BurningbirdIf you’re interested in trying out the beta of Adobe’s CS3, download the trial version and generate a CS3 key from a CS2 serial number.
I haven’t had time other than download the product on my Mac and open it and the new Bridge up to see if there are any obvious differences. After the new year, when I’m finished with Adding Ajax, I can dig into it, and all the other 450 projects I’ve pushed off until the book is finished.
I can agree understand why this Springfield Newspaper opinion piece suggests we need to bring in a third party to negotiate with Ameren, but I disagree with much of what was written.
We can’t leave aside that Ameren is a multi-billion dollar agency that put profits ahead of safety. It is not a Mom and Pop organization, but a large utility company and corporation that has been pitting Nixon and the DNR against each other, as much as they’ve been fighting between themselves. To treat it otherwise, is ridiculous in the extreme.
Now, I do agree that the state of Missouri is embarrassing itself with this three-way battle between Nixon, Blunt, and Childers. I also agree that all parties have some financial association with Ameren. Whatever ‘neutral’ party is brought in, though, will most likely just add yet another voice rather than end the bickering. What we need to do is think about bringing in the ombudsmen to represent our interests, and also see legally who does have the final say in this matter. Once this is determined, then let them do their job.
If politics has so contaminated this state that people can’t, or won’t, do their jobs, then we have serious problems far beyond Ameren and the Taum Sauk Dam failure.
Frankly, I’m putting my support behind Nixon, and not just because he’s Democrat. If the only reason he was ‘fired’ as legal representative by the DNR was that one campaign contribution, which he returned and was subsequently cleared of any ethical wrong doing by state officials, then I can see no further reason for Childers or the DNR to resist his efforts–particularly if this is his job.
At the same time, Nixon must stop playing into the political gaming, and meet with the DNR and Childers. If he needs a third party to mediate between them because of bad blood, then he needs to find this party and begin this effort.
Both putting out their press releases and bringing this entire fiasco into the public eye is embarrassing the state. Rightly so: we should be embarrassed. We should also be working to end this, once and for all. However, if none of the parties can do their jobs, then I suggest they resign. Or we work to impeach them if we feel there is sufficient cause to do so.
We are paying these men’s salaries. We have a right, an obligation, to demand they do their job. If we have to bring in another party, then we might as well say right now that Missouri fails at government and can’t be trusted to govern itself. Perhaps Illinois or Arkansas will wish to annex us, until we mature sufficiently to be trusted to be on our own again.
(Thanks to Black River News, yet again, for finding this story. It’s a good thing the webloggers in this state are on top of this, because the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and many of the other publications sure aren’t.)
Here is Chapter 640 which governs the Department of Natural Resources.
Here is a link to the DNR Ombudsman program, with listings of ombudsman representatives for each area of the state. Assuming it’s more than a token list of people who never expected to be called on for anything, perhaps this is an area where some influence can be felt.
Something else to keep in mind: the state’s Attorney General has filed a lawsuit. This is not a frivolous act that can be quickly put aside. Much of the wrangling is now moot, as a court of law will now determine what is the responsibility of Ameren, and in what way will they be forced to meet their obligations.
It is now out of DNR’s hands, it is even out of the hands of the Attorney General and now in the hands of that third party so much wanted by us all: our state’s judicial system.
Unfortunately, this also means that we can kiss Johnson’s opening next year, good-bye. We can also kiss further Black River clean up good-bye, as well as a re-build of the Taum Sauk reservoir anytime soon. I would suggest those in the area who are economically impacted consider getting their own lawyers, and filing suit individually.
Let’s not all sue at once.
One year ago, a billion gallons of water poured down a mountain, scraped away the dirt, the trees, the rocks, and any living thing in a flood of mud and debris. It landed at the entrance to Johnson’s Shut-Ins, slammed into the hill on one end of the park, swirled around taking away every last bit of the Ranger’s house, including the ranger, his wife, and their three small children.
A pickup and a large truck on the road suddenly found themselves adrift in the early morning darkness, as water shoved them into the field across from the Shut-Ins. A dump truck managed to stay grounded.
The water poured past and through the Shut-Ins–ripping away the campgrounds, pouring over the endangered fens, splashing against the hills on either side; dumping five feet of mud and boulders the size of cars in its path.
The residents of Lesterville waited, anxiously, to see if the lower reservoir held. It did.
If this had happened in the summer…
If the reservoir had not held…
From Black River News, many new stories:
Ameren’s Press Release on the lawsuit
DNR and Childer’s response on the lawsuit and Black River News’ response
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Warning: some spoilers
I rented Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People and I can comfortably say it is the oddest movie I have ever seen. Directed by the father of all the Godzilla movies, Ishirô Honda, the story is about a group of city people out for a yacht ride who get caught in strange weather and become stuck on an island. They find another ship, obviously abandoned from long ago, full of research equipment and covered in spores. As they look for food, they find mushrooms everywhere, but forewarned by the ship’s logs, try to avoid eating them because they could be dangerous.
They camp on the ship and suddenly one night, they hear footsteps approach their door. Shining a light toward the door, a creature enters, shaped vaguely human but covered with mushroom like growths. That’s the secret of the island: everything eventually consumes the mushrooms, and in doing so, becomes itself a mushroom–including the people from a previously stranded ship.
The story ostensibly focuses on the group trying to survive–trying to find enough food other than the mushrooms, trying not to be attacked by the mushroom people, and trying to find away off the island. More specifically, though, like other of Honda’s movies, the movie is a fairly strong condemnation of the modernization of Japan: the bright lights, night clubs, and other adoption of decedent western ways.
In his review of the movie, Jaspar Sharp writes:
Honda portrays the way in which the rapid economic growth of Japan has resulted in a population divorced from these cultural and natural origins. The rigid mechanical efficiency of a modern society is revealed to be merely illusionary, as the hierarchy crumbles steadily the further this ship of fools is removed from it. Carried away by the forces of nature on a freak ocean tide, the film’s irreversible conclusion is that of evolution turning full circle; man becomes mushroom as he reverts back to the primordial sludge.
Sharp also mentions the almost heavy-handed references to the drug culture that was just beginning to take root in most modern cultures. Not only do the mushrooms turn people into creatures half-living, half-fungus, they also exert a hallucinogenic effect—making the people both fey and dangerous.
Where I may go further than Sharp in the analogy between the perils of the island and the perils of modern society on Japan is the movie’s odd focus on the two women characters. One is a nightclub singer: glamorous, brave, willing to do most things; very uninhibited. The other is a student who is shy and proper; uncomfortable in unfamiliar circumstances, and dressed demurely in soft and quite safe pastels.
In the beginning, when the group was safely at sea and in no danger, the men noticed the singer and her obvious beauty and allure, admiring her boldness. However, once on the island, and as time progressed, the singer became rejected in favor of the studious, ‘proper’, young Japanese woman.
I would say that not only was Honda condemning modern society, he was making a specific point of condemning society’s influence on young Japanese women.
The contentiousness between the crew members, the odd mish-mash between scenes on the island and scenes of the Tokyo nightlife, and the effective background scenery–where no attempt is made to ‘seem’ real–make this a movie that, at a minimum, captures your attention if it doesn’t capture your interest.
Whatever the feeling nationally, locally there’s one clear winner of the “Wish I could drop ’em off a cliff” award here in Missouri, and that’s Ameren. I imagine that most of us would probably vote 2, 3, or more times for Ameren in this category, if we could.
Black River News points to a terrific editorial in St. Louis Today by Eric Mink, Stormy Past Catches up with Ameren. He finds that paying the board members a $1000.00 a meeting doesn’t necessarily jibe with the company’s skimping on tree maintenance, leading to record breaking outages the last three years. Not to mention the lack of maintenance which caused the Taum Sauk dam to fail.
Did I happen to mention that Ameren also runs a nuclear power plant?
Leaving aside the cost in lost revenue for business, spoiled food, and having to pay hotel bills, there’s also the cost in lives: of people exposed to the conditions of extreme heat and cold, as well as utility workers dying while working long hours in difficult conditions. Luckily, no one died with the Taum Sauk dam failure.
On top of this, Ameren wants to raise rates. Not so it can change its maintenance schedules, or do a better job. No, the company has to pay for those $1000.00 a board member meetings, not to mention all the ‘job performance bonuses’ paid the top management.
Black River News also had a succinct comment to make on the DNR ‘announcement’ yesterday:
This press release was sent out to coincide with the one year anniversary and not much else. My question is does this mean that DNR “blinked” first, stay tuned.
I’d like to see other Missouri webloggers take up these issues, perhaps pass along their own nomination of Ameren in the “Drop ’em off a cliff” award. Perhaps we should make DNR runnerup.
The CEO responds with an extremely unsatisfactory answer.
His response is that they would have to start cutting down trees in order to do better, and that trimming trees once every four years is enough.
I found a study conducted by the State of Massachusetts, which also has a four year cycle, that does incorporate cutting down trees that are at risk. These are trees that have indications of failure, and this type of effort is usually conducted in association with the local communities because it’s in everyone’s interest to do so.
There’s another study by the IEEE, which I unfortunately can’t access, that mentions in its abstract how reducing the tree trimming cycle one year could prevent 0.9 outages.
In other words, why is Ameren going with a consultant when extensive studies and research have already been made? As for cutting down the trees, I can’t imaging that Ameren and the community don’t already have this authority.
As these things go, the power company is here today, replacing poles that are coming close to falling over, trimming trees.