I’ve written about the Pleiades star cluster before (“Orion and the Pleiades,” Jan. 12, 2023), in which I focused on the ancient Greek myth of the hunter Orion endlessly pursuing Mom, Dad and seven sisters across the night sky. Here, I’m going to focus on the stars themselves, and what makes them so interesting to […]
Life + Outdoors
Posted inSeriously?
Rejected Names for Pantone’s Color of the Year Cloud Dancer
As we do every year, we at Pantone spent the last months sorting through a storm of swatches — literally every color perceivable by the human eye — to name the color of the year, the hue that captures the aesthetic zeitgeist. The 2026 Color of the Year is Cloud Dancer, “A whisper of tranquility […]
Posted inGet Out
The Ocean Is Coming: King Tides Offer Preview of Rising Seas
The highest King Tides of the year arrived in Humboldt County this week, offering both a spectacle and a warning. Unlike waves or swell, which are wind-driven, tides are the daily rise and fall of the ocean, created by the gravitational pull of the moon and sun. They become “King” tides when the sun, moon, […]
Posted inHumboldt Nature
Winter Gardening, Better Late Than Never
Before fall descends into winter, we vegetable gardeners have to make a decision: whether to put the vegetable garden to bed with a cover crop of crimson clover (or other green manure) until spring, while we cozy up indoors; or to tend a winter garden and have fresh vegetables year-round. A winter vegetable garden is […]
Posted inGet Out
Spore’s the Merrier as the Mushroom Fair Turns 47
The 47th annual Mushroom Fair at the Arcata Community Center on Sunday attracted another packed house of fungi fanatics or mycophiles (lovers or devotees of mushrooms), foragers or mycophagists (persons who actively seek out and gather mushrooms for food), and mycologists (mycology is the scientific study of fungi). There also might have been a mycotoxicologist […]
Posted inField Notes
The Lure of Immortality
We’re immortal, you and I. Well, not quite immortal as in “forever,” but if you count nearly a third of the age of the universe as forever, yes, we’re immortal. And when I say “we,” I don’t mean our bodies, what we usually think of as our selves. Along with all multicellular organisms, we consist […]
Posted inWashed Up
Mass Wash-ups
Back when I worked for the Feds, a major non-NATO ally of the United States gifted me a luxury research submarine. While decorating the sub’s interior with golden filigree at taxpayer expense, we discovered a clandestine surveillance system. So, I wired in a video player to show the foreign spies daily episodes of the popular […]
Posted inGet Out
Luke Lemke Builds a Legend
After missing two weeks dealing with an injury, Luke Lemke stood under the overhang of the snack shack on a rainy night at McKinleyville High School. The junior varsity game was finishing up, and he was getting ready for his much anticipated — and needed — return to the field. His team the Arcata High […]
Posted inField Notes
The Magic of Photosynthesis
“How does grass make sheep?” We were walking across a field in Northern England recently, and the child-like question popped up, unbidden and unexpected, like similar ones sometimes do: “How do raindrops know to fall straight down and redwoods to grow straight up?” “How does my brain make sense of tiny squiggles on a sheet […]
Posted inGet Out
Haunted Houses for Halloween
Editor’s Note: The North Coast Journal’s editorial staff would like to thank haunted house enthusiast Amber Saba for touring and scoring the local scare scene so we could cower in the safety of our newsroom. Below are her findings. Griffin Loch’s Scream-a-torium at the Scaregrounds Humboldt County Fairgrounds Thursday, Oct. 30, andFriday, Oct. 31, from […]
Posted inSeriously?
Our Daughter Amantha
Attn: Milton G. Burg Junior High Principal Samantha Summers Re: Fair Accommodation Standards for all students, possible litigation Dear Principal Summers, I’m writing to you today to document our family’s struggles over the past few months to obtain a fair and equitable education for our child, your student, Amanthania BloodRoseoftheHeath Anderson. A copy of this […]
Posted inField Notes
Tears in Rain: Musings on Memory
“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.” — Roy Batty’s last words, Blade Runner Or is it “tears in the rain?”Cinephiles […]