Caregiver Book Club

Posted on May 10, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Put B.

Note: You don’t have to belog to Kaiser to participate in this book club, or even read the book, to join in the discussion

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Posted in Books, Caregiving | 1 Comment

Death with Dignity, an interview with Michael Hebb

Posted on May 9, 2022 by Jim deMaine

This one of a series of interviews about end of life care and choices. DWD is now often referred to as MAID (Medical Aid in Dying) but critics refer to it as assisted suicide. It’s a topic that brings forth strong feelings on both sides.

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On totem journey, Lummi carvers call for Lower Snake dam removal — KNKX Public Radio | By Bellamy Pailthorp

Posted on May 9, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Ed M.

A totem pole depicting killer whale, carrying a baby on her snout loaded on a flatbed.

The main totem from the “Spirit of the Waters” totem journey depicts a 16-foot killer whale, carrying a baby on her snout. It is inspired by the true story of Talequah, an endangered southern resident orca who miscarried in 2018.

A group of native carvers from the Lummi Nation has hit the road again from Bellingham. The House of Tears Carvers will make stops in Oregon, Idaho and Washington over the next two weeks, as they call for dam removal on the Lower Snake River, through storytelling, conversation and prayer.

The group has organized dozens of such journeys over the past two decades, part of the Pacific Northwest’s indigenous-led environmental movement.

“Spirit of the Waters” is the name of this year’s journey. And the main totem pole featured — and loaded onto a flatbed truck for the tour — depicts a 16-foot long killer whale, carrying a baby on her snout.

It’s the true story from 2018, of the endangered southern resident orca known as Talequah, and her tour of grief after she miscarried.

“Where that mother whale carried that dead infant for one thousand miles in 17 days,” says Jewell James, a Lummi elder who leads the House of Tears Carvers.

“That was really significant,” he says of the story that captivated global audiences more than three years ago but has since begun to fade from the media limelight.

“I mean, how can a whale tell you how dangerous humanity has become to their life, their way of life?” he says. “They’re letting you know the quality of your environment and their quality of life.”

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Posted in Education, environment, History, Nature, Race | Comments Off on On totem journey, Lummi carvers call for Lower Snake dam removal — KNKX Public Radio | By Bellamy Pailthorp

A crane erected to remove a crane

Posted on May 9, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Mike C. — What happens next?

Posted in In the Neighborhood | Comments Off on A crane erected to remove a crane

Monkeying around can be heart warming

Posted on May 9, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Rosemary W.

Posted in Animals | Comments Off on Monkeying around can be heart warming

Javanese Gamelan Music and Dance

Posted on May 9, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Lorraine Sakata

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Remembering the ads we were subjected to

Posted on May 9, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Ann M

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Posted in Business | 3 Comments

What right do you have to ….

Posted on May 5, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Mary Jane F.

Posted in Law | Comments Off on What right do you have to ….

Eating one-fifth less beef could halve deforestation

Posted on May 5, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Mike C.

by Giorgia Guglielmi in Nature

Replacing just 20% of global beef consumption with a meat substitute within the next 30 years could halve deforestation and the carbon emissions associated with it, finds a modelling study.

The findings, published in Nature on 4 May1, come one month after the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that humanity is nowhere near on track to limit global warming to 1.5 ºC above pre-industrial levels.

Beef farming is a top driver of deforestation worldwide, and cattle raised for beef are a major source of methane, a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Replacing beef with meat alternatives could reduce some of the food production’s environmental footprint, but it won’t solve the climate crisis, says study lead author Florian Humpenöder, a sustainability scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. “It should not be seen as a silver bullet,” he says.Meet the food pioneer whose meat replacements are rocking the gravy boat

Previous research has shown that replacing beef with a meatless alternative called mycoprotein can have beneficial effects on the environment. Produced in steel tanks by fermenting a soil-dwelling fungus with glucose and other nutrients as a food source, mycoprotein is a meat substitute that made its debut in the United Kingdom in the 1980s under the brand name Quorn and is now readily available in many countries.

Humpenöder and his colleagues are the first to estimate the environmental effects of partially replacing beef with mycoprotein over time, says Franziska Gaupp, who studies food systems at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Previous analyses didn’t take into account changes in population growth, food demand and other socio-economic factors.

The team used a mathematical model that considered increases in population growth, income and livestock demand between 2020 and 2050. Under a business-as-usual scenario, the global increase in beef consumption would require the expansion of pasture areas for grazing and of cropland for feed production, which would double the annual rate of deforestation globally. Methane emissions and agricultural water use would also increase.

Meat substitution: Line chart showing future environmental effects of replacing beef consumption with microbial protein.
Source: Ref. 1

Replacing 20% of the world’s per-capita beef consumption with mycoprotein by 2050 would reduce methane emissions by 11% and halve the annual deforestation and associated emissions, compared with the business-as-usual scenario (see ‘Meat substitution’). The mitigating effects on deforestation are so great because, under this scenario, global demand for beef does not increase, so there is no need to expand pasture areas or cropland for feeding cattle, Humpenöder says.

The beneficial effects on deforestation eventually plateau out. Swapping 50% of the beef consumed per person for mycoprotein would result in a more than 80% reduction in deforestation and carbon emissions, and replacing 80% of beef with mycoprotein would eliminate about 90% of forest loss.Will cell-based meat ever be a dinner staple?

All levels of substitution would result in relatively minor changes in agricultural water use, the researchers found. That’s because the water required to grow crops for feeding cattle would go towards growing other types of crop, including those for human consumption, Humpenöder says.

Global assessments such as the one carried out by Humpenöder’s team could help to highlight more-sustainable ways to produce food, says Hanna Tuomisto, who studies sustainable food systems at the University of Helsinki. Tuomisto notes that producing mycoprotein can require more electricity than producing beef, so researchers should consider the environmental impacts of producing extra power. She also points out that replacing beef with mycoprotein means that some by-products of cattle farming, such as leather and milk, might then be made in alternative ways that have environmental impacts.

“This study is a great start,” Gaupp says. Future research, she adds, should look at the environmental effects of replacing beef with other types of meat alternative, such as laboratory-grown meat or plant-based alternatives.

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the Shanghai Ballerina

Posted on May 5, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Sybil-Ann

 Remarkably, this the graceful Ballerina was born in 1945 – she is 75 years young.   Not only is her performance a spectacular feat, but she is partnered with her grandson. (Ed note – I’ve been unable to verify this.)

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Susan Collins Shocked That Brett Kavanaugh Would Ever Lie to a Woman

Posted on May 5, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Pam P.

by Andy Borowitz

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Senator Susan Collins, who had been assured by Brett Kavanaugh in 2018 that he considered Roe v. Wade “settled law,” said today that she was “shocked” that the Supreme Court Justice “would ever lie to a woman.”

“When I met with Justice Kavanaugh before his confirmation hearings, he looked me in the eye and said that he considered Roe v. Wade the law of the land,” she said. “Nothing in his confirmation hearings suggested that he would ever be less than trustworthy with a woman.”

“As I watched his Senate testimony, I felt even more confident that he had told me the truth,” she added. “His utter respect for a woman’s right to make decisions for herself came shining through.”

In the aftermath of the leaked Supreme Court draft ruling and reports that Kavanaugh voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, however, Collins is reassessing her ability to tell whether someone is lying to her. “My conduct in this matter has left me troubled and concerned,” she said.

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Unique Photos Where Timing Is Everything

Posted on May 5, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Sybil-Ann

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Ethnomusicology Visiting Artist: Heri Purwanto

Posted on May 4, 2022 by Jim deMaine
Gamelan musician Heri Purwanto is the Spring Quarter Ethnomusicology Visiting Artist.

Friday, May 27, 2022 – 7:30pm – Skyline will provide transportation ($10 per person) IF there are eight or more people signed up to ride.

Meany Hall—Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Theater

$20 general; $15 UW Affiliate (employee, retiree, UWAA member); $10 students and seniors BUY TICKETS ArtsUW Covid-19 Safety Protocols

Heri Purwanto, gamelan musician

Heri Purwanto, a highly respected teacher, performer, and master musician of Javanese gamelan, comes from a family of musicians in Wonogiri, Central Java.  After graduating from the college level academy (now Institut Seni Indonesia) in Surakarta, Central Java, at the top of his class in 2000, he taught gamelan at the University of California-Berkeley, from 2001 to 2004 and directed the Berkeley based ensemble Gamelan Sari Raras.  Since returning to Java in 2004, Heri has continued his work as an artist, building and running an arts studio in his community as well as performing as a musician throughout Indonesia, as well as in Singapore, Thailand, China, and across the United States.  He has been a Visiting Artist in the Ethnomusicology Program at the University of Washington in 2011 and 2014, and has performed with the Seattle-based ensemble Gamelan Pacifica.  From 2014 to 2016 he taught gamelan at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, where he was in residence on a Fulbright award during the 2014-2015 year. 

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Say hello!

Posted on May 3, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Donna D.

Posted in Essays, Music | Comments Off on Say hello!

A couple of unwanted visitors

Posted on May 3, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Sybil-Ann

Posted in Animals, Humor, Safety | Comments Off on A couple of unwanted visitors

Are you really shocked?

Posted on May 3, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Mike C.

Posted in Law, Politics | Comments Off on Are you really shocked?

The Skyline Mix of Left or Right

Posted on May 3, 2022 by William Calvin

Right-thinking vs left? There are reasons for why the right is underrepresented at our high-end retirement community, simply judging from our occupational groupings, usually determined in young adulthood and often biased by inherited traits, as twin studies have shown.

Perhaps ten years ago, I looked up the academic literature on faculty opinions at ten major research universities, subdivided by department. They may not map onto Skyline’s residents, but they do indicate how young adult mindsets lead them to specialized educations.

Right did not achieve a majority in any departmental category. The closest was 44%.

For Left, the highest was 80% for the social science professors, maybe 70% for the natural sciences and a bit less for such professional schools as law, medicine, engineering.

So, which subjects attracted more right-thinkers? That 44% figure came from those teaching business accounting and the runner-up was civil engineering, both likely to be suspicious of innovation, where their teaching stresses that there is a right way to do things and that alternatives lead to disaster. But be careful about pigeonholing: both departments still had a left-thinking majority when averaged over all ten institutions. And major research universities are not likely to be representative of the many small colleges where the emphasis is on teaching full-time.

Now some speculation. One of the major insights from the last 40 years of behavioral economics is that many subjects will work harder to retain the $100 they have recently earned than they will to earn another $100. Tax experts figured that out long ago, judging from withholding taxes, so that most taxpayers are not having to write big checks from what’s already in the bank. (That result is mostly from college-age subjects, not those about to retire.)

I had long puzzled over why conservatives were called conservative–after all, they were not predisposed to conserve environmental resources or to protect minority rights. I now tend to think of conservatives as a group to be more determined with holding on to what they already possess, not sharing as readily or as concerned with other peoples’ problems.

There are, of course, many other routes than occupational attractions to being pushed left or right along the way: family politics, religion, getting mugged, etc. But I cannot think of any that might apply to the people who self-select for Skyline–except for St. James Cathedral across the street (and I’m not sure which direction that tilts Skyline, even though bishops as a group, like other property managers, tilt to the right).

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Autocorrect–not so correct

Posted on May 2, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Frank C.

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Don’t Blink

Posted on May 1, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Gordon G.

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The last Good Samaritan

Posted on April 30, 2022 by Jim deMaine
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Self-driving bikes – released 4/1/22

Posted on April 30, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Sybil-Ann

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Amazing competition in badminton and ping pong

Posted on April 30, 2022 by Jim deMaine

Thanks to Sybil-Ann

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Update from Heather Cox Richardson

Posted on April 30, 2022 by Jim deMaine

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The “Ghost of Kyiv,” an ace pilot who heartened the Ukrainian resistance by shooting down a number of Russian aircraft on the first day of Russia’s invasion, was real after all. According to The Times of London, he was Major Stepan Tarabalka, 29 years old, and was killed in action on March 13.  That extraordinary Ukrainian resistance, reinforced as we now know it was by U.S. intelligence and the unified support of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and other allies and partners, thwarted Russian president Vladimir Putin’s plans for a quick annexation of Ukrainian land. Continuing pressure, combined with Putin’s refusal to stop his attack, means that Russia has thrown away decades of economic development and its global standing. 

Today, Russia avoided defaulting on its debt by making a last-minute payment in dollars from reserves outside Russia, a move forced on it by economic sanctions. This will speed the draining of the country’s financial resources. The country has been able to continue to function and to fund its military in part because of about $800 million a day in revenue it pulls in from selling oil and gas to Europe.  It appears this is about to change. On Wednesday, Germany dropped its opposition to a European Union ban on oil and gas imports, enabling the 27 nations in the European Union to hammer out an agreement that adopts a phased end to shipments of Russian oil and gas. E.U. ambassadors expect to sign the agreement next week. “More important than the oil embargo is the signal that Europe is united and taking back the initiative,” Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at Eurasia Group, told New York Times reporters Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Thomas Gibbons-Neff. Meanwhile, the House passed legislation to update the March 1941 Lend-Lease Act, passed to enable the U.S. to loan or lease military supplies to any country whose defense the president believed was vital to the defense of the United States. The original law enabled the U.S. to send supplies to Britain’s defense without joining the war directly. Yesterday’s update allows the government to skip some rules and move weapons more quickly. It will increase pressure on Putin by demonstrating that the U.S. is going to continue supporting Ukraine.  The Senate passed the measure by a voice vote, and there was overwhelming bipartisan support for it in the House, with only 10 Representatives, all Republicans, voting against it. Those ten included Representatives Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Dan Bishop (R-NC), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Ralph Norman (R-SC), and others who also voted against last week’s House resolution “expressing support for Moldova’s democracy, independence, and territorial integrity” in the face of Russian threats.  

Today, Ukrainian defense reporter Illia Ponomarenko tweeted: “What America is doing now in terms of sending weapons to Ukraine is a masterpiece of logistics. In all regards, starting from bureaucratic hurdles.” President Joe Biden yesterday asked Congress for $33 billion for Ukraine—on top of the $13.6 billion authorized so far—to last until September 30, the end of the fiscal year. In his letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) requesting the funds, Biden noted that the administration expects NATO allies and E.U. partners jointly to be sending even greater sums to the support of Ukraine but said Russian aggression would “require a substantial additional investment on our part.”  Biden added, “What I want to make clear to the Congress and the American people is this: the cost of failing to stand up to violent aggression in Europe has always been higher than the cost of standing firm against such attacks. That is as it always has been, and as it always will be.”

He was referring to the misguided attempt to appease Adolf Hitler by accepting Germany’s 1938 annexation of the Sudetenland rather than resisting. Appeasing dictators never stops them; it simply emboldens them to increase their demands. And by the time the European war broke out in 1939, Hitler had significantly strengthened Germany’s forces.  Other countries are also continuing their support for Ukraine. About 8000 troops from the British army are deploying to eastern Europe over the summer to join in exercises with NATO troops and those from the Joint Expeditionary Force, which includes Finland and Sweden. Those two countries are currently not members of NATO but are considering joining because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Finland and Russia share a border of more than 800 miles. Yesterday, NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said that, should they ask to join, they “will be warmly welcomed and I expect the process to go quickly.”

Spain this week shipped to Ukraine hundreds of tons of heavy transport vehicles and ammunition. An unconfirmed report says that Ukrainian soldiers opening the shipment found Spanish sausages among the grenade launchers with a card from the queen that read: “I wish you victory! With love, Leti[z]ia.” Countries supporting Ukraine have begun to talk not just of defending Ukraine, but seeing Ukraine “win,” and weakening Russia’s ability to meddle in the affairs of other countries.
Posted in War | Comments Off on Update from Heather Cox Richardson