Me and my big mouth. What sounded like a good snarky response to the chat about the rapids were about to encounter on the south fork of the American River a couple weeks back turned out to be karmically prescient. Moments after this picture was taken we dropped the raft in the river and overturned near the top of the most brutal class 3 rapids of the day. There were no casualties other than the $200 shades (not mine!) worn by the guy at right. I lost a sandal and the hat I’d found in Thailand that had been rendered semi-famous in “The Laughing Planet”.

For my efforts to be a wiseguy, I also got thrashed by the shallow rocks worse than anyone in the raft.

Sure, there were no wild orangutans swinging overhead. But as you’ll see from these pix, there is some lovely scenery (and few people) in the remote Sierra Nevada in northern California. And even some fat wild woodchucks!

Teach your children, indeed. We here at TLP are trying, David!

This is actually part 2 of a photo essay I have created to document the status of land granted to the local disc golf community several months ago. Since that time, disputes have arisen about the land which was deemed protected riparian habitat in the early 80s.

My aim is to end the stalemate which has pitted the city of Sacramento and its local disc golfers against the environmentalists who have stopped the course from opening at the 11th hour and are threatening legal action. The following is the last paragraph of a document drafted by the people working to enforce high levels of protection for the area- (emphasis mine)

If citizens want to influence government decision-making, they must become technically credible, cognizant of bureaucratic and political pressure points, and skilled at the art of compromise. They must grasp the laws and policies governing their situation, and determine the link between what is desirable and what is possible. They must define their cause in specific terms and use the media to rally support. If a “policy gap” exists that impedes their progress, they must participate in the policy-making arena to fill the void. They must work until their vision becomes an institutionalized part of government’s operation. Finally, they must persevere to ensure that their gains are not eroded by political whim or lost via decay of institutional memory.

There is much more below the fold. Follow along if you want to see more photos, learn, or get involved.

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Yup, that was once the intro to the film “Tropic Thunder,” which has irked many to the point of boycott. Today’s NY Times has an article describing the complaints.

“Tropic Thunder,” which cost more than $90 million to make and tens of millions more to market, is set to open on Wednesday. Representatives of the Special Olympics, the National Down Syndrome Congress and the American Association of People With Disabilities are among those that said they would picket the movie, beginning with a screening Monday in Los Angeles.

DreamWorks amended some marketing materials in response to complaints and removed a Web site that contained the tag line “Once there was a retard,” but it declined to change the film.

Guess TLP isn’t the only movie to toe the line this year. Sounds like more than a few people have begun to speak up about humor tangeting sensitive issues. “The Love Guru” was another comedy to draw ire from the PC crowd as it was said to be disrespectful toward Hindus.

Glad that we at “The Laughing Planet” gave heed to the advice of some in our screening audience who suggesting toning down the level of audacious humor in the interest of harmony. We want the Buddhist and Muslim crowd to laugh with us, not declare a Fatwa against us.

Did you know that bees could hold the future of mankind in their, uh…hands? Due in part to Varroa mites, which cause pre-natal disease in the hive, bees have taken a bee-ting over recent years. But more recent evidence shows the real culprit is more likely the wonderful world of technology which has given us neonicotinoids, a nefarious “advancement” which seems to have caused the bees to become “F”s. It makes them dumb. The really stupid thing is the fact that Americans are using this bee-deviling scourge despite the fact that it’s already been banned in places like France – in 1992- sure enuf, cuz it kills bees.

Here in Sacramento there was recently a story (yeah, the local newspaper is The Bee) about a “truckload of bees” overturning and losing its entire buzzing payload. Although I smirked at the idea of “free bees/freebies”, the story got me thinking, Are we actually carting semi trucks full of bees from Washington state to southern California? I mean, WTF?

And before you go guffawing about how this sounds ridiculous, here are a few local sites to get/keep you up to speed-

• www.countryrubes.com
• www.sacbeekeepers.org
• www.californiastatebeekeepers.com

A recent article in the local progressive newspaper Because People Matter explains that the solution to the declining wild bee populations might be DIY!

For a couple of years, Janet applied the commonly used Apistan strips, which can be placed in the hive during non-honey-flow times, to control mites. However, she noticed that mites were becoming resistant to the treatment. Not willing to adopt stronger chemicals, Janet actively sought out other options by surfing the Internet…replacing the hives’ solid bottom boards with screened boards, combined with periodic dusting of the brood combs with powdered sugar to knock the mites down and out of the hive kept these pests to a tolerable level.

In 10 short years Janet Brisson has gone from beginner to mentor on how to keep bees without pesticides & provides a good model of what each of us can do to help address the bees – and other environmental- crises.

Bee a leader in your community! Don’t bee caught with a limp pistil! Add beekeeping to your Honeydo list today!

Thanks to GoodGirlRoxie for the tip as well as her lovely post on this topic.