Henry David Thoreau

8 Stories

She Chased Her Wooded Bliss, Found It's Really Boring

'Plenty of people have believed that nature would save them; fewer have the guts to admit when it doesn’t'

(Newser) - The question posed to an advice column for Outdoor magazine comes with a twist. The writer explains that six months ago, she did what a lot of people only fantasize about: She quit her job, dumped her boyfriend, and moved to a remote cabin in Montana (complete with outhouse) so...

Scientists Have a Plea for Swimmers in Walden Pond

Please stop peeing

(Newser) - They phrase it in scientist-speak: "It will therefore be prudent to further reduce the flow of anthropogenic nutrients to Walden Pond," researchers write in the journal PLOS One . The translation for non-scientists: Stop peeing in Thoreau's beloved pond. Scientists from Paul Smith College in New York assessed...

This Might Be the Most Zen Video Game Ever

But would Thoreau appreciate a digital walk in the woods?

(Newser) - Henry David Thoreau distrusted technology, advocated surrounding oneself with nature, and believed people should "live deliberately." In 2017, he wouldn't even have to step away from his computer. Smithsonian Magazine reports the Game Innovation Lab at USC is releasing a video game based on Thoreau's most...

Get Ready for Walden Pond: The Video Game
Get Ready for Walden Pond: The Video Game
and don't forget jay-z
Apr 26, 2012 5:05 PM CDT

Get Ready for Walden Pond: The Video Game

Henry David Thoreau's masterpiece goes digital; Jay-Z has game, too

(Newser) - Henry David Thoreau lived at Walden Pond to escape the comforts of modern life; soon, you'll be able to share his experience right on your flat-screen TV. Thanks to a $40,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the University of Southern California is developing a video...

Thoreau's Journals Help Track Climate Change

Spring comes about 10 days earlier now in Concord, Massachusetts: Study

(Newser) - Henry David Thoreau has come to to the rescue of scientists seeking valuable climate data. The Walden author kept meticulous notes of flowering patterns in Concord, Massachusetts, between 1851 and 1858. After crunching Thoreau's numbers, researchers have found the average temperature in Concord has risen an estimated 4.3...

Gimmicky Green Authors Wouldn't Impress Thoreau
Gimmicky Green Authors
Wouldn't Impress Thoreau
OPINION
Dec 28, 2008 5:34 AM CST

Gimmicky Green Authors Wouldn't Impress Thoreau

Writers often more into self promotion than self denial

(Newser) - Modern-day Henry David Thoreaus don't need to move to the woods for life to land a book deal. The push for green living has given us, unfortunately, no small number of gimmicky books on the subject, laments Michael Agger in Mother Jones. Temporarily living without plastic, eating only locally grown...

Global Warming Changes Thoreau's Walden

27% of species have disappeared from Mass. pond author made famous

(Newser) - While living at Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau collected detailed data on the plant species native to Concord, Mass. Scientists studying climate change have compared those records to present-day biodiversity—and found chilling evidence of global warming’s effects, the Boston Globe reports. 27% of the species Thoreau documented are...

Developers Plan Feast on Thoreau's 'Silver Platter'

Prospect of vast swath of homes on Maine lake has locals up in arms

(Newser) - It was once Thoreau’s “gleaming silver platter,” and now developers want to eat off it. A Seattle developer wants to put 1,000 hotel rooms and condos around Maine’s Moosehead Lake, Bloomberg reports. The proposed construction on mostly private land abutting a huge tract of forest...

8 Stories