Sharing photos, videos, vintage images I've discovered, and -- occasionally -- commentary and thoughts from retired life and travels.

February 2010

In today’s hard economic times, closing state parks seems to be a remedy that many states have used or are considering.  A Las Vegas Sun article says Nevada legislators are considering closing all of the state parks in Nevada.

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The Nevada Legislature is thinking of closing state parks as it considers how to patch an estimated $900 million budget gap, a move that would save a few million dollars while killing the economies of rural towns and stunting tourism efforts across the state, opponents of the idea say.

Gov. Jim Gibbons has suggested a 10 percent budget reduction for a number of agencies, including the State Parks Division. But the Interim Finance Committee could take that a step further. At its meeting in Las Vegas on Thursday, the committee is expected to consider following the lead of cash-strapped states such as California and Arizona, that have closed some or all of their state parks.

In Nevada, the proposal is the brainchild of Senate Majority Leader Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, who says he is considering shutting down all state parks to save money.

Read the entire article: Would closing state parks to save money do more harm than good?

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Woolly family cabin

February 22, 2010

Woolly family cabin, Woolly State Park, Arkansas, November 4, 2007

Woolly State Park, Arkansas, November 4, 2007

William Riley Woolly and his family migrated from Waynesboro, Tennessee in 1851, settling on land that came to be known as Woolly Hollow in Faulkner County, Arkansas.  In 1882, a son, Martin Alfred Woolly, built a one room log home on land that he had homesteaded in 1859.  Constructed of logs more than a foot thick and eighteen feet long, the cabin was originally located less than a mile southwest of the park.  In 1975, it was moved to its present site and restored.


Information: Woolly Hollow State Park

Gallery: Woolly Hollow State Park

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Forbes India has an account of how a retired geologist took apart the alarmist climate claims of a Nobel Prize winning organization.

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Hell Breaks Loose
Raina vividly remembers the day the report was released. “It is surprising that even on the day when this document was released by the minister, a lot of press asked me questions but nobody bothered to put them in the papers because probably at that time they thought this fellow knows nothing… yeh to mantriji ne kar diya,” he says. He was partially correct. Not many took the statement too seriously in the beginning, except for some stray critics writing in the media. But the one man who took immediate note of it and reacted bitterly was R. K. Pachauri, chairman of IPCC.

Read the Forbes India article: V K Raina: The Man Who Came In From The Cold

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Global Warming: Meltdown

February 21, 2010

From KUSI News, San Diego, a special report:

Part one:

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

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A report in Newsweek, Iceberg Ahead, looks at the current state of climate science and politics… and how things got to this point.

Iceberg Ahead – Climate scientists who play fast and loose with the facts are imperiling not just their profession but the planet.

What went wrong? Part of the blame lies, of course, with those who obstructed the efforts of the IPCC and the individual scientists, including bloggers who tried to sandbag scientists with spurious FOIA requests, and the perpetrators (as yet unknown) of the hack at the Climatic Research Unit. Part of the blame also falls on the climate scientists themselves. Many of them—including perhaps Rajendra Pachauri, the IPCC head—may have stepped too far over the line from science to advocacy, undermining their own credibility. Some scientists, as a result, are now calling for a change in tone from antagonism to reconciliation. Climate science, they say, needs to open its books and be more tolerant of scrutiny from the outside. Its institutions—notably the IPCC—need to go about their business with greater transparency. "The circle-the-wagons mentality has backfired," says Judith Curry, head of Georgia Tech’s School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.

Read more: Iceberg Ahead – Climate scientists who play fast and loose with the facts are imperiling not just their profession but the planet.

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flag of the CSS Alabama, The Mariners Museum, Newport News, Virginia, May 10, 2009

The Mariner’s Museum, Newport News, Virginia, May 10, 2009

Unable to build or buy enough warships to contest Northern control of the seas, the South purchased several fast cruisers in Britain and sent them out with orders to raid Union shipping. The most famous of these vessels was the Alabama, commanded by Raphael Semmes. Prowling the seas from the West Indies to the Indian Ocean, the Alabama captured 63 vessels in just 22 months.

The Alabama was caught by the Kearsarge at Cherbourg, France. Although his ship was worn out by many months at sea, Semmes chose to meet the Kearsarge in battle. The Alabama was sunk within two hours. Semmes and many of his crew were rescued by the English yacht Deerhound and escaped captivity.


Gallery: The Mariners’ Museum, Newport News, May 10, 2009

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