seattle. State employees looked well off in Bellingham's economy, but thinking about the bigger picture includes Seattle; a somewhat different world. In Seattle's metro area, large corporations like Microsoft were getting started and Boeing was paying "big time." State pay scales looked real good in Bellingham, but not so good in Seattle.

There's the disconnect between urban economies and much of rural America. This is related to another phrase called "inside the beltway;" meaning reality inside Washington, DC and government is different than in the hinterlands.

Bellingham is mid sized and kind of borderline between urban and rural mindset.

During the technology boom of the 1990s, incomes in many sectors of the economy were on the rise again. Government pay seemed to be loosing ground a bit as everything is relative. Also rising health care costs continued to take their toll. I would read about teachers getting raises, but not seeing much of the money as it went into rising health insurance costs before they saw their paycheck.

Other folks would say to the teachers, "at least be glad you've got health insurance."

The housing bubble got going, big time, in the 90s as well. After the tech boom subsided, the housing bubble extended well into this decade. Around 2005, it looked like the best paid job was just being a homeowner. Sitting back and allowing one's house to go up in value without even necessarily working. That eventually had to come to an end as a lot of chickens came home to roost by 2008.

"Chickens coming home to roost" from the "rising tide to lift all boats."

House values went up, but so did the cost of living. Tuitions have been making big jumps also as more of the cost of running state supported schools was falling on the students. Back when I was in school, the state paid a much larger percent of the bill. This becomes a double whammy for students caught between state budget tightening and rising costs of running schools.

Then there's the folks leaving school with large student loans demanding higher salaries so they can pay back their loans.

It seems like no one is satisfied with how much they make relative to someone else. This is especially true when salaries for corporate executives rise so high that everyone else feels poor by comparison. It poisons the stew and politics keeps getting nastier and nastier.

The constant comparing of pay scales has caused a lot of hard feelings over the years. Corporate executives certainly set bad role models to follow.

Hopefully some new thinking can emerge going forward. Looking at life from a slightly less economic perspective.

Frosty sunset by Lake Padden ball field

With two jackets, I was plenty warm for my bike ride around the lake on Saturday.

Being a janitor can turn Facebook privacy issue upside down

Some folks worry that things they confess to on Facebook can leak out onto the open web where, for instance, future employers might see it.

This is not a worry for me.

If I had a post I thought would be somewhat embarrassing, I would rather share it on my blog which is on the open web than my Facebook wall. Who looks at this blog? Yes there are a handful of folks around the world that stumble upon it in various searches.

On the other hand, things on my Facebook wall automatically go in front of my friends in their "news" or "most recent" feeds. More folks, especially folks I know, see things inside Facebook than on this blog even though this blog is available to the whole web. Why worry about things leaking to the open web from Facebook?

As for employers doing searches on the web, it seems unlikely that I'll apply for another job before I reach retirement age. What else would I do in this economy besides being a custodian?

My main web site is selling some text link ads. Maybe I should be careful what I put on my main web site, rather than this blog as it does have more volume of readership.

As for my current boss finding what I write here, he'd rather use the vacuum cleaner than a computer.

Update on this topic I wrote 11/26/12.