Life + Outdoors
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Wishful Weed for 2024
Ladeez Nite. Girlfriends, it can be tough to keep the fabulous vibes going when the people who want to define you solely by your reproductive organs also want to strip you of control over them and do a quick junk check before you can use a bathroom or compete in sports. This combination of Barbeez […]
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The Little Drone that Could
Ingenuity, “Ginny” to its friends, will never fly again. The little Mars-based helicopter-drone landed badly on its 72nd flight on Jan. 18, 2024, damaging all four of its carbon fiber wingtips and ruling out future flights. But in the three years since being released from the underbelly of its “mothership” the Mars rover Perseverance, it […]
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Once More into the Bay for the Perilous Plunge
A sunny and very timely break in Saturday morning’s rainy weather arrived just before wildly costumed Perilous Plunge participants gathered in Old Town for their parade to the foot of F Street in Eureka. From there, they would leap into the chilly water of Humboldt Bay. Their watery splashes in the 23rd annual fundraiser for the […]
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Wandering Meatloaf
Look there! It’s Stiletto Stacy strutting down the street in her high heels knowing she looks sexier than the women wearing sensible shoes. And there goes Steel-toe Steve daydreaming about finding a hippie to kick the shit out of. Isn’t it interesting how a person’s footwear is such an important part of their identity? This […]
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Bird Names for Everyone
Of all the birding news stories that came down in 2023, perhaps none was more unexpected than the American Ornithological Society’s (AOS) decision to change the names of up to 152 North American bird species, eliminating honorific and eponymous names. That means so long, Steller’s jay. Bye-bye, Brewer’s blackbird. Hasta la vista, Heermann’s gull. Why? […]
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Multiverse
“… at a time when our world, the real world, faces serious problems, [scientists] dwelling on multiverses strikes me as escapism — akin to billionaires fantasizing about colonizing Mars.” John Horgan There are two categories of multiverses, conveniently labeled “landscapes” and “dreamscapes” by physics professor Paul Halpern in his new book The Allure of the […]
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Why Two Sexes?
“The biological definition of sex wasn’t designed to ensure fair sporting competition, or to settle disputes about access to healthcare.” — Paul Griffiths, professor of Philosophy of Biology, University of Sydney With the current debate about gender identity, particularly with regard to the rights and welfare of transgender people, this seems an appropriate time to […]