Wall Street Journal Reads Maps Weirdly

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Now I suppose it is possible that some hanky-panky is going on, but the article does not document nor link to the amounts above $45,000. Given their description of being under the flight path of SFO, miles away, next to a freeway which is really an expressway and not heavily used, and basically a rundown hovel, in a working class neighborhood where the median price is well above $500,000, and where the Pacific Ocean is less than 800 feet away (admittedly 500 feet down). Click on the map to enlarge it.

I have an old friend in Lafayette, CA. His donations of the max available by him and his wife, to the most liberal of candidates, stand out like a sore thumb at the Huffington Post, in a sea of Republicans. He came from working class roots, but became a tax attorney to compensate, and was wildly successful. Why not investigate him ? Or perhaps invest the energy in investigating the Bush/Cheney/Oil/Arabs/Rove/Halliburton links ?

BTW, the Daly City area is just one of many covered by all of the flight paths in and out of SFO. How did you last leave SFO? If you were headed East, I doubt you went West.

Lying, Rush Limbaugh Radio Shows Its Style

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Today Mark Belling , sitting in for Rush, is declaring that a family living under the flight path of SFO gave $2,500 each to Hilary Clinton, and that obviously they couldn't do this because they are "poor." A typical listing for a 1,200 sq foot "bungalo" in Daly City is around $650,000. A family of six living there could quite likely come up with a patriotic $2,500 each without too much trouble. 'The way the media puts this in context" a favorite phrase of the show is quite amusing. Daly City is below the flight path, but so is Hillsborough, like about 3,000 feet under it for both of them. The way Mark tells it, you'd think they were living in a duck blind in a mudflat. Of course, anyone not familiar with the Bay Area will take this to be the case. And then the horror, the horror, a demo fund raiser used to live in the very structure, and so he must be the true source of the money. Right !

The Best Nevada County Based ISP ?

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I find myself dropping out of Lanset, a Sacramento ISP because my email keeps getting blacklisted, and I wanted multi domain hosting. I've settled on HostMonster for the multi domain hosting, but I still need a good dialup ISP that also has free access when I travel to local numbers across the country. I don't need a webspace, I don't need email accounts, I just need a good, reliable, and cheap dialup connection for the 292 (North San Juan) prefix area.

I am aware of nccn and oro.net and theunion , but I do not know how they compare. Any clues ? Any others ? I'd like to keep the money in the county. I've offered Smarter Broadband a free antenna repeater site on our land, but they don't seem interested. I went to the trouble of becoming an installer for WildBlue Satellite system, but am disenchanted with the service and the fact that now they won't give me a dealership, because they're short of equipment. ATT wants me to go paperless, but they don't offer DSL out here. You cannot examine your bill at 56 kbit in a timely manner.

thanks,

Doug

Making a Cool Statement About Global Warming

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My previous post brought in a request for where and how much I got my roof painted for, and could there be group discounts. Anne pointed out that the roof is a much more elegant visible statement than a bumper sticker. If your car is cooler inside, you used the air conditioner less. With the traditional American car, the air conditioner cuts your gas mileage by between .5 and 1 gallon per mile traveled. I'll let a bean counter go out and do the research for todays' cars. Obviously, it takes energy to cool your car, there ain't no free ICY !

Ron Beatrez at California Completes in Grass Valley up on Loma Rica Drive (477-2506) is the gentleman who did my roof. Sight unseen, he says that the typical cost would be between $350 and $400 per vehicle, but that it would depend on the current condition of the paint and the size of the vehicle. If you can get nine friends together, he can give a 10% discount. Ron does excellent work, and is responsible for many of the fine restored cars in the area.

White Roof Saves Gas, Is More Comfortable ! dsc07298_std

White Roof Saves Gas, Is More Comfortable ! dsc07298_std, originally uploaded by dkeachie.

The temperature inside the cab is much cooler with this $300 paint job. The metal of the roof is at least 30 degrees cooler than the metal on the hood, after an hour sitting in the sun. Do this for yourself, your pets, and the planet. The CHP, the California Highway Patrol, figured this out ages ago. Side benefit, other cars are a bit more cautious around you, they think you might be one....

PS, Please credit Douglas Keachie for this concept and photo. All rights released for photo only, I just might try to patent this :)

Used Worthless CD's ? Send Them to Me ! Solar Rocks !

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If you take enough CD's and line an old Sat dish with them, you have a concentrated solar power device. You can also easily build a dish structure from fence lath (1 1/2" x 1/4" wood by 8 feet long)and pin them to that. In time they will corrode and lose power, but are easily replaced.

Concentrated solar power in the desert areas of the world can be used to generate heat which can be used to make hydrogen gas, which can be liquified and stored and then transported to where energy is needed. If 1 % of the deserts of the world were used this way (at 100% efficiency), the amount of hydrogen generated would have enough power to completely REPLACE all other electric power sources.

Watch Current.TV or go to www.current.tv or Friends of the Earth for more information.

If you want to send me CD's for a prototype, email me for a physical addy. Use comment section if you can figure out how to email.

Where Have Our Kids Gone, Current.TV

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If you haven't found Current.TV on Directv or your cable channel, you should take a look now. This is aimed at the 18 to 34 group, and consisted of content created largely by amateur members the same group, from all over the world, who have professional skills and extreme creativity. The sponsors, Sony, Toyota, General Electric, and L'Oréal are really onto something. This is goodbye to the majors for nightly news, including PBS. This is goodbye to local news, with its weather info coyly hidden and dribbled out piecemeal, and way too much crime and car crashes (try keeping a score card for this, it's so predictable). Current.TV is way more entertaining and informative, or visit it on the web at www.current.tv .

Carl Rove Jumps Ship at a Very Strange Time

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Here we are, on the verge of total success in Iraq, with a booming economy that will not fail, and global warming a minor annoyance that can easily be handled by carbon credits, and Carl Rove decides to go away instead of basking in the sunlight of applause for the final fruitful outcome of all his hard work.

The man is too modest.

Unless of course like this is more "floating like a butterfly" on the part of the Bush administration. It seems that replacing key people just as they are about to be investigated for wrong doing is a favorite tactic. Switch out the generals, over and over again, and let each one, "have some time," to try out his new plan, is a great way to avoid admitting defeat, and for confusing the prosecutors.

Personally I am very worried. Carl Rove is a bright man. He's not jumping ship unless he thinks there is something very, very bad about to happen, something he doesn't want to be associated with. "Sorry George, you're holding the bag on this one." Let's just hope it doesn't turn out to be a nuclear blossom that he's running away and hiding from.

Be it Bush and Iran, or Osama and New York, we just don't need any nuclear bombs going off just now.

$20,000 for Your Favorite Non-Profit Via Design Contest

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Given Nevada County's many worthy groups, from Hospice to SYRCL, and all of the designers in the area, and our ability to coordinate to get a vote out, I recommend those involved in the above give from Yahoo this a read:

"Starting today, we’re kicking off a call for designs for an icon that best symbolizes “green.” We’re looking for a graphic that will be used to flag simple, eco-friendly things you can do all over our network, so that everyone knows the many green choices and options available on Yahoo!. That could include everything from making green purchases to finding the most fuel-efficient cars. Why make this a communal project? It seemed only fitting since creating a greener environment is a group effort (not to mention that we have the most creative audience on the planet).

You don’t have to be a professional to design an icon. You just have to make a clear, strong visual sign for “green” and send it in. The chosen design will be seen possibly billions of times on Yahoo!’s product pages, by a global audience of more than 500 million people.

And even if you don’t submit an icon you can still participate, because the online community will vote to pick the final design. Submission and voting happens at the same time because we’re doing this on Bix. You’ll see two icons face off and can vote for which is best.

If your design is chosen, not only do you get to brag about it — the environmental nonprofit of your choice will receive a $20,000 grant from Yahoo!. If your design is a runner-up (two will be chosen), your designated nonprofit will receive $5,000.

Get your idea in by September 18 at the latest. Once you submit a design, tell everyone you know to vote for yours. We’ll announce which icon the community chooses by Sept. 26.

So be a Green icon! Or at least create one. Click here to enter or vote.

Ben Clemens
Director, Design Innovation Group"

Cure for the Blues, or at Least a Visual Cheerup

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First, go to www.flickr.com .

Next, do a search on everyone's photos using some combination of the following terms that suits you.

goofy silly LOL dumb funny dog cat animal

You can obvious add more.

water snow mud rain sand etc.

Give it a try !

Why You Need Defensible Space

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If an insurance company can find a way out, they will. Here's your "You're in Good Hands with Allstate," and their good buddies, "Like a Good neighbor, State Farm is There." I don't know what the slogan is for Travelers. What excuses will they dream up for not covering your burned down dwelling ? Apparently a Hurricane is strictly a matter of wind damage, and not anything that might be driven by the wind. What sort of excuse will they use for fires ?

"A US federal court has ruled that insurers do not have to pay for the flood damage in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Residential property insurance excludes flood damage, which is covered by a federal programme.

New Orleans residents and Xavier University argued that the insurers should pay because the negligent design of a dam caused the flooding.

The court said the insurers were not liable even if there was negligence.

New Orleans flooded after a dam holding back the Mississippi River was breached in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The flooding cost hundreds of lives and caused billions of dollars worth of damage.

The insurers involved in the case were Allstate, Travelers and the mutual insurer State Farm."