Saturday, October 27, 2007

Rethinking Fire Policy in the Tinderbox Zone - New York Times

Rethinking Fire Policy in the Tinderbox Zone - New York Times: "WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 — Michael Chertoff, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, expressed anger and dismay Saturday over a fake news conference held by the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the California wildfires, and vowed disciplinary action. In an interview at the department’s headquarters, Mr. Chertoff declined to say whether he planned firings. But he said he had “directed that appropriate disciplinary action” be taken. He called the event “extraordinarily dumb and inappropriate” and “a classic display of boneheadedness.” During the “news conference,” FEMA’s deputy director, Harvey E. Johnson, took easy questions from staff members posing as reporters. FEMA officials had given short notice of the event. Homeland Security officials said they had no idea that the event had been staged. One employee recalled thinking that “it seemed to be going really well.”"

FREE - FREE - FREE


CHAIRS


CHAIRS



THE SOCIAL CLUB HAS 40 SURPLUS CHAIRS AT THE CLUBHOUSE. IF YOU WOULD LIKE ANY OF THESE CHAIRS
– FREE – CONTACT WAYDE DUDLEY, BARBARA DUDLEY OR GINGER DALE.







CHAIRS

Friday, October 26, 2007

'Gray Googlers' strike gold - USATODAY.com

'Gray Googlers' strike gold - USATODAY.com: "Take Jerrold Foutz. The former Boeing engineer, 75, started a website a few years ago devoted to one of his passions — switching mode power supplies, which help drive, for instance, the inside of video cameras. He put Google ads on his smpstech.com site four years ago. After just one month, the first Google check was for $800. The second check totaled $2,000."

State Government - StatesmanJournal.com

State Government - StatesmanJournal.com: "Perplexed by the dueling ads on TV, radio and mailers about Measure 50, the tobacco tax increase to pay for the Healthy Kids Program? Here's a handy guide to sort out the issues swirling around the campaign."

The Era Of The Desktop PC May Be Fading, An Idea Called "Cloud Computing" Means A Return To The Mainframes Of the 1970s - CBS News

The Era Of The Desktop PC May Be Fading, An Idea Called "Cloud Computing" Means A Return To The Mainframes Of the 1970s - CBS News: "A simple program like Google Calendar illustrates the potential of online applications. The digital datebook resides on a Google server, eliminating the need to synch between a phone and different computers. More importantly, a calendar can be viewed by chosen friends and colleagues, or even made open to editing by a spouse. "

NewsGator Online

NewsGator Online: "'Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.'"

NewsGator Online

NewsGator Online: "'The only people who find what they are looking for in life are the fault finders.'"

NewsGator Online

NewsGator Online: "'When a man is wrapped up in himself, he makes a pretty small package.'"

NewsGator Online

NewsGator Online: "'You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.'"

NewsGator Online

NewsGator Online: "'It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea.'"

NewsGator Online

NewsGator Online: "'If not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.'"

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Defibrillator


Last month the LVH CERT team applied for a grant to the Siletz Tribal Charitable Contribution Fund for an AED (automatic Electric Defibrillator) . Today we received a letter from them confirming we had been awarded $2000 to purchase this unit for our park.

The CERT team and many other volunteers in the park have been trained on how to use this life saving equipment. The grant includes $$ to train even more of you. The unit will be in located in the clubhouse available for emergency use at any time should someone become incapacitated. Our goal will be to see to it that as many residents that want are trained in CPR and its use.

Our CERT team has been concerned about getting a unit but finding the money had put it well out of reach of our park even though there were a few willing to donate as much as $100 toward purchasing one. Now, due to the generosity of the Siletz tribe, we find ourselves on the brink of accomplishing this worthy goal.

The new machine will be a ZOLL (brand name) and is the same machine Newport Paramedics use as well as Samaritan Hospital. Samaritan will be purchasing it for us which allows us to buy the unit at a discounted price.

The CERT team was responsible for developing the path to a machine. We wrote, rewrote and then rewrote some more and when it was just right we sent it to my favorite public relations officer at Foothill College (Lori Thomas) and asked her to make it shine ... and that she did.



FALL IN THE AREA............


(photo's by Charles Burke)






*

Monday, October 22, 2007

Study: Most ID Thieves Don't Use Internet, Less Than One-Fifth Of Identity Theft Occurs Online, New Report Says - CBS News

Study: Most ID Thieves Don't Use Internet, Less Than One-Fifth Of Identity Theft Occurs Online, New Report Says - CBS News: "There are some common perceptions we have that identity theft involves a person sitting at a computer hacking into corporate or individual computers ... Certainly it is happening, but it is a crime that is happening in a multitude of ways, some of it as simple as stealing mail out of a mailbox,' said Gary Gordon, a professor of economic crime programs who founded and heads the CIMIP at Utica College. "

NASA won't disclose air safety survey - USATODAY.com

NASA won't disclose air safety survey - USATODAY.com: "MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. — Anxious to avoid upsetting air travelers, NASA is withholding results from an unprecedented national survey of pilots that found safety problems like near collisions and runway interference occur far more frequently than the government previously recognized. NASA gathered the information under an $8.5 million safety project, through telephone interviews with roughly 24,000 commercial and general aviation pilots over nearly four years. Since ending the interviews at the beginning of 2005 and shutting down the project completely more than one year ago, the space agency has refused to divulge the results publicly. Just last week, NASA ordered the contractor that conducted the survey to purge all related data from its computers."

.: Corvallis Gazette-Times: Archives

.: Corvallis Gazette-Times: Archives: "To find out how this storm compared with other (non-freaky) October storms, I consulted Wolf Read. Wolf is an OSU grad who moved away for a while but is back in town temporarily. He is helping me write a paper on a history of big Northwest wind storms (he will be lead author). Wolf loves studying wind storms. He also loves studying trees. And he has combined these passions into a true expertise in “wind throw” events — wind storms that are so strong that they knock down trees. Wolf knows more about wind throw than anyone I know. So when I asked him to compare the recent wind storm with other October blows, it didn’t take him long to come up with an answer: it was the biggest October wind storm in 25 years!"

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Amateur Radio as a Hobby


When you retired you found many paths of interest that had been locked away from you because you did not have the time to pursue them. Suddenly, SHAZZAM! You retired and you have received the gift of time. You had sold your time to an employer or business or to raising a family all of your adult life. Now it's recess time and you have been let out of the school room and it's time to play.

Play? Play what? Finding the right swing or the perfect monkey bars.. That isn't easy. You've been tethered to a job for so long that you actually thought you were that job. At a party nobody cared or asked who you were... Instead they wanted to know what you did. Slowly, over a lifetime you became the job. Because of that growing experience you were promoted to grander heights within the JOB as you became more it than you.

SHAZZAM! Now nobody cares what you did. Now they want to know who you are? REVERSAL! When you hit the golden years a lifetime of desires floods home as you take advantage of the freedom given to you and you rush out to do all those things that you thought you were deprived of during the work years.

What then, will you do with the gift of time when you have done all the things you wanted to do? Is there something interesting lingering back in the recesses of your mind, Bunky? Hmmmm? Something you stored away from younger tears because there was no time?

For me, I found one of the those lost interests in HAM radio recently. About ten of us from all over Newport and 5 LVH residents became Ham Radio operators. To be a HAM you no longer have to learn Morris code. We have a retired teacher (John Wilson) from a home near the light house that comes and teaches the "HOW TO" Free. The book costs $28 and the test costs $14. Pass it and you are on your way.

Misconceptions that you need this huge outdoor antenna array and need to screw up everyones phone lines and TV reception are just that, misconceptions. Today, most HAMs use low powered radios that bother nothing. Signals from those radios go out at 5 watts of power, less than a refrigerator light bulb, from a small handheld unit. That signal goes up to one of the local microwave towers on the hills overlooking Otter Crest where it is resent out at several hundred watts covering a lot of the coast and inland to Eugene and Salem and sometimes further. It bothers no-one.

Interested? Say so in the comments.. Ask your questions in the comments.... Maybe we can get another class if there is an interest... Great for people limited in their ability to be mobile.

Veterans' helpers : Business News : Commercial Appeal

Veterans' helpers : Business News : Commercial Appeal: "'The club paid for the training manuals, which cost $24.95, and we'll also pay the fee for the FCC licensing test,' Pfohl said. 'The vets will have no out-of-pocket expenses whatsoever.'"

Idea Lab - Clean Air Act - Environment - Pollution - Lead - Gasoline - Crime Rate - New York Times

Idea Lab - Clean Air Act - Environment - Pollution - Lead - Gasoline - Crime Rate - New York Times: "“The idea that a society could have systematically poisoned its youngest children with the same neurotoxins in two different ways over the same century is almost impossible to believe.”"

NewsGator Online

NewsGator Online: "'Television is a new medium. It's called a medium because nothing is well-done.'"

A Late Afternoon, Mid-October Snowstorm on the Madison River - New York Times

A Late Afternoon, Mid-October Snowstorm on the Madison River - New York Times: "Snow is coming down hard, skidding upstream as if it were falling in horizontal threads. I am casting a trout fly no bigger than a snowflake, letting the wind carry it above the fish — rainbows and browns — that are feeding in the shallows in front of me."

FEMA: Mitigation Best Practices Portfolio

FEMA: Mitigation Best Practices Portfolio: "The database includes the resident’s name, gender, age, weight, address, primary language, emergency contact, and handicapping condition. Other information includes use of aids such as a walker/cane, crutches, a wheelchair, a guide dog, oxygen, or a life support system. Whether equipment requires an intermittent or continuous electrical supply is also noted. Space is provided for additional comments."