Recently in Observations Category

I still get excited about using a GPS in the field. Whether to record a waypoint or navigate to a point, I am still amazed that we can do this. I grew up using paper maps and a compass to navigate in the field. 

Last week's Schatz Tree Genetics Symposium at Penn State Mont Alto concentrated on the issues of black walnut and butternut in today's forests. Both species are threatened by invasive species. First insects, such as bark beetles, attack the trees, and are followed by various fungi. Thousand canker and butternut canker are major culprits. 

A few days ago the Penn State classroom and lab computing group announced that they had chosen a standard clicker to us at the University Park campus. At the Commonwealth campuses, such as Mont Alto, we may or may not have the new clickers available. 

We don't have many poets come to visit at Penn State Mont Alto. We are very fortunate to have Tony Vallone visiting on Thursday, March 31. Tony is a professor of english from Penn State Mont Alto. I found some of his poems online here.

Check out the brochure for his visit. It has his bio information.

I attended the Keystone SAF chapter meeting last night (3/10) in Grantville at the Holiday Inn. We were in the midst of a huge rainstorm, which I am sure kept attendance down.

Nate Fice, the new director of the SFI training program in Pennsylvania gave an overview of changes in the program. In spite of recent severe budget reductions SFI seems to have a full calendar of training courses for loggers running.

The key to the program are the two core courses: Logging Safety and Environmental Logging, each eight hours long. There are also many other continuing education courses available.

According to Nate the program is making great strides in updating and making current the database of trainees. They are also standardizing the length of time a training credential can be extended with continuing education courses.

For more information on the new policies and the overall program go to the web site: http://www.sfiofpa.org/ The web site is looking much better these days, too. It has new features and pictures.

At the Franklin County Extension annual meeting last Friday the keynote speaker was Dr. Chris Raines. According to his website: Chris is the Extension Meats Specialist and is an Assistant Professor at Penn State University in the Department of Dairy & Animal Science. He researches factors that affect meat quality, and helps meat processors, large and small, national and local, with the quality and safety of the food they produce.

I've been reading Stephen King's On Writing. One of his writing tips is to cut back on adverbs. He says that they weaken writing with unnecessary description. He says it's better to find the right verb or to leave it up to the imagination of the reader.

Well, this morning I was listening to the local NPR station (WITF) when announcer described how the president of a local college "died unexpectedly". I'm sure the gentleman in question wasn't planning on dying that day. It is a commonly used expression and does provide some useful information. But it wasn't needed to convey the fact that he died.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the craft of writing. In the first part of the book King describes important points in his life that led to his success as a writer. He grew up near my home town of Lewiston, Maine. It adds a whole new character to the description of a place and the actions that happen there when you know the place intimately. Since many of King's novels take place in Maine, I often get that feeling. 

Have you ever needed to finish an assignment, but you couldn't make it to the computer lab and you didn't have office software to finish the assignment? And Microsoft Works just won't because your instructor doesn't have it. There are several options you can use to get an office package and not break the bank.

Just to define terms. An office package consists, at a minimum, of a word processor or editor, a spreadsheet, and a presentation package. Sometimes it will have a database manager, a web editor, and other programs.

Today is the twentieth anniversary of the release of Nelson Mandela. After 27 years of imprisonment he helped negotiate a peaceful transition to majority rule in South Africa, something no one thought was possible. Check out the BBC News slide show.

I'll never forget that day, as I was on my way back to Africa to facilitate a series of workshops on agroforestry for extension workers. Each one included a three week stay to organize and complete the workshop, usually at a school or training center. I visited Senegal (twice), Mali, and Niger.

I had a layover in Brussels. It's hard to really sleep on a transatlantic flight from New York. I enjoyed having just enough time, seven or eight hours, to check into a hotel by the airport. When I woke and turned on the TV there was Mandela, walking out of the last prison camp he was held in. He was surrounded by ecstatic, singing supporters and accompanied by his wife Winnie. I learned later that he was determined  to leave the prison on his own.

At the time everyone was afraid that South Africa would disintegrate into a bloody civil war. The apartheid government had done its best to hold on to power and to divide the Africans. It created the "independent" homelands and encouraged the Zulus to press for their own independence.

The US government was ambivalent towards Mandela and the African National Congress. In the Cold War period we always preferred a dictatorship, provided they were anti-communist. The Reagan administration was especially opposed to the ANC, It had tied itself into rhetorical knots to encourage the Afrikaners to change; while opposing the ANC.

I remember driving the ANC office in Dakar, Senegal. It was just a small storefront. I always wondered if they really had terrorists there.

Perhaps only Nelson Mandela had the moral courage and convictions to force the change. It was also fortunate that Botha, the last white president, knew that his country had to change and was willing to let it happen. 

There have been many books written about Mandela and the ANC, not least of which is his own autobiography. I am proud to say that I witnessed, at least through television, and lived through the time of that long walk out of prison into freedom in 1990!