State Offers Bed Bug Forums

Because bed bugs are quickly becoming the leading public health pest of the 21st Century, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) recently developed a Bed Bug Outreach and Education Project and hosted a series of Bed Bug Forums across the state. The project was funded through a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Forums, which were held in Alexandria, Dulles, Norfolk, Richmond and Roanoke, provided attendees with basic information regarding the biology of bed bugs, the health significance of the pest, inspection and current treatment methods and challenges of bed bug management, and also suggested best management practices.

More than 340 people attended the Forums, representing pest management professionals, housing services including management associations for multifamily housing, members of the hospitality industry, public agencies and other individuals and groups interested in bed bug biology and management. “The resurgence of bed bugs in recent years has brought the pest from the shadows to the limelight,” said Matthew J. Lohr, VDACS Commissioner. “A few years ago, no one admitted to having an infestation, but now there is a growing, collective effort to prevent, control and eradicate the pest.”

Lohr said he was interested to learn of new treatment methods, ranging from beagles that can sniff out the pest to heat treatments. “As a frequent traveler, I was especially interested in some of the tips for consumers,” he said. “These include simple things such as laundering clothing and drying them in a hot dryer. Some have even suggested that leaving your suitcase in a car parked in the hot sun is sufficient to kill bed bugs.” Experts believe that the thermal death point for bed bugs is around 114-115° F and that the bugs cannot live in temperatures higher than that.

Bed bugs were a common pest in the U.S. up to the 1950s but declined dramatically in subsequent decades. Their resurgence after a long absence created a desire for information on the bugs themselves, as well as treatment options. The workshops included presentations from Dr. Dini Miller, a Virginia Tech researcher and professor of entomology; a demonstration of canine bed bug scent detection and heat treatment units, along with a discussion of a variety of other chemical and non-chemical treatment options. Speakers also included the Virginia Department of Health’s Bedding and Upholstered Furniture Inspection Unit and the Virginia Apartment Management Association. Finally, VDACS’ Office of Pesticide Services presented a regulatory overview.

All attendees received outreach materials including a series of bed bug fact sheets. The sheets encourage and help facilitate additional training and outreach to coworkers, peers and tenants covering the following topic areas: Bed Bug Biology and Behavior, How to Identify a Bed Bug Infestation, Bed Bug Prevention Methods, Bed Bug Treatment Using Insecticides, Non-Chemical Bed Bug Management, Bed Bug Action Plan for Apartments and Bed Bug Action Plan for Hotels. The Bed Bug Fact Sheets as well as the Forum presentations are available at: http://www.vdacs.virginia.gov/pesticides/bedbugs.shtml. Fact sheets are available in both English and Spanish. The EPA’s website at http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/bedgugs/ has additional information.

Any pesticides used in bed bug treatment must be registered with VDACS and used according to the label directions. In addition, all pest control companies must have a Virginia pesticide business license and all commercial pesticide applicators must be certified. More information regarding certification and business license requirements is available at www.vdacs.virginia.gov/pesticides/index.shtml.

For more information, contact Dr. Dini M. Miller, Department of Entomology, 216A Price Hall, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061; call 540.231.4045; or e-mail her at dinim@vt.edu.

Volley for Breast Cancer

Help the Loudoun Valley High School Volleyball team raise funds to support Breast Cancer education programs and research efforts by attending “Dig Pink” games on Thursday, September 30 – Freshman and Junior Varsity at 6:00 p.m. and Varsity at 7:15 p.m. Wear pink, buy some baked goods and watch the returning players from the 2009 AAA State Championship volleyball team.

Contribution will assist Side-Out in its mission to raise money and awareness about Breast Cancer through volleyball. The support you lend this initiative is not only counted in dollars and cents but also in the “spirit of community”. Go to the teams website https://www.side-out.org/application/teams/team_page/3069, choose an amount to donate, follow the steps, and, after the process is complete, you will receive email confirmation of your donation. All donations are tax deductible and the website is secure, fast and easy to use.

Blue Ridge Leader News – August 29, 2010

Two Bodies, Two Stories, One Town

News for Loudoun County returns to the dark side this week, with the recent discovery of two bodies in and around Ball’s Bluff Regional Park on the north side of Leesburg.

Authorities reported 52 year old Cornelia Arnold, a town resident, the victim of homicide; her remains were found Monday in the aftermath of a fire at a rustic shack off Balls Bluff Road. … Continue Reading

Entropy

“What an organism feeds on is negative entropy.” Erwin Schrodinger, What is Life (1956)

“The law that entropy always increases holds, I think, the supreme position among the laws of Nature. If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell’s equations — then so much the worse for Maxwell’s equations. If it is found to be contradicted by observation — well, these experimentalists do bungle things sometimes. But if your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it but to collapse in deepest humiliation.” — Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, The Nature of the Physical World (1927)

“The American people are sending a strong message here: We don’t like the implications of this law, and we will not rest until it has been reversed in the courts.” Christian Coalition president Ralph Reed, as reported in the Onion, America’s Finest New’s Source [1].

What is entropy? Why does life so utterly depend on the ability to extract negative entropy from its environment? What does that mean? What is the secret of really good satire?

To comprehend just a bit why the Entropy Law is so absolutely supreme among the laws of physics consider this. All other physical laws are invariant with respect to time. Newtonian or Classical Mechanics, Einstein’s special theory of relativity, his general theory of relativity, Maxwell’s equations, quantum Mechanics, quantum electro-dynamics, Superstring theory all are equally comfortable with the flow of time in either direction. Only the Entropy Law defines time’s arrow. If we drop a wine glass on a concrete patio it shatters. Time never runs the other way. Shards of glass never come back together and reconstruct the wine glass. The simplest explanation, one of many interpretations of entropy, is a probabilistic one. There is only one organization of the glass shards which forms the glass but an infinite number of random configurations of shards which do not form the glass and all of which are functionally indistinguishable. The glass is ordered and far from thermodynamic equilibrium and has very low entropy. The scattered shards are disordered and have high entropy. Wine glasses shatter in forward time and could only spontaneously reconstruct in negative time. We’ve never observed a glass spontaneously reconstruct. The Entropy Law, the second law of thermodynamics, tells us that we can proceed in one direction from order to disorder in time but we cannot go the other way.

A gallon of gasoline is in a state of low entropy. The concentrated carbon-carbon and hydrogen-carbon bonds store enormous free chemical energy and are far from thermodynamic equilibrium. We can burn these molecules and release the energy and create carbon dioxide and water vapor and heat. What we are doing really is transforming the low entropy of the gasoline into high entropy of scattered carbon dioxide, water vapor and heat. We are using the transformation of the quality of the free energy to move our car.

The energy and matter in the system before and after the transformation is the same and has to be by the first law of thermodynamics which states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. This is the conservation law. We started with a highly ordered collection of gasoline molecules far from thermodynamic equilibrium and ended up with dispersed molecules and heat scattered throughout the environment. And if we’ve burned a gallon we’ve moved our car 20 or so miles up the road. We’ve done work. Cars like organisms, like society require low entropy.

Even standing still requires low entropy. Bananas rot, cars rust, organisms including people age. Much of the low entropy cost of operating society is simply required for maintenance not growth. GDP got a boost in the wake of Katrina but New Orleans still is not recovered fully. We haven’t fully replaced the wealth we once had. Out bloated military spending, defending as it is, our oil supply, requires vast amounts of low entropy which could otherwise have been spent on growth or simply maintenance of existing wealth. Growth is therefore limited by available low entropy after the requirements of maintenance have been met. If our society is so complex as to require more low entropy than is available growth is impossible.

The arguments which economists raise against prescient books such as Limits to Growth [2] include: price, technology and substitution. We see that by the Entropy Law, there is no substitute for low entropy. We can replace one source with another but that game is very limited. We can replace wood burning with coal burning and indeed coal has a higher energy density but available coal is limited and not renewable. We have supported less than a billion people burning wood whereas we are supporting seven billion people burning coal and other fossil fuels. We cannot therefore simply go back to wood.

The substitution argument tells us that when oil prices get intolerably high, we will simply substitute some alternate source of low entropy for the low entropy we have been capturing from oil. One problem with this argument is that we’ve invested incredible amounts of low entropy in the development of fossil fuel infrastructure. We did this when oil, from an energy cost perspective, was cheap. Any substitute will require the build out of equivalent infrastructure which right now does not exist [3]. We will have to do this when energy costs are high and low entropy is scarce. And we know there is no substitution for other sources of low entropy. There is no substitution for fresh water, good top soils and nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer, for example.

Technology may increase our rate of burn of available low entropy and it can improve the efficiency with which we transform available low entropy into useful work but it cannot create available low entropy any more than the wine glass shards can magically reconstruct the wine glass. We see that technology can actually exacerbate limits to growth. Technology cannot violate the second law. And even the most partisan judges cannot repeal it.

Price signals lose their effectiveness when resource limits are reached [4, 5 and 6]. Neo-classical economic hypothesis violate the second law because they assume resources and waste sinks are infinite. At least we know therefore that there is no hope for them.

The point of lowest entropy in the universe was 13.7 billion years ago at the big bang. Black holes represent the highest entropy we are aware of today [7]. Whatever stuff is inside a black hole, and maybe only Steven Hawkins knows, can be rearranged billions upon billions of ways and one still has a black hole. That is thermodynamic equilibrium. You by contrast are a collection of precisely constructed atoms and molecules. Even a very minor deviation, such as the miscoding of a single nucleic acid may portend a cancerous death. You and I are far from thermodynamic equilibrium. We should not take life for granted.

Good satire is almost plausible. :+)

Tony Noerpel

[1] The Onion, http://www.theonion.com/articles/christian-right-lobbies-to-overturn-second-law-of,281/

[2] Donella Meadows, Jorgen Randers, Dennis Meadows, William Behrens, Limits to Growth, 1972 and Limits to Growth, The 30-Year Update, 2004.

[3] Vaclav Smil, Energy Transformations, 2010.

[4] Frederick Soddy, Wealth, Virtual Wealth and Debt, 1926.

[5] Herman Daly, Beyond Growth, 1996.

[6] Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, The Entropy Law and the Economic Process, 1971.

[7] Brian Greene, The Fabric of the Cosmos, 2004.

2010 Fill-the-Boot Kicks Off for Muscular Dystrophy

Labor Day signifies the end of summer vacation for school children and once again Loudoun County firefighters will be busy filling their boots for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). Firefighters across the nation stand at intersections collecting money to the benefit the MDA and “Jerry’s Kids.”

Loudoun County Fire, Rescue and Emergency Management in conjunction with the Loudoun Career Fire Fighters Association Local 3756 are fully supportive and determined to do their part to help. During the week of August 24 -28, donations will be collected at various intersections across Loudoun County.

The Fill-the-Boot drive is the result of a partnership between MDA and the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF). Over fifty-five years ago, the IAFF pledged to assist MDA in any way possible until a cure was found. Research and assistance for individuals suffering from neuromuscular disease can be an incredible financial burden on a family.

Loudoun County firefighters pride themselves in participating in this fundraiser every year and being one of the top five collectors in the state. Last year, Loudoun County firefighters collected $106,000 and the goal for this year is $112,000!

With the support of community members and the Board of Supervisors, along with the hard work of the Department of Fire, Rescue and Emergency Management, incredible differences are made for individuals living with the disease in the area. All money raised by Loudoun County stays locally to assist families who are affected by one of the forty-three neuromuscular diseases. Your donations are the true meaning of neighbors helping neighbors.

“We are fully committed to this great cause and the generosity of Loudoun County citizens truly makes this week a success each and every year,” commented Interim Fire Chief W. Keith Brower, Jr. The donations provide local families with a network of specialized clinics, financial aid for assistive equipment, support groups, informative publications and accessible summer camps for kids.

The Department of Fire, Rescue and Emergency Management and the Local Union are working alongside the Virginia State Police to ensure traffic interruptions and delays are kept to a minimum.

Fall for Reading with the Literacy Council

Celebrate the joy of reading together as a family with stories, crafts and fun activities. Fall for Reading, hosted by Loudoun Literacy Council and sponsored by Verizon, encourages families to read together, play together, and to learn as a family all year long. This annual event also kicks off National Family Literacy Week, celebrated Sept. 13-19.

Fall for Reading 2010 activities will include:

• Children’s Theater – located in the Children’s Story Room, will feature an afternoon of storytelling, dramatic theater and more. Dramatic coach, Ritzya, will be one of our featured performers.
• Arts and Crafts Tent – ongoing activities will take place in the art tent, located in front of the library. There will be many hands-on projects for children and families to do together.
• Face Painting – come have your face painted with your favorite flower, picture or storybook character.
• Meet the Author – several Virginia children’s authors will be reading their books aloud and will be signing and selling additional copies.
• Refreshments, music, free books and much, much more…

About the Loudoun Literacy Council:

Now celebrating its 30th year anniversary, Loudoun Literacy Council is a community-based organization which helps low-literate adults and children from disadvantaged families learn to speak, read, and write English. LLC trains community volunteers to teach GED, adult basic literacy, and ESOL in classroom settings and one-on-one as tutors. LLC staff all provides literacy programs to children from low-income homes and those living in homeless shelters. For more information and to become a supporter of Loudoun Literacy Council, see www.loudounliteracy.org.

I’m a Napping Fool …

Ha haaa … as soon as I wrote about the toughest winter and driest summer last week doesn’t Mother Nature turn the tables! How about those rain storms Thursday?

I have to tell you not only did we get a much needed reprieve in the landscape for moisture, but we also got a good nap in! Well, at least I did.

It was quite nice not having to keep my sniffer on for the sly ones, as I knew darn well they would be hunkered down in those mangy fox holes hiding from the storms just as I was trying to stay dry too. Okay, I apologize for not referring to Mr. and Mrs. Red Fox in the nicest of doggy manners – but please – I am a born and bred Cairn terrier and it is my almighty duty to keep those critters away from my master’s poultry and fowl!

Oh I can hear it now –“Treat others as you would like them to treat you!” but all right already, does the police man ignore the invader because he wants to be a nice guy? Well I need to guard the hen house and quite frankly the ladies love me for it! I for one have been born and bred to honor the oath of the great Cairn terriers and that is to honor and defend all poultry and fowl from all enemies fox or not to our death. So here and now I tip my hat and soul to the duties that lay before me on my great American Farm.

And with pleasure I serve …

More on that to come next week.

With Love and Honor,

Sushi

Blue Ridge Leader News – August 22, 2010

The Call Up

One of Loudoun’s own gets called up to the ‘Big Leagues’ down in Richmond; local land-use lawyer Randy Minchew accepted a post in Governor Robert McDonnell’s Administration, as Deputy Counselor. This seems to be a nice perk for Randy and for Loudoun County, as most of his new duties can be executed by phone, fax, computer and other ‘telecom’ devices. … Continue Reading

Kurtz and Burton To Meet on Chesapeake Bay

On Wednesday, September 1, at 7:00 p.m. in the Board Room of the Loudoun County Government Center, located at 1 Harrison Street, SE, in Leesburg, Sally Kurtz, Catoctin District Supervisor and Jim Burton, Blue Ridge District Supervisor, will co-host a community meeting to discuss the Loudoun County Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act Work Program. Loudoun County staff will provide a presentation on the proposed Loudoun County Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act Work Program followed by a question and answer session with meeting attendees.

Information about the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act Work Program will be posted throughout the project on the county website at www.loudoun.gov/chesapeakebay. Questions may be directed to county staff through the Chesapeake Bay Hotline at 703-777-0655 or by e-mail to ChesBay@loudoun.gov. Given the great interest in this matter please allow staff a couple of days to respond to your inquiries.

GSA Walks for Shelter

Join The Good Shepherd Alliance, Inc. (GSA) for their sixth Annual Walk for Shelter on September 18 celebrating 27 years meeting the needs of homeless and indigent persons in the Loudoun Community.

Living in Northern Virginia, it’s sometimes easy to forget that there are people living in this area who struggle without one of life’s most basic necessities: affordable housing. This September, we here in Loudoun County will have the opportunity to be part of the solution to that problem. The GSA will be sponsoring the Walk for Shelter which will take participants through the historic section of Leesburg, Virginia. All proceeds will benefit the Loudoun homeless at the GSA shelters for women, children and families located in Purcellville and North Leesburg.

Registration begins at 9:00 a.m. at the Douglas Community Center pavilion with the walk beginning at 10:00 a.m. Lunch and activities commence at 11 am. Public school and home school groups, churches, youth pastors, Sunday school classes, civic organizations, MOMS Clubs, etc. are all invited. Bring a group from your business, school, church or neighborhood. Wear your company or church T-shirt or bring a company or church banner to show the community that we care and raise support for homeless programs and services in the county.

Special family activities to follow the walk to include an ice-pop for a donation booth, moon bounce, face painting, mimes performing, balloon animals, free grilled hot dogs and other family activities. Come and join us for a community event and be an advocate for those less fortunate. Registration is $20 for adults, $15 for youth 10 to 18 and children under 10 are free.

Consider sponsoring our Walk this year. Call today for more sponsorship opportunities.

Common Ground Church has partnered with GSA to help solicit business sponsors and is coordinating the moon bounce, face painting and grilling of hotdogs. Their congregation will be volunteering at the registration tables and helping in various other designated areas of support.

GSA needs the continuous support from the business community to supply needed materials, services and funding to maintain and upgrade the facilities. GSA strongly believes that assisting those less fortunate with their most basic needs fosters hope and goodwill among the diverse and fast growing community.

GSA is proud of its cooperative relationship with Loudoun County and Leesburg Town Government. GSA is grateful to the Leesburg Town Council, Leesburg Police and Parks and Recreation for their cooperation and coordination of this event.

If you would like to learn more about GSA visit GSA’s website, www.goodshepherdalliance.org.

Look’in Good!

Hello my good friends!

Last time we talked I was giving you the wrap up on the wonderful Loudoun County Fair.

I know that now many of you are off on your last family vacation before the new school year begins. How do I know these things you ask? Because I have missed many of you coming out to visit me and “scritch” my belly!

Hardworking Mr. Morrison (the farm shop manager) just does not have the time to pamper me the way you all do – so Mrs. B took me to the Doggie Wash in Purcellville, had my nails and hair trimmed. I must say they spruced me up so nicely that I look just like a real gentleman now.

The hair cut was the best – this shaggy coat gets pretty warm in this heat.

Speaking of heat, how do we go from the toughest winter of all time to the hottest driest summer of all time? I can tell you the sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys and even Gnarly Gander and his Goose Gang have been hunkering down in the shadiest spots on the farm. The smartest one of all is Stretch the Llama. He has it made. I think Mrs. B has a soft spot for ol’ Stretch. Do you know she has put up a huge fan right in front of the Quackery (that’s the little cement pound she made for the Goose Gang near the barn – talk about spoiled!)

Ol’ Stretch lays in that pound while the fan blows his shaggy Llama fleece, making him look like King Tut!

The NEW big buzz around the farm is that we are going to be on the Fall Farm Color Tour this October! More about that later – but for now I am going to trot off into the farm shop and just hope on hope that you will come “scritch” my belly!

Yes, that’s right, “scritch” not scratch as “scritching” to a dog is much better than scratching!

Hope to see you soon!

Love,
Sushi

Peer-Review

“Science is what we do to keep from lying to ourselves.” Richard Feynman.

I assume that everybody knows at least what I know. I talk about entropy, not to show off but simply with profound humility. If I know the importance of the Entropy Law then surely everybody else must know as well. I refer to peer-reviewed science with the same reverence and awe that I assume everybody else shares. I am surprised that people really don’t know what the peer-reviewed scientific literature is. This is sad because these refereed journals document human knowledge. It is what we know, in fact. I am amazed that people don’t know how to evaluate knowledge and use their precious time to learn effectively in a world saturated with mostly unreliable information.

I engaged in an exchange of emails with a global warming denier a few years ago. I told her that there was no scientific evidence which supports the denialist position. She accused me of exaggerating. She reads science everyday which supports denial, she informed me. So I challenged her. “You can make your point if you can provide just one peer-reviewed scientific journal article which supports the denial view.” I wrote. With much pomp and certitude, she sent me an editorial from the Wall Street Journal [1]. The Wall Street Journal is not a science journal. It is not peer-reviewed. The author wasn’t even a scientist but an editor who majored in English. I informed her. We had this back-and-forth. “It is not science.” “But it is what I believe.” Clearly she did not know what science was. So I proposed this exercise. She and I will pretend to be peers of the editor and we will edit his editorial as if it were submitted to a science journal. Fully half of the article consisted of personal and unjustified attacks on Al Gore and Michael Mann, remarkably nasty stuff, made all the more nasty because of course none of it was true. I red lined that and struck it out. I told her that in a science journal one is not allowed to criticize another person. You can criticize their science, of course, but politely and with civility and of course, backed up by evidence. We proceeded in this way line-by-line through the entire piece, deleting the entire editorial except for two inconsequential sentences and a third admitting that the most recent and faddish denial argument at the time wasn’t actually correct. The editorial was an insincere apology on behalf of the Wall Street Journal for its fraudulent reporting of a non-event. The sum total of verifiable and useful information contained in the editorial actually contradicted my friend’s assumptions about global warming. It was an amusing exercise for me. For my denialist friend though it was very painful and she never corresponded with me again. I had thought that global warming denial simply reflected of ignorance and arrogance but discovered that it is really about fear.

Are there peer-reviewed journal articles which support denialism? Yes, I’ve read some of them. It is not a large body of work. Most of them are flawed or inconsequential. That wasn’t my point though. The lesson for me at least is that virtually all global warming deniers, certainly every single one you or I are likely to meet on any given day, and including George Will, do not have any idea what they are talking about. No denier you or I have ever met can cogently argue that global warming isn’t happening, that it is not caused by man and that the impact will not be profound.

I’m referencing a representative scientific paper by Boyce published in the journal Nature [2]. If one reads it and doesn’t understand it then one will have learned something more valuable than anything anybody could possibly learn from reading every single op/ed piece ever published in every newspaper in America. We learn that we do not know what we are talking about. George Will doesn’t. E. J. Dionne doesn’t. I don’t. And you don’t. That is precisely why I read science. Every single day, I learn that there are things I do not know. For me this is an energizing experience. There is a reason to get up at the crack of dawn. There is always plenty to learn. It is a great feeling.

Op/Ed pieces are sap for the true believer. Liberals read Dionne, not for knowledge but for affirmation of what they think they already know. Conservatives read Will for the same reason. People read this stuff because they do not have open minds. As a liberal, I don’t read Dionne on purpose precisely because the last thing I want is to reaffirm what I think I know but I may not. I do not want to reinforce my faulty and perhaps irrational opinions. I occasionally read Will’s column just to see what the other side of the aisle is thinking and to challenge my opinions. I’ve read maybe four of his columns on global warming, which all require the reader to suspend comprehension of reality. His opinion violates the laws of physics. These columns at least are rubbish. What I learn is that nobody on George Will’s staff knows how to perform elementary fact checking. George Will doesn’t know how to do that and nobody on the editorial staff of the Washington Post does either. The valuable lesson is that the Op/Ed pages are unreliable. If nobody is fact checking Will, then nobody is fact checking Dionne either. There is no point to reading any of it. I do read Tom Tole’s cartoon every day. Wonderful stuff, I love those cartoons.

I selected the referenced paper [2] for two reasons. Firstly, it is simply the most recent paper I’ve been reading. It has been on my mind, so to say, having just been published by the journal Nature a few weeks ago. Secondly, in my humble opinion, it may turn out to be one of the most important scientific papers written this year, if other scientists are able to confirm these results. It states “We observe declines [in phytoplankton biomass] in eight out of ten ocean regions, and estimate a global rate of decline of ~1 percent of the global median per year.” If phytoplankton populations really are in decline as much as the authors project then primary productivity is as well. If this is true then the total low entropy available to sustain life on Earth is in decline. If this is true, then there are not simply limits to growth but limits to growth which are becoming more constrained. If that is true then as society becomes more complex and human population continues to increase, we require more low entropy at the same time as we are reducing its supply. We are not just rushing headlong towards collapse at a constant rate but our collective lead foot is firmly pressing the accelerator to the floor and the Diamond Rio we are aiming for is accelerating towards us.

If phytoplankton populations are decreasing, I think there may be two possible anthropogenic causes. The one proposed by the authors is the warming climate. The other may be overfishing. As we deplete the oceans of fish, zooplankton populations, upon which fish feed, should expand. If zooplankton populations expand, phytoplankton populations upon which they feed, should contract. Of course, both are most likely operative and both are anthropogenic. The overfishing hypothesis is contained a microbiology text book by Susan Gaines called Echoes of Life [3].

The most important way to look at this particular science is with alarm, of course. If you believe in God then you realize that God gave us the capacity to destroy ourselves. But another way to look at it is with great humility, joy and pride in being human. We have this remarkable capacity to discover this result and learn from it and adapt our behavior accordingly. God gave us the capacity to destroy ourselves, true, but also to save ourselves. We do have free will. It is our choice.

Tony Noerpel

[1] Stephens, B. 2007 A Denier’s Confession Global warming is more alarmist than alarming. Tuesday, August 28, 2007, Wall Street Journal.

[2] Boyce, D., Lewis, M., & Worm, B., “Global phytoplankton decline over the past century,” Nature, Vol 466|29 July 2010| doi:10.1038/nature09268.

[3] Gaines, S., Eglinton, G. and J. Rullkotter, Echoes of Life, Oxford, 2009.

Sheriff’s Office to Host Community Meeting for Eastern Station Area

The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office will host a quarterly community meeting for Eastern Loudoun County on Thursday, August 19, at the Eastern Loudoun Station located at 46620 East Frederick Dr. at 7:00 p.m.

Join your neighbors for an informative presentation on the current status of law enforcement efforts in the Eastern Station service area.

Have the opportunity to engage Sheriff’s Office personnel from Field Operations, the Traffic Unit, Community Policing and Criminal Investigations.

An initial presentation will include a review of recent crime trends, major crimes and other issues impacting your community. Members of the Sheriff’s Office will then be available to answer any questions you may have.

This is a great opportunity to find out what is going on in your neighborhood, what programs the Sheriff’s Office offers, and receive tips for preventing crime.

Dr. Diane Pomerance Reveals How to Choose the Best Shelter Dog for Your Family

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) sponsors October as Adopt-a-Shelter-Dog Month to encourage Americans to turn their houses into homes by adopting a shelter dog. Each year, millions of dogs enter our nation’s shelters, yet of the almost 59 million owned dogs in this country, fewer than 20 percent are shelter adoptees.

Pomerance, an activist who has owned more than 40 shelter dogs in her lifetime, thinks it’s a shame that more people don’t adopt from a shelter, because the most faithful, healthy and loving dogs are waiting there for new homes.

“People sometimes don’t go to animal shelters to adopt a dog, because they have a lot of misinformation about these animals,” said Pomerance, author of seven books about pets, including Our Rescue Dog Family Album (www.animalcompanionsandtheirpeople.com). “They think, ‘I don’t want to inherit someone else’s problem,’ or they simply think all the dogs there are abused or hard to train, or that they won’t be able to find the breed that they want. All of those notions couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, up to nearly 60 percent of dogs in shelters are not strays, but pets whose families had to give them up because of a loss of income or a change in location. These are faithful, loving dogs who just need a home and some love.”

The key is to know how to choose the right pet for your family, and Dr. Pomerance offered these tips to help families do just that:

• Breed – Check online about the different breeds, their temperament, health & physical characteristics. Find out all you can about the specific animal from shelter workers and volunteers.

• Lifestyle — Think about your lifestyle and personality in terms of the kind of dog that would be more compatible with your home and your living situation.
• Activity level — Assess the activity level and exercise requirements of the dog you are considering. Are you able to walk your dog several times a day and play with him?
• Age — Figure out what age of the animal is best suited to you and your family. Which is more compatible with your age and lifestyle? Do you want an active puppy that needs attention and training, a middle-aged dog with established behaviors, or an older, less active dog?
• Time – Do you have enough time for a quality relationship with a dog? Like children, they require attention, companionship, patience and interaction. They also require socialization and obedience training.
• Budget – Research the costs of not only adopting a pet (adoption fee), but veterinary care, including spay/neuter, vaccinations, potential injuries or illness, regular checkups, toys, accessories, etc. Factor in costs of food, pet sitters or boarding while you’re away. Keep in mind many pet shelters offer these services as part of the adoption fee, or at a discounted rate because many are not-for-profit organizations supported by private donations.
• Space – Do you have sufficient room for a dog to move, eat and sleep comfortably? Further, are you legally allowed to have a dog on the premises/in your community? If you rent, make sure you are legally allowed to have a pet.
• Shelter — Find out as much about the shelter from which you are adopting your pet as possible – what is its reputation? Is it a kill or no-kill shelter? What is the track record of the successful adoption of its dogs?

“Adopting a shelter dog is a lifetime choice, as these pets will likely spend the rest of their lives with you, and it is not something that should be taken lightly,” Pomerance added.

“That being said, it is a positive choice, and one that will bring joy and love into your home and provide your family a loyal, caring companion.”

About the Author

Diane Pomerance has a Ph.D. in Communications from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and is widely regarded as a pet expert. She has written seven books about animals including the Animal Companions Series and her new book Our Rescue Dog Family Album (www.animalcompanionsandtheirpeople.com). She created, established and currently directs the pioneering and flagship Pet Grief Counseling Program for the SPCA of Texas in Dallas.