Increasingly I have been arguing with public- health and some conservative friends re the bans on DDT and other chlorinated hydrocarbons. They seem to think that it is responsible for the increase in malaria in Africa. They mean well, but they are wrong. If DDt is used properly it is no threat– if it is …
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New Mammals!
I mentioned that Darren has been busy but I would hardly have imagined his news: an announcement of not just one or two but many “new” large mammal species from Amazonia. All are the discoveries of Marc van Roosmalen, and appear at Tetrapod Zoology with his permission. Marc’s new website, full of material, is here. …
California
It already has draconian gun- buying rules, a ban on calibers of over .50 (not one example of which has ever been used in a crime); bans on guns that look “bad”. It wants regulation mandating non- existent technology to mark bullets on (“evil” semiauto only, because only they can kill I guess) handguns. It …
Time Wasted?
The NY Times has a provocative article today on the concept of wasted time at work – especially as it applies to knowledge work. We continually try to graft concepts of efficiency developed for manufacturing onto more creative activities. Money quote: “In other words, what looks like wasting time from where you sit, could be …
Meteor Strike Update
Dr. Valerius Geist has some ideas. “There may be some thing to this meteor strike. However, the cosmic event did not get rid of megaherbivores, such as mammoth and mastodons. However, the short, but severe depletion pf large prey may have eliminated Arctodus simus, and Miracinonyx. They seem to be gone about 13,000 BP. With …
Big Fisherman
This photo emerged from a packing box over the weekend. That’s Reid Farmer, age seven, with some rainbows we caught in the Arkansas Ozarks. That’s my grandfather Travis Reid’s hand holding the other end of the stringer. I really liked that sheath knife that I bought while on vacation in the Smoky Mountains. Steve and …
Overland Journal
The first issue of a splendid new magazine, “The publication for environmentally responsible, worldwide vehicle-dependent expedition and adventure travel”, has just become available. Editors include the Alpha Environmentalist and Roseann of Three Martini Lunch . Both content and style are first- rate. This is going to be a good one.
Ice Age Impact?
Scroll down from here to that title to hear a Canadian broadcast on the possible 13,000- year old meteor strike that may have been implicated in the North American Pleistocene extinctions. We will be hearing more about this. (HT Walter Hingley).
Darwin’s Letters
Annie D just introduced me to this treasure trove of Darwin’s letters. She quoted a very youthful (twelve- year old) Darwin on– washing: “Just as I was going, she said she must ask me not a very decentquestion, that was whether I wash all over every morning — no — thenshe said it was quite …
Real Hunting…
… and otherwise. On Henry Chappell’s Home Range, he takes us out for a few days of old- fashioned East Texas hunting, fishing, and eating— bream fishing with bait, squirrel hunting with dogs, night hunting for raccoons. This is hunting- gathering as a life. Good pics too! On the (very) other hand, Dave Petzal, the …