2012.11.21

Where the light is brightest, the shadows are deepest. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

1.   Scientific editor urgently needs temporary living quarters
2.   Flight, by Dan Liberthson
3.   Dust Bowl - and California's grasslands
4.   Botanising the North Woods - Ted Kipping potluck
5.   Vegetation Mapping Workshop Jan 16-18
6.   Le Video - victim of technology?
7.   Dragonflies of North America calendar
8.   California Wildlife Festival - Nov 29
9.   UCSF Days of Fitness Dec 1-12
10. Blue-Banded Pelican Contest: Clues and Tidbits
11.  91% income tax rate - we've done it before, and thrived
12.  Promise of Blue Horses, by Joy Harjo

1.  On Nov 20, 2012, at 1:49 PM, Hans Weber wrote:
A good friend just got a senior editorial job at PLOS in San Francisco with a December 3 start date. http://www.plosone.org/home.action

It looks like a scary organization to me! Scientific publication at warp speed!!

She is looking for some sort of short-term, affordable housing until she can find an apartment. I think the PLOS office is somewhere near the Embarcadero.

Do you happen to know of anything to suggest?

Hi, Jake. Thanks so much for adding me to your newsletter. As Suzanne mentions, I'm starting work in San Francisco Dec. 3 and would love to find a studio or efficiency apartment for 1-3 months while I look for more permanent digs. The offices are across from Pier 19 on the Embarcadero in the Financial District and it would be lovely if wherever I land is a good walk to work.  Terry Monahan
###########################
2.    

Flight
Days and days of rain past,
the clouds break open,
let through a shard of blue.
Just there, at eleven o’clock,
a hovering hawk slightly rocks
side to side, tail and wing feathers
feeling to hold the wind.
Suddenly, silently, celebrant he
stoops into a double barrel-roll
to thrill his close-trailing mate.
I am wracked with adoration―
my lungs try to draw in
the whole sky while she merely
tips her wings and steadies.
I have climbed my steep yard
to flee the sour smell of brain work,
stale air sagging in the house
like the remnant in a downed balloon.
By my labor I have earned
the certainty that I am earth-bound.
I would give my whole
crabbed frontal lobe to win
what this hawk assumes
her natural due. But I must
let out my heavy breath, give back
the borrowed air and descend,
stair by stair, as new clouds lower 
and the rain begins again.            
               

Dan Liberthson  ©

#######################

3.  From California Native Grasslands Assn

Dust Bowl, by Ken Burns - http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/dustbowl/

After viewing 4 hours of sobering film footage about a past ecological disaster, here is a link to an innovative project currently being conducted in Iowa that is testing  the potential benefits of planting native grass and forbs into mixed "prairie strips" within a farmer's row crops, to improve biodiversity within a farming system.
http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/news/on-the-ground/testing-trio-prairie-strips-row-crops-and-birds

I'll leave you with a link to the National Association and Statewide Association of Resource Conservation Districts that were created in response to the Dust Bowl in order to assist farmers, ranchers and private landowners with  conservation practices designed to reduce such issues as soil erosion & invasive species, and improve water and forage quality, and biodiversity.  These organizations are fantastic local resources that are ready to answer your questions and concerns. 

http://www.nacdnet.org/about/districts/history.phtml

for CA RCDs scroll down past map for direct links

I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.  E.B. White
######################


4.  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

November 27 - Bob Case, Botanising the North Woods

########################

5.
Vegetation Mapping Workshop
UC Berkeley and Mount Tamalpais
Jan 16-18, 2012
Please join the California Native Plant Society (CNPS), California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), and Aerial Information Services (AIS) for a three-day, vegetation mapping workshop.

This workshop is a combination of field and computer exercises in fine-scale vegetation mapping.

Target Audience: Professional botanists, ecologists, resource managers, GIS and vegetation  mapping specialists. Participants should have an initial understanding of the subject matter and of GIS.

Details and Registration: http://www.cnps.org/cnps/education/workshops/

########################

6.  Le Video

From the November 2012 Sunset Beacon:
"Tchen (the owner) said she sees Le Video as a community service, not a profit center.  However, the last few years have presented serious challenges.  It started when the VHS format died almost overnight nearly a decade ago.  Like most stores, Le Video adapted, replacing VHS titles with DVDs as well as Blue-Rays.

Then the store had to compete with the digital revolution and the fact that people now don't have to get off the couch because of Netflix, on-demand options and Internet streaming to watch what they want, when they want it.  However, Le Video, which saw 14,000 customers come through its doors in the last 20 months, is looking for a little loyalty from its cinephile base.

...There's this tendency for people to lament places after they're gone.  I'm not just talking about us.  Go to green Apple Books.  Come to us.  Go to Los Weekend.  Get your ice cream at Humphry Slocome."

Full story at:  http://www.sunsetbeacon.com/archives/SunsetBeacon/2012editions/Nov12/levideo.html

"Man is in love and loves what vanishes
What more is there to say?"
  Wm Butler Yeats, Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen

###########################

7.
"Quite simply, the terrestrial world is turned by insects and a few other invertebrate groups:  the living world would probably survive the demise of all vertebrates, in greatly altered form of course, but life on land and in the sea would collapse down to a few simple plants and microorganisms without invertebrates."  Edward O. Wilson


2013 Dragonflies of North America Calendar


Produced by the Xerces Society, this 9.5″ x 12″ calendar features stunning photography of these dramatic insects, accompanied by brief notes about their natural history, behaviors, and conservation needs. Month by month you will discover new facts about dragonflies and damselflies, learn about how you can watch them in the wild, and find out how you can contribute to citizen-science projects tracking dragonflies as they migrate from Canada to Mexico.
Preview the calendar.
Calendars cost $15 each and include shipment by USPS to US addresses. They will take 2-3 weeks to arrive. If you would like holiday delivery, please place your order by November 30th.

http://www.xerces.org/calendar/


"Mysterious and little-known organisms live within reach of where you sit. Splendor awaits in minute proportions.”  E.O. Wilson

########################

8.  Kerry Kriger:
Join me for an amazing evening in celebration of California's remarkable wildlife! Michael Starkey and I will be giving presentations on frog conservation to start the evening. Afterwards, I will be performing live music on guitar, bamboo flute, ukelele, jew's harp and a variety of drums from around the world, accompanied by my brother Chad Kriger on didgeredoo and drums. Chad and I have been creating music together for 16 years. You absolutely do not want to miss this! Please forward this email to your friends to help spread the word!

Please download, print and post the PDF of the event flyer.

The California Wildlife Festival, hosted by our friends at the National Wildlife Federation
Thursday Nov 29th, 2012; Presentations 5-6pm; Music 6-8pm
The Brower Center, one of the world's most environmentally friendly buildings. 2150 Allston Way, Berkeley
Free Admission, so please bring lots of friends!
www.savethefrogs.com/events

Kerry Kriger has been playing the bansuri (bamboo flute) since 1996 and studied the classical music of northern India with the legendary flute master Pandit Vijay Raghav Rao for nearly 10 years. He has performed in the USA, Argentina, Mexico, Ghana, Australia and New Zealand and has recorded several albums. Kerry regularly gives flute lessons, and has created a website devoted to the bansuri (www.indianflutemusic.com). Kerry is also quite adept at the darabuka, a hand drum from the Middle East, and currently studies tabla with Indian drum master Samrat Kakkeri. Kerry also plays guitar, piano, jew’s harp, and ukulele.

#########################
9.
12 Days of Fitness
Free Open House, December 1-12

Get to know this hidden treasure in your neighborhood.
Work out for FREE at UCSF Millberry Fitness & Recreation Center.
Join by December 12 and save up to $289!

Free enrollment
Free December membership dues

This offer includes the use of:

• Cardio & strength machines
• 70 Group fitness classes weekly
• Free weights
• Swimming pool
• Squash & racquetball courts
• Basketball court
• Pilates studio
• Sauna
• Locker rooms
• Towel service

Contact Member Services today to find out more.
UCSF Millberry Fitness & Recreation Center
500 Parnassus Avenue, Level B1
415.476.0348, campuslifeservices.ucsf.edu/fitnessrecreation

Group Fitness classes are not included during Open House. Towel and lock rental available for small fee. Promotion applies to annual membership only.

##########################

10.  Blue-Banded Pelican Contest: Clues and Tidbits

International Bird Rescue’s Blue-Banded Pelican Sighting Contest, sponsored by Eagle Optics, which has generously donated two pairs of beautiful binoculars for our winning adult and youth contestants If you’ve been out scouting for these birds, you may have noticed that many Blue-Banded Pelicans are young and still trying to figure out how to survive on the coast, where food supplies can be limited and the odds of encountering human-related injuries are high.

This is M16, a Brown Pelican received at our Northern California center on August 30, 2011 suffering from fishing tackle injuries. Then a hatch-year (HY) bird, M16 was successfully treated and released on October 14, 2011 at Ft. Baker in Sausalito under the Golden Gate Bridge. It was not seen again until October 7, 2012 when it was spotted in Monterey.

Here you can see M16 searching for fish scraps on the Monterey Wharf near a commercial fish-processing area. We don’t always like to see our rehab birds begging and looking for scraps at such facilities, but young pelicans are by nature clever and opportunistic in finding fish. This can be to their detriment when they collide with fishermen and fish-processing activities, whether public or commercial.

The good news is that M16 was later spotted just a few days ago on October 30 at the beautiful Port San Luis Harbor in San Luis Obispo. By all accounts, the bird is doing well and can fend for itself!

With the help of state and federal wildlife agency folks, we will be targeting sites like the Monterey Wharf, working to locate where the birds are being fed and where they are being oiled by fish waste, or even subjected to abuse. Our simple goal is to limit the injuries faced by pelicans. And you’re helping out this cause tremendously by reporting Blue-Banded Pelicans like M16 that you may see.

So here’s your sighting clue for our Eagle Optics binoculars contest: Locate local public or commercial fish-processing or cleaning stations, and you’re sure to find a pelican or two in the area. We receive many of our reports from fish-processing stations, from California to Washington state.  Here is the link to report BBP’s:

http://bird-rescue.org/pelican-project/report-blue-banded-pelicans.aspx


#########################

11.
To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.     -Voltaire, born 21 November 1694


91% income tax rate?

(JS:  For decades we've done nothing but talk tax cuts; I scratched my head, thinking back to the time when the top income tax bracket was 91%.  It shows how brainwashed we have allowed ourselves to become, letting the right-wingnuts dominate the conversation, set the agenda, and define terms.

What would happen if we start ratcheting up tax rates?  Here is what would happen:  Those in pursuit of the bitch goddess Success would continue the pursuit--because that's the way they're built--but we would have less display of conspicuous consumption and obscene waste.)

Excerpted from   http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/19/opinion/krugman-the-twinkie-manifesto.html?_r=0 :

"Yet in the 1950s incomes in the top bracket faced a marginal tax rate of 91, that’s right, 91 percent, while taxes on corporate profits were twice as large, relative to national income, as in recent years. The best estimates suggest that circa 1960 the top 0.01 percent of Americans paid an effective federal tax rate of more than 70 percent, twice what they pay today."     

########################

12.


Promise of Blue Horses

A blue horse turns into a streak of lightning,
and then the sun --
relating the difference between sadness
and the need to praise
that which makes us joyful, I can't calculate
how the earth tips hungrily
toward the sun - then soaks up rain -- or the density
of this unbearable need
to be next to you. It's a palpable thing -- this earth
philosophy
and familiar in the dark
like your skin under my hand. We are a small earth. It's no
simple thing. Eventually
we will be dust together; can be used to make a house, to stop
a flood or grow food
for those who will never remember who we were, or know
that we loved fiercely.
Laughter and sadness eventually become the same song turning us
toward the nearest star --
a star constructed of eternity and elements of dust barely visible
in the twilight as you travel
east. I run with the blue horses of electricity who surround
the heart
and imagine a promise made when no promise was possible.

~ Joy Harjo ~

(How We Become Human)

2012.11.19

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
In our world of big names, curiously, our true heroes tend to be anonymous. In this life of illusion and quasi-illusion, the person of solid virtues who can be admired for something more substantial than his well-knownness often proves to be the unsung hero: the teacher, the nurse, the mother, the honest cop, the hard worker at lonely, underpaid, unglamorous, unpublicized jobs. -Daniel J Boorstin

1.   Ben Franklin wanted turkey for our national bird
2.   Consumers, attention:  We need your help
3.   SFPUC will turn your used cooking oil into biofuel
4.   SF historic property owners qualify for tax-saving under new legislation
5.   Some thoughts (rabid ones) on SF eco-district planning
6.   LTEs:  Population/nuclear power greenhouse-gas-free?
7.   Brendan Kennelly considers how a shaken love may be sustained
8.   Regional Parks District Botanic Garden lecture series/docent training starts January
9.   Fundraiser for Project Wild Thing
10. World's shrinking glaciers at Commonwealth Club Nov 23
11.  NERT training in Mission District Dec-Jan
12.  President Abraham Lincoln proposes 'compensated emancipation' of slavery
13.  No Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Wonder Bread?


1.  But did you know that Benjamin Franklin would have preferred the Wild Turkey as our national bird? Here’s what he wrote in a 1784 letter to his daughter, in response to selection of the eagle as symbol of the Cincinnati of America, a new society of revolutionary war officers:

For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.

With all this Injustice, he is never in good Case but like those among Men who live by Sharping & Robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank Coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the District. He is therefore by no means a proper Emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America who have driven all the King birds from our Country…
I am on this account not displeased that the Figure is not known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turkey. For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America… He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.

#############################
2.
The notion of progress based on domination of nature has its foundation in the "enlightened" thought of John Locke, who wrote that "land that is left wholly to nature...is called, as indeed it is, waste."  Modern civilization's failure to recognize the fundamental interconnection between humans and earth lies at the root of the current global environmental crisis and biotic Armageddon.    E.O. Wilson

Why are ecologists and environmentalists so feared and hated? This is because in part what they have to say is new to the general public, and the new is always alarming.   Garrett Hardin

Every country has three forms of wealth:  material, cultural, and biological.  The first two we understand well because they are the substance of our everyday lives.  The essence of the biodiversity problem is that biological wealth is taken much less seriously.  This is a major strategic error—one that will be increasingly regretted as time passes.    E.O. Wilson


########################

3.  SFPUC

This holiday season, recycle your used cooking oil. We’ll turn it to biofuel.

Most people cook and share meals with friends and family throughout the holidays. That means an increase in leftover used cooking oil. Used cooking oil poured down the drain will clog our sewers, and can cause street flooding – a costly mess to clean up (at $3.5 million a year).

To help minimize the amount of grease getting into our sewer system, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission has partnered with local retailers to enable residents to drop off their used cooking oil.  It is then converted to biofuel.

For convenient used cooking oil drop off sites in SF, such as Whole Foods, Costco and Rainbow Grocery, and in Treasure Island, visit SFGreasecycle.org.


############################
4.
Mills Act in Effect
Tax-saving legislation in effect for owners of qualifying historic properties

SAN FRANCISCO – Owners of historic properties in San Francisco are now able to take advantage of tax savings due to updates to the Mills Act, recently adopted by the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor. These changes will allow more eligible owners to take advantage of tax-saving legislation, while making it simpler and easier for owners to apply.

The Mills Act Program, a program developed to help promote the preservation of San Francisco’s historic landmarks, is considered the greatest economic incentive in California for private property owners of historic buildings.

A number of changes are now in effect including:
·         a timeline for processing applications in an effort to ensure timely completion;
·         a reduction in application fees:
              o    from $9,159 for residential properties, to $2500
              o    from $18,310 for commercial properties, to $5000

“These changes will improve access to the program, reduce processing costs and time and streamline the coordination between city departments, all of which makes it easier for owners to benefit from this program,” said Planning Director, John Rahaim.

These legislative changes aim to increase the number of Mills Act applications, specifically by small-scale residential and commercial properties. Other cities across the state have seen a positive impact on the reinvestment in historic properties and providing financial assistance, especially to single-family homes, small-scale residential and commercial properties due to this legislation.  For example, San Diego has 1,100 active contracts; Los Angeles currently has 601 active contracts; and Oakland’s program, which began in 2008, has 24 active contracts. To date, San Francisco only has 6 contracts in effect.

For more information on the program, visit www.sfplanning.org.


#################################

5.  On Nov 15, 2012, at 10:40 PM, Alice Polesky wrote:
Hi Jake,
This is the first I've heard of this -- haven't seen any reference to it in your newsletter (unless I missed it). Do you have any thoughts on it?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/15/san-francisco-eco-district_n_2140905.html?ref=topbar#slide=1765966
I have some thoughts, Alice.  There are so many ideas and initiatives, some good, some not so good, some goofy, some faddish, some fuzzy, some contradictory.  When I looked at the Huff URL, the first thing I saw was:  Follow:
Central Corridor Eco-District, San Francisco Eco-District, San Francisco Planning Department, San Francisco South Of Market, San Francisco Sustainability, San Francisco Eco District, Soma, San Francisco News

Whatinhell is all this?  Lacks focus. 

As if that isn't bad enough, some guy in Planning is now trying to whoop it up for Biophilic Cities (!!).  These vague terms (what is a biophilic city?) don't do anything but diffuse attention and energy.  Too theoretical.  Making changes in the world is difficult and takes a lot of work.  True, out of brainstorming and creative froth solid projects can arise.  More often they just die, especially if there are too many that are without grounding, or they may get in the way of good, realistic projects.

And what about this:
The Planning Department defined the neighborhood as a "patchwork quilt" that is "characterized by its mix of land uses and is comprised of undeveloped, under-developed and developed land owned by different property owners implementing development projects under different timeframes."

It's an area in which the city is expecting exponential growth--about 10,000 units of new housing and 35,000 new jobs. By labeling it an "eco-distrcit," the city hopes to bring a focus on sustainability into the planning process for how the neighborhood is expected to expand.

There you have it--expect exponential growth, new housing, new jobs.  "Focus on sustainability"?  Hello?  Will we ever have a mantra other than jobs, housing, sustainability?  How can we ever have "green" or "eco" anything with the crush of population necessitating more concrete, steel, paving, energy consumption, diminishing space?  If there was a fraction of conversation about population stabilization/reduction as there is about eco planning, I would begin to have a tad of hope.  Only a handful of people ever mention that, so you can eco-plan all you want, but we're still on an unsustainable path; the warning signs are everywhere.  People ridicule the GOP for being climate-deniers, but is that any worse than population-deniers?  Democrats are equally good at population denial.

Sorry for the rant.  But you know by now that I have a number of buttons that are easy to set off.

#################################

6.  LTEs, Guardian Weekly

Attenborough's warning

Sirs:  How fortunate we are to have someone of the stature of David Attenborough still around after six decades of educating us about the wonders of nature (Force of nature's stark warning, 9 November). And who better than he to pinpoint the blame for the current terrible loss of biodiversity: "...so many mouths, so many people in the west offering to pay for these forests to be cut down...", he says.

Climate change will also impact adversely on biodiversity as species move polewards or to higher altitudes to try to survive a warming Earth. Many  will be impeded by human settlements that have not been there in the past when the planet has warmed or cooled. It is one of those problems that could be solved easily if you reduced human population, as Attenborough says.

George Monbiot may claim that climate change is caused only by the richer world burning fossil fuels and the poor are not to blame (Extreme weather will cause salvation, 26 October). But it is also exploding populations who cut down forests to grow food, or intensify agriculture for greater yields. Taking everything into account in the production of food from fertilisers to machinery to transport, agriculture now accounts for 30% of greenhouse gas emissions. The more mouths, the more farming, the more emissions.
Jenny Goldie
Michelago, NSW, Australia


Proximity makes the heart grow colder.
A finite world can support only a finite population; therefore, population growth must eventually equal zero.
    Garrett Hardin

We have one globe, and it has one atmosphere.

Sirs:  Nuclear power is not a greenhouse-gas-free source of energy. That assumption has long been proven wrong. The industry is heavily dependent on fossil-fuel energy.

This is because the nuclear fuel cycle is exceptionally demanding of energy sources that exist outside its original uranium. The mining and processing of the uranium, the elaborate transport procedures necessary to move these materials with any safety, the significant carbon dioxide debt carried by the construction of the plants and the investment of energy in storing nuclear waste add up to large-scale carbon dioxide emissions.

We must add to this the energy in decommissioning and dismantling aged reactors. This will soon be a significant factor because high numbers of the world's reactors are at the end of their working lifetimes.

In July 2005 the journal Australian Science published an analysis of the greenhouse gas costs of nuclear reactors, excluding decommissioning costs. If the reactors were using the increasingly scarce high-grade uranium ores as their fuel source, the greenhouse gas cost was already high. If they were using the low-grade ores, the only ones available after 2024, the greenhouse gas emissions of the reactor become more than those for a gas-fired thermal station of the same electric output.

To all the other terrible problems associated with nuclear reactors and nuclear fission, we can safely add that of their being large emitters of greenhouse gases.
Denys Trussell
Auckland, New Zealand


###########################
7.

 
Willow

To understand
A little of how a shaken love
May be sustained

Consider
The giant stillness
Of a willow

After a storm.
This morning it is more than peaceful
But last night that great form

Was tossed and hit
By what seemed to me
A kind of cosmic hate,

An infernal desire
To harass and confuse,
Mangle and bewilder

Each leaf and limb
With every vicious
Stratagem

So that now I cannot grasp
The death of nightmare.
How it has passed away

Or changed to this
Stillness,
This clean peace

That seems so unshakable
A branch beyond my reach says
"It is well

"For me to feel
The transfiguring breath
Of evil

"Because yesterday
The roots by which I live
Lodged in apathetic clay.

"But for that fury
How should I be rid of the slow death?
How should I know

"That what a storm can do
Is to terrify my roots
And make me new?"

~ Brendan Kennelly ~

(A Time for Voices)

####################
8.
East Bay Regional Parks District Botanic Garden
The Wayne Roderick Lectures Winter 2012-2013
http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=01091d83e4aa193c78a888704&id=a894130732&e=dc1584429c

___________________________

Become a Docent at the Regional Parks Botanic Garden

DOCENT TRAINING - STARTS JANUARY  8, 2013

#########################
9.
Jake,
This might be newsletter material. It is a fundraiser for a film that I think most of us could support.
Pam Hemphill

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/projectwildthing/project-wild-thing-a-feature-length-documentary?ref=NewsNov1512&utm_campaign=Nov15&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter

############################
10.
CHASING ICE SCREENING
NOVEMBER 23, 7:30 PM
Commonwealth Club of California

With America paralyzed by the debate on climate change, a team of daring adventurers set out for the Arctic with National Geographic photographer James Balog to document the world's shrinking glaciers. With the use of revolutionary time-lapse cameras, Chasing Ice compresses years of glacial retreat into hauntingly beautiful videos that follow a world-class photographer's endeavor to deliver evidence and hope to our carbon-powered planet.

After a screening of the award-winning documentary, photographer James Balog will discuss his experience filming and documenting the vanishing Arctic glaciers.

To purchase tickets, please visit  http://bit.ly/RFpj5Z

#############################

11.  Neighborhood Emergency Response Training - NERT

The Holidays will soon be upon us and we are all busy with "things" and "stuff."  How much fun is that!

And... NERT has one more training in December!  Please include this training opportunity in your December district newsletter. This NERT Training is somewhat central but is for all people who live and work in the San Francisco.  People may live and work in different parts of the city.  This training may fit their schedule!

Please help to remind your Constituents:  During a event, all of our First Responders will be overwhelmed with the disaster.  It is critical for people in the neighborhoods to be prepared.  Through the NERT training, we learn to:

Plan - Make a plan on how you and your family will survive during this challenge and Build a Go - Kit of important and necessary items they will need.
Prepare - for an event - Water is Life - have 3 gallons of water per person per day, food, clothing medicine, etc. for at least 5 days
Mitigate  - (to make less Harsh, less severe, less painful) -think about what is necessary to have to be safe and get rid of the extra stuff
Respond - as needed to keep safe and protect your family and neighbors
Recover - If we follow the course of action above, in our Recovery phase, individuals will be have the necessary knowledge and ability to put their lives back together again faster and in good stead!

Surely, no one expected the East Coast Storm disaster to this bad!  So many everyday people in the neighborhoods are struggling to get back to normal and it continues.  We can make a difference in peoples lives.

Thank you for your continued support for the NERT program. NERT is a vital program to all citizens who live and work in San Francisco.

NERT TRAINING:

Mission District
San Francisco Fire Department Division of Training*
Folsom St. @ 19th Street
Wednesday, 6:00PM – 9:00PM                   Classes start promptly!!!
December 5: Class 1
December 12: Class 2
December 19: Class 3
January 2: Class 4
January 9: Class 5
January 16: Class 6

To register visit:  http://bit.ly/X4o8CZ,

* Note: You must attend all sessions to gain the full benefit of the training.
New students may not join on the second day of class.
A Certificate will be issued. Make ups may be approved.
Recertification - Take Class 5 & 6 -
Or Call 970-2024 or – http://www.sf-fire.org/index.aspx?page=879
 **SFFD DOT (Division of Training): 2310 Folsom Street between Shotwell & Folsom. Enter parking lot on 19th Street and park against masonry wall. DOT is the single-story building located next to Fire.   Also see:  http://www.nextmuni.com/ to arrive by Muni!

If you have any questions about the NERT program, please contact Lt. Arteseros at 415-970-2022 or email her at:  erica.arteseros@sfgov.org,

############################

12.  End of Slavery?
“The President [Abraham Lincoln] urges at great length, what he terms ‘compensated emancipation’ of slavery. He proposes to inaugurate the great jubilee with the year 1900, by payment of the owners of slaves as a mutual concession on both sides, and as a matter of justice to those who are owners of this species of property. It being quite evident that the war between slavery and freedom will continue to be waged with increased vigor, the President hopes to modify its intensity, by fixing upon a certain period, when the institution shall forever cease. He thinks this policy will shorten the war, and secure justice to all concerned; while, at the same, the country will be saved from the effects of violent and sudden changes in its domestic arrangements. This view of the case strikes us as humane, and if the more radical portion of the two sections would but accept it, as a ground of settlement, peace would again bless us; but so intensely bitter have these contending elements become, that we fear no such compromise would be acceptable or satisfactory.”

Scientific American, December 1862

##############################

13.  No Hostess Twinkies, no Ding Dongs, no Wonder Bread? 

(No worries, someone else will buy the company and make sure we continue to have a nutritious, healthy diet.  :-)

Late Bulletin:  Yes, it was all a game, see who would blink first.  Looks like we've still got Twinkies.