The longest item was not on the agenda:
a
Health Fair Update in the County Manager’s Report.
They breezed through everything else including 5 a. Lowndes County Public Facilities Authority Appointment, although the Chairman did have another name to propose.
Below are links to the LAKE video of each item, plus a very few notes, followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also Continue reading
Appointments to the board that floated bonds for the county palace, REZ-2017-10 Laurel Run Homes, and two road abandonments, to be considered this morning at 8:30 AM and voted on Tuesday evening.
What is the Lowndes County Georgia Public Facilities Authority, which issued the bonds 548757BE2 and 548757BG7 “Refunding Judicial Administration Complex”?
According to the county’s website it’s a Continue reading
Seth Borenstein, NBC Miami, 8 September 2017, Hurricane Andrew Was a Monster; Irma Could Blow It Out of the Water: Andrew, “an incredible buzz saw giant tornado of a hurricane,” killed 65 people; Irma is much larger,
Satellite imagery of Hurricane Andrew (inset, at left) from Aug. 23, 1992, is digitally superimposed, to scale, over imagery of Hurricane Irma on Sept. 7, 2017.
Photo credit: NOAA
At the time, Andrew was the costliest hurricane in U.S. history with damages of $26.5 billion in 1992 dollars (about $50 billion in current dollars), according to the National Weather Service.
“The effect of Irma on the state of Florida is going to be much greater than Andrew’s effect,” said Continue reading
†What do you want? The planet Venus? The current degraded Earth? Or a better world we know how to create?
†Joel Pett, Lexington Herald Leader, 18 March 2012,
The cartoon seen ’round the world
Mostly I post about solar and wind power winning, which is what I think is happening. But sometimes it’s worth a reminder of what could happen if we do nothing about climate change, and I posted on my facebook page a story about that. Which actually didn’t go far enough to the real worst case. Nonetheless, that story has been attacked by numerous parties of all political and scientific and unscientific stripes for being too doom and gloom. Yet none of the attackers bothered to mention a best case beyond “the same world we have now”. I have news for you: the world we have now is an ecological catastrophe, and we can do a lot better. So here’s the real worst case, the current case, which is far from the best of all possible worlds, and the real best case, as I see it. Plus what we can do to head for the best case.
First, the story I posted: David Wallace-Wells, New York Magazine, 9 July 2017, The Uninhabitable Earth: Famine, economic collapse, a sun that cooks us: What climate change could wreak — sooner than you think. Notice that word “could”, which a lot of his critics seem to have ignored. He didn’t say “will”, and he clearly labeled what he was presenting as worst case scenarios.
In case anybody thinks he was making any of that stuff up, Wallace-Wells has also linked to an annotated version with footnotes for every substantial assertion. The annotated version notes at the top: Continue reading
The Valdosta City Council heard from citizens about coal ash, wastewater, and toxic waste in the landfill. Mayor John Gayle offered to answer later in his office Eric Howard’s question about wastewater in his yard. The Mayor expressed his opinion that he and the council couldn’t do anything about the landfill, and read for yourself what he said about the Florida county resolutions about Valdosta wastewater. George Boston Rhynes told a droll tale about a dead cat and turkeys.
The Historic Preservation appeal was long and contentious, with the Mayor twice breaking a tie because only four City Council members were there: the appeal was approved. A citizen spoke about that afterwards, as did Council Tim Carroll.
Council Robert Yost recommended all the Hospital Authority Board should resign.
They unanimously approved both of the rezoning items; ditto the right of way maintenance bids.
And Firefighter Michael Penland is employee of the month.
Below are links to the LAKE video of each item, with a few notes (some drawn from Valdosta’s own SUMMARY OF ACTIONS), followed by a LAKE video playlist. See also the agenda.
Video. SUMMARY OF ACTIONS: Continue reading
No water on the agenda, but there’s a WWALS event for those who want to speak about water issues.
AGENDA
REGULAR MEETING OF THE VALDOSTA CITY COUNCIL
5:30 PM Thursday, March 9, 2017
COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL
- Opening Ceremonies Continue reading
The same money would buy a lot more electricity through solar power than that fracked methane pipeline could generate.
Update 2 March 2017: Added tables; fixed some typos.
Ramez Naam, his blog, 21 September 2016,
New Record Low Solar Price in Abu Dhabi — Costs Plunging Faster Than Expected
According to FERC’s own figures from 2012 and 2016,
my solar projections from 2013 (and former FERC Chair Jon Wellinghoff’s) were pretty good,
and more U.S. electricity will still come from solar power by 2023.
Since coal and nuclear are already crashing, and natural gas isn’t
increasing even as fast as formerly projected, solar could win even faster.
I constructed table below from the 2012 and 2016 summaries of total U.S. electric power generation from all sources, by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
Look at the 2012 column: only coal and natural gas generated more than 25% of total U.S. electricity.
But in 2016 it’s only natural gas, because coal’s growth rate actually turned negative: utilities are shutting down coal plants, not building them. Back in 2013 I did not predict that to happen so quickly.
Now look at
the growth rates,
both Continue reading
A reminder of why to stop pipeline companies from burying investors’ money in the ground and get on with solar power:
the pipeline that exploded in Texas last week was
half owned by Spectra Energy,
the pipeline company behind
Sabal Trail, AIM, Penneast, and numerous other fracked methane invasions
and behind thirty years of undetected corrosion resulting in leaks, explosions, property damage, and deaths.
The pipeline company didn’t detect it and couldn’t even turn it off quickly.
Want to bet that it,
like Spectra’s Pennsylvania explosion last spring, was corrosion?
A very Texas report said “no people or cattle were injured” and also notice: “The fire is under control and will burn itself out.” Continue reading
Written from the perspective of the Hahira, Georgia conclave in the big city of Hot ‘Lanta, this song off Ray Stevens’ 1980 LP Shriner’s Convention, ran up the charts briefly in 1980, and still apparently causes controversy among Shriners.
I wonder who those pillars of the community, ‘Lustrious Potentate Bubba and Noble Lumpkin Coy, really were?
“I just hope Charlene don’t find out about this, Coy!
What? Well, how’d you get that big motorcycle
Up there on the high dive, Coy?
Now Coy, Dad blame it, that ain’t no way to act”
Here’s the video:
a special meetin’, we get back to Hahira –Shriner’s Convention by Ray Stevens, 1980
-jsq
PS: Ray Stevens is from north Georgia, so that’s not a Hahira accent, but it doesn’t matter in this song.