philly

Fall in PA

Holy shit! Look at the size of that leaf! Oooor, is that a mini person? A micro person, perhaps. Smurf-sized if you will.

I got an email today about the tourism board's newest gimmick, Fall is Bigger Here. A funny way for PA residents to laud the changing of the colors to the Fall season. Send in your own gigantic leaf photos or send an e-card to somone telling them to come on by and take in the sights [and spend some dough!] of PA.

I've been here in PA for about seventeen months now and haven't seen all that much changing of the colors. I don't get out of the city much so that's to blame. I hear that the rest of PA has some wonderful colors this time of year. I guess I could head on up to Fairmount Park to take in some color if I so chose.

I haven't really been all that into the whole Fall Foliage thang. I'm from the burbs just north of New York City so the scenic Saw Mill Parkway was a short car ride away where you could take in the deciduous trees change color as you drove north through Connecticut. But not for me.

But taking a few photos of some non-green leaves and making a funny PS'd image out of them to in some way help out with PA tourism? I can get down with that. I'm gonna see what I can find in the next few days [when it's not so disgustingly dreary and rainy outside] to play with and submit. Maybe you could be sending an e-card with my mug and an absurdly large leaf to a friend. Now isn't that what everyone in the world wants?

There are currently three images up there of people and their GIANT leaves they've found around PA. Maybe I can do something with the holly tree in front of my apartment building - they're a sign of Fall to me. But I think they're looking more for brown leaves. With the Nor'easter and Wilma joining up around here now, there may not be many leaves left around soon. Maybe I'll have to cheat and use a leaf I find in CT this weekend as Lady and I head up for the weekend.

Photo illustration: Lifted from Fall is Bigger

Eight New World Heritage Sites

The BBC reports [slideshow] on eight new additions to the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Pictured above:

Norway
Two of the world's longest and deepest fjords, Geirangerfjord and Naeroeyfjord, run from Stavanger in the south to Andalsnes, 500 km to the north-east and are set 120km apart.

They are considered among the most stunning of fjord landscapes and are home to many marine mammals.

The last U.S. sites to make it were Carlsbad Caverns National Park and Waterton Glacier International Peace Park in 1995. Waterton Glacier International Peace Park is between Montana and Alberta, Canada and is considered a transboundary property.

Photo: BBC

Budget Vote

And speaking of Medicaid and taxes, I point you to this N.Y. Times article. Some highlights

The House and Senate broke a lengthy impasse over federal spending Thursday night, narrowly adopting a $2.56 trillion federal budget for 2006 that aims to trim the growth of Medicaid by $10 billion over five years, add $106 billion in tax cuts and clear the way for oil drilling in an Alaskan wildlife refuge.
...
Mr. Bush cited the resolution as an example of his ability to get things done on Capitol Hill
...
Although the budget resolution is nonbinding, it is important because it provides an economic blueprint that lawmakers can use to pass specific tax and spending legislation later in the year. For instance, the resolution assumes $106 billion in tax cuts over the next five years, and explicitly directs Congress to enact legislation providing for $70 billion of those cuts. The intent, its authors say, is to extend Mr. Bush's tax cuts on capital gains and dividend income.
...
In the Senate, three Republicans - Senators George V. Voinovich and Mike DeWine of Ohio, and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island - joined with 43 Democrats and one independent to oppose the plan. Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, was absent.

Mmmm, tax cuts during war. It's NEVER EVER BEEN DONE BEFORE. Oh wait, the Repugs just did that. Sorry. It's been done ONLY ONCE BEFORE and by the same Repugs who pushed it through this time.

South Korean Sea Women

I just saw this story on the NY Times about South Korean "Sea Women" and it brought back memories. I'm not the most nationalistic person out there, but I am proud to be an American born Korean. My family came over in the late 1970s to New York and I went back to visit my relatives when I was thirteen in 1993 for the summer. I learned quite a bit about who I am, where I came from and about my family in particular.

I took a trip down to Cheju-Do [Cheju Island] with my cousins from Seoul. It was something like a fifteen hour long trainride. It was quite the journey. I crammed myself in between two seats that were facing away from each other. Picture the "A" shaped negative space. I crammed my bag and myself in there. It wasn't that much of a problem though, I can fall asleep anywhere, in just about any position no matter how loud it may be around me. The only thing was that there's a snack cart that goes through all of the cars and I'd have to move my legs out of the way when it came by.

We stayed in a hostel type place with a heated stone floor, typical of Korean hostels. I saw these women diving for sea animals. It was pretty cool.

Later in the summer, back on the mainland, my family was on the beach and we walked along the beach and saw people selling their catch in buckets. Can't get fresher than that. I remember seeing one slimy looking thing in one of the buckets and I asked my parents what it was. They told me it was as sea urchin or sea cucumber, I forget exactly. I made a squirmy face at them. Not an hour later, we were in a restaurant eating. The server brought over a small plate of cut up slices of shiny black stuff. I asked my parents what it was. They told me to have a piece. I did. I put it in my mouth and it slid down my throat without much effort. It didn't taste like anything, but it was weird. I asked them again. They said, "Remember that thing in the bucket?" Heh. Damn parents and their trixies.

Anyways. The article pointed out that these diving women will be extinct in the next two decades or so which made me sad. Another piece of the "old ways" will die off with the more prosperous tourist industry.

Photo: Seokyong Lee/NYT

Sorry Salmon

No, not Solomon, salmon, the fish.

The LA Times reports that the W administration will move to roll back protections for fish from Southern California all the way up the coast to the Canadian border.

The revised plan, which was prompted by a lawsuit from the National Assn. of Homebuilders, could exclude 80% to 90% of the "critical habitat" that the National Marine Fisheries Service designated four years ago as necessary to keep salmon and steelhead populations from going extinct and to allow their depleted populations to recover.

The streams and rivers that are the "critical habitat[s]" of young salmon who spend their developmental period there and adults who migrate back to the freshwater streams, from the open waters of the Pacific, to spawn.

Nicole Cordan, policy and legal director of Save Our Wild Salmon, called the plan "ridiculous" on its face, predicting that eliminating 90% of protected habitat would fail to meet the biological needs of salmon and the legal tests of the Endangered Species Act.
...
All these actions, Cordan said, "are typical of this administration — ignore science, ignore sound economics and ignore the law."

Cordan hit it right on the head, the W administration just loves to ignore:

1. Science: their abstinence only policy, evolution
2. Sound Economics: not vetoing a single spending bill, borrowing money to pay back outstanding loans
3. The Law: Roe v. Wade

Now where are the salmon going to come from for that $1.1M he set aside for the study of potentially using salmon in baby foods and other products? Looks like he just fucked someone else.

Fairmount Park Hike

On Sunday, Lady and I went for a hike in Fairmount Park which may or may not be the largest city park in America. I always thought NYC's Central Park was, but I've been told otherwise.

Our friends Jodi & Pat introduced us to the trail and we went a-walking for a couple of hours through the most serene setting I've experienced in quite a bit. It was just so quiet in there. When all four of us were silent, there was nothing, just nature; the smell of the trees, the creek and the fallen leaves crunching beneath our shoes. I consider myself more of a city kid than a country kid, but I do love me some nature. I grew up watching the nature programs on PBS and the like and I still love to watch the Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel and the like. I have my father to thank for instilling that love of nature unto me.

Here's the album of a few images I took along the way.

I'm sure I'll be back in the fast park system to discover more of the secrets Fairmount has hidden just a stone's throw outside of the heart of the 5th largest city in the U.S.

Less Forest, More Money

Reuters reports that the U.S. Agriculture Department has proposed to hand over control of nearly a third of all federal forests to state governors. This plan would open up 60M acres of forests to logging.

Looks like a pat on the back for the timber lobby.

Alaska Oil Drilling

While most of the news today will focus solely on the resignation of Secretary of State Colin Powell and Co., a story that is sure to be buried is this one about drilling in Alaska.

The Department of the Interior okayed a plan to start drilling in five sections of the Alaskan North Slope.

Environmentalists have criticized the plan to develop these Alpine satellite fields as a rollback of environmental protections promised during the Clinton administration.

The BLM said it modified the original development proposal to offer greater protection to wildlife and sensitive habitats in the reserve.

Some of the major changes include relocating portions of the gravel access roads and pipeline routes, moving power lines and raising pipelines an additional 2 feet to 7 feet to help migrating caribou.

Awww, isn't that nice? Relocating portions of gravel roads and pipelines. That must have been tough. And moving power lines and raising pipelines for the poor caribou. How about leaving it the fuck alone? Noooo. This is good for America they say.

It allows for the energy development our country needs, while protecting the land, water and wildlife. It will show that this, and future Arctic development, can and will be done in an environmentally sensitive way.

Says Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Rebecca Watson.

What about devoting a couple billion to the creation of a mass production hydrogen-fuelcell car? How about that? A car whose only by product is h20 - water. How about making all car companies who wish to continue selling cars in the U.S. [where there are more car drivers/owneres] convert at least a third of their product line to be solar/electric/hygrogen/hybrid powered within the next decade? That would make heads turn. Smaller companies with a viable business model who have developed exactly this kind of technology would be brought to the forefront and they would be able to receive the proper funding they deserve.

This fossil fuels will not be here for long. We have to find alternative forms of energy to feed our car driving needs.

Sea Turtles, Making a Comeback

I can't remember how many wildlife shows I've watched about the sea turtles. They're really cool. Every year, they migrate to the spot where they were born from all over the world to lay their eggs above the high tide mark. Nobody knows how they know when to come, or if they communicate with each other to mass migrate, but they do.

Most sea turtles have been on the decline for several decades, but one of the Mexican sea turtle species are making a comback. Check them out here.

Praying Mantis

It's been a little bit since I've posted some original artwork, so here goes.

I saw this praying mantis on my way home for lunch a few days ago. I stopped and reeled off a few shots. I couldn't really get a great shot of it though, but I thought it looked so cool. This is the second praying mantis I've ever seen. I took some photos of the other one I saw in NY, but they didn't turn out great either. Maybe they're like Vampires or something.

But on a sadder note, I saw, what I'll assume, were the remains of the manits 2 days later on the sidewalk. I saw a crushed mantis and I can only assume it was the same one, cause, how many praying mantises have you seen on the corner of 15th and Locust next to Fado's? Me? One.

Here's another famous praying mantis.