Sunday, November 8, 2009

At last Wednesday's city commission meeting at Old City Hall, the city manager, Jim Scholl, reported on his recent trip to St. Lucia to attend a cruise ship conference.

"All agreed that cruise ships to Cuba would benefit Key West," he said.

Another big change on the horizon: The completion of a widened Panama Canal in 2015, allowing much larger cruise ships to move from one ocean to another. At its present width, the canal has been a "limiting factor" to the growth of the cruise-ship industry, said Scholl.

"Not everyone is aware of this," he added, but the anticipated super-cruise ships would be too big for Key West's harbor in today's configuration, so he has asked the Army Corps of Engineers to look into "opportunities to enhance the channel."

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The Center for Biological Diversity has announced the winner of its third annual Rubber Dodo, awarded each year to the person who has done the most to drive endangered species extinct. (Last year's winner was then-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.)

This year's winner is portfolio manager Michael Winer, the largest stockholder in companies developing the largest pieces of private land remaining in Southern California and in Florida -- home to the highest numbers of endangered species in North America.

In California, Winer is building two new cities 50 miles north of Los Angeles. In Florida, Winer is pushing the Federal Aviation Administration to build a new airport on 800,000 acres he owns in the Panhandle. "There's not a whole lot more to be developed in any other coastal region of Florida," said this year's Rubber Dodo.

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The following update is from a VPOTUS -- that's Secret Service lingo for the U. S. Vice President -- pool report filed by Anthony Man for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. The setting was a private party for Joe Biden during the POTUS' visit to Florida last month:

"VPOTUS spoke this afternoon at a fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee at the home of Democratic fundraiser Mark Gilbert and his wife Nancy, in Boca Raton. About 60 people attended the event, at ticket prices from $1,000 to $30,000. Due to unseasonably warm weather in South Florida, the lunch was served inside in an exceedingly warm room, which was still very hot during VPOTUS' remarks.

"His comments were general about most of his central topics: economy, world affairs, health care. 'We inherited a Godawful mess.'

"On international affairs, VPOTUS said he has traveled more than 'any vice president in American history' in his first eight months in office.

"VPOTUS said people should not underestimate Obama. 'This guy's got a backbone like a ramrod.'

"On the economy, VPOTUS said: 'We're getting to the end of this toboggan run. We're no longer talking about a depression. We're talking about the shape of a recovery.'

"(He said that is 'no consolation' to people who are still suffering. 'Less bad still isn't good.')

"Florida, which is reeling from foreclosures, [is] still in trouble. He said Florida, Arizona and California 'got killed when this bubble burst, and you're still getting killed.'"

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A critical shortage of language tutors in the Middle Keys means there's "a long waiting list of students needing help with communicating in English," says Literacy Volunteers of America.

You do not need to know another language to be an LVA tutor, advises Middle Keys coordinator Maria Triana. All training is free of charge and every new tutor gets to choose his or her own student or students.

Call Maria at 393-6064. Outside Marathon, call Mary Casanova at 294-4352.

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The price of common stock in Ford, the only Detroit automaker to avoid a government bailout, has increased 249 percent since last year.

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Jane Dawkins, local author of two continuations of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" and two other literary works, has some fun with her latest, a lighthearted romance for grownups called "If You're Ever In Key West."

It's really a romp through some very familiar places among some very familiar faces. Here's how the heroine and her younger man reach that certain moment in their rapid affair:

"They stopped at another of her favorite Key West eateries, 915 Duval Street, where they were greeted by the owner, Stuart, and Andrew his waiter, both Brits. They shared a couple of appetizers, ordered a split of champagne and watched the world go by on Duval Street before heading back to the house.

"They decided to take a bottle of wine and sit outside by the pool for awhile. It was a beautiful evening and the scent of jasmine was in the air ... It was only a glance but a thousand words passed between them without a sound ... The languorous mood changed to one of urgency. The wine was forgotten. Clothing was thrown aside."

This goes on in New York, London and Athens as well, in a book of raging fires and long cool drinks. "It's a love song to a very special island ... and an ode to women of a certain age," says Dawkins.

"If You're Ever In Key West" can be ordered through www.janedawkins.com.

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The city in the United States with the shortest name is Y, which is in Arkansas. There is also a Y in France.

There are villages in France, Norway and Sweden called A.

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Dave Walton, site manager at the Dry Tortugas National Park, has announced the addition of a diorama on sea turtles to the park's visitor center at Fort Jefferson.

The Save-A-Turtle organization, the Yankee Freedom 2 and other community members helped produce, deliver and install the three-dimensional display. "The park and our visitors are just thrilled with the new turtle exhibit," says Walton.

Turtles are an integral part of the habitat in and around the Dry Tortugas. The national park was named Las Tortugas by Ponce de Leon in 1513 due to the abundance of turtles at the time. Loggerhead, hawksbill and green turtles can be seen floating in the sea on the trip between Key West and the park.

Randall Bennett of Tall Grass Museum Services created the display from local sand and beach wrack that he has used to depict a nest of loggerhead turtles hatching. A cut-out view on the back of the display lets visitors see the nest cavity below ground.

Save-A-Turtle VP Elaine Sweet Mason and members Kyle Mason and Jeanette Hobbs were on hand to watch visitors encounter the interactive display for the first time. "It is our hope that these visitors will remember what they've seen and will join us on our mission throughout the world," said Sweet.

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On average, those born between fall and spring make less money, get sick more often and do more poorly in sports and school. So says research that dates back 100 years.

A new study by economists at the University of Notre Dame reveals a socio-economic basis. Statistics show that fall and winter children are more likely to be born to teenage mothers, unmarried women or women who never finished high school.

A child born in January is 10 percent more likely to have a teenage mother and one without a high school diploma than a child born in May.

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Today's 11 a.m. service at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 801 Georgia St., will face "The Abyss of Eden." An abiding image in most religions is the primal place of perfection from which we humans have strayed ... but is striving to re-establish such a promised land a dream or a nightmare?

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The Key West Tara Mandala Sangha is offering a five-session beginners course in Tibetan Buddhist meditation starting Wednesday, Nov. 11, from 6 to 7 p.m. in the Nature Chapel of the Key West Botanical Gardens. Focus is on breathing meditation and how to use breath to control mind.

The course is taught by Yeshe Chopel (Ellen Booth Church), an educator and creator of two satellite sanghas, in Key West and Ithaca, NY, for her teacher, Lama Tsultrim Allione. She has just returned from teaching Tibetan Buddhism in Germany.

Registration is required and space is limited; contact kwtaramandala@aol.com or call 293-7651.

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Sowing seeds in a minefield: Scientists at a Danish company, Aresa Biodetection, are using nature to help detect land mines.

As explosives in the mines decay, their chemicals leach nitrogen dioxide into the surrounding soil. Aresa has developed a genetically modified flower that changes color when its roots come in contact with nitrogen dioxide. The plant can mature and sprout in just six weeks.

Crop planes distribute the seeds.

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Top 10 most expensive restaurants in the world:

Aragawa, Tokyo

Arpège, Paris

Elgensinn, Toronto

Sketch, London

Petermann's Kunststuben, Zurich

Tetsuya's Restaurant, Sydney

Vitrum, Berlin

Steirereck, Vienna

Zalacain, Madrid

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In a recent column in The New York Times titled "The Peace Keepers Prize," Thomas Friedman regrets that this year's Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to (as the President himself has admitted) someone who "has not done anything yet on the scale that would normally merit such an award."

Friedman suggests nine or 10 individuals or groups upon whose behalf he'd like to accept the award in Stockholm. Among them:

"The American soldiers who stand guard today at outposts in the mountains and deserts of Afghanistan to give that country, and particularly its women and girls, a chance to live a decent life free from the Taliban's religious totalitarianism.

"I will accept this award on behalf of the American men and women who are still on patrol today in Iraq, helping to protect Baghdad's fledgling government as it tries to organize the rarest of things in that country and that region -- another free and fair election.

"Finally I will accept this award on behalf of my grandfather, Stanley Dunham, who arrived at Normandy six weeks after D-Day, and on behalf of my great uncle, Charlie Payne, who was among those soldiers who liberated part of the Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald."

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Quote for the Week:

"Curiosity is the very basis if education and if you tell me that curiosity killed the cat, I say only that the cat died nobly."

-- Arnold Edinborough