I just finished reading how Stefan thinks he might have caught Dengue. I understand his view on doctors and being sick. Whenever I get sick, I am usually the same. I will just let my body heal.

Dengue has flu like symptoms so it can be hard to diagnose and is usually transfered from mosquitos. The problem with the sickness if left untreated, it can be very painful and deadly. So if Stefan is feeling better today, he probably just had the flu. He needs to be careful though. If you plan on coming down to Puerto Rico on vacation, don’t give to much thought about catching Dengue Fever. I only know one person who has caught it in 2 and a half years.

I doubt that there is a city any where in the world that has over 500,000 people and doesn’t have traffic lights with sensors in them. I know there are all sorts of sensors for these things such as weight sensors, cameras, I have even seen infrared sensors for buses and emergency vehicles. Now I could be wrong… But, I do believe no traffic light in San Juan or even Puerto Rico has any sort of sensor.

All of the lights here seem to be on some sort of timer. I don’t really know how they figure out the timers because no light is synced with the other traffic lights. And no light seems to be timed to correctly keep the flow of traffic running smoothly. During rush hour it is common to see cops at the busy intersections either manually switching the lights or directing the flow of traffic with their hands an d whistles. When I see this I wonder how much money is being wasted on the cop directing traffic when a sensor could have been installed for much less money.

If you planning a trip to Puerto Rico, make sure you check out these Puerto Rican City maps for Old San Juan, Condado, and Isla Verde.  Hopefully we can see more cities in the future.

You can download the maps as PDFs to print easily or save to you laptop and view them with out access to the internets.  The maps are littered with advertisements; but hey they are free, well done, and better maps than most Puerto Rico guides I have seen.

I don’t know if “reflector” is the technical name or not, I have always called them “city titties”. They are the raised, reflective markers used to separate city traffic lanes. Usually if you are going the correct way, white light is reflected. If you are going the opposite way red light is reflected.

I never knew how important reflectors were until I moved here. I have come to realize that you have to have them to see where you are going at night or while it is raining. It also helps people to stay in their lanes during the day. If they get sidetracked and start to swerve, they will start to hit the reflectors which would make them realize that they are too far over. You can only find reflectors on new roads if you are lucky.

The paint used to divide the lane is also very important. The paint on most roads looks like it wore of 10-20 years earlier. If there are no lanes at all, Puerto Rican will tend to make their own lane like Kramer did in Seinfeld.

I was going to write up a long post on why Puerto Rico should become a State. I had written out an outline, and think it is pretty self explanatory. Let me know if it isn’t…

This is no way a complete list of reasons for Statehood. The list is also extremely one sided; I did not put negative aspects of coming a State.

• Federal Politics
  • No longer second class citizens (US would care what is going on)
    • Vote for President
    • Have a presence in the House
    • Have a presence in the Congress
• Puerto Rico Politics (most important)
  • Credit
    • PR would no longer be a junk bond status
      • The government could borrow money to do things that are needed.
  • Corruption would end
    • US media would hold PR Government accountable.
    • More things get done.
• Taxes
  • We would have to pay Federal tax
    • We would get more out of all Federal programs
  • Cut off PR State tax (this is how it is in Texas) or significantly reduce it.
    • Sales tax could pay for everything. - If this happened, it would promote companies to move in (next item)
• Companies
  • Better prices
    • Competition
      • Cheap taxes and high spending would cause more companies to move in (Puerto Rico spends more $ per capita than other States I have read)
      • More online stores would ship here
      • Better customer service

The best thing would it would help to stop (not end) the corruption of the Puerto Rican Government because the major media outlets would care about Puerto Rico. If the Governor of PR cheated on his wife, do you think it would make national media?  It would if PR was a state…

I just discovered a video tour of different areas of Puerto Rico done by Mens Journal.  The player defaults to play the last segment and the interface can be a little confusing on how to get the other videos to play.  The trick is to click on “Close” then at the bottom click “View Videos”…

The first video is of Old San Juan and Pinones.

The second is of Ponce and Guanica.

The last video is of Carite Forest and  Guavate.