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2014 March

Thursday, March 20, 2014

CT-Banner7.3.13Published by Noon–No Saturday Edition

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[Sewer connection letters] People call and write me in fear, because they feel threatened by FKAA demands for an easement. Forget the due date. Its not a bill and there is no late fee. You did not place an order for anything. Sewer connection points are easily moved or established when the pipe is being laid. Just ask for the superintendent or the inspector. You can give a location for the connection point at the street without signing an easement, and there will be no delay.

If you sign an easement you are considered by FKAA to be in agreement to have a grinder pump. Strangers will legally come onto your property, perhaps when you are not home, to install the grinder pit. These strangers are not background checked, are not FKAA employees, too often have a police record, and are usually from the mainland and poorly paid. That is not to say they are untrustworthy or not good people, only that you do not know if every one of them only has interest is getting the job done. Without doubt, they will not stay within the easement.

Don’t give up your property rights. The fight is not over and grinders will go away if very few cooperate with FKAA. You will receive another due date and another due date after that. Placing grinders is big profit for the Contractor. They would rather do them all at once but they will come back if they have to.

Do not be intimidated by any threats such as house condemnation; you will have to install and maintain a grinder at your cost; exorbitant code enforcement fines will be levied, etc. If threatened get it in writing! Dump the Pumps’ lawyers are itching to get a copy of these threats, which are always verbal and always denied.

The County has over 2,000 people who are not connecting already after a year of getting an official “notice to connect”. The County is swamped with non-compliance. The original design, being built now, is a disaster and now the FKAA and DEP realize it. However, they think it is too late to stop (and keep their jobs).

Everyone makes mistakes, but some lack the character to admit theirs. Do not help them build a monster. Do not cooperate. Do not grant an easement. Make sure your neighborhood stands united against grinders. Strength is in the numbers. If you can, donate for your legal defense costs at DumpThePumps.com They now have several pro bono lawyers, but there are plenty of legal expenses involved in fighting for our rights.

advert-accurate-home-insp8.14.13
oath[He’s Back] (Ed: I got dismissed from of the jury pool for writing about it on Tuesday’s Coconut Telegraph. The Judge said he liked it, but the Defense didn’t, so he said I was dismissed. I thanked him most sincerely.
This major trial of Murder in the First Degree (or Murder 1st°) was going to last a lot longer than the two weeks they estimated. They had between thirty and forty witness. The trial that just ended of the 5 employees of Bernie Madoff lasted six months and they had 40 witnesses. It was the longest civil trial on record. With this murder trial the Judge had already used up three days in jury selection. That leaves only seven days to hear thirty or forty witnesses — I don’t think so. I kept thinking of the O.J. Simpson trial and how long that lasted. I’m so relieved that I don’t have to serve and respect those who will willingly disrupt their lives for the length of that trial.)
Does anyone know about the white drone flying over Summerland around 4:30 Wednesday
chamber-ad10.17.13
[Experts] Only in Monroe County can you watch on television the Sustainability guru who earns $93,600 a year, admit that she does not know how to do her job and that she needs to hire a high priced consultant to help her.  The county has staff that’s experienced, I know because I’ve spoken to them before.  Why is the county paying this person all this money and she can’t do the job?  I hope the Feds get here real soon to investigate all this corruption. ~isagrand5600@hotmail.com  

vette20

 

[“Corvette picture”] I must be getting old.  The picture, a day or so back, of nice a young supple breast and nipple looked nice, but pictures of that Corvette got me oohing and ahhing! Who said, “Youth is wasted on the young?” Ha!

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guard an

[Help Wanted] Guard. Cudjoe Key Blimp site currently has a night shift guard position opening with benefits and an opportunity for advancement. You must be physically fit, drug free, and able to work holidays and weekends.  If you are interested in applying, please email your resume to Chip at Classified Ads > Help Wanted

Louis LaTorre, former head of  Monroe County’s Social Services  Division, lost an appeal Wednesday  in his 2008 DUI conviction. LaTorre was sentenced to 42  months in prison in June 2011  and he is set to be released on  April 18 from the South Florida  Reception Center in Doral. He will  serve 18 months probation upon  his release.  LaTorre crashed head-on into  a sport utility vehicle driven by  former Key West resident Nadia  Bowman on April 15, 2006. She  was paralyzed after the crash and  no longer lives in Key West. 
nira tocco realtor 9.12

[Homeless] Sheriff Rick Ramsay has offered the city the property beneath the homeless shelter as a location for an assisted living center, and the mayor has agreed to the plan. The sheriff’s initiative last week to speak separately with Cates and county Commissioners Rice and Neugent followed his plea to Keys leaders to unburden him of homeless shelter duty. He wants to be a sheriff of crime and not run a homeless shelter.

KOTS has been located on the sheriff’s office’s property since it was built in 2004. The city agreed to move KOTS in order to settle a lawsuit from Sunset Marina condo owners, who asked the courts to force the shelter away from the upscale gated community.

Homeless — Paul Simon

chair-deck[Swimmer trapped by beach balls] A man got a nasty surprise when he tried to get out of his deckchair and found his testicles had become stuck between two slats of wood. Mario Visnjic had been swimming naked off Valalta beach in Croatia and his testicles had shrunk in the cool sea. When he sat down they slipped through the slats and then, as he lay in the sun, expanded back to normal size. He was freed after he called beach maintenance services on his mobile phone and they sent a member of staff to cut the deckchair in half.

Ouch,ouch,ouch! Better they cut the deck chair and not the family jewels.

The Florida House is giving tentative approval to a bill that would let people fire warn-mg shots and avoid prison time.
isaksen-flood-roof 4.23.13 
[WordPress Web Sites (bigpinekey.com is one)] We’re seeing an increase in brute force attacks (password guessing attacks) across WordPress sites from 2000/min to peaks of 15,000 currently. The attack started just after noon yesterday March 18th Pacific Time and gradually increased to a peak of 15,000 attacks per minute today March 19th at 5am and it’s currently holding at that frequency. This looks like it will be a sustained attack and will likely last from 24 more hours to several days. Please keep a close eye on your WordPress sites for unusual activity and ensure your backups are current.

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[Island Living] It’s a comfortable 73 degrees today with a slight breeze as I observe the incredible view in front of me. There’s the ocean, palm trees and my boat at the dock. As I close my eyes my senses seem to magnify. Suddenly I can hear each ripple of the ocean lapping under the dock and the sounds of a gentle breeze making its way through the palm fronds. There is a peace in the air. For some reason when I open my eyes and join the world again, I am focused on my dock. That old wooden structure holds a lot of memories. When installing the dock, wood was not my first choice. I wanted a concrete dock like all the other docks around our home; however, building codes at the time would not allow that. So my dock was built with wooden pilings driven into the ocean floor. The decking is weathered from years of sun, rain and even hurricanes but it continues to survive. A wooden dock has its own character and soul and there is warmth and gentleness in those faded timbers. It fits my life perfectly now and I would not trade it for all the tea in China or concrete on this planet.

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[Where Do They Poop] A house overflowing with more than 100 people presumed to be in the U.S. illegal­ly was uncovered just outside Houston on Wednesday, a police spokesman said.
fanci-3.20.14

[Jury] I’ve served on a couple juries and here’s something I’ve discovered. Well, not so much discovered, it’s just an element of life that finds its way into the juror’s box.

Some people are just natural contrarians. It doesn’t matter if you present them with concrete facts. Certain folks will just plug their ears and continue to disagree with the more rational majority around them. (Much like many of the posters on the Coconut Telegraph.) This makes for a frustrating time when deliberating on a jury.

hand grenade fishing

[Fishing Tournaments] Sign up now until May 1, 2014 for the Second Annual Florida Keys Dolphin Championship. Early entry is $450 per Boat/Team. After May 1, 2014 entry fee into the second annual Florida Keys Dolphin Championship will be $600 per Boat/Team. Go to www.FKDC.com for all the details.

The Big Pine & Lower Keys 21st Annual Dolphin Tournament is May 16-18 at Sugarloaf KOA.  Many sponsors are partnering with the Chamber to be sure this is the biggest and best event ever.  We are running this tournament in conjunction with the Florida Keys Dolphin Championship – anglers may sign up for both tournaments.

[Shooting Good]State investigators said Wednesday the shooting death of an armed Islamorada man by a Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputy was justified and no criminal charges will be filed. Deputy Luis Gomez reacted reasonably and with appropriate use of force when he shot Robert Parlette Jr. on Oct. 25.

“It was reasonable &r the officer to have apprehension that his life and the lives of others were at risk based on the suspect firing his handgun in the presence of the officer and in the officer’s direction,” State Attorney Madruga said. “There were numerous verbal commands for him to drop the weapon, and instead of de-escalating the situation, the suspect esca­lated the situation and fired.” Madruga added there were shots fired before deputies arrived on scene, and that Parlette’s wife had already fled the scene in fear of her life.

Flea-Market-ad10.9.13
Our friendly sewer contractor guys hit a water main on Ramrod Key Bayside Wednesday. Water has been off for several hours and counting. I tried to call the FKAA office in Key West at 1:15 pm and got a ‘the office is closed” message. ?  I then called the FKAA emergency line and talked to a nice fella who said, “Oh yeah, we’ve had a crew out for a couple of hours. It might be on again in an hour or so.” Standing by for a boil water notice. I think we’ll be having lots more of this as the trenching for our beloved Nuegent sh*t eating grinder pumps are installed.

saddlebunch00

 

The north side of the Saddlebunch Keys is the most beautiful view of the Keys.

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ad-manley-deboer6.27.13

[Update with what I know about the Malaysia 777 disappearance]  The Boeing 777 is the airplane that I fly.  It is a great, safe airplane to fly.  It has, for the most part, triple redundancy in most of its systems, so if one complete system breaks (not just parts of a system), there are usually 2 more to carry the load.  It’s also designed to be easy to employ so 3rd World pilots can successfully fly it. Sometimes, even that doesn’t work as the Asiana guys in San Fran showed us.  A perfectly good airplane on a beautiful, sunny day and they were able to crash it.  It took some doing, but they were able to defeat a bunch of safety systems and get it to where the airplane would not help them and the pilots were too stupid/scared/unskilled/tried to save themselves

malaysia-airlines-boeing-777There’s many ways to fly the 777 and there are safety layers and redundancies built into the airplane.  It is tough to screw up and the airplane will alert you in many ways (noises, alarms, bells and whistles, plus feed back thru the control yoke and rudder pedals and throttles.  In some cases the airplane’s throttles ‘come alive’ if you are going to slow for a sustained period of time)  All designed to help.  But, it’s also non-intrusive.  If you fly the airplane in the parameters it was designed for, you will never know these other things exist.  The computers actually help you and the designers made it for the way pilots think and react.  Very nice.

Now to Malaysia.  There are so many communication systems on the airplane.  3 VHF radios. 2 SatCom systems.  2 HF radio systems.  Plus Transponders and active, real time monitoring through CPDLC (Controller to Pilot Data Link Clearance) and ADS B (Air Data Service) through the SatCom systems and ACARS (Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System) thru the VHF, HF and SatCom systems.  The air traffic controllers can tell where we are, speed, altitude, etc as well as what our computers and flight guidance system has set into our control panels. Big Brother for sure.  However, most of these things can be turned off. There are a few systems that can’t be turned off and one, as reported by the WSJ, is the engine monitoring systems (not sure what the acronym for that is, but I’m sure there is one, it’s aviation, there has to be an acronym).  

The Malaysian airplane, like our 777-200’s, use Rolls Royce Trent Engines (as a piece of trivia. Rolls Royce names their motors after rivers because they always keep on running).  Rolls Royce leases these motors to us and they monitor them all the time they are running. In fact, a few years back, one of our 777’s developed a slow oil leak due and partial equipment failure.  It wasn’t bad enough to set off the airplane’s alerting system, but RR was looking at it on their computers.  They are in England, they contact our dispatch in Texas, Dispatch sends a message to the crew via SatCom in the North Pacific, telling them that RR wants them to closely monitor oil pressure and temp on the left engine.  Also, during the descent, don’t retard the throttle to idle keep it at or above a certain rpm.  Additionally, they wanted the crew to turn on the engine anti ice system as the heats some of the engine components. The crew did all of that and landed uneventfully, but after landing and during the taxi in, the left engine shut itself down using it’s redundant, computerized operating system that has a logic tree that will not allow it to be shut down if the airplane is in the air, only on the ground.  Pretty good tech.   Anyway, the point was, that RR monitors those engines 100% of the time they are operating.  The WSJ reported that RR indicated the engines on the Malaysia 777 were running normally for 4 to 5 hours after the reported disappearance.  Malaysia denies this.  We shall see.

Parting shot.  If you travel by air, avoid the 3rd world airlines.  Their operators and maintenance are substandard.  Substandard when traveling by bus or boat isn’t so bad when the engines quit.  You just stop on the water or by the side of the road.  Not so in airplanes.  My piece of advice is if traveling by air use 1st World airlines.  So that leaves USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, most of Europe, Japan  and just a few others.  Avoid the rest–just my opinion.  If you get a real deal on air fare from Air Jabooti–skip it.  Oh, there are a lot of the developing countries that use expatriate pilots from the 1st World.  Emirates and Air Jordan come to mind and are very safe. As is Cathay Pacific.  Air Pakistan and Egypt Air–not so much. And don’t ever get in an Airbus!

runners

 

The 7 Mile Bridge will be closed on April 5, 2014 from 6:45 AM until 9:00 AM for the 33rd Annual 7 Mile Bridge Run.

I’m proficient in 3 languages: English, Profanity, and Sarcasm
advert-dennis-ward8.16.13
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an_sorry_forgive_me

 

Forgiveness is the economy of the heart. Forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits.

The next meeting of our computer club is coming up this Saturday, March 22, 10 am at the senior center on BPK. Hope to see you there. Events
Coconuts-ad-new-sign

freerent

 

Free rent in exchange for repairing the damage that former tenants Lucas Heath Hornsetin & Felicia Norris did to my home. They let their dogs urinate all over my carpets, padding and right down into the floorboards. I am offering free rent to someone who can replace the floorboards and install new flooring. I have a canal house for rent right off Coconut Palm Drive in Big Pine Key. Please contact me if you know anyone. Classified Ads > For Rent

springers-ad12.30.12
Objects could be Malaysia Airlines debris. Video

balloon clouds

[Balloon Travel] On this date in 1999 Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones became the first to fly a hot-air balloon nonstop around the world.

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facepalm20
[Selfie breaks centuries old Roman statue] There are a few basic rules in museums. The first: don’t touch the art. The second: don’t take selfies while touching the art.

At a museum in Milan, Italy, a student reportedly broke that second rule: he climbed on a statue dating back to the early 19th century to take a selfie and caused the statue’s left leg to fall off. The discovery was made on Tuesday morning by the staff of the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera, one of Italy’s most renowned academic institutions, and it was apparently also recorded by security cameras.

The statue depicts the “Drunken Satyr,” an ancient Greek sculpture of the Hellenistic era showing a human-like figure with animal features drunkenly sleeping. Fortunately, the statue is a copy located in the academy’s hallway leading to a room full of more valuable works of the most famous sculptors of the era, including Antonio Canova, Italian newspapers reported.

Unfortunately we don’t know whether the student, whose name has not been reported, was actually able to snap the ambitious photo before the amputation occurred.

johnsons-ad-7.25.13
What’s up with US-1 Robot Radio?

grinder-1

[Grinder Pump Failure] This is the scanned article from the March “The Observer” for Alachua, High Springs, Newberrry, Florida. I still have not received an electronic copy, but will continue to try. The article adds credence to the Cudjoe Area Wastewater Management system grinder pump issue.

[“Bahia Honda beach”] Have you seen it at high tide? It is not there!
politics-zone2
from the right
(Ed: FTR is off the political beat today.)
Please send me your comments at 1776ftr@gmail.com