I grew up in Springfield Gardens, Queens, but before that, my parents lived in Flatbush, Brooklyn when they first came to America. And the Flatbush they walked into was not the polished Brooklyn people brag about today. This was the 90s. Hip-Hop Brooklyn. Caribbean Brooklyn. Loud Brooklyn. Block party Brooklyn. The kind of place where music poured out of every window and the streets felt alive even when nothing was happening. My parents were right there when Hip-Hop was climb

[Insert image here. Alt text: "Colorful vintage clothing rack inside a thrift store."] Thrifting has always been one of my favorite things to do. I do not walk into a thrift store expecting perfection. I walk in expecting a show. For real, it feels like stepping into a vaudeville performance. You never know what you are going to see. There are random characters all around you, wild outfits from different decades, colors and textures you do not see in regular stores, and racks

An autonomous voyage of the Yara Birkeland as it travels through a Norwegian fjord, demonstrating zero-emission short-sea shipping. Photo Credit:  Yara International For most of human history, ships were only as capable as the people aboard them. No matter how advanced the technology was for its time, a vessel’s success depended on the seamanship, discipline, and instincts of its crew. In the age of sail, entire crews worked in constant coordination to maneuver canvas, trim s