Here are some cool photos from my evening at the Montgomery County, MD Agricultural Fair last Saturday, the fair’s closing night.

There’s just something about how photogenic pigs are.

These three pigs are crying for dinner. In response, a pig is sprayed with water for an instant. The pigs continued screaming.

At the Demolition Derby, the audience reacts when the #01 car briefly shows flames from underneath. Notice the white station wagon #57 stuck on the barrier. The white-doored #777 eventually went on to win the derby.

Above and below, Firefighter James Martinez, 20, directs the hose into and under the burning car.

In a phone interview later, Martinez explained how his responsibility was directing the hose lines, while other firefighters managed water supply and kept an eye out for trouble, such as spilling fuel. The risk of explosion was minimal. “It’s not like it happens in the movies,” he said.

The first unit to arrive was a truck that carries two-and-a-half gallons of water, according to another firefighter at Station 6 in Bethesda. The truck wouldn’t normally respond to an automobile fire, Martinez said, but the firefighters used the limited amount of water on the truck, jugs of water, and extinguishers to keep the fire under control until more units arrived.

Martinez, who lives in Damascus, MD, said he began firefighting five years ago at age fifteen with the Germantown Volunteer Fire Department. He said he was the youngest in his graduating class last May and is now a full-time firefighter at Glen Echo Fire Station 11. His truck, Engine 111, was near Bethesda after responding to a fire at the National Institutes of Health.

I laughed out loud. It was as if life had offered a comedy sketch with me alone me in the audience.

The most striking thing I saw was a time-lapse illuminated map showing the depletion of the rain forests coinciding with the increase in human population. The rate at which we are consuming these vital resources is staggering. Cures for human illness are found in these forests, so why are we just destroying them? It doesn’t seem to make any sense.

From amazonrainforest.org

In addition to serving as the “Heart and Lungs” of the planet, the Amazon Rainforest constitutes the world’s largest “pharmacy” yielding thousands of previously unknown substances found no where else. Compounds from tropical flora relieve headaches, help treat glaucoma and provide muscle relaxants used during surgery. The Amazon Rainforest has also yielded guanine for the treatment of malaria and periwinkle for the treatment of leukemia. Given the rainforest’s teeming biological diversity, its value to humanity as a laboratory of natural phenomena and as a medical storehouse is priceless. Conversely, if the rainforest disappears, researchers fear that plants with wonder-drug potential will be lost forever.

A live-mannequin clown waves gently.