Rabindranath Tagore
1. Growing California Native Plants - presentation and sale of new book Sept 26
2. Thinkwalks
3. Yosemite Restoration Campaign/RecPark bond discussion Sept 24
4. Conversion of Aldo Leopold's notes into soundscapes of 1940s
5. Feedback: Chinese invasion of Tibet/atheism
6. Jack Laws book signing and discussion Sept 26
7. Gigalopolises by 2030/water chief commodity of 21st century?
8. Cherish, by Dan Liberthson
9. Tree Spade - technology gone amuck
10. A look at Dutchman's pipevine, with pictures
11. Honeycombs seem palaces to bees, and mites imagine all the world a cheese
12. Notes & Queries
1.
Growing California Native Plants (presentation and sale of new book)
Speaker: Katherine Greenberg
Wednesday, September 26, 7:30 pm
Location: Auditorium, Orinda Public Library, 24 Orinda Way, Orinda
Offered by the East Bay Chapter of the California Native Plant Society
Free and open to the public
Katherine Greenberg will talk about her contributions to the second edition of Growing California Native Plants, first published thirty years ago. In additional to the knowledge contributed by Marjorie Schmidt in the original book, Katherine has added plants, an extensive plant selection guide, 200 color photographs, and new ideas about native plant horticulture to this practical and informative reference. Katherine has been growing native plants in her Lafayette garden for three decades. She will share her experience of making a native garden inspired by the natural landscape and make suggestions for companion plants. Copies of the new book will be available for purchase at the meeting.
Katherine Greenberg is a gardener and designer with a special interest in California native plants. She was the founding president of the Friends of the Regional Parks Botanic Garden, and she is a past president of the Mediterranean Garden Society and Pacific Horticulture Society. Katherine has been involved in planning a number of educational programs, including the Growing Natives Symposium. Her garden was selected for a Garden Design Green Award in 2010, and her book, Growing California Native Plants, 2nd edition, was published by UC Press in 2012.
East Bay CNPS membership meetings are free of charge and open to everyone. This month’s meeting takes place in the Auditorium of the Orinda Public Library at 24 Orinda Way (in Orinda Village). The Auditorium is on the second floor of the building, accessible by stairs or an elevator. The Auditorium opens at 7 pm; the meeting begins at 7:30 pm.
More information, including driving directions, at http://ebcnps.org/index.php/meetings/
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2. Thinkwalks
There are currently eight tours listed on the thinkwalks.org/calendar in the next six weeks, starting with the Laguna Honda (7th Ave) watershed tour this weekend: 11 to 1 on Sunday. Please join us & RSVP!
Deep Dynamic SF Facts:
Here are new details about one of the very first SF murals. The mural still exists (though it may be in trouble), in a location where almost nobody can see it.
I was pleased (actually beside myself with excitement) to find an old issue of the Argonaut that goes into detail and even describes the 1925 mural that I believe started the whole muraling boom in SF. The article even names this Arthur Mathews mural—something not given anywhere on the internet. I updated the Thinkwalks iPhone app entry about the mural.
To give you the whole story in 200ish words, here's the blurb from the app. This way, you can also get a sample of the app (thinkwalks.org/apps).
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app name: Everything Explained
Entry Title: SF’s Mural Trend Started Here
Location: Pacific Telephone Skyscraper
Address: 140 New Montgomery Street
This 1925 skyscraper may have San Francisco’s first modern mural in its board room.
The oldest SF mural (recently rediscovered) is 150 years older, but the one here, in the gorgeous PacTel headquarters, is the one that seems to have birthed the now-flourishing mural cultures of San Francisco.
The PacTel mural was painted by Arthur Mathews, an architect, artist and furniture craftsperson. Mathews was invited by the building’s architect, Timothy Pfleuger, to paint on this plush board room’s wall.
The Mathews mural, which I’ve never seen, is called “The Art of Communication” and depicts a mountain landscape with Indian smoke signals and the telephone headquarters building itself, backlit by the sunset.
Pfleuger was approached a few years after this building went up by a sculptor named Ralph Stackpole, who suggested employing a famous Mexican leftist for a mural in a future project. That was Diego Rivera, twice-husband to popular artist Frida Kahlo.
The city became a haven for muraling. Rivera came to SF in 1930. The Socialist Realism painting style Rivera brought emerged from the Mexican Revolution of 1910. Manual laborers were celebrated and everyday street scenes were important art subjects for the first time (pretty much).
The skyscraper, once a hive of phone operators at their switchboards, now is under renovation to rent out as office space. Rumors abound about the preservation or destruction of features such as the mural. We'll see what happens.
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Joel: Pacific Telephone wasn't invented until later, was it? I thought it was Ma Bell, AT&T.
Hi Jake, The building has generally been referred to as the Pacific Telephone Building, though the name of the corporation at the time was apparently Pacific States Telephone & Telegraph Company. Here's a fun news story:
http://sf.curbed.com/archives/2012/03/08/pacific_telephone_building_scraps_plans_for_condos_moves_on_to_office_space.php?no_mobile=true
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3.
S.H.A.R.P. September General Meeting
Monday Sept. 24, 7:00 PM
1736 9th Ave. / Moraga
The Sunset Heights Association of Responsible People (S.H.A.R.P.) invites neighbors to a public forum. Hear Yosemite Restoration Campaign ( S.F. Prop F) speakers debate the ballot measure, with others analyzing the Rec. and Park bond measure among several others.
The public is invited –Bring your Neighbors
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4. Ecologists convert Aldo Leopold's notes into soundscape of 1940s Wisconsin
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-09/19/aldo-leopold-birdsong
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5. Feedback
On Sep 20, 2012, at 3:16 PM, Hans Weber wrote:
Hi Jake:
I fully agree with your statement about the destruction of Tibetan culture by Chinese settlements. As matters stand, I have no desire to visit Tibet and pay for the privilege of being shown around by Chinese guides.
However, the Chinese migration into Tibet reminds me of the relatively recent migrations of Europeans into the Americas and into Australia with similar or worse consequences for the natives. Many old cultures were destroyed. In the US and Canada, the few remaining natives were acculturated or herded into reservations that were barren and made them dependent on government handouts. As you know, history is rife of large-scale migrations that suppressed or annihilated long-standing populations. Some American Indian tribes actually believe that their tribe has occupied their home region forever; they refuse genetic analysis that would reveal their Asian origin (Bryan Sykes: DNA USA -- a genetic portrait of America, 2012).
(Conclusion: Humans are basically tribal, selfish, and lack respect for any culture except their own.)
Undeniable, and worth reminding. Thank you for that.
I particularly grieve for the Tibetans because of their culture, which was of a kind that no longer exists anywhere on earth. They had a way of looking at the world that is 180 degrees from Western Civilization. Now WC is triumphant everywhere, with no one to remind us of another way of seeing.
To boot, as I said, the Chinese couldn't have done this without help from our tourists, so we are complicit.
Burton Meyer:
Jake: More feedback on No. 7. The esteemed psychiatrist C.G. Jung said: “Atheism is an urban neurosis.”
Burton: Urban, yes. Neurosis? Even a psychoanalyst knows that this has nothing to do with neuroses. If anything, wouldn't it be the opposite? People needing something to depend on are neurotic. Taking responsibility for oneself can hardly be called neurotic. I have no idea what Jung was thinking. Freud's acerb view on the world was probably more than Jung could take.
Freud was more than I could take for a long time and I warmed to Jung because his medicine was easier to swallow. After a life of experience with my fellow human beings I now recognize sorrowfully that Freud was dead-on right about us. I wish the world were a rosier place than Freud's view of it, but I don't see how anyone can deny the harsh asperities of life, much as we would like to sugar coat them.
And humankind did without a God for most of its existence. God is a relatively recent invention. Certainly there were gods and animistic spirits, but it wasn't until the Hebrews invented monotheism around 2500 years ago that God was born. It turned out a brilliant move on their part, as it was a powerful idea, and has accounted for the success of Christianity, Islam, and others as well as Judaism. I can take God if they would just leave out the personal intervention part--which the Hebrews, Muslims, and Christians didn't. Without an outside agent interfering with the course of events, I wouldn't have any argument. That God and my Nature would then get along--as a metaphor for the way things are.
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6.
September 26, 2012, 6:00 PM
The Laws Guide to Drawing Birds
Book Signing and Discussion with John Muir Laws
Free event at the California Historical Society, 678 Mission Street,San Francisco
RSVP at drawingbirds.eventbrite.com/.
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7. SciAm
NEWS: Gigalopolises: Urban Land Area May Triple by 2030
Suburbs, slums and city centers may grow by more than a million square kilometers—much of it now home to wildlife
http://links.email.scientificamerican.com/ctt?kn=52&ms=Mzk3NTEwNjUS1&r=NTM5NzIzNTA1NgS2&b=2&j=MTU5OTQxNDQ3S0&mt=1&rt=0
CLIMATEWIRE: Will Water Become the Chief Commodity of the 21st Century?
The world faces a growing number of challenges surrounding water, from freshwater supply to flooding
http://links.email.scientificamerican.com/ctt?kn=45&ms=Mzk3NTEwNjUS1&r=NTM5NzIzNTA1NgS2&b=2&j=MTU5OTQxNDQ3S0&mt=1&rt=0
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8.
Cherish
Cherish all flesh
as you do your own,
remembering
the brain that tends it
feels pain in the bone
as you do
and in the hollow
bend of arm or leg
feels cool air pooling
to bless the skin alive
with a sense of itself.
Know that the chest
of that cough-racked
old man on the curb
is your chest, the blind
eye of the mine-ripped
child, your eye, loved
skin of your love’s
temple, sweet in its
crushable valley,
your own temple.
If you believe your blood
flows in your veins alone,
realize that all the veins
in all the world conjoin
and all blood flowing
from the start of time
is yours and mine,
feeding the same life.
Cherish all flesh, then.
© Dan Liberthson
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9. Industrial technology gone amok
Clyde Road Upgrade - Tree relocation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IV10M1RbEA
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10. Brock Dolman:
Over a decade ago I planted a Dutchman’s pipevine (Aristolochia californica) around my deck in hopes of having enough plant material to eventually entice a population of Pipevine Swallowtail Butterflies (Battus philenor) to establish themselves! That plant is now very robust and this year produced over one hundred super fat seed pods, and I have been so happy thinking about a big seed harvest towards planting out more to have enough live material to really sustain a future population of Pipevine Swallowtails!
Yet, over the past week I had noticed that the pods, which naturally slowly split open, have been fully opened up and yet not a seed to be found. But there was some roughened edges and smallish bits of balled up material on the deck below.
I had also noticed a lot of Yellow Jackets (Vespula pensylvanica) on my deck area – but had not really stopped to pause and observe the situation until this morning as many pods are now really opened up. As I lifted up a freshly opening pod to inspect for seeds – they each would have from one to 6 or more Yellow Jackets deep inside them gnawing way!
Voila – no wonder I have not had one seed from one pod yet!!
Quick look on the web found this mention below: "All parts of the pipevine plant, including the seed pods, are toxic to humans. In contrast, caterpillars can ingest the toxins, but then they become unappetizing to birds. Yellow jackets also have no problem cleaning out the pods as soon as they open."
Ahh – the wonders of nature!
I will now simply harvest a bunch of the unopened pods and bring them in to ripen so I can get the seeds and let the Yellow Jackets continue to have some as well!
Here are a few shots that I took this morning and one of some flowers this spring and shot of showing flower/pod/seed from last year!
JS: Thanks for the story, Brock.
About 15-20 years ago I planted two different genetic strains of pipevine. I wanted to attract the butterfly but I also wanted the beautiful seed pods. In all that time I have had neither. My San Francisco garden is a small island in a vast sea of houses, and I guess I also lack the pollinator, whatever it is.
However, someone else planted a vine in the Mission District, and got caterpillars the first year! Mission District is all houses. Go figure.
Phil Van Soelen:
The pipevine is pollinated by fungus gnats.
As my illustration shows, the fungus gnat enters the mouth of the flower attracted to its meaty appearance & fetid odor (not that I have ever smelled a hint of stink) and bumbles around in the chamber ends up above attracted to the skylight but gets pollen...bumbles out repeats the same series of mistakes & pollinates the flowers.
Dont know why your pipevine wasn't pollinated but you could probably encourage fungus gnats, even as a small island in a vast sea of houses.
"Nature! We are surrounded and embraced by her, and powerless to separate ourselves from her, and powerless to penetrate beyond her...We live in her midst and know her not. She is incessantly speaking to us, but betrays not her secrets...The spectacle of nature is always new, for she is always renewing the spectators" --Goethe
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11.
Thus Ants, who for a Grain employ their Cares,
Think all the business of the Earth is theirs.
Thus Honeycombs seem Palaces to Bees,
And mites imagine all the World a Cheese.
-Alexander Pope
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12. Notes & Queries, Guardian Weekly
Are humans the only species that has difficulty sleeping?
1. Polar bears are kept awake by the thought of drifting off.
2. Sheep can't sleep for counting sheep.
3. The fly on the wall has to be on permanent stand-by.
4. Bulldozers shut down for just 3.9 hours a day.
David Tucker, Halle, Germany
Sharks tend to have restful and active periods rather than enjoying uninterrupted deep sleep. Generally dolphins sleep with only one brain hemisphere in slow-wave sleep, not exactly profound slumber. And I doubt if mayflies, with a one-day life span, waste too much time sleeping.
Ursula Nixon, Bodalla, NSW, Australia
If other animals have sleep problems they have not told us! We human animals have more complex brains and hyperstimulate them with technology and drugs. Add anxiety so insomnia is likely for many of us.
Margaret Wilkes, Perth, Western Australia
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