As of yesterday, there was a hawk inside the Library of Congress' Main Reading Room.
See:
http://bit.ly/gUYidX
The post is pretty funny; the author obviously has a sense of humor. Thanks to Jesse for finding this.
There was an article in yesterday's New York Times, here:
http://nyti.ms/bmWrSy
about a Jewish lobsterman and how he fits in with the culture of Deer Isle, Maine. As you might guess, Deer Isle does not have many Jewish people. He talks about that, but also talks about how lobstering, in it's own way, fits into the Jewish tradition.
There was an article in the Times a few days ago about how people rely on technology too much in National Parks and get themselves into trouble. Part of it, I think, is that when people use the technology, they discard common sense.
When I hike, even in a park with some mobile phone service (Shenandoah), I don't rely on it to get me out of trouble. I don't hike alone and I expect that I should be prepared to not be able to get help immediately via cell phone if there is an accident. Someone who hikes in a park out west and expects to have mobile phone service is asking for trouble. Someone who decides to record himself as he gets close to a bison is asking for even more trouble.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/science/earth/22parks.html is the link.
If you're snowed in, PBS' The National Parks: America's Best Idea are posted online. Some have full episodes available.
For anyone in the Maryland Outdoor Club reading this (or anyone else for that matter!), here's a link to a historical site on Skyline Drive. For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, that's the road that traverses Shenandoah National Park. There's a picture on the National Park Service's website of what looks like the same overlook that I stopped at last fall and took pictures at. I'm looking forward to the fall.
NPR had a good commentary by someone on why people did not evacuate during Hurricane Ike. While I don't really agree with their reasoning on not evacuating, the essay is, nonetheless, very good (in particular the last paragraph). I think it's more powerful listening to it than reading it.
There was a piece on NPR about the Yellowstone National Park Fires, ten years later. This is the first part of a five part series.
I also found more than you ever wanted to know about how the National Park Service manages fires.
I heard about China asking Nepal to close Nepal's face of Mt. Everest from 1 May to 10 May last week on the radio. Nepal has acquiesced. They want to run the Olympic torch to the top of Everest. This article has more information.
I think Nepal shouldn't have acquiesced, as it will deprive all of the people who have planned their years around climbing Everest from climbing it.
As for China, I don't know much about climbing Everest, but one thing that I do know about it is that it is not easy and is not something that should be rushed. Yet, China seems to want to rush someone to the top of Everest and do it sometime between 1 May and 10 May. I understand that China may want to show the world that it can climb Everest, but, in reality, they're depriving people who have planned for years to attempt Everest of that chance so they can put on a show for the world.
Don't read this if you've just had dinner, it's slightly gross.
Now, that being said, if a python starts sleeping in the same bed as your chihuahua, and other animals have been killed by snakes, it might, perhaps, be time to call animal control. This family apparently did not know that. Although the python was in the dogs bed and their cat had recently died under suspicious circumstances, the family did not call animal control.
I was at the public library the other day and was flipping through a biography of E.B. White (author of Charlotte's Web) There was an interesting discussion of how, originally, Fern (the girl in the story), was not going to be featured so prominently, so he originally planned to start the book with what is now the opening scene of Chapter 3, at the barn. It also had pictures of drafts of the book that he had typed up and scribbled on, which I thought was kind of neat, to see the original wording and see how he had changed it.
The biography was critical of The Trumpet of the Swan. I enjoyed The Trumpet of the Swan when I was growing up, partially because I played the trumpet when I was younger, but also because E.B. White is just a talented writer. Louis' father is funny in that book.
And now, for "Another Spider," as promised in the blog post title.
When I was looking at my car in the hotel parking lot in Washington this weekend, I noticed a spider web on it, in between the spare tire and the side hinge of the door. I drove back to Chambersburg and discovered that the spider was still there (after hurtling at over 65 mph on the highway). Impressive. It spun a web between last night and today. I wonder what it thought when the blue "rock" that it had spun a web on started to move, and then was hurtling down a highway with other "rocks" at amazing speeds. (Probably nothing, since spiders don't think, but it's still impressive that it stayed on my car)
