Every hunter of deer and elk in the central Rockies is aware of CWD, a “mad cow” – type prion disease that is spreading there. Ted Kerasote sent this disturbing link to a study that indicates muscle meat may be infective. However, this week he sent a clarification by the dean of hoofed mammal studies, …
Science News
A Jurassic mammal, far more advanced than we usually think such beings were, has been discovered in China. Though apparently unrelated to living lines, it had the tail of a beaver and, apparently, a lifestyle something like an otter or platypus. We often think that because we have a few fossils we have some idea …
Crunchy
I have just finished Rod Dreher’s Crunchy Cons, and I am delighted to say that it exceeds all expectations. Dreher, formerly of National Review and now a reporter at the Dallas Morning News, is a young conservative who argues for a new– read, “older”– kind of conservatism, one that values land, nature, family, tradition, locality, …
Tsuba
My friend Bodie, martial artist and Japanese sword collector, has been flying my hawk because of my lack of a working car and his of a bird. Yesterday he gave me an incredible object: a “tsuba” or Samurai sword guard dating from somewhere between 1645 and 1700. It bears the image of a stylized goshawk, …
Kennewick Man Study Released
Since the anthropologists won their lawsuit in 2004 and obtained the right to study Kennewick Man’s remains, I have been waiting for the studies to come out. In today’s press release it appears that Doug Owsley of the Smithsonian is first out of the gate. Here’s a quick run-down of some findings. This was an …
French Design: Shotguns
Recently, in the incomparable 2Blowhards * , Donald Pittenger was carblogging. He described how the French carmaker Panhard, in the Thirties, made an attempt to make cars with the steering in the middle, and with curved windows on the sides. He explains plausibly why this was not a success, though I would rate the car’s …
Rick Brookhiser on Books
He thinks reports of their demise are premature. For one thing they are optimally user- friendly: “Books have already found the optimal size. “You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket,” John Adams told one of his sons—and that was two centuries ago, long before paperbacks. Big books push the limit; some …
More Doom from the Doom- Master
… John Derbyshire, of course. This time he is worried about our culture’s new- found reluctance to DO all the old physical things: “I remember being a ten-year-old myself, spending hours watching my next-door neighbor, a butcher by trade but an amateur cabinet-maker by inclination, manipulating his saws, planes, chisels, and spokeshaves. My kids won’t …
Alpha on Cheney
The usual strong stuff from the Alpha Environmentalist on the quail kerfuffle: “Was Cheney reluctant to publicize it? You bet! Heck, if I wounded a hunting partner, I’d be so mortified I’d probably reload and finish the job, then kill all the other members of my party, then tell the police they had slaughtered each …
Against Pandas?
In the spirit of our penguin – bashing (see “Favorites”) here is a rant about pandas by brilliant anthro- blogger John Hawks: “….I am so tired of having to hear about it every time a panda ovulates in this country! “Count me out of this number: [V]isitors flock to see them, and when they cannot …