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“Bu Hao”

By Devin
July 4, 2010 //
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…means “no good” if you’re wondering at home, relatives also reading Brendan’s fantastic travel blog — aka the best blog on the Internet from the author of the critically self-acclaimed author of the “most important book of the twenty-first century.” Please, buy the app and support an itinerant scholar and unofficial American ambassador.

Remember— only the United States of America could bring you both Little Boy and Vince McMahon in the same month. Happy Fourth— please do not blow off your fingers.

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Boehnhead

By Devin
June 29, 2010 //
2

The Boehner Bungle reminds me of an effort to lose as many elections as possible for the Republicans. Everybody’s harping on the “killing an ant with a nuclear weapon” line which, yes, minimizes the economic collapse (“ant”) while wildly overstating the financial reform bill (“nuclear weapon”). Reminds me more of a Band-aid on cancer.

Anyway. I think the Dems are missing a great opportunity by not focusing on the rest of that original interview. As Boehner has it, the retirement age should be raised to 70— and means-testing should be employed to weed out the older folks with “substantial” income— to make sure we have enough money for our wars. Compound that with the sentiment that Obama overreacted to the spill and you’ve got a political sludge gold mine.

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CCR Joke Goes Here

By Devin
June 25, 2010 //
0

There’s a partial lunar eclipse overnight— or rather in the very early morning.

It’ll be to the southwest and low to the horizon— sets up here right around 5 o’clock. Sam and I realized that’s only an hour before we’ve been getting up these days, so we’re going to make a go of it.

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Categories sciencenews

So Here’s A Text Message I Just Got

By Devin
June 24, 2010 //
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I’m surprisingly okay with the idea… but I take umbrage with the “app for that” line. It reminds me of a joke a generic lame coworker would make- the guy whose cubicle is covered with Dilberts and is still answering the phone with the Budweiser “what’s uppppp?”

Addendum: My mother upbraided me via email along the lines that the Democrats need all the help they can get and that I shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth— and I couldn’t agree more, Mom. I like that they’re waving the flashiest thing they can find in front of idiots who would spite vote against Democrats because Obama didn’t make their mean neighbor’s dog into a unicorn that shits ice cream and babysits for free. It is astounding to think that it’s been less than two years since the 2008 election; less than two years for everybody to forget every reason not to vote for Republicans. I keep hoping there are two things that will Keep The Bums Out— Obama’s secret plan to win the war in Vietnam and the Republicans themselves and their Democrat-like ability to screw up royal. I was really interested to hear on my favorite news program today that pundits on both sides are rightly marking up the Petraeus Hail Mary as a political masterstroke.

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Categories technology

Dikes To Watch Out For

By Devin
June 22, 2010 //
1

My Dad and I were musing this weekend about how close or not my brother is to the massive flooding in China. Noticing another reference to Jiangxi Province in that latest Xinhua article, I decided to do some sleuthing.

That’s him in the green building. Most of the worst is way to the south and east of him but that latest big dike burst (the wavy lines) is only about 160 kilometers to the south. If there was flooding in the Maple Valley today, would I be too worried? So, no immediate concern— but, really, can water be far from your mind in a city named Nine Rivers?

(Before anybody jumps on my back— yes, there is another, bigger city named Fuzhou closer to the coast but that’s not the one the Fuhe River goes through. Finding Chinese locations in Google Maps is pretty frustrating for this honky, though; place names seem to appear and disappear at random and others seem to show up in multiple, widely separated places. How could anyone ever cope?)

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Categories news

King of Snakes

By Devin
June 20, 2010 //
0

From CNN.com this evening:

According to an internal BP document released Sunday by Rep. Edward Markey, D-Massachusetts, BP believed that the worst-case scenario could be as high as 100,000 barrels, or 4.2 million gallons of oil per day.

The figure is the highest yet to surface regarding the leaking oil well.

Hmm. “Highest yet to surface” and “higher worst-case scenario than previously reported” in the paragraph above that. Yet— I could swear I’ve seen that number somewhere before…

I’ve never been too worried about being a Cassandra— but getting Laocoön-ed sticks in my head as a threat. When I was in middle and high school, I had a recurring elaborate dream about surviving a nuclear apocalypse by convincing a cadre of followers to retreat into underground Seattle. In thanks for having convinced them to hunker down before the war, the CHUDs elect me mayor of Sewertown— a position I reluctantly accept on the condition they promise to stay deep enough in our new subterranean home to avoid the surface radiation.

Flash forward several years. Two young postbellum sewer tots wander into the hot zone and die horrible prolonged deaths. Enraged, Sewertown blames, turns on and ultimately lynches their previously Honorable Mayor, yours truly.

It was, uh, not a pleasant dream.

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Categories life, news

Chewuch

By Devin
June 19, 2010 //
0

When we went camping last weekend, we headed up the Chewuch River valley north of Winthrop to pick from a series of three campgrounds. We picked the one in the middle, Chewuch, in between Falls Creek and Camp 4. I think it’s about here:

It was pretty nice.

To give you a sense of scale on this giant tent we keep talking up to our friends, that tree on the right is approximately 700 feet tall.

The best part? I had assumed we wouldn’t want to stay at Chewuch as it was the biggest— 16 whole sites— but we found it nearly deserted. It was empty enough we went through a vague period of worry that we’d missed signs back in Winthrop regarding axe murderers or rampaging grizzlies.  Our site (#9?) was easily big enough for a ten person group and the only other people (two campground hosts) were on the far side of the grounds— that picture above is from our site aiming towards theirs.

Being a National Forest, we could have just packed up and headed into the hills if there was competition for the campground. (Looking back at that Google Map, I can see a pretty attractive hill site just off a Development Road above the campground, for example.) But— flat ground, no people, river access, scenic surrounding hills, water spigot ten yards from camp; we had it made. The only possible improvement would have been if someone had downed and chainsawed an entire tree at the adjacent campsite…

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Categories life
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