In traditional Highland dress, her friend danced with an almost weightless grace, rising onto the balls of her feet and tracing clean, deliberate steps around the two practice basket-hilt broadswords crossed on the floor. Witnessing this ignited the first spark of a passion that would burn brightly in her for 20 years and counting.

I love how Highland dance combines the athleticism and power of the Scottish people.. with the grace and fluidity that comes from the influence of our Irish and French cousins (Riverdance and Ballet).

After moving to Idaho in 2014, where she taught until she relocated to Florida in 2020, Kasey and her younger siblings consistently secured top-three placements in regional and national championships. At just 18 years old, she opened her own studio, which has been the focus of her life ever since.

Over the last decade I have had the joy and honor of teaching so many amazing young people, helping them gain confidence in themselves and connect with their Scottish roots.

Highland dances are hundreds of years old, passed down through generations of Highlanders. Historically, dancers performed around swords before battle as a test of agility, courage, and readiness. After battle, similar dances were used in victory celebrations. Seasonal festivals and older Celtic Gaelic traditions also incorporated Highland dance at their core.

During the British military occupation of the Highlands, after the Jacobite rising of 1745, the government imposed the Act of Proscription (1746), through which Gaelic culture was stigmatized and suppressed. Highland dress, including kilts and tartan, was banned. Clans were broken up, and pipers, dance masters, and other tradition bearers lost their roles as their patronage systems collapsed.

However, by the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a cultural revival began to take shape. Sir Walter Scott a Scottish novelist, poet and historian, helped popularize a romanticized vision of the Highlands. Highland regiments in the British Army wore tartan and preserved martial dance elements, and Victorian society embraced what they saw as a picturesque Scotland.

This renewed fascination led to the formal codification of Highland dance, preserving the traditions and carrying them forward even as they evolved into forms designed for performance and competition rather than their original clan-based rituals.

Through teaching the dances to the next generation, we help keep the Celtic culture alive for many years to come.

Checkout the Hawkins School of Highland Dance's website for more.

Behind the legal and financial turmoil are seventeen living beings: dolphins who depend on this place for survival.

Marineland was founded as a bridge between us and the ocean. But unfortunately that legacy has eroded over time. Reports and drone footage in the past had shown dolphins confined in small, algae-filled tanks with little shade and limited stimulation. A federal judge even questioned their welfare during recent bankruptcy proceedings.

The welfare of the dolphins, not nostalgia or property value, must define Marineland’s future. Captive dolphins form deep social bonds, communicate in unique dialects, and experience stress and depression when their environment deteriorates. Selling, relocating, or using them for photo opportunities would only harm their well-being.

Marineland once provided connection to wondrous animals and the environment of our oceans. Hopefully it can do so again, but preservation without welfare is exploitation.

To truly save Marineland, we must save the dolphins first;

• Independent welfare audits to assess living conditions and publish transparent results
• Immediate water-quality and enrichment improvements to meet marine-mammal care standards
• External scientific oversight from marine biologists and welfare organizations
• Transition to a coastal sanctuary model, where possible, allowing more space, natural water, and retirement from public performance
• Public accountability for any ownership transfer that ensures animal welfare takes precedence over development profits

How You Can Help

Support groups such as TideBreakers and the Save Marineland’s History and Animals GoFundMe campaign are pressing for legal and ethical reform. You can help by donating, sharing verified information, and demanding oversight from Florida’s wildlife agencies and The Dolphin Company’s trustees.

Donald Trump, convicted of 34 felony counts in New York and facing about 91 felony charges across four criminal cases involving election interference, classified documents, and obstruction of justice, leads an administration acting in ways that undermine democratic principles by bypassing courts, using executive power aggressively, and treating dissent as a threat.

Cuts from Education, Science & Healthcare

Education

~$6–6.8 billion in K-12 funds were frozen or withheld (after-school, summer learning, English-learner support, adult edu-teacher training). Claims that school/education funds were used for gender-affirming surgeries are unsupported

Research & University Grants

~$6 billion has been put on hold across nine institutions. These funds pay for labs developing new medicines, clean-energy tech, and cybersecurity tools, and they support graduate students who form the next generation of scientists and engineers.

Without them, projects stall, researchers leave, and discoveries that would have improved health, safety, and competitiveness are delayed or lost. It weakens U.S. innovation, and slows disease and climate research.

U.S. Healthcare

Administration is proposing a 26% cut (about $33 billion) to the Department of Health and Human Services budget, eliminating roughly $2.3 billion in NIH research grants and pulling $11 billion from public-health departments. The administration’s budget also seeks to slash federal Medicaid funding by $700 billion–$1 trillion over ten years.

These cuts would devastate the country’s health infrastructure. It would reduce disease-tracking capacity, delay research breakthroughs, force hospitals (especially rural and safety-net providers) to close or downsize, and would strip coverage from millions of low-income and elderly Americans.

Immigration Policy & Enforcement Crackdowns

Recent investigations show that the administration’s immigration crackdown has fueled widespread abuse and unlawful conduct by ICE, including wrongful deportations and inhumane detention conditions.

Evidence shows agents used full-body restraints on nonviolent detainees and deported people to the wrong countries, such as a Nigerian man sent to Ghana, amounting to illegal detention and assault. At Louisiana’s South ICE Processing Center, detainees reported sexual assault, forced labor for as little as one dollar a day, and medical neglect of queer and transgender immigrants, while over 510 credible abuse allegations have surfaced involving pregnant women, children, and detainees denied medical care.

Overcrowded holding sites in Virginia forced hundreds to sleep on floors without sanitation or medical attention, and detainees in Washington reported constant artificial lighting and disorienting confinement that experts say meets the threshold for cruel treatment. At the same time, the administration has expanded mass raids at farms, hotels, and restaurants.

Free Speech Suppression

The Trump administration has repeatedly been accused of suppressing free speech through direct retaliation, regulatory pressure, and selective enforcement of laws.

• Revoked visas for foreign nationals who posted online criticism related to political events.
• Universities were pressured to accept federal funding with restrictive language and ideological conditions
• Regulatory and legal tools used to punish journalists and news organizations. Reports show that federal agencies and the FCC opened proceedings against media outlets at the administration’s request.
• The ACLU has documented cases of teachers, public employees, and journalists being disciplined or dismissed for expressing disfavored opinions.
• Expanded surveillance of protestors and online activists under the banner of national security. Reports detail ICE and other agencies monitoring protest movements, using facial recognition and digital tracking.
• Removal of federal web pages and datasets concerning diversity, environmental protection, and gender identity.

Despite the administration’s announcement of an executive order titled “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship”, these actions reflect the opposite, eroding the core principles of the First Amendment.

Prioritizing Elites

The Trump administration’s policies have prioritized elites and harmed lower-income Americans.

• Tax and economic policy favoring the wealthy: The 2017 tax cuts and extensions heavily benefit the top 1%, while low and middle-income households receive minimal savings.
  • Lower-income Americans gain about $70 annually on average, while the top 1% save tens of thousands, shrinking public revenue for essential services.
• “Gold-card” immigration residency program for the rich: Wealthy foreigners can buy U.S. residency through a pay-to-stay visa system, privileging capital over humanitarian or merit-based immigration.
• High-dollar fundraising access for political influence: A $200 million White House ballroom fundraising program gave major donors direct access to administration officials.
  • Working-class citizens and small donors are effectively shut out of political influence, eroding democratic equality and increasing corruption risk.
• Corporate deregulation benefiting major industries: Rollbacks on environmental, financial, and labor regulations primarily benefit corporations and shareholders.
  • Workers face weaker safety protections, wage stagnation, and higher health and pollution risks, while profits for large firms surge.
• Trade and tariff policies burdening consumers: Tariffs on imported goods and materials raise consumer prices and input costs across industries.
  • Lower-income households, who spend a larger share of income on affected goods, bear the heaviest cost burden.
• Defunding public institutions to benefit private interests: Reductions in corporate and top-income tax rates drain government revenue, reducing funds for schools, infrastructure, and public health.
  • Working-class communities face declining service quality, fewer job opportunities, and deteriorating public infrastructure.
• Widening income and wealth inequality through policy alignment with elites: Wealth-focused policy design compounds advantages for high earners and investors while removing supports for wage earners.
  • The result is reduced upward mobility, stagnant wages, and an expanding wealth gap that locks millions in economic insecurity.

Threats to Democratic Institutions & Norms

• Centralizing power in the executive branch and undermining institutional independence: Directives issued requiring independent agencies to submit significant regulations for White House review and aligning their legal interpretations strictly under presidential authority.
• Attacking judicial checks and disregarding rule of law: Open criticisms of judges who rule against them, dismissed or weakened watchdog offices, and threatened non-compliance with judicial decisions.
• Manipulating electoral and democratic processes: Analysts warn that the administration is eroding voting protections, questioning election outcomes, and weakening transparency around electoral oversight.
• Politicizing federal agencies: Executive branch agencies are being used for partisan purposes, replacing career officials with loyalists, and transforming oversight mechanisms into tools of political control.
• Encouraging or facilitating democratic backsliding internationally: U.S. actions under the administration send signals abroad that democratic norms can be weakened without immediate consequence.

If you want to help fight for the American people, please consider supporting the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Founded in 1920, they have over 500 staff members, thousands of volunteer attorneys, and over four million members and supporters. They cover civil liberties (free speech, privacy, due process, voting rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and executive accountability) across 50 states.

Captured in the Colonial Quarter of St. Augustine, Florida, the nation's oldest city, this image depicts a historical reenactment of women's lives during the colonial era.

The often overlooked lives of women during these times shaped early colonial society through care, resilience, and unrecorded labor.

Women in 18th-century St. Augustine managed households that doubled as inns, marketplaces, and informal clinics.

They raised children under shifting flags, from Spanish to British and back again, navigating new languages, laws, and expectations with every change in rule.

Many kept small farms, tended animals, and preserved family lineages during times when their husbands were away fighting, trading, or lost to war.

Clothing as Language

In this article's image, the linen chemise and bonnet signal modesty and function, while the straw hat and vibrant overdress suggest European influence and social adaptability.

Clothing was both practical and political, a way to assert identity, status, and even resistance.

In a city that housed enslaved Africans, free Black tradespeople, Spanish settlers, British officers, and indigenous allies, women’s dress served as a visual shorthand for loyalty, class, religion, and occupation.

Less Visible but Essential

Though few left written records, colonial women played a central role in shaping life in St. Augustine. They taught language and tradition across generations, brokered peace within households, and carried memory forward.

Enslaved and indigenous women, in particular, preserved foodways, healing practices, and oral histories that helped entire communities survive.

Women during this period were the threads in the city's complex colonial fabric.

Learn more at the Colonial Quarter of St. Augustine's official site.

A landscape in motion, it's sculpted by the constant dance of wind, water, and time. Walk the same trail twice and you might not find your footprints again.

Sculpted by Wind

The Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve sits at the meeting point of opposing wind patterns, thus shaping it's hills through wind-driven (aeolian) processes. (The term comes from Aeolus, the Greek god of wind.)

Southwesterly winds dominate by day, lifting sand grains off the San Luis Valley floor and pushing them toward the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

At night, cool mountain air flows back down the slopes, reversing the current. This push and pull causes sand to pile up, then spill, avalanche, and migrate.

The result is the tallest sand dunes in North America, reaching heights of over 750 feet.

With the help of modern sensors and satellite imagery, scientists have mapped the movement of the dunes over time. Entire formations have slowly crawled across the valley like liquid hills.

Sculpted by Water

It’s not just wind. Water plays a hidden but vital role, too.

At the base of the dunes lies Medano Creek. The flow of this shallow creek pulses in waves, a rare phenomenon called "surge flow" caused by the unique sandy bed. This seasonal stream acts like a sculptor’s tool, flattening, eroding, and rebuilding the edges of the dunes with every surge.

Underneath it all lies a vast aquifer system, keeping the sand moist at certain depths and creating a kind of invisible glue that stabilizes the tallest dunes. Without that water table, scientists believe the dunes would collapse under their own weight or simply drift away.

Checkout the National Park Service's Great Sand Dunes page to learn more, and please consider donating to the NPS to protect and preserve this natural wonder.

Climbing combines intensity, presence, and purpose. When climbing, you're fully immersed physically, mentally, and emotionally. The brain interprets this complex stimulation as meaningful, which can provide deep satisfaction.

Unlike many forms of exercise, climbing requires problem-solving and risk management, which heightens engagement and rewards your brain even further.

Every climb floods your system with the following cocktail of neurotransmitters that boost mood, focus, and connection.

Dopamine: The Reward

Dopamine is released when we anticipate and accomplish a goal, such as sending a tough route or reaching the summit. It fuels motivation, creates a sense of pleasure, and drives climbers to keep pushing past their limits. Each successful hold or completed climb gives a rewarding dopamine hit that reinforces the behavior.

Adrenaline: The Rush

Climbers often encounter fear and risk, which triggers a surge of adrenaline. This fight-or-flight hormone heightens your senses, increases energy, and sharpens focus. It's what makes your heart race as you hang 30 feet up and makes you feel so alive.

Endorphins: The Painkiller

Rock climbing is physically demanding and occasionally painful. Endorphins are the brain’s natural opioids. They are released during sustained exertion and discomfort, helping reduce pain and induce a euphoric feeling often referred to as the “climber’s high.”

Serotonin: The Mood Stabilizer

Climbing outdoors, especially on real rock, boosts serotonin levels. Serotonin is linked to sunlight exposure, aerobic activity, and mood stability. The combination of nature, movement, and challenge improves well-being and combats anxiety and depression.

Oxytocin: The Bonder

Whether you're climbing indoors or outside, the sport involves trust, as when your partner is belaying (responsible for your rope), spotting, or cheering you on, these interactions release oxytocin, the social bonding hormone, which fosters emotional closeness and community.

What They Eat

Juveniles eat chiefly insects, small crustaceans, tadpoles, and small fish. With age they become omnivores that favor plants such as duckweed and submerged vegetation.

Field studies report wide site to site ranges in plant versus animal intake, but the overall trend is juvenile-leaning carnivory to adult-leaning herbivory.

Why it Changes

Early growth is faster on animal diets that are protein and energy dense, which supports rapid size gains that reduce predation risk.

Plant foods require microbial fermentation to extract energy, which takes longer and can limit intake rate in small turtles. As body size and gut volume increase, fermentation becomes more effective and adults can meet their needs with vegetation while still taking opportunistic animal prey.

Diet varies with local prey and plants, water temperature, season, and sometimes by sex. In some areas adults eat mostly plants; elsewhere adults still eat many animals. Across studies, the clear trend is that juveniles eat more animals and adults eat more plants.

Please checkout and support the Turtle Survival Alliance to support this species.

Once a century-old abandoned limestone quarry, it is now a thriving and biodiverse sanctuary. Through guided restoration, it shows how natural systems can be revived and sustained.

Vast systems of underground limestone and dolostone in the Florida Aquifer, one of the most productive in the world, span multiple states and supply freshwater to millions of people, including the garden. Water rises naturally through the limestone and feeds a network of ponds and waterfalls. These water levels respond to rainfall from miles away, creating a dynamic, self-sustaining cycle.

The landscape is defined by towering southern live oaks, some estimated to be 300 to 700 years old. These trees can draw up to 50 gallons of water per day and play a crucial role in maintaining soil stability and groundwater regulation. Cleverly hidden pumps also help recirculate water through irrigation lines and fountains, reinforcing the natural flow while maintaining beauty.

This consistent supply of clean, oxygen-rich water has allowed local biodiversity to flourish. The gardens are home to more than 40 bird species, along with turtles, fish, frogs, snakes, lizards, deer, bobcats, foxes, and a variety of pollinators. The fact that amphibians, which are highly sensitive to environmental toxins, are thriving here is a strong indicator of water quality and ecosystem health. Hundreds of bats occupy four dedicated bat houses, offering natural pest control while supporting Florida’s declining bat populations.

Cedar Lakes has extended its conservation efforts beyond the core garden area. The surrounding 64 acres of woodland were donated to Conservation Florida to support habitat preservation and wildlife corridor connectivity. Plans are underway for a Conservation Education Center that will teach visitors about Florida’s aquifers, native species, and the science of ecological restoration.

Community members and visitors contribute directly to conservation efforts through citizen science. By using apps like eBird or Merlin Bird ID, they can report wildlife sightings and environmental changes. These observations help track species presence and offer insight into seasonal water fluctuations and habitat trends.

More than a beautiful place to explore, Cedar Lakes Woods and Gardens is a living classroom that demonstrates how ecological knowledge, careful stewardship, and public involvement can restore damaged land into a healthy, sustainable ecosystem.

Please consider checking out their official site or donating to support them.

What You Can Do

77% of Americans care about farm animal welfare, and 67% say they would pay more for products that meet humane standards. Sharing statistics about mortality rates and overcrowding can further raise awareness and pressure producers to improve practices.

Labels like Certified Humane® and RSPCA-assured Are recognized as highly meaningful by organizations like Consumer Reports and represent real change, even if still limited in availability.

The Certified Humane® label, managed by Humane Farm Animal Care, ensures turkeys are raised under strict welfare guidelines: unrestricted access to nutritious food and fresh water, protection from harsh weather, enough space to flap wings, roost, and perform natural behaviors, and a proper lighting cycle to reflect day and night rhythms.

Audits are conducted by independent experts to enforce these standards on farms in North America and beyond. Only a handful of U.S. producers, such as White Oak Pastures, Ayrshire Farm, and Koch’s Turkey, meet the whole-bird requirements for Certified Humane® turkeys.

RSPCA’s welfare criteria, based on the "Five Freedoms," set best-in-class benchmarks across all life stages, from poults to transport to slaughter. These include requirements for stocking density, bedding, lighting, ventilation, and humane handling. While their label is more common in the U.K. and Australia, its principles inform humane-certification programs worldwide.

Consumers have the power to shift demand and influence supply chains by choosing turkey that meets humane certification standards. You can further support turkey welfare by reducing how much you consume or opting for plant-based alternatives. Even small changes in your purchasing habits can help move the industry away from factory-farmed conditions and toward more ethical, transparent systems.

Learn more from my sources at Certified Humane®, RSPCA Welfare Standards, Animal Welfare Institute, Vox, and the Humane Society of the U.S.