Enough doom and gloom! I’ll try to get some book and bio- blogging up this weekend, circumstances permitting– but meanwhile, here is a cheerful excerpt from Peculiar on the production of Turandot at the Santa Fe Opera (though come to think of it, it is also about scary Chinese). “Turandot last night was awesome! It …
More China
The Max Boot piece in the LA Times I refer to below has a lot more to say about China’s current doctrine. He quotes from a Chinese study on “Unresticted Warfare” published by the Peoples’ Liberation Army in 1998. ” “Unrestricted Warfare” recognizes that it is practically impossible to challenge the U.S. on its own …
Unocal 2
I seem to be a lonely voice of doubt on the Unocal deal (for those who haven’t seen my earlier post, the attempt by China to buy one of our big oil companies, supported by the Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, the Cato Institute, and just about everyone else. Maybe now that a major …
Eagles 2
Blogging time has been limited– illness in the family– but I’ll try to get some stuff up, with a little commentary at least– my “hold” box is full of material. Reid Farmer, who I hope will be doing some guest blogging on pre- Columbian archaeology, sent this LA Times story on eagles. Now NON- Indians …
Pibgorn
Are Libby and I the only people in the world who read Pibgorn? It is a comic, or perhaps more properly a series of graphic novels in daily installments , about the adventures of its eponymous heroine, a fairy; her friend and rival Drusilla, a succubus; and the half- willing object of their affections, Geoff, …
Raptor Education Foundation
The REF is a delightfully politically INcorrect conservation foundation based in Denver and dedicated to the birds of prey we all love, founded by artist, entrepreneur, and raptorphile Peter (Petro Aleksandrovich) Reshetniak. I am currently working with them on several projects– click on their link to the book Fidget’s Freedom to see the illustrations by …
Disturbing Situation
Should Indian tribes be allowed to do as they wish with eagles? Ted Williams gives many reasons why not. Their justifications are religious; their reasons sometimes financial, their methods crude to say the least. “In New Mexico one member of the Jemez Pueblo claimed that he and his fellow tribal members had killed 60 to …
Good Quote #2
Marcus Aurelius, from Rick Brookhiser at NRO: “Either an all-seeing Providence, or iron destiny, or an uncontrollable storm. Whichever it is, why should you do anything other than what is right?”
Revolting “Meat”
I was afraid something like this was going to happen… The University of Maryland reports that “meat” will soon be growing in a lab near you. “In a paper in the June 29 issue of Tissue Engineering, a team of scientists, including University of Maryland doctoral student Jason Matheny, propose two new techniques of tissue …
Monkeynomics
A fascinating NYT article describes the ongoing experiments conducted by economist Keith Chen, who has taught monkeys to use marshmallows as money. Many kinds of “economic” behavior soon appeared, including, amazingly, prostitution (and a pragmatic followup) : “During the chaos in the monkey cage, Chen saw something out of the corner of his eye that …