Posted inHome life

Coffee measuring rule: use 2 tablespoons per 6 ounces

I love coffee. I've made it every day for many years. But recently I learned that I've been making it wrong. Too weak. Damn you, Mr. Coffee! Obeying the instructions on my Mr. Coffee drip machine, I've been dutifully using three tablespoons of ground coffee per 20 ounces of water (four 5 ounce cups, which to me -- and lots of other people these caffeinated days -- actually is one cup of coffee, a "Venti" in Starbucks terminology). But that's just .15 tablespoons of coffee per ounce of water, whereas the Holy Commandment of coffee making is to use two…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Science

Republicans are seeking an unscientific America

Oh, yeah! Right on! That's what my mind screamed when I opened the mailbox a few days ago and saw the headline on the cover of New Scientist: "Unscientific America -- A dangerous retreat from reason." So true. It's mostly Republicans who are trying to lead us back to the Dark Ages of irrationality, even though a New Scientist editorial on this subject tries (semi-successfully) to spread the anti-science blame. Even today, as China and India flex their muscles, the world still looks to the US for leadership. This is especially true in science. A nation founded on the Enlightenment has…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Why doesn’t Britain get rid of its monarchy?

Hearing about the news that females are now equal to males in succeeding to the British throne, my initial reaction was "it's about time." Why shouldn't a first born girl be in line for Queen'ness, just as a first born boy is in line for King'ness? Almost immediately, though, my second reaction was "it's absurd that Britain and the Commonwealth still have this monarchy thing." Yet when I did a Google search on monarchy why, I was surprised to find that most of the top search results were sites defending the monarchy. It took me some scrolling to come to…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Home life

Getting smarter from doing something stupid

Our electronic air cleaner and I have a rocky relationship. It's down in our crawlspace, attached to our heat pump duct work. Every three months or so I vacuum the air cleaner's removable filters, which requires taking its door off. And more often than I'd like to admit -- but since this is a self-revealing blog, I'll admit it -- I have a tough time getting the door back on.  The door has metal flanges that fit behind its metal enclosure. A diagram on the door shows how it's supposed to fit over the enclosure, after which two gizmos are…
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Posted inWriting/Weblogs

I give TypePad a low approval score

Today I saw that TypePad, my blogging service, is asking its bloggers to give them some feedback. "Tell us how likely you are to recommend TypePad." I jumped right on that request. I was disappointed to see that comments on the feedback post were disabled, which doesn't convey the message that TypePad is genuinely open to discussion about how their blogging platform can be improved. But after giving TypePad a "2" out of "10" on the recommend question (meaning, I'd be unlikely to recommend TypePad) I felt better after utilizing an open-ended comment box to tell TypePad what I've been…
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Posted inHome life

Les Schwab in south Salem helps me get un-lug nutty

Les Schwab (the tire center) and I have a long relationship, all positive so far. Sure, we part company on the "Free Beef" deal -- how about some free tofu? -- and we've got different views on a proposed Oregon studded tire ban, but I really like the Les Schwab commitment to customer service. There's quite a few stories on the Internet about how a Les Schwab employee went above and beyond the call of duty to help someone with a tire problem. Mine isn't as dramatic as most, but I still want to share how my lug nut problem…
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Posted inSalem Strange Up Salem

K. Williams Brown gets Salem’s light just right

Salem, Oregon glows in the invisible ultraviolet wavelength, appealing-city wise. That's one of the insights that resonated with me in a column by K. Williams Brown in the Statesman Journal today.  Check out the "Let's make Salem's light visible, not ultraviolet" post on my Strange Up Salem blog for how Brown's thoughts stimulated my own.  But it's time (way past time, really) for Salem to evolve out of its ultraviolet phase of development. I'm tired of having friends and relatives visit from out of state and being stumped when my wife and I think, "What to do?"  Salem sucks when it…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Four strikes against Republicans this week

With baseball season nearing its end, I find it fitting that Republicans are striking out on key national policy issues more and more these days. That's good news for Obama's re-election chances, and for Democratic prospects in general come the 2012 election. I'm starting to feel better about where this country is heading, even though Republican intransigence and filibustering won't allow much to happen in Congress until voters repudiate the G.O.P. a year from next month. Here's some examples of what's buoying my spirits: Occupy Wall Street. This is the left's Tea Party moment. Except, Occupy Wall Street (or wherever)…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Measure 37 Sustainability

Oregon Supreme Court ruling supports land use system

Here's good news for supporters of Oregon's land use system, which has done a great job protecting irreplaceable farm and forest lands from being paved over unnecessarily. Today the Oregon Supreme Court released a long-awaited ruling on a Yamhill County land use case, Friends of Yamhill County v. Board of Commissioners and Gordon Cook.   Download Supreme Court Decision -- Cook  Basically it's a big win for Friends of Yamhill County and the Crag Law Center. And a corresponding big slapdown of both the Yamhill County Board of Commissioners and the county vesting officer. The Oregon Court of Appeals also got…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

“Despite Everything — Obama 2012” sums up how I feel

Clever idea, a web site and Facebook page dedicated to re-electing President Obama despite everything he's done to disappoint those who enthusiastically voted for him in 2008. This is the place to offer your begrudging support to the President of the United States of America in his bid for re-election! Muster your minor enthusiasm! Express your not entirely disaffected preference! Donate $20.08 to his campaign (you liked him back then) and send a message!* *Fundraising rules apply. If you're among the richest 1% of U.S. citizens, feel free to give $2,008
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Posted inEntertainment Salem

What “Salemia” taught me about myself (and Salem)

Wow! Only about six hours left until the premiere of "Salemia," an event that has been eagerly awaited in Oregon's capital -- by those involved with the film, at least -- since the notion of a response to "Portlandia" was birthed from the fertile comedic mind-wombs of local filmmakers Mike Perron and Dave Jenkins. (Check out Part 1 of an Q & A interview by Emily Grosvenor with Mike and Dave on her Desperately Seeking Salem site.) After shamelessly sucking up to Mike and Dave through a series of fawning blog posts, and stammering through an audition last February at…
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Posted inSalem

I stand up for Salem (sort of)

Whenever I blog about how boring Salem, Oregon is, there's a pretty good chance someone will leave a comment along the lines of "Your negativity about the town you live in is getting old...like you." Well, today I stood up for Salem when someone snarkily commented on the Oregonian's story about "Salemia," our film response to "Portlandia." This guy, bruceabishop, said: Having both lived and worked there previously, it's obvious to me that it should be pronounced "Sa-Lame-Ya", with the accent on the middle syllable. That deserved a fierce response, an energetic defense of Salem's non-lameness. So I replied: Hey,…
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Posted inSalem

“Salemia” gets thumbs-up from Portlandia actors

Oh, yeah! THEY, meaning Portland and Eugene, won't have so much reason to mispronounce our semi-fair city's name as So-lame now that the hipster stars of "Portlandia," Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, have acknowledged the creative brilliance of our very own "Salemia" -- sight unseen, even before the premiere this coming Wednesday.  The brains behind "Portlandia" are cool with the notion of "Salemia." "I love it," said "Portlandia" star Fred Armisen, noting that "Portlandia" began as the web series "Thunderant." "Please tell them to keep going." "Portlandia" co-star Carrie Brownstein was equally enthusiastic. "We feel like we're just part of an ongoing conversation that…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Occupy Salem rally/march — video & photos

Today in Salem, Oregon my wife and I joined hundreds of other 99%ers in a march from the Capitol that ended at a rally in Peace Plaza (in this context, "99%" refers to those people less well-off than the top 1% -- who now own 40% of our nation's wealth). We were part of a vast October 15 worldwide protest against growing wealth inequality. The United States has the fifth-most unequal wealth distribution in the world, and it's getting worse. Our middle class is sinking into lower class status, while the rich keep getting richer. Here's a five minute video…
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Posted inSalem

Occupy Salem march! Saturday, October 15, noon

Just got this info from Laurie Dougherty, a new/old blog friend who I've never met, but who I feel I know well: Support occupiers in Willson Park next to the Capitol and attend the rally and march on Saturday October 15 starting at 12 noon at the Capitol. Occupy Salem is inspired by Occupy Wall Street and the 10/15 rally. The march is connected with a day of action for global change taking place in hundreds of cities in dozens of countries around the world. http://occupysalemoregon.com/ http://occupywallst.org/http://15october.net/ Be there! My wife and I sure will. I marched a lot in…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Sustainability

2011 OLCV Scorecard ranks greenness of Oregon legislators

Which Oregon state legislators have been naughty or nice to the environment? The just-released 2011 Environmental Scorecard produced by the Oregon League of Conservation Voters (OLCV) makes it easy to tell. Download OLCV 2011 Scorecard I checked out the Republican legislators who, unfortunately, my wife and I are saddled with here in our right-leaning area of Marion County. Ugh! State Senator Brian Boquist got the absolutely lowest OLCV Senate score when it came to voting in support of our Earth's one and only environment: 44%. Amazingly, in the 2011 session he scored even lower than Larry George. On the state representative…
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Posted inWeb/Tech

Feeling the fear, I moved to OS X (Lion) anyway

Wow, this has been a big Apple day for me. Not only did I manage to get my seemingly dead ("bricked") iPhone working after an initially disastrous upgrade to iOS 5 -- note to self: don't be one of the first to upgrade anything from now on, even an Apple product -- but I felt the fear and downloaded OS X Lion this afternoon, much more successfully. Right now I feel like I'm King of the World. Or at least, of my MacBook Pro. After only an hour or so of playing around with Lion, I can tell that I'm…
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Posted inWeb/Tech

If iOS 5 “bricked” your iPhone, try DFU mode

I was one of the would-be early adopters of iOS 5 who had my iPhone bricked by a screw-up with overloaded Apple servers. (Until yesterday I didn't know what "bricked" meant; after getting a black screen with no ability to connect with iTunes, I sure do know now). It was hugely frustrating to have iTunes tell me that the iOS 5 update couldn't be completed, and then to have a restore process also fail. I was left with an utterly unworkable iPhone, so I made an appointment with the Genius Bar at the Bridgeport Village Apple Store for 12:30 pm…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Science

Krauthammer is wrong about relativity being proven wrong

Whenever I watch Charles Krauthammer expressing his conservatism on Fox News, or read his right-wing newspaper columns, almost always I strongly disagree with him. Seeing that his most recent column was about a possible discovery of faster-than-light neutrinos, which I blogged about here, I thought that maybe Charles and I would find some agreement on the common ground of science. But no, I got as irritated with his "Gone in 60 nanoseconds" as with his overtly political pieces. Because what Krauthammer wants to say goodbye to is trust in modern science.  Scientists at CERN, the European high-energy physics consortium, have announced the…
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Posted inEntertainment Salem

“Smash” — another great Willamette Univ. Theatre play

If you live in the Salem, Oregon area and enjoy going to plays, check out the Willamette University Theatre offerings. For a long time my wife and I had season tickets to Pentacle Theatre, but we came to yearn for edgier, less predictable plays. Belatedly, we discovered Salem Repertory Theatre; unfortunately, just before SRT went out of business. Liking the SRT style (basically, anything goes), we were enthused with the first Willamette University Theatre production we went to, "Aquitania." I didn't understand it, which I assumed meant that it was a deep, thought-provoking, mind-blowing play. Regardless, I'd rather be confused…
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