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"We’re married in London
but not in New York
Spain says we’re kosher
The States say we’re pork
We wed in Toronto
The judge said “Amen”
and when we got home
we were single again"
- Janis Ian
Good Wednesday Morning,
Still too many zucchinis?
Some call it a ratatouille, others a stir fry. Here we just make it for dinner.
Zucchini
Tomato
Green Pepper
Vidalia Onion
Adobo (you should have Adobo in your kitchen)
Basil
Herbs to taste
Heat a heavy frying pan, add olive oil and a couple large doses of minced garlic. Turn the heat down a tad and stir the garlic until it browns. Add a sliced vidalia onion, and a diced home-grown pepper (a store bought one will do but why bother with the pesticides?). Fry all that together until the onion becomes slightly soft. Add a sliced zucchini or two (it will cook down so add as much as you want). Turn down the heat, cover and let simmer for a while, stirring from time to time. Add a diced garden grown tomato. When the zucchini begins to look a tad transparent, add adabo and any fresh herbs from the garden you like. Basil is good but add that at the last minute so the flavor isn't destroyed. Serve over brown rice.
If you're looking for something to do this Saturday, a free day at a world class museum should be on your schedule. This is what the DIA Foundation is offering to Putnam County residents in their hardly-ever-advertised community days. This Saturday, August 9th, from 11AM until 5PM is Putnam County day. Just bring a ID along that shows residency and you're in. (Otherwise it's ten dollars.) If you haven't been to DIA Beacon yet you have no idea what you're missing. If you can find the train station in Beacon just head a tad further south and DIA is right there in the old Nabisco boxing factory. Richard Serra's installation is my favorite and Fred Sandback's exploration of space is definitely worth studying.
Congressmen John Hall and Maurice Hinchey again called for the President to release oil reserves from our national stocks to help, they claim, lower energy prices this winter. But not a word about conservation or increased efficiency. We could save more money by winter-proofing our homes. If Congress is in the mood for another handout, let them toss a few bucks into our pockets for weatherstripping, caulking and insulation. Not only will that stimulate the economy but will negate the need to drain our national oil safety account. Write to John Hall and tell him - Conservation comes first.
(As an aside, blog posters to Kieran Lalor's op-ed piece the other day claim that keeping your car tires properly inflated is silly and useless. Silly for them, perhaps. But an increase of 1.4% in automotive gas mileage applied across the nation means a lot of saved gasoline. They're as silly and shortsighted as their candidate.)
It's several weeks since Elizabeth Ailes (wife of FOX NEWS dude Roger Ailes) purchased the Putnam County News and Recorder. There were no letters to the editor about it, just a short note from the current owner and publisher. With the Gannet paper, the Putnam Courier, the Putnam Times and now the PCNR all in right-wing hands, News That Matters is all that's left between you and, well, them. Who would have thought I'd become the Indy Media by default? I'm still awaiting my buy-out from Ms. Ailes. And now, the News:
- Legislature Appears Ready to Allow Rodeos in Putnam
- Clearwater 'Environmental Justice' Challenge to IP Will Go to a Full Hearing
- Saving Our Bees: Implications of Habitat Loss
- Atlanta Tree Lovers See Victory for Developers in Arborist’s Firing
- Behind Obama's Flip-Flop on Oil
- 0.3% of Saharan Sun Enough To Power Europe
- Timberland owners keep close eye on North Woods growth
- Farmer constructs 'redneck Stonehenge'
- FBI said to have stalked Ivins' family
- China revokes ex-speedskater Joey Cheek's visa
Legislature Appears Ready to Allow Rodeos in Putnam Draft resolution's provisions would set strict limits on "accepted" devices used
by Margaret Sternberg
The Putnam County Legislature may have found a way of bridging what seemed like an impossible divide between the pro- and anti-rodeo forces that have recently butted heads over a proposal by Patterson landowner Robert Pfister to hold a rodeo.
At the July 9, 2008 meeting of the Legislature's Rules Committee, an initial draft of a proposed resolution specifically regarding rodeos was discussed by legislators. The first draft was not voted upon that evening, and legislators anticipate having a final draft before them for their August Committee meeting.
In its current form, the resolution would appear to allow rodeos, but puts restrictions in place, including not allowing "any rodeo or rodeorelated event…in which animals are induced or encouraged to perform through the use of any practice or technique, or any chemical, mechanical, electrical or manual device that will cause, or is likely to cause physical injury, torment or suffering. The following devices are specifically prohibited at all events: electric prods or shocking devices, flank or bucking straps, wire tie-downs, and sharpened or fixed spurs or rowels."
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Clearwater 'Environmental Justice' Challenge to IP Will Go to a Full Hearing Hudson River Sloop Clearwater's challenges to Indian Point Nuclear Plant's license renewal application on environmental and public health grounds will be heard during the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board's (ASLB) upcoming relicensing hearings.
Following several months of legal proceedings, the ASLB announced on July 31, 2008 that two of the six contentions filed by Clearwater, covering a range of challenges to Indian Point's application for another 20-year operating permit, have been accepted for further review.
Clearwater's Environmental Director Manna Jo Greene, and Stephen Filler, an attorney who serves on the Clearwater Board of Directors' Executive Committee, submitted Clearwater's petition to intervene, which featured our Environmental Justice concerns, last fall and presented oral argument before the ASLB panel in March.
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Saving Our Bees: Implications of Habitat Loss ScienceDaily (Aug. 5, 2008) — Most of the world's plant species rely on animals to transfer their pollen to other plants. The undisputed queen of these animal pollinators is the bee, made up of about 30,000 species worldwide, whose daily flights aid in the reproduction of more than half of the world's flowering plants. In recent years, however, an unprecedented and unexplained decline in bee populations across the U.S. and Europe has placed the health of ecosystems and the sustainability of crops in peril.
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Atlanta Tree Lovers See Victory for Developers in Arborist’s Firing By ROBBIE BROWN
ATLANTA — So proud are Atlantans of their sprawling canopy of dogwoods, magnolias and pines — and, of course, peach trees — that builders must pay hundreds of dollars for every tree they uproot, even with the city’s permission.
The penalty for violators is far heftier: One developer was recently fined $24,000 for illegal tree clearance, and Tyler Perry, the movie actor and director, was penalized $177,000 for unauthorized deforestation on his property.
But in the contest between trees and the area’s rampant development, the bulldozers have often won. That may explain why many tree lovers were upset last week when Tom Coffin, 64, the city’s senior arborist, was fired without explanation.
Mr. Coffin, a vigilant defender of the city’s trees, said in an interview that he had complained to his superiors about the “almost total lack of enforcement” by other arborists. Before being fired, Mr. Coffin had issued 70 citations for illegal tree removal this year, while the five other arborists in his division issued a total of 29 citations.
“There’s essentially no enforcement going on, except in my region,” Mr. Coffin said. “We need to account for why.”
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Behind Obama's Flip-Flop on Oil Strategic Petroleum Reserves, Offshore Drilling and the Big Picture
By Dan Shapley
Coverage of Barack Obama's New Energy for America speech was dominated by a minor flip-flop: Namely, that he would swap out sweet light crude held in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for cheaper heavy crude in order to flood the market with a little extra supply and hopefully drive down prices at the pump.
But anyone who isn't a policy wonk may have lost sight of the larger Obama energy plan at this point. With all the talk about high gas prices, short-term initiatives like uncorking the Strategic Oil Reserve or opening up additional offshore areas for oil and natural gas drilling — which experts universally say will have a limited effect on price now or even a decade from now — are masking a larger, and more important, debate
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0.3% of Saharan Sun Enough To Power Europe Fri, Jul 25, 2008
Science/Tech
The major obstacle to using renewable energy has always been the inability to produce a constant supply of electricity to consumers. However, scientists now believe that they have found a way to solve the supply and demand problem.
Arnulf Jaeger-Waldau of the European Commission’s Institute for Energy, speaking at the Euroscience Open Forum in Barcelona (ESOF), believes that the creation of solar farms in the Sahara desert could produce enough energy to meet all of Europe’s energy needs. Power could be generated either through photovoltaic cells or by using the sun’s heat to boil water and power turbines.
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Timberland owners keep close eye on North Woods growth Forest managers are promoting responsible development, despite rhetoric to the contrary.
By STEVE SCHLEY and DON WHITE
August 3, 2008
In a story titled "Growing by the rules in the North Woods," which was published on July 20, former paper company lobbyist Horace Hildreth of Falmouth told this paper, "There is a hell of a lot of land up there that is so expensive today that it's not profitable to buy it for timberland or forest products," referring to the so-called "long-term sprawl" that is occurring in Maine's North Woods.
Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, Maine still has one of the healthiest forest products industries in the country, and claims of "sprawl" in the North Woods are unfounded.
You don't have to believe us. You can take the word of Catherine Carroll, director of the Land Use Regulation Commission, who told this paper on May 4 that "in no way does the commission feel that the jurisdiction is becoming southern Maine, that we've got sprawl."
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Farmer constructs 'redneck Stonehenge' HOOPER, Utah, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- A Hooper, Utah, farmer said he created a makeshift fence out of wrecked cars after neighbors in a recently developed subdivision complained about his farm.
Rhett Davis said he used a backhoe and three old cars to construct the fence after neighbors who recently moved into their new homes next to his hayfield started complaining, the Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner reported Tuesday.
"The people who bought the homes say, 'Well, we love looking into your yard and seeing the horses and the cattle, but we don't like the flies, and we don't like the mosquitoes,' and when I cut my field to bale it, they say, 'We don't like the dust in the air,' " Davis said.
Davis said he has made peace with his neighbors and the fence was more of a joke than the product of spite.
"This is just a fun way for me to say, 'Hey boys, I'm still here,' so I started building a fence out of cars," he said. "This is my redneck Stonehenge."
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FBI said to have stalked Ivins' family 08/06/2008 @ 3:42 am
Filed by Diane Sweet
Did FBI cross the line in anthrax probe?
Before killing himself last week, Army scientist Bruce Ivins told friends that government agents had stalked him and his family for months, offered his son $2.5 million to rat him out and tried to turn his hospitalized daughter against him with photographs of dead anthrax victims.
The pressure on Ivins was extreme, a high-risk strategy that has failed the FBI before. The government was determined to find the villain in the 2001 anthrax attacks; it was too many years without a solution to the case that shocked and terrified a post-9/11 nation.
The last thing the FBI needed was another embarrassment. Overreaching damaged the FBI’s reputation in the high-profile investigations: the Centennial Olympic Park bombing probe that falsely accused Richard Jewell; the theft of nuclear secrets and botched prosecution of scientist Wen Ho Lee; and, in this same anthrax probe, the smearing of an innocent man — Ivins’ colleague Steven Hatfill.
In the current case, Ivins complained privately that FBI agents had offered his son, Andy, $2.5 million, plus “the sports car of his choice” late last year if he would turn over evidence implicating his father in the anthrax attacks, according to a former U.S. scientist who described himself as a friend of Ivins.
Ivins also said the FBI confronted Ivins’ daughter, Amanda, with photographs of victims of the anthrax attacks and told her, “This is what your father did,” according to the scientist, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because their conversation was confidential.
The scientist said Ivins was angered by the FBI’s alleged actions, which he said included following Ivins’ family on shopping trips.
Washington attorney Barry Coburn, who represents Amanda Ivins, declined to comment on the investigation. An attorney for Andy Ivins also declined to comment.
The FBI declined to describe its investigative techniques of Ivins.
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China revokes ex-speedskater Joey Cheek's visa By EDDIE PELLS 08.06.08, 12:46 AM ET
Former Olympic speedskater Joey Cheek had his visa revoked by Chinese authorities Wednesday, hours before he was set to travel to Beijing to promote his effort urging China to help make peace in the war-torn Darfur section of Sudan.
Cheek, the president and co-founder of a collection of Olympic athletes known as Team Darfur, was planning to spend about two weeks in China, when he received an unexpected call from authorities.
The 2006 American gold medalist said they told him they were denying him entrance into the country and were "not required to give a reason."
"I didn't see it coming," Cheek said. "I figured once they gave me a visa, I wouldn't imagine they wouldn't allow me to come in later. That was a big shock. I wasn't expecting to get a call the evening before I was leaving for Beijing."
One of Cheek's key initiatives was urging the international community to persuade Sudan to observe the ancient tradition of the Olympic truce during the Beijing Games.
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