For the record, I really wanted to be on Blogger, but after only one post, it became obvious that their setup was so buggy as to be unusable. And the energy inside their discussion boards was unbearably negative, which indicated the bugs wouldn't be fixed on any kind of speedy schedule. So TypePad it is.

By subscription. I'm taking donations if you have any money you want to throw at me.

Oh! but sadly, I just found out Melt! is closed!

There's still Thursday Grilled Cheese Night at Campanile here in Los Angeles, if you don't mind a little wait and a $14 sandwich.

"Military leaders in Thailand have staged a coup, suspended the constitution and declared martial law.

"Army chief Sonthi Boonyaratglin said the military leadership had formed a council for political reform and ousted the Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra.

"The coup leaders say the cabinet and parliament have been abolished, but power will be returned to the people."

"It is the first coup attempt in 15 years in a country where they used to be commonplace. There were 17 of them between 1932 and 1991."

Interesting development. Thaksin was very unpopular. Glad not to be in BKK this week...

The LA Times has done an in-depth series of stories on the world's seas called Altered Oceans. It's absolutely worth reading.

Here's a summary of the series:

On Sunday, July 30, the Los Angeles Times will publish a ground-breaking five-part series, "Altered Oceans," that looks at the man-made interlocking stresses that have created more than 150 known "dead zones" in the world's oceans. Those stresses have led to a reduction in marine life, an ever-increasing injury and infection rate among marine mammals and fish, and the dramatic growth of the types of toxic bacteria and algae that ruled the oceans at the dawn of evolution.

The series was written by Times staff writers Ken Weiss and Usha McFarling, and features photography and video by Times' award-winning photojournalists Rick Loomis and Brian VanderBrug.

If you are an educator interested in the series, I encourage you to contact the LAT to inquire about copies or reprints in the series. (213) 237-5000

(A detailed writeup at the jump.)

DAY ONE -- Towards The Tipping Point

Synopsis: Fishermen in Moreton Bay, Australia, were plagued not only with strange rashes but a sharp drop in their catch. At about the same time, they noticed a strange new seaweed. Further research showed it was actually an ancient bacterium -- typical of the slimes, molds and other ancient life forms that thrived in the primordial seas and that are now taking over the oceans as pollution and over-fishing are decimating marine fish and mammals.

Multimedia content:
Video 1 -- Marine biologist Jeremy Jackson makes his first dive in Discovery Bay, Jamaica in 20 years. After a hurricane blasted the coral reef, he expected it to recover. It hasn't. The Caribbean has lost
about 80% of its coral reefs in the past three decades, a fact missed by most vacationers.
Video 2 -- Moreton Bay, Australia is a subtropical estuary roughly the size of San Francisco Bay. Instead of fish, shrimp or crabs, fishermen are pulling up tuffs of black matted lyngbya, a toxic 3-billion-year-old bacteria that has overrun the bay with its twisted dreadlocks. It grows like wildfire, feeding itself and burning the skin of anyone who touches it.
Video 3 -- On Georgia's Atlantic Coast, Grovea Simpson can make moremoney trawling for cannonball jellyfish—jellyballs, he calls them—than he can for the tasty but often elusive Georgia white shrimp. The decline of the more traditional fish catches and the rise of jellyfish illustrate the dire straits of the ocean's food chain.

DAY TWO -- The Dead and Dying

Synopsis: Dead or dying seals, dolphins and other marine mammals—the "sentinels of ocean health" —have been washing up along the California coast in unprecedented numbers over the past few years. Veterinarians caring for one such victim—a female sea lion named Neuschwander— identified the culprit: domoic acid, a toxin given off by a form of algae. Scientists suspect, but haven't proved, that the algae is proliferating because fertilizer, sewage and other runoff are sending plant food into the ocean.

Sidebar: For generations, Washington State's Quinault Indian tribe has depended on razor clams for food and income. But, buried in the meaty flesh of the clams is domoic acid, the same toxin that's infecting marine mammals like Neuschwander. Researchers are now in the middle of a five-year study of more than 600 Native Americans in five different tribes to figure out if the toxin is impairing memory of tribal members, especially their children.

Multimedia content:
Video 1 -- The 140-pound female California sea lion named Neuschwander was found comatose under the pier in Avila Beach near San Luis Obispo. One week later, she was found stranded again, but this time in Sacramento, 100 miles inland. Veterinarian Frances Gulland knew that the marine toxins she ingested were causing brain damage. With the help of an MRI, she was determined to find out just how much.
Video 2 -- Long-standing traditions and economic necessity are squaring off against public health concerns. A new type of algae-produced toxin that is poisoning razor clams may be causing memory
loss among Quinault tribal members and lower mental development among their children.

DAY THREE -- An Ill Wind

Synopsis: The sea breeze that blows onto Little Gasparilla Island, an idyllic spot off the Florida coast, often carries an arsenal of respiratory toxins produced by runaway algae. Health conditions force
residents to flee inland and fill emergency rooms with victims in respiratory distress. It's a powerful example of "blowback" caused by the continuing degradation of the world's oceans.

Multimedia content:
Video 1 -- An underwater statue in the Florida Keys, along with the surrounding reef, are carpeted with algae and seaweed. The plants are fed by a never-ending supply of human sewage that streams out of an off-shore pipe and agricultural runoff flowing out of canals and rivers.
Video 2 -- When the red tide is in full swing and the wind is blowing onshore, Florida's Little Gasparilla Island is unfit for humans and even the family dog. The brevotoxin that is causing coughing fits, headaches and sinus infections has made paradise a creepy place.
Video 3 -- Manatees are a big tourist draw in Ft. Meyers, Florida. But many of them are dying from the same red tide toxins that are causing so much trouble on the barrier islands.

DAY FOUR -- Trashing the World's Most Remote Island

Synopsis: On Midway Atoll, the most remote island in the world, albatross chicks keel over from malnutrition by the hundreds. Wildlife biologists, slitting open the birds' bellies, find the reason: a payload of plastics - bottle tops, Lego blocks, toothbrushes, syringes, toy soldiers. The plastic detritus of modern civilization gathers in enormous "gyres" clogging the oceans and killing sea life. One of those floating dumps is twice the size of Texas.

Multimedia content:
Video 1 -- Winter rains flush tons of trash down the Los Angeles River into the ocean. Much of it plastic, which can ride the ocean's currents for decades before getting spit onto a beach. One such "trash magnet" is Kamilo Beach on Hawaii's Big Island, where sometimes you can't even see the sand.
Video 2 -- Midway Atoll in the Pacific Ocean is an ideal rookery. The albatross chicks living there have full stomachs—stomachs full of plastic. Along with fish eggs and squid, their parents scoop up tons of plastic from a huge, floating trash dump in the middle of the ocean. The result: of the half-million albatross chicks born on the atoll, 200,000 die.

Day Five -- Oceans of Acid

Synopsis: The Greenhouse Effect does more than warm the planet. It is making the oceans more acidic. The pH of the seas has changed measurably just in the last 20 years—the result of carbon dioxide settling in the oceans and turning into them into carbonic acid. If the trend continues, tiny plankton—the foundation of the ocean's food chain—will start to die.

I heard the loud bang of a small wreck in front of the house, then wondered why my car was shaking. Crap. The man driving the mustang, who was on his way to pick up his daughter from school, apologized and explained he was avoiding a blue SUV who was barreling up the street near the center, and had to choose between hitting the SUV and driver or try to get by my car. His judgement—or should I say, his margin of error—was off by about 6 inches, it seems.

His wheel broke off. We exchanged information and he called AAA to get his car towed home.

There are two creepy things about this, in addition to it being a complete pain in the ass. Yesterday I read Black Cowboy, Wild Horses to the class, and a student had asked what mustangs are (the wild horses are central to this story about a cowboy who had a gift for rounding them up). Before I could answer, a girl spoke up and said they were a car. Everyone laughed because it was clear there were no cars in this book. I explained that they named the car after wild horses (well, actually they first named it after the P-51, a US World War II fighter plane, which was probably named after the horses, but close enough). She suddenly remembered the little horse logo on the car, and I had a picture of my all-time favorite car, a '69 Mustang, in my head.

Then, 24 hours later, one broadsides my car.

If my high school crush—the guy who used to drive the '69 Mustang—turns up in the next week, I'll be a little freaked out.

I was having trouble working it yesterday (somehow the Bluetooth function in the phone had been turned off, so the headset had no one to talk to), and it was cracking G up listening to my end of it. All he could hear was:

CALL. MOM. (and the nice lady in the phone would say, Did you say, Call Mary?)

NO.

(Did you say, Call Tom?)

NO.

I hang up and try again.

CALL. MOM. (Did you say, Call. Mom.?)

YES. (Dialing: 1-3....)

Then I realize it's 2am where my mom lives and I hang up.

I tap the button again.

TEA. EARL GRAY. HOT.

I started giggling. G never watched much TV, so he didn't really get it. I didn't get a potted plant, but I was cracking myself up.

There's more on the naming ceremony here. Here is a summary of the Objibwe ceremony, from the FBFW website:

The Naming Ceremony gives us our "Spirit Name" which gives us recognition with the spirit world. It is said that it is easier to find the name for a young person because the name is close by - as the child has just come from the spirit world. As you get older, however, your name drifts farther away and is more difficult to find...Four male and four female sponsors who stand by the person being named in the ceremony have the responsibility of walking alongside this person during his or her life. They act as advisors or confidants through good times and bad, and publicly vow to support and guide the person being named. The Spirit World, hearing the name, then accepts and can recognize the face of the child as a living thing for the first time. The Spirit World and the ancestors then guard the child and prepare a place for him or her when their life ends.

This reminds me a little bit of formal Hebrew naming ceremonies that occur on the 8th day after birth at the bris (for boys), or in the synagogue (for girls). During the naming ceremony, the parents explain why they have chosen that name for the child, and the mother and child are blessed.

Six years ago, an oil spill in Australia killed three-fourths of the Fairy Penguin population on Phillip Island. An environmental rescue group used doll sweaters to insulate the penguins who had been de-oiled but weren't producing their own oils yet. News spread on the internet, and pretty soon the penguins were getting handmade jumpers from London to the Latter Day Saints.

Well the project "went viral" via sites like this one and the group collected 15,000 penguin sweaters. The Tasmanian Conservation Trust doesn't need any more jumpers for its birds, but it does need help protecting them from getting squashed by cars.

The same knitter pointed me to an original tree-hugger sweater, with a link to a pattern, even!

Actually, now that I think about it, it's not actually Chapstick, but Blistex lip balm. I think they are made by the same people, anyway.

It's hard to find info online for removing the stains, so I wrote the company. Hopefully they'll eventually post instructions on their own website. If you need to know how to do it, click to the jump.

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for contacting us regarding Chap Stick® Lip Balm. We are sorry to hear about your unfortunate staining incident with this product. Listed below are some suggestions regarding stain removal. A local commercial dry cleaner may be able to offer you additional suggestions based on the fabric type of the garments. Before using any of the following suggestions, we recommend testing the fabric in a small, inconspicuous area.

We have found that Chap Stick stains can usually be removed by washing the individual spots using a standard degreasing agent such as waterless hand cleaner, toluene (found at hardware stores), or lighter fluid. When doing this, place a paper towel or an absorbent material underneath to absorb the stain and prevent it from bleeding to the other side of the garment. After doing this, spray with Wisk and rub or dab the stain continuously for five minutes and then rinse with hot water. Repeat if necessary. Unfortunately, standard laundry detergents may not have the degreasing power to completely remove the stain.

Another alternative would be to use white blotting paper and press with a warm iron, changing the paper as needed. Pour hot water through the stain, allow to dry and then flush with Afta or Carbona Cleaning Fluid. These items should be available at your local grocery or retail stores. We hope these suggestions will be useful to you.

Wyeth Consumer Healthcare is firmly committed to the manufacture and sale of only the finest quality products and is grateful that you took the time to email us with your question. Should you have additional questions, please call 1-800-322-3129. Our offices are open weekdays, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. EST.

Sincerely,

Nancy
Wyeth Product Quality

bid on me!

My knitting group's auction of a gorgeous handknit child's sweater ends in just two days! We're raising money for Tsunami Volunteer in Khao Lak, Thailand, where I volunteered for a few months earlier this year and in 2005.

Check out the auction!

beanies.DSCF2340

I've been trying to wrap up some projects with my knitting (and crochet!) group, Knitzilla!, before all the teaching madness begins.

Here's the good news:
Our Afghanalong for hurricane survivors brought together 36 knitters across the country to make 43 blankets, 31 hats and 33 scarves to send to the Gulf Coast! I wrapped the project up, since it's about 80 degrees there now.

We also sent 16 Rad Bad Beanies to Colorado, to support urban teens on wilderness outings. My goal was to collect 250 hats this spring. Oops. We spent time sending blankets to Katrinaland instead. Luckily the outings are in groups of 5, so what we do send can be split up in a fair way. We're continuing this project for a while, if you'd like to help out. (We'll also take donations for postage and packing tape.)

And, we're raffling a handknit girl's sweater on eBay until May 19th! All proceeds help Tsunami Volunteer!

Even more impressive is their support of the field by keeping the paper privately owned— forming a not-for-profit instead of selling the paper for cash and watching it get eaten by a major corporation.

Sometimes doing things the old-fashioned way makes more sense than "progress."

And I'm not saying that just because Greg worked on it. Really!

It's a lot of fun, especially if you love animated films, like I do!

We have seen a narrowing of the purpose of the newspaper in the eyes of its owner. Under the old local owners, a newspaper's capacity for making money was only part of its value. Today it is everything. Gone is the notion that a newspaper should lead, that it as an obligation to its community, that it is beholden to the public.

This phenomenon he illustrates is one of the main reasons I wasn't sorry when the LAT gave me the boot in a ploy for higher profit margins. Companies with this philosophy staff departments that have to live by this philosophy, even if they don't believe it themselves. The result is fewer staff, overworked staff, vicious inside politics, increasingly low morale, and often a diminishing product (albeit with occasional rays of light sparked by the kind of creativity required to accomplish Good in a limited situation).

He goes on to point out that due to capital gains tax laws, it's more advantageous for corporations to trade large companies for stock, than for an individual buyer to buy outright and get hit up with hefty tax.

Carroll recommends The Elements of Journalism, by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, as a clarification of journalists' beliefs, in the face of impersonal corporate moneygrubbing.

By the way, have you ever wondered about the diversity of journalists and newsrooms? They aren't. A recent ASNE study puts minorities at 13.87% of newsroom staff, with one quarter of US newspapers staffed wholly by white journalists. On the upside, this is up from 3.95% in 1978. (Also via Romenesko.)