Author: Travis Swaim

I. Wellness

• Plan a stay-cation!

“Taking a vacation can relieve stress by alleviating the responsibilities of your everyday routine. It is also a great impetus to get outdoors, be active, and enjoy time with friends or family. While the summer is a great time to plan a vacation, you don’t have to leave town to relax and have fun! Try being a tourist in your own neighborhood. Visit local parks or museums, and try the food at a local restaurant. Take pictures of the sites you see as you …

Brazil will host Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, on June 20. Rio +20 is an international effort to reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection, according to the conference website. The conference serves both as a follow-up and twentieth anniversary of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), which Rio de Janeiro also hosted. A final result of this conference was Agenda 21, described by …

Bottom line: Good place for a quick Indian “fast food” fix   I like the sapphire blue/silver decor of the place, located down the lane from Tara Thai/Busboys&Poets in Hyattsville. And the disco-ball-inspired tandoor oven is pretty. Small, basic menu where you build your own meal – I had the rice bowl with chicken, korma masala and green chutney ($7, tasty and spicey – took about a minute for my face to start sweating). Seems they serve premium beers, too. You could go to Krazy Kebob for …

When former University of Maryland undergraduate Wynne Anderson stepped into the ESSIC IT office for an interview, she did not know she would be chosen as the Center’s new web journalist. She also did not know that she would later call a second applicant her savior. Anderson was hired in September 2011, at a time when she said ESSIC’s existing website was based on an older static HTML model, while work on a new content management system was ongoing. Before the new website went live in …

An annual survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Bee Informed Partnership and the Apiary Inspectors of America shows that the death rate of managed honey bee colonies during the past winter dropped significantly. The survey, which was co-led by researcher Dennis vanEngelsdorp of the University of Maryland Department of Entomology, showed that total honey bee colony losses from all causes fell from 30 percent to 21.9 percent in one year. While not confirmed, the relative …

According to a National Science Foundation release, new research by David Inouye and Amy McKinney of the University of Maryland and others presents an incidence of climate change that can adervsely affect wildlife. The study shows that the annual cycles of broad-tailed hummingbirds and the glacier lilies that produce nectar that the hummingbirds consume are growing further apart. Inouye and McKinney found that the lilies are blooming about 17 days earlier than they did 40 years ago, and that …

Wilfrid Schroeder, an assistant research scientist with ESSIC, spoke to Greenbelt Elementary School students about earth sciences during the school’s annual career day on May 23. Schroeder used the popular Magic Planet, which lights up to reflect changes in the global climate, to complement information from PowerPoint slides and serve as a visual representation of the presentation. Schroeder presented to four classes of students, and said that it was a “big success.” “They were very, …