2025.11.18. NBR: US-Japan collaboratoin in AI and Quantum

11/18, Tuesday, I went to listen to this panel about US-Japan: Future of AI and Quantum. I liked it so much, that I'm making a note here. The person speaking here in th photeo is the Counsel General of Japan. But he's not the one who's interesting, nor the moderator, but the 3 guests (all ladies) on the panel:

• Kyoko Yoshinaga - Keio University
• Hodan Omaar - Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
• Ulrike Schaede - University of California San Diego

They all have quick mind, and know what they are talking about, listed concrete examples. I'm especially impressed by Hodan Omaar, who's very young. I even asked her a question after the talk. Learned a few things today:

• Japanese ministries are very silo-ed and competitive. It's monumental that METI and MIC have joined hands in publishing its AI guideline, updated frequently.
• soft guideline approach works in societies like Japan, where social norm is follow the lead. Soft policy also combines with a few hard laws. Guidelines can be updated more frequently.
• Japan's startup scene is not as weak as in general perception, according to Ulrike Schaeke. Example is Sakana.ai, founded by ex-Googlers and a lawyer from New York. Interesting choice to launch their startup in Japan.
• Japan has earmarked hundreds of billions $ to its Moonshot program.
• even without the willingness from the US fedral government (who wants dominance), collaboration can happen in the state and company level
  
  After the talk, I chatted with a very interesting guy who's working on CMOS design that would reuse energy. Turns out he's VP of Technology of Vaire, a startup that recycles energy in the gates.

2025.11.16 Arboretum

11/16, inspired by Arthur's comment yesterday, went to see maple colors in the arboretum: the woodland section. Alas, a week or two too late. Most leaves are on the ground. However, it's always nice to walk here, even with a bit of rain. Some camelias are still blooming, so are some azaleas. Saw these interesting ones:

• A golden rain tree, possilbly Koelreuteria elegans with its thousands of triangular seed pods.
• Callicarpa Bodinieri cultivar: var giraldii 'Profusion', with bright purple beads.
• Giant Himalayan Lily (now in seed. Need to come back next June/July to see the flowers.)

Surprised to see a few folks walking in the drizzle.

2025.11.15. Tree Tour + Bulger Party

11/15, Saturday. 2:30-4pm. Volunteer Park Trust hosts a tree tour by the local tree expert Arthur Lee Jacobson. I arrived ~5 minutes late, sweating profusing (walked ~50 min, uphill). Surprised to find ~30 people gathered around the black sun sculpture, and Arthur speaking, in the rain. I made a note of these:

• a tall Himalaya Cedar near the black sun.
• a Western Red Cedar cultivar Zebrina (zebra cedar, not a true cedar).
• a Jeffery Pine,
• a very large poplar with unusually gnarly trunk west (below) the tennis court,
• The world's tallest hawthorn (supposed to be a shrub), behind the amphitheatre. I tasted its tiny red seed: no taste. Later, we walked by a hybrid: Carriere Hawthorn: larger berry, and thick leaf.
• picked up a black walnut under the tree, and it was slimy. The outer layer was disintegrating. Arthur said that it's more flavorful than a regular walnut. But the nut is very hard to crack.
• an English Yew, supposed to have sweet fruit (bigger than our native yew).

I was invited to the Bulger party this year by one of the 3 finishers this year. I arrived around 6pm, already a lot of people, and quite some food containers empty. Since I took the bus, brought a party-size Kettle chips and some roasted delicata squash (cold). Saw a whole box of donuts (untouched). Who brought that?! I only know 4 other people here. Apparently the 3 new Bulger finishers don't know each other, nor other bulgers. Many old geezers knew each other.

The presentation started around 7pm. The recount of the Bulger pioneers. Apparently Bulger came from a misheard bludger (an Aussie term for a loafer, who live off other people's work). What to these folks do after they finished the 100: more lists. Example this top 200 just added a few more. A few people were mentioned, including Patty, who's here. She's 83, and still climbs! One started swimming all backcountry lakes. 2 started flying. Some set-backs. The accident this May. They mentioned Tim, who had climbed 99. One 2024 finisher died this year climbing.

Then the 3 newly minted bulger-finishers each gave a speech. Each signed a helmet. Each gets a t-shirt with their number and order of finish. Most of them gave thanks. Mr #103 had this funny slide of his bulger journey. He actually filled the whole slide with punctured remarks.

At the end, all the bulger-finishers present took the stage and had photo taken. Of course, many didn't come. Many who came are like me, not even working on bulger list, including a baby crawling under chairs back and forth: has potential.

2025.11.14. PNB: The Upper Room

Pacific Northwest Ballet's In the Upper Room features 3 modern pieces.

• Christopher D’Ariano & Amanda Morgan Aftertime (world premier: a couple watching robots dancing).
• Dani Rowe's The Window (a woman watched her neighbors)
• Twyla Tharp's In the Upper Room (fast pace)

I especially like the first one. The costums of the robots are fun, their movements are interesting. Quite enjoyable.

2025.11.13. SEFW 2025 Fall Forum Las Vegas' Sphere

11/13. Structural Engineers Foundation of Washington's annual fall forum has becoming my favorite lecture every year. This year's forum is about Las Vegas Sphere.

I arrived ~15 min late, missed the other 2 speakers, or they didn't exist. Cawsie Jijina, principle of Severud Associates was on the podium speaking. For more details, check out this article in Structure Magazine. Some funny annecdotes are :

• Las Vegas's day-night temperature difference can as much as 50°F, the steel has to accommodate up to 3" expansion (during the lecture, he said feet).
• Construction broke ground in 2018, the year when the first Trump administration imposed 25% tarrif on steel. They changed to concrete. When Biden was elected, they switched back to steel (upper level).
• He spent quite a bit of time talking about the dome/roof. Instead of building opposite direction for balance, it's built horizontally one ring at a time.
• The large crane on the right of this photo is the 4th largest in the world. It was shipped here from Belgium by sections. Trucked in from SF. The crane on the left was used to assemble it. Once assembled, a base has to be built for it to sit on.
• He lamented that he couldn't build a true sphere, because elevators cannot provide enough capacity to deliver people between the ground and the venue.
• He didn't mention the cost or the Covid pause and supply shortage.

Interesting. I'm looking forward to next November's lecture.

2025.11.9. Upper Granite Lake

11/9, Sunday. Late start, hiked to Upper Granite Lake.

A large parking lot. I never saw this lot filled. First 1.8 miles zigzag over gentle trail along Granite Creek, until crossing a nice substantial bridge. Then, no view of the creek, and the trail gets a bit boring, if not for the fall color. In spring (see my last time here in June), there would be some challenging creek crossings. Now, despite of the rain lately, all is very easy.

After 3.5 miles from TH, reached a junction. This past April, a few of us and continued up to Thompson Point and Revolution Peak on snowshoes. Now, we took the spur trail down to the lakes. The lower lake doesn't have trail. The trail goes to the shore of the upper lake. Nice, but not dramatic. A little too late for the light.

On the way back to the junction, saw this log with tiny mushrooms (a kind of bird's nest), and some little shiny red berries, on the ground. Turned on headlamp the last mile. Too bad that the night falls so early now.

2025.11.8. Seattle Symphony + Kenmore Camera

11/8, Saturday 8pm. Dutch violinist Simon Lamsma played Thaikovsky's Violine Concerto with Seattle Symphony. In a glittering dress, being rather tall, she has an emposing presense. She plays a Stradivarius. A bit over-exaggerating move of her head, otherwise, a very strong player. She graciously played an encore, which is very complicated.

Today's program:

Augusta Holmès           - La nuit et l'amour
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Violin Concerto
Antonin Dvořák           - Symphony No. 8

I've never heard of Holmes. But this is a lovely piece. A very enjoyable concert.

During the day, I went to Kenmore Camera for its 2025 Digital Photo Expo. I woke up too late, missed one class that I wanted to attend. Sat through these 4 talks:

• Balancing Artistry & Technique with Erin Babnik (Canon)
• Sports photography with Patrick Murphy-Racey (Sony)
• Birding Photography with Martina Abreu (Sigma)
• Photographing Australia with John Greengo

Bought 2 mini-drones. Signed up for a drawing after the Sony talk. On the following Wednesday, surprised to receive an email asking for my address, because I won a Sony ZV-E10 II camera! Next Monday (11/17) the camera arrived via FedEx. It's a white camera with a silver 16-50mm lens. Here's the review from PC Magazine, seems not for me. It's a model tailored for video content creators (emphasize on video, selfie). Even the box is labeled "For Iphone/Ipad". At the first glance, what I like about it is the weight and USB charging. Drawbacks

• No in-body image stabilization (IBIS) system.
• No eye-level electronic viewfinder (EVF): have to rely on the rear display
• No mechanical shutter: 1/30-second maximum flash sync speed to frame photos

2025.11.4. Ed Yong: Becoming a Birder

11/4, Tuesday, 6:30pm. An excellent talk hosted by UW Graduate School at Town Hall: Ed Yong speaks about Becoming a Birder. I found this recording on Youtube of the same talk he gave earlier this year. The talk is very well laid out, excellent photos by Yong himself, many moments of funny remarks. This photo is a wetland near his home where he first picked up birding. He talked about peace (meditative, quiet), community (other birders), reliability and surprises, amazing feats by some birds. The only one I still remembered is the non-stop migration pf Bar-tailed Godwit. During Q&A, he commented that his next book will be published early 2027, which he just finished. That's much longer than I expected.

Out in the lobby, there's a table to sign up on some bird club. A few flattened bird that we are allowed to touch. All their furs are very soft.

Update: I just ordered both of his books, even though I've already read one. I also bought a laminated leaflet of PNW birds when I went to a different book talk at Elliot Bay Books.

2025.11.2. Tiger 3-2-1

11/2, Sunday. Day time saving stops today, so it gets darker earlier :( Weather looks good. I took a bus to Issaquah. As usual, I visited Jakob on my way to the TH. Surprised to find him alone without other admirers, being on a weekend, in the middle of the day. Color is good today.

Tiger3 is always busy-ish. Hikers come and go. Someone put this large coral mushroom on this stump.

I had plenty time, so continued to Tiger2 (as usual) and then onto Tiger1. Tiger1 has this small tin(?) shelter. A bit too cloudy. Couldn't see Rainier at all.

On the way back, took a different trail (instead of the road) to Tiger2. This "erratic" rock was marked on my map. This narrow trail is not bad, mostly open. At some point, one can see the towers of both Tiger1 and Tiger2 at some stretch.

Near Tiger3, I could see 3 paragliders out of Poo Poo Point. Slightly less cloudy now, but all distant mountains were still obscured by the clouds.

As I walked by the usually-closed-on-Sunday community center, saw many people, even parking attendants. It turns out that it was hosting a Day of the Dead celebration. Back in Seattle, swinged by Town Hall for, yes, another Day of the Dead festival.

2025.11.1-2, El Dia De Los Muertos

Day of the Dead all weekend at Seattle Center's Armory. A very colorful event. All Mexican's festivals are colorful. Many alters from different regions, dances too. A lot of flowers, especially dried marygold. On the 2nd floor, there's many vendors who sell skeletons of all sizes and colors. I especially like the "cemetary" reinactment, where you can lay the photo of your loved ancester here too. I went to the "film" room and watched a documentary (on loop) about the Day of the Dead, and it talked about Catrinas.

Same weekend, a Catrinas festival in Town Hall, with a vendor space, and the stage for performance. 11/2, Sunday, on my way back home from Tiger, I stopped by Town Hall. Too early for the performance. I tried the CBD facial serum. Couldn't feel any difference. I really like these large skulls and catrinas are fun. Elaborate face painting. A lot of people walking with their face painted like ghost.