| 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:
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.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.
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.”
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 . . . . .
________________________
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
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.
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
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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16. More Iceland volcanic pictures: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/more_from_eyjafjallajokull.html
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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.
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.
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. ********************************
19. Mark Twain's biography
More than just a phunny phellow. A man who never let anything stand in the way of a joke
“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.
************************************
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.
************************************
20. From NPR's Marketplace, Thursday, April 15, 2010
The end of Wall Street as we knew it
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.
*********************************
21. Current Affairs Quiz - THIS IS A REAL QUIZ...John Foose
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
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.
_____________________________
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)
____________________________________
"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.
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
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.
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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