1. e.e. cummings greets the spring
2. Fran Pavley needs your help to stay in Legislature
3. What does the Jepson Manual mean for California Floristics? April 5
4. Bay Nature on keeping state parks open, et al
5. Golden Gate Park Preservation Alliance needs your $ to keep it a park
6. Outdoor cats popular prey for coyotes
7. Feedback: photoshopping
8. Learn to build homes for Pacific Chorus Frogs April 15
9. Birding for everyone tour in botanical garden April 7
10. Report on HANC Nursery and Greg Gaar
11. Revive the Tuolumne River - sponsor Paddle to the Sea
12. LBL into Synthetic Biology?
13. Chiquita has tried hard to be good, and got not credit for it
14. Attractive women should not include photo with job application
15. Eagle does the breast stroke
16. Beyond Searsville Dam - the latest
17. LTEs: Churchill wit/Thoreau on iPhone/Dalai Lama emulates Hitler?
18. Mary Oliver at 60 says Halleluiah
1.
"when faces called flowers float out of the ground and breathing is wishing and wishing is having...it's april....it's spring...."
e.e. cummings
wholly to be a fool
while Spring is in the world my blood approves
and kisses are a better fate
than wisdom
ee cummings
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2.
(I am shy about endorsing candidates for elective office. A very few are so clearly worthy that I make exception to my rule. I know a lot about Fran Pavley and her record, and this item makes clear why it is important to keep her in office. JS)
10 years ago this July Senator Fran Pavley joined Governor Gray Davis to sign the clean car bill AB 1493 into law in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. And now, Pres. Obama has taken California's clean car standards and made them the law of the land - the biggest oil savings yet, and it started right here. Fran was also a lead author of AB 32, California's law to address global warming.
Fran is now in the fight of her life with a new district that is a far cry from the environmentally-friendly Santa Monica and Malibu voters that she's used to. We need to re-elect her not only because she's the hero that she is, but because she could be the 27th D in the State Senate, giving them 2/3 vote to balance the budget. Please contrbute what you can to this environmental leader.
Contributions Information: Please be sure to provide the following personal information which is requred by law:
Your name, address, City/State Zip, Employer, Occupation, your phone, and email address.
Make checks payable to "Fran Pavley for State Senate 2012" and Mail To: Fran Pavley for State Senate 2012, 1531 Purdue Avenue,
Los Angeles, CA 90025.
(Contributions are not tax decudtible as charitable contributions for income tax purposes. Individuals or other entitities may congtribute up
to $3900 for the primary election and $3900 for the general election, at this time.
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3.
California Native Plant Society meeting - free and open to the public
What Does the New Jepson Manual Mean for California Floristics?
Speaker: Bruce Baldwin, PhD
Thursday 5 April, 7.30 pm
SF County Fair Bldg
9th Avenue & Lincoln Way in Golden Gate Park
Great advances have been made in the understanding of plant evolution and the relationships among plant groups since publication of The Jepson Manual (1993). This necessitated a complete revision of the book, which is now complete. Not merely have species been moved into different--or entirely new--genera, but similar radical shifts have been done at the level of families or orders. This may upset some; others will find the new alignments exciting and stimulating. Bruce Baldwin will review some of the more conspicuous changes affecting our plants and provide some perspective on why these changes are important steps forward for California botany. He also will talk about new initiatives of the Jepson Flora Project and how they will affect the California botanical community.
(JS: It is possible that Bruce may join me for dinner before the talk. If you are interested in joining us if it happens, let me know.)
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4.
The always content-full newsletter of the East Bay Regional Parks Botanic Garden, April edition:
http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=01091d83e4aa193c78a888704&id=d8ea90923c&e=dc1584429c
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The April-June issue of the also content-rich Bay Nature, contains two articles that made my pulse quicken:
1) A status report on some of our state parks threatened with closure, and supporters' creative responses.
2) An article on a current conceit of some of our pampered generation, "wild foraging".
If you're not a subscriber to this important and absorbing journal become one, ASAP.
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5. SHARP meeting briefly highlighted at http://www.sharpsf.com/highlights/03-26-12. Kathy Howard writes:
Hi Jake,
Thank you for the mention.
The credit for this decision goes to your readers for weighing in and to the SFPUC for being open-minded. The SFPUC recognized the value of Golden Gate Park as parkland. Now, we all need to persuade Rec and Park that 7 acres of artificial turf and 150,000 watts of sports light next to Ocean Beach are also a disaster for the Park. The Final Environmental Impact Report for the Beach Chalet Soccer Complex will be issued in early May and then the project will go to the Planning and Rec and Park Commissions for approval. We are continuing to do outreach and are working with attorneys to explore our options.
All of this takes funding -- please contribute! Once this project is built, the western end of Golden Gate Park will be lost forever. See our website for how to donate to protect Golden Gate Park.
http://home.earthlink.net/~sfoceanedge/id51.html
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6. Studies Show Outdoor Cats Are Popular Prey for Coyotes
m1coyote_usfws.jpg
American Bird Conservancy advises that as coyotes continue to move into and around large cities such as New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington, D.C., Detroit, Los Angeles, and others, owners of cats should think twice before letting their pet roam free outdoors. Studies show that outdoor cats make up 13-45 percent of coyote diets in those environments.
Read the full story here
www.abcbirds.org/newsandreports/releases/120329.html
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7. Feedback
Dan Daniel:
> The photographer of the dog and Heron shot has posted the series of uncropped frames on SFGate. First frame and you can select bottom right to see other frames-
>
> http://www.sfgate.com/readerphotos/photo/?plckPhotoID=976b3437-bf66-44e1-b0c7-0b050ebda37c&plckGalleryID=926e4f0c-8f8e-47ca-bf37-9411ffbd9a31
Fred Decker:
> RE: Photoshopped?
>
> I very much admire the {"nice" doggie-vs-shocked heron} pic. As a photographer and Photoshop whizzzer, I think the understandable suspicion is due to the quite painterly beauty of the shot.
>
> Largely, the heightened, lively glow of the subjects is due to serendipity: perfect lighting and timing. Animal fur-feathers-eyes glisten and shine back at certain angles in direct light, especially when active, i.e. not closed down against the skin. This effect is extremely difficult to reproduce with the best studio lighting and grooming. No doubt a studio photgrapher would due well to try this same angle for a strong, direct lightsource.
>
> Serendipity resulting in such a grand effect is rare... But it becomes more frequent now that we can shoot so much, so quickly, so automatically-managed.
>
> The bigger job these days seems to be noticing the beautiful amongst the shots. Kudos to both the photographer and Dominic.
>
> Thank you much,
> J.Fred Decker
Bruce Grosjean:
> Hi Jake and thank you for posting the picture of the dog chasing a Great Blue Heron at Crissy Field – and kudos to the photographer! After many years working as a pre-press lithographer I can see no reason to believe this picture was manipulated, but I can see many reasons for off-leash supporters to claim it was. As I’ve said elsewhere, it certainly would be helpful if more people in the birding community would participate in the next GGNRA dog management comment opportunity when the revised environmental impact statement is released later this summer. You can be assured that the owner of that bird-chasing dog (and others with the same destructive habits) will be heard, loud and clear.
>
> M. Bruce Grosjean
> San Francisco
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8. You are cordially invited to join us! Build two back-yard habitats for the Pacific Chorus Frog during the Golden Gate Naturefest.
Join Dylan Hayes with EarthArc (a longtime frog pond steward) and Amber Hasselbring with the Mission Greenbelt Project for a frog pond building workshop. Learn about the Pacific Chorus Frog's life cycle, relict San Francisco populations, and a special project, led by Jim McKissock, to conserve and restore habitats for these resident San Francisco frogs. Build the pond together and, upon completion, add tiny froglets from tadpoles gathered from Visitacion Valley Middle School, thanks to Charlotte Hill with Kids in Parks.
Both Workshops Sunday, April 15th:
10:00 am - 12:00 pm | Meet at 278 30th St. (Noe Valley home of Anastasia, Eric, Zane, and Blaze)
$45 for adults, kids are free!
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm | Meet at 858 Page St. (Lower Haight home of Sam, Heather, Hendricks, and Kingston)
$30 for adults, kids are free!
To register and view more of the events, click here --> http://treefrogtreks.com/programs/goldengatenaturefest.htm
Learn more about the frog, click here --> Pacific Chorus Frog
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9.
San Francisco NatureEducation leads Birding for Everyone! tours in Golden Gate Park - free and open to the public
APRIL 7, Saturday, 10-Noon
SF Botanical Garden, Golden Gate Park
Leader: Nancy DeStefanis
Take a leisurely naturalist-led walk through the micro-habitats of the San Francisco Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park and observe a variety of local and migratory birds!
Meet near the bookstore inside themain gate of the SF Botanical Garden, Golden Gate Park (MLK Drive near 9th Ave. at Lincoln)
Children Free, Adults $10, no one turned away for lack of funds!
Contact Anastasia Marin at anastasiamarin@sfnature.org or 415-387-9160 for more information. www.sfnature.org
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10. Report on HANC Nursery in Greg Gaar's absence
Someone from Garden for the Environment is watching over the San Francisco native plant nursery while Greg recuperates from heart surgery. I checked in on Monday and found a very smart young man, Jaime Tjahaja (pronounced cha - HI - ya) doing a very professional job. He sensibly was arranging plants according to their sun/shade and water/dry needs, which will help buyers decide. I encouraged him in this innovation.
The nursery looks good; Greg had it in good shape in preparation for his absence. Now is an excellent time to buy, as the plants are all decked out in spring greenery. There are pink currants, bush monkey flower, San Francisco gum plant, California sagebrush, blue-eyed grass, Douglas iris, checkerbloom, buckwheat, and lots, lots more.
And it's inspiring to see all the community gardening thriving.
Greg is due to leave the hospital tomorrow. He is in fine fettle.
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11. Peter Drekmeier: It's time again for Paddle to the Sea -- the Tuolumne River Trust's epic journey from the Sierra to the sea. Please consider sponsoring me at:
http://www.paddletothesea.org/paddle/participantpage.asp?uid=3405&fundid=1955
Right now we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to revive the Tuolumne River. We can bring back the salmon, improve water quality and enhance recreational opportunities, but we need your help. Please learn more by visiting my site.
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12. Carol Teltschick-Fall:
Hi Jake,
I know you follow this so thought I'd let you know about a forum I attended on March 29 at the David Brower center in Berkeley:
http://www.synbiowatch.org, "Unmasking the Bay Area Biolab and Synthetic Biology"
LBL is building a new lab in the East Bay. All the local cities were competing for it -- Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville, Richmond -- and Richmond was chosen. In their presentations to the city LBL never said exactly what they'd be doing, but that it would be something 100% green. Now it looks their 100% green means Synthetic Biology, sometimes described as Extreme GM. SynBio Watch sponsored the forum to raise awareness about environmental and health risks.
KPFA taped the whole thing but I don't see a link on the Synbio Watch site or KPFA but you can probably track it down. The speakers were good, and came from all over.
As you probably know, Craig Venter was in SF the week before, presenting from the other side (i.e. no worries, no need to regulate, synbio is here to help). I believe Synbio Watch said they invited KQED/Michael Krasney to get involved but they declined. Monsanto is one of KQED's funders.
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13. Business ethics - Going bananas
Chiquita has tried hard to be good—and got no credit for it
Mar 31st 2012 | from The Economist
Ethical fruit
SOMETIMES you bend over backwards to please, but still get nowhere. That is what appears to have happened to Chiquita Brands, an American firm which is one of the world’s biggest suppliers of bananas and other fruit. Despite accommodating eco-warriors, social activists and unions, it has found little reward.
After a campaign by a green group called ForestEthics, Chiquita agreed in November to avoid fuel from Canadian tar sands. Extracting this oil is a dirty process. Environmentalists have worked furiously to block a pipeline, called Keystone XL, which would carry it from Canada to America. Chiquita told ForestEthics that it does not use such fuel in its ships and agreed to avoid its use in lorries.
This may have pleased environmentalists, but it infuriated Canadians who depend on the oil industry. A pro-business lobby called EthicalOil.org is urging a boycott of Chiquita’s products that is said to be costing the company a fortune. Chiquita would not quantify its losses.
Chiquita traces its origins to the late 1890s and the United Fruit Company, which treated some of the Central American countries it operated in as banana republics. In recent years, however, the firm has made huge efforts to promote social responsibility and sustainability, working with activist groups such as the Rainforest Alliance. “We can do good and do well at the same time,” Fernando Aguirre, the firm’s chief executive, wrote in the company’s latest social responsibility report, issued in 2008.
Chiquita has signed and largely upheld a global agreement with local and international food unions. It has embraced sustainable farming techniques and allows products to be certified for environmental and other standards. Last year it promised to promote more women and to ensure there is no sexual harassment on the plantations it owns and buys from. But that has not provided protection from big retailers buying bananas direct from plantations and bypassing Chiquita and its main rivals, Dole and Fresh Del Monte Produce.
Many firms in conflict zones face extortion. In 2003 Chiquita became the only American company voluntarily to admit to the Department of Justice that it had paid protection money to Colombian paramilitary forces surrounding its plantations. Now it is facing a raft of American and Colombian lawsuits.
Chiquita’s conspicuous lack of reward is beginning to worry some veteran campaigners. Neither Dole nor Del Monte has been interested in following Chiquita in signing a global union agreement, says Ron Oswald, head of IUF, the international foodworkers’ union.“It’s not sustainable for any company in a competitive sector to make progress and gain no recognition for it,” he grumbles.
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14. Excerpted from The Economist
Physical attractiveness and careers
Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful
Attractive women should not include a photo with a job application
AT WORK, as in life, attractive women get a lot of the breaks. Studies have shown that they are more likely to be promoted than their plain-Jane colleagues. Because people tend to project positive traits onto them, such as sensitivity and poise, they may also be at an advantage in job interviews. The only downside to hotness is having to fend off ghastly male colleagues; or so many people think. But research by two Israelis suggests otherwise.
...For men, the results were as expected. Hunks were more likely to be called for an interview if they included a photo. Ugly men were better off not including one. However, for women this was reversed. Attractive females were less likely to be offered an interview if they included a mugshot.
...Human resources departments tend to be staffed mostly by women. Indeed, in the Israeli study, 93% of those tasked with selecting whom to invite for an interview were female. The researchers’ unavoidable—and unpalatable—conclusion is that old-fashioned jealousy led the women to discriminate against pretty candidates.
So should attractive women simply attach photos that make them look dowdy? No. Better, says Mr Ruffle, to discourage the practice of including a photo altogether. Companies might even consider the anonymous model used in the Belgian public sector, where CVs do not even include the candidate’s name.
You’re hired
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15. Two from Michael Alexander:
A joyous little film, worked on by a friend.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dhdAgLPMUQ&feature=youtu.be
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Jake,
Eagle does the breast stroke
The audio is just 'oh my gosh,' but the video is something else. Have you or any of your readers seen this behavior?
Photographed in Baton Rouge LA, at Mallard Lakes (apparently a subdivision). The floating carcass is a nutria*, a large rodent.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/87xNpOYOlQ4?rel=0
* (And a very troublesome invasive species JS)
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16. Beyond Searsville Dam
Thanks to author Steven Hawley and folks at Drake Magazine for flying out to our watershed to research and write Friday's article about Searsville Dam.
A few excerpts:
"Stanford University owns the dam, which was built in 1892. It buries the confluence of five redwood- and fir-shaded salmon creeks that now run salmonless out of the Santa Cruz Mountains."
"Yet Stanford still operates the dam without releasing water downstream when it’s needed most. This translates to a chronically dewatered creek for a critically endangered fish."
“For over a decade, Stanford’s course of action at Searsville has been inaction,”
"It’s strange to hear the co-director of a biological preserve at one of the world’s foremost research institutions weigh the future of listed endangered species against a possible listing for a dam on the national register of historic places."
"In spite of the long impasse, it’s still too soon to write the epitaph for San Francisquito steelhead. The Beyond Searsville Dam coalition is a growing tapestry of business owners, Stanford alums, fly fishers, and river-centric non-profits that see an opportunity to create a blue-ribbon urban watershed restoration project of national import."
Read the full article HERE.
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17. Excerpted from LTEs, The Economist
...One such great activist, “Battling Bessie” Braddock, made sure Britain got safer eggs by the use of the red lion safety stamp. While a member of Parliament she encountered Winston Churchill in the House of Commons. In a famous exchange she told him that he was “disgustingly drunk”, to which Churchill replied, “And you, Bessie, are disgustingly ugly. But tomorrow I shall be sober.”
All fingers and thumbs
SIR – I liked Schumpeter’s column about our increasing addiction to smartphones. Henry David Thoreau got it right 150 years ago: “Men have become the tools of their tools.” (Sent from my iPhone.)
Peter Stevens
Frankfurt
From The Economist online:
TWENTY-two years after Mike Godwin, an American attorney and internet pioneer, made himself famous by postulating a law of the proto-internet, Chinese propagandists have provided yet another data point suggesting he was right.
Godwin’s Law states: “As an online discussion continues, the probability of a reference or comparison to Hitler or to Nazis approaches one.”
And sure enough, on March 24th the government-run China Tibet Online went there. A lengthy and vitriolic commentary (in Chinese) attacked the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, by comparing him to Hitler and his policies to those of the Nazis.
...If the latest official commentary shows anything, it is that China has little grounds for complaining about a lack of nuance. It may also offer proof of the equally famous corollary to Godwin’s Law, which has to do with parties to a debate who make disingenuous comparisons to Hitler: the first one to do it loses, and the debate immediately ends.
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18.
"The commonest ivory tower is that of the average man, the state of passivity towards experience." W.H. Auden
Halleluiah
Everyone should be born into this world happy
and loving everything.
But in truth it rarely works that way.
For myself, I have spent my life clamoring toward it.
Halleluiah, anyway I'm not where I started!
And have you too been trudging like that, sometimes
almost forgetting how wondrous the world is
and how miraculously kind some people can be?
And have you too decided that probably nothing important
is ever easy?
Not, say, for the first sixty years.
Halleluiah, I'm sixty now, and even a little more,
and some days I feel I have wings.
~ Mary Oliver ~
(Evidence) |