ReCreating Tampa

Creative Loafing kicks off their annual tournament food competition. This year is the search for Tampa’s best ribs. First round voting in the Tournament of Ribs ends Monday, so get your votes in.

***

CL also has to-notch food historian Andrew Huse writing about Tampa’s [hot as the] devil crab.

***

Grid 57 (a hyperlocal crime-watch blog for Tampa’s Grid 57) passes along this reminder of the importance of paying attention to what happens in your neighborhood.

“March the 1st two neighbors were in their front yard chatting when they witnessed suspicious activity. They took the time to document the tag number and the description of the person driving. Just a few moments later the same suspicious person robbed a store at gunpoint. Because those alert citizens, officers located the suspect via the tag number & great physical description. That person had been responsible for 4 recent armed robberies. Now he is behind bars….moral of the story…..NHW works! Also listen to your instincts and record information, you never know when it will catch a BIG FISH! Thanks”

***

Tommy at Sticks of Fire learns that Tampa is number 2 when it comes to auto insurance scams.

“…criminals intentionally cause car crashes, then file claims with insurance companies and pocket the money.”

Welcome to Earth, Ella! Congratulations TJP & BZ!! She’s beautiful.

I couldn’t think of a peeve this week so I asked my Facebook friends for some of their peeves.

JD doesn’t like it when people use too many question marks and misused apostrophes bother SB.

CP thinks that when you’re in a public bathroom you should have the decency to do a courtesy flush.

LR does not like hair and food to be near each other. Keep hairbrushes, hats, and ponytail holders off the table and kitchen counters.

NP (who works the circ desk at a library) gets annoyed when people ask to “rent” library materials.

JW hates lousy parkers.

“Not a huge Hummer that can’t park in the lines, but a little compact that is angled so grotesquely that there is no possible way for you to get into (or out) of the space next to it.”

JD, but not the JD who hates too many question marks, doesn’t like competition commuters, “people who think commuting to work is a competition to see who gets there first.”

MM gets irritated when people ask a question and then interrupt the answer.

Finally, the other MM’s peeve used to be having to interact with people. But since his daughter was born he’s decided that interacting with some people can be pretty nice. Yay for babies!

Thanks, guys, for sharing your peeves.

The Seminole Heights Sunday Market returns this Sunday, March 14 from 9am – 2pm.

“Centrally located and set on the front lawn of historic Hillsborough High School, you will find between 60 & 80 vendors selling a vast mixture of local, handmade and/or homemade products.”

A sample of what you will find this Sunday:

Be sure to check out their webpage to learn more about the market, to learn how to become a vendor, or to show your support by becoming a friend of the market.

I have mentioned several times my unnatural love of Auto-Tune. Here’s Know Your Meme explaining the history of Auto-Tune with Professor Al Yankovic.

Adam Fritz, a blogger at Tampa’s Sustainable Design Assessment Team (SDAT) points to this video about seedbombing.

via Wikipedia -

“Seed bombing, also known as “Seed Grenades” is a technique of introducing vegetation to arid soils or otherwise inhospitable terrains. A seed bomb is a compressed clod of soil containing live vegetation that may be thrown or dropped onto a terrain to be modified. The term “seed grenade” was first used by Liz Christy in 1973 when she started the “Green Guerillas”. The first seed grenades were made from condoms filled with local wildflower seeds, water and fertilizer. The seed grenades were tossed over fences onto empty lots in New York City in order to make the neighborhoods look better. It was the start of the Guerrilla Gardening movement.”

Florida Gardener offers this recipe for a seed bomb.

Basic Ingredients:

5 Cups Dry Terracotta clay

3 Cups Dry Gardening Soil or Organic Compost

1 Cup of seeds*

1 – 2 Cups of water (preferably not tap) in a Spray Mister

Step 1: Sift Dry Terracotta clay through a strainer to remove large chunks

Step 2: Mix in Dry Soil or Compost

Step 3: Add seeds*

Step 4: Blend everything together well

Step 5: Mist water onto the mixture while stirring. Spray enough water to allow the mixture to stick/bind together.

Step 5: Take a healthy tablespoon of the finished mixture and roll (in the palm of your hand) into round balls.

Step 6: Put seed balls in the sun to dry completely for a day or two.

Step 7: Toss seed balls onto chosen area.

Step 8: Wait for rain to allow seeds to germinate.

Makes approximately 30 – 40 Seed Balls

Here’s a short doc on Florida wildflowers.

And check out Florida Wildflowers and Butterflies for some ideas on what kind of seeds you might include in your seedbomb.

If the Alaska Permanent Fund is good enough for Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters and Alaska’s libertarian population, why isn’t it good for the rest of America?

If we take Republican leaders at their word, the states are supposed to be laboratories of liberty, each trying their own strategies of improving the general welfare, with the most successful being adopted by the Federal government. Obama has urged Democratic leaders to adopt this Republican philosophy into the Health Care Reform bill.

For those unfamiliar with Alaska’s successful experiment with socialism, the Alaska Permanent Fund is rooted in the Alaska Constitution’s assertion that the natural resources of Alaska belong to all Alaskans, and it is the legislature’s responsibility to develop these resources for the “maximum benefit of its people.”

“The legislature shall provide for the utilization, development, and conservation of all natural resources belonging to the State, including land and waters, for the maximum benefit of its people.”

In 1976 Alaskans amended their constitution so that –

“At least twenty-five per cent of all mineral lease rentals, royalties, royalty sale proceeds, federal mineral revenue sharing payments and bonuses received by the State shall be placed in a permanent fund, the principal of which shall be used only for those income-producing investments specifically designated by law as eligible for permanent fund investments. All income from the permanent fund shall be deposited in the general fund unless otherwise provided by law.”

The money collected through the rentals, etc., is then managed and invested by the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation and every year the earnings are split among the citizens of Alaska, providing just over $1,300 to each Alaskan last year.

Given that this policy is embraced by Republicans and Libertarians alike it should be easy to adopt something similar on a national scale. (I’m joking, of course. If Obama adopted the GOP platform wholesale, Republican leadership would continue to accuse him of being a craven Marxist.)

In addition to the 30+ years of experience we have to draw on in Alaska, we also have an endorsement from F. A. Hayek, a Nobel Prize winning economist and favorite among the Libertarian crowd. In The Road to Serfdom, at the beginning of the Security and Freedom chapter, he writes –

“There is no reason why in a society which has reached the general level of wealth which our has attained the first kind of security [the security of a minimum income] should not be guaranteed to all without endangering general freedom.”

Similarly, Nobel Prize winner and conservative favorite Milton Friedman argued for a negative income tax, where people whose annual salaries fall below a set minimum receive money from the government to bring their annual salary up to a minimum set by the legislature.

While this system might allow the more bohemian or lazy among us to lounge around all day watching television or blowing their government funds on cheap weed, it brings a lot more positives than negatives. People in abusive relationships would find it easier to move out on their own if they knew they’d be able to pay rent. If it’s applied to everyone, the stigma of being on the dole is removed. If the fund is sufficient then unemployment insurance becomes an issue of the past. In fact, a program like this could conceivably reduce taxes since many of the programs funded by tax dollars would be less necessary if everyone received a sufficiently large enough stipend.

But, where would this money come from?

It would be drawn from multiple sources; revenue from the spectrum auction, and from government-owned utilities; inheritance tax and partial repayment of the funding upon death; sin taxes and consumption taxes; as well as resource sharing from the 44 million acres of US public land currently leased for a pittance to oil and gas companies.

We know that there are some drawbacks. This is a disincentive to work. But, the advantages greatly outweigh the disadvantages. Research shows that improving income inequality reduces crime, improves health, increases access to education, reduces some taxes, reduces poverty, improves children’s health, and improves the general welfare.

So, if it’s good enough for Sarah Palin, Alaskan Republicans, and Libertarian economic philosophers, why isn’t it good enough for all Americans?