For your calendar

Almost hate to share this because we haven't got tickets yet, but fair's fair. This is affordable entertainment for the Great Recession, which is likely to be in even fuller swing in October. There's nothing like Celtic music for hard times.

The Nettles - Acoustic Celtic music that’s progressive, exciting & a little bit dangerous
7 p.m., Friday, October 2, Loucks Auditorium, Salem Public Library
Tickets: $5 in advance at Salem Public Library Circulation desks/$7 at door

This band ignites audiences with fiery music that blends traditional music with modern spices. The Nettles play progressive and exciting Celtic music at festivals, concerts, bars and dances in the Pacific Northwest and get radio airplay worldwide.

Laura Brophy’s powerful fiddling forms strong yet lyrical melodies punctuated by wild improvisati on. The Nettles are propelled by the mighty rhythm engine of Kevin Johnsrude on guitar, Michael Proctor on bass and drummers Brian Bucolo, Doug Narry or Ankush Vimawala. On fiddle, saxophone, pennywhistle, guitar, bass and percussion, they play acoustic improvisational music based on traditional tunes, a sort of acoustic Celtic jam band.

We Can't Afford to Wait Vigil

Boy, if only we had a Democrat in teh White House and a Democratic majority in both houses of Congress . . . Image by seiuhealthcare775nw via Flickr

VIGIL for Public Option NOW
Riverfront Park, Salem, OR 97303
Wednesday, 2 Sep 2009, 7:30 PM
To sign up for this event.

Moyers on Health Care Reform

LBJ defeats Reagan, the GOP and the AMA, creates Medicare -- 100% Socialized Medicine for old people. Why do insurance companies love their profits and hate America? Image via Wikipedia

Great stuff! Promo trailer for urban hens documentary

Spend a few hours this weekend doing some good

Image via Wikipedia

And get rewarded with better health and happiness and some nice fruit to boot!

We are getting calls daily from people in our counties wanting people to come harvest produce from their yards and gardens. Our current list is posted below. If you would like to help bring in harvest from any of these sites, please call the person first and get the specific time and address. You will be entering their property at your own risk. You may keep some produce for yourself. We cannot distribute any fruit that has fallen on the ground. Please take the food you have picked for the Food Share to the closest food pantry or to Marion Polk Food Share at 1660 Salem Industrial Drive. We ask that you have it weighed there, if possible. You may find a list of Food Pantries at our website www.marionpolkfoodshare.org. Thank you in advance for volunteering to help bring the harvest to the hungry!

• 8/24 J. Shrum 503-743-2776 Verda Lane Overabundance of pears on one large tree. Have ladders, bring boxes.
• 8/26 J. Abel 503-581-8371 Jelden St NE One pear tree, one large blueberry bush. Has boxes.
• 8/24 T. Freety 503-507-0729 Laurel Ave NE One large pear tree. Has ladder, bring boxes. No spray.
• 8/26 L. Engstrom 503-378-7055 Doaks Ferry Rd NW Large pear tree. No spray. Has ladder. Can get boxes.
• 8/25 D. Gleason 503-986-5640 21st St. NE One plum tree. No ladder. Can get boxes.
• 8/24 Melrose Farm 503-362-2398 72nd Ave, Aumsville. Blueberries. No boxes.
• 8/24 D. Rundell 503-363-4305 Idylwood Dr. SE One pear tree. Bring boxes.
• 8/24 B. Wright 503-581-3340 Brink Ave. SE One pear tree. Has ladder. Has 5 gal buckets.
• 8/24 Sheryl 503-371-9061 Filbert tree.
• 8/27 Eagan Gardens 503-393-2131 River Road NE. Pear orchard. No spray. Has ladders. No boxes.
• 8/24 M Steiber 503-588-7048 Gravenstein apples.
• 8/24 S. Diaz 503-269-0189. One pear tree.

Janet Spingath
Community Partnerships
2009 Chefs' Nite Out tickets on sale!
Phone: 503.581.3855 x311 Web: http://www.marionpolkfoodshare.org/
Mail: 1660 Salem Industrial Drive NE, Salem OR 97301

Marion-Polk Food Share: Leading the fight to END hunger in Marion and Polk counties
...because no one should be hungry. Help END hunger. Donate now!

Things everyone should know

Image by mandiberg via Flickr

In a country where we are constantly bombarded with "news" about psuedo-celebrities, where the inability to use math to make informed decisions is treated as an endearing quirk, and the ability to look reality in the eye and deny it is treated as an electoral qualification, here's something that every person in America actually should know

The bicycle requires the equivalent energy of approximately 0.4 liters of gasoline to travel 100 kilometers, and the freight train requires the equivalent energy of approximately 0.6 liters of gasoline to travel 100 kilometers (per ton). That’s darned good gas mileage. As a comparison, a modern hybrid automobile requires approximately 5.0-5.5 liters of gasoline to travel 100 kilometers.

Time to turn out some lights

Beacons of waste. Image by makelessnoise via Flickr

Given that it's just about impossible to see any but the very brightest stars from much of Salem, I'd say we've got a lot of work to do in reducing excess lighting. Luckily, knocking off dumb stuff like this is even better than a free lunch -- there's so much savings available that it's like being invited to a tasty lunch you get paid to eat.

The old-fashioned streetlight is the recession's latest victim. To save money, some cities and towns are turning off lights, often lots of them.

The cost-cutting moves coincide with changing attitudes about streetlights. Once viewed as helpful safety measures, the lights are increasingly seen by some public officials and researchers as an environmental issue, creating light pollution and burning excess energy. . . .

In July, Santa Rosa, Calif., started a two-year effort to remove 6,000 of the city's 15,000 streetlights. An additional 3,000 will be placed on a timer that shuts lights off from midnight to 5:30 a.m. Savings: $400,000 a year.

The city boasts that it will cut its carbon footprint. What really matters, though, is money.

Public works director Rick Moshier says he'd already cut his department's budget by 25% when he turned to streetlights. "I can either fix potholes and storm drains or keep paying $800,000 a year for electricity," Moshier says. . . .

There's little evidence to support the belief that streetlights reduce crime, he says. However, lighting does reduce traffic accidents, especially at intersections.

The nation's streetlights consume electricity equivalent to 1.4 million homes. They generate greenhouse gases equal to 2 million cars a year.

More gleaning!

Image via Wikipedia

There is a pear orchard at Eagan Gardens ready for picking. The address is 9805 River Road NE. No spray has been used on the trees for 15 years. Ladders are available, but no boxes. Please go and pick what you want and bring some to the Food Share. We have about a dozen other locations around town. For information, please contact Janet at Marion Polk Food Share using the contact information below. Thanks for helping bring in the harvest!

Janet Spingath
Community Partnerships
2009 Chefs' Nite Out tickets on sale! Phone: 503.581.3855 x311

Think health care costs a lot now?

Image via Wikipedia

(h/t to Hank for forwarding this.)

Think health costs are hot now? Factor in global warming

A report by University College London and The Lancet, a leading public health journal, recently called global warming the greatest threat to public health this century. As I described in a June 21 column, the report said climate change will produce worsening patterns of vector and waterborne disease; heat and respiratory illnesses; malnutrition; and harm from extreme weather events, flooding and sea level rise. Billions of people in both developed and developing nations will be affected.

In Oregon, for instance, asthma is already a major problem, and it will expand as temperatures increase. Heat-related illnesses will grow as we experience more frequent periods of 100-degree days. West Nile Virus, which is caused by infected mosquitoes that migrate northward as temperatures warm, has appeared here and eventually could spread as it has in other states.

The costs of health care are certain to skyrocket under these conditions. A study produced in February by my program at the University of Oregon, for example, found that global warming would generate a minimum of $764 million in additional health-related costs for Oregonians by 2020.

These costs are likely to increase to at least $1.3 billion by 2040. Other states will experience even higher costs. Employers and the self-insured will find it exceedingly difficult to pay the additional costs of climate-induced health impacts. Further, unless every American is automatically covered, those most affected by the health impacts of climate change — including the infirm, children, elderly and low-income individuals — will be left to fend for themselves. . . .

The media has done a good job of documenting the disinformation and consequent hysteria generated by opponents to health care reform. Less well-documented are the remarkably similar strategies being used to stop climate policies. A good example is a two-inch-thick document I recently received from a journalist friend, published by a right-wing group. It claimed to refute the science of today's global warming.

If it weren't so frightening, it would be laughable. Millions of dollars undoubtedly were spent on the publication. It has a glossy cover, is made to look like a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and almost certainly was mailed to hundreds of reporters — and probably others — nationwide.

But rather than being filled with peer reviewed science, it is laced with anti- government and environmental rhetoric. Most of the claims it makes to refute the fact that the Earth is warming primarily due to human activity are irrelevant. It cherry picks data to make its case and omits other important data. Many of the key points are nonsensical. The credibility of the document, however, does not matter. The goal is to create doubt among the unsuspecting about the veracity of global warming and thus stifle support for climate protection policies.

There is too much at stake now to let this type of cynical behavior rule the day. . . .

Bob Doppelt is director of Resource Innovations and the Climate Leadership Initiative at the University of Oregon.

(And here's a link to another sobering piece very much worth reading.)

A contender for "Worst Op-Ed Ever Committed"

How's the view, Michael Lynch? Image by Spartacus007 via Flickr

Thank God that online newspapers are interactive -- the scores of comments to this execrable POS are far more well-informed and insightful than the subject op-ed.

The funny thing is, it's hard to know how to improve Lynch's piece. Trying to argue that oil is in practical terms infinite is so unhinged from reality that ad hominem attacks and misdirection ploys are just about all he's got. He reminds me of the guy with the pistol in the Russian Roulette game after five other players: "Well, there's been no explosion for those guys, so I'm going to be fine."

Nice open-source rebuttal being built here.

UPDATE: hysterically funny and on-target dismemberment of Lynch's "work" here.