In my opinion, the American Community Survey — aka: 2010 Census — is a waste of time and money. For one, it is an oversized packet of paperwork being sent to 3 million Americans and is costly to print, mail and tabulate; wouldn’t it have been far more efficient to produce as a Scantron card. Second, I find the information they are requesting to be of little service to our country and its taxpaying citizens. Is it so important for me and 3 million others to take 45 minutes to answer questions like “what is my ancestry” — I’m an American — incorrect answer. I’m puzzled, why is it important to know where my ancestors came from 150 years ago if we are a melting pot nation who is not suppose to see race, color or creed? Other questions seem just as insignificant to me: “Do I have running water in our house” or “how many rooms in our house or mobile home?” I find it difficult to understand why our tax dollars are being spent on a slew of questions similar to these. Wouldn’t we rather have a few more dollars revolving in our economy or used to actually upgrade infrastructure so more communities offered running water if this is a big issue? If congress wants to save a few dollars when they do our 2020 census, just ask the simple question like how many live in your household and are you a legal citizen of the United States (as if you’ll get the correct answers). These could all be answered on a simple computer read Scantron return card instead of a thick oversized envelope requiring manual tabulation … or here’s an idea, offer a web-based checkbox form or even a touchtone phone reply?
My apology for the lousy Palm Pre ‘enlarged’ photo of a large coyote who has been roaming our Liberty Township Ohio neighborhood. It has been a source of concern for neighbors and pet owners that we’ve had a few more coyotes than normal … and that this particular large male has decided to make his daily trek through our neighborhood. When I was on vacation I received a call from my neighbor concerned for our dog as she spotted a “coyote as big as a German Shepard” in her backyard. I thanked her for the concern and rolled my eyes as to the size … assuming she was exaggerating (sorry Pam) … knowing my Australian Blue Heeler had proudly brought me a frail dead coyote in the past, as she does with other animals – raccoons, rabbits, birds, squirrel and even minks. Today, to my amazement, a beautiful auburn colored LARGE coyote (or possibly coywolf as the larger ones have been called) ran past me in the front yard while I was raking up leaves. At first I couldn’t believe the size as we starred at each other as we were only 50 feet apart. I struggled for my phone to try and take a photo (above), but he was having little to do with it. Nevertheless, our dog Tootsie is not spending the night outside tonight.
I did a little Googling tonight in hopes to pinpoint a bit more information … and came up with a photo that was somewhat similar to what I saw today.
EDIT 11/6/2009: Adding an excellent Urban Coyote PDF information sheet(rt click save as) and a photo just to remind those of us with ‘relatively’ bold and hardy dogs that a coyote bite is nothing to mess with …
For those citizens trying to follow the political goings on in Washington DC, it is irritating to trying to figure out just what is being debated and discussed by those we elect to “do the people’s business.” The current health care debate and varies bills being proposed in the House and Senate are prime example of “backroom politics” that could be (and should be) open to discussion, input and shared with the citizens it will impact.
“I’m going to have all the negotiations around a big table. We’ll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies.”
— Barack Obama, August, 2008
Some of us expected that President Obama and the Democrats, even if we disagreed with their philosophies, would at least offer open and fair discussions so citizens would know what was being debated. Naively, I even believed that opposing viewpoints would be included in the discussion and that there would be a semblance of bipartisanship. I was wrong … very wrong … there is even less transparency in this administration and congress while the billion and trillion dollar size of decisions are far larger than ever before.
Wake up America … no matter your political philosophy, at least expect — no … demand — that our elected representatives are forthright and truthful with those who they serve. If the majority in congress want more state control over more industries then they should have little problem convincing our citizens that what they propose is best for America — don’t do it in the shadows and ram changes through without vigorous debate, cautious contemplation or listening to what U.S. citizens have to say. Besides overhauling U.S. Healthcare through legislation, all of us should be concerned about the cost and how much of it will be past along to the next generation — something we should have learned from medicaid, medicare and social security (all yet to be correctly funded). The changes being proposed in health care are the largest in my lifetime — and the most expensive — therefore they deserve to be clearly considered and transparently understood.
_
(Graphics above from a Washington Post has a helpful interactive graphic projecting costs and coverage prior to Sen Reid’s recent addition to Senate Finance Healthcare bill).
Enjoyable to watch the patience of drivers … how long do you suspect this woman took to park her car? It’s no wonder automakers are building cars with automatic parallel parking features.
A quick thanks to Lee for expediting my Google Wave beta request, although I still feel a bit late to the game in getting a chance to play with this new Google app. Although I’ve talked to a few people about how they foresee using this new web based communications tool, I’m still struggling to figure out if it will really be adopted by my clients and co-workers — I sort of doubt it.
Basically, Google Wave out of the gate is a collaboration tool that integrates chat, email and online applications like Google Docs. The ‘realtime’ aspect (can watch each other type) of the web window interface gives collaborators in different locations the ability to work on projects without emailing copies back and forth or making conference calls. From what I can see, the real power will come from users who develop APIs interfacing for their clients online sites that will “go live” … literally. Imagine a newsroom updating a breaking story from several news bureaus and watching the written story develop for the mornings paper online …. or just an interactive conversational comment sections for active blogs? If you are a beta user and need to try it with someone, let me know.
Some of us have built some interesting things in our garages … but Anthony Toth in Redondo Beach California tops most of us — he’s built a vintage Pan Am World Airways 747 cabin from the 1970s and 80s. His cabin replica comes complete with Pan Am logo swizzle sticks, napkins and salted almonds sealed in Pan Am wrappers, although I don’t recall seeing any stewardesses?
Very nostalgic … and very eccentric (WSJ video below).
Color has indeed made it to the trees and leaves here in southwestern Ohio. The autumn sunshine and second Indian Summer has really brought out some spectacular color. I should be clicking away with my Canon Digital SLR, but a Palm Pre photo of the burning bush will have to suffice.
Did you know: The Euonymus alatus or the “burning bush” is an invasive species to the woodlands in eastern North America and that its importation and sale is prohibited in the states of Massachusetts and New Hampshire?
I’ve been happy with the overall cost of ownership of my 2006 Honda Pilot SUV … including the fuel efficiency. Besides oil and fluid changes, the only other expense of ownership over the past 87,000 miles to date has been a battery and of course gasoline.
After posting my latest fill-up to Fuelly.com, I was please to see that overall mileage was 21.0 MPG, which isn’t too bad for an 8-passenger 4-wheel drive vehicle. I would have preferred a diesel, but I doubt it would have been as cost competitive as the Honda (besides diesel prices have stayed a bit higher than regular unleaded gasoline for several years). For those needing or wanting a comfortable, relatively efficient and reliable 4WD eight passenger SUV, I think you’d be hard pressed to find one that has the track record of the Honda Pilot.
Although the Science Channel program “How It’s Made” isn’t one of the most exciting television programs, it does offer a glimpse as to what it takes to manufacture complex items. I happened to watch an episode on how Audi builds its 6-cylinder TDI diesel engine the other day and found it interesting (video clip below). Although I’m currently not a big fan of the recently imported behemoth Audi Q7 TDI seeing their price-point, performance and fuel economy still too low, I do believe their smaller A3 TDI diesels(above) will have some appeal … especially if they offer a manual transmission choice and quattro in the U.S. — yet to be seen.
The copies of Microsoft’s new computer OS Windows 7 arrived today! I’m not planning to update anytime soon as I’m currently running Win 7 RC on both of my PCs. (they should operate until 2010) I’m certainly not planning to ruin this weekend by stripping the computer and re-installing all my software (the scheduled colonoscopy sounds more appealing … well perhaps not?) Nevertheless, I did pre-order discounted copies after being completely satisfied with the recent Microsoft OS effort. Personally I still enjoy working on the Mac (and I’m not Snow Leopard yet) but am perfectly happy using Windows 7 as well.
For those pondering the upgrade, my advice is NOT upgrade immediately unless you are running Vista. I’d hold off and purchase and installed copy on a new PC if you are still using XP. (one caveat, if your PC is reasonably current and suffers from years of bloat and possible virus and spyware infections .. if so, do yourself a favor and wipe the HD clean and install Win 7 … or better yet, upgrade the HD with a bigger and faster one first!)
Naively, I even believed that opposing viewpoints would be included in the discussion and that there would be a semblance of bipartisanship. I was wrong … very wrong … there is even less transparency in this administration and congress while the billion and trillion dollar size of decisions are far larger than ever before.
don’t do it in the shadows and ram changes through without vigorous debate, cautious contemplation or listening to what U.S. citizens have to say. Besides overhauling U.S. Healthcare through legislation, all of us should be concerned about the cost and how much of it will be past along to the next generation — something we should have learned from medicaid, medicare and social security (all yet to be correctly funded). The changes being proposed in health care are the largest in my lifetime — and the most expensive — therefore they deserve to be clearly considered and transparently understood.
