Interesting News Item...

poadeleted1

Deleted by request
Joined
Apr 8, 2005
Messages
652
Sarasota, Florida -- It was a bad situation brought under control quickly before it was able to get worse.
Chief Wayne Balcom, Sarasota County Fire Rescue: "With the heavy winds and the traffic we were concerned with it."A power transformer blew up and sparked, and when those sparks hit the dry grass it didn't take long. Sarasota county fire rescue immediately called for their new air tanker fearing that if the fire were to spread, they'd have to shut down I-75.
Chief Balcom: "Does it make your job easier? Yes, a lot easier, and we are the only agency in the Tampa Bay area to have it. So on a day like this when the winds are kicking, yea, it really comes in handy."The Chopper belongs to the Sheriffs Department, but the underbelly is all fire department with the ability to suck up 250 gallons of water in less than 3 minutes and drop it with pinpoint accuracy.
Chief Balcom: "They have a ciphering hose and they ciphon it to a holding tank that is mounted beneath the helicopter."I'm wondering - is that hose able to do just simple ciphering, or can it do complex ciphering like 3rd order equations?

Using the tanker stopped what could have been a major fire under the worst of circumstances.
Bill McGinty, Sarasota County: "The fire department says with these dry windy conditions, we can expect more of these fires until the rainy season gets here."Bill McGinty, Tampa Bay's 10 News

This is a professional news organization?
 
My guess is they rely too much on spell checker. Since 'cipher' is a legit word, the checker doesn't make the correction. I see it more and more and not just in journalism. The correspondence from my bank, etc also contains major spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes.

On the occasions I have pointed out the mistakes the responses have been a shrug of the shoulders and a nonchalant stare. Casual chat or personal letters would be one thing, but I am mortified to see such mistakes in professional correspondence. It reminds me of how even bank tellers don't bother to straighten up their drawers.
 
No, no, no mistake at all. Using the cipher, they literally confuse the fire into extingushing itself. It's too busy trying to decipher the cipher that it ends up blowing itself out. Tricky, though, attaching it to the belly of the helicopter. I bet the fire probably thought it was just going to get a giant bucket of water dropped on it.
 
Richard said:
My guess is they rely too much on spell checker. Since 'cipher' is a legit word, the checker doesn't make the correction. I see it more and more and not just in journalism. The correspondence from my bank, etc also contains major spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes.

On the occasions I have pointed out the mistakes the responses have been a shrug of the shoulders and a nonchalant stare. Casual chat or personal letters would be one thing, but I am mortified to see such mistakes in professional correspondence. It reminds me of how even bank tellers don't bother to straighten up their drawers.

Or maybe the fire chief really said that stuff.
 
tom. said:
Or maybe the fire chief really said that stuff.

Maybe...hmmmm.... Far plus water equals no far in the country. Yup Jethro, that's a cipherin' if I ever did see some. Waaaaaaal dogies! ;-)
 
Back
Top