Willem's Planet – Page 8 – a weblog of whereabouts & interests, since 2010

July 29, 2025July 30, 2025

Tuesday/ the 8.8 earthquake 🌎

My phone and watch buzzed a dozen times from my Japan-based NHK app tonight, with tsunami warnings (because of the 8.8 earthquake on the Kamchatka peninsula).

By now the first waves have reached Hokkaido in the north of Japan, though, and it seems the waves will be no more than a few feet high.

Why was this the case? I asked Chat GPT’s AI chatbot.
Great question — and a very reasonable one, given how large-magnitude earthquakes like the 8.8 off the Kamchatka Peninsula can sometimes generate devastating tsunamis. But not all big earthquakes produce massive waves. Here’s why this particular one likely produced only a small tsunami (a few feet):
1. It was very deep
2. It was likely within the subducting slab
3. The tsunami threat is highly dependent on the type of fault motion
4. Energy was spread over a wide area

Magnitude: 8.8
Depth: 21 km 13 mi
Time: GMT 2025-07-29 23:24:50.842
Epicenter: 2025 Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia Earthquake
Agency: USGS (United States Geological Survey)

For this extremely strong earthquake, 64 aftershocks (above mag. 2) have been detected so far. The strongest was a magnitude 7.2 quake that hit 53 seconds after the mainshock in 81 km (50 mi) distance, in 94 km southeast of Vilyuchinsk, Yelizovsky District, Kamchatka, Russia, on Wednesday, Jul 30, 2025 on 11:25 am (Kamchatka local time GMT +12). The most recent aftershock occurred 5 hours ago 217 km south of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy, Kamchatka, Russia, and had a magnitude of 4.9.

The majority of reports came from Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy (58 reports), a city with more than 180,000 inhabitants in Kamchatka in 119 km (74 mi) distance northwest of the epicenter, Russia, Yelizovo (10 reports), a town with 41,000 inhabitants in 140 km (87 mi) distance northwest of the epicenter, and Yakutsk (4 reports) (2,085 km or 1,295 mi to the northwest) in Sakha.
[Source: volcanodiscovery.com]

July 28, 2025July 29, 2025

Monday/ more animals 🦏

This series is still called the sixth definitive series of South African postage stamps— but the redrawn version of it.

The images of animals and birds are larger and without frames.
Up to four different kinds of paper were used in the printing process for some denominations.

I still don’t have all the combinations, but this is a great start.

July 27, 2025July 28, 2025

Sunday/ lots of sun ☀

It was a beautiful summer day here in the city (77°F/ 25°C).
I went down to the waterfront to check out the newly renovated Pier 58 that had opened on Friday.

I took the No 12 bus to downtown and walked to Pike Place Market.
I am taking just a quick look here at the overlook towards the Ferris wheel and the aquarium before I head down to the waterfront promenade.

Incoming! Watch out little sail boat!
I did not hear the ferry blare its horn at it, so I suppose it was OK. If I read the ferry schedules right, this was the Kaleetan coming in from Bremerton.

Here is the new play park on Pier 58 with its octopus slide.

The Wings Over Washington theater (with its tilting seats to ‘fly’ over beautiful scenery and mountains) is still there, and popular this time of year with a line of people outside waiting their turn.

The display case at the entrance to the Miner’s Landing arcade with its carousel and video games inside.

Here’s the Pier 57 Historic Carousel inside the Miner’s Landing arcade.

One of several totem poles around the waterfront. This one is on Pier 57.

The Salish Sea Tours boat with its catamaran hull, just arriving back at Pier 57 from its cruise around Elliott Bay.

A display case inside Ye Olde Curiosity Shop on Pier 54. I love the alphabet book that the kids are looking at: L for Loon and M for Moose.

All done! Walking back with the pedestrian overpass over Alaskan Way to 1st Avenue to catch the G-line bus.

July 26, 2025

Saturday/ the 6th Definitive Series 🇿🇦

I reworked my pages with the sixth definitive series of South African postage stamps.
The inscriptions with the animal names were first in Latin (1993).
A new set with additional denominations was issued later, with inscriptions in English (1996).
These pages with 8 pockets (rows) allows me to display all the stamps in one set on one page— very nice.

P.S. Some of the pairs of stamps look the same but they are printed on different paper, with slightly different shades of white. That makes the ink colors look different as well. And of course I cannot just choose one. I need to put both in.

July 25, 2025

Friday/ dry ⛱

Happy Friday.
These black-eyed Susans must be looking out to the skies for a little rain.
It’s the 25th of the month, and there has been none so far.
The average for July in Seattle is 0.78 in.

The black-eyed Susan or yellow coneflower belongs to the family Asteraceae.

July 24, 2025July 25, 2025

Thursday/ AI does hard math 🧮

Cade Metz reports from San Francisco for the New York Times:
An artificial intelligence system built by Google DeepMind, the tech giant’s primary artificial intelligence lab, has achieved “gold medal” status in the annual International Mathematical Olympiad, a premier math competition for high school students.

It was the first time a machine — which solved five of the six problems at the 2025 competition, held in Australia this month — reached that level of success, Google said in a blog post on Monday.

Google said Deep Think had spent the same amount of time with the I.M.O. as human participants did: 4½ hours. But the company declined to say how much money, processing power or electricity had been used to complete the test.

I looked up the problems online, and here they are.
Oof. Should I give it a go, and put in two sessions of 4½ hours each?
I think I’d better not. I might damage my self-esteem. 😆

July 23, 2025July 23, 2025

Wednesday/ in full bloom 🪷

The lilies in the community garden at Republican St and 20th Ave E here on Seattle’s Capitol Hill are gorgeous.

Lilies (genus Lilium) is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants growing from bulbs. Lilies are among the oldest cultivated plants. They have been cultivated for at least 4,000 years.
[From Wikipedia and Google Search Labs | AI Overview]

July 22, 2025July 24, 2025

Tuesday/ a check with a revenue stamp 💷

As part of the ever-expanding scope of my collection of South African stamps, I have started to collect revenue stamps of the South African colonies.
(Before the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910, South Africa consisted of four British colonies: the Cape Colony, Natal, Transvaal, and the Orange Free State.)

Location of the Orange Free State c. 1890 [Source: Wikipedia]

From 1854 to 1902, the Orange Free State was an independent Boer-ruled sovereign republic under British suzerainty* in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century. It ceased to exist after it was defeated and surrendered itself to the British Empire at the end of the Second Boer War in 1902. It is one of the three historical precursors to the present-day Free State province in South Africa.

*A suzerain is a person, state or polity who has supremacy and dominant influence over the foreign policy and economic relations of another subordinate party or polity, but allows internal autonomy to that subordinate.

This yellow revenue stamp with green ink from the Cape Colony is affixed to a checque (using the queen’s English— Queen Victoria) that was issued in 1897 by the Harrismith branch of the National Bank of the Orange Free State.

**The Revenue Stamp**
First issued in 1865 by the Cape Colony | Perf. 14 |Rotogravure
One penny (1d) | green on yellow paper| Queen Victoria’s profile in classical style* surrounded by grapevine and vine leaves in the corners, symbolizing the Cape Colony’s viticulture | Crown at the top, denoting British authority
*Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, queen from 1837 until her death in January 1901.

**The Cheque**
Written by the treasurer (Charles Truter) of the Dutch Reformed Church on Nov. 9, 1897 to Esquire J. Theron. (Esquire here is the title of a young nobleman).
The cheque is from the Harrismith branch of the National Bank of the Orange Free State, written for an amount of 11 Orange Free State pounds*, 8 shillings, 6 pennies.
*Like the South African pound, it was divided into 20 shillings, and a shilling into 12 pennies.
On the far left of the check is the coat of arms of the Orange Free State.
The cheque was printed by William Brown & Co. of Old Broad Street in London.
Security features at the time included the fine print at the bottom of the check, and so-called fugitive printing, that would use ink that would change, fade, or disappear under specific conditions, if it was tampered with.
The revenue stamp was affixed to the cheque on Nov. 15.
The check was stamped ‘Paid’ on Nov. 19. It seems Esquire Theron had the amount of the check paid into his account at the African Banking Corporation Ltd. in the town of Worcester in the Cape Colony.
A hole was punched in the check to also indicate it has been cashed.

The signature of Esq. J. Theron on the back of the checque.

**Let’s take a closer look** at the coat of arms of the Orange Free State printed on the far left of the check.
VRYHEID (freedom) at the top, and GEDULD EN MOED (patience and courage) on the ribbon.
IMMIGRATIE (immigration) at the bottom, presumably a call to Europeans, or settlers from other South African colonies to emigrate to the Orange Free State colony.
**The livestock** look like cattle (the OFS coat if arms image on Wikipedia shows sheep).
**The lion** on the right must mean ‘courage’, right?
**The ox wagon** signifies the trek that the pioneers made from the Cape Colony to escape British rule, to establish their own independent Orange Free State republic.

July 21, 2025

Monday/ earlier sunsets 🌇

We are having a run of beautiful and mild sunny days here in Seattle.
The high today was 77°F (25°C).

I walked down to the fountain and texture pool in Cal Anderson Park just before sunset.
Sunset is now at 8.56 pm and there were beautiful soft blues, pinks and oranges on the horizon, looking out towards the Olympic Mountains behind the Space Needle.

July 20, 2025July 21, 2025

Sunday/ let’s play chess ♟

Whether you are pro or anti
Or could not care less
We are here to tell you
We are here to sell you chess

Not a chance of you escaping
From our wiles
We’ve locked the doors
We’ve blocked the aisles

We’ve a franchise worth exploiting
And we will (yes we will!)
When it comes to merchandising
We could kill

When you get up
When you get up in the morning
‘Til your bedtime book
You will have to live your life
With bishop, knight, and rook

Clean your teeth with checkered toothpaste
Wear our vests
Our kings and queens
On bouncing breasts

You could even buy a set
And learn to play
We don’t mind
We’ll sell you something anyway

We’ve done all our market research
And our findings show
That this game of chess
Will be around a month or so

Maybe it’s a bit confusing
For a game
But Rubik’s cubes
Were much the same

In the end the whole world bought one
All were gone
By which time we merchandisers
Had moved on!

By which time
We had moved on!
– The merchandisers, singing a raucous interlude in the introductory song “Merano” of the 1984 double LP “Chess”.
The music was composed by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, with lyrics by Tim Rice and Björn Ulvaeus (the Swedish translation)

Happy International Chess Day.
International Chess Day is annually celebrated on 20 July, the day the International Chess Federation was founded in 1924.

The very popular language app Duolingo that I use to dabble with German and other languages, now offer lessons and challenges in chess as well.
Here’s Oscar, offering a hint as to what the best move for white would be. (Oscar sometimes quips ‘Don’t let my moustache distract you’.)
But which white pawn should be sacrificed?
Seems to me it’s the one on c7 that needs to go to c8 and be promoted to queen, checking the black king. Yes, the black rook can capture the new queen, but then falls itself to the white queen, a big win for white.

July 19, 2025July 20, 2025

Saturday/ hello kitty (don’t eat me) 🦁

A reader sent in this set of photos to the South African newspaper Die Burger (The Citizen).

**Kitty of the Kgalagadi**
The reader Estelle Jordaan writes:
“A once-in-a-lifetime experience .. we were in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park (in the Kalahari Desert region of Botswana and South Africa, bordering Namibia to the west).
On our early morning drive from Nossob (at Marie se Draai) we came across seven young lionesses who came walking up the road from the front. One was very curious and approached our vehicle. The next moment she first stood with her paws on our pickup’s runner board, and then upright against the pickup with a ‘high five’ with one paw against the window (luckily the window was closed!). Then she decided she wanted to explore the side mirror more closely and taste it… the damage to the mirror? A small tooth hole, and a few light scratches– but we rather see it as lasting evidence of the best memory so far.”
[Photos by Estelle Jordaan. Published in Die Burger newspaper online, Thursday Jul. 10, 2025]

July 18, 2025July 19, 2025

Friday/ Nelson Mandela International Day 🕊️

Happy Friday.
It is Nelson Mandela International Day— the annual international day in honor of Nelson Mandela, celebrated each year on 18 July, his birthday.

**Inauguration of President Nelson Mandela (May 10, 1994)**
Issued May 10, 1994
Perf. 14½x14 | Des. Liza van der Wal | Litho. | No Watermark
882 A293 45c | Photo image of Mandela
[Source: 2021 Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 6A]

**50th Anniversary of the Rivonia Trial**
Issued Nov 26, 2013
Perf. 14¾x14½ | Des. Marie Vermeulen‑Breedt | Litho. | 12 Booklet panes of Rivionia trial defendants with 1 stamp each | No Watermark
1510 A547 Standard Postage (R2.80) | Photo image of Mandela as defendant at Rivonia Trial
[Source: 2021 Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue, Vol. 6A]
P.S. From Wikipedia: The Rivonia Trial was a trial that took place in apartheid-era South Africa between 9 October 1963 and 12 June 1964, after a group of anti-apartheid activists were arrested on Liliesleaf Farm in Rivonia. The farm had been the secret location for meetings of uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the newly-formed armed wing of the African National Congress.
Speaking in the dock of the court on 20 April 1964 during the trial, Mandela said: During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

July 17, 2025July 17, 2025

Thursday/ ocelot & opossum 🐆

Clarissa Brincat writes in the Science section of the New York Times of July 15, 2025:
Researchers at Cocha Cashu Biological Station in southeastern Peru set up a camera trap to study bird behavior, but they got a surprise guest appearance instead: an ocelot trailing an opossum through the jungle at night.
The ocelot, a wild cat slightly larger than a house cat, and the common opossum, a marsupial, are usually predator and prey. But in this video, they moved in tandem— like two old friends walking home from a bar.
Intrigued, they contacted researchers in other parts of the Amazon who turned up three additional, nearly identical videos from different locations and years.
…
Opossums’ attraction to ocelots remains a mystery, but Dr. Damas-Moreira and her colleagues suspect there’s something that draws both animals. One hypothesis is “chemical camouflage.”
“Opossums have a strong smell, and a close-by ocelot might help hide the opossum’s scent from bigger predators, or the opossum’s odor might mask the ocelot’s presence from prey,” said Ettore Camerlenghi, an evolutionary biologist and ecologist at ETH Zurich and an author of the study.
Opossums are also resistant to the venom of pit vipers, a snake that lives in the Amazon. Ocelots lack that defense, and teaming up could give both animals an edge when hunting, Dr. Camerlenghi said. In North America, a similar alliance exists between coyotes and badgers, who buddy up to hunt squirrels.

[Stills from videoclips in the New York Times article ‘Videos From the Amazon Reveal an Unexpected Animal Friendship’]

July 16, 2025July 16, 2025

Wednesday/ a green flower 🌱

We did have the hottest day so far this year here in Seattle, with a high of 91°F (33°C). I waited until it was almost dark before I ventured out for a walk.
Sunset is now at 9.02 pm.

No, my phone’s camera was not malfunctioning.
I found this coneflower (genus: Echinacea) tonight. They usually come in purple and pink varieties. This is likely a hybrid, perhaps the ‘Green Twister’ (Echinacea purpurea) that features a distinctive two-toned appearance with lime green and magenta petals.

July 15, 2025July 15, 2025

Tuesday/ heating up ☀️

We had 88°F (31°C) here in Seattle today.
The National Weather Service issued a Heat Advisory for today and tomorrow for the Seattle area— with potential for temperatures in the mid-90s (35°C) on Wednesday.

The weather camera by Hansville out on Kitsap peninsula picked up **noctilucent clouds** early this morning (the faint, bluish-silver or electric blue streaks above the orange colors of twilight).
These are also called night-shining clouds or polar mesospheric clouds. They are composed of ice crystals and form in the mesosphere, the atmospheric layer above the stratosphere, at extremely cold temperatures.
[Still image from a video clip posted by Skunkbayweather @Skunkbayweather on X]

July 14, 2025July 19, 2025

Monday/ stamps from Venda 🐘

The stamps of last of the four South African homelands that issued stamps, made it into my album: those of Venda. (A sample below).

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s parents were of the Venda ethnicity. The Venda people reside primarily in the Limpopo province of South Africa, near the border with Zimbabwe. They have a rich and distinctive culture, including a unique language called Tshivenda or LuVenda (I see it is simply called ‘Venda’ on Google Translate).

Venda, officially the Republic of Venda, was a Bantustan that was declared independent by the apartheid regime of South Africa in 1979. (In the far north of South Africa on the map).
On 27 April 1994, independent Venda ceased to exist as it was reintegrated into South Africa to became part of modern-day Limpopo Province.
Venda’s stamps were still valid for postage, though— the 16c stamp below on the last page has a 1997 cancellation.

July 13, 2025July 13, 2025

Sunday/ at the Electrify Expo⚡

Three amigos ran out to Marymoor Park by Redmond this morning— the site for the Electrify Expo Seattle 2025.

The all-electric 2025 Lucid Gravity SUV has a starting price of $79,900 for the Touring model and $94,900 for the Grand Touring model, according to Lucid Motors. The Touring model is expected to be available for order in late 2025.
[Source: Google Search Labs | AI Overview]

2025 Tesla Model 3 in Quicksilver, with white seats.

2025 Tesla Model S in Red*. This is the newest Model S, now with a front bumper camera as part of their hardware refresh.
*Or maybe it is the Red Multi-Coat: a premium version of the standard Red, offering a more vibrant and lustrous appearance.

The Tesla Bot. (Google Search Labs | AI Overview: No, the full-sized Tesla Optimus humanoid robot is not yet for sale to the general public. While Tesla is developing Optimus, it is currently focused on internal production for use in its own factories, with external sales planned for 2026.)

A Cybertruck fitted with an after-market camping add-on (mostly providing additional sleeping space).
That’s a metallic green wrap on the truck (all Cybertrucks are offered with a raw, stainless steel exterior).

A different kind of metallic wrap on a Cybertruck, with a rainbow reflection in the bright sunlight. (The high in Seattle was 87°F/ 30.5 °C today).

These Teslas are dressed up in sporty, race car attire, but now starting to show their age/ The new ‘Highland’ Model 3 has been available since early 2024.

Several other electrified means of transportation were on display as well. The well-known Seattle power bike maker Rad Power Bikes is showing off its latest line-up of power bikes (bike with electric motor to assist the rider’s pedaling, and a battery that provides the power).

Look Ma! I’m flying through the air.
A young rider demonstrates gravity-defying freestyle stunts that he can do with his electrified moto-cross bike. (There is a steep up-ramp on the other side that gets him into the air).

A staffer from the booth with electric unicycles (EUCs) showing how it’s done. (It’s much harder than he makes it look). These unicycles are self-balancing personal transporters with a single wheel. Riders control their speed and direction by shifting their weight and using built-in sensors.

I’m in the back seat of a Cybertruck, and we’re just doing a little circuit laid out around Marymoor Park. The center console is a little dusty. There is a Cybertruck ahead of us. A white Tesla (at the top right of the display) is behind us: the view provided by the rear-facing camera on the tailgate. The rearview mirror cannot really be used when the rear glass of the truck is covered.

All done, and we’re heading back to Seattle across the SR-520 floating bridge (that floats on Lake Washington). There is not a lot of snow on the Olympic Mountains this time of year.

July 12, 2025July 12, 2025

Saturday/ a double bagel 🍩🍩

Poor Amanda Anisimova (age 23, 🇺🇸) suffered a ‘double bagel’ defeat against Iga Świątek (24, 🇵🇱) in today’s Wimbledon Women’s Singles final.

Anisimova struggled with her serve, and made way too many unforced errors. She skipped practice on Friday because of fatigue and felt pain in her right shoulder while warming up before the match.

From BBC.com/ sport:
The rarity of a 6-0 6-0 score line in a final underlines Swiatek’s dominance.
This is the first 6-0 6-0 win in a Grand Slam final since Steffi Graff (19, 🇩🇪) beat Natasha Zvereva (17) in just 34 minutes at the 1988 French Open.
It is the first time it has been done in a Wimbledon final in the Open era, which is when tennis became professional (1968).
In 1911, Dorothea Lambert Chambers (32, 🇬🇧) beat Dora Boothby (29, 🇬🇧) by the same score line— but that was in the challenge match era, where the defending champion played just once.

July 11, 2025July 11, 2025

Friday/ like a rocket 🚀

Happy Friday.
The stock markets in the US closed the week out with the world’s first four trillion dollar company: Nvidia (NVDA), listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange.

Here’s Tripp Mickle reporting for the New York Times from San Francisco:
Nvidia spent three decades building a business worth $1 trillion. It spent two years turning itself into a $4 trillion company.
On Thursday, the world’s leading provider of computer chips for artificial intelligence became the first public company worth $4 trillion, after its stock ended the day trading just above $164 a share. It achieved the milestone before an array of better-known tech heavyweights, including Apple and Microsoft.
Nvidia’s rise is among the fastest in Wall Street history, and a testament to investors’ belief that artificial intelligence will deliver an economic transformation that rivals the Industrial Revolution’s.

From Tripp Mickle’s report for NYT:
Apple and Microsoft, the market’s two largest companies in recent years, have led the way toward the $3 trillion mark. But Nvidia’s rise is unprecedented. In two years, it went from being valued at $1 trillion to becoming the first company with a market capitalization of $4 trillion.
… Early this year, its shares fell 17 percent and it lost $600 billion in market value on a single day after the Chinese company DeepSeek claimed it could train a cutting-edge A.I. system with a tiny fraction of the Nvidia chips U.S. companies were using. Investors’ fears proved to be overblown, and Nvidia recovered. But the breakthrough showed the volatility that comes with being an A.I. bellwether.
[Graphic by Karl Russell and Blacki Migliozzi/ NYT]

July 10, 2025July 19, 2025

Thursday/ Paul McCartney on stamps ✉️

Funny— that these two stamps were on the envelope from Great Britain containing my Ebay stamps, yesterday.
Paul McCartney (83) announced yesterday that his “Got Back” concert tour later this year in the USA is a go.
(He’s not coming to Seattle).