Miskwaa: The Red Blog

Wolves making bedfellows strange...

2011-12-23T17:24:00.002-06:00

If there is one North American animal that symbolizes irrational fear, it is the gray wolf. Despite the number of encounters being less than a handful, at any minute, we are told, these denizens of Satan sit waiting on the yard edge, fangs dripping and waiting to steal our children and devour our shih tzu's. Amy Klobuchar has for some reason made ending federal protection a goal; this perhaps best shows the utter uselessness in her five years of service. Congressman Cravaack, of New Hampshire also sent out a press release shouting we were all now safe from the endless onslaught of bloodthirsty canines. In both cases, they mentioned livestock, "pets" and residents. I want to know why residents are now safer, despite there not being a single historical record of an attack in Minnesota? Ever. According to the Klobuchar press release, "In 2010, the Department of Agriculture removed 192 problem wolves that were responsible for the deaths of nearly 100 cows and sheep and 15 dogs". I want to know how 192 wolves were found to be responsible for the death of a lousy 115 animals; I also wish to know how many more animals were killed by cars, transported diseases and simple human stupidity. For Cravaack, as an ignorant out of state republican ( I know it's redundant), it is to be expected. But for Klobuchar, I can only assume it is pandering to the idiot redneck backwoods hick crowd, or some lunatic leftover Ely relative who coached her into this. We are all safe now...from nothing.

Polymet and Glencore

2011-12-04T08:22:00.001-06:00

This recent news should frighten everyone. Glencore's record is more or less criminal; it has left polluted sites throughout the world and either encouraged or used human rights violations to ensure extra profit. I will do an annoying link dump to show sources: warning; the reading becomes depressing very quickly. The best symbol for this is having Tony Hayward as your Environmental and Safety chief.

And since jump break doesn't work with this darn editor right now...:

http://bit.ly/tJrlTo
http://bit.ly/soK6Os
http://bit.ly/rtkoD3
http://bit.ly/r4U2kd

2011-11-17T21:55:00.001-06:00

Cui bono?

The Illusion of Flags:

2011-11-11T07:48:00.001-06:00

DULCE ET DECORUM EST(1)

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares(2) we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest(3) began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots(4)
Of tired, outstripped(5) Five-Nines(6) that dropped behind.
Gas!(7) Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets(8) just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime(9) . . .
Dim, through the misty panes(10) and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering,(11) choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud(12)
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest(13)
To children ardent(14) for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.(15)

Wilfred Owen
8 October 1917 - March, 1918

The Range DFL, the Environment: Are they stupid or drunk?

2011-11-06T06:09:00.002-06:00

More likely just stupid.
Their record from this year:
Lowering the sulfate standard
Exempting the IRRRB from environmental review
Doing this while Polymet has a deal with Glencore
Pushing for mining on state and private lands

This is not the DFL anymore and hasn't been for a long time. It's a group that rolls over and exposes its belly to anyone wanting to destroy the place.

And some wonder

2011-11-03T07:13:00.000-05:00

Why citizens are cynical about politicians. The Range DFL'ers on the IRRRB are willing to deal with these people?

2011-11-02T22:44:00.000-05:00

Quarterwits on parade

Watching the World Die

2011-11-02T22:34:00.001-05:00

In the words of Aldo Leopold:
"One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be the doctor who sees the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise." Aldo Leopold

As an ecologist, everyday I feel about nature as I do about someone terminally ill; I see parts of them disappearing little by little, piece by piece. I grieve everyday I open my eyes. But with nature, other insults are added. Eons of evolution and community networks are destroyed for a banal stripmall, or the profits of foreign investors extracting ore and leaving a wasteland. The final insult is when the people who actually live here want this to happen, so they can get a bigscreen tv and an oversized truck. Some may wonder what is the best evidence for Evolution; it is fairly simple and clear. It is impossible for us to be creatures of any god; no supreme being of any grand intelligence would create a species obsessed with monster trucks or small transparent pieces of highly compressed carbon, or one that would destroy where it lives so it can have an atv. Only evolution could produce such an idiotic talking monkey.

2011-10-16T08:14:00.000-05:00

Defining Sustainability....

I found this 2010 study from UMD "Quality of Life and and Population Movement on the Iron Range". An interesting result is the popularity of "Sustainability" and it is curious how the writers define future "sustainable" activities : "development dollars could be spent on mountain biking trails, tourism development near the casino at Giants Ridge, pit-diving, and ATV trails that celebrate the outdoors, serve local residents, and bring in tourism dollars (PP 36)". None of these has anything to do with sustainability and rely completely on the outside population to spend money. One might think that developing local resources, such as redeveloping the former agricultural base (less importation of food), might have entered consciousness.Two immediate benefits are decreased long term fuel use (reducing importation) and recirculating money locally, rather than exporting it to far off corporations. Instead, however, we have ATV trails defined as "sustainable"; anyone making this statement should be handed the "most dumba$* idea of the decade" award. Unfortunately, this is what often passes for the mainstream economic development thinking on the Range, and it is outside the lead agencies you find actual creativity.

2011-10-08T15:30:00.000-05:00

The Pagami Creek Fire and Land Policy:

Due to their responsibility for the Pagami creek fire, the Forest Service is an easy scapegoat right now. However, they are trapped between public expectations, ignorant politicians who tell the public sometimes outright lies and a long held, now thankfully disappearing belief that all natural processes like fire are bad.

For nearly a century after logging created the severe fires of 1910, the policy was to put all fires out. Until science showed that ecosystems are long since adapted to fire, all fire was considered evil. Finally, it is now recognized that fire is a natural ecosystem process. In recent decades, this has become an on the ground practice. The management for the Pagami creek fire is just one example. The fire, if nature had its way, would most likely have burned a similar area until the weather changed.

The idea that it is a “catastrophe” or a “tragedy” is purely a human judgment. That judgment, of course, is only because of human occupation and property.

The true tragedies lie deeper within; both in people’s assumptions about nature and our political system’s continued subsidies and allowance for human dispersal no matter what the cost. A useful corollary for fire is this: Building any structure in this landscape and not expecting fire is the same as building on a sandbar island in the Mississippi river and complaining about spring flooding while repeatedly expecting others to pay the rebuilding costs. The expectation for fire protection is similar; the Ham Lake fire cost about 11 million dollars and benefitted cabin and resort owners on the Gunflint trail. If one added the fire protection before, during and after, the bill is enormous and others (we) are paying for it. The same is true for this fire; again, the public is paying for the property protection of a few, subsidized by roads and fire protection, who choose to build structures in a fire prone landscape far from any infrastructure.

The Forest Service, like all government, is caught between reality, the delusional expectations of people and the interests of the elite who are mostly concerned with extracting as much cash money as they can from everyone, whether politicians or citizens. The Fire-Industrial complex, the system of contractors and agency employees who rely on large scale fire suppression for their existence and income simply adds inertia.

Whenever a fire occurs, there are always claims that somehow more and different management such as logging are the solution. This is not the case, however; the true costs of preventing fire on the landscape would rival a Defense Department cost plus contract and alter the ecosystem forever. Local zoning officials are as much to blame; by failing to recognize the reality of fire and not incorporating that reality into codes has as much to with any “tragedy” as someone deliberately lighting a match. The Pagami creek fire is merely the result of decades of these policy failures.

Until we recognize that nature has its own whims regardless of our desires, we will continue to pay the enormous cost that is unlimited human settlement. I don’t have the space here to list the biological costs, however, and that is where the true tragedy is.

2011-10-07T06:23:00.000-05:00

For acts bordering on sociopathy, we have this: Farmer snapped over Pelicans. According to his lawyer, he simply "snapped". Having worked in the field, I have dealt with the stupid and arrogant decisions people make regarding wildlife. While everyone focuses on the act itself, let's look at the decisions he made leading to this. He chooses to rent and farm land immediately adjacent to a lake and does this for several years despite the birds nesting there. It is only seven acres of rented land yet he still insists and rather than giving up, he continues. Finally, instead of saying it is only seven acres, he chooses, after being warned, to destroy them, assuming officials aren't returning. And to top it off, he has received almost 600,000 in farm subsidies. This shows precisely just how messed up farm policy is; subsidies for destroying things.

2009-05-18T22:19:00.000-05:00

Yes, I was sick of writing.

My specialty being forest ecology, spring in the Northern Hardwoods is always a fascinating time, as the blossoms in the understory appear, grabbing the sun before the sun is stolen by the leaves in the canopy. I apologize for the shots as the lighting was difficult...

A Trillium

A Wild Ginger Flower

And a Bloodroot Blossom

This area had a fairly rich understory. I saw one earlier in the day that had obviously been hit hard by Lumbricis terrestris, the invasive nightcrawler. Notice the complete lack of understory and bare soil.

With a cohort of worm species and heavy deer browsing, the understory is dominated by sedge and a few survivors. Notice the lack of seedlings...

As the canopy trees die off, there is nothing to replace them. The question becomes, what will? What is the extinction deficit for this location? Will it simply be colonized by invasive species and the biomass will be essentially equivalent?

2009-01-24T07:55:00.000-06:00

Big Stone II, Minnesota Public Utilities Commission the EPA and Excelsior:

I'll defer to Legalectric for their coverage, but change can come quickly. Something unthinkable only two weeks ago happened; The EPA objected to the Big Stone II permit. This after the Minnesota PUC and its South Dakota equivalent let the thing walk with a "promise us you will do thigns right permit". Maybe now the reasonable choices needed in Minnesota can actually be made, since the state is controlled by the right wing. Hopefully, this will have an effect on boondoggles like Excelsior.

2008-12-27T21:21:00.000-06:00

Warning...Environmental policy, so it is a bit wonkish. Having worked for different divisions within the DNR( no longer), and with my research and current work in this very field, it is very dear to me.

The details for the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment:

How much will it raise and what will it be used for?

The current general sales and use tax rate is 6.5%. Sales tax
revenue is deposited in the state General Fund.) It raises the state sales tax to 6.875% and dedicates the additional proceeds as follows:
• 33% to a newly created Outdoor Heritage Fund to be spent
only to restore, protect, and enhance wetlands, prairies, forests,
and habitat for game, fish, and wildlife (approximately
$80 million in FY 2010 and $91 million in FY 2011);
• 33% to a newly-created Clean Water Fund to be spent only
to protect, enhance, and restore water quality in lakes, rivers,
streams, and groundwater, with at least 5% of the fund spent
to protect drinking water sources (approximately $80 million
in FY 2010 and $91 million in FY 2011);
• 14.25% to a newly created Parks and Trails Fund to be
spent only to support parks and trails of regional or statewide
significance (approximately $35 million in FY 2010 and $39
million in FY 2011);
• 19.75% to a newly created Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund
to be spent only for arts, arts education, and arts access, and
to preserve Minnesota’s history and cultural heritage
(approximately $48 million in FY 2010 and $54.5 million in
FY 2011).

The money does not automatically go to the Minnesota DNR. It is competitive money, meaning agencies and groups propose projects which are then evaluated for funding.

Finally, some stability, and maybe some new projects and repairs...Believe me, I have my stories.

2008-12-17T06:36:00.000-06:00

A suicide due to bad policy?

There is an old saying regarding forest fires: "The government puts out fires by throwing money at them until it rains". Having some experience and qualification in this field, it is a truth beyond absurdity. It is, essentially, a welfare program for civil service firefighters, contractors and property owners. Blame is always fixed on the person who started it, whether one exists or not, rather than official policy of allowing building in fire prone vegetation then spending millions defending the property of the stupid. And now the man whom blame was fixed upon for the Ham Lake Fire has committed suicide. And still, except in a few academic circles or in grumbles amongst certain government employees, no one will ask ask questions, and certain forums will affix blame on this man. The Ham Lake fire cost 11 million dollars, and like most fires, the weather actually put it out. The usual term used was tragedy, and blame needed to be affixed somewhere, and finally someone.

Fundamentally, however, there is a problem. We have allowed, continue to allow, and support by bucketloads of taxpayer money, the insanity of supporting people building within some of the most fire-prone vegetation in the hemisphere, near-boreal forest on shield rock:

If the fire had not been started by someone, lightning would have caused it, and the results would have been the same. The only thing that slowed it down was the prescribed burns which had been done to burn off the fuel left from the blow down...often over 50 tons per acre. This was not a tragedy. It was the result of ignoring nature, of allowing people to build expensive structures in a place so fire prone every July or August that managers cringe any time there is lightning. And they continue to bill us for the privilege.

Until that fundamental fact is accepted, this insanity will continue.

While there are many writings on the subject, the best by far is Roger Kennedy's ( A good Minnesotan also!)"Wildfire and Americans:How to Save Lives, Property, and Your Tax Dollars"...a very good read which should be required reading in every school.

2008-11-19T20:29:00.001-06:00

Like the mineral bodies, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and Northeastern Minnesota have much in common. And now, of all things, we have sulfide mining in common. For more information, check out this site: http://www.savethewildup.org/ . The site, of all places, is the Yellow Dog Plains, an area of Jack Pine holding a population of the spruce grouse. And how do I know this? A month ago, at a half price book store ( the greatest stores ever!!), I found, from what I believe, one of the few books on this bird, a more boreal and naive species of grouse that also lives in areas of Northern Minnesota. A fascinating read combining stories and results of research. But I digress. As here, the ore is a low grade sulfide ore copper-nickel, and low grade and sulfide are key words. Low grade means tons of rock and thus, land, followed by much processing and tailings, another key word. For as pointed out, but never answered or solved, is that every sulfide mine has polluted. Every Single One. No exceptions. And despite the claims for Polymet and others, their mines will be the same...Again, with no example of any one of them having not polluted. Not one. Ever. And, for decades, this same acid mine drainage has been flowing into Dunka Creek, then into Dunka bay on Birch Lake between Ely and Babbit. The State, meaning taxpayers, has been paying to solve this for years, just as we have been paying and subsidizing most mine research, including the Taconite process, since the beginning. And we still end up with giant holes and pollution problems. And so, I am against all of this. The arguments will all be economic, and about saving communities now dying or becoming retirement communities, and the word will be jobs, ignoring the words pollution and profits. And again, locals will be suckered into a fools game...that of selling their souls and, land, air and water for jobs guaranteed to be unstable, like all mining jobs, with the community left to pick the mess yet again. If you wish to find out more..go here

2008-08-03T07:37:00.000-05:00

Reasons to live here:

The first picture is from this spring, wild leeks through last years leaves;

And this, a monarch catepillar on milkweed at the family homestead:

By the way, the blueberry crop is wonderful this year...I will post pics once I stop eating them.

2008-07-18T21:34:00.000-05:00

Finally, of all things, a large social networking site for non-theists ( code words: people who don't believe in god), meaning humanists, agnostics, atheists or just plain anyone not believing in the supernatural: http://www.atheistnexus.org/. For anyone isolated in smaller cities or rural areas, being a non-believer can be pretty lonely sometimes, so this could be a blessing for many...

2008-07-15T21:43:00.000-05:00

This picture is not mine, it is from Paul Krugman's Blog, which lately, along with Calculated Risk, have been the best places to cut through the blather and understand the true failings and thievery of the mortgage crisis and just how deep the doodoo we are in is. Whenever bankers of one form or another,( investors, bankers, insurance salesmen, three card molly tricksters and other such conmen) start speaking deregulation, hide your wallet and think of this picture. These are just some of the people who brought you this latest debacle, and are of the same breed who brought you the savings and loan crisis in the 80's. We are now well into a multi billion dollar public bailout of private risk for private profit.

Get your hand out of my pocket.

2008-06-29T21:40:00.000-05:00

Amongst all the sniveling on gas prices, it is still easy to see more resource waste in a look down the street than could be justified anywhere. First, a couple weeks ago we had this, an attempt to set the worlds largest group atv ride. In this we have the finest of American culture; a ridiculous sense of material entitlement, a gratuitous waste of precious resources, environmental destruction and the bloated, semi- alive fatty deposited carcasses called American bodies. At the same time, sniveling about the price of gas, and how we should drill everywhere. It is amazing this thinking is acceptable as a logical thought process: We should destroy entire ecosystems so overweight yokels can ride around and cause erosion . At the same time this was also going on. As Beldar might say.. " Ahh; the humans...wasting hydrocarbons, driving aging, oversize technologically inferior metallic vehicles around to symbolize the pathetic yearning for their misspent youth".

This underlies American thought and perhaps might ultimately be its downfall: An inability or unwillingness to see that fuel supplies are really just chemical tools. And we have wasted alot of easy to get energy, and waste more everyday. Until it is seen that having a relationship with a car or atv is like having a relationship with a shovel(it usually is males, people who have not matured mentally or emotionally past age 16 or so), nothing will change.
My thought is this: After everyone who dies of starvation is fed tomorrow ( about 35,000 to 40,000), and those who are malnourished are fed, and after everyone who needs medicine, sanitation or education gets that, then you can ask for gas to play. Only then. Until then, any American who dares open their mouth around me for anything other than efficient transport will be verbally abused or simply eviscerated.

2008-06-15T10:22:00.000-05:00

Posted @http://neminndems.blogspot.com/

2008-06-07T08:42:00.001-05:00

wrote at Whitepine today

2008-05-31T06:52:00.000-05:00

Wetlands, mudders and atv's...

This week was this story from the Strib on a mudrun turned wetland violation. In any story, the most interesting and frightening addition is reading the comments. They range from the bizarre to the rational, but it often shows the scary part of our society. This one brought out the best; deranged mudheads, private property rights nutballs and absolutely ignorant fools. Two comments stand out, however. One writes on how rural or small town people often assume they know more about nature than city people. That I often find is true. Just because you have a bear in your garbage, live on a gravel road and deer hunt doesn't mean you know squat. Working in resource management, one sees this all the time. Horse people converting forest and wetlands into pasture, then years later you see nothing but a rocky, muddy, weedy mess. Small farmers growing corn on clay soils next to a stream and needing the evil gov'mint to come in a put up a deer fence at taxpayer expense. The local guy who decides he is going to "improve drainage" by ditching and damming. Most, frankly, have the biological knowledge of a treated fence post. What they really know is what they wish to know so they can justify what they want to do, an often universal human trait. But out of the mouths of lunatics often comes legitimate questions, and in this case the offender himself asks one:" Why do Atv's get to play and I don't?". I could get technical, for in this case wetlands law applied and the event was a frigging nightmare, but the question is legitimate. The DNR, bowing to political pressure, and so have other government units as the counties and feds, created an entire system for atv's and vehicles. Oh yes, it is regulated, and most of it follows existing road systems or other existing networks, but that begs the question on how the entire operation is justified, and why is the same agency obligated to protect resources not just allowing, but actively developing systems that are inherently ecologically destructive with no legitimate economic or social purpose. It is one thing to manage timber or minerals for economic reasons( though the giveaways are ridiculous and offensive), and another to say let's build a trail system for something we know is ecologically destructive and consists of nothing but people tearing up the woods and burning gas. The above pictures are not a bad example..that is normal for what is seen everywhere. At a resources meeting last week, there were the usual atv people present, and when faced with any evidence, the usual arguments popped up. They are just bad apples. They need more places to go or else they will go there illegally. Here is a thought experiment. Picking another illegal, inherently destructive activity, perhaps lets say illegally playing in wetlands with heavy equipment: "People get great enjoyment being in nature while playing with heavy equipment and altering wetlands; if we do not allow them to do it on public land of adequate size, they will just do it illegally. If we use part of the transportation tax to develop places where citizens can run excavators and enjoy the outdoors while moving hydric soils around and digging holes, they will just do it wherever they please and create problems". Pardon the absurdity, but that is what we have now.

2008-05-25T08:56:00.000-05:00

From the local news...

This is a story about a drunken fight that ended in a killing and the lunacy that surrounds it. By lunacy, I mean the complete delusion most people react with. A tragedy it is, yes. but there have been other words used...cowardice and evil are two of them. There is one fundamental aspect no one seems to ask the story: Why was a drunk guy walking around with a gun? He had been booted from the casino for being too drunk. He goes to a house, tries to crash a party, gets booted out, starts a fight, gets beaten down not once but again, pulls a gun..I remind everyone, HE pulled the gun first, then gets shot by the guy dominating the fight. For a year now, I have listened to the word tragedy used in this young man's life, but no one in public has dared ask the question..what was he doing running around town drunk with a gun? My only explanations are two elements. The killer, another young man, is black, and therefore suspect. The other is mass delusion as people do not wish to state the obvious: He got himself shot by being drunk, obnoxious, having a gun and starting multiple fights.

2008-05-24T10:21:00.000-05:00

posted at whitepine today

2008-05-10T06:59:00.000-05:00

People who have not read that little thing called the Constitution...

In western Minnesota, three kids were suspended for not participating in the pledge of allegiance. That this policy existed despite the numerous court cases forbidding such forced exercises is only one frightening part of the story. It is the sheer muddied ignorance of the entire original basis of our government which should cause everyone to immediately return to the Declaration of Independence, the Federalist papers and the Constitution and begin reading. A telling statement is the mother having to justify her child not engaging in the pledge as " not being defiant against America". I am going to apply a thought experiment; replace the word America with another country's, for example, in an English colonial court in 1775 having to argue that " John Adams is not being defiant against England." It is telling that none of the participants can get past several assumptions. One is that worship of the state is a good thing, which it isn't ( read horrifying radicals like Jefferson or Madison), or that enforced rituals of patriotism ( at its very essence the true root of fascism) are legitimate. The argument then breaks down into a justification for behavior despite how bad it is. That is not the point; our entire system was founded on the principle that the state exists at our behest, not as an entity unto itself that does no wrong ( a truly fascist concept). The government we have, despite its many flaws, originated with the concept that the state was not a god, that the state derived its powers from its population, and was only a political system one participated in. It was not meant to be worshiped unto itself. That is what is happening now, however; the state and its symbols whether flags or recitations, are treated to be an object of worship. The sheer blindness of this false patriotism is best expressed in the story itself, where the community ed instructor proclaims the validity of the entire enterprise based on his serving in the military. I am sorry buddy, but you are not the only one who served, and that merely shows how blind and stupid you are. This was not meant to be a place where people blindly worshiped flags and treated the state as an arm of god, something so very against the very nature of our origins the moment it is mentioned in public the speaker should be humiliated for public stupidity. I will refer people to the original writings, as they are readily available. One very wonderful document is Washington's farewell address, really a public letter, where he warns against standing armies. Ultimately, this case is about whether the state or its people are most important. It is to be a state of its citizens, and not the the citizens of the state...

2008-05-04T19:18:00.000-05:00

The war on science..and the war on Resource Management Anyone who works in Natural Resources may tell you now, if they actually know anything and are actually committed to the work ( rather than just working at a job), that it is probably the area truly under attack by the right wingers. Cuts have been abundant at a time when resources are being pressured the most, and they and their supporters not only dislike the rational inquiry of science, but the application of this to resource management, or anything that questions their grabbing a dollar at the public expense. The same is true in this region, where economic hopes are placed at more and more extraction and exploitation. This has happened before, and memories are short here. They do not seem to remember the difference between 1978 and 1984, and they are falling for the same again. Relying yet again on one industry is not going to solve the communities' problems...in essence, we are going to destroy more of the place so for another 20 years someone can drive a pickup and an ATV, just as the seventies were spent on oodles of snowmobiles and muscle cars, all to be sold off at cut price in the 1980's. So where does resources fall into this? Our objective is to make sure that use is sustainable, but whole divisions and departments counter that, and actively help and subsidize the very industries that destroy the most...and mining is one primary problem. The regulations do not acknowledge the reality that every time someone destroys just a little bit, it adds up. We, hopefully and eventually, will acknowledge this, that the strip malling of America must cease, and that we must eventually say no to developers and ourselves. It is always interesting to me how some express their love for nature, then they plow it, pour concrete and asphalt, build a 3000 sq foot "cabin", replete with sat dish and air conditioning, roam around the lake on a leviathan pontoon boat, then tell me how they " love nature". Loving someone is not destroying them..it is allowing them to exist. The state of course, as a politically driven beast, cannot challenge these precepts. It can only attempt to control and modify the lunatic behavior of our society...one that experiences nature by driving, taking a picture in front of a sign, sampling the local coffee shop, purchasing a t-shirt, then dumping the garbage in the local ditch. All species go extinct, and most likely we will as all do, or we'll split off into different species...and maybe much of this will be forgotten when the stars burn out...

2008-04-26T08:29:00.000-05:00

I wrote over at Whitepine today

2008-04-20T07:54:00.000-05:00

Today's feature in the Strib focuses on the housing crisis and Wright County, where subdivisions now sit empty, housing auctions go unattended, and blame is thrown around like monkey dung. We have seen this before, if anyone remembers, and it was not long ago taxpayers footed another big bill for speculators and bankers: The S & L crisis was like this, a product of deregulation, speculation and that great American past time, public subsidy of private risk, or welfare for the rich evil cynics like myself would call it. Anyone ( with a rational brain)watching the goings on in the suburbs three years ago would have wondered how long you could ride that horse, but doomsayers or long-term rationalists are never welcome when the money hangs like meat on a chain. The dogs will tear you apart just for barking. There are some rules in life I still try to live by. If a salesman says don't worry, that means hold on to your wallet. If a financier or banker says we need to de-regulate to free up the economy, it means my buddies and I want a higher rate of return for doing nothing, and we want the public to bail out us investors when it goes bad; so sayeth Adam Smith. Unlike most, I will not blame ordinary people. Most are trained dogs believing whatever crap is told to them throughout their lives; god is in the heavens, corporations love you, and the good life of the suburbs awaits all if you stay away from those nasty dark people and keep your teeth white. That and they want a decent home, a job and health care, and they pray and hope if they play the game right, that will happen, for they have been told that. There is more to this than a few mortgage bankers and irresponsible owners trying to speculate. It is fundamental to what they have been doing for the last 35 years: Remove the brakes from the New Deal reforms that tried to correct speculative bubbles which are almost always driven more by investors than markets. There is another aspect to this, and anyone can see it if they look. Suburban development is not stable, does not build places that people actually want to live for the long term, is a waste of resources, and is probably the craziest thing we have ever done. As fuel becomes more expensive, and it will, the giant truck we are all riding to the supercenter will become more and more expensive, and there we will sit locked in communities without a heart, 20 miles from nowhere. For the area, as we now see potential development, I will remind everyone what happened before; just look at the numbers for 1978 then for 1988, remember what happened well, and then as people race to split the parcels as the boomers move to town, get ready to ride. There is only one long term project proposal of real size; the rest are mines lasting only 20 years, or smaller projects not really having a dent. 20 years, and we are left with a big nasty mess and overbuilt infrastructure...AGAIN. And, like the last time, most of the money will be blown on gas toys and beer, with 60 inch screens added in this time....and then they will whine when the house won't sell.....

2008-04-16T06:09:00.000-05:00

Two Biology related stories caught my eye this morning. First, a moose calf that was hanging around Duluth was found to have brainworm, the common name for the infection shown above, the scientific name being parelaphostrongylus tenuis. It is a natural parasite of the whitetail deer and does not hurt them, but when it infects Moose or Caribou, it is fatal. The worm crawls around inside the brain making holes as it goes. Often, as whitetail numbers increase due to landscape or climate change, the number of Moose goes down, and this is one of the culprits. The other is the Wisconsin Conservation Congress voting their desire for a wolf hunt to "keep the population within management objectives". That sentence compares to a French deconstructionist for lacking meaning. What it really means is this. The wolf population of Wisconsin is not a " management success" for their DNR. They did not reintroduce them, nor manage them, for reintroduction would have raised howls(yes, irony) and bellows from the slack jawed morons that populate most of the U.S. There is an area on the east side of Minnesota bordering Wisconsin that has very few roads or people, and as wolves expanded within the state, they moved into and through that area, eventually populating Wisconsin and the U.P. Now, there are actual packs, oh my, and they might take the occasional hunting dog, calf, lamb or hopefully, several of the millions of deer roaming Wisconsin( the state's deer numbers are so far out of whack it is a biological emergency). It shows a common misperception, that "sportsmen" (hunting is not a sport, it is a method of getting food) are knowledgeable. They are often not. As the former director of one states Deer management section said, " the average hunter in____ wants to sit on a stump for an hour, have a deer walk by, shoot it, then go back to sitting in his shack". Witness the trucks loaded with equipment every year, with entire fleets of atv's towed behind trucks loaded with enough gear and fuel to outfit a company of troops. I once did research in Wisconsin, and as it approached bear season, I would have hounds show up in my plots confused at my presence as the bear hunters worked their dogs. Often, they would have better telemetry equipment than researchers. What many hunters want is the equivalent of a canned hunt and a trophy to bs about, not the actual experience of hunting. It is a fast food equivalent of the natural experience. My concern is for allowing at least some natural processes to occur, and for species other than americanis modernis be allowed to roam and live free, and this includes humans. For more info on Moose decline in Minnesota, go here

2008-04-14T07:24:00.000-05:00

The political economy of food.

Of all things, I bought half of a pig from my cousin's farm a while back, cut and wrapped of course. Yesterday I enjoyed the Ham with real au gratin potatoes , and as we sat enjoying the delicious, juicy ham ( enough already, I know) the difference in taste was obvious. It had some, and it was good. But so were many other things about said swine meat. It did not travel 1500 miles, the average distance alot travels to get here. It did not grow in a confinement barn with 2000 other pigs breathing ammonia all day( probably why it tastes good), and it helped a local farmer I know.This my ham during production ( not really) So for all of you today, here is a lesson in where bacon comes from

2008-04-06T08:00:00.000-05:00

This was bare grass yesterday. Only a few spots of snow in the shade. And now this. Even for a dedicated snow-a-holic skier, the dreams of mountain biking had infected me, and now....Too sticky to really enjoy skiing...Aaaahhhhgggg.

So I have been remiss. I did not realize it has been two months since a post. But life has been busy. I have relocated to the Iron Range, a place I'd never thought I'd return to. I even live in one of the cities, and not the country to the north as I planned. And it has been an adventure, even for someone originally from the area. No coffee places with wifi open in evening hours within 15 miles. Alcoholism and other addictions run rampant. Teenagers with a look that says " get me out of here!". And those that stay are well, hmm, sometimes frightening. Mudder culture is everywhere, and generally amongst the males it is alcohol mixed with gasoline for enlightenment. There are entire missing age cohorts, especially gen x and y. Ant then this...the local paper...
. I hope the tag I want people to see shows up. You can guess from the tone of this vile piece of greasy fishwrap the editor's mentality. He berates the local school for apparently joining in this. According to him, and most of the right wing nutballs of his ilk ( I know, it is a redundancy), this is pushing the " homosexual agenda", whatever that is. I suppose that means they demand not to be assaulted, verbally abused and, oh my, to be treated like everyone else. Obviously a conspiracy of grand proportions. Last week, I spent the day at a conference where local officials were discussing planning. The question always is " how can we attract younger people to live and work here?". The blame has always been the economy, with some justification. But there are other components; namely, social life, the local culture, the land itself, etc...etc... As one of the local mayor's said, " if you want barriers to change, I will give you about 200 names and addresses to start. "This is a perfect example; The reptile who runs this paper is part of the problem, and so are many others like him. It is no longer the same world, and hoping for some bizarro place populated by happily working, white, nutball christians is not going to help your cities grow. Neither will holding on to mudder culture, or celebrating the digging of repulsive giant holes:large hole. Hey...most of the world thinks nature and art are pretty and are not attracted to toxic waste sites and industrial brownfields. They also do not like insular people who aren't friendly. I will not even speak of the heifer like women...I will save that for my next post after the angry replies are done.

2008-01-30T07:46:00.000-06:00

Shunning the non-believer; or in this case, the questioner.

From the Wall Street Journal, we get the case of a woman removed from a church and jailed because the pastor wanted her gone, despite her being a member for decades:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120061470848399079.html.

Now a return to the good old days. Perhaps they will bring back the Scarlet Letter. Here is my first candidate:
I have several questions. The first is why a sheriff is spending the time jailing a 70 yr old woman for trespassing in a church. There were no felonies that morning? NO DUI's? No bear in the garbage can? No breakfast with Otis at Aunt Bee's? Why not arrest the preacher for committing fraud for extracting cash-money from church members while telling obvious falsehoods? All with a tax exempt status. This, of course, is never questioned. His followers are the dangerous ones. They should be marked with a warning " do not feed or allow to reproduce" to ensure their blind stupidity is not passed on. It is a good argument for why organized religion should be rooted from the culture like the smallpox campaign.

2008-01-06T07:48:00.000-06:00

Why the animal rights movement are idiots, or "Save the Botrychium Ferns!"

I am about to P&%^ a lot of people off. My research is on invasive earthworms, and so invasive species in general are for me a specialty and a concern. This note on the invasive species weblog awoke me from my winter break stupor and raised my ire:
http://invasivespecies.blogspot.com/search/label/squirrels

More concern raised over the lives of 257 invasive grey squirrels than is raised over all the disappearing and disappeared species in all of the British Isles. It has all the usual hallmarks of the Bambified view of nature existing amongst most urban westerners: An utter and complete ignorance of actual biology, a general love for anything cute, herbivorous, small and furry, and a willingness to sacrifice entire species and communities to save certain favored species. For example, I have never seen an animal rights group come out for preserving local invertebrates from the spiny waterflea http://www.iisgcp.org/EXOTICSP/spiny_water_flea.htm , despite the nasty effects on entire lake ecosystems. Bambi, of course, is another story. Warm,fuzzy,with big brown eyes and a mammal, it is of course lovable to those who relate to animals via childlike emotion. They ignore, however, that deer in unfettered numbers, unlimited in behavior and procreation by predators are destroying what is left of our forests:http://citypages.com/databank/25/1249/article12655.asp. There is another side to this also, of course. Deer Hunters, who favor that species over anything else, mostly the types who brag about the horns ( I always evaluate deer potential by size and tenderness of loin flesh... those long muscles along the back are quite tasty!). They demand high deer numbers regardless of effects so they can drive to their stand, sit on a stump for an hour, shoot, then sit around bragging about it for weeks, rather than actually hunting.

So children, especially those of you who will now write and accuse me of being "speciesist", please understand this: Just because you like something doesn't mean it needs to be here. View the world in its totality, for the wolfpup needs mom to eat Bambi in order to feed her,

and the grey squirrel is destroying your native squirrel. Here is a solution:

2007-12-28T09:28:00.001-06:00

And this is my birthday present. A cold. So, to give my foggy brain something to do..

There is amongst most Americans ignorance of anything that was here before Europeans came, except for horror stories of Iroquois or noble savage pictures of Lakota Horsemen. There were many here, and they built large cities and enormous structures. Here are a few examples.

This is the Serpent Mound in Southern Ohio. It is 1330 feet Long. A quarter mile.

Next we have Poverty Point in Louisiana. To show its reach, trade goods from as far as the Great Lakes have been found here:
Then we have Cahokia, with at one time a population in the thousands. This is a picture of the mound, over 1000 feet long, 790 feet wide, and 100 feet tall.

Then there is something closer to home, the Grand Mound of the Rainy River.Thank you to MPR for the picture:
This tells us someone has been here a long time. There was no wild place waiting for human cultivation; People had already had been here for a long, long time. They had agriculture. Learning. Medicine.Music. Cities were built. Large cities. And we know where these people went. Nowhere.They are still here. But many Americans do not like being reminded of that fact, because it says what the history of this place actually is. It also says things are temporary. what is known as America will someday no longer exist. Good Morning. ( All other pictures are from wiki)

2007-12-19T12:22:00.000-06:00

Finals are done. Now, what do I do with myself other than process data and work. The world wide waste of time can call forth, but I know where that leads; article upon article as my endless, Adhd fueled curiosity drives me into late-night reading oblivion. Anger at right-wing nutballs and theocrats. No this cannot be. I must enjoy this winter and its riches of early snow. Views for miles, followed by coffee. This looks like heaven to me:

Or there is this a wonderful species, both in appearance and taste
http://www.superiortrips.com/video/eelpout.wmv

Ahh winter...!!!

2007-12-15T21:07:00.000-06:00

Cool pics from work:

2007-12-15T12:29:00.000-06:00

This week on Challenges to Evolution, the results of a debate between William Dembski and a Tiger

2007-12-15T10:42:00.000-06:00

A great discussion in two parts

2007-11-22T08:16:00.001-06:00

I chose to wander over to "Conservapedia", just to see what the deluded and demented had to offer up. The main page is hilarious. It shows how insanely obsessed right wingers are with gay sex..lookie here:http://www.conservapedia.com/Special:Statistics

They are deeply concerned about details even I know nothing about. Homosexuality and parasites fascinates me; are there different parasites? They don't have just the normal human parasites such as these little friends in the picture ? or this most evil of parasitoids..without ovapositor of course

2007-10-06T10:35:00.000-05:00

And yet another goes down. At Oral Roberts University, (please don't comment on the underlying insanity of the entire charade), there is now a scandal involving embezzlement, misuse of property and downright priveliged living at donor's expense: see here: http://newsok.com/article/3140031/?print=1. The interesting part is that for once, there are accusations of heterosexual impropriety; Richard Roberts' wife, Lindsay, apparently relieves stress by doing young men: http://www.valeriegibson.com/.

The bad part in all of this is the followers of these people will believe anything; especially these people's b.s.

2007-09-26T20:23:00.000-05:00

The anti-evolution movement, tight as they are with the Christian Right in this country, are perhaps our greatest threat. Their fanatical beliefs and creation of institutions to make sure their own deluded ideology is force fed to children and others, is creating yet another generation of insane zealots. Foe thoughts on the subject see Sam Harris here :http://www.samharris.org/

Now of course, after the Dover decision, where they not only lost the case, but were plainly laughed right out of the court room , by a conservative judge nonetheless, they are choosing other means, including going after scientists by flat out lying: see the case involving Dr. Eric Pianka here http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~varanus/.

Of course the right wing press, pandering to the morons it calls an audience, played this up to no end, with Tucker Carlson accusing him of hating humans: see here: http://www.zo.utexas.edu/courses/bio373/MSNBC.Interview.sm.mov

As one of my relatives says; most people are a half step away from witch burning. Now many complain about the public school system and its failures. I am actually amazed at how students survive and thrive surrounded in this intellectual sewer of a society, when crap like this is allowed to be done, and right wing nutballs who believe a mythical dead guy of two thousand years ago was the son of god, all while using the tools of science to download fantasy football scores and porn, or to get flu shots.

My suggestion is this: Let them believe what they wish, but they can no longer use our tools. They can wear sandals, walk and die of scurvy and leprosy. I however, will take Pasteur and Darwin.

2007-09-13T07:47:00.000-05:00

The great Pharyngula blog has a wonderful link to a BBC documentary on the Dover case. The most interesting and frightening element is the ignorance of the adult Americans interviewed.

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula

2007-05-30T21:31:00.000-05:00

The creation museum has arrived, and I could say no more than what PZ is saying over here:http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/05/the_creation_museum.php . Genesis as Disneyland. Just when I thought the U.S. couldn't get more absurd, this happens. My oh my...

2007-04-17T12:20:00.000-05:00

some pics from work....

2007-03-25T13:51:00.000-05:00

I do not believe in a supreme being. I said that long ago,surrounded by confirmation attending classmates. I remember once debating a group of students, who apparently believed in christianity but practiced none of its tenets other than harassing and shunning non-believers; I remember harassment from a classmate who then died a month after graduation, decapitated in a car accident. Apparently god didn't care about her belief. I became more tolerant over time, often forced by circumstance. Keep your mouth shut. Don't irritate your friends. All beliefs are equal.

They aren't.

Either something is, or it isn't, at least at this level of physical reality.

I am sick of being ruled by people who worship a god that didn't exist and still doesn't. That mormons get credit despite the bizarre and crazed story of their founder and his lies . People look askance at Tom Cruise and scientology, but if you hold up the bible or the koran, you suddenly earn respect and noone can argue with you. Jesus was not divine. Neither was Muhammed. Their god didn't exist, still doesn't, and theology is a pseudoscience.

Don't bring it around me anymore. I am tired of that drivel.

2007-03-24T09:29:00.000-05:00

The Genius Of The Crowd

Charles Bukowski

there is enough treachery, hatred violence absurdity in the average
human being to supply any given army on any given day

and the best at murder are those who preach against it
and the best at hate are those who preach love
and the best at war finally are those who preach peace

those who preach god, need god
those who preach peace do not have peace
those who preach peace do not have love

beware the preachers
beware the knowers
beware those who are always reading books
beware those who either detest poverty
or are proud of it
beware those quick to praise
for they need praise in return
beware those who are quick to censor
they are afraid of what they do not know
beware those who seek constant crowds for
they are nothing alone
beware the average man the average woman
beware their love, their love is average
seeks average

but there is genius in their hatred
there is enough genius in their hatred to kill you
to kill anybody
not wanting solitude
not understanding solitude
they will attempt to destroy anything
that differs from their own
not being able to create art
they will not understand art
they will consider their failure as creators
only as a failure of the world
not being able to love fully
they will believe your love incomplete
and then they will hate you
and their hatred will be perfect

like a shining diamond
like a knife
like a mountain
like a tiger
like hemlock

their finest art

This says everything. Paul

2007-03-02T11:01:00.000-06:00

Here are three of my aunts: from the left Sigrid, Esther and Elsie

2007-03-02T10:50:00.000-06:00

My grandparents and my aunt...thanks to my cousin for the pics.

2007-01-31T16:23:00.000-06:00

Some, upon reading the previous post, will wish to shun me, ascribing to me all the failures of mankind. They will not yell " blasphemer", but instead they will argue with me about the existence of god. Most will say I would rather live in a world with god than without. Fine. That doesn't change the reality of the world. It doesn't change the reality of addiction and similar diseases like mental illness or obsessive-compulsive disorder. My argument is simple: If left to god, we'd be dying in droves still, whereas more people have been helped by the error filled attempts of human beings than prayers ever frigging did. We can bitch about medications, but they have helped far more than they have hurt. The various srri medicaions have most likely helped far more meth and coke addicts than payments to conjuror's, sooth sayers and consoling words from non-abusive priests ever did or will do. This is mans work, not gods. This is hard to accept personally as an addict, for inside the lenses it is difficult to see how we ever recover at first, so we ascribe it to god. But we change. We don't use. Friends, peers, counselors, and doctors help us along the way. I have yet to see god show up once at a meeting or give a ride to one. I have seen a lot of people do this though. I can no longer give to god what deserves to be given to people...the people who helped me along the way...whether it was the man who gave a ride to a meeting or the legislators who funded treatment with tax dollars...I owe them the thanks. God...hell...the gods made me an addict.

2007-01-13T08:59:00.000-06:00

12 Heresies

1) Over time, as different mood altering chemicals were discovered or invented, some of us became addicted. This happened through a combination of individual biochemistry, the chemistry of the particular drug, and family dynamics. Some argue a genetic predisposition to addiction. This may be true. We do know that addicts respond differently to chemicals than much of the population. Many died or lived lives of misery.

2) Historically, this has been judged as a moral failure, whether individual or group. This occurs because addicts behave anti-socially to support the addiction, often violating the rules of the particular group they inhabit. This is and has often been treated simply by lock up treatment, whether the insane asylum or jail.

3) In the early 1900's, there were different groups of human beings investigating methods to treat this affliction. Various methods were tried, including primitive psychological techniques and religious exhortations.

4) One addict whose preference was for alcohol, now known as Bill W, after being exposed to different experimental methods, discovered one that seemed to work combining elements from some previous experiments and actions he found that worked for him. This came to be known as what we now call the twelve steps.

5) It was found that this method worked better than anything else that has been tried so far. It included group support amongst addicts themselves, and the view that this was a disease and not a moral failure.

6) Medical Researchers in Minnesota combined these steps with confrontational psychological techniques, supportive housing, community support and peer group support of behavioral change to create what is known as the Minnesota model. This included familial and group intervention at earlier stages of the disease to upset its progress. This proved successful in many cases.

7)Through active research and increased knowledge, these same techniques were then altered somewhat and used in different situations, including within corrections. It was also found that lengthening the supportive housing, evaluating the patients for concurrent problems, whether mental or physical illness, support for behavioral change and increased supportive services increased success rates.

8) Modern neuro-chemistry increased our understanding of the disease. In the last two decades, numerous chemicals have been invented, especially anti-depressants, which proved useful in assisting recovery. Other investigations have shortened the time of psychological and physical withdrawal from different drugs. Others treat Hallucinations due to withdrawal. Others stabilize the dopamine cycle which affects addicts of stimulants such as cocaine or methamphetamine.

9) Alternative behavioral techniques are used and experimented with that sometimes work for addicts when standard programs fail.

10) We admit we are still in the dark ages when it comes to understanding and treating addiction. Research continues. We have learned much in the last century, however.

11) We can talk to god all we want, but we must remember that less than several decades ago, god was just killing or jailing us. It was when people tried to find a solution, albeit often due to religious reasons or then ascribing success to god, that events changed.

12) It appears that by combining different methods, including group support techniques, medical knowledge and scientific analysis, much for addicts has changed. This is dependent on time and place. Most people still assume it is a failure, especially those who view the world in simplistic religious and cultural dogma. We must educate throughout the world to assist addicts in recovery.

2004-02-13T08:21:00.000-06:00

I once lived for several years without a television, so often when I see it is more of an observation than a participation. I don't understand people who have relationships with shows....those who have to watch something. The time away taught something simple...this is the greatest bill of goods ever dumped on humanity...despite people thinking of themselves as rational beings making concious choices, I see most as trained rats, choosing most of their life to whatever message has been conveyed to them at any moment...This includes many claiming alternative status...who mostly recycle some commericalized aspect of an older fad. Perhaps it is due to me still havng access to people and times before any great forgetting...and having outsider status in a world of urban and suburbanized alienation...I have survived much, and watched others not survive, or be tormented....i have seen the results of what can happen to children raised in craziness..and know that solving it by leaping into religious fervor or convention is as empty as anything else in this mcdonalds and big box ridden landscape they call america...What you think is real may not actually exist, and not due to the fact you are crazy...only because it is seeming