2. Understanding and management of Sudden Oak Death - update Nov 3
3. Central Subway boondoggle simplified; data falsification, politics and public relations
4. Permaculture from the horse's mouth Nov 2 at CPMC Davies Campus
5. Plant ID walk at Rancho Canada del Oro Nov 6
6. Woodside Library Native Plant Garden talk Nov 2, Los Altos
7. Ecology and Evolution of Manzanitas, Santa Cruz Nov 3
8. Oaktown Native Nursery sale extended through this Saturday
9. And so it has taken me all of sixty years...poetry by Taha Muhammad Ali
10. Photos as seen from the Space Station
11. SF Rip Curl Pro needs volunteers Nov 1 - 12
12. Cornucopia of interesting events from Acterra - check the list
13. Links to revised version of Draft Lake Merced Management MOU
14. Technology can now see what people are thinking. Be afraid
15. The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life
16. Science comedian Brian Malow's busy Bay Area schedule
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct. -Thomas Jefferson, third US president, architect and author (1743-1826)
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1. Job Announcement: Senior Director of Development for Turtle Island Restoration Network (www.TIRN.net, www.SeaTurtles.org, www.SpawnUSA.org, www.GotMercury.org and www.SeaStewards.org). TIRN is hiring a Senior Director of Development to plan fundraising strategies and monitor progress toward $2 million annual revenue goal. Full announcement at http://www.seaturtles.org/article.php?id=2133 . Please submit resume and cover letter to andy@tirn.net
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2. California Native Plant Society program - free and open to the public
Progress and challenges in the understanding and management of Sudden Oak Death in California 10 years after its discovery
Speaker: Dr Matteo Garbelotto
Thursday 3 November, 7.30 pm
San Francisco County Fair Building
9th Avenue & Lincoln Way in Golden Gate Park
Dr. Matteo Garbelotto is an Adjunct Professor in Environmental Sciences at the University of California Berkeley, and the Forest Pathology Specialist for the
entire University of California system. He began his teaching and research career at Berkeley in 1996. Today, he is the head of the Forest Pathology and Mycology Lab which he established in 2001 and where he supervises over 20 researchers and lab technicians. His projects are funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, The U.S. Forest Service, The U.S. Department of Energy, The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, and through generous private grants from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. His work focuses on understanding the epidemiology of infectious diseases in natural ecosystems. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers and his work has been reviewed or published in leading International Scientific Journals such as Science and Nature.
His efforts to directly educate the public have earned him environmental recognition by environmental groups and his worked has been presented in over
400 newspapers and magazine articles locally, nationally and worldwide. In 2003, the NY Times dedicated an entire weekly section to his work. He advises 10 National Governments on Plant Health and he has testified in front of the U.S. Congress. In 2010, he was appointed as a US citizen to serve for a year in the European Food Safety Authority the equivalent of the US FDA.
In the greater San Francisco Bay Area and throughout California into Oregon, Matteo is well known for having co-discovered the agent responsible for Sudden Oak Death (SOD), a disease that is quickly killing many oak species throughout Northern California. His work on SOD has resulted in the understanding of how the causing agent arrived in the states and has also resulted in several treatment options to protect the oak trees. Matteo is actively working with local communities to educate property owners, arborists, and the general public on preventive measures to help slow the disease on how to protect oak trees.
(I will be taking Matteo to dinner before the meeting. If you would like to join us at a nearby restaurant, email me. JS)
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3.
SaveMuni.com
Central Subway LRT Project, San Francisco
CENTRAL SUBWAY BOONDOGGLE: SIMPLIFIED
DATA FALSIFICATION
The Central Subway’s own reports depict an abysmal project. See Charts:
http://tinyurl.com/CS-Charts
POLITICS & PUBLIC RELATIONS
Throughout history, the 1% who financially benefit will attempt to override the interests of the 99%---whether freeway expansions, filling in the Bay, dense waterfront development, destruction of open space/ historic resources, demolition of neighborhoods, the relocation of Chinatown…. Citizens have had to fight public relations onslaughts to protect their own interests.
Planners envisioned San Francisco as a freeway labyrinth.
Filling in the Bay was deemed good development.
Vibrant neighborhoods were demolished in the Western Addition. Fillmore…
SIMPSONS CARTOON: A humorous look at how bad projects are pitched.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF_yLodI1CQ
EXAMINER OP-ED ARTICLE (Honorable Quentin Kopp):
http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/op-eds/2011/10/documented-true-facts-central-subway
* * * * * * * *
THE CENTRAL SUBWAY DECREASES TRANSIT SERVICE LEVELS
The Central Subway disconnects the Market Street corridor, BART, Muni Metro, Transbay Terminal, Ferries and Embarcadero. Instead, the Central Subway goes to a Union Square Station, whereupon riders must ascend seven stories, walking 1,000 feet to the Powell Street Station and Market Street.
Attached: Simplified Central Subway Map
Most Chinatown residents won’t walk to the Stockton-Clay streets subway station, ride half a mile to Union Square and then walk 1,000 feet to the Powell station. Most people will still depend on the 30-Stockton, 8X-Bayshore Express and 45-Union-Stockton buses to get to Market Street. But the Central Subway’s EIR predicts decreased surface buses of 76,400 hours per year on the Stockton corridor. And the MTA’s reports to the FTA predict decreased surface buses of 36,000 hours per year. Whatever the true number, riders will have less bus service in Chinatown, North Beach, Russian Hill, The Embarcadero and the Marina northward — in addition to service cutbacks already made to subsidize the Central Subway.
From south of Market Street, the existing T-Third Line’s King-Embarcadero-Market loop will be eliminated---which currently carries riders directly into Market Street’s Muni Metro and BART Stations. Instead, riders will go a Union Square Station, whereupon they must double-back to the Powell Station..
The Central Subway misses 25 interconnecting bus lines. Riders in the Richmond, Sunset, Castro, Twin Peaks, Haight-Ashbury, Western Addition, Mission Districts and western/ eastern San Francisco will have longer travel times with the Subway.
Design and cost compromises have decreased benefits:
Deep tunnels and stations require long escalator rides---down & up.
Broken escalators in Chinatown/ Moscone Stations would require walking.
Subway station platforms have been shortened to maximum 2-car lengths---forever limiting passenger capacity.
Moving sidewalks have been eliminated---requiring long walks for transfers.
Interconnecting passageways have been narrowed.
The Chinatown and Moscone Stations have only one entryway---increasing life safety risks.
DRAINING FUNDS FROM THE CITYWIDE MUNI SYSTEM
Muni riders and taxpayers are subsidizing the Central Subway---with unnecessary 2009/ 2010 service cuts, discontinued routes, crumbling vehicles; and increased fares, parking fees, meter rates and traffic citations. With $1.9 billion in deferred maintenance and $1.6 billion in budget deficits over the next 20 years, MTA service cuts and draconian revenue hikes will grow---unless the Central Subway is halted.
The MTA has drained $595 million of state/ local funds from the citywide Muni system for the short 1.7 mile subway, which serves only a small fraction of Muni’s 700,000 riders.
The recent MTA contract for tunnel boring machines has usurped another $57 million of Prop K sales tax funds---in lieu of restoring service cuts or improving citywide Muni.
The Central Subway will add at least $15 million per year in operating costs, further draining the citywide Muni System.
And the City and County of San Francisco is liable for all Central Subway construction cost-overruns.
MORE JOBS NOW (RATHER THAN LATER)
Hundreds of millions of dollars can be poured into the citywide Muni system and the broad bottom base of the economy---with massive local jobs, union jobs and enduring catalytic benefits. San Francisco’s economy can be jump-started with hundreds of miles of beautiful transit-priority streets---energizing cafés, restaurants, retail, services, business corridors, neighborhoods…
If the Central Subway is halted, the potential funding recapture of state/ local funding, saved operating expenditures and capital renewal replacements could exceed $800 million.
PROP K: LEGALLY-MANDATED TRANSIT PREFERENTIAL STREETS
Saved funding can implement theTPS (Transit Preferential Streets) and its citywide network of fast and reliable buses and surface light rail---legally mandated by voters with the Prop K Sales Tax in 2003.
PROP K 2003: http://www.sfcta.org/content/view/11/27/
Existing state/ local funding and savings in operating/ infrastructure costs should be poured into the citywide Muni System.
If objectively evaluated, the Central Subway can NOT meet criteria for FTA New Starts funding, CMAQ federal funding; State Prop 1B-MTA, Prop 1B-MTC, RIP, Prop 1A, TCRP funds; San Francisco Prop K, operating and parking revenues.
FALSE PHASE 1 & 2 CONCEPT
The Central Subway’s funding has been based on a fictional premise. The MTA has been citing the Central Subway as phase 2 of the T-Third line Light Rail Project. But it isn’t. Slow as it is, at least the T-Third currently connects Third Street to King Street, the Embarcadero, Market Street, Muni Metro, BART, Transbay Terminal and Ferries.
Phased projects normally extend and improve a transit line. But the Central Subway eliminates the T-Third’s loop to King-Embarcadero-Market streets---going instead to a Union Square station and requiring riders to double back to the Powell Station to access Muni Metro, BART, etc.
* * * * * * * *
CHINATOWN’S OVERALL TRANSIT CHOPPED
Politics, not transportation criteria, is driving the subway project. Higher future operating costs will decrease surface buses on the Stockton/ Columbus corridor. Immediate transit improvements are ignored.
http://epoch-archive.com/a1/en/us/sfo/2011/10-Oct/06/A3_20111006_NoCA-US.pdf
TRANSPORTATION INJUSTICE
Chinatown and low-income residents will have decreased transit service levels.
Moreover, the draining of scarce funds into the Central Subway prevents Muni improvements for the larger Chinese-American populations in the Richmond, Sunset and other culturally-diverse neighborhoods---much less the Stockton Corridor itself.
Despite the T-Line’s promises to the people of Bay View/ Hunters Point, the elimination of the King-Embarcadero-Market loop drastically reduces connectivity to downtown and regional transit. What was the point in building the T-Third Line (Phase 1), whose goal was to join those isolated neighborhoods to the rest of San Francisco, and then changing the route for the worse?
THE BIG 800 POUND LAND-USE GORILLA: DISAPPEARING CHINATOWNS
Chinatowns are disappearing all over the U.S., as adjacent financial and commercial cores expand.
See: http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0710/p03s03-ussc.html .
Digging up of streets and rerouting of buses will hurt Chinatown’s fragile businesses.
Large transportation projects inevitably bring rezoning and gentrification. In October 2008, the Planning Director and a Planning Commissioner convened a Chinatown meeting to explore “Rezoning Chinatown”. More than a world-class destination and a valuable tourist attraction, San Francisco’s Chinatown is the cultural incubator of Chinese in America---requiring special care and protection.
A MORE VIBRANT PUBLIC REALM
With its uniqueness, character, Mediterranean-scale, geographic beauty and topographic splendor, San Francisco’s northeast quadrant is a natural pedestrian realm. The distance from Downtown to Fisherman’s Wharf is 1-½ miles. Columbus Avenue is 1 mile long. Washington Square is 1 mile from the Powell BART/Metro Station. Chinatown is ½ mile from Market Street. As seen in cities throughout the world, these are distances opportune for a pulsating street life.
From an urban planning perspective, robust pedestrian and surface transit assures dispersed economic vitality---at very modest costs.
Central Subway Boondoggle = Waste and Inefficiency
A Vibrant Citywide Muni System = Revival and Value
* * * * * * * *
WRITE TO SACRAMENTO AND WASHINGTON:
Request hearings and independent audits of the Central Subway boondoggle. Instead, we should revitalize the citywide Muni system.
Vice-President Joseph Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington DC 20500
Hal Rogers, Chair
House Appropriations Committee
2406 Rayburn House Office Bldg
Washington DC 20515
John Mica, Chair
House Transportation &
Infrastructure Committee
2313 Rayburn H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
Senator Barbara Boxer
United States Senate
112 Hart Senate Office Bldg.
Washington DC 20510
Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi
House Minority Leader
H-232 US Capitol
Washington DC 20515
Jerry Brown
Governor of California
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
* * * * * * * *
Regards,
www.SaveMuni.com
For further information, contact: SaveMuni.com
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4. NOVEMBER GUILD GATHERING - http://www.permaculture-sf.org/the-guild/guild-meetings/253.html
SPECIAL GUEST PRESENTER - BROCK DOLMAN
Wednesday - November 2nd, 6:30pm-9:30pm
If you've had the opportunity to meet Brock Dolman or seen him present, then there is nothing that we need to write here to encourage you to come to the November Guild Gathering where Brock will inspire us with incredible imagery and delightful diction.
For those of you who do not know of Brock, he is a crucial leader in the Bay Area, North American and Global permaculture movement.
A true specialized generalist, Brock directs the Water Institute and the OAEC Permaculture Program and provides education and consultation in the areas of "wildlife biology, native California botany and watershed ecology, to the practice of habitat restoration, education about regenerative human settlement design, ethno-ecology, and ecological literacy activism towards societal transformation."
Come prepared to laugh and learn and bring your valuable questions about permaculture.
Check out his bio and other links here:
http://www.oaec.org/brockdolmanbio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B9NXQt3kag
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijpXPvqYaFU
Wednesday - November 2nd
6:30pm-9:30pm - come for any or all of it
At the Gazebo - CPMC Davies - Castro @ Duboce
Map: http://tinyurl.com/2fql2xe
Potluck and networking as always and... (*special food item of the month is: Yacon)
* Each month we select a vegetable partner that grows in abundance in San Francisco from east side to west with little maintenance or care and which is often little known to common cookery. You are invited to bring a dish featuring said vegetable of the month and share the recipe. We've envisioned developing an informal "competition" and a shared, recipe booklet.
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5.
Plant Identification Walk @ Rancho Canada del Oro
Sunday, November 6, 9:00am-2:00pm
Join Steve Rosenthal and Arvind Kumar for a guided plant identification walk through Rancho Canada del Oro, one of the newer open space preserves in Santa Clara County. Trails offer spectacular views of the Diablo Range and Mt. Hamilton and go through a variety of native habitats: grassland, oak woodland, sage-chaparral scrub, and riparian. We expect to see many fruiting plants, including oaks, bay laurel, madrone, bigberry manzanita, toyon, coffeeberry, buckeye, holly-leaved cherry, and snowberry. We will start with the Serpentine Loop Trail, switch to the Longwall Canyon Trail, and return via the Mayfair Ranch Trail. The distance covered will be 4.3 miles with 500’ of elevation gain. Native plant lovers will enjoy the wide variety of habitats and plants. Beginners interested in plant identification are welcome; prior knowledge of native plants or botany is not required. Bring water and a bag lunch. Dress in layers, and appropriately for late fall weather. Heavy rain cancels.
Space is limited. RSVP to arvind.kumar@cnps.org or 408-715-7020 to reserve your place and for directions to the meeting place. This walk is free for CNPS members; memberships are accepted at the trailhead.
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6.
Topic: The Woodside Library Native Plant Garden
Speaker: Tina Dreyer
Date: Wed, Nov 2, 2011, 7pm
Venue: Los Altos Library, 13 San Antonio Rd, Los Altos
Come to this talk to learn about a historic library garden and be inspired to create or contribute to one at your own library. Timmy Gallagher and members of the Woodside Atherton Garden Club created the Woodside Library Native Plant Garden in 1968. Now California species flourish in a Redwood grove, Oak woodland, a Coastal section, and a sunny Chaparral area. Garden plants are tagged with botanical and common names. Today, this garden is a community resource, hosting plant sales and serving as an outdoor classroom. Tina Dreyer has been involved with the garden since its inception.
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7.
The UC Santa Cruz Arboretum Presents:
Ecology and Evolution of Manzanitas (Arctostaphylos)
Tom Parker, Professor of Ecology, California State University, San Francisco and co-author of the genus Arctostaphylos in North American Flora (Volume 8) and the Jepson Manual 2nd Ed
Thursday, November 3, 7 PM (pot luck at 6PM, bring a dish to share)
UCSC Arboretum Horticulture Building
If you are unfamiliar with how to find UC Santa Cruz Arboretum, detailed directions can be found on the UCSC website.
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8. Hello Oaktown Customers,
We are extending the sale prices through this Saturday just in case any of you wanted to visit but weren't able to on the 29th.
See the web site for plants marked 50% off. All else will be 20% through Saturday 11/5.
http://www.oaktownnativenursery.info/
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9.
Twigs
(excerpt)
And so
it has taken me
all of sixty years
to understand
that water is the finest drink,
and bread the most delicious food,
and that art is worthless
unless it plants
a measure of splendor in people's hearts.
~ Taha Muhammad Ali ~
(So What: New and Selected Poems, 1971-2005,
translated by Peter Cole, Yahya Hijazi, and Gabriel Levin)
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10. Seen from the Space Station.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1328467/Spectacular-night-time-photos-Earth-taken-space-station.html
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11. SF Rip Curl Pro needs volunteers
We're trying to get the word out that the event needs volunteers to help green the event, which is November 1-12. Volunteers can score a great shirt or hat for their participation and all the good karma that comes with helping keep the beach clean!
People can sign up at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CWC3Q7Q
We'll get the word out on volunteering daily during the events.
We're doing this in combination with Rip Curl, SF Surfrider, SustainableSurf.Org and other groups involved.
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12. Acterra
The New Simplicity: Community, Sharing, and the Pursuit of Happiness
Wednesday, November 2, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Peninsula Conservation Center, 3921 East Bayshore Road, Palo Alto [map]
Cost: Free
In the past, simplicity was associated with deprivation and thrift. Its true meaning has always been about clarifying true happiness, and the biggest predictor of happiness is connection with people and the planet. We're building a new culture that links happiness to community and sharing and we need to come together to learn new skills. (For those interested, we will start an ongoing sharing group.)
The presenter is Cecile Andrews. She is the author of Slow is Beautiful, Less is More, and Circle of Simplicity. She has her doctorate in education from Stanford.
For more information about this event and to register, please contact Michael Closson at michaelc@acterra.org.
Green@Home HouseCall Volunteer Training
Wednesdays, November 9 AND 16 - 5:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Winchester Neighborhood, San Jose (exact location TBA)
Want to help hundreds of local residents reduce their energy use by providing free home energy assessments and installing basic energy saving devices? Then become a Green@Home HouseCall Volunteer!
The next two-part volunteer training session will be held in the Winchester neighborhood of San Jose. For more information and to register for the training, please visit the Green@Home EventBrite website or call Elizabeth Sarmiento at (650) 962-9876 ext. 350.
Annual Creeks and Watershed Conference
Saturday, November 5
2025 Stierlin Court, Building 3
Mountain View [map]
Cost: Free*
This year's conference -- titled Healthy Creeks / Vibrant Bay -- will include two panel discussions relating to creeks and the San Francisco Bay and an update on the status of steelhead in the South Bay area. The keynote speaker will be Sally Lieber, former State Assembly Member for the 22nd District and candidate for State Senate.
For more information and to register, please visit the Santa Clara County Creeks Coalition website.
*$10 donation suggested to help cover the cost of lunch.
Let's Get This Bowl Rolling!
Thursday, November 10, 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Cubberley Community Center, Room H-1
4000 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto [map]
Cost: Free
Help artist Judith Selby Lang to create her newest On the Road art installation for the Palo Alto Art Center! Hands-on art workshops with artist will also be offered.
For more information, please view the event flyer. This event is co-sponsored by Acterra.
Acterra 2012 Business Environmental Awards: Environmental Project
Has your company significantly reduced its water, materials or energy consumption? Minimized its carbon footprint? Prompted significant behavioral change?
The Environmental Project Award recognizes an exemplary project or program for its leadership, impact and adoptability in a focused area. The early-bird deadline to apply is November 15th. Download an application today!
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13. Below are links to a revised version of the Draft Lake Merced Management MOU and 3 attachments that are noted in the Draft MOU. Please copy these links into your internet browser window, to download the documents.
We plan on this being considered by the San Francisco PUC at the regularly scheduled meeting on November 8, 2011.
1. Draft Lake Merced Management MOU
https://infrastructure.sfwater.org/fds/fds.aspx?lib=SFPUC&doc=725651&data=279375635
2. 1950 Park Commission Resolution
https://infrastructure.sfwater.org/fds/fds.aspx?lib=SFPUC&doc=725649&data=279374865
3. 1950 SFPUC Resolution
https://infrastructure.sfwater.org/fds/fds.aspx?lib=SFPUC&doc=725650&data=279375250
4. 1950 Letter from James Turner to Park Commission
https://infrastructure.sfwater.org/fds/fds.aspx?lib=SFPUC&doc=725652&data=279376020
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14. Mind-reading
The terrible truth
Technology can now see what people are thinking. Be afraid
Oct 29th 2011 | from The Economist
DOUGLAS ADAMS, the late lamented author of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, dreamed up many comic creations. One of his greatest was the Babel fish. This interstellar ichthyoid neatly disposed of a problem all science-fiction authors have: how to let alien species talk to one another. It did so by acting as a mind-reader that translated thoughts between different races and cultures. Universal communication did not, unfortunately, lead to universal harmony. As Adams put it, “The poor Babel fish has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation.”
For the moment, mind-reading is still science fiction. But that may not be true for much longer. Several lines of inquiry (see article) are converging on the idea that the neurological activity of the brain can be decoded directly, and people’s thoughts revealed without being spoken.
Just imagine the potential benefits. Such a development would allow both the fit and the disabled to operate machines merely by choosing what they want those machines to do. It would permit the profoundly handicapped—those paralysed by conditions such as motor-neuron disease and cerebral palsy—to communicate more easily than is now possible even with the text-based speech engines used by the likes of Stephen Hawking. It might unlock the mental prisons of people apparently in comas, who nevertheless show some signs of neural activity. For the able-bodied, it could allow workers to dictate documents silently to computers simply by thinking about what they want to say. The most profound implication, however, is that it would abolish the ability to lie.
Who could object to that? Thou shalt not bear false witness. Tell the truth, and shame the Devil. Transparency, management-speak for honesty, is put forward as the answer to most of today’s ills. But the truth of the matter—honestly—is that this would lead to disaster, for lying is at the heart of civilisation.
People are not the only creatures who lie. Species from squids to chimpanzees have been caught doing it from time to time. But only Homo sapiens has turned lying into an art. Call it diplomacy, public relations or simple good manners: lying is one of the things that makes the world go round.
Minds matter
The occasional untruth makes domestic life possible (“Of course your bum doesn’t look big in that”), is essential in the office (“Don’t worry, everybody’s behind you on this one”), and forms a crucial part of parenting (“It didn’t matter that you forgot your words and your costume fell off. You were wonderful”). Politics might be more entertaining without lies—“The prime minister has my full support” would be translated as, “If that half-wit persists in this insane course we’ll all be out on our ears”—but a party system would be hard to sustain without the semblance of loyalty that dishonesty permits.
The truly scary prospect, however, is the effect mind-reading would have on relations between the state and the individual. In a world in which the authorities could divine people’s thoughts, speaking truth to power would no longer be brave: it would be unavoidable.
Information technology already means that physical privacy has become a scarce commodity. Websites track your interests and purchases. Mobile phones give away your location. Video cameras record what you are up to. Lose mental privacy as well, and there really will be nowhere to hide.
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15. The Folly of Fools: The Logic of Deceit and Self-Deception in Human Life, by Robert Trivers
"It's not a lie if you believe it." So remarked George to Jerry in a classic Seinfeld line that turns out to encapsulate a scientific explanation for why we lie. Evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers of Rutgers University asks why humans continually deceive themselves and concludes that we do this so we can fool others and thereby enhance our own survival and reproduction. Here he describes deception in children.
"Children show a wide array of deception by ages two and three, and the earliest clear signs appear at about six months. Fake crying and pretend laughing are among the earliest. Fake crying can be discerned because infants often stop to see whether anyone is listening before resuming. This shows that they are capable of moderating the deception according to the victim's behavior. By eight months, infants are capable of concealing forbidden activities and the distracting parental attention. By age two, a child can bluff a threat of punishment, for example, by saying, 'I don't care,' about a proposed punishment when he or she clearly cares. In one study, two-thirds of children age two and a half practiced deception at least once in a two-hour period....lies to protect the feelings of others--so-called white lies--appear only by age five...
"As children mature, they become increasingly intelligent and increasingly deceptive. this is not an accident. The very maturing capacity that gives them greater general intelligence also gives them greater ability to suppress behavior and create novel behavior. There is also clear evidence that natural variation in intelligence, corrected for age, is positively correlated with deception. A child is left in a room and told not to look in a box. By the time the experimenter returns, most children have peeked. Now they are asked whether they peeked. Most say no, and the brighter the children are on simple cognitive tests, the more likely they are to lie. Even health of the child at birth...is positively correlated with lying. Because we experience deception aimed toward ourselves as negative does not imply that as deceivers we experience it as negative, at least when undetected."
Scientific American, November 2011
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16. Greetings, science comedy fans!
This week is the inaugural Bay Area Science Festival with hundreds of events throughout the Bay Area - and I'm involved in a few.
Most of all, I'd love to see you at my big show this Wednesday, November 2, down in Sunnyvale. It's called "Spontaneous Emissions" (but, even if you've seen me perform with that title - it won't be the exact same show!). My friend and fellow science humorist Norm Goldblatt will also perform.
Anything you can do to spread the word would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
The details:
Science Comedian Brian Malow - one show only in the South Bay!
http://www.bayareascience.org/11/02/spontaneous-emissions-an-evening-of-science-humor/
$15
8pm, Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Rooster T. Feathers Comedy Club
157 W. El Camino Real
Sunnyvale, CA 94087
More Information and Reservations: 408-736-0921
And, if you're looking for some entertainment on Thursday or Friday....
Thursday night, I'm also emceeing an evening of 5-minute Ignite presentations (and delivering one myself) as part of the huge Mad Science NightLife at the California Academy of Sciences which will feature many other performances. Check it out Thursday, November 3, 6pm-10pm.
And Friday I'm moderating two great events:
Hollywood Science - Producers, directors, and science advisors from Eureka, Battlestar Galactica, and a number of films will discuss whether science on the screen needs to be accurate.
-- Friday 11/4, 5-7 PM at Pier 39 Theater, Aquarium of the Bay
And, as part of the Science Pub Crawl in the Mission District, I'll be moderating a discussion with some great authors:
Science of Science Fiction – Dancing on the tightrope between “Science” and “fiction.” Real science doesn’t give us monsters, zombies or other undead monsters, and lab work usually doesn’t result in gunplay. How do near-future sci-fi authors toe the line between keeping the science real, and fudging it enough to tell an exciting story? Authors: Scott Sigler, Jeff Carlson, Mira Grant
-- Friday 11/4 7:15-8:15pm at Borderlands
For fans outside the Bay Area... I'll have some new virtual entertainment to share soon!
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