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There's a good bit in this Issue so grab your favorite beverage and read on...
 Good Wednesday Morning,
It was 6.1 degrees this morning at the Asylum. Forecasters claimed it would only be 12.
This is the last edition of News That Matters for 2009 and it's been one heck of an exciting year.
With the recent local elections, taking on the Tilly Foster contract, the Mt. Gilead blasting and Peekskill Hollow Road and everything in between, we've been all over the place and to be honest, I'm exhausted.
New Year's Day Hike:
On New Year's Day (Friday) join with other NtM readers for a trip into the wilds of central Putnam County along the Sunken Mine Road through Fahnestock State Park.
Sunken Mine, a Putnam Valley town road, is gated and closed to vehicular traffic from December 22nd until April so the solitude of the winter forest won't be broken by motor vehicles making this a perfect walk through the wilderness. Dogs. Kids. Joy.
We leave at noon from the dirt parking area on Dennytown Road where the gated Sunken Mine road cuts in, about a half mile below Route 301.
Call ( 8 4 5 ) 2 2 5 - 2 1 0 4 by 10:30 that morning if the weather looks iffy.
Once in a blue moon. Tomorrow's full moon will be the second full moon within a single month, hence we call it a "blue" moon. The moon is always full when it rises at the same moment the sun sets.
Though the Chuan Yen monastery on Route 301 in Kent will not be serving lunch on Sunday's until April, the Putnam Lake VFW is having their annual breakfast this Sunday - so if that's been your deal, you're in luck! It's from 9 AM until noon and only 10 bucks. 4 Fairfield, Putnam Lake.
Over near Drewville Road in Carmel a resident discovered a bobcat caught in an illegal legtrap and two teens, one 17 and the other 13, were eventually arrested. Animal control officers released the cat and it took off into the woods. We do not know how injured it was. The Journal News article said, as usual, nothing much about the state of the animal but the Danbury paper had a tad more information.
 Bannerman's Castle, that relic of a bygone era built as a personal storehouse for surplus weaponry, sitting on Pollepel Island in the Hudson River near Dutchess Junction, has long been targeted for preservation even though it's been falling apart - and dangerous - for years upon years.
At some time this past weekend a significant portion of the remaining facade collapsed as you can see from this image taken by Frank Carbone through a telescope. You used not to be able to see the back wall through the front The image shows the front section of the "castle" where the main stairs used to be. The NY Times wrote:
"But then in the silence of last Saturday night, a large chunk of history suddenly disappeared when the castle’s stone, brick and cement sighed under a century’s weight of weather. Overnight, two-thirds of the eastern tower was gone, as well as one-third of the adjacent southern wall, leaving a gaping hole and concern over how to stop the crumbling."
In the meantime, the building is not going anywhere and it's still a sight to see as anyone who has looked up - or down - the Hudson in that area will attest. There are some excellent photos of the site here, here and here.
 About 415,000 people have visited Walkway Over the Hudson since it opened on October 3rd. This number far exceeds expectations and has left State Park personnel scratching their heads.
A friend was out on the bridge last weekend. He said the temps were in the low 30's and the wind was whipping strongly and he had to hold on to the railings, but the bridge was still crowded with people out enjoying the day.
Thanksgiving and Christmas days were both especially popular with local families out for a walk and even with the weather the bridge has not been closed for a single day. According to officials, day-time closings have amounted to a total of 15 hours. Yesterday with the high winds, the bridge was closed in the morning to remove debris from the entryways but opened again later in the afternoon with a suggestion that you spend no longer than 30 minutes exposed to the 40mph winds blowing up the river.
Once an LED lighting project is completed on the bridge, officials expect it to remain open for a while after dark as the bridge now closes at dusk.
Have you been up to the bridge yet? What did you think?
While we're talking about bridges, the Champlain Bridge, a link as vital as the Tappan Zee, was demolished this morning in a controlled explosion in order to make room for a new bridge.
 Back in October the state found that two of the supports on the bridge were no longer structurally sound and feared that it might collapse. At a public hearing residents cried FOUL! blaming the state for everything from bad breath to chilblains and demanded that the bridge stay open until it could either be repaired or replaced. Engineers agreed with the state: if the bridge stays open personal injury lawyers could get really rich.
In response, the states of New York and Vermont have started a free ferry service and construction will begin on a $67 million replacement due to be completed by the summer of 2011 using Federal dollars. However, as expected, local communities are already moaning and groaning about the project, its disruption, location, design and cost.
Years ago when I worked for the government of France I once asked a stagiaire, "You French, you complain about this, you complain about that. What would happen if everything was perfect?" He replied, "Then we'd complain that we have nothing to complain about!"
I'm starting to feel the same way about Americans.
TV station WPTZ has a video up. Catch it right at 2:15 for a super slow motion view that is truly cool.
 Jack Dougherty and Claire Budzinski are two local youth who make up the band, The Farewell Season.
On Saturday, January 9th at 7:30PM, they'll be holding a special concert to release their latest album at the Cultural Center on Lake Carmel. If you're a fan of local music or just want to support our youth, you should be here.
What makes this event truly special is that The Farewell Season will be joined by three other local bands (Alphabet Soup, A Standard Protocol and Brad Schult's Kid Jerusalem) who are known for their hard-driving rock and roll but in this case each will be performing a full acoustic set.
I'm running sound for the show so you won't be needing your earplugs but bring them anyway just in case.
Tickets are on sale now at the Arts on the Lake website and are $6.
| Ten-year old Sara Greiner, a middle school student in Commack, LI was suspended from school for dealing. Oh, it's not what you think, but when you live in an hysterical nation people often do hysterical things.
The young girl had brought organic peppermint oil to school and added a few drops of it to her bottle of water and to those of her friends who asked. The School board, in a press release said, "Peppermint oil is an unregulated over-the-counter drug,". Sheesh. We used to share all kinds of things in school back in the day.
Politifact was keeping track of what people said during the Health Reform debate this year and this is what they came up with:
True 14.7 percent
Mostly True 10.3 percent
Half True 19.2 percent
Barely True 16.0 percent
False 30.1 percent
Pants on Fire 9.6 percent
44% bears to the truth, 55% goes to the lies.
Read the full article here.
A Walmart in Pennsylvania was sued for having a surveillance camera in a bathroom at the store. Walmart's Security and Privacy policy states that at "some stores and clubs [Walmart] may record your presence on security monitors for safety and security purposes,". Several employees brought suit against Walmart for the camera and three of those who did were terminated by the corporation. Walmart declined to comment on the firings.
Shop Walmart! Low Prices! Even Lower Morals!
(And we've even seen you naked!)
The Risk of Dying:
- Your odds of dying from cancer are 1 in 5
- The chance that you'll die of lung disease is 1 in 7
- Your odds of dying in a car accident at some point in your life are 1 in 83.
- Your chance of being killed in a pedestrian accident are 1 in 526
- There's a 1 in 10,048 chance you'll die from alcohol poisoning.
- You have a 1 in 16,421 chance of being murdered over your lifetime.
- You have a 1 in 20,000 chance of dying from an asteroid strike.
- The chance of being killed by lightning was 1 in 79,746.
- You have a lifetime risk of 1 in 354,319 of dying in a non-terrorist related airplane crash.
- Over a ten year period the chance of being aboard an airplane involved in a terror attack was
1 in 10,408,947 which, I admit, is three times more likely than being shredded by a mountain lion.
- Even if terrorists were to totally destroy one of our 40,000 shopping centers each week you'd only have a 1 in 1,000,000 chance of being at the right place at the wrong time.
- You have a 1 in 6,500,000,000 chance of dying from marijuana.
We spend $44,000,000,000 (that's billion) a year making you take your shoes off at the airport (and now your pants, too!) and add billions more to lost productivity all to insure that 1 in 10,408,947 chance.
Now that you know the truth can we all just relax a bit? Please?
For a more complete list of your odds in life look here.
Image of the Year:
2009 will be remembered for a lot of things but mostly for the overt racism that exploded across the nation with the inauguration of the US's first Black president.
Along with the racism came a resurgence in anti-intellectualism. "Tea Baggers" and "Birthers" don't seem to understand the difference between political philosophies and equate Communism and Socialism and Fascism, conflating them all into as single philosophy. This either reflects our national education system or... I don't know what. But when the likes of Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and the Aile's and Gannett and Murdock empires are doing the educating the outcome has been, as we've seen, deleterious to the social, moral and political health of our nation.
I don't know what the solution is but when we raise a generation of children as the one pictured below, we need to stop what we're doing and take a hard look at ourselves. Have we made the sacrifices necessary to maintain and protect the Constitution? Have we worked hard enough to counter the lies and misinformation that passes as news? Have we looked beyond political loyalties and placed our faith in our communities instead? When we can answer those questions with honesty and altruism we may begin to repair the damage done our nation this past decade.
But you have to act and you have to act now.
A few last notes:
Michelle Leblanc New Year's Eve at 8:30 PM ~ Join Michelle and jazz pianist Tom Kohl for a lovely New Year's Eve celebration in Cold Spring. Welcome in the new year in the comfort of the most beautiful Inn on the Hudson River. Come for dinner or extend your stay by reserving a room overlooking the River and Storm King mountain. New Year's eve dinner is $75. per person. See the menu, get directions and call for reservations here.
Christmas Bird Count Through January 5th - Join the Waterman Bird Club for the 110th(!) annual Christmas Bird Count. The Christmas Bird Count (CBC) was inaugurated at the turn of the last century by Frank Chapman of the National Audubon Society. The fascinating history of this annual event is detailed on the History page of the National Audubon Society's CBC website. The purpose of this annual census, now enjoyed by over 50,000 participants throughout the western hemisphere each year, is to gather data that can be used to identify bird population trends from year to year, which in turn can help scientists understand environmental impacts of weather, habitat loss, industrialization, human expansion, and other factors. More information can be found here.
As you begin to read reviews of the past year/decade and people's Ten Best lists, think about this:
$10. $18. $20. $25. $35. $50. $100+ Pick one.
It's your last chance to say Thanks! For a full year of News That Matters.
And a very special thanks to the ~35 of you who have said so already!
And now, The News:
- And the Winners of the 2009 'Skeeter Bites Awards Are . . .
- Top 10 Urban Legends of 2009
- The Top 10 Infrastructure Stories of the Decade
- 2009: The Photography is Not a Crime year in review
- Drilling Wastewater Disposal Options in N.Y. Report Have Problems of Their Own
- Car showrooms are reborn as places to play, learn
- How Strasbourg Gave Up the Car (and Why Midsized American Cities Can Too)
- Is aviation security mostly for show?
- Cellphone Searches
And the Winners of the 2009 'Skeeter Bites Awards Are . . . By Skeeter Sanders
As the first decade of the 21st century draws to a close -- wow, has it really been ten years since we all rang in the new millennium? -- it's that time again to take a look back at some of what's transpired over the past 12 months, make resolutions for 2010 -- geez, we finally get to say "twenty-something" instead of "two-thousand-something" when referring to the year -- and, of course, cast an eye on the crystal ball and predict who'll win what in the upcoming awards season.
>From time immemorial, it seems, we mark the early months of each new year by bestowing awards to honor the best among us, such as the Golden Globes, the Grammys, the Oscars, the Tonys and the Emmys -- and to dishonor the worst among us as well, such as Mr. Blackwell's annual "Worst-Dressed Women" list and the Razzie Awards for the worst movies of the year.
In 2007, this writer chose to join in the awards-giving parade, but unlike the "Big Five" best-of entertainment awards and more in the tradition of Mr. Blackwell and the Razzies, I chose to join in the bestowment of "dishonors" to the most richly deserving crooks, liars, power-mad despots and just plain weirdos who've made life a lot more complicated for Americans and the world at large in the previous 12 months.
It seems that choosing the "winners" for the 'Skeeter Bites Awards is getting more and more difficult, even though this is only the third year of the SBAs' existence. Almost like the Energizer bunny, the list of nominees richly deserving these dishonors just keeps growing and growing and growing.
But, here goes . . .
Read More
Top 10 Urban Legends of 2009 by David Emery
Here, in ascending order of popularity as gauged by reader interest and site traffic, are the Top 10 Urban Legends, Rumors, and Internet Hoaxes of 2009:
10. August ‘Mars Spectacular’
Circulating for the sixth year running, this email hoax describes a “once in a lifetime” celestial phenomenon — the closest encounter between Mars and Earth for the past 5,000 years — which already occurred in 2003.
9. Burundanga Drug Warning
“In Katy, Texas a man came over and offered his services as a painter to a female putting gas in her car and left his card,” begins this overwrought message. “She said no, but accepted his card out of kindness and got in the car. Almost immediately, she started to feel dizzy and could not catch her breath. She tried to open the window and realized that the odor was on her hand; the same hand which accepted the card from the gentleman at the gas station.”
Read more
 The Top 10 Infrastructure Stories of the Decade
Posted on Monday December 28th by Melissa Lafsky
The aughts have been called “The Decade From Hell,” and certainly there was more than enough bad news to justify the title. But the past decade has not lacked for major infrastructure stories, both in the U.S. and abroad. If it’s true that infrastructure is one of the most telling indicators of how a nation is faring, then there’s plenty to gain from examining the major trends around the world — and to see where the U.S. emerges in the greater scheme.
Here are the top 10 largest infrastructure-related stories of the past decade. While the list does include international projects, the focus is on the U.S.
Read More (Read Part 2)
2009: The Photography is Not a Crime year in review By Carlos Miller
It was a year that firmly established Photography is Not a Crime as a national blog, going from an average of more than 700 page views a day in 2008 to more than 4,000 in 2009.
A year in which PINAC was mentioned in both The New York Times and Playboy Magazine as well as several other respectable publications throughout the country.
A year that resulted in me getting arrested again for photographing police against their wishes.
But the most significant highlight for me this year was winning my appeal pro se on my first arrest; a legal victory that nobody will ever take away from me.
It was also a year of nonstop police abuses against photographers, videographers and journalists. A year where a multitude of videos continued to pop up on the internet revealing blatant police abuses against civilians as well as numerous incidents where police were too quick to use their Taser.
So let’s take a look at what went down in 2009.
Read More
Drilling Wastewater Disposal Options in N.Y. Report Have Problems of Their Own by Joaquin Sapien and Sabrina Shankman, ProPublica - December 29, 2009 12:01 am EST
The site of one of Canada-based Gastem USA's wells in Otsego County, N.Y. The well produced far less wastewater than most Marcellus Shale wells will, but it still took the drillers more than a year to get permission to drill it, because they couldn't find a place to dispose of the water. (Joaquin Sapien/ProPublica)
The site of one of Canada-based Gastem USA's wells in Otsego County, N.Y. The well produced far less wastewater than most Marcellus Shale wells will, but it still took the drillers more than a year to get permission to drill it, because they couldn't find a place to dispose of the water. (Joaquin Sapien/ProPublica)
Environmentalists, state regulators and even energy companies agree that the problem most likely to slow natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale in New York is safely disposing of the billions of gallons of contaminated wastewater the industry will produce.
Between 1,500 and 2,500 wells per year could eventually be drilled into the huge natural gas reserve, state regulators say [4], although other estimates are far higher [5] (PDF). Each well will produce about 1.2 million gallons of wastewater that can contain chemicals introduced during the drilling process and dredged up from deep within the earth. Using the state’s higher estimate, that means the industry will have to find a way to dispose of as much as 3 billion gallons a year, enough to fill 5,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Read More
Car showrooms are reborn as places to play, learn By JULIE CARR SMYTH
Font Size: Default font size Larger font size With hard times in the auto industry and car dealerships closing around the country, the gleaming showrooms that once featured next year's models are becoming this year's new store, restaurant, school, day care center or yoga studio.
In Lane County, Ore., Joe Softich from Catholic Community Services helps erect shelves and unload boxes for a new food bank warehouse inside a former auto showroom. In Tulsa, Okla., teenagers at Northside Christian Church skateboard in what was once a showroom's auto service center.
Students on the campus of the Columbus College of Art & Design in Ohio can learn in a space where evidence of automaking's proud past is still visible in the exposed concrete pillars, sturdy tile floors and ascending spiral vehicle ramp.
Architects and historians say the shock that American automakers could go bankrupt has combined with depressed real estate values and enthusiasm for green energy to bring a unique level of interest to reusing showrooms.
Read More
The French Revolution
How Strasbourg Gave Up the Car (and Why Midsized American Cities Can Too) By Ben Adler
Strasbourg, France, where the European parliament meets, is a thoroughly modern regional capital of Western Europe. Its downtown is filled with department stores, teenagers of any ethnicity sporting a European style that takes a lot of inspiration from their American counterparts of five years ago, and shwarma shops competing with McDonald’s for their attention. But walk around Strasbourg’s charming medieval city center and you will see that one thing is virtually unchanged from its medieval origins: the absence of automobiles.
This is not, however, an uninterrupted history. In fact, it is the direct result of actions recently taken by Strasbourg’s government — ones that should inspire comparably sized older American cities, from Buffalo to St. Louis. Just like most American cities, the car’s midcentury domination had largely forced public transportation out of Strasbourg. The once-extensive tram lines fell into disrepair, and the last one was taken out of service in 1960. But by 1989 traffic and parking had become major headaches for residents and for businesses in the dense warren of downtown streets. Rather than see retail flee to suburban malls, as it did in America, the city decided to take action.
This being France, where the entire political spectrum is to America’s left, the conservatives running for city council in 1989 actually favored building a subway. But the socialists, led by Catherine Trautmann and Roland Ries, wanted to build a new tram. Conservatives and local business owners objected, arguing that a tram would take precious lanes away from cars. But that was exactly the point: to transform streets from hectic, unpleasant gasoline alleys into vibrant, multi-use communal spaces. “The tram means that you change the city,” explains Jonathan Naas, transportation policy coordinator for Roland Ries, who is now mayor. By creating a buffer from the cars, he says, “You create places to walk, outdoor cafes to sit outside.”
Read More
Is aviation security mostly for show? By Bruce Schneier, Special to CNN
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Incident on Detroit-bound plane led to tightening of airport security
* Bruce Schneier says politicians react to incidents by imposing "security theater"
* Trying to predict what terrorists will do next is futile, Schneier says
* He says it's better to put resources into investigations
Editor's note: Bruce Schneier is an author and technologist who specializes in security. His books include "Applied Cryptography," "Beyond Fear" and "Schneier on Security" and his other writing can be seen at http://www.schneier.com/
(CNN) -- Last week's attempted terror attack on an airplane heading from Amsterdam to Detroit has given rise to a bunch of familiar questions.
How did the explosives get past security screening? What steps could be taken to avert similar attacks? Why wasn't there an air marshal on the flight? And, predictably, government officials have rushed to institute new safety measures to close holes in the system exposed by the incident.
Reviewing what happened is important, but a lot of the discussion is off-base, a reflection of the fundamentally wrong conception most people have of terrorism and how to combat it.
Terrorism is rare, far rarer than many people think. It's rare because very few people want to commit acts of terrorism, and executing a terrorist plot is much harder than television makes it appear.
Read More
Cellphone Searches The Ohio Supreme Court has struck an important blow for privacy rights, ruling that the police need a warrant to search a cellphone. The court rightly recognized that cellphones today are a lot more than just telephones, that they hold a wealth of personal information and that the privacy interest in them is considerable. This was the first such ruling from a state supreme court. It is a model for other courts to follow.
Searches generally require warrants, but courts have carved out limited categories in which they are not needed. One of these is that police officers are allowed, when they arrest people, to search them and the area immediately surrounding them, as well as some kinds of containers in their possession.
When the police arrested Antwaun Smith on drug charges they seized his cellphone and searched it, examining his call records. The police did not have a warrant or the consent of Mr. Smith.
Read More
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