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2022 February

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Letters to the editor with pictures since 2002.
Published on Big Pine Key’s garbage days, Tuesdays and Fridays.

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[Unfair] The last Olympics immediately suspended Black runner Sha’Carri Richardson when she tested positive for pot, but this year star Russian figure skater (White) Kamila Valieva is allowed to compete after testing positive for a performance enhancing drug.
[Changing Rules to Screw Liveaboards] There are currently at least 278 liveaboard vessels anchored around Key West harbor. Unless the current version of the bill is revised 178 liveaboard vessels (providing housing for approximately 356 residents) anchored in the Key West harbor area will be required to disrupt their well-set safe anchoring systems and re-anchor every 90 days, without being provided a mooring option. As you are all aware this will cause senseless damage to important marine habitat and will put all anchored boaters (including visiting cruisers anchored in the harbor) in jeopardy.

[Diddling Teens] Prince Andrew was obsessed with the “Hershey highway” with his sex slaves. Wow, read the transcripts. Let’s see if this ever sees the court system. Maybe it’s a reflection of prime minister hairdo?

Hemi hideout man cave. Ultimate mancave. He’s got everything but a … well, he’s got that too. Video
Watch Planet of the Apes 1968 and you’ll realize it was filmed in Detroit in 2010. (Most of the early scenes of a desert-like terrain were shot in northern Arizona near the Grand Canyon, the Colorado River, Lake Powell, Glen Canyon and other locations near Page, Arizona Most scenes of the ape village, interiors and exteriors, were filmed on the Fox Ranch in Malibu Creek State Park, northwest of Los Angeles.)
Goodyear stock is tanking. The tire maker warns of “inflation pressures.”
Whatever happened to self-driving cars? Are they dead before they were even born? Are they with FAX machines and cassette tapes?
[“Oil subsidies”] There seems to be some misunderstandings about oil subsidies. I hope this clears it up. The high price of subsidies. First, let’s consider just the direct subsidies for fossil fuel production—money that flows directly from the government to fossil fuel companies to support activities like exploration, extraction, and development. A conservative estimate from Oil Change International puts the U.S. total at around $20.5 billion annually, including $14.7 billion in federal subsidies and $5.8 billion in state-level incentives. A whopping 80 percent of this goes to oil and gas (with the rest supporting coal), and most of the subsidies are in the form of tax deductions and exemptions and other “obscure tax loopholes and accounting tricks” that result in massive avoided costs for fossil fuel producers. Link

 

[International Icons] That’s the button for the steering wheel tilt adjustment for more head room.

[Population of 100] What proportions of common traits would be like if we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people has been circulated on the Internet for many years, and many readers seem to find the contrasts it highlights between the “haves” and “have-nots” of the world compelling. However, much of the information it presented was questionable, out of date, or poorly-defined even when it was new, and the passage of time has only made it less accurate. Link
[16th Century Puritans] More than a century after the conquest of Mexico the New England Puritans were torturing and killing by process of law. They weren’t torturing and killing savage enemies who threatened their security, but one another, and all within their power, who dissented from their own gloomy and peculiar religious delusions. They may have believed in the mercy of God, but they grimly preferred to see themselves as ministers of His wrath.
[Afterglow] The future looks dimmer, and the past looks brighter.

 

CBS 50th Anniversary Special in 1978. If you can identify at least 5 people in this picture, consider yourself old.

A solar storm blasted 40 SpaceX satellites out of orbit. SpaceX launched 49 Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit last week, with plans to eventually bring them up to higher altitudes. But due to a geomagnetic storm on Friday, up to 40 of the 49 satellites are falling out of their intended orbit. Solar storms like the one that destroyed the satellites will only increase in the coming years. Link

[“Name that plant”] That looks like the nasty invasive exotic Madagascar Rubber Vine. It’s on Florida exotic pest plan council’s 2017 list of Florida’s most invasive species! Link

[“Oil & gas subsidies”] Myth vs. Fact. MYTH: Eliminating subsidies to the oil and gas industry will raise gas prices. FACT: Variations in gas prices are driven by the world market, and are not dependent on U.S. government policies. Link

Look out lobster pirates! The USCG is done playing.