Really Good Quotes

Greetings, Quotaholics:

Times are getting tough. With higher food and energy prices everyone could use a little extra income these days.

A lot of people try to supplement their incomes with various businesses they run from their homes. Some have garage sales, some sell some of their extra items on Ebay, some sell books on Amazon. One thing all these activities have in common is that, depending on where you live, they may be illegal.

Even if you aren’t making a profit, you might find yourself on the wrong side of the law if you do anything that might be perceived as business from your home. Just ask Jon Tennett and Janice Saroop of Pickering, Canada a small town near Toronto.

According to the City News website, Mr. Pickering, aged 81, likes to tinker in his garage. He fixes his neighbors lawn mowers and other small engines. He doesn’t do it for money, he says he does it just to “keep his mind busy”.

His neighbor Ms. Saroop has a garden where she likes to raise various types of plants. Three times a year she sells the plants and donates the money to charity.

Both have been informed that they are in violation of the city’s commercial zoning bylaws which don’t allow any form of home business whatsoever. They could face fines of up to $25,000.

Mr. Pickering has already voiced his plans if fined, "They ain’t getting it," he fumes. "I’ll do jail time."

Needless to say this isn’t reflecting well on City Hall. “‘Pretty embarrassed,’ describes the mood there, admits Pickering Regional Councillor Bill McLean.”

“‘I’m going to bring this to council in mid-September, our first council meeting,’ McLean promised. He said he’s hoping to change the bylaw. ‘I think this is inequity…when incidents like this happen,’ he added.”

Now I understand the need for zoning regulations. I doubt that any of us would want someone opening a business right next door in a residential area. But there’s a big difference between an automotive repair shop and an old man who fixes lawnmowers for fun. There no comparison between a lady who sells her excess plants for charity and a commercial landscaping operation.

Why is it that the politicians who make the laws can’t manage to include a little good sense in them? Is it so hard to enforce the “spirit” of the law? Is it so difficult to see that these two people were not the intended targets of the law?

Should these two be punished? Are they even running businesses if they aren’t making money? Would you consider either of these “businesses” a violation of the law if they were in your neighborhood? Do you do anything to make money at home that might become a problem for you in the future?

Residentially,



P.S.  Since Monday is a holiday, Bruce is "forcing" us to take the day off.  Therefore the next issue will be Wednesday.  Hope everyone enjoys the time off!

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"Don’t draw fire; it irritates the people around you." - Your Buddies

"If you see a bomb technician running, follow him." - USAF Ammo Troop

E-Mail the Imp

Gasoline engines aren’t very efficient, even the most efficient designs lose power to heat. No matter how well the cylinders or firing chambers are designed; no matter how well the engine is aspirated or fuel injected, 70% or more of the energy produced is wasted as heat and 30% or less is used to run the vehicle or operate accessories.

Researchers at Ohio State University in Columbus and Caltech in Pasadena, California, think they can recycle some of that lost energy with a new thermoelectric material that is twice as effective as current materials. It converts heat directly into electricity. "The material does all the work. It produces electrical power just like conventional heat engines — steam engines, gas or diesel engines — that are coupled to electrical generators, but it uses electrons as the working fluids instead of water or gases, and makes electricity directly," said Joseph Heremans, who led the project.

The current state of the technology would allow an increase in engine efficiency of 10%…not that much, but not a lot of research has gone into thermoelectric materials over the past few years. Now that oil prices have gone through the roof, research into more efficient materials is again ongoing.

It seems to be a perfect addition to the make up of a hybrid. If they could increase efficiency of the thermoelectric material to about 25%, the heat of the small engine converted to electricity would probably increase the fuel efficiency by a good margin.

These materials have applications in cooling computers and electronics systems and in solid state refrigerators. More efficient materials could find their way into solid state automotive air conditioning systems and possibly home air conditioners.

At the current level of development, these materials start working effectively at about 500° F (260° C) through 1400° F, (760° C) reaching peak efficiency at around 950° F (510° C). It would be nice if they worked well at the temperature the roof of my car reaches in the summertime. Just think of how nice it would be if the sun shining on the roof of your car could keep your electric car’s batteries fully charged and even allowed you to operate without draining the batteries in the summer. Hell, even if it just ran the A/C and the radio, you could camp out in the back seat during your lunch break and it wouldn’t cost you a cent.

Roof shingles made of the material could run most everything in your house and let you sell power back to the grid. At least in my future fantasy world it would be that way. We could pave all the highway medians in the material and cover all bridges with the stuff too. Cover the roof of our local 250,000 Sq Ft Wal-Mart with it and you could power a small town.

Back to the real world. What we’ll probably just end up seeing are more efficient but cheaper dorm room refrigerators.

The Bad Sied 

Speak right up!

Email Kirsten

“Your lifestyle - how you live, eat, emote, and think - determines your health. To prevent disease, you may have to change how you live.”
~ Brian Carter ~

I don’t have a problem with lawyers the way some people do. There are, of course, lawyers who lie, cheat and exploit people, but there are also doctors, accountants, retailers and dog-walkers who lie, cheat and exploit people. Lawyers who do bad things do them because they’re bad people, not because they’re lawyers. I have far more disdain for people who launch lawsuits at the drop of a hat when they’re clearly not warranted.

Several years ago, for instance, there was a Hepatitis B “scare” at my local grocery store – an outlet of Loblaws, a large Canadian chain. The “scare” involved one of the store employees who tested positive for Hepatitis B after a vacation to some weird place. The person in question was immediately sent home and all other employees were immediately tested. All fresh produce in the store was discarded, even though there was never any question that health and safety standards had been strictly adhered to. Store management advised customers to throw out any produce they had purchased at the store during the previous two weeks (when the employee had returned from vacation), and everyone was given a voucher for free groceries. I don’t remember the value of the vouchers, but they were certainly worth more than the produce we had had to get rid of. As an added measure, the store set up vaccination clinics. They footed the bill for the Hepatitis B vaccines and the medical staff to administer them. Everyone in the city was eligible, even if they had not purchased food at that particular grocery store. The store itself was closed to the public for however long it took to thoroughly clean it and make sure everything was safe and hygienic.

Now, to my mind, the grocery store took every reasonable action to ensure the safety of the public. It’s worth stressing at this point that testing of the food showed that NONE of it was contaminated. The grocery store did not do all of this to contain an outbreak. It did it as a precaution, to PREVENT an outbreak that in all likelihood would not have happened anyway. And yet within days of the final Hepatitis B vaccine being given, someone launched a class-action lawsuit against the grocery store. No-one had been hurt, no-one was sick, everyone had received free vaccines, and the grocery store had shown a high degree of corporate responsibility. It made no sense to me that someone would try to sue them just because one person had come back from vacation with an illness. The legal powers that be were clearly of the same mindset, because the case was dismissed before anyone even saw the inside of a courtroom.

There are times, of course, when class-action lawsuits are quite justified. When we buy deli meat, for example, we expect that meat to be free of food poisoning agents. That’s a reasonable expectation. Health and safety standards are in place for a reason, and when those standards are violated and people get sick and die as a result, it’s only right that whoever is responsible be brought to task.

Last week I wrote about a national listeria outbreak in Canada, which was traced to product coming from one of the Maple Leaf Foods processing plants. The recall initially included only the product lines affected, and was gradually expanded as more products made more people sick. After a while, the decision was made to simply recall all product lines coming out of the processing plant, whether there were reports of illness linked to the product or not. The plant itself was closed down, and remains closed to this day. It has undergone at least three major chemical washdowns, and it is pretty clear that all traces of listeria in the plant itself are gone. There will probably be a couple more cleanup operations before the plant reopens, and every scrap of meat that leaves the plant will undergo thorough testing for about six weeks. In the meantime, at least four class-action suits have been filed in this disaster which has claimed the lives of fifteen people and made at least 29 others sick. These numbers are expected to rise, because listeriosis can incubate for up to three months before the victim starts to feel symptoms.

I have a feeling that this news story is not over. Hopefully we will not see many more illnesses. Hopefully we will not see any more fatalities. Whatever happens, for some time to come, I will be keeping Maple Leaf Foods out of my house.

Kaleidoscopically yours,
Kirsten

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Re: Tracking Kids

Well, now here’s something else for you who do not wish to make your kids unhappy with you to have fits about. I personally think this deal with having GPS systems on these dang kids who will not go to school is a wonderful idea! Had I had such an option when raising my daughter, who missed as many days in one first half of the year as are in two months all together, I would have jumped at the chance. Do you think that I took that BS about going to jail cause that brat would not go to school? No I didn’t.

Now, here’s where I really have some room to talk. I made some huge mistakes with my daughter. The first and biggest was trying to have her like me rather than just pissing her off and saying no. She missed school so much during her school years that no one expected her to even graduate from high-school. She did, thank goodness, and has gone on to college.

Now my point. Most likely these kids who are skipping school are not making their appointed time to be home in the evenings either. They are most likely out doing stuff they ought not be doing, and the things they’re most likely doing are the very things that keep them from wanting to go to school. So due to the fact that I couldn’t chase this kid of mine down, and drag her ass back to school, or home at night where she belonged, I’d have put the stupid Ankle Bracelet with its lovely and most wonderful GPS system on it, on her myself. I’d have been grateful for anyone who had even suggested such a thing.

People think absolutely nothing about handing their child a $500 cell phone that has a GPS system built right in, or a $1500 computer with the net, so they can chat with people twice their age posing as teens, but they have a whine fest cause some one wants to try and track these troubled kids before they end up in the prison system? What in this world is wrong?

Again, the trouble is simply you do not have the gutz that it takes to be parents. Kids are raising themselves. I made these horrible mistakes, don’t continue this life style, or else our country is doomed. Do you not realize that these kids of today, are going to be making the decisions of the future? You know? When you’re too old and stupid to know when you need to wipe the big long string of drool off your chin? Do you really want these kids who have never grasped the meaning of the word no to be running our country? Or worse yet, do you really want these kids deciding where you spend your remaining years?

I think you people best start thinking with your heads a bit, or else you may as well just hand the country over to the idiots that live like they do over in Iraq! Cause that is where we’re headed here. Instead of hollering only, "Just Say No To Drugs"! You’d best be hollering, "Just Say No To Stupidity"! - From Patty, Celine Kitty, the Rowdy Dog, and the Tazz

I think it’s a great idea! Truant gang-banger kids wear GPS locators, and the parents should pay for the program. Most of the time, the parents are at fault as well, maybe not to the degree of the kids, but the fact that they haven’t kept their kids in check like the rest of us do usually leads to the problem. Of course, they don’t see it that way, and there’s absolutely nothing they could have done to change the way their kid is, but most of us see that for what it is. A lack of discipline and respect in the home leads to a lack of discipline and respect outside of the home.

Juveniles can’t be held liable for breaking the law because, technically, they aren’t adults and can’t break the law. The law applies to adults, not kids. But at the same time, they don’t have all the rights adults have, including privacy. Hopefully the courts will see it that way as well. I think as long as they’ve been truant, and been delinquent as well ("committing acts that, if they were an adult, would be criminal in nature"), there shouldn’t be a problem with the plan. And I like it a LOT. - Chris in Utah

This makes absolute sense to me. Truancy is a crime. Since we have free MANDATORY public education. It isn’t the parents who are going to school. (Or rather, not going to school.) It’s time that somebody held teenagers accountable for their own actions. My children are grown now, but I sure could have used this policy for my step-son and my oldest son. I did everything in my power, short of chaining myself to them full time. Parents drop them off at the front door, they’re out the back before you get down the street. My daughter graduated 5th in her class. They all grew up in the same home. Same parents. The only difference was the kids themselves. Some are driven to succeed, some are driven to avoid success at all costs.

Then, too, the schools have to accept their share of the responsiblity. They’re so busy teaching to the "no child left behind" tests, that there isn’t time to make things interesting enough to keep the kids’ attention. Also, too much of the schools’ focus is on socialization, so we really shouldn’t be surprised that by the time they get to high school, they "get" it. It isn’t about education, it’s about socialization. A never ending cycle of fun, and tests. No real education. L&K, - herm

Re: Fat Chubby Obese Overweight Kids Children

The debate on “junk food” vs “healthy food” is one that’s near and dear to my heart. Living on a fixed income I have to ensure I buy what’s on sale, get what I can for free, and search for bargains. With just the wife and me, big roasts and such are out of the question…too much leftovers. Making casseroles and lasagna in ramekins doesn’t pass muster either.

I lucked out and found the Angel Food Ministries. Every other month I buy a “Senior Box” of prepared meals and a “Special” meat box. This month (September) I’ll get ten restaurant quality prepared meals for the freezer at a cost of $25.00. I’ll also get a meat combo of two 12 oz New York Strip Steaks; two 12 oz Rib Eye Steaks; and four 8 oz Hamburger Steaks for $20.00. Hell, just two of the steaks would cost nearly that much at the supermarket.

There are several different food packages available, and they vary from month to month. The prepared meals are restaurant quality and are nutritionaly balanced, and there’s even a package of fresh fruits and veggies.

This is a good way to stretch your dollars and get “Healthy” food at the same time. It might not be available where you live, and you do need some storage room in a large refrigerator freezer or a freezer, but it’s worth a shot. - sied

It’s not just lazy or intimidated Moms who are responsible for adding weight to kids. Try looking at your local school’s lunch food schedule. We just got a flier in the mail from ours. Today the elementary school kids will have French Toast Sticks with syrup, potatoes, sausage and fruit for lunch. At the high school they replaced the French Toast with Corn Dogs. From there out, every Tuesday lists Pizza from one of the area’s pizzarias - apparently Dominos must have underbid others, because they show up often. . Or how about Thursday, Sept. 18th - "Cheesy Macaroni, bread/butter, Mini Carrots, Fruit and Frozen Treat" ? Notice the high carbs here? The saddest part of this menu is how much it has changed - at the same school - since the 1950’s. Back then, they held Canning Days in the school kitchen and Moms and Grans and anybody else who wanted to pitch in would come to school in August and help prepare and either can or freeze locally grown veggies for use in meals actually COOKED by the Cook. My mom was among those who pitched in. Of course, this is a rural school. City schools didn’t do that.

When my crew was growing up, Wednesday was Baking Day. I had to pack lunches, and after school snacks consisted of two cookies and a glass of milk. I used whole grain flour or some wheat germ, oatmeal, peanut butter and lots of raisins and cinnamon in those cookies. No frosting, no cream fillings, no extra sugar, and I even found recipes that used honey.

But back then Moms got UP with their kids and fixed them breakfasts, too. The pre-sweetened cereals came along and let Mom sleep in and kids could pour that stuff into bowls, eating it with or without milk. Juice? You’re kidding! The corn syrup laden juice box hadn’t been inventedyet, but as soon as it was, THOSE Moms stocked plenty of them. In other words, for 30 years, and two generations, kids have grown up fending for themselves all too often. All day TV? Well, try being home in a quiet house. You can go nuts in all that silence. Radio blares non-stop noise at a pace that ramps up one’s heart rate, if all you hear is rock and roll. Talk radio - ugh - my opinion - I fill my own head these days with Audio Books from the Library! The choices in audio books are endless. And a neat thing happened to our TV when our cable system got bought out by a Big Firm - we can get 40 music channels! Not one word spoken, no commercials, just music. They display the composer, who’s playing, and bits about them on the screen. My own choice is called Light Classics. But I am not babysitting grandchildren like many have to do today so Mom can work because she MUST to make ends meet! It’s a changed world! - Nancy L in Ohio

When mom has spent the day working, and is feeling guilty for not spending time with the kids, it’s hard for her to be firm and insist on the children eating a balanced meal which she is too tired to fix anyway

Well there’s a big problem right there. Mom works all day and is too tired to properly feed or discipline her kids. I think I may have done a 15 minutes peice on this a long long time ago. How about if you can’t balance a job and kids, pick one? There were a lot less problems in the world back when moms were actually home to take care of their kids, keep the house clean, have dinner and a cold drink waiting when their husbands came in the door, etc..

I realize some moms have no choice, and I feel bad for them. Of course, they usually chose to have children with a deadbeat jerk so they also have some accountability. There are a few cases where you think you have a great guy who turns out to be a jerk, I do have sympathy for those women.

The moms who piss me off are the type who just have to keep up with the other moms on the PTO. They have to have the big house, the expensive SUV, the name brand clothes, etc. Is it really worth sacrificing your family over stuff? If you want to have a career that’s great, but why have kids if you don’t want to invest the time to take proper care of them? Most of the time, you really can’t have it all…sorry to burst your bubble! There are some women who can pull off both and still manage to do a decent job, but they’re a rare breed IMO. I’d personally rather do a great job at one thing that a semi decent job at 2-3 things no matter what I have to sacrifice. - Monique in South Carolina

Patty said, "Now, as far as these foods being easy to prepare, what about snack pack yogurt cups? What about snack pack fruit cocktail? What about ready to eat granola bars, and cereal bars? What about healthy fruit snacks like fruit roll ups, and fruit bites?
do they come in, and do what my boyfriend’s son does? He comes in, and yes he will plop down in front of the TV for a time, to relax, and just vegg out for a while. What does he eat? Well, Hmmm? Well, Hmmm? let’s see here, Cheese nips, Pretzels, Fruit snacks, etc."

I’m not trying to be rude, but have you ever read the labels of any of these foods you mentioned? Most of them are total junk! Look at the amount of sugar in those yogurts, granola bars, and fruit snacks/roll ups. The junk outweighs the good stuff in them by a longshot! You might as well feed them candy bars and chips! Sure, pretzels and cheese nips have less calories than chips, but they’re still high in sodium and nothing but empty calories unless you can find whole grain varieties. It’s all overprocessed white flour and white sugar crap, nothing I’d be proud to say I feed my kids! - Monique in South Carolina

Re: Organ Donation

I do not wish to be an organ donor, or an organ recipient. I believe that if organs were meant to be transplanted, the recipient wouldn’t need anti-rejection drugs for the rest of their lives. We are not cars with interchangeable parts. Just because a thing can be done, does not mean that it should. When it’s my time to go, I want to go with dignity and grace, and no extraordinary measures. I just feel that it’s absolutely macabre to be sitting around wishing someone else would die so I could have their organs. And, if you are on a list to receive an organ, that IS what you’re doing, no matter how pretty a face you put on it. They don’t come from an organ store. If they did, you wouldn’t have to wait. L&K - herm

Re: BIG KIDS PART 2, and ANKLE BRACELETS WITH GPS SYSTEMS

Now, before I go very far with this, please let me say this. It is not ever my intent to offend any one with my opinions. I never ask for any one to agree, only to consider. I recieved an e-mail cautioning me of my attitude. Well, that person was absolutely correct. It is not anger and emotion that will solve the problems that children face today, problems such as being overweight, and needing a GPS system to try and track the kids to make sure they go to school.

Well, it might be. The thing we need most is to remember where we came from, and where it is that we truly wish to go with our lives, and the lives of our children. As far as Big Kids go, we simply need to, all of us, reset our priorities a bit. Include the kids in nightly prepairing of meals, and even the lunches they take to school, or snacks they may take to day care, or day camp. This allows for better eating, as well as more time together as a family, no matter what sort of family you may have. As far as the kids needing some sort of a device to track them. I’d say after going through all I went through with a child that refused for years to go to school, and never really knowing what she was doing in the evenings when I didn’t exactly know where she was, and those things she was doing being some of the reason she didn’t wish to go to school? Well, I’d say if some one had offered such a thing to me, I’d have happily taken it. I suppose it all depends on how you look at things. - From Patty, Celine Kitty, the Rowdy Dog, and the Tazz

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