I received this press release today from the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance, a new organization seeking to stop the USDA’s National Animal Identification System and to act further—after this disaster is averted—on behalf of small farmers and private ranchers. To see the need and for a taste of the NAIS-brand of government service, note …
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Summer of the Puppies?
Libby here. It appears that this summer is going to be the “summer of the puppies”. We definitely wanted Ataika and Kyran to mate, which they did; Ataika’s heat must have triggered Lashyn to cycle also. Steve heard a commotion in the yard yesterday and went out to find Lashyn and Kyran “tied”, as they …
Well- Aged Meat
Reid and Roseann sent me to this wonderful tale of a unique dinner, recorded by two of my paleontological heroes, Bjorn Kurten and Dale Guthrie. Here is Kurten: “The meat in its abdomen had spoiled before the bison was completely frozen. But in the neck area small pieces of meat were found attached to the …
Prehistoric Dentistry
About the time Kennewick Man was paddling around Washington, people in Pakistan were having their cavities filled.
Doug Owsley on Kennewick Man
Connie and I heard Doug Owsley of the Smithsonian Institution give the after-dinner address at the Society for California Archaeology awards banquet last Friday night in Ventura. He spoke on his work on the taphonomy of the Kennewick Man find, something I posted on in February. It was an interesting and amazingly well-illustrated talk. Not …
Total Eclipse
I better blog this before Steve does. One of our favorites, Pluvialis (aka Helen Macdonald), treats us yet again with a sample of her casual brilliance. She is back from a visit to catch the total eclipse in Turkey. No need to go there yourself; just read the whole thing. “There I am, sitting on …
Lurchers
I picked up my falcon Tuuli yesterday from my friend Bodie, who had taken fifteen hares with him and his lurchers, including one of our pups, in a season that started in late January when I realized that I would not be able to fly him at all this year. We met in Albuquerque at …
“Mammoth” discovery
Ivory-billed woodpecker rediscoverer Tim Gallagher has a sense of humor, even if his skeptics don’t. For april Fool’s Day he sent me this:
Pacelle speaks
Reader and borzoi breeder Rey McGehee finds some attributed wisdom from H$U$ prez Wayne Pacelle. “The life of an ant and the life of my child should be accorded equal respect.”— Wayne Pacelle, Associated Press, Jan. 15, 1989 And again, lest you think he spoke without thinking of the implications: The life of an ant …
Growing “Meat”
Artificial meat— or more acurrately “test tube meat” — rears its ugly head again. I suspect if this ever becomes a reality it will give AR people another club to beat us with. And can you imagine the esthetics? Notice they couldn’t bring themselves to actually EAT it.