Virtuous Virtual: USGS Earthquakes

 

 

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/

 

     One of the best uses of your tax money is funding the U. S. Geological Service. These guys keep track of what lies beneath the nation, and they have created some very interesting Internet sites to report the results.

       My wife introduced me to one of the most intriguing sections of their site, the one dealing with earthquakes. They post maps showing all the places earthquakes have occurred, of any size, within a variety of periods. If you look at the tally for the week, you will see immediately what it means to be part of the Ring of Fire, the area around the Pacific Ocean that contains most of the world's volcanoes. California has dozens of little quakes each week, not big enough to merit news stories and probably good news anyway because they release pressure from tectonic plates sliding past each other without allowing a Big One to build up. There's a zone in the middle of the country that's regularly featured in those maps-another area that's nervous about someday having, as they have at intervals in the past, a major quake. Our neighborhood is pretty calm, but if things do happen, and any time you're curious about something you felt or that got reported, check with the USGS. There used to be a seismograph on a building at the core of the Middlebury business district, which would suggest with squiggles in a continuously drawn line on a revolving drum what had occurred in the recent past. I used to miss it, but not now that I know another source 

 

The Harvest Program

Still playing catchup with old lost posts. In the end, so many people objected to the proposed cuts to the Harvest Program that it survived--but its troubles are not over. The last I knew, they were working on restructuring the program to ensure its viability. Let's hope they succeed.

 

This is a copy of a letter I'm sending to the Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union and to each member of the RNESU Board.

 

As a member of the Otter Valley Union High School Class of 1966, as the son of two OVUHS teachers, as a writing teacher has worked with 11 of the 12 primary and secondary grades, as a 26-year Rutland Herald reporter who began their column  "Schooldays, Schooldays," and as a senior citizen who has benefited from Otter Valley student social service, I want to object in the strongest possible terms to the idea of removing the Harvest Program from Foxcroft Farm in Leicester.

     Told that I ought to do a story on the Harvest Program some years ago, I looked into what they were about, and was so impressed that I did a major feature story on them and have stayed in touch since. Based on my experiences with this unique endeavor, here are several points I urge you to consider before making any final decisions regarding its relationship with Foxcroft Farm and the Young family.

     First, it is unfair to take the total cost of the program,  divide that by the number of students involved this year, then compare that figure with the average cost of educating a student. No doubt you have encountered the saying, "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." If you think Foxcroft Farm is expensive, try the cost of out-of-state special education placement. Or think of the cost per year of keeping someone imprisoned-not an unlikely fate for individuals who are unable to establish a connection with other people during their student years. I have seen how relationships between at-risk kids and  animals can open the way for other relationships, just as they can bring people out of their personal pain in "pet therapy." Then there is the real need to do chores on a farm, something which, it has often been observed, leads farm kids to grow up faster than others. It is absurd to think that the Harvest Program experience could be replaced by putting the kids into a larger program at the old Brandon Training School, no matter how much formal education its directors had.

     Then there is the social service side of the Harvest Program. Kids who may have felt themselves to be marginal and of little worth get to see the smiles on the faces of the seniors who often receive the fruits of their labors, and get to hear expressions of gratitude that may be missing from the rest of their lives. There is a kind of student social service that is aimed as much at having something to put on college applications as it is directed at real needs. In contrast, the Harvest Program's donations are up close and personal. Objectively, their list of beneficiaries goes beyond any ordinary expectations, partly because they have something tangible to give. These efforts  would not be nearly as dynamic without the real products the farm has available to share-products the givers can remember bringing into existence.

     The field trips. Think back to your own school experiences and I think you will agree that field trips can make extraordinarily powerful impressions. Foxcroft Farm has welcomed all sorts of younger grades to its regular farming environment and to their annual fall corn maze. Another point that should not be underestimated: this is a case of older students welcoming and being supportive of younger students. Too often little kids get belittled, if not actually bullied, by students who are so much bigger that they seem almost like adults. The Foxcroft Farm field trips serve as a worthwhile corrective.

     Cutting out Ann Young and relying instead on "professionals" would be a dreadful mistake. Good companies hire the person, not the resume. She may not have all the letters after her name that some people do, but there could be no substitute for her years of experience resolving one crisis after another and steadily growing closer to all sorts of participants. Her ability to maintain the flow of a day with her students should not be taken for granted; far from being a simple matter of scheduling, it is hands-on management of the first order. An example: usually at one point in the day, everyone goes for a long walk around the farm's varied terrain. More than a way to avoid restlessness and get exercise, it's a way for everyone to come together as a group and not leave anyone out. Getting out on the trail  is an educational practice dating back thousands of years, to hunter-gather days, but it is no less effective for that. Indeed, something in the human character seems to make such expeditions particularly rewarding-in this case through literal field trips.

     It is easy to consider the Harvest Program expensive and expandable by looking at it strictly from an educational point-of-view, but there are larger issues to consider. All over Vermont, people are wondering how to preserve a working agricultural landscape based on other activities than dairying. All over the country, people are worried about relying on "factory farming" for the food supply. All over the world, officials are looking at growing obesity and wondering how children can be led to get away from indoor electronic environments and be more active. The Harvest Program shades into these areas of concern, and for that reason has value that budgetary accounting cannot measure.

     Count me among those who believe the cuts originally suggested for the Harvest Program would be a travesty. Far better would be to celebrate it as one solution to problems of creating quality education that sometimes seem intractable.

 

                    Sincerely,

 

                    Ed Barna, OV 1966, Harvard 1970

 

GO-FOR BAROQUE

 

       If anyone had doubts that Brandon had indeed become a center for the arts, they should have been resolved when Brandon Music made Warren Kimble’s former home and barn studio their North American headquarters. Divine Art (“the spirit of music”), a significant producer of well-received classical recordings had chosen Brandon, when they could have gone just about anywhere, with the result that the town’s name is now being attached to first-class performances by the kinds of musicians that avid collectors seek out.

       They have been kind enough to send some of their recent CDs to me, for my listening pleasure and reviewer’s opinion. From time to time I will be relaying to you my responses, there being precious little room in any newspaper for coverage of anything but concerts. To start with, I’d like to recommend “Venice in Mexico,” Miguel Lawrence conducting the Mexican Baroque Orchestra.

       Before spinning the CD, I was imagining all kinds of possibilities for Mexican flavored 18^th century music. Would native instruments be substituted for the more familiar ones? Would the performances have a particular rhythmic verve, like the Latin jazz that is such a comfort to hear on a chilly Vermont evening? Was there so kind of crossover?

       Nothing of the sort, although a couple of instrumental substitutions do give the music a bit of a Mexican tang. In its soul, this music was Baroque pure and simple, with the most unusual twist being the presence of two concerti by Giacomo Facco (1676-1753) in addition to six by better-known Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741).

       The Mexican Baroque Orchestra doesn’t need gimmicks. Manuel Zogbi (violin), Daniel Armas (psaltery) and Miguel Lawrence (sopranino recorder as well as conducting), plus five associates, carry the day with the verve and accuracy of their playing. “Venice in Mexico” would be a good Christmas gift for someone who “has everything,” music being something one does not “have,” but which happens, in a way that carries a listener along with it.

       Baroque music, played in a dutiful fashion, can seem repetitious beyond endurance. But the MBO approaches each measure as if it were fresh from the composer’s pen, a series of discoveries and lovely surprises. It’s a subtle difference, to illustrate which I’ll tell you about one of my experiences playing lead clarinet in the high school band. We did “Begin the Beguine,” a standard from the Big Band era, which puts a lingering, wistful melody on top of a syncopated rhythm—which the clarinets especially were supposed to provide. But in the back rows, they were playing the notes as if there was no syncopation; instead of

 (skip) daaaa duh (skip) duh (skip) duh (skip) daaaa duh (skip) duh (skip) duh

they were playing

daaaa-duh duh duh daaaa-duh duh duh

and driving me crazy doing it. It’s possible to destroy the Bo Diddley riff, if you happen to know it, in the same way, by playing it as “shave and-a haircut, two bits” rather than ONE and two AND one AND two and ONE and two (skip) ONE (skip).

       In any case, the MBO’s enthusiasm for the pieces on this CD translates into a combination of melodic interest and rhythmic drive that makes the CD enjoyable throughout.

       The instrumentation isn’t part of an effort to reproduce an 18^th century style. The psaltery is a Mexican psaltery; in a picture on the CD insert, it looks a bit like an autoharp, to name another instrument in the same group, all of which use plucked strings with fixed tones. Here it fits right into the style.

       The program notes say, “Daniel Armas, born in Mexico, is considered to be the most important and virtuoso player of the traditional Mexican psaltery.”

       But the star of this CD is Lawrence playing recorder. Many people are familiar with this as a beginner sort of instrument, the kind a whole class will attempt because at one level it’s easy to play. Forget all that. Lawrence turns the recorder into something magical, a unique voice that it would be shameful to replace with a flute or piccolo. Which he could have done—his distinguished career started with studying baroque flute and recorder at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

       In short, dda25091 is a release of which Divine Art should be proud—and Brandon as well.

 

The Education Gap

Continuing to catch up after the computer glitch. As you might gather, this was first posted in November, following the 2010 election.

     Among the schizophrenic phenomena of the 2010 election, we have widespread calls for the "reform" of education amidst a resurgence of anti-intellectualism. The country with the best-educated workforce will dominate the knowledge-based industries of this century, say countless pundits, while all but one of the Republican gubernatorial candidates either disbelieves there is human-inducted global warming or professes that action can't be taken because the issue is in doubt. In other words, the overwhelming consensus of scientists is being rejected by people who assert that brains are trump in the human capital game.

     Sarah Palin has become something of a saint for those who resent the way ordinary, good-hearted folk are looked down on, supposedly, by "elites." I am putting the word "elites" in quotation marks because a true elite consists of those whose performance excels-the heroes, the leaders, the movers and shakers. But for those who follow the patron saint of grizzly bears, elites are distant and remote types who have lost touch with the American Way of Life, whose restoration is our one true path to greatness.

     Elites like economists, for instance. The generally supported view that the American economy would have slid into a full-scale depression without governmental lending and stimulus spending, and probably the world economy with it, is to be dismissed by references to the family checkbook and having to pay one's bills. It doesn't matter how many studies find that borrowed money invested in infrastructure will help create robust job growth in the future and economic growth that will repay the borrowing. Studies? What are they?

     Here's a study for you: a group calling itself the Council on Competitiveness issued an update in September of its report on the subject, titled "Rising Above the Gathering Storm Revisited: Rapidly Approaching Category 5." It concluded that "in spite of the efforts of both those in government and the private sector, the outlook for America to compete for quality jobs has further deteriorated over the past five years."

     Pulitzer prize-winning New York Times economist-columnist Paul Krugman quoted former Massachusetts Institute of Technology president Charles M. Vest's comments on the report. "Here is a little dose of reality about where we actually rank today," he said: sixth in global innovation-based competitiveness, but 40th in rate of change over the last decade; 11th among industrialized nations in the fraction of 25- to 34-year-olds who have graduated from high school; 16th in college completion rate proportion of college students receiving degrees in science or engineering; 48th in quality of K-12 math and science education; 29th in the number of mobile phones per 100 people; and 22nd in broadband Internet access.

     The consequences are reflected in statistics about national well-being like being 24th in life expectancy at birth (this is among industrialized nations, remember). When the UN Development Programme (UNDP) did its most recent assessment of 182 countries, looking at statistics like life expectancy, literacy, school enrolment and gross domestic product per capita, they concluded that the United States ranks number 13 as a place to live.

     Said Vrest, "This is not a pretty picture, and it cannot be wished away." But any American politician who dares to grant any degree of authority to the United Nations, or who suggests that our reign as The Number One Country in the World might be ending just like the ascendancies of so many countries before it, would have touched the metaphorical "third rail" of our political system and would quickly be voted out of office.

     Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821) wrote in 1811: "Toute nation a le gouvernement qu'elle merite." The statement has become part of American political lore: "Every nation has the government it deserves." We are about to get the government we deserve. The situation brings to mind another piece of wisdom commonly passed around: "Be careful what you wish for, because you might just get it."

     There is a name, a very intellectual name, for the kind of arrogant, spoiled assumption of superiority that so many angry everyday Americans have: exceptionalism. Something happened at the time our Constitution has founded, and has continued through the time of our Manifest Destiny (if the term isn't familiar from history class, you could look it up) and through the challenge of the Great Depression and the Second World War, that makes us the model and ideal for people everywhere-God Bless America. Or so the mind-numbing phrases go. But just as environmental research has made it clear there is no more "away" to which we can simply throw things, so also recent globalization has made it clear there are no exceptions. When it comes to climate, we are all in this together.

     I'll risk a look into the future: I believe that when students of history look back at early 21st century America, climate change denial will be seen as the most significant aspect of this election. The Democrats will be faulted as well, for not asserting themselves and taking bold enough action. Citizens of the future will have nothing but contempt for the way we kept sleepwalking into the future when the planet's greatest crisis was at hand. Disbelief that Hitler was persecuting the Jews will be cited one of the few comparable examples of willful ignorance.

     Enjoy your moment of satisfaction at the expense of the intellectual elite, Tea Partiers. The party will end soon enough.

 

Why Juan Williams Deserved to be Fired

Continuing to repost blogs lost during a computer glitch; this ends October 2010

 As a poet and copyeditor-that is, as an expert in the close analysis of words and their contexts-I feel the need to point out three things being overlooked by those bashing National Public Radio for supposedly infringing on free speech by firing commentator Juan Williams over remarks made on a Fox News program. First, Williams' questionable statement wasn't his revelation that he feels nervous when he sees fellow airline passengers in "Muslim garb." Here are his exact words: "I mean, look, Bill, I'm not a bigot. You know the kind of books I've written about the Civil Rights movement in this country. But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.'' The truly outrageous allegation here is that a significant proportion of American Muslims identify themselves as Muslims first and Americans second, and the way they dress proves it. In the context of air travel this accuses them, not merely of a lack of patriotism, but of a broken allegiance serious enough to lead them to commit acts of terrorism. This is far more than an ethic slur, especially in an era of heightened concern over the likelihood of American-grown terrorism. There was a time when people might have said that a priest's collar or a rabbi's yarmulke symbolized their un-American affiliation with foreign sources of authority, but no one would take any such statement seriously now. They shouldn't find Williams' statement acceptable, either. Second, it's worth questioning whether Williams would have blurted out anything so loathsome it he had not been in the Fox News environment of impatience, interruption, and angry overstatement. Civility matters in civics, but this realization, enshrined in Vermont in the town meeting Moderator's role in enforcing moderation in behavior, seems to have been sacrificed in the quest for higher ratings and, arguably, an effort to sidetrack serious analysis by promoting inflammatory public behavior. Finally, I would like to see Williams put to the test in identifying people's religions by their appearance. Would he have called a Sikh a Muslim? Very possibly, if his judgment is so superficial. There are circumstances throughout life when statements are made that can't be forgotten or forgiven, and sorry isn't enough. This is one of them.

As For Pictures—Update Oct. 9, 2010

 

 

       I haven’t tried to put a lot of pictures on this blog, partly for lack of time but also because there’s another way to see them. Log onto Weather Underground (www.wunderground.com), which is a weather collaborative rather than a revolutionary cabal, and click on the link to the photo gallery. Search for pictures by the handle ERLBarna and you will find, at latest count, over 1,240 of them. In contrast to many photo sources, these are open to almost all uses, though I’d have a problem with commercial exploitation—look up Creative Commons License.

I take pictures to share them, especially to share my love of Vermont. The best are at pBase (www.pbase.com), where I rent space and post as “copyeEDditor” (go to http://www.pbase.com/copyeedditor). There are 24 galleries as of today, Oct. 9, all concerning Vermont.  Sites like flickr and picasa have gotten a lot more publicity, and charge nothing, but I consider pBase the best: no mousing around between sizes to get where you want to go, no in-your-face pressure to pay for a membership, and first-class photographers, a large number of whom are world travelers. Next winter, when you’ve had it with bleak black-and-whiteness, remember pBase.