Sad but oddly interesting

Julie was reading our local obituaries for some reason this morning and stumbled onto this.  I've changed some of the names and facts to protect identities.  However, this is so tragically sad and interesting I had to share it:

My dear mother,  Margaret Walters, died on Dec 2, 2011 after a lengthy and involuntary confinement at El Camino Hospital at the age of 89.  Mom was born the daughter of ....and graduated at the top of her class at Wellington High School in Illinois.  She was very proud of her hometown, returning for over 50 years to her high school reunions.

My mother was an extremely intelligent woman and wanted desperately to go on to college immediately after graduation, her grandfather offering to pay her expenses at University of Illinois, to which she had been accepted.

Her father disallowed that, stating that 'girls only get married'.  Her older brother,  Eli, went in her stead.  Eli flunked out after one semester.  My dear mother, over the objections, constant interference, and sabotage by my father, John Walters, finally earned her Bachelor of Arts degree on December 23, 1994 at the age of 72 and her Masters of Arts in Sociology at the age of 76, both from San Jose State University.

Now, THAT's a Yacht!

We were doing some work at Ft. Mason in San Francisco yesterday.  A colleague of mine pointed out a white blob way on the opposite side of the bay - near Sausalito.  He told me the blob was a yatch.  It was hard to tell.. but I took this picture at full zoom... then kept blowing it up on my computer until this is what I saw!

This is a $300 million yacht owned by Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko which was parked off Sausalito in Richardson Bay on Wednesday.

The 394-foot yacht, called the "A," apparently arrived Tuesday night or Wednesday morning after a trip up the coast from San Diego. It has over 29,000 square-feet of living space; including a 2,500-square-foot master suite, three swimming pools and doors accessible by a fingerprint security system.
The boat attracted onlookers onshore as well as boaters in the bay.

"It looks like something from a James Bond movie," said Sausalito resident Bart Dzivi as he marveled at the craft from shore Wednesday. "I went jogging last night and didn't see it, so it must have come in this morning or late last night."

Melnichenko, 38, who resides in Moscow and is married to model Aleksandra Nikolic Melnichenko, made his money in the fertilizer, energy and banking businesses. With a net worth of $4.4 billion, Melnichenko is No. 189 on the Forbes list of wealthiest people in the world.

The U.S. Coast Guard wasn't sure how long Melnichenko's boat would be in the bay. "We just know it's a private yacht," said Levi Reed, a Coast Guard spokesman.

And what a yacht.

The vessel is named after the initials of the couple's first names. It's 62 feet wide at its beam; has an owner's suite and six cabins; has a crew of 37 and a staff of five; has twin 6,000-horsepower engines; carries 12 tons of water for its hot tubs, pools and spas; and can hit speeds of 24 knots, although its cruising speed is around 19.5 knots, which can take it more than 6,500 nautical miles nonstop.

An all-white, 2,583-square-foot master suite is wrapped in bombproof, 44-millimeter glass, according to The Wall Street Journal. There, a king-size bed sits on a giant platter that rotates with the press of a silver button. Another set of buttons rotates the bed itself. The combination of the rotating bed and the rotating platter allows limitless angles for watching the sunset, sunrise or the 60-inch plasma television, which retracts from the ceiling.

The walls of one room are covered in white stingray hides, while another is covered in hand-stitched calf's leather. The main deck features chairs made from alligator hides and Kudo horns. One suite onboard has been dubbed the "nookie room" by the crew, with its white circular bed with padded walls and a ceiling-mounted television, according to the Journal.

The ship's two main landing boats are mini-yachts themselves, stretching to 36 feet, boasting plush interiors and costing more than $1 million each, the Journal reported.

This Dude Is Living My Life!

Check out  http://www.imjustwalkin.com/  a very cool web site that highlights Matt's (see news story below) trek across America.

This dude is living my life!  How cool!

hmmmmm.... could i??......

AVALON, Wis. – In these uncertain times, most of us cling to the things that make us feel secure. Those who have jobs give thanks. We hug our children a little tighter. We wait — and hope — for better times.

So when someone like Matt Green comes along, we shake our heads a little and wonder. Who is this young man, bearded and weather-worn, pushing a cart down a country road, mile after mile? And why would he abandon a solid career as a civil engineer — a roadway designer, ironically — to walk all the way across America?

"Good question," he concedes to those who frequently ask about his motives.

Unlike others who've made cross-country treks, Green is not looking to break a record of any kind. Nor does he want to draw attention to a particular cause. No, for Green, there's just something about the act of walking that makes him really happy, much more content than he ever would have been in his office cubicle in Manhattan, where he used to daydream about doing something epic like this.

Attemping to Avoid Consequences

Having lived my life as well as having raised a couple of children I am firmly convinced that the desire to avoid consequences plays a huge part in human behavior.  Even when the consequences of telling the truth or doing the right thing are relatively trivial we will still often opt for a lie.  Or fabricating a story.  Or cheating.  Or simply trying to get away with something by not admitting it.

I was reminded again just how strong the drive to avoid consequences is this week - in a very tragic way.  Many of you will recall that a close work colleague/friend of mine was killed in a cycling accident in October 2008.  This week, after months and months of legal maneuvering the person who drove the car involved in the accident chose to go to trial to defend herself (to avoid admitting quilt and accepting relatively minor consequences).  She was found guilty after less than 2 hours of deliberation.   She will be sentenced in July.

After the verdict was announced I received an email from the victim's wife in which she explained the many times that Rita Campos (the driver) had an opportunity to plead either guilty or no-contest to resolve the case.  As recently as the second day of the trial (meaning a good deal of the damning testimony against her had already been revealed) Ms. Campos kept negotiating for a plea agreement.  At that time she was offered 200 hours of community service and a $1,000 fine if she would plead.  It would be logical to think that the offers were significantly LESS than that before the trial.

Facing a maximum penalty of 1 year in jail and a fine of as much as $25,000 - not to mention several more days worth of paying her defense attorney - she decided once again not to plead.   Apparently, her desire to avoid consequence was so great that she was unwilling to accept that 5 weeks of  her labor and the cost of a medium quality big screen TV was appropriate punishment for being responsible for manslaughter.

And here's the kicker.  During the trial it came out that Ms. Campos had been cited during the last 6 years for two additional violations; being fully responsible for a vehicular accident and DUI.  One thing that the victim's wife desparately wanted was for Ms. Campos to lose her privilege to drive in California.  She won't get that.  At most Ms. Campos will lose her license for no more than 1 year - if she loses it at all.

I am stunned. Literally stunned that Ms. Campos would risk jail to avoid what amounts to an insulting slap on the risk for causing the death of my friend.  People are stupid.

This Just In!!

NAIROBI, Kenya – An unidentified US intelligence officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged this morning that a specially trained US military team has infiltrated a Somali pirate training center deep within this African nation. While details regarding the training camp remain carefully guarded,  this reporter was able to piece together an account through interviews with observers directly or indirectly associated with the facility. 

Insiders have identified this Somali, known only by his codename, Mr. Big,  as the leader of the recent pirate uprising.  Mr. Big avoids capture by never staying more than a day or two in the same location - floating from hideout to hideout in the dead of night to avoid detection by US and allied satellite imaging systems. A nappy dresser - his outward appearance belies the calculating mind of this heinous leader.

Mr. Big recruits his band of renegade pirates from nurseries throughout the world - preparing them at hidden indoctrination sites for the rigors of attacking US Navy military warships.  Training includes such skills as underwater attack,

small weapons training,

and survival training for when your dinghy gets blown to smitherines:

Following an intensive 9 week course, successful recruits are assigned to a mothership and deployed to the waters off the African coast to be sunk by US and allied forces, captured and brought to freedom in the US.

Oops! They Did it Again!

Apparently, those Somali pirates aren't the brightest bulbs in the treasure chest.  I would put this story up against any of the 'dumbest criminals in history' stories.   Check it out:

NAIROBI, Kenya – Suspected Somali pirates fired on a U.S. Navy guided missile frigate off East Africa early Thursday in what appeared to be a ransom-seeking attack. (don't they know we're broke and printing fake money??)

The USS Nicholas returned fire on the pirate skiff, sinking it (duh) and confiscating a nearby mothership. The Navy took five pirates into custody, said Navy Lt. Patrick Foughty, a spokesman.

Last May, pirates chased a U.S. Navy warship and fired small arms fire at it.  <-- seriously made me laugh when I read that one!!

"If you think of the kind of young men who are doing this  (whackjobs), they go out into the middle of the ocean in a tiny boat. (understatement ALERT!)  They might not always make rational decisions, and they often attack things that are bigger than they should (attack)," said Middleton.

(understatement ALERT!)  "It's also quite possible that they don't have a full understanding of the targets they are attacking. Perhaps they just see a big ship they think is a worth a lot of money," he said. (well.. it IS.. but that's because of all the WEAPONS it has on it!)

Go Dutch!!

Our company provides electronics systems that are installed on various foreign ships, submarines and aircraft.  So, it was with delight I read the following story today.  Check out the news story... then check out the armaments that are standard on this class of frigate.

NAIROBI, Kenya – These Somali pirates picked the wrong ship to hijack.

Troops aboard the Dutch warship HNLMS Tromp (pictured below) fired warning shots Wednesday off the coast of East Africa as suspected Somali pirates in two small skiffs raced toward their warship, the EU Naval Force said.

After the pirates realized they had made what spokesman Cmdr. John Harbour called a "rather silly mistake," they turned around and fled. EU Naval Force personnel tracked down the two skiffs and a third suspected mothership, finding ammunition and rocket-propelled grenades on board, said Harbour, a spokesman for the EU Naval Force.

The two skiffs were destroyed and the pirates were set free on the mothership after it had been cleared of weapons.

HNLMS Tromp Armaments:

• 5×8 Mk41 vertical launch misile system with 8 cells each
• Standard armament: 8×4 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile and 32 SM-2 IIIA surface-to-air missiles
• Another 8 cell MK41 VLS can be added
• 2 Goalkeeper CIWS guns (4,200 rounds/minute)
• 2 quadruple Harpoon anti-ship missile launchers
• 1 Oto Melara 127 mm/54 dual-purpose gun
• 2 Oerlikon Contraves 20 mm machine guns
• 2 twin MK32 Mod 9 torpedo launchers with Raytheon MK46 Mod 5 torpedoes

In the Financial News

Okay.. one more thing this morning before I get back to work :)

I just read an interesting article about Europe's housing market.  It is quite different than in America.  Here's what I learned:

European real estate has been living in the world of volatile interest rates since WWII. There is no such thing as a 30-Year loan in Europe. Most people live with their parents until they are about 35 because they don't have the cash to buy a house. That is why fertility rates are 1.7. Loans are like 60/40. The terms are 2-4 years. That is all the risk the financial system will bear.

So, you have to save up 60% of the purchase price to buy a home and then pay the remainder of the price back within 2-4 years.  In fact, this is not all that much different than in America in the 40s.  At that time you had to put at least 50% down on a house and loans were relatively short term.

Interesting.....

Michigan News

It's been a rough week for my home state of Michigan.  This news story hit the San Jose Mercury News yesterday:

Michigan, the Wolverine State, has lost its only known wild wolverine.  State officials said Monday hikers found the 28 pound female over the weekend outside Minden, about 115 miles north of Detroit.  Department of Natural Resources and Environment spokesperson Mary Dettloff says natural causes are suspected.

Our thoughts and prayers are with you, Michigan, in this difficult time.

Interesting morning reading...

As I was checking out Yahoo Finance this morning - I caught an article that sheds some light, perhaps, on why so many Americans are looking to the government for their security.  Some snippets from the article:

The percentage of workers who said they have saved for retirement fell to 69%, from 75% in 2009.

The percentage of American workers with virtually no retirement savings grew for the third straight year, according to a survey released Tuesday. The percentage of workers who said they have less than $10,000 in savings grew to 43% in 2010, from 39% in 2009, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute's annual Retirement Confidence Survey.

..the survey found that 54% of the workers with some form of savings said that they have less than $25,000 stowed away.

Hang with me for a second and let's see what these numbers mean in the big picture.  If 69% have saved something for retirement - 31% have saved nothing (31% have saved $0K).

If 43% of people have less than $10K in savings and 31% have saved nothing..  then 12% (43%-31%) have between $0K and $10K.   

54% of 69% - or 37% - of people that had savings have less than $25,000.  If 12% of savers have less than $10K that means 25% (37%-12%) of all people have between $10K and $25K. 

In summary:

• 31% of people have saved $0K
• 12% of people have saved between $0K and $10K
• 25% of people have saved between $10K and $25K

Now, to be fair, the survey covered employees from age 25 on up.  It would not be expected that the youngest people would have significant retirement savings.  However, in total 67% of American workers have less than $25K in savings for retirement.  It's not surprising that so many people are trying to figure out how to get the government to help them out.

What's truly sad is this last little snippet that indicates most people are not even interested in trying to understand how to be self reliant until, unfortunately, it's too late:

"People just don't want to think about this," said VanDerhei. "Everybody thinks they're too young to think about it, until suddenly they're too old to do anything about it."

Another Great Reason to Love Oregonians!

Yesterday I read some news that just infuriated me to no end.  So, it was with trepidation in my heart I even opened up my browswer this morning to check stocks and read some news.

But then I stumbled onto this heart-warming story. I just have to share a bit with you.  I know many of us are healthy eaters.  I hope you will seek out Bob's Red Mill Natural Food products to support this great company.

MILWAUKIE – Scores of employees gathered to help Bob Moore celebrate his 81st birthday this week at the company that bears his name, Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods.

Moore, whose mutual loves of healthy eating and old-world technologies spawned an internationally distributed line of products, responded with a gift of his own -- the whole company. The Employee Stock Ownership Plan Moore unveiled means that his 209 employees now own the place and its 400 offerings of stone-ground flours, cereals and bread mixes.

"This is Bob taking care of us," said Lori Sobelson, who helps run the business' retail operation. "He expects a lot out of us, but really gives us the world in return." Moore declined to say how much he thinks the company is worth. In 2004, however, one business publication estimated that year's revenues at more than $24 million. A company news release issued this week stated that Bob's Red Mill has chalked up an annual growth rate of between 20 percent to 30 percent every year since.

"In some ways I had a choice," Moore said of what he could have done with the company he founded with his wife, Charlee, in 1978. "But in my heart, I didn't. These people are far too good at their jobs for me to just sell it."

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Too funny. An article from US News caught my eye this morning. The subject was the 'America's Best High Schools'. A current student at one of the top 100 schools offered this succinct self appraisal to rebut the report:

I am currrently a junior at Animo. And i must agree with Alexis, we have pendejos*. We shud be ranked for most skanks. because we have the most in the country. we dont even have a real school, we are located next to LAX in a motel because everyone comes out pregnant.We have more STD's than Africa.

* for those of you that don't subscribe to Urban Dictionary; pendejos: a group of stupid, idiots, ignorant, useless people.