It’s all over!
In Justin's kettlebell studio
I’m talking about the vacation- not the Coots News Service. Darn! The vacation is over and it’s time to get back to the old grind. I’m not even rested yet. Still, I have to thank Justin for stepping up with the news reports while I was away playing. I don’t take this effort lightly. It can’t have been easy on him to pick up the slack after years with his feet up in the back office. I know he has a lot on his plate as a stay at home Dad with a serious kettlebell fixation but he definitely delivered the goods this time.
He had six stories!
That’s seis if you happen to be in Italy which, of course I was just last week. The man knows how to deliver. He does have four kids after all. If he weren’t the boss, I’d suspect that he is after my job. Not only that, he got comments out of Ella and Amy, something I have never accomplished. If I didn’t know about Justin’s aversion to actually doing the work, I’d be worried.
Still, Cantankerous Old Coots is all about making customers happy so long as it doesn’t involve compromising our standards so it’s only fair to ask our readers to vote their preference for the COC news correspondant. Let us know who you want to find the weeks best stories to keep our readers au currant and cutting edge. Share your feelings in a comment or if you hesitate to associate yourself in any public way to our site, vote in our survey. We promise that no one will ever know you were here. But first, here is this weeks CNS report.
Germany has problems – again.
It's not easy to put out the trash
It’s probably because I just got back from Europe that I was drawn to the first story. It’s from Gernany but I think that envronmental craziness has infected Italy as well (expect more about this later). A few weeks back I reported that Germany was going bankrupt- not from bailing out Greece but by building solar energy facilities. The big problem is that everybody forgot that the sun don’t shine in Germany so there is very little output from these wonderful, state of the art facilities and they are driving the cost of electricity through the roof. This week, it seems that there are problems with other German environmental wacko programs that Germany has espoused contrary to reason and judgement.(Do you ever wonder why we always think that Germans are smart?) For example, they make you seperate trash four ways and then just destroy all four in the same way (except for token amounts of recycling.) Water conservation has meant that the sewer systems do not self clean and the water savings must be used to flush them periodically to eliminate serious bad ordors. Mercury pollution is introduced into the homes from the energy saving lightbulbs mandated by the state and the air tight new insulation standards have caused mold to grow everywhere it shouldn’t. Environmentalizm is causing an ecological nightmare in Germany.
Germany’s Failing Environmental Projects
People who shop in organic grocery stores, eat a vegan diet or drive an electric car are free to do so. But this should not give them the right to lecture others on the environmentally correct way to live their lives. Things are sometimes more complicated than they seem at first glance.
Newspapers in the news.
Back home, in a story near and dear to the CNS, we find that the newpaper business is collapsing. Print newspapers are an endangered species, apparently unprotected by the EPA and they struggle to survive by charging for online content. It all seems like a questionable strategy to this Coot. I can’t imagine how long CNS would stay wround if we depended on readers to pay for our insights. Still there may be hope in nich marketing.
Bleak outlook for US newspapers
” newspapers also still have some unique content to draw readers in, from sports to local politics. He added: “Obituaries are a good thing. You’re not going to find out whether your friends are alive or dead any place else.”
So that’s the CNS report for this week but before you forget, take a moment and leave a comment telling us which correspondent you prefer- Justin or yours truly. Or just answer the survey question. We aim to make it painless so that we can deliver the customer satisfaction you have come to expect from CNS.
Who do you prefer to deliver the CNS news report?
- Find somebody good! (67%, 2 Votes)
- Ralph (33%, 1 Votes)
- Justin (0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 3
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You’re back, and cantankerous as ever. I though vacations were supposed to mellow you out 🙂
But Hansi, you forgot to vote. No need to be embarrassed.
Is that really true? I can’t picture myself that in the European Union – which is much ‘greener’ than the US – the separate trash could be generally distroyed all four in the same way. That would be stupid and insane.
Julie,
I don’t have personal knowledge but that’s what the article says. I don’t believe that Der Spiegle would lie about something like that. Read for yourself and then ask yourself what your city actually does with all that trash you slave to separate.
I think the people in Germany will be very alarmed about this and they should know about the problems they have right now…
I agree with you. It is easy to join the environment-friendly bandwagon, but the question is that is the better technology going to help us in the long run? Germany now pays the price.
Stefannie,
I assume that since this article is from Der Spiegle that there is some awareness that these programs are out of control. Whether Germans have learned to take control of our of control situations is still unknown. The prognosis is not good.
Tim,
I think the critical word is ‘better’ it is better technology if it performs a task in a cheaper, simpler way. Theese environmental programs are complicated and don’t work as well as the old ones. That’s not better.