Adding it up

I hope to be able shortly to post in a little more depth about New Jersey’s Natural Capital valuation project, which was reported on by Janet Babin today for Marketplace. Since the days of Soviet command economies and the joke of Leontief’s input-output tableaux, through the imputation of the value of services (which dominate goods in the post-industrial economy), down through today’s valuation of privately-held companies, the assignment of a dollar figure to a transaction or an asset when no money is changing hands at a market-clearing price is a dodgy proposition. So a healthy skepticism is in order when it comes to assigning dollar values for the services provided by an ecosystem. Nevertheless, I am encouraged by New Jersey’s efforts to do just that.

Protecting the environment is a public service provided by government (along with other entities), and it requires the expenditure of money and effort to do it. So environment protection competes, if you will, for the scarce resources available to government, which is beset by demands for all sorts of other services (some of them worthwhile, some of them hopelessly foolish, some of them mere plundering). Putting a dollar figure on the value of undeveloped land, even one that is wrong by an order of magnitude, helps legislators and policymakers compare apples to apples and make better-informed decisions.

There is a tendency among certain members of the environmental community to treat the environment as a treasure without price, and in the extreme, that’s true. (It should be noted that defenders of human life and liberty, be they terrorism hawks or right-to-lifers, tend to argue similarly.) But I’m beginning to think that this is a fruitless way to reason about natural resource conservation.

Upcoming: 6

I really don’t spend as much time out in the field actively birding as I would like to, but I like to make time for Cornell’s Great Backyard Bird Count, which is held each February over the Presidents’ Day weekend. I’ve done a couple of Christmas Bird Counts, but the GBBC has some advantages. I’m in control of the when and the where—I can bird anywhere I like, for as little as 15 minutes at a time, any time in the course of the weekend. The Christmas counts have an air of friendly competition, and that’s fine, but the GBBC is more about reconnecting with your local habitat.

There is a half-mile stretch of blacktop trail along The Glade (a tributary of Angelico Branch) that I like to work for the GBBC. It’s mixed hardwoods with some open patches, so it’s usually good for the area’s common winter birds of the suburbs, including (most years) a Red-Shouldered Hawk. I can take a side trip to Lake Audubon to count geese and hope for some ducks. And this is all just a five-minute drive from my house.

Another thing that I like about the GBBC is that it provides a clearer picture of wintering populations. The Christmas counts always pick up a few stray migrants—indeed, that seems to be the big attraction, for some people.

So look for me in the field on the weekend of 15 to 18 Februrary, doing my little sliver of citizen science.

Green ears

still in the box The FedEx guy left a box at my door yesterday. A Saturday delivery? Yes, indeedy: the XO laptop that I received in exchange for my donation to the One Laptop Per Child project.

ready to be chargedThe machine is just adorable. If Elle Woods had designed a computer to go with her chihuahua, she would have come up with this (perhaps in pink).

browsing With the help of the getting started guide, I was connected to my wireless network in two shakes, and I was browsing in half a shake more. The web browser is pretty basic, as far as I can tell so far. Bookmarking doesn’t quite work the way we’ve come to expect after 15 years. A positive side effect is that it effectively comes with its own Flashblock. Oops, looks like the New York Times web site just crashed the browser.

The chiclet-y keyboard is is easier than any phone I’ve ever used. My lack of touch-typing skills will serve me well. There’s a little heat dissipated from the back of the screen.

Lots more to play with here, including figuring out what some of the keys do (like the mysterious Hand keys between the Control and Alt analogues). Maybe the games on the XO will entice Leta away from playing FreeCell on my Windows machine.

More than a cappucino

Starbucks is making strides in areas beyond finding creative, entertaining ways to separate you from your cash in its stores. Continuing to deepen its involvement with the agricultural sources of its drinks, the company is in the middle of a three-year partnership with the Earthwatch Institute supporting research into aspects of sustainable coffee production. The current project sends volunteers to member fincas of Coope Tarrazú, a co-op in Costa Rica. Using GIS technology, field workers are establishing baseline maps of resources (soil condition, water quality, etc.).

The volunteer effort supports the research of Karen Holl of the University of California, Santa Cruz. Holl’s research interests in Costa Rica include strategies for re-establishing forests in land that has been cleared for pasture.

…we have established 16, 1-ha sites in southern Costa Rica. We are testing questions about “applied nucleation” by planting islands of native tree seedlings to facilitate recovery and studying the effect of the amount of surrounding forest cover on ecosystem recovery. We are collecting extensive data on seed dispersal, seed fate, vegetation establishment, and seedling dynamics.

Also involved in the Costa Rica projects is Catherine Lindell of Michigan State University, who has published studies of habitat use by various bird species in Costa Rica.

Becoming reality

Brian Hayes’ XO laptop has arrived.

If the styling has a whiff of Fisher-Price about it, there’s also some thoughtful ingenuity at work here, and designers of machines for grownups might learn something from it.

* * *

The wifi transceiver is amazing. I never knew I had so many well-connected neighbors—people named linksys and netgear, for example. No other computer I’ve had in the house has ever detected any of these networks.

* * *

…the software is just not finished yet. Some basic capabilities (printing, a sleep mode) are not yet implemented, and there are various buttons that don’t yet have functions. The web browser is primitive (no tabs, very limited facilities for bookmarks). There’s an RSS reader that doesn’t seem to work.

The pebble not the stream

Via Robot Wisdom auxiliary: an excellent introduction to the works of Stephen Sondheim, illustrated with video clips (the clip from a concert version of Sweeney Todd is not to be missed, especially since the song is mostly cut from the Tim Burton movie). The article divides the works into starters, intermediates, and shows (like Pacific Overtures) for advanced devotees. And it’s not afraid to identify some weaknesses:

One knock against Sondheim’s career is that his influence on musical theater has been either non-existent or pernicious. (Oddly enough, the best example of Sondheim influence on popular culture may be Alan Menken and Howard Ashman’s score for Disney’s Beauty And The Beast.) Performers love to sing his songs—”So-and-so sings Sondheim” remains a popular cabaret attraction—but the composers who’ve emerged in his wake have lacked his skill at deconstruction and reconstruction. The decades since Company have seen a lot of overtly complicated shows in which the songs are either straight, shallow pop (without Sondheim’s wit or transcendence), or just tuneless prattle. And frankly, Sondheim at his most “difficult” can himself sound a lot like the latter.

You see the difficulty

cascadeI took a quick walk on the first mile and a half of the Cross County Trail, following Difficult Run down to the beach at the Potomac River. The track was quite muddy in a few places, thanks to this weekend’s rain. This section of the trail lies mostly in Great Falls National Park, and is not posted or blazed save for one sign, but the way is easy to find (just follow the run downstream, how hard is that?). Far from a midwinter chill, the air was quite mild and most of the time I didn’t need my gloves. A smattering of Christmas Eve strollers, a pair on horseback. Still, it’s generally a popular spot, and I saw more trash than I like to see.

The Second Shepherds’ Play

The Folger Consort and director Mary Hall Surface’s reconstruction of this pre-Shakespearean mystery play is a marvel for the Christmas holiday season. Indeed, the genesis of this play is one of its mysteries. At one time it was attributed to “the Wakefield master,” as the manuscript had been bound with a cycle of 32 plays once thought to be performed in the town of Wakefield. (And yes, the apostrophe is in the right place, for there is also a First Shepherds’ Play in the codex.)

Despite our uncertainty of who wrote it, or even what century it was written it, the play presents a simple, engaging farce of three shepherds beset by a sheep-rustler Mak (our friend Andy Brownstein) who are visited by a heavenly presence announcing good news in the darkest time of the year. The Consort and Surface have built on the bones of the one-act script (perhaps the most richly characterized of the cycle) with period music, fun puppetry to manage scene changes, and a spot of sprightly dance to make a full evening’s entertainment. To aid our understanding, pronunciation follows Modern, not Middle, English, and vocabulary has been modernized, except for a few bits spoken by Mak in a “southern tooth,” like “Ich” for “I.”

We particularly enjoyed the blue streamers and mechanical whistler that evoke the wintry blasts of wind confronting the pastoralists. And the appearance of the angel from the Folger theater’s gallery level is a gem of low-tech theatricality. The shepherds’ offerings to the Christ child—a bunch of cherries, a bird, and a ball—are quite touching.

The three shepherds are played by Bob McDonald, Aaron Cromie, and Chris Wilson, and their comic skills are matched by their vocal musicianship. Of course, the highlight of a Folger Consort production is the array of old-fashioned instruments, and this one does not disappoint: we see and hear a slide trumpet, shawms, viols, lutes, and a hurdy-gurdy. The Consort restricted its music choices to tunes from England of the 16th century or earlier. Fortunately this means the inclusion of the stirring call-and-response “Nova, Nova,” a showcase “Gabriel fram heven-kinge” for Kate Vetter Cain, a surprising multi-voiced setting of “Sumer is icumen in,” and the haunting “Coventry Carol.”

What grace we have found.
Come, now are we unbound.
Let’s make a glad sound,
    And sing it not soft.

Go birding

Via Via Negativa: Peaceful Societies reports on the unexpected popularity of birding among the Amish of eastern Ohio, especially the Christmas Bird Count (CBC).

The center of the Amish birding activity is Holmes County, where [Bruce] Glick indicates that “the list of rare birds … is amazing.” The Holmes County list includes such unusual species such as the swallow-tailed kite, long-billed curlew, groove-billed ani, violet-green swallow, Harris’s sparrow, and golden eagle.

* * *

Glick points out that while many birding groups focus on rare and unusual sightings, an even more important aspect of the Ohio Amish counting is the fact that they record many more individual birds than most other counts. The Amish CBCs have recorded the most numbers of individual birds for 20 different species in the state of Ohio. Very common woodland birds such as downy woodpeckers, white-crowned sparrows, golden-crowned kinglets, tufted titmouses, pileated woodpeckers, and red-bellied woodpeckers are recorded more often in the Amish counts than anywhere else in the state.

Referenced by the post: Glick, Bruce. 2007. “Christmas Bird Counts in Ohio’s Amish Country.” American Birds 61, The 107th Christmas Bird Count Issue: 26-29.

Some snaps

1959 Chevrolet ImpalaI moved the Mac that has the scanner attached to another place in the house, one more convenient, less underfoot. So of course to test it after relocation I did some scanning. My ostensible purpose was finding a new buddy icon. And that turned into a more general wading through all the family albums. This snap was taken in front of a duplex my grandfather owned and rented out to my mom for a year or two. It must have been after my mother’s fender bender, because you can see the crimp in the Chevrolet logo. I don’t think this image of me looks anything like other pictures of me at the time. Except for the extra cookies I’m carrying around.



cousinsThe two girls in back are my uncle’s first two daughters, Rita and Terri. Rita’s now a journalist in Sacramento, and I think Terri still lives in Germany. That’s my grandparents’ rancher in the background. We’re “sledding” in the open field/backyard of McMakens’ place. I don’t know why we didn’t go someplace with some vertical. The field (maybe an acre?) used to be empty, just some trees in the back, with a gravel drive along the edge. Then McMaken’s Scottish terrier died, and he buried Charlie in the field, with a big marker you could read through the picture window in my grandparents’ living room. I think my grandmother grew roses on that trellis that you can see between the shrubs. I remember learning that word as a kid. Trellis.



parentsMost of the photos in the albums are in pretty shabby shape, and I am not the Photoshop monkey that I used to be, so you’re seeing all the scratches and specks. Especially this overexposed image of my mother and father in Sacramento in about 1952. This must have been before they were married. Maybe it’s because they’re both smiling so broadly.



Williams family reunionI guess I wasn’t at this reunion—according to my notes, I would have been in graduate school by then—but I attended my share of them. The Williams family always met in Fountain Park (somewhat exotic for me, being on the other side of town from where I lived) and rented out the picnic room. I didn’t realize it at the time, but Helen and Wilson (see the image on Flickr for the callouts) were my maternal grandmother’s parents. To me, they were just generalized old relatives from the country. What I particularly like about this picture is that everyone is looking in a different direction. No retakes in 1978.



Easter suitAbout all that I remember of this place on Spring Street is that we had a neighbor named Myers. But in the local dialect, it sounded to me more like “Mars.” Must have been cool to have one of Ray Walston’s compadres living next door. I don’t remember that rabbit, and I certainly don’t remember that suit.

Is taste disinterested?

Via Arts & Letters Daily: Sam Anderson reviews Carl Wilson’s Let’s Talk about Love, a study of Céline Dion, singer beloved by Ghanaian cabdrivers.

Overcoming a reflexive distaste for the Québecoise, Wilson “feels a twinge of critical conscience” and immerses himself in her work, delving into the nature of musical taste.

Wilson tends to side with the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, who argues that taste is never disinterested: It’s a form of social currency, or “cultural capital,” that we use to stockpile prestige. Hating Céline is therefore not just an aesthetic choice, but an ethical one, a way to elevate yourself above her fans…

Although Wilson never grows to love Dion’s music, he’s also no longer comfortable with his former scorn. He acknowledges the merits of her work: “It deals with problems that don’t require leaps of imagination but require other efforts, like patience, or compromise”; although it is “lousy music to make aesthetic judgments to,” it “might be excellent for having a first kiss, or burying your grandma, or breaking down in tears.”

The year in review

Meme via Pondering Pikaia: the first sentence of the first post of each month from this blog:

  • January 4: Via things magazine, a museum of strange and rarely used HTML tags.
  • February 4: Charles Isherwood articulates why I was underwhelmed when I read Tom Stoppard’s trilogy The Coast of Utopia.
  • March 1: Arthur Lubow submits an instructive profile of aptly-named photographer Jeff Wall, whose lightbox-mounted transparencies are measured in feet, not inches.
  • April 1: After nearly a year of operating under dual and provisional corporate badges, we have a new company name, to be pronounced “vo-vee-see.”
  • May 1: Ruth La Ferla profiles designer Santo Loquasto.
  • June 3: I recorded Stuart Hart’s 1997 paper for Harvard Business Review, “Beyond Greening,” at the the studio yesterday, as part of a collection of articles on organization development.
  • July 2: Katherine Ellison looks at today’s carbon offset market.
  • August 1: Via The Morning News: Michael Bloomberg can’t be bothered to take the local IRT and change at 59th Street.
  • September 3: I had just a little time yesterday morning, before we scurried off to the theater, to get out for the first International Rock-Flipping Day, so I poked around in the wooded strip between my townhouse cluster and the middle school grounds.
  • October 2: Once again WordPress has reworked the category system.
  • November 2: Ben Schuman Stoler revisits the District boundary stones.
  • December 2: Rorschach Theatre turns in a gritty, muscular production of David Grimm’s tale of political intrigue and misplaced loyalty.

Sciencedebate 2008

The world is a really, really complicated contraption, replete with moving parts that can malfunction at any time. You can make a pretty good case that the United States President, along with his science and technology advisers, is in a position of trust, responsible in part for keeping that contraption going. That’s why I support this week’s call for a debate among presidential candidates on technology and science issues. The open letter to the candidates has been signed by Lawrence Krauss of Case Western Reserve, Steven Pinker of Harvard, and other notables. I don’t begrudge the candidates their sniping at one another over minor points of religious doctrine, as for instance, the Romney-Huckabee flap about Satan’s paternity (link via Wired). But people, please, let’s have a forum for the issues that affect our children, our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren, living right here on earth.