Just spent the morning in a long rambling talk with two physicists whom I had not seen here in twenty years, namely Martin Land and Tepper Gill. It was marvelous beyond words to see them again.
Both them remembered me from the conference in Houston in 1998. Tepper said I looked younger than then, even though I'd gone grey. I told him it must have been graduate school.
Martin and I spent about two hours talking over breakfast in the hotel before Tepper showed up. The waiter must have refilled our coffee cups half a dozen times, I barely noticed.
As is usual for physicists meeting over breakfast, we talked about everything except physics.
For example, we spent half an hour discussing our mutual interest in the Russian Formalists, as well as the linguistic theories of Roman Jakobson. Martin mentioned that his son had read Jakobson and believed he had one of the forms of aphasia that Jakobson described.
"I just read that essay!" I said.
Sunday, June 3, 2018
Saturday, June 2, 2018
My Elective Schedule, Humanities and All
Although my full-time preoccupation lately is barnstorming through an M.I.T.-centric computer science curriculum, I'm also following other courses, which I call "my humanities electives," although they happen to include a biology and a psychology course too.
They are:
They are:
- Yale LIT 300, Introduction to the Theory of Literature (Fry, Spring 2009)
- Yale HIST 276, France Since 1871 (Merriman, Fall 2007)
- Stanford BIO 150 Human Behavioral Biology (Sapolsky, Spring 2016)
- University of Toronto PSY434, Maps of Meaning (Peterson, Spring 2016
- Université Paris-Sorbonne, Linguistique générale (Monneret, Spring 2016)
Except for the Sorbonne linguistics course, which I picked up only recently, "with the approval of my advisor," as I joked to Red, all of these courses date from before our recent trip to France, and thus from before my rigorous comp. science "virtual degree program."
The main difference between these and my computer science courses is that for these, I don't follow any rigid daily schedule, but instead listen and take notes at an irregular pace that suits my schedule, often in leisure. Sometimes weeks go by between lectures for any given one, often because I am doing outside reading. Nevertheless I'm committed to finishing all of them eventually.
In the case of Robert Sapolsky's excellent Human Behavioral Biology course, for example, he is such a fast speaker, and his lectures are so crammed with mind-blowing information, that I typically nibble at them, taking in only ten minutes at a time on any given session, and often looking up many references to learn details of things he talks about.
I've already mentioned Paul Fry's Theory of Literature course, which has changed my life, and for which I am doing a huge amount of outside reading.
The other Yale course, taught by John Merriman is the one that kicked off this whole revolution in my life of following online college courses, as much like a student as possible. That being said, I'm only a third of the way through the course, as I've suspended watching new lectures until I finish reading Germinal by Emile Zola, since it's one of the main reading assignments for the course.
From that course, I quickly saw that Yale had tremendous online offerings that included the lecture notes. They are probably second only to M.I.T. in terms of having their act together this way (and both are far ahead of Harvard, for example).
Maps of Meaning is somewhat of an outlier in the list. Jordan Peterson has been so much in the news lately, often in controversial ways, given the ideology of the media class. Just mentioning his name probably makes some folks fly into apoplexy. I had already seen many of his shorter videos and lectures, and I wanted to "sit it on" one of his real classes.
I have been well rewarded for this, and have enjoyed the lectures very much (I am almost done with the course). They are fascinating mix of psychology, neurology, evolutionary theory, religion, mythology, history, philosophy and literature. He will go from talking about brain functioning to Jung, Nietzsche, the Soviet gulag, the Egyptian creation story, all over the course of twenty minutes. Yet he cycles back around to the same subjects in a way that makes it coherent over time.
The difference between his course and the others, however, is that Peterson's lectures are home-brewed*, and apparently not at all assisted by anyone official on the university level (if you knew Peterson's troubles with the U of T, you might not be surprised at this). He sets up a camera and records himself, then uploads the video. This means, at least in the 2016 course, we rarely see what he is talking about on the projector screen.
Also there are parts missing from some of his lectures. That brings to mind the funny fact of how I used to not care so much about missing class when I was younger. Now it's a huge deal to miss out, and I feel massively deprived in such a case.
Last week I found out that the last fifteen minutes of Lecture 11 of my M.I.T. mathematics course was chopped off. Van Dijk just left off in the middle of a proof on partially ordered sets (something that comes up in computer modeling of task scheduling). Several other folks had already noticed this, and the M.I.T. Youtube account folks apologized for this in the comments to the video.
Fortunately I was able to go the typeset course lecture notes on the M.I.T. website and recreate the note-taking experience, pretending that I was narrating the material in Dr. Van Dijk's patient patter until I had everything down as I needed.
*Edit: I just realized that, of course, Monneret's linguistics course is probably home-brewed tube. One only gets the audio, which is ok because he speaks clearly enough for me to understand most of the time, and he has a separate site where one can see all the slides he is using. In a way, that's better than regular video.
Ironically (since it's a linguistics course) one of the funniest things about the lectures is the automatic captioning of his lectures into French, which at times butchers the French into nonsense. I'm not surprised at this. Not only is French arguably a harder language than English to transcribe using Speech-to-Text (because of having fewer phonemes at play in its core vocabulary), but also because the A.I. at work here has had, I would suppose, much fewer "good" examples to work with, and is thus less accurate. That's how A.I. works. It learns by being taught.
Friday, June 1, 2018
Virtual M.I.T.
Today was the last day of the regular weekday M.I.T./Stanford class schedule I've following. For the last month, Monday through Friday I've been pounding away at this:
both:
both:
- MIT 6.00 Introduction to Computer Science and Programming (Grimson and Guttag, originally taught Fall 2008)
- MIT 6.002 Circuits and Electronics (Agarwal, Spring 2007)
and on alternating days, either of these:
- MIT 6.042J Mathematics for Computer Science (Leighton and Van Dijk, Fall 2012)
- Stanford CS107 Programming Paradigms (Cain, 2012)
By "pounding away," I mean watching each lecture on Youtube, and taking detailed notes.
It's the last day of this particular schedule, because I finished the 6.00 course (24 lectures in all).
I've still got 4 lectures to go on Circuit, and I'm only half way through the Math course, and one third of the way through the Stanford course. I'll continue with those up after a week's break.
I'm going through a couple other M.I.T. comp sci courses besides these, but I've put the others on hold until I finish these.
I'm going through a couple other M.I.T. comp sci courses besides these, but I've put the others on hold until I finish these.
The 6.00 course was fantastic. Absolutely worth it. Although it was introductory, I still learned quite a bit, and it was great to formalize the knowledge I already had. Professor Guttag wrapped it up today with a nice review and summary that featured a description of his own research, as an example of applications of computer science.
Among other things, his research group was (as of 2008) using applied machine learning to build seizure warning devices for epileptics that recognize variations in the brain patterns of individuals (currently a difficult problem), and similar A.I.-based implanted defibrillators for people with cardiac disease. Fascinating!
His teaching partner, Eric Grimson, is one of the big researchers using A.I. to develop advanced medical imaging.
All of the professors I have for these courses (like Paul Fry for my Yale lit course) are very inspiring. Tom Leighton, for example, founded Akamai, a company that runs the servers that power a good chunk of the Internet, including (at least at one time) Facebook. He was able to develop mathematical algorithms at M.I.T. that allowed for efficient distribution of load balancing of a gazillion web requests, and leveraged this into a fortune.
Likewise Anant Agarwal turns out to have founded the online learning platform edX. I had no idea until about week ago that his old Circuits course that I've been following has evolved into one of the flagship courses on edX. He's a huge reason why M.I.T. is the head-and-shoulders leader of online web-based learning on the university level. Just one more amazing thing that has come out of that place.
The Transitioning of Shadows Before Dawn
Rising before dawn, one sees the bright moonlight differently then in the evening after sunset, which is how I have seen it most of my life.
When one expects deep darkness at an hour, it is startling, even shocking, to wake up to the delineated contrast of the milky glow on the patio pavement alternating with the deep shadows cast by the side of the house..
In modern times, with our typical hours, we tend to experience the emergence of the full moon from its playful debut on the horizon in gradual increments of increasing radiance towards its solo performance is blazing whiteness against the night sky..
To view the reverse outside my window as the dawn approaches---the powerful orb on dark blue sky losing its shadow-casting power while still so bright---is a curious phenomenon that captures my attention, and distracts me from an attempt to read an essay on French poetry before breakfast.
When one expects deep darkness at an hour, it is startling, even shocking, to wake up to the delineated contrast of the milky glow on the patio pavement alternating with the deep shadows cast by the side of the house..
In modern times, with our typical hours, we tend to experience the emergence of the full moon from its playful debut on the horizon in gradual increments of increasing radiance towards its solo performance is blazing whiteness against the night sky..
To view the reverse outside my window as the dawn approaches---the powerful orb on dark blue sky losing its shadow-casting power while still so bright---is a curious phenomenon that captures my attention, and distracts me from an attempt to read an essay on French poetry before breakfast.
Thursday, May 31, 2018
Hacking With Bach
Today I finished my work a little earlier---by around noon, so when I went out onto patio to take a dip in the pool, and brought my new bluetooth speaker, it was not playing jazz but classical music, specifically Mozart's 39th Symphony.
I usually do classical in the morning, specifically short Bach pieces in between note-taking of the video lectures for my computer science courses (three different courses each day, mainly from M.I.T. but also one from Stanford).
Bach is fantastic for relaxing one's mind after bearing down on highly technical subjects. In fact, this is how I became such a music fanatic recently after going years hardly listening to music at all. I needed this kind of break, something that kept my mind going, but in a way that was sideways to way one uses with my computer science and engineering.
It varies day by day, but by the end of the third class in the morning, I will have often moved from Bach onto Haydn, or, as today Mozart.
I usually do classical in the morning, specifically short Bach pieces in between note-taking of the video lectures for my computer science courses (three different courses each day, mainly from M.I.T. but also one from Stanford).
Bach is fantastic for relaxing one's mind after bearing down on highly technical subjects. In fact, this is how I became such a music fanatic recently after going years hardly listening to music at all. I needed this kind of break, something that kept my mind going, but in a way that was sideways to way one uses with my computer science and engineering.
It varies day by day, but by the end of the third class in the morning, I will have often moved from Bach onto Haydn, or, as today Mozart.
Homeschooled at Yale
Over coffee in the morning, when it is light enough by sunlight, I typically do some morning reading for the Theory of Literature course I'm following from the Yale website, taught by Professor Paul Fry.
I started the course a couple months ago before we left for France (I even had one of the lectures downloaded to my iPad so I could listen to it on the plane).
The course is magnificent. It has changed the way I think about not only art, but the entire world, although I am still only on the tenth lecture. I have been moving through it slowly, taking extremely detailed notes, and then rewriting them later.
Although I didn't do so at first, I now faithfully do all the assigned readings before listening to the next lecture. For a while, that meant using Google to find PDF's online of the assigned essays, if available, but a couple weeks ago I finally bought the textbook, The Critical Tradition, on Amazon.
It's a very large anthology of essays covering the history of criticism starting in Antiquity and going all the way to contemporary times. Most of the assigned readings for Fry's course are from later in the book, but, having felt so much joy in what I learned so far from Fry, and inspired by wanting to learn as much as possible about the subject in general, I decided to read the entire book from the beginning, even if it took a year (which it probably will).
This morning I made my way through a few pages of the included passage rom Plato's Republic, which is included as the first essay in the anthology. It is the section Plato famously describes poets and artists as imitators who are "thrice removed" from truth.
I started the course a couple months ago before we left for France (I even had one of the lectures downloaded to my iPad so I could listen to it on the plane).
The course is magnificent. It has changed the way I think about not only art, but the entire world, although I am still only on the tenth lecture. I have been moving through it slowly, taking extremely detailed notes, and then rewriting them later.
Although I didn't do so at first, I now faithfully do all the assigned readings before listening to the next lecture. For a while, that meant using Google to find PDF's online of the assigned essays, if available, but a couple weeks ago I finally bought the textbook, The Critical Tradition, on Amazon.
It's a very large anthology of essays covering the history of criticism starting in Antiquity and going all the way to contemporary times. Most of the assigned readings for Fry's course are from later in the book, but, having felt so much joy in what I learned so far from Fry, and inspired by wanting to learn as much as possible about the subject in general, I decided to read the entire book from the beginning, even if it took a year (which it probably will).
This morning I made my way through a few pages of the included passage rom Plato's Republic, which is included as the first essay in the anthology. It is the section Plato famously describes poets and artists as imitators who are "thrice removed" from truth.
Wednesday, May 30, 2018
The Gregorian Coffee Ritual
When I hear the click of the electric kettle, indicating it has reached it boil, I go into the kitchen and pour the hot water onto the grounds in the filter atop the glass carafe. The carafe has a special design to the hold a metal filter on top. It comes with a reusable metal filter, which is messy to clean, so I use a paper filter as well.
It is a ritual of patience to refill the water as it slowly drains through the grounds. When the carafe is half filled, I remove the filter and place it into glass, then pour the initial coffee into my earthenware mug. Then I put the filter back and keep pouring the water until the water is gone, at which point the carafe is almost fill up again.
At this point, with water still in the filter, I go to the fridge to get the half and half for my coffee. When I open the door, the light from the fridge is usually the first bright light I see in the morning, even after being awake for nearly an hour, so it always a little startling.
I remove a spoon from the drawer to stir the half and half in the mug, then place it in the empty sink. Then I pick up the mug, which is almost full to the brim after putting in the half and hour, and careful navigate through the darkness back to my office room, where I put the bug onto my desk.
By this time, I can see out the windows that the sky is getting light. The sun will be coming up in a few moments.
I might normally begin reading at this point, but I don't like turning the light on, and it is usually not light enough yet to read by sunlight through the window. So I often open the iPad and load Gregorian chants on Youtube, and listen while I take sips of coffee. It's the first music of the day, on a typical cycle that might take me through the entire breadth of music history by the time I go to bed.
I like this time of suspension. Soon it will be time to work, but for the time being, there is just chanting.
It is a ritual of patience to refill the water as it slowly drains through the grounds. When the carafe is half filled, I remove the filter and place it into glass, then pour the initial coffee into my earthenware mug. Then I put the filter back and keep pouring the water until the water is gone, at which point the carafe is almost fill up again.
At this point, with water still in the filter, I go to the fridge to get the half and half for my coffee. When I open the door, the light from the fridge is usually the first bright light I see in the morning, even after being awake for nearly an hour, so it always a little startling.
I remove a spoon from the drawer to stir the half and half in the mug, then place it in the empty sink. Then I pick up the mug, which is almost full to the brim after putting in the half and hour, and careful navigate through the darkness back to my office room, where I put the bug onto my desk.
By this time, I can see out the windows that the sky is getting light. The sun will be coming up in a few moments.
I might normally begin reading at this point, but I don't like turning the light on, and it is usually not light enough yet to read by sunlight through the window. So I often open the iPad and load Gregorian chants on Youtube, and listen while I take sips of coffee. It's the first music of the day, on a typical cycle that might take me through the entire breadth of music history by the time I go to bed.
I like this time of suspension. Soon it will be time to work, but for the time being, there is just chanting.
 |
Routine Aquinas
Every day lately begins much the same. Since coming back from France, I get up around 4 a.m., give or take a half hour. Then I go out onto the patio and sit in the darkness, in prayer and meditation for a half hour. Then I go inside to my office desk and use the iPad in the darkness to read scripture in night mode, white on black text.
By then I'm ready for coffee. I go into the kitchen and turn on the electric kettle, which I make sure to fill with water the night before. The blue electric light comes on, and I go back to my office and open up Youtube red on the iPad, and then scroll to my philosophy playlist, where I tap on the video for the audiobook of Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas. While the kettle heats up---it takes a while, I listen to some of the audio recording, usually just a few moments.
While I do this, I often turn my office chair to face the open window, looking east. By then the twilight will have spread out against the mountains, halfway up into the sky.
I'm about half-way through the seven-hour recording of Summa Theologica (I'm currently on Question 11 of Part I). I've actually been at it since before France. I don't know how long it will take me to get through, probably the entire summer at least. It feels pleasing to follow through on a plan.
By then I'm ready for coffee. I go into the kitchen and turn on the electric kettle, which I make sure to fill with water the night before. The blue electric light comes on, and I go back to my office and open up Youtube red on the iPad, and then scroll to my philosophy playlist, where I tap on the video for the audiobook of Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas. While the kettle heats up---it takes a while, I listen to some of the audio recording, usually just a few moments.
While I do this, I often turn my office chair to face the open window, looking east. By then the twilight will have spread out against the mountains, halfway up into the sky.
I'm about half-way through the seven-hour recording of Summa Theologica (I'm currently on Question 11 of Part I). I've actually been at it since before France. I don't know how long it will take me to get through, probably the entire summer at least. It feels pleasing to follow through on a plan.
Kind of Bluetooth
A perfect afternoon of late May. Summer heat has been making itself known lately, but today was moderate and bearable, even in the late afternoon.
The day's work being done, I tried out the new portable Bluetooth speaker that arrived today via Amazon Prime. A nice little device.
After charging up, it worked seamlessly from the get-go. The iPad seemed to want to play Miles Davis' Kind of Blue (1959), so I went with that. I took the little device out onto the patio and let it play while I swam in the pool in the golden-tangerine sun and the long afternoon patio shadows.
The day's work being done, I tried out the new portable Bluetooth speaker that arrived today via Amazon Prime. A nice little device.
After charging up, it worked seamlessly from the get-go. The iPad seemed to want to play Miles Davis' Kind of Blue (1959), so I went with that. I took the little device out onto the patio and let it play while I swam in the pool in the golden-tangerine sun and the long afternoon patio shadows.
Wednesday, September 6, 2017
Through the Thunderheads in Nevada
The flight back from Portland, on a Thursday, was quite fun. Out the window I got an excellent glimpse of Summer Lake in south central Oregon before we disappeared into the cumulus clouds.
Huge thunderheads over central Nevada forced us eastward into Utah. My window was out the right hand side, and I took iPhone shots through the clouds. I like to identify the towns and roads from memory if I can, but sometimes---most of the time---I get stumped so sometimes I take pictures for later comparison with an atlas.
Back in Phoenix, I took Uber home. In the days after that, there was a little bit left to wrap up on the project, but mostly in the way of a graceful transfer of responsibilities to the new consulting firm. That was fine by me, I was even looking forward to a little break, when I got a call from one of my friends at the design firm in Portland, and they said they needed me on a new project (more on that later).
In the meantime, we were looking forward to our road trip up to Colorado, which was only a few days in August. It was the first of a couple trips we were planning during that month.
Huge thunderheads over central Nevada forced us eastward into Utah. My window was out the right hand side, and I took iPhone shots through the clouds. I like to identify the towns and roads from memory if I can, but sometimes---most of the time---I get stumped so sometimes I take pictures for later comparison with an atlas.
Back in Phoenix, I took Uber home. In the days after that, there was a little bit left to wrap up on the project, but mostly in the way of a graceful transfer of responsibilities to the new consulting firm. That was fine by me, I was even looking forward to a little break, when I got a call from one of my friends at the design firm in Portland, and they said they needed me on a new project (more on that later).
In the meantime, we were looking forward to our road trip up to Colorado, which was only a few days in August. It was the first of a couple trips we were planning during that month.
Monday, September 4, 2017
Stuck the Landing in Portland
It's been a busy year for travel, at least the last few months. In late May, I drove by myself up to Colorado to go my nephew's high school graduation, and also to visit my mom and the rest of my family who lives up there. The graduation happened to fall exactly on my mother's birthday, so we had a party for her, as part of the festivities. My nephew is going to college in the fall at a non-Boulder branch of the University of Colorado. Good choice, I said, to someone, where I was there.
The trip to Colorado played out amidst the run up to the successful launch of the TriMet Hop Card project in Portland. We had a good hold on the project at that point, so there was not much to stress about, in those final weeks. I knew the whole thing would work, and it did.
I was there in Colorado about two and half weeks, and then came back to Arizona. By then it was the very hot time of the year, when the temperature was well over 110 every afternoon. It felt glorious to take an afternoon break on the patio in the shade. It lasted about a week, the peak of the heat.
Then in July, going up to Portland for the launch kept me out of Arizona for about five days. The launch went almost as flawlessly as one could hope, although I found myself busy for a few hours in my hotel room on the zero day afternoon, fixing a bug that I myself had unwisely introduced at the last minute, at the behest of someone at TriMet, and against my better judgment at the moment. Next time I'll know to put my foot down. In any case, it barely caused a ripple in the actual usage that day.
The best part about that trip was getting to meet all the great people associated with the project, not just my co-workers at the Brigade, but also the other agencies involved. Many of this people are ones I'd been working with for a year without ever meeting. In every case, I was delighted by the person behind the name. We had a great party down in the headquarters of one of the other contractors, at their classy headquarters in the Pearl overlooking an old Chinese restaurant at the edge of Chinatown.
At last, moreover, I had the opportunity to live test the system I'd been building. After walking in the heat from my hotel to the Safeway on East Broadway, I purchased a real Hop Card, then went back to my hotel room next to the Convention Center and used my very own interface to put money on the card. Then I went down to the MAX train, the line of which ran right under my window (I'd booked the hotel just for that reason).
I tapped the card, and voila, it worked, and credited my fare. I got on the train and rode it across the river. I got off in Chinatown and walked up to the top of the Pearl, passing the place where we'd had the party the day before. When I got to the crest of the hill by the Interstate, I texted an old friend from college, as we had agreed to have lunch.
He came out of his office, catty-corner to where I was standing. He gave me an earful about politics, in a very Portland way. He's a throwback to an era Portland that feels as if it is passing away. He himself said as much, in reference to his office, which he claims as the last artist loft in the Pearl, meaning the old, unrenovated kind that once incubated much local talent.
He rents the place for almost nothing from a nonagenarian who is the dowager head of a local prominent family. He got this through his connections, but he says he will have the office only as long as the woman lives. When she passes away, the family will sell the building, which will be demolished for something new.
Over lunch, I mentioned how it seemed like Chinatown was now "under the gun" as far as the next wave of Portland re-development. It was trending hot. He told me some of the history of the local Chinatown businesses and families. "They still own everything in Chinatown, but they put all that money into buying up 82nd Street," he said, mentioning the arterial street in far East Portland that is lined by nearly every type of business.
After lunch, we walked back to his office, where he gave me the tour. It really did feel like a throwback, and probably it is the last cheap space of its kind. It felt absolutely appropriate that my friend would be the person to occupy it, during its final days. He had been there all along, in a way, even when he didn't live in NW Portland.
After we parted, I walked down to Burnside and caught the bus back across the river. When I tapped my card to get on the bus, the system successfully credited me with a day pass, meaning that all my rides on TriMet were free from the rest of the day.
On the other side of the river, I walked back up Grand to my hotel. Inside my room, I opened up the interface and saw that my taps were recorded properly in my account, and the day pass badge was displaying correctly.
Everything had worked as it should. It was time to hand the project over to someone else.
The trip to Colorado played out amidst the run up to the successful launch of the TriMet Hop Card project in Portland. We had a good hold on the project at that point, so there was not much to stress about, in those final weeks. I knew the whole thing would work, and it did.
I was there in Colorado about two and half weeks, and then came back to Arizona. By then it was the very hot time of the year, when the temperature was well over 110 every afternoon. It felt glorious to take an afternoon break on the patio in the shade. It lasted about a week, the peak of the heat.
Then in July, going up to Portland for the launch kept me out of Arizona for about five days. The launch went almost as flawlessly as one could hope, although I found myself busy for a few hours in my hotel room on the zero day afternoon, fixing a bug that I myself had unwisely introduced at the last minute, at the behest of someone at TriMet, and against my better judgment at the moment. Next time I'll know to put my foot down. In any case, it barely caused a ripple in the actual usage that day.
The best part about that trip was getting to meet all the great people associated with the project, not just my co-workers at the Brigade, but also the other agencies involved. Many of this people are ones I'd been working with for a year without ever meeting. In every case, I was delighted by the person behind the name. We had a great party down in the headquarters of one of the other contractors, at their classy headquarters in the Pearl overlooking an old Chinese restaurant at the edge of Chinatown.
At last, moreover, I had the opportunity to live test the system I'd been building. After walking in the heat from my hotel to the Safeway on East Broadway, I purchased a real Hop Card, then went back to my hotel room next to the Convention Center and used my very own interface to put money on the card. Then I went down to the MAX train, the line of which ran right under my window (I'd booked the hotel just for that reason).
I tapped the card, and voila, it worked, and credited my fare. I got on the train and rode it across the river. I got off in Chinatown and walked up to the top of the Pearl, passing the place where we'd had the party the day before. When I got to the crest of the hill by the Interstate, I texted an old friend from college, as we had agreed to have lunch.
He came out of his office, catty-corner to where I was standing. He gave me an earful about politics, in a very Portland way. He's a throwback to an era Portland that feels as if it is passing away. He himself said as much, in reference to his office, which he claims as the last artist loft in the Pearl, meaning the old, unrenovated kind that once incubated much local talent.
He rents the place for almost nothing from a nonagenarian who is the dowager head of a local prominent family. He got this through his connections, but he says he will have the office only as long as the woman lives. When she passes away, the family will sell the building, which will be demolished for something new.
Over lunch, I mentioned how it seemed like Chinatown was now "under the gun" as far as the next wave of Portland re-development. It was trending hot. He told me some of the history of the local Chinatown businesses and families. "They still own everything in Chinatown, but they put all that money into buying up 82nd Street," he said, mentioning the arterial street in far East Portland that is lined by nearly every type of business.
After lunch, we walked back to his office, where he gave me the tour. It really did feel like a throwback, and probably it is the last cheap space of its kind. It felt absolutely appropriate that my friend would be the person to occupy it, during its final days. He had been there all along, in a way, even when he didn't live in NW Portland.
After we parted, I walked down to Burnside and caught the bus back across the river. When I tapped my card to get on the bus, the system successfully credited me with a day pass, meaning that all my rides on TriMet were free from the rest of the day.
On the other side of the river, I walked back up Grand to my hotel. Inside my room, I opened up the interface and saw that my taps were recorded properly in my account, and the day pass badge was displaying correctly.
Everything had worked as it should. It was time to hand the project over to someone else.
Tuesday, July 11, 2017
The Hard Opening Made Easy
This work project for TriMet's new fare card web site always has me on my toes. Like I said, being so far down the chain of contractors, and being a thousand miles away from Portland, often crucial pieces of information don't make it to until the last minute.
For example, as of last week I thought I would all this week to clean up some of the remaining bug-fix tickets in the app before the live roll out to the public. On Monday I set out tackle some of the most intractable ones, thinking I could take the whole day to cover them.
Then at 5:30 PM, I got an email saying that the next day (that, today, Tuesday) would be the deadline for the release of the version that would go to the public. Moreover, I got a list of a high priority items. Could I possibly have them all done by the end of the next business day?
Of course I said yes. I get paid for that. Also I enjoy it. I love coming through for people. I am very good at making people look good at their own jobs. Even though pretty much the entire project came down to yours truly hacking at the keyboard to wrap up the bug fixes---something no one else could possibly do at this stage of the project---I know I will not get any formal public credit for any of this. I don't mind that, so long as the check clears. Money is not everything, but it's a good measure of the value one contributes at time. Moreover, I get the pride of completion of a job well down.
My key to success so far: I give a d@mn.
That being said, I'm still crossing my fingers nothing goes horribly wrong. Some things are beyond one's control. I can only do my job.
Fortunately all the last minute things they wanted me to do were very easy, so I got them done. They were things like changing the link of the instructional youtube videos to updated ones (like the one below). Sometimes people want the impossible and think it will be easy for you. Other times they want something easy and think it will be impossible. It seems to even out.
All of this recent hoopla and build-up had me deciding that I just had to join the party next Monday in Portland. So I'm flying up to Oregon this weekend, visiting for the first time since we left there eleven months ago. I'll get to drop by and see my mates at the Brigade in Albina, and also join them at the kickoff party in downtown Portland on Monday morning.
You're invited too. See you there!
For example, as of last week I thought I would all this week to clean up some of the remaining bug-fix tickets in the app before the live roll out to the public. On Monday I set out tackle some of the most intractable ones, thinking I could take the whole day to cover them.
Then at 5:30 PM, I got an email saying that the next day (that, today, Tuesday) would be the deadline for the release of the version that would go to the public. Moreover, I got a list of a high priority items. Could I possibly have them all done by the end of the next business day?
Of course I said yes. I get paid for that. Also I enjoy it. I love coming through for people. I am very good at making people look good at their own jobs. Even though pretty much the entire project came down to yours truly hacking at the keyboard to wrap up the bug fixes---something no one else could possibly do at this stage of the project---I know I will not get any formal public credit for any of this. I don't mind that, so long as the check clears. Money is not everything, but it's a good measure of the value one contributes at time. Moreover, I get the pride of completion of a job well down.
My key to success so far: I give a d@mn.
That being said, I'm still crossing my fingers nothing goes horribly wrong. Some things are beyond one's control. I can only do my job.
Fortunately all the last minute things they wanted me to do were very easy, so I got them done. They were things like changing the link of the instructional youtube videos to updated ones (like the one below). Sometimes people want the impossible and think it will be easy for you. Other times they want something easy and think it will be impossible. It seems to even out.
All of this recent hoopla and build-up had me deciding that I just had to join the party next Monday in Portland. So I'm flying up to Oregon this weekend, visiting for the first time since we left there eleven months ago. I'll get to drop by and see my mates at the Brigade in Albina, and also join them at the kickoff party in downtown Portland on Monday morning.
You're invited too. See you there!
Hop launch media event
| When | Mon Jul 17, 2017 10am – 11am |
| Where | SW 11th and Morrison, Portland - TriMet's 11th Ave rail turnaround |
Friday, July 7, 2017
So that was the Soft Opening
As a contractor of a contractor of a contractor of a contractor (I discovered there was an additonal layer in the last few days), much of the work I do on this TriMet fare card project has been on a need-to-know basis. Many important pieces of information about the project never make it to me. I'm perfectly happy with things being that way, by the way. Most of that stuff, I don't want to know about, but in some cases it does help me with job.
For example, I learned on Thursday that the Wednesday launch of the Hop card system was in fact the official launch, but it was a "soft launch," meaning that it is indeed up and running for the public, but the launch was without any publicity by TriMet. This is actually a very smart thing to do, in case something goes horribly wrong, or the deployment has to be rolled back. It hasn't needed that kind of thing so far. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
I learned moreover that the public launch of Hop card, with all the hoopla that TriMet can muster, will be on the 17th of July, a week from Monday.
I just got an email invite to the official launch party at the TriMet headquarters, and I am thinking strongly of going. My collaborators at the design firm, who originally hired me, are also having their own party with other folks involved. I haven't seen them in almost a year, so it will fun to drop by the offices in Albina while I am in town.
For example, I learned on Thursday that the Wednesday launch of the Hop card system was in fact the official launch, but it was a "soft launch," meaning that it is indeed up and running for the public, but the launch was without any publicity by TriMet. This is actually a very smart thing to do, in case something goes horribly wrong, or the deployment has to be rolled back. It hasn't needed that kind of thing so far. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
I learned moreover that the public launch of Hop card, with all the hoopla that TriMet can muster, will be on the 17th of July, a week from Monday.
I just got an email invite to the official launch party at the TriMet headquarters, and I am thinking strongly of going. My collaborators at the design firm, who originally hired me, are also having their own party with other folks involved. I haven't seen them in almost a year, so it will fun to drop by the offices in Albina while I am in town.
Wednesday, July 5, 2017
Think of Me When You Ride TriMet
Today was a nice day for me professionally, one I'll remember for a long time.
This is because today TriMet, the transit agency of Portland, officially launched Hop card, its new tap-and-ride fare card system. The Hop card a "smart" system. One basically buys a card from a local retailer, loads it with money using a credit or debit card, and then taps it each time one gets on or off one of the three transit systems of the greater Portland area (TriMet itself, the Portland Streetcar system, and the bus system of Vancouver, Washington).
The name "Hop card" is meant to refer both to the idea of "hopping on the bus" but also obliquely to the hops used in the brewing of beer, because of the local microbrewery industry.
The "smart" part about the Hop card system is that it has fare caps. If you use your card once to buy a fare, then you effectively have a pass for the rest of the day, and no more money will be deducted if you use the card again. It also works that way for capping on a week and month basis too.
The whole system has a web interface, for managing cards, both on an individual level, and also on the corporate level for passes given out to employees.
Originally, when this project started a couple years ago, TriMet wanted a system like the one they have in London (the Oyster Card). They hired a German database company that specializes in transit systems to create the tap-and-go card system, and install the tap readers in the train stations and buses.
But Portland being Portland, TriMet told the German database company that as part of deal, they would need to subcontract the design the card management website to a local Portland company, which could build one that had the right "Portland look-and-feel" and the expected Portland-level digital user experience (what we in the trade call UI/UX). Anyone familiar with the design industry in Portland would understand what they mean.
So for the website the German database company hired a local Portland firm, and they began building this "front-end" website so people and companies could manage their cards online.
This local Portland design firm is one that, like most design firms, specializes in graphics. They know how to "brand" web sites, and make them look cool. For example, they recently made a site for Spotify, and they go to SXSW each year to soak up the hottest digital trends.
But they didn't have expertise in building web applications---doing the code work that makes complex sites actually do their thing, They had one developer, but they needed a second one to keep up with the work. So they hired me, in the Spring of 2016, back when I lived on East Burnside. I've been working on this over a year now.
It's been very rewarding, and I've gotten to meet and work with a lot of great people, at TriMet, at the German database company, and at the Portland design firm. All of this while on many days I don't even leave the grounds of our house up here above Scottsdale.
In the last few months, the beta testing of the consumer site went very well. I perused the reactions on the Portland Reddit, and most reactions were very positive. Throughout last week I was in last minute bug fix mode, doing little changes all over the app, and committing them to the code repository on GitHub.
One of the last changes I had to make was to tweak the Google maps that lets you find a retailer for the Hop card. I had to change autocomplete of the address you enter so when you started typing "Vancouver" it would return results for Vancouver, Washington (just across the river) instead of being swamped with results from the city in British Columbia.
I hadn't ever used this part of Google Maps API before (that part of the app had been built by someone else, but he was gone). It was fun looking up how to make that change and tweak a parameter so the search worked the way they wanted.
On Friday we wrapped up the last "sprint" (a term for a short development cycle comprising specific goals). All through the morning, I kept giving them new releases of the software, even hourly, as we found the last few bugs of the day.
The last couple hours on Friday were calm, and then the messages from them stopped entirely. I took that as a good sign. They were satisfied. Moreover, we actually met the project deadline in a very graceful way, without any last minute crises.
Today my colleague at the design firm in Portland informed me (via our Slack channel) hat Hop Card has been launched.
So far no frantic emails from TriMet. Things seem to humming alone.
You want to try it out. Here it is. I've been staring at that interface for a long time. I didn't do any of the stuff that looks pretty. All of my stuff is in the way the application works, handing the data and doing it's application tasks. Like I said, a very rewarding experience.
And wow, there's already a Wikipedia article about Hop card.
This is because today TriMet, the transit agency of Portland, officially launched Hop card, its new tap-and-ride fare card system. The Hop card a "smart" system. One basically buys a card from a local retailer, loads it with money using a credit or debit card, and then taps it each time one gets on or off one of the three transit systems of the greater Portland area (TriMet itself, the Portland Streetcar system, and the bus system of Vancouver, Washington).
The name "Hop card" is meant to refer both to the idea of "hopping on the bus" but also obliquely to the hops used in the brewing of beer, because of the local microbrewery industry.
The "smart" part about the Hop card system is that it has fare caps. If you use your card once to buy a fare, then you effectively have a pass for the rest of the day, and no more money will be deducted if you use the card again. It also works that way for capping on a week and month basis too.
The whole system has a web interface, for managing cards, both on an individual level, and also on the corporate level for passes given out to employees.
Originally, when this project started a couple years ago, TriMet wanted a system like the one they have in London (the Oyster Card). They hired a German database company that specializes in transit systems to create the tap-and-go card system, and install the tap readers in the train stations and buses.
But Portland being Portland, TriMet told the German database company that as part of deal, they would need to subcontract the design the card management website to a local Portland company, which could build one that had the right "Portland look-and-feel" and the expected Portland-level digital user experience (what we in the trade call UI/UX). Anyone familiar with the design industry in Portland would understand what they mean.
So for the website the German database company hired a local Portland firm, and they began building this "front-end" website so people and companies could manage their cards online.
This local Portland design firm is one that, like most design firms, specializes in graphics. They know how to "brand" web sites, and make them look cool. For example, they recently made a site for Spotify, and they go to SXSW each year to soak up the hottest digital trends.
But they didn't have expertise in building web applications---doing the code work that makes complex sites actually do their thing, They had one developer, but they needed a second one to keep up with the work. So they hired me, in the Spring of 2016, back when I lived on East Burnside. I've been working on this over a year now.
It's been very rewarding, and I've gotten to meet and work with a lot of great people, at TriMet, at the German database company, and at the Portland design firm. All of this while on many days I don't even leave the grounds of our house up here above Scottsdale.
In the last few months, the beta testing of the consumer site went very well. I perused the reactions on the Portland Reddit, and most reactions were very positive. Throughout last week I was in last minute bug fix mode, doing little changes all over the app, and committing them to the code repository on GitHub.
One of the last changes I had to make was to tweak the Google maps that lets you find a retailer for the Hop card. I had to change autocomplete of the address you enter so when you started typing "Vancouver" it would return results for Vancouver, Washington (just across the river) instead of being swamped with results from the city in British Columbia.
I hadn't ever used this part of Google Maps API before (that part of the app had been built by someone else, but he was gone). It was fun looking up how to make that change and tweak a parameter so the search worked the way they wanted.
On Friday we wrapped up the last "sprint" (a term for a short development cycle comprising specific goals). All through the morning, I kept giving them new releases of the software, even hourly, as we found the last few bugs of the day.
The last couple hours on Friday were calm, and then the messages from them stopped entirely. I took that as a good sign. They were satisfied. Moreover, we actually met the project deadline in a very graceful way, without any last minute crises.
Today my colleague at the design firm in Portland informed me (via our Slack channel) hat Hop Card has been launched.
So far no frantic emails from TriMet. Things seem to humming alone.
You want to try it out. Here it is. I've been staring at that interface for a long time. I didn't do any of the stuff that looks pretty. All of my stuff is in the way the application works, handing the data and doing it's application tasks. Like I said, a very rewarding experience.
And wow, there's already a Wikipedia article about Hop card.
Thursday, June 22, 2017
Reading French Novels With Maman
I just wrote my friend in Marseille an email. He could be elsewhere by now, but he always gets his email at the same address, and replies in due course.
I told him how I had been reading some French novels later, in translation and the original, and wanted to share my thoughts with him.
I told him I'd gotten ahold of a copy of The Camp of the Saints (translation from the French), by Jean Raspail, written in 1973. It was forbidden novel during last winter, that everyone was talking about it. But it was out of print, and used copies on Amazon going for several hundred bucks. Then someone put out a new cheap trade paperback edition for fifteen bucks and I scooped it up. I gave it a try. Très lourd, I told my friend in my email. Very heavy.
I decided I needed some lighter fare, something to pick my spirits up, but also something in the same line of artistic inquiry, namely science fiction, so I ordered a copy of Les Planètes des singes by Pierre Boulle, written ten years earlier in 1963. Amazing that within five years this earlier book had already become a famous Hollywood sci-fi movie with one of the most iconic scenes of all time.
My late father probably didn't even hear of Raspail, but no doubt he read Boulle's novel in translation. Certainly he scooped up all the classic science fiction back then. He was a voracious reader to the end of his life, and he was one of those men of that generation who could provide a deep background to science fiction literature as it evolved over that time period.
Boulle turned out to be a much easier read. It's short, and the French is easy for me to read, with use of a dictionary maybe once a paragraph so far. It differs substantially from the movie adaptation in the early chapters, which are in the form of a framing story that doesn't exist in the movie, that of two oisifs (loafers), Jinn and Phyllis who are travelers in a bubble-like spaceship and who push their journeys to the ends of the traveled realms of space, hoisted on the solar winds. In other words they are the far distant versions of the trendy travelers of today who seek out the most obscure experiences, always outrunning the ennui, with a sense of joy in the momentum of pushing the envelope of travel.
Then they find something floating in space...
Like I said, a fun read so far. I got the chance to read parts of it with mom when I was back in Colorado a couple weeks back. I just started reading from the beginning outloud in her living room. She was able to understand most of it, with the help of my interruptions of my own narration to explain certain words, many of which were the ones I had had to look up myself.
We got all the way up to Chapter 2, which begins the inner story, of Ulysse Mérou...
I told him how I had been reading some French novels later, in translation and the original, and wanted to share my thoughts with him.
I told him I'd gotten ahold of a copy of The Camp of the Saints (translation from the French), by Jean Raspail, written in 1973. It was forbidden novel during last winter, that everyone was talking about it. But it was out of print, and used copies on Amazon going for several hundred bucks. Then someone put out a new cheap trade paperback edition for fifteen bucks and I scooped it up. I gave it a try. Très lourd, I told my friend in my email. Very heavy.
I decided I needed some lighter fare, something to pick my spirits up, but also something in the same line of artistic inquiry, namely science fiction, so I ordered a copy of Les Planètes des singes by Pierre Boulle, written ten years earlier in 1963. Amazing that within five years this earlier book had already become a famous Hollywood sci-fi movie with one of the most iconic scenes of all time.
My late father probably didn't even hear of Raspail, but no doubt he read Boulle's novel in translation. Certainly he scooped up all the classic science fiction back then. He was a voracious reader to the end of his life, and he was one of those men of that generation who could provide a deep background to science fiction literature as it evolved over that time period.
Boulle turned out to be a much easier read. It's short, and the French is easy for me to read, with use of a dictionary maybe once a paragraph so far. It differs substantially from the movie adaptation in the early chapters, which are in the form of a framing story that doesn't exist in the movie, that of two oisifs (loafers), Jinn and Phyllis who are travelers in a bubble-like spaceship and who push their journeys to the ends of the traveled realms of space, hoisted on the solar winds. In other words they are the far distant versions of the trendy travelers of today who seek out the most obscure experiences, always outrunning the ennui, with a sense of joy in the momentum of pushing the envelope of travel.
Then they find something floating in space...
Like I said, a fun read so far. I got the chance to read parts of it with mom when I was back in Colorado a couple weeks back. I just started reading from the beginning outloud in her living room. She was able to understand most of it, with the help of my interruptions of my own narration to explain certain words, many of which were the ones I had had to look up myself.
We got all the way up to Chapter 2, which begins the inner story, of Ulysse Mérou...
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
The Moments When You Really Feel the Heat
Bakery Open Today The forecast was for a couple degrees cooler, only to reach 114 locally. I took home a croissant and a sticky bun. An occasional indulgence there, instead of the coffee house chain, and its wonderful sandwiches.
The few degrees does make a difference. I was just out walking on the patio in the noon sun, with my wide brimmed hat. Thermometer says 110 even. Barely felt the heat.
Even yesterday when it was pushing 118, sitting in the shade, one felt the dryness more than the raw heat. Except when the wind blew, even just a gentle breeze. Then one feels the heat like a blast from a nearby fire. Stillness is better.
The few degrees does make a difference. I was just out walking on the patio in the noon sun, with my wide brimmed hat. Thermometer says 110 even. Barely felt the heat.
Even yesterday when it was pushing 118, sitting in the shade, one felt the dryness more than the raw heat. Except when the wind blew, even just a gentle breeze. Then one feels the heat like a blast from a nearby fire. Stillness is better.
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
Extreme Heat
It's supposed to be almost 120 degrees here. This morning before seven I drove down into the main part of town (Fountain Hills, that is) to get a cup of coffee, and afterwards I went to the bakery, but it was closed, with a sign saying it was because of the heat warning today.
Personally I love this kind of extreme. I'm looking forward to sitting outside a bit today during my breaks from work. I love feeling the air that temperature, at least for a little bit. The pool really helps on these kinds of days.
Personally I love this kind of extreme. I'm looking forward to sitting outside a bit today during my breaks from work. I love feeling the air that temperature, at least for a little bit. The pool really helps on these kinds of days.
Friday, June 2, 2017
The Difference Between 2012 and 2017
2012: Bilderberg Group holds their annual meeting, having chosen a site this year in Chantilly, Virginia. Meeting is protested by several hundred activists, including Matthew Trump, a digital nomad software programmer of little account and consequence.
The group does not return to North America in their scheduled rotating in the coming years, but instead holds all their meetings at various secluded places in Europe.
2017: Bilderberg Groups returns to Chantilly, Virginia, their first meeting in North America in five years. The meeting attended by a delegation from Donald Trump, President of the United States.
The Bilderberg Group was (and still is) a semi-formal annual gathering of (mostly European) elite, designed to share ideas among each other to seek possible common ground in moving forward the history of Europe and the world. In some ways, it can be seen as an attempt by the old European aristocracy, so devastated by the wars, to form a bloc that could rival American influence in the west. In many ways it has been extremely successful, as it has brought the old European elite back into parity with the Americans within the spheres of global influence again, at least according to their own view.
On a related note, I am of the opinion that the Chatham House Rule (which the Bilderberg Group follows in their annual meetings) is one of the key technologies invented in the early Twentieth Century crucial in forming the entire history of the century. Without an understanding of it, it would not be possible to understand the method by which ideologies became established and propagate among the global elite. By this, one can achieve a clear agenda ascribable to no one in particular, at least in public.
The group does not return to North America in their scheduled rotating in the coming years, but instead holds all their meetings at various secluded places in Europe.
2017: Bilderberg Groups returns to Chantilly, Virginia, their first meeting in North America in five years. The meeting attended by a delegation from Donald Trump, President of the United States.
The Bilderberg Group was (and still is) a semi-formal annual gathering of (mostly European) elite, designed to share ideas among each other to seek possible common ground in moving forward the history of Europe and the world. In some ways, it can be seen as an attempt by the old European aristocracy, so devastated by the wars, to form a bloc that could rival American influence in the west. In many ways it has been extremely successful, as it has brought the old European elite back into parity with the Americans within the spheres of global influence again, at least according to their own view.
On a related note, I am of the opinion that the Chatham House Rule (which the Bilderberg Group follows in their annual meetings) is one of the key technologies invented in the early Twentieth Century crucial in forming the entire history of the century. Without an understanding of it, it would not be possible to understand the method by which ideologies became established and propagate among the global elite. By this, one can achieve a clear agenda ascribable to no one in particular, at least in public.
Thursday, June 1, 2017
The Difference Between the TPP and the Paris Accord
TPP: For America to remain a nation, the United States must reject the TPP. (Status: rejected)
Paris Accord: For the Establishment globalists to retain any shred of being coherent cadre of world leadership through the existing structures and relationships, the United States must accept the Paris Accord (Status: rejected).
That's how far we've come in so short a time.
Paris Accord: For the Establishment globalists to retain any shred of being coherent cadre of world leadership through the existing structures and relationships, the United States must accept the Paris Accord (Status: rejected).
That's how far we've come in so short a time.
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Solving the Health Care Crisis Requires No Change of Law
Another pundit I love reading is Karl Denninger. I've mentioned him before I think. He's a little bit older than me, and is a long time expert in the business of network computing.
But the subject I read him for his amazing clarity on the subject of the health care crisis in America. He long harped on the idea that most people completely misunderstand what is going on, and are offering horrible solutions. Above all, he's a numbers guy, i.e., mathematics doesn't lie. He's convinced that the health care industry, in particular the health insurance industry, is deeply corrupt, and, with the cooperation of both parties in the federal government, is royally "screwing" the rest of everyone else in violation of the law, and should be treated as criminals.
Here's a great recent starter regarding his opinions, which have coalesced over time to the idea that unless Donald Trump takes the steps he suggests, the health care crisis will overwhelm his presidency (as it would anyone who was president right now).
President Trump, you simply have to come to grips with where the problem lies in health care. It's not access to insurance...In his latest series of articles, he explains why the current health are insurance law is disastrous for businesses and is a great incentive to hiring anyone
Health insurance accessibility is, at its core, all about the price of the underlying service. And let's cut the crap, eh -- that price has no market force or discovery mechanism available to the common man today, and hasn't for 30+ years. That is why -- and is in fact the only reason why -- health care is so damned expensive and health "insurance" is what people are "falling back on."
..."mandatory" health insurance imposed a large contingent cost on employers that didn't appear to be there right up until someone who has a pre-existing condition shows up and wants to be hired. Remember that as soon as that happens it screws everyone who already works there and what's worse the employer is forced to conspire with the applicant since (1) he can't ask about said condition and (2) if he figures it out he can't discriminate either or he will get sued and lose.He thinks that the POTUS has the power, through the Attorney General, to simply force existing anti-trust law to applied in the health care industry (instead of blatantly disregarded), then health care costs would drop like a stone across the board, so that health insurance would hardly be necessary for most medical expenses (the way it used to be), and would be much cheaper for the categories of expenses (catastrophic, etc.) for which it would remain necessary.
Of course Denninger realizes this would trash an entire sector of the economy.
But that would mean health care would be much cheaper for everyone across the board.I get it that if you take this on using existing law, which certainly appears fully adequate to put a stop to all of this, and demand (1) price lists be posted publicly for everything, (2) everyone pays the same price for the same good or service no matter whether they have insurance or not, who it's through or how they're paying, (3) that consent on an individual and priced basis is required for anyone able to give it; if you're unable due to unconsciousness or similar "drive by" and similar types of charges are deemed felonious and (4) the United States demands and enforces "most favored nation" for pricing of drugs and devices with any firm that refuses loses all its US patent protections and US licensing that we'd have a deep and immediate recession since roughly 15% of GDP would disappear in a puff of smoke in an afternoon. All those facilities built with debt -- which is most of them, as I'm sure you know -- would be bankrupted immediately.
But that's good, not bad. Someone would buy that bankrupt hospital the next day for 5% or 10% of what it cost to build, and the lights would remain on. Costs would plunge like a stone thrown off one of your high-rise buildings; in fact, they'd fall by up to 90%. Telling "practitioners" that Jeff Sessions will be as rough on them as you want him to be with dope dealers with maximum charges for peddling known lies when it comes to disorders such as Type II diabetes -- that one should "chase" their fast carbs with drugs instead of not eating the damn things in the first place would go a long way toward resolving not only the cost issues in health care but the underlying diseases themselves.
The Reasons the Israeli-Saudi Alliance Has Worked
As Thomas Wichtor sees it, one of the key factors behind the success of the quiet Saudi-Israeli alliance has been the development of a new generation of tactical weapons and munitions, developed by the Israelis and financed by Arab money.
These weapons specifically are drone-related reconnaissance and munitions-carrying drone weapons capable of isolating, observing and attacking targets within the close urban environments of Middle Eastern warfare against insurgents.
The Americans didn't develop these weapons because they didn't need them, and they have concentrated more on longer-range drone warfare on a strategic level.
By contrast the Israelis (and increasingly the Gulf Arabs) realize that in the Youtube age especially, they must play by a different set of rules in urban warfare, where there cannot be flagrant civilian causalities as a side-effect of an operation, one that can be spread virally across the Internet within hours.
If they want to eliminate the Iranian backed subversives, they will need to do it a smart way, they realized.
Also there is a recognition that all the uniformed forces must be seeming to be Arab. This is to create a proud, honor-bound command of Arab special forces with the higher ethic of the great (benevolent_ warrior model of the American, British, and other western special forces. The idea---an old one---is a powerful warrior tends to be a humane warrior.
These weapons specifically are drone-related reconnaissance and munitions-carrying drone weapons capable of isolating, observing and attacking targets within the close urban environments of Middle Eastern warfare against insurgents.
The Americans didn't develop these weapons because they didn't need them, and they have concentrated more on longer-range drone warfare on a strategic level.
By contrast the Israelis (and increasingly the Gulf Arabs) realize that in the Youtube age especially, they must play by a different set of rules in urban warfare, where there cannot be flagrant civilian causalities as a side-effect of an operation, one that can be spread virally across the Internet within hours.
If they want to eliminate the Iranian backed subversives, they will need to do it a smart way, they realized.
Also there is a recognition that all the uniformed forces must be seeming to be Arab. This is to create a proud, honor-bound command of Arab special forces with the higher ethic of the great (benevolent_ warrior model of the American, British, and other western special forces. The idea---an old one---is a powerful warrior tends to be a humane warrior.
Thursday, May 25, 2017
How Peace is Coming to the Middle East
The Saudi-Israeli alliance in its current form dates from 2006 (the two nations had been cooperating via their intelligence services for many years before that).
In 2006, however, the Saudis and Israelis created a new military alliance that was meant to fulfill longterm stability needs in the Middle East, in an era going forward in which Americans would eventually withdraw a large number of their forces.
The alliance was not well-publicized in the West, but neither was it hidden. But it was ignored in the American press and media. This is because it was taken as a direct threat to the power base of certain segments of the U.S. government, for whom the status quo of the Middle East---low grade warfare involving both regular armies and guerrilla factions, was in fact necessary for the continuation these segments of the government in holding power. This most directly involved the U.S. State Department.
The effort of the U.S. State Department to keep itself as the center of the Middle East balance of power is paramount to the State Department.
In the meantime the Saudi-Israeli backbone of the new security alliance evolved in what became called the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The GCC as an alliance involves other Arab states, including in particular Iraq, where the GCC has been instrumental in creating an effective new Iraqi Army that---with American special forces training and Israeli-designed new generation aerial weapons, has virtually annihilated ISIS and other guerrilla forces in Iraq.
This has happened rather quietly, and (once again) ignored by the U.S. media. All of these efforts by the Saudis and Israelis to create a stable, peaceful Middle East have been bitterly opposed by the U.S. State Department, which sided with Iran, the archenemy of both Israel and Saudi Arabia.
All Trump has done is get out of the way, and let this happen. That's why they treated him like a conqueror.
Going forward the U.S. help in the Middle East will be quiet, and largely in support of the GCC through training, weapons, and intelligence.
The most pressing task is the winding down of the ultra-corrupt Assad regime in Syria. Assad has mostly been a pawn of Iran for years, and in control of nothing inside in his country except the capital. Everything else has been the Iranians propping him up.
The night after Trump slammed the airway with the Tomahawks, the flights from Damascus to Teheran were packed with Iranians leaving the country.
The missile strike essentially destroyed the airplanes while letting the GCC use the airfield as it quietly invades Syria, takes it over, and transitions the kingdom to a constitutional restoration.
Many people have learned many lessons from many mistakes. What we are seeing play out right now is the fruit of those bitter mistakes.
The final act of the drama will be the downfall of Iran. This will not happen by military invasion but by the overthrow of the mullahs by their own people. The Islamic Republic will be overthrown. Women in Teheran will throw off their hijabs in joy. This is going to confuse lots of people in Europe and North America.
It's OK to be confused now. It will make sense as time goes by.
In 2006, however, the Saudis and Israelis created a new military alliance that was meant to fulfill longterm stability needs in the Middle East, in an era going forward in which Americans would eventually withdraw a large number of their forces.
The alliance was not well-publicized in the West, but neither was it hidden. But it was ignored in the American press and media. This is because it was taken as a direct threat to the power base of certain segments of the U.S. government, for whom the status quo of the Middle East---low grade warfare involving both regular armies and guerrilla factions, was in fact necessary for the continuation these segments of the government in holding power. This most directly involved the U.S. State Department.
The effort of the U.S. State Department to keep itself as the center of the Middle East balance of power is paramount to the State Department.
In the meantime the Saudi-Israeli backbone of the new security alliance evolved in what became called the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The GCC as an alliance involves other Arab states, including in particular Iraq, where the GCC has been instrumental in creating an effective new Iraqi Army that---with American special forces training and Israeli-designed new generation aerial weapons, has virtually annihilated ISIS and other guerrilla forces in Iraq.
This has happened rather quietly, and (once again) ignored by the U.S. media. All of these efforts by the Saudis and Israelis to create a stable, peaceful Middle East have been bitterly opposed by the U.S. State Department, which sided with Iran, the archenemy of both Israel and Saudi Arabia.
All Trump has done is get out of the way, and let this happen. That's why they treated him like a conqueror.
Going forward the U.S. help in the Middle East will be quiet, and largely in support of the GCC through training, weapons, and intelligence.
The most pressing task is the winding down of the ultra-corrupt Assad regime in Syria. Assad has mostly been a pawn of Iran for years, and in control of nothing inside in his country except the capital. Everything else has been the Iranians propping him up.
The night after Trump slammed the airway with the Tomahawks, the flights from Damascus to Teheran were packed with Iranians leaving the country.
The missile strike essentially destroyed the airplanes while letting the GCC use the airfield as it quietly invades Syria, takes it over, and transitions the kingdom to a constitutional restoration.
Many people have learned many lessons from many mistakes. What we are seeing play out right now is the fruit of those bitter mistakes.
The final act of the drama will be the downfall of Iran. This will not happen by military invasion but by the overthrow of the mullahs by their own people. The Islamic Republic will be overthrown. Women in Teheran will throw off their hijabs in joy. This is going to confuse lots of people in Europe and North America.
It's OK to be confused now. It will make sense as time goes by.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)