Hi again from the Bastion on the Puget Sound. Well, I’m real pleased to report that one of our neighbors has been honored by the Boy Scouts of America in a way that puts him right up there with Walt Disney and Neil Armstrong.
I also love the name of the award this Puget Sounder received. Silver Buffalo so resonates the west. It’s in recognition of his leadership and his philanthropy and it probably also helped that before he became a trans-millennium mover, he was also a Life Time Boy Scout.
I, for one, think he totally deserves this award, the controversies in which he’s also been involved notwithstanding. Despite being one of the richest people in the world, he really hasn’t changed much since the days when his ability to so totally focus that he zoned anything else out earned him a largely unjustified reputation for being arrogantly antisocial and more than a bit the martinet.
It’s been suggested that getting married mellowed him out some but that’s really to not understand his wife Melinda, the concept of soul mates, or the notion that sometimes two very exceptional people who love one another can work as a team and from that union and partnership, create something neither of them alone could have.
So here’s a tip of the working man’s cap to Bill Gates. Nice going, sire, and congratulations, mate.
IN OTHER NEWS
Well, apparently British billionaire and adventurer Sir Richard Branson’s vision of space tourism is catching on. America’s Boeing Aircraft announced last Wednesday that it plans to start its own flights as early as 2015. To see how this is coming together and for an incredible artist’s conception of what the craft involved looks like, yep, go here.
In what could well be the most significant contribution to clean energy since Ben Franklin flew a kite and a key in the rain, researchers at Western Washington University have made a breakthrough in solar energy technology which could cut the cost of that power source to one-tenth its present rate. Nice going, folks. Yep, for more, go here.
This will probably not come as totally good news to global warming denialists of the male gender and may even backfire by pointing to this study and asserting that melting polar ice, etc. is only one of those “female things,” and like “that time of the month,” not to be taken real seriously. I’ll take my chances. The story is headlined “Why American women accept climate change science more than men.”
And for those without that particular hang-up, it must still come as a stretch to read about tornados in New York City. With all you folks have been through back there and especially with the recent commemoration of the worst disaster in your history, I’m amazed at how well you’re taking this. But then you’re the same town that gave us the Statue of Liberty, the Yankees, the Mets and the Jets, right? You’re nothing if not tough then, eh? I’ve got very distant cousins in Flatbush with whom I talk on the phone occasionally. They speak so fast I need to record it and then play it back at half speed. Understandably, they have a problem on their end and that’s not retiring before I, a Pacific Northwesterner, finish a sentence. Across the seven flags which fly above this masthead, then, our hearts and our prayers abide. Yep, for more on why we feel this way, go here.
We’ve been following for several years now the progress that the Canadian province of British Columbia is making in electric transportation, both private and public. According to The Pembia Institute, by 2030, a third of the vehicles on the roads there will be so powered. To see how a million or so of these will be zipping over 365,946 square miles/947,800 square kilometers, yep, go here.
SURVIVING HARD TIMES
With one in seven Americans now living in poverty, and jobs ~ good, bad or indifferent still hard for an estimated 45-million ~ tougher to find than they have been in my life time, these three success tips on how to land one during hard times is certainly well worth the read.
With a promised economy recovery simply not happening and the dramatic climate changes bringing unprecedented weather challenges, it hasn’t been a particularly fun time to be a human being. However, as Darwin contended, survival belongs to the adaptable. To see how some of your species mates are making these hard times work for them, please go here.
As we’ve discussed in this column before, one of the ways of surviving hard times is to lower the cost of living and that’s given birth to what some are now calling the “locavore movement,” vis a vis home and community gardens. This idea, however, did not originate with this Recession. Back in the “olden days,” they were called Victory Gardens. To read more about them, yep, go here.
Researchers at the British Cancer Institute may have discovered a successful treatment for one of the most aggressive breast cancers, “triple negative.” Some 9,000 women in that country of 51-million, are diagnosed each year. Yep, for more on this one, please go here.
Despite our devotion to them, we never really believed that eating pizza was healthy. But apparently with the right toppings, it can actually be really good for you. Think mushrooms now, folks, and for more, yep, go here.
According to a position paper recently released by the American Dietetic Association, how long one lives may also be a matter of the right genes. Researchers, however, are quick to point out that the personal lifestyle choices an individual makes can have a major impact on longevity, as well. I thoroughly enjoyed this one so yep, for more, go here.
Photo by Merritt Scott (Rusty) Miller
How in the world a 1500 lb/680 kg camel came to be in Oregon in the first place was a bit of a stretch for me, even though I lived among those rather interesting folk for over a decade. That the dromedary somehow got itself stuck in a deep sinkhole full of wet clay was easy to imagine. I mean, let’s face it. Mud is not something your average camel probably knows a whole lot about, right? It also does not surprise me that it was successfully rescued. Oregonians may make some weird friends but they are also notorious for taking care of their own. Yep, I loved this one, so please go here.
Biologists in remote Pend Oreille County, Washington ~ situated in the northeast corner west of Idaho and south of British Columbia ~ may be the home of the state’s third breeding wolf pack. Officials trapped and radio tagged a large male gray wolf and now they’re trying to determine if his den is in Canada/British Columbia or America/Washington. Right now, he’s apparently considered a canine without a country. Yep, for more, go here.
Recommended Related Links:
Go Northwest: Northwest Wildlife Websites
BBC’s wildlife finder
National Geographic Daily News - Animals
Retrieverman’s Weblog: Engaging articles on domestic & wildlife in the American South
YOU GUYS THINK I MAKE THIS STUFF UP
If I wasn’t as much in love with orcas as everyone else on the shores of the Salish Sea, I would think it very weird that a University of Washington research team has come up with a way to photograph these benevolent (if you’re not on their menu) behemoths at night. At first glance, that might seem like an invasion of privacy but the project which produced the technology was initiated at the behest of a local utility district planning a tidal energy project and wanting to make sure the turbines were turned off when our two local orca pods were in the area. This is so totally us. Yep, for the story behind the story, go here.
Well, that’s it for now. Thanks for the ear. Before you leave, if you’re in a shopping mood and into some interesting choices? We’ve got a “reader stocked” General Store that you might want to check out. If you’d like to sell something with us or know someone who does, email us at minstrel312@aol.com and we’ll see what we can do.
The Northstar Journal is funded by contributions from readers like yourself. If you enjoyed this edition and would like to contribute to the next, please click the donate button below.
