At the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame Induction Banquet

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Alaska


The 32nd floor of the Westin St. Francis has a gorgeous view overlooking Union Square.


Formerly a nightclub (Oz? I think) it looks much nicer now after redecorating.


I’m no sports fan, but my wife, football fanatic she is, had a nerdgasm when we walked into the cocktail reception and ran into Jim Plunkett.


Lots of sports stars here; sadly, the only name I recognize is Vida Blue. My wife’s in heaven, though.

Of course, what’s got both of us really excited is that a certain former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State is seated on the dais about twenty yards to our right, where she’ll be presenting Gene Washington for induction into the Hall of Fame.


We’re hoping Ms. Rice will allow us to shake her hand and take a photo. Hey, if Romney picked Condi as Veep, we’d vote for him on that basis alone!

UPDATE: Fantastic program, amazing inductees, stellar presentations, and one awesome charity helping Bay Area kids’ sports.

Plus this!


– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Winter Quarter Closing

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Phil Kadath

My PoliSci 202 course is over on Friday. I turned in my term paper last week and should have it back sooner than later.

Here’s the core of the assignment:

Select any legislative bill that has been introduced in the U.S. Congress this past fall or this year, or is likely to be introduced this year. Your selected bill must be one that has clear opposition. You will need to research the topic, initially using newspaper sources, and then present arguments in support of, or in opposition to, the bill. Strong essays will relate and then refute the opposing point of view.

It is a simple paper, in my mind, for a 200 level course. He wants a proper cover page and a bibliography, with four or five pages worth of report, double spaced, in between. That’s all.

One of the stranger requirements was that we needed a minimum of five newspaper stories on the legislation in the bibliography. I’m not sure what his fascination with newspapers is, but we’ve been required to grab stories from them for various assignments all quarter.

Staying true to form, I wrote my on H.R. 822, the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act. It was passed by the House and sent to the Senate in the fall, so it qualified. I’ve got nine full pages with a three page bibliography, and I severely cut myself off to get it that short. When it gets a grade, I’ll post it here for y’all to read.

In related news, I have just the final exam to complete this week and then I’m off for two weeks.

There are other work related things happening on Friday which will have an effect on my schooling. I will tell you all about these sometime next week, after I post my term paper.

In the mean time, wish me luck.

Posted in Phil Goes to College | 2 Comments

I enjoy my German heritage…

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Alaska

…but must admit this is very true.


– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Griggs v. Duke Power = Source of Our Tuition Misery?

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Alaska

Huh. Hadn’t thought of the issue this way, but it makes sense to me if only because in hiring, considering a college degree as a proxy indicator for competence is exactly what I do:

Academia. What a scam.

In 1971, the Supreme Court ruled in Griggs v. Duke Power Co., in the first and most famous of the disparate impact theory cases, that the use of broad-based aptitude tests in hiring practices was a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Around 1978, college tuition costs began to skyrocket, and haven’t let up since.

Coincidence? I think not.

The answer to busting the hyperinflationary tuition cost curve is to overturn the Griggs ruling. Employers, deprived of the opportunity to directly screen job applicants, have turned to the next available proxy tool of judgment: college degrees.

It doesn’t help that I still encounter college grads who can’t spell or even follow simple instructions to include a writing sample with their resume.

There’s a lot of buzz about the impending replacement of the college degree with massive open online courses or national certification programs — which I think is a very good thing, and moving much faster than the education unions and entrenched institutions would like.

But would employers’ use of such national certifications or aptitude tests in hiring be subject to attack on the basis of Griggs? Nobody’s going to pay for them if employers can’t touch the results with a ten-foot-pole. Or has Griggs in effect been overturned?

Posted in Academia and Other Nonsense | 2 Comments

First Starlight Fire

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Alaska

…since Winter (i.e., the rainy season here in Cali) — which means we can look forward to eight or nine months of regular evenings watching Orion circle overhead by firelight, whisk(e)y and/or wine in hand, and the scent of woodsmoke accented by pipe or cigar (or, for special occasions, an uprooted rosebush tossed on the flames).


Tonight, after a long week at the office for both of us (and it’s only Wednesday!) it was a shot of Knob Creek, followed by a nice Zin and Rocky Patel’s Vintage 1992 Maduro.

The stars wheel above to DJ Finnyon the outdoor speakers, vintage 2006. Hit the link to enjoy.

Sent from my iPhone

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Has anyone read Molon Labe?

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Scott

Utah on verge of passing bill demanding Feds relinquish public land

A bill setting an identical deadline is also moving in the Arizona Legislature.

A Free State movement with a shit-ton of natural resources? Sounds interesting.

“If sovereignty means anything, it means not having to say pretty please, or mother may I,” (Rep.) Ivory said.

Posted in By Ourselves, For Ourselves, The Government is Not Your Friend | 3 Comments

Commute-Tune

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Phil Kadath

As I’ve said here before, Seattle rock-radio sucks. And not just a little bit. It could, quite literally, be the dictionary definition of “100 channels and nothing on” if there was one.

I regularly drive a rather bouncy Jeep so CD’s are out. I don’t even like to take the chance of getting irritated at skipping tunage. I also don’t like to have to strip my interior down every time I get out of the thing, so plugging a MP3 player (or if you’re a cultist, an iPod)  into the head unit is right out as well. I also don’t want to waste precious battery time on my phone doing something so mundane as listening to music, so that too is in the “Nein” column.

I purposely purchased a Kenwood head unit that accepts USB input so that I could just stuff in a thumb/flash drive. The maximum amount of space the head unit will read is 2GB, but that is around 20 hours of music or so, so I really don’t think anyone can say I’m limiting myself.

My favored thumb was holding onto a dozen or so whole albums from bands in the “Classic Rock” genre, but I found myself skipping over half the tracks. This gave me an idea to make a folder that sounds like one of the better local FM stations, except without the crap tracks and commercials. After an hour of flipping through the folders in the harddrive, I now have a 735MB or so folder of nothing but “Classic Rock” tracks sitting in my favorite thumbdrive. That gives me six or seven days of commuting before I have to hear the same song twice.

I had to come up with some rules to keep myself from drowning the folder with just a handful of bands/artists: It had to be in the library of the local “Classic Rock” station, KZOK, but not in a “high rotation” slot. Each artist was limited to two songs. Otherwise, it would have been a Rush, Zep, Steely Dan, ZZ Top, Beatles and Stones folder with a few other artists sprinkled throughout.

Have a looksee below at the screengrabs and let me know who I left out that you think should be included. I will be bringing the thumbdrive in every weekend and switching out songs from the artists with larger libraries until I get tired of this exercise in variety.

Click to enlarge, of course

I think I’ll be making more of these genre specific folders. I’ll share those when they’re done if anyone is interested.

Posted in Kewel! | 8 Comments

Saturday Afternoon Bourbon Tasting

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Alaska


Daughter and soon-to-be son-in-law headed out to scout a ground squirrel shooting spot, and the wife and I are tasting Kentucky straight bourbons in the parlor.

From left: Woodford Reserve Distiller’s Select 90.5 proof; Elijah Craig 18-year-old 90 proof (my favorite); Rowan’s Creek 100.1 proof (wife’s favorite so far); Booker’s 7-year-old 128 proof.

The Rowan’s Creek is awesome and at Costco right now for about $35/bottle; it’s a great deal if you like a really smooth bourbon with a spicy, fiery finish.

Top-shelf whisky seems expensive until you realize how much longer it lasts than the equivalent bottle of wine….


My favorite bourbons right now are the Elijah Craig, Knob Creek, Wild Turkey’s Kentucky Spirit, and a 3-year-old Willett Rye that’s also at Costco. Good stuff.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments

Icy Finger of Death

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Dave RNS Photographer

Glad I’m not a starfish living in Antarctica  .  .  .  .  beware the Brinicle

Posted in Kewel! | 3 Comments

Rust Removal

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Alaska

I accidentally left some of Mom’s tools on the side of the house this winter. Now that it’s sunny she’s gonna start gardening and want ’em back. Oops:


Quick rust removal tool:


Growing up in Oregon, we’d have left it alone. But here in California it takes effort to get something to rust. So bare metal is just fine. Progress:


I am now the official neighborhood weird old guy who sits on the front porch puffing a cigar and polishing yard tools. Sigh.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments