Stikine Garnet Festival

by Erik Olsen on

Do you like bald eagles? I knew you
did. They are such pretty birds. Pretty bird, pretty bird. Birdy num num.

Well, were you aware the capitol
of bald eagles is Alaska. Yes it is, even though I know you guessed it was Washington DC. Know what? There ain’t very
many eagles in Washington DC. They’re all Turkeys! Ha ha ha. Man, I kill myself.

Ahem. Anyway, let me alert
you to what’s going down in the small town of Wrangell in Southeast Alaska. There, the population of megafauna will
explode seven-fold when the largest spring concentration of shorebirds, including huge numbers of bald eagles, come to
roost. And what better way to celebrate the arrival of all our fine feathered friends than, well, a festival. Yes, the
Stikine Garnet Festival celebrates the annual bird migration
during the third week in April.

The Stikine (pronounced Stick-Heen) River provides an important migratory
stopover for gazillions of eagles, snow geese and sandhill cranes  who are headed North. Meanwhile, other
megafauna are hanging out waiting to be photographed or taunted. Stellar seals, whales, etc. Oh what fun. And why not
make a full trip of it and head up to the towns of Cordova and Homer, which also will be celebrating Alaska’s annual
shorebird migration with the Copper River Delta Shorebird Festival, May 4-7, 2006 and the Kachemak Bay Shorebird
Festival, May 4-7, 2006.

Cultures: Divorce While Sleeping

by Adrienne Wilson on

I
didn’t know things like this could happen, but what’s more interesting is the what was supposed to happen afterwards
and what actually happened. Pology, an amazing blog covering
cultures from all over brings our attention to an unusual case of
divorce in eastern India. Under Islamic law a husband only has to say "talaq," the Urdu word for
divorce three times to secure a permanent end to his marriage. Well, while Aftab Ansari was asleep and under the
influence of medicines to help him sleep better, the 30 year-old uttered "talaq" three times causing
his wife to worry and discuss with friends. The husband said he did not mean to divorce his wife of 11 years and that it
was an accident, however when word got around to the Village Elders their solution was this:

In order to
remarry the couple would have to be apart for at least 100 days and that the wife would have to spend a night with
another man and then be divorced by him. The couple not wishing to obey the rules have now been ostracized according to
the Yahoo
news piece.

Now is that crazy or what? It’s almost like the Wizard of Oz with a twist where Dorothy and Toto are at ends and
"talaq" three times gets them their wish to be free from one another and Toto speaks instead of
barks.

What? No Surströmming?!

by Erik Olsen on

There you are on your
flight over the North Atlantic and the stewardess comes by with her cart. You’ve been waiting the whole flight for this
moment, or at least since takeoff. The peanuts came a while ago, and they just weren’t enough. You are hungry for
something more. You MUST HAVE YOUR Surströmming.

Surströmming, you say? What in the wide, wide
world of sports is that? Alas, Surströmming is a
popular dish in Sweden, and basically is made of fermented Baltic herring. Can you say yummy? I knew you could. And
wouldn’t you know it? According to Wikipedia when you open a can there is some kind of really bad funk, something the
Swedes call Blurben sturblenfunken…ok, not really. 

But it does allegedly smell bad. And so several airlines that once served the stuff are saying
ixnay on the urströmmingstay. Part of the reason is an actual fear that the cans, when supposedly can get under
pressure, might explode at high altitude. The makers of Surströmming say, no way, our can’t don’t explode. But
then they go silent and kind of sheepish when asked about the smell.

So what are we to do? Do we demand our
Surströmming?! Or do we just go on, business as usual, having no idea, really what the stuff was after all?

(via Boing Boing)

Bottled Water vs. Tap Water

by Adrienne Wilson on

You
would think bottled water would win without a question in a battle of being the healthier choice, but some
enviornmentalists say not so fast.

"Bottled water is no often
healthier than tap water, but it can be 10,000 times more expensive," says Emily Arnold, a researcher with the
Washington D.C. non-profit.

The battle over whether bottled water is more healthier than that running
from the faucets in our kitchen sinks isn’t so much about the humans drinking the liquid, but more so about the planet
and how the consumption of bottled water and the waste may be hurting Earth. Campaigners challenge the idea of drinking
bottled water in our developed nation by stating 25 percent of bottled water is just tap water in pretty packaging,
sometimes further treated and many times not at all. They also note the high mineral content in some bottled waters as
‘unsuitable’ for feeding babies and young kids. In developing countries where tap water is unsafe or unavailable
bottled water instantly wins the match. Believe me, I care about Momma Earth a great deal, but from L.A. (where the tap
water smells) to San Juan, CR, to Cluj-Napoca, Romania (where the water had a brown tint) bottled water wins. Hands
down.

But what to do with all that plastic?

Nat Geo News ran the piece
back in February this year and with Earth Day approaching it’s no wonder it jumped out at me. The picture with the
enormous load of plastic cash on the man above also caught my attention.

Too Much Mozart?

by Neil Woodburn on

In
the field of advertising, there is a common phenomenon known as “wear-out.”  We’ve all
experienced it; you see a commercial too many times and suddenly grow very sick of it.  The overexposure invokes a
negative association with the product itself, and the whole advertising campaign becomes self-defeating. 

Critics are beginning to argue that this is exactly what is happening with Mozart’s 250th Birthday Celebration in Austria.  Media overkill of the
Mozart brand, overzealous marketing, and far too many events celebrating his birth, has created a backlash that, among
other things, has resulted in at least one play being produced called, I
Hate Mozart.

George Brock of The Times (UK), who has a few choice words on the subject, ventures to Austria nonetheless and
experiences firsthand, the Mozart-in-your-face phenomenon.  Surprisingly, he overcomes his prejudices and enjoys
the celebrations immensely (and provides some excellent suggestions in the process).

Frankly, when you have a product as good as Mozart, it is going to take a whole lot more than overzealous Austrian
marketers to ruin it for the rest of us.