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It’s been a long time since I posted anything here. What can I say? Been busy. Among the things that have kept me occupied is the redesign of California magazine as a quarterly. This has meant adopting a different format (slightly smaller in height and width but with more pages and a tad more heft than before), and adding some extra elements, including new and beefed up sections outside the feature well. Additionally, as with nearly every print publication around these days, we’ve had to spend some time justifying our existence to the powers that be.Another thing that kept me busy was writing my story on Walter Alvarez, the Berkeley geologist famous for the Cretaceous-Tertiary impact theory — i.e., the theory, now widely accepted, that the mass extinction which killed off the dinosaurs was caused by an asteroid collision with Earth some 65 million years ago.

The article briefly tells the story of that discovery and explains how it dovetails with his current interest in the subject of “big history” — a new scientific/historical field of study that endeavors to tell the story of everything from the big bang to the present. It’s called “The (Really) Big Picture.” Alvarez teaches a course on the subject at Cal and I was fortunate enough to attend a number of the classes. In addition to interviewing the authors, I also read David Christian’s Maps of Time and Cynthia Brown’s Big History, both of which I highly recommend, as well as Alvarez’s own bestselling T rex and the Crater of Doom and The Mountains of St. Francis.

It was a difficult story to distill down to 4,000 words, but the kind I’d like to keep doing. If you take the trouble to read it, I’d love to hear what you think. Finally, if you want to know more about Alvarez and big history, see Pamela Weintraub’s interview, which happened to come out in the October 2009 Discover. If that’s too much work, you could just listen to Eric Idle again.

Up to you.

The magazine I work for won a Maggie Award last weekend for Best Special Interest/Consumer magazine. (I’m not so sure that’s an apt description of the publication, but oh well. Close enough.) The Maggies are presented by the Western Publishers Association. They’re a kind of “best of the west” version of the Ellies, as the vaguely elephantine National Magazine Awards are known. It’s a fine honor, to be sure, but ever since I heard the news, all I can think about is that scene in Mike Leigh’s queasy and brilliant film “Naked,” where the strung-out Scot is out on the corner bawling for his lost lassie, name o’ Maggie. Read the rest of this entry »

“The Ass’s Dilemma,” my story on the promise and perils of engineering the climate runs in the latest edition of the Virginia Quarterly Review. The Spring 2009 issue is entitled “The End of Ice.” It features reporting by Ted Conovor from the Himalayas, Carolyn Kormann in the Andes, Paul Reyes off Newfoundland, and Jason Anthony in Antarctica — all revolving around the ominous spectre of our shrinking cryosphere.

It was a timely debut for the edition, with copies hitting the racks just as the news was breaking that 160 square miles of the Wilkins Ice Shelf in Antarctica had disintegrated. What’s more, at right about the same time, the AP’s Seth Borenstein quoted John Holdren, Obama’s chief science advisor saying that he had broached the subject of geoengineering in the White House and expressed his personal feeling that the option had to be considered. Said Holdren: “We don’t have the luxury … of ruling any approach off the table.” 

Over at Science magazine, Eli Kintisch, who is apparently writing a book on the subject of climate engineering, was quick to stress that “no U.S. agency is actually doing any geoengineering,” nor is Holdren the first scientist to discuss the idea at high levels within the government. That said, it does seem that geoengineering has become, if no less controversial, then at least less taboo than it was previously.

My friend Steve Hyde’s short film, Shikashika, will be playing at the Red Vic this week as part of the San Francisco International Festival of Short Films. The film was a collaboration of many talented friends from Seattle, including Mark Clem, Stan Dunster and Jim Sykes. A shout-out to all of ‘em.

The film itself is a gem that somehow manages to be enchantingly sweet without ever becoming precious or cloying. No mean trick that.

The film fest looks cool too, so go have a look if you’re in town. For Shikashika screening times, go here.

Here’s a snippet from my latest (and last) Adventuring column for Universal Press. It’s about the Degree Confluence Project, “a website that encourages people to visit and document — in words and photos — places on Earth where whole-numbered lines of latitude and longitude intersect. No minutes, no seconds, just integers.”

… where geocaching is more of a lark, confluence hunting feels like real exploration. For one thing, it’s generally more challenging. You may have to climb, trespass or bushwhack your way to the confluence.

Then there is the element of the unknown: Who knows what you’ll find when you get there? And, like the explorers who conquered the poles, confluence hunters — particularly those who are the first to document a confluence — can revel in a sense of discovery.

Perhaps most of all, it has about it an air of inexplicable obsession. Asked why they do it, a confluence hunter might well respond: Because it’s there.

Only it isn’t, really.

Read the rest at The Denver Post.

I never know where my Universal Press column is going to end up. Around the time it’s supposed to come out, I generally do a Google search to see if I can track it down online. If I’m lucky, I might find it in a big paper like the Chicago Tribune, or in my old hometown paper, the Seattle Times. For a while, it was showing up fairly often in the Raleigh News & Observer. Then it had a good run at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. At various times, I was getting picked up steadily in Milwaukee and Sacramento and Kansas City. The Bergen County (NJ) Record has been a pretty loyal customer over the years. Lately, though, the one I can count on is the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette — in particular, the Northwest Arkansas edition. (Aux Arks!) Read the rest of this entry »

If you want to know what resources are growing scarce relative to demand, keep an eye on what the thieves are stealing. I got to thinking about this a few months back when a neighbor told me someone had crawled under his minivan and cut through his exhaust system. Turns out they stole his catalytic converter. I checked with my mechanic, who says he’s been seeing more and more of this, especially with high clearance cars like SUVs and vans. The perpetrators, using a sawzall, can make off with a converter in seconds. Read the rest of this entry »

The NCAA lost two more wrestling programs this year. The University of Oregon wrestled its final season as did Arizona State. At least the Oregon wrestlers saw it coming. The Sun Devils cut wrestling (along with men’s swimming and men’s tennis) after the season ended, no warning given. By my count, that leaves just two of the traditional Pac-10 schools fielding wrestling squads: Stanford and Oregon State.  And I’d guess their days are numbered as well.

Read the rest of this entry »

Good news! VQR won the National Magazine Award in the category of Best Single-Topic Issue for South America in the 21st Century. Congratulations to all the other contributors and especially the editors, Ted Genoways and Daniel Alarcon. The Peruvian magazine Etiqueta Negra also deserves special recognition, as many of the writers and artists who participated in the issue were drawn from EN’s stable of talent. Felicitaciones!

Lara-Karena Kellogg
May 7, 1968- April 23, 2007