The Mini Token Blog

"Whether you boat on fresh water or on the ocean, there is a lot of marine life to observe and appreciate. We boat in the Pacific Northwest off the west coast around the islands and straits of the Pacific Ocean. The sea life here is exceptional. Following are some of our wonderful experiences."

One of the most powerful sights is that of large pods of Orca whales, or Killer whales as they are often referred to, as they migrate off the coast. Sometimes there can be several in these pods including mother whales and their babies. Orca whales are quite beautiful to see. Their black and white bodies glisten in the sunlight each time they appear near the water surface or do a breach jump. Usually the babies follow their mothers. It is quite possible to watch them for hours without getting tired.

Boaters must be careful and remain a respectable distance from the whales, as most whales are endangered. You do not want to interfere with their normal migration routes and movements. It is possible to see Orca whales up close in captivity, and they are splendid animals. But when you can actually see them in their normal environment in the ocean, it is magnificent. How fortunate we are to be able to go boating for a few days and have them entertain us along the way.

Another sea mammal that I always enjoy watching is the dolphin or the porpoise. They too can be found off the west coast. These mammals are so sleek and they can swim at very fast speeds. As they jump and slice through the surface of the water they are quite entertaining. Most people have seen dolphins in action at the various aquariums around the world. Well they do the same in the wild. They make me laugh. I think that they actually enjoy an audience!

Living in the Pacific North West, we are very aware of the salmon industry. When boating, there are many small fishing boats out with their nets during the fisheries openings for the various kinds of salmon. It is fun to watch them jump. Seals are also very good fishermen. You can be sure that when the salmon are plentiful around the mouths of the large rivers, you will see a lot of seals. They love to fish for salmon, much to the chagrin of the commercial fishermen. They can be seen swimming through the waters, or sunning themselves on large logs or rocky outcroppings along the shoreline. The bark of a seal is loud and comical to hear and they are another creature that can entertain west coast boaters.

When the salmon are running, you will find another fisherman, one with wings. There are many Bald Eagles on the west coast and they also enjoy a good salmon dinner. These are very majestic birds. Their soaring overhead is something to be marveled at. The black and white features really stand out against the sky as they glide and then swoop down for a fish.

Sea otters can sometimes be seen around large beds of kelp. In particular I have seen many when boating in our Bayliner, off the coastline from British Columbia to California. These sea creatures are very timid, so you must give them space. They love to float on their backs and eat sea urchins or play in the water, rolling over and over. Often you can see them playing in pairs. Sea otters are my husband’s favorite sea mammals. He loves to watch them play. They really are very cute. If you have watched them, I’m sure you will agree.

As well as these mammals, the coast offers wonderful creatures that attached themselves to the rocks and driftwood or coral. Sea anemones are absolutely beautiful, as are the many colored starfish. Anenomes are found in white, pale green and soft pinks with large fluffy plumes. Starfish are found in ranges of bright orange to deep purple. They can be very tiny and fragile or very large. Some measure several inches across. Sea cucumbers, barnacles, sand dollars, oysters, mussels and crabs are all found along the coastline. I love to walk on docks at marinas when the tide is out and see some of these shell fish in tiny pools of water. You can often get up quite close to see them better.

All in all we are very fortunate in this area to be able to see so many creatures. Many of which are not seen by most people around the world. They enhance our environment and our boating experiences. It is important that we remember to respect all of these creatures in their natural environments, so as not to interfere with nature’s course.

About the Author

Valerie Giles owns and operates Boats, Anchors and More http://www.boats-anchors-and-more.com a boating resource site featuring boat accessories, fishing lure manufacturers and inflatable boats. Everything you need for the boating season. The accompanying article is copyrighted. It may be reproduced only if the hyperlinks here are left intact.

It’s the holiday shopping season, and Grinning Planet would like to point out that the holiday phrase “Ho, ho, ho!” also relates to being green–it’s the Jolly Green Giant’s tagline. Well, OK, that doesn’t exactly get us to the “eco-friendly” meaning of being green. But when shopping for holiday gifts, there are a number of ways we can be environmentally friendly.

All manufactured items, including gifts, require material and energy to be produced, and production and transportation of the items results in some level of pollution. Here are a couple of ways to make sure those resources aren’t a waste:

1) Useful Gifts — One of the best ways to ensure the resources related to your gift don’t get wasted is to make sure your gift doesn’t end up gathering dust in a closet. While “surprises” can be nice, giving someone a gift out of the blue without any clue whether they’ll truly like it or use it may get you one of those half-hearted “Um, oh, cool, thanks” responses. A different approach is to ask your giftees for wish lists, which works especially well within families, where social protocols and rituals can be more easily adjusted. This lessens the surprise factor but guarantees that you’re giving a gift that the person will use.

2) Drawing Names — As families and circles of friends grow, the number of gifts being exchanged can increase rapidly. Rather than each person within a group giving a gift to every other member of the group, names can be drawn so that each person gives gifts to only one or two people. This reduces the overall amount of resources related to presents and will reduce your holiday stress level. It may be too late this year to implement such a strategy, but if you’d like to try it next year, suggesting the change to your family/friends just after this holiday season will give people time to think about it and adjust to the idea.

Regardless of how you arrange your gift giving, choosing environmentally friendly products will be better for the planet than buying everyone an economy sized bottle of cloying cologne or some other non-green item. When looking at items claiming to be green, the US Federal Trade Commission advises that shoppers look for quantitative or specific claims, rather than general claims like “green,” “eco-friendly,” or “environmentally safe,” which are open to interpretation. Better descriptions are things like “made from organic cotton,” “made from 50% recycled materials,” or “manufactured without animal testing.”

Here are a few categories of gifts that would be more eco-friendly than some others:

1) Organic — A gift basket of food is a typical holiday gift that’s even better if at least part of the basket is filled with organic yummies. If you know someone who is a coffee lover, they will flip over the bag of organic gourmet coffee you give them. Organic flowers are available, as are flower arrangements that are not organic but whose growers minimize their use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Organic cotton clothing and bedding are also making rapid gains in popularity.
2) Fair trade — Buying fair-trade items–items typically made by indigenous peoples–often helps the creators sustain themselves without resorting to environmentally unwise practices such as clearcutting forests. Whether it’s art, coffee, chocolate, soaps, or carpets, buying items labeled “fair trade” lets you avoid purchasing gifts that were produced by companies that use exploitative labor practices.

3) Recycled — These days, lots of things are made out of recycled materials–from works of art to clothing. A great holiday gift might be some of the very cool clothes they now make from recycled cotton. Some eco-friendly clothing even includes 50% fibers from recycled plastic bottles.

4) Honorary Gifts — How much stuff does anyone really need? Once we reach a certain age, getting more “stuff” is as much a storage problem as anything else. Donating money to a person’s favorite charity or cause in their name is a nice substitute.
To some extent, a nice holiday get-together with family and friends, full of good cheer and warm conversation, is as good a gift as many of us really need. But for the instances where a gift is appropriate, here’s a good starting point for your eco-friendly shopping: Grinning Planet’s Green Products and Services page ( http://www.grinningplanet.com/5005/green-products-services.htm ).

(Disclaimer: Grinning Planet does not receive any commission from the companies listed on the Green Products and Services page.)

Finally, we’d like to put in a word for our dear departed Uncle Freeman. When cash got short, he still never skimped on the Christmas gifts–he just sent them C.O.D.

For jokes, cartoons, and more great environmental information, visit http://www.grinningplanet.com .

© 2003 by GrinningPlanet.com
You have permission to publish this article electronically or in
print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. Must
be published complete with no changes. A courtesy copy of your
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About the Author

Mark is a writer, financial analyst, web developer, environmentalist, and, as necessary, chef and janitor. Grinning Planet is an expression of Mark’s enthusiasm for all things humorous and green, as well as a psychotic desire to work himself half-to-death. Hobbies include health foods, music, getting frustrated over politics, and occasionally lecturing the TV set on how uncreative it is.

Does the word “pollution” evoke a passive response from you? I am embarrassed to say that before this article, “pollution” was an impotent word further weakened by its necessity - we depend on engines of all shapes and sizes to function in modern society.

After completion of research, “pollution” now elicits a bittersweet awareness, as it legions an invigorated ominous significance.

Every day of our lives, we obliviously inhale poisonous substances into our lungs - poisonous entities with devastating long term and/or immediate life-threatening affects.

The process of burning gasoline or diesel in our engines produces:

Toxic gases known as carbon monoxide
Poisonous nitrogen oxides, a main source of urban smog
Lethal unburned hydrocarbons, a main source of urban ozone

How toxic is carbon monoxide?

Gasoline and diesel, mostly carbon by weight, equate to 5-6 pounds (2.5 kg) of carbon per gallon. The U.S. alone releases approximately 2 billion pounds of carbon into the environment each day, and as it burns, it turns into massive amounts of invisible carbon monoxide gas.

If carbon monoxide released were solid carbon, it would be infamously noticeable, likened to throwing a 5-pound bag of dry cement out the window for every gallon of fuel burned. In the US, that would be equivalent to 333 million bags of dry cement spewed daily onto our roads and into our environment.

When we breathe carbon monoxide, the carbon molecules attach to our hemoglobin, taking up all the oxygen binding locations that are used to release oxygen to our lungs and other tissues in our body. With excessive exposure, our blood loses its ability to transport oxygen, thus inevitable death by suffocation.

How lethal is smog and ozone?

Nitrogen oxides and unburned hydrocarbons are main sources for smog and ozone. Ozone an “unfriendly” pollutant at ground level, is caused by the reaction between engine exhaust and light.

Inflammation and abnormal accumulation of fluid in our lungs, instigated by both smog and ozone, aggravates the effects of asthma and other respiratory problems. As repeated ozone exposure further desecrates our lungs, it becomes more difficult to breathe, and our bodies increasingly labor to extract oxygen. Years later, we can still experience tiredness resulting from the damage done to our lungs.

In addition, the corrosive nature of ozone damages foliage, including agricultural crops and forest vegetation, sources of oxygen for our environment.

But, what can we do? Engines are part of our daily lives.

Time for an emergency call to our Angel of Mercy, the Fuel Doctor!

The Fuel Doctor says help is available. Ironically, we can do something to alleviate these toxic, poisonous, and lethal effects with very little effort - something that will result in longevity, not only for ourselves, but also the earth and future generations of inhabitants — our children and grandchildren.

A small pill, the size of a penny, simply popped into the tank at each fill up, produces healthy detoxifying results. Independent tests showed that this little pill:

Reduced toxic carbon monoxide emissions by 78%
Reduced poisonous nitrogen oxides by 73% (main source of urban smog)
Reduced lethal unburned hydrocarbons by 24% (main source of urban ozone)

The Fuel Doctor highly recommends immediate proactive usage.

Known as the UBiee Power Pill, it guarantees to reduce identified toxic emissions, along with an added benefit of increased fuel economy and reduced maintenance costs - a welcome relief for soaring record high fuel prices.

**Attn Ezine editors / Site owners **
Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site so long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content and include the resource box as listed above.

About the Author

Dee Scrip is a well known and respected published expert author of numerous articles on PowerPill Fe3, Fuel Economy, Home Business, Business Opportunities, Fundraising, VoIP, VoIP Security, and other related VoIP issues.
http://www.free-pc-phone.com
http://www.thefueldoctor.com

The door and hallway is considered the mouth and throat of the home in feng shui, the ancient Chinese art of furniture placement and energy flow, so if yours is cluttered up with junk, your home is basically choking and you will feel depressed or uncomfortable living there. Appraise the area from a neutral viewpoint. Walk out of your front door and in again as though seeing how your hallway looks for the first time.

Porches and doors
If you have a porch, sort this area out. If you keep walking shoes and boots here, install a neat shoe rack to keep them tidy. Store any discarded sports equipment neatly in a shed, a cupboard under the stairs or in the room of the owner. Throw out or give away anything that is no longer used. Sweep out and leave the door open for a while to cleanse the area of any stagnancy. Look at the front door and paint it with the colour of its energising Chinese element. If it faces north, paint it white, for south paint it green, for west and northwest paint it yellow, for east and southeast paint it blue, for northeast and southwest paint it red. Position tubs of winter flowering plants either side of the door so that they welcome people in.

The hallway
Clear out all the clutter in the hallway and, if necessary, install a good coat stand or cupboard for all the family’s coat, jackets and umbrellas. A lot of hallways are very narrow so place a mirror on a side wall to expand the space. Never place a mirror opposite the front door, however, as it bounces the energy straight out again. Think about having a side table under the mirror with a letter rack or tray for your post and a key holder to store keys. Place fresh flowers there or an attractive evergreen floral arrangement for the festive season. If the hall (and porch) needs painting, paint it a shade of the front door’s colour to draw more yang (positive) energy into your home. Make sure you have good lighting, the brighter the better to improve the energy flow. Lastly look at the art (or lack of it) on the walls and add some inspiring posters, landscapes or abstract pictures that reflect your personality. Avoid anything that depicts sadness, poverty or something that is hard work e.g. people climbing mountains as these symbols may start to reflect in your life. Clean any rugs and polish floors and you are about ready for visitors.

Misting the atmosphere with lavender essential oil (put 5 or 6 drops in a plant mister half filled with water) will lift the ambience and leave a wonderful fragrant aroma. Mist regularly during the Christmas season and see the beneficial effects on your guests.

About the Author

Mary Lambert is an experienced feng shui and decluttering consultant and can be contacted on www.marylambertfengshui.com

A Flame-Ionization Detector (FID) measures real-time concentrations of organic vapors in low levels from parts-per-billion (ppb) up to 50,000 parts-per-million (ppm). A FID is a very sensitive instrument used in a wide variety of applications such as:

*Hazardous waste sites

*Clean-up of spills

*Protecting workers from toxic vapors

*Refineries

*Leak detection for compliance

*Pulp and paper plants

*Hazardous materials response

*Terrorist chemical attacks

How Does an FID Work?

FIDs, like PIDs, are ionization detectors. The difference between them is the way ions are produced. In our “introduction to PIDs” section you learned that PIDs use high energy Ultra Violet light to ionize molecules. FIDs do not use ultra violet light, instead the compounds in the sample stream are burned in a hydrogen fueled-flame. The hydrogen flame can ionize any organic material with an ionization potential (IP) of 15.4 or less. Like the PID, ions formed in the sample stream are driven in one direction by a bias electrode and accumulated at a collecting electrode. The ion current is then amplified and converted to a meter readout (analog or digital, depending on the model FID) in parts-per-million.

view a diagram

When to Use an FID

FID’s just like PID’s are primarily screening devices. They will detect any volatile organic compound (VOC) with an Ionization Potential below 15.4 eV. Simply put, a FID tells you that something is there, never what it is (besides that it is a VOC), and only sometimes how much. For example, the standard calibration for a FID is 100ppm Isobutylene, if isobutylene is the VOC in the air the ppm reading on the instrument is an accurate representation of how much Isobutylene is present. However, if there is or can be other VOC’s in the air, you can only be certain that something is there, not what or how much. Sometimes FID’s can be calibrated to other gases, like Methane. Some FID’s contain built in correction factors that allow the instrument to be calibrated to Isobutylene but have the reading adjusted for other gases.

PID or FID?

PID’s are susceptible to humidity and cannot detect VOC’s with an ionization potential above 11.8 eV. FID’s are not susceptible to humidity and can detect VOC’s up to 15.4 eV. FID’s are desirable in situations of high humidity, or when detecting gases with high ionization potentials like Methane. This comes at the cost of having to have a not only a battery, but a Hydrogen cylinder to fuel the flame.