Author: Bill Johnson

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Technology’s threat to our security and democracy

Make no mistake about it: Our advanced technology is posing a serious threat to national security as well as to the foundation of our democracy. No one said it more clearly than the brilliant physicist Stephen Hawking: “The creation of artificial intelligence may be the worst event in the history of civilization.” He’s not alone. SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who knows something about technology, says, “Artificial intelligence could start World War III.”

The application of artificial intelligence to military operations is so great that nations have formed units of cyber warriors. In other words, they are skillful hackers. In effect, we are in an arms race of a different kind. Because so much of what we do is computerized now, it’s all vulnerable. A system is secure only until it’s breached. You’ll remember that last year we saw the worst-ever cyber attack on the U.S. when our Department of Energy was hacked. A cyber expert reported that at least 50 organizations were hacked. Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, said he was impressed by the sophistication and scope of the attack.

In their book “Cyber War,” Richard Clarke, a security expert, and Robert Knake explain what cyber warriors can do. For instance, they hacked into Syria’s defense system to reprogram radar to show empty skies at a certain time
so that Israeli fighter planes could attack a manufacturing plant. Hackers can also cripple a nation in various ways. For example, Russia shut down Ukraine’s banking system for a week. Think of the consequences of that in the U.S. We already know that our electric grid is fragile and vulnerable.

The danger of ‘deepfake video’

Add to these threats the developing technology that allows the creation of video that’s so real and convincing, you cannot tell it is fake. They’re now called “deepfakes.” Before long, with the advancing technology, a kid in his basement could produce one and put it on social media.

Two law professors with expertise in technology are waving red flags of danger. Writing in Foreign Affairs magazine, Robert Chesney of the University of Texas and Danielle Citron of the University of Virginia describe scenarios that could launch a war. Imagine the consequences of a video showing a nation’s leader announcing that missiles have been fired at another country, or of an ISIS leader announcing a chemical attack — videos that could cover the world in minutes and that cannot be determined to be fake.

Clarke and Knake warn about another aspect of this that’s especially frightening. Skillful hackers can sneak into a computer system without being detected. Once they can bypass a system’s security, they can go in at any future time and adjust programs to do great damage. Some systems in the U.S. may already have been breached without us knowing.

The threat to our elections

Besides the aspects of war, the available technology poses a threat to the functioning of democracy in various ways. As you know, U.S. intelligence agencies are sure that Russia interfered in our presidential elections, spreading false information and targeting individuals to receive specific information on social media. The truth may never catch up to the inflammatory falsehoods that spread like wildfire through social media because they’re more interesting and colorful. People are more likely to spread false information if it reflects their bias.

Cyber warriors in a hostile nation can sow confusion about our elections, discontent based on false information, and scurrilous lies about a candidate or officeholder, which can affect the outcome of an election. In their article about deepfake videos, Chesney and Citron say “the prospect is chilling” that the technology can disrupt our democratic elections, which are

the foundation of our democracy. “There is no silver bullet for countering ‘deepfakes,’” they say. Will we have a functioning democracy if we cannot agree on what’s true and lose public faith in the legitimacy of our elections? A believable fake video could destroy the career of a public official.

The world’s leaders are not ignoring these threats, but what can they do? The Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity is meeting without fanfare to deal with the integrity of elections. The commission is led by Michael Chertoff, who was secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who was NATO secretary- general and a prime minister of Denmark. Deepfake videos are one of their concerns. They’re trying to push nations into a cooperative effort to deal with the threat to elections because no nation can do it alone. As they put it, “The future of democracy is at stake.” Can a warning be stronger than that?

In any event, the technological genie is out of the bottle. Algorithms, artificial intelligence, and the rest cannot be put back in. Those who are now waving the red flags of danger may be the Paul Reveres of our time. Are we listening? What will we do? What can we do?

Posted on

Technology’s threat to our security and democracy

Make no mistake about it: Our advanced technology is posing a serious threat to national security as well as to the foundation of our democracy. No one said it more clearly than the brilliant physicist Stephen Hawking: “The creation of artificial intelligence may be the worst event in the history of civilization.” He’s not alone. SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who knows something about technology, says, “Artificial intelligence could start World War III.”

The application of artificial intelligence to military operations
is so great that nations have formed units of cyber warriors.
In other words, they are skillful hackers. In effect, we are in an arms race of a different kind. Because so much of what we
do is computerized now, it’s all vulnerable. A system is secure only until it’s breached. You’ll remember that last year we saw the worst-ever cyber attack on the U.S. when our Department of Energy was hacked. A cyber expert reported that at least 50 organizations were hacked. Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, said he was impressed by the sophistication and scope of the attack.

In their book “Cyber War,” Richard Clarke, a security
expert, and Robert Knake explain what cyber warriors can do. For instance, they hacked into Syria’s defense system
to reprogram radar to show empty skies at a certain time
so that Israeli fighter planes could attack a manufacturing plant. Hackers can also cripple a nation in various ways. For example, Russia shut down Ukraine’s banking system for
a week. Think of the consequences of that in the U.S. We already know that our electric grid is fragile and vulnerable.

The danger of ‘deepfake video’

Add to these threats the developing technology that allows the creation of video that’s so real and convincing, you cannot tell it is fake. They’re now called “deepfakes.” Before long, with the advancing technology, a kid in his basement could produce one and put it on social media.

Two law professors with expertise in technology are waving red flags of danger. Writing in Foreign Affairs magazine, Robert Chesney of the University of Texas and Danielle Citron of the University of Virginia describe scenarios that could launch a war. Imagine the consequences of a video showing a nation’s leader announcing that missiles have been fired at another country, or of an ISIS leader announcing a chemical attack — videos that could cover the world in minutes and that cannot be determined to be fake.

Clarke and Knake warn about another aspect of this that’s especially frightening. Skillful hackers can sneak into a computer system without being detected. Once they can bypass a system’s security, they can go in at any future time and adjust programs to do great damage. Some systems in the U.S. may already have been breached without us knowing.

The threat to our elections

Besides the aspects of war, the available technology poses a threat to the functioning of democracy in various ways. As you know, U.S. intelligence agencies are sure that Russia interfered in our presidential elections, spreading false information and targeting individuals to receive specific information on social media. The truth may never catch up to the inflammatory falsehoods that spread like wildfire through social media because they’re more interesting and colorful. People are more likely to spread false information if it reflects their bias.

Cyber warriors in a hostile nation can sow confusion about our elections, discontent based on false information, and scurrilous lies about a candidate or officeholder, which can affect the outcome of an election. In their article about deepfake videos, Chesney and Citron say “the prospect is chilling” that the technology can disrupt our democratic elections, which are

the foundation of our democracy. “There is no silver bullet for countering ‘deepfakes,’” they say. Will we have a functioning democracy if we cannot agree on what’s true and lose public faith in the legitimacy of our elections? A believable fake video could destroy the career of a public official.

The world’s leaders are not ignoring these threats, but what can they do? The Transatlantic Commission on Election Integrity is meeting without fanfare to deal with the integrity
of elections. The commission is led by Michael Chertoff, who was secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who was NATO secretary- general and a prime minister of Denmark. Deepfake videos are one of their concerns. They’re trying to push nations into a cooperative effort to deal with the threat to elections because no nation can do it alone. As they put it, “The future of democracy is at stake.” Can a warning be stronger than that?

In any event, the technological genie is out of the bottle. Algorithms, artificial intelligence, and the rest cannot be put back in. Those who are now waving the red flags of danger may be the Paul Reveres of our time. Are we listening? What will we do? What can we do?

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Preserving the once nearly extinct Florida panther

Bang! There’s a thud on the front of your car. You’ve hit something. You pull over, stop, and see that you’ve hit and killed a panther crossing the road.

It’s been happening about twice a month lately, enough to worry wildlife biologists because the Florida panther is an endangered animal.

Because we built roads and housing developments in panther habitat, humans and automobiles have become a serious threat to a panther’s life and safety. By mid-August, at least 15 panthers were killed by cars this year. One was hit by a train. In 2019, automobiles took the lives of 24 panthers.

It’s unlikely you’ll encounter a panther on suburban roads in Broward or Palm Beach counties. But drive west on Alligator Alley (Interstate 75) and you’re in panther territory, primarily in Southwest Florida, east of Naples, around Big Cypress National Preserve and Everglades National Park. Occasionally, Florida panthers have been spotted further north.

Despite the threat from automobiles, the panther population is growing. Back in the 1980s, state wildlife officials estimated there were fewer than 30 Florida panthers alive. Today, from 120 to 230 grown panthers are roaming Southwest Florida.

There were so few panthers many years ago because no one really cared much about protecting them.

Ashlee O’Connor, who speaks at schools and to community groups for the state wildlife conservation commission, says people hunted them without any limit. Then, in 1958, the state began protecting panthers, designating them endangered animals. The federal government followed in 1967.

Still, O’Connor says, we didn’t know much about the Florida panther in the 1980s. Since then, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) have been partners in various ways to protect and preserve the Florida panther, which is a subspecies of puma.

A number of extensive steps have been taken to protect panthers.

To prevent the cats from getting hit by cars on I-75, 60 wildlife
crossings and bridges were built under and over the highway where there’s fast-moving traffic. Fences along I-75 help prevent the panthers from crossing elsewhere. A panther wouldn’t have much of a chance if hit by a car traveling 70 mph.

Speed limits were reduced on rural roads in panther habitat. Road shoulders were widened in some places to give drivers a better view, and a chance to see a panther that’s about to cross the road. Rumble strips were installed where panthers often cross and slow the speed of cars considerably. Roadside “panther warning” signs were installed.

These days, wildlife experts are still learning more about panthers’ habits and range by tracking them from the air. Normally, they fly over panther habitat three times a week in airplanes equipped to pick up signals from a radio collar previously put on the cat after it had been captured.

A male panther will typically roam an area about 200 square miles. Female panthers, on the other hand, typically stay within an 80-square-mile area.

To study the health of the panthers, veterinarians need to examine a number of them each year and must capture them to do it. They use a trained dog to track the panther. Eventually, the cat climbs a tree. The team sets up a net and an inflated air cushion under the tree to catch the animal after it’s shot with a tranquilizer dart.

A veterinarian anesthetizes the animal and begins a complete examination. The vet inoculates the panther against diseases, takes a blood sample, de worms the panther if necessary, tattoos an I.D. number in its ear, inserts a microchip under the skin (just as it’s done with your dog or cat), and fits the panther with a radio collar for tracking.

One of the vaccinations is against feline leukemia that can be fatal to panthers and picked up from domestic cats.

In the wild, panthers survive by preying on a  variety of animals, including deer, calves, goats, and smaller animals like raccoons and rabbits.

Adult panthers are at the top of the food chain and have no natural predators. It’s a different story for the kittens, though.

They are prey for other animals and die for a number of reasons.

People sometimes ask if such an extensive effort to preserve a species of animal is worth it.  Ashlee O’Connor points to the panther’s place in the check and balance of the natural environment and considers the preservation of Florida panthers a kind of reparation for taking some of their habitat in the first place.

Whether what’s being done is enough cannot be certain. “Many factors play into the recovery of a species,” O’Connor says. “There’s a breeding population now. I think we’re on our way to a recovered population. We’re making progress, but we’re not there yet.”

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So much more than a parade

“Listen,” my mother said, “here it comes.” I heard the sound of drums and then horns in the distance, my first glimpse of a marching band. This was my first Fourth of July parade.

That morning was warm and sunny. At home, my mom told my dad to “hurry up,” we had to get there or we wouldn’t be able to see. My dad hoisted me up in his arms and then up over his head so I straddled his shoulders.

Off we went. We didn’t have a car, so it seemed like a long walk before I was on the ground and sitting on the curbstone across from the Everett Mill building in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Before long, a man came by selling balloons. My mom bought me an ice cream bar from a car and a crowd began to gather on the other side of the street ad behind us, three deep. Many of them held small flags.

As a young child, the Fourth of July was just a day for a parade with marching bands, girls twirling sticks, local Boy Scout troops trying to walk in step, policemen marching, some soldiers or sailors, and fire trucks at the end of the parade. There was music and flag waving and cookouts and summer fun.

At some point, however, I began hearing about the Declaration of Independence and that Thomas Jefferson wrote it. School textbooks were of little interest to me; they seemed so dull, even boring. The books had dates and dry facts: John Adams was born on October 30, 1735 and became the second president of the United States in 1797. No history teacher stirred my interest, either.

I was out of high school before I really felt, understood, and appreciated that these men — many who were men of wealth and means — had so much to lose and literally risked hanging as traitors guilty of treason. Still, they boldly and courageously signed their names to the document that accused King George III of multiple offenses and declared their independence.

Who knew what would happen next? A group of colonies had declared war on a powerful nation with a mighty military. The colonies had no army when they took on King George.

In August 1776, British troops, some 34,000 of them, were prepared to invade New York. About a year earlier Patrick Henry told angry colonists meeting at St. John’s Church in Richmond Virginia: “Give me liberty or give me death.” The sentiment grew among the colonists.

The Declaration of Independence was born during the summer of 1776. It did not flow unimpeded from Thomas Jefferson’s pen. He was the original wordsmith, but over 17 days, a committee and representatives at the Continental Congress made more than 80 changes to Jefferson’s draft. They voted for independence on July 2 and released the final signed declaration on July 4.

John Hancock, the first to sign it, stressed the need for unity when he said, “We must hang together,” to which Benjamin Franklin added, “Yes, we must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

They pledged to each other “our fortunes and our sacred honor.”

They knew independence would not come easily. John Adams said “the object is great which we have in view, and we must expect a great expense of blood to obtain it. But we must remember that a free constitution of civil government cannot be purchased at too dear a rate.”

The king called them traitors. They called themselves patriots. The colonists did indeed shed their blood and win their independence, setting the stage for the creation of a unique government that persists today, in spite of social upheaval, unrest and pandemic.

And, on a much smaller scale, they saved me that space on the curb in Lawrence, Massachusetts so many years later, and the right for my mother to say, “Listen, here it comes.”

 

by Bill Johnson

Bill Johnson is a retired news reporter and congressional aide who is now a freelance writer.

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CROW’s nest

Helping wildlife … and veterans

Breanna Frankel knows it takes patience to make friends with a Great Horned Owl. And over time, she developed a rapport with one named Mini — “a good relationship,” Frankel said, “built on food.”

Mini arrived at the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife (CROW) on Sanibel Island, off the coast of Fort Myers, with a chunk of a wing missing. The injury upset the bird’s natural balance, according to Frankel, CROW’s rehabilitation manager. Now, Mini sometimes leans against Frankel’s neck or chest, seeming to cuddle.

“That’s not love,” Frankel said. “it’s Mini leaning on Breanna to keep her balance.” Frankel is the only one at CROW who can interact with Mini this way, but it took months for Mini to trust her. A hair dryer has now strengthened their relationship. Mini likes to be blown dry after getting wet and learned how to make it happen. Great Horned Owls secrete an oily substance from a gland that waterproofs their feathers. If their feathers were soaked, the owl would be unable to fly. But that doesn’t work on Mini’s amputated wing. It doesn’t get waterproofed. One time when it got wet, Frankel decided to blow-dry it. Mini’s enclosure is partly covered and partly open to the sky. When it rains, Mini may run out in the rain and then come back looking for Frankel to blow-dry her feathers. (Maybe she’s a wise old owl indeed.)

Besides being displayed to educate us, Mini is a valuable resident of CROW because she is an effective “foster mother” to orphaned baby owls. When caring for young ones, she’s so protective that no one can enter her enclosure, not even Frankel.

I learned this and more during Frankel’s 35-minute presentation about owls – the kind of presentation about various animals made most mornings at 11:00 o’clock at CROW.

One of the “take home facts” I’ll remember is about an owl’s ears. Perhaps you think those two things sticking up atop the owl’s head are ears. They are not. They are just tufts of feathers revealing an owl’s emotions. The owl’s ears are actually holes in each side of its head. Unlike ours, they are not symmetrically placed directly across from each other. One is higher than the other. The higher one hears things above the horizon and the lower ear hears sounds closer to the ground.

CROW is a very busy place. Mini was one of 4,760 animals among 160 species treated at CROW last year. Most of them are injured for an unknown reason. Some are hit by cars. Some are birds that fell from a nest. Some are attacked by another animal. At the time of my visit this spring, CROW was treating 215 animals and had treated more than 1900 since the start of the year. At that pace they’ll exceed last year’s numbers.

As a teaching hospital with an on-site dormitory for veterinarians in training, CROW is “dedicated to saving wildlife through state-of-the-art veterinarian care, research, education, and conservation.”

The visitor center gives viewers a peek of that medicine in practice on large screens. The screens show what’s happening live in six areas of the center, including the “in-take” room where injured animals arrive and are examined.

Six screens show live images of animal treatment

To visit the CROW visitor center on Sanibel, the fee is $12 for adults, less for children. For an additional $13, you can be guided through the grounds to an aviary, a large cage where birds are practicing to fly again, large water tanks with sea turtles, a pelican compound, an area of shallow pools with ladders to encourage mammals to climb, and other animal habitats. You can visit the animal hospital as well.

Among the informative exhibits in the visitor center is a poster with a quote from the well-known anthropologist Dr. Jane Goodall that reflects the purpose of the CROW organization. It reads: “Only if we understand, can we care. Only if we care, will we help. Only if we help, will they be saved.”

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What a Zoo! Sawgrass Wildlife Hospital’s Small Miracles

“We have a real Dr. Doolittle here,” is how Allan Rose, executive director of Sawgrass Nature Center & Wildlife Hospital in Coral Springs, describes Donna Fife, the hospital director. And with good reason.

His description reflects Fife’s dedication to saving wild animals and her skill in treating them, although she is not a veterinarian.  On the day of my visit in early February, about 50 animals were hospitalized at the center. Recent arrivals included three doves, a gopher tortoise, and a blue jay suffering spinal trauma. The blue jay was being given steroids and oxygen and fed through a tube. Its chance for survival, Fife guessed, was about 50 percent.

The two doves had broken wings, which hospital staff set and wrapped. Sometimes broken wings heal; sometimes they don’t. If a dove can’t fly perfectly, it cannot be released into the wild and will have a permanent home at the wildlife center. The gopher tortoise was treated for an eye infection. As a “keystone” species, the tortoise is valuable in our eco-system because its long tunnel-like burrows provide shelter for other endangered animals.

In addition to the hospital’s inpatient animals, Fife was caring for nine orphaned baby raccoons in her home. The babies have to be fed every few hours, so they couldn’t be left overnight at the hospital. “It’s like having my own babies,” Fife said. The outlook for them is good, and she expects they’ll eventually be released back into the wild.

Baby raccoon being bottle fed

One of the hospital’s patients hasn’t flown the coop. Ewok, an Eastern Screech Owl, lives at the center and now serves as an educational “ambassador” on school trips and events for wildlife education. When the owl arrived, its head tilted to one side. An examination revealed a detached retina in one of its eyes. Fife gave him a stuffed “mama owl” that he’d lean his head against to try to straighten it. “He still loves it and grooms it,” she said. Ewok is friendly enough that he also sometimes provides company for Rose, sitting on the executive director’s desk.

Screech owl being fed with tweezer

Besides medical treatment, “we give the animals a lot of TLC,” Rose said.

When injured animals arrive, Fife describes the work as detective work. “We go by what we see, smell, and feel.” Among the wildlife being treated during my visit was a possum found by the road about three weeks earlier. It was in such bad shape that “it looked like an alien,” Fife said. It was almost bald and had lost much of its muscle. The possum was treated with subcutaneous (under the skin) fluid injections along with rounds of antibiotics and nutritional supplements. At the time of my visit, the outlook for the possum was promising. 

Because possums eat rats, mice, ticks, and venomous snakes, they’re great to have in your garden, Fife said. They happen to be the only marsupial indigenous to North America. Even a dead possum is welcome at the hospital, Rose said, because it could have babies in its pouch. (As a marsupial, a possum’s very tiny babies crawl into the pouch after birth.) 

The possum, along with Ewok the owl and the baby raccoons, are just some of the nearly 1,000 injured or orphaned animals brought to the center and hospital in a typical year. Some people make great efforts to save wildlife simply because they love animals. Others, like Robin Reccasina, the center’s operations and education director, believe every animal has an important role in the ecosystem, and since humans are damaging it, we have a responsibility to help.

Not all animals are welcome at the center. Animals of an invasive species should not be brought to the hospital because they cannot be released back into the environment. They include iguanas, Muscovy ducks, and Egyptian geese.

Operating a non-profit organization almost always requires two things: money and volunteers. The Sawgrass center and wildlife hospital always needs the latter. The work isn’t easy, Fife said, and volunteers must be committed. Some who don’t handle animals are needed in the busy kitchen, which prepares meals for 100 or more animals of different species. Others transport supplies.

Money also is always welcome. “We rely totally on donations,” Rose emphasized. “We are unique. If you love animals, this is a great place to donate.”  To donate, volunteer, or learn more, call 954 752-WILD (9453), or visit SawgrassNatureCenter.org.

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Catching Pythons With Science, Not Guns or Knives

Oh, you know all about the danger invasive pythons pose in the Everglades and the annual hunt by folks who come from afar for bragging rights or to collect a bounty.

 

But I’ll bet you don’t know all about the science behind the effort to reduce the python population before they destroy the populations of deer, bobcats, rabbits, and other animals being wiped out, thanks to the pythons that have no predator.

 

Right now, for example, a cooperative effort by Canadian scientists and Florida wildlife experts is underway with federal help at the National Wildlife Research Center in Gainesville, Florida, financed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. They are experimenting with ways to trick male pythons into slithering into a trap. How? They start with skin that pythons have shed. Then, using a complex process involving various chemicals, they extract pheromones from the skin. They build a maze in the laboratory and spread female pheromones through the maze to see if males will follow the trail into a trap.

 

You could say this is a centuries-old idea. Question: How can you trap men? Answer: Get them to chase women. Ian Bartoszek, a biologist with the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, puts it this way: “A male python is the best female detector on the plant.” And females are more important to catch.

 

If the “trick-them-with-pheromones” technique can be perfected, we could kill many males, eliminating some that would fertilize female eggs.

 

That would be helpful, but finding and removing females would be more effective because they have so many eggs — as many 70, 75, or 80.  Besides using pheromones, another method using the males to lead hunters to females is underway.

 

Bartoszek and his colleagues are at work searching for pythons and attaching radio-tracking devices to the males, knowing they will lead them to the potential mamas. Finding them in the first place, though, is no walk in the woods. Well, it actually is a walk in the Everglades — sometimes a long walk through knee-deep muck that sucks your foot down with every step. By all accounts, pythons are very difficult to see because they so easily blend into the Everglades landscape. An ecologist from the University of Arkansas, John Wilson, is quoted in Popular Science magazine that you can stand on a python and not even know. They can move fast, so even when you snag one it might get away. Two or three people may be needed to hold an 11-footer.

 

With the radio-tracking strategy, the snakes are let loose when they’re tagged and may eventually seek out the ladies. A helicopter tracks the electronic signals and leads hunters on the ground to the capture. In the meantime, the python might kill some mammals, but catching an egg-filled female is worth the price. The strategy has reaped some benefits. In 2015, for instance, Bartoszek reported trapping four males in a hole with a 14-foot female, capturing 240 pounds of python and a lot of eggs. In a public radio interview Bartoszek said he and his fellow scientists have eliminated more than 2,000 pythons from the Everglades National Park since 2002. Yet, the python population is still growing, and Ian Bartoszek said the range is expanding northward.

 

The ecological battle is on, but it’s not yet being won. Scientists will be the most effective warriors we have in the battle.

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Fighting World Hunger From Florida

The world is a hungry place.

By most estimates, nearly a billion people sharing the planet with us do not have enough to eat or are malnourished. That’s about one in seven of us. Thousands of people in third-world countries starve to death every day. Many international organizations help to feed these hungry people in various ways. Among them is ECHO, a non-profit Christian-based organization that operates from Fort Myers, Florida.

ECHO is dedicated to reducing hunger and improving life for small-scale farmers. It does that primarily by providing technical support to development groups, teaching more efficient and sustainable agriculture methods to farmers, Peace Corps volunteers, and community groups. Those people, in turn, teach others – what they call the ECHO effect. ECHO reaches these people from operational centers in Asia, West Africa, East Africa, and Central America. In ECHO’s Asian Regional Office Seed Bank in Thailand, for instance, they identify underdeveloped seeds and spread their use throughout the region to help supply nutritional food.

In addition to efficient farming practices, ECHO teaches simple technology methods that are primitive to us but dramatically improve the lives of impoverished people. They call this “appropriate technology,” which they research, demonstrate and build to help provide people with food, water, and shelter.

At its Fort Myers headquarters, ECHO conducts one-hour public tours of its Global Farm to demonstrate efficient farming methods in conditions around the world. The farm serves as a training ground for interns who train 14 months before working with small-scale farmers in developing countries.

On this day, veteran tour guide Vic Estoye explained various farming methods and simple technologies ECHO brings to impoverished regions of the world. “We help them make what they need out of what they have,” he said. “Nothing is universal. It must adapt to the country, culture, and skills.” Walking among tall bamboo stands and exotic plants, we stopped to taste cherries from a Barbados cherry tree. Estoye explained that when these trees are planted along schoolyards in poor areas, the cherries provide children with a rich supply of vitamin C.

By mixing animal waste and water in a barrel, ECHO teaches how to produce methane gas to fuel a simple one-burner stove for cooking, which is especially important in areas with a growing wood shortage because so much has been used. Among other things, ECHO teaches how to make cooking stoves of clay, how to build a motor-free well water pump, and how to filter dirty water, making it safe to drink.

The Global Farm demonstrates the value of unusual plants. Farmers, for instance, can plant a special peanut variety whose roots fertilize the nearby soil for growing other farm products. At the farm, you’ll see demonstration of rice paddies, pools of fish (tilapia) that feed on duckweed, and above ground and rooftop gardening methods that don’t need traditional fertilizer.

The Global Farm offers two tours – one focusing on farming, the other on simple technology. The farm also features a nursery that displays exotic plants, with fruits and vegetables for sale. A gift shop and bookstore offers books and seeds that are helpful to Florida gardeners. The tour fee is $12.50 for adults.

As a non-profit organization, ECHO receives the highest marks from Charity Navigator, which rates substantial charities from financial data. According to the latest report, Echo spends little more than 6 percent of money raised on fundraising, about 10 percent on administration and general expenses, and 84 percent directly on programs and services – a top rating. You can learn more about ECHO from its website, echonet.org.

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Road Rangers: Help at any hour

There’s a sinking feeling when your car breaks down on Florida’s Turnpike or an interstate highway. Even if you’re not stalled in the highspeed travel lane, cars whiz by at 70 miles an hour.

It happens all the time. Tires go flat. Radiators boil over. Gas tanks run dry. Engines fail. Fortunately, a well-equipped and trained Road Ranger is not far away and will be there to help before long. Simply dial *347 (star FHP) any day, any hour, to summon help from the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP). A Road Ranger will arrive to help on interstate highways, and the State Farm Safety Patrol is on duty on the turnpike. Their assistance is free to drivers as a public safety service for all of us. Road Rangers and State Farm Safety Patrol are a busy bunch – busier than you might think. In 2016, for instance, they responded to 84,031 incidents or “assists” on the turnpike and interstate highways in an area from Broward County north to Vero Beach in Indian River County.

Throughout the entire state, rangers helped at 350,859 incidents. Most “assists” are to help drivers with disabled cars. The Road Rangers also help at accident scenes. When Rangers arrive before police, they play a critical role in traffic management, setting up flashing warning signs and reflective cones to direct oncoming traffic around the disabled cars. Sometimes they are first to spot debris in travel lanes, a hazard that drivers might swerve to avoid and cause a crash. The safety program’s goal is to reach you within 15 minutes. Unless Rangers are handling an incident elsewhere, they’ll usually be there within a half hour, according to Nicole Forest, a transportation department official in this district. Not surprising, this work on high-speed highways is dangerous. Tragically, a Ranger was killed by a hit-and-run driver in Boca Raton in 2014. This prompts DOT officials to urge drivers to obey Florida’s “Move Over” law.

When you see emergency vehicles ahead, move over a lane if you can safely do so. If you can’t, slow down to at least 20 mph below the posted speed limit. If the posted limit is 20 mph or less, slow to just 5 mph. Rangers are busiest in high-traffic urban areas, but also help in isolated areas of Alligator Alley (I-75) without service stations. When cars run out of gas, Rangers arrive with an emergency supply. Broward Rangers cover “the Alley” to the county line where Collier County Rangers pick up the service. In areas less populated than Broward County, the service doesn’t operate ‘round the clock as it does here. But no matter where you are on these major highways. The phone number for assistance is the same: *FHP (*347). Calculating how many highway accidents, injuries, or fatalities have been prevented by this service is impossible. Surely, there were many. Since the service began in 2000, the Rangers and Safety Patrol had responded to 4.3 million “assists” by the end of 2013. By now, the number has approached or topped 5 million.

The DOT funds the program with additional support from State Farm Insurance. Contracts for the road service by private companies are managed by various department districts. If, like tens of thousands of drivers each year, your car breaks down on an interstate highway or turnpike, you’ll be grateful that Road Rangers and State Farm Safety Patrol members are there to help you. Road Rangers: Help at any hour

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Florida’s Sweltering Life Before Air-Conditioning

When the Florida sun beats down and the temperature reaches the 90s, you can thank a fella named Willis Carrier for the air conditioning that makes life in Florida bearable.

To a large extent, he’s why we can walk from our air-conditioned homes to our air-conditioned cars to our air-conditioned workplaces without being drenched in sweat.

Well, almost. On the hottest days, walking through a parking lot can soak a shirt or blouse. Even now, walking any distance in summer can cause my shirt to stick to me, and I must change shirts at least twice a day. When Hurricane Wilma struck in 2005, I had a brief taste of life without A/C. After just two days, when our bed sheets were wet with sweat, a friend took us in. And that was in October! Never mind the summer. All of this raises the question: How did people here stand it before air conditioning? Well, it was a different culture for sure. The constant heat was a reason stereotypical folks in Old Florida walked and talked more slowly than folks in the north. And the heat controlled a lot of what they did. Smart builders built homes with deep, overhanging eaves that extended far enough to shade the windows from the sun. High ceilings allowed heat to rise, making it slightly cooler below.

Opposing windows allowed the relief of a cross breeze through the house if there was a breeze at all. Smart folk, if they could, planted trees to the east and west of the house to offer shade from the arc of the sun. Some had “sleeping porches,”

A screened-in porch that might have been cooler with just the slightest nighttime breeze. (In big city apartment buildings – New York and Chicago – people slept outside on fire escapes.) There are accounts, if they’re true, of folks hanging wet clothes in doorways on the theory that air blowing through them would have a cooling effect. It’s said that some who had refrigerators first would put bed sheets or even underwear in the refrigerator to cool them. The heat was a reason some folks took midday naps, to escape the hottest part of the day. By any measure, life in the heat of the summer must have been just miserable. You can imagine that many Floridians were, shall I say, pretty stinky. The heat created a culture that’s been long gone – one that might have brought neighbors closer together, at least to know each other. You might call them “porch people” who sat on their porch to escape the stifling and stuffy heat inside.

A lot of family business was done on the porch, and, by golly, it’s widely reported that people actually talked to others nearby and those just passing by. A lot of music was played and heard from those porches. Those of us born post-A/C have no cause to even think about Florida life before then. The fellow I mentioned – Willis Carrier – created a functioning air conditioner of some kind back in 1902, but it wasn’t until 1951 when window A/C units were introduced. Central air conditioning systems came along in the ’60s. (Movie theaters were sometimes the first place in town to have it, so people fled to the movies just to keep cool.) It was about 1970 when a majority of Florida homes

became air-conditioned, and the Florida population soared. In 1950, the population here was 2.7 million. By 1960, with some air conditioning, the population increased to 4.9 million. In the ’70s more homes had “central air” and the population grew to about 19 million today. Today’s Florida is possible only because of air conditioning. Without it, we’d all be likely wearing sweaty T-shirts and sitting on a porch at night, hoping to catch a slight breeze. More likely, we wouldn’t be here.

Had Willis Carrier not done what he did, someone else most likely would have figured out the engineering, but who knows when? So when I turn on the A/C these days, I might think of Willis. And I won’t have to go searching for the slightest breeze.

 

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If Wishes Were Horses…One Woman’s Dream of Riding

Twenty-seven years old is late for someone to become a jockey. But Patra Jean didn’t think it was too old to live her dream, which she did. Despite the late start, she finished her apprenticeship quickly and was in full gear. “You could say I was self-accomplished,” she said.

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For a couple of years beginning in 2000, the 5’1” 100 pound jockey donned her silks to compete in more than 500 races, and bring home 54 winners.

 

Most of Patra’s racing was at Calder Race Course in Miami Gardens, but she also rode at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Hialeah Park in Hialeah, and in a track event in Jamaica. She rode for different owners and trainers, sometimes getting as many as five mounts a day.

Big-time horse racing has its dangers, and Patra knew them well. She was trampled in a race when her horse’s hoof clipped the heels of the horse in front of her. She went down, and was run over by the horse that was racing behind her. Patra was rushed to the hospital where she learned, fortunately, that she had no serious injuries beyond a collection of bruises. Patra learned something from her experience that day: “If I got hurt, it wouldn’t keep from racing,” she said.

As a child in Hialeah, Patra’s first experience with horses was in preschool when a babysitter’s husband took her for pony rides at Hialeah Park. She was hooked immediately and knew horses would be part of her life, not just riding them but caring for them.

Today, Patra and her husband, Rich Fitzgerald, own and operate Millpond Stables on Vinkemulder Road in Coconut Creek. They have five horses of their own, and board a number of others. She also provides riding lessons on a regular basis.

There are several long days in a business that requires never-ending work. Some days find her mucking out stalls, filling them with hay, tending to the horses’ water, feed, and making sure they get medical care when needed. Her horses need attention all day, every day, early mornings, and late nights.

“It’s not a job,” Petra said, “You have to love it. The horses don’t have a voice. They can’t speak for themselves. You have to have an eye to know when they’re hurting, or need care. That’s why I’m here. That’s what it means to have horses in your blood.”

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