I got some photos at the Bellingham Pride Parade, Festival and Picnic

Someone took my picture at Pride Picnic. Rainbow hat, rainbow glasses that I found along a bike trail and tie-dye shirt.

During the parade, I danced down Cornwall Avenue in the Faerie contingent. We were right behind Rainbow City Band which was playing YMCA by the Village People as we crossed Holly Street where a video camera was located.

It was a great weekend. I went to most things, but skipped out on a Saturday evening drag show at Rumors Cabaret. It was indoors on such a nice day so I rode my bike around Lake Padden instead and went to Rumors at sundown.
My video at festival.

It was another fun time.

Plastic shopping bags will soon be banned in Bellingham

Reusable bags have sure improved over the years. They are preferable to the plastic or paper. Reusable bag pictured above.

Back in the 1980s, when plastic bags were fairly new, people started worrying about their environmental impact. I remember writing a letter to the editor defending plastic bags against paper bags. As a non driver, I liked the plastic over paper since paper crumbled in rain and tore easily. That was from the perspective of a non driver. Most environmentalists who worried about the bags still drove cars.

Back then, reusable bags were coming out also, but I think I remember some were $10. Now the reusable bags have gotten cheaper and better so I can withdraw my support for plastic bags.

Obama deficit?

Okay, maybe they shouldn't have had a stimulus program to try and reduce unemployment after the 2008 crash. If the private sector doesn't create the jobs, tough. Can't the people eat cake? If the infrastructure is crumbling, tough. Just let the bridges fall where they may.

Just kidding.

2011 Pride Picnic on Saturday

Pride picnic had belly dancers and more. Hamburgers, vegetables and so forth. An appetizer for the big day of Bellingham's GLBTA Pride Celebration. Parade starts at Bellingham High School parking lot before noon and heads down Cornwall Avenue to Chestnut, then up to Depot Market Square (location of Farmer's Market) for the festival which goes till 5pm.

Added July 15 more pictures and video.

When first space shuttle flew, I thought, for a moment, Columbia River had flooded

"The Columbia's up." exclaimed my boss at the restaurant I was a janitor at in 1981, when Shuttle Columbia made its first flight. For a moment, I thought the Columbia River was flooding since I'd given up on keeping track of shuttle news after all it's delays. Earlier space missions had held my attention, but the shuttle seemed like it could never get off the ground.

German stamp commemorating shuttle.

Since then, it's been 30 years of triumphs and problems. In some ways, it's a relief that this is the last mission, but the Shuttle did accomplish quite a bit.

Hopefully, future space vehicles will be even better for reliability, affordability and adventure. Spaceship 2 is one of the many promising steps toward continuing of space technology. It's being developed by private enterprise.

Here are some of the things I remember about the shuttle.

Someone on TV holding a large stack of papers saying that "each tile in the heat shield has a stack of specifications this thick."

Cheering the successful upgrades of Hubble Space Telescope.

Morning the loss of life during the two shuttle disasters.

The Radar Topography Mission of 2000 that mapped the Earth with extreme accuracy. It obtained elevation data on a near-global scale to generate the most complete high-resolution digital topographic database of Earth.

The Shuttle Tether Experiment in 1996 dragging a long tether behind the shuttle.

Launch of the Chandra X-ray Telescope in 1999 which is still bringing back X-ray pictures of the universe. That was the first shuttle mission commanded by a woman astronaut, so I remember.

Launch of the Galileo space probe that went to Jupiter. Galileo faced many delays. When it finally headed off to Jupiter, the high gain radio antenna didn't open properly so the spacecraft had to send it's pictures back at a much slower rate through the low gain antenna. Speculation said that the antenna was stuck because it had to wait on the ground too long before launch thus getting corroded, or something. Waiting for its place in the way behind shuttle schedule. Still the mission was a success since after they got to Jupiter, they had plenty of time to send back the data even at the slower baud rate.

The time they decided to go back to launching unmanned space missions on rockets, rather than the shuttle as the rockets are more efficient.

Second to last shuttle flight which put the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer onto the space station to look at cosmic rays from the vantage point of space. That instrument is preforming well.

So far, this last mission is going well. Hopefully a smooth "good by" to this piece of history. Then I can stop holding my breath for a little while.

Fantasy land and Fourth Of July around Regents Hill Dorms

When I was a child in late 1960s, we set off our "Safe and Sane" fireworks from this small parking lot that looks like it has an island in the center. Looking down on the lot was a grassy hillside where folks would watch from lawn chairs after the neighborhood picnic on the hill. This was my childhood Fourth Of July in Pullman, WA. where there was no city celebration back then. We all fended for ourselves.

The neighborhood I grew up in would organize a picnic on Regents Hill which was right behind our dead end streets. The hillside looked down onto this parking lot where kids would light off fireworks after dark. Parking lot was for Regents Hill dorm complex.

This was in the 1960s and 70s. I took these pictures in 1999. Picnic is no longer happening. At Easter, a few times, the dorms would have an Easter egg hunt all around those fairy tale grounds for neighborhood kids.

Regents hillside where picnic took place. Streit Perham dorms to the east.

Before dark, we would climb up onto this decorative wall at bottom of hill to light off snakes and glowworms. They would drop down over the sides of the wall. The bushes were shorter back then. Come to think about it, that wall is no longer there.

Regents Hill dorms offered a fantasy world of interesting spaces. My childhood was in a small town, but a neighborhood of high rise dorms and urban density. A college town.

Happy Fourth.

Budget impasse, Democrats more likely to win in court of public opinion

If both the Republicans and the Democrats present budgets in Congress, the Republicans tend to loose popular support. Republican "no new taxes all cuts" budgets spook people. The Ryan Budget, for instance was what a Republican budget is about. Things like the huge cuts in Medicare and Medicaid spooked the public. After the Ryan budget was presented, it was said that Democrats gained a seat in Congress that normally votes Republican. That seat from a district in New York State happened to be up for election soon after the Ryan Budget was unveiled.

Democratic plans for balancing milder budget cuts with tax increases on the wealthy seem more popular when the dust settles and the actual figures are presented.

Old wagon wheels decorate the gate

Biking out by Tennant Lake and Hovander Homestead county parks last Saturday.

Riding along listening to "NBC Monitor 69" on my time machine MP3 player. I use speakers rather than headphones. Show recorded in 1969. Recently downloaded from a web site. Joe Garagiola was host, Vietnam war was in the news. Music mellow. Advertisement touting the new Plymouth Fury featuring many things including an electric clock.

New apartment contruction

In Bellingham near State and Railroad. I read there is a housing shortage for apartments so new construction is needed. Otherwise rents are trending upwards again. Construction has been slow due to the financial panic of 2008 and a shortage of land zoned for high density. A few new places are starting to be built to try and catch up with the continued population growth. Hopefully more land can be zoned for density to support lifestyles of simplicity. Studio apartments seem to always be needed.

As for the single family housing market, it's still considered in the doldrums. Unlikely that most people who work in the local economy could qualify for mortgages on single family homes that still are priced around a quarter million. That's our housing market.

The percentage of US population that is single seems to be rising from year to year so "family" homes make less sense. Also that's good as we are entering, if we are smart, a low footprint economy.

Maybe detached housing makes sense for dividing part of the house up into "mother in law" apartments.

Hopefully, we are adapting to a lower footprint world.

I'm glad to still rent my reasonable room and be within walking distance from work.

Liberal arts education worked better when college was less expensive

Pictured: Noguchi Sky Viewing Sculpture at WWU.

liberal arts can have a lot of value, but everything isn't counted in dollars and cents. Stuff like learning how to have a good life while living a low carbon footprint can have great value to individuals as well as society as a whole. Being able to network with other people is a valuable skill. Having interesting hobbies, political interests and volunteer activities can enrichen life.

The there's the question of paying bills. Back when I was in college, people joked about taking courses in underwater basket weaving. What the hell good is that? I got to thinking that underwater basket weaving might translate into a lucrative career for assembling things underwater; like plumbing or welding under offshore oil drilling platforms? Aside from poking more holes in the bottom of the sea, there was less pressure to make liberal arts pay back when college was less expensive and people didn't graduate with huge loans to pay back. Sure, the value of a liberal arts degree has long been questioned, but these days, the steaks are much higher than before.

Back when I was in school, my mom could afford to have the attitude that learning was more about enhancing the quality of life than just getting a job. Back then, the state paid around 2/3rds of the cost of my education while tuition was barely one third. My folks were able to pay my bills without too much sacrifice. We could afford the luxury of not having everything be about getting a job. When I graduated, I had no student loans to pay off.

A lot has changed since the late 1970s when I went to college. The growing gap between the wealthy and the rest of society has taken its toll. During much of the 1980s and beyond, colleges were playing catchup. They were striving to raise salaries for key faculty and administrative positions in a game of one up mans ship. Colleges were comparing themselves with so called “peer institutions” in other states as well as private corporations who's salaries for top professionals were spiraling through the roof. Being left behind in this spiral exposed one's institution to the dreaded “brain drain.” Good faculty might leave for greener pastures rendering one's school and state to be the dreaded "second rate." Even as this was happening, rising health insurance and housing costs made the situation like running on an ever quickening treadmill to nowhere.

Then for the vast number of students who attend state supported institutions, another monster lurked. State financial problems and budget cuts. This means the schools have to keep shifting more and more of the cost of running their institutions on to tuition rather than having the state pay most of the bill. When one does the math, one sees that this means huge tuition increases. No wonder students are graduating under the burden of huge loans to pay off. No wonder folks are starting to question even more, the value of any educational pursuit that is not directly related to high earning power soon after college.

For all but high income Americans, the virtue of college for the sake of learning may be all but a thing of the past. Luckily, there are other sources of learning where costs are lower and one can still pursue interests for the sake of learning. The Internet is one place that provides many of these opportunities, not even heard of back in my college days. Other opportunities for this would be in things like educational broadcasting, volunteer organizations, libraries and museums.

Being on campus is a great experience not necessarily gained through a computer screen Hopefully, the economics of this can balance out better so it can still be part of the cultural mix.

Photo taken several years ago when ivy was still on Old Main. Ivy has been removed more recently as it was damaging building.

After the fun ride

Some hours after our local WNBR ride went through, I found this chalk drawing on Taylor Dock. The ride was naked and partially naked.

I found this drawing later that afternoon when I was coming back from Lake Padden where I washed some of my paint off in the water. Or maybe it was later that evening coming back from an art opening in Fairhaven. There was a lot to go to that day. Then I went dancing that night. Saturday was quite the day zipping around on my bike.

It was a protest against global warming and things like that, but for me it was also fun and erotic. Living a low carbon footprint has to be fun for it to stick.

Part of the appeal, of course, was that I know a lot of the people involved. This also means that I'm not likely to share quite a few of the pictures because I see those same folks around town quite a bit. Knowing the people, even somewhat remotely makes a difference. It's like they are my family, even though really extended family. The family of humankind, but close enough that hardly a few days go by without one of their smiles.

Who knows, 20 years from now some of these folks might want to run for Congress. Would they want images to surface?

I do plan to share some of the experiences when I get things organized. So far, from sharing a bit during past years, everything's been cool.

Unemployment too high, our economy is like a growing plant that's become pot bound

We're getting so efficient at what we do that if everyone was working full tilt, there would be be no more room on Earth for all the products, services and new developments being created. Our economy is like a growing plant that's become pot bound. There's little place to grow, without running into environmental concern.

Growth is like a journey, a narrative. It gives the economy purpose and direction. It provides an understandable focus. Building the new landscape. Without it, we're floundering.

What's America's purpose for the next 10 years? Where are we going?

A new frontier to expand into makes that question easier to answer. Without it, we have to figure out a new way to justify our endeavours.

Part of the problem is that population keeps expanding and billions of folks around the world are being lifted out of poverty. Is there enough space on Earth for every one's aspirations?

Here are some possible answers to this dilemma.

Create a focus of transitioning to a greener more sustainable economy. President Obama talks about this quite often. This includes the things people keep hearing about like green energy, green cars (which may be an oxymoron), clean coal (carbon sequestration) solar power, wind, and even nuclear power.

This could keep us busy, but it's hard to get the fires of green energy lighted, especially using the matches of free market economics. Will wind power pay when dirty coal is still cheaper?

Green energy is kind of like green wood. It's hard to get the fire lit.

This transition goes beyond just green energy. Back in the 1990s, the internet opened up a frontier of information technology. Suddenly there were new jobs in services such as Google that no one had heard of before.

New types of products and services that have lower footprints on the environment are coming from the advances of science. We are seeing the miniaturization of things. Libraries that once filled entire buildings can now be stuffed into flash memory and placed on one bookshelf. Less footprint.

Still, many of these technologies will also make us more efficient, thus eliminating jobs. For instance more "pro summer" opportunities. Instead of using a travel agent, people can book their own travels via web sites.

Big changes need to come to our culture as well. Maybe we should learn to put less emphasis on economic wealth and value other things that can bring a different kind of value to life. More free time, for instance. Possibly not striving to produce so much in terms of marketable goods and services, but other qualities in life like friendships and contemplation. Learning how to let the grass grow under our wheels.

Maybe that's what our goal should be. Learn to let grass grow under wheels. In some ways, it could be almost as important as inventing the wheel.

I don't want people to think I'm just a lazy hippie, so I can also suggest finding a new frontier. How about building more stuff in space? There's plenty of room.

As we outgrow Earth, how about building things in space that can keep us employed.

Keep us busy.

Now we have things like GPS, thanks to satellites in space. We can figure out more stuff to do using space. Large telescopes to satisfy our couriosity about the universe. More jobs for college graduates. More topics to write papers on.

Still, can the free market pay for this? We are building the James Webb Telescope, but it's still "government work" and we need a lot more of this to keep all our minds active.

With long term unemployment as high as it is, we need to think about where we are going next for the new jobs and opportunities. If we had another earth to expand into, the answer to that question would be more straight forward.

Without a new Earth, we need to think creatively. No one solution will do it all. It's a combination of things. Greening of our economy, new frontiers in science, space, but also new frontiers in culture, like learning that it's not a crime to slow down. It will take a combination of all these things. This may seem contradictory, but one size doesn't fit all 7 billion folks on Earth.

We just have to start thinking about unemployment in terms of how do we go beyond the pot bound economy.

Light behind the trees, Lake Padden

Evening bike ride around Lake Padden.

Back when the world was going to hell in a hand basket

When smoking was allowed in conference rooms of Viking Union at Western Washington University in the 1970s there were little cardboard ashtrays with a foil surface. Printed on each ashtray was the phrase, "If the glass ashtrays had not been stolen, I wouldn't be here."

Chairs that look like hands

Some might say, "why didn't I think of that?" Made from a Styrofoam like plastic. People could sit in them. I saw these set up a last week's Ski To Sea car show.

Why would I go to a car show?

I was just biking through.

Then I saw this tiny economy car from 1957. Entered by a friend of mine who's, for the most part, a bicycle advocate. She's selling it.

This old picnic style radio was most interesting. Brings back memories.

Crowd gathered to hear Bill Mckibben speak in Fairhaven's Village Green

Concern about global warming from increasing use of fossil fuel including the burning of coal. Some of that coal is coming through Bellingham on it's way to Asian markets. More may be on it's way. McKibben was brought to Bellingham on May 31 to speak about the coal issue and global warming. See some of my thoughts on that topic.

World Naked Bike Ride in Bellingham, WA. for 2011

Zack, pictured above, organizing another ride for Saturday, June 11 2011 12:30 PM. Phone above number for details and starting location. Starts at Bellingham Alternative Library, that house at 717 N. Forest. Bare as you dare, clothing optional. Nude or just partially clothed, it's up to you and also if police allow it this year. Last year they did, but year before that, it was a compromise and a new concept for Bellingham.

Update June 18
Images.

Smile, you'll be on camera. There's lots of cameras among the cyclists and along the route. People come out to watch. It's a good time. Hope the weather cooperates. Ride usually goes through downtown and ends in Fairhaven District.

Zack's pictured above with his more nude image along with Stepha on his stenciled shirt.

I go along for the ride also. Usually, it's a fairly large turnout.

See my past comments and photos. Click here and scroll down.

Something beyond this life that brings good feeling to this life

Life is very short and assuming one enjoys living an afterlife would be desirable. The period of time toward the end of one's life, especially, seems like it would be depressing if one didn't think they had a future to look forward to. It's sort of like contemplating the last meal that someone on death row gets before being executed. Could they enjoy that last meal knowing what's coming next? Life is kind of like that last meal.

Belief in an afterlife serves a practical function. It provides something to look forward to, or a sense of future during this life. If nothing else, this belief enhances our feelings while we are still alive. Even if atheists and others who tend to believe in no afterlife are correct, you wouldn't be in for a disappointment upon death. If consciousness ends, you wouldn't know the difference. So believing in something can provide comfort in life and once you're dead, you need to have consciousness to be disappointed anyway.

Some atheists find comfort in the concept of no afterlife. At least there's no hell. There's no pain, no gain, no sorrow, but no joy either. Just nothing. I've never really believed in a hell anyway.

At least while I'm alive, contemplating an ending in nothing is not enough. Maybe I'm just selfish.

A lot of people have this need for more than just this life. No wonder religions are so popular. This is a big problem in society because many of the religions that people are drawn to are quite destructive. People are a bit crazy anyway, and many religious practices verify that.

There can be a lot of good that comes out of religion also. Tasty food at church potlucks; for instance. Churches can be community centers where one meets others. Religions offer charity and of course that comforting sense of something beyond this short life.

I think the biggest problem with faith is when people become dogmatic and start arguing over the specifics of what to believe. Fundamentalism and being too self assured about what one thinks they know can be destructive.

Just coming together to ask cosmic questions is good, however. I feel lucky that I was brought up in a very liberal church. A church that encourages differing ideas and even offers a good dose of skepticism. The church I grew up in is called United Church of Christ.

This is not necessarily an ad for that denomination. There are many other groups which offer similar experience.

I don't actually attend church these days. Working night shift and sleeping mornings means "I don't do Sunday mornings." Some places have services at other times, but I haven't been motivated to look around that much. It doesn't really matter if one goes regularly, or not. I always feel welcome and at home in the brand of worship that UCC offers.

An open minded practice doesn't try to provide foolproof evidence that there is something more than our short lives, but it does ponder many possibilities. Admitting that one doesn't have to know everything is a dose of humbleness as well as honesty.

As time goes on, science is becoming a preferred tool for finding truth. Some folks feel science automatically rules out any kind of realm beyond this "here and now" reality. A lot of things that ancient peoples attributed to magical spirits have been more recently explained as mechanical processes in our natural world. For instance, the seasons are not really that magical. They're caused by the tilt in earth axis as it revolves around the sun.

Still, when science to explains something, it also tends to discover a larger world to explain. For every question we answer, we find several more questions that don't yet have answers. Questions that didn't even occur to us before. Our perception of the universe keeps getting larger.

Back in the days when most of our religions were founded, we thought the Earth was the center of the universe. More recently, science has explained away some of the stuff that was believed in the past, but it has also opened up whole new worlds we didn't even know existed back then. The mystery keeps getting larger. Back then, we didn't know about other solar systems, galaxies, other dimensions and even the possibility of parallel universes.

As if our universe wasn't large enough already, there are serious physicists talking about parallel universes. The concept of a multi-verse.

Looking inward, we are also starting to learn about realms inside the atom. It's the strange world of quantum mechanics.

I like to say that the universe, or multi-universe, is so large that there is still plenty of room for mysteries to hide. Possibly even more room for mysteries than existed in ancient times.

Then there is the question of how we perceive the world. This is especially true when we contemplate things like quantum mechanics where logic and even time behave differently than in the day to day world we've always perceived. How complete is our mental ability to comprehend this reality? That's an intriguing question to me. I'm often thinking, "wrap your mind around this?"

Wrapping the mind around quantum and cosmic realities is a tall order. It kind of grates against the way our minds have evolved to view the world. For millions of years, our brains have evolved to comprehend a 3 dimensional world. Our thinking has developed to perceive a world where time marches steadily forward, rather than moving forward at differing rates as in relativity theory. Our minds comprehend cause and effect as well as logic in certain ways. We are basically the product of millions, if not billions, of years of evolution in our 3 dimensional world. A world that's governed with the laws of classical physics. It's basically our "billiard table" kind of world.

Just in the last hundred, or so, years, we've been probing into other types of worlds and logic. This is a very short period of time given how long the natural process of evolution takes.

In the last brief moments of our history, we've been looking into realities that weren't visible to us before. Things like the variable speed in the passage of time that become more evident when traveling closer to the speed of light. This as described in relativity theory. It's all fairly new to us.

The strength of a gravitational field can also alter the passage of time as well, but we've only had atomic clocks that are accurate enough to notice this in fairly recent history. That's part of relativity theory.

Inside the atom, it gets even weirder. That's the world of quantum mechanics. I wouldn't pretend to try and comprehend quantum theory. Basically, our minds are being bent and twisted in ways that they are not used to when we try to learn about such things. Due to that, even the ways of the natural world don't seem as logical and mechanical as before.

There's a lot more to be learned for sure.

Flowers above Chuckanut Drive, along Interurban Trail

Just a minute, says God

People on Earth say to God, "one penny of your money is one million dollars in our money." God says, "agreed." Then the people say, "one minute in your time is a thousand years in our time." God says "agreed." Then the people say, "you wouldn't miss a few pennies, how about making us all millionaires." God reaches into his pocket and says, "just a minute."

A million years later (a minute in God's time) the pennies land on Earth.

A professor told me that joke many years ago. Marvin Southcott, I think it was. He taught industrial design at Western Washington University.

Another end of the world prediction bites the dust

Maybe the end of the world is coming soon, but "soon" in God's time, and/or the Earth's time could be sometime in the next ten million years.

Humans tend to be egocentric and think that the universe revolves around us. Our lives and our existence on this planet is merely a blink of an eye compared to geological timescales.

How old are the rocks of Steptoe Butte in eastern Washington? Quartzite estimated to be over 400 million years old. Surrounded with much younger basalt that's estimated at 15 to 17 million years old. Some of the oldest rocks in Washington State, but still not that old compared to the Earth itself.

Our "world" of civilizations and/or being cave men (really I should say being "cave people" so not to sound sexist) changes a lot faster than the world of geology. Our world is ever changing so it's always the end of the world as we currently know it.

Bike logo rack on parking meter in Bellingham

It was Bike To Work Day and I did many things walking all over my downtown neighborhood, but didn't get a chance to ride my bike. Did make it to part of the after party at Boundary Bay Brewery.

Trade deficit coal trains through Bellingham

Money flows out of the US to China and other countries while manufactured goods flow in. Then much of that money comes back into the US as China and others invest in our debts.

Can we ever pay China back? Can we ever pay with real goods and services that they can use?

Seems like a tall order, but there may be a time when we export more things to China and other nations. Some manufacturing can migrate back to the US. We do have quite a few raw materials and farm products.

Coal is one of the commodities that USA has and China needs, though it isn't a real expensive item. Are we becoming more like a third world country where raw materials are the main export? Have we painted ourselves into an economic corner where dubious compromises have to be made?

USA has lots of coal and some of that coal comes through Bellingham. Thus the coal trains now rumbling along our waterfront.

As to be expected, these trains are controversial. I'll admit, the trains don't make that much difference to me. What's a few more trains coming through town? Sometimes it's even fun to watch them. I don't have to commute across the tracks very often so it doesn't make much difference to me, but lots of Bellingham is worried. As usual, there is the NIMBY (we don't want this in our backyards) reaction as well as other concerns.

Biggest concern, of course, is global warming. All those tons of carbon going into the atmosphere.

Part of the reason why there's controversy is plans for a new cargo facility at Cherry Point; the Gateway Pacific Terminal proposed by an outfit called SSA Marine. It would be a bulk shipment facility for both coal and other goods such as agricultural commodities. With that terminal shipment capacity could increase significantly.

Currently, the coal trains are headed into Canada, to a coal shipment point called Westshore Terminal which is located near Tsawwassen, BC. That's just north of the border.

If Gateway Pacific is built, it would be on this side of the border, in USA, so the export wouldn't have to involve Canada. It could possibly mean more trains through Bellingham.

Does Bellingham get any benefit from this?

Jobs in construction and a few permanent jobs running the terminal. Some benefit, but nothing real dramatic. No wonder some people are upset. Bellingham is just a tiny part of the bigger picture. USA has been called "the Saudi Arabia of coal." Asia needs it and we're just along the way.

Both our current mayor, and other candidates for mayor (there's an election coming up) have concerns. One of the big questions is, "what effect does rail traffic have on the redevelopment plans for Bellingham's central waterfront?" That's the place where Georgia Pacific pulp and paper mill once resided. The railroad cuts right through that property.

I'm reminded of plans that BNSF Railroad floated back in the last days of the pulp mill. The plan was to move the railroad. Move it to around the periphery of the mill rather than going right through the yard with forklifts, roads and other mill commerce zipping back and forth across the tracks. Plans called (if I remember correctly) to move the mainline closer to the bluff where some switch tracks are now, rather than going through the "gut" of the mill.

Right about then, Georgia Pacific closed. It closed for various reasons including rising electricity costs.

When discussing that rerouting plan with some of my friends in a local sauna (where city planning issues are often discussed), I remember someone's comment about moving the railroad around a closed mill.

He said, "no need to go around a ghost town."

Yes, part of the hollowing out of industry in America means things like pulp mills are closing. GP is replaced with a ghost town for now, but there is a lot of talk about redevelopment for that piece of the central waterfront where GP was. Moving the railroad to more of the periphery might help those plans. Is the railroad still interested? Could the increased traffic possibly expedite those plans?

If the railroad was closer to the bluff, it would be easier to build overpasses across the tracks. Possibly even something like a snow shield or sound barrier. Of course those condo owners, right on top of that bluff, might object. Are Americans spoiled?

Still, most of these issues seem fairly minor. The biggest worry isn't really about Bellingham. It's the concern about global warming.

As far as I'm concerned, more trains aren't necessarily a problem. More exports from USA are good. Things like farm products, for instance which is part of the Gateway Terminal plan, but the vast amount of coal being burned in various parts of the world is worrisome.

Even in China, new technologies such as solar power are being developed, but can it happen fast enough? That's a challenging question, especially now that there is increased worry over nuclear power. Nuclear still could be part of the cleaner energy spectrum. Figuring out technologies that use less energy, like happens in the electronics world can help. Also changing cultural attitudes can help, like more bicycling and public transit. Hopefully the world, including USA, can find alternatives to the continuing increase in use of fossil fuels. Either that or maybe finding a way to sequester the carbon? That's a different story.

Picture, nude bike ride protesting fossil fuel happens, by coincidence, to be crossing over a coal train.

US Postal Service has a stamp for commemorating bicycling

Go Green. Someone sent me a letter and it had that stamp. Also remember Bike To Work Day is May 20 this year. Inside the letter was an article about someone who is 90 years old, still riding on some 10 to 15 mile rides. Not bad for 90. Bicycling can be a lifelong activity.

Small footprint for 16 gigabytes

Technology is certainly pointing the way toward reducing the footprint for the things we enjoy.

This tiny chip holds 16 gigabytes of memory. In other words, possibly 4 days worth of nonstop music. I remember my dad's record collection which took shelf space in the bookcase on the living room wall. Vinyl records. It could just about fit on my thumbnail today.

American middle class in decline

Saw an article and video recently on Yahoo Finance.

Here are some figures copied from that article.

-- Middle-income jobs are disappearing from the economy. The share of middle-income jobs in the United States has fallen from 52% in 1980 to 42% in 2010.

-- Middle-income jobs have been replaced by low-income jobs, which now make up 41% of total employment.

-- 17 million Americans with college degrees are doing jobs that require less than the skill levels associated with a bachelor's degree.

-- Over the past year, nominal wages grew only 1.7% while all consumer prices, including food and energy, increased by 2.7%.

-- Wages and salaries have fallen from 60% of personal income in 1980 to 51% in 2010. Government transfers have risen from 11.7% of personal income in 1980 to 18.4% in 2010, a post-war high.

My comments for adapting to the new reality.

There are a lot of factors leading to this. One thing is the evening out of living standards around the world. USA is no longer the undisputed top as much as in the past. Some say the world is a bit fairer now. The quote, "be careful what you ask for as you might get it," applies. I remember complains about the US using something like over 40% of world resources for only 6% of world population in the past. Yes, be careful what you ask for. Maybe the trend toward international fairness is good.

Also there is pressure to reduce consumption due to environmental concerns.

Complicating the issue further is the growing gap between the wealthy and the rest of US population. This makes it harder to embrace some of these changes as possible good things.

I think we will need to learn to live, and even thrive, in a world of lower consumption. Lower carbon footprint and whatever.

Technology can create new and greener wealth, if we let it, so the sacrifice may not be as pronounced as some fear. At the same time, technology may not come to the rescue as fast as we need it. I do think technology holds a lot of promise; however.

We need to learn how to thrive and even live better in a lower footprint world. A more just society with fairer distribution of wealth is one thing, but also changing our own personal lives for, what can be defined as the better.

Bicycling is one example. Lower footprint also can mean better health. Shorter workweek with more time for hobbies, family and so forth can be seen as another positive change if society can be structured so people can afford to live that way.

A lot of these things can be seen as trade offs. Some of these changes can be seen as progress. We'll have to learn how to structure society so it can work.

There can be social progress as well as just the technological progress we are seeing.

In the future, we may have a somewhat slower, lower consumption, but also more high tech world. The shrinking footprint of electronic products is an example. I am amazed by the tiny chip of flash memory, I just bought with 16 gig!

Even if one just lives in a room, where heating bills can be low because there isn't much space to heat, there's plenty of room for a music collection. In the olden days, space was taken with shelves of vinyl records.

For years, since college, I have lived a low footprint lifestyle. This is more common, here in Bellingham, where some vestiges of old hippydom remain. Also, Bellingham may be ahead of the curve in having a glut of highly educated folks for the local workforce. Folks with advanced degrees often work in "low end" jobs. This has been the case for years, here in Bellingham and also in some other parts of the country; especially in college towns. The rest of USA may be headed our way.

Lower taxes keeps raising the bar

According to a recent article in USA Today, US federal, state and local taxes are about the lowest they've been since 1958 as a percent of income.

Whenever the tax burden drops, or the government pumps money into the economy by spending, it raises the bar of what's needed to sustain the economy and things are still anemic.

It's like we've become addicted to stimulus, either through tax cuts or things like the Obama Stimulus package to just get by. What's normally considered an emergency is now commonplace.

It just seems to be always costing more and more to just maintain. The housing bubble pushed up the cost of housing. Health care keeps getting more expensive. Education and energy are rising also. Quite a few things that are considered essentials are going up while unemployment remains high. Business keeps saying it needs low taxes just to create enough new jobs to keep up with population growth.

Whenever the bar of stimulus, and/or tax cuts goes up, we can't ratchet it back down. It becomes the new "normal" just to maintain what people consider survival.

Something is wrong for sure. Seems like the only way to keep up this level of tax cuts and spending is to keep going into debt. It's a serious problem when we have to do this just to stay afloat.

On the other hand, some products are amazingly cheap. I just bought a tiny chip of flash memory with 16 gigabytes in it for less than $50. That's enough storage space for a whole bookcase full of LP records in the old days of vinyl. I never fail to be amazed at what's available for low cost in the world of electronic technology. Too bad so many other sectors of life that are needed for basic survival, like housing and health care, have to be so expensive.

Point Whitehorn on a relaxing afternoon

Like a Sunday drive, only it was a Saturday bike ride to Point Whitehorn on a beautiful day. Rising gas prices don't effect me, except maybe a few cents rise in the cost of chocolate milk.

Point Whitehorn is up near BP oil refinery in Whatcom County. Maybe 15 miles from Bellingham. Up above is the Point Whitehorn Road which is blocked to cars and beautiful for bikes. From there, the bluff is too steep to access the beach, so last Saturday I decided to go on to the beach. It's accessible on a trail that takes off from the end of Grandview Road. Grandview bends and turns into Koehn Road for a short way into the trail head parking lot. First part of the trail is flat and seems okay to bike until a sign says "hiking only" toward the end where it's steep just before the beach.



Zooming in on tanker ship at BP oil refinery dock.

On my way out, I took Slater, Lake Terrell and Kickerville Roads. Coming back I went through Ferndale and had a nice tuna sandwich.

From the NBC Radio studios at Rockefeller Center

Oil painting of Rockefeller Center I did in early high school. Around 1970.

Back then, I was playing a game with some friends where we were picking out blocks in our town of Pullman. We were drawing maps of those blocks and claiming them as our domains. My friend Jeff had about the best block in town. The central block of the Washington State University campus with gyms, pools, the union building and so forth. My block had some dorms, but not much else except farmland.

Thinking outside the box, I decided to look beyond the confines of Pullman and claim Rockefeller Center in New York. I figured, Rockefeller Center qualified as a "block" because it's blocks are all connected with an underground shopping concourse; so I thought at the time.

3 connected city blocks in New York City, like a planned unit development. The size and variety of this domain fascinated me.

It also housed the NBC studios; both radio and TV. Unlike most kids, I wasn't glued to TV, but radio was a different story. I lugged around a transistor radio that I got for my birthday during 6th grade. NBC radio was my weekend lifeline to Rockefeller Center. Monitor was the show; a weekend magazine of news, interviews and music. President Nixon, Martin Luther King, the Vietnam War and the Apollo program all came through my radio. They even had regular tips from a psychologist named Dr. Joyce Brothers.

After almost 40 years, the ads are even interesting. I've recently found a web site with podcasts that bring back many of those old memories. Monitor Beacon Net. It's archived quite a few things including many of the Monitor shows that ran during that show's tenure between 1955 and 1975.

Entertains me via MP3 player as I do my custodial shift.

Good news. Osama Bin Laden is dead

Very good news. I'll remember this day. Glad no American serviceman were lost in this operation. Good news for President Obama, USA and the world. Hopefully this turn of events will help bring more peace in this world. I feel funny celebrating someone's death, but in this case, it's pretty good news.