Sorry for the delay in getting this around the horn to you. I meant to have it ready on Friday, but I had my physical. So I delayed it to Saturday, but then I had my Fantasy Football draft. And then on Sunday and Monday I was toying with the idea of just waiting until Friday for a two week round-up. But then I started writing it and it was getting too big. So I am just going to post what I have now, and do another Around the Horn column on Friday, September 6.
So here is what the Delaware blogosphere was talking about this past 10 days. I have organized the postings into individual subjects. Organization FTW!
Teachers and Testing–John Young at Transparent Christina takes issue with John Sweeney’s latest op-ed to the News Journal about the “growing pains“ of the teacher evaluation system. Kavips has some thoughts too. Another News Journal op-ed saying that teachers are afraid of tests got some definite reaction from Kavips and Steve Newton at Delaware Libertarian.
Charter Schools–Kavips looks at arguments that Tennessee’s proposed charter school law was unconstitutional. Can these arguments be applied to HB 165?
Department of Education Awards and Grants–Kavips lists them all.
Proposed New Castle Tire Incinerator–Nancy at Delaware Way thinks we are being sold a bill of goods, and Governor Markell, DNREC Secretary O’Mara and Alan Levin are the salesmen.
The big news during the show yesterday was a call in from district County Councilman, George Smiley, who said that he was told by the owner of the industrial park at 78 McCullough Dr, New Castle – where ReNew Oil, DEDO and DNREC claim the facility will be located – that this incinerator is NOT and was NOT EVER going to be a tenant there. That begs quite a few questions:
• How can a permit be requested and considered for a site with no lease where the property owner claims never to have spoken to ReNew Oil?
• Does this reveal a ‘trojan horse conspiracy’ of sorts for opening the door to allegedly ‘clean’gasification process?
Highmark and MedExpress–Steve Newton at Delaware Libertarian shows us the future for non-Highmark hospitals in Delaware. No, he is not psychic. He knows the future because this whole monopoly has already played out in Pennsylvania. And the footprint for Highmark in Delaware is already larger than you think.
Revolutionary War–Kavips blew my mind with this opening:
Occasionally something that you looked at many times, but have never seen, suddenly jumps out and changes your whole perspective. For example, I had always thought that as far as the Revolutionary War went, Delaware’s only claim to fame was that the new flag was first flown in battle on Delaware’s soil…….
Not so! Two hundred thirty-six years ago today, things were really jumping in these parts. It may seem like a long time ago to most of us, but in reality it is only a string of three ten year olds who each knew someone who was ninety. In the vernacular, that means that most of us know someone, who themselves knew someone who actually had spoken to someone, who was alive during the Revolutionary War!…… Whoa…….
August 25, 1777 close to 300 ships sailed up the Chesapeake Bay, anchored off off Elk Neck, Maryland, and began disembarking. That has been called the largest fleet ever assembled off either of the America’s coasts. To put that number into perspective, the famous Spanish Armada, consisted of a meager 130 Spanish ships. The most-oft talked about Battle of Trafalger, consisted of a combined total of some 60 ships. Modern historians can get a perspective by comparing those 300 ships to the 700 off of Dunkirk or the 900 off of Normandy…….
It must have been quite a sight to stand on the top Iron Hill and see over 300 tall masts sailing to defeat you. And on board those ships, were15,000 solders disembarking to begin marching towards your capital city….That’s close to the total number of women living across Greater Newark in 2010.
Were we living 236 years ago, we would all be on edge! Anticipating a major battle on Delaware soil, 11,000 continental troops were moved into Delaware and bivouacked at what used to be known as Red Mill Neck, and now is near the Marshalltown bridge over top of Red Clay Creek.
Go there to read more…
Nancy Willing at Delaware Way has some more on Deputy Treasurer Benner’s resignation.
Bloom Boxes and the Newark Data Center–It seems our friend Nancy fell into a trap set by our ever so clever right wing adversaries. Take for instance new piece of trolling from Resolute Determination, where Steve Larrimore seems to have completely taken the reigns now that the blogger formerly known as Charlie Copeland is now GOP CHAIRMAN Charles du Pont Copeland..….
This new high tech green data center to be built right next door to the long awaited Bloom Box plant in Newark is not going to purchase those clean efficient Bloom Boxes to power their new facility. Say it isn’t true!
Nancy then jumps right on the bandwagon, republishing the Resolute Determination post, and adding her own title that implies her agreement that says “Yet Another Delawarean Wondering Why TDC Won’t Just Use Bloom Boxes For Their UD STAR Campus Data Center.”
Kavips explains to us all what Steve Larrimore’s real purpose here is, and no, Nancy, it is not to demand Bloom Boxes be used at the Data Center.
I heard from Nancy that some dubious fact finders [Resolute Determination] are trying to embarrass Markell and Democrats by raising the fact that the new data center going into Newark is NOT going to use Bloom boxes; then tsking away with their patented headshake and a “my, isn’t that special.” They are trying to imply that if a new business won’t use the product being made here in Delaware, it had to be a bad idea to invest in putting that product here.
Before this gets out of control, let me explain why this isn’t so.
A data center uses tremendous amounts of power. The cost of power per year is usually equal to the cost of the initial capital investment. Bloom Boxes do not have sufficient output.
The scale of argument being made by some on the right, could be likened to asking why a Walmart being built won’t cool its buildings with portable window units.
Silly, right? Which is why the “Right” should stay out of arguments over its head, and should retreat back to arguing only what it knows best: which actually, is nothing, really.
Bloom Boxes have their uses, and it was right to invest in them. But the right is wrong to suggest that they can power everything and anything, and that if we don’t use them to power everything and anything, then we were wrong to invest in them.