Monthly Archives: March 2007

Capital Going Green, It’s About Time

Posted on by
Reply

In an article in a newspaper article in The Hill, “House Leaders want Capitol to go Green“, it discusses a directive from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democrat leaders to Chief Administrative Officer that he develop a plan to take the Capitol green.

It is amazing that Congress has just found out there are ways to reduced energy consumption around their offices. The Executive Branch has been doing this for many years. The Executive Branch has been working on reducing electrical use by using motion detectors in the offices, using fluorescent lights, paying a transportation subsidy to help employees use public transportation to get to work, and using LNG and electricity to power vehicles instead of gasoline.

The funny thing is that most of this was approved by Congress themselves. So it is amazing to me that Congress is just finding out about going green.

Another funny thing in the story is a quote from the Chief Administrator of the House Dan Beard. In response to what he thought of the directive he replied: “… he agreed with the directive and stressed that the idea of ‘green’ buildings is not an updated version of recycling dryer lint, but the cutting edge of business efficiency. ” Who won’t agree with their bosses and still have a job, especially after he was just named to the position?

It is just a bad question and a bad quote. The reporter could have done better with the story. It was pretty softball. He should have pointed out what the other branches are already doing.

If you want to find out, check out Executive Order 13123, Greening the Government through Efficient Energy Management, this is from 1999. In addition the Department of Energy has been sending teams around the country looking at facilities and providing advice on how these Federal facilities can save energy, and this was in 2005.

Congress, what you are doing is great, but it should have happened a long-time ago.

Casino Smoking Ban Bill Advances

Posted on by
Reply

A bill to expand the smoking ban in the state of Colorado has advanced through the state house and now moves on to the state senate. House Bill 1269 would ban smoking in casinos in Colorado.

When the smoking ban was passed last year, casinos were one of the few exemptions where smokers could still smoke and it has created controversy ever since. It cleared the state house with relative ease with a vote of 36-29.

Last year when the bill was passed, I was amazed that this exemption was in there but you have to remember the strong lobby that the casinos have. The smoking ban has been good for employees in the state and for all of those non-smokers who visit those establishments. Casino ownes are trying to scare the legislators saying that the tax revenue will go down 20% – 35% if this ban goes into effect. But I doubt that this will happen.

Contrary to what those business owners and casino owners are saying the smoking ban will reduce business, more people are going out and revenues are up. The city of Boulder has seen an increase in revenues since the smoking ban went into effect. Revenues were up 3.14% from January 1997 to October 1997. You can read more about the economic impacts of smoking bans at BREATH, the California Smoke-free Bars, Workplaces and Communities Program. With this and the other improvements in other states, the reveunes will not go down.

The non-smoking workers in casinos have taken health tests and most of them test like they smoke two packs a day. That is crazy. The state must do more to protect them and the patrons who are non-smokers.

I hope the Senate comes through and passes this to.  If not, I expect to see a petition on our next state election to enact this ban.  If the legislators can’t do it, then the people will.

You can read more in the Rocky Mountain News.  Link… 

Sparkletack Returns!

Posted on by
Reply

Yeah! Sparkletack has returned to the podcast world.

For those of you who have never listened to Sparkletack, it is a podcast that discusses and shares stories of the city of San Francisco.

It is a great podcast that has taken a long break. I always enjoyed listening to this podcast of one of the worlds greatest cities. Even though I live in Denver, I always enjoy San Francisco. I grew up about an hour away and since my parents were from the Bay Area, we always spent a lot of time in the City.

If you like listening to great stories and enjoy San Francisco, you should listen to this podcast. I highly recommend it.

Leadership the Problem At Walter Reed

Posted on by
1

In a statement yesterday, Secretary of Defense Gates said that it was leadership was the problem at Walter Reed. The Washington Post has a good story on this in today’s edition, “Defense Secretary Sends Stern Message About Accountability“.

It looks like the Army leadership ignored problems with the outpatient services and housing at Walter Reed Medical Center.  The firing of Harvey, who technically resigned, was because he fired Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman who had been in the job only 6 months and replaced him with Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley who was the chief Army medical officer who ignored problems at Walter Reed when he was commander there.

The Army has now replaced Kiley with Maj. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker.

It will be interesting to see this week as the Army is scheduled to testify to Congress this week on the Walter Reed issue.  I hope the Army is hearing Gates message that this is a serious issue and begin to fix the problems with the housing and outpatient services.  Our soldiers deserve nothing less of the best.

Upgrade Your WordPress

Posted on by
Reply

Someone gained server level access on to one of the servers that powers WordPress and put some code in a couple of files that could cause them to run some remote PHP execution.  You can read more about this on the download site for version 2.1.2.

They WordPress team has reset the files.  But if you downloaded verstion 2.1.1 in the last couple days, you need to update immediately.

Army Ignores Walter Reed and Injured Soldiers

Posted on by
Reply

I can’t believe that the US Army let Walter Reed go the way that it did. These are soldiers who served their country and were injured in the line of duty. We need to be doing everything that we can to support them and give them the best care that we can.

But the leadership in the Army listened to complaints and knew something was going on but didn’t do anything. The Washington Post broke this story and had a good one on Thursday, “Hospital Officials Knew of Neglect“, that explains how the leadership in the Army knew what was going on and they had been hearing complaints for years.

I think the best, most compelling statement in the story is:

… (Lt. Gen. Kevin C.) Kiley, his successive commanders at Walter Reed and various top noncommissioned officers in charge of soldiers’ lives have heard a stream of complaints about outpatient treatment over the past several years. The complaints have surfaced at town hall meetings for staff and soldiers, at commanders’ “sensing sessions” in which soldiers or officers are encouraged to speak freely, and in several inspector general’s reports detailing building conditions, safety issues and other matters.

This is unacceptable.  Kiley was the Commanding Officer at Walter Reed for a while and he is now the top medical officer in the Army.  His house is across the street from Building 18 where most of the problems are.  And he denies that there are that many problems.  But the proof is there.

This scandal has already cost two people their jobs, Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey and Walter Reed Commander Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, who had only been there for about 6 months.  The problem is that before he was fired, Army Secretary Harvey replaced him with Kiley who has been aware of the problems and has done nothing.  This is what lead to him losing his job.  This was someone’s sick joke.  I can’t believe that Harvey did this.

I just hope that the Army can get it together and do something for our troops who are fighting for our country in a foreign land and getting injured.  They deserve the best, nothing less.

OS X Leopard Looking Good

Posted on by
Reply

Well I am beginning to look for a new computer and have pretty much settled on going with an Apple.  I have PC’s for work and want something new for home.  The Apple software is much more friendly for doing home videos, slideshows, videos, and other home applications.

One of the things that I am interested in is the new Leopard operating system.  It will be coming out late this spring or summer (hopefully) and it adds a lot of good things.

The good thing for people and me is the Time Machine.  This allows you to back up your hard drive and then go back and retrieve it at anytime.  All you have to do is connect an external hard drive and it takes care of everything else.

The other cool thing that improves on the current operating system is in iChat.  The new function allows you to share displays.  So now when my parents are having problems with their Apple Macbook Pro, we can login into iChat and fix the issue.  That may be a good thing or a curse.  Who knows.

Overall, Leopard looks like a good upgrade to Tiger and will sway me to purchase a Macbook.