iRack

" War is always about betrayal, betrayal of the young by the old, of idealists by cynics and of troops by politicians. This bitter knowledge of betrayal is seeping into the ranks of the American military. It is bringing us a new wave of enraged and disenfranchised veterans who will never again trust the country that sent them to war."

More.

Eye Opener'

The creator of this map has had the interesting idea to break down that gigantic US GDP into the GDPs of individual states, and compare those to other countries’ GDP. More here.

In honor of this past weekends festivities...

Saturday was the annual Portland Rose Parade. As is typical, it rained all morning. I think that this song by Elliot Smith captures the typical 25-35 year old Portlanders Rose Parade experience perfectly.

Looking for a Pattern...

"All the brain does is store and recall patterns. Every sensory input — whether sight, sound, touch, taste, or smell — is translated into a sequence of patterns that is stored in the neocortex. “Through exposure,” Hawkins explained, “it builds a model of the world. If you step off a plane in a new city and walk through the terminal, your brain will compare that terminal to others you’ve been to before and will predict that when your foot hits the carpet it will encounter a firm surface that will support your weight. If your foot slips through the carpet and you fall into a vat of chocolate pudding, you will be surprised. If the carpet sprouts tentacles and grabs your leg, you will be surprised. If anything happens that is not consistent with your past experience of carpets in terminals, you will be surprised."

City by the bay...

Going to San Francisco later this afternoon. I get to stay in some pretty good digs, as it is a work trip…According to The Guiness World Records, the San Francisco Hyatt hotel has the largest lobby in the world.

Its 350 ft Long

160 ft wide

170 ft high.......!

Fact of life:

Many civilized people have trouble releasing the full amount of energy in a hammer blow that they are physically capable of; to do it right calls for deadly accuracy and a certain amount of barbaric abandon.

Received in my Friday morning mail...

April Fools

Here they are... the 100 best April Fools Day jokes of all time (via the museum of hoaxes). My personal favorite on their list is #7. It would have fooled me for sure.

Sunday Adventure in Portland

So, I was granted leave from Mrs. Portal and the portalinas this past Sunday to go downtown to a sports bar to watch the Kansas Jayhawks play Kentucky in the NCAA tournament. I went to a decent place called the City Sportsbar.
It was a great basketball game, actually one of the finest I have seen in a long while. At halftime I stepped outside to make a phone call and noticed several helicopters circling overhead. I could hear faint drumming that was getting louder. I looked up to see a large crowd of people coming down the street. It was a protest march. They crowd funneled past me chanting and carrying on for the full 20 minute half time. It looked like fun, and I thought about joining them but I had to get back in for the second half of the game. Of course the Jayhawks won-- and after hi-fiving strangers in KU shirts for a bit I decided to catch up with the protesters. It wasn't so much that I wanted to protest, which I kind of did, but it was more that it was a really nice day out and the parking garage that my car was in was in was blocked off by cops and protesters. It was one of those if you cant beat'em join'em moments. Well, it was a lot of fun, the police were good humored about getting yelled at for looking scary, and the protesters were pretty clever with the slogans they came up with. My favorite was "we want free ice cream" which they chanted at the little white police public address vehicle that followed us warning us through a loud speaker about blocking traffic flow. It did look like an ice cream truck. I took about 60 photos with my cell phone and I posted some of them for you here. I would post more, but it costs me a buck to send a picture from my phone to my email account (I have the cheap skate phone plan). I hope there is another protest next weekend. It was fun!

#1

Well, its time I got started with this blogging thing. Better late than never, I guess. I have been up late tonight talking on the phone with a couple of good old friends- speculating on the Jayhawks chances in the NCAA tournament this year... tomorrow at 4 we will see what this team is made of. The weather here continues to improve and the smell of spring has me rearranging all the flies in my flybox and checking river reports online throughout the day at work. If I don't get out on the water this weekend I may loose it completely and have to take a sick day during the week and head down by Eugene to some open flywater.