Hummingbirds

I LOVE hummingbirds. I went out front to feed the fish a few minutes ago and a female black-chinned came up and hovered a foot in front of me. She turned away and fed on the Turk's Cap in the front flower bed, then came to look at me again before flying off.
Of course I didn't have my camera, but the pic above was from last weekend, when another female was guarding "her" backyard against invading migrants. I ran in to get the camera when I saw what I think was a Ruby-throated male, but she had run him off by the time I got back outside.

Squatty Potties

As part of my Fulbright-Hays scholarship, we had to create a "personal narrative" of our trip. Here's mine.

Back in Class

It's the start of the second week of school, and I am still alive and kicking! In fact, although I am worn out, I am pleased with my classes so far. I have 5 Pre-AP geography classes, and 1 regular World Geography class. The 5 PAP ones couldn't be more different. One is full of Gifted/Talented kids who ask a zillion questions, always want to talk about and discuss what's happening around the world, and are ready to learn something new every day. At the other end of the spectrum is a class where getting them to participate in discussions is like pulling teeth. The regular class has a few kids who would be fine in PAP class, so we are able to generate some enthusiasm for the subject in there.
My favorite part of this year so far is the "no zero" policy - if the kid doesn't do their daily work/homework, they are choosing to come after school to Academic Triage to do it. I had 8 students in one PAP class who didn't do the assigned outside reading, so they better show up tomorrow after school or their parents will be getting a call. Hopefully this will put an end to students who fail because they don't do the work (99% of my failing students last year).
If the rest of the year is as good as the first week, I'll be a happy camper.

Iraq, America and hired guns

Iraq, America and hired guns | Analysis & Opinion |

One of the consequences of shrinking our armed forces has been the rise of contractors. Americans don't seem to mind, since we no longer have to fear the draft board, but are citizens really aware of the numbers and costs associated with the rise of "private security"?

Their number is vast — 95,000 in Iraq and 112,000 in Afghanistan according to the latest Pentagon count. This means that there are more civilian contractors than American troops both in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ground Zero Mosque an Issue

Republicans Seek to Make Ground Zero Mosque an Issue in November Elections - Bloomberg

“As a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as everyone else in this country,” Obama said at the dinner. “That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan in accordance with local laws and ordinances.”

I agree, it's an important right for ALL Americans. But apparently some under-educated people don't think so:

Nationally, 68 percent of Americans said they opposed building the mosque two blocks from the target of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, in an Aug. 6-10 poll conducted for CNN.

Maybe they are not aware of this:

Representative Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, said the federal government shouldn’t put any pressure on local officials regarding the mosque. There is a mosque in the Pentagon, also a target of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, which hasn’t drawn any criticism, Nadler said.

I worship as I please every Sunday. I want other people to be free to do the same, at whatever place they choose. It's not like only white Christian men were killed on 9/11, so why the opposition? Maybe because of this:

While Republicans may not mention the mosque in campaign ads, they likely will include it as part of a larger narrative that Obama is “outside the mainstream,” said John Feehery, a Republican strategist and president of the Feehery Group political consulting firm.

It's being used by fear-mongering Republicans to push their candidates. How ugly, how sad, and how disrespectful to the people who lost their lives that day.

Stirring Up Anti-Immigrant Sentiment

Nativism is certainly not new. Benjamin Franklin didn't like the Germans in colonial Pennsylvania. The Alien and Sedition Acts, passed in 1798, were an attempt to deny immigrants from France and Ireland full political rights, and they became a major political issue in the 1800 election. The Irish, Catholics, and Chinese have all suffered under the hands of Americans. When times are bad economically, the first thing we do is point fingers at the latest group of newcomers and blame them for our problems.
This is the one of the current finger-pointers:


all I can say is - what an idiot.

Guillemot Cove on the Hood Canal

The Kitsap peninsula is beautiful this time of year - cool, relatively dry, and covered with a temperate rain forest. Located between the only 2 fjords in the continental US, it's a great place to take a break from the Texas heat. Plus we get to see the grandbabies.
Today we took a hike down to Stavis Bay through the Guillemot Cove Nature Reserve. We hiked 1 1/2 m down the Sawmill Trail to the beach, then back up the old road to the parking lot. We traveled through a beautiful (although logged over) forest, repleat with ferns and moss growing on the trees. We had to cross a boggy wetland at the head of the cove, and then make our way to the beach. It was quiet and peaceful. The tide was coming in, but plenty of barnacle encrusted rocks were there for the girls to throw in the water. There were also lots of oyster and clam shells.
Tomorrow we were going to take another hike, but son-in-law Travis is receiving a Navy medal of some sort in a ceremony on the Naval base at 1 pm, so that's where we're heading.
stay cool,
rem

pics from the hike

Purgatory Creek

It's been a nice, relaxing weekend for a change - nowhere to go, nothing on the schedule. So yesterday morning we decided to take a hike. Robert had read about the hiking trail on upper Purgatory Creek and we decided to try it out. Easier said than done.
For starters, the loop around San Marcos to connect RR 12 with the Interstate just opened, and its not on any maps. The directions to the trail on the San Marcos Greenbelt Alliance website don't take into account the new road, so it took us 1/2 an hour and Google maps on my iPhone to finally find the place. The directions say go to the end of Franklin and take the dirt road, but that's now closed. So we finally figured out where to turn off the new loop.

We really enjoyed the hike - lots of birds, wildflowers, bugs (not the bite-y kind), and trees, and only 3 other people. We even found a Geocache, which I logged. Now that I have an iPhone i can actually do some geocaching and benchmarking. There's an app for that.



The park is part of an effort to encircle fast growing San Marcos with a ring of parks and open spaces. The trail is open to off-road bicycles, and although there were some tracks, we didn't see any bikes. I am sure there are plenty of adrenalin junkies who would love it, but the trail is very rocky in places, and the going would be really rough on a bike. It was hard enough on foot - I had to keep looking down so I wouldn't trip, so whenever I wanted to see the scenery I had to stop. But it was really relaxing and peaceful, and definitely worth the hunt.

Palin's 50 Nifty States

Dontcha just love Jimmy Kimmel?

Download:

FLVMP43GP

Not Only in the Gulf

In this photo released by Greenpeace, a firefighter who was submerged in thick oil during an attempt to fix an underwater pump is brought ashore by his colleagues in Dalian, China on Tuesday.

Growing China oil spill threatens sea life, water

China's largest reported oil spill had more than doubled by Wednesday, closing beaches on the Yellow Sea and prompting an environmental official to warn the sticky black crude posed a "severe threat" to sea life and water quality.

Some workers trying to clean up the inky beaches wore little more than rubber gloves, complicating efforts, one official said.

China Central Television reported that 400,000 gallons of thick crude have spilled since a pipeline ruptured in Dalian. The slick covers over 165 square miles, and is washing ashore on beaches around the Yellow Sea. Unlike the US, China does not have adequate equipment or technology to deal with the spill

"We don't have proper oil cleanup materials, so our workers are wearing rubber gloves and using chopsticks," an official with the Jinshitan Golden Beach Administration Committee told the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper in apparent exasperation. "This kind of inefficiency means the oil will keep coming to shore. ... This stretch of oil is really difficult to clean up in the short term."

The pipeline that ruptured was at a port on the Yellow Sea, and did not involve any drilling activity. However, according to Offshore Magazine (July, 2010), there are a total of 121 deepwater rigs. With the rising middle class in China and India using more and more energy the need for exploration and drilling will only increase.
How will these developing countries cope with the increased number of spills and accidents? Will they be able to adequately respond to any problems? If this article is any indication, there is reason to believe that the environment is at risk, because poorer countries don't have access to the technologies that they need. And as we know since the BP-Deepwater Horizon blowup, even technology can't save us every time.