It’s summer solstice — and therefore puzzle — time again! Here are some of the best puzzles to have come my way in the last 12 months for your entertainment and frustration. So, deep breath and … Laterally Yours When this old chestnut was posted in Britain’s New Scientist, everyone got the obvious “aha” answer, […]
Life + Outdoors
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Solstice Puzzles ANSWERS
Laterally Yours 1: Turn the 9 upside down (columns add up to 21). 2: Place the 1 on top of the 5 (20). 3: Place the 3 on the 9 (18). 4: Place the 5 on the 7 (19). 5: Place the 1 facedown on the 4 (20). 6: Place the 4 facedown on the […]
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A New Season and New Conference for the Crabs
Like a lot of people, I drive by the empty Arcata Ball Park in the winter months, longing for sunny days at the yard. The Crab Grass Band plays in my head with the cheers of “Tip Tip Hooray,” the chanting of “Nanananana BATBOY!” and even our famous hecklers. The promise of summer and Humboldt […]
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Condors Over Arcata
During most of the sturm und drang of the Cal Poly Humboldt protest, I was across the country, on a pilgrimage of sorts to honor my dad and scatter his ashes at one of his favorite fishing spots. By the time I got home (let’s just forget about my unplanned stay in Newark, New Jersey), […]
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The Myth of the Lone Genius
“Last night.” — Fictional lone genius Tony Stark answering when he became an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics If you believe everything you see on the silver screen, you know all about lone geniuses. Think Tony Stark, Doc Brown (Back to the Future) and Zefram Cochrane (Star Trek‘s warp drive inventor). No harm done there but […]
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The Parchment Worm Turns
Flydentifier: “What’s going on guys? It’s your pal Flydentifier with another livestream during which I’ll fly around helping perplexed beachgoers identify washed-up things. I’m now hovering in front of our first customer.” Surfperch Angler: “What the hell …?” Flydentifier: “Ahoy, honorable surfperch angler! You have found a cluster of still-living parchment worms, which is a […]
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mRNA Vaccines vs. the Pandemic
“I knew that [mRNA] can be used for everything and I had a kind of a Cassandra feeling, that I can see the future and nobody believes me.” Katalin Karikó, winner, with Drew Weissman, of the 2023 the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine I was overjoyed when, late last year, the Nobel committee announced […]
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When Nature Gives You Rain, Visit a Waterfall
While I don’t mind hiking in a drizzle, particularly in the redwoods, where rainfall is broken by the canopy (“Forest Bathing in the Redwoods,” Get Out, June 15, 2023), the intense rain of recent months kept me away from favorite trails. Finally, on Easter Sunday, after a few days without a storm, I felt it […]