The Government Should Provide Food Too

I wrote this back in 2004. 

Given the great success in providing public education to our children in the US, we should move to adopt this winning strategy in other critical areas.  I move we reform our food provision system along the lines of public education.

Fellowship of the Ring: In One Minute or Less

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is the first of Peter Jackson's trilogy based on J. R. R. Tolkien's novels.

A long time ago the Dark Lord Sauron made a ring.  It was bad.

Bilbo:  Hello there!  A ring!  Guess I'll put it in my pocket and keep it.

Gollum:  Noooooooooo!

Many years later…

Jurassic Park: In One Minute or Less

The 1993 Classic; an adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel by Steven Speilberg.

Smart Palentologist Dude (SPD):  Oh wow, look!  A Velociraptor skelton!

Sexy Paelobotanist Lady (SPL):  With fossilized leaves!

Rich Eccentric Millionaire (REM):  Come with me to Central America and I’ll give you lots of money.

SPD & SPL:  OK, if you insist!

Signs: In One Minute or Less

Signs is a 2002 alien invasion scifi movie starring Mel Gibson and Joaquim Phoenix.  It was written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan.  This is my one-minute version.

Bo:  Daddy, there’s a monster in my bedroom, can I have a glass of water?

Graham:  Bo, we’ve been through this before, Merrill is not a monster, he’s just weird.

Merrill:  What was that noise?

Graham:  That was Bo asking for a glass of water.

Osaka 2013

I was last in Japan in 2004, when I visited Nara and Kyoto on my way home from a long trip to Hong Kong, China and Korea.  It was nice to visit again, though we stayed in Osaka the whole time this trip.

At Osaka Castle

Spinning off my Rock Art Posts

I've started up a parallel blog that focuses just on my visits to rock art sites.  The new blog is at http://utahpetrographs.blogspot.com.  I've copied (with some updating) posts from this blog on the sites at: Rochester Creek, Coyote Gulch, Black Dragon Canyon, Head of Sinbad, and Short Canyon (which has several different panels).  More will be added over time.

These posts contain explanations and descriptions.  All of my photos will eventually be available on my site at Photobucket.  I've also put many of them linked together on Photosynth, as explained in this post from 2011.

Enjoy!

Train to Denver (Again)

I am taking the train from Provo to Denver again, much like I did in January 2011 to attend the AEA Meetings.  This time I'm leaving on Wednesday morning and coming back on Saturday.  I'll be going with Chase Coleman, one of my undergraduate students here at BYU, who is presenting a paper of ours at the Western Social Science Association (WSSA) Meetings.  The ride should be fun, albeit long.  It leaves Provo around 4:00 a.m., but the return from Denver is a more reasonable 8:00 a.m.  Look for a trip report when I get back.

Deseret News Columns

I've been writing a biweekly column for the Deseret News for a little over a year now.  You can find most of them archived at this link.  I also repost them after they have appeared in print at Econosseur, which is a blog jointly run by Rick Evans, Jason DeBacker and myself.

Cliffhouse Arch

I recently put up some photos on Photosynth from my earlier hike down the Escalante River in 2008.  This is a really cool way to look a scenery, especially rock art.

Here is the link for this set of photos.  For more of these, especially rock art, try this link.  Enjoy!

Good Samaritans

Who says all strangers are selfish?

A Facebook post from an old friend quoted below.  He works for the towing service.

Maria sat crying, holding her 6month-old baby in Chisholm trail park in Plano as the last light of this chilly Sunday faded. Felecia and her two young daughters driving by, noticed the weeping mother, stopped and asked what was wrong. Maria had locked her keys inside her car and with her dead cell phone being of little use and having no money, sank into despair in the gathering gloom. Felecia called the Plano police and was patched through to Signature towing seeking help for Maria. She was quoted $85.00 for the lockout service and agreed to pay. I arrived to find them all safe and warm inside Felecia's van. A few minutes later Maria's car was open and her keys located. Felecia tried to pay me but I just couldn't accept her money. After all, how frequently do you meet a true good Samaritan?

Shooting Photos through Welding Glass

I got a piece of welding glass in the mail recently to use as filter for long exposures.  It seems to be working pretty well, but does require a few adjustments.

The first issue was how to mount it in front of the lens.  I've seen blog posts where some people have taped the glass to a screw-on UV filter.  This means you can only use it for lenses of the same size as the filter.  Another option was to use a tulip lens hood reversed and hold the welding glass in place with rubber bands.  This will work for any size lens providing it has a tulip lens hood.  I had a flat lens hood that fits onto my EFS 18-55mm zoom via a bayonet mount, rather than the filter screw-in.  so I taped the glass to the lens hood with electrical tape.  It mounts and unmounts easily with a quick twist.

Report on My Android Phone

I got a Samsung Galaxy S III a little more than a week ago.  Here are some quick thoughts.

1)  The Android system is a bit clunkier that iOS, but not much.  It just needs some getting used to.  Some of the slick features of the iOS are missing from Android; things you don't miss until they don't work the same.

Not Going to Zion

Evan, Alan, Joan and I were going down to Zion today to do some day hiking and camping.  However, the Weather Service says rain is coming.  And not just showers, but 70% chance of a half inch of rain tonight and tomorrow.  So we are staying home.  I am bummed out, but I really hate camping in the rain.

Probably going to Goblin Valley and Little Wild Horse Canyon next weekend with an out-of-state visitor next weekend though.

Report on Muddy Creek

I got back from hiking the Chute of Muddy Creek last night a little after midnight.  I left on Friday afternoon with three students from my Econ 581 class at BYU: T.J. Canann, Chase Coleman, and Huang Ruidi.  Ruidi and I drove our 4WDs down.  We went via I-15, through Scipio to Salina and then along I-70 to the Temple Mountain Road turnoff at milepost 131.  We camped that night at the Hidden Splendor Airfield which was the end of our hike on Saturday.  We had several hundred people for company as the Utah Wilderness Alliance was having a "Roundup" there this weekend.

Off to Muddy Creek

I am off to hike the Chute of Muddy Creek this weekend with two of my BYU students.  This is a long day hike that Rick Evans did about 18 months ago during a lull in the water flow in early April.  The water flow was 15-20 cubic feet per second up at the gauge in Emery then.  It's running at about seven right now, so the hike shouldn't be overly deep and wet.

We'll be leaving on Friday afternoon, dropping a shuttle car at the Hidden Splendor airfield, camping at Tomsich Butte and hiking down the Chute on Saturday.  Hope to be home late Saturday evening.  Rick says it's a gorgeous hike.

Here's a preview - http://climb-utah.com/SRS/thechute.htm.

Taking a Trip to Italy

I'm off to Italy on Friday. It's my first trip to Europe, so I'm a bit excited. I'm coauthor on a paper being presented as part of a conference at Bocconi University in Milan next Monday and Tuesday. Yeongmi is coming with me and we'll be spend two days in Florence and three days in Rome after the conference is over.

The whole thing happened rather suddenly. I was intending on skipping the conference, but funding appeared at the last minute. Should be an interesting ten days. Leaving on the 9th, returning on the 19th.

Not Just Another Rainy Day in Seoul

We've had some wild weather here in Seoul in the past 24 hours (Tuesday & Wednesday).  Thursday update - Looks like it will continue today, already raining heavily this morning here in Anam, near Korea University.

I got soaked to the skin on my 10-minute walk up the hill to my apartment Tuesday afternoon, but at least I am alive.  Things were much worse in my neighborhood Wednesday morning.  I wore my rain gear and my waterproof  hiking boots on my walk down the hill this morning, but the boots didn't do much good.  The waterproofing just kept the water inside.

Comparing Yeongdo in 1980 with 2011

I served in the island of Yeongdo as an LDS missionary from May through November of 1980.  I served with Glenn Leewright, Peter Stewart & Jed Hill as companions.  Other missionaries that lived in the same house at the same time were: Chris Morin, Jim Falconer, Dan Mitchell, Charles Cook & 김학수.

I went back this week with copies of some of the photos I took then on my iPhone.  I went back to many of the same places and took photos of what they look like today, after 31 years.  Here a some of the comparisons.

Train from Provo to Denver, January 2011

Back in 2005, when I first came to Seoul to teach, I met Eddy Berry, a professor at Utah State University.  She told me about taking Amtrak from Salt Lake City to Denver and I decided if I ever got the chance I was going to take the trip too.

Since the annual American Economics Association Meeting were in Denver this last January, I decided that Yeongmi and I would get there by train.  The trip was a lot longer than driving, but the scenery was fantastic.

Korean Baseball Game

On Tuesday I got to attend a baseball game here in Seoul.  The Korea University ISC staff arranged for the professors to attend the evening game between the Dusan Bears (the home team) and the Lotte Giants who are from Yeongmi's hometown of Busan.  Our seats were on the 10th row or so, in the 3rd-base section with all the Giants fans.  We were in the lower section, right below the stage set up for the Giants cheerleaders.  Yes, they have baseball cheerleaders.  And yes, they need a stage.