View from the Mountain

Honest I didn't know they were agents in training

I saw the story,  Dragonfly or Insect Spy? Scientists at Work on Robobugs, in today's Washington Post.

It didn't worry me a lot since I figure the Dragonflies that I know are not going to be easily convinced to take part in anything very far away from the marshes even with genetic engineering.

However, when I happened on the Santa Fe New Mexican version of the story, they had a side bar showing how a tomato hornworm moth could be used as a spy.  Now those evil worms will do anything.

First off, I didn't know they turned into very ugly, giant moths since I kill them before they have a chance to turn into anything but an addition to Davy Jones' locker.

My war with the hornworms is well documented, I even did a post about making them walk the plank.

After all they were attacking my tomato plants. I caught them in the act of destroying foliage and even eating tomatoes right alongside the Fiddler crabs.

It was war.  I would wait for the sun to go down and get them as they got active.  I even had a few pre-dawn raids to capture their young.

Had I not taken out a hundred of these monsters, my tomato crop would have been non-existent.

After all standing between a Southerner and his tomato sandwiches is considered an act of war.

Still I had to come up with a creative way to get rid of them since using poison that close to the water that goes into the White Oak River was out of the question.

I came up with a simple solution.  I just clipped off the tomato stem they were clinging to and heaved it off the dock into the waters of Raymond's Gut.

That way they at least got to take their last meal with them.

I really did not mean to harm our national security.  I had no idea the hornworms were working for Homeland Security.

I would be glad to leave them alone if they would leave my tomato plants alone.

You would think the government could at least provide their agents with some food so my tomatoes would be safe.

You don't suppose those electronic bugs can survive in a Jumping Mullet?  They  have been acting a little suspicious this summer. It could be the steady diet of genetically altered hornworm spies.

Something to worry about

My college concentration was in history.  Much of it was colonial American history.

The people who founded our country didn't trust "standing armies."  They were especially distrustful of those who made a career of fighting for the highest bidder.

In colonial times, those fighters were called mercenaries.  Today we have a less threatening name for them, private contractors.

I found the article, NO MORE MERCENARIES, by Eric Margolis very enlightening.  The numbers were especially interesting.

There are 180,000 to 200,000 US-paid mercenaries in Iraq – or `private contractors’ as Washington and the US media delicately call them. They actually outnumber the 169,000 US troops there. Britain pays for another 20,000. At least half are armed fighters, the rest support personnel and technicians. Without them, the US and Britain could not maintain their occupation of Iraq.

These private enterprise fighters, like the Renaissance’s Italian condotierri, German landsknecht, and Swiss pikemen, are lawless, answering to no authority but their employers.

The world has changed a lot, but making war with private contractors is likely not a good idea.

Then again, lots of people agree this is a problem.  Paul Krugman has an interesting article, Hired Gun Fetish, about it in today's NY Times.

As is often the case, people wanting the problem solved, doesn't mean that anything happens.

Perhaps that is why Congress' approval rating has sunk to 11%.

Fooling with nature

We often think that we can outwit nature with our superior technology.

Perhaps the far better track to take is figuring out how to work with nature and imitating what nature does.

Here are a couple of examples to consider.  The Roanoke River seems to flood pretty easily these days.

I believe the answer being pursued is dredging and taller banks.  Maybe that will work and prevent floods, but it won't solve the real problem which is more storm water.

Emerald Isle had a beach erosion problem,  they did some beach renourishment, but  they also relocated a channel that was part of the problem.  It's turned out to be pretty successful.

The more Roanoke becomes developed, the bigger challenge it is handling the storm water that is funneled into the Roanoke River.

Storm water management is a big deal at the coast.  The recently completed Walgreen's in Swansboro took a lot longer to build because they had to build storm water management under the parking lot.

My driveway has a drain which funnels all the runoff from it through six buried bags of styrofoam pellets.

It is one of the creative ways to slow down water before it gets to our the White Oak River.  However, it isn't an option, it is mandated by CAMA.

The old idea of getting storm water to the river as fast and efficiently as possible is the opposite of what needs to be done which is slow the water down as much as possible and in fact hold it if you can so the sediment can drop out of it.

We need to work with nature instead of trying to implement solutions which focus on the symptoms and ignore the underlying problems.

No obscuring the drop in the dollar

Our government made the decision to let our dollar drop.

It has been a conscious policy so our exports will be cheaper and imports more expensive.

Unfortunately oil is one of those imports.

Our dollar dropping will also make traveling more expensive.  It has made my decision to invest in Canada something of a good thing this year.

When we first moved to Canada in 1971 the Canadian dollar was worth $1.03 US. For many years after that it went downhill.  I think it reached 76 cents at one time.

When we moved back from Canada, just removing the tax burden was like a pay raise.  I haven't done any comparisons on total taxes since I have no plans to hike back to Canada.

Still it is impressive that today the Canada dollar is worth as much as ours, and they have universal healthcare. We have a mess and a never-ending war.

While the great white north is far from perfect, I have to give the Canadians and all their natural resources some credit for a wonderful turnaround.

I know the wealth in Canada is massively unbalanced between provinces, but Canada in spite of its warts looks pretty good compared to our government which can't seem to accomplish anything.

A birthday party and the first green tomato

Yesterday was a day for surprises.  I tried to catch a beach sunrise but was thwarted by the CAMA access point to the beach not being unlocked on time.

I did manage to catch the sunrise on my way back across the bridge from Emerald Isle to Cape Carteret.

Yesterday it turns out was also the town of Cape Carteret's 48th birthday.  We managed to get treated to some excellently prepared burgers and hot dogs that were even cooked over real charcoal by Harvey Ellis, the town's mayor.

There is nothing like living in a small town for getting in touch with your government as I often write on my Southern Outer Banks site.

I also took a picture of our first green tomato which had showed up the night before.

This morning my friend Mike, whom I race against each year in the great tomato race, told me he already had a tomato from his Lewisville, NC garden.

Fortunately he then admitted that he had planted a hot house tomato plant with tomatoes already on it.

We are both worried about the weather, and I know Roanoke and SW Virginia are still really dry also.  There was an article in the Raleigh paper yesterday about the severity of the drought in western NC.

Then late last night there was news about tropical depression Barry forming.  Though predicting the paths storms will travel is a challenge, the current forecast is that on the coast of NC we will see the remnants of Barry later this weekend.

The predictions are that the Crystal Coast, Southern Outer Banks area, will get two to three inches of badly needed rain.  The Raleigh area could get three to four inches of rain.  Right now significant precipitation is supposed to stop at Greensboro which leaves my friend Mike high and dry in Lewisville just a little west of Winston-Salem.

Our forecast map also showed Roanoke getting one tenth of an inch of rain from the storm.

The other surprise yesterday was that a second alligator in a week showed up in neighboring Onslow County which is just to the west of us.  This 9 ft gator climbed into the one of the water tanks at the water treatment plant.

Are alligators a sign of global warming?

I have also updated my restaurant guide to the Crystal Coast with the article "On the trail of some treats from the sea" if you want to read about the great seafood that awaits visitors.

June 1 was also the day that the latest "Dropping Anchor" hit the stands.  Just click on the link and it will take you to their homepage where you can download the latest version as a PDF.  This month's issue has a great article about shelling and even one by me about Beach Accessibilty. 

I also have a web site with pictures of accessible trails which we are so fortunate to have in the Emerald Isle-Cape Carteret-Cedar Point area.