Heather Spence, Marine Biologist

Frommer’s named the Yucatan Peninsula one of the top 10 destinations, pointing to its natural beauty, safety and culture.

You may also be interested to know that 2012 to the Maya represents a change rather than a disaster. (This was made abundantly clear to me by my colleagues in Cancun when we went to see the film 2012, which conveniently overlooked that part!)

For the article and to check out the other destinations, go to the Frommer’s website.

Photo credit: Nick Giacobbe

On the national mall from September 23rd to October 2nd, you can tour 19 solar powered homes designed and built by teams of college students from around the world, as part of the U.S. Department of Energy “Solar Decathlon.” As the name suggests, the houses go through 10 contests, which include household tasks (e.g. laundry, hosting a dinner party), monitored performance (e.g. maintaining a comfortable temperature and humidity) and other judged characteristics (e.g. aesthetics, design). The winning team’s house must be affordable and easy to live in, and produce as much or more energy than it consumes. Come see these houses – you will definitely want to live in one!

NY and CA team houses with Washington Monument

City College of New York's "Solar Roofpod" is designed to be added to an urban rooftop as part of an integrated green roof system

Chinese Tongji University's "Y Container," made from recycled shipping modules, promotes flexible indoor space with sliding/swiveling wall panels and stackable triangular furniture modules

September 17 is International Coastal Cleanup Day!
Look for an event near you, or start your own. Celebrate all month, all year…
Check the Ocean Conservancy website for ideas and events.

Also, I take this opportunity to remind you about the serious threats of plastic pollution, including and especially six packs rings – please snip them! This is a spanish/english video I made to be shown in local schools in Cancun, and has now reached worldwide:

Watch the video here: Cut Six Pack Rings – Bilingual Video

Tomorrow, Thursday September 15, Diana Reiss will be “appearing” live on the Diane Rehm Show on NPR (11:06am ET), and also on FOX (I will try to post the time when I find out).

For more info on the NPR interview go to http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-09-15/diana-reiss-dolphin-mirror

Diana Reiss, my adviser, is going on book tour. Here is the information I have so far for related events -

September 19 – Redmond, WA and Seattle, WA

September 20 – Los Angeles, CA
September 21 – Menlo Park, CA and San Francisco, CA
September 24 – Sonoma County, CA

September 27 – New York, NY (Hunter College) [by invite, if interested let me know]

October 22 – St. Petersburg, FL St. Petersburg Times Festival of Reading

You can also get more information at the listing on Amazon

President Obama, quoted in an article in today’s Washington Post, says -

“While we were working to improve the efficiency of cars and light-duty trucks, something interesting happened. We started getting letters asking that we do the same for medium and heavy-duty trucks. They were from the people who build, buy and drive these trucks. And today, I’m proud to have the support of these companies as we announce the first-ever national policy to increase fuel efficiency and decrease greenhouse gas pollution from medium- and heavy-duty trucks.”

Here’s my brilliant idea – use discarded fishing nets to pull garbage in the garbage patches in the ocean together to form dense floating islands! This has many advantages – it uses discarded nets so they don’t become hazards in the ocean; it will pull together the material tight enough to slow the decomposition and leaching of toxins; it will open up spaces between the islands where sunlight can get through and animals can navigate.

The Readers Digest August 2011 issue has an excellent article “What Drowning Really Looks Like: It’s not the flailing, wailing, glug-glug drama of Baywatch. Here’s how to prevent the No.1 water danger”

Taking information from mariovittone.com and other sources, they highlight the 8 QUIET signs of a person in trouble – after an introductory story – both of which I will reproduce here:

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The captain of the new sport-fishing boat jumped from the deck, fully dressed, and started swimming fast toward the boat’s owners in the water. “I think he thinks you’re drowning,” the husband said to his wife. They had been splashing each other, and she had screamed, but now they were just standing, neck-deep on the sandbar. “We’re fine!” the husband yelled, waving him off. But the captain kept swimming hard.

“Move!” he barked.
Not ten feet away, the couple’s nine-year-old daughter was drowning. Once she was safely above the surface and in the arms of the captain, she burst into tears. “Daddy!”

How did this captain know from 50 feet away what the father couldn’t recognize from just ten? The captain was trained by experts and years of experience to recognize drowning. The father learned by watching television. But drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect, says water safety expert Frank Pia, PhD. It’s almost always a quiet event.
Drowning is the second-most common cause of accidental death in children ages 1 to 14 (just behind motor vehicle accidents). In a 2004 study by a national safety group, 90 percent of children who drowned did so while under the care of an adult or a teenager. In many cases, the study suggests, that person had a momentary lapse of attention. But the fact is that often those watching don’t know what to look for – because drowning doesn’t look like drowning.
To ward off a tragedy in the making, watch for the signs detailed [below].

1. Sometimes the most important indicator that someone is drowning is that she doesn’t look like she’s drowning. She may just seem to be looking up at the sky, shore, pool deck, or dock. Ask her, “Are you all right?” If she can answer at all, she probably is. If she returns a blank stare, you may have less than 30 seconds to get to her.
2. A drowning person can’t call for help—she has to be able to breathe before she can speak. When a person is drowning, her mouth sinks below and reappears above the surface of the water. There isn’t time for her to exhale, inhale, and call out.
3. She can’t wave for help either. A drowning person instinctively extends her arms to the sides and presses down to lift her mouth out of the water; a child may extend her arms forward. She can’t use her arms to move toward a rescuer or reach for rescue equipment.
4. A drowning person remains upright in the water, with no evidence of kicking. She can struggle for only 20 to 60 seconds before going under.
5. Head is low in the water, with mouth at water level; head may be tilted back with mouth open. A child’s head may fall forward.
6. Eyes are glassy, unable to focus, or closed.
7. Hair may be over forehead or eyes.
8. Children playing in the water make noise. When they get quiet, you need to get to them and find out why.

The Fourth Annual Whale Shark Festival will be held in Isla Mujeres this month (main events July 15-17), bringing together scientists and others from around the world to compare notes and celebrate the world’s largest fish, and the richness of the waters off the Yucatan Peninsula that attract the world’s largest aggregations of these polka-dotted gentle giants.

Scientific presentations will be given on Saturday July 16, including “Learning by Listening: Passive Acoustic Monitoring in the Mexican Caribbean” by Heather Spence, presented by Rafael de la Parra (Proyecto Domino).

For a full schedule of events (mostly free!), go to the whale shark festival webpage

And for more info about events on and around World Listening Day (July 18) go to the World Listening Project webpage

The show is called “Chundereke” – a parallel universe where everything is fun and very easy to do

Sunday, June 12 in Playa del Carmen at 5pm
Teatro del Arbol

A show for the whole family, with magic, live music, dance, clowns, storytelling, circus arts, more…

and yours truly on cello