The National Trust for Historic Places just released its 26th annual Most Endangered Historic Places List, a yearly collection of America’s heritage sites at risk. Some are in coastal areas with ties to America’s nautical heritage, from a Massachusetts lighthouse to a salmon cannery in Alaska, all with fascinating historical import. To wit: Gay Head …
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I can name a handful of close-up encounters with nature that have changed my life. One was snorkeling off the coast of Maui in 1998, where a green sea turtle sidled up to my face mask and seemed to want to get to know me. Another was going on my first whale watching trip from …
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News outlets are reporting the failure of a U.S.-proposed plan to outlaw the export of polar bear parts at the annual meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) this week in Bangkok. Canada is the only nation that allows the export of polar bear skins, teeth and paws, and vehemently opposed …
Is it OK that I find this alarming? The Library of Congress has announced its acquisition of a version of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, Or The Whale completely translated into emojis. Yes, those smartphone-friendly pictographs of happy faces, hearts, cupcakes and, perhaps in this case, Physeter macrocephalus. According to the LOC, a data engineer named Fred …
An energetic tale of Puritan settlers, nomadic trappers and the unfortunate, lushly furred rodents that were their prime quarry. I see Eric Jay Dolin’s “Fur, Fortune and Empire: Epic History of the Fur Trade in America” much like his 2008 book “Leviathan: A History of Whaling in America,” except on land. Both industries relied …
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