How’s that for an inflated attention-grabbing headline? Well I just caught a link from USA Swimming on Facebook to a news item in The Sydney Morning Herald. Thorpe is scheduled to make a one-time-only theatrical appearance as “a serial killer with a conscience” in the play One Night in Emerald City at the Sydney Theatre.

This 2010 adaptation of the 1987 play Emerald City will feature Thorpe and 10 other celebrities pushing past their comfort zones to benefit charity.

If you are a swim blog reader, you might have noticed the Swim Blogs United (SBU) logo popping up in your RSS Reader. Swim Blogs United is an alliance of swimming websites that will focus on supporting collegiate level swimming from a journalistic and blogging front.

Along with the ongoing editorial support from all partner sites, Swim Blogs United is also dedicated to support and work hand-in-hand with the financial efforts of Go For 5!. Through the SBU logos found on partner sites, visitors are able to make tax-deductable donations to Go For 5! Donations will help Go For 5! raise awareness, fund facilities, endow scholarships, and do whatever it takes to save college swimming programs.

• The Swimmers Circle (http://TheSwimmersCircle.com)
• Texas Swimming (http://TexasSwimming.org)
• the17thman (http://the17thman.com)
• The Screaming Viking! (http://swimviking.blogspot.com)
• Masters Swimmers Blog (http://mastersswimmersblog.com)
• DR549 (http://swimdr549.blogspot.com)
• SwImtelligence (http://swimtelligence.blogspot.com/)
• The Swimming Wizard (http://swimmingwizard.blogspot.com/)
• Kast-A-Way Blog (http://kastawayblog.com)

By helping to organize a swim blog movement, Swim Blogs United will be able to harness the net influence of our combined voices to reach a bigger audience!

So get your wallet out, and donate $5 in tax-deductible support to college swimming programs. You can follow this link, or click on the SBU logo in my sidebar to make your donation on a special Swim Blogs United section of Go For 5!

Related articles from Kast-A-Way Blog:
> What Happened to My Conference?
> RE: College Cuts are Coming

On May 29, 2010, the Cincinnati community will gather at at Coney Island for a Sprint Triathlon, Duathlon, and 5K to benefit the Down Syndrome Association of Greater Cincinnati (DSAGC). Tri for Joe is an event developed by the Gerstle Family in honor of their son Joe.

According to a letter from the Gerstle Family on triforjoe.com,

“We wanted to develop a unique event that was based on Tom’s experience in Triathlon and would enable those that Joe has touched in his life to come out and compete, see Joe and reflect on what he has experienced. This is a family friendly event that will appeal to the seasoned multisport athlete as well as rookies who are looking for a new challenge.”

The money Tri for Joe raises goes to support the New Baby Celebration Program at the DSAGC, along with the 24 Hour Help Line and the Parent To Parent Network Program.

The pool course looks like a lot of fun, weaving around a large pool big enough to be considered an open water swim. The edge is a simulated beach, so be sure to do some ‘water running’ on your way in.

This Australian Government National Drugs Campaign ad has a clear message: Smoking marijuana wastes potential. The additional text of the ad reads, “all those years of training can soon be wiped out by the lifestyle associated with marijuana smoking. And the damage to your lungs won’t help either.”

The ad features the visual of a burnt-out-looking swimmer sitting on the side of a pool alone – his reflection is an athletic swimmer celebrating in front of a cheering crowd.

Because swimming is such a popular sport in Australia, relating to adolescents through this sport seems like a good marketing technique. However, the online social media community is quick to draw a parallel between the anti-marijuana swimmer ad and Michael Phelps’ Bong-Gate, possibly the most infamous marijuana story in sports history.

The unintended irony is not lost to the over 500 Digg users who boosted the image from a totalprosports.com post. However, although the image is regarded as humorous by some, in the end it is only increasing the exposure of the anti-drug campaign – after all that’s how I found it!

Gold Medal Mel posted a Breaking News update on his blog about the new (and official) Ryan Lochte Fan Club on Facebook. I obviously clicked ‘Like’ to follow the fan page, and also learned that Ryan will be doing a swim clinic with the Dayton Raiders to benefit the Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy (PPMD) organization. Ryan will be at the Wright State University Natatorium tomorrow morning between 8am – 11:30am. So cool!

The deadline for buying tickets has passed, but I still think it’s exciting to know that Ryan Lochte will be in Southwest Ohio!

> Green and Gold Tomato Soup Garrett Weber-Gale
> Learning the Underwater Dolphin GoSwim.TV
> Don’t Judge What You Can’t See Woody’s Diving Blog
> A new wave of young swimmers emerges in China Universal Sports
> Speedo Pledges Support to World Swim Against Malaria Swimming World Magazine
> Michael Alexandrov: Urban Training Gold Medal Mel
> An Affordable Video System SwimmingWorld.TV
> Warm-down: Why it

It’s Earth Day, and that means taking time to reflect on humanity’s impact on our one-and-only planet. Because Kast-A-Way Swimwear accepts orders in brick-and-mortar stores as well as online, we have a large volume of items coming in an out on a regular basis. In the spirit of Earth Day, I wanted to assess where we stand on the eco-friendly spectrum in terms of swimsuit packaging for shipments. I also put my web surfing skills to use by rounding up some of the EPIC FAILures for excessive packaging that I could find online.

First, let’s talk swimsuits. Luckily, swimsuits don’t have any moving or fragile parts that might require additional insulation. That’s not to say swimsuits are carelessly shipped – the packaging must still protect against water damage, include a flat surface for a shipping label and tracking barcode, and prevent the suit from being torn or stretched when coming in contact with other packages.

Suits arrive in large boxes that contain small individual boxes for each suit. That may seem like a lot of boxes, but these suits are going to be individually sold and shipped so they need their own container. Packaging is reduced on the manufacturer’s end because little to no padding or insulation is needed to ship swimsuits. Each Speedo swimsuit box is made of 100% recycled paper products.

Next, shipping the box requires a light-weight, waterproof method that will protect the suit from being damaged in the process. The result: polyethylene mailing envelope. This envelope is durable and perfectly fits the dimensions of the box. The ‘poly’ mailer is made of LDPE (low density polyethylene) and can be recycled wherever plastic recycle code No. 4 is accepted.

Overall, I’d say the swimsuit package and shipping materials score fairly high on a hypothetical appropriate amount of packaging scale. Now let’s check out some of the worst examples of conservative packaging. The epic excessive package stories found online:

1. HP ships Dual In-line Memory Module (DIMM)

Posted on theregister.co.uk, Hewlett Packard sent a large box filled with airbags to ship a small computer chip.

2. Office Basics ships one pen…

Posted on badluckcity.wordpress.com, this office supply (singular) arrived courtesy of Office Basics.

3. Individually wrapped bananas

Posted by Son of Five Rivers Blog, these bananas are individually packed on a polystyrene plate covered in plastic wrap!

4. Camera memory card from Amazon.com

This picture, also from theregister.co.uk, shows how Amazon shipped a memory card for a digital camera.

5. Playbill and CD in a HUGE box

There is actually a Flickr photostream just for over-packaged products. Here are the steps it took one user to unpack a CD and playbill from a huge box.

Ok, so this is the most “Earth Day” related item I could find in our retail shop this morning. To learn more about real life orcas (killer whales) read about them on National Geographic’s website.

You can also do your part to help improve the sustainability of the world’s oceans (and their inhabitants) by checking out the Living Blue section of Oceana.org. There you will find recipe guides (it’s OK to eat fish, just be responsible!), blue links, and a list of 10 Things You Can Do to Save the Oceans.

So remember: Go Green, Live Blue.

Also, in honor of Earth Day’s 40th Anniversary, the Conservation International blog posted the top 40 nature photographs of all time!

The JAX50 is aptly named because this unique type of swimming challenge takes place in Jacksonville, FL and includes only one event: the 50 yard freestyle. According to the event website, the event starts out with heats of the 50 broken down by age group. Trophies are awarded to the top 3 swimmers in each age group, but only the top 4 swimmers advance to the evening session.

If I’m reading this correctly, it looks like the top two boys and top two girls will join the 12 pro’s and pair up to form a total of 8 guy-girl teams. Then, in an NCAA college basketball tournament style bracket, guys and girls race each other in head-to-head 50′s and earn points for them and their partner. The guy-girl partners with the most total points will split the prize money.

8-year-olds, although you probably didn’t make it to the evening session, you’re not done yet! All swimmers are invited to a swim clinic the following day.

This fun, unique event is more than just a dash for cash. “It is an opportunity to help an aspiring Olympian, Bolles school alumnus Seun Adebiyi, fight the fight of his life against leukemia in the hopes that he will fulfill his ultimate dream of racing in an Olympic Games” (source).

Found via SCAQ Blog, Cesar Cielo appears in this campaign for clean water sponsored by SABESP, a Brazilian state owned utility that provides water and sewage services to residential, commercial and industrial use in the S