the war or refuse to deploy and hearing their stories and giving voice to their stories then talking about it with audiences like this one was wearing an heartbreaking and all of the motions i am sure a lot of you have felt since the war in iraq started. year we were and it was one hour into the event and it is hotter than it was today because i remember the lights from booktv making the really hot and bothered. there is no air-conditioning down here because you do not need it when the weather is perfect and there is all of that heat and let me read you what i wrote in the dangerous world of butterfly's the book that came directly out of that

evening here. the audience pact to the ground floor. >> i should back up on line one day up in washington at village books save firebrand independent bookstore i heard the question what is your next but going to be about? it comes up inevitably at an event like this about one hour into the talk when becky when a has run its course somebody usually raises their hand and say what will your next book me about? we packed the added ground floor and standing around the book shows i was reading the lectern and answering questions and wearing a suit coat i could not take off without ruining the video of the then topeka's the microphone cord was snaked inside my jacket and the microphone was clipped to my lapel i was sweating under the

hot lights a camera crew insisted so this time it gets hot i made a deal with the sound guy and as you can see it is not on my coat and instead of the blue butterfly pin which comes up short leash talk is in my ears of a does get, i can take off my jacket. what happened next was remember hot and bothered somebody raises her hand and says what is your next book going to be about and for reasons i cannot reconstruct i said butterfly's and flowers. there was a little to enter through the crowd enough for me to say thank you very much and exit stage left. that was that. i do not know where it came from it was say meddler for peace and love i guess. then public tv started to show

the hour and as those of you who watch it, it cycles and comes on different times, different days and an incredible audience and people watch it all over the place and i was on the receiving end of avalanche in the email and have the letters were assaults calling me a traitor for writing this book and about half of the letters this is a very important book and it is wonderful that you wrote it and in the middle of all of that was one e-mail that read as follows, i watch your book stock on c-span from bellingham washington i am impressed with the anti-war movement but dismayed things move so slowly i was a young bride of a draftee during vietnam i did not understand why the anti-war movement did not sympathize with the soldiers it was a tough time

for all but it led me to our butterfly reserves at the same latitude as a place we lived in thailand where we spend so more. a joking me at the end of your talk you said it would be about butterflies and flowers let me offer one of our rustic bungalows to when you seek respite. it is a beautiful and peaceful place and also to be reminded what the civil war does to a country. ps this is a serious invitation to look to you the world needs a good butterfly book. piece and tranquillity a rate days away you add nicaragua butterfly reserve come visit us. what you going to do when you get an e-mail like this? what do you do? i put it aside with all other incoming e-mail and thought that is fun. then a couple of days later i

am booked added again and it was a pretty intriguing invitation. let me mention for the most part -- most important i was the nbc news correspondent and have written several books and they usually do with difficult social and political problems emigration, war, pestilence, m isery, awful stuff we cannot talk about now would it is in "the dangerous world of butterflies" it is what is and became my escape i looked it was so intriguing and showed it to my wife and she shoved me on an airplane and that is how i meant and jane and her husband jerry they were gracious host in the non but at the butterfly reserve and

granada is the oldest european city in the americas it is a little crumbling now they call it something but it in short order they introduce me to a subculture and done ee in the book business their stuff going on we don't know about the ferry boat business, a coffee shop business, a complex of characters, a strange doings and in fact, i began to learn just in the first weekend with them that under the veneer of butterflies and flowers of peace and love there are all

sorts of issues of consequence conflicts between butterfly breeders and people who like to look at butterfly's the same way birders look at birds and think there should know what the contamination and dealing with species going extinct and biologist doing amazing work bringing these butterflies back with -- on the brink of extinction there is poaching going on in national parks 70 injured species in violation of federal laws, any violation there is international trafficking which amounts to huge amounts of money. you can get a butterfly you can put on your wall if you want to violate the law of the queen alexander burgling that will cost $10,000 for one dead

butterfly. so all of this started to show up for me as i was sitting and talking. now i can take this off because i am not wired to it and it is getting hot but i will leave the butterfly here because it is a proper for later. and i will give you a sense of when i first realized there was something hear that was more than just the superficial large as a pretty? and jane at the time had a couple of things going on to make a business they had created an enclosure where tourists can come and pay a few dollars and walk a month boxed the butterflies. they're all over the place you can see butterflies from all over the world and walk with them and they will land on you

they were doing this with local butterfly so they would capture the butterflies and put them in the enclosure interests could walked with them. one of the ways to capture the butterflies is to get them drunk it seems and they put out riveting fruit with year and a device that works as a trap they get lethargic after they eat and drink this potion and it is easy to catch and put into the enclosure. they have no training as entomologist and once i a spend the time coming back to the states i started to check on things like trump butterfly's i met with experts and a professor i talked with at university of california berkeley said this is an area

that there is so much we don't know, we don't know what happens inside the chrysalis that changes from caterpillar to butterfly it is not entirely clear when it turns literally into a soup, a liquid how does that reassemble? how does the monarch find its way from maine to the high lance? of five generations after the one before went down there and how do they navigate? another thing is do they really get drunk? this is one of the premier experts that said we are pretty sure that they do. and it is work that needs to be done which is one of the things they swindle things about scientists and general. another thing that came up

right away that showed there is something else besides peace and love a is the concept of people rape and what goes on there that may sound offensive to us in our human societal context that we tend to put things is in fact, good for the species. with some types of butterflies the female is ready to reproduce before she comes out of the chris a less. and the males, i always think of but as the bar, the pushy guys in the bar they are aware of this because of the smells that she gives off so before she comes out of the

chrysalis, the dominant the mail in the neighborhood, breaks through it and in impregnates her or whatever the right word is for making her first child and one of the things i am pleased to say way at the beginning of this talk i am no entomologist. i look at this does a journalist and a journalist finding something i did not expect to find you're never thought i would look for. do not have the correct technical terms and there are plenty of things i do not know about butterflies in terms of the science by had extraordinary adventures and i was as much looking at the people and characters involved with butterflies as i was with the scions but at any rate, the butterfly then comes out, she comes out and she has already fertilized her aides

she can immediately laid them and that gives great advantage to maintaining the species because they are at risk immediately when they come out. they are not a primary food of anybody but birds are going buy that do not mind snacking on them and lizards are happy to have a bite if they encounter them. there are other things that can affect their survival so that this people raped occurs is quite healthy for the species. so there i am and they have the enclosures to make money and another way is by raising butterfly's and selling them to collectors. collectors by a butterfly's legally that has been traded and illegally. they are shipped as pupa

because these enclosures need to have a live butterfly that come as a pupa it is regulated heavily by the u.s. department of agriculture and one of the things she does is raise the butterfly a and by the way the differences between butterflies and moths overlap a literal but in general they close their wings but the moth lays flat when they're on your favorite suits and the butterflies tend to be more colorful and the antenna are thinner and harrier on the moth. the moss carry themselves heavier they are factor and many say they are uglier but there factor because they are

at night and butterflies are out during the day they are cold-blooded some lamaze have to have this coped to keep themselves going but at any rate, when it lights and closes, there is a big guy and the way the scales appear it looks like the eye of the all that is designed buy whomever is in charge to keep creditors away. that is something else that comes up in the book the conflict between abolitionist and creationist that both find grounding for their arguments in butterfly's which is fascinating. . .

a tupperware container. she pops off the top and inside are stacks of translucent envelopes each holding a folded up and obviously quite dead a butterfly. it is a kuhl legal memo on otherwise called and i will because he has a big ally as camouflage. the markings and coloration are disorienting. it doesn't look at first glance like a butterfly. on one wing is a distinct and prominent black eye shaped patch surrounded by a tan circle, the

effect combined with delicate patterns of the adjacent brown and black makes it look much more like the head of a predatory al will than the wings of the tasty and vulnerable butterfly. when alive and not stacked in cold storage, these butterflies are postulate. the butterfly usually limits the flight to dawn and dusk. the glassine enclosed are perfect. their bodies, and tama and wang are scratched and and free. that's because jane and her staff of helpers kill them the momentum they sprang forth from the caterpillar to butterfly anamorphosis. as soon as they were bored they were put into these papers and put into the freezer, she tells me. the newly hatched butterflies with snowfalls, a one-stop beautiful. they never got a chance to live out of their sweet butterfly life, i protest her. she agrees they didn't get to live the regular butterfly life

to eat, drink and be married. you guys are murderers i suggest. well, we don't like to put it that way. to study it you have to be able to see it. her butterflies go to collectors. i personally don't like butterflies at all but given no butterflies, i will take the dead ones. jerry is without remorse at this aspect of their enterprise he dismisses my concern. it's important to point out they don't live that long, he says. and most don't, they live with a few weeks the exception of monarchs that make the trip, they live for months. they are low were ordered animal, says jane, so how much they feel is questionable, but look how far butterflying has come when it first began with the brits it was all catch them, killed them, put them in a museum. now we talk about letting butterflies fly in enclosures and arboretums. we have a fault quite nicely. and that brings up those who are in conflict with the butterfly

breeders and that's the butterfly watchers -- or any of you the type that goes out with the close focus binoculars and looks at butterflies the way birds -- no, it is a relatively new hobby but there is an organization called the north american butterfly association coming and the north american butterfly association has several thousand members, and i was lucky enough to encounter them once i came back to the united states from nicaragua at their body annual meeting in california in kern county. kern county is a spectacular breeding ground for some of the most beautiful and rare butterflies we have in north america and that is where they decide to have their meeting. and that is where i met jeffrey glass bird. he founded the north american butterfly association, and he finds people like jane and jerry

vital. he up towards them, and uses language that is quite astounding for example when i first met him and said i was trying to get some understanding what was going on and why there was this conflict he said these are self-serving greedy people who don't care about anything people trying to make money lying to people. and in part he is talking about those who breed butterflies for butterfly releases. this is another relatively new development in the butterfly world. any of you while i take a sip of water been to a funeral or a wedding where the butterflies have been released, or have you heard of this? what happened? tell me while i get myself a little glass of water here. what did you go to? >> i can't remember. i think it was in costa rica, 15th birthday party. >> and what happened?

>> they just like the butterflies go and they flew away. >> and that's basically it. and it's quite a remarkable event i will tell you all in a moment what i experienced because we in fact did one at my office to get a sense of conflict and so this business is about 12-years-old and it's exactly how you describe it, butterflies are brought to usually it is a wedding or funeral or birthday party, some kind of event that marks the transition because of the role of butterflies with metamorphosis and the idea sent to the heavens and the butterflies are released in theory and they fly off and they are flying off is this gorgeous experience. well, according to jeffrey glass bird that doesn't happen. he says that part of the problem with the commercialization of butterflies -- he doesn't like it because he thinks they should

be free and nobody should be making money off of them even though he writes a series of guidebooks for finding butterflies which he sold at the convention. very fine books. remarkable, but they're seems to be conflict there. but he says this is a terrible thing and that it is grotesquely disappointing because the butterflies come and they are dead or they crawl out of the box and fall to the ground. they don't fly. he also says there should be concerned about disease spreading because they are -- there's interstate commerce and butterflies in this industry, or some kind of genetic problem, as the guy is from florida agreed with the girls from california and this is in contention. again, i went to some of the preeminent and zoologists working today and couldn't find anybody who was really concerned about that in the scientific

community beyond mild curiosity. however, before i tell you the story of what happened at the release that we did. to give you a sense of the characters that i ran into, now, remember blacksburg is the guy that says you shouldn't molest these butterflies and should just go out and look at them, and he is a really entertaining guide. he comes off in the book as a bad guy but he's not a bad guy, and we went out into the mountains around current bill looking for a couple of particular butterflies. he was gracious to invite me and was leading a party of better suppliers with their close focus binoculars and there we were looking for the butterflies. suddenly one of the bader fliers starts throwing rocks into an oak tree. my initial thought is these butterfly huggers are crazy but

glasswork explains if you have got a big trees, a big bush and think something might be up there you can sometimes disturbed a little if it is low you might shake the bush, if it's how i throw a rock, throw a rock and the butterfly says oh and it moves. somehow it seems contrary to the passive butterfly hunting tales i've been hearing the past two days. i'm taking notes and photographs and glass bird notices and reconsiders calling out to his crew honestly tell you the truth i don't think that you need to throw rocks. i think if they are here we are going to see them moving around. i think random throwing of rock's -- he is interrupted by one of the rock throwing contingent calling out we just saw a butterfly fly out of there. you did glassburg quit and ends with enthusiasm let's look at this tree carefully. the search r. dee laughs as he says i'm getting a boulder. where did you see it? and these guys are having a good time and by having a good time.

and after i spent that time with him and his crew looking for butterflies, i realized as i drove down the mountain toward the central valley and bakersfield that i was looking as i was going around these terms and seeing butterflies where i never would have seen butterflies before and i am a little bit into this project at this point, and it reminded me of the time many years ago when my wife and i got an old studebaker of a jalopy and we didn't particularly get it because we wanted a studebaker. we got it because it was intriguing looking and we could get around, and suddenly we started to see studebakers all over the place. this is a common occurrence because we are not mindful of it on till for some reason it is in our consciousness, but now i was not just seeing butterflies everywhere. i was being taught how to look for these butterflies. where they are around plants.

which plants attract them, and i was finding them and i was experiencing some real happiness i think it's fair to say, and certainly as i am starting to realize that jane folds is right, there is a book here, i am using the tactics and the techniques and training that i have had as a journalist working amongst pestilence being able to practice this in a place where there is an awful lot of beauty and jolie and all my selfish level it is a remarkable transition for me. that began right here in this room and bellingham at village books and with booktv. it was -- it was remarkable to realize how radically my life had changed because of this offhand whimsical, and my next book was going to be about butterflies and flowers and in the e-mail from jean folds saying come down to nicaragua, and then my wife shoving me on to the airplane.

[laughter] is a great confidence of defense and reminder i think of at least i start to feel this way since this has turned out to be such a delightful couple of years a reminder of the importance of remaining open to that which is not what one perhaps, not only expecting, but not particularly wants to do. so, at least this one. now, i went to florida and met with a woman who as one of the -- one of the founders of the butterfly breeding business and one of the most successful butterfly praetors. something like 10,000 butterflies a week ago out of her farm. 10,000 butterflies a week. and she said -- and it makes perfect sense -- i said i just came from geoffrey glassburg who says you guys are slime basically and that your, artists, too, because this doesn't work.

and she said understandably if this didn't work, how could she be in business? the motion is what creates our business, she told me, and emotion is against our business. that's how she looks at jeffrey tamara he's motivated by a notion he tries to understand. she thinks the butterflies shouldn't be commercialized. she rejects his propaganda that release often filled with butterflies climbing out of boxes and flittering a moment only to collapse and death. let me ask you a question, edith smith is intense and paces her words carefully, looking directly into my eyes. if we release them and they fluttered out, crawl and die, what our business be growing? and seconded the flutter out, crawl and die, how can they be spreading disease? either they live and spread disease or they die and they don't. he's contradicting himself.

but people don't stop to look at that and in fact that rank pretty true. how could her business be thriving, and it clearly was driving -- and she's not alone, there are butterflied readers across the world trans shipping butterflies. so my office is an california where the climate is perfect because, at least it was at that time. much like telling him it was 75 degrees or so, and -- and we ranged to get a shipment of butterflies from edith smith's farm in florida, and to release them this seemed like the way to test either the work or they don't work. both arguments were interesting and so, the butterflies are right in a box, styrofoam box inside a cardboard carton and inside of that with the kinds of ice packs you can use to keep your bureau cold before you go to the game and put them back in the freezer and they go off

again survey which held down and they were in sight of glass and envelopes just like jane's owls, folded up individual envelopes except they were not dead. they were chilled, literally chilled and they were -- children. we ordered, i always forget how many, 75 of them, and we had three delivery systems for them. one was a sad and box which would seem appropriate for reddings, and one was another box which may be good for valentine's day, heart-shaped with a clear plastic top so that you could in theory see the butterflies fluttering around in them if you believe her, or how did barely crawling if you believe jeffrey glassburg and the third was an accordion arrangement so that the folds were like this and inside each

fold would be a butterfly. pull it open like that and the butterflies spring forth or drop dead, one of the two. and so we had them in my office and the instruction said a few hours prior to the release take them out so that they can warm up. we did that and in the office it was maybe 75, 80 degrees and after a couple of hours, we heard this year resound emanating from the envelopes and it was like this, and it was a little butterfly feet moving around starting to get active. which meant they were all dead so that was a good sign but there was something somehow creepy about this. i tried to keep an open mind throughout my experience is in the dangers will of butterflies,

and i haven't really taken sides. i understand the butterfly hooker's side and i understand the butterfly breeders side. i guess i'm against those who are poaching and against those who are trafficking illegally in endangered species. i am for the biologists bringing species back from brink of extinction and i will tell you in a couple of minutes about some of those activities but regarding who is right and who is wrong about the release to be there isn't a right or wrong it is just how one feels about the motion as either smith suggests. so the instructions were to transfer them from the glass and envelopes into these delivery systems. the accordion and arrangement was of reloaded because they could be squashed between the leaves, well, squashed is the wrong word, neatly, gently folded between the leaves and they didn't have to be transferred. the ones in the envelopes we did put in a heart-shaped box and satin boxing if they were becoming active, it said in the instructions to this someplace there is a low ceiling.

luckily in the bathroom at my office there is a shower stall with a low ceiling and i sat down on the floor in the shower and i had the boxes and sheila handed me the envelopes one at a time and i took the butterflies out and put them in and as the instruction suggested a few of them got away and i had to grab them and what i learned both and nicaragua and then and later with other experiences, other places where i encountered a butterfly's the are amazingly hentoff. how many of you have ever cracked a butterfly? under what circumstances? >> [inaudible] i was a biologist as a kid. >> great. they are resilient, aren't they? amazingly so. but i realized i prejudice of them being delicate and i was concerned about grabbing them but then i could feel it and feel the guy or gal, and it felt

okay. i stuffed them into the two boxes and there they were. so so far score one for edith smith and ceo for jeffrey glassburg, they were in there and alive and they were doing just fine. we called some neighbors from the area to come and watch along with children so it was a great little group and we opened one box and in fact the butterflies well, some of them flew out. others took looker routt at hon out feige of the box a little disoriented but then they flew out also and weirdly it worked. they'd come from florida across the country and looked absolutely beautiful. they were painted ladies and they seem remarkably happy with being in california. then, then i pulled open the

accordion and slowly they flew out also. a couple of them hong are around on one of the kids fingers and she was so pleased and this is something those of you that have been to butterfly enclosures have seen the children just are entranced and usually say things like get the butterfly, look at the butterfly. so imagine this, there is this hard core battle damaged journalist used to dealing with things like iraq war veterans or soldiers that don't want to go to iraq or stories about disease or rape in our species and i'm looking at little children and saying look at the little butterfly. it was just a delightful, spectacular and one of them on my wife's shoulder she was wearing a white blouse, and i

always liked the way that episode ended. it didn't want to leave her, and imagine a painted lady with the glorious colors on the blouse shoulder. all right, and yelled the crowd. there were cheers of delight as the painted ladies took off in mass scattering over the yard and glorious life disappearing around the neighborhood all except one. it's stayed put on sheila's blouse as the audience dispersed she and i returned to my office. the butterfly remain on her blouse. we talked and toasted the butterflies with a glass of chardonnay and then another. the butterfly remained on her blouse. it walked around, primped and swings. it looked relaxed and spread its wings to look like a brooch. excuse me for the tablecloth, but much like that. it was just on the shoulder of her blouse.

and it stayed on her blouse and state finally almost three hours, almost three hours after the official release as it was getting dark she looked outside and it took off flying toward the trees leave a stain of bright yellow on her stark white blouse. it was an amazing afternoon and that kind of relaxed beauty was a wonderful part of this question and experience with the dangerous world of butterflies. there is a black side, but weak side, this underworld that probably exists in all subcultures we penetrate and that was it epitomized and is epitomized in the book largely with the conflict between yoshi and ed. ed newcomer is a fish and wildlife service special agent like indiana jones and james bond combined.

and he was with his usual intricate nature, and i got to know him quite well so i know this is the way he works. after a guy named yoshiko jima, yoshiko jima is the self-styled world's most wanted butterfly smuggler. that's how he referred to himself. he operated out of his home country, japan, and his home town, kyoto, but he traveled the world and treated butterflies on the internet probably does again now that he is out of prison, and he also traded at bob ferris -- their blog fares international, pleases people go like bugs. a lot of it is legitimate. they set up tables and the same kind of talk goes on that goes on as some of you may know in any other kind of business that

is operating on the black side a legitimately. so maybe somebody goes up to somebody and says are you interested in a good time? i know a girl. that happened to me as recently as about a year ago when i was working on an immigration story in mexicali, and it was a member of a mariachi band at a restaurant, and i said no thank you and after a few songs he came back and said how are you sure you are not interested in a good time? it is evident what this guy -- would you like a little something to smoke? i have something if you want to go behind the books or you might want to buy. so the same kind of thing goes on in the bugs were old and yoshi would have a table out with all of the legitimate bugs and somebody might come along and say do you have anything else and he would reach under the table and say well i've got these guys and somebody in the note would know that they are going to cost a lot more because they are illegal.

so, you she encountered -- encountered yoshi being a cop and yoshi being a bad guy at the bug fair and realized right away that he was engaged in selling butterfly's illegally. well, in order to make a case, and has to go to the u.s. attorney and explain why this is worth pursuing. he bought and sold a few butterflies illegal with ed but he couldn't go to the u.s. attorney and say i have $150 worth of transactions with this guy. it's not going to work. they are not going to waste resources on and so ed did something quite amazing. he set up skype communications with yoshi in kyoto. skype is an internet protocols allows you to communicate with boys and pictures in real-time

and its all time and date stamped so everything said back-and-forth including his picture and when it was said in addition out of sight of yoshi's decision stated deily kaput another cameras and was trapped in a way that made it clear who was talking and when and yoshi very openly talked to ed about how to break the law. there's all different ways to break the law. some species illegal trafficking look like those that are illegal so if you get a permit for transporting illegal ones see from japan to the united states and stem a bunch of the legal ones in and put under them that illegal once these are old tricks, right? put the cocaine under the baby formula or whatever the equivalent would be, and so customs not necessarily trained because you have to be trained

to recognize this even if they open the package might let it go by. these are the kind of things on camera that yoshi was explaining, great evidence to it. at the same time, it was acting as a buyer from yoshi telling him he was a retailer in the united states and wanted to buy wholesale from yoshi so he was transacting over the period of the investigation an incredible amount of least from my point of you what i would think butterflies are worth and what's going on in the butterfly business incredible amount of butterflies bought and sold. by the time yoshi was arrested he had spent $300,000 in order to attract this guy most of that out of the taxpayer's pocket because the way he did business with yoshi but he wanted to get

yoshi back to the united states to of rest and here and prosecute him and sell him -- send him to jail because he wasn't getting cooperation from the japanese government and he feared there wouldn't be a lesson learned if it ever is learned by yoshi of the example made by him, so at the end of the skype conversations often it was becoming apparent yoshi had a crush on and, the fish and wildlife agent. he would say things -- remember there is on you and visual -- he would say things like what you just let me see you without your pants on before we say good night. [laughter] "the dangerous world of butterflies," who would think. [laughter] and ed, been ps2 to call up that he is, said not until you come to los angeles. [laughter] and so even julie, yoshi

succumbed to the work of and, and here is where even though he is definitely the bad guy it is hard on some level at least for me to not feel some sympathy for him i guess. and here is what happened as the arrest occurred. you need just one other point of background. and, as a fish and wildlife special agent in the hierarchy of the u.s. government police, that is the equivalent to being a cia agent or if the agent in terms of training, brank, and he carries a sidearm. he is a federal agent. fish and wildlife service special agent, but yoshi always referred to fish and wildlife agents to fish and wildlife. whether that was wishful thinking because of his propensity or that was something engaged with his ability to

speak english is not clear. but the background is important for this pass passage. and i did have an opportunity to talk to yoshi and we communicated via e-mail and his english is better than my japanese that it sold 100%. july, 2006 convinced yoshi wouldn't give the names of his other u.s. customers because it wanted not just yoshi but yoshi is a middle man, he wanted his suppliers and customers, same kind of thing in the drug business. you want to not just to get the person in the middle if you are a couple. it new comer made his move. on july 31st, newcomer told me, he, yoshi, arrived and l.a.x. and we were waiting for him and arrested him without incident as they say. they didn't talk until the next day when newcomber went to jail to pick up yoshi and transport him to court.

he shaved off the mustache because he was under cover of this time. i had shaved off the mustache and was wearing my wedding ring which i hadn't worn any other time when he first saw me his expression was relief and pleasure. i had the feeling he thought i was there to bail him out. he was excited. yoshi quickly figured out the truth and they said at a metal table in the u.s. marshals jail in los angeles. yoshi handcuffed to the table. yoshi broke the silence. have you been a fish and wild since the day we first met? i told him yes. he didn't respond, looked a little disappointed like he was thinking of all the things he said to me and then yoshi asked his only other question, have you been married the whole time? [laughter] those were the only words to exchanged, and i said to it now you know why he referred to agents as fish and wild guice it was his wishful thinking, that's right, said ed, he was hoping to

hook up with one. but even if you up for what he was doing don't you feel a little sympathy and empathy for him? i think so. although he did to appropriately two years in federal prison and it turned out to be a federal prison in kern county which seems kind of intriguing because my fantasy is he is sitting there in a typical cartoon like jail holding on to the bars and there are all of these really special butterflies just out of reach and he is there for two years, and then as john stuart said the other day on the daily show, what, when he and i were talking, what is going on in jail? he's sitting in cahal and someone says what are you in for and he says butterflies. [laughter]

there's another aspect to this and if you all would like to ask any questions i would love to hear them, that i want to just mention and that is butterfly as i said became ubiquitous more so than 1951 studebakers by far, and it is everywhere. and whether it's always been there i am not sure because i don't have the reference point but it's an advertising. they are out there. i saw beautiful butterflies today when we were wandering outside and it is an art and i have what i think is quite beautiful brooch i got from my aunt, it turns out to have quite the history as an art object and they -- special in amol process and it's from norway it's a special driver i found and identified in the book that

works a lot with this particular process and makes butterflies and butterflied jewelry is extraordinarily common and also often expensive but butterflies show up in art also or that received a house art or peddled as art and one example is damian hearst. damien hurston you may know as the british artist himself identify artist famous for things like the animals and tanks of preservatives that are sanctioned. or any of you familiar with his work? yeah, well it's probably just as well. well he's also worked with butterflies and what he did with butterflies early on in his career he says he's not doing this anymore, he would on any campus that was horizontal he would lay out pigment and then

on the pigment putsch people who on the verge of closing while the pigment was white and the butterflies would close and become mired in the paint and be preserved in that manner because butterflies stay in their state of extraordinary beauty in terms of their colors and shapes forever almost if you go to the british museum or collection almost as fast in the university of florida at gainesville or anyplace with a butterfly collection is that have been around for a while you can go back hundreds of years and the butterfly still legaspi did when they got the pans through before tax and so these butterflies were preserved on the paint. who is going to want something like this?

i saw one at a gallery in los angeles the gallery that represents and sells those. what do you think that would be worth? something like that, would you pay to have on your wall about that big a circle, one color, with half a dozen to a dozen butterflies in various positions as they died covered with paint who would want one of these and what would you pay for them? if you want one it's going to be if you can find one available, he made a limited number of them and there are a few for sale and they go for between two or $3 million. unbelievable, right? shock of this belief is understandable but there are other things done with butterflies that are not appalling in that manner and really quite intriguing and beautiful and an example i found in topanga canyon where an artist named laurie works with

butterflies as her medium. everything is done with a butterfly wings butterfly antenna. and what she is working on currently is, let me read this. when i visit she apologizes for the culbert studio but it doesn't look cluttered to me. it is a life with a working progress and recently completed to dazzled portraits of long faded hollywood starlets scattered around the studio piled and drawers and pinned to the walls are the obituary pages of "the los angeles times." when a starlet dies, she says pointing to details regarding the long life and many movie roles of virginia great, they will have an obituary even though she had only a minor role in this world. and in fact louis meyer said about virginia great, virginia had everything except glock. how many of you know virginia

great who died recently, the starlit when she was a starlet. the obituary is most attractive include clear shots from when the women were in their glory days and these pos is prompted her to move from constructing images of stained glass windows with butterfly parks to making work depicting the prime time days of the deceased actresses. i saw them in butterfly wings, she said, i loved these, she points to the starlet women are like freaks of nature in a good way. it's like a flower, there's that moment. she looks at my beard and draws me to permit for with a smile. we are not 20 anymore she says. we look back and know there is a time you were in your glory. it's that moment the minute is gone and it's a moment she says newspapers especially "los angeles times" because of its hollywood beat simply cannot

resist because everyone loves a beautiful woman. they are simply gorgeous. she looks at them with appreciation and there's something melancholy about them, too. her works are striking and from a slight distance it is impossible to read the colors as pieces of butterflies. they appear to be to the untrained eye as leered paint. the artist walks me with an interest and points out how she makes reflections in the eyes and lips with pieces of what she calls a great white butterfly and close up to the pictures, the wing scales aren't clear to identify her eyelashes are fabricated with pieces of butterfly antenna as an classic portraits the pros and in time actresses are framed an oval. it was remarkable, and to find this unexpected just one more example of the experiences i had on this quest to come and before

i encourage questions if you have some i just want to tell you about janet johnson, another one of the characters in the book i think at least one of the ones i feel privileged to have gotten to know, and again such a difference from so much work i've done over the years as a journalist where i encounter people who are sources and they serve their purpose, which sounds a bit grasp, but it is a difficult business and then rarely is there any ongoing relationship. but the nature of this project was different there are now people like ed newcomber and others that were sources for this book that have become acquaintances and friends and people i am quite sure i will stay in contact with one way or another lifelong. it is a beautiful thing. and so, janet johnson works out of southern california. she has taken the butterflies

and brought them back from the brink of extinction where there was only a handful of these left on the planet and with a project of captive breeding using techniques she developed recreated populations that she has taken back to their habitat, and these two butterflies are now seemingly reestablished in a state that is adequate for them to survive and when i asked her why they should be saved she i think a injured in a way that makes sense at least to me. what motivates her? why is it important to save this particular one when there are other little marks so similar and why is it important to get such attention to this devastated plighted abused riverfront where we sit with our feet in the cool water

surrounded by heavy industry and its diprete? this is the confluence of the sacramento river's. abused riverfront, abused, she focuses on the word, that is the key point. i'm not working with anything without by a meteor or natural event. we did this, we screwed up in your the only ones that can fix it. once you start to fix it not only does that fix the ones pcs but especially with the invertebrates it is went to the vegetation, you are saving the vegetation and will community. the other argument in favor of her work she tells me is the space ship curve argument each species is a writ and how many can you pull out before the space ship collapses? she laughs at what has become a cliche and she adds it is the butterfly effect. [laughter] so that is a taste of my experience the last couple of years since i was here at

village books and said not a very carefully my next book is going to be about butterflies and flowers and i encountered this world that has been so spectacular to experience and has added such positive aspect to my life. i ask if you have questions i happy to entertain them. >> i would like to ask your wife hauer your perspective changed being so close to this process. >> about my perspective on butterflies? >> yes. >> as peter was learning things i was learning as well so consequently it is like a learning process going on and kind of being amazed. it is an amazing experience. >> that's how it was. many of the rest of you?

please. >> in vancouver there is a butterfly museum, in victoria there is a butterfly museum. >> i have seen the signs. >> it's worth visiting. >> you've been there? what was it intriguing to you? >> we saw an atlas moth about that big. it -- that day and he said it's going to live a couple of days and in the meantime he's going to lay eggs. >> what do you think it is that made it compelling for you? why was it intriguing for you? >> it was beautiful. >> that's enough, right? that brings a point and i will come to you in just a moment, the question is what purpose do butterflies surface? they are not important pollinators, they do some pollinating, they are not important food source for other animals, some of them are eaten.

obviously didn't make honey the ladies do. what are they there for? maybe there is an argument they are there because they bring joy to us because they're beautiful and not just us maybe they bring joy to other butterflies and other animals and part of the decorah we are lucky to have. yes? >> [inaudible] >> what was complaining about is that it's very hot and humid and like a tropical atmosphere the jungle plants it's like transported in this magical jungle world except there's no snakes, gistel fees' beautiful -- butterflies. [laughter] >> yes, and that contrast. i went to one of these enclosures in chicago in the winter and as you described the climate to go in, and it first that was early in the process and i felt the distance that we or at least i as a journalist tend to put when i am first

looking at something to get a sense of it and i am looking at these butterflies and think all right this is interesting and then one of them landed on me and stayed and i felt as ludicrous as it seemed to me as i was feeling it i felt privileged this butterfly had landed on me. >> i was there with him and the part i liked the best is they actually had all of the chrysalises in a window and there was 1i think it was swallowtail out that had just emerged. its wings were still damp and you could see the different kind chrysalises that went with all the different kinds of butterflies and that -- in fact i am a painter and i did a painting of that butterfly that emerged. >> it is such and often examples an icon that shows up in art in part because the beauty and also

probably in part because of the butterfly has these different meanings. the rebirth, the metamorphosis, the change, and in fact the word for butterfly in greek is psyche which means both butterfly and soul and this is an aspect of the butterfly that makes it if i had said two years ago my next book is going to be about chipmunks and flowers i am not sure i would have found the same stories that i've found in the dangerous world of butterflies. let me leave you with something that happened at the end of the process that is a further example perhaps of what we are talking about. as i was completing a book --

this is what occurred. over the months following my initial visit to the reserve in granada i remained in touch through e-mail with jane asking some follow-up questions, preparing for a return trip. butterflies remain my passion, she wrote and in another following hurricane mitch she assured me they survived with no damage. the butterflies she wrote are happy in the rain. we have 200 to 300 with a very big blue ones growing and hopefully they will live to maturity and prosper and she signed it as she did all of her e-mails peace and tranquillity await you nicaragua butterfly reserve, come visit us. when it came time to tell her the book she assigned me to fight was nearing completion minimills were uncharacteristically on answered. i couldn't reach her on the telephone, internet search quickly established a reality jane died at her dream reserve

the very fifth, 2008. you know when you walk in a theater and they have the big popcorn poppers for the popcorn overflows the top and cascades down the band? that is what my wife's ideas were like, jerry said after her death. a lot of what happened in our lives was determined by that popper. after she died he hired a manager to operate the reserve as a living memory to jane and her ideas. that popcorn popper obviously influenced my life. without her e-mail inviting me to her grandmother reserve following my butterflies and flowers remarked village books and on c-span it's difficult to imagine i would have surrounded myself with butterflies and written this book so thank you, jane, and i miss you. thank you for coming. thank you. [applause]

>> peter will be happy to sign books. >> for more information about author peter speak laufer and his work, visit his website at peterlaufer.com. this summer book tv is asking what are you reading? >> aye glesby the editor-in-chief of reason but tda did you journalism site and reason.com, the supplement to reason magazine, the monthly -- the nation's monthly magazine of free mind and market. we've been around since 1968 and are a small libertarian magazine interested in things like free mind and free-market, open borders, drug legalization, economic deregulation basically letting it rip, laissez-faire

across the board. i read a lot. for this summer my favorite book so for hitting bookstores in august is everybody is stupid except for me and other is to observations. peter is reasons official cartoonist. he does long form reported comic essays the past ten years and everybody is stupid except for me has already gotten rave reviews from places like esquire. it is a great read. other books i read recently include are you serious everybody must get stoned, rock stars on drugs reviewed for the new york post. it is a list and compilation of snippets about rock stars and their mostly misadventures with drugs. it's a fascinating read and sobering book as well as a hell of a lot of fun at the same time. i also recently finished babylon

burning from pont to grunge, a long history of popular music starting in the late 70's, mid-70s, late 70's in england and the u.s. and how the punk movement spread and eventually transformed itself into a commercial enterprise in grunge in the late 80's and early 90's, fascinating reading. i also recently reviewed joe scarborough, msnbc host morning show book for "the new york times" called last best hope. i'm a big fan of joe scarborough on tv and was disappointed a bit in the book that seemed a little superficial particularly in its stated goal to offer a true alternative to a kind of big government program that's coming out of washington from both republicans and democrats. there's a few other books i have in my queue. two of which about ayn ramd, derided as an all-star list and a bad writer. but she is finally getting in

this age of large state enterprises and collectivization she is getting a lot of look from serious scholars. these books are due out in october. one is called ayn rand and the world she made by a ann heller, social biography, and the other is by jennifer burns and it is called a goddess of the market, ayn rand and the american right. it's fascinating to see ayn rand finally getting a serious evaluation from american intellectuals. ayn rand and 50's i always felt she was much more like -- she always saw herself apart from the mainstream of american society but she fits in very well with an antiauthoritarian primm individual strain from other writers such as j.d. salinger or on the left a number of intellectuals such as paul goodman growing up stirred, and people like the lonely crowd, david kriseman's book or the man

in the gray flannel suit. ayn rand has been doing well the past couple of months partly because things coming out of d.c. but she is a writer and a figure more importantly we should study with care if we want a road map why people are feeling the way they are right now and because of the summer and i am going on vacation in august i try to take a couple of models to read and i go back almost every year to balzac, the great french novelist whose, the humane or a series of interrelated novels tell the story of moving into an industrial revolution economy, the move from the farm to the city and all of the great possibilities that holds open for self transformation. big fan, and the bulls had i'm looking at now is the black sheep. and later partly because of my older son jack, who is a high school student read this for his

upcoming sophomore year in high school, ha jin fantastic novel, war trash, told from the point of view of a chinese soldier held in an american p.o.w. camp in the caribbean port. it is haunting and sobering that gives insight into china which is clearly one of the countries that will be defining our lifetime and probably centuries to come. that is my summer reading and i hope to get it done by the end of labor day weekend. >> to see more summer reading lists and other program information, visit our web site at booktv.org. we read the bookexpo american new york city at the university of minnesota press with emily hamilton marketing

director from the university of minnesota press. everything you know of indians is wrong. what is wrong? >> according to the author of this book he believes there are a lot of myths about american indians in the culture perpetuated by movies, tollways, ideas about the way that american indians live in the culture and he has basically taken people at task with this dry weight to say american indians are people you don't expect them to be. the 11 lots of different places, cities, they do all different kinds of jobs. you know, they contribute to culture and an interpol way not just in a nostalgic way so he's trying to correct those ideas that are still so pervasive and culture. >> another sign behind you, don imus is coming out this fall enemy of scapegoat is the subtitle. can you tell about this? >> this book is about the

incident around dawn linus's firing and, you know, the racial comments he made on the air and how people when this happens there's a huge explosion of the motion and anchor and the outpouring and outrage about racist comments but he's saying this is an underlying, it's an underlying tension in the culture that needs to be -- it is cathartic when that happens, and people can sort of congratulate themselves and say we are dealing with race relations because we've ostracized this media figure for doing something but it's really just a scapegoating and we are not dealing with underlying issues in the culture, the legacy of violence in the culture. >> who is michael lockwood? >> a professor at the university of michigan. he is a feminist, black scholar, a fan of don imus so the book takes a personal look at the incident and how he personally

worked through how to react to that and why was it and how could he sort of reconcile being a fan of the show and also sort of with his own problems with american culture and you know, why is -- when people say things like this you know in one context and not in another why is it considered over the line. why is it over the line for don imus and not other aspects of culture. >> one other title, never trust a fan coke. do you want to me about this and the reason for the acquisition? >> we published eric before. he's a really fine writer he does cross-cultural travel memoirs and recently wrote a book about being in norway for two years and this is about being in italy. he and his wife lived in italy

two years in search of the best food in the world so they went to italy, the birthplace of balsamic vinegar and it's like this really funny, you know, cross-cultural misadventures of living in italy based around food. the breschel factory and the vinegar place and having, going to luciano's house and all kinds of hill lardy with trying to figure out how to live in i italian culture and eat the best food in the world. >> and lee hamilton university of minnesota press, thanks. >> thank you very much. ..