National Park Week

In the midst of Earth Day Week hoopla, you may have missed the announcement of National Park Week.

Did you know…that from Monday, April 22 – Friday, April 26, the national parks waive all entrance fees? So, whether it is your first trip, or the latest of many memorable park experiences, there couldn’t be a better time to get out and explore!

Did you know…that with 401 parks coast-to-coast, every American is less than 100 miles from a national park experience? National Park Week is the perfect opportunity to explore and enjoy these amazing places — so check the calendar of events, lace up your boots, pack your bag and set out on a national park adventure uniquely your own!

That's right. Sequestration be damned! The the National Park Service and the National Park Foundation partner to waive park entrance fees all week.

You needn't feel left out just because you can't make it out of the city this week.  Did you know that the NPS operates small historical sites/parks/museums in cities around the country? We visited the Statue of Liberty in Disney vs NPS.  NPS also operates Ellis Island, Angel Island...

Go find a park near you!

Earth Day Shortcut

This video from National Geographic makes many of the points I keep harping about, so I don't have to bother writing another earth day post from scratch.



Thinking holistically and extrinsically, taking shorter showers is fine, but consuming less things that take enormous amounts of water and energy to produce is even better.

Cotton is a notoriously thirsty crop, so consuming one less t-shirt frees up enough drinking water for 900 people for one day.  This is not an academic tradeoff.  Water is routinely diverted from other uses in food-scarce dry and poor countries to produce cotton, a cash crop sold abroad. 

Meat is also high up on the water and energy footprint scale.  After some trial and deliberation, we've decided not to go completely meatless, but to enjoy vegetarian meals more often than not.  YMMV. But, if each household trimmed back their consumption by 20% (of any good), that's the same impact as if one household in five went cold turkey and the rest did nothing out of the mistaken belief it was an all or nothing proposition.

Links:

• Embedded water: cotton 
• How 'Green' is Your T-shirt? 
• Blog Action Day: Walking My Watershed

The Onion Nails It

This is the bestest front page I saw all week.

Pay particular attention to the center column of "Recent News"

Scroll down further to see BREAKING: We're Doing A Bad Job

After soliciting information from the public regarding the quality of our reporting and taking an honest look at what we’ve done in the past hour, we have learned that not only is our coverage substandard, but atrocious. Sources confirmed that, if we’re being honest, we have done nothing but waste your time. Moreover, reports indicate that nothing will actually be worth reporting until the second bombing suspect is apprehended or killed.

Also note the satirical Op-Ed "by" Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President Of The National Rifle Association, I Won.

The truth is, you never had a fucking chance. I had Congress in my back pocket the entire time, and so when that big gun control proposal reared its ugly head, we gradually chipped away at it, snipping away provisions for an assault rifle ban and restrictions on high-capacity magazines until all that was left was the idea of expanding background checks to keep military-grade killing implements from falling into the hands of criminals and the mentally unhinged, a relatively innocuous measure supported by 90 percent of Americans.

And, because I was winning by such a large margin at that point and was on my way to a blowout victory, even that tiny little provision didn’t stand a chance at being passed into law. In fact, it couldn’t even clear a minor procedural hurdle. Hell, legislators from both sides of the aisle came together yesterday and crushed it right out of the gate, making me, and the groups that finance me, very, very happy.

During edX section meeting the morning, our TA held the section from her apartment because Boston was on lockdown.  Another student said that the police helicopters were flying over her area looking for the fugitive.

I think that what Boston has experienced this week*is* horrible.  But, I would also like to point out that police helicopters fly nightly over parts of Los Angeles looking for armed and dangerous murderers and that doesn't make national news.  I covered this in Our Children so you know where I stand.

Just in case you haven't had your fill of news, may I suggest:

• The American midwest faces serious flooding (and tornados) over the weekend due to the confluence of a line of severe thunderstorms during the height of the spring snowmelt season.  April is peak tornado season in north America because the (gulf) lower level jet encroaches further north as the sea surface temperatures warm and the polar jet stream dips further south as the polar stratospheric jet breaks up each polar dawn.
• For the Love of God, Just Call It a Filibuster
• Opposition: March deadliest month in Syrian civil war: A human rights group says that over 6000 people, 1/3 of them civilians were killed in March 2013. The UN says that the numbers may be even higher.
• Mexico government downplays deadly violence: The drug war death toll is virtually unchanged over last year, which was a record-setting year. 914 people were murdered in the short month of February 2013 alone. "Because governments have been reluctant to release homicide statistics — Calderon's administration deliberately concealed them — the Mexican public has relied largely on counts by national newspapers."  BTW, Mexicans are mainly murdered with guns purchased in the US and then exported to Mexico.
• The LA Coroner's office has stopped releasing data as well. Yup, if the data is embarrassing, then let's just sweep it under the rug.

It's time for the silent majority to stand up and hold our elected officials accountable.