May 2018 – Page 2 – Willem's Planet

May 10, 2018May 10, 2018

Thursday/ the summit in Singapore

The Trump-Kim summit will be in Singapore on June 12th.

Check out this screenshot from Japan’s NHK TV. I love the cartoonist’s depiction of (left to right) a coy Kim Jong-un, a plotting Xi Jinping, a friendly Moon Jae-in, and a bombastic Donald Trump. I pointed my iPhone camera with Google Translate, onto the text in an attempt to translate the Japanese. The results are shown in yellow. The challenges to the Google Translator is probably a close metaphor for the challenges with the real negotiations, with regional interests and translators and all, in the mix.

May 9, 2018May 10, 2018

Wednesday night beers

We went down to sports bar Rookies in Columbia City for beers tonight. It is one of our regular watering holes.

We drove by Kim’s Tae Kwon Do training studio on Rainier Avenue. Tae Kwon Do is a Korean martial art, with an emphasis on head-height kicks, jumping and spinning kicks. Check out the chameleon-and-doggie bike rack in the foreground. P.S. Good news from North Korea is that three detained Korean Americans have been released by North Korea just as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived there to plan the summit of Kim Jong Un with President Trump.

May 8, 2018May 8, 2018

Tuesday/ Trump further erodes America’s credibility

By The New York Times
May 8, 2018

WASHINGTON — President Trump announced on Tuesday that the United States will withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and is preparing to reinstate all sanctions it had waived as part of the accord. The administration is planning to impose additional economic penalties as well.

The decision unravels the signature foreign policy achievement of his predecessor, President Barack Obama, and isolates the United States from its European allies.

REPORTER: Mr. President, how does this make America safer? How does this make America safer?
TRUMP: Thank you very much. This will make America much safer. Thank you very much.
(ME: Answer the $%@# question).

Wikipedia’s map of the (many) major Iran- Saudi Arabia proxy conflicts. Is the USA’s unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal (with the USA, Germany, France, UK, Russia, China) a step towards American aggression towards Iran? Does the Trump Administration have a strategy? Many observers say there is none.

Here is President Obama’s response to the withdrawal from the agreement:

There are few issues more important to the security of the United States than the potential spread of nuclear weapons, or the potential for even more destructive war in the Middle East. Continue reading “Tuesday/ Trump further erodes America’s credibility”

May 7, 2018May 7, 2018

Monday/ save the rainwater

Residents of Cape Town recorded a record low water usage of 505 million litres (133 million US gals) for the city per day for last week. Still, the target is 450 million litres per day (50 litres/ 13 US gallons per person per day).

Day Zero (no water for faucets) continues to be pushed out, and the winter rainy season has started – but it is still uncertain how much rain it will bring.

Dam Levels in the Western Cape on May 7. The big red boxes at the top says This Week 16.5% | Last Week 16.6% | Last Year 20%. If only that giant Theewaterskloof dam could come up to the 47.6% level of the little Wemmershoek dam! [Graphic by Grafika24, from Die Burger newspaper]

Here’s a sign I saw yesterday for a new apartment building here in Seattle, called Stack House. I think these big rainwater tanks should become part of the building code for big buildings – and hey, for houses, as well.

May 6, 2018May 6, 2018

Sunday/ construction in South Lake Union

My walkabout today was in South Lake Union, the area next to Seattle’s downtown that is a booming hub for Amazon, Google and the biotech industry. The new Denny Substation and duct banks under the streets (for power distribution) are scheduled for completion in late summer.

**Main picture:** An artistic rendition of the completed Denny Substation. (The glass panels and facets on the perimeter will make it look like a museum – or a Frank Gehry creation – from the outside). **Inset:** I took this picture of main entrance gate at the back, today.

The colorful Chroma SLU apartments on Harrison St are brand new. A small one bedroom goes for $1,700 a month, and the two bedrooms for $3,300. Yes, the real estate is expensive, and the developer wants his money back – and then some.

Here is one of two new Google office blocks taking shape, on Mercer St. The six floors of seagreen will be the offices, and the additional eight floors on top will be apartments. (Live there and work downstairs at Google? Hmm -no. Definitely too close for comfort/ why not just sleep under your Google desk, then?). That’s Lake Union in the background.

The Saint Spiridon church building on Yale Ave is holding its own among all the construction. It was built in 1941 in the traditional Russian Church style, and resembles churches in northern Russia.

May 4, 2018May 6, 2018

Friday/ back to the city

We made our way back to the city on Friday morning. It was cooler and cloudy again today (64°F/ 18°C), but there is no rain in the forecast for the weekend.

Here is a beautiful pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) that made a stop on a dead tree right by Paul’s house in Hansville. These are among the largest woodpeckers in North America – about as large as a crow – with black and white stripes on the face, and bright red, pointy crests. We did not spot this one’s mate (they are usually found in pairs).

Looking back, after we had left Bainbridge Island about 10 minutes earlier. The other ferry for the Seattle-Bainbridge Island crossing is already well on its way there (in the background).

And here is the downtown Seattle skyline, coming into view as we approach it. Amazon has stopped construction on one of its new downtown towers – protesting a new business tax (a ‘head tax’) that the Seattle City Council has proposed.

May 3, 2018May 4, 2018

Thursday/ Fort Flagler State Park

We drove out to Fort Flagler State Park today. We walked from the lighthouse at Marrowstone Point a mile or two all along the beach, and made our way back on a trail through the woods.

It’s about an hour’s drive from Hansville to Marrowstone Point. The picture shows the lighthouse buildings and beach.

These are one of several remnants of World War I bunkers dotted around Fort Flagler. The round pads used to have air defense cannons when it was an Coast Artillery Fort. The started operating in 1899, and was closed in 1953. It is a 750-acre park today.

This is a Great Blue Heron that we spotted in the water, the largest of the North American herons. It has long legs, a sinuous neck, and a thick, dagger-like bill.

Back at Hansville, there was a ballistic missile submarine with its escort ships (with cannons on) making its way into the Naval Base Kitsap at Bremerton. I don’t know which one of the dozen or so submarines at the Base, this one is. Those sailors on the sub must be happy to be out in the fresh air and sun!

May 2, 2018May 2, 2018

Wednesday/ tracking the North Star

Bryan and I took the ferry to Bainbridge Island today, to visit our friend Paul on the Kitsap Peninsula to the north. The ferry passed by a container ship called the North Star, from the TOTE Maritime Alaska company. The ship provides twice weekly shipments to Alaska, from the Port of Tacoma.

Here is the view as we approached Bainbridge Island, with the big container ship North Star passing in front of us. The containers are just visible, and are not stacked on top of each other. They are on trucks that were then driven onto the ship.

We spotted the North Star just across from the bubble on the map that says ‘Seattle’. The details and route of the North Star are from marinetraffic.com. It showed that the vessel arrived in Tacoma at 1.24 pm today. She was built in 2003 can do a maximum of 24 knots.

May 1, 2018May 1, 2018

Tuesday/ Costco’s $1.50 hot dog

The price of a hot dog at Costco — $1.50 with a giant cup of soda — has not changed since 1985. So I had to snap a photo of it in the little food court section while I stopped by there today!

Costco is a no-frills warehouse store chain (488 locations in the US) that was founded in Seattle in 1983. Shoppers pay an annual membership fee ($60) to be able to buy anything from food and household items (usually in bulk quantities), to watches to TVs, at low prices. The store has 75 million members nationwide. Ardent fans love the ‘treasures’ they find at stores: electronics, appliances or other less frequent purchases offered at extremely good prices.