2006 Captain Hook Awards

Aar! The recipients of this annual set of awards given to leaders in biopiracy have just been announced! We did our best to deliver them in our best pirate voices. Here's the list:

• Worst Threat to Food Sovereignty: Syngenta
• Greediest Biopirate: J Craig Venter
• Biggest Threat to Genetic Privacy: Google: Indexing Your Genes
• Extreme Makeover Award: Delta & Pine Land
• Most Shameful Act of Biopiracy: US Government
• Worst Déjà Vu: Human Genographic Project
• Access of Evil Award: Canada, Australia, New Zealand
• Biggest Tiny Claim On Nature: Nanosys, Inc.
• Worst Betrayal: Genencor et al.
• Most Hypocritical - Joint Winners: University of California-Davis and The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO)

Visit the Coalition Against Biopiracy website (link above) for details, matey.

Dolphinarium update

The second installment of The Dolphinarium will be webcast next week.

The Commercial Empire Strikes Back

Khalil's rant on why big-box stores sap the local economy applies not only to Wal-Marts, but also any national chain stores, fast-food joints, and shopping centers. Here are the stats:

small retail stores (local) average +$326 per 1000 sq ft
large retail chains average -$468 per 1000 sq ft

fast-food chains average -$5168 per 1000 sq ft
shopping centers average -$314 per 1000 sq ft

These numbers in red are deficits passed onto the local taxpayers, mainly in the form of road building and maintenance and crime-related costs. Never mind all the other dollars lost from not using local vendors and suppliers such as printers and advertisers.

Some links:

Local ownership pays off for communities
As police costs rise, towns reconsider big boxes

Alan Thein Durning Interview

Gwen Sanchirico talked with Alan Durning of the Northwest Environment Watch (NEW) while he was in Idaho for various conferences, talks, and presentations on sustainability and how societies should define progress. They talked about approaching sustainability issues from different angles. NEW takes the ecoregion of Cascadia and evaluates it on seven factors:

• pollution
• health
• economy
• population
• energy
• sprawl
• forests

NEW has recently published the Cascadia Scorecard 2005, which finds Boise to be the "most sprawling city in the Northwest." Gee, what a surprise. This is one of our favorite websites, which is packed with compelling information. Durning is the author of several fabulous books, including Stuff: the Secret Life of Everyday Things, on which several Sagebrush segments are based.

Dirk Kempthorne Spotlight

Now that Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne has received so much attention from outside the state after having been nominated as the new Secretary of the Interior, this might be a good time to go back to the Sagebrush archives and listen to Snow Blow Hard (even though it's really an end-of-year type story). See how many similarities there are between the character Duke Bramblevine and the current commentary in the national press. It's fun, and a lot of it is based on reality.

National Animal Identification System (NAIS) Episode

For those of you having trouble taking Bucky Buckaw's word for it that the USDA is competing with the Department of Homeland Security for most intrusive agency in American History go to the USDA site on NAIS and poke around for yourself. Then get the opposition viewpoint and ways to oppose NAIS from the No-NAIS site and, for something specifically geared to us chicken lovers American Bantam Clubs PDF of NAIS Then, just for fun, look at some pictures of Silkie and Auracana breed chickens at Brown Egg Blue Egg and then ask yourself would you want a world where all the chickens were factory issue broilers? I mean deep down they have the same chicken charm as the "exotics" but once you've seen one you've seen them all. Bred for an average life expectancy of 1 year and to break their own legs by the very act of growing up!

Terry Shepard, Friends of the Liberty Tree

This week's interview is with Terry Shepard, President of Friends of the Liberty Tree. His bill to recognize April 19 as Patriots Day in Idaho was recently passed by the state legislature, and he hopes to have a tree in Capitol Park (across the street form the Idaho capitol) dedicated as a Liberty Tree. To learn more about the project, you can contact Terry at 208-602-2387.

Sagebrush Variety Show on Radio Free Moscow

Radio Free Moscow KRFP (92.5 FM) is trying out Sagebrush Variety Show Monday afternoons, 4-5pm PST. If you live in the area, you can tune in, even in your economy car!

This Week's Sagebrush

We've got the latest UV-Eye-Opener and a Sagebrush Transit Report, along with some older bits. As of next week, be prepared to 100% all-new material, starting with the conclusion of Eternal Quest. If you're a new listener, you might want to download the podcast containing the entire series (up until the cliffhanger, of course).

Alan Thein Durning in Idaho

We mentioned that the piece we did on coffee was based on Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things by John C. Ryan and Alan Thein Durning. Thurning will speak at BSU on Friday, March 3 at 7pm in the Student Union Building--and it's free. We highly recommend going.

There will also be a reception with Durning that Idaho Smart Growth is hosting on Saturday, March 4 5:00-6:30 pm at the Idaho Integrated Design Lab at the corner of 6th and Main in Boise. To RSVP for this event ($40) call the ISG office at 333-8066.

Sagebrush will be there, of course, so if you can't make either event, you will get to hear about it on RadioBoise.org!