Life + Outdoors
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Of Cubs and Men
Last week a reader came into the Journal office with what sounded like a really juicy story tip. It involved a death, a government agency and a cover-up. And it wasn’t an isolated incident. The agency responsible for protecting the victim, it was alleged, had a hidden agenda and a history of past offenses. For […]
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… and Poets and Writers
Last April I was invited to read one of the poems I had submitted to the 2008 Poets and Writers Celebration. This celebration, a performance celebrating original compositions by community members, students, staff and faculty of College of the Redwoods, is held each year at CR’s Eureka campus. A prize is awarded for the best […]
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Fossils Alive
Living fossils" are living species that resemble ancient fossils. In some cases, an organism was thought to be extinct until a modern specimen was discovered. The lobe-finned coelacanth is an example. Thousands of free copies of a lavishly illustrated book by Harun Yahya have been distributed to many schools in Europe. Their purpose is to […]
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Straw Report
A couple weeks ago, I wrote about my new experiment in vegetable gardening. The idea was to build raised beds out of rice straw bales, creating a no-dig bed that would basically turn into one giant compost pile at the end of the season. I heard from several people who were interested in trying the […]
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Straining Water
On a recent Sunday evening, Mike Zamboni’s old Toyota truck grumbles noisily down the pot-holed dirt road that winds through Redwoods State Park out to Gold Bluffs Beach, north of Orick. With the sun setting, Zamboni jumps out of his truck, engages the 4-wheel drive and unlocks the contentious gate that allows a handful of […]
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Magnitude and Intensity
These terms are used in describing earthquakes. "Magnitude" is a measure of the energy released, so each quake has a single magnitude. "Intensity" is an indication of local shaking, which generally decreases with increasing distance from the source. For example, the 1992 Cape Mendocino earthquake had a magnitude of 7.2 determined from seismograph recordings compensated […]
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Rebuffeted
Last weekend, Chook-Chook Hillman of the Karuk Tribe got in line outside of the 30,000-seat Qwest Center in Omaha, Neb., at 1 o’clock in the morning and waited. The 23-year-old wasn’t hoping to catch a glimpse of his favorite rock star. He had a higher mission. He wanted to secure a spot in front of […]
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ArMack Maestros
Last Saturday night, the ArMack Orchestra hosted its 12th Annual Gala Dinner at the Arcata Community Center. When I told friends I was attending a "gala," they likened it to attending a ball, asking if I would wear taffeta and a corsage. Not quite. This gala’s theme was "Humboldt on the Bayou," and for $30 […]
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Bale Gardens
In the last few years, I have almost given up on vegetable gardening. When I moved to Eureka, I laid out my backyard with the intention of growing almost exclusively fruits and vegetables. Sure, there would be a border of perennial herbs and flowers, but I wanted the main attraction to be neat rows of […]
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Wiyot Winnings
On Monday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a compact with the Wiyot Tribe that would enable the tribe to gather $3-5 million a year in gaming revenue from a tribal casino in Madera County, in the Sierra Foothills. The casino, to be developed and managed by Station Casinos of Nevada, would be built on land that […]