ADB's 2006 Resolutions

Here we go again... I've never been all that successful with my new years resolutions in years past. I resolved in 2004 not to let Bush be re-elected and 2005 I resolved not to let the Pope die. Maybe I should have reversed the two.

Anyway, that's Resolution #1:
Be more successful with 2006's resolutions. Yeah, that'll work.

Resolution #2:
File. 2005 was an exceptionally bad year for ADB's filing system, which has now devolved into random piles of paper interspersed with half-eaten donuts. That's not efficient, although I end up with some tasty reports. Mmmm... TPS.

Resolution #3:
Hit the gym. Ugh. I still maintain that I am in shape; "round" is a shape.

Resolution #4:
Save the City of Pittsburgh. OK, this is the really hard one. My only real hope here is that the City of Pittsburgh runs out into the street chasing a rubber ball into thte path of an oncoming bus and that I can push it out of the way.

Resolution #5:
Stop trying to intentionally run over people with my car. Really really hard.

Resolution #6:
Win back the House. No, not the House of Representatives! Don't be silly! There's no way I can do that single handedly!

I meant the Canadian House of Commons.

Resolution #7:
Yell more. Easy.

Resolution #8:
Try to live in peace and harmony with people of all races, nations, and creeds... even the fuckin' Swedes. I'm still pissed about the "incident" with the Hemnes wardrobe.

Resolution # 9:
365 posts next year. One a day... on average. Can't expect me to be witty, insightful, or intelligent every day. Sheesh! I work for the government people!

Resolution #10:
No pooftas!

Resolution #11:
There is no Resolution #11

Yeah... that'll work. Can't imagine anything else I might have forgotten. Nope. Nothing at all.

So, Happy New Year everyone! Let's hope this year will be better than the last. Seriously.

Time is Running Out...

The Federal fiscal year begins October 1.
The Corporate fiscal year begins July 1.
The Elvish fiscal year begins on the first, and only, day of Yestarë (Rivendell only).

The rest of us God fearing people begin the year on the day that our Lord Jesus Christ intended it to begin on: January 1 (Luke 20: 21-27). Under threat of eternal damnation, all paperwork of The Bureaucracy needs to be dated today. That's pressure.

Work expands to fit the time allotted to it. I've allotted one year to some work and three mayoral terms to other work. Both deadlines are rapidly approaching. Time is not on my side at this moment.

The good news, however, is that I need to blow the balance of my budget by tomorrow at 11:59 PM. That means only one thing: bitchin' kegger at Fester's Place. Free hookers and coke for everyone!

Invitations will be in triplicate.

Goings and Stayings

So Susan Golumb is gone...
Jacqueline Morrow is history...
Robert McNeilly is out of here...
Dale Perrett is bye-bye...

Guy Costa is staying, if that is any consolation. (It's not, really).

And now Dave Farley is gone, which is a shame. Dave's been there, I think forever. That's a long time and there's a lot of institutional memory in Dave. If I recall correctly, he got his start in the Masloff (or possibly the end of the Caliguiri) administration as the City's Lobbyist, and used those connections he made in both the Grants Administration and the Weed & Seed programs. This guy is old for City politics, and his experience will sorely be missed... especially in the face of proposed (politically driven)cutbacks to the W&S program in the City.

This probably wasn't the best move Bob could have made; he's going to need help raising money.

Anyway, I was also going to write a post about Murphy's move to the Urban Land Institute, but I'm going to demure, choosing instead to summarize it like this:

Murphy was a politician that wanted to be an urban planner and seemed to be deeply engrossed in the theories of economic development. His tenure as Mayor will serve to remind us all that in theory, there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is. I wish him luck in academia; it will probably suit him better.

Definition of a Bureaucrat

The Faceless Bureaucrat has an interesting post on Bureaucracy, worth a chuckle.

Current Status

Currently recovering from a six day, three state nog bender. Will post as soon as the elves disappear.

Lights Please

"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the lord shone round about them, and they were so afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you this day is born in the City of Bethlehem, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth peace, good will toward men'"

Thanks Linus.

Merry Christmas everybody!

My Christmas Letter

Dear Mr. Claus,

I am in receipt of you gifts of December 25, 2004. I was very satisfied with the shirt and tie and the gift certificates to the various stores. They will and have been very useful. The "Sponge Bob Square Pants" underwear and the lime green and pink scarf, however, have not been used, although the thought is most appreciated.

With respect to my letter dated December 12, 1975, as subsequently and anually amended, I would like to include the following items to my list. This year, I have added in a few more esoteric items to complement the already sizable list that has accumulated:

1) A new filing system; things have been getting messy 'round the office;
2) An intern to do my bidding;
3) The borough of Mt. Oliver;
4) A new red Swingline Stapler;
5) Job Security;
6) Bob O'Connor's hair;
7) A new President, the current one is broken;
8) Or, if a new President is unavailable, World Peace, Love, and Understanding;
9) A Chia Pet;
10) A new tie.

Please note that the "Banana Rama" LP is no longer needed and should be struck off the list, as iTunes has provided me with all of their best works (both of them). Also, I no longer want anything "day-glo."

In closing, I must say that I was tremendously disappointed by last year's gifts. I'm hoping that you will be able to pick up the slack this year, and get me something worthy of my near stellar behavior.

If you have any questions, please contact me at the usual number.

Yours,

"O"

Economic Development in Pittsburgh

Not going to talk about the arena proposal or the proposed PNC building even if they have pretty pictures... or in the case of Three PNC "butt ugly pictures".

It's not that the concepts don't intrigue me or that the public policy debate doesn't interest me, it's just that I'm not going to waste my breath until someone plops money down on the table. Money talks; bullshit walks the old chestnut goes. Frankly, I see this project getting a few laps under its belt before too long.

I distinctly remember a similar proposal for the lower hill a few years ago, announced with much fanfare, which went nowhere.

I also remember a proposed hotel at the corner of Stanwix and Forbes, again announced with much fanfare, which also went nowhere.

Consider this: The Penguins are desperate for a new arena; slots revenues are seen as the primary key to funding that development. The slots licenses have not yet been awarded. There are some keen interests here that are overlapping. $1,000 in architectural renderings may buy Mario the publicity he needs to get the funds to build the arena. Damned if I know if it'll happen any time soon if all he needs is some good ink in the popular press.

Further consider this: The Hill is not a place where outsiders do very well. There are, again, many competing interests that will cause a headache for Mario should his eyes become too big.

Also consider this: PNC is the largest private slum lord downtown:



It makes economic sense for them to off load these properties and put them to more productive (i.e. revenue generating) use. The timing, however, so close to the end of the Murphy Administration, makes me suspect that there are political motives at play here. PNC could have done this three years ago... what has changed? Could this just be a grab at some other more pressing and profitable project?

Also further consider this: there are a lot of competing interests Downtown... maybe more varied than The Hill. While they do have site control, I doubt that the process is going to be a walk in the park.

So, I'm reserving judgement for now on both of these proposals until someone ponies up some dough. If it happens, great... if not, well, back to the drawing board.

SHOW ME THE MONEY! SHOW ME THE MONEY!

Rule #15

Early Christmas, Xmas, Holiday, Yule Chrismahannukwanzakah, New Year's present to my bureaucratic readers:

Rule #15: The longer you work in bureaucracy, the more Catch-22 resembles non-fiction.

Swift is Dead! Long Live Swift!

I think I’ve finally come to the conclusion that George W. Bush is no longer funny.

Let me explain:

Frequent readers of this blog will have realized that I conceal many of my true thoughts behind the veil of sarcasm, dramatic irony, metaphor, pathos, puns, parody, litotes, satire, and the occasional Month Python reference (like that one there). The purpose of this is two fold: first to hold an opposing view up to public ridicule, and second, to get a cheap laugh. Jonathan Swift did it first and showed that satire be effectively used; Jon Stewart did it most recently and showed that you could get ratings doing it, even if you are on basic cable.

The problem with satire, of course, is that in order for it to be effective, it must be so ludicrous, so absurd that it makes the opposing view sane by comparison. The systematic oppression of the Irish was not funny for Swift, but eating babies was. At the same time, Swift recognizes the legitimacy of the system, choosing to affect policy through established institutions, rather than overturning them. So, the satire bit works only if he’s proposing that the government eats babies.

The juxtaposition of incongruities is hysterical…usually. Unfortunately, Bush has now transcended his incongruities.

We had our warnings. “There ought to be limits to freedom,” he is reported to have said back in 2000. We laughed; it was a stupid thing to say. "What a moron!" "How absurd!" "Limits to freedom? Ha!"

He meant it; little did we know.

In the left wing public consciousness, we watched this guy move from benign dope, to Defender of Western Civilization, to warmonger, to corporate patsy, to… well… authoritarian dictator? Is that even possible in this country? Am I really suggesting the unsuggestable?

How does one effectively mock the subversion of the Law, the blatant disregard for the fundamental truths of our system of government, and the audacity that flaunts both? How can someone mock this guy if he is not adhering to a common philosophical ground? More simply put: IT’S NOT FUNNY IF BUSH REALLY DOES BELIEVE THAT THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD BE EATING BABIES!! ... metaphorically speaking, of course.

So, I’ve finally stopped finding this guy funny, even in a buffoonish kind of way. The grave seriousness of his recent actions, violating the 4th amendment and all, and his lack of irony, has me scared.

Seriously.

IMPEACH

Happy Solstice!

A Very Merry Solstice to all my friends out there. 

 

Lest we forget amid the hustle, bustle and commercialization of this time of year: the inclination of the Earth away from the Sun is the reason for the season. 

Land of the Free and whatnot

From this nation's newspaper of record:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 17 - President Bush acknowledged on Saturday that he had ordered the National Security Agency to conduct an electronic eavesdropping program in the United States without first obtaining warrants, and said he would continue the highly classified program because it was "a vital tool in our war against the terrorists."

Combined with previous actions on judicial process and coercive information gathering, I don't think that the Bush administrtaion has gone nearly far enough in protecting our Freedom and Civil Liberties.  For those of you are counting, this is only three out of the first ten amendments; that's an "F".  We need to expect a C+ from this President or better.  Here's some help:

 

1) Terrorists, who are by definition guilty, must be tried until they are found guilty;

2) On second thought, if they are by definition guilty, no trial is needed;

3) Terrorists can't work in secret cells if troops are stationed in their homes;

4) Moreover, if they aren't armed, they can't do any damage.  Take away their guns, as there's no way that they could ever do any damage without them;

5) In fact, we must stop them from even talking about terrorism, writing about it, or even getting together in the first place.  If we allow people to openly talk, publish, or assemble our very Freedoms will be undermined. 

6) And, frankly, this Islam thing doesn't seem compatable with Freedom.  It needs to be prohibited. 

 

So, there you go George.  That brings you up to 8 1/2.  Don't know how you're going to remove the rights of the States or the other people, or the other rights not innumerated.  That's going to be hard, but I have faith.

 

Oh, and if you're reading this Blog, the NSA, CIA, and FBI are already on their way to your house. 

 

God Bless America... we need all the help we get at this point.

BREAKING NEWS....

OK, I don't watch local news... well... ever, but did I just see what I thought I saw?

 

A promo for a medical report on KDKA about "just how dangerous those icy sidewalks really are."

 

IT'S ICE! 

 

I REPEAT:

 

IT'S FUCKING ICE! 

IT IS SLIPPERY! 

IT IS DANGEROUS!

 

Idiots.  Anyone who needs anything more than that needs to remove themselves from the gene pool.

 

I'm going to go read the directions on the back of my package of "wet-naps" and weep for the future of humanity. 

Bob O'Connor Gets a B.J. in His Office

I am so infantile.

 

Press release from his website:

PITTSBURGH (DECEMBER 15, 2005) Bob O'Connor today announced that B.J. Leber, Senior Vice President and Station Manager of WQED Multimedia, will become his Chief of Staff when he becomes Mayor of Pittsburgh, January 3, 2006.

"We are fortunate that a person of B.J.'s skills and professional management experience would make the commitment to join my administration to work on our agenda to put Pittsburgh on the right track" O'Connor said.

No idea if this is the much talked about "City Manager" position, or if this is just the first appointment in a series. 

Of Bread, Circuses, and Arenas to Hold Both

Fester, through some freak nexus in teh INTARWEB, posted over at Comments From Left Field on Rendell's comments regarding potential tradeoffs on a new Arena. 

 

In sum: $90,000,000 could buy you an arena or new sewers.  Take your pick. 

 

Of course the opportunity cost isn't the only factor here.  There's also the existence value of a new arena, namely, how much value would the citizens of Western Pennsylvania find in just knowing that there's a new arena in town or just knowing that they are keeping the Penguins around. 

 

Basically, it's the same question as: how much money would you pony up to save ANWR?  Given my recent track record, I would say that my answer to that is, unfortunately, $0.00.  I did, however, give money to support local arts and culture, so you can see where my proprities lay: fuck the elk. 

 

I don't really mean that, but my donation patterns reflect that sentiment. 

 

So anyway, here's the question, and it is a difficult question to answer, "How much money would you be willing to give voluntarily to ensure that a new arena is built?" 

 

If you do the calculations right, you need to come up with some god-awful number to balance out the Cost-Benefit equation of local, public funding.  Something like eleventy bagillion dollars.  That's a lot really; my calculator doesn't go that high.   

 

Point is this: in order to sufficiently justify the spending of public dollars on an arena project, there needs to be a whole lot of intangible benefits to make the equation work, or it needs to be part of a larger project in which these costs are subsumed by larger benefits.

 

Moreover: I need that $90,000,000 to help pay off the increase in my health care costs.... but that's a later rant.   

Flotsam and Jetsam

Half-posts, ramblings, and various miscellany that I found underneath my couch. Beware of the dust-bunnies:

---
If you don't shovel your sidewalk after a stowstorm, you are, in fact, and asshole.
If you only shovel the path from your front stairs to your car, you're a bigger asshole.

---
The most useless bus stop in the City of Pittsburgh, is the CMU outbound stop between Morewood and Beeler... ya know, the one that's 50 ft away from the other stop outbound from between Morewood and Beeler.

---
Speaking of bus etiquette and whatnot, it's bad form to flag down and stop the bus mid-block if you don't know where the bus is actually going.

---
I noticed that outside, across the street from Kaufmann's there's a guy trying desperately to unload the free Trib PM in below zero weather.

There's also a guy inside Kaufmann's selling subscriptions to the Post-Gazette.

---
I noticed that (1) the gaming task force said no arena-slots connection, (2) the URA permitted an arena-slots connection quickly thereafter, and (3) Mario threatened to move the team again right after that. Methinks something is afoot.

Perhaps Bob O'Connor has something up his sleeve.

---
Schadenfreude - n. Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. Those Germans have a word for everything.

---
It is, in fact, cold enough for me.

---
Did someone have a private ticker-tape parade at Forbes & Ross today?

---

OK, that's it for now. A good mental colonic really does me good.
The next post will make more sense, I swear. Perhaps I'll use paragraphs.

The "D" in DDT Stands for "Dimitri"

I don't read the Tribune-Review for the science; I read it for the secret coded messages scattered throughout which detail a massive invasion by the Soviet Union.

On those rare instances that I do actually read an article, it is most often by accident, but I do occasionally stumble across a well reasoned and informed piece.

But not on the Editorial Page.

Case in point:

When Allegheny County Council renamed the Ninth Street Bridge to honor Rachel Carson, it had not anticipated the e-mail campaign suggesting the Earth mother of tree huggers indirectly and inadvertently caused more deaths than Hitler and Stalin combined.

Way to Godwin the editorial Dimitri, he murmurs snarkily.

Continuing...

Ms. Carson's seminal work, "Silent Spring," ignited the environmental movement. It claimed that DDT was a dangerous insecticide. Carson believed excessive use in agriculture caused catastrophic consequences for animals and man.

In 1973, the Environmental Protection Agency banned all uses of DDT. Was it science or politics?

"It's a harmless chemical unless you are a bug," says Steven Milloy, author, attorney, publisher of junkscience.com and organizer of a last-minute e-mail campaign asking the local council not to rename the bridge.

"There were no adverse health effects observed. There was no scientific evidence that DDT harmed humans or wildlife. 'Silent Spring' is anecdotal." But it jump-started the movement nonetheless.

Mr. Milloy's biography from the Cato institute, where he is an adjunct scholar, is found here. As the biography indicates, he's also a columnist for that bastion of left-leaning ideologues, FoxNews.com. You can also see a bit more of his biography here.

No, I can't imagine any bias, why do you ask?

Continuing from Dimitri:

"There were no adverse health effects observed. There was no scientific evidence that DDT harmed humans or wildlife. 'Silent Spring' is anecdotal." [said Millory] But it jump-started the movement nonetheless.

Of course, perusing my issue of Scientific American I remember that the problem wasn't the use of DDT, but the MASS use of DDT. DDT, used to kill bugs, flows into water sources, is picked up by fish, which is eaten by, say, Bald Eagles.

The problem isn't the use of DDT, but the buildup of DDT within the food chain and ecosystem.

More from Mr. V:

When South Africa stopped using DDT, malaria rates increased about 1,000 percent, Mr. Bate said. When DDT spraying resumed in 2000, the rate fell 80 percent in 18 months. And continues falling. Details are online at www.fightingmalaria.org.

Of course, the use of DDT in this case is confined to home use, not widespread spraying. You can read about it in the December issue of Scientific American... page 80. It's not online.

Although THIS is:

It also probably cannot be repeated often or loudly enough that environmentalists have not banned DDT for use against malaria. DDT has always been exempt from restrictions where its use is a matter of human public health.

But hey, that's politics, not science.

Of course, I don't check the Trib opinion page for my science... or my politics for that matter.

The Soviets will invade on January 8, 1992.

Strange Things Afoot at 200 Ross Street

Regarding Fester's post on yesterday's URA Board Meeting, and something totally missed by Ervin Dyer at the PG: the surprise nature of the oral motions made at the meeting by the outgoing councilman for the 6th District, Sala Udin.  Those familiar with the tedious nature of these meetings know that almost everything is well planned in advance and agendas are written well ahead of time.  A resolution brought up at the table, while permissible, is unusual.

 

Both motions, the resolution supporting the Oak Hill Residential Development and the one about linking the Mellon Arena and a proposed casino, were obviously dropped into the agenda as a surprise, and timed so that they would not hit the papers at the beginning of the week.  The Trib had nothing on either resolution, instead focusing on the resurrection of the Lazarus building.  Obviously the timing and inclusion into this, the last board meeting of the year and of the Murphy Administration, was critical.

 

Which makes me wonder:

(1) What's Sala doing here? What benefit does he derive from making these motions?

(2) If it's not Sala who's driving this, then who?

(3) How does Bobby O respond?  Tonya Payne?

 

Oh it makes me wonder....

Rule #14

Sue asked for it; Sue got it.

In this time of transition for the Bureaucrats of the City of Pittsburgh, it is comforting to know that policies will change, politicians will come and go, fame and fortunes are fleeting, but...

Rule #14: Bureaucracy endures.

Read. This. Now!

Frequent commenter to this blog "Luke" had a terrific description of Pittsburgh City Council. 

 

Read it here. NOW!

 

Absolutely hysterical. 

Good Christmas Letter for the Ravenstahl Family

So 25-year old Luke Ravenstahl was elected President of Council today, so good luck to him.

Although he's now forced me to re-evaluate my life, as when I was 25 years old, I was not President of City Council. I wasn't even president of my block club. I was out, wandering directionless around Europe having casual sex with disgraced heiresses, slogging my way from hostel to hostel with a tattered copy of my unpublished novel in my bag, hovering between various illegal states of mind.

Actually, no. That's not true. Although I do remember it being a year of drunken debauchery.

Of course, I remember THIS year being a year of drunken debauchery.

However, getting to the point: I hated Richie Rich as a child, as he accomplished more at the age of 13 than I would have accomplished in my entire miserable life.

In short, I'm jealous that I'm not President of Council... or Richie Rich.

Deibold?

Interesting news/rumor here.

In an exclusive interview with RAW STORY, a whistleblower from electronic voting heavyweight Diebold Election Systems Inc. raised grave concerns about the company’s electronic voting technology and of electronic voting in general, bemoaning an electoral system the insider feels has been compromised by corporate privatization.

The Diebold insider, who took on the appellation “Dieb-Throat” in an interview with voting rights advocate Brad Friedman (BradBlog.com), was once a staunch supporter of electronic voting’s potential to produce more accurate results than punch cards.

Hmm.

If You Can Read The Post, You're One Up on Me

Apparently Blogger has given up on blogging tonight.

Because I'm relying on a indirect, mediated form of communication (as opposed to speech, or, to a lesser extent, the printed word), I'm at the mercy of my computer and the related electrons. Or, more importantly, this snafu asks the question "what is the true nature of this mass communicated message?"

Frankly, I don't know if this post is actually going to be posted; it could disappear into the aether of the internet, never to be heard from again.

Which makes me wonder, if no one actually reads it, did I actually post it?

Or, more importantly, does anyone care?

Meh... screw this. We'll start fresh tomorrow, and leave the Marshall McLuhan bullshit for later.

City for Kids Who Don't Read Not Good

Got this in my inbox this morning:

America's Most Literate Cities, 2005

Drawing from a variety of available data resources, the America's Most Literate Cities study ranks the 69 largest cities (population 250,000 and above) in the United States. Previous editions of this study focused on five key indicators of literacy: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, and educational attainment. The 2005 study introduces a new factor—the Internet—to gauge the expansion of literacy to online media.

The original study was published online in 2003 at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. A link to the 2004 rankings is provided here.

MOST LITERATE CITIES

The top 10:
1. Seattle
2. Minneapolis
3. Washington, D.C.
4. Atlanta
5. San Francisco
6. Denver
7. Boston
8. Pittsburgh
9. Cincinnati
10. St. Paul

Dr. John W. Miller, president of Central Connecticut State University, is the author of this study. Research for the 2005 edition of AMLC was conducted in collaboration with the Center for Public Policy and Social Research at CCSU.

More info here.

Because of the new inclusion of "online literacy," I personally blame Pittsburgh Webbloggers for this drop in ranking (from 3rd place). Have you seen some of the illiterate tripe that they try to pass off on us? Shame on them!

The Mon Wharf

Got the following message yesterday at around 1 PM:

The Mon Wharf is flooding. Anyone parked there
should move their cars immediately!

And in the paper today, this story:

Drivers wade to flooded Mon Wharf as rising water surprises many

Just after noon yesterday, Glenn Swoger contemplated how to make his white truck safe and keep himself dry after finding it to be the last, lonely vehicle in nearly two feet of water along the Monongahela Wharf guardrail.

His vehicle was among 475 initially parked on the wharf that were threatened by the fast-rising river. He and other Downtown commuters sometimes known as "wharf rats" rushed to the parking lot before lunchtime, after the Pittsburgh Parking Authority alerted the media and nearby building staffs that cars needed to be moved because of flooding....

The flooding was caused by heavy rainfall east and south of Pittsburgh, along with near-record rainfall in Pittsburgh since Tuesday, said Joe Palko, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. At 7 a.m. yesterday, the weather service forecast that the Ohio River would crest late in the afternoon at 20.4 feet at the Point -- more than two feet above the level where the wharf would flood from the Monongahela River....

Mr. Onorato said those who park on the wharf, similar to those at any lot or garage, do so at their own risk. The most serious problem he heard of yesterday was someone whose car wouldn't start after it had been surrounded by water, though not submerged. He said it was towed to the motorist's dealership....

Look, I'm not a geologist, a meteorologist, or a uh... riverologist... but I know what a "Wharf" is:



No... wait, that's wrong.

A wharf is A landing place or pier where ships may tie up and load or unload or, less commonly, A shore or riverbank.

Let's see... what would you need for landing a ship... hmmm... Ah! Water. And you see, the thing about flowing water, one of the things, of which there are many, is that water tends to flood.

Can't imagine why anyone would think the wharf might flood.



Can't figure it out.



Nope, not at all.

So I can see how people are shocked, SHOCKED! that the wharf flooded, 'cause it, like, has never, ever, ever, ever happened.

Ever.

This month.

World AIDS Day 2005

Ashamed for not posting this sooner.

This year there will be 5 million new infections, a record, and more than 3.1 million death.

Silence is deadly.