Editor's note: Throughout the International Year of the Reef 2008, The Nature Conservancy's global campaign designed to raise awareness about reefs and their ecosystems, we'll be running some tips for protecting Hawai'i's living reef, which at 410,000 acres measures larger than O'ahu and holds more than 7,000 known species of marine plants and animals.

Keep the ocean clean and healthy by using biodegradable detergents and cleaning products, since those may end up on reefs. A pound of phosphorus from cleaning products and fertilizers produces approximately 500 pounds of algae that can smother corals. Try using natural cleansers instead of toxic ones: White vinegar or lemon juice with water is great for sparkling glass, baking soda for scrubbing the tub and lemon juice for breaking up grease in the kitchen.

— Advertiser Staff

FINAL WORD

"The ideas and methods of prayer and ritual resonate profoundly with the practice of creating art. Through the process of painting — the repeated marks and motions — something happens that brings about a transcendent moment."

Isabel Bieglow | New York artist who switched her major at Harvard from fine arts to comparative religions, in Elle Decor magazine