The indispensible Derbyshire found this quote from Macaulay on Dr. Johnson that perfectly describes the pessimistic cast of mind, which I think he and I (often) share, and cheerfully offers it up for our inspection: “A deep melancholy took possession of him, and gave a dark tinge to all his views of human nature and …
Killer ‘Pillar
A caterpillar from the forests of Hawaii that eats land snails. Libby wishes we had some in our garden, where the escargots have run rampant this year. Hawaii is full of strange and unique creatures– see here. One can only wonder it was like before humans came– and no, the aboriginal Hawaiians were no better …
Mongolian Freedom
More from the always thoughtful Nabetz at New Mongols. I have made extensive excerpts, but as the Professor says you should Read The Whole Thing. (Actually you should read the whole blog). I really like Nabetz’ undogmatic take on private property– perhaps a Mongolian heritage. I know I have seldom felt as free as when …
Naadam Wussies
In the spring, on the steppes outside Ulaan Bataar in Mongolia, thousands of people gather to witness a wild 20- mile childrens’ horse race. Now U.N. bureaucrats want to force the kids to wear helmets. Nabetz of New Mongols, a Mongolian- American blogger (?– he grew up in Montana, but has relatives in Mongolia) so …
New World Founding Fathers (and Mothers)
This highly technical genetic paper, from the excellent Public Library of Science online, seems to suggest that the entire “native” population of the New World may decend from only seventy or eighty people! Of course that doesnt mean that there weren’t others who may have left no descendants, as Matt Mullenix has suggested… I’d be …
“Because of the morals of the maids”…
Davidson’s book also sent me to my battered copy of David Arora’s Mushrooms Demystified — the one book you must have if you want to hunt mushrooms– for this anecdote by the Victorian memoirist Gwen Raverat about the smelly, phallic, stinkhorn mushroom. (“Aunt Etty” was Darwin’s daughter!) “In our native woods there grows a kind …
Cordyceps
I have been slowly reading Alan Davidson’s The Oxford Companion to Food, a delightful, encyclopedic, opinionated, (and sometimes wrongheaded) book, and came across what I believe is the single weirdest food I have ever heard about. To quote Davidson: “…..the only English name for fungi of the genus Cordyceps. These grow, oddly, on live insects …
Operas
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 …