Posts from — July 2008

Our old friend, Bertha, has made it back up to hurricane status with 75 mph winds, but will be severely weakened before it reaches Iceland, possibly on Monday. [Tropical storms in Iceland, but don’t forget: Al Gore is overweight.]

Tropical Depression Three has formed off the coast of South Carolina and may bring heavy rains and gusty winds to the coastal region of North Carolina before heading out to sea. The sea temperature, shear winds, and dry air over land argue against much strengthening in the near term, nor an inland spread of rains that would help the interior of North Carolina.

The underachieving Invest 94L might make it to tropical status before it smacks into the Yucatan. Whatever’s left will head towards the Texas-Mexico boarder area.

I realize that there aren’t very many reporters with actual military experience anymore. When there was a draft it was sort of a given that you would put in your two years and gain some insight, as well as expand your vocabulary. These days you’re lucky if a journalist can recognize US military equipment and uniforms.

The front page of the Washington Post had an article on Senior Leader Intransit Conference Capsules [SLICC] which shows a total detachment from a military reality

The Air Force’s top leadership sought for three years to spend counterterrorism funds on “comfort capsules” to be installed on military planes that ferry senior officers and civilian leaders around the world, with at least four top generals involved in design details such as the color of the capsules’ carpet and leather chairs, according to internal e-mails and budget documents.

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Over at NBC they had the story: Salmonella fears prompt N.C. food recall

RALEIGH, N.C. – State officials announced a recall of fresh jalapeno peppers and avocados distributed in North Carolina after samples from a food distributor tested positive for salmonella.

The N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services on Thursday said in a statement that it asked a Charlotte food distributor to recall the items it received from a Texas food supply company because of possible salmonella contamination.
…

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RHIP

You got a problem with that?

[Editor: Last week Ringo was giving Oscar a hard time, and this week Pavlova has pulled rank to take over the garbage can.]

Friday Ark

So the price of a barrel of oil drops below $130, but the price of gas at the pump is unchanged.

It has always fascinated me how all increases in the price of crude oil are immediately reflected in the price of gasoline, but decreases take forever to be reflected.

Natural gas also dropped, but that was because the stockpile is increasing faster than “analysts” expected. There is no actual link between natural gas and crude oil, but both go up together. They come down at different rates.

If the price of crude goes up a couple of bucks tomorrow, I expect the price of gas will also go up. It’s called “whatever the market will bear”, but at this point the market is very “bearish”.

So, I’m now at WordPress 2.6 and viewing it with Firefox 3.01.

Everyone wanted their shot at breaking things.

Who knew Emily Litella worked for the Food and Drug Administration?

CNN tells us FDA lifts warning on tomatoes

(CNN) — Tomatoes are again safe to eat, the Food and Drug Administration said Thursday, weeks after the food was blamed as the source of a salmonella outbreak in several states.

The federal agency lifted its warning about tomatoes but left in place a warning about jalapeño and serrano peppers, which it said could pose a risk to elderly people or people with compromised immune systems.

The source of the outbreak of salmonella still isn’t known, but the FDA said the epidemic is “waning.”

I guess there were no more tomato farmers left to bankrupt, so it was time to move on to the people who grow peppers.

Jack at Grumpy Forester has a post looking at Dem VP possibilities and labels it: Things That Can Drive The Netroots Crazy.

I don’t know, it’s all part of balancing the ticket that he would be looking a people to his left, but Sam Nunn would provide more geographic diversity than Evan Bayh.

Fallenmonk is on the right track with his piece, It’s Going to Get Worse, but there’s another element that makes the situation even worse and most people are unaware of it.

There is a concept known as “Just-In-Time” [JIT} inventory control that has been refined by Wal-Mart and many manufacturers that is considered by many to be the most efficient system for stocking a store or building a product.

The basic idea is that you don’t keep a large inventory that requires storage space and ties up cash. Using computer networks you track your usage and order goods based on what was used, so that what arrives on your loading dock is put on the shelves or production line, not in a warehouse.

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Feedjit has been showing Microsoft’s search.live.com moving through my site one word search at a time.  It makes me nervous.

For the first time ever I’ve had a Logitech mouse die.  The plastic “spring” on the main button is becoming useless and I’ve had to buy a new one.  My Mother still uses my original “wedge” LT mouse for Windows 3.11 on her system.

WordPress has a new version out and they are nagging about up-grading.  I’ll do it at some point.

NTodd of Dohiyi Mir drove from Oregon back to Vermont, at the same time Keith of Invisible Library was driving from Savannah to Salem, Oregon.  They would have passed on the road.  I doubt anyone wants to go from Vermont to Georgia.

Steve Bates at Yellow Doggerel Something gets called for jury duty more often than anyone I’ve ever known.

I must be one of the last people in Northwest Florida with a landline telephone because I get called for polls several times a month.

Tropical Storm Bertha is wandering East and annoying fish in the mid Atlantic.

Invest 94L continues to look like it is going to do something, but nothing is happening.

The annoying weather pattern that has provided at least one thunderstorm every day in July in the northern Gulf has finally moved and may provide much needed rain to South Florida.

The Weather Underground Tropical site has problems that are still being worked on, requiring me to use the National Hurricane Center [NHC}.

Whether they understand it or not the NHC desparately needs a graphic artist or at least a programmer willing to expand beyond the 8 colors of the IBM-PC color monitor.

Apollo 11

Commander:

Neil A. Armstrong

Pilot: Columbia Command Module

Michael Collins, Lieutenant Colonel, USAF

Pilot: Eagle Lunar Module

Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr., Colonel, USAF

Launched: 16 July 1969 UT 13:32:00 (08:32:00 CDT)

Landed on Moon: 20 July 1969 UT 20:17:40 (15:17:40 CDT)

Landing Site: Mare Tranquillitatis – Sea of Tranquility (0.67 N, 23.47 E)

Returned to Earth: 24 July 1969 UT 16:50:35 (11:50:35 CDT)

You may have heard about this, or read about at a blog. WFTV reports on a billboard in Orange County, Florida linked to Mike Meehan, a St. Cloud, Florida businessman and possible musician.

The billboard has a picture of the World Trade Center on fire and a message saying don’t vote for Democrats. Mr. Meehan says he’s trying to help the Republican Party, and, by the way, happens to have some CDs for sale with his latest opus: The Republican Song.

No need to go into all of the facts of the Republicans in charge of everything when the towers were stuck, the sleaze factor of attempting to profit from the tragedy, the probability of a copyrighted photograph being used for the billboard, etc. This is a Florida Republican, just put him on the sex pervert list and get on with reality, except…

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On January 20^th, 2001 the US inaugurated its first MBA President. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was 10,587.59.

After massive tax cuts to spur investment and 7½ years in office, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed today at 10,962.54.

The average spot price of a barrel of oil was $23.73 for the week ending January 19^th, 2001.

Oil fell $6.44 to settle at $138.74 a barrel today.