Posts from — August 2009

Liz at Blonde Sense finds a great candidate for a perfect Emily Litella moment.

I have trucks and public servants digging up the front yard. It was a damp spot yesterday, but this morning it was a mini-geyser. My guess is the sugarberry out front got its roots around the water main and snapped it.

Cast iron has little chance when it tries to hold off the attack of a tree root. It is a very slow process, but season after season the pressure increases until the pipe surrenders.

With any luck they will cut down the sugarberry and haul it away. They are an invasive species that crowd out native trees and break in tropical storm force winds.

Position: 28.4 N 73.5 W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: North-Northwest [330°] near 8 mph [13 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 45 mph [75 kph].
Wind Gusts: 55 mph [90 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 205 miles [335 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1008 mb.

It is 485 miles [780 km] South-Southeast of Cape Hatteras North Carolina.

A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for the North Carolina coast from Cape Lookout northward to Duck ncluding the Ablemarle and Pamlico sounds.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

KTLA is reporting 2 Fast Moving Wildfires Burning in Angeles Forest

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE — A new fire has erupted in the Angeles National Forest.

The latest blaze is burning 5 miles north of La Canada Flintridge along Angeles Forest Highway.

The new fire is located to the west of the so-called Morris fire blaze that has been burning out of control on 750 acres near Azusa since Tuesday afternoon.

InciWeb has started reporting on the first fire

The Morris Fire started at 4:27 pm on Tuesday, August 25, 2006 and is burning in San Gabriel Canyon near Morris Dam on the Los Angeles River Ranger District.

The Enplan Wildfire Viewer, which uses satellite sensors to spot fires, has picked up on the Morris fire, but hasn’t marked it yet.

The daytime weather in the mountains is temperatures near 100° and humidity at around 9%. All that is missing is the winds. Steep terrain and Chaparral that hasn’t burned in a quarter century is a set up for a major wildfire. The lack of wind is causing the smoke to settle in the LA basin and sparking a health alert.

Keith Kisser of The Invisible Library has managed to get his second novel, The Lives of Perfect Creatures, out the door.

I assume that it will be available at Amazon soon.

Update: Amazon in about a week, and Create Space now.

The Orlando Sentinel reports on a new study in the NEJM: Study shows some patients get risky doses of radiation from medical tests

A large new study including 170,000 South Floridians found that a small but significant number of patients received dangerously high doses of radiation from medical imaging tests, putting them at higher risk for cancer — sometimes needlessly.

CT scans and the commonly used heart stress tests carrying high doses of radiation were the biggest sources of exposure, but even low-dose X-rays add to the lifetime exposure to radiation that can cause tumors, researchers said in the study published in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine.
…

The study adds more fuel to an ongoing debate over whether some doctors overprescribe imaging tests to guard against patient lawsuits and to make money. Past research has shown that doctors with ownership in imaging centers order 27 percent to 54 percent more CT scans, MRIs and stress tests than other doctors do.

The “guard against patient lawsuits” claim is malpractice insurance agitprop to get tort reform passed. When it gets passed, the rates still go up and there is no change in the minuscule number of malpractice claims. The awards in successful suits are large because of the cost of the health care required to fix the screw ups. If we passed Medicare for All, the cost of these awards would plummet.

Of course, everyone knows that doctors would never order unnecessary tests just to make a lot of money. 😈

Position: 26.0 N 71.6 W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West-Northwest [310°] near 10 mph [16 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 50 mph [85 kph].
Wind Gusts: 65 mph [105 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 175 miles [280 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1006 mb ↓.

It is 675 miles [1090 km] South-Southeast of Cape Hatteras North Carolina.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]

I have spent most of my day dealing with a neighbor’s kitchen sink.

Being one of my neighbors means the individual is a rightwing Republican Christian, but there is a mitigating factor, they like cats, including feral cats.

Because I work at home I obviously can be disturbed at any time, for any reason, because that is not really working, like being a greeter at WalMart. So I am inured to being interrupted at all hours, no matter what I may be doing, by people for all sorts of weird reasons. I am also the only person in the neighborhood who owns tools, so rather than buying a tool to do something, they will unsuccessfully attempt to borrow one. [I don’t loan tools to anyone who doesn’t have their own tools.]

So I go to their place to see about a leak from the kitchen sink. It was my amateur opinion [I am not a plumber, nor do I play one at political events] that the 1″ by 3″ hole in the drain trap was probably the cause for all of the water under the sink, as when you put a teaspoon of water in the sink, that’s where it came out.

I told them to call their landlord, because they needed to replace the trap. As “trap” was deemed to be a technical term, I was asked to call the landlord, which I did. I know the landlord, and was informed that his regular plumber was out of town for a week, and asked if I would take care of it.

So I spent my day going to a hardware store, buying parts, and installing them. If the existing parts had been installed recently, say during the Reagan era, this would have been 15 minutes under the sink. The existing parts were installed during Harry Truman’s second term, and you have to move carefully to avoid breaking anything, so it was two hours I’ll never get back.

What I don’t understand is how these Republicans think they can be self-sufficient when they can’t even change a P-trap under a sink? If they “go Galt” they’ll be back as soon as they run out of toilet paper.

The BBC says Hedgehog joke wins comedy prize

Comedian Dan Antopolski has won a prize for the funniest joke of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

The funnyman, who has previously been nominated for the Perrier award, picked up the trophy from TV channel Dave.

Nine comedy critics sat through thousands of jokes before choosing 27 for viewers to vote on.

The winning joke was a one-liner from 36-year-old Antopolski’s show Silent But Deadly – “Hedgehogs. Why can’t they just share the hedge?”

I also liked:

5. Jack Whitehall – “I’m sure wherever my dad is; he’s looking down on us. He’s not dead, just very condescending.”

7. Marcus Brigstocke – “To the people who’ve got iPhones: you just bought one, you didn’t invent it!”

For obvious reasons most people have focused on the people who are left out of the system by the NME, the un- or under-insured, but what about the doctors?

A former nurse/office manager for a solo practice physician is writing a three-part post about what a doctor goes through to get paid in the current system. Part one and part two are up at The Confluence, with part three to come.

After you read these posts you will understand why so many doctors are joining group practices, and see the potential for cost savings by simplifying the office procedures with a single payer plan.

The problems described in part one are on display at my Mother’s primary physician with a list posted by the nurse’s desk telling people which lab they have to visit for tests based on who their insurance company is. On Medicare my Mother goes where she wants, and changes labs if they annoy her.

[Read more →]

The BBC reports that calmer winds and the assistance of other countries has slowed the spread of fires in Greece.

From the main points below the map at the bottom of the article:

• The fires began late on Friday, 21 August in the rural area of Grammatiko to the north-east of the capital, Athens.
• Driven by high winds, flames reached the villages of Varnavas, Marathon and Agios Stefanos on Saturday, cutting them off from the road.
• Later that day, residents in wooded Athens suburbs such as Pendeli, Pikermion and Pallini were told to leave as fire threatened the capital.
• Overnight between Saturday and Sunday, BBC correspondent Malcolm Brabant evacuated his home in Drafi “with maybe five minutes to spare”.
• Fires are also burning on the islands of Evia and Skyros in the Aegean Sea, in Zakynthos in the west, and near the Porto Germeno coastal resort.

France and Italy have sent water tanker aircraft to help in the battle which involves towns and forests. Many structures have already burned because of the high, changeable winds which have frustrated attempts at establishing fire lines and spread spot fires with flying embers.

The terrain is wooded hills and groves with narrow, winding roads to ancient villages and towns, and well as newer suburbs of Athens. I spent a lot of time in Glyfada, southwest of Athens proper, and have made trips into the affected region. Souvlaki, feta, olives, and retsina under the groves was a good way to cool off during the summer. Fires have pretty much deforested the hills around Athens.

It’s the first day of school for most of Florida, including Okaloosa County, so time to watch for the buses, the School Zone signs, and the kids wandering around lost.

It’s the last day for “Cash for Clunkers”. It is good economic stimulus, helps the the environment, cost effective, and reduces oil consumption, so it obviously had to be stopped quickly.

If you need a break, try US ‘may take military action’ to liberate Britain from the NHS, or Bush still struggling to explain eight-year gap on CV.

Position: 48.6 N 50.2 W [ 4 AM CDT 0700 UTC].
Movement: East-Northeast [060°] near 40 mph [65 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 70 mph [120 kph].
Wind Gusts: 80 mph [145 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 315 miles [510 km].
Minimum central pressure: 980 mb ↑.

It is 190 miles [305 km] Northeast of Cape Race Newfoundland. Bill is an Extra-tropical storm.

Bill passed over the eastern tip of Newfoundland as a minimal hurricane or maximum tropical storm. A swimmer in Florida and tourist in Maine were drowned as a result of Bill’s wave action. This is the final NOAA advisory.

Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.

[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]