NASA’s on a mission to Mars. This Peninsula expert wants you to come along for the ride

Hiller Aviation Museum’s Jon Welte talks space travel, Martian life and Silicon Valley in space. This illustration depicts NASA’s Perseverance rover operating on the surface of Mars. Perseverance will land at the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater a little after 3:40 p.m. EST (12:40 p.m. PST) on Feb. 18, 2021. (Image via NASA) This time next week, Perseverance could be sitting peacefully upon Martian ground. If its landing proves a successful one, NASA’s Perseverance ...

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Hope for Big Basin: Santa Cruz scientist documents the rebirth of our fire-ravaged forests

Professor Dustin Mulvaney explored the damage within the CZU Complex’s burn scars and found just what he’d expected: regrowth. “Coast redwoods sprout back above Gold Gulch, Empire Grade, three months after #CZULightningComplex” (Photos via Dustin Mulvaney on Twitter) It’s 2021—the world can’t help but be on the lookout for good news. For many Californians, Dustin Mulvaney’s photographs were just that. In late November, the professor of Environmental Studies at San Jose State went ...

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“Unapologetically progressive”: the historic rise of James Coleman, 21, to SSF city council

Coleman is the council’s first openly LGBTQ member, its first democratic socialist and the youngest individual ever elected to the seat. Coleman, 21, is a senior at Harvard University this year. He’ll complete the remainder of his school year online so as to be present during his term as councilmember for the city of South San Francisco, he said. (Image via James Coleman’s Facebook page) This past autumn was a blur for ...

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The scoop on ethical business: Why Ben of Ben & Jerry’s thinks American corporations must do better

Ahead of his upcoming talk at Kepler’s, the long-time social activist & ice cream entrepreneur gives us the scoop on how business (and government) could be doing more for our communities. (Original 650 illustration by Kaz Palladino/Awkward Affections; photo courtesy of Ben & Jerry’s) When Ben & Jerry’s sold to Unilever in 1994, co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield walked away as millionaires. And yet Cohen, who subsequently took a step back ...

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Palo Alto’s outgoing mayor has some choice words for the city’s elected officials. “Build” is one of them.

Housing crusader Adrian Fine sounds off on lip service liberalism and how Palo Alto became “part of the problem” “I am trying to ensure that Palo Alto is a successful and vibrant community for the next ten, 20 and 50 years. And I think that means we do a lot more on transportation and housing.”—Palo Alto Mayor Adrian Fine. (Above) Fine during his “State of the City” address at Mitchell Park ...

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They killed Surfer Magazine. Steve Hawk thinks it will live again.

The former Surfer editor and fixture of the Coastside surf scene discusses the iconic magazine’s 60 year run (and the void it will now leave behind). A variety of Surfer Magazine covers from throughout its 60-year run. (Images via Surfer.com) Steve Hawk began his editorial tenure as the “token surfer” in each of the newsrooms he frequented. And rightfully so. Though his day job was writing copy, Hawk still spent much of his ...

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The Stanford alum behind Netflix’s “The Social Dilemma” wants you to stop scrolling

Jeff Orlowski’s must-watch doc is an urgent wakeup call for a nation consumed by technology (Screenshot from The Social Dilemma via Netflix) Jeff Orlowski’s must-watch doc is an urgent wakeup call for a nation consumed by technology Director Jeff Orlowski (Chasing Ice; Chasing Coral) spent the better part of his early film career focused on the fossil fuel industry: amazed by the vast power its executives wielded, horrified by the consequences it was ...

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Beer + Bluegrass = Beergrass? How COVID turned a Coastside brewery into a legit folk band

The staff of Hop Dogma has spent much of quarantine brewing up something poignant and new — and it’s not just beer. Beer & Bluegrass: (from left) A glass of Hop Dogma Brewing Co.’s “Sunset Serenade” West Coast style IPA; the False Bottom Boys, from left to right: Dogma Head Brewer Jesse Jones, owner Dan Littlefield, musician and bartender Lisa Marie Johnston, Dogma Bartender and harpist Ella Jenkins, fiddle player John ...

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