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I’ve always been fascinated by crow intelligence and at the same time amazed how few people recognize this intelligence especially since, according to some cognitive research, theirs exceeds that of dogs. This video lecture from a writer Joshua Klein, who has been involved with an amateur study of corvid behavior, highlights this.
Of course [...]
More Web Sightings hereBisphenol A or BPA is an important industrial chemical used in the manufacture of polycarbonate plastic and epoxy resins. The plastics industry maintains that BPA is completely safe. But academic and government researchers say the chemical needs to undergo a new risk assessment.
...Read MorePercholorethylene, commonly known as perc, is used by about 80 percent of U.S. dry cleaners to remove stains and clean clothes.
When first introduced to dry cleaners in the 1930s, little was known about its health effects, and it was considered something of a miracle chemical because it could be aggressive on stains, but was not [...]
...Read MoreThe principle of maximum diversity operates both at the physical and at the mental level. It says that the laws of nature and the initial conditions are such as to make the universe as interesting as possible. As a result, life is possible but not too easy. Always when things are dull, something [...]
EcoVillage at Ithaca (EVI) is a local “ecovilliage” in upstate New York where residence live share in a variety of community responsibilities, attempt to maintain a sustainable, low-impact lifetyle, and present an alternative vision of suburban living. The “village currently includes two 30-home cohousing neighborhoods, an organic CSA vegetable farm, an organic berry [...]
Albany’s Times-Union has an interesting blurb on the seminar “Can Upstate Cities Save Themselves?” at the Albany Institute of History and Art. Of course it boils down to redesigning our cities, the young are fleeing upstate (oh dear!), economic development, blah blah blah. Anyone even remotely familiar with the upstate blogosphere should be [...]
A number of newspapers are reporting on a State comptrollers report on Special town districts. Statewide there are 6927 special district and 4200 local governments while New Yorkers pay some of the highest property taxes in the Nation. The implication of course is that these special districts and other inefficiencies in local government [...]
For the record…The Economist offers its 800 word assessment of Destiny USA - Saving upstate New York. May 4th 2006. From The Economist print edition:
About 250 miles north-west of New York City, in the heart of New York state, lies the city of Syracuse. Like the rest of upstate New York, Syracuse has been the [...]
Dryden Democrats has a post on the Natural Feature Focus Areas in the Dryden Township. Included are a number of PDF documents that show the areas and summarize their significance.
This got me browsing the Tompkins County Planning department website and the Tompkins County Comprehensive Plan which is on line.
The document is broken up into [...]
Combined sewer overflows (CSOs) are a major source of surface water pollution especially in older municipalities with aging infrastructure. That pretty much describes almost all of Upstate New York. The Utica O&D reports on one sewage overflow problem along Sauquoit Creek. Sewer overflows are largely the result of combined sewage systems [...]
Seven Rays Bookstore in Syracuse – which bills itself as the “biggest metaphysical bookstore on Earth” – will close unless a buyer for the store emerges, owner David Davis said.
Syracuse University’s School of Architecture will soon be located downtown. This is the first step in a larger community investment strategy that will include the purchase of additional downtown properties and the building of the Center of Excellence on Erie Boulevard.
These concrete developments stand in stark contrast to the empty rhetoric of last falls [...]
After more than a year, Monday night, the Syracuse Planning Commission unanimously approved the proposed building plan for the new Walgreens in Eastwood.
The Observer-Dispatch has an thought-provoking interview with pollster John Zogby on the Rome-Utica area and the lack of vision in Upstate New York:
“I don’t think local officials are accustomed to thinking in terms of visions. I think they need to spend so much of their time micromanaging. Everything from the day-to-day issues to issues like [...]
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