Atmospheric Rivers It’s an understatement to say November 2021 did not treat British Columbia and parts of Washington well. Catastrophic rain and subsequent flooding ravaged the landscapes, crippled infrastructure, and killed at least five people. Parts of the Canadian province received 11 inches of rain in two days. Dikes and levees were inundated and overcome. […]
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Total Eclipse of the Orb Much of the world recently received a cosmic treat. Just this morning, a nearly-full lunar eclipse waltzed across the firmaments. Despite covering more than 97% of the moon with shadow, that figure made this event technically a partial eclipse. More than making up for that 3% sliver, however, was
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The Croaking Voice Unless you live in Luddite Land, the Covid pandemic ushered in a new era of communication via the internet. Zoom, Skype, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and others became the socially-distant method to interact for work and play. The march toward online voice-chat ubiquity was not an overnight phenomenon, however. Landline technology
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Pingu A couple of months ago, we followed the path of an adventurous walrus named Wally. He left his home in the Arctic Circle and took a circuitous tour of western Europe. Today’s topic switches hemispheres but maintains the wandering nature. Unfortunately, Pingu the Penguin does not seem to be joyriding like Wally, but the
The World’s Highest Helipad In the previous issue, we explored a charming creature with a name I originally thought must have been fabricated to sound like the name of another animal. However, numbats are more than just a name that evokes a wombat, they are bonafide members of our planet. Today’s topic could form a
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Numbats I recently encountered a trivial question, which asked the reader to identify a specific Australian animal. One of the answers was “numbat.” Thinking that seemed a word created to sound like another, real creature from Australia, I discarded it. I confidently clicked “wombat” and was rewarded with a big, fat, red X. Turns out
Pictured Rocks Of the different types of units within the National Park Service, National Lakeshores are some of the rarest. Just three instances of recognized lakeshore exist. You will not be surprised to learn they all occur within the Great Lakes, though just two of those five majestic bodies of water feature a National
The Sirens of Titan Join me on a trip toward the outer reaches of our solar system. On the voyage, we’ll mix metaphors from two fantastic authors. I think the conflation we’ll make might be acceptable to one of them. Maybe both! In 1959, Kurt Vonnegut published his second novel. Setting the tone for his
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Mount Doom and the Crags of Mordor In our previous issue, we explored Mont Blanc, Western Europe’s High Point and the tallest peak in the Alps. After visiting the “White Mountain,” it seems fitting in this Halloween season to travel next to a place with a diametrically opposed name. Translated from the native language of
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Mont Blanc Today we travel to the border of France and Italy, to the crown of the Alps. The highest point in that famed mountain range and all of Western Europe is Mont Blanc. Meaning “white mountain” in French, the crag’s Italian name is Monte Bianco. Rising 15,774 feet above sea level, both countries