March 7, 2011. Today is the 35th birthday of our 'baby'...our youngest daughter. How can that be? Where did those years go? I'm sure she's asking the same thing.
Note that NASA has an Earth-monitoring mandate... critical for determining the state of Earth ecosystems. A second consecutive launch attempt (the first was two years ago) was dumped into the ocean. Who wants to limit knowledge of Earth's status? Who benefits? Big Oil? Big Banksters? Anyway, seems weird that two expensive and essential satellites have gone missing. Shall I start another conspiracy theory?
New word: torrefaction. Seems PGE needs to replace coal as the fuel at one of its big power plants. They're considering giant cane, classified as an invasive in many states. The coal-fired plant in eastern Oregon would require lots of cane... more than 50,000 acres, virtually all irrigated (from finite aquifers), acres that are currently producing food. Issues: the aquifer draw-down, the competition for food (and employment at the existing factories that process that food), the invasive element, plus the torrefaction/densification process (drying the cane and making pellets... both very energy-intensive). More proof: We live in a compacted and complex world. There are a billion hungry people today. What would they say to taking 50,000 acres out of food production?
Issue of The Day: Are Public Employees the New 'Welfare Queens'? The NYTimes has an analysis (3/6, Ford Fessenden, using private and government statistics) provides some facts:
Average salary/benefits package for similar jobs: Public higher by $10,000/annum.
Average per hour of work (necessary because public workers put in many fewer hours than private sector per year): Public paid much more. Most of the difference is in the value of benefits: +70% for public workers.
In service category, public pays almost double the private sector.
And... public workers almost never voluntarily quit a job, and they're almost never fired. These factors, economists argue, add 15% value to the public jobs above the basic dollar amounts. And the difference between public and private retirement benefits is huge... where 100% of state public retirees get full health care, only 6% of private employees do. And the net cost per hour of work for public workers is $3 vs. $0.40 for private workers.
Add in the early retirement (20 years? 30 years?)... the net result is: It's a no-brainer. Public employees are truly 'welfare queens' as defined by Ron Reagan lo those many years ago.
Enjoy another beautiful day!
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