My favorite living writer of non-fiction (after Steve of course!) is Robert D. Kaplan. He is mostly a travel writer with a deep sense of history and culture, following Patrick Leigh Fermor as his model. Mediterranean Winter is my favorite Kaplan work so far. I recently read his latest book, Imperial Grunts that is a …
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Poles Will Wander
It has been well known for many years that the magnetic field of the earth is somewhat unstable and that as a result the magnetic poles “wander” or move gradually over time. This piece says recent studies show that the north magnetic pole (both poles move – I think we are Northern Hemisphere chauvinists) is …
Hottest Year “On Record”
This piece proclaiming that 2005 is the hottest year “on record” has run right into one of my pet peeves, which is that where climate is concerned, “the record” doesn’t mean much. “The record” refers to directly observed temperatures and those only go back 150 to 200 years at the most. At the time scale …
Genetic Map of Dogs Completed
Researchers at Harvard and MIT have announced that they have completed their decoding of the genome of the domestic dog. Timing is everything – Steve is out of the country and with his interest and knowledge of genetics and dog breeding he is certainly the one to provide insights and comments on the significance of …
A New View of Easter Island Prehistory
For many years, the accepted view of the settlement and prehistory of Easter Island has portrayed it as a lesson in human-induced ecological collapse. According to the conventional wisdom, the Polynesians who settled the island deforested it while engaging in non-productive competition in construction of the famous statues found there. The deforestation led to erosion …
Wind Energy Noise Problems
Steve and I have both posted on the pros and cons of wind energy and the ambivalence that many environmentalists feel toward it. One of the issues I pointed out that doesn’t get much play is that of the noise they make. Complaints about noisy wind turbines have caused San Bernardino County to reconfigure their …
Tulane Revives
In our first post-Hurricane Katrina post I mentioned that I am an alumnus of Tulane University in New Orleans, and expressed concerns about its survival after the storm. The university was indeed dealt a body-blow and suspended classes for the fall semester. Fortunately the school is located in the Garden District in one of the …
Big-Box Safari
The LA Times had this piece on the “big-box” stores that hunting/fishing outfitters Cabelas and Bass Pro Shops are opening around the country. I have ordered mail-order from Cabelas for decades (well, on-line now) but had never been to one of their retail centers until I saw their Kansas City store while visiting my daughter …
Sad News from Mongolia
On the eve of his departure for Turkey, Steve forwarded this sad story published in the NY Times about plummeting wildlife populations in Mongolia due to hunting pressure. This is due to a covergence of a population with a strong hunting tradition (the piece estimates that 10% of the population are active hunters), a weak …
Russian Girls and Kalashnikovs
Steve likes most things Russian and admired this photo of girls cleaning their rifles that Roseann passed on to us. Also Roseann’s comments: “I love their little hair pom-poms, and just their expressions, you can just hear the ones on the right, ‘So, did you see Yuri last night at the dance? Wasn’t he just …