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Climate change - long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. These shifts may be natural, for example: variations in the solar cycle, but ever since the 1800s, the main cause has been human activities, mostly the burning of fossil fuels. When humans burn fossil fuels, we generate greenhouse gas emissions that act similarly to a blanket wrapped around Earth, raising temperatures by trapping the sun’s heat. Some greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change are carbon dioxide and methane. These emissions can come from the gasoline used to drive a car or burning coal to heat a building. Carbon dioxide can also be released when land and forests are cleared. A major source of methane emissions are landfills where LFG (landfill gas - a byproduct of the decomposition of organic material in landfills) is made of about 50% methane.  Since greenhouse gas concentrations are at their highest level in 2 million years, Earth is about 1.1℃ warmer than it was during the late 1800s. Cl...

Rubber duck debugging, or rubber ducking, is a method of debugging code in software engineering. The term can be traced back to “The Pragmatic Programmer”, a book by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas detailing a programmer who carries around a rubber duck and debugs their code by explaining it to the duck, line by line.  Steps:  Get a rubber duck (preferably a bath-time duck, but any size is okay) Start explaining the code to the duck making sure to read each logical step out loud and in detail while pointing to the screen so that the duck knows which line you’re talking about Continue to go through your code until the solution to the problem is found The main point of the exercise is to have the developer slowly and carefully explain their code out loud, line by line. Since we think faster than we speak, verbally explaining the code forces the coder to slow down and, under the assumption the duck knows nothing about the code, the coder also has to be precise in their explanation w...

Foxglove grows throughout the United States and typically blooms in the spring. Its bell-shaped flowers are usually purple but can also be cream yellow, white, pink, or rose. Each foxglove plant can produce 1 to 2 million seeds and was used in heart failure treatment in the 18th century.  The “digitalis” part of foxglove’s botanical name, digitalis purpurea , is also the name of a heart medicine derived from this plant. Digitalis is used to help a weakened heart pump harder, so eating parts of the plant or sucking the flowers is basically taking an unregulated dose of heart medicine. After consuming the plant, symptoms for humans include an irregular or slow heartbeat, low blood pressure, nausea, headaches, blurred vision, hallucinations, a loss of appetite, and seeing halos around objects. The last 3 symptoms are commonly observed in people who have been poisoned over a long period of time.  Sources: Foxglove: How to Plant and Grow Foxglove Flowers | The Old Farmer's Almanac...

Some ways find an acceptable watermelon:  Look for a consistent and symmetrical shape. No matter what size and shape watermelons you buy, avoid melons with bumps, dents, and cuts. These signs can indicate that the fruit was inconsistently watered or wasn’t pollinated properly. The cuts and dents may announce the presence of insects or fungus.  Heavy for its size = good melon. If you pick up the watermelon and feel as though it's heavy for its size, it’ll usually mean the fruit is full of water and, thus, juicer.  Find a melon with a large ground spot. The ground or field spot of a watermelon is typically on the bottom of the melon. A large yellow ground spot indicates that the melon spent more time connected to the vine and should be sweeter. Avoid melons with white field spots which show that the fruit was picked too early and never hit peak ripeness; these melons are usually plain-flavored.  Pick melons that have a deep sound when tapped. Ripe watermelons give off ...

While butternut trees are some of the hardiest nut trees, they are becoming rarer in the wild and aren’t frequently found in nurseries. This is because the tree is susceptible to butternut canker, a deadly fungal disease. In some states, butternut canker killed up to 80% of butternut trees. There is no cure for this disease and affected trees typically die after a few years. Hybrid butternut trees usually have better resistance against butternut canker.  The native range of butternut trees ranges from all of northeastern United States and into southeastern Canada. The tree was once highly valued for its rich, sweet, and buttery flavored nuts and its light, golden wood. Butternut trees can be planted in spring or fall and usually show yellowish-green flowers in late spring. The flowers are replaced by fruits which then ripen into nuts in the fall. The trees can grow to be 40 to 60 feet tall and wide (12 to 18 meters ) but grow quite slowly with less than 12 inches added to their h...

  The Grim Reaper is a personification of death and isn’t someone who kills mortals, but rather transports their souls to the afterlife. He is often portrayed wearing a black cloak, holding a scythe in one hand, and an hourglass in the other.    The Grim Reaper seems to have appeared in the 14th century when Europe was facing the world’s worst pandemic, the Black Death. This medieval-era plague permanently changed how the average person saw death. With at least 25 million people dying in the initial outbreak, and millions continuing to die in outbreaks flaring up for centuries, a sense of sorrow and misery hovered above all activities, influencing writers and artists of the time. Death soon started to be symbolized by a skeleton in the artwork during the era. Most artists depicted this form of death in similar ways. Death was often shown holding arrows, a crossbow, or another weapon. Sometimes a young woman was seen standing at death’s side, providing a reminder of the l...

Meteoroids are the “space rocks”, the objects in space that range in size from dust grains to small asteroids. The meteoroids that enter a planet’s atmosphere at a high speed and then burn up are called meteors, or “shooting stars.” If a meteoroid survives its trip through the atmosphere and hits the ground, it’s referred to as a meteorite.  Some meteoroids are pieces of larger space rocks while others come from asteroids, the moon, and other planets. Meteoroids can be rocky, metallic, or a combination of rock and metal.  Sometimes meteors can appear to be brighter than Venus; this is when they are referred to as “fireballs”. On any given night, several meteors can usually be seen, but when there are more meteors, it’s called a meteor shower. Some meteor showers can occur annually or at regular intervals as the Earth passes through the trails of debris that are left by comets, or in a few cases, asteroids. Meteor showers are typically named after a star or constellation that’s...