It's nice to see a terrible person like Mullins get his comeuppence, and it will be fascinating to see what sort of spin the Deplorables will put on this sordid tale.
Dr Lowman began the lecture by noting that trees don't talk, and pondered how her career would have been different if she had decided to study primates or dolphins.She decided that, like the Lorax, she would speak for the trees. Over the last century, we have lost half of our primary forests and we will be in big trouble if we lose our trees. Much of her career has been dedicated to perfecting methods to study tree canopies.
Dr Lowman began her studies as a child in upstate New York- she was a great collector of specimens such as flowers, birds nests, and the like. While in the fifth grade, she won second place in the NY State science fare, with a presentation about wildflowers. She was inspired by environmentalist Rachel Carson and by Harriet Tubman, whose ability to navigate in forests was well-honed. She grew up in an area characterized by deciduous trees, and was astounded at the age of 23 by the tropical forests in which the trees keep their leaves year-round. She joked that her grandfather put his botanical expertise to use as a distiller of moonshine during Prohibition.
Dr Lowman was a pioneer in developing equipment that allowed her to study forest canopies- she sewed her first harness from seatbelt material, made a welded metal slingshot, and employed hot air balloons. 50% of land-based plants and animals live in our treetops, only 10% has been discovered to date. She was one of the first researchers to study whole trees without cutting them down, causing birds to flee and insects to be crushed. In 1979, she sewed her harness, made her slingshot, and borrowed ropes from the university caving club to study subtropical tree canopies in Australia.
In 1985, she created the first canopy walk for an ecotourism site in Queensland, allowing many eyeballs to be trained on the canopy at once. Facing sexism in the Australian outback, she returned to the US. In 1992, she employed construction cranes in research and created a canopy walkway at WIlliams College. In 1994, she started using inflatables such as blimps and balloons. In 2000, she made the first public canopy walkway in the US, in Sarasota, Florida. She then created the TREE Foundation to facilitate funding for canopy studies.
Trees are worth untold millions to countries that sustainably utilize them. Trees filter water, provide oxygen timber food clothing, are instrumental in soil conservation, are home to 50% of terrestial species, are the greatest carbon storage on Earth, are the greatest climate control mechanism on earth. We need to keep our forests intact, they even work while we sleep.
Dr Lowman showed a picture of a canopy walk in Penang, Indonesia, in an area threatened by oil palm plantations. By putting in the canopy walk, she turned the area into a tourist destination. Kids love trees, she has had programs to involve girls and disadvantaged groups. She has had third graders discover a new weevil species, and had a group of wheelchair-using students discover tardigrade species in Kansas.
Ethiopia has lost all but 4% of its forests. One of the remaining forests surrounds a Coptic church, the priests of which have joined in her pro-forest crusade. She has shared knowledge and trust with the Orthodox hierarchy to have them educate their congregations to build conservation walls, made from stones removed from farmers' fields, to protect forests from farm animals. She wrote a book, Beza, which is provided in Amharic on a one-for-one basis with English book sales.
The acccelerating rate of deforestation represents an existential threat to humanity. Forests are genetic libraries, sustaining diversity. Wildfires devastated Australia, North America, Siberia, as did the continual burn of the Amazon.
Dr Lowman, inspired by Sylvia Earle's Mission Blue, founded Mission Green to protect ten crucial forests. It is a project to foster biodiversity, employ indigenous people as ecotourism workers, educate local populations to provide scientsts. Logging is a 'one way street' economically, seedlings take hundreds of years to become big trees. Sustainable industry is preferable for trees and people.
The lecture was followed by a Q&A session. How do animals adapt to canopy walkways? Mammals interact with walkways. Canopy walks are less intrusive than trails on the ground which damage the soil. They are a safe way to allow people to study forests. Some bastard in the audience asked about the dangers posed by invasive species, such as the eucalyptus trees in California... eucalyptus trees are fire adapted, planting them in California was like putting oily rags in an attic, creating fire hazards. In Florida, invasive species such as Burmese pythons are changing the Everglades ecosystem. We are looking at a problematic world, and the culling of invasives will be a huge political issue. Having big primary forests of large, native trees is the best defense.
Asked about studying forests on all continents, where does Antarctica have a canopy? Dr Lowman joked that even a two foot canopy on a stony, icy land is worthy of study, and she has found tardigrades in this canopy. A tenth grader asked about getting involved in studying the Amazon, and Dr Lowman cited organizations that could help her with scholarship money, and provided her contact information. Dr Lowman also told her to get involved in bio-blitzes and other activities.
Asked about the Japanese practice of daisugi, Dr Lowman noted that she didn't know much about the technique, but that wealthy countries had access to practices that poor countries do not.
Can city trees make up somewhat for lost forests? Urban trees are important: they may be the only trees city kids see, they provide shade and habitats for animals and other plants. Sadly, most urban trees only survive nine years or so, being subject to cutting due to road projects and the like. We need to respect our elders, and cherish older, larger city trees.
How did the kids discover a new weevil species? They took pictures of bromeliads with holes in them and this provided evidence of the weevil. Kids have great eyes. How do we address invasives such as porcelain vine? Invasives have no pests in their new homes. Governments have budget constraints, so the problem is largely 'under the table', even as landscapes change. The laternfly poses a huge problem in the Northeastern US. We need diverse forests to help individual species.
Asked about the boreal forests, some of the last large forests, Dr Lowman noted that the Russian taiga is not well known. One danger in the northern realms is the melting of the permafrost, which releases methane. Even here in North America, redwood trees, our most iconic trees, are not well known. We know more about Mars than we know about Earth's forests.
Why did Dr Lowman use a slingshot? She couldn't train a monkey to climb up with a rope, and she had to make her own slingshot to fling a fishing line over high branches to pull up a nylon twine which she used to pull up her climbing rope.
What advice would she give to forest services? Protect big old trees and diverse forests. They produce the most biodiversity and the most oxygen. Cherish them like you cherish your elders.
Another question involved tree communication- tree leaves give off chemical signals when they are munched on. They also interact through microrrhiza.
Deforestation plays a role in pandemics- organisms such as bats, which don't normally interact with humans, are exposed to humans and pathogens transfer. When we hurt our forests, we hurt ourselves.
What are the most common insects encountered in forests? Beetles. Regarding other organisms, tardigrades are also extremely common as well, though they cannot be seen.
Tree plantings in cities and suburbs are good projects, with stress on native plants being a good idea.
Regarding a plan to use GMO trees to revive the American chestnut would not bring back the functionally extinct tree in its original form, but it would provide lovely trees. We can't bring the passenger pigeon back, but we might create something which fills the same niche.
Why save big trees? They are most efficient at providing habitats, and oxygen.
Why aren't more scientists studying canopies? Dr Lowman describes this as 'hit you over the head science', most ecologists stuck to the ground... a doctor wouldn't examine a patient's nose to determine an eye or ear problem. The big issue is funding, there is little big money for ecological research, especially the small-scale studies of a young student climbing a tree. There is no big global mission to keep trees alive, the money just isn't there. Dorian joked about harnessing pop culture to help out.
Asked about her feelings about being in the canopy, Dr Lowman described the concerns involved in climbing, and the elation of emerging from a dark forest floor into a bright, noisy canopy. She exhorted all of us to find a canopy walk.
Once again, the Secret Science Club has served up a fantastic lecture. Kudos to Dr Lowman, Dorian, and Margaret. This was an entertaining, informative lecture served with a side of advocacy and a hint of adventure narrative. It hit that 'Secret Science Sweet Spot; that I often mention.
Here's a video of Dr Lowman lecturing on this subject:
Pour yourself a nice beverage and soak in that SCIENCE!
I've never had an account with Facebook, the social media titan which made the news yesterday for a mass outage which also took down its affiliates Instagram and WhatsApp. Years ago, when I was formulating the Big Bad Bastard (the Bald came a bit later), I worked as a private investigator, mainly investigating suspicious auto accident claims. Even back then, I was appalled at the amount of information that was available about people online, mainly through subscription research services. When social media came along, all I could think was, "We used to have to hunt down information that people are now willingly putting online for public consumption." Got a workers' compensation claim? Well, what is this picture of you doing kegstands at a party all about? Also, I really didn't need to know that a guy I worked with one summer years ago hates Jews. Yeah, no Facebook for me!
That being said, social media platforms have their use, particularly in communities in which phone service or other internet platforms may be lacking. Facebook's ubiquity was not a foregone conclusion, the user base is largely to blame for its primacy:
It was supposed to be *our* internet but we've let like four companies have the keys to our entire lives here. It's time for a wake-up call about what a mistake that has been.
The real problem with Facebook is that the platform is a pernicious vector of disinformation and radicalization, a veritable pipeline of propaganda and hate speech. Thankfully, Progressives in Congress are discussing breaking up the monolith, which had gobbled up the pre-existing Instagram and WhatsApp. Personally, my take on Facebook is that its users allowed the company to get overly large, and evil. There are alternatives to Facebook for those ready to break Zuckerberg's yoke... I mean, Myspace never went away.
October being our busy Fall fundraising season, I find myself working fundraising events three evenings per week, which means that I am only at my principal workplace for two overnight shifts. While I have been enjoying the events, especially seeing my human coworkers, this means that I only have two nights of the week to hang out with my precious Ginger, who seems unfazed by this:
The real horror of Spooky Season is separation anxiety.
Yesterday, everything went smoothly during our Fall fundraiser, except for two minor blips, one at the beginning of the evening, one at the end.
Our first performance of our program took place at 6:30PM. As usual, we lined up ticket holders and asked them to have their tickets (electronic or otherwise) available for scanning- each ticket has a QR Code, and we can scan peoples' smartphones, or for traditionalists, printed tickets. This process went smoothly, and everyone was lovely, but I saw a couple try to sneak past the 'gate' with two dogs (forbidden onsite). They cut through a small grove of lilac bushes, and I cut them off at the pass.
I bellowed, "That is not an entrance, turn around now!"
The woman decided to go full-blown 'Karen' on me, "Jesus-"
I didn't have time for her BS, I yelled, "SHUT UP! Leave!"
In a quieter tone of voice, I said, "I don't want to have to involve the authorities."
She got the hint. The coworker I was with thought the whole exchange was the height of comedy.
For the record, I left the house at 8:45 in the morning for my volunteer gig, and wasn't exactly in a patient mood.
The event went well, the performers are old pros, the Manager on Duty (a new hire this year) learned the ropes well on yesterday's opening day, and is a great guy to work with. The crowds for the three performances were great.
At the end of the night, around 11PM, after setting the alarm and locking the buildings, it was just myself and our custodial contractor, a young lady who I consider a close personal friend, having come to know her very well over the past two years. We were preparing to walk the path to the parking lot, when two guys walked down the path towards us... obviously, they had come in through the yet-unlocked entrance gate.
"We're closed!"
"Can we just see the main building?"
"No, we don't keep nightclub hours."
"Is it that light over there?"
"No, it's not visible from here. You have to leave, there are tickets available for tomorrow."
They were nice enough, and left without an argument, though they really should not have been on site at all. Funny how a modicum of respect will get you less harsh treatment that brazen disregard for procedure followed by an urge to argue. Ain't nobody got time for that bullshit... especially not this time of year.
When it comes to horror fiction or horror movies, I am a fan of the classics. Slasher movies strike me as crass and typically misogynistic (oddly enough, I like the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which in my headcanon is a satire made by radical vegetarians... and I have decided that iconic villain Leatherface is... I don't bother with sequels... the matriarch of the family). Give me an old Vincent Price movie, or a Gothic tale of an aristocratic family going mad in a castle, or a Weird Menace tale of a scientist who has Gone Too Far, and I am happy.
It's October, our principal fundraising month on the job. I am transferring from a mode of operation in which I tend to have free time (though I must always keep one eye on things) to busy mode. Three days out of five, I will be working an event, which entails being 'Johnny on the Spot'. This month, I won't even be seeing Ginger more than two nights a week!
I always characterize this time of the year as 'Going Captain Nemo'... I will surface in a month. Typically, in October, I set up weekend blog posts in advance, typically blog posts about spooky stuff, in accordance with the prophecy season. The initial post, though, is typically submarine-related, as befits a Captain Nemo type. I figured that, this year, I'd post my third favorite song about submarines, a woefully underknown number from 1991 by a woefully obscure band:
"I'm not drowning, I'm just going under" perfectly encapsulates the month of October for me.
The Big Bad Bald Bastard is a character played by Monsieur _______ of the City of Y______. The role of the Bastard is a handy one to play on subways, walking the streets, and in dive-bars, when being a nerdy, bookish sort is not to one's advantage.
