2011.09.29

1.   SF Dept of Environment job opportunities
2.   Public scoping period of GGNRA/Pt Reyes NS air tours extended to Oct 21
3.   Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival Oct 1
4.   Were the real issues discussed at Chinatown Mayoral Forum?
5.   West of Twin Peaks mayoral forum Oct 1
6.   Wangari Maathai dies
7.   Laura Cunningham: Forgotten Landscapes of California October 6
8.   Wallace Stegner reflects on wilderness
9.   Save The Frogs now in Ghana
10. Oyster operations at Pt Reyes NS on way out?
11.  Astronomy: Jupiter/new supernova/urban star count reminder
12.  100,000 Endangered Species Condoms distributed free of charge
13.  Prescient conversation between Norman Mailer and William F Buckley
14.  Feedback
15.  Spiders:  Out of the Shadows
16.  Half life...our eyes half open, our heart half closed
17.  Reflections on neon signs and noble gases

1.  San Francisco Dept of the Environment job opportunities

9922 Environmental Associate
Clean Transportation Associate
http://www.jobaps.com/sf/sup/BulPreview.asp?R1=pex&R2=9922&R3=058227

9922 Environmental Associate
Residential and Special Projects Zero Waste Associate
http://www.jobaps.com/sf/sup/BulPreview.asp?R1=pex&R2=9922&R3=058228

5642 Senior Environmental Specialist
Commercial Toxics Reduction Coordinator
http://www.jobaps.com/sf/sup/BulPreview.asp?R1=pex&R2=5642&R3=058229

########################

2.  HI Jake,
The link for the GGNRA air tours didn’t work for my browser.  Maybe this one will work better.  Kathy

http://www.parkplanning.nps.gov/commentForm.cfm?parkID=303&projectID=37743&documentID=42391

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Park Service (NPS) announced today the extension of the public scoping period to inform the development of Air Tour Management Plans (ATMPs) for Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) and for Point Reyes National Seashore (the Seashore).

Comments will now be accepted through October 21, 2011.

######################################
3.

More information: (510) 525-5476, (510) 221-7732, or Poetryflash.org.

########################
4.
Sorry - this is too late, but still worthwhile posting.  JS

MAYORAL FORUM by Chinese for Affirmative Action
Wednesday, September 28, 2011, 6:30pm
at Chinsese Culture Center, 750 Kearny (across from Portsmouth Square).
Mayoral Forum Flyer:
http://www.caasf.org/2011/08/save-the-date-2011-sf-mayoral-candidates-forum/#more-1679

With the Central Subway debate, I wonder if any of the real issues will be discussed?
CHINATOWN'S OVERALL BUS SERVICES REDUCED BY CENTRAL SUBWAY:
As described in the EIR and Reports to federal government, Chinatown, North Beach, Russian Hill, Waterfront and Marina will suffer decreased bus service.  Even If one walks through busy Chinatown to the Stockton/ Washington Subway Station, descending down deep escalators, the ride to the Union Square Station is only ½ mile---where one ascends another escalator and walks 1,000 feet to the Powell Street Station/ Market Street.  In other words, 1,000+ feet of walking for a 3,000 feet subway ride----explaining the MTA’s meager ridership projections.
DISAPPEARING CHINATOWNS
Chinatowns are disappearing all over the U.S.---because of proximity to growing financial/ commercial cores.  See:  http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0710/p03s03-ussc.html  .
Construction, digging up of streets and rerouting of buses will hurt Chinatown’s fragile businesses.
Large transportation projects inevitably bring rezoning and gentrification.  Chinatown is the historical and cultural incubator of Chinese inAmerica---requiring protection.
###########################

5.  The West of Twin Peaks Central Council mayoral forum will be held this coming Saturday.

Saturday, October 1, 2011, 9:30 AM - noon
St Stephen Parish Hall, 473 Eucalyptus

Moderators:
John Diaz - editorial page editor of the San Francisco Chronicle
Ken Garcia - columnist San Francisco Examiner
Debra Saunders - columnist San Francisco Chronicle

Candidates:  Jeff Adachi, Michela Alioto-Pier,  John Avalos,  David Chiu,  Bevan Dufty,  Tony Hall,  Dennis Herrera,  Ed Lee,  Joanna Rees,  Phil Ting,  Leland Yee

########################
6.
Wangari Maathai dies

Prof. Wangari Muta Maathai started the Green Belt Movement in 1977, working with women to improve their livelihoods by increasing their access to resources like firewood for cooking and clean water. She became a great advocate for better management of natural resources and for sustainability, equity, and justice.  A synopsis of her life and work can be read here:  http://greenbeltmovement.org/w.php?id=134

########################
7.
California Native Plant Society meeting - free and open to the public
A State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California
Speaker:  Author Laura Cunningham
Thursday 6 October 7.30 pm
San Francisco County Fair Building
9th Avenue & Lincoln Way in Golden Gate Park

Vernal pools, protected lagoons, grassy hills rich in bunchgrasses and, where the San Francisco Bay is today, ancient bison and mammoths roaming a vast grassland. Through the use of historical ecology, Laura Cunningham walks through these forgotten landscapes to uncover secrets about the past, explore what our future will hold, and experience the ever-changing landscape of California.

Combining the skill of an accomplished artist with passion for landscapes and training as a naturalist, Cunningham has spent more than two decades poring over historical accounts, paleontology findings, and archaeological data. Traveling with paintbox in hand, she tracked the remaining vestiges of semi-pristine landscape like a detective, seeking clues that revealed the California of past centuries. She traveled to other regions as well, to sketch grizzly bears, wolves, and other magnificent creatures that are gone from California landscapes. In her studio, Cunningham created paintings of vast landscapes and wildlife from the raw data she had collected, her own observations in the wild, and her knowledge of ecological laws and processes.

Through A State of Change, readers are given the pure pleasure of wandering through these wondrous and seemingly exotic scenes of Old California and understanding the possibilities for both change and conservation in our present-day landscape. A State of Change is as vital as it is visionary.

About the Author
Laura Cunningham, an artist and naturalist, studied paleontology and biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and has worked at various field biology jobs for the California Department of Fish and Game, the U.S. Geological Survey, and other organizations, getting to know such species as the Owens Valley pupfish, the southern California steelhead trout, the Yosemite toad, and the Panamint alligator lizard. Simultaneously, she has been studying and painting California’s historic and living wildlife, flora, and unique landscapes. She lives with her husband and pet iguanas on a ranch next to Death Valley National Park, where she cofounded the group Basin and Range Watch to explore the historical ecology of the desert ecosystems of California and Nevada, and to protect them.

 “Talk about high-class detective stories! What Raymond Chandler did for L.A., Laura Cunningham does for the forests, meadows, and riverbanks of the Golden State. This brings a lost world straight back to life—and one hopes it will help us work to restore it in the real world, not just the pages of a book.”
—Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

“Cunningham’s remarkable work reminds me of the multitalented naturalists of old. We are lucky to have her here today, giving us this tantalizing, informative, inspiring glimpse into something we all try to imagine: California before all of this.”
—Robin Grossinger, environmental scientist, San Francisco Estuary Institute

“Laura Cunningham’s imaginative tour de force provides a time machine where pre-settlement California can be savored in all her splendor and magnificence. A remarkable vision of the Golden State!”
—Graham Chisholm, Executive Director, Audubon California

(PLEASE NOTE:  I will be taking the speaker to dinner at 5.30 before the meeting.  If anyone wants to join us, contact me.  JS)

##############################

8.  Wallace Stegner, in his 1960 "Wilderness Letter":

"What I want to speak for is not so much the wilderness uses, valuable as those are, but the wilderness idea, which is a resource in itself.  Being an intangible and spiritual resource, it will seem mystical to the practical minded--but then anything that cannot be moved by a bulldozer is likely to seem mystical to them.

"Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed; if we permit the last virgin forests to be turned into comic books and plastic cigarette cases; if we drive the few remaining members of the wild species into zoos or to extinction; if we pollute the last clean air and dirty the last clean streams and push our paved roads through the last of the silence, so that never again will Americans be free in their country from the noise, the exhausts, the stinks of human and automotive waste. And so that never again can we have the chance to see ourselves single, separate, vertical and individual in the world, part of the environment of trees and rocks and soil, brother to the animals, part of the natural world and competent to belong in it. Without any remaining wilderness we are committed wholly, without chance for even momentary reflection and rest, to a headlong drive into our technological termite-life, the Brave New World of a completely man-controlled environment."

##################################
9.  NEW NGO ‘SAVE THE FROGS! GHANA’ FORMED TO PROTECT GHANA’S DISAPPEARING FROGS

Group is first international branch of USA-based SAVE THE FROGS!

Kumasi, Ghana - 23-September-2011. An international collaboration to save Ghana’s disappearing amphibian populations is now underway, and is expected to make great strides towards protecting Ghana’s remaining wilderness areas. SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana (www.savethefrogs.com/ghana) was officially formed last week as West Africa's first nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to amphibian conservation. The group is the first international branch of USA-based nonprofit SAVE THE FROGS!. Based in Kumasi, Ghana, the mission of SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana is to protect Ghana's amphibian populations and to promote a society that respects and appreciates nature and wildlife. The group is being led by Gilbert Adum and Caleb Ofori, Ghana’s only two amphibian biologists.

Amphibian populations worldwide have been declining at unprecedented rates, and nearly one-third of the world's amphibian species are threatened with extinction. Up to 200 species have completely disappeared in recent years. Ghana’s frogs and toads have been especially hard hit, as over 80% of Ghana’s primary rainforest has been cleared in the last century, mainly due to large-scale logging by multi-national companies and illegal clearing by villagers. Mining for gold, diamonds and bauxite has also contributed to the degradation of Ghana’s rainforests. The West African Giant Squeaker Frog, which lives in the Krokosua Forest Reserve is so endangered that only 12 individuals are known to exist.
“SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana is the best thing that has ever happened to conservation in Ghana”, says the group’s Executive Director Gilbert Adum. SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana has created an eight-point plan for protecting Ghana’s remaining amphibian populations. Some of the group’s primary goals are educating the public, the governmental bodies and the timber and mining companies about the importance of amphibians, and instituting crucial legislation such as an Endangered Species Act, which Ghana currently lacks. The group will also be working with local and international scientists and NGO’s to create Ghana’s sixth national park by turning the unprotected Atewa Forest Range Reserve into the Atewa Hills National Park. The reserve has exceptionally high amphibian biodiversity and is home to an array of other wildlife species, but is under constantly under threat from mountaintop removal bauxite mines and unsustainable logging. The reserve is also home to the critically endangered Togo Slippery Frog, which are commonly eaten by locals. The slippery frogs are close relatives to the Goliath Frog, the world’s largest frog. To reduce the demand for frog legs and illegal logging, SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana will be training villagers in beekeeping, mushroom farming and other activities that provide alternative income and food sources.
SAVE THE FROGS! Founder Dr. Kerry Kriger is in Ghana for the month of September assisting with the creation of SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana and giving presentations on frog conservation at schools, universities and government agencies, including the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology and the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana. “There are few countries in the world whose people and wildlife are so desperately in need of assistance as Ghana. Fortunately, we have an exceptionally talented young conservationists, Gilbert Adum, leading SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana”, says Dr. Kriger. “I’ve been amazed at the positive reception we’ve received from the Ghanaian people. They’re poised to help; the difference between success and failure in saving Ghana’s frogs will come down to how much support the outside world provides”.

All journalists are invited to attend a presentation by SAVE THE FROGS! Founder Dr. Kerry Kriger:
SEPTEMBER 29th, 2011, 12pm-1pm in the Auditorium of the KNUST Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources in Kumasi, Ghana. The presentation will be followed by the inaugural meeting of KNUST Chapter of SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana.


########################

10.  National Seashore’s Draft EIS for Oyster Operation Reveals Numerous Ongoing Adverse Impacts
The National Park Service’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (Draft EIS) assessing environmental impacts for permitting ten additional years of commercial oyster operations within Drakes Estero was released on September 23rd and makes clear that extending commercial mariculture operations within this national park wilderness area would be damaging to national park policies and goals and contradictory to wilderness protection laws.

www.eacmarin.org

########################

11.  Astronomy miscellany

Jupiter

You are unlikely to see Jupiter shining more brilliantly than right now, and for the next two or three months.  When nature removed her veil of fog, revealing late summer and early autumn stars and constellations, it didn't prepare me for the bright light of the giant planet, which startled me on first seeing.  I totally lost track of the sky in the summer and had to run for my Astronomy magazine to see what the bright light could be:

"...The planet shines at magnitude -2.7 among the background stars of Aries the Ram.  Yet even that constellation's brightest star, 2nd-magnitude Hamal, glows 100 times fainter than Jupiter.  The giant planet will reach opposition (ie, directly opposite the Earth from the Sun) in October, so viewing conditions through a telescope now are about as good as they get...The best views come in the early morning hours when the planet lies nearly overhead and its light passes through less of Earth's image-distorting atmosphere."

The article details the hide-and-seek of the Galilean moons that zip around the giant--at great speed to avoid getting sucked in by Jupiter's immense gravity.  In our brightly-lit skies I haven't been able to see the moons in my 7 x 50 binoculars, but even binoculars can reveal them if the conditions are right.  One problem is that the planet is so overwhelmingly bright that the little pinpricks of light are washed out if there is moisture or particulate matter in the air.

I was delighted walking up 10th Av between Judah and Kirkham to see Jupiter and its four Galilean moons depicted in varied-color chalk on the sidewalk.  Even Jupiter's colorful belts were there, including the broad equatorial belt and the Giant Red Spot.  It brightened my day to know that some people still notice these magic shows.
__________________

Astronomers celebrate as star goes boom in neighborhood
Supernova bursts into view in nearby Pinwheel Galaxy

Many people appreciate a good light show, but probably not as much as the astronomers who recently spied a rare cosmological treat.

On August 24 at 0-3:59 UT, telescopes at the Palomar Observatory in southern California captured a white dwarf star just 21 million light-years away - the next state over, astronomically - as it went supernova, exploding in a blaze of light.  Scientists involved in the Palomar Transient Factory sky survey raced to record the dwarf's early death throes.

"We think we found it probably 12 hours after it exploded.  The amazing thing for me is, that supernova exploded 21 million years ago.  It's taken light 21 million years to arrive.  And we just happened to open up the telescope on that Wednesday night, and in came the photons."

"Saying it's 'once in a generation' is very true.  In the last four decades astronomers know of only three supernovas that have gone off at this distance or closer.  It's like watching popcorn pop - you don't know which kernel will go next."

Science News
_____________________

Don't forget the Summer Triangle and the urban star count (Oct 29-Nov 12) that you can participate in, reported in Sept 20 Nature News.  Tuesday night the sky was bright and clear, the Triangle directly overhead and very beautiful.  I could even see the head of Cygnus the Swan; the head is in the very center of the Triangle (in a good telescope the head is two stars, one butter-yellow, the other sapphire blue, and exceedingly beautiful).

###########################

12.  100,000 Endangered Species Condoms En Route to 50 States

What's the best way to get people talking about the world population hitting 7 billion this fall? It's hard to beat the Center for Biological Diversity's Endangered Species Condoms. This week we started sending out 100,000 of our free, specially packaged contraceptives to 1,200 volunteer distributors across the country. The packages feature colorful images of endangered species and draw attention to the link between species extinction and unsustainable human population growth.

This round of condoms is part of the Center's new national campaign called 7 Billion and Counting, which highlights the 7 billionth human milestone expected on Oct. 31. In the coming weeks, the condoms will be distributed at events around the country hosted by college students, grandmothers, healthcare providers, religious leaders, musicians and activists.

Learn about some of the coolest (and wackiest) events in our press release, read this insightful interview with the Center's Overpopulation Coordinator Amy Harwood, and check out our 7 Billion and Counting campaign page, where you can learn how to host your own event.

########################
13.
1.   SF Dept of Environment job opportunities
2.   Public scoping period of GGNRA/Pt Reyes NS air tours extended to Oct 21
3.   Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival Oct 1
4.   Were the real issues discussed at Chinatown Mayoral Forum?
5.   West of Twin Peaks mayoral forum Oct 1
6.   Wangari Maathai dies
7.   Laura Cunningham: Forgotten Landscapes of California October 6
8.   Wallace Stegner reflects on wilderness
9.   Save The Frogs now in Ghana
10. Oyster operations at Pt Reyes NS on way out?
11.  Astronomy: Jupiter/new supernova/urban star count reminder
12.  100,000 Endangered Species Condoms distributed free of charge
13.  Prescient conversation between Norman Mailer and William F Buckley
14.  Feedback
15.  Spiders:  Out of the Shadows
16.  Half life...our eyes half open, our heart half closed
17.  Reflections on neon signs and noble gases

1.  San Francisco Dept of the Environment job opportunities

9922 Environmental Associate
Clean Transportation Associate
http://www.jobaps.com/sf/sup/BulPreview.asp?R1=pex&R2=9922&R3=058227

9922 Environmental Associate
Residential and Special Projects Zero Waste Associate
http://www.jobaps.com/sf/sup/BulPreview.asp?R1=pex&R2=9922&R3=058228

5642 Senior Environmental Specialist
Commercial Toxics Reduction Coordinator
http://www.jobaps.com/sf/sup/BulPreview.asp?R1=pex&R2=5642&R3=058229

########################

2.  HI Jake,
The link for the GGNRA air tours didn’t work for my browser.  Maybe this one will work better.  Kathy

http://www.parkplanning.nps.gov/commentForm.cfm?parkID=303&projectID=37743&documentID=42391

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and National Park Service (NPS) announced today the extension of the public scoping period to inform the development of Air Tour Management Plans (ATMPs) for Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) and for Point Reyes National Seashore (the Seashore).

Comments will now be accepted through October 21, 2011.

######################################
3.

More information: (510) 525-5476, (510) 221-7732, or Poetryflash.org.

########################
4.
Sorry - this is too late, but still worthwhile posting.  JS

MAYORAL FORUM by Chinese for Affirmative Action
Wednesday, September 28, 2011, 6:30pm
at Chinsese Culture Center, 750 Kearny (across from Portsmouth Square).
Mayoral Forum Flyer:
http://www.caasf.org/2011/08/save-the-date-2011-sf-mayoral-candidates-forum/#more-1679

With the Central Subway debate, I wonder if any of the real issues will be discussed?
CHINATOWN'S OVERALL BUS SERVICES REDUCED BY CENTRAL SUBWAY:
As described in the EIR and Reports to federal government, Chinatown, North Beach, Russian Hill, Waterfront and Marina will suffer decreased bus service.  Even If one walks through busy Chinatown to the Stockton/ Washington Subway Station, descending down deep escalators, the ride to the Union Square Station is only ½ mile---where one ascends another escalator and walks 1,000 feet to the Powell Street Station/ Market Street.  In other words, 1,000+ feet of walking for a 3,000 feet subway ride----explaining the MTA’s meager ridership projections.
DISAPPEARING CHINATOWNS
Chinatowns are disappearing all over the U.S.---because of proximity to growing financial/ commercial cores.  See:  http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0710/p03s03-ussc.html  .
Construction, digging up of streets and rerouting of buses will hurt Chinatown’s fragile businesses.
Large transportation projects inevitably bring rezoning and gentrification.  Chinatown is the historical and cultural incubator of Chinese inAmerica---requiring protection.
###########################

5.  The West of Twin Peaks Central Council mayoral forum will be held this coming Saturday.

Saturday, October 1, 2011, 9:30 AM - noon
St Stephen Parish Hall, 473 Eucalyptus

Moderators:
John Diaz - editorial page editor of the San Francisco Chronicle
Ken Garcia - columnist San Francisco Examiner
Debra Saunders - columnist San Francisco Chronicle

Candidates:  Jeff Adachi, Michela Alioto-Pier,  John Avalos,  David Chiu,  Bevan Dufty,  Tony Hall,  Dennis Herrera,  Ed Lee,  Joanna Rees,  Phil Ting,  Leland Yee

########################
6.
Wangari Maathai dies

Prof. Wangari Muta Maathai started the Green Belt Movement in 1977, working with women to improve their livelihoods by increasing their access to resources like firewood for cooking and clean water. She became a great advocate for better management of natural resources and for sustainability, equity, and justice.  A synopsis of her life and work can be read here:  http://greenbeltmovement.org/w.php?id=134

########################
7.
California Native Plant Society meeting - free and open to the public
A State of Change: Forgotten Landscapes of California
Speaker:  Author Laura Cunningham
Thursday 6 October 7.30 pm
San Francisco County Fair Building
9th Avenue & Lincoln Way in Golden Gate Park



Vernal pools, protected lagoons, grassy hills rich in bunchgrasses and, where the San Francisco Bay is today, ancient bison and mammoths roaming a vast grassland. Through the use of historical ecology, Laura Cunningham walks through these forgotten landscapes to uncover secrets about the past, explore what our future will hold, and experience the ever-changing landscape of California.

Combining the skill of an accomplished artist with passion for landscapes and training as a naturalist, Cunningham has spent more than two decades poring over historical accounts, paleontology findings, and archaeological data. Traveling with paintbox in hand, she tracked the remaining vestiges of semi-pristine landscape like a detective, seeking clues that revealed the California of past centuries. She traveled to other regions as well, to sketch grizzly bears, wolves, and other magnificent creatures that are gone from California landscapes. In her studio, Cunningham created paintings of vast landscapes and wildlife from the raw data she had collected, her own observations in the wild, and her knowledge of ecological laws and processes.

Through A State of Change, readers are given the pure pleasure of wandering through these wondrous and seemingly exotic scenes of Old California and understanding the possibilities for both change and conservation in our present-day landscape. A State of Change is as vital as it is visionary.

About the Author
Laura Cunningham, an artist and naturalist, studied paleontology and biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and has worked at various field biology jobs for the California Department of Fish and Game, the U.S. Geological Survey, and other organizations, getting to know such species as the Owens Valley pupfish, the southern California steelhead trout, the Yosemite toad, and the Panamint alligator lizard. Simultaneously, she has been studying and painting California’s historic and living wildlife, flora, and unique landscapes. She lives with her husband and pet iguanas on a ranch next to Death Valley National Park, where she cofounded the group Basin and Range Watch to explore the historical ecology of the desert ecosystems of California and Nevada, and to protect them.

 “Talk about high-class detective stories! What Raymond Chandler did for L.A., Laura Cunningham does for the forests, meadows, and riverbanks of the Golden State. This brings a lost world straight back to life—and one hopes it will help us work to restore it in the real world, not just the pages of a book.”
—Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

“Cunningham’s remarkable work reminds me of the multitalented naturalists of old. We are lucky to have her here today, giving us this tantalizing, informative, inspiring glimpse into something we all try to imagine: California before all of this.”
—Robin Grossinger, environmental scientist, San Francisco Estuary Institute

“Laura Cunningham’s imaginative tour de force provides a time machine where pre-settlement California can be savored in all her splendor and magnificence. A remarkable vision of the Golden State!”
—Graham Chisholm, Executive Director, Audubon California

(PLEASE NOTE:  I will be taking the speaker to dinner at 5.30 before the meeting.  If anyone wants to join us, contact me.  JS)

##############################

8.  Wallace Stegner, in his 1960 "Wilderness Letter":

"What I want to speak for is not so much the wilderness uses, valuable as those are, but the wilderness idea, which is a resource in itself.  Being an intangible and spiritual resource, it will seem mystical to the practical minded--but then anything that cannot be moved by a bulldozer is likely to seem mystical to them.

"Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed; if we permit the last virgin forests to be turned into comic books and plastic cigarette cases; if we drive the few remaining members of the wild species into zoos or to extinction; if we pollute the last clean air and dirty the last clean streams and push our paved roads through the last of the silence, so that never again will Americans be free in their country from the noise, the exhausts, the stinks of human and automotive waste. And so that never again can we have the chance to see ourselves single, separate, vertical and individual in the world, part of the environment of trees and rocks and soil, brother to the animals, part of the natural world and competent to belong in it. Without any remaining wilderness we are committed wholly, without chance for even momentary reflection and rest, to a headlong drive into our technological termite-life, the Brave New World of a completely man-controlled environment."

##################################
9.  NEW NGO ‘SAVE THE FROGS! GHANA’ FORMED TO PROTECT GHANA’S DISAPPEARING FROGS

Group is first international branch of USA-based SAVE THE FROGS!

Kumasi, Ghana - 23-September-2011. An international collaboration to save Ghana’s disappearing amphibian populations is now underway, and is expected to make great strides towards protecting Ghana’s remaining wilderness areas. SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana (www.savethefrogs.com/ghana) was officially formed last week as West Africa's first nonprofit organization dedicated exclusively to amphibian conservation. The group is the first international branch of USA-based nonprofit SAVE THE FROGS!. Based in Kumasi, Ghana, the mission of SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana is to protect Ghana's amphibian populations and to promote a society that respects and appreciates nature and wildlife. The group is being led by Gilbert Adum and Caleb Ofori, Ghana’s only two amphibian biologists.

Amphibian populations worldwide have been declining at unprecedented rates, and nearly one-third of the world's amphibian species are threatened with extinction. Up to 200 species have completely disappeared in recent years. Ghana’s frogs and toads have been especially hard hit, as over 80% of Ghana’s primary rainforest has been cleared in the last century, mainly due to large-scale logging by multi-national companies and illegal clearing by villagers. Mining for gold, diamonds and bauxite has also contributed to the degradation of Ghana’s rainforests. The West African Giant Squeaker Frog, which lives in the Krokosua Forest Reserve is so endangered that only 12 individuals are known to exist.
“SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana is the best thing that has ever happened to conservation in Ghana”, says the group’s Executive Director Gilbert Adum. SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana has created an eight-point plan for protecting Ghana’s remaining amphibian populations. Some of the group’s primary goals are educating the public, the governmental bodies and the timber and mining companies about the importance of amphibians, and instituting crucial legislation such as an Endangered Species Act, which Ghana currently lacks. The group will also be working with local and international scientists and NGO’s to create Ghana’s sixth national park by turning the unprotected Atewa Forest Range Reserve into the Atewa Hills National Park. The reserve has exceptionally high amphibian biodiversity and is home to an array of other wildlife species, but is under constantly under threat from mountaintop removal bauxite mines and unsustainable logging. The reserve is also home to the critically endangered Togo Slippery Frog, which are commonly eaten by locals. The slippery frogs are close relatives to the Goliath Frog, the world’s largest frog. To reduce the demand for frog legs and illegal logging, SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana will be training villagers in beekeeping, mushroom farming and other activities that provide alternative income and food sources.
SAVE THE FROGS! Founder Dr. Kerry Kriger is in Ghana for the month of September assisting with the creation of SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana and giving presentations on frog conservation at schools, universities and government agencies, including the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology and the Forestry Research Institute of Ghana. “There are few countries in the world whose people and wildlife are so desperately in need of assistance as Ghana. Fortunately, we have an exceptionally talented young conservationists, Gilbert Adum, leading SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana”, says Dr. Kriger. “I’ve been amazed at the positive reception we’ve received from the Ghanaian people. They’re poised to help; the difference between success and failure in saving Ghana’s frogs will come down to how much support the outside world provides”.

All journalists are invited to attend a presentation by SAVE THE FROGS! Founder Dr. Kerry Kriger:
SEPTEMBER 29th, 2011, 12pm-1pm in the Auditorium of the KNUST Faculty of Renewable Natural Resources in Kumasi, Ghana. The presentation will be followed by the inaugural meeting of KNUST Chapter of SAVE THE FROGS! Ghana.


########################

10.  National Seashore’s Draft EIS for Oyster Operation Reveals Numerous Ongoing Adverse Impacts
The National Park Service’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (Draft EIS) assessing environmental impacts for permitting ten additional years of commercial oyster operations within Drakes Estero was released on September 23rd and makes clear that extending commercial mariculture operations within this national park wilderness area would be damaging to national park policies and goals and contradictory to wilderness protection laws.

www.eacmarin.org

########################

11.  Astronomy miscellany

Jupiter

You are unlikely to see Jupiter shining more brilliantly than right now, and for the next two or three months.  When nature removed her veil of fog, revealing late summer and early autumn stars and constellations, it didn't prepare me for the bright light of the giant planet, which startled me on first seeing.  I totally lost track of the sky in the summer and had to run for my Astronomy magazine to see what the bright light could be:

"...The planet shines at magnitude -2.7 among the background stars of Aries the Ram.  Yet even that constellation's brightest star, 2nd-magnitude Hamal, glows 100 times fainter than Jupiter.  The giant planet will reach opposition (ie, directly opposite the Earth from the Sun) in October, so viewing conditions through a telescope now are about as good as they get...The best views come in the early morning hours when the planet lies nearly overhead and its light passes through less of Earth's image-distorting atmosphere."

The article details the hide-and-seek of the Galilean moons that zip around the giant--at great speed to avoid getting sucked in by Jupiter's immense gravity.  In our brightly-lit skies I haven't been able to see the moons in my 7 x 50 binoculars, but even binoculars can reveal them if the conditions are right.  One problem is that the planet is so overwhelmingly bright that the little pinpricks of light are washed out if there is moisture or particulate matter in the air.

I was delighted walking up 10th Av between Judah and Kirkham to see Jupiter and its four Galilean moons depicted in varied-color chalk on the sidewalk.  Even Jupiter's colorful belts were there, including the broad equatorial belt and the Giant Red Spot.  It brightened my day to know that some people still notice these magic shows.
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Astronomers celebrate as star goes boom in neighborhood
Supernova bursts into view in nearby Pinwheel Galaxy

Many people appreciate a good light show, but probably not as much as the astronomers who recently spied a rare cosmological treat.

On August 24 at 0-3:59 UT, telescopes at the Palomar Observatory in southern California captured a white dwarf star just 21 million light-years away - the next state over, astronomically - as it went supernova, exploding in a blaze of light.  Scientists involved in the Palomar Transient Factory sky survey raced to record the dwarf's early death throes.

"We think we found it probably 12 hours after it exploded.  The amazing thing for me is, that supernova exploded 21 million years ago.  It's taken light 21 million years to arrive.  And we just happened to open up the telescope on that Wednesday night, and in came the photons."

"Saying it's 'once in a generation' is very true.  In the last four decades astronomers know of only three supernovas that have gone off at this distance or closer.  It's like watching popcorn pop - you don't know which kernel will go next."

Science News
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Don't forget the Summer Triangle and the urban star count (Oct 29-Nov 12) that you can participate in, reported in Sept 20 Nature News.  Tuesday night the sky was bright and clear, the Triangle directly overhead and very beautiful.  I could even see the head of Cygnus the Swan; the head is in the very center of the Triangle (in a good telescope the head is two stars, one butter-yellow, the other sapphire blue, and exceedingly beautiful).

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12.  100,000 Endangered Species Condoms En Route to 50 States

What's the best way to get people talking about the world population hitting 7 billion this fall? It's hard to beat the Center for Biological Diversity's Endangered Species Condoms. This week we started sending out 100,000 of our free, specially packaged contraceptives to 1,200 volunteer distributors across the country. The packages feature colorful images of endangered species and draw attention to the link between species extinction and unsustainable human population growth.

This round of condoms is part of the Center's new national campaign called 7 Billion and Counting, which highlights the 7 billionth human milestone expected on Oct. 31. In the coming weeks, the condoms will be distributed at events around the country hosted by college students, grandmothers, healthcare providers, religious leaders, musicians and activists.

Learn about some of the coolest (and wackiest) events in our press release, read this insightful interview with the Center's Overpopulation Coordinator Amy Harwood, and check out our 7 Billion and Counting campaign page, where you can learn how to host your own event.

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13.


Excerpted item from The Economist website:
...Reflecting on this, I recalled something Norman Mailer once said in his famous 1962 debate with William F. Buckley. It bears mentioning that this was a time when you could have an intelligent debate between liberals and conservatives, rather than the screeching partisan punditry we have now (which only reinforces political paralysis). Mailer ominously warned of “the war we can expect if the cold war will end. It is the war that will take life and power from the centre and give it over to left and to right, it is the war that will teach us our meaning.” It was, he said, "the war between the conservative and the rebel, between authority and instinct.”


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14.  Feedback

Louise Lacey:
Jake - re #13
Yes, but of course when a writer typically takes two years to write a book, and Hart (and Google) is stealing the book so the writer gets no money, there is a small problem -- the writer stops writing. And "education rates soar," oh, yeah.

Archeology has shown that when the creators -- writers, artists, inventors, musicians and songwriters, etc -- are no longer paid the culture collapses. What do you know? Google's theft of books in our time is a good example. "Mickey Mouse copyright laws", right.
He called his enterprise Project Gutenberg. This was partly because Gutenberg with his printing press had put wagonloads of books within the reach of people who had never read before; and also because printing had torn down the wall between haves and have-nots, literate and illiterate, rich and poor, until whole power-structures toppled. Mr Hart, for all his burly, hippy affability, was a cyber-revolutionary, with a snappy list of the effects he expected e-books to have:

Books prices plummet.
Literacy rates soar.
Education rates soar.
Old structures crumble, as did the Church.
Scientific Revolution.
Industrial Revolution.
Humanitarian Revolution.
If all these upheavals were tardier than he hoped, it was because of the Mickey Mouse copyright laws. Every time men found a speedier way to spread information to each other, government made it illegal. During the lifetime of Project Gutenberg alone, the average time a book stayed in copyright in America rose from 30 to almost 100 years. Mr Hart tried to keep out of trouble, posting works that were safely in the public domain, but chafed at being unable to give away books that were new, and fought all copyright extensions like a tiger. “Unlimited distribution” was his mantra. Give everyone everything! Break the bars of ignorance down!

"...the culture collapses".  I often think that the culture has already collapsed, but it's like that delayed response of (Wiley Coyote?) in the old movie cartoons, where he has gone beyond the cliff edge but doesn't fall until he looks down and realizes his state--then he falls.

Doug Allshouse:
Oh I know impact when I see it, but it's ironic that this came up in Marilyn vos Savant's column in last Sunday's Parade. It had to do with a reader complaining about the media using impact as a verb in place of affect. To him/her impact meant a collision and Marilyn talked about how language changes or evolves through the years. So I could have said--Those conditions might impact our butterflies instead of Those conditions might affect our butterflies. I was trying to be cute. My dictionary has about 10 different meanings for impact and one supports the use of as a verb. I think that using impact rather than affect denotes stronger language
The dictionary notes--The verb IMPACT has developed the transitive sense "to have an impact or effect on" (The new program has impacted the schools favorably) and the intransitive sense to have an impact or effect (Our works here impacts on every department). These uses, though common, are often harshly criticized. 
You may have noticed the language wars in my newsletter.  I used to carry the battle on, frequently commenting on the latest outrage.  However, it appears the war is over and, as usual, I lost.

Although I don't use it myself, I recognize 'impact' as transitive verb is here to stay.  But I still bridle (even froth, sometimes) at others, eg:  incent, attrit, &c.  I heard another one two weeks ago at a gathering where someone used language as a transitive verb--twice in one sentence!  Fingernails on a blackboard!  He no longer has eyebrows; they got singed.
We invented telephones so we could talk to one another when we couldn't meet face-to-face, then cell phones so we could talk virtually all day, anywhere, and blue tooth so we could drive and talk. Then we discovered e-mail so we could communicate through print, and texting and twitter so we communicate senselessly without actually having to talk to each other because it's less personal. We now have no need to perceive the emotions of the person we are communicating with, and we use emoticons and abbreviations to make it easier. What will language sound like even 20 years from now?
 
There is an HBO series called Boardwalk Empire which takes place in Atlantic City circa the beginning of Prohibition. My how classy they dressed and the period music is so rich in melody and lyric. It reminds me of our CA landscape today as opposed to 200 years ago, of how the younger generations can't conceive what it used to look like because they have no idea of what was lost. Sad. Oh well, we've both grieved enough, haven't we?
No, we haven't. 
Dylan Thomas:  "Do not go gentle into that good night."
                 "Rage, rage against the dying of the light"

Keith McAllister:
Thanks for the two references from your readers.
 
Kaufman says his “source is authoritative.”  Well, it is not a scientific paper, not in a scientific journal, and is not written by a scientist.  You and I discussed it back in January.  (Full circle!)  So, again, the numbers in the table in that article are not amounts of carbon stored;  they are annual sequestration rates for land that has grown row crops and is then converted to other uses.  If you dig back to the source paper (Smith, et.al.) you will find nothing about how much carbon is stored in native grassland nor in forest.
 
The reference from Wi (Jackson, et.al.) is a scientific paper.  It is interesting, and I am glad to have it.  But it says nothing about forests.  When the paper uses the word “woodland,” it is referring to creosote, mesquite, and juniper in the American southwest.  Even so, in four out of the six sites studied the succession from grassland to woody plants increased the total amount of carbon sequestered.  On the other hand, the largest change of the six paired sites was a loss of carbon.   Interestingly, in five of the six sites the roots of the woody shrubs went 3 to 5 times deeper than the grasses.
 
The Anderson paper I sent you does not, as you claim, talk only of short term phenomena.  When it says that converting an acre of forest or an acre of grassland to row crops releases 367 and 80 metric tons of CO2, respectively, it is telling you the carbon stocks that have been built up over a long time in that forest and that grassland.  The resource is squandered in a short time, but the carbon stocks were accumulated over a long time.
 
So, as yet, I haven’t seen any scientific evidence that grasslands sequester more carbon than forests.  I am open to it, if it is offered.
 
You say, “Science is uncomfortable because it forces one to readjust constantly.”  True, Jake, but only if you read it.
Keith:  I will have to drop this at this inconclusive stage; I have no time to delve into extensive research.  I posted original item in hopes that some readers were able to provide the relevant information.  That didn't happen. 

I paste items in my newsletter, post exchanges, and try to reconcile the reconcilable if the time allows.  Clearly, time doesn't allow for this item, which could go on and on.  So I leave you with the last word.

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15.

SPIDERS: OUT OF THE SHADOWS

How many times recently have you walked into your garden and felt a strand of silk across your face? Or spotted a spider running across the family room floor as you watch the TV news? The end of summer is a time when spiders seem more abundant in many parts of North America, and can be a great time to observe these magnificent creatures spinning webs, catching prey, or even mating!


One reason for spiders appearing more obvious now is that they've been growing all summer, and the spiders that are around are just bigger and easier to spot. The spiders we see in webs are typically females, feeding to strengthen themselves for egg laying. Different species of spiders spin distinctly shaped webs, and you can tell by the design what type of spider lives in the web. Orb-weavers, such as the commonly encountered cross spider and the black and yellow garden spider, create a classic spiral like in Charlotte's Web (though without the writing). House spiders construct a sheet like web leading to a corner hideaway and many cobweb weavers make a tangle of threads over vegetation.


Not all spiders live in webs. Crab spiders are sit-and-wait predators, hiding in flowers for a bee, fly, or butterfly to alight. Many other spiders are free-roaming hunters, using their excellent eyesight to find and track prey. Wolf spiders have long legs for a speedy chase. Jumping spiders have short, powerful legs that can launch them great distances to capture other insects These spiders do not weave a web to trap insects, although they may use silk for other things. Wolf spiders, for instance, carry their eggs in a silk case and jumping spiders spin a safety line as they leap, in case the gap is too large and they fall.


This is also the time of year when male spiders go in search of a mate. These are often the ones that cross your carpet. Males look like they have a pair of boxing gloves in front of their face. These are the spider's sensory palps, which in males have bulbous ends; on females, the palps are the same thickness from base to tip.


Sadly, there is a great level of ignorance about spiders and they are generally reviled despite being highly beneficial creatures. A typical house and garden may support seventy or eighty species of spiders, who eat insects including garden pests. For information about the wonder of spiders, read the article "Tiny Predators in Your Backyard," by Greta Binford, from the spring 2008 issue of Wings.

We hope you enjoy watching the spiders around your home!

Visit these links to learn more about spiders:
    •    Spider Myths - Rod Crawford of the University of Washington debunks common spider myths. 
    •    Spider web gallery - A gallery of various spider web constructions from the University of Basel in Switzerland. 
    •    American Arachnological Society - Information on spiders and other arachnids.
    •    Video of a peacock jumping spider courtship - A spectacular video found on YouTube.  

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16.
Half Life
 
We walk through half our life
as if it were a fever dream
 
barely touching the ground
 
our eyes half open
our heart half closed.
 
Not half knowing who we are
we watch the ghost of us drift
from room to room
through friends and lovers
never quite as real as advertised.
 
Not saying half we mean
or meaning half we say
we dream ourselves
from birth to birth
seeking some true self.
 
Until the fever breaks
and the heart can not abide
a moment longer
as the rest of us awakens,
summoned from the dream,
not half caring for anything but love.
 
~ Stephen Levine ~
 
(Breaking the Drought)

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17.  SIGNS OF OUR TIMES
Peter Conrad celebrates a century of the phosphorescent joy of the neon light, with its ability to titillate, tempt and inflame and intoxicate the evening skies

...What makes (neon signs) glow is a gas - air chilled until it liquefies, then slowly reheated - trapped in tubes and excited by electrodes....The technology has something magical and dangerous to it, because gas is another name for chaos.  The etymology is the same:  gas hints at the turbulence and instability of nature, with contending forces in perpetual combat.  The Belgian chemist Johannes Baptista van Helmont, who coined the word in the 1640s, thought that gas was a spirit.  In an intermediate zone between solid and liquid, gas can make you laugh or lift you off the ground or concuss you or kill you, even though you can't see it.  Studying carbon dioxide, van Helmont found that it was emitted by belches: like a neon sign, our digestive system is a long tube full of gases that breathe fire.

Along with helium, xenon and krypton, neon was first extracted from the air in the late 1890s.  Sir William Ramsay and Morris Travers discovered a category of gases missing from the periodic table, and the Greek names they assigned to these elements paid tribute to their occult source.  Helium refers to the sun, in whose chromosphere it was traced; xenon means strange; and krypton implies that the gas is cryptic, in need of decoding.

Neon simply identifies something new, enigmatic and unclassifiable.  Unlike hydrogen and oxygen, these gases would not enter into combinations with other elements, which led to their being called noble gases:  chemistry has its snobberies and it is ironic that this low reactivity was taken to be a sign of aristocratic exclusiveness.  Neon is the gas that has happily leant itself to the most ignoble uses.  All across America, it announces LIQUORS or EATS or GIRLS or yells XXXX!!! in the flushed red window of an adult video store.  It is seldom used to mark a museum or a library, although it is capable of using its palette of infernal colours to reprimand the vices it encourages.

In the New York neighbourhood known as Hell's Kitchen, there is a homeless shelter with a sign that terrorises its customers by declaring SIN WILL FIND YOU OUT.  The pain on the metal cross to which the warning is attached has turned leprous with age; the creaking threat hangs above the street.  Neon goads us to misbehave, then utters a reproach.

Excerpt from Guardian Weekly 16.09.11