Annie H sent this Newsweek item about how hunters are trashing the evolution of prey species. I call agenda- driven cherry- picking bullshit. The thesis seems to be that trophy hunting removes all good males and big individuals from the gene pool. This might well be possible in some individual populations especially if it were …
Month: January 2009
Writers’ Woes
Christina Nealson sends this grim item from salon about the state of mainstream publishing. “…On Dec. 3, now known as “Black Wednesday,” several major American publishers were dramatically downsized, leaving many celebrated editors and their colleagues jobless. The bad news stretches from the unemployment line to bookstores to literature itself. “It’s going to be very …
Jurassic Males?
Carl Zimmer has a fascinating item on the ever- more- blurry line between birds and non- avian Dinosaurs. It seems the Paleognathes– the bird group commonly known as ratites, composed of the big flightless birds like Ostriches and the odd related but flying South American group known as Tinamous– have retained the brooding habits of …
Food links and catching up…
A few catchup things before New Year’s blogging commences… First, a food manifesto I can get behind, at least as an ideal. But foraging can be dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing– if you are not conscientious or at least CONSCIOUS. Here is a harrowing first- person account by someone who ate …