Tumblr for week of 2008mar15

• [bird flu, public inv] KLTV8 wins national award for bird flu program
  KLTV8, the city of Lakewood’s cable station, and its partners have been honored with a 2008 Bronze Telly Award for the educational program Bird Flu: … http://denver.yourhub.com/Lakewood/Stories/Milestones/Awards/Story~442044.aspx We could use a multimedia campaign regionally. Risk communication…
• [math] 3.14 and the rest
  jc saw this story on the BBC News website and thought you should see it. ** Message ** For me, chocolat pi ** 3.14 and the rest ** It’s Pi Day, a celebration of the mathematical ratio man has been trying to unlock for millennia. But why are we driven?…
• [bird flu] Kia ora, godwits are getting ready
  Godwits have Alaska in sights. PhysOrg web site , which covers all manner of science subjects, has a story on the godwits of Miranda, New Zealand…. Researchers have outfitted nine of them with transmitters… The first of the birds are expected to leave sometime this month. …They will…
• [Envt, water] Clean-up for Fiji
  http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=83520 Clean-up for group FOR the residents of Tavua Village in the Mamanuca group of islands, keeping the foreshore and waters clean is an important part of their lives, says turaga ni koro (village headman) Viliame Tuivunilagi. … He said a week-long clean-up…
• [bird flu] Children’s development affected by bird flu
  04 Mar 2008 Physical and intellectual development of children could be affected due to less intake of protein as many families have stopped eating chicken and eggs because of bird flu fears. As eggs and chicken meat are an affordable source of protein, many middle and lower income group families…
• [climate] Federal statistics track snowfall in Alaska
  http://aprn.org/2008/03/11/federal-statistics-track-snowfall-in-alaska/ >Federal statistics track snowfall in Alaska It’s been a winter of extremes when it comes to snowfall across much of the state. In general, Southeast Alaska is well above average while the Interior is having an especially…
• [water] Unsafe water may have sickened troops in Iraq
  DHCC Deployment Health News >Unsafe water may have sickened troops in Iraq Dozens of U.S. troops in Iraq fell sick at bases using “unmonitored and potentially unsafe” water supplied by the military and a contractor once owned by Vice President Dick Cheney’s former company, the Pentagon’s…
• [health, sanitation] RSV in Young Adults Undergoing Military Training
  Introduction Military recruits receiving training have, historically, been vulnerable to acute respiratory disease (ARD), their increased susceptibility being attributed to demanding physical training schedules and crowded habitation. Adenoviruses, influenza A and B viruses, Streptococcus…
• [preparedness] Gila River Tribe, state form emergency commission
  http://www.indianz.com/News/2008/007523.asp Gila River Tribe, state form emergency commission The Gila River Indian Community and the state of Arizona have created what is being billed as the first tribal-state emergency response commission in the nation. The tribe and the state will share…

Anthropology in a climate of change, war, and internecine environments 2

[In process]
Background*
Part 1**

Part 2*** From a follow-up to the newslist discussion about anthropology and climate change–

Q. “So…what can we do to solve this problem? Can we think like engineers?”

Please, don’t. Not even anthropological engineers. For example, see this —

Anthropology in a climate of change, war, and internecine environments 1

[In process]

Background*
Part 1**
Part 2*** [separate post]

* Background

I think there is a need for anthropological perspective in any issue of human existence.

It is a sad irony that the discipline (science) which is most comprehensive and fundamental (science is a human activity and the basic science of human activity is anthropology) has often seemed through its profession association to be narrowly focussed and consequently irrelevant.

Last month, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) accompanied the chairwoman of the Disaster Recovery subcommittee, Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) to another hearing, in Anchorage, about the few places in Alaska designated for US Army Corps of Engineers environmental management [sic].

The anthropologists are about to have their annual conference in Washington DC and will be exercised about the U.S. Army recruiting anthropologists (Human Terrain Systems). On the other hand, Barack Obama is hip to Margaret Mead “Obama demonstrated that he understood the reasons why America for decades (think of the Bay of Pigs invasion) has made gravely serious national security decisions based on laughably inaccurate intelligence.”

Meanwhile, none of our western Alaska or Mississippi deltas is taken seriously. “Rush Limbaugh adds Alaskan to polarizing efforts.”

The best the state of Alaska has done so far is issue an official pass to a non-existent mass disease shelter in the region’s pandemic preparedness exercise this year (flu shot clinic).

I think if Governor Palin actually had a scientific advisor to her environmental sub-cabinet especially from rural Alaska or if Landrieu and Stevens could earmark enough funding out of the millions for the Corps mission in Alaska to pay for scientific support for the Unorganized Borough [over half of Alaska's area, 970,500 km² (374,712 square miles), an area larger than France and Germany combined], this actually would be more effective than the endless photo-op and news stories about polar bears without ice.

How do we bring attention to the need for comprehensive analysis, assessment, and action on environmental change? No one would think of building a levee without an engineer, why are we doing relocation and reconstruction of communities — in Alaska and Louisiana / Mississippi — without a human scientist / human ecologist (anthropologist)?

[This analogy would work better if I didn't already know that someone in DC thought of managing emergencies with a horse show announcer.] At the very least we need to aggregate the existing knowledge that we know full well must be included, whether for a northern or a southern delta.

It may not be a direct plus for NOLA– my records precede Katrina and I read Voices of New Orleans. If all the people and power and money there can’t get trailers that the Feds are allowed to inspect — but I think the imaginative scale in Alaska would be easier to actually test many of these concepts and approaches.

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Native Crafts Health Effects Project

As part of the HazArt project | Environment, Safety, and Health (ES&H) of Traditional Indian Artisans and Craftspeople Project (HazArt) | we tested the ambient air quality during a firing of black-on-black (reduced) pottery. This field project was a collaboration of Eight Northern Indian Pueblos Council, Inc., Sandia National Laboratory, and Tewa Women United.

The project was recorded August 1993 by Catalina Reyes of KUNM for National Native News. Her story was broadcast that September.

Principals on the broadcast are

Kathy Sanchez (potter) and Evelyn Garcia (assisting the firing), Tewa Women United

Pat Herring, CIH, Sandia National Laboratory and

myself (M. Pamela Bumsted, Ph.D.), head of the ENIPC environmental office.

Mary Attu, doll maker and skin sewer, was also interviewed

Field location was the pot firing shed (stable) of the late Maria and Julian Martinez, San Ildefonso Pueblo, great-grandparents to Ms Sanchez and Garcia. Read earlier post,
| Maria Martinez’s open-source earthenware |

This digitized audio file does not represent the quality of the original audiotape. The audio is copyright. I’m sorry the quality is not good. I’ll get it improved eventually. There are photos of the project, in deep storage. These too will one day be available.

The following picture shows the traditional firing. Please read the story and view the pictures at

• http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/48059.html

click to play

| Native Crafts health effects audio file in mp3 format. 5 minutes, 19 seconds |

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There is an interesting history of the founding of National Native News by Gary Fife, currently with the Anchorage Municipal Light and Power. [I rather miss the old format (and Nellie Moore, Sharon McConnell, and Patty Talahongva).]

• Listening to Indian Country
  http://www.turtletrack.org/Issues02/Co01262002/ CO_01262002_Native_News.htm

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Bring health info to communities

The library at the University of Utah has a valuable service in a web log (blog) format. The format is especially good at providing links to information resources quickly with a minimum of Internet fuss (suitable for rural and remote dial-up) and available through feeds.

An easily accessible format won’t be too useful were it not for the knowledgeable person selecting the resources to provide, Siobhan Champ-Blackwell, Community Outreach Liaison.

She has a series of entries linking to resources for health literacy, which is a critical topic.

This blog focuses on health information issues related to the community, especially underserved communities.

• http://library.med.utah.edu/blogs/BHIC/

• Syndicate this site (XML) feeds
  http://library.med.utah.edu/blogs/BHIC/index.rdf

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50 reasons not to change

It’s amazing just how many languages (and dichos) would fit this. I first ran across this in New Mexico in 1991 very apropos at that time RE: women in the highway and environment departments. The specific source is in deep storage (still) but I’m hoping the creator will recognize it and let me know.

In Alaska I’ve heard, “you’re too thoughtful” and “you can’t expect them to understand…”

View the comments for other suggestions or to add your own. Also, the comments contain trackbacks to interesting sites.

Please note that this image has a copyright, for non-commercial distribution with attribution.

Click the title below to enlarge. It should print well on 8.5 by 11 paper for handouts.
50ReasonsNot2

If you’d like to display a thumbnail, copy the thumbnail below to your site and code it like this

<a href="http://13c4.wordpress.com/2007/02/24/50-reasons-not-to-change/" title="50 reasons not to change source"><img src="http://yoursite.com/50-reason-notto2.thumbnail.jpg/> click to see original</a>

<p><a href="http://13c4.wordpress.com/2007/02/24/50-reasons-not-to-change/">http://13c4.wordpress.com/2007/02/24/50-reasons-not-to-change/</a>from MP Bumsted, Biocultural Science & Management</p>

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Public involvement how-to readings

I don’t use the term “stakeholders” because of my experience with the US Department of Energy. Too often when an institution or agency speaks about “stakeholders” they mean they hold the stake while the community gets stucked.

I am after community or public collaboration through public involvement (or community-involvement. [The latest term is CPBR Community-based Participatory Research or CBR].

I put this list together at the other site, | Getting Results from Your Experts |. It is a listing of references I recommend to communities and other professionals concerned with public involvement. This isn’t a comprehensive (nor especially up to date) listing of references but includes books and websites I have found to be especially useful for myself and others. Books are listed first, then websites. The Internet sites also have training available. The FHWA (Federal Highway Administration) course is very good.

Public involvement, as a public governance process, has evolved within the highway and risk (environmental health) contexts especially as a requirement of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). However, much of the fundamental research developed within applied anthropology, usually within a health, appropriate technology, or nutrition context. “Expert systems” and now “accessibility” re: WWW sites, are other areas to look to for additional information.

I’ve put asterisks next to names in the risk communication field who will have other articles and books. The titles in BOLD are especially useful to communities.

Add to Bookmarks:

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Public involvement references

I put together a set of references on the technical field of public involvement, risk communication, etc.
Getting Results from Your Experts –
http://ykalaska.wordpress.com/2006/04/29/getting-results-from-your-experts/

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Pocket cards with Internet starting points

These business card sized information cards take up less scarce bulletin board space than flyers and less counter or desk space. They are cheaper to mail out, too.

These are MS Word files with information formatted for standard business cards, Avery Label 5762.

This file has the front information.
Opportunity to Share card front

This file has the backside information, websites to start with.
Opportunity to Share card back

Let me know of any changes needed.

New Zealand after Nuclear War

Anthropological Aspects of “New Zealand after Nuclear War” [1987-1988]

Comments on the findings of the book, NZ after NW, are due to the Minister of the Environment by 27 November 1987. Written ideas for an anthropological submission to the Ministry are needed by 5 November to M. Pamela Bumsted.

References and background material are located in the Piddington library, main library, or UGRR.

• Green, Wren, Tony Cairns, and Judith Wright (NZ Planning Council) 1987 New Zealand After Nuclear War ISBN: 0 908601 56 5
  Several copies are available in the department. [See also http://www.soundarchives.co.nz/search
  /search-results.asp?form=adsearch&Keyword=NUCLEAR%20WAR]
• newsclips of reports in New Zealand (in the biological anthropology media file in Piddington)
• Bumsted, et al. 1986 Nuclear Winter: The Anthropology of Human Survival (Los Alamos National Laboratory)
• Bunzel & Parsons 1964 In Current Anthropology 5:430ff [see http://www.publicanthropology.org/Archive/Ca1964.htm

At the Women and Anthropology Group open meeting three reasons were identified for including anthropology in policy discussions

• we have resources and expertise to help develop the vocabulary and appropriate context for consideration of this topic by the public
• we have specific information on how humans adapt or fail to cope, especially relevant to New Zealand (and the Pacific)
• we should raise issues relevant to expertise from other disciplines which we feel are important (e.g., ethics of emigration and immigration policy)

Take ugly butts home

While I directed the ES&H programs–
This label was attached to portable ashtrays which had been donated by Winston-Salem to the local college. We then distributed these to visitors at the big Eight Northern Indian Artisans and Craftsmen Show (1993). The labels were made to size in MS-Word (tables) then cut apart and slipped into the back of the foil lined pockets (which covered the tobacco ads).

Most people were grateful—to use themselves at the outdoor show or to give to friends and family who smoked.

We did get a few angry people, but I don’t think they understood the joke. Note that we put our contact info on the label (always, always on handouts. Otherwise, how can the public follow up with questions or understand what THEIR programs were doing?)

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Developing Minority Community Capacity in Environmental Health & Hazardous Substances

M. Pamela Bumsted, Julia T. Abeyta, and Karen S. Young

Beyond Boundaries—Developing Minority Community Capacity in Environmental Health & Hazardous Substances.

Minority communities need to develop a capacity in all aspects of environmental health, including administrative, scientific, educational, and governmental. Minority communities are nearly always viewed as supplicants or targets by outside agencies, individuals, or institutions. Heretofore, communities have not participated as autonomous institutions in collaborative studies nor been the ones to develop or run the agency’s public involvement. Our programs are designed to provide permanent information and expertise within the communities related to environmental health and hazardous substances, to enable them to make informed decisions about their future.

Principal— M. Pamela Bumsted, Ph.D.

Affiliations 1 & 3—Northern Pueblos Institute,
Northern New Mexico Community College 2—American Indian Affairs,
Northern New Mexico Community College

Paper given 30 March 1995
Society for Applied Anthropology, March–April 1995 Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Abstract published in annual meeting program, page 52.

Session—Chemicals, Culture, & Health (Lynette Benson, organizer, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)