1. UCSF backing down on community commitment
2. Three positions open on the SF Animal Control & Welfare Commission
3. SF Library Branch Improvement Program - audit needed?
4. LTEs: GM crops v population/Wanted: very irritated voter/affect vs effect
5. Video of Caltrans' transplantation ofrare and endangered Franciscan manzanitafrom Doyle Drive
6. Endangered Species Big Year - best conservation idea of the year? Vote
7. Feedback: IOUSA video - goodbye to your Social Security check?
8. ACLU - is there a way to contact them?
9. Blue heron nesting reports
10. Encourage Congress to fund pollinator research - deadline March 24
11. April 8, find out about creepy-crawlies: praying mantises, honeybees, cockroaches, black widows, Jerusalem crickets, wasps, tarantulas, scorpions
12. Bah, humbug--the virtues of pessimism
13. Claremont Canyon field trip Saturday 27 March
14. For kids and adults: Hidden Life of the Desert
15. Vitamins: good website/Vitamin D is a flu fighter
1. UCSF has scheduled a community meeting regarding management of Mt Sutro open space:
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
6:30 p.m.
UCSF Millberry Union
500 Parnassus Avenue
6:30 p.m.
UCSF Millberry Union
500 Parnassus Avenue
The purpose of the UCSF meeting on Mt Sutro is to try to explain why the University it is reneging on its commitment to the community to implement theMt Sutro Open Space Reserve Management Plan it adopted in 2001, with heavy involvement by the community. People unfamiliar with management of natural resources often have the illusory view that management isn't necessary. The University, it now appears, is one of them.
Much work has been done on the mountain, but it has been done almost entirely by volunteers and with outside funding by the Rotary Club (for the Summit Garden). Aside from giving very little initial assist by its groundskeepers andfeeding pizza to the volunteers, it has done virtually nothing. The volunteer Sutro Stewards have logged over 20,000 hours over the last four years. Much of the work was heavy grunt work clearing blackberry and other dense brush and restoring trails in ungrateful terrain, not to mention heavy ongoing weed management. The University has plainly not held up its commitment to the 2001 management plan, and no amount of wordsmithing can put a good face on its abandonment of responsibilities to the community. As one who has donated hundred of hours of my time and knowledge, I feel abused and unappreciated.
In 2009 UC held two community meetings at which it presented its plan to manage two small sections of the eucalyptus plantation for specifically fire-hazard reduction, using funds it was to receive from FEMA. Present were representatives from the San Francisco Fire Dept and the California Dept of Forestry & Fire Protection who testified that the accumulation of fuel in the aging plantation represented a fire threat to the community. At Wednesday's meeting the University will explain why they have withdrawn the FEMA grant applications and, presumably, why fire is no longer considered a danger. Although there was opposition to the plan from a handful of activists, most attendees were very supportive, making UC's about-face puzzling.
The investments contributed by The Rotary Club of San Francisco and the Mt. Sutro Stewards volunteers stand to be lost again to the blackberry, broom and ivy without serious commitment and immediate funding for the necessary maintenance and proactive forestry management just to keep things the way they now are. I'm sure UC is not aware of the consequences of its decision; all the more reason why it should listen to people who do know.
If you have discovered this little paradise in the center of San Francisco and value what it offers as a habitat resource and an accessible Open Space area PLEASE PLAN TO ATTEND THE MEETING AND ASK THE UNIVERSITY TO BEGIN FUNDING THE PLAN THEY PROMISED THE COMMUNITY A DECADE AGO.
(I wrote an appreciation of the eucalyptus,The great Tasmanian blue gum and its management on Mt Sutro, as well as an explanation of the UC project's desirability in a past issue of this newsletter. In addition to comments on Plan management, I also raised the specter of landslides burying the new stem cell research buildings. Copy sent on request.)
Roy Blount, Jr:"When I mess up I have this terrible thing - I realize it."
Mark Shields: When a government official states that "This is not a change of policy" it means they've just changed their policy.
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2. As of April 30, 2010, three positions on the Animal Control and Welfare Commission will be open. One of these is for a veterinarian. The other two are for members of the public who have interest in and experience with animal matters. "Experience" is a fairly general concept. It is important to be able to represent all animals, including wildlife.
The application is the following: http://www.sfbos.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=19462. It asks if you have attended meetings of the commission beforehand, although one of the present commissioners was appointed by a supervisor without ever having done so. The next meeting is on April 11th at 5:30PM in Room 408. It is necessary to appear before the Rules Committee and speak to be approved, and it is also necessary to have the application in 10 days before the scheduled hearing. Because the supervisors are very busy, the hearing may be delayed until June or July, but it would be important to file the application so as not to miss the deadline whenever it occurs.
If questions, contact Commissioner Philip Gerrie, glassgerrie@gmail.com, or Commissioner Pam Hemphill, sgoofoo@yahoo.com.
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3. From Howard Wong:
In the latest San Francisco Tomorrow Newsletter, Page 3 has an interesting article about the Library Branch Improvement Program and its financial history. Per the article, an audit seems timely---now that budget deficits threaten cutbacks for library services. With library projects ballooning in costs, a penny saved is a penny earned---which can buy more books, maintain library hours and stem layoffs.
SFT Article: http://www.sanfranciscotomorrow.org/March10.pdf
In the past, the Civil Grand Jury, SF Weekly and private citizens have been unable to find detailed data on the Library's Branch Projects.
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4. LTEs:
The Economist
The expansion of food supply through GM crops will encourage faster population growth and exacerbate current and future water shortages. Enthusiasm is best reserved for processes that improve the availability of freshwater, such as reducing water pollution and improving efficiency in the use of water. Otherwise, humans will come to know their own version of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" - Food, food everywhere, but not a drop to drink.
Michael Kemp, East Lansing, Michigan
On another point, I have lived for all but 12 of my 58 years in the United States and somehow have never encountered any of the startling characters you manage to turn up to put front and centre in your articles about life here. Where do you find these people? Do you advertise for them in local newspapers? Wanted: Very irritated voter, preferably reactionary, uses colourful language. As for the BBCs coverage, youd think the whole of America was populated with Elvis impersonators from Las Vegas.
Maggie McGirr,Greenwich, Connecticut
Guardian Weekly
For years I have shot off LTEs to various publications, taking them to task for using the very different wordsaffectandeffectinterchangeably. I didn't expect to ever direct one to theGuardian Weekly, but there in Gary Younge's comment piece was "...suggests that a critical mass of certain groups can have an affect on outcomes." Yi!!
How sharper than a serpent's tooth! I expect you to be a guardian of the language.
Jake Sigg
San Francisco
USAGEAffectandeffectare both verbs and nouns, but onlyeffectis common as a noun, usually meaning 'a result, consequence, impression, etc.'::my fathers warnings had noeffecton my adventurousness.The nounaffectis restricted almost entirely to psychology (seeaffect2). As verbs, they are used differently.Affectmost commonly means 'produce an effect on, influence': |smoking during pregnancy canaffectthe baby's development.Affectalso means 'pretend to have or feel (something)' (seeaffect3): |she affected a concern for those who had lost their jobs.Effectmeans 'bring about': |the negotiatorseffectedan agreement despite many difficulties.
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5. Video of Caltrans' transplantation ofrare and endangered Franciscan manzanitafrom Doyle Drive - 7 minutes
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6. IUCN Puts Endangered Species Big Year in the Mix for Best Conservation Idea of the Year!
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed the Golden Gate National Parks Endangered Species Big Year as one of the best conservation ideas of the year!
Now you can vote online to put the Big Year at the top of the list. Click here to make the GGNP Endangered Species Big Year the number one international conservation project of 2010!
The United Nations has declared 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity, and the IUCN is working with the Wild Equity Institute and partners around the globe to raise awareness about the diversity of life around us.
Read more here.
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7. Feedback
Ian Wilson:
Enjoy those Social Security checks while they last!
Siobhan Ruck:
| I don't have a strong feeling about the Central Subway, but I think it's pretty chickenshit of someone to pass on their talking points with their name withheld. If they're not willing to be associated with their position, their "musings" shouldn't be given a platform. Siobhan Ruck(name NOT withheld) |
The party whose opinions were expressed sent it to me for my information, saying it was not for posting. I wanted the questions raised, even though speculative, so I asked the party if I could publish it Name Withheld. The party is closer to the subject than I am, and I thought the questions/speculations were worth raising. At any rate, the responsibility is mine.
John Maybury:
Email is all over the place due to all the different competing formats and service providers. Its a bafflement to me. I am a technodummy. I wish they would just get over their computer/engineering/technology pissing match and agree to one single standard for all such things, instead of putting us laymen through this ordeal---one computing platform, one email provider, etc. Well, I can dream, cant I?
When I consider that removing packaging of shipped items sometimes requires a hammer, tongs, and knife--when even opening a CD or sack of peanuts is a challenge--I'm less and less expectant that geeks who invent these things couldn't care less about us. You'd think their marketing depts would care, but apparently not.
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8. ACLU - American Civil Liberties Union
Although the American Civil Liberties Union enjoys a moderately high rating from charity-rating organizations, I have a personal rating system that demotes it. I was formerly a contributor, but that was in the 1960s. They somehow dropped my name, so I haven't donated for past 30-40 years. About three years ago I somehow got back on their mail list, along with a friend of mine who formerly received mail here. I take great precautions to not let organizations share my name.
But I can't get off the ACLU list; they ignore all my letters of protest. Its frequent solicitations are fat envelopes with alarmist messages written on the outside, and a message URGENT, OPEN IMMEDIATELY. Inside, besides a covering letter, there is a fat yellow envelope:
ACLU PERSONAL FREEDOM SURVEY
REGISTERED MATERIALS
TO BE OPENED BY ADDRESSEE ONLY
It informs me that I must fill out the enclosed questionnaire by a set date (usually a week away). The date keeps receding into the future with each mailing.
Twice I wrote to them explaining why I no longer wanted to receive the solicitations and to please remove me and my friend from its list. I explained it was a great waste of resources, not to mention postage. I refrained from saying the mailings were insults to intelligence. I also emailed them, to no effect. I visited its website, pressed the Contact button, and jumped through all the hoops--all of which took me a total of 30-45 minutes (I'm slow on the internet). In the end I was unsuccessful, as I was unable to direct the message to a (I guess) specific person or department. In frustration, I addressed it to Executive Director. (Failed) Anthony D. Romero (who is the ED). Failed.
How do you get in touch with these people? I recommend against donating to them because an inordinate hunk of it will probably be plowed back into fundraising appeals, rather than to the cause.
(I have had this message in my computer for the better part of a year, wondering whether to post or not. But I just received another mailing today, which means ACLU is probably starting yet another cycle of mailings to me and my friend, and it will go on for weeks, judging from past experience. If anyone knows how to get in touch with them, I would appreciate hearing, or, better, to forward them a copy of this newsletter item. Maybe bad publicity will get their attention.)
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9. Blue Heron nesting
Say, Jake--Forgot to mention a Great Blue Heron nest Im watching at the Palace of Fine Arts. Theyve been on the nest for at least two weeks, maybe three. From their movements, they are egg-sitting at this stage.
The nest is at the top right of what I call the Night Heron treethe sort of bushy tree on the left edge of the island. Some of its branches almost dip into the watergood sitting spots for ducks. You see the tree/island to your right when you are facing the Rotunda from Baker Street. A buddy of mine who walks Crissy Field every day says he hadnt seen the herons he used to see over there lately. Id say, they are too busy! Pretty exciting. Other than people passing by over there and a couple of friends like Koelling, I have NOT broadcast this. Cheers, Linda Sharp
Dominic Mosur (one of our very knowledgeable SF birders) made this posting to the "SF Birds" Yahoo Group:
"At Palace of Fine Arts Lagoon I watched a pair of GREAT BLUE HERONS copulating in a tree on the island (north side of lagoon), with the multitasking female also engaging in nest building and arrangement during breaks from the amorous activities."
According to other more recent posts to the SF Bird group, this year there are active GBHeron nests at Stowe lake, Lake Merced; and an egret is nesting in a former GBH nest in the Presidio. Wow! We've herons and egrets making babies all over the City. Plus we have our beloved PG&E peregrine falcons, who are now incubating four eggs at their nesting scape on the PG&E building.
And another posting:
We think we have eggs hatching. The collective wisdom of the folks at thePalace of Fine Arts today is that the female sat down on the nest
Valentine's Day weekend. Another person besides me had seen the eggs beingrolled around. Today both birds were at the nest and perching outside of it. Might have been feeding a hatchling. Later one sat back down and the otherwent to another tree to supervise. Also heard that one of the herons scaredthe beejeezus out of a bunch of crows who challenged his rights to pick abranch from "their" tree for the nest. Totally glorious! You should haveseen the smiles all around. Cheers, Linda
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10. From Xerces Society
The Senate is currently considering the level of funding to appropriate to pollinator research for the coming year. Please ask your Senators to sign on to an important letter being circulated by Senator Boxer (D-CA) asking the Senate Appropriations Committee to fully allocate $20 million in Fiscal Year 2011 for pollinator research projects.
The deadline for Senators to sign on is close of business (5pm EST) Wednesday March 24th. If Senators or their staff have any questions or would like to sign on, they can contact Senator Boxers office.
The deadline for Senators to sign on is close of business (5pm EST) Wednesday March 24th. If Senators or their staff have any questions or would like to sign on, they can contact Senator Boxers office.
Click here to find the phone number for your Senators office.
Background: Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Kristen Gillibrand (D-NY), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) are circulating a letter to the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chairmen and Ranking Member in support of $20 million for pollinator research at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in FY2011.
The funding, which was authorized in the 2008 Farm Bill, would go toward vital research to combat Colony Collapse Disorder in honey bees and further our scientific understanding of the fundamental services pollinators provide our agricultural economy. Please click here to read the letter for additional information.
The funding, which was authorized in the 2008 Farm Bill, would go toward vital research to combat Colony Collapse Disorder in honey bees and further our scientific understanding of the fundamental services pollinators provide our agricultural economy. Please click here to read the letter for additional information.
Senators especially need to hear from the agricultural community: farmers, bee keepers, crop advisors, organic certifiers, and others who work directly with farmers. So, please spread the word to your contacts in this community.
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11. From Patrick Schlemmer:
Fellow Naturalists,
I will be the speaker at our meeting on April 8. The topic is bugs! Ill answer the questions that Ive most commonly been asked in my 14 years as Keeper at the San Francisco Insect Zoo. Well talk about praying mantises, honeybees, cockroaches, walkingsticks, black widows, Jerusalem crickets, ladybugs, wasps, tarantulas, scorpions, ants, and others. If theres anything youve always wanted to know about creepy-crawlies, come on out!
Thursday, April 8
Ask the Bug Guy. Patrick Schlemmer is president of the San Francisco Naturalist Society, Beekeeper for the Coyote Point Museum, and long-time Keeper in charge of the San Francisco Insect Zoo. He will give a PowerPoint presentation and answer many of the questions that are commonly asked by visitors at the Insect Zoo.
Randall Museum, 199 Museum Way, San Francisco, 7:30-9 pm. For more information, contact Patrick at jkodiak@earthlink.net or (415) 225-3830. Free and open to everyone.
If you cant make it to our meeting on the eighth, I will be repeating the presentation at the Randall Museums Bug Day on Saturday, April 17.
Patrick Schlemmer
President, San Francisco Naturalist Society
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12.
Bah, humbug
The virtues of pessimism
Dec 17th 2009 | FromThe Economistprint edition
...Two recent books, one from the left, one from the right, lament the American tendency towards mindless optimism. Barbara Ehrenreichs Bright-Sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America has a smiley-face balloon on its cover. John Derbyshires We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism has the most miserable-looking mugshot of an author that Lexington has ever seen. Both writers confront the upbeat and beat them down.
A few years ago Ms Ehrenreich was diagnosed with breast cancer. She started to talk to other afflicted women. She discovered that a positive attitude was more or less compulsory. Most of her fellow sufferers thought it would help them recover. Some even said that cancer was a gift that helped one find lifes purpose. Ms Ehrenreich disagreed. On a breast-cancer bulletin board she posted a message entitled Angry. She complained about the debilitating effects of chemotherapy, recalcitrant insurance companies and, most daringly, sappy pink ribbons. In reply came a chorus of rebukes. One said: You need to run, not walk, to some counselling. This made Ms Ehrenreich even angrier. After sifting through heaps of conflicting evidence, she concluded that positive thinking is probably no help at all.More generally, Ms Ehrenreich sees an ideological force in American culturethat encourages us to deny reality. She offers many examples. At a confab for motivational speakers, she is told that anyone can achieve infinite power by resonating in tune with the universe. From a popular preacher in Houston, she discovers that God will give big houses and nice tables in restaurants to those who sincerely wish for them. After slogging through countless books and lectures, she learns that food doesnt make you fat unless you think it will, and that you can solve many of lifes problems by avoiding negative people. Ms Ehrenreich wonders what that might mean in practice. One can dump a carping husband, but what of whiny toddlers and sullen teens? And although its probably advisable to exclude from the workplace those who show signs of becoming mass-killers, other annoying people may have something useful to say. America would be in better shape if banks had listened to the killjoys who warned that house prices would not rise for ever.
The prattling pedlars of positivism deserve to be mocked. But Ms Ehrenreich goes further. She argues that the cult of positive thinking makes capitalism even more heartless. Big corporations use self-help mumbo-jumbo to convince employees that they bear responsibility for their own fate, absolving employers from having to care for them. Outplacement agencies teach the freshly downsized to smile and polish their interview skills. Ms Ehrenreich wishes workers would agitate for job security and more democratically organised workplaces. Good luck with that.
Mr Derbyshire, meanwhile, attacks the mindless optimism of the left. Hardly anyone in Barack Obamas cabinet has ever created a dime of wealth, he grumbles, yet Americans expect them to fix the economy. He is disgusted that presidents are revered as omnipotent pharaonic priest-kings. He quotes aNew York Timesreporter who says that given the opportunity, most people could do most anything. Nonsense, says Mr Derbyshire. Half of American children must, mathematically, be below average. Good schools can help them reach their potential, to be sure, but they cannot work miracles. The idea that you can tinker with the education system and suddenly, as George Bush put it, leave no child behind is drivel. Mr Derbyshire also thwacks Mr Bush for imagining he could impose democracy on the Middle East. Ms Ehrenreich concurs, noting that the 43rd president was once a cheerleader.
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13.
Claremont Conservancy field trip March 27 - Wildflowers and other Native Plants along the Side Hill Trail
Please join us for a Saturday Morning nature walk -- Wildflowers and other Native Plants along the Side Hill Trail with Lech Naumovich -- from 10 to 12, March 27.
WHAT WE WILL DO: We will hike a loop from Grizzly Peak, going down the Ridge (aka Stonewall-Panoramic) Trail, and returning on the Sidehill Trail. We will observe several different plant communities on this walk, with a wide variety of interesting taxa- including Berberis, Castilleja, Lupinus, Vicia, and many others. A walking stick might help as the trail is narrow in places, and moderately challenging. This is a wonderful hike for taking pictures up close and with expansive views of the bay in the distance.
WHERE TO MEET: At 10 a.m. along Grizzly Peak Blvd, 0.8 miles north of the intersection with Claremont Ave/Fish Ranch Road.Park near the road that leads to the radio towers. Seemap
OUR LEADER: Lech Naumovich is a botanist, conservation biologist and restoration ecologist. He works as a conservation analyst for California Native Plant Society.
WHAT TO WEAR: Sturdy shoes, layered clothing, hat and walking stick recommended.
RSVPs are not required but would be helpful atmartinholden@mac.com
WHAT TO WEAR: Sturdy shoes, layered clothing, hat and walking stick recommended.
RSVPs are not required but would be helpful atmartinholden@mac.com
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14. New book: Hidden Life of the Desert, by Thomas Wiewandt (synopsis)
The Sonoran Desert of the American Southwest is a wonderland of the strange and fascinating. At first glance the hot valley floors and rugged mountainsides may seem barren and inhospitable, but look closely and you may find howling mice and toads that pop out of the sand. With patience you'll see giant centipedes, bobcats, and miniature owls. You could even catch a glimpse of a Gila monster, the only poisonous lizard in the United States. InHidden Life of the Desert, author and nature photographer Thomas Wiewandt introduces young readers to many plants and animals that call the Sonoran Desert home. Following this unique ecosystem through its five seasonsspring, dry summer, wet summer, autumn, and winterHidden Life of the Desertuses stunning color photographs and clear, informative text to explore how life can thrive in a seemingly barren land.
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15. Vitamins - http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/vitamins.html
Vitamins are substances that your body needs to grow and develop normally. There are 13 vitamins your body needs. They are vitaminsA,C,D,E,Kand theB vitamins(thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, biotin, vitamin B-6, vitamin B-12 and folate). You can usually get all your vitamins from the foods you eat. Your body can also make vitamins D and K. People who eat avegetarian dietmay need to take a vitamin B12 supplement.
Each vitamin has specific jobs. If you have low levels of certain vitamins, you may develop a deficiency disease. For example, if you don't get enough vitamin D, you could develop rickets. Some vitamins may help prevent medical problems. Vitamin A prevents night blindness.
The best way to get enough vitamins is to eat a balanced diet with a variety of foods. In some cases, you may need to take a daily multivitamin for optimal health. However, high doses of some vitamins can make you sick.
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Vitamin D is a flu fighter
And new study hints at benefits for people with asthma.
By Janet Raloff in Science News
A little over three years ago, a San Francisco-area psychiatrist and several colleagues in other fields floated a provocative hypothesis: that a deficiency in vitamin D the sunshine vitamin might render people vulnerable to infections, including the flu. Now Japanese researchers offer tangible support for that idea. They show that vitamin D supplemented dramatically cut the incidence of seasonal flu among the children they followed.
Their double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was small. Only 334 children completed a three-month course of six pills per day a dropout rate of almost one-quarter. Then again, thats a lot of pills to make kids take each day to get just 1,200 international units of the vitamin. (Especially since the teeny capsule I down contains almost twice that much.)
But the supplementation certainly looked promising. Incidence of influenza A was 10.8 percent among the 167 kids who received vitamin D pills. That's in contrast to a flu rate of 18.6 percent among an equal number of children getting identical looking inert pills. Doctors monitoring the trial confirmed flu cases using a test to assay for the influenza-A germ.
The study has just been published online, ahead of print, in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Children with asthma may have benefited especially. Two asthma attacks occurred during the trial among kids getting the vitamin, compared to 12 in the unsupplemented group. Then again, the study doesnt note how many kids with a history of asthma had been randomized into each arm of the trial. So its therefore possible that a comparable number of susceptible kids had not been present in each group.
Incidence of another strain of infection influenza B did not vary by supplement group, according to team leader Mitsuyoshi Urashima of the Jikei University School of Medicine in Tokyo, and colleagues. Then again, these researchers argue that any benefits of the vitamin might have been dampened by the timing of its administration. The trial began in December 2008, after the flu season had begun, and the researchers acknowledge that it may take almost three months to reach a steady state of vitamin D concentrations by supplementation. Thus, December might be theoretically too late to start [a flu prevention regimen].
John Cannell, the doc who came up with the idea that vitamin D might trammel flu, reports in his Vitamin D Newsletter, which came out Sunday, that "I hear through the grapevine that the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] has discovered that, of the 329 American children who have died so far from H1N1, vitamin D levels in the dead children were lower than in children who survived the swine flu." He offers no additional details.
Vitamin D itself a misnomer since the active chemical is actually a hormone seems to play a pivotal role in total body health. It not only helps build bone and muscle but has been linked to lower risk of gum disease, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cancer and autoimmune disease.
And the kicker: Most people in the developed world are chronically deficient. Whats more, those who have heavily pigmented skin, are overweight or who live in high latitudes face an aggravated risk of deficiency.
Indeed, a second new study due to appear in the same journal this one by a U.S. team of scientists reports that among a random sample of more than 3,000 postmenopausal women, almost 60 percent were vitamin-D deficient.
