When Johannes Gutenberg devised a complete system for mechanically printing books in the mid-1400s, he ushered in the Humanitarian Revolution, which embraces the Renaissance and every type of knowledge thereafter. The Catholic church, which — mostly — supported his endeavors (presumably liking the idea of there just being one version of the Latin “Vulgate” Bible, rather than versions that differed slightly from one another, scribal copying not being perfect), might not have been so sympathetic if they could have seen a few decades into the future.

Until Gutenberg, virtually the sole repository of learning in Europe was the Church, and the Bible was by far the most copied book — of course! The copyists were monks working in the scriptora (writing rooms) of monasteries, whose reward for spending years and years hunched over their tables, trying to stay warm month after month, year after year, would have been arthritic fingers and poor eyesight*. (In this life, at least: no doubt they had higher expectations for the life to come.) After Gutenberg, everything changed: books became more available, they were much cheaper than hand-copied volumes, and reading was democratized: more books meant more readers which meant more books…

* Convex spectacles, invented around 1230, would have added years to monks suffering from presbyopia.

The numbers are staggering. Pre-Gutenberg, there were perhaps no more than 30,000 books in all of Europe. By 1500, just 45 years after publication of his beautiful, 1,288-page, two-volume, leather-bound Bible, some 250 print shops in virtually every European country had printed at least 15 million books, all using Gutenberg’s system. (The first press to operate in the Americas was set up in 1539 in Mexico City, while the first in British North America was in Boston, in 1649.)

I wrote earlier that Gutenberg devised a system. His particular genius lay in combining inventions from previous ages, such as:

• The ink he used — a combination of lamp-black (soot), linseed oil and egg white, was already being used by artists of his time.
• His press was based upon wine presses (he was working in Mainz, in the heart of the Rhone wine country), except he had to figure out how to avoid the turning action of presses used in wineries.
• Having been trained as a goldsmith, it’s likely he already knew the required consistency of metal type, a mixture of lead and tin, with a little antimony (from antimony sulfide ore) mixed in to prevent cracking as it cooled.
• Movable metal type had already been figured out by Korean printers over a century earlier. We have copies of the Jikji (a treatise on Soto Buddhism) dating from 1377. Historians are divided on whether Gutenberg was aware of the Korean techniques.
• Historians do, however, credit Gutenberg with the invention of the hand mold, by which single letters could be cast repeatedly by pouring molten metal into a template containing a hand-carved letter, at a rate of perhaps one letter per minute.

It’s hard to overstate just what mechanical printing meant for the world of science, of literature and of the humanities. Once books had been reduced to manageable sizes and prices (thanks to an Italian printer by the name of Aldus Manutius), you could curl up with a book and have essentially a direct mind-to-mind connection with the writer, whether you were reading a novel (think Cervantes’ Don Quixote), the latest discoveries in the heavens (think Galileo’s Starry Messenger), or philosophy (think Descartes’ Discourse on the Method).

Yet the man himself is a near mystery to historians. We’re uncertain when he was born (sometime between 1394 and 1406) although we know where (Mainz, Germany); we don’t know if he married or had children; and we don’t know what he looked like. Most information about his life derives from court records, in particular the case he lost as he was finishing the print run of about 180 Bibles. After being successfully sued for repayment of loans by his main patron, Johann Fust, he was forced to surrender his press and his remaining Bibles. Fust went on to form his own, successful, printing operation, availing himself of the knowledge brought by his foster son (and future son-in-law) Peter Schöffer, who up til then had been Gutenberg’s loyal assistant…while his teacher fades from history.

It was an ignominious end to a genius whose name we associate today with the beginnings of the modern world of knowledge. I plan on raising a glass to Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg just as soon as I’ve finished spellchecking this column.

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For a weird, brief moment, prominent conservatives pitched a collective freak out over the false notion that the Biden Administration was coming to steal gas stoves. (“You can have my stove when you pry it from my cold, dead hands!”) While bad faith scare mongering in the conservative culture war isn’t really newsworthy, the moment had something of a Streisand effect: it exposed that your gas stove may be giving your kids asthma as well as the public relations campaign by the fossil fuel industry to cover up this well-documented link. Whoops.

Laura Deehan, state policy director at Environment California, joins the show to talk about the indoor air quality risks from gas stoves and the movement to limit gas appliances in new home construction.

Want to start electrifying your house. Environment California has put together a toolkit to help!

It is with great sorrow that our family announces the passing of our beloved father, John Edward Johnson. Called home on February 7, 2023, he was surrounded by his loving children. He was born May 28, 1957, in Arcata. In his youth, he was known to move from place to place but he always made his way back to Humboldt. Finally settling in Eureka, he lived with his children for many years. He was so excited when he finally got his own place at Silvercrest at the ripe old age of 63.

John was a force in this world and he cheated death more times than we could count. He was stubborn, loud and cussed like a sailor. Known to smell overwhelmingly of body spray and icy hot, his hugs lingered on your clothes for hours. He was a damn good man. He loved his family very much, even though we all overwhelmed the hell out of him. Family functions meant bets were being made among the siblings on how long he would end up staying and who he would ask first for a ride home.

John will be remembered as an adoring grandfather and great-grandfather, a hard-working brother, an unruly uncle and an assertive father. And while he made his fair share of mistakes, he grew to be a kind-hearted and sincere man. Though he never lost his spunk, and you could find him sipping whiskey and watching old westerns almost every day of the week. He spent his last month living at the home of his youngest son, where his family came together and provided the most outstanding care for him.

John is survived by his children, son Clifton Lee Bowman and his wife Rebecca, daughter Karen Asbury and her husband Jason, daughter Alisha Johnson, and her husband Joe, son Travis Johnson and his wife Docia, and daughter Luana Johns and her husband Michael. Selfless and devoted they were to him in not just his final days but all the days before that, along with his grandchildren Gage, Mykai, Tru, Raven, Nathaniel, Andrew, Anthony, Arianna, Logann, Hunter, Isaac, Bryce, Jasmine, Jocelyn, Justin, Adrina, Ramsey, Raina, and Melina, all who loved their grandpa very much.

At John’s request, there will not be a funeral but we will come together for a celebration of life on March 18, 2023, at 2 p.m. in the Carson Building theater room. This is a potluck so please bring your favorite dish to share. Daddy, we will love you forever, forever and ever amen.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of John Johnson’s loved ones. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.

Ted Schroeder
April 7, 1954 – February 6, 2023

It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Ted D. Schroeder at Mad River Community Hospital in McKinleyville on Monday, February 6, 2023 at the age of 68 with family by his side.

Ted Douglas Schroeder was born April 7, 1954 in Atlantic, Iowa to Lloyd Frederick Schroeder and Janice Faye (Peters) Schroeder. He attended school in Atlantic, Iowa and graduated from Atlantic High School.

Ted’s interests were fishing, skiing, hunting and attending NHRA, NASCAR and dirt bike races. He will be remembered by his family and friends for his generosity, kindness and passion for life.

Ted began his career with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in 2012 and remained the Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) Water & Sewage Plant Supervisor until his passing. The institution released the following statement after learning of his death, “Many of us knew Ted both personally and professionally. He was a good friend, a good person and a good human being. Ted will be missed. Our condolences go out to his family, friends, and loved ones.”

Ted will be missed by his wife Melody Schroeder; sons Jason Schroeder and wife Megan of Stuart, FL and Matthew Schroeder of McKinleyville; daughter Taylor Schroeder of McKinleyville; grandchildren Ryan Schroeder and Elizabeth Schroeder of Stuart, Florida; brothers Tim Schroeder and wife Laurie of Smithville, Missouri, Todd Schroeder and wife Ginnie of Atlantic, Iowa and Trent Schroeder of Atlantic, Iowa. He will also be missed by his nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends. Ted is preceded in death by his parents and son Joshua Schroeder.

A memorial service for Ted will be held on Saturday, April 8, 2023 at 11 a.m. at the United Methodist Church in Marne, Iowa.

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Are cooperatives the future of Humboldt’s cannabis industry? 

As corporate cultivation operations expand across California, small-scale cannabis farmers are joining forces to push back against their large-scale competitors.

The Cooperative Agriculture Network (CAN), a project of Cooperation Humboldt, launched an eight-week virtual academy this week to teach local cannabis producers everything they need to know about starting their own legal cannabis co-ops. ​​Local farmers and industry experts believe the development of a cooperative sector within the cannabis industry will lead to long-term economic viability for our region’s cannabis farming community.

“We were seeing that legalization was not going to support small family farms – it was actually destroying them,” Nicole Riggs, an affiliate researcher with the Center for the Study of Cannabis and Social Policy (CASP), said during this week’s introductory course. “We didn’t want to see Humboldt succumb to the desolation that’s happening to the rest of rural America. We looked to cooperatives because we know that that’s a tried and true pathway for small independent businesses to work together and establish a place in the industry against corporate consolidation.”

CASP surveyed farmers throughout the Emerald Triangle in 2021 to determine whether there was any interest in forming local and regional cannabis cooperatives. The survey, “Corporate Cannabis is Coming: Cultivators, Are You Ready?” asked around 80 cannabis producers what services are lacking locally. Over 85 percent of survey respondents said they wanted more local support for cooperative development.

“They told us that they wanted to see cooperatives that would reflect the legacy experience, meaning homesteading and environmental stewardship, sharing genetics, working together to get sales and marketing,” Riggs said. “We have solid data that people want to have tools for cooperation, that they believe it will be useful. We developed [this] academy to provide farmers with these tools.”

What would a legal cannabis co-op look like, you ask? There are actually two legal cannabis co-ops already operating in Humboldt County: Uplift Cooperative and Salmon Creek Legacy Farms. Rather than operating as independent farmers, co-op members can rely on one another and share the burden of the entire production process.

“Through cooperatives, we can get to essentially pull in more and more of these verticals that are taking away our capacity for our capital,” Shawn Cherry, co-founder of Salmon Creek Legacy Farms Co-op, said. “There are all these different steps in the supply chain [and] I’m pretty convinced that they’re extraneous, if not redundant. … For example, we have the ability to get our product [to distributors] without having to hire [someone] to transport. If one of us has [the permit], we can outsource it to the rest of the co-op.”

Because each member of the co-op has an equitable vote in the company, “it cannot be controlled by capital,” Drew Barber, owner-operator of East Mill Creek Farms and co-founder of Uplift Co-op, explained. “The person who has the biggest investment of money doesn’t get the biggest say about how it works, which obviously has its challenges, and we work through that as well,” he said.

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Co-ops can operate in a variety of ways, ranging from informal to formal, but tend to follow the seven cooperative principles:

1. Voluntary and open membership
2. Democratic member control
3. Member economic participation
4. Autonomy and independence
5. Education, training and information
6. Cooperation among cooperatives
7. Concern for community

“There are also all kinds of non-financial methods of cooperation,” Tobin McKee, cooperative developer at Cooperation Humboldt, said. “Just sharing the burdens of everyday life, watching each other’s kids and so on. … It doesn’t need to be a formal entity. … We make an agreement, decide this is how we’re going to do it together and then we keep those agreements. And then, if those agreements aren’t working, we say, ‘Hey, this agreement isn’t working for me, can we change it?’  and then as a group, we collectively work to change the agreement.”

Courtney Bailey, co-founder of Giving Tree Farms and a founding member of Hive Mendocino Cooperative, emphasized the importance of finding people with similar values and a compatible work ethic. 

“There was a lot of heavy lifting in the beginning, and if someone’s not answering emails, not showing up … it can really slow you down,” she said. “We had to let a member go early on … but now, we’re starting to see that [the co-op] holds itself together naturally. It’s nice to see that it’s now its own entity keeping us together.”

Interested in co-oping with your neighbors? You may have missed the introductory course but there are still seven weeks left in the free CAN Academy. You can sign up here.

HUMBOLDT TODAY: Senior homelessness is on the rise, the Arcata Gateway Plan moves forward at glacial pace, plus where in Humboldt are you watching the Super Bowl? Those stories and more in today’s newscast with John Kennedy O’Connor.

FURTHER READING: 

• NEXT UP in the GATEWAY AREA PLAN: Arcata Planning Commission to Discuss Building Designs and Bird Safety at Upcoming Study Session
• The Fastest-Growing Homeless Population? Seniors
• Humboldt County Cannabis Farmers Look to Co-ops As a Means to Compete Against Corporate Consolidation

HUMBOLDT TODAY can be viewed on LoCO’s homepage each night starting at 6 p.m. Want to LISTEN to HUMBOLDT TODAY? Subscribe to the podcast version here.

Press release from the Humboldt County Administrative Office:

Flights Expected to be Impacted for 12-Day Window in August 2023

The Humboldt County Department of Aviation will begin Phase 1 of the California Redwood Coast-Humboldt County Airport (ACV) Runway and Electrical Rehabilitation Project in June. This project will be conducted in three phases to make much needed improvements to ACV’s primary runway, which was last rehabilitated in 1994.

Work required for this project will take place in three phases from June to December; however, commercial air service at ACV is expected to be impacted from Aug. 14 through Aug. 25. Other airport users including medical operators, US Coast Guard and general aviation users will be impacted by overnight closures at various times during the duration of the project. Travelers are encouraged to review the projected project schedule below and take it into consideration when making travel plans. 

Overview

Funding for this project was provided thanks to the advocacy efforts of Congressman Jared Huffman, who helped secure a $13 million Airport Improvement Program grant through the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) covering 90% of the project costs.  The remaining 10% of the project costs will be funded by Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) Act Grant funding which was previously provided by the FAA to the County of Humboldt.
The Humboldt County Department of Aviation conducted a competitive bid process for this project, and awarded a contract to the low bidder on the project, Mercer Fraser, a Humboldt-based company.    
Work for this project includes two categories: upgrades to electrical/lighting infrastructure and pavement rehabilitation including, milling approximately two (2) inches off the surface of the airport’s primary runway and adding approximately six (6) inches of fresh asphalt for a new runway surface. This rehabilitation is expected to help the airport realize another 10-20 years of useful life out of the runway before another major rehabilitation project is needed. The work will be conducted in three phases with further details outlined below.  

Phase I

Phase I is scheduled to begin on Monday, June 5 and is currently expected to conclude on Aug. 12. This phase will focus on the initial electrical work including the removal of old lighting and electrical equipment and the installation of new lighting and electrical equipment. Work has been scheduled to minimize impacts to airline schedules with overnight closures of the main runway (Runway 14/32) from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. nightly (outside of normal airline scheduled operations at ACV) throughout Phase I. ACV’s secondary runway will remain open from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. each night for medical flights, US Coast Guard operations, and other general aviation users. Passenger airlines will not be able to utilize ACV’s secondary runway (Runway 1/19) as it is not large enough to accommodate commercial aircraft for takeoffs and landings.  

Phase II-A

Phase II requires a full airport closure. Phase II is scheduled to begin at 12:30 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 14, and is expected to be completed by 11:30 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 25. Airlines will not have scheduled arrivals or departures at ACV during this 12-day window.  As mentioned above, work for this phase will include milling 2 inches of pavement off the old runway surface and adding 6 inches of pavement to the runway. In addition, new markings will be placed on the new pavement. 

PHASE II-B

ACV will also be closed overnight from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. during this phase Monday, Aug. 28 through the morning of Friday, Sept. 1, and again beginning the night of Monday, Sept. 4 through the morning of Friday, Sept. 8. During this period, work will include milling and paving work on the taxiways connecting ACV’s runways. Regularly scheduled airline flights will continue to operate during this time.

Phase III

Phase III will include electrical work to bring the newly installed in-pavement lighting and electrical systems flush with the newly paved runway surface. This work is scheduled for 75 nightly closures of ACV’s main runway from midnight to 6 a.m. The dates for these overnight closures are expected to be Monday, Sept. 11 through Friday, Dec. 15.
Regularly scheduled airline flights will still operate during this last phase of the project outside of the overnight closure timeframes. Additionally, ACV’s secondary runway will remain open during the overnight closures for medical flights, US Coast Guard operations, and other general aviation operations. 

The Department of Aviation would like to thank the US Coast Guard-Sector Humboldt Bay, United Airlines, Avelo Airlines, and medical flight operators who partnered with the department to arrange this project’s schedule to minimize the impacts of this project for airport partners, operators, customers, and the community.

The Department of Aviation appreciates your patience while we work to make necessary improvements. This project will improve Humboldt County’s critical airfield infrastructure, providing many years of safe use for all airport partners moving forward. The Department of Aviation looks forward to completing a safe and successful project to improve the airport for the Humboldt County residents and visitors to enjoy in the future.  

For more information and updates on the California Redwood Coast Humboldt County Airport, please visit flyacv.com.