Thursday, February 6, 2014

I’m going to boycott the Sochi Olympics because of Putin’s homophobia. I wasn’t going anyway, but if I were, I wouldn’t.

Our cardinals live here in Marathon year round. They have been joined this year by painted buntings – sparrow sized birds with brilliant coral breasts, bright green wings, and a blue head. We also had white crowned pigeons. I saw the first hummingbird last week. The only birds that concerned me this year were the robins that showed up in Sept heralding an ugly winter for our northern states. If you want birds, simply feed them. They will come.

[“Why would anyone call the sheriff’s office before legally shooting on their own property” ]  Because there will always be those who panic at the sound of gunfire next door and call the police.  If the dispatcher knows the source of gunfire at a certain location ahead of time it could save the cops making a trip to check it out.  It’s an attempt at courtesy and efficiency.

The UN published an opinion chastising the Vatican for it’s bad behavior in treating their pediophile scandal. Typically the Vatican said the report was prejudiced.

[Creationism vs Evolution] Bill Nye wins by 92%. I admit Ken Ham’s argument was rather weak, like he was infusing his religion into modern science. He used a lot of his time to preach, which just contributed to his perceived failure. Link

No burning on Ramrod Key. The fresh air will smell like burning leaves for the rest of our lives. Egh!

I’m sure Mr Krause will offer all kinds of safeguards, that probably won’t really work. And you know that once something is permitted, it’s there forever.

Clever street name.

[Sewers] I still have not had time to watch the whole BOCC meeting of last Friday, but I watched enough to anger me. I hate deceit. View from 10:49 to 10:50 and witness the disrespect from the new “gang of 3”. The sewer grinder pump to gravity consideration was scheduled for 1:30. Here is the link to watch at your convenience. Link

As usual, Danny Kolhage and Heather Carruthers showed character and sincere concern for the issues. I will be campaigning for them if needed. The FKAA’s “expert” engineering consultants made asses of themselves to anybody who knew the correct answers to Ms. Carruther’s questions. For example, 1. Cape Coral’s engineers did a very thorough evaluation of sewer options but Dave Matthews dismissed it as flawed. They did not choose gravity over grinders, they chose everything except a septic tank over grinders and recommended gravity where feasible and for the others, STEP (Septic Tank Effluent Pumping, where the tank’s effluent to the drainfield is intercepted by a small pump and sent for further treatment). 2. The “salvage value” of a gravity system after a period of cost analysis is not what you get for selling the piping (as Matthews said!), it is the remaining life of a gravity system when the alternative system is worthless. 3. Chelmsford’s troubled grinder system is not different than what is intended here except for the depth of piping. Everything else is the same except that the system here is too big to work. 4. HDPE pipe does indeed become brittle with age, due primarily to off-gassing of the chemicals that make it flexible when new. 5. The sewer forcemain pipe that plugged is not the brand new residential grinder forcemain in Duck Key, it is the grinder pump forcemain from Long Key State Park to the Layton plant- plugged since before Thanksgiving while FKAA continues to truck out their sewage because they can’t clear the pipe. That forcemain was installed in 2006 and only has one user.

Picture the pending disaster in the Cudjoe Regional. I can keep going, but won’t, for now. Please support http://dumpthepumps.com They are bringing in additional professional help to stop this lousy design and can use volunteers, expertise and, or money.

Kudos to CVS Pharmacies for discontinuing the sale of cigarettes. It always amused me that a wellness store was selling tobacco. It reminded me of the 1950’s ads with doctors recommending cigarettes. When pot is legal, it along with cigarettes and liquor should all be sold and regulated from the same store — a drug store!

Where are you politically? A short test. Link

The next meeting of the Big Pine Computer Club is coming up this Saturday, February 8, 10 am at the senior center. Hope to see you there. Events

I have just one question, where did they put the rest of him?

[Sewers] Did you hear Matthews Consulting tell Commissioner Carruthers at the Jan 31 BOCC meeting that they evaluated vacuum sewer and it was way too expensive? Well, I have the Airvac engineer’s design and construction estimate for a vacuum system on Summerland as submitted to Matthews. It was $4,348,400, including the vacuum pump station. The hybrid gravity and grinder system for just the Summerland collection system portion came in at $8,204,710. Note that this gravity collection design uses the same residential E-1 grinder pumps in the lift stations (although it is illegal). So it cost almost $4 million more than vacuum for just Summerland’s collection system. But hey, they managed to sell the County another 226 E-One grinder pumps! And the FKAA (with your sewer rate money) will be buying lots more through the years, at a much higher price than the low introductory rate, no doubt.

In a power outage, FKAA will have to make 176 generator connections just on Summerland to keep the sewer working. With a vacuum system, a back-up generator at the station automatically keeps it flowing. Prepare to get very stinky shoes, Summerland, unless this design is aborted.

Frankensteinfoods (genetically modified foods) are taking so much flack around the world that Monsanto (Victor, their creator) has beeb able to breed healthy lettuce, bell peppers, sweet onions and broccoli that are far tastier and nutritious and longer lasting — to appease the mob (and make billions of Washingtons). They are working on a watermelon. Now the job is to convince the public that they burned their lab.

[“Desktop icons disappear”] This is not normal, take your machine to a local PC tech, they have software at their disposal that evaluates the entire machine for anything wrong (including malware) and can fix things you’re not aware of. In case a fresh install is required, other software they have can transfer all your data off and back on again like before. Regardless, a fresh install on hard drives will do wonders for your performance.

This specialized software is prohibitively expensive and potentially harmful for most normal users other than tech geeks. Computers are like cars, they require regular routine maintenance and backups of irreplaceable users data in case of hardware or software failure. Also a tech person can recommend a backup, anti-malware and self maintenance routine for you to follow to keep your machine in a pristine state, teach you how to keep Flash and Java updated. Setup up System Restore and teach you about starting it from boot time to reverse any mistakes or installs that might have gone wonky. (Ed: Radio Shack on BPK will do that for you.)

[No view] I went to the Tiki bar on Saturday night for the first time in awhile. A favorite local band, MoonDogs was playing.

What is the reason for the unattractive fencing on the side of the stage? It is blocking all wind & ventilation and there were huge umbrellas up at night, which was blocking the starry sky.

[Flashing headlights legal] Federal Judge rules it’s blocking First Amendment rights to arrest or cite drivers who warn others to slow down because of dangers or speed traps ahead. Link

[“CVS banning cigarettes”] Now they can concentrate on selling more candy, soda and chips.

Broward County is a bastion of Democrat politics. It is home base for Debby Wasserman Schultz, Chair of the Democrat National Committee and Obama confidant.  The SunSentinel is the biggest print media voice in Broward. It is nearly universally in support of Democrat/Liberal/Progressive initiatives and candidates.  One of the most vocal of their D/L/P voices is Chan Lowe, a cartoonist and opinion writer for the paper. I cannot recall a single issue that Lowe has supported that was Republican or Conservative. He takes great delight in harpooning the Right wing.

On Feb 2 Chan Lowe wrote about Charlie Crist’s refusal to debate his Democrat opponent, Nan Rich, in the upcoming primary. Lowe wrote: “. (Crist’s refusal to debate) gives short shrift to Democratic primary voters who may have wished to hear a healthy exchange of positions on important topics between those who are vying to be their candidate. But one suspects that Charlie’s allegiance to the Democratic Party is on the shallow side; in his mind, the party is more of a vehicle to attain his ambitions for a dramatic redemption and comeback than a philosophy to be embraced.”  Those are pretty rough words coming from a D/L/P newspaper pundit.

Lowe wasn’t finished dumping on Crist. Lowe continued: “Charlie has one overarching political philosophy, which is to do what most benefits Charlie Crist’s future. His success in this endeavor depends on how well he’s able to convince Floridians that his interests and theirs dovetail.”

In Chan Lowes opinion, Charlie Crist is a craven political opportunist who cares little for the people of the State of Florida, but lusts to be Governor again.  It’s no surprise that Lowe feels that way given the fact that Crist has changed party affiliation twice since he was Governor, and a failed one at that, only 3 years ago. Democrats would do themselves a great service if they selected Nan Rich as their gubernatorial candidate, she actually exemplifies Democrat ideals.

Part 2) Just as you can be certain that the sun will rise tomorrow, you can be certain that Democare is going to be harmful to sick people.  The LA Times, a very leftist publication is reporting that after overcoming website glitches and long waits to get Obamacare, patients are now running into frustrating new roadblocks at the doctor’s office.  The Times reports that people are having trouble finding doctors at all, getting faulty information on which ones are covered and receiving little help from insurers that are swamped by new business. Insurance companies have stricken many health care providers from their “approved” lists. Patients who have had a long standing relationship with their physicians are learning that they will no longer be able to be treated by their physicians who know them best. All of that is happening so as to hold down premiums under the healthcare law, major insurers have sharply cut the number of doctors and hospitals available to patients in the state’s new health insurance market.

Obama: “If you like your Doctor, you can keep him, period!” Donkey Dung!

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