Greensite… on the new Mission Street high-rise project … Steinbruner… landlines, lithium battery storage, and the Whale Bridge… Hayes… Jewel of the Prairie… Patton… “Fake News” About Heat Waves Everywhere… Matlock… what’s that smell?..best buds…client list…losing control… Eagan… Subconscious Comics and Deep Cover … Webmistress serves you… Agnes Sandström, Titanic survivor Quotes on… “Wishful Thinking”
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Dateline: July 23, 2025
WISHFUL THINKING. I thought wishful thinking was a good topic for the quotes of the week. I’ve been full of it lately – a whole bunch of “if only” and “why didn’t I”… Long story short, I just said goodbye to my loyal and adoring dog, Kira, a Corhuahua (Corgi-Chihuahua mix) who made it to the quite respectable age of 15. She was love covered in fur, and I miss her.
YOUTUBE STRIKES AGAIN. Sometimes I start thinking that YouTube is a pointless destination on the net, and I will never find anything interesting there, ever again. Invariably, that’s when I find something that I was totally not expecting, like this week’s video: an interview from Swedish Television in 1962 with a Swedish survivor of the Titanic disaster. Let me know if you find it interesting as well!
~Webmistress
FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS. In theaters. Movie. (7.5 IMDb) 
The First Family of comics finally feels like a real family. Since their 1961 debut, the Fantastic Four have always centered on family dynamics, and this adaptation leans fully into that core. Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Susan Storm (Vanessa Kirby), her brother Johnny (Joseph Quinn), and Reed’s lifelong friend Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) share a life-changing space accident that leaves them with strange powers. Thankfully, the film skips the typical origin sturm und drang and instead drops us years after their transformation. The characterizations stay true to their comic counterparts, and the retro-futurist design (evoking the TVA from Loki) is pure visual delight.
Much like Superman earlier this year, this film is more concerned with who these people are than with non-stop action. The Fantastic Four are inherently decent, and the film allows their personalities and relationships to breathe. There’s even a non-human, non-speaking comic sidekick (H.E.R.B.I.E., filling the Krypto slot from Superman), and it works. Some may feel the superhero action is a bit light (Reed’s stretchy powers, for instance, are used sparingly, perhaps to avoid full Jim Carrey territory) but it strikes a fair balance. There’s a ton of CG, particularly in the beautifully realized retro Manhattan, but it blends so well you barely notice.
No bad performances, standout production design, and a few genuinely epic set pieces make this one a win. And for those complaining about woke gender flips: there have been many heralds over the years, male and female, including Shalla Bal. It’s faithful where it counts, fresh where it needs to be, and, most importantly, it finally gives us a Fantastic Four that lives up to their name.
THIS IS SPINAL TAP. Vudu, Google Play, Amazon. Movie (7.9 IMDb)
When I was chronologically less-endowed (the ’80s) and UA owned almost all the screens in town (Del Mar, Rio, River Street Twin, Aptos Twin, and the 41st Ave Playhouse), I worked at the Del Mar and the Rio. I’d catch free movies all over town every week. Obviously, you only have so much mental storage, so with a lot of films, I just filed away whether I liked them or not.
So imagine my surprise when I went to see a Fathom Event 4K restoration of “This Is Spinal Tap” (in anticipation of the upcoming “Spinal Tap 2: The End Continues”) and realized I remembered everything, despite the 41 years between my first viewing and now.
For the uninitiated, this 1984 self-described “mockumentary” by Rob Reiner follows the later years of fictional band Spinal Tap. Told in loose documentary style, it also dives into their earlier phases as a Beatles-style quartet and later a psychedelic rock act. The core trio – Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer (who later reunited for “A Mighty Wind”) – are backed by a rotating cast of ill-fated drummers. Most of the dialogue is improvised, and the music manages to be both hilarious and genuinely good.
If you’ve never seen it, track down a copy or be ready to rent or buy it on Amazon. It’s worth going out of your way for a watch.
Sorry if I seem a little hyperbolic. You see, it goes to 11.
~Sarge
SUPERMAN. In theaters. Movie. (7.7 IMDb)
First off, let’s address the Kryptonian Drang in the room: Yes, Superman has always been an immigrant – rocketed to Earth as a baby without “doing it the right way.” But this film doesn’t touch that theme at all. It’s not part of the plot. Nor do they change or even reference the classic “truth, justice, and the American Way” slogan. (In fact, in the comics, at one time he renounced his American citizenship as Superman so his global actions wouldn’t reflect on the U.S.) That, however, is relevant to the plot. Also, the twist with his biological parents WAS NOT Gunn’s creation – it has been off-and-on a part of the character’s backstory for decades, in different revisions, and in different media. Gunn isn’t tugging on Superman’s cape here.
Superman (2025), directed by James Gunn and starring David Corenswet as Superman, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor – plus Krypto, the super-goodest boy – introduces a new take. Gunn brings back heart and humor that, while sometimes overlooked, are absolutely comic-accurate. Yes, the grim Snyderverse tone was also pulled from the comics, but comics contain multitudes. We’ve been telling Superman stories for over 80 years – different eras, different writers, different vibes.
Thankfully, this movie skips the origin story. We meet a Superman already established in the role, with a working relationship (and chemistry) with Lois Lane. Without giving too much away, the central conflict revolves around how Superman operates on a global scale – and how his idealism runs up against Lex Luthor’s cynicism, technocracy, and media manipulation. Lex plays dirty, and Clark’s just a big honest dope who wants to save people.
Nathan Fillion has fun as Guy Gardner – the canonically bowl-cutted Limbaugh-dittohead Green Lantern everyone loves to punch (there are several Earth-based Green Lanterns – it’s a Corps – so you will likely see him alongside the two who will be featured in the forthcoming “Lanterns” series). His appearance, along with Mr. Terrific and Hawkgirl, may serve as a backdoor introduction to what might become Gunn’s version of the Justice League.
And then there’s Krypto. He often steals the show. First introduced in the ’50s, Krypto has drifted in and out of continuity as Superman’s dog, and here, he’s like the Rocket Raccoon of this universe: A whimsical element, that can hit you deep in the feels.
The story? It’s fine. It touches on serious issues without digging too deep – more Donner Superman in tone than Man of Steel, and blessedly free of Christ imagery. If you’re attached to a particular version of Superman, this one might not click – or it might… some people swear by Adam West’s Batman or Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman! Don’t get me wrong, I love them both. Nostalgia shapes expectations. YMMV.
Definitely worth a watch.
~Sarge
BUT I’M A CHEERLEADER. Paramount+. Series (6.8 IMDb) 
Take a featherweight romcom, toss in some John Waters camp, a dose of LGBTQ satire, and you get “But I’m a Cheerleader” (1999) – a pastel-colored romp through the “hilarity” of forced conversion therapy. It’s a sign of progress, I suppose, that we now have banal lesbian romcoms.
Natasha Lyonne (in her baby-faced era) stars as Megan, a perky, clueless high school cheerleader blindsided when her friends and family stage a gay intervention. She’s promptly packed off to True Directions, a pastel repressed “rehabilitation” camp where gender roles are weaponized like power tools. There, despite the best efforts of the staff (including RuPaul as Mike, an aggressively straight-coded “ex-gay”) Megan starts to figure out who she really is.
It’s not exactly deep, or all that clever, but it is fun enough. The cast helps: Lyonne sarts to blossom, Clea DuVall does her patented broody-outsider-in-crisis (a ‘90s staple), and RuPaul chews the scenery with glee. It was recommended after reviewing Lyonne in “Poker Face”. Worth a watch if you’re in the mood for some light, queer, candy-coated fluff with a subversive wink.
~Sarge
POKER FACE. Peacock. Series (7.8 IMDb) 
Poker Face is one of those shows I always meant to watch… and didn’t. Until now.
Starring Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll, Orange is the New Black) at her most raspy and sardonic, she plays Charlie Cale—a woman with an uncanny, almost supernatural ability to tell when someone is lying. After calling out the shady son of a Vegas mobster (who promptly offs himself), she ends up on the run, wandering the backroads of America like a Gen Z Columbo in denim.
The series, created by Rian Johnson (Knives Out, Glass Onion, and yes, The Last Jedi), wears its love of ’70s detective shows on its sleeve—from the “mystery-first” format (you see the crime, then watch Charlie unravel it) to the delightfully retro opening credits, complete with roman numerals production date, drop shadows, and that plain, dead-serious typeface that screams 1976 CBS drama hour.
It’s part The Fugitive, part Incredible Hulk, and all charm—with a healthy dose of dry humor, shaggy-dog clues, and Lyonne’s lovable weirdness gluing it all together. She’s not a cop, not a PI, and not trying to be either—she just knows when you’re full of it, and can’t help but get involved.
If you miss the days when TV detectives had weird tics, old cars, and zero respect for protocol, Poker Face is your new weekend binge. Second season just dropped on Peacock. Worth a Watch.
~Sarge
SNOW WHITE. In theatres. Movie (1.7 IMDb) 
I’m not one of those people who worships at the altar of Disney. I’ve been watching their films for over 50 years, so my ambivalence isn’t from lack of exposure. I genuinely enjoy many of their movies; The Jungle Book was a childhood favorite (though I’m still salty that Mowgli ditched the jungle for a girl…).
That said, changes to Snow White don’t bother me. Disney has been rewriting traditional tales since day one! Remember the stepsisters slicing off toes and heels to fit in the glass slipper in the original story of Cinderella? Yeah, that didn’t make the cut.
The music? Pleasant enough, but nothing that stuck with me. The dwarves (yes, Tolkien says that’s the plural) veer into uncanny valley territory… not stylized enough to feel intentional, but not realistic enough to work. Visually odd.
Otherwise, it’s Snow White. Rachel Zegler gives a solid, competent performance—and no, I’m not bothered that she’s Colombian and Polish. If she can sing, act, and dance, we’re good.
Overall? It’s a “meh” from me. Harmless, and musical fans will probably have a good time. Worth a watch if that’s your thing. (the 1.7 on IMDB is likely heavily skewed by anti-woke snowflakes sitting at the their keyboard, listing multiple negative votes. Adaptions always reflect the world they come from. Deal with it.)
~Sarge
SINNERS. In theatres. Movie. (8.1 IMDb)
Sweat, dust, and sweet, sweet blues pour through this story of twin brothers returning from WWI—veterans-turned-mob-enforcers in Chicago—who head back to their Mississippi hometown to open a juke joint. It’s part roadhouse, part sanctuary for the Black community, and it becomes the stage for the rise (and fall) of “Preacher Boy” Moore, a young blues guitarist with something close to magic in his fingers.
There’s a stunning musical stretch in the middle where the film lets the music breathe—past, present, and future all moving together, dancing in time. It’s pure poetry.
And then… there are vampires.
Honestly, the movie would’ve been stronger without them. They don’t matter until the third act, and when they show up, it’s like a genre switch that crashes the vibe. The first two-thirds are rich and immersive. The final third? Not bad exactly, but it turns the film into something less interesting than it started out as.
Michael B. Jordan does solid double duty as the twins, Smoke and Stack, and newcomer Miles Caton is fantastic as Preacher Boy. You believe every note he plays.
So I’m torn. I can wholeheartedly recommend the first two-thirds. The final act? I can tolerate it—but I wouldn’t push it on anyone else. Taster’s choice.
~Sarge
LOVE, DEATH + ROBOTS. Netflix. Series (8.4 IMDb)
This show first dropped in 2019. I ignored it. Then two more seasons came and went — I still didn’t watch. But when I heard a fourth season was finally on the way, I figured it was time to see what the fuss was about.
Now I get it.
And so should you.
It’s an anthology, so technically you can jump in anywhere. But honestly? Start from the beginning. There’s so much to see here, and the clunker-to-gem ratio is shockingly low. Nearly every segment hits—hard.
Unlike most anthologies that reuse the same look and crew across episodes, Love, Death + Robots is a true anthology. Every short is handled by a different animation team, each with its own distinct style. Some look like high-end video game cutscenes. Others are pure painterly dreamscapes. Some mix live action and animation. There’s hand-drawn 2D, hyperreal 3D, and everything in between. There’s a Red Hot Chili Peppers video, done entirely as marionettes.
As the title suggests, every segment centers on love, death, robots—or some mix of the three. What you get ranges wildly: dark comedy, cosmic philosophy, dystopian morality tales, sci-fi speculation, brutal war stories, existential horror, and moments of real beauty. It’s a refreshing, unapologetic mix of graphic violence, sex, and nudity (there is a difference) —sometimes all at once, sometimes none at all. I reiterate: sometimes none at all. Some just go for a vibe, or something sweet, or funny.
And yes, there’s equal-opportunity nudity. If you’re cool with boobs but squirm at male parts waving about (or vice versa), maybe keep the skip button handy.
Think of it as a more mature, mostly less juvenile Heavy Metal — or Black Mirror – with no censors and a better visual imagination.
Very much worth a watch.
~Sarge
July 21, 2025
Yet again, state housing laws impose a dense, six story, seventy-five feet tall mixed-use project on a single-story Santa Cruz neighborhood; this time on Mission St. bordered by Dufour and Palm Streets. The project was presented to the Planning Commission on July 17 and was approved with a unanimous vote from the four commissioners present with three absences. The small houses on the left will be demolished.
Prior to the state density bonus and a plethora of other state housing bills that gut local control, a project at this site would be a maximum of three stories, with required onsite parking and setbacks from adjoining properties. Now, state laws require the city to grant a doubling of allowed height and density with no required onsite parking because a major bus stop is within half a mile.
Neighbors spoke ardently about their loss of privacy along with the traffic and loading vehicle impacts-there is a Starbucks on Dufour that creates its own traffic impacts. Some commissioners expressed an understanding of the negative impacts and regrets that their hands are tied by state laws. They and staff acknowledged that the developer for this project has made several design changes and concessions, including the provision of fourteen parking spaces in response to neighbors’ input, a rarity for recent high-rise projects, but the mass and scale are non-negotiable. The developer requested eleven waivers, eight variations and numerous concessions and all were granted as required by state law.
The commission chair, while expressing his understanding of the neighbors’ concerns, especially the loss of privacy, stated what he saw as the trade-off. He asked, “are we going to benefit ourselves or benefit the group?” By the “group” he meant the people who will move to Santa Cruz and occupy the sixty-seven housing units. By “ourselves”, he meant the people who spoke at the meeting and who currently live in the adjacent small single-family houses, many having lived there all their lives, born and raised in Santa Cruz, some with young families. I didn’t understand why future residents and current residents both are not “groups.” The former don’t yet live here, the latter do. Aren’t elected officials and advisory bodies supposed to represent the community’s interests? Not a potential community but an existing one? And why the either/or question? If the state left land use decisions under local control, we would have new housing projects at a reasonable height, with parking, with setbacks, with design review under the Ocean St. and Mission St. Urban Design Plans, with far less neighborhood impacts and objections. The tension is caused by the state housing laws that are developer driven, out of scale with existing neighborhoods, creating significant negative impacts, adding nothing to housing affordability, in fact making affordability worse by raising the Area Median Income. There is a reason we are the town with the highest rents to wages ratio for the third year. One speaker summed it up well when he said of the project, “this is not for our community. It’s for a future population that doesn’t yet live here at the expense of those who do!”
And who are these newcomers? The location and size of the units are clues. These days, developers are upfront about the demographic who will be the future residents. The Workbench representative said that the most likely occupants will be students. He said that recent UCSC graduates have a particularly hard time finding housing. He did add “working individuals” into the mix but I doubt that means “workforce housing” and it almost certainly does not mean working families. If you add up the recently approved big projects, many if not most will be student housing. Frankly, if there’s a trade-off, I say we should benefit the neighbors who live here, who have contributed to the community, who pay taxes and fees and let UCSC either provide housing for all its students or institute a growth moratorium. I guarantee that would take us out of the number one spot for cost of rents. It may also temper the high-rise project line-up at the Planning Department.
Update on Senate Bill 79. If you recall, this is the state bill that will bring high-rises deep into single family neighborhoods. Within a quarter and a half-mile radius of any bus stop or train stop, developers can by right build housing projects up to 65 and 75 feet tall respectively, with no public input. Radius makes a circle; this is not linear distance. What has just been approved on Mission St. can then be built next to you even if you live well off a main thoroughfare. The bill passed by one vote in committee. After the July recess it will go for a vote in the Assembly and Senate. Senator John Laird has indicated support. I do not know about Assembly member Pellerin. I suggest organizing meetings with both while they are on home turf during the recess. If you are interested, email me at gilliangreensite@gmail.com.
| Gillian Greensite is a long time local activist, a member of Save Our Big Trees and the Santa Cruz chapter of IDA, International Dark Sky Association http://darksky.org Plus she’s an avid ocean swimmer, hiker and lover of all things wild. |
Write your elected representatives today. Preserving landline service is critical for rural resident safety. [AB 470: Telephone corporations: carriers of last resort.]
PEOPLE WANT INFORMATION ABOUT COUNTY’S PLAN TO INSTALL THREE GRID-SCALE LITHIUM BATTERY STORAGE FACILITIES
Last week, the large room at Simpkins Center Community Room was filled (150-200 people) who were eager to know more about the County’s plan to install grid-scale lithium battery energy storage systems (BESS) in Watsonville neighborhoods, and near Dominican Hospital and Aptos High School.
The organizers, Stop Lithium BESS in Santa Cruz County, is a grassroots group of concerned local residents. They are funding all of this on their own in order to inform the public because none of the County Supervisors will hold town hall meetings on the subject. The Board is set to consider the County’s new Ordinance to allow BESS at these three sites, with the application for the 90 Minto Road facility in Watsonville already in permit process. Public Records Act request materials show that developer and their consultants are largely crafting the Ordinance. Hmmmm…..
Learn more here: STOP Lithium BESS in Santa Cruz County
HOW CAN ANYONE THINK THIS IS CLEAN, SAFE OR GOOD FOR THE PLANET?
Lithium batteries are risky. There have been many fires reported recently, and the local fire responders are called to electric car fires frequently.
15 injured in Kaohsiung lithium cell plant fire – Focus Taiwan
New report reveals what caused APS battery explosion that hospitalized eight firefighters
The Arizona McMicken BESS Explosion: Key Takeaways – EticaAG
Sodium batteries are not prone to thermal runaway and fires that plague lithium battery technology. China, the largest battery manufacturer, is transitioning quickly to producing sodium batteries.
Consider this:
In 2023, here was the latest:
According to the latest released data, sodium battery production capacity is only 2GWh by the end of 2022, and by the end of 2023, sodium battery production capacity is expected to increase to 21GWh, 950% year-on-year increase.
2023 is the first year of large-scale sodium-ion batteries, a number of listed companies cut into the sodium-ion battery track, CATL recently revealed that this year’s sodium-ion battery will be industrialized.Sodium batteries have a good cost advantage, and the total cost of sodium batteries is 30-40% lower than that of lithium batteries. The White Paper on the Development of China’s Sodium-Ion Battery Industry (2023) predicts that the actual shipment of sodium-ion batteries will reach 347.0GWh by 2030.
The capacity of the hard carbon anode is related to the energy density of sodium-ion batteries, which is the biggest difficulty in the current industrialization of hard carbon. Anode material hard carbon manufacturers have successfully developed high-capacity, high-first-effect hard carbon materials and taken the lead in industrialization
In 2023,The Production Capacity Of Sodium-Ion Batteries Will Increase By 10x
But in April of this year, here is the news:
SHANGHAI, April 21 (Reuters) – China’s CATL (300750.SZ), opens new tab on Monday launched a new brand for its sodium-ion batteries, Naxtra, which it said would go into mass production in December, and a second generation of its fast-charging battery for electric cars.
CATL became the first major automotive battery maker to launch a sodium-ion battery in 2021. Unlike other battery materials, sodium is cheap and abundant, and the chemistry has the potential to reduce fire risks in EVs, experts have said.
The first production under the Naxtra brand will be of a new sodium-ion battery with an energy density of 175 watt-hours per kilogram, nearly equivalent to the lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries popularly used in electric vehicles and grid energy storage systems.
Sodium-ion batteries may have a cost advantage over lithium-ion batteries as the technology and supply chain develop, said Ouyang Chuying, co-president for R&D at CATL.
Reuters: Chinese battery maker CATL launches second generation fast charging battery
So, why is Santa Cruz County and Central Coast Community Energy (3CE) so anxious to install dangerous lithium battery energy storage facilities in our county’s neighborhoods, and not insisting on SAFE alternative technologies?
OPT OUT OF 3CE TO BOYCOTT THEIR RIGID POLICY EMBRACING HAZARDOUS GRID-SCALE LITHIUM BATTERIES
In the aftermath of the Moss Landing Vistra Battery Fire in January/February, many local residents have been attending Central Coast Community Energy (3CE) Executive, Operations and Policy Board meetings. We have asked that 3CE leadership slow down the feverish drive to attain 100% renewable energy by 2030, an ambitious goal that is 15 years ahead of California’s 2045 goal for the same.
Why the rush? Why support installation of dangerous grid-scale lithium battery energy storage systems (BESS) when safe alternatives are on the near horizon (see articles above). What about 3CE’s liability in funding residential lithium BESS units, knowing the technology poses significant public safety problems and environmental problems?
No answer.
Except for the representatives of Morro Bay and Salinas, all agents of 3CE have been dismissive and silent.
It was only at the June 25, 2025 Santa Cruz County Commission on the Environment meeting that it became known, thanks to an astute member of the public, that 3CE Board of Operations approved an exclusivity deal for electricity from a new lithium BESS in Monterey County a new lithium BESS in Monterey County, the Holman BESS, LLC, partnering with Clearway Energy in November, 2024.
3CE has not been forthcoming about this issue and has regarded the public dismissively. What other lithium BESS facilities are 3CE customer monies funding, but that have not been admitted to the public?
Therefore, it is important and necessary to boycott service by 3CE and urge others to do so, because of the unacceptable policy to support and expand hazard-prone lithium BESS facilities in our communities without transparency or respect for the public’s concerns about the risky lithium technology.
Most troubling is the fact that 3CE leadership refuses to re-evaluate their unrealistic goal of 100% renewable energy by 2030 and dismisses any consideration of non-lithium battery storage technology that is SAFE.
Boycott the 3CE’s unacceptable policy to promote toxic, explosive grid-scale lithium battery storage.
OPT OUT TODAY, and let them know why!
THE WHALE BRIDGE IS OPEN NOW!
Even though the official RTC Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for the Chanticleer Overcrossing (aka the Whale Bridge) is set for July 30, it opened for use last week. I walked the length and back last weekend to see what I could see! Many others were doing the same.
Sweeping views of the very noisy PureWater Soquel Project treated sewage water facility (I saw some leaky pipes)
Highway One…not during commute hours!
A hazardous unsignalized cross walk at Chanticleer Avenue and Soquel Frontage Rd.
A busy narrow Chanticleer Avenue area near Grey Bears that has no sidewalk or bike lane.
Many families having fun riding over the long-awaited Whale Bridge!
Go check it out! Bring hearing protection because it is very noisy.
WRITE ONE LETTER. MAKE ONE CALL. OPT OUT OF 3CE AND LET THEM KNOW YOU DEMAND DIVESTMENT OF ALL LITHIUM GRID SCALE BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE FACILITIES.
DO JUST ONE THING THIS WEEK AND MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE.
Cheers,
Becky
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Becky Steinbruner is a 30+ year resident of Aptos. She has fought for water, fire, emergency preparedness, and for road repair. She ran for Second District County Supervisor in 2016 on a shoestring and got nearly 20% of the votes. She ran again in 2020 on a slightly bigger shoestring and got 1/3 of the votes.
Email Becky at KI6TKB@yahoo.com |
There is a metallic green and blue gem that exists only in very small patches of coastal prairie around Santa Cruz County. If you look carefully at one, you can see shiny coppery flecks not visible from very far away. This precious gem is so very rare as to be considered endangered. If you find one, you must leave it alone – collecting is illegal. Even without collecting, these jewels fade, dwindle and disappear if people don’t carefully tend the grasslands surrounding them.
For thousands of years, the native peoples stewarded these treasures, passing the wisdom of their care from generation to generation, hundreds of generations sharing their stories, teaching their children the secrets of their craft.
Then came disease followed by genocide. Small pox and other Old-World diseases left much of the human population dead before they even encountered the people who had vectored these deadly illnesses. When these strangely dressed people arrived, they were alien and dangerous, capturing, imprisoning, and enslaving the last of the indigenous people from our area. No one asked or learned how to take care of the prairies and the treasures they held, so they slowly withered, dwindled and disappeared.
Those Gems Have Legs
What I’m talking about is the Ohlone tiger beetle, and it is luckily still hanging on in a very few fairly special places. Sometime in the distant evolutionary past, hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions of years ago, shiny tiger beetles from their more common habitat, fringes of lagoons at the edge of beaches, began exploring further upland, into wet meadows. There, along mastodon and horse trails, they found a new home. They followed these trails further away from their seashore brethren. Eventually, these populations lost contact with one another and a new species evolved…one of the very few tiger beetles of grasslands.
Prairies, Unlikely Habitat
Fast-moving predators that hunt down their prey by outrunning them on bare ground seem unlikely to be successful in grasslands. Take a walk in the coastal prairies of Point Lobos, Fort Ord, Santa Cruz’ Pogonip or Moore Creek greenbelts, or Wilder Ranch and think about where patches of bare soil could support a tiger beetle. Chances are, you are standing on it. The bare soil is only reliably found on trails. Elsewhere where tiger beetles are native, the bare soil is caused by receding salt water, waves, or, on dunes, by wind. Prairie tiger beetles evolved relying on giant mammals…grazers…and their trails. Their biology should tell us much about how to take care of the land to help them survive. They have almost disappeared entirely, forever.
Making Bare Ground
Tiger beetle hunting ground means bare ground, and bare ground takes work to make in the otherwise dense grasslands of our area. How do we mimic the mastodon trails? Tires. Feet. Hooves. Trampling. Also, piles of bare subsoil thrown up by gophers, badgers, and ground squirrels can work. Burrowing animals are hard to manage, and badgers have been driven to near local extinction. What we rely on more than anything is carefully managed livestock used to mimic the evolutionary disturbance regime of trampling – big critters pounding trails. Recreational hiking and biking have also proven fruitful, but only if managed just right so as to keep beetles from being crushed by fast-moving thrill-seeking exercise fanatics.
Different landowners use different approaches to steward tiger beetle grasslands. UCSC and City Parks use carefully planned cattle grazing in places and managed recreational trails in other places to keep the beetles healthy. State Parks uses signs and strings to move recreational trails around the beetle patches, so that tiger beetles can live on yesteryear’s trails where people won’t crush them. The Land Trust uses livestock grazing in areas closed to the public to create tiger beetle habitat. The Center for Natural Lands Management uses mowing and other techniques. The varied approaches to tending beetle habitat appear to work to varying degrees, but no one has analyzed what is working better.
Endangered Species Protections
The US government listed the Ohlone tiger beetle as endangered on October 3, 2001, affording the species the protections under the Endangered Species Act as implemented by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. This means that it is illegal to kill, possess, or harm/harass any individual of the species without a permit. These protections have helped to create 2 preserve areas at UCSC dedicated to conserving the species. The listing also compelled the Land Trust of Santa Cruz and the City of Scotts Valley to set aside and manage a significant portion of super-diverse grasslands. And, because the species is listed as endangered there has been funding to reintroduce the species to a grassland area in Soquel and to manage that habitat so that the species can recover there. In general, the areas of grasslands where the species has been found are better managed than if the species wasn’t listed or wasn’t there. Many other coastal prairie species have benefited from the recognition of the Ohlone tiger beetle as endangered. However, one area of habitat was purposefully destroyed on the eve of the listing of the species, so as to avoid federal regulation on that private land: how sad, such greed!
Saga of the Petition
There is an interesting story behind the listing of the Ohlone tiger beetle. In the past, the State or Federal government would have recognized a species as being rare or endangered and so would prepare their own petition package to examine the science to support or reject the need to protect the species under the Endangered Species Acts. However, neither agency was pursuing listing the Ohlone tiger beetle, so it took private citizens’ efforts to do this. The first petition, prepared by R. Morgan a local expert biologist, was rejected by the Federal government. A biologist-for-hire with few evident ethical standards (aka biostitute), who nonetheless had ‘credentials’ challenged the petition on such grounds as R. Morgan’s failure to search redwood forests for the species and because he was not similarly ‘credentialed.’ Somehow, that challenge held…perhaps also because the client of said consultant threatened legal action if the species was listed. Around this time, a proponent of developing a Scotts Valley parcel containing the species testified in front of the Scotts Valley City Council that the Ohlone tiger beetle was ‘probably the most common beetle in the world,’ echoing both the level of inaccuracy and the stridency of disinformation that would later become much more commonplace in public discourse.
Subsequently, I organized a group of local volunteers and trained them in survey methodologies for the Ohlone tiger beetle. The large group fanned out across the region looking in every grassland for the species. I gathered credentialed expert testimony about such species being limited to certain (aka grassland) habitats. Also, scientists further published on the biology of the species, describing its larval habits. We submitted the petition but didn’t hear back. So, the Center for Biological Diversity legal team wrote the federal government demanding that they act on the legally binding timeline of the Endangered Species Act. That spurred action and the more data-rich petition was accepted by the US Fish and Wildlife Service which then published its findings that the species warranted listing as endangered.
Historical Notes
We owe a lot to various individuals for their help with conserving the Ohlone tiger beetle. Of course, there were hundreds of generations of native people who kept the species healthy. If not for them, the species would have long ago gone extinct as grasslands depend on human management to exist at all. More recently, David Suddjian, an epic birder and general expert biologist, “discovered” the species at the gate between UCSC Twin Gates and the then private Gray Whale Ranch (now Wilder Ranch State Park). He told R. Morgan who then collected some specimens, making others aware of this spectacular find.
Since then, the list of folks who have been important for Ohlone tiger beetle conservation has grown. Dedicated biologists with the US Fish and Wildlife Service who have been instrumental in this species’ conservation include Colleen Sculley and Chad Mitcham. Tara Cornellise and Larry Ford have done amazing research informing local conservation and management. Barry Knisely, the leading tiger beetle specialist in the US, has been particularly generous with his time and talent at informing the conservation of this species…all the way from his home in Virginia! Tommy Williams, a third-generation rancher and lifelong land manager expert at stewarding our local ecosystems, has been tremendously helpful in managing cattle herds to benefit the species, which otherwise would probably have slipped closer to extinction. Many others have played key roles in the salvation of this gem of the coastal prairie. No doubt, many others for hundreds of generations to come will have to keep learning and adapting to keep this and other jewels of the coastal prairie thriving.
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Grey Hayes is a fervent speaker for all things wild, and his occupations have included land stewardship with UC Natural Reserves, large-scale monitoring and strategic planning with The Nature Conservancy, professional education with the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, and teaching undergraduates at UC Santa Cruz. Visit his website at: www.greyhayes.net
Email Grey at coastalprairie@aol.com |
Monday, July 21, 2025
The cover of the July 21, 2025, edition of The New Yorker is reproduced above. It’s HOT in the Big City! The latest edition of the magazine is “hot off the press” in more ways than one.
It’s hot in India, too, by the way, as reported by The New York Times. To quote from the July 1, 2025, article that I have just linked, “In some parts of the country [India], daytime temperatures have hovered close to 50 degrees Celsius, or 122 degrees Fahrenheit.”
Those who have followed my earlier recommendation, and have read Kim Stanley Robinson’s book, Ministry For The Future, will probably remember that Robinson’s story begins with a heat wave in India. As I recall, the heat wave Robinson describes (in what is, so far, a fictional account of what global warming is doing) killed something like two million people, in just a few days.
Our current president, as we all must know, has opined that what the scientists have called global warming is just some sort of “fake news,” an “evil” plot by Democrats and environmentalists. More offshore oil drilling, oil and gas development in the Arctic, and similar efforts to boost the use of fossil fuels of all kinds is a prescription for disaster (at least if you believe Kim Stanley Robinson, or take seriously flash floods in Texas and the kind of heat waves, almost everywhere, memorialized by The New Yorker’s cover).
If we believe Robinson, when the death toll reaches a million, or more, in a single incident, THEN the world will start doing something about global warming. Think about Robinson’s title (I like to think about grammatical construction, personally). His “Ministry,” which is intended to mobilize resources, worldwide, to confront global warming, is a ministry “For” the future, because if we don’t have a worldwide, coordinated and collective response to the forces we have put in motion there isn’t going to be a future.
Old as I am, I continue to be “future oriented.” If you’d like to get out ahead in favor of the inevitable need for a massive human response, coordinated globally, along the lines that Robinson writes about, you should definitely consider how you can free up some of your personal time to start working towards a solution. This is, essentially, what Greta Thunberg* has done. How much of her personal time has she mobilized?
I’d say, maybe, about 100%, in her case, just based on what I read. If you can’t do that much, you can still start figuring out what you can do – and you can start doing it!
Really, that’s a choice for all of us. We can either dedicate our lives to perpetuating the possibilities that human life can continue on Planet Earth. Or, we can forget about all that, and call the reports of global warming, and its effects, “fake news.”
Greta Thunberg
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Gary Patton is a former Santa Cruz County Supervisor (20 years) and an attorney for individuals and community groups on land use and environmental issues. The opinions expressed are Mr. Patton’s. You can read and subscribe to his daily blog at www.gapatton.net
Email Gary at gapatton@mac.com |
CASE CLOSED, LOYALTIES LIE, SCHLEMIEL, SCHLIMAZEL, SCIENCE
President Trump is probably hoping his new addition to his line of fragrances — ‘Victory 45-47’ — will cover the stench of the rebirth of the Jeffrey Epstein imbroglio into his existence. The Don has a long history of pushing fragrances, introducing ‘Donald Trump, The Fragrance’ in 2004, in a partnership with Estée Lauder. ‘Empire by Trump’ came along in 2015, and ‘Victory 47’ cologne and perfume was offered in 2024, as well as ‘Fight, Fight, Fight,’ which encompassed scents for both sexes. Promos for the latest addition read, “Trump Fragrances are here. They’re called ‘Victory 45-47’ because they’re all about Winning, Strength, and Success — For men and women. Get yourself a bottle, and don’t forget to get one for your loved ones too. Enjoy, have fun, and keep winning!” The announcement quickly brought forth comments on social media sites: Burt on X joked, “Just spent my entire life savings on his new phone service. Going to take a few payday loans to get this new fragrance;” Drew warned potential buyers, “You are a complete loser if you buy this;” Aaron wrote, “New frontiers of grifting;” former MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan questioned, “How is this legal?” And on X, Jeff remarked, “Trump launching fragrance line called ‘Victory 45-47’ for $199 a bottle. Rumored to be made from ‘essence’ of his ‘precious bodily fluids.’ Appropriate warnings may or may not be listed on label. Use with extreme caution and ideally in the presence of a medical professional.”
Of course, we know Trump has an even longer history as a sexual predator, which led him and Epstein to become ‘best friends for ten or fifteen years,’ documented in interviews, nearly 300 photos and videos posted online, all verified by his many friends and associates. Trump’s promises, during the 2024 presidential campaign, to MAGA and potential voters included his plan to release all files related to the Epstein investigation, his arrest and conviction, and his subsequent prison cell suicide — which the hordes demanded — with the icing on the cake being the rumored ‘client list.’ Asked about it several weeks ago, Secretary Pammy Ann Bondi told the press “everything is sitting on my desk, awaiting review,” with an expected release to follow. It all hit the fan, when at a recent Cabinet meeting, she proclaimed that the files didn’t exist, causing a complete uproar among the MAGAt faithful, and a stream of excuses and what-aboutisms from the panic-stricken White House. Trump had already used one of his highest attention-grabbing Wag-The-Dog diversions by dropping bunker busters on Iran — where could he go from here without starting WWIII? Of course — he could revert to his old tried and true attack of — name calling! That’s the ticket, simply disown the GOP and MAGAts who were calling him out as a liar about the Epstein situation; besides, Elon Musk doesn’t have anything since he didn’t release any details along with his dubious threat, and the fact that his DOGE crew ransacked or copied all the files they got their hands on means nothing — just “don’t believe your lying eyes and ears, only believe what I tell you.” Case closed!
Marc Elias wrote on Democracy Docket that Conspiracy-In-Chief leader Trump has let his self-inflicted crisis on the Epstein Files get out of control and in his attempt to control the debacle he is reduced to expressing his anger in gibberish-filled posts on Truth Social. He has lost control of his narrative, and for the time being, a huge swath of his MAGA base, on an issue of great importance to both Republicans and Democrats, who failed to communicate with voters in 2024. Elias points out that the cultural influencers and podcasters who pushed their audiences into the Trump camp are making their angry voices heard — the most alienated in Trump’s about-face. Should an election actually happen in 2026, the GOP stands to lose many of the current officeholders whose names will be on the ballot once again. The unpopular legislation that Congress is pressured to enact is already the albatross on their shoulders, and the Epstein episode will only add to their burden. Despite Trump’s weakness of his hold on his base, “the elections of 2018 and 2022 are a reminder of how badly the GOP fared in those midterms, with Trump’s attracting and endorsing the worst candidates while offering no increase in voter turnout or enthusiasm,” asserts Elias. Roiling the waters with dismissal of Epstein as unimportant, Trump has brought on the wrath of his former supporters, while bringing momentum to the Democrats who hope that GOPers in both the House and Senate will bear the brunt of the president’s lies and idiocy next year.
Elias urges caution as we watch the impotence of the Congressional Republicans toward this scandal — they call for the release of the files, yet cast votes for the exact opposite. To Elias, “It seems clear that the overwhelming majority of House and Senate Republicans will end up voting to protect Trump and the secrets contained in those files. It’s clear where their loyalties lie — and it’s not with the American people. Finally, the biggest difference is Trump himself. He is selfish and does not care about any of the Republicans serving in Congress. Even as they hav become more obsequious — perhaps because of it — he holds them in contempt. We know — and they know — that Trump will do whatever he deems is in his best interest and will sacrifice any or all of them without a second thought.” Elias recounts the words of his grandmother who taught him, “Learn manners because when you grow up, you don’t want to be a schlemiel — a person who, at a nice dinner party, spills the soup. But even more important, never be the schlimazel — the chronically unlucky person onto whose lap the soup is spilled.” He then concludes, “When it comes to congressional politics, Trump may be a vulgar schlemiel, but congressional Republicans are always the schlimazels.”
At the recent Hill Nation Summit, some Democrats grudgingly complimented Trump’s strategies as they attempt to learn from the November losses as they move toward 2026, attempting to narrow the Republican majorities. California’s Ro Khanna believes Democrats have been “way too judgmental” of Americans who voted for Donald Trump. “We acted as if the problem was the voters; the problem was the party, and we acted with a condescension and a judgment on voters,” he said to NewsNation’s Chris Cillizza. With the Democratic Party showing its lowest favorability ratings in years, and struggling to redefine its image, many are calling for a new generation of leaders, which is adding fuel to intra-party frustrations. Democratic strategist, Fred Hicks said, “You can’t understand how to win by repeating losing behavior; you have to study winners. And the reality is that Trump has won two of his three elections. I think it’s prudent to understand how Republicans have earned the votes of so many people.” Khanna criticized his party for not having a compelling economic vision for years, but suggested he could bring a better economic vision forward, with many speculating he has his eye on a presidential run. Hicks disparages our system in saying, “The problem in American politics right now is that if your team runs the play, then it’s OK; if the other team does it, then it’s not. What that has done is that’s created a deficit of trust in our system, amongst voters, everyday people.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that no vote on a resolution calling for the release of Epstein-related documents will be held before the August recess, despite the growing outcry over the Trump administration’s handling of the case. Johnson says he wants the administration to have time to act on the matter before going ahead with congressional action, though Trump is urging the GOP to just drop the issue. AG Pam Bondi has requested release of grand jury transcripts, with Johnson claiming there is no argument over the need for maximum transparency. “My belief is we need the administration to have the space to do what it is doing and if further Congressional action is necessary or appropriate, then we’ll look at that. But I don’t think we are at that point right now because we agree with the president,” Johnson replied to reporters. Latching on to the frustrations in the Epstein case, Representatives Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna have joined forces on a resolution to release the files — a discharge petition for the legislation in an attempt to force it to the floor, which has at least ten GOP co-sponsors. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the critics of Trump’s foot-dragging, said, “Dangling bits of red meat no longer satisfies. They want the whole steak dinner and will accept nothing else — the base will turn and there’s no going back.”
Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright believes there’s “a lot” for Democrats to learn from Trump’s approach to politics, which has allowed him to “hypnotize his base” along the campaign trail and in office. “Two things happen with elections: You win or you learn. I think there’s certainly a lot to learn from Trump’s political career and his style, and I think more than anything, to learn that we don’t have to continue this idea of doing business as usual, but we must master doing unusual business,” he contends. Maryland Representative Glenn Ivey stressed that his party’s need to keep up with the changing media landscape, which the GOP dominated so effectively in the last election, is a top priority. Ivey feels optimistic about the midterms next year, pointing to President Trump’s falling poll numbers. “He’s hurting himself a lot. If we later on — we being the Democrats — layer on top of that an affirmative message…we could really have very strong gains.” Polls put Trump’s disapproval rating at its highest since the beginning of his second term, and Ivey says, “If you want to turn voters out, get ’em angry, get ’em excited. We’ll see if we can sustain it, but it’s certainly heading in the right direction for us at this point.”
Salon.com has presented why many Americans are put off by the Trump administration’s policies — MAGA hates science! The ongoing destruction of stormy weather wreaking havoc in our communities isn’t convincing enough for them to even consider that climate change is nothing more than a hoax. Measles? Meh, no biggie — shut down research, clinics, and ban vaccines — all medical research, while we’re at it! Salon’s article speculates that it’s because scientific advances don’t discriminate between the ‘worthy’ and those considered ‘unworthy,’ and because some in the billionaire class think they deserve to live much longer than you do. “But it’s not just the small — and small-minded, and small-hearted — wealthy libertarian or right-wing elite. Working people who choose to wear MAGA red caps hate science for their own reasons: It tells them things about disease and environmental destruction and, say, women’s reproductive health that they cannot bear to face. Scientific findings often do not jibe with their religious beliefs. If you believe the Earth is 6,000 years old, were never taught how to distinguish between faith and knowledge, you’re naturally going to have a testy relationship with science,” Salon declares.
The article continues: “By its nature of openness to new ideas, scientific inquiry exemplifies the secular worldview of liberals. Science levels the playing field. It’s woke. Scientists discriminate about the significance of evidence, but they do no discriminate about the significance of different human beings. (That is what the MAGA faithful think their religion is for —because Republicans have spent a long time perverting Christianity, too, to justify their greed and bigotry.) There’s the danger to those who consider themselves superior — by race, color, creed or position on the Forbes list — to the mass of men and women. Scientific advancements make us ever more aware that we are all the same and should enjoy the same basic rights to education, health care, civil liberties like voting, freedom of and freedom from religion, and the freedom to read or otherwise consume whatever opinions or cultural works we choose — the very things that the current occupant of the White House and his MAGA followers are working to take away from us.” History tells us that friction between science and religion could bring imprisonment or death to scientists, and now we see our president calling global warming “a hoax,” as he takes down NOAA and FEMA, while defunding climate research and green technology. What Trump and his party of grifters and religious zealots are accomplishing in taking down universities funding for research will be economically devastating, not only to those now directly involved, but to future generations who could receive advantages from any developments. Make COVID great again!
What our felonious leader wants to see is the destruction of all expertise, as all autocrats are inclined to accomplish. He wishes to be respected for any idiotic public health proposals, or for changing the weather by unleashing nuclear bombs inside a developing hurricane, or simply changing the name of a geographical location to satisfy his delicate ego — or demanding that professional sports organizations change their team’s names. He doesn’t wish to have some Pulitzer Prize-winning economist or historian tell him and his base that his Big Beautiful Bill is a failure, or that he isn’t the greatest president — or the greatest world leader — in all of history. Hating to be questioned, he despises journalists, scientists, or anyone educated enough to be critically challenging; hence, his “Cabinet of white nationalist frat boys, shameless sycophants, and fellow grifters — not to mention a supermajority of right-wing Supreme Court justices who appear ready to hand him absolute power,” the Salon article charges.
A notable President Trump story resulting from his attendance at an energy and technology summit in Pittsburgh, has him claiming that his uncle, John Trump, taught the Unabomber. Uncle John was a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who Nephew Donald calls “one of the great professors, longest-serving professor in MIT history, with three degrees in nuclear, chemical and math — that’s a smart man.” The ‘longest-serving’ lie has been debunked numerous times over the years, but what can we expect from the least honest president in American history? He asked his audience, “Do you know who Ted Kaczynski was? There’s very little difference between a madman and a genius.” Trump then regaled the assembled with a supposed ‘conversation’ he had with Uncle John, who told him all about student Kaczynski, none of it, however, being true — a complete fabrication. To begin with, Kaczynski attended Harvard, not MIT, and the most damning fact is that John Trump died in 1985, with Kaczynski not being identified and arrested until 1986. MSNBC says that if both Trumps knew of Kaczynski’s role as the Unabomber a decade before his apprehension, that would be quite a newsworthy story. White House press secretary, Katherine Leavitt, was asked about Trump’s whopper, and as usual admonished the reporter who dared to ask such a question “with so many issues going on in the world.” A good follow-up question would have been, “Then why isn’t the president dealing with THOSE issues?”
The Unabomber story bomb seems just another sad event that the mainstream media is ignoring is Trump’s increasing disconnect from reality. One day after he graced the Pittsburgh audience with the story, he again complained about Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, saying, “I was surprised he was appointed,” obviously forgetting he had made the appointment himself in 2017? Or trying to pass the buck? He resumed his attack on Powell at a White House Faith Office summit, calling the chairman “a knucklehead” and “a stupid guy,” as he went on to deride the intelligence of his former energy secretary Rick Perry, and telling the assembled that President Biden “wasn’t faithful enough and sought to persecute religious leaders.” Those gathered heard his claim that gasoline prices are priced at the lowest level in decades — under $2 per gallon — a claim he has repeated for weeks, while everyone knows the per gallon price has not fallen below the nationwide average of $3 since his inauguration. It seems that most of the time he has no idea what is going on in his own bailiwick, telling House Republicans not to touch Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security if they want to keep winning elections. This admonition just days before he actually signed the Big Beautiful Bill which did those very things, prompting one GOPer to tell him,“But we’re touching Medicaid in this bill.” Surprise, surprise, Donny! Another incident, when asked by a reporter why military aid shipments to Ukraine had been placed on hold, he turned the question to ask if SHE knew who had ordered the halt — “You tell me!” Making up stories, making false claims, attacking other public officials — seems the stuff for a good in-depth story, perhaps? So, where are the reports connecting these incidents? Why only tossed off comments that hardly equate to the “aggressive reporting on President Biden’s cognitive decline,” which won Axios reporter Alex Thompson the Aldo Beckman Award for Overall Excellence at the White House Correspondents Dinner.
Thompson, who teamed up with CNN’s Jake Tapper to write a best-seller that delved into Biden’s alleged decline and the White House’s attempt to cover his difficulties, said in his acceptance speech, “President Biden’s decline and its cover-up by the people around him is a reminder that every White House, regardless of party, is capable of deception. But being truth-tellers also means telling the truth about ourselves. We, myself included, missed a lot of this story, and some people trusted us less because of it. We bear some responsibility for faith in the media being at such lows.” So, he admits the media dropped the ball back then. Where is the media NOW? Where is the team of Thompson/Tapper? Are they resting on their laurels, gloating over their ‘success’? The truth-tellers have chickened out!
A truth-teller who crossed Trump and corporate America last week — Stephen Colbert — learned a hard lesson, which we should all take as a warning. His show was cancelled, and will no longer be in the CBS lineup after May 2026, at the end of his current contract. This has brought forth a cacophony of voices and a few offers, he will surely land in a good spot to continue his pointed commentary — more on this later to be sure. In the meantime send your best wishes to the Trumps, CBS, Skydance, the Redstones, and the Ellisons to let them know how we feel.
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Dale Matlock, a Santa Cruz County resident since 1968, is the former owner of The Print Gallery, a screenprinting establishment. He is an adherent of The George Vermosky school of journalism, and a follower of too many news shows, newspapers, and political publications, and a some-time resident of Moloka’i, Hawaii, U.S.A., serving on the Board of Directors of Kepuhi Beach Resort. Email: cornerspot14@yahoo.com. |
EAGAN’S SUBCONSCIOUS COMICS. View classic inner-view ideas and thoughts with Subconscious Comics a few flips down.
EAGAN’S DEEP COVER. See Eagan’s “Deep Cover” down a few pages. As always, at TimEagan.com you will find his most recent Deep Cover, the latest installment from the archives of Subconscious Comics, and the ever entertaining Eaganblog.
Wishful Thinking
“If something is true, no amount of wishful thinking will change it.”
~Richard Dawkins
“Wishful thinking is not sound public policy.”
~Bjorn Lomborg
“Stop the habit of wishful thinking and start the habit of thoughtful wishes.”
~Mary Martin
“The existence of life beyond Earth is an ancient human concern. Over the years, however, attempts to understand humanity’s place in the cosmos through science often got hijacked by wishful thinking or fabricated tales.”
~Jill Tarter
“Where there is life there is wishful thinking.”
~Gerald F. Lieberman
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Agnes Sandström interviewed on Swedish Television in 1962. |
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(Gunilla Leavitt)
