I have been too busy and not all with good things– have been devoting entirely too much time to the coursing crisis–see below– while attempting not to become obsessed with it. But I have also been reviewing books (for money, hooray!), writing about fine Victorian guns (ditto) and chatting with Pluvialis about bird art, about …
Assassin Spiders and Science Writers
In a story dovetailing with recent collecting expeditions into New Guinea and into caves closer to home, biologists report the discovery of nine new species of assassin spiders from Madagascar. Unfortunately no photos are provided in the story, but journalist Alicia Chang (AP Science Writer!) offers some colorful descriptions of the spiders, as, variously, “grotesque-looking,” …
People Watching Orcas
I’ve given up trying to link to the Santa Barbara News Press, but I have borrowed these pictures from them that accompanied a short report on a pod of five orcas sighted in the Santa Barbara Channel earlier this week. The sightings were made and these pictures taken on a local whale-watching tour boat, the …
Mushroom Rustlers
The LA Times reports that the Santa Barbara County Sheriff has made three arrests in connection to a ring of high-tech mushroom thieves from the Pacific Northwest who have been slipping into local ranches and stealing chanterelle mushrooms. These prized mushrooms grow wild in the oak woods in the north part of our county. This …
Good Press!
Just when I thought to expect the worst from press coverage of our strange and wonderful old sports, Anne Hocker sends this good story from outdoor writer Joe Doggett of the Houston Chronicle. Here’s a sample: “Peregrines are intelligent yet easily ‘manned’ to accept proximity to people. Regardless of raptor, manning is perhaps the most …
Intact Tomb in the Valley of the Kings
Egyptian Antiquities authorities announced yesterday that a team of American archaeologists from the University of Memphis (how appropriate!) have discovered an intact tomb in the famed Valley of the Kings. It dates to the 18th Dynasty (1500-1300 BC) and is the first intact tomb found there since the discovery of Tutankhamen tomb in 1922. It …
Urfa and the Clash of Civilizations
We based in Urfa when we went toTurkey in December– please see archives. Despite some odd moments, I think Turkey, and even more, the “Stans” to the northeast, are the best hope for Islam to make it sanely through the next century. Therefore, Im not sure how to feel about some of the factors in …
A Curious Double Standard
Here is a link that contrasts the difference betweeen the treatment of protestors defending the right to hunt foxes and those defending the right to behead infidels. “A demonstration against the fox hunting Bill, outside Parliament: “Instantly, the police responded with a flail of truncheons. For a moment, they resembled beaters driving birds towards guns. …
Target: Coursing
As many regular readers will know, I hunt with coursing dogs– in my case, Asian tazis from Kazakhstan. Being a primitive who lives deep in the boonies, not to mention an enthusiastic carnivore, I am a hunter plain and simple. We go out, we chase, we sometimes catch, we eat (a hare recipe was recently …
California Wildfire: ABC News “Discovers” Coursing
In defense of all good things old-fashioned, we present this recent story by ABC News: a pitifully slanted piece of writing that “exposes” open field coursing (in this case, rabbit hunting with sighthounds) in California and—tiresomely, predictably, maddeningly—its presumed “cruelty” to animals. At least one state legislator, having seen video of rabbits killed by sighthounds, …