At the height of the last Cold War the U.S. military burrowed into a glacier in northernmost Greenland and installed a nuclear reactor. The reactor was small—“experimental,” the army called it—and designed to power a base that had also been built under the ice. The base was called Camp Century, and it could house up […]
Miscellaneous
My first week on a real journalism job in Yellowknife, 20 years ago, my boss took me to see the old Giant Mine site. It wasn’t among the tourist traps of the Northwest Territories, but he felt this was a place I needed to understand if I was going to report on industry in the […]
This post first ran in the spring of 2015 and I’ve often wondered if this patch of earth in Iowa is still guarded. A summer not long ago I went for a grueling 3-day backpack through GMO cornfields in Iowa, camping among walls of waxy green leaves that sawed against each other in the breeze. […]
We’re taking and have taken a short break and we’ll be back on Friday, 1/2/2026. Don’t lose faith. We still love you, we do. _________ By Petar Milošević – https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=147441865
Happy holidays, readers! Today we’ve got a special group post for you — a roundup of the best and worst gifts we’ve ever received. Enjoy! (And please post yours in the comments for the enjoyment of all). We’ll be back bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in 2026. Jenny The best and worst gifts were both from my […]
I am lately returned from Punta Tombo, the Magellanic penguin breeding colony in Argentina where I spend several weeks each year. One of my tasks there is to open the field season in late October, which means I spend a lot of the early days stumping around our designated study areas looking for study penguins. […]
This post first ran in April of 2019 and the 6th grader I’m referring to is now in college and I’m leaving every possibility open to journey with them again. I pulled my 6th grader out of school for a week to hit the road. I adore the public school teachers who spend time with […]
The little creek that runs along the railroad tracks through Bellefonte, Pennsylvania is beautiful at this time of year, shallow water running clear and dark, banks and bare branches covered in snow. The creek is a tributary of Bald Eagle Creek, itself a tributary of the West Branch Susquehanna. It’s the place my husband first learned […]
