Since 1944, the County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation has been meeting the diverse needs of not only residents, but also visitors from around the world. With over 63,000 acres of parks, gardens, lakes, trails, natural areas, and the world's largest public golf course system, the Department of Parks and Recreation is committed to providing the public with social, cultural, and recreational activities to enjoy the whole year.

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door." - Emma Lazarus, inscription for the Statue of Liberty

Plasma is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and gas). Heating a gas may ionize its molecules or atoms (reducing or increasing the number of electrons in them), thus turning it into a plasma, which contains charged particles: positive ions and negative electrons or ions.

Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. The extreme opposite of endemism is cosmopolitan distribution.

On this date in 1776, rebellious colonials launched the first modern democracy, an experiment in government controlled by the people themselves. America succeeded so well that virtually the entire world later adopted democracy with its guarantee of personal rights.