The Future is Now

FRONT PAGE NEWS:  Count us among the legions of folks who watched "Back to the Future Part II" last night, as Oct. 21 was the day lead character Marty McFly traveled to the future. 

While there, one thing Marty did was read a USA Today dated Oct. 22, 2015, marveling at the headlines.

Today, we hit the newsstand and bought a commemorative, today only edition of that paper 

It's fun reading the headlines, which made mention of a female president (not yet), and the Cubs winning the 2015 World Series (they were eliminated from the post season last night).

One element USA Today publishers had to change from the movie prop was a headline that had had "Queen Diana" visiting Washington D.C. That possibility ended in 1997, when she was killed in a tragic auto accident.

PARK POSTERS:  We're still working our way through a stack of educational and attractive posters we got as part of an Earth Sciences week packed. For the last few days, we've had a couple of full color posters about our National Parks system on the wall.

I asked the kids to share a couple of things they learned about the NPS, and tell me what park they'd most like to go visit.  

Here's what Annabelle had to say. ... 

The National Parks Service is an organization dedicated to organizing and protecting national parks. National parks span the entire country and are located in almost every state. National parks also come in many different forms, from campsites to nature preserves. National parks are a great palce to visit if you are looking for a nice place to take a stroll. National parks can be loacted almost anywhere, including a building, as evidenced by the gold rush museum here in Seattle. One national park I would like to visit is the Olympic National Park, located on the Olympic Peninsula. 

        Credit: NPS photo

It has an overwhelming population of Roosevelt elk, the largest unmanaged population in the world. It was almost named “Elk National Park”, because it was founded in part to protect these elks. The park is very large and it seems like fun to explore. I would love to visit someday.

Credit: NPS photo Autumn Elk in the Hoh

And the following is CJ's take. ... 

The National Park Service is, according to Wikipedia, an agency of the United States federal government that manages all U.S. national parks, many American national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations. In the United States, the primary goal of establishing national parks is to preserve their natural beauty for the public and future generations to see.

According to www.classzone.com, a place must meet the following 3 criteria to be considered to become a national park: 1: It must possess a unique natural, cultural, or recreational resource.2: It must be in need of protection, and no organization other than the National Park Service would be able to secure adequate protection.3: It must be able to be protected. (It is suitable and feasible to protect the area.)' I would like to visit the Mount Rainier National Park, which is located in southeast Pierce County and northeast Lewis County. 

Credit: NPS photo - Rainier from Paradise

The park is most well known for Mount Rainier, which is the highest mountain of the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, and the highest mountain in the state of Washington. The park also has the Wonderland Trail, which is 93 miles long, and there are several beautiful pictures of the park online. 

                                              1921 Rainier National Park Company brochure                                          

                                                CREDIT: Mount Rainier National Park Archives

Carbon Glacier, which is in the park, is the largest glacier by volume in the contiguous United States, while Emmons Glacier, which is also in the park, is the largest glacier by area.

JUST WONDERING: As we took a neighborhood stroll this afternoon, we saw a home with an attractive display of gourds and squash on their porch. That got us to wonderin', what's the difference between gourds and squash? Annabelle did a little research, and it turns out, she says, "The main difference between gourds and squash is that squash is mainly grown for eating, while gourds are usually cultivated for display." 

From the Missouri Botanical Garden, we learned both gourds and squash are members of the enormously diverse Cucurbitaceae family, which contains more than 100 genera and over 700 species. 

We talked about how gourds have also had utilitarian purposes for centuries, hollowed out and used as bowls and other vessels. Annabelle noted that a character in a book she's reading, "A Single Shard" has a gourd bowl.