Stupidity becoming a national past time

Hi again from the Bastion on the Puget Sound. Well, according to a recent poll, 18 percent of those surveyed believe that President Barack Obama is a Muslim. This is up from 11 percent in March.
To me, it sounds like there’s a rising epidemic of stupidity in the States. We imagine these are the same morons who insist that he wasn’t born in the United States; who believe that a woman’s place is in the home; that liberals are ruining the world; that the earth is flat and the center of the universe.

Given the incredible scrutiny any political candidate undergoes, particularly concerning their qualifications for office, it is inconceivable that an elected head of state’s country of origin and religion would not be as claimed.

That, however, is applying logic to minds to whom reason is as unpalatable as higher education, universal suffrage, an informed opinion and an open mind. And in America, stupidity is not illegal and it’s seldom fatal.

In fact, it appears to be rapidly eclipsing baseball as the national past time.

IN OTHER NEWS

This Recession may be the biggest reason why Americans are making fewer babies, according to a report issued recently by National Center for Health Statistics. The birthrate has dropped for the second straight year since 2007.

The Great Recession "is definitely a deterrent" to people having more children, said Dr. Michael Cabbad, chief of maternal health at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, where births declined from about 2,800 in 2008 to about 2,500 last year.

Yep, for more on this one, please go here.

Thank God it’s not chopping cotton and the exercise the inmates at Columbia County (Washington) Jail get working a large truck garden plot is apparently right up there with the satisfaction these self-admitted screw-ups derive by doing something right and something which benefits the community. Much of the harvest of the several hundred plants they tend goes to the Pacific Food Bank, which serves the poor and the marginalized. I totally loved this one. Check it out here.

This is another example of small is beautiful. It’s about a Boeing engineer in Seattle who designed a state of the art condo that takes up less than 200 square feet/18.5 square meters. It’s a home for two with all the amenities and I got some ideas of my own for maximizing my loft-style flat which covers 144 square feet. What I especially appreciated about this article was the seven-photo slide show and the “home tour” narrative style. Yep, I loved it so go here.

SURVIVING HARD TIMES

We found another outstanding article, this with videos, on surviving hard times and even if you’re not facing a lean year, these tips, suggestion and advice are fun, eco-friendly and can definitely put more cash in your pocket for leisure and recreation. Yep, check it out here.

ON THE CANCER FRONT

My father passed away recently of complications from the brain cancer he was fighting. Too late for him but not for thousands of others, is a promising new vaccine that apparently turns those “killer cells” into cannibals of a sort. Yep, go here.

RESOURCES AND RELATED LINKS:
Cancer Research Journal
National Cancer Institute (American)
Fighting Breast Cancer: Breast Cancer Survivor Stories
Science Daily: Health & Medicine News
American Cancer Statistics 2009
Canadian Cancer Statistics 2009

HEALTH NEWS

Green tea drinkers rejoice. If you drink three or more cups of the stuff a day, you’ve probably added at least five years to your life. The folks that have been drinking tea probably the longest have scientifically isolated the ingredient which slows the aging of cells. Yep, for more on this one, go here.

This one’s a little delicate in most circles I’ve run. The medical term for it is halitosis. I’m a working stiff so that’s like bad breath. I’m guilty of it with garlic, onion and pepperoni sandwiches just before company I don’t want hanging around for a long time. The kind in context now though comes from sloppy dental care aka not brushing after every meal. The damage that does has now been linked to Alzheimer’s disease. Yep, don’t forget to floss and for more on this one, go here.

SEATTLE SCENES

Another totally sunny day in Seattle. Looking across Elliott Bay from Pike Street

Photo by Merritt Scott (Rusty) Miller

SUMMER GUIDE: Let us steer you to the best beaches, festivals and fun.

SEATTLE FACTS AND FIGURES
Seattle Rainfall in Comparison To Other US Cities
Seattle Geography & Climate
For more information about Seattle
For live cameras on Seattle, the Puget Sound and Washington State

CRITTER STUFF

Well, here’s one that leaves me with real mixed feelings, even though I was in the Navy when they first started training marine mammals to plant mines and torpedo ships. In its war against terror, they’ve drafted dolphins and sea lions and a small squadron of them will soon be posted to the Puget Sound. It will be very interesting to see how our ‘resident’ orca pods react to that one. This might possibly NOT have been the best deployment of these creatures and my hunch is that if one of them is ever killed in action, you’re going to hear an outcry from every animal protection group on the planet. I’d really cut the chain on this one before the anchor drags the ship down with it. For more on this one, go here.

This one will come as real good news to those with arachnophobia. There are not more spiders in the Puget Sound this year. They’re just bigger. Nope, this is NOT the time to get weird. More of the spiders who are born here every year survived. Have I had any personal encounters in the Bastion on the Puget Sound? Nope. That Maine coon cat of mine may have this aggravating habit of making friends with raccoons, but when it comes to spiders? Snack time. Yep, for more on this one, go here.

When I wrote the above about the military dolphins coming to the Puget Sound, I had NOT read this piece about a bunch of civilian dolphins who normally hang out off northwestern (windward side of) Vancouver Island have been showing south and on the other side. And in amazing numbers and for absolutely no reason yet determined. These creatures are also master communicators and I’ve got a hunch it’s going to get real interesting if some of the American cousins of these Canadian dolphins get hurt. Yep, admittedly this is crossing into supreme weird so go here for the facts and stuff.

Recommended Related Links:
Go Northwest: Northwest Wildlife Websites
BBC’s wildlife finder
National Geographic Daily News - Animals
Retrieverman’s Weblog: Engaging articles on domestic & wildlife in the American South

YOU GUYS THINK I MAKE THIS STUFF UP

Well, here’s one that I don’t think any of us are going to do much partying behind. What would you do if your child or grandchild was a student at a school where a teacher got his job back after doing 20 days in jail for inappropriately touching female students? And had like a track record of doing this and getting away with it that went back 13 years?

That’s what happened in Lewis County, Washington and parents are understandably outraged. This sleaze was convicted before on the same charges but copped what’s called an Alford plea, which means, as I understand it not being a lawyer or a barrister, that while he said he’d probably lose if it ever went to trial, but he never admitted guilt.

After the school district fired him, he appealed. The hearing officer who heard his case decided that since he’d “served his time,” he deserved to get to go back into the classroom where he could do this again. Sometimes child predators have friends in high places?

The school involved, unable to do much more, has given those students who do not want to attend this pervert’s classes an online alternative. Parents are organizing a protest and an a friend of ours who lives there said there are dark rumblings about justice and what one must sometimes do when the blind lady fails.

What gets me about this too is that this teacher can’t be incredibly bright. And he’s apparently got the emotional sensitivity of petrified peat. Any human being with an IQ twice their shoe size could feel the fear, the hatred and the primordial consideration of a permanent solution pervasive in the community now.

This is a rural part of a mostly rural state and when it comes to protecting their children, these people are not burdened with a lot of “Christian charity” or this rather nauseating tendency on the part of the courts sometimes to look at the perpetrator of a crime as also somehow a victim of life/society. As true as that might be on the philosophical level, if doesn’t do one damned thing for the real victim, thank you very flipping much and stuff.

Translation? If you hurt my child, one way or another, you will pay. If I were this dude, I wouldn’t be preparing a lesson plan. I’d be packing my bags and hoping there was a place on the planet one of these parents couldn’t find me.

If those same parents told me they had this basest of all human beings beside a tall tree and just needed the rope, they’d have it from me in New York City heartbeat. There is nothing more heinous in any society which dares call itself compassionate than hurting a child.

Well, that’s it for now. Thanks for the ear. Before you leave, if you’re in a shopping mood and into some interesting choices? We’ve got a “reader stocked” General Store that you might want to check out. If you’d like to sell something with us or know someone who does, email us at minstrel312@aol.com and we’ll see what we can do.

The Northstar Journal is funded by contributions from readers like yourself. If you enjoyed this edition and would like to contribute to the next, please click the donate button below.

Rusty

Terrorists are not dangerous because they are smart

Air Force One Landing At Boeing Field. Photo courtesy of http://www.boeing.com/

Hi again from the Bastion on the Puget Sound. Hi again from the Bastion on the Puget Sound. Well, President Obama paid Seattle a visit this past week. Sometimes I really think this emerald city on the shores of the Salish Sea is just a little too laid back though. Or maybe it’s just my Andy of Mayberry sensibility. I mean, I expected it to be all over the media with a parade planned and interviews and live coverage from landing to take off.

Ummm, not quite. His imminent visit ran as another local headline. Three people I talked to personally didn’t know he was coming or that he’d arrived. I asked them if ~ had they known ~ they’d have taken the time to join the small crowd downtown hoping to see him. One person asked me:

“Is he granting personal audiences?”

When I explained to him that popes tend to do that a little more often than presidents, he just went like “Oh, THAT Obama.” Then he thought and said, “Presidents probably don’t do BYOB parties when they come to town either?” I told him I didn’t know for sure but that I’d never been invited to one personally.

So I asked him once again if he’d have taken time off to try to spot Mr. Obama downtown, to which he responded, “The pope Obama or the president Obama?”

The other two people I asked were part of the same small crowd at The Northstar Journal yard sale we’re running this week and wisely declined comment.

I know one person who should have known and didn’t. He’s a pilot from Chelan County, in the eastern and remote part of the state. But they have the same media we do here, just not as much of it. (I am sometimes so jealous of them for that reason.) So it’s not like he didn’t get the word because the mail stage was a little late arriving.

And how this individual got a pilot’s license is beyond me. It is impossible to fly the friendly skies of the Greater Puget Sound in anything from an ultra-light to a four banger Beechcraft and not see Boeing Field. If there is such a thing as more impossible than that, it would be to miss a landed, tethered and chocked Air Force One.

That had to have been on the minds of the two fighter pilots whose “scrambling” produced the back to back pair of sonic booms heard Tuesday afternoon shortly before two p.m. There’s been some construction in the University District so until I checked my email and got a news alert from the Seattle Times (thanks, guys), I didn’t pay much attention to it. Then when I found out the President really wanted his visit (to campaign for one of our US senators) to be low key, I thought, well, that apparently didn’t work very well either. He’d have attracted less attention here with the Mother of All Parades than he did with two sonic booms.

One of the things I appreciate about Barack Obama is that he has an extremely well developed sense of irony. Another I truly value in him is that he’s not afraid to laugh at himself. He can apologize without being an apologist and I think that speaks well of his character.

I’m sure he’ll remember his visit to Seattle. Thanks to those two sonic booms, so will the rest of us. Thank you, Mr. President, for giving us a laugh when we all really needed one.

IN OTHER NEWS

For those of us especially in rural areas of America where public and/or motorized transportation is still an option, this is good news. As Associated Press reporter Sandy Shore reports in a story headlined Gas Prices Should Fall After Labor Day. It’ll be interesting to see if that makes a difference in the emissions level. I, for one, would like to think that high gasoline prices are just one reason we don’t drive as much.

This one did NOT come as real good news because agricultural pesticides have been discovered to be the prime cause of a condition which afflicts an estimated three to seven percent of American children. It’s called attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD. Yep, for more on this one.

Well, Beaverton, Oregon joined the ranks of towns and cities in the Northwest which are allowing the raising of chickens within the city limits. As per the Seattle ordinance of the same nature, this came with a caveat. Hens are allowed but not roosters. We strongly suspect that just outside the city limits, there must be growing industry of roosters raised more for studding than for skewering. In some ways, this does NOT look like Old MacDonald’s farm. For more, yep, go here.

SURVIVING HARD TIMES

I have never felt that it took a lot of money to buy happiness and while that might work on a philosophic level, it has also earned me the reputation for being a profound cheapskate and a splendid example of about how far this whole “it’s the thought that counts” shtick can be carried. Thanks to a University of Washington student who bought something really cool from us, at the Northstar Journal Surviving Hard Times Yard Sale, for about two-thirds of an already marked down price, I feel somehow redeemed. Check out this National Public Radio interview tagged Actually, Buying Happiness Isn't Very Expensive

ON THE CANCER FRONT

I try, sometimes very hard, to provide positive news about the War on Cancer or WAC, as I’ve chosen to call it. As most of you long time readers know, I lost a stepmother, a stepfather and a fiancée to one form of this disease or another. I ran across something though that needs to be shared because as most of us know, cancer is never just about the one battling it. Several of you are parents of children who contracted this disease. This article asks a “simple” question. If your child was diagnosed with terminal cancer, would you tell them? I’ll warn you now, this is NOT a fun read. Our thanks to Derek and Marjean, in Suffolk, England and to the Mail Online. Yep, go here.

RESOURCES AND RELATED LINKS:
Cancer Research Journal
National Cancer Institute (American)
Fighting Breast Cancer: Breast Cancer Survivor Stories
Science Daily: Health & Medicine News
American Cancer Statistics 2009
Canadian Cancer Statistics 2009

HEALTH NEWS

Well, in our ongoing campaign for a fit readership, we’ve found something else fun that makes a difference and that’s bicycling. It’s not the obvious cardio-vascular benefits alone either. It’s like even five minutes of it and fat cells get nervous and easier to burn or shed. Yep, for more on this one.

Post Alley, part of the Greater Farmers Market. Photo by Rusty Miller

For those of you planning to visit Seattle this month and plan to visit the Space Needle, there’s a free concert series going on there too. What some people who fly in for business or a convention do is have their hotel fix them a picnic lunch, then ask the concierge which bus goes to the Seattle Center/Space Needle and for a schedule, and then combine fine dining and a stellar view with some deli sandwiches, a grassy knoll and some outstanding sounds. Yep,check it out here.

If you’re visiting Seattle and would like to have a rather atypical experience, you might want to consider packing a lunch, leaving your hotel and grabbing a Metro bus for a short ride across the Ship Canal to the neighborhood of Fremont and a walking tour which includes mini-parks, some extremely interesting statues and vistas of two lakes, a towering dormant volcano and two mountain ranges that are simply not to be believed. For details, please go here

If you’re wondering why so many of us here are so passionate about the Pacific Northwest and the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words, check out this slideshow of Mount Rainier taken recently and yes, on a sunny day.

SUMMER GUIDE: Let us steer you to the best beaches, festivals and fun.

SEATTLE FACTS AND FIGURES
Seattle Rainfall in Comparison To Other US Cities
Seattle Geography & Climate
For more information about Seattle
For live cameras on Seattle, the Puget Sound and Washington State

CRITTER STUFF

Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend but a dog is man’s or so the old saws say. It’s certainly true in the case of canines and long before the vaulted St. Bernard. They continue to do so today and thanks to what they are doing with American combat troops, young men and women are surviving the unmitigated hell that war is. If you’re looking for another reason to be proud of the four-footed member(s) of the family, this’ll do it for you. If you love stories about animal heroes, this will definitely make your morning. Yep, go here.

Recommended Related Links:
Go Northwest: Northwest Wildlife Websites
BBC’s wildlife finder
National Geographic Daily News - Animals
Retrieverman’s Weblog: Engaging articles on domestic & wildlife in the American South



YOU GUYS THINK I MAKE THIS STUFF UP

I am the first person to agree that the sooner one gets started in a chosen career, the greater the chances of success. That’s why musicians and athletes don’t usually have normal lives as children. The disciple and focus it takes to learn a musical instrument, to swim competitive, to do gymnastics, the ballet and the arts in general isn’t something the pre-adolescent attention span is prepared to handle. Apparently that’s also true of criminals. To read about how a 10-year-old Jesse James finally got busted and why he’s being charged as an adult, yep, go here.

Well, that’s it for now. Thanks for the ear. Before you leave, if you’re in a shopping mood and into some interesting choices? We’ve got a “reader stocked” General Store that you might want to check out. If you’d like to sell something with us or know someone who does, email us at minstrel312@aol.com and we’ll see what we can do.

The Northstar Journal is funded by contributions from readers like yourself. If you enjoyed this edition and would like to contribute to the next, please click the donate button below.

Rusty

BUENOS DIAS, MICHELLE

Hi again from the Bastion on the Puget Sound. . Well, sometimes the American public appears a little more uptight than at some other times. Just a show of hands, how many of you took a vacation abroad over the last couple of years? Yes, across the Irish Sea, the Channel and adjacent national boundaries count.

Okay, now, who paid for the trip? Who did you take with you and what was the size of your entourage? If you didn’t go with your significant other, what was the deal on that? Was it a friendly country? When you planned your trip, did you consider the impact it might have on your neighbors and community?

Aren’t these questions just a LITTLE annoying?

You know too many Americans have way too much time on their hands when they criticize their national First Lady for going on holiday abroad when there are so many of their countrymen who couldn’t afford a vacation on the other side of the street. And once they fastened on that one like a hungry hound with a ham hock, they find a few other reasons to object.

A little perspective definitely begs here. As deplorable as the jobless rate in America is, there are still about nine people working for every one who is not. Even though elective spending is down, Americans still go across oceans on vacation and in so doing, support an industry which employs hundreds, if not thousands, of their fellow citizens and certainly others at the point of destination.
Michelle Obama is also an international figure and as such, is expected to show up on foreign shores, as it were. She’s an intelligent, graceful, thoroughly ingenuous ambassador whom others seem to like even when they’re not high on Uncle Sam and His Eagle or even her husband.

She’s a nice lady and she’s good for the national image. I wonder how much ‘chill pills’ are going for and whether they can be surreptitiously slipped into the drinking water. I checked with a physician friend of mine and she quoted me a price for removing a broom handle from a certain part of the human anatomy.

It’s not as much as you think so if you know of anyone who could use the procedure, email me and I’ll pass it along to Doctor Sindy.

IN OTHER NEWS

I can remember when Made In China was NOT the best reason in the world to buy something. If it wasn’t before, it’s time to chuck that mentality because according to recently released government figures, China just overtook Japan as the planet’s second largest economy. She hasn’t passed the United States yet but astute forecasters are predicting her dominance of the global marketplace by 2030. Yep, for more.

As a reminder that America is not the only one taking it in the knickers economically, as it were, it looks like things are quiet so merry in Merry Olde England these days. That island nation’s government is implementing an austerity program many have not seen since the Second World War. We’re watching this one to see how the “average” Briton adjusts. They are a remarkably resilient people and much of America’s oft-touted “Yankee ingenuity” comes from an English gene pool.

And for anybody on the entire planet idiotic enough to still believe that it rains all the time in the Pacific Northwest/Seattle, we are into the third day of a heat wave which is expected to break tomorrow. And since this is a high pressure zone situation, what limited air pollution we do produce doesn’t go anywhere so we’ve also got air quality advisories out and people are being urged to get all their errands and exercise done before the sun really comes out. For more on this, please go here.

CROSSING OVER

It is with profound sadness that we bid farewell to American stage, screen and television actress Patricia Neal. She made her Broadway debut at the age of 21 in Lillian Hellman’s “Another Part of the Forest.” Her performance won her a Tony and the cover of LIFE magazine. From there, it was on to Hollywood and Warner Brothers where she starred with future California governor Ronald Reagan in the comedy “John Loves Mary”. By the end of the 1950s, she was among the film industry’s top grossing actresses and the mother of five children. Struck down by several strokes which left her partially paralyzed, unable to speak and short of memory, she determined to resume her career and made a comeback that to this day is still talked about in the former “tinsel town.” Ms. Neal, a native of Kentucky, died at her home in Martha’s Vineyard a week ago today. She was 84. For more and a fine tribute to this extraordinary woman and entertain, pleas go here.

SURVIVING HARD TIMES

Musician and wood carver Kurt Bowman, taking a break beside the walking sticks and canes he makes and sells. Photo by Rusty Miller

For over two years now, we’ve been giving you advice on how to survive hard times. This weekend ~ on what turned out to be the hottest three days of the year ~ we decided to see if something that is actually a lot of fun to do and can be extremely creative could also make money. The several of us who went in on this were ~ before the Recession ~ collectors of tasteful kitsch, which my wife, God Rest Her Soul, called “junk with a Boston accent”.

All of us have had experience organizing things like this for the PTA, the Scouts, the Girl Guides and the Daughters of the Confederacy. And since we are patrons of garage sales, we’re well versed in the do’s and don’ts such as, “Don’t sell a box of crayons with the unpopular colors missing.” The reason they’re missing is because kids love hues and tones that would gag a goat so either replace them or don’t sell it at all.

We also made sure everything worked and ran an extension cord outside so shoppers could test the electrical stuff for themselves. Everything we put out was also clean, in good repair and the price clearly marked. We have an impressive inventory, some of which is destined for local art and antique stores by way email ~ but most of which we priced for a counter offer of half but we did hold the line on several items just in the off chance that another collector would show up. Smart move because that did, in fact, happen.

We’re well situated for a sale like this because we live within three blocks of a university, half of whose 45,000 students live within a square mile of campus, along with staff and the other businesses and enterprises which traditionally support an academic community. We’ve had time to study the demographics, to pool our collective knowledge of pricing and even before that in the repair and refurbishing of stock.

How successful have we been so far? Our success has been modest but what is significant is that a number of people spent some extra time in the hot sun hanging out with us, shopping, talking and drinking the iced herbal tea we put out. Since all of us are artists or self-employed professionals who are doing this for extra money, it was also an opportunity for some networking.
We’ve decided to keep a couple of tables out during the week as well. We’ve just located a big garage of super kitsch we can have for the hauling so I imagine we’ll be busy for awhile. We’ll keep you posted and yep, this is probably one thing you could try at home. With parental supervision.

ON THE CANCER FRONT

The genetic susceptibility to ovarian cancer can now be predicted with much greater certainty, thanks to the work of a team of Yale researchers whose report was published last month in the journal Cancer Research. They’ve discovered what’s called a genetic marker which was evident in the DNA of 61 percent of the ovarian cancer patients studied. I found this very interesting and when I checked out the journal in which this research was published an even richer lode of information about one of the most silent and deadly killers of women on the face of this planet. Yep, go here.

In what has to be one of the most stunning developments since Mr. Smith went to Washington, DC, all insurance companies in Oregon are now required to cover the costs of cancer treatment. It’s the work of a quiet crusader named Heather Kirk. And she’s crossed the Columbia River into “the other Washington” now, where she is making her presence felt among legislators in Olympia. Seattle NBC affiliate KING 5’s Tonya Mosley reports.

RESOURCES AND RELATED LINKS:
Cancer Research Journal
National Cancer Institute (American)
Fighting Breast Cancer: Breast Cancer Survivor Stories
Science Daily: Health & Medicine News
American Cancer Statistics 2009
Canadian Cancer Statistics 2009

HEALTH NEWS

As the Baby Boom generation moves into senior citizenhood, it’s not surprising that more attention should be paid to such diseases of aging as Alzheimer’s. We’re pleased then to report that a massive project to gather all that could be known about this one is yielding information which is not only making it easier to diagnose early but which promises dramatic results in the treatment of it as well. The project, as an organizational prototype, is also being used now on another scourge of the elderly, Parkinson’s Disease. For more, please go here.

I should have known this but when somebody tells me straight out that the sandwich I’m eating could either preserve me for a long time in my salt and pepper state or age me even faster than an interesting life has thus far, I tend to wonder what they’re smoking and wonder how much it goes for. This one came from a colleague, however, which is what makes the difference between an informed opinion and noise pollution. Yep, check it out here.

SEATTLE SCENES

Tell me again how many (University of Washington) Huskies does it take to carry a box springs home? Photo by Rusty Miller

For those of you planning to visit Seattle this month and plan to visit the Space Needle, there’s a free concert series going on there too. What some people who fly in for business or a convention do is have their hotel fix them a picnic lunch, then ask the concierge which bus goes to the Seattle Center/Space Needle and for a schedule, and then combine fine dining and a stellar view with some deli sandwiches, a grassy knoll and some outstanding sounds. Yep,check it out here.

If you’re visiting Seattle and would like to have a rather atypical experience, you might want to consider packing a lunch, leaving your hotel and grabbing a Metro bus for a short ride across the Ship Canal to the neighborhood of Fremont and a walking tour which includes mini-parks, some extremely interesting statues and vistas of two lakes, a towering dormant volcano and two mountain ranges that are simply not to be believed. For details, please go here

If you’re wondering why so many of us here are so passionate about the Pacific Northwest and the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words, check out this slideshow of Mount Rainier taken recently and yes, on a sunny day.

SUMMER GUIDE: Let us steer you to the best beaches, festivals and fun.

SEATTLE FACTS AND FIGURES
Seattle Rainfall in Comparison To Other US Cities
Seattle Geography & Climate
For more information about Seattle
For live cameras on Seattle, the Puget Sound and Washington State

CRITTER STUFF

With the unseasonably warm temperatures we’re experiencing, our local furry neighbors are staying away from streets, sidewalks and driveways so this week’s news comes from a bit beyond the shores of the Salish Sea. Apparently animals.about.com conducted an online poll to come up with the ten cutest young mammals. We agreed with most of the choices and the photographs are absolutely darling. The site itself is also a fun and interactive presentation about other living creatures on the planet. Good coffee break stuff and an outstanding experience to share with your kids and/or grandkids. Yep, go here.

Recommended Related Links:
Go Northwest: Northwest Wildlife Websites
BBC’s wildlife finder
National Geographic Daily News - Animals
Retrieverman’s Weblog: Engaging articles on domestic & wildlife in the American South

YOU GUYS THINK I MAKE THIS STUFF UP

Okay, this was a little weird. Some Japanese researchers have found a way to make nature’s most talented thieves even smarter. In their native New Zealand, the kea parrot is legendary for its feats of rip off. We understand there’s an entire industry devoted to protecting property and other possessions from feathered and feckless Robin Hoods who can also impersonate human beings, other animals and sound effects. And this is a creature they want to make better at doing that stuff? Go here for the story and if you can find any logic in this, get back to us, eh?

Well, that’s it for now. Thanks for the ear. Before you leave, if you’re in a shopping mood and into some interesting choices? We’ve got a “reader stocked” General Store that you might want to check out. If you’d like to sell something with us or know someone who does, email us at minstrel312@aol.com and we’ll see what we can do.

The Northstar Journal is not for profit and funded, in part, by contributions from readers like yourself. To contribute, please go here and our sincerest thanks.

Rusty

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MR. PRESIDENT

Hi again from the Bastion on the Puget Sound. We’d like to wish American president Barack Obama a late Happy Birthday. The Eagle’s chief executive turned 49 this past Wednesday. We were sorry to hear that Michelle and the kids couldn’t be with him but then hard times don’t always make for traditional celebrations.

I found it sort of ironic that most of the press I’ve seen on this has used his birthday as another opportunity to attack his professional performance. What I have NOT seen so far are these same Sunday afternoon quarterbacks offering constructive alternatives.

Where I come from, if you haven’t got a better idea, people expect you to keep your mouth shut until you do. But then we also don’t have a lot of time for whiners either. We don’t really expect a lot from government and mostly, we’re not disappointed in these regards. Shrugging.

If you’d like to spend a few minutes learning more about Barack Obama

IN OTHER NEWS

We’re certainly glad that BP has apparently finally taken care of what many experts are calling the biggest oil spill in human history. It was also interesting to read a related story suggesting that what remains does not pose much risk. I’m sure that comes as comfort to someone but considering the damage that has already been done to the Gulf Shore economy, I cannot at the moment ~ for the life of me ~ imagine who that might be. So good luck with that one, guys. Sigh.

We’ve mentioned before that Seattle is preparing for electric cars by, among other things, installing recharging stations at the Park and Ride lots which serve the Puget Sound’s two major public transportation systems. Nissan is opening a dealership here for its Leaf and last week, one of our local television stations sent a reporter out to try one on possibly the steepest street in town. I had the opportunity to watch that segment and our terrain was no problem for the leaf. With a range of about one hundred miles per charge, the Leaf is still an urban option. But as the technology continues to evolve and as the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada engage in the parallel development of the appropriate infrastructure, it does appear that electrics are back this time and this time, to stay. For more, yep, go here.

In a related story, our neighbor to the south, Oregon, is trying out a new quick recharging station that can do in 20 minutes what it still takes several hours at most such stations currently. With both states committed to the electrification of Interstate Five, the American West Coast’s north-south freeway, and with the Greater Vancouver area and the province of British Columbia in general mirroring developments in these regards, travel in general in our region will be a lot quieter, a lot healthier and a lot better for the environment. And maybe it’s just me, but I believe that if we can do it here, it can certainly be done where you live. Yep, for more, go here.

SURVIVING HARD TIMES

Over the last three years or so, we’ve run an article a week on surviving hard times. We hope it’s helped and judging by your responses, it has some. I think sometimes a review of the basics ~ the short list, as it were ~ is in order. It’s a good reminder, at least for me, that there are, in fact, things all of us can do that will make a difference. Tricks Of Surviving In Hard Times, by Melvin Polatnick, does exactly that. I’ve printed this one out and posted it strategically. Yep, I enjoyed it that much.

ON THE CANCER FRONT

There’s a new invention which could reduce the need for skin cancer biopsies and improve the accuracy of diagnoses. It’s being tested at Vanderbilt University and the initial results are good. It uses a laser beam to illuminate several lays of the suspected area, analyzes it and compares it to the chemical composition of the different types of melanoma. For more on the one, please go here.

It is estimated that approximately 22,000 women in the United States have ovarian cancer and that 14,000 of them will die from it this year. It’s been a difficult disease to diagnose but that should change now that the Food & Drug Administration has approved a new type of blood test. Seattle KING 5 TV’s oncology reporter and herself a cancer survivor, Jean Enersen, explains that “the test, called Ova1, reads five specific proteins. It can determine if an ovarian mass is malignant or benign or if the patient needs to see a specialist for surgery.” Yep, for the full story, go here.

RESOURCES AND RELATED LINKS:
American Cancer Statistics 2009
Canadian Cancer Statistics 2009
National Cancer Institute (American)
Fighting Breast Cancer: Breast Cancer Survivor Stories
Science Daily: Health & Medicine News

HEALTH NEWS

With August being the hottest month of the summer for many of us, it probably won’t hurt to check out the quality of the sunscreen you’re using. It’s important, I think, to remember that one size does not fit all and that even when there doesn’t seem to be enough of the bright and yellow stuff out there to constitute a sunny day (any where other than Seattle), that sunscreen is still important. Yep, check it out here.

This is for the workout fanatics among us, and quite frankly, I hope there’s a few. I hate dancing by myself, as it were. When I relax and especially if I’m thinking of going on vacation/holiday, I feel a little guilty if I’m getting too much rest. It’s almost like there’s some weird comfort in being as tired at the end of the day as I usually am so I tend to add or sneak in an extra workout or two. NOT A GOOD IDEA, according to a recent study. To find out why, yep, go here.

SEATTLE SCENES

This statue of Sadako Sasaki, a little Japanese girl who survived the bombing of Hiroshima during the Second World War, only to die of radiation sickness at the age of 12, is the centerpiece of Peace Park, a minuscule green space at the end of a bridge leading to the University of Washington. Photo by Rusty Miller

If you’re visiting Seattle and would like to have a rather atypical experience, you might want to consider packing a lunch, leaving your hotel and grabbing a Metro bus for a short ride across the Ship Canal to the neighborhood of Fremont and a walking tour which includes mini-parks, some extremely interesting statues and vistas of two lakes, a towering dormant volcano and two mountain ranges that are simply not to be believed. For details, please go here

If you’re wondering why so many of us here are so passionate about the Pacific Northwest and the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words, check out this slideshow of Mount Rainier taken recently and yes, on a sunny day.

SUMMER GUIDE: Let us steer you to the best beaches, festivals and fun.

SEATTLE FACTS AND FIGURES
Seattle Rainfall in Comparison To Other US Cities
Seattle Geography & Climate
For more information about Seattle
For live cameras on Seattle, the Puget Sound and Washington State

CRITTER STUFF

In a move which apparently re-establishes federal preeminence in the protection of wildlife, US District Judge Donald Molloy reinstated the Endangered Species Act to cover all three states in which the Rocky Mountain wolf runs. This halts planned hunts in Idaho and Montana this autumn. It is the result of a suit brought by Defenders of Wildlife and other groups. For more on this one, please go here. And to perhaps better understand the role this species plays in its environment, check this out.

Well, it looks like one of the darlings of the Greater Puget Sound is headed for celebrity status once again. Luna, an orca who just showed up suddenly back in 2001 off Nootka Sound, was the subject of a 2007 locally produced documentary, Saving Luna. Now she’s slated to star in a Hollywood style treatment entitled The Whale and this one has Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johansson as executive producers. There are several layers of genuine human to orca human interest in how this one’s coming together. I totally enjoyed this one and our thanks to Molly and Scott in Vancouver, BC for sending it to us. Yep, go here.

Related
A Whale’s Tale

Recommended Related Links:
Go Northwest: Northwest Wildlife Websites
BBC’s wildlife finder
National Geographic Daily News - Animals
Retrieverman’s Weblog: Engaging articles on domestic & wildlife in the American South

YOU GUYS THINK I MAKE THIS STUFF UP

There’s a town in Montana that’s been victimized by one of the biggest, cleverest and most elusive burglars probably in the history of crime as that state has known it in the 21st Century. Frustrated investigators have attributed as many as 20 home invasions to this particular suspect. They may finally, however, have a break in the case(s). It seems this particular thief in the night has a devout appreciation of pizza (I can relate) and was actually caught indulging in one during a recent break-in. The homeowner awoke to find the perp, a full grown adult black bear leaning on a big chest-style freezer, munching on a frozen pepperoni and Canadian bacon thin crust. Since there have been other incidents in neighboring communities, it is believed that this particular bruin is actually part of a gang. Authorities attribute the crime wave to a late berry season, which sounds like as good an explanation as any when you haven’t really got one. For film and more on this, yep, go here.

Well, that’s it for now. Thanks for the ear. Before you leave, if you’re in a shopping mood and into some interesting choices? We’ve got a “reader stocked” General Store that you might want to check out. If you’d like to sell something with us or know someone who does, email us at minstrel312@aol.com and we’ll see what we can do.

The Northstar Journal is not for profit and funded, in part, by contributions from readers like yourself. To contribute, please go here and our sincerest thanks.

Rusty

CONGRATULATIONS, MRS. MEZVINSKY

Hi again from the Bastion on the Puget Sound. Well, today, Camelot blossomed once again as former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton wed long-time beau and best friend, investment banker Marc Mezvinsky, exchanged vows at a Beaux Arts estate on the Hudson River called Astor Courts.

Ms. Clinton was resplendent in a strapless white gown with silver beading around the waist and Mr. Mezvinsky was, we understand, quite dashing in a dark Burberry suit. The mother of the bride wore fushia. The two-part ceremony was conducted by a minister and by a rabbi, as per the religions of the bride and groom respectively.

It was, as well, a celebrity-studded event and besides close friends and family, those in attendance included Madeleine Albright, secretary of state during Chelsea’s dad’s second term; family friend and fashion designer Vera Wang, who created Chelsea’s wedding gown; and Hollywood couple Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen.

It was, by all reports, the stellar event of the summer on the Hudson and a good time was had by all. For more on this one, please go here.

Related
As Chelsea Clinton Celebrates Her Wedding, Town of Rhinebeck, N.Y., Elbows Its Way In

IN OTHER NEWS

At a time when it’s sometimes easy to feel as though things have gotten thoroughly and totally out of hand, it’s nice to read news to the contrary. And to me, when it involves as something as fundamental to survival as improving the quality of the air we breathe, the land we seek to sustain us, and most importantly, perhaps, the water on which we so vitally depend, I feel personally empowered. For an excellent example and a splendid treatment of the subject in general, yep, go here.

When a major industry embraces regional biofuels, I pay attention. When I’ve been involved in that industry and live in that region, I pay considerably more. And when it turns out to be an exportable model for the other six flags under The Northstar Journal masthead, I pass it along. Our thanks to Caroline Hidalgo of the Portland Oregonian for this one headlined “Northwest Aviation Leaders Aim To Develop A Regional Biofuel Industry.”

In a related development which has me just a little nervous, the Boeing Aircraft Company plans on having 90 percent of its jets recyclable by 2016. That means they’re going to be made of used materials or new ones which will be. And I’m thinking, oookay. I mean, I’m cool with drinking out of cups, wearing clothing, using a computer, shopping with and buying stuff in containers that have been recycled. But going up 30,000 feet at a little less than the speed of sound in this big roaring steel, glass and polystyrene mother ship made from stuff that at one time I probably drank out of, wore, keyboarded, packed groceries in and took a can opener to? Ummm, that’s like when I decide to get daring in the kitchen. Being the quintessentially polite soul that I am, I always offer housemates (and/or sometimes people who walk by in front of the place when I’m sitting out on the steps chowing down) my latest culinary adventure. If they survive the first couple of bites, I’ll try it. So for those of you who collect frequent flyer miles like a hypochondriac does symptoms, and who want to keep soaring across those friendly skies past 2016, let me know how it goes. If it still works out for you, I might try a flight from Seattle, Washington to Bellevue, Washington. Most of that’s over water so if anything goes wrong, at least I can swim home. Yep, for more on this one, go here.

SURVIVING HARD TIMES

A real big part of surviving hard times (and good) is having the energy to enjoy a full day and feeling good at the end of it. Those of us still looking for work or worried about keeping the income we still have often make the mistake of cramming so much into our waking hours that we either forget to eat breakfast or skimp, figuring we can catch up at lunch or dinner. That is sooo NOT a good idea and it’s totally self-defeating. For the profound medical truth behind this one, please go here.

CROSSING OVER

We join theatre goers and theatrical professionals under at least these seven flags in observing the passing of American-Canadian actor Maury Chaykin. Character actor and screenwriter True Boardman, Jr. once observed that the stage and screen were not supported by the stars among them but by those who remained all but invisible, who so became the characters they played and portrayed so many, that they lent credibility to both the best and the worst moments of Don Juans and divas alike. True was my mentor and I’ve enjoyed Mr. Chaykin’s contributions for most of my adult life. He left quite a legacy behind and his example has not been lost on others. For a much finer tribute than this, please go here.

NORTHSTAR, THE DRAGON

HUMANS NEED TO CHANGE TO AVOID VIOLENT WILDLIFE ENCOUNTERS

Shannon Moneo

Victoria — From Friday's Globe and Mail Published on Thursday, Jul. 29, 2010 10:34PM EDT Last updated on Thursday, Jul. 29, 2010 10:36PM EDT

As B.C. experiences a bizarre season of wildlife-human conflicts, with a rare attack by a black bear and deer being demonized for attacking people and pets, a wildlife ecologist says people need to change.

“Humans aren't particularly good at modifying their behaviour to accommodate wild animals,” said Chris Darimont, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and research scientist with the Raincoast Conservation Foundation. “Humans have concluded we hold dominion over wild animals.”

But increasingly, humans are sharing space with mammals such as deer, who are in effect food migrants, following what Mr. Darimont refers to as “delicious things in gardens and lawns.”

Unpleasant incidents occur when humans push the instinctive buttons that animals have for dealing with predators, Mr. Darimont said from his Victoria office.

One example occurred on July 20, when a woman in Victoria went for a walk with her medium-sized mutt and saw a doe with three fawns. She cautiously kept moving, but the doe charged and later stomped on her dog, who wasn’t badly injured. To the doe, the dog was a wolf, and thus a threat to her fawns, so naturally she displayed anti-predator behaviour, Mr. Darimont said.

“We don’t think of deer as aggressors,” he said. “We think of them as big-eyed creatures.” When they attack, it’s completely unexpected, eliciting a raw response that harkens back to human evolutionary memories of being both predator and prey, Mr. Darimont explained.

In Cranbrook, a doe attacked a dog in June, and earlier this month a newspaper carrier was left with a black eye after a deer encounter. The eastern B.C. community, as well as neighbouring Kimberly, are polling their residents to see what should be done, with a cull as one solution. In Victoria and Nanaimo, residents have also been calling for deer culls due to the damage the animals are doing to gardens.

According to Ministry of Environment spokesperson Angie Poss, a cull is only one method. Repellents, landscaping alternatives and fencing are other possibilities. Population reduction strategies such as capture-and-relocate programs and fertility-control strategies are other options.

But eliminating deer from urban settings won’t be easy, Mr. Darimont said. The easily accessible, nutritious food found in yards, along with a loss of predators, are sustaining urbanized deer.

“The only default is to modify our behaviour to avoid encounters,” he said. “Fence our gardens better, don’t let dogs approach deer.”

Other animals are also losing their natural habitats. A 2004 Journal of Bioscience study reported that in North America, grey wolves have lost 42 per cent of their range, cougars have lost 36 per cent, grizzly bears 53 per cent and black bears 39 per cent.

In the case of the recent black-bear attack, a Vancouver Island man had been sleeping outside under a tarpaulin near Port Alberni, even though a bear had been spotted around the campsite three days earlier when food was briefly left out.

“If the camper had knowledge of a bear hanging around in camp, it’s likely not a wise thing to be sleeping outside,” Mr. Darimont said. “If the bear was hanging around camp, that bear had access to food before the event occurred.”

The attack on the sleeping camper, which left the man with head wounds requiring plastic surgery, as well as other wounds, was only the second ever on Vancouver Island by a black bear that resulted in injury. Mr. Darimont suspects the male, 68-kilogram bear may have mistaken the man for a deer.

Special to The Globe and Mail
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ON THE CANCER FRONT

This is another one of those, “I Get to Smile Because Something I Get Dinged For A Lot Turns Out To Be a Cancer Fighter.” I am a delicatessen sandwich-aholic and a fanatic for extreme toppings. I have learned that lots of onions, hot mustard, jalapenos, assorted exotic peppers and garlic at the right time also have certain socially tactical benefits like on company I really don’t want hanging around a long time. I have also discovered that it endears me to others who share my passion and to me, spice is all. In short, if there’s no horseradish in Heaven, I’m going to Hell for lunch. It turns out cancer hates horseradish as much as I adore it. Yep, for more on this one, go here.

RESOURCES AND RELATED LINKS:
American Cancer Statistics 2009
Canadian Cancer Statistics 2009
National Cancer Institute (American)
Fighting Breast Cancer: Breast Cancer Survivor Stories
Science Daily: Health & Medicine News

HEALTH NEWS

With August being the hottest month of the summer for many of us, it probably won’t hurt to check out the quality of the sunscreen you’re using. It’s important, I think, to remember that one size does not fit all and that even when there doesn’t seem to be enough of the bright and yellow stuff out there to constitute a sunny day (any where other than Seattle), that sunscreen is still important. Yep, check it out here.

This is for the workout fanatics among us, and quite frankly, I hope there’s a few. I hate dancing by myself, as it were. When I relax and especially if I’m thinking of going on vacation/holiday, I feel a little guilty if I’m getting too much rest. It’s almost like there’s some weird comfort in being as tired at the end of the day as I usually am so I tend to add or sneak in an extra workout or two. NOT A GOOD IDEA, according to a recent study. To find out why, yep, go here.

SEATTLE SCENES

If you’re wondering why so many of us here are so passionate about the Pacific Northwest and the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words, check out this slideshow of Mount Rainier taken recently and yes, on a sunny day.

SUMMER GUIDE: Let us steer you to the best beaches, festivals and fun.

This is sooo Seattle I almost fell out of my chair laughing. First of all, I happen to share my neighbor’s passion in these regards and second, I love it when someone in my own town can turn me on to great seafood restaurants I’ve never heard of before. Check this one out then, under the headline “Why sardines ought to be on Seattle's plate”. Our thanks to Hugo Kugiya at Crosscut.com for this one.

SEATTLE FACTS AND FIGURES
Seattle Rainfall in Comparison To Other US Cities
Seattle Geography & Climate
For more information about Seattle
For live cameras on Seattle, the Puget Sound and Washington State

CRITTER STUFF


This one falls under “A Very Messy Job, Thank God Somebody Was Willing To Do It. In this case, it was cleaning off a bald eagle which landed in a sludge pond at an Oregon sewage treatment plant. The public utility workers didn’t mind wading in and getting the great bird but they had no place to put it so some volunteers from the Wildlife Center of the North Coast picked it up and drove it to their facility in Astoria. The female raptor rode the whole way in the lap of one of her human rescuers and then got to take four baths in warm water and Dawn liquid detergent. She’ll try out in the Center’s 100-foot flight cage and released later back around Newhalem. Nice going folks. And for more, go here.




Thanks to an exceptionally wildlife-savvy American jurist, the endangered lynx will now have thousands of acres more protected habitat in Montana, Idaho and Colorado. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy concluded that these creatures were wrongly excluded from the same protections granted other species facing imminent extinction. Thank you, Your Honor, and for more on this one, yep, go here.

Recommended Related Links:
Go Northwest: Northwest Wildlife Websites
BBC’s wildlife finder
National Geographic Daily News - Animals
Retrieverman’s Weblog: Engaging articles on domestic & wildlife in the American South

YOU GUYS THINK I MAKE THIS STUFF UP

This one ought to come as real good news to those who guard our nation from the undesireable and the just a little too our there. A guy tried to smuggle 18 baby Titi monkeys into Mexico in what authorities described as his “girdle.” He said he’d thought of leaving them in his suitcase but was worried that the x-rays might hurt them. He was taken into custody and charged with trafficking in an endangered species. The fate of the monkeys has not been officially disclosed but an informed source has it that the 16 who survived will be returned to their native Peru and placed in the care of local wildlife authorities.

Well, that’s it for now. Thanks for the ear. Before you leave, if you’re in a shopping mood and into some interesting choices? We’ve got a “reader stocked” General Store that you might want to check out. If you’d like to sell something with us or know someone who does, email us at minstrel312@aol.com and we’ll see what we can do.

The Northstar Journal is not for profit and funded, in part, by contributions from readers like yourself. To contribute, please go here and our sincerest thanks.

Rusty