I was in jail Saturday. Well, more specifically, I was at the jail on Saturday. Being my first time inside the walls of the old stoney lonesome was an eye-opening experience. First off, it was nothing like those scenes I remember from old Arrested Development episodes where Michael Bluth visited his eccentric father in the slammer.
The first shock was that visits are limited to twenty minutes and it all takes place via video conference. There is no face to face contact through a thick glass window. There is zero contact with the outside world. Maybe those restrictions loosen up some in honest-to-God prison but in jail you are in the cement block building and you'll enjoy it. Or not.
The security is about as restrictive as I expected it to be. You check in using your driver's license and the clerks behind the thick glass window in the office hold your license until you are finished with your visit. The amount of electronic gadgetry is impressive. Of course it's not all that surprising being our tax dollars funded this newish chambe of justice, the Scott Count Justice Center (jail). Funds can be deposited to the spending accounts of jailbirds via an ATM-like device and the chairs in the lobby area were both new and uncomfortable. The tile floor was a cold gray color and already viciously scratched and like everything the government does, the proceedings moved slowly. Things moved so slowly that after arriving at 10:30 AM and filling out a visit request form and presenting our IDs we barely had enough time to fit in the maximum twenty minute visit before the lock the joint up again at 11:30 AM. Yes, that's the speed of government.
MinnPics is free of jail tales but with upcoming fake-cation days and the impending arrival of spring, color will blossom and cheer will take over as vibrant photos flow freely.
Showing posts with label waste. Show all posts
Showing posts with label waste. Show all posts
Monday, April 6, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Hey, let's just bury the carbon
Burning coal is dirty business. It's so dirty that our government has decided to invest nearly $100 million in a project to bury carbon.
But carbon is a gas, right?
Yep. But the plan is to pump the sequestered gas far under the surface of the Earth under multiple layers of stone and such. All for the initial price of $84 million for one well about a mile deep.
If it sounds like a rip-off, it's because it is. The cost for one "well" is insane.
It's also rather short-sighted. It's like burying your garbage in your backyard because if it's out of sight, it's out of mind, right?
Well, the problem with carbon, as I understand it, is that it rises. It sounds perfectly fine to bury a few million cubic feet of carbon below where we live but who can guarantee that it will stay in one place? Carbon isn't exactly a roll of quarters. If these short-sighted jackasses weren't aware, gasses have a tendency to move.
Hell, read the article and ask yourself if the plan to bury our waste sounds good. To me it sounds too much like making the planet more of a landfill than it already is.
MinnPics focuses on the good around us. Great photos captured by great photographers in a great state. All Minnesota, all the time! Check it out today!
But carbon is a gas, right?
Yep. But the plan is to pump the sequestered gas far under the surface of the Earth under multiple layers of stone and such. All for the initial price of $84 million for one well about a mile deep.
If it sounds like a rip-off, it's because it is. The cost for one "well" is insane.
It's also rather short-sighted. It's like burying your garbage in your backyard because if it's out of sight, it's out of mind, right?
Well, the problem with carbon, as I understand it, is that it rises. It sounds perfectly fine to bury a few million cubic feet of carbon below where we live but who can guarantee that it will stay in one place? Carbon isn't exactly a roll of quarters. If these short-sighted jackasses weren't aware, gasses have a tendency to move.
Hell, read the article and ask yourself if the plan to bury our waste sounds good. To me it sounds too much like making the planet more of a landfill than it already is.
MinnPics focuses on the good around us. Great photos captured by great photographers in a great state. All Minnesota, all the time! Check it out today!
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Schools, spending and Savage
It's been one week since voters across Minnesota dribbled into their respective polling places to vote on the most local of all issues, city government and school board/school bond referendums.
Of course, the big draw was for cities and school districts asking for an increase in school referendums. The money being asked for was for a wide variety of purposes ranging from new school and technology to a general increase in spending money for students.
One area community in the southern Twin Cities (Prior Lake) had a failed referendum which led to the resignation of the district's superintendent. Of course, he states that his resignation wasn't over the failed referendum but instead over the election of a former employee he recommended to be essentially fired. The discussion over the superintendent's resignation has devolved into bickering about how a well-funded school district raises the values of homes in the area while others feel that has nothing to do with home values/prices. (One point of the argument missing is what, if anything, the members of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux tribe contribute to the public school due to the exempt status in the form of property taxes)
I don't care either way. There are highly-valued homes in most any area. Many of the highly-priced homes are priced that way due to their size, quality of workmanship, location to schools (yes, I said it), location to jobs, location to transportation and location to recreation. It isn't only due to schools.
What always gets me, though, is the lofty amounts of funds asked for by our school districts. Rather than perform timely maintenance (it seems) they let their existing buildings deteriorate until an extreme overhaul is needed or a new building is deemed to be the only fix.
The example I keep using is the high school I graduated from. Before I came of high school age, the district tried numerous referendums with the aim of building an entirely new school whose price tag at the time was well over $50 million (I seem to remember the powers that be stating the price tag to be much higher than that).
After three or so failed attempts at forcing a $50-plus million dollar debt down the throats of taxpayers, the fourth time the referendum was changed after, miracuously, the existing 60-80 year old school was found to be sound enough to be remodeled and expanded.
Wow. With their backs against the walls, the school district found a suitable way to make the 2 city blocks long building function for an upcoming new century. For a price of less than $20 million, the school was remodeled, land was bought surorunding it to create a campus setting, 2 new gymnasiums were built and on-site parking was added. That price tag also covered improvements to other schools in the district with energy-efficient windows and improved functionality for new needs and uses.
This was one rare case where an acceptable compromise to school problems was found. Why can't others follow suit? Sure, a new building is nice and often aster than remodeling and expanding existing building and I know that growth does indeed bring a need for new buildings but the near crybaby attitude of the superintendent from the link above is sad. He doesn't want to face the pressures of a city unwilling to pony up gobs of cash in a nearly blind fashion and is unwilling to come face to face with a new schoolboard member whom he terminated just months ago. While he is seen by plenty as a great administrator, his maturity is obviously lacking.
How many others are tired of the seemingly endless spending and begging by schools? While I am forced to do without items I previously had, I have nobody to ask for a large monetary sum. My car needs repairs but should I go buy a new one because it's easier? Sorry, I can't ask my neighbors to pay for a luxury item for myself, why should taxpayers be expected to hand over cash because a school doesn't know how to live within a budget?
Of course, the big draw was for cities and school districts asking for an increase in school referendums. The money being asked for was for a wide variety of purposes ranging from new school and technology to a general increase in spending money for students.
One area community in the southern Twin Cities (Prior Lake) had a failed referendum which led to the resignation of the district's superintendent. Of course, he states that his resignation wasn't over the failed referendum but instead over the election of a former employee he recommended to be essentially fired. The discussion over the superintendent's resignation has devolved into bickering about how a well-funded school district raises the values of homes in the area while others feel that has nothing to do with home values/prices. (One point of the argument missing is what, if anything, the members of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux tribe contribute to the public school due to the exempt status in the form of property taxes)
I don't care either way. There are highly-valued homes in most any area. Many of the highly-priced homes are priced that way due to their size, quality of workmanship, location to schools (yes, I said it), location to jobs, location to transportation and location to recreation. It isn't only due to schools.
What always gets me, though, is the lofty amounts of funds asked for by our school districts. Rather than perform timely maintenance (it seems) they let their existing buildings deteriorate until an extreme overhaul is needed or a new building is deemed to be the only fix.
The example I keep using is the high school I graduated from. Before I came of high school age, the district tried numerous referendums with the aim of building an entirely new school whose price tag at the time was well over $50 million (I seem to remember the powers that be stating the price tag to be much higher than that).
After three or so failed attempts at forcing a $50-plus million dollar debt down the throats of taxpayers, the fourth time the referendum was changed after, miracuously, the existing 60-80 year old school was found to be sound enough to be remodeled and expanded.
Wow. With their backs against the walls, the school district found a suitable way to make the 2 city blocks long building function for an upcoming new century. For a price of less than $20 million, the school was remodeled, land was bought surorunding it to create a campus setting, 2 new gymnasiums were built and on-site parking was added. That price tag also covered improvements to other schools in the district with energy-efficient windows and improved functionality for new needs and uses.
This was one rare case where an acceptable compromise to school problems was found. Why can't others follow suit? Sure, a new building is nice and often aster than remodeling and expanding existing building and I know that growth does indeed bring a need for new buildings but the near crybaby attitude of the superintendent from the link above is sad. He doesn't want to face the pressures of a city unwilling to pony up gobs of cash in a nearly blind fashion and is unwilling to come face to face with a new schoolboard member whom he terminated just months ago. While he is seen by plenty as a great administrator, his maturity is obviously lacking.
How many others are tired of the seemingly endless spending and begging by schools? While I am forced to do without items I previously had, I have nobody to ask for a large monetary sum. My car needs repairs but should I go buy a new one because it's easier? Sorry, I can't ask my neighbors to pay for a luxury item for myself, why should taxpayers be expected to hand over cash because a school doesn't know how to live within a budget?
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
They can see your naked body
How did airplanes ever stay in the sky in the pre-9/11 world?
It's a miracle that we don't have to stroll htrough airport checkpoints nude in lieu of all of the various forms of searches and scans we are subjected to now before boarding a plane.
Well, if you thought that getting naked was the answer to the security woes of America's airports, you may be suprised.
The TSA (the flunkies who couldn't get real security of police jobs) has ordered a handful of full body scanners that give TSA officials a full body image (sans face) of the person being scanned.
Just think of it, the guy who barely graduated from high school sitting in a dark room near the new full body scanner can look at your naked body. It's like a randomized sci-fi version of a virtual Playboy magazine with people that most would not want to see naked.
I fail to see how these exorbitantly priced machines are going to do anything but create longer lines and longer waits for the disgruntled travelers who already have to empty their pockets, open their carry-on bags, remove their shoes and turn their stomachs inside out so all can be seen by the prying eyes of the TSA.
It's a miracle that we don't have to stroll htrough airport checkpoints nude in lieu of all of the various forms of searches and scans we are subjected to now before boarding a plane.
Well, if you thought that getting naked was the answer to the security woes of America's airports, you may be suprised.
The TSA (the flunkies who couldn't get real security of police jobs) has ordered a handful of full body scanners that give TSA officials a full body image (sans face) of the person being scanned.
Just think of it, the guy who barely graduated from high school sitting in a dark room near the new full body scanner can look at your naked body. It's like a randomized sci-fi version of a virtual Playboy magazine with people that most would not want to see naked.
I fail to see how these exorbitantly priced machines are going to do anything but create longer lines and longer waits for the disgruntled travelers who already have to empty their pockets, open their carry-on bags, remove their shoes and turn their stomachs inside out so all can be seen by the prying eyes of the TSA.
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