In 1999, Andrew Ginzel and Kristen Jones unveiled their mixed-media artwork, “Metronome”. The piece is a clock that covers a ten-story-high area on the north wall of One Union Square South, a residential building. The work also included concentric circles of gold-flecked brick. They rippled outward from a round opening, with clouds of steam and...

Plastic was invented in the late nineteenth century to replace materials derived from nature, like ivory from elephant tusks. For this reason, plastics were celebrated. They could protect the natural world from the destructive needs of human beings – it turns out, big oil misled us. After World War Two, the plastics industry began booming....

Rituals surrounding death are deeply ingrained into our religious and cultural past. Throughout history, humans have gone to great lengths to preserve those traditions, and in almost every culture there is great ceremony surrounding the passing of a loved one. In many societies, burying the deceased is the traditional way of handling the passing of...

Empathy is one of the more complex and integral emotions that humans experience. The question is, are animals capable of experiencing it too? The idea that animals are capable of experiencing a full range of human emotion is not new. Early scientists believed that it was possible. Charles Darwin even once wrote that there is...

Over labour day weekend, Oregon saw the most intense wildfire event ever recorded. A combination of high winds and extremely low humidity caused dozens of fires to start between Monday and Tuesday. Those fires quickly spread across the landscape, covering more than 230 thousand acres [1]. Since the fires began, thousands of residents have been...

Every year as the temperatures begin to drop, we start to take many of our activities indoors. Unfortunately, humans are not the only ones who prefer the warmth of central heating. Bugs, too, find their way into our homes in search of warmer conditions – including stink bugs. This year, scientists are expecting the “great...

Kimberly Zapata has fourteen body piercings and more tattoos than she can count. She has a half-shaven head and wild-colored hair. She got her first tattoo on her eighteenth birthday just because she knew her mom wouldn’t like it. From an outside perspective, Kimberly is pretty hardcore. When she had her own daughter, many friends,...

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, schools across the country close their doors and students had to finish their school year online. Over the summer, the situation did not improve.  As kids return to school this fall, they are yet again having to use online distance learning to “go to school”. While this may work for...

Dogfighting and cockfighting have been largely condemned across most of the United States. They are cruel and inhumane and are now illegal in all fifty states.  Wildlife killing contests are a lesser-known but equally barbaric blood sport. Sadly, this sport is still legal in 45 states across the country. In September 2020, Washington became the...

Over the last several years, we have witnessed a number of disastrous environmental events, and from what it looks like, it has a lot to do with humans destroying nature. The devastating fires in Australia, California, and Brazil have wiped out millions of acres of forest. Extreme weather like hurricanes, earthquakes, and tornadoes have destroyed...

At one point in history, people who went to college were in the minority. Higher education was reserved primarily for intellectuals hoping to have a career in academia. Today, however, the opposite is true. By the end of the twentieth century, going to college was considered a “no-brainer”. Every student was expected to at least...

Many people who live in the city choose to have a place in the country to get away from the hustle and bustle. Whether it’s a cabin in the woods, or a beach house on the ocean, a vacation home to get away on the weekends is a welcome escape for many city-dwellers. One New...