The Shrubbery was out there praising the great job Arnold was doing, so this is a bit surprising: Bureaucracy hampered initial Calif. fire efforts

LOS ANGELES – As wildfires were charging across Southern California, nearly two dozen water-dropping helicopters and two massive cargo planes sat idly by, grounded by government rules and bureaucracy.

You mean that Arnold wasn’t running a well-oiled machine?

I guess not everyone was pleased with the “Terminator”: Local Officials: California Was Unprepared

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[Note that the Anglo-American 1953 Iranian coup d’état overthrowing of the democratically-elected administration of Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddeq was Iran 0.1.]

Ellroon wonders Just what does it take to start a war around here?, getting her information from the Guardian, while I went with the BBC [like the American press were going to present the truth] for the story: US imposes new sanctions on Iran

The US has stepped up its sanctions on Iran for “supporting terrorists” and pursuing nuclear activities.

The new measures target the finances of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps and three state-owned banks.

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For the record:

The largest movement of people in the US has to be the evacuation of Coastal Texas and Louisiana in anticipation of hurricane Rita in 2005, which was estimated to be between 2.5 and 3 million people.

The evacuation of approximately one and a half million people for hurricane Katrina is second.

Hurricane Katrina is the costliest natural disaster in US history at an estimated $86 billion dollars [2007 dollars]. Mississippi alone lost about 1.3 million acres of forest to Katrina.

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I have cleaned up after a fire in the area and learned a few things the hard way, so if anyone in SoCal is reading take note.

If you have wood ash, from trees or lumber, you need to use a little caution. Your regular vacuum is not designed for this stuff and will create a breathing hazard if you use it. Wood ash is alkaline. The easiest way to make lye is putting wood ash in water. It has a pH of about 11, just a little lower than household ammonia so it is important to clean it up. Wood ash also contains some super fine particles that will pass through a normal vacuum cleaner filter. If you use a regular vacuum to clean it up you will fill the air with superfine caustic dust that does not do good things to your lungs.

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