Happy Birthday, National Park Service!

On August 25, 2006, the National Park Service celebrates its 90th birthday. Created in 1916 under the Organic Act, Congress and President Woodrow Wilson charged the Park Service with overseeing 35 public land units to preserve America’s vast diversity for future generations.

Much has changed in 90 years! Now, not only does the National Park Service manage all of America’s 390 park units, its responsibilities have grown into complex fields, such as scientific research, archeology, historic preservation, interpretation and education outreach. Over 84.4 million acres of parkland provides habitats for 369 threatened or endangered species, houses 100 million items in museum collections, contains 1.5 million archaeological sites and protects 27,000 historic structures. Our beloved National Park sites are visited 277 million times a year, employ 20,000 employees, and receive valued assistance from 144,000 volunteers per year.

Can’t think of the just right birthday gift? Donate to the National Park Foundation to ensure America’s greatest collection of natural, cultural and historic sites are taken care of for the next 90 years!

Story courtesy NPS Newsletter

UPDATE: Vote on Pluto’s planet status

Clyde Tombaugh must be turning over in his grave.

From AP via Forbes:

Astronomers Say Pluto Is Not a Planet - Forbes.com

Leading astronomers declared Thursday that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight.

Image: Pluto and moon Charon

After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930. The new definition of what is - and isn’t - a planet fills a centuries-old black hole for scientists who have labored since Copernicus without one.

[. . . ]

The decision by the prestigious international group spells out the basic tests that celestial objects will have to meet before they can be considered for admission to the elite cosmic club.

For now, membership will be restricted to the eight “classical” planets in the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Much-maligned Pluto doesn’t make the grade under the new rules for a planet: “a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a … nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.”

Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune’s.

Instead, it will be reclassified in a new category of “dwarf planets,” similar to what long have been termed “minor planets.” The definition also lays out a third class of lesser objects that orbit the sun - “small solar system bodies,” a term that will apply to numerous asteroids, comets and other natural satellites.

It was unclear how Pluto’s demotion might affect the mission of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, which earlier this year began a 9 1/2-year journey to the oddball object to unearth more of its secrets.

Update: Thanks to HYSCIENCE for the trackback and kind words.

When being questioned at the August 21, 2006 press conference about the slow progress in Iraq, President Bush answered succinctly and, I imagine, like many of us would have answered:

Q But are you frustrated, sir?

THE PRESIDENT: Frustrated? Sometimes I’m frustrated. Rarely surprised. Sometimes I’m happy. This is — but war is not a time of joy. These aren’t joyous times. These are challenging times, and they’re difficult times, and they’re straining the psyche of our country. I understand that. You know, nobody likes to see innocent people die. Nobody wants to turn on their TV on a daily basis and see havoc wrought by terrorists. And our question is, do we have the capacity and the desire to spread peace by confronting these terrorists, and supporting those who want to live in liberty? That’s the question. And my answer to that question is, we must. We owe it to future generations to do so.

I try not to imagine the future grave state that America would suffer should John Kerry or (worse?) H.R. Clinton ever become president. Or any other rudderless Democrat half-wit for that matter. God forbid.

After working this poor guy over with a 20 gauge shot to the chest, Damsel picked up her .357 and nailed him several more times in the chest and a couple of times in the head. Her last shot left him with a “surprised” look on his face — he seems to be saying “oh!”. We had a good laugh at it.

For our service men and women on duty this weekend we send them this yellow rose to let them know we haven’t forgotten about them and their worldwide missions, and pray for their safe return.

Many thanks to all of you and God bless.

Really! Since we are trying to flex our power this summer, we don’t run the air conditioner. And instead of lighting the oven in a warm house, we have been cooking outdoors a lot. We can do much of what we used to do in the oven in our outdoor BBQ.

A pizza stone with a layer or two of aluminum foil under it heats up quite nicely in the BBQ with the lid closed. We prepared our pizza dough and transferred to the stone. We then added the rest of the toppings and cheese, lowered the heat and the BBQ hood and cooked the pizza to a bubbly perfection.

The New Orleans/Katrina gun confiscation case takes a positive turn toward bringing justice to the nations second stupidest mayor and friends.

Image: Nagin in his future habitat.

Just in from The Patriot Post:

Judge Rules Against New Orleans in 2nd Amendment Case

On Thursday, Federal Judge Carl Barbier ruled against a motion by the city of New Orleans to dismiss a Second Amendment lawsuit involving the city’s confiscation of residents’ firearms in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The suit was brought by the National Rifle Association and the Second Amendment Foundation and names Mayor Ray Nagin and Police Superintendent Warren Riley for violating citizens’ Second Amendment rights.

“We’re encouraged by this latest ruling,” said Alan Gottlieb, founder of the SAF. “For almost a year, we’ve been fighting the city’s delay tactics, which included outright lying by city officials that any firearms had been seized. Only when we threatened Mayor Nagin and Superintendent Riley with a motion for contempt did the city miraculously discover that they actually did have more than 1,000 firearms that had been taken from their owners.”

More than an effort to protect New Orleans gun owners, SAF intends this suit “as a warning to public officials across the country to forget about seizing firearms from their law-abiding owners in the event of a natural or man-made disaster.” The People’s Republic of New Orleans still holds two trailers filled with citizens’ firearms confiscated after Katrina.

I said “second stupidest mayor” above - Nagin has nothing to compare to the Runt Mayor of Los Angeles who would stop at nothing to disarm the city, and is, in my opinion, miles ahead of Nagin in the Stuck on Stupid award. Despite four attempts, Li’l Antonio has not passed the California Bar Exam, and thus remains unlicensed to practice law. But he is sure he understands more about it than you do.

Image: Li’l Antonio speaks at the Anti-Christ-Liberals-Union (could that be Nagin’s baldpate in the bottom of the image?)

God forbid if some liberal gun phobia retard politician tries to take our defenses from us when (not if) a major quake hits the Los Angeles area. Think back to the trite old adage about “prying from our cold dead hands.”

We already have enjoyed our summer vacation with a stop at the Grand Canyon but always enjoy a fresh look at that magnificent spectacle. Today’s visit to the National Park System’s Grand Canyon Webcam yielded this view from Yavapai Point on the South Rim, elevation 7084 feet.

Not really — the produce from this vine is called Yard Long Beans — also known as Asparagus bean, dow gauk, Chinese long beans, Peru bean, and Snake bean. The flowers are pale, delicate little things about the size of a thumbnail or just a little bigger. This photo was snapped in our garden this morning. The little beans rising on the left are about an inch long (~3cm), but they will be as long as your forearm (Cap’n says a cubit??) in a couple of weeks when they get picked.

I found this on Farm and Garden:

ASPARAGUS BEAN

History, definition & classification

The asparagus or yard long bean originated in southern Asia and is now grown extensively in Asia, Europe, and most recently, the United States. These unique beans grow on twining, delicate stems with a tenacious root system. The plants bloom in mid-summer with a pair of large white or purple flowers. Once pollinated, the flowers are followed by tiny dark green beans that reach a foot long in only a few days. The beans can grow up to three feet long, ripening to pale green and inflating as the red or black seeds ripen.

Although they resemble pole snap beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), asparagus beans are more closely related to southern cowpeas, Vigna unguiculata. Asparagus bean, Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis, is called dow gauk in China, sasage in Japan, and Chinese long bean or yardlong bean in Europe and the United States.

In stark contrast to Bear, this is Moon. They are both from the same litter but I find it hard to believe sometimes. This one is broke.

Now don’t get me wrong — she is gentle and loves everyone and has a good disposition. Just a few bad habits (or instincts maybe) — she digs up the garden and occasionally eats vegetation that disagrees with her (picture messes to clean up), so she has to stay in the dog run most of the time. Not to worry, though, the Mama (that would be me) spends quality time with both dogs and sees that they get water and treats and (believe it or not) gourmet dog food daily. We save meat scraps in the freezer, and concoct “slump” for them: boiled meat scraps in rice with chicken or beef stock served over the traditional dry dog chow. Oh yeah, they love their Mama.