Time for Comprehensive Public Transportation

From the Seattle Times:

Sound Transit is putting a $17.9 billion rail and bus plan on the November ballot, in hopes that voters overlook this year's economic slowdown and think long-term.

More than two-thirds of the money would be spent to build 34 miles of light-rail extensions, reaching the Overlake Transit Center near Microsoft in 2021, and Lynnwood and north Federal Way by 2023.

Late next year, light-rail service begins from downtown Seattle to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport; a north line to Capitol Hill and Husky Stadium is already scheduled for completion in 2016.

Dear Fellow Seattleites,

With the cost of gasoline on the rise and with some analysts projecting that $5.00 per gallon gas may just be over the horizon, it is time for the citizens of the Puget Sound to take public transit seriously. Yes... It's expensive. Yes... Roadway and infrastructure construction can take a long time and put your blood in a boil due to congestion. However, the sad truth is that our current roads cannot support the population growth in the region.

We have two options... Pave over the last remaining green spaces in our cities and build a new bridge across Lake Washington... or... invest in public transportation. I can tell you which option I prefer: As a life long resident of the Puget Sound region, I choose comprehensive public transportation.

An investment today will help us to preserve the natural beauty of the Puget Sound -- which is what makes living here so enjoyable -- and -- just as important -- help us to retain our sanity.

Educate yourself about the proposal by clicking here!

Yours Truly,

SEABlogger

Tim Burgess: No friend of mine!

Published with permission from Seattle Gay Blog:

As the saying goes: A friend of the right-wing is no friend of mine.

That's the message that NARAL Pro-Choice Washington relayed to reporters during a morning press conference at a Seattle hotel. The organization released a slew of fundraising letters Seattle City Council candidate Tim Burgess supposedly wrote during a decade of consulting work he did for the right-wing group Concerned Women for America (CWA).

The letters, uncovered in the files of the People for the American Way, a liberal watchdog group, use derogitory language toward Gays and outline CWA's opposition to pro-choice advocates.

Karen Cooper, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Washington, said Burgess told her organization during an endorsement meeting that he wrote the fundraising letters during his comapany's years of consulting work for CWA between 1995 and 2005. Seattle Gay News Publisher George Bakan, who also participated in the press conference, reminded reporters that Burgess told The Stranger during an interview that he was a "copywriter" on CWA projects, a well understood trade term meaning that he wrote, edited and approved much of the language used in the letters.

Among CWA's accusations in the letters:

• Radical homosexual activists and their allies plan to turn America's public school system into full-fledged gay propaganda and recruitment camps
• Homosexuality and pedophilia are both sexual orientations
• Emergency contraception is the same as an abortion
• The National Education Association seeks to promote the "homosexual lifestyle" in America's public schools

One letter dated January 1997, which had been blown-up to poster size and circled in red by press conference organizers, talks about the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, a piece of legislation still under consideration in Congress.

The letter reads: "...ENDA was a blatant attempt to destroy our society's moral foundations. This bill would have forced Christian businessmen and women and other decent Americans to hire homosexuals and those with a variety of 'sexual orientations,' including transvestites and pedophiles."

Bakan said as a newspaper publisher he's turned away advertising from groups professing beliefs he disagreed with, such as "ex-Gay" groups. He said that--in Seattle--few companies would take work from groups such as CWA.

Althought NARAL Pro-Choice Washington and the Seattle Gay News have endorsed Councilman David Della, Burgess' opponent, in the Seattle City Council Position Seven race, Cooper and Bakan said they are releasing the letters Wednesday only in hopes of providing voters with more information from which to cast their ballot.

Event for geeks and tech lovers

Geek and tech lovers unite!

Ignite Seattle is a geek event that combines on-site geekery, sharing, and innovation (and drinking). The next one will be held upstairs at the CHAC on Tuesday, February 13th. The Make Contest will begin at 6:30; the Ask Later talks will begin at 8:30.

First Set of Talks (8:30 PM)

• Brady Forrest (O’Reilly Radar, Ignite!) - Greetings & Salutations
• Matthew Maclaurin - (Microsoft Research) - Programming for Fun/Children/Hobbyists/Hackers
• Elisabeth Freeman (Author in the Head First Series, Works at Disney Internet Group) -The Science Behind the Head First Books: or how to write a technical book that doesn’t put your readers to sleep
• Scott Kveton (JanRain) - OpenID
• Avi Geiger (Hardware Architect,Microsoft) - “Power Consumption of Home Computers and Incandescent Lightbulbs” (Brady’s note - trust me this is going to be an eye-opening talk)
• Ryan Stewart (ZDNet’s Universal Desktop;Threecast) - The Rich Internet Application Space: Everything from where AJAX fits to Apollo to WPF to the Flash Platform
• Nancy White (Full Circle Associates) - What the Bleep is a Community Technology Steward?

Second Set of Talks (9:30 PM)

• Hans Omli (Shoestring Ventures)- Elevator Pitches and Parallel Entrepreneurship
• Sarah Davies (Freedom For IP) - Share and share alike: GPL, Creative Commons, and the future of digital freedom
• Lars Liden (Teachtown) - Utilizing Web Technology to Help Children with Autism
• Kurt Brockett (Identity Mine) - A Look at Windows Presentation Foundation
• Marcelo Calbucci (Sampa) - Dr. Watson for AJAX
• Lee Lefever (The World Is Not Flat) - Adventures from a Year of Multimedia Travel Blogging: A few inspiring stories from a year of travel blogging across 29 countries that produced 500+ blog posts, 24 original videos and 14,000 photos.
• Barry Brumitt (Google) - MapReduce: Simplified Data Processing on Large Clusters

Third Set of Talks (10:30 PM)

• Ellie Lum (R.E.Load Bags) - “How R.E.Load Makes Their Bags”
• Leo Dirac (Rhapsody) - Transhuman technology trends and their implications for a theory of morality
• Deepak Singh (business|bytes|genes|molecules) - An Open Scientific Future
• Mike Acuri (Ontela) - Escaping the Empire: how to leave a big company
• Heater Ralph - Art or science? A multi-person pogo stick
• Jordan Mitchell (CEO, OthersOnline) - Distributed Social Networking and a New Metaphor for Search
• Corprew Reed (American Society for Information Science & Technology) - What the heck is the Pacific Northwest Chapter of ASIS&T?For more into check outIgnite Seattle's website, here

For more information about Ignite Seattle or their events, visit www.igniteseattle.com.

Seattle role in astronaut toilet technology?

From the L.A. Times:

The sordid saga of a love-struck, diaper-clad astronaut has transformed a somewhat obscure NASA undergarment into a cultural phenomenon. 

...

According to a 1998 Associated Press article, astronauts were outfitted with Depend adult diapers and an inserted pad called Rejoice, made by a Seattlecompany. 

But a spokesman for Kimberly-Clark, which makes Depends, insisted the product isn't used in space. And the Seattlecompany apparently went out of business. 

... 

A NASA spokeswoman said the official brand used now is Absorbencies, manufactured by a company that has folded. 

Fortunately, NASA owns a huge stockpile. The agency snapped up 3,200 of the diapers about 15 years ago, the spokeswoman said, and "we still have about a third of the supply left." 

On space shuttle missions, each crew member receives three diapers — for launch, reentry and a spare in case reentry has to be waved off and tried later.

Windows VISTA humor

Windows VISTA humor...

I'm more of a PC guy myself, but this cartoon has some truth to it. Courtesy of  JoyofTech.com.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays Seattle!

SEABlogger is unpatriotic, relative claims

I received an e-mail last night (below) from a close relative. Apparently, he/she didn't like what I had to say on this blog.

I find it odd when people question my patriotism. One of the greatest freedoms we enjoy as Americans is the right to speak our minds. The same right applies to the person who sent me the e-mail.

I think the most patriotic thing an American can do -- when he disagree with a position, direction, or action -- is share their opinion. If I say nothing, than I am contributing to the problem or -- through my silence -- am complicit in their actions.

People who know me, know that I listen to all sides before forming my opinion and usually accept the will of the group. However, on moral questions, I do not waver. I cannot and will not.

Oddly, the e-mail writer assumes that I would enjoy living in China or Russian. However, I could not enjoy the same liberty I am exercising right now, here on this blog.

Further, if this relative truly loved me, he/she would accept me for who I am and not ask me to change to fit his/her ideal model or America.

Here's the e-mail I received last night:

I know you have issues but you are going to have to work thru them in your own mind. 

Of all things, be an American. That is the only thing that really counts. I spent over 20 years giving and sacrificing to this country. What have you given except for your different views on life? 

To be blunt: If you hate this country and it's lifestyle so much, why don't you leave? China will accept you. Russia will accept you. 

I am sure both countries have an attitude towards taking care of those who won't help themselves.

Here's a second e-mail I received today:

Maybe I was a little bit hard on you last night. Didn't mean to be. Love you like my own flesh and blood. 

Just wish you weren't so far away from mainstream in your views. Our views couldn't be further apart. That will keep us from ever being real close. 

That's a shame, but it's the way it is.