Posts by Jenifer Sako

Our oceans are in crisis. The ecology of the seas suffers terribly from our massive plastic garbage problem. Plastic has even been found at the bottom of the deepest point in the whole ocean: the Marianna Trench. Turtles, in particular, can get seriously injured or killed when they get tangled in the plastic rings used...

Americans are competitive by nature. We’re always comparing ourselves to each other–maybe someone has the job you’ve been eyeing…but, maybe you drive the car everyone else wants. Look, we just want to know where we stand as far as our successes. Now, Americans have something else to discuss, compare and contrast: Accents! Think about it…the...

Opossums may look scary but they do something few other animal can do: They eat ticks like they’re popcorn. Ticks are highly attracted to opossums–almost twice as much as they are to other rodents. Thousands of them end up on these fastidiously clean animals. As opossums groom themselves, they eat every tick they find. Ticks...

Gardening has been around since the beginning of time. Well, not exactly, but since our prehistoric ancestors began removing and arranging the surrounding foliage to improve their living areas. Since then, identifying and protecting preferred plant species, while controlling less desirable ones, has helped improve environments and provide food. As civilizations emerged, so did aesthetic...

On the evening of April 25, 1986, in then Soviet Ukraine, Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant’s reactor number four exploded. The accident, which happened during a test, released over 400 times more radiation than what was discharged at Hiroshima, Japan, by atomic bomb at the end of WWII. Dozens of people lost their lives and many...

Somehow, releasing balloons en masse became a way to mark special occasions, from prayer gatherings to the starts of races. Balloon releases may have been inspired by the Chinese tradition of sky lantern ceremonies, which were quiet, solemn ways to acknowledge the passing of loved ones or other prayerful occasions. But while sky lanterns are...

When Doris Day passed away at the age of 97, she took a little bit of the world’s wholesomeness with her. She sang and acted her way through the 1940s and into the 2000s. Her last album released in the U.K. in 2011. My Heart was a compilation of unreleased covers and jazz standards that...

I just enrolled in one of Yale’s classes. It was difficult to get in, but not because Yale only takes 6.3% of its applicants. It’s because I’m working remotely and my internet is spotty. The class is called “The Science of Well-Being,” and, according to the New York Times, it’s Yale’s most popular class ever....

Emergency rooms all over the country are reporting an uptick in the number of toddlers they see who have swallowed small objects, particularly the tiny batteries found in electronics. Seems as if we are filling our households with more and more of these items, so, inevitably, our children are getting their hands on them. Kids...

One of the most charming sights on a busy Parisian street is the little octagonal kiosk selling newspapers and magazines. https://www.instagram.com/p/BsqitJ4grvZ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link The iconic structures offer newspapers, magazines, cigarettes and small drugstore items for sale, along with 150 years of history. In the mid nineteenth century, Baron Haussmann commissioned them to serve the citizens and the...

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, aka Leonardo da Vinci, was a defining figure of the Renaissance. He was born in 1452 in Vinci, in the present-day Tuscany region, and died in 1519 in Ambroise, France. An inventor, artist, architect, scientist, musician and engineer, Leonardo was the epitome of a Renaissance man. He is most...

Ever thought about making your leisurely bike ride a little more…intensive? How about taking your bike cross-country? Start planning now because a coast-to-coast bike trail is in the works. Bike advocacy group and non-profit, Rails-to-Trail Conservancy (RTC) disclosed their part in a project that will connect cyclists to the cities and countryside of America, from...

Back in the olden days, those who wanted to succeed in business took lessons in business letter writing. You had to learn how to format the letter, how to set margins, how to write a proper salutation and how to sign off. And that was Day One of letter writing school. Of course, you had...

You may say you hate snakes, but you haven’t seen this snake. Not many people have. It was a carpet python, which are normally found in Australia, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. They can grow as long as 13-feet But this sweet, little snake-baby was only 16-inches long – and had three eyes! A rare...

King Tut, or Tutankhamun, was a boy king of Egypt, reigning from 1332 until 1323 BC. He was only 10 years old when he became Pharaoh. His young age and short reign are notable enough, but he is most famous for his tomb, which was opened in 1922 and found filled with gold and extraordinary...