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  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

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    Posted 08/15/2025
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    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

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    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Mosquitoes

Well, I've got four (4) mosquito magnets running now, and have had a couple of the bags FILLED with dead mosquitoes. I could change out a couple more of them, but there are so many live mosquitoes still buzzing around in them, I guess I've just got to wait till the propane tanks run dry before doing that. Connie ran out yesterday and got more tanks filled, as we're going through them pretty quickly now.

And yet another complication has shown up. Little baby toads, EVERYWHERE! The ground is literally crawling with them. Not that they are unwelcome, as a mosquito would be a proper sized meal for them, but whereas we used to be able to just trot from one building to another to try to avoid the mosquitoes, now we can't to that or we'll be crushing toads as we unavoidably step on them. So we have to walk slow to allow the toads to get out of our way.

I walked down to the temporary pond yesterday, and it is now completely dry. So at least there aren't more mosquitoes breeding there. They are supposed to so aerial spraying this evening around here, which we really don't like, but I don't think there is any choice in the matter. The mosquito problem is pretty widespread around here and I guess it just comes to drastic measures being taken. Heck, if they would put out a bunch of mosquito traps, that would probably help quite a bit. That is certainly a more environmentally non destructive way to do that.

But I SERIOUSLY have come to hate those blood sucking little bastids lately, so if they could extinct the damned things, I'd be all for it.
 
Been hearing small planes flying low going over the house for the last couple of hours, so I guess they are spraying for the skeeters. Hope they used the right stuff in the tanks and Connie and I don't wake up dead.........
 
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/20...quito-spraying-yellow-fever-and-malaria-naled

http://www.nospray.org/naled.shtml

I looked over the articles available about Naled. There are various cautionary articles around, but recent articles from some places reassure that all is well, no worry required. I used to think that an internet search would give a pretty good idea about whatever I was researching, but more and more I think that what we see, even on the internet, is engineered so that sometimes finding the real deal takes some effort. There is no question that what one sees first in a search can be manipulated, and it is possible this concept is more widespread than one thinks.
 
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/20...quito-spraying-yellow-fever-and-malaria-naled

http://www.nospray.org/naled.shtml

I looked over the articles available about Naled. There are various cautionary articles around, but recent articles from some places reassure that all is well, no worry required. I used to think that an internet search would give a pretty good idea about whatever I was researching, but more and more I think that what we see, even on the internet, is engineered so that sometimes finding the real deal takes some effort. There is no question that what one sees first in a search can be manipulated, and it is possible this concept is more widespread than one thinks.

You didn't REALLY think that the government was going to allow us a source of unfiltered REAL information, now did you? Heck, in a lot of cases, I don't believe what I can read simply because I CAN find that info to read. Heck, I personally witnesses a paper newsletter I used to get years ago (I think the guy's name was Chuck Harding, or something like that) that used to print some really controversial stuff about the government. Well they claimed that they suddenly had IRS agents camped out at their place. Within a couple of months, the most controversial article they were publishing was how to make your own orange juice from oranges during a hurricane aftermath. So obviously the pressure applied against them had the desired effect.

Heck, just the white washing of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is ample evidence of obvious "news" manipulation.

And there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that for every but of information you can find, there is equal or more DISINFORMATION purposely being provided. The fable about "crying wolf" certain can be used by the wolves to try to deny their existence.
 
But then it gets even worse sometimes to try to decipher what is real. There are special interest groups and large corporations, apart from the government, that intentionally supply information weighted in their favor.
Sometimes it is difficult to know exactly what information one can trust, because the corroborating info can also be planted.
 
But then it gets even worse sometimes to try to decipher what is real. There are special interest groups and large corporations, apart from the government, that intentionally supply information weighted in their favor.
Sometimes it is difficult to know exactly what information one can trust, because the corroborating info can also be planted.

I don't have any answer to that. I don't read nearly as much as I used to about controversial topics for that exact reason. Which, quite probably, is the exact goal of such misinformation tactics. What will the mind do when it becomes obvious that you can't believe ANYTHING? It will just stop processing the data and become a vacuum waiting for something to fill it. I think these are the same technics that are used in brain washing endeavors.

Which, of course, the mind shies away from when you try to think this through to a conclusion....
 
Amazing! I had to run out to get some bolts for my car so Connie and I went out today. Not a single mosquito anywhere around us. Didn't seem to affect the little toads as they are everywhere. Which, unfortunately, means the road too. Connie hated knowing she was killing some of them. On the way back it rained here, so even more of them were out and about.

Also saw some butterflies flying around, so heck, that would be GREAT if they used something that specifically targeted mosquitoes and nothing else.
 
I guess there's a tiny silver lining to the drought. Mosquitoes have always been a huge problem in St. Louis, and this year they really haven't taken hold. There certainly is no standing water. Granted, they may be out there and it's just too freaking hot to go out and mingle with them.
Normally, we still have the skeeter trucks come around and spray, but always in the middle of the night. Makes you wonder.

Noelle
 
I walked down to the bamboo grove near where the temporary pond was located, and nary a single mosquito. And this was just a little but ago, which is prime time for skeeters. Little toads are everywhere, though, so it was slow going to keep from stepping on the little guys.

It's so unusual to see something the government does that goes right, that I'm apprehensive, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
 
I'd love to see a picture of the little toady guys. I wish I had all of them, I love frogs and toads.
 
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