The Best Things Ever of All Time, This Week!
Parks, Weather, Wildlife

The Best Things Ever of All Time, This Week!

Where lightning strikes most often, the Rs beyond “recycle” and more cool things we learned this week!
BY AJ Staff on

More in Parks:

EACH WEEK, A\J staffers will be sharing our favourite facts & findings from whatever books, articles, documentaries, podcasts and other media we’ve been consuming. Here’s what we’ve learned this week.
 

EACH WEEK, A\J staffers will be sharing our favourite facts & findings from whatever books, articles, documentaries, podcasts and other media we’ve been consuming. Here’s what we’ve learned this week.
 

Things from the Internet!

A new high-resolution map shows where lightning strikes the earth. You may be surprised at where it hits most often.
Source: BusinessInsider.com \ Found by nik

Gasoline lead may be the cause of 90 per cent of the rise – and fall – of crime rates over the past half century.
Source: Mother Jones \ Found by Jordan

Three new species of “dwarf dragon” have been discovered in Peru and Ecuador, giving this group of South American reptiles one of the fastest discovery rates of the past decade.
Source: National Geographic \ Found by Rachel

Hummingbirds adapt to the changing air currents by twisting their bodies according to the direction of the air flow, and use their wings and tail as stabilisers. When researchers simulated rainfall in a wind tunnel, the hummingbirds shook it off (literally).
Source: Deep Look YouTube Channel \ Found by Samantha
 

Things from Documentaries!

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is America’s most visited wilderness area. It contains 1 million acres of pristine water and unspoiled woodlands, and is right on the Canada-US border, next to Quetico Provincial park in Ontario. Leases for sulfide mining have been granted within the watershed.
Dave and Amy Freeman paddled a canoe from Ely, Minnesota, to Washington, DC, last year, stopping in communities along the way and collecting signatures on their canoe. Now three bicyclists are riding 1,100 km for the same cause. The Paddle to DC short documentary is featured in the Reel Paddling Film Festival this year – get tour dates here.
Source: paddletodc.org and savetheboundarywaters.org \ Found by Laura

“Unknown World” Classic 1951 sci-fi B-movie prophetically captures the modern zeitgeist of environmental catastrophe. The obvious solution to impending eco-collapse? Drill as deep into the Earth as possible in a “rock submarine” to find a new habitat to serve as an ark for humanity. Notable for it’s early feminist portrayal of a woman scientist as an equal decision-making member of the expedition. Killer dialogue highlights: “Nature doesn’t influence man – man influences nature! One man, one strong man, can change nature,” and “Doesn’t women’s suffrage count here?”
Source: The Internet Archive \ Found by nik
 

Things from Books!

You know that “recycle” is only one of the Three Rs, but did you know there are actually at least 11 more? If your blue box is always full, you might want to consider a few others: reduce, reuse, refuse, reclaim, renew, revitalize, refurbish, rethink, redesign, rot, repair, return or refill.
Sources: The Queen of Green, Treehugger \ Found by Laura

A group of orcas that live off the BC coast has one new member! Named J52, the newest member is part of the JPod since February – there are three pods named J, K and L. With the new addition, the population is now up to 81.
Source: WWF \ Found by Samantha