Wanna go to China? Forget digging a hole - start swimming.

In the marathon event of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, athletes will bunch tightly together, refuel at various points, make a break for the finish line...and then climb onto dry land and take off their goggles. Marathon swimming—the term for a 10-kilometer, open-water race—is making its Olympic debut, and supporters hope it can grab as much attention as that other kind of marathon.

Open water swimming even gave converted burned out pool swimmer Mark Warkentin a new splash in his career.

About a year ago, his coach suggested he try a local open-water race. He won. Re-energized, he trained hard and this fall won the USA Swimming Open Water World Championships Trials. That got him a ticket to the World Champs in Seville, Spain, in the spring.

Wanna swim for fun in the big water - or start a new olympic career - then do the click stroke here.

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Just before he gets in the sled, he rides the curls. 

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My favorite rock star - In Bali, Indonesia -

Al Gore delivered his message with the blistering quality of a Bobby Hull slapshot and it was aimed at an unmistakable target.

The former U.S. vice-president did not mention any country by name Thursday when he exhorted a UN conference to drop the United States and make progress without it toward a new climate treaty.

Regardless of your political stripe, we must admit Gore has been on the mark. Gore wants us to stop idling our cars and play hockey!?!

That's when Gore started talking hockey.

The reference to Bobby Hull and Wayne Gretzky may have puzzled delegates from such hockey-free nations as Tuvalu, Togo and Trinidad, but it was obvious to the Canadians in the audience.

"One of the most famous ice-hockey players in history was asked the secret of why he was so good," Gore said.

"He was the best passer in the history of the game, Bobby Hull. Others might disagree (and say) Wayne Gretzky."

"And he said in response to the question: 'I don't pass the puck to where they are - I pass the puck to where they're going to be'."

"Over the next two years, the United States is going to be somewhere it is not now. You must anticipate that."

Run, Al, Run. 

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Overcoming all your fears down Alaska's Peak 7601. 

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A Canadian retail giant is fighting the nasty bisphenol A monster. 

Mountain Equipment Co-op, the country's largest specialty outdoor-goods retailer, says it has pulled most food and beverage containers made of polycarbonate plastic from its shelves, citing concern over possible health risks.

The Vancouver-based firm been one of the largest sellers of such products as polycarbonate Nalgene water bottles, and probably has done more than any retailer to make the distinctive, brightly coloured containers an iconic product everywhere from backcountry campsites to urban offices and university campuses.

The retailer didn't issue a public announcement that it removed the containers, but made a decision to take action Monday and instructed staff to cart polycarbonate products out of stores Wednesday.

The plastic in question is made mostly from bisphenol A, which mimics estrogen and is derived from petrochemicals.

Then of course we have the manufacturer's ho-hum and obligatory statement of denial.

A spokesman for Nalgene's manufacturer, Nalge Nunc International Corp. of Rochester, N.Y., said it believes Mountain Equipment is the first major retailer in North America to pull its polycarbonate bottles based on health worries.

“From our perspective, it's certainly unfortunate because we feel there is a body of evidence” supporting the safety of the product, Eric Hanson said.

And the Canadian enviros are even whistling a northern version of Dixie.

Environmental Defence, a Toronto group that has been lobbying Health Canada to ban bisphenol A from food and beverage uses, praised the retailer and said other companies should follow its lead.

“The fact that a retailer of this size, dealing in this volume of polycarbonate products, would make this decision should be a real wake-up call to other retailers,” Richard Smith, executive director of the group, said.

Film at 11.

Oh, Canada, good move. 

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Something about Star Trek that brings the message of water home.

The video mixes "The Edge Of The Ocean" by Ivy with clips of the Star Trek Voyager series - as the crew visits an earth like planet after being in space for years.

There's a place I dream about
Where the sun never goes out.
And the sky is deep and blue.
Won't you take me there with you.

Ohhh, we can begin again.
Shed our skin, let the sun shine in.
At the edge of the ocean
We can start over again.

Q: If earth was taken away from you - especially the ocean - would you miss it? WOULD YOU MISS IT?

If the answer is yes, then take care of the one we got - earth and ocean. 

I love Ivy, Janeway, Jean Luc Picard, Spock, James Tiberius Kirk, Mother Earth and the ocean.

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This is not funny - this is sick.

Residents of Gambrills, Maryland whose drinking water wells are polluted with toxic chemicals today filed a class action lawsuit against the state's largest power company Constellation Power Source Generation, Inc.

The state already recognizes that 34 residential wells have been polluted by two nearby sites in Anne Arundel County where Constellation dumped fly ash, a residue of coal combustion. Fly ash contains trace concentrations of many heavy metals that are known to have adverse health effects.

Constellation began filling old sand and gravel pits owned by BBSS Inc. with fly ash from the Brandon Shores and Wagner coal-fired power plants in 1995.

By 1999 monitoring wells detected signs of contamination in groundwater. To date Constellation has dumped 3.8 million tons of fly ash in the Waugh Chapel and Turner pits. The company stopped dumping there in September 2007.

The class action lawsuit, filed in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, alleges that Constellation has known that hazardous substances linked to cancer and other serious health effects have been leaking into groundwater from the Waugh Chapel and Turner Pit dump sites in Gambrills since 1999, but that residents received no warning of the discharges into the local aquifer from the defendant.

Not good for the residents of Gambrills. Lost health and lost property values.

"Constellation seems to think these neighbors should be able to get by on bottled water and garden hoses hooked up to fire hydrants, while they constantly worry over their health and watch their property values plummet," Curry said.

The power company knew about the issue for 8 years - and said nothing.

"I'm terrified of what might happen to me after drinking that well water all these years," said Gayle Queen of Gambrills who is one of the victims. "I'm afraid to even wash with our well water because of what's in there. My house is for sale and nobody will buy it like this. I can't believe they knew the dump was leaking eight years ago but nobody came to tell me."

Constellation Power - Those corporate hacks. The company's top brass should be made to drink the toxic soup.

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Save the stuffing for the bird.

Before you try shredding that turkey neck in the garbage disposal Thursday, consider the $250 bill the plumber will hand you for the Thanksgiving Day service call.

Thanksgiving and the day after are among the busiest and most profitable days of the year for plumbers, when holiday revelers tend to ascribe more good will to their kitchen sinks and toilets than good sense should allow.

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So whats to worry about in bone dry Arizona, when you can suck millions of gallons of precious water from beneath the surface of the planet, just to go surfing? 

Call me lame, but isn't WAVEYARD exactly NOT the type of H2O heavy development you need in already parched Arizona?

By tapping rivers and sucking water from deep underground, developers have covered Arizona with carpets of Bermuda grass and dotted the parched landscape with swimming pools, golf courses and lakeshore homes.

Now another ambitious project is in the works: A massive new water park that would offer surf-sized waves, snorkeling, scuba diving and kayaking — all in a bone-dry region that gets just 8 inches of rain a year.

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The home movie and reality effect of this Daytona Beach surf movie is kewl. Watch the whole thing. 

I love Florida. 

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