At Home: Weedzilla
Summertime weeds are a homeowner’s curse: they threaten gardens, disrupt lawns, and creep in between the cracks in the sidewalk. But recently, various regions in Canada have been dealing with a weed That’s more than merely inconvenient.
As The Globe and Mail reports, the six-metre tall giant hogweed, which has been found in British Columbia and Ontario, is harmful to human beings: it can cause skin blisters and even blindness.
Giant hogweed is ?identified by its tell-tale purple splotching on the stem and its umbrella-like cluster of white flowers.? It also has large leaves, which can spread ?as much as 1.5 metres in diameter.?
Eradicating the weed takes more than a pair of garden gloves. In fact, the Invasive Plants Council of British Columbia advises that individuals wear ?waterproof gloves, a rubber raincoat and pants and eye protection? before attempting to get a closer look.
Directly touching the plant could have dangerous consequences, according to Jeff Muzzi, a forestry services manager in Renfrew County, Ontario. As Muzzi told reporters, ?The sap gets activated by sunlight, so once you get out on the sun it reacts and can cause really bad burns, blistering and scars,? adding that giant hogweed sap can also cause blindness.
Sounds like one weed That’s best left to the experts.
In Foreign News: Universal studio
Most artists dream of their work making its figurative mark on the world. Australian artist Andrew Rogers is taking his dream one step further: his latest sculpture park can be seen from space.
As CNN reports, Rogers and his team have been building the massive sculpture park in the hills of Cappadocia, Turkey, an area rich in history and culture. This ?land art,? which attempts to capture the local cultural heritage, is one of several similar artistic works across the globe.
To gather themes and motifs, Rogers investigates how residents view their history. As he told reporters, ?We always ? ask [the local people] ? what they want to show the next generations.?
Although from the ground, the resulting ?winding rock walls? are difficult to decipher, viewers from above can see the bigger picture. Fortunately, appreciation of Rogers’s work isn’t limited to astronauts: the area has a ?growing hot-air balloon industry.?
That the sculptures stand as a monument to the past is unquestionable. As Ozgur Ozarslan, from the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry, told reporters, they ?are going to be a bridge from the past to the present.? But while Rogers looks to the past for inspiration, he also is thinking about what is yet to come. ?we’re trying to make people think about what’s gone before and what’s going to be important in the future,? he explained to reporters.
