Good morning and welcome to our Friday edition of Sunrise Santa Cruz. Today we are featuring a late May sunset as the western sky glowed while changing into various shades of spring delight. There’s not usually much action around this time of year so I’m happy when any color appears on the horizon or a book comes out written by the president’s former press secretary bashing Mr. Bush and company. It’s good to know that there’s some light at the end of the tunnel and it’s flashing Barack Obama.

I snapped the last two photos early on Sunday morning. I was filling my parent’s trout pond on their estate next to Natural Bridges when who do I see strolling up the street but a juvenile bobcat. He eyed me, ducked into the bushes and then came back out and continued towards me and my bomb-sniffing golden retriever Summer. Before you could say “Hillary concedes” I grabbed my camera and starting shooting like Kobe Bryant at crunch time. This must be bobcat season because they seem to be popping up everywhere. What I would really love to see is a mountain lion because that is one beautiful animal that is native to our area. Or a unicorn.

On to the breaking news of the day. Egypt plans to conduct a DNA test on a 3,500-year-old mummy to determine whether it is King Thutmose 1, one of the country’s most important pharaohs. A DNA test and X-ray will carried out at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo by a group of chiropractors on a mummy found at the site of ancient Thiebes on the west bank of the Nile, what it today Luxor’s Valley of the Kings. Turns out a mummy on display in the Egyptian Museum that was purported to be Thutmose 1 is not actually the ancient ruler’s remains. This harkens me back to the 1939 Three Stooges comedy short “We Want Our Mummy” when those classic words are uttered, “That’s not King Rootin-Tootin, that’s Queen Hotsie-Totsie.”

Thutmose 1 was the third pharaoh of Egypt’s 18th dynasty of pharaohs. His purple reign is generally dated from 1506 to 1493 B.C. He was succeeded by his son Thumose II, who in turn was succeeded by Thutmose II sister, Hatshepsut, ancient Egypt’s most powerful female pharaoh behind Pharaoh Fawcett.

Egypt has acquired a $5 million DNA lab, funded by the Discovery Channel and Comedy Central, which has become a centerpiece of an ambitious plan to identify mummies and re-examine the royal mummy collection. The best way to obtain accurate results is from the DNA found in a cell’s nucleus because it contains information from both parents. But mummy DNA is usually so deteriorated that the chances of finding usable nuclear DNA are slim and none of those mummies are talking.

There is some secrecy surrounding Egypt’s DNA testing. Zahi Hawass, the head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities and a damn fine yahtzee player, has long refused to allow DNA testing on Egyptian mummies but accepted it recently on the condition that it would only be done by Egyptian experts in a room shaped like a pyramid. He has never disclosed full results of previous mummy examinations on grounds of national security. Hawass has never explained the reasons for this, apparently concerned that the tests could cast doubt on the Egyptian lineage of the mummies and to protect the privacy of the mummies’ families. I think everyone out there can relate to this story because after all, who doesn’t love their mummy?

So that’s it for our feel good story of the week. If you like eggs, and what bacon eating, hash brown and toast loving American doesn’t, then you’ll want to check out the blog coming up on Monday. So have a fabulous sports weekend and enjoy game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday. Game 1 to Paul Pierce and the Celtics. And remember to always to give help from the weak side. Aloha, Laker fans.

Good morning and greetings from the windy west side of Santa Cruz. For Monday’s photo entertainment, we went with a montage of the color red. Today we are going to stay with the single color theme as we’re talking shades of green. We’re talking lime green, Lorne Greene and Al Green. We’re looking at pine cones and flowers on the west side, patterns on the rock at Laguna Creek Beach, extreme low tide at Four Mile Beach and a family of quackers at Neary Lagoon. We’ll be doing more of these color coded days as we’ve got mellow yellow, brilliant blue, outrageous orange and passionate purple waiting to take their cuts at the plate.

So what’s happening on the nature front this week? Well, according to a all-star team of California scientists, the earth may be on the verge of a massive release of methane similar to one that caused a global warming that ended the last “snowball” ice age. Writing in the journal Nature, lead researcher Martin Kennedy of UC Riverside suggested the same kind of warming could be about to occur, not over thousands of years but within a human lifetime In the words of the group Spirit, “It’s natures way of telling you something’s wrong.”

Methane is 25 times more potent as a greenhouse gas as carbon dioxide and 10,000 gigatons of frozen methane are stored zip lock bags in the world’s oceans and permafrost. The current trend of accelerated permafrost melting as the Arctic warms rapidly could release vast amounts of methane into the atmosphere, triggering a sudden climate change. Kennedy worries that rising carbon dioxide levels could drive enough warming to destabilize the Earth’s stored methane reserves. Says Kennedy, “Unzippering the methane reserve could potentially warm the Earth tens of degrees.” Personally, I live by the words of the lovely Carly Simon, “I haven’t gone time for the methane.”

Sunscreen lotions used by swimmers around the world are contributing to a phenomenon known as coral bleaching, (not to be confused with Cloris Leachman,) threatening the coral and the marine life that depend upon it. A study sponsored by the European Commission found that even tiny amounts of cream based UV filters used to protect the skin from the sun’s rays caused bleaching of the coral reefs.

The chemical compounds join climate change, industrial pollution, high UV radiation due to the “ozone hole” and talk radio as the leading threats to coral reefs. According the the report, an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 tons of sunscreen are released annually in water near coral reefs, with 25 percent of the sunscreen ingredients on skin released into water over the course of a 20 minute swim. And incidentally, this is after staying out of the water for an hour after eating.

Now onto my favorite story of the day. Beavers will soon be living in the lakes, streams and the Joan rivers of Scotland for the first time since before Mary Queen of Scots was executed in 1587. The beaver, Wally, Lumpy and Eddie Haskell were all hunted to extinction across Scotland in the 18th century and the government plans to capture four beaver families in Norway and then release them in the lochs of Argyll’s Wildlife Reserve.

When the animals are released next spring, it will mark the first time that native mammals have been reintroduced in Scotland. Scientists will closely monitor the beavers over the following five years to determine the impact on the local environment, economy and entertainment business before any decision is made on a wider reintroduction. “By bringing these useful creatures back to their natural environment, we will have the chance to restore a missing part our our world of wetland ecosystems and re-establish much needed natural processes,” said Alan Bantick, chairman of the Scottish Beaver Trail Steering Group. As far as the beavers are concerned, I say dammed if you do, dammed if you don’t.

That’s it for today’s look and world news and sports. I will leave you with the words of one Mr. Gary Wright. “I’ve just closed my eyes again. Climbed aboard the dream weaver train. Driver take away my worries of today. And leave tomorrow behind.” You know, after writing that, I really believe we can reach the morning light. Enjoy the green and get ready for the Lakers and Celtics to go at it in the NBA Finals. Let’s hope it’s as epic as the nature I saw today that I’ll blog out next week. Defense is desire. Later.

Good morning and greetings, space cowboy fans. Ah, space, the final frontier. If you’re like me, at some point during the day, you probably ask yourself, “Was there ever life on Mars? And is there really a possibility that John McCain might be our next president?” Well, since today we are going to explore the Red Planet, I thought we would go with a montage of Santa Cruz rouge to celebrate the occasion.

The first two shots are from a sunrise at Steamer Lane. I believe these would be called ‘the redder the better.” The next set is from an epic sunset I shot at Stockton Avenue. This might be referred to as “Code Incredibly Red.” The final set is a couple of sunset shots from Natural Bridges.” I believe these might be called “Red Dessert.” Well, now that we have the color scheme in place, let’s take a look at what’s turning the heads of school children, NASA scientists and flight attendants this week.

For the first time ever, the world is getting a glimpse of the northern most surface of Mars-flat, frozen like a Snickers Bar and potentially hiding secrets that could open a new world of scientific knowledge. After a 422-million-mile, 296-day voyage (without once stopping to use the restroom,) the Phoenix spacecraft made a nearly perfect soft, chewy caramel landing last week on the chocolaty Martian terrain. This was cause for celebration for scientists at both the University of Arizona and at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in California since more then half of previous Mars’ missions had failed and neither had had a party for Cinco de Mayo.

Phoenix (without Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire) survived a wild, risky ride through the Red Planet’s atmosphere, slowing down from about 12,700 MPH to just over 5 MPH using braking rockets, a parachute and pair of flip flops and flying thru temperatures nearly as hot as the sun and the LA Lakers.

Two hours after the landing, the first photos revealed exactly what NASA was hoping for. No, not new shots of Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo, but a landscape of lumps and cracks, ground worked and reworked by thousands of years of freezing and thawing, a sign of water and potentially life. So began the three month search to see if life-giving water, chemicals and condiments were once abundant on the planet. In other words, if Mars was ever a “habitable planet.” The answer, my friend, may be frozen just beneath the Martian surface or is blowing in the wind.

But here’s a news flash. On Friday, a study by Harvard professor of Earth and planetary sciences Andrew Knoll, in the journal Science reported that earlier findings by the veteran Mars rover Opportunity, which has been exploring near the Martian equator, showed that any water left from the planet’s early days billions of years ago would have been far too salty to have sustained any form of life known on earth, wind or fire.

According to Professor Knoll, “Our sense has been that while Mars is a lousy environment for supporting life today, long ago it may have more closely resembled earth. But this result suggests quite strongly that even as long as 4 billion years ago, the surface of Mars would have been challenging for life. This doesn’t rule out life forms we’ve never encountered, but life that could originate and persist in such a salty setting would require biochemistry distinct from any known among the most robust halophiles on earth.” The Tucson-based Phoenix science team did not respond to the Harvard report but wondered aloud whether sour grapes could grow in a climate such as Harvard Square.

So for now the Phoenix, without former coach Mike D’Antoni, is using its 8-foot robotic arm to dig like a backhoe to scoop up icy samples to analyze them in an on board laboratory looking for clues for when Mars had a warmer, wetter climate, something like the Jersey shore in the summertime. Scientists are looking to find evidence that the Martian climate was once benign enough to support liquid water and the organic chemical constituents of living organisms or game show writers. This first ever exploration of extraterrestrial water could lead to a manned mission to Mars, or if not, at least the first reality show based in space. The working title, “Dancing with the Mars.”

And this just in. On Saturday, scientists at the University of Arizona are convinced they a found a bright and shiny layer of genuine ice only inches below the Martian soil. In the words of scientist Peter Smith “It’s shiny and smooth-it’s absolutely astounding.” If Smith and his team are right, the find means at the very least that real, liquid water could have existed on Mars. When asked about the discovery, scientists at Harvard were not impressed and responded, “Let us know when they find some soda.”

So that’s our look at what’s happening on the reddest of planets. I find it interesting that we can spend $420 million to send a spacecraft into space yet our schools have no money. Or as the bumper sticker says, “After we rebuild Iraq can we rebuild our schools?” But I don’t want to end this interplanetary excursion on a sour note so let’s go with a little space humor.

Two young astronauts were discussing the space program. One says, “Why do we have to go to the moon or Mars? Why don’t we go straight to the sun.” The other astronaut says, “If we come within ten million miles of the sun, we’ll burn up.” “So we’ll go at night!” Okay, sports fans, enjoy the redness along West Cliff Drive and we’ll catch you for some fresh color on Wednesday. And remember, no rebounds, no rings. Later, aloha fans.