Politics Plus

Congrats to Canada!  (Sorry to steal your thunder, Lynn – but I could NOT resist the picture!)

OTTAWA — The nine-year reign of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party came to a sudden and stunning end on Monday night at the hands of Justin Trudeau, the young leader of the Liberal Party.

Starting with a sweep of the Atlantic provinces, the Liberals capitalized on what many Canadians saw as Mr. Harper’s heavy-handed style, and the party went on to capture 184 of the 338 seats in the next House of Commons. The unexpected rout occurred 47 years after Mr. Trudeau’s father, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, first swept to power.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/20/world/americas/canada-election-stephen-harper-justin-trudeau.html?_r=0

Canada’s general elections have concluded with a landslide win for the Liberal Party and their leader, Justin Trudeau, ending the almost 10-year-rule of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

http://time.com/4079278/justin-trudeau-canada-prime-minister/

What better way to begin an overview of the splendors of autumn than with … well, an overview of the vast now no-longer verdant vegetation of the vales and vistas of Vermont?

NOTE: The Drone Video Is Best Viewed FULL SCREEN

Remind Me Again Why the Leaves Change Color

Most of us have a vague recollection of learning why leaves change color in the fall from our school days.  But let’s do a quick recap.

To begin with, Jack Frost can stop taking all his bows, because it’s not his handiwork. 

Trees, like the rest of, like to eat.  But unlike you or me, they are able to manufacture their own food.  This process takes place in the leaves in cells filled with chlorophyll via photosynthesis.

Chlorophyll is the green pigment that we all associate with leaf color.  It plays a crucial role in using the energy from the sun to convert the water from the tree’s roots and carbon dioxide [CO₂] from the air into sugars and starches that feed the tree, and as a by-product gives off oxygen [O₂].

But sitting right along with chlorophyll in the leaves’ cells are several other chemicals, including carotene and xanthophyll which you see in the orange color in carrots and yellow in corn.  They’ve been there all summer working just as hard as the green chlorophyll.

But in autumn when the days get shorter and the temperatures cool off, the production of chlorophyll begins to slow down, then breaks down and disappears.  So now it’s the time for the oranges and yellows of carotene and xanthophyll to be noticed and take center stage.  They were there the whole time – just masked by the green chlorophyll.

But some colors – viz., the reds and purples particularly associated with maples and sumacs – have NOT been hidden all summer long.  They’re being made de novo.  The sugars made late in summer or early fall, particularly with warm, sunny days, are chemically converted at that time of year to anthocyanins.

And the fact that the reds and purples of anthocyanins require bright sunshine is the reason that some trees are two-toned, with leaves at the top and outside a gorgeous red or purple, while inner and lower leaves deprived of all that sunshine display the more common yellows and oranges.

At the very end, I’ll post some solid Links with information used in putting this together that have more details, along with maps showing locations near you to enjoy Autumn’s Kaleidoscopic Color Show.

But let’s enjoy some of my favorite photos of the fantasia of fall …

RESOURCES

http://extension.illinois.edu/fallcolor/updates.cfm

http://extension.illinois.edu/fallcolor/education.cfm

http://www.foliagenetwork.com/

http://www.weather.com/maps/fall-foliage

Let me preface this by saying that, despite all appearances, this is not – NOT – snark!

Just in case it slipped under your radar, no doubt you’ll want to learn about Jennifer Connell.  She’s an HR manager who lives in Manhattan who sued her now 12 y/o nephew for $127,000 for an “exuberant hug” he gave her at his Birthday party when he turned 8 y/o.

The defendant, Sean Tarala, had just gotten his first two-wheeler as a Birthday present, and was excitedly riding around when Aunt Jen arrived to share in the festivities.  From testimony at trial, when Sean spotted Connell, the excited boy dropped the brand new bicycle to the ground, exclaiming, “Auntie Jen, Auntie Jen.”

JENNIFER CONNELL TESTIMONY at TRIAL:

“All of a sudden he was there in the air, I had to catch him and we tumbled onto the ground,”

“I remember him shouting, ‘Auntie Jen I love you,’ and there he was flying at me.”

She did suffer a broken wrist in the fall, but she told the jury she didn’t say anything at the time because “It was his birthday party and I didn’t want to upset him.” 

But later, she apparently had some serious second thoughts – at least according to the pleadings of her lawsuit:

“The injuries, losses and harms to the plaintiff were caused by the negligence and carelessness of the minor defendant in that a reasonable eight years old under those circumstances would know or should have known that a forceful greeting such as the one delivered by the defendant to the plaintiff could cause the harms and losses suffered by the plaintiff.”

And to buttress her request for $127,000 in damages, according to her testimony, it has severely hampered her social life:

“I was at a party recently, and it was difficult to hold my hors d’oeuvre plate.”

Fortunately the six-member Superior Court jury found that Sean was not liable.  AND it took them only 20 minutes to reach a verdict!

Auntie Jen gets ZERO!

To add another layer of sorrow, Sean’s Mother passed away last year – but she was aware of the lawsuit which had already been filed.  He was in court with his father, Michael Tarala, for the trial, and “appeared confused,” according to the Connecticut Post.

Perhaps wisely, Jen Connell “pleaded with judicial marshals to escort her to her car through a throng of media waiting outside the Main Street courthouse.”

PHOTO: Jennifer Connell, 54, leaving court after suing her 12-year-old nephew for wrist inj. She gets $0. pic.twitter.com/A8pWTMjFTA

— Kevin Galliford (@KallMeKG) October 13, 2015

… “I remember him shouting, ‘Auntie Jen I love you!’”

It’s probably a safe bet that Auntie Jen will never hear those words again from Sean.

Okay, so it’ll be a tad more than 2,000 words – I just renewed my “Poetic License”.

The graphics are from the weekend edition of a well-researched article in “The New York Times” titled “The Families Funding the 2016 Presidential Election”.

They are overwhelmingly white, rich, older and male, in a nation that is being remade by the young, by women, and by black and brown voters. Across a sprawling country, they reside in an archipelago of wealth….

Now they are deploying their vast wealth in the political arena, providing almost half of all the seed money raised to support Democratic and Republican presidential candidates. Just 158 families, along with companies they own or control, contributed $176 million in the first phase of the campaign….

But regardless of [the] industry, the families investing the most in presidential politics overwhelmingly lean right, contributing tens of millions of dollars to support Republican candidates who have pledged to pare regulations; cut taxes on income, capital gains and inheritances; and shrink entitlement programs.

The online article opens with a compelling, dramatic graphic that as you scroll down automatically zooms into the tippy top of the pile.  Not sure how they did it, because it’s not a GIF or flash, but I was immediately impressed!

And to enjoy the full impact, you really should view it online from the link above.  The entire article is well-worth the read, but here is their "Cliffs Notes" version as a 2,000 word essay.

Oh, and … Thanks, Citizens United!