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[ Saturday, February 24, 2007 14:39 PDT ]
Legacy Journal: The new Rainbow Coalition- Color Coded Electrons
Section:
Government
Summary:
On Friday, 2007-02-23, the Environmental Law Student Group at King Hall, the UCDavis School of Law CO hosted the annual Enviroment Law Symposium and MCLE conference. This year, the theme was voluntary , mandated, legislated and regulated CO2 emissions controls in the state of Califonia. The format was panel presentations, discussion, and Q&A at the campus Buehler Alumni Center. The day was warm, bright, sunny, clear and wind free.
Main:
Summary Points:
* In the coffee wakeup, one attorney with emeritus status, experience as a Judge appointed to the California Supreme Court, and a Harvard Law education referred to himself in informal conversation as a “citizen of the state of California.”
That set the tone for the rest of the morning. The residents and the elites of the Golden State clearly see themselves as citizens of a defacto, trend setting, economically powerful and political potent, nation-state.
* The keynote speaker was a breezy native of Australia with a background in sheep ranching ,consulting, and writing. He book from Island Press was for sale in the lobby.
* The three morning panelists were all bright, articulate and well informed career women. Thankfully, they left there Power Point presentations at the office and gave fast paced and timed introductions describing who they represented, what they did, and how the did their jobs.
One was a manager at a Sacramento “voluntary early mover” NPO that administers a Registry of willing responders to the carrot of preferential status in future greenhouse gas emission standards, incentives, burdens and benefits.
Another was an Environmental Policy attorney from the San Francisco Spear Tower corporate offices of PG&E.
The third was an engineer from Sacramento based consulting firm that does compliance work for companies and public entities like small cities, like Davis, with significant public service fleets of vehicles.
Each was skilled at simultaneously PRing, selling, spinning, advocating shmoozing and networking.
* It was clear that the more arresting metaphor of the day was “color coded electrons” so that the source of power used to generate current for the power grid can be identified and monitored. The color black would be used for Texas based coal generated electrons, red for nuclear power plant electrons, blue for hydroelectric, white for wind, yellow of photo voltaic, green for biomass, and purple for natural gas. TXU, one of the “big bad guys on block” was much on the minds of the panelists. In addition, carbon unit trading had the ring of “Big Bucks” but there was a note of uncertain about the motives and methods of the players, the future of a more rational mechanism for evaluation, transparency, validation, certification and accountability.
Pounds of C02 released per kilowatt/hr of current is the present unit preferred by PG&E. “Carbon neutral”, “60% overall C02 reduction by year 20—”, and a “smaller CO2 footprint were also borrowed terms that were bandied about.
More:
Amazing: • Calendar: • Earth Sciences:: • Justice: • News: • Hot Spot: • Political Watch: • Really? A Reality Check: • Standards: • Straight Talk: • Truth Telling: • Rhetoric: • (0) Comments: • (0) Trackbacks: • Permalink:
[ Thursday, February 22, 2007 14:32 PDT ]
Legacy Journal: Mitigating Modelling Mischief at UC Merced.
Section:
Campus
Summary:
Cornelia Dean, writing in the 2007-02-20 Science Books section has focused on one our interests—the modelling of complex systems..
Main:
Why Environmental Scientists Can’t Predict the Future.
By Orrin H. Pilkey and Linda Pilkey-Jarvis. 256 pages. Columbia University Press, $29.50.
is the focus of her review. Nature is subject, Geology is the topic, Modelling Mischief is the theme. Sceptism is the tone.
Examples of the Chief Mischief makers are:
* Too many fixed values for dynamic events in Nature.
* Math coefficients or Fudge Factors.
* Complex and poorly understood and described interdependent phenomenona.that are often characterized by simple assumptions.
* Long term and short term predictions and outcomes are rarely monitored, measured and archived
* Assumptions, corrections and algorithms (formulas & fig leaves) are not transparent to the public or peer reviewers.
* Generalized population studies are not applicable to concrete, specific, individual, and novel cases.
Meanwhile, the new University of California at Merced is behind schedule, over budget and shunned by students. In addition, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is enforcing the Endangered Species Act on behalf of a wetlands fresh water shrimp species on UC Three campus buildings have been completed. Housing for staff and faculty is also negatively impacted. Greenmail money for ” mitigation ” will certainly be at issue.
More:
Calendar: • Earth Sciences:: • IT3 Tech: • Information Tech: • Complex System Modelling: • Law: • Straight Talk: • Valley Viewpoints: • (0) Comments: • (0) Trackbacks: • Permalink:
[ Sunday, February 18, 2007 14:59 PDT ]
Legacy Journal: Sunday Cycling
Section:
Sports
Summary:
The 2007 version of the California Tour team bicycle event has a Santa Rosa - Davis connection.
Main:
Davis, California is a bicycle centered college town. It is planning for a 10 minute whirlthrough by the 18 x 8 pro teams on the 3d leg of their California Tour. The Tuesday, 20 February start of the 118.4 mile segment is in Santa Rosa’s Railroad Square. The scenic route includes Bennett Valley, Valley of the Moon, Trinity Grade, Napa Valley and RT. 128 to Lake Berryessa. Winters, part of the old Lincoln Hiway U.S. 40 , Russell Ave past the UCDavis campus, B ST. F St, Covell, Pole Line and on to Woodland.
The good news is:
* The hills of Sonoma County have long been prime training grounds for a generation of aspiring competitive cyclists.
* In the flat lands of agricultural Yolo County, the Delta Breeze should be at their backs and the weather is predicted to be clear.
* The tour sponsor, the biotech company, Amgen, is now clear with the tour managers, the US and the International cycle sanctions organizations, that their prescription only product,
EPO
, a potential doping agent, will now be part of this year’s performance drug testing standard.
Meanwhile, the local cycle people at Mad Cows, the Wheel Works, and the UCDavis Bike Barn are excited about the visit.
More:
Calendar: • Davis Community: • News: • RedLine: • Science and Technology: • Speed Dialing: • Standards: • Street Talk: • UCDavis: • (0) Comments: • (0) Trackbacks: • Permalink:
[ Monday, February 12, 2007 14:54 PDT ]
Legacy Journal: /Abe Lincoln: The Oregon Connection
Section:
Almanac
Summary:
Today is the 200th anniversary of the birth of America’s 16th and greatest President. He defeated poverty, educated himself, volunteered for the militia, road a 14 country legal circuit, built a successful law practice of 4,000 cases and clients, including the railroads, raised a substantial family, was elected to the Illinois State Legislature, served in Congress, was elected and reelected to the Presidency, prosecuted a Civil War, survived vilification by members of the press, and was martyred by an assassins bullet at the age of 56
.
Main:
In addition, Lincoln:
* Turned down the partronage office of Governor of the the Oregon Territory. Illinois was growing rapidly and Mary was not the frontier pioneer wife type. However, Grant was assigned to Army duty in the territory.
* A friend and fellow Springfield lawyer, Col Edwin Baker from England was the first U.S. Senator from Oregon. Baker City, Baker County, Oregon and Lincoln’s third son use his namesake. While in the Senate, Baker was killed at the Battle of Ball’s Bluff on the Potomic River, and was tearfully eulogized by Lincoln and friends at a service held in the Capital Building. Baker’s drive, personal experience in San Francisco and Oregon,and a twenty-five year friendship with Lincoln gave him power in western patronage decisons
* Lincoln clearly understood the political, economic and stategic significance of the emerging western states and of the westward flow of migration by exlorers, traders, adventurers, land holding yeomen farmers, merchants, missionaries, miners media writers and capital. During his administration he signed the Homestead Act, the western railroad act, and the Morrell Act
* Railroads, Western Union and migration united the county in ways that war and Reconstruction could not.
* BTW, Oregon has a higher per cent of counties named after Presidents, including Lincoln, than any other in the nation.
More:
[ Saturday, February 10, 2007 16:27 PDT ]
Legacy Journal: California Dreaming
Section:
News: Regional
Summary:
The February 10, 2007 Op-Ed Contributor to the nytimes is University of Maryland political economist, Gar Alpervitz. His subjects are governance and leadership in the U.S; his topic is California; his focus is size and power; his authorities are Austrian born A. Schwarzenegger, fellow Cambridgeman, PM., Tony Blair, and the pessimistic and long dead U.S. diplomat to the former communist Russian Empire. George Kennan. In a former life, the Professor was a historian of American Atomic Bomb deployment.
Main:
The Professor is yet another pundit who appears to focus his view from a distant ivory tower.
Closer inspection from the California Heart give one a thoughtful pause when considering the academic view of the future prospects of the United States—and the Golden State.
* Yes, California has a formidable economy. Yet, the state increasingly disadvantaged because of its high costs of living, production and governance, long distances between internal and external markets, shortages of water, energy dependency, an academically under-performing K-12 public educational system, long-standing internal regional competitive rivalries, multiple entry points and magnet communities for illegal foreign nationals and a revolving door professional political class in the California Legislature.
* The state has long attracted visitors, celebrities, speakers, authors, fund raisers and advocates from Gorbachev, to Twain, to Gore, to Sinclair Lewis and Jessie Jackson. Some have left their mark; others have taken the money and ran.
* Chronically unenforced citizenship and residency laws.
* A Hollywood centered, fickle and fluid popular culture.
* A highly mobile and youthful professional class with roots and loyalties outside the state.
* A cocky hubris that accepts the notion that if voice California speak from, or for, the rest of the nation must listen and blindly follow.
Meanwhile, even the hazy hope of friendly ethanol fuel from corn and the audacious promise of mandated Universal Health Care for all Californians have given pause to many of the states more sober, reflective, analytic and mature citizens.
More:
Calendar: • Demographics: • Energy: • Immigration: • MegaMoves: • News: • Regional: • Political Watch: • Power Play: • Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: • Rhetoric: • (0) Comments: • (0) Trackbacks: • Permalink:
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