MaxRedline

Fire Up The Grill!

And that's precisely what's wrong with Memorial Day: in the eyes of many, it's just another three-day weekend - albeit one that kicks off the start of summer. Don't forget the big Memorial Day "sales" at the mall!

That's all there is to it?

Memorial Day was, for many years, observed on May 30, which made it a truly special day. A growing number of people are coming to the conclusion that the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968 was a mistake. That Act set official observances of a number of holidays, including Memorial Day, on a Monday - in effect, creating extended weekends. That's all well and good for Presidents Day, but it demeans the entire purpose of a Memorial Day

Some holidays simply shouldn't be tampered with, and are deserving of recognition on their own. Just as Veterans Day is November 11 and Thanksgiving Day is the fourth Thursday of that same month, so Memorial day should properly be returned to its May 30 observance. It shouldn't be "hurry on into Mattress Planet" day.

 

Barky Takes Credit For SpaceX Launch

Not only did he personally kill bin Laden, he also launched a supply ship to the International Space Station. Granted, Barky didn't actually throw the switch, but it was all part of his Grand Plan:

White House science adviser John P. Holdren also hailed the launch.

"Every launch into space is a thrilling event, but this one is especially exciting because it represents the potential of a new era in American spaceflight," he said. "Partnering with U.S. companies such as SpaceX to provide cargo and eventually crew service to the International Space Station is a cornerstone of the president's plan for maintaining America's leadership in space."

 

Heading South?

Portland gets about a 90% solar eclipse tomorrow (assuming the clouds don't screw things up as they did last time), but Medford's due for the full monty.

We were out in the Columbia Gorge when the last total hit - and hit is the word; the blackness raced out of the west at unbelievable speed, and the body reacted as though it had been physically smacked. It's way different from the prosaic lunar jobs.

Devastation

Hard to believe that it's been 32 years. 57 people dead, many others injured. The view from Portland was sporadic, and for the most part, the ash cloud was blown eastward - though a shift brought us some. We had a few 12"x12" stepping-stones in the yard, and I used an index card to lift the ash from one.  I filled two quart jars from that one stone.

After hosing down the car, I popped the hood and placed a filter over the air intake. Apparently, that was a good move; I had no idea as to how abrasive the stuff might be, but I didn't want to find out. As it emerged, less forward-thinking individuals experienced significant engine damage.

Fortunately, there were very few ATM machines in the Portland area in 1980, but many of those that did exist were damaged by ash intrusion into the card-slots. Today, damage from ash alone would be much more widespread. Dust masks became more than a fashion accessory, and would be for quite some time.

A few days later, the weather was sunny and warm, and I hiked through Forest Park, eventually emerging at Pittock Mansion. It offers a panoramic view, from which you can see as far as Mt. Rainier on such a clear day. As I looked at St. Helens, it blew again; it started small, but quickly grew into a thick mushroom cloud of steam and ash that began to drift eastward on the prevailing winds. Unreal.

Another anniversary is here. Some things you see, you don't forget.

End of an Era

The iconic Mike Wallace passed last night, and not in the manner of Michael Jackson or Whitney Houston. Those who appreciated his interviewing skills will mourn without the fanfare. As Joseph Coors once quipped: "The four most frightening words in the English language are 'Mike Wallace is here.' "

Now, Mike Wallace has left the building.

 

Somebody Found A Workaround?

This site, as noted in the sidebar, has been censored in China for around a decade. As you know, if you ever look at the sidebar, there are a couple of modules deployed there which note who's been here. There are, of course, a couple of others that afford more detailed descriptions, which are not on public view. Personally, I think the spinning "revolver" globe widget is pretty cool, although it needs the occasional kick in the butt because it doesn't reset like it should - but hey, what do ya want from freeware?

One thing that came over the transom was most interesting, as it's never been seen here before: A visitor from China viewed "MaxRedline: Why NOAA Is In Newport, Now" 23 mins ago

Oh really? Did they drop the censorship thing? Or did somebody just get lucky?

Hard to say. The first thing I did was run a check to see if the site was now open. Nope. That means it's time to root through the IP addresses and time-stamps. Yup, there it is. Now, that there's a right good puzzle: this site's been blocked for years, so what's somebody from China doing here, and why was the post on NOAA selected for review? And how come my initial tests come back as blocked? That's some curious stuff.

There are other things that need to be checked, and IP address checking is kind of tedious, so it's something I tend to do only when really bored or really pissed off. The initial read on that looks as though it's a government address, but it's harder to pin things down there than it is here. Puzzles like this are really interesting, so it'll be cool to see where it all goes, when I get more time.

If they've removed the block, then I finally get to take down the Banned in China item in the sidebar. If not, well, it's still interesting, if only as a perspective on how assiduous government surveillance can be.

Tomorrow could be a busy day. Potentially.

 

Related articles

• US website blackout draws praise in China - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)

Super Bowl!

Hey, did you notice the improvements at Indianapolis? The new retractable roof and the big new scoreboard at Lucas Oil Stadium? How about the snipers' nests, featuring tripods made by an Albany, Oregon company?

Those are some awesome tripods! Naturally, some folks have a problem with this, and want to go all political over it. But this is pretty standard for any major event, and if you don't think there were snipers swarming downton Portland back when Barry delivered his sermon to an estimated 75,000 at Waterfront Park, you've been hitting the ol' "medical" marijuana a bit too hard.

It's cool to see an Oregon product featured so prominently at such an event.

On another note, aren't you about sick and tired of folks like "Madonna" and her finger-flippin' gang sucking the life out of the place at half-time?

Sign the petition to have Weird Al Yankovic perform! One thing's undeniable: he's entertaining.

Idiocy And Egocentrism

On Saturday, the Oregon Republican Central Committee held its winter meeting in Albany, where they arrived at an especially brain-dead "decision": Voters who are not affiliated with any party will be able to vote in the Republican primary for three statewide offices.

Apparently, it hasn't occurred to the brain-trust that a big reason why people choose no affiliation is due to disgust with the antics of both major parties. Rather than adopting principled stands and adhering to them, the ORCC has decided that pandering is just the ticket to convincing the NA's to join the GOP.  It isn't going to work - and better yet, the heavy thunkers in ORCC just handed Democrats a great reason to re-register as non-affiliated (temporarily). Apparently not content with the whole "Keep Portland Weird" meme, Alley and the others want to outsource it statewide. There were those who once believed Alley was smarter than this.

On the egocentric side of things, Corvallis seems to be engaged in a battle with Portland politicians in an effort to determine which municipality has the most inflated sense of self-importance: they wanna have a citywide advisory vote on the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United decision, which basically says that corporations (ick!) and unions (yay!) can spend as much money as they darn well please in order to influence - if not outright purchase - elections.

Yessir, there's a sure-fire way to gain the attention of the Beltway crowd: the City of Corvallis, its students and its faculty, agree by majority vote that they believe that Congress should Amend the US Constitution so that corporations can't buy elections. Put a Beaver on it!

Coasting To Atrocity

Last summer, the little town of Manzanita had a 4th of July party and a small parade, during which one of the onlookers bumped into a  92-year-old woman, leaving a scratch that didn't seem to want to stop bleeding. As it happened, Tillamook County General Hospital had an ambulance on standby for the event, so she asked for a band-aid. The medics on duty checked her blood pressure, cleaned the scratch, and applied a bandage.

In November, a bill for $765 arrived.

Well, after considerable hassle and runaround, an amicable settlement was reached and the hospital agreed to waive the charges (which, of course, likely means that it was simply divvied up and packed into the bills sent to other patients). There's a reason why it's a good idea to keep a first-aid kit in your car.

Also in Tillamook County, the Tillamook cheese plant dumped 50 workers as they shut down most of the packaging operations at the original site in Tillamook. That's a lot of family-wage jobs for any small coastal community to lose; impacting not only the individuals and their families, but sending a ripple - if not a small tsunami - throughout the town. The Creamery Association did give the workers severance packages to ease the pain somewhat - though the packages were accompanied by a gag order forbidding the former employees from talking about the plant or its operations. Management described it as "very common sections of severance agreements", but a certain odor still clings to it, especially in view of how top-heavy the organization has become: Ceo, VPs, Directors, SR Managers, Managers, Assistant Managers, Supervisors, Leads...

Another organization that's grown far too big.

Real Hope, Real Change

Image via Wikipedia

Chagrin Falls, Ohio: A little hardware store that's been around for some 72 years now stands, oddly enough, as a reminder of what this country is all about.

Barry Obama, you and your whole sorry administration need to take a look. You might learn something.