The Sessions, a popular current film, depicts the real-life interactions between a man who is mostly paralyzed and a professional sexual surrogate. We hear the true story behind it from one of the key participants on today's North Bay Report.

 In her work and in her autobiographical book, Cheryl Cohen Greene is outspoken in her belief that fully expressed human sexuality requires openness and honesty, two things she tries to help bring out with each of her clients.

The reason there is a need for professional sex surrogates in contemporary society, says Green, are deeply embedded in the attitudes and morals of our culture.

Above: Cheryl Cohen Greene at the Los Angeles premiere of The Sessions. (Source: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images North America)  See the trailer for the film below.

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A complex interaction between native crabs and oysters and invasive Atlantic snails (seen at right)  is playing out beneath the waters of Tomales Bay.

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 Dr. David Kimbro has studied the predatory effects of invasive Atlantic snails on native Olympia oysters in Tomales Bay. He explains how they arrived there more than a century ago.

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There also are native Pacific snails in Tomales Bay, but unlike their invasive (or as scientists say "introduced") Atlantic cousins (right), the local snails have learned how to safely coexist with the snail-eating red rock crabs (below). UC Davis biologist Ted Grosholtz explains.

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The smaller, green European crab, another introduced species in Tomales Bay, can handle the less salty water in the shallow portions of the bay, but because they will eat a wider variety of foods, these crabs have not developed the same skills for preying on snails that the red rock crabs display.

Not all invasive plant species spread on land. A fast-growing and rapidly reproducing oriental kelp has been found in San Francisco Bay, and could threaten the commercial oyster beds in Tomales.
 

Dr. Chela Zabin, contemplating one sample of the 900-plus pounds of kelp she and her colleagues eliminated over the last two years. Above: Undaria pinnatifida, grown to maturity.        (All images, credit: SERC)When the invasive kelp species, undaria pinnatifida, was first spotted in San Francisco Bay in 2009, having apparently migrated up from southern California, an immediate survey was done to ascertain if it had also spread any further north. The results then were negative, says Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) marine ecologist Chela Zabin, but subsequent monitoring has been less thorough.

There are clear, readily apparent differences between the native kelp of the north coast's submarine "forests" and the oriental invader, as can be seen in these comparative drawings. But Zabin explains, the undaria is similar enough to compete successfully for two important resources.

More information about recognizing and combating undaria pinnatifida can be found here.

Mario Savio, the Berkeley Free Speech Movement leader who was later a Sonoma State professor, is now fittingly memorialized on the local university campus.
 

Lynne Hollander Savio sits beside a photo of her late husband, Mario, at the dedication of the Free Speech corner that is named for him on the Sonoma State campus.Mario Savio met his second wife, Lynne Hollander Savio, through the Free Speech Movement. As a featured speaker at the dedication of the memorial to her late husband, she offered a detailed summary of their activism, which neither began nor ended with the Spoul Plaza speech. While that was an important moment, she cited a later date, when UC Berkeley leaders invited the campus community to the Greek Theater to announce a new unilateral "compromise" which was vehemently rejected by the crowd.

Savio was well aware of the notoriety he had earned in the 1960s, though he had backed away from the public eye within a few years of gaining it. On the occaions when it came up during his SSU years, Elaine Sundberg told the dedication crowd on Thursday, Mario would gently make light of it.

Savio's time at Sonoma State was relatively short, barely six years (1990-96), but it was an important time for him, suggests former colleague Jonah Raskin, now a retired professor from the Communications Department.

Efforts to create a free speech memorial to Savio on the Sonoma State campus began soon after his death, but failed to progress for many years, before a new crop of current students successful took up the issue two years ago. Jonah Raskin suspects that SSU President Reuben Armanana—who was not present at the dedication—was  not very enthusiastic about the proposed memorial.

The crowd that attended the Thusday noon-hour dedication of the Free Speech Corner on the SSU quad was a mix of current and past students and quite a few of Savio's former colleagues from the SSU faculty. (All photos by Bruce Robinson for KRCB)The $22,000 installation was accomplished entirely with fiscal and material donations, and required no funds directly from the university.