by Donna Hesterman | Mar 9, 2011 | Posts
Dotting the desert landscape of southern Afghanistan, there are 12 U.S. Marine Corps outposts. Two of them are fairly large Marine Corps bases, approximately 10 miles in diameter, and 2,000 to 3,000 Marines live and work there. They have cinderblock buildings, green...
by Donna Hesterman | Jan 28, 2011 | Posts
“Water vapor is your enemy, heat is everything, and there is always another step,” says Sean. He runs a bronze foundry in Santa Cruz. Bronze casting is a messy, multi-step process that pulls beauty from chaos. And Sean is a chemist, a material engineer, and an...
by Donna Hesterman | Jan 11, 2011 | Posts
Today I had a conversation with a man who I have read about in history books. I’ve also seen a few movies about him. And the night Barack Obama was elected President; I saw this man’s face on a television set in a bar in Selma, Alabama. He was talking, but...
by Donna Hesterman | Jan 4, 2011 | Posts
Since I was a little girl, I’ve taken what I call “mental snapshots” of moments that I want to remember. I almost always carry a camera now, but back before digital cameras became ubiquitous, I hardly ever had one handy when something significant was going down. I...
by Donna Hesterman | Dec 23, 2010 | Posts
I made a video of my sister-in-law Sara dying eggs in the pysanky technique. It’s a big file, so have a glass of nog to pass the time while it downloads. Enjoy! http://gallery.me.com/hestermandl/100137
by Donna Hesterman | Dec 1, 2010 | Posts
My seven-year-old has been congested and coughing for a few days now. This morning when he complained that his chest hurt, I called to see if I could get him in to see the doctor. Surprisingly, we were able to get an appointment right away. A few hours later, we were...
by Donna Hesterman | Nov 28, 2010 | Posts
In less than 100 days, my husband will be on his way home from Afghanistan. I didn’t say anything to the kids, because it just reminds them that he’s gone. And of course, there is always the possibility that the plan will change. Still, it’s a...
by Donna Hesterman | Nov 17, 2010 | Posts
Here I sit, digging my lede out of the second paragraph — I hope it’s okay. It’s been down there since Monday with no food or water. My editor found it. He heard it whimpering under the crushing weight of a superfluous first paragraph. That’s...
by Donna Hesterman | Nov 10, 2010 | Posts
[slideshow] Here are some pictures from a field biology trip a few years ago. We went from Auburn, Alabama to Portal, Arizona and back in 9 days. We camped on BLM lands and surveyed small mammals (bats and rats) at every stop. The picture with the bucket shows how you...
by Donna Hesterman | Nov 7, 2010 | Posts
The biology department at Auburn University has a tradition called Bio-Lunch where graduate students invite a scientist to come and speak about their work over a brown bag lunch. My friend, Sara, came bursting into the lab one day to tell me that she had been chosen...
by Donna Hesterman | Oct 28, 2010 | Posts
Here is a short video of our class field trip to see the otter trackers in action. I’m just learning to use iMovie so this was an editing film exercise for me. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-RGS9nMkj8&fs=1&hl=en_US]
by Donna Hesterman | Oct 24, 2010 | Posts
As it turns out, there are no good videos of pink flamingos on the Internet. I burned the better part of Saturday looking for them, so believe me when I say there are none. In lieu of pink flamingo videos, I offer the following. These are, in my opinion, the top three...
