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Artists display their talents as they paint works of art during “Karadah Day” and the reopening of Jadriya Lake Park in the Karadah District of southeast Baghdad, Aug. 22, 2008. Photo by Spc. Grant Okubo. FORWARD OPERATING BASE RUSTAMIYAH — An estimated 2,250 Iraqi citizens witnessed a step toward a return to normalcy as local officials reopened Jadriya Lake Park in the Karadah District of eastern Baghdad, Aug. 22.Government officials, security force leaders, contractors, and Soldiers who all worked together to restore the lake and surrounding grounds joined the people in celebrating the successful lake reopening.Karadah District Council chairman Dr....

The snake hunter shakes his head as he crouches over a sandy trail that pushes through Collier-Seminole State Park. Hoping to spy subtle signs of his slithering prey, Paul Andreadis instead finds only pebble-sized pockmarks left by raindrops overnight and maybe tracks left by a deer, probably that morning. “No, nothing here,” said Andreadis, a snake researcher visiting Collier-Seminole last week from Denison University, located near Columbus, Ohio. Andreadis stands up and, from behind the mosquito netting hanging from the brim of his wide-brimmed hat, sets his sights on the trail ahead. He knows Burmese pythons are out there; a...

Just minutes before 2:30 p.d.t. a fire broke out above Travel Town the train location of the park. Located half way up the mountain, the fire continues to grow as of this writing. It appears to have spread to several acres at this point, but I am unable to see it up close. Photos and video to follow...

Another in an occasional series of great state parks. Ricketts Glen is a fairly large state park west of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre; apparently chock-full of waterfalls (24 named on the Falls Trail). Here's a couple: This one's called Ganoga Falls; nice change-of-pace with black-and-white. At 94 feet, it's the tallest in the park. Nice small picture, no name given. Could be the same fall as the one below it (Murray Reynolds Falls). Murray Reynolds Falls: This last one was also taken at Ricketts Glen, not a waterfall, and it's 1/4 size (click for full-size). Nice desktop candidate.

An L.A. Speculator Plans a Disney-Style Park in BaghdadWhat a blast By DAVID FERRELL Wednesday, June 4, 2008 - 6:19 pm Only five years after U.S. warplanes rained down “shock and awe” on Iraq, decimating towns and families, a few rich Californians have figured out how to counter the mortar attacks, suicide bombings and other acts of terrorism that continue to ravage the capital city, Baghdad. Build an amusement park. Not enough excitement in machine-gun fire and cars blowing up? Soon, thanks to some Los Angeles–area venture capitalists, Iraqis may have what every adrenaline junkie really craves — thrill rides....

Bo (woof) in commentary: Cool device for those younger than 106. Another machine that will allow your owner to get fatter than ever http://boknowsonline.com/2008/04/30/perpetual-motion-machine/

Texas Department of Transportation that claims it has no money for roads uses $20 million in gas tax funds to build a park. Woodall Rodgers ParkThe Woodall Rodgers Park Foundation announced yesterday that the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) would hand over $20 million in gas tax funds to help build a 5.2 acre park near downtown Dallas. The $67 million park is intended to serve as a model public-private partnership with a restaurant, a children's playground and a dog park. It will have no roads. "The park... will connect Uptown, Downtown and the Arts District, and is expected to...

Matthew Murray was kicked out of a missionary training program five years ago for strange behavior...Murray performed a pair of dark rock songs at a concert at the mission that made fellow workers "pretty scared,"...which included a song by rock band Linkin Park...Werner, of Balneario Camborius, Brazil, said he had a bunk near Murray's and that Murray would roll around in bed and make noises. "He would say, 'Don't worry, I'm just talking to the voices,' " Werner said. "He'd say, 'Don't worry, Richard. You're a nice guy. The voices like you.' "

FORT HUACHUCA — Humans like to socialize. So do dogs. Unlike two-legged mammals who can throw a party in the back yard for neighbors or engage in more high-toned activities, the socialization of humans’ four-legged best friends is limited. But no more. On Saturday, a new park opened on the fort. It’s an off-leash area for dogs to run and meet the varying members of the canine species. Until the park opened, dogs had nowhere else to run loose on post. The Williams Field Dog Park was the brainstorm and project of the Fort Huachuca Sgt. Audie Murphy Club. It...

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — An undercover investigation into public sex in Johnson City parks has led to the arrest of 40 men in two weeks. "Our parks are for family use. People should not be exposed to this while they are out there with their family or trying to enjoy the walking trails," Johnson City Police Chief John Lowry said. "They are not built nor maintained for sexual activity, be it homosexual activity or heterosexual activity." The investigation in the Winged Deer and Buffalo Mountain parks began after police received complaints from the public. "Part of this took place off...

This one was still passed out at 8:22 this morning. this is in St. Augustine's historical plaza, right across from the Cathedral steps. Yeah, I made sure he was breathing. The police department seems to have it's hands tied, the plaza is full of these.

The United Nations' Cash for Kim Jong Il scandal is now six months old, so it's a good time to assess progress, if that's the right word. The evidence of misdeeds at the U.N. Development Program in North Korea continues to mount, but there's still no "urgent" and "external" inquiry, as ordered by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in January. Now the U.S. has uncovered evidence that in addition to transferring millions of dollars in cash that may have gone to help prop up Kim's grotesque regime, the UNDP also transferred dual-use technology. It did so without bothering to secure a U.S....

San Diego Chapter: Any freepers know about the park just south of downtown that had the overcrossing painted Red White and Green?

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A fire broke out in the hills above Los Angeles on Tuesday, not far from the famed Hollywood sign, forcing evacuation of the city's largest park and zoo and snarling traffic on a major freeway. The fire, which authorities say may have been started by arson, began about 1:20 p.m. PDT (4:20 p.m. EDT) and was fanned by unseasonably high temperatures and hot Santa Ana winds. The blaze was centered in hilly Griffith Park, home of the Griffith Observatory, where scenes from James Dean classic movie "Rebel Without a Cause" were filmed in the 1950s. Authorities...

Two days after they were beaten in a city park as they tried to help a girl who was under attack, Edward White and his wife, Angelique Denwiddie, are determined to move back to Chicago. White, a native of the North Side, said Thursday that he wants to return to the city to help youths find jobs and stay out of trouble. "It's time. I want to be a part of the community. I want to keep it strong," said White, 38, who has lived in Skokie with this wife and children for four years. Seeking better schools for their...

A 20-year-old Richmond man was sprayed with gunfire early Friday as he sat in a car across the street from a "tent city" occupied by people campaigning to end gun violence. But residents of the encampment said the killing had only strengthened their resolve. Travante James was shot multiple times shortly after 4 a.m. across the street from John F. Kennedy Park, home of one of four tent cities that have sprung up recently around Richmond's Iron Triangle and other crime-plagued areas. The victim was taken by paramedics to Kaiser Medical Center in Richmond and pronounced dead, making him the...

At the link, above (this link will be good for a few more hours). North Korea's top diplomat to the UN, Mr. Park, strolls the streets of NYC yesterday, spouting additional DPRK nuclear threats, smirking, and stating that the UN should in fact "congratulate our scientists and researchers". Smirking later in the brief video when in a UN meeting, shaking hand of DPRK diplomatic colleague, etc..Japanese TV Windows Media Clip 300K. Smirking starts at 10 seconds into clip--be patient for the load. Additional threats issued later, in Korean, and subtitled into Japanese.http://meta.cdn.yahoo-streaming.jp/cgi-bin/yahoo/news.asx?cid=20061010-00000051-nnn-int-movie-000&media=wm300k

An aggressive squirrel pounced on a 4-year-old boy in an attack last week in Cuesta Park in Mountain View. The attack happened as the boy's mother unwrapped a muffin during a picnic. Ironically, efforts to curb the behavior may have exacerbated the squirrels' aggressive tendencies, Muela said. This summer, the city installed new trash receptacles featuring metal tops with a latch that makes it nearly impossible for an animal to rummage through the can in search of food. Increased park ranger patrols and flier distributions cautioning against feeding the animals might have further cut the squirrels' food supply, prompting them...

Bukit Mertajam Recreational Park is worth visiting. Its cool hill air encourages a profusion of ferns and wild flowers, as well as exotic butterflies, birds and insects. For the adventurous, there are numerous jungle tracks leading to the heart of the forest. Visit Fort Cornwallis was built on the site of Francis Light's historic landing in 1786. Originally a wooden stockade, it was replaced by a concrete structure built by convict labour, in 1804. Today, an open-air amphitheatre, history gallery, and handicraft and souvenir centre occupy the interior.

Canton police aren’t sure why Qamara Biquis Muhammad’s little boys were left in her van for more than two hours. They’re not precisely sure where the mother of the 3- and 5-year-old children went in the hours before 2:30 a.m. July 10. And they’re not really sure why Muhammad had lost custody of the children, and how long ago the boys went to live with their grandmother. The children were placed in the care of a family member, and Muhammad, 24, of Ypsilanti was charged with two counts of second-degree child abuse, each a four-year felony, and two counts of...

Saddam Hussein’s regime paid millions of dollars to a South Korean businessman to create a “secret backchannel” to top UN officials, including Boutros Boutros Ghali, then the UN Secretary-General, US prosecutors alleged today. The claim, formally naming Dr Boutros Ghali for the first time, was made at the start of the first US trial over the UN’s Oil-for-Food scandal. Prosecutors said that Tongsun Park received $2.5 million (£1.4 million) in cash plus promises of lucrative business deals in return for providing access to Dr Boutros Ghali and at least one other top UN official. “Tongsun Park has access at the...

GLYNDON, Minn.— Authorities arrested 10 people in a raid on an alleged drug ring that investigators said controlled part of a mobile home park, including one of its two entrances. The suspects "actually had the entire front of the trailer park sealed off,'' Police Chief Mike Cline said. But that control ended around noon Monday, when 37 officers from 11 law-enforcement agencies raided four mobile homes in the park, arrested all 10 suspects, and seized nearly $200,000 worth of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.

Demonstrations at Armory Park today are part of a national effort dubbed "A Day Without an Immigrant." Latinos across the country skipped work and boycotted businesses in an effort to demonstrate the importance of immigrants to the economy. At Tucson's Armory Park, hundreds sat in small groups listening to music, eating lunch and mingling around. The tone is low-key, unlike the demonstration last month ---

This started as a question to myself: "I wonder if there are sand dunes in northern climates?" Googling on "sand dunes" + Canada revealed another heretofore unknown (at least to me) geological location -- Athabasca Sand Dunes in Saskatchewan. I've heard of Athabasca before in association with tar sands, but this is a the first time I'd heard of a provincial Athabasca Sand Dunes Park. The Web site says that is only accessible by air. So I'm guessing not a lot of people have been there or visit there. Since this is very new to me and perhaps others, first...

Comedy Central Censored Mohammed I'm not sure if it's been reported yet, but for what it's worth, I just got off the phone with a Comedy Central spokesman. I asked him about last night's episode of South Park in which, at a moment right before the prophet Mohammed was supposed to make a cameo, the words, "Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Mohammed on their network" appeared on the screen. I asked him whether this truly was Comedy Central's decision or whether this was just another gag (with South Park, you never know). He said: They reflected...

WASHINGTON, March 26, 2006 – A national company's program offering free amusement park tickets to the nation's troops and their families has become so popular it will be extended another year. America Supports You corporate member Anheuser-Busch is offering free admission to its amusement parks for troops and their families. Pictured here, soldiers ride "SheiKra," a roller coaster at Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay, Fla., during summer 2005. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Anheuser-Busch began the program, called "Here's to the Heroes," in February 2005. The company had planned to end it early this year, said...

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Soul singer Isaac Hayes said Monday he was quitting his job as the voice of the lusty character "Chef" on the satiric cable TV cartoon "South Park," citing the show's "inappropriate ridicule" of religion. But series co-creator Matt Stone said the veteran recording artist was upset the show had recently lampooned the Church of Scientology, of which Hayes is an outspoken follower. "In ten years and over 150 episodes of 'South Park,' Isaac never had a problem with the show making fun of Christians, Muslim, Mormons or Jews," Stone said in a statement issued by...

Teheran park 'cleansed' of traces from nuclear site By Con Coughlin, Defence and Security Editor (Filed: 06/03/2006) Iran's Revolutionary Guards have taken the extraordinary step of cutting down thousands of trees in Teheran to prevent United Nations inspectors from finding traces of enriched uranium from a top-secret nuclear plant. News of last month's cleansing operation comes as the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-member board meets in Vienna today to decide whether Iran should be reported to the United Nations Security Council for failing to comply with its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Dr Mohamed ElBaradei: scathing report on Iran...

I read about Grand Gulf, Missouri in a recent "Natural History" magazine, and I admit to a minor fascination with small state-park size canyons and gulches and runs, typified by such places as Turkey Run in Indiana; Letchworth State Park (not so small) in New York; and the Flume in Franconia Notch State Park, New Hampshire -- places I've been to. This appears to be another interesting one that I've not been to. So here's a few pictures of Grand Gulf. I was away from my computer all last week and couldn't post my weekly "feature". The pictures are from...

With just 17 or so flights left on the shuttle manifest before the program is terminated in 2010, NASA's three remaining orbiters can only expect to fly about five missions each. As it turns out, NASA now plans to retire Atlantis in 2008, after five flights, rather than put it through a required overhaul and to "fly out" the remaining half-dozen missions on the manifest with Discovery and Endeavour. But shuttle program manager Wayne Hale told Kennedy Space Center employees today that Atlantis will not be given to a museum, at least not right away. Instead, the space shuttle will...

Enjoy those $6.59 cigarette packs for the next 19 days. Starting March 1, they'll cost $7.59. By a 10-7 vote, Cook County Board members voted Thursday to double the county tax on a pack of cigarettes from $1 to $2. A pack of Marlboro Lights that cost $6.59 at a downtown Walgreens Thursday will be $7.59 next month. The same pack costs $4.45 at a White Hen in the DuPage County city of Elmhurst, and it costs $3.76 at a Hammond, Ind... Commissioners voting against the tax hike said shoppers will increasingly hop borders, hurting Cook County businesses. With the...

A draft congressional report has called for the investigation of Canadian Maurice Strong’s role in the United Nations Oil-for-Food program. Page 35 of the 54-page report, written by Republicans on a House International Relations subcommittee states: "Maurice Strong should be examined for his role in the OFFP." Strong is a long-time advisor to both UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and to Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. On Sept. 7, 2005 it was revealed by the Independent Inquiry into the Oil-for-Food scandal that Strong had received a $1-million cheque from North Korean lobbyist Tongsun Park for the acquisition of shares in Cordex...

Ancient Indian burial site found in Riverhead parkBones and artifacts, believed to be from an early American Indian burial site, are discovered in Riverhead county park, near eroded river bank Oct 26, 2005 BY BILL BLEYER STAFF WRITER; Staff writer Mitchell Freedman contributed to this story. October 27, 2005 Last week's stormy weather uncovered what experts said may be an important early American Indian burial site at Indian Island County Park in Riverhead. The site was spotted by a park supervisor after the Peconic River bank was eroded early last week by heavy rains and high wave action, said Suffolk...

The public will get a chance tomorrow to weigh in on a proposal to add the Waco Mammoth Site to the national park system. A team of National Park Service officials is kicking off its study of the mammoth park idea with a public hearing at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Baylor University's Mayborn Museum. Officials with Baylor and the city of Waco are trying to rally community support for the project. “It's important for us to have a good turnout,” said Mayborn director Ellie Caston. “We need to be able to show the team that the community is concerned about...

PARIS (AFP) - US astronomers said they had pinpointed the moment and location when one of the most famous landscape pictures in photographic history was taken. "Autumn Moon, the High Sierra from Glacier Point," taken by Ansel Adams in Yosemite National Park, is a thrilling view of the American West, featuring a waxing Moon rising over dark, ice-tinged peaks. But precisely when Adams took the iconic black-and-white picture has never been clear, and dates for it range from the mid to the late 1940s.

WHISKEYTOWN, Calif. -- Dick McDermott knows these parts as well as any man can. But McDermott says he's never laid eyes on the nearly 400-foot waterfall that park officials recently discovered in a remote corner of the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, 43,000 acres of wilderness in northern California. The 92-year-old used to earn a meager living mining the creeks that meander through the deeply wooded hills. He has slogged through the brush and hiked overgrown logging roads, hunting deer and gathering wood for his homemade fiddles. Water cascades down the recently discovered "Whiskeytown Falls, located in the Whiskeytown National Recreation...

NEW YORK — As investigations proliferate into the United Nations Oil-for-Food scandal, one of the more intriguing mysteries involves a former French diplomat with a direct link to the U.N.’s executive suite: Jean-Bernard Merimee (search). The 68-year-old Merimee, one of several individuals now under investigation in France for alleged involvement in Saddam Hussein’s Oil-for-Food scams, is well known for his role in the early 1990s as French ambassador to the United Nations. What investigators have not so far highlighted is that during the period Merimee is alleged to have come into commercial contact with Saddam’s regime, starting in December 2001,...

Editorial 07/26: That elusive common ground July 26, 2005 Extreme points of view tend to get most of the ink, but those who seek the middle ground should not be discouraged. Such is the case in the dispute over the recommendation by the Center City Commission and Shelby County Commissioner Walter Bailey to rename Memphis parks whose names suggest continued allegiance to the Confederacy... [snip] Memphis attorney Karl Schledwitz, perhaps best known for leading the campaign to bring pandas to the Memphis Zoo, is the architect of this very different sort of move. Schledwitz said he had the necessary parties...

RICHMOND, Va. — A federal appeals court yesterday reinstated a lawsuit challenging a Virginia law requiring parental supervision at a summer camp for juvenile nudists. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the American Association for Nude Recreation-Eastern Region could pursue its claim that the law violates its free-speech rights by crimping its ability to spread its social nudism philosophy. The organization claims it had to cancel a summer camp last summer in southeast Virginia because only 11 of the 35 youths who signed up would have been able to bring a parent as...

• Light not thy fireworks......

According to the text of the page, this feature can be seen on a hike to Lexington Arch in Great Basin National Park. I actually was looking for pictures of Lexington Arch, and there are a few, but this one seemed more interesting. The site is nice if you like arches (I do).

The following is an event June 25th that although is not sponsored or endorsed by the United American Committee may be of interest to many of our members. I will be there and if you can make it, you are all welcome to join me: There is a monument in the city of Baldwin Park in the L.A. area that is paid for by tax payers money and has inscribed on it the following text:"This land was Mexican once, was Indian always and is, And will be again."And on the other side of the monument it reads:"IT WAS BETTER BEFORE...

NEW YORK Apr 14, 2005 — Four more people were charged Thursday in the scandal in the U.N. oil-for-food program, including a Texas oil executive and a South Korean businessman who was at the center of a 1970s corruption case involving Congress. ~snip~U.S. Attorney David Kelley called the new charges "two more pieces in the oil-for-food puzzle" and said the investigation is not over. ~snip~One of the indictments announced Thursday charges a Texas oil company owner and two oil traders with paying millions in secret kickbacks to Saddam's regime to secure oil deals, thus cheating the program out of money...

For news junkies, this will be a hectic week. By its end, Catholics may have a new pope, we may have a new UN ambassador, and both Kofi and his bestest buddy Jacques may suffer nervous breakdowns. Things are looking up because, while Volcker fiddles, the FBI and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York are burning bad guys. Now all we need to find out are the names of Cooperating Witnesses One and Two, and the high-ranking UN officials whom they bribed for Saddam. CW1 and CW2 may be the first people who have earned the...

WASHINGTON and TORONTO — Canadian Maurice Strong agreed to step aside Wednesday as a special envoy for the United Nations, but vowed to clear his name after being linked to Tongsun Park, a Korean lobbyist charged in connection with the Iraq oil-for-food scandal. At the same time, new details emerged about a Calgary oil company in which Mr. Strong and his son, Fred, were major investors during the 1990s together with Mr. Park -- whom the younger Mr. Strong described as "a spooky guy." Shareholders in Cordex Petroleums Inc. also included CSL Group Inc., the holding company owned by Prime...

UN probes Wheat Pool Payments of $23.15M made in oil-for-food scandal congressional hearing told Steven Edwards CanWest News Service Saturday, April 30, 2005 UNITED NATIONS -- The Saskatchewan Wheat Pool has emerged as one of the companies involved in Iraq oil-for-food deals now under investigation by a U.S. congressional committee probing the United Nations aid program, which Saddam Hussein manipulated to skim off billions of dollars for himself. The focus on the company comes as the UN announced Friday it had discovered a staff-rule violation by Canadian businessperson and international diplomat Maurice Strong, whose long record at the world body...

-- Cleveland Metroparks officials have closed part of the North Chagrin Reservation after a pair of aggressive female coyotes bit a bicyclist and a pet dog over the weekend. Park officials said the wild animals are believed to be protecting their den -- and possibly a litter of coyote pups -- but park rangers shot and killed the older female Sunday and have taken the head to the Ohio Department of Health to be tested for rabies. "It's just a precaution because we don't believe she was rabid, just that she was territorial," Cleveland Metroparks spokeswoman Jane Christyson said Tuesday....

Kofi Annan’s special envoy to Korea Maurice Strong admits he knows "Koreagate Man" Tongsun Park and even that Park invested in an "energy company" with which he was associated in 1997--but flatly denies any involvement in the scandal-ridden UN oil-for-food program. U.S. federal prosecutors are on the hunt for Park, who was charged on Thursday by the U.S. Attorney’s Office with allegedly accepting million of dollars from the Iraqi government while operating in the U.S. as an unregistered agent for Baghdad. "Park was accused of telling a cooperating government witness in 1995 that he needed $10 million from Iraq to...

LOS ANGELES Soka University of America has sold its 588-acre land in the Santa Monica Mountains to the state for 35 (m) million dollars. The land is expected to become public park land consisting of nature trails. It also will house the headquarters for the Santa Monica State Recreation Area and a national park visitors' center. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy will own and oversee most of the land once it's turned over to the state in three years. Under terms of the deal, the university will lease the land until current students graduate. Joseph Edmiston, conservancy executive director, says...