Month: February 2012

  • Happy Leap Day!

    Everyone enjoy your February 29th. For me, I’m looking forward to February 31st. Every four years I cancel March 1st (or March 2nd, in this case) and have a bit of a shindig. This year will be pretty low key, but if you like, please join me in giving February it’s long lost days and celebrate the leap year!

  • Adobe Acrobat != Useful Markup Tool

    Today I relearned something I already knew, but learned two things that I desperately wanted:

    1. Adobe Acrobat is the worst editing tool in the whole world
    2. If you use any of the comment and markup functionality, then hit ctrl-e, you’ll get a nice set of controls that let you set your size, weight, & etc. of text
    3. You still can’t rotate text, but you can rotate the whole sheet, insert the text, then rotate it back

    Thank you. Have a nice day.

  • Last Two Days in the GA Legislature

    HB 1116 – Prohibition of Vasectomies. You heard me right. This is a protest bill.

    SB 468 – Bicycle Rules of the Road. This bill would remove the option for bicyclists to ride two abreast. I am not in favor of this bill. It is ostensibly for safety reasons, but it really is to demonstrate the primacy of the automobile on our roadways. This is short-sighted and wrong-headed.

  • Goodnight Cat Post

    Artemis is our regal cat.

    Artemis

  • So I Made this Today

    Pictures of Pictures

    Recently, I participated in a Kickstarter campaign that delivered to me a paper-stock mecha game! It’s called Lost Reich and it’s by Fat Dragon Games. I got my file downloads this week and today I put together the first model, shown above.

    I tried to take a picture of this using the handy-dandy camera that’s mounted on my PC, but for the life of me I couldn’t get a good focus. If you look at the image that’s in the image above, you’ll see how badly out of focus the model was. The silly computer insisted on focusing on my face. Like that’s useful.

    Here’s a better picture of the model.

    This is the Sherman I and it was my inaugural shot at doing paper craft modelling.

  • More Cats!

    I’ve you’ve been wondering why more cat pics aren’t appearing here, it’s because Apollo and Artemis think that someone with a camera means playtime, which means incessant moving around, which means it’s hard to get sharp pictures. So far, the only place I can get them to stand still long enough for image capture is in the bedroom, or if I use a flash, which is never a good idea with cats.

    I am here for your Soul

    Apollo and Fuzzy Artemis

    Artemis

  • It’s Halfway! Georgia Legislative Session

    In case you don’t know, the Georgia Legislative Session is 40 days long. ((40 legislative days, not calendar or work days.)) Yesterday, Friday was Day 21. We’re halfway done. We’re also 2/3 of the way to Day 30, which is known as “crossover day”. Any piece of legislation that hasn’t been passed by the House, or Senate, and sent to the other chamber is considered shelved. During the first session of a legislature (which was last year), the bill can be taken up again in the following session. On this session, which is the last before general elections, I imagine that it gets dumped and must be resubmitted ((But I don’t know what officially happens to something that doesn’t make crossover in the second session. I’ll find out.))

    So, 9 days to go until any legislation that wants to pass this session must be acted on by one of the chambers.

    Things that have come up in the last three legislative days:

    HB 1058 – Condemnation of Property and Transfer of Ownership. This bill would allow immediate transfer of ownership of a property condemned due to blight. I imagine so that a governmental agency can hand it off to someone (private) who has promised to develop it. I looked up the definition of “blight”.

    (1) “Blighted property,” “blighted,” or “blight” means any urbanized or developed property which:

    (A) Presents two or more of the following conditions:

    (i) Uninhabitable, unsafe, or abandoned structures;

    (ii) Inadequate provisions for ventilation, light, air, or sanitation;

    (iii) An imminent harm to life or other property caused by fire, flood, hurricane, tornado, earthquake, storm, or other natural catastrophe respecting which the Governor has declared a state of emergency under state law or has certified the need for disaster assistance under federal law; provided, however, this division shall not apply to property unless the relevant public agency has given notice in writing to the property owner regarding specific harm caused by the property and the owner has failed to take reasonable measures to remedy the harm;

    (iv) A site identified by the federal Environmental Protection Agency as a Superfund site pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Section 9601, et seq., or environmental contamination to an extent that requires remedial investigation or a feasability (sic) study;

    (v) Repeated illegal activity on the individual property of which the property owner knew or should have known; or

    (vi) The maintenance of the property is below state, county, or municipal codes for at least one year after notice of the code violation; and

    (B) Is conducive to ill health, transmission of disease, infant mortality, or crime in the immediate proximity of the property.

    Property shall not be deemed blighted because of esthetic conditions.

    HBs 1051 and 1052 have to do with MARTA. 1051 repeals the provision (I think) of 50% of revenues be capital expenditures, rather than operations. My admittedly limited knowledge on this front thinks that this six-republican-representative-consigned bill is a smack in the face of the Governor’s Transit Governance Task Force recommendations.

    HB 986 – English Document to Control Legal Determination. This bill is succinct, so I’ll just quote it:

    In the event of a dispute or complaint wherein an insurer provided any material in a language other than English, the English language version of the policy as that term is defined in paragraph (1) of Code Section 33-24-1 shall control the resolution of such dispute or complaint.

    I find this bill to be interesting in a legal sense. What kind of case law surrounds this sort of thing? What have the practices been in other states? I can see lively legal battle over differing interpretation of legal documents in translated forms. Does the person who’s primary language is [not English] have standing when it comes to the interpretation of documents? Is their recourse a counter suit that the translator didn’t do an effective job?

    Interesting.

    HR 1377 – Opposing Citizens United Ruling. Six democrats cosigned a resolution condemning Citizens United. Go them, although this resolution will now quietly die.

    SB 463 – Changing Provisions of Design Build Contracts in GA. This bill removes the requirement to select the lowest bidder Design-Build team, and it also increases the proportion of contracts that can be awarded as Design-Build (as opposed to the more traditional Design-Bid-Build).

    SB 445 – Throwing The Professional Licensing Boards Out! This 831 page bill entirely upends the methods of the current professional licensing boards in Georgia (which includes Professional Engineers, Barbers, Massage Therapists, Contractors, etc., for a total of 45) and I do not agree. Well, actually the Chairman of my professional licensing board opposes it, and I trust him, and I do not have the time to read an 831 page bill, so yeah, I oppose this.

    It will be heard in committee on Tuesday.

    SB 444 – Video Speed Enforcement in “Safety Zones” ((Work zones, basically.)). This bill would allow the use of video speed enforcement in work zones. Bring it on, I approve. Work zones are some of the most dangerous places on the highway, for the workers.

    HOWEVER! There is a provision in the bill that requires notification of the drivers that they will me monitored by devices. This annoys the crap out of me. Why? Because there is a similar provision for counties and municipalities to notify drivers of radar enforcement. Some background:

    In order to enforce speed by radar, a particular piece of roadway (in Georgia) must have the speed by statute, or by an engineering study.
    In order to enforce any piece of roadway by radar, the road must have been marked at the entrance to the county or city (or state for that matter) with a sign that warns drivers that their speed will be monitored by detection devices.

    My crap is annoyed out because in 2012, it’s ridiculous to postulate that anyone, anywhere in the United States, doesn’t realize that their speed will be monitored by radar. I challenge you to find someone who doesn’t know that the cops use radar guns. By maintaining this outdated law, the local municipalities, and the Department of Transportation, have to erect and maintain an enormous number of signs. That’s just silly. Remember that signs are road hazards, too, no matter how “breakaway” they are.

    This provision should be repealed and the signs removed. This will save money (tax money!) and time.

    Now, with respect to the workzone video speed detection, I will grant that situation is a bit different, but I say, lets start like we mean to continue and not worry about the signs.

    SB 441 – Don’t point Lasers at Officers. This bill would make it a high misdemeanor to point a laser at a police officer. I’m wondering what prompted this.

    SB 434 – Outlaw Abortion. Yup, just what I paraphrased the title.

    SR 945 – Complete Streets in GA. This resolution, sponsored by Democrats, urges the Georgia Department of Transportation to adopt a complete streets policy. Bill approves.

    SR 926 – Prohibition of Enforcement of Foreign Laws. What? Someone with more knowledge will have to chime in on this one.

  • Live From The Field

    I heard about this sign on the news this morning. Posted without comment. Absolute ringing silence, in fact.

  • Georgia House Bill 166 – Up for a Vote

    Georgia House Bill 166 is up for a vote on Wednesday. This bill would remove the “experience path” for Professional Engineers to achieve licensure. I do not approve of this measure, for egalitarian reasons. There are no firm arguments to my knowledge, based on fact, that people who did not go to college cannot be good engineers. Every argument that can be made in that sense is anecdotal and involves individual people. For each bad case of someone with experience who should not be a professional engineer, I will serve up an anecdote of someone who has an four-year degree, who should not be trusted with a sandcastle, much less the public safety.

    Many states are going to this model, that only a college degree is acceptable for professional engineers. I think this is wrong, and I hope you do to. Feel free to copy the below text that I sent to my representative and send it to yours, suitably modified of course.

    Mr. Parsons,

    I see that HB 166 is coming up for a vote on Wednesday. I am writing to
    express my concern that this bill is over reaching the intent that it
    was drafted for. I would like you, as my representative, to vote against it.

    HB 166 removes the “experience path” for Professional Land Surveyors and
    Professional Engineers to achieve licensure. It requires a 4-year ABET
    accredited degree for anyone who wishes to be licensed as a PLS or a PE.
    No longer will experience and dedication be a method of achieving
    licensure in GA.

    The argument for the bill is that it helps broaden the professionalism
    of the Surveying industry. It is the surveyors who have been pushing
    this. I have no argument with them wanting to achieve a higher level of
    professional dedication or skill with their licensees. However, they’ve
    included Professional Engineers in this bill, and I think it will *not*
    serve to increase the professionalism of our industry, merely to exclude
    some people who have chosen and alternate path.

    Currently, someone who has demonstrated knowledge of their profession by
    working under a PE for 15 years and passing the Fundamentals of
    Engineering Examination and the Professional Engineering Examination can
    be licensed as a PE in GA. If the bill passes, that person will have to
    stop working and go back to school for a 4-year degree before they can
    take the next step in their career. I feel this is burdensome beyond the
    intention of the bill.

    Please vote against this bill and encourage other members of the house
    to do likewise.

    Bill Ruhsam, P.E., PTOE
    2241 Blenheim Ct.
    Marietta, GA 30066

  • Friday’s Legislative Update

    HB 961 – Homeowner’s Solar Bill of Rights. I’m not sure how this differs from HB 686.

    HB 954 – Abortion Bill! Someone with more knowledge should read and interpret this. It’s confusing.

    HB 942 – Modernize the Code! This is a 21 page bill intended to “amend the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, so as to revise, modernize, and correct errors or omissions in said Code, or Acts in amendment thereof, which have become obsolete, have been declared to be unconstitutional, or have been preempted or superseded by subsequent laws; to reenact the statutory portions of said Code, as amended; to provide for other matters relating to revision and reenactment of said Code; to provide for effect in event of conflicts; to provide for effective dates; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.” ((All bills end with “…and for other purposes”.)) This strikes me as a good idea, generally, however I bet you could sneak a subtle, yet far-reaching, change into the code with a grammatical “correction”. I wonder how closely this is vetted?

    HR 1367 – Prohibit the EPA from regulating greenhouse gasses without further study. I won’t take a position on this resolution because, if you read it, you will discover it’s not full of climate change denialism! Congratulations, Georgia. Instead it’s about the potential economic impacts of federal policies, which I recognize have distinct, and arguable, positions surrounding.

    SB 426 – “The Teach Freedom Act.” Teach religion act, is more like it. I don’t know if this qualifies as a sweeping overhaul, but if you read through the curriculum proposed here, you’ll notice there is a lot of focus on the religious founding of the United States, and there is also a heavily euro-centric feel to it. Very little mention of slavery or native Americans. I try to stay away from educational matters as I don’t have much knowledge, but this document reads like something from the 1950’s, not the 21st century.

    SB 424 – Foundations of American Government! You may remember this one from HB 766. The only point to this is to be able to legally expand where you can put the 10 Commandments in public spaces.

    SB 419, 420, 422, 423 – All about HOPE. If you’re interested in what’s going on with the HOPE scholarship, go have a look.

    SB 408 – Revises the Call before you DIG provisions with respect to certain exemptions. Soooo boring, I know, but this affects my job.

    SR 848 – See above for HR 1367.

    SR 828 – Opposing Health Care Stuff for The Catholic Church. Yeah, go read it.