Portland Cranes

Crane lifting steel beams to 4th floor window of Target
SW 9th & Alder

They had what looked like half a dozen bundles of steel beams, maybe ten beams to a bundle. The crane had no difficulty lifting an entire bundle, but the guys on the ground were occupied with breaking the bundles up. Each beam looked to be on the order of 300 pounds, so something that could be man handled by a couple of guys. I presume their intention was to lift the individual beams up to the height of the window where upon the guys up there would drag them inside. I didn't get to see, I had places to go.

Tall crane working on high rise
Around the corner on SW ALder & 9th

This stuff has been going on for months.

New construction on NE Sandy Boulevard & 33rd Avenue
Next door to Jiffy Lube

IAman took Liza's Jeep to Jiffy Lube to get the oil changed. I've been to a couple of quick change oil operations in Hillsboro, but I was never impressed. It was either ridiculous oil change theater or a high pressure sales pitch for wipers and belts. Never been back. On the other hand IAman had positive things to say about this shop:

"Very impressive operation, running like clockwork, ready for any make model fluid or brake change....though they were having problems with a [bleeping] Jeep."

Possible because the west side is full fools with more money than sense and east side knows the value of hard work.

Grocery Robots

How many robots does it take to run a grocery store?
Tom Scott
On one hand, this is great. Tell the world (or Alexa) you want a box cheeze doodles, and presto, a few minutes later a box shows up at your door without anyone actually having to do anything, except the delivery driver, and that's just until they get the automated drone delivery system going.

On the other hand, all those people who were employed picking and packing groceries are out of a job. But all the people who are designing and building robots have got all the work they can handle. That would be okay if it took as many people to design and build the robots as the number of grocery pickers they were replacing, but probably not. I suspect it's more like one to ten.

Yes, all these fancy machines and automated processes are eliminating the drudgery from many people's lives, but we aren't giving them anything else to do. If you want to be a part of society, you need to have a stake in society, which means owning something of real value, and that means real estate. It doesn't have to be much, an eight foot square shop might be enough. But being on the dole, playing video games and protesting aren't going to get you there. Makes me think we might be due for some land reform. 

Via IAman

Black Spot

Zone Blanche (Black Spot) | in the pines
X X

Creepy european murder mystery series. The creepy part makes you wonder if there are sinister supernatural forces at play, but maybe not. Could be just some creepy dude living in the woods. Very well done. The prosecutor who comes to smallville to investigate their extraordinary homicide rate is quite the character, the character who does not fit in.

Note that the French version of the title is Zone Blanche, whereas the English translation is Black Spot. Zone could be spot, but blanche is white, but it could also mean blank, so I think we are talking about a hole where things disappear.

Netflix 8 one hour episodes, 2 seasons, in French with English subtitles.

Aero L-39 Albatros

Aero L-39 Albatros

The Aero L-39 Albatros is a Czech jet trainer. They built almost 3,000 of them. Naturally the Soviet Union was the biggest customer. They were exported around the world. Some were adapted for ground attack.

This aircraft is operated by AEC Skyline, who support the Dutch air force. not to be confused with Skyline Aviation in San Angelo, Texas.

Related news:

The Russian Ministry of Defense shared footage of Syria’s new pilots flying on L-39 Albatros high-performance fighter jet trainers.  The Syrian Arab Air Force (SyAAF) has been using this type of warplane in close air support and in ground attack missions since 2012. - South Front

Cumbia Sobre El Mar

Cumbia Sobre El Mar
quanticmusic

I've been listening to the soundtrack from Chef. There is one song in there that I particularly liked when I heard it the first time, but there are a bunch of songs in that playlist and I haven't figured out which one caught my ear the first time. They are all very similar. Anyway, I think that triggered YouTube to start showing me more Latin tunes and this one showed up. I really like it.

Links

Victory Dance - Frederic Remington

KT's Theory Of Everything, Marxism Edition

What does the term "stolen land" mean if all land, everywhere, has been taken through aggression at some point in history?

Like Ham and Eggs: Anarchy, Tyranny, and the Fourth of July

“You must have experienced in your travels, Madame, a peculiar sensation on arriving in the morning in a foreign town, where all is new and strange to you—people, language, and customs.  You are in a crowd and yet you are more overpowered by the sense of solitude than if you were in the middle of a forest.  This is what often happens to me in the midst of my countrymen and contemporaries . . . . I have preserved many strong feelings which they have lost; I still love passionately the things to which they have become indifferent; and I have an antipathy which grows stronger and stronger for the things which seem to please them more and more.” - Alexis de Tocqueville

The Great White Father Is Here To Show Us A Better Way To Live

Right now, I'm devouring Empire of the Summer Moon, an account of the conflicts between the Comanche and, well, everyone else in the world. It would have been about the Apache or the Navajo fighting with everyone else, but the Comanches got to the horses first and drove the Apache and Navajo off their ancestral lands.

Justice or Just Deserts? Trump, Cosby and Georgia Cases Show Rising Cost of Political Litigation

Politically motivated cases like these impose costs that are rarely paid by those who bring them. The more a prosecutor feels it necessary to repeat that “It’s not about politics,” the more likely a case is entirely political.

Progress

Long Waves of Innovation

I like this chart for the way it summarizes the history of technological innovation. I understand the benefits from all the past waves, but I'm not sure what this new wave is going to buy us except more annoyances and more unemployment. 

Via ZeroHedge