Lots of fun paddling the Russian River yesterday.

Neither Robert nor Mira brought many physical assets, or other assets for that matter, into their marriage.  Robert had a sports car for a few months.  Ahh . . . sports car (saliva dribble). Ahem, where was I?

Mira brought into this marriage all Robert was looking for. Beauty, charm, and grace under pressure. She had no family wealth, no cedar box full of goodies, no dowry other than one thing.  One thing that Robert knew would be his once her father gave his permission for this union.  One thing that would put the marriage and future family on a firm footing.  One thing that other men had in their sights, but could never quite capture.

That thing is:  The Lowe Alpine 100 liter Travel Tote (black).

Oh, the bag is not valuable for its contents (i.e., some smelly old boots and a mildewed backpack).  It is the bag itself that is priceless. This little puppy has helped us go everywhere. It holds all necessary camping gear (four sleeping bags, four sleeping pads, a tent, a hammock, and stove and kitchen gear).  Checkable by airlines. Indestructible. Just like the Schwirtz spirit.

Note to future husband of Cadie:  This is it, dude.  Don’t be lookin’ for more.

Familiar Tunes for Anyone Who Has Lived in Tokyo

The Amazing Psychology of Japanese Train Stations

From Citylab.

“A song for a more peaceful departure

Commuting during rush hour in Japan is not for the faint of heart. The trains are jam-packed at as much as 200 percent capacity during the height of rush hour, and razor-thin connection times to transfer from one train to another leave little margin for error. Compounding the stressful nature of the commute in years past was the nerve-grating tone—a harsh buzzer used to signal a train’s imminent departure. The departing train buzzer was punctuated by sharp blasts of station attendants’ whistles, as harried salarymen raced down stairs and across platforms to beat the train’s closing doors.

To calm this stressful audio environment, in 1989 the major rail operator JR East commissioned Yamaha and composer Hiroaki Ide to create hassha melodies—short, ear-pleasing jingles to replace the traditional departure buzzer.

Also known as departure or train melodies, hassha tunes are brief, calming and distinct; their aim is to notify commuters of a train’s imminent departure without inducing anxiety. To that end, most melodies are composed to an optimal length of 7 seconds, owing to research showing that shorter-duration melodies work best at reducing passenger stress and rushing incidents, as well as taking into account the time needed for a train to arrive and depart.

The tunes feature whimsical titles like “Seaside Boulevard” and range from the wistful to the jaunty. Most stations have their own melodies, forming de facto theme songs that become part of a station’s identity. Tokyo’s Ebisu Station, for example, is known for its departure melody—a short, stylized version of the theme from The Third Man.

As more stations have added melodies over the years, the original thesis has proven correct. A study conducted in October 2008 at Tokyo Station, for instance, found a 25 percent reduction in the number of passenger injuries attributable to rushing after the introduction of hassha melodies on certain platforms.

The use of these jingles is not without controversy, however. Shortly after their introduction, residents living near open-air rail stations, weary of hearing endless repetitions of the same jingles all day, complained of noise pollution.”

Is that a wig?

The final standings for the Marin USTA U12 Junior Travel Team are in.  Rory’s Priory Tennis and Swim Club team came in sixth place (out of eight teams). On an individual level, Rory won 3 of his 6 singles matches and 5 of his 10 doubles matches.  Darn good first effort for a 10 year old.  Looking forward to the fall season!

Results and standings below:

League Results:

1. Moreson Performance Tennis (Team B)
   2. Ross Recreation
   3. Boyle Park
   4. Lagunitas CC
   5. The Priory Tennis & Swim Club
   6. Mt. Tam Racket Club (B Team)
   7. Scott Valley Tennis Club

Rory Pierce Results

From Wikipedia: Progress and Poverty

Progress and Poverty: An Inquiry into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and of Increase of Want with Increase of Wealth: The Remedy is an 1879 book by social theorist and economist Henry George. It is a treatise on the questions of why poverty accompanies economic and technological progress and why economies exhibit a tendency toward cyclical boom and bust. George uses history and deductive logic to argue for a radical solution focusing on the capture of economic rent from natural resource and land titles.

Progress and Poverty is George’s first book, which sold several million copies, exceeding all other books except the Bible during the 1890s. It helped spark the Progressive Era and a worldwide social reform movement around an ideology now known as ‘Georgism‘. Jacob Riis, for example, explicitly marks the beginning of the Progressive Era awakening as 1879 because of the date of this publication.^[1]

The following excerpt represents the crux of George’s argument and view of political economy.^[8]

“Take now… some hard-headed business man, who has no theories, but knows how to make money. Say to him: “Here is a little village; in ten years it will be a great city—in ten years the railroad will have taken the place of the stage coach, the electric light of the candle; it will abound with all the machinery and improvements that so enormously multiply the effective power of labor. Will in ten years, interest be any higher?” He will tell you, “No!” “Will the wages of the common labor be any higher…?” He will tell you, “No the wages of common labor will not be any higher…” “What, then, will be higher?” “Rent, the value of land. Go, get yourself a piece of ground, and hold possession.” And if, under such circumstances, you take his advice, you need do nothing more. You may sit down and smoke your pipe; you may lie around like the lazzaroni of Naples or the leperos of Mexico; you may go up in a balloon or down a hole in the ground; and without doing one stroke of work, without adding one iota of wealth to the community, in ten years you will be rich! In the new city you may have a luxurious mansion, but among its public buildings will be an almshouse.”

Albert Einstein wrote this about his impression of Progress and Poverty: “Men like Henry George are rare unfortunately. One cannot imagine a more beautiful combination of intellectual keenness, artistic form and fervent love of justice. Every line is written as if for our generation.”^[30]

In the Classics Club edition forward, John F. Kieran wrote that “no student in that field [economics] should be allowed to speak above a whisper or write above three lines on the general subject until he has read and digested Progress and Poverty.”^[31] Kieran also later listed Progress and Poverty as one of his favorite books.^[32] Michael Kinsley wrote that it is “the greatest economic treatise ever written.”^[33]

After reading selections of Progress and Poverty, Helen Keller wrote of finding “in Henry George’s philosophy a rare beauty and power of inspiration, and a splendid faith in the essential nobility of human nature.”^[34] Father Edward McGlynn, one of the most prominent and controversial Catholic priests of the time, was quoted as saying, “That book is the work of a sage, of a seer, of a philosopher, of a poet. It is not merely political philosophy. It is a poem; it is a prophecy; it is a prayer.”^[35]

Among many famous people who asserted that it was impossible to refute George on the land question were Leo Tolstoy, John Dewey, and Bertrand Russell. Tolstoy and Dewey, especially, dedicated much of their lives to spreading George’s ideas. Tolstoy was preaching about the ideas in Progress and Poverty on his death bed.^[36]

San Geronimo Ridge Serpentine Bioblitz– Saturday, June 9, 9am
Hosted by Marin County Parks and One Tam
Join Marin County Parks and One Tam at Gary Giacomini Preserve as we try to identify and document every living species we see! Hone your naturalist skills, learn to use the iNaturalist smartphone app, and contribute valuable data about the region’s biodiversity. San Geronimo Ridge has some beautiful serpentine habitats, and you will get an opportunity to learn from local experts about the unique plants and their pollinators!

We will be taking observations in the field from 9 AM to 12:30 PM, and then return to the San Geronimo Valley Community Center to have lunch, upload observations, discuss identifications, and win prizes at a free raffle! This optional afternoon session goes until 3 PM.

Ages, Skills, and What to Bring:
– This bioblitz is recommended for ages 10 and up; anyone under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a supervising adult.
– Closed-toe shoes are required. Bring layers in case of weather changes, and be sure to bring a hat and sunscreen.
– Bring a lunch and water. Snacks will be provided.
– It is recommended that you bring a smartphone with the free iNaturalist app downloaded. Pairing up is also an option, and we will have some tablets for teams to use as well.
– No experience necessary! Training and guidance will be provided.

Meeting location: San Geronimo Valley Community Center, 6350 Sir Francis Drake Blvd.  Park in the Lagunitas School Lot directly behind the Community Center.  We will carpool in park vehicles from the Community Center up to the survey sites.
Contact information: Rosa Schneider, 415-484-3164 or [email protected]
iNaturalist link:  https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/san-geronimo-ridge-bioblitz

Here’s the list.

Wow.  Robert didn’t see this when it came out in 2014.  Now he has a book.

On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs: A Work Rant, David Graeber

To Robert, it seems not quite right, but there is something here which hits a nerve and is correct.  There are what we used to call lower-case J obs.  Which don’t really make their holders feel very good and don’t result in creation of much of anything.  There is also lots of time captured by employers in which employees don’t really do anything at all.  This is all exacerbated by the fact that every worker in the world now has what is essentially a television set on their desk. But Graeber lumps too much together.  Most jobs are not “unnecessary,” regardless of whether they are good jobs.  They would be missed. But not much. For Robert, there seems to be something especially pernicious about jobs in which the primary function of the employee is to organize and move information.  Not create it or anything physical.  This is the 21st century problem. This is the soul-sucking problem that is lurking here.

Excerpt:

“But rather than allowing a massive reduction of working hours to free the world’s population to pursue their own projects, pleasures, visions, and ideas, we have seen the ballooning of not even so much of the ‘service’ sector as of the administrative sector, up to and including the creation of whole new industries like financial services or telemarketing, or the unprecedented expansion of sectors like corporate law, academic and health administration, human resources, and public relations. And these numbers do not even reflect on all those people whose job is to provide administrative, technical, or security support for these industries, or for that matter the whole host of ancillary industries (dog-washers, all-night pizza delivery) that only exist because everyone else is spending so much of their time working in all the other ones.

These are what I propose to call ‘bullshit jobs’.

It’s as if someone were out there making up pointless jobs just for the sake of keeping us all working. And here, precisely, lies the mystery. In capitalism, this is precisely what is not supposed to happen. Sure, in the old inefficient socialist states like the Soviet Union, where employment was considered both a right and a sacred duty, the system made up as many jobs as they had to (this is why in Soviet department stores it took three clerks to sell a piece of meat). But, of course, this is the sort of very problem market competition is supposed to fix. According to economic theory, at least, the last thing a profit-seeking firm is going to do is shell out money to workers they don’t really need to employ. Still, somehow, it happens.”

https://strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/