1. Aldo Leopold on the land
2. Science comedian Brian Malow in San Francisco, Sacramento, Sunnyvale
3. Diagnosis Mercury: Money, Politics, and Poison, 6:00-7:30pm, Thursday, 1/22/09
4. Martin Luther King Day of Service events in the Bay Area January 19
5. Two-thirds of California's native fish species may soon be extinct
6. Financial thoughts from JK Galbraith and Paul Krugman. Brrr
7. However, financial woes are not as bad as it gets
8. China is not a good place to be a bird
9. Feedback
10. Wise advice for all of us, from a dog
11. Miscellany on experts and committees
12. It was a lovely day in Pompeii - 23 August 79
13. Belated Christmas gift suggestions - oh well, next year
14. SF Rec-Park Commission elections
1.
The outstanding scientific discovery of the twentieth century is not television or radio, but rather the complexity of the land organism. Only those who know the most about it can appreciate how little is known about it. The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant, ‘What good is it?’
If the land mechanism is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not….Conservation is a state of harmony between men and land. Harmony with land is like harmony with a friend; you cannot cherish his right hand and chop off his left. To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering.” Aldo Leopold 1949
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2.
Science Comedian Brian Malow presents
Rational Comedy for an Irrational Planet
An evening of science humor
"It's as much about expanding the mind as it is tickling the funny bone." - The Washington Times
For all audiences! Music is not just for musicians. Art is not just for artists. And science is not just for scientists. Let Brian be your tour guide for this evening's humorous exploration of the expanding universe!
8pm, Tuesday, January 13, 2009 Tickets $15
Punch Line Comedy Club
444 Battery Street
San Francisco,
(415) 397-PLSF
http://www.punchlinecomedyclub.com
Brian Malow is Earth's Premier Science Comedian (available for off-world appearances if transportation is provided). Based in San Francisco, Brian has performed for NASA, JPL, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the American Chemical Society, Applied Biosystems, and various outlets of the National Academy of Sciences, and has been featured in the Washington Post and Times, Nature, Chemical & Engineering News, and the San Jose Mercury News and on "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" (CBS).
For more information visit Brian's website: www.ScienceComedian.com
Questions?... sciencecomedian@gmail.com
And for a taste of science comedy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn8uzB0eypk
Additional Shows in Sunnyvale: http://www.roostertfeathers.com
and Sacramento: http://www.punchlinecomedyclub.com
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3. Diagnosis Mercury: Money, Politics, and Poison, 6:00-7:30pm, Thursday, 1/22/2009
Author Dr. Jane Hightower’s new book, retraces her investigation into the modern mercury poisoning from fish, revealing how politics, dubious studies, and industry lobbyists endanger our health. The Richardson Bay Audubon Center, Blue Classroom, 376 Greenwood Beach Road, Tiburon, CA 94920 Please RSVP to Gretchen Grani at ggrani@audubon.org or 415.388.2524 ex 113
More Information
The author: Jane M. Hightower, M.D., is a board certified internal medicine physician in San Francisco, California. She published a landmark study that brought the issue of mercury in seafood to national attention. She continues to publish scientific papers and give lectures on the subject.
The book: Diagnosis: Mercury sheds light on a system in which, too often, money trumps good science and responsible government. Exposing a threat that few recognize but that touches many, Diagnosis: Mercury should be required reading for everyone who cares about their health. www.diagnosismercury.org
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4. 2009 Day of Service: Help Grow Your National Park!
Monday, January 19, 2009, Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Be a part of history—help launch a new era of positive change across America! President-elect Barack Obama is calling for a nationwide Day of Service on January 19, 2009, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Volunteer in the Golden Gate National Parks at our doorstep! It’s fun, it’s healthy, and it makes a difference—the perfect way to pitch in on a momentous day.
Celebrate your day off as a “day on” and help grow and restore these cherished national parklands. We will feature several projects at park sites in Marin, San Francisco, and San Mateo counties, with activities including trails maintenance, planting, habitat restoration, beach cleanups, and more. Choose your favorite activity and site, and join us for a fun and rewarding day in the Golden Gate National Parks. All you need to bring is some good energy, your waiver form, and the proper clothing. Bring the whole family and friends! We’ll take care of the rest (tools, supplies, and project leadership).
Times vary by project. Individuals and groups are welcome. RSVP is requested and appreciated.
For more information: visit www.parksconservancy.org (go to Volunteer Special Events) or contact us at (415) 561-4755 or volunteer@parksconservancy.org
The Golden Gate National Parks Volunteer Program is a cooperative parkwide effort of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, the National Park Service, and the Presidio Trust.
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Martin Luther King Day of Service at the Richmond Shoreline
Date: Mon., January 19, 2009
Time: 9-1 PM
Meeting Point: Arrive at Shimada Friendship Park and walk along the Bay Trail towards the beach.
Help dreams grow along the Richmond shoreline! Come out with your family, neighbors and friends and join the Watershed Project in making a difference in Richmond. Be a part of this festive and inspirational event!
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5. Two-thirds of California’s native fish species—salmon, steelhead and trout—may be extinct by the end of the century, if not sooner.
That’s the dire prediction contained in “SOS: California’s Native Fish Crisis,” a report released November 19 that is based on a two-year research study by a team of UC Davis scientists. They received support from the fish and watershed advocacy group California Trout.
If the report proves correct, it would mean that of the 32 native salmon and trout species, only 10 or 11 would still exist in 2100. Of those 32 species, 65 percent are found only in California. And of the state’s nine living native inland species, seven are in danger of extinction.
http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Content?oid=886872
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6. We’re all still looking for that free lunch
The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008, by Paul Krugman.
This is a brilliant book, but it scares me, for several reasons. One reason arises from Paul Krugman’s history of financial crashes. Something seems to be making them happen more frequently as time goes on. Also, they seem to be getting more destructive. In the great depression of the 1930s, John Maynard Keynes said: “We have involved ourselves in a colossal muddle, having blundered in the control of a delicate machine, the working of which we do not understand.” These days the machine is much bigger and infinitely more delicate, and we’re still struggling to understand how it works.
One of the most striking things Krugman tells us is that you can have a recession even when an economy seems basically sound…(example omitted). And this is the second reason the book scares me. Economists usually try to solve problems by tinkering with things, and making them more complicated. That’s because it often works – until, suddenly, it doesn’t. Krugman, who specializes in recessions, takes us through the history of why they happen. It’s always because people devise an ingenious way to make what appears to be free money, and nobody understands the consequences until it’s too late. There is, it turns out, no such thing as a free lunch.
This is another scary thing. The entire edifice of capitalism is based on capital – which is really just another word for confidence. Wealth is created because people who have capital, or confidence, expose it to risk. If people believe your confidence to be authentic, the risk you take is likely to be small. But as soon as people think you are bluffing, they panic – and panic destroys wealth faster than confidence can ever increase it.
Krugman looks at various crashes, such as the “Tequila crash” in South America in the mid-90s, and the Asian crash that happened three or four years later. They all happen for the same basic reason – the banking system exposes itself to too much risk. Then people lose confidence. Then panic starts. Panic doesn’t even have to be based on anything real. Krugman compares panic to a feedback loop – noise from a speaker is magnified by a microphone, which relays this noise, now much louder, back through the speaker, and so on, until it’s an ear-splitting shriek.
And this is, more or less, the sound emanating from today’s global economy. In the past, every time a crash has happened, something big has stepped in to clean up the mess. And now what will save us? “The quintessential economic sentence is supposed to be ‘There is no free lunch.’ Depression economics, however, is the study of situations where there is a free lunch, if we could only figure out how to get our hands on it.”
Krugman, one of the sharpest economists in the world, still believes in free lunches. And that’s something that really scares me.
Review by William Leith in Guardian Weekly 09.01.09
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Words of warning
The financial crisis has revived interest in the writings of J.K. Galbraith
He believed that companies use advertising to induce consumers to want things they never dreamed they needed, that easy credit leads to financial catastrophe and that the best way to reinvigorate the economy was by making large investments in infrastructure. Not president-elect Barack Obama, but J.K. Galbraith, the tall, iconoclastic economist, diplomat and adviser to Democrat leaders from John F. Kennedy on. For years Galbraith’s most famous book was The Affluent Society, which came out in 1958. But the financial crisis has revived interest in an earlier work, The Great Crash, 1929, in which Galbraith showed just how markets become decoupled from reality in a speculative boom.
The other J.K.’s bestsellers
The Great Crash, 1929 (1955)
A Short History of Financial Euphoria (1990)
The Affluent Society (1958)
A History of Economics: The Past as the Present (1987)
The Essential Galbraith (2001)
The Economics of Innocent Fraud: Truth for Our Time (2004)
The New Industrial State (1967)
Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went (1975)
The Good Society: The Humane Agenda (1996)
The Age of Uncertainty (1977)
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7. Financial woes are not as bad as it gets. Max Hastings
Mankind almost always gets threat assessment wrong. Politicians and sages worry themselves into a decline about a given issue--the red peril, the yellow peril, nuclear holocaust, al-Quaida--only to find themselves facing troubles of a different nature. The most obvious consequence of the western financial crisis is that it makes President Bush's "war on terror" seem footling...By contrast, what generates such fear about the financial catastrophe is that nobody professes to know how bad matters can get. The US and British governments are scrabbling for palliatives rather than proposing anything that masquerades as a solution. Thoughtful people are justly frightened about their jobs, homes and savings. Complacency persists only among those too stupid to realise how serious the mess is, or too young to imagine a society in which instant gratification is no longer available.
My daughter once observed in a domestic context: "Daddy, life is what you are used to." This seemed to me an unconsciously profound remark. In war or peace people find it hard to come to terms with the notion of their own environment, physical, social or economic, becoming something quite different from what it is.
Churchill, during the second world war, explained this phenomenon to the head of the army...He called it the "three-inch pipe" theory of human response. Human beings, he said, can only absorb so much drama--up to the capacity of, say, a three-inch pipe. Thereafter, everything that happens around them rushes past, along an emotional overflow.
...A little knowledge of history makes it easier to achieve a perspective upon misfortunes that befall us. Bedtime reading of Samuel Pepys's diary provides a wonderful corrective to anyone silly enough to suppose our own times extravagantly dangerous...Pepys's career prospered, but he lacked the slightest sense of security.
(Omitted: Enumeration of some of the events of the 1660s, such as the great plague, followed the next year by the great fire that consumed London, the tottering of the nation's finances, and, just as things couldn't get worse, they did: The Dutch fleet sailed up a river and burned Chatham dockyard--and so forth.)
...We need not continue the history lecture. My point is simply that if we measure today's woes with those of former eras, we should be able to muster a little courage. Western capitalism is suffering a richly deserved shock to its hubris. But it almost certainly possesses sufficient resilience, energy and imagination to come out the other side. We face no threat to our health, diet or physical safety to match those that confronted the generations of Pepys, Churchill and many others over the past millennium. If the worst that can befall us is to lose some money, then it ill becomes us to make too much of it.
From Guardian Weekly, 03.10.08
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8.
The fields are few, but the sea is vast. So men have made fields from the sea. —Qing dynasty gazetteer
China is not a good place to be a bird.
Western environmentalists brought up on direct action and confrontation might view the China’s attempts to save the environment as wet and weak-kneed. Others search in vain in China’s environmental movement for a democratic vanguard, in evidence during the last days of the Soviet Union. Mass protests, such as successful demonstrations in 2007 by residents of Xiamen against a planned chemical plant on the coast, are localised.
Yet in protean China, one constant is that opposing the Communist state brings down a mailed fist. If protecting habitats and species is the aim, Mr Chen and his kind are better at the job than outsiders give them credit for. As Mr Chen points out, influencing government policy was unthinkable two decades ago. So even as they scan the woodlands, rocky islets or mudflats, China’s environmentalists, ever so slowly, are giving a boost not just to other species but also to citizens, for they are becoming a social force. Another reason, then, to hear it for the birdwatchers.
From The Economist (?)
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9. Feedback
Don French:
Also, the terms "organic produce" and "organically grown" have been in use since the late 60's, and there was no such thing as genetic engineering at that time. It always meant grown without pesticides.
Anna-Marie Bratton:
When I read the salt/blood/ocean item I immediately knew it was wrong
As did I--believe it or not. The statement was absurd on the face of it: "Water water everywhere, and not a drop to drink". Why, then, did I post it? Going too fast, I guess. I was thinking of something else, and it only caused a little ripple in my awareness--but I never got around to checking it. Thanks for the correction.
Indeed, jenittalon is incorrect. In order for any crop to be labeled organic (by any ligitimate certification organization ( don't count on USDA certification) it must have NOT been treated with pesticides or inorganinc fertilizers. ...and, the soil in which the crops are qrown must not have been treated for a minimum of 3 years. The chemicals in the pesticides and fertilizers that wash off of the fields into streams and rivers then end up in the ocean harm life on earth; there is a very large dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico from run off in the Missippi. The other harm by pesiticides and fertilizers comes from the fact that they are made with oil and contribute to the CO2 emmisions that play a role in global warming.
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Concerning the cement removal and bird friendly garden at 22nd and Shotwell: Great idea, however, there is an alternative to a garden;a community farm at that location would provide vegetables for the people in that neighborhood. Urban organic vegetable gardens not only provide food but decrease the amount of oil needed to get fresh food
into cities. I know that food gardening is happening in the City but not to the extent that it should be - in my opinion. I do believe, as you do, that restoring natives to the City is important but can be accomplished along with projects that help feed people in need.
I certainly agree with you about growing food in the city. That is something that I am certain we will be seeing more of. There are many such efforts around the city, the premier one being Alemany Farm, where they are concentrating on raising food, but recognize the value of natural insect control. To effect that, they devote considerable space to locally-native plants, which attract native insects, birds, and other indigenous organisms. They have found that they don't need to spray or bait or anything; nature takes care of controlling them.
(Another, larger scale, example is Hedgerow Farms, west of Davis. Although not primarily a food producer, Hedgerow has demonstrated clearly that diversifying plantings to diversify the wildlife makes life a lot simpler. Vast monocultures, which dominate our agricultural system, are invitations to control problems requiring herculean efforts.)
Anonymous wrote:
I am sure Barack Obama is going to be less than stellar in pushing for all the changes we need.
He'd better be, if he wants to get re-elected. Not to mention if he wants to bring Congress and the voters along with him--a necessity.
Thinking people are always impatient, see what needs to be done, and want to get there--now. Successful politicians know better. Abe Lincoln was a stellar example, but you can troll through the history books and find that the ones who made a difference were the patient ones who took the trouble to bring people, including powerful people, along with them.
(Additional thought: I am impatient with voters who want to force things their way, oblivious to public sentiment. A recent example was the effort to force Nancy Pelosi to end the Iraq war and, gasp, to impeach Bush. Needless to say, she ignored them. Now they want Obama to make up for all the insanity of recent decades. They'd better pay attention to what is politically possible. For starters, they should look at the election returns. Considering how disastrous the Bush admin was, the vote was amazingly close: 52-48%, and the red vs blue map looks distressingly similar to what it was before. I find that disturbing, and something we all need to mull over. The electorate is well right of center, and I suspect it was still hopeful that the economic news is just a temporary setback. If they knew how truly serious the situation is I don't think they could ever have voted for McCain, who doesn't have a clue. That is the only way the election results can make sense to me. If the McCain voters don't already know, they will know within a year how foolish they were to vote for him.)
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10. From High Country News, 12 November 2006
This dog believes
"Each week we'll hear from a banker or butcher, a painter or social worker as they discuss the principles that guide their daily lives. We realize what a daunting prospect this is--to summarize a life's philosophy in just 500 words and share it with a national audience. But that's exactly what we hope you will do."
Radio producer Jay Allison, in his introduction to the "This I believe" series on National Public Radio
Well, Jay, I know this is a long shot. You've got Colin Powell and Newt Gingrich in your series, after all. Why should you bother with the beliefs of an undergrown Australian shepherd mix who's still figuring out the difference between Sit and Down? But I've been trying to make my owner understand me, and she's just not getting it. I hope a national audience will help my cause.
You see, I believe in the present. When I'm hanging my head out of the car window, or lying on my back in a comfy bed of weeds, I'm not worrying about the 2008 presidential elections, or the fate of the Endangered Species Act. (Though I do sometimes wonder if chasing rabbits will ever be defined as take.) Instead, I'm soaking up my surroundings, thinking about wind, sky, sun and sleep. The here and now always seems worth my attention.
But at least once a day, my owner looks up from her computer, or the newspaper, with an all-too-familiar look of desperation. Then she says something like, "Pika, did you know that the Greenland ice sheet is melting even faster than anyone thought?"
I try, I really do. I fix her with my gentlest, most sympathetic dog look, and I say, "That's a big problem. A big, big problem. But don't you think you'd be better able to face it if you did just a little deep panting, and took a nice long look out the window?"
She sighs. "I know, Pika," she says. "The present moment is all we've got. According to you and Ram Dass and all those chicken-soup books, not to mention the Buddha and Thoreau. But I don't have time for any panting or looking around. Didn't you hear what I just said about the ice sheet?"
That's usually when she pours herself another cup of coffee, and starts eating chocolate chips straight from the bag.
She's not listening. In fact, she's in the next room right now, compulsively checking her e-mail, in a state about God knows what. But I hope the rest of you will give me a chance. I'm not saying you should give up on your good works, or even stop that fretting you humans seem so skilled at. We non-humans want you to clean up your planetary messes, so we need all the guilt and good works you can muster.
I'm only suggesting that you notice when spring slides into summer, when the backyard cactus blooms, and maybe even when the garbageman arrives. You could notice when your neighbor passes by, or, when you sit down to dinner with your family, you could notice how the food tastes. Then, after a brief visit to the present, you could get right back to the uncertain future, resuming your fretting about global warming or the upcoming town council elections. No one would miss you, I promise--and I suspect you'd feel a lot better for your journey.
Take it from someone who lives seven days for every one of yours: Our moments on this earth are numbered, and briefer than any of us can possibly imagine. I believe each one is worth noticing.
Pika lives in Paonia, Colorado, with her family, which includes High Country News contributing editor Michelle Nijhuis.
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11. Miscellany - decisions, experts, committees
William H. Whyte in his book The Organization Man advocates Retroactive Planning, where you act on what you viscerally know is right, then do the research to prove it.
Jane Jacobs: "When ordinary people pay attention, they are often capable of more profound insights than the experts."
You've heard all the jokes about committees:
“The world is proof that God is a committee.” Bob Stokes
A camel (or an elephant) is a horse designed by committee.
The human body was designed by committee. Who else would have sited a sewer outlet next to a recreation area?
However:
"Who wants to be average? To be average is to be commonplace and unexceptional. It conjures up the mediocre or banal. But, in the right circumstances the average is the best place to be. Take a competition based on guessing something, such as the number of jellybeans in a barrel or the weight of a cow....The average of a crowd's guesses is more likely to be accurate than those of its individual members....The masses can be smarter than the solitary expert. So much for mediocrity." Excerpt from Guardian Weekly book review of The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki
And excerpts from article in The Economist 28 May 05:
"The old jokes about the uselessness of committees go unheeded in the world's central banks. Most of them rely on several heads to set interest rates. An experiment by three economists at the Bank of England--which eight years ago took over rate-setting powers from the once omnipotent chancellor of the exchequer, and has enjoyed conspicuous success since--suggests that collective wisdom is exactly that....
"...The average score in committee was far higher than the average in individual sessions...individuals did worse even in the final rounds than they had in committee. They were more aggressive in changing rates than the underlying model required 92% of the time, against the committee's 9%....One possible explanation for the superiority of committees is that majority voting cancels out the worst performers....But other studies suggest that groups which discuss the job at hand may be too swayed by the alpha arguer among them. That is an argument against the domination of a rate-setting committee by a single individual--and is one reason why the departure, due next January, of Alan Greenspan...might be less worrying than it seems."
(And perhaps you've noticed that Mr Greenspan is not only not missed, but has been given some swift kicks in the pants.)
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12. Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture Around the Bay of Naples at National Gallery of Art, Washington, reviewed in Washington Post.
August 23 AD79 was the last day of Pompeii. Who has not imagined what befell that chic resort? The towering volcano, then the wrath-of-God explosion, the columns crashing, the statues overturned and the panic of the dying as the tradesmen in their shops, and the dogs still in their kennels, and the nobles in their jewels are buried all at once…That lovely curving coast was a place of leisured pleasure, a sort of a Hamptons to busy Rome’s Manhattan. Seaside homes were built there by Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero, and the richest of their countrymen. The villas they constructed, as one might imagine, were competitively grand…Then Vesuvius erupted.
…Painted on the wall toward the exhibition’s end is a quote from Goethe, who visited Pompeii in 1787: “There have been many disasters in this world,” wrote the German poet, “but few have given so much delight to posterity.” A motto for this show.
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13. Sorry to be late with this list of books for possible holiday gifts. But keep it and be prepared early for next Christmas:
The Inheritance of Hairy Ear Rims
A Pictorial Book of Tongue Coating
The History and Romance of Elastic Webbing
Since the Dawn of Time
A Toddler’s Guide to the Rubber Industry
Mucus and Related Topics
Highlights in the History of Concrete
Nasal Maintenance: Nursing Your Nose Through Troubled Times
Big and Very Big Hole Drilling
Alternatively, How To books are always popular:
Let’s Make Some Undies
Reusing Old Graves
Teach Yourself Alcoholism
Grow Your Own Hair
The Art of Faking Exhibition Poultry
Be Bold With Constipation
Constipation and Our Civilization
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14. San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission
The agenda for the January 15 meeting includes election of officers. My guess is that Jim Lazarus will be elected president. Will that make a difference? Perhaps, perhaps not. JS
Monday, January 12, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Special to the Bayview Hill Association: Nature News from Jake Sigg
1. Man does not live by bread alone
2. Job opportunity: IPM coordinator for San Francisco parks
3. 2009 is the Year of Science/enroll in a science course
4. San Francisco Nature Education newsletter/new program at Herons Head Park
5. Now we know: Reason for financial meltdown discovered!
6. Remarks on Obama's Agriculture and Interior Secretary appointments
7. Know what it is to leave abundance and safety
8. Nominations to the California Coastal Commission
9. After the burn, uncounted seeds are stirring beneath the ashes
10. Asia appetite or turtles seen as threat to Florida species
11. Save the date for Bay Area Invasive Species workshop: Feb 4
12. Feedback on trout
13. Attract butterflies with rotting fruit
14. Progress on climate talk: That semicolon goes
15. Fear makes us stupid: Will fundamentalist religion derail the founding fathers' brilliant plan?
16. Good reason not to like Mondays
17. Good books from California Native Plant Society
18. Want a rotary-dial telephone?
1.
The machine has divorced man from the world of nature to which he belongs, and in the process he has lost in large measure the powers of contemplation with which he was endowed. A prerequisite for the preservation of the canons of humanism is a reestablishment of organic roots with our natural environment and, related to it, the evolution of ways of life which encourage contemplation and the search for truth and knowledge. The flower and vegetable garden, green grass, the fireplace, the primeval forest with its wondrous assemblage of living things, the uninhabited hilltop where one can silently look at the stars and wonder—all of these things and many others are necessary for the fulfillment of man’s psychological and spiritual needs. To be sure, they are of no “practical value” and are seemingly unrelated to man’s pressing need for food and living space.
But they are as necessary to the preservation of humanism as food is necessary to the preservation of human life.
Harrison Brown
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2. The San Francisco Dept. of Recreation and Parks is hiring a new IPM coordinator - see the attached job description. The job's duties now include management of the Golden Gate Park nursery. PLEASE NOTE THE JAN. 5 DEADLINE!!!
Click for job description: http://www.jobaps.com/sf/sup/BulPreview.asp?R1=PBT&R2=0922&R3=055173
This position is critical for the success of the citywide Integrated Pest Management program. I know there are some excellent candidates for the job on this list - please give the job serious consideration. If you have any questions about the citywide IPM program, I would be happy to discuss.
=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:
Chris A. Geiger, Ph.D.
San Francisco Dept. of the Environment
(415) 355-3759 (voice), (415) 554-6393 (fax)
chris.geiger@sfgov.org
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"Truth springs from argument amongst friends." - David Hume
3. Did you know that 2009 is the Year of Science?
The Year of Science 2009 is a national, year-long celebration of science, designed to engage the public in science and improve public understanding about how science works, why it matters, and who scientists are. For information and nationwide event listings: http://www.yearofscience2009.org/home/
Science helps satisfy the natural curiosity with which we are all born: why is the sky blue, how did the leopard get its spots, what is a solar eclipse? With science, we can answer such questions without resorting to magical explanations. And science can lead to technological advances, as well as helping us learn about enormously important and useful topics, such as our health, the environment, and natural hazards. Without science, the modern world would not be modern at all, and we still have much to learn.
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And you can personally connect with the scientific world by enrolling in one of the many Jepson Herbarium public programs on botanical and ecological subjects. Go to http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/workshops for listings and descriptions. Most of the courses are taught at UC Berkeley, and many of them are in the field. I have enjoyed and benefitted from the many workshops I have taken there.
“Truth comes out of error more easily than out of confusion.” Sir Francis Bacon
"The most violent element in society is ignorance." - Emma Goldman
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4. SF Nature Education: Click here to see our latest newsletter. Read all about our new program at Heron's Head Park.
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5. Reason for financial meltdown discovered!
It's Pluto. Remember that planet that we demoted to a planetoid? Well, it turns out that little Pluto is a disruptive force and wreaks havoc everywhere. I heard on NPR's Marketplace that the reason for our current economic problems is that Pluto has moved from Sagittarius, which is about expansiveness and growth, to Capricorn. Capricorn, you see, is known for taking a hard look and determining what's real. So why didn't those smart guys on Wall Street figure that one out? If they want to attract investors in the future they'll have to keep an astrologer on staff.
The last time Pluto was in Capricorn was in 1776--the American Revolution. Who would have thought that a tiny piece of rock and ice floating way out there in space would have that much influence on the lives of creatures on a tiny piece of rock billions of miles away? Or why it would even care?
Look, Pluto, we're sorry about demoting you. Honest. We'll take that up with whoever it is that decides these things and ask them to put you back as a planet. How were we to know you were going to mess things up so? I mean, we were a lot more afraid of those big bruisers Saturn and Jupiter, and they're a lot closer than you are. And was it really 1776 the last time you were in Capricorn? Heck, we visit Cap every year. Man, you are far out!
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6. Two Obama Cabinet nominees: Agriculture and Interior
(I am pleased with most of Obama's Cabinet choices, with only two exceptions:)
From NPR, Michael Pollan on Tom Vilsack as Ag Sec:
Pollan, author of In Defense of Food and a leader in the sustainable food movement, said Obama will not make progress on climate change or energy
independence — or health care, for that matter — unless America's food system is included in the plan.
"The food system is responsible for about a third of greenhouse gases," Pollan told NPR's Renee Montagne. "It is responsible for the catastrophic
American diet that is leading 50 percent of us to suffer from chronic disease, and that drives up health care costs."
A secretary for food, Pollan said, could put the focus on diversifying America's farms and using local food sources around the nation.
But those topics weren't in the spotlight when Obama chose Vilsack to be agriculture secretary, said Pollan, who also wrote The Omnivore's Dilemma
and The Botany of Desire.
"I was very disappointed in that news conference," he said, "not to hear Vilsack use the word 'food' — or 'eaters.' And the interests of everybody except eaters was discussed: farmers, ranchers, people concerned about the land." And so, he said, it's difficult not to see Vilsack's selection as "agribusiness as usual."
In the months before Vilsack was named to the post, Pollan wrote an article urging the president-elect to rename the Department of Agriculture as the Department of Food, led by a secretary of food. That did not happen Wednesday.
____________________
Obama nominates Ken Salazar as Secretary of the Interior
(JS: Interior administers a half-billion acres, one-fifth of the United States)
As the overseer of the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Mineral Management Services, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Endangered Species Act, the Secretary of the Interior is most important position in the protection of America's lands, waters, and endangered species.
The Department of the Interior has been rocked by scandals during the Bush Administration, most revolving around corrupt bureaucrats overturning and squelching agency scientists as they attempted to protect endangered species and natural resources from exploitation by developers, loggers, and oil and gas development. Just yesterday, the Interior Department Inspector General issued another in a string of reports finding that top Department officials systematically violated laws and regulations in order to avoid or eliminate environmental protections.
"The Department of the Interior desperately needs a strong, forward looking, reform-minded Secretary," said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity. "Unfortunately, Ken Salazar is not that man. He endorsed George Bush's selection of Gale Norton as Secretary of Interior, the very woman who initiated and encouraged the scandals that have rocked the Department of Interior. Virtually all of the misdeeds described in yesterday's Inspector General expose occurred during the tenure of the person Ken Salazar advocated for the position he is now seeking."
While Salazar has promoted some good environmental actions and fought against off-road vehicle abuse, his overall record is decidedly mixed, and is especially weak in the arenas most important to the next Secretary of the Interior: protecting scientific integrity, combating global warming, reforming energy development and protecting endangered species.
Salazar:
- voted against increased fuel efficiency standards for the U.S. automobile fleet
- voted to end protection for offshore oil drilling off of Florida’s coast
- voted to allow the Army Corps of Engineers to ignore global warming impacts in their water development projects
- voted against the repeal of tax breaks for Exxon-Mobil
- voted to support subsidies to ranchers and other users of public forest and range lands
- Threatened to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when its scientists determined the black-tailed prairie dog may be endangered
- Fought efforts to increase protection for endangered species and the environment in the Farm Bill
****************************
7.
"To write honestly and with conviction anything about the migration of birds, one should oneself have migrated. Somehow or other we should dehumanize ourselves, feel the feel of feathers on our body and wind in our wings, and finally know what it is to leave abundance and safety and daylight and yield to a compelling instinct, age-old, seeming at the time quite devoid of reason and object."
William Beebe, American naturalist
***************************
8. The California Senate Rules Committee has sent a letter to the Boards of Supervisors (and I presume, the mayors) of Marin, Sonoma, and San Francisco Counties asking for nominations to the Coastal Commission.
If you are a city council member or supervisor, it is now very timely to ask your county's mayors and board of Supervisors to nominate you to serve on the Commission. This is a somewhat urgent matter, and should be done no later than early January.
If you are a coastal activist working on this project, please contact the city council members or supervisors you support, and be sure they act soon to be nominated by the mayors and/or supervisors.
**************************
9.
San Bruno Mountain Watch
From Year End Newsletter 2008
Aftermath
The mountain burned black
in mourning around the stony offspring
of a planet's fiery skull --
But, do not worry in the dinge,
for, charred roots now sprout
in secret midnight moisturing fogs,
uncounted seeds are stirring beneath these ashes,
tender in the crumbled crust.
And still the creekbeds waver
in a silent heat
with cicadas and beetle,
frogs, slugs and snakes,
hidden hearts still beating
toward the seeping of springs.
And deeper in the dead scrub, a tiny river
bubbling down the loam's silence
between still burning waxmyrtle roots,
pulsing under fire rotting wood,
coursing new little worts, mosses and lichens.
Febrilating canyons beat
in league with the flickering flame of stars
and back into all beginnings--
Spreading all voiceless shadows
up the ridges and down
into the night's renewal.
Across all the perched crags of death,
humble bearers of the dirt's birth.
--David Schooley, 8/08
**************************
10. Asia appetite for turtles seen as a threat to Florida species
The reptiles, especially softshell turtles, are prized in China as food and as a source for traditional medicines. U.S. experts fear the trade could lead to extinctions.
By Kim Christensen, December 27 2008
The turtle tank at Nam Hoa Fish Market is empty, but not to worry: The manager of this bustling Chinatown store says he has plenty in back.
The complete article can be viewed at: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-turtle27-2008dec27,0,7386179.story
**************************
11.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7410542.stm
The global cost of tackling invasive species costs $1.4 trillion (£700bn) each year, the report estimates.
_______________________
SAVE THE DATE for the Bay Area Invasive Species Workshop: Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Scottish Rite Center, 1547 Lakeside Dr., Oakland
Registration information to follow in early January. Cost: $30 each.
Hosted by the California Invasive Plant Council and the Bay Area Open Space Council.
****************************
12. Feedback
Robert Hall:
Thanks for shedding light on the trout situation. I read Stienstra's article in the SF Chron and smelled a rat. It's too bad the thousands of other people who read his column won't have access to this perspective.
Posting again:
Read the Center for Biological Diversity statement on interim restrictions on stocking trout to protect native fish and amphibians in California waters:
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/fish-stocking_reform/pdfs/PRC+CBD_statement_on_fish-stocking_agreement.pdf
Find out more about the Center's Fish Stocking Reform Campaign: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/fish-stocking_reform/index.html
See what the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance says about the restrictions on trout stocking: http://www.calsport.org/12-3-08a.htm
Read CalTrout’s statement on the interim restrictions: http://www.caltrout.org/article.asp?id=379&bc=1
*******************************
13. From Jeff Caldwell:
I don't usually advocate 'artificially feeding' wildlife, but this idea seems harmless enough. I'd like to share some snippets from articles I found in the Austin Butterfly Forum's archived newsletters: http://www.austinbutterflies.org/
The articles are about attracting butterflies with rotting fruit. Which, I suppose, sounds kind of weird. But they suggest an elegant way to do it, and interesting things do come to the fruit.
(JS: But some less interesting things, like rats, also. So be careful how you provide the fruit; hang it if you can.)
****************************
14. Progress on climate change talks
…to judge by the latest, tortuous moves in climate-change diplomacy—at a two-week gathering in Poland, which ended on December 13th—there is little sign of any mind-concentrating effect.
To be fair to the 10,000-odd people (diplomats, UN bureaucrats, NGO types) who assembled in Poznan, a semicolon was removed. At a similar meeting a year earlier, governments had vowed to consider ways of cutting emissions from “deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries; and the role of conservation [and forest management]”. After much haggling, delegates in Poland decided to upgrade conservation by replacing the offending punctuation mark with a comma.
Excerpt from The Economist 20 Dec 08
************************************
15.
(A few lines from article by George Monbiot in Guardian Weekly 07.11.08:)
How did politics in the US come to be dominated by people who make a virtue out of ignorance? Was it charity that has permitted mankind's closest living relative to spend two terms as president? How did Sarah Palin, Dan Quayle and other such gibbering numbskulls get to where they are? ...The founding fathers were great thinkers. How did their project degenerate into George Bush and Sarah Palin? ...Susan Jacoby's book The Age of American Unreason shows that the degradation of US politics results from a series of interlocking tragedies...One theme is both familiar and clear: religion--in particular fundamentalist religion--makes you stupid. The US is the only rich country in which Christian fundamentalism is vast and growing.
Fear makes us stupid
LTE, Guardian Weekly
I have just reread George Monbiot's article on the role of religion, particularly fundamentalist religion, on US politics. Many of us find it frightening that people like George Bush, Dan Quayle and Sarah Palin have positions of any responsibility at all. How could a country founded on the principles of the Enlightenment end up with such poor examples as public figures? It would seem that their religion was at fault, but there are a lot of highly educated believers whose faith encourages questioning.
In the early history of the United States the churches in small, isolated communities served as the social locus of settlers' lives as well as a source of spiritual support. Either you belonged or you didn't. This situation has not fundamentally changed. The world outside has changed drastically, however.
In the past generation a technological revolution has intruded on the insularity of people's lives. Children whose sole frame of reference used to be that of their parents and their church are now exposed to the same nefarious influences to which the children of the point-heads and the drug dealers and everybody else "out there" is exposed. It has become necessary to separate the Us from the Them to preserve the life one values. And so, during the past 30 years the framing of public discourse has polarized the country--conservative/liberal; pro-life/pro-choice; Joe Sixpack/the elitists; straight/gay; beer/chardonnay--to the point that rational debate is almost impossible.
We have always had fundamentalist churches in this country, but never before has their voice been so strident. There have always been fundamentalists in the Middle East, too, but never have they been so threatening. Time of social upheaval produce fear, and fear makes people try as best they can to hang on to what has always been important to them, and lash out at the threat.
As Monbiot's article points out, Darwin's theory upset the previous order and caused an upsurge of religiosity., The invention of the printing press led to the Reformation and the awful violence that swept Europe during the religious wars.
Things will settle down after a while as they usually do, and then, perhaps, we can start to work together to repair the structural underpinnings, like our education system and healthcare, that we have so long neglected.
Deborah Sigg, El Cerrito, California, US
**************************
16. Good reason not to like Mondays
The time-honored phenomenon of Sod’s Law, which dictates that a slice of toast when dropped always falls butter side down, is statistically likely to strike most on Mondays. That is according to a pointless but fun analysis of 2,226 sufferers by an insurance company’s presumably under-worked employees. Their survey found that all the little irritations of life—power cuts, empty cash dispensers, minor cuts, and so on—were overwhelmingly likely to happen on Mondays.
The survey failed to take account of Murphy’s Law, an extension of Sod’s Law, stating that the slice of toast will indeed fall butter side down, save when dropped for the purpose of proving this truth.
Guardian Weekly
**************************
17. Available from California Native Plant Society - cnps.org/store.php, or 916-447-2677
Nature's Beloved Son: Rediscovering John Muir's Botanical Legacy, by Bonnie Gisel; images by Stephen J Joseph - from Heyday Books
The California Deserts, by Bruce Pavlik
The California Deserts explores the remarkable diversity of life in this harsh yet fragile quarter of the Golden State
California's Fading Wildflowers, by Richard Minnich
This book offers the most comprehensive historical analysis available of the dramatic transformation of California's wildflower prairies.
Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification, by Thomas J. Elpel
Botany in a Day provides simple, easily learned tools to assist in plant identification. Line drawings highlight family characteristics, and plant entries discuss medicinal uses, edibility, toxicity, and look-alike plants.
Botany for Gardeners, by Brian Capon
An essential overview of the science behind plants for beginning and advanced gardeners alike.
Calochortus, by Mary E. Gerritsen and Ron Parson
With their graceful stance, brilliant colors, and intricate markings, members of the North American genus Calochortus are among the most dazzling bulbous plants in the world.
*********************************
18. I have reluctantly replaced my old rotary dial telephone. I was loathe to part with it because it was made to last by Ma Bell, when she owned all telephones and had to repair them. Now that it is the customer's responsibility, they're purposely built to break down after awhile. But I finally gave up the fight to keep it.
If anyone is interested in acquiring it, let me know.
Jake Sigg 415-731-3028
2. Job opportunity: IPM coordinator for San Francisco parks
3. 2009 is the Year of Science/enroll in a science course
4. San Francisco Nature Education newsletter/new program at Herons Head Park
5. Now we know: Reason for financial meltdown discovered!
6. Remarks on Obama's Agriculture and Interior Secretary appointments
7. Know what it is to leave abundance and safety
8. Nominations to the California Coastal Commission
9. After the burn, uncounted seeds are stirring beneath the ashes
10. Asia appetite or turtles seen as threat to Florida species
11. Save the date for Bay Area Invasive Species workshop: Feb 4
12. Feedback on trout
13. Attract butterflies with rotting fruit
14. Progress on climate talk: That semicolon goes
15. Fear makes us stupid: Will fundamentalist religion derail the founding fathers' brilliant plan?
16. Good reason not to like Mondays
17. Good books from California Native Plant Society
18. Want a rotary-dial telephone?
1.
The machine has divorced man from the world of nature to which he belongs, and in the process he has lost in large measure the powers of contemplation with which he was endowed. A prerequisite for the preservation of the canons of humanism is a reestablishment of organic roots with our natural environment and, related to it, the evolution of ways of life which encourage contemplation and the search for truth and knowledge. The flower and vegetable garden, green grass, the fireplace, the primeval forest with its wondrous assemblage of living things, the uninhabited hilltop where one can silently look at the stars and wonder—all of these things and many others are necessary for the fulfillment of man’s psychological and spiritual needs. To be sure, they are of no “practical value” and are seemingly unrelated to man’s pressing need for food and living space.
But they are as necessary to the preservation of humanism as food is necessary to the preservation of human life.
Harrison Brown
*************************
2. The San Francisco Dept. of Recreation and Parks is hiring a new IPM coordinator - see the attached job description. The job's duties now include management of the Golden Gate Park nursery. PLEASE NOTE THE JAN. 5 DEADLINE!!!
Click for job description: http://www.jobaps.com/sf/sup/BulPreview.asp?R1=PBT&R2=0922&R3=055173
This position is critical for the success of the citywide Integrated Pest Management program. I know there are some excellent candidates for the job on this list - please give the job serious consideration. If you have any questions about the citywide IPM program, I would be happy to discuss.
=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:
Chris A. Geiger, Ph.D.
San Francisco Dept. of the Environment
(415) 355-3759 (voice), (415) 554-6393 (fax)
chris.geiger@sfgov.org
*************************
"Truth springs from argument amongst friends." - David Hume
3. Did you know that 2009 is the Year of Science?
The Year of Science 2009 is a national, year-long celebration of science, designed to engage the public in science and improve public understanding about how science works, why it matters, and who scientists are. For information and nationwide event listings: http://www.yearofscience2009.org/home/
Science helps satisfy the natural curiosity with which we are all born: why is the sky blue, how did the leopard get its spots, what is a solar eclipse? With science, we can answer such questions without resorting to magical explanations. And science can lead to technological advances, as well as helping us learn about enormously important and useful topics, such as our health, the environment, and natural hazards. Without science, the modern world would not be modern at all, and we still have much to learn.
______________
And you can personally connect with the scientific world by enrolling in one of the many Jepson Herbarium public programs on botanical and ecological subjects. Go to http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/workshops for listings and descriptions. Most of the courses are taught at UC Berkeley, and many of them are in the field. I have enjoyed and benefitted from the many workshops I have taken there.
“Truth comes out of error more easily than out of confusion.” Sir Francis Bacon
"The most violent element in society is ignorance." - Emma Goldman
************************
4. SF Nature Education: Click here to see our latest newsletter. Read all about our new program at Heron's Head Park.
*************************
5. Reason for financial meltdown discovered!
It's Pluto. Remember that planet that we demoted to a planetoid? Well, it turns out that little Pluto is a disruptive force and wreaks havoc everywhere. I heard on NPR's Marketplace that the reason for our current economic problems is that Pluto has moved from Sagittarius, which is about expansiveness and growth, to Capricorn. Capricorn, you see, is known for taking a hard look and determining what's real. So why didn't those smart guys on Wall Street figure that one out? If they want to attract investors in the future they'll have to keep an astrologer on staff.
The last time Pluto was in Capricorn was in 1776--the American Revolution. Who would have thought that a tiny piece of rock and ice floating way out there in space would have that much influence on the lives of creatures on a tiny piece of rock billions of miles away? Or why it would even care?
Look, Pluto, we're sorry about demoting you. Honest. We'll take that up with whoever it is that decides these things and ask them to put you back as a planet. How were we to know you were going to mess things up so? I mean, we were a lot more afraid of those big bruisers Saturn and Jupiter, and they're a lot closer than you are. And was it really 1776 the last time you were in Capricorn? Heck, we visit Cap every year. Man, you are far out!
*****************************
6. Two Obama Cabinet nominees: Agriculture and Interior
(I am pleased with most of Obama's Cabinet choices, with only two exceptions:)
From NPR
Pollan, author of In Defense of Food and a leader in the sustainable food movement, said Obama will not make progress on climate change or energy
independence — or health care, for that matter — unless America's food system is included in the plan.
"The food system is responsible for about a third of greenhouse gases," Pollan told NPR's Renee Montagne. "It is responsible for the catastrophic
American diet that is leading 50 percent of us to suffer from chronic disease, and that drives up health care costs."
A secretary for food, Pollan said, could put the focus on diversifying America's farms and using local food sources around the nation.
But those topics weren't in the spotlight when Obama chose Vilsack to be agriculture secretary, said Pollan, who also wrote The Omnivore's Dilemma
and The Botany of Desire.
"I was very disappointed in that news conference," he said, "not to hear Vilsack use the word 'food' — or 'eaters.' And the interests of everybody except eaters was discussed: farmers, ranchers, people concerned about the land." And so, he said, it's difficult not to see Vilsack's selection as "agribusiness as usual."
In the months before Vilsack was named to the post, Pollan wrote an article urging the president-elect to rename the Department of Agriculture as the Department of Food, led by a secretary of food. That did not happen Wednesday.
____________________
Obama nominates Ken Salazar as Secretary of the Interior
(JS: Interior administers a half-billion acres, one-fifth of the United States)
As the overseer of the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Mineral Management Services, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Endangered Species Act, the Secretary of the Interior is most important position in the protection of America's lands, waters, and endangered species.
The Department of the Interior has been rocked by scandals during the Bush Administration, most revolving around corrupt bureaucrats overturning and squelching agency scientists as they attempted to protect endangered species and natural resources from exploitation by developers, loggers, and oil and gas development. Just yesterday, the Interior Department Inspector General issued another in a string of reports finding that top Department officials systematically violated laws and regulations in order to avoid or eliminate environmental protections.
"The Department of the Interior desperately needs a strong, forward looking, reform-minded Secretary," said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity. "Unfortunately, Ken Salazar is not that man. He endorsed George Bush's selection of Gale Norton as Secretary of Interior, the very woman who initiated and encouraged the scandals that have rocked the Department of Interior. Virtually all of the misdeeds described in yesterday's Inspector General expose occurred during the tenure of the person Ken Salazar advocated for the position he is now seeking."
While Salazar has promoted some good environmental actions and fought against off-road vehicle abuse, his overall record is decidedly mixed, and is especially weak in the arenas most important to the next Secretary of the Interior: protecting scientific integrity, combating global warming, reforming energy development and protecting endangered species.
Salazar:
- voted against increased fuel efficiency standards for the U.S. automobile fleet
- voted to end protection for offshore oil drilling off of Florida’s coast
- voted to allow the Army Corps of Engineers to ignore global warming impacts in their water development projects
- voted against the repeal of tax breaks for Exxon-Mobil
- voted to support subsidies to ranchers and other users of public forest and range lands
- Threatened to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when its scientists determined the black-tailed prairie dog may be endangered
- Fought efforts to increase protection for endangered species and the environment in the Farm Bill
****************************
7.
"To write honestly and with conviction anything about the migration of birds, one should oneself have migrated. Somehow or other we should dehumanize ourselves, feel the feel of feathers on our body and wind in our wings, and finally know what it is to leave abundance and safety and daylight and yield to a compelling instinct, age-old, seeming at the time quite devoid of reason and object."
William Beebe, American naturalist
***************************
8. The California Senate Rules Committee has sent a letter to the Boards of Supervisors (and I presume, the mayors) of Marin, Sonoma, and San Francisco Counties asking for nominations to the Coastal Commission.
If you are a city council member or supervisor, it is now very timely to ask your county's mayors and board of Supervisors to nominate you to serve on the Commission. This is a somewhat urgent matter, and should be done no later than early January.
If you are a coastal activist working on this project, please contact the city council members or supervisors you support, and be sure they act soon to be nominated by the mayors and/or supervisors.
**************************
9.
San Bruno Mountain Watch
From Year End Newsletter 2008
Aftermath
The mountain burned black
in mourning around the stony offspring
of a planet's fiery skull --
But, do not worry in the dinge,
for, charred roots now sprout
in secret midnight moisturing fogs,
uncounted seeds are stirring beneath these ashes,
tender in the crumbled crust.
And still the creekbeds waver
in a silent heat
with cicadas and beetle,
frogs, slugs and snakes,
hidden hearts still beating
toward the seeping of springs.
And deeper in the dead scrub, a tiny river
bubbling down the loam's silence
between still burning waxmyrtle roots,
pulsing under fire rotting wood,
coursing new little worts, mosses and lichens.
Febrilating canyons beat
in league with the flickering flame of stars
and back into all beginnings--
Spreading all voiceless shadows
up the ridges and down
into the night's renewal.
Across all the perched crags of death,
humble bearers of the dirt's birth.
--David Schooley, 8/08
**************************
10. Asia appetite for turtles seen as a threat to Florida species
The reptiles, especially softshell turtles, are prized in China as food and as a source for traditional medicines. U.S. experts fear the trade could lead to extinctions.
By Kim Christensen, December 27 2008
The turtle tank at Nam Hoa Fish Market is empty, but not to worry: The manager of this bustling Chinatown store says he has plenty in back.
The complete article can be viewed at: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-me-turtle27-2008dec27,0,7386179.story
**************************
11.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7410542.stm
The global cost of tackling invasive species costs $1.4 trillion (£700bn) each year, the report estimates.
_______________________
SAVE THE DATE for the Bay Area Invasive Species Workshop: Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Scottish Rite Center, 1547 Lakeside Dr., Oakland
Registration information to follow in early January. Cost: $30 each.
Hosted by the California Invasive Plant Council and the Bay Area Open Space Council.
****************************
12. Feedback
Robert Hall:
Thanks for shedding light on the trout situation. I read Stienstra's article in the SF Chron and smelled a rat. It's too bad the thousands of other people who read his column won't have access to this perspective.
Posting again:
Read the Center for Biological Diversity statement on interim restrictions on stocking trout to protect native fish and amphibians in California waters:
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/fish-stocking_reform/pdfs/PRC+CBD_statement_on_fish-stocking_agreement.pdf
Find out more about the Center's Fish Stocking Reform Campaign: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/fish-stocking_reform/index.html
See what the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance says about the restrictions on trout stocking: http://www.calsport.org/12-3-08a.htm
Read CalTrout’s statement on the interim restrictions: http://www.caltrout.org/article.asp?id=379&bc=1
*******************************
13. From Jeff Caldwell:
I don't usually advocate 'artificially feeding' wildlife, but this idea seems harmless enough. I'd like to share some snippets from articles I found in the Austin Butterfly Forum's archived newsletters: http://www.austinbutterflies.org/
The articles are about attracting butterflies with rotting fruit. Which, I suppose, sounds kind of weird. But they suggest an elegant way to do it, and interesting things do come to the fruit.
(JS: But some less interesting things, like rats, also. So be careful how you provide the fruit; hang it if you can.)
****************************
14. Progress on climate change talks
…to judge by the latest, tortuous moves in climate-change diplomacy—at a two-week gathering in Poland, which ended on December 13th—there is little sign of any mind-concentrating effect.
To be fair to the 10,000-odd people (diplomats, UN bureaucrats, NGO types) who assembled in Poznan, a semicolon was removed. At a similar meeting a year earlier, governments had vowed to consider ways of cutting emissions from “deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries; and the role of conservation [and forest management]”. After much haggling, delegates in Poland decided to upgrade conservation by replacing the offending punctuation mark with a comma.
Excerpt from The Economist 20 Dec 08
************************************
15.
(A few lines from article by George Monbiot in Guardian Weekly 07.11.08:)
How did politics in the US come to be dominated by people who make a virtue out of ignorance? Was it charity that has permitted mankind's closest living relative to spend two terms as president? How did Sarah Palin, Dan Quayle and other such gibbering numbskulls get to where they are? ...The founding fathers were great thinkers. How did their project degenerate into George Bush and Sarah Palin? ...Susan Jacoby's book The Age of American Unreason shows that the degradation of US politics results from a series of interlocking tragedies...One theme is both familiar and clear: religion--in particular fundamentalist religion--makes you stupid. The US is the only rich country in which Christian fundamentalism is vast and growing.
Fear makes us stupid
LTE, Guardian Weekly
I have just reread George Monbiot's article on the role of religion, particularly fundamentalist religion, on US politics. Many of us find it frightening that people like George Bush, Dan Quayle and Sarah Palin have positions of any responsibility at all. How could a country founded on the principles of the Enlightenment end up with such poor examples as public figures? It would seem that their religion was at fault, but there are a lot of highly educated believers whose faith encourages questioning.
In the early history of the United States the churches in small, isolated communities served as the social locus of settlers' lives as well as a source of spiritual support. Either you belonged or you didn't. This situation has not fundamentally changed. The world outside has changed drastically, however.
In the past generation a technological revolution has intruded on the insularity of people's lives. Children whose sole frame of reference used to be that of their parents and their church are now exposed to the same nefarious influences to which the children of the point-heads and the drug dealers and everybody else "out there" is exposed. It has become necessary to separate the Us from the Them to preserve the life one values. And so, during the past 30 years the framing of public discourse has polarized the country--conservative/liberal; pro-life/pro-choice; Joe Sixpack/the elitists; straight/gay; beer/chardonnay--to the point that rational debate is almost impossible.
We have always had fundamentalist churches in this country, but never before has their voice been so strident. There have always been fundamentalists in the Middle East, too, but never have they been so threatening. Time of social upheaval produce fear, and fear makes people try as best they can to hang on to what has always been important to them, and lash out at the threat.
As Monbiot's article points out, Darwin's theory upset the previous order and caused an upsurge of religiosity., The invention of the printing press led to the Reformation and the awful violence that swept Europe during the religious wars.
Things will settle down after a while as they usually do, and then, perhaps, we can start to work together to repair the structural underpinnings, like our education system and healthcare, that we have so long neglected.
Deborah Sigg, El Cerrito, California, US
**************************
16. Good reason not to like Mondays
The time-honored phenomenon of Sod’s Law, which dictates that a slice of toast when dropped always falls butter side down, is statistically likely to strike most on Mondays. That is according to a pointless but fun analysis of 2,226 sufferers by an insurance company’s presumably under-worked employees. Their survey found that all the little irritations of life—power cuts, empty cash dispensers, minor cuts, and so on—were overwhelmingly likely to happen on Mondays.
The survey failed to take account of Murphy’s Law, an extension of Sod’s Law, stating that the slice of toast will indeed fall butter side down, save when dropped for the purpose of proving this truth.
Guardian Weekly
**************************
17. Available from California Native Plant Society - cnps.org/store.php, or 916-447-2677
Nature's Beloved Son: Rediscovering John Muir's Botanical Legacy, by Bonnie Gisel; images by Stephen J Joseph - from Heyday Books
The California Deserts, by Bruce Pavlik
The California Deserts explores the remarkable diversity of life in this harsh yet fragile quarter of the Golden State
California's Fading Wildflowers, by Richard Minnich
This book offers the most comprehensive historical analysis available of the dramatic transformation of California's wildflower prairies.
Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification, by Thomas J. Elpel
Botany in a Day provides simple, easily learned tools to assist in plant identification. Line drawings highlight family characteristics, and plant entries discuss medicinal uses, edibility, toxicity, and look-alike plants.
Botany for Gardeners, by Brian Capon
An essential overview of the science behind plants for beginning and advanced gardeners alike.
Calochortus, by Mary E. Gerritsen and Ron Parson
With their graceful stance, brilliant colors, and intricate markings, members of the North American genus Calochortus are among the most dazzling bulbous plants in the world.
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18. I have reluctantly replaced my old rotary dial telephone. I was loathe to part with it because it was made to last by Ma Bell, when she owned all telephones and had to repair them. Now that it is the customer's responsibility, they're purposely built to break down after awhile. But I finally gave up the fight to keep it.
If anyone is interested in acquiring it, let me know.
Jake Sigg 415-731-3028
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Special to the Bayview Hill Association:Nature News from Jake Sigg
Friday, November 7
1. Bring environmental instruction to every classroom in every subject - TOMORROW, Saturday 8th
2. Advertising on San Francisco buildings and street furniture
3. Public outcry: Has it defeated the Fisher Museum and other desecrations of Presidio history?
4. John Muir Assn bestows award on GGNRA Endangered Species Big Year
5. Two officially established fact: Caribbean monk seal extinct/temperatures rising in the Antarctic as well as Arctic
6. Letter to soon-to-be Farmer-in-Chief Barack Obama
7. Feedback: The Economist's endorsement of Obama
8. Status of our public educational system - an editorial
9. Why the U.S. will keep backing numbskulls
10. Informed citizens avoid information overload by taking strategic shortcuts before casting their ballots
11. Immigration vs climate warming and water supply
12. Notes & Queries
1. Environmental Futures Contest for Public Schools represents an effort to bring environmental instruction to every classroom in every subject across the United States. We are having a planning meeting this Saturday to discuss what has been done, and what remains to be done to complete our pilot contest in San Francisco. This is a general meeting open to the public. We encourage all who wish to make classroom lessons much more environmental to attend.
Environmental Futures General Meeting
Noon, this Saturday, November 8th
Resource Renewal Institute Library
Building D, Room 290, Second Floor
Fort Mason Center
San Francisco
415 308 0242
Please RSVP via email at jimlecuyer@sbcglobal.net, or by phone at 650 992 4550, or 415 308 0242. Space limited to 25.
(See below for Jim's editorial)
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2. From San Francisco Beautiful
The issue of general advertising on City buildings and street furniture has been continued to November 18th. Thanks to everyone who contacted the S.F. Board of Supervisors asking that they support legislation curbing the blight of general advertising in San Francisco.
Ordinance summary and what happened on Tuesday, November 4th.
Ordinance amending the San Francisco Administrative Code by adding Section 4.20-1 to prohibit any new general advertising signs on street furniture over the number authorized as of January 1, 2008 and to prohibit new general advertising signs visible to the public on the exterior of City-owned buildings as of March 5, 2002; adopting environmental and other findings.
PASSED ON FIRST READING by the following vote:
Ayes: 6 - Ammiano, Maxwell, McGoldrick, Mirkarimi, Peskin, Sandoval
Noes: 5 - Alioto-Pier, Chu, Daly, Dufty, Elsbernd
Supervisor McGoldrick, seconded by Supervisor Sandoval, moved that this Ordinance be CONTINUED to November 18, 2008. The motion carried by the following vote: Ayes: 11 - Alioto-Pier, Ammiano, Chu, Daly, Dufty, Elsbernd, Maxwell, McGoldrick, Mirkarimi, Peskin, Sandoval
A short history of the fight against general advertising in San Francisco:
· In 2002 the voters approved Proposition G, which prohibits new general advertising signs on private property.
· In 2007, voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition K that sets forth a Declaration of Policy that the City should not allow any increase in the number of general advertising signs visible to the public on the exterior of City-owned buildings or on street furniture.*
· In 2008 Supervisor Jake McGoldrick introduces legislation that will codify Proposition G's prohibition of new general advertising on the exterior of City-owned buildings and on street furniture.
*Street furniture includes transit shelters, kiosks, benches and newspaper racks. General advertising signs direct attention to a business, commodity, industry or other activity which is sold, offered or conducted elsewhere than on the premises upon which sign is located.
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3. Jake, I wonder if you would be kind enough to mention to your readers that the public meeting of the Board of Directors of the Presidio Trust, to be held at the Hebst International Exhibition Hall, 385 Moraga Ave (near the Officers' Club at the Main Post, The Presidio, has been rescheduled to 9 December at 6:30 p.m. Evidently, the massive public outcry against the proposed 100,000 square-foot contemporary art museum, the 95,000 square-foot hotel, and a three-screen multiplex movie theater to be built on the historic Parade Ground in the Presidio is causing the planners to reconsider the whole development idea. This is good news to those who respect history and tradition, and to those who are concerned about the natural environment in our National Park. But the "Save the Presidio" movement urges us not to let up the pressure now, and to keep writing to the Trust and to our City legislators. And to attend the meeting!. More details may be found at savethepresidio.org. Thank you. Dan Richman
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4.
The GGNRA Endangered Species Big Year has received the Environmental Education Award from the John Muir Association. This award is given for outstanding contributions to environmental education for the year. The awards celebration will be held on Saturday, November 15, 2008 at 6 pm at the Campbell Theatre in Martinez, CA. John Muir Laws will give the keynote presentation, and Amy Meyer, godmother of the GGNRA, will be
presented with the Conservationist of the Year Award. Call Nancy to reserve your tickets at 925-370-7158.
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5. Signs of the times
Extinct Monk Seal Removed From Endangered Species List
Last week, the final bell tragically tolled for the Caribbean monk seal when the National Marine Fisheries Service removed its Endangered Species Act protections -- not because it recovered, but because it's extinct. Last sighted in 1952, the seal was put on the federal endangered species list in 1967 in the hope it would be rediscovered, but to no avail. The species' spiral toward extinction began as far back as 1494, when Columbus noted it was easy prey for hunters seeking food, blubber, and skins.
The Caribbean monk seal is the first seal species to go extinct solely due to human causes -- but if we're not careful, it won't be the last. The endangered Hawaiian and Mediterranean monk seals are both dwindling fast due to global warming, sea-level rise, and other factors. The Center for Biological Diversity is currently working to gain more protected habitat for the Hawaiian monk seal.
From Ian Wilson:
Hi Jake, Here's the first evidence that temperatures are not only rising in the arctic, they're also rising in the antarctic. It seems that one reason there's been so little evidence of antarctic warming up to now is because there are so few measuring stations there. Can't say I blame the climate scientists for this, I wouldn't want to be posted there either. http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKTRE49T81020081030?sp=true
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6. Farmer in Chief
By MICHAEL POLLAN (Published: October 9, 2008)
Dear Mr. President-Elect,
It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is one you barely mentioned during the campaign: food. Food policy is not something American presidents have had to give much thought to, at least since the Nixon administration — the last time high food prices presented a serious political peril. Since then, federal policies to promote maximum production of the commodity crops (corn, soybeans, wheat and rice) from which most of our supermarket foods are derived have succeeded impressively in keeping prices low and food more or less off the national political agenda. But with a suddenness that has taken us all by surprise, the era of cheap and abundant food appears to be drawing to a close. What this means is that you, like so many other leaders through history, will find yourself confronting the fact — so easy to overlook these past few years — that the health of a nation’s food system is a critical issue of national security. Food is about to demand your attention.
Complicating matters is the fact that the price and abundance of food are not the only problems we face; if they were, you could simply follow Nixon’s example, appoint a latter-day Earl Butz as your secretary of agriculture and instruct him or her to do whatever it takes to boost production. But there are reasons to think that the old approach won’t work this time around; for one thing, it depends on cheap energy that we can no longer count on. For another, expanding production of industrial agriculture today would require you to sacrifice important values on which you did campaign. Which brings me to the deeper reason you will need not simply to address food prices but to make the reform of the entire food system one of the highest priorities of your administration: unless you do, you will not be able to make significant progress on the health care crisis, energy independence or climate change. Unlike food, these are issues you did campaign on — but as you try to address them you will quickly discover that the way we currently grow, process and eat food in America goes to the heart of all three problems and will have to change if we hope to solve them.
Excerpt--full article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/magazine/12policy-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine&oref=slogin
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7. Feedback
John Anderson (written before the election):
The Economist endorsed Barack Obama, huh? Remarkable, considering I’ve always regarded the Economist as fairly right-wing. Encouraging- we’ll know by tomorrow.
I totally agree with you on prop. R; it’s a gratuitous insult to a hard-working, effective sewage plant. Most people I’ve talked to seem to agree. I wonder how long it will take to start referring to ill-designed, unreliable devices as “W’s”?
“My e-mail program cost a mint, scrambles any words longer than three syllables, and randomly changes my fonts to Cyrillic- it’s a total W”.
“It may be foolproof, but is it W proof?”
To whatever powers are out there: please, please don’t make us come up with a use for “Palin”.
As always, thanks for the newsletter.
The Economist is definitely not right-wing. It calls itself 'liberal', and it is liberal in the traditional sense of minimum regulation, free markets, open borders, &c. Today the terminology is getting mixed up, as those values are usually appropriated by the right-wing (but only when it's to their advantage). I had expected the journal would support Obama, as he seems more consistent with its expressed philosophy. It carried an opinion piece a few weeks ago about 'where is the real McCain?'. It expressed dismay over McCain's confusing course. Obama appeared more consistent and more able, and I expected that that would appeal to the journal. After all, Obama is moderate-to-conservative, as was FDR in the 1930s. They only seemed liberal or radical at the time.
In principle I am for those free market values too, although for a number of reasons that beautiful theory doesn't work well in the present-day world. We all know what happens in an unregulated economy based on greed; we are living unsustainably, and conspicuous and mindless consumption are destroying our environment and resource base. And no one will do anything about population--therefore, I no longer support free movement of goods and people, even though that is philosophically appealing. My main dissatisfaction with The Economist is that it sticks to that philosophy, even though there is some recognition on its part that it's not working that well in the real world. Another dissatisfaction is that it is weak on environmental issues. I have found its coverage and understanding of environmental issues shallow, and occasionally outright wrong. Remember the name of the magazine: economic and business issues are its roots; it has branched out over the 150+ years of its existence into other fields, but economics and business are its origins.
I find the magazine's writers are very well-grounded in their subjects for the most part, and I value it for giving me background and perspective on issues that have a long history. Its biographies are delightful and rich, and its historical memory give me a foundation for understanding today's events. The greatest value I derive from it is perspective.
Just for clarification: I really like the Economist as a magazine. It covers areas, like 3rd world politics, that most of the media completely ignores, and you're right on target about the accuracy of its reporting (including the weakness on the environment). It’s one of the few publications that I find interesting, even when I disagree with it. Much like your newsletter. I just wish I had more time to read it (the magazine).
Dear Jake, I find it interesting that The Economist magazine did not predict the financial meltdown. It's also ironic that The Economist endorsed Bush in 2000 and has endorsed the very policies that have lead us to this economic abyss. Now, The Economist wants Pres. Obama. Go figure.
Harry Kassakhian, Gallup, New Mexico
Harry: Yes, I was thinking of that very thing when I posted that item, but didn't want to get too far into a complex topic.
Nevertheless, I feel like defending The Economist. Why do I defend them? Obviously, it is fallible, and your question is a good one. For all its erudition and the weight of its historical memory, it was captive of its own world view and ideology. (There is a better word than 'ideology', but I can't think of it at the moment.) I have always been aware of its bias in that regard, and I filter it through my own biases. I have, eg, caught it out on environmental issues, and whenever I sent it an LTE, the response has been weak. There is an intimate link between the financial crisis and the environmental crisis. It has exhibited glimmerings of understanding that connection, but it doesn't fully get it. Alas, they are human also, and I still place a high value on the journal, flawed as it is.
There is a parallel situation with a commentator whose bias is very different than mine: David Brooks of the NY Times. I hear him and Mark Shields weekly on the Lehrer News Hour. Brooks made snide remarks at the time about the Democrats' choice of Nancy Pelosi as leader, saying that showed how out of touch with the nation the party was. He supported Bush initially, and was in favor of invading Iraq. Over the years I noticed his support weakening, his defense of Bush and the war became increasingly lame, until he finally gave it up entirely. It was interesting to watch his evolution over the last six years, and this year he sounded like he had become an enthusiastic Obama fan--in spite of the fact that he was trying to be a detached analyst.
So, Brooks was way behind the curve, as is The Economist. (I know what that's like--I've been there on other issues. In fact, I think my whole life has been spent behind the curve.) Nevertheless, Brooks still has interesting observations to make, and I always benefit from his comments.
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8. Status of our public educational system
(I post this item in its entirety because I think it an accurate depiction of the status of our public educational system, and one reason why our society is in dire shape.)
Jake: Few people except teachers understand why the public school system is producing so many young adults ignorant of our global (and local) environmental needs. If we are to solve our environmental woes (not to mention financial woes), we need an educated public. But why aren't they educated enough to care about what might well be their own coming demise? Why are so many schools and teachers teaching so little? This is a complicated question with clear but expensive solutions.
NeoCons (some call them NeoLiberals) are able to manipulate a great mass of Americans because so many adults are poorly educated. US public schools continue to be structured on 19th Century theories. The schools dealt well with illiteracy in 1900, but, in general their present product is literate but ignorant and angry young adults; this is not to be laid on the heads of teachers, though they are often condemned. Most teachers bleed for their students, but are more than overloaded. Overworked teachers burn out and leave the profession. How many trained professionals would stay in a company that overworked, underpaid and disrespected their employees?
But most of us -- I began teaching English in 1965 -- care somewhat less about the money we earn than about our working conditions. For example, at the secondary level the typical inner-city academic teacher has 150 or more students per day (sometimes as many as 240), divided into five classes. If a History teacher assigns one research paper or one serious written homework assignment a week to 150 students, and it takes ten minutes to read, comment and grade each paper, that can result in 1500 minutes of work outside of class, or 25 hours for just one written homework assignment. Most teachers shy away from this. Only teachers without family or friends are able to keep up with that load, unless they skim through and cheat the student, and pass kids along who don't do the work. Our sons and daughters and grandchildren are not learning to write or do research, or reflect deeply. Many of the best teachers struggle along for a few years, then leave in disgust. Those who stay either give up their personal lives, or give up seriously grading homework assignments, or just accept the monthly pay.
Teaching is not just about classroom teaching and grading either. Every teacher is called upon to help maintain the infrastructure of the school, to supervise games, or participate in PTA or attend after school events... and contact parents. The work is overwhelming if taken seriously, a sixty or eighty hour a week job, with constant anxiety. Are lessons prepared? What haven't I done? I know of few secondary English teachers, for example, who go anywhere without a pile of papers to read, at parties, at dinners, waiting in line at a movie, in the toilet, in bed. By the time they get through the immediate work of the day, one more thing such as a home call to an angry parent who wants to know why his or her daughter is failing is just one more thing than the teacher can handle. Parents may not like it, but that's how it is. It's hard to explain to an angry parent why you haven't got time to give personal attention to her unhappy child.
Interruptions of all kinds reduce the class hour and the school year. One two-day standardized test can disrupt a whole school for a week, with teachers called away from class to proctor make-ups for kids who missed one or more segments of the test. Every assembly, every in-class visit, every interruption of any kind takes minutes out of each hour. Every unruly kid takes time, and when there are twenty-five to thirty-five kids in a class, teaching becomes more crowd control.
The US school system is structured to create such ignorance, which gives birth to a public that votes against their own best interests. Kids feel that what is being offered in school is not relevant to them, and they all too often blame their teachers, and there are many bad teachers. But I don't blame the teachers so much as the working conditions and the irrelevance and even propagandistic perversions of the subject matter -- American History for one glaring example, or the environment. Right now less than 1% of our students actually study environmental issues in class, so we see in our adults the results of a hundred years of indifference to the environment. To change that, or anything, in the public schools will be difficult, but must be done. The schools need to reduce the teacher's work load and focus on relevant, modern subject matter, such as climate change, or Richard Louv's effort to illuminate the loss of Nature in his book, Last Child in the Woods. Or the true and violent history of America. Without academic freedom, a young adult can not find real life truth. How enlightened a vote can you expect from someone who has never studied the issues? And how is America or the world going to find its way to sustainability, or even bare survival, if kids from Kindergarten on are kept from environmental (or any kind of complex) knowledge?
The public schools are not working. Kids are demanding more. No Child Left Behind is a horrible joke, and the charter school movement is mostly destroying what little beneficial infrastructure the public schools have left. There are so many things the public school system has to do before it will function well. The first step is to cut class size in half. That, in itself, will pave the way to a modern, functioning school system with satisfied teachers and students. And it has to be done before other reforms will work! Private schools know what works. Few if any private schools have classes over 15.
The second step is to make the curriculum relevant. We can learn from those schools such as Berkeley High's Ecology and Social Justice Program, or from the one San Francisco high school program dedicated to environmental issues, Galileo's Environmental Studies Program. It has ninety students a year, and they like what they learn.
Why environmentalism, or much else, is not taught is more complicated than what I've laid out here, but these are the basics. No one who has not been a teacher for a number of years can be expected to understand why our public schools do not retain many of the best teachers, why our kids are graduating with a degree that is laughable to developed and developing nations, and, most of all, why Americans seem so ignorant of their own needs and the needs of the rest of the world. Kids all over the world want to learn. Our kids want to learn, but not many can learn much in this system. And we damned well all better learn our environmental lessons fast, or lose our democracy. Jim LeCuyer
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9. Why the US will keep backing numbskulls
Fundamentalist religion and the south's block on threatening ideas have combined to produce an ignorant nation
"The founding fathers were great thinkers. How did their project degenerate into George Bush and Sarah Palin?"
From George Monbiot in Guardian Weekly 07.11.08
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10. Simpleminded Voters (Emphases mine. The rest of the lengthy article explains a complicated research experiment—not easy to summarize.)
Informed citizens avoid information overload by taking strategic shortcuts before casting their ballots
As the 2008 U.S. presidential election approaches, tens of millions of voters have to make up their minds. They face the task of sifting through media reports, televised debates, political advertisements, campaign literature and conversations with family and friends to identify a candidate who best reflects their political views.
That just may be too much to ask, though. As political scientists have long lamented, the general public knows depressingly little about politics. Most Americans can identify the president but barely half know the name of even one cabinet member and only one-third correctly identify their two U.S. senators or their congressional representative. In surveys, roughly half of registered voters display little understanding of how government works or of current political issues.
Even if a voter knew enough to evaluate each presidential candidate’s positions on diverse issues, he or she would still need to tally pros and cons on those issues for each candidate and determine who most deserved support. Decision researchers in various fields have long favored this exhaustive, coldly logical approach, even if only as an ideal that less methodical thinkers should strive for.
Yet according to many psychologists, people will never think that way. We shun rationality and seek as little information as possible when making judgments, the experts assert. Instead, individuals use strategic shortcuts, also known as rules of thumb or heuristics, to decide. The latter term, of Greek origin, means “serving to find out or discover.” Heuristics require minimal mental effort but prompt irrational and biased judgments—or at least so say some psychologists.
Political scientists generally assume just the opposite. They regard heuristics as tools for the average citizen to fashion reasonably accurate political judgments out of sparse civic knowledge.
Excerpt from Science News 5 July 2008
(Can anyone say that they never take these shortcuts? After wading through 12 state propositions and 22 (count 'em) city propositions, most of which they don't understand?)
"Politics has become so expensive that it takes a lot of money even to be defeated." -- Will Rogers
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11. Immigration Exacerbates Global Warming and Overpopulation, and Over-Immigration Threaten Water Supply
CAPS has launched a TV ad campaign in California TV markets. The spots point out that when immigrants settle in the U.S., their energy use quickly becomes Americanized. As a result their carbon emissions skyrocket. The result is a quadrupling of immigrants' carbon footprints compared to the amount of carbon emissions they produced in their home countries.
CAPS' TV campaign is running as America faces the largest population increase in its history. According to 2008 U.S. Census Bureau projections, U.S. population will jump from 305 million today to more than 400 million by 2040. That's a 33 percent increase yielding an additional 100 million more people in just the next thirty years. It’s an increase equivalent to adding another entire Western half of the country. According to Pew Research, 82 percent of that growth will be a result of immigration and births to immigrants.
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12. Notes & Queries, Guardian Weekly
A very crafty strategy
Who is the better strategist: George W Bush or Osama bin Laden?
Bush's cunning plan is to leave the whole sorry mess for someone else to sort out. Osama bin Laden simply can't match Bush's ploy--a masterstroke that marks Bush as the superior strategist.
Jim Dewar. Gosford, NSW, Australia
Bush could never see the wood for the trees, and is now looking at his own timber-r-r-r.
Roger Morrell, Perth, Western Australia
No contest. Osama bin Laden was planning to bring the US to its knees. George W Bush showed him exactly how to do it.
Harvey Mitchell, Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Special to The Bayview Hill Association From Jake Sigg
Nature News from Jake Sigg/ Special to the Bayview Hill Association
1. The Tuolumne River needs your help TODAY
2. What If...the presidential and vice-presidential candidates changed race? Food for thought
3. New York Times' thoughtful endorsement of Obama
4. Voters' Guide to California Proposition 8
5. Make it easy when you go to vote: www.GoVote.org
6. The power of Sarah Palin
7. Save the Date: CNPS annual plant sale Nov 6
8. Open seats on the San Francisco Urban Forestry Council
9. Horseradish Redux!!
10. Eruption of a seemingly quiet volcano causes global disaster
11. SF Supervisor candidate interested in natural areas
12. Cell phone numbers being released to telemarketers - you can stop them
13. The Superorganism: The Beauty, Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies
14. Feedback
15. National Happiness Index bucks financial woes
16. LTE to Science News on population
17. Halloween miscellany: Venus and Moon dance/Jack o'Lantern and the devil/the Haunted Presidio
18. Notes & Queries
1. From the Tuolumne River Trust:
Can you come to SF City Hall to support the Tuolumne River?
This Thursday, October 30, there will be two important public hearings at which the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) will likely decide whether to go with a plan that diverts more water from an already threatened river, or whether to turn to water conservation and recycling instead. October 30 will be the moment of truth. We are asking Tuolumne supporters to come out in droves - if there were ever a time to speak out on behalf of this source of Bay Area drinking water - this is it! (If you can only make one hearing, the 5:00pm SFPUC meeting is the more critical.)
Planning Commission Hearing
SF City Hall, Room 400
Thursday, October 30 at 1:30pm
Special Meeting of the SFPUC
SF City Hall, Room 263
Thursday, October 30 at 5:00pm
We've come a long way. A few short months ago, the SFPUC was considereding a controversial plan to take an additional 25 million gallons of water per day out of the Tuolumne River. Most of this increase would have been for outdoor use. While that option is still on the table, SFPUC staff are now recommending a compromise - a variant that would leave most of that water in the River and turn to water conservation and recycling instead, at least until the year 2018.
Make no mistake - this has the potential to be a huge victory. But we still have concerns - we want to make sure there are strong assurances that the SFPUC and it's customers won't go over their cap, and we're concerned that the plan would still allow for an additional 2 million gallons a day to be diverted. 59% of flows are already diverted in an average year (up to 90% in some years) - meanwhile, we've seen our native salmon and steelhead populations crash. So right now, please email the Commissioners of the SFPUC and urge them to choose a plan that keeps every drop of remaining water in the River: http://www.tuolumne.org/content/staticpages/index.php/letter_commissioners.
Additional information on the 1.30 pm Planning Commission meeting:
Speak Up for Alameda Creek
October 30th, 1:30 pm Room 400
San Francisco City Hall
SF Planning Commission
The S.F. Planning Commission will discuss and vote on certification of the final EIR for the WSIP at 1:30 pm. The SFPUC will hold a hearing at 5 pm on the WSIP and choose a project.
The WSIP as proposed, specifically the Calaveras Dam Replacement Project and the Alameda Creek “Fishery Enhancement” Project, will have unacceptable impacts on the native fish and wildlife of Alameda Creek, will impede restoration of steelhead trout, and will commit the SFPUC to illegally operating Calaveras Dam and the Alameda Diversion Dam in violation of state and federal wildlife protection laws.
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2. Subject: What if
What if the shoe were on the other foot? Obama/Biden vs. McCain/Palin. What if the presidential candidates exchanged race? Ponder the following:
What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, including a three month old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?
What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?
What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was divorced?
What if Obama was the candidate who left his first wife after she was severely disfigured in a car accident?
What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?
What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?
What if Cindy McCain had graduated from Harvard?
What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five? (The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)
What if McCain was a charismatic, eloquent speaker?
What if Obama couldn't read from a teleprompter?
What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes?
What if Obama was the one who was known to display publicly, on many occasions, a serious anger management problem?
What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer distribution?
What if the Obamas had adopted a white child?
You could easily add to this list. If these questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?
This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.
So let's consider some other stuff like educational backgrounds:
Barack Obama:
Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization in International Relations.
Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude
Joseph Biden:
University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.
Syracuse University, College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)
John McCain:
United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899
Sarah Palin:
Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism
Education isn't everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land as well as our standing in the world.
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3. The New York Times endorsement of Barack Obama - a thoughtful and nearly complete statement of the issues, the problems, the merits and demerits of the respective candidates. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/opinion/24fri1.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=opinion
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4. Voters' Guide to California Proposition 8
If M. Dennis Moore ever decides to run for office in Oregon, he might do well with voters starved for humor. Moore paid good money to put his hilarious arguments mocking Measure 36, which prohibited same-sex marriage, in the state's official general election voters' guide. Calling himself a spokesman for the "Defense of Heterosexual Breeding Coalition," Moore argued that since the Bible says marriage is only for procreation, Oregon should prohibit marriage not only for homosexuals, but also for men with vasectomies, women with hysterectomies, anyone infertile, persons planning to use birth control, and non-virgins. "Agree with us or burn in hell!" Moore concluded. He blamed a lot of the outrage about same-sex marriage on God, who never stops "throwing all these radical social changes at us."
Measure 36 passed, nonetheless. (In 2006, I think)
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5. Make It Easy When You Go Vote (from Center for Biological Diversity)
www.GoVote.org is a project by the New Organizing Institute, the Election Administration Fund of the Democracy Alliance, and Working Assets. The handy and searchable GoVote Web site provides answers, organized by zip code, to all of voters' most oft-asked queries, from "Exactly where is my voting location (with maps)?" to "What identification should I bring?" All answers are available in Spanish, too.
Lack of information about voting suppresses more votes than caging, purging, or intimidation at the polls. Fight the trend and tell your fellow voters about www.GoVote.org before this historic election is history.
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6. The power of Sarah Palin
Newsweek reported on October 24:
" When those [pro-coice] voters get angry, they start donating money. In this case, Planned Parenthood has become the beneficiary. Shortly after Palin’s nomination, e-mails began circulating suggesting that pro-choice women make donations to Planned Parenthood in her honor. As of this week, Planned Parenthood has received more than 40,000 donations in Palin’s name, totaling more than $1 million." For the full article go to: http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/stumper/archive/2008/10/24/how-sarah-palin-has-helped-pro-choice-activists.aspx
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7.
SAVE THE DATE
Annual plant sale of local native plants
California Native Plant Society Yerba Buena Chapter
Thursday 6 November, 7.30 pm
San Francisco County Fair Bldg
9th Av & Lincoln Way in Golden Gate Park
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8. Open seats on San Francisco's Urban Forestry Council
The UFC is an advisory body for the Mayor and Board of Supervisors that's was formed to help guide urban forestry practices and polices and create
cohesion among the many stakeholders in San Francisco. The Council has representatives from city agencies, local nonprofit organizations, field
professionals, and urban forestry advocates from the general public. They've done alot of good work so far, including commissioning many of the
studies and reports on San Francisco's urban forest that exist today.
The Council membership was recently restructured and all seat positions were opened for new appointments. My understanding is that some, but not
all, of the current members are reapplying and that there are seats which have not been applied for.
If anyone is interested in applying they can find the forms and procedures for applying at this website: http://www.sfgov.org/site/bdsupvrs_page.asp?id=4386
The UFC webpage is located here: http://www.sfenvironment.org/our_policies/overview.html?ssi=16
Anyone interested person can contact me directly for more information about the UFC.
Mei Ling Hui, Urban Forest Coordinator, Department of the Environment
415-355-3731 - meiling.hui@sfgov.org
www.sfenvironment.com
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9. Horseradish
I'm printing this email verbatim, because editing-out extraneous material takes more time than I have. After visiting the KPFA transmitter site to plan restoration work, Bill McClung invited us to his house for lunch. The message here is horseradish--and was it a message! The writer is KPFA volunteer Bob Nelson:
HORSERADISH HARVEST
Big, big thanks to John McClung for introducing us to home-grown horseradish!! At the beginning of the year, when Jake Sigg visited our site on a miserable, wet, chilly day, Bill McClung invited us to his home for a luncheon, and Bill's son John served his home-grown horseradish. It was SOOOO good, I couldn't stop eating it, even though my eyes were watering and my nose was running from its effects! We planted a horseradish root in a pot under the transmitter's front hose bib, and the rest is history! The plant flourished! When I needed to relocate the pot a month or so ago to restore the Backflow Preventer piping, I discovered that the roots had grown out through a drain hole in the pot. Those roots were ripped apart when I moved the pot, and a volunteer horseradish plant appeared in the KPFA soil! As described above, it's receiving drip irrigation! Robert and I harvested the horseradish roots from the potted plant, which yielded two very meaty roots, one for Robert and one for me. Robert took a small side-root as well to establish horseradish in his home garden! Back at my own living quarters I pulverized my harvested root and prepared it as recommended at www.horseradish.org. It's GOOD!! I'm hoping for increased future harvests!!
JS: All three of us (we?) guests pigged out, and we had tears running down our faces and sinuses were stinging. It was so good we couldn't stop ourselves.
(For years I have been decrying what has happened to all sorts of things we ingest. Nearly everything--soups, dressings, sauces, chips, you-name-it--have sugar or other sweeteners added. Mustard and horseradish are all neutered--and sweetened!!--so much so that I have stopped buying them entirely. It's unfortunate that whole generations are growing up not knowing what these things taste like, one more step in the descent of civilization. Check out that website, but beware that it is industry-sponsored. Therefore you have to sort out facts from their promotional material. Death to the neuterers!)
From the www.horseradish.org site:
1500 B.C. to First Century -- Early training among Egyptians around time of the Exodus. Appointed one of the "five bitter herbs" Jews were told to eat at Passover (still part of this religious observance). Served internship with Early Greeks as a lower back rub and aphrodisiac.
1300 - 1600 A.D. -- Accepted lateral transfer out of Central Europe to cover territory in Scandinavia and England. Increased therapeutic responsibilities as a cough expectorant and treatment for food poisoning, scurvy, tuberculosis and colic.
1601 to 1700 -- Using a unique blend of medicinal and culinary skills, developed new market in England and Germany with the creation of "horseradish ale" (mixture of horseradish, wormwood and tansy) to revive the weary travelers. European chefs in research and development uncover synergistic bond between horseradish and meat or seafood. Moved operations overseas with early American settlers who introduced horseradish cultivation in the new colonies.
1840 to Present -- Continued to climb up condiment ladder with commercial cultivation launched by German immigrants in the Midwest, spawning a horseradish industry which today produces approximately six million gallons of prepared horseradish annually. (I am presenting this verbatim from website. If I were to edit it [tempting], I would say "Continued to climb up the condiment ladder until recent decades...produces approximately six million gallons of prepared slop annually.)
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Disaster Goes Global
10. The eruption in 1600 of a seemingly quiet volcano in Peru changed global climate and triggered famine as far away as Russia
...Through a chance meeting on an airplane, (the researcher) Verosub found that the Peruvian volcano Huaynaputina may have triggered substantial social upheaval as well. While he chatted with a seatmate about his research on the effects of volcanic eruptions, a fellow seated in the row behind--Chester Dunning, a historian specializing in Russian history--overheard the conversation and introduced himself.
Verosub asked "Soi, did anything interesting happen in Russia in 1601?" "Oh, yeah. That was a terribly cold time in Russia." That cold spell was just the beginning of the nation's woes, Dunning continued...another agricultural failure the following year led to widespread starvation in both 1602 and 1603.
This lengthy famine--Russia's worst, says Dunning--claimed the lives of an estimated 2 million people, or about one-third of the population, and more than 100,000 died in Moscow alone. Government inability to alleviate both the calamity and the subsequent unrest eventually led to the ovlerthrow of Czar Boris Godunov, a defining event in Russian history.
Excerpt from Science News 30 Aug 08
Recently I printed an LTE to The Economist from a writer who raised the possibility of volcanoes and solar output canceling in the short term the effects of human-generated warming activities.
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11. From Nature in the City website:
In a recent political mailer, a candidate for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Eric Mar, has actually invoked his support for San Francisco's natural environment! To our knowledge, this is the first we have ever heard of a candidate or a sitting supervisor talking about nature in the city unprompted. A truly green supe?
Here's the quote from the mailer: "As a two-term member of the Board of Education, I have also supported programs that allow our students to learn about our natural areas, our city's native plant and animal populations, and concepts such as biodiversity and ecosystems."
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12.
REMINDER.... all cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sale calls..... YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS. To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone: 888-382-1222
It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of your time. It blocks your number for five (5) years. You must call from the cell phone number you want to have blocked. You cannot call from a different phone number.
It takes about 20 seconds. or go to www.donotcall.gov
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13. The Superorganism: The Beauty, Elegance, and Strangeness of Insect Societies, by Bert Holldoebler and E.O. Wilson
The superorganism is a social colony of individuals who, through a sophisticated division of labor, a highly effective communications network and a process of self-organization, form a tightly connected community that functions as a single organism. Fewer than two dozen superorganism species are known to exist: social insects--the colonial bees, wasps, ants and termites--and humans. Fascinating in their own right, superorganisms also offer a window through which we can witness the progression of life from simple to complex forms. (The authors' purpose is) "to present the rich and diverse natural history facts that illustrate superorganismic traits in insect societies."
Excerpt from review in Scientific American, November 2008
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14. Feedback
Bruce Grosjean (accompanied by pictures):
Jake - Your readers may be interested in John McPhee's "The Control of Nature" which outlines three separate cases of human hubris, my favorite being the chapter, Atchafalaya, where he states, "It was at Old River that New Orleans would be lost, Baton Rouge would be lost. At old river we would lose the American Ruhr. The Army's name for its operation there was Old River Control." While in the area last year I spent over a day prowling the area with book in hand. Compelling author, compelling story, especially after Katrina graphically demonstrated just how vulnerable that region really is.
Chris Darling:
Dear Jake, Regarding the homeless, the most salient statistic is that the Federal Government has slashed the budget for public housing by over 75% since 1981, when Reagan became President. Clinton took part in this gutting of needed public housing, but obviously since Republicans have been President 20 of the 28 years since then, they did the most.
Yes, there have always been people who are unable/unwilling to live by the rules of working and living inside a domicile. I am not willing to judge them for what they do. They are human beings and deserve compassion no matter how they ended up without a roof over their heads.
But, without doubt, the huge increase in homelessness is because the Republicans have worked as hard as possible at taking money away from the budget for public housing. If you were to go back 30 years, the number and percentage of homeless people was much less because we, as a society, were willing to pay to help house them.
We are unlike most of the rest of the industrial countries in how little we are willing to pay to help those who are less fortunate. Overwhelmingly, we do not pay for decent schools in poor neighborhoods, we do not pay for health care, we do not pay for housing, and we even make it hard for people to get enough to eat. 30 years ago, food stamps were much easier to get with fewer strings attached. Did some people mooch off those of us working by getting food stamps who did not need them? Absolutely, but the level of hunger was much lower. I am willing to pay some extra for that mooching because it is an inevitable result of more generous help that keeps people from being really hungry, from dying without health care and so on. If government becomes stingy with social services, there is less fraud, waste, and services going to people who are not really in need. But the converse, people in need who cannot get help, is also an inevitable outcome of that stinginess.
Thanks for the feedback, Chris. Yours is intelligent and well-reasoned, and is a reminder of contributions to the problem. Much of the opinion I receive is of the variety that they "must be treated humanely", or words to that effect. That is the response of an affluent society, but lacks grounding. I am skeptical of the wisdom of trying to take care of everybody when many are not willing to take care of themselves. Perhaps I am too harsh?
A couple of people took me to task for my opinion on this subject.
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15. National Happiness Index bucks financial woes: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95650430
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16. LTE, Science News
...Science and technology have bettered the lives of millions, and the future remains bright as long as human imagination thrives. A troubling trend, though, is that no new farmland is being created, and neither is air or open space.
The question is not whether science can continue to pull off miracles. And it's not whether human population will continue to grow. The real question is at what point will science not deliver enough to stop humans from crowding themselves and every living thing off our planet?
If we don't seek an equilibrium, Mother Nature will enforce one. If we don't stop the population from growing, not even science will be able to save us. Why isn't this a component of our foreign policy?
Barry Demchak, La Jolla, California
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"There is always an applied side to thinking deeply. In any society there are many complicated issues that unfortunately get simplified to the point where short-sightedness wins...Science teaches us to think more broadly than that. If we really had wise leaders, they would take the long-term perspective seriously precisely because we are so prone to ignore it. They should listen to scientists and philosophers much more than economists who tend to be interested in what happens in the next annual quartile."
Animal ecologist Hanna Kokko of University of Helsinki in 9 September Current Biology
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17.
On Halloween, the crescent Moon will sneak up on Venus for a close encounter of startling beauty. The gathering is best seen just after sunset when the twilight is pumpkin-orange and Halloween doorbells are chiming in earnest. Venus hovers just above the southwestern horizon, the brightest light in the sky, while the exquisitely slender Moon approaches just a few degrees below.
Here are the details: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/28oct_halloweensky.htm?list198169
Good luck with the weather.
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HALLOWEEN
Jack tricked the Devil to go up an apple tree, then placed a cross on the trunk so he couldn’t get down. But sinful Jack was barred from going to heaven, and the Devil barred him from going to hell, so he had nowhere to go. He asked how he would see where to go, as he had no light, and the Devil mockingly tossed him an ember that would never burn out from the flames of hell. Jack carved out one of his turnips (which was his favorite food), put the ember inside it, and began endlessly wandering the Earth for a resting place. He became known as "Jack of the Lantern", or Jack-o'-Lantern.
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Most successful PR campaign ever: By the 1930s, Halloween was getting rough—more than just tipping over outhouses. FDR asked people to be nice on Halloween because people were going through such hardships and didn’t need more. Kids were encouraged to ask for candy instead of doing tricks.
Perhaps it was the most successful PR campaign ever, but I don't recall being aware of FDR's request; it certainly had zero effect in my town. Tipping over outhouses (indoor toilets were a rarity in small towns and rural areas in the '30s) was the standard Halloween trick in my youth. (One time two boys pushing over a toilet fell into the pit.) There wasn't a lot of treating, because people were mostly too poor to have goodies to pass out.
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The Haunted Presidio
Friday, October 31 - 6:00-7:30 PM - Free
Take a walk on the wild side with spine-tingling tales of the Presidio’s history. Dress warmly, wear comfortable shoes and bring a flashlight (optional).
Meet Rangers Penn and Colindres at the corner of Lincoln Blvd. and Funston Ave for a moderate 1-mile walk. Reservations required. Call the Presidio Visitor Center at 415-561-4323.
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18. Notes & Queries, Guardian Weekly
Why are holidays so short?
Back in the 1960s all talk of the future was of the coming Age of Leisure, with production of goods and other repetitive tasks carried out efficiently using modern technology, thereby reducing working hours and leaving us with loads of free time to relax, pursue pastimes and develop artistic and cultural activities.
So what happened? An unholy alliance of insatiable consumer greed for unnecessary goods together with a rampant market economy has trapped us on the treadmill and forced us to work ever longer hours. So much for the Age of Leisure!
If we reverted to a 1960s standard of living, using current technology and equitably distributed, we could all have much longer holidays...and be a lot happier too.
Felix Ansell, Bradford, UK
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