Posts from — October 2010

If you still don’t know where to vote on Tuesday, the Google Voter Info interactive map may help. You enter your home address and it provides a map to your polling place.

I checked my local polling place and it provided the correct solution. I live in a small town, so I expected it to fail, but it got it right. YMMV, especially if your local officials don’t publish accurate information in the first place. GIGO, any solution is only as good as the data input.

Another application that is running on Google maps is Right Wing Violence 6mos – Mar 15 – Sep 15, 2010. This is a limited to a single six-month period, but it gives you a feel for what is going on around the country.

If you whip up a mob, you have to expect mob violence.

Remember the words of Sergeant Phil Esterhaus: “Be careful out there.”

Position: 14.2N 66.5W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West [270°] near 15 mph [24 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 65 mph [100 kph].
Wind Gusts: 75 mph [120 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 175 miles [280 km].
Minimum central pressure: 997 mb ↑.

Currently about 215 miles [350 km] Northeast of Curacao and about 265 miles [425 km] South of Ponce, Puerto Rico.

Tomas has been weakened by an increase in wind shear and dry air being pulled into its core.

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.]

Whether you celebrate Celtic New Year’s Eve [Samhain], the evening before All Saints Day [Halloween], or the posting of Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 [Reformation Day], have a happy one.

Wikipedia does its normally thorough job of covering all of the bases on the holidays that share October 31^st.

These are my remembrances of Halloween.

[Read more →]

They must be from an alternate universe where time isn’t linear. That is the only way to understand their total disconnect when it comes to the concept of “cause and effect”. They just don’t seem to understand that the cause must precede the effect in time, or the proposition is just nonsense.

When people complain about “Obama bailing out the banks”, they don’t seem to understand that both Obama and McCain were Senators running for President when the TARP fund was authorized. FDR wasn’t even running for President when the Depression started, much less making decisions.

When they are challenged for proof of a claim, you receive non sequitors, facts about totally unrelated matters. If who are balancing your check book, you will find small relevance in a report on the budget for your local Rotary Club. In this case a discussion of budget of the European Union is supposed to provide some insight into the budget of Britain, not withstanding that most members of the European Union are tied to the euro, while Britain has its own, sovereign currency. Most of the EU meeting was devoted to plans to defend the euro, which is totally irrelevant to Britain.

Some of the logic is just bewildering. Reducing the rate of growth of a budget is considered a budget cut? Excuse me, but if the new budget is larger than its predecessor, it wasn’t cut.

Another favorite is that if you vote against a tax cut, you are voting for a tax increase? This one is quite popular with the GOP. Excuse me, but if the tax rate remains the same, there was no increase.

We know what worked before, and that’s what we should be doing, not trying out every unproven concept that has been popularized by ignorant politicians. As long as people continue to listen to, and accept “wisdom” from “pundits” who haven’t made a correct prediction in years. the pain will continue.

See also: BBC: EU leaders clinch pact to defend euro and Newsbiscuit: Cameron reminds UK public to turn the clock back ‘30 years’ this weekend.

Greg Weston at the CBC reports that Canada’s embassy spending soars

Federal spending on Canadian embassy properties and diplomatic residences abroad has soared 430 per cent since Stephen Harper’s Conservative government came to power on a promise to rein in the diplomatic decorators.
…

The largest single embassy project detailed in the public accounts for the past year was in Kabul, as Canada prepares to withdraw from its combat mission in Afghanistan and expand its civilian presence there.

Spending on the project in the past year topped $20 million, including $9 million for renovations, $11 million to buy property, and another $1.4 million to clear it of possible landmines.

Given that the people who become ambassadors tend to be “friends” of the Prime Minister/President, you certainly can’t expect them to make due with government issue office furniture. You have to put on a good show for the locals, so you can’t possibly scrimp on the cost. 😈

Eleven large for a chunk of property with land mines on it … someone saw them coming. This is the sort of deal that feeds real estate bubbles.

Apologies to Mustang Bobby. It slipped my mind what happens when I attempt to leave a comment at Bark Bark Woof Woof, and JS-Kit went crazy again.

I had to do a hard re-boot to clear things out this time, so I won’t make the mistake again.

Position: 13.6N 62.1W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West-Northwest [285°] near 9 mph [15 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 90 mph [145 kph].
Wind Gusts: 115 mph [185 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 175 miles [280 km].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 40 miles [ 65 km].
Minimum central pressure: 982 mb.

Currently about 65 miles [105 km] West-Northwest of St. Vincent and about 75 miles [120 km] West of St. Lucia.

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Dominica, Grenada, Tobago, Martinique, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent & The Grenadines

It has passed between St. Vincent and St. Lucia and entered the Caribbean.

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.]

Position: 39.2N 50.9W [ 4 PM CDT 2100 UTC].
Movement: Northeast [050°] near 48 mph [78 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 70 mph [115 kph].
Wind Gusts: 85 mph [135 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 140 miles [225 km].
Minimum central pressure: 991 mb ↑.

Currently about 530 miles [855 km] South-Southeast of Cape Race, Newfoundland.

This is the final advisory. The storm is weakening and has lost its tropical characteristics.

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.]

Since I gave the government of New Zealand grief for selling out to a corporation, I must include this US example from NPR:

NPR spent the past several months analyzing hundreds of pages of campaign finance reports, lobbying documents and corporate records. What they show is a quiet, behind-the-scenes effort to help draft and pass Arizona Senate Bill 1070 by an industry that stands to benefit from it: the private prison industry.

The law could send hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to prison in a way never done before. And it could mean hundreds of millions of dollars in profits to private prison companies responsible for housing them.

It wasn’t about security or crime or immigration – it was about corporate profits. The corporations will build them and then figure out how to force people to use them. Our tax dollars at work – not building infrastructure, teaching children, or otherwise improving the lives of the people, but enriching corporations.

Position: 12.2N 58.4W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: West-Northwest [300°] near 16 mph [26 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 65 mph [100 kph].
Wind Gusts: 75 mph [120 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 105 miles [165 km].
Minimum central pressure: 997 mb ↓.

Currently about 100 miles [160 km] Southeast of Barbados.

Currently about 205 miles [325 km] East-Southeast of St. Vincent.

A Hurricane Warning is in effect for Barbados, Martinique, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent & The Grenadines

A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Dominica, Grenada, and Trinidad & Tobago

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.]

Position: 31.9N 63.3W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: Northeast [050°] near 21 mph [33 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 70 mph [110 kph].
Wind Gusts: 85 mph [135 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 105 miles [165 km].
Minimum central pressure: 994 mb.

Currently about 85 miles [140 km] East-Southeast of Bermuda.

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.]

Bad Crowd

Yo! Buzz off!

[Editor: Wild Blue is not at all happy to see me. This is a definite change in attitude since s/he started hanging around with the two gray and white kittens…

Friday Ark

Position: 27.3N 63.7W [10 PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: Northwest [310°] near 23 mph [37 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 40 mph [ 65 kph].
Wind Gusts: 50 mph [ 80 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 105 miles [165 km].
Minimum central pressure: 1004 mb.

Currently about 350 miles [565 km] South of Bermuda.

A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for Bermuda.

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.]