I'm in the middle of a rather amazing book: The Weather of the Future, by Heidi Cullen, a climatologist. She is one of many scientists trying to pin down the changes we can expect as our atmosphere absorbs more CO2 (and other greenhouse gases) and our Earth warms. Her life work is about trying to explain the relationships between humans and our environment... the subtitle of the book being "Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, and Other Scenes from a Climate-Changed Planet". The planet being our Earth.
So I was fascinated to read that a recent poll by the Pew Research Center found that Americans ranked a list of 'concerns' in the following order, in terms of national priorities: the economy, jobs, terrorism (thanks much, George), Social Security, education, energy, Medicare, health care, deficit reduction, health insurance, helping the poor, crime, moral decline, the military, tax cuts, environment, immigration lobbyists, trade policy, and global warming. In that order.
The author goes on to discuss psychological explanations for that Pew list, and the fact that we all have a 'finite pool of worry'. "It's impossible to sustain concern about global warming when other worries, like an economic collapse or a home foreclosure, dive into the pool".
"In essence, we aren't fully capable of processing global warming in the traditional human way. So we need to find a new way to look at it, a new way to look at it and break it down." Amen.
This is how we're able to justify our sins: Since it's not a threat we can see, or smell, or hear, or feel, then we naturally (and this is basically our hard-wiring from generations of experience and survival) ignore anything that doesn't present an immediate threat. And so we go about our lives with a business-as-usual attitude: We drive our cars, we fly in airplanes, we turn up our home thermostats, we buy flowers from Ecuador and lamb from New Zealand. It's all good.
Except that it's not all good. It's all bad. The final two-thirds of the book is dedicated to 'the weather of the future' in seven areas of our Earth: The Sahel, Africa; the great barrier reef, Australia; the central valley, California; the Arctic, in two parts (Canada and Greenland); Dhaka, Bangladesh; and New York, New York. Her job is to take the science of warming and translate that to likely weather events. As you might imagine, the results are not pretty.
Corvallis, Oregon is not one of her chosen focal points, but it could have been. We've just experienced the wettest March in history (that is, as long as weather records have been kept). And this is likely to be our future: wet, warm, occasional Monster Storms, hot dry summers.
What to do? That is a very personal issue... each of us must decide what we can change, how we can act to reduce our footprint. Obviously, if we're to have any chance of avoiding the 12-degree temperature rise predicted for the northern hemisphere in the next 90 years, and the one-meter sea level rise, we must change, we must abandon the 'business as usual' attitude, the 'I'm entitled to live this way because I can afford to do so' attitude. That just isn't going to work, for us or for our kids and grandkids. It's something for each of us to think about, and work on. I highly recommend Heidi's book as an exercise in potential ethical responses to the climate dilemma.
Namaste.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Obama at dinner for Obama
I get more and more confused every day.
The Times reports (Obama Returns to Harlem to Attend a Lucrative Fund-Raiser) that our President of the Unilateral War Declaration 'returned to Harlem as the nation's first African-American president, and for a $30,800-a-person fund-raiser'. The party was held at the Red Rooster restaurant, so we assume everybody got some grub for their trouble. This guy... this first African-American president... is rapidly becoming an embarrassment. His failure to protect Brad Manning from the tortures being inflicted daily is the last straw for me. And I still think he's impeachable for his role in getting us into another war without the consent of Congress.
Good News! I'm looking out our dining room window, south, and I see blue sky! Bright white clouds! A walk out onto the porch proves it... it's not raining! Now I'm sorry I threw out my sunglasses. I'll be at RiteAid to get sunscreen as soon as they open this morning.
More from the Times...the best op-ed piece they've run in a long time. Mark Bittman writes 'Why We're Fasting'. An explanation of why he has joined '...around 4000 other people in a fast to call attention to Congressional budget cuts in programs for the poor and hungry'.
Mark is/has been a food critic/chef. As he says, "I surprised myself; after all, I eat for a living". But he nails it in this column... questioning the sanity and humanity of people who can cut WIC and Food Stamp funding, knowing that 18,000,000 million Americans, including millions of children, already suffering the stresses of poverty and social humiliation, will now go to bed hungry as well. And Obama spends $500,000,000 million to bomb Libya?
Are we making sense here? I hope you'll read Mark's column, and then channel your outrage in a constructive manner. It's our only hope.
"The ordinary mind is the ceaselessly shifting and shiftless prey of external influences, habitual tendencies, and conditioning; the masters liken it to a candle flame in an open doorway, vulnerable to all the winds of circumstance". Sogyal Rinpoche
Namaste.
The Times reports (Obama Returns to Harlem to Attend a Lucrative Fund-Raiser) that our President of the Unilateral War Declaration 'returned to Harlem as the nation's first African-American president, and for a $30,800-a-person fund-raiser'. The party was held at the Red Rooster restaurant, so we assume everybody got some grub for their trouble. This guy... this first African-American president... is rapidly becoming an embarrassment. His failure to protect Brad Manning from the tortures being inflicted daily is the last straw for me. And I still think he's impeachable for his role in getting us into another war without the consent of Congress.
Good News! I'm looking out our dining room window, south, and I see blue sky! Bright white clouds! A walk out onto the porch proves it... it's not raining! Now I'm sorry I threw out my sunglasses. I'll be at RiteAid to get sunscreen as soon as they open this morning.
More from the Times...the best op-ed piece they've run in a long time. Mark Bittman writes 'Why We're Fasting'. An explanation of why he has joined '...around 4000 other people in a fast to call attention to Congressional budget cuts in programs for the poor and hungry'.
Mark is/has been a food critic/chef. As he says, "I surprised myself; after all, I eat for a living". But he nails it in this column... questioning the sanity and humanity of people who can cut WIC and Food Stamp funding, knowing that 18,000,000 million Americans, including millions of children, already suffering the stresses of poverty and social humiliation, will now go to bed hungry as well. And Obama spends $500,000,000 million to bomb Libya?
Are we making sense here? I hope you'll read Mark's column, and then channel your outrage in a constructive manner. It's our only hope.
"The ordinary mind is the ceaselessly shifting and shiftless prey of external influences, habitual tendencies, and conditioning; the masters liken it to a candle flame in an open doorway, vulnerable to all the winds of circumstance". Sogyal Rinpoche
Namaste.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
pema wisdom for a rainy day
"Not causing harm requires staying awake.
Part of being awake is slowing down enough to notice what we say and do.
The more we witness our emotional chain reactions and understand how they work, the easier it is to refrain. It becomes a way of life to stay awake, slow down, and notice." Pema Chodron
William Rivers Pitt (www.truth-out.org/the-new-American-dream68847) does an interesting essay... it's another way to define the 'them and us' that is happening despite my best efforts. "If you are wealthy, you are living in the Golden Age of your American Dream, and it's a damned fine time to be alive. The two major political parties are working hammer and tong to bless you and keep you...." Worth a few minutes to consider just how badly we've gotten off track in this country.
Speaking of off the track... It's time to impeach Obama. He unilaterally committed us to another war. No consult with the Congress, which is one of those little things the constitution requires of the American CEO. What is it about that job that drains common sense from otherwise good people? We've spent half a billion dollars in Libya (mostly for missiles and stuff), and the tab runs up at maybe $50 million per day. And when will we see the first of the American casualties? So now the Times will list deaths in 3 categories... Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya. Who's next? Yemen? What an unholy mess we are, and Obama is certainly not helping with his ego-driven madness. Thus I've recommended his impeachment, which I hope happens soon. Joe, get ready to Man Up!
Some advice for Obama from Shantideva:
When one intends to move or speak,
One should first examine one's own mindd
and then act appropriately with composure.
I'm not much for prayer, but a few more rainy gloomy days like this one and I may start. Namaste.
Part of being awake is slowing down enough to notice what we say and do.
The more we witness our emotional chain reactions and understand how they work, the easier it is to refrain. It becomes a way of life to stay awake, slow down, and notice." Pema Chodron
William Rivers Pitt (www.truth-out.org/the-new-American-dream68847) does an interesting essay... it's another way to define the 'them and us' that is happening despite my best efforts. "If you are wealthy, you are living in the Golden Age of your American Dream, and it's a damned fine time to be alive. The two major political parties are working hammer and tong to bless you and keep you...." Worth a few minutes to consider just how badly we've gotten off track in this country.
Speaking of off the track... It's time to impeach Obama. He unilaterally committed us to another war. No consult with the Congress, which is one of those little things the constitution requires of the American CEO. What is it about that job that drains common sense from otherwise good people? We've spent half a billion dollars in Libya (mostly for missiles and stuff), and the tab runs up at maybe $50 million per day. And when will we see the first of the American casualties? So now the Times will list deaths in 3 categories... Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya. Who's next? Yemen? What an unholy mess we are, and Obama is certainly not helping with his ego-driven madness. Thus I've recommended his impeachment, which I hope happens soon. Joe, get ready to Man Up!
Some advice for Obama from Shantideva:
When one intends to move or speak,
One should first examine one's own mindd
and then act appropriately with composure.
I'm not much for prayer, but a few more rainy gloomy days like this one and I may start. Namaste.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
notes on the enthusiasm gap + A B O
You see it here first: A B O. That stands for Anybody But Obama. For our next election. Remember how much hope we had? How hard we worked to get Obama elected? How depressed we had been by the Bush antics for 8 years? Well folks, I hate to say it, but there really ain't much difference between the two. Okay... Obama has about 50 IQ points on Bush, and about 9 years more education, and he's 231 times as articulate as Bush. But the real differences? Not so many. We're still very much in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now Libya... the most recent war being started exactly as the first two, except that Obama forgot to even mention the involvement to Congress, which makes his action (bombing Libya) very much like those of Mr. Ghaddafi. So I've started the campaign... yep, it might be Sarah! But if it's Sarah (my Dream Team is Sarah/Arnold)... well, at least she'll be honest.
What got me started on this? Take a minute to check out HuffPost Green... click on the Bill McKibben essay about his experience bringing one of the solar panels (the original panels put up by the Carter admin and removed as one of RR's first presidential actions) back to the White House last September. Ugly ugly ugly. About as bad as politics can get. Or worse. And this is Obama! Anyway, the essay is entitled 'Notes on the Enthusiasm Gap', and it's worth a few minutes to learn a bit more about how politics work in DC. (No, that's not direct current... in fact, very far from it). It is pathetic, but it is the Obama reality... he's been bought, big time, by Big Oil, Big Banksters, Big Weapons and War, and more and more. He was for sale, and he sold himself to the highest bidders. Another gut-wrenching example was his choice of the GE CEO to play a role at the White House... the same GE that made $14 billion last year and paid not one cent of income tax. Let's hear it for Obama! (NOT)
What got me started on this? Take a minute to check out HuffPost Green... click on the Bill McKibben essay about his experience bringing one of the solar panels (the original panels put up by the Carter admin and removed as one of RR's first presidential actions) back to the White House last September. Ugly ugly ugly. About as bad as politics can get. Or worse. And this is Obama! Anyway, the essay is entitled 'Notes on the Enthusiasm Gap', and it's worth a few minutes to learn a bit more about how politics work in DC. (No, that's not direct current... in fact, very far from it). It is pathetic, but it is the Obama reality... he's been bought, big time, by Big Oil, Big Banksters, Big Weapons and War, and more and more. He was for sale, and he sold himself to the highest bidders. Another gut-wrenching example was his choice of the GE CEO to play a role at the White House... the same GE that made $14 billion last year and paid not one cent of income tax. Let's hear it for Obama! (NOT)
Thursday, March 24, 2011
an exciting idea...!
You may have read my post suggesting that our public library is no longer affordable, and that we need to get busy on realistic alternatives. My prayers are answered! A NYTimes op-ed piece today..."A Digital Library Better Than Google's" by Robert Darnton, director of the Harvard University Library... suggests that we (the American public) should "... build a digital public library, including all the books published in the world (both past and future), which would provide these digital copies free of charge to readers." What an incredible asset that would be! More quotes: "A number of countries are also determined to ...scan the entire contents of their national libraries". Example: The National Library of the Netherlands is trying to digitalize every Dutch book and periodical published since 1470; Australia, Finland, France and Norway are undertaking their own efforts, according to Darnton.
This, friends, is the kind of idea that will enable us to survive the threat of climate change. This is what is possible with current technology. This is what we can do to lower our collective carbon footprint to a point where we avoid the scientific 'tipping points' that we're so rapidly approaching. Imagine: In one fell swoop we could close every public library in the country. How many times have we driven to the library to pick up some books? Our grandchildren will marvel at that idea.
Another recommended read: On page 100 of the April 2011 National Geographic magazine, an article about The Acid Sea by Elizabeth Kolbert, my favorite environmental writer. Excellent, and very very sobering.
Sunny and 84 in Corvallis today. Not! Not! We're about to set a record for most rainy days in March... 28! Not fair! Not fair! (I miss my Mexican beach town).
Namaste.
Kirk
This, friends, is the kind of idea that will enable us to survive the threat of climate change. This is what is possible with current technology. This is what we can do to lower our collective carbon footprint to a point where we avoid the scientific 'tipping points' that we're so rapidly approaching. Imagine: In one fell swoop we could close every public library in the country. How many times have we driven to the library to pick up some books? Our grandchildren will marvel at that idea.
Another recommended read: On page 100 of the April 2011 National Geographic magazine, an article about The Acid Sea by Elizabeth Kolbert, my favorite environmental writer. Excellent, and very very sobering.
Sunny and 84 in Corvallis today. Not! Not! We're about to set a record for most rainy days in March... 28! Not fair! Not fair! (I miss my Mexican beach town).
Namaste.
Kirk
more on unintended consequences...
I'm fascinated by the global scale of 'unintended consequences'. Our choices are important. Here's an example:
The U.S. imports about 90% of the nuclear fuel we use in our nuclear-powered electrical generating plants. Some of that fuel...quite a lot in some years... comes from the Ranger Uranium Mines and Mills in Ranger, Australia. There is a publication, updated monthly, entitled 'Issues at Operating Uranium Mines and Mills in Ranger, Australia'. In the issue dated March 11, 2011, there are several very sobering headlines, including but not limited to:
Water level in Ranger tailings dam nears limit.
Processing at Ranger uranium mill suspended for 12 weeks due to high water levels in tailings impoundment after heavy rainfall.
Yellowcake truck gets stuck in Kakadu National Park (a World Heritage-listed nature reserve.
Traditional Owners of Ranger uranium mine site alarmed by new spills into Kakadu National Park, call into question mine expansion project.
Since this last one is particularly fascinating in an 'unintended consequences' sense, let's look at a quote:
"Millions of litres of radioactive water from the Ranger uranium mine have flowed into internationally acclaimed and World Heritage-listed wetlands in Kakadu National Park. Traditional owners say they will oppose plans for a huge expansion of the 30-year-old mine by Energy Resources of Australia, unless the company upgrades outdated environmental protection procedures.
The Rio Tinto-owned ERA has tried to play down an alarming and unexplained spike in contamination in water flowing from the mine into Kakadu's Magela Creek between April 9 and 11, 2010, The Age can reveal. About 40 Aborigines live downstream from a site where a measure probe recorded up to five times the warning level of electrical conductivity, which is a measure of contaminants including uranium, sulphate and radium. Environmental group Environment Center Northern Territory has been shown evidence showing the spike, which ERA representatives said had originated upstream from the mine and was not ERA's fault. But, asked about the contamination, ERA admitted the source "could not be determined and investigations are continuing". "It is possible that these have come from the Ranger operations," it said. ERA's handling of the spike and other environmental concerns about the mine have strained its relations with the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation, which represents the Mirarr traditional owners.
In another unreported mishap at the mine, in December 2009 a poorly-engineered dam collapsed, spilling 6 million litres of radioactive water into the Gulungul Creek, which flows into Kakadu."
So... does it matter? Does that population of 'traditional owners' matter? The report goes on and on, and includes a description of plans for an expansion of the mining operations to meet global demand for processed uranium yellowcake; those plans include "...a heap leaching plant, a tunnel under flood plains, a 1000-person accomodation village, 650 evaportation ponds and a one-square-kilometer tailings dam. The expansion would extend the mine's operation to at least 2021".
From a Buddhist perspective, there's only one possible reaction to news like this: Live off the grid! As long as we're sucking down electricity made from nuclear power plants, we're responsible for the degradation of the precious wetlands that sustain those natives in the national park. More later.
Namaste.
Kirk
The U.S. imports about 90% of the nuclear fuel we use in our nuclear-powered electrical generating plants. Some of that fuel...quite a lot in some years... comes from the Ranger Uranium Mines and Mills in Ranger, Australia. There is a publication, updated monthly, entitled 'Issues at Operating Uranium Mines and Mills in Ranger, Australia'. In the issue dated March 11, 2011, there are several very sobering headlines, including but not limited to:
Water level in Ranger tailings dam nears limit.
Processing at Ranger uranium mill suspended for 12 weeks due to high water levels in tailings impoundment after heavy rainfall.
Yellowcake truck gets stuck in Kakadu National Park (a World Heritage-listed nature reserve.
Traditional Owners of Ranger uranium mine site alarmed by new spills into Kakadu National Park, call into question mine expansion project.
Since this last one is particularly fascinating in an 'unintended consequences' sense, let's look at a quote:
"Millions of litres of radioactive water from the Ranger uranium mine have flowed into internationally acclaimed and World Heritage-listed wetlands in Kakadu National Park. Traditional owners say they will oppose plans for a huge expansion of the 30-year-old mine by Energy Resources of Australia, unless the company upgrades outdated environmental protection procedures.
The Rio Tinto-owned ERA has tried to play down an alarming and unexplained spike in contamination in water flowing from the mine into Kakadu's Magela Creek between April 9 and 11, 2010, The Age can reveal. About 40 Aborigines live downstream from a site where a measure probe recorded up to five times the warning level of electrical conductivity, which is a measure of contaminants including uranium, sulphate and radium. Environmental group Environment Center Northern Territory has been shown evidence showing the spike, which ERA representatives said had originated upstream from the mine and was not ERA's fault. But, asked about the contamination, ERA admitted the source "could not be determined and investigations are continuing". "It is possible that these have come from the Ranger operations," it said. ERA's handling of the spike and other environmental concerns about the mine have strained its relations with the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation, which represents the Mirarr traditional owners.
In another unreported mishap at the mine, in December 2009 a poorly-engineered dam collapsed, spilling 6 million litres of radioactive water into the Gulungul Creek, which flows into Kakadu."
So... does it matter? Does that population of 'traditional owners' matter? The report goes on and on, and includes a description of plans for an expansion of the mining operations to meet global demand for processed uranium yellowcake; those plans include "...a heap leaching plant, a tunnel under flood plains, a 1000-person accomodation village, 650 evaportation ponds and a one-square-kilometer tailings dam. The expansion would extend the mine's operation to at least 2021".
From a Buddhist perspective, there's only one possible reaction to news like this: Live off the grid! As long as we're sucking down electricity made from nuclear power plants, we're responsible for the degradation of the precious wetlands that sustain those natives in the national park. More later.
Namaste.
Kirk
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
please take a few minutes...
Those of you who see the New York Times regularly will recognize the 'Names of the Dead' column. I quote the entire column from page A14 of the Tuesday, March 22, 2011 paper:
"The Department of Defense has identified 4,430 American service members who have died since the start of the Iraq war and 1,493 who have died as part of the Afghan war and related operations. It confirmed the deaths of the following Americans recently:
Iraq
HINKLE, Michael J II, 24, Senior Airman, Air Force; Corona, Calif.; 28th Communications Squadron.
Afghanistan
ACOSTA, Rudy A., 19, Pfc., Army; Canyon Country, Calif.; Fourth Squadron, Second Stryker Cavalry.
McDANIEL, Mecolus C., 33, Staff Sgt., Army; Fort Hood, Tex.; First Infantry Division.
MEIS, Christopher S., 20, Lance Cpl., Marines; Bennett, Colo.; Second Marine Division.
MICKLER, Donald R. Jr., 29, Corporal, Army; Bucyrus, Ohio; Fourth Squadron, Second Stryker Cavalry.
TOMPKINS, Travis M., 31, Staff Sgt., Army; Lawton, Okla.; 10th Mountain Division.
No comment necessary.
Kirk
"The Department of Defense has identified 4,430 American service members who have died since the start of the Iraq war and 1,493 who have died as part of the Afghan war and related operations. It confirmed the deaths of the following Americans recently:
Iraq
HINKLE, Michael J II, 24, Senior Airman, Air Force; Corona, Calif.; 28th Communications Squadron.
Afghanistan
ACOSTA, Rudy A., 19, Pfc., Army; Canyon Country, Calif.; Fourth Squadron, Second Stryker Cavalry.
McDANIEL, Mecolus C., 33, Staff Sgt., Army; Fort Hood, Tex.; First Infantry Division.
MEIS, Christopher S., 20, Lance Cpl., Marines; Bennett, Colo.; Second Marine Division.
MICKLER, Donald R. Jr., 29, Corporal, Army; Bucyrus, Ohio; Fourth Squadron, Second Stryker Cavalry.
TOMPKINS, Travis M., 31, Staff Sgt., Army; Lawton, Okla.; 10th Mountain Division.
No comment necessary.
Kirk
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
fun Tuesday, with some cops for company
The day started with a beautiful walk. Dark, misting gently, a little early at Starbucks (they don't open until 5). Michael, a regular, explained in some detail how he's studying happiness... learning all he can before he begins to grow his prospering machine-tool company. He thinks happy people, or people who think of themselves as happy, will make the best employees. His job is to find those happy people. We talked a bit about the Bhutanese GHP, or the measure of national Gross Happiness Product. Imagine if our GNP was GHP? Susan suggested The Art of Happiness, A Handbook for Living, by the Dalai Lama. The jacket says, "Nearly every time you see him, he's laughing or at least smiling. And he makes everyone else around him feel like smiling". It's true, I think... despite a remarkably difficult and frustrating career, he does convince his audience that happiness is inevitable and that "the very motion of our lives is toward happiness". I think Michael will enjoy the book.
Then home for some breakfast (a quarter of a strawberry/blueberry pie!), a quick trip over to Elder to deliver Lyle to school, and... here's where it gets fun!... a journey to the Radiation Center on the OSU campus. Yes, fun! My poster says, on one side: Kill the OSU Nuke! and on the other side, Before It Kills Us! It was cold to be out there, and lonely... until the cops started doing their drive-by stuff. It took about 5 minutes for the first one to show up. An Oregon State Police guy in one of those nasty black growling muscle cars. He drove by at minimum speed, eyeing me and my potential to be a pain in the ass... mid-block he grabbed his mike and had a chat with somebody. Turn around, slowly slowly past me again. The nuke building is a 60s-era nondescript building directly across 35th St. from the EPA Oregon headquarters. Not much to look at. With a sidewalk running the full length of the south side, parking on the east, parking on the north, and 35th on the west. I was just pacing slowly, turning my sign for the traffic to see both sides, eyeing the cop. He drove off. Five minutes, another cop... this one from the campus police. Slowly slowly, talking on the radio, down to the corner, around again, slowly slowly past me again. Meanwhile, I'm speeding up a bit... too cold to be so slow. Sure enough, here comes another cop... full uniform, including hat, but in an unmarked car. Maybe this is why nukes are so expensive? A few people showed up for work, all on bikes (this is, after all, Corvallis). They read my sign and went inside. I lasted a bit more than an hour... then decided it was too cold to continue. I needed hot coffee, which I had hoped one of the cops would bring me... alas, they didn't think of it. Bummer.
You might ask why I was out there wasting my time. Good point. It's the ethics of the thing... the fact that the nuclear-reaction process, the heating of all that water to make electricity, leaves behind a waste that will be potentially deadly for thousands of years! What kind of legacy is that to leave for the next few hundreds of human generations? And they will have no choice in the matter. If they do not deal with our nuclear waste properly, they will die. They will rot. This is the reason we (Susan, Liv, Heidi and I) were at the Peach Bottom Atomic Station on April 7, 1988 to protest the re-starting of the two nuclear reactors located there... just 23 miles east of our farm in Norrisville. Those two reactors, by the way, were the same design, and roughly the same vintage, as the troublesome plants in Japan today. Anyway, we spent a day carrying the protest signs, and we went home, and they fired up the nukes. Ack!
An aside on the OSU nuke: A week ago I made two public-records requests... one for a copy of the building permit issued to OSU for housing the nuke (a fairly new technology in the early 60s, and one that must have confounded the Building Code guys in the city offices), and the other for a copy of the final sign-off papers on the completed building. No response yet from the city... but they're on deadline, and must respond this week. Ha!
The afternoon was warm (56!) and sunny, so we hiked the Old Growth trail just north of us in the Coast Range foothills. An afternoon devoted to Green... green mosses, green ferns, green trees, green leaves on the few spring wildflowers blooming this early. Ya just gotta love the greens of spring!
Kirk
Then home for some breakfast (a quarter of a strawberry/blueberry pie!), a quick trip over to Elder to deliver Lyle to school, and... here's where it gets fun!... a journey to the Radiation Center on the OSU campus. Yes, fun! My poster says, on one side: Kill the OSU Nuke! and on the other side, Before It Kills Us! It was cold to be out there, and lonely... until the cops started doing their drive-by stuff. It took about 5 minutes for the first one to show up. An Oregon State Police guy in one of those nasty black growling muscle cars. He drove by at minimum speed, eyeing me and my potential to be a pain in the ass... mid-block he grabbed his mike and had a chat with somebody. Turn around, slowly slowly past me again. The nuke building is a 60s-era nondescript building directly across 35th St. from the EPA Oregon headquarters. Not much to look at. With a sidewalk running the full length of the south side, parking on the east, parking on the north, and 35th on the west. I was just pacing slowly, turning my sign for the traffic to see both sides, eyeing the cop. He drove off. Five minutes, another cop... this one from the campus police. Slowly slowly, talking on the radio, down to the corner, around again, slowly slowly past me again. Meanwhile, I'm speeding up a bit... too cold to be so slow. Sure enough, here comes another cop... full uniform, including hat, but in an unmarked car. Maybe this is why nukes are so expensive? A few people showed up for work, all on bikes (this is, after all, Corvallis). They read my sign and went inside. I lasted a bit more than an hour... then decided it was too cold to continue. I needed hot coffee, which I had hoped one of the cops would bring me... alas, they didn't think of it. Bummer.
You might ask why I was out there wasting my time. Good point. It's the ethics of the thing... the fact that the nuclear-reaction process, the heating of all that water to make electricity, leaves behind a waste that will be potentially deadly for thousands of years! What kind of legacy is that to leave for the next few hundreds of human generations? And they will have no choice in the matter. If they do not deal with our nuclear waste properly, they will die. They will rot. This is the reason we (Susan, Liv, Heidi and I) were at the Peach Bottom Atomic Station on April 7, 1988 to protest the re-starting of the two nuclear reactors located there... just 23 miles east of our farm in Norrisville. Those two reactors, by the way, were the same design, and roughly the same vintage, as the troublesome plants in Japan today. Anyway, we spent a day carrying the protest signs, and we went home, and they fired up the nukes. Ack!
An aside on the OSU nuke: A week ago I made two public-records requests... one for a copy of the building permit issued to OSU for housing the nuke (a fairly new technology in the early 60s, and one that must have confounded the Building Code guys in the city offices), and the other for a copy of the final sign-off papers on the completed building. No response yet from the city... but they're on deadline, and must respond this week. Ha!
The afternoon was warm (56!) and sunny, so we hiked the Old Growth trail just north of us in the Coast Range foothills. An afternoon devoted to Green... green mosses, green ferns, green trees, green leaves on the few spring wildflowers blooming this early. Ya just gotta love the greens of spring!
Kirk
Monday, March 21, 2011
corvallis ungovernment...
I've been neglecting the local issues... the days seem to be so filled with news from Asia and Africa. But... act globally, act locally... is that what they advise? Anyway...
The main local issues right now, the ones needing immediate attention, are two-fold: The infamous Nelson Levy and the new Nelson 'fees' tacked onto our water bills. The feds, by the way, don't include local tax increases in their calculations of 'inflation'... if they did, our inflation rate would be impressive.
The fees are dumb, and should be rescinded. Especially the 'free bus' thing... if ever there was a service that begged for a 'user fee', this is it. Some of us choose to use the Corvallis bus. Great. Keeps cars and bikes off the road. But to expect everyone to pay my way to downtown... that ain't right. My advice to our very wise and intellectual City Council... rescind the so-called 'sustainability fees', let the bus riders pay for their ride, let us go back to the original situation regarding sidewalks and trees. The fees are dumb, unnecessary, and were not voted on by those of us forced to pay them. Taxation without representation... didn't that same trick start our last revolution? Is it time for another?
And the levy. The Nelson Levy. It will pass, I think, simply because so many of our fellow citizens stand to directly gain from the 'levy'. In another post, I suggested the fair and democratic approach would be for all city, county and school employees to burn their ballots. Let those of us who will pay the bills vote on the issue, and exclude the ones whose paychecks are directly affected by the Nelson Levy. The Nelson threats to shutter the aquatic center, the library and the senior center are just flat incredible. What a way to run a democracy! Dang! This Nelson character never in his life ran for office, yet he feels compelled to ruin our lives. Dang! Is that democracy?
Speaking of... I've requested information regarding the carbon footprints of the institutions in question. Back to user fees... why should everyone have to pay to keep the pool open? You want to swim... pay the fee and swim. The carbon footprint of the aquatic center, by the way, is pretty huge... haven't added the numbers, but it looks like some thousands of tons (again, thousands of tons) of carbon dioxide annually. Is that a good thing in a city that has pledged to make itself carbon neutral?
The solution: Sell the aquatic center to the highest bidder. Let it be run by a private-sector entity as a for-profit business. Take the money from the sale and invest it to pay for the operation of other city business... like, our beloved library. The City of Corvallis should never have gotten into the pool business, and it's time to admit that and move on. Meantime, we must defeat the Nelson Tax by whatever means it takes.
Note that there are two other pools in the city... the Timberhill pools(you want to swim? Pay and swim!) and the OSU pool (built for competition... so the teams that now swim at the city facility could just go up the hill and use the OSU pool, which is also a public facility). A win-win for all!
So my new motto: Sell the Aquatic Center. I'll write to the GT with the idea.
The library is an interesting subject. I don't have the carbon footprint yet, but I suspect it's horrendous (on an annual basis) with all the heating and air conditioning. Can we think outside the box for a minute? Let's sell the library too! First, consider the fact that there's a great library just up the hill, the Valley Library at OSU. For a dollar a year, you can use that library... read the periodicals, check out books, read 80-year-old PhD theses. Whatever. Please note: E-books are the future of publishing, and of reading. They're everywhere. You can carry 35 books on one little tablet (like the Kindle) in your bike pannier. Sit at your desk, download the book of your choice, read it and erase it (or the library, or the publisher, might erase it). Listen... if we're talking carbon footprints and climate-change, which I think we must, then 'the library' needs to evolve.
One important factor that would be missed in that plan is the books for kids. They're important. A comfortable kids' library is essential for our quality of life. So...sell the existing library and use the funds to establish a trust fund to finance and operate a kids' library in downtown Corvallis. There are lots of potential empty spaces available for very little money. Make the space kid-friendly (visit the Toy Factory for ideas), give the downtown a permanent economic boost (those kids and their grandfathers will be buying treats at New Morning and books at Grass Roots), and eveybody is happy! Think about it, please. I know change is difficult. I also know we must do some pretty radical stuff if we're to avoid the 'tipping points' that climate scientists are saying are right on our horizon. Let's get radical!
I'll address the Senior Center after I get the carbon-footprint data.
Enjoy this beautiful spring evening in Corvallis!
Namaste.
Kirk
The main local issues right now, the ones needing immediate attention, are two-fold: The infamous Nelson Levy and the new Nelson 'fees' tacked onto our water bills. The feds, by the way, don't include local tax increases in their calculations of 'inflation'... if they did, our inflation rate would be impressive.
The fees are dumb, and should be rescinded. Especially the 'free bus' thing... if ever there was a service that begged for a 'user fee', this is it. Some of us choose to use the Corvallis bus. Great. Keeps cars and bikes off the road. But to expect everyone to pay my way to downtown... that ain't right. My advice to our very wise and intellectual City Council... rescind the so-called 'sustainability fees', let the bus riders pay for their ride, let us go back to the original situation regarding sidewalks and trees. The fees are dumb, unnecessary, and were not voted on by those of us forced to pay them. Taxation without representation... didn't that same trick start our last revolution? Is it time for another?
And the levy. The Nelson Levy. It will pass, I think, simply because so many of our fellow citizens stand to directly gain from the 'levy'. In another post, I suggested the fair and democratic approach would be for all city, county and school employees to burn their ballots. Let those of us who will pay the bills vote on the issue, and exclude the ones whose paychecks are directly affected by the Nelson Levy. The Nelson threats to shutter the aquatic center, the library and the senior center are just flat incredible. What a way to run a democracy! Dang! This Nelson character never in his life ran for office, yet he feels compelled to ruin our lives. Dang! Is that democracy?
Speaking of... I've requested information regarding the carbon footprints of the institutions in question. Back to user fees... why should everyone have to pay to keep the pool open? You want to swim... pay the fee and swim. The carbon footprint of the aquatic center, by the way, is pretty huge... haven't added the numbers, but it looks like some thousands of tons (again, thousands of tons) of carbon dioxide annually. Is that a good thing in a city that has pledged to make itself carbon neutral?
The solution: Sell the aquatic center to the highest bidder. Let it be run by a private-sector entity as a for-profit business. Take the money from the sale and invest it to pay for the operation of other city business... like, our beloved library. The City of Corvallis should never have gotten into the pool business, and it's time to admit that and move on. Meantime, we must defeat the Nelson Tax by whatever means it takes.
Note that there are two other pools in the city... the Timberhill pools(you want to swim? Pay and swim!) and the OSU pool (built for competition... so the teams that now swim at the city facility could just go up the hill and use the OSU pool, which is also a public facility). A win-win for all!
So my new motto: Sell the Aquatic Center. I'll write to the GT with the idea.
The library is an interesting subject. I don't have the carbon footprint yet, but I suspect it's horrendous (on an annual basis) with all the heating and air conditioning. Can we think outside the box for a minute? Let's sell the library too! First, consider the fact that there's a great library just up the hill, the Valley Library at OSU. For a dollar a year, you can use that library... read the periodicals, check out books, read 80-year-old PhD theses. Whatever. Please note: E-books are the future of publishing, and of reading. They're everywhere. You can carry 35 books on one little tablet (like the Kindle) in your bike pannier. Sit at your desk, download the book of your choice, read it and erase it (or the library, or the publisher, might erase it). Listen... if we're talking carbon footprints and climate-change, which I think we must, then 'the library' needs to evolve.
One important factor that would be missed in that plan is the books for kids. They're important. A comfortable kids' library is essential for our quality of life. So...sell the existing library and use the funds to establish a trust fund to finance and operate a kids' library in downtown Corvallis. There are lots of potential empty spaces available for very little money. Make the space kid-friendly (visit the Toy Factory for ideas), give the downtown a permanent economic boost (those kids and their grandfathers will be buying treats at New Morning and books at Grass Roots), and eveybody is happy! Think about it, please. I know change is difficult. I also know we must do some pretty radical stuff if we're to avoid the 'tipping points' that climate scientists are saying are right on our horizon. Let's get radical!
I'll address the Senior Center after I get the carbon-footprint data.
Enjoy this beautiful spring evening in Corvallis!
Namaste.
Kirk
And... furthermore...
There is much good writing and thinking coming out of Japan these days. I'd like to quote Dr. Satoru Ikeuchi, a Japanese astrophysicist:
"Humans have become increasingly arrogant, believing they have conquered nature. Scientists and engineers have forgotten their larger responsibilities to society. Our excessive consumption of energy has somehow become part of our very character; it is something we no longer think twice about. We have fallen into the trap of being stupified by civilization".
'stupified by civilization'. That's a translation, of course, but I suspect it's very close to what he was intending to say. For a long time, I've felt that the arrogance of the scientific community was a very dangerous thing. It is next to impossible to criticize a scientist without some pretty nasty feedback... they seem to be threatened when we (the peasants) dare to complain about any scientific position. And this, I believe, is why Al Gore has failed with his climate initiative... the scientific community has no way to defend itself against critics except to say "hey, get outta my face. We're tellin' ya what is...". And so often time allows for changes in the 'scientic consensus', further casting doubt on the entire field. A damn shame.
Interesting proof of these doubts: We've heard from how many experts over the past week that there 'is no chance there will be negative health consequences for Americans from the Japanese nuclear situation'? The same theme... don't worry, be happy... as the plume spreads globally. Try this: go down to your local pharmacy and try to buy a batch of the stuff that is supposed to help us when we're exposed to the nasty (and invisible) products of the nuclear meltdowns. I called our local drugstore. They laughed at me. I asked where I might get some. "Try the web... but you're gonna pay a pile". So for any scientists out there: You folks need to put less energy into designing chemicals and more energy into finding ways to get the 7,000,000,000 non-scientists on Earth to believe in you and your work. Your lack of credibility is hurting all of us.
On an up note: Take a look at the NYTimes Travel section, Sunday, 3/20. The title is 'Asia Up Close 2011'. It's worth a look, even if you have no plans to be in Luang Prabang next fall.
Namaste.
Kirk
"Humans have become increasingly arrogant, believing they have conquered nature. Scientists and engineers have forgotten their larger responsibilities to society. Our excessive consumption of energy has somehow become part of our very character; it is something we no longer think twice about. We have fallen into the trap of being stupified by civilization".
'stupified by civilization'. That's a translation, of course, but I suspect it's very close to what he was intending to say. For a long time, I've felt that the arrogance of the scientific community was a very dangerous thing. It is next to impossible to criticize a scientist without some pretty nasty feedback... they seem to be threatened when we (the peasants) dare to complain about any scientific position. And this, I believe, is why Al Gore has failed with his climate initiative... the scientific community has no way to defend itself against critics except to say "hey, get outta my face. We're tellin' ya what is...". And so often time allows for changes in the 'scientic consensus', further casting doubt on the entire field. A damn shame.
Interesting proof of these doubts: We've heard from how many experts over the past week that there 'is no chance there will be negative health consequences for Americans from the Japanese nuclear situation'? The same theme... don't worry, be happy... as the plume spreads globally. Try this: go down to your local pharmacy and try to buy a batch of the stuff that is supposed to help us when we're exposed to the nasty (and invisible) products of the nuclear meltdowns. I called our local drugstore. They laughed at me. I asked where I might get some. "Try the web... but you're gonna pay a pile". So for any scientists out there: You folks need to put less energy into designing chemicals and more energy into finding ways to get the 7,000,000,000 non-scientists on Earth to believe in you and your work. Your lack of credibility is hurting all of us.
On an up note: Take a look at the NYTimes Travel section, Sunday, 3/20. The title is 'Asia Up Close 2011'. It's worth a look, even if you have no plans to be in Luang Prabang next fall.
Namaste.
Kirk
spring!
Just what we expect for the beginning of spring... the perfect mix of cloud and sun, the gently-leaking sky, the happiness of daffodils and bluebirds and little kids on bikes. And... special treat for me... I got to deliver my grandson to school, complete with the very cool rocketship he and his father made! Always a joy to see this boy, his school, his work. Being a grandfather is just the best!
Important note: The recent 9.0 quake in Japan bent the tip of the 1093' Tokyo Tower, a 50s-era skyscraper intended to celebrate the success of post-war Japan (the tower was built in the mid-50s). Could be a nasty job to straighten it?
We've all read about the wonders of quinoa. Virtually all quinoa is grown in Bolivia, that very poor land-locked South American nation that we hear very little about. Anyway, quinoa is unique in the plant world: an unrivaled balance of proteins and amino acids. It is not a grain; it's a member of the spinach family. Anyway, the reason we've heard of it is that it's a very cool food, easy to cook and to digest. We have a jar of it on our kitchen counter. We love it. So... guess what! As always, there are the unintended consequences... as demand (from rich Westerners like us) rises, the Bolivians are pumping nearly 100% of their production into the export market. Prices have soared, naturally, and so has the average income of the Bolivian grower of quinoa. But... hold your hat... chronic malnutrition has become a cultural plague as families substitute things like pasta and rice for the traditional staple in their diet. The poor kids are literally starving because their parents are selling their quinoa to us. Is this a complex world or what?
We're in another war today.
A bill passed by the New Hampshire House would reduce the per-pack of tax on cigarettes from $1.78 to $1.68. The effort is to increase sales, thus increase state tax collections. Is there something wrong with this thinking?
Time for my nap.
Kirk
Important note: The recent 9.0 quake in Japan bent the tip of the 1093' Tokyo Tower, a 50s-era skyscraper intended to celebrate the success of post-war Japan (the tower was built in the mid-50s). Could be a nasty job to straighten it?
We've all read about the wonders of quinoa. Virtually all quinoa is grown in Bolivia, that very poor land-locked South American nation that we hear very little about. Anyway, quinoa is unique in the plant world: an unrivaled balance of proteins and amino acids. It is not a grain; it's a member of the spinach family. Anyway, the reason we've heard of it is that it's a very cool food, easy to cook and to digest. We have a jar of it on our kitchen counter. We love it. So... guess what! As always, there are the unintended consequences... as demand (from rich Westerners like us) rises, the Bolivians are pumping nearly 100% of their production into the export market. Prices have soared, naturally, and so has the average income of the Bolivian grower of quinoa. But... hold your hat... chronic malnutrition has become a cultural plague as families substitute things like pasta and rice for the traditional staple in their diet. The poor kids are literally starving because their parents are selling their quinoa to us. Is this a complex world or what?
We're in another war today.
A bill passed by the New Hampshire House would reduce the per-pack of tax on cigarettes from $1.78 to $1.68. The effort is to increase sales, thus increase state tax collections. Is there something wrong with this thinking?
Time for my nap.
Kirk
Sunday, March 20, 2011
confusion not in short supply
Yesterday was devoted to another march... one of how many over my lifetime?... this one to mark the 8th anniversary of the beginning of the Iraqi war. In those 8 years, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed by the American military effort. I have been a part of the problem: I have paid taxes to a government that has no conscience, and has killed in my name, using my money. For that I take full responsibility. I have not done enough to end this tragic chapter in our lives. I vow to do more for the children who have survived our rape of their country.
This need was stated, very very clearly, by Zahra Alkaabi, an Iraqi woman currently living in Portland and the founder of Save Refugees. She is dedicating her life to helping the victims of American aggression in her country. She spoke eloquently about the tragedy of so many civilians killed in the name of 'democracy'... estimates vary from 100,000 up to a million, and a large portion of those killed have been women and children. We've killed thousands of children in Iraq. Repeat: We have killed thousands of women and children in Iraq.
Ms. Alkaabi gave postcards to us, the marchers, preaddressed to Iraq and with space to "... write your apology and seek forgiveness for the destruction of the nation of Iraq." Wow.
I carried a cardboard coffin from the Corvallis Central Park to the Corvallis National Guard headquarters. It was about a mile. The coffin was draped with an Iraqi flag. Painted on the flag was the name of an Iraqi child killed by us. That was one long mile... about an hour (many halts for traffic because the march had not been sanctioned by 'official Corvallis)'. An hour to consider the complexities of being an American, being governed by wealthy people without the need for conscience. Who cares about Iraqi kids and women? Certainly not Obama... he has had more than two years to end the slaughter, yet we still have 50,000 combat troops and maybe double that number of paid ( thmercenariesey call them 'contractors'), more than a dozen huge permanent bases (specifically banned by congress), and the most impressive Embassy on Earth. We are guilty as charged by Ms. Alkaabi.
Fascinating to hear her start her talk. She gave us holy hell... couldn't believe that a city of 55,000 people could only muster 100 marchers, most the 'usual suspects' in Corvallis... retired, grey hair, the same crowd you see at every event. There were two young moms with kids, but it was cold and windy and I didn't envy them their situations with the babies. Tough. The march was well promoted in the local paper. Too much other stuff to do, I guess. We are a busy people, for sure. The Iraqi speaker wasn't looking for excuses.
So I was a total mess by the time we reached the guard armory. I put my coffin on the lawn and headed home... another two miles or so, enough time to consider the moral dilemmas involved with being an American. Damn, it's complex! But the walk was good, and I made it home without doing anything too dumb.
Part of the daily dilemma now is the Japanese nuclear crisis. Just for the hell of it, I dug out a couple of photos/articles from April l988. We (the four of us) were feeling threatened by the proposal to reignite the two reactors at the Peach Bottom nuclear facility in Delta, about 20 miles east of our farm. We had had a horrendous experience in March 1979 when the partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island plant caused us to escape for a few weeks. Peach Bottom was even closer than TMI... very close, in fact, to the kids' schools... and the plant had been closed for a year because the night-shift control-room guys were caught napping, playing cards, and (maybe) smoking some kind of funny weed? The restart was frightening. So there we are, protesting with our signs ('Peach Bottom is the Pits'), engaged once more in a futile effort to change our world for the better. I quote one of the nuclear officials: "I can assure you that we will not seek permission to restart (the Peach Bottom reactors) until we are completely satisfied that the plant can be operated without presenting a safety risk to you, the public, or to our employees who will operate the plant".
Exactly what the Japanese heard up until last week.
I'll quit now. Oh... my book of the day yesterday was a classic Pearl Buck, 'The Big Wave', a beautiful description of how a Japanese community reacted to a tsunami. It really is a wonderful tale, told by a master and filled with hope and joy. And deep sadness, of course. Highly recommended. It's in the library under 'juvenile fiction'.
Kirk
Posted by corvallisgadfly at 11:15 AM
This need was stated, very very clearly, by Zahra Alkaabi, an Iraqi woman currently living in Portland and the founder of Save Refugees. She is dedicating her life to helping the victims of American aggression in her country. She spoke eloquently about the tragedy of so many civilians killed in the name of 'democracy'... estimates vary from 100,000 up to a million, and a large portion of those killed have been women and children. We've killed thousands of children in Iraq. Repeat: We have killed thousands of women and children in Iraq.
Ms. Alkaabi gave postcards to us, the marchers, preaddressed to Iraq and with space to "... write your apology and seek forgiveness for the destruction of the nation of Iraq." Wow.
I carried a cardboard coffin from the Corvallis Central Park to the Corvallis National Guard headquarters. It was about a mile. The coffin was draped with an Iraqi flag. Painted on the flag was the name of an Iraqi child killed by us. That was one long mile... about an hour (many halts for traffic because the march had not been sanctioned by 'official Corvallis)'. An hour to consider the complexities of being an American, being governed by wealthy people without the need for conscience. Who cares about Iraqi kids and women? Certainly not Obama... he has had more than two years to end the slaughter, yet we still have 50,000 combat troops and maybe double that number of paid ( thmercenariesey call them 'contractors'), more than a dozen huge permanent bases (specifically banned by congress), and the most impressive Embassy on Earth. We are guilty as charged by Ms. Alkaabi.
Fascinating to hear her start her talk. She gave us holy hell... couldn't believe that a city of 55,000 people could only muster 100 marchers, most the 'usual suspects' in Corvallis... retired, grey hair, the same crowd you see at every event. There were two young moms with kids, but it was cold and windy and I didn't envy them their situations with the babies. Tough. The march was well promoted in the local paper. Too much other stuff to do, I guess. We are a busy people, for sure. The Iraqi speaker wasn't looking for excuses.
So I was a total mess by the time we reached the guard armory. I put my coffin on the lawn and headed home... another two miles or so, enough time to consider the moral dilemmas involved with being an American. Damn, it's complex! But the walk was good, and I made it home without doing anything too dumb.
Part of the daily dilemma now is the Japanese nuclear crisis. Just for the hell of it, I dug out a couple of photos/articles from April l988. We (the four of us) were feeling threatened by the proposal to reignite the two reactors at the Peach Bottom nuclear facility in Delta, about 20 miles east of our farm. We had had a horrendous experience in March 1979 when the partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island plant caused us to escape for a few weeks. Peach Bottom was even closer than TMI... very close, in fact, to the kids' schools... and the plant had been closed for a year because the night-shift control-room guys were caught napping, playing cards, and (maybe) smoking some kind of funny weed? The restart was frightening. So there we are, protesting with our signs ('Peach Bottom is the Pits'), engaged once more in a futile effort to change our world for the better. I quote one of the nuclear officials: "I can assure you that we will not seek permission to restart (the Peach Bottom reactors) until we are completely satisfied that the plant can be operated without presenting a safety risk to you, the public, or to our employees who will operate the plant".
Exactly what the Japanese heard up until last week.
I'll quit now. Oh... my book of the day yesterday was a classic Pearl Buck, 'The Big Wave', a beautiful description of how a Japanese community reacted to a tsunami. It really is a wonderful tale, told by a master and filled with hope and joy. And deep sadness, of course. Highly recommended. It's in the library under 'juvenile fiction'.
Kirk
Posted by corvallisgadfly at 11:15 AM
Friday, March 18, 2011
a good read...
I'm in the middle of a fascinating book: The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery. I quote:
"Indeed, what constitutes life? Day after day, we put up the brave struggle to play our role in this phantom comedy. We are good primates, so we spend most of our time maintaining and defending our territory, so that it will protect and gratify us; climbing... or trying not to slide down... the tribe's hierarchical ladder, and fornicating in every manner imaginable... even mere phantasms ... as much for the pleasure of it as for the promised offspring. Thus we use up a considerable amount of our energy in intimidation and seduction, and these two strategies alone ensure the quest for territory, hierarchy and sex that gives life to our conatus. But none of this touches our consciousness. We talk about love, about good and evil, philosophy and civilization, and we cling to these respectable icons the way a tick clings to its nice big warm dog".
"She's one of those who think that knowledge is power and forgiveness: If I know that I belong to a self-satisfied elite who are sacrificing the common good through an excess of arrogance, this liberates me from criticism, and I come out with twice the prestige."
"Henceforth, philosophy will claim the right to wallow exclusively in the wickedness of pure mind. The world in an accessible reality and any effort to try to know it is futile. What do we know of the world? Nothing. As all knowledge is merely reflective consciousness exploring its own self, the world, therefore, can merrily go to the devil."
As I said, I'm in the middle (or would that be 'muddle'?). The quotes come from the two primary subjects. Somehow it's hard to imagine where she goes with another 200 pages of this. Stay tuned...
The Japanese situation continues to worsen. As for the survivors of the quake/tsunami, I just cannot imagine how they go on... the cold is fierce, the shortages huge. And they will survive, mostly. I'll go light another candle. With all things interconnected, perhaps my candle will warm them. I sure hope so.
Heidi reports on a (perceived) shortage of salt in China. A run on salt! Her friend Wang managed to get two bags yesterday, despite long aggressive lines. What will be next? The 'famine' mentality runs deep in that culture, and will for generations more.
They're planning 10,000 more wells in the Delaware Basin to extract fossil fuel (mostly natural gas). The extraction companies will use the 'fracking' technologies. Unless we stop them. A good issue to learn about and actively oppose. Just Google 'fracking'... no shortage of reports and descriptions regarding this process.
Notice the lack of news about the NASA satellite dumped into the Pacific? Why no news? My conspiracy theory becomes more real with each passing day.
The daffodils are at peak. Grape buds fat, as are the blueberries and cherries. Another Spring! How blessed are we! Kirk
"Indeed, what constitutes life? Day after day, we put up the brave struggle to play our role in this phantom comedy. We are good primates, so we spend most of our time maintaining and defending our territory, so that it will protect and gratify us; climbing... or trying not to slide down... the tribe's hierarchical ladder, and fornicating in every manner imaginable... even mere phantasms ... as much for the pleasure of it as for the promised offspring. Thus we use up a considerable amount of our energy in intimidation and seduction, and these two strategies alone ensure the quest for territory, hierarchy and sex that gives life to our conatus. But none of this touches our consciousness. We talk about love, about good and evil, philosophy and civilization, and we cling to these respectable icons the way a tick clings to its nice big warm dog".
"She's one of those who think that knowledge is power and forgiveness: If I know that I belong to a self-satisfied elite who are sacrificing the common good through an excess of arrogance, this liberates me from criticism, and I come out with twice the prestige."
"Henceforth, philosophy will claim the right to wallow exclusively in the wickedness of pure mind. The world in an accessible reality and any effort to try to know it is futile. What do we know of the world? Nothing. As all knowledge is merely reflective consciousness exploring its own self, the world, therefore, can merrily go to the devil."
As I said, I'm in the middle (or would that be 'muddle'?). The quotes come from the two primary subjects. Somehow it's hard to imagine where she goes with another 200 pages of this. Stay tuned...
The Japanese situation continues to worsen. As for the survivors of the quake/tsunami, I just cannot imagine how they go on... the cold is fierce, the shortages huge. And they will survive, mostly. I'll go light another candle. With all things interconnected, perhaps my candle will warm them. I sure hope so.
Heidi reports on a (perceived) shortage of salt in China. A run on salt! Her friend Wang managed to get two bags yesterday, despite long aggressive lines. What will be next? The 'famine' mentality runs deep in that culture, and will for generations more.
They're planning 10,000 more wells in the Delaware Basin to extract fossil fuel (mostly natural gas). The extraction companies will use the 'fracking' technologies. Unless we stop them. A good issue to learn about and actively oppose. Just Google 'fracking'... no shortage of reports and descriptions regarding this process.
Notice the lack of news about the NASA satellite dumped into the Pacific? Why no news? My conspiracy theory becomes more real with each passing day.
The daffodils are at peak. Grape buds fat, as are the blueberries and cherries. Another Spring! How blessed are we! Kirk
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
gross complexity in life
Whew! Life is exhausting, is it not? The unfolding horrors in Japan keep the mind whirring... not just the compassion for those suffering directly from the 'natural' disasters of quakes and tsunamis, but also the likelihood of a similar event right here on 13th in Corvallis. Example: We have three 5,000,000-gallon tanks of water at the north end of 13th (the closest about 150 meters from our house). Two of the tanks have been brought up to current seismic standards (that is, according to the Corvallis Public Works guy in charge of such stuff). The third will be altered 'soon'.
Does it matter? Yes, I think it does. Those tanks need to be able to withstand the quake that is long overdue here in the northwest of the US. Do what I did... go off to the library and take a good look at the globe. Look at where the recent nasty quakes have been: First, Chile... then across the water in New Zealand... then north to Japan. If we want to close the 'circle', we just need to march back across the water... to CA and OR. Some geo guys are saying the shifts... all hugely destructive, all within the past year... increase the odds that the Big One will hit the US west coast sooner rather than later. That is, the circle needs to be closed, judging by geological stresses recently demonstrated.
And boy are we ill-prepared. We're entitled to a culture of ignoring such predictable events. If it happens, so what? We're rich... we can buy our way out. But maybe not. Like global climate change, the Big One will not pick and choose. Those cozy little coastal communities... the Newports and Seasides... will disappear, no matter how rich we are.
I've been studying the local nuke. Did you know we have a working nuclear reactor in Corvallis? Right down there, across the street from the EPA offices, off 35th. It's a Triga Mark II nuclear reactor, water-cooled, built in the early 60s to early-60s standards. Part of my day today will be to access public records of building permits, safety requirements, and possible seismic upgrades since the original construction of the reactor. Reading the 2009/10 annual report published by the reactor staff, I found evidence of two 'manual scrams'... what seem to be hurried efforts to shut the thing off because alarms warned of troubles within the reactor itself. I'll learn and report more.
In the meantime, the Japanese tragedy grows. The news this a.m. is that there was criticism of the Mark I design... the containment structure was too small and light, the fact that used fuel was stored in the reactor unit in pools above the reactor itself... and this, friends, was no news to us. We knew more than we wanted to know about nuclear reactor designs... we were among the thousands who fled TMI in terror on March 28, 1979. We were active in protesting the continued use of the two Mark I reactors at Peach Bottom (I have a newspaper clip which includes a picture of our girls with their protest signs at the reactor). So now the Japanese (and maybe many more) will suffer the consequences of the fact that the NRC ignored warnings that we loud and specific more than 40 years ago.
Poor Charlie Sheen. He's been upstaged by a weather event. Timing is everything when you're having your 'fifteen minutes'. Dang!
I'll be back with more facts on the Corvallis nuke. K
Does it matter? Yes, I think it does. Those tanks need to be able to withstand the quake that is long overdue here in the northwest of the US. Do what I did... go off to the library and take a good look at the globe. Look at where the recent nasty quakes have been: First, Chile... then across the water in New Zealand... then north to Japan. If we want to close the 'circle', we just need to march back across the water... to CA and OR. Some geo guys are saying the shifts... all hugely destructive, all within the past year... increase the odds that the Big One will hit the US west coast sooner rather than later. That is, the circle needs to be closed, judging by geological stresses recently demonstrated.
And boy are we ill-prepared. We're entitled to a culture of ignoring such predictable events. If it happens, so what? We're rich... we can buy our way out. But maybe not. Like global climate change, the Big One will not pick and choose. Those cozy little coastal communities... the Newports and Seasides... will disappear, no matter how rich we are.
I've been studying the local nuke. Did you know we have a working nuclear reactor in Corvallis? Right down there, across the street from the EPA offices, off 35th. It's a Triga Mark II nuclear reactor, water-cooled, built in the early 60s to early-60s standards. Part of my day today will be to access public records of building permits, safety requirements, and possible seismic upgrades since the original construction of the reactor. Reading the 2009/10 annual report published by the reactor staff, I found evidence of two 'manual scrams'... what seem to be hurried efforts to shut the thing off because alarms warned of troubles within the reactor itself. I'll learn and report more.
In the meantime, the Japanese tragedy grows. The news this a.m. is that there was criticism of the Mark I design... the containment structure was too small and light, the fact that used fuel was stored in the reactor unit in pools above the reactor itself... and this, friends, was no news to us. We knew more than we wanted to know about nuclear reactor designs... we were among the thousands who fled TMI in terror on March 28, 1979. We were active in protesting the continued use of the two Mark I reactors at Peach Bottom (I have a newspaper clip which includes a picture of our girls with their protest signs at the reactor). So now the Japanese (and maybe many more) will suffer the consequences of the fact that the NRC ignored warnings that we loud and specific more than 40 years ago.
Poor Charlie Sheen. He's been upstaged by a weather event. Timing is everything when you're having your 'fifteen minutes'. Dang!
I'll be back with more facts on the Corvallis nuke. K
Sunday, March 13, 2011
one sunday in March
This short day (adjusted the clocks why?) began with a nice long rainy dark hike thru the neighborhoods. I delivered Ruby's bag to her house, which was blessedly unlighted (meaning the kids were sleeping in). Then to Starbucks. Coffee and the Times (for once, I remembered my computer!). Incredible news morning for a junky!
There's Japan, of course. Tragedy writ large. Except... nuclear power is dead (again). For those of us who were terrified by the events at Three Mile Island (our farm was just south of the nuke), this is good news indeed. We fled what has been called a 'catastrophic emergency... the partial core meltdown that occurred at the TMI reactor in l979'. Never again! Which is why I'm once again working to rid Corvallis of the OSU 'research' reactor. We sit squarely in the Cascadia Subduction Zone, and we're overdue for a major quake. The guys who profit by this neighborhood nuke make fun of me... 'you're no scientist, so just shut up'... but it's gotta go, soon. No more excuses. And one more reason not to trust scientists. Damn their arrogant hides anyway. Headline of the day: "Japan rushes to avert nuclear disaster". Are we surprised? Will we learn from this event in Japan?
Did you read about the North Pole? Reset your GPS if you plan to visit Santa this summer. The pole is in northern Canada right now. Oh yea... we're talking about the magnetic pole, not the geographic pole. The latter stays pretty much stationary. It's the magnetic one that's moving on... about 37 miles per year, mostly northwesterly. If the action continues, the pole will be somewhere in Russia at the end of this century.
And cheers and kudos for PJ Crowley, the former (until today) State Department spokesman. He told the truth about the inhumane treatment of our hero, Brad Manning. Manning is in the brig, accused of leaking secrets while a soldier. Crowley called Manning's treatment by the military "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid." The surprise is that one of them could tell the truth like that. Obama is letting us down big time. He will never get my vote again, that is for damn sure.
Carter's solar panels still aren't reinstalled on the White House. Two years, and no action. What the hell is Obama thinking? Talk about a failed presidency. Anybody else itching for a change?
Life is going to become very interesting for all of us. NASA reports that the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are melting much more rapidly than expected. That means higher sea levels all around. Japan is rethinking its investments in sea walls (the tsunami ignored those very expensive walls). What is the alternative? Could any of us do better when it comes to limiting our carbon footprint? That, as we all know, is the answer. But maybe we really don't want an answer? Are we choosing destruction, or collapse?
The first decorative cherries are blooming now. And the apricot in the neighbor's yard. And tons of daffodils and crocuses. Let's hear it for spring!
There's Japan, of course. Tragedy writ large. Except... nuclear power is dead (again). For those of us who were terrified by the events at Three Mile Island (our farm was just south of the nuke), this is good news indeed. We fled what has been called a 'catastrophic emergency... the partial core meltdown that occurred at the TMI reactor in l979'. Never again! Which is why I'm once again working to rid Corvallis of the OSU 'research' reactor. We sit squarely in the Cascadia Subduction Zone, and we're overdue for a major quake. The guys who profit by this neighborhood nuke make fun of me... 'you're no scientist, so just shut up'... but it's gotta go, soon. No more excuses. And one more reason not to trust scientists. Damn their arrogant hides anyway. Headline of the day: "Japan rushes to avert nuclear disaster". Are we surprised? Will we learn from this event in Japan?
Did you read about the North Pole? Reset your GPS if you plan to visit Santa this summer. The pole is in northern Canada right now. Oh yea... we're talking about the magnetic pole, not the geographic pole. The latter stays pretty much stationary. It's the magnetic one that's moving on... about 37 miles per year, mostly northwesterly. If the action continues, the pole will be somewhere in Russia at the end of this century.
And cheers and kudos for PJ Crowley, the former (until today) State Department spokesman. He told the truth about the inhumane treatment of our hero, Brad Manning. Manning is in the brig, accused of leaking secrets while a soldier. Crowley called Manning's treatment by the military "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid." The surprise is that one of them could tell the truth like that. Obama is letting us down big time. He will never get my vote again, that is for damn sure.
Carter's solar panels still aren't reinstalled on the White House. Two years, and no action. What the hell is Obama thinking? Talk about a failed presidency. Anybody else itching for a change?
Life is going to become very interesting for all of us. NASA reports that the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are melting much more rapidly than expected. That means higher sea levels all around. Japan is rethinking its investments in sea walls (the tsunami ignored those very expensive walls). What is the alternative? Could any of us do better when it comes to limiting our carbon footprint? That, as we all know, is the answer. But maybe we really don't want an answer? Are we choosing destruction, or collapse?
The first decorative cherries are blooming now. And the apricot in the neighbor's yard. And tons of daffodils and crocuses. Let's hear it for spring!
Friday, March 11, 2011
climate change writ large
So I was able to spend three months hanging on the beach in Mexico... all credit goes to my dear spouse, who generously allowed me to take a sabbatical from 'real life', to walk endless miles along the beloved coast of the ocean, to engage parts of my brain normally not exercised for long periods of time. I had essentially no social duties for those 3 months, except to occasionally interact with the few other people sharing our off-season apartment building (11 units on the beach in Los Ayala, Nayarit). My daily walks normally had a specific purpose... shopping for fresh-and-local fruits and veggies, coffee at George's cafe. I had 3 restaurant meals in those months.
Life improved considerably... first, when Susan arrived after Christmas, and again when Liv and Heidi and their families arrived for a short break from the rigors of an Oregon winter. Fun! The high-quality beach activities and shared meals were highlights of a very pleasant winter (for me).
So what does one think about during so much non-social time? One huge influence on my thoughts was a book given to me by Heidi and Tsultrim: 'A Buddhist Response to the Climate Emergency'. A common reaction: 'Climate Emergency'? What is that? The book is an organized series of essays by Buddhist thinkers, beginning with the Dalai Lama and including Gyurme Dorje and Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche and Kyabje Chatral Rinpoche (the wonderful old man who is the primary teacher of Heidi and Tsultrim, with whom they worked)... and western Buddhist thinkers (Robert Aitken Roshi, Joanna Macy, and my favorite, Susan Murphy)... and ending with a wonderful piece, 'The Bells of Mindfulness', by Thich Nhat Hanh. An extraordinary collection summarizing the just-short-of-panic thinking of Asian Buddhism.
So reading this collection brings up more questions than it answers. First, why has the scientific community failed so spectacularly when it comes to convincing us... us Americans in particular... that we do indeed have an emergency, and that we need to react to that situation? Al Gore impressed all of us with his film, 'An Inconvenient Truth', lo those many years ago. We were shocked, and we left the theaters filled with mostly-unspoken promises to do our part to head off the obvious catastrophe headed our way. But what happened? Why did those promises evaporate? Sure, we changed some lightbulbs, and we drove a few miles less... but we didn't make the big changes necessary to avert the 'climate catastrophe' which is so surely coming.
My conclusion: We are super-entitled. Dammit, we're Americans. We're living the dream. We can do what we please... fly to and fro (and maybe buy some carbon offsets if we're in the mood), drive here and there, live in too-big places in too-cold places. We're rich. We can buy what we want, and damn the rest of the world. We're rich, and we don't have to worry about 'climate emergencies'. If necessary, we'll buy bigger air conditioners, and we'll put in a pool.
Our biggest and most prominent entitlement is a long life. Many years beyond our 'productive' period. Years of joint replacements, of rehab, of cruises and adventure travels, of conspicuous consumption. We've earned it, dammit. Just like the public-union folks have earned their pensions and health care. We're entitled, so stand back and watch us. Yehaaaa!
Grandfather duties call... back later today with more entitled thoughts from an entitled old guy!
Life improved considerably... first, when Susan arrived after Christmas, and again when Liv and Heidi and their families arrived for a short break from the rigors of an Oregon winter. Fun! The high-quality beach activities and shared meals were highlights of a very pleasant winter (for me).
So what does one think about during so much non-social time? One huge influence on my thoughts was a book given to me by Heidi and Tsultrim: 'A Buddhist Response to the Climate Emergency'. A common reaction: 'Climate Emergency'? What is that? The book is an organized series of essays by Buddhist thinkers, beginning with the Dalai Lama and including Gyurme Dorje and Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche and Kyabje Chatral Rinpoche (the wonderful old man who is the primary teacher of Heidi and Tsultrim, with whom they worked)... and western Buddhist thinkers (Robert Aitken Roshi, Joanna Macy, and my favorite, Susan Murphy)... and ending with a wonderful piece, 'The Bells of Mindfulness', by Thich Nhat Hanh. An extraordinary collection summarizing the just-short-of-panic thinking of Asian Buddhism.
So reading this collection brings up more questions than it answers. First, why has the scientific community failed so spectacularly when it comes to convincing us... us Americans in particular... that we do indeed have an emergency, and that we need to react to that situation? Al Gore impressed all of us with his film, 'An Inconvenient Truth', lo those many years ago. We were shocked, and we left the theaters filled with mostly-unspoken promises to do our part to head off the obvious catastrophe headed our way. But what happened? Why did those promises evaporate? Sure, we changed some lightbulbs, and we drove a few miles less... but we didn't make the big changes necessary to avert the 'climate catastrophe' which is so surely coming.
My conclusion: We are super-entitled. Dammit, we're Americans. We're living the dream. We can do what we please... fly to and fro (and maybe buy some carbon offsets if we're in the mood), drive here and there, live in too-big places in too-cold places. We're rich. We can buy what we want, and damn the rest of the world. We're rich, and we don't have to worry about 'climate emergencies'. If necessary, we'll buy bigger air conditioners, and we'll put in a pool.
Our biggest and most prominent entitlement is a long life. Many years beyond our 'productive' period. Years of joint replacements, of rehab, of cruises and adventure travels, of conspicuous consumption. We've earned it, dammit. Just like the public-union folks have earned their pensions and health care. We're entitled, so stand back and watch us. Yehaaaa!
Grandfather duties call... back later today with more entitled thoughts from an entitled old guy!
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
the most beautiful birds...
So I packed my cart (an old bike trailer reconfigured to be a walking trailer) with the gardening stuff... a hoe, a rake, a spading fork, some organic fertilizer and coarse lime, some seeds I've had soaking for two days, a hammer and some stakes, some string... and headed off to the community garden where I maintain a plot. The garden is basically a wetland, but I've been working with the soil in my plot for 4 years (this will be the fifth), so it's getting to the 'recovered' stage. An incredible sight to stick the fork into the soil and flip it over... wet and absolutely packed with earthworms. I couldn't resist... I picked apart one forkfull of the wet dirt, and I found 43 worms! Don't forget... those worms have been working all winter, usually a bit deeper because of the cold, but all the time I was soaking up the rays on the beach in Los Ayala, those worms were doing the work that allows me to grow such happy healthy stuff! An organic garden is my favorite 'living art'... a mosaic of moving parts, each contributing to my welfare, with virtually no effort on my part. The recipe is simple... wind, sun, rain and snow, clouds, bluebirds, worms, lots of organic material, some lime, a little bit of work. Anyway, I worked the soil just enough to get the weeds out, planted the soaked peas and favas, and put up a bit of a fence around the perimeter to hold the cloche. I'll construct a mini-greenhouse tomorrow... the soil will warm and in a week we'll have 4 rows of happy plants. Fun! (I got some pretty weird looks from passersby... all wondering what this old fart was doing messing around in the swamp in the rain. Little did they know: He was having fun! Getting dirty! Counting worms!
The best part of this story: When I finished, I sat down at the picnic table next to the garden to recover from my labors. I was halfway through my banana snack when... holy mackeral!... there on the fence I'd constructed for the cloche were two of my favorite creatures! The Bluebirds! Mama and Papa, dressed in their spring finest, sitting on the stakes at opposite corners of the fence. They looked at me for a minute, then began their feast... the worms that I had turned over (apparently for them?) were fair game. I spoke gently to them... "Hi Mama, hi Papa... how was your winter? You're looking very prosperous and fine today". At this point, and I kid you not... the sun came out. A break in the clouds! The drizzle stopped, the sun shone on these two magnificent friends of mine (their nesting box has been in the corner of my plot every year I've gardened there). Their soft blues, perfect! I walked gently toward them, keeping up a gentle but constant chatter... they know me, I think. They trust me. I've held Mama... I tried two years ago to get the band off her leg, but failed. Some arrogant scientist decided he/she could improve these perfect creatures with what looks like a wedding band on her left leg. Oh, such arrogance! What is it that makes scientists think they have the right to change perfection? Anyway, she no longer has the band, and I don't know why. It's possible, I suppose, that Mama is actually the daughter of my friend. If so, they sure look alike. Anyway, it was the high point of a great day for me. An organic garden without bluebirds is doomed to troubles.
There were 4 super recipes for vegetarian soups in the Times last weekend. Mark Bittman. You can't go wrong with Mark's advice. The soups are veg, and mostly vegan. Yum!
On that note... I harvested greens at the community garden this morning... 4 kinds of kale, some broccoli raab, some mibuna, some collards, one small purple cabbage... we ate all this for our supper, along with a batch of grains (brown rice, wheat, barley, green lentils) and some green beans and broccoli from the freezer. Yum! This climate (warmed or not) is gentle enough that many basic greens will survive a normal winter like we just had. Aided by a cloche or cold frame, the growth is amazing... we have vigorous growth of the kales and spinaches and collards on March 9. What better way to combat the climate-change plague?
I think our city council and mayor should tell us how much money they make, and where it comes from. There is huge potential for conflicts of interest, and yet we know little of their personal situations.
A Corvallis-type town... Vallejo, CA... featured in the Times. See: Broke Town, USA. They've declared bankruptcy. Could be Corvallis later this year? We sure have enough unfunded promises to join Vallejo in the same boat. "The city manager couldn't make their budget... he begged the public-employee unions for pay cuts... no dice, so they declared bankruptcy."
New subject: Should Susan and I buy a Kindle? They're under $200. And it does seem the idea of the public library we've known and loved is a dinosaur. Wonder what the carbon footprint of the Kindle is?
Is our system of public schools sustainable? I think not. More later.
The best part of this story: When I finished, I sat down at the picnic table next to the garden to recover from my labors. I was halfway through my banana snack when... holy mackeral!... there on the fence I'd constructed for the cloche were two of my favorite creatures! The Bluebirds! Mama and Papa, dressed in their spring finest, sitting on the stakes at opposite corners of the fence. They looked at me for a minute, then began their feast... the worms that I had turned over (apparently for them?) were fair game. I spoke gently to them... "Hi Mama, hi Papa... how was your winter? You're looking very prosperous and fine today". At this point, and I kid you not... the sun came out. A break in the clouds! The drizzle stopped, the sun shone on these two magnificent friends of mine (their nesting box has been in the corner of my plot every year I've gardened there). Their soft blues, perfect! I walked gently toward them, keeping up a gentle but constant chatter... they know me, I think. They trust me. I've held Mama... I tried two years ago to get the band off her leg, but failed. Some arrogant scientist decided he/she could improve these perfect creatures with what looks like a wedding band on her left leg. Oh, such arrogance! What is it that makes scientists think they have the right to change perfection? Anyway, she no longer has the band, and I don't know why. It's possible, I suppose, that Mama is actually the daughter of my friend. If so, they sure look alike. Anyway, it was the high point of a great day for me. An organic garden without bluebirds is doomed to troubles.
There were 4 super recipes for vegetarian soups in the Times last weekend. Mark Bittman. You can't go wrong with Mark's advice. The soups are veg, and mostly vegan. Yum!
On that note... I harvested greens at the community garden this morning... 4 kinds of kale, some broccoli raab, some mibuna, some collards, one small purple cabbage... we ate all this for our supper, along with a batch of grains (brown rice, wheat, barley, green lentils) and some green beans and broccoli from the freezer. Yum! This climate (warmed or not) is gentle enough that many basic greens will survive a normal winter like we just had. Aided by a cloche or cold frame, the growth is amazing... we have vigorous growth of the kales and spinaches and collards on March 9. What better way to combat the climate-change plague?
I think our city council and mayor should tell us how much money they make, and where it comes from. There is huge potential for conflicts of interest, and yet we know little of their personal situations.
A Corvallis-type town... Vallejo, CA... featured in the Times. See: Broke Town, USA. They've declared bankruptcy. Could be Corvallis later this year? We sure have enough unfunded promises to join Vallejo in the same boat. "The city manager couldn't make their budget... he begged the public-employee unions for pay cuts... no dice, so they declared bankruptcy."
New subject: Should Susan and I buy a Kindle? They're under $200. And it does seem the idea of the public library we've known and loved is a dinosaur. Wonder what the carbon footprint of the Kindle is?
Is our system of public schools sustainable? I think not. More later.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Perfect Monday
March 7, 2011. Today is the 35th birthday of our 'baby'...our youngest daughter. How can that be? Where did those years go? I'm sure she's asking the same thing.
Note that NASA has an Earth-monitoring mandate... critical for determining the state of Earth ecosystems. A second consecutive launch attempt (the first was two years ago) was dumped into the ocean. Who wants to limit knowledge of Earth's status? Who benefits? Big Oil? Big Banksters? Anyway, seems weird that two expensive and essential satellites have gone missing. Shall I start another conspiracy theory?
New word: torrefaction. Seems PGE needs to replace coal as the fuel at one of its big power plants. They're considering giant cane, classified as an invasive in many states. The coal-fired plant in eastern Oregon would require lots of cane... more than 50,000 acres, virtually all irrigated (from finite aquifers), acres that are currently producing food. Issues: the aquifer draw-down, the competition for food (and employment at the existing factories that process that food), the invasive element, plus the torrefaction/densification process (drying the cane and making pellets... both very energy-intensive). More proof: We live in a compacted and complex world. There are a billion hungry people today. What would they say to taking 50,000 acres out of food production?
Issue of The Day: Are Public Employees the New 'Welfare Queens'? The NYTimes has an analysis (3/6, Ford Fessenden, using private and government statistics) provides some facts:
Average salary/benefits package for similar jobs: Public higher by $10,000/annum.
Average per hour of work (necessary because public workers put in many fewer hours than private sector per year): Public paid much more. Most of the difference is in the value of benefits: +70% for public workers.
In service category, public pays almost double the private sector.
And... public workers almost never voluntarily quit a job, and they're almost never fired. These factors, economists argue, add 15% value to the public jobs above the basic dollar amounts. And the difference between public and private retirement benefits is huge... where 100% of state public retirees get full health care, only 6% of private employees do. And the net cost per hour of work for public workers is $3 vs. $0.40 for private workers.
Add in the early retirement (20 years? 30 years?)... the net result is: It's a no-brainer. Public employees are truly 'welfare queens' as defined by Ron Reagan lo those many years ago.
Enjoy another beautiful day!
Note that NASA has an Earth-monitoring mandate... critical for determining the state of Earth ecosystems. A second consecutive launch attempt (the first was two years ago) was dumped into the ocean. Who wants to limit knowledge of Earth's status? Who benefits? Big Oil? Big Banksters? Anyway, seems weird that two expensive and essential satellites have gone missing. Shall I start another conspiracy theory?
New word: torrefaction. Seems PGE needs to replace coal as the fuel at one of its big power plants. They're considering giant cane, classified as an invasive in many states. The coal-fired plant in eastern Oregon would require lots of cane... more than 50,000 acres, virtually all irrigated (from finite aquifers), acres that are currently producing food. Issues: the aquifer draw-down, the competition for food (and employment at the existing factories that process that food), the invasive element, plus the torrefaction/densification process (drying the cane and making pellets... both very energy-intensive). More proof: We live in a compacted and complex world. There are a billion hungry people today. What would they say to taking 50,000 acres out of food production?
Issue of The Day: Are Public Employees the New 'Welfare Queens'? The NYTimes has an analysis (3/6, Ford Fessenden, using private and government statistics) provides some facts:
Average salary/benefits package for similar jobs: Public higher by $10,000/annum.
Average per hour of work (necessary because public workers put in many fewer hours than private sector per year): Public paid much more. Most of the difference is in the value of benefits: +70% for public workers.
In service category, public pays almost double the private sector.
And... public workers almost never voluntarily quit a job, and they're almost never fired. These factors, economists argue, add 15% value to the public jobs above the basic dollar amounts. And the difference between public and private retirement benefits is huge... where 100% of state public retirees get full health care, only 6% of private employees do. And the net cost per hour of work for public workers is $3 vs. $0.40 for private workers.
Add in the early retirement (20 years? 30 years?)... the net result is: It's a no-brainer. Public employees are truly 'welfare queens' as defined by Ron Reagan lo those many years ago.
Enjoy another beautiful day!
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Love in the Real World
So... welcome to CorvallisGadfly.com. I've thought at length about a good beginning for this blog. Try this as a tone-setter:
"A very confused elephant in South Africa's Pilanesberg Game Reserve passionately mistook a Volkswagen Passat for a female pachyderm, giving two tourists inside the ride of their life. The amorous bull, known in the park as Amarula, "started to rub himself against the car, breaking the wing mirrors and cracking the windows," said Irishman John Somer. It was only after the car had been flipped over and shoved wheels up into the bushes that the elephant seemed to realize his jumbo-sized mistake. Amarula then chased a photographer who had been snapping photos of the intimate encounter before eventually wandering off into the bush. Somer and his female passenger were mainly unharmed by their terrifying taste of elephant ardor. Park officials said Amarula is one of the largest bull elephants in the reserve and had been in musth, a period when a rush of hormones had made it aggressive and compelled to mate. {From Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet, by Steve Newman, distributed by Universal Uclick}.
I thank Steve for his heads-up reporting, and for setting the perfect tone for CorvallisGadfly.com. Anyone else ever wake up after having had the elephant-humping-the-family-
"A very confused elephant in South Africa's Pilanesberg Game Reserve passionately mistook a Volkswagen Passat for a female pachyderm, giving two tourists inside the ride of their life. The amorous bull, known in the park as Amarula, "started to rub himself against the car, breaking the wing mirrors and cracking the windows," said Irishman John Somer. It was only after the car had been flipped over and shoved wheels up into the bushes that the elephant seemed to realize his jumbo-sized mistake. Amarula then chased a photographer who had been snapping photos of the intimate encounter before eventually wandering off into the bush. Somer and his female passenger were mainly unharmed by their terrifying taste of elephant ardor. Park officials said Amarula is one of the largest bull elephants in the reserve and had been in musth, a period when a rush of hormones had made it aggressive and compelled to mate. {From Earthweek: A Diary of the Planet, by Steve Newman, distributed by Universal Uclick}.
I thank Steve for his heads-up reporting, and for setting the perfect tone for CorvallisGadfly.com. Anyone else ever wake up after having had the elephant-humping-the-family-
Anyway, the world is a beautiful place. It's all good. Well, maybe I should qualify that. Mostly, it's good. But it's also a bit confusing at times. I admit to being very confused by much of what is happening these days. I'm not alone, I think. Like, wars that don't end. And denial of anthropogenic climate change. What's that about? But then there's our world... the beauty of crocuses and daffodils, the sunbreaks in the Oregon sky, the delightful sounds made by a couple of 9-month-old humans (who are known collectively as 'our grandchildren' when joined by their older siblings). We attempt an accounting of our blessings. And fail, every time. Just too many. I dedicate this blog... what I hope will be an ongoing record of our lives and activities... to those grandchildren. My hope is that we can pass on to them an Earth that is friendly to their hopes and dreams... that they will struggle as we do to make an accounting of their blessings. To keep life interesting, I'll enclose a letter I wrote this morning to our Corvallis City Council. This is the gadfly side of my life. It's a pretty lonely life, being a gadfly. Hardly any positive feedback. This letter shows why. |
Attention: Corvallis City Council
To the Corvallis City Council:
Thank you for agreeing to debate the issues I have put before you: How do we define 'media' in 2011? Who qualifies for inclusion in city meetings that are closed to the public except for 'media' representatives? Exactly what are the reporting restrictions placed on 'media' representatives in city executive sessions?
I ask that you consider these issues in light of the effort I have put into establishing CorvallisGadfly.
I would remind you that these are clearly First Amendment issues. I suggest you write your opinions in a form that would satisfy the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The issues are critical to the future of Corvallis.
Successful government gets little public scrutiny. Failed government, which we now have in Corvallis, must expect an entirely different reaction from the public {Failed: My grandchildren have had to illegally urinate in Central Park. I cannot take my grandchildren to the library on rainy Sundays, when we were accustomed to curl up in a comfortable chair and read together. That defines failure}. Those of us who have been negatively affected by the fiscal irresponsibility of the Nelson administration are angered by the lack of public access to critical decision-making processes, and even more distressed by the apparent monopoly held by the recognized 'media' in Corvallis. When the only reports of local government events are controlled by a for-profit non-local organization, the opportunity for inaccuracy and omission is extreme.
I don't pretend to know the process of choosing legal counsel for the city, but I would suggest that these First Amendment issues are critical for the city, and that the council should review the process of choosing the legal entity which assists the elected government officials with these issues; I would hope that the choice of city counsel is an open process that is inclusive of all legal talent in Oregon, and that the city might consider retaining outside counsel for these critical First Amendment issues.
I appreciate the time and energy of the City Council members in reviewing these issues. I only hope the deliberations are productive in the sense that they lead to opinions and decisions that enable the Corvallis public to be more proactive in the governing process.
The example of the ongoing labor negotiations is one of many where the city/media combination has failed to properly inform the public. I'm hoping you'll change that situation so that we can avoid the historical fait accompli syndrome of the Nelson years, where the public is stuck with faulty agreements that are fiscally unsustainable.
Thank you for your consideration of these issues.
Namaste.
Kirk Nevin
CorvallisGadfly.com
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