After saving the world from alien invaders with his Avenger pals, billionaire playboy/part-time super-suit inventor Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.: The Avengers) is having trouble sleeping. It seems that a wormhole full of vicious invaders, a brush with death and the enormity of being Iron Man have caught up with the usually unflappable superhero.     Stark treats his PTSD by refusing to discuss his trauma and spending long nights tinkering on new versions of the Iron Man suit....

Early May is a great time of year. The dogwoods are in full bloom, the scent of flowering lilacs perfume the air, redbuds glow crimson. And one of the greatest sweetwater fish species is, right now, moving into the shallows and picking out a spawning territory to defend.     Tossing a size-10 popping bug with a fly rod along a freshwater impoundment’s shoreline and waiting for the explosive take of a bull bluegill guarding his territory is a delight not to be missed. This...

England has Stonehenge. France has cave paintings. We have national parks.         The parks were a cutting-edge idea when they were born in 1872, with the founding of Yellowstone. With some 2.7 million visitors a year, our 59 national parks are still a big deal.     But how many of us get to visit them? How many of us get to be inspired by the trees that form a green mantle over many of their lands?     That’s why biologist...

In times of trial, the brave step forward.     Unrest caught hold at Calvert High School a year ago. It divided students into Us and Them.     Into this turmoil stepped a handful of the brave.     At a June assembly to bring the students together, senior E.J. LaGoy spoke up. “Words hurt,” she said. “Stop it! Just stop it!”     Freshman Andrea Kelson read her poem about bullying. A Revolution ended with this...