Ha!

As if that ever stopped me for long.

Things have changed. I've moved. I have my own space and now it is time to shape my own thoughts into words. This won't be the most enlightened inspiring blog but it will be a reflection of my observations and inspirations. There probably won't be much more on travel - I'm pretty settled (and broke) these days.

However, hopefully there will be lots under learning new things and the triple p categories. Additionally I plan on adding a category on weather because I find the stuff fascinating - if you don't you can skip over those entries. And one of these days I aspire to create a political commentary section where I can sound off about what I read in the paper and see in the world.

A girl has gotta express her opinion and where better to do that?

A thousand blessings and thanks to my friend Stephen who helped me get this show back on the road.

We're expecting 2 to 6 inches of wet heavy snow to fall in the next 20 hours.

It's a good thing I got some biking already.

And I have a meeting in the suburbs tomorrow so I won't feel guilty about driving to work.

I need to haul my composting and recycling in anyhow...

Fighting this bug just makes me tired. So... very... very... tired...

All I want to do is lay in the sun - which isn't very easy to do in the winter - hence the winter blahs. If I could afford it I would fly myself to Mexico right now.

To top it off, this illness came at a really bad time (is there ever a good time) as it has caused me to miss the last few good weeks of winter. I discover that March brings a real threat of depression because the sun is too high and the weather too warm for real winter sports but it isn't quite warm bicycling everywhere and all the fun things that happen when it isn't winter.

Sigh... I guess there isn't much to do besides sleep.

The plastic waste in the Pacific Ocean now covers an area twice the size of the continental U.S.

Key excerpts
The UN Environment Programme estimated in 2006 that every square mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of floating plastic

"The original idea that people had was that it was an island of plastic garbage that you could almost walk on. It is not quite like that. It is almost like a plastic soup. It is endless for an area that is maybe twice the size as continental United States."

"It moves around like a big animal without a leash." When that animal comes close to land, as it does at the Hawaiian archipelago, the results are dramatic. "The garbage patch barfs, and you get a beach covered with this confetti of plastic," he added.

To view the complete Alternet article click below

By Kathy Marks and Daniel Howden, The Independent UK. Posted February 6, 2008.

A "plastic soup" of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States, scientists have said.

The vast expanse of debris -- in effect the world's largest rubbish dump -- is held in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting "soup" stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan.

Charles Moore, an American oceanographer who discovered the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" or "trash vortex", believes that about 100 million tons of flotsam are circulating in the region. Marcus Eriksen, a research director of the US-based Algalita Marine Research Foundation, which Mr Moore founded, said yesterday: "The original idea that people had was that it was an island of plastic garbage that you could almost walk on. It is not quite like that. It is almost like a plastic soup. It is endless for an area that is maybe twice the size as continental United States."

Curtis Ebbesmeyer, an oceanographer and leading authority on flotsam, has tracked the build-up of plastics in the seas for more than 15 years and compares the trash vortex to a living entity: "It moves around like a big animal without a leash." When that animal comes close to land, as it does at the Hawaiian archipelago, the results are dramatic. "The garbage patch barfs, and you get a beach covered with this confetti of plastic," he added.

The "soup" is actually two linked areas, either side of the islands of Hawaii, known as the Western and Eastern Pacific Garbage Patches. About one-fifth of the junk -- which includes everything from footballs and kayaks to Lego blocks and carrier bags -- is thrown off ships or oil platforms. The rest comes from land.

Mr Moore, a former sailor, came across the sea of waste by chance in 1997, while taking a short cut home from a Los Angeles to Hawaii yacht race. He had steered his craft into the "North Pacific gyre" -- a vortex where the ocean circulates slowly because of little wind and extreme high pressure systems. Usually sailors avoid it.

He was astonished to find himself surrounded by rubbish, day after day, thousands of miles from land. "Every time I came on deck, there was trash floating by," he said in an interview. "How could we have fouled such a huge area? How could this go on for a week?"

Mr Moore, the heir to a family fortune from the oil industry, subsequently sold his business interests and became an environmental activist. He warned yesterday that unless consumers cut back on their use of disposable plastics, the plastic stew would double in size over the next decade.

Professor David Karl, an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii, said more research was needed to establish the size and nature of the plastic soup but that there was "no reason to doubt" Algalita's findings.

"After all, the plastic trash is going somewhere and it is about time we get a full accounting of the distribution of plastic in the marine ecosystem and especially its fate and impact on marine ecosystems."

Professor Karl is co-ordinating an expedition with Algalita in search of the garbage patch later this year and believes the expanse of junk actually represents a new habitat. Historically, rubbish that ends up in oceanic gyres has biodegraded. But modern plastics are so durable that objects half-a-century old have been found in the north Pacific dump. "Every little piece of plastic manufactured in the past 50 years that made it into the ocean is still out there somewhere," said Tony Andrady, a chemist with the US-based Research Triangle Institute.

Mr Moore said that because the sea of rubbish is translucent and lies just below the water's surface, it is not detectable in satellite photographs. "You only see it from the bows of ships," he said.

According to the UN Environment Programme, plastic debris causes the deaths of more than a million seabirds every year, as well as more than 100,000 marine mammals. Syringes, cigarette lighters and toothbrushes have been found inside the stomachs of dead seabirds, which mistake them for food.

Plastic is believed to constitute 90 per cent of all rubbish floating in the oceans. The UN Environment Programme estimated in 2006 that every square mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of floating plastic,

Dr Eriksen said the slowly rotating mass of rubbish-laden water poses a risk to human health, too. Hundreds of millions of tiny plastic pellets, or nurdles -- the raw materials for the plastic industry -- are lost or spilled every year, working their way into the sea. These pollutants act as chemical sponges attracting man-made chemicals such as hydrocarbons and the pesticide DDT. They then enter the food chain. "What goes into the ocean goes into these animals and onto your dinner plate. It's that simple," said Dr Eriksen.

Source: Alternet

When I am in the muddle of it - practicing and practicing - life can be pretty frustrating. However, once I have practiced it enough that I can lift up my head, enjoy the music, and not trip over my feet - that is the part about learning I really like. These days (at least with Lindy Hop) it feels like a lot of work to get there.

Sigh...

You can read the serious story here

After driving some friends home I took the long way home on the freezing cold night. It is negative 13 degrees (F, -25 C) out. When you add the wind chill in the thermometer goes all the way down to negative 38 - one of the coldest nights of the year. This meant no one was out and the road by the river was peaceful and beautiful. I had to stop the car and stare in awe at the vast quantities of mist rising from the un-frozen Mississippi River.

This article is worth reading if you want to challenge a few social assumptions:

Bonobo Society: Amicable, Amorous and Run by Females

Natalie Angier is a fabulous writer, author of "Woman: an intimate geography" and regular writer for the New York Times.

This is a concept I'll have contemplate on - juggle around a bit - and maybe play with it just a little.

Sure enough - I over-bundled and was sweating buckets and undressing before I even got to the office. The temperature rose about 20 degrees (F) during the day. Fortunately the wind picked up so although I had all the same gear on, my ride home was perfect.

I am amazed at how much fun can be had with those ingredients plus a few good-humored people on a sunny freezing day in winter.

Nice. Cool. Ice.

It adds a whole new dimension to skating and winter fun.

Taylor mentions how we can increase our output by using economies of scale and a division of labor. For example, a shoe factory now days has a huge output and shoes are made by people doing a ton of repetitive tasks. However, what Taylor doesn't mention is decline in quality that happens when you divide the labor and go for maximum. Actually, if anything he insinuates that there is an increase in quality because people can become increasingly good at their little area. However, when you divide the labor up so much that people no longer identify with the finished product - you get serious problems in quality.

The other issue with the so-called economies of scale is that they aren't always true. Sometimes it is more expensive to make something in large batches - this is made apparent by factory farming. On a small farm manure is considered a fertilizer and is a welcome addition to fields. However on a large farm there is no much manure that it is considered hazardous waste and there isn't a decent way to get rid of it. The large amounts of antibiotics (fed to the animals) don't help either - once again this medication isn't necessary on a small farm where animals aren't subject to over crowding and unclean conditions.

I think pollution in general hasn't been considered in the economists' discussion on this debate.

I haven't finished listening to the lecture yet. Perhaps Taylor will get into this aspect more. I'd love to hear an in depth discussion about when economies of scale actually make sense and when they are a detriment due to the increased pollution, decline in product quality, cost of transportation, and general fluctuations of the market (a large facility isn't able to respond to market change very quickly). I think the increased focus on small and local businesses reflects people's growing awareness of these issues but I have yet to hear anyone seriously talk about balancing them.

Putrescible: Liable to become putrid.

I just finished "Cat's Cradle" and that was the line that stuck with me.

My grandfather died on Friday. Sunday morning I found myself on a plane to Colorado. I haven't moved this fast or spontaneously in ages. Going to my grandfather's memorial service is hardly peculiar but dropping all work and heading to Denver the week before thanksgiving was certainly startling. I would call it more of an "unexpected travel opportunity" than a 'peculiar travel suggestion". Either way it feels good - liberating.

In between Friday and Sunday I went dancing - just to limber up for the ride.

Perhaps later, when I feel better informed I'll write an official obit.