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Officials Use Google Earth To Find Unlicensed Pools
Officials in Riverhead, New York are using Google Earth to root out the owners of unlicensed pools. So far they've found 250 illegal pools and collected $75,000 in fines and fees. Of course not everyone thinks that a city should be spending time looking at aerial pictures of backyards. from the article: "Lillie Coney, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, DC, said Google Earth was promoted as an aid to curious travelers but has become a tool for cash-hungry local governments. 'The technology is going so far ahead of what people think is possible, and there is too little discussion about community norms,' she said."
drinking the pool might be easier than eating the tele
While the fines are annoying - they make sense in the current tax climate (Rich go mostly untaxed by historical standards, the rest have comparatively less than ever to tax).
The real benefit to these actions, however, are being able to identify abandoned pools and other standing water that mosquitoes can breed in. Just a little specialized oil put onto the surface prevents the nymph-stage mosquitoes from breathing at the surface of the water, and doesn't harm other species at the same time, and is a very cost efficient method of preventing many diseases.
Ryan Fenton
No.
Coward.
Jeremy, you need to learn the difference between a "strawman" and an accurate analogy employed for illustrative purposes. Analogies are what us literate types use to illustrate a concept that folks like you don't get first time around. Check 'em out online. Analogies are quite useful, presuming the recipient has enough mental horsepower to work them out.
Which may, of course, leave you out, just as it did the moderator, that highly-qualified individual slashdot randomly handed the power to apply censorship instead of response. BTW, that "highly qualified" portion was "sarcasm", another fine conversational mode you may not understand.
If you need more of a righteous beating, I'll be here all day, applying my clue-stick to stupid posts like yours with nothing less than glee. :)
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.