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A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
If the rich could hire someone else to die for them, the poor would make a wonderful living. -Jewish proverb
1. San Bruno Mtn/Montara Mtn work parties tomorrow
2. Coastside Land Trust Gallery open tomorrow and during pumpkin festival/Raptorama Nov 8-10
3. Native Hedgerows for Wildlife Oct 23 in Orinda
4. Cynical developer of Dolores & Market tries to coopt endagered butterflies
5. Gulf of Farallones Whale Watch fundraiser still on for Oct 27
6. Five pounds thawed squid not a loss to Jim Harrison
7. Shutdown extends comment period on GGNRA dog mgt proposal
8. What Does Your Hometown Look Like with Sea Level Rise?/Energy Secretary and fracking
9. Love Like Salt by Lisel Mueller
10. Good time to see Venus Belt/Voyager 1 leaves solar system
11. Feedback: Deficit spending record, Dems vs GOP
12. Wendell Berry reminds himself how to be a poet
13. Boston shoemakers formed the first American labor union on this day, 1648
14. Notes & Queries: When does a government become a regime?
1. San Bruno Mountain and Montara Mountain work parties tomorrow, the 19th
San Bruno Mountain Watch
Grassland Weed Removal - Buckeye Canyon
Saturday October 19th, 10 AM - 12:30 PM
Hello San Bruno Mountain volunteers! Join our efforts to reduce invasive species in butterfly habitat
We will meet at 10:00 AM at the Mountain Watch Office @ 44 Visitacion Avenue, Suite 206, Brisbane
Questions?
Office: 415-467-6631
Email: LFernandez@mountainwatch.org
Directions (Google Maps)
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San Pedro Valley County Park work party
Saturday 19 October, 9 am to noon
Leader: Jake Sigg
We will be cutting shrubs invading the small remaining grasslands left on Montara Mountain's Hazelnut Trail. Tools and gloves provided.
Meet at SPVP Visitor Center
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2. Coastside Land Trust
"Squashville" by Eric Greenhut - Coastside Land Trust Gallery Fall Festival Show
The giant gourds of the Annual World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-off are now proudly being displayed on Main Street in Half Moon Bay. Come see the winner, a 1,985 pound pumpkin from Napa, and join Coastside Land Trust this weekend for the Half Moon Bay Art & Pumpkin Festival. Our gallery, located at 788 Main Street, will be open during the event as we showcase 39 fall inspired artworks by 24 local artists in our annual Fall Festival Show. A wide variety of high quality matted works, and notecards, are also available now through the end of the show which closes on October 25.
We will also be selling our famous pumpkin cookies and pumpkin seeds at our booth in the Bank of America parking lot at 620 Main Street. We hope you will visit the Coastside Land Trust booth to meet our wonderful volunteers and support our work by trying our delicious pumpkin spice cookies and roasted pumpkin seeds.
• • •
Raptorama is only a few short weeks away, over the weekend of November 8-10. Sign up now at Raptorama.org and reserve your spot on one or more of many different workshops and walks. Learn from local experts as they lead small groups focused on coastal birds and birds of prey. Workshops are indoors and will include topics such as raptors, beginning birding, birding photography, and children's birding. Walks are outdoors and will explore bird habitats such as Wavecrest, Pillar Point Harbor & Marsh, and Half Moon Bay State Beach.
For full details and to purchase tickets, please visit Raptorama.org
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3.
Native Hedgerows for Wildlife
Speaker: Pete Veilleux
Wednesday, October 23, 7:30 pm
Location: Garden Room, Orinda Public Library (24 Orinda Way, Orinda)
Sponsored by the East Bay Chapter of the California Native Plant Society
Hedgerow: a row of bushes, shrubs, or trees forming a hedge. We often use hedges to create a sense of privacy in our gardens. But instead of one type of plant for a solid green wall, we can mix native species--and their flowers and berries--creating interest for us and habitat for our fellow creatures. Find out which types of native plants work best for hedgerows.
Pete Veilleux, owner of East Bay Wilds Native Plant Nursery in Oakland, is a master designer and nurseryman, an avid photographer and plant explorer, and a horticultural innovator. Pete builds gardens using native plants for long-lasting, self-sustaining landscapes. One of his goals is to help people make the connection between their yards and the greater wild world while getting the maximum use and pleasure from their patch of earth.
East Bay CNPS membership meetings are free of charge and open to everyone. For more information, visit http://ebcnps.org/meetings/.
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4. Liam O'Brien:
This building is going up at Dolores and Market. Gentlemen, take a gander at their "roof that saves Endangered Butterflies." Gotta love an architectural firm that exploits folks ignorance of wildlife...
I left a scathing comment, but I think a bigger story is here....
(JS: Here is how the building’s website describes said butterfly habitat):
A spectrum of blue, a fade of orange, and a patchwork of red, the Mission Blue, San Bruno Elfin, and Bay Checkerspot butterflies are protected and nurtured at their habitat. The habitat is a living representation of the sustainable lifecycle at the core of 38 Dolores’ philosophy.
I think their core philosophy is money. JS
http://grist.org/list/for-as-little-as-2950-a-month-you-could-live-in-a-building-with-its-own-butterfly-preserve/?utm_source=syndication&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed
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5.
FMSA wrote:
Hi Jake
Not sure where you got the information (about this being canceled because of govt shutdown, JS), but the Gulf of the Farallones Sanctuary Exploration and Whale Watch Cruise scheduled for October 27, 2013 is being hosted by the Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association and it is definitely a go. Would you be able to make a correction in your next newsletter?
JS: Not sure where I got it, either, but I didn't make it up. Glad to correct.
Gulf of the Farallones Sanctuary
Exploration and Whale Watch Fundraiser!
We only have a few spots left, so if you would like to join us, please register today!
Join us on this private whale watch and exploration provided exclusively to friends of Farallones Marine Sanctuary Association on October 17th!
We will be meeting at 7.30 am and returning at 3 pm - and we have the SF Whale Tours Kitty Kat boat to ourselves to enjoy the sights, sounds and wildlife of the Gulf of the Farallones! Watch wildlife, mingle with other ocean lovers and enjoy refreshments as our experienced Naturalist provides a world of information about the Sanctuary's history, resources, sea life, programs and the conservation challenges it faces today. Be a part of the solution and help us protect this special place!
$275/person, registration required:
You can register online, by phone (415.902.8115), or print and return the registration form to us by email or mail.
If you register online, please select "general contribution" and fill in $275 when you enter in your credit card information, and write "whale watch" in the comment box! Please register today - space is limited! For more information, contact Chris Kelley at 415.902.8115 or email ckelley@farallones.org.
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6.
The Bear
by Jim Harrison
When my propane ran out
when I was gone and the food
thawed in the freezer I grieved
over the five pounds of melted squid,
but then a big gaunt bear arrived
and feasted on the garbage, a few tentacles
left in the grass, purplish white worms.
O bear, now that you've tasted the ocean
I hope your dreamlife contains the whales
I've seen, that one in the Humboldt current
basking on the surface who seemed to watch
the seabirds wheeling around her head.
From Saving Daylight. © Copper Canyon Press, 2006
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7. GGNRA Dog Management comment period postponed because of shutdown
During the 16-day shutdown the NPS planning and public comment website (PEPC) was unavailable. Given that, and because of stakeholder requests for additional review time, we have extended the public comment period another 38 days, until January 11, 2014.
An email update about extended comment periods for all affected GGNRA projects, including dog management, will be out by the middle of next week. A postcard will also go out to the dog management mailing list; it should be in mailboxes by the end of next week.
We'd appreciate your help in getting the word out in the meantime.
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8. Scientific American
PLUGGED IN: Drown Your Town: What Does Your Hometown Look Like with Sea Level Rise?
http://links.email.scientificamerican.com/ctt?kn=7&ms=NDM3NTkzOTQS1&r=NTM5NzIzNTA1NgS2&b=2&j=MjA4MzIwNDQzS0&mt=1&rt=0
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MAGAZINE: New Energy Secretary Faces Uphill Battle in Fracking Push
Opposition complicates the White House plan to move toward clean energy
http://links.email.scientificamerican.com/ctt?kn=37&ms=NDM3NTkzOTQS1&r=NTM5NzIzNTA1NgS2&b=2&j=MjA4MzIwNDQzS0&mt=1&rt=0
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9.
Love Like Salt
It lies in our hands in crystals
too intricate to decipher
It goes into the skillet
without being given a second thought
It spills on the floor so fine
we step all over it
We carry a pinch behind each eyeball
It breaks out on our foreheads
We store it inside our bodies
in secret wineskins
At supper, we pass it around the table
talking of holidays and the sea.
~ Lisel Mueller ~
(Alive Together: New and Selected Poems)
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10.
JS: Take advantage of this stretch of warm and clear weather to notice the Venus Belt in the east after sunset (or before sunrise in the west). The pink is produced by the longest wavelengths of sunlight, just before the Sun disappears below Earth's surface. Earth's shadow produces the blue of the Belt. Last night I saw this identical picture, save for the foreground, which from my house was Mt Sutro and Twin Peaks. The Full Moon is tonight, but in the soft light of sunset it appeared full.
Click on the below link to see this image enlarged.
COSMIC CREATIONS GALLERY
The Belt of Venus embracing the Full Moon
Brian Clark captured this image from Portland Headlight, Maine. View now.
NASA/JPL
Voyager probe has entered interstellar space
A coronal mass ejection from the Sun helped scientists determine that the Voyager 1 spacecraft, launched 36 years ago, has finally left the solar system. Read more.
Astronomy October 2013
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11. Feedback
Denise Louie (re debt ceiling factoids in Oct 14 newsletter):
Thanks, Mike, for summing up the effects of Democratic and Republican effects on our economy.
I recall people not caring about the national debt or deficit spending during prior administrations. Decades ago, I thought to myself this was no way to run the country--except for President Clinton's shrinking the national debt and creating budget surplus. I've been reading works by Richard Reich, only to find we are worse off than I thought, starting with the lowering of taxes on the wealthy during the George W. Bush years. Reich points out the concentration of wealth and power is tearing away at the very fabric of our society, as the middle class falls behind and the poor have even less of a chance to climb up. The results should be obvious, and we should be outraged. In Beyond Outrage: What Has Gone Wrong with Our Economy and Our Democracy, and How to Fix It, Reich says we have to practice active citizenship "by getting the facts, understanding the arguments, then making enough of a ruckus--and organizing and mobilizing others to join [us]--so that what needs to be done gets done." Based on President Obama's speech today, Americans should all be calling their Senators and Representatives to move forward with a budget, immigration reform and a farm bill that all meet the needs of Americans. And that's just for starters.
Also, if you get a chance, read Obama's Dec. 6, 2011 speech in Osawatomie, Kansas (where Teddy Roosevelt gave his "new Nationalism" speech in 1910). Reich says this speech "will be remembered as the most important economic speech of his or any modern presidency in terms of connecting the dots, laying out the reasons behind our economic and political crises, and asserting a willingness to take on the powerful and privileged who have gamed the system to their advantage."
(Robert Reich is a political economist who served in 3 presidential administrations incl. Sec. of Labor under President Clinton and is currently Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. You may have seen him interviewed by Bill Moyers, may read his column in the Insight section of the Sunday SF Chronicle or may see his new film Inequality for All.)
Mike Wood:
THE JOHN BIRCHERS’ TEA PARTY
The more things change, the more they remain the same...
I recall going to the San Diego County fair as a kid and that every summer my dad would get in an uncharacteristic shouting match with the good folks staffing the John Birch Society booth. I never understood what he was so excited about. After these past two weeks (and longer), I get it...
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2013/10/the-john-birchers-tea-party.html?intcid=obnetwork
Bob Hall:
One of your readers commented about the troubles with republicans. Here's more…(see below)
Bob, Thank you for this record, which is telling. However, I take issue with the use of the word conservative, when what is clearly meant is rightwing. There is nothing conservative about these rightwing nuts. Conservatism is a respectable position and temperament, and has served us well for centuries--no, for millennia, ever since the beginning of human society. Farmers, for example, are of necessity conservative, as they never know when the next rain will come--rain that means everything to them.
Conservationists are conservative--get it, GOP?--as they want to preserve our natural heritage, along with our civil and political heritage. Rightwingers are mostly out for money. They thump the Bible, but maybe they should read it--eg, about Esau selling to Jacob his inheritance for a mess of pottage.
I often struggle with allowing rightwingers to co-op the term "conservative" too. It seems way too noble for this group of extremists so I end up using a pejorative like "wingnuts" or "knuckledraggers". That usually doesn't go over to well. We definitely need a better term so we can take back the term conservative and restore its proper dignified meaning.
No worries, Bob; it will happen naturally, eventually.
I am annoyed at the media that they allow the wingnuts to define themselves instead of being defined. Edmund Burke, Winston Churchill, Russell Kirk, Wm F Buckley, and other famous conservatives wouldn’t recognize these jerks. History goes on, and it looks like the tea partiers are not likely to come out of this latest caper undamaged. Newt Gingrich & Co were discredited in 1996; the same thing, only worse, is likely to happen this time.
And Newt is still getting hired to give his opinions! There are rewards for bad behavior.
Remember not too long ago when "liberal" was turned into a pejorative? I think the word has been redeemed and is no longer an insult.
Ever been to Texas? If you go, make sure it’s not open season on liberals.
Conservatism is bad for middle-class income
10 poorest states with the lowest median household income
State Income
Montana $40,627
Tennessee $40,315
Kentucky $39,372
Louisiana $39,337
Alabama $38,783
Oklahoma $38,770
Arkansas $36,599
West Virginia $35,059
Mississippi $34,473
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
http://finance.yahoo.com/...
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Conservatism is bad for your health:
States with worst health-care systems:
39 Texas
40 Arkansas
41 Kentucky
42 West Virginia
43 Georgia
44 Tennessee
45 Nevada
46 South Carolina
47 Louisiana
48 Alabama
49 Oklahoma
50 Mississippi
http://www.forbes.com/...
Republicans don't care about improving the lives of average Americans.
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Conservatism is bad for your marriages.
States with the highest divorce rates:
1. Nevada
2. Arkansas
3. Wyoming
4. Idaho
5. West Virgina
6. Kentucky
7. Oklahoma
8. Alaska
9. Florida
10. Maine
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
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Conservatism is bad for teenage pregnancy rates:
States ranked by rates of live births among women age 15-19 (births per thousand):
1. Mississippi (71)
2. Texas (69)
3. Arizona (67)
4. Arkansas (66)
5. New Mexico (66)
6. Georgia (63)
7. Louisiana (62)
8. Nevada (61)
9. Alabama (61)
10. Oklahoma (60
http://womensissues.about.com/...
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Conservatism is bad for education
States with the fewest college graduates:
1. Arkansas
2. West Virginia
3. Nevada
4. New Mexico
5. Oklahoma
6. Alaska
7. Arizona
8. Texas
9. Tennessee
10. Mississippi
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
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Conservative presidents are bad for balancing the budget:
"Dwight Eisenhower was last Republican President to preside over a balanced budget. He had a balanced budget in 1956 and 1957.
Since then, there have been two presidents to preside over balanced budgets, LBJ in 1969 and Clinton in 1998 through 2001.
During the last 40 years there have been five budget surpluses, all five were under Democratic Presidents: 1969, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001.
http://wiki.answers.com/...
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Conservatism is bad for news information:
TV outlet with the most ignorant viewers.
"Study: Fox News Viewers “Most Misinformed” Of All News Consumers
"Researchers at the University of Maryland have released a study of news viewers entitled, “Misinformation and the 2010 Election” (.pdf) and found news viewers often get the wrong idea on major stories, and–according to the study–Fox News viewers are the “most misinformed” of them all."
http://www.mediaite.com/...
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12.
Let your life be the poem you write. -- Bokonon
How To Be a Poet
(to remind myself)
Make a place to sit down.
Sit down. Be quiet.
You must depend upon
affection, reading, knowledge,
skill — more of each
than you have — inspiration,
work, growing older, patience,
for patience joins time
to eternity. Any readers
who like your work,
doubt their judgment.
Breathe with unconditional breath
the unconditioned air.
Shun electric wire.
Communicate slowly. Live
a three-dimensioned life;
stay away from screens.
Stay away from anything
that obscures the place it is in.
There are no unsacred places;
There are only sacred places
And desecrated places.
~ Wendell Berry ~
(Given New Poems)
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13. Writer's Almanac
On this date in 1648, Boston shoemakers formed the first American labor union. The colonies had so far failed to successfully import the English tradition of "gilds," wherein craftsmen would band together to establish prices and standards of quality, supervise apprenticeships, and establish a common fund to provide for members who were in hardship due to age, disaster, injury, or illness. The shoemakers succeeded in forming an association of sorts, but it was limited to suppressing shoddy workmanship; the Massachusetts General Court eliminated provisions for education and charity, and also forbade "The Company of Shoomakers," as it was called, from acting contrary to public interest by fixing prices. Any disputes had to be settled by the county courts, and not the association itself. The barrel-makers, known as "coopers," were also granted a similar charter on that date.
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14. Notes & Queries, Guardian Weekly
Don't attack all at once, people!
When a hero is confronted by 10 opponents in a movie, why do they all only attack one or two at a time?
For the same reason that when a bad guy in the movies is about to kill someone, he always talks long enough for someone to sneak up behind and get the drop on him.
James Carroll, Geneva, Switzerland
• Etiquette. If they all attacked at once, the hero would quickly become a martyr and ruin the movie.
David Isaacs, Sydney, Australia
• If all the opponents attacked the hero at the same time they would run into each other, knocking each other out, leaving the hero with nothing to do.
Bernie Koenig, London, Ontario, Canada
• Because they have no more intelligence than the screenwriter.
Alan Williams-Key, Madrid, Spain
• Union rules.
Peter Vaughan, St Senoch, France
Governments and regiments
When does a government become a regime?
When it cannot be replaced by peaceful means.
Philip Stigger, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
• Here in Australia, as in most if not all so-called democracies, the transition generally begins the day after the election. The key marker is the increasingly strident use of the word "mandate"' to justify what the government always intended to do anyway.
Noel Bird, Boreen Point, Queensland, Australia
• Ah, but more pertinently: when does a regiment become a government?
Adrian Cooper, Queens Park, NSW, Australia
• As soon as it possibly can.
Donna Samoyloff, Toronto, Canada
• The government of another country becomes a regime when enough people in our country disapprove of it.
Bernard Burgess, Tenterden, UK
• When it imposes food or petrol rationing.
Raymond Hill, Gals, Switzerland
• Around the moment when the people's fear of the government exceeds the government's fear of the people.
Ian Stokes, Richmond, Vermont, US
Any answers?
Cat people and dog people appear to be fundamentally different breeds. How and why?
Terence Rowell, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada
Why are fiddles fit?
Clive Wilkinson, Rothbury, UK
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