Planet Earth needs a star

I'm really ticked off. This wonderful show called Planet Earth will air March 25 on the Discovery Channel. It's the American version of an English show originally produced by the BBC and David Attenborough. In case you're not living on planet earth, or at least not a nature show lover, David Attenborough is a wonderful naturalist who has produced many amazing nature shows. He also has a rich plummy English accent, and when he talks about certain natural wonders or discoveries, he brims with joy and enthusiasm. He literally becomes breathless with excitement. It's absolutely infectious, and wonderful to watch and hear.

When I was a kid, my dream was to become the next David Attenborough. Unfortunately I discovered that much of his work consists of sitting around for literally hours and hours waiting for that perfect shot. So now I just live vicariously through him.

But do I get my David Attenborough? Noooo. The American version of the show is narrated by Sigourney Weaver. Now I happen to like Sigourney Weaver as an actress. And yes she has spoken up about conservation. But she's no naturalist. It's not her work.

I want my David Attenborough! I am extremely disappointed. I'm also insulted. David Attenborough has produced several highly-rated and watched nature shows that have been aired by the Discovery Channel in his own voice. Why do Americans now need a famous actress to watch a nature show? Yes, David Attenborough is grey-haired, and even when young, his looks were not movie star quality. But he's the man. On the other hand, this is the first time I've heard about one of his shows on the Oprah show. Though no mention of his name was made there either. Hmph.

How do I tell her Steve Irwin died?

I'm really bummed that Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter died. And I'm not sure how to break the news to Special K.

I have to admit that at first I wasn't a fan of the guy. And I certainly wasn't going to expose my children to him. I heard he wrestled with crocodiles. He sounded irresponsible and stupid. His show with the Wiggles called Wiggly Safari won me over. He seemed to have a genuine love and respect for all animals. I learned about his conservation work and his Australia Zoo. He carefully explained to the children about dangerous animals.

I watched a show in which he did wrestle a crocodile, but it was to save the crocodile. Somehow the crocodile had gotten trapped in a tiny drainage ditch and the only way to get it out was to wrap it around in chains and haul it out.

My first reaction on hearing the news was "A stingray? How could he get killed by a stingray?" Stingrays usually aren't that dangerous. In fact while I've never wrestled a crocodile, Special K and I have both petted stingrays at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Steve was swimming with a much larger and clearly more aggressive stingray than the ones in the aquarium. From the ABC story it sounds like a freak accident. And this is my dilemma. And this is my dilemma. My daughter is already afraid of bugs and other creatures that she deems scary. It's an arbitrary list. For example spiders are scary, but she loves reading and watching about lions and crocodiles and many other animals. Steve was her hero.

How can I explain to her that her hero got killed by a creature that she herself has petted? I will tell her that the barbs at the aquarium are clipped.

But sometimes people are just in the wrong place at the wrong time and they die. I don't know to explain that to her without making her really scared.

Edited to add: As I was writing this post on Silicon Valley Moms Blog, my daughter came and asked me to read it to her, so I broke the news. Her only question was "What do stingrays eat?" I think she's taking it better than I am.
Technorati tag:steve irwin

Free food for bird brains

A month ago I installed a finch feeder

and a hummingbird feeder. I have two cats, but I've seen hummingbirds feed from flowers on the front lawn where they could (theoretically) be caught by the cats. I think I've heard finches. Both feeders are high above the ground far from where the cats could climb. Yet I've never seen any bird feed from them. The hummingbird liquid is going down slightly, so it could be getting fed from or evaporating. The finch feeder is down a touch. My friend Chris told me it takes me a month for the finches to notice and feed. Why does it take the birds so long to notice and get free food? I hear birds are smart, but this sounds very dumb to me. Oh, well. At least now they're using it. I just wish I could see them feed.

Trader Joe's Organic milk gets four cows in my book

Earlier I blogged about my difficulties finding organic milk that wasn't factory farmed. Well I'm 90% sure that Trader Joe's organic whole and 2% milk is Straus Family milk and therefore four cows.

• Trader Joes sells Straus Family Yogurt.
  
• Straus Family milk is unhomogenized
  
• Trader Joe's whole and 2% milk is unhomogenized.
  

Note that the 1% milk and other homogenized milk is NOT Straus Family milk. Therefore the cows are not guaranteed to have the idyllic conditions seen here,

but more like here



Technorati tags:organic food,organic milk,Trader Joe's

Some organic milk is factory farmed

I buy organic milk, because they give tons of hormones to non-organic milk cows to make them produce milk. The other day I learned from that some 'organic' cows are raised on "formula where a primary ingredient is blood byproduct." Eww! I don't want vampire cows, please. Sadly the qualifications for organic milk are fairly weak and the NY Times reported in November that organic milk is a cash cow. C says "it's the gateway drug that gets folks started on organic."

Now there's a Dairy Scorecard which rates organic dairy for the entire country.

If you live in California, Straus Family Creamery and Clover Stornetta are both rated 4 out of 5 cows. Organic Pastures is rated 5, but it sells raw milk, which I would never give to young children, and I've never seen it anyway.

Interestingly I do think the Straus Family milk tastes the best. But it's somewhat annoying as it's not homogenized. I didn't regularly buy Clover Stornetta, but now I'll look for it. I think organic milk tastes better in general. I can drink 1% organic milk. Non-organic milk, I need 2%.

Hybrid wars, junk food wars and giant squid war

According to the Washington Post, smaller cars are flying off the lots, though it doesn't separate hybrid from non-hybrid cars. All I know is everywhere I look around here I see Priuses. The Economist calls the Prius ugly, but I find it strangely beautiful. I blogged about my Prius envy.

Honda came out with a Honda Hybrid Accord
so Toyota's fighting back with a Toyota Hybrid Camry next year. Unfortunately it's not being produced in Fremont. But where's the Toyota hybrid mini-van supposedly coming in 2007 according to Hybrid cars.com . No-where in sight. It will probably depend on how the Prius and Camry sell. I guess the universe is telling me we don't need actually need one.

Sometimes I think I should move back to England when I read headlines like: Junk food to be banned in schools Of course I suppose the kids could sneak off campus and buy food outside, but it's a lot harder and takes exercise and ingenuity.

And last but not least, the Washington Post reports the first images of a giant squid. It seems they were pretty cruel to the poor creature to capture the image and in the end the creature lost one of its limbs. CNN has a video. At the end of the video, the scientist blithely says the squid is in no danger of dying from losing its tentacle and yet at the beginning of the video, they said they know very little about the giant squid. Typical arrogance of scientists. I hope the big squid is okay and can still capture its prey.

Brains, Blindness, Chimpanzees, Particle Physics and Mad Cows

If you live in the UK, please donate your brain to science...after you're dead of course and presumably no longer using it. Your brain could really help fight debilitating brain diseases. They actually need healthy brains more than diseased brains.

Porn makes you blind but just for a few seconds.


Smoking makes you blind and it's for life. It's so sad how they find more and more how bad smoking is for you. Of course my granddad smoked until he was 90.

I read this fascinating article in the Economist that the chimpanzee gene has been completely sequenced. It turns out that the genomes "differ by only 1.2% over the course of some 3 billion pairs" I had always thought we were 98% similar, but it turns out we're actually 98.8% similar. Wow. "There are no immediately obvious genes—present in one, but not the other—that account for such characteristic human attributes as intelligence or even hairlessness. And while there is a gene connected with language, known as FOXP2, it had already been discovered." The article points out "it may be that many of the crucial differences are not in the genes themselves, but in how and when the messages those genes carry are transcribed and translated into the protein molecules that do the work in cells—and thus, ultimately, determine what an organism looks like and how it behaves." Even so, it was humbling to read and as the article rightly points out, chimpanzees used to be classified as Homo troglodytes and that's how I think of them.

I also enjoyed reading this article on how particle physics makes things magnetic which ended "So, next time you have an MRI scan, remember that part of the picture depends on something that isn't really there. Strange, eh?"

Sad to read this article about how mad cow disease might be caused by humans infecting cows, you have to pay, so I can't quote from it either, but the upshot is that human waste from the Ganges was collected by bone collectors in India and was then fed to cows in Britain. The Economist admits it's far fetched. Even so, it confirms my dislike for beef. Dunno what I'm allergic to in beef, but maybe it's humans brains....

And last and definitely least, Ipod releases a shiny new cell phone Now I need to wait for the combo cell phone/Ipod/Palm/camera. Shiny happy/music playing/camera/pda that runs out of batteries in minutes.

Misc links about brains

Parasites brainwash grasshoppers into death dive - Shows that depression and suicide (at least in grasshoppers) can have a strong biochemical cause

Autism has multiple genetic types - I could have told you that. :) My movement disorder myclonic dystonia has multiple genetic types. The only type identified so far responds to alcohol. Mine doesn't. "Good thing too." says my dad.

Two brainy scifi memes taken from HelenSchappell


And it figures I'm Janeway, because she's based on Katherine Hepburn who went to my alma mater Bryn Mawr.

Maimed salamander

Yesterday my husband C mowed the lawn with a push mower and accidentally maimed a salamander. I guess C mows the lawn so rarely that the salamander didn't run away and its face got sliced by the blades. He put it in a jar with some water, rocks and grass and it hung out with us. It's probably an arboreal salamander "Aneides Lugubris". It was bleeding for a while, then it stopped and moved around a little. I'm not sure how long it'll survive with only one eye and half a mouth, but this morning C will release to a friend's house that has a pond and no grass to mow. Good luck and long life to you, little salamander.