Friday, May 27, 2016

Trolling SeaWorld

I have read research that states males can live to be 70 and
females to 100. I first photographed that fellow with the wavy
 fin in 1977 and a friend photographed him last summer (2015).
 That's 39 years. It's not too difficult to imagine him an
18-year-old teenager in 1977 which would make him older
than SeaWorld. Notice they're swimming toward the boat.
Every time CNN shows the movie "Blackfish" SeaWorld fires up the PR team and floods Twitter with
their side of the story in 140-or-fewer-letter snippets. The foolishness of it is I think they have it on some kind of autodial because they seldom change, just the same old defenses with their unique corporate spin. The best part may be that it doesn't take nearly 140 characters to refute their justifications for keeping whales in captivity.

The only good side of it is trolling them and they caught me in a good mood tonight. At first I wondered about all the tweets and then I remembered "Blackfish" was on tonight. It only took a glass of wine or two to wind it up. Here are a few examples of what I am talking about:

SeaWorld @SeaWorld Wondering what it takes to be a killer whale trainer? 


@tjonesak @SeaWorld a crass disregard for killer whales' quality of life

SeaWorld @SeaWorld We have received a number of questions asking why we chose not to appear in Blackfish.
 @tjonesak You had your chance to respond when the film was made. Kibitzing after the fact is so much sour grapes. How's your stock?


SeaWorld @SeaWorld We love our killer whales & want everyone to know the truth about our world-class care
@tjonesak @SeaWorld You have to wonder how they can function at all in the wild without your world-class care. Oh, wait, they don't need it.

SeaWorld @SeaWorld Independent research shows SeaWorld’s killer whales live as long as wild killer whales
 @tjonesak @SeaWorld You haven't been in business as long as some killer whales live in the wild.

There's a lot of history involved here and for me it dates back to 1983, earlier if you count my first encounters with killer whales in the late 1970s.

Here is a photo of the same whale made in 2015 and posted by my son on
his facebok page. the whale is AE-14 in the Prince William Sound populaton.
The links below will document most of the history. Each of those stories contains more links so you can go as deeply into this history with the whales as you want to go. There's this, SeaWorld, if you are watching, if you don't remember my name, I bet you remember Tim Jones et al v. Secretary of Commerce.

It gets old posting responses to the same tired defenses SeaWorld puts up every time "Blackfish" comes on, but it needs to be done, over and over again. I am getting old, but there are some young people out there already picking up the flag and fighting on (read, yes, you ). You are awesome.

The cool thing tonight was I picked up a couple more followers. Almost 40 now, lol. Not quite Lady Gaga numbers yet but I have a few more years left.


Friday, May 20, 2016

Let someone else go down to the sea in boats

Every so often, usually in spring, the urge arises to find a way back onto the big ocean. Then thanks to all the new ways to recall what that's like, as in this YouTube collection, there comes a good reason to pour another scotch, turn up the heat and find a good movie on Netflix. Not interested in trying to sleep held in place by lee straps while the bow pounds into wave after wave and water crashes into the wheelhouse windows.
Take a look at some good reasons to stay home.



Singin' them songs about them storms at sea

Some comments:
Joe May One of the first ones looked like Columbia bar. I especially enjoyed the one with the traveling furniture. The one I thought most serious was the container ship....only one big cross sea away from a broach.
Every spring on the first warm wind I have a wish to be back out there...happily the wish only lasts a few minutes and passes for another year.

LikeReply3 hrs
Tim Jones I thought the same thing about the Columbia Bar, the second one I think. It was almost funny the guy out on the bow taking a picture and then seeing what's coming hightailing it for the house. I was on a boat once where a car on deck started to come loose. Long story about that, but fortunately the seas weren't anything like this.
LikeReply3 hrs
Joe May I was only in something comparable once, on an 85 ft tug. I was a deckhand and the Capt and I alternated 15 min. on and 15 min. off the wheel for 12 hours. Nobody else could get to the bridge to relieve us. In the morning after it had subsided a bit s...See More
LikeReply2 hrs
Tim Jones I have heard of water coming down the stove pipe. Makes you wonder. I got down to half hour wheel watches once, never 15 minutes though. Must have been something on a tug that size.
LikeReply2 hrs
Betty Sederquist Crazy! Glad to be on land.
LikeReply2 hrs
Joe May We were responding to a distress call from another tug. In the middle of the night a spare anchor lashed to the inner bulwarks broke loose and was running free on the deck. If it wasn't captured it would breach the superstructure and sink us.The Mate ...See More
UnlikeReply12 hrs
Tim Jones haha i wish i could be somewhere other than here
Joe May I scanned an entry out of my old sailing log and sent it to Bonnie this morning. similar to Bruce's problem but with a happy outcome. 1988 on the SE end of POW Island...Kendrick Bay.
Wind shift at night when on anchor and boat swung over a mud hump of the ebb tide and grounded.

UnlikeReply110 mins

Tim Jones I dragged anchor against the beach in an 83-foot tender in Icy Bay. Fortunately it was a steep beach and the hull was configured for a large, deep fish tank which put the propellers and rudders higher than the bottom of the hull. I was able to twin screw the stern seaward and then back off the beach with no damage


Joe May Would it be legal then to write "shipwrecked" on a resume?
LikeReply12 mins
Tim Jones Legal perhaps, but advisable? I don't think so.
LikeReply9 mins

Tim Jones This is the last line of the "Legend of Adak Charlie:" "Those times I gets to thinkin' real fondly about them poor souls in the Bering Sea and the time I spent there. Don't last long, though. I always come back to my senses.” http://alaskaatitude.blogspot.com/.../we-come-off...

ALASKAATITUDE.BLOGSPOT.COM|BY TIM JONES
Joe May Tim Jones Makes an impression though if used between "shot-at" and "frozen".
LikeReply2 hrs
Tim Jones That would make an impression.
LikeReply2 hrs

Eric Lopez Ya the whole "Ship Wrecked" or "Foundered/sunk" is really way over rated on the ol' resume...first hand experience...
UnlikeReply11 hr

Sunday, May 15, 2016

Alaska's missing senator sighted

Maybe next time he should choose a teaching aid that 
makes his own point instead of the president's.
Apparently Alaska's missing senator came out of his basement office last week  to do as he promised during his campaign, stand up to President Obama. Here's the headline:
Sullivan blames Obama for slow economic growth in Republican address

Are you kidding me? Still blaming Obama for everything despite his popularity and many calling him one of the best presidents ever. It's like a rerun from  his senate campaign four years ago. Next week he'll be blaming Roosevelt for Social Security. And maybe this goober won't accept it but it was his party that put the economy in the toilet in the first place with huge tax cuts for the rich and two unpaid-for wars. In fact, the president's successes and the missing senator's party's total failure has led to a total collapse of that party. I mean, look who's probably going to run on their ticket for the presidency – incidentally backed by the missing Alaska senator.

Obviously the Senate mail delivery system is leaving him off the route  and no periodicals or newspapers are making it to the basement.

This is so 2012, and so irrelevant. It's like he has no clue what the issues are today. By any measurable means the economy has improved tremendously since Obama took office in 2008. Nobody is even listening to this smackdaddy talk about a dead subject. If there is a problem with the economy it is totally the fault of his obstructionist party faithful with whom he fell into lockstep once he stole the office from Alaskans in 2012. As i said in an earlier post this week, I probably helped create more jobs than any Republican in this Congress.

And what does it matter anyway considering the president only has about half a year left in office. Are economic matters going to hurt or help him in the next election. It's like shooting a guy in the back when he's already headed for the door. Classy move.

And speaking of economies, Alaskans discovered this year that the state is paying out more in subsidies to the oil industry than it has been taking in from royalty payments. That's a deal generated when the missing senator was part of the state's administration. But, that's probably Obama's fault too.

Just go back in your hole Junior. We'll see you in 2020.

Alaska senator blames the president for everything
Leave a cart, save a job

Friday, May 13, 2016

An afterthought

I saw this meme a friend shared on facebook a few days ago. I added this comment to it:


"The thing about judgments is you never know the full story. I am sure this person would not like that I leave my shopping cart out in the lot where my car was, but make sure it is not in the way of parking. I do this not because I am lazy but because the store has to hire a couple of kids at entry level jobs to gather those carts all the time. I am just helping keep kids off the street and earning some money."

It's for the same reason I won't use those automatic checkout machines at stores. They replace entry level employees as well.

I was surprised to see a couple of other commenters agreed with me.

Today reviewing old facebook activities a little I came across it again and I realized I probably helped create or at least maintain more jobs than all the Republicans in Congress over the past few years, one shopping cart at a time. Isn't there a saying somewhere about if one person does something it's this and if two people do it, it's this and if three people do it it's a movement? 

From Arlo Guthrie"s "Alice's Restaurant: "And if three people do it, threecan you imagine, three people. They may think it's an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people, I said fifty people a day …"

Join the movement, leave your shopping cart, create a job for a kid.

Best headlines ever

Naked pair fed LSD gummy worm to dog

Owners of a Noah's Ark replica file a lawsuit over rain damage

In Southcentral Alaska earthquake, damage originated in the ground, engineers say

A headline that could only be written in Alaska: At state cross country, Glacier Bears and Grizzlies sweep, Lynx repeat, Wolverines make history — and a black bear crosses the trail

Man kills self before shooting wife and daughter

Alabama governor candidate caught in lesbian sperm donation scandal

Sister hits moose on way to visit sister who hit moose.

Man caught driving stolen car filled with radioactive uranium, rattlesnake, whiskey

Man loses his testicles after attempting to smoke weed through a SCUBA tank

Church Mutual Insurance won't cover Church's flood damage because it's 'an act of God'

Homicide victims rarely talk to police

Meerkat Expert Attacked Monkey Handler Over Love Affair with Llama Keeper

GOP congressman opposes gun control because gay marriage leads to bestiality

Owner of killer bear chokes to death on sex toy

Support for legalizing pot hits all-time high

Give me all your money or my penguin will explode

How zombie worms have sex in whale bones

Crocodile steals zoo worker's lawn mower

Woman shot by oven while trying to cook waffles

Nude beach blowjob jet ski fight leads to wife's death

Woman stabs husband with squirrel for not buying beer Christmas Eve

GOPer files complaint against Democrat for telling the truth about Big Lie social posts

Man shot dead on Syracuse Street for 2nd time in 2 days

Alaska woman punches bear in face, saves dog

Johnny Rotten suffers flea bite on his penis after rescuing squirrel

Memorable quotations

The best way to know you are having an adventure is when you wish you were home talking about it." — a mechanic on the Alaska State Ferry System. Or as in my own case planning how I will be writing it on this blog.

"You can't promote principled anti-corruption without pissing off corrupt people." — George Kent

"If only the British had held on to the airports, the whole thing might have gone differently for us." — Mick Jagger

"You can do anything as long as you don't scare the horses." — a mother's favorite saying recalled by a friend

A poem is an egg with a horse inside” — anonymous fourth grader

“My children will likely turn my picture to the wall but what the hell, you only get old once." — Joe May

“Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.” — Ernest Hemingway

When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth. Kurt Vonnegut

“If you wrote something for which someone sent you a cheque, if you cashed the cheque and it didn't bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I consider you talented.”Stephen King

The thing about ignorance is, you don't have to remain ignorant. — me again"

"It was like the aftermath of an orgasm with the wrong partner." – David Lagercrants “The Girl in the Spider’s Web.”

Why worry about dying, you aren't going to live to regret it.

Never debate with someone who gets ink by the barrel" — George Hayes, former Alaska Attorney General who died recently

My dear Mr. Frost: two roads never diverge in a yellow wood. Three roads meet there. — @Shakespeare on Twitter

Normal is how somebody else thinks you should act.

"The mark of a great shiphandler is never getting into situations that require great shiphandling," Adm. Ernest King, USN

Me: Does the restaurant have cute waitresses?

My friend Gail: All waitresses are cute when you're hungry.

I'm not a writer, but sometimes I push around words to see what happens. – Scott Berry

I realized today how many of my stories start out "years ago." What's next? Once upon a time?"

“The rivers of Alaska are strewn with the bones of men who made but one mistake” - Fred McGarry, a Nushagak Trapper

Many people hear voices when no one is there. Some of them are called mad and are shut up in rooms where they stared at walls all day. Others are called writers and they do pretty much the same thing. – Meg Chittenden

A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity. – Franz Kafka

We are all immortal until the one day we are not. – me again

If the muse is late, start without her – Peter S. Beagle

Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. ~Mark Twain Actually you could do the same thing with the word "really" as in "really cold."

If you are looking for an experience that will temper your vanity, this is it. There's no one to impress when you're alone on the trap line. – Michael Carey quoting his father's journal

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. – Benjamin Franklin

It’s nervous work. The state you need to write in is the state that others are paying large sums of money to get rid of. – Shirley Hazzard

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence -- Bertrand Russell

You know that I always just wanted to have a small ship to take stuff from a place that had a lot of that stuff to a place that did not have a lot of that stuff and so prosper.—Jackie Faber, “The Wake of the Lorelei Lee”

If you attack the arguer instead of the argument, you lose both

If an insurance company won’t pay for damages caused by an “act of God,” shouldn’t it then have to prove the existence of God? – I said that

I used to think getting old was about vanity—but actually it’s about losing people you love. Getting wrinkles is trivial. – Eugene O’Neill

German General to Swiss General: “You have only 500,000 men in your army; what would you do if I invaded with 1 million men?”

Swiss General: “Well, I suppose every one of my soldiers would need to fire twice.”

Writing is the only thing that when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.—Gloria Steinem

Exceed your bandwidth—sign on the wall of the maintenance shop at the West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center

One thing I do know, if you keep at it, you usually wind up getting something done.—Patricia Monaghan

Do you want to know what kind of person makes the best reporter? I’ll tell you. A borderline sociopath. Someone smart, inquisitive, stubborn, disorganized, chaotic, and in a perpetual state of simmering rage at the failings of the world.—Brett Arends

It is a very simple mind that only knows how to spell a word one way.—Andrew Jackson

3:30 is too late or too early to do anything—Rene Descartes

Everything is okay when it’s 50-below as long as everything is okay. – an Alaskan in Tom Walker’s “The Seventymile Kid”

You can have your own opinion but you can’t have your own science.—commenter arguing on a story about polar bears and global warming

He looks at three ex wives as a good start—TV police drama

Talkeetna: A friendly little drinking town with a climbing problem.—a handmade bumper sticker

“You’re either into the wall or into the show”—Marco Andretti on giving it all to qualify last at the 2011 Indy 500

Makeup is not for the faint of heart—the makeup guerrilla

“I’m going to relax in a very adult manner.”—Danica Patrick after sweating it out and qualifying half an hour before Andretti

“Asking Congress to come back is like asking a mugger to come back because he forgot your wallet.”—a roundtable participant on Fox of all places

As Republicans go further back in the conception process to define when life actually begins, I am beginning to think the eventual definition will be life begins in the beer I was drinking when I met her.—me again

Hunting is a “critical element for the long-term conservation of wood bison.”—a state department of Fish and Game official explaining why the state would not go along with a federal plan to reintroduce wood bison in Alaska because the agreement did not specifically allow hunting

Each day do something that won’t compute – anon

I can’t belive I still have to protest this shit – a sign carriend by an elderly woman at an Occupy demonstration

Life should be a little nuts or else it’s just a bunch of Thursdays strung together—Kevin Costner as Beau Burroughs in “Rumor has it”

You’re just a wanker whipping up fear —Irish President Michael D. Higgins to a tea party radio announcer

Being president doesn’t change who you are; it reveals who you are—Michelle Obama

Sports malaprops

Naked pair fed LSD gummy worm to dog

Owners of a Noah's Ark replica file a lawsuit over rain damage

In Southcentral Alaska earthquake, damage originated in the ground, engineers say

A headline that could only be written in Alaska: At state cross country, Glacier Bears and Grizzlies sweep, Lynx repeat, Wolverines make history — and a black bear crosses the trail

Man kills self before shooting wife and daughter

Alabama governor candidate caught in lesbian sperm donation scandal

Sister hits moose on way to visit sister who hit moose.

Man caught driving stolen car filled with radioactive uranium, rattlesnake, whiskey

Man loses his testicles after attempting to smoke weed through a SCUBA tank

Church Mutual Insurance won't cover Church's flood damage because it's 'an act of God'

Homicide victims rarely talk to police

Meerkat Expert Attacked Monkey Handler Over Love Affair with Llama Keeper

GOP congressman opposes gun control because gay marriage leads to bestiality

Owner of killer bear chokes to death on sex toy

Support for legalizing pot hits all-time high

Give me all your money or my penguin will explode

How zombie worms have sex in whale bones

Crocodile steals zoo worker's lawn mower

Woman shot by oven while trying to cook waffles

Nude beach blowjob jet ski fight leads to wife's death

Woman stabs husband with squirrel for not buying beer Christmas Eve

GOPer files complaint against Democrat for telling the truth about Big Lie social posts

Man shot dead on Syracuse Street for 2nd time in 2 days

Alaska woman punches bear in face, saves dog

Johnny Rotten suffers flea bite on his penis after rescuing squirrel