Reid, Walter Hingley, and others have been sending me news of the wonderful “Lost World” found by ornithologist Bruce Beehler and his colleagues in New Guinea– go here and here and here for reports. Matt says: ” “He [ Beehler ] added, ‘The fact that scientists can still findnew species means there are still wild …
..and some fascinating additions to the post below
…by Jeff Lockwood: ” In particular there were three intriguing elements that you draw out from the various sources (including mine, for which I am deeply appreciative). “First, we worry about fossil fuels when, at least in principle, these natural resources are fungible (we could conceivably shift to wind, solar, nuclear or whatever). On the …
Prairie Mary Guest Post
My reading has been giving me some sharp jolts and new thoughts lately. One came from a random remark on 2blowhards.com that at the time the United States were uniting and declaring independence, the people of India — then under British rule — were dying by the millions because of famine brought on by mismanagement. …
Airman in the Glacier Identified
Last fall I posted a couple of times on the body of a WWII era airman that was found preserved in a glacier in the central Sierra Nevadas. Today the LA Times reports that the Department of Defense’s forensics lab in Hawaii has identified it as Leo Mustonen of Brainerd, Minnesota. Mustonen was 22 when …
Rebecca Webb Carranza, RIP
Ms. Webb died in a hospice in Phoenix on January 19 at age 98. We are all in her debt, as her El Zarape Tortilla Factory pioneered the commercial manufacture and sale of tortilla chips.
New Orleans Musicians
One easy way to know if you’ve found a place with culture—an un-manufactured place, breathing on its own—is to listen for its music. There has been a lot of music played in New Orleans, some of it entirely the product of the place and found in its true form nowhere else. The rauccus neighborhood brass …
More on the Donner Party
Some of you will remember a post I put up last month on the Donner Party and Alferd Packer, that was occasioned by a report that excavations at one of the Donner Party camps had provided no evidence of cannibalism. Well, yesterday the LA Times had an op-ed by Ethan Rarick entitled “Cannibals with Courage” …
African Slaves in Colonial Mexico
Last week the NY Times had this article on colonial era burials excavated in Campeche, Mexico. Researchers were able to identify some of the individuals as African slaves brought to Mexico by the Spanish as their teeth had been filed, showing evidence of an African cultural pattern. Also high levels of the trace element strontium …
Dr. John B. on Coursing
Occasional contributor John Burchard sent me an ominous note on new threats to coursing, which I will report on as they develop. Meanwhile, he has a few other typically wise thoughts on the subject to share. “Here’s a para from something I wrote earlier today, in answer to an obnoxious troll on one of the …
Hunting Song
I stole this lovely thing from my friend Rebecca’s blog; I think it is in this anthology. Frontier sons are lifelong illiterateswho know only how to hunt big game and brag about being tough guys.They feed their Mongolian ponies white grassto make them plump and strong in the autumn.They race proudly on their horses chasing …