HinesSight

Starlink app shows how good my view of the northern sky is

I live in a rural area near Salem with crappy CenturyLink DSL the only broadband option -- if you can call about 7 mbps download and 1 mbps upload "broadband."

CenturyLink has told me that they are going to bring fiber optic broadband to our neighborhood exactly never. 

And fast 5G wireless likely will be available in our area in the wilds of Oregon (six miles from the Salem city limits, the state capital, but it might as well be six hundred miles) at about the same time -- almost never.

So Elon Musk's Starlink satellite network is my best bet to avoid internet depression. I follow Starlink news on Twitter and was thrilled to see an Ars Technica story today, "Space X Starlink public beta begins: It's $99 a month plus $500 up front." 

SpaceX has begun sending email invitations to Starlink's public beta and will charge beta users $99 per month plus a one-time fee of $499 for the user terminal, mounting tripod, and router. The emails are being sent to people who previously registered interest in the service on the Starlink website. One person in Washington state who got the email posted it on Reddit. Another person who lives in Wisconsin got the Starlink public-beta invitation and passed the details along to Ars via email.

SpaceX is calling it the "Better Than Nothing" beta, perhaps partly because the Starlink satellite service will be most useful to people who cannot get cable or fiber broadband. But the email also says, "As you can tell from the title, we are trying to lower your initial expectations."

Well, those lower expectations sound pretty damn good to me: 50 to 150 Mbps, so vastly faster than my 7 Mbps. Back in June I signed up for updates on the Starlink web site. I'd like to be a public beta tester, though the chance of this is slim. 

As a consolation prize, the Ars Technica story mentioned Apple and Android Starlink apps. I eagerly downloaded the version for my iPhone. The main thing it does for me currently (actually, the only thing it does) is show how obstructed the view is of the northern sky. 

This afternoon I climbed up on our roof and sat down in various places on the ridgeline. A ridgeline placement looks to be the easiest to install, according to two PDF files I found via some Googling.
Download Ridgeline_Mount_Guide.pdf | DocDroid
Download Volcano_Mount_Guide.pdf | DocDroid

Here's how an unobstructed view of the northern sky looks on the Starlink app. I took this screenshot from Lake Drive, the road our house in on.

Unfortunately, there were trees inside the bottom part of the circle from every point on our roof's ridgeline that I tested for an unobstructed view of the northern sky. That's the bad news.

The good news is that since we live on ten acres, we own all of the obscuring trees. Three tall firs and two large oaks. I forgot to take a screenshot from our roof, but here's photos of the trees from an elevation that is fairly close to the height of the ridgeline.

The three firs in the middle and middle right of the photo are quite a ways from our house. The two oak trees partially obscuring the rightmost fir tree are much closer. Below is a photo of the trees that focuses on them.

Hopefully we won't have to cut down the trees. Mostly our view of the northern sky through the Starlink app is clear. So when it's possible to order Starlink, my plan is to set up the dish on our roof, hook it up to the router, and see what happens. 

If we can't connect to the Starlink satellites, or have a poor connection, then I'll call Elwood's Tree Service and have them take down the two oaks. Since they're close to our house, it makes sense to remove them to reduce the wildfire risk. If there's still a poor connection, I lean toward removing the fir trees one at a time.

My wife and I are tree lovers. However, large trees fall down frequently on our ten natural acres from wind, snow/ice, or old age. We're fortunate to have many large firs, oaks, and other types of trees on our property. Even so, cutting some or all of these five trees down isn't my first choice. 

It just is extremely frustrating to have such a slow Internet connection. Some days our DSL slows markedly, making it difficult to do anything on the Internet. Streaming movies on Netflix or other services is problematic. Usually we can do this, but not always. 

Maybe as Space X puts more Starlink satellites into orbit, the need for a totally unobstructed view of the northern sky will lessen. We are a bit south of the 45th parallel, so within the 44 to 52 degrees north latitude that will reportedly be the first rollout of the Starlink system. 

I can hardly wait.

Take the Salem Climate Action survey, though it is strange

I urge you to take the Community Survey that is part of the process for preparing a Salem Climate Action Plan. I believe you have until November 4.

However, having just taken the survey myself, be aware that it is decidedly weird. Much of the survey has little to do with the climate, or actions aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, or with the planning process. 

For example, early on a question asked me how often I did the following: work on a community project, attend a public meeting discussing town or school affairs, attend a political meeting or rally, attend a club or organizational meeting, volunteer, attend faith-based services/meetings, participate in some other community involvement activity.

It's difficult to discern what this has to do with the Salem Climate Action Plan. 

Further, it seems obvious that people who take the time to complete the Community Survey are more concerned with what is going on in Salem than the average person. So in no way will this survey tell us much about the community activities most people in Salem engage in, leaving aside the question of why this is relevant to the Climate Action Plan.

The Community Survey page on the City of Salem web site does describe the purpose of the survey. 

As a valued member of the Salem community, you are invited to take this survey so that your perceptions and opinions about Salem can be used to better understand Salem’s strengths and vulnerabilities in relation to the changing climate. Your insights are important to us - your responses will help inform the development of Salem’s Climate Action Plan. We appreciate your input in building a city that is resilient to climate change.

OK, but this language set off some warning bells in the political cynicism part of my brain, which, given my age of 72, has a lot of historical material to work with.

City officials haven't been leading the charge for Salem to join other cities in Oregon with a Climate Action Plan. The City Manager, Mayor, Public Works Director and other high-ranking officials ignored this until progressives on the City Council and 350 Salem OR pressed for a Climate Action Plan.

Ten days ago the City Council approved greenhouse gas reduction goals for Salem, a major step forward and a laudable accomplishment of 350 Salem OR.

So when I completed the Community Survey, under one write-in question I said that climate change deniers should have zero influence on the Climate Action Plan, because the greenhouse gas emission goals already have been determined by the City Council.

What remains to be determined is how to achieve those goals in Salem, not whether the goals should be achieved. 

That's why I found the language explaining the purpose of the Community Survey to be worrisome. It talks about the need to  "better understand Salem’s strengths and vulnerabilities in relation to the changing climate." Huh? That makes no sense. 

What needs understanding is how to reduce Salem's carbon emissions, most of which come from the transportation sector. Hence, driving less in more efficient vehicles (battery powered, ideally) for shorter distances is going to be necessary.

The goal is to do our part to slow down and ultimately stop the changing climate, not to determine how the changing climate will affect us. Likewise, the last sentence, "We appreciate your input in building a city that is resilient to climate change," is even more perplexing.

The primary purpose of the Climate Action Plan shouldn't be to make Salem "resilient" to climate change.

It is to reduce carbon emissions in our city that are contributing to climate change. Sure, a secondary purpose could be to find ways to cope with the bad effects of climate change. But resiliency is a code word for adapting to climate change, rather than taking strong action to combat it.

Now, maybe the strange questions in the Community Survey and the worrisome language in the description of the survey aren't really an indicator of how city staff are viewing the Climate Action Plan.

I'm just worried that these are signs of city officials trying to water down the impact of the Climate Action Plan.

Salem, mask up in the name of freedom

Fall is here. Leaves are falling. COVID-19 isn't. Infections are rising in Marion County, in Oregon, in the United States.

Not good. In fact, horrible. People have become complacent about wearing masks and physical distancing. It doesn't matter if you're inside a grocery store or the home of someone who is having a social gathering. 

Wear a damn mask! 

In the name of freedom. Yes, freedom. Too many people have the crazy idea that going maskless shows you're a freedom lover. Actually, it shows that you have no idea what freedom means. 

If you don't believe me, read this opinion piece: "There's a Word for Why We Wear Masks, and Liberals Should Say It." That word is freedom. 

One of the key authors of the Western concept of freedom is John Stuart Mill. In “On Liberty,” he wrote that liberty (or freedom) means “doing as we like, subject to such consequences as may follow, without impediment from our fellow creatures, as long as what we do does not harm them even though they should think our conduct foolish, perverse or wrong.”

Note the clause “as long as what we do does not harm them.” He tossed that in there almost as a given — indeed, it is a given. This is a standard definition of freedom, more colloquially expressed in the adage “Your freedom to do as you please with your fist ends where my jaw begins.”

Now, conservatives revere Mill. But today, in the age of the pandemic, Mill and other conservative heroes like John Locke would be aghast at the way the American right wing bandies about the word “freedom.”

Freedom emphatically does not include the freedom to get someone else sick. It does not include the freedom to refuse to wear a mask in the grocery store, sneeze on someone in the produce section and give him the virus. That’s not freedom for the person who is sneezed upon. For that person, the first person’s “freedom” means chains — potential illness and even perhaps a death sentence. No society can function on that definition of freedom.

...Freedom means the freedom not to get infected by the idiot who refuses to mask up. Even John Stuart Mill would have agreed.

Recently my wife and I wanted to get an estimate from a Salem company for some work our house needed. The guy who came out wasn't wearing a mask In fact, he didn't even have one. We gave him one to wear while he was inside our house. 

The estimate was too high. But even if it had been acceptable, we wouldn't have hired this company, because they obviously don't respect our freedom to not get COVID-19. We also won't buy food from restaurants that don't do their best to keep their customers safe.

So it's bad business to ignore public health measures like requiring mask wearing indoors.

It also is selfish for anyone to go maskless. For example, the Salem-Keizer School District can't have in-person learning for all grades until the local infection rate is much lower than it is now. Thus everyone who fails to wear a mask is helping doom children and teenagers to online learning.

Here's some charts that show how Oregon and Marion County are doing. Again, not good.

Statewide, we've surpassed the COVID-19 previous peak of mid-July. In Marion County, our cases per 100,000 residents for the past seven days are the fifth highest of the 36 counties in Oregon, even higher than Lane County, which has been put on a Watch List by the Oregon Health Authority.

Marion County has about 42% of the Multnomah County population, yet 64% as many COVID-19 cases as Multnomah County. If we don't get our act together, Salem, along with the rest of Marion County, could have our re-opening policies rolled back.

My geeky search for the perfect winter tire

OK, "perfect" isn't a word that goes with "tire," so probably I shouldn't have used it in the title of this blog post. But my quest today was to find the nearest thing to perfect in a winter tire.

I enjoy browsing the internet for tire information almost as much as I enjoy browsing for car information. It took me months of perusing automobile web sites and watching You Tube videos of car reviews before I settled on getting a 2020 Subaru Crosstrek Limited to replace my VW GTI. 

Since the VW's winter tires won't fit on the Crosstrek I've got an ad running on Craigslist for the almost-good-as-new Michelin Pilot Alpin winter tires that were on the GTI. Question is, what winter tire should I get for the Crosstrek?

Well, the question before that one was, "Should I get winter tires?"

Since I hate to put on tire chains and we live in rural south Salem on a road that is never plowed when it is snowy or icy, plus our driveway is long and steep, for many years I've said yes to using winter tires from November to March.

True, it hasn't snowed in the Salem area the past two years, maybe three.

But we've gotten heavy snow and ice before that. And I figure that with climate change affecting the weather more and more, the chance of a polar vortex or whatever causing a big snow/ice event in our part of Oregon is a matter of when, not if.

So yesterday I brought home four 18-inch wheels from Capitol Subaru that the parts department had ordered for me. Since I like the look of the wheels that came with the Crosstrek, I figured it was worth some extra money to have winter tires mounted on the same wheels. 

Now, maybe I should have watched this video early this afternoon, rather than hours later, after I had spent a lot of time researching the best winter tire for my car -- since I probably was overthinking which winter tire to buy. This Auto Trader Canada guy correctly says that you've gotten 90% of the way there by simply deciding to get winter tires.

They're that much better than all-season tires in snow and ice. Plus cold, another benefit of winter tires even if it never snows, since winter tires stay soft in cold temperatures while regular tires get stiff, which reduces their effectiveness.

At any rate, I did my overthinking before I saw the video. And it turns out that all that pondering could pay off, since eventually I came across the fact that Michelin has recently released a successor to the X-Ice Xi3 which has the much better name of X-Ice Snow. 

However, I found that since this is a new tire, it isn't available in all sizes, including 225/55/18, the size of the Crosstrek tires that came with my car.

I was disappointed, since early reviews and You Tube videos of the X-Ice Snow rollout test put on by Michelin this year showed that it has some benefits over the previous X-Ice designs. 

For example, the Snow has siping (tiny slits) all the way to nearly the bottom of the tire depth. And the special compound the tire is made of is 100% of the tire, whereas other brands of winter tires basically turn into all-season tires after the tire is worn down by 50% or so, since the more pliable compound is only in the outer part of the tire.

So my first idea was to email and text Michelin, asking if the Snow will be available in 225/55/18 soon. An even better idea came to mind after that -- go down to a 17 inch tire, preserving the attributes of the 18 inch tire.

TireRack.com suggests doing this for winter tires, since a narrower tire cuts through deep snow better than a wider tire. Tire Rack can calculate a "minus size" tire for your vehicle. Mine turned out to be 225/60/17. Which, pleasingly, is available for the Michelin X-Ice Snow.

I then found a web site which compares the characteristics of two tires, in my case 225/55/18 and 225/60/17. Tires in these two sizes are very similar in the important variable of speedometer accuracy. It turns out that at 60 mph the 17 inch tire would produce a speed of 59.8 mph. Really close.

Tomorrow I'm going to check with a Capitol Subaru service advisor to make sure it's OK to put 17-inch wheels on my Crosstrek Limited. Since other Crosstrek trims come with 17-inch wheels (Limited is the only trim with 18-inch wheels), I'm anticipating this will be fine. And won't void the warranty in any way.

If I get the go-ahead to use 17-inch wheels, I'll return the 18-inch wheels to Capitol Subaru and get four 17-inch wheels. I don't like the look of the 17-inch wheels as much, but they will be more attractive than the steel wheels I've used before with winter tires.

Also, more expensive, but I figure that it is worth it to have wheels I enjoy looking at during the cold months, rather than looking forward to getting them off in the spring.

How I won my PayPal dispute against Peppermint Berri

Peppermint Berri is a disgusting company. Their 38 Trust Pilot reviews are all one star, the lowest possible, though somehow they end up with a 1.4 rating.

I made a big mistake when I ordered a weed remover tool from them on May 14, 2020, having seen a Facebook ad for the device. I then filed a complaint with PayPal on July 22, where I said this.

After ordering a weed remover on May 14 and not receiving it, I emailed Peppermint Berri three times on June 5, June 30, and July 20 asking why my order hadn't been received. Each time I was told there was a problem with the "courier" or shipping service. I was given a tracking number, but the information never changed.

I just checked reviews for Peppermint Berri and found that 36 people have given this Singapore company horrible reviews, with most saying they never got a product, or the product was defective, or they couldn't get a refund. It seems clear that Peppermint Berri is scamming people and shouldn't be allowed to have a PayPal account.

I've repeatedly asked for a refund and keep being told that the weed remover is on its way, but there never is any change in the tracking information -- which supposedly originates in Los Angeles. I live in Oregon. It shouldn't take months to get a product from California to Oregon. I want my money back, and I want Peppermint Berri to be preventing from scamming other people.

This seemed to me like an open and shut case. I expected that PayPal would tell Peppermint Berri to give me a refund. But I learned that PayPal makes it difficult for people like me who get crappy service from a sleazy company. 

PayPal wanted me to go through a dispute resolution process even though the scammers at Peppermint Berri (an online store based in Singapore) clearly had no intention of resolving my problem -- just stringing it out for as long as possible. 

I got some satisfaction out of a writing a scathing blog post on July 22, "Read these bad Peppermint Berri reviews before buying from them." But what I really wanted was PayPal to stop doing business with Peppermint Berri, or at least to give me my money back.

Which finally happened on October 6, almost five months after I ordered the weed remover. Peppermint Berri sent me the weed remover at some point, September, I recall, which I promptly returned, since I'd asked repeatedly for a refund after learning what a scam this company is. 

The secret of my success was not giving up. I had to contact PayPal via chat after the weed remover came and I returned it, because there was no way to submit additional information via the PayPal Resolution Center. 

A PayPal employee said I could send a PDF file with the additional information about the return to them, and they'd add it to my case.

It was frustrating to have to go through so much work to get PayPal to do what should have been done quickly -- tell Peppermint Berri, or Resilient Media (the parent company, apparently) that I should get my damn $88.94 back.

I learned a couple of things from this mess.

One, PayPal is an easy way to pay, but it isn't really a safer way to pay. I got screwed by Peppermint Berri and PayPal didn't make it easy for me to get my money back. They seem to favor sellers over buyers, probably because sellers are how PayPal makes most of its money. 

Two, don't blindly trust Facebook ads for products. Yes, I've learned about some great products via Facebook ads. However, I should have looked for Peppermint Berri reviews before ordering from them. Buyer beware is familiar advice, yet also great advice.

Getting a high dose senior flu vaccine isn't easy in 2020

Being 72 and a believer in vaccines (everybody should be, since they work), every October I've been heading off to Walgreens on south Liberty to get my annual high dose flu shot. 

(Since us old folks have weaker immune systems, a high dose flu shot offers more protection, though a regular flu shot is better than nothing, for sure.)

That's what I did last Tuesday, only to be met with a sign on the pharmacy window saying that they didn't have any high dose vaccine. Which was the same sign I saw last week.

So I decided to check with the south Commercial Walgreens. There I was told that they had high dose vaccine, but no needles/syringes. Maybe the needles would be available next week, I was told. 

Next stop was the Fred Meyer pharmacy on Commercial. The word there was they'd run out of high dose flu vaccine that day. More might come in next week.

When I got home, I did two things. I phoned my Salem Health family physician's office. They told me that they didn't have any high dose vaccine, but would put me on a waiting list. (The next day I got a call telling me I could make an appointment for October 23 to get the shot.)

I also made an online appointment for 2:45 pm today with the Costco pharmacy.

Last year, I think it was, Costco had bailed us out when my wife and I had gotten the first Shingrix shingles shot, but couldn't find any place with the second shot. Even though we hadn't gotten the first shot at the Costco pharmacy, they told us that they reserved some vaccine for people like us who'd had the first shot.

Talking with the pharmacist at Costco who gave me the high dose shot, he said they had run out several times recently, and were going to run out again today. But when someone has an appointment, they put aside the vaccine. Which was good news for my wife, since she had an appointment for 4 pm today.

Something is different this year, since I haven't had a problem getting a high dose shot since I turned 65 seven years ago.

The covid crisis must be the main reason there's more demand than usual for the high dose vaccine. Also, the Costco pharmacist said the demand for flu shots started early this year, since the wildfire smoke we were inhaling led to recommendations to get a flu shot, apparently because lungs already were being impaired somewhat by the smoke.

My theory, which I shared with the pharmacist, is that with all the debate about whether Covid is more deadly than the flu (it is, despite what Trump claims), maybe seniors are seeing the figures about how many people die from the flu each year -- 12,000 to 61,000 since 2010 -- and more fully realize now how important it is to get a flu shot.

Google News has numerous stories about shortages around the country of the high dose flu vaccine, so this is a real thing. See here, here, and here. Fortunately, any shortages likely will be temporary. 

But since it is impossible to know when the flu season will start in earnest, the wise thing to do is get a flu shot as soon as possible, especially if you're in a high risk group, such as being over 65.

What happened to the Oregon legal marijuana horror show?

The title of this blog post came to mind while driving around this afternoon listening to Classic Vinyl on satellite radio when I heard one of the greatest rock songs of all time, Cream's Sunshine of Your Love from 1967.

If you're too young to recollect the brilliance of Cream, here's a video of a 2005 performance. 

I smoked a lot of marijuana during my days at San Jose State College, 1966-71. Cream was one of our go-to groups to listen to while high. So listening to the song got me thinking both about how us pot heads used marijuana back then, and how it is being used in Oregon now.

A big difference, of course, is that weed is legal in my state. It also is considerably stronger, from what I've heard, than the marijuana available in the 1960's. 

My fellow hippies and I used to drive around stoned. We drove motorcycles stoned. We played pool stoned. We traversed the freeway to San Francisco and back again at night stoned. We played frisbee stoned. In fact, we did just about everything stoned. 

And not once, not ever, did we have any sort of accident while stoned. Try doing all that we did while drinking heavily. Likely the result won't be pretty.

Which goes a long way toward explaining why there have been so few reports of "stoned driving" accidents or deaths here in Oregon since marijuana was legalized in 2014. Nor have there been significant reports of under-age marijuana users suffering from ill effects of the Demon Weed.

All of that and more was prophesied to occur by opponents of Measure 91, the marijuana legalization initiative. Supposedly Oregon would become a cannabis hellscape -- stoned drivers killing themselves and other people, teenagers becoming zombies, increased use of hard drugs once people got a taste of being high.

When I go in to buy some Indica from my favorite store (the strain I like for relaxing in the evening), I'm given a Seasoned Smoker discount. I like that term, even though from age 21 to shortly before marijuana became legal in Oregon I didn't imbibe a single toke.

But that sure wasn't the case in my college years -- where I ended up graduating "With Great Distinction" from San Jose State, having written some of my best essays while high. Thus it doesn't surprise me that marijuana has caused so few problems in Oregon. The reason is simple:

Marijuana has few negative effects, especially when compared with alcohol. And CBD, which I take three times a day for general health promotion, has essentially zero negative effects, just a bunch of positive effects. 

One thing I can say, though, is that the positive side of getting high sure is a lot different for me now that I'm almost 72, as compared to when I was 19.

I think a large part of ehe difference can be attributed to the famous "set and setting" notion. Set refers to the mindset of a psychedelic drug user, while setting refers to the physical and social environment. 

After my fairly staid freshman year, my life at a college in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960's was thoroughly suffused with hippie ideals. Flower Power. Summer of Love. Jefferson Airplane. Haight Ashbury. Make Love, Not War. Don't Trust Anyone Over 30. LSD. All that stuff.

When we smoked marijuana, we were also inhaling an entire lifestyle.

Plus, we were young, crazy, uninhibited, carefree. Now, I use a PAX vaporizer, because I'm concerned about my lungs. I sit in a warm bath, checking my iPhone, then reading a thriller book. Getting high has a whole different feel from when, back in college, we'd spontaneously decide to drive to Santa Cruz in the middle of the night so we could see the sun rise over the ocean.

Now I struggle to stay awake through the KGW TV evening news that ends at 11:35 pm. 

What hasn't changed, though, is my appreciation for marijuana. It relaxes me. It resets my frazzled mind, especially now when the upcoming election is causing nightmarish visions of four more years of Trump to dance through my head. It makes me feel more at one with the world, less ego-centered and anxious. 

So many thanks to those who paved the way for legal marijuana in Oregon, especially the tireless advocates for Measure 91. In November I'll celebrate the six-year anniversary of Measure 91's passage with some fine Oregon-grown cannabis. And hopefully also celebrate Joe Biden's victory.

Wildfire good deeds need to become Covid good deeds

People here in Oregon, as elsewhere on the West Coast, have been wonderfully generous with their time, money, and effort in helping others affected by the massive wildfires burning in our forests.

The nightly local news is filled with stories about meals being prepared for firefighters, livestock being cared for after homes were destroyed, donations of clothes and other household goods being used to aid the newly homeless, and other acts of kindness. 

Such isn't surprising. Most people are generous. They feel empathy and concern for those in need. They want to make things better when suffering is rampant. 

I've been wondering, though, how it is that our nation's response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been so splintered and controversial when the response to West Coast wildfires has been so cohesive and praiseworthy.

How is it that Americans are so willing to risk their lives to save homes threatened by wildfire, yet often so reluctant to wear a mask in indoor public spaces or outside when six feet of physical distancing can't be maintained?

Covid has killed hugely more people than the wildfires have. The cover of the current issue of TIME magazine contains a large 200,000, the number of those killed by COVID-19 since the virus started to ravage the United States. 

The cover story is called An American Failure. There are many reasons for the failure to contain the virus, including the willful incompetence of Donald Trump. But other factors are at play, according to the story.  Such as:

Americans today tend to value the individual over the collective. A 2011 Pew survey found that 58% of Americans said "freedom to pursue life's goals without interference from the state" is more important than the state guaranteeing "nobody is in need." 

It's easy to view that trait as a root cause of the country's struggles with COVID-19; a pandemic requires people to make temporary sacrifices for the benefit of the group, whether it's wearing a mask or skipping a visit to their local bar.

...Absent adequate leadership, it's been up to everyday Americans to band together in the fight against COVID-19.

To some extent that's been happening -- doctors, nurses, bus drivers and other essential workers have been rightfully celebrated as heroes, and many have paid a price for their bravery. But at least some Americans still refuse to take such a simple step as wearing a mask.

Why? Because we're also in the midst of a epistemic crisis. Republicans and Democrats today don't just disagree on issues; they disagree on the basic truths that structure their respective realities.

Half the country gets its news from places that parrot whatever the Administration says, true or not; half does not. This politicization manifests in myriad ways, but the most vital is this: in early June (at which point more than 100,000 Americans had already died of COVID-19), fewer than half of Republican voters polled said the outbreak was a major threat to the health of the U.S. population as a whole.

So how is it that Republicans, along with Democrats and independents, are so willing to work hard to help evacuees threatened by wildfires, yet so many aren't willing to wear a mask or do other things to prevent people from suffering the nasty effects of COVID-19?

One reason is that it isn't possible to deny the reality of the wildfires, while there is plenty of misinformation circulating about COVID-19. If it were possible for Trump to spew falsehoods about wildfire damage being "fake news," likely a quarter or more of the population would agree with the Liar in Chief. 

Instead, reporters here in Oregon have been doing a great job communicating wildfire news via newspapers, television, social media, and other ways. This shows the importance of local journalism, which is more trusted than national news outlets. (I trust both, but I'm a news junkie.)

Another factor relates to the American individualism cited in the TIME cover story.

Volunteering to help those displaced by the wildfires is up to each person. Nobody is forcing them to do this. But orders to wear masks in public places come from elected officials. So there seems to be a reluctance by many to do what should be done to save lives just because someone else is telling them to do this.

That reminds me of a childhood retort. "I'm doing it not because you told me to, but because I want to." It's disturbing that adults would extend that to "I'm not doing it because you told me to, even though it is the right thing to do."

At any rate, I'm hoping that the compassion evident in the response of people to wildfire victims -- both those who lost their homes and those who had to evacuate -- will carry over to an increased willingness to wear a mask, physically distance, avoid crowded indoor places like bars, and do other things necessary to prevent death and disease from COVID-19.

With life, it's a truism that we're all in this together. And while no one gets out of life alive, death coming to everyone, we should do our best to help others get through difficult times in their life, whether this be dealing with a wildfire or avoiding infection with the coronavirus.

Ricky Gervais' Humanity show is wonderful dark humor

If you're looking for something to take your mind off of the West Coast wildfires, COVID-19 crisis, systemic racism, global warming, Trump vs. Biden, and other serious things that leave you less than smiley-faced, my wife and I have a suggestion.

Fire up Netflix and watch Ricky Gervais' Humanity show, a 78-minute stand-up routine that dates from 2017.

Now, if you watch it and blame us for recommending this piece of tasteless trash, keep in mind that Laurel and I enjoy dark humor. And Gervais is so dark in Humanity he easily beats out a black cat in a completely lightless room.

He starts off by spending considerable time telling transgender jokes at the expense of Caitlyn Jenner, daring to speak the name that mustn't be spoken, according to transgender purists -- Jenner's original name, Bruce.

After that the show descends (or ascends, in my opinion) into taking jabs at other sensitive topics, like children with cancer. Moments of more traditional levity are interspersed here and there, such as how dogs got their special gifts.

The breed that hunts lions wasn't wild about their gift. 

We watched Humanity a few days ago. Rather bizarrely, now and then I've found myself thinking, What would Ricky Gervais do in this situation?

That's the power of comedy, and of dark comedy in particular. Gervais finds humor in subjects that are thoroughly unfunny to most people. Yet from a certain perspective, such as the twisted mind of Gervais, they are funny. 

And Gervais makes fun of himself also. Just not as often as he takes digs at others.

He demonstrates the virtue of not caring overly much about what other people think, so long as what you think rings true to you. At one point he recites the cardinal rule followed by his family, or maybe just his brother and him, I can't remember exactly.

"If you think of something funny, you must say it." Maybe somebody will laugh. Maybe they won't. No matter. What matters if that you expressed your creativity. There's a lot of power in that comedic philosophy.

Here's some You Tube videos of clips from Humanity, including the dog bit. It's the first one. Also, the least offensive one.

Troy and Lori Anderson land use applications to Marion County

Because neighbors here in rural south Salem, Oregon are interested in the plans by Troy and Lori Anderson to build a farm dwelling on 80 acres of their 217 acre property just north of our Spring Lake Estates neighborhood, here are the documents related to their land use application to Marion County.

(1) Below is a PDF file of the application submitted to Marion County by Lori Anderson in March 2020 for a primary farm dwelling on 80 acres north of Spring Lake Estates.

Download Application

(2) Below is a PDF file of the April 2020 Marion County decision on the application. It was denied because the applicant didn't prove that the required farm income came from the 80 acre property.

Download AR20-009 Decision

(3) Below is a PDF file of the March 2020 Marion County request for comments on the application.

Download RFC-1

(4) Below is a a PDF file of the second application to Marion County by Lori Anderson in July 2020 for a primary farm dwelling on 80 acres north of Spring Lake Estates. My understanding is that this application has been withdrawn.

Download Second application