WC recognizes that, among his readers at least, arguing for the reality of anthropogenic climate change is preaching to the choir. But we all have friends and acquaintances who keep making the same, mistaken arguments against the reality of climate change. WC thought it might be worthwhile to provide you with rebuttals to some of…
WC recognizes that, among his readers at least, arguing for the reality of anthropogenic climate change is preaching to the choir. But we all have friends and acquaintances who keep making the same, mistaken arguments against the reality of climate change. WC thought it might be worthwhile to provide you with rebuttals to some of…
Commentary / Law / Miscellany / Trump
If you didn’t grow up in a household influenced by a Swedish grandmother, or haven’t been to Sweden, you may not know what a smörgåsbord is. Certainly none of the American efforts to establish smörgåsbord restaurants here appear to have survived contact with Americans. A smörgåsbord is “a celebratory meal and guests can help themselves…
WC’s virtual mailbox is overflowing; there have been complaints from the email host. So WC will undertake to answer a few questions and delete lots and lots of emails. Questions are in italics; WC’s responses in plain text. Hey snowflake, how come you’re afraid of a real man as president? WC lived in Alaska for…
It might be the most widely distributed and common species of tanager. But it’s still a very handsome bird. At almost any location between southeastern Mexico and central South America, it’s a familiar presence at forest edges, in second-growth forests and along roads and rivers. It can even be found in urban parks and gardens.…
Thou hast committed fornication . . . But that was in another country and, besides, the wench is dead. — Christopher Marlowe, The Jew of Malta Insys Therapeutics is the company that gave America Subsys, a powerful, quick-acting Fentanyl product. Insys’s management team was convicted of RICO activities arising out of its abhorrent marketing practices and…
The Congressional Research Service is the public policy research arm of the Library of Congress. It’s a neutral legislative branch agency, working for Congress, individual members, committees and the body as a whole. The CRS prides itself on being authoritative, confidential, objective and nonpartisan. The CRS recently published a report finding that the promised benefits…
As WC mentioned, he was recently in the southern portions of the Idaho batholith, that gigantic blob of igneous rock that comprises the center of Idaho. The batholith is some 65-80 million years old, but it’s only been exposed above the surface for a fraction of that time. But since exposed, it has been deeply…
The U.S. State Department includes something called the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. The Bureau’s primary mission is “to harness intelligence to serve U.S. diplomacy.” Dr. Rod Schoonover is a Senior Analyst in that Bureau, whose work is primarily focused on the implications of environmental and ecological change on national security and foreign policy. Dr. Schoonover…
This end of the month follow up only comes a week and a half late. WC blames it all on spring migration. Anyway, here’s a look back at developments involving earlier blog posts. More proof, if you needed it, that WC is not a journalist. Drug pusher Insys, who senior management team was recently convicted…
Ethnic resentment and clan consciousness are social forces far more powerful than economic class. It reflects the permanent truth that all people, including poor people, follow their values, however perverted, rather than their interests, however plain. – Adam Gopnik, “The Takeback,” New Yorker, April 8, 2019. WC and Mrs. WC spent a few days recently exploring…
This species is another of nine members of the genus Ramphocelus, a cousin of last week’s Crimson-backed Tanager. This species is endemic to upper Amazonia and is rarely found far from water, for example. in várzea forest or oxbow lakes. It is usually found in groups, which generally keep reasonably low in the vegetation, and the species as…
