The skylines lit up at dead of night, the air-conditioning systems cooling empty hotels in the desert and artificial light in the middle of the day all have something both demented and admirable about them. The mindless luxury of a rich civilization, and yet of a civilization perhaps as scared to see the lights go out as was the hunter in his primitive night. -Jean Baudrillard, sociologist and philosopher (1929-2007)
1. Big Bird contemplates the election
2. John Kenneth Galbraith, born 15 October 1908. We need him
3. CNPS Yerba Buena Chapter plant sale Saturday 20th
4. End of season native plant sale in Sonoma County Oct 20-31
5. CNPS East Bay native plant sale, poetry, and much more Oct 27-28
6. Berkeley poetry reading and open mike Oct 19
7. Bitter Seeds - how we grow things/Weird Lives of Small Animals Oct 28
8. San Bruno Mtn field trip Oct 20
9. Support Great Sunflower Project - buy a native bee calendar
10. Satellite images of San Francisco/historic photos
11. Kezar Gardens update - good news, perhaps
12. Article on Sudden Oak Death
13. Leatherback Sea Turtle Soiree - Nov 3
14. Looking, Walking, Being - Denise Levertov
15. Feedback - Venus and Jupiter
16. How Black Holes help shape their galaxies (Video)
17. Obituary: Nguyen Chi Thien, poet
1.
The Economist########################
2. Born 15 October 1908 John Kenneth Galbraith
Words of warning
The financial crisis has revived interest in the writings of J.K. Galbraith
He believed that companies use advertising to induce consumers to want things they never dreamed they needed, that easy credit leads to financial catastrophe and that the best way to reinvigorate the economy was by making large investments in infrastructure. Not president-elect Barack Obama, but J.K. Galbraith, the tall, iconoclastic economist, diplomat and adviser to Democrat leaders from John F. Kennedy on. For years Galbraith’s most famous book was The Affluent Society, which came out in 1958. But the financial crisis has revived interest in an earlier work, The Great Crash, 1929, in which Galbraith showed just how markets become decoupled from reality in a speculative boom.
Some bon mots from Galbraith:
"Recessions catch what the auditors miss."
The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.
(While JFK's ambassador to India, to JFK): "Attempting to communicate through the State Department was like trying to fornicate through a mattress."
"Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists..."
One of my greatest pleasures in writing has come from the thought that perhaps my work might annoy someone of comfortably pretentious position.
Then comes the saddening realization that such people rarely read.
In the earlier stages of industrialization the engineer is important. In the later stages he yields place to the artist. The practical man who holds that this is a lot of precious nonsense may, like the automobile makers, have to learn the truth the hard and expensive way."
(JS: Galbraith has been one of my heroes--I don't have many anymore, but he's managed to remain high in my estimation--because he combined brilliant intelligence with practical sense. How many economists and other influential people could see the current world difficulties coming? A good many ordinary people knew something was wrong--and continues to be. If Galbraith were still alive would he have any answers to our current predicament? Perhaps not, but he may have helped avoid getting there in the first place if he'd lived a little longer--and, most important, if he were listened to.)
"Economists are pretty reluctant to forecast a recession ... perhaps because no one loves a Jeremiah." The Economist (London, UK); Sep 12, 2011.
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3. The California Native Plant Society Yerba Buena Chapter's 18th Annual Native Plant Sale is Saturday, Oct 20 from 1-5pm at the Miraloma Park Improvement Club clubhouse on O'Shaughnessy Blvd at Del Vale, San Francisco. (Good directions/maps at http://www.miralomapark.org/about/location/)
There will be a large selection of wonderful and beautiful garden plants native to our chapter area: San Francisco and northern San Mateo Counties. Most are hard to find in nurseries--and all are important plants for enhancing the wildlife habitat value of your garden. Quoting famed California Academy of Sciences entomologist Ed Ross: "Why erect a stage and put no actors on it?"
We can never have too much publicity!. Please help us get the word out by telling your friends, colleagues, organizations,and putting a flier in your local cafe, library, etc. The link (which includes our fliers) is:
http://cnps-yerbabuena.org/gardens/plant_sales.html
We have short- and long-sleeved t-shirts and tote bags for sale. They will also be at the Thursday, November 1, 2012 members' meeting as well.
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4.
http://www.calfloranursery.com/
End of season sale - 30% off nursery stock (Retail only)
October 20 through Halloween
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5.
California Native Plant Society East Bay Chapter
2012 Plant Fair, Native Here Nursery: 20,000+ Native Plants and Much More
Saturday, October 27
from 10 am – 3 pm
Sunday, October 28
from noon - 3 pm
Native Here Nursery
101 Golf Course Dr., Berkeley
510-549-0211
nativeherenursery@ebcnps.org
Facebook: Native-Here-Nursery
Come celebrate native plants with the East Bay Chapter, California Native Plant Society.
Over 200 species of local native plants will be on offer, over 20,000 individual plants from $5 to $30 each. Check the chapter web site www.ebcnps.org after September 30 for the plant list. Bulbs, garden plant markers, CNPS caps and other items will be sold as well.
Sales benefit the chapter and are a major support of the chapter’s activities.Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and some debit cards are accepted. Cash or check will speed you through checkout.
East Bay Chapter, California Native Plant Society: www.ebcnps.org
www.nativeherenursery.org
Speakers
On Saturday, October 27, poetry will join art and flowers.
1 pm until 3 pm
Deep Roots: Poetry and Plants
Starting with an open reading for 30 minutes on native plant related themes (bring your poetry to read), followed by one hour and 30 minutes of readings by featured poets, including:
Kim Shuck, author of the collection Smuggling Cherokee and winner of numerous writing awards including the Native Writers of the Americas First Book Award, and the Mary Tall Mountain Award.
Lucille Lang Day is the author of eight poetry collections and chapbooks, most recently The Curvature of Blue.
Chris Olander is a California Poetry In The Schools (CPITS) poet, eco-educator, and a California State Championship Poetry Coach for Poetry Out Loud.
Kirk Lumpkin is a poet, performer, lyricist, environmentalist, and cultural worker. He is the author of two books of poetry, In Deep and Co-Hearing.
On Sunday, October 28, 1 pm
Native Plants for Butterflies in Your East Bay Garden
Liam O’Brien, lepidopterist
A talk focused on native plants female butterflies need to lay their eggs on that you can grow in your East Bay garden. Think about what you can serve the caterpillars to munch on and continue their life cycles. The talk will be illustrated by Liam’s beautiful paintings of butterflies.
Vendors
Talented vendors who offer nature-related items will enrich the Plant Fair. Caitlin Blair Harvey will offer jewelry and sculptures inspired by the wild rivers and beaches of Northern California. Local artist/photographer Dianne Lake will bring photos of the Bay Area that capture its special beauty and light. Others vendors and volunteers will offer hard-to-find books, posters from numerous naturalist organizations, seeds to grow native plants, and much more.
About Native Here Nursery
Native Here is a non-profit nursery dedicated to growing plants for restoration of parklands and gardening projects. Conservation and restoration are at the heart of Native Here's mission and the nursery is dependent on community engagement from volunteers to run efficiently. Native Here is a special project of the East Bay Chapter of the California Native Plant Society, which is a 501 C3 organization.
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6. Expressions Gallery
We are located at 2035 Ashby Ave, between Shattuck and Adeline. We are only half a block east of the Ashby Bart station. You may park in the Credit Union parking lot next door for these events.
Join us for our Friday night poetry reading and open mike on October 19th from 7pm till 9pm. Featured poets are Kirk Lumpkin and Steve Arntson. (I'll [ie, Kirk Lumpkin] be performing with special guest, Mark Wieder on acoustic bass and both Steve and I will be reading poems that celebrate Burning Man. —KL) Refreshments will be served. This reading is free and welcome to all.
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7.
Bitter Seeds
Friday, October 19
7:00 pm
Peninsula Conservation Center
3921 East Bayshore Road
Palo Alto [map]
Cost: Free
Join us for a showing of Bitter Seeds, an award-winning documentary that explores the future of how we grow things, weighing in on the worldwide debate over the changes created by industrial agriculture and genetically engineered seeds.
For more information about the film, please visit the Bitter Seeds website. Advanced registration is not necessary. This event is co-sponsored by Acterra.
Weird Lives of Small Animals
Sunday, October 28
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
McClellan Ranch Preserve
22221 McClellan Road
Cupertino [map]
Cost: Free
Join Acterra's botanist Paul Heiple on an exploration of weirdness in our local habitat. For example, what are those bizarre and beautiful growths we see on plants which look like marbles, dunce caps, saucers, or even sea urchins?
For more information and to register, please visit the Acterra Stewardship Program's events website.
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8.
California Native Plant Society field trip - free and open to the public
San Bruno Mountain: Pacific Rock and the Summit
October 20, Saturday, 10 am to 1 pm
Leader: Doug Allshouse
The Ericaceae are well represented on San Bruno Mountain with 12 species in 4 genera. We'll visit 5 species at Pacific Rock, near summit parking area.
Details at www.cnps-yerbabuena.org
Meet at the summit parking area at the very end of Radio Road. There is a $6 self-registration entrance fee.
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9. The North American native bee “year-less” calendar will support the conservation work of The Great Sunflower Project.
As Autumn approaches, our gardens are changing once again in their seasonal cycle. Did you keep track of what you planted? When you put it in? When it bloomed?. Maybe you jotted a note in your diary or sent an email to a friend about when your sunflowers bloomed this year?
A beautiful way to keep track of your garden activities, birthdays, your bee count dates and other information is with a “year-less” calendar illustrated with breathtaking photos of garden bees. This calendar/journal is something you can keep from year to year to help you remember when to plant, when to observe and what dates you noted your garden changing in past years.
Garden Variety Native Bees Calendar
Keeping records about natural phenomena is at the heart of science. And, by doing so and sharing that information, you are participating in one of the nation’s largest citizen science endeavors.
And, by purchasing the calendar you are supporting the Great Sunflower Project. It supports our work with local schools, allows us to keep the website live and active and allows us to keep promoting pollinator conservation.
Check it out on our website here: http://www.greatsunflower.org/product/50873
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10. Satellite images of San Francisco/historic photos.
(You're on your own in navigating around this. It may be easy for techies; it fried my brain. JS)
http://www.oldsf.org/#ll:37.794828|-122.405223,e:AAA-7099|522,m:37.79287|-122.41543|16
And in 1924, taxicabs in the same location:
http://www.oldsf.org/#ll:37.794828|-122.405223,e:AAA-7073|575,m:37.79287|-122.41543|16
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11. The latest chapter of the saga* of Kezar Gardens (formerly HANC Recycle Center):
http://kezargardens.com/2012/10/13/garden-eviction-update-by-ed-dunn/
* I care about words, so before using I looked it up:
* (Note the small "s"):
a long story of heroic achievement, esp. a medieval prose narrative in Old Norse or Old Icelandic : a figure straight out of a Viking saga.
• a long, involved story, account, or series of incidents : the saga of her engagement.
It definitely qualifies in the second sense; perhaps the "long story of heroic achievement" may also be apt. It is good to see the possibility of a resolution that may work for the best. I have felt fiercely loyal to HANC for all its pioneering work, its community work, and its dedication to coming to grips with difficult social problems. I didn't like its being ignominiously booted out after all it has done for us.
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12. Hi Jake:
Below is a link to a Bay Citizen article on Sudden Oak Death. The article points to courses people can take to help spot this disease and I thought your readers might be interested in participating.
http://www.baycitizen.org/blogs/pulse-of-the-bay/citizens-enlisted-fight-against-sudden/?utm_source=Newsletters&utm_campaign=e6bc5565eb-October_15_Daily_Newsletter&utm_medium=email&mc_cid=e6bc5565eb&mc_eid=ee4c82d75e
Here is the embedded link to the UC class/ed information. http://nature.berkeley.edu/garbelotto/english/sodblitz.php
Thanks for all you are doing, every day.
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13. Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary and Randall Museum Present:
Leatherback Sea Turtle Soirée!
ART & SCIENCE RECEPTION & LECTURE
Saturday, November 3, 7 - 10 p.m.
Randall Museum, 199 Museum Way, San Francisco, CA
Join us for an evening social, lecture, and art event dedicated to the critically endangered leatherback sea turtle!
RECEPTION ACTIVITIES (7 - 10 PM):
• Leatherback Woodblock Printmaking in the Art Room
• Turtle Artifacts in the Terrace Room
• “Leatherback Lounge” Media Room
• Two Complimentary Beverages
LECTURES: 7:30 or 9:00 PM
Scott Benson, Marine ecologist
NOAA’sOffice of Protected Resources
Enjoy a soiree, lecture, and art event celebrating the critically endangered leatherback sea turtle! This ancient, awesome deep-diving species is the largest and widest-ranging of all sea turtles. But they could become regionally extinct in our lifetimes. NOAA marine ecologist Scott Benson discusses threats to survival, current research and conservation efforts.
TICKETS REQUIRED FOR LEATHERBACK SOIRÉE: Cost $15
Contact Justin Holl at: (415) 561-6622 x308 or justin.holl@noaa.govSpace is limited.
www.farallones.org
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14.
"Poetry makes nothing happen." WH Auden
Looking, Walking, Being
"The World is not something to
look at, it is something to be in."
-- Mark Rudman
I look and look.
Looking's a way of being: one becomes,
sometimes, a pair of eyes walking.
Walking wherever looking takes one.
The eyes
dig and burrow into the world.
They touch
fanfare, howl, madrigal, clamor.
World and the past of it,
not only
visible present, solid and shadow
that looks at one looking.
And language? Rhythms
of echo and interruption?
That's
a way of breathing.
breathing to sustain
looking,
walking and looking,
through the world,
in it.
~ Denise Levertov ~
(Poems, 1960-1967)
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15. Feedback
Jeanne Koelling:
Hi Jake: I have to share this with you:
I happened to look out my east-facing window at about 6:20 a.m. today and high over the East Bay hills was Venus shining brilliantly above an almost new moon. What was stunning about this scene was seeing the barest sliver of a waning crescent moon reflecting enough earthshine to subtly complete its global shape. Perhaps we'll see something similar tomorrow.
JS: And just last night (Monday) I was startled by a very bright light peering at me over the summit of Mt Sutro. When you see something that bright you assume it's Venus. However, it was on the wrong side of the Earth, as, being an inner planet, Venus must stay close to the Sun. So I stared at it for five minutes, waiting for that helicopter to move--I was certain it had to be a helicopter. When it was still there ten minutes later, I reached for Astronomy October issue, and there it was - Jupiter. It is at its most brilliant (I guess because it's nearer than usual), at -2.6 magnitude. (Very bright objects have minus magnitudes--too long to explain; it's because of the history of calculating magnitudes.)
In the summer I lose sight of the night sky and when we get some semi-clear nights in the autumn it's like discovering a new world.
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16. How Black Holes Help Shape Their Galaxies [Video]
Astrophysicist and author Caleb Scharf talks about his article "The Benevolence of Black Holes," in the August issue of Scientific American
Black holes don't just pull stuff in—they also give back. In "The Benevolence of Black Holes," adapted from his new book Gravity's Engines, Caleb Scharf of Columbia University explains how these cosmic heavyweights shape the structures around them by spewing matter and radiation outward. In the video, Scharf talks about some of the ways a black hole can influence its surroundings.
scientificamerican.com/aug2012/black-holes
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17. Nguyen Chi Thien, a Vietnamese poet, died on October 2nd, aged 73
Oct 13th 2012 | from The Economist
THE poems were under his shirt, 400 of them. The date was July 16th 1979, just two days—he noted it—after the anniversary of the fall of the Bastille. Freedom day. He ran through the gate of the British embassy in Hanoi, past the guard, demanding to see the ambassador. The guard couldn’t stop him. In the reception area, a few Vietnamese were sitting at a table. He fought them off, and crashed the table over. In a cloakroom nearby, an English girl was doing her hair; she dropped her comb in terror. The noise brought three Englishmen out, and he thrust his sheaf of poems at one of them. Then, calm again, he let himself be arrested.
Thus Nguyen Chi Thien sent his poems out of Communist Vietnam. They were published as “Flowers of Hell”, translated into half a dozen languages, and won the International Poetry Award in 1985. He heard of this, vaguely, in his various jails. In Hoa Lo, the “Hanoi Hilton”, one of his captors furiously waved a book in his face. To his delight, he saw it was his own.
He was not strong physically. He contracted TB as a boy; his parents had to sell their house to pay for his antibiotics. Then since 1960, on various pretexts—contesting the regime’s view of history, writing “irreverent” poetry—he had done several long spells in prison and labour camp. Hard rice and salt water had made him scrawny and thin-haired by his 40s. Internally, though, he was like steel: mind, heart, soul. Sheer determination had forced him through the British embassy that day. In fact, the more the regime hurt him, the more he thrived:
They exiled me to the heart of the jungle
Wishing to fertilise the manioc with my remains.
I turned into an expert hunter
And came out full of snake wisdom and rhino fierceness.
They sank me into the ocean
Wishing me to remain in the depths.
I became a deep sea diver
And came up covered with scintillating pearls.
The pearls were his poems. He kept his early efforts in a table-drawer where he found them later, the paper gnawed by cockroaches. The mind’s treasury was a safer place for them. It was also, for almost half his life, the only place he had. In prison he was allowed no pen, paper or books. He therefore memorised in the night quiet each one of his hundreds of poems, carefully revised it for several days, and mentally filed it away. If it didn’t work, he mentally deleted it. If it started to smell bad—like the one about Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam’s first Communist leader—he turned it into a stinging dart instead:
Let the hacks with their prostituted pens
Comb his beard, pat his head, caress his arse!
To hell with him!
Walking out to till the fields with his fellow prisoners, many of them poets too, he would recite his poems to them and they would respond with theirs. Some of them counted the beats on their fingers to remember. He never did; memory alone served him. It saved him, too. After 1979 he spent the best part of eight years in solitary, in stocks or shackles in the dark. His poems became sobs, wheezes, bloody tubercular coughs. But in his mind he still set out fishing, and watched dawn overtake the stars. He sniffed the jasmine and hot noodle soup on a night street in Hanoi. He remembered his sister Hao teaching him French at six—what a paradise the French occupation seemed, in retrospect!—and went swashbuckling again with d’Artagnan and his crew. That way, he kept alive.
Drinking with Li Bai
A favourite prison companion was Li Bai, the great poet of eighth-century China. He would sup wine with him from amber cups, loll on chaises longues, watch pretty maidens weaving silk under the willow trees and the peach blossoms falling. He would talk to the moon with him and get wildly, romantically drunk. There was a flavour here of his own careless youth, his teahouse years of girls and smoking. Both he and Li Bai had offended the emperor, mocked the education system, and been punished. But somehow the oppressions of the distant past seemed bearable. Not so the acts of Vietnam’s red demons, with their nauseating loudspeaker jingles about Happiness and Light.
Out of prison, Li Bai-like, he dealt in rice brandy for a while, and tried to sell bicycle spokes. He could not make a go of it. From 1995 he managed to get shelter in America. He lived humbly in Little Saigon in Orange County, California, lodging with fellow countrymen. Green tea and smoking remained his chief comforts. A flat cap or a fedora were his trademarks. He had nothing to share but his poems and his memories of fellow poets, whose cattle-trodden graves now dotted the hills around the labour camps. That, and his roaring hatred of the regime in his country, where his writings remained banned.
If people could see his heart, he had written back in 1964, during his first spell in prison, they would see it was an ancient pen and inkstand, gathering dust; or a poor roadside inn, offering only the comfort of an oil lamp. But it was also a paddy field waiting for the flood-rains of August,
So that it can overflow into a thousand waves,
White-crested ones that will sweep everything away!
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