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Global Accessibility Awareness Day

Blue Global Accessibility Awareness Day Logo. Circle around GAAD initials with keyboard on bottom right.

Thursday May 20th, 2021 is the 10th Annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), an annual worldwide event that aims to raise awareness about the importance of digital accessibility in an increasingly diverse and inclusive society.

The organization’s web page connects you to some creative work being done by some interesting groups. If you are curious about tools for now and the future, click around. https://globalaccessibilityawarenessday.org/

Everyone knows one or more people whose vision is limited or non-existent. Shut your eyes and think of what they miss when they can’t see your well-designed clever meme.

Here are the most common ways we fail those people who can’t see as well as you do.

Causes of Most Common Accessibility Failures in percent of home pages. Low Contrast Text is 86.3 percent. Missing image alt text is 66 percent. Empty links is 59.9, missing form input labels is 53.8, empty buttons is 28.7 and missing document language is 28 percent.
Top Causes of Failures of Home Page Accessibility

You absolutely don’t have to use any fancy software in order to make sure your message as many people as possible. Here is the very simplest thing you can do. It only takes a few seconds. When you post on any social media or web site, be sure to type the text on the image and write a short but complete description of what is shown.

– Pat Adams

National Frog Jumping Day “Kicks off” Annual Competition May 13-16, 2021


Two Hoppers!
While the name itself may seem rather vague, Frog Jumping Day’s origins come from Mark Twain’s first published short story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” in 1865. Twain was living in a cabin south of Angels Camp when he wrote the story. According to the Frog Town web site (https://www.frogtown.org), the legend is that Twain overheard and was inspired by a story in a local tavern. 

Inspired by Twain's story, in 1893 Calaveras County started hosting a County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee during the third week of May, first in Copperopolis, and ever since in Angels Camp. The four day event classic fair food and events, highlighting local award-winning wines, live music and a rodeo.The main event, of course, is the frog jumping competition. Since 1986 the frog named Rosie the Ribeter has held the jumping record at 21 feet, 5 ¾ inches.

The Calaveras Frog Jump Competition begins on Thursday, continues on Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning.  The International Frog Jump finals are held on Sunday afternoon. Hop on over to Angels Camp. Perhaps you will see a MarkerboardJungle:Frogs fan there! https://www.frogtown.org/frog-jump


National Frog Jumping Day brings literature to life, encouraging awareness of the many different kinds of frogs and their impact within our ecosystem. There are approximately 7,300 species of frogs around the world. Find out more. Visit a nearby pond or aquarium, read Mark Twain's story, go to a nature educaton web site to learn more about frogs ... 

or ...

click over to the page for our upcoming game featuring one of the smallest of frogs, the Pacific Treefrog. 
If you are intrigued by the idea of exploring the world of this little critter, sign up for the wishlist at Steam.

– Pat Adams

Save the Frogs Day – Saturday April 24 2021

Our amazing little amphibians can help us watch over our planet and plan for the future.

Are you actually hosting or attending a “Save the Frogs” event this weekend? Get outside. Celebrate places in your world where frogs are thriving. Wildlife has taken over some of the places we humans have stopped visiting.

One Last Chance

Please read the July 20/27 of Time Magazine. Buy a hard copy for further study. Give it to your friends for discussion. There are many other sources of good climate information, but this one issue should be easy for every one of us to find something to relate to.

Then find a way that you can take action. The first critical step here in the United States is to elect a government that will support humanity in battling this crisis.

Two articles are described below. But every page of this issue offers sobering thoughts. And hopefully it can spur you to join us to improve our planet while we can.

2020 Is Our Last, Best Chance to Save the Planet

“… In the future, we may look back at 2020 as the year we decided to keep driving off the climate cliff–or to take the last exit. Taking the threat seriously would mean using the opportunity presented by this crisis to spend on solar panels and wind farms, push companies being bailed out to cut emissions and foster greener forms of transport in cities. If we instead choose to fund new coal-fired power plants and oil wells and thoughtlessly fire up factories to urge growth, we will lock in a pathway toward climate catastrophe. There’s a divide about which way to go.”

By Justin Worland

The US Republican forces came down on the side of supporting the oil industry. In early April, a series of meetings resulted in “a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to cut oil production and rescue the industry.”

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, took the other side of the divide. She announced in April “We can turn the crisis of this pandemic into an opportunity to rebuild our economies differently.” On May 27, she pledged more than $800 billion to the initiative, promising to transform the way Europeans live.

The rest of the world has waited for three years for us to get new leadership with a new position, one that will cooperate with other nations to take the actions we need to prevent the worst ravages of climate change. We are out of time. 2020 is our deadline.

https://time.com/5864692/climate-change-defining-moment/

We’re Handing Our Kids a Damaged Planet. And Our Excuse for Doing Nothing About It Has Now Fallen Apart

We have often been placated with the notion that real change takes time. But this is only true where apathy is its main resistance. Change can come suddenly too.

Western society saw change occur at breakneck speed in the 1950s, when we went from the rationing of World War II to such disposable affluence that planned obsolescence was openly celebrated: buy it cheap, buy it new, keep up with the Joneses. … But the biggest change of the 1950s was that collective selfishness fell upon us. People spent money, and votes, on whatever ticked the “What’s in it for me?” box.

https://time.com/5864674/climate-change-action/

About the cover of this special climate edition

Time Magazine’s new cover is both beautiful and terrifying

“The July 20/27 Time cover was painted by artist and scientist Jill Pelto, who often incorporates scientific research and data into her watercolor paintings. “It has been a tumultuous year, but underlying currents of positive action are surfacing rapidly,” says Pelto on the magazine’s website. “The reality of this data may be frightening, but there are messages for hope within.”

Indeed, not every upward gradient in the painting is designed to be horrifying. While sea level and global temperature are shown to be rising, so too is renewable energy consumption. And C02 emissions even see a sharp decline in 2020, reflecting the “projected 7% drop in 2020” as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Above the painting are the words “One last chance: the defining year for the planet”.

Daniel Piper at https://www.creativebloq.com/news/time-cover-july-2020

Jill Pelto’s promise: “I created a new watercolor painting features on TIME July climate issue!! It depicts a critical grouping of climate data dictating our present and future action. I’ll share the data sources on my website asap (https://t.co/bVClwGfzCR ) https://t.co/pymu4G7ao2 July 9, 2020

– Pat Adams

For “EarthDay.50” – Good News

Despite pandemic, pollution and panic, we are making progress.

The first Earth Day in 1970 launched a wave of action. During the 50 years since then, we have made many improvements and learned a lot about what more is possible. The pandemic has forced us to slow down and reconsider what is most important to our hearts and minds. Amid the suffering, there is reason to hope.

For Earth Day 50, let’s focus on good news. Even when it seems that all progress has stopped and the flame has been doused, it is possible to rekindle the fire for change and rebuild our momentum toward a world where we can survive and thrive, one that works for us all.

  • Good: Landmark environmental laws have been passed in the US and many countries worldwide.
  • Goal: Use that framework, built by hard-won experience, to tackle our global climate crisis.
  • Action Ideas: https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2020/
  • Good: We know once again what nearby mountains and landmarks look like. Thank the “Stay Home” order for that.
  • Goal: Let’s reshape our post-pandemic lives to keep the skies clear.
  • Action Ideas: When it is once again safe to join friends and coworkers “out in the world”, let’s create more earth-friendly customs and habits.
And the people stayed home.
And they read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still.

And they listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently.
And the people healed.
And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.
And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.
- Kitty O'Meara
  • Good: Voting age is now 18. Momentum from the first Earth Day spurred ratification of the 26th amendment in record time.
  • Goal: Register! Elect a government whose priorities align with yours.
  • Action Ideas: Consider Pogo’s wise words for the first earth day in 1970.
Pogo 1970 Earth Day poster: We have met the enemy and he is us.

Do you have a climate change “good news” story? Please send us your observations about environmental changes that have taken place in your own life in the past 50 years (or your current age, whichever comes first).

– Pat Adams