David J. Chirico

I’m sure this is a really good response Andrew, but I am not reading it all right now 🙂

Well, to answer the question I don’t accept the premise.  I don’t think companies should work for the common good.  I think they should work for profit.  The common good is the responsibility of the common man and certainly not the governments responsibility.  I am my brothers keeper is not the phrase of a corporation, its a phrase for you and me.…[Read more]

I knew you couldn’t avoid a little discrediting, even if requested not to.  One more for good measure:
 
http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2004/01/27/third_world_sweatshops/page/2
 
And thanks for the suggestion, I’ll check out Krugman!

I’ll just point to two amazing economists for that answer.  And please know, if your reply is to discredit either man for his incompetence or denigrate the web site they write for, you’ll be arguing in bad faith and making no point at all.  Argue against their c…[Read more]

I would respectfully disagree in that its not unions but free markets that separate us from third world countries.  There are other factors such as a free press, an educated populous, universities and free elections.
Just look in the news and you can see the infectiousness of a little freedom.

Some thoughts on private sector unions:
 
That will create direct competition with non-union LA firms’ employees over compensation, instead of quality of work.  Think there won’t be strongarming to make non-union LA firms into union firms?
 
You may have to limit your work based on union job descriptions.  Want to go out with the survey crew tomor…[Read more]

Here is an artist with some very creative work.  I wonder where he draws his inspiration…
 
He has a very interesting book on art in the landscape as well.
 
http://www.wgarysmith.com/design/

It looks stunningly beautiful, I don’t know how it could be called abuse any more than an indian abuses a flint rock to make an arrowhead.
 
Could you imagine greenpeace marching into the phillipines and telling them they need to stop destroying the mountains for rice production…

The new employee was hired in February, correct?  Hardly enough time to give the final analysis that demand for your services has not increased.  I would give it at least 6 months.
 
I remember a while back there was a forum post here from a disgruntled employee who lost a friend in a cutback, but was extremely put out that soon after they rev…[Read more]

Why is it a bad thing that they hired someone else?  The fallacy is that with less people and more hours, productivity increases.  Productivity doesn’t increase, its just less people doing more work.  Productivity is when your product moves and grows in proportion to your employees.  The hiring of another person should be a sign that the com…[Read more]

“A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” Thomas Mann

What is needed is patience, something that the internet forces us to put aside. Speed is the enemy of thought. As soon as we get an email we need to respond. There is no time for squiggles, cross-outs, arrows or editing marks. Just think of the…[Read more]

Looks a little like Karl Foerster’s Feather Reed Grass, Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’

Yes, Virginia does not seem to have been hit as hard as other states. Best of luck to you all.

I learned thru reading a Mastering AutoCAD book as well. However, the problems and guides that come in the attached CD require AutoCAD to work thru. And, even the most watered down versions of CAD (AutoCAD LT) is about $1000 dollars.

The bargain basement way to do it, would be to buy a used book and download the free trial of AutoCAD and do as…[Read more]

I don’t look at our regulating boards here in Virginia as strongly supporting me as a designer or as a member of the community. That has not been my experience and probably a whole other conversation. It may very well be a slippery slope to hand over part of the design process to a regulatory board for the slight of hand of being able to say I am…[Read more]

Well, I would like to know who else gets tested for licensure or certification on things like stormwater, grading and bioretention. As far as I know, LA’s are the only ones that have those items as part of their exam. I think you can claim some ground in that area. We have a civil engineer in our office, his PE exam didn’t cover any of that. What…[Read more]

I’m not sure if it will be the same across the country, but the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Stormwater Manual has just undergone a massive overhaul in how a site is managed for stormwater. New definitions, new requirements and new calculations across the board. I’m not exactly sure when this will hit, but I believe it will…[Read more]

Budgetary Cost = 3 x plant material! Old rule of thumb, but it is more complex than that.

You might not want to make it that simple. 100 sf of groundcover could be 10 plants at 30 dollars each, or 100 plants at 9 dollars each. The cost would vary greatly for a groundcover.

As it is now in this Virginia Beach, VA office, we break it up by the…[Read more]

I appreciate the disclaimer. However, I would like to suggest an addendum to the disclaimer that if we are going to be civil in this discussion, we exclude such horrendous crimes as nazism and slavery. There is in no way a correlation between these crimes against humanity and global climate change other than their connection to government. And to…[Read more]

Speaking of quantification, these folks say your dog puts out a larger carbon footprint (or pawprint) than an SUV:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427311.600-how-green-is-your-pet.html