Happy Birthday to Me! I get a Tsunami!!

We're only about a half a mile from the coast here at my mother's, but up on a high spot out of the evacuation zone. The tsunami should be hitting here in the next 30 minutes, but so far no sirens.  We went for a walk down to the look out above North Jetty park about 90 minutes ago to get the "before" picture, and hiked down the hill to let the dogs swim a little with the seals.  I don't expect it will be much different after - I think we're only projected to get 2 feet.

My heart and best wishes go out to everyone in Chile in the earthquake zone.  And everyone in the Tsunami zone - please stay safe.

Tonight I'm off to the Home & Garden show after winning free tickets.  I need inspiration for my deck and back yard.  Last weekend we ripped out this old potting bench and 20 foot lattice covered shelves thingy in the corner of our upstairs deck to free up some crucial sunny space for a container garden.   We have a good size lot as far as modern suburban real estate goes, but one of the benefits of buying in an established neighborhood is also one of the curses - fully mature shade trees and mega-huge conifers in every yard.  There are only a few spots that aren't shaded half of the day. It's great for the squirrels and birds (and raccoons, and opossums...), provides a great deal of privacy (when there are leaves, that is...) and helps keep the house cool in the summer, but isn't so great for vegetable gardening.  Or lawns.  Or dahlias :(   I've got pics - I'll post soon.   I need help.

Then it's off to Gramma's Bed & Breakfast on the beautiful Central Oregon Coast tomorow for the weekend.   I'll try to get some pics of those no-longer mising San Francisco sea lions while I'm down there.   Darned Californians moving up here, driving up the property taxes.... **sigh**.

Damned socialists anyway....!

The owner of Bob's Red Mill is giving the company to the employees with an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan). 

The first company I worked for out of college was an ESOP.  I can't tell you what a difference it makes as an employee to have ownership in the product/service you're selling or supporting.  Not just ownership of profit (which is a huge incentive itself), but ownership of the decision making process and everyday management.  I've worked in an ESOP to working for a huge publically owned company (as a contractor and no ownership at all), then to a small privately held company and back to public again (with a strong profit sharing plan).  I can't tell you how vastly different the cultures are when employees are given a stake in the profits they produce and a say in the process (and stress factors) of their everyday jobs.    How much better employees and management work together, trust one another.  How employees will step up and innovate, and work harder and longer to solve problems, minimize costs, provide better customer service.   It's like night and day.  A fact which has been supported by numerous studies, by the way....

Yet according to lovers of the mythical magic of capitalism... this business model is anathema.  It's Socialism.  With a capital "S".  Such a company is doomed not only to fail, but to drag down everything America holds dear right along with it. So are member (or customer) owned companies.  Like credit unions.  And co-ops.  Member-owned insurance companies.  At least that's what I heard over and over from soundbites from last week's CPAC convention.   Especially lovely was listening to them talk about how they don't want a crappy "gov't run" healthcare system to screw up their much beloved (... and gov't run...) Medicare.   Then there was Glenn Beck talking about how he taught himself that liberals/progressives are the bane of Democracy..... by reading "free" (?) books at the (tax-payer funded) public library.  Public library systems that were envisioned and implemented in the U.S. (and U.K. before then) by.... progressive "elites".

But as they say, the proof is in the pudding. I'll take companies that are employee-owned or significantly employee owned any day.   Like Google (who gave me gmail, and Blogger...).  And good old socialist ideas like public libraries.

The Crud has left the building

Well, almost. At least it's more than halfway out the door.  Though we're still all coughing and hacking at Casa Mustang we're starting to see the bright side.  The frogs are singing, the sun's coming out, the crocuses are blooming, the dog's still alive.... and we're all finally feeling like we have the energy to enjoy life again.

The first week of sunshine in February brings out the euphoria in Portlanders.  Even those who haven't been sick for eons.    It's funny as hell.   After weeks of dismal drizzle and overcast skies we emerge from our winter lairs, take a look at our sodden yards and sprint (or bike)  to the nearest garden center. 

For months you commute in darkness and it's easy to think that you're the last human being left on earth and all the faces you can barely see in the other cars are really pod people.  Until February when it begins to stay light enough after you get home to walkabout the yard, check out the daffodils ready to bloom, see what favorite perennials survived the winter and you spy your neighbors out doing the same exact thing.

Otherwise, you have no idea what's been going on two houses down.   Once, we inadvertantly found out and it scarred us for life.  I won't go into details but let's just say it involved bright lights, cameras and very few clothes.  We'd have remained blissfully ignorant but for the afore-mentioned bright lights, lack of curtains and unfortunate dearth of foliage on the trees in the yard between us.  And had Mr. Stang not started smoking again and happened to step out on the balcony with insomnia one midwinter's night.  Just another hazard of smoking they don't tell you about...

PSA: Don't poison your dog with Sugar Free Jello Pudding Cups

Some weeks zip on by, others just draaaaggg....

This is one of those weeks.  Jinx is fine, by the way.  Now.  Tuesday night however we weren't so sure.  The Monkey had been sick since Sunday.  The heaves had stopped but he still couldn't keep anything down and had a slight fever.  Lethargic doesn't begin to describe it.  Stuporous? Maybe.  Freakishly inert, in any case.  All he wanted to do was sleep, and no food kept down in 72 hours.  So we were a little worried.  In an effort to tempt his appetite I'd bought several varieties of pudding cups.  Because who can resist pudding?  EXACTLY!!!   One variety happened to be sugar free.  And had Xylitol in it (you know... the sweetener in gum that's known to KILL DOGS??) .  And because I'm an annoying know-it-all and read the ingredients of almost every damned product I buy I told Mr. Stang when brought it home, "Oh, by the way honey... this pudding has XYLITOL in it, so DO NOT give Jinx the empty cup to lick like you usually do (she loves licking pudding cups, yogurt cups, ice cream cups... we love watching her get them stuck on her long nose).  He nodded his head (I thought in understanding).

Turns out, not so much.  Because Tuesday night, he gave our beloved black Lab the last half of the Boston Cream Jello pudding cup the Monkey had refused to eat.  I heard the ecstatic licking from across the room and asked "that is NOT the pudding with the POISON in it I TOLD YOU not to give to her, right?"  Wrong.

By this time, I'm getting sick myself with some crap my coworker brought to the office (thankfully not the same gut bug as the Monkey) so I'm feverish, coughing and exhausted while trying to detach a very sick child from the couch to take a bath.  Mr. Stang is running around looking for some kind of measuring device and the hydrogen peroxide to try to induce vomiting (something the vet tech later said, by the way you should not do at home because it can burn the esophogus and cause more problems than whatever they ingested).  I am trying really hard to not bust a "Goddamit I TOLD YOU SO"gasket because that would be entirely non-constructive.  Poor Jinx is just confused and trying to figure to why we're shoving bubbly stuff down her throat.   I'm calling and getting directions to the emergency vet clinic just in case she starts seizing.

Guess we got it out of her in time - she never showed any sign of distress.  Mr. Stang stayed up with her all night just to make sure.  It's sure some week though when you're simultaneously trying to get the kid to quit puking and the dog to START puking.  

Friday can't come quick enough.  I stayed home yesterday and the Monkey and I slept all day. He's eating now (though lost a couple of pounds) and was cleared by the doctor this morning.  I'm still under the weather but am back at work.  Jinx, thank all the gods is perfectly fine and still doesn't understand what all the commotion was about.  Mr. Stang is still torturing himself with guilt.  I'm not trying very hard to stop him.

My Super Bowl Sunday

The pre-game show started about 10:00, when I took the Monkey to the craft store to pick out his own yarn and hopefully some kid-sized (and safer) knitting needles than the 14" #7's he'd found in my craft box the day before and had been mercilessly begging to use ever since.  His sides hurt, he said.  Normally very stoic, the wincing and grimacing on the way home gave me a clue as to what was in store . 

Clutching his side, he said ever so sweetly, "I'm sorry Mommy but I don't think I'll be able to make you something today.  Maybe tomorow."  Foregoing craft projects?  Voluntarily?  Oh crap it's gonna be bad.  And it was.

The Main Event kicked off right on schedule - 3:25.  The half-digested eggs and hot cocoa from breakfast were the first to make it to the endzone. I took a Timeout to regroup and figure out the best way to clean up puke from a shag carpet without tossing my own breakfast. I somehow managed to hang on and make steady, if slow progress - not losing any yards against my unseen opponant until halftime, when Round 2 started. 

By this time, however I'd analyzed the playbook of my adversary and came prepared with my OWN Super Bowl:

Made of durable pink plastic, Kitchenaid mixing bowls are lightweight, clean up easy and come equipped with a handle just the right size for little hands to grasp when overcome with stomache cramps.  High walls keep the ensuing mess well-contained and the non-slip, no tip base is a life saver when quickly setting down on endtables or countertops while reaching for warm, soothing wet washclothes.

Pouring edge makes disposal of resulting mess a snap. This is a truly, and remarkable Super Bowl.

Needless to say, I missed whatever game was on T.V.   I hear the Colts choked.   The Monkey hasn't eaten anything solid in over 24 hours, but his last go-around with the heaves was around 3 am and he's been able to keep down clear fluids since then.  So I think we're on the mend.  But he's still not up for crafts.  According to a co-worker I wasn't the only parent up all night fighting the Intestinal Flu-bugs so I guess there's something going around.

Bamboozled by Bamboo Fabrics

Well this sucks. Consumer Reports tells us the FTC is coming down hard on retailers who are marketing rayon fabric products (bedding, apparel) as "bamboo" and therefore environmentally conscious. 

snip: "Among the companies warned by the FTC are Amazon.com, Bed Bath & Beyond, Costco, Kmart, Lands' End, Sears, Target, and Walmart."

From the FTC :

"Looking to be a more environmentally conscious shopper? You’ve probably heard about bamboo. Bamboo stands out for its ability to grow quickly with little or no need for pesticides, and it is used in a variety of products, from flooring to furniture. But when it comes to soft bamboo textiles, like shirts or sheets, there’s a catch: they’re actually rayon.
The Federal Trade Commission, the nation’s consumer protection agency, wants you to know that the soft “bamboo” fabrics on the market today are rayon. They are made using toxic chemicals in a process that releases pollutants into the air. Extracting bamboo fibers is expensive and time-consuming, and textiles made just from bamboo fiber don’t feel silky smooth.

There’s also no evidence that rayon made from bamboo retains the antimicrobial properties of the bamboo plant, as some sellers and manufacturers claim. Even when bamboo is the “plant source” used to create rayon, no traits of the original plant are left in the finished product. "

Another newfangled cotton/linen "alternative" I've seen (and bought... it feels wonderfully silky smooth but wrinkles like a Shar Pei when not blended with cotton) is "modal"... produced from the fibers of beech trees.  Looks like it's really just rayon, too.
Example of BB&B primer on fibers used in sheets (it appears they haven't changed their website yet to comply with the ruling).

That was a quick week!!

One of my new addictions is this fantastic show on the Sundance cable channel called "Man Shops Globe".  Keith Johnson has my dream job.  He's a buyer at large for Anthropologie and gets to travel all over the world scouring exotic flea markets, bazaars, antique stores and the like for unique arts, crafts, furnishings and other paraphenelia to decorate and sell in their upscale, esoteric women's apparel stores.  The coolest part is when he gets to commission work from artisans.  What I wouldn't do to be able to walk through Portland Saturday Market, or go studio hopping at Portland Open Studios (or the equivalent halfway around the world) and say "I LOVE that piece!  I'll take 20."

Every time I watch it I'm fascinated by the fact that someone:

1. Gets paid (very well, I'm sure) to do this;
2. Regularly travels on carbon-sucking jets halfway around the world (and back again) to find some innovative 3rd world artisan/ vendor who is recycling garbage into masterpieces (that are then marketed as "eco-conscious"); and then...
3. Can find enough people who don't have anything better to do with their money than buy enough of said items to make a considerable profit in the midst of a global recession.

But as I'm looking at many of these "remarkable" finds I'm thinking "dude.... I've seen that bottle/ jar etc. in a dozen different antique stores for $2... saw that rusty old iron bed frame in someone else's guano-bespackled barn during an estate sale for $10..... or OMG give me a hot glue and/or staple gun, a couple yards of fabric,   foam and some scrap plywood & wood trim and I can make this EXACT same thing for $50!"  Maybe $100 if it's really, I mean really - expensive fabric.  But for $1,000 (marked down from $2G) that toile better have come from Marie Antoinette's personal parlor!

I guess they need to pay for that jet fuel somehow. Most of the time, all they seem to do is rip off said 3rd world artisans/vendors and reproduce it themselves for pennies on the dollar - cutting their inspirational source entirely out of any profit. Those items are they seem to sell at pretty reasonable prices.  I have a feeling it's mostly the "one-of-a-kind", artisan-direct stuff that is sold at a premium.  Which is fair.  But I still like to feel superior while living vicariously via the net in my almost entirely second-hand furnished house.

Do they not have antique malls in Manhattan?  Ever heard of Etsy?   Craigslist?  Why can't he shop online, repurpose locally like the rest of us and save a little gas?  But then, if repurposing junk into "found item" decor is de rigueur nowadays the only way to differentiate oneself is to find foreign, exotic junk. 

It occurs to me that maybe I need to quit my whining.  It's one thing to sit up on my high horse all superior and scoff "I could do that for $50!".... and it's quite another to actually get off my ass and try to DO it.  Then turn around and sell if for $2,000.

Pacific Northwest Waves getting bigger

Alarming news from a study by Oregon State researchers shows that already "Big" Northwest Waves are getting even bigger.) (via MSNBC) , posing coastal communities with a triple threat.

(Photo by Erica Harris, Oregon State University)

More on the local impact (especially Seattle) from the Sunbreak:

 Snip: "Twenty years ago, a big winter storm might generate 25-foot waves offshore of the Pacific Northwest. Scientists pegged 33 feet as the maximum in a 100-year storm. But the intervening years--and a strong El Niño weather pattern--brought 33-foot waves...and then some..Now researchers at OSU believe that the maximum wave height in a 100-year event is 46 feet (or as much as 55, depending on how you measure).   The largest wave increase, in fact, centers on the Washington coast, down to northern Oregon, says Science Daily. Wave height has grown about four inches per year, for a total of about ten feet over the past three decades."

And from OSU:

"Increasing wave heights, they said, have had double or triple the impact in terms of erosion, flooding and damage as sea level rise over the last few decades. If wave heights continue to increase, they may continue to dominate over the acceleration in sea level that’s anticipated over the next couple of decades. The prior concern about what sea level rise could do, in other words, is already a reality. If sea levels do increase significantly in future decades and centuries, that will only add to the damage already being done by higher waves."

Note - Either of these two issues 1) bigger waves or 2) general sea level increase due to climate change could be compounded significantly if (or rather, when) we experience 3) a major earthquake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, which could drop the shoreline entirely in some places up to 5 feet (if the similar quake/geology in Sumatra was any indication).

So what does this mean? A lot.  Changes to the coastline itself will effect coastal development; tidal/estuary environments; tsunami evacuation/danger zones; navigation across river bars, roads and recreational areas. And maybe it's a good time to invest in those vacation properties a block or two; or a few hundred yards off the beach.  Could be prime real estate in 50 years!

PSA:  Every winter at least one or more people are swept out to sea along the Oregon or Washington coasts by "Sneaker Waves".  Keep yourself safe.   

Public Option: It's ALIVE!!! No, wait, It's Dead. No, It's ALIVE!!!!

Well, two Progressive action groups are claiming a victory (such as it is) in the free-for-all that's become health care reform.  Per Firedoglake and Bold Progress, most of the Hosue Progressive Caucus is standing by their guns and signing a letter being circulated by Reps. Jared Polis (D-CO) and Chellie Pingree (D-ME) that calls for passing the public option through budget "reconciliation," (which only needs 51 votes in the Senate.)

As for the SOTU speech last night - it wasn't as bad as I expected.  Left me more hopeful than not.  Repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell - - that's fantastic, but feels like we're being thrown a bone.  There were aspects I didn't care for - offshore drilling and nuclear energy? Yuck and eh, respectively..... I'd rather focus on less controversial sources of energy.  But I guess those are bones for the Republicans.  So in the end, everybody gets a bone.  Yay for Bipartisanship!!!!

Sure it's great to mention equal rights for Afghan women but what exactly is being done about that?  The war is making it worse, according to them, replacing the Taliban in many places and positions of power with criminal warlords from the Northern Alliance

Snip: "many of the farmers we spoke to said that the (Afghan) government had forced them to stop growing opium but had done nothing to help them repay the debts to the drug lords they still owed crops too...He said he had been forced to pay ( a portion of) his debts to drug lords by marrying his five daughters to them... "they told me I should pay with my daughters if I had nothing else!"   The farmer told us he still owes 12,000 dollars and he has no idea how to repay them.   "I can’t do anything now, I have run out of daughters."

Law to Allow Golf Carts in Bike Lanes

I like this plan!!!! Proposed Washington State bills would let golf cart-like devices on city streets.

I drive less than 3 miles to work every day.  My bank and grocery store are on the way.  Costco and Home Depot are right up the street.   Now that the Monkey is staying home with Daddy I've thought about biking it. When he was in daycare it just wan't feasible since I'd need to pick him up.  Of course, I'd have to buy a bike to do that (my last one was stolen).  And it's hard to get motivated when it's cold and rainy outside.  But if I could use one of these puppies, that'd be swell:  GEM electric cars.

Time for a new Progressive Party?

Obama bringing Plouffe back is a good sign he may once again be able to connect with the Progressive "NetRoots" that got him elected in the first place.  But I'm not holding my breath.

The Progressive Caucus in Congress is consistently sidelined by De. leadership.    Apparently we need more than a caucus.

Some Progs are calling for the entire Progressive Caucus to up and defect from the Democratic party.  Works for me!

And lookie here - Teddy Roosevelt's Progressive Party is alive and kicking (at least in Washington State and Vermont). 

http://www.waprogparty.org/
http://www.progressiveparty.org/

Friday Critter Blogging

Tiger Whinger chilling on the couch.  Background:  Note the very rare African Stick Plant by the window. Foreground: Note the tres cool Curious George fleece throw made by yours truly for my own Monkey for Christmas.

Just like a teenager - hitting Mom's liquor cabinet over the holidays. And you know that cooking sherry...

...is just the entry drug to the heavy stuff.  It's only a matter of time before your precious baby is dealing 'nip to the whole neighborhood.  

You don't piss off the base, people.

Don't know why everyone's so surprised about the Mass. senate race.  I could have told you what was going to happen weeks ago when I began quietly deleting any emails from Obama's advocacy group from my inbox, unread.  I presume they were calls to support Coakley - get out the vote, send money.  Same old same old.  The problem was, Dems in the Senate (and Obama ) were giving us the Same Old Same Old in HealthCare "Reform".  We thought we sent a strong message when we elected Obama and enough Dems to do whatever he needed.  I did what I could to get Al Franken, Jeff Merkley and a ton of Congressional Reps elected to support that "super" majority.  I worked my ass off so you all could take over and do the heavy lifting of implementing our agenda.

But what was the point of all that hard work in electing a supermajority if Harry Reid and Obama et.al. weren't going to use it?

So new message to Ben Nelson, Lieberman and the rest of the "DINO'S" (Democrat in Name Only):  If you're going to act like an obstructionist Republican be prepared to be replaced by an actual Republican, because I  - and and a great deal of Obama's (previous) Progressive Base will be doing everything in our power to get you out of the Democratic Caucus.  I'd rather have an honest adversary than a backstabbing "buddy".

More thoughts:  Maybe it was our fault.  Maybe we just weren't clear enough during the campaign that when we said we demand "affordable, universal health coverage" we meant "don't force us to buy shitty coverage from the money-grubbing professional claim deniers." 

Is the Entire Caribbean Plate on the move?

Lost among all the human tragedy and triumph in the wake of the Haitian Earthquake a few headlines have been catching my eye in the last week:

Jan 12 Earthquake in Haiti (mag 7.0)
Jan 15 Earthquake on coast of Venezuala (mag 5.4)
Jan 18 Earthquake off coast of Guatemala (mag 6.0)
and the latest, today:
Jan 19 Cayman Islands earthquake (mag 5.8)

Looks like I'm not the only one noticing the trend. But I'm wondering, is this "cluster" of reported earthquakes in the media all around the periphery of the Caribbean Plate just a case of heightened media awareness or an indication of much more significant things shaking out deep below?

These are just the bigger quakes - I notice from the USGS that there was a somewhat smaller quake (mag. 4.7) in Panama/Costa Rica today; another mag 4.7 in Columbia on Saturday, and a dozen or so in the Leeward Islands (just to the East of Haiti/ Dominican Republic).  Those in proximity to Hispaniola may be close enough to the Hatian epicenter (in time and space) to be considered aftershocks - I don't know.  But it's looking like it's own little mini- "Ring of Fire" down in the Caribbean lately.

While I certainly don't want to wish any more destruction on anyone, my Inner Geek is waiting to see where the next round of activity comes from. My bet? The active volcanoes along the eastern subduction zone (Lesser Antilles) on Montserrat, Martinique, etc.

I watched a documentary about recent theories involving "earthquake storms" that speculate, in short that slippage along a fault at one location causes additional stress to build up further along and can trigger a series of earthquakes one after another.  Sometimes within hours, other times years apart.  This makes perfect sense to me and I like to envision tectonic plates/faults as the vertebrae along the backbone of Mother Earth, and earthquakes as her natural spinal adjustments. In my mind, it's just like when I go to the chiropractor and they "crack" one pivotal, tension-filled spot and the release of that tension triggers the release of several other adjacent vertebrae, resulting in that ever-satisfying "crack crack crack" up and down my spine.

Anyway, I hope for the sake of everyone in the Caribbean that Mother nature is done shrugging her shoulders. 

Missing Pier 39 San Francisco Sea Lions Found on Oregon Coast

Remember this lonely little guy from last October?

It looks like he was the vanguard of a mass exodus!

From kgw.com:


Just what we need - more transplants from California **sigh**. What's the allure? No sales tax? Indian casinos? Nope. It's the anchovies. They're highly plentiful off Oregon in this El Nino year when sea lions' normal staple, the S.F. herring population has taken a nose dive. Now if they'd just invest in some retirement properties and stick around for awhile the economic picture of Florence may get a little brighter. If they bring in more tourists, that's a huge plus too.

If you'd like to save yourself a trip to expensive San Francisco and see these famous residents in their new "winter" home, I can't recommend the Florence/ Yachats area enough. However when we went to the Sea Lion Caves it was more than a little on the expensive side ($30 admission for a family of 3...)and not really worth the money. You couldn't get close to the animals and didn't really want to because of the deafening noise and pervasive stink. The KGW article says they're all hanging out at Heceta Head anyway, so I'd recommend saving your money and just going to Heceta Beach State Park, just north of the Sea Lion Caves. The old Heceta Head Lighthouse Keeper's cottage is now a lovely Bed and Breakfast if you'd prefer to take your time. Other nice places to stay in the area are Driftwood Shores, near where we spotted our herald on the rocks at the Siuslaw River North Jetty; Ambrosia Gardens B&B; Seaquest Inn B&B; Overleaf Lodge; and the Edwin K B&B.

***Update Jan 14, 2009 -  Apparently, there are a large number turning up south of Florence in the Coos Bay/ Charleston Marina area.  Below, from OregonsAdventureCoast.com - an interview with one of the missing sea lions themselves:

It's the Swamp Thing!!!!

From Live Science, via MSNBC:  Half plant, Half slug.
"The sea slugs live in salt marshes in New England and Canada. In addition to burglarizing the genes needed to make the green pigment chlorophyll, the slugs also steal tiny cell parts called chloroplasts, which they use to conduct photosynthesis. The chloroplasts use the chlorophyl to convert sunlight into energy, just as plants do, eliminating the need to eat food to gain energy. "  photo Credit: Nicholas E. Curtis and Ray Martinez

And somewhere a Syfy Network producer is gearing up to make another really bad, cheesy made-for-cable movie. I see a whole new era of Godzilla vs. Mothra movies, this time involving Swamp Slugs vs. Fishzilla.   From NatGeo: "A snakehead has teeth like a shark, a taste for blood and even walks on land. It is an insatiable alien predator that can obliterate the food chain and overpower native life. It mysteriously showed up near a small Maryland town and now can be found coast to coast. Scientists are sounding the alarm. It is a showdown of man vs. fish as scientists and anglers work together in the fight to defy it, control it - and stop it from destroying everything in its path!"

So here's the plot:  Swamp Slug, a benign, shy... beneficial creature may just hold the evolutionary key to cleaning up our toxic waste and saving humans from oil dependence.  If only we can save them from being eradicated by the swarms of killer Fishzillas!   Enter a team of heroic scientists turned reluctant heroes who try to enlist the help of a grizzly, gruff, guilt-ridden alcoholic world champion fisherman who is trying to drown his sorrows over a loved one drowned when their boat was capsized by Fishzillas (maybe he's the one who introduced the species to Maryland to begin with....ooohh.). Throw in a loyal yellow dog and a cute kid and voila!  Instant B movie.  It can end with the grizzly old fisherman being genetically assimilated by the slugs and becoming the first photosynthetically capable merman.

I'll tell you where to send the royalty checks.

Ringing in the New Year

I'm suffering from post-holiday let down. Or rather, benefitting from it.  I was finally able to get enough R&R last weekend to get a hold on this crazy cold & sinus infection we all seem to be passing back and forth.  It's not completely licked, but getting closer than a hoot owl taste-testing a Tootsie Pop.  If I don't relapse I may get away with not needing antibiotics.  There's a novel approach!  As it turns out, it's also one those innovative Norwegians have been using successfully for the last quarter century to earning them bragging rights to be the most MRSA infection-free" country in the world.

snip: "OSLO, Norway – Aker University Hospital is a dingy place to heal. The floors are streaked and scratched. A light layer of dust coats the blood pressure monitors. A faint stench of urine and bleach wafts from a pile of soiled bedsheets dropped in a corner.

Look closer, however, at a microscopic level, and this place is pristine. There is no sign of a dangerous and contagious staph infection that killed tens of thousands of patients in the most sophisticated hospitals of Europe, North America and Asia this year, soaring virtually unchecked.

The reason: Norwegians stopped taking so many drugs.

Twenty-five years ago, Norwegians were also losing their lives to this bacteria. But Norway's public health system fought back with an aggressive program that made it the most infection-free country in the world. A key part of that program was cutting back severely on the use of antibiotics.

Now a spate of new studies from around the world prove that Norway's model can be replicated with extraordinary success, and public health experts are saying these deaths — 19,000 in the U.S. each year alone, more than from AIDS — are unnecessary.

"It's a very sad situation that in some places so many are dying from this, because we have shown here in Norway that Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) can be controlled, and with not too much effort," said Jan Hendrik-Binder, Oslo's MRSA medical adviser. "But you have to take it seriously, you have to give it attention, and you must not give up."

The World Health Organization says antibiotic resistance is one of the leading public health threats on the planet. A six-month investigation by The Associated Press found overuse and misuse of medicines has led to mutations in once curable diseases like tuberculosis and malaria, making them harder and in some cases impossible to treat."

Important take-aways from that article: "Norway's PUBLIC HEALTH SYSTEM... made it the most infection-free country in the world.  Here in the U.S. where the, pro-profit, pro-corporate folks claim we have the BEST (PRIVATE) healthcare in the world, we kill 19,000 people annually (insured, uninsured, doesn't matter - MRSA doesn't do wallet checks) .  More than die from AIDS.  And these deaths are absolutely and totally preventable. Or at least so a government run system has proven elsewhere.

I'd like to know how this phenomenon is explained by the tea-baggers/Republicans/Independents who believe *anything* government-run is doomed to be incompetent.   Maybe, since gov't is actually run *by* the people (of the U.S.), *for* the people, it's just we Americans who are incompetent?

Granted, Norway is swimming in oil revenue which helps pay for their welfare state.  They're actually much wealthier per capita than the U.S.  But still - it's another great example of how a non-profit, public based health care system can be extremely effective. Here's an excellent article from the Harvard Business Review that discusses the wide divide between right and left on discussions of health care reform:  How Effective Is American HealthCare. 

When we swallow that huge chunk of Patriotic Pride and are completely honest with ourselves, we find out that "The United States gets the smallest bang for the buck in terms of life itself amongst developed countries: it realizes the lowest level of "life returns."  United Kingdom healthcare system delivers life returns more than twice those of the American healthcare system.  The Canadial system, THREE times more returns.

You know, it's not that Progressives are necessarily anti-capitalist.  We're kind of like the old lady from that vintage Wendy's commercial - "Where's the Beef?"  When we're forced to pay Filet Mignon prices we want to be sure we're going to get Filet Mignon, dammit and not hamburger.  Or give us the option of paying what a hamburger's actually worth!.  But right now, our only options seem to be a) pay outragous prices and get screwed; or b) starve. 

Where's Santa Now? NORAD knows

From CNN today, the story of how NORAD began tracking Santa:   (official NORAD tracking website here)

One morning in December 1955, U.S. Air Force Col. Harry Shoup, the director of operations at CONAD, the Continental Air Defense Command--NORAD's predecessor--got a phone call at his Colorado Springs, Colorado, office. This was no laughing matter. The call had come in on one of the top secret lines inside CONAD that only rang in the case of a crisis.

Grabbing the phone, Shoup must have expected the worst. Instead, a tiny voice asked, "Is this Santa Claus?"

"Dad's pretty annoyed," said Terri Van Keuren, Shoup's daughter, recalling the legend of that day in 1955. "He barks into the phone," demanding to know who's calling.

"The little voice is now crying," Van Keuren continued. "'Is this one of Santa's elves, then?'"

The Santa questions were only beginning. That day, the local newspaper had run a Sears Roebuck ad with a big picture of St. Nick and text that urged, "Hey, Kiddies! Call me direct...Call me on my private phone and I will talk to you personally any time day or night."

But the phone number in the ad was off by a digit. Instead of connecting with Santa, callers were dialing in on the line that would ring if the Russians were attacking.   Before long, the phone was ringing off the hook, and softening up, Shoup grabbed a nearby airman and told him to answer the calls and, Van Keuren said, "'just pretend you're Santa.'"

Indeed, rather than having the newspaper pull the Sears ad, Shoup decided to offer the countless kids calling in something useful: information about Santa's progress from the North Pole. To quote the official NORAD Santa site, "a tradition was born."

From that point on, first CONAD and then, in 1958, when NORAD was formed, Shoup's organization offered annual Santa tracking as a service to the global community. A phone number was publicized and anyone was invited to call up, especially on December 24, and find out where Santa was. Manning those phones over the years have been countless numbers of Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps personnel and their families, and for many people, turning to NORAD to find out where Santa is became something to look forward to each year...

These days, of course, a single red phone isn't enough to handle the demand for the information.  Google has even jumped in to assist.  Most people, Frankovis said, just want to know where Santa is. And so the volunteer answering the question will look up at the big screen on the wall at the operations center and see where, on the map that is integrating geographical information from NORAD with Google's mapping service, Santa is at that moment.

"NORAD uses four high-tech systems to track Santa -- radar, satellites, Santa Cams and fighter jets," reads the NORAD Santa Web site. On Christmas Eve, NORAD monitors the radar systems continuously for indications that Santa Claus has left the North Pole.    Fighter pilots flying the CF-18 intercept and welcome Santa to North America.

"The moment that radar indicates Santa has lifted off, we use our second detection system. Satellites positioned in geo-synchronous orbit at 22,300 miles from the Earth's surface are equipped with infrared sensors, which enable them to detect heat. Amazingly, Rudolph's bright red nose gives off an infrared signature, which allow our satellites to detect Rudolph and Santa.....

Last March, Shoup died, said Van Keuren. But in the years before his death, she and her family would take the retired colonel back to Colorado Springs each year for the Santa tracker training. "They would introduce him and he would say a few words," Van Keuren said. "So that was a big thrill for him."

In his later years, Shoup "was not as sharp as he used to be," she said. But his days overseeing the Santa tracker program were still near and dear to his heart. She said the NORAD folks had printed out a sheaf of e-mails kids had written in and gave them to Shoup as a reminder of what he'd started back in 1955.

"For the last weeks of his life, he carried them around in his briefcase like they were top secret papers," Van Keuren said. "Those were just precious to him. I'd read them to him over and over."

Don't tell me there is no Santa Claus!!!  Do you think it pure coincidence that a Sears ad just *happened* to be printed with a typo that just *happened* to connect directly to the most top-secret phone line in the world, of the only organization in the world who has a mandate to specifically "watch out" for (and defend from, if necessary) any aerial traffic coming across the North Pole?   I don't think so.  Santa's not stupid.  He knows who's been bad or good and he knows who might have the ability to accidentally take him out. 

Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Goodnight!!

Ebay enters do-gooder market with new World of Good website

Looks like my favorite GreaterGood network is getting some competition from Ebay. 

Pick a cause - fair trade, eco-friendly, animal-friendly, people-positive.  Or as they're spinning it, "Shop by Goodprint".  Lots of trademarked marketing jazz going around.  BUT, it is nice to see Ebay responding to concerns they may be providing a global market for exploitive products.  Unlike GreaterGood, however they're offering commissions.  Which I'll take.  But I promise to buy a goat or something equally worthwhile with any proceeds.  So far I'm seeing many of the same artisans on both sites.

So far, Dr. Bronner's products are looking very good to me. Dr. Bronner's Lavender Tea Tree Soap.

 I have no clue what "Shikakai" is, however.  So use at your own peril.  Hopefully it's not in the same line as the "Ellie Pooh" recycled paper products. Wait - Wikipedia says it's a traditional shampoo used in India for centuries.  Have you seen the gorgeous hair on those Indian women? Sounds good.  And it's fair trade and organic!.