From the Arizona Daily Star via the Alpha Environmentalist. “On her way to a recent meeting at the Superior Court building Downtown, an Arizona Daily Star reporter put her purse on the conveyor belt to be scanned for potential weapons. “After staring at the monitor a good long time, the security guard asked if she …
For Dog Lovers
For all of us who think dogs superior to pigs or goats (a little in- joke– Patrick will understand) a quote from Matt, when we were talking about his old dog Meng. I said: “Loving dogs will break your heart– but how could we do anything else?’ And he replied: “There is nothing else to …
Condor Feeding Habits
This article from the NYT suggests that California Condors have changed their diet in the past (megafauna to beached sea mammals, then to beef) and maybe should change again. The hypothesis dovetails well with the theories of the grand old man of ReWilding, Paul Martin, in his book Twilight of the Mammoths. He notes that …
Three Martini Lunch!!
Roseann Hanson, who to his great good fortune is the wife of the Alpha Environmentalist, has decied to start her own blog, Three Martini Lunch. I want to quote at length from her absolutely delightful Credo, but for the moment I don’t seem to be able to cut and paste, and there is too much …
Of “Save” the Falcons: Big Lies
This meme probably should have been swatted long ago– in fact, I thought it had been– but it has reared its head in a new place. The political site Frontpage , in an unexceptionable (and as far as I know mostly correct) but heated article on Saudi money’s use in funding terrorism, cited the Arab’s …
Early Falconry
A topic perfectly–perhaps uniquely–suited to the particular mix of interests here: Who were the first falconers? In a flurry of emails between us, Steve pulling in the expert testimony of his friend John Burchard and adding his own considerable insight; Reid, the ever-sober archeologist, providing lines of evidence from peer-reviewed literature and I wildly speculating …
Note From The Web-Geek
Regular readers (if such people exist) might notice “surprise posts” sometimes popping up beneath bits they’ve already read. Let me explain: Steve’s machine won’t let him post images (I’m sure that’s not personal, but Steve seems skeptical). So I post them but usually after a day’s delay. When they move from edit mode to prime-time, …
Montana Bison Hunt
There is an article in today’s Wall Street Journal by Brendan Miniter about a plan by the State of Montana to allow limited hunting of bison who have wandered out of Yellowstone National Park. The bison carry brucellosis, a disease that kills domestic cattle, and they can’t be allowed to mingle with cattle herds in …
More on the Airman in the Glacier
A couple of weeks ago, I posted this about the body of a WW II era airman found in a glacier in the California Sierras. The LA Times this week had more about the shipment of the body to a DoD forensics lab in Hawaii for identification, and the known names of the crew of …
Father Ayala against “Intelligent” Design
This is a good link (via John Derbyshire and The Corner), to Dominican priest and biologist Francisco Ayala’s latest demolition of “Intelligent” Design. I particularly like this: “But American folk-Catholicism has absorbed an anti-evolution flavor from the surrounding evangelical Protestant culture. When he taught introductory biology at UCI, Ayala had Catholic students as well as …