Clips

Water is life, by Barbara KingsolverWater is the ultimate commons. Watercourses once seemed as boundless as those pigeons that darkened the sky overhead, and the notion of protecting water was as silly as bottling it. But rules change

In today's Olympic Games, technologists compete against technologists as much as athletes compete against athletes. Once limited to two, natural gifts and training, the factors behind Olympic success now number four. To the first two we must add enhancement of equipment—and of bodies—as well as psychological support offered athletes.The February 27, 2010 edition of the Wall Street...

Read in Utne Reader, 01/27/2010«The architecture magazine Dwell always strives for aesthetic heights with its often dour and stark photographs of beautiful, expensive homes. The blog Unhappy Hipsters pokes some good-natured fun at Dwell’s photos by writing pithy captions that turn each photograph into a story with just a few words. According to the blog’s tagline, “It’s lonely in the...

«There's never been such a lovely spring, Nell thought. Frogs—or were they toads?—trilled from the pond, and there were pussy willows and catkins —what was the difference? —and then the hawthorn bushes and the wild plums, and the neglected apple trees came into bloom, and an uneven row of daffodils planted by some long-vanished farmer's wife thrust up through the weeds and dead grasses beside...

«Two recent studies suggest that our society is in the midst of a dramatic and progressive slide toward disconnection. In the first, using data from the General Social Survey (GSS), Duke University researchers found that between 1985 and 2004 the number of people with whom the average American discussed “important matters” dropped from three to two. Even more stunning, the number of people...

 

The number of people living alone has increased in Canada over the last 20 years, in large part because of the aging population. One-person households have risen from about one-fifth of households in 1981 to one-quarter in 2001. In 2001, there were about as many one-person households in Canada (2,976,875) as there were households with four or more persons (2,938,455). Close to 3 out of...

«Residential common areas with trees and other greenery help to build strong neighborhoods. In a study conducted at a Chicago public housing development, residents of buildings with more trees and grass reported that they knew their neighbors better, socialized with them more often, had stronger feelings of community, and felt safer and better adjusted than did residents of more barren,...