Thursday, August 7, 2008
Floodplain Rules
Questions for Patricia Pomeroy, former Town of Rockland supervisor (1999-2007), owner of Elliott & Pomeroy Real Estate, baton twirler at the town’s annual Trout Parade, and student.
Q: As a former town supervisor, and area realtor for 30 years, why did you decide to go back to school?
The floods. Watching the town’s flooding from 1999 through 2007, with the velocity increase each year—particularly the severity of 2006—a flood of record—and observing the difference of option with rank and file and regulation issues, I realized the need to go back to school. I chose SUNY Binghamton to study Geography and Resource Management.
Q: As a former town supervisor, and area realtor for 30 years, why did you decide to go back to school?
The floods. Watching the town’s flooding from 1999 through 2007, with the velocity increase each year—particularly the severity of 2006—a flood of record—and observing the difference of option with rank and file and regulation issues, I realized the need to go back to school. I chose SUNY Binghamton to study Geography and Resource Management.
Q: Is Geography helpful to comprehend how these small streams cause so much destruction?
Yes. It’s the study of the world and all of its human and natural complexities—not merely where objects are, but how they have changed and come to be. Some of our town’s regulations are over 20-years-old. These regulations need to go back to school.
Q: What is the conflict with rank and file and regulations?
The community is for dredging streams in hope that the flooding issues would go away. I agree with regulations. Sometimes, the best thing is just to leave them alone. I believe in ‘no adverse impact’ with floodplain management.
Q:What is no adverse impact floodplain management?
Leave alone. The “no adverse impact” is not intended as a rigid rule of conduct. Rather it has been suggested as a general guide for landowners and communities in the watersheds and the floodplains, which may adversely impact other properties, or communities
Q: Do people compare these restrictions with free speech?
I would say yes and the biggest problem is no build zones vs. where people have or want to live. There was a family with two trailers next to each other on Spring Brook. During flash flood of 2007 both trailers washed away. Survivors described the spring becoming wall of water. The mother was in one of the trailers. Her body was never recovered even with cadaver dogs adding the search. Unfortunately the family chose to rebuild built in the same location. This is really sad. Last week's flood washed the trailers away again. The government should have bought out this land. There should never be any building within 20ft of a stream.
Q: Are you for regulatory government?
Yes. Restriction in zones protects democracy.
Q: And back to water— your thoughts on the drilling of the Marcellus Shale for natural gas?
It takes millions gallons of chemical filled water to drill a well and that water is dumped into holding ponds. And the next flood—image that wall of water.
Yes. It’s the study of the world and all of its human and natural complexities—not merely where objects are, but how they have changed and come to be. Some of our town’s regulations are over 20-years-old. These regulations need to go back to school.
Q: What is the conflict with rank and file and regulations?
The community is for dredging streams in hope that the flooding issues would go away. I agree with regulations. Sometimes, the best thing is just to leave them alone. I believe in ‘no adverse impact’ with floodplain management.
Q:What is no adverse impact floodplain management?
Leave alone. The “no adverse impact” is not intended as a rigid rule of conduct. Rather it has been suggested as a general guide for landowners and communities in the watersheds and the floodplains, which may adversely impact other properties, or communities
Q: Do people compare these restrictions with free speech?
I would say yes and the biggest problem is no build zones vs. where people have or want to live. There was a family with two trailers next to each other on Spring Brook. During flash flood of 2007 both trailers washed away. Survivors described the spring becoming wall of water. The mother was in one of the trailers. Her body was never recovered even with cadaver dogs adding the search. Unfortunately the family chose to rebuild built in the same location. This is really sad. Last week's flood washed the trailers away again. The government should have bought out this land. There should never be any building within 20ft of a stream.
Q: Are you for regulatory government?
Yes. Restriction in zones protects democracy.
Q: And back to water— your thoughts on the drilling of the Marcellus Shale for natural gas?
It takes millions gallons of chemical filled water to drill a well and that water is dumped into holding ponds. And the next flood—image that wall of water.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Water Pumps, Generators, and Digital Society
Or How Disney—which uses a lot of water and electricity—destroyed Buster Keaton.
"Mickey Mouse's first cartoon, "Steamboat Willie" built upon the Buster Keaton movie, Steamboat Bill, Jr. and if today's world of copyright had existed then, maybe Buster Keaton would have been able to stop the creation of Mickey Mouse. That's the road to stagnation. But where do you draw the line for physical property? Is eminent domain's power unlimited? We can't force you to put up blue drapes inside your house in the name of the public interest. And even in the case of eminent domain, political forces often determine the definition of public interest."
An Interview with Lawrence Lessig on Copyrights
http://www.econlib.org/Library/Columns/y2003/Lessigcopyright.html/
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Self-Regulatory Mechanisms
Back in 1999, the specter of the endless dot.com boom was a recurring nightmare. I bought a house off the grid. The term off the grid or off-grid refers to living in a self-sufficient manner without reliance on one or more public utilities.
I had a sense of removing the huge weight of material concerns from my life.
Wabi-Sabi
Undeclared beauty that waits patiently to be discovered—the house. I found it online with a Goggle search “Homes for under 50K.” I didn’t have 50K and had a hard time getting a bank load. Fannie Mae informed me that 9 out of 10 people would find this house a dump. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/17/fannie-mae-freddie-mac-to_n_113497.html
A local bank http://www.jeffbank.com said yes to me as well my favorite local bookstore, Hamish & Henry. www.hamishandhenry.com>
The house was bought from a practitioner of Zen Buddhism.
He was the caretaker of the local Zendo
http://www.daibosatsu.org/
In Japan, there is a marked difference between a Thoreau-like wabibito (wabi person), who is free in his heart, and a makoto no hinjin, a more Dickensian character whose poor circumstances make him desperate and pitiful.
Wabi, Not Slobby
I spent the first year clearing trash from the property.
The first disappointment I had was from what I was told by the realtor was the “meditation tower.”
Behind the house was a two-story tower, which I found more beautiful than the actual house. Inside it was littered with beer tabs. I thought this odd for a mediation tower. I found out later by locals it was a shooting tower. It was used to take cover in order to kill deer.
"Wabi" is to be satisfied with a little hut, a room of two or three tatami mats, like the log cabin of Thoreau and with a dish of vegetables picked in the neighboring fields, and perhaps to be listening to the pattering of a gentle spring rainfall.
More about the rainfall later but to me that tower was a beautiful architectural element and started me reading.
architecturelink
While sweeping the beer tabs from the 2nd story of the tower I notice every tree sounding my property has a sign—Private Property. The signs had the name of the surrounding land owner with restrictions—a bunch of “No S”
I want to ask a relatively simple question—must these signs be on every tree?
Property/Intellectual Property
More Garbage. There is a cliff leading down to a stream—near my property but not my property—that had years of trash poured down on to it.
Mattress, cans, bottles, tires. I called the owner. He knew the situation. The Boys Scout were called to clean but refused the job. Too much and too difficult to remove.
http://www.scouting.org/
Regulation
Also in 1999 a consortium of executives from the main media and information technology industries established "The Global Business Dialogue." The consortium points to the inconsistent international regulation in cyberspace and argues that parliaments are challenging them to develop effective self-regulatory mechanisms. One of the areas, which the consortium addresses, is content regulation, led by Walt Disney. http://www.authorama.com/free-culture-1.html/
I had a sense of removing the huge weight of material concerns from my life.
Wabi-Sabi
Undeclared beauty that waits patiently to be discovered—the house. I found it online with a Goggle search “Homes for under 50K.” I didn’t have 50K and had a hard time getting a bank load. Fannie Mae informed me that 9 out of 10 people would find this house a dump. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/17/fannie-mae-freddie-mac-to_n_113497.html
A local bank http://www.jeffbank.com said yes to me as well my favorite local bookstore, Hamish & Henry. www.hamishandhenry.com>
The house was bought from a practitioner of Zen Buddhism.
He was the caretaker of the local Zendo
http://www.daibosatsu.org/
In Japan, there is a marked difference between a Thoreau-like wabibito (wabi person), who is free in his heart, and a makoto no hinjin, a more Dickensian character whose poor circumstances make him desperate and pitiful.
Wabi, Not Slobby
I spent the first year clearing trash from the property.
The first disappointment I had was from what I was told by the realtor was the “meditation tower.”
Behind the house was a two-story tower, which I found more beautiful than the actual house. Inside it was littered with beer tabs. I thought this odd for a mediation tower. I found out later by locals it was a shooting tower. It was used to take cover in order to kill deer.
"Wabi" is to be satisfied with a little hut, a room of two or three tatami mats, like the log cabin of Thoreau and with a dish of vegetables picked in the neighboring fields, and perhaps to be listening to the pattering of a gentle spring rainfall.
More about the rainfall later but to me that tower was a beautiful architectural element and started me reading.
architecturelink
While sweeping the beer tabs from the 2nd story of the tower I notice every tree sounding my property has a sign—Private Property. The signs had the name of the surrounding land owner with restrictions—a bunch of “No S”
I want to ask a relatively simple question—must these signs be on every tree?
Property/Intellectual Property
More Garbage. There is a cliff leading down to a stream—near my property but not my property—that had years of trash poured down on to it.
Mattress, cans, bottles, tires. I called the owner. He knew the situation. The Boys Scout were called to clean but refused the job. Too much and too difficult to remove.
http://www.scouting.org/
Regulation
Also in 1999 a consortium of executives from the main media and information technology industries established "The Global Business Dialogue." The consortium points to the inconsistent international regulation in cyberspace and argues that parliaments are challenging them to develop effective self-regulatory mechanisms. One of the areas, which the consortium addresses, is content regulation, led by Walt Disney. http://www.authorama.com/free-culture-1.html/
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Ponder
The generator moves an electric current, but does not create electric charge, which is already present in the conductive wire of its windings. It is somewhat analogous to a water pump, which creates a flow of water but does not create the water inside.
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