NPR

Florida Man Accidentally Buys City Water Tower : NPR

When business owner Bobby Read approached the Brooksville City Council about purchasing a municipal building at the base of the small Florida city's water tower, he didn't expect the water tower to come with it.

Read discovered the mistake after the property had been sold to him for $55,000. The certified personal trainer intended to turn the building, which various city departments used for storage, into a personal training studio named Downtown Athletics. But when he went to the county property appraiser's office to get an address for his new business, the county told him he'd received much more than the building — several thousand gallons more.

Questions and answers about indulgences, with special reference to Martin Luther’s objections

Questions and answers about indulgences, with special reference to Martin Luther’s objections

1. What is an indulgence?

An indulgence is the full or partial remission of temporal punishment for sins after the sinner confesses and receives absolution. Under Catholic teaching, every sin must be purified either here on earth or after death in a state called purgatory.

2. How did the practice of dispensing indulgences begin?

The first known use of plenary indulgences was in 1095 when Pope Urban II remitted all penance of persons who participated in the crusades and who confessed their sins. Later, the indulgences were also offered to those who couldn't go on the Crusades but offered cash contributions to the effort instead. In the early 1200s, the Church began claiming that it had a "treasury" of indulgences (consisting of the merits of Christ and the saints) that it could dispense in ways that promoted the Church and its mission. In a decretal issued in 1343, Pope Clement VI declared, "The merits of Christ are a treasure of indulgences."

The interesting discussion I got into the other day about climate change 🌎

The interesting discussion I got into the other day about climate change 🌎

The other day I was in an interesting discussion about climate change. It was kind of interesting in the sense that it came with a fundamental misunderstanding of how I see the problem and how it relate to the solutions towards it. Often people who are concerned about climate change, mostly see the problem in a collective sense, or one of personal guilt, rather then a personal risk — something to be prepared for and take steps to prevent oneself from becoming a victim of it in the future.

There is a popular trend in the liberal ideology to feel a lot of guilt about the world today. To be concerned about the hungry starving children in India, the poor people loosing their homes and all their belongings to wildlife or floods. People who have a lot less then they do, who ultimately fell into their misfortune by no fault of their own. Some people truly do have bad luck, but also some people bring upon their bad luck by making bad decisions and not being prepared for likely scenarios of the future.

Every other day when I open up Facebook and the Youtube, I see another one of these so-called sustainable investment opportunities and technologies. Endless advertisements for heat pumps, solar panels, renewable energy schemes (SHOUTING GIRL IN YOUTUBE AD: get solar power, now without panels on your roof !!!), electric cars, recycling, organic and vegan food, and endless investment opportunities in sustainable funds. Because if you have money, you can buy your way out of your guilt. Or so we are told by the advertisers, pushing endless amounts of plastic, aluminum, not-so-green chemicals, and electronics upon us. No need to give up the suburbanite way of living, as long as you pay for your sins. I often see these sustainable ads, and have to wonder what Martin Luther would have said about them?

All the evidence suggests that climate change is a big problem that is going to be solved by government action, not individual choices. Buying the right kind of car or properly cleaning out your salad dressing bottle and recycling it isn’t going to stop the planet from getting warmer. Investing in the latest green energy scheme might feel good, but there is no guarantee it will be profitable or even have much of an effect on the warming planet. Feel good actions are nice, but they aren’t really significant if they don’t lead to political change. There is an important place for political activism, and it’s wonderful that some people step up to do it — but political activism shouldn’t cover for personal failings.

My view on climate change is pretty darn simple — it’s going to happen and going to be real bad, especially if politicians fail to enact policies that are dramatic enough to arrest it. There is a lot of denial, especially in “greenie” circles that climate change won’t happen, especially if you buy the right products. Not the big jacked up truck I have, or the fact that I don’t clean out plastic bottles before chucking them in the fire. In this discussion I was having, it was pointed that if I move out to country, with my hobby farm, driving my big jacked-up truck back and forth to the city, my carbon footprint will increase, as will the impacts on the land by farming and living on it compared to my small apartment in city, where I can ride the bus to work, walk to a lot of destinations, and it’s a short drive to the store.

But if you believe that climate change is going to bad, and is almost inevitable as politicians don’t want to enact unpopular policies to slow it, then you have to take a different tack at the problem — namely, taking action to protect oneself from the worse impacts of climate change.

That means first and foremost saving and investing, so you have a liquid asset that can be a means to purchase necessities to survive when shit hits the fan, which is almost inevitable. It also means having land where I can produce a lot of my own food, and an off-grid system that isn’t dependent on a power grid that is likely to have a lot of problems in the future as storms become more severe, more areas flood and trees come down. Where power plants struggle with extreme heat and a wildly fluxing gulf stream. Where civil disorder becomes more common in cities, as people bake and traditional institutions fall. When driveway and roads washouts become more common, and need to be fixed by the farm tractor regularly.

It’s a scary world ahead, and I don’t think I can change it, but I can be prepared for what is going to happen. I can live with less, live simply, and reduce my impacts without buying into all these greenie crap that the marketers are constantly bombarding us with advertising on.

Chautauqua County State Forests with Designated Campsites

The following state forests in Chautauqua County have designated campsites …

  • Chautauqua Gorge State Forest totals 538 acres. This state forest is located in the north western area of Chautauqua County in the town of Chautauqua, west of Mayville.
  • Mounnt Pleasant State Forest totals 1,522 acres and is located in the Town of Chautauqua in the western area of Chautauqua County.
  • North Harmony State Forest totals 2,561 acres and is used for many outdoor recreational opportunities such as cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, snowmobiling, and hunting.
  • Stockton State Forest totals 977 acres. This state forest provides opportunities for many outdoor recreational activities, including snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, horseback riding and hunting.

Camp Pavlion Lit Up

Coordinates for Chautauqua County Campsites

Campsite State Forest Latitude Longitude
Designated Camp Sites Chautauqua Gorge State Forest 42.24 -79.586
Designated Camp Sites Chautauqua Gorge State Forest 42.24 -79.584
Designated Camp Sites Chautauqua Gorge State Forest 42.24 -79.586
Designated Camp Sites Chautauqua Gorge State Forest 42.24 -79.583
Designated Camp Sites Chautauqua Gorge State Forest 42.24 -79.581
Designated Camp Sites Chautauqua Gorge State Forest 42.24 -79.587
Designated Camp Sites Chautauqua Gorge State Forest 42.24 -79.582
Designated Camp Sites Chautauqua Gorge State Forest 42.24 -79.587
Beck Forest Road Mount Pleasant State Forest 42.202 -79.546
Designated Camp Site North Harmony State Forest 42.087 -79.529
Designated Camp Site North Harmony State Forest 42.089 -79.528
Designated Camp Site North Harmony State Forest 42.089 -79.53
Designated Camp Site North Harmony State Forest 42.095 -79.511
Designated Camp Site North Harmony State Forest 42.089 -79.529
Designated Camp Site North Harmony State Forest 42.095 -79.512
Designated Camp Site North Harmony State Forest 42.098 -79.507
Designated Camp Site North Harmony State Forest 42.102 -79.518
Designated Camp Site North Harmony State Forest 42.088 -79.529
Designated Camp Site Stockton State Forest 42.274 -79.376
Designated Camp Site Stockton State Forest 42.274 -79.373
Designated Camp Site Stockton State Forest 42.274 -79.37

Chautauqua Gorge State Forest Map

 Chautauqua Gorge State Forest

Mount Pleasant State Forest Map

 Mount Pleasant State Forest

North Harmony State Forest Map

Stockton State Forest Map

 Stockton State Forest

Snake Forest Road 1