TO HAVE OR HAVE NOT

Two articles in today's NYTimes provide sharp contrast in comparing the many lives of those in this country who are over age 50 and jobless, and those in this country who are wealthy and not about to let go of a penny.

The first article, by Motoko Rich, examines the very real fears over the prospect of never working again, given the depth of the Bush-generated economic crisis and the years it will take to recover. An endless cycle of poverty and hopelessness already exists, and is widening daily. I empathize, I've been there. For sixteen years I followed my ex-wife's career around the nation, sacrificing my own professional aspirations for the relationship, and always finding it harder and harder to land a job at each new home. When we parted ways, the final job hunt was the most difficult, lasting nearly a year. Work-induced injuries forced me into early retirement, and I'm here to tell you, living on Social Security with no other pensions or retirement benefits is no joke.

The second article, by economist Paul Krugman, eloquently portrays the anger and sense of entitlement among our nation's wealthiest and most privileged (and by virtue of their wealth, most influential) citizens. Far from seeing their wealth as something to be shared through taxation or philanthropy (as was the case with many rich industrialists in the past), today's elite intends to not only gorge themselves while others starve, but to bleed the public coffers, in the form of paying few if any taxes, and in the form of government bailouts when their financial mismanagement or malfeasance threatens their CEO bonuses and corporate dividends. Greed has replace social responsibility, the inevitable fruits of capitalism allowed to run feral.

The impoverished many. The obscenely wealthy few. And the financial gap between them widens with every passing year. Unless fiscal reform is forthcoming in short order, this will become the seeds of uncivil unrest expressed in stark and potentially violent terms. And both Republicans and Democrats will share responsibility for having done NOTHING.

THE KISS

"Since the invention of the kiss there have been five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind."

~~ The Princess Bride, by William Goldman

I'm not certain about purity, but for sheer, spontaneous passion, surely one of the great kisses was the one planted by a sailor on a nurse he did not know, in Times Square in August, 1945 -- part of a grand celebration of the end of WWII with the defeat of the Japanese Empire. Legendary photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt captured the moment for posterity, creating one of the most recognized images of all time.

Now comes the story behind that moment, in an interview with another nurse who was at the scene. That glorious feeling of unbridled celebration lives on.

BALANCE TRAINING

In todays NYTimes there is a very informative article on balance training. The article narrows its focus to training for the elderly, as a way of enhancing posture and strength, thus avoiding the likelihood of falls and injuries. But balance training should be an important adjunct to any fitness program for any age group.

I come by this awareness naturally -- as a boy I was more interested in reading, music and girls than I was in sports. It wasn't until (A) Army basic training, and (B) my taking up kayaking, karate and weight training in my thirties, that I became an athlete. Please note that in each of those sports, balance is (as it were) pivotal. If you lose your balance in a whitewater kayak which by design is laterally unstable, you will flip upside-down, and you'd better hope that you have a bullet-proof Eskimo roll if you're halfway down a rapids when you lose it. If you are a karate-ka (practitioner of karate), balance is key, both in forming a solid platform and in executing kicks from a position of stability. If you're lifting weights, especially free weights, intuitively you know you don't want to be off balance in any way, lest there be a loud and embarrassing crash when something massive and metallic hits the floor.

More recently I've been using balance exercises in the context of physical therapy for two work-induced injuries -- tendonitis in both ankles, and a herniated lumbar disk which requires building up my core muscles (those surrounding one's mid-section -- in particular the abdominal and lower back muscles). My daily PT routine includes balancing on each foot for one minute on a thick pad, strengthening the ankle muscles. By concentrating on an erect, upright posture, those core muscles will also be firing.

Taking it to another level, I've started doing swimming, cardio and weight workouts at a fitness center. One of my exercises is (again) balancing on one foot for one minute on a BOSU ball. When the ball is placed with the flat side to the floor, it may be difficult to remain balanced on two feet. Doing so on one foot really kicks the challenge up a notch. Note in the image below how the man is crouched forward -- cheating. The woman is closer to the right postural idea. Alternatively, Placing the ball with the flat side up provides an even greater balance challenge (see image above) -- have a wall or other support handy in case you start to fall !

One needn't join a gym or have access to Pilates or BOSU equipment to begin a home fitness program. Stretches, sit-ups, push-ups, and a wide variety of exercises can be done at home, with this caveat -- it would be useful to consult with a certified physical therapist to design a home program that is suited to your age, health and level of fitness before doing something which could actually injure you. The minimal investment will pay for itself many times over, and ultimately you'll be leading a more balanced life in every way -- sitting, standing, walking, doing chores, driving in your car, fixing dinner, watching a movie, reading a book. Your body will thank you.

THEN AND NOW

Periodically, we are blessed with leaders who understood the importance of statesmanship, the quality of bringing people together, and of caring for people. An example -- on this day in 1978 the Camp David Accords were signed by Israeli prime minister Menachim Begin and Egyptian president Anwar El Sadat, formalizing peaceful relations between the two countries after decades of political and military conflict. The meetings between the two leaders were hosted (and, one suspects, mediated) by US President Jimmy Carter, a man much underappreciated for his accomplishments. Begin and Sadat jointly recieved the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize for their courage and foresight in fostering peace in the most unstable region on Earth.

How low we have sunk since then. US politics have become a carnival sideshow, complete with freaks. Earlier this week, Christine O'Donnell, a former marketing consultant, public relations consultant, and political commentator, won the Republican Senatorial primary in Delaware. O'Donnell's views are very shallow, and she is completely lacking in political experience or sophistication. She is riding the coattails of Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement, no more, no less. One expects her to start chanting, "Yeah, I'm a maverick" at any moment.

To give you a window into her shallow understanding of social and political reality, here is an MSNBC video showing O'Donnell bleeding her fundamentalist religious beliefs all over, taking a "moral" stance which would ultimately legislate the prohibition of most sexual activities between consenting adults, except within the narrow confines of her evangelical Christian interpretation of the Bible. Somehow even masturbation becomes evil again (remember the repressive days of the 1940s and 1950s? -- they're back). This, from the same people who claim to want LESS government intervention into our lives. The double standard is positively dazzling.

Incidentally, O'Donnell had the chutzpah to say on national television that she won the primary without the help of the Republican party, and she has no need of the party's support for the upcoming general election. It will be very interesting seeing how the purported "We're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore" philosophy (or lack of philosophy, since they do not offer substantive alternatives) plays out. Will the Tea Partiers sink the Republican Party's hopes for taking back the House and Senate as a result of voter backlash over TPers' excesses? Or will more and more Republicans jump on the extremist TP bandwagon, leaving moderate (read: sentient or statesmanlike) Republicans abandoned in the wilderness? Sounds a whole lot like anarchy to me.

Between Democrats tripping over their own feet to avoid showing firm leadership, and Republicans spilling in droves out of a tiny car like circus clowns, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. President Obama is a man of principles -- it is past time that he began to act on them, setting an example of both decorum and action. Jimmy Carter never hesitated.

SPACE PASSENBERS / LEARNING II

SPACE PASSENGERS. Everyone needs a dream. I have a list of ambitions/fantasies -- to conduct a symphony orchestra, to kayak the Grand Canyon, to learn to operate a backhoe, to learn the tango, to become an aviator -- and to be an astronaut. Naturally, some dreams are more realistic than others, and some dreams are realized in smaller degree. But the act of dreaming is vital to my well-being.

While I'm probably past the age for being on the frontiers of space exploration, there is hope. Boeing has announced plans to fly tourists in space (in earth orbit only -- it is too early for visits to Saturn, alas). The concept of commercial passenger travel into near space is not new. In fact, for several tens of millions of dollars, you too can hitch a ride on a Russian rocket bound for the Inernational Space Station. More affordable space travel is something aerospace companies have been developing for some time. Boeing's announcement is likely the precursor of things to come -- and with competition will come falling prices for passage. My fingers are crossed.

LEARNING II. Remember my post two days ago, in which I discussed the styles of learning and teaching? Here's a great example of my philosophy -- make it fun, and they will come. Middle-school teacher Al Doyle in NYC has incorporated his kids' own passion, video games, into his teaching, with very positive results. Read the article for a chuckle of recognition -- the passions of children never cease to delight me.

My own resources were far more limited. As a science and math teacher at a small private school with constricted funding, I had no lab equipment, no visual aids (other than a chalkboard and a TV on which to show relevant movies or taped TV shows), and texts that had been out of date since the Crimean Wars. Enter imagination. Enter enthusiasm. Enter creativity. After each week of brief (but brilliant) lectures off the top of my head, and animated discussions in which I encouraged any and all questions, each Friday was review-and-fun day. One variant which my kids loved was a home-made version of "Jeopardy!". Lacking a bank of TV monitors, I fashioned a mock-up using poster board and 3X5 card pockets (the kind you once found attached inside the front cover of library books). The format was familiar -- columns of categories, and rows of questions within each category, the questions increasing in difficulty and value as they went down the board. A given class was divided into two or three competing teams, and when a question was chosen and I read it aloud, each team raced to confer on the correct response and a representative would dash to the blackboard to write (legibly) the answer. The winning team earned candy rather than cash, which suited them fine.

The excitement in my classes often became so loud (the crowd at the Super Bowl had nothing on us) that the lead teacher would poke her head in the door, expecting to have to break up a riot. We would honestly try to tone it down to avoid disturbing neighboring classes, but damn, it was fun !!

Speaking of other classes, I'm a firm proponent of cross-disciplinary learning. I often consulted with the teachers of history, English, health, and government, and included questions from those classes in the game. No subject exists in a vaccuum. It enriches any student's experience to see how physics relates to biology, how history relates to literature, or how math relates to just music or sports or economics -- how all subjects touch the students' own lives. Fun is entertaining, but relevance is everything. I led haiku exercises out on the lawn for environmental studies students, taught math students how to sing harmony in the old Rice Krispies song, and held chess tournaments for all. It was demanding, draining, and absolutely delightful.

Thankfully the school director was very generous in allowing me to organize field trips -- to area wildlife preserves, Philadelphia science museums, to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. We all remember the non-ordinary -- those experiences which lie outside our daily routine. My question to myself in any situation was, "How can I juice this up?" The absolute finest moment in a teacher's life is when you see that little light bulb illuminate over a student's head, that "aha" or "ohmygod" moment which makes me grin to this day.

Now if only our society valued and paid its teachers like it does entertainers or sports stars.

METRIC SYSTEM / STEWART

METRIC SYSTEM. The US is one of only three nations in the world which have refused to adopt the metric system (see map above, click to enlarge -- the metric world is shown in green) -- the other two nations are Burma and Liberia. It is a measure of our stubborn culturocentrism that we lag behind the rest of the planet in converting from the arbitrary and ungainly English system of measurement. The metric system is the common language of the sciences, commerce, aviation, and personal use. It's utility and simplicity are easy to manipulate and comprehend -- a standard set of prefixes in powers of ten are used to derive larger and smaller units from the base unit.

For example, consider the metric unit of length, the meter (equivalent to approximately 1.09 yards). The simple addition of the appropriate prefix yields the following:

1 kilometer = 1000 meters

1 hectometer = 100 meters

1 decameter = 10 meters

1 decimeter = 0.1 meters (a tenth of a meter)

1 centimeter = 0.01 meters (one hundredth of a meter)

1 millimeter = 0.001 meters (one thousandth of a meter)

Whether doing simple math in the grocery store, or complex calculations in physics, chemistry or biology, the metric system is intuitively simple and direct. Now compare this ease with units of length in the English system:

12 inches = 1 foot

3 feet = 1 yard

1760 yards = 5280 feet = 1 mile

As a child, I had to learn by heart the English system in all its absurd complexity, as well as learning fractions and their equivalents in percentages (percentages being nothing more than a variant of the metric system !! ). For instance:

1/2 = 0.5

1/3 = 0.3..... (..... means the preceding number is repeated indefinitely)

1/4 = 0.25

1/5 = 0.2

1/6 = 0.16....

1/7 = 0.14 approximately

1/8 = 0.125

1/9 = 0.1 ....

1/10 = 0.1

Those who grew up with the English system cringe at the thought of learning to convert units of distance, area, volume, mass, temperature, etc., to the metric system. Yet the conversions are simple to memorize, and once you are accustomed to using metric, you begin to think in metric. No more conversions necessary. Child's play. Even an old dog like myself can do it in his head.

I was reminded of the measurement dilemma by an article in today's NYTimes. In the early 1980s, the road signs on a stretch of Interstate 19 from Tucson to Nogales, AZ, were changed to show distance in kilometers (one mile = approximately 1.6 kilometers, while one kilometer = approximately 0.6 miles). I'm intimately familiar with this stretch of highway, and never once had any trouble deducing my position using either system of measurement. Apparently, the current gubernatorial administration of Luddite Jan Brewer has decided to abandon this tiny step toward joining the rest of the world -- I-19 is to have new signs installed showing distance in miles, not kilometers. What a shame. Rather than being a beacon of education and understanding, America's only highway with signs using the metric system will revert to the tired and cumbersome English system. I suppose there's one thing to be said for our backward ways -- we're consistent.

The other thought that occurs to me is that, given Arizona's recent attempt to abrogate Federal immigration laws, and the inherent racism behind that attempt, might the retreat from metric measurement along I-19 also have a racist component? That highway is the essential corridor between Tucson, with its significant Latino population, and Nogales, the nearest port of entry between the US and Mexico. Use of the metric system on I-19 encouraged travel and commerce back and forth between the two countries. Squelching such a welcome would be consistent with Arizona's increasing xenophobia. I'm just sayin'.

STEWART. Regular readers know that I am opposed to racism or exclusionary thinking, including the current, ugly spread of anti-Muslim sentiment. Comedian and talk show host Jon Stewart brilliantly skewered Islamophobia recently. I invite you to take a few minutes to enjoy his pointed satire -- no matter what your political or religious beliefs, you're bound to find a laugh (or two, or 3.33..... ).

FINANCIAL TUNEUP / LEARNING

FINANCIAL TUNEUP. Today's NYTimes featured a very useful article -- 31 steps toward clarifying one's financial status and enhancing the stability of one's financial future. They are broken down into subtopics -- investments and retirement, loans, credit, planning, consumer issues and insurance. My only quibble lies in the amount recommended to be set aside in savings. The article says one percent from each paycheck. I've found it more useful to target ten percent. Yes, in recessionary times that can be tough. But if you take that ten percent right off the top of your take-home pay, you'll find that your spending habits adjust automatically.

LEARNING. In recent decades, learning theory has paid much attention to the learning styles of students, and the corresponding teaching styles of instructors. There is certainly evidence to support the perception that some people learn most effectively through rote memorization, or through listening to verbal explanations, or through visual demonstration, or by hands-on practice -- with the implication that teachers need to be aware of their students' needs, and make adjustments in their method of presentation.

A new study suggests that these principles are only one avenue toward effective learning. The study found that absorption and retention of new information can be enhanced by (A) alternating the study environment, so that one is exposed to learning material in varied settings, (B) varying the type of material studied in a given setting, and (C) including intervals of self-testing -- essentially practicing taking tests and quizzes without the pressure of being graded, so that on actual tests the process feels familiar and less daunting, and one can concentrate more fully on content.

Speaking as a lifelong student and also as a former teacher, these ideas make intuitive sense. The more tools one has for learning, the more effective learning will be. Of course, nothing can replace the symbiosis between an inquisitive mind (student) and a versatile and creative imagination (teacher). Set and setting (i.e., one's attitude and the learning environment), physical resources (books, labs, field trips, guest speakers), varied study habits, and making the experience both challenging and FUN, all revolve around that core student-teacher relationship.

NATIVISTS / ROADKILL

NATIVISTS. At regular intervals in U.S. history, those who may be a numerical majority among citizens, or those who perceive themselves as being more purely "American" (whatever that means), focus the prejudices of their tiny minds on an "alien" group. Almost every ethnicity, every nationality, every religion has been targeted for vilification at one time or another -- blacks, eastern Europeans, Scandinavians, the Irish, Jews, Catholics, Asians, Latinos, et al. The group currently under attack is, of course, Muslims. The spreading right wing fervor directed against Islam is, like all bigotry, vapidly irrational, not to mention antithetical to the founding principles expressed in the Contitution. Witness the furor over the construction of a Muslim community center and place of worship in lower Manhattan. Witness the weak-minded and desperate attempts by Republicans to label President Obama as a secret Muslim. Witness the surreal smear by Newt Gingrich when he said that the President exhibited "Kenyan, anticolonial behavior." Clearly one symptom of fevered dysentery in the Gingrich brain is diarrhea of the Gingrich mouth. (You may substitute Palin, Beck, McCain, Boehner, Limbaugh, McConnell, or any of a hundred other conservatives who value power over truth, wealth over integrity.)

Is this America?, asks Nicholas D. Kristoff. I'd say it's a toss-up.

The supreme irony is that whenever self-styled nativists (portrayed brilliantly in Martin Scorcese's film Gangs of New York) claim the flag and the nation as being exclusively theirs, they ignore the fact that ultimately it is Americans who have always been the invaders. We stole this rich land from tribes of indigenous peoples. We swept across the continent in a sweaty fervor of Minifest Destiny (a rationalization devoid of ethical or historic content). Hypocrites all, these nativists.

Three years ago today (better late than never), the United Nations adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples -- spelling out individual and collective rights to culture, identity, language, employment, health, education, and more. In the U.S. Native Americans are the dark secret never discussed -- independent nations subsumed, conquered, placed like lepers onto reservations, deprived of their language, their culture, their traditional ways of life, their identity. Alcoholism and poverty and suicide and unemployment are higher on Indian reservations than in any other segment of American life. Yet somehow, miraculously, remnants of Native culture and pride have persisted over the years.

We, the peoples and cultures of this Earth, have so much to learn from each other. We shame ourselves when we stereotype and reject any group. When will we learn?

ROADKILL. Regular visitors will have read more than once of the plight of wilderness and wildlife, locally and globally. Intentional human predation and loss of natural habitat to human rapacity are two of the prime threats to endangered species and to wilderness -- not to mention to the health of the entire biosphere, which includes us humans. (see map below, click to enlarge.)

A less publicly debated, more easily ignored pressure on wildlife populations comes in the deadly form of cars and trucks. In recent years citizen scientists have begun to document the toll on wildlife, by counting and mapping (using GPS) the bodies of animals, birds and reptiles who perish when hit by a vehicle. It is onerous and thankless work, but vital to our understanding of how to avoid perpetuating the slaughter.

THE RIGHT MOVES

Years ago, during a time when I was single and dating, I was also pursuing activities in which I found innate pleasure or challenge -- ranging from riding my motorcycle to ushering for productions of the Arizona Theatre Company (and seeing many excellent plays for free), peer counseling, singing in the University-Community Choir, and taking French horn lessons. Adult day or evening classes in Tucson were diverse. A favorite was assorted dance classes. I'd always been a self-conscious dancer, and wanted to push my boundaries. To this day my favorite memories include the mind-body learning that took place in modern dance, group improv, and jazz dance. (Alas, there were no classes in 1930s and 1940s Swing.) I did not become even remotely a virtuoso. But it was fun, and since men were often a numerical minority, it was also a chance to meet women who were similarly broadening their horizons and learning about themselves in the process.

I've never been a fan of going to dances solo. I would much rather have a compatible partner with whom to create and improvise, not tied down to a small set of memorized moves. For those who do dance to meet others, however, I've discovered a recent study by evolutionary psychologists at Northumbria University. The findings (which focused on male dancers -- a followup will focus on female dancers) suggest that women are more attracted to men whose dancing includes creative and vigorous movement of the neck and torso -- subconscious signals of a man's health and vigor, and (for younger dancers) of reproductive quality.

My thought is that upper body movement is fine, but the study appears to have neglected, in both its design and its findings, the foundation of great dance -- legs and hips. Watch any salsa, hip-hop or tango dancer, and you are certain to notice elaborate and expressive step patterns and movement of the pelvis. The best dancing is a whole-body experience -- including slow swaying to romantic music.

Here is a link to the study -- their method for generating computerized figures is intended to eliminate viewer bias toward an individual's appearance. Be sure to check out the two videos which demonstrate movements which are appealing or less-than-appealing to most women.

KORAN BURNING

It seems that even the most bigoted fundamentalist clerics can be sensitive to public opinion. Terry Jones, a pastor from Gainesville, FL, announced earlier this week that he intended to burn copies of the Koran this Saturday, on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The outcry from religious leaders of all faiths, from political leaders of all persuasions, from US military leaders, and from citizens of countries around the world, was a tsunami. One hopes that Mr. Jones was suitably chastened (though I doubt it) when he announced earlier today that he is cancelling the proposed burning. Is it coincidence that ultimately it was the voice of Prsident Obama that appears to have tipped the scales? Obama rightly pointed out (as would occur to anyone with an ounce of common sense) that such a brazen act of religious vilification would endanger the lives of Americans at home and abroad, including US troops in Muslim countries. The justifiable outrage which would spread across the Muslim world would provide a perfect recruiting tool for a new generation of terrorists. It's called throwing fuel on the fire.

What was this delusional man thinking? (A) It makes no sense to commemorate an act of violence (the attacks) with another act of violence (the burning). (B) What would be the reaction of Christians if an allegedly holy man from another religion started burning Bibles? Sacrilege is sacrilege. (C) Book burning in any form (think Nazi Germany) is the signature of cowardice, weakness and paranoia -- no one has the right to censor what others read. The last time I looked, we live in a land where freedom of choice is still intact -- at least in theory.

So the upshot is that Mr. Jones is to meet with the imam of the proposed Muslim cultural center located over two blocks from Ground Zero. Jones claims to have assurances that no mosque will be incorporated into the center. The presence or absence of a mosque is frankly none of Mr. Jones' business. What would Mr. Jones think if a Muslim leader were to tell him where he could or could not build a church? I wonder if he is just trying to save face. There should be NO limitation on e inclusion of a mosque. It's called freedom of religion, remember?

One of the tired refrains that keeps popping up is that a mosque would be an insult to the victims and family members of the 9/11 attacks, and to Americans in general. Whenever anyone claims to be speaking for all Americans, I automatically discount his/her credibility. Our origins, culture, politics, religions and opinions are simply too diverse (gloriously so) for anyone to suppose they know what "America" wants. I doubt that person's ability to grasp what "America" even stands for -- tolerance, diversity, respect for others. Voltaire said, "I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

Mr. Jones, the Tea Party, anti-war activists, and all other citizens benefit from that right. But with every right comes a responsibility. Freedom of speech is not absolute. It is against the law (and common sense) to yell "FIRE" in a crowded public place, when there is no fire. Making a public display of burning Muslim holy books (or any holy books) is just as incendiary, and should be just as criminal.

JILL'S STORY

A television news anchor on KPAX in Missoula is the most popular media personality in western Montana. Jill Valley comes across as professional and serious on screen, but her coworkers know that she has a wry and insidious sense of humor. Watch her closely and you'll see a twinkle in her eye, and the barest quirk of a smile as she quietly delivers a comment or dig to one of her team members, usually without the viewing audience even noticing. Jill has been named Montana Broadcaster of the Year four times, and has won journalism awards for writing and reporting. She's been voted Missoula's best television personality for the past decade.

Jill Valley is the center of attention these days for another reason -- breast cancer. I first learned of it after befriending her on FaceBook. She recently underwent a mastectomy, and is currently enduring chemotherapy. And through it all, she's rarely missed a day of work, nor lost her composure and focus on camera. What blows me away is that she seems so .... well, casual about it all. I know that doesn't come close to summing up her experience. There have been moments when the world is dark and painful and fearsome -- but Jill has unfailingly shared hope, and humor, and gratitude to all those who love and support her.

But my description is hopelessly inadequate. Take a moment to get acquainted with this charming and brilliant woman in her own words, at the August 31st post on her blog, Mission to Missoula. I predict that, like me, you'll come away feeling like you've just met someone you would like as a lifelong friend. Here's to you, Jill, and to all the other woman and men who battle cancer every day, everywhere.

A NIGHTMARE

From 1978-1982, I had a dream job. The Nature Conservancy chose my then-wife and me to be caretakers at Canelo Hills Cienega, a TNC preserve in southern Arizona. The habitat was part oak-juniper woodland, and part cienega or marsh. In the grasslands bordering the Sonoran Desert, streams and marshes were once more common. As successive Spanish, Mexican and American ranchers overgrazed the resource, topsoil erosion began. Eventually streambeds cut so deep that they lowered the water table, draining the marshes which were home to native wildlife, and an important water source for migratory birds from as far north as Canada, and as far south as southern Mexico and Central America.

At Canelo Hills, paleoecologist Paul Martin suggested building a retaining dam to prevent further headward erosion of the stream bed. It worked, and the cienega was safe. During our tenure as caretakers, we lived onsite in a century-old two-story adobe ranchhouse. We converted the adjacent adobe bunkhouse to include a visitors center, a guest room, and a studio for my ex's stained glass work. We greeted visitors, guided visiting groups of school children, worked with researchers, maintained the building and fences, and monitored natural conditions on the preserve. I also patrolled the boundaries during hunting season, to discourage poachers. The life was often solitary, but never boring.

Those four years, when I was 31 to 35 years old, were vivid and formative. After leaving Canelo to attend school at the University of Arizona for my degree in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, I often returned to visit la cienega. It even appeared in my dreams -- usually featuring me responding to some threat of encroachment by humans. The role of steward and protector to the natural world had etched itself into my identity, and remains so to this day. I fully understand the impetus behind the radical ecosabotage described in Edward Abbey's seminal novel The Monkey Wrench Gang (see logo above), just as I understand the activist interruption of whale hunting by groups such as Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. In any struggle for justice, whether it is feminism or civil rights or protection of habitat and endangered species, there is room for BOTH working within the system to enact legal reform, and working outside the system to draw attention to the problem.

Over the years since Canelo, and since graduating from the UA, my work has alternated between serving nature and serving human society. In 1989-1990, I worked as a US Forest Service wildlife tech in South Carolina after the onslaught of Hurricane Hugo, doing habitat restoration for the endangered Red-Cockaded Woodpecker. And from 1990 to 1995 I was a counselor and teacher in suburban Philadelphia, orchestrating classes in math, biology and environmental studies. More recently, especially since last year's retirement, I've written frequently about environmental issues in this public forum, often taking radical views which offfend some readers, and are supported by others.

The other night, I awoke abruptly from a nightmare -- one in which I was once more back at Canelo Hills, which had been transformed almost beyond recognition. Paved roads and logging trucks traversed that calm valley, elaborate bridges and walkways had been constructed for crowds of visitors, and condominiums were metastasizing on the land once invaded by mere poachers. In the dream I was overcome by grief and rage. It seemed that I was the only soul present who understood the desecration being visited upon sacred ground. I was prepared to set a torch to all this human intrusion, ready to attack anyone who got in my way, ready to place my body in the path of those profane, belching trucks.

Once awake, heart pounding, I could not return to sleep. It was clear to me that, whatever the injuries and limitations that have come with age, my life's work is not finished. I don't yet know whether it will transform from fieldwork to advocacy writing, or to physically interrupting wolf hunts, or to something I haven't yet dreamed of. But be on notice -- the fire-breathing activist is back.

"Desert, o my desert, yours is the only death I cannot bear." -- Edward Abbey

WILD HORSE ROUNDUP

This is one of those issues which tears at your heart, and has no simple solution. In the unpopulated stretches of the American West, wild horses have roamed freely since the time of the Spanish conquistadores, starting in the early 1500s. Equine escapees from Spanish, Mexican and later American herds were the progenitors of today's mustangs. The animals are technically feral rather than wild, since their ancestors were domesticated. It was the capture and taming of mustangs which transformed the plains Indian tribes from walking wanderers to the most splendid light cavalry the world has ever known.

A NYTimes article describes the mustangs' fate in recent years (be sure to watch the video embedded in the article). As the West was increasingly settled by the flood of American invaders from the east, railroads, ranches, roads and towns combined to diminish the area of wilderness available to free-ranging mustang herds. Their numbers dwindled, both from loss of habitat and from capture or predation by human hunters. In 1971 the Wild Free-roaming Horse and Burro Act was passed, protecting dwindling herds from being rounded up for sport or profit. In the years since, mustang numbers have blossomed, to the point where ranchers and BLM officials felt it necessary to periodically cull the herds, limiting the population size. Ostensibly mustang roundups were conducted so that their numbers would not outpace the capacity of the land to support both mustangs and other, co-existing wild herbivores. But it is also true that large portions of Federal land (our land) are leased at bargain-basement prices to ranchers as grazing allotments. The ranchers' cattle, of course, can be sold for profit, with no benefit to taxpayers. When numbers of mustangs are perceived to interfere with that profit, there is no question or hesitation about which presence is more important. For ranchers, it is their cattle. For wild horse advocates, it is the mustangs.

The roundups are conducted not from horseback, as they were traditionally, but using helicopters to haze the animals in the direction of a fence funnel leading them into a holding corral. Wild horse advocates contend that the process is cruel, pushing both adult horses and their young at full speed to the point of exhaustion, injury or death. Those who conduct and advocate the roundups insist that they are conducted as humanely and efficiently as possible.

Once captured, some mustangs are put up for adoption, but there aren't nearly enough people willing or able to adopt so many detainees. The remaining horses are sent to private ranches in Kansas and Oklahoma for stockpiling -- their upkeep is again paid for by taxpayers. It is ostensibly illegal to sell wild horses for slaughter. This writer is skeptical. Here is another viewpoint, that of the American Mustang Foundation.

As I said at the top, there are no easy answers. Even if cattle were not present on public lands (a situation I would dearly love to see), it is likely that eventually mustang herds would grow beyond the carrying capacity of their habitat. Humans have so effectively contained or eliminated their natural predators (mountain lions, wolves, grizzley bears), and mustangs are so swift and hardy to begin with, that some sort of population management is inevitable to prevent mass starvation. One possible solution is birth control -- using dart guns to inoculate selected mares with infertility drugs. Another, and more controversial, solution is to allow natural predators to flourish in mustang habitat. I'm all for natural predators as a matter of principle, but I doubt that they could keep up with the mustangs' breeding rate.

It is a touchy and polarizing situation. The lives of 40,000 mustangs hang in the balance.

An aside -- many years ago I was privileged to see a locally legendary mustang herd for myself. I was on a three-day solo hike into the Tortolita Mountains north of Tucson, Arizona, the rumored home of the herd. On the second day of my sojourn (amid canyons and a central flatland positively teeming with rattlesnakes), I took a short walk up a side-canyon. On my way back to my tiny camp, I sensed that I was being watched. I eased to a stop, looked up over my left shoulder, and there on a ledge halfway up the mountain slope, was a group of fifteen or twenty horses, staring at me intently. We watched each other for a few minutes, then I lowered my eyes and slowly resumed my path campward, so as not to spook them.

What a thrill !! It is possible that they were part of some rancher's herd, but I doubt it. Not that many horses. The romantic in me will always believe that these were mustangs and that for a few minutes beneath the roasting desert sun, we regarded each other as fellow travelers on this shared planet of ours.

ORIGINS / THE INTERNETS

ORIGINS. One of humanity's reasons for creating the myth of a supreme god (or gods) is to try to explain how we, our world and the universe came into being. Until very recently in our history, we simply did not have adequate tools or information to perceive differently. Once the idea of a god caught on, those who opposed it (atheists) or simply weren't sure (agnostics) were subject to hostility ranging from ostracism to death.

A number of eminent scientists in recent years have proposed, with considerable supportive reasoning, that there simply is no need to resort to the existence of an omnipotent deity to understand the origins of humanity and the cosmos. Astrophysicist Carl Sagan in The Varieties of Scientific Experience, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion, neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris in The End of Faith, and writer/essayist Christopher Hitchins in God Is Not Great, have each contributed thoughtful evidence to support the parsimonious proposition that God is a human construct, unnecessary for explaining our origins.

Now renowned theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking is about to publish The Grand Design. in which he similarly asserts that "no divine force is needed to explain why the universe was formed. The video "Physics Leaves No Room for God" summarizes Hawking's thoughts in an accessible format.

THE INTERNETS. For those who aren't yet aware, Verizon and Google are embroiled in controversy surrounding their joint proposal for a proprietary subset of the currently free and universal access Internet. Much confusion has ensued over whether their vision would restrict and impose user costs on access. My good Chicago friend forwarded to me a blog post which handily clarifies what is being proposed, and what is at stake. It is required reading for those who would like the Internet to remain free and easily accessible.

TWO ARIZONA LEADERS

GERONIMO. On this day in 1886, the Chiricahua Apache warrior Geronimo (Goyahkla in his native language) surrendered at Skeleton Creek in southern Arizona, effectively bringing to a close the Indian wars of the West. Geronimo was never defeated in battle, and successfully evaded capture by thousands of US Army soldiers under various commanders. He was persuaded to surrender by Lt. Charles B. Gatewood (who spoke the Apache language and was sympathetic to Apache history and culture) after years of pursuit had worn his band of followers down to fewer than twenty warriors.

Geronimo suffered terrible loss during his life. His first wife and family were murdered by Mexican troopers in 1858, creating his lifelong hatred for Mexicans. He subsequently remarried and had more children. The invasion of Apache territory by American miners, settlers and soldiers was met with stiff resistence by Geronimo and other Apache leaders. Assisted by spiritual abilities and sterling courage, Geronimo inspired his people with many daring raids and escapes, waged against both Mexican and American armies.

Tragically, Geronimo, along with many Chiricahua people, were sent into exile at a prison in Florida. He died in 1909, forever deprived of seeing his beloved Southwest desert again. The movie Geronimo: An American Legend depicts his life during the few years before his surrender. While the film necessarily compacts or alters particular events or characters for the sake of the narrative, it remains true to the essential spirit of the times, showing with vivid detail what life was like in the Sonoran Desert in the late 1800s. Note -- click on the image below to enlarge. Geronimo stands at the far right.

JAN BREWER. Talk about polar opposites. Brewer is governor of present-day Arizona, the woman who signed into law Arizona's infamous and racist immigration law. A Tucson friend sent me the link to this video, shower her opening remarks prior to a debate among candidates for the office of governor -- the election will take place in November. In the words of my friend, "This is our governor's opening statement in the debate last night -- did she evr look stupid -- and the idiot will get votes (certainly not mine) and may win ... the debate was a joke. Green party guy looked like he smoked a joint before coming on. Litertarian, articulate, but some real scary ideas. [Democrat] Terry Goddard had a difficult time making his points as Brewer just butted in whenever she wanted and said that what he was saying was not true. The whole debate made me think that we are in deep, deep doo-doo."

I have to agree, Brewer on camera comes across as a simpleton, trying to cover her confusion with nervous laughter. She is a cookie cutter Sarah Palin, older but no wiser. I cannot fathom how supposedly intelligent citizens can take people like Brewer, Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh seriously. But then, we are the nation that voted for eight years of George W. Bush. Pretty damned embarrassing.

Note -- gubernatorial debates rarely arouse comment among the national press, but this debate caught the attention of the NYTimes' astute Gail Collins. Please see her reactions here.

KIDNEY IMPLANT / PENTAGON PROPAGANDA

KIDNEY IMPLANT. People who experience reduced kidney function due to renal failure, have limited choices. If they are lucky, they may secure a kidney transplant from a living or recently deceased donor. But the number of prospective recipients far exceeds the number of donors. For the remainder, dialysis provides the most common treatment enabling patients to maintain the body's internal equilibrium of water and minerals, and also to assist in voiding metabolic waste. But dialysis is an intrusive and debilitating procedure (see diagram of a dialysis machine above, click to enlarge), as well as being expensive. Each visit for dialysis treatment lasts for 1-3 hours, with tubes introducing cleansing fluids and removing fluid waste. Patients typically feel deeply chilled and weakened by the procedure, which often must be endured three times a week.

In one of the most important medical breakthroughs in recent history, dialysis may become a thing of the past. Yesterday researchers unveiled the world's first implantable artificial kidney. For 350,000 regular dialysis patients in the U.S. alone, this new device is a ray of hope. Here is a link to the full article describing the implant.

PENTAGON PROPAGANDA. It isn't news that the military carefully filters, spins and slants the information it presents not only to the President and Congress, but also to the American people. Every war has produced its own unique public relations apparatus. Most citizens don't stop to think that it is we, the taxpayers, who are footing the bill for information with is at best incomplete, frequently inaccurate, and often deliberately misleading. Why? To perpetuate the guerre de jour, the war of the moment.

Can you wrap your imagination around a number like half a billion? That's how many dollars (our dollars) are being squandered in the Pentagon's present Afghanistan propaganda blitz. This is money that could be channeled (depending on your own views and priorities) into enhanced weaponry and protection for troops on the ground, or (in my opinion) channeled into schools, water treatment facilities, roads, and employment for the people of Afghanistan. This is the only guaranteed and proven way to stabilize the region, the best possible expenditure to combat the Taliban and Al Qaeda. It is scandalous that General David Petraeus sees fit to participate in a PR campaign which diverts so much funding from actually waging the war, or winning the peace.

A TOOL FOR THE GENTLE READER. You will notice among the features lining the right-hand side of this page, a chart labeled "Visitors" broken down by country. Each person who reads this blog is represented by his/her nation's flag, a two-letter designator identifying that nation, and the number of visits from that nation. To date 12,728 people from 126 countries have graced this page with their presence, averaging 54 visits per day since I initiated the sitemeter in March of 2009. If you would like to know the country to which each flag and two-letter designator belongs, simply click on this link, scroll down and then click on the appropriate square in the colored chart. If you ever needed an indication that we live in a global community, this is it -- a modest blog written by a modest writer in western Montana, reaching out around the planet. Very cool.

HOW SCIENCE IS DONE

For those who seek easy, concrete, immutable answers to life's questions -- where did we come from? how do migrating birds and butterflies know where they are going? why do some people have brown eyes, and others blue? where does that mysterious sock disappear to, when I do laundry? -- the answers can varously be tentative, inconclusive, reassuring or enlightening, when they come from science. Why is this? Doesn't the very word "science" mean "knowledge"? Why does it take so long to figure things out?

The answer lies in how science is conducted. When confronted with a question, the scientific method (click on image above to enlarge) requires that an investigator form a hypothesis (potential explanation), gather and analyze data through observation and experimentation, determine whether the empirical results support the hypothesis, and then publish the study's results for peer review. Results must be (A) replicable by other researchers, and (B) falsifiable. No leaps of faith are allowed. If a given hypothesis yields the same testing results reliably and repeatedly, over time it gains the force of credibility and is re-labeled as a scientific theory. Further testing and time may elevate the theory to a scientific law.

All of this takes time, and because of the requirement of falsifiability, something that has long been held to be true, may later be proven false. Case in point -- for centuries, largely under pressure from the Catholic church, people believed that the Earth was the center of the Universe, with the sun, planets and stars revolving around it. To propose otherwise was heresy, as Galileo learned the hard way. Yet the impulse toward truth is ultimately stronger than the impulse toward superstition, and science came to accept the reality that the earth revolves about the sun, which is only a moderately-sized star located midway out along one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way galaxy, one of tens of billions of galaxies in the known universe. Our homocentric view of things took a well-deserved cosmological thrashing, but we emerged better (and smarter) for it.

In good science, all sorts of avenues of inquiry are pursued, challenged, debated, settled, and revisited later on. A perfect example from the field of animal and human behavior concerns the notion of altruism, helping others with no personal gain, or helping others at one's own expense. In 1964, biologist William Hamilton advanced an explanation which appeared to explain altruism as an alternative avenue for prolonging one's own genes in the population. His hypothesis was generally accepted until quite recently, when a team of prominent evolutionary biologists at Harvard (including the redoubtable E.O. Wilson) published a paper in the journal Nature, disputing Hamilton's explanation.

This is the meat of science -- rigorous debate, evidence advanced and challenged, results confirmed or refuted. Fifty years ago, human knowledge was doubling every ten years. Now it doubles every five or six years. With so much learned, and so much remaining to learn, it's hardly surprising that if we want certainty in our views of ourselves and our surroundings -- and if we insist on more than a blind leap of faith to reach that certainty -- then we have to be willing to exercise patience, a healthy and informed skepticism, and an open mind. There is a word for such a rigorous mindset. It's called progress. Anything less is gossip, superstition or ignorance.

In a completely unrelated article, Jonathan Parkinson suggests with tongue-in-cheek "Got a physics question? Ask a stripper." It turns out that some women pursuing advanced degrees in the sciences find that they can support the costs of their education by working on the side as lap dancers, strippers, and even a few as hookers. The money is good, and job satisfaction is reported to be generally high. And none of these enterprising academics has to ask her clients, "Would you like fries with that?"

THE WORLD OF CONSERVATIVES

Kathleen Maclay reports that four researchers who culled through 50 years of research literature on the pyschology of conservatism report that at the core of political conservativism is the resistance to change and a tolerance for inequality, and that some of the psychological factors linked to political conservatism include:

• Fear and aggression
• Dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity
• Uncertainty avoidance
• Need for cognitive closure
• Terror management

Please click on the link for a more thorough description of the research. The qualities listed above are consistent with my own experience -- the further to the right one's thinking, the more likely that these and similar traits will replace rational thought. The findings go a long way toward explaining the conservative-induced polarization we observe at all levels of government, and in the populace at large. Mind you, I'm not suggesting that liberals are saints with a monopoly on insight and proper values. But they do, in my opinion, come closer. When your psyche operates out of fear and aggression, dogmatism and intolerand of ambiguity, and uncertainty avoidance, you are more likely to see the world in black and white terms -- which is rarely useful, since the world we inhabit is assuredly in shades of gray -- nuanced, diverse, subtle, and ever-changing.

This might explain the persistent perception among Republicans and Tea Party proponents that President Obama is a Muslim, or is partial to Muslim beliefs, or may not even be a citizen. None of these absurdities is true, yet according to a Newsweek poll, Republicans in large numbers believe that Obama would like to impose Islamic law. Say what??? Here is a man who is a Constitutional scholar, a Christian (not that being a Christian is somehow preferable to being a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Jew, or an atheist), and a deep and insightful thinker -- yet dull-witted people who are more comfortable letting others do their thinking for them follow reactionary slogans like lemmings into the sea.

Stop. Look. Think. You are being lied to by the leaders of the right. I increasingly am pessimistic about the future of this Republic, precisely because American voters do not engage their own critical faculties, do not question their own assumptions, do not think. They merely react. Which is why we face so many crises -- too few of us bother to think ahead five, ten, fifty years, to examine the consequences of our choices. Every difficulty we face, from human overpopulation to the financial meltdown to wars and yes, even the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, has been predictable and avoidable. We refuse to think in subtleties, we refuse to consider the larger picture, we seek only to maximize our own comfort and wealth and power, at the expense of anyone who gets in our way. This is civilization?

White fright is alive and well in America. If you doubt me, check out this video which compares the behavior and atmosphere during Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech, and the behavior and atmosphere during Glenn Beck's "Restore Honor" address from the same location, 47 years later. Beck's audience resembles a Ku Klux Klan rally, complete with obscene words and gestures. This man's understanding of honor is twisted and vulgarized beyond recognition.