Herman Melville, Moby Dick
1. SF Vets Admin Medical Center expansion plan eats up open space
2. Concerned about population? Participate in LA Times online forum TODAY
3. Surprising stats on airline fuel consumption on the ground
4. Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival Sept 29 in Berkeley
5. Hungry Owl Project annual fundraiser in Mill Valley
6. Pedro Point Headlands restoration Sept 23
7. Feedback
8. China's assault on Tibet
9. Give a boost to Prop F to bring back Hetch Hetchy
10. Rilke: another love poem to god
11. Exploring Sierra Nevada Crest at potluck Sept 25
12. SciAm: see sperm swim
13. Here's to the crazy ones, the misfits, troublemakers
14. Notes & Queries
15. Profound wisdom from Romney and Ryan
1.
The San Francisco Veterans Administration Medical Center on Clement Street is surrounded by some of our most precious and scenic parklands: Lands End, Fort Miley and the Coastal Trail (all part of the GGNRA) and San Francisco’s Lincoln Park. The SFVAMC has released a Long Range Development Plan that describes a 10-year construction project that will add hundreds of thousands of square feet of new development on its already-over-developed campus. This decade-long construction will disrupt the environment, bring heavy equipment onto Clement and neighboring streets, increase polluting and toxic emissions, and bring more people and traffic to the SFVAMC. This expansion is not about clinical care for our veterans – it’s about increased research – much of it conducted by UCSF, and that could be sited at Mission Bay.
There is a meeting on Thursday, Sept 20 (6 pm) at the SFVAMC. The purpose of this meeting is to get public comments on the planned development. You can read the Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) and Draft Environmental Plan (DEIS) www.sanfrancisco.va.gov/planning . Public comments are due by OCTOBER 16, so act now.
Comments on the Draft EIS/FOE may be submitted via:
E-Gov Web Site: www.regulations.gov . This site allows the public to enter comments on any Federal Register notice issued by any agency. Comments should reference “SFVAMC LRDP Draft EIS” or “SFVAMC LRDP Section 106.”
Mail: Allan Federman, Acting Facility Planner, San Francisco VA Medical Center, 4150 Clement St. (138), San Francisco, CA 94121. Comments should reference “SFVAMC LRDP Draft EIS” or “SFVAMC LRDP Section 106” in any correspondence.
Andrew Scolaur has posted a petition at http://www.change.org/petitions/no-mega-construction-va-medcntr-impacting-gg-ntl-rec-area-nature-preserve -- but you will still need to submit comments to the SFVAMC and/or e-gov web site for your opinions to count.”
(JS: Background for this item):
On Aug 24, 2012, at 11:12 AM, Janet Gawthrop wrote:
Hi Jake,
I will definitely have a look at the DEIR for SFVA. To whom and what e-mail address should I send comments? If I'm sending them to the VA, is there GGNRA volunteer I can cc on the copy? I don't trust VA in general, and certainly I don't trust them to preserve any adverse comments to their plan.
Before I get into the DEIR, I venture my speculation that VA is proposing this expansion in the name of "patient service" or "modernizing facilities". So, pre-environmental comment, I'm going to throw out any premise of SFVA's sincerity in these supposed goals. Do I sound bitter? Yes, because my partner had experience with the Fort Miley facility for years, before he finally became old enough to qualify for MediCare. Based on our experience at Fort Miley, I can
definitely confirm that it was the least-used but also one of the slowest emergency rooms I've ever been in. On the one or two visits when I was in the ER with my partner (past the waiting room area), I also noticed few patients and slow service. Late 2011 was the last time I took my partner to Fort Miley, so the underuse of this facility continued well into the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. So, if SFVA hands a line to SF environmentalists about how unpatriotic they are to deny a new, expanded facility to deserving servicemen, I'm their witness if they need comments about how Fort Miley could easily solve much of any "patient care" issues by in-house reform and far more efficient use of their existing facilities.
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2. Participate in LA Times Population Growth forum today (9/20):
Submit questions, comments to population experts participating in The LA Times online forum.
You may be familiar with the LA Times five-part series on global population growth. The series dives into the problems caused by rapid, unsustainable population growth including the inevitable lack of resources.
You can read the series here, if you haven't already:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/population
Today, September 20, the LA Times will hold a live online video discussion via Google+ Hangout on potential solutions to this huge problem. Readers will have a chance to ask population experts from around the world questions during the discussion via Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ Hangout.
We want to ensure that the population growth in this country, the role immigration plays in that growth, and its effects on global resources will be addressed. This is why we hope you will participate in the discussion.
Suggested Questions:
The US population will surpass 600 million people by 2100 (the fastest growth this county has ever seen). We know Americans use more resources than billions of other people on this planet, so our population growth has even more severe consequences. Do the experts have ideas on how to control US population growth?
Rapid population growth in the US will surely drain more global resources than population growth in third-world countries. Eighty percent of US population growth comes from immigration al one. Shouldn't the US government consider our impact on global when determining immigration policy?
You can write questions on the LA Times Facebook page here:
http://www.facebook.com/latimes
You can leave a comment on the LA Times Google+ Page here:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+latimes/posts
You can tweet the LA Times using the hash tag #asklatimes
Or use pre-composed tweets. Simply log on to your twitter account and click the links below to re-tweet:
1. @latimes What impact does US pop growth have on resources? Our pop will double in 88 years What should we do to slow growth?#asklatimes.
2. @latimes US pop will double in 88years. 80% of growth from immigration alone. Reduce immigration to reduce environmental impact?#asklatimes.
The above, courtesy of NumbersUSA.com
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3. Food for thought
Engines on airlines are highly efficient when they are in flight, but not when operating on the ground. When a plane is taxiing under its own power, the engines burn vast amounts of fuel. A Boeing 747 can consume a tonne of fuel and emit several tonnes of carbon dioxide during an average 17-minute taxi to take-off. And when the aircraft lands there is likely to be another long drive to the passenger gate.
The Economist (excerpt) 15.09.12
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4.
The 17th annual Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival takes place on Saturday, September 29, noon-4:30 pm, at Civic Center Park, Martin Luther King Jr. Way, at Center Street, Berkeley, near Berkeley BART; in conjunction with 100 Thousand Poets for Change and Ecology Center/Berkeley Farmers' Market.
Featured poets and writers include
Robert Hass, Joy Harjo, Michael McClure, Brenda Hillman, Francisco X. Alarcón, Rebecca Foust, Chris Olander, Maya Khosla, Susan Kelly-DeWitt, Rebecca Moos, Maureen Hurley, Kim Shuck, Mark Hertsgaard, K-12 student poets
Jazz music by The Barry Finnerty Trio
"River Village" literary and environmental exhibits: books, literary magazines, DIY and alternative 'zines.
Strawberry Creek Walk with poetry and commentary precedes the main event at 10:00 am, meet at Oxford and Center Streets, UC Berkeley. For more details on the festival please log on to http://poetryflash.org/.
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5. The Hungry Owl Project presents its annual fundraiser in Mill Valley on November 2. This year we have Paul Bannick, author of The Owl and the Woodpecker, as our keynote speaker. Paul is a wonderful wildlife photographer and writer.
Here is his website: http://www.paulbannick.com/shop/owl-and-woodpecker/ You can preview some of his book. This past winter Paul, a resident of Seattle, took many photos of the Snowy Owl irruption and will be presenting highlights at our event.
To order tickets please visit http://www.hungryowl.org. http://www.hungryowl.org./ewo/index.html
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6. Hi Pedro Gang!
It is time to get your hands dirty. Join us on the Headlands for another "RESTORATION PLAY DAY"
This Sunday, September 23rd 9.45am - 1.00pm
Meet at the Pedro Point Firehouse for one or both!
1227 Danmann Ave
we will carpool up through the green gate for the restoration work.
RSVP Is So Appreciated
to lynn4promos@aol.com
Those darn Pampas Grass shoots have popped up in a few accessible locations, we will go get these as well as:• work on the water bars
• scout for the Charlie Brown Christmas tree event
• talk about our winter plans for erosion control and planting sites
• consider a couple of new ideas for our stewardship team
(Seeing a lone pampas grass in the midst of a healthy habitat starts the juices flowing in those who love the land.
Grrrr - can't wait to get my hands on it.)
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7. Feedback
Eric Mills:
Dear Jake,
On the "God" question (#10).
Forgive me if I've sent you this before, but I think Mark Twain was right on the money when he wrote, "Faith is believing in something you know ain't true."
Can I get an Amen?
Amen.
Theists believe metaphors are facts. Those who don't are atheists. (Joseph Campbell)
And speaking of religion, did you see the godawful cover story in this month's NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC re the elephant ivory trade, "legal" and otherwise? Again, it's mostly religion bolstering the commerce, and mostly in China, the Phillipines and Japan, reportedly. Ugh. And now the poachers are using AK-47's and grenades for the massacres in Africa.
I do hope that karma, at least, is true.
I am not a believer, Eric, but I come from experience. It's in the folklore: "What goes around comes around." I have seen it over and over, and sometimes when I've been hit with a painful missile I look at it and it says "created by Jake Sigg".
Just because consequences aren't obvious or immediate doesn't mean they don't exist. Only as I've become older do I realize that everyone carries around secret pain and sorrow.
John Rusk:
JS: I have been critical--derisive, even--about governments, especially the United States' government vis-a-vis our economic/financial predicament. All this pondering by government officials, economists, academics about how to fix the system and get the economy moving again, the universal chant.
This is bizarre. There are millions of ordinary people who have seen the inner contradictions of this economic system and who knew all along it was unsustainable. What is happening was inevitable in time, and why they are mystified by the inability to create jobs is itself mysterious. Why don't the deciders know what the man-in-the-street knows? It's obligatory for politicians, of course, to talk about creating jobs. But shouldn't some higher-level people be talking out loud about the deeper problem and possible ways to address it?
But then I think that all these folks have been part of the system for so long that they're no longer capable of thinking outside it. The conclusion I've come to is there's only one way for it to happen: The system crashes. Only then is there a chance of looking at how we can structure a more sane system. Pollyanna? No; it is exceedingly frightening and painful, and I don't even know if civilization can survive it. Fasten seat belts.
Upton Sinclair said it best: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” Salary may be a poor choice of a word to use when discussing the compensation of bankers but the statement applies.
That is a succinct way of saying what I took two paragraphs to say.
Joel Rider:
Jake,
Re: latest NN-- That poem "For a New Beginning" i think was the title, gotta print that out; and your statement that it's going to take a collapse and figure from there how to re-build...i am impressed, especially because this is the perfect stuff for me. It reflects where i'm at. Thank you. BTW, I do think far more of the economists are seeing it bleaker than we're led to believe. Dang, now i'm gonna have to try even harder to keep up with this publication.
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8. LTE, Guardian Weekly
China's assault on Tibet
Your article China plans theme park in Tibet (13 July) gave the impression that all types of tourists are free to go to Tibet. I recently returned from Tibet and found that this couldn't be further from the truth.
The overwhelming majority of tourists visiting Tibet today are from mainland China: approximately 4,000 per day visit the Potala Palace. Western tourists are being kept out or if they are lucky enough to get in, are being restricted by permits that allow them to stay in Tibet for only four to seven days.
Chinese tour guides are flooding in from universities on mainland China to Lhasa, taking away one of the only real jobs available to ethnic Tibetans. Having a Tibetan guide is also one of the only chances westerners get to hear the real stories of Tibet now.
Once Chinese tourists have visited Tibet they are encouraged to relocate there and set up businesses. China is using its overwhelming population to drown Tibet and the Tibetans. Everyday ethnic Tibetans are becoming a smaller and smaller minority in their own country.
China doesn't need to build a theme park; it has already turned Tibet into one.
Wendy Simons Alameda, California, US
(JS: Perhaps the greater number of tourists are from China; however, there are a great many American and European tourists, and they are charged big bucks, which is what the Han Chinese use to finance the occupation of Tibet. Tibet is a high desert and not easy to wrest a living from. The Chinese wouldn't be able to sustain its occupation without our help. Tibet had a beautiful and a unique culture, and its destruction is one of the great tragedies little known to most of the world. De facto it is a slow-motion genocide, as all the good jobs and desirable living quarters are taken by the Chinese, and the indigenous people are forced into the countryside to fend for themselves.
So we are complicit in Tibet's destruction. Is it ever mentioned here what our tourist dollars are responsible for?)
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9. Yes on Proposition F
Although Election Day is seven weeks away, San Francisco voters can begin voting on October 9. That gives us less than three weeks to get our message about restoring Hetch Hetchy to early voters before they cast their ballots.
We need your help now to raise enough money to get our message out!
Here's how you can help in three easy steps:
Go to www.YosemiteYes.org today.
Sign up as a Champion.
Raise $100 in the next thirty days (twenty days is even better!).
If you raise your $100 within two weeks of registering, we'll send you a Restore Hetch Hetchy baseball cap.
Will you become a Champion for Hetch Hetchy?
Want more info? Join us on a Yosemite Yes! Info Call either at noon on Thursday, September 20, or 6 pm on Tuesday, September 25. Dial 605-715-4920 and use 287936# as your access code.
Or you can contact us at 415-956-0401 orcal@yosemiterestoration.org.
For our SF friends, Patagonia San Francisco has chosen Restore Hetch Hetchy as its Advocate Weeks program partner. During the program, Patagonia will donate $10 to Restore Hetch Hetchy for every Patagonia shoe you buy at its 770 North Point location September 14-30.
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10.
God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.
These are words we dimly hear:
You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.
Flare up like flame
and make big shadows I can move in.
Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don't let yourself lose me.
Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.
Give me your hand.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~
(Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy)
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11.
Ted Kipping pot luck/slide shows
4th Tuesday of the month at 7 pm (slide show at 8 pm) at the San Francisco County Fair Bldg, 9th Av & Lincoln Way in Golden Gate Park
Served by Muni bus lines #6, 43, 44, 66, 71, and the N-Judah Metro
*Please bring a dish and beverage to serve 8 people
September 25 - Mike Euler, Exploring the Sierra Nevada Crest
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12. SciAm
NEWS: Human-Rights Court to Rule on Fertility-Treatment Ban
Costa Rica, the only country that forbids in vitro fertilization, may have to lift the prohibition if the Inter-American Court of Human Rights rules against it
http://links.email.scientificamerican.com/ctt?kn=52&ms=Mzk3Mzk5NjIS1&r=NTM5NzIzNTA1NgS2&b=2&j=MTU5NzE4NjUzS0&mt=1&rt=0
NEWS: Light-Sensing Chip Captures Elusive Sperm Swimming Pattern
A lens-free system has provided the first direct evidence of the spiraling swimming pattern of sperm
http://links.email.scientificamerican.com/ctt?kn=54&ms=Mzk3Mzk5NjIS1&r=NTM5NzIzNTA1NgS2&b=2&j=MTU5NzE4NjUzS0&mt=1&rt=0
Human sperm have been caught twirling in an elaborate dance. A new three-dimensional imaging technique has revealed spiraling movements that had previously only been inferred from two-dimensional data.
The study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, describes the first large-scale, high-resolution recordings of human sperm in three dimensions, tracking more than 1,500 cells over several hours. Human sperm have eluded such detailed observation in the past. Their heads are just 3–4 micrometers long and can only be seen under high magnification, but the cells zoom around at up to 100 micrometers per second, ducking in and out of focus or darting out of range in an instant.
I can’t believe that out of 100,000 sperm, you were the quickest. Steven Pearl
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13.
Here's to the crazy ones.
The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They're not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them,
disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They invent. They imagine.
They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire.
They push the human race forward.
Maybe they have to be crazy.
How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art?
Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written?
Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels?
While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world,
are the ones who do.
(Advertisement for Apple Computer,
snitched - without attribution - from the writings of Jack Kerouac)
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14. Notes & Queries, Guardian Weekly
Should the supreme being be spreading a little more happiness?
If God is good and all-powerful, why didn't he/she make everyone always happy?
God is an able psychologist among his/her attributes and knows that to experience happiness one has to know misery and pain. Ergo, he/she invented unhappiness so we could appreciate its opposite.
Peter Vaughan, St Senoch, France
Monotony is inherently cruel.
Barrie Sargeant, Otaki Beach, New Zealand
Because then he/she would be out of a job.
Graham Girvan, Mombasa, Kenya
He/she did, but his/her way was trumped by Frank Sinatra (aka Adam and Eve) who beguiled people into doing it my/their way.
Robin Carmichael, Leeds, UK
Is God good and all-powerful?
Jennifer Horat, Lengwil, Switzerland
Careful! God and his buddies Allah and Jahve do not like questions like this at all since it undermines their very existence. Moreover, their superstitious adepts may be powerful enough to raise hell for the good old Guardian over printing such heresy!
Heiner Zok, Schiffdorf, Germany
If I lose my wife at a rock concert, is there a better chance of finding her if I move or stay still?
It all depends if you believe you have a chance of catching up with the rock star she's running away with. As you may know, many of them wear high-heeled shoes, which would definitely be to your advantage. Unless it's David Lee Roth. He's quick and bounces all over the place. Or a KISS dude. They're equipped with harnesses and jet packs.
Wisen up and go to the opera instead. You see, Tristan is slowed down by the huge amount of bling he has to carry around, and besides, he likes to take his time. I once fell asleep during Tristan and Isolde, woke up half an hour later and Tristan was standing in the exact same spot. Piece of cake. Easy tackle.
Luc Bouvrette, Montreal, Canada
It's almost certain that moving is the better approach, but there remains one big problem. That dreadful wiggle you used to do back in the 70s, which first attracted her to you (because all the other blokes refused to dance at all), will no longer be recognisable to her. Like most women, she has moved on.
John Bridgland, Adelaide, South Australia
Stay still. She's probably made her way to the front. It's just a stage she's reached; she'll be back.
Jim Dewar, Gosford, NSW, Australia
Depends whether she's a mover or a shaker.
David Ross, Robertsbridge, East Sussex, UK
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15. Intellectual giants on the political scene:
The Wisconsin diet
“My veins run with cheese, bratwurst, and a little Spotted Cow and some Millers. I even think ice fishing is interesting.”
Paul Ryan touts his hometown credentials, August 12th
The Goldilocks candidate
“I love this state…the trees are the right height.”
Mitt Romney campaigns in his native state of Michigan, February 16th
Most unfortunate metaphor
“I guess we better unzip him and let the real Mitt Romney out.”
Ann Romney attempts to prove her husband is not stiff, April 2nd
The Economist
“I’m not familiar precisely with exactly what I said, but I stand by what I said, whatever it was.”—Mitt Romney, February 2012
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