More than 500 participants in the American Horticultural Society’s “Growing Fertile Minds and Communities”conference will visit the Camden Children’s Garden from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, July 26. The Garden is co-hosting the conference along with Longwood Gardens, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, and Winterthur Museum and Country Estate. This is the 16th annual National Children and Youth Garden Symposium sponsored by AHS, the largest and oldest organization of its kind in the nation.

From December 16th to the 23rd, at the Gordon Theater at Rutgers University in Camden:

Rutgers-Camden Center for the Arts and the Knight Foundation are proud to present the stage debut of new holiday tradition - A Camden Christmas Carol. Directed by Barry Moore and written by local playwright Sarah O'Neill, this production re-interprets Dickens' tale of historic Camden Towne and the journey of Ben Scrooge from darkness into light.

Featuring renowned performance artist Jean-Ronald LaFond in the lead role, a creative team of multimedia experts bring the City of Camden to life with historic images, film, sound and dazzling special effects that will transport you back and forth through time with Scrooge and the three spirits - from the hustle and bustle of Camden's industrial heyday right up to the present day.

The result is an innovative interpretation of the classic tale that holds special meaning - not just for the City of Camden, but for the entire Delaware Valley region. Experience a new tradition that will bring home the true meaning of the holidays - A Camden Christmas Carol!

On Sunday, Nov. 5th the Ben Franklin Bridge will be closed to vehicles. Instead people from all over the country will be participating in the 2006 AmeriHealth Ben Franklin Bridge Challenge, a 10K run and 2 mile bridge walk. According to the Run the Bridge website:

The 10K course (USATF Certified) begins at the base of the Ben Franklin Bridge on the New Jersey side, crosses the bridge, doubles back and continues along the scenic Camden Water Front passing such attractions as Campbell’s Field, the Adventure Aquarium, the Battleship New Jersey and the Tweeter Center finishing next to the Rutgers Camden Campus.

The event benefits the Larc School.

(cross posted to Crossing the Delaware)

Sept. 23-30 is Banned Books week. In 1982 the American Library Association began designating this week to honor our ability to read freely. ALA has compiled a list of the most challenged titles over various time periods. Topping the list since 2000 is the Harry Potter series. John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is also among the most challenged titles.

(cross posted at Crossing the Delaware)

The Camden Courier Post is reporting that several people were injured today when a fire broke out in the 5th and Market PATCO station in Camden.

When I left work in Camden today at about 5:35 p.m., there were several fire trucks near the station, plus a number of ambulances and three hovering news helicopters.

The station is underground; you walk down steps, through the gate, down more steps, to the platform. Eastbound trains are on one side, westbound on the other. When I got to the station a small crowd of people were sitting on the curb, a few were being given oxygen. I saw one woman being loaded into an ambulance. A woman who had been on the train told me the lights went out, the train stopped and they had to walk to the station.

People were still coming up the stairs and firemen were taking ladders down. You could smell the smoke (very acrid) coming up the street gates along 5th street. A very kind soul gave a carful of people (including me) a ride across the river.

PATCO is preparing to roll out a new card system. No idea on when exactly this will happen, but some of the new smart card machines are on display in the PATCO station at Market East. The new cards could be used for parking lot fees as well as train fare. There are a few options for adding money onto the card. You can set up a credit card system, similar to EZPAss or add money on at machines in the stations. More info inConnections.

If the weather outside is frightful, stay inside and count birds out your window. This weekend is the Great Backyard Bird Count.

The Great Backyard Bird Count is an annual four-day event that engages bird watchers of all levels in counting birds and reporting their results to create a mid-winter snapshot of the numbers, kinds, and distribution of birds across the continent. Participants count birds for as little or as long as they wish during the four-day period and tally the highest number of birds of each species that they see at any one time. At the Great Backyard Bird Count web site, they fill out an online checklist to submit their counts.

It is a national census of winter birds. Volunteers take time to count how many birds of various species they see and send that information, either online or on paper, to a central collection point. Citizen science like this is particularly important in tracking migratory birds. River Tyde has also written on this topic.

Not certain of your birds? Cornell's Lab of Ornithology has an online bird guide. Or, for more localized information, check out this collection of bird photographs taken on the Rutgers Camden campus.

So, while you're keeping warm (or out taking a walk), keep an eye out for the birds. I saw a turkey vulture in one of my neighbor's yards one day and I swear there was a hawk swooping around the trees this morning. A few Mondays ago a whole flock of robins set up shop in the front yard for 30 minutes or so. (also posted at Crossing the Delaware)

The Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center (The Delaware River Basin's Watershed Education Center) is hosting free hands-on activities December 27-29, on what happens to the river (or streams) and the fish and other creatures in them during winter. Open to all ages, no registration required. For details visit their web site.

(cross posted from Crossing the Delaware)

Have you ever wondered who makes those SEPTA boarding announcements in the Market East / Gallery station? You know the deep voice that says "The next train to arrive will be the 4:40 R2" and things like that? I saw the secret today. A woman in SEPTA uniform was standing at one of the conductor's stations on the platform. She had opened a panel on the wall in front of her. The screen inside had three columns. One was a list of expected trains, one said arrival, the other said boarding. She used a stylus to select the incoming train and whether it was arriving or boarding. Within seconds the announcement came over the intercom. As each train boarded it scrolled off the top of the screen. Just one more of life's little mysteries explained.

Sorry for the late notice. The email on this just came through.

Amory Lovins, CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute and one of the world's most respected and innovative thinkers on energy policy, will be making a special appearance at the Academy of Natural Sciences at 2:30 on Thursday, October 13th. Dr. Lovins, who has written 29 books and holds numerous international awards, will be speaking on "Winning the Oil End Game." Find out why the Wall Street Journal called Lovins one of the people "most likely to change the course of business in the '90s"

(All Town Square events are free, open to the public and will be held in the Academy Auditorium. RSVP recommended. For more information visit www.acnatsci.org/townsquare or contact Roland Wall at (215)-299-1108, rwall@acnatsci.org.)

Made possible by the generous donations of the Richard Lounsbery Foundation and the Environmental Associates of The Academy of Natural Sciences.

Known facts: Regional rail trains going into Market East from the north were re-routed this morning because of a bomb threat. Mine stopped at Fern Rock and we all had to get off there and take the orange line in. Walking on Market St. I saw part of the convention center roped off. Lots of fire trucks.

Unsubstantiated rumor: Police caught a guy. They have a "parcel." Some mention of the tunnel.

Gotta go. Please update if you hear more.

Update 9AM: Market East is reopened.

Update 9:30AM: KYW: SEPTA's Market East Station Reopened:

SEPTA and city police closed off the Market East train station around 7:30am Friday morning.

A man with a suspicious backpack and dressed in camoflauge was spotted by a conductor on an R6 train coming from Conshohocken.

The conductor notified police after the train pulled into the Market East station, and a trained dog reacted to the man's backpack.

The man was taken into custody and questioned.

Market East was shut down and evacuated. No Regional Rail lines were running in or out of the station for most of the morning rush hour period.

The package was cordoned off in the station until Philadelphia bomb squad officers were able to examine it. It was determined that the trained dog had reacted to the scent of a propane torch nozzle -- a perfectly safe item, according to SEPTA -- that the man was carrying in his backpack.

The station was reopened and Regional Rail service at the Market East station was restarted about 9am.

Three news trucks in Camden. I am told they were there because the Camden police were having a meeting, and the meeting was not open to the public. Presumably this is related to the forthcoming reorganization mentioned in the Inquirer today.

Yesterday, 2:48 p.m., corner of Franklin and Vine. Just off the Ben Franklin Bridge. Stopped at a red light. I look up in my rear view mirror and see a scruffy looking man approach the car behind me. His t-shirt is dirty, his camouflage pants are an odd length (on a woman they would be capri pants). His hair is mussed. I glance over at the door lock to make sure it is on. He taps on the window of the guy behind me. "Panhandler," I think. He stoops down and pulls a big plastic bag out from under the car, waves at the driver, and gets back in his own red truck. The bag had been blowing all over the bridge and road and people had been driving over it. When I hit it I thought how dangerous it could be if the bag flew up and got caught on my windshied. The scruffy guy is doing a good deed. "All that is gold does not glitter (Tolkien)." Why do I have to keep re-learning that?.

Karl has asked for comments on the city blogosphere so here are my two cents. Some of these are in response to rzklkng's posting on the subject and are intended as criticism to expand the conversation. What I think would really increase our effectiveness as a city-wide or regional web are more of the small niche blogs.

We need more people to focus on their own particular areas instead of everyone working to be Alist or national. We have enough people talking about Cindy Sheehan and Karl Rove. We need more people talking about Ardmore and Delaware County and Germantown and Chester, and discussing what is going on there. Not what bars they go to but what people are talking about and local politics. We don’t have anyone looking closely at the area business community or pulling relevant pieces from Philadelphia Business. We don’t have anyone watching the libraries or the charitable institutions. Most of what we do is comment and critique the MSM which doesn’t bring anything really new to the equation. I check America’s Hometown almost everyday. It will never be Alist or a national blog but the writer finds nuggets of information that the rest of us don’t have access to or miss. We would be poorer without it.

Philadelphia Regional Nonprofit Technology Conference

http://www.nten.org/conferences-philly

This one day conference, on September 14th, is sponsored by by the Arts & Business Council of Greater Philadelphia, NPower PA, United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, and N-TEN. The theme is The Knowledge Factor: Technology to find and analyze what you need to know to succeed

Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2005 * Wyndham Philadelphia at Franklin Plaza *
17th & Race St

Registration is $100 for members and $150 for nonmembers.