Saturday, September 12, 2015

[Inflammation] Years ago, a friend told me that she had eliminated her arthritis pain by taking Turmeric supplements. After a few months of tolerating pain in my knee when climbing stairs, I tried turmeric supplements 3 weeks ago. The pain has reduced to almost nothing.  I wondered why it mattered. It turns out it is an anti-inflammatory. Link

[Count Monroe] Ninth century Emperor Charlemagne divided his vast empire into counties, each ruled by a Count, hence the name “County”. If we had been a part of Charlemagne’s empire we would have been ruled by the Count of Monroe.

If you ever feel real stupid, remember that there are people who really believe that two penguins walked all the way from Antarctica to the Middle East to get into an ark.

Cushman Silver Eagle

What does it take to set up a small farm with animals and a few helpers and is it allowed in the Lower Keys? I want to raise pigs and chickens.

Star Trek Continues is a pretty good knock off indi film of the 1966-69 TV series. Sometimes I even forget that Vic Mignogna isn’t William Shatner. He even has Shatner’s staccato delivery. Video

In September, 2011, Key Deer management planned a 18 acre controlled burn just north and west of the Blue Hole.  During the burn, the wind shifted and over 100 acres was scorched. At one point, there was fear that Port Pine Heights subdivision might be engulfed as well and serious consideration was given to evacuation.  There was insufficient staff to control the burn.  Today as you drive along Key Deer Blvd., you will see a mile long forest of 25’ high black pine cadavers as a testimony to what happens when a controlled burn is no longer under control.

In a post mortem after the 2011 debacle, a lot of promises were made by the Key Deer Refuge about future controlled burn behavior.  Few have been kept.  For example, a promise was made to have a helicopter onsite to drop water if necessary.  Last year, they said that a helicopter was too expensive.

Of course, there is no one left at the Refuge from the 2011 disaster.  Is the new staff any more skilled than the old?  Time will tell if today’s novices can do any better than their predecessors.

This time around the Refuge has 3 areas in their sights to be burned.  One is behind the Winn-Dixie Shopping Center.  It will be interesting to see what precautions center management will take to protect its property.  Do you think that they will idly stand by and allow Refuge management to have its way without any proactive efforts?

The other two sites are further north straddling Key Deer Blvd.  Each site is approximately 50 acres, well beyond the promise of no more than 10 acres in any controlled burn.  Burn Unit B (love the euphemisms) is immediately north of the Eden Pines Colony Subdivision and just east of the Pine Heights subdivision. Directly across the road is Burn Unit A, which has not been burned in 45 years.   Unit B, the area closest to housing, has not been torched in 15 years and the vegetation, read fuel load, is extremely dense.  Drive by and look for yourself.

My reading of the geography is that there is no margin for error.  Any change in wind speed or direction would be catastrophic to one or both subdivisions.  As it is, the smoke inundation will be substantial.  You had better have high quality air filtration as part of your air conditioning system if you live in the area.

On top of everything else, much like 2011, we have a rookie staff in charge.  Who will be there to help, to provide expert advice?  We all know that the West is ablaze and every available federal firefighter is long gone.  As for the poorly paid ($27,000/yr.) 606 Florida State firefighters, approximately 500 have joined their federal brethren.  I ask again:  Who will be on Big Pine Key to help?  And, how many local volunteer firemen will be available for a worst case scenario?

I am very pleased that I live in Port Pine Heights, 2 miles from the ignition point.  Our friends who live in Eden Pines Colony can measure the distance between the flames and their homes in tens of feet.  As I said, the margin for error is minuscule.  Plus our lots are but 50’ wide.  Should a perimeter home become engulfed in flames, there is nothing to stop the conflagration from spreading.

“Illegitimi non carborundum.” ~St. Lawrence O’Toole, Bishop of Dublin, and a favorite quote of Jimmy Hoffa

~ Dr. Larry Murray, Fiscal Watchdog and Citizen Activist.

Redneck portico

For What It’s Worth –Buffalo Springfield

[Women in combat at disadvantage, Marine Corps study shows] CBS News has the results of a one-of-a-kind Marine Corps experiment that will help determine the future of women in war. The study compared men and women fighting side by side, and the final report released Thursday says men performed significantly better and got hurt less often. Video

One more duck and this AFLAC deliveryman might quack up!

The next meeting of the Big Pine Computer Club is coming up this Saturday, September 12, 10 am at the senior center.  Hope to see you there.

1955 Cadillac — camper?

[Using Rubble to Rebuild Living Reef at Cheeca Rocks

“We successfully re-stabilized every living coral colony and piece of loose rubble salvaged from the path of destruction,” said Bill Goodwin, a natural resource manager with the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

The buoy that damaged the reef was swiftly removed when a team of NOAA scientists first reported it, but it had already left 150 square feet of broken and dislodged living coral colonies in its wake and reduced 260 square feet of non-living coral reef framework to rubble. A sanctuary team inspecting the damage shortly after the incident found broken heads of stony coral colonies including brain corals, star corals, finger corals and mustard hill coral. They couldn’t re-attach the living coral at the original damage site because the porous substrate wouldn’t retain the cement needed to hold them in place. As a temporary fix, they stashed the coral colonies in a natural crevice to keep them from being smothered in sand or rolling around from the surge.

In July, sanctuary scientists teamed up with the buoy maintenance crew to build a sturdy base that could serve as a new home for these living coral heads. The goal was to create relief — the height and three-dimensional structure of healthy natural reefs — that would make for good fish habitat. Sanctuary divers built the base by using fiberglass rods drilled into the substrate before pouring a mixture of Portland cement and sand into plastic molds that Goodwin calls “reef-forms.” They painstakingly relocated dead rubble from the injury into the mix, shaping it into a form that looked and functioned like a naturally occurring reef. The rescued living coral colonies were then affixed to the newly created base.

“Using coral rubble helps new coral settle and thrive because larvae cue in on substrates that are already covered with the red encrusting, coralline algae,” explained Goodwin.

Once the cement was cured, sanctuary divers removed the mold and checked the structure’s stability. They mapped, measured, photographed and noted current conditions for each reattached coral colony as a baseline for future monitoring and took similar data for nearby uninjured corals to serve as a scientific control group.

“Not only was the reef rejuvenated but so was the team,” Goodwin said, “Restoring the reef reminded all of us why we got into this line of work.”

Follow-up monitoring is scheduled one, three, six and ten years from now to track the long-term success of the restoration. If you ever see a buoy adrift or grounded boat in the sanctuary, please report it to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission at 1-888-404-3922 so officials can respond and assess the damage

[Drones and Real Estate] Instead of spending hours driving around looking for the perfect house, savvy realtors will give clients VR tours of properties. Matterport is already selling a 3-D camera system to help agents create these walk-throughs. Looks like they’ll have to find a new way to make tiny rooms seem huge.

This is precisely the type of lack of oversight that allows for widespread abuse, preying upon vulnerable populations, and fraud. It is time to tell the IRS to stop privileging churches at public expense. The IRS and Treasury Department are asking the public to comment on Form 990. Among other questions, they have asked for “ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity” of the 990 information collected.
Take action. Share your comments (which will be public), by emailing them by Monday, Sept. 14, to: Christie.A.Preston@irs.gov. Be sure to note in the subject of your email that your comments relate to Form 990

I’m not self-medicating myself with booze. The guy at the liquor store wrote me a prescription. Well, he called it a receipt … whatever.

Thanks to the poster that posted the NASA earthrise video. It reminded me of the great things this country can accomplish when it has a single focus with no political BS getting in the way. My how we have strayed. Video

World’s coolest see-saw.

[Conspiracy] The Earth picture from the moon is a fake. The Earth is many times the size of the moon. It should be hugh. Look at the most recent picture caught from a satellite with the Moon between it and the Earth. The Earth is way bigger!

In 732 AD the Muslim army which was moving on Paris was defeated and turned back at Tours, France, by Charles Martell.
In 1571 AD the Muslim army and navy was defeated by the Italians and Austrians as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to attack southern Europe in the Battle of Lapanto.
In 1683 AD the Turkish Muslim army, attacking Eastern Europe, was finally defeated in the Battle of Vienna by German and Polish Christian Armies. This crap has been going on for 1,400 years and half of the politicians don’t even know it. If these battles had not been won we might be speaking Arabic and Christianity could be non-existent; Judaism certainly would be. And let us not forget that Hitler was an admirer of Islam and that the Mufti of Jerusalem was Hitler’s guest in Berlin and raised Bosnian Muslim SS Divisions: the 13th and 21st Waffen SS Divisions who killed Jews, Russians,  Gypsies, and any other “subhumans”.

A lot of Americans have become so insulated from reality that they imagine that America can suffer defeat without any inconvenience to themselves.
In 1968, Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by a Muslim male.
In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by Muslims.
In 1972 a Pan Am 747 was hijacked and eventually diverted to Cairo where a fuse was lit on final approach. It was blown up shortly after landing by Muslims.
In 1973 a Pan Am 707 was destroyed in Rome with 33 people killed when  it was attacked with grenades by Muslims.
In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by Muslims.
During the 1980’s a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by  Muslims.
In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by Muslims.
In 1985, the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by Muslims.
In 1985, TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a US Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by Muslims.
In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by Muslims.
In 1993, the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by Muslims.
In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by Muslims.
On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to  take down the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers.  Thousands of people were killed by Muslims.
In 2002, the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against Muslims.
In 2002, reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and beheaded by Muslims. (Two other American journalists were just beheaded)
In 2013, Boston Marathon Bombing. 4 people, including a child killed, 264 injured by Muslims.

Happy 9/11 Day!.

Empire of the Ants with a young Joan Collins. Florida real estate investing gone terribly wrong. 1977 SCi Fi Movie

If you fail your pee test–urine trouble!

[FKAA] If somebody reports felony criminal activity to the state Attorney General and she send the report to the criminals with the person’s name, email, etc. instead of launching an FDLE investigation, doesn’t that make her an accomplice to the felony? So who do you report such a conspiracy to? You have to go federal, right?