The Liquid Rainbow The Andes dominate the western portion of South America, forming a continent-long spine of gnarly mountains. In Colombia, near the northern reaches of the Andes, another range sits just 25 miles to the east. The Serranía de la Macarena run for 75 miles north-to-south and stretch just 20 miles in width. The tallest […]
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Christmas Trees Perhaps the ubiquity of Christmas ubiquities is the tree that many celebrants add to their homes to decorate during the season. Raising plants indoors is not an oddity, but purchasing a sizable tree to move into one’s abode seems a bit out of the ordinary. How did we begin to string lights, toss
Mt. Marcy – New York’s High Point Northeastern New York is dominated by the Adirondack Mountains. Of the hundreds of summits that rise from the massif, none stretches higher into the sky than Mount Marcy. With an elevation of 5,344 feet above sea level, Marcy clocks in at 21st on the list of state High Points; it’s also the
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The Sun Queen It is the things supposed to be impossible that interest me. I like to do things they say cannot be done. — Mária Telkes Aladar Telkes and Maria Laban de Telkes welcomed a daughter to the world on 12 December 1900 in Budapest, at the time part of Austria-Hungary. The Telkes did
The Mingan Sorcerer The timescales of geology are fickle artists. Some of the planet’s great features require millions of years to craft; other spots arise in the blink of a universal eye. Of course, on human scales, both these poles are unfathomably large. On the northern shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Quebec, a master
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The Slow Loris Its life is not a happy one, for it is continually seeing ghosts; that is why it hides its face in its hands. — Daniel Giraud Elliot When it comes to cute and funny animals on the internet, cats and dogs easily rule the charts; occasionally, parrots, rabbits, and otters bubble up. Every so often,
Geomythology and the Fimbulwinter Then snow will drift from all directions.There will then be great frosts and keen winds.The sun will do no good.There will be three of these winters togetherand no summer in between. — Snorri Sturluson, Poetic Edda The notion of a myth contains denotative undertones of untruth. Often, supernatural entities or events mold
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Artificial Intelligence [Editor’s Note: Normally, we do not replicate the prefaces to the newsletters on the website; often they do not pertain at all to the article at hand. This issue must stand as an exception. Other than the text immediately following, it’s important to add here that the article below was not edited, though
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Mauna Loa For approximately 28 million years, the Hawaiian hotspot has belched out islands and atolls. The hotspot sits in the same position, spewing upward from the mantle, while the Pacific Plate moves above it. This combination created the string we know as the Hawaiian Islands. Eight major isles comprise the archipelago. Each was once
The Night the Stars Fell When I was a young man in Illinois I boarded for a time with a Deacon of the Presbyterian church. One night I was roused from my sleep by a rap at the door, & I heard the Deacon’s voice exclaiming ‘Arise, Abraham, the day of judgment has come!’ I
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