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☆ 5 Scenic E.V. Road Trips
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-30 | by ( Lauren Sloss | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

travel:California: up the coast, down through wine countryCalifornia is lousy with scenic drives, from its extensive, 840-mile coastline to routes through the magnificent Sierra Nevada. The route is also the focus of a new electric vehicle-centric initiative, with eight new E.V. New Mexico: The High Road to the Enchanted CircleA road trip between Santa Fe and Taos — two standout New Mexico destinations — is a decided win. The route has beautiful scenery, a dose of history and is easily doable in an E.V. planning tool and then hit the 56-mile High Road to Taos, which passes through villages with epic views of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

Persons: “, ”, Cowing, Martin Ray, Mount, it’s, Worthy, that’s, Butch Cassidy Organizations: Point, Gifford, Forests, Elk Loop, Rockies, New, Sundance Locations: United States, California, Sierra Nevada, San Francisco, Point Reyes, Bodega Bay, Jenner, Mendocino ., Philo, Boonville, Sonoma, Healdsburg, Sebastopol, Petaluma, Washington, Chahalis, Naches, Okanogan, Wenatchee, Mount Rainier, Colorado, Elk, Elk Loop Colorado, Carbondale, Crested, Gunnison, New Mexico, Santa Fe, Taos, —, Cristo, El, Red, Taos Ski Valley

☆ Hotel Corazon Wants to Host Your Hot Girl Summer
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( Elizabeth Paton | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Serra de Tramuntana is a mountain range that runs along the northwestern edge of the island of Majorca, off the coast of mainland Spain. Its towering peaks and valleys are lined with ancient olive groves, lemon orchards and picturesque hilltop villages. The winding pathways that dot the rugged cliffs plunge through pine trees and goat herds to meet the Mediterranean Sea. In 2020, after she fell in love with the 18th-century finca next door, she and her husband, the Mexican artist Edgar Lopez Arellano, decided to turn their hands to hospitality. Hotel Corazon opened earlier this month, after more than two years of work by the couple alongside a team from Moredesign, a local architecture practice that’s a mainstay of glossy magazines like Architectural Digest.

Persons: Kate Bellm, Edgar Lopez Arellano, Hotel Corazon Organizations: Gucci, Hotel Locations: Tramuntana, Majorca, Spain, British, Deia, Mexican, Moredesign

☆ Israeli settlers attack Palestinian village after deadly Hamas strike
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Ali Sawafta | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/5] An aerial view shows burned vehicles after an attack by Israeli settlers near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, June 21, 2023. "There was heavy gunfire but we couldn't distinguish whether it came from settlers or the soldiers because of the darkness." Attacks were also reported in other West Bank towns and villages. Netanyahu's government is set on expanding settlements in the West Bank and includes members who rule out a Palestinian state. Hamas, which advocates armed resistance against Israel, has been steadily expanding its operations in the West Bank.

Persons: Ammar Awad, Yaqoub Oweis, Lubban, Eli, Mahmoud Dawoud, Gharbeya, Itamar Ben, Benjamin Netanyahu's, Israel Katz, Nidal al, James Mackenzie, Mark Heinrich Our Organizations: West Bank, REUTERS, Bank, Rampage, Al, Palestinian, Monday . Local, Israeli National Security, Energy, Cabinet, Army Radio, West, Hamas, Seven, Thomson Locations: Ramallah, RAMALLAH, West, Palestinian, West Bank, Huwara, Hamas, Gaza, Jenin, Monday, Al, Israel, East Jerusalem, Jerusalem

☆ Ayvalık and Cunda: Turkey's prettiest Aegean coast resorts
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-24 | by ( Feride Yalav-Heckeroth | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

Alongside classic beach towns like Bodrum and Alaçatı, two of the coast’s loveliest spots are the little-known seaside town of Ayvalık and the nearby island of Cunda. Near the Taksiyarhis Memorial Museum, in a beautifully renovated historic house with large arched windows, is Moyy Atölye. For a truly Aegean dining experience inside an olive grove, Karina Ayvalık is worth the 10-minute drive south to the village of Küçükköy. “I can breathe in the Aegean air and feel history as I walk through the old streets with their historic houses. Getting lost on Cunda leads to discoveries – like the Cunda Taksiyarhis Rahmi M. Koç Museum inside a renovated Greek Orthodox church with a collection of antique cars, motorcycles and toys.

☆ Floods ruin crops and drown livestock in one of Italy’s gastronomic heartlands
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Barbie Latza Nadeau | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

“The water then slides away, destroying everything.”What also slid away were orchards, vineyards and crops ready to harvest. A tractor goes off road after flooding outside Ravenna in the Emilia Romagna region of Italy on May 20. Emilia Romagna is one of the richest regions in Italy. Firefighters come to rescue people and recover their belongings after flooding hit the Fornace Zarattini district of Ravenna in the Emilia Romagna region of Italy on May 20. Extreme weather such as what has happened this month in Emilia Romagna is perplexing even to experts.

☆ How a deadly bat virus found new ways to infect people
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +16 min

Scientists found bats with Nipah virus roosting near Sabith’s home. A search of the neighborhood led to a colony, near their house, of flying foxes, a common fruit bat. NETTING NIPAH: Researchers in Bangladesh use nets to catch bats and collect samples to find the Nipah virus in the wild. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir HossainWhether Sabith ate contaminated fruit or somehow came into direct contact with a bat, the virus entered his cells. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir HossainA year later, Chua’s team found the same strain of Nipah virus in flying foxes.

Catalonia, Spain CNN —Standing in his field of stunted, withered maize, Santi Caudevilla is very worried. It’s becoming increasingly hard to make ends meet as crops shrivel through lack of water – or cannot be planted at all. “This is the worst period that we have had for the last 100 years,” Samuel Reyes, director of the Catalan Water Agency, told CNN. Allison Nussbaum/NASA Allison Nussbaum/NASA These two images show shrinking water reservoirs in the Catalonia region of Spain. In April, Spain requested emergency funding from the European Union to help farmers cope with the impacts of the drought.

☆ In the 'Garden of England', loss-making orchards are cut down
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-05 | by ( Sarah Young | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The fruit that helped give the "Garden of England" its name hundreds of years ago no longer makes money so farmer James Smith is tearing down his orchards. Turning a profit from selling red apples to supermarkets has been a struggle for years, he said. In Kent, Smith is removing 80% of his orchards. Last year growing apples lost him 150,000 pounds ($186,000), a loss which would have been higher had it not been cushioned by other income streams from his land. He's also planting a vineyard and is growing small amounts of cherries, the fruit which legend has it prompted King Henry VIII to first call Kent the "Garden of England".

☆ More food shortages could add to Britain's price pressure
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( James Davey | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The tight conditions have helped to push British food price inflation to levels not seen for almost 50 years. Industry data from market researcher Kantar on Tuesday showed UK grocery price inflation hit a record 17.5% in the four weeks to March 19, underscoring the problem for policymakers. Many UK food retailers are buying less, knowing their customers cannot afford to spend so much, taking a hit to their profits in the process. Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, which represents the major food retailers, said supermarkets were confident about the resilience of food supply chains, particularly with the approaching UK growing season. The grower who spoke to Reuters, and who asked not to be named, said there was too much focus on food inflation and not enough on the strength of the whole system.

☆ I moved to a small town in Washington state to work remotely. My mortgage is half as much as my rent was and I see myself living here forever.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Ella Hopkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

After he moved with his wife, Yelp went fully remote. My commute to the Yelp office downtown would take me around 45 minutes each way. We lived in the Sunset neighborhood of San Francisco in a 500-square-foot apartment with a roommate and our pretty large dog. Our rent in San Francisco was twice what our mortgage payments are now. But knowing that the company was fully remote has unlocked a lot of opportunities for our family.

☆ Guerrilla Gardeners Meet Billionaire Doomsayer. Hurly-Burly Ensues.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Dwight Garner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Catton resembles one of those teachers who can take a student’s simple-minded question and, without condescending, shape it into an ingenious one. The bullets really fly in “Birnam Wood.” The big explosion will probably go off. The Birnam Wood collective makes sure its apolitical Facebook page is sunny and welcoming. Birnam Wood has this cockeyed, D.I.Y. She’s aching to leave the collective, and she may not be as sensible as we think she is.

☆ Turkey's last Armenian village fears for its future after quake
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( Ece Toksabay | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/5] A view of the damaged altar at the church in Vakifli, the last Armenian village in Turkey, in the aftermath of the deadly earthquake, in Samandag, Turkey, February 24, 2023. REUTERS/Eloisa LopezVAKIFLI, Turkey, Feb 25 (Reuters) - In Turkey's only remaining ethnic Armenian village, Vakifli, the elderly population thank God that not one of them died during the devastating earthquakes that struck the region. They gather at the tea house for shelter and warmth. "Vakifli is all we have, the only Armenian village in Turkey. Now our house is uninhabitable and we live half the time in the tea house and half the time in the tent."

☆ Disasters lower outlook for New Zealand interest rate rise
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( Lucy Craymer | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Then on Feb. 12 to 15 a cyclone hit the North Island, which includes Auckland. When Cyclone Gabrielle hit, picking had just begun on pip-fruit farms, whose production is worth about NZ$1 billion a year. That would normally be a reason for a central bank to lift interest rates further, but some economists expect the RBNZ to look past the sudden rise as being temporary. Still, Kiwibank chief economist Jarrod Kerr said the central bank should pause hikes until the effect of the cyclone can be understood. After the Christchurch earthquake, the central bank cut its policy rate due to concerns about the economy.

☆ Americans' breakfast takes a hit as egg prices surpass beef and the cost of orange juice soars
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Orange juice prices, meanwhile, are notching record highs, and have spiked 30% year-to-date. Egg prices jumped 70% in a year, with high production costs nudging 12 eggs to a record price of $4.82 last month. Wholesale eggs price are lowering on a weekly basis, however, but this hasn't hit grocery stores quite yet. On the contrary, ground beef prices have fallen from record levels, resulting in a dozen eggs costing more than a pound of ground chuck. Elsewhere, orange juice prices notched record highs, surging 30% year-to-date as recent hurricanes, frost, and a plant disease hit production levels.

☆ Small California town wonders if restored floodplain prevented disaster
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-04 | by ( Daniel Trotta | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

[1/5] An aerial view shows the town of Grayson near floodwaters from the San Joaquin River in Grayson, California, U.S., January 25, 2023. Advocates for floodplain restoration say it can help solve California's dual dangers of flooding and drought, replenishing groundwater for future drought relief while protecting towns from the catastrophic flooding that scientists predict will come with climate change. One of the volunteers was David Guzman, who works in an almond processing plant and lives right up against a slough of the San Joaquin River. But some experts say floodplain restoration can help spare adjacent towns, and they envision a day when a proliferation of projects will prevent wider flooding throughout the state. The valley lies west of the north-south Sierra Nevada mountain range and includes the smaller San Joaquin Valley.

☆ Black leaders on Buffalo’s East Side are building markets to address food insecurity
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Claretta-Bellamy-Byline-Jm.Jpg | Claretta Bellamy | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

The only supermarket on the East Side is Tops, where a white gunman killed 10 Black residents in May. AHRIE / African Heritage Food Co-op“It’s about gainful employment,” Wright, 43, said in October of his future grocery store. African Heritage Food Co-Op“That’s why I don’t call this a food desert,” Wright said. One organization, the Buffalo Black Billion, is led by a local pastor, Michael Chapman of St. John and Gethsemane Missionary Baptist churches. African Heritage Food Co-OpBy providing healthy food, Chapman said he also wants to increase the lifespan of Black residents in the community, for whom health disparities are all too familiar.

☆ 5G-enabled farms could ward off food insecurity and unlock $100 billion in global profits by 2030
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Clara Mcmichael | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

There lies Swans Trail Farms, a family-owned operation that focuses on agritourism and events with apple orchards, a corn maze, a pumpkin patch, and strawberry fields. Swans Trail FarmsSnohomish County and the 5G Open Innovation Lab launched sites to pilot 5G-enabled agricultural tech on two farms— Swans Trail and Andrew's Hay. CARES Act funding for the initiative dried up last year, but the 5G Open Innovation Lab continues to fund the project. The 5G Open Innovation Lab and Innov8.ag are working to expand to eastern Washington, an area of the state that's more agricultural. We've had our hiccups," Jim Brisimitzis, the head of the 5G Open Innovation Lab, said.

☆ The new blue-collar workplace reshaping America, for better or worse
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Jake Swearingen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Local operators have installed prayer rooms and hung flags from workers' home countries in office bullpens to attract and retain staff. Warehouse work pays well — often double the local minimum wage — for people without college degrees or specialized trade skills. Organizing efforts have sprung up, as some unions see the pace and danger of warehouse work as a chance to mobilize. A leaked memo from 2021, first reported by Recode, showed Amazon warehouses had annual turnover of 159% in 2020. Amazon employs more warehouse workers than any other company, with a US warehouse workforce of roughly 700,000 people.

☆ Superfast 5G Gadgets Are Off to a Slow Start
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Asa Fitch | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

One of many 5G soil-moisture probes throughout the apple orchards of Swans Trail Farms in Snohomish, Wash. It was one of 5G’s big selling points: millions of always-connected internet-of-things devices exchanging data wirelessly at lightning speed, revolutionizing the portability of everything from augmented-reality goggles to surveillance cameras. Several years into the 5G rollout, the internet-of-things boom largely hasn’t happened. There were about 4.4 million 5G-connected internet-of-things devices in the U.S. in 2021, according to analysis firm International Data Corp.—a sizable number but a drop in the bucket compared with the nearly 100 million smartphones capable of 5G.

☆ Spotted lanternflies spread westward, threaten vineyards and hopyards
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailSpotted lanternflies spread westward, threaten vineyards and hopyardsSpotted lanternflies are now in 14 states and have spread as far west as Indiana. The invasive species was first discovered in Pennsylvania in 2014, and even though they may not be as destructive as originally thought, they still threaten vineyards, hopyards and orchards.

☆ Italian fruit farmers use hill caves to help cut energy bills
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( Matteo Berlenga | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Inside the refrigerated areas of the caves, the apples are stored in stacked up plastic boxes and moved around by workers in safety helmets operating fork-lift trucks. "One of them is definitely in terms of energy levels, because from a test done last year...we measured a 32% saving of electricity in the cave." The caves currently store around 30,000 tonnes of apples, a figure expected to increase to 40,000 tonnes in the near future. As summer comes to an end above ground, the harvest has begun and farmers are at work picking apples from orchards, which will continue for 30-40 days. "We were hesitant at first, then we realised that it works, because there is a good saving of energy, and it is very sustainable.

☆ Extreme weather could push food inflation even higher
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-14 | by ( Alicia Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

But as extreme weather events increase in frequency or become even more intense, the unpredictability is becoming more of an economic liability. “And those higher costs are being passed on to consumers.” The rise in food prices is one of the key factors fueling inflation, according to recent CPI data. Extreme weather also can negatively affect companies’ bottom lines, according to research from Paul Griffin, professor of management at UC Davis. Corn crops that died due to extreme heat and drought during a heatwave in Austin, Texas, on Monday, July 11, 2022. Still, the very prospect of more extreme weather could further sap away groundwater and limit the cultivation potential in the future, Smith said.

☆ The Coming California Megastorm
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-12 | by ( Raymond Zhong | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

For their new study, which was published in the journal Science Advances, Dr. Huang and Dr. Swain replayed portions of the 20th and 21st centuries using 40 simulations of the global climate. There are “so many different factors” that make an atmospheric river deadly or benign, Dr. Huang said. Wes Monier, a hydrologist, with a 1997 photo of water rushing through the New Don Pedro Reservoir spillway. Mr. Monier is chief hydrologist for the Turlock Irrigation District, which operates the New Don Pedro Reservoir near Modesto. The Tuolumne River, where the Don Pedro sits, was coming out of its driest four years in a millennium.

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