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I love wrapping gifts, so I always struggle with the environmental impact of it. I do things like reuse some types of wrapping paper year after year – we had some metallic paper that worked really well for this, use cloth bags that someone made me, use regular gift bags. But these are all pretty … Continue reading
As a reaction to the mass consumerism of Black Friday and Cyber Monday people around the world started Giving Tuesday. Last year it included 68 different countries. So we all know that giving helps other people, but can we actually help ourselves by giving? There is a lot of research to indicate that there are … Continue reading
Okay so someone in my family grated their fingerprint off. That’s right, it was enough of a chunk that they had to take the piece of fingertip to the hospital with them. So, will it grow back? Yes, but it might have a scar that becomes part of the fingerprint. Fingerprint mutilation seems to be a … Continue reading
Every year we hear the debate. Is it better to have a real tree or an artificial one? As is typical, this is not a simple question and answer. You have to consider where you are? Can you go into the woods and cut a naturally grown tree down yourself? Or, do you purchase one … Continue reading
Nudibranchs are unbelievably cool, with vibrant colours and odd shapes they really do look like aliens of the ocean. They are, in fact, a type of mollusc, which includes clams, snails, and octopus. Their name in latin means naked gills, which is what gives them the strange body forms as the gills take different shapes … Continue reading
Apparently I’m not the only one who gets irritated by the inaccessible nature of the container. Dr. Kripa Varanasi and a team of graduate students at MIT were designing water-repellent coatings for steam turbines. The intention was to improve efficiency and durability. Other possible applications were preventing ice formation on airplanes and power lines, and … Continue reading
When I used to talk to kids about burrowing owls I couldn’t help but talk about the relationship between the owls and farmers. I would talk about how they were both trying to make their way in the world, working to meet their own needs and this brought them into conflict with each other as … Continue reading
The red-breasted nuthatch is a pretty flexible bird. Its range covers a good portion of Canada and the United States. It is normally solitary but will join other birds to feed. They will also group during a particularly harsh winter, either temperature or available food, to exit en masse and migrate short distances to better … Continue reading
I once spent an entire day observing pikas for a research course. After a full day of recording whether our particular animal was running, sitting, eating, calling, watching, etc, I was either going to leave despising them or loving them: I don’t think it is possible to despise them. I will still spend hours trying to photograph … Continue reading
I carry a reusable mug with me whenever I know I am going, or think I might go, to a coffee shop. I do not have coffee coursing through my veins. In fact there are very few warm drinks I can have due to a sensitivity to caffeine. So perhaps this is not as virtuous … Continue reading
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