Earth Science for Earth Day

April 20, 2013, 1:00 am

≪ Previous: This Town is Going to the Dogs...

It's Saturday and that mean's its time for another thrilling installment of

This Saturday in Science!

Due to the proximity of Earth Day (it's on Monday in case you didn't know) this

Monday is Earth Day people.

week's installment will be devoted to all things Earth, including the planet itself, it's weather and the plants and animals that live on it.

Let's begin with the controversy -- Global Warming (or "Climate Change" as the more moderate among us like to say).

Every winter, it snows, and we say "what global warming? It's cold here. Now. In winter."

Well this winter, there weren't much snow to fuel that argument, here or in places that really depend on it, like the drought-starved western states.

In February it became clear that there would only be slim snowpack to break the drought's grip. As The New York Times reported in this article:

Lakes are half full and mountain snows are thin, omens of another summer of drought and wildfire. Complicating matters, many of the worst-hit states have even less water on hand than a year ago, raising the specter of shortages and rationing that could inflict another year of losses on struggling farms.

Reservoir levels have fallen sharply in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. The soil is drier than normal. And while a few recent snowstorms have cheered skiers, the snowpack is so thin in parts of Colorado that the government has declared an “extreme drought” around the ski havens of Vail and Aspen.

“It’s approaching a critical situation,” said Mike Hungenberg, who grows carrots and cabbage on a 3,000-acre farm in Northern Colorado. There is so little water available this year, he said, that he may scale back his planting by a third, and sow less thirsty crops, like beans.

“A year ago we went into the spring season with most of the reservoirs full,” Mr. Hungenberg said. “This year, you’re going in with basically everything empty.”

Thank goodness this whole global warming thing is just a hoax....

It snowed in Jerusalem this year. In Jerusalem!

And hey, global warming can't be real. China experienced the coldest winter in nearly 30 years.

Which is perhaps why "climate change" is the more appropriate term.

It's not so much warming per se, but radical change in normal weather patterns.

As The New York Times reported in January, the evidence is piling up that around the world, extreme weather is the new normal.

China is enduring its coldest winter in nearly 30 years. Brazil is in the grip of a dreadful heat spell. Eastern Russia is so freezing — minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and counting — that the traffic lights recently stopped working in the city of Yakutsk.

Things are really heating up down under...

Bush fires are raging across Australia, fueled by a record-shattering heat wave. Pakistan was inundated by unexpected flooding in September. A vicious storm bringing rain, snow and floods just struck the Middle East. And in the United States, scientists confirmed this week what people could have figured out simply by going outside: last year was the hottest since records began.

According to Omar Baddour, chief of the data management applications division at the World Meteorological Organization, in Geneva, such events are increasing in intensity as well as frequency, a sign that climate change is not just about rising temperatures, but also about intense, unpleasant, anomalous weather of all kinds.

In Australia, the first eight days of 2013 were among the 20 hottest on record.

Every decade since the 1950s has been hotter in Australia than the one before, said Mark Stafford Smith, science director of the Climate Adaptation Flagship at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.

To the north, the extremes have swung the other way, with a band of cold settling across Russia and Northern Europe, bringing thick snow and howling winds to Stockholm, Helsinki and Moscow. (Incongruously, there were also severe snowstorms in Sicily and southern Italy for the first time since World War II; in December, tornadoes and waterspouts struck the Italian coast.)

And then there are the bees.

Stinging aside, bees are an integral part of our food chain and provide crucial pollination services to farmers throughout the world.

Well, they're dying.

As many as half the hives kept by commercial beekeepers died in 2012.
Over the past seven years, the honeybee die-off, known as "colony collapse disorder,"has claimed 5,650,000 hives, valued at $1.61 billion. Italy, France, Slovenia and Germany have taken action to limit the use of bee-killing pesticides. But here in the U.S.? The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is getting ready to approve a deadly new neonicotinoid called Sulfoxaflor.

This bee looks kind of angry to me....

Several environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against the EPA, claiming the agency has failed in its obligation to protect one of the Earth's most vital pollinators from dangerous pesticides.

The Organic Consumers Association urges people to: Take Action Today:
Tell Congress to Ban Neonicotinoid Pesticides before They Devastate the U. S. Bee Population
http://www.organicconsumers.org/ocaactions.cfm?actionnum=8662

RSVP: Swarm the EPA on Earth Day
http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/50865/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=70684

Here is more reporting from the Times:

Last year, researchers identified a virus as a major cause of the die-off; the latest suspect is a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids, which are used to protect common agricultural seeds, including corn. The insecticides are systemic, which means they persist throughout the life of the plant. Scientists have demonstrated that exposure to these chemicals damages bees’ brain function, including their ability to home in on the hive.

The data here is a little old, but it just shows how long

this problem has been growing or, rather, shrinking.

The manufacturers of these chemicals — notably Syngenta and Bayer CropScience — have claimed again and again that they are safe. And it is true that bees face other stresses. Even so, beekeepers managed to keep their hives relatively healthy before the increased use of neonicotinoids began in 2005.

No doubt those same claims were made about DDT's, until they were proven wrong by people who did not stand to make money by their continued manufacture.

(Today's note of irony: It was the effects of DDT and Rachael Carson's landmark book, "Silent Spring," which kicked off the environmental movement and gave us the Earth Day we will mark on Monday.)

So if it all seems like more than we can handle, what can we do?

Well, we can plant trees.

Our forests can help make a difference.

A 40-acre woodlot of 50-year-old trees takes in 30,000 pounds of carbon dioxide sequestered per acre,” according to Timothy J. Fahey, professor of ecology in the department of natural resources at Cornell University. “The forest would be emitting about 22,000 pounds of oxygen.”

The above and below, again, courtesy of The New York Times:

“Every little bit matters,” he said. “In the grand scheme of things, forests in the northeastern United States are counteracting a considerable amount of fossil fuel burning by cars, slowing down the rate at which the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide is accumulating in the atmosphere.”

The contribution varies with the age of the forest and the species involved. There is no real rule of thumb on the difference between conifers and deciduous trees, Dr. Fahey said. Some conifers grow faster, providing more impact sooner.

The Environmental Protection Agency has calculated the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the average car as of 2007 at about five metric tons, more than 11,000 pounds, so a single acre of woodlot would be countering the emissions of about 2.7 cars. For 40 acres, that would be about 109 cars.

As U.S. Senator Mark Udall, Democrat of Colorado, said when asked about the drought out west: “Mother Nature is testing us.”

Lately, I'm not so sure we're going to pass it.

↧

Oh What a Web Site We Weave

April 21, 2013, 1:00 am

≫ Next: The Magic Bus, and Other Earthy Day Stuff

≪ Previous: Earth Science for Earth Day

Soon, you may not ever have to visit borough hall at all.

A sneak peak of the borough's new web site was offered up by Assistant Borough Manager Erica Weekley and it was quickly evident that it will allow even more on-line interaction with borough government.

"We see the web site as a place of civic engagement," Weekley told borough council.

"We want it to be simple for residents and visitors to find out what they need to know about Pottstown," she said.

Ass't Borough Manager Erica Weekley

As The Digital Notebook reported on Aug. 14, council voted unanimously to hire a Manhattan, Kan. firm to create the new web site at a cost "not to exceed $35,278."

The firm, Civic Plus, did the work in eight phases and is finishing the final touches on schedule.

CivicPlus only serves counties and municipalities, according to its website and, among its claims to fame, is a "digital town hall" and official web site it created for free for tornado-ravaged Joplin, Mo.

Councilman Dan Weand noted that one of the modules on the new web site will allow for electronic communication in a way that makes the purchase of another $8,000 program unnecessary.

The web site, Weekley said, "is extremely user friendly. People can sign up for e-mail notifications, they can fill out a permit or an application for employment. Everything is very accessible, easy to use."

If the new borough web site

becomes too popular,

will anyone visit
borough hall any more?

"We can even put banners on the site when there's an alert, or send a text message during an emergency, or for other reasons," Weekley said.

"We really believe this is the forum for today," she said. "This is the town square."

Hopefully, it will improve the borough's interaction with the community, especially its younger members.

"According to the Experian Simmons Spring 2009 New Media study, 80 percent of those 18-24 first go to the internet when researching community events and resources— before newsletters, bulletin boards or even a visit to Town Hall," wrote Scott M. Alexander, the Mayor of the New Jersey Borough of Haddon Heights and President of PoliticWeb.com.

"Seventy percent of those 25-34, 50 percent for those 35-49 and 30 percent for those 50+ also go to the internet first," he wrote for an article in the January, 2011 edition of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities website.
"We're very excited about the new web site and we welcome your input before it goes live," she said.

Council had no public input.

↧

The Magic Bus, and Other Earthy Day Stuff

April 22, 2013, 1:00 am

≫ Next: To the Victors Go the Spoils ... and the Cake

≪ Previous: Oh What a Web Site We Weave

So come on, admit it. The last thing you expected to see in an Earth Day post was an exhaust -emitting bus!

In case you were wondering how to mark Earth Day today, you could just take the bus.

You can cut your carbon footprint today by riding Pottstown's remarkably extensive bus system for free.

That's right, all rides on Pottstown Area Rapid Transit, which was once called PUT but is now called PART are absolutely Free.

The name change allows on to "Take PART" ... get it?

In so doing, not only will you familiarize yourself with the bus system, but you'll be traveling in a more efficient manner, thus reducing the amount of carbon you are responsible for putting into the atmosphere.

In case you didn't know, its mankind's constant emitting of carbon, along with the destruction of carbon-consuming forests, which are largely responsible for the climate change with which we are all contending these days.

If you're looking for something more conventionally "earthy," there are a few of those too, almost all of them thanks to the folks over at Montgomery County Community College.

I had a fairly extensive round-up in The Mercury, but a lot of it happened over the past two days.

Here are a few that remain.

DEP's office building in Norristown, across from the

Montgomery County Court House, may be the scene of a protest today.

Seeing as Earth Day was born out of the protest movement, you can protest the use of “fracking” to extract natural gas by gathering in front of the Norristown office of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, 2 E. Main St., Norristown, from 3 to 5 p.m.

The agency regulates natural gas drilling and the protest is organized by a coalition of 60 organizations opposed to this controversial drilling method.

But the most extensive events are at the community college's week of educational programs and activities April 22-29 in observance of Earth Day 2013 are all geared around a theme "The Face of Climate Change."

(I have omitted the events at the Blue Bell campus because no one should drive that far on Earth Day.)

On Monday, April 22, the day begins with free tire pressure checking stations from 8-10 a.m. in the South Hall parking lot at the West Campus 101 College Drive, Pottstown. Cars with the proper tire pressure get better gas mileage and, thus, put less carbon into the environment.

MC3's South Hall at 101 College Dr.

Also, from 12:20-1:20 p.m. on April 22, both campuses will host a series of displays in South Hall at 101 College Dr. Exhibits include Environmental Club, RecycleMania, Green Office Initiative, GVF/SEPTA transportation options, Campus Bookstore green items, and Siemens ESCO information, as well as a CulinArt Farmers Market.

Then, at 12:30 p.m. in the South Hall Community Room, entries from the Student Sustainability Film Contest will be screened, and awards will be presented.

On Tuesday, April 23 at 12:45 p.m., the College will screen the film "Thin Ice: The Inside Story of Climate Science" in the South Hall Community Room.

Here is the film's trailer:

The film is a collaboration between Oxford University, Victoria University of Wellington and London-based DOX Productions. Debuting on Earth Day, the film is being screened globally free of change on April 22 and 23. For more info on the film, visit thiniceclimate.org.

Chari Towne's book

On Wednesday, April 24 from 12:30-1:30 p.m., the College's Dean of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Dr. David Brookstein will offer a presentation on “Alternative Fuel Vehicles – Environmental Opportunities and Challenges” with a video simulcast to South Hall in Pottstown.

On Thursday, author Chari Towne will discuss her book “A River Again,” which focuses on the environmental cleanup of the Schuylkill River in the 1940s and 1950s.

I wrote about Towne's book back in December when it came out.

The discussion will take place at 12:45 p.m. in the South Hall Community Room at the West Campus in Pottstown.

In addition to the above events, cell phone and battery recycling stations will be available all week in South Hall at the West Campus.

All Earth Day activities are free of change and are open to the public.

For more information, visit the college's Think Green blog at mc3green.wordpress.com.

↧

To the Victors Go the Spoils ... and the Cake

April 23, 2013, 1:00 am

≫ Next: May Your May Day be Bright

≪ Previous: The Magic Bus, and Other Earthy Day Stuff

Blogger's Note: We're starting to wonder whether Pottstown School District Information Czar John Armato sleeps at night. The news is coming so fast and furious now, we have to start combining his submissions just to get them in.

Here are two, both of which involve successes by Pottstown High School Students.

Competition in the Kitchen

Pottstown High School is helping to build the leaders of tomorrow. The Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America Club (FCCLA) along with sponsors Marilyn Bainbridge and Mary Jo Kuhwald recently competed in the FCCLA State Championship Conference.

In December, students in the culinary program competed to
bake/build the best ginerbread house. How do I get to be a judge?

During the conference, students have the opportunity to show off their family, career, and community leadership skills, listen to inspirational speakers, network with other future leaders, and compete in a variety of skill-based activities.

Students competing in the Culinary Arts division faced a fierce cook-off against other teams. Their entry is judged in a number of categories including appearance, teamwork, and taste. Hannah Irvin competed in the cake decorating category.

Their imagination and creativity is challenged as the students are not given advanced notice of the theme that will be used in the competition. Their only preparation is to be given a list of the items which must be used in the event.

Equally, the baking and pastry competition calls on not only the culinary talents of students but their knowledge of nutritional values and their ability to evaluate the health status and nutritional needs of individuals.

Students competing in the area of hospitality are required to investigate careers in customer service and concepts of marketing.

DECA Brings Home the Bacon

Pottstown High School marketing students had a successful showing at the District 8 Career Development Conference and the 62nd Annual State Career Development Conference.

The students, who belong to an association of marketing students referred to as DECA, competed in a number of business related events. The competition involves students taking a 100 question content test and participating in situational role playing competitions.

Kevin Pascal, the marketing students’ sponsor, said, “Our students gain valuable experience in developing self-confidence and real life work experiences by participating in these types of competitions.”

At the District 8 event, which saw students from schools throughout Southeast Pennsylvania compete, the top 9 contestants in each category advance to the state competition held in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The students’ role playing events are judged on how well they adjust to various business situations that are presented to them. The role playing events allow our students to gain a better sense of presentation skills in front of a group of industry professionals. This type of experience affords our students the opportunity to hone their skills and prepare themselves for the business world.

District 8 Conference Award winners included:

Tatiana Robinson	Modeling	3^rd Place
Ty Wolfel	Business Services	9^th Place
Megan O’Donnell	Accounting Applications Series	2^nd Place/Highest role play
Lindsey Havyer	Business Law and Ethics	7^th Place
Emily Griffin	Business Law and Ethics	7^th Place
Sierra Lee	Food Marketing Series	8^th Place
Michael Stilwell	Hospitality and Tourism	9^th Place
Ryan McMahon	Retail Merchandising Series	8^th Place
Timmy Renninger	Sports and Entertainment Marketing	8^th Place/5^th place in modeling
Megan Schmidt	Buying and Merchandising Management Team	1^st Place/Highest role play
Miranda Somich	Buying and Merchandising Management Team	1^st Place/Highest role play

Twelve members of the Pottstown group moved on to the annual State Conference where Megan Schmidt received a trophy for placing in the top 6 in the category of Business Service Marketing. She also received a medallion for the highest role play score in her group.

Tatiana Robinson was one of the sixth finalists out of 25 competitors in the Job Interview competition and also found time to take part in the Modeling competition.

Aaliyah Ford and Jarisma Mauras participated in the DECA Chapter Banner Competition and showed their skill and creativity by placing second.

Emily Griffin was selected as the Pennsylvania DECA Delegate to the National Convention.

Other State Conference participants included:
Emily Griffin - Business Law and Ethics
Lindsey Havyer - Business Law and Ethics
Megan O’Donnell - Accounting Applications
Timmy Renninger - Sports and Entertainment Marketing
Sierra Lee - Food Marketing Series
Ty Wolfel - Business Services Marketing
Ryan McMahon - Retail Merchandising
Michael Stilwell - Principle of Hospitality and Tourism

DECA is the only career and technical student organization operating through the nation’s schools to attract young people to careers in marketing, management, and entrepreneurship.

Its purposes are to develop respect for education which will contribute to occupational competency and to promote understanding and appreciation for the responsibilities of citizenship in our free enterprise system.

More than 1,700 students participated in the State Conference.

↧

May Your May Day be Bright

April 24, 2013, 1:00 am

≫ Next: The Poem's the Thing

≪ Previous: To the Victors Go the Spoils ... and the Cake

There will be dancing around the May Pole May 4 at Pottsgrove Manor

Blogger's Note: The following courtesy of Lynn Symborski, museum educator at Pottstown's own Pottsgrove Manor.

Celebrate spring at the Annual Colonial May Fair held at historic Pottsgrove Manor on Saturday, May 4th from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

This yearly event is a fun-filled day with activities for all ages — games, music, dancing, and crafts.

Signora Bella returns this year.

Colonial conjurer Levram the Great will perform historic magic shows and entertain visitors with pocket magic tricks throughout the day.

Tuckers’ Tales Puppet Theatre will perform the puppet shows St. George and the Dragon and Cinderella and will also provide festive historic music around the grounds during the event.

Signora Bella is returning this year to delight audiences with her acrobatic feats.

Members of the Tapestry Historic Dance Ensemble will demonstrate authentic English country dances and will lead visitors in dances around the Maypole to open and close the fair.

In addition to the entertainment, a variety of Early American crafters and demonstrators will be on hand to display historic skills and trades and sell their wares.

Young visitors can compete in hoop races, play with colonial toys and games, help churn butter, and more!

The first floor of colonial ironmaster John Potts’ 1752 manor house will be open for self-guided tours during the fair.

Visitors can also shop at the Manor’s museum shop for colonial games, books, and unique gifts.

Historic foodways expert Deborah Peterson will be demonstrating open-hearth cooking in the Pottsgrove Manor kitchen.

While visitors can’t try the food cooked in the colonial kitchen, they will be able to purchase food during the event.

MMG Concessions will offer burgers, cheesesteaks, hot dogs, sausage sandwiches, fries, hand-rolled

A gunsmith will be one of the crafters at May Day.

pretzels, fresh-squeezed lemonade, and more.

For a schedule of the day’s activities and a list of vendors and craftspeople who will be at the fair, visit Pottsgrove Manor’s website and follow the “Annual Colonial May Fair” link.

A donation of $2 per person is suggested for this event.

Visitors are asked to park at the Carousel at Pottstown building, 30 West King Street. There is no charge for parking, and Pottstown’s restored trolley will be giving FREE rides during the fair between the Carousel parking lot and Pottsgrove Manor. Handicapped parking is available in the museum’s parking lot.

Pottstown Manor is located at 100 West King Street near the intersection of King Street and Route 100, just off Route 422, in Pottstown.

Pottsgrove Manor is operated by Montgomery County under the direction of the Parks, Trails, and Historic Sites Division of the Assets and Infrastructure Department.

For more information, call 610.326.4014, or visit the web site at www.montcopa.org/pottsgrovemanor or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pottsgrovemanor.

May Day is enough to make Tapestry Historic Dance Ensemble go through a few steps.

↧

The Poem's the Thing

April 25, 2013, 1:00 am

≫ Next: Culture Club

≪ Previous: May Your May Day be Bright

Erik Mortenson

Blogger's Note: The following was taken, at the suggestion of Hill School Communications Director Cathy Skitko, from the school's web site and provides an example of how everyone can do something to help. Further, given that April is National Poetry Month, we would be remiss in not bringing you this story.

Erik Mortenson, a teacher at The Hill School, is a lot of things.

An English teacher, with impressive private school teaching jobs on his resume.

A varsity lacrosse and junior varsity squash coach; a poet and humorist and journal editor.

A lapsed Catholic. Or, as he has said, a very lapsed Catholic.

A husband and father of two active young children.

A white man who, by world standards, is immensely affluent.

And, by his own admission, Erik Mortenson is “the farthest possible thing from a poor black African woman with HIV/AIDS.”

And yet – defying the conventional wisdom that a writer should “write what you

know” – Mortenson has published a chapbook of poems that share the wrenching sadness, isolation, and physical suffering experienced by an impoverished young African woman with AIDS.

The structure for the 15 poems, collectively titled The Fifteenth Station, mirrors the 14 Stations of the Cross that appear in Roman Catholic churches to commemorate the final hours of Jesus Christ.

Mortenson – who writes as E.K. Mortenson – began conducting extensive research for this project in 2009, delving into religious imagery, medical reports from the World Health Service, and cultural background, all of which he synthesized into poems written in several different voices, primarily that of the woman with AIDS. Each poem (or “station”) advances and flows into the next.

“As her disease progresses, the actual writing became more difficult to do,” Mortenson says, explaining that he tried to capture her increasingly muddled, semi-conscious mind. “Part of a writer’s job is to inhabit these people” about whom they write, he adds.

One of his goals in writing The Fifteenth Station was to portray the humanity of the world’s most downtrodden people -- to both educate and stir empathy for those suffering with AIDS. Mortenson points out that the sickest generally are the poorest, and that so much of the world remains ignorant and callous about the ongoing tragedy of this disease.

Part of Mortenson’s research involved reading a transcript from a Stations of the Cross Mass said by Pope John Paul. “I read John Paul’s mediations on what Catholics are meant to see when they look at each station,” Mortenson said. “Much of it did resonate with me. And, I realized that if this chapbook were ever

published, I could not profit from it in any way.”

True to his word, Mortenson carefully researched charities that directly benefit women and children living with HIV/AIDS, and he identified the international Partners in Health organization that provides care in the remote mountain areas of Rwanda.

Late last summer, when The Fifteenth Station won the Judge’s Choice award in the Accents 2012 Poetry Chapbook Contest, Mortenson donated his modest prize money to Partners in Health and pledged to also donate every penny of his chapbook sales profits.

His publisher, Accents Publishing, has agreed to match his prize money and contribute 50 percent of its own profits from the chapbook sales to Partners in Health.

“In the small poetry press world -- where presses operate on, at best, a shoestring budget -- this is virtually unheard of,” Mortenson says. “This is a most gracious gift.”

Hill School Headmaster Zach Lehman

Furthermore, Zachary Lehman, Headmaster of The Hill School, promised to match Mortenson’s prize money on behalf of the School.

His offer ties in well with the theme established for students for The Hill’s 2012-13 school year, “What can I do?”

“Although the contributions themselves are small, I am hoping to create a groundswell of concern,” Mortenson says. “The book is $5. That’s like, what? A large cup of coffee at Starbuck’s? Now half of that money will go to women and children who need it most.”

Mortenson, who graduated from Tabor Academy, a boarding high school in Mass., holds a B.A. in English and creative writing from Colby College, an M.A. in English and philosophy from New York University, and an M.F.A. in creative and professional writing from Western Connecticut State University.

He taught at the Blue Ridge School in Virginia; Portsmouth Abbey in R.I.; Rye Country Day School in N.Y.; and King Low Heywood Thomas School in Conn., before arriving at The Hill School in 2011.

His work appears in print and online journals and anthologies, and he is the author of another chapbook, Dreamer or the Dream (Last Automat Press, 2010) and a full-length collection, What Wakes Us (Cervena Barva Press, forthcoming).

He was the 2008 recipient of the Leslie Leeds Poetry Prize and is poetry editor of

Kugelmass: A Journal of Literary Humor.

At The Hill, he encourages his students to express their creativity through his “Poetry Everywhere” elective, which has resulted in poems being written on mirrors and mobiles that appear throughout the campus.

Mortenson strongly believes that for today’s students to write well, they need to read good books and they need to read them for longer, uninterrupted periods of time, without intrusion from email pings and Facebook updates.

“They can’t write elegant sentences if they don’t read elegant sentences,” he says, adding, “and, in general, few elegant sentences are found on the internet.”

He writes, he says, “when it occurs to me,” first writing prose by hand, then reworking and “scratching,” then, finally, transferring everything to the computer where he can manipulate the lines. Mortenson is not a “daily grinder” who makes himself sit down to write something for a set period of time each day, “the way the writing books say you’re supposed to work,” he comments wryly.

He hopes to find time to dig through the archives of New England whaling museums as research for a book of poems derived from letters written by New England whalers to their wives.

He also is working on “a manuscript that weaves love poems together with quantum mechanics.”

“Seriously,” he adds.

Erik Mortenson lives at The Hill School with his wife, Staci, and children, Anders and Anneliese.

You may read more about E.K. Mortenson and his work at http://tidalbasinreview.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/meet-erik-mortenson-series-poet-summer-2012/. To order The Fifteenth Station, email Mortenson at emortenson@thehill.org or visit http://www.accents-publishing.com/books.html.

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Culture Club

April 26, 2013, 1:00 am

≫ Next: Why Do Some Deaths Mean More Than Others?

≪ Previous: The Poem's the Thing

It's that time of the year, when a school year's worth of work (or at least a semester's worth) goes on display.

In the coming days, the Pottstown school district will offer a number of opportunities to enjoy that work and a bit of culture, in the form of music and food.

(Just add wine and you've got most of what life's worth living for! ... sorry no alcohol at school district events.)

The first cultural event next week will be held Tuesday from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the high school cafeteria.

The school district's Diversity Committee will host a FREE (yes, you read that right, we're talking free food and entertainment people) "Flavors of the World event.

Come sample food from other cultures prepared by the district's culinary arts students for Flavors of the World!

Enjoy multicultural entertainment from 5:45 p.m. to 6 p.m., which will include:

African Dancers from Pottstown Dance Theatre from 6 to 6:15 p.m.;
Latino Dancers from CCLU (Centro Cultural Latinos Unidos) from 6:15 to 6:30 p.m.
Irish Dancers from Pottstown Dance Theatre starting at 6:30 p.m.

After "Flavors" visitors can stay and enjoy the PHS Band/Choir concert at 7 p.m. in the auditorium.

The free, open to the public concert featuring all of the Pottstown High School performing groups will feature the following high school performing groups:

Jazz Band;
Flute and Clarinet Ensembles;
Pop Vocal Ensemble;
Concert Choir;
Concert Band.

Mr. Vought and the Pottstown High School Jazz Band performed

most recently at the Spaghetti and Jazz Band fundraiser at
the Goodwill Fire Co.

All senior musicians will be recognized at the end of the concert.

And if that wasn't enough for you, lets add music and dance.,

The next evening, on May 1st at Pottstown High School, the school district will showcase its band students.

At 7 p.m. the night will start with the Beginner Band which is comprised of beginning fourth and fifth grade students from all five elementary schools.

Following the Beginner Band is the Elementary Brass Quintet which has just returned from their performance in Harrisburg for Music in our Schools Month.

The night will not be complete without an appearance from the Elementary Jazz Band which will be playing four selections featuring some of the hardest working students in the elementary schools.

Closing the night is the All-City Band which is made of second year musicians in fifth grade.

These students will be playing two selections by world famous composer Robert W. Smith as well as a march that will get your foot tapping.

If you are looking for a glimpse at future marching Trojans, here is your opportunity.

But wait, there's still more!

If you're still hankering for more jazz band, or maybe you missed the very successful April 20 Spaghetti and Jazz Dinner, the Pottstown High School Jazz Band will be performing for your entertainment and for dancers at The Ballroom On High on Friday, May 10.

Dance lessons begin at 8 p.m., dancing begins at 9 p.m., and the PHS Jazz Band will perform at 9:30 p.m.

Admission is $12 for adults and $7 for full-time students.

The Ballroom On High is at 310 East High Street in Pottstown. Come on out for a great evening of music and dancing from the golden age of "Swing".

If you would like a preview of the skills on hand for the high school jazz band performance, check out this video of their performance at the Daniel Boone Jazz Band Festival in March, available to all on the great Pottstownbands You Tube Channel.

↧

Why Do Some Deaths Mean More Than Others?

April 28, 2013, 1:30 am

≫ Next: They've Got Your Back (Pack), and They'll Help Carry Your Water

≪ Previous: Culture Club

So some people are probably going to get pissed off about this post.

So it goes.

For obvious reasons, I had a front row view of the media's reaction to the bombings at the Boston Marathon.

Three people, so far, were killed as a result of the blast and, at latest count, 264 people were injured.

It was, without question, horrible and, without question, news.

Two days later, a fertilizer plant in the town of West, Texas, exploded, killing 14 people, injuring 200 and leveling dozens of homes.

Props to Mercury Editor Nancy March for giving, at least the initial reporting on that equally tragic occurrence, similar play on The Mercury's front page.

Would that as many other editors had done so.

On Wednesday, April 24, halfway around the world, 352 workers in a Bangladesh factory building were killed when the eight-story building collapsed around them.

If numbers ruled the world, these latter two events would be much bigger news than the events in Boston.

The lives lost in both these industrial accidents were far and away more than those lost in the bombing in Boston.

The simple truth is, they are not bigger news because of the way they died.

The media, The Mercury included, continues to, and will continue to, cover the details of this admittedly fascinating story in Boston for as long as it sells.

Two brothers, motivated by religious fanaticism, bent on leaving a trail of destruction: To be sure, it's a captivating narrative.

If a TV movie of the week is not already in production, it won't be long before it is.

But what about the deaths in Texas and Bangladesh?

Were those lives less noteworthy?

Will we continue to consume tidbits about the families destroyed by these industrial tragedies with the same morbid enthusiasm and righteous indignation that the Boston tragedy will no doubt continue to capture in our imagination?

I doubt it.

For those of you who don't know, today is Worker's Memorial Day, which, in today's political climate, seems like maybe the only day when this point could be made

You've probably never heard of it. I admit I never had.

According to Wikipedia, Worker's Memorial Day "is an opportunity to highlight the preventable nature of most workplace accidents and ill health and to promote campaigns and union organisation in the fight for improvements in workplace safety."

One phrase in that sentence struck me: "preventable nature of most workplace accidents."

Most workplace accidents are, as it turns out, preventable.

Here in America, we even have an agency, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, whose entire mission is dedicated to the enterprise of keeping us safe at work.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the fatal injury rate for American workers in 2011 — the most recent year for which numbers are available — is 3.5 deaths per 100,000 workers.

That means 4,693 men, women and teenagers died at work in 2011.

"These deaths were largely preventable," says Tom O'Connor, executive director of National Council for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH), an advocacy group formed by organized labor and workers safety advocates, which recently released its own report on workplace fatalities.

"Simply by following proven safety practices and complying with [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] standards, many of these more than 4,600 deaths could have been avoided."

O'Connor blames companies that "decry regulations and emphasize profits over safety."
So thinking about Worker's Memorial Day, I began to wonder, will the owners of the fertilizer plant in Texas be subjected to the same scorn, hatred and internet derision that is already being heaped on the surviving suspect of the attack in Boston?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Dzhohkar Tsarnaev should be an object of sympathy, but just think about how many of you recognized that name.

Now, how many of you know the name of the company that owned that fertilizer plant in Texas?

Who are the owners?

Why is a man involved in the death of three people reviled whereas the people who owned a plant that has not had an OSHA inspection since 2006 remain anonymous?

The name of the company is, not surprisingly as it turns out, the West Fertilizer Company.

However, the owners behind that name, remain comfortably unknown and unaccountable to the country at large in a way the Tsarnaev family does not.

This despite the fact that the evidence against those owners is at least as damning as that piling up against Tsarnaev.

"Federal law requires any operation that holds more than a ton of fertilizer-grade ammonium nitrate to report that stock to the Department of Homeland Security. Proposed new rules would cut that to 25 pounds. But Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told a Senate subcommittee Tuesday that West Fertilizer doesn't appear to have reported its ammonium nitrate stock to federal officials," according to CNN.

The plant in West had 270 tons; 269 more tons than the amount required to be reported.

So why, as a nation, are we outraged about the fact that a pair of brothers who killed three people received Welfare, but remain largely ignorant and comparatively unconcerned about the fact that a company that owned a plant that killed 14 people, violated a federal law and allowed the unsafe condition that caused those 14 deaths?

There are probably several reasons.

Americans, these days anyway, view industrial accidents as "things that happen. It's a shame, but what are you gonna do?"

Oh, I don't know, file charges maybe?

And when those deaths are caused by unsafe conditions, and the people who skimmed more profit for themselves by skimping on safety for those who made that profit possible, we shrug our shoulders.

After all, it's not like they meant to kill those people, their own workers. They just, you know, allowed it to happen....

Terrorism, by contrast, is people setting out with the intent of causing harm, which is what makes it so effective. Terrorism works because we let it work; because the idea that someone is trying to harm us on purpose is more unsettling than the idea that someone will let us come to harm simply because they don't think we're worth protecting.

The entire city of Boston was shut down while a hunt was undertaken for one man, suspected in the death of three people.

Part of an entire town in Texas was decimated by an explosion in which the suspected cause is the negligence of a company dealing in a dangerous substance and the nation (and news media) yawns.

Hell, we wouldn't shut down a Wal-Mart for that. After all, we already KNOW who the owners are and it's not like they're trying to get away -- or feel like they have to.

Was Texas Gov. (and would be president) Rick Perry outraged at the senseless deaths of those workers, more likely caused by negligence and avarice than by terrorist attack?

Well he expressed sympathy with their families, sure.

Respect for the first-responders? Absolutely.

But outrage? At the owners? Not that I've heard. Nor do I expect to.

Here is his statement on his web site in which he "honors the victims" of the West explosion.

He hardly mentions the workers killed at all, instead walking safely in the standard limelight of thanking those who risk their lives every day to say others.

(Unlike the workers at the fertilizer plant who, as it turns out, risked their lives every day to make fertilizer.)

I challenge you to find any promise in Perry's statement that he will "bring the perpetrators of this tragedy to justice." You'll be looking for a long time.

But when a California newspaper cartoon suggested this tragedy might be the result of the low level of regulation in his state -- something he brags about on the campaign trail -- well, then, suddenly he's outraged!

The cartoon in The Sacramento Bee shows the Texas governor crowing "Business is Booming" and flanked by signs saying, "Low Tax" "Low Regs!" The next panel reads "Boom!" as an explosion engulfs the area behind the governor.

In a letter to the Bee's editor Friday, Perry says he wouldn't stand for "someone mocking this tragedy." He demanded an immediate apology for the newspaper's "detestable attempt at satire," according to CBS News.

Hello? Its you they're mocking governor and the tragedy that some of our leaders think you can gut safety regulations, and other regulations as well, and suffer no consequence.

Of course he cuts the regulations but its the workers who suffer the consequences.

He's SHOCKED to hear someone suggest that more safety regulations might have saved lives. Outrageous!

What does he think regulations are? Why does he think they were enacted in the first place?

Have our government officials become so detached from the consequences of their actions that they really see every vote as just a chess-piece on the reelection game board?

Congress, through shameless inaction, let the sequester budget cuts unfold and then expressed shock, SHOCK I TELL YOU, that it affected air traffic controllers.

Who knew such vital employees were also government employees?

"Well, heck, they have a vital job," said a Congress suddenly moved to act when they held their airline tickets for yet another vacation in their sweaty hands.

"We better fix this," they said as they rushed out of town.

"Turns out, we need those air traffic controllers. I mean it's not like they're OSHA inspectors or anything ... you know, or teachers."

There was a time when such "avoidable accidents" spurred at least as much outrage among the general public as terrorist attacks.

My friend Sherry Kane works hard to remind people of the horrors of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which occurred in 1911and saw 146 mostly Jewish and Italian immigrants, many women and children, killed when fire broke out in a New York City factory where the doors were locked.

Outrage then was as least as loud as four years later when the a German submarine sank the Lusitania, and the shirtwaist factory fire sparked a movement to improve labor safety whose heritage forms the foundation of OSHA.

But the regulations OSHA attempts to enforce (let's see how THEY fare under the sequester) are now held up as the enemy to progress, not a safety net for workers.

And we in the news media, well we know a story about lax OSHA regulations will generate about as much viewership as re-runs of George W. Bush campaign speeches.

Now, if that factory had been blown up by terrorists on the other hand, well THAT would be something.

Then we would have watched breathlessly as noble law enforcement (public servants all) worked to bring to justice those bastards who killed 14 innocent Americans.

Will we be as eager, I wonder, to follow the story of the Justice Department (also full of public servants) bring to justice the owners of that plant who are responsible for the death of 14 innocent Americans?

Please.

↧

They've Got Your Back (Pack), and They'll Help Carry Your Water

April 30, 2013, 1:00 am

≫ Next: A Penny Saved May Be a Life Saved

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Free with use....

Blogger's Note: The following came through the digital Notebook in-box recently from Laura Catalano who, when she is not writing freelance stories about the Owen J. Roberts School District for The Mercury, is dashing off copy for the Schuylkill River National Heritage Area, based here in Pottstown.

Bike Pottstown has been lending out its signature yellow cruisers for five years. The Schuylkill River Heritage Area, which runs the popular free bike share program, wants to encourage more people to use the bikes for recreation and transportation.

Beginning May 1, any first time user will receive a free Bike Pottstown water bottle. Anyone using the bikes 10 times between May 1 and September 30 will receive a free backpack.

Bikes are available at Tri County Bicycles on 256 High St., which now has a total of 40 Bike Pottstown bikes. The Schuylkill River Heritage Area also has a limited number of bikes available at 140 College Dr.

Bike Pottstown is a completely free bike share program that has been nationally recognized in the media and among bike share advocates. It is unique in that it does not require a deposit, credit card or any exchange of money.

Anyone aged 16 and over can borrow a bike by providing a driver's license or valid state ID to a program administrator. The bikes can be used for a short period of time or an entire day, but they must be returned by the time the loaning office or shop closes.

“As a National and State Heritage Area, one of our goals is to use recreation to connect people to the Schuylkill River and the communities along it. The Bike Pottstown program has successfully enabled us to achieve that goal,” said Executive Director Kurt Zwikl. “This has been a popular and successful program, and we want to advance its popularity by encouraging more people to use the bikes, either to ride on the Schuylkill River Trail or explore the community.”

Bike Pottstown was initiated in 2008 by the non-profit Preservation Pottstown with 30 yellow bikes that were purchased with funds from the Pottstown Health and Wellness Foundation. Initial start-up costs were also funded by Exelon and the Pottstown Police Officers Association. The Schuylkill River Heritage Area took ownership of the program in 2010, and later expanded it as Bike Schuylkill to the communities of Hamburg and Phoenixville. This winter, an additional 12 bikes were added to the Bike Pottstown program.

The Bike Pottstown program and the promotional materials were made possible through a grant from the Pottstown Health and Wellness Foundation. Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources also supports this program. Free water bottles and backpacks will be available to Bike Pottstown users (not through Bike Schuylkill) through September 30 or while supplies last.

Bike Pottstown operates out of Tri-County Bicycles, located at 256 High St. open M-F 10am-6pm, Sat 10am-5pm. The Schuylkill River Heritage Area offices located near the Schuylkill River Trail at 140 College Dr. also has a limited number of bikes available M-F 8:30-3:30.

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A Penny Saved May Be a Life Saved

May 1, 2013, 9:16 am

≫ Next: Haven't I Seen This Before?

≪ Previous: They've Got Your Back (Pack), and They'll Help Carry Your Water

Students in Pottstown Middle School's Sophisticated Ladies and Distinguished Gentlemen's Club collected change and raised more than $1,000 to fight leukemia and lymphoma.

Blogger's Note:Once again, John Armato provides information about positive things happening in Pottstown schools.

Students at Pottstown Middle School are helping to prove that every penny can make a difference in the fight against Leukemia.

During the month of March, the students of the Sophisticated Ladies and Distinguished Gentlemen’s Club, with the assistance of sponsors Terry Niemann and Leslie Smoyer, conducted a school-wide campaign to collect change from their fellow students.

During the three week period, pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters were counted and at the end of the month the students of Pottstown Middle School had raised $1,055.40 which was donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Principal Gail Cooper said, “I am so proud of this group of students who inspired the entire school to participate in a drive and the results of their efforts not only will help cure a terrible disease but has also reinforced the lifelong lesson of paying it forward.”

Sophisticated Ladies and Distinguished Gentlemen in the club are provided the opportunities to build positive healthy relationships with peers/mentors and discuss hot topics that are focused on adolescent development.

These students engage in leadership activities at school, in the district as well as citizenship service projects in the community.

Members of the club include: Jeremy Adams, Giovany Arroyo, Ashley Daniels, Giuliano Deleo, Brenda Dempsey, James Diamond, Syncere Dyches, Xaria Fatal, Madison Jordan, Kyle Taylor and Anthony Wiggins.

The mission of LLS is to cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma and improve the quality of life of patients and their families.

One interesting thing the students learned was that the survival rates have doubled, tripled, and even quadrupled for blood cancer patients because of the fundraising efforts of donors to the Pennies for Patients program. Club members were excited that they were able to help families in need.

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Haven't I Seen This Before?

May 2, 2013, 3:53 pm

≫ Next: This Saturday in (Aero-Space) Science

≪ Previous: A Penny Saved May Be a Life Saved

"Mystery Door" by Ellen Marcus is one of the works that will be on display.

ArtFusion 19464 will host an artists reception Saturday afternoon from 12 to 2 p.m.

The show is called "Deja Vu."

The gallery is located at 254 E. High St.

Light refreshments will be served. All receptions are free and open to the public.

RSVPs are appreciated by email or by calling 610-326-2506.

↧

This Saturday in (Aero-Space) Science

May 4, 2013, 1:00 am

≫ Next: Rolling on the River

≪ Previous: Haven't I Seen This Before?

No, its not a missile. Its a prototype of an aircraft that could reduce the time it takes to fly from New York to Los Angeles to less than one hour.

Everywhere you turn these days, educators are talking about the importance of STEM, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

So, because the science staff here at the Digital Notebook Industrial Compound is always on the cutting edge, we're put together several stories from the world of aero-space (almost all of them from The Los Angeles Times), where STEM skills would serve job applicants well.

So buckle in folks, hope you can stand the G's of another exciting edition of.....(say it with me!)

This Saturday in Science!

First up is your standard aero-space product -- the test of a plane that flies at more than 3,000 miles per hour.

Here are the key paragraphs from the Times:

The unmanned X-51A WaveRider, which resembles a shark-nosed missile, was launched midair Wednesday off the coast near Point Mugu. It sped westward for 240 seconds, reaching Mach 5.1, or more than five times the speed of sound, before plunging into the ocean as planned.

The X-51A, built and tested in Southern California, was powered by an air-breathing engine that has virtually no moving parts. It flew for longer than any other aircraft of its kind and traveled more than 264 miles in little more than six minutes.

A passenger aircraft traveling at that speed could easily fly from Los Angeles to New York in less than an hour.

New York to LA in less than an hour... as someone who has made that conventional flight more than once, I can tell you such an evolution in air travel would be welcome.

No doubt, it's a few years off, but at the speed that technology moves these days, it may be closer than you think.

Check out this video of a flight simulation of the WaveRider ScramJet posted on You Tube:

Supersonic Virgin

Next up is Sir Richard Branson, the British entrepreneur who wants to commercialize space travel.

He got one step closer Monday (April 29) when his ship, the imaginatively named Space Ship Two, broke the sound barrier, igniting its rocket motot mid-flight for the first time and reaching about 56,000 feet in altitude, again according to the LA Times.

The test flight is the biggest milestone in Virgin Galactic's 8 1/2-year endeavor to be the world's first commercial space liner, which would make several trips a day carrying scores of paying customers into space for a brief journey.

"We never thought it would take this long, but it was worth the wait," Branson said in an interview. "Now that we have accomplished supersonic flight, we feel ready to take the next step. There are an awful lot of exciting things to come."

Virgin Galactic, founded by Branson, hopes to reach space in test flight this year and make its first passenger flight sometime in 2014 from Spaceport America in New Mexico, where the company hopes to eventually offer the frequent tourist trips.

During the test, SpaceShipTwo was taken to about 47,000 feet by a carrier aircraft, and approximately 45

minutes into the flight, it was dropped like a bomb.

After a short free fall, the hybrid rocket motor — powered by nitrous oxide and a rubber compound — was engaged for 16 seconds, at which point SpaceShipTwo's speed reached Mach 1.2.

The entire flight test lasted a little more than 10 minutes, ending in a smooth landing in Mojave around 8 a.m., according to the Times.

Not to worry over-excited reader, the coolness just keeps coming. Sir Richard is not the only one eyeing a commercial future in space light.

Hop, Skip and a Jump Into Space

Hawthorne Rocket's Space X program successfully tested a new prototype, Grasshopper, in December.

In a 29-second flight, the 10-story rocket burst into the sky, rose 131 feet, hovered and landed safely on the pad using thrust vector and throttle control. To cushion its fall back to the launchpad, the Grasshopper has steel landing legs with hydraulic dampers, and a steel support structure.

Here's the Times:

SpaceX, short for Space Exploration Technologies Corp., is trying to prove out the Grasshopper’s technology to develop what would be the first-ever fully reusable rocket — the Holy Grail in rocketry.

A reusable system could mean big savings in developing and operating the rocket. The closest example of a reusable launch system is the retired space shuttle fleet, which were only partially reused after a tedious months-long overhaul.

In October, SpaceX successfully carried out a cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station. It was the first test of NASA's plan to outsource resupply missions to commercial companies now that the space shuttle fleet has been retired.

Not so sure how comfortable I feel having private enterprise in charge of man's next chapter in space travel, as profit has a way of interfering with discovery.

But considering the state politics these days, it's probably the only way we're going to get it done, and it has to get done, since we are apparently not smart enough to keep from destroying our own planet. We will probably have to go find others.

It Just Keeps Droning On and On....

The future face of faceless warfare.

And speaking of things which make me uncomfortable, let's talk drones.

It seems strange to me that no one seems to have any qualms about developing technology eerily similar similar to the "Hunter Killers" featured in the Terminator movies and not bat an eye about what we may be doing to ourselves.

But the march of progress cannot be stopped and last November, the U.S. Navy successfully launched the bat-winged X-47B drone into flight.from a catapult, moving it one step closer to being launched from aircraft carriers.

Again, the Times:

The X-47B, built by Northrop Grumman Corp., is designed to perform one of aviation's most difficult maneuvers: land on the deck of an aircraft carrier. What's even more remarkable is that it will do that not only without a pilot in the cockpit, but without a pilot at all.

After the catapult launch, the X-47B conducted a test flight over Chesapeake Bay, which included several maneuvers designed to simulate tasks that the aircraft will have to perform when it lands on a ship, the company said.

Over the next few weeks, the Navy expects to conduct several shore-based catapults at Patuxent River. On Monday, an X-47B was hoisted aboard the Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier at Naval Air Station, Norfolk, Va., to begin a series of deck handling trials.

How long, I wonder, before they start hunting us?

Oh the Humanity!

Sorry, but this new technology reminds me too much of the Hindenberg not to headline this with a shout-out to Herbert Morrison, the radio reporter who so famously said that when the airship crashed in Lakehurst, N.J.

Meet, the Aeroscraft!

Hopefully, this new airship will have a much safer future.

Here's what the Times reported:

According to aircraft maker Worldwide Aeros Corp., construction is complete on a 36,000-pound blimp-like aircraft designed for the military to carry tons of cargo to remote areas around the world.

The Montebello company hopes to have a first flight in the coming months and to demonstrate cargo-carrying capability shortly thereafter.

Worldwide Aeros, a company of about 100 employees, built the prototype under a contract of about $35 million from the Pentagon and NASA.

The Aeroscraft is a zeppelin with a 230-foot rigid skeleton made of aluminum and carbon fiber. It's a new type of hybrid aircraft that combines airplane and airship technologies and doesn't need a long runway to take off or land because it has piston engines that allow it to move vertically and a new high-tech buoyancy control system.

Ultimately, the company wants to be able to carry up to 66 tons.

"This will land in Africa, Afghanistan," Igor Pasternak told The Times in September, "a Wal-Mart parking lot -- wherever."

Are Dwarf Lemurs the Key to Long Distance Space Travel?

Before we leave you today, all high-teched out, let's remember that ultimately, these machines are supposed to be about serving flesh and blood beings, so ultimately they have to accommodate humans ... or lemurs as the case may be.

So we finally found a way to close out today that does not come from the Los Angeles Times, but instead to a blog I wish I wrote called, simply, i09, whose motto is "we come from the future."

Astronaut ready?

What caught my eye was the authors appreciation for the headline, which I have reproduced above, and I had to agree.

How can you not read a story about "fat-tailed dwarf lemurs" and space flight?

Anyway, here's the gist.

These lemurs, which live in western Madagascar are very rare things, they are primates that hibernate, which is of great interest to scientists trying to figure out how humans could endure long space flights.

Here is part of the blog post, which is based on an article in the journal Scientific Reports.

The primates spend about 5 months gorging on food, then they find a comfy tree hole and knock out for the next 7 months, using the fat reserves in their tails to survive.

For most mammals, hibernation is accompanied by stable low body temperatures.

The new discovery may eventually help scientists figure out how to induce hibernation in people. "There is a lot of research into that topic," said Marina Blanco, a biological
How could you hibernate through this view?
anthropologist at Duke University in North Carolina. Currently, there are scientists who are looking at what's going on physiologically during hibernation, while other researchers are focusing on the gene expression of the behavior. "Because the lemurs are primates, our biology is more similar to them than to squirrels, so hopefully we will be able to find similar genes and processes that could help us hibernate," she said.

The short-term goal, then, is to figure out how to induce a safe state of hypothermia, mimicking the low body temperatures the eastern lemurs maintain in hibernation — this would help people stay in suspended conditions for a while, Blanco said.

And if scientists can isolate all of the components necessary for primate hibernation, we may be able to turn people into hibernators. Naturally, this has huge implications for long-distance space travel, where people would likely need to enter a dormant state to survive the long trips. "It's all very exciting for many people," she says.

Well, we hope it was exciting for you too.

So remember kids, study your STEM and someday you too may be able to send sleeping lemurs into space and cross the country in less than an hour.

↧

Rolling on the River

May 4, 2013, 8:07 pm

≫ Next: The Play's the Thing

≪ Previous: This Saturday in (Aero-Space) Science

There is fun to be found all along the Schuylkill River.

The Schuylkill River is more than just something you cross on a bridge.

In addition to being the water supply for more than one million people, it is also a vastly under-appreciated recreational resource.

In the coming months, there will be plenty of opportunity to discover this resource.

What follows are three examples.

Pedal and Paddle

The Schuylkill River Heritage Area is bringing back its popular Pedal and Paddle events for 2013, with a total of five dates planned -- more than ever before.

Bicycles will be provided by Bike Pottstown.

All will take participants on a round-trip biking/kayaking adventure from Pottstown to Douglassville.

Each Pedal and Paddle will begin with a 4.5 mile bike ride from Pottstown’s Riverfront Park to Historic Morlatton Village in Douglassville, using yellow cruisers from the Bike Pottstown bike share program.

Participants will be given a guided tour of Morlatton Village, which includes four 18th century buildings, one of which is the oldest home in Berks County.

From there, they take a short bike ride to Douglassville’s Ganshahawny Park where they will eat lunch and receive a brief introduction to kayaking from outfitter Doug Chapman of Take it Outdoors Adventure Group.

Kayaks are provided and you enter at Ganshahawny Park
in Douglassville.

Then, they will paddle back to Pottstown in kayaks along the Schuylkill River.

Lunch, bikes, kayaks and all kayaking gear will be provided. Cost is $25 per person. All Pedals and Paddles take place on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to about 2 p.m.

To register call 484-945-0200; or email ckott@schuylkillriver.org.

The 2013 dates planned are: May 11, June 22, July 20, Aug. 17 and Sept. 7.

Space is limited. Advance registration required. Register no later than one week prior to the date of the event.

Schuylkill River Sojourn

If you would like to make a bigger commitment to paddling and less to pedaling, consider signing up for the the Schuylkill River Sojourn, which I can personally recommend as a great time.

The Sojourn has you passing UNDER bridges on the
Schuylkill, like this one in Berks County, rather than
OVER the Schuylkill.

The sojourn is an annual 112-mile guided canoe/kayak trip on the Schuylkill River that begins in Schuylkill Haven and ends seven days later in Philadelphia's Boathouse Row.

Participants paddle 14-18 miles per day and can register for the entire trip or as little as one day.

Sometimes it is wet and wild.

At other times it is peaceful and inspiring.

There are a few rapids, calm water, plenty of laughs, songs at the campsites, and celebrations in the river towns.

A Sojourn traffic jam going through Lock 60 in Mont Clare.

There is a little bit of everything for paddlers throughout the week-long sojourn that begins the first weekend of June.

And though the same route is paddled every year, a different river greets sojourners every June.

But don't just take my word for it.

Check out this most excellent blog kept by former Mercury reporter Brandie Kessler last year when she paddled the entire length.

This year, it will occur from June 1 through 7 and the theme is "The Schuylkill During the Civil War."

You can check out the itinerary for each day by clicking here.

If you would like a fuller explanation of what happens on each day of the sojourn, check out the Schuylkill Heritage Association's blog on the subject.

Father's Day in the Big Woods

If you're looking to spend some quality time with Dad for Father's Day, why not consider the Eco-Tour being offered in the Hopewell Big Woods by the folks at ?

French Creek State Park

This 73,000-acre expanse includes some of the best regional trails, waterways, and scenic lunch spots in the area.

Float down the Schuylkill River, enjoy lunch on a boulder by the French Creek, and look for hidden treasure in the forest. Learn how regional trails and preserved open spaces impact our health and economy in a beneficial way, while enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of the Big Woods in summer.

Activities include hiking, bicycling, kayaking, geocaching and more. Overnight accommodations will be provided in the rustic cabins in one of French Creek State Park’s historic group camps (tent camping is also an option).

A cabin at French Creek State Park.

The total cost for the weekend is $175/person and includes meals, activities and lodging. The deadline to register is June 1.

Contact Lisa Miller at FrenchCreekEnvEd@pa.gov or 610-582-9680 for a brochure and registration form.

Participants must be at least 14 years of age, in reasonably good shape (able to hike, paddle, and bike over easy terrain for 3 or more hours at a stretch), and dress appropriately for the activities (a list of clothing needs will be supplied). This event may be cancelled in the event of severe weather.

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The Play's the Thing

May 6, 2013, 1:00 am

≫ Next: A Doggone Important Lesson

≪ Previous: Rolling on the River

Ryland Beck (third from left) with MCCC President Dr. Karen A. Stout (far left), Theatre Arts Coordinator Michael Whistler (second from left), and members of the West End Theatre Club following the initial live reading of “Under the Hood” during February’s West Campus Lasagna Dinner.

Blogger's Note:Alana Mauger over at Montgomery County Community College is giving the tireless John Armato a run for his money with all the college news that crowding the Digital Notebook in-bin. Keep up the good work!

POTTSTOWN -- Fairy tales are intriguing to Ryland X. Beck -- especially the way so many versions exist of each old story.

His own family, of German background, shared some darker versions of the tales with him, while dancing around the truly gruesome plot lines, says the second-year student at Montgomery County Community College.

“I'm fascinated by how many variations there are of one story, with different endings and different details added and taken away, and how much a story changes through word of mouth,” explains Beck, 21, of Green Lane.

The Brother's Grimm

It has inspired him to write his own fairy-tale-based play “Under the Hood,” which will be staged this Saturday, May 11, at noon and again at 1:30 p.m. by MCCC’s West End Theatre Group in the open-air theater at Riverfront Park, 140 College Dr., Pottstown.

The same way the Grimm Brothers collected and presented stories from ages past, Beck has taken bits and
pieces of yarns, ideas and characters and pulled them into one script.

And he is building “the next generation” of fairy tale by combining story lines and adding modern details like cars and phones.

Some of the main characters of “Under the Hood” are a female auto mechanic named Robin, her boyfriend who happens to be a pig, and a wolfish lawyer named Lycan. The story weaves in threads of recent events, with the wolf plotting with a bank to take away people's houses.

Beck worked with MCCC Theatre Arts Coordinator Michael Whistler to tweak the play in the aftermath of its successful first reading during the College’s 12th annual Lasagna Dinner at the West Campus in February.

“It was a great experience because it helped me see what wasn't quite clear yet, and how someone else might see it,” says Beck of the reading. “I've been editing it for four months now – it's slow and grueling, but I've gained a lot of respect for playwrights!”

On the other hand, the auditions were fun. Some prospects brought a lot of energy to the tryouts, and Beck got to see his written words transformed into living, breathing characters.

The roles have been cast and the sets for the play will be limited because of the outdoor staging, he says.

“I hope I have a good turnout,” Beck muses. “At the reading, I was nervous before it started. It turned out better than I expected.”

Even though “Under the Hood” is the second play he has penned, the first being a project for high school English, theater is not his ambition. He plans to major in occupational therapy and hopes to eventually earn a doctorate in that discipline.

In fact, the idea for “Under the Hood” came to Beck while he was supposed to be studying for a history final. His original aim in writing it was to save money for the West Campus drama club by coming up with a play for which they wouldn't have to pay rights.

“The only connection theater and OT have is they are both great interests of mine,” he says.

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A Doggone Important Lesson

May 7, 2013, 1:00 am

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≪ Previous: The Play's the Thing

Anye Crawford meets Faith.

Blogger's Note:More from Pottstown Schools, this time, about kids at Rupert Elementary learning a thing or two about our four-footed friends.

Shannon Wagner’s Rupert Elementary School first grade students learned first hand the value of paying forward to “man’s best friend.”

Recently, the students received a visit from Robert Conway of the Montgomery County SPCA and his friend “Faith,” his Golden Retriever.

Tyler Santiago meets Faith.

Students were taught how to care for a pet and discussed the value of having a pet in their life.

Students learned of the many ways that the SPCA helps to bring together animals with human companions.

As part of their lesson on paying forward to man’s best friend, the students conducted a pet supply drive and collected over five boxes of supplies which were donated to the SPCA.

Ms. Wagner said, “It is important for our students as they develop their social skills to understand the value of being responsible for providing for the care and well-being of another.”

Mr. Conway thanked the class for the opportunity to speak with them, “I enjoyed it and was glad that the students appreciated our presentation. We are grateful for the students organizing the donation drive which will provide needed supplies for our animals.”

Shannon Wagner Ricky Scott, Jayden Pray, Ava Pavone, Sophia Russo, and Isabellarose Mulligan with the pet supplies they collected.

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Help With Home Improvements

May 8, 2013, 1:00 am

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≪ Previous: A Doggone Important Lesson

Blogger's Note:The following exciting announcement comes to the Digital Notebook in-box in the form of a press release from our friends at Genesis Housing. We regretfully note that the Digital Notebook industrial complex lies outside the area available for improvement grants, but bravely bring you the information nonetheless.

Genesis Housing Corporation is pleased to announce a new Pottstown Home Improvement Program to provide funds for home repairs.

Through a grant provided to Genesis Housing Corporation by National Penn Bank, the new program offers small dollar grants and/or small dollar, low interest loans to resident homeowners meeting the eligibility requirements for owner-occupied properties located within the targeted neighborhoods.

Examples of eligible work are roofs, windows, heaters, sewer lines, electrical upgrades and other general home repairs.

Window replacements are among the upgrades the program will fund.

Genesis Housing Corporation will review applications from all interested homeowners living in the target areas for eligibility.

Grants (generally capped at $4,000) will be offered to qualified applicants who need single system repairs like a new heater but are unable to afford the repair or replacement of the system.

Loans may be used for any home improvement project. There is no home equity required.

The eligible Pottstown neighborhoods are:

Schuylkill River to High St, Manatawny St. to Washington St.;
High St. to Beech St., Manatawny St. to Warren St.; and
Beech St to Wilson St., Hanover St. / Farmington to Adams St.

Applications are available by calling 610-275-4357, or on our website at www.genesishousing.org or via email at info@genesishousing.org.

National Penn Bank is an Equal Opportunity Lender and Member FDIC. National Penn Bank is not

This re-habilitated home at 433 Walnut St. in Pottstown,

with central air and new appliances is for sale for $74,900.
To learn more, follow this link.

affiliated with Genesis Housing Corporation. This program is funded by National Penn Bank through the Neighborhood Tax Credit Program.

Since 1994, Genesis Housing Corporation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, has served Montgomery County as a community housing development organization (CHDO) and is dedicated to the development of affordable housing and to the education of consumers on housing and financial issues. General activities include the rehabilitation and new construction of homes to improve and stabilize neighborhoods and to provide opportunities for lower income homebuyers to purchase homes at affordable prices.

Genesis Housing Corporation also provides monthly classes and individual counseling to help overcome barriers to home ownership, financial education and foreclosure prevention.

For more information about Genesis Housing Corporation and our programs, visit the website at www.genesishousing.org, email at info@genesishousing.org, visit us on Facebook or call 610-275-4357.

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Learning Holocaust History First-Hand

May 9, 2013, 7:23 am

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Severin Fayerman

Blogger's Note:Cathy Skitko over at The Hill School has notified us of the following:

On Tuesday evening, May 14, The Hill School will welcome Severin Fayerman, Holocaust survivor and founder of the Baldwin Hardware company, to share his experiences with Hill students, particularly those currently enrolled in the World History course.

This event is free and open to the public.

Born in Poland, Mr. Fayerman and members of his family were held as prisoners in several concentration camps, including Auschwitz, during World War II.

Mr. Fayerman and his family immigrated to the U.S. in 1945, and he began work in Manhattan at a tool and dye shop.

With dreams of owning their own business, he and his father purchased the Baldwin Tool and Die Company in Newark, N.J., which only one year later became the successful Baldwin Hardware Co.

Mr. Fayerman, who lives in Reading, chronicled his life in a memoir called "ASurvivor’s Story."

Mr. Fayerman will speak in the Alumni Chapel at 7:15 p.m., until approximately 8:30 p.m. He will have his memoir available for purchase.

The Hill is pleased to open this event to the Pottstown community. Guests should enter The Hill via the Beech Street entrance where they will be further assisted in reaching the Chapel.

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Diploma in Hand

May 10, 2013, 1:00 am

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≪ Previous: Learning Holocaust History First-Hand

This year's class of GED graduates at the MC3 campus in Pottstown

Blogger's Note:MC3's Alana Mauger continues her rampage through the in-box at Digital Notebook Industrial Complex with this news about the Pottstown campus's latest round of GED graduates.

Family and friends filled the South Hall Community Room at Montgomery County Community College’s West Campus in Pottstown and cheered as 50 students earned their General Education Diplomas (GED) during the Spring GED Graduation ceremony on May 1.

MCCC President Dr. Karen A. Stout congratulated the students, acknowledging their perseverance and commitment to complete this goal.

“You have a new mindset now, one that is not fixed, but in a growth mode where you want to work as hard as you can to succeed,” she told the graduates. “You know the value of education and how it will make your life better.”

The program’s keynote speaker Hilda Hynes, Barto, traveled a similar journey as the graduates. After leaving high school at age 16, she later earned her GED. Now, she will be receiving her associate’s degree in Communications later this month at MCCC.

“I felt something when I walked across the stage to get my GED,” she said. “It was self-pride. It’s the same feeling you will have when you walk across the stage tonight. Congratulations on believing in yourself and honoring the commitment you made to you.”

According to GED Program Coordinator /Instructor Raymond Ricketts, 775 students graduated since the program started in May 2006, and the graduation rate is 88 percent. The Montgomery County Workforce Investment Board (WIB) funds the program, which is free to Montgomery County residents, and is held at the College’s West Campus. The fee for out-of-county students is $100, which includes the GED test.

Graduating from the rigorous five-week program gives students a sense of accomplishment and dignity, according to GED Graduate Speaker Malinda Gilyard.

“If you can believe, you can achieve. That’s the bottom line,” Gilyard said, thanking everyone.

Many of the graduates will continue their education, like Lee Scott of Pottstown, who will start computer classes at the College in September, and Malissa Quigley of Douglassville, who wants to enroll in the Nursing program.

In concluding the ceremony, Peggy Schmidt, Executive Director of the Partnership Transportation Association of Montgomery County and Workforce Investment Board Member, told the graduates to listen to the voice from within.

“The voice that comes from inside speaks from your heart and will truly guide you on your way,” she said. “I wish you the best on your next journey.”

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Lightning Strikes Blue at Lincoln

May 11, 2013, 1:00 am

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The Lincoln Lightning

Blogger's Note:More success in the Pottstown School District.

Members of the Lincoln Elementary Reading Olympics team “The Lightning” participated in the Montgomery County Reading Olympics held at Souderton High School.

The Lightning, led by team captain Winni Weng, earned Blue Ribbon Top Honors by scoring 56 points.

Ted Freese, Lincoln Librarian and Reading Olympics sponsor, said, “Our students enjoy the element of competition in these events which allow them the opportunity to showcase their comprehension and recall skills. Participation in Reading Olympics generates a great deal of excitement and enthusiasm at Lincoln Elementary.”

Other team members included: Alix Stewart, Assistant Captain; Emme Wolfel, Kaile Butterfield, Megan Robie, William Maddox, Melissa Coleman, Donovan Towson, Seth Jones, Somaiya Tate, Dylan Murphy, Christine Martinez, Kylie Boughter, and MiKayla Viers.

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Running Against Hunger

May 12, 2013, 1:00 am

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The 4th Annual Operation Backpack 5K will take place Saturday, May 18 at 9 a.m. on the Schuylkill River Trail,

a flat, fast, scenic rail-to-trail course in Pottstown.

The event benefits homeless and hungry children who are suffering from malnutrition in Pottstown.

During the school day, these children receive free lunch at school, but on the weekends they often go hungry.

Thanks to Operation Backpack, backpacks of nutritious food are sent home with the children every Friday so that they can have food on the weekends.

A cash Prize will be given to the top Male and Female Runner.

Medals will be given by gender and age group.

The cost is $30 for a runner and $25 for a walker.

The course is fast, so it is not unusual to have many personal bests on race day. The event is walker friendly, both in the 5K and 1 mile, but it is also a great race for competitive runners.

You can register through Active.com by clicking the link:
http://www.active.com/running/pottstown-pa/operation-backpack-5k-2013

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