Honeymoon Part II: Lake Powell, Zion, etc.

Where'd we leave off?  Let's see... We got to car at midday and headed to the Grand Canyon North Rim Lodge.  Went in hoping to find a room.  The front desk people were kinda short with Anita (plus they were unable to give us a room) and that set her outlook on the place from the beginning.  Turns out all the staff were pretty lax.  They were mostly youngsters hoping to have a good time, and didn't care much about guests.  The view was spectacular.  We watched the sunset and I had a couple of cold beers.  We stayed at the nearby campground that night and got up at the crack of day for the sunrise, which was pretty, but all the tourists kinda put a damper on it for me.  I prefer seeing it from Point Sublime with just me and my family/friends.

First sun striking Angel's Gate as viewed from the N. Rim G.C. visitor center.

We decided that hanging around the N Rim Lodge wasn't for us and that Anita was hiked out for the moment.  Heard about a California Condor release happening 100 miles to the NE in the Vermillion Cliffs, so headed there.  Was an interesting affair.  Learned about how the main cause of death of Condors is lead poisoning due to the lead fragments in the gut-piles left during deer hunts.  Even if the main part of the bullet is found, small pieces have gotten into the guts.  Condors eat that stuff and it apparently kills them or their young.  The people orchestrating the release were called the Perigrine Fund -- they used to be focused on Perigrine Falcons, but the Perigrines are in better shape now and so they switched to Condors.  Headed to Page, Arizona.  I thought Anita might be interested in seeing Glen Canyon Dam and we could do some swimming in Lake Powell.  The dam is an impressive, if somewhat abhorrent sight.

Glen Canyon dam.

Giant dams are feats of engineering something like the Egyptian pyramids.  But this one covered up some exquisitely beautiful canyon country with a very thick layer of sludge.  We went swimming near Lone Rock.  There, vehicles are allowed to drive willy nilly across the sandy beaches and in the surrounding hills.  Good ole boys have swarmed the area with their trucks.  I would've traded the AWD Kia Sedona for one of their trucks a couple of times as the thing bogged down in the deep sand. I was concerned that I might have to ask some drunk dude to help pull me out of the sand.  Swimming was nice especially since it was about 95 F outside.

Stayed that night with a Mormon couple who ran one of two B&B's in Page, AZ.  Well, we stayed with the couple (grandma and grandpa) and a large part of their family.  And the photos of the remainder of their family were plastered all over the B&B.  But what do you expect at a Mormon B&B?  In the morning over breakfast (and they did make some pretty mean pancakes), I kinda egged the very nice grandpa into telling me about his political views.  I was intrigued b/c he worked at the large local powerplant for 30 years.  One of his opinions is that Obama is a communist who is trying to control every aspect of our lives.  Also, God made the earth for humanity, so whatever we do is right.  Strangely, though, he is in favor of nuclear power instead of coal.  Go figure.  Blames environmentalists for stopping nuke power from taking hold in the US.  Dude also had some very strong opinions about gun rights.  Of course, he feels that Obama the communist is trying to strip him of all guns.  All Obama wants to do, as far as I know, is to prevent every good ole boy from having an AK-47.  Another insult the guy made to his own intelligence was that volcanoes pump out more CO2 than humanity does by burning fossil fuels.  He had a good buddy who was sure volcanoes put out more CO2, and this dude believed that his good buddy would never lead him astray.  I signed heir guest book and asked him to send me his reference about CO2 output.  Here's an article on this issue:
http://tamino.wordpress.com/2011/06/19/volcanic-co2/

All the breakfast banter provided good conversational material on the way to Zion Nat Park that morning.  We discussed gun rights.  Anita thinks guns should be banned in the US; I disagree -- my understanding is that the founding fathers felt that people should have guns so that they could overthrow the government if they had to.  This radical view came about from experience under British rule for so long, and the success they had overthrowing it with their guns.  Anita and I agree that Obama is probably not a communist :)  We got to Zion, hit the visitor center, and did a couple of short hikes.  While at the visitor center, I had the wildlife experience of the trip -- a little caterpillar!  He was crawling into the sidewalk danger zone.  He was two inches long and half an inch in diameter.  Beautiful markings.  I prodded him and he stood up on his back legs and sprouted some ugly, mean looking horns.  Awesome!  My mom identified the critter as the caterpillar of a western tiger swallowtail butterfly.  We went on to visit a hilltop food storage site of some ancient Anasazi.  Then did the Watchman hike.

Tiger swallowtail caterpillar.  Has "horns" that protrude when it gets riled up.

Next day, we hit the Zion Narrows.  We got to the part where you have to wade and Anita pulled up like a horse that spotted a snake.  She was spooked and though she did cross the first water, it was with the utmost reluctance.  I'm afraid I didn't give her enough time to settle in to the notion that the water crossing would not be dangerous before rushing her across.  This was what's known as a "dumb young husband move" and resulted in some emotional suffering.  I continued a bit further than she did, wading into nearly neck-deep 55 F water.  Intense.  Anyway, this hike was crawling with tourists and was paved until the last half-mile.  Of course, you could continue on another 5+ miles and escape the crowds.  We went back down-canyon and hiked the Emerald Pools trail.  The pools were a dirty brown in the fall conditions.  In the spring, I'm sure they're much more attractive.  We did spot a tarantula on this hike and a snake (non-venomous).

 

Anita and I on the trail near Emerald pools with Virgin riviera below.

On our final day in Zion, we hike to the Subway.  It's about an 8-mile round trip.  I figured it would take us about 4 hours.  Wrong.  Even the most gung-ho hikers would require 6 hrs.  We took a leisurely pace at first and took a wonderful break at a pool that had banks covered with cute little frogs.

 

A tiny frog near a pool on the Subway Hike.

Once we realized we were going to run out of daylight, we picked up the pace and finished in 8 hrs.  The huge upturned sandstone blocks covered with dino tracks are an impressive sight.

 

A dino track.  Amazing how this area was muddy, then suddenly changed such that this track was preserved.

 

These two large sandstone slabs are covered with dino tracks.

We tried to keep dry on the way up until the last mile or so when it is obvious that you gotta get wet.  On the way down you save some time by just sloshing down through the creek until the last mile which requires a climb out of the canyon.  At the top, we were treated to the beautiful Subway itself.  It's a highly unusual formation.  It's a bit like a slot canyon, but at the bottom of the slot, it opens into a wide tunnel -- like a subway!  The floor of the canyon at that point is immaculately carved by eons of gentle erosion so that there are deep blue pools here and foot-deep slots of rushing water there.  Amazing. 

 

The mouth of the Subway.

Looking down the Subway.  Anita took this photo which I think is suitable for Nat. Geographic.

Overall, it is a rough hike.  I whacked my head against trees and slipped cartoon-character-style into a completely horizontal position before plummeting to the wet, slimy, and very solid sandstone.  Anyway, we survived all the ups and downs of the hike and reached the car just before dark.  I ceremoniously leaned my trusty agave hiking stick, which I had plucked in the Grand Canyon, against the trail signpost for the next hiker to enjoy -- it was quite useful on this hike with all the water challenges.

On our last day, we hit the town in Vegas for a few hours before catching our plane back to MN.  We stopped into one of the casinos and found some penny slots that suited us perfectly.  I almost won $2 after starting from $1.  Then I got greedy and lost the entire wad.  Anita didn't fare any better.  But it was kinda fun.

Overall, I think it was a very successful honeymoon.  We could've had a good time in some
tropical or otherwise exotic place, but plane tickets would've cost a lot more, we probably
wouldn't have gotten nearly as much exercise.

Barack's in ... & Ski trips

First of all I'd like to say GO BARACK! I thought his speech was fairly appropriate. I only wish that, at the end, instead of just saying "God bless America" he would've said "God bless America, bless all the other nations in the world, and bless the planet itself."

Did two trips last weekend. One was with my buddy Peter up to Marmot Pass in the SE Olympic mtns. Stayed Friday night at a little motel in Quilcene. Took off at 0530 and got on the trail at 0700. Hit snow so couldn't drive to TH. Had to stop 4 miles short (4!) of the TH. Hopped on skis and rounded the first corner... then took skis off and trekked along bare road for a mile or so. Snow was off and on until somewhat higher elevations. Dammit. From the formal TH to the Pass is 5 miles. 9 miles up. Whew. But we pulled it off. Pete was committed to doing an ass-kicking trip. He got his wish. Beautiful views from up top. Returned to vehicle at 1730. I was quite blistered by the end of the day. Pete was snowshoeing and used his hiking boots so had an easier time in the bare spots. But skis saved me some energy for significant stretches, so was about equally difficult i guess.

This pic shows the remnant debris from a big avalanche coming down Buckhorn mountain. As you see it's quite melted down now tho.


Here's a pic looking down the valley we'd just hiked up. Beautiful clear view of Cascades on this fairly cold day. Glacier peak visible at left in distance.


A pic of me at the top looking west from the Pass.


A pic of Pete, exhausted, at the Pass.


The other trip was one that Orli organized. We snowshoed/skied in a fairly popular area up near Snoqualmie Pass. Slava (the postdoc i work with) and Ci came along with several of Orli's other friends. The trip was short but sweet. It was pretty socked in so we couldn't enjoy much scenery, but it was nice to get out. And at least this trail was totally snow covered. Wow. Had 4 dogs along with us. One little-bitty dog was running around harassing the bigger dogs (2 golden retrievers and a siberian husky). Fortunately the big dogs were not hungry and did not eat the little dog as a snack. My blistered feet were plenty happy to keep it down to a 3 hr round trip.

Here's a shot of me and Ci.


Here's an artsy picture of Orli.

CO River waters

My buddy Sarp (Cihan's twin bro) wrote as a comment on a photo from their recent GC trip,

"In every western state, 80% of the water goes to agriculture and ranching. In no state, even California, do those activities generate 5% of the state economy. Agriculture and ranching in California in 2005 generated a gross of about $21 billion. The gross domestic product of the state the same year was $1.55 trillion. 80% of the water goes to produce 1.3% of the fifth-largest economy in the world. It doesn't make sense."

I replied as follows:
the government has put a price on the waters of the CO. and it's cheap.

so the message to people is: "play golf, water your lawn, etc... we got plenty of water. Sure, give away water to grow alfalfa in the frakkin desert so we can eat lots of beef cows." (i believe water for irrigation is the lion's share of water wasted in the intermountain west.)

if we want water in the CO river, we need to price water appropriately.

i recommend reading
http://www.newwest.net/main/article/western_water_a_legend_of_overallocation/

quote:
"In every western state, 80% of the water goes to agriculture and ranching. In no state, even California, do those activities generate 5% of the state economy. Agriculture and ranching in California in 2005 generated a gross of about $21 billion. The gross domestic product of the state the same year was $1.55 trillion. 80% of the water goes to produce 1.3% of the fifth-largest economy in the world. It doesn't make sense."

Also, i think the USA figures "hell, if we don't use it, it'll just go down to Mexico and that'd be a waste." So we burn it however we can. Maybe we should consider letting some of the CO River water flow to Mexico. We could call it foreign aid.

Nature, 1970: don't worry about co2

I’ve been doing some library research recently and saw issues of Nature dating back before 1900. I grabbed a random issue from ~1970 and browsed thru it. Found an article saying we shouldn’t worry about co2. Don’t worry, nuke power will be coming on strong by 2000. We’ll only have an 18% rise in co2 (rise to date has been ~15%, so they were on with this figure). Hell, we think the ocean will soak up all the co2 pretty quick anyway, but if it becomes a problem, we’ll just cut down on the fossil fuels. Cake. Wait.. reality check.. this ain’t so easy! Hard to figure how to slow down fossil fuel intake, either in booming nations like china and india or in addicted nations like US.

outrageous CEO compensation

I just googled "ceo pay explanation" and found that there are two arguments:

1) ceos and managers are greedy and are able to float their own boats
2) ceos have "general skills" that are useful to a wide variety of companies (e.g. Mullally at Boeing and now at Ford), and these general skills are hard to come by and must be purchased.

It seems typical to me that contentious issues usually have two sides, neither of which is right. Like radical environmentalists vs. those who "been on this land a hunderd years" and "know best".

It's obvious that ceos are greedy. Everybody is greedy (as mentioned in the googled articles). That doesn't explain the rise in their pay. They've always been greedy. However, there has been a consensus in the "managerial class" that you gotta pay big bucks to get talent. This has been the reality. It's maybe similar to the big bucks people felt they had to pay for tech stocks in the late 90's. I think it's a cultural bubble that will burst without any of us getting too excited. I can hear it bursting right now. There's no free lunch, except for executives in this boom whose lunch was paid for by taxpayers/shareholders/joe blows who are are starting to feel much stingier.

Constitutional authority for developing technology / health care / soc. security

[This post is a continuation of an email conversation between my dad Steve and friend Jason .. comments encouraged.]

Interesting discussion :) Long-winded. I'll contribute some more steam before we switch to nuclear.

Jason, your idea about the limitations of the constitution is quite interesting, particularly with regard to energy legislation. A quick read of the constitution reveals that there is no constitutional mandate for our government to develop/maintain/expand our transportation system except perhaps "To establish ... post Roads" -- Art. I, Sect 8. Yet the DoT is a pretty well-funded department. Likewise, the DoE gets a fair chunk of change. Why? It's a good question. Maybe private industry could handle it. Maybe not. For instance, could private industry have collaborated to put together our interstate freeway system? I seriously doubt it. Private industry did the work, but the government orchestrated it, and used taxpayer money to pay for it. Likewise, solving our energy problems will likely require government orchestration. We'll probably need some pretty nifty power and energy transmission infrastructure including conduits for electricity and for "portable power" for autos (e.g. hydrogen).

Sometimes nations/civilizations/organisms can get an upper hand by having big common projects. Think militaries. Think ocean exploration in the 14/15/16th centuries. Think space program (but don't think so hard that your start to wonder what the hell it's done for us so far... mostly i jest .. if you've considered it much, you recognize several crucial benefits that space has brought us). I think state-sponsored technology development is appropriate. How one would write a constitutional amendment to properly sanction it is another question!

In the opening passage of Common Sense, Paine says that government is a "necessary evil", negatively constraining society's vices. Meanwhile, society itself provides the positive influence, "uniting our affections". What you are suggesting (and I expanded on above) is that gov't should be in the business of "positive influence". We also obviously need to worry about gov't properly constraining society's vices. This is where we clearly need corruption control.

Medical care and social security (which is in desperate need of being renamed "managed savings" or being re-directed to being a safety net program) are in the same boat as energy technology when it comes down to it I guess.

On the sub-crime crisis: 1) if the gov't is going to bail out these lenders, they should regulate. 2) gov't shouldn't bail out the lenders. I think I'm with you Jason, voting for #2.

Who is this physicist who told you about the nuclear fuel problem? He/she is right that we have a problem if we don't effectively use fuel. As I recall, if we used all of the available energy in uranium ore, we'd have plenty of power for centuries even if energy consumption were to go up 10x. Using all available energy would involve something quite different than what the French do which is a joke compared to what i'll call true nuke fuel squeezing. French squeeze less than 5% of available energy in fuel. Standard US nukes get only 1%. You can squeeze out nearly 100% of energy with breeder reactor. Breeders are expensive because it's expensive to make them safe. Proliferation is another concern and is a concern for any squeezing operation. But you can squeeze in a safer way using fusion as a source of neutrons (there are other possible sources too) to maintain a sub-critical reaction that uses "fast" neutrons to squeeze energy out. Look for fission-fusion hybrids hitting news in next 5-10 yrs. (physics sidenote: when you don't moderate/slow neutrons [as we do in our current "slow" neutron reactors], the characteristic time of a critical system is very very fast, making it tough [expensive, uncertain] to design a control system with an appropriately small response time).

Oh -- Nanosolar -- i hope it works! But I question their ability to get materials cheap enough to power the globe.. maybe they can tho? I really have no facts on this matter.