moss

Pentagon Paid $998,798 to Ship Two 19-Cent Washers

2007-08-17T10:49:00.000-07:00

I read this in the Oregonian today, but I can't believe it.

A small South Carolina parts supplier collected about $20.5 million over six years from the Pentagon for fraudulent shipping costs, including $998,798 for sending two 19-cent washers to an Army base in Texas, U.S. officials said.
The company also billed and was paid $455,009 to ship three machine screws costing $1.31 each to Marines in Habbaniyah, Iraq, and $293,451 to ship an 89-cent split washer to Patrick Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Pentagon records show.

I mean, they bilked the Pentagon out of $20 million over 10 years. Who was writing the checks?

Did the accountant at the Pentagon see an invoice for "Priority: Toroidal Spacer Component Delivery" and say "Oh, sure, one million bucks is a fair amount for that sort of service?"

C'mon, now. Let's cut the Pentagon's funding in half immediately. Then, take the excess and distribute it among the nation's primary and secondary public schools.

JL421 Badonkadonk Land Cruiser/Tank

2007-08-17T10:43:00.001-07:00

Only two left in stock.

Build your own home coffee roaster

2007-08-16T21:14:00.000-07:00

Here, and here are two places that explain how to build your own coffee roaster.
In order to roast your own coffee, you have to start with green beans. Green coffee beans of course... not haricots verts. I guess that Sweet Maria's is a good place to get those.

I might try the lo-tech method of roasting the beans in a wok. That's worked for nuts that I've toasted. Or, maybe just go to Stumptown annex.

Flying Focus gets Willamette Week's attention

2007-08-16T21:09:00.000-07:00

The video group that I work with, Flying Focus Video Collective, got a mention in Willamette Week's "Murmurs" section.

Call it the fluff tax. The Flying Focus Video Collective , a small Portland nonprofit that produces social-justicey fare for cable-access TV, launched an interesting fundraising pitch last week. The Flying Focus folks are demanding (their word, not ours) that local TV stations donate $10 anytime they lead the news with 10 minutes of “information citizens can’t do anything about” —i.e., weather, sports or “relatively trivial” fare like the live festival broadcasts that gave the world “Turtle Boy.” (Thanks, KGW.) Celebrity news would incur an additional $1 penalty , which is, by the way, tax-deductible. Murmurs bets OPB wishes it had thought of this first. Beats a pledge drive.

Here's the complete "Mainstream TV Challenge Fund-raiser."

No Fatties?

2007-08-07T08:23:00.000-07:00

In late June, Clarian Health, an Indianapolis-based hospital system

announced that starting in 2009, it will fine employees $10 per paycheck if their body mass index (BMI, a ratio of height to weight that measures body fat) is over 30. If their cholesterol, blood pressure, and glucose levels are too high, they'll be charged $5 for each standard they don't meet. Ditto if they smoke: Starting next year, they'll be charged another $5 in each check.

Is this fair? Is this a good idea? Would it even make a difference to some people? Would you pay $10 a month to be fat?

They don't mention what the company will do with the fines, but I'd suggest taking that, adding some matching funds, and putting them toward health benefits for the employees, like a free stop smoking program, or discounts toward a health club.

Dow 14,000

2007-07-19T16:27:00.000-07:00

Dow tops 14,000 on 07/19/07.

"I think it's only a number and it's not really material," said Rob Lutts, chief investment officer of Cabot Money Management. "What's much more important is the fundamental factors in our economy and what those trends are."

Dow tops 13,000 on 04/25/07.

"In and of itself, [Dow 13,000] is not very important for the market," said Jay Suskind, director of trading at Ryan, Beck & Co.
"Psychologically, it shows the market has been doing well and draws retail-type investors," he said. "But this may not be such a good thing, as retail investors often show up late to the party."

Dow tops 12,000 on 10/18/06

12,000 is just a number--just as 11,000 was when the Dow crossed that level six-and-a-half years ago. We surveyed Wall Street prognosticators to see if investors should begin to party like it was 1999 (again). The consensus seems to be that conditions for equity investors are good, but not great.

Dow tops 11,000 for the first time since 2001.

Dow tops 10,000 on 03/30/99 .

When it hit 1000 for the first time, which was back in the 60's, I believe, it backed off immediately and took a long, long time for it to get back there, I mean more than ten years, I think. So in that case, it was a high water mark that was not returned to for quite a while. But when you have seen it at other levels, such as say 5000, which was less than four years ago, it just really kept on going. So you can't really make generalizations about what it will do from here. There is, of course, the initial reaction which is, well it's going to go almost -- it's always going to go higher because there is so much euphoria around. But you can't guarantee that, either. It's really a toss up.

But, when the Dow topped 9,000 in June of 1998! Watch out!
We got multiple warnings of World War III!

Good use of google maps?

2007-07-10T14:38:00.001-07:00

This guy is working on a google map to help track stolen bikes in Portland.

The city of Portland has 341 bikes reported with valid addresses.

It's sad that so many bikes are stolen.

Simple Google Maps

2007-06-29T12:17:00.000-07:00

I tried to use KML to map the Portland Public Schools (PPS), but it seems like there's a definite limit on the number of items you can map this way. When I load the map I get an error: "Parts of http://www.rdrop.com/~moss/... could not be displayed because it is too large."

I don't think the limit is due to file size. I've compressed the KML to a KMZ and that didn't make a difference. Also, I removed a bunch of the data from the description to make the size smaller -- no change. No matter what I do, Google Maps only maps about 70 sites from a KML file. Since there are about 100 PPS schools, this isn't optimal.

By the way: to make a KMZ file from a KML file, just zip it up with WinZip.

So, the comment that Google Maps works better than Yahoo doesn't appear to be entirely true.

In case you're lost...

2007-06-29T09:42:00.000-07:00

Map of Europe circa 1000

Cool stereo pictures

2007-06-29T09:38:00.001-07:00

Here's a cool idea. Using animated GIFs to present a stereo view.

Yahoo Maps Simple API

2007-06-15T14:09:00.000-07:00

Here's a different mapping example. I used Yahoo Maps Simple API.
All you have to do is to put your locations into an XML file and then pass that file to Yahoo via a URL.

This is the same map as the previous -- all the schools in Portland Public Schools.

Here's my second attempt at google maps

2007-06-13T16:32:00.000-07:00

I found this site that helps geocode a batch of addresses.
I already compiled a spreadsheet of PPS addresses by school, so I pasted it into the site and that resulted in a bunch of longitudes and latitudes.

Then, the site helped me to map it.
I'll have to spend some time figuring out what it all means.

MC Escher New York?

2007-05-31T13:41:00.000-07:00

The way Google Maps stitches together some of the images makes this image of the Empire State Building look Escher-esque.

Limited memorial

2007-05-30T14:55:00.000-07:00

This is a grim newspaper item:

FORT LEWIS, Wash. - So many Fort Lewis soldiers are being killed in Iraq that the Army base will no longer hold individual memorial services.

Starting next month, Fort Lewis will hold one memorial a month for all the dead soldiers.

The Fort Lewis acting commander, Brig. Gen. William Troy, told staff last week that the number of soldiers in harm's way will preclude individual services.

Meanwhile, whatever happened to the daily track of Iraq war casualties? I reckon news services stopped reminding us of it every day once it surpassed the number of people killed in the Trade Centers attack.

FYI...as of today (May 30th, 2007):

U.S. Deaths Confirmed By The DoD: 3461

Reported U.S. Deaths Pending DoD Confirmation: 9

Total 3470

Latest Coalition Fatality: May 30, 2007

My first Google Map

2007-05-23T10:03:00.000-07:00

Here's my first attempt at using google maps.

See if you figure out what this map represents.

Talk about paranoia

2007-02-01T10:56:00.000-08:00

Maybe this is just really effective viral advertising?

CHARLESTOWN, Massachusetts (CNN) -- Two men pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges they created panic by placing "bomblike" electronic light boards displaying a cartoon character with an upraised middle finger throughout Boston.

Of course, they're doing a good job of promoting their cause...

In a news conference, Rich told reporters he had advised his clients not to discuss the incident. Stevens and Berdovsky took the podium and said they were taking questions only about haircuts in the 1970s.
When a reporter accused them of not taking the situation seriously, Stevens responded, "We're taking it very seriously." Asked another question about the case, Stevens reiterated they were answering questions only about hair and accused the reporter of not taking him and Berdovsky seriously.
Reporters did not relent and as they continued, Berdovsky disregarded their queries, saying, "That's not a hair question. I'm sorry."

The authorities, on the other hand, don't come out of this looking very "with it."

"It had a very sinister appearance," Coakley told reporters. "It had a battery behind it, and wires."
Twenty-two-year-old Todd Venderlin, a design student at the Parsons School of Design in New York City, saw one of the devices two weeks ago as he left a lounge in south Boston, according to The Boston Globe. He said he was stunned when he saw bomb squads removing them.
"It's so not threatening -- it's a Lite Brite," he told the newspaper, referring to the children's toy that allows its users to create pictures by placing translucent pegs into an opaque board. "I don't understand how they could be terrified. I would if it was a bunch of circuits blinking, but it wasn't."

drinking from a gallon container of Purell hand sanitizer

2007-02-01T10:54:00.000-08:00

I've heard of huffing Sterno, but this is ridiculous:

BOSTON, Massachusetts (Reuters) -- At least two people have become intoxicated by drinking hand-sanitizing gels, a potentially deadly habit, doctors reported Wednesday.
"The Maryland Poison Center was called about a 49-year-old, usually calm prison inmate who was described as being 'red-eyed,' 'loony,' 'combative,' and 'intoxicated, lecturing everyone about life'," Dr. Suzanne Doyon of the Maryland Poison Center and Dr. Christopher Welsh of the University of Maryland School of Medicine wrote in one letter.
"Other inmates and staff reported seeing this prisoner drinking from a gallon container of Purell hand sanitizer over the course of the evening. "

Famous Cousin

2007-01-12T14:56:00.000-08:00

My cousin Graham Roberston is on imdb! Now that's something.
Mostly he's worked as a set dresser...but he wrote, directed and produced a film called 'Able Edwards.'

Here's a similarly impressive web site about him.

Slow down for Winterhaven students

2007-01-05T12:52:00.000-08:00

To: PPS School Board Members
From: Moss Drake, Linda Candello
Re: Slow down for Winterhaven students
Date: January 4th, 2007

Members of the school board:

We are writing to urge you to reject the recommendation of Superintendent Phillips to relocate Winterhaven School to the Clark building.

On the face of it, Superintendent Phillips' proposal to relocate Winterhaven may seem like an opportunity to grow a successful program. On closer inspection, however, the proposal has a number of problems. First, the new location, Clark, is neither central to the Winterhaven community, nor to Portland geographically. Second, the proposed site lacks equipment and resources essential to the Winterhaven curriculum. And finally, and most importantly, there has been no public process to involve the Winterhaven students and families in a collaborative effort to develop the program for the future.

Our main concern is that moving the school will fundamentally disrupt it. Dr. Phillips says "this set of recommendations allows two of our very successful schools to be moved as entire communities into buildings that suit their needs and are in good shape." We have to disagree with both assumptions: 1) that the community can be moved intact, and 2) that the existing Brooklyn building is inadequate.

History
We can understand the interest in Winterhaven. We were impressed with the school before enrolling our kindergartner five years ago. His writing and math skills were already past the level of most first graders, and we wanted a curriculum that would meet his needs, but we were also dedicated to staying with public schools. We toured Winterhaven and saw on the chalkboard in Mr. Huckaba's kindergarten classroom the steps for the scientific method (observe, hypothesize, test, refine), and at that moment we knew this school would live up to its goals of being an accelerated math / science learning program. We were also impressed by how the principal stressed that the program was only for students who were interested in participating in this sort of learning environment, and that parental involvement and volunteerism was expected.

In 2003 the Brooklyn neighborhood school was shut down, and Winterhaven expanded to fill the Brooklyn facility. My understanding of the neighborhood school closure was that a certain number of local students would be preferred to enter the Winterhaven program, if they elected to do so. Since then, Winterhaven has grown from 250 students to 340 students, a K-8 program that efficiently uses the Brooklyn building.

Community
We feel that Winterhaven School is more than just a building. It is made up of the students, teachers, curriculum and parents that form the school community. Yet, the majority of students currently at Winterhaven live close to the school neighborhood. A study of the students at Winterhaven shows that one third of them live within two miles of Brooklyn, while not one Winterhaven student lives in the Clark zip code. If this proposal is accepted it's likely that more than a third of the families will not move with the school. In addition to this, a survey of Winterhaven families indicates that moving the school to Clark could decrease volunteerism by up to 75%! Considering the number of students who would not make the move, this can't be called a relocation. This is really closing one school, and then opening a different school with a similar curriculum in a new location. The end result will be a program with all the uncertainties of a brand new school, and an unstable learning environment for the students for several years to come.

In addition to parental involvement, Winterhaven students benefit from programs which depend on the school's location. A key example is a life sciences program organized around trips to Oaks Bottom wetlands. Add to this easy Tri-met access to downtown, and you begin to get a picture of how a location central to the Portland geographic area is important to the school. Moving the school six miles to the east will have an impact on the learning opportunities for the students currently at Winterhaven.

Other Opportunities
Rather than moving the existing program, we suggest examining ways to grow a successful program in a new location. One suggestion might be to create a new school called "Summerhaven," which replicates the Winterhaven curriculum. This focus option could share Clark with another more established program, such as the Creative Science School.

Another possibility of growing the Winterhaven program is to consider expanding the Brooklyn building. The Brooklyn building, with 16 classrooms, already has a maximum capacity of 400 students. So, according to Dr. Phillips, Brooklyn already meets the lower limit of an efficient school. But, the extension built in 1951 is structurally sound enough to support a second floor with four or five classrooms. That, along with dividing the existing portable into two classrooms expands the building capacity to 550 students, about the same as Clark.

As a side note, we don't believe that a school must have at least 400 students to be efficient. If you want to compare efficiencies, you could divide the operating costs by the number of students. On a graph of all PPS schools, Winterhaven is almost exactly in the middle for cost per student. We'd say this smaller building is already more efficient than half of the schools in the district!

Process
The most frustrating aspect of the recommendation is the fact that it came without notice, shortly before a long holiday break, and without any public process.

For the past eight or nine months there were a number of "conversations" on the Sellwood Community Reconfiguration Proposal. During this time Winterhaven was involved in the conversation, but never mentioned in the final resolution of the recommendation (Resolution No. 3590). Add to this the fact that PPS has no formal growth plan for Winterhaven, and it feels like the recommendation to relocate the school is a based on a plan that's convenient to PPS facilities but doesn't really consider the education needs of students anywhere.

We would like a win/win solution. This means developing a growth plan for Winterhaven, and including students and families across the city in a collaborative effort to make sure both our schools and our students are successful.

Conclusion
Please slow the process down. Please reject the recommendation to close Winterhaven and move it to a new site. Please consider working in a collaborative way with the Winterhaven school community and other Portland families to develop a plan for future growth of the Winterhaven program.

PPS wants to move Winterhaven away from the kids

2007-01-05T12:21:00.000-08:00

Last month Portland Public Schools superintendent Vicki Phillips put forth a proposal to move Winterhaven from the Brooklyn school to the Clark school. Brooklyn has a capacity of 400 kids, and Clark has a capacity of 575, so she sees this as a win/win solution where Winterhaven can grow, and PPS gets to make a large school building with a declining student population more efficient. Unfortunately it's not a clear win for anyone.

Among other things, a key problem is that 1/3 of the students live near Winterhaven, and not one student lives in the Clark zip code. While Dr. Phillips says she wants geographic equality, Clark is on the furthest east edge of PPS's boundary. The Sellwood Bee has an article about this with the sub-headling: "Brooklyn's School could move away from its students."

The Oregonian has also covered this issue, one article being sympathetic ("Parents of magnet schools' kids mystified by siting proposals"), the other somewhat less ("Angry Winterhaven parents ready to vote with their feet").

In addition to the geography, there are other problems with the move. Winterhaven just finished paying for a high-school quality science lab which was funded by PTSA money over the past 6 or so years. Also Winterhaven middle schoolers have a life sciences program where they travel to Oaks Bottom.

The strangest thing about this is that Creative Science School, which is located much closer to Clark, wants to move into the Clark facility. "The recommendation caught parents of Creative Science students by surprise. Long promised their own building, many parents feel betrayed that Phillips didn't opt to move their school to Clark."

Other problems with the move:
According to PPS the Clark and Winterhaven buildings are almost equivalent in terms of the state of facilities:

Neither of them are fully ADA accessible.
Both need boiler conversion
Both have had seismic improvements (most recently Winterhaven)
Both have the same water system
Clark needs a new roof: “This facility is one of 38 facilities identified as needing roofing replacement in the near future. Portions of the roof are in poor condition.”

Winterhaven has $982,000 of capital spending needs
Clark has $1,355,000 of capital spending needs
So Clark actually needs almost $400,000 more work!
Also, according to this same document, Clark will need a new roof in a couple years, while Winterhaven/Brooklyn’s can last for longer.
Clark also needs paint, and interior work.
Clark also just costs more to operate: $167,700 / year compared to $155,000 for Winterhaven.
Clark’s 2005 budget: $2,408,936.
Winterhaven’s 2005 budget: $1,489,520

If you want to write a letter to the PPS board, their committee is going to decide whether to vote on the recommendation next Monday (Jan 8th). If they decide to continue with the recommendation, there will be a vote on January 22nd.

Clown Girl's first review - Publisher's Weekly

2006-12-22T11:20:00.000-08:00

Publisher's Weekly has just put out the first "official" review of Clown Girl. It's a generally good review, although I think they're wrong about "not much happens."

I finished the book a couple days ago. I laughed out loud at least five times at the appropriately funny parts, and cringed at the painful parts. Nita tries to be funny, but sometimes she's really a sad clown.

And, on another note, Monica's agent got this email:

CLOWNGIRL by Monica Drake is scheduled for review in the 12/18/06 issue of PUBLISHERS WEEKLY. Can you tell me who controls the film/TV rights to this title, please?

Film rights? That's exciting.

First government-issued memorial with a Wiccan pentacle

2006-12-07T09:08:00.000-08:00

Speaking of symbols being misunderstood, the VA has allowed a widow to have a Wiccan pentacle on the soldier's memorial in a VA cemetery.

Roberta Stewart, widow of Sgt. Patrick Stewart, and Wiccan leaders said it was the first government-issued memorial plaque with a Wiccan pentacle, a five-pointed star enclosed in a circle.

About 1,800 active-duty service members identify themselves as Wiccans, according to 2005 Defense Department statistics, and Wicca is one of the fastest-growing faiths in the country. Its adherents worship the Earth and believe they must give to the community. Some consider themselves "white" or good witches, pagans or neo-pagans.

Clown Girl available at Hawthorne Books

2006-12-07T09:02:00.000-08:00

My sister's book is available from the publisher, Hawthorne Books.

If you buy it from them it's only $10 (for a limited time only? Usually it's $15).
Plus, they'll mail it to you now, rather than when the novel's 'released' next February.

Or, you can read an excerpt from the book here.

Finished NaNoWriMo 2006

2006-11-30T00:04:00.000-08:00

Whew! I finished writing a novel this month.
Ok, it's a really rough draft, completely unedited, and more than a little rambling. But it's 50,000 words.

That's the second time I've tried my hand at National Novel Writing Month. I started pretty slow this year, and it seems like Thanksgiving came early this year, which sort of messed up my schedule.

Anyway, last year I did a first person viewpoint, so I tried a third person narration this time. Surprisingly, that was simpler than first person, don't know why. But, I thought it constrained my writing so that I was using more pat phrases. Huh.

This year my novel was a space opera. It is sort of derivative of Star Trek (the original series, of course) and 1930's Buck Rogers / Flash Gordon serials (except with more plot). It's a series of connected stories about the crew of a space vessel that is knocked into "unmapped space" and they have to find their way back.

You can read an excerpt here (if it takes too long to load the flash, the link also has a 'text only' excerpt. Look at the bottom of the page).

Now, I'm ready to watch some television.

Peace = Satan?

2006-11-28T09:09:00.000-08:00

A Denver homeowner was ordered to take down a Christmas wreath in the shape of a peace symbol. According to the news report:

Jensen was ordered to take the wreath down when some residents in her 200-home subdivision saw it as a protest of the Iraq war. Bob Kearns, president of the board, also said some saw it as a symbol of Satan.

The homeowners' association demanded Jensen remove the wreath from her house, saying it doesn't allow flags or signs that are considered divisive.

Eventually they let her keep it up after hundreds of people offered to pay the $1000 fine.
Maybe it was a protest of the war? She gets her final say:

"It seems whenever someone tries to say 'Peace on Earth' it is met with so much resistance," she said. "The incredible amount of support we have received over the last couple of days really is proof to us of how many people believe in peace and in our right to say it."

On the other hand, the leader of the Christian Coalition resigned. Apparently, he wanted to expand the agenda to include helping with "issues such as poverty, justice, and creation care." The Christian Coalition board, on the other hand, wasn't interested.

"After initial willingness to consider these changes, the board of the CCA decided, 'that is fine, but that is not who we are,'" Hunter said.