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332 Landslide

332 Landslide

April 26, 2009

Help me ID this Viola - Garden Specimen Pics





Can you help me ID this viola? I bought it a few years ago for a spring sun, summer shade garden and remember it being called African pansy, the trouble is this plant doesn't resemble the plant of the same name when compared to photos online. These leaves are very heart shaped like a puffy heart and the underneath is purplish. It is unaffected by slugs, readily self sows, and as this past winter has proven, can withstand heavy snow and weeks of below freezing temperatures. I've never fertilized them. The few plants I purchased grow in a mound eight to ten inches high and have seeded dozens more and about one in ten have light green leaves and a more upright than mounded habit. They didn't flower this year until I brushed away the leaf mulch but then performed better than ever. I would really like to know what I have here so if the picture or description rings a bell for you please drop
me a message. I will add more photos later. Thanks and hope are are enjoying your spring!










Below are some pictures of the plants growing in the garden. I originally planted 3 r four plants, all along the far edge of the garden just before the hill drops off. Now, as you can see, there are lots of them scattered about.



Throwback or hybrid, lighter more 'viola' looking leaves and a lighter purple color flower.





A self seeded plant of the originally planted variety.


Here you can see the darker original alongside the lighter throwback/hybrid.



Here (easier to see if you click on the photo for the larger view) you can see the self seeded plants (and the weeds I've yet to pluck).



April 14, 2009

Sarah Palin: DOH!


"Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin acknowledges global warming is affecting her state,


But the former GOP vice presidential candidate contends gas drilling will help curb rising temperatures"


Update: US wind usage animation below appears to show NO ONE in Alaska has heard the wind howling and thought to take advantage of it.






"We Alaskans are living with the changes that you are observing in Washington," she said. "The dramatic decreases in the extent of summer sea ice, increased coastal erosion, melting of permafrost, decrease in alpine glaciers and overall ecosystem changes are very real to us." At Tuesday's hearing, she made it clear that she recognizes the problem of global warming and cast energy development as part of the answer. Conservation groups warn that plunging drilling pads into the frozen Beaufort and Chukchi Seas and in Bristol Bay could open the door to a catastrophic oil spill in one of the Earth's most fragile environments. Read the entire article HERE.


And, just as a reminder:






Exxonmobil pays skeptic groups. Defending their right to profits before congress, why would they pay for something if they could get it for free? Click HERE


"The southeast Alaska Panhandle has wind resources consistent with utility-scale production. Major areas of excellent and outstanding resource are found on the ridge crests throughout the region and on the interior marine passageways. Population centers located close to excellent resource areas on these marine passageways include Ketchikan, Petersburg, Juneau, and Skagway."



Wind Turbine - A Social Network; A Wind Powering America Supporting Partner



UPDATE: The good folks at WindTurbines.net have posted a US wind usage animation. I've added and linked it below. Having the most potential for energy doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone in Alaska yet.




(End Edit)


With such an abundant, 'God Given' resource available, why is she still talking about oil? What could her motives POSSIBLY be? Oh... Oil Money of course! ('08 cycle alone, KNOWING the Democrats were coming into the majority)


The Center for Public Integrity

The 380,000-plus-word database presented here allows, for the first time, the Iraq-related public pronouncements of top Bush administration officials to be tracked on a day-by-day basis against their private assessments and the actual “ground truth” as it is now known. Throughout the database, passages containing false statements by the top Bush administration officials are highlighted in yellow. The 935 false statements in the database may also be accessed by selecting the “False Statements” option from the “Subject” pull-down menu and may be displayed within selected date ranges using the selection tool below. Searches may also be limited by person or subject, or both, by using the appropriate selections from the pull-down menus.