2. Green Building & Birds: Focus on San Francisco - join in discussion Dec 8
3. 1st Annual Holiday Art Walk in Half Moon Bay Dec 11
4. CNPS members slides and potluck Dec 1 - all welcome
5. Amphibian losses seen as 'terrifying'
6. Scapegoat: A History of Blaming Other People
7. Feedback: GGP soccer fields lighting and turf
8. Rilke: Longing for what belongs to us and serving earth
9. SaveMuni.com comments on Central Subway Audit
10. SF Botanical Garden admission fee - comment
11. In China, concerns grow over environmental costs of Apple products
12. A cartoonist looks at where the money is
13. East Bay Regional Parks Botanic Garden Docent Training Program - sign up
14. Lord Byron and computer scientist Charles Babbage comment on words
15. Uppity T-shirts contest - show how clever you are
16. The euro-zone crisis, as told through The Economist covers
17. An opening and a book signing by watercolor artist Sophie Webb
1. MANZANITA Film--Call For Completion Funds
People have asked me if they could contribute towards the completion of the Manzanita film, BACK FROM THE BRINK For The Last Wild Franciscan Manzanita, so we can get it ready for TV. Well, now they can!
The film now has a fiscal sponsor, CID (Center For Independent Documentary), which means all donations towards the film are tax deductible. All contributors will also receive complimentary DVDs of the finished film.
Work to be completed includes:
• Filming the upcoming planting of the Fr. Manzanita's "offspring" in Dec/Jan
• Editing that new sequence into the film, and commissioning original music for the sequence
• Sound Sweetening & Video Onlining the finished film, to conform to PBS technical spec's
Anyone interested in supporting the completion of the film can get there through my film project page:
http://www.livingworldfilms.com/Living_World_Films_LLC/Current_Projects.html
Or through my film page on the CID website:
http://documentaries.org/cid-films/back-from-the-brink/
My plan is to have the film completed and ready for broadcast by the summer 2012.
Many thanks,
Melissa Peabody
Filmmaker
mpeabody@livingworldfilms.com
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2.
Green Building & Birds: Focus on San Francisco
Thursday, December 8, 2011 from 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM (PT)
130 Sutter Street Suite 600, San Francisco
Green Building initiatives tend to focus on energy and material resources, but features of building design can impact biodiversity as well. An issue of growing concern is the large number bird fatalities caused by glass.
Recent efforts, such as San Francisco's Standards for Bird-Safe Buildings, and a LEED pilot credit, "Bird Collision Deterrence," are designed to reduce the threat of glass in the built environment. Please join the RIBA-USA, American Bird Conservancy and the San Francisco Planning Department for discussion of this topic.
FREE Registration here: http://greenbuildingandbirds-esearch.eventbrite.com/?srnk=1
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3.
White-tailed Kite Beau Gill
The Coastside Land Trust is joining with a group of artists along South Main Street in Half Moon Bay to welcome you to our first annual
Holiday Art Walk
Sunday, December 11th, 2 - 5 p.m.
We invite you to stroll South Main Street and discover a wealth of art treasures and gifts. Most of the businesses will be offering gift certificates as a local solution for holiday shoppers. This is a chance for the community to support small local businesses as a part of the nationwide "Shop Small" campaign. Refreshments, raffles and music will be offered at the Coastside Land Trust Gallery and at most other venues.
100% of the proceeds from the sale of Beau Gill's artwork directly benefits the work of the Coastside Land Trust.
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4.
(This is bare-bones information, thrown in at last moment - if you're interested in attending, ask me, JS)
California Native Plant Society annual members' slides and potluck
DECEMBER 1, THURSDAY
SF County Fair Building
Annual Members’ Slides and Potluck Supper
6:30 pm, Potluck:
7:30 pm, Slide Show:
Join our annual year-end informal members' potluck dinner and slide show. Please bring your favorite slides or digital images and your favorite dish or beverage
to share. Whether you are a photographer or an appreciator, come for an enjoyable evening of delicious food and great pictures.
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5. Amphibian losses seen as 'terrifying'
Half of all species are declining while one-third face the threat of extinction, reports Camila Ruz
If the current rapid extermination of animals, plants and other species really is the "sixth mass extinction", then it is the amphibian branch of the tree of life that is undergoing the most drastic pruning. In research described as "terrifying" by an independent expert, scientists predict the future for frogs, toads, newts and salamanders is even more bleak than conservationists had realised.
Around half of amphibian species are in decline, while a third are already threatened with extinction. But scientists now predict that areas with the highest diversity of amphibian species will be under the most intense threat in the future.
And the scientists warn that a three-pronged threat could also cause populations to decline faster than previously thought.
Like many creatures, amphibians have been hit hard by climate change and habitat loss. But they have also been decimated by the spread of the deadly fungal disease chytridiomycosis.
One in three of the world's amphibians are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's red list of endangered species....
Excerpt from Guardian Weekly 25.11.11
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6. It's no one else's fault
Scapegoat: A History of Blaming Other People, by Charlie Campbell
"...few of us have anyone but ourselves to blame for what befalls us. Campbell is forever telling you that you're your own worst enemy. Not that we ever listen. That deafness explains our unending need to pin the rap on someone else: 'a pattern of behaviour that has always been with us...reflecting a deep and universal human need for purification and expiation...The one thing we will not do under any circumstances is accept ourselves as we are. We prefer to find an explanation for why things are not perfect, and these rarely stand up to close scrutiny.'
And so, starting with Adam's dissing of Eve, Campbell proceeds to take down everyone from Marx (who blamed everything on capitalism) to Freud (sex), from Larkin (parents) to Dawkins (religion), for assuming that the fault is not in ourselves but in our stars. And if the fault can't be up there, well then it must be found down here, hence those two most reliable of scapegoats: Jews and women.
...That shock is the real point of the book. Far from wanting you to scapegoat those who have hunted their own scapegoats, he wants you to admit to your own instinctive need for presuming superiority over everyone who is not you. You'll realise it follows that everyone else must feel superior to you. If we all think we're superior, we must all be the same. And if we're all the same, we're either all of us - or none of us - scapegoats.
Excerpts from review by Christopher Bray in Observer, November 2011
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7. Feedback
On Nov 28, 2011, at 12:14 PM, Saxon Holt wrote:
Hey Jake - I love getting the news on local environmental issues from your list but I would also like to know who some of the groups whose causes you inform us about.
In regards to the recent concerns from SFOE about the proposed improvements to soccer fields near the beach at GG Park, I wonder who these folks are - San Franciscans Opposed to Everything ? This is a big group I know; perhaps the anti soccer fields folk are a splinter group who would rather the kids play dodgeball on native sand habitat or think the 60 foot lighting will interfere with all the "great" star gazing at the beach. Would this group rather the artificial turf be made from plastic bags as opposed to recyled tires ? Would they rather have real turf that needs mowing, fertilizing, and water. Where's the substance to this opposition ? With a crying need for more outdoor play and structured exercise, where better than a public park ?! Puhleeese - don't let anyone use the "historic nature" of current facilities be any sort of excuse to resist change. Mankind's "history" has done enough damage already to the native dunes. The new plan only mitigates past problems and serves the greater good to the citizeness of the metropolis who need to live in the future not the past.
rant over
best - Saxon
Saxon: Since you asked me, rather than SF Ocean Edge, I guess you want my opinion rather than theirs.
You are certainly dead on in the need for more active recreation fields in the city. It is a subject that pains me, as I see energetic, able-bodied young people needing to use those bodies but with few outlets for that energy. As one who has been physically very active all my life I bemoan the narrowing opportunities as the planet gets ever more crowded, technological, and cerebral. I grew up in spacious times and knew no impediments to my activities. Then I moved to San Francisco, where I was appalled at how close together people were living. (That was 1950, and we're much more crowded now.) But I soon became a gardener, studied ballet seriously, and backpacked on weekends and vacations, and that provided satisfaction for my craving for physical activity.
So I need no convincing on your expressed need. From a recreational perspective, the proposed soccer fields make sense, providing greatly extended hours for playing. I was formerly a gardener supervisor for Rec-Park at Crocker Amazon in the late 1980s, and the grass soccer fields were under severe stress then from overuse. Then they installed night lighting, which increased the pressure. Eventually they installed artificial turf, which solved that problem--but created others. I am not sufficiently knowledgeable about the problems associated with this artificial turf, but they don't sound inconsequential, so you shouldn't be too ready to dismiss those concerns.
Nor should you dismiss the effects of night lighting on birds, other wildlife, and astronomy. Birds all over the world are in a parlous state, and the very ones flying the coastal routes during the migratory season are the ones in worst shape, such as songbirds. You should educate yourself about effects of night lighting on migrating birds. (I'm getting out of my depth on this subject, so I invite others to chime in.) And if you've been reading my newsletters you know how troubled I am by the garish, excessive, and wasteful night lighting that is cutting human beings off from the profound experience of seeing the night sky--and the spilled-over light is not confined to the beach--stargazing is very popular on Tamalpais, and the GGP lighting will interfere. The darkest skies are near the ocean, for obvious reasons. (I feel myself getting on a soapbox; better cut it off here.)
My deepest concerns about this project is the further desecration of Golden Gate Park. I have railed about this before, and Frederick Law Olmsted, William Hammond Hall, and John McLaren are all turning over in their graves. This and a host of other projects and activities are directly counter to the expressed vision of the first two, and was certainly shared by McLaren. San Francisco has been exceedingly careless in its treatment of this treasure.
Which leaves the question: What do we do to provide the recreation young people so desperately need? Buy land, tear down the buildings, and create active recreation areas? I don't know any other answer. In the present budget situation--not likely to improve in the foreseeable future--good luck. Nevertheless, it is a question of values, and if we value this need so little that we won't provide, well...have you looked at some of the stuff we are spending money on? Spectator sports, for starters.
I pardon your exasperated tone, as I understand frustration. But you shouldn't demonize people with legitimate views. Neither side are demons; it boils down to choices and values, and both sides hold their values dear. Multiply this conflict by a bazillion around the world and you have the consequences of overpopulation. The earth has only so much space and resources to satisfy the needs, and this is what happens when you cram too many people together. I have all but given up hope that we will ever address that problem, from which all others ensue.
Sad, sad, sad.
P.S. I haven't even gotten to one of my main concerns, namely the lack of wildlife habitat, and the fact that we're destroying some here. Another day.
P.P.S. To end on a light note, Your "San Franciscans Opposed to Everything" quip prompts me to post this, which I have posted before:
I belong to CAVEmen - Citizens Against Virtually Everything, and BANANA - Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything. Tongue in cheek, of course, but in my weary state I look wistfully at it and think what a good idea.
Joe Cernac:
Hi Jake,
I review your postings regularly as a catalog of some...news that I'm not privy to. And I'm not talking about the botanical world.
So with in my own little world, I came upon dragoman a week ago. (nor did I bother to open a dictionary) The occasion a rereading of the Norton anthologly which covers a lot of ground. Per se, it was an essay on the pitfalls of non sexist language. The significance of dragoman is that the gender correctness is not dragowoman!.
Keep up with your meanderings.
Paz,
Joe
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8.
All will come again into its strength:
the fields undivided, the waters undammed,
the trees towering and the walls built low.
And in the valleys, people as strong and varied as the land.
And no churches where God
is imprisoned and lamented
like a trapped and wounded animal.
The houses welcoming all who knock
and a sense of boundless offering
in all relations, and in you and me.
No yearning for an afterlife, no looking beyond,
no belittling of death,
but only longing for what belongs to us
and serving earth, lest we remain unused.
~ Ranier Maria Rilke ~
(Rilke’s Book of Hours:Love Poems to God, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy)
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9.
SaveMuni.com Comments
CENTRAL SUBWAY AUDIT
On November 15, 2011, the Transportation Authority held a hearing on the new MTA Audit and ignored the Audit’s 46-page “Appendix VI: Central Subway Project”. Several press articles reported that the Audit examined 29 construction projects, excluding the Central Subway Project. But in fact, the “Limited Scope Performance Audit” evaluated the Subway’s financial risks---although it did not study transit effectiveness because of the contract’s limited scope.
MTA & CENTRAL SUBWAY AUDIT: Central Subway, Pages 171-217.
http://www.sfcta.org/images/stories/Executive/Meetings/board/2011/11nov15/CGR%20Audit%20Report%20(Scanned).PDF
Auditors may be constrained in their criticism---especially when the scope of work is narrow and their client is a likely future customer. But reading between the lines, the Audit forewarns of potential future fiscal troubles. SOME HIGHLIGHTS:
· “The potential for variation in the final cost of the project is large” (Page 172): The Audit expands on the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) concerns about construction and financial risks. In the context of the Audit’s study of 29 MTA construction projects and their delays/ cost escalations, past performance is an indicator of future risks.
· “The Central Subway Project is the highest risk project that the SFMTA has undertaken” (Page 184): The Audit expands on the FTA’s concerns.
· “There is a 30% likelihood of the total project cost in year of expenditure dollars being equal to or less than $1,578 million” (Page 185). The audit couches potential cost overruns in terms of financial probability theory. Although construction contingency dollars and schedules have been increased, the history of large infrastructure projects, in the Bay Area and throughout the United States, shows astronomical cost overruns and unpredictability---within the same financial/ management models. Moreover, in latest project budgets, contingency dollars appear to have decreased.
· “A study of the funds required for maintaining the state-of-good-repair expenditures revealed that SFMTA’s total assets on the FTA’s Condition Code were above the 2.5 out of 5 minimum required by the FTA” (Page 197). With the current $1.9 billion in deferred maintenance and $1.6 billion in budget deficits over the next 20 years, MTA should have already devoted higher expenditures to maintain assets in a state of repair. Instead, the Central Subway will only lead to more service cuts, life-safety threats and draconian revenue hikes---unless the project is halted.
· “However, full funding is not guaranteed and the availability of funds when needed may still be an issue” (Page 198). Officials and the citizenry are increasingly scrutinizing the Central Subway’s data falsifications and misrepresentations---while the FTA reviews the final application and the State ofCalifornia faces increasing budget deficits and bond indebtedness.
· “The Audit Team is not aware of consequences for the [MTA] Board or the Board Members if performance is unsatisfactory, nor are there any criteria that define what constitutes unsatisfactory performance” (Page 210). By the Central Subway’s estimated completion date in 2019, most elected officials will not be in office and many MTA staff will be retired. History indicates that it’s too easy to spend other people’s money. The political benefits and quid pro quo of large infrastructure projects outweigh actual transportation benefits. Unless the MTA Board, staff, consultants, Supervisors and Mayor bear some personal liability, taxpayers will be singularly liable for future cost overruns and crippling deficits.
· “Now, at the half-way point in the project, the cost estimates at completion are approximately double that at initiation” (Page 213). Again, past performance is an indicator of future performance.
· “[SFMTA] will comply with Prop K policies to delay the expenditure of Prop K funds to the extent possible without putting the project at risk”(Page 271). However, the Subway’s budgets show $72 million of Prop K funds will be expended in the next two years. The recent MTA contract for tunnel boring machines usurped $57 million of Prop K sales tax funds---in lieu of restoring service cuts or improving citywide Muni.
Central Subway Boondoggle = Waste and Inefficiency
A Vibrant Citywide Muni System = Revival and Value
Regards,
www.SaveMuni.com
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10. Message from Jack Barry:
Hi, Sean..
Can we begin to look into the effects of the Admission fee in the Arboretum.... ? Right after I took this picture (omitted here), I engaged the Main Gate Keeper in a chat. He had been on duty all day, and had sold 33 Tix and turned away 18, who did not have or could not pay the Fee.
Word of mouth gets around, and many more, I bet, did not even attempt admission, as they knew of the fee. I would like to have us all consider ALL the effects: net profit, or loss, and total # of attendees per day...
For everyone below the # who would have come, before the Fee....that is a loss for the City as it declines if the "quality of urban life" declines..
To extraplolate on my above #S:.... It probably turned out to be 60 Admissiion Tickets and 36 Turn-Aways, and ?? free entries...
Considering the cost of upkeep of this fabulous place...... the #s should be higher How about the City seeking other funding sources, like Local Patrons of the Arts...? We have lots of those, around, potentially.
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11. From NPR's Marketplace
Apple remains tight-lipped as its Chinese suppliers reportedly pollute and break environmental laws. Activists hope that putting pressure on the big brand will impact other Chinese polluters.
In China, concerns grow over environmental costs of Apple products
Most of Apple's bestselling stuff is made overseas. China, mainly. But if you go looking for the Apple logo on a factory over there, that's just not going to happen. The company's as secretive about its suppliers as it is about everything else. In fact, that's the root of all its secrecy. But it's been getting harder for Apple to keep everything it does under wraps. There are real and growing concerns about environmental problems at Chinese factories thought to be working with Apple.
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/tech/china-concerns-grow-over-environmental-costs-apple-products
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12. Ted Kipping:
Subject: A chart of where the money is, by the cartoonist of XKCD
This is very detailed and worth a good look:
http://xkcd.com/980/huge/#x=-4480&y=-1792&z=0
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/money_huge.png
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13. East Bay Regional Parks Botanic Garden Docent Training Program
If you enjoy learning about native plants, spending time in a beautiful setting, and teaching, you can help the Regional Parks Botanic Garden share our rich native plant heritage by becoming a garden docent. As a volunteer educator, you’ll help young students understand and appreciate California plant life in an exceptional all-native garden in the Berkeley hills. No prior experience or knowledge is necessary, but we’re especially looking for people who are available on weekdays and interested in leading tours for children.
Docent training covers a broad array of topics, including basic botany and plant identification, plant geography, pollination, ethnobotany, and teaching techniques, and prepares docents to lead tours of the garden. Each session features a lecture/slide show followed by a walk in the garden. The primary instructor is Dr. Glenn Keator, a highly respected botanist, educator, and author of books on native plants.
Being a docent has many benefits, including free continuing education classes and field trips as well as the intangible rewards of sharing a child’s joy of discovery or enriching a visitor’s experience of the garden.
Tuesdays, January 10–May 29, 2012
9 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Regional Parks Botanic Garden Wildcat Canyon Road at South Park DriveTilden Regional Park, in the Berkeley hills
$155 for the training course and text
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Contact Glenn Keator
510-527-9802 / gkeator@aol.com
TO REGISTER:
Contact Teresa LeYung Ryan
510-544-3169 / bgarden@ebparks.org
Docent training is limited to 15 participants; register soon to be sure of a space.
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14.
Words are things; and a small drop of ink
Falling like dew upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.
Lord Byron, (1788-1824)
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A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
On two occasions I have been asked, "Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?" I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question. -Charles Babbage, mathematician and computer scientist (1791-1871)
(Mr Babbage, if you'd lived 120 years longer you would have had to get used to the term GIGO--and there's lots of G that gets fed into your invention. Some sites--I hope you understand this word 'sites', which portrays something not invented yet--are devoted exclusively to G, and some people spend their lives consuming and disseminating it.)
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15. AWAD-SPONSORED CONTEST:
We've decided to have some fashionable fun this holiday season and run a Dry (wit) T-Shirt Contest with Uppityshirts. The rules are simple: Show everyone how clever and smart you are by coming up with an original t-shirt slogan, using either a play on words, or a wry turn of phrase -- for example: 'Got Recalcitrance?' or 'Pretentious? Moi?'
Winner will have the idea become an actual t-shirt; the runner up will receive the brand-new Wordsmith t-shirt 'AWAD to the wise is sufficient.'
HOW TO ENTER
Email your entries to (AWADcontest@uppityshirts.com) no later than Friday Dec 2. One entry per person. Please include your contact information.
_________________________
Feedback to AWAD:
cacique - A local political boss
Wow, this is very weird: Lane Bryant, the plus-sized clothing company, started a plus-sized intimate apparel boutique some years ago, called...Cacique. Since the name doesn't relate *at all*, I'm going to assume they focus-grouped the name and were just going for something vaguely French sounding. I know I'm going to giggle every time I pass their stores now, thinking of someone like Mayor Daley behind the scenes, choosing the panties and approving signage. Amy Guskin
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16. The euro
Covering the crisis
The euro-zone crisis, as told through Economist covers
IN MAY 2010 The Economist put Europe's debt crisis on its cover for the first time, accompanied by a decent filmic pun and an image of the Parthenon. Since then, the continent's financial woes have kept our cover designer busy conjuring up various ways to depict doom and despair. From waterfalls to plugholes to sieves, here are 13 of the best. http://www.economist.com/node/21540103
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17.
"On Air, Water, and Ice" December 8th, 7 P.M.
Our new salon, The Bone Room Presents, will feature an art opening and a book signing by watercolor artist Sophie Webb. She will begin with some short background stories, followed by a book signing of her new field guide, "Marine Mammals of the Pacific Coast", and her three children's books "My Season With Penguins", "Looking For Seabirds", and "Far From The Shore". This will be followed by refreshments and art viewing.
Right next to The Bone Room's location of 19 years, The Bone Room Presents has now been open for over two years, and continues to offer art openings, book signings, and lectures almost every Thursday evening.
Contact Informatiom:
Erin Kerrigan or Ronald Cauble, 510-526-5252
evolve@boneroom.com
:=: T H E B O N E R O O M :=:
evolve@boneroom.com/510-526-5252
1569 Solano Ave. Berkeley, CA 94707
Tues - Sat 11am-6pm, Thursdays until 9
www.boneroom.com | www.boneroompresents.com
