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Here’s your chance to take a fun and insightful Facebook quiz, protect tropical rain forests and possibly score some free green tea!

In honor of Hot Tea Month, Celestial Seasonings has started a new philanthropic program to help protect the rain forest. When you take the Facebook quiz called PossibiliTEAS, they donate $1 to Conservation International’s “Protect an Acre” program. They’re willing to donate up to $50,000. Considering that just $15 protects one acre of tropical forests, that could make a big impact.

I just took the simple five-question quiz and found that I’m most like the Phoenix, which possesses the spirit of grace. The Phoenix decorates the box of Decaf Mint Green Tea from Celestial Seasonings. That’s very appropriate for me, a decaf everything drinker! Here’s a quote from my quiz results:

Considered a harbinger of peace and prosperity to come, the PHOENIX reassures us that much satisfaction can be achieved through patience and grace. Throughout your life, you’ve been able to see what really matters in every situation and carry on without stress and strife. Your positive attitude is enduring and you will not allow your feathers to be ruffled.

The PossibiliTEAS quiz looks at your qualities, values and interests together and assigns you with one of nine symbolic Asian characters. The characters are on the boxes of the nine new Celestial Seasonings green tea varieties.

While supplies last, Celestial Seasonings is offering a free sample of their Authentic Green Tea to people who take their quiz. That means a score for you and the environment.

If you’re not a fan of green tea you’ve had in the past, try one of the new teas from Celestial Seasonings. They’ve infused their green tea with delicate white tea for a smoother taste. Read my review of the non-bitter green teas.

(Image via Celestial Seasonings)

Post from: Blisstree

Celebrate Hot Tea Month & Protect Forests

Proposal hurts middle-class public employees

I don’t agree with the values in the McKenna, Reed, Hewitt and Debolt commentary [“Produce a budget that reflects our values,” Opinion, Jan. 6].

The authors suggest cutting public employees’ salaries and health benefits to balance the budget. But most public employees are middle-class wage earners. Why always balance the budget at the expense of the middle class?

The authors want to privatize the sale of liquor and workman’s compensation insurance so big companies can reap huge profits from something that should be serving the interest of the public. The mantras of “choice” and “competition” sound good, but in the end they just raise the price for the public and enrich the fat cats.

Not once do the authors mention that people earning in excess of $250,000 in net annual income get a free ride in Washington state. Washington is one of the few states in the union without an income tax or substantial mining or oil revenues, so people with high incomes in Washington ride for free. Protecting this free ride for the rich is the hidden “value” that the authors of this commentary don’t want to talk about.

The authors’ budget-balancing “values” are all about sending profits to businesses, letting the rich get off tax free, and making cuts that hurt the middle class and the poor.

— Isabel D’Ambrosia, Seattle

Solution is not consistent with shared values

The state Republican delegation’s “solutions” for balancing the state budget — touted as “protecting Washington’s values” — borders on the ridiculous. Is it consistent with our shared values to allow every neighborhood mom-and-pop store to sell liquor 24/7? The public-safety issues created would quickly outweigh the additional revenue.

As a K-12 teacher (one of those state employees they refer to), I do not welcome forced pay cuts and increases to my medical costs as a solution to the state budget crisis. Nor do I think that injured workers who rely on workman’s compensation should bear an additional burden, as the Republican leadership suggests. No employment group should be singled out to shoulder this fiscal crisis under political pressure to “save their jobs.”

The most equitable way to solve this problem is to spread the pain, i.e., the cost of maintaining state services, as widely as possible. As an alternative, something like a temporary state surtax on above-poverty-level wage-earning households could work. No one would lose their job, medical services, fire and police protection, state parks and recreation areas, or teachers and programs in their local schools.

If selling more liquor, reducing compensation for injured workers, and reducing public employees salaries and benefits are the best and brightest solutions the Republicans have in this crisis, they deserve to be the minority party in the Legislature.

— Ann Grahn-Morgan, Everett

Nickels’ swan song

Editor, The Times:

Your recent article provided much insight into why Mayor Greg Nickels did not win re-election [“Outgoing Mayor Greg Nickels leaves stamp on Seattle,” News, Jan. 1].

However, it did not mention the No. 1 reason why he lost: The handling of the monorail. Had he saved the monorail — or even a scaled-down version of the monorail, which he could have easily done — then he would not have faced meaningful opposition from the left.

The Stranger would have supported his re-election — along with more moderate publications, such as The Seattle Times. He would have easily advanced from the primary and even more easily have beaten whatever candidate advanced with him.

— Ross Bleakney, Seattle

Dodd’s retirement

Sen. Chris Dodd’s signal that he’s not going to seek re-election should be an ominous storm cloud on the horizon for the Democrats [“2 Dems might leave Senate: Dodd may announce today,” News, Jan. 6]. He knows in his heart he’d get slaughtered — even with his ability to raise money from the banking lobby because of how he’s wasted our children’s inheritance. There’s anger on the stump for liberals.

His support for the health-care bill, his lax oversight of the banking industry and his character clearly seen going back to an event with Ted Kennedy in a restaurant in New York — Maureen Dowd was the only one who couldn’t stand the cover-up at the time — show that the good people from Connecticut are due for a new approach.

Are the people of that fair state really as left as Dodd? I doubt it. Connecticut, do what’s right and unexpected: Field and elect a conservative.

— Wayne Mayo, Scappoose, Ore.

Recipient of abuse

When Craig Ladiser’s professional career ended in disgrace after he exposed himself on a Redmond golf course in June of 2009 [“Trail of harassment alleged,” NWWednesday, Jan. 6], he left the Snohomish County Building and Planning Department in disarray, broken and in pieces. What happened at the golf course was not an aberration, but an extension of Ladiser’s and Greg Morgan’s abuse of power and their lack of integrity, moral fiber and ethics.

My own complaint for harassment and bullying was also brought before Morgan and never answered or followed up in any manner. I did not go to Mark Knudsen, the county investigator, because I felt it was futile and useless. When I announced last February that I would leave the county rather than work “for bullies and widget kings,” I was retaliated against and given a formal written reprimand.

Many people in positions of power, including the County Council, knew of the grievances and concerns regarding Ladiser and Morgan, but continued their support for them. Even when Morgan left in May and Ladiser was fired in August and the bullying and harassment against me abruptly stopped, the people and cronies Ladiser had put into positions of power and authority remained completely intact in their “good ol’ boys network.” After more than 31 years and many hard-fought battles, I left the county last October.

— Carol Richter, Lake Stevens

Department follows rule of the jungle

One should not heap more misery on a disgraced public official, but the latest revelations in the sorry saga of Craig Ladiser are only further evidence of the abuses in the Snohomish County executive branch and its planning and development services department when operating without proper oversight.

Those of us who have watched with dismay the outrageous public-policy decisions of that office are only further saddened to see that personal indiscretions were also tolerated. The county executive has for years encouraged the disregard of sound public policy set out by the Legislature, his County Council and its hearing examiner, and has been in favor of wealthy developers.

Let’s hope that the new director of that beleaguered department can convince the executive that following the rule of law is preferable to the rule of the jungle.

— Tim Clancy, Stanwood

Human resources should aim for zero complaints

After reading “Trail of harassment alleged,” I was amazed by the unprofessional and inappropriate behavior by certain managers and supervisors, as well as the seemingly general dismissal of the complaints made by employees by the Human Resources Department because there were too few to merit looking into further. Mind you, these complaints and concerns date back to 2004, according to the article.

I would think that HR would want to aim for zero complaints from employees regarding sexual harassment, derogatory remarks and what seems to me to be a hostile workplace environment propagated by the supervisors and managers of the Planning Department. Five out of 200 complaints are still too many. Do they really think that two hours of personnel training on state workplace-discrimination laws is going to do the trick?

— Melissa Johnson, Edmonds

Failed students a greater cost than the Early Learning Act

I, too, agree with comments by Michael Sheehan and Leslie Jordan regarding the need for the Early Learning Act [“Washington needs to pass an Early Learning Act,” Opinion, Dec. 28].

The core of both comments states that if we don’t fix the early learning gap we will continue to fail students. This is where class size is so important at the early level.

As far back as 1989, we had research to show that smaller class size at grades K-1-2 successfully enhanced the achievement of low-income and minority students. This shrank the achievement gap and led to reduced grade retentions, disciplinary actions, less dropouts, and got more college entrance-exams attempts.

Isn’t this exactly what we keep hearing about how education needs to improve in Washington state? More teachers and classrooms will cost a lot of money. But if we don’t take action at this end, increased school interventions, crime, incarceration, lower standards, poorer productivity and more failed students will cost us more.

— Jim Thompson, Kent

An answer to school boundaries

Perhaps it’s too late in the game, but the real solution to our boundary problem is to have no boundaries [“Seattle schools return to neighborhood-based system,” News, Nov. 19]. Journey with me back in time to, what was it, 2006? There is massive public outrage about school closures — such as the elementary school Sacajawea. Now fast-forward to 2010, where the school district is madly drawing boundaries and threatening to separate families to handle an overcapacity problem.

The fact is, neighborhoods and demographics change — one street has a bunch of newborns, another neighborhood has a bunch of graduating high-schoolers. We need to de-emphasize boundaries, turn them into big overlapping circles, insist that they’re indicative rather than prescriptive of where a student might attend, and promise all families that no matter where they’re assigned, their children won’t be wedged into different schools to handle a capacity issue.

Voilà! You have a system that’s flexible, gentle to families and communities, and fairly predictable. Those who still have a bone to pick when their mandatory assignment shows up, can do so on a personal level with the district.

— Courtenay Gebhardt, Seattle

Most people suffer from depression in some part of their lives. Almost everyday you can hear someone complaining about feeling down and depressed and it is pretty normal in today’s fast paced and stressed life. Depression has certainly become the 21st century plague. However, there are lots of confusions about what depression really is, the differences between clinical depression and the common old blues, and many types of depression that people may experience.

Depression is a serious –but common- mental illness that affects directly the way you live. It is true and actually sad that we use the same term –depressed- for two different things – a bad mood and a diagnosable illness. However, depression is far more than a prolonged bad mood or just feeling sad and down, it is a serious mental illness which needs treatment by professionals.

Depression can be triggered by an event like loss of a loved one, or a job, a divorce, family problems etc., but it can also come on for no apparent reason at all. Grief after the death or the usual mood swings of teenagers are not considered depression in the usual sense. It generally strikes adults and twice as many women as men.

Finding and understanding the cause of the depression is not really matters, immediately getting effective and appropriate treatment is the important thing. However, first you should know that if it is just the common blues that you are going through, or something more..?

Related posts:

1. What Are The Symptoms of Depression? (Clinical Depression-Major Depression)
2. 10 Factors That Increase The Risk of Depression
3. Depression in Children

It’s a practice to abhor

The parallel of outlandish pay compensation from the sports industry and application to higher education seems spot on [“What price for Ichiro of higher ed?” NWFriday, Jan. 8].

Compensation is not linear. Pay the executive twice as much and is he now working twice as hard? Is he twice as smart? Is UW President Mark Emmert doing a twofold better job at UW than he did at my alma mater, Miami University? Well then, let’s give them a mansion to live in, have staff to clean and prepare food, provide transportation, pay them a million dollars and a healthy bonus too, why don’t you? When is reasonable unreasonable? This is not a practice to applaud but to abhor.

Giving a board of directors compensation oversight is an incestuous fox guarding the licentious fowl — they reward their own, behind the safety of closed doors. Where’s the leadership to say enough is enough? It surely is not coming from management — whether it’s higher education, sports or big business.

“We can’t seem to afford it even if we could find it somewhere,” they say. And so the cycle continues — our generosity knows no bounds when it’s “other people’s money.” Did some nabob suggest this is really our money?

— Marcus Smith, Woodinville

Executives need to reflect

I completely agree with Nicole Brodeur’s opinions in regard to the salary of Mark Emmert.

Of course he does not need the kind of compensation he receives to live comfortably. But this is now true of so many in this country today: People who blithely go along with it all and seem to have no moments of introspection whatsoever.

I think the power that comes with these positions just takes over and all common sense, modesty and humility go right out the window — yes, look at those bankers!

There is also no doubt in my mind that there may be other truly academic “superstars” who could fill this position and they might do so for less compensation. It wouldn’t hurt to explore this idea, would it?

— Kathleen Collins, Bellevue

Claudia Balducci’s Eastside light-rail stance

It’s refreshing to hear that Bellevue City Councilmember Claudia Balducci is open to other downtown Bellevue light-rail plans besides the most costly options [“Sound transit board seats filled,” Around the Northwest, Jan. 8].

Sound Transit will now get over $3 billion less in tax revenue due to the ongoing recession and digging more holes would seem to ignore this new financial reality.

The Vision Line proposed by Councilmember Kevin Wallace would place an elevated station about the same distance from the transit center as Sea-Tac Airport’s station. A signature skyway above Northeast Sixth Street could provide a level walk over to the center.

It makes no sense to rip up Bellevue Way Southeast and 112th Avenue Southeast just to access one medium-sized park-and-ride lot. An elevated line above Interstate 405 would speed up construction and significantly reduce infrastructure rebuilding costs. Trains would also avoid mixing with surface traffic.

The glory days of spending the most money for light rail are over. Rebuilding entire street corridors and boring tunnels is not a wise use of dwindling tax dollars. Minimizing construction costs and getting transit moving sooner is wiser.

— David G. Wright, Seattle

Monorail issue didn’t cause Nickels’ defeat

Regarding the letter by Ross Bleakney in Friday’s Times [“Nickels’ swan song,” NW Voices, Jan. 8], I would disagree about the monorail being the reason for Greg Nickels not being re-elected. I think most people by now have forgotten his part in the scuttling of the monorail project and are reacting to more-recent issues.

However, I do feel strongly that former Mayor Nickels let his ego get in the way of a wise decision when the monorail board defied his demands at the time, and struck back at the board for defying him on preparing a ballot issue. His reaction not only hurt the monorail board, but also the people of Seattle, by forcing a vote in which a misled and confused public voted to kill the project.

Unfortunately, the Green Line monorail project was the most reasonable solution for rapid mass transit from downtown to West Seattle and also to Ballard, but was canceled only a couple of months away from the beginning of construction. As a leader, Nickels should have worked to solve problems facing the project, not just kill it out of spite.

During his campaign, Mayor Mike McGinn suggested building light rail from downtown to West Seattle and Ballard. I propose that McGinn should revive the Green Line monorail project instead, which can help spread out costs. He should also revise the route to avoid crossing the Seattle Center and make other modifications to improve the line.

Compared to light rail — in this built-up urban corridor — a monorail would probably cost less, be less disruptive to neighborhoods, be safer and attract more riders.

— Bob Fleming, Seattle

Jan Drago a poor pick

So this is what the King County Council’s “nonpartisan” behavior has given us [“Drago a fine pick for caretaker seat,” Opinion, Jan. 6]: Jan Drago is someone who doesn’t live in the district she’ll be representing; she is a political moderate in a district that is proudly liberal. Also, she is someone who really has no incentive to get to know the district she’ll be representing because she’s only a caretaker. How exactly does this serve the district’s voters or the district’s needs?

Sen. Joe McDermott would have been an outstanding selection. He already knows most of the council district, understands our problems and has a strong incentive to get to know those parts of the district that are outside of the 34th District’s boundaries.

If Metropolitan King County Council really wanted a caretaker in the position, Rep. Sharon Nelson, a quick study and very capable legislator, would have ably represented the district. Again, as with Sen. McDermott, she knows the district and our issues. Republicans no doubt find her unacceptable because, like McDermott, she is very liberal.

I am very disappointed with the Metropolitan King County Council’s decision and The Seattle Times’ editorial lauding that decision. Their choice serves the interests of the Republicans on the council rather than those of the voters.

— Gayle Sommers, Vashon

 Congratulation to Zap Mama for they NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding World Music Album for Re Creation. The winners will be announced at the official ceremony, which will air Friday, February 26th.

Also nominated for the 2010 NAACP award is Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. Voting for the 2010 NAACP begins January 21th for all NAACP members.

All the best to Zap mama.

CES 2010 Wrap-Up: Noah’s Top 5 Mobile Stories

2. Tablets! That’s what we want, right?

I spent a lot of time talking with Aaron, Adriana and John about whether or not the market actually wants – let alone needs – tablet computers. Either way, we’re going to have them foisted upon us in record numbers this year. Without even mentioning the Apple tablet that the blogs and stock traders are so excited about, we saw a ton of tablets and tablet concepts at CES. Many of them ran either Android or another Linux-based OS. A good handful of them were built on NVIDIA’s new Tegra 2 chipset. All of them promised light weight, all-day battery life, and drool-worthy multimedia performance. 

Two tablets, in particular, are on my “keep an eye on it” list right now:

ICD’s Verizon-bound Ultra LTE Tablet

This 7″ touchscreen slate was being shown in prototype form, and is slated for release on Verizon when the carrier begins rolling out its LTE (4G) network later this year. Built around Tegra 2 and a Motorola LTE radio, the device should be able to handle Hi-Def video including 1080p output via HDMI, and of course be suitable for all sorts of on-the-go Internet tasks.

Notion Ink’s Adam E-Reader/Tablet

(Image Via: Gizmodo)

Also shown in prototype form, Adam uses Pixel Qi’s awesome new display technology that an shift from E Ink to LCD in a few blinks of an eye. I know plenty of readers who love their Kindles, but a greyscale only device seems so mono-purpose to me in today’s age of convergence. Enter Pixel Qi’s 10.1″ transflective screen, which has one mode that looks much like E Ink (for reading) and another that’s a backlit color LCD (for everything else). Adam runs Android 2.0 and, yes, has Tegra 2 inside.

Previous: Android, Android everywhere

Next: WebOS comes to Verizon

During the Consumer Electronics Show, I took a bunch of pictures with the Google Nexus One handset and it performed admirably. The flash was ideal in very low light setting although after a few meters away from your subject, the value decreases quickly. But I’m already getting questions about the video capability of the device. I was going to shoot a comparison between the iPhone 3GS and the Nexus One, but my friends at NewTeeVee beat me to the punch. There you can see two videos to compare.

Their verdict? The Nexus One offers better clarity, but the iPhone 3GS handles the white balance better. I’m not surprised by the video quality, though — the Nexus One captures 720 x 480 up to 20 fps while the iPhone 3GS grabs 640 x 480 up to 30 fps. For fast-moving action, the iPhone may trump the Nexus One. But for basic scenery with little to no movement — quite common for my cats, as you’ll see — the Nexus One offers a solid experience. And just like the iPhone, I was able to upload the file directly to YouTube, although I was cautioned that “large” files can only be sent over Wi-Fi.

I don’t think the Nexus One — nor the iPhone 3GS, for that matter — will replace my higher-end cameras for planned video. However, the best camera is the one you have with you, as they say. And since I carry my phones everywhere, the Nexus One camera will get plenty of use when I least expect it — like when the cats decide to get their five minutes of daily exercise.

Note: I’ve received errors when trying to play the video back at HighQuality, so I suspect that it’s still in process at YouTube. If it doesn’t work when you view it, I recommend taking a look later. And if you’re curious about those low light pics, here are two faces you might recognize: Dave Zatz and jkk.

Gov. Pat Quinn recently named Teresa Garate as the Illinois Department of Public Health Assistant Director.

Garate is a distinguished educator and policy leader who works extensively with community partners and Latino communities.

“I am pleased to welcome Teresa Garate to the Illinois Department of Public Health,” said Dr. Damon T. Arnold.

“Her work in policy development and program implementation will help protect the health of Illinois residents throughout the state.”

Formerly a senior level administrator in the Chicago Public Schools who served as the Chief of Staff for the Office of Specialized Services during Arne Duncan’s administration, Garate is experienced in strategic plan development; program implementation and monitoring; research and accountability; and budget and personnel management.

Garate works with a number of local community organizations city and state agencies and is widely published in the academic arena.

Most recently she was the co-leader of the school health initiative designed to create a collaboration between the Chicago Department of Public Health and the Chicago Public Schools.

“I am honored to be appointed as the Assistant Director for the Illinois Department of Public Health,” said Garate.

“Public health is something that impacts just about every area of our lives and I look forward to working for the promotion of safe and healthy communities.”

Garate holds a B.S. in Applied Psychology, a B.S. Ed. in Special Education, holds a Master’s Degree in Special Education and is currently a Ph.D. Candidate.  She has provided input in the Chicago area and throughout the state on education, public health, disability and social science issues.

Garate has served as a member of the Illinois State Advisory Council to the Governor on Disability, the co-chair for the Joint Statewide Bilingual Special Education Committee, an advisory board member for the Center for Capacity Building on Minorities with Disabilities Research and an advisory board member for the Chicago Park District Disability Policy Steering Committee.

Ten years’ worth of Apple laptops are stacked high in this shot. I was going to list their identities, but then I realized the commenters could probably have more fun with it. Be nice (or funny). [Flickr via Unplggd]

They already have a digital art book coming with the Death Edition (qjnet/xbox-360/europe-getting-dantes-inferno-death-edition-includes-isaac-clarke-skin.html), but EA decided that it’s a good idea to direct gamers over to the book store to sell physical copies of the Dante’s Inferno

Wow now accessories for USB cables! Cable Caps are incredibly adorable  – community developed covers to help protect, organize and add flair to your USB cables. Cable Caps are designed to help you protect the male end of any USB cable when not in use. It also keeps them organized and distinguished from one another. Cable Caps allows you to neatly manage and identify your wires. There are six different Cable Cap characters for you to collect: Printer Man, Phone Dude, Camera Gal. Eye Baller, Egg Man and ‘Da Bulb. They are sold in sets of three for for $7.99/set. The top portion of each Cable Cap has a built in slot to receive a standard size USB cable. Below the head, is a body section that acts as a stretchable band to tie up the remaining USB cable slack. When wrapped, the cable is tightly secured in place. When you need the cable, simply unwrap, pop off the appropriate cap and plug the USB into your computer.