My wife and I have been on a search the last few weeks. Our favorite breed of dog is Australian Shepherd. We have had two as pets and they were both wonderful – very intelligent and very socialized to people. Osa (1983-1999) was a blue-merle female we bought for $10 at a ranch near Bailey, …
Horses and Weeds: To Blame or Not to Blame
I saw this interesting but ultimately frustrating piece in the LA Times a few days ago. For years horses have been blamed as part of the problem for the spread of non-native plants and noxious weeds into National Parks and Wilderness Areas in this part of the world. The reasoning goes that horses eat these …
Surviving
Michael Blowhard tells a moving story of being free from cancer after surviving cancer for five years. Read, please, and raise a glass. Also on 2Blowhards, Friedrich posts on the innate sadism and nastiness of the Classical Romans. I never did quite understand why the culture that gave us the Colosseum is held up as …
Some Critics’ Movie Columns
I have been following the noise over Brokeback Mountain with some amusement, knowing whatwever they say it will all make Annie Proulx money. Suffice to say that I owe her many things, not least that by teaching me to TEACH writing she also taught me much about analyzing writing and so made mine better. I …
Zoomorphic Art, Plus
(Which is a term I more or less made up just now). I love art, especially sculpture, that includes or references natural objects without exactly mimicking them. Our friend the zoologist and artist Jonathan Kingdon . has done some such work; another friend, local artist Yvonne Magener– I’ll try to get some of hers up …
A Random Twig…
… on Tree of Life. Though delicious, the monkfish may not look like you think it does. And remember, the left half is HEAD, and the creature may be three feet long… One of the best ways to entertain yourself exploring this ambitious phylogenetic site is to just let it pick a species at random.
Re: Writing for Money
Thank you for sharing that story, Matt. I really enjoyed it. I believe that this sort of thing has been going on in one form or another as long as there have been journalists. Savvy PR people know exactly how to get their stories with the proper spin placed with sympathetic journalists. Most of the …
Precolumbian Chinese and the Vinland Map
The BBC had an interesting item last week about this Chinese map that is dated to 1763. It obviously displays knowledge of the Americas, not surprising in a map of that age, but a statement on the map says that it is the direct copy of a map made in 1418. If true, that would …
Writing for Money
As an aspiring writer for money and other good reasons, this Yahoo News piece caught my eye: Scrushy Said to Pay for Positive Stories. I’m unfamiliar with the court case it hinges on but gather the defendant managed to swing some good press from a freelance writer. A public relations firm and an influential local …
Malaria Watch!
No, not watching out for Malaria; but, courtesy of Peculiar, a wristwatch that detects Malaria. I could have used one of those in Zimbabwe years back, as he well remembers…