Polarization and Mobius strips

I can never remember if I live in a red state or a blue state (my spouse would say that could be the mad cow disease kicking in), as the colors are both in the American flag I can see outside my window at work every week day.  There are some places where the red stripes are touching the blue field of stars, but you would not think that is the case with our two primary political parties in these "supposedly United" States these days.

[borrowed from http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/american-flag-2a.jpg]

I tried to watch some of the RNC this summer, but after the robot Callista and creepy Newt show, I could not continue to expose myself to such torture.  I have heard some clips of the even more creepy Clint Eastwood performance later in the week, and they make me disappointed that an actor whose body of non-political work I respect would stoop to that level.  [I had a good laugh when he later said that anyone who gave him a live unscripted spot on TV got exactly what they deserved.]

More than 160 years after the War Between the States (there is nothing civil about most wars), it seems that we are suffering from an unhealthy level of partisanship.   There are red states and blue states and blue dog democrats (not to be confused with the yellow dog democrats) and the number of politically dominated news [and comedy] shows seems to have exploded in the last 10 years.

I find it interesting how the far left and far right perspectives are closer to one another than they might think.  The folks in the middle, the moderates of each party (in our primarily two party system) are also fairly close.  I like to think of it as a mobius strip, where the moderates are close to one another in the middle of the straight portion, while the extremists are right at the ends where the twist happens.

[borrowed from http://images.yourdictionary.com/images/main/A4mobius.jpg]

Made in Macau

I went to Comerica Park today for a meeting about the Detroit Police Department's security concerns for the upcoming World Series games, and I just happened to stop by the overpriced Tigers shop.  Since I don't know whether I will be willing to afford any tickets for the upcoming series, I decided to buy a hat.  I wanted a world series one, but those have not been delivered yet, as they want to have the logo of the Detroit opponent to be embroidered on them.  Right now, we don't know who that is.  I am hoping it will be the Giants, but I think it is more likely to be the Cardinals.

[borrowed from http://media.mlive.com/sports_impact/photo/tigers-celebrate-alcs-620x400jpg-32b8382536a1dcdc.jpg]

When I got back to the office and took off the tags, I noticed that the item was "Made in Macau".  I knew it would most likely be manufactured somewhere in Asia, because it has to be made quickly and cheaply enough to have nearly half of the items dumped for a mere fraction of the cost that I paid here in the US.

It reminded me of shopping for sporting apparel in the garment district near the big soccer stadium near Seoul.  When I visited my friend Jon in Seoul after attending a fisheries meeting a few years ago, there were quite a few Utley Phillies jerseys, and a bunch of other baseball and football related items that didn't make sense to me.  There were hats and t-shirts festooned with sporting facts that I knew were not true.

At first I thought that I had misremembered who had won a specific series or Super Bowl or division championship, but when I asked Jon for some confirmation, he explained that people like to buy items with english characters on them, and it doesn't really matter what it says on the shirt or hat.

I remember buying a japanese baseball jersey at a street fair in Chicago, having no knowledge of what the characters indicated about its former wearer, so I can relate to that phenomenon.

I wonder how much in advance MLB and other sports teams order their playoffs paraphernalia?  I wonder if the teams have to order these themselves, and if they are required to destroy the ones that do not reflect reality?

Do they look at the betting odds when they decide how many to order of each outcome?

So many unanswered questions.......

Go Tigers!!

Giant scary eyeballs!!!

Just in time for Halloween,there is a great story in the news this week about a HUGE eyeball that washed ashore near Pompano Beach, FL.

They have not tested it yet to determine what creature lost it, but I am voting for the giant squid.  I think it is more likely to belong to a whale, but it is eerie how much like a human eye this thing looks.  You can read one of the stories here.

[borrowed from http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/10/12/giant_eyeball_found_on_pompano_beach_squid_whale_mystery.html]

I read a few of the stories on this today, and some folks are speculating that the eye might have come from a fish, but they mentioned that squid often have their eyes pop out.

Yikes!  OFTEN have their eyes pop out......  I guess that is a bad side effect from not having a nice hard skeleton.  Sure they have a lot of legs, a yummy diet of seafood and get to swim around in the nice warm waters off of Florida, but that would stink to have your eye just POP OUT!!!  

I checked down in the saltwater aquarium in the basement to make sure that everyone had their eyes, and we seem to be good on that account.  Unless the person holding the eye has incredibly small hands, it could not have been any of my salty friends.  The biggest eye I saw was on the clownfish, and that is maybe 3 mm in diameter.

I will make another post when the Florida Fish and Wildlife folks decided what animal lost this......

All about lids (part two: Curved or flat?)

I know it is not very hip-hop of me, but I prefer the relaxed baseball type cap with the VERY curved brim versus the trucker style upright lid with a nearly flat brim.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I am a more CURVY than FLAT human being.  I have hips and other curves, like many women I know.....

So........ of the photos displayed above, which hats do you think that I would prefer?

I am on a turtle kick right now, and I love wearing red hats, since I have to wear only blue hats at work, so it should be pretty easy to figure this out.

No prize, unfortunately for those of you who choose correctly!

All about lids (part one of ????)

When mere humans are allowed to take pictures of me, I can normally be found wearing some kind of hat.  This compulsion has various explanations, the first of which being I hate to have hair in my face, and a hat is great at keeping my very fine tresses away from the toxic face slime.

Me and the cats, watching some boob tube with Andy.

The second reason I adore hats is because I like to be able to see stuff, and the brims of my favorite hat (a relaxed profile baseball cap like the one I am wearing in the photo above) are great at keeping sun out of my bespectacled eyes.

Another great feature of hats with big brims is that you can hide your facial expressions.  I am very quick to react to things, and I would make a horrible poker player because my face always tells people my emotions.  I don't want people to know what is going on inside my head all the time, so if I need to compose myself before responding, being able to lower my head and grab the nicely curled brim of my hat for a few seconds while I think, that's priceless!

The hat pictured below doesn't facilitate that type of protective behavior.  It has SOOOOO many things wrong with it.

I call it the bucket hat, because it is VERY far from relaxed.  It is very firm, and makes you stand up straight (I guess promoting good posture is one of its best attributes, in fact).  It has these magical properties because it is a military cover with shiny stuff on it.  It also does not fit very snugly, so you have to stand up straight and refrain from bending over quickly.

It is part of my fancy uniform, and I DO NOT like wearing my fancy uniform.  I would much rather be wearing my working duds, which includes being able to carry a knife, or even better a multi-tool, and of course cargo pants with HUGE pockets, and big old boots which make me seem taller than I actually am.

Chris and I wearing my least favorite hat in the world.  Curse you Edith Head!!!!

In the picture above, Andy asked to take a picture of Chris and I in our uniforms at Admiral Gene Brooks' change of command in Juneau a few years back.

However, we are wearing slightly different versions of the United States Coast Guard's Service Dress Blue (SDB) uniform.  I am wearing gloves and my big medals on one side of my jacket, and my other ribbons backwards on the opposite side from where they would normally be.  I also have a white shirt on, while Chris has the normal light blue shirt, no gloves, and the ribbons on the regular side, with her name tag on the opposite one.

I was in the honor platoon, which is why I am wearing the Alfa version of the SDB, and Chris is modeling the Bravo, which we would normally use for events involving non-coasties, during the fall/winter season.

Since I am currently attached to a "field" unit, I wear our Operational Dress Uniform (basically a dark blue fatigue type uniform), which includes a high profile baseball cap.

Unfortunately for me, the current Commandant does not like relaxed baseball caps, so he has mandated a nasty trucker style hat, with no scrambled eggs.  More on that in a later blog.