Monday, March 29, 2010

An Update on the Orcas

The topics of whales in captivity has been covered extensively in the press this past month following the death of a Seaworld trainer in Florida. It raises the question all over again about whether these intelligent animals should actually be in captivity at all.

How intelligent are orcas? Take a look at this video to see how they educate their young. And, don't worry about showing it to kids, it seems gruesome as it is a hunting lesson, but I promise it has a happy outcome.



There was an interesting development in the Seaworld story this week with PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) purchasing equity in The Blackstone Group which owns Seaworld. While PETA would usually not involve themselves financially with Seaworld, according to their statement, this gives them the legal right to call for the end of the dolphin and whale shows at Seaworld. They are pushing for the animals to be released to coastal sanctuaries - the best option available to most of them who were either born in captivity or captured to young to be reintroduced to the wild. Of the 42 orcas known to be in captivity, 28 of them are spread amongst Seaworld's four parks.

Look out Seaworld. I wouldn't want PETA as my enemy.



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Saturday, March 27, 2010

A Show Worth Checking Out

I happened to catch the last half of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on Friday night and thought it was well worth watching. It's a new reality show on ABC and it's all about what our kids eat. Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver first set his sights on transforming school lunches in his home of Great Britain and now he's turning to America. Apparently, he is quite convincing because Great Britain has just invested over $1 billion to improve their school lunch program.

The Hat in Rancho Cucamonga CaliforniaImage via Wikipedia


If your kids are in the pizza, burgers, and chicken nuggets stage (whether at home or at school), it's worth checking out. Most shocking was the scene where they show kindergartners a variety of fresh vegetables and ask them to name them. While they could all name french fries in a heartbeat, they looked as if they had never seen a potato! It's sad to see how far processed food has taking us from the raw ingredients.

The show airs Fridays at 9pm. If you want to check out the premier, click the link above.
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Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Cloud Inspirations

Yesterday, I was driving with my 8-year-old when he yelled out, "Whoa! Look!" I looked around for an impending accident, policeman, or something similar, but found nothing amiss.

"What are you looking at?" I asked, still wondering if I was about to crash.


"A teddy bear boxing a giant elephant!" he said.

Oh, of course, how could I have missed that? While I was concentrating on the road, the cars, and how many minutes I had to get him to a doctor's appointment, he had noticed it was one of those beautiful, puffy white cloud kind of days. The sky was full of interesting images and stories.

Clouds near the horizon are typically farther ...Image via Wikipedia


By the end of the day, he and his brother had also spotted:
  • A whale laying down next to a grandfather turtle
  • A giant fish being chased by a palm tree
  • A Japanese dude with buck teeth and a goatee wearing a hat

Personally, I had no idea that clouds revealed age and racial characteristics, but clearly I've not been looking hard enough. Next time you see those big puffy clouds, ask your child what they see - and see if you can come up with something as creative as they do!

Want to learn more about clouds? Check out Weather Wiz Kids which will teach you all kinds of cool things about clouds including the fact that big puffy white clouds are called cumulus clouds.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Have a Glass of H20

Did you know that today is World Water Day? This was news to me, but I'm guessing it's

Close-up of tap waterImage via Wikipedia

probably not one of those obscure Hallmark-created holidays. It turns out World Water Day was created by the United Nations to address the crisis of the estimated 1.1 billion people without access to clean drinking water.

A fresh glass of tap water is something that many of us take for granted.

There is a new documentary, Tapped, that is trying to raise awareness on this issue and pointing out that wars are fought over scarce resources - one day in the future that resource could be water. Check it out here.

What can you do? Conserve the water you do have and become aware of water issues in your area... Where does your water come from? How is it treated? Where does your wastewater go?

The producers of Tapped have also launched a 30 day Get Off the Bottle Tour to stop the bottled water habit. They start today in San Diego and will wind up in Connecticut next month. If they come to your city, you can trade a disposable plastic bottle for a reusable canteen.

Go pour you and your kids a clean, refreshing glass of water!

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Monday, March 15, 2010

It's Tax Time - Shredded Paper, Anyone?

I wish I could say that I was one of those people who neatly file my paperwork in some great organizational system, but sadly, that's never been me. I'm more of a, "Oh no, it's March and my tax documents are squeezed into that giant pile along with the warranty manuals, kids report cards, medical records, and mortgage re-finance documents!" kind of person.

231/365: ShreddingImage by Gavin Luhrs via Flickr


So, here it is March again and I am once again vowing to never get such a giant pile again. There's much less paper coming in these days since many of my bills and statements are online, but my renewed attempt at creating a manageable filing system (I'm going with financial guru Suze Orman's advice this year), has lead to lots of paper shredding.

Where does all that shredded paper go? In my case, I put it in with our yard waste/food scraps where it gets turned into compost at Cedar Grove. Apparently, shredded paper doesn't have enough fiber to be good for recycling, but it does help with the composting. Check with your local garbage company to see if they have the same preferences.

I hope my spring cleaning contributes to some yummy vegetables or pretty flowers this summer!

Sunday, March 14, 2010

A Penguin of Another Color

Sometimes it's fun to just see something unusual in nature.

King PenguinImage via Wikipedia



This week, news came out about a recently photographed all-black penguin. He was spotted in Antarctica on South Georgia Island by National Geographic photographer Andrew Evans. This extremely rare mutation is called melanism, which essentially means the dark color of his fur.

The picture here shows the typical white bellies. Click here to see the all-black mutant King penguin.

While we're at it... How many different types of penguins can you name? My eight-year-old claims the penguin as his favorite animal, so I've learned a lot in the past few years - Emperor, King, Adelie, Humboldt, Rockhopper, and Macaroni all come to mind.

Click here to learn more about all penguins!


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Friday, March 5, 2010

When Fictions Becomes Real

Many of you know that I started this blog at the same time I was working on my middle-grade novel for kids ages 8-12. The book, titled Earth Rescue, looks at a dystopian world fifty years in our future. In the book, Planet Survival Rules, which forbid being outside or eating real food, are implemented after the melt of the Arctic ice leaves the air too toxic to breathe. The fun part of the story is when a boy named Jax makes it his personal quest to get another day outside.

Originally, I chose carbon dioxide for the threatening gas in my story, but eventually switched to methane (generally, a lesser known greenhouse gas) after learning more about the potential for harm if global warming continues. Under the Arctic ice are dead plants and if they thaw, large amounts of methane will be released into the air. The story sounded plausible enough to write, but certainly isn't something I'm predicting.
Unfortunately, today's science news is all about new studies showing this release of methane from the Arctic permafrost may already be happening. The research is still in its early stages, but it does show that methane levels are about three times higher (2 parts per million) over the Arctic Ice Shelf than in other parts of the world (0.6 or 0.7 parts per million).

It makes me debate the category for my book again... fiction? non-fiction? I'm keeping it fiction and doing my part to make sure the world keeps it that way too!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

And the Pig Said Oink, Oink

It's a good thing we have an extra freezer because I just added a half of a pig to my already large stash of beef. We had sausage this morning and pork chops last night - all delicious. I'm

sausage, kiełbasaImage via Wikipedia

convinced this is the way to go for getting reasonably priced, healthy meat for my family. Although it is a sizable purchase at the beginning, the price per pound is far less than you would pay for organic meat at a store.

If you are interested, but don't know where to start, get to know the farms in your area. Ask the meat vendors at your local farmer's markets, check out Local Harvest, or just ask around. In my case, the meat came from two different friends who are both starting their own small-scale farming businesses.

And, yes, we do still eat fish and chicken!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Where Does Litter Go?

We've all taught our kids to not litter, but have you ever given much thought to where that litter on the side of the road ends up? I'm learning that much of it ends up clogging up our ponds and lakes, streams and rivers, and, eventually our oceans. Trash left on the ground can eventually blow or drift into local waterways and that's where it can really cause problems for animals who frequently mistake plastic trash (which sticks around longer than any of the biodegradable items) for food.

If you haven't seen the video of the great plastic patch in the Pacific Ocean, you have to check it out to get an idea of how big the problem is.

I recently learned about the SOAR project from Ron Hirschi who is educating people on the dangers of plastic in the ocean to albatross and other animals. He lives on Marrowstone Island, which looks like a beautiful place, but also seems to be where a lot of the trash from the Seattle area eventually gets deposited. Over a 2 week period, he collected 171 bottlecaps on his beach! He believes that getting those bottlecaps into the recycling chain would help matters, but right now many curbside recycling programs (including mine) don't allow them. I'll work on them...

I don't like the looks of trash on the side of the road, but I usually don't think of it as potentially deadly for another animal. Next time we're out for the walk, we'll take a bag along and do our share to pick it up.