| 
Good Sunday Morning,
It is always sweet to be awakened in the morning by a thunderstorm. You hear the thunder at the far edges of your consciousness, slowly awakening to the roars and booms and the calming white noise of the rain. Unless you're like me and realize you've left the windows open on your car...
The National Archives has released a new web interface to a portion of their collection. Digital Vaults premiered recently and if you're on a high speed line and have a little time on your hands, point your browser there and enjoy.
 There are more images from the 4-H Fair currently ongoing at the County Park in Kent, this set is without politicians doing the politician thing, but instead, images from some of the events and the general things folk do there. The Fair returns again today from 10AM until 5. Be there.
Be sure to stop by the Town of Kent's Stormwater tent. It's on your right, directly across from the first barn you see upon entering the fairgrounds.
And, as you might guess, I have some suggestions to make the Fair a more enjoyable experience, some of which are a repeat from last year that were not taken up by CCE.
1) Recycle. There are garbage cans all over the place yet the fair sells bottled water and people carry recyclable and returnable containers in with them. They also throw away a lot of paper. While the water bottles themselves are not deposit bottles, thanks to general dorkiness in Albany, these bottles can still be recycled. Why aren't there any receptacles for them?
Next year we should see recycle bins next to each garbage can with a printed list on what can be recycled and what cannot. I cannot think of a valid reason why this isn't done. One for garbage, one for cans and bottles, one for plastic, one for paper, one for non-meat food scraps (see #2 below) If you've ever been to Clearwater's Hudson River Revival at Croton Point Park you'll know what I'm talking about - everything that can come out of the garbage stream does so and everything that can be recycled, is. It's pretty amazing. As it was, Walt Thompson of Keep Putnam Beautiful was asking passersby for their empty bottles at his display. CCE should be doing this as matter of course.
2) Composting. Right near the entrance, one of the more popular things people do is to buy roasted corn on the cob. You see people walking and munching those cobs and when they're done they toss them in the garbage. What's with that? Corn cobs are a compostable item and/or can be used to feed livestock.
Next to each garbage can and recycling bin there should be a receptacle for composting. All food items minus bones and meat, pretty much. Either the Master Gardeners could take up the cause, or CCE itself. Again, I cannot think of a reason this can't be done and would add to the visitors learning experience.
 3) Better Spacing of (loud) Entertainment. Each year CCE provides entertainment at a stage near the entrance of the Fair. It's usually pretty good though very few people sit down there to watch. Still, one can hear the music almost to the top of the hill, providing another active backdrop to everything else going on and I've no doubt it adds positive vibes, subconsciously, to the visitor experience. Performers should know that even if they're playing to empty seats that hundreds of people are aware and enjoying what they're offering.
However, this year the organizers placed the UMAC folk (United Martial Arts Center) nearby and twice, once at noon and again at 2PM UMAC does a pretty exciting exhibition (see the posted images). But this exhibition uses loud music which completely overshadows - by many decibels - the music coming from the stage thus the guitarist who came on at noon had to compete for 20 minutes with disco and rock blared from speakers. That's really not acceptable to the performer nor to visitors. Next year, either schedule the performances so there is no musical competition or move groups like UMAC to the very top of the hill where the two musical events will not compete one with the other for the crowds attention.
 4) Judging. This year this was done in a tent behind the main livestock area and if you weren't curious enough to wander back there to see what was going on you would have missed it. Is the judging a secret? Next year, move this front and center since this should be the heart and main focus of the event. The 4-H kids spend a lot of time and effort raising the best animals and produce they can and their reward should be the primary focus of the fair. It's their efforts the fair is all about.
5) Better Food. Fried this and fried that. Cheap red meat all over the place along with $2.50 hot dogs and gawd knows what's in 'em. Though there's an anti-smoking booth prominently displayed, it's red meat that's the Number one Killer of Americans today. Did I mention raw and spun sugar? You want your kids to be chomping on that? Perhaps next year 4-H might take the plunge and focus on local produce and healthier meals?
Look, I know I'm going to receive a few emails saying, "Jeff, 4-H is an excellent program. Why are you picking on them?" My response will be this.
The 4-H pledge is as follows:
"I pledge my head to clearer thinking,
my heart to greater loyalty,
my hands to larger service
and my health to better living,
for my club, my community, my country, and my world."
So, let's get these kids, as examples for their parents, on with the process of healthier living, clearer thinking about the world, loyalty to the earth that sustains them and service to the greater agricultural community. We've got thousands of acres of productive farmland within 100 miles of Putnam County and the bounty from those lands should be at the forefront of Fairs like the 4H, not heart-attack inducing red meat from Colorado. Hey, I enjoy a juicy burger like anyone else, but I don't think it's wrong to expect locally produced - and healthier foods - at a place like the 4H Fair. Rather than the Carmel PD's jetski, and WHUD, how about local farmer's markets and food stands? Isn't that more in line with what 4-H is all about?
In other words, let's focus on agriculture and the healthful bounty it can provide.
I know that others have attempted to make inroads with some of these efforts over the years and I also know they have failed. Perhaps it's time to change management at CCE and replace the current State employees with newer, younger, (or at least more environmentally and agriculturally aggressive) crew? I'd say so and the time is now. There will be resistance from CCE about this and it should be met with stoic determination on our part.
And now, some news:
- Heating oil prices are next energy headache
- Planting near streams, limiting mowing can help
- The Light Is Green, and Yellow, on Drilling
- $217 Million Per Hour
- From the Right Wing: The Case of Expelled Embed
Heating oil prices are next energy headache
Allan Drury
The Journal News
People whose lifestyles have been crimped by this year's dramatic rise in gasoline prices are probably going to get hit hard again when they heat their homes next winter.
The average cost of a gallon of home heating oil across the nation will average $4.48 this month, 68 percent more than last July's average of $2.67, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Dealers say the average house in Westchester County uses about 1,200 gallons to get through a winter. At the July prices, the average homeowner would spend an extra $2,172 this year.
To put that in its grizzly perspective, think of it this way. Regular unleaded gasoline has risen $1.11 a gallon the past year. A person who drives 400 miles a week in a car that gets 27 miles a gallon would pay an extra $855.57 a year.
And if the government's projections are accurate, it's going to get worse. The EIA predicts home heating oil will rise to $4.68 a gallon by December.
Read More
Planting near streams, limiting mowing can help Watersheds are areas of land that drains into bodies of water. Whether we are walking down the street, hiking on a trail or fishing on a boat, we are always in a watershed. Watersheds connect us all.
Three primary threats to Hudson Valley watershed health are:
- Pollution, in the form of high levels of bacteria, nutrients, salinity, heavy metals and litter.
- Loss of riparian (or streamside) buffers.
- Increases in impervious surfaces. These are serious problems that affect us all and our quality of life. But there are things you can do to help.
Do not mow your lawn to the edge of the creek - While it looks nice, it is one of the worst things for water quality. Anything on your lawn - fertilizers, pesticides, pet waste - will run into the creek when it rains without an adequate buffer to stop it. Unfortunately a mowed lawn is not an adequate buffer. So let the grass grow. A 5-foot-wide buffer will help filter pollutants before they get to the stream. It will cut down on the amount of lawn you have to mow, save you money on gas for your mower and stop all those expensive fertilizers and pesticides from washing away. Better yet, reduce the amount of fertilizers and pesticides you use. Apply fertilizers in the fall when they are used more efficiently by grasses and look for alternatives to chemicals.
Read More
The Light Is Green, and Yellow, on Drilling By PETER APPLEBOME
Published: July 27, 2008 It wasn’t the kind of bill to set metropolitan toes to tapping — a measure to extend New York State’s uniform well spacing system to allow additional gas wells and energy production, including intensive horizontal drilling.
But when Gov. David A. Paterson signed a measure on Wednesday essentially ushering in a new era of energy production upstate, it was hard to be sure what mattered more, the green light or the yellow one he added. Either way, the quandary was the same: the economic rewards from thousands of new gas wells, or the risk that they could be drilled in some of the most scenic parts of the state and at the doorstep of New York City’s water supply.
Sometimes big issues coalesce with people barely seeing them. That’s exactly what has happened over the past six months as an upstate land rush, important new legislation and belated environmental awareness converged at the same time over the prospects of extensive gas drilling upstate.
“This new law will ensure greater efficiency in the processing of requests to permit oil and gas wells, while maintaining environmental and public health safeguards,” Mr. Paterson said in a statement.
Or, as his deputy secretary for the environment, Judith Enck, said later: “We’re not Wyoming, no offense to Wyoming.”
Which is to say that New York can tap into trillions of cubic feet of natural gas in the Catskills and the state’s Southern Tier without suffering some of the environmental degradation you find out West, or in Louisiana or even next door in Pennsylvania. We shall see.
Read More
$217 Million Per Hour by J Ro, Sat Jul 26, 2008 at 05:29:26 PM EST
As you may or may not know, I've taken a job with Health Care for America Now, an issue advocacy groups dedicated to winning real health care reform in 2009. Jerome has been kind enough to allow me to continue to post here on weekends on the topic of health care reform in America. Here's my pitch for the importance of this campaign.
$217 million per hour.
That's how much Americans spend on health care according to testimony in front of Congress' Joint Economic Committee by experts from the American Human Development Project.
24 hours a day. 365 days a year. For a total of almost $2 trillion spent every year, 16% of our GDP - more than any other nation on earth. And for what?
According to the World Health Organization, America ranks 37th in the world for best health care systems, behind countries we'd expect like France, Japan, and Norway, and also countries that might surprise you, like Colombia, Saudi Arabia, and Chile.
Read More
From the Right Wing: The Case of Expelled Embed By David Paulin
In the latest instance of the military's uneasy relationship in Iraq with the news media, U.S. Marine commanders expelled an embedded photojournalist for doing something they considered unforgivable -- snapping grisly photos of dead Marines, and posting them on his website.
The case of photojournalist Zoriah Miller, a 32-year-old American freelancer, has roiled U.S. Marines in Western Iraq for more than a month. Yet the mainstream media has largely ignored the controversy - until that is, a lengthy article in Saturday's New York Times, "4,000 U.S. Deaths and Just a Handful of Public Images ." While it strove to be circumspect about the issues at play, the Times failed to answer an important question: Who is Zoriah Miller?
The answer explains much about why America's military leaders are not interested in returning to the anything-goes days of media coverage that existed during the Vietnam War. And it explains why Marine commanders in Iraq do not relish the idea of Miller ever again accompanying American troops anywhere in the world.
Miller, a freelancer who uses his first name professionally, had been in Iraq nearly one year when he was expelled. He ran afoul of Marine commanders because of two photos of three dead Marines he published on his website. Initially, Marine commanders ordered Miller to remove the photos. He invited their full wrath with his response.
He refused to obey them.
Read More
| |
