40 years after first moonwalk, large telescope will open

Hand it to the Mexicans, Spanish, Europeans, University of Florida and other partners. I think Gran Telescopio Canarias is going to be the largest optical telescope in the world. Inauguration on July 24 2009, just days past the 40Th anniversary of Apollo 11's first moonwalk. Space exploration is still making strides. Continued below.

I kept front page of Spokane Chronicle from the day after "that day" in July 1969. Chronicle has not been published for years, long before the current Internet shakeup of newspapers.

There was some science aboard that moon mission, but nothing as sophisticated as the science pouring in from today's satellites and observatories. Far from turning our backs on space, the news keeps getting more exciting, at least for those of us who follow it.

I remember newscasters talking about 3 experiments that astronauts set up on the moon that day. Maybe there were more, but I remember 3.

Mirrors were placed near the lander to reflect lasers beamed up from McDonald Observatory in Austin, TX. It was to measure distance between the Earth and moon within inches.

Interesting to measure something that far in mere inches. Quite a feat for those days. Since then, the lasers have been improved for more accurate measurement. Maybe those mirrors are still in use, I'm not sure. They were employed for years after 1969.

Astronauts also set up a seismograph on the moon, from what I remember. Or maybe that was later missions? A seismograph to measure moon quakes. Starting to probe the moon's interior.

Then there was that sail thing. Not the American flag. It was another "sail thing." Something like tinfoil which was rolled out to catch solar wind; a mystical stream of particles coming out of the sun.

Quite exciting for science in those days, but still kind of small compared to discovering planets around other stars in our galaxy; for instance.

The science of astronomy keeps getting better as instruments become more precise and "high tech." Amazing discoveries are now being made from telescopes that never even leave the ground. Other observatories are way out in space.

Apollo 11 was a great achievement, an engineering feat and a media event. A giant leap and there are still giant leaps being taken today.

Yes, it was a great step forward and I was riveted to the television, that day, along with the estimated 300 million (pretty impressive percentage as world population was less in 1969) viewers.

It was the summer before my freshman year in high school.

Maybe I was riveted too much to the television as just before Niel Armstrong took his steps down that ladder, our TV went dark. It was a flash and then the screen was dead. No sound either.

A vacuum tube burned out.

I had our TV on all day watching the coverage. The tube just chose that moment to burn out.

Remember vacuum tubes?

If your cellphone used vacuum tubes today, it would probably have to be as large as the Saturn 5 rocket which carried those astronauts to the moon.

With our set down for the count, the family piled into our Rambler Stationwaggon and headed to the Stevenson's house and another television.

We arrived after the first steps, but still got to see countless reruns.

My letter to President Carter's speech writer, 1979

Not long out of college, in spring of 79, I was following energy speeches by then President Jimmy Carter. Thinking that the word "sacrifice" was too negative, I suggested it be replaced by the word "change."

Put a more positive spin on the transition our culture needs to make. So I wrote to Carter's speech writer.

Now it's the 30Th anniversary of Carter's famous malaise speech; the one that never even used that word malaise. It was the speech that pundits gave that label to after the fact.

When I wrote, I suggested putting a more positive spin on the transition we need to go through to save energy. Sacrifice doesn't sound positive enough. Change was my suggestion.

Today, the word transition is used. There's "transition," "transformation," "evolution," "a new world dawning." All that "new age" talk. Bicycle for you're figure and all that fun stuff.

Speaking of a more optimistic future, we've really experienced a technology revolution since those days. Putting a futuristic spin on low energy living.

No more going back to the cave. Ipods (which they didn't have back in 79) are lower impact than automobiles.

Carter's chief speech writer wrote back a nice letter. He said my ideas were good and thought the President would agree also.

This was before the famous malaise speech of July 15 79 that historians are remembering today.

I'm not sure my ideas got through to the President as I think sacrifice was still the dominant theme.

Still I got letters from both James Fallows and Hendrick Hertzberg.

I wrote to Fallows thinking he was the speech writer. This was before Internet days so it was the most recent address I could find at the public library. Some reference book on the US Government, no doubt.

Fallows forwarded the letter so nice reply's came back from both men.

It was spring 1979 before Carter's now famous speech.

Did my letter have an influence on that speech?

Hard to say. Maybe not. The speech was of a type to still inspire the word "malaise" for a label.

Now I wish I'd kept the envelope as the return address simply said;

"The White House."

Planned Parenthood T-Shirt

Someone gave me a free t-shirt from Planned Parenthood to walk with a group of organizations in Bellingham's GLBTA pride parade. A bright pink shirt.

It made a good connection between issues for me. Population, the environment, economics, alternative lifestyles, change, gay rights. So many of these issues and solutions all fit together in my book. Or maybe I should say in my blog.

Is property value in Washington chasing Boeing out of the state?

Local radio talk shows have been buzzing since Boeing purchased South Carolina based Vought Aircraft. Vought is a Boeing supplier and the purchase is said to streamline some production bottlenecks between the two companies.

Purchase also fans the flames of speculation that Boeing may be looking to other areas for development of a new production line.

Boeing slowly leaving the state?

Dori Monson, at KIRO was pointing fingers at state government a few days ago. Taxes, regulations; the normal litany of complaint. Dori has libertarian leanings.

I have a different twist.

Property values.

Yes, Washington State, especially central Puget Sound, is expensive.

If Washington remains economically successful (in the traditional definition of success), we may have to brace ourselves for over a million new residents moving to Puget Sound area in the next decade or so.

Not the fault of government. It's just the price of our kind of civilization. Maybe we've just been too popular.

A friend of mine just moved back to South Carolina where she grew up. In S.C. she could buy a house for under $50,000. Out here in Washington State, it was a struggle to make enough money for house, or even rent payments in her case. She worked at Boeing for a while, but it was a long commute from where she could begin to afford to live. The commute became too wearing.

Anyway, it's fitting together better for her in SC. Job, housing, logistics. She says traffic is getting worse there, however. I don't think I would want to live there, from what people describe.

I'm lucky living in Washington in an affordable niche. The little room I live in is reasonable, but it's not the way most people live.

As for Boeing, who knows what their future plans are. So far it's just clearing up bottlenecks with suppliers, from what I read; aside from the ranting and raving of talk show hosts.

It's not Washington State government, necessarily that prices industry out of our area.

Still, government is kind of a reflection of our society. Washington State is a popular destination. Prices go up. When things get expensive, government gets expensive also. Think how much it costs to buy land for building a new road.

Then we have regulation. With the crush of new people always moving into this state, we have our raft of regulations that are sprung from concerns. We have growth management, storm water runoff, watershed preservation, farmland preservation rules and so forth.

You get the drift. We could "de-regulate," but would we want to?

Then there's the whole union and right to work state issues, but I'll leave that for other bloggers to talk about.

Sure, some regulation is stupid, but there is also a cost to success and a cost to popularity. It's our society, not just our government.

Bike lane also helps protect water resource

This part of North Shore Drive near Lake Whatcom is an innovative road that was recently repaved. Now that it's finished, I decided to ride out there.

It's in our drinking watershed because houses and development have been grandfathered in around the lake for years. Actually over a century.

Idealistically, no one should live in the watershed, but you know. How can they do that?

Next step might be to try and make road surfaces pervious, rather than impervious.

Pervious means rainwater can percolate through. Impervious means water just washes off.

Around the lake, pervious means cleaner runoff. If water can soak through surfaces gradually, it can be filtered. On the other hand, when water runs off a hard surface too quickly it brings more crud to the lake.

Why can't they make the whole road pervious?

Well, I don't know, but my guess is it wouldn't hold up to the pounding of cars and trucks.

Cars and trucks can be awful heavy.

That's where the shoulder (also a bike lane) can come to the rescue. It doesn't need to be so hard since it doesn't normally get as much pounding as the car lanes.

Make the shoulder softer so it can serve as a buffer between the car lane and the surrounding environment.

Another good excuse for a bike lane.

Even the sidewalk can be that new "previous" stuff.

Another great innovation in planning.

I also rode up onto Stewart Mountain which resides along the north shore of Lake Whatcom. Much of that route is under these ominous looking power lines.

Big inter-tie between power grids of BC Hydro and BPA. Another link between US and Canada.

Lake Whatcom below. Bellingham Bay in distance.

One really hears the hum and crackle; especially from one set of lines.

Power for millions of people passing through our area like Interstate 5. The interstate for electricity?

Happy Fourth Of July. Humming, crackling, booming and sparking. Hopefully not arcing power lines through me.

Ka-blam. I plan to watch fireworks from the top level of a parking garage in downtown Bellingham.

Power of compound interest, hard to sustain

I was listening to the radio a while back.

Financial talk show host Bob Brinker was discussing memories of dropping stock markets in 1973-74. Also the fraudulent failure of some big equity firm back then.

Similar to the Madoff debacle of recent times.

Yes, it seems like each generation has it's financial meltdown. Promises made for investments and retirements are often lost just before being realized.

One hears advise of how they should invest early in life. Use the power of things like compound interest to realize huge sums in retirement years.

The math works on paper, but in reality vast savings still must rely on a productive economy. An economy of resources, goods and services. Investments must rely an economy where future generations are doing commerce. Otherwise they are nothing more than good looking numbers on brokerage statements.

For investments to be real, future businesses need to have customers. Future houses need buyers who can afford the mortgages. Future people need to be able to afford rents and lease payments. Otherwise the real world manifestations of these investments are little more than "white elephant shopping malls" looking for tenants.

Government debt is, of course, considered the most secure investment of all.

That's ironic.

Government provides valuable services, but as an investment, it seems unable to collect the taxes needed to pay back it's deficits. This problem just gets worse as we live in the "post California Prop 13 years." Politics will cap tax revenues. Also, if business isn't making money, the revenue isn't there anyway.

It looks like each generation lays up wealth only to see disappointment before the promises pay.

Saving is a good idea, but one shouldn't put all their self worth into money.

I've never had a lot of money and, so far, the current downturn hasn't impacted my life that much. Glad I'm still working and the place I'm working at is doing well.

Quite a few people, in my postwar baby boom generation, have seen the vast savings they worked for disintegrate.

Some baby boomers may look at today's young folks with envy.

Today's young folks riding by on skateboards with smiles on their faces. They still have plenty of time before worry about retirement and maybe the "system" will be fixed by then.

I still try and live with a smile on my face. I ride my bicycle even though I have never mastered skateboarding.

Some people say, my life is kind of Peter Pan like.

I'm actually enjoying life now more than I did in college, though.

Back in the recession of the 1970s, when a past generation was loosing much of it's retirement, I was worrying that our dorm dining halls would start serving pet food for dinner.

Why pet food? To save money.

The company that ran our dining halls was already locked into it's contract for the year. Revenue was fixed, but food costs kept spiraling up. I worried that they would have to resort to cheaper and cheaper food until, by spring, they'd be opening cans of cat food.

Yuck.

Canned cat food would be real yucky, pasty and scummy. The dried "Little Friskies" might be better, but still not real good.

As it turned out, the food was good all the way to the end of the contract year. No need to resort to such drastic measures.

It was mostly a scenario I had dreamed up.

Most of my life has been enjoyable, but haunted a bit with this kind of worry.

It seems like many economic promises that are made can't be sustained. This has happened before in history. Sometimes not as bad, other times maybe worse.

I just hope that the future will be, at least, be reasonable.

Preparing for jobs of the future

Seems like many of these jobs will be low pay and will not require that much advanced technical training. Educators often miss the mark thinking future jobs will all be high tech.

Preparing for many of the future jobs will require learning to live well on low income. This needs to be taught more.

For instance learning how to get around without a car, staying healthy and avoiding medical bills, maintaining self esteem and finding friends without having money be the prerequisite. How to use second hand shops. Using the Internet as an inexpensive and powerful tool for social and political action.

On Michael Jackson's death

A life with great ups and downs. Maintaining top dog status can be a burden. Pushing oneself to the max. Pain is often alleviated with drugs. This was the speculation I had. Also a lot of callers came to the same conclusion as I listened to talk shows on San Francisco's KGO radio.

Sometimes it pays to be in the middle of the pack, rather than out front.

On South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford's affair

Wouldn't it be easier if more people were into polyamory? Then these encounters could happen and it wouldn't have to be so upsetting to society and the family, or families of the people involved. Especially if people are very careful to be sexually safe. There are a lot of very safe forms of erotic behavior. Especially real mild forms of erotic play. Be careful, but variety is the spice of life.

I've even known people who said that affairs outside their primary marriage actually enhanced the primary marriage. Both partners passion for one another were boosted from the energy of a third person. Communication was good all the way around. Not like an affair behind someone's back. More like everyone knowing what's going on and being OK with it.

Retail dead zone? The automobile did it

Where GI Joe's and Good Guys were. Also, not pictured Circuit City empty.

Two empty box stores across one parking area have created what amounts to a retail dead zone in Bellingham. These were parts of chains that went under so maybe it doesn't say anything about local conditions, but these type of chains tend to locate in similar areas. Car oriented development. Also, of course, just more retailing than the economy can sustain.

Meridian Street near Bellis Fair Mall has created a wall of traffic that isn't pleasant to be in. Also not real easy to get across. Yes there are traffic lights, but the intersectionms are large. Not that friendly for bikes or pedestrians, of course, but those type of areas become less drivable also as traffic increases.

So it seems like some areas near Meridian (the main drag) could end up being in a "shadow of the traffic." Areas that are hard for people to cut across traffic streams to get to.

Car oriented retailing spreads out toward the periphery of the area while allowing the center to soften. It can be advantagous to locate right where the traffic first comes into the area. I've heard the term gateway before. Catch them as they are just coming off the freeway, or coming into town. Toward the center of car oriented development, the advantage softens.

With all the stores out there, people are tapped out before they get through the traffic into the center.

This is kind of what happened to downtown Bellingham many years ago when Bellis Fair Mall and other developments along I-5 really got going. Downtown became less accessible, sort of like a dead zone in the center. Back then, Meridian offered more space (for parking) and easier access for people coming into town from a large region.

Well now it seems like some of the central areas in the Meridian vicinity are starting to implode, like the downtown did in years past. Car oriented retailing needs lots of space, of course, but it also seems to seek "gateway" space. Be at the periphery where people are first coming into the area.

Sometimes I hear of threats by box stores to move out of town if they don't get favorable regulatory conditions in city limits. That political drama makes news, but there is also just the tendency to strive for being on the edge; the gateway.

Meanwhile, downtown Bellingham seems to be making quite a comeback. That's partially because there is more to it than just the type of retailing where easy parking is thought of as a prerequisite. Downtown is getting more residences. People don't need to drive here and park, they already live here.

Also some of the vibrancy I notice is people out doing things, not necessarily just shopping. A broader definition of vibrancy. It may not necessarily mean more dollars in the coffers.

In the last few years, I've noticed more residencies coming into the Meridian area as well, but you don't see a lot of people outside of their cars yet. Maybe that will come eventually if more trails and plazas get built.

Bellingham's nearly naked ride 2009

It couldn't be totally naked, but the ride was good. Fun with lots of smiles.

Maybe in future years, one step at a time, but this was a big step along what some people might call "that slippery slope."

There was also dancing. I say, dance your errands, ride a bike and have a good time.

Many thanks to Zack (pictured above) and others for smiling energy and organizational skills.

See more of my pictures from the ride on Flickr.

Great ride

Bellingham's scantily clad ride, or not quite naked bike ride was great. I went on it and got some images. Will take a while for me to digest and post, but I'm looking forward to sharing more.

New Bellingham art and children's museum under construction

With curving glass wall. Should be open some time in September, so I see on a sign at the old children's museum location. It's quite a change from what was there before; the somewhat drab Washington State Employment Office. Life keeps going in new directions. I was out walking with my camera.

TV conversion deadline

Picture of our old TV that my brother took in the 1960s.

I don't have a TV now, but interested in our changing world.

Another step along the way of change is the great USA TV spectrum conversion where TV stations move to more efficient transmission, bandwidth wise.

It will be interesting to see what the freed up spectrum brings. More portable internet radio, for instance.

Maybe I will look into getting internet radio on my bicycle. Big choice of stations via cellphone technology.

Before, I carried a big AM Antenna booster (big for the bicycle at least, maybe 2 lbs.). This improved radio reception a bit in areas where it was hard to avoid either Rush Limbaugh or country and western music.

In the past, it was interesting to contemplate radio waves traveling long distance across the land to my radio. Now, with internet, one is just plugged into the closest cellphone towers or landlines that bring the world.

I haven't had a TV in years. Here in Bellingham, TV reception is limited without paying extra for cable. Seattle stations are not available in most of this city. Local station isn't that interesting. Canadian channels are OK.

At my childhood home in Pullman, WA., our TV antenna on the roof got stations from Spokane. Also, Pullman plus nearby towns of Moscow and Lewiston in Idaho.

Glad I missed Bellingham awol sancturay city debate

It would have been crowded and stuffy, that day in the municipal court building. Heated community debate drew lots of fanfare. May have needed more fans of the "air circulation" kind.

Not that I don't have some sympathy for the plight of soldiers who made the commitment, but face multiple deployments and other hardships. Yes, people should think about these things before making commitment, but many of the people are quite young at the time.

It's like marriage.

Debate on foreign policy and sanctuary status at the city level seems largely symbolic. Federal government supersedes anyway, if nothing else by just threatening to pull some grant monies. Still it's part of democracy to have debate.

Some say the city needs to tend to local matters rather than try to get into foreign policy.

OK, as long as people stay dependent on cars and foreign oil, we've got problems. The city can do it's "local" job figuring out how to help people wean themselves from so much oil dependency. Transit, sidewalks, bike paths, zoning, housing density, affordable neighborhoods. Idealistically, being able to walk to work. Less worry about security of overseas oil supply. Less petrodollars going to the pockets of oil dictators.

During that debate, I was out biking around. Enjoying the fresh air.

Speaking of marriage and commitment to things like the military, it's interesting that the two front burner issues for the gay movement are, the right to serve in the military and the right to get married. Why are these the front burner issues?

While I support both rights, I also say, "be careful what you get yourself into." Look before you leap.