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Throwing away an energy source
May 29, 2006What if I told you that it was possible to provide enough energy to run an entire sub-division or industrial plant......with garbage?
Well...methane that comes from decomposing garbage to be exactly.....instead foreign oil.
Would you think I was crazy?
I'm not. It's already happening.
According to this article there were nearly 400 landfill gas collection projects in the U.S. The garbage that you throw out (which is nearly 4.5 pounds per person, per day) could become one of the better renewable resources of energy out there.
It smells a bit fishy, but I think it's pretty smart.
Everybody knows that methane is a greenhouse gas. Our landfills are pumping more and more of it into the atmosphere. Now, I don't believe in the whole global-warming causing disasters and whatnot....but if you can reduce greenhouse gas emissions AND provide a source of energy, you't hit on a grand idea.
Now, I'm not saying it's going to be a suitable replacement to oil and natural gas. And I know the big oil men don't want to hear that kind of nonsense...but the option is there.
I remember in "Back to the Future," Christopher Lloyd's character Doc Brown has a "Mr. Fusion" unit on the silver Delorean. Garbage-powered cars....hahaha. Shoot, with gas prices being what they are, I'd be all for it.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 2:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
A page out of our book.
May 27, 2006Looks like another N. Texas city is going to try and recall their mayor.
Ah yes....the democratic process at it's finest.
White Settlement, just west of Fort Worth, just elected three new city council members.
They have five total...and their mayor. Well, those 3 new council members vowed to bring a petition forward to recall the mayor and one of the other council members if elected.
They were...and they did.
Part of their beef...the mayor was behidn a measure to change the cities name to West Settlement from the racist-sounding White Settlement. That's just something that everybody has grown up with around Fort Worth where I'm from.
No good reason to change it. Just like no good reason to abandon the Indians from MSU. The measure for the name change was voted upon in a general election and soundly defeated.
Who knows how the mayoral recall will go. But probably as smoothly as our own recall did.
What was that final tally again...something like 2/3rd's to get the heck out of office?
Here's the story: White Settlement Recall
Posted by Jason Palmer at 2:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Like a good neighbor...
State Farm isn't there like you thought.
At least...that's dozens of policy-holders in Oklahoma are saying after a class-action lawsuit against the company following the 1999 tornado outbreak in Oklahoma City are saying.
"State Farm acted wrecklessly and with malice" says an article from CNN reguarding the settlement of the lawsuit.
The lawsuit claimed that State Farm (using Texas-based Haag Engineering as their adjustor) undervalued damage to homes or claimed the damage was caused by other factors -- like faulty construction -- instead of tornadoes.
Instead of F5 tornados??? Are you freaking serious. No home construced as of yet can withstand an F5.
That's like saying it wasn't the semi that crashed into the VW bug was at fault. Those danged German engineers are to blame for the deaths.
Now...they've hired the same company to look into damages along the Gulf Coast and complaints have already reared their heads. There is no question that flood-waters (not typically covered) damaged a lot of property, but high winds were to blame for a lot as well.
This could shake the faith of the "neighborhood" if the Good Neighbor State Farm turns out to be not as good as we all thought.
But there is good news...
...I just save a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to Geico. ;-)
Here's the story: Is State Farm really there?
Posted by Jason Palmer at 2:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Bring me a Swamp Cooler
May 25, 2006Well, the air conditioner is out.....it's hot and stuffy in here.
No, not my car.
No....not even my apt.
It's the office. The Times Record News is without properly refridgerated air.
It's actually worse in the Photography dept. than in the main part of the building. Something broke. Something bad happened.
The Photog. dept. is a catacomb-like area of old darkrooms, office and studio space. There are no fans or windows. It's an oven....or a crockpot, whichever cooks the slowest.
The main editorial newsroom has a few ceiling fans to move around the air....we've got nothing.
They say it'll be fixed tomarrow...yeah, yeah, the checks in the mail.
I may go get a block of ice and a big fan to blow around in my office...that'll do the trick for a while I suppose.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go drink about a gallon of water to replace the sweat.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 7:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Tired of happy news about Barbaro
May 24, 2006I'll admit it. It's a horrible truth.
There is a part of me that wouldn't have minded seeing Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro put down on the track during the Preakness after breaking his leg.
Not because I wanted it...or I thought that the horse deserved it.
But because the horrible and ugly truth about horse racing needs to be shown with full brutality to the general public for them to understand what on earth they're cheering for.
Winning a horse race is difficult. Trying to win three in five weeks can be fatal. But you don't see ESPN running stories about death in the industry. I hadn't seen a story like this in years.
The San Antonio Express News ran an article on Sunday that outlined the dangers and told personal stories of horse injuries and deaths on the five Texas race tracks. The numbers are somewhat staggering, even if they've declined in the last five years.
In 2005....roughly every seven days, a horse was put down on the track. 49 in 2005, down from 60 in 2000. 112 horses seriously injured or killed.
That's just Texas. Not even the most popular state for horse racing.
It's an ugly side of the industry that you don't see. We get to see it in virtually every other sport, on national television. Nascar injuries or deaths. Football injuries that end careers. Baseball players (pitchers typically) struck by line drives. Hockey players bleeding and convulsing on the ice.
It's a shocking and brutal wakeup call that usually sparks people to try and solve the problems. What can be done to curb the dangers of horse racing? Less races perhaps. Stress on the horses bodies are the number one cause of injuries. Too many races in too short a time.
Here's the link to the story, I suggest you read it. It may open your eyes, especially with the last leg of the major races around the corner.
Life and Death on the Racetrack
Posted by Jason Palmer at 12:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Decisions....24 or Game 7
May 22, 2006This is going to be heart-wrenching.
The season finale of the show I'm most emotionally envolved in begins tonight at the same time tip-off of the Mavs game 7 against the spurs.
Why...oh why haven't I purchased a TiVO yet.
But I have a plan in place. My good friends' brother has a TiVO...and we're hopefully going to watch the Mavs live...while taping 24 to be viewed immeadiately afterwards.
What could possibly go wrong.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 3:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
New Orleans is in trouble.
The Big Easy.....you've got a big problem.
No...not because the Storm Prediction center released their 2006 hurricane outlook.
Because you re-elected Ray Nagin.
Make no mistake...from my end, the blame for what happened in N.O. because of Hurricane Katrina starts with Ray Nagin.
Disaster readiness begins on the local level. Evacuations begin at the local level. Ensuring the refugee centers are prepared starts on the local level.
There is plenty of blame to share, but I guess the voters who had to be bussed in from other cities forgot about that. Maybe the memories of seeing thousands of fellow citizens stranded on the tops of bridges and in the horrid Superdome have faded.
Because of his failure to heed the warnings from Mike Brown (FEMA) and Prez. Bush, those people weren't evacuated. They could have been....they should have been.
But their mayor waited and stalled. He was not prepared.
What on earth were those voters thinking. You think he's prepared to lead the city into recovery and reconstruction?
Give me a break.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 1:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Jason Terry called a timeout
May 18, 2006This AP photo clearly shows what the three refs apparently couldn't see Wednesday night.
Jason Terry has control of the ball and called a timeout before Manu and Finley jumped on him.
San Antonio Spurs' Michael Finley (4) prepares to reach for the ball controlled by Dallas Mavericks Jason Terry (31) as Spurs' Manu Ginobili (20) of Argentina, gets a hand on the ball in the last seconds of Game 5 of the NBA Western Conference semifinal basketball game in San Antonio, Wednesday, May 17, 2006. Terry has been suspended from Game 6 for for punching Finley during the scramble. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
Posted by Jason Palmer at 10:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
NSA/CIA and 24.
This whole mess about the NSA spying on Americans has me thinking....
I wonder if "24" is that far off of reality.
I mean...is it possible that terrorists have plans to strike the US with everything from nuclear weapons (Season 2), to nerve gas (Season 5) and even a deadly virus (season 3).
Holy crap, I hope we actually have somebody like Jack Bauer out there kicking some terrorist butt.
Is there a CTU (counter terrorism unit) or some sort of govt. agency that we don't know about. What about those sweet spy gadgets. Exploding PDAs and untraceable cell phones.
Maybe I'm better off just not knowing what's really going on inside the big govt.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Santa Fe's Minimum Wage.....$9.50
May 15, 2006Although the federal minimum wage is still below $6 an hour...Santa Fe has mandated that any buisness with more than 25 employees offers a substantially higher bottom line.
And it's not stopping there....plans to raise it to $10.50 an hour are in place for 2008.
I may have to move.
Nevermind that Santa Fe is becoming one of the most expensive places to live in the country. The median house is more than $400,000 (the national average is about $275,000).
Here's the article in USA today. Santa Fe Wages
Could be good...could be bad. Who knows.
I think that this could help some of the illegal immigration problems. Most of the whites don't want the dirty grungy jobs that the hispanic immigrants are willing to do. Maybe if we pay more for dishwashers, roofers and the like, those jobs won't be so readily available for illegals.
Maybe Santa Fe isn't all that crazy after all.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 1:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
10 things I learned about Austin
May 14, 2006It's been a long week...and I would have updated as I went along, but I didn't have access to my own blog from the laptop I was using.
My bad.....but it gave me time to put together a top-10 list of things i learned about Austin while I was down there.
So..........here you go....
1. I forgot how much traffic jams suck. It didn't matter which way I tried to drive to the various places I was going, or what time of day it was. There was the ever-present traffic. I dealt with it well though...no middle fingers or profanity-laced tirades.
2. FM 360 or better known as Capital of Texas Highway is without a doubt the prettiest drive I've taken in a long time. Through the hills of the Lake Travis/Austin Hill Country. Absolutely gorgeous.
3. They really do keep Austin weird. I wish I had time to stop and shoot a few photos of some of the things I saw....including about 100 plastic pink flamingos in 1 yard.
4. Hoek's Pizza on 6th Street still rocks. Otherwise known as Hell's Kitchen...the hard-core rock music and tattooed pizza cooks still serve up some of the best food to the throngs of bar-hoppers
5. The Library also rocks. I have no doubt that many UT students spend countless hours there.
6. It is actually possible to drive in a complete circle around Austin without seeing the downtown skyline. I didn't see it until Tuesday afternoon (got their Sunday night).
7. Wichita Falls doesn't need a Hooters. We need a Bonedaddy's House of Smoke. Period.
8. We can't complain about highway contstruction here. Not after some of the rediculous projects I saw going on down there. The Falls Flyover is nothing.
9. I don't go to Austin enough....that needs to change.
and finally....
10. There is absolutely nothing better than getting to spend time with your friends, no matter what city that happens to be in or whether or not you are working. That's somethign I don't do a good enough job with. One of the things that really caught my eye was the sheer number of people who were hanging out and enjoying themselves.
Keeping Austin Weird doesn't have anything to do with the town itself...it's an attitude. Something that I probably need to do more often. Just be myself.
peaceout....jason
Posted by Jason Palmer at 12:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Austin City Limits
May 7, 2006In a dozen hours or so...I'll be on my way to one of the weirdest cities in Texas...if not the entire U.S.
And they're proud of that.
Keep Austin Weird....that's actually their unofficial tourism slogan (maybe their real one). And trust me..they do keep it weird.
I'm heading down with a few of the sports guys to cover the UIL State Golf and Tennis tourneys in the ATx (that's Austin to us non-orange wearing, tea-sipping hippies).
Either way..it'll be a lot of fun, it always is. Lots of work, and the occasional trip to the Library near the U.T. Campus.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 2:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Cinco de Mayo
May 5, 2006If you live in Wichita Falls or the surrounding counties...and haven't gone to the Our Lady of the Guadalupe's Cinco de Mayo celebration for their hand-made gorditas.....
Good. That means more for me.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Are we sending known gang members to Iraq?
May 2, 2006Three violent Chicago area gangs and one from L.A. are showing their signs in a fairly unlikely place, nearly 6,500 miles from home.
Iraq.
Huh? It's not the locals either....it's our very own military.
An article in the Chicago Sun-Times sites an Army Reservist who has seen hundreds of graffiti examples of turf-claiming on buildings in Baghdad, tanks and even inside some of the barracks.
Military and Civilian police have admited to gang/soldier issues on three bases, Fort Lewis, Fort Bragg and Texas' own Fort Hood.
"I have identified 320 soldiers as gang members from April 2002 to present," said Scott Barfield, a Defense Department gang detective at Fort Lewis in Washington state. "I think that's the tip of the iceberg." from the Sun-Times article
What's scary is...are we training these gang members in urban warfare so when they return?
Posted by Jason Palmer at 1:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Give Madonna the "Dixie Chicks" treatment
May 1, 2006Ever since the Dixie Chicks were effectively blackballed from US radio by the few conglomerates that run 90% of the stations for speaking out against George Bush, I've been bitter about it.
Probably because of my free-speech values as a journalist. The radio pundits pretty much ended their careers as musicians.
Well...now Madonna is doing it, but I wonder if anything will happen.
Apparently, the queen of pop changed a few lyrics around at a festival this weekend.....saying some not particularly flattering things about the commander in chief.
I don't have a problem with that actually.....I have a problem that a precedent was set for "punishment" for that kind of behavior, and I doubt it'll get followed for no other reason than she's Madonna.
Posted by Jason Palmer at 10:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
