How Do You Know That?

Most people have walked past a lot of gold mines because they were, essentially, lazy. 

“That’s just a pile if dirt,” they sniffed. 

And that was exactly what it was until someone who had the fire called desire produced a deep dish and began carefully washing the dirt.

It was slow work, and it took months, but in the end, there was a small vial of gold dust, and that gold was forever. It was gold that could neither be created nor destroyed. But could it be found? Oh yes. But not by everyone. Only by those with the fire called desire. 

And the lesson is this: If you truly want Gold, there is nothing I can say or do that will stop you. And if you don’t truly want Gold, there is nothing I can say or do that will help you, because all you well ever see is the dirt. You will never look at a pile of dirt as opportunity to find gold.

This is why I hate the question so often directed at me:  How do you know that?  

People ask as if knowing stuff is some sort of magic trick.  As if there’s some secret stash or magic URL.

The question is to trivialize the mining of the gold — to minimize the effort to know stuff and to be right more often than not.

Insatiable curiosity is both a blessing and a disease.  What it is most assuredly **not** is a magic trick.

When mining for information, you never stop at the flash.  You keep washing and reducing, separating the stones from the black sand and then the black sand from what appears to be gold.

But is it really gold?  

You test it, weigh it, fire it, treat it with mercury, and then — after thousands of hours — you reconstitute it as a small ingot, perhaps no larger than a little finger.

How did you get that you are asked, as if it must be an accidental or easy thing.  Where can I casually find gold like that?  Surely it’s some sort of alchemy, the kissing cousin of magic?

You point to the dirt and the pan.

It’s never the answer they are looking for, and it’s rarely one they even understand.

Surely there must be some trick? You can’t possibly have panned 40 tons of dirt to get what you got. Tell me the trick.

But there is no trick beyond sitting at river’s edge and shoveling tons of dirt into a sluce, followed by swirling the pan over whatever settles in the traps.

There is no magic.  It’s all suspiciously like work. 

———————-

Related Post:  Magical Thinking.

Real Experts Have Data

A couple of days ago, over on Facebook, I posted a few pieces about snake bites on dogs.  

One post on Copperhead snake bites (links at bottom) attracted a few Facebook experts with very confident opinions on the subject.

Cool.

More on that later, but let’s review the Copperhead basics to start.

While Copperheads account for *far* more venomous snakebites than any other species in the United States, their venom is quite mild, and fatalities of both humans and dogs are quite rare. 

Even prior to the development of antivenin, the human fatality rate for Copperhead snake bites was approximately 1 in 10,000 bites (0.01 percent). 

For comparison, Bee stings have a far higher human fatality rate; an average of 62 to 72 deaths per year in the United States compared to just 1 fatality every five years for Copperheads.

Compare that to Rattlesnakes, which account for over 90 percent of fatal snakebites in the US.

Eastern Diamondback bites — the flavor of Rattlesnake in my area — have a 20-40% human mortality rate if left untreated.

What about Copperhead bites on dogs?

Whether people or dogs, Copperhead venom is still the weakest of any administered by a US venomous/poisonous snake.

In Virginia and Maryland, where I have lived for over 40 years, Copperheads are common, and the likelihood of a dog getting bitten by a snake increases substantially in the warmer months.  

If a dog comes in to a vet’s office with a venomous snake bite, there’s a 99.9 percent chance it’s a Copperhead bite.

OK, that’s the basics.  

Now let’s go to the published experts and see what they say.

At the Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association four veterinary experts write that:

“Copperhead envenomation is common within the US, and no studies exist describing the clinical course of copperhead envenomation in dogs. Almost all treatment decisions regarding those bites are extrapolated from retrospective studies evaluating the clinical course of rattlesnake bites. Because copperheads and rattlesnakes produce venom with different potency, assumptions that treatment of the different envenomations should be similar may be incorrect.”

Excellent.

But did you notice what was implied in the opening statement?

Copperhead envenomination of dogs and cats in the US is very common (the majority of the 150,000 dogs and cats bit by venomous snakes in the US every year), but there are NO clinical studies describing Copperhead envenomination in dogs.

Huh.  

Serious problems generally get studied. If Copperhead bites are killing a lot of dogs, you’d think there would be stacks of published data demonstrating the scope of the problem, if only to sell a putative cure.

But there isn’t.

OK.

Now re-reead the next sentence.  

Copperhead envenomination is NOT parallel to or even slightly similar to rattlesnake envenomination.

OK.  That sounds right.

But can we put some numbers on that?

Yes, it turns out we can.

From the same article in the Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association:

“Medical records of 52 dogs treated for copperhead envenomation were reviewed, and owners were contacted regarding outcome. The most common clinical signs associated with copperhead envenomation included swelling, pain, and ecchymosis [ed: a fancy word for bruising]. Clinicopathological abnormalities (e.g., thrombocytopenia, elevated clotting times, leukocytosis) were mild, and red blood cell morphology changes and coagulopathies were rare. Most dogs were treated with antimicrobials, analgesics, and fluid therapy. No dogs in this study required the use of antivenin and all survived to discharge. This study found that the clinical course after copperhead envenomation is generally limited to local rather than systemic illness. Copperhead envenomation in dogs is largely self-limiting and responsive to supportive care with hospitalization for monitoring.”

Huh.

So scores of thousands of dogs are bitten by Copperhead snakes every year, but a review of documented medical interventions over 8 years found very few of them treated by veterinarians, and *none* of those treated by veterinarians were fatal even without antivenin treatment?

Huh.

Scores of thousands of bites a year.  

Little veterinary intervention.  

No deaths even without antivenin of any kind.

In my previous post on Copperhead bites, I noted that the proper treatment protocol was not antivenin, but the administration of 2 mg of Benadryl per pound of dog every 12 hours.

But, says veterinarian Sherrie Hartke in the comments section of my original post, Benadryl does not deal with the systemic reaction of Copperhead venom.

And guess what?  She’s correct, but not exhaustively so. You see, there is little or no systemic reaction from Copperhead bites.

As the AAHA article notes: “This study found that the clinical course after copperhead envenomation is generally limited to local rather than systemic illness. Copperhead envenomation in dogs is largely self-limiting and responsive to supportive care with hospitalization for monitoring.”

Huh.  Self-limiting. That means the dog gets better on its own.

OK, but Copperhead bites DO cause a medical reaction. What is it?

And the answer is localized swelling.

Ms. Hartke says “Giving benadryl is a complete waste of time. Swelling is due to cytotoxic effects and not histamine.”

OK.  Big words.  Sounds like science.  But is it?

I asked Ms. Hartke whether a Bee sting was cytotoxic, and what the go-to treatment for a Bee sting was.

No answer.  

Can you guess why?

Yes, that’s right.  Bee stings are also cytotoxic, and yes Benadryl is the go-to remedy for Bee stings.

What’s the story?  Simple:  One of the primary agents in both Bee stings and Copperhead bites is Melittin, which is a peptide that causes immediate pain and tissue irritation. Benadryl does not neutralize Melittin directly,  but it blocks the histamines that your body releases, effectively reducing localized swelling.  

Swelling is the primary effect of Bee stings and the primary effect of Copperhead bites as well. If swelling gets too bad in a very small dog (like mine), it can impact breathing.  Reducing the swelling with a 2 mg per pound dose of Benadryl works.

Oddly, none of the experts in the comments section said they themselves had a dog struck by a Copperhead. The two that did have actual experience with their own dog said antivenin was not necessary.  I have had dogs bitten by Copperheads three times over 25 years.  No antivenin, and no deaths.

I was told, in the comments section, that I needed to go to a Facebook page on snake bites where the real experts were to be found.

Cool, but perhaps folks could just as easily point me to actual data on Copperhead bites in dogs published by the AVMA, AAHA or some other reputable numbers- and science-based publications?  Had any of the experts on the Facebook page written anything about Copperhead bites in dogs that had been published in these kinds of veterinary publications?  Please post a link!

No responsive links about Copperhead bites in dogs was forthcoming.  Instead links were provided where rattlesnake data was co-mingled with Copperhead data, human data was presented (no dog data at all), or generalized fear mongering was presented with no data and often — again — a  conflation of Rattlesnake and Copperheads as if they were the same.

In my original post, I had noted the incredible cost of Crofab antivenin.

Ms. Hartke offered that there were cheaper treatments now, and she quoted wholesale prices of Venom Vet, and Rattler of under $300. 

Cool, I replied. Could she give me the actual *total* cost of Venomvet treatment at a vet’s office, including multiple vials of antivenom, administered on a slow IV drip, and overnight care from vet staff, etc.?

No answer.

OK.  No problem. I had the answer as reported by a reporter for the Roanoke, Virginia Times:  $4,000 to $6,000.

Ouch.  

And guess what?  

Most pet owners cannot afford that kind of financial hit, and most turn down that costly Copperhead “treatment” protocol as a result.

And guess what?  None of those dogs die if they are otherwise healthy, and if they are given 2 mg of Benadryl per pound every 12 hours.

What?  How is that possible?  

Well, let’s review the basics again:  a Copperhead bite is not a Rattlesnake bite.  The comparative toxicity of the venom delivered is so vastly different it cannot be graphed.

Though Copperhead venom is hemo-toxic (i.e. destroying red blood cells), that’s a word that translates into little more than swelling and perhaps a little localized (and temporary) tissue loss at the bite location.

Benadryl to reduce swelling, and over-the-counter antibiotics to prevent bite infection, is all that’s needed.

But hey, if you want to shell out $5,000 or more to “Rescue Ranger” your dog, I’m OK with it.  So too is every vet fanning the flames of worry about a Copperhead bite.

Just don’t ask to see the epidemiology numbers.  They have numbers, of course, but those numbers are the veterinary bill.

—————————-

▪️Original Facebook Post >> 

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1CwnxzjKrD/?mibextid=wwXIfr

▪️Copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix) Envenomation of Dogs: 52 Cases (2004–2011), 2014 in the Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association

https://jaaha.kglmeridian.com/view/journals/aaha/50/5/article-p338.xml

▪️ Copperhead bites can cost you thousands in vet bills, Roanoke Times >> 

https://roanoke.com/news/state-regional/business/article_78d3c25d-8802-565b-b1bd-41b326b067c7.html

▪️ Epidemiology of fatal snakebites in the United States 1989–2018, Science Direct >>

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0735675720307774?via%3Dihub

The Enemy Arrives in Limousines, Not Boats

John Steinbeck’s Dedication

John Steinbeck's dedication page to editor Pat Covici for East of Eden.

America Is Threatened By Morons!

!

Wrestling with my insomnia, I plugged "Leon F. Whitney" the AKC-celebrated dog man and former head of the American Eugenics Society into Google press archives.

Along with a 1932 New York Times headline noting that "Eugenics Leader Hails Hitler as Statesman," I came across the April 1932 New York Times article below about the first meeting of the Population Association of America. 

See >> https://www.nytimes.com/1932/04/23/archives/peak-of-population-is-seen-in-25-years-dr-oe-baker-says-decline.html

At the top, of course, we discover that America's population is going to peak in 25 years, and then it will decline and our power and economy will wither with it. 

Right.  What really happened?

Well, we had both a Baby Boom and open-border immigration.  As a result, the population of the United States went from 112 million in 1932, to over 347 million today.  As for economic decline, we are the most powerful economy in the world, with the most powerful military in the world. 

Now look at the second headline in the picture.  Here we have Leon F. Whitney, who was NOT a demographer, not a geneticist, and not a sociologist (he was a small-animal veterinarian, and big-time pamphleteer) telling us that "America's major social problems arise from borderline morons," and that we have 5,000,000 people who are "feeble minded" and need to be pruned from the gene pool.

Now, to be clear, I would agree that America's problems can be traced to morons, but perhaps not in the same way that Leon F. Whitney might mean!

Violence Is Often the Only Way to Change

STAR TREK on why violence is the answer when the courts are rigged.

Campbell’s Primordial Soup

You Get Up, You Get Out

Round Up the Horses, Comrade

All of the key oil refineries in Russia have been hit by Ukraine’s Defense Forces, with today’s strike on the Omsk refinery in Siberia, 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) from Ukraine, being the 11th and final target on Ukraine’s list.

The Omsk refinery had almost twice the capacity of the Moscow refinery and, more to the point, it was the refinery that did primary processing. With the Omsk refinery out of action, secondary processing at other plants is not possible.

Bottom line: Russia’s entire petroleum chain has been disrupted. Gasoline was already in short supply and rationed in pump lines so long that port-a-potties have been installed for drivers in elimination distress.  

Meanwhile, Ukrainian drone and missile strikes on Moscow, combined with strikes on Russian radar and communication links, has forced the Russians to withdraw front line assets to protect the capital. Russian fuel shortages on the front line are now making it hard to run electrical generators needed to power electronics.

On top of 1.4 million war casualties, Russia is now losing over a thousand soldiers a day.  Fortune magazine reports that Russia’s economy is sputtering, and that Putin’s wartime spending model has pushed the country to an economic, political, and military abyss.

The scale of Russian destruction is hard to overestimate. Russian fatalities in Ukraine are more than four times greater than all U.S. fatalities in all wars combined since World War II, and more than nine times greater than all Soviet and Russian fatalities in all wars combined since World War II.

Bagel Killer

Choose Carefully

“Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen. To be led by a liar is to ask to be lied to. To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery.”

— Octavia Butler, Parable of the Talents  

 

The Origin of “The Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing”

The “wolf in sheep’s clothing” phrase comes from the Sermon on the Mount by Jesus, and can be found in Matthew 7:15: “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”

Jesus then goes on to suggest that the true nature of these “false prophets” will be revealed by their actions (i.e., “by their fruits shall ye know them,” in verse 16).

Jesus had no warnings about wolves in wolf clothing, who show up as convicted rapists and fraudsters, chest-beating cowards, racist misogynists, child abusers, pedophiles, and multi-count felons.

I guess he assumed his followers would not be cruel, evil morons, who celebrated the Seven Deadly Sins. 

Go figure.

Watch the Cows

Next time you go through farm country, watch the cows.

I have seen 20 tons of rippling bovine flesh held back by the discipline of a single wire pulsing with 4,000 volts.

Every cow hits the electric fence once.   Very few hit it a third time, and the reason for this is simple:  the discomfort is greater than the gain, the punishment is immediate, and it’s always the right bad actor that gets the jolt.

Electric fences are very good animal trainers.

Compare the way we train the cows to the way we train white collar criminals.

For the country club set, the jolt is 40 volts, not 4,000, and in compensation for running through the fence, the Corporate Bull gets a lifetime of green, a beach house, a blonde pneumatic wife, and private schools for the kids

Instead of an immediate punishment, the punishment comes 10 years after the act.

Instead of the bull that knocks down the fence getting the shock, it's administered to a flock of chickens (stock holders) picking through the manure of prospectus' scattered two fields over.

And we wonder why the Bulls of Wall Street do not respect the fence? I have some idea!

The late great Mark Kleiman, a professor of public policy at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, and the author of "When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment” wrote in The Washington Monthly that:

“Theory and evidence agree: punishment that is swift, certain, but not severe will control the vast bulk of offending behavior. Severity is not only a poor substitute for swiftness and certainty, it is also the enemy of both. The more severe a sanction is, the less frequently it can be administered. (Prison cells are scarce and expensive, and the steeper the punishment, the more time consuming the processes required to avoid gross miscarriages of justice.)”

Bingo! 

It does not take much "correction" to change animal behavior if the correction is immediate and always occurs, and is sufficiently uncomfortable, disappointing, or ego-deflating. That is especially true if the bad behavior does not have a long track record of reward behind it, or if the reward or benefit from the bad behavior is not very strong or immediate.

I Covet Your Skull

In The Hound of the Baskervilles, Dr. James Mortimer says to Sherlock Holmes:

“I had hardly expected so dolichocephalic a skull or such well-marked supra-orbital development. Would you have any objection to my running my finger along your parietal fissure? A cast of your skull, sir, until the original is available, would be an ornament to any anthropological museum. It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.”

Cutting Sign In the World of Dogs

Cutting sign.   That's what they call it along the U.S.-Mexico border.  You might know it as tracking, but of course, it's more than reading tracks on a dusty road, isn't it?  

Along the border, they are not just looking for tracks in the dirt -- they are also looking for haircuts from other countries, bell bottoms that have been out of style in the U.S. for decades, and dress shoes worn in the desert or on slaughter house work floors.

If a Border Patrol officer asks a simple question, the answer may reveal whether the person answering comes from Texas, Mexico, El Salvador, or parts father South, East, West or North.

Of course, you can cut sign anywhere; all it takes is an ability to notice details and ask what they mean.  You will never be Sherlock Holmes (who is?) but you might get good at gleaning a larger meaning from the presence, or absence, of small things.

Watch the men and women in line in front of you at the store. Look at fingernails, jewelry, logos on clothes, tattoos, any reading material they might hold, and what they are buying.  Look at shoes.

Remember, a lot is facade or aspiration.  Learn to cut sign as you go through life, and you will have a better understanding of what kind of people you are talking to, where they are coming from, and where they are going.

And don't always look for something.   Look for the absence of things as well.  Listen for silence.   

Imagine what it is like to wear the clothes of the person across the aisle from you -- to move in that body, to come from where that person has just come, and to be going where that person is going.  

Now you are starting to cut sign.

This post is about sign-cutting in the world of dogs. It's not that hard to do, but you have to pay attention.

The easy stuff is what you can see.  If you see someone walking an extreme breed beset with chronic health problems, you know something important. There is no need to say anything -- just file it away in your brain. This is the kind of person that bought a mutant for amusement, and never mind the misery, disease or early death that comes with that kind of dog.

Ditto if you see a person walking a dog on a retractable string leash, or you see someone walking a dog in a harness meant for draft horses.   This is a person that has never read a single book on dog training. You do not have to say anything.  Simply notice it and remember what it means.

But what about the dogs and people you cannot see? 

For example, what about the breeder who claims they have working dogs, but who has no pictures of those dogs in the field and who does not appear to hunt or herd themselves?  Danger Will Robinson! Danger! A date that starts with a lie is a marriage likely to end in divorce!

How about the lady who claims to be an expert in wolves, but who lives in Britain, a country without any wild wolves at all?  A small question should rise in your brain.  

How about a person on a list-serv or blog that will not use their real name or even name their own breed? Why take such people seriously?  

Suppose someone tells you they "disagree with Cesar Millan's methods." Really? All of them? And what "methods" are those? Ask for a simple citation, and you get back a rapidly evaporating vapor trail.  The person in question has never actually read one of Millan's books or seen more than a video clip.

And then there is the self-styled expert on every animal under the sun, domestic and wild, from tropical fish to iguanas, from horses and parrots to dogs and cats. An instant expert thanks to Wikipedia.

So how can you spot the folks driving a little faster than their headlights?

One simple method is to ask blind questions that sound innocent and unimportant, but which illuminate quite a lot if answered the wrong way.  You can learn a lot by asking the right questions and thin-slicing the answers you get back.

If someone claims to be an expert in a working breed and claims that coat or nose color is important, they have told you a lot.   If they do not work their own dogs, they have told you a lot.   If they do not know the true history of their own breed, they have told you a lot.

If a dog trainer is too dogmatic, they have told you a lot.  There are more ways to train a dog than there are to skin a cat, and every dog is as unique as the person holding the leash. A good trainer recognizes that, and has a variety of options and methods at their disposal.

At the veterinarian's office, your vet is revealing a lot if they try to revaccinate your adult dog for distemper every year, or if they try to sell you heartworm "preventative" when it's 20 degrees outside.  

And if you keep coming back to that vet, you are telling them quite a lot as well.

If a person claims a choke chain is a horror, that's a good sign they do not own one, and have never used one.  Ditto for a modern e-collar. 

Of course everyone makes a mistake or phrases something poorly from time to time.  Ignore that.  A typo does not ruin a book any more than a popped button ruins a shirt. 

What you are looking for are not small things with small meanings, but small things with large meanings. 

Is the self-styled "dog food expert" recommending a brand that has never seen a feed trial and which is made in a factory the company does not own, in a location they will not disclose?  A small caution there! 

If you board your dog with your veterinarian do they try to tag on a charge for an "extra" walk despite the fact that there is no yard, and no one has ever been seen walking a dog more than 10 feet from the building?  A caution there!

These are the obvious things.  A little research will turn up more cautions -- self-styled "dog experts" who are barely out of college, and others who have yet to bury their first dog.  Experts who got into "their" breed just three years ago, and who are now quite certain they are the font of all human knowledge.

Heads up!  Do not jump to conclusions too quickly, and try to be charitable.  We all have character flaws and we all make mistakes and we all drive faster than our headlights at times.  

That said, if you file things away long enough, you will start to see patterns in both nature and in society, and you will be able to put those patterns and observation to good use.

Cutting sign is something we unconsciously do all the time, but if we make a decision to consciously do it -- we can learn a lot about people -- and dogs -- very quickly.

It’s World Chocolate Day

Dr. Seuss Would Cry to See Us Now

Who ever thought these Dr. Seuss cartoons would be applicable again?

Irving Berlin :: When That Man Is Dead and Gone

Dust on the Needle

People can get stuck. We’ve all seen it — the person who can’t stop talking about guns (for or against), or the person whose life is spent trolling whoever or whatever it is they have demonized, whether it’s women, muslims, Pit Bulls, vegetarians, hunters, or trans people.

What to do about it?

As a general rule, it’s easy enough to plant one foot, pivot in another direction, and just keep walking without ever looking back.

But obsessives are…. Obsessive. 

And so sometimes they don’t take the hint.  

What to do?

And my answer is the same as it was when there was dust on the needle and the record kept skipping.  You blow it off, you wipe down the record, and see if that fixes it.

And if it doesn’t, you toss the record.

It’s a crazy person that keeps a skipping record on the turntable.  

Life is too short for that.

Anecdote Is Not Responsive to Data

Whenever actual data on breed health is posted, someone sails in to the comments to say THEIR dog lived to … whatever.

Anecdote is not responsive to data.

A Storm Knocked the Hives

 

A very big oak branch came down and bashed two of my hives and knocked the back of the hive stand off its stone base. The branch was big enough that I had to put on the bee suit and fire up the chainsaw to cut it into sections to move.

The good news is that no real damage was done. A top super, inner cover, and top cover were knocked off a 10-frame hive, but the upper super was mostly empty and its light weight is why it popped off.

The narrow hive in the middle was knocked hard, but it’s a stack of 5-frame nuclear hives and was empty and ready if any of the other five hives decided to swarm. Again, the fact that this hive was empty was why it got knocked over to the extent it was. All is back in order now, and I don’t think too many bees were loss.

We Have Slipped Way Lower

The United States has slipped

far lower in the last 13 years.

Remembering Those In the Sky World

Remembering my mother, who died on this day in 2022, and my father who died, May 13, 2013.

The fancy dancer here is Supaman (Apsáalooke, Crow Nation).

The song is "Sky World," written and composed by Theresa Bear Fox (Akwesasne Mohawk) 

The singer is Teio Swathe (Kanatsiohereke Mohawk).

The location is White Sands, New Mexico.

Judged By Their Own In Their Own Time

"If there be an object truly ridiculous in nature, it is an American patriot, signing resolutions of independency with the one hand, and with the other brandishing a whip over his affrighted slaves." — Thomas Day, 1776

“I need not point out the absurdity of your exertions for liberty while you have slaves in your houses, for one minute’s reflection is, methinks, sufficient for that purpose.”

— Caesar Sarter, 1774

“Liberty is equally as precious to a Black man as it is to a white one, and Bondage equally as intolerable to the one as it is to the other.”

— Lemuel Haynes, 1776

“We are told, that the subjection of Americans may tend to the diminution of our own liberties. If slavery be thus fatally contagious, how is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of negroes?” 

— Samuel Johnson, 1775

“They have, in common with all other men, a natural and unalienable right to that freedom… Every principle from which America has acted in the course of their unhappy difficulties with Great Britain pleads stronger than a thousand arguments in favor of your petitioners… may the inhabitants of this state be no longer chargeable with the inconsistency of acting themselves the part which they condemn and oppose in others.”

—Petition of a Great Number of Blacks to the Massachusetts Legislature, 1777

For a Very Long Time

“Are you a communist?” 

“No I am an anti-fascist” 

“For a long time?” 

“Since I have understood fascism.” 

— Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls

The photo is of Hemingway in 1940, fishing the Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone River in Paradise Valley Montana.

Corporate Payola and Political Fascism

 

America is 250 years old, and is quickly sliding neck deep into corporate fascism. 

The National Parks Foundation is being used as a funnel for bribes, theft, and the fomenting of racist Christian nationalism.

Watch! 

Back to the Truths

“Now, my countrymen, if you have been taught doctrines in conflict with the great landmarks of the Declaration of Independence, if you have listened to suggestions which would take away from its grandeur and mutilate the fair symmetry of its proportions; if you have been inclined to believe that all men are not created equal in those inalienable rights enumerated in our charter of liberty, let me entreat you to come back. Return to the fountain whose waters spring close by the blood of the revolution. Think nothing of me —  take no thought for the political fate of any man whomsoever — but come back to the truths that are in the Declaration of Independence. You may do anything with me you choose, if you will but heed these sacred principles.” — Abraham Lincoln, 1858

 

Milo on a Very Hot Day

The Shadows :: Apache

Leo and Darwin on My Lap

The Geezer’s Paradox

Obesity Data for US, UK, and Australia.

70% or more of adults in the United States, 67% in Australia, and 63% in the United Kingdom are classified as overweight or obese. Source.

Israel’s Eight Tiers of Apartheid

“The State of Israel recognizes 8 tiers of people under its control. For all 8 tiers, Israel controls the registration of births, marriages, divorces, deaths and address changes. Israel controls the telecommunication networks, electricity grids, water supply, airspace and currency. Israel controls the movement of people in and out of the country. All tiers of people are controlled by a single state, with a single Prime Minister, a single Defense Minister, a single cabinet and a single chain of military command. 

“But each tier has different legal rights. That’s why every major human rights organization has called Israel an apartheid state. This is a brief survey of how it operates.”

To read the rest >> https://palestinenexus.com/articles/8-tiers-israeli-apartheid-explained

When Giants Roamed Congress

The Wee Grand Boys

 Milo and Leo

Bracket Fungus

A Dryad's Saddle (Cerioporus squamosus), also known as a pheasant's back mushroom, a type of polypore. 

They are theoretically edible when young, and are a good sign of white rot in oaks.

Photo taken along the C&O Canal.

Wasp Nest On the Cliff

I bicycled by the now-empty Peregrine Falcon nest this afternoon, and scoped the cliff face trying to find it through the increasing layers of tree foliage.

I found it, of course, but I first found an enormous paper wasp nest on the cliff. I don’t think I’ve seen that before.

The pictures show increasing levels of zoom with the Nikon P90.

Hawk On the Driveway

Flower Beds Into the Wee Orchard

I planted about 74 Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia) in a 55-foot long bed outlined here with garden lime. 

Fifty Bee-balms and 10 Sedums get picked up tomorrow.

Stella D’Oro lilies and Coreopsis additions are planned, but await existing bed divisions.