The Left Lane
In their own words

Radtke: Created camp for disabled students

The camp, created by Richard Radtke (who was recently named Multiple Sclerosis Father of the Year, and profiled in the 'Ohana section's Honorable Mention feature July 1), was directed toward helping youths with disabilities prepare for careers in science, math, engineering and technology through mini-courses on topics ranging from solar energy to tide pools.

"All I did was put in 30 seconds of the black in the beginning and the end (of the video) — the students did everything else," Radtke said with a laugh. The hour-long program will air on 'Olelo Community Television (channel 52) tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. and next Monday at 9:30 p.m.

Stirring up tea facts

With the recent finding that antioxidants called flavonoids in black tea may protect against heart attack and stroke, there's delight, but also puzzlement. There is some confusion on what is black tea. Complicating matters more is that black tea isn't black. It looks brown.

While people here may be more familiar with Asian green tea, it turns out that black tea is pretty much everything else. Except oolong. Black tea can usually be found in your supermarket's tea or specialty section. If it's black tea, it's usually spelled out on the front of the package. If it isn't, nearly any tea (except "herbal teas," which often don't contain true tea at all) should give you a healthy dose of antioxidants.

All true tea comes from the same plant, Camellia sinensis. Different processing methods turn the leaves into black, green or oolong tea. In addition to their good work against heart disease, the antioxidants in green and black tea are said to neutralize "free radicals" that can cause cancer.

The babies are on solid food now, and it's not Gerber's. One is a wee albatross and the other, a baby red-footed booby, seabirds rescued by Marines who found them abandoned on the Kane'ohe seashore and brought them to Sea Life Park Hawaii for rehabilitation.

The seabirds were first hand-fed tiny amounts of gruel, blended concoctions of fish, vitamins and Pedialyte, said George "Paka" Nishimura, curator of marine mammals. Now they've graduated to tiny filets of squid, herring and caplin, a kind of smelt.

The red-footed booby arrived June 9, followed June 28 by the albatross. They're likely to be there for several more months, since the process of "fledging," or preparing to leave the nest, takes 165 days. They may never leave the Sea Life Park nest, however. Of all the birds who've bunked down at this adoptive home, only one has left in 19 years, Nishimura said.

There are human families that would sympathize.