Perseids Shower and the Desert Tortoise Aug.15, 2013

The fastest ... and the slowest here in our Tucson desert.
According to Tucson News Now: 

The year’s best shooting star show, Perseids meteor shower,  occurred last Sunday and Monday nights,  best seen after midnight. It is an annual event every year in August.  There are several others, in April and  November, but “The Perseids are the good ones,” says meteorite expert Bill Cooke of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.  Ron and I saw 2 on our way home from Valentinaland on Sunday evening. I saw more on Monday night.  Friends sat out in their yards and had a great show!!
The Perseids take their name from their apparent origin in the constellation Perseus, the hero of ancient Greek myth born from a shower of heavenly gold. Known for producing fireballs that might streak across a third of the sky, they owe their brilliance to the speed — nearly 134,000 mph — with which they smack into the upper atmosphere. “It’s also because of the size of the meteors,” Cooke says. The dust grains are about one-fifth of an inch across and burn nicely as they zip overhead.
Those dust grains come courtesy of Comet Swift-Tuttle, which circles the sun once every 133 years and leaves behind a debris trail. (Comets are basically dirty snowballs that develop tails when they approach the sun and start to melt.)  Picture of meteor shower below:

 

Now the story on the slowest...  The Desert Tortoise, (Gopherus agassiii).
First Jill saw it next to the road in our development, HoneyBee Ridge.  After picking me up we wanted to get a picture of it -- of course!  It had already traveled away from view.  A half hour later Ron was driving home and saw a turtle next to the road just outside our development.  He stopped and got a picture of it while assessing if it was safe enough to leave there or if he should move it. There was no traffic so he left it.  It's a good thing, because you are not supposed to pick them up.  They empty their bladder if they are picked up, which causes medical problems for them.  The desert tortoise population has declined due to urbanization, and they are fully protected in Arizona.  The good news is that you can adopt one of them from the Desert Adoption Program. You can never "own" one, but you may provide custody of one -- if you pass the requirements! If you see one you are supposed to notify the Arizona Game and Fish Dept. so they can assess, protect, and monitor their whereabouts.  Ron, being a good Samaritan, of course notified them after learning about this.  Here it is!!!