The "New Normal"

[Mikey]

https://www.ocregister.com/2018/08/09/s ... -closures/

[Mikey]

The "Holy Fire" about 35 miles north of my house at Lake Elsinore

[Derron]

Which was an arson started fire.

Friend of mine is Ericksons Senior pilot, which is one of their MD's in the picture. They have worked max hours every day for the last 6 weeks.

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

Can you verify the claim of arson?

Could be some insurance company not wanting to pay out.

[Goober McTuber]

Fire was probably started by Mikey melting.

[Joe in PB]

Fires suck, good luck again Mikey. I remember when these huge fires were rare, and most were in National Forests. Now large fires in California with homes burning seems to be a yearly occurance.

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[Rooster]

The sad thing is it doesn’t have to be this way. Go back to cutting timber, allow cattle to graze on the open range, do controlled burns, and bulldoze extensive fire breaks, aka dirt roads through those supposedly pristine woods. You’d think that fire management is some unbelievably difficult concept to wrap your head around, but the reality is environmentalists got the upper hand back in the Clinton administration and those chickens have been coming home to roost for over a decade now. The new normal is an unwillingness to deal with the problem directly— except once the woods are on fire.

(Additionally, the USFS looks forward to summer as the time to pad their bank accounts with overtime by slow walking the process of fire detainment to a crawl. CalFire doesn’t play that game, but Sacramento’s head is so far up the Sierra Club’s ass that the fires end up... burning up the fire management budget early. Sorry, bad pun.)

[Mikey]

As much fun as I have ragging your old ass, I hate seeing that. Stay safe old friend.

Thanks for the thoughts. This one is really presenting no danger to us but you can see the huge smoke plume from miles around since Monday. That’s not to say that a stray spark and some gusty wind wouldn’t fuck us up in no time. It’s been over 90 here every day since the first week in July. Supposed to cool off a little over the weekend.

[Mikey]

Back in December we had to evacuate for one night. Fire came within about a mile from here. It burned through the Santa Margarita River valley. Took out a horse training center and killed about 40 thoroughbreds.

[Mikey]

Nice job 88. The first one almost looks photoshopped. It seems strange you can see blue sky reflected in the windows.

[Screw_Michigan]

Ronnie James Dio wrote Holy Fire

The "Holy Fire" about 35 miles north of my house at Lake Elsinore

[Mikey]

Can you verify the claim of arson?

Could be some insurance company not wanting to pay out.

Who would think that this guy could ever do something so crazy.



https://bakersfieldnow.com/news/local/m ... o-to-court

[Left Seater]

Good luck Mickey. As you said here’s hoping there are no stray sparks or anything.

[Joe in PB]

I've been trying to understand why San Diego and Southern California have been having so many large fires. Southern California has been receiving close to normal rain fall, which granted isn't much. There are more homes now, but all these fires are started by kook arsonists?

Not so sure about that.

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[Mikey]

Southern California has been receiving close to normal rain fall,

Actually, no. we've had one wet winter in 2017 but other than that much drier than usual. This year, so far is one of the driest in history in San Diego.

[Dinsdale]

https://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascou ... o_kil.html

[Mikey]

https://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascou ... o_kil.html

LOL first comment I saw:

This is why Oregonians aren't allowed to pump their own gas. It's safe for the rest of the country but not Oregonians.

I was thinking something along the lines of no wonder the number meth busts in California have gone down, the tweakers are moving to Oregon.

[Dinsdale]

the tweakers are moving to Oregon.

Fail.

The modern illicit meth trade came from Oregon.

And I believe that property is within the Urban Growth Boundary, making that 3 acres in West Linn (wealthiest city in Oregon) worth millions of dollars.

[Mikey]

Shows how much I know about our friends to the north.
:?

[Mikey]

Once, while working after hours picking up balls on a driving range, I found a partly full bottle of insect repellent. A while later I came across a yellow jacket nest in the ground and thought that the two would go really nicely together. So I dumped the insect repellent in, stuffed a golf ball in the hole, and then got in my cart and drove away as fast as I could.

I was a dumb kid at the time and didn't own a multi-million dollar piece of property.

[Dinsdale]

Make no mistake -- loading the yellow jacket nest with gasoline and torching it is a great removal technique... just not during the Sahara Season, when it hasn't rained in weeks. And it's done in the evening, when all the wasps are in their nest.

[Mikey]

Mikey - errrr:



Sorry, dude. That's a desert you're living in. 0.21 inches for three months in the summer? Fuck - I piss more than that when I don't even have to piss!

Actually, it's "coastal sage scrub."

[Joe in PB]

https://www.accuweather.com/en/videos/h ... ttjsvygagw

[trev]

I think I told you guys last year most of these are arson. That or illegal camp fires. We have had several break out the last 2 months. Very suspicious. I think someone is going around setting them and I hope he gets caught.

Saw a similar picture less than 2 miles away from me that Mikey posted. It was homeless in a canyon what started it.

[Derron]

Make no mistake -- loading the yellow jacket nest with gasoline and torching it is a great removal technique... just not during the Sahara Season, when it hasn't rained in weeks. And it's done in the evening, when all the wasps are in their nest.

I have made up various mixtures of this sort over the years, combining gas, diesel used motor oil and then torching them off. Just not in this season, which is one of the driest we have seen in years, and all that rain that gives the green growth, now contributes to the fuel loads that are very dry. Kayaking at a local lake this morning looking at dry hillsides with 4 foot tall grass, if Western Oregon gets away with out a major wildland urban interface fire this year it will be a miracle, since everybody still thinks bon fires are a good idea.

As a substitute for the fire portion of burning out the yellow jack nests, I just this evening mixed up 2 five gallon jugs of diesel, old motor oil and then added in some of the various assortments of insect chemicals straight into the diesel, that I pick up at garage sales over the year for just this purpose, and then dump the whole fucking thing down the nest hole,after dark of course. Works great.

[BSmack]

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/ne ... ek/108007/

The Cali fires don't have jack shit on the BC fires. Smoke from there is in Ontario now.

I'm hoping for a contact high from all that BC chronic that is going up in smoke.

[Dinsdale]

Toronto Air Quality Index : 26 - Good

Portland AQI: 118 - Unhealthy for sensitive groups

Spokane AQI: 310 - Hazardous


Looks like we'e heading for a repeat of last week, when AQI was generally 165ish, and it didn't really get very light during the day.

[Dinsdale]

Portland AQI: 118 - Unhealthy for sensitive groups

Less tha 2 hours later, up to 126, and climbing. Not so light out.

[Dinsdale]

Staying away from liberals keeps my blood pressure down.

I dunno -- cunt-punching Screwey is a good outlet.

[Screw_Michigan]

I dunno -- cunt-punching Screwey is a good outlet.

You live in a fantasy world.

[Dinsdale]

You're a doormat here.

[Goober McTuber]

At 4chan or at the trolls. Staying away from liberals keeps my blood pressure down.

Excellent advice for Meltspray.

[Screw_Michigan]

You're a doormat here.

Thanks for proving my point.

[Goober McTuber]

It's not supposed to rain during the summer, that's why it's called summer

YOU'RE IN A FUCKING DESERT!

Where in the HELL have you been, old-timer?

At NAMBLA or at the trolls. You know, the regular pedo sites

FTFY.

[Goober McTuber]

"Dockers" must be people who regularly kick your fat ass.

[Mikey]

Khaki pants?

[Joe in PB]

More screwed up news.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/state/calif ... 33835.html

Firefighters say Verizon ‘throttled’ data, crippling communications during California wildfire

By Dale Kasler

The Sacramento Bee

August 22, 2018 09:49 AM

Updated 2 hours 32 minutes ago

A Bay Area firefighting agency, assisting with the response to the massive Mendocino Complex Fire, says its communications were crippled by Verizon through a controversial practice known as “throttling.”

The Santa Clara County Central Fire Protection District says a communications vehicle it dispatched to the Mendocino Complex, the largest wildfire in California’s history, was rendered essentially useless after Verizon reduced data speeds to a fraction of what firefighters needed.

Santa Clara’s complaint was lodged in a legal brief filed Monday as part of a major lawsuit aimed at restoring “net neutrality,” the doctrine that says all internet traffic must be treated equally. Led by a Trump administration appointee, the Federal Communications Commission last year repealed net neutrality, which had been implemented in 2015 by the Obama administration.

The FCC says net neutrality stifles innovation. But 22 state attorneys general, in their court filing Monday, said net neutrality prevents internet service providers from implementing practices such as “throttling,” in which data speeds are dramatically reduced. Left to their own devices, internet providers “will abuse their gatekeeper roles in ways that harm consumers and threaten public safety,” the court filing said.

They cited Santa Clara’s predicament in the Mendocino wildfire as an example. Anthony Bowden, the Santa Clara fire chief, said in the court filing that its communications vehicle, known as OES 5262, found its data speeds dramatically reduced when it arrived to help with the Mendocino fire, hampering communications. The issue came to a head at the end of July, as the fire was menacing areas of Mendocino and Lake counties.

“These reduced speeds severely interfered with OES 5262’s ability to function effectively,” Bowden wrote. The vehicle is a “command and control resource” that helps direct traffic during big fires and other emergencies, coordinating with other agencies, he added.

The lawsuit over net neutrality is pending in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. Santa Clara’s complaint was first reported by Arstechnica, a tech-news website.

The chief said his agency complained to Verizon, but the telecom provider said the Santa Clara fire district had to switch to a more expensive data plan that would prevent throttling. Santa Clara’s firefighters on the scene used other agencies’ internet connections and their personal phones until the agency eventually subscribed to the better plan, he wrote. It wasn’t clear how long that took.

Verizon, in a statement to The Sacramento Bee, apologized for what happened but said it wasn’t related to the fight over net neutrality.

“This situation has nothing to do with net neutrality or the current proceeding in court,” the carrier said. “We made a mistake in how we communicated with our customer about the terms of its plan. Like all customers, fire departments choose service plans that are best for them. This customer purchased a government contract plan for a high-speed wireless data allotment at a set monthly cost. Under this plan, users get an unlimited amount of data but speeds are reduced when they exceed their allotment until the next billing cycle.

“Regardless of the plan emergency responders choose, we have a practice to remove data speed restrictions when contacted in emergency situations. We have done that many times, including for emergency personnel responding to these tragic fires. In this situation, we should have lifted the speed restriction when our customer reached out to us. This was a customer support mistake. We are reviewing the situation and will fix any issues going forward.”

The court filing showed that Santa Clara was no stranger to this issue. In a series of emails included in the legal brief, Santa Clara fire officials complained to Verizon a month earlier that their data speeds were being “throttled” by the carrier. At the time, a Verizon representative told the agency that its data plan included “data throttling limitation” and he suggested a switch to a more expensive plan.

Scott McLean, a spokesman for Cal Fire, said he wasn’t aware of any other firefighting agencies encountering problems similar to Santa Clara’s.

The California Legislature is debating a bill, SB 822, that would require internet companies to reinstate net neutrality in California.

The Mendocino complex, which has burned more territory than any fire in California history, has destoryed 406,532 acres and is 74 percent contained. A firefighter from Utah died in the blaze.

Definitely am for SB 822.

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[Screw_Michigan]

Getting rid of net neutrality was a swell idea. Thanks Trump!

[Mikey]

Definitely am for SB 822.

Big-government regulatory over reach.

[Dinsdale]

Getting rid of net neutrality was a swell idea. Thanks Trump!

So, a customer purchased a phone plan (likely for a rate lower than you or I would pay) that included terms involving lower speed once a data-usage threshold was met (just like the plan I've had for many years), and you spin it into a net-neutrality issue?

FAIL


Back on topic -- we're rocking a 154 AQI right now. Not as bad as it's been, but still kinda sucks. Definitely been feeling it in my throat and sinuses.