UPDATE for Friday 20 Aug AM:
The information below is still pretty accurate for Dorian, except a few important details. Continue reading Dorian Could Be A Big Problem IMPORTANT UPDATES
Tag Archives: Florida
The FL Park Service and the Coast Guard Fight Over Russian Bouy
Interesting, amusing, a story involving Russia that will probably not make you cringe.
It is presumed that the object in question was brought from Cuban waters to Florida by Irma, the Hurricane.
From here:
A 1,200-pound Soviet buoy that surfaced off Dania Beach looks like it belongs in a James Bond movie. Script — which the Library of Congress says is Russian for Hydrometrical Service of the USSR — is painted in black on its side.
Exactly where the rusty, Cold War-era relic came from, and what it was used for, remain a mystery.
Workers at Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park pulled it off the beach just days after Hurricane Irma swept through town. They think it floated 350 miles from Cuba, given Cuba’s historically close ties with the Soviet Union.
Bill Moore, the park’s maintenance mechanic, locked eyes on the 12-foot buoy at the same time Coast Guard members did. He marveled at it, thinking, “You don’t find that too often.”
The Coast Guard’s administrative offices are next to the park’s headquarters. “They came running down here with their dog,” he said. “They tried to confiscate it.”
But Moore retrieved it before the Coast Guard could, he said. The buoy was too heavy to budge, so Moore tied a rope around it and with a skid-steer loader dragged it up the embankment and then brought it to the park office’s parking lot.
You are entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts. Unless you live in Florida
This is disturbing, but since civilization is ending as we speak, I suppose it is not surprising. From the Washington Post:
Any resident in Florida can now challenge what kids learn in public schools, thanks to a new law that science education advocates worry will make it harder to teach evolution and climate change.
The legislation, which was signed by Gov. Rick Scott (R) this week and goes into effect Saturday, requires school boards to hire an “unbiased hearing officer” who will handle complaints about instructional materials, such as movies, textbooks and novels, that are used in local schools. Any parent or county resident can file a complaint, regardless of whether they have a student in the school system. If the hearing officer deems the challenge justified, he or she can require schools to remove the material in question….
Glenn Branch, deputy director of the National Council for Science Education, said that affidavits filed by supporters of the bill suggest that science instruction will be a focus of challenges. One affidavit from a Collier County resident complained that evolution and global warming were taught as “reality.” Another criticized her child’s sixth-grade science curriculum, writing that “the two main theories on the origin of man are the theory of evolution and creationism,” and that her daughter had only been taught about evolution.
“It’s just the candor with which the backers of the bill have been saying, ‘Yeah, we’re going to go after evolution, we’re going to go after climate change,'” that has him worried, Branch said.
South Florida: Canary in the Sea Level Rise Coal Mine
Have a look at this new video from Peter Sinclair:
Peter has an interview with Jeff Goodell, contributing editor of Rolling Stone, which you will want to see. They talk about the political aspect of sea level rise in Florida.
More about sea level rise here.
Living in sin in Florida?
Well, then not only are going to a) go to hell but also b) to jail if you get caught and c) Sunshine State Republicans want to make sure that does not change.
UPDATE: There’s a poll of sorts at the Sun Sentinel, here.
What do you think of the cohabitation law?. What do you think?
- Heck yeah, we live in 2011. Who doesn’t co-habitate?
- No way, there’s a reason this is the law.
- I’m not sure.
As you can see, it is very well written and carefully thought out. Currently, “Heck” is winning.
Well, one Florida GOPer is trying to get this law and some other irrelevant legislation repealed. Like the law that says you must keep both hands on the handlebars when riding a bike. But the socially conservative wing of the party (i.e., almost all of them) are resisting.
The stupid laws, like the one against co-habitation and the one about how to ride a bike, should be enforced to the greatest extent possible, with the most stupid laws enforced first. It would not be long before they are repealed.
And I am not joking. In my home town, the county prosecutor ran for office on the promise that he’d get rid of the county wide blue laws. Of course, as a prosecutor, that was impossible (he does not make laws, only enforces them) but he kept his promise. Within days of being sworn into office he had sheriff’s deputies dragging people in for any violation of any of the blue laws, which were being ignored about half the time. The county legislative body repealed all of those laws very quickly.
So Florida Troopers need to put on their plain clothes and stand around waving at people going by on their bikes. Anybody waves back, and they’re BUSTED. Then, when you’ve got ’em in a choke hold and are slapping on the cuffs, ask them if they are cohabitating or not. And if they are, BUST ‘EM AGAIN.
Do this in a ‘nice’ neighborhood. Those laws will last two weeks, top.
Details here, at Think Progress.
By the way, the guy who is trying to get rid of these laws is Rep. Ritch Workman, R-Melbourne. His motivation is not social progressiveness, but rather, making government smaller, in part by getting rid of laws that make no sense. Of course, getting rid of laws that make so little sense that they are summarily ignored might not make much sense, but whatever…