I have become a huge Google fan in the last couple of years. So when I saw this on Diggnation, I had to post it!
Category Archives: Uncategorized
A City’s Proposed Insanity with Trees
Fresno is having budget problems like everyone else. But where does that desire to save money cross a line? Normally you would just say where it crosses over to risking people’s lives or health. Trees wouldn’t cross a line, right? No, trees are crossing the line! I never thought that trees and their issues would infuriate me so!
Here in Fresno many areas have this strip between the sidewalk and the curb. The city has planted trees in them and the city maintains the sidewalk and the trees. In an effort to save money City Hall is considering transferring the responsibility of the tree and sidewalk maintenance to the home owner. I understand that the $800,000 the city spends every year is a lot of money, but really?
They don’t want to transfer ownership, just the responsibility. So now I would have to trim these trees and replace the sidewalk they destroy? The city is already many years behind in fixing sidewalks buckling from roots. Oh, they also say that we wouldn’t be allowed to remove a tree without replacing it with one on the city list. Come on.
The areas of town that have this issues are all older homes to begin with. Most of them are in poorer areas too (which is why the city doesn’t bother to fix the sidewalks). Oh, we would also have to have any sidewalk fixes approved too. I guess I wouldn’t have a problem if first the city caught up and would remove any trees we didn’t want. But no, they want to maintain something that they refer to as the “urban jungle”.
I hope this doesn’t pass the city council but if it does. What are they going to do to enforce it? Won’t that end up costing just as much? To then have the staff to run out and check, then to bill for fines, etc. I personally never want to touch those trees or sidewalk because then I would be libel for them. What could that run my homeowner’s insurance or the lawsuit filled against me when someone falls?
Message to Fresno City Hall: Look somewhere else! I am sure that some of us could come down there and fine a few more frivolous things to cut!
(HT: Fresno Bee)
Aloha Friday
I haven’t participated in Aloha Friday in quite a while! But here goes!
What is your favorite video game? (I had to go with something nerdy;) Just leave your answer in the comments!
MiniLand
Just a couple of shots from MiniLand at Legoland.
An enhanced Sieve of Eratosthenes
This weekend, I showed my two oldest kids how to make a Sieve of Eratosthenes. The oldest has been doing a lot of factoring, reducing fractions and decimal conversion, and it reminded me of when I learned about prime factorization. I found reducing fractions to be a lot of guess work until I understood prime factors, and using the sieve not only helped me find prime numbers, but helped me understand factorization in general.
We actually modified ours a bit, since I wanted to focus on factorization, rather than just finding a bunch of primes. On our charts, instead of crossing out the composite numbers, we wrote down the prime factor that would have led to crossing out the number in the normal sieve. This way, the kids now have a chart that shows, for all the numbers 1-100, either P for prime or the smallest factor otherwise.
The Issue of Asking and Telling
A friend on FaceBook asked all his friends on our views of the Military Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy and if we think it should hang around. Well, I decided to take my life in my hands and post about it.
I don’t care if you are gay and in the military. I don’t think that it will effect what type of soldier you are and I just don’t care about your private life. That said, I think that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell should stand. But with better implementation than is currently used. I don’t think it is the ideal solution but I do think that it helps. But why you may ask…
There are reasons that we separate out the sexes in barracks and other things. Many of those reasons circle around dating, sexual attraction and the like. By filtering out those issues it allows people to be more focused and less self conscious. Now, I am not worried about the homosexual people hitting on the straight people. That isn’t it but overall issues of dating, attraction and the like. We know that overall this is a huge issue in the military. That is why there are so many rules about fraternization.
We put men and women in separate barracks to isolate them from those the would be interested in. Not all the time but during the times that they are bathing, changing, in bed, etc. But with homosexuals how would you do that? 1 gay guy for every 100 women in a barrack and 1 gay girl for every 100 guys? I can say that doing that may mess with the 100 women or men who are attracted to that person and want to turn them (not the gay person’s fault but a reality).
So what can solve this problem? Who knows. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is far from perfect but what would be the better logistical solution. Now I don’t like some of the things I hear about its implementation and how some people use it as a weapon but on its face, what would be better? I’m open to ideas…
Be Brave
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| George Will | ||||
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For those of you who don’t know, I adore George Will. He is a true conservative regardless of party loyalty. He is great in this hilarious interview on Colbert’s show where he talks about baseball (I think he true love), politics and even takes a shot a Reagan. Those of you who are familiar with Will, you will love this. For those of you who aren’t, give it a try. Watch the whole thing and be brave.
55 Years Ago
55 years ago yesterday (April 18th) Albert Einstein died. At the time it appears that the press pretty much stayed out of the family’s mourning process but there was 1 photographer there. Life Magazine’s Robert Morse went a took a series of pictures but Life only published one. But now there is a gallery online to see. I wonder if a mind like Einstein’s was around much less passed away if the press would notice. In the day of Paris, Lindsay and Brittany would we know if we lost such a true intellectual treasure?
Go check out the pics, very interesting.
Stop Bow Loss!
I love how cute all the little girls’ bows and flowers are but (there is always a but;) they get lost. These are fairly pricey little gems and then you let your little girl out of the house with them and they just don’t always make it home with it. But I saw this great solution posted over at Babes in Hairland. Go and wear hair bobs in good health!
Party Time!!!!
Welcome all! I feel so honored that you have stopped by! So what is this crazy site, you wonder? Well, here we we focus on things. Basically that is it;). Since I do homeschool my 4 nerdlings so I often post on books and tools that we use. I also have a Frugal Homschooler feature that focuses on the free educational resources that are available online. I also look at things that are just helpful around the house, gifts and just great stuff!
I am also blessed to get to hold giveaways sporadically so make sure that you keep on the look out for those!
So what are your favorite things?
Make sure that you check out some of the other great parties!
So prizes I would like to win (who wouldn’t;): Of course the grand prize of a laptop! But other than that… I would love US101, US 112, US39, US 105, US87 but I would be happy with just about anything (but my youngest child is about 3;).