Armchair Activist: Product Placement on News

I just got this bulletin from Commercial Alert. KVVU is doing product placement during newscasts. Shame, shame.

Just click on the link below to tell KVVU what you think.

Dear Friends,

While product placement hidden advertisements have long infiltrated network television shows, the Meredith Broadcasting Group has hit a new low: product placement on news broadcasts.

The New York Times reports that anchors on KVVU, a Fox affiliate in Las Vegas, sit with cups of McDonald's iced coffee on their desks during morning news show. Executives at the station have acknowledged that the McDonald's coffee is part of a six-month promotion.

Product placement on newscasts runs contrary to the ethics of impartial journalism and takes advantage of viewers who are expecting the morning news, not an advertisement. The news should be kept separate from commercial ventures and news anchors should not be used to hawk products.

Please click here to tell Paul Karpowicz, president of Meredith Broadcasting Group, to take product placement out of newscasts.

Sincerely,

Raissa Howera, Commercial Alert

Census Bureau Cleans Up Labor Day History

I just got this from the Census Bureau, along with a number of handy statistics.

Labor Day 2008: Sept. 1

The first observance of Labor Day is believed to have been a parade of 10,000 workers on Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City, organized by Peter J. McGuire, a Carpenters and Joiners Union secretary. By 1893, more than half the states were observing a "Labor Day" on one day or another, and Congress passed a bill to establish a federal holiday in 1894. President Grover Cleveland signed the bill soon afterward, designating the first Monday in September as Labor Day.

Isn't it cute? Here's one statistic from them.

There are about 288,000 moonlighters who work full time at both jobs.

Makes me tired just thinking about it.

Have they taken leave of their census? (I've always wanted to write that sentence.) The Census Bureau got part of the story on the origins of Labor Day right, but they left out that the modern Labor Day celebrated around most of the world is celebrated on a different day of the year. On May 1st, also known as May Day, International Workers' Day, workers commemorate the Haymarket Massacre in Chicago in 1886. Within five years the International Workers' Day was celebrated worldwide.

Fossils and CO2

Someone recently pointed out to me that CO2 levels are the highest they have been for 100 million years. I remarked that it was because we are burning 100 million year old fuel.

My statement was somewhat true. While CO2 levels were probably a little higher 130 thousand years ago, fairly close to the dawn of mankind, it was quite a long time ago. The fuels we use today, so-called fossil fuels including oil, gas, and coal, were formed over millions of years from decomposed organic matter. The orders of magnitude are different, but the gist is the same.

Armchair Activist: The Reply

Let's say you followed the Armchair Activist's advice and clicked away at the action alert at a website for a cause you care about. You just need to care a little about your issue, because it is so easy to contact the overlords. As promised, they will hear your pleas.

I contacted the President and Vice President of the United States about something a while back. I don't remember what exactly. It may have been that drilling in Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). It may may have been me asking for the release of Pol Brennan (OK, it wasn't that, because I only heard about his unjust incarceration today). But it was something important which I care deeply about. I'm sure of it.

But as you see, the responses are rather generic. But do not be disillusioned. Someone out there keeps track of your emails and each email is a vote. Remember if one person sends a letter there must be a million who feel the same way and have not done son. And if one sends an email, there must be at least a hundred ... errr... ten thousand who feel the same way. It's a vote. It's a poll. It's you petitioning your representatives to do something.

With no further ado, here's the reply from George W. Bush to my email message on an important topic:

From: comments@whitehouse.gov
To:
Sent: Wed 4/30/2008 3:45 PM
Subject:

On behalf of President Bush, thank you for your correspondence.

We appreciate hearing your views and welcome your suggestions.

Due to the large volume of e-mail received, the White House cannot respond to every message.

Thank you again for taking the time to write.

As you can see, W took a little less time to write as I did, and he didn't even bother to put a subject on his email. And here's what I received from Vice President Cheney:

From: vice_president@whitehouse.gov
To:
Sent: Wed 4/30/2008 3:45 PM
Subject:


Thank you for e-mailing Vice President Cheney. Your comments, suggestions and concerns are important to him. Unfortunately, because of the large volume of e-mail received, the Vice President cannot personally respond to each message. However, members of the Vice President's staff consider and report citizen ideas and concerns. Please visit the White House web site for the most up-to-date information on Presidential initiatives, current events, and topics of interest to you.

Thank you again for taking the time to write.

Eerily familiar and even sent at the same exact minute and also without a subject. Who indeed is pulling the strings over there at the White House?

Watch It Shred

Somehow there is a bit of primitive satisfaction to see something torn asunder or see something burn up. And it has to be rendered to bits, to dust or to ashes. Nobody lights a fire and walks away. They want to see the log burn up completely. We watch the whole movie, play the whole game, finish the plate. There is anticipation of the result, the finality.

Watch It Shred is a collection of the worst of our society. You can watch utter waste and futility while bowling balls, computers, pumpkins, skis, tires - you name it - get ground up in an industrial shredder. The skis appear to be shiny new and have boots in their bindings, and hey I could use a pair. I'm not picky. But when you think about it, many of these things could find a home somewhere and, given their fate, question whether they should have been created in the first place. They clog our landfills and get shipped overseas for someone else to sift through to separate the toxics from the precious. The computers may be old. The tires will be recycled into asphalt. Can you imagine shredding your old love-letters or those crates of LPs which give you grief because you can no longer play them?

Go ahead and watch these industrial snuff films and welcome that funny little feeling as you see familiar objects ground to nothing. But please do me a favor and shop less, fix things before discarding, use Freecycle (to find a new home for or to acquire things), and keep giving hand-me-down clothes to your younger cousin.

Armchair Activist

The Armchair Activist is back!

You might be like me and are getting a few redundant alerts about animals. I don't actually mind, since they are similar but not the same. And if I follow up on the alert it only takes me seconds to relay an email on the subject to the department of interior or the EPA. Now whether or not they read the email is another story. This stuff isn't spam, but you know the saying: one man's spam is another man's ... oh you know what I mean.

The redundant action alert recently was the case regarding Polar Bear protection. The Bush administration finally listed the cute little polar bear as threatened. The sweet little polar bear is pictured (photo from an uncredited someone else) at right and often available as a plush doll at your local zoo. Now it's officially threatened. Duh. Of course this was a long time in coming and implies that the US government may actually acknowledge the threat of global warming on the habitat of the polar bear. Since the polar bears were finally listed, the Armchair Activist has been getting extra alerts to reject drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

Now perhaps you want widen your portfolio of activism. You may want to spice up your couch-potato lobbying to cover human rights. You can become a website saint by following some simple instructions from Amnesty International. Amnesty takes stands on various human rights issues and will email you the latest alerts which you can follow up on. Just go to http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org and fill out their form. They will remember your info, so next time you visit you will only need to enter your email address. Their latest alert is about Myanmar aka Burma (Why did you say Burma? I panicked.). So go ahead. You can save humanity from your laptop.

Armchair Activist

This is an alert from the Organic Consumers Association:

According to the Chicago Tribune, the White House is attempting to force famine stricken countries, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, to adopt Genetically Engineered crops tied to a $770 million aid package.

It is just one of the alerts that concern those of you who care what you ingest. The OCA sends me a bulletin called Organic Bytes every few weeks. It's full of useful information, most of it disturbing how the powers that be are taking aim at what you eat and what you are (since you are what you eat). Sign up for Organic Bytes by going to the OCA and entering your email. Or catch up on some of the latest actions you can take. As always, you just enter your info once, and from then on you just click away and send an email to the likes of the FDA or the Department of Agribusiness. You know the drill. Just sit back and be an Armchair Activist.

Armchair Activist

The Armchair Activist strikes again!

Defenders of Wildlife have their own action alerts.

They send out an email every week or so, and you simply click on the "Alert", fill out the form with your information, and voice your opinion on, for example, the poaching of black bears. It seems that there is a black market in the gallbladders of bears for traditional Asian medicine. Support the Bear Protection Act: H.R. 5534 would make this black market illegal on the federal level.

Apparently:

Poachers target hibernating bears in their dens and even track radio-collared bears that are part of scientific studies. And law enforcement agents report grisly findings: bear carcasses left in the woods with only the gallbladder and other parts removed.

Check out http://defenders.org and click on Take Action. Fill out the form and become an Armchair Activist. Indicate you want their e-news, and they will alert you to new issues.

Armchair Activist

I find it easy now to do what once was inconvenient. I can become an activist. I can write letters to governors, congressmen, presidents, kings, you name it. I can even have them written for me by scribes I have never met. I ask them to support legislation, to save the whales or the wolves, to free those who have been unjustly arrested.

It's easy to do, and here's the secret: use the internet.

OK, you probably knew this already.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) runs a program called Save Biogems which mobilizes internet denizens to act to protect natural resources and ecosystems. In their own words:

In response to this escalating threat, NRDC launched the BioGems Initiative in 2001 to help ensure that the most exceptional and imperiled wild places in the Western Hemisphere -- our BioGems -- remain wild for the sake of a sustainable planet. Each year, the BioGems Initiative mobilizes hundreds of thousands of concerned citizens to take action via the Internet in defense of these irreplaceable natural treasures and the wildlife that depends on them for survival. Bringing the full power of citizen activism to bear on government officials and corporations, our online activists -- known as BioGems Defenders -- are making extraordinary strides.

So if you want to protect Patagonia (or even just learn about Patagonia) which is on the south tip of the Americas, you can send an email to President Michelle Bachelet of Chile and ask for her support. To do so, go to http://www.savebiogems.org/ click on 'Pick A Biogem', go to Patagonia, and pick 'Click Here to Save This Biogem'. Fill out the form, and your letter is off to President Bachelet. Biogems will save your settings for you, so you'll only have to enter your email address from then on. Every week or so, you may get notified about another important part of nature which needs some help. Occasionally you may get an email back from the person who receives your plea. Unfortunately, it will probably be even more of a form letter than what you sent and not directly address your topic. Rarely, you will get a paper reply in the mail from your government representative.

Armchair Tip: Go one-by-one and select each the Biogems on their site and take action. Skim the text. No need to study up, no need to read the whole letter.

That's the easy life as the Armchair Activist.

Power reduction

Saturday we came home to an electrical problem. I first noticed that my computer was running off of battery. Then I noticed that every other thing in the house did not work. Then I noticed that every other room did not work. It was as if - actually it was the case - that every other circuit breaker in the house was not working.

Fortunately for you I'll make this story shorter than it really was.

I called the power company which came in 10 minutes. One reason they came is because their automated phone system only allows you to indicate that you have no power. They have no choice for a general power problem or half power. They do have choices for downed power lines and the like.

I know too much about the power to our house, because soon after we purchased the place almost a year ago, the power company spent two days here trying to find their box near the curb. It's called a hanhole which is an awkward name when you first encounter it. The electric company eventually found the box under a one ton rock and 30 inches of top soil. It is supposed to be right at ground level, so they put a new box on top of the old one. I have since found out that there are things that all the utility companies should do, but sometimes don't quite do. The soil and rock were probably deposited after the sewer lines were dug 10 years ago, but nobody can be sure.

I guess this isn't that short a story, but I'll try to speed up.

The power company said that we were missing one hot leg between the hanhole and the meter and that it was our responsibility to fix. Nowadays they bury wires in PVC pipes, but when the house was built, they just buried the wires. A typical house has two 120 volt lines running into it, but we only had one functioning. Somewhere there was a problem. I was looking forward to having a big repair bill and a big excavation job done, not to mention having my driveway cut by a saw.

On Tuesday the job started. The main characters were the electrician and the excavator. They were also the director and stage manager, respectively. In order, we also had performances from the gas company (to map the gas lines), DigSafe to map the cable and phone (but it turns out not the electric, which would be our responsibility to map, but we were about to replace it anyway), an electrical parts truck, and the electric company (which had to turn off the power before any actual work could commence). Our front yard now has colorful flags and dots of spray paint showing were different things are. I plan to jot them down for future reference. I don't know where the water or sewer lines are, but I imagine they are down deep.

The DigSafe guy was quite thorough. He has nifty tools which beep when they sense he is near something live underground. I can imagine him retired on a beach in Miami finding all the lost wedding rings and none of the rusty nails.

Once the yard was mapped and the power was turned off, they started to dig near the house and fortunately for us they found the break about a foot away from the meter. In the picture the break looks a bit like a knee. Basically the wire turned to a bump of white powder. A kindly electric company worker who dropped by to do the electrician a favor spliced the line (even though he shouldn't have), and we were saved the added expense and time of running new conduit and wires and slicing open the driveway.

I haven't received the bill yet.

Wood thrush returns

Last year after we moved in we bathed our selves in the watery sounds of the wood thrush. When we first heard it, we didn't even know what it was. Sasha described it to our friend who knew what she meant immediately.

A few months later the bird was gone and so was it's song. Our neighbor's partly-feral cat killed it. I saw the cat carry it away. We were quite sad about it and though there had been many wonderful bird calls and bird sightings since, none quite equalled the Wood Thrush which apparently can make two tones at once. Even the descriptions of its call at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology are poetic.

One of the most common woodland birds of the East, the Wood Thrush is best known for its hauntingly beautiful song.

Song a series of yodeled phrases with a pause in between each phrase, and complex, flute-like notes. "ee-oh-lay." Calls a rapid "pit-pit-pit." Nocturnal flight call an emphatic buzzy "heeh," on one tone or only slightly descending.

Well just this Monday we woke up not to the alarm which was disabled by an in-home power-outage, but to the sounds of a new wood thrush. Perhaps it had just arrived from its winter lodging elsewhere.

Who don't vote

In 2004, there were 215 million voting age adults in the United States.

197 million of them were citizens.

142 million were registered to vote in the presidential election.

125 million voted.

That means 17 million did not vote who were registered, and a total of 72 million did not (or could not) vote.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, November 1996, 2000, and 2004.

We have a new food coop

Lucky you! I will keep this post short. We now have our own food coop.

If any of you know anything about us, you know that we miss our old food coop in Brooklyn. The Park Slope Food Coop is the food coop of food coops. It is fodder for hours of discussion and mountains of blogging. I'm even afraid to link to any of the discussion on the internet, but take my word for it - all the good is true and the bad is mostly either false or grossly exaggerated.

When we first decided to move up here, I searched for local food coops. There are actually a few, but most are small but none were nearby.

Well, this week on Wednesday April 30, our new food coop opened just a quarter mile from our home. It is called the River Valley Market. I had been working on the outreach committee along with several long dedicated old timers. Many people did a great deal of work to make this happen and I'm glad we can reap the benefits.

The River Valley Market has 2,700 members, has a new "green" building, and took about 9 years to realize. Our new coop is a more modern traditional coop. I will try to post a comparison to the Park Slope Food Coop which is an older more idiosyncratic establishment.

Night Bear

We've had 3 Bear sightings this year. This is the only picture so far, since the camera is not always at hand. It's actually at dusk.

We had one bear hanging out in the yard interested in our neighbor who was up on a ladder. Another sighting, this time in the morning of a family of 3 bears, but no bowls of cold, tepid, and hot chowda or whatever large, medium, and baby bears carry around with them.

Because of this our bird feeders are down until the fall when the bears once again are less active.

April Asparagus

We recently ate some yummy April asparagus (pictured). I'm not sure, but last year I think we only clued into the big asparagus scene that goes on around here in May. So far in April I found some in Hatfield, in Deerfield, and in Hadley which is asparagus central for the country.

Last year, I described the asparagus history of the region and gave you a few recipes.

Here's another recipe. It's just too simple!

Simple Grilled Asparagus

1. Warm up the BBQ. Low to medium hot, since it's only asparagus you are cooking.
2. Wash and clean two bunches or 2 lbs of "grass" as we call those spikes of green around here. (Two bunches, because this stuff is so good that you will eat it all and then wish you had left-overs the next day.)
3. Snap off bottom-most segment of each asparagus. It's fun and makes a nice noise. Discard.
4. Put them on a plate, drizzle with olive oil and a sprinkle of salt.
   
5. Cook spears on the BBQ perpendicular to the the grating, so they do not fall through.
6. They will be done in just a few minutes. You want them when they are not firm, a little singed here and there, and as done as you are used to. Feel free to roll them as they cook or rearrange them so they are cooked evenly.
   
7. Remove to a serving platter and sprinkle with a little salt. (Now is the time to get out that expensive French sea-salt like fleur de sel you always forget to use.)
   

Bored Of Directors

Once again I receive a proxy from a company I have a vested interest in. As a stockholder, through my broker who has invested my IRA in stuff, I get to vote on some high quality issues.

Below is the actual ballot. To find the details, you have to read pages and pages of documentation. But mainly you can tell just by scanning below that ConocoPhillips is against any sort of accountability or prudence (environmental, political, fiscal, whatever) short of hiring the accountants themselves.

Here's the annual proxy:

CONOCOPHILLIPS Annual Meeting

Vote Your Shares

Meeting Date: 05/14/2008 for holders as of 03/17/2008

CUSIP: 208xxx-xxx

Your Control Number: 154xxx

If you plan to attend the meeting Click here.

Proxy Ballot: Directors' Recommendations: Choose this if you would like to vote your shares following directors' recommendations. See below or refer to the proxy statement for the detailed recommendations. Please read them carefully. 1A. ELECTION OF DIRECTOR: HAROLD W. MCGRAW III Directors Recommend: FOR For Against Abstain 1B. ELECTION OF DIRECTOR: JAMES J. MULVA Directors Recommend: FOR For Against Abstain 1C. ELECTION OF DIRECTOR: BOBBY S. SHACKOULS Directors Recommend: FOR For Against Abstain 02. TO AMEND AMENDED AND RESTATED BY-LAWS AND RESTATED CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION TO PROVIDE FOR THE ANNUAL ELECTION OF DIRECTORS Directors Recommend: FOR For Against Abstain 03. TO RATIFY APPOINTMENT OF ERNST & YOUNG LLP AS CONOCOPHILLIPS INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM FOR 2008 Directors Recommend: FOR For Against Abstain 04. QUALIFICATIONS FOR DIRECTOR NOMINEES Directors Recommend: AGAINST For Against Abstain 05. REPORT ON RECOGNITION OF INDIGENOUS RIGHTS Directors Recommend: AGAINST For Against Abstain 06. ADVISORY VOTE ON EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION Directors Recommend: AGAINST For Against Abstain 07. POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS Directors Recommend: AGAINST For Against Abstain 08. GREENHOUSE GAS REDUCTION Directors Recommend: AGAINST For Against Abstain 09. COMMUNITY ACCOUNTABILITY Directors Recommend: AGAINST For Against Abstain 10. DRILLING IN SENSITIVE/PROTECTED AREAS Directors Recommend: AGAINST For Against Abstain 11. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT Directors Recommend: AGAINST For Against Abstain 12. GLOBAL WARMING Directors Recommend: AGAINST For Against Abstain

Legal Proxy: Choose this only if you plan to attend and vote your shares at the meeting. IMPORTANT: By choosing this option, we are precluded from voting your shares on your behalf. A Legal Proxy covering your securities will be issued to you. Your Legal Proxy must be presented at the meeting for your shares to be represented. Do not make any other marks on this ballot. DO NOT use this option if you hold shares directly with the issuer, rather than through a bank or broker.

Click to see: "Letter to our clients regarding voting authority"

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Maple Sap to Syrup: Forty to One

Forty to one. That's the golden ratio for maple syrup. Invented long ago by Native Americans, they found that if you tap a sugar maple tree and collect the sap you can boil it down to a wonderful syrup unknown anywhere else on earth but North America. OK, I haven't looked that one up, but I know the Native Americans didn't have barley or rice syrup and doubt they could have anticipated the construction of refineries to make corn syrup. But I digress.

As we all know in late winter and early spring trees in cold places start to come back to life. This is what Spring is all about. Deciduous trees have created sugars in their leaves through photosynthesis and circulate in a water solution called sap through non-living cells which are tubes of hollow non-living cells. Sap is generally stored down low in their roots and used all over the tree as anti-freeze. As the trees sense the arrival of Spring in the form of warm days and cold nights and changes in sunlight that sap starts to flow up. The tree is getting ready to create leaves which some of us use for shade in the coming months. The Native Americans found that if you bore a small hole down low on the trunk of any adult tree, you could collect gallons of sap every day. If the tree was big, you could make two holes. If you collect all that sap and put it in a pot over a fire and let it boil, you would get something sweet and wonderful. You would get a time machine, so when you put some on your tongue you were instantly brought back to a place where you were a year ago, eating a warm comforting breakfast with people you love. Think about it, long ago this was probably something seasonal where you made the syrup and had it over just a few months. You literally could use the tree (both wood and sap) to make food and energy just as your winter reserves were running out.

Lately I've been looking at those buckets attached to local maple trees at the side of the road with envy. Maybe we have those trees here on the property? Near Lily's school a small tanker truck collects the sap from the trees which line the main street, I see them every day or two. In an answer to my prayers, I was given a gift of five gallons of maple sap. I got this through an offer on Freecycle. Those of you used to Freecycle, which is just an email list offering free stuff will find that here in the Pioneer Valley, there will be odd things like maple sap, country things like roosters (free animals are actually against the rules), common things like bags of stuffed animals and old couches, and oddball things like "a bag of mints" (that offer is sitting there right now in my email inbox). Did I digress again?

I picked up the maple sap in three large pots. It was left on a stoop across town in one of those big orange picnic jugs. I filled my pots and put them in the back of the car and drove home verrry slowwly. I could hear them sloshing around at stops. As soon as I got home I put one pot on the stove to boil. Usually sugaring, as this is called, is done on a wood fire either outside or inside a sugar shack. Around here you can visit the sugar shacks and watch the sap boiling and smell the sweet steam and buy yourself a nice breakfast. Steam pours out of special trap-door vents in the roof of a sugar shack, so you can see when they are sugaring from afar.

The pure sap really had no flavor or color. It seemed like water from a pond, as if there was something in there that I had yet to find or notice. I soon had my two gallon pot boiling on the gas stove in the kitchen here. (I always start to get tired at the end of a blog entry like this - if I got paid, I'd definitely give the end more attention.) After about two hours half the sap was gone, but aside from a little foam, the contents looked the same. I added more from another pot and let it continue. Boiling something like this creates steam, so I made sure to keep the fan over the stove turned on. The sap creates a faintly sweet odor which reminds me of Halloween. I couldn't stick around the house the whole time - you know, a watched pot and all - so I turned it off and started it up the next day. Sap can go bad, so it's best to boil it quickly or refrigerate it. After about four hours of boiling I had lost 2/3 of the volume, but as the title of this entry suggests I had a way to go. Maple sap must boil down to 1/40th the volume to make syrup. My five gallons would eventually make one pint. On the third day I boiled some more. I was quite excited when I had only the stuff in one pot now. It hardly tasted sweet by this time and not very maple-y. It wasn't even brown. But when I stirred it, it had a little give. Something was in there now. A few hours later I had something that seemed like watered down maple syrup. Nothing you'd notice if it was on pancakes. But another hour later I had about a quart of something I thought was maple syrup. It was hot and brown and maple-y. I put this in the fridge, but by the next day I realized that the cold stuff needed to boil some more.

The math said it should be a pint, but I had a quart - and some fear of burning the stuff after maybe seven hours of boiling. I put my quart into a small pot and boiled it some more, tasting it occasionally. Of course a little while later it boiled over and whatever spilled burned and created a mess. Not much was lost, but what was left in the pot - here I feel like the guy who discovered Teflon - was very good maple syrup. It was concentrated maple sap boiled down forty-to-one. One pint. I had it this morning on French Toast. It was great.

Amphibian Friendly

I just received this notice from my town:

8:00 PM Public Hearing on proposed subdivision revisions to require all subdivision curbs be granite, roads be amphibian/reptile-friendly, and require open culverts above streams, amend permit applications, and change fees. These changes will add some cost to roads and housing, primarily in outlying areas where most homes are done in subdivisions with large street frontages. The changes will make projects more attractive, provide clear environmental benefits, and reduce maintenance costs.

What caught my eye was proposal to make all new "roads be amphibian/reptile-friendly". Not that the roads should allow the likes of Dick Cheney (an acknowledged reptile) to use them or any Democratic congressman (definite more spineless amphibian material). It's more that wildlife of any small squishy sort can cross the road at its own pace. Like the old joke:

Q: Why did the spotted salamanders cross the road?
A: Because the thoughtless humans destroyed most of their habitat and divided it with roads and developments, and they have no other way to get to places in order to find mates or food or shelter.

The real answer is to make sure that turtles and frogs and the like can go under the road through animal friendly conduits or tunnels and hopefully also make it hard for them to cross the road except at the cross-walks so-to-speak.

The Pioneer Valley is famous for the Amherst Salamander Crossing which helps the amphibians spawn and has long ago spawned a local band of the same name.

Low Finance

It finally happened!

Leobardo Camacho, the mexican shoe vendor, has repaid the money I loaned him!

Thanks to Kiva I was able to give him a micro-loan using microfinance. Kiva facilitates this. I provide the captal. A local lender provides the actual loan which Leobardo pays over a year or so plus interest. I don't get interest myself, but I do get the warm fuzzy feeling and I also get my lowly $50 back. He actually borrowed $1200, so I was just one of several lenders who were pooled together by Kiva. Also, I used PayPal money to do all this, and since PayPal is a scam of sorts, I figured I would actually put the money I got from that junk I sold on EBay to good use.

Earlier this year Kiva was oversubscribed. They had too many people willing to loan money. Hopefully they have caught up with demand. If you'd like a Kiva "invite", so you too can join, just ask me and I'll send you one.

GENERAL ELECTRIC Shareholders Meeting

OK, I feel really really guilty.

I own stock in GENERAL ELECTRIC. Or at least I have a broker who has arranged for this. But it's all abstract. Like the stock itself. It's in my IRA - I think. My IRA is something I wont be touching for at least 20 years, probably more. And who knows if I will even own part of GENERAL ELECTRIC by then. And I buy GE lightbulbs and appliances and occasionally watch GE programs, since they own 80% of NBC. I watch so little TV nowadays that all I remember is that they air SNL which I did watch when I had nothing better to do on a SN. So I get to call it GE, since we're on such good terms. In 2006, GE made $163 billion making them the largest media company regardless of how much media they actually own.

I've been meaning to do this for a while. Write about my proxy statement, that is. I get them emailed to me occasionally, and sometimes they contain gibberish and sometimes they reflect the times. Sometimes they contain virtually nothing.

GE has a reputation for being evil, so their proxy contains good blog fodder. The complete proxy statement is below. It's a form, so you just check some boxes and if you own 300 shares and there are (really) about 10 billion shares outstanding, then I get 3.0 × 10^-10 of the votes which is a very small say in things of such import.

So let's take a quick look at the proxy statement below.

First off you get to vote for the board of directors. These are the people who are supposed to oversee that things are on the up-and-up. Many of them have names straight out of Harry Potter, like ANN M. FUDGE and JAMES I. CASH, JR. Some of them are famous powerful people who have long ago sold their souls and got quite a bargain in the process, like Senator SAM NUNN who on this ballot doesn't use his title. He gives the company an air of legitimacy as if the company that invented the monthly electric bill would even need that. But mostly, Nunn gives the company access. Also, many of these board members on on the boards of other companies as is true for those companies in turn. It is a nice perk for these guys who get to meet a few times a year and reap huge benefits. The meetings and the benefits are a matter of public record for the public companies.

GE is the target of many many shareholder initiatives. Some involve accountability, some involve the fact that this huge company which makes weapons and owns Chris Matthews. In the ballot below you see that the Board doesn't want to make annual reports on their share of Global Warming and doesn't want any more accountability than they are legally required. You have to read another document to find the details, but you get the idea. And who would blame them. Corporations need to make profit for shareholders or not exist. It's their prime directive.


GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY Annual Meeting

Vote Your Shares

Meeting Date: 04/23/2008 for holders as of 02/25/2008

CUSIP: 3xxxxxxx-xxx

Your Control Number: 31xxxxxxxxxxxx

If you plan to attend the meeting Click here.

As your vote is very important, we recommend that all voting instructions be received at least one business day prior to the voting cut-off time stated in the information circular. Scroll down for proxy instructions and voting.

To vote via telephone call 1-800-603-2119

Proxy Ballot: Directors' Recommendations: Choose this if you would like to vote your shares following directors' recommendations. See below or refer to the proxy statement for the detailed recommendations. Please read them carefully. A1. ELECTION OF DIRECTOR: JAMES I. CASH, JR. Directors Recommend: FOR For Against Abstain A2. ELECTION OF DIRECTOR: SIR WILLIAM M. CASTELL Directors Recommend: FOR For Against Abstain A3. ELECTION OF DIRECTOR: ANN M. FUDGE Directors Recommend: FOR For Against Abstain A4. ELECTION OF DIRECTOR: CLAUDIO X. GONZALEZ Directors Recommend: FOR For Against Abstain A5. ELECTION OF DIRECTOR: SUSAN HOCKFIELD Directors Recommend: FOR For Against Abstain A6. ELECTION OF DIRECTOR: JEFFREY R. IMMELT Directors Recommend: FOR For Against Abstain A7. ELECTION OF DIRECTOR: ANDREA JUNG Directors Recommend: FOR For Against Abstain A8. ELECTION OF DIRECTOR: ALAN G. (A.G.) LAFLEY Directors Recommend: FOR For Against Abstain A9. ELECTION OF DIRECTOR: ROBERT W. LANE Directors Recommend: FOR For Against Abstain A10. ELECTION OF DIRECTOR: RALPH S. LARSEN Directors Recommend: FOR For Against Abstain A11. ELECTION OF DIRECTOR: ROCHELLE B. LAZARUS Directors Recommend: FOR For Against Abstain A12. ELECTION OF DIRECTOR: JAMES J. MULVA Directors Recommend: FOR For Against Abstain A13. ELECTION OF DIRECTOR: SAM NUNN Directors Recommend: FOR For Against Abstain A14. ELECTION OF DIRECTOR: ROGER S. PENSKE Directors Recommend: FOR For Against Abstain A15. ELECTION OF DIRECTOR: ROBERT J. SWIERINGA Directors Recommend: FOR For Against Abstain A16. ELECTION OF DIRECTOR: DOUGLAS A. WARNER III Directors Recommend: FOR For Against Abstain B. RATIFICATION OF KPMG Directors Recommend: FOR For Against Abstain 01. CUMULATIVE VOTING Directors Recommend: AGAINST For Against Abstain 02. SEPARATE THE ROLES OF CEO AND CHAIRMAN Directors Recommend: AGAINST For Against Abstain 03. RECOUP UNEARNED MANAGEMENT BONUSES Directors Recommend: AGAINST For Against Abstain 04. CURB OVER-EXTENDED DIRECTORS Directors Recommend: AGAINST For Against Abstain 05. REPORT ON CHARITABLE CONTRIBUTIONS Directors Recommend: AGAINST For Against Abstain 06. GLOBAL WARMING REPORT Directors Recommend: AGAINST For Against Abstain 07. ADVISORY VOTE ON EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION Directors Recommend: AGAINST For Against Abstain

Legal Proxy:

Choose this only if you plan to attend and vote your shares at the meeting.

IMPORTANT: By choosing this option, we are precluded from voting your shares on your behalf. A Legal Proxy covering your securities will be issued to you. Your Legal Proxy must be presented at the meeting for your shares to be represented. Do not make any other marks on this ballot.

DO NOT use this option if you hold shares directly with the issuer, rather than through a bank or broker.