I’ve been busy with a few odds and ends recently. But certainly, a flying car – in 2010 – will catch my attention.

The people at Terrafugia are the brains behind this flying vehicle, the Transition, which has received much online and television attention.

I should note that while it captures human attention, there was another flying car from Moulton B. Taylor of Longview, Wash. It was called the Aerocar – and yes, newsreel cameras captured it flying in the 1950s.

The Aerocar is on display at The Museum of Flight in Seattle. And I will say this about the Terrafugia Transition – it is inspiring.

Oh, yes. You also can own a flying hovercraft, if you like.

I’ll get to more blog entries as soon as I can. I know there’s much to talk about these days.

It is easy to get busy in life and let things that you want to do slip by.

So, in that spirit, I’m posting some quick photographs I took while my family and I visited Port Townsend, Wash. earlier this month.

With the top photograph, it was fitting that after I snapped the image that a man walking his dog appeared and hopped into his white van. It looked like he and his dog were living inside.

It also was fitting that to the right of the van was an appropriately-named coffeehouse for this city: The Better Living Through Coffee Coffeehouse.

Inside the coffeehouse, you can watch your drip coffee actually drip, if you’d like.

Outside the coffeehouse are a beach and a red brick building partially over the water.

Speaking of brick buildings, blocks away is the Historic Elks Building.

There’s also a window with mugs, a vase, flowers and the reflection of a Victorian-era building, which had an amphibious tricycle across from it.

My family and I have visited Port Townsend before – we saw a lone castle as well as buildings that have symmetry.

I’m certain we will return.

I should say upfront that the old Immigration and Naturalization Service building in Seattle – which has office space for lease and has neoclassical architectural touches from the 1920s and 1930s - sits on a centrally-located piece of land.

It rests at 815 Airport Way S. on the border of the city’s International District (and across the street from Uwajimaya, the big Asian supermarket) and within walking distance of the sports stadiums, restaurants and bus stops.

So, yes, it is easy to see why the building will be a draw for people in 2010 and beyond. But keep in mind: This 77,000-square-foot building, which opened in 1932 and completed under the supervision of architect James Wetmore, has plenty of history.

As in: It once housed Chinese immigrants – who were detained under the Chinese Exclusion Act, the country’s first racially-specific immigration law to block people from entering the United States.

HistoryLink.org notes that Alvin “Creepy” Karpis – a 1930s gangster and member of the Ma Barker Gang – called the building a temporary home (involuntarily, of course). He also spent time on Alcatraz. He apparently was a real-life public enemy.

On the upper floors, employees once processed gold – by 1955, nearly 1,000 pounds of it, federal officials said. Miners from the Klondike Gold Rush stopped at the office with what the precious metal. The U.S. government wanted to boost its gold reserves.

When I toured the building in 2006 with Hing Chinn, a Seattle resident who was detained there under the Chinese Exclusion Act, I spotted cramped rooms, tiny offices and holding cells – all of which undoubtedly will change with renovation efforts.

Now, as they say, all of this can be yours – or at least a slice of it if you lease office space in the building. This sign photographed below sits in front of what officially was called the United States Immigrant Station and Assay Office.

The leasing is a continuation of the sale of the building for $4.4 million by the federal government. INS Holdings LLC, comprised of a group of Seattle-area investors, purchased the building in an online, eBay-style bid.

At one point, the city of Seattle had hoped to receive the building for free from the federal government. There was talk about using the building to house travel and trade offices and some type of Asian Pacific center.

The city later pursued a sale of the building at a price tag of at least $998,000.

That idea, though, of the city taking ownership of the building fell through and the online bid process surfaced. The initial bid was $2.2 million and INS Holdings LLC won the day.

Urban Visions, a Seattle-based developer, envisioned using the space for environmental projects. 

At one point, the Highline School District, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Salvation Army and private developers also expressed some interest in using the building, a federal official said.

Shawn Jackson of Holden Street Partners LLC is taking calls regarding office space at (206) 510-2576. A2 – Anisoglu Associates – or A2 – of Bainbridge Island is the architecture firm working on the renovations.

Cihan Anisoglu of Anisoglu Associates and a development partner said that the new owners plan to have space in the building to mark its place in Seattle and U.S. history.

Last year’s poor economy apparently delayed the posting of the office lease sign until recent months in 2010.

So: Will people rent space in the building?

I can see how people who support urban density could gravitate toward leasing space in the building, which required millions of dollars in renovations to bring it up to safety code. The building, as I’ve said, is close to Uwajimaya, restaurants and office buildings.

Jen Graves of The Stranger notes on the Slog that some artists already are in the building.

In terms of architecture, well, there are touches that people won’t see in the shiny, new steel-and-glass skyscrapers in the city. There is an Old World charm to its light fixtures, what with all the metal framing and ornate styling, as well as a modern touch with the energy-efficient bulb.

The building is on the National Register of Historic Places – so the owners need to keep much of the structure as it is.

The other day, after I spotted the office lease sign, I stood near the building and realized that its gate was open. A parking company is using the back lot.

I had never looked behind the building – I always saw it from the front, just as a facade and history marker in many ways. Well, here are some images from the other side of the building.

In 2005, the federal government issued a quick history of the building – including the fact that a safe-cracker who plied his gingerly trade during the Depression Era once was locked up inside.

Like I said before: This place has lots of history.

Given the number of colorful floppy disks attached to the Honda Civic at the Seattle Artcar Blowout, one question needs to be asked: Is a memory stick car soon to be created?

The artcar show is was part of this weekend’s Fremont Fair in Seattle - and before my family and I left Saturday, we walked around in search of some good-looking cars that have been given the tender, loving care that only artists can give to their creations.

And smiles came to our faces when we spotted the whimsical, colorful vehicles sitting in a parking lot.

Diskdrv caught my attention not only for the colorful, square-shaped disks that made an older Honda look, in a sense, like a dot-inspired painting but also for the details.

Yes, when I was younger, I never used the floppy disks that the artist attached to the hood – but my friend, Martin, and his family used them with their old IBM.

But when I was in high school and college, I used those smaller, plastic-covered floppy disks that are seen on the car’s bumper.

Man, I thought those disks were the coolest at the time. I even had a plastic box to hold all of those smaller floppy disks.

Keep in mind that my family once owned an Apple Lisa.

As for the car’s details?

Well, the car’s hubcaps and rear bumper have what appear to be AMD chips from the 1990s, as you see photographed below.

Some of the AMD chips actually have “1996″ stamped on them.

Let’s see, now. Where would that year fall on my Information in a Box timeline?

It’s the timeline I made last year so I could remember points in time and what type of technology or medium I used for news and information.

Yes, in 1996, I was fortunate enough to have been backpacking in China – and lugging an Apple PowerBook 520 laptop (yes, complete with floppy disks).

And in the Other Details Department: The car’s artist attached keyboard pieces around the windows.

In addition, this car is or once was able to park at the Ballard Health Club.

So, if you think about it, what you’re looking at is a combination of old-school high technology, artistic creativity, a fuel-efficient car and a nod to good exercising.

All great things, if you think about it as a whole or on an individual level.

Art Car Central, a blog, has a short interview with the maker of the car.

I wonder whether anyone who once owned one of those floppy disks has ever recognized it on the car and said to the artist: “Hey, that’s the disk I used in 1995!”

And on a closing note, I leave you with The Cars and their popular song about letting the good times roll.

I’ve only seen a handful of waterfalls in Washington state. But Sol Duc Falls in the Olympic National Park has to be one of the most impressive I’ve witnessed.

I’ve posted three video clips – the other two are after the jump – which total more than three minutes. Really, I could watch this waterfall for more than three hours.

We humans are a pretty brilliant bunch of people (in most cases). If you didn’t see, but IBM has created a supercomputer, Watson, which will compete against humans on Jeopardy!

But I doubt we’d ever have the wherewithal to duplicate the beauty, freshness and clarity that Mother Nature has created in this valley of the Olympic National Park.

If I had this much rushing water at my house, I’d be in panic mode. But in the outdoors, standing under soaring trees, the context of the fast-moving water which hit rocks was just right.

My family and I visited the area last week. Relaxing hot springs – part of the Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort – with three pools of warm water are nearby. We stayed in the cabins for a night.

But on the morning of our departure, my dad and I decided to drive to the trailhead and walk to the falls. I’m glad we did. It was only the second time I’ve seen Sol Duc Falls.

My memory of the roaring sound and gushing water from my first trip pulled us back for this visit.

I think my dad really enjoyed it. He and I used our entry-level but reliable digital cameras to capture the moment. There was enough mist and rain to make my camera – including the inside screen – wet.

My dad borrowed my baseball cap to keep his head as dry as possible. He said that as his hair gets thinner he can feel water on his head much easier. That’s a pretty logical thought – and an honest one.

But I’m glad the video option worked and I was able to leave with three clips of the roaring water. I’ve posted a stop-motion clip of Snoqualmie Falls, which is east of Seattle. For the Sol Duc Falls, I thought I’d go with pure video and include sound.

The interesting thing that I noticed is that the sound of the gushing water is different depending on where you’re standing. That might have occurred to you – but it struck me as noteworthy.

The clip below is what people typically see and shoot of the falls.

There are only so many viewing areas of the falls – but I tried different angles since I knew I wouldn’t have time to return in the near future.

Now that I think about it, I wonder what type of video or still footage a robotic aircraft with a digital camera (an image is in the middle part of this post) could capture.

Here are three images that my dad and I saw on our walk to and from the falls. It’s an entry-level walk – about less than one mile each way, as I recall.

One fact that I’m proud to say about Sol Duc Falls and my former employer, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, is that one of the top three links on Google about this beautiful spot on the globe is a 2001 article from the newspaper.

Writer Karen Sykes gives all the details and history about the falls, if you’d like to visit.

Back in 2001, paper was a bit more of the king in the media landscape. As you see, only one photograph of Sol Duc Falls was included with the online text.

Certainly, the times have changed.

I do like looking at older photographs, though, to see how one place has changed or stayed the same.

And waterfalls remain a popular destination for hikers in the Pacific Northwest. I need to take my family to see more of them.

If you haven’t visited and plan to go, please have a great time.

After an adventurous week-long vacation in the Pacific Northwest, I have returned to post entries on the blog.

The vacation was wonderful. I’ll post entries soon.

In the meantime, this needs to be said: Bean curd is still central in my life. I ran errands today and when I returned my wife was kind enough to have this bowl of chicken and tofu soup waiting for me.

First: Thank you. Second: It was delicious.

I would tell you her recipe. But I don’t know it. When I see her, I’ll ask.

Our vacation took us along various stops in and around the Olympic National Park – and near the Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean.

There’s nothing like the sight and sounds of water.

On our first day, when we departed, rain fell from the sky. So, instead of driving my family and parents to Deception Pass State Park to likely sit in the rain for our planned picnic, we adjusted our plans.

We drove to Top Gun Seafood Restaurant, a tasty Cantonese restaurant in the Seattle suburb of Bellevue. We ordered plates of dim sum.

That way, as my reasoning went, if everything else on the trip turned out to be soggy and overcast, at the very least, we could say: Man, that dim sum meal at the beginning of our trip was the tops!

Yes, I’ve dined there before. This time, we ordered Japanese-style bean curd with shrimp on top – a fantastic way to go.

That is one lesson that I learned from traveling to different places: When in doubt, find delicious food, fill your belly, appreciate what you have and smile.

I should be more specific: I spotted the Wong Family Association office in Seattle’s International District – when I had my digital camera with me.

The surname is the same as mine. I might have walked into this association once years ago. But I don’t go here regularly.

For generations of ethnic Chinese, family associations have been a place in which to gather and a way to help people from the same area of China adjust to life in the United States. As we know, the Chinese in America have done a range of interesting jobs, including ones as aviators and singers, musicians and filmmakers.

I stumbled upon this interview of Chris Anderson of Wired talking about the economics of Free – which is the title of his book – and I thought: I think I’ll pay attention.

We’re all actors in one way or another in the free market. Mainstream journalists, in recent years, have been grappling with the idea of free in the context of money in a full-on way - since, well, economists talk about covering costs and earning profits for business survival.

As we know, low advertising dollars have created a churn in which thousands of people have left the industry. Mind you, this is in the context of people growing more and more used to – and in some way, expecting – free online content.

So, how do you pull in enough money to avoid a free market failure in the context of an increasingly online world when people know they have an option to not hand over greenbacks?

Well, the legendary Anderson offers up some ideas in this interview from Geek Entertainment TV (which has a video about the Pez Museum). By the way, since I posted the interview and, um, didn’t pay anything for it, I’d like to say thank you very much for posting this at YouTube and for letting others embed it.

Anderson, who helped propel the idea of The Long Tail into the online consciousness, talks about giving some of your product for free and asking people to pay money for other portions of what you’ve created or have.

That makes sense, though in this interview with WNYC, he discusses how some talented bloggers are not paid but have their work posted on commercial outlets. The benefit for them, he says and as I understood it, is that others will recognize their work.

The only catch that I see is that if you’re a doctor and run a great blog on a commercial site, then you have one economic sector (medicine) subsidizing another (online news, information and content).

I came across the interview you see above after I glanced at an interview with Apple co-founder Steve Jobs on The Wrap and realized that its founder, Sharon Waxman, had talked with Anderson. That led to the YouTube page which had other Anderson interviews, including the one with Geek Entertainment TV.

The idea of something for free has long been fascinating, I think, for all of us.

Free ice cream cone? Free car wash? Free cup of coffee?

We’re there, we’re there, we’re there.

Free round-trip airplane ticket to Paris?

Our response: How many can we get?

I’d like to bring my brother-in-law’s parents and their brothers and sisters. 

Months ago, I talked about how the idea of free would work very well – and across the board – in an autonomous commune. In fact, one study revealed that billions of people want free online content.

But in a free market in which there are financial costs, well, that might have some obstacles.

You could keep your costs low. But that would mean trimming much, including what you own and labor and expertise that you might have as an employer.

I noted the idea of lower costs when I talked about a new “American price” – meaning anything considerably lower than what you’re used to paying.

Disruptors to traditional media have a point that prices might be too high for items in the free market. But dropping that price to zero will only work if grocery stores, gas stations, hospitals, car dealers and banks also embrace giving what they have away for free, too.

So, for traditional media, the idea of the paywall has been bouncing around for months.

The New York Observor recently quoted David Remnick of The New Yorker as backing a pay model to cover the journalism and writing that the magazine publishes in print and online.

Here are two quotes from the Observor article.

First:

I was going to be damned if I was going to train 18-year-olds, 20-year-olds, 25-year-olds, that this is like water that comes out of the sink.

Second:

Remember the days of information wants to be free? …So therefore the only thing that anyone with any brains could do with a magazine like The New Yorker is to put the whole thing online and give it away. Give it away! And if you were against that in some way or you said, ‘Wait a minute,’ you were–wait for it–clueless….I opted for clueless.

The other issue is that the model of free online content might actually drive more people to search out words, music, audio interviews and videos that have no cost.

That was one premise put forward by author Bill Wasik in an interview with comedian Mo Rocca on CBS News.

Yes, as you’ve seen, I’ve run this blog at no financial cost to visitors since last year.

So, how can I talk about the importance of covering costs while I’m giving information and analysis away for free?

Well, I also pursue freelance writing. This is one way that I’m letting people know of that service.

It is similar to Anderson’s strategy of giving some of your product or services away at no cost and charging for a more specialized, custom-oriented project.

This blog enables me to stay connected with current events, interesting topics, history and the beauty of experimentation.

I mean, you have seen my stop-motion clips, haven’t you?

And staying connected with the world also lets me post a video clip about an author and editor talk about this whole idea of a free ride.

As I type this, the sun is appearing over the Seattle area – or at least that I can see. It is a sight to be welcomed, especially since this is late May 2010.

But it rained Saturday. So, my family and I looked for one of the best places to visit when water drops to the ground – Snoqualmie Falls, which is about a 20-minute drive east of Seattle.

The water drops about 270 feet.

If I could only manage to have the mist from Snoqualmie Falls emerge from your computer screen, that would be truly spectacular.

As I watched water this water flow drop and turn into cascades and mist and fill the air with the sound of a steady, pleasing crash, I thought I’d try another stop-motion experiment.

When it rains, I thought, seek a waterfall. Just as I said months ago: When you’re hungry, seek mapo tofu.

Tourists and Seattle-area residents also flocked to Snoqualmie Falls. That was understandable.

The site is home to apparently the world’s first underground hydropower plant. This hour-long documentary from the utility, Puget Sound Energy, gives you more background.

This place of cascading water also is a sacred site for the Snoqualmie Indian Tribe – which members consider to be the tribe’s birthplace.

In 2003, I attended one of the tribe’s ceremonies, talked with members and learned something new.

One tribe member told me that the mist are kisses from their ancestors.

Oh, yes, as someone states in that documentary, this is falling water. There is another location that incorporates the concept.

And falling water, I thought, would be a good balance to water that shoots into the sky – something I saw earlier this month in Seattle.

I thought I’d chime in because I served for two years as a newspaper staff member at the school back in the mid-1980s. During my last year at Fremont, I was the editor-in-chief of what was then called The Fremont Chief.

Scott Herhold of the San Jose Mercury News lays out his thoughts in a column and talks about a student-led protest on Tuesday that included duct tape and the words, “No newspaper, no voice.” He argues that the students have not produced a sufficiently compelling reason to keep their newspaper, The Phoenix, as part of a school-backed journalism class.

But my verdict – and yes, it is a biased one – is this: Save as many media institutions as you can for students.

Help them excel at thinking, asking questions, analyzing, writing and other forms of expression. Do so in a formal setting under the guidance of a teacher.

Those skills, when practiced with rigorous integrity and compassion, form a foundation that will help young people learn in productive ways for the rest of their lives.

And remember: Those who are curious go out and make discoveries.

Communities need more discoveries.

In other words, the student news publication, The Phoenix, should be kept as part of a school-supported class.

Certainly, these days, the market of online words, photographs, music and video is cluttered. Market entry is simple and can take minutes to set up a free blog and begin uploading whatever is floating in your mind or the images you’ve captured on your cell phone.

Yes, many students operate top-notch, creative blogs.

So the student argument of “No newspaper, no voice” is not as strong as it once was when newspapers held more sway in their communities.

What makes a high school-supported journalism class different though is that the publication, whether it’s online or in print, is an institution. And in the best sense, journalists practice the craft and use their platforms to inform, engage, enlighten and question.

Sure, writers, editors and photographers have their own interests. They sometimes pursue those. There are times when journalists make mistakes.

But one beautiful lesson that journalism teaches anyone who practices it with the goal of true integrity and credibility is that you cover people and events you might not even have thought about days earlier.

You interview strangers or cover topics that you might personally disdain. You’re out in a community, knocking on doors, making phone calls, attending meetings, talking with scores of people, reading documents.

You listen and search for common themes that others will recognize, hopefully as important.

Then, you share these stories with a wide variety of people in a community.

And shared information - in this case about a high school and its students and teachers - on a regular basis can actually improve a community.

Call me old school – in fact, since I graduated in the 1980s, I encourage you to call me old school.

But let me consider some of the issues that have surfaced.

As I recall with high school newspapers, a principal essentially serves as its publisher. As publisher, the principal can make all final business calls – including keeping the class or ending it.

The school’s principal says enrollment has dropped and that an after-school journalism club would still fit student and budget needs.

From a free market perspective, it makes perfect sense to stop a class or product which lacks demand. These are tough budget times, too. The money could be spent elsewhere.

But foisting such a hard, cold reality on teenage high school journalists – who are going through pivotal years of learning – really undermines the noble pursuit of education.

Yes, disappointment is part of life no matter your age. But does the school and district want students to learn the lesson of a market failure so young in life?

The principal is suggesting that the journalism class become an after-school club. That could be an alternative.

If these high school bloggers, reporters and editors are serious about the art and craft of journalism, it already is an after-school club.

They’re likely spending hours on thinking of stories and covering them.

More importantly, what these students are learning and practicing fit the definition of an academic class.

Herhold raises the relevant issue that mainstream journalism is going through a true transformation – and that the shrinking number of students interested in the journalism class could reflect that they’re seeking other subjects to prepare for the future.

That could very well be the case. But while free markets churn, they also evolve until equilibrium is reached. We just might not be there right now.

Herhold also questions whether the request from students for academic credit for the journalism class - “a form of payment for their work” - takes the “moral argument” out of their case.

It actually reinforces a valuable lesson in a market-based economy: That hard work, in an academic setting and under the guidance of a teacher, should be rewarded.

Students in other academic classes are rewarded in this manner.

Interestingly enough, he ends his column by writing: “The fault is not in the stars, but in ourselves.”

That last sentence sounds pleasant and worldly. I understand what he means – that the high school newspaper illustrates a larger, societal crossroads for journalism in general.

But it overlooks some basic logic: If it is true that we – as people, in general – are at fault for this problem, shouldn’t we – as people, in general - then take steps to rectify it?

If that is the case, shouldn’t the Fremont High School principal, faculty and students make at least one last-ditch effort to save the journalism class that produces The Phoenix?

Leadership at all levels calls for people to take bold, innovative and courageous action when it looks like the end is near.

After all, this is the Silicon Valley. Its people don’t give up that easily.

Obviously, I can’t speak for others who have gone through the Fremont High School journalism program. But during my career as a journalist, I have covered a litany of topics and people.

They include the largest human-trafficking case ever prosecuted on U.S. soil, Chinese President Hu Jintao, the Dalai Lama, people who survived being swept into a cave, a heroic solider, a biologist who is trying to help us live longer, people who have fallen in love at cemeteries, a Japanese American woman who was interned during World War II and Bruce Lee, the late martial artist and philosopher.

I’ve also contributed to an anthology about people searching for their cultural roots in China.

The drive to cover these stories or write about my experiences was largely fueled by, yes, my high school journalism years.