Last week, I was reading A Signature Cadence on the excellent blog Rands in Repose. In the article, the author points out the importance of the small details that make up a site's personality:
Do this. Take a moment to look on one of your favorite websites or weblogs and look for where they choose to sound like a friend you bumped into at the coffee shop. Once you start looking for it, it stands out. My favorite place to look is at the bottom of the page around the copyright.
It's a little thing. In the huge pile of work building a website, the words chosen to deliver small messages might seem important, but these small words define a personality and both personality and reputation are built on decisions that feel too small to matter.
After reading that, I got to work building a better footer for Future Changes. So scroll down to the bottom, have a look, and then tell me what you think in the comments.
Why polar bears, you ask? (If you don't understand this, then you haven't scrolled down yet... Go do that, then come back and read on.)
I've been fascinated with polar bears for a long time, and had the chance to see two up close at the San Diego Zoo this past weekend.
Polar bears majestic, intelligent, highly social, and endangered. They evolved from brown bears to thrive in the harsh environment of the Arctic. Considered by some scientists to be as intelligent as apes (source: Polar Bear I.Q.), polar bears work together to hunt and trap their prey, and are known to carefully clean their fur after eating, since dirty, matted fur is not as efficient an insulator as clean, dry fur.
Mothers have been observed teaching their young how to bathe themselves with water and dry themselves using snow (source: Bathing Habits). But their environment is increasingly threatened. As awareness of climate change grows, scientists are reporting concerning trends: if arctic warming continues at its current pace, two-thirds of the current polar bear population could be lost by 2050. (source: Are polar bears endangered?)
Polar bears are an important advance indicator of the effects of climate change. But they're much, much more than that. We share space with them, and they deserve our help, and our actions to help preserve their - and our - environment.
You can find out more about polar bears at the San Diego Zoo Blog, and Polar Bears International, a non-profit dedicated to polar bear conservation and education programs.
Image of polar bear napping â"' San Diego Zoo.
Image of polar bears in snow â"' Polar Bears International.
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