Remember the movie Contact, starring Jodie Foster? She contacted aliens from a famous star that in the movie was pronounced “VAY-ga.” Well, that star’s name was spelled Wega for centuries, and spoken as “WEE-ga,” meaning a falling eagle in Arabic. It evolved to be spelled Vega and spoken as “VEE-ga” in the 19th century. And it remains “VEE-ga” today. Those who Latinize it as “VAY-ga” are getting it wrong.
Interior renovations at the Institute for Family Health, located at 279 Main Street in New Paltz, will mean that patients at more than 30 locations will actually speak to someone in New Paltz for all their health concerns, eventually including the possibility of some of those patients never actually seeing a doctor through the use of tele-medicine.
Millipedelike creatures called myriapods likely shared this forest ecosystem, but dinosaurs would not begin to evolve for another 140 million years.
A supernova in our lifetimes is not impossible.
January and February are the peak time to catch a glimpse of these stately raptors. They tend to be most active between 7 and 9 a.m. and 4 and 5 p.m.
While Groundhog Day was first celebrated in 1887 (in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, famously), the myth finds its origins in the Christian holyday of Candlemas: by which the length of winter was measured and calculated in candles. The Germans were the first to associate the ritual with the groundhog, developing the curious myth that we all know: If the groundhog emerges from its hole and sees its shadow, it becomes frightened and retreats back into the hole, prophesying six more weeks of harsh winter. If it sees no shadow, the way is cleared for an early spring.
The famous star Betelgeuse is dimmer than anyone has seen it in a century.
Wednesday, Jan. 22: In his new book Live Sustainably Now: A Low-Carbon Vision of the Good Life, Karl Coplan chronicles the joys and challenges of a year on a carbon budget: kayaking to work, hunting down electric vehicle charging stations, eating a Mediterranean-style diet and enjoying plenty of travel on weekends and vacations while avoiding long-distance flights.
The Open Space Institute has announced a new partnership with the Shawangunk Nordic Ski Association, to maintain cross country skiing paths at its River-to-Ridge Trail. The grooming will provide consistent trail conditions and improve the public’s access to the land during winter months, conditions permitting.
Once in while, an opportunity arises to reverse environmental damage wrought by humankind. Such appears to be the case with SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry’s three-decades-long endeavor to restore to the landscape the majestic, near-extinct American chestnut tree.