Monthly Archives: September 2019
You Stole My Purse
It wouldn’t be a wedding without a sloppy drunk woman accusing us of stealing her purse. We take it in stride, every situation presents unique challenges. Tonight’s drunk accused staff of stealing her purse while she went to the bathroom. “I left it on table 6, a black designer bag with $300 cash and all my ID. I was gone 2 minutes, one of you stole it” she slurred. Dead set on accusation, sloppy drunk unleashed a torrent of “you’d better fucking find it”. We didn’t touch your purse!
Sensing sloppy drunk’s looming meltdown, boyfriend trumpets “this is fucking serious, which one of you stole her purse? Hand it over now!” Emboldened by her partner’s bravado, sloppy drunk parrots “fucking serious”. Hysteria escalates, she’s wailing incoherent protestation. Rage pulsates from boyfriend’s throbbing temples, “she was gone 2 minutes, who the fuck stole her purse?”
Instead of laughing or calling security to escort the lovely couple out, I ask a server to check the bathroom. Sure enough, “stolen” purse rested where sloppy drunk left it – top of toilet paper dispenser inside a bathroom stall.
Did they apologize? Nope! They accused “thief” of planting it and stormed out. Sigh. So ends another day at the office.
Black Hole Visualization
This week NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center released a black hole visualization. Jeremy Schnittman, astrophysicist specializing in computational modeling of black hole accretion flows enlisted computer software to animate black hole glory. From https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/nasa-visualization-shows-a-black-hole-s-warped-world –
Viewed from the side, the disk looks brighter on the left than it does on the right. Glowing gas on the left side of the disk moves toward us so fast that the effects of Einstein’s relativity give it a boost in brightness; the opposite happens on the right side, where gas moving away us becomes slightly dimmer. This asymmetry disappears when we see the disk exactly face on because, from that perspective, none of the material is moving along our line of sight.
Closest to the black hole, the gravitational light-bending becomes so excessive that we can see the underside of the disk as a bright ring of light seemingly outlining the black hole. This so-called “photon ring” is composed of multiple rings, which grow progressively fainter and thinner, from light that has circled the black hole two, three, or even more times before escaping to reach our eyes. Because the black hole modeled in this visualization is spherical, the photon ring looks nearly circular and identical from any viewing angle. Inside the photon ring is the black hole’s shadow, an area roughly twice the size of the event horizon — its point of no return.
“Simulations and movies like these really help us visualize what Einstein meant when he said that gravity warps the fabric of space and time,” Jeremy Schnittman, who created the images at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a statement.
Click in to see more angles. | The black hole is seen nearly edgewise in this new visualization from NASA. The turbulent disk of gas around the hole takes on a double-humped appearance. The black hole’s extreme gravity alters the paths of light coming from different parts of the disk, producing the warped image. “What we see depends on our viewing angle,” NASA said. Image via NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman.
Hidden Monsters
It has always been that the old despise the young. I have no doubt about that. Those with age and maturity seem to think, sometimes seem to demand, that those who lack age and maturity owe it to them to listen and obey the ways of the aged and more experienced.
What has not always been is a culture in which the young not only have access to all the information the aged think is their exclusive domain, but their experiences are completely different than the experiences of those who have gone before because the generation now reaching maturity has:
- Never had the experience of being a prosperous American (they are saddled with education debt and too many of them cannot find jobs commensurate with their education)
- At the same time they live in a society where our definition of poverty is 31X (yes, I did actually mean to write…
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Black and White Justice
Today we learned Devin Sloane, second parent sentenced in U.S. college admission scandal got 4 months in jail, followed by 2 years probation, $95,000 fine and 500 hours community service. Sloane paid $250,000 to get his son into University of Southern California as a water polo recruit. In closing arguments Sloane’s lawyer pleaded for leniency, arguing Sloane was a good man lured into crime by admissions scam mastermind Rick Singer. Judge Indira Talwani asked – “Why does it matter, in terms of my sentencing, why someone else invited him to do this crime?” Talwani said the defense was putting people into two categories – good people who make mistakes, bad people who get caught. “I don’t sentence good people or bad people, I sentence people” Talwani said.
Prosecutors were seeking a year in jail. Prior to sentencing Assistant U.S. District Attorney Eric Rosen said Sloane’s crime was “far more egregious” than that of actress Felicity Huffman who paid $15,000 to rig her daughter’s entrance exam scores. Huffman was sentenced to two weeks prison time, a fine and 200 hours community service. Rosen argued Huffman took immediate responsibility, whereas Sloane made a show of blaming others. In contrast to Huffman’s two week incarceration slap on the wrist, I suppose four months for Sloane is justice served. Right?
Not so fast, seems we’ve forgotten U.S. justice sentences people by colour. In 2011 Tanya McDowell, a homeless woman from Bridgeport, Connecticut was sentenced to five years in prison for enrolling her then five year old son in a school district they didn’t reside in. Living out of her van and in homeless shelters, McDowell used her babysitter’s address to enroll her son in elementary school. She was arrested, charged with first degree larceny for “stolen” education and sentenced to five years.
© The Stamford Advocate, Keelin Daly/AP
Thump your patriotic heart America, but know you’ll never be great. Are you pleased with yourself? Content with black and white justice? Bothered by the fact a 2016 Washington Post investigation revealed white school districts received $23 billion more federal education funding than black school districts?
Who am I kidding? Homeless black women have no right to seek better education for their children – lock them up, throw away the key. American justice knows what’s best, understands rich white citizens grease the wheels. “I don’t sentence good people or bad people, I sentence people” – is that how you sleep at night America? What a nightmare.
I Always Look Orange
On September 12, 2019 Donald Trump simpered –
“People said what is with the lightbulb? Here is a story. I looked at it. The bulb we are being forced to use, number one, to me, most importantly, the light’s no good. I always look orange, and so do you. The light is the worst,”
Trump chose September 12th, day of the third Democratic presidential debate to light Republican supporters with news he would roll back legislation requiring transition from incandescent lightbulbs to energy efficient bulbs by 2020.
“Frankly, the light is not as good. We are going to sell that, but we are going to sell incandescent bulbs, and people are happy, it has been amazing,” Trump said.
Gradual transition from incandescent and halogen bulbs to energy efficient LED lighting by January 2020 originated with the George W Bush administration, adopted by Obama with nary a ripple. Enter Trump of Orange leader of greatest nation in the free world blithering –
“it is many times more expensive than that old incandescent bulb,” he said. “I don’t know if you know this, they have warnings. If it breaks, it is considered a hazardous waste — waste site. It has gases inside. Read what they say. If it breaks, bring it to your local whatever, have it wrapped — what are we doing?”
I suspect Trump referenced fluorescent CFL lights which contain mercury, I doubt he knows they’re being phased out in favour of safer, more efficient LED bulbs.
Here’s the thing, Trump could have announced legislated delay of incandescent bulb ban by saying – in consideration of financial burdens forced upon low income Americans faced with lighting homes with costly LED bulbs in the new year a decision was made to extend sales of incandescent bulbs until further notice. But, no! He made it about himself! “I always look orange, and so do you”, WTF?
America needs a leader, not a tangerine fool.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/13/politics/trump-orange-light-bulbs/index.html
The Big Picture
We all know the many atrocities Trump has committed in his 32+ months in office and they are never far from our minds, but there are so many that sometimes it’s hard to see the big picture. David Leonhardt’s column in the New York Times today simply lists, line by line, 40 of the worst atrocities committed by the man who calls himself ‘president’. Note that there are many not even on this list, such as his rollback of environmental regulations and his 12,000+ lies.
Take a look at the list … some you may have even forgotten, in light of newer, more vitriolic ones. And after you look at all 40 of these, ask yourself a question: How can anybody in their right mind possibly support this ‘man’? And yet, in the past week, his approval rating has actually gone up! If you still have any Trump-supporting friends…
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Deserts Of Chile, Starlight By Adrien Mauduit
Ponder Deserts of Chile by Adrien Mauduit of Night Light Films. Mauduit, conduit of wonder, a visionary worthy of respect, appreciation and gratitude.
Vancouver Street Names
This afternoon a friend sent a link to origins of Vancouver street names. Researcher Justin McElroy used City of Vancouver open data sets to eliminate numbered avenues/streets and duplicate names to arrive at 651 unique street names.
https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/streets
McElroy determined 90% of named streets had documented stories linked to specific events, persons or things. 62 street names had no discernable origin, names like Adanac (Canada spelled backward) or Little, a one block East Vancouver pipsqueak. I live on the corner of a numbered avenue and Willow, one of 38 named tree/plant streets. To the east I cross 11 streets named for Canadian provinces, to the west a wave of 20 streets named for military battles. Explorers (31), royalty (20), dead Europeans (28), B.C. places (19), places in the United Kingdom (25), geography (56), industry (22), B.C. landowners (46), prominent railway persons (27), B.C. politicians (27), golf courses (26), connection to George Vancouver (12), universities (6), indigenous names (11), North American places (8), ships (6), hotels or houses (7), characters in novels by Walter Scott (12), Canadian historical figures (11), civic politicians (28), city/government officials (13), B.C. pioneers (6), forestry (11), business owners (9) miscellaneous persons unrelated to other categories (11) and a police dog named Valiant round out the list.
Valiant was Vancouver’s first police dog to perish in the line of duty, shot in 1967 by an escaped prisoner on the run from authorities.
McElroy determined over half of Vancouver’s unique streets fell into 5 categories –
I’ve always taken street names for granted, history didn’t unfold until pausing to ponder nomenclature of the place I call home.
Another Glimpse Of Cuba
Ponder another gallery of Cuba street photography. All images captured by my husband at – https://www.flickr.com/photos/15574096@N00/
notestoponder 