Announcements that Apple has partnered with Aetna health insurance on a new app leveraging data from its Apple Watch and reports that Verily — one of the health-focused subsidiaries of Google‘s parent company — Alphabet, is developing a shoe that can detect weight and movement, indicate increasing momentum around using data from wearables for clinical health applications and […]
View More Healthcare wearables level up with new moves from Apple and AlphabetCategory: National Park Service
America’s most stunning jerks are flocking to your national parks. Who are they?
Like an unlocked museum, national parks have been left largely defenseless during the most recent government shutdown, allowing scoundrels and cheats to tramp over unstaffed lands.
While much of the federal government is funded during the longest-ever shutdown, the national parks aren’t. Yet in late 2018, the Trump administration made the unusual — and possibly illegal — decision to keep many of the nation’s crown jewels operating with skeleton crews.
Destruction, mounds of litter, and vandalism have ensued. This unsavory form of recreation has been especially stark in Joshua Tree National Park, where people cut through locked gates, created roads on protected wild land, and may have committed a bona fide desert sin: chopping down a Joshua Tree. Read more…
More about Science, National Park Service, National Parks, Human Behavior, and Jerks
Alaska’s badass bears: A battle to reclaim the river’s throne
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In the deep Alaskan wilderness, an imposing brown bear has regained his lost throne.
Bear 856 — well known on the explore.org live streaming webcams — had been the dominant bear along Katmai National Park’s Brooks River for at least six years.
But last summer, Bear 856 appeared skinny and enfeebled. Another large male, Bear 32 — nicknamed “Chunk” by the rangers — exploited 856’s condition and took control of the bear’s dynamic river hierarchy. Rangers watched from elevated bear-viewing platforms as an emboldened Chunk pushed other bears around and claimed the river’s best fishing spots.
Yet, over the last three and a half months, Bear 856 has reestablished his dominance, even over the likes of formidable Bear 32 and the tank-like Bear 747. At times, 856 has tackled other large bears that have attempted to challenge him, but he hasn’t ceded any ground. Now, the bears are fattening up for their long winter hibernation, and it appears 856 will end the season as the river’s king, once again. Read more…
More about Science, Conservation, Bears, National Park Service, and Bearcam
View More Alaska’s badass bears: A battle to reclaim the river’s thronePhotos show Yosemite National Park choked by wildfire smoke
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The burning forest just outside of Yosemite National Park in California has choked the air inside the park’s iconic valley marked by imposing granite walls that stretch hundreds of feet into the polluted sky.
The West’s fire season is now well underway, and it has been further stoked by heat waves and especially parched land. As a result of the now over 36,000-acre Ferguson fire, Yosemite — one of the most heavily-visited national parks in the country — has been inundated with tiny bits of particulate pollution, covering the park in a thick haze.
SEE ALSO: California hit with two heat waves in less than a month. Here’s why it matters. Read more…
More about Science, Extreme Weather, National Park Service, Air Pollution, and Wildfires
View More Photos show Yosemite National Park choked by wildfire smokeThe matriarch of the Alaska bear cam makes her glorious return to the river
In 1989, park rangers first spotted Bear 410 as a small cub.
Since then, she often returns to the banks of the salmon-filled river where she grew up. And again, nearly 30 years later, this old, remarkable bear has come back, claiming her status…
After attempts at censorship, National Park Service finally releases climate change report
Confederate cannon balls plunged into the brick walls of Fort Sumter at the outset of the Civil War, forcing Union troops to surrender. A century and a half later, surging storm waters are now the modern threat to the South Carolina national monument…
View More After attempts at censorship, National Park Service finally releases climate change reportPark Service to raise fees in 117 parks, but that still won’t solve its looming problem
The National Park Service decided Thursday that it will raise fees at 117 national park sites, but the increases are quite modest compared to the previous proposal.
Facing a more than $11 billion backlog in the upkeep of national parks, Interior Secr…
Crumbling national parks mired in $11 billion backlog, but experts scoff at jacking up fees
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Three years ago, the National Park Service banned trucks and buses heavier than 10 tons from crossing over the Arlington Memorial Bridge, a major transportation artery connecting Virginia to Washington D.C. And there’s speculation that the U.S. Secret Service now refuses to cross the 82-year-old concrete span, though the agency would not confirm whether this was the case.
From afar, the bridge’s neoclassical design — finished with sculptures of eagles and bas relief of bison — looks glorious. But inside, it’s rotting.
“Most people would be horrified to look behind the curtains of parks,” said Robert Manning, professor emeritus at the University of Vermont’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. Read more…
More about Science, National Park Service, National Parks, Maintenance, and Science
View More Crumbling national parks mired in $11 billion backlog, but experts scoff at jacking up feesThe new Park Service head once allowed a billionaire to chop down 130 protected trees
The new acting head of the National Park Service, Paul Daniel Smith, once let the billionaire owner of the Washington Redskins football team chop down 130 trees on protected park land.
Redskins owner Dan Snyder, whose riverfront mansion abutted…
A government shutdown probably won’t have a big effect on internet security
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The U.S. government may shutdown at midnight on Friday, but this will likely have little to no effect on the nation’s all-important cybersecurity activities.
In fact, if the Congress fails to fund the government and it shuts down — which it has done 12 times since 1981 — most federal employees are still required to come to work because they are responsible for “essential” tasks. These employees include air traffic controllers for the FAA, TSA officials scanning bags at airports for weapons, and Army intelligence personnel tracking potential cyberattack attempts.
More about Web, Science, Internet, Cybersecurity, and National Park Service
The National Park Service removed climate change plans from website, but it may be for a good reason
Earlier this month, the government watchdog group EDGI found that the climate change plans for 92 different national park sites had been removed from the National Park Service website.
On Dec. 21, EDGI, short for Environmental Data and Governan…