Nutria Rodeo Unintended Consequences

A nutria rodeo was held last weekend. About 200 hunters showed up to join in the free fire zone against nutria, the rat that is eating the Louisiana marsh. In all, they bagged about 1500 nutria weighing in at about 10 tons. 

At first the zoo said they would be willing to take the carcasses to feed their alligators, but by the time the rodeo was over, the dead nutria had been sitting in the heat for too long and they became quite pungent. The zoo changed their mind and now the organizers were left with 1500 smelly water rats.

What do you do with 10 tons of rotting nutria? 

It turns out that a local crab fisherman took them to be used as bait in his crab traps. I bet that the next time they decide to hold a nutria shoot, they will plan the disposal a little better.

More on Tolls

A commenter on my last post told about the State of Connecticut wanting to impose tolls on almost every road and bridge in order to generate revenue. Fuel tax revenue for state are in the decline. Louisiana went from a high of $762 million in 2006 to $589 million in 2014. The state tried to increase the gas tax by $0.16 last session taking the state from one of the lowest fuel taxes to one of the highest. It failed miserably.

There are a couple of reasons for this decrease. One is the federal governments regulation on automobile mileage. The CAFE (Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency) has been slowly adjusted resulting in people driving cars with higher gas mileage. The unintended consequence is that less gas purchased means less tax revenue. One of the reasons given for putting a toll on our bridge was the failure of the gas tax increase. All states are feeling this pinch and it will only get worse with electric automobiles and the Green New Deal.

Another thing that makes tolls so attractive is the technology. Gone are the days of manned booths and baskets that you toss your change into. It's done with electronic transponders and license plate readers. All they need to do is install a goal post over the highway and install some readers. There are private companies that offer to do this for free for a cut of the revenue.

And there has been talk about putting trackers on automobiles and taxing you by the miles you drive. This intrusion into your personal business should scare the crap out of you. But it is coming if the wrong people get into power.

Cutting Off One's Nose......

The news feed was full today listing the companies that cut "partnerships" with the NRA and the left was crowing "That'll teach 'em." Well, exactly what will it teach them?

Most of these "partnerships" were marketing schemes where the listed companies offered discounts to NRA Members. Obviously, they recognized that the NRA members could be a pool of money if they were marketed to correctly.  So, what they are doing is giving the finger to the entire membership or the NRA and telling them that they will no longer get discounts for flying Delta, renting from Hertz, or using Symantic.

I predict that the companies severing ties with the NRA will themselves experience a backlash as NRA supporters decide to boycott them.

NRA members should each buy 1 share of stock from each of those companies and then vote against the management at the next shareholders meeting.

Clever Fools

Cajun's story about troubleshooting an overloaded breaker reminded me of something that happened on an offshore platform several years ago. It demonstrated the adage that "It is not possible to make anything foolproof because fools are so damn clever."

It was shortly after breakfast and the galley hand had just started some laundry. He left the laundry room and shortly after that there was a "BOOM" and a flash fire. Luckily, nobody was seriously injured although all the ceiling tiles in the mess hall were blown out and several things were singed. The washing machine was a total loss.

An investigation revealed that one of those clever fools had done a bit of Southern Engineering.

Offshore platforms are required to test their safety devices every month. Some of these are level switches that operate like your toilet tank valve. When the level gets too high, it trips a switch and sounds an alarm. In order to test them, the operator has to add water to the float tube until the switch activates. Looking for a way to make his job easier, this clever fool ran some tubing from a water connection on the quarters building over to the float tube. Now he only had to open a valve and he could adjust the level in the float tube at his whim.

What he didn't think about was that the top of the float tube was normally filled with natural gas. This gas worked its way back up the tubing and into the potable water piping of the quarters. It happened to accumulate in the piping to the laundry room. When the galley hand started the washing machine, the water valve on the washer opened and filled the washer with gas. Then it only took a small arc from the washer controls to cause an explosion.

Paranoia is Setting In

Last year, the National WW II Museum hosted a travelling exhibit from the Holocaust Museum called "Deadly Medicine." It told the story of how the Nazi party used the science of eugenics to create the master race. The first step was finding out the whereabouts of people deemed not worthy to live by virtue of disease, race or mental disorder. Teams of workers went house to house providing free physicals. People thought this was a great idea and complied peacefully. Then they came and told the family that they would take their mentally challenged child away where they could be treated and educated. Of course, it was a one way trip.

When I saw the exhibit, my thoughts turned to Obamacare. Then I thought that it was too far fetched and paranoid to think that way.

Today I read this story over at Ann Althouse about the National Health and Alcohol Study.

Gun owners know that the first step to confiscation is registration and a national data base. What is the government going to do with all that data....and DNA? Maybe you can't be too paranoid.

More NH Shenanigans

New Hampshire leges will vote on HB 135 on Wednesday, March 20. HB 135 is a bill that eliminates the 2011 provision allowing a person to use deadly force anywhere he or she has a right to be, (negatively) amends the definition of non-deadly force, and repeals the provision granting civil immunity for the use of force in certain circumstances. If you live in NH and want to keep your right to live free, you need to contact your representative.

I'm afraid this is a result of good intentions that will have unintended consequences. But, as Daniel Webster said, "Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."

Renewable Energy Unintended Consequesces

The Telegraph (link here) has an excellent summary of the problems Germany is having with their wind energy system and it serves as a warning for the US and UK.

Electricity is a unique commodity. It must be used as soon as it is generated. And if there is a demand for more, that demand must be met instantaneously. In order to meet the requirement to respond to changes in electrical demand, power companies use a mix of generating systems. Large steam systems, including nuclear plants, like to have a constant load. However, the electrical load changes throughout the day and to respond to these changes, power companies must have plants that can react quickly to changes, such as as gas turbine driven generators.

The problem they are finding out in Germany is that wind turbine and solar power output can change according to the weather. Because they cannot rely upon these weather dependent systems to provide electricity when needed, they have to back them up with conventional power generation that can respond quickly. This means that the conventional units have to be running and on line - and that means they are usually running at low output most of the time. Running at low outputs means that these plants are running at low efficiency and costing more to operate.

So here's the unintended consequence: in order to have "green" energy you have to run a carbon technology plant at low efficiency to provide backup to the green system. This results in more carbon emissions and higher expense for the customer.

As the article describe, power companies in Germany are beginning to push back against the green requirements. We should pay attention to what is happening over there because they are the future of Obama's lust for green energy.

Green Lies and Taxes

By now you have probably heard about the agreement Obama made with the auto industry to increase the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. It will be achieved by raising the CAFE 5% every year starting in 2017. While everyone accepts that this will increase the cost of a car, how much that increase will be is uncertain, but the media gives us the good news that the fuel cost savings will make u p for the increased cost of a new car.

Really? Let’s take a look at it and see if that statement passes the smell test.

Let’s say you drive 15,000 miles per year and let’s say that you drive a car that gets 30 miles to the gallon. Over the course of a year, you will burn 500 gallons of gasoline (15,000 miles divided by 30 miles per gallon). If we assume that gasoline costs $4.00 per gallon, you will spend $2,000 for gasoline.

Now, if you suddenly get a new car that gets twice the mileage (60 mpg) it stand to reason that you will burn half as much gasoline and spend half as much money. Therefore, you will spend $1,000 on gas and your savings for the year will be $1,000!

Do you really think that this savings will offset the additional cost of the car that will meet Obama’s CAFE standard? Anyone? Bueller?

If the additional cost of these high mileage cars is $5,000, you will either need to drive 75,000 miles in a year or the price of gasoline will need to increase to $20.00 per gallon. Does either of these things seem likely?

How much are you personally willing to pay to improve the environment because, believe me folks, the additional cost of these high mileage cars will passed on to the consumer and the difference will not be balanced by fuel savings.

There is a saying that if you put a frog in hot water, it will jump out. But if you put him in cold water and slowly raise the temperature, he will stay and boil to death. The government is treating you like a frog. It will slowly ramp up the cost of automobiles hoping you won’t notice the personal cost.

Let’s call this agreement what it is – It’s a tax on the American people. It’s as much of a tax as if the government increased your tax bracket but they do it with regulations instead of changing the tax code. And the frogs don’t notice.

San Fransisco Smells

I was amused to read about the problem San Fransisco is having with its sewage system. Several years, ago the tree huggers there started giving rebates to anyone who would install a low flow toilet - one that uses less water to flush. Evidently the program was a huge success. The program "saved" 20 million gallons of water.

The program had unfortunate consequences, however. With less water flowing in the sewers, the transport of fecal material was impaired. Lower water volume means lower water velocity in the pipes which means less turbulence and that allows solid particles to drop out of the flow stream. The "stuff" builds up in the pipes and just sits there instead of going to the neighborhood sewage treatment plant.

And the citizens are beginning to smell the consequences of their environmental efforts. Now the city is going to spend $100 million to upgrade treatment plants and another $14 million on bleach to disinfect the pipes.

Good job, San Fransisco. Too bad you really didn't know your "stuff"!

Get-There-itis

Get-there-itis is a disease exhibited by Type A personality types. Its symptoms are impatience, a desire for action and a focus on goal achievement. It is also sometimes known as Go Fever, especially in the aerospace industry.

In my opinion, Get-there-itis was the root cause of the Deepwater Horizon blowout. That is a personal opinion, based upon hearsay evidence but backed up by experience. When all the hearings are over and the reports written, I think they will find that the decisions of the BP representative on board the rig were the root cause of the blowout. Let me explain a little about the hierarchy on a drilling rig.

On a drilling rig, the Toolpusher is the top man for the rig owner. He is in charge of the entire rig and its personnel. However, there is one person who is higher than him and that is the "Company Man". The Company Man is the representative of the oil company that is hiring the rig. The oil company's engineers design the well and procedures to construct it and the Company Man puts them into action. In case of a dispute or question, he is the final decision maker. With modern communications, he can be in instant contact with the home office, but he is the man on site and his is the last word. A man does not rise to that position by being a shrinking violet or doubtful of his capabilities. You can bet that he will have a large ego as it takes one to be responsible for costs that rival the annual budget of a small country.

I think the BP's Company Man made a unilateral decision to circulate the mud out of the drilling riser and replace it with seawater in order to cut a couple of days off the drilling program for a rig that cost around $500,000 per day.

I make that judgement because I have observed similar behavior in my professional career. I was site engineer on a project when the project manager wanted to eliminate proof load tests on monorail lifting beams in order to save some time. Although it was counter to the specification, he wanted to eliminate it and wanted engineering to concur. I refused and told him that it was a business decision that could be made by project management but was not one that engineering would support.

In another case, a good friend of mine flew his airplane into the side of a mountain because he was in a hurry to get to his ski vacation and decided to fly through mountains in marginal weather. He killed himself, his wife and his niece, not the mention putting the lives of the recovery team at risk.

You have probably seen similar behavior. What about that guy that cut you off at the highway exit or blew past you at 90 mph. Clear cases of Get-there-itis.

So, it would not surprise me that the BP Company Man decided to take a unilateral action that ultimately caused the blowout. I cannot wait to hear his testimony to the investigating board

Unintended Consequences

Sometimes when executives go out in to the world, they are oblivious to the consequences of their actions. When a CEO decides to rub elbows with the "hands" offshore, a whole chain of events is put in motion. A special helicopter will be chartered. The platform will undergo a "beautification project" which takes the guys away from productive work (and adds cost). All "dirty" operations are postponed. The cost of all this adds up but the executive is not aware of it, or just doesn't care.

I once knew a construction supervisor, who when faced with a pending visit from the CEO, negotiated with the shipyard to spray a "cosmetic coat" of paint on the rig so that the color would be uniform and not the patchwork of shades that comes with paint sprayed on at different times. The problem was that they thinned the paint so much that it bubbled the paint below it causing a major do over.

It seems Obama suffers from a similar syndrome. When the President decides to go walkabout, he triggers road closures and all manner of local havoc. His vacation in Hawaii shut down the operation of several tourist flight sightseeing operations. They are now trying to recover their lost income from the government. The link is here.

And that's probably a few more votes he won't get in the next election.

Red Light, Red Light

Recently, several red light cameras have been installed in the area. The police claim that their purpose is to prevent accidents and save lives, but most folks suspect the real reason is to generate revenue. A recent news article supports that premise.

CBS news in Los Angeles made a study of accidents at intersections where red light cameras were installed. The police claim a 34% reduction in accidents. But unlike the police statistics, which just counted accidents from people running red lights, CBS included ALL accidents, including rear end collisions when a driver tried to stop to avoid the camera generated ticket.

In analyzing the accidents at 32 intersections and comparing a period of 6 months before cameras to the 6 months after camera installation, they found that accidents actually increased at 20 of those intersections. For 3 intersections, the number of accidents remained the same. It was only 9 intersections that showed a decrease. In fact, at three intersections, the number of accidents tripled during the study period.

If you are going to LA soon, you might want to avoid the intersections on this map.

By the way, the cameras generated $4 million for the city. Most contracts for red light cameras involve a third party contractor who installs and maintains the cameras for a cut of the action. What is unknown is how much the contractor made from the cameras.

I wonder how long it will be before someone tries to use the argument that the cameras were the cause of his accident and injuries, especially if he was rear ended by the car behind? Morris Bart, are you paying attention?

The Law is Merely a Suggestion

One of the things that drives me crazy about liberals is their penchant for changing the rules when they realize that they may be on the losing side of the law. The latest example of that is Ted Kennedy.

As Ted feels the cold, clammy hand of the reaper on his throat, he wants to change the Massachusetts succession laws that define how his replacement will be selected. The law requires that an election be held with 5 months after the office becomes vacant. This isn't good enough for Ted. He has written a letter asking that the law be changed so that the Governor can name an immediate, although temporary, replacement. You see, his favorite subject, health care, may be in jeopardy if he dies and cannot vote from the grave.

But lets back up a few years. Back in 2004, the law was that the Governor could name a replacement to a vacant Senate seat. But the Governor then was Mit Romney, a Republican. And the Senate seat belonged to John Kerry. The Democratic state legislature therefore changed the law to allow for an election and prevent Mit from appointing a replacement. Little did they know that the law might come back to bite them.

So, if Ted kicks the bucket, there will be no one to fill his seat until an election is held, and his favorite political issue may go to the grave with him. Irony is sweet.

More Unintended Consequences

The London Times is carrying a story about compact fluorescent bulbs and mercury poisoning in China. You should know by now (and if you don't, you've had Rectal-Cranium Disorder) that fluorescent bulbs contain mercury. If you break one, you have to take special caution when cleaning it up. You can't toss them in the trash. They have to go in the hazardous waste pile. But now we know that the Chinese that work in the factories that make these things are being poisoned by the mercury they contain. So, as you pat yourself on the back for being soooo environmentally aware, know that a poor Chinaman is suffering for you.

The link to the article is here.

Unintended Consequences

My wife used to own a franchise for a national temporary employment agency. She closed it at the beginning of this year because of the lousy economy and lack of business in the "affected area". But she still keeps in touch with her friends in the business and she heard the other day that company headquarters had cancelled the health insurance plan for their temporary employees.

One of the items in Obama's new budget plan (the one that nobody read) was that health care providers would have to pay 65% of the cost of the COBRA for a laid off employee thereby reducing the employee's cost to 35%. (Previously the employee paid up to 102% of the cost). The idea was to make health care affordable for laid off employees. Unfortunately, the end result seems to be that now nobody will have health insurance benefits.

So, Obama institutes a plan to make health care more affordable to laid off employees but ends up having health insurance cancelled for all employees.

Was this the change you expected?