The Arizona legislature has slashed funding for state parks by 80% since 2007. The state’s already closed five parks, and several more are waiting to run out of money and be shut down. But some Arizona desert lovers are coming up with cash to keep them open. One former Texan rolled into a parks meeting and wrote a check for $8000, just enough to keep the Lost Dutchman State Park open for another month. The hope is that private donations can keep the park rolling until the state finds its feet again.

Sounds like a good idea on the surface, right? Bunch of rich people pitching in to keep the parks going for all us little people. But what happens when one of those rich people who’s donated lots of money asks to host a Hall and Oates reunion concert at Lost Dutchman State Park? Then they start charging admission and making loads of money. Listen to me Arizona, taking big, private cash is a slippery slope that ends with yacht rock concerts. Be careful.

via Wend

It must be so weird for the families of the guys who go and live among the bears. You have to assume that you did something wrong to drive your child to a surrogate family of wild animals.

Lynn Rogers has been hanging out with black bears in Minnesota for ages, and he even stuck a camera into some of their dens to capture cute mom-and-son footage. Compensating for something? Anyway, Lynn sounds a lot like the Grizzly Man, but instead of being a wild recluse hanging out with Grizzlies in Alaska, Rogers has about 40 years of experience dealing with bears as an animal scientist. He was on the Today Show promoting his upcoming reality show,

via Backpacker

NASA scientists were intrigued when they came across an amateur photographer’s shots taken 20 miles above the earth’s surface.

“A guy phoned up who worked for NASA who was interested in how we took the pictures. He wanted to know how the hell we did it.”

They assumed he used a homemade rocket to capture the images, but he did it with a simple balloon and Nikon digital camera using readily available parts. NASA admitted that running a similar project would have cost them millions. Granted, it would have cost NASA a lot, but NASA would have probably had a monkey taking the photos, and it’s tough to argue with any science that’s advancing the cause of apeman butlers.

Thanks Brian

A local news station in Oregon hit paydirt when their traffic chopper spotted two missing hikers. The 23-year-old and 24-year-old were prepared for the cold and snow, but had hoped not to spend the night on Mt Defiance after getting lost in the afternoon. The KGW Sky 8 helicopter spotted them and alerted local authorities who scooped them up a couple hours later. You pretty much have to give an interview after that. Have fun getting booked between the story about the huge upside-down tomato plant and the dog how called 911.

Some hikes in Rocky Mountain National Park are becoming so populated that the park rangers are finding measurable spikes in bacteria in the groundwater caused by human waste. Their solution has been to hand out free poop bags at the trailhead and ask people to pack it out.

“For a lot of folks, it’s a quantum leap to think about that level of intimacy with their own waste,” he said. “Pooping in a bag is one thing, but pooping in a bag and sealing it up and throwing it in your backpack is a different story.”

The good news is that it’s been largely successful. The bad news is that now people are tossing excrement-filled plastic bags all over the place. The waste in the bag might go away, but that plastic will be around for future civilizations to study.