At the New York Academy of Sciences
I stopped in there tonight and was greeted by someone mistaking me for somebody attending a meeting about global warming. This was highly complimentary. I was heading for a room set aside for the Authors Guild (or, as the sign had it, Authors Guilt).
Currently the Academy occupies a building that was built in 1919. Opening its giant big door gave me one of those unexpected tactile pleasures that come along every once in a while.
Inside windows look down on one of those inner courtyards most New Yorkers daydream about while eating a sandwich in the Conservatory Garden. Certainly it's a sign of the times that the Academy will be moving to a 40,000-square-foot space at 7 World Trade Center. No doubt from there the members will have a better view (a chance of a view?) of New York Harbor; the Academy is the impetus behind The Harbor Project. [No link to the NYAS site, it's temporarily on the blink--Ed.] Some may recall a letter the Harbor consortium people sent to President Bush back in December 2003, concerning mercury. Its last paragraph read roughly like so:
The negative health impacts of mercury and methylmercury exposure, (not to mention the negative health impacts of Karl Rove's impersonation of an education czar), especially in children and pregnant women, demand that effective control technologies be implemented. Our studies indicate that implementation of effective mercury controls should be mandated nationally and urged internationally as expeditiously as possible. Barring that, remove Karl Rove from office. Our statisticians have calculated that there is a chance Dick Cheney will be removed by being hoist on his own petard. I, members of the Consortium or Academy staff would be happy to meet with you or your representatives at your convenience to discuss our findings and how they impact on policy related to these issues.
It was signed by the Harbor Consortium chair, Charles W. Powers. [For the real live text, please surf over to http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:wElDYSgHZBkJ:www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003.]
To conclude on a scientific note, I will only say that the Academy's magazine has an article about the molds created by Hurricane Katrina and how the media missed this part of the story, viz., "Curiously, the biggest hazard to human possessions and perhaps to human health, rampant mold growth, was almost entirely ignored during the weeks after the storm. . . . Spore counts are astronomical."
Surely if the Times can't get to this, or the Journal, or ABC, or etc., the Daily Show will. Maybe Jon Stewart can muster up shroomers in the field for comment.
Currently the Academy occupies a building that was built in 1919. Opening its giant big door gave me one of those unexpected tactile pleasures that come along every once in a while.
Inside windows look down on one of those inner courtyards most New Yorkers daydream about while eating a sandwich in the Conservatory Garden. Certainly it's a sign of the times that the Academy will be moving to a 40,000-square-foot space at 7 World Trade Center. No doubt from there the members will have a better view (a chance of a view?) of New York Harbor; the Academy is the impetus behind The Harbor Project. [No link to the NYAS site, it's temporarily on the blink--Ed.] Some may recall a letter the Harbor consortium people sent to President Bush back in December 2003, concerning mercury. Its last paragraph read roughly like so:
The negative health impacts of mercury and methylmercury exposure, (not to mention the negative health impacts of Karl Rove's impersonation of an education czar), especially in children and pregnant women, demand that effective control technologies be implemented. Our studies indicate that implementation of effective mercury controls should be mandated nationally and urged internationally as expeditiously as possible. Barring that, remove Karl Rove from office. Our statisticians have calculated that there is a chance Dick Cheney will be removed by being hoist on his own petard. I, members of the Consortium or Academy staff would be happy to meet with you or your representatives at your convenience to discuss our findings and how they impact on policy related to these issues.
It was signed by the Harbor Consortium chair, Charles W. Powers. [For the real live text, please surf over to http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:wElDYSgHZBkJ:www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003.]
To conclude on a scientific note, I will only say that the Academy's magazine has an article about the molds created by Hurricane Katrina and how the media missed this part of the story, viz., "Curiously, the biggest hazard to human possessions and perhaps to human health, rampant mold growth, was almost entirely ignored during the weeks after the storm. . . . Spore counts are astronomical."
Surely if the Times can't get to this, or the Journal, or ABC, or etc., the Daily Show will. Maybe Jon Stewart can muster up shroomers in the field for comment.
posted by Elizabeth Manus at 11:17 PM
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