Category: News

Democrats will happily accept responsibility

GOP’s Michael Steele says he will hold Democrats responsible for their health-care votes in the upcoming elections [“Next health-care vote today,” News, Dec. 22].

Democrats should be happy to be held responsible for their votes on this monumental legislation.

Republicans also fought tooth and nail to stop both Social Security and Medicare when they became law.

I thank God that the Democrats are again accountable for their votes, and that we will look back at this legislation as doing the right thing for the public, while the Republicans again were on the wrong side of this important issue.

— Jim Brown, Wenatchee

Dino Rossi

Dino Rossi didn’t want to tell us what the acronym GOP stands for.

But now we know: Grand Obstructionist Party.

— Gerry Esterbrook, Seattle

Only downtown Seattle will benefit

The Times editorial “Needed: tunnel vision on viaduct,” [Opinion, Dec. 22] recommended tunnel vision for the replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

I have just the opposite conclusion.

Given a view of all events in the past eight years, a tunnel is the peak example of tunnel vision. First, last, and always, a tunnel benefits only organized and/or powerful interests of downtown Seattle.

None of the studies and associated factors initiated by the combined agreement of the governor, mayor and King County executive in December 2008, gave any specific option leader.

This decision can best be described as instant gratification for downtown.

Lost in the decision was the permanent impact on anyone outside downtown Seattle, including approximately the western third of the entire city. Particularly galling is the need to charge a toll for tunnel operation and maintenance.

To those impacted, a toll appears to be a tribute for passing downtown. Revising state legislation to pay for any project overruns would be a gift to only downtown Seattle.

— John Storz, Seattle

Similar to Bridgewater sewage-treatment plant debacle

Every time I see coverage of the viaduct replacement tunnel, I think of all the problems that are occurring with the Brightwater sewage-treatment project [“Deep inside King County’s big dig,” page one, Dec. 11].

The construction and machines are similar in nature to the proposal along the waterfront. Does this not concern our elected officials?

I’m sure that plenty of feasibility studies were run prior to drilling, yet the drills in the Brightwater tunnel are broken and the whole thing is way behind schedule.

No one is sure who is going to pay for the repair and cost overruns associated with downtime, or when that tunnel will actually be functional.

And as for that [earthquake] video, which set us back more than $80,000 and was deemed too scary to be released, I think 90 percent of area residents are smart enough to have predicted that same scenario without the huge expense.

If they were not, simple video footage of the double-decker bridge that collapsed after the earthquake in the Bay Area would have been far cheaper and much more chilling. While not exactly the same, I think any reasonable person could extrapolate that being near the viaduct and sea wall during an earthquake would be life threatening and very damaging.

I, like Mayor Greg Nickels once quipped, increase my speed when I’m on the viaduct. It is an accident waiting to happen. But is the road we plan to go down with this project ever going to be open?

— Shauna Bellamy, Seattle

MICRO FARMING HOW-TO — SEEDS/ANIMAL SOURCES: The urban, backyard and small scale farming of heirloom tomatoes continues to be profitable for many involved in micro eco-farming. Different varieties grow best in different regions, making the crop of heirloom tomatoes in your tomato garden unique. And if desired, the value-added possibilities with crops from a tomato garden are almost endless and very adaptable to food trends.

Below are some great newly released heirloom tomato varieties available in 2010 and two favorite resources for learning the deeper specifics on growing very large amounts of organic heirloom tomatoes in a small market tomato garden. (About 1.3 billion tons of tomatoes are imported to the USA just from Mexico alone. Those grown in our country are trucked for thousands of miles to neighborhoods, cities and rural areas which could easily be nurturing their own market tomato gardens and selling them locally.)

One of our favorite producers of heirloom seeds is Baker Creek Seed Company out of Missouri, with a recent new store in California. They have both an online catalogue and a beautiful print catalogue. Here are some new heirloom tomatoes from them: Monomakh’s Hat from Siberia — described as honey-sweet and so delicious you almost can’t stop eating them. Beduin – described as meaty and rich. And Gypsy, a purple tomato with one of the best colors of all those in this color category. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Peruse Baker Creek’s and other heirloom seed catalogs and start enticing your customers with late winter farm newsletters or blogs on new tomato varieties you’ll be trying for the upcoming season.

The first favorite book (the second resource is below) on growing literally hundreds of pounds of tomatoes organically from one plant is How to Grow World Record Tomatoes. (This link leads to our Amazon affiliate for it. Don’t forget to shop locally, though!) One of our editors bought this book for her dad who was an avid tomato grower. I think the title can be deceptive. “World Record” to many means individual tomatoes grow very big, maybe winning blue ribbons. By “World Record” in this case, the author of the book means amounts: sometimes more than 300 pounds of tomatoes from one plant, whereas commercial tomato plants grow only about 8 pounds. The author has a slight Christian slant to his writing which even those who aren’t Christian don’t seem to find offensive, though some might a little. His growing region is a relatively hot area, though, so more northern small scale farming tomato garden efforts may get less than his record of about 340 pounds per plant, but even 200 as compared to 8 is a huge advantage.

The other resource we recently affiliated with for those who prefer instantly downloadable books is called Organic Tomato Magic. It has the criteria we’re looking for: organic (or sustainable) growing methods, focused on creating exceptional flavor, and producing much larger-than-commercial quantities in smaller tomato gardens – which are the needs of the urban, backyard and small scale farming community. The author comes from a long generation of farmers and offers methods such as a special grooming of the number of leaves on the tomato plant to produce flavor that your customers can’t resist, such as delicious tomato aroma even before slicing the tomatoes open, something that certainly helps roadside and farmers’ market sales, and keeps CSA customers and u-pickers loyal to your small scale farming venture. (We always want to hear from you if you have a problem with a third party resource we recommend. We can’t change third party resources, but we can certainly stop recommending them if they don’t live up to our standards. Our contact is on the home page of the Micro Eco-Farming Center.) Also see our full length article overviewing heirloom tomatoes in our “Crop Library” on the first home page of the Micro Eco-Farming Center, and we always suggest that micro eco-farmers go even deeper with how they farm the soil than what even some organic book methods suggest. Use their above ground spacing and pruning ideas, but add the goal of creating deep, live, humus-rich soil with the full spectrum of trace minerals from the sea or from very deep rooted cover crops, and see just how much more productive you can be. Our article at the Center on nurturing the soil is a good starter for small scale farming of any crop, including a first market tomato garden: – www.MicroEcoFarming.com

Next time you want to illustrate a flow or concept with a diagramming tool, throw away the source file as soon as you export the PNG or PDF. If you’re afraid to throw the source file away, you spent too much time on it.

Indiana-based startup ChaCha was founded in 2006 as a cross between Ask.com and the Mechanical Turk: Users would ask a question, and they’d be connected to another human being who would provide an answer in a real-time chat session. In short, it didn’t work out.

In early 2008, ChaCha ditched that business and reinvented itself as a question-and-answer service for mobile phone users. Text ChaCha a question, and they’ll text you an answer. The company ran a promotional campaign to provide election-year research that fall. (You can use ChaCha from a desktop, too, but their business focus is on text messages.)

The company claims substantial funding for its efforts. In January of this year, they announced $30 million from unnamed investors. Today, ChaCha says they’ve added another $7 million from anonymous lenders, bringing the company’s total funding to $69 million.

That’s a hefty pile of loans for a startup. What I’m hoping the company will get back to me on is: How will they make money? The company sells ads served with its answers. Does that bring in enough revenue to make what seems like a labor-intensive business profitable? Is there some tech trickery that automates the answers?

And since when do late-stage investors in a startup — ChaCha has already gone through rounds A, B, C and D — not want everyone to kn0w about the smart investment they’re making? For seed funding it’s typical to be coy, but not so much closer to a hopeful IPO or acquisition.

I couldn’t find a designated press contact, so I texted my questions to ChaCha’s SMS address, 242242. I’ll update here if they write back. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

(Update: ChaCha sent this reply to my BlackBerry: “Thanks for you Q, we are experiencing temporary network problems. Please try again later!”)

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When Nokia first sued Apple for patent infringement over the iPhone, we noted that it appeared like yet another case of a company getting beat in the market suddenly whipping out some patents to sue over. This seemed to anger the usual bunch of patent system defenders — along with a group of Nokia defenders — but it appears that others are noticing as well. The NY Times has an article discussing Nokia’s sudden aggressiveness in the patent realm, noting that the company has been facing some business troubles, and it’s notable that its patent aggression seems to have shown up at just the same time as its own performance trouble. Funny that.

Of course, this is a major issue. As with so many high tech areas today, there are giant patent thickets. It’s effectively impossible to launch a product that doesn’t violate dozens, if not hundreds, of patents. And (despite claims to the contrary) it’s got absolutely nothing to do with companies “stealing” from each other. It’s got plenty to do with companies making the next logical step in the innovative process, and coming up with products that meet what the market wants. But with patent offices around the world being willing to hand out patents on minor changes, it’s impossible to actually build a useful product that doesn’t violate patents. This has nothing to do with innovation. At this point, patents are just a weapon that can be flung against anyone who does innovate if you can’t compete.

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Indiana-based startup ChaCha was founded in 2006 as a cross between Ask.com and the Mechanical Turk: Users would ask a question, and they’d be connected to another human being who would provide an answer in a real-time chat session. In short, it didn’t work out.

In early 2008, ChaCha ditched that business and reinvented itself as a question-and-answer service for mobile phone users. Text ChaCha a question, and they’ll text you an answer. The company ran a promotional campaign to provide election-year research that fall. (You can use ChaCha from a desktop, too, but their business focus is on text messages.)

The company claims substantial funding for its efforts. In January of this year, they announced $30 million from unnamed investors. Today, ChaCha says they’ve added another $7 million from anonymous lenders, bringing the company’s total funding to $69 million.

That’s a hefty pile of loans for a startup. What I’m hoping the company will get back to me on is: How will they make money? The company sells ads served with its answers. Does that bring in enough revenue to make what seems like a labor-intensive business profitable? Is there some tech trickery that automates the answers?

And since when do late-stage investors in a startup — ChaCha has already gone through rounds A, B, C and D — not want everyone to kn0w about the smart investment they’re making? For seed funding it’s typical to be coy, but not so much closer to a hopeful IPO or acquisition.

I couldn’t find a designated press contact, so I texted my questions to ChaCha’s SMS address, 242242. I’ll update here if they write back. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

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The TP2 has been known to do many things(except scratch my &%$ from space) but the guys over at WME found another thing you can use it for. Apparently while driving home, one of the editors took his TP2 and his new Ebay bought car kit and used it to record him self driving through a blizzard—which is nothing compared to what I am going through over here in MN with 8ichs of snow at times. Watch the video and maybe the quality will persuade you to head over to eBay and get your own kit.

by Anna Fahey

Editor’s Note: Anna finished this post (and a few
more) before she went on maternity leave. She gave birth to a healthy
girl, Audrey, on December 13.

One year ago, just before Christmas, it snowed in Seattle. Not our usual short-lived dusting, but a real dump that lasted a few solid days and, because we’re not prepared for such events, veritably shut down the city (at least for cars).

For Seattle, it was real snow. Some say it was enough snow to shift the outcome of the mayoral race in 2009. And as former Sightliner Elisa Murray noted, it was enough snow to blanket the city in good-heartedness, in a renewed sense of community and sharing. In short, the snow boosted Seattle’s social capital: people were out and about in their neighborhoods, talking to one another and not isolated in their cars; holiday shoppers frequented local retailers rather than anonymous malls; neighbors gave neighbors a helping hand; folks helped each other get to work; great conversations with strangers were struck up as never before. In short, people slowed down, rediscovered their legs and their neighborhoods, and focused on the ultra-local.

I bring this up not only because snow season is upon us once again, but also because another event in my life has practically bowled me over with social capital—the strength of ties to friends, family, and community. Being pregnant and having babies, it turns out, brings out a spirit of community that rivals, or even surpasses, the snow-day phenomenon.

It occurs to me (and I’m not just speaking from a misty-eyed,
pregnancy-induced, idealized day dream magnified by the holiday
spirit), that this is the kind of social capital that we could learn
from even when no one around is pregnant and the streets are bare. It’s
the kind of sharing, swapping, and community exchange that’s
sustainable, cost-saving—and fulfilling to boot.

I’ve never been showered with so much useful,
practical hand-me-down stuff. I’ve never before been offered home
cooked meals during a busy or trying time. I’ve never been asked by so
many what help or assistance I need, from doing my laundry to cleaning
my house to baby-sitting to dog-sitting, to rides around town. I’ve
been offered all kinds of quality cast-off stuff from the obvious (baby
strollers) to the less obvious (a microwave oven). That’s the big
stuff. There’s little stuff from strangers that’s just as touching: the
genuine conversations at the bus stop about parenting and the joys of
raising children; the way people offer up their seat or go out of their
way to hold open doors or reach for the high shelf at the grocery
store; neighbors I never talked to before checking in on us. Even just
smiles and knowing looks as I walk down the street.

I won’t miss being pregnant, but I will miss this often unspoken
sense of community and fellowship that comes with an absurdly inflated
belly. 

Suddenly, we find ourselves in a new world of sharing and networking. We’re now eligible for
previously unknown mechanisms for redistribution of used consumer
goods and shared services. There are neighborhood parenting groups for us to join,
listserves for sharing information about events, items for sale, free
stuff, community politics, nanny share opportunities, neighborhood
co-op day cares, private high-chair and stroller swaps… Who knew?

It all makes me wonder why we don’t share things—clothes, food, errands,
household items, ideas, advice, and our time—with our friends and
neighbors more often, or even to a fraction of the degree that people
are sharing those things with me and my husband now that we’re
expecting.

Maybe I just wasn’t trying hard enough to seek out this kind of community and now it’s easier to find.

There are people out there doing this stuff who aren’t connected just
because they’re parents. Three cheers to the clothing swap party hosts
and to anybody who mows their elderly neighbor’s lawn (my husband Gus)
or organizes carpools. Even garage sales and Craig’s list trading are ways to recycle stuff back into the community instead of
tossing it away, but there’s not always a strong personal connection
that goes with these activities. 

What will get us out of our houses, out of our cars, and into each
other’s lives in the way that snow days and babies seem to magically do?

Image courtesy: Slightlynorth, Flickr.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/slightlynorth/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

This post originally appeared at Sightline’s Daily Score blog.

Related Links:

Sugar and Spice and…Lead and Mercury

A womb of one’s own

Growing up green: Breathing for two

After rising for a decade, the U.S. homeownership rate peaked at 69 percent in the third quarter of 2006. Over the following two and a half years, as home prices fell in many parts of the country and the unemployment rate rose sharply, the homeownership rate declined by 1.7 percentage points. The current decline in the homeownership rate is approaching in magnitude the 2.3 percentage point decline observed in the early 1980s. How much more will it fall? To address this, a trio of New York Federal Reserve Bank economists — Andrew Haughwout, Richard Peach, and Joseph Tracy — propose the concept of the “homeownership gap” to gauge the downward pressure on the homeownership rate.

They define it as the difference between the official homeownership rate and a recomputed rate – the “effective homeownership rate” that excludes owners who are in a negative-equity position, meaning that the value of their houses is less than their outstanding mortgage balance. Such homeowners are likely to become renters soon, the economists reason.

Their estimate of this gap suggests that the measured homeownership rate will likely experience significant downward pressure in the coming years. “The current severe house price cycle, combined with borrowers who had little or no equity at origination of their mortgages, has led to a dramatic rise in homeowners with negative equity and, therefore, a large gap between the measured and effective homeownership rates. In some of the worst hit metropolitan areas, effective homeownership rates are 25 to 45 percentage points below the measured rate.”

Filed under: Sedan, Performance, Government/Legal, Bugatti, Luxury

The question of whether or not Volkswagen will decide to put the Bugatti 16C Galibier into production is still unanswered. While we’ve heard rumors that the German automaker was leaning towards the affirmative, the green light has yet to be lit.

Still, Bugatti is making sure all of its ducks are in a row… just in case. Evidence of such can be seen in a trademark filing with the World Intellectual Property Organization that seeks to keep other automakers from stealing the car’s design and shape. After all, it’s happened before.

With Veyron production scheduled to come to an end after the 2012 model year, Bugatti only has a little bit of time to decide if it’s moving forward on that supercar’s successor, and if so, whether or not the front-engine, four-door Galibier is the direction it needs to go. We should know soon enough.

[Source: Carscoop]

Bugatti trademarks 16C Galibier shape, production decision coming soon? originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re like many of us, you’re home for the holidays. Rather than complaining about the springs in the pullout couch or watching endless television reruns, consider rediscovering your hometown. Featured on today’s Flickr blog, Noticings is a location-based game similar to Foursquare that forces you to discover new gems in your old haunts.

Sponsor

Each day Flickr users upload three geotagged photographs with the tag “noticings”. From here they receive points for game-related activities including finding misspelled signs, being the first to tag a photo in a particular neighborhood, or for noticing something everyday for a week. Users upload photos via the $3 Noticings iPhone application or through Flickr’s regular desktop, web and iPhone tools.

Just imagine the possibilities of capturing your hometown. Document the visual parfait of the abandoned fish cannery, drink in the chaos of the strip mall parking lot, and of course, don’t forget to snap the fine public art displayed in your local pub latrine. This service is a great way to keep you sane in your hometown while literally putting it on the map for its unique features.

ReadWriteStart’s Chris Cameron recently profiled Stalqer – a service that maps your friends based on their geotagged Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare status updates. In a similar vein, Noticings leverages an existing service to create a completely new experience. Coupled with augmented reality mobile applications, location-based services like Noticings and Stalqer have done much to get geeks out of their homes into the real world. To join Noticings, check out the game rules at http://noticin.gs/rules.

Discuss

Sustainable solar charging station is demonstrated in New York City. …

… “The drive-in station was built by Beautiful Earth (using recycled shipping containers) on land it owns just blocks from company headquarters. ” …

Via New York Times: Solar Car-Charging

Virginia native weighs in on our not-so-bad tax system

Editor, The Times:

I’ve been amused by the recent opinions and letters calling Washington state’s tax system regressive and hurting business [“Why do so many oppose a state income tax?,” Opinion, Northwest Voices, Dec. 16]. The fact is we would not have the caliber of workers and businesses under any other system.

I recently moved to Washington from Virginia due to two major factors: Washington’s thriving tech industry and no state income tax.

No income tax allows companies in Washington to effectively pay employees more than elsewhere. Virginia’s 5.75 percent income tax was a hefty haircut on my total compensation, especially with an additional average 5 percent sales tax.

Washington’s tax policy helped lure me away from another company in a different state. Plus, a higher sales tax and no income tax puts the right incentives in place for a thriving economy. It encourages people to save and invest their money versus to spend and consume, creating the infrastructure and capital we need to continue to develop Washington’s economy.

And as for business, just look around.

Washington’s economy is among the top performers in the country during this recession. While unemployment is up and some businesses are hurting, they’re actually doing well relative to other parts of the country. The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council recently rated Washington among the top five most friendly states for entrepreneurs. And everyone knows that job growth begins with small businesses.

States with the highest income taxes are actually the ones suffering the most. California is bankrupt, and New York is almost there. We should not be taking tax policy advice from them, no matter how progressive they seem.

Let’s keep the income tax out of Washington so we can continue to attract talented people to work for our thriving small businesses.

— Samuel J. Fetchero, Bellevue

Creates safety hazard for everyone on board

It’s nice that Chance McKinney won his music prize [“Mukilteo teacher gets ‘real’ with song,” NWMonday, Dec. 21].

It is not so nice that he deliberately interfered with flight operation and navigation — and possibly compromised the safety of everyone on board — by secretly using his cellphone to record the song.

What a great example of consideration for others.

— Nancy Anderson, Seattle

Seattle just another Detroit?

“Washington has one of the nation’s better business climates” [“Here’s what to watch around here next year,” Business, Jon Talton column, Dec. 20]? Compared to whom, the old Soviet Union? Come on, dispense of the bull. You can go to many other states that have more favorable climates to conduct business activity than Washington.

Lower standard of living in South Carolina [“The right companies will come along,” Opinion, Northwest Voices, Dec. 16]? You’ve got to be kidding.

I live in South King County. We just had another fatal shooting here involving a police officer and a domestic-violence suspect. These types of confrontations are becoming commonplace, as we also had a Des Moines police officer shot and killed along Highway 99 during the past decade.

If you live in this area then you would realize most of South and Southwest King County is overpopulated and crime infested.

As a friend of mine said, most of Seattle and the metro area is slowly becoming like another Detroit. Yes, I agree bringing in McDonnell Douglas was a serious mistake and the Machinists union lives in a liberal fantasy world of days gone by. However, just calling crime and unemployment a problem that most big cities share is avoiding the issue. It’s poor management and a lack of legal willpower.

Sweeping our problems under the carpet and pretending the whole state is like Bellevue and the Eastside is sadly a common perception, in both Seattle and Olympia.

— Craig West, Des Moines

Which middle class do union workers support?

There have been several articles recently about our state’s labor and labor unions [“Boeing and the Machinists: a missed opportunity,” Opinion, Dan Jacoby guest commentary, Dec. 18].

More than 60 percent of the workers in the state are nonunion, and money is tight. This would be a great time to have our tax dollars spent on nonunion workers to build our roads, schools and state buildings.

The union bosses or stanch union members say they want to keep wages up to support the middle class. Now if you ask them who redid the roof of their house, or who did their concrete driveway, they will say that they got a nonunion contractor to do the job. The nonunion contractor did a great job at a good price.

The only middle-class people the union workers want to support are themselves, at the expense of the taxpayers.

— Larry Worden, Auburn

Personal genomics startup 23andMe has recently raised another $14.2 million to close out its $27.8 million Series B round, according to regulatory filings with the SEC. The filing indicates that the new funding is an amendment to the company’s previously reported raise of $11 million in May, which was followed by an additional $2.6 million in June. We’ve reached out to 23andMe to confirm the funding amount, and to also determine if there are any new investors. Update: 23andMe have confirmed that they’ve raised funding, but have not yet confirmed the amount.

The last few months have been rocky for the company. In September, co-founder Linda Avey left 23andMe to start a foundation dedicated to studying Alzheimer’s disease. In late October, the company laid off a substantial chunk of its workforce, but declined to comment on how many people were affected.

23andMe is one of the first personal genomics companies, allowing customers to have portions of their DNA analyzed for around $400 (there are a few different products available). After completing a test, customers can log into the site to get reports on their genetic makeup, including a listing of some diseases they may be at risk for.

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