New Job!

Been trained on a lot of things at work, but mostly will be checking people in at registration, then at the end of my shift touring the loops looking for messes and any problems, driving out to the Peter Iredale (P.I. in the lingo) and Lot D to lock the restrooms, lock the gates at Coffenbury and Battery Russell, et cetera. Rode my bike to work a couple of times, saw big herd of elk. One night locking up the P.I. saw the biggest cow elk! Like a moose.

People I work with are great. Ft Stevens largest campground west of the Mississippi. All sites have power and water, half have water, power, and sewer. Only one loop for tent campers, and one loop for bicycle campers (can use the regular sites anyway). We are booked every weekend through the summer starting next weekend, and many weeks through the middle of the summer are fully booked.

[Took a break for dinner and to get back in uniform so Margo could take a picture.]

Deceased Minke whale beached on Clatsop Spit, was buried before I could see it. Cause of death: alleged ingested plastic bags. Big wind storm this week, very low pressure system, but no problems this time.

Liquified Natural Gas Port and Pipeline

Bradford Landing LNG port and pipeline deal is "suspended". I believe the business term is "sunk costs".

NorthernStar Natural Gas Inc. said Tuesday that it is suspending efforts to develop a liquefied natural gas import terminal on the Columbia River, 25 miles east of Astoria. The announcement ends a six-year effort that consumed as much as $100 million of investors' capital and countless hours of regulatory work while sparking a firestorm of public opposition from property owners and environmentalists. The Houston-based energy development company sent out a one-page news release Tuesday afternoon quoting NorthernStar President Paul Soanes saying extended delays in state and federal permitting and the difficult investment environment "have forced us to suspend development." The company characterized its move as a "suspension" of the project, not a termination. It did not return follow-up calls on Tuesday.

Evolve!

Ten resistant species of weeds in at least 22 states are infesting millions of acres.

But farmers sprayed so much Roundup that weeds quickly evolved to survive it. Read the whole thing here.

Oil Spill

Watched the News Hour, BBC, and DW T.V. last night before bed. All three led with the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. When I worked in the oilfields I was amazed at how degrading the process was to the environment - even when everything went smoothly. One of my better memories is when our service crew arrived at the well just as the driller lost a tool down the hole. Took 'em a day to fish that baby out. Every truck running to keep warm (Wyoming winter). Beautiful sunrise, then horses running on the prairie. I was pointed to Infrastructurist by C&L.

A picture tells the story.

Ruh-Roh!

Watched the testimony on McNeil Lehrer last night before bed, and was struck by the whole High School Student Council aspect of the elected representatives grilling the 'smart kids'. Both sides of the table were condescending. Sheesh. The Blankfein photo sent me to the imagetubes for a familiar face. Need to darken those eyebrows!

From Valerie MacEwan:

Greenfield dismisses the unflattering analogies that liken Washington to an "elitist men's club; a recklessly run business; and a den of every know public and private vice, including lechery, larceny, pride, sloth, dissembling, and, above all, the lust for acquiring power and wielding it cruelly and carelessly" and chooses instead to compare Washington to high school. Nobody, Greenfield claims, ever gets over high school, a "preeminently nervous place." The basic social codes, those which define the imperatives for acceptance and popularity, consists of strict confines created to assure one's capacity to please and to "be associated with the right people" as well as to "impress and be admired by the vast, undifferentiated rest."

Greenfield justifies her comparison:

Now consider this settlement's profoundly high school nature. It is psychologically fenced off from the larger community within which it makes its home, free--like irresponsible youth--of all but the minimal obligations of citizenship to that community, and absorbed to the exclusion of all else in its own eccentric aims and competitions. And the high-school-like feel political/governmental Washington takes on by virtue of all of this is intensified by certain givens of its existence... One is the only-passing-through nature of so much time spent here...

She goes on, describing the terms "underscoring the fixed period of time for which people in both the legislative and executive branches have been sent to do their jobs," comparing the vacation schedules of Washington to a high-school academic year, and finishes her justification with the ultimate comparison -- freshmen and senior status.

Washington dissects the media, the politician, "the policy dingdongs on the seventh floor" and the social elite.

Multnomah Falls

Tim Yuan in town for business, we got together for dinner - Thai Noodle a la Brian - then drove out to Multnomah Falls to do something touristy. The Gorge was great, windy, blustery, and rainy by the time we returned to Portland, but lots of bright sunbreaks before the sun set. Welcome to Oregon!

子曰

知之为知之，不知为不知，是知也。