Your help, please...

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN298848720100430?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtopNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Top+News%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

I have registered, through the St. Marys EarthKeepers, Inc., with the Mobile Baykeepers, The Audubon Oil Response Team and others regarding the need for volunteers to help with the thousands of animals that will be tragically threatened by the gulf oil spill. Various organizations are asking for the help of volunteers - at this point they are just collecting contact information as they scramble to create training centers and coordinate efforts.

It is estimated that, in terms of environmental impact, this disaster will be far worse than the Exxon Valdez spill due to the fragile eco-systems of the gulf coastline. Potentially, hundreds of thousand of birds and marine species will be directly affected, but training is necessary and will be provided by those who are orchestrating the volunteer efforts. What is NOT needed at this time are people flocking to the area who are unaware of the proper procedures for dealing with a disaster of this nature.

I am also contacting other Georgia environmental organizations. Perhaps if we share volunteer efforts, media etc., a spotlight will be turned on the threat that off-shore drilling presents to our own state's coastal resources.

Within one hour of sending out a “call to arms” to the St. Marys Earthkeepers, over 20 people have written to express their desire to give of their time, money and effort to go to the affected region to help in any way that they can.

If you wish to be added to the list of volunteers, please contact me via this blog.

"And the cost to the Gulf's ecosystems could be unimaginable. "Our thirst for fossil fuel means we've been playing Russian roulette with our environment," said Ken Rosenberg, director of conservation science at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "The gun just went off."'

Update from the Mobile Baykeepers:

"Along with Alabama Coastal Foundation and the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program, we have received thousands of volunteer calls. Thanks to all of you who have called to volunteer and to everyone who is concerned. While we know it is difficult, what we need from everyone right now is to remain patient and calm. This is the beginning of a long recovery effort, and we will need you in the coming weeks and months as opportunities to volunteer present themselves. Please check out our website (www.mobilebaykeeper.org) and facebook page frequently for updates.

Here is the latest we have heard from a volunteer employed in the oil and gas industry.
While she cannot verify with 100% certainty that the crude is light, and that it would be more apt to sheen, this is the industry understanding of this discovery (and the main reason to drill in deepwater, since there are few new discoveries of light crude in the world). Regardless, this is not something volunteers want to get on their skin, ingest, or inhale for a prolonged periods of time.

We are also very concerned that the cleanup efforts may cause additional problems for our area. BP is using high quantities of dispersants, delivered underwater at the source of the flow, and there are some real concerns about this: 1) the high quantities of chemicals being discharged 2) the lack of transparency over the types of chemicals being used 3) the lack of testing on the effect of these chemicals on food sources, the food chain 4) the lack of information coming from BP on the current flow rate of oil, which is more easily masked if the oil is being dispersed subsurface. It is important for everyone to know whether the wellhead has eroded, and at what point we are dealing with an uncontrolled flow.
While at this point, we do not know how long the oil will be flowing into Gulf waters, we do know that this is a catastrophic event for our area’s environment and economy. We will continue to send daily updates as possible, and ask for all of you to remain with us as we face this together. "

NIMBYs and Fools

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126320331&ft=1&f=1025

Some people are protesting the proposed wind farm because it would “ruin the view”?? In my opinion, a line of graceful white windmills is more visually appealing than rigs, explosions and a 30-mile wide oil slick.

NIMBYism (Not In My BackYard) runs amok. How amusing it is that the late Senator Kennedy – long a fierce advocate for renewable power development – fought this project on the basis that it would spoil his “pristine landscape.” I suppose that if one is wealthy enough, one can choose not to live within sight of the devastation of oil extraction, coal mining or nuclear power plants…but to fight against wind farms on the grounds of aesthetics is the height of self-entitlement and ignorance.

On a related note, we have this from Senator Saxby Chambliss: “In June of 2009, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 2454, the "American Clean Energy and Security Act," by a vote of 219-212. This bill creates a cap and trade program to limit U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases and includes a number of measures that are designed to improve energy efficiency and promote renewable energy.
I have several concerns with this bill because it will increase electricity costs on Americans, send more American jobs overseas, and put our economy at a distinct disadvantage at a time when we can least afford it. The increased production and manufacturing costs incurred due to this bill would unduly burden producers and consumers, and during this current economic slowdown, we must focus on measures that will not harm our economy. I am also concerned that any emission reductions achieved by the United States due to this bill will be negated by the increasing emissions from countries around the world like China and India.”

Hmm…let’s see now. In that allowing off-shore drilling could well damage Georgia’s multi-billion dollar tourism and fishing industries, I find any argument against H.R. 2425 that cites concerns about jobs, electricity costs and threats to our economy rather disingenuous. The recent events in the Gulf are a rather tragic case in point.

On to the statement, “I am also concerned that any emission reductions achieved by the United States due to this bill will be negated by the increasing emissions from countries around the world like China and India.”
What an egregious example of the “we won’t do what’s right because those other kids might not play fair!” school of immature logic. Senator Chambliss appears to be suggesting that this nation make no effort to curb emissions because other nations might not follow suit. Does he wish that to be the guiding principle of United States environmental policy – that we act responsibly only if other countries do? Funny...I’d thought that we were global leaders, not followers.

Drill, baby, drill?

"What appeared to a manageable spill a couple of days ago after an oil rig exploded and sank off the Louisiana coast Tuesday, has now turned into a more serious environmental problem. The new leak was discovered Saturday, and as much as 1,000 barrels — or 42,000 gallons — of oil is leaking each day, Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry said. The sheen on the surface has grown, extending 20 miles by 20 miles Saturday — about 25 times larger than it appeared to be a day earlier, Landry said. "This is a very serious spill, absolutely." http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=10469074

Now, regarding off-shore Atlantic coast drilling (geologists have stated that the most positive estimates indicate that there's about 6 months worth of oil along the Eastern Seaboard):

"Tybee Island Mayor Jason Buelterman says, he trusts federal officials to make the right decision. "I think that with the technology we have available today, it can be done much safer than it was done in the past," Buelterman says. "If those folks deem it to be safe, and I believe it is, then I think that we can support it." http://www.gpb.org/news/2010/03/31/coast-reacts-to-offshore-drilling-news

"State Rep. Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons Island) said he is wary of anything that could potentially harm the coastal environment in his district. But Keen said he believes technology has evolved to the point where oil drilling and recovery can be done without environmental damage." http://www.ajc.com/news/georgians-wary-of-tapping-430112.html

"As of April 20, according to the Myrtle Beach Sun News, seven companies have already applied for permits to explore for oil and natural gas along all or part of the Southeast coast, including South Carolina in each of the seven cases." http://www.thecolumbiastar.com/news/2010-04-23/Business/Offshore_drilling_taps_controversy.html

Okay...now go back to the first link and read it again. Apparently Buelterman and Keen don't read the news.
The barrier islands of Glynn County alone attract more than 2 million visitors a year, who pump $1 billion annually into the economy. Savannah attracts about 7 million visitors who spend about $2 billion each year. Now imagine the economics of tourism and fishing all along eastern coast. This - and our coastal environment - is what we stand to lose...for six months of oil.

Cloth bags vs plastic bags

"As I cruised the Walmart parking lot this afternoon at about 3:45 looking for an available van accessible parking place, I spied the Earth Nanny, Joan of Snark, standing in front of the most heavily used entrance the St. Marys Walmart with some other Green eco-weenie. She was just a smiling and vouguing (sic) her brains out to satisfy her apprently (sic) insatiable nacissistic (sic) and exhibitionistic needs. I just got a fleeting glance of some sort of posters she had set up and what looked like to be a cloth shopping bag give away or sale. I'm not sure which. I had to park down by the garden shop and go in that way. By the time I was through checking out just after 4:00 she had packed up and skeedattled. No doubt she will blog that she left in sheer terror of me. Laughable."
posted by Jay Moreno at 4:50 PM on Apr 22, 2010 http://camdencommentary.blogspot.com/

Despite Mr Moreno's post (which was to be expected, of course) Katie Bishop and I had a great deal of fun handing out free cloth bags today. Our thanks, again, to WalMart for their support and generosity. Unfortunately, we ran out of bags at 4pm.

I loved the reaction of the children: some parents would look at us quizzically as we quickly explained the environmental and economic devastation of plastic bags - and their children would then proceed to lecture them about waste, the death of marine animals and, in one case, a wonderfully-rendered description (by an eight year old) of the Garbage Patches in the oceans.

We noticed a trend: the kids were informed and pleased, the older adults often had their own bags but appreciated another and the 30-40 year olds seemed, at times, confused (they were the only ones who, often, took a bag, shopped and then exited with carts full of plastic bags and the cloth one folded in the front basket).

200 bags in one hour. Who knows...we may have planted a few seeds of change.

If Mr Moreno were the pragmatic, brilliant and omniscient person that he professes to be, he would consider the astronomical costs of plastic bags (although this is also the man who boasted of turning on every appliance in his house during Earth Hour)

· The production of plastic bags requires petroleum and often natural gas, both non-renewable resources that increase our dependency on foreign suppliers. Additionally, prospecting and drilling for these resources contributes to the destruction of fragile habitats and ecosystems around the world. 18 billion plastic bags were used in the United States last year, requiring 12 million barrels of oil.
· The toxic chemical ingredients needed to make plastic produces pollution during the manufacturing process.
· The energy needed to manufacture and transport disposable bags eats up more resources and creates global warming emissions.
· Annual cost to US retailers alone is estimated at $4 billion.
· When retailers give away free bags, their costs are passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices.
· Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food. Turtles think the bags are jellyfish, their primary food source. Once swallowed, plastic bags choke animals or block their intestines, leading to an agonizing death.
· On land, many cows, goats and other animals suffer a similar fate to marine life when they accidentally ingest plastic bags while foraging for food.
· In a landfill, plastic bags take up to 1,000 years to degrade. As litter, they breakdown into tiny bits, contaminating our soil and water.
· When plastic bags breakdown, small plastic particles can pose threats to marine life and contaminate the food web. A 2001 paper by Japanese researchers reported that plastic debris acts like a sponge for toxic chemicals, soaking up a million fold greater concentration of such deadly compounds as PCBs and DDE (a breakdown product of the notorious insecticide DDT), than the surrounding seawater. These turn into toxic gut bombs for marine animals which frequently mistake these bits for food.
· Collection, hauling and disposal of plastic bag waste create an additional environmental impact. An estimated 8 billion pounds of plastic bags, wraps and sacks enter the waste stream every year in the US alone, putting an unnecessary burden on our diminishing landfill space and causing air pollution if incinerated.

("Earth Nanny, Joan of Snark" (I rather like that actually). He’s moved up from his usual description of me as a “desiccated, vegan (I’m not), communist/socialist eco-weenie”. Well done, Jay!)

How stupid are they?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/04/20/dog.fight.videos/

Words cannot adequately describe my disgust. Apparently the lunatics are running the Supreme asylum.

Increasingly, I am led to believe that we are living in a world that is becoming so alienated from common sense and compassion as to be almost unrecognizable. The Supreme Court of the United States has decreed (by a vote of 8-1, with Justice Alito being the lone voice of dissent and sanity) that to ban the sale of videos depicting horrific dog fights and other inhumane activities would infringe on our much-vaunted First Amendment rights.

If it is not comprehensible to these people that encouraging economic gain through cruelty to animals is abhorrent, perhaps they should have considered the human cost. During the past 25 years, studies in psychology, sociology and criminology have documented the undeniable co-relation between animal cruelty and human violence: cruelty to animals is now widely acknowledged as a precursor to human violence. There was no consideration of the concept that those who seek such video-"thrills" present a danger to others.

Until we, as a "civilized society" respect the rights of other species we will be condemned to pace out the slow, ongoing destruction of our own integrity, souls and planet.

More Annoying Than Gnats

http://www.topix.com/forum/city/kingsland-ga/TBFHJA0E56LS3JHRD

How strange and disconcerting it is to be the subject of one disturbed man’s obsession and, because of it, to have become fodder for “conversation” on an Internet forum.

I came to St. Marys seeking peace and a new beginning. I fell in love with the town because of its natural beauty and the citizens because of their warmth, charm and welcome.

Within a month of my arrival in 2006, I was asked to contribute to a local magazine, invited to social events and had been hired to work as a writer for a publishing company on St. Simons Island. One year later I co-founded the St. Marys EarthKeepers and was thrilled by the immediate response of the community. I’ve learned to swallow my innate fear of public speaking and to accept that while there are those who stun me with their generosity; there are also those who leave me almost breathless with their single-minded and destructive self-interest (see posts on the airport relocation project).

Into all of this change, adaptation and challenge (so very much of it delightful and gratifying) there entered a rather disturbing presence when I was informed that I was being attacked, ridiculed and lied about on the blog of a well-known local “character”, Jay Moreno. I’d not even heard of him but I have learned much since then: from residents, public officials, the police and others.

I (once) attempted to contact him, via email, to question the genesis of his inexplicable vendetta for he appeared to be (from his writing) at least moderately intelligent. His response indicated that he was well beyond the reach of rational discourse.

He seems, in his apparently deluded mind, to view me as some sort of “leftist, anti-American, harpy bitch” (his words) who is committed to bringing about the downfall of the nation through recycling efforts, the creation of parks and community clean-ups.

There are many who have urged me to pursue a legal response, to have my husband speak with Mr Moreno, to go on community forums, to lash back or to otherwise respond to him. It is my opinion (after many, many years of working with those who are afflicted with psychological disorders) that to encourage Moreno by pandering to his almost pathological need for attention is the wrong option.

For those of you who have defended me on Topix (the link above wherein Moreno writes under the pseudonym “Even Friendlier” and others), I thank you. For those who may hear of Mr Moreno’s wish to become a Camden County Commissioner, I suggest that you read his blog.

Now, let’s all just ignore him, please. Eventually he will simply go away – or implode with umbrage. As George Herbert so wisely said “Living well is the best revenge.”

Too sad...

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/765

Worth watching - possibly worth your life, your husband's, your parent's or your child's.

Now look at this http://www.kfc.com/doubledown/

The latter is actually considered as "food". From Mark Morford:

Behold, the KFC Double Down Sandwich. It is, if you really want to know, two slabs of fried chicken intersliced with two pieces of bacon, two slabs of cheese, and the Colonel's "special sauce." It comes in the form of a sandwich, with the fried chicken where the bread used to be. It's sort of hilarious. It's sort of perfect. And then it'll probably make you vomit....

You got your chicken-like creature, your pig-like creature, your dairy cow-like creature, all wrapped in a $5 fistful of nausea, ready to strangle your heart and benumb your brain. God knows what's in the "special sauce." Maybe some sort of fish byproduct, just to round it all out. It's like a wild kingdom in your mouth! It's like a toxic zoo in your colon! It's like a suicide note from what's left of your brain! "If you eat this, you are a complete and total idiot, and we're through. Signed, You."

From the CDC:

The Cost of Obesity and Chronic Diseases
- Among children and adolescents, annual hospital costs related to obesity were $127 million during 1997–1999 up from $35 million during 1979–1981.
- In 2000, the total cost of obesity in the United States was estimated to be $117 billion—$61 billion for direct medical costs and $56 billion for indirect costs.
- In 1996, $31 billion of treatment costs (in year 2000 dollars) for cardiovascular disease among adults was related to overweight and obesity.

I was in WalMart last week and a mother, father and child caught my attention. The mother was in a motorized wheelchair. I estimate that she weighed in excess of 300lbs. The father was morbidly obese as was the 12 or 13 year old daughter. The child almost brought me to tears: she was puffing as she walked, waddling awkwardly, talking on her cell phone and trying to sound "cool" - and her parents were cheerfully murdering her, one item at a time, as they filled the cart with soda, chips, pre-made meals, "family-sized" chocolate bars and ice cream.

Don't misunderstand: I am not some some of vegan purist. I am ashamed to confess that I smoke but I did not do so around my children, lay cigarettes on the table for their consumption or take them out for a happy family time of carcinogenic inhalations.

It is tragic - and it is preventable. To those who chant the mantra "Take America back!" I would suggest that you begin with your children and what you feed them. A strong nation is a healthy one. I don't intend to sound "preachy" here - it just saddens me to watch a strong, vital and dynamic country damage itself, its children and its potential.

To...whoever

Most writers are afflicted/cursed/blessed with the compulsion to write (as singers must sing, artists must create and plumbers must, I suppose, feel the urge to “plumb”). Hence the creation of blogs: opportunities to send thoughts out into the ether without the tiresome analysis and dictates of editors. Some blogs are informative, some amusing, some an utter waste of eyeball motion, some entertaining and some simply vile.
(As a side-note: I despise the word “blog”. It sounds like something that my cat would hack up after a healthy drink of water and a thorough tongue-bath). Anyway…

I must confess that I’ve given little-to-no thought as to those who might read this. I do not keep count of “hits” (my ego doesn’t require that feeble score-card of popularity or curiosity) and thus have no idea at all as to whom, if anyone, reads my thoughts and observations. I was rather taken aback today, then, when I was attending a meeting with a gentleman who is running for the Georgia State Senate and he said, “I read your blog.”

It caused me to speculate about who is reading this. Generally, I simply discuss the various acts of sanctioned insanity that involve the on-going environmental rape of this country (and the world) or the maddening and comical antics of humans.

Whoever may be reading this, perhaps you can address the following thought du jour:

Someone said to me, today, “You picked a bad time to become an American citizen.” When questioned as to why he thought so, he replied “This country is more divided and hate-filled now than since the Civil War.”
In the past couple of years I have wondered about the rising tide of intolerance and divisiveness that is apparent when reading the news each day. In my daily life, those who equate environmentalism with “socialism” confuse me; those who stridently shriek of “Take back America!” (and the almost hysterical hyperbole that goes along with that statement) bemuse me and those who state that Canada, being a nation with universal healthcare is, ipso facto, “communist” simply make me laugh. But this adolescent name-calling is a frightening trend – a burgeoning war that is played out with words and is as puerile as a sandbox fight between angry toddlers.

I stand at City Council meetings, place my hand over my heart and say the Pledge of Allegiance. I fought long and hard for that right and that honour.
“…one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
“Indivisible” – and yet we are dividing ourselves. (Required reading: Dr Seuss “The Sneetches and Other Stories”)
“Liberty” – the right to choose: the freedom to think or act without being constrained by necessity or force. And yet there are those who seek only to silence others: surely a true act of anti-democracy in action.

Right vs Left, Republican vs Democrat, newcomer vs native, black vs white…we can all always find ways to build walls. The question is now, “Can we find ways to mend them?”

Much hangs in the balance.

Tick, tick, tick...

Article by Brian Merchant:

“As the world recovers from recession, industry worldwide is getting the ol' bounce back in its step. And that bounce, of course, requires a hell of a lot of oil. More oil than at any point ever before in history, in fact. Yes, the International Energy Agency has released its projections for this year, and they've found that the oil demand will hit a whopping 86.6 million barrels a day--up 2% from last year, and 100,000 more barrels a day than the previous record set in 2007.
This is not, as you can imagine, a good thing. As demand grows, guess what else will? The prices!

And the report takes this into consideration (http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63C1CV20100413) :

Oil prices could stifle world economic growth if they were allowed to rise too far. "Ultimately, things might turn messy for producers if $80-$100 per barrel is merely seen as the new $60-$80, stunting economic recovery while prompting resurgent non-oil and non-OPEC supply investment," the IEA report said.

Nice. In related news, the US Military has issued a report of its own--and it's even more alarming. Here's a snippet, via http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/apr/11/peak-oil-production-supply :

The US military has warned that surplus oil production capacity could disappear within two years and there could be serious shortages by 2015 with a significant economic and political impact ... the cost of crude is predicted to soon top $100 a barrel.
"By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 million barrels per day," says the report, which has a foreword by a senior commander, General James N Mattis.

Here's another important segment:
"While it is difficult to predict precisely what economic, political, and strategic effects such a shortfall might produce, it surely would reduce the prospects for growth in both the developing and developed worlds. Such an economic slowdown would exacerbate other unresolved tensions, push fragile and failing states further down the path toward collapse, and perhaps have serious economic impact on both China and India."

Let's see here: oil prices that hover above $100 a barrel, those high prices stifling economic growth, drastic worldwide oil shortages in less than five years, which in turn causes unrest and disorder in fragile nations--and we still have politicians arguing in favor of the status quo energy policy!

Has it ever been clearer that weaning our dependence on oil should be a top priority?”

Arts in Georgia

I have just been informed, via the Executive Director of the Golden Isles Arts and Humanities Association, that The House Appropriations Committee has voted to eliminate the budget for the Georgia Council for the Arts in FY 2011. When GCA is eradicated this will mean that Georgia will be the only state and territory that will have no state arts agency.

With no arts council, the state of Georgia loses federal arts funds and over 1 million dollars in Federal funds for the arts.

Support from GCA has served thousands of local organizations, artists and individuals and by doing so, has served our communities. With schools, increasingly, sacrificing crucial arts programs, this comes as a devastating blow. The arts are an integral element of education and social well-being and to eviscerate all programs is to wrench the very soul from society.

Wendy Wasserstein: "The arts reflect profoundly the most democratic credo, the belief in an individual vision or voice.”

Robert Schumann: "The artist's vocation is to send light into the human heart."

Henry Miller: "Art teaches nothing, except the significance of life."

Albert Einstein: “True art is characterized by an irresistible urge in the creative artist.”

Henry James: “It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance . . . and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process.”

Leo Tolstoy: “Art is not a pleasure, a solace, or an amusement; art is great matter. Art is an organ of human life, transmitting man's reasonable perception into feeling. In our age the common religious perception of men is the consciousness of the brotherhood of man-we know that the well-being of man lies in the union with his fellow men. True science should indicate the various methods of applying this consciousness to life. Art should transform this perception into feeling. The task of art is enormous. Through the influence of real art, aided by science, guided by religion, that peaceful co-operation of man is now obtained by external means-by law courts, police, charitable institutions, factory inspection, etc.-should be obtained by man's free and joyous activity. Art should cause violence to be set aside. And it is only art that can accomplish this.”

Please, write to our representatives (click on the link below to find your House and Senate leaders). Protest this tragic assault upon the collective spirit.

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/statedir.tt?state=GA&lvl=state

Reporters, fools and airports

http://jacksonville.com/news/georgia/2010-04-13/story/navy-st-marys-airport-security-threat

What a bizarrely one-dimensional article.

Of course Mr Morrissey didn’t bother reading this letter from Capt. W. E. Stevens, May 5, 2008,
“Although the Navy supports the relocation of the airport, no funding is available for such an initiative and I am advised that the prospects of the Navy supporting a legislative initiative for relocation are remote.”

So the Navy wouldn’t even support legislation. I think that that sums up the weight of their concerns.

What complete rubbish this entire debacle is: time-consuming, costly and divisive rubbish. In that, due to the devastating environmental impacts that fly in the face of existing laws, Site 1 is not a “practicable alternative”, the choices are:
1) develop and promote the existing airport as per St. Marys/Camden County’s stated “Joint Comprehensive Plan”
2) close it and accept the loss to our economy, drawing potential and tourism
3) relocate it elsewhere at a staggering cost to the taxpayers.

This is what Council, in their myopic and single-minded pursuit of this misguided project, has led us to.

St. Marys Airport

Tonight at St. Marys City Hall:

It was just another dog-and-pony resolution from City Council, restating their determination to move the airport. Morrissey read a letter from Capt. Stevens stating the Navy's concerns about the proximity of the airport. Of course he did not read the pivotal one (also from Capt. W. E. Stevens, May 5, 2008) that stated:
“Although the Navy supports the relocation of the airport, no funding is available for such an initiative and I am advised that the prospects of the Navy supporting a legislative initiative for relocation are remote.”

One wonders how real the concerns are if the Navy would not even support legislation to relocate the airport.

In that they approved the funds for the flatwoods salamander study, Council was asked if the taxpayers would be funding the Dept. of the Interior-required surveys of the wood storks, bald eagles, red-cockaded woodpeckers, eastern indigo snakes etc. At almost $700 per survey, the taxpayer's price is high for something that simply isn't going to happen (at least not at Site 1). No reply from Council.

(The "at no expense to the taxpayer" referendum is but a Ghost of Promises Past at this point).

They were asked about the progress of the detailed mitigation proposal that is required by the USACE before it will even consider the 404 application and if that will be available to the public. No reply from Council.

Morrissey spoke of the pressing need to have the current airport land available for the industry that's going to pour into St. Marys. He also spoke of the importance of available local transport, listing rail, truck and water but, oddly, neglecting to mention the fact that, according to the GA Dept. of Industry, Trade and Tourism, a local airport is one of the top ten reasons for commercial relocation.

Howell, once again, asserted his opposition to the relocation plan. No reply from Council.

So there you have it: they will determinedly follow this path despite the citizen's wishes, financial cost to the taxpayers, illogic and prohibitive environmental law. They will incur mounting debt for us all even though the odds of the USACE granting a 404 are slim to nil. At last count over $500,000 (a laughably conservative estimate) has been spent on this misguided project – and more will be flushed away before it comes to its inevitable conclusion.

At this point all that we can do is to watch this train-wreak and let things take their course for they (the pro-relocation cabal on Council) are beyond rational analysis. It is a criminal waste of time, taxpayer money and the citizen's good faith in our local government.

Another one for the "What the hell are they thinking??" file

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/28/AR2010032802679.html?sid=ST2010032802698

There are no words that can adequately describe this idiocy.

Follow the Logic

Here’s an excellent article by Jim DiPeso:

“Just for the fun of it, let's do a thought experiment. Let's say that Rush Limbaugh is right about climate change ... as he claims to be, all the time, about that and every other topic imaginable.

Let's stipulate that the bloviator-in-chief accomplishes the feat that climate skeptics have repeatedly failed at - he develops and publishes an elegant, credible alternative theory that both explains why greenhouse gas emissions will not change the climate and that stands up to withering scrutiny.

Would we still need to worry about excessive dependence on fossil fuels?

Here are a few things to think about in this Rush fantasy world.
First, there is the evil twin of climate change - ocean acidification. Burning fossil fuels emits carbon dioxide. That's high school chemistry that not even Rush's most fervent acolytes could deny. About half the CO2 that humanity has emitted since the onset of the Industrial Revolution has been absorbed by the seven seas.

The oceans' acidity has measurably increased. Continuing acidification risks grave damage to coral reefs that are the foundation of fisheries that supply healthy seafood and support the economies of coastal communities worldwide.

If ocean acidification is not a convincing reason to diversify our energy menu, there is the tangle of energy security questions to consider. Sweeping aside worries about climate change might ease the path for drill, baby, drill perpetuation of oil dependence, but how wise a course would that be? There is scant prospect that the U.S. could drill its way to freedom from the global oil market, which exposes us to price risks and serves as an endowment to nasty oil-exporting regimes, creating an unending strategic liability for the U.S.

Today, the U.S. imports about two-thirds of all the petroleum products consumed domestically. Last year, the Energy Information Administration estimated that wide-open access to the Outer Continental Shelf would boost total domestic production a mere 3 percent by 2030. Impact on wellhead prices "is expected to be insignificant," EIA concluded.

OK, if oil is not the path to energy security, what about coal? If climate change is not a worry, why not turn to coal as the escape hatch from the cartel craziness of the world oil market?
For all the talk about America as the Saudi Arabia of coal, using black diamonds to put a significant dent in oil dependence would not be a casual undertaking.

Coal can be turned into liquid fuel through the well-understood Fischer-Tropsch process, which involves converting coal into a gas, and then into diesel fuel and naphtha, the second of which can be further processed into gasoline. The technology is very complex, creating production and financial risks.

Coal-to-liquids plants have a large appetite for black diamonds. Producing one barrel of fuel consumes half a ton of coal. To produce 2 million barrels of fuel per day, a bit over 10 percent of current domestic oil consumption, national coal production would have to increase around 40 percent, a 2008 RAND report estimated. Imagine the potential impacts on water, wildlife, and landscapes.

Domestic reserves of shale oil and shale gas beckon with promises of energy riches and security, but water might be a serious bone of contention that obviates the panacea appeal of both. In the arid West, producing shale oil could stir up age-old tensions over water availability. In the populous East, producing shale gas already has stirred fears that the "fracking" production process could contaminate streams and aquifers that supply drinking water.

Then, there are economic drivers for energy diversification. For reasons of their own, other countries are gearing up investments in non-fossil energy technologies. China's leaders, for example, know that poisoning their country's air and water through no-holds-barred expansion of coal-fired energy is not a sustainable development strategy. As China gears up investments in non-fossil energy technologies, China is creating a demand that U.S. technologies could help supply if we decide to goose development of alternative energy industries.

So, if Rush were right about climate change, should we stop worrying and learn to love fossil fuels? Would there still be a strong case for energy diversification? What do you think?”

School Funding

My email to the BOE, State Reps, Gov. Perdue and others:

A Camden County alert: "Music in elementary schools, chorus in middle schools, and all the technology programs have been eliminated in the budget proposal submitted to the Board of Education (BOE)."

The thought of eliminating these crucial programs is abhorrent. Data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study show that music participants received more academic honors and awards than non-music students, and that the percentage of music participants receiving As, As/Bs, and Bs was higher than the percentage of non-participants receiving those grades.
Source: National Educational Longitudinal Study, U.S. Department of Education.

A ten-year study, tracking more than 25,000 students, shows that music-making improves test scores. Regardless of socioeconomic background, music-making students get higher marks in standardized tests than those who had no music involvement. The test scores studied were not only standardized tests, such as the SAT, but also in reading proficiency exams.
Source: Dr. James Catterall, UCLA, 1997

Music training helps "under-achievers". In Rhode Island, researchers studied eight public school first-grade classes. Half of the classes became "test arts" groups, receiving ongoing music and visual arts training. In kindergarten, this group had lagged behind in scholastic performance. After seven months, the students were given a standardized test. The "test arts" group had caught up to their fellow students in reading and surpassed their classmates in math by 22 percent. In the second year of the project, the arts students widened this margin even further. Students were also evaluated on attitude and behavior. Classroom teachers noted improvement in these areas also.
Source: Nature May 23, 1996

These are but three of the thousands of extensive studies and reports that address the importance of music in the over-all scholastic and personal development of our nation's students. Surely we will not willingly sacrifice the well being of Camden's students by eliminating the very programs that offer them such enrichment and future promise.

To even consider removing technology programs is to consign out children to the wilderness of unemployment. In today's job market arena this is as necessary a skill as basic reading, writing and arithmetic.

I strongly urge you all to find a way to retain these vital programs. If volunteers are needed, send out a cry for help. If extra dollars are required, they can be found through careful management and fiscal responsibility. Do not, I implore you, condemn the children of Camden County to a sterile and inferior academic future by removing the very programs that offer such profound promise.

Alex Kearns

Citizens of Camden, please write/call/email anyone and everyone to protest the elimination of such valuable courses.

Big Bangs and the Bard

The “Cole’s Notes” version of the Large Hadron Collider:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/weekinreview/04overbye.html

A bit more in-depth:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider

And more (from the source):

http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/LHC/LHC-en.html

A must-read:

http://www.amazon.com/Elegant-Universe-Superstrings-Dimensions-Ultimate/dp/0375708111

As always, when exploring the realm of quarks, gluinos, photinos, black holes and string theory, I hear the voice of Shakespeare (and a certain professor I know who enjoyed both Macbeth and Brian Greene. I thank him for his patience with my endless questions).

“Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.” (The Tempest, Act 4, Scene1)

“And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” (Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 5)

Sometimes You've Just Got to Say "What????"

The series "Sarah Palin's Alaska" has been picked up by the Discovery Channel for a reported $1 million-plus per episode. I find this quite beyond disgusting (and, no, this has nothing to do with Democrat or Republican leanings on my part - it's just that it's almost laughable...or it would be if it weren't so appalling).

In the summer of 2008 Palin sued the federal government over the listing of polar bears as "endangered". She claimed that a "comprehensive scientific review" had proven that they were not in danger, and that listing them as such would hinder energy development. When pressed to provide this review, Palin, of course, refused. When the scientific document to which she was referring was later brought to light, it contained only evidence that the state's polar bears were, in fact, endangered.

Earlier in 2008, she approved $2 million in funding for a conference to discuss the economic impact of the Endangered Species Act - engineered to inform the public that listing animals as endangered was unwarranted and costly. That money was later used to pay for the polar bear lawsuit.

In 2007, her administration offered a $150 bounty for any wolf killed in the state, until the courts decreed that the bounty was illegal.

During her tenure as the State's governor, Palin often boasted that she created a climate change committee in Alaska - but she constantly undermined the committee's work by publicly stating that global warming was not caused or exacerbated by man. "If it's all just a natural, cyclical thing, maybe we should just all go home and read a book," said Kathie Wasserman, an adviser to Palin's climate change committee.

Sarah Palin also supported aggressively supported oil and natural gas drilling in every part of the state, including in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

It is the height of irony that the notorious anti-environmentalist will be given a platform by one TV's biggest nature-driven companies, which owns networks such as Discovery, Animal Planet and Planet Green. How such an admirable and venerable company could prostitute itself in this way is beyond me. I urge you all to click on http://extweb.discovery.com/viewerrelations to protest this stunning lack of taste and common sense.

It Boggles the Mind

http://www.ajc.com/news/georgians-wary-of-tapping-430112.html

Is it even possible for anyone to be more short-sighted and misguided than this man?

From State Rep. Jerry Keen (R-St. Simons Island):
"I'm supporting the [Obama] decision, and hopefully we'll get some good, clean exploratory drilling going on out there in the near future," Keen said. "There are some safeguards in place to make sure you don't have a gold-rush situation with a bunch of cowboy explorations going on that could damage the reefs or the oceans or the wildlife."

"The good news for us is Virginia gets to be the guinea pig," he said. "If things go well there, they can transfer that technology to our coast and we should be fine."

From "Online Athens" - "A report released by Environment Georgia last year found that our beaches and ocean provide jobs from tourism, commercial fishing and recreational fishing conservatively valued at $1.3 billion per year. The value of tourism and fishing in the South Atlantic is 20.8 times larger than the oil and gas resources that might be found. It makes no sense to threaten our coast with spills when we're about to unleash the real solutions to oil dependence - cleaner cars and cleaner fuels."

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9ER6E780.htm Of course Gov. Perdue has always been a proponent of off-shore drilling.

What is this?

These gloriously lovely blossoms grow from a vine in my yard (it is as thick as my wrist and twists about each tree). This time each year, it bursts forth in these heavy-hanging flowers that bear a heady perfume of jasmine and lilac. It is similar to the lilacs of my homeland but is a different thing in its growth and form.

The riotous exuberance of the South’s flora entrances me (and takes me back to my other home, HopeTown, Bahamas). Today we bought our tomato and green pepper plants and tomorrow is my favourite day - the planting of the patio pots. I confess, though, that I do miss the sweet things that thrived in my gardens in Ontario - the bee balm, yarrow, lobelia, gloxinia, black-eyed Susans, shy crocuses and others - but at least impatiens enjoy it here and bloom well into October. What I always thought of as indoor plants are the ones that hang outdoors here: Boston ferns, spider plants, English ivy and philodendron. They flourish and grow to almost mutant size.

I will never, ever enter a greenhouse or thrust my hands into loamy soil without missing my Mum and Grandma with an ache that brings tears to my eyes. Each year we'd head out to the Belgium greenhouses between Guelph and Kitchener and go into raptures over the living beauty. When I think of these amazing women (as I do each day) I think of them both on their knees in the garden, La Boheme pouring from the stereo and the lullaby of their voices as they murmured encouraging words to the fragile "beings" that they so loved.

Right now all of the windows are full open and the temps between 75 and 80. How I wish that it would stay this way, but I know that a few weeks from now the A/C will have to be on. Potter the Possum sits atop the gazebo each night, gazing in at us, and then he begins his nightly work of consuming the bugs in the yard.

A friend on FaceBook has just informed me that the vine/flower is Wisteria. So now I add that to the list of my yard’s inhabitants.

Times, They are A-changin'

http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2008/07/this-is-your-brain-this-is-your-brain-on-the-internetthe-nick-carr-thesis/

I am no Luddite: I confess that I enjoy not pounding out articles to send to publishers or clients on a typewriter. I am old enough to remember the evil “correction strips” and endless re-writes, the postal lag-time for something that was required “yesterday”, the desperate desire to add two paragraphs on the third page without having to re-do the following forty and the endless hours spent in libraries to find the smallest (but needed to be substantiated) detail of fact.
But I also fear for the future of books: of the singular delight of holding, owning, seeking and treasuring these gems of ideas made tangible.

I bemoan the loss of letters that are carefully folded and tucked into hope chests. So much of our knowledge of the past came from such riches of time and thought. I, occasionally, print out an email sent by a loved one – but the intimacy is lost: the singular bend and curve of the quiet motions of alphabetic ballet that brings the reader’s finger to the page to touch what was once touched by another.

I miss saying to my child “The books are there – look it up” knowing that she would discover other paths and worlds on the way. “Google it” atrophies the intellectual muscles and robs the seeker of the unexpected joys of the journey.

The Internet has opened both an endless world of diverse information and a seemingly bottomless Pandora’s box. It can be convenient, enriching, fascinating and alluring – but it can also be misleading, evilly corrupting, slothful and debasing.

My daughter was 12 years old when the MSN instant-messaging craze hit. Immediate gratification (why hear someone’s voice when “yu cn rede thr wrds, lmao”?); misspelled, gossipy symbols on a brightly lit screen; innocent and naïve kids who become easy targets for the predators who troll and create sites for children. I feared for her more as she sat a room away than I ever did when she was in the neighbourhood library.

I sit here now, before this screen, tapping my thoughts to send out into the cyber-ether and the dichotomy strikes me. I am surrounded by books: shelf upon shelf of my beloved books. Towering regally in the corner of the room is my first edition (1909), full set of The Harvard Classics, (Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf). It is a 51-volume anthology of classic works from world literature - compiled and edited by Harvard University president Charles W. Eliot - and was (and this took my breath away) given to me by my friend, inspiration and mentor. We'd seen it on Ebay and were stunned that few seemed to know the intrinsic value of it. But he, my friend, knew how my mind lusted after it and, in a mind-boggling act of love and generosity, procured it for me. Imagine my tears when Fed-ex (poor man) delivered this gift to my door!

Eliot had said, in various speeches, that a comprehensive education could be obtained by spending 15 minutes a day reading from a collection of books that could fit on a five-foot shelf. P.F. Collier and Son challenged Eliot to select an appropriate collection of works, and the Harvard Classics was the result.

Each volume has 400-450 pages, and the included texts are "so far as possible, entire works or complete segments of the world's written legacies." I add to it weekly: the literacy legacy of mankind is on-going. (My poor daughter – some day she shall inherit this weighty collection).
Tonight I will shut down this machine. The Harvard Classics will remain: immutable, venerable and priceless.

No…I will never own a “Kindle”. I will alway be the woman that you see at the book sales and in the stacks of the library.