Marc's California Pictures

Marc took some beautiful photos on his trip. He visited us for a couple of days and then drove down Route 1, stopping in Monterey for a car show. Check it out: Marc's photos.

Metridiums

We found the Metridium field off of San Carlos beach on Sunday... Sucked half the air out of our tanks just trying to find the dern things, which left us one minute to take a picture and then skedaddle back to shore. They were all closed up for some reason - normally they are topped by feathery appendages. Hard to tell scale in this picture, but these creatures are huge - about 1 ft tall each. My dive computer also failed on this trip (thanks, Oceanic!). As a result I ascended a bit too fast and had the weird sensation of a bubble traveling up under the skin of my face (nitrogen??). It's resulted in a slight headache this week, but seems to be fading...

Do Yourself a Favor...

...and watch these three videos (tip to Marc):

The Human Footprint

How much will you consume (and waste) during the course of your entire life? This documentary lays it all out - literally - from fields of milk bottles, to towers of toilet paper and diapers. I was surprised to learn that we contribute more CO2 by the time we are 2 years old than someone in Tanzania over the course of their entire life. And wait 'til you see our quota of candy!

Earthlings

Earthlings is a fairly graphic video about the animal industry. It contains footage of overcrowded farm animals, branding and de-horning of cattle, puppy mills, etc... It's hard to watch, but serves to remind us of all the good reasons for vegetarianism (or choosing free-range meats). Most children, when asked where their meat comes from, reply "the grocery store", and it's no wonder given how far removed food processing is from our lives. When was the last time you saw a live cow or a chicken?

Global Dimming

This is about global warming and pretty good, though I recommend Inconvenient Truth if you haven't seen it yet.