A “Federal Agency” you have never heard of. (Jonathan Hanson explains how he found it “working”: “I wanted to refer to Mungo Park, the famous desert explorer, in my Sunset story on touring Arizona deserts, so I Googled him to fact-check. There was a rumor he was killed by a village of zombies, so when …
Who gets to have guns?
The rich, of course. According to this NYT story: “Mr. Compass, the police superintendent, said that after a week of near anarchy in the city, no civilians in New Orleans will be allowed to carry pistols, shotguns, or other firearms of any kind. “Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons,” he said. “That order …
Kipling 2– On Writing
The essay to read is Clara Claiborne Park’s “How Kipling Taught Me to Write”, from the American Scholar. Since you have to pay to get the whole text, I’ll extract my favorites from the advice she selects– but really you should Read The Whole Thing. (Thanks to Reid for pointing me there). First, the inscription …
The Matter of China– and a bit on Derbyshire
China fascinates me. I have spent very little time there– only stops on passage to and from Central Asia; cannot speak the language, and know far more about its neighbors to the north and west. Nevertheless I think a knowledge of China is more important for those who would make decisions than, ultimately, knowledge about …
Wind Energy and Environmental Ambivalence
Electric generation by wind turbines is one of those progressive environmental measures that everyone likes in theory, but that most have second thoughts on once the issue of how many and where to put them comes up. My musings on this are prompted by an LA Times article today describing objections that locals have to …
ID Smackdown
This, as the previous Kipling post, is the forerunner to a long one. I hope to write soon on John Derbyshire’s wonderful, insightful, and overlooked China trilogy Fire From the Sun , as well as on China, the Chinese environment, a book on that subject– yes, I know, ambitious, especially with deadlines, Libby down with …
Kipling 1
I hope to be writing soon about Kipling and writing, but here are some preliminary thoughts as well as an entertaining and little- known poem. He was one of the greatest writers of the 19th and 20th Centuries. He is unread and endlessly dismissed by the pseudo- literate as a children’s writer, a racist, a …
A Legend Returns…
Sometimes no human agency need be involved in “Re- Wilding”. The introduction of Yellowstone wolves only hastened a natural process– wolves were already coming in from the north. It has been almost ten years since Arizona rancher, hunting guide, and coservationist Warner Glenn cut a track in the Peloncillo Mountains of southern New Mexico, deep …
Kazakh Rock Art
To compliment Reid’s photos of ancient American art I thought I’d show a few of mine from the Tamgaly site in Kazakhstan, located in low cliffs of volcanic rock in the steppes 170 km northwest of Almaty. The drive to them was a mixture of biological fascination (migrating birds of prey) and low humor (much …
The Pristine Myth
Charles Mann, whose recent book 1491 was discussed in an earlier post, had this interesting op-ed in yesterday’s Christian Science Monitor. In it he takes on, as he does in his book, the popular misconception that prior to European contact, Native Americans lived in harmony with nature in a pristine eden. He quickly marshalls facts …