dynamic elf

bitterlawngnome

The map shows how common lawns are across the country, despite a wide variability of climate and soils. Indeed, the scientists who produced the map estimate that more surface area is devoted to lawns than to any other single irrigated crop in the country. For example, lawns appear to cover more than three times the number of acres that irrigated corn covers. The large image shows a more detailed look at fractional lawn surface area in urban areas. In many cities, the urban core—where buildings, parking lots, and roads are densest—appears paler green.

Police said Mr Cole, who was wearing a bow tie and rather too much tweed for his age, would not reveal his country of origin. "Countries do not exist where I am from. The discovery of the Higgs boson led to limitless power, the elimination of poverty and Kit-Kats for everyone. It is a communist chocolate hellhole and I'm here to stop it ever happening."

In 2002, Nina Dudnik, Matthew Stremlau and Justin Yarrow -- three PhD students at Harvard University -- met for the first time. All three had worked in laboratories in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and wanted to make their peers aware of the material obstacles faced by researchers in resource-poor nations. They began hosting lectures and symposia, created a database of opportunities to work abroad in health or science, and organized cross-disciplinary discussion groups, all with the goal of encouraging their fellow students to be more aware of the exciting work being done by talented researchers overseas. But another, more direct opportunity to make a difference was all around them.


The laboratory hallways were full of old but usable scientific equipment that had been placed there when researchers upgraded to new models or simply cleaned house. Nina, Matt and Justin knew that these tools and supplies, which at Harvard would typically be thrown out or left on a shelf to gather dust for years, could be a vital life-line for scientists like the ones they had met in their travels -- talented, ambitious people, who had in many cases gotten educations at top universities in the US, Europe or Japan, and who had returned to their homelands to do work on research vital to themselves and their communities. The only thing holding back these scientists was the prohibitive cost of starting a lab of their own in a country where government funding of basic research is minimal, if it exists at all.