Mountain Lion P-18 Killed while Crossing 405

From a National Park Service Press Release:

On early Tuesday morning, P-18, one of the mountain lion kittens born in the Santa Monica Mountains in May, 2010 was hit and killed while attempting to cross I-405 just south of the Getty Center southbound onramp.

The 15-month-old mountain lion’s movement was being followed via radio telemetry equipment as part of a decade long National Park Service mountain lion study in the Santa Monica Mountains. The mountain lion had been tracked since it was three weeks old.

Earlier this summer, P-18 departed from his mother’s home range in Malibu Creek State Park and slowly began making his way east through the mountains. Male mountain lions have an extremely large range of movement, and often seek out open space away from other male mountain lions as they mature. There are two other male mountain lions with GPS collars in the Santa Monica Mountains. It is possible that P-18 was attempting to disperse out of the Santa Monica Mountains to find unoccupied open space. Previous mountain lion tracking has shown that individual male mountain lions frequently move throughout the entire Santa Monica Mountain range, from the 405 to Camarillo on a regular basis.

P-18 Shortly After Separating From His Mother - NPS Photograph

Freeways are a known significant barrier to wildlife crossings in the Los Angeles area and other urban centers around the country. Caltrans, in partnership with numerous local, state, federal and non-profit organizations is working to identify funding sources and suitable wildlife crossing locations along the 405 and highways 101 and 118 to construct wildlife crossings that would facilitate wildlife movement between the Santa Monica Mountains and other protected open space in the Santa Susana Mountains and Los Padres National Forest. These wildlife crossings would allow animals to move freely between large areas of protected parkland, and increase genetic diversity in the Santa Monica Mountains mountain lion population, a critical need for long term species survival.

“Investing in connected pieces of parkland and constructing wildlife crossings along major freeways around Los Angeles is essential for long term mountain lion survival in the Santa Monica Mountains,” said park superintendent Woody Smeck. “Mountain lions must be able to move freely between large parklands with suitable habitat throughout the course of their daily movements, as well as exchange genetic material to prevent inbreeding in specific parkland areas like the Santa Monica Mountains.”

The National Park Service began studying mountain lions in Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in 2002. A total of 21 mountain lions have been tracked via radio telemetry and GPS collars in that time. In addition to studying mountain lion movement, a genetics study is also ongoing to discover indications of possible inbreeding among the mountain lion population in the Santa Monica Mountains.

There has only been one documented successful mountain lion crossing in the study for either of the freeways that surround the Santa Monica Mountains; P-12 crossed highway 101 in early 2009, and has lived in the Santa Monica Mountains ever since. P-12 is father to the young mountain lion who was killed on Tuesday.

Children's Books Exempt from Safety Law

The Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act of 2008, CPSIA, has been amended to exempt "ordinary" children's books from third party product testing. The measure, H.R. 2715, was signed into law by President Obama on August 12, after being passed almost unanimously by both houses of congress.

The 2008 measure was originally passed primarily to protect children under 12 from exposure to lead in products designed for their use. The printing and publishing industry argued that paper and board products used to make books have never contained lead. Books have never been regulated and have never posed a safety hazard according to the industry. Libraries had also awaited the outcome of the revision, since the original law cast a shadow on their ability to lend children's books. The new law applies the requirements only to products manufactured since the original law went into effect. This effectively eliminates libraries’ concerns about lending older books. A stay of enforcement of the 2008 law had been in effect and, barring congressional action, would have expired in December of this year.

The amended law excludes "ordinary" books from third party testing and certification procedures. But it leaves testing in place for "novelty" books that contain materials other than paper and board or are printed on materials other than paper and board. So books with plastic, toy-like elements will still require testing.

A Whole New Dimension to Printing

Old Media vs. New

Here's a conversation I overheard between a man and his teenage son who were sitting next to me at a youth baseball game the other day. The boy was totally involved in text messaging on his cell phone and only rarely looked up to follow the game:

Dad: "You have been texting for almost an hour. What's going on?"

Boy: "I am talking with Wendy." (I've changed the name here, but for no particular reason.)

Dad: "Really? For the last hour?"

Boy: "Uh huh."

Dad: "Hmmm, well wouldn't it be great if you could just talk into your phone and have it send the message  for you? Maybe it could even arrive in your own voice?"

Boy: "Hey, that is a really sick idea." ("Sick" here apparently means "rad" in an older teen lexicon.)

Dad: (After a few seconds in which he stared intently at the boy) "Yeah, well maybe someday someone will invent something like that."

Obviously, phones already have that "sick" capability. I may not have the entire conversation exactly right, but that was the gist of it. The Dad clearly knew what he was saying and was waiting for his son to catch on. Maybe he eventually did, but the game ended and they left before I had a chance to find out.

This episode got me to thinking about the nature of technology. Text messaging allowed the boy to talk to his girlfriend with a degree of privacy even while sitting on bleachers within earshot of a couple of dozen strangers. This is a good thing. But it also appears to have engaged him to such an extent that it numbed his brain to the obvious advantages of the older technology. He could choose to simply talk to her! Text messaging is not necessarily the best tool of communication all the time.

As a society, we have become so enamored with electronic media, that we have forgotten some of the more obvious advantages of print. Email, text messaging, websites, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and every other electronic media you can think of, all have tremendous value. But their value does not negate or replace the value of print. Think about it, if you are one of those accomplished graduates who will be earning their degree or diploma this spring, would you want the certificate emailed to you?

Creating the Right Brochure

There are few better selling tools than an attractive brochure placed into the hands of your customer or potential customer. Creating such a brochure does not have to be a difficult task. Here are a few steps to follow.  

Decide on Your Purpose
Brochures fall into two broad categories — those that introduce a new product or service to a likely customer and those that turn an already interested customer into a buyer. To be successful, a brochure should have a precise objective and a target reader in mind. It's best to create the least elaborate brochure likely to achieve its objectives. The content of your brochure will depend on the specific service or product you want to promote. Product photos, testimonials, benefits, your unique selling proposition, and contact information are all components to consider.

Use Color
Today’s market place demands color. Full color is especially important if the product or service you are offering needs color to show its features. Most product brochures, for example, won’t work effectively in anything other than full color. Can you imagine any food, cosmetics, florists, or auto brochures being done in black and white? Even service businesses can benefit from a color presentation. Financial or legal services may get by with black and white or single color, but dental services, veterinarians, home improvement, hair stylists, or similar services will usually opt for color. Take a look at the mailers you receive or the ad inserts in the newspaper - color is now the norm.

Get Good Design
Of course, a lot more goes into an effective brochure than just color. Type fonts and sizes, white space, choice of images, and layout, along with the essential message, all combine to determine if your brochure will have the intended result. A professional designer who thoroughly understands your marketing message is the optimum way to go. If you do not use professional design, be sure to collaborate closely with your printer to insure that your final product will print as you intend.

Tie into Your Website
We live in a digital world. Your brochure, like your business card, should contain information that will direct your customer to your web site. You might even consider using a QR Code that will allow a customer or prospect to access your web site immediately with his smart phone.

 10 Common Mistakes to Avoid
 1. Not emphasizing the unique selling proposition of your business.
 2. Being concerned with the looks, but forgetting the sales objective.
 3. Omitting essential contact information.
 4. Omitting product information critical to the reader’s decision-making.
 5. Including details that become outdated too quickly.
 6. Giving insufficient thought to how the brochure will be distributed.
 7. Using text that is lost in the background color or too small to read easily.
 8. Including low resolution or poor-quality images.
 9. Allowing a busy or complex design to distract from the key selling message.
10.Not proofreading very carefully before submitting your file for printing