Well, I am having quite a discussion on UTH FMO regarding the “moon landings or non landings” depending upon what side of the aisle you are on.

Some of the claims are really ridiculous-like the one that the U.S. Government paid Director Stanley Kubrick millions of dollars to use the moon sets he had constructed for his movie: “2001-A Space Odyssey.”

As I have stated before-our government is basically incapable of pulling off any sort of secret operation over a long period of time-I know the skeptics site the “Manhattan Project” as one of the best kept secrets in the world-BUT, you have to remember-during the 1940′s THERE WAS CENSORSHIP OF THE NEWS BECAUSE OF THE WAR AND THE MEDIA COOPERATED IN THE NAME OF NATIONAL SECURITY.

ALSO, unlike today, there was no Internet and unlike the 60′s and 70′s there was NO TELEVISION!!!

And, consider this: keeping a few thousand people under control, in relation to a million people is a completely different animal!!

My final point-if the manned moon missions were faked-WHY FAKE IT SIX TIMES!!! WHY NOT TWO OR EVEN WORST CASE SCENARIO TO DRIVE HOME THE POINT TO THE RUSSIANS-THREE TIMES!!

“Oh it was the Van Allen Radiation Belt”  many skeptics claim.

The Van Allen Belt is located nearly 500 miles out into space. A lot of people believe we cannot pass through this belt without suffering radiation poisoning, that is why MOST of the space missions, including the current Space Shuttle, stay FAR BELOW that 500 mile range!!

Apparently, the highest altitude the space shuttle ever reached was 300 miles above the earth. Boy, I   always wished I could have flown on the  space shuttle!!

I know SOME OF YOU WISHED I WENT ON THE SPACE SHUTTLE AND NEVER CAME BACK TO EARTH!!

NO SUCH LUCK!!

Anyway, the claim is even at that height, which was no where near the Van Allen belt, astronauts aboard the shuttle supposedly saw white spots floating in front of their eyes when they were closed!! That was supposed to be the beginnings of radiation poisoning. I don’t know!!

Well I did research and found that passing through the Van Allen Belt is no worse than talking on ones cell phone for several hours at a clip!! I don’t know how accurate that statement is-but what can I tell you!!

Another reason I heard that NASA never went back to the moon is because the U.S. Astronauts were looking for “alien” structures, similar to what is supposedly on Mars.  When they could not find anything, we never returned!!

Some people back up this alien structure claim by stating that the Nazi’s actually landed a craft on the moon in 1945 in the Sea of Tranquility.  Supposedly they discovered alien structures there.

So if the moon landings WERE REAL-that is the only reason we went-to verify the existence of an alien civilization the Nazi unmanned space probe supposedly encountered that  set up shop at–YES-the SEA OF TRANQUILITY-site of the first manned moon landing in 1969!!

And speaking of “2001-A Space Odyssey” that is going to be the next topic of discussion. i.e.: What was the REAL meaning of that film?

If you think the faked moon landing conspiracists had a field day-wait until you read what I was able to find out (years ago) about what some really believe the movie was about!! VERY VERY CONTROVERSIAL-IT MUST BE AND WILL BE HANDLED TENDERLY!!

Now I want to get back to the budget analysis for the last time. As most of you know and don’t really care, the Town Council will conduct a FINAL public hearing on the proposed Town of Cheshire 2009-2010 operating budget on Thursday, April 2 at 7:30. p.m. in the Town Hall Town Council Chambers.

I did receive an e mail around 8 p.m. on Wednesday from a local resident that included a supposed “memorandum” from Greg Florio, Cheshire Schools Supt. on the proposed Cheshire education budget.

What was in the memo is already known to the public-there MAY be a reduction, emphasis on MAY, of 20 to 24 teachers-extra curricular activities MAY have to be cut-and several (meaning more than two) non tenured staff may be told their contracts could not be renewed IF further cuts are made.

I do have to part ways with some of my readers-especially on education-NO MORE REDUCTIONS!! BUT BUT BUT, WE NEED TO BE SPENDING MONEY ON THE CHILDREN NOT ON SALARIES. THE UNION HAS TO REALIZE THIS!! EDUCATION IS FOR THE BENEFIT OF OUR CHILDREN-NOT ADULTS.

TEACHERS SHOULD MAKE DECENT MONEY-THEY WORK HARD-BUT OUR TEACHERS DO MAKE GOOD MONEY. ALL TEACHERS IN CONNECTICUT SCHOOLS MAKE GOOD MONEY!! SO THE EMPHASIS HAS TO BE ON THE CHILDREN.

Also, I did contact Lou Zullo, head of personnel and also “deputy town manager” of Cheshire. I asked him about the “Patrol Officer V” position of which there are 18.

I was told that after four years, a police officer is eligible for the “Patrol Officer V” position which pays $60, 641. THIS IS WITHOUT OVERTIME. I did notice one Patrol Officer V position starts at $59, 794.

There are six Sergeant positions that pay $65, 857. Three Lt positions that pay $70, 471 and a Captain E-2 position that pays $79,264.

Patrol Officer 1 pays $45, 840-there is one position. There are four Patrol Officer 2 positions: two pay $51, 692,  one Patrol Officer 2 pays $51, 945 and one Patrol Officer 2 pays $51, 996.

There are two Patrol Officer 4 positions: one pays $54, 465 and the other Patrol Officer 4 position pays $56, 826.

There were two Patrol Officers listed at the bottom of the list in the budget at a pay of $60, 641 but they are in brackets so I am assuming these positions were eliminated.

The Training Tech Co-ordinator is paid $52,021. There is a Ped-3 but it is BLANK (no salary).  There are six Dispatcher PED-! positions: One pays $32, 921; one pays $33, 542; one pays $41, 052; one pays $32, 375; one position is at zero dollars; and one pays $45, 823.

Now I did post what the Trumbull Police Department pays its officers. It is on my “In the Bin” post, click on the link and go to page 17-19 of the Trumbull Proposed 09-10 operating budget. Basically the patrol officers make $3,000 to $5,000 more, but in all fairness, I do not know their step positions or their union contracts. Also it IS Fairfield County so the cost of living is a bit higher.

Now I am suggesting the following for our Police Department: Eliminate BY ATTRITION two Sergeant positions and ADD another step to the Patrol Officer from V to VI-with a $2,000 increase. This way here, we have more police officers PATROLLING without having to hire additional officers.

I AM assuming most of the Sgt Positions are supervisory so they are not in the patrol cars on a regular basis.  I WILL CONFIRM THIS ON THURSDAY WITH THE POLICE DEPARTMENT!!

Finally, I did want to touch on the subject I mentioned above: what is the real meaning of the movie: 2001-A Space Odyssey.

Well all of this is “underground” but the conventional meaning was the journey of man from its humble beginnings to its ascension into the computer age-and how the computers and sophisticated machinery ended up in our demise-it was a journey of identity-who we were at the beginning and what we were at the end-then a rebirth of mankind.

Click here for analysis on “2001: A Space Odyssey”

Sadly, there were and probably still are people that take the meaning of this movie to another level. Some people believe this was a white supremacist movie.

They cite the “Dawn of Man” sequence in the very beginning-where a particular group of pre-historic man comes in contact and touches the black monolith and then becomes “enlightened.”

After touching the monolith, this particular group of pre-historic man learns how to use bones and sticks to kill animals for food and in one scene you see this particular group taking the bones and sticks and beating another group of pre-historic man who has not learned to use the bones and sticks as weapons.

Many people believed this was the white race-the white race was influenced by aliens of high intelligence-these were the same aliens that built the pyramids at Giza, which some believe to be 8,000 to 11,000 years old.

Many people also believe this is why the Egyptian government will not dig beneath the Sphinx. There is supposedly a Hall of Records underneath one of the feet of the Sphinx that is supposedly confirms some peoples beliefs that people of higher intelligence built the Pyramids, Macchu Picchu and the Mayan Pyramids. They also intermingled with the Etruscans, evolving into the Roman civilization and other civilizations of Europe.

Many of these people claimed they were correct  about the 2001 A Space Odyssey because there were no people of color in this movie. It was all white men and a few white women.

I reject this theory-and I know some people still believe it-that is why this movie was SO controversial when it came out-people used their imaginations and it spiraled out of control. Luckily this rhetoric has died down but it is still sickening!!

SOME PEOPLE HAVE TOO MUCH TIME ON THEIR HANDS!!!

Well, let’s face it-you know this theory is racist-there were hardly any people of color in any TV shows in the 50′s and 60′s.  It was a sign of those times!!!

How sad that some people could take an extraordinary cinematic expression of Stanley Kubrick and turn it into a reason for their hatred!!

Now finally: I did receive correspondence from a local resident regarding Stamford’s Water Pollution Control Department and how they handle their sewage treatment: P.S THIS DOESN’T APPLY TO ME: I HAVE  A SEPTIC SYSTEM IN ALL OF MY HOMES!!

Hi Cindy:

The Stamford Water Pollution Control Department has made enormous strides in improving the performance of their sewage treatment. After each improvement, the Director, Jeanette Brown,  has never stopped looking for  more ways to develop and implement better ways of treating  and disposing of sewage in a cost effective and environmentally friendly way.

In the following link, as part of an environmental radio program, Field Notes, s Jeanette Brown is interviewed on their latest ground breaking project to convert sewage sludge to energy.

I’m sure you will enjoy it. There is much more information available than could be put in a 5 minute radio piece.

To listen click on the following link.

http://www.wfcr.org/field_notes/relationships/090302_FN_sewage_treatment.mp3

The Stamford  Biogas Website

http://www.stamfordbiogas.com/

You might also enjoy the hundreds of archived Field Notes programs which are being used as a resource by a number of schools. The programs are grouped by categories which provide selection lists.

http://www.wfcr.org/field_notes/index.php