On July 3rd, I went to Fire Island off the coast of Long Island, NY. While we were there, we took some time to walk through the Sunken Forest, which is a several hundred year-old patch of forest that is protected from the ocean water by dunes. Bogs! Just talking about them makes me cringeRead More
“Helps lower cholestorol.” “Natural source of antioxidants.” “Low fat.” “Made with all natural ingredients.” You’ve probably seen them all. All these are health claims you might come across in any typical grocery store. The natural instinct for the consumer is to trust these types of statements. They are often backed by a government agency, afterRead More
Happy Fourth of July! For your enjoyment, here are some interesting pages on fireworks: How Fireworks Work NOVA online (video clips, anatomy of a firework, interview with a pyrotech…) This year’s Macy’s Fireworks will be on the Hudson River instead of the East River. The show starts at 9pm! Image credit: Flickr user Mr MagooRead More
There is an interesting NYTimes article about a researcher who studies about fireflies. Different species of fireflies have different patterns of flashing, but only the males flash while flying! The females usually sit in the grass observing the males, often looking for a male of their own species to respond to. Often you can findRead More
I just read about this cool initiative in Maine called the Maine Learning Technology Initiative that provides use of laptops to 7th and 8th graders in public schools, and is now expanding to include high school students. They just ordered 64,000 Macbooks for this reason! I think it is awesome that they are so seriousRead More
One main point that Michael Pollan brings up is the general shift from complexity to simplicity. He means that nutritional quality is eventually sacrificed because the complex interactions and combinations of nutrients are being simplified by industrializing and processing food. Biological and ecological interactions that culminate in the plant and animal products that we consumeRead More