Diary Entries on Will Brady's website

naturalist's retreat for all to enjoy. Nature Conservancy is getting closer to the asked for sale price of the acreage | While the state of Connecticut has already designated an island in the middle to the Connecticut River with Peterson's name to recognize is work, how fitting that his own retreat could be added to this, and how equally fitting that ordinary citizens would be able to access that retreat.

Other sites that tell more about RT Peterson's life work:
Evolution of a Field Guide
Nature Conservancy's preservation effort

land preservation victory! |
It's been many years, but with TAHOE-SIERRA PRESERVATION COUNCIL, INC. v. TAHOE REG'L PLANNING AGENCY, the US Supreme Court has ruled, with a clear majority, that developers don't have unfettered ability to do what they feel like doing when they please on lands to which they currently hold title.
    This single decision counters the arguement that when local zoning officials call for a moratorium on development to study the impacts of a developer's proposal constitutes a "Taking" of private land. Clearly this decision affirms that moratoria are not "takings" of private land.
    The decision will provide for small communities a powerful tool that supports a more thoughtful planning process. It may affirm that the interests of a larger community are more pertinent to decision-making than the whims and avarice of a handful of land speculators.
    I say "may" here since I am still reading the Court's formal opinion on the case. Not surprising, however, that three Court dinosaurs, Rhenquist, Scalia and Thomas, have objected to the findings of the other judges, still maintaining the artifice that anything that holds back rapacious practices of the few ought to be held sacrosanct above the interests of the many.
    Just in case there are nagging doubts here regarding my own perspective, it ought come as no surprise that I fall in the camp of folks who maintain that no one of us owns anything! We are entrusted with the use of virtually everything that is placed in our personal possession while we are alive. With regard to the use of land, buildings, natural resources, art treasures and artifacts, it is incumbent upon each of us to handle our trust responsibly, for after we die, that trust is bestowed upon some one else. It would be immoral of us to have squandered what we were entrusted with. Plain and simple.
    This does not mean I am anti-development. To the contrary. Responsible growth is important and necessary for all of us. But growth for the personal betterment of some at the expense of many, is motivated by selfishness and greed. When development is propelled by those two attributes, the end result is often harmful, and can take, sometimes centuries to remedy. Humanity cannot afford that kind of development.
    Anyway, enough preaching. The full text (58 pages once printed out0 of the Supreme Court's Decision has been posted on the FindLaw website as TAHOE-SIERRA PRESERVATION COUNCIL, INC. v. TAHOE REG'L PLANNING AGENCY. You'll need Adobe Acrobat to read it.

PBS panel to discuss John NashYeah, this is kind of a repeat, but it hasn't happened yet, so I'm pitching it again. On Sunday, April 28, 2002, the USA public broadcasting service will air a television show about John Nash, whose life was featured in the popular film "A Beautiful Mind." | One of the panelists, radical pro-forced treatment psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey, was on CBS' 60 Minutes last Sunday | It was an interesting piece; filled in part with well founded critiques which identified shortcomings with NIMH and other government funding iniatives as well as lambasting society for its shoddy treatment of people with "severe mental illnesses", but short on Torrey's extremist positions | Interviewed by Morley Safer, Torrey pulled an old grandstanding stunt of slamming NIMH (and others) for supporting frivolus "research." | He's on shakey ground there | After all, this is the guy who speculated (with on clinical studies to support his thesis) that Schizophrenia may be caused by exposure to viruses carried by house cats | This written when Torrey, himself, was an NIMH research fellow | Is this an example of the "pot calling the Kettle black" ? | You decide | I jsut wonder how much of taxpayer dollars he was rewarded to write this kind of thing |
Back to Nash's show (where Professor Nash shall apparently be absent) PBS assures its audience that the show's presentation shall be balanced | PBS is inviting people to e-mail in questions | You can submit them now: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/nash/sfeature/sf_forum.html

More later, out fer now.

Will

internet access tools | Check out the 10 march 2002 entry for tools to help make better use of Iternet resources |

MOST RECENT ESSAY: ECONOMIC TREASON: Do travesties like ENRON make your blood boil? There's a new discussion group on the Yahoo Groups website. It's still new, so the discussion has just begun. Participants are welcome. Stop by, sign up, and add your POV.