theater, natural history and conservation, the utterly mundane, and Etruscan 8-tracks
“When The Worm’s In The Core, Let It Eat,” by Mike Bendzela.
… this worm is rugged. It can survive Maine winters (its predecessors hail from Europe) — sometimes cocooned on bark, sometimes in dropped apples, other times in soil — and begins pupating in spring.
Boosting signal: two articles (The Conversation, Yale Environment 360) on the efforts to archive federal government websites and databases, in order to keep them online, accessible, and useful. One initiative, with Eric Nost in its leadership, is Public Environmental Data Partners.
See also GovWayback, which leverages the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, and End of Term Web Archive, which takes snapshots at the end of administrations.
(Meta: I don’t know what of my categories to tag this post with. This isn’t a post that I’d ever imagined I’d need to write.)
They will often try to get you to accompany them to a conference or other gathering where you will be surrounded by people who are just as eager to tell you how successful and happy they are while complimenting you for being smart enough to sense the opportunity.
I can confirm, from personal experience, a version of this practice.
And for the DOGEs in the back:
Updates on the Arc of the Moral Universe, by Amanda Lehr.
The arc of the moral universe is feeling pretty stiff this morning.
TIL that Merv Griffin got his start singing on the radio.
Video of my presentation on the Federal Duck Stamp to the Holston Rivers Chapter of Virginia Master Naturalists.
If the video sounds like I’m fighting off a rebound of COVID-19, that’s because I was.
I gave a presentation on the Federal Duck Stamp to the Holston Rivers Chapter of Virginia Master Naturalists.
Perhaps the computer program trawled through the multiverse and found a timeline in which John Kelly had nabbed a Pulitzer for his “thoughtful musings on Twiggy, the water-skiing squirrel, and how weird it is that Sugar Pops are now called Corn Pops.”
… much of what woke is grasping toward: a word to describe a new brand of righteous, identity-conscious, new left activists eager to tackle oppression, including in everyday life and even at the expense of some liberal values.
* * *
In the most extreme case for Democrats, the backlash against the new left could end in a repeat of how New Left politics in the 1960s facilitated the marriage of neoconservatives and the religious right in the 1970s. Back then, opposition to the counterculture helped unify Republicans against a new class of highly educated liberals, allowing Southern opponents of civil rights to join old-school liberal intellectuals who opposed Communism and grew skeptical of the Great Society. The parallels are imperfect, but striking.
These moths, unfortunately for those with infestations, have other behaviors that contribute to their indestructibility. They can metabolize their own water as a byproduct of keratin digestion, so access to water is not a dealbreaker for survival. What kind of organism can create its own water? This moth has evolved to be an efficient, dynamic, super-survival machine. They are incredibly temperature tolerant, with the ability to survive as eggs or larvae for several days at broiling temperatures as high as 95 degrees F and as far below freezing as 5 degrees F. They are attracted to the smell of woolens, and once established, send pheromonal signals to nearby moths to invite them to party. To add to their tank-like nature, webbing clothes moths can digest toxic metals like arsenic, mercury, and lead. They have no problem metabolizing synthetic materials or chewing through soft plastics. They have even been found on mummified human remains and have been around long enough to be mentioned in the Bible.
Some Trump advisers worried that the enterprise would come across as a tacky marketing gimmick.
Selling Trump Isn’t What It Used to Be, by Ken Bensinger (print headline: Digital Trading Card Venture Shows Selling Trump Isn’t What It Used to Be).
Or is it just redundant?
Looking for somewhere to spend that Hanukkah gelt (yes, I know, but just imagine)?
What organizations are worthy of support? Please give some consideration to this list.
These are the groups and projects to which I gave coin (generally tax-deductible), property, and/or effort in 2022.
There are a few hours left in the giving year.
(Who will win the dubious prize of last begging e-mail of the year? Judges are monitoring my inbox hourly.)
What organizations are worthy of support? Consider this list as some recommendations from me.
These are the groups and projects to which I gave coin (generally tax-deductible), property, and/or effort in 2021. Limited travel and in-person work this year, so my out-of-pocket expenses continue to be down.
OK, one parting shot at 45: Sarah Lyall polls several historians, looking for a prediction of how history will judge the recently departed resident.
“He’s in a whole other category in terms of the damage he’s done to the Republic,” said [Sean] Wilentz [professor of American history at Princeton University], citing the radicalization of the Republican Party, the inept response to the pandemic and what he called “the brazen, almost psychedelic mendacity of the man.”
There not much time before the window closes on tax-deductible contributions for the year. What organizations are worthy of support? Consider this list as some recommendations from me.
These are the groups and projects to which I gave coin (generally tax-deductible), property, and/or effort in 2020. Limited travel and in-person work this year, so my out-of-pocket expenses were down. But, thanks to a mini-windfall, I was able to surge my dollar contributions and generally bump up contribution levels.