Where did the water go?

Posted on December 30, 2008 by ChrisA

Milliken Colorado lost between 750,000 and 1 million gallons of water. The comments are entertaining as well.

Hat-tip to Drudge

Posted in the weekend | Leave a comment

Financial Bailout: How much Liquidity

Posted on December 30, 2008 by ChrisA

In the January issue of Stocks, Futures and Options magazine there’s a sidebar on how much liquidity has been pumped into the system. The numbers are from James Bianco of Bianco Research. He says, “In 2008, the Federal Reserve has spent over $8 trillion. That is larger than the Korean War, the Iraq War, the Louisiana Purchase, the New Deal and the race to the moon combined”. The numbers are adjusted for inflation…

Marshall Plan – $115.3 billion
Louisiana Purchase – $217 billion
Race to the Moon – $237 billion
S&L Crisis – $256 billion
Korean war = $454 billion
The New Deal – $500 billion (estimated)
Gulf War/War on Terror – $597 billion
Vietnam War – $698 billion
NASA (cumulative) – $851.2 billion

Grand Total: $3.92 trillion

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Digital natives vs. digital immigrants

Posted on December 30, 2008 by ChrisA

The Google generation thinks differently…

NATIVES v IMMIGRANTS

Digital natives
Like receiving information quickly from multiple media sources.
Like parallel processing and multi-tasking.
Like processing pictures, sounds and video before text.
Like random access to hyperlinked multimedia information.
Like to network with others.
Like to learn “just in time”.

Digital immigrants
Like slow and controlled release of information from limited sources.
Like singular processing and single or limited tasking.
Like processing text before pictures, sounds and video.
Like to receive information linearly, logically and sequentially.
Like to work independently.
Like to learn “just in case”.

Posted in the weekend | Leave a comment

No pay raise for Congress

Posted on December 30, 2008 by ChrisA

Congress is set to receive an automatic 2.8% pay raise. Although small, the symbolism is large. A public debate would be nice.

Hat-tip to Instapundit.

Posted in finance, politics | Leave a comment

20 unhealthiest drinks in America

Posted on December 29, 2008 by ChrisA

Quit the unhealthy drinks and lose 25 lbs in 6 weeks!

I told Bill to start with beverages because between soda, coffee drinks, smoothies, and booze, he was sipping away more than a quarter of his daily calories. He’s not the only one. A study from the University of North Carolina found that we consume 450 calories a day from beverages, nearly twice as many as 30 years ago! This increase amounts to an extra 23 pounds a year that we’re forced to work off—or carry around with us.

Bold is mine, and that sentence in itself seems to explain America’s obesity problem. I’ve certainly noticed that when I reduce my soda intake the weight comes off much more easily. I’m reaching for my bottled water as I type. Perhaps no more soda until I take off 10 lbs, that doesn’t seem like such an overwhelming New Years resolution does it?

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Obama photo-op with Marines

Posted on December 29, 2008 by ChrisA

This is disappointing…

I’m an active duty naval officer stationed in Pearl Harbor. I was there for the president-elect’s appearance. The crowd was respectful, as you might expect from today’s professional Marines.

The reception was a short photo-op kind of thing. Couple of quick turns around the tables and he was gone.

Bold is mine.

Why not stick around, sounds like the President Elect was uncomfortable with the Marines. I’m sure he’s a busy man, but if I was visiting the defenders of our Country I’d make it a little more than a photo-op. Of course, this is only one Marine’s observation.

Disappointing but not surprising.

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Is stimulus a good thing?

Posted on December 29, 2008 by ChrisA

Aside from the obvious danger of inflation in the not too distant future shouldn’t “we the people”, be worried about the more basic danger of the expansion of government?

Boulderites, don’t worry, I’m not talking to you!

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Disgusting…

Posted on December 28, 2008 by ChrisA
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Boulder photo radar trap

Posted on December 28, 2008 by ChrisA

Uugh, I really don’t like this photo radar speed trap that the city puts on North Broadway. The Boulder police locate their van just above the hill on Broadway past the intersection of Broadway and Linden drive as you head out of town going north.

It bothers me for a number of reasons:

1. Broadway transitions from 4 lanes to two lanes where the speed trap is. Thus you have people trying to position themselves to merge which may involve temporarily either slowing down or speeding up.

2. Where they place the temporary photo radar warning sign.

You can see the recent placement from this picture I took earlier today.

(click on picture to enlarge)

Do ya think they could put the sign any further off the road so it isn’t visible? Well, yes I suppose they could. 😉

What bothered me is I knew the trap was there, having seen it going into town and I did not see the warning sign as I left town. I had to turn around drive back and retrace my steps to look for the sign a 2nd time. The reason I didn’t see it was the placement of the sign. In the past they have put the sign further up the hill, closer to the actual van. I suspect revenue was decreasing so they moved the sign so it was harder to see and further away.

Regarding placement, I paced the distance from the sign to the photo radar van. It was around 590 paces, assuming 3′ per step, that puts the distance between the sign and the van at around 1800′ as in 1/3 of a mile. This lead me to the Colorado state law governing the placement of photoradar signage. It states…

The state, a county, a city and county, or a municipality may not use an automated vehicle identification system unless there is posted an appropriate TEMPORARY sign in a conspicuous place NOT FEWER THAN THREE HUNDRED FEET before the area in which the automated vehicle identification device is to be used notifying the public that an automated vehicle identification device is in use immediately ahead. THE REQUIREMENT OF THIS SUBPARAGRAPH (I) SHALL NOT BE DEEMED SATISFIED BY THE POSTING OF A PERMANENT SIGN OR SIGNS AT THE BORDERS OF A COUNTY, CITY AND COUNTY, OR MUNICIPALITY, NOR BY THE POSTING OF A PERMANENT SIGN IN AN AREA IN WHICH AN AUTOMATED VEHICLE IDENTIFICATION DEVICE IS TO BE USED, BUT THIS SUBPARAGRAPH (I) SHALL NOT BE DEEMED A PROHIBITION AGAINST THE POSTING OF SUCH PERMANENTS SIGNS.


The way I read this, the sign must be greater than 300′ from the van. I assume this is so the driver has time to react. However, there doesn’t seem to be any verbage limiting the distance from the van to the sign. So technically this appears to be a legal photo radar speed trap. I will follow up with the Boulder Police department on Monday, but I believe this is the case.

Still, it leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. I have no doubt that there are speeders that need to slow down. However, when I see a setup like the one described above, it’s very hard to believe the speed trap is about safety and very easy to believe it’s all about the money.

Posted in photo radar, speed traps | 3 Comments

Global Warming?

Posted on December 28, 2008 by ChrisA

It’s time for the great global warming panic to end.

First, all over the world, temperatures have been dropping in a way wholly unpredicted by all those computer models which have been used as the main drivers of the scare. Last winter, as temperatures plummeted, many parts of the world had snowfalls on a scale not seen for decades. This winter, with the whole of Canada and half the US under snow, looks likely to be even worse. After several years flatlining, global temperatures have dropped sharply enough to cancel out much of their net rise in the 20th century.

Boulderites, this next paragraph is speaking about you.

Ever shriller and more frantic has become the insistence of the warmists, cheered on by their army of media groupies such as the BBC, that the last 10 years have been the “hottest in history” and that the North Pole would soon be ice-free – as the poles remain defiantly icebound and those polar bears fail to drown. All those hysterical predictions that we are seeing more droughts and hurricanes than ever before have infuriatingly failed to materialise.


Read it all.

Posted in Boulder is stoopid, global warming | Leave a comment

Oil continues to decline

Posted on December 26, 2008 by ChrisA

If it was an indicator of a healthier economy, I think people would almost wish for higher oil prices.

Posted in energy | Leave a comment

Oil continues to decline

Posted on December 26, 2008 by ChrisA

If it was an indicator of a healthier economy, I think people would almost wish for higher oil prices.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Merry Christmas

Posted on December 26, 2008 by ChrisA

Merry Christmas to all.

Our family spent a lazy day opening presents, watching Tim Allen Santa Claus movies, playing liverpool rummy and watching some of the House Marathon on USA.

Posted in the weekend | Leave a comment

Investigations Math

Posted on December 24, 2008 by ChrisA

From Kitchen Table Math (go there to get the link to the letter)…

In a December 19, 2008 letter to the editor of the Frederick News Post, Steve Wilson, a math professor from Johns Hopkins University, issues a warning “not to the newspaper or to the board or the teachers, but to the parents. If your child goes to a school that uses TERC Investigations, you should understand that it means your child’s school has abdicated its responsibility to teach your child mathematics. By doing so, the responsibility now rests with the parents. Good luck.”

Amen.

Posted in Education, math | Leave a comment

Textbooks have their uses

Posted on December 24, 2008 by ChrisA

One of Forster’s lab mates was completely lost. He offered to help her, starting by urging her to read the textbook and ignore the teacher.

She went from a D to an A.

And you know what? I’m married to that girl today.

Textbooks have their uses, he concludes.

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Naughty Santa

Posted on December 24, 2008 by ChrisA

Santa’s helpers are busy covering the red-light and speed enforcement cameras. When they’re done in Tempe, I hope they come to Boulder.

Posted in Boulder is stoopid | Leave a comment

Christmas lights are bad for the environment

Posted on December 24, 2008 by ChrisA

Why am I not surprised, Christmas lights produce greenhouse gasses, harming the environment. Who knew? Coal belongs in these scientists stockings.

SCIENTISTS have warned that Christmas lights are bad for the planet due to huge electricity waste and urged people to get energy efficient festive bulbs.

CSIRO researchers said householders should know that each bulb turned on in the name of Christmas will increase emissions of greenhouse gases.


I feel so guilty, my Christmas is ruined. NOT!!

Perhaps this is why Boulder has less Christmas lights this year. See letter to the editor “Skimping on the lights“.

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Jim Rogers on the government printing money

Posted on December 24, 2008 by ChrisA

Printing gigantic amounts of money leads to inflation.

Commodity shortage coming.

Oil reserves declining at a rate of 7% per year.

Posted in commodities, inflation, investing | Leave a comment

No Salt in Seattle

Posted on December 24, 2008 by ChrisA

A fairly informative article regarding the pros and cons of using salt to rid streets of snow. I found this alleged factoid interesting…

A second study that year found that the use of rock salt to melt street ice had increased a hundredfold nationally since 1940.


The no-salt arguments seems stronger for a city like Boulder then Seattle.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Economic stimulus

Posted on December 24, 2008 by ChrisA

According to VP elect Joe Biden, $850 billion stimulus package is just around the corner…

The Obama administration is nearing agreement with congressional Democrats on a huge emergency spending bill intended to jolt the U.S. economy and create 3 million jobs over two years, Vice President-elect Joe Biden said on Tuesday.

Asked whether an agreement on the shape of the stimulus bill would be reached by Christmas, Biden said: “I think we’re getting awful close to that.”


Hopefully the Senate Republicans will ride to the rescue once again.

Precious metal investments are beginning to look quite prudent at the present time.

Posted in auto bailout, financial crisis | Leave a comment