Anna and I have had a late start to our summer snorkeling, but are trying to make up for that now. Part of the reason for the late start was that last year was depressing. The red tide made for horrible conditions. This year the water temp has been at or below 70F, bit of a change from where it was earlier in the summer, but the water has also been fairly clear (10-30 foot plus at times). La Jolla Shores has been especially clear with a lot of rays, but we haven’t seen any sharks yet. I’ve heard they are there though, in the usual spot (off the Marine Room), we’ve just been unlucky I guess. We will be trying to see some this afternoon.

La Jolla Cove and the Caves have been full of garibaldi, kelp bass, and the little sardine looking guys. The garibaldi seem to be hovering around the rocks, chasing off other fish – probably protecting the juveniles. I managed to spot some of the less common life, stuff like eels and kelp fish, but they require a lot of time on the bottom to pinpoint. This seems to be the year of the lobster, I don’t remember ever seeing so many of them in the rocks. They are literally fighting for rock spots with each other. It is a great time to snorkel, just watch out for the tourist kayakers, they are like snorkel hunters.

Update: Anna and I snorkeled from 4 to 5 PM on the south end of La Jolla shores. The surf was rough, but the water was still up to 15′ visibility in certain areas. We finally got a good glimpse of the sharks. There were quite a few leopards sharks in the shallows, but they also seemed to be spread out at all depths. I saw one small blue shark (maybe soupfin), and a whole lot of smoothhound sharks, and guitarfish near the south edge of the swim zone buoys. The leopards seem to be pretty skittish, but I was able to get pretty close to the smaller smoothhounds. There were also a lot of schools of fish – zebra stripes, opal eye, etc. Get snorkeling!

David discovered the burn of Br Bronners, and I’ve finally found a hookup on Blenheim’s Ginger Ale in San Diego. Turns out, it was right under my nose. Grant’s Marketplace in Southpark has a great selection of beer, wine, soda, and produce/drygoods. We popped in to pick up some baguettes to make some blt’s with our killer tomatoes.

That’s where I spied my chemical abuser – Blenheims Ginger Ale with a red top. The red top means it is ‘regular’, which means burn your face off spicy. If you don’t drink it carefully, it will hulk-smash your sinuses and leave you wheezing. If that doesn’t sound like fun they also carry the Blenheim’s Not As Hot, with the gold cap. Still spicy, but not molten. Highly recommended.

Info on Grant’s Market Place
Info on Blenheims

We had a lot of fun at the Golden Hill Block Party last year. It will be back October 28th, and we can’t wait. Luckily, there is another event from the same folks to tide us over – Session Fest! It will take place on Saturday, August 26th in Golden Hill Park. Bands playing include Fifty on Their Heels, Society!, The Sess, The Boyish Charms, MC Flow, and Jezebel and the New Collapse. It is free, all ages, and I’ve heard rumors of free ice-cream. Sounds like the perfect excuse for a picnic to me.

Update: Sessions Fest was great!

Photos can be found here: 2006.08.26 Sessions Fest at Golden Hill Park

This article at the NYTimes was a really good read: So Big and Healthy Grandpa Wouldn’t Even Know You. This will probably be behind a pay wall soon, so I’ll snip some of the text:

Over the past 100 years, says one researcher, Robert W. Fogel of the University of Chicago, humans in the industrialized world have undergone “a form of evolution that is unique not only to humankind, but unique among the 7,000 or so generations of humans who have ever inhabited the earth.”

The difference does not involve changes in genes, as far as is known, but changes in the human form. It shows up in several ways, from those that are well known and almost taken for granted, like greater heights and longer lives, to ones that are emerging only from comparisons of health records.

The biggest surprise emerging from the new studies is that many chronic ailments like heart disease, lung disease and arthritis are occurring an average of 10 to 25 years later than they used to. There is also less disability among older people today, according to a federal study that directly measures it. And that is not just because medical treatments like cataract surgery keep people functioning. Human bodies are simply not breaking down the way they did before.

Even the human mind seems improved. The average I.Q. has been increasing for decades, and at least one study found that a person’s chances of having dementia in old age appeared to have fallen in recent years.

The proposed reasons are as unexpected as the changes themselves. Improved medical care is only part of the explanation; studies suggest that the effects seem to have been set in motion by events early in life, even in the womb, that show up in middle and old age.

“What happens before the age of 2 has a permanent, lasting effect on your health, and that includes aging,” said Dr. David J. P. Barker, a professor of medicine at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland and a professor of epidemiology at the University of Southampton in England.

It is worth reading the full article, they go through some eye opening examples of life before modern nutrition and medicine.

One wonders how many other influences are in play. I’m particularly curious to see if they have looked into epigenetic trends here as well. What the hell is epigenetics? From Ghost in the Genes, BBC’s excellent Horizon show on epigenetics:

Biology stands on the brink of a shift in the understanding of inheritance. The discovery of epigenetics – hidden influences upon the genes – could affect every aspect of our lives. At the heart of this new field is a simple but contentious idea – that genes have a ‘memory’. That the lives of your grandparents – the air they breathed, the food they ate, even the things they saw – can directly affect you, decades later, despite your never experiencing these things yourself. And that what you do in your lifetime could in turn affect your grandchildren.

Of course, we seem to be discovering new things all the time: Scientists Say They’ve Found a Code Beyond Genetics in DNA. This opens up more questions – How many more influences on our health have we not yet discovered?