From Our Blogs

GREENSPACE

Watch whales to save them

Is whale watching a recreational activity or a form of protest against commercial whaling? Environmentalists say it can be both.

Whale watching generates $82 million a year in California alone, according to a new report by the International Fund for Animal Welfare. The profitability of whale watching provides ammo in the philosophical battle against whale hunting countries like Japan, said Patrick Ramage, IFAW Whale Program Director.

“We should be shooting whales with cameras, not harpoons,” Ramage said. “Clearly, living whales in their environment are worth a lot more to us than they are dead.”

Whale-watching expeditions now sally forth from shores in 119 countries worldwide, employing 13,500 people, Ramage said.

Only Japan, Iceland, and Norway still permit whale hunting. Their practices were discussed at the International Whaling Commission meeting, which ended Friday in Portugal. Whale advocates presented a study to the commission to make a case for watching whales over killing them.

-- Amy Littlefield

From Greenspace: Environmental News from California and Beyond

latimes.com/greenspace

COMPANY TOWN

Jackson’s death impacts AEG

The death Thursday of Michael Jackson came just weeks before he was to start a series of comeback concerts that the onetime King of Pop hoped would relaunch his career and straighten out his finances.

Now concert promoter AEG Live is left in the lurch. The company, which is owned by reclusive media mogul Philip Anschutz, had shelled out more than $20 million on the concerts. “High School Musical” director Kenny Ortega had been brought in to oversee the elaborate production of the shows, which were being rehearsed near the Burbank Airport. Just last month, AEG Chief Executive Randy Phillips told the Los Angeles Times that Jackson’s concert shows were going to be “the biggest, most technologically advanced arena show -- and the most expensive -- ever mounted.”

The 50 shows that Jackson had committed to at London’s O2 arena had sold out. Presumably those tickets, which were going for hundreds of dollars, will be refunded. AEG’s Phillips had said that Jackson had taken a four-hour physical that revealed no medical problems. AEG had said previously that it had gotten insurance for about half of the Jackson shows and would self-insure the rest.

-- Joe Flint

From Company Town: The business behind the show

latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz

HOME & GARDEN

A woman’s voice grows tomatoes

The London Telegraph reports that a new study by Britain’s Royal Horticultural Society has found that tomato plants grew up to 2 inches taller when women gardeners talked to them regularly. The men apparently were so bad at communicating with their tomatoes -- hard to believe -- their plants actually grew less than a plant that was left completely alone.

In the April experiment, the public was invited to record excerpts from John Wyndham’s “The Day of the Triffids,” William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species.”

A selection of voices was then played to 10 plants via headphones connected to the plant pot.

Not surprisingly, the best results came from Sarah Darwin, great-great granddaughter of the legendary botanist. After reading a passage from “On the Origin of Species,” Darwin saw her plant grow nearly 2 inches taller than the best performing male.

Note to self: Time to start reading Michael Pollan to the Better Boys.

-- Lisa Boone

From Home and Garden

latimes.com/home_blog

BOOSTER SHOTS

Bicultural Latino teens fare better

Teenagers of Latino families new to the United States appear to be more successful if they retain their ties to their Latino heritage and if their parents make an effort to embrace American culture, say the authors of a new study.

Researchers at the University of North Carolina interviewed 281 Latino youths and parents in North Carolina and Arizona as part of a longitudinal study called the Latino Acculturation and Health Project, which is supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The families were asked questions that measured the teens’ mental health, lifestyle and academic success.

The study found that teens who maintained strong ties to their Latino culture performed better at school and adjusted more easily socially.

But these adolescents also benefit from parents who are willing to learn about their new homeland. For every one-point increase in a parent’s involvement in U.S. culture, there was a 15% to 18% decrease in adolescent social problems and behavior problems.

The findings illustrate the need for both teens and parents to do the opposite of what their natural tendencies tell them. The authors said parents need not cling to their former culture and teens need not reject it.

“Such results suggest that Latino youth and their parents benefit from biculturalism,” the lead author of the study, Paul Smokowski, said in a news release. “Parents who were more involved in U.S. culture were in a better position to proactively help their adolescents with peer relations, forming friendships and staying engaged in school. This decreases the chances of social problems arising.”

-- Shari Roan

From Booster Shots: Oddities, musings and news from the world of health

latimes.com/booster_shots/