Happy Friday.
Apple is worth an eye-popping $3 trillion as of today.
(Microsoft is valued at around $2.5 trillion).
[Reporting & graphic from the Wall Street Journal]
Friday/ three big T’s 🍏
[Reporting & graphic from the Wall Street Journal]
[Reporting & graphic from the Wall Street Journal]
Thursday/ who gets in— and how? 👨🎓
I’m still reading up about it— the US Supreme Court’s ruling today that effectively overturned decades of affirmative action precedents for admitting students to higher education.
David French writes in a NYT opinion piece titled ‘Harvard Undermined Itself on Affirmative Action’:
To understand why Harvard lost — and why race-based affirmative action in public colleges and federally funded private schools is now unlawful — it’s necessary to understand two key facts about the case. First, the evidence is overwhelming that Harvard actively discriminated against Asian applicants. As Chief Justice John Roberts notes in his majority opinion, a Black student in the fourth-lowest academic decile had a higher chance of admission to Harvard than an Asian student in the top decile.
Mr. Obama is pictured here in 1990 at Harvard Law School.
[Photo Credit: Joe Wrinn/Harvard University, via Getty Images]
Wednesday/ what the hell 😡
I made it my after-dinner stroll to walk down to the QFC on Broadway to buy a bread.
From a block away I could see a commotion going on.
‘What’s going on?’ I asked someone coming from the store.
There were two guys arguing right next to him, he said.
Then one of them pulled out a gun and said to the other ‘Do you want to die?’.
At this point everyone got the hell away from them, and soon after that the store was evacuated.
I later learned that the gunman (age 42) then compounded the two very bad decisions he had already made— 1. bringing the gun into QFC and 2. brandishing it in public during a heated argument—
by holding eight people hostage at the Gold’s Gym next door.
Geez.
He surrendered to the police soon after that and is now in custody.
Tuesday/ the colors of summer ☀️
Here’s a stunning lily flower that I found on my neighborhood walk tonight.
I believe this lily hybrid is called Royal Sunset.
Monday/ mail from New York City 📨
The stamps I had ordered from a seller in New York City, arrived in the mail. The sender put beautiful stamps from yesteryears on the envelope for me.
Might he have picked the 1934 violet stamp with Mt. Rainier on just for me, because I am in Washington State?
I’d like to think so 😉
1934 National Parks Issue/ Mt. Rainier (one from a set of 10 stamps)
Unwatermarked, Perf. 11, Flat Plate printing
742 A241 3c deep violet, Aug.3 1934, Mt. Rainier and Mirror Lake (Washington State)
1954 Wheat Field and Pioneer Wagon Train
Unwatermarked, Perf. 11×10½, Rotary press printing, E.E. Plates*
1061 A508 3c brown orange, May 31 1954
*Electric Eye, a machine that had photo-electric cells to properly center the images to reduce waste during the printing and perforation of stamps.
The machines were introduced in 1935 and used into the late 1950s, when USPS found new ways accurate for centering and perforation.
1954 George Eastman (American entrepreneur who founded the Eastman Kodak Company and helped to bring the photographic use of roll film into the mainstream).
Unwatermarked, Perf. 10½x 11, Rotary press printing, E.E. Plates
1062 A509 3c violet brown, Jul.12 1954
1956 Benjamin Franklin (issued to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the birth of Benjamin Franklin).
Unwatermarked, Perf. 11×10½, Rotary press printing, E.E. Plates
1073 A520 3c bright carmine, Jan.17 1956, Franklin Taking Electricity From The Sky (stamp design by Benjamin West)
1956 Booker T. Washington (Centennial of the Birth of Booker T. Washington (1856-1915), black educator, founder and head of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama
Unwmk., Perf. 11×10½, Rotary press printing, E.E. Plates
1074 A521 3c deep blue, Apr.5 1956, Log Cabin (stamp design by Charles R. Chickering)
1958 Forest Conservation (issued to publicize forest conservation and the protection of natural resources, and to honor Theodore Roosevelt, a leading forest conservationist, on the centenary of his birth).
Perf. 11, Giori Press printing, Plates of 200 subjects in four panes of 50 each
1122 A567 4c green, yellow & brown, Oct. 27 1958
1962-66 Regular Series/ Andrew Jackson
Unwmk., Perf. 11×10½, Rotary Press printing, Plates of 400 subjects in four panes of 100 each
1209 A646 1c green, Mar.22 1963, Andrew Jackson (7th U.S. President), design by William K. Schrage
1963 John James Audubon
Issued to honor John James Audubon (1785-1851), ornithologist and artist
Unwmk., Perf. 11, Giori Press printing, Plates of 200 subjects in four panes of 50 each
1241 A673 5c dark blue & multi-colored, Dec.7 1963, art titled “Columbia Jays” by Audubon (birds pictured are actually Collie’s magpie jays)
1973 Boston Tea Party (bicentennial of Boston Tea Party, designed by William A. Smith)
Perf. 11, Lithographed, Engraved printing, Plates of 200 subjects in four panes of 50 each
1480 A894 8c black & multi-colored, Jul.4 1973, British Merchantman
1481 A895 8c black & multi-colored, Jul.4 1973, British Three-master
1482 A896 8c black & multi-colored, Jul.4 1973, Boats and Ship’s Hull
1483 A897 8c black & multi-colored, Jul.4 1973, Boats and Dock
[Information from Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps, 1989]
Sunday/ at the Pride parade 🌈
Here are a few pictures of Seattle’s 49th annual Seattle Pride Parade along 4th Avenue in downtown.
That’s Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell in the middle of the first picture.
Happy Pride Weekend 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
If you’re going to San Francisco
Be sure to wear some flowers in your hair
If you’re going to San Francisco
You’re gonna meet some gentle people there
– From the song “San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)” written by John Phillips of The Mamas & The Papas, and sung by Scott McKenzie. It was written and released in June 1967 to promote the Monterey Pop Festival.
Happy Friday and Happy Pride Weekend.
There were some gentle people in Volunteer Park tonight, attending the Seattle Trans Pride 2023 festivities there.
Thursday/ elementary art 🦏
Check out the cute glass art on the cement chair in the little garden at Stevens Elementary School.
I see a lion up at the top, and a rhinoceros on the left, of course.
Would that be a lanky-legged hippopotamus on the right?
The rectangular, two-story frame building with clapboard siding and gable roof reflects the Colonial Revival style.
*Named after Isaac Ingalls Stevens, an American military officer and politician who served as governor of the Territory of Washington from 1853 to 1857.
(Washington State joined the Union on Nov. 11, 1889).
Wednesday/ hello summer 🌞
We are blessed with goldilocks weather here in Seattle at the start of summer— mild and sunny, with a high of 72 °F (22 °C) today.
Sunrise was at 5.11 am and sunset at 9.10 pm, so we had just a touch under 16 hours of sunlight.
Tuesday/ where is Titan? 🚁
The craft submerged Sunday morning, and its support vessel lost contact with it about an hour and 45 minutes later, according to the Coast Guard.
The vessel was reported overdue about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland, according to Canada’s Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The Titan was launched from an icebreaker that was hired by OceanGate and formerly operated by the Canadian Coast Guard. The ship has ferried dozens of people and the submersible craft to the North Atlantic wreck site, where the Titan has made multiple dives.
The U.S. Coast Guard said Tuesday afternoon that the submersible had about 40 hours of oxygen remaining, meaning the supply could run out Thursday morning.
– Reported by AP News
There are five people on the vessel: OceanGate Inc. founder Stockton Rush, British businessman Hamish Harding, father-and-son Shahzada Dawood & Suleman Dawood from Pakistan, and former French navy officer Paul-Henry Nargeolet.
Update Thu 6/22:
Headlines from the New York Times—
After days of searching, no hope of finding survivors remains.
Debris suggests 5 aboard submersible were lost in ‘catastrophic implosion’.
Happy Juneteenth 👏
Mauritania’s endless sea of sand dunes hides an open secret: An estimated 10% to 20% of the population lives in slavery. But as one woman’s journey shows, the first step toward freedom is realizing you’re enslaved.
– John D. Sutter writing for CNN Interactive (In 1981, Mauritania became the last country in the world to abolish slavery. Activists are arrested for fighting the practice. The government denies it exists).
Happy Juneteenth.
It is the third time around for the newest federal holiday in the US, Juneteenth National Independence Day, which celebrates the end of slavery in the United States.
There is still a lot of differences in the way states treat the day, though: some commemorate it as an official holiday, some just a day of observance, and others something in between. (In Washington State it was made a permanent state holiday in 2022).
Happy Father’s Day 😌
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads.
It is Father’s Day in South Africa and more than 100 other countries as well.
In Australia, Father’s Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of September.
In 2021, the President of Russia established Father’s Day as falling on the third Sunday of October.
The artist is Belgian painter Jozef Laurent Dyckmans (1811 – 1888). He painted mainly genre scenes and portraits, and his meticulously crafted paintings earned him the nickname “Belgian Gerard Dou”. (Gerard Dou was a Dutch Golden Age painter whose small, highly polished paintings are typical of the Leiden fijnschilders).
[Picture from Wikipedia]
Saturday 🌧
It’s a cool and rainy weekend here in the Emerald City (64°F / 18°C)— a good day to go for a Starbucks coffee, or for a beer.
*South of downtown
[Photo credit to Steve for taking the picture 😁]
Friday/ the glow of neon 🌈
These pictures are all from inside the National Neon Sign Museum in the former Elks Building in the heart of The Dalles downtown historic district.
The museum narrates the evolution of the electric sign, from pre-electric and gold leaf signage to the invention and widespread use of neon signs.
It houses one of the largest collections of neon storefront signs in the world.
Yes, neon signage has been in decline the last few decades, but many cities are now concerned with preserving and restoring their antique neon signs.
Fun fact— Argon is much more versatile than neon for creating colors, and some 75% of ‘neon’ signs actually has argon in the tubes and not neon. ‘Neon’ is the name that stuck for all signs that use either neon or argon.
Pictures:
That’s David Benko himself in one of the pictures, telling us about the history of neon signs. He established the museum in 2018, and is the curator— with a lifelong passion for collecting neon signs.
The museum has displays that show inventors and their experimentation with electricity in the 1700s and 1800s, the discovery of the noble gases argon (1894) and neon (1898) and a model of the patent for the first neon sign tubes that were created in 1910 by French engineer and inventor Georges Claude (the third picture).
By the end of the Roaring ’20s, most American cities were electrified. Illuminated streets and storefronts lured people into the streets at night time. The commercialization of neon signs took off in the 1930s after the Great Depression.
Thursday/ driving back 🚘
We drove back to Seattle via Interstate 5 on Thursday, and stopped at two superchargers on the way: the one at Hood River and the one at Chehalis.
Interstate 84 out of The Dalles runs through the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic area, offering beautiful views of the cliffs and forests along the river.
Across from the Tesla chargers is a row of chargers from EVgo— one of several other EV charging station operators in North America. Tesla is still ‘leading the charge’, with its installed network of superchargers. Beginning in early 2024, owners of Ford and G.M. electric vehicles will be able to buy adapters to connect to Tesla fast chargers. In 2025, both companies plan to sell vehicles designed to use Tesla’s North American plug.
Wednesday/ road trip to Oregon 🚘
Three amigos in two Teslas drove down to The Dalles in Oregon on Wednesday.
(Two more amigos were in The Dalles already).
We made stops at Snoqualmie Pass, in Ellensburg, and at the Tesla supercharger station in Yakima.
*Built in 2020 by Chesapeake Shipbuilding (Salisbury, Maryland, USA) for US$45m. She has 6 decks and 99 cabins.
Tuesday/ ‘some birthday’ 🥳
“Some birthday,” Mr. Trump grumbled on Tuesday as he visited Versailles, a popular Cuban coffee shop in Miami. “Some birthday.”
– Shane Goldmacher and Maggie Haberman reporting for the New York Times (Trump turned 77 today).
Trump is technically in federal custody, after his indictment in a federal courthouse in Miami today. He was booked, a procedure that included digital fingerprints. However, he was not in handcuffs, nor was his passport surrendered or travel limits placed on him.
(Were hard lessons learned in the wake of the thousand-or-so perpetrators that had been arrested after the Jan. 6 insurrection?)
A man walked around with a real pig’s head on a stake. Some Trump supporters had ‘I stand with Trump’ signs; others ‘Trump-DeSantis 2024’ signs.
*Judge Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. (1938-2003) was the first African-American to be appointed to the Dade County Circuit Court. As a trial judge, he made a landmark ruling precluding the systematic exclusion of blacks from juries. That ruling led to important appellate decisions recognizing the impropriety of such discrimination in the court system.
[Picture from the Washington Post]
Monday/ two Porsches 👀
Here’s a gray Porsche Carrera GTS and a white Boxster S, keeping each other company in the bowels of the Amazon Fresh parking garage on Jackson Street today.
These are not EVs— Porsche’s electric cars are the Porsche Taycan (several versions) and the upcoming 2024 Porsche Macan EV (SUV).
Sunday/ more & more EVs around ⚡️
Here’s a Kia EV6— all the way from Texas— on the streets of Capitol Hill today.
According to the registration data from Experian (via Automotive News), the total number of Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) registrations during the first three months of 2023 amounted to 257,507, which is 63 % more than a year ago and about 7 % of the total market (up from 4.6 % in Q1 ’22).
[Source: InsideEVs.com]
Car And Driver magazine’s Verdict is ‘Affordable, lively, and easy to live with, the EV6 electric SUV does most everything right’.
Saturday/ three titles in four years 🎾
Congratulations to Iga Swiatek (22) from Poland.
She bested Karolína Muchová (Czechia, 26) by 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 in the French Open Women’s Final at Roland Garros today.
[Thomas Samson/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images]