Systems thinking video

Sheep studies

The 2014 Captive Wildlife Care and Education first years came out to Womerlippi Acres yesterday, along with instructors Tom Aversa, Cheryl Frederick, and Meg Anderson, to learn all about sheep wrangling and sheep care. Watching from the sidelines and taking these pictures were baby Rhubarb and Aimee.

It was a fairly hectic day, but a good time was had by all, except possibly the sheep, who, however, are now all set for the winter, having had their hooves and dung tags trimmed, their FAMACHA® checks done, and their spiffy new USDA scrapie prevention ID tags attached.

All this made for a fast-moving day of college-level instruction and praxis in animal care.

I've written elsewhere in the blog about how important a set of lessons this is for these young students. Go check out the older pages for those ideas, here and here and here.

Here are the photos Aimee took:

First up, here's a fat Englishman telling Americans how to wrangle a sheep.

 

Learning the safety hold and how to trim the hooves

 

 A slightly insecure lamb. Need to get that lamb-butt on the ground.

 

Meg shows them how to trim.

 Not the textbook safety hold, but this was a well-behaved lamb.

 That one would make a nice Corriedale show lamb.

It's hard work. A lot of bending and grasping.

Meg has it all under control.

 

This one got away, and was only re-caught after she went through the swampy puddle next to the compost heap. One student said that she nearly lost her cookies, the poor lambie was so gross after that. But that was in some ways what the instructors wanted out of the day -- all romantic notions of the world of animal care evaporated in one swell foop.

A very tolerant lamb.

This is the kind of concentration we want to see.

The full-on sheep service team in action.

 

 Getting down to details.

Ear-tagging.

A brief moment of pain and then it's all over.

And again. All fourteen sheep needed this procedure.

A full-court press on a ram lamb.

Tom gives a lesson.

The safety hold is extremely effective. One relatively small person can hold a very large sheep in this position long enough to get a lot of work done.

Community-owned solar

http://www.pressherald.com/2014/09/22/powered-by-the-sun-via-panels-many-miles-away/

Introduction to Economics first take-home exam

https://drive.google.com/a/unity.edu/file/d/0B3721mV8y-nyc2NTWFVsQXBPMGs/edit?usp=sharing

Leonardo di Caprio gets in on the carbon act

Just in time for a weekend of major activism. There's also an important climate feature in, of all papers, Rolling Stone, here.

The New Climate Economy

Here's a new report coauthored by Nicholas Stern, the author of the ground-breaking 2006 Stern Review, and a blue-ribbon team of politicos, investment bankers and captains o' industry. Published under the auspices of the UK government and six other countries, including Sweden and Norway -- three technologically advanced industrialized nations -- it comes with fairly significant mainstream credentials, and even greater Keynesian economic chops.

The economics of the report are essentially what I've been calling "Green Keynesianism", albeit without the direct challenge to China, Russia, and other dictatorships that I advocate.

Expect a major media backlash from the Koch-funded denialist organizations. This report will put them on the back foot.

Obviously we'll be talking about this in class.

Here's the "about" page excerpted:

The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate is a major new international initiative to analyse and communicate the economic benefits and costs of acting on climate change. Chaired by former President of Mexico Felipe Calderón, the Commission comprises former heads of government and finance ministers and leaders in the fields of economics and business.

The New Climate Economy is the Commission’s flagship project. It aims to provide independent and authoritative evidence on the relationship between actions which can strengthen economic performance and those which reduce the risk of dangerous climate change. It will report in September 2014.

The project is being undertaken by a global partnership of research institutes and a core team led by Programme Director Jeremy Oppenheim. An Advisory Panel of world-leading economists, chaired by Lord Nicholas Stern will carry out an expert review of the work.

We are working with a number of other institutions in various aspects of the research programme, including the World Bank and regional development banks, the International Monetary Fund, International Energy Agency, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, United Nations agencies and a variety of other research institutes around the world.

The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate was commissioned by seven countries – Colombia, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Norway, South Korea, Sweden and the United Kingdom – as an independent initiative to report to the international community.

And here's the link to the video introduction:

http://newclimateeconomy.report/

Miami and climate change denial

A great magazine article from The Observer:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/11/miami-drowning-climate-change-deniers-sea-levels-rising

PFTBA, for Ec & Quant

Catching up on my science news reading for the first time since our baby girl Edana was born, discovered that there's a new GHG:

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/dec/10/new-greenhouse-gas-powerful-chemical-perfluorotributylamine

Adam Smith slideshow for Introduction to Economics

https://drive.google.com/a/unity.edu/file/d/0B3721mV8y-nyODNhSjdZTXNMaGc/edit?usp=sharing

EPA emissions data for Ec & Quant

http://www.epa.gov/climateleadership/documents/emission-factors.pdf

http://www.cmpco.com/MediaLibrary/3/6/Content%20Management/Suppliers%20And%20Partners/PDFs%20and%20Doc/DisclosureLabel.pdf

Local food interactive media presentation for EII

http://external.bangordailynews.com/projects/2014/04/goodlife/index.html

Kahneman Ted Talk for EII

http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_kahneman_the_riddle_of_experience_vs_memory

Article from Salon on an interesting fraud trial in CA

From Jacob, relates to our opening discussions in Introduction to Economics: Is the game rigged?


salon.com

Common Ground Fair Assignment for EII

The fair is an all-around good time, so you should need no incentive to go; however, the following notes are added to help you along:

Note: Regular class is cancelled both Friday 19th September.

Assignment instructions:

1. You are assigned to go to the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association Common Ground Country Fair held Friday through Sunday September 19-21 right here in Unity, and then to complete the response paper detailed below
2. You may get into the fair for free if you volunteer. Be sure to do so well ahead of time. See the MOFGA webpage for details
3. If you are a MOFGA member you already get in for free. Check to see if your parents have a family membership
4. For those of you who were planning to go home, or who cannot attend the fair for any other valid reason, such as work or a medical appointment, your alternative assignment is to visit a local or organic food outlet, such as a farmer's market or food cooperative, or any other food source that seems likely to be able to give you the provenance information that will be needed, and complete the same assignment as the fair-goers (below)

The fair/local/organic food response paper:

1. Obtain food for a meal at the fair, at some local or organic food outlet, or from a friend's or relative's kitchen garden. Be sure to find out where each ingredient comes from
2. Make and eat the meal. (If you live in the residence halls and otherwise eat on the meal plan, the meal can just be a snack.)
3. Describe the meal and track the ingredients geographically and ecologically in a short informal essay. Explain why this was (or was not) a good meal. Humor and/or pathos are optional
4. Due Friday September 25th in class via Unity College Google.edu, posting to your ePortfolio optional
5. This is the first check-in opportunity for me to evaluate your writing and critical thinking skills. Be sure to do your best, or you may find yourself getting unexpected remedial attention!

Ten things every college professor hates...

...from Business Insider, of all papers.

http://www.businessinsider.com/10-things-every-college-professor-hates-2014-8

Revision hiring again!

http://www.revisionenergy.com/blog/revision-energy-makes-big-hiring-push-meet-growing-demand-solar/