Monthly Archives: April 2017

The following is a press release from Tillamook Bay Watershed Council and Tillamook Estuaries Partnership:

Have you ever wondered what makes a rainbow trout become a "steelhead? Have you ever caught a glimpse of steelhead swimming and spawning in the wild? These incredible ocean-going trout are among the most revered game fish in the world, and they attract thousands of anglers to Tillamook Countys rivers every year. Steelhead are also one of the most beautiful and interesting inhabitants of our rainforest environment. This coming weekend offers a rare chance to learn about these fascinating fish on a special steelhead ecology hike along Tillamook's spectacular Kilchis River. Join naturalists from the Tillamook Bay Watershed Council (TBWC) and Tillamook Estuaries Partnership (TEP) as they lead hikers along sections of the Kilchis, looking for spawning pairs of steelhead, and discussing aspects of steelhead biology and behavior. Registration is free and required for this event, and will be limited to 20 people.

"Explore Nature" is a series of hikes, walks, paddles and outdoor adventures hosted throughout Tillamook County by a coalition of conservation organizations. These meaningful, nature-based experiences highlight the unique beauty of Tillamook County and the work being done to preserve and conserve the areas natural resources and natural resource-based economy. Explore Nature is partially funded by the Economic Development Council of Tillamook County and Visit Tillamook Coast.

See the rest here:

Famous fish the focus of 'steelhead ecology' hike - Tillamook Headlight-Herald

The following is a press release from Friends of Netarts Bay WEBS:

Lush forest, distant waterfalls and outstanding vistas are all part of this trek to the end of Cape Lookout. This free hike is hosted by the Friends of Netarts Bay WEBS and is part of the Explore Nature series of hikes, walks, paddles and outdoor adventures. Explore Nature partners include volunteer community and non-profit organizations, offering meaningful nature-based experiences highlight the unique beauty of Tillamook County and the work being done to preserve and conserve the areas natural resources and natural resource-based economy.

This moderate to difficult five-mile journey takes you to the Cape Lookout headland, which extends more than a mile out into the ocean. Towering over 800 feet above sea level, the cape offers sweeping views of Sandlake watershed, seasonal glimpses of migrating whales, and confirms the amazing beauty of Tillamook County.

Although this hike has a stunning backdrop, the trail itself can be muddy and slick. Also, expect to navigate over stair stepping tree roots. Portions of the trail parallel the cliffs edge and do not have guardrails.

Friends of Netarts Bay WEBS is a non-profit organization dedicated to sustaining the Netarts Bay area through education and stewardship. Find out more at http://www.netartsbaytoday.org.

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'Explore Nature' sets Cape Lookout hike - Tillamook Headlight-Herald

i hate myself Friday April 7 through Thursday April 13 at Anthology Film Archives: $11

Joanna ArnowsBad at Dancinghighly personal, and highly awkward documentaryappropriately titled i hate myself :)makesWelcome to the Dollhouselook like a film about a well-adjusted family. Arnow sums up her motivation in the form of a question at the films outset: Is James a good person to be dating? Prepare to laugh your sphincter right out of your butt when the BF climaxes following a reluctant hump and tells Arnow sweetly: Feels good, babe. Thanks for just lying there. What a hero.

Anthology has dubbed the film one of the most unflinchingly, sometimes shockingly candid personal documentaries to emerge in recent years now you know why theyve devoted an entire week of screenings to it. Arnow will be on hand too, so dont miss it. The Term() Thursday April 6, Tuesday April 18, Monday April 24, and Sunday April 30 at Spectacle: $5

Throughout the month of April, Spectacle is hostingRule #1: Believe the Autocrat, aseries spotlighting films from Marxfilm. As an ex-Russianist (admittedly not a very accomplished one lets just say Im a lot like that dude inDon DeLillos White Noise,the professor and Nazi historian who cant speak German), this series comes highly recommended for my fellow Russophile dorks out there.

And hey, given that our current president seems to model himself after Vladimir Putin, its probably a pretty good idea for us all to take a good, hard look at whats happened in Russia since thecollapse of the CCCP, when a fledgling democracy was quietly/not-so-quietly overthrown by a former KGB officer with an autocratic streak. Theres been stagnation, brain drain, cultural flattening, censorship, a volatile resource-based economy heavily dependent on oil, and a violent war on the press (just to name a few).

In fact, the series title was inspired by Masha Gessens post-election op-ed for the Times, which advises Americans to pay careful attention to the authoritarian tendencies of our own new regime, and take lessons from the Russians, who are in so deep that it will likely take another revolution to get them out. And hey, given that were just a few short months from the Russian Revolutions Centennial theres no time like October.

The Termis a good place to start, since its focus is the short-lived protest movement following Vladimir Putins 2012 reelection, which was led by people who Russians like to say live inside the garden ring aka the tiny less-than-1-percent class of uber-rich people and their educated liberal children, who the vast majority of Russians have next to nothing in common with. Therein lies the problem well, one of them.

South of Heaven: Supernatural Westerns Now through Saturday April 29 at Spectacle: $5 per screening

If any of you are familiar with so-called Acid Westerns (think: Holy Mountainand JarmuschsDead Man), then youre sure to love this Spectacle series focused on Supernatural Westerns. The four films cover everything from witches to werewolves, from the devil to Dracula, but all are throwbacks on horseback from down Mexico way. Which, if youre anything like me, is great becausesome of us round these parts have seen nearly every American-made Western worth watching, and its high noon-time we soak up some desert tales from south of the border. And, hey, youll learn cool stuff like this a film called Ghost Townup here translates to El Pueblo Fantasma(which is just a much better sounding title, to be perfectly honest).

Link:

Week in Film: Endless LOLs, an Acid Western, and Great Advice ... - Bedford + Bowery

A lack of diversity in the mining and resource sectors could be driving up Saskatchewan's gender wage gap, according to Peter Wilson / Saskatoon Star Phoenix

Saskatchewans mining and nuclear industries have made strides toward hiring more women, but gender imbalance remains the elephant in the room,according to the vice-chair of a local organization that is determined to achieve parity in the sector.

It is a reality that were facing, is that women just arent interested in coming to the industry, said Nancy Komperdo, who has been involved with Women in Mining and Women in Nuclear Saskatchewan (WIM/WIN) for four years.

So how do we change that?

Women in Mining and Women in Nuclear Saskatchewan vice-chair Nancy Komperdo. Nancy Komperdo / Saskatoon

Komperdo, who works with the Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP Billiton in Saskatoon, said while companies including her own, which is angling for gender parity by 2025 have made progress, there is still a lot of work to be done.

Until that happens, a lack of diversity in the resource sector will likely to continue pressuring Saskatchewans 21.6 per cent gender wage gap, which is one of the countrys highest, according to a report released Wednesday by the Conference Board of Canada.

I think it comes back to the resource-based economy, said Sheila Rao, a principal research associate with the Conference Board of Canada. We have, probably, more men in the higher-paying professions and that will make a difference.

Closing the gap which is three points above the national average and, among the provinces, trails only Newfoundland and Labrador, Alberta and B.C. will require transparency and accountability from Saskatchewan employers, Rao said.

The only way to improve the situation is to bring light to it.

Anothersolutionis outreach and education, which workgroups like WIM/WIN are already tackling, Komperdo said. Its vital to drivehome the point that women have potential in an industry that has historically been dominated by men, she added.

This industry is great and theres an amazing, talented group of individuals that are working there, she said of WIM/WIN and other groups efforts to attract women to the sector. And we want more to come to us.

Women are not the only people in Saskatchewan facing a wage gap. According to the report, the provinces immigrant wage gap was37.1 per cent in 2015 second only to Manitoba, where the gap is 39.4 per cent, and about 17 points above the national average.

Rao said while an explanation for the gulf between what immigrants and non-immigrants earn is murkier, the availability of language skills training almost certainly plays a role.

Saskatchewan Intercultural Association executive director Jess Hamm takes a starker view, noting that bias either consciousor unconscious often makes it difficult for immigrants to advance beyond entry-level positions.

Theres a lot of resistance towards that, Hamm said, addingthat the problem is compounded bythe fact Saskatchewan, unlike many other provinces, is still adjusting to widespread immigration.

While attrition can play a role by creating more opportunities for newcomers as the existing workforce turns over,education is also a crucial step toward closing the immigrant wage gap, she said.

I think that a lot of companies are trying to make changes (but) its hard to undo how youve been cultured to run your company.

amacpherson@postmedia.com twitter.com/macphersona

Gender Wage Gap:

Newfoundland and Labrador 28.5%

Alberta 24.6%

B.C. 22.6%

Saskatchewan 21.6%

Nova Scotia 16.4%

Quebec 16.4%

Ontario 16.2%

New Brunswick 14.4%

Manitoba 13.2%

P.E.I. 10.7%

Immigrant Wage Gap

Manitoba 39.4%

Saskatchewan 27.1%

Quebec 26.5%

Alberta 25.9%

B.C. 20.1%

P.E.I. 16.7%

New Brunswick 15.2%

Ontario 14.3%

Newfoundland and Labrador 10.8%

Nova Scotia 2.8%

Continue reading here:

Saskatchewan gender, immigrant wage gaps among widest in Canada - Saskatoon StarPhoenix

This weeks meeting between Presidents Trump and Xi provides the American president an opportunity to reset a U.S.-China trade and economic relationship that has become severely unbalanced. Over the past 15 years, the United States has accrued a $3.8 trillion goods trade deficit with China, a trade deficit that analysts estimate may have cost America as many as 3.4 million jobs.

This reality represents a far cry from that envisioned in 2001, when China joined a community of nations in the World Trade Organization committed to trade on market-based terms in accordance with the principles of reciprocity, national treatment and non-discrimination.

With regard to the former, China has essentially closed its digital services (e.g., Web search, auction, and social media) and cloud computing markets to American enterprises, while continuing with long-imposed severe restrictions on a range of service industries, from banking and cinema to telecommunications.

Meanwhile, American goods producers are regularly compelled to produce in China as a condition of market access (instead of producing goods here for export to China) or forced to enter joint ventures and share proprietary technology.

Most recently, Chinas Made in China 2025 strategy calls for using at least 70 percent locally-produced code, content and components in an array of advanced-manufacturing products. Underlying all this is a Chinese mentality that seeks to restrict foreign access to Chinese markets while still expecting unfettered Chinese access to the rest of the world economy.

Still, its important that President Trump recognize that the last contest was about low- and mid-tech manufacturing, in which China competed on the basis of low cost, devalued currency, encouragement of large numbers of low-wage workers to migrate to cities and the provision of massive subsidies ($118 billion for just four industries auto parts, steel, paper, and glass and glass products alone).

But the current and future contest revolves around which country will lead in advanced industries. Today, China seeks to move up the value chain to capture greater global share in knowledge-, technology-, and innovation-based industries. Its for this reason that a singular focus on ameliorating the trade deficit would miss whats really at stake now.

Indeed, one could very well envision a world where U.S.-China trade is in balance, but where the structure of both the trade and national economies has radically shifted, with Chinas exports and economy shifting to higher-value-added advanced industries, while Americas exports and economy become more commodity- and natural-resource based, with increases in food, fiber, and mineral exports (along with waste paper, our fastest-growing export to China, by volume).

At this rate, America could go back to being an economy made up of hewers of wood and drawers of water, while China becomes the global technology leader. U.S.-China trade does need to be much more in balance, but with America exporting much more of the high-tech, high-wage-supporting, high-value-added products and services from sectors where it enjoys comparative advantage.

Addressing this challenge as the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation writes in its recent report, "Stopping Chinas Mercantilism: A Doctrine of Constructive, Alliance-Backed Confrontation" will require President Trump to elevate U.S.-China trade issues to a central focus of both U.S. economy policymaking and diplomatic relations.

To be sure, the United States should aggressively pursue every tool at its disposal under WTO trade rules and U.S. trade law (e.g., anti-dumping and countervailing duty cases) to counter individual cases of Chinese mercantilism. But a whack-a-mole strategy alone wont be enough; Chinas mercantilism is simply too pervasive.

Accordingly, the Trump administration should adopt a doctrine of constructive, alliance-backed confrontation that enrolls Americas leading allies in collectively pushing back through all available global forums and diplomatic channels against Chinese trade and economic policies that are tearing the very heart out of the market-based, liberalized global trade system.

This should include these nations working collaboratively to document the damage Chinese policies have done to their economies and to develop new global trade rules and norms that constrain such policies. Here, America must lead in forging new high-standard trade agreements, setting the terms of global trade going forward on American terms, for a failure to do so risks ceding leadership of the global economy to China.

But the key for Trump in Mar-a-Lago will be to communicate that U.S.-China trade going forward needs to be conducted on more equitable terms and that unfair Chinese policies that damage Americas advanced industries will no longer be tolerated.

Stephen Ezell is vice president for global innovation policy at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a science- and tech-policy think tank.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.

Read more:

Trump must fight for the jobs of tomorrow in meetings with China - The Hill (blog)

Terry Weaver 10:19 a.m. ET April 7, 2017

Terry Weaver is the founder and owner of Delta Resource Group, a business coaching and advisory practice. He is an active promoter of Technology Entrepreneurship, and has served on Technology advisory boards of Kansas State University, Furman University, University of South Carolina Upstate, Greenville County Schools and the United Way of Greenville County. He is a Charter member of the InnoVision Advisory Board. Terry is an Electrical Engineering graduate of Kansas State University, a Professional Engineer, and a member of the Engineering Hall of Fame at Kansas State University.(Photo: Tom Weaver)

Another 20-Year Overnight Success Story

I was ecstatic to see Greenville listed as a "Next in Tech?" player in a USA Today article on "Tech Job Migration". Who in the 1990s would have imagined the Textile Capital of the World transforming itself into a broadly based technology center?

Lots of people, actually.In the words of Robert Jarvik, inventor of the artificial heart, "Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear, and no concept of the odds against them.They make the impossible happen."

Capital Insights.InnoVision Awards.Innoventure. GSA Technology Council (GSATC) and Tech After 5. Upstate Carolina Angel Network (UCAN). NEXT. Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CUICAR). Greenville Tech's Center for Manufacturing Innovation.The Iron Yard.My apologies to those I've missed. Each of these organizations was the vision of one or more Greenville leaders, intent on making the impossible happen.

It's that poorly developed sense of fear of Greenville's technology leaders and the advocacy groups they spawned that brought us to this crossroads.And the impossible is within reach.

How do we move from the potential of "Next in Tech?" (with a question mark) to a nationally recognized technology hub?

Maintain and improve quality of life and public image:We must not only attract, but also retain the best and brightest technology talent and entrepreneurs. These people can live and work anywhere.They are drawn by arts and entertainment, a low cost of living, work-life balance and branding such as, "Yeah, that Greenville". ..

They are repelled by intolerance and exclusion of any type.We must stand for tolerance and fight prejudice in our laws, companies and churches. North Carolina has recently learned (we can hope) the high cost of intolerance.

Upgrade and expand the pool of technology talent:We must address the elephant in the room. Our university and technical college admissions officers readily identify one of their top challenges as incoming students who are underprepared for the demands of higher education, particularly in the basics,reading, math and science.It's not that our K-12 education system hasn't been working at this problem;it has,and progress has been made.We need to cut in the afterburners and get a lot better a lot faster at preparing more of our high school graduates for the rigors of higher education.

Tech career awareness:Many students make unconscious career-limiting choices before or during middle school.Convinced that science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) courses are "hard,"they de-select themselves from an educational track that would make them part of Greenville's technology future.We must redouble our efforts to make both students and parents aware of the upward mobility of technology-based careers, and promote STEM education in our grade schools, middle schools and high schools.

Support and promote non-University career paths:Greenville Tech's Center for Manufacturing Innovation is a great start.We need to expand our capacity and attract more students into skill-based technology jobs that may or may not require a college degree.High-tech manufacturing is part of our technology base, and has thousands of currently open jobs for which companiesdon't see enough adequately prepared applicants.The Iron Yard recognized this vacuum and has been hugely successful with a for-profit educational offering to ready students for high-demand and high-paying software development jobs.

Grow investable companies:Oddly, I rarely hear of a tech company limited by lack of capital.Rather, I hear of investors actively seeking high-growth "investable" technology companies, a need Capital Insights set out to solve 25 years ago and remains unsatisfied.

We as leaders of Greenville's future need to continue to ignore fear and make the impossible happen,the multi-decade transition from a low-wage labor-based branch manufacturing economy to a nationally-recognized knowledge economy.Failure is not an option.

Terry Weaver is the founder and owner of Delta Resource Group, a business coaching and advisory practice. He is an active promoter of Technology Entrepreneurship, and has served on the technology advisory boards of Kansas State University, Furman University, University of South Carolina Upstate, Greenville County Schools and the United Way of Greenville County. He is a charter member of the InnoVision Advisory Board. An electrical engineering graduate of Kansas State University, he is a member of his alma mater's Engineering Hall of Fame.

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COMMENTARY: Making Greenville's - Greenville News