Asian Culture in Texas

Every time this country gets involved in another military misadventure, it changes the nation. The current war in Iraq will undoubtedly do the same. One of our earlier interventions into the affairs of another country resulted in many Vietnamese refugees coming to the United States to escape the Viet Cong Communist regime. Over the years, as people have settled into life in the U.S. and had families, the Vietnamese community has grown.

Houston is one city that has large numbers of people from all over the world. Even though there is undoubtedly assimilation occurring, there are also sections of the city with large ethnic populations. This gives Houston one of the things I like about it; authentic food from all over the globe is available. Restaurants offering every type of cuisine you can imagine are there. This often results in humorous word usage to those of us native to the United States. Signs proclaiming "Doo Doo Cafe" or "Pupuseria", or "Hello to Rent This Sign" can be seen.

Last October when I was back in town, I was surprised to find another result of international culture in far southwest Houston. A large campus housing a Vietnamese Buddhist temple was there. Now, this seems rather out of place to me, since I moved away from the bayou city in 1992 (wow, has it really been 15 years?). Yet, it is a very beautiful oasis of water, flowers and ornate buildings that is a little bit of Asia in Texas.

I don't know a lot about Buddhism, however I do know that it is a peaceful outlook on life. There are several varieties of Buddhism, and some are more of a philosophy than a religion, in that they are basically a non-theistic belief. In general, Buddhists don't proselytize either, but seek to achieve Enlightenment and Nirvana.

These photos I took in Houston last October should give you an idea of how beautiful the grounds of this temple are.

Arched Bridges

It seems that arched suspension bridges over freeways are the latest thing. These bridges have large arches on each side of the bridge, anchored at the ends, and cables to suspend the surface of the span over the freeway. Here are some examples.



I took this first photo last October on northbound US 59, the Southwest Freeway in the museum district of Houston, not far from the downtown split. Even though the highway is northbound, it actually runs east and west here, so you are looking east. These bridges replaced older, standard bridges that used to cross the freeway at Hazard, Woodhead, Dunlavy, and Mandell. The old Hazard Street bridge was appropriately, though inadvertently named, since that bridge didn't have quite enough clearance for some 18-wheelers, and there were frequent trucks hitting the bridge and getting stuck under it. Part of the problem was that the freeway goes into a trench at Hazard, so the pavement was descending about where the bridge was.

This part of the Southwest Freeway is also a Texas rarity, as it is like freeways in most other places, in that it is lacking what Houstonians call "feeder streets", also known as frontage roads or service roads. The trench keeps the noise down for the residential community on the sides of the highway.

This stretch of the freeway was reconstructed in 2000-2001. For another view, CLICK HERE to see it on the texasfreeway.com web site.



Here is another example of a suspended arch overpass. This is in the Denver area. The big difference here is that despite the similarity to the design in Houston, these are pedestrian bridges rather than vehicular ones. They were recently completed as part of the TRex, or Transportation Expansion project that widened I-25 on the south side of the Denver metropolitan area, and added a light rail line. There is a series of these bridges south of I-225 to permit people to get across the freeway to the trains which run on the west side of the freeway; on the right side of this photo. The photo above is at the Belleview Station.

There is one of these bridges that is different than the others. That is the one near Park Meadows Mall. It is a double arch, and is in the photo below.

Given the similarity of the designs of the Denver and Houston bridges, it would be interesting to know if they had the same engineer, or if this is just a common design that is well known. Either way, I don't recall seeing this type of bridge over freeways anywhere else but in these two places.

Hope They Don't Share an Oven!!

Here is something that I have always wondered about. On Broadway at Union Ave. in Englewood, Colorado, there are two businesses that are side by side. One of them is Frank The Pizza King. The other one stands right beside it, and you can see it's sign in this picture. I am hoping they don't share an oven! YIKES!!

Denver Public Art

Overnight here in Douglas County, we got several inches of snow. On Interstate 70 just south of Denver International Airport, the roads were so bad that it caused a 35-car pileup, and the highway is closed in both directions from there to Kansas. Weirdly enough, downtown Denver apparently got no new snow at all. Once the skies started clearing late this morning, I decided to go take some pictures. Here are a few of them.

First of all, let's take a look at the big blue bear, who spends his time peering into the windows of the Colorado Convention Center.

Do you wonder what he is looking at? Just inside the windows was this sign giving directions to an event being held there this weekend.

Next, let's go over to the area near the Capitol and the Denver public buildings. The Denver Museum of Art is located there in its striking new building. There is a piece of sculpture there that every one will recognize from daily life. It looks like it is the right size for the blue bear to use when tidying up around the den. The picnic tables on the left, and the pedestrians on the right should give you an idea of the scale here.



Situated beside the main location of the Denver Public Library is a sculpture of a giant chair, again the right size for our friend, the Convention Center Blue Bear. However, the bear will have to chase its current occupant out of the way first. Standing watch over civic center park, atop the chair, is a horse. Actually, this sculpture is called "The Yearling" by artist Donald Lipski. It is meant to recall the days of childhood, when ordinary things looked monumental. It spent some time in New York's Central Park prior to coming to Denver. Here is what the library's website has to say about it:

The red chair is 21 feet tall and ten feet wide, and the pinto pony is six feet tall at the ears. The scale of this work is meant to recall that time in life when even everyday objects seemed monumental.

“The Yearling” was originally commissioned for an elementary school in upper Manhattan. Says Lipski about this work, “I wanted to give kids something that would really be a cause for wonder.” When the school district asked Lipski to omit the horse, he refused, saying, “It just lost all its magic.” The sculpture spent 1997 in New York City’s Central Park, where it was widely acclaimed before traveling to Denver in 1998 for permanent installation. “If it makes people stop and feel something they haven’t felt before, I’m happy,” commented the artist, shortly before “The Yearling” was moved.

This sculpture was generously donated to former Denver Mayor Wellington E. Webb and the people of Denver by the NBT Foundation.

Finally today, here is an American Indian display located between the library and the art museum. There is a circle of these red objects, all decorated with text and symbols about various events significant to the native American community.

Command Line Spreadsheets

Here is a little trick I have known about since the days when MS-DOS was king. I figured, why not share this. Yes, it is geeky, and rarely needed, but what the heck?

If you ever need to put together a quick and dirty spreadsheet, but don't have any spreadsheet software on your computer, you can still create the file you need. While you can do this very easily in any text editor, such as Notepad, let's get real dirty and pretend you dont have a text editor either. Like Carl Maulden used to say in the old American Express commercials, "What will you do? What WILL you do?"

Here is what you do. In Windows, go to Start > Run and type in cmd in Windows NT, XP, or Vista. In DOS-based Windows, like Win95, 98, or ME, type in command. This will pop up a DOS or DOS-like command line with a C:\> prompt.

The first step is to type copy con filename.csv. Filename can be any valid file name. I used test2.csv for mine. Then hit Enter.

Next, type each row of your spreadsheet, one line at a time, dividing the columns with commas. End each row by hitting the Enter key. You can even use Excel forumulae by simply keeping track of which row and column correspond to the A1-style layout of Excel. My example here shows such formulae.

After you have typed the last row, hold down CTRL and while doing that, type the letter Z (Zee to us contrary Americans, Zed to the rest of the English-speaking world). This will put the end of file character on the last line (^Z), and return you to the C:\> prompt. You can now close the DOS environment by typing exit and hitting Enter. Be sure to notice which folder or directory you are in, so you can find your file back in Windows.

Now, you can send your spreadsheet to someone with Excel. They can either go find your file icon, and if CSV files are linked to Excel, just double click it. Otherwise, they just open Excel and select File > Open, and navigate to your file. Like magic, you have a spreadsheet. You can now format cells, create graphs, and do all of those wonderful spreadsheet things we all know and love.

Sore Loserman, Part II

Yesterday, I wrote about how Senator Allard visited this blog. While I am getting the attention of U.S. Senators, let’s talk for a minute about Connecticut’s own Joseph Lieberman. Joe has had a major fall since he was Al Gore’s running mate in 2000. Remember those GOP stickers after the stolen election of 2000 that parodied the Gore Lieberman bumper stickers, that read “Sore Loserman”? Well Joe is proving them right!

Poor Joe. After he failed to win the nomination of his party to run for re-election, he decided to continue to run as an independent. His feelings were obviously hurt by his fellow Democratic colleagues, who endorsed Ned Lamont, the party’s nominee. After Lieberman’s re-election, he made the rounds of the TV talk shows, obviously with bitterness toward his fellow Democrats who didn’t back him against Lamont, but promising to caucus with them anyway.

Now Joe, being the media whore he is, loves to be on TV and the papers. With control of the Senate hanging in the balance, this whiny man is garnering lots of attention. If he doesn’t get his way, he will switch to the GOP, so take that! He’ll take his marbles and go play with somebody else, and you won’t be his best friend anymore! Boo hoo hoo!!!

Joe, I have a suggestion. Do it! Go! You belong with the Republicans anyway. The day you switch is the last day you have any power, and the last day you get any media attention. The Senate will only be in GOP hands in a tie vote, the Democrats will still control the committees, and the House of Representatives will block any stupid bill from getting to the President’s desk. So do us all a favor and switch already! It’s where you belong.

Of course, the honorable thing to do, would be to resign and rerun in a special election as a Republican. Phil Graham, as much as I detest his politics, did the honorable thing when he switched parties years ago back in Texas, and was re-elected. I won’t say re-elected to his seat, because it isn’t his…it belongs to the voters of his state, just like yours does. However, I suspect you would never risk that.

I’m betting this will be Lieberman’s sword hanging over the heads of the Democrats in the Senate. He loves attention way to much to carry out his threat. He also thrives on the power this gives him. Still Joe, please, go ahead and get it over with. And be sure not to let the proverbial door hit your behind as you turn against the party that has been behind you all those years.

Hello, Senator Allard!

Hi there, Senator Allard. I hope you are enjoying my blog. I am very glad that one of my United States Senators is interested in reading what I have to say. Even though Time magazine last year ranked you as one of the five worst senators, I am glad you care enough to search out my mention of you yesterday. Maybe that proves you have discriminating reading tastes, and you really don't belong on that list. Dang liberal media!! What did you expect, eh?

In any case, I am pretty certain it was you, or one of your staff, digging through the blogosphere to see how you are mentioned. I think this because I have never gotten a visit from the senate.gov domain until I mentioned your name yesterday, and then, this afternoon, there it is. Plus, you didn't enter the blog at the front page, but went directly to the post where you were mentioned.

I know you are a staunch Republican; and I an independently leaning liberal on social issues and more conservative on fiscal ones; but at least you are trying to find out what your constituents think. When I have written you directly, I invariably get a form letter back saying you disagree, but thanks for writing. So welcome to my blog, and please feel free to leave me comments anytime. We disagree on much, but undoubtedly we can agree that liberty is precious and should be protected. Once given away, it is next to impossible to regain.

I urge you to listen to your peers from the other side of the aisle. They didn't win the majority for no reason. The knee-jerk GOP rule our way or the highway doesn't work. Remember the so-called "nuclear option" to eliminate the filibuster? I bet you are glad that one didn't pass!

I will also commend you on keeping your promise to stay for no more than two terms. Sometimes power is addicting, so you have proven your integrity on that issue.

In any case, have a wonderful day, and remember you were sent to represent all of your constituency, not just the far right.

Randy

-----

Below is the record of the Senator's visit to this blog:

Domain Name		senate.gov ? (United States Government)
IP Address		156.33.11.# (U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms)
ISP		U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms
Location		Continent : North America Country : United States (Facts) State : District of Columbia City : Washington Lat/Long : 38.8933, -77.0146 (Map)
Language		English (United States) en-us
Operating System		Microsoft WinXP
Browser		Internet Explorer 6.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)
Javascript		version 1.3
Monitor		Resolution : 1024 x 768 Color Depth : 32 bits
Time of Visit		Feb 22 2007 4:36:25 pm
Visit Entry Page		http://rktoday.blogs...-what-coalition.html
Visit Exit Page		http://rktoday.blogs...-what-coalition.html

Coalition? What Coalition?

As the so-called "Coalition of the Willing" crumbles, guess who is left holding the bag in Iraq? Of course, it is the United States. Now that our staunchest ally, the United Kingdom begins to draw down their troops from Iraq, the American administration plows ahead with its troop surge, despite the will of the people and their representatives in Congress.

Tony Blair announced the force reduction today, which will bring U.K. troops strength in Iraq down to 5000 by the end of summer, with the rest to come out by next year. At their peak, the British forces had over 45,000 troops in that country.

And it is not only the Brits drawing down. Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is pulling out his nation's 460 combat troops, and will replace them with 50 observers. The coalition as reported by the BBC currently looks like this:

COALITION FORCES
US	132,000
UK	7,100
South Korea	3,200
Poland	900
Georgia	800
Australia	900
Romania	600
Denmark	460
El Salvador	380
Bulgaria	150

Now if all this wasn't depressing enough, the GOP is in full, out of control, spin mode. The administration is gushing about how this is great news, that the Brits have stabilized southern Iraq to the point they can go home. Apparently, U.S. Senator, Wayne Allard, a Republican from Colorado, didn't get the talking points memo. He was just on the local news on KCNC-TV (CBS 4) in Denver, blaming the Democratic-led, non-binding vote against Bush's troop surge for sending the allies a wrong message that America is not committed to winning in Iraq. Wayne, didn't you hear? No blame needed. This is a good thing. Just ask the Decider-In-Chief.

I just have to ask . . . if southern Iraq is secure and can be handed off to Iraqi forces, why don't the British troops go to help with the surge in Baghdad? I guess Blair is finally listening to his constituents. I only wish our President would listen to his.

A High-Flying Merger

Today marked the announcement of the much anticipated merger agreement between satellite radio service providers, XM and Sirius. Under the agreement, Sirius will acquire rival XM for $4.6-Billion in stock. Neither company has yet to turn a profit, and a combination makes a lot of sense. Still, the merger will face opposition by other interests, such as terrestrial radio stations and others who fear a monopoly in satellite radio. The satellite providers say that there is no monopoly, in that they compete with every audio device out there, from iPods to CDs to standard radio.

I am mixed on this one, as I fear subscription prices will rise without the competition between the two; yet both of them are burning through a lot of money competing against each other. Such fears kept the proposed merger of Dish Network and DirecTV from gaining government approval a few years ago, resulting in the breakup of the deal.

So far, I have resisted the siren-call of satellite radio. Still, I would enjoy the variety of programming available on satellite, but I don't really want to pay another $12.95 every month. Terrestrial radio has gotten very homogenized and boring. I used to love listening to distant AM radio stations via atmospheric skip at night, a hobby called "DX-ing". When you hear the same syndicated program on another station that is now owned by Clear Channel Communications, it takes a lot of the fun from the effort.

Once the dust settles, I may yet succumb to the lure of satellite radio. I was once an early adopter. I have had satellite TV for ten years, owned a VCR shortly after they came out, and had a cell phone when they had a handset attached to a backpack-style unit by a cord. I have paid dearly over the years for the privilege of getting technology when it is still new. Circumstances and changing priorities have cured me of that. Things I would like, but are not a priority include not only satellite radio, but High Definition Television, a cell phone that does more than just make calls, and a car GPS navigation system. There was a time in my life when if these things were available, I would have had them. Now, I enjoy my standard definition TV, my plain old flip phone, and listen to AM radio going to work.

I still have satellite TV though. I cannot see going back to the way it was when I was a kid . . . three channels, all in beautiful black and white!

Lights Far & Near

Today has been a warmer and drier day than was expected here in Douglas County. As we get close to 7 PM and the sun beneath the mountains, the temperature is heading down for the night. Still, the partly cloudy skies at dusk cleared just a bit. I went out to watch the deer that come out to find food, and noticed the twilight sky. About 40 degrees or so above the horizon, Earth's closest neighbor, The Moon, was in a crescent phase. Just below it, our next closest neighbor in space, Venus, was shining in the sky.

I braced myself against a pole and shot a few photos. The one above gives a bit of perspective, as the blurred object on the left is the branch of a pine tree, while the dark, cloudy blob in the upper right is . . . a cloud.

In any case, here are some lights a lot closer to home than either The Moon or Venus. The picture below is taken on Mainstreet (yes, Parker spells it as one word) in downtown Parker. The flags are out because today is Presidents' Day. I'm old enough to remember when we had celebrations on February 12 for Lincoln's Birthday; and again on February 22 for Washington's Birthday. Now we lump them together, and I doubt many school children even know why.

A car went by as I was taking this one, so we have what appears to be a very fast car, but instead it is just the trail left by it's taillights during the exposure. It also looks like a motorcycle was coming the other way, because just above the taillight trails, you can see a white streak on the opposite side of the road.

Here's wishing you a very Happy Presidents' Day!

Pale Blue Dot

I hear the right wing talk radio people continually denigrating the idea that we need to take steps to act against the possibility of global warming. These people claim that humans cannot possibly harm the planet, that we are seeing normal cyclical climate change, and basically let's just use up our resources without regard for our children, grandchildren, and future generations.

Some people who think this way are just ill informed. Others are fundamentalists who are convinced the apocalypse is to happen within their lifetime, so it's okay to abuse the environment; just another danger of extremist religious views. You would think that the Biblical mandates to be good stewards over what God has provided would give these folks a different view. One would think that even if it is proven that we are seeing normal cycles of the climate, that such changes can have catastrophic outcomes for humanity. Yes, the earth will survive, but it could be without our species. Even if one doubts the reality of global warming, is it prudent to ravage and pollute the only place we have to live; our home, the planet Earth.

I am reminded of the profound words of Dr. Carl Sagan, who spoke about seeing a 1990 photo of our planet taken by Voyager I from 6.4-billion kilometers away; a tiny pixel of blue floating like a speck of dust in a sunbeam. These words have been well publicized, but they bear repeating. Dr. Sagan said:

We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors, so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.

Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

Words we would all be wise to ponder.

Ike & The Shamrock Hilton

My mention of President Eisenhower in the post below, made me think about a memorable experience back when I was in the first grade at Sutton Elementary School in Houston. This had to be in late 1959 or early 1960, so I was either 6 or 7 years old at the time.

My parents took the family (which at the time was Mom, Dad, me and my two sisters) to the venerable Shamrock Hilton Hotel in the Texas Medical Center to watch the President's motorcade go by. I can still vividly recall standing outside the Shamrock waiting for Ike to come by, and finding my teacher, Mrs. Webb, was there also.

Built in the 1940s as one of Houston's most elegant hotels, The Shamrock Hilton was torn down in 1987 to make room for a parking lot, much to the chagrin of many Houstonians who loved the old landmark, myself included. How sad to lose such a wonderful piece of Houston's recent history, and for a parking lot no less. Its spot near the corner of Holcombe Boulevard and South Main Street has never been the same since.

You can read more about the Shamrock at the Handbook of Texas Online by CLICKING HERE. To read about Sutton Elementary (which is still in operation) CLICK HERE. Interestingly enough, that history of the school even mentions the principal I remember, Raymond Roebuck.

More Bang for the Buck

Just a few miles up the road is Denver, Colorado, home of one of the two United States Mints that are producing the new dollar coins, which were introduced yesterday (the other is in Philadelphia). As you probably know by now, this is a new series of coins featuring the visages of the Presidents of the United States, produced in the order they held office, starting of course with George Washington.

The mint is hoping these new coins will be better received by the public, both as collectible and circulatory currency. The variety of the series raises hopes that they will replicate the popularity of the state quarter program. For collectors, I believe they may be correct. For wider use, I doubt it.

When I was a child, one could occasionally find a Silver Dollar in circulation, along with Mercury dimes, buffalo nickels, and of course, the ubiquitous wheat penny. Then along came the Eisenhower dollar which stuck with the large format of previous dollar coins. But the big change came with the introduction of the much maligned, smaller dollar featuring suffragette Susan B. Anthony.

This coin never caught on outside of a few vending machines and slot machines, because it was similar in size and appearance to the quarter. How many of us accidentally overpaid by using these coins thinking they were quarter dollars?

So, a few years back, the mint came up with the “golden” Sacagawea dollar coin. While easier to distinguish from a quarter due to its hue, it retained the size of the Susie B. coins, making it a direct replacement for vending machines. Yet despite a huge push to garner public acceptance, the Sacagawea dollar never caught on either.

Now we get the golden president dollar coins. I have no doubt collectors will pick them up, but they still have the issues of previous coins when it comes to circulation. Despite being smaller than the old Ike dollars, they are bulkier and heavier in the pocket than paper dollars.

Still, with inflation, I think the dollar coin could be viable. I think the solution is as follows:

• Stop issuance of the $1 bill and remove them from circulation
• Flood the market with the $2 bill, as this doesn’t even have the purchasing power the paper buck once had
• Reformat the $1 coin to be somewhere between the dime and the quarter in size, making it acceptable for pocket change
  

The third item is unlikely now that the mint has committed to, and started production of, the new presidential dollars. Still, if the first two ideas were implemented, both the $1 coin and the $2 bill would be widely used.

Yes, I have the answer, but alas, the people at the mint never asked my opinion.

The Not-So Great American Chocolate Bar

The layoffs continue at American companies, and the workers pay the price. Yesterday, it was Daimler-Chrysler announcing 13,000 workers at the Chrysler division will lose their jobs. Today, a less than sweet announcement from Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Hershey Foods, maker of what they once called “The Great American Chocolate Bar”, as well as a number of other confectionary treats they have absorbed over the years, is cutting 1,500 jobs from the payroll. Their market share has dropped, while the fortunes of rival Mars, Inc., maker of M&Ms and Snickers, have risen. This amounts to approximately a 12% reduction in staff for the Pennsylvania-based chocolatier. Interesting that it is announced on the day after Valentine's Day, one of the biggest chocolate-giving days on the calendar.

Hershey says it will also open a new, “cost-efficient” production plant in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. By cost-efficient, they certainly mean “cheaper labor”, with which the American worker cannot compete and maintain a middle-class lifestyle. The plan is to move ten percent of their U.S. production to the new plant, but I would look for that number to increase over time, perhaps even by the time the facility comes on line.

I understand we live in a global economy, and labor is one of the factors of production that are important to international trade. I even favor doing things to pump up the Mexican economy by creating opportunities within our southern neighbor's borders. Only when there is not such a disparity between the two country's economies will the rate of people entering the country illegally slow down. Still, we need to keep some good jobs here, as I really don't want the only jobs left to be the executives making millions for sending our jobs away; leaving the rest of us limited to employment where the only requisite skill is the ability to say, "Welcome to Wal-Mart!".

I suspect part of Hershey’s problems have less to do with competition than with quality. My wife and I both have noticed the taste and consistency of Hershey’s chocolate has changed over the years, and not for the better. It has a more waxy consistency than what I remember in years past, and the flavor is just not the same. I don’t think it is just my taster either, as the products from M&M / Mars still taste the same as they always did, and today, outshine the Hershey product.

Perhaps that is fitting that Hershey will be making more of its product in Monterrey, as chocolate was originally created by the Mayans and Aztecs of pre-Columbian times in the area now known as Mexico.

Frosted Trees

Just as we finally get a few days of melting, along comes another snow. Still, as long as it is not a blizzard, snow creates scenes that are very pleasing to the eye. Not much to say in this post, mainly just showing a couple of photos from this morning. The light flakes clinging to the bare branches of trees, giving them the appearance of being painted white; as well as gracing the evergreens with a icy frosting as well. Even though I am eager for Spring to arrive, I try to enjoy the beauty of each day, regardless of what conditions it brings. So for these scenes, thank you Jack Frost!

NASCAR, Sports, and a Geek!

I have to start this entry by stating that I am not, nor have I ever been, a fan of NASCAR. The idea of cars going around and around a track just doesn’t get me excited. In fact, the only reason I might ever consider going to a NASCAR race would be for any photographic opportunities that may occur. I am sure there would be chances for some interesting pictures, but other than that, the thought frankly bores me.

All that said, today I got an up close look at an actual car that will be used in the NASCAR circuit this year. This is because my employer is sponsoring a racing team, and to build excitement, they brought one of the cars to our building during the lunch break so that employees could get a closer look.

One thing that I found out is that even though NASCAR is an acronym for National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, there seems to be little that is stock about these vehicles. They are basically built in a private shop by a racing team for competition on the circuit. In fact, if you look closely at the photo below, you will notice something fishy:



Did you catch it? The grille and lights are fake! They are all part of a full body wrap that is printed and placed on the car. There are not headlights on this car at all!

Also, being a bit picky here, but shouldn’t the organization be called either “National Association for Stock Car Racing” or “National Association for Stock Auto Racing”? Isn’t “Car Auto” a bit redundant?

So, I admit, I just don’t get it? I see pickups around town with Dale Earnhardt #3 decals placed there by fans. It seems that the late race car driver has been elevated to demigod status by his admirers. I still don’t get it. I mean, I am sorry that Mr. Earnhardt died in a horrible accident, but that is the risk of this “sport”. And I still don’t get it? What am I missing? I have nothing against NASCAR or its fans, but I gotta ask “WHY??”

Maybe I am just not the macho, into cars, Tim Allen tool man, OOOHHH OOOHHH, kind of guy who really gets a kick out of this. In fact, I know I am not. Tools? Not my thing. Machinery? I couldn’t care less. Memorizing the statistics of sports figures? Not unless I was in a fantasy league, and I have never done that. In fact, I have always loved reading the newspaper, but have always skipped the sports section. I never read it.

Around here, the Broncos are a religion. I am happy for them when they win, but it really doesn’t affect my life. Yet I know people who are in a deep, dark funk if they don’t win a game. I just don’t care that much. The players get paid megabucks to play a game, the owners get taxpayer funding to support their business, and yet normal people can’t afford to attend the games at the stadium they are paying for.

I’d rather pass the time looking at the world around me, taking photos, listening to music, playing my guitar, messing around on the computer, or even working crossword or sudoku puzzles.

Guess I am a geek. At least I know it!

A Notable Date in History

This date in 1809 saw the birth of two great men of history. In the still fledgling United States of America, Abraham Lincoln was born; while across the sea in England, Charles Darwin made his debut.

In a cabin near Hodgenville, Kentucky, the man who would lead the U.S. through its most divisive era, and ultimately pay with his life at the hands of an assassin, was born to Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks. A self-made man, Lincoln grew up in what was considered the frontier, along the Ohio River areas of Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana. Lincoln’s tenacity to see that this nation “of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth”, insured the reality of “united” states, setting the stage for the later ascension of the country to a position of world leadership. It is highly possible that America as a fractured group of smaller nations, could not have achieved the things that have occurred since.

The day that Nancy Hanks Lincoln was giving birth in Kentucky, Susanna Darwin was delivering the fifth of her six children in Shrewsbury, England. Unlike the humble parentage of Lincoln, young Charles was born into privilege, as his father Robert was a doctor and financier. Robert, although a freethinker, acquiesced to social custom, having Charles baptized into the Anglican faith.
As an adult, Charles would sail the world on the H.M.S. Beagle, and made copious notes and observations about fossils and life forms on various islands along the way. Ultimately, Charles Darwin would craft his theory of natural selection and the evolution of life on this planet, greatly increasing our understanding of biology in his book, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. The religious found Darwin’s ideas to be an affront to God, and blasphemy. This struggle of scientific thought led to the famed Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tennessee; as well as the ongoing opposition by the fundamentalist Christians to the present. Old gods die hard, but just as the god of geocentrism was laid to rest by Copernicus, so Darwin has driven one of the first nails into the coffin of the concept of special creation.

Today we celebrate the lives and contributions of a great American statesman, and the Englishman who revolutionized how we understand the evolution of life on earth.

Happy 198th Birthday to President Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin!

A Sunday Stroll Around DU

This afternoon, my wife needed to visit the Sturm Law Library at the University of Denver. I took the opportunity to accompany her so that I could take a stroll around campus with my camera and take a few photos of the architecture there. The DU campus is home to a number of older buildings, but also has seen an explosion of new construction in recent years.

The photo to the left is the spire and tower at the Daniel L. Ritchie Center for Sports & Wellness. This tower is quite striking, with its gold roof that is visible for miles around. It is particularly noticeable at night, when floodlights illuminate it. Even though it is a couple of blocks off of Interstate Highway 25, it is quite visible from that thoroughfare.

The view of the sky behind the building portends the changing weather. Today's temperatures have reached into the 50s, giving much needed opportunity for snow to melt. But the clouds in the distance are the leading edge of a line of weather that has promised to bring more snow to the Denver metropolitan area for the next three days.

The next photo gives an altogether different view of the Ritchie Center. This is a window in a building on campus that lies across Evans Avenue to the south. Visible in the reflection in the window are the building for the Sturm School of Law which was built in 2003, along with the golden tower of the Ritchie Center. Just to the right of the gap between the panes of glass, you can see the right edge of the clock tower of the Sturm Law School.

The final picture I will show today was interesting, in that not only is it a beautifully designed building, but there is a jet flying above and behind the tower, leaving its contrail to mark its path through the azure Colorado sky. There is much more to see around DU, but this will at least give you an idea of the campus of this well-known and respected institution of higher learning.

Vermont, Pies, and Politics

Maybe it's the New England air, the green mountains, or just something in the water, but the state of Vermont seems to me like a progressive place. A state that elected people like Jim Jeffords and Howard Dean, and legalized same-sex civil unions back in 2000, is certainly not a red state.

The progressive attitude goes beyond pure politics, as it overlaps into the way Vermonters do business. Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry's has started True Majority at www.truemajority.com, to promote progressive causes at a grassroots level. His animated short showing how to fund a better society is at http://www.truemajority.org/oreos/.

Another Vermont venture has a similar comparison on its website and on its product packaging. Vermont Mystic Pie Company (www.vermontmysticpie.com) not only makes a wonderful product, but has a pie chart on its boxes showing how the Pentagon takes about half of the budget of the United States. By reclaiming just 15% of the defense budget, we could do ALL of the following:

• Rebuild our public schools
• Retrain laid-off workers
• Begin to reduce the national debt
• Provide both health care and Head Start for every child in the U.S. that needs it
• Feed every starving child in the world's poorest nations
• Decrease our dependence on foreign oil

The company gives 10% of its profits to causes that support these goals. The Ben Cohen feature at the link higher up in this article, lays it out very clearly. I recommend you take a look.

All politics aside, the Vermont Mystic Pie Company makes a fantastic pie. Their products are Apple Pie, Blueberry with Apples Pie, and pie crusts. Their pies use wild Maine blueberries, apples from an ecologically-friendly orchard on Lake Champlain, and their wonderful flaky crust uses Grade AA butter from a farmer-owned cooperative. Best of all, not only are these the tastiest pre-made pies I have ever had, they are free of heart-clogging trans fats.

Let me add that I am in no way affiliated with Vermont Mystic Pie, but am pleased to recommend them, both for their pies and their activism. Check their website for a store that sells them near you. I got mine at Whole Foods.

Cool Slide Rules

When I took college physics back in 1971, we had to master the ways of the slipstick, the good old reliable slide rule. I grew up around these interesting devices, as my dad's profession was that of a mechanical engineer. These logarithmically-scaled tools of mathematicians, engineers and physicists are quite interesting once you understand what is going on, and how logarithms allow you to perform a variety of calculations.

No, the precision of a modern calculator isn't there; you had a limited number of decimal places for precision, and often had to derive numbers as scientific notation. You also had to keep up with where the decimal place was so as to get the correct mantissa. This resulted in two types of professors: those who gave partial credit for answers derived using the slide rule, but with the decimal misplaced; and those who counted the entire answer wrong, even if you had the right digits.

At first, many schools and testing centers were slow to embrace new technology, eschewing the use of electronic calculators, and requiring proficiency with the slide rule. Eventually, the precision and ease of calculators won out, and the slide rule quickly exited the scene, both in academia and in the business world.

Back in my college days, a simple four function calculator was still a novelty, and sold for around one hundred U.S. dollars. Today, you can get them for 99¢ at Wal-Mart, and they don't even need batteries, running instead on light.

If you want to try your hand as a slide rule and don't have one, don't worry. Just CLICK HERE to find links to seven different virtual slide rules, along with instructions and tricks you can do with these remarkable little marvels. Or just CLICK HERE to go directly to one of them. This is about the coolest web application I have seen! Just drag your mouse to move the sliding part or the glass cursor, and you are computing.

Happy Sliding!

Can the News Get Any Weirder?

You know, you really can't make up things any more weird than the stories in the news. We have a married female astronaut putting on a diaper, driving from Houston to Florida to allegedly kill a rival for the affections of another astronaut. I have heard of compulsive gamblers wearing diapers so they don't have to get up from their “lucky” slot machine, and as crazy as that sounds, this one is even more odd. Obviously, this is a person who has no business at the controls of a space shuttle. She must have been very good at giving all the right answers on her personality profiles at NASA, or she has just recently gone off the deep end.

Then we have the sad tale of Ted Haggard, the former president of the National Association of Evangelicals, the founding pastor of the huge New Life Church in Colorado Springs, and confidant of President Bush. Haggard, as has been widely reported, was exposed for carrying on a homosexual affair with a male prostitute, buying drugs from him, and in general, living a double life. I can only imagine the cognitive dissonance Haggard must have been living with, but what made it even more bizarre is that he was a vocal opponent of equal rights for gays.

Now, after three weeks of a restoration ministry, Haggard has declared the process has convinced him he is “completely heterosexual”. Somehow, if he were completely heterosexual, I doubt he would have carried on a gay affair for several years. While I don't believe being gay is something someone chooses, preaching one thing and doing another is absolutely wrong. I also find it incredible that someone would make a crusade of denying equal rights to homosexuals, all the while maintaining a gay relationship.

Obviously, the former pastor has been wrestling with his own set of issues, but I hope that his exposure as a hypocrite will serve to teach people that those to whom we look for guidance are often not at all qualified to give advice. Sometimes, such gurus are far less qualified counsel than if we just develop and use our own critical thinking skills.

Front Range Tornado

Tornadoes are powerful and fascinating storms. I have had several close encounters with them, and while I have a healthy respect for these phenomena, I also am drawn to them. When I was in high school, a waterspout (tornado over water) chased our deep-sea fishing trip further out into the Gulf of Mexico. That one was created by the approaching Hurricane Camille. When I lived in Houston, a tornado ripped the roofs off of houses across the street from mine, but left my side of the street intact. Then in Tulsa, I have had several close encounters, including a funnel cloud that passed over our house, sucking the air up the chimney and taking your breath away, and tearing down the fence in my backyard.

In the last decade, the Oklahoma City area has been hit by F-5 tornadoes that did tremendous damage, especially to the suburb of Moore. That outbreak on May 3, 1999, destroyed an outlet mall I used to shop at when I lived in Tulsa. Halfway between Oklahoma City and Tulsa is the town of Stroud, which was home to the Tanger Outlet Mall along I-44, the Turner Turnpike. It was taken down by a tornado on the same day as a wide area across Moore and Midwest City were swept away.

The eastern plains of Colorado get quite a few powerful tornadoes as you get closer to Kansas. One example was the 1990 tornado that destroyed much of the town of Limon. Closer to the Rocky Mountains, we tend to have less powerful tornadoes, but they are interesting nonetheless. This picture is one I took as a funnel cloud was forming between Parker and Franktown. This shot is looking toward the south from Stroh Road near its intersection with Parker Road (Colorado Highway 83). It was a stormy, late afternoon a couple of summers ago, and the clouds were moving very fast and displaying great amounts of turbulence. Several of these had formed, and a couple had touched down. This was just a case of being in the right place at the right time to capture the picture.

I have found out that there are storm chasing vacations you can take, going along on tornado chases and getting up close and personal with these monsters of nature. Sounds like more fun than a Caribbean Cruise, don't you think?

Pictures on a Foggy Day

Robert Frost said that "Good fences make good neighbors", and while he was undoubtedly right, fences can also make for interesting pictures. This is one from the end of last winter, taken a couple of days before the vernal equinox. It is not uncommon in Colorado to get snow in March & April, but the snowy days come between beautiful, springlike days.

This fence along a pasture just outside of Parker was interesting to me, because of the lines and angles created by the wood, along with the rails moving toward convergence as they get further away from the point of the viewer.

On the morning I took this picture, I went out fairly early and found quite a few good subjects. There was a dense fog in the air and a very light snow coming down. The fog made distant objects in some of the pictures take on a diffused look; a type of natural photo filter. This effect can be seen in the picture to the right of Douglas County Road 103. The posts on the other side of the road look very diffused by the fog, and the road quickly disappears into the fog as well.

Sometimes people think you can't take pictures because it isn't a pretty day with sunny skies and good conditions. Actually, some really interesting shots can be had on those days that you would never consider for a picnic. Keep your eyes and imagination active. You could find a picture whose mood and tone would be impossible to capture on a sunny day.

Clouds, Sunset, and a Great Little Camera

Digital SLR camera's are hard to beat, but they are not always the easiest thing to carry. That is why I am glad I have my little 5 megapixel point and shoot digital camera. It is small enough to always be at hand when a good photo opportunity presents itself.

This picture was taken with that camera, a 3-year-old Gateway DC-T50. It was one of those rare moments of serendipity where you see something and think, "That would make a good photo." If I hadn't had this little camera with me, the picture would have been missed.

I enjoy the sky and clouds, because there are so many different cloud types, and so many colors depending on time of day and weather conditions. This one was taken last March in Douglas County, Colorado.

Bitter Cold on Groundhog Day!

Well, this is what they mean by bitter cold. So far, we have had seven straight weeks with snowfall, two of them blizzards. We have had ups and downs in temperature. Yet last night set a new record. Denver officially recorded a new record low of 18 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, with a windchill factor of 30 below! Now the forecasters are claiming tonight could be colder and windier.

What do temperatures like this do? Well, for one thing, the power lines for Denver's light rail train snapped yesterday because of the cold, causing train passengers to be shuttled by bus to a different station. It is so cold that the dog doesn't want to go outside. You know, if I had to do my business outside in this, I think I'd rather hold it in also!

We are predicted to creep above the freezing point sometime next week. Till then, dress in layers and bundle up. Today is Groundhog Day, and Punxsutawney Phil has prognosticated an early arrival of spring. At least the groundhog is optimistic about it.

The Passing of a Political Commentator

A sad story in the news today is the loss of a great lady of American journalism. Reporter, columnist, author, and political humorist Molly Ivins lost her battle with breast cancer late yesterday afternoon at her home in Austin, Texas.

Her witty and quotable observations on politics, both national and within Texas, exposed many emperors without clothes over the years. While she leaned to the left politically, she skewered the absurdity of politicians of both major parties. Molly cut through the bull and went straight to exposing the self-serving and just plain odd things that politicians do and say. In my opinion, Molly Ivins filled the empty shoes of Will Rogers, using humor, intelligence, and the deft turn of the phrase to make her points about politics.

President Bush, dubbed "Shrub" (for "little Bush") by Molly was a frequent target of her columns. We would all be wise to heed the words of her column of January 11, urging Americans to resist the President's plan to escalate the war in Iraq:

We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war," Ivins wrote. "We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, 'Stop it, now!'

Molly Ivins was 62 years old.