Opus has been a part of Breathed's creative world for three decades, but the cartoonist says his original choice of a penguin as a featured character was driven by some quite practical considerations.

 What will happen to Opus when his days in the comics come to an end? Readers are invited to guess in a nationwide contest that ends TONIGHT.

Berkeley Breathed is a screenwriter, author, cartoonist, and one of America's most popular illustrators.  Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for cartooning in 1987, Breathed is perhaps best known for his comic strip Bloom County, which ran for nine years and appeared in over 1,200 newspapers all over the world. Now that he is moving into other realms of  more collaborative endeavors, Breathed is bracing for the loss of autonomy he enjoyed as a cartoonist.

 To find out more about his new children's book Pete and Pickles, click here .

Berkely Breathed will make a rare Northern California public appearance Oct. 18 at the Charles M. Schulz museum in Santa Rosa. Get details here .

Alternatives to technologies that depend on fossil fuels are all around us, modeled in the natural world, and studied in the new field of bio-mimicry.

Janine Benyus, author of Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, is founder of The Biomimicry Institute, whose mission is to nurture and grow a global community of people, who are learning from, emulating, and conserving life's genius to create a healthier, more sustainable planet. 

As one delves deeper into biomimicry, Benyus says there are three levels of analysis:

There are instances of complex natural processes that could be adapted for human use all over the planet, Benyus says. African ant mounds are just one interesting example of what is being called "enabling technology."

SMIT GROW is an example of biomimicry. By creating solar panels in the shape of leaves, to gather energy from the sun and wind. Find out more here.

When you look at the global ecosystem, Benyus explains, humans as a species are akin to weeds, gobbling up resources with scant thought for their long-term presence where they have taken root.

Janine Benysus will be a keynote speaker at the annual Bioneers Conference, October 16^th-20^th, at the Marin Center in San Rafael. For more information, click here. There is a full roster of presenters here , and a detailed conference schedule here.

Anti-Muslim attitudes run so deep at Guantanamo Bay that even an American Army chaplain sent there to minister to the detainees in their own faith wound up imprisoned and abused.

Chaplain Yee says the response to his book and his speaking appearances has ranged from surprise to support, even among other military personnel.

 Chaplain James Yee was stationed at Guantanamo Bay. He stood up against the cruelty and was imprisoned for 76 days, later to be given an Honorable Discharge in 2005.

On October 16^th, Chaplain James Yee, author of For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire, will be speaking in Santa Rosa about his fight to "Shut Down Guantanamo Bay." For more information about the event, click here .

Is believing in gods harmful to humankind? Sunsara Taylor believes it is.

Throughout human history cultures around the globe have developed complex systems of gods and religion. But Taylor questions the idea that these beliefs grow out of an innate aspect of human nature.

You can read an excerpt from Away With All Gods here. Or scan the table of Contents here .

From the author's website: Bob Avakian is the leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, and he is more than that. He's an innovative and critical thinker who has taken Marxism to a new place; he's a provocative commentator on everything from basketball to religion, doo-wop music to science; and he's a pit-bull fighter against oppression who's kept both his solemn sense of purpose and his irrepressible sense of humor.