Progress and regression

[altivo]

The HVAC guys were at the library today to start repairing the damage done by the copper thieves. They say that it's likely the thieves were interrupted by something or someone. Otherwise they would have done far more damage. They advise enclosing the entire equipment area in security fencing immediately. I know that isn't going to set well with the city, the library board, or my boss. Not so much because of the cost as because it will "look like an armed camp." Of course the city has a wellhead within about 500 feet of the building and that is surrounded by chain link and barbed wire.

Some little progress on the MUSH environment. More habitat built, and one custom command adapted and installed. MUSH code is like LISP, nested parens and brackets until you want to go mad. It's also more or less object oriented, which is logical in a sort of perverse way, but OOP always hurts my head.

For several years, our mail carrier at the library has been taking our outgoing mail with him. Being a library, of course, we mail a certain number of books to other libraries. We use a postal scale and put on the correct amount of postage, and he's been taking them for us. No more, though. Apparently the word came down that he could no longer accept anything that weighs more than a pound. Letters are OK, packages are not. As this came to me second hand, it also included the instruction that it wasn't legal to put stamps on such packages any more, which I find hard to believe. But we are told not only must we take them to the post office personally in order to get them mailed, but we can't prepay the postage unless we use a meter. What's with that? Is Homeland Security now in league with Pitney-Bowes the way the Bush administration is cozy with Exxon?

Speaking of which, as I predicted, the four gas stations in Harvard jumped their prices again today to 4.09 for unleaded. They've been increasing the price twice a week for a while now, sometimes in jumps of 15 or 20 cents. This makes them still the highest priced stations within at least 25 miles.

Comments

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

I missed your original post about the copper theft because I've been sick the past few days...

That really sucks that they'd cause so much damage over something so little. Chain link fencing isn't going to solve this, at least not on its own - you already know that they used a bolt cutter. If you put up a fence in an unmonitored area, then all that will happen is that they cut the chain you will lock it with. Surveillance cameras sound like a better idea, maybe in conjunction with a fence, but a fence by itself doesn't sound like it would do anything...

[kyhwana.livejournal.com]

1.94 (New Zealand dollars per litre) = 5.62821081 U.S. dollars per US gallon

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I know a fence won't be enough by itself. I'm resisting the temptation to suggest that we put lions or bears in the fenced area and feed them unruly children... I suppose the guys who maintain that equipment wouldn't think much of that idea though. A surveillance camera is going to be essential I think, though even that does little to prevent damage. Locating the equipment on the roof would have been much better.

I didn't think there was freon (or whatever they use now) flowing through those lines, but the HVAC tech told me there was, and it was under pressure. So the thieves were sprayed by that and also by pressurized mineral oil when they cut the lines. They ought to put dye in that stuff. If caught, in addition to the theft and vandalism charges, there's a $50K fine for releasing the refrigerant into the open air.

I rather like soanos' suggestion that we electrify the copper piping at a high enough level to protect it, but of course that isn't really practical.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I've said before that I'm well aware other parts of the world pay more for fuel. This has been a long established issue. In the middle east they pay less.

The thing is, sudden corrections of this magnitude trigger economic disaster on the scale of the Great Depression. While Europe has paid much higher fuel prices for decades, they have also developed and maintained alternatives to help reduce their dependency. The corporate dominated economy of the US has resisted that, because it limits profitability in the short term. Now our prospects are starting to look very bad indeed. The bad thing is that the greed of a relatively small number of individuals who were already hyper-wealthy has so much influenced the fate of an entire nation. Most of us had no control over this situation, but we're all stuck with it.

[hrrunka]

The petrol price was hovering under one pound per litre around Xmas. Some point in January it finally broke the barrier, and now it's nearer 1.20.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It's been over that level at least once before though, hasn't it? I remember a news item about allowing petrol to be priced by the half-liter because the pumping equipment only workedup to 99p per liter. XD

This really does have serious implications for the entire world's economy, and it concerns me deeply that most people, including those who should be working at breakneck pace to promote and create alternatives, are just ignoring it.

[soanos.livejournal.com]

Well, probabl ynot practical.

Well, other idea is to put a cabinet around it, with capsule inside it that discharges bright green dye on anyone unfortunate enough to attempt an unauthorised entry. Access could be enabled with an RFID keychain thing. :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Of course if they just cut through the fence and avoid the lock, it won't matter. Since it is air conditioning equipment, enclosing it in a solid box with a top isn't going to work. It needs free air circulation. I think adding dye to the coolant that flows through the pipes would be a good idea though.

We'll surely be putting up a fence with barbed wire at the top, warning signs, and a surveillance camera.

None of this should be necessary, of course. But the economic conditions created by allowing wealth to concentrate in so few hands have increased the pressure that causes unlawful and antisocial activity. And it's going to get worse.

[saythename.livejournal.com]

4.09 is close to us here at 3.87.

>.<

My bike fetish seems to be getting more useful.

If they protesteth too much about a fence around the
HVAC stuff over cost, tell them it'll cost more to
replace things the next time vandal/thieves start
cutting out pipes. And if they don't like the look,
the look of "Closed For Repairs" should make them
think twice as well.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, riding a bicycle along the state and county roads here is a suicide wish. Maybe after gas gets up to $9 a gallon and people really do stop driving, then it will be safer.

[saythename.livejournal.com]

I might never be killed by a stingray,
but I think there is something transgressively
wonderful about riding a bicycle in the
dark, even with all my visibility improvments
and the huge can of mace designed for Bears
I have.

At 9 dollars a gallon...the roads will be
safer actually. @.@

I just can't see the yuppie guys in the huge
houses around here humping it to work. They'll
be ripe for revolution.

*Is on his way to work down a dark country
road on his bike when the radio says something
about a fire in the Reichstag*

@.@

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, the yuppies really aren't imaginative enough to come up with a working solution. Many of them would prefer a method that turns poor people into biodiesel or something. Even as they bitch about gas prices, they crow about how much their oil stocks are increasing in value.

[saythename.livejournal.com]

*voice of Charlton Heston*

"YA GOTTA TELL 'EM! BIODIESEL IS PEOPLE!!!!"