|Male and female guppies|
W. Peters, 1859
|Distribution map for Poecilia reticulata|
The guppy (Poecilia reticulata), also known as millionfish and rainbow fish, is one of the world's most widely distributed tropical fish and one of the most popular freshwater aquarium fish species. It is a member of the family Poeciliidae and, like almost all American members of the family, is live-bearing. Guppies originate from northeast South America, but have been introduced to many environments and are now found all over the world. They are highly adaptable and thrive in many different environmental and ecological conditions. Male guppies, which are smaller than females, have ornamental caudal and dorsal fins. Wild guppies generally feed on a variety of food sources, including benthic algae and aquatic insect larvae. Guppies are used as a model organism in the fields of ecology, evolution, and behavioural studies.
Guppies were first described in Venezuela as Poecilia reticulata by Wilhelm Peters in 1859 and as Lebistes poecilioides in Barbados by De Filippi in 1861. It was named Girardinus guppii by Albert Günther in honor of Robert John Lechmere Guppy, who sent specimens of the species from Trinidad to the Natural History Museum in London. It was reclassified as Lebistes reticulatus by Regan in 1913. Then in 1963, Rosen and Bailey brought it back to its original name, Poecilia reticulata. While the taxonomy of the species was frequently changed and resulted in many synonyms, "guppy" remains the common name even as Girardinus guppii is now considered a junior synonym of Poecilia reticulata.
Distribution and habitat
Guppies are native to Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Suriname, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela. However, guppies have been introduced to many different countries on every continent except Antarctica. Sometimes this has occurred accidentally, but most often as a means of mosquito control. The guppies were expected to eat the mosquito larvae and help slow the spread of malaria, but in many cases, these guppies have had a negative impact on native fish populations. Field studies reveal that guppies have colonized almost every freshwater body accessible to them in their natural ranges, especially in the streams located near the coastal fringes of mainland South America. Although not typically found there, guppies also have tolerance to brackish water and have colonized some brackish environments. They tend to be more abundant in smaller streams and pools than in large, deep, or fast-flowing rivers. They also are capable of being acclimated to full saltwater as well as being used to cycle saltwater aquariums like their molly cousins.
Guppies exhibit sexual dimorphism. While wild-type females are grey in body color, males have splashes, spots, or stripes that can be any of a wide variety of colors. The development and exhibiting of color patterns in male guppies is usually due to the amount of thyroid hormone that they contain. The thyroid hormones not only influence color pattern, but control endocrine function in response to their environment. The size of guppies vary, but males are typically 1.5–3.5 cm (0.6–1.4 in) long, while females are 3–6 cm (1.2–2.4 in) long.
A variety of guppy strains are produced by breeders through selective breeding, characterized by different colours, patterns, shapes, and sizes of fins, such as snakeskin and grass varieties. Many domestic strains have morphological traits that are very distinct from the wild-type antecedents. Males and females of many domestic strains usually have larger body size and are much more lavishly ornamented than their wild-type antecedents.
Guppies have 23 pairs of chromosomes, including one pair of sex chromosomes, the same number as humans. The genes responsible for male guppies' ornamentations are Y-chromosome linked and are heritable.
Two generations of guppies per year occur in the wild. Guppies are well developed and capable of independent existence without further parental care by the time they are born. Young guppies school together and perform antipredator tactics. Brood size is extremely variable, yet some consistent differences exist among populations depending on the predation level and other factors. Females of matching body sizes tend to produce more numerous but smaller-sized offspring in high-predation conditions. Female guppies first produce offspring at 10–20 weeks of age, and they continue to reproduce until 20–34 months of age. Male guppies mature in 7 weeks or less. Total lifespan of guppies in the wild varies greatly, but it is typically around 2 years. Variations in such life historic characteristics of guppies are observed in different populations, indicating that different evolutionary pressures exist.
Guppies' body sizes are positively correlated with age, and their size at maturation varies highly depending on the predation risk of the occupied environments. Male and female guppies from high-predation regions mature faster and start reproducing earlier, and they devote more resources to reproduction than those from low-predation regions. Females from high-predation regions reproduce more frequently and produce more offspring per litter, indicating that they are more fecund than low-predation females. Female guppies' reproductive success is also related to age. Older females produce offspring with reduced size and at increased interbrood intervals.
One major factor that affects wild guppies' senescence patterns is the mortality rate caused by predation. Guppies from high-predation environments suffer high extrinsic mortality rate because they are more likely to be killed by predators. Female guppies from high-predation environments experience a significant increase in mortality at 6 months of age, while those from low-predation environments do not suffer increased mortality until 16 months. However, guppies from high-predation environments were found to have longer lifespans because their reproductive lifespans are longer. No significant difference is seen in postreproductive lifespans.[dubious ]
In addition to senescence pattern, resource availability and density also matter in regulation of guppy populations. Guppies reduce their fecundity and reproductive allocation in response to scarce food. When food is abundant, they increase brood size. Differential reproductive allocation can be the cause of seasonality of life-history characteristics in some guppy populations. For example, during the wet season from May to December, guppies in the Northern Range of Trinidad reduce their investment in reproduction regardless of predation level, possibly in response to decreased food resources. Population density also matters in simpler environments because higher intraspecific competition causes a decrease in reproductive rate and somatic growth rate, and a corresponding increase in juvenile mortality rate due to cannibalism. It was confirmed that in low-predation environments, guppy populations are in part regulated by density.
Ecology and behavior
Guppies have the mating system called polyandry, where females mate with multiple males. Multiple mating is beneficial for males because the males' reproductive success is directly related to how many times they mate. The cost of multiple mating for males is very low because they do not provide material benefit to the females or parental care to the offspring. Conversely, multiple mating can be disadvantageous for females because it reduces foraging efficiency and increases the chances of predation and parasitic infection. However, females gain some potential benefits from multiple mating. For example, females that mate multiple times are found to be able to produce more offspring in shorter gestation time, and their offspring tend to have better qualities such as enhanced schooling and predator evasion abilities.
Female guppies mate again more actively and delay the development of a brood when the anticipated second mate is more attractive than the first male. Experiments show that remating females prefer a novel male to the original male or a brother of the original male with similar phenotypes. Females' preference for novel males in remating can explain the excessive phenotypic polymorphism in male guppies.
Inbreeding ordinarily has negative fitness consequences (inbreeding depression), and as a result species have evolved mechanisms to avoid inbreeding. Inbreeding depression is considered to be due largely to the expression of homozygous deleterious recessive mutations. Numerous inbreeding avoidance mechanisms operating prior to mating have been described. However, inbreeding avoidance mechanisms that operate subsequent to copulation are less well known. In guppies, a post-copulatory mechanism of inbreeding avoidance occurs based on competition between sperm of rival males for achieving fertilization. In competitions between sperm from an unrelated male and from a full sibling male, a significant bias in paternity towards the unrelated male was observed.
Females' mating choice
Female guppy choice plays an important role in multiple mating. Female guppies are attracted to brightly colored males, especially ones with orange spots on the flank. Orange spots can serve as an indicator of better physical fitness, as orange-spotted males are observed to swim longer in a strong current. There is also the concept of color association to possibly explain mate choice since one of the food sources wild guppies compete vigorously for is the fruit of cabrehash trees (Sloanea laurifolia), an orange carotenoid-containing fruit. The orange coloration that female guppies select for in males is composed of carotenoids, the saturation of which is affected by the male's carotenoid ingestion and parasite load. Guppies cannot synthesize these pigments by themselves and must obtain them through their diet. Because of this connection, females are possibly selecting for healthy males with superior foraging abilities by choosing mates with bright orange carotinoid pigments, thus increasing the survival chance of her offspring. Due to the advantage in mating, male guppies evolve to have more ornamentation across generations in low-predation environments where the cost of being conspicuous is lower. The rate and duration of courtship display of male guppies also play an important role in female guppies' mating choice. Courtship behavior is another indicator of fitness due to the physical strength involved in maintaining the courtship dance, called sigmoid display, in which the males flex their bodies into an S shape and vibrate rapidly.
Female mating choice may also be influenced by another female's choice. In an experiment, female guppies watched two males, one solitary and the other actively courting another female, and were given a choice between the two. Most females spent a longer time next to the male that was courting. Female guppies' preference for fit males allows their descendants to inherit better physical fitness and better chance of survival.
Guppies have many predators, such as larger fish and birds, in their native range. Some of their common predators in the wild are Crenicichla alta, Anablepsoides hartii, and Aequidens pulcher. Guppies' small bodies and the bright coloration of males make them easy prey, and like many fish, they often school together to avoid predation. Schooling is more favored by evolution in populations of guppies under high predation pressure, exerted either by predator type or predator density. Coloration of guppies also evolves differentially in response to predation. Male guppies that are brighter in color have an advantage in mating as they attract more females in general, but they have a higher risk of being noticed by predators than duller males. Male guppies evolve to be more dull in color and have fewer, smaller spots under intense predation both in wild and in laboratory settings. Female guppies in a high-predation environment also evolve to prefer brightly colored males less, often rejecting them.
When guppies encounter a potential predator, some of them approach the predator to assess danger. This behavior, called predator inspection, benefits the inspector since it gains information, but puts the inspector at a risk of predation. To reduce the risk, inspectors avoid the predator's mouth area—called the 'attack cone'—and approach the predator from the side or back. They may also form a group for protection, the size of which is larger in high-predation populations. Although evidence indicates predators are less likely to attack an inspector than a non-inspector, the inspectors remain at higher risk due to proximity to the predator.
Risk-taking behaviors such as predator inspection can be evolutionarily stable only when a mechanism prevents selfish individuals from taking advantage of "altruistic" individuals. Guppies may adopt a conditional-approach strategy that resembles tit for tat. According to this hypothesis, guppies would inspect the predator on the first move, but if their co-inspectors do not participate in the predator inspection visits or do not approach the predator close enough, they can retaliate at the trailers by copying the trailer's last move in the next predator inspection visit. The hypothesis was supported in laboratory experiments.
When guppies detect a predator, their irises rapidly darken from silver to jet black, which draws predators to attack the guppies' head instead of their body's center of mass. Perhaps counterintuitively, this predator divertive behavior allows guppies to rapidly pivot out of the way as predators lunge where the guppies' head was; this "matador-like" anti-predator behavior was first described in guppies but may be found in other animal species with bright, attention-grabbing coloration located on vital organs, such as epaulette sharks.
Guppies are also host to a range of parasites and one of these, Gyrodactylus turnbulli, has been used as a model system for studying host-parasite interactions. Recent work on this has shown that the interaction between exposure to chronic anthropogenic noise and G. turnbulli can decrease guppy survival. While a short burst of underwater noise has positive effects on parasite densities on the host. Most likely resulting in negative fitness effects for guppies.
Wild guppies feed on algal remains, diatoms, invertebrates, zooplankton, detritus, plant fragments, mineral particles, aquatic insect larvae, and other sources. Algal remains constitute the biggest proportion of wild guppy diet in most cases, but diets vary depending on the specific conditions of food availability in the habitat. For example, a study on wild Trinidad guppies showed that guppies collected from an oligotrophic upstream region (upper Aripo River) mainly consumed invertebrates, while guppies from a eutrophic downstream region (lower Tacarigua River) consumed mostly diatoms and mineral particles. Algae are less nutritious than invertebrates, and the guppies that feed mainly on algae have poor diets.
Guppies have also been observed eating native fishes’ eggs, occasionally expressing cannibalism, also eating its own young, when kept in laboratory conditions.
Guppies' diet preference is not simply correlated to the abundance of a particular food. Laboratory experiments confirmed that guppies show 'diet switching' behavior, in which they feed disproportionately on the more abundant food when they are offered two food choices. The result shows that different groups of guppies have weak and variable food preference. Diet preference in guppies could be related to factors such as the presence of competitors. For example, the lower Tacarigua River has a larger variety of species and competition for invertebrate prey is higher; therefore, the proportion of invertebrates is small in the diets of those guppies.
Guppies often forage in groups because they can find food more easily. Shoaling guppies spend less time and energy on antipredatory behavior than solitary ones and spend more time on feeding. However, such behavior results in food that is found being shared with other members of the group. Studies also show when an evolutionary cost exists, guppies that tend to shoal are less aggressive and less competitive with regards to scarce resources. Therefore, shoaling is preferred in high-predation regions, but not in low-predation regions. When guppies with a high tendency to shoal were isolated from high-predation regions and were relocated to predator-free environments, over time, they decreased their shoaling behavior, supporting the hypothesis that shoaling is less preferred in low-predation environments.
Guppies are highly prolific livebearers. The gestation period of guppies varies considerably, ranging from 20 to 60 days at 25 to 27 C and depending on several environmental factors. Reproduction typically continues through the year, and the female becomes ready for conception again quickly after parturition. Male guppies, like other members of the family Poeciliidae, possess a modified tubular anal fin called the gonopodium, located directly behind the ventral fin. The gonopodium has a channel-like structure through which bundles of spermatozoa, called spermatozeugmata, are transferred to females. In courted mating, where the female shows receptive behavior following the male's courtship display, the male briefly inserts the gonopodium into the female's genital pore for internal fertilization. However, in the case of sneaky mating where copulation is forced, the male approaches the female and thrusts the gonopodium at the female's urogenital pore.
Once inseminated, female guppies can store sperm in their ovaries and gonoducts, which can continue to fertilize ova up to eight months. Because of the sperm-storage mechanism, males are capable of posthumous reproduction, meaning the female mate can give birth to the male's offspring long after the male's death, which contributes significantly to the reproductive dynamics of the wild guppy populations.
The guppy has been successfully hybridised with various species of molly (Poecilia latipinna or P. velifera), e.g., male guppy and female molly. However, the hybrids are always male and appear to be infertile. The guppy has also been hybridised with the Endler's livebearer (Poecilia wingei) to produce fertile offspring, with the suggestion that, despite physical and behavioural differences, Endler's may represent a subspecies of Poecilia reticulata rather than a distinct species.
Due to the extensive selective breeding of guppies for desirable traits such as greater size and colour, some strains of the fish have become less hardy than their wild counterparts. Immense inbreeding of guppies has been found to affect body size, fertility and susceptibility to diseases.
In the aquarium
Guppies prefer a hard-water aquarium with a temperature between 25.5 and 27.8 °C (78 and 82 °F) and salt levels equivalent to one tablespoon per 19 L (5 US gal). They can withstand levels of salinity up to 150% that of normal seawater, which has led to them being occasionally included in marine tropical community tanks, as well as in freshwater tropical tanks. Guppies are generally peaceful, though nipping behaviour is sometimes exhibited between male guppies or towards other top swimmers like members of the genus Xiphophorus (platies and swordtails), and occasionally other fish with prominent fins, such as angelfish. Guppies should not be kept as a single fish in an aquarium because both males and females show signs of shoaling, and are usually found in large groups in the wild. Its most famous characteristic is its propensity for breeding, and it can breed in both freshwater and marine aquaria.
Guppies prefer water temperatures around 22.2–26.1 °C (72–79 °F) for reproduction. Pregnant female guppies have enlarged and darkened gravid spots near their anal vents. Just before birth, the eyes of fry may be seen through the translucent skin in this area of the female's body. When birth occurs, individual offspring are dropped in sequence, typically over a period of one to six hours. The female guppy has drops of two to 200 fry at a time, typically ranging between 30 and 60.
Well-fed adults do not often eat their own young, although sometimes safe zones are required for the fry. Specially designed livebearer birthing tanks, which can be suspended inside the aquarium, are available from aquatic retailers. These also serve to shield the pregnant female from further attention from the males, which is important because the males sometimes attack the females while they are giving birth. It also provides a separate area for the newborn young as protection from being eaten by their mother. However, if a female is put in the breeder box too early, it may cause her to have a miscarriage. Well-planted tanks that offer barriers to adult guppies shelter the young quite well. Guppy grass, water sprite, water wisteria, duckweed, and java moss are all good choices. A continuous supply of live food, such as Daphnia or brine shrimp, keep adult fish full and may spare the fry when they are born. Young fry take roughly three or four months to reach maturity. Feeding fry live foods, such as baby brine shrimp, microworms, infusoria and vinegar eels, is recommended. Alternatives include finely ground flake food, egg yolk, and liquid fish food, though the particulates in these may be too large for the youngest fry to eat.
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Each person goes through the day making assumptions. We assume the sun will rise in the east; the light will turn on in the bathroom; the shower will have hot water; the car will start when we leave for work and our computer will connect to the internet. The number of assumptions we make every day as we walk through our lives must add up into the hundreds. We are blind to them because events unfolding in front of us do not challenge our assumptions but instead support them. Unknowingly to us most of our assumptions are strengthened every day.
Perhaps assumptions are mental habits or conditioning and serve a similar purpose to learning how to tie shoes. When we first learn to tie a shoe it requires considerable attention or intentionality. We think about each move and either verbally or mentally repeat the instructions. It is a very manual and slow process. As we learn to tie our shoes we create ‘moving memory’. The more we practice the less attention is required and the faster and smoother we become. After the memory is completely programmed within us there is no benefit to keep thinking about each movement. Movement without thought can be a good thing. Ask any athlete about thinking too much when playing a sport. Just let your body do what it does and it will perform well.
Assumptions are often referred to as something bad. Many times I have heard the phrase: “You know what happens when you assume something? Makes an ass out of u and me”. So what would our lives be like if we didn’t make any assumptions? What if we thought through every situation and condition before making a decision or taking a step? If making assumptions is a bad thing then it follows that not making assumptions is a good thing.
We have all had an experience where we made an assumption that led to an unexpected and negative incident. In those situations we vow to never assume anything again because it can sneak up and bite us. Is that vow realistic or even desirable?
Why do we make assumptions? To relieve ourselves of the active thinking about events that almost always occur based upon our experiences. We don’t waste our time thinking about whether the sun will rise. We don’t think about how our bodies will digest the food we have for lunch. We don’t think about many things going on around us.
So from one perspective assumptions are time savers. That is until the assumption does not work in our favor. It is similar to the noise the refrigerator makes when it is running – you don’t notice it until it stops. We don’t see our assumptions until things do not go according to plan. Then we look for what we missed and try to see how it could have gone differently. Quite often we discover an action we overlooked but did not recognize because we made an invalid assumption.
This is especially true in business. Decisions based upon invalid assumptions can lead to disastrous results but we are blind to the assumptions until the results are coming in. And then it can be too late.
Imagine the value of a list of common invalid business assumptions that lead to poor performance. By knowing the assumptions you can avoid making them. Stay blind and you are doomed to repeat them over and over again.
During the past four years my business partner and I have been compiling such a list and have found them to fall into four categories. For the sake of brevity I have only included one invalid assumption in each category along with a description of the assumption. I have three more invalid assumptions for each category listed in a lengthier document. If you wish a copy of that document contact me through this blog or directly reach me at email@example.com.
The first category of invalid business assumptions executives make are about the Goals they develop. These are important assumptions because the goals of a business establish the performance requirements for the entire enterprise. For instance if a corporate sales goal is to increase revenue by a certain dollar amount then the year will be considered successful only if the business performs at that level. Anything less is unsatifactory. Goals and performance requirements are the same thing.
· All Goals are Achievable.
o Just because you set a goal does not mean you can achieve it. Businesses are challenged to set “Big, Hairy, Audacious, Goals” (BHAGs) but if those goals are not achievable then setting and working on the goals is actually harmful. There is nothing wrong with setting stretch goals but they need to be attainable. If it is impossible for your business to grow a certain percentage with your existing Business Model – there are five discretely defined components to a Business Model – then you have to either change the goal or redesign your business to be able to achieve that goal. If you are not designed to achieve the goal then no matter how hard you work or push your people you will not reach the goal.
· Invalid Goal assumption 2
· Invalid Goal assumption 3
· Invalid Goal assumption 4
The second category of invalid business assumptions made by executives concern the Design of their business. There seems to be an intuitive understanding that businesses have a design because the term Business Model is used frequently by CEOs. A model is the physical manifestation of a design. When a product is prototyped the designer creates a set of blueprints (designs) that are used to build the model. The next time a CEO speaks about his/her business model ask him/her to show you the design. And since the CEO’s understanding of the business design is so vague it is easy to have invalid assumptions about it. Here is one.
· Improving Information will Improve the Design of the Business
o Many executives look to IT systems to solve their problems. With better information they will be positioned to make more intelligent and timely decisions. Executives need to remember that systems support organizations / organizations execute processes / processes create products or services / products or services are delivered to customers. Systems are the last thing executives should be looking to change! Will replacing the dashboard (information system) in your car change its performance capabilities? No. The root cause problem in your business is seldom the result of any IT system. The fault usually lies in the design of the business.
· Invalid Design assumption 2
· Invalid Design assumption 3
· Invalid Design assumption 4
The third category of invalid business assumptions deals with Strategies. This is an activity that nearly executive has engaged in and can relate to. It is the source of out-of-the-box thinking and it sets the direction of the corporation for years to come. Strategic planning is considered essential for the survival of every company because executives know that to be stagnant is to die. They have to change and the vehicle for change is thought to be strategies. And if this is indeed the vehicle (which we know it is not) then any invalid assumption in this group can be crippling. Here is the first invalid business assumption in this group:
· Strategies are Strategies
o Not all strategies are created equal. There are at least three types of strategies: design strategies, implementation strategies and execution strategies. The nature of each type of strategy is very different as well as their timing. Business executives often confuse a design strategy with the design of the business. They are two completely different ideas and need to be kept separate in order to reduce confusion. Know the difference between design and strategy.
· Invalid Strategy assumption 2
· Invalid Strategy assumption 3
· Invalid Strategy assumption 4
The fourth group of invalid business assumptions is about Performance. Performance is important for the health of the organization. If there is substandard performance from the customer’s perspective then sales will suffer and the business will fail. Customers are looking for companies that can offer the greatest Value Proposition. If there are performance issues as it relates to the return on investment then stockholders will opt to invest their monies in better performing businesses. Shareholders are looking to create personal wealth and companies that are not financially successful suffer in the market place and that has a negative impact on the company’s stock price. Actual Performance is very important in the long-term prospects of any company.
· Performance Problems are Always Execution Problems
o Business executives are aware of the impact that the quality of a design has on the performance of the product but they fail to apply that understanding to their business. 80% of the time the quality and relevance of the business design is at the root of performance problems. A poor design can never result in good performance. But since executives are unaware of business design they see execution as the culprit. Execution is particularly attractive to management since those problems are the fault of the employees while the quality of the design is management’s responsibility.
· Invalid Performance assumption 2
· Invalid Performance assumption 3
· Invalid Performance assumption 4
Knowing that you are operating under an invalid assumption may give you the chance to change your decision making. If you are making assumptions about things that you can control then you do have the option to make changes. If your assumptions are about large external events such as the economy, then you can not control the outcome but you can develop scenarios.


It’s that time of year again! A day to reflect on all the things your mother has done for you and show her your appreciation with a gift, hug and kiss. The only thing better than the sweet sentiment this Sunday, May 11th, is the days’ revolutionary feminist history and its connection to the church.
Mother’s Day, as we know it in America, is the result of years of women’s activism that coincided with other women’s movement, such as the women’s suffrage and labor movements, around the turn of the 20th century.
In the years right before the American Civil War, Ann Reeves Jarvis, from West Virginia, began organizing “Mother’s Day Work Clubs’ to help improve health and sanitation through women’s education. At about the same time, Boston poet and feminist Julia Ward Howe published “A Mother’s Day Proclamation.”
Following Ann’s death in 1905, her daughter Anna began petitioning for a national holiday that celebrates mothers everywhere. She sent letters to President William Taft and former President Theodore Roosevelt, and even enlisted financial help from John Wanamaker, a Philadelphia department store owner. She also began organizing her own Mother’s Day celebration at a church in Grafton, West Virginia.
The Mother’s Day custom reportedly spread to other churches around the country, causing lawmakers to pass a resolution to make it a national holiday in 1914. This year’s Mother’s Day is the 100th anniversary of Mother’s Day so please take a moment to honor all the mothers in your life and all the pioneering women who made this holiday a reality!
Here’s a photo montage in honor of weather’s mom, Mother Earth – enjoy!:
Happy Mother’s Day!
The WeatherBug – Earth Networks Team


What Supportive Govt Policies Can Do: North Carolina Becomes Hotbed for Renewables
Think about 23 acres of solar panels stretching to the horizon. Now think about them all on one roof, topping Shoe Show's distribution center in North Carolina.
That's a big roof and its North Carolina's largest rooftop solar system and among the largest in the US. They produce 5 megawatts (MW) of solar a year, enough to supply over 600 homes.
The $22 million project paid for 18,500 PV panels for the nation's leading independent shoe retailer.
Rather than using the power for Shoe Snow's electricity, it will be sold to Duke Energy or the city of Concord through a power purchase agreement, giving the company an additional revenue stream.
Federal tax credits which allow owners to deduct 30% of the project cost combined with a 35% tax credit from the state of North Carolina, reduced the payment period from 20 years to 5-6 years. Combined with much lower prices for solar panels, the project made business sense.
Toys "R" Us is building the largest rooftop PV system in the country at 5.38 MW on its New Jersey distribution center. It's also greening 44 stores.
North Carolina Becoming Solar Hotbed
These tax breaks combined with the state's Renewable Energy Standard, which requires the state to get 12.5% of its electricity from renewables by 2021, are combining to make solar an important growth industry.
North Carolina has plenty of open land, sun, wind and major transmission lines tied to the PJM Interconnection, the largest competitive wholesale electricity market in the world.
"Alternative energy is one of our main economic niches now," Vann Rogerson, president of North Carolina's Northeast Commission, which recruits industry there, told The Virginian-Pilot.
Utilities are ahead of schedule, especially in solar, Julie Robinson of the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association said.
A 20 MW Perquimans solar plant will power nearly 3000 homes, almost half the homes in the county.
And many other solar plants are being built: Duke Energy Renewable's Murfreesboro 6.4 MW Solar Project, and BGE Carolina Solar's 3 MW plant.
Apple is building a solar farm to power its new $1 billion data center there.
On the wind energy side, Iberdrola Renewables is planning 150 turbines on 20,000 acres and Invenergy plans to do the same. Together, the projects could power about 100,000 homes.
Who says we can't transition to renewable energy?!


Wise Teacher, Wise Student: Tibetan Approaches to a Healthy Relationship
Wise Teacher, Wise Student by Alexander Berzin explores the intricate and complex relationship between Western students and Eastern teachers. This particular type of relationship has its own unique set of challenges due to language barriers, cultural divides, and occasionally conflicting expectations. Berzin focuses on bridging the gap between the two worlds by exploring the student-teacher relationship through the Tibetan Buddhist outlook and its implications for Western students.
The text explores the basics of Tibetan Buddhism, including what a typical spiritual seeker in traditional Tibet would look like. I appreciated that Berzin provided information about the influence on Chinese occupation of Tibet as a means of bringing Tibetan Buddhism to the West. While this occupation is indeed tragic, it has provided the vehicle for Western students to learn about and participate in spiritual rituals and practice. I found this to be an important piece of information for understanding why this particular type of relationship needed special exploration in the first place. According to Berzin, Western spiritual seekers are very different from their Eastern counterparts. Tibetan seekers usually start their spiritual journey and education at a very young age, while most Western students begin their study as adults, after receiving a formal education, and expecting equality and full knowledge of each and every step of the spiritual journey.
After exploring these differences, Berzin touched on foundational concepts and ideas such as the Four Noble Truths and the Eight Fold Path, rectified terms, including the differences and misconceptions surrounding the terms guru and lama; and laid out basic requirements for a seeker and teacher. While this was only the first of three sections of the book, this one definitely feel the heaviest and most time consuming due to the sheer volume of information it contained. The other two sections explored the dynamics of a healthy relationship with a spiritual teacher, and unhealthy relationship behaviors such as fear, overdependence, and even rebellion. These two I found much more interesting, although somewhat dry.
The section that struck me most was on the importance of establishing a relationship based on respect. Part of establishing a healthy relationship with a mentor is focusing on that mentor’s good qualities and strengths. This is not to say that the student should ignore the bad qualities or shortcomings of their mentor, but that they should mediate and focus their energy on the positive attributes. By dwelling on the negative aspects and things one doesn’t like about their teacher, a student can potentially miss out on the lessons and parts that are positive. I found this to be a great overall piece of advice for engaging in any sort of relationship, be it with a spiritual teacher, a friend, family member, or partner. Many times relationships, of any kind, can be trying and difficult, but if you can focus on the things you appreciate about the person, you’ll be much more willing or in a place to engage in a respectful and healthy manner. Any relationship based on respect, on behalf of both parties engaged, has the greatest chance at being healthy and fruitful for all involved.
On a whole, I found the book to be very overwhelming. There was a lot of important information packed into relatively small sections. At times, it assumed the reader had a slightly greater than basic understanding of Buddhist concepts and practices, but at others, found space to break down actual terms into digestible nuggets of information. Due to this strange assumption about the knowledge base of the reader, I had a difficult time figuring out who the target audience for such a book would be. While I understand the desire to appeal to and be useful to a wider audience, I found it difficult to navigate some of the information. I found it most appropriate for a class at a Dharma center, or an intermediate course on Buddhism.


A patent print poster of the Phillips Screw and Driver (called Means for Uniting A Screw with a Driver). The patent was issued by the United States Patent Office on July 7, 1936. This is in essence the patent for both the Phillips screw and Phillips Head Screw Driver. It was invented by Henry F. Phillips. The Phillips screw drive was created by John P. Thompson, who after failing to interest manufacturers, sold his design to businessman Henry F. Phillips who patented it. Phillips is credited with forming Phillips Screw Company, improving the design, and promoting the adoption of his product.
Patent prints allow you to have a piece of history in your home, office, man cave, geek den or anywhere you wish to add an interesting touch.


Outdoor Hour Challenge #2
Using Your Words
1. Read page 15 in the Handbook of Nature Study. (The Field Excursion) Read page 23-24 in the Handbook of Nature Study. (How to Use This Book) Make note of any points you want to remember. My favorite is "The chief aim of this volume is to encourage investigation rather than to give information." This is where many people misunderstand the HNS. It is not a field guide but it teaches us how to help our children with nature study.
2. "It is a mistake to think that a half day is necessary for a field lesson, since a very efficient field trip may be made during the ten or fifteen minutes at recess, if it is well planned." Challenge yourself to take another 10-15 minute "excursion" outdoors in your own yard again this week. Before setting out on your walk, sit with your children and explain to them that when you remain quiet during your nature time, you are more likely to hear interesting things. Brainstorm some sounds they might hear and build some excitement about remaining quiet during their nature walk this week. Take your walk and if they get rowdy, use the universal finger over your lips sign to get them to quiet down. Set a good example and be quiet yourself, modeling how to listen carefully.
3. After your walk, challenge your children to come up with words to describe the following things:
One word to describe something they heard. (For example: rustling, snapping, crunching or chirping)
Two words for something they saw. (For example: tall trees, frozen water, red birds)
Three words for something they felt. (For example: freezing cold wind, rough sticky pinecone)
The point of this assignment is to get them to start thinking about what they see as they go along. Each time they take a nature walk they will develop more and more vocabulary and this will eventually trickle down to their nature journals. If they have difficulty coming up with things to say, help them out with some of your own words to get them started and they will soon catch on. Once we start identifying objects they see on their nature walks, you will be surprised at how easily they remember the specific names of plants, trees, and birds.
4. Optional nature journal entry:
Use their words as the basis for a simple nature journal entry. If the child is too young to write in the journal himself, you can write for them. "Everything he learns should be added to his nature notebook by him or, if he's too little to write, his mother." Charlotte Mason, volume 1, page 58.
At this point, you can pull out some colored pencils or crayons and invite them to illustrate their nature journal page if they want to. I always leave it as an option for my boys and I would say about half the time they draw. I feel like the nature walk and the discussion is the meat of our nature study and that it is the most important part of what we do. "No child should be compelled to have a notebook." HNS page 14 (Next week we will read about drawing in our nature journals in the Handbook of Nature Study, page 17.)
5. If in your discussion of your nature walk your child expresses a particular interest in something they saw or heard or felt, make a note of it for further research later in the week. Remember to check your Handbook of Nature Study index for more information about your nature interests.
If you create a blog entry for this challenge or any other challenge this month, please submit it to the Outdoor Hour Challenge Blog Carnival so other families can be inspired to continue in their nature study.


Sunday, January 31, 2016
Time may be at its most precious in relation to modern teacher professional development. Our school calendars, established generations ago, often provide scant time for teacher training, sometimes only four or five days.
Yet teacher professional development has never been more crucial as schools seek ways to alter and improve classroom instruction. In pursuit of more time for this activity, we shorten school days, having late starts, early dismissals, sometimes even entire days with no students. However, we do so with extreme reservations because we know one of the Correlates of the Effective Schools Research is to carefully guard student time on task (Lezotte, 1991).
As our local economies and our state tax bases slowly improve in the wake of the devastating recession of 2008 to 2015, we may be on the verge of an opportunity to improve education by creating more time for professional development. Most schools in the United States have been cash-strapped for nine years. As a result, teacher salaries have fallen behind, teachers have suffered, and the teacher shortage has approached critical levels in many instructional areas.
Now is the time to put more money toward teacher pay and include additional days as part of the package. This can be done at a local level by re-prioritizing our budgets, but it should also be a state initiative.
Some state legislators believe that fully funding their state's education formula does little to attract attention to themselves, advance their political clout, or garner votes in the next election. However, tying new dollars for teachers to additional time for professional development could be a stirring idea. We know teacher training has the potential to enhance student achievement. This would be using tax money directly for the purpose of improving classroom instruction.
This will be an idea most teachers will support. Most teachers have never been afraid to put in additional time, and many are actively seeking ways to improve. Linking additional pay to time for school improvement could be a winning combination.
I urge us all to talk to our legislators about putting more money into education with the intent of purchasing additional days and ultimately improving education in the United States.
Image Credit: The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dalí, 1931, Museum of Modern Art, New York City
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
A decade and a half into the 21st Century, computers are everywhere. Most people carry in their pockets a smart phone that has more computer power than all of NASA had at its disposal in 1969 when it landed a man on the moon. Today’s mobile devices are more powerful than the desktop computers of the 1990’s.
This is only going to increase. Today we carry our mobile devices in our pockets. Tomorrow we will be wearing them and putting them on each morning as we do our clothing. The education of today’s students must include how to effectively use modern technologies. It is right and appropriate that our schools modernize so that technology is integrated into instruction as it will be in the workplace of the future for our students.
Schools planning for a digital learning initiative have some parents who naturally express apprehension about whether or not students are responsible enough to care for such powerful and expensive digital learning devices. Certainly responsible behavior often matures with age. However, this is exactly one of the reasons we needed computers in the hands of the kids—that we need to teach them how to use their computers responsibly.
With this new movement of digital learning devices in schools, a new curriculum is emerging. The whole world is now accessible to any student with a digital device, and schools need to teach digital citizenship. All schools need a K-12 curriculum in this area, and teachers need training in how to instruct digital citizenship skills.
October 18 – 24 this year was National Digital Citizenship Week. A growing number of schools each year are engaging in learning activities at all grade levels with lessons designed to teach students the responsible use of technology tools.
I endorse the work of Common Sense Media (www.commonsensemedia.org). They have an appropriate K-12 curriculum with a coordinated scope and sequence and age-appropriate lessons that address digital literacy and citizenship topics. Their curriculum includes professional development materials, student interactives, assessments, and family outreach materials. What is more, their curriculum is free and it is turnkey so schools can use immediately. This is welcome and refreshing news for the many public schools across this nation that have been bludgeoned by repeated budget cuts over the past decade.Digital literacy and citizenship skills are skills that students can use for the rest of their lives. New devices and systems will come and go, but responsible use of technologies will be timeless. A brave new world is emerging, characterized by anytime, anywhere connections for everyone. This age is coming with new challenges and new trials for our children. However, schools can play an important role in educating students for how to use technology responsibly.
Friday, October 23, 2015
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
There is a paradox present in the public perceptions of the schools in the United States. For years I have seen this same result in the annual Gallup poll on American public K-12 education. A paraphrase of one question reads, “Overall, how satisfied are you with the quality of K-12 education in the U.S. today?”
In the latest poll (which is very similar to poll results for each of the last ten years), only 45 percent of those polled expressed some level of satisfaction with the quality of America’s public schools. The majority, or 54 percent, indicated dissatisfaction.
At the same time for each of the last 17 years, people were polled with a similar question, but one with a distinct difference. Parents were asked, “How satisfied are you with the quality of education your oldest child is receiving?”
Overwhelmingly, parents expressed satisfaction with the quality of the local school system their child is attending. A dominant 76 percent of parents said they were either completely satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the educational quality of their child’s K-12 school. Only 18 percent expressed dissatisfaction.
And these results were very similar to the results recorded fifteen years earlier in 2000 and with little deviation throughout the intervening years.
If this polling truly represents the length and breadth of our great nation, then the two numbers should be similar and not polar opposites. Gallup is among the best in the business. I trust their poll numbers. On a school-by-school basis, our American public is pleased with public school quality. The difference in the polling tells me there is a perception problem.
People know their local schools from first-hand experience. However, the only way the average person can know our nation’s schools is by what they read and hear from national news, politicians, and pundits.
Let us cut through the phony criticism. Americans like their schools. They regard the schools as providing quality education to their children.This is an opportunity to celebrate and demonstrate our optimism for public schools. In business the customer is always right. For America’s schools, their customers support the work they are doing.
Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Public education is in a state of crisis. It is vilified by uninformed media, greedy business people, and opportunistic politicians who decry it as a failed institution and a waste of tax dollars. As a result, political leaders, policy makers, and legislators decide to limit further investment in this otherwise essential public service.
The result of this condemnation is ongoing underfunding, dwindling resources, discouragement, and a teacher shortage now in drought conditions. Perhaps the greatest casualty of this onslaught is the erosion of public confidence in its schools. This is indeed a sad and unjustified loss.
An essential part of the job of every public educator must be advocacy for the profession. This is hard for many of us. It does not fit in our wheelhouse. We were never trained with any sense that public relations was a key essential among our job skills. As a result, some shrink from this duty. I have heard it said, “I just want to go into my classroom and teach.” Unfortunately, the ostrich approach is one of the limitations we must overcome.
However, we have those champions among us who step forward and lead. Understandably, when an institution is under attack, supporters often respond emotionally to the attacks. This sometimes results in acrimonious replies and accusations laced with vitriol. For all of us who have become disgusted with politicians, we cringe at their affronts and hate-instilling rhetoric.
To build a brighter future for public education, we need to frame our narrative with positive messages. Let us tell our public what is still right about our school, how they are making a difference, and how much more we can accomplish if we have adequate resources. This builds alliances and supporters. People want to be part of a positive and hopeful cause.
Eschew the urge to fight back. We appear small as a result. Confrontation intimidates many. Fill the message with the many wonderful things happening in education today.
If you think about it, this can be really easy. Our work in service to humankind writes a million positive stories every day. The time is now to bring forth all the good there is in our profession. We need to emphasize the benefits to civilization as well as the rewards we reap as career educators.
People want to hear the positive messages. In a world where the nightly news is inundated with stories of sadness, suffering, and sometimes horror, we have the opportunity to be the shining star that guides our culture. People want to hear what is right with the world. So let us all start and end our conversations with all that is good in public education. When we all do this, our public support will return.
So sing it with me: “The sun’ll come out tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar, . . .”


Since his head was separated from his body 300 years ago this month, Edward Teach (or Thache), also known as Blackbeard the pirate, has served as the archetype of the bloodthirsty rogues who once roamed Caribbean and Atlantic coastal waters.
Only in the past few years have genealogists, historians and archaeologists, thanks to a combination of hard work and good luck, unearthed surprising clues that reveal the man behind the legend, one that Blackbeard himself helped spawn. In his day, merchants whispered his name in fright. Reports circulated of a large man with “fierce and wild” eyes who kept a brace of three pistols on a holster across his chest and a tall fur cap on his head. Lighted matches made his luxurious beard smoke “like a frightful meteor.”
This pirate, according to a British account written a half-dozen years after his death, “frightened America more than any comet that has appeared there [for] a long time.” But Blackbeard vanished abruptly when a British naval expedition personally funded by Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood ambushed him and most of his men in a bloody battle off Ocracoke Island on November 22, 1718. Blackbeard’s head was stuck on a piling off Hampton, Virginia, as a warning to other lawbreakers.
The fearsome buccaneer never scared Hollywood producers, however. Blackbeard gained new notoriety in the mid-20th century, when the 1952 movie Blackbeard the Pirate proved popular. A half-dozen films centered on his exploits followed, and he emerged as the quintessential cinematic pirate. In 2006, he garnered his own miniseries detailing his search for Captain Kidd’s treasure. He even had an encounter with Jack Sparrow in the 2011 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. These representations further embellished a legend that long ago overwhelmed historical truth. “The real story of Blackbeard has gone untold for centuries,” says Baylus Brooks, a Florida-based maritime historian and genealogist.
Even the most basic biographical details about Blackbeard have been hotly disputed. No one knows the year of his birth or even its location; some claim Bristol, in western England; others point to Jamaica. Still others insist he was from North Carolina or Philadelphia. His early life was a complete mystery. But few had attempted to trace Blackbeard’s family tree.
On a lazy summer morning in 2014, Brooks wondered if there might be records of any Teaches or Thaches in Jamaica, one of the places the pirate was said to consider home. Then he remembered his subscription to Ancestry.com and began his research there. “I expected nothing, but I got a hit,” he says. It was the baptismal record of Cox Thache, a son of Edward and Lucretia Theach (Thache and Theach were common variants of Teach), in the Jamaican settlement of Spanish Town in 1700. “This was all in about two hours over coffee in my favorite chair,” Brooks recalls.
Brooks knew that an English visitor to Jamaica in 1739 made reference to meeting members of Blackbeard’s family residing in Spanish Town, and his mother was said at that time to be still living. “My life had changed,” said Brooks. Ever since, he has been on the paper trail of the pirate’s family tree. With the help of Jamaican researcher Dianne Golding Frankson, he discovered that Edward Thache—who Brooks believes was Blackbeard’s father—was a captain and a man of status who remarried twice; Lucretia was his last wife.
The real treasure that Brooks found, however, was a yellowed 1706 document on a shelf in the parish archives retrieved by Frankson. Written aboard the 60-gun Royal Navy ship Windsor while it was anchored in the harbor of Jamaica’s Port Royal, the author was Edward Thache’s son, who bore the same name. In this deed, Thache turns his late father’s estate over to his stepmother, Lucretia, for the “love and affection I have for and bear towards my brother and sister Thomas Theache and Rachel Theache”—his half siblings.
If Brooks is right, then Blackbeard joined the Royal Navy and magnanimously turned his father’s estate, which as the oldest son he inherited by law, over to his Jamaican family. Checking the Windsor logbooks, he discovered an Edward Thache who had arrived in England aboard a Barbados merchant ship. On April 12, 1706, the young man joined the crew while the ship was anchored off England’s Isle of Wight near Portsmouth.
In Brooks’ telling, Blackbeard’s family left Bristol while the pirate was still young to seek their fortune on the wealthy island of Jamaica, where sugar was known as white gold. They owned enslaved Africans and appear to have been of high social status. Why the young Edward, likely in his mid-20s, would leave home to join a merchant ship and then the Royal Navy is not clear, but it may have been a natural step to achieve advancement as well as nautical experience.
This historical Blackbeard is far different from the rampaging maniac or Robin Hood figure of myth. Brooks’ Thache is a well-educated man of social grace, literate and capable of using complex navigational equipment. This background would explain why, shortly before his death, he hit it off so well with North Carolina’s governor Charles Eden and other leading members of the colony. The pirate might have even been upset over the demise of the House of Stuart that put George I—a German speaker—on the English throne, perhaps the reason he renamed a stolen French ship the Queen Anne’s Revenge, after the last Stuart monarch.
Other historians have recently noted that despite Blackbeard’s terrible reputation, no evidence exists that he ever killed anyone before his final battle at Ocracoke, near Cape Hatteras, when he was fighting for his life. “He likely cultivated that murderous image,” says Charles Ewen, an archaeologist at East Carolina University. “Scaring people was a better option than to damage what you are trying to steal.”
Brooks admits he cannot definitively prove his Thache is our Blackbeard, but other scholars find Brooks’ case compelling. “It makes sense and it seems credible,” says Ewen. Some are more cautious. “There is some validity,” adds historian Angus Konstam, “but it is not yet tied up.”
What drew Blackbeard to piracy a decade after joining the Royal Navy, however, is not a matter of dispute. In 1715, a fleet of Spanish ships left Havana, Cuba, for Spain filled with treasure, including vast quantities of silver. An early hurricane wrecked the ships on Florida’s Atlantic coast, drowning more than a thousand sailors. English pirates, privateers, and others—particularly Jamaicans—descended on the area to plunder the vessels, sparking what Trent University historian Arne Bialuschewski calls “a gold rush.”
Blackbeard first appears in the records as a pirate at this moment.
His career, like so many of his colleagues, was short-lived; within two years he was dead. “People have this romantic notion of piracy, but it was not a cushy lifestyle,” says Kimberly Kenyon, field director for excavation of the Queen Anne’s Revenge, which went aground outside Beaufort, North Carolina, and was abandoned shortly before Blackbeard’s death.
Kenyon’s team has hauled more than 400,000 artifacts to the surface, from two-dozen massive cannons to a fragment of a page from a 1712 travel book—Blackbeard was known to plunder books as well as commodities. The pirate may have had a fondness for good food too, since records show that he kept the ship’s French cook. The archaeological team has also found remains of wild boar, deer, and turkey, a sign that the crew hunted fresh meat. And the team has only excavated half of the wreck—the world’s only pirate wreck to be scientifically studied.
But if Blackbeard was loath to use violent means, he certainly was ready to do so. The ship was heavily armed with 250,000 bits of lead shot, 400 cannonballs, dozens of grenades, and many muskets, as well as a total of 40 English and Swedish cannon. Disease likely posed a greater threat than the Royal Navy, however, as evidenced by the urethral syringe found by archaeologists still bearing traces of mercury, a popular treatment at the time for syphilis.
The recent archaeological finds coupled with Brooks’ research may make Blackbeard “even more enigmatic,” says Kenyon. He is no longer the cardboard villain of the past, but his personality and motives are still unclear. “He continues to be so elusive. There are so many facets to this person. That’s what makes him fascinating.
Editor's note, November 20, 2018: This story has been corrected to indicate that Blackbeard joined his crew near Portsmouth, not Plymouth.


I had trouble deciding what I wanted to create after being given this prompt, because there were so many options. I decided to create “Pentagon,” a game in which a player used objects to move other objects.
My game starts with five circles (in my class, I named them Ron, Hermione, Hagrid, Sirius, and Lupin) stacked on top of one another. If the player touches any of the circles, the screen pulses black and white. Touching Ron causes Hermione to move, while touching Hermione causes Hagrid to move, while touching Hagrid causes Sirius to move, and so on. The goal of Pentagon is to create the titular shape by touching circles until they line up to form the point of a pentagon, like so:
This goal is simple, so I decided to make the screen pulse black and white when any circle is being touched to make the pentagon harder to form (and hence why the pentagon in the picture isn’t perfect.)
Pentagon isn’t finished yet; I still want to add a win state. Right now, I’m trying to figure out how to trigger a win state when the circles line up with specific pentagonal points on the screen, but I’m having trouble making the tablet differentiate between a circle passing a point briefly (which shouldn’t trigger the win state) and a circle actually being stopped on a point.


How to Manage Pests
Pests in Gardens and Landscapes
Raywood ash canker and decline
Fraxinus oxycarpa 'Raywood' commonly is affected by this disease. Although trees usually are not killed, severely affected ash are often removed because of unsightly dieback, reduced shading, and their potential limb drop hazard.
Dieback of multiple branches throughout the canopy is indicative of Raywood ash canker and decline. Botryosphaeria stevensii can usually be isolated from the dead branches and is believed to contribute to the decline.
The Botryosphaeria stevensii fungus is a weak (secondary) pathogen. It is aggressive and damaging only when trees are stressed, such as by adverse growing conditions. Stressful site conditions and especially moisture deficit predispose Raywood ash to Botryosphaeria damage.
Raywood ash is apparently less drought tolerant than previously believed. Occasional deep watering during the drought season and pruning to thin canopies and reduce transpiration demand may improve the performance of Raywood ash.
Green ash, Fraxinus pennsylvanica, appears not to suffer from this problem. It is a similar-looking alternative for planting.
Raywood ash leaves dying from ash dieback
Limb cankers on Raywood ash


It is evident that water crises in California are not new. In recent times, however, record drought, groundwater contamination and overdraft, environmental impacts, aging infrastructure, a growing population, competing water needs, and climate change have further elevated the sense of urgency in addressing California’s water quality, supply reliability, and food production.
Recognizing the complex and long-term nature of these challenges, CRWFS began a yearlong series of dialogues focused on what the members believe is the major impediment to resolving these issues—widespread disconnection—and identifying a new, strategic and unified approach to addressing them.
From Crisis to Connectivity: Renewed Thinking About Managing California’s Water and Food Supplydescribes the resulting connectivity approach. The report provides a whole-systems framework for applying the concept of connectivity to our water management decisions, including guiding principles for:
- Connected thinking
- Institutional linkages
- Public and stakeholder engagement
Various food and water management projects are already underway throughout the state that apply these guiding principles and generate the sorts of connected-benefit solutions described in the report. Several of these are featured in the accompanying booklet, Applying the Connectivity Approach: Water and Food Supply Projects in California that Connect, Link, and Engage.
Download: Applying the Connectivity Approach: Water and Food Supply Projects in California that Connect, Link, and Engage


The individual works of Paul Backes (distributed and remote operations), Eric T. Baumgartner (manipulator control) and Larry Matthies (navigation systems) have advanced robotic technology, particularly rover operations, and made possible the scientific exploration of Mars. The three played individual roles in the overall integration of robotic technology used in space flight systems, particularly the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission Spirit and Opportunity rovers. The rovers are designed to carryout complex tasks safely, while exhibiting human-like qualities such as awareness, cognition and judgment. The contributions of Backes, Baumgartner and Matthies have broad significance to the robotics field in both terrestrial and space applications and have been widely cited in robotics literature.
Dr. Matthies, an associate member of IEEE, pioneered the development of algorithms for visual odometry and real-time 3D perception with stereo vision and contributed to algorithms for visual descent velocity estimation. These capabilities were incorporated into the MER mission, enabling landers to estimate horizontal velocity and rovers to detect obstacles and measure slip. Dr. Matthies’ work is the origin of the rovers’ visual abilities. He is currently supervisor, Computer Vision Group, and Senior Research Scientist at JPL. Dr. Matthies has twice received NASA’s Exceptional Achievement medal, holds two patents, and has published over 100 refereed papers. He holds a bachelor’s of science degree from the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, a master’s of mathematics from the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, and a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, in computer science.


Pesticide Action Network Updates Service (PANUPS)
A Weekly News Update on Pesticides, Health and Alternatives
See PANUPS archive for complete information.
Senators heard testimony this week about how exposure to toxic chemicals may be linked to learning and developmental problems like autism, and how biomonitoring could strengthen the federal government's ability to protect the public from toxic chemicals. At a Senate subcommittee hearing on Superfund, Toxics, and Environmental Health, public health advocates presented Mind, Disrupted, a biomonitoring project documenting dozens of neurotoxic chemicals in the bodies of adults who experienced developmental delays themselves or in their families. Each of the 12 volunteer participants in the study, which used biomonitoring to measure chemical in blood and urine, tested positive for at least 26 of the 89 measured chemicals. Overall, 61 chemicals known or suspected to cause neurological damage were present in the bodies of study participants. While the Mind, Disrupted report (PDF) doesn't claim that specific chemicals found can be blamed for the participants' health problems, it raises the question of the risks such chemicals—found in everyday products such as baby bottles, computers and conventionally grown produce—may pose to public health.
TSCA reform: This week's Senate hearing was part of ongoing discussions in Congress about updating the national law governing industrial chemicals, the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Many scientists and environmental health advocates cite the fact that U.S. EPA has evaluated just 200 of the estimated 80,000 industrial chemicals in commerce—and banned only five—as evidence of TSCA’s failure to protect the health of consumers. A coalition of more than 120 organizations called Safer Chemicals Healthy Families is pressing for a fundamental overhaul of the 30 -year-old law to better protect the public from toxic chemicals. Such advocates argue that methods like biomonitoring to test for chemical exposure could play an important role in strengthening TSCA. “A strong biomonitoring program could provide the evidence regulators need to take action reducing exposures of concern," says Margaret Reeves, Senior Scientist at Pesticide Action Network. "A program designed to include key geographic and demographic information would enable regulators to target policies to best protect those most exposed such as workers, infants and children, the elderly or immune-suppressed individuals.”
In designing a national biomonitoring program EPA could look to California’s precedent-setting Environmental Contaminants Biomonitoring Program passed into law in 2006. Key elements of the California program include community participation in selecting target chemicals, and the right of those tested to receive their individual test results. Subcommittee Chair Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) is expected to introduce a TSCA reform bill soon that may include biomonitoring as a means to decide which chemicals should be prioritized for evaluation.
Ontario lawn-care companies are taking legal action against doctors, public health officials, and environmentalists who publicly lobbied for a ban on the cosmetic use of pesticides. An individual representing approximately 400 residential lawn companies claims that the ban, which took effect on Earth Day last spring, could cost the industry more than $300 million and was based on a falsified health study from the Ontario College of Family Physicians. The College stands behind its study, calling the lawn-care companies' claims baseless. Among those targeted by the request for charges are members of the Ontario College of Family Physicians, the Canadian Cancer Society, and Canadian Associate of Physicians for the Environment. The same individual, Kingston resident Jeffrey Lowes, also asked for charges against Ontario Environment Minister John Gerretsen and five senior officials who worked on the ban in a separate action. The charges against government officials are thought to have very little chance of proceeding. Environmentalists and physicians named in the suit -- who do not share the relative immunity of government officials -- say that making the case for laws that are being considered is an important part of the democratic process that should not be subject to “frivolous legal disputes by companies or individuals opposed to regulatory actions.” Across Canada, Nova Scotia and British Columbia are currently considering similar bans. Quebec phased its ban into effect between 2003 and 2006 and now contains the strictest standards in North America. Quebec's ban prompted Dow Agrosciences to file a notice of intent to seek compensation under the investor protection provisions North American Free Trade Agreement.
Next week the New Hampshire state legislature will debate House Bill 1456, which would create a committee to “Study the effects of a moratorium on the use of…pesticides and herbicides…in residential neighborhoods, school properties, playgrounds, and other places children congregate.” The bill, sponsored by Rep. Suzanne Smith, is inspired by the movement to ban the cosmetic use of pesticides that is sweeping across Canada: cities from coast to coast, and the provinces of Quebec, Ontario—and most recently New Brunswick— have all enacted bans on lawn care pesticides, and other provinces are considering similar measures. Such a moratorium in New Hampshire would be the first in the States. HB 1456 would not actually ban anything—it would only establish a committee to explore the consequences of a ban—but already the pesticide corporations are circling their wagons. Industry groups have reportedly sent notices to every lawn care professional in the state urging them to lobby against the bill. Meanwhile, public health and environmental advocates are working hard to educate legislators on the issue. The LEAH Collective and other local groups will hold a screening the film “A Chemical Reaction” for legislators, and the filmmaker, Paul Tukey, will testify before the legislature. The feature-length documentary tells the story of the Canadian movement to ban lawn and landscape pesticides. According to Tukey, "the chemical industry is clearly threatened by this bill and they'll fight it every inch of the way. But this bill is just the start
of a tidalwave that the chemical industry can't stop."