Day: December 2, 2008
Once upon a time
Other Sweeties
Nora, one of two official daughters-in-law of NewMexiKen, posted a photo on Facebook illustrating why she and Jason “can’t have a real tree, or any ornaments…”
Click the image for a larger version. That’s Barkley on the left and Rocky in the tree.
Go Boom
At 3:25 P.M. on December 2, 1942, the Atomic Age began inside an enormous tent on a squash court under the stands of the University of Chicago’s Stagg Field. There, scientists headed by Enrico Fermi engineered the first controlled nuclear fission chain reaction. The result, sustainable nuclear energy, led to creation of the atomic bomb and nuclear power plants—two of the twentieth century’s most powerful and controversial achievements.
Perhaps it should be a national day of mourning
If you think you’re going to see any mention of Britney Spears’ 27th birthday on this website you are sorely mistaken.
The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act
… became law on this date in 1980, more than doubling the size of the national park system.
According to America’s National Park System: The Critical Documents edited by Lary M. Dilsaver:
In the waning days of the Carter Democratic administration, Congress acted to further protect and expand preserved areas in Alaska, many rescued from exploitation two years earlier by presidential proclamation. This complex and lengthy act defines preserved parks, forests, wilderness areas, wildlife refuges, wild and scenic rivers, and Native American corporation lands and the degrees of preservation and usage for each. It prescribes timber, fish, and wildlife protection and use by Native Americans and other citizens.
New areas for the national park system included Aniakchak National Preserve, Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, Kenai Fjords National Park, Kobuk Valley National Park, Lake Clark National Park and Preserve, Noatak National Preserve, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, and Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. The act also added new lands to Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Katmai National Monument and Preserve, and Denali National Park and Preserve (renamed from Mount McKinley National Park).
New wild and scenic rivers under Park Service administration included Alagnak, Alatna, Aniakchak, Charley, Chilikadrotna, John, Kobuk, Mulchatna, Noatak, North Fork of the Koyukuk, Salmon, Tinayguk, and Tlikakila rivers. Other wild and scenic rivers are designated or expanded in wildlife refuges and in other areas.
The vast majority of acreage in the Denali, Gates of the Arctic, Glacier Bay, Katmai, Kobuk Valley, Lake Clark, Noatak, and Wrangell-St. Elias units is designated wilderness.
Photo taken by Ken, official oldest son of NewMexiKen, 1998.
GM says CEO will drive to Washington
This time, GM Chief Rick Wagoner will drive a company car to Washington instead of flying by corporate jet as he seeks a government bailout, a spokesman says.
Wagoner will drive in a Chevrolet Malibu hybrid sedan when he makes the 520-mile trek from Detroit to Capitol Hill, General Motors Corp. spokesman Tony Cervone said Tuesday.
Poor bastard. Next time he’ll probably be on a Greyhound bus.
In between
It appears from various news reports that this recession, likely to be the most sustained since The Great Depression of the 1930s, will be called “The Great Recession.”