California (of course?) once again considers disarming its citizens. As Reid says, “you can have all the guns you want but no ammo”. Yale goes further. Shakespeare with nerf bats and boffers? Maybe they can do an adaptation of the Maltese Falcon with squirt guns… The always thoughtful Steve Browne provides sensible and serious advice, …
Author: Steve Bodio
Guest Post: Dr John on Cal Spay- Neuter
John Burchard writes: There are many valid reasons for opposing California AB 1634. Perhaps the mostimportant are these: 1) It won’t work. Mandatory s/n does not reduce shelter or euthanasia numbers.On the contrary, it makes them worse. It has been tried in many jurisdictions,always with the same effect: an *increase* in shelter intake and euthanasianumbers, …
Decline and Fall (with Hawks & Pigeons!)
Rebecca sends this item from England. It needs deconstructing. All emphasis mine… “The mechanical birds — called “Robops” — have been placed on rooftop locations around the British city of Liverpool and will flap their wings and squawk loudly to scare the problem pigeons away.” Yeah, that’s what falcons do.. “The initiative was launched to …
Bat Falconry?
Couldn’t resist posting this re comments below…
More Dog Food Recalls…
… here. I am disturbed by the refusal to name names– the brand I use contains rice. Patrick has commented on dog food with his usual curmudgeonly good sense, but I am beginning to wonder if the more sensible versions of the BARF diet might be a good idea, at least for those of us …
Egregious– and Hilarious– Error
Do editors (as opposed to acquisitions people and Spellcheck) exist any more? First, visit Pluvi’s post, appropriately titled AAAARGH! For non- birders, the cover of The Peregrine does not show a Peregrine or even a falcon; the cover of The Goshawk shows a Gyrfalcon. Now, go here. See the long bio of Nobel Prize- winning …
Bird- Eating Bats
Dr. Hypercube was kind enough to unearth Darren’s old post on bird- eating bats and my additions re New World hoary bats: “The hoary bat, Lasiurus cinereus, has some very strange “spatial” habits. In the summer, the males live in the southwest, while the females range as far north as the Arctic circle. In the …
More Vadim
You can get a print of this, in true color, from the REF– see Reid’s post below.
Mystery
We store our good cut glass rim- down; perhaps we shouldn’t. Libby lifted this one up and it separated from its rim, perfectly, as though it had been cut. There was NO pattern where it separated. Anyone with a physics, engineering, glassmaking background have any ideas? I have an idea a similar phenomenon was noted …
Bloggy links
Shrunken heads are not pc! I would think not. One of the joys of the Pitt-Rivers Museum, and the reason that it is a treasure trove, is that its collections come from a more self- confident age. See link to it in favorites. HT David Zincavage, who is self- confident. Here is a wonderful map …