Ivey Fire in North San Juan in Sweetland Creek Area

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Photos are up for this event and the crash of the van into Peterson's Corner, life is getting exciting out here. Goto www.flickr.com/photos/keachie

If you have an event/subject you think I'd enjoy covering, please contact me via the information on the flickr page in the right hand column.

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."

The Arrogance of Microsoft Revisted

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In order to try and preserve my privacy/security I of course have to have the full automatic Microsoft updater functioning, even though it leave me feeling insecure when ZoneAlarm tells me there's a maxi download going on. For some stupid reason Microsoft doesn't see any reason to let you know with an Icon or something or an advance email that they will be updating your system. I actually unplugged the phone on several occasions before I realized it was just Gates barging in unannounced.

Now however, they've gone a step further.

My Start Menu has always had Word at the top, followed by Excel. I use these programs a lot, but these are my only uses out of the regular MS lineup. Today I go to Start and head for the top and click, only to see at the last second that I am activating MS Office Toolbar instead of Word. I did nothing to initiate such a change. I DON"T WANT SUCH A CHANGE. Shame on the perps of the change, which can be none other than MS.

After a bit of twittering I got it off my screen. I like an empty screen, and like to go fetch what I want, when I want it. The Start key works just fine for me. I DO NOT LIKE DICTATOR GATES DECIDING FOR ME WHAT'S ON MY SCREEN UNINVITED, UNNEEDED, and TOTALLY ANNOYING. Now I have to go find Word and return it to its rightful place. And wonder if that Office Toolbar reference can even be removed....

For Anna

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Comments have been changed, so anybody can comment, without moderation, but they have to play the name recognition game, and I get an email right away. I hadn't noticed the new system, I can't imagine anyone going to all the trouble to spam, when I'll see it and delete it from the comfort of my email program.

thanks for the tip !

Doug

Safe Hitch Hiking, Another Keachie Koncept

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With the cell phone, its GPS capabilities, a registration database for both drivers and riders, a system can be developed to give almost door to door service in a just in time mode. I'm tired so I won't flesh this out completely now, but if you think about it, you won't have to work too hard to see the possibilities.

Help TSA Spot Bombs, Make Planes Safer Everywhere

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Another genuine Keachie Koncept !

Google has a system for labeling images that involves having several people look at an image and type in a word which describes it. Google Image Labeling I believe it is called.

If the output from the Xray scanners at airports was made available on line, with an identifying number, then multiple people could look and if enough of them saw bomb like parts, they could flag the image. If enough people flagged it, an alarm would go off at the appropriate airport location, and the luggage could be double checked. Ther would be a $10,000 reward for each of the first five online bombspotters as an incentive. It would also make the on site spotter be more diligent

Yes, this would only work well if this country was wired up with fiber optic cables, like Japan already is. Just one more reason to do it, the sooner the better.....

The Time Has Come Today.......

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Oil is going to be a huge problem.

It is already a huge problem.

****** Al Kaeda is primarily funded by the oily rich Arab countries, and ex-patriots living elsewhere. As long as oil is valuable, Al Qaeda inspired psychotics, true believers to themselves, will perform random acts of senseless violence.

****** Way too much of the average American household budget goes to oil. Not just the gas you put in your car, or the fuel you use to heat your home and water, but also all the oil used to bring goods close enough to your house so that you can buy them conveniently.

****** Burning oil does bad things to the environment.

For these three reasons alone I call on everyone, on every continent, to do their part. In particular, I call on the Democrats and Republicans in the United States Congress to begin a program comparable to the A-Bomb Manhatten Project (2.5 billion, 1939 dollars) and the moon shot (8.7 billion 1963 dollars) to research alternative energy sources (solar, etc.), and to aid in the building of nuke power plants, the fund to be split, say, 50/50. I would say 100 billion 2007 would be about right. I would also recommend that the alternative solutions, when found, be made patent free to all who wish to build them, in all countries. Please note, oh nay sayers of solar etc., neither the A-Bomb nor the Moon Shot had any guarantees of success ahead of time.

If Pelosi, Clinton, and Obama undertake such an offering, the more moderate Arabs will probably take out Osama and his followers for us. To stop Al Qaeda, our prime goal is to drop the price of oil. In WWII, no new cars were built, copper pennies were replaced with steel ones, gas was rationed, hitchhiking and busses encouraged, etc. We are so far from a "wartime footing," it is a totally joke to compare this war to WWII, except for the unfortuanates forced into the random shooting gallery known as Iraq. Bush doesn't give a damn, and neither does Cheney. Worst presidential pair ever ! Their legacy with be $9.11, the price of gas the day they leave office.

Bush and Cheney are the equivalent of Milo Minderbinder in Joseph Heller's, "Catch 22." They will be no help whatsoever, and neither will a Secretary of the Treasury, Paulson, who said today that the average working class American will be most helped by, "A tax cut for businesses...???!!!"

Big Brother and the Bay Bridge, Golden Gate, etc.

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When I returned to Cal, I took two courses in the summer of 1966. One was Photography, from Penny D'Hamers, (best teacher I ever had), and the other was Technology and Anthropology.

In the second course, in addition to learning about the progress of technology over the last 4 million years, we also learned about society and technological change. The most practical take-away was that people are very reluctant to change, and that some changes can completely destroy a society.

The article, "Steel Axes for Stone" (or was that Steel Blades for Stone Axes" ?) discusses a situation in which the missionaries in a coastal Australian village gave steel axes to those who converted, and the women and children went for them first. Prior to this interference, only the men had axes, and the stone to make axes was obtained by trading salt, which the inland communities needed. If a woman or child neeeded to use an ax, they had to get it from a male. Suddenly the culture was turned upside down, the women and children had better axes of their own, and the whole trading sytem went down the tubes, and the society fell apart.

Today we have a much more complex society, but one in which the people are still reluctant to make changes. Case in point, toll taking on the Bay Bridges. In 1953 or so an engineer came up with a hair brained scheme to collect tolls only one way. At the time they collected them both ways. By 1973 or so things were so bad they had to give it a try. Now we have the engineers and FastTrak. I got these the day they came out, and have watched in wonder over the last 7 years while very few additional people went for them. Driving into the Bay Area I marvel at the Troglodytes (sp) who have raced pass me on the freeway all the way from Sacramento, all lined up to pay manually.

Now the Bridge Districts have decided enough is enough, and they're increasing the number of lanes for FastTrak and lengthening the approaches for FastTrak (The CHP gonna love patrolling this). It's about time ! Hint, if they rename FastTrak to ITrak, it will sell much better. They could put in a traffic radio based on the car's current location to make it really cool.

Privacy, who cares ? As Bill Joy has pointed out, you don't have any anyway. And it becomes a matter of who has the time to track you anyway ? What makes you think you're so special ? Yes, you are unique, just like everybody else. How many CIA operatives does it take to track 300 million Americans ? Especially if they only work eight hour days ? Are we going to outsource that too ?

Now if we can just get some common sense into our energy supply and solar research. The A-Bomb and the Moon Shot were examples of SOCIALISM (eek! a mouse!) and NASA and NOAA are more examples, of things that work for society that are RUN BY THE GOVERNMENT !

Hey, when was the last time anybody said we should privatize the military ? Yes, I know, Dick Cheney's been doing his part to accomplish this for the benefit of his buddies. Hey we must have the most inefficient military ever. It's run BY THE GOVERNMENT ! Eek A Mouse Again... Republicans only use logic when it suits their desires. Liberals are no better....

Another note on techno change. The DVR is absolutely wonderful ! My wife even has completely mastered blasting through the commercials at ultra speed, and so we just have blurs of what's for sale. Again, there should be a button to mute the sound for x number of seconds. You hit the button, and punch in a number, for silence during live viewing. I'll bet a cookie the MegaCorps have patented the concept and put it on ice. I may make one anyway, just a button pusher over the mute button on a timer. Just like quick timing on a microwave.

Have a good day.....

Rhonda Marianne Turnbell, databases gone wild.

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Now I've got his crazy woman calling me up and claiming to be the daughter of the now dead Ronald Lewin. Last summer a database reunited me with my very, very, ex-wife of 30 plus years in an attempt ot get me and her to go to her high school reunion. Maybe it is something about the heat that frys the electrons.... I can really see how identity theft happens.

The crazy part ? She wants me to put her in touch with him, and won't tell me how the heck she connected me to him.

Let Bush Veto His Own Future Medical Care

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Congress needs to pass a law that states that, any politician who vetos stem cell research , that politician shall not be allowed to use treatments developed from that type of stem cell research permitted by a saner new administration. That would test the true mettle of the Texas lame duck. He'd have to pass it or admit that he might want the benefits, poltical fodder embryoes be darned.

How many days left of this maniac ? I'm guessing less than 500.

Pray for the Atlantis astronauts !

Yea ! They made it down !

My Two Cents Worth

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It occurred to me as the numbers rolled by this evening, 3527, that maybe each American life lost should be worth at least one cent from each of us. $35.27 in this case.

I think each and every real American should pony up that amount and send it to the candidate they believe will do the most to end the madness in a manner to their liking.

Since I'd like to put in my two cents worth, I guess I'll send $70.54 to Charlie Brown or maybe Hilary or Obama. Or all of them

CSPAN and Blogging: A Disconnect ???

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I've started watching more of CSPAN.

I just sorta figured there must be a pile of people who watch and kibitz on line as they go.

"CSPAN Blogging"

Effectively, "0" hits on google and on technorati.

Amazing !

Nobody does this. I'm so disappointed.

Live on now.......

We've got a couple of people arguing that the inheritance tax is going to go to 55%......and, unspoken, for everybody down to the lowliest welfare case. I wonder if there are vbulletin boards on the topic. Watch and kvetch ! in real time. Poke holes in the obviously rigged charts. Insist that all the original data be available on line, over a much greater timeline than the representer has chosen to use to make his point. Congressmen busily herding sheep. Great liars ! Lying by omission, the best way ! The America they believe in....

Missing..A Practical Use for Flickr.com

Missing, originally uploaded by slimdandy.

I was looking up "contact information" to see how vulnerable my listing would be when I came across this image and caption. Since I'm not sure if the caption carrys through, I'll repeat it here.

"This beautiful Celebration of Light , joy and love is MISSING. Her name is Madeleine and was last seen in Algarve, Portugul. She has been abducted. Please be aware that she could be anywhere by now. Be on the lookout! Blessings to Madeleine and her family.
Contact information:
news.sky.com/skynews/madeleine"

If there was a way for Flickr to verify via police affadavit the true status of a kid's picture posted to a Missing Children Area, it might be a Godsend to finding such children and reuniting them with their true parents.

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Trucks ????

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Great story ! The other day a guy driving an oxygen delivery truck who was sick and tired of his job and sick and tired of big monster pickup trucks tailgating him came up with a solution as he set out for his last run.

He rigged up a release valve trigger for several of the large tanks, so that the resultant cloud of oxygen would go directly backwards into the grille of the offending truck.

When the pure oxygen went into the air intake of the trucks he sucker-baited, the mix was so rich and powerful that the trucks blew up their engines. I heard he managed to blow up at least four or five before he ran out of oxygen. Being a good guy, he still made his deliveries to his patients of their normal requirements.

Labels on Cables, Redundancy Helps dsc03985_std

Labels on Cables, Redundancy Helps dsc03985_std, originally uploaded by dkeachie.

A a bit of 2 inch shipping tape after UV spray and the tags will last for years. This isn't hard to do, and helps the color-blind.