When it comes to kiddos, ours were the cutest … until now!
Posted By RichC on March 10, 2018
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What is Crony Capitalism?
Posted By RichC on March 10, 2018
A simple explanation of crony capitalism in this Prageru video, but a challenging to stop corruption that exists with politicians running governments.
Fantastic sperm whale and diver photo … if it is real?
Posted By RichC on March 9, 2018
One never knows anymore if photos are real or Photoshopped .. . but this filler post photo of a sperm whale and snorkeling photographer is amazing.
Tech Friday: A Periscope chat with a Twitter management team
Posted By RichC on March 9, 2018
Enjoyed the opportunity to ask questions and exchange thoughts with a Twitter management group working on improving online #health (safety/abuse). 
The live Periscopechat was a way for Twitter operate as transparently as possible. They will be opening an RFP process (request for proposal) from academia and the community. Twitter along with most of Silicon Valley is aware they their immediate community has an innate "progressive" bias which has come under attack this past year. Politics and issues bring out abuse by users, some far more dangerous than others. They seem sincere about welcoming questions, thoughts and ideas and what to rapidly address the "health of the community," has they refer to it. Hopefully those of us that use Twitter as a "newsfeed" and appreciate having an exchange with others can be helpful in refining Twitter without draconian measure — a recent "broad based banning" was not received well, especially by conservatives.
On an investment note, solid a few shares of TWTR close to $36 as it became a "double" for me on Wednesday this past week even though I’m still confident Twitter is on the right track (nothing wrong with booking a little profit).
Twitter Health Metrics Proposal Submission
We’re committing to helping increase the collective health, openness, and civility of public conversation around the world, and to hold ourselves publicly accountable toward progress. By measuring our contribution to the overall health of the public conversation, we believe we can more holistically approach and measure our impact on the world for years to come.
It looks like SV Encore will be switching boat slips again
Posted By RichC on March 8, 2018
Encore lost her slip last year at Harbortown Marina when I haul for some TLC during hurricane season in 2017 and I was glad Daniel 
our dockmaster made room for us last month when we relaunched. It’s great to have Encore is back in the water, but I miss the quieter dock we had previously. I’ve been hoping that as the snowbirds headed back north that we could move nearer to our previous location … so as long as we could maintain at least 5 foot of water (Encore’s draft and questionable on B-dock).
Earlier in the week, I received an email from Daniel who thinks B-26 will be opening up in April and thought we might want to move there. So, I’m planning to grab it … even if it is further from the showers, bathroom and lounge … and hopefully can modify my contract to save a few dollars (Brenda will be happier too, since she was upset I gave up our previous dock).
I know you are reading, so what do you think, Mark? 
Information on the collusion-Russia-Trump investigation
Posted By RichC on March 7, 2018
The long time investigative correspondent for CBS, Sharyl Attkisson did an excellent job of “fairly” building a timeline in the “Collusion against Trump” details on her website. If you really want to understand what we know so far regarding the Russian connections, it is worth 
at least skimming the points below.
On a separate note, since I posted the PDF of GOP memo and video summary a few weeks ago, here’s the Democrat’s attempt at the same – Dem’s PDF — obviously there is a partisan taint to both.
From Sharyl Attkisson’s blog:
It’s easy to find timelines that detail Trump-Russia collusion developments. Here are links to two of them I recommend:
Politifact Russia-Trump timeline
Washington Post Russia-Trump timeline
On the other side, evidence has emerged in the past year that makes it clear there were organized efforts to collude against candidate Donald Trump–and then President Trump. For example:
- Anti-Russian Ukrainians allegedly helped coordinate and execute a campaign against Trump in partnership with the Democratic National Committee and news reporters.
- A Yemen-born ex-British spy reportedly delivered political opposition research against Trump to reporters, Sen. John McCain, and the FBI; the latter of which used the material–in part–to obtain wiretaps against one or more Trump-related associates.
- There were orchestrated leaks of anti-Trump information and allegations to the press, including by ex-FBI Director James Comey.
- The U.S. intel community allegedly engaged in questionable surveillance practices and politically-motivated “unmaskings” of U.S. citizens, including Trump officials.
- Alleged conflicts of interests have surfaced regarding FBI officials who cleared Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified information and who investigated Trump’s alleged Russia ties.
But it’s not so easy to find a timeline pertinent to the investigations into these events.
Here’s a work in progress.
Irrawaddy Dolphins – southeast Asia river dolphins
Posted By RichC on March 6, 2018
Irrawaddy dolphins are found in coastal areas in South and Southeast Asia, and in three rivers: the Ayeyarwady (Myanmar), the Mahakam (Indonesian Borneo) and the Mekong. The Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphins inhabit a 118-mile stretch of the river between Cambodia and Lao PDR and are scarce—between 78 and 91 individuals are estimated to still exist. These dolphins have a bulging forehead, short beak, and 12-19 teeth on each side of both jaws.
Tariff fears ease and buying on Wall Street resumes
Posted By RichC on March 5, 2018
After President Trump’s bombshell about placing tariffs on US imported steel and aluminum last week (although he did suggest it during his campaign for president), comments made later made it sound like cooler heads may prevail — that … and the fact that many of President Trump’s advisors remained quiet or gingerly disagree. Speaker Paul Ryan step out on a limb as well and has concern that tariffs and a potential trade war would hurt more that it would help.
I’m sure all free and open trade thinkers understand the US currently has unbalance and harmful trade, but know adding taxes is not something Republicans are comfortable endorsing. Most watchers now believe that such stiff tariffs and an overall trade war may be overblown and that negotiations are taking place to avoid something that could have negative economic consequences. This help the markets swing from a 100 point drop at the opening bell, to a nice across the board gain by 4PM.
After digesting, investors bought back US stocks and “seemed” to believe the US economy (and world economy) should still be in “grow-mode.” Today the DJIA closed up 337 points or 1.37% as other US indices closed up a full 1% and more as well – WSJ Link. Who knows what will trigger the next bounce up or down? Volatility and nervousness seems to be here to stay for a while.
A tribute to Billy Graham – “I can only imagine”
Posted By RichC on March 5, 2018
https://youtu.be/Rlu-a1lgeTo
William Franklin Graham Jr. (November 7, 1918 – February 21, 2018)
Adding a story that is fitting after reflecting on Billy Graham. I read it during my brief morning (usually evening) devotional and had me smiling as I remembered pre-NIV King James Bible reading as a teenager.
This morning, I want to tell you a story of God’s grace. It’s an amazing and true story of how God has used imperfect people, imperfect processes, and imperfect institutions to do something extraordinary. The story begins with one faithful Christian man named Howard Long. Howard Long was not a scholar. Howard Long was not a theologian. Howard Long was not an ordained minister. Howard was simply a Christian businessman who worked for General Electric and who attended a CRC church in Seattle, Washington. Howard’s job required him to travel around the country, and because he took the Great Commission seriously, whenever he did travel, he made it a point to talk to people about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. When he would do that, he would read from the bible, the King James Version of the bible; but Howard was becoming increasingly frustrated in his evangelistic efforts because the words of the King James Version were becoming more and more incomprehensible to the people he was sharing them with.
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Happy Birthday Annalyn – my granddaughter is ONE already!
Posted By RichC on March 4, 2018
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Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee
- lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
- digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.