The avian cost of environmentally friendly architecture

Environmentally friendly buildings are often bird killers, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The Mathematics and Science Building, one of Emory University's most environmentally friendly buildings and a hallmark of that school's environmental efforts, has been described as an "avian slaughterhouse." Every year the building's reflective glass kills dozens of birds who confuse the woodsy reflection with the actual forest. In response, Emory installs netting during the migratory season.

The AJC quotes Muhlenberg College ornithologist Daniel Klem for this statistic: between 100 million and 1 billion birds die in the United States each year in collisions with glass.

Buildings that earn LEED certifications, the gold standard for environmentally friendly architecture, often incorporate large amounts of glass. According to Klem, few architects consider the impact of their designs on birds. As a result, avian casualties are an unintended consequence of designing buildings to take advantage of natural light.

Truly bad movie meme

"It's the worst film I have ever made. Now, when my kids get out of line, they're sent to their room and forced to watch Red Sonja ten times. I never have too much trouble with them."

— Arnold Schwarzenegger, as quoted in Wikipedia's entry on Red Sonja

---

Bad movies. All of us have seen them. Some of us, like Arnold Schwarzegger, have made them.

There is real therapeutic value in naming the worst [name your item] ever. What goes for bad law professors goes also for the movies.

I propose to start a bad movie meme. I'll name the worst film I've ever paid money to see. It wasn't Red Sonja, which did earn a hilariously dismissive review in the New York Times. No, I must confess that I once crossed the county line during college to see . . . Caligula. There. I confessed it.

Update, 11/24/07: In speaking with friends about truly bad movies, I remembered two additional entrants in this dubious derby:

Space Jam

Spaceballs

Okay. To make this a meme, I have to tag someone. Nancy Rapoport, since you're the only law professor I know with her own IMDb entry, I tag you. Heck, Nancy, you even have your own IMDb glamor shot! I'd love to hear your thoughts on the movies — the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Update: I have been informed that Adam Winkler also has an IMDb page.

Happy Thanksgiving

A nice image, by way of Feminist Law Professors.
Herewith the 1863 proclamation by which President Abraham Lincoln transformed the Thanksgiving tradition into a legal holiday:

Proclamation of Thanksgiving
Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward, Secretary of State

Literary Warrant [22]

The poetry of earth is never dead:
When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,
And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run
From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;
That is the Grasshopper's—he takes the lead
In summer luxury,—he has never done
With his delights; for when tired out with fun
He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.
The poetry of earth is ceasing never:
On a lone winter evening, when the frost
Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills
The Cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever,
And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,
The Grasshopper's among some grassy hills.

—John Keats, On the Grasshopper and Cricket (December 30, 1816), in Poems 1817.

• Anna Lindh Programme on Conflict Prevention, Greg Austin & Marie-Ange Schellekens-Gaiffe, eds., Energy & Conflict Prevention (2007 ed.)
  

  "Most conflict hotspots around the world today are in areas where energy or other resources are a factor. With the arrival of new actors both governmental and non-governmental, new industrial giants such as China and India, as well as rapidly emerging national oil companies, ‘energy security’ has rapidly become a global environmental, social, and economic issue requiring a rapid and coordinated response from governments, the business community, and global civil society.
  

  "This edition, the fourth in a series of publications from the Anna Lindh Programme on Conflict Prevention, deals with Energy and Conflict Prevention, an issue already highlighted in the 2003 Security Strategy adopted by the European Union as a global challenge."
  

• Basel Action Network BAN & Toxics Link, Proposed Waste Law to Officially Turn India into Global Waste Destination: Draft Promotes Waste Trade Over Health and Environment (Press release) (November 14, 2007)
  
  "Through a jugglery of words in the draft legislation on waste, the Indian Government may pave the way for officially opening floodgates for the dumping of world's hazardous waste in the name of recycling and unleash unprecedented havoc on India's environment and health of its citizens, environmentalists have warned."


• California Department of Fish & Game, Spills and Events: Cosco Busan Spill
  
  "The out-bound container ship M/V Cosco Busan struck the San Francisco Bay Bridge at approximately 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 7. Sector 11 United States Coast Guard has responded to the incident along with the Dept. of Fish Game—Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR), the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (OES), National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Parks Service, the National Marine Sanctuaries and other State and local agencies."—Incident Description. Includes response updates, photos, maps, and related links.


• Guardian Unlimited, Special Report: Natural Disasters
  
  "Collection of news articles about recent natural disasters around the world. Covers topics such as November 2007 floods in Tabasco, Mexico, wildfires in Southern California in fall 2007, and an earthquake in Manchester, England, in August 2007. Also includes links to interactive guides on earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, and Mount Etna. From Guardian Unlimited, the website of the British newspaper, The Guardian."—Librarians' Internet Index.


• R.W. Healy, T.C. Winter, J.W. LaBaugh, & O.L. Franke, United States Geological Survey (USGS), Water Budgets: Foundations for Effective Water-resources and Environmental Management (USGS Circular 1308) (2007)
  

  "A new USGS Circular illustrates the importance of water budgets as an essential tool in addressing concerns about water availability in the 21st Century.
  

  "Ensuring sustainable water supplies requires an understanding of the hydrologic cycle. Water budgets enable an accounting of water as it moves through Earth's atmosphere, land surface and subsurface. This tool provides a quantitative basis for assessing how a natural or human-induced change in one part of the hydrologic cycle may affect other aspects of the cycle. The new USGS circular demonstrates how water budgets provide a foundation for effective water-resource and environmental planning and management."—Press release (November 19, 2007)
  

• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Summary for Policymakers of the Synthesis Report of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (Draft copy) (November 16, 2007)
  
  "The Synthesis Report is based on the previously published reports of the three Working Groups of the IPCC. The summary provides an integrated view of climate change; elaboration of the topics covered in the summary can be found in the full Synthesis Report and in the reports of the Working Groups."—UN Pulse (November 19, 2007)


• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Office of Response & Restoration (OR&R), Emergency Response Division (ERD), IndicentNews
  
  "This site has news, photos, and other information about oil spills (and other incidents) where NOAA's Office of Response and Restoration (OR&R) provided scientific support for the incident response."


• RAND Corporation, Office of Congressional Relations, How Schools Responded to Student Mental Health Needs Following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (RAND Health Fact Sheet) (2007)
  
  "In 2005, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita displaced hundreds of thousands of children in the U.S. Gulf Coast region and exposed many more to stressful events, such as injury, homelessness, and the loss of loved ones. Schools in the region played a role in helping students cope with this trauma by providing mental health services. This study examined how schools in the Gulf region perceived the mental health needs of students after the hurricanes and how schools responded. RAND researchers interviewed school personnel in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, Florida, and Arkansas."


• Dan Smith & Janani Vivekananda, International Alert, A Climate of Conflict: The Links Between Climate Change, Peace and War (November 2007)
  
  "The impact of climate change will make the poorest communities across the world poorer. Many of them are already affected by conflict and instability and thus face a dual risk. International Alert’s new research finds that the consequences of climate change will fuel violent conflict, which itself hinders the ability of governments and local communities to adapt to the pressures of climate change."—Climate Change and Violent Conflict.


• United States Climate Change Science Program, The First State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCR): The North American Carbon Budget and Implications for the Global Carbon Cycle (Synthesis and Assessment Product 2.2) (November 2007)
  

  "North America is currently a net source of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, contributing to the global buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and associated changes in the Earth’s climate. In 2003, North America emitted nearly two billion metric tons of carbon to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. North America’s fossil-fuel emissions in 2003 (1856 million metric tons of carbon ± 10% with 95% certainty) were 27% of global emissions. Approximately 85% of those emissions were from the United States, 9% from Canada, and 6% from Mexico. The combustion of fossil fuels for commercial energy (primarily electricity) is the single largest contributor, accounting for approximately 42% of North American fossil emissions in 2003.
  

  "Transportation is the second largest, accounting for 31% of total emissions. There are also globally important carbon sinks in North America. In 2003, growing vegetation in North America removed approximately 500 million tons of carbon per year (± 50%) from the atmosphere and stored it as plant material and soil organic matter. This land sink is equivalent to approximately 30% of the fossil-fuel emissions from North America. The imbalance between the fossil-fuel source and the sink on land is a net release to the atmosphere of 1350 million metric tons of carbon per year (± 25%).
  

  "Approximately 50% of North America’s terrestrial sink is due to the regrowth of forests in the United States on former agricultural land that was last cultivated decades ago, and on timberland recovering from harvest. Other sinks are relatively small and not well quantified with uncertainties of 100% or more. The future of the North American terrestrial sink is also highly uncertain. The contribution of forest regrowth is expected to decline as the maturing forests grow more slowly and take up less carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. But, how regrowing forests and other sinks will respond to changes in climate and carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere is highly uncertain.
  

  "The large difference between current sources and sinks and the expectation that the difference could become larger if the growth of fossil-fuel emissions continues and land sinks decline suggest that addressing imbalances in the North American carbon budget will likely require actions focused on reducing fossil-fuel emissions. Options to enhance sinks (growing forests or sequestering carbon in agricultural soils) can contribute, but enhancing sinks alone is likely insufficient to deal with either the current or future imbalance. Options to reduce emissions include efficiency improvement, fuel switching, and technologies such as carbon capture and geological storage. Implementing these options will likely require an array of policy instruments at local, regional, national, and international levels, ranging from the encouragement of voluntary actions to economic incentives, tradable emissions permits, and regulations. Meeting the demand for information by decision makers will likely require new modes of research characterized by close collaboration between scientists and carbon management stakeholders."—Abstract.
  

• United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service (ERS), Amber Waves (November 2007)
  
  "Feature articles in the November 2007 issue include...Do Food Labels Make a Difference? Sometimes; Integrating Conservation and Commodity Program Payments: A Look at the Tradeoffs; The Future of Biofuels: A Global Perspective; Cropland Concentrating Faster Where Payments Are Higher. Other articles cover such topics as...Chinese exchange rate policy, global wheat production, food product introductions, Americans’ dairy consumption, effect of the Conservation Reserve Program on outdoor recreation, forces affecting nitrogen fertilizer prices, arts employment in rural areas, 'million-dollar' farms, and measuring the distribution of farms and farm sizes. Also includes selected statistics on agriculture and trade, diet and health, natural resources, farm households, and rural America."


• United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Acid Rain Program 2006 Progress Report (November 2007)
  

  "For the first time ever, sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions from the power sector fell below 10 million tons as reported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Acid Rain Program and Related Programs 2006 Progress Report. 2006 marks the 12th year of what is widely hailed as one of the most successful environmental programs in U.S. history.
  

  "In 2006, annual SO2 emissions from acid rain program electric power generation sources fell sharply, with reductions of 830,000 tons from 2005 levels and an overall reduction of 40 percent from 1990 levels. NOx emissions were down by over 3 million tons since 1990 and had decreased to nearly half the level anticipated without the Acid Rain Program. These reductions have led to a significant decrease in acid deposition, resulting in improved water quality in U.S. lakes and streams. Reduced formation of fine particles, improved air quality and human health related benefits are all results from the reduction of these emissions."—Press release (November 16, 2007)
  

• United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Air Emission Sources
  

  "EPA has developed two tools that let computer users 'see' air quality information on a virtual globe. Both tools are available to the public starting today....
  

  "The first tool is part of the new 'Air Emission Sources' Web site, which is designed to make emissions data for six common pollutants easy to find and understand. Based on the latest National Emissions Inventory, the site uses charts and Google Earth files to answer a user’s questions. Users can look at overall emissions, emissions by type of industry, or emissions by largest polluter."—Press release (November 19, 2007)
  



• United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Performance And Accountability Report, Fiscal Year 2007: Environmental and Financial Progress (EPA 190-R-07-001) (November 15, 2007)
  
  "The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Performance and Accountability Report
  for Fiscal Year 2007 provides performance and financial information that enables Congress, the President, and the public to assess the progress EPA is making in achieving environmental results—improving the quality of air and water and preserving and protecting the land—and using taxpayer dollars efficiently and effectively."—Purpose of the Report.


• United States Government Accountability Office (GAO), Hurricane Katrina: Ineffective FEMA Oversight of Housing Maintenance Contracts in Mississippi Resulted in Millions of Dollars of Waste and Potential Fraud (Report to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, U.S. Senate, GAO-08-106) (November 2007)
  
  "FEMA’s ineffective oversight resulted in an estimated $30 million in wasteful and improper or potentially fraudulent payments to the MD contractors from June 2006 through January 2007 and likely led to millions more in unnecessary spending beyond this period. For example, FEMA wasted as much as $16 million because it did not issue task orders to the contractors with the lowest prices. In addition, GAO estimates that FEMA paid the contractors almost $16 million because it approved improper or potentially fraudulent invoices. This amount includes about $15 million spent on maintenance inspections even though there was no evidence that inspections occurred and about $600,000 for emergency repairs on housing units that do not exist in FEMA’s inventory."—What GAO Found.

The Most Dangerous Justice Rides into the Sunset

Freshly available on SSRN:

Paul H. Edelman & Jim Chen, The Most Dangerous Justice Rides into the Sunset, 24 Constitutional Commentary 299 (2007):

In this essay, our third and last in a series, we employ our previously developed techniques to measure the power of the Justices in the Rehnquist Court over its full 11 year run. Once again, Justice Kennedy rises to the top of our rankings, as he had done earlier. Our methods identify Justices Souter, Breyer and Ginsburg as being notable either for their influence or lack thereof. In addition, we rejoin the debate on the connection between being the median justice and being the most powerful one. We question whether even the most sophisticated methods of finding the median justice are adequate to the task of assessing power on the Court.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

The N.Y. Times reports on the latest word from the IPCC:

Synthesizing reams of data from its three previous reports, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the first time specifically points out important risks if governments fail to respond: melting ice sheets that could lead to a rapid rise in sea levels and the extinction of large numbers of species brought about by even moderate amounts of warming, on the order of 1 to 3 degrees.

* * *

Even though the synthesis report is more alarming than its predecessors, some researchers believe that it still understates the trajectory of global warming and its impact. The I.P.C.C.’s scientific process, which takes five years of study and writing from start to finish, cannot take into account the very latest data on climate change or economic trends, which show larger than predicted development and energy use in China.

Of course, this time the problem isn't interstellar aliens. Rather, we are confronting the Pogo Theorem: "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

Intent: Searching for Meaning in the Constitution

Herewith a description of the ETS Pictures documentary, Intent: Searching For Meaning In The Constitution (2006):

What does the United States Constitution tell us about the defining political issues of our day? And how do we interpret the document to find those answers? This one hour documentary examines the meaning of the Constitution through the lens of several interpretive perspectives, and it investigates how differing views of the document impact today's political debates. In order to illustrate the impact of Constitutional interpretation on the real world, "Intent" focuses on four case studies. From medical marijuana, to warrantless wiretapping, to gun control laws, to "eminent domain" land seizures, "Intent" examines Constitutional tensions between individual liberty, and government authority. Program interviews range across the political spectrum - from Elliot Mincberg of People For The American Way, to Roger Pilon of the CATO Institute, to the American Conservative Union's David Keene. Noted academics such as George Washington Law School's Mary Cheh also make appearances.

Yes, this is shameless self-promotion. I'm a member of the cast:

International bird rescue

The International Bird Rescue Research Center has been working furiously in response to the San Francisco Bay oil spill. The IBRRC has been helping birds since 1971. Its mission is to mitigate human impact on aquatic birds and other wildlife through rehabilitation, emergency response, education, research, planning, and training.

Drove My Chevy to the Levee but the Levee was Gone

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) performed an independent review of the failure of the New Orleans flood control system. As the Times Picayune reports today, this review has become quite controversial. Among the ASCE's strongest critics has been Ray Seed, from the Berkeley engineering school (pictured left):

A long-simmering dispute about whether a leading engineering organization whitewashed the role of the Army Corps of Engineers in the failure of the levee system during Hurricane Katrina has broken into the open with a bitter YouTube spoof and a demand for an ethics investigation of the organization's staff.

In June, the American Society of Civil Engineers released the results of a peer review of the Defense Department-sponsored Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force, or IPET. But critics say the review, and particularly the news release accompanying it, minimized the role of the levee failure in the flooding of the city.

The civil engineering group's most controversial claims were that much of the death and destruction would have happened even without the levee failure, and that the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet did not serve as a hurricane highway into New Orleans. Reviews by other scientific organizations were much tougher on the corps. the American Society of Civil Engineers confirmed the launch of an internal ethics probe of its staff and members based on complaints by a University of California-Berkeley professor, who served on a separate independent panel investigating levee failures.

This is not the first brush with controversy of the Berkeley engineering team:

An independent investigation of the Katrina levee failures by Seed and Berkeley Ocean Engineering professor Robert Bea was underwritten by a grant from the National Science Foundation. Underwriters hoped their findings might also help guide similar investigations of levees in the Sacramento, Calif., area.

But they ran into problems with ASCE officials soon after hitting the ground in New Orleans, after Seed and Bea granted interviews to reporters expressing early opinions about possible reasons for the failure of levees and levee walls, against the wishes of ASCE officials.

Mongan said Seed had corresponded several times with former ASCE President Bill Marcusen, and Seed's complaints grew more strident this summer.

Both Seed and Bea have been highly critical of actions taken by the corps before and after the storm. At one point, they discovered corps contractors using improper soils in rebuilding one section of levee in St. Bernard Parish, and their public disclosure of the problem resulted in the corps both replacing that section of levee and changing its standards for materials used in levees throughout the area.

Go Bears!

The body of an American / The lowlands of Holland

Reprinted in part from The Cardinal Lawyer

There is perhaps no finer Veterans' Day tribute than John Dos Passos's "The Body of an American," the concluding chapter of 1919, part two of the U.S.A. trilogy (1930-36). (See also the prologue to U.S.A.) This post excerpts "The Body of an American" and pairs it with a traditional folk song, "The Lowlands of Holland," that seems especially pertinent on this Veterans' Day.

The body of an American

Whereasthe Congressoftheunitedstates byaconcurrentresolutionadoptedon the4thdayofmarch last-authorizedthe Secretaryofwar to cause to be brought to theunitedstatesthe body of an American whowasamemberoftheAmericanexpeditionaryforceineuropewholosthis lifeduringtheworldwarandwhoseidentityhasnot beenestablish for burial inthememorialamphitheatreofthe nationalcemeteryatarlingtonvirginia

In the tarpaper morgue at Chalons-sur-Marne in the reek of chloride of lime and the dead, they picked out the pine box that held all that was left of

enie menie minie moe plenty of other pine boxes stacked up there containing what they’d scraped up of Richard Roe

and other person or persons unknown. Only one can go. How did they pick John Doe? . . .

how can you tell a guy’s a hundredpercent when all you’ve got’s a gunnysack full of bones, bronze buttons stamped with the screaming eagle and a pair of roll puttees?

. . . and the gagging chloride and the puky dirtstench of the yearold dead . . .

The day withal was too meaningful and tragic for applause. Silence, tears, songs and prayer, muffled drums and soft music were the instrumentalities today of national approbation.

John Doe was born (thudding din of blood of love into the shuddering soar of a man and a woman alone indeed together lurching into and ninemonths sick drowse waking into scared agony and the pain and blood and mess of birth). John Doe was born

and raised in Brooklyn, in Memphis, near the lakefront in Cleveland, Ohio, in the stench of the stockyards in Chi, on Beacon Hill, in an old brick house in Alexandria Virginia, on Telegraph Hill, in a halftimbered Tudor cottage in Portland the city of roses,

in the Lying-In Hospital old Morgan endowed on Stuyvesant Square,

across the railroad tracks, out near the country club, in a shack cabin tenement apartmenthouse exclusive residential suburb;

scion of one of the best families in the social register, won first prize in the baby parade at Coronado Beach, was marbles champion of the Little Rock grammarschools, crack basketballplayer at the Booneville High, quarterback at the State Reformatory, having saved the sheriff’s kid from drowning in the Little Missouri River was invited to Washington to be photographed shaking hands with the President on the White House steps;—

* * * * *

though this was a time of morning, such an assemblage necessarily has about it a touch of color. In the boxes are seen the court uniforms of foreign diplomats, the gold braid of our own and foreign fleets and armies, the black of the conventional morning dress of American statesmen, the varicolored furs and outdoor wrapping garments of mothers and sisters come to mourn, the drab and blue of soldiers and sailors, the glitter of musical instruments and the white and black of a vested choir

— busboy harveststiff hogcaller boyscout champeen cornshucker of Western Kansas bellhop at the United States Hotel at Saratoga Springs office boy callboy fruiter telephone lineman longshoreman lumberjack plumber’s helper,

worked for an exterminating company in Union City, filled pipes in an opium joint in Trenton, N.J.

Y.M.C.A. secretary, express agent, truckdriver, fordmechanic, sold books in Denver Colorado: Madam would you be willing to help a young man work his way through college?

President Harding, with a reverence seemingly more significant because of his high temporal station, concluded his speech:

We are met today to pay the impersonal tribute;

the name of him whose body lies before us took flight with his imperishable soul . . .

as a typical soldier of this representative democracy he fought and died believing in the indisputable justice of his country’s cause . . .

by raising his right hand and asking the thousands with the sound of his voice to join in the prayer:

Our Father which art in heaven hallowed by thy name . . .

* * * * *

John Doe’s

heart pumped blood:

alive thudding silence of blood in your ears

down in the clearing in the Oregon forest where the punkins were punkincolor pouring into the blood through the eyes and the fallcolored trees and the bronze hoopers were hopping through the dry grass, where tiny striped snails hung on the underside of the blades and the flies hummed, wasps droned, bumble-bees buzzed, and the woods smelt of wine and mushrooms and apples, homey smell of fall pouring into the blood,

and I dropped the tin hat and the sweaty pack and lay flat with the dogday sun licking my throat and adamsapple and the tight skin over the breastbone.

The shell had his number on it.

* * * * *

The blood ran into the ground.

The service record dropped out of the filing cabinet when the quartermaster sergeant got blotto that time they had to pack up and leave the billets in a hurry.

The identification tag was in the bottom of the Marne.

The blood ran into the ground, the brains oozed out of the cracked skull and were licked up by the trenchrats, the belly swelled and raised a generation of blue-bottle flies.

and the incorruptible skeleton,

and the scraps of dried viscera and skin bundled in khaki

they took to Chalons-sur-Marne

and laid it out neat in a pine coffin

and took it home to God’s Country on a battleship

and buried in a sarcophagus in the Memorial Amphitheatre in the Arlington National Cemetery

and draped the Old Glory over it

and the bugler played taps

and Mr. Harding prayed to God and the diplomats and the generals and the admirals and the brasshats and the politicians and the handsomely dressed ladies out of the society column of the Washington Post stood up solemn

and thought how beautiful sad Old Glory God’s Country it was go have the bugler play taps and the three volleys made their ears ring.

Where his chest ought to have been they pinned

the Congressional Medal, the D.S.C., the Medaille Militaire, the Belgian Croix de Guerre, the Italian gold medal, the Vitutea Militara sent by Queen Marie of Rumania, the Czechoslovak war cross, the Virtuti Militari of the Poles, a wreath sent by Hamilton Fish, Jr., of New York, . . . . All the Washingtonians brought flowers.

Woodrow Wilson brought a bouquet of poppies.

Editorial note: These photos of the original burial of the Unknown Soldier appear on ArlingtonCemetery.Net.

The lowlands of Holland

1. Download The Lowlands of Holland  as performed by Eltjo Haselhoff. Or simply mash "play":
   
   


2. Natalie Merchant with the Chieftains, The Lowlands of Holland:
   
   

On the night that I was wed
And upon my marriage bed
There came a bold sea captain
And he stood at my bedhead
Saying, "arise, arise, young wedded man
And come along with me
To the lowlands of Holland
To fight the enemy"

Now Holland is a lovely land
And upon it grows fine grain
Surely 'tis a place of residence
For a soldier to remain
Where the sugar cane is plentiful
And the tea grows on each tree
Well, I never had but the one sweetheart
And now he's gone far away from me

I will wear no stays around my waist
Nor combs all in my hair
I will wear no scarf around my neck
for to save my beauty there
And never will I marry
Not until the day that I die
Since these four winds and these stormy seas
Came between my love and me.

For thine is the camera and the glory

For raw visual power, nothing beats a good photoblog. A Portuguese correspondent of the Jurisdynamics Network, António (pictured at left in a self-portrait), runs a good photoblog called deFocused.

Here are two recent recommendations from deFocused, utterly different from each other in artistic impression, but each filled with power in its own right:

1. Melissa Catanese:
   
   


2. Franck Juery:
   
   

White Paper on Disaster Law

The California Center for Environmental Law & Policy (CCELP) held a workshop last spring at Boalt Hall to consider future direction for the subject of disaster law. The resulting white paper considers a broad range of ways that law schools could be involved in teaching, research, and public service regarding U.S. and international disasters. The paper can be found here.

Literary Warrant [21]

I remember the only time I ever saw my mother cry. I was eating apricot pie.

I remember how much I cried seeing South Pacific (the movie) three times.

I remember how good a glass of water can taste after a dish of ice cream.

—Joe Brainard, I Remember (1975)

A gratuitous epigram, perhaps, but also a wholehearted recommendation of a unique work of humorous, often poignant writing.

• Climate Science Watch, Government Accountability Project (GAP), Climate Science Watch Posts Testimony Censored by White House (October 24, 2007)
  

  "The White House is coming under fire for 'watering down' Senate testimony from the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention delivered yesterday regarding the impact climate change is having on public health.
  

  "Climate Science Watch, a GAP program focused on holding public officials accountable for the ways climate science data is used, has posted the director’s original testimony prior to being censored."
  

• Laura Gordon-Murnane, BNA's Web Watch
  

  "Here you will find links to government, industry, and academic resources on selected topics spanning the breadth of BNA coverage. New subjects will be posted weekly, and new resources will also be added to existing topics."
  

  Among the recent topics:
  

  • Clean Water Act: Water Quality (October 2007)
  
  
  • Climate Change/Global Warming (March 2007)


• Government of Canada, Sustaining the Environment and Resources for Canadians, Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators 2007—Highlights (October 15, 2007)
  
  "This is the third annual Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators Highlights report. It presents key findings from the Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators 2007 report. The full 2007 report provides more analysis on indicators and socio-economic factors than previous reports and is based on the best national information available on three environmental issues of high importance to Canadians: air quality, greenhouse gas emissions and freshwater quality. In this year’s report, the three indicators have been updated with 2005 data."—Introduction.


• Joe Hodnicki, Law Librarian Blog, Bad Boys of Environmental Movement Offer New Vision in Break Through (October 4, 2007)
  

  "In October 2004, Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus became the 'bad boys' of the environment movement with the release of their paper, The Death of Environmentalism. In it they argued that the US environmental movement had become just another special interest group lead by myopic technocrats who focused on a tired, narrowly defined set of issues and advocated for piecemeal procedural solutions that keep an army of attorneys and lobbyists employed. Their point, their concern signaled in the subtitle of the paper, Global Warming Politics in a Post-Environmental World, was that the political and legal tactics that dealt with acid rain and the like were inadequate to deal with global warming.
  

  "Three years later, Shellenberger and Nordhaus' new book, Break Through: From The Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility, is now available. In his review of the book, Wired's Mark Horowitz says,'Green groups may carp, but the truth is that the book could turn out to be the best thing to happen to environmentalism since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.'"

• Jeff Rubin, CIBC World Markets, Fueling Inflation, StrategEcon (October 22, 2007)
  
  "The Fed may still be cutting interest rates, but markets should brace themselves for
  some of the hottest inflation numbers seen this cycle. If energy prices haven’t gotten your attention then surely food prices have, where inflation is already running well above 4%. The coincident surges in food and energy price inflation are not unrelated. The massive policy-mandated diversion of the American corn crop from animal feed and human consumption to ethanol production has already led to huge distortions in agricultural prices, and threatens even greater distortions as land use patterns continue to change."


• Vassilis Spyratos, Patrick S. Bourgeron & Michael Ghil, Development at the Wildland–Urban Interface and the Mitigation of Forest-Fire Risk, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, v.104, no.36 (September 4, 2007)
  
  "This work addresses the impacts of development at the wildland–urban interface on forest fires that spread to human habitats. Catastrophic fires in the western United States and elsewhere make these impacts a matter of urgency for decision makers, scientists, and the general public. Using a simple fire-spread model, along with housing and vegetation data, we show that fire size probability distributions can be strongly modified by the density and flammability of houses. We highlight a sharp transition zone in the parameter space of vegetation flammability and house density. Many actual fire landscapes in the United States appear to have spreading properties close to this transition. Thus, the density and flammability of buildings should be taken into account when assessing fire risk at the wildland–urban interface. Moreover, our results highlight ways for regulation at this interface to help mitigate fire risk."—Abstract.


• James Tassos, Enterprise Community Partners, Greener Policies, Smarter Plans: How States are Using the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit to Advance Healthy, Efficient and Environmentally Sound Homes (2007)
  
  "All states promote sustainable development in some fashion through their Housing Credit allocation plans. Forty-two states employ 'threshold criteria'—mandatory design, construction, energy standards or other program requirements—that address sustainable development. Forty-eight states encourage green development using selection criteria incentives. State policies that address sustainable development generally fall into four broad categories: energy efficiency; sustainable site selection; resource conservation and indoor air quality."—Analysis.


• Union of Concerned Scientists, 15 Percent by 2020 National Renewable Electricity Standard Would Save Consumers Money and Fight Global Warming, Science Group Says (Press release) (October 25, 2007)
  
  "An energy bill requiring utilities to generate at least 15 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources would significantly lower consumer electricity and natural gas bills and reduce global warming pollution, according to new analysis released today by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). The House passed such a provision, called a renewable electricity standard, in its version of the bill."


• United Nations, Department of Public Information (DPI), Climate Change: How It Impacts Us All (60th Annual DPI/NGO Conference) (September 5-7, 2007)
  
  "This year’s DPI/NGO Conference will focus on the facilitation of individual action plans that address the growing concerns associated with climate change and its profound and decisive impact on human well-being. The world is now equipped with a vast body of information, scientific as well as social and political, all pointing to the potential devastation of our common world. This conference will address solutions by helping interested parties to develop concrete practices that can be both implemented and shared. The goal of this conference is to build our knowledge of climate change into the viable habits of everyday practice that ensure a better future."—Conference Programme. Includes a link to the Conference Final Declaration.


• United States Conference of Mayors, Best Practices Guide (January 2007)
  

  "The past few years have clearly illustrated America’s vulnerability to an uncertain energy future. Similarly, the emerging threat of global climate change, due largely to widespread fossil fuel use, has made it clear that business as usual, as far as energy use is concerned, is not sustainable.

  "To remain competitive as the global economy expands and puts greater strain on traditional fuel supplies, the United States, in our view, must develop a comprehensive strategy of fuel diversity, and a combination of conservation, alternative forms of energy and modern energy technologies. Furthermore, rising energy costs and the threat of widespread blackouts here, and the unpredictability of energy supplies from abroad require leadership at all levels in attaining energy independence, security, and reliability.

  "Fortunately, as this document, The U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Energy & Environment Best Practices, illustrates, Mayors from across America are taking the lead. From residential energy efficiency rebates to carbon neutral municipal 'Green Buildings,' cities are at the leading edge of energy conservation, easing air pollution and reducing climate-change inducing greenhouse gas emissions."—Tom Cochran, Executive Director.
  

• United States Government Accountability Office, Climate Change: Agencies Should Develop Guidance for Addressing the Effects on Federal Land and Water Resources (Report to Congressional Requesters, GAO-07-863) (August 2007)
  

  "According to experts at the GAO workshop, federal land and water resources are vulnerable to a wide range of effects from climate change, some of which are already occurring. These effects include, among others, (1) physical effects, such as droughts, floods, glacial melting, and sea level rise; (2) biological effects, such as increases in insect and disease infestations, shifts in species distribution, and changes in the timing of natural events; and (3) economic and social effects, such as adverse impacts on tourism, infrastructure, fishing, and other resource uses.

  "Experts at the GAO workshop also identified several challenges that resource managers face in addressing the observed and potential effects of climate change in their management and planning efforts. In particular, BLM, FS, FWS, NOAA, and NPS have not made climate change a priority, and the agencies’ strategic plans do not specifically address climate change. Resource managers focus first on near-term, required activities, leaving less time for addressing longer-term issues such as climate change."—What GAO Found.


• United States National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Enviro-Health Links—California Wildfires (October 2007)
  

  "The California Wildfires web page includes information on the health effects from fires and exposure to smoke; links to air quality resources, environmental clean-up following fires, and animals in disasters.

  "In addition, resources for emergency responders and information in Spanish are alsoincluded. Searches of NLM databases, such as MedlinePlus, PubMed,TOXLINE, Tox Town, and Haz-Map (occupational health) are provided for additional health information. It also provides the locations of facilities reporting to the EPA Toxics Release Inventory and Superfund sites in and around San Diego (TOXMAP).

  "This web page is designed to help emergency responders, health care providers, public health workers, and the general public find authoritative and timely information about key health concerns from wildfires. Links to other federal government web sites, including USA.gov, FEMA, and the Department of Health and Human Services are included."—Web Resources for California Fires.
  

• Orice M. Williams, Director Financial Markets and Community Investment, United States Government Accountability Office, Commodity Futures Trading Commission: Trends in Energy Derivatives Markets Raise Questions about CFTC’s Oversight (Testimony Before the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management, Committee on Agriculture, House of Representatives, GAO-08-174T) (October 24, 2007)
  
  "Under the authority granted by the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA), CFTC focuses its oversight primarily on the operations of traditional futures exchanges, such as the New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc. (NYMEX), where energy futures are traded. Increasing amounts of energy derivatives trading also occur on markets that are largely exempt from CFTC oversight. For example, exempt commercial markets conduct trading on electronic facilities between large, sophisticated participants. In addition, considerable trading occurs in over-the-counter (OTC) markets in which eligible parties enter into contracts directly, without using an exchange. While CFTC can act to enforce the CEA’s antimanipulation and antifraud provisions for activities that occur in exempt commercial and OTC markets, some market observers question whether CFTC needs broader authority to more routinely oversee these markets. CFTC is currently examining the effects of trading in the regulated and exempt energy markets on price discovery and the scope of its authority over these markets—an issue that will warrant further examination as part of the CFTC reauthorization process."—What GAO Found.


• Orice M. Williams, Director Financial Markets and Community Investment, United States Government Accountability Office, Federal Emergency Management Agency: Ongoing Challenges Facing the National Flood Insurance Program (Testimony Before the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, U.S. Senate, GAO-08-118T) (October 2, 2007)
  
  "The most significant challenge facing the NFIP is the actuarial soundness of the program. As of August 2007, FEMA owed over $17.5 billion to the U.S. Treasury. FEMA is unlikely to be able to pay this debt, primarily because the program’s premium rates have been set to cover an average loss year, which until 2005 did not include any catastrophic losses. This challenge is compounded by the fact that some policyholders with structures that were built before floodplain management regulations were established in their communities generally pay premiums that represent about 35 to 40 percent of the true risk premium. Moreover, about 1 percent of NFIP-insured properties that suffer repetitive losses account for between 25 and 30 percent of all flood claims. FEMA is also creating a new generation of 'grandfathered' properties—properties that are mapped into higher-risk areas but may be eligible to receive a discounted premium rate equal to the nonsubsidized rate for their old risk designation. Placing the program on a more sound financial footing will involve trade-offs, such as charging more risk-based premiums and expanding participation in the program."—What GAO Found.