One of the things I do when I am busy (I am currently revising a novel, starting another, cutting a lot of firewood, and continuing to help translate an 1865 book from Siberia-- apologies to correspondents as well) is just pile up interesting references that I find in the evening. So bear with me as I give you a linkfest rather than an essay. More to come!
Here are two links for the price of one: Steve Sailer on a fascinating and counterintuitive study implying that the frontal lobes of humans in England have increased since Medieval times-- quick human evolution! -- and his link to a fine NYT essay by Charles Siebert on animal minds and personalities that Reid recommended. Newsflash to those who are still amazed by the fact of animal personality: they are individuals! I have ordered this book by Siebert on country and city life, a subject that always interests me (I am generally thought of as a countryman, which is true enough, but I have lived my life either on dirt roads or in big city apartments!)-- will report.
Apparently some members of the ornithological establishment aren't comfortable with the rediscovery of the Ivory- billed woodpecker, calling it "faith- based ornithology". I admit a bias-- one of the rediscoverers. Tim Gallagher, is a friend. But because I know him, I respect his field skills; the photos look clear enough to me; and I have seen this kind of sad turf- guarding by professionals and academics before. Tim is an editor, photographer, and writer, not a PhD. As I wrote to Reid, "Some of these guys won't be satisfied until a PhD shoots one".
Evolution is not always as "contingent" as the late Stephen Gould believed; certain patterns tend to evolve again and again, not randomly. This NYT article is about a"new" fossil discovered in the already- excavated Triassic "Ghost Ranch" treasure trove from Northern New Mexico. It is a crocodle relative that resembles the (much later) birdlike predator Velociraptor, even down to certain small skeletal details and probable ecological niche. The same kind of creature would evolve a third time after the dinosaurs' extinction, in the form of the "Terror crane" Dyatrima.
Matt Mullenix has started a new blog about, and defending, working animals. To quote from his opening statement:
"To some no human use of animals can be more than predatory or exploitive. But human and animal partnerships are easily and widely demonstrated facts, not to mention long necessary and mutually beneficial. They are so obviously a part of the human experience, it seems ludicrous to attempt this defense of them. And yet, every year it is needed more.
"As we become less directly and personally dependent on natural systems (a dangerous illusion), we afford ourselves a dangerous conceit: that we are alone, we are self-sufficient, and we are liberated. If this conceit leads some to seek "liberation" and self determination for other animals, it is maybe understandable. But it is wrong.
"Human beings need animals. We need them not only in the abstract but in the actual and physical ways we have always needed them. We raise and protect them, hunt and eat them, train and learn from them. We share their space, and they share ours. By virtue of our greater foresight and insight, we are finally responsible for every other animal. By virtue of their greater strength, loyalty, speed, endurance and awareness, they were always responsible for us."
Amen to that! I will put the link on our blogroll, and I hope to contribute. Please consider doing so yourself.
And finally-- I don't know whether to laugh or cry about this one. That reactionary curmudgeon Fred (do NOT bother linking to him if you have any lingering political correctitude!) has just written an essay titled "A Colony Again" in reaction to a WaPo piece on, well, graduate students who can't read. I wish I could say it's unbelievable...
Longer stuff to come, recipes, and more...
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