Byron Says . . . (August, 2018)
Here’s some of what I’ve posted online during August. (Climate Comments, The Raccoon Saga, Stop-if you-must) all the while also painting my house with three colors, all purchased inexpensively because they were returns. Here’s my front door:
Same day to Cleantechnica forum on EPA potential overrule of California standards, specifically a photo of a big pick-up belching out black smoke, saying “Fuck you, earth” and a second photo of a huge hurricane, saying, “Well, fuck you, too.”
Laurence Jenner IMPOed • 6 days ago
That whole Mad Max thing with cars pumping out smoke like a steamboat is just…..I don’t have the words. Bonkers?
Zachary Shahan Community Manager Laurence Jenner • 6 days ago
Goes to show you how idiotic people can be. Wasting money, polluting their lungs & hearts, polluting their families’ lungs & hearts, and for what actual purpose?
- (Mine)
It’s called a fart in your face, the visible version of what the fossil fuel enthusiasts are doing to Mother Nature and the rest of us for the next few centuries.
Same forum, added to
Make America Gag Again
Make America Grope Again
Make America Garbage Again
Make America Grey Again
I added:
Make America Gripe Again
Make America Groan Again
(and to Steve Hanley’s point about Christian values lately:
ByronBradley Steve Hanley • a few seconds ago
As I recall, Jesus tipped over the tables of the money changers in the Temple, he didn’t help set them up.
Same day, tweet to Michael Mann
Similar to cigarette denial tactics, we now hear “you can’t attribute [storm, fire, sea-rise, health problems] to climate warming” as if it were the only cause. Rather, turn it around: “You can’t deny that human-caused heat is making our recent weather worse.” @MichaelEMann
25 Likes and Retweets came in fast after his reposting this.
8-1-18 email to Aletha re her departure from KSKQ
Intriguing. I think your skills on the show are professional quality and always wanted to see you compensated for it more, perhaps at JPR. If that appeals to you, talk with Laurel.
Or lead your own choir. Or performance art. Or rest and relaxation. I’m on your side whatever you do. I just hope it rewards you for the sweet-hearted wonder you are.
8-3-18 to https://nolngexports.good.do/stopjordancove/CleanWaterComments/
Dear Mr. Krug and Mr. Stine:
This is a horrible, dangerous, disruptive project, piping orderless, highly explosive gases through our pristine and fire-vulnerable forests.
It disrupts rivers and imposes eminent domain.
It would enable an addiction to a poisonous fossil fuel process that ends up driving global warming as badly as coal does.
Profits would go to only a few while the long-term costs would be borne by future generations.
Investment should instead go to clean renewable energy sources – such as wind, solar, wave and hydro – and the profits from that should be reinvested in such healthy systems and benefit the state that generates them.
8-4-18 to Article on Steve Schmidt on Bill Maher show
ByronBradley • a few seconds ago
I have always admired Steve Schmidt. He’s one of the only Republicans I can stand lately. His warning here is apt and not at all overstated.
To forum on Colbert’s review of tape:
Yes, our president’s moral character is backed by our country’s religious community. ….. What? …… What does this say about America’s alleged religious community?
8-10-18 to Cleantechnica on the Microlino
If I need my V-6 Taurus for long trips, it’s there, gathering dust. Mostly lately, I use my electric bike for around-town use. Sometimes it’s laden with gym bag, groceries, and other items, and sometimes it’s cold out or I’m in a hurry. So a step up would be something like the Microlino – enclosed, fast enough, stable, and easily parkable. Instead of expecting one vehicle to meet all needs (What if I want to carry 5 passengers and pull a boat over the mountain?) we could mostly use an around-town car instead. We don’t need a big car always for frequent meager needs. So I would welcome Microlino and Tazzari to seek manufacturing in L.A. (and/or other suitable sites) or getting Tesla into small, cheap, around-town cars on a mass basis. I also welcome other even smaller and more efficient innovative rideables. We just need to move us and a bit of stuff usually, not 5000 pounds like my Taurus.
ByronBradley Wallace • a few seconds ago
It seems the short, tall 3 wheeler would be better at cornering than similar 4 wheelers. My guess is that a 3 wheeler with the single steering wheel in the front would be the most unstable and easy to tip over in a turn, the 4 wheeler would be more stable but still tipable, and the 3 wheeler with two wheels steering in front would be hardest to flip.
8-15-18 to Charter (Spectrum) re late payment:
Sorry to be late. Your horrible phone system wouldn’t let me talk to anyone. I don’t understand what I’m being charged. I know the promotional period of $45 a month went to $65, but I don’t get a $17 charge, and I don’t like paying $5 to ask a question
Same day to Newsweek’s Facebook on article in-part about Musk’s use of robots.
The more machines take over former human work (from cotton gin to impending software eliminating many office jobs and self-driving cars eliminating many taxi jobs, etc.) the more unimployment we’ll have. But a bigger problem is overemployment in systems that are draining our lives and natural resources. All those highly-touted jobs are really making more money for the employers than they cost the employer. So money goes up to the few, be it via jobs or robots. We need to adjust what we do and how we’re compensated society-wide, not with many losers and a few rich. 20 hour work weeks is said to be the workweek for ancient hunter-gatherers. With simultaneous unemployment and overemployment, we could do well with less work and fairer distribution of benefits of more efficient technologies
8-17-18 to Next Door Quiet Village
Racoon wins!
Racoon, 5: Me, 0. A big raccoon is strong enough to open my big, heavy sliding kitchen door. Then he (or she?) opens my cupboards and eats crackers, chips, and candy during the wee hours of the morning. So I rented a heavy trap from The Grange so I could humanely catch it and take it up to my friend’s “wildlife sanctuary.”
However, four times it got to the back of the trap and got the bait without tripping it. (I had the trap greased and on a hair trigger as best possible.) The last two times I even had the cat food and candy closed in a plastic container with vent holes, and I wired it to the cage wall. He’d tear it open. Finally, on the 5th time, the door had been tripped shut, but no raccoon inside!
Fortunately, the folks at The Grange (Mike and Sasha) took sympathy and didn’t charge me for all the days it didn’t work.
I’ve been bested by this pesky bandit! Now I have to lock the door to protect my goodies from this invader (and probably his family).
I live on Oxford St. in Quiet Village where a coyote (we guess) has taken a few cats this year as well. I know my invader bandit is a coon; I’ve seen him in the house twice.
This bandit has, however, left me the gift of a huge pile of poop, always in the same spot. Rascal! (Free raccoon poop available!)
8-18-18 to Cleantech on Ontario’s Ford cutting Tesla out of rebates, in reply to Pixilico
“Why did the Ontario government squeeze Tesla buyers out of the deal in the first place? ”
No surprise conservative politicians nowadays – wherever you go – always promise smaller governments (for folks like you and me) and (very generous) tax cuts for their cronies. The loss most of us suffer as a result of that kind of conservatism is double: a) public expenditure is no longer aimed mainly at the common good and b) we’ll be paying more than our fair share in taxes to make up for the losses caused by those tax cuts for the very rich (who don’t need more money).
Populism against the people, I guess. And with a naughty twist at it. In spite of it, most people still cannot figure it out. So politicians of that perverse kind keep on getting elected more often than not. Sign of our times? Maybe we should start questioning more and believing less in the same bullshit they say all the time.
If we don’t do it while we still have time for it, who will?
ByronBradley Pixilico • a few seconds ago
Nicely put, Pixilico.
I note that in a forum on an article about a new conservative menace in Ontario (deliberately ruining laudable incentives towards cleaner transport) some of the commentators here instead try to smear Musk for being liked and impune Zach for reporting why. Let’s see, one man is revolutionizing electric transport, creating adjacent batteries and rooftops, blasting reusable rockets into space at less cost, outwitting investor tricksters, and drilling boring but useful holes while the other man throws grit in the policy workings of clean energy and technology.
And who do some of the commentators here go after? Those who are doing good work for this world or telling of it, not the person or policy that was the point of the article. What tripe.
Whether Zach should re-prioritize articles and comments is a good question, but I have come to value the many various commentators here who alert us to trolls and their diverting arguments and cheap emotional jabs.
8-19-18 to Nextdoor for Quiet Village:
Brad Carrier
Raccoon wins!
Racoon wins! Racoon, 5: Me, 0. A big raccoon is strong enough to open my big, heavy sliding kitchen door. Then he (or she?) opens my cupboards and eats crackers, chips, and candy during the wee hours of the morning. So I rented a heavy trap from The Grange so I could humanely catch it and take it up to my friend’s “wildlife sanctuary.” However, four times it got to the back of the trap and got the bait without tripping it. (I had the trap greased and on a hair trigger as best possible.) The last two times I even had the cat food and candy closed in a plastic container with vent holes, and I wired it to the cage wall. He’d tear it open. Finally, on the 5th time, the door had been tripped shut, but no raccoon inside! Fortunately, the folks at The Grange (Mike and Sasha) took sympathy and didn’t charge me for all the days it didn’t work. I’ve been bested by this pesky bandit! Now I have to lock the door to protect my goodies from this invader (and probably his family). I live on Oxford St. in Quiet Village where a coyote (we guess) has taken a few cats this year as well. I know my invader bandit is a coon; I’ve seen him in the house twice. This bandit has, however, left me the gift of a huge pile of poop, always in the same spot. Rascal! (Free raccoon poop available!)
1d ago · 20 neighborhoods in Recommendations
Reply
, Quiet Village·1d ago
Wow! What a story! Raccoon poop is very toxic I hear, so be careful handling it. There must be a way to keep this nasty varmint outa your house! Keep that sliding glass door locked! I hear the best way to get rid of deer is to put a salt block in your neighbor’s yard. Heh! Don’t know what to do about a nasty raccoon…
, Quiet Village·1d ago
You should rent a video recorder next. I video recording of this raccoon’s escapades could be cool. No thank you on the poop!
2 Thanks
, Ashland Railroad·1d ago
Agreed about toxic trash-panda poop. Better sterilize your place.
, Upper Diamond·1d ago
You’re living my dream, man… Lucky!
Tag a business
, Briscoe·1d ago
I had two racoons bring their own huge bag of Chex Party mix into my kitchen thru the catdoor. They were standing in my sink, holding it between them when i walked in. They announced it was a private party. The cats and I turned the room over to them for the evening. Oh, the wreckage… no more cat door in use.
6 Thanks
, Triangle Park to Gresham·15h agoNew
Racoons like to make a “bathroom” and will share a spot. Lucky it’s just one! Some years ago I had a raccoon (or two) figure out how to open the back door to my house. They came in and proceeded to open every single canning jar of the 200 or so I had put up that year. It was a massive mess!
3 Thanks
, Triangle Park to Gresham·15h agoNew
Laura – that’s hilarious!
1 Thank
, Triangle Park to Gresham·15h agoNew
We had a coon which nested in a tree, and it warned me when I went out one night to dump stuff in compost. My husband heard it, got a big shovel and put animal poop in it’s nest, which was low to the ground. Mama coon left with her babies, glaring at us. Best to lock your door anyway. Not everyone here is an angel. In a previous home a raccoon would rip our roof shingles off to make a nest. I was singing with a friend by her sliding glass door and a whole family of raccoons left their fishing excursion at her water feature, to come to listen to us. After quite a while we started to wonder how much they really appreciated music, so we sang off-key. They promptly left.
6 Thanks
, Siskiyou North·15h agoNew
A few years ago a raccoon got into my house through the cat door early in the morning. I tried my best to get him out but he ran into my sons room he wasn’t home at the time. It was four in the morning and I really did not know what to do so I called the police. Ha ha what did they do? They came over and tried to scare it out of the house through the open window. But the raccoon just nestled his way deep under the desk in the room. They came back about an hour later hoping to be that it was gone but it wasn’t so they decided to move all the furniture around in the room and make a fort so that the raccoon would have a clear passage way to the window and leave. Of course this didn’t work because the raccoon was absolutely terrified with all the noise and rock is that the police officers had made for hours. I left the house at eight in the morning and the raccoon was still there by the time I got home at 11 it had left. So the moral of my story is that I no longer have a cat door and raccoons have not been in my house since. Thanks for your story I’m sorry for the mess and I hope you will be successful not to have him come in again.
, Siskiyou North·15h agoNew
It wasn’t the first time he had been in the house this was more like the fourth or fifth time each time I was successful was scaring them out this time he got trapped.
, Upper Diamond·15h agoNew
We have a raccoon in a tree across the street who got into an altercation with our cat one evening. So far he has not gotten through the cat flap which may be because we have an electronic one which is tuned to the chip in our cat and only opens for him. Fingers crossed!
1 Thank
, Quiet Village·14h agoNew
Four raccoons in my kitchen in early morning. Came in thru dog/cat door. Luckily I was able to scare them back through door but man-o-man were they stinky!!! Needless to say…dog/cat door was removed immediately. Have lived in Quiet Village for over 30 years. Not a fan of raccoons! And thank goodness we don’t have skunks like we used to ?
2 Thanks
, Railroad District·14h agoNew
Great info! I will be much more diligent about closing my dog door at night from here on out – a pest control guy told me racoons can be very vicious toward humans when agitated; he knew of a pianist here in the Valley who had her hands so bitten and scratched by one that came into her kitchen that she had to give up piano. Thanks to all who posted about this.
, Briscoe·13h agoNew
i had to smile when I read the Chex mix account…. One morning I walked out into my garage and was surprised to find remnants of frozen food on the floor, up the driveway and even into the empty lot across the street. Whole turkeys, ham and beef gone! The upright freezer door was open even though it was a tight fit next to a parked car. We assumed that a bear had somehow got it open — they figured out that those tall white boxes have good stuff in “em. ….maybe it could have been raccoons..?? Needless to say, we now don’t forget to shut the garage door!
, Upper Diamond·12h agoNew
We had what we suppose to be a raccoon, rip the chicken wire from the staples of the coop and then pull it back enough to get in and drag out chicks out!! These must be some monster coons!!!
1 Thank
, Triangle Park to Gresham·11h agoNew
Well….I paid a guy $400 to trap a raccoon and so far (2.5 mo.) no luck….he uses sardines, perhaps because I have 4 cats. The sardines fry in the hot sun! Don’t know, but I’d sure like to have my $400 back! BTW, the cats get along with the coons…I’ve seen them sitting on the deck together and have also read about the two species getting along. Ah! the wildlife! Had mama bear with 2 cubs in my driveway a bit ago. She left a very large gift for me behind my car! Then there’s the cougar and, of course, the deer who seem to have won!
1 Thank
, Siskiyou North·10h agoNew
Many years ago I used a company called the critter catcher he charged me $40 per raccoons several years ago. That summer I think we captured a total of seven raccoons in my backyard plus a number of possum babies which he didn’t charge me for. he used for bait was salmon skin. Maybe that will help I’m sorry it cost you $400 it seems like a rip off.
, Quiet Village·1h agoNew
Do you have friends that have big dogs that can spread their smell around your yard? One time, and it seemed to work, I was able to put a dog’s fur in a nylon type of stocking and hang it from the door and around the areas I didn’t want the racoon. Of course, this means it will just go to someone else’s yard. Trapping is still the better option.
, Quiet Village·Just now
Well, it appears from these replies I’m not alone in being marauded by raccoons. Looks like an expensive and ineffectual effort for many. Smart, strong rascal raccoon families have us huddling in our locked houses! At least I’m not contending with skunks, bears, and cougars – so far. I particularly liked Margery’s technique of putting their poop in their nest, but I’m merely on their circuit and don’t know where they nest. Her idea of singing off-key intrigues. Since they usually come around 4 AM, would any of you be willing to come to my home so we could all sing in-chorus, off-key, in a last-ditch, desperate attempt of humans to drive away coons?
, Quiet Village·20h ago
Ellie, I had a similar thing happen when I lived in Texas, only it was a skunk who crawled under the house and died. Talk about smell. I was thankful to be married at the time so that I didn’t have to crawl under the house to get it out! (yes, sexist, I know. . .)
, Quiet Village·20h ago
🙂 Somehow I think some of the guys “like” doing these kinds of things…maybe because we women do so many other kinds of things that they don’t care to do? 🙂
, Upper Diamond·1d agoNew
Raccoons actually ripped a hole in my roof to get into my attic a few years ago. Desperate and horrified, I called the Critter Catcher. Every trip he made was a separate charge, and every raccoon caught was another charge I learned. When I found out he trapped each one individually, and took them away and killed them, and charged for each cage/trip/haul off……..I ended that experience. I put a Boom Box in the attic playing loud music and left the attic outside door open for 24 hours so they could easily leave. It was unpleasant to hear that rock music inside my house during the experience. I had the hole in the roof repaired. I bought a product called “Critter Ridder” granules from the Grange and spread it on the roof and all foundation vents. I closed the exterior cat door entrance every night and have continued doing so since then. Now they’ve moved to other places in Ashland it seems. They’re adorable creatures but the harm they can cause is time-consuming and very expensive.
8-20-18 to Congressman Greg Walden on Fire Management:
How utterly irresponsible for you to sit as Chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee and fail to even mention how global warming from excessive carbon put in our skies for a hundred years has exacerbated our west coast fires! There were only 20 trees per acre before we cut them off and let them go weedy or planted plantations. Turning these fires into an excuse to cut, while ignoring the long-term underlying cause of diminished winters and increased droughts and fires, is evasive and unethical.
Will you ever rise above your secure Trumpette status to defend and restore the region and nation you’re supposed to represent?
8-24-18 to Mobility Lab re Stop Signs:
Jenna,
It is an idea I’ve nursed for decades. It seems to me a waste of our time, money, and fossil fuels to have to stop at every stop sign and stop light. Which should we stop for? The ones and times where there is cross-traffic in the right-of-way. Which would we not have to stop for? The ones and times where we can clearly see there is no one there to stop for. It insults our intelligence and ability to assume we would not be able to tell if the intersection was clear or not. It would be a serious infraction to proceed into an intersection against a stop sign or red light when that in any way impeded or threatened traffic in the right of way. It would be permitted and common for people to drive through intersections where there is no good reason to stop other than avoiding a ticket for it. As is, we waste gas, brakes, pollution, money and time constantly interrupting the flow of what should be efficient transport. As could be, we could keep safe and rolling most of the time, stopping only when there is real reason to. This would require only a change of law and practice, keeping all the regulatory functions in place but letting us obey them more intelligently and efficiently.
Most people freak out at this idea, saying there’d be crashes. There are crashes now. All I ask initially is for us to start noticing this concept and imagine it at every intersection, noting whether you and others could safely proceed without all the needless stopping in order to go again. At busy intersections, nothing would change; at empty ones, we could stop wasteful and needless stopping.
Watch for yourself and discuss it with others.
Hi Byronn,
This is really interesting. Thank you for sending this in! It’s not really up Mobility Lab’s alley (we focus primarily on initiatives to reduce the number of cars on the road) but this is an interesting thought. I wonder if transportation researchers or traffic engineers have looked into this or conducted studies?
Best,
Jenna
8-26-18 to Cleantechnica article on Australia’s new “Trump”
ByronBradley a few seconds ago
King Canute, having decreed the tide should not rise, sat in it with wet feet to show that even his kingly status can’t prevent the inexorable laws of Creation (he called it God) from bringing in the tide. It was an act of kingly humility. Trump and Morrison similarly decree the sea shall not rise, even as they promote dirty old technologies that make it rise. Theirs are acts of kingly arrogance and stupidity. Gullible fools (fooled in large measure by Murdoch’s newspapers in Australia and here) cheer them on. Such idiotic “patriotism” won’t prevent sea rise; it will speed it up. Fossil fuel fools rule there and here – tragically, but temporarily. Only those persons and technologies that work with Creation’s laws can rescue and remedy our worldwide predicament.
Related Posts
