Losing Touch

I feel like I am losing touch with nature right now, I am way too caught up with my life, I can't wait until I have time to give back to the Earth. Don't worry, Huntington Beach Wetlands here I come in the next coming up month!

Friendship first

Friendships are like boy/girlfriend relationships. In both cases, there's a sense of mutualism and there needs to be a common ground of interest. My past experience with my ex has made me realize that infatuation is not enough to drive a long lasting relationship, but instead it is the ability to understand each other, share common interest and respecting each other that drives a long lasting relationship. I feel like a relationship is like a long-lasting friendship with physical attraction. If I had been friends with my ex and have gotten to know what is really is like I probably wouldn't have dated him, we started dating 3 days after we met, moved in together after knowing each other for 6 months (within that 6 months I was got for 3), we were so infatuated. I will never make that mistake again. It is so important to really get to know the other person and really spend time with them before jumping into such a big commitment. So now I just need to find a best friend, who is male, attractive, and attracted to me. This seems like a difficult task. In just a couple more days I can finally put the past 3.5 years completely behind me and get a fresh start. I have faith that things will work out smoothly in this upcoming decade!

2010

2010 has got to be a better, different and more adventurous year than 2009.

Moving into a new place.
No more school.
Big possibility of finally being able to quite my current job.
2 months in Hong Kong, plus some side vacations while I am there.

2009 was not all bad. I become close friends with a hand full of amazing people. Finally left my no-future ex-boyfriend.

My biggest concern right now is that my close friend forgives me for last weekend...I am really hoping to enter the new decade in good terms with her. The strange thing about all of this is that I have been trying so hard to avoid something bad to happen, and when I finally felt close enough to her and began to let my guard down something like this happens. It was a complete accident and it could have been anyone. She resembles a lot like Kelsey to me and I really hope she can forgive me the way Kelsey has in the past. This whole incident has made me realize how much friendship is like a boy/girlfriend relationship. The strength of a relationship only gets stronger as the two people are willing to overlook and forgive each other. I have my fingers crossed right now!


Tomorrow night should be amazing.

Maybe it's just because it's the holidays

Or maybe it's the fact that I am finally moving out of this place. The combination between finding out about his family's current situation and the packing of throwing away of all the things is finally effecting me emotionally. I am really hoping once I move out of here things will be different. I purchased my ticket to Hong Kong for early next year, hopefully it will be a nice long break away from everything after so many years. I just can't wait to stop feeling this way, I am really hoping that the combination of new years eve, completing the move and volunteering will do the trick. It's been 3 months now and it's time to move on. This "getting over" process is hard enough without missing the person, I can't imagine what he must be feeling...but that is no longer my problem. I need to realize that his problems no longer have anything to do with me and are not caused by me.

oh By the way

Your mind can really convince itself when you tell it to, so be careful what you convince yourself. It backfired on me for sure, but at least it only effected me and not those around me.

Cophenhagen 2009

Climate change conference:
Never happened, not enough votes...but at least we are trying, and we will get there!

Why wasn't this on the news here? Like let's say Fox...

Ahhhh....

All I want for Christmas.

How inviting... :)

Species extinct in the wild but exists in captivity

*the picture is a phylogenetic tree of "early" animals, memorizing that was not fun...*


To prevent inbreeding and loss of genetic variation, zoos around the world have to transport animals around the world to mate with each other. Inbreeding cause the frequency of a mutation to be expressed, thus the population's ability to remove deleterious alleles is reduced. We must be careful about maintaining the genetic diversity for species that are extinct in the wild, hoping to be able to release them back in the wild at some point. Fragmentation of land has created so many small populations, therefore making it easier for them to die out. Diversity on the genetic and species level are both important.

Huntington Beach Wetland Conservancy

Now that school is over, the volunteering and job hunting process begins. I chose Huntington Beach Wetland Conservancy, a non-profit organization that restores and conserves 118-acres of wetlands. Degradation of coastal wetlands from property development have fragmented and destroyed the wetlands to the point where constant maintenance and restoration is required in order keep a healthy ecosystem for the birds and marine organisms.
I am hoping to get more hands on experience with working with native coastal vegetation.

www.hbwc.org

Since conservation organizations are not well funded by the government, these internships will be unpaid, hopefully it will turn into a paid position eventually.
For those who would like to help, donations are always welcome to these non-profit organizations. (Friends of Colorado Lagoon, Los Cerritos Wetlands Stewart, Bolsa Chica Conservancy)

There are also lots of volunteer opportunities on Saturdays for trash clean-up, look on their websites for that information. Colorado Lagoon has trash clean-up every Monday morning at 9:00am, see you this Monday!!

Answers

> Dr. Carter,
> I had an idea today and I wanted to know you opinion on it, if it's "right".
>
> The reason that the Homo sapien specie has been so successful and evolved so
> efficiently is because there is not much evolutionary constraint against
> group selection. Group selection increases the fitness of the group as a
> whole.

Humans are a very unusual species in that we can work out agreements
and cooperatively work together in ways that allow some groups to
succeed over others. By having complex communication we have been able
to have individuals specialize in certain tasks, something that other
organisms rarely have and do allow groups with these individuals to
have higher (or lower) fitness.

I think the bigger trait that humans have that assist group style
selection is that ordinarily individual selection works against group
selection, but if the species has memories and social rules that
prevent selfishness then the sabotage effects of individual selection
can be minimized - humans do this better than any other species

> I also had another question. Can selfishness (opposite of altruism) be
> considered an evolutionary constraint? (individual selection > group
> selection)

Yes, I would consider this a constraint. Relating to your first point
above the relaxation of his constraint may be part of the success of
humans for the reasons I listed above.

> How does plastic surgery effect natural selection? The trait(s) is/are not
> inherited, so what could it to the population over time?

There are two ways to think about this.
(1) The trait is not genetically inherited, but there are some people
that believe that you can study the inheritance and evolution of
social behaviors, the inherited traits are called "memes" and Dawkins
is the highest profile person associated with this idea. This would be
similar to the evolution of other epigenetic traits.
(2) There would be genetic selection for people who survive the
operations better, genes that caused allergies to anesthesia or
increased the chances of complications during surgery would be
selected against - the population would evolve to be better able to
handle medical operations.

What I wrote is just my "off the top of my head" thinking and if you
do a literature search you are likely to find that some
anthropologists has written about these things in detail, although you
have to be careful about the logic of some social science arguments.

> I would highly appreciated if you could give me your thought. I have been
> trying to figure out all semester but just don't know enough to figure it
> out.
>
> Thank you,
> Jocelyn

Just one last thing

It's so close I can taste it! One more final, the hardest final but I can do it!!
Next chapter of life begins in...11 hours!

Ending this chapter of my life...I learned:
Take advantage of education and knowledge
Don't waste time with someone or something that doesn't make you happy, there's always something better nearby.

FINALS

Dr. Carter,
I had an idea today and I wanted to know you opinion on it, if it's "right".

The reason that the Homo sapien specie has been so successful and evolved so efficiently is because there is not much evolutionary constraint against group selection. Group selection increases the fitness of the group as a whole.

I also had another question. Can selfishness (opposite of altruism) be considered an evolutionary constraint? (individual selection > group selection)

How does plastic surgery effect natural selection? The trait(s) is/are not inherited, so what could it to the population over time?

I would highly appreciated if you could give me your thought. I have been trying to figure out all semester but just don't know enough to figure it out.


Thank you,
Jocelyn

As I study for Evo Bio Exam...

Natural Selection:

At group level selection, that is how sex was evolved. (Sex evolved because it increased the overall fitness of the group)

Advantage to evolution of sex is to the POPULATION
Why? Increase variation in offspring, speeds the rate of evolution, and allows the removal of deleterious alleles (removes bad genes).

Disadvantage happens at an individual level.
Why? Because hard to find mate and two fold cost of mating.

Interesting....

The JOCELYN system

Not quite as clever as the producers of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (D.E.N.N.I.S. system) so it doesn't actually stand for anything, but it's still somewhat of a method.

Extremely straight forward:
1. If you like someone, be obvious, don't have to tell them but actions speak much louder than words.
2. If their response is positive if should be obvious so then go for it. If negative, forget about it and move on.

That is the way to do it.
Oh, and don't "lead" someone on if you know they like you but you don't like them. It just makes it more painful for them and then you're just taking advantage of them. I don't wanna hear the whole, "I'm too nice" or "I didn't know he/she liked me" excuses. If you want to stay friends with them, make it clear, otherwise you have to cut it off and not lead them on.

Just because I like you, it doesn't mean I want a relationship with you.

And another thing, friendship goes before infatuation

These are the rules I am going by right now, we'll see how it goes.

So far it feels like...the list of things of what I don't want in a guy just gets bigger and bigger. That may be bad news, reducing my pool options in size very quickly.

Hehe! Oh well, I am having a great time, isn't that all that matters?!

Taking on the world

Life is extremely overwhelming right now, especially with finals. Last semester in college, last week of finals...bring it on!!!!

I am going to take on the world, this last week of finals is a test for me and I will do great!!
*determined*

Nellyphishing for Readers

Nellyphish,
This blog is for you! I don't think anyone else reads it!! Oh well, still love it!

Always want what you can't have, explained briefly by evolution

As a specie that is constantly advancing (technology, way of life, everything), we have evolved to enjoy challenges. Without wanting to overcome these challenges we would have never been able to evolve into the intelligent specie that we are today. Evolution makes us pursue more and better things at all times, without it we may not have been able to become such an intelligent and complex specie.

Right now I feel that this evolutionary trait of our personalities is putting me at a disadvantage, thus making me overlook the good and available things in my life and making me want to pursue something (someone) that isn't what I "should want" (but it is what I want since I can't have it). What a dilemma!!

Such a complicated concept, I hope that is all making sense!

Even I didn't know

I didn't understand the extent of how much I despise him until now. I got a text the other day that made me a bit upset just because he is still trying to get a reaction from me after 5 weeks now. Deleted it right away of course, bitched about it for a little bit too. The next day after that I took a nap and had a horrible nightmare about him. In my dream, it was present day, and I started dating him again, things were awful and I was really unhappy but for some reason in my dream I was still dating him, knowing I was unhappy. I woke up and I was so upset that my nap was ruined and not relaxing. I am just so over it and I hope I don't run into him or hear from him again. What makes you think a girl would want to be with someone that not only has nothing to offer to her but also discourages her from pursuing her career and her passion.

Moving on to better things in life and totally happy right now. Just leave me the f*k alone already.

Just Read it!!

We love the chase but we hate the games.
Reading between the lines too much will get you in trouble...it tends to lead to selective thinking.
In the end we just want to find someone, but let's not get carried away and forget how much fun the process is.

As an aggressive individual in pursuing what I want I find it difficult to play "hard-to-get". In every other aspect of life, being proactive has always been the way get things my way. This is highly conflicting with "you want what you can't have", if I act readily available to someone then would that make them not want it? Maybe it just depends on the situation. I don't want to play mind games, I just want to be able to act on my feelings...isn't that what guys do? Would that make me less desirable to someone if I am obvious about my feeling towards them? I would much rather just get rejected right away than waste time and get rejected later. In conclusion, I feel like it's much less complicated to act like a guy, say and act what's on your mind and stop trying to reading between the lines and predict what the other person is thinking. If they want it too, they'll act upon it, don't lose your head over it!

College

One more week of college left! Sad, happy and scared all at the same time. Hoping the "economy" will give me a "job" (whatever that means). Mostly importantly is that the learning continues. I am completely addicted to knowledge and I cannot get enough of it, I just wish it didn't cost so much, I guess self-study is an option, but there's no certificate that is recognizable from that...that sucks.

Just one last paper left on emergency diesel generator pollutions. Wish me luck on finals. ^_^

stressed out, but sooooo happy with the way my life is going! *thankful*

Solar Cooker

Cooking "box" that captures solar energy and heats up and can be hot even to cook food in. It is very efficient and convenient especially for those who live in areas without electricity (India, developing and 3rd world countries).

Four components:
1. inner box: fully sealed aluminum
2. outer box: wood
3. lid
4. reflectors: captures solar energy

reduce dependency on natural gas
reduce pollution and deforestation

Further improvements will be needed in order to make it even more efficient and easy to use.

Eating locally

Why?
Reduce carbon footprint because food travels a lot more than we know
organic foods will reduce carbon emissions and replenish soil nutrients
energy in packaging is less when grown locally due to reduce amount of packaging
food is 25% of our carbon footprint
Local food trading can significantly reduce carbon emission
- cheap way to eat healthy, and locally
CSA community supported agriculture
Farmers Markets: may not be actually locally grown or organic, must be careful
Free range: animals are allowed to roam freely, and therefore produce healthier meat and eggs

Must do research on companies which we buy from because even if they say it's "green" it may just be a marketing scheme.

Today is not good so far

1. Rain, therefore missed volunteering and ENGR class
2. Toilet overflowed, couldn't take a shower this morning
3. Fell at school as I was walking because I slipped.
4. Just found out that I had another paper due on Wednesday, making it 6 papers to do this week before finals

I am going home as soon as class is over, I don't think it's save to be out today!! Must hide from the rain!

Where did all this rain come from?

It's raining so hard right now in SoCal, it's only December, where is all the rain coming from?? I can't even imagine all the trash that is being washed into Colorado Lagoon, next Monday trash clean-up is going to be so intense. This is a strange pattern of weather...I don't know if I have seen it rain this hard ever before here in December, oh well, it's probably just a strange year...right?? Maybe it's the beginning of climate change...who really knows, we can debate over it over and over again but no one will have the answer, only time can tell.

Restoring Native Vegetation and Improving Water Quality will Increase the Overall Ecosystem Function of the Colorado Lagoon

Later: Similarities between Monarchy and Capitalism

Who would have thought that my religious studies class was the one that taught me how to apply evolution in explaining why things are the way they are, and why humans act the way we do.

Symposium abstract:

Restoring Native Vegetation and Improving Water Quality will Increase the Overall Ecosystem Function of the Colorado Lagoon

The Colorado Lagoon is a coastal wetland utilized by birds, humans and marine organisms in southern California that is experiencing a great decrease in plant biodiversity and is also listed as an impaired water body under section 303 (d) of the Clean Water Act. Invasive species and human landscaping have taken over valuable space for native species. Poor water quality due to a five-mile radius watershed, eleven storm drains, and reduced tidal flushing from Alamitos Bay have led to strict regulations on eight different pollutants. Removal of invasive species and human landscape will create space for the seventy-two species of native plants that will be planted. The four habitat types of plants will be coastal sage scrub, coastal bluff, transition zone, and coastal salt marsh. Water quality will be improved by installing trash separation devices in the storm drains and removal of the culvert to create complete flushing into Alamitos Bay. Plant biodiversity will increase due to the improvement of water quality, while water quality will improve due to increased tidal flushing as well as water-filtering plants. The overall health of the ecosystem will increase from the improvement of water quality and increase in plant biodiversity, thus increasing the value of the lagoon to those who use it.

I must admit

I must admit that I am a bit sad that things had to end this way. I am sad that we can't be friends, and I am sad that I made you feel bad. But I am not sad that we are not together. I miss the old times we had that were good, but things that made me happy back then, just don't make me feel happy anymore. In a month, everything that has anything to do with you will be over for me, the apartment, school, and work (soon after a month). I must admit that I am really nervous...sorry I couldn't take you on this journey with me but trust me when I say, I am not what you want anyway.

I am happy to hear that you are doing better.

reminder to myself

Coming soon: nuclear power as transition to renewable energy

My Ideal Way of Life

If I could choose the way I want life to be, things would be very different. I want to live a life where I never feel like I am out of time. I want to be able to have time to enjoy all the things around me. I don't want to have to be working to support myself...why should I have to spend all my time working. If all my time is spent working, then when am I actually LIVING. Living being defined here as: being able to do anything I want whenever I want, and not be restricted by a job or money. I want to live in a world with no cities. I want to live WITH nature, coexist with nature, and not deteriorate and consume nature. I don't need the stock market, no over-priced luxury items, I just need time, nature, knowledge, and love. The things I want are free (maybe not knowledge), but why are they so hard to get, therefore making it expensive. "Free things are the most expensive things in the world", that sentence actually makes sense in this situation.

Hating Him

Got my ipod back, the headphone jack is a bit broken...so break my ipod and give it back when it barely works. Thanks.

His perception of love was wrong...possessive. Jealousy consumed all his emotions. This is not just to other people, but it was everything (school, career, family, traveling, recreation...) His way to keep me around was through manipulation and put downs, "you will never find anyone that will love you as much as I do", "your family doesn't care about you, if they did, they wouldn't have left you here", and my all time favorite, "I stayed in CA even thought my family really needs me just to be here with you". I just wish I didn't put up with it for so long. Although I would have liked to avoided the event in the end, but it was the last straw, and it gave me strength to leave him (in a way I am a bit thankful for it). It's been almost four weeks since last point of any contact, where is he? Still here, just as I predicted. According to his friend, they convinced him to stay. So why is he still here. (this is my side of the story)

So glad to be single right now, will stay this way for a long while...it's bad to jump back into a relationship right away. Need to have 100% focus on my life and what I want right now. Need to explore and meet different types of people to see who I would be compatible with. Love is really just a fancy word for coexistence, who can you coexist with for the rest of your life and still able to be happy.

Organic Pesticides

They have just recently invented a pesticide for organic farming that can be sprayed on the crops, picked that same day, and consumed the same day that is completely harmless to our bodies. This is a big stepping stone for the "organic" market. I just wish I could remember the name of the company that invented it so I can reference them. They are based in Davis, CA and that's as much as I can remember on it.

We hear about organic foods and organic stuff a lot in advertising but we should realize what it means exactly.
www.dictionary.com
Organic:–adjective
1. noting or pertaining to a class of chemical compounds that formerly comprised only those existing in or derived from plants or animals, but that now includes all other compounds of carbon.

Fruits and veggies that are organic taste completely different from "inorganics". Organics taste so much better and "real".

(weird how organic in chemistry means "carbon based")

No time

There's so much I need to write about right now, just have no time...more to come:
Plastic surgery-> disrupting with heritable traits from being selected through evolution.
Why are we monogamous? What does it have to do with survivorship and reproduction cost?

The LAST stretch!

Okay everyone, less than a month before the semester ends!! Hang in there!!!

Updates on the Lagoon and such

On Monday morning the avian biodiversity was thriving at Colorado Lagoon. I counted at least eleven different kinds of species when I was there, only 4 of which were not migratory birds. Some of the birds I saw were American Coot, Great egret, snowy egret, great blue heron, California Pelican, ring-billed gull, two different species of sandpipers, least tern, and about three other ones that I am unfamiliar with. The invasive Bermuda buttercup is really making their establishment at the east bank restoration site, regular weeding will need to continue. I finally made my way all the way around the entire lagoon, where it is less accessible, less trash. I saw two different species of sandpipers with different length beaks walking side by side on the mudflats looking for food. Different length beaks means they are filling different niches, they looked like brother and sisters walking around together looking for food. Tomorrow morning I am going to head out to Bolsa Chica and Steam Shovel Slough, but first I need to study up on my winter migratory birds.

Blogspot Tutorial

My goal is to learn how to layout a bad-ass blog once school is over. I am getting tired of my pictures not turning out. I have just recently noticed that physical appearance is quite important.

Single life brings back biological impulse

After being reintroduced into single life for a couple of months and surrounding myself with single female friends, I noticed a great change of focus in my daily life. When you start spend way too much time talking about boys with your girlfriends and buying something new every week (my excuse being retail therapy until I can tame my emotions again), you start to think, why are you all of the sudden doing all these things that you didn't do before you were single? The answer is... *dun dun dunnnnnn*

Finding your optimal mate!! Not really surprising, right?
Biologically speaking, we as a human race and as individuals, our goal is to reproduce (pass on our alleles to our offsprings to improve our own individual fitness). Recalling back to one of my older post about sexual selection, females have larger investments than males in sexual reproduction and therefore are more "choosy" (A. Carter, BIOL 312, CSULB). Females are constantly looking for their ideal mate, and since this is an important search mission, most females will only invest time in potential mating partners and not just any individual.

So what does this translate to? Most girls will only invest time in guys that they consider to be their potential "serious boyfriend material". And guys are more likely to invest time in girls that they don't see as potential wives. This can be supported once again by the biology of the male species.
As mentioned before, sexual reproduction investment is much smaller for males. Males can expense all of their energy in sperm production (whereas females have to expense their energy on egg production AND carrying the offspring), so their focus is to spread their genes and have as many matings as possible (once again, to improve their own fitness).

After being released into single life again, I am noticing how much energy and time I expense at finding the optimal mate, it is way too exhausting!

Reminder to myself

More things to blog about...single life has brought out the biology in me, remaining 4 of female sexual selection.
Still no time! >_<

Crunched for Time!

I really want to spend some time on here, but school is a full time job! Winter migration for the birds, solar energy, list of beautiful places to go...much more. *Stressed*

Colorado Lagoon

Now that colder weather is approaching, mornings at the Colorado Lagoon are foggy. The fog cleared up pretty quickly and birds appeared. There were more snowy egrets and I saw one great blue heron, and of course the regulars as well, ducks. Today was also the first time I saw the Lagoon after the 350 restoration planting. Those little guys are looking good!! I am really hoping these plants will eventually attract more different types of birds and marine organisms. The tide was extremely low today, the lowest I have seen it so far, the algal growth on the mud flats were so bright, green and abundant. There were a lot of large pieces of trash, I picked up 4 pounds of trash, my highest record so far.

Forgive or Forget

If someone does something that is unforgivable but they try really really, and I mean really hard to get you to forgive them, do you give them another chance or no?

ScHoOl

I love school, but why do they stress us out so much with all the work at the same time. I feel like I am being forced to learn so quickly that I don't even get to enjoy my classes anymore! Help!

Math in Evolution

Math in evolutionary biology is extremely difficult. Class was confusing today, in fact I should be studying for it right now while it is still fresh in my head. It is just amazing to me that all these equations and variables are soooo arbitrary, it blows my mind how we have come up with different ways to manipulate them and turn them into something we can predict. Predicting for mutation rates, rates of evolution...it blows my mind. The intelligence of the human race should be enough evidence to prove evolution.

Hard Haunted Mansion 2009

New to the scene but what a wonderful time! It's good to experience new things, it make you feel alive. The music was amazing and lights were amazing. Wanted to stay there forever. Absolutely perfect.

I love my friends!

Just Because You have a PhD, Doesn't Mean You Should Teach!

Why is it that the harder the class gets, the worst the professors are at teaching?! I am frustrated with the fact that we pay so much money for higher education, but some of the professors that teach it to us are awful at teaching. I have a big problem with lazy teachers that don't know how to explain the course material to us and expect us to understand everything. For example, my chemical engineering class, chemical pollution, is by far the worst experience ever. The homework and the exam is about math problems and calculating numbers, but in lecture she goes on and goes about concepts and does not go over how to do the actual work. So we just sit there for 3 hours, every Thursday night to hear her read her powerpoints off to us. Powerpoint with paragraphs followed by paragraphs. NOT AN EFFECTIVE WAY TO TEACH! If you are going to read the powerpoint off to me, I can just read it when I am at home, I don't need to sit in class. To top it all off, she makes us sign a sign-in sheet...at the END of class, she's afraid, and I quote,"everyone will escape is the sign in sheet is passed around too early". What kind of teacher does that?!?! Not to mention that this is a 500/400 level class, and the majority of people in there are graduate students. I hate being treated like a child in college, I am surprised she didn't give up assigned seats! As I sit here at the library to try to teach myself everything she's supposedly taught us in the last 2 months, I am about to rip out all my hair... >_<

Girls have to right to be picky, even science agrees

Female investment exceeds male investment when it comes to sexual reproduction. Females have to bare the off spring and have limited number of eggs they produce throughout their life span while males have no limit. With such a high risk investment, females become very choosy. while on the other hand, the males' focus is to maximize their number of matings in order for them to spread them genes to increase its own individual fitness.

Males from different species of birds have evolved bright, strange colors on their feathers just to impress females. A female's choice in their mate is based on several factor(here are two that I found interesting): the handicap principle states that females are attracted to genetically expensive trait, for example a really long tail on a bird. The bird having a really long tail does not help them fly better or anything, it is just there for the purpose that females like it, an example of a handicap trait in humans would be an expensive car, the car does the same thing as any other car that would cost less, but some girls like it because they can afford it. Another factor is pre-existing bias, saying that females are attracted to males with unusual traits, just as when girls are attracted to foreign guys, because it's different and it's exotic to them. Those are the two out of the six that I find the most interesting.

Males on the other hand, don't really have choosiness in sexual selection. In fact, they expense a lot of their energy to impress females. Males compete against each other to woo females, for example male bower birds dance in their bowers while a female watches to see who she would choose to mate with. There's also sperm competition between males as well. In some species of bees after a male mates with a female, he will plug her opening to prevent other sperm from entering, at some worst scenarios some penises are designed to cause physical damage to the female reproductive system to prevent them from mating after their sperm has been deposited.

See girls, look how hard guys have to fight to get to us...we have the right to be picky

Increase Urbanization = Increase Price in Healthy Foods.

As human population increase and more people move to concentrated areas of the world, the price of healthy and organic foods will directly correlate. In order to fulfill the demand of produce and other sources of food in the world, mass production has become the cheapest way to feed everyone. Generally from what I have noticed is that foods that are priced at a lower value contain unhealthy ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup, food coloring, preservatives and other unnatural products. Part of the reason for this is that these are cheap ingredients and they maintain to quality of the food for a longer period of time, for example, a small amount of high fructose corn syrup is equivalent to a large amount of natural sugar. Preservatives obviously allow the product to stay edible for a long period of time. It preserves if for a long enough time for the products to be packaged, distributed, and sit on shelves of the stores until someone purchases it.

As people move into more compacted areas, there is less space for local farming. Fresh fruits and vegetables are being imported from all different parts of the world. So much of our energy is used from transportation (in the U.S. alone we used the majority of our petroleum for transportation). With the increase demand for healthy and organic foods, increasing human population, and decreasing numbers of local farms, the prices availability of all-natural foods will increase immensely. As for now, prices of these foods are still affordable so enjoy it while you can. As residents of our city, we need to support local farms, even if it means it costs more. We need to keep these farmers profitable because we will all be completely dependent on imported good otherwise. The use of fertilizers, pesticides, and hormones in our produce and livestock will directly affect us humans since we are directly consuming them.

So what should you do? This weekend go to your local farmers market and do your grocery shopping, just make sure the good you are purchasing are from local farms. You’ll be able to taste and smell the difference.

Trash and Cooperative Feeding at the Lagoon

Another beautiful day at the Colorado Lagoon today! There was so much trash today because of the rain last week. I picked up 3 pounds myself, when usually I only get about one. Together we collected 36 pounds of trash, keep in mind that this doesn't even include the trash we couldn't reach that was in the water. Which is why I am going to invest on a pair of rain boots, I am so tired of not being able to get my shoes wet. The water quality was not good either, there was a layer of pollution (I can't tell what it was, just unnatural) on top of the water on the side near the golf course.

I saw a california pelican, a snowy egret, and some birds that I still have yet to remember their names. It was breakfast time for all of them and I got to see some cooperative feeding. All three different species with different niches working together to feed themselves and each other... mutualism! The pelican glides over the water to watch the surface of the water as the group of ducks (I don't know the name of) all swim in one direction to "corner" the fishes, and the egret stands on shore to catch fishes that swim nearby. Hopefully all of them got to eat as much as they can.

I am a bit concerned about the water quality of the lagoon after the rain. The Colorado Lagoon is a watershed for Long Beach, and we all know how much trash and pollution there is on the ground in Long Beach. There was a layer of pollution over the water by the golf course, it looked so funky I had no idea what it could be, probably just a combination of chemicals. No more littering! I picked up syrofoam plates today that had peak marks on them, birds are eating them and it will harm them.

Cars, Cars, More Cars

My slight obsession with my car got me thinking today as I was filling up my tank, I noticed how much time and money I am spending on my car. $30 in gas and about $5 more per week to wash it, amounting to $140 a month, just to use it...not even including maintenance. The reason we have to spend so much money on our cars is that we have become completely dependent on them.

The lack of convenient public transportation combined with the structure of our city has created a large revenue for car manufacturers. Practically everyone that I know in this country has a car. I know that without my car I would not be able to get to work and school on time, the bus would take way too long or there's no transportation that goes there. The public transportation system needs improvement. If we had an efficient system, I believe we would significantly decrease the amount of petroleum we consume as a nation. With a good public transportation system, people will lose dependency to their cars.

On the other side of the planet, Hong Kong I only know two people that have cars. Out of my entire family, including everyone on both my parents sides of family, only my dad and my cousin have cars. You don't need a car over there. When I was living there, I would just take the bus, train, subway, to anywhere I needed to go to. I would take the bus to school alone when I was 8. The transportation system is easy and convient.

In order to conserve petroleum and resources, we need to begin developing a efficient public transport system. Another reason would be the amount of water we would save when people don't have cars to wash. Fresh water resources are so readily available to us, but it is a very scarece resource as well...I'll leave the water resource section for another day, let's keep thinking of ways we can reduce energy consumption. :)

Restoring the Colorado Lagoon

We are starting to plant native plants at the Lagoon this month. It should be fun, everyone please come, it's for a good cause. I will be at every trash pick up every Monday morning.^_^

Thursday October 15th – CSULB Education Class
4-6.30pm: We’re talking with a CSULB EDD class about place-based environmental education. Come on down to learn about the FOCL education program.

Monday October 19th – Trash Cleanup
9-11am: Trash cleanup at the Lagoon. Every week, every Monday, a bunch of trash.

Wednesday October 21st – TIDE Excursion to support the MPA’s
4-9pm: The Ocean needs your help. Last chance to get your voice heard for protecting the SoCal coastal waters. Contact Whitney Graves at whitneygraves@gmail.com for info.

Wednesday October 21st - Farmers Market???
3-7pm: No idea.

Thursday October 22nd – 350.org Preparty at the Pike Prep (wow)
Daytime: We are prepartying and we need help setting up the space. Contact Jen for how to help: jenbrownstar@yahoo.com

Thursday October 22nd – 350.org PreParty at the Pike
5-9pm: Come on down and rally with us before we plant a whole buncha plants!! There will be art, music, snackers, maybe some poetry and examples of the plants that will be planted.

Friday October 23rd – 350.org Planting Set-up
11am-1pm: We will be setting up the habitat for the big event!!!

Saturday October 24th – 350.org Event!!!!!!!!!!!
9am-5pm: The big day is here and we need help!

Saturday October 24th – Afterparty at the Pike
7pm-?? : Let’s get a drink together

Monday October 26th – Trash Cleanup
9-11am: Trash cleanup at the Lagoon. Every week, every Monday, a bunch of trash.

Junk (recyclable) mail

I can not believe the amount of junk mail that accumulated on my coffee table over the last 3 days. Not only do I not read it, I have to bring it to the recycling center. All the trees used to produce the paper, the gas to transport it, the ink to print it, and even the energy from recycling we waste for something so pointless?!?! Is there a way I can request to not receive these ads? Think of how much money, resources, and energy we would save if we no longer received ads in the mail. The worst part about it, is that we still need to take into consideration the people who do not recycle these papers, they end up in the landfill as if there is an endless amount of space on our planet for garbage.

Just think, something as simple as junk mail that you get can have such a large impact on our environment and our economy. As a society, we need to be much more aware of impacts on the environment Petroleum, coal, and natural gas are not endless resources. In fact, they are modeled to be completely depleted by the year 2030 (Toossi, 2009). That is only 21 years from now. Let's focus on conserving, and finding renewable sources.

Capitalism A Love Story

I can not wait to go see this movie, however, I do not know what to expect. I am afraid they will over exaggerate like they did on The Inconvenient Truth. I wonder if they exaggerate because they don't think people will believe the message they are trying to get across. Sometimes it just feels like when these movies are over-dramatic it makes the message not credible. In order to keep credibility, you need to present the message in an non-bias way by providing data and evidence. Still stoked to see the movie though!! ^_^