Photo by Katelynn Ruffner We hear about the rainforest and are reminded of the important role trees play as a global carbon sink, breathing in carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen through a process known as photosynthesis. We have also known for millennia that some trees produce tasty fruit while others provide wonderful building materials, such as the orange and pine trees respectively. And a stroll through any forest forces us to appreciate how vital trees are to their ecosystem. ...

I catch a familiar scent of orange blossom as I walk around my neighborhood, a scent I can’t help but associate with spring and summer at my grandma’s house. I spent nearly every childhood summer at her place, a reprieve from having spent the previous ten, much colder, months in northern Europe. Her orange tree represented the hot California sun, with oranges the color to match. ...

The Great Basin Bristlecone Pine in the White Mountains (CA) photo by Tim Peterson Scattered atop a few of the high mountains of California, Nevada and Utah, sits an extremely special tree, the Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus longaeva). Rooted in rocky and dry soil, they grow slowly and in isolation. Widely considered one of the longest-lived sexually reproducing, non-clonal organisms on earth, their long lifecycle has been instrumental to the scientific community. ...

Big Berried Manzanita (NPS) On the morning of Thanksgiving 2020, my roommate and I eagerly made our way up Condor Gulch trail to marvel at the rock formations this under-appreciated park was known for. And as the sun rose and the morning chill subsided, we took a break to remove some layers, when we realized we were in the presence of a tree neither of us had ever seen before. ...

Trees are so vital to this planet and everything living on it but it seems this fact has been often overlooked or forgotten. Trees offer shelter for animals and beautiful building material for humans, they shade us in the summer and hold hillsides together, and the list goes on. However, trees (and other green plants) play a far more critical role; they are the lungs of our planet. ...

A Deep Dive into the 2016 House of Representatives General Election Campaign Finances Introduction This entire project started with one question: does the candidate who spends more money during a campaign end up winning that election? However to avoid this project ballooning in scope and complexity, I had limit myself to the House of Representatives 2016 General Election. I choose to the House of Representatives because it has a larger number of concurrent elections, 435 compared to 50 in the Senate or one for President. I choose the 2016 election because, as of this writing, it is the most recently published election results on the Federal Election Commission’s (FEC) website. I also choose to limit my analysis to the General Election in order to avoid additional complexity arising from the variation in how each state runs their Primary Elections. ...

This is my attempt at writing at an exciting travel blog. I found writing this to be extremely fun and hope to write more about travel in the future. You’ve been itching to see a part of the world most people haven’t and you’re hoping to jump into some good ol’ fashion adventure. You’re not alone feeling that most places on this planet have become overrun with tourists. For better or for worse, this trend is here to stay. ...

Introduction I recently discovered that Netflix has a series on Marie Kondo’s book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying - The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. I guess I’m late to the party. No worry. From the book’s opening pages, Kondo writes, “A dramatic reorganization of the home causes correspondingly dramatic changes in lifestyle and perspective. It is life transforming.” This process is “life transforming” because it can, if taken seriously, drastically simplify your life, help you create your own “sacred space” and force you to identify what is truly important. I created a checklist to summarize the steps and outlined some lessons learned to share my personal experience however I’m going to assume whoever reads this post is aware of the KonMari method. If you are not, I strongly encourage you to read the book. ...