Today is supposed to be the warmest day we’ve had since last October 17th, which was before I closed on the house I’m living in right now. And that seems like a lifetime ago. To celebrate, I’m having the snow tires removed, and the summer tires put on. And an oil change while they’ve got it up in the air. As such, I’d put my money on a mid-April blizzard. Of course, with warm weather comes punishment – in this case, heavy thunderstorms are predicted for this afternoon. Guess I’ll get to see how the rain fade is with the new dish.
We have a new little pond, dug to accommodate the sump pump discharge. With the sump still running at about 5 times an hour, it’s filling up quite nicely. No need for a liner when your soil is about 90% clay. Next up is to try and line the banks with rocks and plants that like both water, clay, and the expected summer drought.
Oh well, it’s getting bright out there. Time to see if the pond filled up some more.
Gil Robbins, Folk Singer With the Highwaymen, Dies at 80
The father of Tim Robbins.
🙁 :gate:
PS 9, a public school in Brooklyn, has been chosen to house a charter school called Uncommon Schools. The parents are very upset because the charter will share the PS 9’s resources and the parents would like to use the space in the K-5 school to become a K-8 school because the neighborhood junior highs are not very good.
But Mayor Bloomy wants his charter school. Charters have not out performed public schools even though they drain resources and money from them. But, you would not know that if you listen to our political hacks.
Here’s what the NY Times has to say:
Comparing a district school with a charter can be apples and oranges. Charters have more freedom to push out troublesome students. In 2008, Kings Collegiate suspended 46 percent of its students. In 2008, the Kings fifth grades had 81 students; when those children moved up in 2009, there were 55 sixth graders.
A spokeswoman for Uncommon Schools said that only a small part of the reduction was due to attrition; most can be explained by students’ being held back for lack of academic skills.
In 2008, P.S. 9 suspended 1 percent of its students. In 2008, P.S. 9 had 76 third graders; the next year, it had 76 fourth graders.
P.S. 9 has more children who are poor or foreign-born or have special educational needs than the two Uncommon elementary charters.
But, we won’t let facts get in the way.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/11/nyregion/11winerip.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=todayspaper
Cornell University professors will soon publish research that concludes natural gas produced with a drilling method called “hydraulic fracturing†contributes to global warming as much as coal, or even more.
The conclusion is explosive because natural gas enjoys broad political support – including White House backing – due to its domestic abundance and lower carbon dioxide emissions when burned than other fossil fuels.
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/155101-report-gas-from-fracking-worse-than-coal-on-climate
I’ve had DISH for several years and the only ‘fade’ problem I had was snow. Fortunately it’s at ground level so I could clear it off. Occasionally a plane will fly directly through the signal but no big whoop.
I never had much of a problem with DirecTV until I upgraded to HD, and then the rain fade was pretty frequent. The signal strengths were kinda crappy, and I always intended to peak the dish, but, well, when it was clear I didn’t need to, and when it was raining, it was too wet.