mthew
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Of a feather
Have you been keeping up with the our ever-expanding knowledge of bird evolution? The linked summary is a good place to catch up on these fascinating discoveries and hypotheses. The findings have been, uh… flying off the fossil beds in recent years and they have turned over old certainties. The barred pattern on the feather…
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Anniversary
On this date in 2010, I launched this blog with this post. I would like to be less polemical on this anniversary, but the times are very much out of joint. It’s all-hands on deck against the multi-pronged radical Republican assault against our liberties. Back in 2010, the terrible manifestations of racism and nationalism that…
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Thoreau Thursday
The other day, when I noticed a host of gnat-like flies outside the kitchen window, it was 54 degrees F and overcast. Nothing to see here, people, move along. Well, actually, we can see an awful lot here. The top specimen is, I assume, male, because of those moth-like feathery antennae; the better to sense you with,…
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Raptor Wednesday
A Bald Eagle at Croton Point. In February, I had 61 raptor sightings (!), a count which includes a total of 18 sightings during two trips up to Croton Point. More about non-violent protest. The take away: demonstrations are good, need to continue, and get bigger. Here’s a list of actions in NYC. Here’s the…
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Naturalia
Still a few days left to catch Naturalia at Paul Yasmin Gallery here in NYC. Exhibit ends on March 4th. It’s a thought-provoking mixture of old and new representations of nature in collaboration with Sotheby’s Old Masters division. The juxtaposition may leave you with a confirmation of what you already knew you liked to begin…
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Hot February
Yesterday, in Green-Wood, some Cherries and a Red Maple were blooming already.Record-breaking temperatures raise the bar to the new normal. A nice review of climate change now. People, from the rotting orange head of the regime on down, can say it doesn’t exist; they can suppress research; intimidate scientists; but they can’t change the radical,…
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Annual Anniversary Subscription Appeal
Probably the earliest I’ve ever seen the turtles so frisky in the Sylvan Water. I hope you’ll consider subscribing to this blog if you haven’t already. It’s free (what a deal!) and easy. Sign up on the upper right. You’ll get a confirmation email. Confirm. Hey, presto! I usually post in the morning. A number…
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Mocking
Funny: Congress members hiding from the citizenry. Par for the course of the anti-democracy strategy necessary to keep a minority party in the majority. But claiming “paid protestors” are the new “outside agitators”? That’s rich for people who take money from outside their districts, states and even, via the Chamber of Commerce’s money-laundering shell-games, nation.…
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Breaking the Lock
Rebecca Solnit’s “Tyranny of the Minority” in the March Harper’s nails it: “Republicans’ furious and nasty war against full [democratic] participation has taken many forms: gerrymandering, limiting early voting, reducing the number of polling places, restricting third-party voter registration, and otherwise disenfranchising significant portions of the electorate. Subtler yet no less effective have been their…
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Sturnus vulgaris
The view from the moraine recently. Here’s another view: ten things you can do to make Trump toast. (We can hardly wait for his resounding condemnation by history, after all.) Beyond the usual pressure, constant pressure on reps of all parties, I for one was intrigued by the notion of becoming involved at the county political…
Backyard and Beyond 