#so my watershed science class is going GREAT

[justawanderingfan]

So was anyone gonna tell me that California used to be covered in lush wetlands and large lakes until the 20th century when farmers diverted every river in California for their crops that didn’t suite the environment causing million+ year old lakes to dry up which is why California is now a desert or was i just supposed to find that out in class myself

[bmenvs3000f23]

My Relationship with Nature – Blog 1

Nature (according to me): a safe haven, a connected community, a place of exploration, a beautiful sight, a provider, a piece of art… I could go on for ages.

Nature has given me so much joy from an early age. I constantly seek to improve my relationship with nature and enjoy all of the benefits it provides us with, including purified air, a sense of relaxation, an environment to ground and escape our busy lives, stunning views, and a sense of home. Hiking, swimming, and nature photography are just a few ways that I like to connect with nature. Due to my interest in nature, I knew that environmental science was the perfect program. I feel blessed to have benefitted from the environmental science co-op program at the University of Guelph. In this program, I’ve been given the opportunity to work in various environmental fields and conduct environmental monitoring through gas and water sampling. This past summer was spent working with a conservation authority during my co-op placement, where I conducted routine water sampling in the Grand River watershed to record water quality parameters such as pH, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, conductivity, and temperature. Water quality monitoring is crucial to ensure that the water quality remains acceptable to support the numerous types of organisms that rely on it, ranging from aquatic plants to fish and benthic invertebrates! However, working in an environmental career can weigh heavy on the heart when realizing that humans have caused so much pain to the one earth we have. I often wince when hearing about oil spills in oceans, uncontrollable wildfires that consume vast areas of trees and destroy wildlife, and tsunamis that wash away entire communities, to name a few environmental catastrophes. Due to my empathy for the environment, I believe I am deeply intertwined with nature, which has shaped my life.

At age 4, I was first introduced to the benefits of nature from cottage visits, where I participated in various recreational activities that nature provides, including swimming, fishing, boating, and hiking. My interest grew after many summers at my cottage and extended into my high school studies. At 14, I took a particular interest in the environmental lessons in science class and began to get a feel for my future career. At age 16, I travelled to summer camp near North Beach Provincial Park in Consecon, Ontario, where I spent whole days with campers and helped many campers gain comfort outdoors. At age 18, I decided to sign up for my first ecotourism trip with Operation Groundswell. Here, I travelled to Cusco, Peru, and learned about the environmental injustices that the Indigenous community faces regarding mining. I became interested in environmental justice, and I was able to spend three days hiking in the Sacred Valley, where I could experience mountains for the first time (which can be viewed in my Tumblr header). This trip was a great form of nature interpretation and allowed me to immerse myself in nature and Peruvian culture while learning about global environmental issues. When it came time to enroll in university, I decided that the University of Guelph would be the perfect atmosphere to further my studies regarding the environment. After four years, three co-op placements, a stunning trip to Bruce Peninsula Provincial Park with the UofG Outdoors club, and lots of learning, I am now one semester away from completing my degree in environmental science. In the future, I plan to further my relationship with nature and obtain a career focused on environmental monitoring and stewardship.

It truly is an understatement to share that nature has shaped my life and continues to do so. I look forward to furthering my knowledge and experiences in nature, and I hope everyone can feel a deep connection with nature sometime in this lifetime.

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s weekly politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited.

sarahf (Sarah Frostenson, politics editor): Last Thursday in an interview with The New York Times, Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa said, “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive? Why did I sit in classes teaching me about the merits of our history and our civilization?”

The uproar over King’s comments came swiftly, and there have even been calls for his resignation. On Monday, King was booted by GOP leadership from his House committee assignments, and on Tuesday, the House overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning white nationalism and white supremacy (even though it didn’t rebuke him specifically.)

All of this raises a question (two questions, actually):

King has a long of history of making racist comments and aligning himself with white supremacist causes, so why are congressional Republicans taking action only now?

And are Republicans opening themselves up to criticism for not similarly condemning President Trump’s racist comments?

julia_azari (Julia Azari, political science professor at Marquette University and FiveThirtyEight contributor): My answer to No. 1 is that typically this kind of action (stripping committee assignments) is related to some kind of scandal (money laundering, sexual harassment) and not just offensive views.

More generally, American politics has not really figured out what we do with racism. (My residence on understatement island is becoming more permanent.)

sarahf: So the fact that King lost his committee tenure because his views were offensive is pretty unusual?

julia_azari: Yes. I don’t have an exhaustive list, but, I mean, Jesse Helms was in Congress less than 20 years ago, and he was known for “racially charged” comments and ran one of the most notorious race-based ads of all time — but I don’t think he faced any formal consequences.

nrakich (Nathaniel Rakich, elections analyst): I’m a bit baffled by the timing. There are a few different theories floating around — like King being electorally weaker now than he’s ever been (he even got a primary challenger), or Republicans being in the minority for the first time in a while — but I’m not totally convinced of any of them.

Probably the most convincing point I’ve seen came from Jane Coaston at Vox, who pointed out that King used to be seen as a kingmaker in Iowa politics (especially in presidential primaries) and a way for other Republicans to validate themselves as tough on immigration.

But that may not true anymore. There’s (probably) not going to be a competitive GOP presidential primary in 2020, and Trump has now arguably become the GOP kingmaker on immigration.

perry (Perry Bacon Jr., senior writer): The actual words King used, “white nationalist, “white supremacist” were unusually politically problematic. Trump avoids that kind of language, even as he implies all of the same things. Also, the media started pressing Republicans on this, and that put them in a tough spot.

nrakich: Perry, King made a just-as-bad comment (in my view, anyway) in 2013, when he said that undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children have “got calves the size of cantaloupes because they’re hauling 75 pounds of marijuana across the desert.” But nobody did anything then.

Although it does seem that King was getting himself into hot water more frequently in the 2018 election cycle. And Republicans probably thought doing anything about it before the election was not politically palatable.

julia_azari: There’s a needle being threaded here: People (thinking VERY broadly about the electorate) don’t like overt racism and ugliness, but they also don’t respond well to serious challenges to the racial status quo.

sarahf: So do we think this continues to spiral and that GOP leaders in Congress ask King to resign?

A number of Republicans have begun to call for his resignation, including Sen. Mitt Romney and Rep. Chris Stewart of Utah and Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.

nrakich: King’s local newspaper also called on him to resign.

julia_azari: They endorsed his opponent, though.

perry: Elected Republicans can call for him to resign all they want, but unless people and entities like Fox News, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and Trump turn on King, then I don’t think this dynamic changes.

The next step here is for King to really lean hard into the idea that he is being prosecuted by the “political correctness” police, the media and the progressive left — playing the victim card against the forces of multiculturalism is powerful on the right. I would argue that it helped get Trump elected. I’m not sure King is done, unless he resigns.

sarahf: I have to say I’m a little surprised that “political correctness” hasn’t become a big part of the national conversation yet.

nrakich: Perry, last week, I was also skeptical that King’s political career was in any danger. But now that he’s been stripped of his assignment on the Agriculture Committee, which is a big deal in his district, don’t you think that makes it a lot more likely that his primary opponent (state Sen. Randy Feenstra) could actually win?

perry: I don’t know much about his primary opponent, but in general, I would not want to run as a Republican candidate aligned with the people trying to take down King for being too willing to defend “Western civilization.”

nrakich: That’s very much not the tack Feenstra is taking. He’s a hardcore conservative himself, but he argues King’s controversies have made him ineffective. In an impressive bit of needle-threading, Feenstra says people should vote for him because he’s the one who will advance Trump’s agenda most effectively.

julia_azari: One question, which I don’t know how to answer, is whether some critical number of voters who don’t like political correctness also don’t like white supremacy (lots of people hold conflicting views). It may be that the last couple of years — Charlottesville in 2017, Pittsburgh in October 2018 — have tipped the balance of them toward thinking that the latter (white supremacism) is more dangerous than the former (political correctness).

Given King’s 2018 performance — he won re-election by only a few percentage points — it wouldn’t necessarily have to be a lot of people in his district to make a difference.

perry: Like if King paints his GOP primary opponent as a pawn of the media or elites trying to take him down, that would be smart politics.

One obvious shift: Before the 2018 election, the GOP had to worry about every seat. There was a chance Republicans would wind up with a one-seat majority or even a five-seat majority. If that were the case, I don’t think they would be attacking King in this way.

nrakich: Yeah, good point.

perry: Now that they are in the minority, it’s easier to purge the most controversial members.

sarahf: So you really think some of the timing of this is related to the fact that the comments were made after the election?

perry: Totally.

Nothing to lose now — they might have needed King’s seat before. Now, I think he is likely to lose in the general election in 2020. So Republicans have some incentive to dump him and try to field a better candidate for the general.

julia_azari: Yes, I agree with this assessment.

nrakich: See, I think that reasoning is flawed.

The 2018 midterm election was a historically great year for Democrats … and King still won by 3 points. King probably isn’t in electoral danger in 2020 unless it’s at least as good of a year for Democrats.

That said, I think congressional Republicans might agree with your assessment and that’s why they’re nudging him out.

julia_azari: So did King run ahead or behind people in comparable districts?

I’m guessing behind.

nrakich: Yes, Julia, you’re right. Last month, I did an analysis of 2018’s strongest and weakest incumbents, comparing how each incumbent “should” have performed based on their district’s partisan lean, elasticity and the national popular vote vs. how they actually performed.

King was one of the weaker incumbents; he did 10 points worse than we would have predicted.

Steve King was a weak incumbent

The 10 Senate and House incumbents who underperformed by the most in the 2018 elections*

Incumbent Party State or District Expected Margin† Actual Margin Net Incumbency Advantage Elizabeth Warren D MA D+39 D+24 -15 Chris Collins R NY-27 R+13 R+0 -13 Sheldon Whitehouse D RI D+36 D+23 -12 Mia Love R UT-4 R+12 D+0 -12 David Cicilline D RI-1 D+45 D+34 -11 Bob Menendez D NJ D+22 D+11 -11 Jim Costa D CA-16 D+25 D+15 -10 Duncan Hunter R CA-50 R+14 R+3 -10 Steve King R IA-4 R+13 R+3 -10 Rob Woodall R GA-7 R+10 R+0 -10

*Excluding open-seat elections, elections that did not feature both a Republican and Democratic candidate, jungle primaries, elections with multiple incumbents and elections where the incumbent was an independent.

†Based on the state or district’s partisan lean, its elasticity and the national popular vote.

Source: ABC News

So I suppose you could argue that these recent comments could make him an even worse incumbent, and that would cause him to lose the next time out.

But again … you’d have to assume another D+9 (or similar) national environment in 2020.

And if that happens, Republicans are getting wiped out anyway; King’s seat won’t matter.

sarahf: But is what’s happening with King a blip, as he’s consistently been one of the party’s more controversial members? Or is this more of a watershed moment where the GOP says, “we’re not willing to tolerate views of white supremacism in the party”?

julia_azari: It could be an early watershed moment, Sarah.

perry: I don’t think this is a watershed moment. But Republicans have now created a baseline: We will purge you if you openly say that you support white nationalism and white supremacy.

But it’s unlikely that Trump would ever cross that exact line. He and ex-senior White House adviser Steve Bannon have always said they are for nationalism, not white nationalism. Arguably, actions that align with a white nationalist agenda aren’t as problematic, at least politically, as words in support of white nationalism.

Most people who are wary of America getting less white and less Christian can figure out how to not declare their intentions so openly. For example,saying Mexico is sending rapists to the U.S. is pretty racist, but it’s still different than saying, “I support white supremacy” or “I don’t see a problem with white supremacy.”

sarahf: But I do wonder if the litmus test for what is and isn’t an acceptable comment will change?

julia_azari: These things are very slow to change, and one of the things that I think is challenging for Republicans today vs. Democrats 60 years ago or whatever is that racism has taken on more subtle forms in the current era — predatory lending, problems with the criminal justice system — that are much less obviously egregious than lynching and de jure segregation. (Even though the contemporary issues are very serious, and I’d point out that Democrats also contributed to these problems in past decades; no one gets a pass on this stuff).

perry: So I don’t think the GOP’s litmus tests can change much right now because Trump has been racist in many ways. He hasn’t used the N-word or explicitly identified as a white supremacist, but any broader definition of racist behavior will include Trump.

To put this another way: The gap between Trump and King is fairly narrow.

julia_azari: I sort of disagree with Perry about the possibility for this being a moment, though, as I said, I think it will be slow. Here’s David Broder writing about Jesse Helms’s retirement in 2001.

He makes a point that Helms had every right as an elected senator to hold and fight for his views, before condemning those views and arguing against “sanitizing” Helms’ legacy. For elected Republicans to actually draw a boundary around a set of views is very unusual in the American context. Not only was racism the norm, but we have tended to see legitimacy in the process of being elected, not in the substance of the views.

nrakich: Yeah, I think it’s really splitting hairs to argue that there’s a meaningful difference between Trump’s (and other Republicans‘) thinly veiled racism and King’s more explicit racism. And King’s crossing of some invisible line is clearly not the real reason the GOP has condemned him. The real reason is that King is one of 435 and Trump is president.

If that rumored tape of Trump saying the N-word comes out, are Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney going to call on him to resign?

I doubt it.

perry: I think Romney would call for Trump to resign if he was on tape calling a black person the N-word.

Liz Cheney, no.

I think Nathaniel is basically right: Trump is being excused because he is president.

But my sense is that a lot of Americans think racist means only using the N-word or something very, very explicit, and Trump hasn’t crossed that line yet.

julia_azari: Which is sort of related to what I was saying before: We don’t really have a political tradition of holding people accountable for substance as long as they hold power through a legitimate procedure.

sarahf: What I find so interesting in the backlash against King is that he didn’t make a racially explicit comment that targeted one group of people. Instead, he signaled that he thought an inherent racist ideology was OK, and that was enough to spark outrage.

perry: So there is a new book coming out by Duke professor Ashley Jardina called “White Identity Politics.”

She argues that we tend to think of white identity politics as being largely prejudices against groups like blacks and Latinos. What Trump has tapped into, she argues, is not only that racial resentment but also a kind of pro-white-people politics.

So it’s not totally about being against minorities; it’s also a kind of white pride.

I think King hints at these ideas at times.

When he defends “Western civilization,” I think people are hearing that he might think ideas from Africa or Asia are bad. And, sure, a lot of what King has said seems to look down upon people who are not white. But part of what he is saying is that “white people are good and have great ideas.”

julia_azari: Combined with this idea is the belief among white people that they face racial discrimination (it has become a somewhat widespread view). This seems like a key element of the white identity appeal, that there’s an element of grievance, in addition to a pride in one’s identity or background or whatever.

perry: So I do wonder if people talking about racial issues are at times talking past one another. King is saying that he is pro-white, but that is interpreted as being 100 percent about being anti-black or anti-Latino.

So if conservatives aren’t allowed to say that “Western” or “white” culture is good and that Mexican immigrants and Muslims diminish that culture, that would affect more Republicans than just King. You can hear these kinds of views on Fox News, from Trump and from other influential conservatives. If Republicans start purging those views, the impact will go beyond King.

julia_azari: Making coded racial appeals has been a successful strategy for Republicans and, at times, some Democrats (Democrats have moved left on racial issues, even in the last decade). But maybe we’re getting to the point where it won’t be.

perry: I agree with what Julia said, but I also thought it was true in 2002. Trent Lott resigned under pressure from his Republican leadership post in the Senate over something way, way less controversial than many things Trump has said. (Lott praised Strom Thurmond’s 1948 presidential campaign, which was centered on pro-segregation views.)

julia_azari: Yeah, I think these things move really slow.

perry: We may not see a steady decline in the acceptance of racist behavior, but something more complicated, with racist comments being more tolerated at some times than others.

nrakich: I think about that Trent Lott controversy all the time!!

If anything, we’ve moved into a place where coded racial appeals are more socially acceptable, not less — at least in the medium term (i.e., since 2002), not the long term (since 1960) or short term (since 2016).

But I do think that openness is causing us to grapple with coded racism as a society. It’s the latest battle in the culture war.

And the liberal side may very well win in the end. But it took emboldened people on the far right to spark the fight in the first place.

julia_azari: If it is a politically costly move for Republicans to cut King loose, then maybe we are seeing actual change. If not, maybe we are seeing the Lott thing all over again. That was pretty cheap as far as political costs go.

perry: I assume this kind of question is always context-dependent. It is easier to replace a congressional leader or a rank-and-file member of Congress than the president. For instance, it’s easier for Democrats to say in 2018 that Bill Clinton should have resigned for inappropriate behavior with an intern than it would have been to say that in 1998, when Clinton was still in office.

sarahf: So maybe we don’t see pressure on Republicans to speak out against Trump until much later.

julia_azari: But maybe it opens space for a 2020 primary challenger?

nrakich: There are also confounding factors, like Trump’s problems in other areas — i.e., the Russia investigation. If special counsel Robert Mueller’s report implicates him in collusion or obstruction of justice and ends up destroying his legacy, it will be easier for future historians and laypeople alike to pile on him for the other stuff.

I would be curious to see how the legacy of a highly effective, scandal-free racist president would go.

Maybe something like Woodrow Wilson‘s, eh, Julia?

julia_azari: He remains a hero in some liberal circles.

I wrote a piece about a year ago about presidential legacy and one of the things I am most sure about is that the mainstream legacy writers — who historically have been mostly white — are very forgiving of racism.

The line most-often employed is something like, “That’s just what people thought at the time.”

Is it easy for me to imagine people saying that about Americans in 2016 or whatever? No. But that’s probably more about my limited imagination than anything else.

[iesika]

This is a companion post for my Hannibal fic What The Water Gave Me which is, as far as I know, the only fanfic ever to need a companion post about flood hydrology. On Saturday, May 14, 2011, while Hannibal was shopping in the French Market, the Corps of Engineers opened one quarter of the gates on the Morganza Spillway and flooded about 4,600 square miles of south Louisiana. In places the flooding reached 25 feet. This was in addition to the previous opening of the Bonnet Carré spillway Sgt. Germaine Grant mentioned in chapter 2, which flooded a stretch of land between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain near New Orleans. You might even remember Sgt. Grant telling Jack and Hannibal that they were in a record breaking drought at the time. How, you may be asking. Why? You should be asking. It's insane. The Why is such a big deal it might have actually started the Great Depression, reversed the main political parties of the US, reshaped the racial demographics of America's cities and created a musical genre.

This is the watershed of the Mississippi River. Every bit of water that flows from every bright spot on that map, from rain, drains, toilets, crop irrigation, whatever, eventually makes its way, like the world's grossest funnel, down, more or less, to a single point at Red River Landing, Louisiana, where the Red River meets the rest. Not too south from there, the Atchafalaya river splits away from the Mississippi. Over the last few hundred million years, the Atchafalaya and the Mississippi have wiggled all over the place, as rivers do, and at any given time, which one was the major outlet to the sea has changed. Rivers do a lot of predictable but unpredictable things, but the most predictable thing they do is seek the lowest ground and the easiest path. If there isn't an easy path the river will make one.

In 1927, due to heavy rains all over the watershed, the Mississippi River flooded 27,000 square miles up to 30 feet and displaced well over 600,000 people, mostly in Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana. Monetary damages were equivalent to about one third of the entire Federal Budget at the time, or, in modern dollars, over a trillion dollars. Crop failures were huge, driving up food prices nationwide. Let me repeat that. 630,000 internally displaced refugees within the US, within the last century. Did you learn about that in school? I took 2 Louisiana History at two different schools, then took three American History classes at a college in the flood zone, and I learned about this because I googled a Randy Newman song in 2005.

200,000 of the displaced people were poor black people from mostly rural areas, most of them one generation removed from slavery. Most of these folks had little to nothing to use to relocate or to live on, so they were herded into refugee camps where they were stuck with nowhere to go and minimal supplies until the water started to recede months later. Racial tensions were sky high, and the racial disparity in aid, rescue and support was extremely clear. As soon as the water was low enough, tens of thousands of displaced black families joined what we now call The Great Migration - they didn't have a home to go back to, so they went to the big cities, both in the south and, for the first time, up north. Anybody you can think of from the classic Chicago blues scene? Probably ended up there after being displaced by this one event. Mahalia Jackson, who I spotlit last chapter, moved to Chicago at this time as a victim of The Great Betrayal (man, the 1920s were Great, huh?)

President Coolidge put Herbert Hoover in charge of managing the camps, where he made a whole lot of promises and ended up president. When he didn’t fulfill any of his promises to the black refugees, the entire black voting block swung, more or less permanently, to the Democrats. Huey P. Long rose to power in Louisiana on a wave of socialist populism and probably would have been president a decade later if he hadn’t been assassinated in the middle of the capitol building. If you don’t know about the Kingfish, look him up, because holy fuck our country was almost really, really different. As for the Great Betrayal I mentioned?

Wealthy (white) businessmen in New Orleans arranged to dynamite a levee in Caernarvon, Louisiana, flooding areas of St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parish where tens of thousands of (poorer) people lived and worked. Reconstructions have shown this was pointless and New Orleans would have been fine, because so many levees had already breached in other locations. Basically no one was ever consulted or  compensated for loss of property and livelihood. So it's no wonder that, during and after Hurricane Katrina, there was widespread belief that the flood protections had actually been deliberately sabotaged to flood the lower 9th ward and save downtown. People remember when you fuck them over and they never trust you again. Every school I've ever attended would have been underwater during the 1927 flood, but I never  learned anything about this, or about how we've stopped that from ever happening again. Sit tight, it's nuts. Prior to 1927 levees were local projects and they were largely homemade by non-engineers. Surely one big pile of dirt is the same as another, right? But levee construction is an art and a science. Alluvial dirt wants to settle; the ground is wet and it wants to move. After the shitshow of the Great Floods, the federal government created the world's largest flood control project. This is what federal governments are for. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, those unsung superheroes, planned and built a carefully planned and, one hopes, carefully maintained series of interconnected levees, dams, floodgates, spillways, canals and wetlands stretching across that whole area in the top image, but mostly along the Missouri, Ohio, Red, and Mississippi and Atchafalaya Rivers. It's known as the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project (MR&T) The Lower Mississippi and the Atchafalaya Basin in particular got a complete makeover.

We'll start at the very bottom, because it's simplest. The Bonnet Carré spillway was built 12 miles west of New Orleans to divert the Mississippi around the city in case of very high water. This spillway controls what was a natural flood route for as long as we've been keeping records and is opened on a fairly regular basis - every decade or so. This was one of the first parts of the MR&T completed, just four years after the flood. It's a mile and a half long and runs alongside of the river. When it opens, a channel about six miles long is flooded, dumping the river directly into Lake Pontchartrain and the surrounding marshlands to save the more populated areas. Lake Pontchartrain is huge (home of the longest bridge in the world!) and it has a wide opening to the Gulf of Mexico, so it can basically absorb as much water as we could possibly throw at it.  Upriver a bit, things are a little more complicated. I'm not going to go super in-depth. There are numerous control structures connecting the Atchafalaya and Mississippi. The biggest and the one most relevant to our story is the Morganza Spillway, located in Pointe Coupee Parish, upriver from Baton Rouge. If the water gets too high, it will overtop and undermine levees, and the force of moving water becomes so great that it would just shred the other existing control structures, even if they are wide open to let the most possible water through. There needs to be another emergency safety valve to take pressure off the system. The Morganza Spillway is about a mile long, and when it's wide open it lets 600,000 cubic feet of water through per second. That's about half the flow of the entire Mississsippi river at moderate flood stage, passing through one man-made structure, under the control of a handful of human beings.

So in the worst possible flooding scenarios, as happened in 1927, in 1973, and in 2011, the ACoE opens a little gap in the weir. They've never opened it all the way - max capacity has never been tested. This is a projection map from 2011 for what the flooding would look like with the system running at one quarter of total capacity (which is the scenario that ended up happening). Because yeah, people live in those areas! The area's also farmed for timber and drilled for oil. There isn't much commercial fishing - that mostly happens in the Gulf - but there's fish farming, including crawfish ponds. Mostly it's protected or semi-protected wetlands occasionally dotted with camps. I'm not sure if that word is in common usage with the same meaning elsewhere, so just in case, a camp is a (usually but not always cheap or rustic) house or structure not intended for full-time residence, where one can stay for access to water or hunting. You actually have to get a lot of surveying and permissions to build anything anywhere on any body of water in south Louisiana, because the balance of flood control and wetland preservation is so important and precarious, so most of the places in this area will have been grandfathered in rather than freshly built. The Morganza Spillway has been opened twice, once in the 70s and once during this fic. There is a huge, eight parish long and wide river moving over land that's been dry or swampy and only sparsely inhabited for 45 years. Think of all the things it might pick up on the way to sea?

[gravelgirty]

Collecting Owl Pellets: Do’s and Never-do’s

So, a thing happened.

The 4th time my Ecology class walked through the forest on our way back from a Dissolved Oxygen sampling trip in the local watershed, a student named Hannah noticed an owl pellet.

This was kind of a big deal. For starters, our instructor was a newbie to our college and was trying to take the place of our original instructor, who had unfortunately died. He was still trying to figure out where everything in the chem lab was, and there were all kinds of things none of us knew, but thank God for the students who had been here longer than the rest of us newbies! They knew where the worms were kept to feed the sculpin in the tank, and the safety goggles and all that great stuff.

One of our modules was owl pellet dissection. I have no idea if other countries have owl pellet dissection as a mandatory part of science education, but I sure hope so. Oh, I hope so.

Traditionally, the instructor orders nice, sanitized owl pellets from an approved science supply store, usually online. You know the type of store I’m talking about: they sell anatomical eyeballs, camera lenses from the German Army because there was ‘a really big sale’, wind-up nuns that shoot sparks from their mouths as they wave a ruler in their plastic fist...and owl pellets.

Students are given owl pellets and a chart of possible forensic victims, gloves, a mask, and are told to take apart the owl pellet to identify the remains. Frankly, this is a great thing when you live in areas where people think owls exist only to eat your chickens, suck your blood, and hack your email account to sign you up for the Edward Gorey Subscription Service. 

Because the majority of owl pellets prove owls prefer rodents. Rodents are and ever will be the Big Kahuna in crop loss and transmitting illness. Once in a while you get something else, like a bird or fish--it really depends on the species of owl, and how hungry it was combined with the opportunity. 

The majority of all owl pellets sold are from barn owls kept in captivity, like a zoo or raptor rehabilitation center. Barn owls are the Hoover Vacuum of rodent control. You don’t weigh their rodent intake for the year by the number of mice, voles, moles, and rats they eat--that’s impossible. You measure their intake IN POUNDS AND KILOS. Yes, these birds, weighing less than a box kite, know how to eat. And they aren’t even considered the big eaters. Screech Owls are like flying sabertooth tigers, and the Great Horned Owl has no fear at all and their pellets are like terrible dragon hoardes, whose skeletons constitute a fair sampling of all nocturnal wanderers in the biome.

Now, you CAN buy pellets from other owls, but let’s be honest, barn owl pellets are easier to get, and their pellets are...a little more fun. GHOs disarticulate their prey, so instead of a mostly-intact skeleton of something with all the bones vaguely in proper order, you’re going to get something like an archaeological dig when the instructor explains the site was an ancient retention pond for terrible floods--helter-skelter, jumbled up, the skull might be in the ribcage, etc.

...by now you’re wondering if students taking forensics classes dissect owl pellets. Yes. Yes, they do.

Now that we have the background, you can see why the teacher was so happy to find ready-made owl pellets. And here they were, in a forest, a shortish hike from the college itself! I’m still an Easterner, so all these trees that are clearly over 100 years old constitutes as ‘old growth forest’ to me, but they get a lot older here...the trees were Western Cedars and the shade was as thick as 80% in places. glorious ferns, lichens, and mosses were hanging all over the place. 

The three of us held back from the group, T, the instructor, K, another student, and me. We stockpiled the pellets we could find, since we didn’t have anything proper to carry them in, and rejoined the rest of the group.

T hatched a plan about the pellets. Since the college just ordered him some fresh lab pellets, we could combine the studies and dissect the ‘lab pellets’ in comparison to the ‘local pellets’. 

T is also a full-time college instructor, dad of two, and cubmaster. He was going to be camping out this weekend, so I offered to go get the pellets for him. He wasted no time in giving me a fistful of gloves.

Yesterday with my kids we went back to the site. Lenwood and Quinn put on the gloves and we set to with a will. Lenwood, who has been hand-drawing maps for 90% of his life, pinpointed the site to an oblong of about 30-feet or 10 meters in diameter. The pellets tended to roll down the 10% graded forest slope, so we had great luck finding them in nooks, crannies, and collection piles. Quinn’s sharp eyes found a perfect bird’s skull, which was interesting as if these are barn owls (and we don’t know yet), birds are lower on the list of foods. If they are feeding young or there aren’t many rodents, birds are more likely to be on the menu. Thanks to the kids, over 45 pellets were collected. We brought them home, and then the process of wrapping them in aluminum foil and baking them in the oven commenced. You really must do this. This sterilizes the pellets and makes them safe to handle. Owls digest all the soft tissues and blood, but there could be any number of things hiding in the bones, gristle, and fur. Thankfully, owls are critters of habit, and they tend to cough up pellets around either their roosting trees, or their nesting trees. We would like to learn which tree this is.

Sterilization requires heating the pellets for 40 minutes minimum at 325-F, or, 163 C. Since we live in the Great North West, the pellets were rather sodden and they are currently taking another go in the oven at dehydration temperatures.

We are tired, but we had fun, and it was interesting. 

[captawesomesauce]

I am reblogging this because it is so important for everyone in STEM to read...

For those who know my studies, I focus on Physical Geography and spatial dynamics of environmental processes. I have done a lot of research on climate change and it's effects on watersheds, arctic biological processes, and agriculture in war torn areas like Syria. I have written large tomes on the benefits of native landscaping and preserving ecological diversity, and I've worn out keyboards typing thousands of words on community resilience in the face of natural disaster.

But you know what I suck at? You know what most STEM scientists suck at? Narrative and story. We can make great posters, we can write detailed methodology, we can even craft our conclusions in a way that sneakily begs for more funding lol!!

But we can't figure out how to make people give a shit... we can't figure out how to make them care... we can't figure out how to get through to them....

There's a reason why the first Al Gore movie struck a chord, and none of the others have. There's a reason Discovery and Nat Geo documentaries make us go WOW, and news articles make us go... meh. There's even a reason why true crime shows and shows like criminal minds captivate us, while news articles about ANOTHER problem in science is just overwhelming and gets ignored.

I think back to Carl Sagan's Cosmos... what a great story teller he was, how mesmerizing and captivating ... Disney too.... Have you seen Fantasia recently? The scene that talks about climate change killing the Dinosaurs was written in 1940... it shows the Milky Way decades before satellites existed, before we walked on the moon! The idea of the great impact killing the dinosaurs didn't even exist yet... it wasn't proven till much later! And yet... the visuals, the music, the story telling... it affected multiple generations.

Listen to this scholar... if you go to UCLA, take the Prof. Carruth's classes on Environmental Narrative... learn to tell a story... learn how to make people care about your research, the planet, and the universe as a whole.

I did an interview with a friend today for a class project, and he asked me what I’d wanted to be when I was a little girl. “A writer,” I said, “which is all I’ve ever wanted to be”. I went on to talk about how I still view writing as my job—to provide frameworks and fashion narratives that help people understand the world—and I thought, as I said it, how many other scientists would disagree, how we try to beat storytelling out of everything we do. I thought about a prominent scholar in my field who tells her students to read fiction because doing so will help them write, and I thought about another student in my program who, upon hearing that, dismissed any ideas arising from that strategy out of hand. Who, he asked, could be inspired by a story.

I thought about how little I cared about his disdain—his dismissal of the sense of wonder that drives the best science. How empty, I thought, he must be.

[myflowerfriends]

Blog 8 First Draft: Eat or Be Eaten.

Aquatic Biodiversity Loss and Extinction

Figure 1: Lake Erie, 2015, https://www.nps.gov/piro/learn/nature/images/Waves-on-shore_1.jpg?maxwidth=1200&autorotate=false

Unless you have seen one of the Great Lakes with your own eyes, you cannot fathom what they are really like: vast, powerful bodies of water, with big waves and long stretches of sandy beaches; comparable to an ocean. I grew up living about a block away from Lake Erie, and when I was younger, I really hated my hometown. I wanted to live in a big city. My parents countered my arguments by emphasising how lucky we were to live in the Great Lakes Basin. It wasn’t until I attended a March for Science that I realised how important it was to protect the lakes — see me pictured below with my generic sign, and my friend Max holding a sign that my mom crafted; she’s the one taking the photo.

Figure 2: Cleveland’s March for Science Protest, 2017. Photo by author.

Part of my love of the Great Lakes, and of open bodies of water in general, comes from me living so close to them. But as Sylvia Earle is quoted in the beginning of chapter 12, “With every drop of water you drink, with every breath you take, you are connected to the sea, no matter where on Earth you live” (253).[1] Even if you live in a desert, every decision you make can in some way affect aquatic ecosystem services. Take, for example, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Figure 3: Eastern Great Pacific Garbage Patch, 2019. https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottsnowden/2019/05/30/300-mile-swim-through-the-great-pacific-garbage-patch-will-collect-data-on-plastic-pollution/#4b2a7f36489f

There are actually two large garbage patches with some connecting debris in-between them; the greater of these patches is just off the coast of California, and is about 600,000 square miles, and in some areas, several feet deep. It is an island floating on the surface of the water, made up of plastics and microplastics. Because plastic is not biodegradable, the Garbage Patch continues to grow, and many animals, such as the albatross pictured below, die due to ingestion of these plastics, which Chris Jordan documents hauntingly well in the film Albatross.[2]

Figure 4: Albatross Bodies with Plastic, 2018, https://www.albatrossthefilm.com/ourstory

One thing that I think could have been better written about in this chapter is water distribution. I stumbled through this very briefly in my presentation while explaining biophilia and the damaging effects of trying to make Las Vegas into an oasis in the desert. I understand that this chapter is focused more on the biodiversity of aquatic ecosystems, but I still think that concept 11.5 of this chapter could go more in depth with the ownership rights of water sources, or perhaps the section on the Great Lakes in the previous section could explain how although the Great Lakes are the largest collective body of freshwater in the world, water diversions are pretty much limited to regions within the Great Lakes Basin, and why it is important that it stays that way.

Critical Thinking Question #2, p. 280:

Three Greatest Threats to Aquatic Biodiversity

1.     Ocean Acidification

2.     Plastic Pollution

3.     Coastal Wetland and Watershed Protection

4.     Overfishing (if there are fish left after the above 3 are increased!)

The list above is my answer to the Critical Thinking Question for this chapter. All of them are caused by humans on the land. The greatest threat according to me is that of ocean acidification, or the increasing amounts of heat and acidity in the oceans. This stems from increased Co2 in the atmosphere. One of the main factors contributing to that, is animal agriculture.

Soil, Agriculture, and Food

Figure 5: You Can Smell the Methane in This Photo, 2014, https://www.wilderutopia.com/health/cowspiracy-animal-agriculture-despoils-land-water-and-climate/

Chapter 12 in the textbook discusses the effect of food production on the environment. I act like I know a lot about this when people ask me why I’m a vegetarian, but this chapter was full of great information and details that I didn’t fully understand until now.

The issue with animal agriculture is not only that Co2 is basted into the atmosphere through gasses released form the animals and humans which eat them, and the clearing of land for the animals. With the depletion of biodiversity to allow animals grazing land, vital natural habitats for other species are lost, as shown in George Monbiot’s brief video on rewilding the countryside and rural areas.[3]

Truthfully, I expected the chapter to be much more focused on animal agriculture alone. But other forms of farming are nearly as bad, as pictured below.

Figure 6: Effects of Food Production of Any Sort, https://slideplayer.com/slide/6187595/. Also see p. 294 in textbook.

I’m also glad that the chapter covered a comparison of overnutrition and malnutrition. I found the quote: “We live in a world where, according to the WHO, about 795 million people face health problems because they do not get enough nutritious food to eat and at least another 2.1 billion (29% of the human population) have health problems stemming largely from eating too much sugar, fat, and salt.”[4] The greed of modern civilization never ceases to amaze me.

Critical Thinking Question #1 p. 320

Figure 7: Vertical Harvest of Jackson Hole, 2013. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2056017617/vertical-harvest-of-jh-a-growing-system-for-change

If I were a member of Growing Power Inc. and in charge of turning an abandoned shopping center into an organic farm, I would begin by getting a perfect team together; potentially including some of the students in this class (networking!). I’d do my best to dismantle the concrete and debris of the shopping center, and reuse whatever I was able to on the spot. As it is in the Case Study, my farm would be powered partly by solar electricity and solar hot water systems, and would be structured like a green house to keep the produce supported year round. As it is in Jackson Hole’s Vertical Harvest organic urban farm, my employee positions would first be open to disabled peoples who are working on communication skills, training in this center for jobs elsewhere.[5] We would be deeply integrated into the community, selling our produce locally and donating to food banks and soup kitchens whenever possible. That sounds too good to be true, but we’ll leave it at that.

Question, and I think about this every day: which is better for the environment, to be vegan and avoid animal products entirely but eat non-local tofu or other forms of meatless protein; or to eat only locally sourced food which would make animal products more of a staple to the diet?

WC: 1156

[1] Miller, G. Tyler, and Scott E. Spoolman. Living in the Environment. Chapter 11: Sustaining Aquatic Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. 19th ed. Boston, MA: Engage Learning, 2020.

[2] Jordan, Chris. Albatross. https://www.albatrossthefilm.com

[3] Smith, Peter. “George Monbiot on reqilding countryside and rural areas” YouTube, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1KW-0YbO3Q

[4] Miller, G. Tyler, and Scott E. Spoolman. Living in the Environment. Chapter 12: Food Production and the Environment, p. 286. 19th ed. Boston, MA: Engage Learning, 2020.

[5] “Vertical Harvest Jackson Hole,” Vertical Harvest,  https://www.verticalharvestjackson.com/our-mission.

[secretofpet]

Right now: Invasive round gobies may be poised to decimate endangered French Creek mussels — ScienceDaily

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Simple –

The round goby — a small, extremely prolific, invasive fish from Europe — poses a threat to endangered freshwater mussels in northwestern Pennsylvania’s French Creek, one of the last strongholds for two species of mussels, according to researchers.

French Creek flows from southwest New York state about 117 miles to the Allegheny River at Franklin, Pennsylvania. It is the most species-rich stream in Pennsylvania and is nationally recognized for its biodiversity, with more than 80 species of fish and 29 species of freshwater mussels.

Four of the mussels in French Creek are listed under the Endangered Species Act: northern riffleshell, snuffbox, clubshell and rayed bean. Northern riffleshell and clubshell mussels are considered critically imperiled and have lost 95 percent of their historic global range — but they appear to have stable populations in French Creek.

Predation by the round goby, however, is likely to destroy that stability, warns Jay Stauffer, distinguished professor of ichthyology, Penn State. His research group in the College of Agricultural Sciences confirmed that growing numbers of the bottom-dwelling fish, which do not grow longer than 10 inches or so, are eating native mussels in French Creek.

Originating from the Black and Caspian seas, round gobies were introduced into the Great Lakes by the release of ballast water from large trans-Atlantic cargo ships around 1990. Able to live in saltwater or freshwater, they were first found in Lake Erie in 1995, where they are now the most common of all fishes in the lake. From there, they were likely transported in bait buckets carried by fishermen to LeBoeuf Creek, a tributary of French Creek, where they were discovered in 2013.

“It is not an overstatement to say that French Creek is a one-of-a-kind waterway, and that gobies being introduced to that watershed could end in an ecological disaster,” Stauffer said. “Now that they are in French Creek, we are never going to get rid of them. So, we are now trying to gauge how much danger they pose to native species and how much damage they will do. We think that this is going to be a huge problem.”

To document the diet of round gobies in the French Creek watershed to determine whether consumption of native, freshwater mussels is occurring, researchers collected round gobies in the summer months of 2016 using a kick seine in four locations. They then dissected the fish and closely examined their stomach contents. Gobies were separated into categories based on length so researchers could determine if their diet changed with increased size and age.

Their findings, which were published today (April 1) in American Midland Naturalist, showed that native mussels were consumed by gobies of all lengths in French Creek. This is the first research focusing on the ecological impact of gobies on unionid mussels in a stream environment in the United States. Many previous studies have looked at gobies’ impact on the biomass and food chain in the Great Lakes.

The gobies’ introduction into French Creek and the specter of them consuming endangered mussels is a worst-case scenario, noted lead researcher Casey Bradshaw-Wilson, now assistant professor of environmental science at Allegheny College, who was a doctoral student in Stauffer’s group when the research was started.

“While human alteration to stream systems in North America has pushed these mussel species toward decline, many species of mussels in French Creek are thriving,” she said. “The introduction of round gobies into the French Creek watershed poses a serious threat to native mussels, both directly through their consumption of juveniles and indirectly through goby-caused decline of the fishes mussels use as hosts to be transported during an early stage of their life.”

The results of the research — as ominous as they are for French Creek and its endangered mussels — portend the gobies will wreak havoc with shellfish related to another watershed that also starts in New York and flows through Pennsylvania, Stauffer believes. And although that river, the Susquehanna, is almost 200 miles and three hours’ drive away, he predicts that gobies will get there in fishermen’s bait buckets.

The Susquehanna River empties into the Chesapeake Bay, which has been called a world-class, oyster-making machine. With tons of fresh river waters pouring into it daily, a constricted mouth and shallow waters, that estuary is one of the largest bodies of ideal oyster habitat on earth. If round gobies get there, Stauffer warns, they could ruin a multi-million-dollar oyster industry.

“The threat to the oyster beds in the lower Susquehanna River, and really all of the Chesapeake, is real — I think it will happen in my lifetime,” he said. “Someone is going to use them as bait in the Susquehanna, that is going to happen. From there, it is just a question of time until they get into the bay.”

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from Secret Of Pet All Goods For Our Friends

[temenosjournal]

“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, “Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.” 

 Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

It’s a few blocks away from me and half the walk is in getting there, Irish stopping to sniff out the ‘news’ left behind by other four-leggeds, which of course makes the walk more of a meander. 

So off we go forth to Euston, left, right, left, right, through the village, here a sniff there a sniff, across busy Wharncliffe, and left, and then left again, and off through the scrap metal bit (remnants of the past when this whole area was one great big garbage dump, with scrap dealers and old cars lying around, and who knows what else). Its protected now,  and recognized as significant, and basically because of all that environmental damage that was done in the past, Euston finally can now rest easy, renew, and maybe have a chance to become again what it was before it was abused and misused.  

Many come to nature with expectations, of pristine vista’s devoid of humanity, of grassy meadows and woodsy meanders off the beaten trail, and they ignore these little spaces of becoming. Of a neglected past when their value was merely for a place to put the refuse from our lives, and not as a refuge from our lives, a nook of wild, urban vistas off in the distance. 

“Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.” 

Robert Frost

There is a unique beauty these areas with a checkered past have, that are maybe now still too toxic to build on, but with some management can be left to their own devices, left to go wild, free to be, and isn’t that what we all want? Free to be? 

Our current Premier, Doug Ford, Ontario’s very own Trump lite, and of course his next obsession is destroying our fragile wild places, and those trying to be wild. Ontario designated certain green spaces some years back, to stave off the ever advancement of urban sprawl, to protect our watersheds and family farms, and ensure something is left for future generations to enjoy. Course, Ford and all his wealthy cronies, and all the rich suburbian conservatives that rarely if ever venture forth from their white-washed world, and are hell-bent on ripping it all up to fill their coffers with more shekels and they certainly don’t give a rats arse for protecting natural spaces. These areas hold no value for them, just wasted land that they could build something on. 

Climate science and environmental concerns are considered to be, conveniently,  just doctored up by some rose-coloured glasses libtards trying to make money, reflect much? So they have no probs, as Joni Mitchell sang, paving paradise to put in a parking lot. 

Disgusts me how short-sighted they are, and saddens me that so many areas are going to be lost before we can get rid of this demon spawn and their delusions of grandeur and wrongheaded destruction of anything that gets in the way of making money. 

This movement of alt-right nationalist anger and misinformed notions, at the whim of their destructive blindness, and a complete disregard for the natural world that they somehow have got into their heads is the enemy to be conquered, and somehow not important to the survival of our species. 

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature — the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” 

Rachel Carson, Silent Spring

And so I go for walks, bring my camera, and try to capture some of that beauty that the earth gives us, and share it. Her gifts, her blessings, her snow-covered meadows and leafless majestic trees, her golden grasses poking up through that blanket of whiteness. It’s my best tool, my finest weapon, my sharpest sword to fight this wave of disregard and ignorance that seems to have no mercy for anything that can’t be converted into financial gain. 

There are some that have become imprisoned by their own greed. Their unhappy lives have them angry and fearful, and there are those that would use that towards their own ends. In an ignorance self-imposed, they set out to destroy the very things that could heal them, restore them, and give them what that gigantic TV never can, that new this or that or whatever thing they think will make them better, never ever will. 

“Our task must be to free ourselves… by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and it’s beauty.” 

Albert Einstein

Lollygagging In The Urban Wilds “I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, "Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.” …

[churningman]

Vanilla Ice Cream’s Infinite Possibilities

If you are reading this ice cream blog, odds are that Chef Michael Laiskonis has the dream job you never knew existed. Chef Laiskonis divides his time between running the Chocolate Lab and experimenting with ice cream formulation at New York’s Institute of Culinary Education (ICE), where he has been the Creative Director since 2012. He occasionally teaches courses there, which is how we met last June. Chef Laiskonis was kind enough to agree to the following interview, which took place in the Chocolate Lab this past September.

A self-described “pastry-chef-by-accident”, Chef Laiskonis is originally from Detroit, where during a break from pursuing a fine arts degree he took a job at his roommate’s brother’s bakery in the suburbs and “what started as something I could do quickly became something I was compelled to do”.

He ascended the culinary ladder quickly. Newfound passion and a baseline culinary skillset got him hired at a small fine dining restaurant in Detroit where he built the pastry program from scratch, then several years later he was hired as Pastry Chef at Detroit’s Tribute, where he earned repeated national recognition. Chef Laiskonis then “somehow found himself” as the Executive Pastry Chef at New York’s Le Bernardin, where he stayed for eight years, during which time he was awarded the James Beard Foundation award for Outstanding Pastry Chef in 2007.

Chef Laiskonis’ humility belies the methodical approach he applies in his work, and the curiosity and passion that drive it. Yet to hear Laiskonis tell it, he’s continued to stumble into amazing new projects and roles, including being offered the opportunity to run the Chocolate Lab at ICE, where he now works 40 hours a week (“technically part time”) in addition to all the other things he does.

Saturday session. #ICEChocolateLab pic.twitter.com/8rUoosYa2v

— Michael Laiskonis (@mlaiskonis) January 28, 2017

As for all those other things? Laiskonis came to ICE to test ideas he had been stockpiling in notebooks for years. In his words, “I wanted to create a situation where I could slow down, think one thought to its complete end.” He also guest lectures, studies chocolate history, helps with pastry curriculum development, works on marketing projects for ICE, occasionally shares his thoughts at Lucky Peach, and oh by the way he is also an ice cream wizard. Maybe thinking ‘just a few’ thoughts to their complete ends would be more accurate. But two stand out above the others:

“Ice cream and chocolate compete for my nerd sensibilities… and who knows how many iterations of chocolate ice cream I’ve done even within the last year or two to find just the right balance of flavor and texture”

The following interview is heavily edited from its original form. Many thanks to Chef Laiskonis for his generous time and commitment to sharing the knowledge he continues to create.

CM: Where did your relationship with ice cream start, and how has it changed over time?

ML: If we go back to when I was about 15 years old, my very first job was actually scooping ice cream. I never would have believed I would have gotten into the science of what I was working with at the time.

Ice cream graffiti - Clawson, Michigan. pic.twitter.com/4DT2Npy22X

— Michael Laiskonis (@mlaiskonis) October 25, 2016

As a pastry chef coming up in the mid-to-late 90s, there were a lot of very interesting things happening in pastry, both aesthetically and technologically. Already by that time desserts started to become complex, multi-component plates with lots of contrasting flavors, textures, and temperatures—more than just a slice of cake and some berries on a plate. Over the course of my career it’s almost become taken for granted that desserts will have some sort of frozen element.

Back at the first restaurant job I had I basically created a pastry chef position out of thin air. We were buying a lot of our dessert components from other places and if we had ice cream on a dish it came from the grocery store next door—Häagen Dazs, only the best—so when we started making ice cream, all I had at my disposal was one and later two of those canisters that you put in the freezer for 12 hours and it does a quart at a time. In hindsight they probably were all pretty icy given the technology we were using—but we also had no idea about formulation.

It wasn’t until maybe five years later, well into my first full-time pastry chef position at Tribute, when I started to pay a little more attention to formulation. Certainly balancing fat, balancing sugars—not only for sweetness but slowly beginning to wrap my head around the functionality of sugars and how they affect texture.

As a young cook, at least at that time, you hear people say ice cream is just frozen crème anglaise. And when you’re incorporating other flavors you just add other flavors on top of that.

I was stuck in that rut of equating an ice cream base with crème anglaise, still using a lot of egg yolks, until even five years ago, about the time I was leaving Le Bernardin. I was teaching one of my first ‘ice cream technology’ classes, and one of the exercises I did was making 5 or 6 ice creams of varying fat content, some with egg yolks, some without. I tasted those side by side and realized, wow, my go-to formula (which included egg yolks) tastes like an omelet. So I very quickly shed that notion that egg yolks necessarily equate with quality. Custard ice cream can be wonderful and perfect, but other flavors come out so much brighter and cleaner when they’re not hiding under all that egg yolk.

CM: What ice cream are you eating right now, besides your own?

ML: I have to say, I don’t get out a lot—but one of my weekly guilty pleasures was Coolhaus ice cream sandwiches. They nail the textures of both the ice cream and the sandwich, which is basically under-baked chocolate chip cookies. I also got obsessed with mochi ice cream , and that’s still something that I can’t have enough of around.

CM: Why is it important to understand ice cream formulation? I usually start by explaining how sorbet works, because it’s basically sugar and water. Then in your class, you mentioned that you like to add things like non-fat milk powder to sorbets sometimes, so you can sort of build up to ice cream’s complexity.

ML: Once you have a deeper understanding of how ice cream works it does three things. It helps you create better product, it helps you fix mistakes, and then finally—the very elusive benefit to all this—it the potential to create something new. I am constantly telling people they have to know the composition of their ingredients, how they function, and then how to make adjustments.

The way you expressed it is perfect, that’s how I love to get people started thinking about it—start with sorbet, which is basically water and sugar. Then when you get up to ice cream you have other things, fats and proteins, and you need to understand how those function. I always point people towards the material that fruit puree companies put out, because they’ve figured this out. I remember one of the first times I saw the parametric recipe chart from a company like Boiron, it was amazing—and they come out with new ones every couple of years, readily accessible on their websites.

I have experience in larger operations where people want a silver bullet—one base syrup that will work across the board. It’s difficult, but possible. I’ve always preferred the bespoke syrup for each individual flavor, because it’s going to give you the best results. Another area that virtually everyone has a problem with until they understand how it works is alcohol— ‘can I put vodka in that? What about bourbon?’. Once you understand freeze point depression and molecular weight you can quantify all these things.

CM: It feels like we’re in something of an ice cream renaissance right now—why is this happening today?

ML: You know, I have several years’ worth of confectionary and ice cream industry trade magazines from about the turn of the century to the 1920s. The ice cream technology is the same—it’s a scrape-surface heat exchanger. This stuff has existed for decades, if not a century at this point. Ice cream formulation hasn’t really changed either, but pastry chefs working in fine dining restaurants were never exposed to that information. Within the last ten years it’s become something that people are much more aware of. In other words, fewer people are saying ‘ice cream is just frozen crème anglaise’.

There were two big watershed resources for me. The first was a specific book from Spanish pastry chef Oriol Balaguer, where he laid information out about ingredients and their uses, composition, and function in recipes. That book was one of the first places—we’re talking maybe 2002—I saw this information translated into language pastry chefs could understand.

The second was, a few years after moving to New York I was exposed to some material from a class given by Olivier Bajard. Olivier was one of the first pastry chefs to be part of this circuit of chefs who do classes around the world, a few days at a time, and this has been going on for maybe 15-20 years. That was always a great way to get into a lot of material.

I had written a little bit about ice cream on my own blog circa 2008-2009, and as a result I ended up connecting with Cesar Vega, a food scientist at Mars who essentially got his PhD in ice cream. He’s a great resource, and passionate about gastronomy. When you create that initial relationship, the chef—the practitioner—and the scientist, who has a lot of theoretical knowledge—you don’t always speak the same language. It took us a while to create a dialog where he wasn’t frustrated by my questions, and where I could understand his answers. He still doesn’t make it easy for me—I’ll come to him with a question or a problem and he’ll basically say ‘here’s the experiment I would do, you figure it out’.

The pursuit of knowledge for both chocolate and ice cream is a situation where the more you know, the more you realize you don’t know. I realized that it’s really easy to make chocolate. And it’s really easy to make ice cream. It’s really difficult to make good chocolate and really difficult to make good ice cream.

The goal of small batch anything is to make the product better than the big commercial guys. That’s also difficult. Now, sure, industrial ice cream, industrial chocolate—they have to be dumbed down to a certain extent, to achieve consistency in the product and dial in very specific attributes. On a small scale, how do I achieve consistency, control for specific attributes, and not have to dumb it down? That’s where the creation of spreadsheets to look at recipes comes into play—we can fine tune recipe components to give us predictability and find the best possible formulation within whatever the constraints may be.

CM: What do you bring to ice cream that’s different because of your background in pastry more generally?

ML: There’s a series collaborations between Morgenstern’s and various chefs and right now it’s with Paul Liebrandt, who’s probably one of the most creative chefs in New York—I think this week it’s sunchoke ice cream with strawberry hibiscus sorbet. Some of those things are only going to come from someone who’s been thinking about how flavors interact for a long time.  

Menu development: 'Peas and Carrots' - pea crumble, carrot sorbet, citrus cream.

A post shared by Michael Laiskonis (@mlaiskonis) on May 21, 2015 at 4:15am PDT

But you can be the most creative person in the world and just throw some things into an ice cream machine and it’s just not going to work. There’s a cliché that pastry chefs are the scientists of the kitchen, but really it’s all about predicting the future. If you’re making a soup you can tweak it, adjust it, change it from start to finish. But for a cake, I can’t take it out half way through and then decide ‘Oh! It needs more baking powder’. I have to put it in the oven and know exactly what’s going to happen 30 minutes later when I take it out. And the same thing applies to ice cream. To a certain degree we’re already hard-wired to look at these things from a mathematical point of view.

The whole last 10-15 years of cooking was about adapting things that industrial food scientists already knew but weren’t creative enough to do anything with. When you give tools like hydrocolloids to a chef who’s creative, you have a new library of textures and ways to deliver flavor.

CM: People play around with savory ice creams—have you ever made an ice cream that you felt like crossed a line or went too far into that territory?

ML: Maybe I’ve never been the person to push those boundaries. I almost hate saying the word but sometimes I find myself being fairly conservative. The older I get, when it comes to chocolate, I’m less prone to throw just anything in there, for example. I want to taste the flavors of the cacao beans.

Fresh cacao pod, after a long voyage from its home in the Davao region of the Philippines. #ICEChocolateLab pic.twitter.com/s8YhEdIlt0

— Michael Laiskonis (@mlaiskonis) March 10, 2017

Having said that, there’s always more that I can do to experiment, using things like maltodextrins, or—to show you what a geek I am—I got an invitation to some webinars on glucose production and the functionality of glucose. I use glucose every day, so I had a free opportunity to learn. I’ve been aware of maltose for years but never really used it as an ingredient in something, and just this morning I was learning more about maltose. It’s already got me thinking, because it has half the sweetness but the same freeze point depression as sucrose—that could be interesting.

One thing I also never really explored, and it’s just always been one of those weird concepts to wrap your head around, is ‘hot ice cream’ using methyl cellulose, which make things firmer as they get warmer, and then melt when they cool off. Really bizarre. I haven’t really seen anyone playing with that in several years, but it was a thing for a while.

CM: What comes next for you? Do you have any idea where all this work is headed?

ML: I don’t know. First and foremost, if I’m not learning something myself every day then that’s a waste. I realize I could open an ice cream or gelato shop tomorrow and probably do okay. I’m getting there with chocolate, but I still don’t know where that’s going.

Everything that I do is about sharing, whether it’s one-on-one with a cook in a consulting capacity, or for a client helping them perfect what they’re working on, or in a classroom, or on social media, wherever it is—I’m not keeping this for myself. Half the fun is sharing it with other people.

I’ve had many different book ideas and the longer I procrastinate, people keep coming out with the idea I would’ve done. It happened this week. Ali Bouzari handed me a copy of his book that dropped yesterday, and it’s brilliant—there are no recipes in it. It’s called Ingredient. A food book without recipes is very difficult to sell to a publisher. It basically looks at the building blocks of all food—water, sugars, carbohydrates, proteins, fats, lipids, etc—and attributes personalities to them. He writes in plain language how they function, how different processes work. I didn’t have the exact idea, but that’s the spirit of something I’ve wanted to do. Now I can cross that one off—he did a better job than I would’ve done, great—onto the next idea.

In general, I like the approach of taking something very simple that we can all relate to and breaking it down, whether it’s ice cream, gelatin, pectin, things like that. These are things that, in a pastry kitchen, we work with every day, but to some extent we just follow a rote recipe to make it work rather than understanding how it works. I can sit down and create an ice cream recipe from scratch without ever tasting it and know I’m going to get close to a good result. I’d like to adapt that to other preparations. Bread is something that works easily with that, because we already think about bread as percentage-based. But working with chocolate, and post-manufacturing applications, it’s hard to look at a ganache recipe and really get a sense of the ingredient proportions. This is something again where, just like ice cream, the fat, the water, your nonfat solids, it all has to be in a fairly narrow balance to get it to do what you want it to do.

Knowledge is the power to be able to make things better and to improvise and adapt to situations. To me that’s as exciting and fulfilling as creating something that’s never been created before. My to-do list now is probably infinitely long, longer than I’ll be able to ever accomplish. My perspective now is okay, whether it’s chocolate or ice cream or gummy bears, whatever it is—how do I take advantage of people who have done this for decades, where this is their expertise? We could do a lot to innovate gummy bears, but I want to nail the original first. Once you do that, then playing with flavors is easy. I’m not really interested in creating anything ‘Avant Garde’, I just want to make it the best it can possibly be.

For me—it sounds really boring—but there are infinite possibilities even just with vanilla ice cream. And that could keep me interested for quite a long time.

Chef Laiskonis was generous enough to share not one but *five* ice cream recipes with Churning Man readers, linked here for now. They are not for the faint of heart—they yield larger quantities home machines can likely handle (so you might need to scale them down), and some call for specialized ingredients. Email me if you want to try them but don’t know where to start. 

[mikialynn]

2016 Reflection

I turned twenty-six this year--strode past that quarter century mark in what really is turning out to be an ever-hastening pace forward. Recognizing that I'm still young and should be focused on enjoying my present instead of getting nostalgic over it, I do think that age, growing up and defining "adulthood" were major themes of this year that can't be ignored. It feels like I've hit a second round of awkward pubescent years--the adultweeens. It's as if I had a major growth spurt into my mid/late twenties and am now expected to know how to embody this oversized and uncomfortable role. Obviously I don't. And obviously many of my peers don't. We commezirate over being expected to take on adult responsibilities while still feeling like we're college kids. However, despite what I think is clearly a fact that we're not adults, I have friends who are getting married and having babies! I've been a bridesmaid three times! We're children playing this adult version of house. It's surreal.

It is true that I am at least more adult than I have ever been, but that's not saying much. I can now comfortably cook chicken without worrying that it'll turn out raw, but all my sauces and pastes are still premade. I do my taxes, but it still feels as new and stressful as the first time everytime (and for the most part I just email friends for help). I'm en route to a master's degree, yet I've never held a job for more than one year and my largest investment is still my laptop.

I've also seen a change in how people react to me--how the world is labeling me even though I haven't really changed. Before, when I'd say my age or talk about what I'm doing, I could read their faces: How sweet and exciting! Such potential. So much ahead of her. Now I see a much more muted reaction: Oh okay twenty-six, not a kid then. I see, you do environmental management. Do I? How does one do environmental management? I apply for one to two year gigs. I make new friends and fall in love. I travel. I learn about my world and myself. That's what I do. I like to think about society and the environment and what can be done to improve our relationship. But so far that's not what I do. I have absolutely no idea what kind of job I want to have. Or where I want to live. Or how I could ever be satisfied with a  9 to 5 job that wasn't just a temporary situation.

I guess that's the major tension of this year. I can see that I am reaching a point where certain important decisions about lifestyle and career often happen, but I'm reluctant to make decisions that have long-term effects. As far as I can tell, growing up seems to mean a loss of flexibility. I'm just not ready for that.

But there are consequences to my resistance that I struggle with. My parents are getting older and are not in their best health. It makes seense to be home in Hawaii to take care of them. But selfishly, I wish it wasn't at that point yet. I wish I had a few more years to travel and live freely. And relationships--how many am I going to end because I refuse to live somewhere based on secure jobs rather than interesting locations? When will the benefits of my lifestyle be outweighed by the losses I suffer from not staying within one community and building on the relationships I already have in those places?  

If I think on these things--especically on my parents--than I do get a little overwhelmed. For the most part though, I'd say it's been a good year. It's been a full year of not having to make any hard decisions. I sense that I'm in an important transition, but for at least this year, I have been able to enjoy just being at this stage. All I had to do was do work for my classes, say yes to social events that were just handed to me, and get to know this dude with a beard--all very enjoyable things.

So let's go through the highlights. Technically I started the year off single, though I'd been talking with Esteban a bit and had gone out on a date. I remember the start of the year being very exciting. I had settled into schoolwork at Duke and was feeling good about the continued ease of doing well in my classes. January had a bit of drama, which I would have never voluntarily stepped into. It culminated at Winter Formal, and ended with a sweet walk to the Duke water retention pond where Esteban and I cleared the air and I accidentally almost spoiled Christmas for a little girl by declaring loudly that Santa wasn't real.

In January I also visited Mexico City with Ani and his friends. We officially stayed in separate hostels and did a very mature, civilized trip as just friends. It was harder for him post-trip though, so I think I realized I needed to cut back on communication after that. I visited him and Sojung one last time in DC over the summer before they both (funnily enough, as they can't stand each other) headed to Rwanda for new jobs. The next highlight was my Puerto Rico trip with Barb. It was fun driving around the island, seeing a biolumenescent bay, and making memories with Barb. I realized she is definitely a forgetful traveler (eg having to unscrew a locker to get to her keys for the lock she'd locked the locker with), but she's probably the closest friend I'll take away from Duke.

I also got my top choice for my master's project and summer internship. I am working with the Ellerbe Creek Watershed Association to prioritize parcel acquisition for green space and upstream green infrastructure retrofits with Mahima, an excellent partner and one of my favorite people at Duke. For my intership, I was assigned the Urban Water intern with The Nature Conservancy. While the summer job didn't turn out great--I was given vague direction to research storwater in North Carolina and I wasn't sure how to best do, and I also didn't have the best relationship with my supervisor--overall the organization let me do fun conferences and outdoors activities and I had a great impression of them.

Also over the summer I traveled to India with Esteban. I hadn't expected to do such a big trip over the summer, but his push for India got me to plan for it. It was nice to see the balance of our two travel desires result in that trip. He wanted to see a lot of places, but I knew it wasn't feasible without planning. However, he also stopped me from planning too much so we'd still have the flexibility to find our hostels and short-distance transport when we were there. The trip was also kind of a make it or break it for us in my mind. Prior to the trip, we'd had a difficult coversation where I realized we were not on the same page about the relationship and I very nearly ended it. Unfortunately going into the New Year that conversation is still something that lingers with me, but for the most part I think we've grown a lot closer since then. And yes, we did survive the trip! We hiked across living root bridges, rode camels in the desert, hiked in the himalayas, and braved the crowds of Delhi and Mathura. Other summer highlights include deciding to take a hip hop dance class at Ninth Street Dance Studio, switching to a bike as my mode of transport, and the cultural phenomenon of Pokemon Go. Also, my sister got married and I was her maid of honor! And lastly, communication with Ani basically dropped to zero by the time I left for India and he moved to Rwanda.

My second year at Duke was a little different than the first. Both Barb and I had boyfriends, so we weren't at home as often and have had some problems making time for each other. We did a hip hop class together though! We also had two new roommates-both first years. I felt a little bad about not being as present with them as they may have liked for a nice home dynamic, but in the end I just didn't have enough time. Classes plus the MP, boyfriend, and a host of new hobbies (working out more regularly, hip hop with Barb and Blues dance with Esteban, and some of Esteban's hobbies like Magic The Gathering) kept me busy enough to just add on the occassional social event. But I was fine with that--I naturally only invest in a few key people and my studies after the initial excitement of a new environment wears off.

On the note of studies, it's been interesting. I definitely enjoy certain classes like my geospatial anaysis and statistics classes, but I always wonder how much I'll actually use those skills outside of school. I know they're good so that I can be conversant in them even if I don't take on those technical roles, but sometimes I wonder if I'm choosing the right classes. Maybe I should have focused more on business, finance or policy? Or strictly on some fun science like marine biology? It's so hard to know. The future is a complete mystery to me. I'm struggling to envision a job that allows me the lifestyle I want and that is also related to the issues I find most compelling. Unfortunatly, it sometimes feel like the two just don't go together.

Currently I'm in Mexico City staying with Esteban's family to celebrate New Years and his dad's birthday. Before this we were in Hawaii for over two weeks. I could have gone with my Princeton friends to Kenya and Tanzania for our first college friends getaway, but the pricetag was too high for my current situation. It's a bit sad seeing them posting photos, but I feel like I've grown more distant from my college friends this past year than every before. There's a certain level of maintaining appearances and intellectual competitiveness with that crowd that sometimes just overwhelms me. It's a bit sad, but I also feel like I'm settling into myself this year. Settling into my interests, my hobbies and the type of people I like to surround myself with.

Anyway, the trip is going reall well! Hawaii involved visiting grandma, hiking to lava, seeing manta rays, whales and tons of fishies, fishing, swimming with turtles and doing pretty hikes. It was also a lot of family time, including sleeping over at both my sister's and brother's, tagging along on Joe and his new girlfriend (Trisa's) marathon, and moving fish feed bags. So far in Mexico we've stayed at his grandma's house, I've gotten to know his mother, younger brother, and a few uncles, aunts and cousins. I'm currently at his father and stepmother's place, and am gradually getting to know them. There have been a lot of fun similarities between our families--sweet mothers that both frustrate us, brothers with new girlfriends who haven't seen Star Wars, dogs with cones who keep liking themselves, issues with water and electricity. There will be a few more days of family festivities and then it'll turn into more tourist activities. Being unable to participate in a number of situations because I can't speak Spanish has been frustrating at times--especially since I like to make good impressions--but I think things are settling into an alright routine.

So the year has been overall really enjoyable. I've got to travel again, which always makes me feel excited about life. I definitely feel more mature, though I'm not at the stage I think some might expect of me at this age. Next year will probably involve some big decisions, so I'm just going to enjoy this next semester as much as possible. For the first time, I really have no idea what might happen next. I don't have a fellowship telling me where to live. I don't have a scholarship forcing me to go back to school (or at least I don't think it makes sense to pursue the PhD right now). I can live anywhere. I can do anything. It's pretty exciting.

In summary, I think the reality is I'm perfectly on track. No rush. I'm just going to enjoy the phase of life I'm in. Just what to do about my parents?