Head Injuries May Redefine Football's Manly Image

Sweetness and Light
by Frank Deford
National Public Radio
December 30, 2009

Head Injuries May Redefine Football's Manly Image

Dave Pear was an outstanding defensive lineman who played in a Pro Bowl and on a Super Bowl-winning team. When I was chatting with him in his living room a year ago, suddenly he thrust out one of his huge hands, grasping the back of my neck, squeezing hard. The pain I felt was excruciating. My hands shot up in desperation to try to release his grip...

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Tales of the credit crunch

Max Christern | September/October 2009 issue
Ode Magazine

Filmmaker Johan Kramer finds inspiration in the financial crisis.

...According to him, the stories show the ways you can look at the crisis. "It's not difficult to make a very gloomy, pessimistic film about this experience," Kramer says. "But I'm curious what we can learn from it. I think it forces us to take a different path, which is why there's also a lot of optimism in this film."...

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Cruise Ship Report Card

Friends of the Earth
September 30, 2009

Millions of Americans take cruise vacations every year. However, most people don't realize that taking a cruise is more harmful to the environment and human health than many other forms of travel.

Friends of the Earth has created the first-ever Cruise Ship Environmental Report Card, an assessment of the environmental and human health footprint of cruise ships operating in the United States.

Planning a cruise? Search by destination for the cleanest cruise ships.

Already taking a cruise? Find out how your ship stacks up against the competition!

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Planet Green: Games and Quizzes

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A New Beat Gives Young Mongolia A Voice, Identity

by Louisa Lim
National Public Radio
September 10, 2009

A land known for the ancient musical practice of "throat" singing, Mongolia is throbbing to a new beat: hip-hop. In a country where almost 60 percent of the population is younger than 30, hip-hop has become an effective way of making political statements and carving out a new Mongolian identity...

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Luminous Comic Book Reveals Mandela's Resilience

by Laurel Maury
September 9, 2009
National Public Radio

Nelson Mandela, the prisoner of conscience turned president of South Africa, was a global inspiration even before he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. Now this wondrous graphic novel, released to coincide with his 91st birthday, is the latest and possibly final chapter about the great man to appear with his blessing...

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by Philip S. Bryant
July-August 2009
Utne Reader

A jazz memoir of black men from Chicago talking about music of Jazz Blues, Gospels, and Jazz on the South Side of the city. (Told by the son of one of them)...

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Wisdom for the Superficial Traveler

by Bennett Gordon
August 6, 2009
Utne

When living abroad, contradiction is in many ways in the eye of the beholder...

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The making of Aranim Media Factory and Emotional Content comics

Ode Editors | May 2009 issue

Aranim Media Factory and Emotional Content are redefining comic books, reaching out to new audiences and reshaping heroes. Get a glimpse into the process by viewing their sketches and original artwork here! (Click Title above!)

National Geographic's New National Parks Guide

National Geographic
June 2009

The U.S. National Park Service preserves 390 parks, historic sites, memorials, and recreation areas that attract nearly 300 million visits every year. There are 58 national parks in the system, as varied as the country that houses them. Yellowstone thrills visitors with its explosive grandeur, Acadia charms with its carriage roads. The giant wonders of Sequoia, the Everglades' "river of grass," the natural skyscrapers of Arches, the frozen beauty of Wrangell-St. Elias—to experience them all would take a lifetime. A British diplomat once called national parks the best idea America ever had. See for yourself.

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The Need for Speed

by A. Craig Copetas, from the book Mona Lisa’s Pajamas
Utne.com
May-June 2009

It’s springtime, and national pastimes are in full swing all over the world. The English congregate around cricket pitches. The French turn their thoughts to packs of cyclists spinning down country roads. And the Albanians are in the thick of the Hoxha sliding season...

What I Did On My Summer Nocation

by Linton Weeks
NPR.org, May 22, 2009 · First there was the shorter vacation, then the workation and the staycation. Now comes the latest signpost that the recession is changing the way Americans live — the nocation.

Steppe Cowboys

By Erik Heinrich
Special to The Washington Post
April 12, 2009

Kazakhstan's Big Country Hosts a Breed of Hard-Riding, Hard-Drinking Drovers

Life's a Pitch

by Katharine Wroth
Grist
April 9, 2009
Think the only thing green about pro sports is the turf? Think again. As the first crack of the bat rings through the spring air this week, we take a look at sports venues in North America that are scoring big on the eco-field (now if only the teams could do something about all that travel).

Flower video game review

By Tom Hoggins
16 Feb 2009
Telegraph UK

In a dark, damp city apartment, a single golden flower stands wilted in a pot by the window. On the other side of the glass, tall, black tower blocks blot the skyline, while the incessant whirr of an extractor fan is the only sound breaking through the silence.

The flower, like many of us, has a dream. A dream to leave the monotony of daily life and fly high beyond the city, over the stream of passing cars, their lights blurring into one mess of yellow and red; out to lush green fields and the open air....

What Are Green Vacations and How Do You Take One?

Green living has firmly taken root among the affluent population, and hotel and resort owners are standing up and taking notice. There are many resorts who are working hard to look green when they really aren't, a marketing ploy known as "greenwashing". But there are truly green establishments who are attracting an environmentally conscious clientele and being quite innovative in their approach to eco tourism. Booking a green vacation is as simple as picking up the phone and calling them!

Florida Glide ~ Kayaking in the Keys

...A great blue heron, after a patient waiting game, nimbly plucked a yellow, pencil-length water snake from otherwise mirror-calm water off Little Palm Island. A non-native iguana peered out from mangroves off Key West near where a couple of red crabs perched on a damp rock. A two-foot nurse shark rippled the water at the National Key Deer Refuge near Big Pine Key.

At the same time, the larger world falls away and time can blur...

http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/01/30/travel/escapes/30keys.html?partner=rss