PARK SERVICE EMPLOYEES GET NEW MAPPING TOOLS

See the story at this link.

Glacier Bay National Park and Last Chance Tourism

Perhaps one of the easiest places to get to do "last chance tourism" since a regular fleet of cruise ships pass through the area every summer. Pretty soon you will be able to sail into Canada!

Margerie Glacier above, and the map below:

See a short video on YouTube that I just got around to producing at this link.

NERR joined SORP this past Spring

Like the alphabet soup?  Conference highlights and such are found on their website.  Previous SORP conferences are also found at this site.  The Northeastern Recreation and Research Symposium has been around since 1989!

Summer Solstice and my final Dead show

About twenty years ago, I saw my final Grateful Dead show over in Albany, NY at the Knickerbocker.  Like all the shows, it was tremendously entertaining and proved to be a wonderful day.  I won't make the final shows this year, but I am reminded about my 20 years of shows.  Jerry, RIP passed away later that summer.

To relive the shows, try archive.org for soundboard (streaming) and audience tapes (downloadable).

NASA Earth Observatory Image of the Day

Always good to see what NASA is doing, and the Image of the Day is usually spectacular.

Click here for the current image.

Damnation

I just caught this documentary on streaming Netflix.  All I can say is WATCH IT!

It is inspirational.

It is important.

It is required.

My friend Dr. Jo Beth Mullens (Keene State) has done research on dam removal. So I do know a bit about the subject.  You can too, by watching the film and reading her research.

another cool hike

Becket Quarry is managed by the Becket Land Trust.  It is a remarkable resource for hiking, but also for a historic view of an abandoned granite quarry operation.  The Hudson-Chester Granite Company operated from the 1850's and closed in the 1960's.

We visited the area yesterday and hiked around a bit.  The area has plenty of trails to check out, are well marked with signs and blazing and the routes are varied enough for multiple trips.

Check out my YouTube video.

Hiking

Early spring, past the mud season is a great time to hike.  While the recent film "Wild" and "A Walk in the Woods" may encourage (motivate) a herd of novices on long distance trails, why not check out a local hike first.

Here is a short video of the H. Newman Marsh Trail in Chester-Blandford State Forest for starters.

RIP Draclula

Sort of combining dark or fright tourism with film tourism, we lost one of the greats this week.

Christopher Lee dies at age 93.

His many Hammer films in the 1950s and 60s, renewed interest in horror films during a period of weakening censorship.  Mr. Lee went on to star in comedies, a Bond movie and more recently The Lord of the Rings.

See Sir Lee's extensive filmography at imdb.com

FIFA part two

Back on 3 June 2015 I reported on the FIFA scandal.  Seems this is nothing new (surprise!) and in fact a recent paper has been written titled "The Mega-Event Syndrome: Why So Much Goes Wrong in Mega-Event Planning and What to Do About It" and published in the Journal of the American Planning Association.

Free access too!

Weather

Let me just list some cool weather websites for you.

www.weather.gov
www.wunderground.com
www.intellicast.com
forecast.io/
weather.noaa.gov/
www.metoffice.gov.uk/
www.ametsoc.org/amsedu/dstreme/
models.weatherbell.com/#
AccuWeather.com
www.bbc.co.uk/weather
www.metoffice.gov.uk
www.bom.gov.au
weather.yahoo.com
weather.cnn.com/weather/forecast.jsp
www.theweathernetwork.com/us
www.msn.com/en-us/weather
www.weather2travel.com
www.snow-forecast.com

So when you travel, just google "location" weather websites to find really good local weather info.

Blatter announced his resignation as FIFA president

See the news report on YouTube.

"Sepp Blatter says he will resign as president of football's governing body Fifa amid a corruption scandal. In announcing his exit, the 79-year-old Swiss has called an extraordinary Fifa congress "as soon as possible" to elect a new president."

Bald Knob Cross

A religious attraction in Southern Illinois, seek and you shall find .... the Bald Knob Cross.

Guide to presentations

The International Association for Society and Natural Resources has a great page on preparing presentations and posters. In particular I like the suggestions of an awful PPT presentation!

We all need to be reminded!