Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Special to Bayview Hill-Jake Sigg's Nature News

1.   Central Subway funds are now needed to save the SF Muni system
2.   Sustainable Landscaping With Native Plants, TONIGHT in Millbrae
3.   The imaginative possibilities of a new integration of urban and rural through local agriculture, &c.  Tonight at CounterPULSE
4.   CNPS plant sale in Los Altos Hills, Saturday 1 May
5.   After the volcano - some reflections
6.   And some more reflections on man
7.   Reflections on crows, those clever devils
8.   And in this corner, the heavyweight champion of the world:  the dung beetle!
9.   Sign the petition against climate catastrophe
10. Celebrating the Bees, May 8:  bee walks, talks, demos, honey tasting in Mill Valley
11.  Vote for McLaren Park to receive $30k competition
12.  Feedback
13.  Building a more effective environmental movement/colossus of dams Floyd Dominy dies, 100 years too late
14.  More evidence that refined carbs, not fats, threaten the heart/brain surges with activity just before death
15.  Salute to acid-tongued conductor Sir Thomas Beecham on his birthday
16.  Wilma Mankiller, first woman chief of the Cherokee Nation, dies


1.  CENTRAL SUBWAY FUNDS ARE NOW NEEDED TO SAVE THE MUNI SYSTEM
 
 
Existing funds are available to save Muni NOW.
The Central Subway Project has $384 million in existing State and Local funds. 
Demand that City Officials and MTA Management reallocate these funds to the Muni system.
Moreover, the MTA is “turning over every rock” for an additional $164 million in Local funds and $88 million in State funds. 
Demand that these new funds, if found, be used for the Muni system.
 
Muni can choose to have ten years of budget surpluses while fixing the existing system.
Like the reallocation of funds from the equally bad Oakland Airport Connector and Alaska’s “Bridge to No Where”, existing monies can solve more immediate needs.  The Central Subway’s $636 million in State/ Local funds and $942 million in future Federal funds could revolutionize Muni.  In times of economic crisis, priorities must be reevaluated.

The Federal Transit Administrator (FTA) deems the Central Subway a high risk project.
In its letter to the SFMTA, January 7, 2010, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) requires that local funding cover all project cost increases---identifying financing options, funding sources, short-term lines of credit, debt, debt capacity, revenue sources….and notes that:
“The Central Subway Project is a high risk project located in a densely populated urban center.  It is the largest, most complex project ever undertaken by SFMTA.”

Before approving federal funds, the FTA is demanding that the MTA secure $164 million more in local funding and $88 million in state funding.  Meanwhile, Muni teeters on a multiyear death spiral of deficits.

Furthermore, the FTA explicitly requires proof that any Central Subway operating costs will not diminish the existing Muni System!  But even the T-Line increased operating and maintenance costs, cutting back surface bus service and lacking funds to operate the new Metro East Maintenance Facility.

Tragically, the Central Subway’s own EIR projects large reductions in surface buses to offset higher operating costs.
Tens of thousands of riders, north of the Washington Street Subway Station, will have reduced service.  Few riders will benefit from the one-half mile subway ride from Washington Street to Union Square.  Far worse, from Stockton & Pacific Ave., the Total Travel Time by Bus to Market St. is faster than the Total Travel Time by Subway.  
 
·  In the Central Subway Final SEIS/SEIR, Volume II, Page 3-187:
“The operational analysis and cost estimates that were conducted for the Central Subway financial feasibility take into account cost savings associated with the reduction in frequency of service on the surface lines operating in the Central Subway Corridor.”
 
·  In the Central Subway Final SEIS/SEIR, Executive Summary, Table S-2, page S-12:
Table S-2 shows the Subway Alternative as including 76,400 hours fewer bus hours a year than the TSM/No Project Alternative.
Contained within Table S-2 for “Annual Operating Statistics”, "Total Annual Diesel/Trolley Bus Hours (System wide): subtracting (2,622,030 – 2,545,630) = 76,400 hours of reduced Annual Diesel/ Trolley Bus Hours.
 
Like a living organism, the rerouting of major blood vessels/ circulation away from major organs is nonsensical---as is the elimination of public transit to major urban nodes. 
South of Market Street, the rerouted T-Line will eliminate direct service to the Embarcadero Station (Ferry Building and ferry services), Montgomery Station (financial district, TransBay Terminal and future High Speed Rail), Powell Station, Civic Center Station and the entire Market Street Corridor---for perpetuity.  From northerly Washington Street, the proposed subway goes to a new Union Square Station---requiring that riders walk up 8 stories and 1,000 feet to the existing Powell Station.
The Central Subway decreases connectivity to BART, Muni Metro, Ferry, High Speed Rail, crossing bus lines and major employment/ commercial centers.

SaveMuni.com would be pleased to present additional information.

Regards, Howard Wong, AIA
SaveMuni.com

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2.
Topic:   Sustainable Landscaping With Native Plants
Speaker: Peigi Duvall, Landscape Designer
Date:    Wed, April 28, 7pm
Venue:   Millbrae Library, 1 Library Ave, Millbrae

Does your garden consume more resources than it produces? How can you design a garden to reduce its consumption of water, energy, chemicals, and labor, and yet provide habitat, beauty, and years of enjoyment?  Landscape designer Peigi Duvall has years of experience designing sustainable native plant gardens.

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3.
Shaping San Francisco talks at CounterPULSE
Ecology Emerges
Nature in Cities
April 28 - 7:30 pm

Join Peter Berg, Miya Yoshitani, and Jason Mark for a panel discussion about the imaginative possibilities of a new integration of urban and rural through local agriculture, human-powered transport, etc. Nature in the City's Peter Brastow & Iris Clearwater will be there to join in the discussion about biodiversity in the city  Located at CounterPULSE, 1310 Mission St.

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4.  In this age of global warming and climate change, what can you do to help the environment? Go native! By planting native plants in the garden, you conserve water and energy, eliminate the use of synthetic chemicals, and create a garden attractive to humans as well as birds and butterflies. Discover the possibilities at the CNPS Santa Clara Valley Chapter Native Plant Sale at Hidden Villa Ranch in Los Altos Hills on Saturday, May 1, 2010, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

California native plants are naturally adapted to the local soil and climate changes, thrive without amendments, fertilizers, or pesticides, and offer incomparable habitat value. Spring is the time of riotous color from native wildflowers, many of which are easy to grow in home gardens.

The sale takes place Saturday, May 1, 2010, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Hidden Villa Ranch, 26870 Moody Road, Los Altos Hills. The ranch is 2 miles west of the I-280 Moody/El Monte Road exit. Parking is free. Come early for the best selection; bring boxes in which to carry purchases home. Cash or check only; no credit cards. For more information: www.cnps-scv.org, cnps_scv@yahoo.com, 650-260-3450.

Free Talk & Tour: Success With Native Plants for Beginners
Spring planting can sometimes be tricky for native plants. Come to this talk by Kevin Bryant to learn the right way to plant and care for young native plants. Find out which plants need summer water, which tolerate it, and which absolutely resent it. The talk will be followed by a short tour of the native garden around the Visitor Center.

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5.
After the volcano
Earthly powers
Apr 22nd 2010 | From The Economist print edition (excerpt)

With great power comes great responsibility

...But the week of absences also offers a less obvious lesson.  One of the things that went missing in the shadow of that volcanic dust was a sense of human power.  And as with the quiet skies, this absence found a welcome in many hearts.  The idea that humans, for all their technological might, could be put in their place by this volcano—this obscure, unpronounceable, C-list volcano—was strangely satisfying, even thrilling.
Such pleasure in the face of overpowering nature, as seen from a place of safety, was at the heart of the idea of “the sublime” as expressed by the great conservative Edmund Burke 250 years ago, and its aesthetic and spiritual allure remains strong. The sublime offers solace and inspiration...
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From Guardian Weekly 23.04.10 (excerpt)  
...Iceland’s revenge on the world economy has given us a glimpse of a world without air travel.  As many people observed over the last week, the sight of clear blue skies was strangely uplifting.
George Monbiot wrote:  “Over the past few days people living under the flight paths have seen the future, and they like it.  The state of global oil supplies, the industry’s social and environmental costs and its extreme vulnerability mean that current levels of flying – let alone the growth the government anticipates – cannot be maintained indefinitely.  We have a choice.  We can start decommissioning this industry while there is time and find ways of living happily with less of it.  Or we can sit and wait for physical reality to simplify the system by more brutal means.” ______________________
(Simon Hoggart, writing about the English election.)  “Gassy material being ejected high into the atmosphere – and it could go on for days!”, said an expert.  It turned out to be the volcano.  
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6.  "For the animal shall not be measured by the man.  In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and more complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear."  Henry Beston
"Every animal knows more than you do. "Native American Proverb (Nez Perce) 
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7.
Crows:  More fun stuff about these fun birds; the news articles give the background, but the video tells it better:



Excerpt from the Guardian piece:  In praise of… the New Caledonian crow

In 2002 a New Caledonian crow seized a piece of wire and swiftly bent it into a hook to yank a tasty titbit from a glass cylinder

The American preacher Henry Ward Beecher said that if men "bore black feathers, few would be clever enough to be crows". Certainly, in a parliament of fowls, they would rule any roost.

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8.  The champion dung beetle

Dung beetles, right, it's fair to say, have always punched above their weight.  Their dung-rolling led the ancient Egyptians to believe they were responsible for keeping the sun moving.  Now scientists are also singing their praises after discovering they are strongest insects in the world.

Plucky male Onthophagus taurus can pull 1,141 times their own body weight:  the equivalent of an average person pulling six double-decker buses full of people.  The news might take the shine off the title of World's Strongest Man for Lithuanian Zydrunas Savickas; last year he pulled a 70-tonne plane for 30m in under 75 seconds - this works out as only 411 times his 170kg body weight.  Guardian Weekly 23.04.10

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9.  The Center for Biological Diversity and 350.org took an historic step in the desperate fight against climate catastrophe when we legally petitioned the EPA to establish a national pollution cap for greenhouse gas pollution under the Clean Air Act.  But, now we need your help to get 500,000 people to sign the 'People's Petition'.

With Copenhagen failing to produce a legally binding, science based agreement and the Senate moving slowly and weakly, pushing the EPA right now takes on particular importance. Time is short.

Here are some ideas of how you can help:
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10.  Savory Thymes invites you and your family to join us in

 Celebrating the Bees - A Community Gathering to Benefit the Survivor Stock Queen Bee Project
Saturday, May 8, 2010, 1:00 - 4:00 pm at Hillside Gardens in Mill Valley

The afternoon will include:
Native bee walks led by Dr. Gordon Frankie of the Urban Bee Lab, U.C. Berkeley
Honey bee talk by Mea McNeil, Master Beekeeper
Demonstration and learning stations presented by the Marin Beekeepers Association
Honey tasting featuring local varieties of honey
Live Celtic music
May Pole ceremony
Savory and Sweet afternoon hors d'oeuvres and drink will be served.

This is a kid-friendly event so please bring your children.
Tickets are $25 per person (kids are free).  We encourage you to dress comfortably and casually.

RSVP to ali ghiorse at ali@savorythymesevents.org (reservations for kids are required).  To purchase tickets please click here

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11.  Sears is sponsoring a nationwide online contest for a $30,000 Park Makeover!  San Francisco's own McLaren Park was nominated and was recently selected as one of the 10 finalists!  To win $30,000 to help make over this beloved park, we need to have the most votes!  Log on to www.moregreenacrossamerica.com  to vote by May 5. 

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12.  Feedback
Carol Teltschick-Fall:
Dear Jake, Now you understand the angry email I sent you a few years ago, raging about Big Ag, links between food and disease, and way our tax dollars are spent subsidizing the very companies that are killing us.Thank goodness people are making films like this, and writing books like Fast Food Nation and In Defense of Food.

However, one topic not yet broached is the poorly understood relationship between our food industry and cancer. Cancer is the number 2 killer in America, vying for number one, yet we seem to be in a state of national denial about the disease. Perhaps that's because cancer is one of the scariest and hardest diseases to face, but maybe it's also because we have been falsely led to believe that we can "avoid cancer by making healthy life-style choices." Well, you can make some choices but not as many as we like to think, and we stand largely uninformed about the degree to which our food, water and air --- the basics of life -- have been, and are still being, corrupted for profit. There is a reason why America has the highest rates of cancer and cancer deaths in the world. But how many Americans even realize that we do?

More films and books are coming about this so stay tuned.
Peter Rauch:
60-SECOND EARTH: What's the Most Recycled Product in the U.S.?
It's not paper, plastic or even aluminum. David Biello reports

"Car batteries" ?  Nah --it's water, 100%.
Peter:  Are you referring to natural recycling?  It sounds like it.  I don't think that's what S.A. had in mind.
It occurred to me that most "products" which are only partially recycled leave the remainder of those products (the unrecycled portion) in a state of longterm (in terms of human time scales) unavailability and/or allow those materials to actually create toxic wastes.  Water, on the other hand, seems to all get back into the cyclical sky to land/sea state, ready for re-use.

So, what I had in mind wasn't so much "natural" --after all, given enough time, more than humanity has on Earth, everything recycles naturally-- as was the question of what happens to the portion of the used product which is not "unnaturally" recycled but simply spewed back into the environment. I think water --as a human waste  product-- wins the recycling contest.
Carol Strauss:
Jake, Re: Mark Twain
Even though Samuel Clemens was born prematurely (dangerous in those times), his mother was sure he'd survive because of the appearance of Halley's comet around the time of his birth [something I read recently but can't name the source, sorry]. Even more fascinating is that he correctly foresaw his death at the comet's return:

In 1909, Twain is quoted as saying:
I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'
His prediction was accurate – Twain died of a heart attack on April 21, 1910, in Redding, Connecticut one day after the comet's closest approach to Earth.
From Wikipedia.

Nobody explains when, why, and for how long he wore white suits . . .,

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13.  From High Country News

In The Rebirth of Environmentalism, activist Douglas Bevington explores the relationship between the giant national organizations, like the Sierra Club, and the small grassroots groups. 
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"Glen Canyon Dam and the creation of the most wonderful lake in the world, Lake Powell, is my crowning jewel."

That's Floyd Dominy, commissioner for the Bureau of Reclamation from 1959 to 1969, speaking during an interview a decade ago. He died at the age of 100, on April 20. Some had hoped the dam would go first, draining Lake Powell and restoring the river's ecosystem.

One week before Dominy passed away, I spoke to him by telephone. I wanted to talk to the man I'd learned about long ago from reading John McPhee's Encounters with the Archdruid. I can think of no better way to write a story than the way McPhee did: You put two enemies in a rubber raft (along with a handful of unsuspecting strangers) and send them all down the wild Colorado river together.

That’s what McPhee did with Dominy and David Brower, the Sierra Club executive director who considered the construction of Glen Canyon Dam his biggest environmental policy failure. It seemed, though, that Dominy and Brower had a blast, drinking beer and occasionally bickering about whether remote stretches of the Colorado were valuable because they were untouched, or wasted because they weren't being developed. I've never forgotten McPhee's description of Dominy, endlessly smoking cigars on the raft trip and somehow able to keep one lit as the raft passed through a waterfall.

When I spoke to Dominy, I said I thought the trip sounded pretty exciting. "It was boring!" he said. "Boring, how could it be anything else? You can't see out from the bottom of a canyon."

(You sure can't, Floyd.  Not if you're blind.)  

"An age is called dark, not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it."  James Michener


"The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper."  Eden Phillpotts

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14.  Scientific American

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MAGAZINE: Carbs against Cardio: More Evidence that Refined Carbohydrates, not Fats, Threaten the Heart
Whether the new thinking will be reflected in this year's revision of the federal dietary guidelines remains unclear

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND: Going Out with a Bang
The brain surges with activity just before death

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15.  Conductor Sir Thomas Beecham 29 April 1879
“Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands - and all you can do is scratch it”
“Brass bands are all very well in their place - outdoors and several miles away.”
“There are two golden rules for an orchestra: start together and finish together. The public doesn't give a damn what goes on in between.”
“If an opera cannot be played by an organ grinder, it's not going to achieve immortality.”
“Composers should write tunes that chauffeurs and errand boys can whistle.”
It is quite untrue that British people don't appreciate music. They may not understand it but they absolutely love the noise it makes.”

Beecham was famous for his quick wit and acid tongue.  He was rehearsing The Marriage of Figaro in the late 1930s, but the Countess, the famed Tiana Lemnitz, was very late for the rehearsal.  She eventually showed up, strode onto the stage and, giving the salute, said "Heil Hitler!"  Everyone was stunned.  Beecham stared long and hard at her, then without saying a word raised the baton to start the rehearsal.  It was reputed to be the only time in his life that he was at a loss for words.

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16.  Wilma Mankiller, first woman chief of the Cherokee Nation, died on April 6th, aged 64
Apr 22nd 2010 | From The Economist print edition
ALL through her life, white people tried to help Wilma Mankiller. As she walked to school, two miles down the hilly, narrow lanes of north-eastern Oklahoma, women in big cars would stop and offer her a ride. She didn’t want one. The same women would appear sometimes at the wood-frame house, where her family of 11 lived in three rooms, burning coal-oil and hauling water from the spring, and offer them second-hand clothes. She would run away. If they caught her, they would pat her on her black-haired, Indian head. “Bless your little heart,” they murmured.
In 1956, when she was ten, white people suggested her family should move from their farm at Mankiller Flats to San Francisco. The government, having forced her ancestors in 1838 along the Trail of Tears from eastern Tennessee to Indian Territory, now promised them a better life even farther west. They caught the passenger train from Stilwell; she wept Cherokee tears all the way to California. No one had forced them out this time. But they ended up in a drab, violent housing project where her father found back-breaking work in a rope-factory and she was mocked at school for her stupid name. She knew it meant “guardian of the settlement”; but that all seemed far away and irrelevant now.
Many years later, when she was principal chief of the Cherokee Nation, a white woman offered money for college scholarships for Indians. She said she wanted to “give pride back” to them. Ms Mankiller had never heard such arrogance. Yes, her tribe needed schools, clinics, day care, Head Start programmes, and all these she was busy procuring for them. But it did not need the patronising charity of white people. Under Ms Mankiller, the Cherokee were learning to rely on themselves again.
It had taken time. Over the years the tribe had been absorbed until almost everything was lost. In 1907 the tribal lands in Oklahoma had been broken up into allotments, one of which was given to Ms Mankiller’s grandfather at Mankiller Flats; and nothing did more damage to the tribe, she believed, than that loss of commonalty and spiritual, as well as physical, interdependence. Her family had tried to preserve it, bartering with and working for other people. But the Cherokee could not easily find their sense of oneness again.
She herself was almost lost to the tribe for a while, married to a Latino at 17, having two daughters early, living a middle-class Californian life. But the San Francisco of the late 1960s gradually radicalised her. The stiletto heels were swapped for sandals; the husband was sidelined; the two small daughters were taken by boat to be part of the Native-American reclamation of the prison-island of Alcatraz; and in 1976 she went back with them in a U-Haul van to Mankiller Flats. There, on the land that was still her family’s, they camped under the stars and learned to tell the time by the sun, Cherokee-fashion. Nine years later she was chief of the Cherokee Nation.
Hard graft was required. When she first ran for office in 1983, the entire tribal council opposed her: not because she was an activist, but because she was a woman. No woman had led such a large tribe before. She slogged on, “keeping steady”, until she had won them over. Organising in California for other tribes had taught her how to type, draw up grant applications and analyse land treaties; she brought in revenue and social programmes. But firstly she taught self-reliance. She had never forgotten the women at the Indian Centre in San Francisco, poor single mothers who made themselves ballgowns from cast-offs and went out to dance on Saturday nights, their hair piled up under Aqua Net lacquer, determined to unite and shine.
She was credited with many things, including the expansion of the tribe from 55,000 to almost 200,000 members, its control of a $75m budget, the revival of the Sequoyah high school and the broadening of horizons for all Indian women. But her own favourite project was one she had masterminded in 1981 in the village of Bell, 14 miles from Mankiller Flats. There she persuaded a dying Cherokee settlement of 300 people, mostly chicken-catchers in run-down shacks, to build their own 16-mile water-line to the mains supply. If they dug or drilled, they would get new houses. The people took a year of persuading; but they built the line. No white person helped them. The “shiftless” Cherokees proudly did everything necessary.

The healing spring

Ms Mankiller was not an easy taskmaster. She scolded the people of Bell until they obeyed her. When the tribal council cavilled about her disregard for ceremony, she turned off their microphones. Because the owners of smokeshops refused to pay their taxes, she shut them down. She battled on through constant illnesses, ending with pancreatic cancer, but still considered her biggest challenge was to restore the Cherokees’ lost faith in themselves.
One cure she knew. At Mankiller Flats, where she went back to live, the old wooden house had been burned down by hunters, but the spring still flowed. A Cherokee ritual called “going to the water” could heal negative thoughts as poultices healed wounds. So there, among the rocky slopes of bending hickory and walnut trees, her feet slightly wary of crawfish in the icy water, she would gather positive strength for herself, as well as for her tribe. 

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Saturday, April 24, 2010

Special to Bayview Hill-Jake Sigg's Nature News


Jake Sigg (jakesigg@earthlink.net)
 
1.   More on Food, Inc. - a must see
2.   Good news:  State Parks funding measure to be on Nov ballot/sanguine report on AB 32 
3.   Lead shot ban before Legislature - you can help
4.   History of the Dolores Creek watershed:  Water Walking tour with Joel Pomerantz Wednesday 28 April
5.   A cloud of birds moving in wild patterns.  Why do birds do that?
6.   Why 'Bay Nature'? The Importance (and Joy) of Connecting to Local Nature, Friday, April 30, 2010
7.   Scientific American potpourri
8.   Feedback:  The coming population crash, and other nonsense
9.   Has CITES had its day?  (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species)
10. Good news on the California invasive species front
11.  But then, they're still selling invasive brooms
12.  Support keeping Louis' Restaurant right where it is, near the Cliff House/look for philosophical graffito
13.  Wildlife and Wild Plants along Drury Court in East Bay Hills - April 27
14.  Greening the Mission - May 1
15.  Endangered Species Big Year event - mission blue butterflies Sunday April 25 
16.  More Iceland volcanic pictures
17.  Full Moon walk Wednesday 28 April, 8.15p
18.  Complicated language made clear
19.  More than just a phunny phellow.  A man who never let anything stand in the way of a joke - Mark Twain: The Adventures of Samuel L. Clemens
20. The End of Wall Street, the roots of the financial crisis/advice from the Bank of England governor 
21.  Current affairs - a real quiz
22.  Death of 'Caveman' ends an era in Idaho
23.  Russia's war against Napoleon - How Russia really won

1.  FOOD, INC.

Many people have been revolted and horrified by this film, and likely you will be too.  See it by all means.  The ad blurb says, in effect, that you will never again buy meat, corn, or their derivatives produced by this mega mega system (corn is in everything now).  True, I never will.  I will be even more careful in my food purchases.

Here's the blurb I got from Eric Mills:
Nominated for an Academy Award (and I wish it had won--it affects far more animals than does "The Cove"), the film "reveals surprising--and often shocking--truths about what we eat, how it's produced, who we have become as a nation, and where we are going from here."

About that "...who we have become as a nation, and where we are going from here.":   Even more appalling than the treatment of animals is what we are becoming as a nation.  There are so many beautiful aspects to our country in its foundation, ideals, aspirations, history, culture.  The work of the founding fathers must rank with the great events of the entire human race.  What happened to us?  Why did we let economic elites seize control of the country?  Can we get that power back?

My answer is No, I don't think we can get it back.  In regard to the production and distribution of our food, powerful corporations control the crucial aspects of our government, regardless of which party is in power.  It would be nice to think that a few revelations like this film would wake us up and that we would demand a return to reason and sanity.  Unfortunately, that would require people assuming more responsibility for their lives than they are willing to take.  I think the breaking of the stranglehold may happen in the coming economic difficulties--the collapse of the current financial structure, of which I think we have seen only the prelude.  As often happens in human affairs, the right thing happens for the wrong reason.

Ian Wilson:
Dear Jake, Re 1. TV worth watching TONIGHT 9 pm:  Food, Inc, by Michael Pollan et al

Some of the others are Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, and Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm. If your readers missed it, it can be viewed on the internet here: http://video.kqed.org/video/1472879887/
More here: 

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2.  Two from Planning & Conservation League

760,000 SIGNATURES ENSURE PARKS FUNDING MEASURE WILL BE ON NOVEMBER BALLOT
 
On Monday, a coalition of environmental groups submitted approximately 760,000 signatures to California election officials in support of a ballot measure that would raise funds for state parks. The parks funding campaign needs 433,931 valid signatures of registered voters to qualify the measure for the November 2nd ballot.  Election officials now have until June 24 to certify the measure.
 
If approved by a simple majority of voters in November, the measure would give Californians free admission to all of California's 278 parks, including redwood forests, historic sites, and beaches in exchange for an increased vehicle registration fees of $18 annually. The measure would raise the state parks operation budget to approximately $500 million a year, compared to the woefully inadequate current budget of $380 million, and would eliminate the need to close parks for a lack of funds.


NEW REPORT FINDS CALIFORNIA'S CLEAN ENERGY LAW COULD IMPROVE AIR QUALITY, ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
 
A new report, Minding The Climate Gap, authored by Manuel Pastor, Ph.D., Rachel Morello-Frosch, Ph.D., MPH, James Sadd, Ph.D., and Justin Scoggins, M.S. concludes that in addition to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, California's climate and clean energy law, known as AB 32, could result in air quality benefits for many of the state's most disadvantaged communities -- if properly implemented. The state's most significant air polluters (power plants, petroleum refineries, cement kilns) are disparately located in communities of color and low-income neighborhoods. As a result, these communities bear disproportionate health costs from poor air quality.  Minding The Climate Gap finds that AB 32's greenhouse gas regulations could further environmental justice in California by reducing traditional air pollutants, including particulate matter, sulfates, and volatile organic compounds. 
 
Our clean air and energy law is currently under attack in the California Legislature and by an initiative group led by two Texas-based oil companies, whose facilities would be subject to the new regulations. Several bills threaten to derail successful implement of the law. For example, SB 1263 (Wyland - R) would essentially render AB 32 inoperative, and AB 2529 (Fuentes - D) would create legislative and administrative roadblocks to the law. Notwithstanding a recent report from the California Air Resources Board, which concludes that AB 32 will result in steady job creation and will support modest economic growth over the next ten years, opponents of the law are currently circulating signature petitions to place a measure on the November ballot that would essentially shelve it.

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3.  Eric Mills:  LEGISLATIVE ALERT - LETTERS/CALLS NEEDED:  AB 2223 (NAVA) - LEAD SHOT BAN

AB 2223, by Assemblyman Pedro Nava (D-Santa Barbara), would ban the use of lead shot in all of California's State Wildlife Management Areas for the hunting of upland game birds and small mammals.  This would protect more than 600,000 acres from the devastation of lead poisoning.  (See www.leginfo.ca.gov for a copy of the bill and an excellent committee analysis--lots of good info for your letters.)

AB 2223 will be heard in Assembly Appropriations on Wednesday, April 28, Room 4202, 9:00 a.m., and your letters and calls are needed now.  if you can attend to testify in support of the bill, so much the better.

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4.  http://thinkwalks.org (check out other tours)

Water Walking tour with Joel Pomerantz April 28 WEDNESDAY or May  23 SUNDAY. 10 to 1:30.:
The tour focuses on the history of the Dolores Creek watershed, above the Mission District. We'll examine water's artful sculpting of our hills and shorelines based partly on this (http://www.joelpomerantz.com/articles/cleansecret.html) book chapter by Thinkwalks guide, Joel Pomerantz. Recent research has cast doubt on the existence of the lake (Laguna Manantial) that is featured in that article. On the tour, we'll discuss the evidence for and against, and try to change Joel's mind. Discover springs, hidden watercourses and even waterfalls (cascading beneath sewer covers where you can still hear them!). Why was Hetch Hetchy Reservoir built? Where did the water come from before that? What happened to the streams and springs in San Francisco? Let's go look for them! This could be a watershed moment in your life. San Francisco's political power was originally derived almost entirely from water. According to historian Gray Brechin, our water system was purposely designed on the model of ancient Rome, to dominate the West economically, as Rome dominated its empire. Get to know your local water sources! Suggested donation $15 to $40. Approximately 3 & 1/2 hours. Walking includes some serious hills. RSVP Upcoming dates: April 28 WEDNESDAY or May  23 SUNDAY. 10 to 1:30. Snacks supplied, Optional picnic (bring bag lunch) at 2. Meets at Adobe Bookshop, 3166 16th Street at Guerrero.

What people say: "It was the highlight of the entire year-long fellowship", "You give good tour!", "I couldn't stop talking about it. It was a real treat imagining and tracing the steps of a shifting topography. Searching for lost lakes, hidden creeks, and forgotten springs is my idea of a Saturday very well spent."

And from Yelp: "You learn about your city in a way that nobody talks about it--Page Street--a 60 foot sand dune?!?", "I was blown away by a lot of the stuff I learned and came away with a whole new perspective on San Francisco. If you want something in-depth, smart, and out of the ordinary, this is it.", "These tours attract the best people, so you end up learning a little something from everyone!"

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5.  From  Ask the Naturalist column in Bay Nature, April-June 2010:

Q.  I recently saw a video of a cloud of birds moving in wild patterns.  Then I saw shorebirds doing the same thing.  Why do birds do this--other than because they can?
A.  (excerpt):  ...Early researchers assumed each group had a leader.  But video of flocks makes it clear there is no top bird.  The flock is apparently acting as a superorganism.  

In the 1980s researchers used computer modeling and chaos theory to derive some simple flocking rules:  Birds are attracted to each other unless they are too close.  Birds head in the direction of their neighbors and toward the group's general position.  A wind gust or a predator's approach can alter the group's course.  And a single bird's movement can quickly propagate through the group.

(Superorganism.  Sound familiar?  What about slime molds?  The world just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser.  About 20 years ago I took a course in chaos theory at the California Academy of Sciences.  Lately I resumed study via a DVD course from The Teaching Company.  For the brave--or only the curious--I can recommend it.  Even though the mathematics is very technical and formidable, the results are visible in everyday life, and a good teacher can teach at this level.  Chaos (the mathematical term doesn't mean complete disorder and confusion) means behavior so unpredictable as to appear random, owing to great sensitivity to small changes in conditions.  It governs physical phenomena 

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6.  Why 'Bay Nature'? The Importance (and Joy) of Connecting to Local Nature, Friday, April 30, 2010, 11:20 AM-1:30 PM.

As commerce, communications, and culture become globalized, people are increasingly disconnected from the rhythms of their local environment. The San Francisco Bay Area, with the highest level of biodiversity of any major metropolitan area in the U.S., is at the forefront of efforts to reverse this trend by connecting people to local landscapes.  Publisher David Loeb will talk about Bay Nature's role in these efforts, as well as the joys and tribulations of publishing a local nature magazine.

Pre-Meeting: coffee, soft drinks, wine, and conversation from 11:20 in the Venetian Room, 2nd Floor. Lunch is served at 11:50; the cost is $15.50. Coffee only: $1.00. The speaker is introduced at 12:30, and each meeting adjourns at 1:30.  Visitors are welcome; please call for lunch reservations by 4 p.m. on the Thursday preceding the Friday meeting: RSVP to Ms. Jane Barrett-- (510)845-8055; please leave a voice mail message if there's nobody home. More info at http://baynature.org/events/why-bay-nature.

Cost:            $15.50 lunch, $1 coffee only
Location:    Berkeley City Commons Club, 2315 Durant Avenue, Berkeley, CA
Event Contact:   RSVP: (510)845-8055; Questions:(510)428-0222

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7.  Scientific American

IN-DEPTH REPORT: Earth Day at 40: New Perspectives on the Planet's Health
April 22, 2010 marks the 40th anniversary of the original Earth Day. How far has the planet come in the intervening decades?

OBSERVATIONS: A warming world could trigger earthquakes, landslides and volcanoes
Volcanoes, with their vast outpourings of greenhouse gases and sun-screening ash clouds, can affect climate. But what about the other way around?

SCIENCE TALK PODCAST: Bill McKibben's  Eaarth
Writer and activist Bill McKibben talks to  Scientific American 's Mark Fischetti about his new book  Eaarth: Making A Life On A Tough New Planet . Part 1 of 2. Edited and produced by podcast host Steve Mirsky (picture at left)

NEWS: Geologists Drill into Antarctica and Find Troubling Signs for Ice Sheets' Future
New sediment cores from an Antarctic research drilling program suggest that the southernmost continent has had a more dynamic history than previously suspected

OBSERVATIONS: Celebrate Earth Day: Buy! Buy! Buy!
The best possible thing we all can do this week to honor Earth is to shop till we drop

60-SECOND EARTH: What's the Most Recycled Product in the U.S.?
It's not paper, plastic or even aluminum. David Biello reports

EXTINCTION COUNTDOWN: World's rarest tree gets some help
Just a single tree exists in the wild, on one of the Three Kings Islands off the coast of New Zealand, where it has sat, alone, since 1945

OBSERVATIONS: NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory producing sun science that doubles as eye candy
A new sun-studying satellite had its coming-out party Wednesday, when scientists involved in the project presented early imagery and videos from the spacecraft's instruments

CLIMATEWIRE: "Spring Creep" Favors Invasive Species
Spring is coming earlier, and nature is scrambling to keep up

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8.  This book is the subject of the first Feedback item, following this:  The Coming Population Crash. 
Pearce argues that the world’s population is peaking.  In the next century, we’re heading not for exponential growth, but a slow, steady decline.  This, he claims, has the potential to massively change both our society and our planet:  Children will become a rare sight, patriarchal thinking will fall by the wayside, and middle-aged culture will replace our predominant youth culture.  Furthermore, Pearce explains, the population bust could be the end of our environmental woes.  Fewer people making better choices about consumption could lead to a greener, healthier planet.
Feedback

On Apr 21, 2010, at 9:18 PM, Robert Hall wrote:
I saw a guest on the John Stewart who has an interesting take on population. The name of his book is:
The Coming Population Crash: and Our Planet's Surprising Future (Hardcover)~ Fred Pearce (Author)
At risk of appearing to be a stuck-in-the-mud (and not having read the book!) I dismiss it out of hand.  I've heard all the arguments before and accept part of them as true.  However, human beings and their ways--as well as nature's ways--are infinitely complex and unpredictable.  (An aside:  I'm presently studying Chaos theory, which would make mincemeat out of Pearce or anyone so egotistical as to think they can see where this--yes, chaotic--situation is going.)  To boot, I have become increasingly cynical.  Books are often written because publishers need grist for the mill, writers need to write (after all, that's what they do for a living), and forming a thesis that will get public attention is not overly easy, which encourages contrarians, and explains why contrarians are often popular.

Garnering so many enthusiastic reviews in unsurprising.  We are feeling helpless in the face of a very frightening world evolving beyond our ability to control.  People are desperate for good news, and any reason for hope.  Jake

P.S.  My despair is not helped at all by seeing Food, Inc on PBS last night.  Talk about frightening and beyond control!  I wonder how Pearce would fit that one into this rosy view.

Burton Meyer:
Jake:    As to nuber 9 on LA air.  Lets not exagerate.  
LA never had great air.  When the Native Americans lit campfires the smoke would often linger near the ground due to temperature inversion.  The early movie industry was mostly attracted by the lack of a winter and the ability to shoot outdoors at all times.  The bad air potential  makes the auto and petroleum industries actions appear worse than the good to bad air argument expressed in the article. 
Well, Burton, the annual burning by natives could hardly match the daily river of bumper-to-bumper traffic of today.  If you're talking about campfires you're talking hundreds, not millions.  There are too many people who still remember the clear skies of the LA basin, including me, who lived there for a year in the early 1940s, and who remember the beautiful blue skies and the snow-capped San Gabriel Mtns towering over miles and miles of orange groves all the way out to San Bernardino.

Nice try to defend the auto, Burton, but there's too much contrary evidence.  

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9.  Has CITES had its day?  (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species)

The UN's wildlife trade body has its problems, notably the playing of politics - but it is still the only game in town, a conservationist argues.

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10.  The California Invasive Species Advisory Committee (CISAC) announces the release of the new California Invasive Species List, as mandated by the Invasive Species Council of California Bylaws and the California Invasive Species Advisory Committee Charter. The list currently includes over 1,700 species of all taxonomic types— vertebrate, invertebrate, plant, and disease—and includes not only those damaging organisms already in the state but also those that could conceivably be introduced and become problems in the future. CISAC drew from over 80 existing lists from California and beyond, including regulatory lists and lists maintained by universities and NGOs. CISAC designed a website to collect input from area experts, and considers the list to be a living document that will be reviewed and updated continuously. Since March 2010 over 100 experts have created accounts on the website. CISAC developed a “scorecard” template for rating the impacts of a given species and our ability to respond to it, and has used it to assess over 200 species. This list forms the foundation for the strategic action plan CISAC will be developing.
 
If you would like more information about CISAC, please visit our website!

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11.  Gardening hangovers, Part 5: Scotch and Spanish broom
Los Angeles Times
...California nurseries aren’t allowed to stock some of the worst weeds, especially those that threaten agriculture. But, according to Doug Johnson of the nonprofit California Invasive Plant Council, “State law actually prevents plants currently in the nursery trade from being banned.”

The U.S. may soon require tighter screening of new horticultural imports. However, Johnson says, it’s unlikely to place new restrictions on plants already in home gardens, “so it’s important that we develop voluntary measures.”

One such effort is California Horticultural Invasives Prevention, a consortium that urges the nurseries and gardeners to avoid invasive plants.

Azusa-based Monrovia Growers, a member of Cal-HIP, has replaced many runaway plants with less aggressive alternatives. The company’s computer system won’t allow salespeople to ship invasive plants to regions where they threaten wildlands, according to Nicholas Staddon, director of new plants. Staddon keeps a wary eye on new imports: “I’ve learned to look for certain traits in plants that could mean they’ll become invasive.”

Excerpted from Los Angeles Times story:  

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12.  To support keeping Louis' Restaurant right where it is, in the GGNRA near the Cliff House/Sutro Baths . . . . . 

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And while you're there, check this out to see if this graffito is still there:

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

“It may be helpful to remember that
Things have not always been as they are;
This may be, obvious as it sounds, easy to forget while
Walking concrete paths and percieving (sic) streams of
Traffic and rectangular shelters.

“It may be helpful to keep in mind that at one time
These constructions were non-existant (sic).

“It may be of some use to look over
All that you can see right now, the expance (sic) and boundries (sic)
Of your environment, and think how all of this will be gone
One day
Eaten
And reapplied.”

“It may be helpful to see beauty in decomposition; because like
The leaves of trees turn brigt (sic) and fall to the ground to
replenish
Their mother, it is also our inescapable privilidge (sic) to rot.

“So it now becomes necessary to view all items
In the world as reflections,
All objects as mirrors,
And then move upon this basis.”

—Anonymous

(Scrawled on concrete retaining wall on Pt Lobos Drive between Louie’s Restaurant and the Cliff House.  Sighted in 1970.  Is it still there?)

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13.  From Claremont Canyon Conservancy

Wildlife and Wild Plants along Drury Court -- April 27
You are invited to a short walk on Drury Court on Tuesday, April 27 from 11 to 1 to view and discuss native plants, vegetation management and wildlife near Drury Court.
Guides will be:   
PAUL McGEE and BILL McCLUNG , who have been managing professionally five large undeveloped properties along Drury Court to meet Oakland Fire Prevention requirements and to enhance native plant cover and habitats within those requirements.
KAY LOUGHMAN, whose website, Wild Life of the North Hills. http://www.NHWildlife.net, is highly recommended as a guide to images of the flora and fauna of Claremont Canyon.
DRURY COURT is at the north end of Drury Road, below Strathmoor and Chancellor Place. There is a remarkable assemblage of native flora in that area.  There is ample parking on Drury Court  and the area is wheel-chair accessible.
The little-used  Drury Court road provides comfortable vantage points to see plants, possibly the resident California Quail and other fauna associated with native grasslands and shrublands, as well as broad panoramas of Claremont Canyon.
At about noon we will migrate to the redwood forest on the nearby Burmeister property where last year strawberries and pastries miraculously appeared on this walk.
We recommend hats and long sleeves and pants, and binoculars would be helpful.

RSVPs would be helpful but are not required. Questions: williammcclung@mac.com

Spring Bird Walk with Dave Quady, May 1, 7 a.m.
WHERE TO MEET: On Saturday, May 1, meet Dave Quady at 7 a.m. at the four corners (intersection of Grizzly Peak Blvd with Claremont Ave. and Fish Ranch Rd.) to look for some of the birds that breed in Claremont Canyon. 

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14.  Calling All Mission Greenbelt Supporters, Friends & Garden-makers! 

Celebrate May Day at SOMArts with Amber Hasselbring Saturday, May 1, 2010 from 12 to 5 p.m. Let's prepare the gardens for summer arts programming. We'll do some weeding, leveling/laying pavers, beating back the bamboo brush, cutting limbs, general upkeep, & maybe even install a drip irrigation system. Light refreshments provided. 

SOMAarts , 934 Brannan St, San Francisco

& Amber will be leading a workshop: How to Create and Care for an Urban Sidewalk Garden at The Sangati Center, Sunday, May 9 from 1 to 4 p.m. followed by some light garden work.  The Sangati Center, 3049 22nd Street, San Francisco

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15.  2010 Endangered Species Big Year
Flying Pansies — Sunday, April 25, 2010, 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.: Join lepidopterist Liam O’Brien at the old rifle range in Marin County’s Rodeo Valley to search for and learn about the endangered Mission Blue Butterfly. You’ll learn the basics about butterflies and how to find them. The rifle range is found off of Bunker Road in the Marin Headland’s Rodeo Valley, Sausalito, CA 94965. Contact Liam O’Brien for questions about the trip at liammail56@yahoo.com. RSVP required: sign-up using this web form. Rain and/or overcast weather cancels.

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17.  Full moon time again, and we'll be taking our walk Wednesday, April 28, starting at 8:15.
As always, the walk will start at the Quarry Road Entrance Park by the Brisbane Post Office and Community Garden. The Brisbane Post Office is at 280 Old County Road, Brisbane.
These quarry walks are fun, a companionable walk with friends and neighbors. Come join us. Children and dogs are most welcome.
Round trip distance is about two miles on a nearly flat road. Dress in layers. It can be cold and/or windy. Heavy rain cancels, but a bit of fog or a few clouds won't stop us. Right now, they're predicting a 30% chance of rain in Brisbane on Wednesday.

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18.  Excerpts from NPR's Marketplace:  Complicated language made clear

A lot of communication is hopelessly confusing.  Annetta Cheek, director of the Center for Plain Language, talks with Kai Ryssdal about the how the nonprofit started and who the worst offenders are in corporate America.  A lot of the communications we get in everyday life, whether it's a news stories or letters from your bank or a new government program, are hopelessly confusing. Anybody who's ever tried to read their health or car insurance policies knows what I'm talking about.
There is an organization dedicated to fixing that. It's called Center for Plain Language. They're hosting the first ever awards for the use of good and, also, not so good language next week.
Ryssdal: Tell me a little about the Center for Plain Language. How did you guys get things started?
CHEEK: Well, it started with a group of mostly federal employees who were trying to get the government to write more clearly and realized that we couldn't do everything we wanted to do from our positions within the government, so we formed a nonprofit organization with a few private sector folks. And our goal is to get government and business to communicate more clearly with citizens and customers.
......
Ryssdal: Not only is the print fine, but you can't understand it once you get your magnifying glass out.
CHEEK: Exactly, exactly. And some of that unfortunately is intentional.
Ryssdal: And basically what happens is we don't read this fine print, and then we're financial losers.
CHEEK: Absolutely. In this recent contest that our center ran, one of the entries for what we called the wonder mark -- which means we wondered what on earth were they thinking about when they wrote that -- was the end-user agreement for a very popular consumer communication product.
Ryssdal: Hold on, I have to stop you here. A consumer communication product? Come on, you're doing your own complex language there.
CHEEK: Well, all right. It was a Blackberry.
Ryssdal: There you go.
CHEEK: It was Blackberry. There we go. All right. If you read it carefully you would see that it said these are our policies today, but we might change our policies tomorrow. And when you say that you agree to this policy, you're agreeing not only to the policies that we wrote today, which you can't read, but to any policy that we might write in the future. And by the way, we aren't going to tell you about those new policies, you have to come back to our website and read this agreement periodically so you know what you agreed to.
....

Ryssdal: So as you get set to hand out these awards, what do you hope to gain by this? I mean you'll get some publicity, you'll do an event at the National Press Club, and then probably everybody is going to go back to being as confusing as we were.
CHEEK: I'm sure. And we know there's no magic bullet. We're trying to get the public to pay a little more attention to this and to object. I think the public just accepts this kind of stuff because they don't think anything is possible. And of course, something else is possible.

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19.  Mark Twain's biography
More than just a phunny phellow.  A man who never let anything stand in the way of a joke
Apr 15th 2010 | From The Economist print edition
Mark Twain: The Adventures of Samuel L. Clemens, By Jerome Loving.
“ALL modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called ‘Huckleberry Finn’.” So wrote Ernest Hemingway, no slouch himself in the field of modern American literature. Published in 1885, when American letters were dominated by the starchy, pious and insipid group known as the Schoolroom Poets, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” was everything they were not: vital, irreverent, meandering and funny. “Lives of great men all remind us/We can make our lives sublime!” preached that arch-schoolroomer, Henry Longfellow. Introducing Huck Finn, Twain did not agree. He gave warning: “Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot.”
Of course, the book has its morals, just not hortatory ones. Twain’s were more basic and homespun: Huck risks jail and death to free his friend, Jim, a runaway slave; not until J.D. Salinger invented a deerstalker-clad prep-school dropout would American literature see as prodigious a deflator of phoneyness. As for plot, it is an American picaresque. Twain knew instinctively how well the form suits a restless, dynamic country.
He knew it because his life was also restless and dynamic. The real pleasure in reading Jerome Loving’s excellent biography is less the literary criticism than the jaunts—first across young America with a young Twain, and then overseas as he grows more established. Samuel Clemens left Hannibal, Missouri, at 18, working for newspapers in St Louis, New York, Cincinnati, Keokuk and Virginia City, Nevada. He also mined for silver and learned to pilot a riverboat, from which he took his pseudonym—the cry “mark twain” was used to warn pilots that they were veering into dangerously shallow water.
Like many writers, he gradually discovered he didn’t really have a knack for much else. He was a great storyteller—indeed, much of his income came from barnstorming lecture tours—but a terrible businessman, an unsuccessful miner and an erratic riverboat pilot. He would travel anywhere for a story. American literature may have been safely ensconced in Boston, but Twain, already in demand as a travel writer at 32, sailed to Europe and the Middle East. With the mother continent he was unimpressed. Van Wyck Brooks, a 20th-century critic, called Twain an artist who hated art. This is not quite fair, even though after visiting Rome he wrote: “I never felt so fervently thankful, so soothed, so tranquil, so filled with a blessed peace as I did yesterday when I learned that Michelangelo was dead.”
It would be more accurate to say not that Twain hated art, but that he never let it—or anything else—stand in the way of a good joke. He often complained that he was dismissed by the literati as merely a “phunny phellow”, but like all good humorists his work was fundamentally serious, poking fun as it did at a universe in which, as Mr Loving writes, “the relationship of God to man is no more than that of a town drunk to one of his microbes.” And his reputation was hardly as slight as he liked to pretend. In London he and Charles Darwin were both abashed when introduced to each other as “great men”.
At a literary supper in Boston to celebrate John Greenleaf Whittier’s 70th birthday, Twain mocked Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes and Ralph Waldo Emerson, all of whom were in attendance. William Dean Howells, then the dean of American letters, accused him of having “trifled” with the reputations of distinguished men. But as objects of Twain’s humour, these men were in good company—the company of the world.
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20.  From NPR's Marketplace, Thursday, April 15, 2010
The end of Wall Street as we knew it
Author Roger Lowenstein talks with Kai Ryssdal about his new book The End of Wall Street, the roots of the financial crisis, and where we go from here.
Listen to an extended version of Kai Ryssdal's interview with author Roger Lowenstein, where he discusses whether we've missed the opportunity for fundamental reform among other topics.

A conversation with Roger Lowenstein - Text of interview
Kai Ryssdal: Now that health care is done, Harry Reid seems to be ready to move on. The Senate majority leader said today he plans to bring a financial reform bill to a floor vote sometime next week. To really understand whether those changes might do any good in preventing crises to come, author Roger Lowenstein says it might be helpful to understand where we've been. His new book on how the crisis happened and where we go from here is called "The End of Wall Street." Roger, it's really good to have you with us.
Ryssdal: I'm going to try to sum up the basic thesis here of the first part of your book, which is going back to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and government regulations about housing and all this, we basically did it to ourselves. We wanted people in houses and arranged regulations and the mortgage market so that that would happen.
Lowenstein: Yeah, I think that's a large part of it. Every presidential administration has been a fan of owner-occupied housing. Fannie and Freddie obviously made it progressively easier to get a mortgage, but I don't want to leave out the notable contributions from the private sector people who, shall we say, worked so hard to distribute the mortgages that are now next to worthless.
Ryssdal: Yeah, but you know, so we had Robert Rubin, former Treasury secretary and a very high official at Citigroup, testifying on Capitol Hill the other day basically saying, hey, we didn't really know. We at the top levels had no idea any of this stuff was going on. You buy that?
Lowenstein: You know, whose job was it? I mean I know that Stan O'Neal had no, he ran Merrill Lynch, had no idea of their exposure to mortgage CDOs. When the mortgage market shut down, he asked his top executives, "So how much of this stuff do we own?" And they said, "Well, Mr. O'Neal we own $50 billion worth of it." And he knew then that the company was dead.
Ryssdal: Were they woefully out of touch? Were they sitting there with their fingers in their ears, do you think?
Lowenstein: You know, I think they were. They were out of touch with experience and the oldest lessons there are. Chuck Prince, of course the CEO of Citigroup, said famously in 2007, at some point the music is going to stop, but it's playing now, and as long as it plays, we gotta dance. Translation: We gotta keep buying this stuff, and putting it in our books, and issuing these securities as long as the market's hot. Well, Kai, any kid of six years old knows who's played musical chairs knows that when the music stops, not everybody gets a seat.
Ryssdal: One of the things we've learned out of this is that maybe not everybody ought to be in a house. That maybe not everybody ought to be able to get a mortgage and follow that part of the American Dream. But you raise a question or two about this idea of egalitarianism capitalism. Don't we want a capitalism in this country that provides opportunity for people?
Lowenstein: We want capitalism that provides opportunity, but what does that mean? Angelo Mozilo, the head of Countrywide, was beating the hustings in the middle of it, saying every American ought to get a mortgage. And he meant every American, even if you couldn't put any money down. When you have capitalism without capital, it's really not capitalism. I call him the Johnny Appleseed of mortgages because he was distributing them in every backyard. But if people don't have any stake in the loan they're getting, if they haven't put up anything, then it's the kind of capitalism that's a house of cards. It's hard to call it anything other than a truly disgraceful episode in American banking.
Ryssdal: Let me take you back to those months, actually, when Lehman Brothers was going under, the Dow was dropping 778 points in a day, and we really thought, everybody did, the end was coming to us, and that really Wall Street was not going to function the way it did anymore. And obviously that's sort of the premise of your book, "The End of Wall Street" it's called. But here we are, 18 months later, the Dow is at 11,000, banks are fattened and happy, investors are clearly feeling better, the recession is grinding to a close, is it really the end of Wall Street?
Lowenstein: I think it's the end of Wall Street as we knew it then. You know, Alan Greenspan said that derivative contracts set this in the late 90s, negotiated by private bankers, don't need to be regulated. I think it's going to be a long time before a Federal Reserve chairman says anything like that. The idea that bankers could set their own limits on debt, on capital, I think that's out the window. I think and hope Congress is going to be doing something about that in the weeks ahead. The idea that bad recessions were a thing of the past, that we had landed in some nirvana of forever smoothly sailing economic progress. I think we all realized that Wall Street is risky again, and economic life is risky again. Something in the same way that I think in a political sense the end of history ended with 9/11, we're in choppy waters again.
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Contrary to the claims of economists, the belief that price equals value is not science, an accurate representation of the world, but ideology – a way of obfuscating the world.  Even some well-known economists have been forced to accept that their discipline is shaped by ideological thinking.  Raj Patel quotes Alan Greenspan…admitting before a congressional committee in October 2008 that his “view of the world” was “not right”.  As Greenspan put it:  “I found a flaw in the model that I perceived in the critical functioning structure that defines how the world works, so to speak.”  This statement is characteristically turgid and Delphic, but the message shows through:  he truly believed in the ideology of the efficient market. 
(From Observer book review of The Value of Nothing:  How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy, by Raj Patel)
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"You are not here to tell me what to do.  You are here to tell me why I have done what I have already decided to do."
   Montagu Norman, Bank of England governor (1920-44), to his economic adviser.
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21.  Current Affairs Quiz - THIS IS A REAL QUIZ...John Foose
There are no tricks here - just a simple test to see if you are current.  This is quite good and the results are shocking. 

Test your knowledge with 12 questions, then be prepared to shudder when you see how others did!

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22.  From Idaho Statesman:  Death of 'Caveman' ends an era in Idaho

Known as the "Salmon River Caveman," Richard Zimmerman lived an essentially 19th century lifestyle, a digital-age anachronism who never owned a telephone or a television and lived almost entirely off the land.  "He was in his home at the caves at the end, and it was his wish to die there," said Connie Fitte, who lived across the river. "He was the epitome of the free spirit."  Richard Zimmerman had been in declining health when he died Wednesday.

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23.  Russia's war against Napoleon
How Russia really won.   It was not just the cold or the dogged spirit of the Russian people that forced Napoleon and his army to retreat
Apr 15th 2010 | From The Economist print edition
Russia Against Napoleon: The True Story of the Campaigns of War and Peace. By Dominic Lieven.
FEW wars in modern history produced national myths more durable than the Napoleonic wars in Europe. The battles of Waterloo and Borodino, at the dawn of European nationalism, are part of British and Russian culture. In Russia’s case, the impact is amplified by Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”, which portrays the campaign as a true people’s war that owed its success to the elemental patriotism of the Russian nation and the wisdom and intuition of Mikhail Kutuzov, its great general. Tolstoy, writes Dominic Lieven, was not only a wonderful novelist. He was also the mythmaker who shaped the perception of Russia’s role for years to come.
Like any other country Russia prides itself on its military victories. In Mr Lieven’s view, the strange thing about Tolstoy’s version of history is not that it exaggerates Russia’s role in that era but that it plays it down. Tolstoy ends his novel’s war narrative in December 1812 with the remnants of the French army forced to retreat across the Russian border. Russia’s subsequent two-year-long campaign in the heart of Europe, which included the battle of Leipzig and ended in Paris, was of little interest to Tolstoy whose concern was national consciousness not imperial glory.
But it is of great interest to Mr Lieven, one of the ablest historians of imperial Russia. He dedicates half of “Russia Against Napoleon” (which was published this week in America though it came out in Britain a few months ago) to those events. Conducted outside Russia’s borders by commanders with distinctly foreign names, the 1813-14 campaign does not fit with national mythology. But it demonstrates the strength of Russia’s multi-ethnic empire and the depth of its integration in European affairs and security.
As he pursued his empire’s geopolitical interests, Alexander I managed to rally support from Prussia and Austria, presenting Russia’s invasion of Europe as liberation. In creating this favourable impression of the campaign, the tsar was helped not only by propaganda but by the remarkably disciplined behaviour of his troops who neither stole nor marauded as they advanced through Europe.
The central point made by Mr Lieven’s witty and impeccably scholarly book is that Russia owed its victory not to the courage of its national spirit or to the coldness of the 1812 winter, as some French sources have argued, but to its military excellence, superior cavalry, the high standards of Russia’s diplomatic and intelligence services and the quality of its European elite. Thanks to the intelligence he obtained, Alexander was able to outwit Napoleon, anticipating his invasion.
Napoleon’s intention was not to occupy Russia or overthrow Alexander by stirring a domestic revolt against him. He was counting on his superior force and his own military genius to destroy the Russian army swiftly and force the tsar to accept his peace terms. Alexander’s intention, on the other hand, was to destroy Napoleon and break his Grand Armée. Mikhail Barclay de Tolly, his war minister, devised and implemented the strategy of drawing Napoleon deep inside Russia, away from his supply base, exhausting his army by defensive war and then attacking.
Mr Lieven is no less gripping when he writes about the crucial issue of logistics. Vast financial and diplomatic resources were mobilised to feed the Russian soldiers and their horses thousands of kilometres from Russia’s borders. He zooms in and out of battlefields, examines the quality of uniforms and the conditions of weapons, creating an historic canvas that is both overwhelming and meticulous.
The irony is that although Mr Lieven contests Tolstoy’s artistic version of history, his book also revels in it, as its subtitle suggests. After all, at least in the first part of the book, he is writing about people and events brought to life by Tolstoy’s genius. He even has a personal connection to the story. An ancestor of his was Christoph von Lieven, a bright young general in Alexander’s entourage. Christoph’s mother was confidante and friend to Empress Marie, Alexander’s mother, and a prototype for Tolstoy’s Anna Scherer whose St Petersburg soirée opens the novel.
Although Mr Lieven does not popularise history, he inevitably touches the nerve points of modern power politics. His book is a timely reminder of Russia’s deep-rooted interest in European security and its past ability to pursue these interests with grace, honour, discipline and professionalism—virtues that are harder to reconstruct than any battle.
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