Blowing through stop signs or, should any present themselves, red lights, yields tangible benefits. It increases fuel economy, saves a few seconds, fights global warming, and generally makes humdrum lives a little edgier. Downsides include making everyone else’s lives a little edgier and slightly shorter in an actuarial sense, plus the fact that there are…
By Pete WelchThe Vashon Park District is proud to present “Concerts in the Park” once again this year in partnership with Vashon Events. The concerts will be held every Thursday night in August from 7:00 to 9:00 pm. Concerts in the Park is a family-friendly series of events that bring the community together to enjoy free…
By Brownie Carver The IFCH free Community Meals Program has been in existence for well over a decade. It has gone through many changes over the years, and the most dramatic change happened during COVID. The Community Meal Program stopped abruptly when COVID hit the island. Knowing that these meals are a lifeline for some people,…
By Nellie Bly Prologue: This was written over the course of several deployment periods of one to three weeks. Aman Omid Village on Holloman Air Force Base closed at the end of January 2022, having in-processed and placed 16,000 Afghani evacuees. All but eight survived. For the five months it existed, and adjusting for average…
By Andy Valencia Friction is certainly present in our day-to-day life. Your skateboard slows down on a level surface because of it, and some of the energy your car uses is to avoid slowing down. A different kind of friction is used to guide your behavior as a consumer; in this article, I’ll cover technology…
By Marc J. Elzenbeck Cattle were domesticated from wild aurochs starting about 10,500 years ago. Roughly speaking, an auroch is to a farm cow as a timber wolf is to a cocker spaniel. These were amongst the biggest, baddest land-borne mammals left over from the Pleistocene, so by “domesticated,” what they mean is “captured and…
By Seán Malone and John Sweetman As kids, we attended schools that were a quagmire of communicable diseases, where various ailments were freely communicated, just like today. Pink eye … ringworm … head lice … measles, and so on, including various rashes, itches, and the common issues of sniveling, coughs, and sometimes more serious issues of croup…
By Michael Shook I turned 69 this summer, from which it follows, of course, that next year I’ll hit 70. That’s assuming I live that long. I expect to, but one never knows. At this age, I’ve lost a number of friends that I just assumed I’d be growing old with, some of them very…
By Stephen Buller In my previous article, we discussed how you can give more of your hard-earned money to your neighbors when shopping at local businesses by avoiding credit card fees. We also touched on the reasons the banks want you to use credit cards – spoiler: they profit. Now, let’s look at some other…
By Kathy Abascal I am told that you can measure when summer will end by watching fireweed (Epilobium angustifolium) bloom. Here on Vashon, its purple flowers began to open at the base of its stem in early July. They then work their way up until finally the tips of the plant are in bloom. When…