The Hudson Valley Chronic

Hurricane Irene tore its way up the East Coast in late August, ravaging local communities in its wake. The Hudson Valley was hit extremely hard by Irene, and many towns, local farms, and individuals’ lives were devastated. The region’s citizens are gathering and offering their help to those who need it most. Ulster County was [...]

The Catskill Mountains, those shadowy blue-green humps that undulate mysteriously across New York State’s pie-shaped lower extremity, have always had a transformational effect on human psychology and behavior. Stories abound of people wandering into the mountains and emerging years later, changed beyond recognition, their outlooks softened and feminized, their facial features calmed and beatific, like [...]

Last fall when I loudly endorsed State Sen. Steve Saland’s opponent, Didi Barrett, and subsequently publicized my failure to vote for him in his landslide victory, I had no idea that he was a changed man. I had no idea that he was going to have a soul transplant a few months later and use [...]

The good folks at Riverkeeper (http://www.riverkeeper.org/), New York State’s vigilant clean water advocate, have been patrolling the waters of the Hudson River this spring, and have some interesting results to present. They’ve kindly agreed to let the Chronic post these results here. Highlights: Our May patrol was rainy, wet and nasty. It rained between 1.2 [...]

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom —Isaac Asimov Just yesterday (May 31, 2011), the World Health Organization publicly acknowledged something I’ve known about for years: the use of cell phones can cause cancer. This overdue revelation was made by a team of 31 scientists from [...]

There’s been speculation in the media that China will soon overtake the United States and have the largest economy in the world, thus becoming the world’s dominant superpower. Economists refer to a simplistic view of history, citing Britain’s former economic and world dominance and their subsequent loss of first the former and then the latter [...]