After posting a quote from one of Patrick O”Brian’s novels earlier this week, I remembered that I had some more Aubrey-Maturin related material to share. About 15 months ago I posted some nighttime pictures I had taken on the San Diego waterfront including this one of a sailing ship whose name I did not know. …
Month: February 2013
Happy Birthday Bella
It seems hard for us to believe, but our granddaughter Isabella Wilson had her third birthday a few days back. Connie and I were able to make a quick trip to California to participate in the festivities. As you can see in this picture, Bella is in a princess phase right now and firmly believes …
Historic Preservation Board
I am proud to announce that the Douglas County Commissioners have appointed me to a three year term on the County Historic Preservation Board. It’s a volunteer position and the Board is an advisory body that gives advice and makes recommendations to the county’s decision-making groups. Here’s the Board’s mission statement: The Board conducts research …
Species Shift
I have noted a change in some of the visitors to our feeders this winter: one of our most common year-round birds, House Finches, have almost completely disappeared. Another common winter visitor, White-crowned Sparrows, have also gone missing. Their places appear to have been taken by large numbers of American Tree Sparrows, who rarely showed …
Dr. Stephen Maturin on Falcons and Wives
During the hymns and psalms, which a certain rivalry between Surprises and Dromedaries rendered more vehement than musical, his attention wandered, returning to his anonymous letter and his thoughts of Diana – of her particular sort of faithfulness – of her extremely spirited resentment of any slight – and it occurred to him that she …
Primitive dogs
Jim and I have been invited to speak at an international conference on the use of aboriginal/primitive dogs that will take place this summer in South Africa. We’ll be giving one presentation to the general session (on the use of Aziats/Central Asian Ovcharkas to guard domestic sheep in the Rocky Mountains) and two poster presentations …
Hot Links
Look at this collection of gorgeous pictures of a spiny trilobite. I’d never seen one of these before. According to this study, our preagricultural ancestors had healthier mouths and teeth than we do. Is this a surprise? It is apparent to me that every few months, there is another press release citing a new radiocarbon …
Excellent Quote
From Michael Gruber’s blog: “Nothing pleases Apollo better than the slaughtering of a frivolous irresponsible reviewer on his altar.” – Georg Christof Lichtenberg (1742-1799)
A Literary Conversation
Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner suffered from a situation that affects many authors: his novels and stories got good reviews but he was not rewarded with good sales. Throughout most of his career, he was plagued by financial insecurity. To be completely fair, this insecurity didn’t keep Faulkner from owning an ante-bellum mansion, his own …
Napoleon Chagnon is Still Standing
I was surprised by this fairly objective article in the NY Times on the remarkable life and controversial career of cultural anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon. This story is an example in microcosm of the descent of cultural anthropology over the last thirty years into mindless political correctness. Chagnon was famous for his 1960s field work with …