Tag: Job

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More On Goats For Vegetation Control

A few days ago I wrote about Google using goats to control grass on their property. Techcrunch didn’t seem impressed and was worried about the jobless human mowers.

The city of Mesa, Arizona has used 70 goats for the last 50 months to clear vegetation around a water reclamation plant. They expect to save $10,000 by using goats.

Besides being cost effective, it reduces the use of fossil fuels, toxic chemicals and pesticides. It’s a pollution-free way of ridding the three retention ponds of compromising vegetation, Satter said.

Goats’ bodies break down plants in such a way that they won’t grow back when it becomes waste, making the job more permanent than what a machine can do.

It’s not mentioned how many people it took to mow the grass with machines vs. taking care of goats. I suspect goats are more labor intensive that mowers.

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Ed Grothus Of The Black Hole Died Today

Ed Grothus, proprietor of the os Alamos Sales Company most commonly known as The Black Hole has died today.

Ed Grothus worked at Los Alamos National Labs building nuclear bombs, quitting that job and becoming a anit-nucelar activist and then founding the The Black Hole. The Black Hole is a store which has military surplus and salvage equipment from the Los Alamos Labs in New Mexico. The Black Hole web site says they are a recycler of nuclear waste. The Black Hole is famous for providing movie props and materials for artists.

Ed was the subject of three documentaries: Atomic Ed & The Black Hole, Los Alamos und die Erben Der Bombe and Laboratory Conditions. He also received various awards.

There is a video on YouTube entitled The Black Hole in which Ed tells his story.

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City Manager Canned

I’ve been thinking and saying out loud that the City Manager should be fired. Mainly for things like Unser Road and other such things going on in Rio Rancho. Loos like I’m not the only one as City Manager Jim Palenick was canned by the City Council. KRQE reported on it and so did the Citizens Media Group.

Palenick’s management style alienated some on staff, and two department heads had threatened to resign, including Rob Anderson, director of development services. Anderson had followed Palenick from Bay City, Mich., where Palenick had been fired from his job as city manager in August 2002.

Hopefully we will see some better planing around here with the next guy.

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Guess We All Have Bad Days

Saw this comment at apartment therapy and just couldn’t help but think that I feel like this some days.

our contractor did such a sh*t-ass job that it our small, romanesque tiles actually look like they were, in fact, done in roman times. godamned train wreck in our godamned train wreck house and my godamned train wreck life

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Eclipse Gets FAA Approval

Eclipse Aviation Corp., the Albuquerque manufacturer of the Eclipse 500 very light jet (VLJ), received provisional certification from the Federal Aviation Administration today. The company expects to receive full certification by Aug. 30. That will enable it to start delivering its Eclipse 500s to customers.

This is good news for the job market here as Eclipse will be hiring more. It looks like Honda may be a competitor, as they are coming out with their own small jet. It’s not clear if it’s a VLJ class plane however.

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Remodeling Continues

IMG_0003An attempt this weekend to repair my leaking bathroom resulted in new stuff. First we tried to fix the leaking sink, only to find it so old and corroded that it was better to replace it. I had planned to replace it at some point and I really didn’t like the double-ugly cabinet. That’s how I got the pedestal sink along with the new faucet.

Time to tackle the toilet, but pretty much the same thing. Old, corroded and ugly. Initally I was worried the new 1.6 gallon toilet would not flush as well as the old 5 gallon, but I’m happy to report that it is doing a fine job. I also upgraded to a nice padded seat.

I also removed the old, ugly, cheap-ass cabinet that was hanging above the toilet. I replaced the square mirror with this combo round mirror and medicine cabinet. I don’t care for the way it sticks out of the wall but i am happy with the look. Total trips to Home Depot for the project: 4.