LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lake County Fair Foundation is planning a fundraiser next month to support the Lake County Fair, which has been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The foundation will host the Wrangler Round-Up drive-thru dinner on Saturday, Feb. 6.
It will take place from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at the fairgrounds, located at 401 Martin St. in Lakeport.
The foundation was created in 2015 to support the fair.
It’s hard at work on the new fundraiser which is particularly important considering that the 2020 fair was canceled and the future of the Lake County Fairs – and fairs statewide – currently is unclear due to the far-ranging economic impacts of the pandemic.
The dinner will include barbecue tri-tip and chicken, vegetables, macaroni and cheese and a dinner roll for a ticket cost of $40 per person or $75 for two.
Donations for the online auction are being requested. To donate call Katy at 707-272-9163.
For more information contact Jeff at 925-381-0359 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Donations to support the fair also can be mailed to the foundation at P.O. Box 967, Lakeport, CA 95453.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors is planning a special meeting this week in which its members will get an update on COVID-19 and consider possibly reducing in-person services to the public due to the continuing increase locally of coronavirus cases.
The meeting will begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19, and will be available to the public virtually only. The meeting can be watched live on Channel 8, online at https://countyoflake.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx and on the county’s Facebook page. Accompanying board documents, the agenda and archived board meeting videos also are available at that link.
To participate in real-time, join the Zoom meeting by clicking this link at 9 a.m. The meeting ID is 929 8110 0592, password 270427. The meeting also can be accessed via on tap mobile at +16699006833,,92981100592#,,,,*270427# US (San Jose).
All interested members of the public that do not have internet access or a Mediacom cable subscription are encouraged to call 669-900-6833, and enter the Zoom meeting ID and passcode information above. To submit a written comment on any agenda item please visit https://countyoflake.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx and click on the eComment feature linked to the meeting date. If a comment is submitted after the meeting begins, it may not be read during the meeting but will become a part of the record.
At 9:05 a.m, public comment is scheduled.
At 9:06 a.m., Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace will give the board a comprehensive situational update on COVID-19.
At 9:15 a.m., the board will consider the county’s response to worsening pandemic conditions and impacts on service delivery, and consider a resolution authorizing temporary reduction of in-person delivery of county services to the public.
County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson’s report to the board explains, “As your Board is well aware, pandemic conditions have worsened dramatically in recent weeks, with an increasing number of COVID-19 positive cases impacting the County workforce.”
On Jan. 5, the board created an ad hoc committee to work with department heads in the efforts to comply with the county’s COVID-19 Public Health Emergency - Worksite Protection Protocol.
Since that time, Huchingson said the committee has met several times “to address the many complex issues departments are facing as they attempt to keep employees and the public safe while maintaining services to the greatest extent possible.”
She continued, “The focus of the committee’s discussions has been around how, during this critical time, we can pivot back to providing services to the public without (or with very minimal) in-person contact, as we did much earlier on in the pandemic, beginning in March to June 1, 2020. By doing all we possibly can do to keep our workforce safe and well, we are better able to keep services in place, until conditions improve and we are able to reopen fully.”
Huchingson also is presenting a draft resolution that, if approved by the board, would authorize temporary reduction of in-person service delivery due to COVID-19 pandemic conditions.
At 9:30 a.m., the board will discuss Friday county office closures to the public and possibly give updated direction to the staff.
Huchingson’s report notes that on Nov. 17 the board adopted a resolution directing the “soft opening” of county offices on Fridays, with departments to assign at least one staff person to provide basic customer service on Fridays beginning Jan. 8, with full reopening on Fridays to take effect in April.
She said she’s bringing the matter back to the board at the request of Board Chair Bruno Sabatier “in the event you desire to make any changes in your directive as a result of the worsening pandemic conditions.”
Other items include consideration of an amendment to the Lake County COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Worksite Protection Protocol, to be discussed at 9:45 a.m.
There also will be a closed session to discuss a threat to public services and facilities, with the board to consult with Huchingson, County Counsel Anita Grant and Sheriff Brian Martin.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The city of Lakeport will hold a meeting to receive input from the community in its effort to apply for grant funds to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The meeting will take place at 4 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 21, via Zoom.
The meeting can be accessed at https://zoom.us/j/91777629308 or accessed at +1 669 900 9128. The webinar ID is 917 7762 9308.
The city of Lakeport is eligible to apply for Community Development Block Grant, CDBG, for Coronavirus Round 2 and 3 funding.
The purpose of the funds is to provide assistance for persons of low and moderate income affected by COVID-19.
City officials said they are seeking input on the best use of these funds.
There are specific guidelines to apply, but the city said potential uses could include rental assistance, public improvements, business loans for local businesses and more.
The community is encouraged to participate and share its feedback.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Earth’s global average surface temperature in 2020 tied with 2016 as the warmest year on record, according to an analysis by NASA.
Continuing the planet’s long-term warming trend, the year’s globally averaged temperature was 1.84 degrees Fahrenheit (1.02 degrees Celsius) warmer than the baseline 1951-1980 mean, according to scientists at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, or GISS, in New York.
The year 2020 edged out 2016 by a very small amount, within the margin of error of the analysis, making the years effectively tied for the warmest year on record.
“The last seven years have been the warmest seven years on record, typifying the ongoing and dramatic warming trend,” said GISS Director Gavin Schmidt. “Whether one year is a record or not is not really that important – the important things are long-term trends. With these trends, and as the human impact on the climate increases, we have to expect that records will continue to be broken.”
A warming, changing world
Tracking global temperature trends provides a critical indicator of the impact of human activities – specifically, greenhouse gas emissions – on our planet. Earth's average temperature has risen more than 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.2 degrees Celsius) since the late 19th century.
Rising temperatures are causing phenomena such as loss of sea ice and ice sheet mass, sea level rise, longer and more intense heat waves, and shifts in plant and animal habitats.
Understanding such long-term climate trends is essential for the safety and quality of human life, allowing humans to adapt to the changing environment in ways such as planting different crops, managing our water resources and preparing for extreme weather events.
Ranking the records
A separate, independent analysis by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, concluded that 2020 was the second-warmest year in their record, behind 2016.
NOAA scientists use much of the same raw temperature data in their analysis, but have a different baseline period (1901-2000) and methodology.
Unlike NASA, NOAA also does not infer temperatures in polar regions lacking observations, which accounts for much of the difference between NASA and NOAA records.
Like all scientific data, these temperature findings contain a small amount of uncertainty – in this case, mainly due to changes in weather station locations and temperature measurement methods over time.
The GISS temperature analysis, or GISTEMP, is accurate to within 0.1 degrees Fahrenheit with a 95 percent confidence level for the most recent period.
Beyond a global, annual average
While the long-term trend of warming continues, a variety of events and factors contribute to any particular year’s average temperature. Two separate events changed the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface.
The Australian bush fires during the first half of the year burned 46 million acres of land, releasing smoke and other particles more than 18 miles high in the atmosphere, blocking sunlight and likely cooling the atmosphere slightly.
In contrast, global shutdowns related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic reduced particulate air pollution in many areas, allowing more sunlight to reach the surface and producing a small but potentially significant warming effect.
These shutdowns also appear to have reduced the amount of carbon dioxide emissions last year, but overall CO2 concentrations continued to increase, and since warming is related to cumulative emissions, the overall amount of avoided warming will be minimal.
The largest source of year-to-year variability in global temperatures typically comes from the El Nino-Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, a naturally occurring cycle of heat exchange between the ocean and atmosphere.
While the year has ended in a negative (cool) phase of ENSO, it started in a slightly positive (warm) phase, which marginally increased the average overall temperature. The cooling influence from the negative phase is expected to have a larger influence on 2021 than 2020.
“The previous record warm year, 2016, received a significant boost from a strong El Nino. The lack of a similar assist from El Nino this year is evidence that the background climate continues to warm due to greenhouse gases,” Schmidt said.
The 2020 GISS values represent surface temperatures averaged over both the whole globe and the entire year. Local weather plays a role in regional temperature variations, so not every region on Earth experiences similar amounts of warming even in a record year.
According to NOAA, parts of the continental United States experienced record high temperatures in 2020, while others did not.
In the long term, parts of the globe are also warming faster than others. Earth’s warming trends are most pronounced in the Arctic, which the GISTEMP analysis shows is warming more than three times as fast as the rest of the globe over the past 30 years, according to Schmidt.
The loss of Arctic sea ice – whose annual minimum area is declining by about 13 percent per decade – makes the region less reflective, meaning more sunlight is absorbed by the oceans and temperatures rise further still. This phenomenon, known as Arctic amplification, is driving further sea ice loss, ice sheet melt and sea level rise, more intense Arctic fire seasons, and permafrost melt.
Land, sea, air and space
NASA’s analysis incorporates surface temperature measurements from more than 26,000 weather stations and thousands of ship- and buoy-based observations of sea surface temperatures.
These raw measurements are analyzed using an algorithm that considers the varied spacing of temperature stations around the globe and urban heating effects that could skew the conclusions if not taken into account.
The result of these calculations is an estimate of the global average temperature difference from a baseline period of 1951 to 1980.
NASA measures Earth's vital signs from land, air, and space with a fleet of satellites, as well as airborne and ground-based observation campaigns. The satellite surface temperature record from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument aboard NASA’s Aura satellite confirms the GISTEMP results of the past seven years being the warmest on record.
Satellite measurements of air temperature, sea surface temperature, and sea levels, as well as other space-based observations, also reflect a warming, changing world. The agency develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to better see how our planet is changing.
NASA shares this unique knowledge with the global community and works with institutions in the United States and around the world that contribute to understanding and protecting our home planet.
NASA’s full surface temperature data set – and the complete methodology used to make the temperature calculation – are available at https://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp.
GISS is a NASA laboratory managed by the Earth Sciences Division of the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The laboratory is affiliated with Columbia University’s Earth Institute and School of Engineering and Applied Science in New York.
This plot shows yearly temperature anomalies from 1880 to 2019, with respect to the 1951-1980 mean, as recorded by NASA, NOAA, the Berkeley Earth research group, and the Met Office Hadley Centre (UK). Though there are minor variations from year to year, all five temperature records show peaks and valleys in sync with each other. All show rapid warming in the past few decades, and all show the past decade has been the warmest. Credits: NASA GISS/Gavin Schmidt.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council this week will discuss department and council goals, get the latest on COVID-19 and consider updates to current contracts.
The council will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 19.
The meeting will be by teleconference only. The city council chambers will not be open to the public.
To speak on an agenda item, access the meeting remotely here or join by phone by calling toll-free 669-900-9128 or 346-248-7799. The webinar ID is 973 6820 1787, access code is 477973; the audio pin will be shown after joining the webinar. Those phoning in without using the web link will be in “listen mode” only and will not be able to participate or comment.
Comments can be submitted by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. To give the City Clerk adequate time to print out comments for consideration at the meeting, please submit written comments prior to 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 1.
Indicate in the email subject line "for public comment" and list the item number of the agenda item that is the topic of the comment. Comments that read to the council will be subject to the three minute time limitation (approximately 350 words). Written comments that are only to be provided to the council and not read at the meeting will be distributed to the council prior to the meeting.
On the agenda is an update from Lake County Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace, who has been making regular appearances at city council meetings to update them on the local COVID-19 situation.
During presentations, the council also will meet new Lakeport Police officer trainee Kaitlyn Morfin.
Under council business, City Manager Kevin Ingram will give the council an update on the 2020-21 departmental goals and discuss the prioritization of listed city council goals provided in the Fiscal Year 2020-21 budget.
The council’s 13 goals, which Ingram said are held over from 2019-20, are public safety; road improvement; amending sidewalk and right-of-way improvement ordinance to reduce costs of improvements and ensure infrastructure is being constructed in high priority areas; enhancing the historic downtown and lakefront area through the adoption and consideration of amendments to the zoning ordinance expanding visitor and recreational use types, increasing visibility of local businesses on social media, and improving wayfinding signage downtown, transform the former B of A into a community center, pursuing agreement with LUSD on use of Natural High property, and strengthening the programs with Lakeport Main Street Association, such as Dickens Faire; downtown mural art project; continuing park improvements; pursuing full-time project manager; completing annexation; implementing records management software; succession planning; recruiting and maintaining staffing, equipment and special programs to accomplish community policing goals; continuing marketing efforts outlined in the hotel feasibility study to attract national brand lodging facility; and improving public relations and education.
Also on Tuesday, Community Development Director Jenni Byers will ask the council to approve the first contract amendment with Dude Solutions for SmartGov e-permitting.
Byers’ report said council approval would mean the total contract “not to exceed” amount would be increased from $55,929.25 to $67,641.25. Funding for the expenditure is coming through a grant.
Finance Director Nick Walker will seek the council’s authorization to execute a professional services agreement with BCA Architects for the completion of phase one of a recreation feasibility study.
The city will pay up to $20,000 for the study, contingent upon obtaining a cost-sharing agreement with Lake County and the city of Clearlake for equal shares of this study, based on Walker’s report.
On the consent agenda – items considered noncontroversial and usually accepted as a slate on one vote – are ordinances; and minutes of the regular council meeting on Jan. 5.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has a full kennel of many types of dogs ready for new homes.
Dogs available for adoption this week include mixes of Belgian Malinois, dachshund, husky, mastiff, pit bull and shepherd.
Dogs that are adopted from Lake County Animal Care and Control are either neutered or spayed, microchipped and, if old enough, given a rabies shot and county license before being released to their new owner. License fees do not apply to residents of the cities of Lakeport or Clearlake.
The following dogs at the Lake County Animal Care and Control shelter have been cleared for adoption (additional dogs on the animal control Web site not listed are still “on hold”).
This female pit bull terrier puppy is in kennel No. 9, ID No. 14279. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Pit bull puppy
This female pit bull terrier puppy has a short white and tan coat and floppy ears.
She is in kennel No. 9, ID No. 14279.
This young male Belgian Malinois is in kennel No. 15, ID No. 14269. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male Belgian Malinois
This young male Belgian Malinois has a medium-length red and black coat.
He is in kennel No. 15, ID No. 14269.
“Daisy” is a senior female dachshund in kennel No. 19, ID No. 14270. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Daisy’
“Daisy” is a senior female dachshund with a short black and tan coat.
She is in kennel No. 19, ID No. 14270.
This male pit bull terrier-mastiff mix is in kennel No. 25, ID No. 14286. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Pit bull terrier-mastiff mix
This male pit bull terrier-mastiff mix has a short gray and brown coat.
He is in kennel No. 25, ID No. 14286.
This male pit bull-mastiff mix is in kennel No. 26, ID No. 14287. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Pit bull-mastiff mix
This male pit bull-mastiff mix has a short chocolat coat.
He is in kennel No. 26, ID No. 14287.
“Amira” is a female husky mix in kennel No. 31, ID No. 14277. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Amira’
“Amira” is a female husky mix with a medium-length black and white coat and blue eyes.
She is in kennel No. 31, ID No. 14277.
This male pit bull terrier is in kennel No. 32, ID No. 14271. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. Male pit bull terrier
This male pit bull terrier has a short gray coat.
He has been neutered.
He is in kennel No. 32, ID No. 14271.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – On Monday, the nation will remember one of its greatest civil rights leaders.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day has been observed in all 50 states since 2000, but President Ronald Reagan signed the federal holiday into law in 1983.
King, an American Baptist minister, was the son of a civil rights activist and a proponent of nonviolent resistance who was active in numerous campaigns to address racial inequality.
He’s perhaps most remembered for his “I Have A Dream” speech, which he gave during the 1963 March on Washington, DC.
In December 1964, he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to address racial prejudice in the United States through nonviolent resistance.
He was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. His assassination was followed by riots in cities across the nation.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday, Jan. 15 – the actual date of King’s birthday – issued a proclamation in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the state of California.
“Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. taught us that we are ultimately measured not by where we stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but by the stands we take during times of challenge and controversy. The events of the past year have presented our state with no shortage of challenges, among them the ongoing struggle against systemic injustice in all its forms.
“More than 50 years after his passing, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ideals are more salient than ever. His legacy reminds us that moral leadership does not require a person to be in elected office or hold a position of power. Instead, exercising moral authority requires the will to do the right thing. Standing on the shoulders of civil rights leaders before him and working in concert with a generation of activists, Dr. King helped transform how our country saw itself and its future.
“Dr. King provided a framework for how each of us can shape the future: Call out injustice and work toward something better. His legacy and clarion call to us all lives on in all those fighting for justice amid the many threats to it today. The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the inequities and deep disparities in our society, with people of color disproportionately affected by its devastating health and economic impacts. Furthermore, the Black Lives Matter protests of this summer shined a light on the continuing racial injustice that we can, and must, do more to address. Let us gather strength from Dr. King’s legacy and use our moral authority to push for a more equitable state, society and world,” the proclamation concludes.
The following are some ways to commemorate the day and learn more about Dr. King.
Watch ‘The March’
“The March” follows the March on Washington, known more formally as the March for Jobs and Freedom, in 1963.
The movie, directed by James Blue, underwent a full digital restoration by the Motion Picture Preservation Lab in 2008, to mark the march’s 50th anniversary.
To mark the 50th anniversary of the March for Jobs and Freedom, the Motion Picture Preservation Lab completed a full digital restoration of James Blue's monumental film, The March, in 2008.
It is shared by the US National Archives and can be viewed above.
Read ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’
In April 1963, King was part of a campaign in Birmingham, Alabama, to confront racial injustice and that city’s policy of segregation.
King was arrested for participating in those protests and housed in the city’s jail.
While there, he wrote his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” which Samford University history professor Jonathan Bass has called “the most important written document of the Civil Rights Era.”
Given during the 1963 March on Washington, King’s “I Have A Dream” speech is one of the most famed speeches in American history.
In it, he imagines an America where people of all races live peacefully together, where people are judged by their character, not the color of their skin, and freedom and justice replace oppression.
Read about one pastor’s friendship with King in seminary
In January 2011, the Rev. Dr. Charles Harlow, then a Clearlake resident, shared with Lake County News the story of his friendship with King while the two attended Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania.
It was King who welcomed him, shook his hand and helped him tote his bags.
The two men would remain friends until King’s death in 1968.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Animal Care and Control has three felines ready to be adopted this week.
The following cats at the shelter have been cleared for adoption.
Call Lake County Animal Care and Control at 707-263-0278 or visit the shelter online at http://www.co.lake.ca.us/Government/Directory/Animal_Care_And_Control.htm for information on visiting or adopting.
“Scamp'' is a senior male domestic short hair cat in cat room kennel No. 135, ID No. 14280. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Scamp’
“Scamp” is a senior male domestic short hair cat with gold eyes.
He has been neutered.
Scamp is in cat room kennel No. 135, ID No. 14280.
“Bam-Bam” is a male domestic medium hair kitten in cat room kennel No. 66, ID No. 14233. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Bam-Bam’
“Bam-Bam” is a male domestic medium hair kitten with a gray tabby and black coat and green eyes.
He has been neutered.
He’s in cat room kennel No. 66, ID No. 14233.
“Gremlin” is a young male medium hair cat in cat room kennel No. 36, ID No. 14283. Photo courtesy of Lake County Animal Care and Control. ‘Gremlin’
“Gremlin” is a young male domestic medium hair cat with a gray and torbie coat and green eyes.
He’s in cat room kennel No. 36, ID No. 14283.
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.
Joshua M. Pearce, Michigan Technological University
Saved from the trash heap and ready for transformation. Nathan Shaiyen/Michigan Tech, CC BY
People will recycle if they can make money doing so. In places where cash is offered for cans and bottles, metal and glass recycling has been a great success. Sadly, the incentives have been weaker for recycling plastic. As of 2015, only 9% of plastic waste is recycled. The rest pollutes landfills or the environment.
But now, several technologies have matured that allow people to recycle waste plastic directly by 3D-printing it into valuable products, at a fraction of their normal cost. People are using their own recycled plastic to make decorations and gifts, home and garden products, accessories and shoes, toys and games, sporting goods and gadgets from millions of free designs. This approach is called distributed recycling and additive manufacturing, or DRAM for short.
As a professor of materials engineering at the forefront of this technology, I can explain – and offer some ideas for what you can do to take advantage of this trend.
How DRAM works
The DRAM method starts with plastic waste – everything from used packaging to broken products.
From trash to treasure – the DRAM flowchart.Joshua M. Pearce, CC BY
The first step is to sort and wash the plastic with soap and water or even run it through the dishwasher. Next, the plastic needs to be ground into particles. For small amounts, a cross-cut paper/CD shredder works fine. For larger amounts, open-source plans for an industrial waste plastic granulator are available online.
Filament made with a 3D-printable recyclebot is incredibly cheap, costing less than a nickel per pound as compared to commercial filament, which costs about US$10 per pound or more. With the pandemic interrupting global supply chains, making products at home from waste is even more appealing.
The second approach is newer: You can skip the step of making filament and use fused particle fabrication to directly 3D-print granulated waste plastic into products. This approach is most amenable to large products on larger printers, like the commercial open source GigabotX printer, but can also be used on desktop printers.
Granulated plastic waste can also be directly printed with a syringe printer, although this is less popular because print volume is limited by the need to reloading the syringe.
My research group, along with dozens of labs and companies throughout the world, has developed a wide array of open source products that enable DRAM, including shredders, recyclebots and both fused filament and fused particle 3D printers.
These devices have been shown to work not only with the two most popular 3D printing plastics, ABS and PLA, but also a long list of plastics you likely use every day, including PET water bottles. It is now possible to convert any plastic waste with a recycling symbol on it into valuable products.
Furthermore, an “ecoprinting” initiative in Australia has demonstrated DRAM can work in isolated communities with no recycling and no power by using solar-powered systems. This makes DRAM applicable anywhere humans live, waste plastic is abundant and the Sun shines – which is just about everywhere.
Individuals can also profit by 3D-printing for others. Thousands are offering their services in markets like Makexyz, 3D Hubs, Ponoko or Print a Thing.
The Gigabot X 3D printer makes larger items.Samantha Snabes/re:3D, CC BY
Small companies or fab labs can purchase industrial printers like the GigabotX and make high returns printing large sporting goods equipment like snowshoes, skateboard decks and kayak paddles from local waste.
Scaling up
Large companies that make plastic products already recycle their own waste. Now, with DRAM, households can too. If many people start recycling their own plastic, it will help prevent the negative impact that plastic is having on the environment. In this way DRAM may provide a path to a circular economy, but it will not be able to solve the plastic problem until it scales up with more users. Luckily we are already on our way.
3D printer filament is now listed in Amazon Basics along with other “everyday items,” which indicates plastic-based 3D printers are becoming mainstream. Most families still do not have an in-home 3D printer, let alone a reyclebot or GigabotX.
For DRAM to become a viable path to the circular economy, larger tools could be housed at neighborhood-level enterprises such as small local businesses, makerspaces, fabrication labs or even schools. France is already studying the creation of small businesses that would pick up plastic waste at schools to make 3D filament.
I remember saving box tops to help fund my grade school. Future students may bring leftover plastic from home (after making their own products) to help fund their schools using DRAM.
The California Department of Public Health, in coordination with Santa Clara County and the University of California San Francisco, announced Sunday that an L452R variant of COVID-19 is increasingly being identified by viral genomic sequencing in multiple counties across the state, including Lake.
The 452R variant has previously been detected in other countries and states, including California, and is now increasingly being found in multiple counties throughout the state, CDPH reported.
CDPH said the 452R variant has been detected in Humboldt, Lake, Los Angeles, Mono, Monterey, Orange, Riverside, San Francisco, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo and Santa Clara counties.
Because genomic sequencing is not done equally across the state or country, it is too soon to know how prevalent the 452 variant is statewide, nationally or globally.
The state is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, local public health departments and laboratory sequencing partners to learn more about the variant, including how it spreads.
“It is common to identify variants of viruses like SARS-CoV-2, and we are working with our federal, local and university partners to better understand this variant and how it might impact Californians,” said Dr. Erica Pan, state epidemiologist for CDPH. “It’s too soon to know if this variant will spread more rapidly than others, but it certainly reinforces the need for all Californians to wear masks and reduce mixing with people outside their immediate households to help slow the spread of the virus. We also urge anyone who has been exposed to the virus to isolate from others to protect themselves and their loved ones.”
The 452R variant was first identified last year in other countries and states, including California. This variant is different than the B.1.1.7 variant first detected in the United Kingdom.
As the number of specimens tested to monitor for variant strains has increased at California labs, including UCSF, the 452R variant has been identified more frequently since November. The 452R variant has been identified in several large outbreaks in Santa Clara County.
“The fact that this variant was identified in several large outbreaks in our county is a red flag and must be investigated further,” said Santa Clara County Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody. “This virus continues to mutate and adapt, and we cannot let down our guard. This news underscores the need for everyone to follow all prevention measures and get vaccinated as soon as they are offered the vaccine.”
Santa Clara County has sequenced a large number of positive specimens collected from community testing sites and outbreaks in the county.
The 452R variant was present in specimens from the community and from several large outbreaks, including outbreaks where very high numbers of people exposed contracted the virus.
Analysis regarding the role of this and other variants in outbreaks and community spread in Santa Clara County is ongoing.
The 452R variant was most recently noted to contribute to an increasing proportion of COVID-19 cases in specimens sequenced by Dr. Charles Chiu, a virologist and professor of laboratory medicine at UCSF.
Dr. Chiu has been sequencing cases from multiple counties across the state over the past several months as part of the state’s SARS-CoV-2 Whole Genome Sequencing Initiative known as COVIDNet.
“This variant carries three mutations, including L452R, in the spike protein, which the virus uses to attach to and enter cells, and is the target of the two vaccines that are currently available in the United States,” said Dr. Chiu. "Now that we know this variant is on the rise in our local communities, we are prioritizing it for study. Researchers at UCSF and elsewhere will now be able to perform the critical laboratory experiments to determine whether or not this virus is more infectious or affects vaccine performance.”
Due to the ongoing surge of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, regardless of circulating variants, CDPH asks Californians to keep taking steps that will limit transmission of the virus and reduce strain on our health care systems.
This includes:
– Staying home except for essential activities. – Wearing a mask when leaving home. – Limiting interactions with people outside your immediate household. – Keeping physical distance of at least 6 feet apart. – Washing hands for 20 seconds. – Getting the COVID-19 vaccine if you are eligible and the vaccine is available in your area.
CDPH has partnered with local public health labs, diagnostic labs, Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, Invitae Corporation, UCSF, and Scripps Research Institute to form COVIDNet, a network of labs working to conduct genome sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 in the state to understand transmission and evolution of the virus.
To date, several thousand specimens have been sequenced in California.
CDPH is notified when specific strains are identified, and network labs coordinate to assess the different strains circulating in California.
In addition, network laboratories coordinate with local health departments to conduct sequencing to inform outbreak investigations.
This palette of spices includes (from top left) Ethiopian berbere spice blend, cardamom, Chinese five spice blend, ground and stick cinnamon, ground and whole cloves, cumin, curry powder blend, ground mustard, nigella seeds, nutmeg, smoked paprika, fennel seeds and star anise. Photo by Esther Oertel. LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – It’s hard to believe that the stuff of spices – bits of bark, roots, and seeds – inspired war, but they did.
Such flavorings were the source of bloody battles fought hundreds of years ago by Europeans for control of the lands where they grew. Command of this lucrative trade went back and forth over the centuries.
Frank Herbert wrote in his novel Dune, “He who controls the spice controls the universe.” Perhaps he received inspiration from the spice wars of long ago.
One thing is certain – spices infuse passion into the foods we eat, propelling our taste buds into song, both strong and subtle.
In addition to enhancing flavor, numbers of spices are known to have health-boosting properties. For example, studies have shown that cinnamon lowers blood pressure, turmeric fights inflammation, ginger relieves nausea, garlic benefits the heart, and cayenne pepper eases pain.
But what makes an herb an herb and a spice a spice?
It depends on the part of the plant used.
Herbs are the edible leaves or stems of plants, and spices are their dried seeds, pods, buds, roots, fruits or bark.
Online encyclopedia Wikipedia adds the phrase “vegetative substance” to their definition of spice, and truly spices are composed of a wide variety of plant components.
Let’s look at a few examples to prove this point.
Ginger is a rhizome and turmeric a root. Mustard, fennel, caraway, fenugreek and cumin are seeds.
Cloves are dried buds, chili peppers are fruits, and cardamom and star anise are seed pods. Cinnamon is bark, and nutmeg is the kernel of a fruit, with mace being its lacy covering.
Black pepper and pink peppercorns are both dried berries but are not related to each other.
I’m extremely grateful for the people long ago who decided to taste bark, roots, seeds and the like so that the generations of humankind who followed them could eat their meals with blissful flavor.
Some plants bless us with both herbs and spices.
For example, dill weed is an herb since it’s composed of the leaves of the dill plant, while dill seed used in pickling or to flavor some rye bread is a spice.
Cilantro (also known as coriander or Chinese parsley) is another example. When we use the leaves and stems, it’s considered an herb, while whole or ground coriander seeds are a spice.
Some spices, though not many, are known as being “hot” because of chemicals they contain. Capsaicin in chili peppers and piperine in black pepper berries irritate the tissues of our mouth, giving us the burning sensation that we refer to as “hot” or “spicy.”
It’s estimated that spices have been used to enhance foods since about 50,000 B.C., with local spice trading developing as early as 2,000 B.C.
In the Middle East, such trading was centered on cinnamon and pepper, and in East Asia, herbs and pepper. Ancient Egyptians used spices in embalming, and their need for them encouraged broad trade.
During the middle ages in Europe, spices were among the most expensive and sought-after products. While some spices of this era – grains of paradise, spikenard and galangal, for example – have gone out of fashion, others, like black pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, cumin and cloves, are still in popular use today.
Today our spice shelves are easily stocked. We have a wide variety of herbs and spices at our fingertips, and, with little effort, more exotic spices are available.
In recent months I ordered a berbere spice blend and nigella seeds online, and presto – I have ingredients for Ethiopian dishes.
I love broadening my spice horizons by going to specialty shops that carry little-known flavors from around the world. I get excited learning while I browse.
Sometimes it’s tough not to bring something home.
Past acquisitions include such things as mahlab from Turkey, used to add a sweet-sour, nutty taste to sweet breads and desserts; charnushka from India, tiny black seeds that top rye bread or flavor sausages; and ground Mediterranean sumac berries, popular as a tabletop condiment in that region, which add fruity sourness and a soft red color to foods.
Ground spices deteriorate far more quickly than those in whole form. About six months is the average “flavor life” of a ground spice, while whole spice holds its flavor for up to two years.
Whole spice may be ground just before use in a spice grinder or dedicated coffee grinder. For smaller batches, a fine grater may be used. (My favorite is a rasp-style zester, such as the one made by Microplane.)
An old school method of grinding spices is crushing them via a mortar and pestle. Since this method has come into vogue in recent years, a well-stocked kitchen store will have a few different styles of this ancient implement from which to choose.
Some spices, like nutmeg, don’t lend themselves to grinding whole and will always need to be grated; however, it goes quickly and is easily done.
Toasting whole spices in a dry skillet just before grinding intensifies their flavor and, as an added bonus, makes your kitchen smell absolutely heavenly.
As to storage, keep dried herbs and spices in tightly closed containers in a relatively cool, dark, dry place. Humidity, heat, and light are their flavor enemies.
Spice blends have evolved in different areas of the world depending on what was grown or traded there, giving each region its own unique flavor profile.
In the African counties of Ethiopia and Eritrea, for example, superhot spice blend berbere is used to flavor dishes. It can be a powder or a puree, and is a blend of fenugreek, cardamom, lots of hot cayenne pepper, and an array of optional ingredients. (To tone down the heat, paprika can be substituted for much of the cayenne.)
Ras el hanout is an exotic spice blend from Morocco. It’s sweet and spicy-hot, containing up to as many as 50 flavors, including some rare items not found at the local grocery. Floral notes can come from such ingredients as dried rosebuds and aniseed.
The Indian spice blend we’re most familiar with here is curry, despite the fact that premade curry powder is nonexistent in that country, being an invention of the west.
Instead, Indian cooks make their own blends for each recipe, grinding small batches frequently.
Garam masala, a standard Indian spice blend, is the inspiration for our curry powder; however, it’s made without the yellow color supplied by turmeric and nutty flavor from fenugreek in our versions of the blend.
It’s a somewhat sweet mixture containing coriander, ginger, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon. Other spices are blended in according to the cook’s taste and whim.
A favorite spice blend of mine is Chinese five spice, which contains star anise, cinnamon, cloves, fennel and black pepper. It adds a sweet-spicy-savory note to dishes and is featured in today’s recipe, a couscous salad I created some years ago to demonstrate the use of Lake County ingredients at a local event.
The ingredients marry warm winter flavors with fresh elements that are reminiscent of summer.
I hope your new year is full of spice, both literal and figurative!
Easy Minted Couscous Salad with Lake County Pears and Walnuts
1 cup couscous 1 cup apple juice plus ¼ cup water ½ tsp Chinese Five Spice blend
To cook couscous, bring apple juice and water to a boil in a medium pot; add the Chinese Five Spice and blend in. Turn off heat and add couscous. Cover and allow to sit for five minutes. Fluff with a fork.
Meanwhile, prepare the following ingredients for the salad:
½ cup diced dried Lake County pears (use fresh pears if dried are unavailable; sweet apples may also be substituted) ½ cup coarsely chopped toasted Lake County walnuts ½ cup diced red bell pepper ½ cup chopped fresh mint leaves ½ cup chopped fresh Italian parsley ¼ cup (or more, to taste) finely chopped scallions Juice of one fresh lemon (Meyer lemons are recommended) ¼ cup Lake County extra virgin olive oil (a light and fruity variety recommended)
Blend non-liquid ingredients with couscous in a large bowl and stir to blend. Squeeze in lemon juice and add olive oil. Stir to blend and taste. Since lemons have varying amounts of acidity, more olive oil many need to be added to round out the lemony taste.
This should make enough salad for a generous side dish for four. Enjoy!
Recipe by Esther Oertel.
Esther Oertel is a writer and passionate home cook from a family of chefs. She grew up in a restaurant, where she began creating recipes from a young age. She’s taught culinary classes in a variety of venues in Lake County and previously wrote “The Veggie Girl” column for Lake County News. Most recently she’s taught culinary classes at Sur La Table in Santa Rosa. She lives in Middletown.
In this artist's concept of NASA's InSight lander on Mars, layers of the planet's subsurface can be seen below, and dust devils can be seen in the background. Credits: IPGP/Nicolas Sarter. The heat probe hasn’t been able to gain the friction it needs to dig, but the mission has been granted an extension to carry on with its other science.
The heat probe developed and built by the German Aerospace Center and deployed on Mars by NASA’s InSight lander has ended its portion of the mission.
Since Feb. 28, 2019, the probe, called the “mole,” has been attempting to burrow into the Martian surface to take the planet’s internal temperature, providing details about the interior heat engine that drives the Mars’ evolution and geology.
But the soil’s unexpected tendency to clump deprived the spike-like mole of the friction it needs to hammer itself to a sufficient depth.
After getting the top of the mole about 2 or 3 centimeters under the surface, the team tried one last time to use a scoop on InSight’s robotic arm to scrape soil onto the probe and tamp it down to provide added friction. After the probe conducted 500 additional hammer strokes on Saturday, Jan. 9, with no progress, the team called an end to their efforts.
Part of an instrument called the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3), the mole is a 16-inch-long (40-centimeter-long) pile driver connected to the lander by a tether with embedded temperature sensors. These sensors are designed to measure heat flowing from the planet once the mole has dug at least 10 feet (3 meters) deep.
“We’ve given it everything we’ve got, but Mars and our heroic mole remain incompatible,” said HP3’s principal investigator, Tilman Spohn of (DLR). “Fortunately, we’ve learned a lot that will benefit future missions that attempt to dig into the subsurface.”
While NASA’s Phoenix lander scraped the top layer of the Martian surface, no mission before InSight has tried to burrow into the soil. Doing so is important for a variety of reasons: Future astronauts may need to dig through soil to access water ice, while scientists want to study the subsurface’s potential to support microbial life.
“We are so proud of our team who worked hard to get InSight’s mole deeper into the planet. It was amazing to see them troubleshoot from millions of miles away,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for science at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “This is why we take risks at NASA – we have to push the limits of technology to learn what works and what doesn’t. In that sense, we’ve been successful: We’ve learned a lot that will benefit future missions to Mars and elsewhere, and we thank our German partners from DLR for providing this instrument and for their collaboration.”
Hard-earned wisdom
The unexpected properties of the soil near the surface next to InSight will be puzzled over by scientists for years to come. The mole’s design was based on soil seen by previous Mars missions – soil that proved very different from what the mole encountered. For two years, the team worked to adapt the unique and innovative instrument to these new circumstances.
“The mole is a device with no heritage. What we attempted to do – to dig so deep with a device so small – is unprecedented,” said Troy Hudson, a scientist and engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California who has led efforts to get the mole deeper into the Martian crust. “Having had the opportunity to take this all the way to the end is the greatest reward.”
Besides learning about the soil at this location, engineers have gained invaluable experience operating the robotic arm. In fact, they used the arm and scoop in ways they never intended to at the outset of the mission, including pressing against and down on the mole. Planning the moves and getting them just right with the commands they were sending up to InSight pushed the team to grow.
They’ll put their hard-earned wisdom to use in the future. The mission intends to employ the robotic arm in burying the tether that conveys data and power between the lander and InSight’s seismometer, which has recorded more than 480 marsquakes. Burying it will help reduce temperature changes that have created cracking and popping sounds in seismic data.
There’s much more science to come from InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport. NASA recently extended the mission for two more years, to Dec. 2022.
Along with hunting for quakes, the lander hosts a radio experiment that is collecting data to reveal whether the planet’s core is liquid or solid. And InSight’s weather sensors are capable of providing some of the most detailed meteorological data ever collected on Mars.
Together with weather instruments aboard NASA's Curiosity rover and its new Perseverance rover, which lands on Feb. 18, the three spacecraft will create the first meteorological network on another planet.
More about the mission
JPL manages InSight for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. InSight is part of NASA’s Discovery Program, managed by the agency’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Lockheed Martin Space in Denver built the InSight spacecraft, including its cruise stage and lander, and supports spacecraft operations for the mission.
A number of European partners, including France’s Centre National d’Études Spatiales, or CNES, and the German Aerospace Center, are supporting the InSight mission. CNES provided the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure, or SEIS, instrument to NASA, with the principal investigator at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, or IPGP.
Significant contributions for SEIS came from IPGP; the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Germany; the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Switzerland; Imperial College London and Oxford University in the United Kingdom; and JPL.
DLR provided the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package instrument, with significant contributions from the Space Research Center of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Astronika in Poland. Spain’s Centro de Astrobiología supplied the temperature and wind sensors.
