Faster, better…

Posts Tagged ‘Chesapeake Bay’

Cliff residents might lose homes to save endangered beetles – washingtonpost.com.

You have to read it to believe it. Environmental madness run amok. Beetles over families in O’Malley’s Maryland. Lusby residents above the cliffs face continuing erosion and the potential loss of their homes and the state will not allow cliff repairs to save the homes because a BEETLE needs the cliff face to live.

This is simply madness.

Thanks to Larry Hogan who alerted us all to this on FaceBook:

“Larry Hogan Environmental regulation run wild in Maryland! 80 Calvert County familes risk losing their homes, because O’Malley’s DNR officials would rather save the beetles, and the beetles love the eroding cliffs the homes are dangling from? O’Malley official says they “try to accomodate the wishes of the landowner but, we can’t …do it at the expense of the beetles”. What about the endangered people who own the property?”

Let’s do something fun with DougWeb.  Hopefully it will help stimulate visits to the Chesapeake and I get to find out how many local folks actually read the blog.  There is so much serious stuff for us all to worry about. We have to remember we all need recreation – and there is the Bay.

The fishing charter business is popular in Maryland. We have great fishing here and many local captains take visitors out on the Bay to enjoy the sport. Last week when I was leaving Abner’s for a Coast Guard Auxiliary patrol our boat fell in behind what could only be called a convoy of local fishing enthusiasts. Once on the Bay the number of fishing boats was amazing to see.

Tell DougWeb readers about your charter service. Give us your URL. Tell us the number to call. Brag a little about your business.  Just reply to this post.  Folks will have fun reading about the business and all of the boats. With any luck some of the charters will get a little extra business for the effort.

Oh and if you run a harbor tell us about it!

Share the fun! Fishing charters rock (and here they fish for Rock )

My wife and I were walking along the beach at Plum Point over the weekend and noticed a rather high concentration of seanettles (stinging jellyfish) along the shoreline. Yuk. Last year these biotic nuisances didn’t show up until later in the season. Or at least that’s what we think we remember. I’ve heard fishermen on the marine VHF radio comment that they have moved through vast quantities of the jellyfish. We met some un-escorted un-supervised children in the eight-to-ten age range on the beach that did not know about seanettles or the potential for stings and let them know. (Parents – you should be on the beach with your children for safety sake. More for drowning protection rather than jellyfish stings.)

This website at the NOAA is where you can monitor the progression of the seanettle up the Bay. Be aware of your surroundings before you jump in the water.

ANNAPOLIS – Our most treasured asset, the Chesapeake Bay is in trouble. Millions of dollars are spent each year on finding solutions to pollution in the Chesapeake Bay, while each year the reports are the same….the Bay is unhealthy and more must be done.

read more | digg story

Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Bay Barometer. Good and bad news about the Chesapeake Bay.

More at this link.

Fulmer and Kitchin pull rescue dummy from water

Seaman Danielle Fulmer and Petty Officer 2nd Class Andrew Kitchin pull a rescue dummy out of the water in Curtis Bay, Md., Thursday, March 26, 2009. Coast Guard members from Station Curtis Bay conduct training throughout the year to be prepared for an increase in boating accidents during the summer.

The Coast Guard urges all mariners to wear lifejackets while on their boats. A majority of boaters who drown were not wearing their lifejackets. In an emergency there may not be enough time to put one on, so wearing one at all times may save your life. (Coast Guard photo/ Petty Officer 3rd Class Ayla Kelley.)

America’s Guardians! Semper Peratus
Thank you for your service!

(TechnologyReview.com via DIGG)Zymetis is testing genetically modified bacteria that efficiently convert biomass into sugar. A tiny microbe found in the Chesapeake Bay is the focus of intense study for a biotech startup in College Park, MD.

read more | digg story

(DailyPress.com via DIGG) Citing insurmountable government roadblocks, the Virginia Seafood Council on Tuesday abandoned its effort to introduce Asian oysters into the Chesapeake Bay.

read more | digg story

I took the header pictures with my digital camera. These are from the immediate area around my home. There are a couple of shots of Eileen on the beach. We are just 800 feet from the Chesapeake Bay and loving it.

This is my personal blog. My name is Doug Smith, a resident of Huntingtown, Calvert County, Maryland. My wife Eileen and I moved from Pleasant Hill, Ca to Calvert County in September 2001. We drove across country with our cockatiel Chris and parrot Tinker. (The bird’s website.) We left the Golden State after the dot com collapse of 2001 looking for a new life on the Chesapeake Bay. We were married in Prince Frederick in 1988 and always loved this part of Maryland.

My other website is PopularWireless.com. Here I have championed the possibilities of the General Mobile Radio Service and the Personal Radio Services since 1995. This website DougWeb.com gave birth to PopularWireless many years ago.

DougWeb was the the home of the first anti-graffiti website on the Internet, An Anti-Graffiti Web Page. That site and the supporting NoGraf email list later gave birth to an organization created by Randy Campbell, a California Highway Patrol officer, called NoGraffiti.com. NoGraf as it is called, supports the anti-graffiti efforts of police and graffiti victims world-wide. As of October 2008 I serve on the NoGraf board of directors.

DougWeb also supported and continues to support a grass roots effort to save Philadelphia kids one kid at a time, The Ogontz Avenue Art Company. This non-profit is operated by one of the most remarkable guys I have ever met, Pete Doyle. We all call him Mr. Pete.

My interests are lower taxes, common sense, Amateur Radio, emergency preparedness, CERT, ship watching, supporting our troops, geocaching, benchmarking. the Coast Guard and Coast Guard Auxiliary, law enforcement, graffiti abatement, computers and computer networking, writing, local politics – holding our public servants accountable, my neighborhood, my next door neighbors , my parrots, and my BEAUTIFUL wife Eileen, among many others.

I was a Senior Producer for Genealogy.Com, and Palladium Interactive and had the great fortune to work for a now Northrup Gruman Company, PRC-Public Sector Inc., as their Director of Customer Service. Prior to that I was the Police Communications Supervisor at the Concord Police Department in California. (The finest police agency in the world, in my humble opinion.) Also during that time I had the privilege of becoming a Level I Reserve Police Officer. In Maryland I fell back on my retail experience and managed a consumer electronics retail store. Mr. Penney provided me with seven years of experience during and after college. My local RadioShack customers may remember me as, Scanner Man. As of October 1, 2008 I am currently unemployed and looking for a new challenge. Resume available upon request. No MLM’s please.

My former business associates can link to me at LinkedIn.com. My Bachelor of Arts Degree is in the Broadcast Communication Arts, Radio and Television. When I was younger I worked briefly in commercial radio.

I’m frustrated with politicians, politics, and skyrocketing property taxes. As I get older I am made poorer by politicians plotting to take away more and more of my hard earned savings. Retirement? Not if the State of Maryland has it’s way. It isn’t the rich that are worried about being taxed into oblivion it is the middle class of this country that have always carried the burden of tax increases and political shenanigans no matter what the politicians claim. When the rich get taxed it always falls back on the middle class in increased prices for goods and services. It is a struggle and always has been a struggle just to keep your head above water with the left running things. I’d rather not refer to myself as a conservative but as a common sense-itive. If it doesn’t make sense we shouldn’t be doing it. Doing it because it feels good doesn’t qualify as common sense.

My blog is about how I see the world. It is a collection of articles from Digg, articles and rants that I write, articles from other blogs, links to great places on the web, our restaurant reviews, and the comments of my readers – you! I have two WordPress blogs. The one here at DougWeb.com and the second at PopularWireless.com. I encourage a community spirit so comments are welcome.

I am no stranger to on-line communities. Between 1990 and 1995 I operated a FidoNet BBS in Network 161, 161/911, The No-Name Yet Genealogy BBS. During that time I was also hub 161/200. While at PRC I ran a VAX based bulletin board system for our public safety customers. (Target Hotline) Once introduced to the Internet it was only a matter of time before I began a BBS at dougweb.com. This on-line community later became PopularWireless.com. My new on-line community opened here at DougWeb.com on March 6, 2008. I supervised help-desk communities as part of my employment at various jobs. The last major effort was a HelpSpot community that brought the company out of the help-desk dark ages.

I am a big believer in on-line presence, proper use of social media, and superior customer service using those on-line tools. My career and my knowledge grew with the Internet and I continue to use my expertise whenever and wherever I can. (Keep in mind I’m looking for work at the moment. Call me!)

Thank you for stopping by.

(How Faster, Better got it’s name)