Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Take a moment to drink in the glory of Shrek the Sheep. Shrek really, really, really did not like getting his hair cut. So for six years, this New Zealand libertarian managed to avoid spring shearings by hiding in a cave. By the time he was found in 2004, his owners couldn’t even tell he…
Still upset about Cecil the lion? Maybe you should just skip this story. You see, Cecil’s death at hands of an American dentist who paid guides to lure the majestic beast from a nature reserve has struck a global nerve, and in the US, led to significant criticism of big game hunters and laws that…
I was ten when Jurassic Park roared across the screen in the summer of 1993. I couldn’t wait for it. Both National Geographic and TIME ran dinosaur cover-stories leading up to the release, celebrating the new image of “hot-blooded” saurians set to make box-office records. In the week leading up to the movie, I finally…
Atlantic Puffins. Photo: Stephan Rech/Westend61/GmbH/AlamyHere are a couple of warnings I offer, free of charge, to savvy consumers of glossy-magazine think pieces: 1) Beware rhetorical questions in headlines or subheads (e.g., “Has climate change made it harder for environmentalists to care about conservation?”) [1]; and 2) Beware paraphrased quotes in which the writer doing the paraphrasing…
The best-laid plans of scientists and environmentalists can often go awry—but sometimes they backfire spectacularly. The following cautionary tales are a reminder of just how the road to ecological hell can be paved with good-intentioned conservation methods. Gone Fishin’, No Matter What In 2004 the nation of Kiribati (no, that’s not a Star Trek reference,…
A passerby walks his dog near an accumulation of snow on Jan. 27, 2015, in Central Park in New York. Snow levels in New York have ranged from 7.8 inches in Central Park to more than 28 inches in Eastern Long Island. Photo by Yana Paskova/Getty Images In the run-up to this week’s blizzard, some…
Winter is coming to the East Coast. Cities across the Northeast are preparing for a potentially historic blizzard that could bury the streets in up to three feet of snow over the next couple of days. Expect the usual: upheaval in commuting and travel plans, people swarming grocery stores as if a zombie apocalypse were…
A gigantic mushroom cloud billowed over Nagasaki, Japan, when an atomic bomb was dropped on the city in 1945. Credit: U.S. National Archives The world is “3 minutes” from doomsday. That’s the grim outlook from board members of The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Frustrated with a lack of international action to address climate change…
While on an expedition in Antarctica, photographer Alex Cornell had the rare opportunity to photograph a recently flipped iceberg. Defining to the old adage “just the tip of the iceberg,” it turns out the underside can be illuminated with unbelievable bright blues and striation that reveal visually stunning secrets of these sleeping giants. Witnessing a…
Out of the wild Deer are invading New York City, and we don’t know how to stop them By Brendan O’Connor Just before Christmas of last year, John Caminiti, who lives in Staten Island, New York City’s least populated borough, watched traffic come to a standstill outside the Staten Island Mall. “It got quiet all…