Matador Network's Blog, page 896
March 25, 2020
Best online language-learning tools
As most of us have been ordered to stay home to help control the spread of COVID-19, we’re all looking for ways to pass the time and learn new skills from the confines of our own houses. Because we will travel again when this is all over, and because speaking a foreign language is an incredibly useful part of our explorer’s toolkit, using our time at home to learn a new language is time well spent. Using a language-learning tool is a cheap, easy, and social way to pick up a new skill. You can team up with a partner across the globe in your efforts so that you can still communicate and hang out without needing to board a plane. Here are the best tools to learn a new language while in self-isolation.
1. Italki
If you’re one of those people who’d love to pick up a new language but needs the human aspect of learning, try Italki. The online platform helps you connect with a real human tutor as opposed to a virtual chatbot. You can ask your teacher any question and dive into the rules of grammar, while they make sure that you follow along. The catalog of teachers includes more than 10,000 native speakers from all across the globe. Each tutor has a video introduction along with a bio, a calendar with their availability, and an hourly rate. Some teachers offer a trial rate for a single lesson where you can evaluate your compatibility.
The advantages of Italki are that you’re not just learning a language but also making a friend who will help hold you accountable for showing up to class and pronouncing your new vocabulary properly. The cons are that unlike an app on your phone, you can’t just pull a class up whenever you like. You actually have to arrange a time and coordinate availability with your tutor. Italki can also be pricey since each tutor charges individually.
2. Speaky
Speaky is a social language-exchange platform that lets you select your language partner based on your shared interests. If you’d like to learn Spanish and enjoy dancing salsa, you can find a native Spanish speaker who dances as well. This way, they’ll not only guide you through the basic grammar but also enlighten you to the particular terminology of your shared hobby. On Speaky, you’ll find an average of 5,000 people chatting online at any given time. You can see the real-time numbers on your screen and jump in by simply creating a profile.
You’ll find each of the community members’ interests on their profile and will be able to shoot them a message to connect. The major pro of Speaky is that it’s free. The con is that since you are talking with regular people, as opposed to professional teachers, your lesson will actually feel like a casual conversation and might lack the structure a tutor would provide. But it will give you a better sense of how people really communicate outside of a textbook.
3. Tandem
Think of the Tandem app as Meetup’s version for online language practice. All you need to do is choose the language you’d like to learn and offer your own to teach. That way, you’ll match up with your study buddy and exchange conversation to help each other out. Instead of only browsing by language, you can choose your practice friends based on where they live — from New York City to Sao Paulo, Moscow, Tokyo, and more. The app has over 150 countries participating, so you’ll have plenty of options.
Tandem’s pro is that you don’t have to pay for practice. The potential con is that you’ll need to allocate time to help your partners in return since language-exchange is a two-way street. And if you prefer to spend some money to get a trained tutor, you have that option too; the app will match you up with a teacher based on your language level and requirements.
4. Reddit language exchange
Reddit has always been a source of inspiration for social discussions, and language-learning is no exception. In the site’s language-exchange channel, you’ll find plenty of native speakers, many of them in a social-isolation right now too, willing to call you up and practice. The community you’ll dive into is an eclectic mix including Germans who seek Mandarin experience, Korean-natives wanting to improve their French, along with plenty of Spanish and English native speakers offering to volunteer their free time to guide you.
The pro for Reddit is that you can establish contacts quickly and easily, arranging informal calls with other language enthusiasts. Unless stated otherwise, this is free and on a friendship basis. The con is that since there is no payment involved, you’ll just have to hope that your study buddy shows up for your language meeting.
5. Duolingo
Duolingo has gained a large following due to its many gamification features that make learning easy and fun. You can choose from 35 courses, including French, Turkish, Indonesian, Gaelic, and more. The app focuses on teaching phrases that are useful in real life, such as asking where the nearest subway station is, ordering food at a restaurant, or locating your luggage. With Duolingo, you will not only learn new words and sentence constructions, but you’ll also master the pronunciation of your new foreign vocabulary like a pro.
Thanks to a “club” feature implemented in 2016, language-learning on Duolingo has become a team sport. You can add up to 15 people in a social “club” to compete with each other, motivate yourselves with custom emoji, and track your overall score on the leaderboard. Choose a language, invite your friends and family to your Duolingo club, and go at it together which in the end will lead to faster results.
The pro for the app is that learning is made fun thanks to the colorful and animated platform features. The major con of Duolingo is that there isn’t a grammar explanation when you make a mistake, so you might be left wondering why you failed an exercise, playing the guessing game the next time around without actually understanding how to correct yourself. Still, it’s a more productive game than Candy Crush. 
More like this: Virtual ways to connect socially that don’t involve drinking
The post The best language-learning apps and websites to try appeared first on Matador Network.
5,000-year-old sword discovered
In 2017, while on a guided tour of the Armenian St. Lazarus monastery located on an island in the Venetian lagoon, Vittoria Dall’Armellina made a discovery even the guide did not expect. A PhD student at the time, Dall’Armellina noticed a metal sword on display that was labeled as a medieval artifact. As a Bronze Age weaponry specialist, Dall’Armellina had a hunch the sword was much older than that.
After two years of research, Dall’Armellina discovered that the sword is actually one the oldest swords ever found, dating back as far as 5,000 years. Chemical composition analyses revealed that the weapon is made of arsenical bronze, an alloy of copper and arsenic typically used between the end of the fourth and beginning of the third millennium BCE. Its chemical composition matches those of others found in the Royal Palace of Arslantepe, an archaeological site in Eastern Anatolia.
Photo: Ca’ Foscari University
According to Father Serafino Jamourlian, an archival researcher at the monastery, the sword was part of a shipment of archaeological artifacts sent by an Ottoman Empire civil engineer to Father Ghevont Alishan — a poet and historian who died in 1901. Jamourlian believes the sword was a gift of thanks to the monastery.
Now the sword enjoys its own display at the monastery.
More like this: Walls made of human bones discovered under Belgian church
The post A 5,000-year-old sword was discovered by an archaeology student in Venice appeared first on Matador Network.
How to stay calm in the backcountry
Whether you’re exploring a local mountain range or venturing into unknown terrain, a successful outdoors excursion takes preparedness, both mental and physical. By adding a “mental prep” checklist to your prep list for your next adventure, you ensure that you’re approaching the high country as ready as you can be for what the mountains have in store.
“The coolest thing about the outdoors is that it offers a lot of adversity, in a healthy way,” says Lance Sullins, owner and lead guide of Peak Mountain Guides in Ouray, Colorado. Here are his tips on being mentally prepared to address that adversity, in order to have the best experience possible.
Proper preparation is key
Photo: Maridav/Shutterstock
As with prep for other forms of travel, mentally preparing yourself for a journey into the backcountry, up a mountain, or to scale a rock face begins at home. While you can’t control the weather, you can prepare your mental toolbox for adverse conditions or surprises by planning your trip out from start to finish.
“We generally think in two different arenas. One is like, ‘Where’s the stoke?’ If you’re leading the trip, you need to be genuinely stoked about what you’re doing. The other side of it is the risk management element, and getting into the right frame of mind, thinking, ‘This is what we’re doing today and here’s what I need to do to manage risk.’”
Have a “plan B” route for returning to the trailhead in an emergency, and be aware of injuries that are possible in your activity and how to deal with them. This will help you approach the trailhead confidently, knowing that you have a secure plan in place.
Beyond that, Sullins says that rest is key. “In terms of getting in the right frame of mind, getting enough rest is really important.”
Being alert while in the backcountry
Photo: Dzmitrock/Shutterstock
Sullins explains that part of proper trip preparedness is reading up on a route ahead of time so that you are, at least mentally, familiarized with what’s coming ahead. “Something I do that helps me a lot, and this may pertain to technical terrain more than just a trail, is to read about the route. Reading accounts from different people, looking at more than one source, you kind of get a big-picture feel for an area,” he says.
Then, use that knowledge to map out your route, and have a “plan B” whenever possible. “This allows you to plan and say, ‘Ok, I’m going to be on this ridge, until I get to this summit, and then my descent is here.’ Visualizing the terrain ahead of time, studying the route ahead of time, makes it much easier when you’re out there,” says Sullins.
Once out, keep your plan in mind but keep yourself “in the moment” in order to address factors such as weather, trail conditions, or hazards. Sullins believes that, even with proper prep, nothing tops just getting out there and adventuring. “You can only get so much data off the internet — it’s almost too much sometimes. Like, I just need enough information so I can stay on track. Part of the fun is to just go experience it and figure it out, and that’s sort of it’s own skill.”
How to stay calm when something doesn’t go as planned
Photo: EB Adventure Photography/Shutterstock
Whether you’re in the mountains, on the ocean, or on a rock face, not everything is always going to go as planned. According to Sullins, being able to manage these situations correctly comes down to two things: proper trip planning and not putting yourself in over your head. “A bias we have is that when we get nervous or experience fear, we tend to focus on that fear, and not on the things we can do in the situation we’re facing.”
The important thing, he says, is to plan properly and slowly improve your abilities. It comes down to progression, slowly growing your ability as you gain experience. “In climbing, for example, you’re in the middle of a pitch and you’re not satisfied with the protection of your binding and even though you know it’s within your abilities, your nerves take over. If you just thrust yourself into that, very few people can magically turn all that off and not get freaked out.”
“There’s a lot of respect to be earned through progression. It’s a lot cooler to have an ‘epic’ because it’s something that’s hard and challenges your abilities than because you were unprepared and you somehow did it,” says Sullins.
How do we progress ourselves? Sullins pushes his clients to think big picture, but act according to their risk tolerance and abilities. “The thing I encourage people to do is to look at the gain perspective. You can read about how to build an anchor, but going on a trip with a guide and seeing the bigger picture and saying, ‘This is what’s ahead of me, I need to learn these things.’ Expose yourself to the bigger context of what you’re trying to do and don’t get too stuck in little skills.”
He contrasts this with someone heading out on an excursion that they are ill-prepared or equipped for, speaking to the importance of choosing trip partners wisely. Sullins notes, “If you’re in that progression and you know where you’re at, and then you grab someone off the street and plug them into what you’re doing and your level of risk acceptance without them having come along that progression, that’s irresponsible.”
Tools for peace of mind
Photo: Olga Danylenko/Shutterstock
Carry an inReach satellite communication device, which allows for communication with outside parties when out of cellular or Wi-Fi range.
Download a wayfinding app. Sullins uses Gaia GPS, which allows users to route their excursions and even share them with other users, a more efficient way to alert adventurers to what lies ahead when not traveling on a marked trail. “I generally won’t leave a flag or any physical marker behind,” he says. “Cairns are generally kind of discouraged. Unless they’re intended to mark a well-traveled path, they can cause confusion.”
Read The Rock Warrior’s Way by Arno Ilgner. “It’s written in a tone that is meant to connect with climbers, but I think anyone reading this book can learn a lot,” Sullins says.
If you’re unfamiliar with an area or will be venturing off-trail, “Having a map and compass is good, just so that you can orient yourself in the case that all of your electronics are toast,” Sullins says.
More like this: How to find remote green spaces near you to get out of the house
The post How to mentally prepare for an excursion in the mountains appeared first on Matador Network.
Hot sauces around world
Some people like to say that variety is the spice of life. Well, if they’re talking about the variety of hot sauces, the maxim is undeniably true. Hot sauce is so universally beloved that both Beyonce and Hillary Clinton keep it in their purses. True culinary aficionados know that most meals aren’t complete without a bottle of hot sauce. Some of us even keep bottles in our glove compartments in case of an emergency. Every dish from fried chicken to pho can be improved with a squeeze from a bottle of hot sauce.
Although most people probably already have a preferred style, the options out there feel limitless. There’s a different type of hot sauce on every continent on earth, except Antarctica. From Mexico to Indonesia to Louisiana, human beings love to give their food a kick. There are few condiments as global in reach as hot sauce. Here are seven styles from around the world to add variety to your dishes.
Sriracha
Photo: David Tonelson/Shutterstock
Sriracha is a hot chili sauce that has gained a cult following in the United States and around the world in the last decade, though it’s been a mainstay in Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam and Thailand since at least the 1930s. This spicy, sweet sauce consists mainly of sugar, salt, vinegar, and chili peppers. It’s perfect to be added to your favorite soups like pho or lo mein noodles, but it also works on dishes like a breakfast frittata and macaroni and cheese. The most popular version in the United States is made by Irwindale, California-based Huy Fong Foods. The genesis, like many foods, is a bit of a mystery as there are rivaling origin stories, but most claim the sauce originated in the town of Si Racha in Thailand.
Brands to try: Shark Brand, Kikkoman, Huy Fong, and Dragonfly
Louisiana-style
Photo: athichoke pim/Shutterstock
One of the most popular styles in the US, Louisiana-style hot sauce consists simply of red chili peppers, salt, and vinegar. The recipe might seem basic, but there’s a reason this is the go-to sauce for dishes like fried chicken and boiled shrimp. The most well-known type of Louisiana style hot sauce is Tabasco, which has been made on Avery Island (140 miles west of New Orleans) in Louisiana since 1886. The brand isn’t loved just in the US; it’s currently available in more than 195 countries. It has spawned a myriad of rival brands that each have their own cult followings, including Frank’s Red Hot, which is commonly used as the go-to ingredient for buffalo wings all over the US.
Brands to try: Tabasco, Frank’s, Crystal, and Texas Pete’s
Peri-peri
Photo: tanpanamanoob/Shutterstock
This popular African hot sauce is made primarily from chilies, onions, pepper, garlic, salt, lemon juice, and paprika. It’s spicy, smoky, and the signature sauce of popular chain restaurant Nando’s. The sauce works well in dishes like the aptly named peri peri (or piri piri) chicken, marinades for steak, or just a sauce to add an extra kick to your favorite sandwich or rice dish. Even though it’s gained popularity in countries like South Africa, Mozambique, and Angola, it actually originated in Portugal. Its name is derived from the Swahili word pilipili, which means pepper. The main pepper used to give the sauce its heat is the malagueta pepper that was brought to Mozambique by Portuguese explorers.
Brands to try: Maçarico, Dona Maria Gourmet, and Calvé
Sofrito
Photo: stockphotofan1/Shutterstock
A truly multicultural hot sauce, sofrito is popular in Spain, Italy, Portugal, and multiple countries in Latin America. The literal translation of the Spanish word means “to fry” and this spicy sauce is also an important culinary addition in places like the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Many recipes exist for sofrito, but the basic combination is peppers, garlic, onions, tomatoes, and olive oil. These are also the primary ingredients in many dishes popular in these countries, including bean-based soups and chicken and rice. It can also be used as a base for a stew in need of extra heat, or on top of scrambled eggs.
Brand to try: El Pilón, Goya, Ibsa, and Natura’s
Gochujang
Photo: BigBum/Shutterstock
If you’re a fan of sauces that are more than just heat bombs, gochujang, Korean chili paste, is for you. Like many of the sauces on this list, gochujang is a red chili paste-based sauce, but this one is fermented (in Korea, it’s considered a digestion aid). It’s known for its combination of sweet and savory flavors. Other ingredients include chili powder, rice, meju (dried and fermented soy beans), yeotgireum (malted barley powder), and salt. It’s the perfect sauce for fried chicken wings and to marinate pork, beef, or chicken, or to flavor noodle-based soup.
Brands to try: Bibigo, Sempio, Chung Jung, and Haechandle
Sambal
Photo: Rembolle/Shutterstock
Fans of sriracha might recognize Indonesian sambal, a thick hot sauce with a paste-like texture flecked with chilies. Also popular in Malaysia and Singapore, sambal has been a way for people in Southeast Asia to preserve chilies. This pungent, spicy paste is a condiment added to fried and grilled fish, ayam goreng (fried chicken), and raw vegetables. The main ingredient in sambal is the a spicy chili, introduced to Java by Portuguese and Spanish sailors. Other ingredients include lime juice, ginger, garlic, shallots, scallions, sugar, and shrimp paste. Traditionally, the mixture is ground together with a mortar and pestle.
Brands to try: Sambal Oelek, Auria’s, ABC, and Huy Fong
Salsa picante
Photo: David Tonelson/Shutterstock
There are many different varieties of salsa picante in Mexico, and the flavors depend on the state where it’s made. Most, however, are vinegar based. The variety of pepper at the foundation of the hot sauce is what really sets each of these Mexican hot sauces apart: Cholula, imported from Chapala in Jalisco, Mexico, is flavored mainly with piquin and arbol peppers, while Valentina salsa picante, made in Guadalajara, gets its slightly sweet tang from puya chilies. Salsa picante is versatile enough to punch up tacos and carnitas, but don’t feel limited: pizza, mac and cheese, and French fries are all improved with a dash of salsa picante.
Brands to try: Valentina, Cholula, Bufalo, Huichol
More like this: Understand Oaxaca by understanding these 7 moles
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Cowboy museum security on social
Museums around the world may be closing to promote social distancing, and for some museum staff, that means assuming new roles in this unprecedented situation. At the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Tim is the head of security. Now that the museum is closed, however, Tim was given the added responsibility of managing the museum’s social media account — and the result is hilarious.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by National Cowboy Museum (@nationalcowboymuseum) on Mar 19, 2020 at 4:18pm PDT
“I’m new to social media,” Tim wrote in his first Instagram post, “but excited to share what I am told is ‘content’ on all of The Cowboy’s what I am told are ‘platforms’ including the Twitter, the Facebook, and the Instagram.”
Tim has been entertaining followers by giving guided virtual museum tours, showing off its many artifacts, but the real entertainment is Tim himself. His earnest attempts to figure out how social media works are endearing not just to the museum’s immediate community, but to the whole country.
This is the hat and eyepatch the Duke wore in the movie True Grit. They are part of our Exhibition about the 2 True Grit. Lots of interesting props and clothes. I’m told I can’t try it on. Hashtag John Wayne. Lucas, my grandson, told me to use hashtags. Thanks, Tim pic.twitter.com/yNO3RP4uA4
— Nat'l Cowboy Museum (@ncwhm) March 17, 2020
Whether it’s writing out “hashtag,” ending each post with “Thanks, Tim,” or his dad jokes, Tim is unintentionally killing it at his new job.
Thanks for all the tips, Friends. Realize I have been doing the hashtags wrong. I need to use that pound sign from the phone. I’m learning! Here’s his costume from True Grit from 1969 courtesy of John Wayne Enterprises. #HashtagJohnWayne Thanks, Tim pic.twitter.com/AZu7EidGu2
— Nat'l Cowboy Museum (@ncwhm) March 19, 2020
Seth Spillman, the museum’s chief marketing and communications director, said to CNN, “What we found was an authentic voice for the Museum. What we didn’t anticipate was how much that voice would resonate with people during this difficult time. It’s wonderful.”
More like this: Mallorca police put on an uplifting concert for citizens in lockdown
The post This cowboy museum’s security guard is now in charge of social media, and his posts will have you laughing appeared first on Matador Network.
Aviation Gin is donating to service
In an attempt to encourage people to continue patronizing restaurants and help the service industry while social distancing, yesterday was Great American Takeout Day. Similar initiatives are popping up, aiming to alleviate the financial stress on our nation’s restaurant workers and bartenders, and the #TipYourBartenders movement might be on the verge of something big.
Since most bars and restaurants in the United States have had to close their doors, bartenders are largely out of work. To support them, Aviation Gin just announced its new #TipYourBartenders program offering a $15,000 tip to the United States Bartenders’ Guild (USBG). Between now and May 1, Aviation Gin will also donate 30 percent of the proceeds from each Aviation Gin bottle sold through major national partners to the USBG. The goal is to ensure that bartenders are still provided with a 30 percent tip, despite being out of work.
Until May 1st, for every bottle of Aviation ordered online, we’ll donate 30% of proceeds as a tip to your bartenders – who REALLY miss you btw. Visit https://t.co/elT2zrCgE0 #TipYourBartenders #StayHomeSaveLives pic.twitter.com/77tVacDGBM
— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) March 24, 2020
To make sure a portion of your purchase goes to the USBG, the bottle must be delivered through one of Aviation’s formal partners, including ReserveBar, Drizly, Wine.com, Total Wine & More, Minibar, and Caskers.
Inspired by Aviation Gin, owned by actor Ryan Reynolds, Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, who created and own mezcal brand Dos Hombres, are following suit in this generous gesture. Thirty percent of the proceeds from online purchases of Dos Hombres will be donated to the USBG.
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You need to eat a Ugandan rolex
In Uganda, lush green scenery provides the perfect backdrop for the wildlife and nature tours that can be taken there. However, local cuisine is often overlooked by international visitors. Roadside delicacies in Uganda, such as the samosa and mandazi, are arguably the best in East Africa. But none have proved more popular as the omelet-style treat Ugandans called the rolex. In Uganda, locals don’t wear rolexes, they eat them.
What is the Ugandan rolex
A rolex is similar to a vegetable omelet. Cabbage, tomato, and onion are cooked with eggs and then rolled into a chapati, a tortilla-like unleavened flatbread. Rolexes are omnipresent in the local daily life. Grabbing a rolex on the way to work gives Ugandans time to exchange the daily news while they’re waiting to be served. Many people end their adventures at the roadside rolex stall after a night on the town, too. The name is a play on the phrase “rolled eggs.”
According to Blanche D’Souza’s book Harnessing the Trade Winds, maritime trade with West India brought the chapati to East Africa. Chapati is now an integral part of East African food tradition. The outer layer of the African version of chapati is sprinkled with oil resulting in a crispy edge which, together with the flaky moist interior, sets it apart from the original Indian version.
Here lies the secret of how to make the yummiest rolex: The steam coming off the eggs softens the chapati which makes rolling the egg and bread together easier. When the omelet is nearly cooked through on the frying pan above a charcoal stove, Peter, a chef who runs his own rolex food stall in Kampala, tops the eggs with a chapati and cooks it a little more until the eggs and flatbread stick together. Finally, the whole thing is flipped, rolled up into a cylindrical shape and wrapped in an old newspaper for serving.
Origins of the rolex
Photo: stockcreations/Shutterstock
The origins of the rolex are unclear, but the most widespread story (even backed up by Trevor Noah) claims that the dish can be traced back to a single creative chapati seller named Sula, from Busoga, a region in eastern Uganda. He was likely the first person to pair chapati with scrambled eggs. According to Uganda’s Daily Monitor, when the snack appeared at Makerere University in Kampala, its popularity boomed, driven by the students’ non-stop quest for a fast, cheap, and delicious on-the-go meal.
Rolex festivals
Photo: Rolex Festival/Facebook
The rolex even has its own festival that attracts both local and international visitors, called the Kampala Rolex Festival. Some local chefs add chicken, while others add grated cheese or vegetables such as bamboo shoots, among other ingredients, to the egg mixture.
“There are many regional variants of the rolex so when you visit the festival you traverse the different regions of Uganda in just one day,” Patrick Muhire of the Ugandan Tourism Board said in an AFP YouTube video highlighting the festival.
Though the food festival focuses on rolexes, other roadside snacks such as samosas (originally an Indian pastry with a savory filling) and mandazi (fried dough in a variety of shapes) are offered as well. This August, the rolex street food festival will celebrate its fifth anniversary.
During the Entebbe Tourism Festival in 2018, eight chefs prepared the longest rolex in the world, measuring 17.7 feet. They used 100 eggs to complete the masterpiece. Of the final rolex, 6.5 feet was donated to a neighboring school for children with special needs, as reported by Uganda’s New Vision newspaper. These food festivals are helping the rolex get the recognition it deserves as a national delicacy.
More like this: 9 sweet, stewed, and mashed Ugandan banana dishes to try
The post Why everyone needs to eat a rolex in Uganda appeared first on Matador Network.
Phone data on social distancing
In a world where just about everything is traceable, it does not come as a surprise that Americans’ cell phones are now a great way to track who is self-isolating and social distancing. Unacast, a company that collects and analyzes phone GPS location data, just revealed its “Social Distancing Scoreboard” that shows which residents around the country are actually abiding by the behavior encouraged by health officials.
Unacast compared current location data to data collected on a typical pre-pandemic day, and noted changes in distance traveled, time spent around the house, and activity clusters.
States where residents are excelling in social distancing are colored in green, while those needing improvement are colored orange.
Photo: Unacast
According to data collected from millions of cell phones, on March 20, Alaska, Nevada, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Washington, DC, are currently doing the best at following social distancing protocol, while Oregon, New Mexico, Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming are among those that need improvement.
Visit Unacast’s website to view the interactive map and see how your state is scoring.
More like this: How to stay in shape at home when the gym is closed
The post Cell phone data reveals which Americans are staying at home and which ones aren’t appeared first on Matador Network.
March 24, 2020
Wales national forest project
Wales is embarking on an ambitious ecological program to create a large national forest, extending across the entire country. The initiative, led by First Minister Mark Drakeford, would connect existing protected woodland with large-scale tree-planting projects, with the aim of restoring biodiversity loss, fighting climate change, and protecting the local community. The forests would store carbon from the atmosphere in their roots, therefore improving air quality; secure the soil to prevent flooding and erosion; and provide a home for indigenous wildlife such the black grouse, Scottish wildcat, and red squirrel.
According to Drakeford, “We have a responsibility to future generations to protect nature from the dangers of our changing climate, but a healthy natural environment will also offer protection to our communities from the dangers we ourselves face.”
$5.7 million has been devoted to the project, with an additional $11.7 million going towards Glastir Grants — a program for farmers designed to help stop the diminishing natural wilderness.
The entire length network of woodlands could be walked, in the same way as the popular Wales Coastal Path, and could prove a successful tourist attraction.
According to the BBC, the Welsh government wants to start planting 4,900 acres per year as soon as possible.
More like this: All the natural wonders of Wales you’ll miss if you only see Cardiff
The post Wales is planting a national forest that will extend across the entire country appeared first on Matador Network.
National parks closing for COVID-19
To combat the spread of coronavirus and encourage social distancing, many national parks are closing to the public or modifying their operations, including Yellowstone and Grand Teton. Although, thanks to their sizes, parks might seem somewhat safer than other public gathering places, they attract large numbers of visitors, which poses a health risk.
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A post shared by Yellowstone National Park (@yellowstonenps) on Mar 24, 2020 at 10:56am PDT
In lieu of visiting the parks, the NPS is offering some virtual alternatives like photo galleries, apps, videos, and virtual tours. These are obviously poor substitutes for the real thing, but they’ll just have to suffice to tide us over until the parks reopen.
The decision to close the parks comes shortly after President Trump waived all national park entrance fees — a move designed to make social distancing less painful by encouraging safe outdoor recreation. The gesture, however, triggered fear of crowds and risks for NPS visitors and employees. The UK made a similar reversal with the National Trust opting to close parklands, coast, countryside, and gardens shortly after offering free entry.
A list of the closed parks and their modified operations is available on the National Parks Services Public Health Update page.
More like this: Some state parks are being turned into quarantine zones for COVID-19 patients
The post National parks are closing to slow the coronavirus outbreak appeared first on Matador Network.
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