The Nature of Things

Earth's climate and the cycles of warming and cooling that it goes through is one of the more fascinating subjects in earth science. It's a subject that has become fraught with passion in recent years as climatologists have repeatedly tried to warn us that humans are upsetting Earth's cycles and science deniers have done their best to shout them down. But looking back at the historical data is perhaps a little less controversial. Scientists have recently been doing research on the period from the 1200s to the 1900s, a very cold time in the northern hemisphere that has come to be known as the "little ice age." There have been many theories over the years about what might have caused this prolonged cold period which, in many ways, shaped the culture of Northern Europe, Asia, and North America. At the time it was happening, some people blamed witches. The ignorant always find a scapegoat. But this new study may give a definitive answer to the question of why it happ...

It has been fascinating on many levels to watch the progress of the Republican presidential nominating process. For awhile, it was fun to speculate about who would be the new front runner of the week as they struggled to find someone - anyone - who was not Romney and who might have a possibility of destroying the hated Obama in the fall election. Now that the field has been winnowed down to, essentially, two more or less viable candidates, the whole thing has become a little less exciting and more predictable. Still, one thing continues to fascinate and amaze and that is the  level of support which Newt Gingrich has garnered among the righteously evangelical voters . This was, of course, particularly on display in South Carolina, where those who said that "family values" and social conservatism were the determining factors in their votes actually voted for a womanizing serial philanderer who has betrayed the marriage vows he made to at least two women. As for that third marri...

In one of my other blogs, Backyard Birder , I have reported on the arrival in California of the first wild gray wolf seen there since the 1920s. The wolf is a two-and-a-half year old male from a pack in Oregon. He is fitted with a GPS tracking collar and is designated as OR7. He crossed the state line from Oregon into California on December 28 and, since then, he has become an instant celebrity .   The wolf's image was captured by a wildlife camera that had been set up in the field. The last gray wolf previously known to be in California was shot in 1924. In the early part of the twentieth century, the species was mostly extirpated throughout the West, and, indeed, throughout the country. It was listed as endangered under the newly passed Endangered Species Act in 1974. Then, in 1995-96, wildlife officials trapped 66 Canadian gray wolves and released them in Yellowstone National Park and Central Idaho. Despite some predictable setbacks, the wolves have flourished, and the area is n...

Baseball has been used by some very good writers as a metaphor for life. It is an apt metaphor. Baseball, like life, is a game that teaches one to deal with failure. The best hitters fail about two-thirds of the time. Pitchers are charged with either success or failure as reflected in their won/loss record. They are the only team member whose stats clearly reflect the success or failure of the team.  It is a team sport, but when playing defense, there are no team errors. Any individual player who fails to catch a catchable ball or who throws errantly is charged with an error. It is the stat by which fielders are judged. That is a fact which Henry Skrimshander, a shy, small-town kid from North Dakota, knows, and it is why he works relentlessly every day of his life from childhood to master the art of fielding. It is why he has committed to memory the book of instruction written by his hero, Aparicio Rodriguez, "The Art of Fielding." The book contains such Zen-like statements a...

PolitiFact , the self-proclaimed checker of facts in the world of politics has become nothing more than a sad joke. Like so many in the world of journalism, or what passes for journalism these days, they are obsessed with appearing "fair and balanced" and never betraying a "liberal bias." Unfortunately for them, the truth does, in fact, very often have a liberal bias , but you'll never catch them conceding that. If necessary, they will distort the truth themselves in order to protect their credibility with right-wingers. It's a hopeless cause, for right-wingers have never given them any credibility anyway. PolitiFact's latest fiasco was their assessment of President Obama's State of the Union speech last night. In the speech, he made this statement: "In the last 22 months, businesses have created more than 3 million jobs. Last year, they created the most jobs since 2005." PolitiFact originally rated that statement as half-true! When column...

Various members of my family are big fans of this series and for years I've heard them rave about how wonderful it is. At length, I decided to find out for myself and I put O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin books on my reading list. I'm happy to have now finished with the first one. O'Brian's style of writing seems very much of the period about which he writes, which is to say the late eighteenth/early nineteenth centuries. In fact, his writing reminded me of perhaps the most famous English writer of that period, Jane Austen, in its language and turn of phrase. Of course, O'Brian was writing of naval history, not Austen's country manners and manors, but still the similarities are there. What true O'Brian fanatics love about his writing is all that nautical stuff - the descriptions of the ships, all their riggings and their personnel and the intricate detailing of the battles at sea. Frankly, my eyes glazed over a bit at much of that terminology and I tended t...

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Happy Chinese New Year! Today marks the New Moon in the lunar cycle which means that it is the Chinese New Year's Day and this is an especially propitious year - the Year of the Dragon. The Chinese lunar calendar recognizes a twelve year cycle, each characterized by a particular animal: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig. As you will see from looking at a list of these animals, they are all real except for the dragon. Dragons are mythical creatures and they are the most powerful of all the animals in the Chinese calendar. As such, years dominated by the dragon are generally considered lucky years. To be born in a Year of the Dragon should be especially fortuitous and the Chinese are expecting a baby boom this year . Persons born in such a year are said to be innovative, enterprising, flexible, self-assured, brave, and passionate. That's quite a set of positive attributes! On the other hand, being possessed of ...