Saturday Linkages: Beetle Party, Floating Homes and Cilantro

...g pic.twitter.com/98Noy6XipG — Alda Pires (@piresalda1) June 9, 2018 First time I’ve seen a canoe being towed on the downtown #yeg bike grid. #yegbike pic.twitter.com/QcemoJhr2M — Damian Rogers (@abcrimlaw) June 7, 2018 Vacant land and urban agriculture are rejuvenating wild bee populations. Bees love cities. What can cities do to love them back? https://t.co/A7mrxmd5tn pic.twitter.com/bJ7EleD3ef — Timber Press (@timberpress) June 9, 2018 On build...

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Are Miniature Books the New Smartphone?

...man historian whose extant books chronicle the tumultuous years around the time of Constantine. So far it’s even more lurid than the updates on our current presidential election I get when I glace at the iPhone. Yes, you can read books on a smartphone, but I still think that the medium of a paper book lends itself to developing a greater ability to focus. And as Cal Newport suggests, anyone who can focus on a problem in depth for a long period of...

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How to kill your palm tree

...ic street palms. We tend to give them no thought whatsoever, but it may be time to start watering them if we want to keep them. Over Prune. If you imagine a clock face overlaid on the crown of a palm, never cut above 9 and 3 o’clock. And never, ever, opt for the heinous and misguided extreme pruning called the pineapple or hurricane or candle style cut, which leaves just a few fronds poking out at the top. Pruning a palm this way will only stress...

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Grief is the pathway to action

...y just to feel the cool, wet air on my skin one last time, yet at the same time feeling angry and frustrated and sad. And as I sat there, I thought of conversations I’ve had with people who’ve confessed that they are grieving for what is being lost all around us, or they are grieving for a world their children will never know. Often they feel alone, as if no one else cares, or is much bothered at all. I don’t think we like to acknowledge this grie...

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Designing the World’s Most Pretentious Garden Shed

...rplane” bungalow (a common type of house in our neighborhood). Next it was time to put the idea into Sketchup. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Sketchup rocks. All DIYers should know how to use it. With Sketchup I was able to come up with a framing plan that allowed me to cut all the pieces out of the hot sun in the comfort of my garage workshop. Then I just had to carry my stack of pre-cut lumber up the hill and hammer it together. Anot...

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