Inventions as Nobel Prizes.

Well, it's happened again and for the 4th time, the Nobel Prize has been awarded for an invention. Nobel's will specifically says the award should be for a discovery or an invention, but there has historically been some apparent bias against inventions. Even when great new experimental inventions such as the bubble chamber led to many great discoveries, it was the discoveries, not the invention itself, that won the prize.

The inventions winners are (and this is my own editing to make it more understandable)
1909, Guglielmo Marconi and Karl Ferdinand Braun, Wireless Telegraphy
1912, Nils Gustaf Dalen, automatic gas regulators for lighthouses and buoys.
2000, Zhores I. Alferov and Herbert Kroemer, Diode laser (used in fiberoptic communications, laser scanners of all kinds, and CD, DVD, and blueray players)
Jack S. Kilby, Integrated Circuit
2009, Charles K. Kao, Fiber Optics
Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith, CCD imaging device (used in digital cameras)

According to Kroemer in a colloquium I attended years ago, the 88 year break was something of a backlash to Dalen's prize. (The following is my explanation, not Kroemer's.) While the gas regulators were a tremendous boon to shipping on the rocky shores of Scandanavia, they were basically an engineering feat not a unique new application of physics for a revolutionary device. Many felt that choice had lessened the value of the prize so inventions were passed over for many decades.

Personally, I'm glad to see that inventions are back, that they are being chosen with care, but are in fact excellent examples of putting basic physics to practical use.

Sail Journey

Well, for a long time I've been wanting to try and sail from Long Beach to Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro and back. Yesterday I finally made my first attempt.

Natalie's friend Mezzie Montooth was kind enough to come with me, and even though it was her first sailing experience she was the best trooper I've had yet.

The day started out beautiful and as we cruised through San Pedro Harbor (where the oil islands are) I thought it was a perfect day for the assault. The breeze was steady but not too strong and in a good direction. I made it past the Long Beach entrance to the harbors and past most of Long Beach Harbor without incident.

Unfortunately, as we tried to make it past the Los Angeles entrance and the waves got choppy and the wind picked up. There were even white caps on the waves which is the first sign that it may be too windy for a small boat like mine. Then a wave and a wind shift made me accidentally TACK and I decided to sail more conservatively. Unfortunately, that made it even harder to make progress into the wind. Meanwhile, poor Mezzie was being sprayed by each wave we went over, was soaked to the bone and starting to get cold.

So I finally made the right decision and turned around. Even that was tricky though. As I came about the mainsheet got tangled and nearly tipped the boat. Still we managed to get it righted with out tipping. We did start taking water over the rail though so it was the closest I have come in this boat yet.

Sailing with the wind was much easier and we quickly made it back into calmer waters. Unfortunately, as I docked, my tiller broke so I don't know how I will deal with that.

When I finally looked it up on a map I wanted to cry. We had probably made it more than 90% of the way, and if I had known just how close we were I might have pressed on, but I think it was the right decision anyway. (I tried to get a map of the trip on google maps or mapquest, but haven't figured out how to get a full picture of it saved so I can post it here.)

Once I get the tiller fixed I think I'll stay inside the bay for the rest of the Fall and Winter and try another assault on San Pedro in the Spring. It was certainly the longest and best sail I've had in my Dinghy yet, and was a lot of fun. Thanks again Mezzie, that sail rocked.

On Movies and Scripts

I've watched or finished watching several movies in the past several weeks and I've come to a couple of conclusions.

1. A good movie really depends on a good script.
2. When movies add or toss things to get a certain rating it really degrades the movie.

The movies I've seen or completed recently include

1. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
2. Transformers
3. Holes
4. G.I. Joe
5. On Her Majesty's Secret Service

One might expect G.I. Joe and Transformers to be similarly good or bad movies. Both a near future sci-fi action flicks that strain credulity, but whereas the script for Transformers was painfully bad, the script for G.I. Joe was surprisingly tight and well crafted. The action moved neatly, the humor was silly but enjoyable, the storyline was good and managed to both tie up the action neatly and set the stage for a sequel. Quite honestly it was probably the best movie in that genre I've seen in a long time.

Holes and On Her Majesty's Secret Service also illustrate the power of a good script. OHMSS was about as low on techno-gadgets and action as any Bond movie I've seen. (It is unique in many ways such as being the only one with George Lazenby, one of very few where Bond falls in love (gets married even) and in spite of the name, most of the action is renegade work done outside of official business.) But I thought the coherence and overall flow were great. (And I know everybody says Pussy Galore is the best Bond-girl, but Tracy Bond would drive all over her a--. I've found my favorite Bond Girl.)

Holes is one of the best triumphs of script and old fashioned good cinematography over spectacle. The movies weaves together about 4 improbable, almost silly and boring, stories into a single tapestry until they all tie together in the end. The peaks of action are digging holes, eating onions, and mending a leaking roof. But the whole is very delightful. (And unlike a spectacle movie it held up very well to the fact that I began watching it while substitute teaching nearly 18 months ago.)

The last thing I wanted to talk about was when they seem to be blindly seeking a rating. The Half-Blood Prince is one of my favorite Harry Potter books, and I think probably the most terrifying. By rights it probably should have become a PG-13 book. (I've always figured the books are targeted at Harry's age so this one should be for 16 year olds.) But they seemed to tone it down, possibly to maintain the PG rating. Dumbledore's terrors in the cave and his blood curdling "fear" near the end both came across much less intense than in the book, and the battle of Hogwarts was almost completely eliminated.

By contrast Transformers threw in a lot of pointless dirty humor and bad words for no aparent reason other than to get a PG-13 rating. Sure the blonde moved the story forward, but Mom on "minty" brownies spilling all of her son's private business was just crude.

Anyway, if you want my ratings of the movies

Holes was excellent and probably the strongest of them all. 4 1/2 stars.

GI Joe: Well above my expectations 4 stars

Half-Blood Prince: Very exciting, but like most of the Harry Potter films it is to the books as campbells chicken noodle soup is to chicken caserole. The flavor is similar but it really only hints at the notion that there are chicken and noodles there. From book 3 on the films haven't done the plots of the book justice. 3 stars

OHMSS: One of my favorite Bond films yet, but I tend to like that which is different. 3 1/2 stars.

Transformers: Well if you get to stare at Megan Fox and watch giant robots fight, how bad can it really be. (Because that is exactly how bad this is.) 1 1/2 stars.

Fishing With Perry

I doubt it will surprise anyone reading this, but I am not an accomplished fisherman. I'm sure I can count all the fish I've caught in my life on two hands. So many years ago when Perry first asked me to take him fishing we didn't have much luck. In fact after about 5 tries I was starting to wonder if I would ever get him to catch a fish. And at scout camp he finished every part of his fishing merit badge except catching the fish. So I decided it was time to take him to a commercial fishing pond. (You know the ones that are so stocked they guarantee fish.) This little pond was just teaming with Catfish and it wasn't more than 15 minutes before he had one hooked and in the net.


Here you can see him showing off his catch. Looks pretty good doesn't it.

Here he is cleaning the fish. I only knew how to clean trout which is very different than filleting catfish, but the man who ran the pond was very gracious and helped Perry do this part too.

Finally we brought it home to cook it up. I'd never had catfish (the whiskers on the live fish just freaked me out), but I looked up a simple fried catfish recipe and it was fairly easy to fry up. In spite of both of us feeling a bit squeamish at first, it was delicious and made a fine meal for the day the girls were out on their mother daughter camp out. So I'd say the trip was successful.

(We do actually need to catch and release a fish still, but I think I've learned enough about how to catch bluefin at El Dorado park that we should be successful at that.)

Renewing an Old Hobby

Me with my new belt and cell phone holder.

When I was a fairly young boy scout I got a leatherworking kit from my parents. I earned my leatherwork merit badge and took a particular liking to the craft. As a result for years afterward I listed "leatherwork" as one of my hobbies. The problem was that it was a "hobby" that I would often let slide for years at a time. I doubt I did much with the stamps from around the time I turned 16 until I returned from my mission. Then I only made a wallet for my dad because the last one I had made him was too beaten up to use. I think I made one for myself around that time too. Finally I made a clutch purse for Rachel (my first wife) while we were dating this was my masterpiece and between then and this week (nearly 14 years) I had barely touched my tools. I did keep them in the garage and I did help Perry make one project to work on his leatherwork badge. I even dug out the wallet I had made as a scout (the one I'd made myself later was finally wearing out).

So finally this week I decided to take some of my birthday money and get back into leatherwork. The local Tandy Leathercraft store was kind enough to give me wholesale price both for it being my birthday and Perry being a scout. I bought a cell phone case (my cell phone always gets beat up in my pocket with my keys), a belt blank, a belt pattern, and a buckle.

Here is the belt blank after the pattern has been traced and cut in but none of the tooling has been done.

This is what it looks like after it has been tooled extensively. Notice how the leaf really seems to come alive. I think that is my favorite part of leatherwork, watching the picture come alive in low relief.

These two show the belt and the cell phone case after they have been stained. The stain darkens all of the leather, but mostly it raises the contrast on the tooling and makes the pattern come out even more.

Now that's ? ?

Creative, Silly, Hillarious, I'm not certain, but it definitely is something. I'm talking about puddle duck racers, the self described easiest boat to build and race. As you can see the boats are basically little plywood boxes, the sails ordinary plastic tarps shaped with scissors and the mast and boom are electrical conduit and curtain rods. That such contraption can actually float is already surprising. That they can sail and race is absolutely astounding. Although they may actually have some advantages over the sailboats that men used for 1000s of years before they learned to sail upwind.

I learned about these because I've been wanting to buy a sabot to teach the kids to sail, but I don't really want to spend any money. (I found one for $75 which I would have bought but I wasn't fast enough.) So I mused about building one. Plans for actual sabots cost $25, but these are hillarious. I couldn't use it for the sailing class (they require an actual sabot), but Puddle Duck's Philosophy is that the best way to learn to sail is to get out on a small lake in a light breeze and futz around until you figure it out. (They do recommend bringing oars in case you get totally stuck.) So I guess the bay is too big and El Dorado doesn't allow private boats, but there is a nice small lake near work that could do the trick.

I don't actually plan to build one (Staci would kill me if I took up that much space with a piece of junk boat.) But the idea is certainly amusing.

Misleading Statistics, Again

I was looking into new apartments up here around Pierce and I was comparing them to the cost of driving daily. So I looked into AAA's driving cost listing. http://www.aaaexchange.com/Assets/Files/200948913570.DrivingCosts2009.pdf They list the price per mile as about 55 cents per mile if you are a low mileage driver and 35 cents per mile if you are a high mileage driver.

But if you notice the cost per mile trends downward as you get to higher and higher mileage. In fact if you plot the total cost to drive 10,000 miles, 15,000 miles and 20,000 miles, you find that the slope (the actual cost of driving each mile) is nearly linear. They have included the base cost of owning, insuring, and maintaining the car into the cost per mile. In fact the cost per mile is only about 16 cents per mile.

So why does this matter? You do have those ownership costs! Well of course you do, but very few of us are really going to totally get rid of the car. So in figuring the cost of driving verses public transit we want to know how much extra each mile is going to cost us. That's 16 cents for a small car (I'm guessing about 9-11 of those are for gas, the rest for maintenence.)

In my case, driving to work each day (instead of once a week and staying here) would add about 1200 miles per month. At 35.4 cents/mile that is $425, and it would be reasonable to pay up to that much for a place to stay up here, but at 15.8 cents per mile it is only $190. There are of course intangibles both ways. (Sleeping next to my wife, seeing my family, verses the wear and tear on me.), but it is a very different picture.

I just hate when the stats are misleading like that. I'm no fan of long commutes or excess driving, but let's not claim that simply not driving is going to save you $400 when half of that is just in the cost of owning the car.

Sailing Adventure II

Well, this time I took Perry. I was worried that he would be mopey for much of the time, but actually he seemed to really enjoy it. He got his finger caught in the rigging at the beginning of the first day, but seemed to muddle through it well. By the second day he was a regular little monkey jumping around the boat getting things and helping to sail the boat.

The best part was that even though we didn't have a great race on the first day (we took 7th) we smoked the whole field on the second day with a tactical risk that Andy (the skipper) took. We went a different way from everyone else and found a bit of wind that put us about 15 minutes in front of the next contenders in our class. (There are actually 3 classes that are faster, but only one of them finished before us on the second day. We did great.) The total result is that in spite of our poor performance on Saturday we have gone from second overall to first. It was exciting and some great bonding time with Perry too.

Here we have Perry and Andy preparing for a long hard day of sailing.

Perry at the Helm!! His ability to steer came in quite handy on the return trip. There was a time when we needed to Gybe the spinnaker. A challenging task even with many hands so both Andy and I had to be on the sheets and sails. Luckily, Perry was there to be the skipper. (I was actually more terrified in this picture though because Perry is sitting there steering a $100,000 boat in a narrow channel with other boats around.)

It was a gorgeous day to be out sailing. We were never completely out of sight of land or the other sailboats. You can see the Palos Verdes Penninsula fading off into the distance.

The Competition in the distance. (This Picture did not upload like I wanted it to.)

And the island coming up on the horrizon. The really low spot is the isthmus where we spent the night. The race ended about a third of the way from there to the end of the island on the right.

There is a boat that will take you ashore, but it costs $3.50 per person. That's not bad, but it adds up quick so I thought Perry and I could save a bit by going ashore in Andy's little dinghy. It worked well, but unfortunately the blade of one of the paddles came off and sank before Perry could grab it so I had to break down and pay for us to go back to the boat.

I had also brought dinner to cook aboard, but Andy's wife Katie was so sick and desperate to get off the boat that we ate on land instead. Andy treated us all and I gave him the lasagne I had brought in return.

There is more to chronicle but I think maybe I'd better break it up and put it in another post.

Sailing Adventure

I first learned to sail at the Sea Scout Base in Long Beach around the time I was 8 or 9, but I left the hobby dormant for the better part of 2 decades.

I did try to earn my small boat sailing merit badge the year our scout troop went to camp Chawanakee, but while Chawanakee was in many ways a much nicer facility than Tahquitz, their classes were not nearly as good. Any class I took at Tahquitz the counselor worked with you bit by bit until you understood and had the necessary skills. At Chawanakee they mostly told you to go read the book and come back when you were ready to pass off. OK, so maybe it was my fault or the merit badges I attempted, but I earned like 5 badges each year year I went to Tahquitz and none at Chawanakee. So needless to say, I didn't get the small boat sailing merit badge. I'm not certain I even made it out on the water in a sail boat.

I finally renewed the hobby with several classes at UCLA's Marine Aquatic Center (MAC). Since then I've enjoyed getting out from time to time. My father in law even gave me his old boat so I have one of my own to get out in from time to time.

However, in all of this, I've always wanted to really get in a sail boat and go somewhere. In my little 14 footer, just getting across the harbor is a labor, but last weekend my friend Andy Horning invited me to crew for him on his Hunter 40 as we raced to Catalina Island.

It was actually part of an 11 race series including 5 races to the island, 5 races back, and one race there, around the island, and back. The short version of the story is that outside of sex, this was probably the most fun I've had in the last 20 years.

The race over started with decent if not terrific wind, but it never filled in acording to its usual pattern. Luckily we ended up all the way on the left side of the course and the strange wind filled in from there first. After a prolonged lull the wind finally filled in coming from the mainland (exactly where it never comes from) that blew us in to the finish line. We actually won that race (at least within our class). It was a blast.

That evening we moored outside Avalon Harbor and went on shore for dinner and a movie. There is only one theater on the island, but lucky for me it was showing the new Star Trek. (Totally awsome, but that is for another post.)

The night was pretty calm, but being outside the harbor the boat still rocked quite a bit. I had hoped to sleep deep and long, but ended up waking up fairly bright and early after having spent the night in more of a dreaming wakefulness than true sleep.

The next morning after a hearty breakfast of oatmeal we headed back to the starting line for the race back. This time the starting wind was almost non-existant. For the first 2 1/2 hours we drifted at speeds never more than 2 knots. Andy is a talented skipper and managed to squeeze every bit out of the boat, but we were still probably less than 5 miles from the island. Then rather suddenly the wind filled in and we were broad reaching at 9-10 knots for the next 2 hours. (Now that is only about 10 mph, but on a boat it is really fast and exciting.) The pole to put up the spinaker (the big parachute like sail) wasn't working right so we were not able to fly it. That may be for the best, with only two of us it would have been hard to deal with, but it might have given us another knot of speed which may have been enought to win. Still I got to stear most of the way in while Andy navigated and kept the sails trimmed.

We ended up taking 3rd in the race back (there were about 13 boats in our class). That puts us in a very competitive 2nd place for the series. I'm hoping he asks me to crew for him again as the series continues. More to come.

Gone Walkabout

Pierce College where I work is unique among the campuses of the Los Angeles Community College District in that it is the agricultural campus. It is by far the larges campus with most of it being undeveloped or fields and grazing land. A few weeks ago I decided to take about an hour to go and enjoy it. So here are some pictures from my trip.

This is the first field closest to campus. The first barns and another part of the field pointing up towards the stadium.

Next I passed some cows luxuriating in the shade.


It's easy to forget how close to the urban environment we are sometimes. But the apartments in the background are a quick reminder.

The pond is a favorite place to go on a small hike or cross country run.

Finally a few pictures from the walk back. The valley is really a beautiful place. Especially when the smog drops down for a bit.

Assymetry

This sign was posted in the bathroom for the physics offices at Los Angeles City College. We didn't make it, but I thought the assymetry in the English and Spanish instructions was interesting.

If you can't tell, both English and Spanish start by saying "Please Keep the Restroom Clean." Both end with "Thank You", but the Spanish adds a the extra line, "Don't throw paper on the floor." And I keep asking myself, is that cultural, racist, or what gives?

The Big Bang Theory, Part II

Some time ago (and probably on a blog that is no longer operating) I did a review of the PBS commedy "The Big Bang Theory." A very funny sitcom about physics Ph.D.s. Like most commedies it makes accurate if exagerated play on various personalities typical of the subject.

Well recently I found out that the science advisor for the show is Dr. David Saltzberg who I TAed for in Winter of 2002. He is a great and funny guy and does an excellent job of keeping the physics on track. Not only that, but the actors came by UCLA to study how physicists act. So if I had stayed just a bit longer, some of their actions could have been based on me.

I wrote Dave about it and he said he'd be glad to get me into a filming some time. Maybe I'll get really lucky and meet one of the actors. More to follow I hope.

Tax Season

Many years ago, a relative mocked a former inlaw for having earned less than $2000 in a year on about 8 W-2s. I have to admit that I was nervous as to how much better I would fare as we came near tax season this year.

You see I was laid off in February of last year and spent the remainder of the year either underemployed or over/underemployed. (I'll explain that in a moment.)

I was lucky enough to have a solid second job at the time and I quickly managed to get on substitute teaching lists for both Long Beach Unified School District and Kelly Educational Services. This kept me busy and kept the morgage paid (though little else). With the help of family, tax returns, some severance pay, government, savings, and prayer we managed to make it through spring.

By summer I picked up a second part time teaching job and by Fall I had three. This is what I called over/underemployed. I had the teaching load of 2 full time instructors but was not full time anywhere. Still, I could finally feel self sufficient again.

So anyway, it came tax time and I was grateful to find that while I did in fact have six or seven W-2s the total was well over $2000 so I guess I can feel confident in my worth as a father and husband.

Staci took me to her accountant to do the taxes. I've always done mine myself, but I have to admit this was more enjoyable. In part because someone else was doing the nitty gritty and in part because he was really a delightful guy to hold a conversation with. Our supposed hour and a half appointment lasted nearly 3 and poor Natalie and Richard got stuck with our kids, but they were very sweet about it.

Oh, by the way, after one full year of scraping for whatever jobs I could find. I do once again have a full time position. In fact it is my first tenure track job. I am now the newest Physics Professor at Pierce College a part of the Los Angeles Community College District. I have actually wanted to teach here for a long time as they are working very hard to implement the best practices of physics teaching. On the other hand, when I was working several part time jobs I could justify doing a good enough job, now I truly need to do an excellent job. When you combine that with the fact that it is a new teaching style, the administrative and committee responsibilities, and the fact that it is on the far side of Los Angeles County I am still working my tail off. I finally rented a room over there because the commute home each night was too hard and I was in after everyone was asleep and out before they woke anyway.

Still I am excited and very blessed. I am grateful to family and friends and a wonderful wife who helped me pull through a challenging year. I am grateful that we live in a country that helps those who are struggling and hard work is still rewarded. And I am grateful to the Lord for his tender mercies.

All Alcohol Must Be Radioactive

It's true! At least in the united states all alcohol for human consumption must be slightly radioactive. You see, the law requires that alcohol for human consumption must be made from fruits and grains, but you can also make alcohol from petroleum. (Oh don't go eww, vanillin (artificial vanilla) is made from petroleum too.) So the question is how can you tell which is which?

Now purefication is good enough that you couldn't tell from chemical analysis, but fresh (as in less than a few thousand years old) plant matter has significant amounts of Carbon-14 in it which is radioactive. By contrast, fossile fuels are millions of years old and all of the carbon-14 has decayed out. So if your alcohol is radioactive, it is made from grains and fruits, if it is not it is made from petroleum.

Just one of the many facts I learned in "Physics for Future Presidents" which I'll review soon.

How many blades

I've always wondered how many blades are really necessary to shave. You can still buy razors with only one blade (more on that later) but most have at least 2 and 3, 4 and even 5 are now common. Gillet fusion actually has 6 (5 on the front and 1 on the back for precise trimming when you want a single blade.)

I never was much of one to go in for these fancy things figuring 2 blades were probably enough. But lo and behold here I am a convert to that ridiculous fusion mostly because of excellent marketing.

You see, I bought a reusable gillet sensor razor my first year back from my mission hoping that if I kept a closer shave my girlfriend would want to kiss me more often. (That soooooooo was not the problem.) I kept it for well over a decade (still have it in fact) and I would probably still be using it except for that excellent marketing.

You see I never bought the fusion razor. They sent me that for free in the mail. That is no small gift to get for free in the mail as they retail for nearly $10 (I'm sure wholesale is much less.) So now I could try it, FOR FREE. And I'll be darned if 5 blades aren't more comfortable than 3. So now while I will still use cheap disposables if that is what someone has or someone buys for me, I really like the gillete fusion. (And they do stick it to you on cartridges).

So the real question is, at what point does more blades become counterproductive. SNL (I think though it could have been MadTV) did a skit on a 15 bladed razor. I thought 4 was ridiculous, but I love 5. Where does it really end.

(On a side note, I shaved today with a single blade razor. I thought it had gone reasonably well if slightly less comfortable. Then I turned around and noticed about 50 tiny dots of blode coming from my neck. So maybe it is more than just minimal comfort.)

What A President Should Know (Book Review)

What A President Should Know: An Insider's View on How to Succeed in the Oval Office

This book is a collection Lawrence Lindsey's "notes to the president" on how to govern. He even starts the book with elaborate story about the lengths he went to so the President would get it just before inauguration so that it would not be subject to public inspection. But if he didn't want it to be subject to public inspection one must wonder why he published it and is selling it to the public.

In fact while the story of slipping it to the president is obvious fiction, the book as a whole was quite interesting and enlightening. Having served as a finance advisor to all of the last three Republican presidents his conservative bias is obvious, but he is what I would call a good conservative (and no that doesn't mean he's dead). Rather I mean he seems to be a straight shooter, gives honest explanations and explains the ambiguities and and trade offs of the office. He doesn't have any of that annoying (unfounded) certainty that so annoys.

As an example. He took some heat from the last administration for estimating that the cost of the Iraq war would be between 100 and 200 billion dollars. Admittedly the high end is still a factor of 3 less than current estimates, but it was much closer to reality than anything else coming out of the Whitehouse in 2003. He also compares it to the costs of Vietnam and WWII as a fraction of GDP. (He does make the case that the war was the right thing, and personally I found it to be one of the more compelling ones if only for the reason that he acknowledges the possibility that it might not have been. By addressing problems and uncertainties he makes his argument, in my mind at least, more credible.) He also makes some very honest statements about the failings of the Bush administration.

He does in fact make a number of good points about focusing on one or two major items. Controlling your controllers and your staff, and the realities of getting things done in Washington. But perhaps the most interesting in my view was a recommendation that the president approach his term in office from the assumption that he would not seek reelection.

If you're cynical (and I am) you might believe this was just because McCain might not live for 8 more years and he never really liked Obama anyway. But the book is written on the assumption of not knowing who the president would be and some of his talk about how a recession may begin early in the term he seems to have written most of it well before even the democratic primary was decided. So the recommendation may have just been honest.

His points were that second terms have not been wonderful. (Nixon Resigned, Clinton was impeached, Bush was weighed down by the war, Reagan was embroiled in the Iran Contra scandal and probably beginning to suffer from Altzheimers, I may have added that last note myself.) Being in only one term allows you great controll over your successor (T. Roosevelt chose Taft.) He does not recommend telling anyone else that is the plan, and in this way he seems to feel that you have the free hand that second term presidents have while having the (apparent) accountability of a first term president that keeps you from being a lame duck. Then as your 3rd year in office rolls around you can either choose to give it another go or go picking out the person to take it to the next level.

On the other hand I was annoyed at Obama for running so young not because I didn't like him but because so few former presidents return to public office/service and I hate to lose his talent before he is 60. So to lose him at barely 50 would really annoy me.

At any rate, it was a pretty good read and I would recommend it if your are interested in public policy whether it reinforces your world view or offers alternatives it is certain insightful.

Foolish Adventures

I decided to take my boat out yesterday. I haven't started the Spring semester yet and I thought I should take it out while I still have a chance. I had one of my most exciting sailing adventures.

The winds inside alamitos bay were pretty light, but they were pointed such that I made a fairly quick clear shot out the jetty to San Pedro Bay (That's the ocean area off of Long Beach and inside the breakwater. At least that's what google maps calls it.)

In just about two hours I managed to sail all the way across the open bay area to Long Beach Harbor. I pushed it a bit farther than I normally would have because I wanted to say I had crossed out of Long Beach Harbor into Los Angeles Harbor, but I didn't make it that far. I didn't know where the division was and it would have been too far anyway. I think in the future I'll avoid that area. I got honked at by two giant boats (one was pushing a barge that carried a mack truck with its own sizeable parking lot and the other was a huge (several hundred yards long) cargo ship.) I was never in eminent danger, but I did need to change course to stay out of their way.

The return trip was uneventful. It was downwind and I made great time. I always start out heading up wind so that the return will be downwind. Sailing downwind is easier and faster though it feels slower (the wind isn't on your face and the boat doesn't heel over on one side). Unfortunately, the winds were almost dead inside Alamitos Bay and since I was in a hurry to get home I finally bummed a tow through the deadest part from a kind passing motorist. Still it was the most satisfying adventure I've had in the boat so far.

Which brings me to my dilemma. My father in law is always upset at me for taking the boat out single handed. It is designed to be sailed by two people though it is fairly easy to handle by myself. But more importantly, I'm several miles off shore by myself. I don't worry too much about drowning as I always wear a life jacket and Long Beach water while not warm is not too cold. If the boat capsized and I stayed with it I could stay out of the water and get help fairly soon (or probably right it and be on my way). But what if I was hit by the boom and knocked out temporarily. I would float all right, but I'd be hard to see. Or what if I fell overboard and the sails were cleated so that the boat kept sailing. He really is right, I should have someone else with me.

On the other hand I love the adventure and the solitude and it is very difficult to find people who want to go sailing with me. OK, it's not hard to find people who want to go, but when it's Friday morning and it looks like the winds will be good in the afternoon it is hard to find someone ready and willing to go right then. To make matters worse, I like to go places. I would love some time in June (long days and good winds) to head up and make it to somewhere on the Palos Verde penninsula at least to Cabrillo Bay. (Truth be told, I'd like to sail it to Catalina, but even I'm not that dumb. Well, I am but I would want an escort boat. Hey people swim it with an escort boat.)That's a significant time commitmant and it is work sailing upwind that far in a small boat. Most of the people who want to sail with me think in terms of a couple of hours of sailing, but this could easily be 3 out and 2 back, not to mention rigging and derigging. Where would I find someone who wanted to drop everything Friday afternoon and spend 6 hours sailing off the coast of Southern California?

So the real question is how do I pursue the sport I love, as I love it, while maintaining some reasonable safety standards. (And on the other hand is my risk really that much more than commuting by motorcycle in LA traffic? Or by barely freeway legal moped as I used to do?)

Sailing / Sailing Races

I found out several months ago that a brother in my ward had bought himself a sailboat. It was a 27 foot McGregor keelboat, that means it is about twice as long as my little dinghy. (By dinghy I simply mean centerboard boat boat as opposed to a decked over keelboat.) It is also much more designed for open water sailing while mine is more for sailing in marinas and bays.

I had been bugging him about when we were going to take it out and finally on Martin Luther King Day he said let's go. I was a bit disappointed with the date as it meant missing out on the family's first trip to the Aquarium, but I've been making a goal of improving on my male friendships (an area of my social life that has been week for decades) and I had been wanting to try his boat out for a while.

The boat needs a lot of work, but seemed to be sea worthy enough. It was fun to ride and both faster and smoother than my boat. Don't get me wrong, I love my boat and am more than willing to take it on adventurous trips, but this was a nice change of pace.

One thing that I thought was really exciting was that we saw a lot of sail boat racing. It did make sailing a bit more difficult as we had to stay out of the way of the racers.

As we headed back in the racers were also heading in. Between talking with them and looking things up on the web I discovered that we had seen the tail end of the 2009 US SAILING ISAF YOUTH WORLD QUALIFIER and U.S. YOUTH MULTIHULL CHAMPIONSHIP REGATTA. The were sailing single person dinghies (laser radials for both boys and girls), two person dinghies (420's with a slightly different version for the boys than for the girls), and open (both boys and girls competing with and against each other) multi-hulls (Hobie 16's). They were all fast agile little boats that were a lot of fun to watch. I never got very much into racing but it sure looked fun.

(Incidentally, my boat is two person dinghy rigged very much like the 420's. My boat is not nearly as high of performance boat.)

So the day was a double treat. Not only did I get to go sailing but I got to see some world class racing too.

Blago

First of all let me state that I believe former governor Rod Blagojevich is guilty and deserves to be removed from office. However, I don't know that to be the case. I know that he has been arested, but has not yet been indicted. I don't know what, if any, evidence was presented at his impeachment. I find all of this a bit disturbing. If we are willing to oust someone merely for being arested then what protection do we have against a corrupt prosecutor arresting his enemies on trumped up charges so that they get thrown out of office. I agree with impeaching him and ousting him, I just wish it could have been done in a more measured fasion. (And yes that does mean that perhaps he might have demonstrated his inocence. Although unless he could show the tapes either don't exist or are fakes I don't know how.) Let's stand by the rule of law and trust it to oust the bad guys.

Dueling Doctrine

I hesitate to post anything about doctrinal questions here as it has gotten me in trouble in the past, but this one is an honest question so maybe I can get away with it.

What is the substantive difference between the Catholic Doctrine of the Infalability of the Pope and the Mormon Doctrine that The Prophet will never lead us astray?

We often poke fun at the Catholic Doctrine because so many popes through history were clearly corrupt, but a close reading of the catholic doctrine will point out that it does not refer to his personal character or dealings in secular matter only that when speaking on matters of doctrine he is "preserved from error".

Mormons likewise believe that the prophets are humans and suffer from all the frailties of humans, but the phrase "The Prophet will never lead us astray" is uttered regularly as if it were doctrine and that seems to be the same essential sentiment.

I'm also unclear on the scriptural basis for the assertion. I can trace it to a talk given by then Elder Ezra Taft Benson who cites Wilford Woodruf's talk defending the first official declaration. There is also an unsourced quote wandering around, but one never knows if unsourced quotes were every really said at all.

I'm personally bothered because I thought that personal revelation was the hallmark of our religion, not obeysence to any scripture living or ancient. It is by personal revelation that we know the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and all the other scriptures to be true. It is by personal revelation that we know that the prophets are in fact prophets of God.

Why then are we discouraged from seeking personal revelation on matters once the prophet has spoken on them? I know some will say that we are encouraged to get personal confirmation, but really it's only confirmation we are encouraged to seek. We are told to pray to know that it is true, not to pray to know if it is true.

I'll stop there for now. So tell me, what am I missing?

Is it true that

It is better to be silent and thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.

Or is it perhaps better to suggest that

It is better to be known for a fool and learn than to remain a fool unknown.

Pay $5 for gas

There's something special about $5/gallon gas. It was the thing we all worried about this summer as the price nearly reached that point, and it changed driving habits. It may have even had a lasting impact on american car makers' business model. (Maybe). Many say this is a good thing. Robert J. Samuelson of Newsweek recommends it for security reasons. Others recommend it for environmental reasons. Some suggest raising the price for revenue generation.

But that of course is something that either the market or the government will have to do. But is there something each of us could do? What if we each committed to paying $5/gal for gas. No I'm not saying find the most expensive gas in town, or just burn an extra $20 each time you fill up. But what if each time we bought gas we figured out what it would cost at $5/gal and squirrled the money away somewhere. Put it in your savings acount and save towards a vacation, or save it for when fuel costs really do soar. Or use it to add solar panels or donate it to energy research. Shoot invest it in energy research and get some profit back. Or save it to buy an electric car.

The point is two-fold. First we prepare ourselves for the inevitable return of high prices. If we are already paying $5 then the price shooting up to $3.50 is no big change on our balance sheet. Second, it encourages us to plan in terms of the higher price. How would assuming a price of $5 affect our choice of cars or our driving habits. It would be a shame if the lessons we learned during this summer's run up in prices were forgotten now that gas is again under $2.

I realize, that those who would participate in this are already environmentally conscientious, and no I'm not certain I have the discipline to do it myself, but it is an idea that I think could make a difference for individuals, and maybe, just maybe, for society.

The Old Ditch on Atherton

They have been doing a lot of work on the open ditch across the street from our Church building. Several months ago they anounced that it would be covered up. I was reasonably pleased because it is an eyesore and can smell. However, we don't live all that close to it so I wasn't terribly concerned one way or another. Besides it would take a way a place for skaters to hang out. (OK, I'm of mixed feelings about that one.)





Here's what it used to look like. (Sorry I didn't figure out how to download just the picture.)

Old View

Then for several months the street was half blocked off so they could come in with the giant earth movers and pipes 3 feet in diameter to place the drainage safely underground. I wish I had a picture of that, but I never bothered.

Once the large work was done I expected them to quickly put up a drab barrier and be done with it. Instead the work dragged on and some stonework seemed to go in slowly. Then today they transformed it to a beautiful display of what look to be native (or at least climate appropriate) plants. I think it is beautiful and I am thoroughly impressed.



















Good work Long Beach on a job well done.

On the Nature of Punishment

Several weeks ago, before the UCLA / USC rivalry game, I learned that both teams would be wearing their home colors which was against the rules.

Now at this point the rule seems iron clad, perhaps just because I generally believe in following rules at least unless some compelling higher obligation prevents it.

What struck me as odd was when I learned what the penalty was. USC (the visiting team) would lose a time out. Some how I found this hillariously funny. Delineating a punishment seemed to lessen the impact and meaning of the rule. If the punishment were forfeiture of the game, then there is no way that USC would have even considered it. As long as the punishment was unstated it could be that severe, but once the punishment was stated the rule became almost pointless. This is especially true given that UCLA purposefully blew a timeout because they were in on the decision.

I guess somehow delineating the results always changes something from an iron clad rule to a choice where you weigh the advantages and disadvantages of a decision. As Garrison Keeler once said, there is no rule that you can't fight in hockey. There is just a rule that if you do you have to sit in a box for a little while.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is an odd movie at best, but certainly very interesting and very well acted. It tells the story of a man born with the infirmities of an 85 year old man who then proceeds to age backwards. It is largely a study on death starting with his childhood (in a retirement home) and ending with his own death as he regresses toward infancy. It is also an exploration of how we build a life, and how the flow of time is a uniform reference that we depend on. Growing younger instead of older he has certain experiences at abnormal times in his life and others such as establishing a long term relationship are nearly impossible.

The movie is very long but never really drags. Excellent acting from an impressive cast Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt center the cast, but the supporting cast is equally important and impressive. It is very emotional and generally poignant. So yes it is likely to win some oscars and I would recommend it.

Google Maps Street View

Well I must say that I am thoroughly impressed with google maps street view. I first ran across it while exploring the neighborhood around my new job, but have since used it to explore my own neighborhood and even my mom's home town of Taylor Arizona. It is sometimes rather odd the things they do and don't have. For example, I was unable to get a full view of my own house as the truck didn't seem to have gone down that street, but I found my Uncle Norris's house in a much smaller city clear as day. I could tell you the color of the paint and what cars were parked out front. Small world.