Wednesday, February 27, 2013

[Whales] Check out the mother and calf Right Whales spotted north of content keys last Sunday.

New campaign aims to halt rise of ‘Killer Robots‘. Link 

[Free Trees] Keys Energy Services’ 17th Tree Giveaway will be at 8:30 a.m. April 20 at its service building, 1001 James St., and Cudjoe electrical substation, Mile Marker 22, oceanside. Bulletin  Board

Whereas most low cloud decks are flat bottomed, asperatus clouds appear to have significant vertical structure underneath. Speculation therefore holds that asperatus clouds might be related to lenticular clouds that form near mountains, or mammatus clouds associated with thunderstorms, or perhaps a foehn wind — a type of dry downward wind that flows off mountains.

Such a wind called the Canterbury arch streams toward the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island. The above image, taken above Hanmer Springs in Canterbury, New Zealand, in 2005, shows great detail partly because sunlight illuminates the undulating clouds from the side.

Prime Rib Dinner    Live Music

[Bahia Honda webcam] Why don’t they ask for volunteer divers to maintain the camera instead of traveling to the Keys to do it from wherever they are located. I read on the CT where some people were already volunteering. We’re probably more experienced at that stuff then they are.

Newspaper’s poor advice for readers blamed on art director. Link

No power to No Name Key — at least for now! Link 

Ring the Peace Bell in the Community Peace Park in Key West at West Martello Tower at the top of the hill. Thanks for keeping it going. Peace now!

[U.S. to drop poisoned mice to kill snakes on Guam] Dead mice laced with painkillers are about to rain down on Guam’s jungle canopy. They are scientists’ prescription for a headache that has caused the tiny U.S. territory misery for more than 60 years: the brown tree snake. Most of Guam’s native bird species are extinct because of the posionous snake, which reached the island’s thick jungles by hitching rides from the South Pacific on U.S. military ships shortly after World War II. There may be 2 million of the reptiles on Guam now, decimating wildlife, biting residents and even knocking out electricity by slithering onto power lines. Link

Frosted pineapple cookies. Link 

Bonds “technically” in default-oops “bank error”. “The School District did not inform the School Board”? Can’t blame Acevedo’s forever folks.

Workmans comp reserve over 1 million underfunded, no audits, 30 year old accounting software, lack of construction controls, a severely compromised anonymous hotline, etc. etc.

That 400,000 dollars did not even fill up the “waterhole” at Marathon High last year. Let the state take over, it can’t get any worse. Give this county an appointed school board, and every management position in district headquarters. Do we really need a Chief of Staff?

Many, many thanks to the dedicated teachers in this system that remain to educate our students while dealing daily with this type of “transparent” management. 

Just watch Al Gore’s movie, you know the one he got so many awards for. According to big Al we should all be up to our butt cheeks by now. 

What a sad day in Government when the County Attorney does not put the 3rd District Court of Appeals Opinion into the BOCC record, but it instead comes to light from the public attending.

The 3rd District Court of Appeals opined: “The statutory authority granted the PSC would be eviscerated if initially subject to local government regulation and circuit court injunctions of the kind sought by Monroe County”.

County Attorney Bob Shillinger later that same day admitted to the Citizen Paper (after the BOCC hearing was over, and the votes had been taken) that the (3rd DCA): “ruling could be interpreted as saying the County has been preempted from legislation in this matter”.

Read the Citizen article. Link 

[Smoked Kingfish] In responce to a CTer’s request Fanci Seafood’s has delicious just SMOKED KINGFISH in the case. This photo should get your mouth watering!

[Willie Nelson] This is great. Not many people know that Willie was from Austin and his mother ran a beer joint and pool parlor there. He started out as a lead guitarist for lots of popular people before he became popular himself. Look at the pompadour on top of his head, and the duck tail hair style. Notice the audience with all of the hand fans going. This was before air conditioning. The songs he is singing here are a combination of the ones he wrote for famous people before he became a noted singer himself. I think you will enjoy this. I went to high school in Elgin , Texas , about 25 miles east of Austin and used to frequent his mother’s place where Willie often played and sang as an early beginner. That was in 1953-1954. I was a fan of his long before he became famous. Man, could he ever play a guitar. No! I never took drugs and that was before he ever heard of them.

Willie Nelson before life hit him between the eyes. Link

[Climate Change] I just watched Water World for the umpteenth time and the very beginning where the Earth’s land masses get engulfed in water, is supposed to be very accurate scientifically. Very interesting special effect though!
If the ice melts. Link 

[Wounded Knee]In 1973 roughly 200 Native-American activists and members of the American Indian Movement occupied the village of Wounded Knee on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, beginning a standoff with federal marshals that lasted until May 8. The Indians lost. Link

The 787’s battery problem is just one problem in many plaguing Boeing. Link 

I feel pity for Deputy Riggs. If you were married to this woman, you would be messed up too. Link

[Captain Doom and Gloom] A great GIF for a new section on the CT for dumb blonde stuff!

Those of us who use logic and common sense and walk upright are sick and tired of the buffoonery from the  far right and the far left. You and FTR guy have had your 15 minutes in the spotlight, please move on. 

[Cuts] A decrease in the rate of increase is not a cut–that’s just Washington math. Obama says sequestration is dangerous and drastic. But see for yourself. Look at this chart and tell me if you see any actual cuts.

[Whistleblowing Bad For Your Freedom] Ex-CIAer Kiriakou is scheduled to be sentenced to 30 months in prison as part of a plea deal in which he admitted violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act by emailing the name of a covert C.I.A. officer to a freelance reporter, who did not publish it.

[Opportunity] There is a difference between a forced equality and an opportunity and improvement through your efforts, but it’s only present in America. This doctrine, and way of thinking, doesn’t exist in Europe. Our governments pay a special attention to the “weaks” by law and give them support. So, I think, we have always been “socialist”.

As regards taxes– same problem. Italy’s problem is very strong, particularly. We have a taxation to 40-45%, the highest in Europe. But, it is due to many recent scandals.

[Sequestration] It seems the Right wants spending cuts only as long as they are their spending cuts.

FROM THE RIGHT

I grant you that it is possible that there might be some sort of impact felt very soon after sequestration goes into effect. There shouldn’t be any affect whatsoever, but there might be. There should be no effect whatsoever on our daily lives because the  sequestration does not take a single penny away from the funds that are currently being spent. In fact,  under sequestration, the federal budget actually increases this year over last year!  All it does is slow the rate of growth of federal spending.  Hopefully you’re wondering why there even might be any change in our lives.  The answer is simple. President Obama has the power to immediately cut services that the feds currently provide. That can be accomplished in any number of ways. The simplest would be an executive order. That’s not likely because it would leave a paper trail. More probably he will issue verbal orders to his Cabinet members to shut down or slow down services that are under their supervision. There would be no paper trail. If he was to do that and he was outed, he, most certainly, would be impeached. Lately Obama is giving every indication that he considers himself to be invincible, therefore, look for him to chance it.  I don’t think that he will  be able to resist the chest thumping if sequestration cuts services and he can get away with blaming it on Republicans.

Deer Friends, the Obama admin are such craven liars that they are predicting massive cuts to The National Drug Intelligence Center. They’re suggesting that drugs will flood our schools and neighborhoods because of the cuts to that august organization, the NDIAC.  Deer Friends, please sit down, take a deep breath and then consider that the NDIAC does not exist. It closed 8 months ago. Geeesh!

One more thing! Just a few months ago candidate Obama was bragging that he had reinvigorated our economy. He clutched success to his pointy chest. But now, only 4 months after the election he is warning us that we are doomed to recession if we cut only 1% of the growth in our federal spending.  Donkey Dung.

Part 2) Maybe you might want to think about some of the ways that your government has been spending your money. There is an enterprise known as Halo Strategic Operations which provides Homeland Security with training and other resources. Recently Halo held a “Counter Terrorism Summit” at a very high end island spa resort in California.  The purpose of the 5 day conference purportedly was to train HS and first responders and to expose them to the latest intell and equipment. Among other things these conferences are a trade show designed to lure in new government spenders.  It was a get together of old pals at the the taxpayers dime. When I worked for State government, it was a huge perk to get sent any of these “conferences”.  It was a mini vacation. In my experience, there was no requirement that the attendee even go to any of the classes or presentations that were offered. Like all conferences, it was expensive to attend.  But it cost the attendee nothing. The Halo shindig cost $1K per person to attend. It was paid with your tax dollars. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that the conference, as a serious part of it’s program, presented a “live” strategic simulation of a “zombie apocalypse” complete with 40 or so actors playing zombies.  The event, which was staged twice, featured methodology of first responders and  tactics to control the zombie apocalypse.  Mahvolous, just mahvolous, stylish too.

Homeland Security has gotten into the habit of spending money, big money. They’ve spent $35 billion in grants since ’03.  Now lets check out just a few of the grants. Recently there was an underwater robot purchased with a $98,000 grant to look for “sunken treasure,” surveillance at the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres spring training facilities at a price of $90,000, a Bearcat armored vehicles to protect a small town’s pumpkin festival, $41,000 for a Remote-Control Helicopter in Seattle and $6,200 in sno-cone machine purchases. Nice, huh?

Read more: Link