You would think that Dayton Ohio would have nothing to do with an expedition around Lake Superior; the closest great lake is Lake Erie, on the other side of the state. But on November the 24th just as I was driving through Cincinnati rush hour traffic on our way to a family visit, curtains of blood washed across my right eye without warning.

On Thanksgiving I was diagnosed with a tear in the retina and a partial detachment. Thanks to the Retinal Eye Surgery Clinic in Dayton I went through a series of procedures that ended with a big bubble inside my eye and a period of having to hold my head at an angle to keep the bubble in the right place.

The process is working; After two weeks of downtime I can begin to be active again and in a month I will be back up and running.

This expedition has many aspects and our bodies remain the single most important resources. Episodes like this and their recoveries are important to the record and success of the entire project. I won't let this even slow me down.

The average water use for every person on Earth is 328,366 gallons of freshwater a year and Americans use almost double the average (not a surprise, but a reason to be concerned and to take action).  Check out www.waterfootprint.org to learn more details.

New York Times | SCIENCE / ENVIRONMENT

National Briefing | Michigan: Fear Over Asian Carp Brings Request to Close Waterways
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
 
Fears that the voracious Asian carp will enter the Great Lakes and wipe out other fish have led to demands that the government close the waterways connecting the lakes and the Mississippi River. Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm and environmental groups asked Michigan’s attorney general to take legal action to force the Army Corps of Engineers to temporarily shut down three shipping locks near Chicago. This comes after new evidence shows the carp may have breached an electrical barrier that is supposed to hold them back from the lakes. The environmental groups went further than the governor and said that the Great Lakes and the Mississippi should be permanently separated to avert what Ms. Granholm called “ecological disaster.”