Governor Signs Shark Fin Ban

Governor Signs Shark Fin Ban

Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau
Friday, October 7, 2011(10-07) 13:19 PDT Sacramento --

Shark fins will no longer be sold or used in food in California starting in 2013, under a law Gov. Jerry Brown signed today that bans the possession, sale and distribution of imported shark fins in the state.

"The practice of cutting the fins off of living sharks and dumping them back in the ocean is not only cruel, but it harms the health of our oceans," Brown said. "Researchers estimate that some shark populations have declined by more than 90 percent, portending grave threats to our environment and commercial fishing. In the interest of future generations, I have signed this bill."

Hawaii, Oregon and Washington have similar statewide bans. However, proponents have said California is a critical state and a ban here would have a major impact on the practice. The bill is AB376 by Assemblyman Paul Fong, D-Sunnyvale.

California already banned shark finning along the coast. The new ban will forbid the importation of any shark fins starting Jan. 1. Fins already in the state can be sold and possessed until July 1, 2013.

Shark fins are used to make shark fin soup, an expensive Chinese delicacy that is popular at special events like weddings. The bill drew widespread attention, with the actor Leonardo DiCaprio urging people to contact Brown to support the ban.

The controversy split Asian American members of the Legislature, with some saying it had racist undertones even though it was introduced by Fong, who is Chinese American. Opponents included Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, who is also Chinese American. Yee said that if a ban is imposed it should be placed on whole sharks, not just their fins.

Focusing just on the fin, they argued, is specifically targeting the Chinese culture.

But proponents argued that shark populations are being decimated by fishing because of the valuable fins, which sell for hundreds of dollars per pound. The soup usually costs around $30 per bowl. They said the ban will help to curb what is known as finning, where the fin and tail are cut off and the shark is dumped back into the ocean where it dies.

E-mail Wyatt Buchanan at wbuchanan@sfchronicle.com.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/07/BABD1LEU1T.DTL#ixzz1a9TCgWvP

Father Andrew Greeley, A Great Man

October 7th, 2011

JUDY VALENTE, correspondent: He is one of the best known priests in America, a respected sociologist, researcher, and commentator, and author of dozens of best-selling novels. Father John Cusick has known Father Greeley for forty years.

REV. JOHN CUSICK: When the history of the American Catholic Church is written in America, I don’t know if you’re going to find a more significant name or a more impacting name on church than Andrew Greeley.

VALENTE: He was one of the first priests to criticize the Church’s position on birth control. He called for better preaching from the pulpit, a greater outreach to young people, and greater humility among the clergy. He promoted a more active role for lay people. Eileen Durkin is Greeley’s niece.

EILEEN DURKIN: He would write and write and write, and it was a part of his life. It couldn’t be separated from him. It wasn’t a chore for him. It just flowed out of him. Many people were touched by his stories and by his image of God as a God of love and a God of compassion and a God of forgiveness and a God especially of passion.

post02-andrewgreeleyVALENTE: In November 2008, Father Greeley stepped out of a taxi in this Chicago suburb after a speaking engagement. His coat caught in the door, and as the taxi pulled away he was thrown to the pavement and suffered a traumatic brain injury. The prolific author who had written on so many subjects would write no more.

DURKIN: He’s suffering. Anyone who has had a traumatic brain injury to the extent that my uncle has, anyone who is a vibrant, intelligent, brilliant person who is now reduced to 24-hour care is suffering.

VALENTE: Father James Martin is an editor at the national Catholic magazine America.

REV. JAMES MARTIN, SJ: The mystery of suffering really does remain a mystery. There is no satisfactory answer to the question. It has bedeviled theologians and saints and scholars over millennia.

CUSICK: His attention span is certainly not what it used to be. He’s very slow. I mean, I think medical people have said it takes him a lot longer to process things.

DURKIN: Seeing his suffering has not necessarily affected my faith, because I know of his faith. For 80 years up until his accident I observed his faith, and I certainly heard about his faith because he shared so much of it and wrote about so much of it.

post03-andrewgreeleyVALENTE: Father Greeley’s steamy novels won him both fans and critics. He wasn’t afraid to depict the sexual side of priests in his fiction and often included provocative sex scenes.

DURKIN: He would say all the other things he did as a sociologist, as a novelist, as a commentator were just his way of being a priest.

CUSICK: He would always stir things up, and people would be yelling and screaming and saying, how can he say that? How could he write that? And ten years later they’re saying it and they’re writing it.

DURKIN: Certainly the whole sexual abuse crisis in the Church—he was writing about that and identifying that long before it came out in most of the press in America.

VALENTE: Father Greeley warned of clergy sex abuse on national TV nearly a decade before the scope of the scandal became known.

Andrew Greeley on the Phil Donahue Show in 1993: I don’t think the Vatican cares. I mean they recently ordered the bishop of Pittsburgh to reassign a priest he had removed because he was a child molester, and so the Vatican doesn’t get it.

post04-andrewgreeleyVALENTE: He has said that one of the church’s biggest problems is the status of women.

Andrew Greeley in 2002: The church just has not been able to cope with the demands for fairness and equality from women, so they’re very angry. For a long time, the bishops could console themselves, and I think some still do, that these are just your radical feminists. But the radical feminists include their sisters and their nieces and their mothers and all the women in their lives. They just don’t like the way the Church treats them.

CUSICK: He could drive the Vatican crazy, and I’m sure the Vatican could drive him crazy.

Andrew Greeley in 2000: The Vatican is cut off from the rest of the Church. It doesn’t understand. There’s no reason why it should, given its structure. It doesn’t understand what’s going on in the minds of the ordinary lay people or the ordinary priests.

CUSICK: When push came to shove, he said I’m not leaving and you can’t throw me out, and that was typical Greeley in his prime.

VALENTE: At a Mass celebrating his 50th anniversary [2004] in the priesthood, Greeley, who said he had wanted to be a priest ever since the second grade, reflected on the controversies he had sparked.

post01-andrewgreeleyDURKIN: He said I’m sorry for anything that I have done to people, and I’m not sorry for what I did in the name of people, in the name of helping people, in the name of challenging people, but I’m sorry for any relationships that were hurt.

VALENTE: After the accident family and friends wondered, would he ever again be able to say the Mass, which meant so much to him?

DURKIN: He has always written about the centrality of the Eucharist in the Catholic faith. We’ve reached out to his priest friends and tried to make arrangements for them to come to his home and to celebrate Mass with him.

VALENTE: Last year, with his family around him, Greeley helped celebrate Easter Mass at the home of his niece, Eileen.

Cusick presiding at Mass with Greeley: In the name of the Father…

CUSICK: I’m sad because such a brilliant mind and such a voice in the Catholic Church has been silenced by an accident.

post05-andrewgreeleyMARTIN: When we suffer we are often made more vulnerable, and in our vulnerability God can break in more. But, you know, it’s up to us whether or not we accept those invitations to new ways of encountering God. But certainly Andrew Greeley is a deeply spiritual person, and I’m sure he is finding God in new ways in this terrible experience.

DURKIN: Does he have moments of grace, times when he flourishes? Yes, definitely, when he interacts with his family and with his friends, when he is still able to be a priest.

Cusick at Mass with Greeley: By the Spirit that is within us, grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ…

DURKIN: He is disabled, but he has been a witness to us in his attempts to celebrate the Mass. He is communicating in ways that have always been his priestly function.

Cusick at Mass: Can you bless them now?

DURKIN: The priest is still there. All those years of being a priest, all those years of blessing—they’re still there. They’re still connecting, and we don’t know what it all means, but we know that he’s blessing, and we know that he is blessed, and he’s blessing us, and it means a lot.

VALENTE: Though the public life of Andrew Greeley has come to an end, Father Andrew Greeley endures.

Presiding at Mass: The Lord be with you.

Response: And also with you.

Presiding at Mass: Almighty God bless you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Response: Amen.

For Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly, this is Judy Valente in Chicago.

http://www.agreeley.com/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/october-7-2011/andrew-greeley/9665/

Echo Park Lake Gets a Rainy-Day Refill

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Photo by Martin Cox

Echo Park Lake enjoyed a revival today after a rain storm filled up  part of the lake that had been pumped dry as part of a clean up and renovation project.  Martin Cox, who lives above the lake, took the above shot at about 4:59 p.m. Said Cox:

    I saw the water from our window … but waited for the sun to come out in the right spot for this romantic return.


http://www.theeastsiderla.com/2011/10/echo-park-lake-gets-a-rainy-day-refill/

Behind the Myths Is an Easy-Growing Sweet Pea

In the Garden
September 14, 2000
by Robert Smaus

Myths and legends surround the sowing and growing of sweet peas. Many were first spun when showing sweet pea blooms was almost a competitive sport in England, with gardeners fiercely competing for flower show awards. That's where farfetched ideas like pruning sweet peas to a single stem came from. Or the advice to dig a trench as deep as "the bottom button of your waistcoat" when you're standing in it.

 As sweet peas have become popular in Southern California, we have developed our own myths, and some of them are just as farfetched and illogical, especially if you're just trying to grow a few flowers for the center of the dining room table.


Myth No. 1: Sweet pea seed must be sown before Labor Day. That's only if you want flowers in time for the winter holidays. This information dates back to the early days of gardening in this state. In the 1940 classic "The Garden Beautiful in California" (Times Mirror), Ernest Braunton said of August, "This is the best month for sowing sweet peas for winter blooms. If left until next month, they will not bloom until spring." But, note that they will bloom--just later--and, actually, quite nicely.

You still have all of fall and winter to plant. Another classic, "California Garden Flowers" by E.J. Wickson (Pacific Rural Press)--this one from 1915--suggests planting early kinds in October for February bloom, "or you can get a wealth of bloom on all varieties in May by sowing the seed in December and letting the early rains do the irrigating for you."

Seeds sown in early spring (January and February) will bloom just as long as you plant early enough so flowers can open "before the hot and dry weather sets in," according to Wickson, because sweet peas are a cool-season annual in the Southland.

As for blooming in time for the holidays, Renee Shepherd of seed supplier Renee's Garden in Felton, Calif., suspects that only certain varieties will bloom in time if planted before Labor Day. Winter Elegance is one she thinks has a good chance, though the old books do not specify certain varieties. This could be another sweet pea myth--I'd like to hear from gardeners who have managed to get flowers by Christmas. You can write or e-mail me at the addresses shown at the end of this column.

Myth No. 2: Frilly Spencer types from England are the best sweet peas. They have been the most requested kinds these last few years, but they may not be the best choice for inland gardens. According to Pat Sherman of seed supplier Fragrant Garden Nursery in Canby, Ore., Spencers only bloom when the day length is quite long, and by then it is often too hot in the inland valleys. Spencers seem to do best grown near the coast in Southern California.

However, the "Old-Fashioned" and "Italian" types, the Royal Family and Cuthbertson strains, and good old Winter Elegance, all bloom when days are shorter, so they flower before the heat sets in. These would be good choices inland, she says. The flowers are a little smaller and are usually not ruffly, but they are more fragrant, often powerfully so. "They can really perfume a room, " said Shepherd.

Some brand-new crosses from New Zealand--Cheri Amour and North Shore--supposedly combine the qualities of both groups.

Myth No. 3: Sweet pea seed must be soaked overnight in a dish of water before planting. Shepherd disagrees and thinks that it is too easy to forget and "over soak" the seed. She never soaks seed before planting, and neither does Sherman, who sprouts way too many seeds to lavish this kind of attention on them.

If you can't get seeds to sprout, you may be planting in a too-dry soil or are sprinkling too often. The old-time garden books such as Braunton's suggest thoroughly wetting the soil to a depth of a couple of feet, several days before planting. Then sow the seed and don't water again "until the plants are up an inch or two. This is how to grow the best sweet peas." Wickson says to let "the hose run," then sow seed a few days later and "let it be for several days."

It's hard--darn near impossible--for a gardener to sow seed and not water, but if the soil was thoroughly wetted to a depth of several feet before planting, enough moisture will wick its way up to the seed to sprout it. You can try other methods of watering, but the important points are not to sow seed in a dry soil, and don't keep it so wet that the seed rots.

If seeds still refuse to sprout for one reason or another (give them two weeks), simply plant more. Snails, slugs and cutworms are often the reason seeds "don't sprout"--they do but are immediately eaten. Be sure to bait for slugs and snails before you sow the seed, or sow it in little pots that are kept safely above the ground. To avoid cutworms, the old gardening books suggest planting sweet peas in soil where nothing else has recently grown.

For a most elegant sweet pea garden Renee's Garden would be very much advised http://www.reneesgarden.com/

Lost Worlds Survive in Living Fossils

 By Danielle Venton Email Author
    October 5, 2011  |
   
A male of a yet-unnamed Oreophryne frog species from Papua New Guinea guards his clutch of eggs. The island of New Guinea sits on karst formations, geological layers made primarily of water-soluble calcium, making surface water hard to find.

Amphibians need water for their development. This frog gets around the requirement for lakes and ponds by developing in big, watery eggs. Instead of leaving them alone, parents remain with the eggs, protecting them and moistening them regularly.

Plant and animal species that have remained almost unchanged for the past few million years live in the forests, the deserts, the seas and even our own backyards.

As our living ancestors, they give us a view of lost worlds. And because they preserve ancient pieces of genetic code, living relics should be a priority for conservation, says Piotr Naskrecki.

Naskrecki, a photographer and biologist, is the author of Relics: Travels in Nature’s Time Machine, to be published in November. The book catalogs Naskrecki’s travels to areas of the world that act as sanctuaries, harboring life that has remained essentially unchanged for eons.

“This book grew as a side project from my fascination with these old lineages,” Naskrecki said. “But as a conservation biologist, I feel they deserve a spotlight, as capsules that preserve ancient diversity.”



Above:
Papuan Forest Dragon

Living among the trees of Papua New Guinea, forest dragons — like Hypsilurus dilophus, pictured here — are sit-and-wait predators. Scanning for insects and small invertebrates, they remain still until the time to strike is perfect. These lizards, distantly related to dinosaurs, are part of Papuan forest fauna, which preserves fragments of Sahul, the continent that existed before New Guinea and Australia became two separate islands.

Because they were once part of the same land mass, Australia and Papua New Guinea share many similar plants and animals, such as marsupial or monotreme mammals. But while Australia lost most of its natural rainforests, and became a far drier place, Papua New Guinea retains the ancient Sahul-like woods, and many of the original inhabitants.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/10/living-relics/

Locally Sourced, Totally Fresh Ideas For an Autumnal Arrangement

Lizzie Fuhr / October 5, 2011 4:00 am / Read More: Inspiration, Fall, Flowers

Choosing flowers local to your area has such an array of benefits. Not only will you support a local florist or farmer, growing flowers naturally attracts wildlife that helps to create a natural balance of pest control for your community. Here are a five of our favorite picks that will bring a beautiful Fall vibe to your next bouquet:

Coxcomb It should come as no surprise that we love the crazy-looking coxcomb. Its unique shape and texture bring such interesting dimension to an Autumn arrangement. They look like something that could live under the sea.

 Crab Apples You may not think to include these little guys in a floral arrangement, but they can add the bright pop of red or yellow your arrangement needs.

Chrysanthemum While mums are available all year-round, their actual season is Fall. These jewel-toned beauties have such a beautiful shape.

Marigold If you want to add some Autumn flair to an arrangement, these golden and orange blooms scream Fall. While they resemble daisies and carnations, you may not know that marigolds are actually in the sunflower family.

Zinnias These bright and cheerful blooms (seen above) come in a variety of colors and go great with a number of other flowers.
http://www.casasugar.com/Fall-Flower-Arrangement-Ideas-19280333

Derby Dolls Skate Past Developers

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

 Proposed shopping center at Temple and Bonnie Brae streets/NAI Capital.


It looked the L.A. Derby Dolls, the women’s roller skating team, would have to look for a new home in late 2008 after the owners of its Historic Filipinotown headquarters and track won city approval to build four apartment towers rising as high as nine floors above Temple Street.  But that residential project went no where as the economy tanked and financing came harder to come by. Now, the property owners are trying a different track: retail.  The most recent proposal calls for transforming the 50,000-square-foot building now called The Doll Factory (it houses the Derby Doll’s track and offices) into a neighborhood shopping center with more than 1oo parking spaces.  “What I would like to see there is a grocery store,” said leasing agent Mark Ranftle with NAI Capital.

Ranftle notes that the densely populated Historic Filipinotown, which overlaps with the southern edge of Echo Park, lacks a large, modern supermarket.  But apparently the Derby Dolls, which could not be reached for comment, don’t need to rush to look for a new home.  So far there have been no takers to fill the proposed shopping center at Temple and Bonnie Brae streets, Ranftle said.

“This is all kind of tied to the economy,” Ranftle said. “People in retail in general are being very cautious. A lot of retailers are saying ‘We are just going to wait.’”