Southwest Online Journal February 8, 2010
Where Minds Meet to Celebrate Art, Nature, Literature and Music
Man's Inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.
~ Robert Burns
Word of the Day
adj. snark·i·er, snark·i·est Slang
[From dialectal snark, to nag, from snark, snork, to snore, snort, from Dutch and Low German snorken, of imitative origin.]
snark'i·ly adv.
" I thought she made some valid points in her speech until she got snarky." Anonymous
- Rudely sarcastic or disrespectful; snide.
- Irritable or short-tempered; irascible.
[From dialectal snark, to nag, from snark, snork, to snore, snort, from Dutch and Low German snorken, of imitative origin.]
snark'i·ly adv.
" I thought she made some valid points in her speech until she got snarky." Anonymous
In Honor the Saints
The Secret History of the Birthers
Investigating the roots of the Obama birthplace conspiracy theory, John Avlon—author of Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe Is Hijacking America, available now on Beast Books—uncovers the first Birther and finds she's a Hillary Clinton supporter also implicated in Dan Rather's exit from CBS.
Plus, read more on Avlon’s new book.
The Birthers were back in force at the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville.
WorldNet Daily founder Joseph Farah used his prime-time speaking slot, broadcast on C-Span, to pump up claims that President Obama was not born in the United States—and received enthusiastic applause from the audience. Birther queen Orly Taitz was in the house, making the rounds as a celebrity conspiracy theorist.
The persistence of this much-debunked rumor is a reminder of how the fringe is blurring with the base in American politics. It provoked conservative Internet impresario Andrew Breitbart into a confrontation with Farah, the new guard versus the old, with Breitbart arguing that attempts to prove Obama was born abroad are stupid and self-destructive, "a losing issue."
Read it at the Daily Beast
Bagpipers, Drummers & Fiddlers
Contact:
Skye Richendrfer, Executive Director
Celtic Arts Foundation 360.416.4934
Award-winning Bagpipers, Drummers & Fiddlers to Perform
February 5th at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall
Seattle, Washington, January 13, 2010 - The Celtic Arts Foundation will present a joyful and exhilarating musical glimpse of Scottish history and culture, Friday, February 5th at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall. The 2010 Mastery of Scottish Arts Concert features award-winning pipers, drummers, fiddlers and dancers in an evening of thrilling music and dance.
As though built for bagpipes: Scottish pipers and drummers will bring the acoustically superb Benaroya Hall to life with the sights and sounds of Scotland. Scottish Great Highland Warpipes have been played since at least the 13th century, and never better than by the virtuoso performers who will be performing at this concert. This is a one of a kind performance by recognized masters that is ONLY happening in Seattle. Pipers will be joined by equally decorated Scottish side (snare), tenor and bass drummers. Rounding out the performance team are Cape Breton fiddlers from Nova Scotia with their lively violin style, and internationally award-winning Scottish Highland Dancers.
Flying fingers and tunes played with unbelievable precision – this is Celtic music at its very best. Scottish people have a reputation for fun and celebration and this concert promises to be exactly that.
New at this year’s concert: For the first time, Scottish Smallpipes will be featured at the Mastery of Scottish Arts Concert. The much-acclaimed Fred Morrison (www.reelpipes.com for bio and additional info), will showcase this unusual arm-bellow powered bagpipe with fast moving jigs, hornpipes and reels.
Tickets for the 2010 Scottish Mastery of Arts concert are now available from Benaroya Hall’s box office at http://www.seattlesymphony.org or from the Celtic Arts Foundation www.CelticArts.org (group pricing available). General admission tickets $42, 3rd tier balcony $21. Group pricing at $32 per ticket is available through the Celtic Arts Foundation.
This concert is sponsored in part by 4-Culture, the Seattle Mayor’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, and Singleton Whisky.
About The Celtic Arts Foundation: CAF is a Pacific Northwest non-profit organization supporting opportunities for the community to experience the joy and excitement of traditional Celtic music, arts and culture. Please see our website CelticArts.org.
Skye Richendrfer, Executive Director
Celtic Arts Foundation 360.416.4934
Award-winning Bagpipers, Drummers & Fiddlers to Perform
February 5th at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall
Seattle, Washington, January 13, 2010 - The Celtic Arts Foundation will present a joyful and exhilarating musical glimpse of Scottish history and culture, Friday, February 5th at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall. The 2010 Mastery of Scottish Arts Concert features award-winning pipers, drummers, fiddlers and dancers in an evening of thrilling music and dance.
As though built for bagpipes: Scottish pipers and drummers will bring the acoustically superb Benaroya Hall to life with the sights and sounds of Scotland. Scottish Great Highland Warpipes have been played since at least the 13th century, and never better than by the virtuoso performers who will be performing at this concert. This is a one of a kind performance by recognized masters that is ONLY happening in Seattle. Pipers will be joined by equally decorated Scottish side (snare), tenor and bass drummers. Rounding out the performance team are Cape Breton fiddlers from Nova Scotia with their lively violin style, and internationally award-winning Scottish Highland Dancers.
Flying fingers and tunes played with unbelievable precision – this is Celtic music at its very best. Scottish people have a reputation for fun and celebration and this concert promises to be exactly that.
New at this year’s concert: For the first time, Scottish Smallpipes will be featured at the Mastery of Scottish Arts Concert. The much-acclaimed Fred Morrison (www.reelpipes.com for bio and additional info), will showcase this unusual arm-bellow powered bagpipe with fast moving jigs, hornpipes and reels.
Tickets for the 2010 Scottish Mastery of Arts concert are now available from Benaroya Hall’s box office at http://www.seattlesymphony.org or from the Celtic Arts Foundation www.CelticArts.org (group pricing available). General admission tickets $42, 3rd tier balcony $21. Group pricing at $32 per ticket is available through the Celtic Arts Foundation.
This concert is sponsored in part by 4-Culture, the Seattle Mayor’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, and Singleton Whisky.
About The Celtic Arts Foundation: CAF is a Pacific Northwest non-profit organization supporting opportunities for the community to experience the joy and excitement of traditional Celtic music, arts and culture. Please see our website CelticArts.org.
Hoh Rain Forest revels in wet, 'wild ballet'
HOH RAIN FOREST, Olympic National Park — Diamond drips of moisture cling to the tips of branches, and a soft drizzle eases from a thick quilt of clouds overhead.
"This is girlie rain!" scoffs Jon Preston, as he heads deeper into the rain forest.
He ought to know. Lead rain-forest interpreter for Olympic National Park, Preston knows wet when he sees it, in a place that can get 12 feet of rain a year.
Preston poured more than 24 inches of rain out of his rain gauge at the Hoh in January — more than 4 inches above average, and he wasn't the only one who got a good soaking. Other areas on the Olympic Peninsula got socked with 170 to 200 percent of average rainfall in January.
Here in the Hoh, all that moisture is sopped into mosses and other epiphytes — plants growing on top of other plants — that pad the big-leaf maples.
In the winter rainy season, Preston likes to knock on the trunk of a Sitka spruce to hear its fat, resonant voice. "Sounds like a ripe melon, it's so full of water," he says, rapping a giant spruce looming by the trail.
Facing west, and with no mountains between this low-elevation forest and the Pacific, westerlies barrel across a vast fetch of the sea, bringing storm after storm.
Read it at the Seattle Times
"This is girlie rain!" scoffs Jon Preston, as he heads deeper into the rain forest.
He ought to know. Lead rain-forest interpreter for Olympic National Park, Preston knows wet when he sees it, in a place that can get 12 feet of rain a year.
Preston poured more than 24 inches of rain out of his rain gauge at the Hoh in January — more than 4 inches above average, and he wasn't the only one who got a good soaking. Other areas on the Olympic Peninsula got socked with 170 to 200 percent of average rainfall in January.
Here in the Hoh, all that moisture is sopped into mosses and other epiphytes — plants growing on top of other plants — that pad the big-leaf maples.
In the winter rainy season, Preston likes to knock on the trunk of a Sitka spruce to hear its fat, resonant voice. "Sounds like a ripe melon, it's so full of water," he says, rapping a giant spruce looming by the trail.
Facing west, and with no mountains between this low-elevation forest and the Pacific, westerlies barrel across a vast fetch of the sea, bringing storm after storm.
Read it at the Seattle Times
Center for Biological Diversity to Join Global Population Speak Out
Contact: Randy Serraglio, (520) 784-1504 or rserraglio@biologicaldiversity.org
TUCSON, Ariz.— The Center for Biological Diversity announced today its participation in the second annual Global Population Speak Out, a month-long effort to publicize the crisis of unsustainable human population growth. The Center is speaking out as part of its overpopulation campaign, which addresses the devastating impacts of overpopulation on endangered species.
“The Center for Biological Diversity joins this year’s Global Population Speak Out to help raise awareness about this critical environmental issue and the endangered species and habitats threatened by human overpopulation,” said Randy Serraglio, a conservation advocate leading the Center’s campaign. “Unsustainable human population growth is the primary underlying factor driving the current decline and mass extinction of other life on Earth.”
The Center’s campaign, launched in February 2009, is a major educational initiative drawing attention to the close connection between the massive increase in human numbers and the rapid decrease in the planet’s biological diversity. “It is rare that an environmental group is willing to address the deep-seated problem of overpopulation,” said Serraglio, “but with more species going extinct today than ever before in our lifetime, we can no longer ignore our impact on the planet. We hope that many more conservation groups will join the conversation about population growth because it affects every environmental issue.”
As part of the ongoing campaign, the Center has created a Web site that illuminates the connection between burgeoning human population and accelerating biodiversity loss. “Most biologists agree that we have begun the sixth mass extinction event in the Earth’s history,” said Serraglio. “What separates this one from earlier events is that it is being driven by a single species – humans. All the direct threats to the earth’s biodiversity – land-use changes due to urban sprawl and commercial development, environmental contamination, competition for water and other resources, climate change, and so on – are driven by human overpopulation.”
The 2010 Speak Out promises to be larger than last year’s, as hundreds of individuals and groups have pledged to participate. This year’s sponsors include prominent conservation voices from outside the United States, where the subject of human overpopulation is less taboo, including the president of the European Section of the Society for Conservation Biology and the director of conservation at the African Conservation Foundation. “As part of the GPSO this month and the Center’s overpopulation campaign, we’re planning to launch creative, multimedia education projects focused on protecting endangered species and our environment,” said Serraglio. “Our goal is to reach out to the public in new ways and help people understand how they can be part of the solution to curb runaway human population growth.”
On the Web, please see http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/overpopulation/index.html
and http://gpso.wordpress.com/.
TUCSON, Ariz.— The Center for Biological Diversity announced today its participation in the second annual Global Population Speak Out, a month-long effort to publicize the crisis of unsustainable human population growth. The Center is speaking out as part of its overpopulation campaign, which addresses the devastating impacts of overpopulation on endangered species.
“The Center for Biological Diversity joins this year’s Global Population Speak Out to help raise awareness about this critical environmental issue and the endangered species and habitats threatened by human overpopulation,” said Randy Serraglio, a conservation advocate leading the Center’s campaign. “Unsustainable human population growth is the primary underlying factor driving the current decline and mass extinction of other life on Earth.”
The Center’s campaign, launched in February 2009, is a major educational initiative drawing attention to the close connection between the massive increase in human numbers and the rapid decrease in the planet’s biological diversity. “It is rare that an environmental group is willing to address the deep-seated problem of overpopulation,” said Serraglio, “but with more species going extinct today than ever before in our lifetime, we can no longer ignore our impact on the planet. We hope that many more conservation groups will join the conversation about population growth because it affects every environmental issue.”
As part of the ongoing campaign, the Center has created a Web site that illuminates the connection between burgeoning human population and accelerating biodiversity loss. “Most biologists agree that we have begun the sixth mass extinction event in the Earth’s history,” said Serraglio. “What separates this one from earlier events is that it is being driven by a single species – humans. All the direct threats to the earth’s biodiversity – land-use changes due to urban sprawl and commercial development, environmental contamination, competition for water and other resources, climate change, and so on – are driven by human overpopulation.”
The 2010 Speak Out promises to be larger than last year’s, as hundreds of individuals and groups have pledged to participate. This year’s sponsors include prominent conservation voices from outside the United States, where the subject of human overpopulation is less taboo, including the president of the European Section of the Society for Conservation Biology and the director of conservation at the African Conservation Foundation. “As part of the GPSO this month and the Center’s overpopulation campaign, we’re planning to launch creative, multimedia education projects focused on protecting endangered species and our environment,” said Serraglio. “Our goal is to reach out to the public in new ways and help people understand how they can be part of the solution to curb runaway human population growth.”
On the Web, please see http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/overpopulation/index.html
and http://gpso.wordpress.com/.
A Mission for Change
EcoSnoop's mission is to help our communities heighten awareness of opportunities to be more green, save energy, eco hypocrisy, and even fill pot holes. Leveraging the power of the community, EcoSnoops use their an iPhone to capture clear pictures of a problem and post these pictures on a community website so that building owners and others can take action. Have you ever.....
Seen lights left on in a building, late at night, for no good purpose?
EcoSnoop.com
EcoSnoop's mission is to help our communities heighten awareness of opportunities to be more green, save energy, eco hypocrisy, and even fill pot holes. Leveraging the power of the community, EcoSnoops use their an iPhone to capture clear pictures of a problem and post these pictures on a community website so that building owners and others can take action. Have you ever.....
Seen lights left on in a building, late at night, for no good purpose?
- Noticed a door that never closes properly, wasting heat or air conditioning?
- Observed a truck unnecessarily idling at a loading dock?
- Been bothered by a broken sprinkler in a city park running non stop?
- Complained about street lights left on all day?
- Wanted a pot hole filled?
EcoSnoop.com