As a result of years of devastating wildfires, the native sequoia trees in Sequoia National Park face the threat of extinction. These ancient, resilient trees have survived thousands of years of damage, but an unprecedented increase in wildfires has led to their dwindling population. The wildfires have destroyed a significant portion of Sequoia National Park, far beyond what the park has experienced in previous years. According to Julia Jacobo of
I hate writing for the universe. It’s like dancing in front of a jeering crowd, painfully aware of yourself. You feel caged in your own body with every thought from the audience jabbing your heart as you move. Yet unlike dancing, writers can’t avoid the audience. They are haunted by them in every word they write. The audience will weasel the heart out of you, whether you like it or
The other day, I passed a crash in my neighborhood that was clogging traffic. Some guy in a company truck had run a red light and smashed into a school bus loaded with 37 kids. Several children went to the hospital. Luckily, none of them were seriously injured. A slew of reporters were scattered throughout the area, interviewing parents, children, and police officers. Dozens of other onlookers thronged the intersection
“The late humorist James Thurber wrote a fable set in a medieval court, and he has the Royal Astronomer report that all the stars are going out! It turns out that he is simply going blind. I am probably making the same mistake.” – Dan Wakefield, ed., Kurt Vonnegut Letters, Delacorte, 2012 I needed to be sure to get up at five this morning to drive a friend to a
Despite the prevalence of digital information exchange, paper is still widely used in North America, for anything from wedding invitations to ballot mail-ins to arts & crafts. According to the Forest Ethics organization, paper consumption in North America has declined, but global paper consumption has increased. However, despite the decrease in consumption, North America still consumes more paper per capita than anywhere else (see Figure 1 below). Because the need
In “Why I Continue To Write: Thirty-five years after Last Exit to Brooklyn,” Hubert Selby Jr. says of his youth, I went into the hospital in 1946, with advanced tuberculosis, and altogether I spent three and a half years in the hospital. By the time I got out I had had 10 ribs removed, one lung collapsed, a piece of the other one removed, and there were some severe complications
