Friday, July 31, 2009

SEAPLEX and Project Kaisei Visit The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Holy Science Friday!

This afternoon on NPR's Science Friday, Miriam Goldstein described a three week scientific mission to study the ecological mess we call the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. She is a graduate student at Scripps Institute of Oceanography and she and her colleagues have obtained a grant sufficient for three weeks' use of Scripps research vessel, New Horizon. You can hear her account of the team's plans here. The project is called SEAPLEX--Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastics Expedition. SEAPLEX has its own website, and a newly started --you got it!--blog.

SEAPLEX will be working with Project Kaisei. While the New Horizon leaves San Diego, Project Kaisei's ship will depart from San Francisco with a similar mission:

"Project Kaisei will examine the largest area of the Plastic Vortex, an ocean gyre, situated to the North East of Hawaii, and approximately five days by boat from the United States (San Francisco area). The expedition will consist of a large pass through the Plastic Vortex, with the aim to collect and study plastic and other debris forms from the ocean in order to showcase some of the new technologies that will be used for processing and recycling."

These two expeditions working together give me hope that this environmental mess and its effects on ocean life can be studied and ultimately cleaned up.

I'll be following their progress with interest.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Don't Blame Me, Blame Karen J

Karen J sends this goody along today:

THE WIFE FROM HELL

A police officer pulls a speeding car over. The officer says, ' I clocked you at 80 miles per hour, sir.'

The driver says, 'Gee, officer I had it on cruise control at 60, perhaps your radar gun needs calibrating.'

Not looking up from her knitting the wife says: 'Now don't be silly dear, you know that this car doesn't have cruise control.'

As the officer writes out the ticket, the driver looks over at his wife and growls, 'Can't you please keep your mouth shut for once?'

The wife smiles demurely and says, 'You should be thankful your radar detector went off when it did.'

As the officer makes out the second ticket for the illegal radar detector unit, the man glowers at his wife and says through clenched teeth, 'Dammit, woman, can't you keep your mouth shut?'

The officer frowns and says, 'And I notice that you're not wearing your seat belt, sir. That's an automatic $75 fine.'

The driver says, 'Yeah, well, you see officer, I had it on, but took it off when you pulled me over so that I could get my license out of my back pocket.'

The wife says, 'Now, dear, you know very well that you didn't have your seat belt on. You never wear your seat belt when you're driving.'

And as the police officer is writing out the third ticket the driver turns to his wife and barks, 'WHY DON'T YOU PLEASE SHUT UP??'

The officer looks over at the woman and asks, 'Does your husband always talk to you this way, Ma'am?'

(You'll love this part...)

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Only when he's been drinking!

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Skirts vs. Trousers for Modesty

Reuters reports on the trial of a woman who had the temerity to wear 'trousers' in public at a restaurant bar in Khartoum in Sudan:

Woman in court in trouser "test case"

KHARTOUM (Reuters) – A Sudanese woman facing 40 lashes for wearing trousers in public made her first appearance in a court packed with supporters Wednesday, in what her lawyer described as a test case in Sudan's decency laws. She attended the hearing wearing the same green slacks that got her arrested for immodest dress.

Indecency cases are not uncommon in Sudan. But Hussein has attracted attention by publicising her case, inviting journalists to hearings and using it to campaign against dress codes sporadically imposed in the capital.

The article continues to explain that Ms. Hussein is insisting on this case being adjudicated in court--even if she must resign her United Nations job--to focus an international spotlight on the form of punishment: 40 lashes plus a fine. The fine is not the objectionable point. She contends that lashing a woman 40 times for wearing slacks instead of traditional dress will be viewed as a human rights violation. She hopes to end this punishment, at least for the crime of 'immodest dress' in Sudan.

Good for her! But here is my question: In what way are trousers more immodest than a skirt?

Traditional dress in Sudan is influenced by Islamic definitions. Basically modest dress would consist of clothing that covered a woman's body from the neck to the feet, and the lower portion would be a long dress or skirt. A skirt is open from a waist band to the ground, a fabric tube that encases the legs, but has no closure between the legs to cover genitalia. Sounds pretty immodest to me!

Trousers are open at the waist, then narrow to two fabric tubes, one covering each leg--and they are closed between the legs to completely cover the genitalia. Sounds pretty modest to me!

I have worn slacks, jeans, trousers most of my adult life. When I wear a skirt I feel slightly exposed even with appropriate underwear.

When I wear pants I feel dressed, quite modestly dressed.

I ponder why society has put men in trousers and women in skirts. In patriarchal societies it seems a distinct access advantage for men. Just pull up that skirt and have at it. Anthropologist Margaret Mead would have a field day with this observation, if she didn't already.

My salacious observations are tangential to Ms. Hussein's legal test case. I will be watching with interest as this story unfolds.

The link to Reuters' story is: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090729/od_nm/us_trousers_odd_1

August 1 Update: Here is an interview of Mrs. Lubna Hussein in the London Telegraph.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Happy Birthday (Belatedly) to Diverse Mind

I discovered that I've posted a blog now and then for over a year. Sometimes I'm fairly sure no one is reading but me. Other times I've been gratified by written or face-to-face comments, a sure sign that I'm not alone here.

Diverse Mind has no one particular advocacy. This lack of focus is probably disconcerting to visitors from other blogs that are topically focused. But everyone is welcome come and browse through this Diverse Mind, or to just drop in and see who that commenter is over on Inch At A Time, Telling Secrets, Wounded Bird, or others of my blog friends.

I am in awe of those who can produce a blog post at roughly the rate of one or more post a day! In slightly over a year, Diverse Mind has produced 70 posts. I'm going to give myself an at-a-girl for an average of roughly one a week.

The greatest joy in this is looking at what I've offered and being proud of all but one of the posts. And I'm not ashamed of the one; it just doesn't represent my better choices. My favorite is a mini-meditation that my Higher Power strongly suggested: Respiration. There is resonate core truth in that one that came from Someone greater than me.

Thanks for a good year, Diverse Mind!

Great Pacific Garbage Patch Redux

This is Jan Eliot's marvelous family strip, Stone Soup, on July 28, 2009. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is real, and some estimate it may be approaching the size of Africa. When this blog was new, and I was still learning how to embed pictures, I wrote about this phenomenon here and here.

The name 'Garbage Patch' is deceptive on multiple levels. I always think of a patch as being a small piece of fabric or other material designed to repair something. This patch is immense and destroys rather than repairs. I think of garbage as being the biodegradable leavings from food preparation such as used coffee grounds, vegetable shavings, fat scraps and the like. Garbage is stuff that comes from the planet and returns easily to the earth, even improves the earth with nutrients to support new growth. What circles in this enormous floating morass is not garbage. It is non-biodegradable trash, much of which is plastics.

We need to stop calling this the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. That's entirely too cute. And the only truth in it is 'Pacific', denoting the location of this one. (No, it is not the only one, just the worst.)

Maybe the Indestructible Pacific Killer Waste Dump. How about that? I'm open to reader suggestions in comments.

More important, the world is open to suggestions on ridding our oceans of killer waste.

Thanks to Jan Eliot whose Stone Soup I read at Go Comics and Arizona Republic newspaper.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Health Care Reform: The Republican Option

Heaven help us all!

This about sums up my Republican Senators' point of view.

Senator Kyl and Senator McCain are emotionally stuck in the middle 20th century. I don't think there is any hope of them ever getting gay-friendly.

But worse they are committed to allowing bloated big businesses in pharmaceutical and insurance industries continue to pile up mountains of profit at the health expense of America's uninsured and 'uninsurable'.

Let's remember this when we vote to fill Senate seats in the future. We need senators who will care about their voters, not their money baggers.

Political cartoonist David Horsey comes to me via Go Comics.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Wise Latinas Rule!

Ben Sargent, one of my favorite political cartoonists at Go Comics, absolutely nails the disgruntled WASPMs who insist on niggling away at Supreme Court Justice nominee Sonia Sotomayor. The offending Republican senators should see themselves through the eyes of tolerant diverse Americans. They would be ashamed of themselves.

Every news outlet I read agrees that nominee Sonia Sotomayor will be consented by the Senate. Yet White Republican Male Senators (okay, I'm outa caps now!) make fools of themselves pestering her about a speech she made once, a speech to an audience of predominently Latina women. Haven't any of these macho lilly white elitists ever given a speech in which they made statements to motivate and inspire their audience? That's all it was!

Shame, shame.

And good on Ben Sargent for calling them on their probable fears. Imagine: Someone other than a white male might actually be as good as....!

Update at 8:05 AM: Per NPR,Sen. Kyl will vote against Judge Sonia Sotomayor. He will explain in a press conference later today. Hrummmpf!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Working Dogs Rule!

The Baaa-Studs have put their high tech skills to work demonstrating the skills of their working dogs. True. I am not giving a lot of credit to the other stars of this show. Well, you'll see!



Hat Tip to Katie Sherrod at Desert's Child.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Hot Flash! News Flash!!

Hot news or news flash, but here's today's good news:

The House of Bishops (of The Episcopal Church) has passed Resolution C056 which opens the pathway for designing rites for same-sex blessings and allows for 'generous pastoral care' in jurisdictions where same-sex marriages or civil unions have been legalized. It's the Anglican way of saying, local bishops may allow (or not) pre-union counseling and even some type of ceremony to mark Episcopalian couples' unions.

Alleluia in the highest!!

Before I get too carried away, let's remember that's the action of the House of Bishops; we still must get approval in the House of Deputies. Let us pray.... Amen!

Update: The House of Deputies has concurred with wide margins among laity and clergy.
Amen Ba-wo! Amen Ba-wo! Amen sia kudu misa!

A Short Joyful History of Integrity Eucharist

The history of Integrity Eucharist at The Episcopal Church's triennial General Convention is remarkably recent--just since 1988! In this video, Rev. Canon Dexter Cheney talks about the first occasion in Detroit. Then enjoy images from this year's Integrity Eucharist followed by additional history of the G/L/B/T journey to full inclusion in TEC:

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

The Episcopal Church Welcomes ALL of Us!

On Friday I grabbed my toothbrush and comb and went to Anaheim California to attend a special church service, Holy Eucharist by and for members and friends of Integrity. Integrity is the fellowship of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Episcopalians that advocates for sacramental equality within our church. I was not in small company; over 1200 members and straight allies participated. The Holy Eucharist was celebrated by Bishop Gene Robinson, our church's first OPENLY gay bishop, and Bishop Barbara Harris, our church's first woman bishop, who delivered a stellar call for inclusion. It was a joyful experience for me on many levels. The music reverberates in my memory causing my heart to leap with pleasure at my encounter with God at the table with several hundred of my close, personal friends!

Super-short history: The Episcopal Church has been working its way toward full inclusion of GLBT members since 1985, but sustained a setback to progress at our last general convention (2006). In an attempt to placate some parts of the church in places where homosexuality is still subjugated and criminalized, a resolution (B033) was passed promising we would exercise restraint in choosing bishops "whose manner of life" might offend other parts of the Anglican Communion. The wording was short and simple. It failed to satisfy those conservative members of the Anglican Communion and it offended GLBT faithful to varying degrees. (Call me hyper-offended!)

Now the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops have passed a resolution (D025) which supercedes B033 and clarifies the Episcopal Church's relationship with the Anglican Communion and with ALL of its members, especially GLBT faithful (shown as ammended):

Resolved, the House of Bishops concurring, That the 76th General Convention reaffirm the continued participation of The Episcopal Church as a constituent member of in the Anglican Communion; give thanks for the work of the bishops at the Lambeth Conference of 2008; reaffirm the abiding commitment of The Episcopal Church to the fellowship of churches that constitute the Anglican Communion and seek to live into the highest degree of communion possible; and be it further

Resolved, That the 76th General Convention encourage dioceses, congregations, and members of The Episcopal Church to participate to the fullest extent possible in the many instruments, networks and relationships of the Anglican Communion; and be it further

Resolved, That the 76th General Convention reaffirm its financial commitment to the Anglican Communion and pledge to participate fully in the Inter-Anglican Budget; and be it further

Resolved, That the 76th General Convention affirm the value of "listening to the experience of homosexual persons," as called for by the Lambeth Conferences of 1978, 1988, and 1998, and acknowledge that through our own listening the General Convention has come to recognize that the baptized membership of The Episcopal Church includes same-sex couples living in lifelong committed relationships "characterized by fidelity, monogamy, mutual affection and respect, careful, honest communication, and the holy love which enables those in such relationships to see in each other the image of God" (2000-D039); and be it further

Resolved, That the 76th General Convention recognize that gay and lesbian persons who are part of such relationships have responded to God's call and have exercised various ministries in and on behalf of God's One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and are currently doing so in our midst; and be it further

Resolved, That the 76th General Convention affirm that God has called and may call such individuals, to any ordained ministry in The Episcopal Church,; and that God's call to the ordained ministry in The Episcopal Church is a mystery which the Church attempts to discern for all people which call is tested through our discernment processes acting in accordance with the Constitution and Canons of The Episcopal Church; and be it further

Resolved, That the 76th General Convention acknowledge that members of The Episcopal Church as of the Anglican Communion, based on careful study of the Holy Scriptures, and in light of tradition and reason, are not of one mind, and Christians of good conscience disagree about some of these matters.

The Episcopal Church welcomes ALL of us: Straight, GLBT, and those who'd rather GLBT weren't here. And that's the way The Episcopal Church is--Via Media with room for all!

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Health Care Reform: The Public Option Question

Here's a real education about the health care 'public option'. After watching Bill Moyers interview a former Cigna public relations director, my mind is made up. Get your coffee and settle down for a revelation:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/watch2.html