Because... Science!

What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Structures like this are the ultimate in hubris. Do we think this will stand forever? Do we consider what happens when it fails? Built by the lowest bidder, it sits as a target for terror in war or peace.

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And In the End...

The line is from the movie "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel," and it is both funny and a comfort. 

All of us struggle, endlessly, with the rumble of life. It is not always alright.  But it is rarely the end, and in time things tend to right themselves and we stumble forward, away from the apocalypse.  

When you are at the bottom of the hill, remember that you may have coasted a long time to get there. Wait for the change. But when the change comes, remember it may also come with a lot of peddling to move upwards!  You coast to go down. You peddle to go up!

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Fox: The Cat-like Canid

Here are a few pictures from the game camera in the yard. Fox come by almost every night, but this time I also got the neighbor's cat.

You can see that a fox and a cat are about the same size. They are also built very much the same, as fox bones are much lighter than their normal canid counterparts. Unlike most dogs, which hunt in packs, fox are solitary hunters, like cats, and like cats they mostly eat mice and other "meals for one".

The two fox you see here are not hunting, but scavenging. I think this is a vixen and her female semi-adult kit from earlier in the year; what I call a "satellite vixen" as she may stay around when the older female pairs up, while the dog fox in the same litter will be driven out to find their own territory. Fox are so dense on the ground around here, however, that territories seem to overlap -- we have some tension between Vulpes in the front yard at times!
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Time and Truck

 

With groundhog hood ornament.

 

Same truck later. Mother Nature creeps.

 

The World Arcs Towards Good

"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." - Martin Luther King

Plague Groundhogs

The Moscow Times reports that a 15-year old boy has died after eating a barbecued groundhog infected with the bubonic plague.

Now over 100 people, including 19 doctors who were in contact with the boy over the last few days, are in quarantine and are undergoing preventative treatment.

As I have noted on this blog in the past, Tarvag, or Mongolian groundhogs, are the natural host for the black rat flea that carries the Yersinia pestis bacterium that causes bubonic plague.

Tarvag were targeted for extermination in the old Soviet Union as a means of bubonic plague prevention, but the Kyrgyz authorities stopped the poisoning in 1982 due to its costs.

Now, a mass extermination of groundhogs will be carried out in the Sary-Dzhaz region of Kyrgyzstan, and epidemiologists will try to determine how far the plague has spread within the native marmot population.

Plague is nothing new to the United States.  Or, at least, it's nothing new since Chinese illegal immigrants first brought it to the west coast just before the San Francisco Earthquake of 1907. 

Now plague is endemic to the Prairie Dog towns of the American west, even as it has disappeared in much of the rest of the world due to the rise of the Brown Rat which has, conveniently, displaced the less aggressive Black Rat over much of the globe.
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Caesar, the Dog Who Was Placed in Front of Royalty

On a sunny morning in May of 1910, the funeral procession for the late Edward VII, son of Queen Victoria, made its way from Westminster. 

A small terrier, his leash held by a kilted Highland soldier, led the cortege, with international dignitaries following up behind.

The dog was Caesar, born Caesar of Notts in 1898, and sired by Cackler of Notts from the  kennels of Kathleen, Duchess of Newcastle.  The dog had been given to King Edward VII by Lord Dudley in 1902 to replace the King's earlier dog, Jack, also a terrier, which had died choking on food.

In life, Caesar had been the constant companion of Edward VII and wore an ornate collar made by Faberge that read:  “I am Caesar. I belong to the King.”

The year of the King's death, a children's book about Caesar was hastily published, entitled "Where's Master?" and with the authorship attributed to the small dog himself.

If you go to Edward's grave in St George’s Chapel, the marble figure of Caesar can be seen curled up at the foot of the King's tomb.

But this is not where Caesar himself is buried. After the death of Edward, the dog went to live with Queen Alexandra at Marlborough House in London, where the dog died on April 18, 1914.  The little terrier was buried on the grounds, and given a marble headstone, complete with picture.

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Looking for a Dog? Get Your Priorities In Order!

If your first inclination when purchasing a dog is to buy an all-breed book and begin flipping through the pages, you are already making a mistake.

The goal of all-breed books is to fill your mind with a romantic ideal of a brand-name dog.

The danger in doing this is that once you get this picture locked in your head, you have already "chosen your breed," which means you have rejected healthy non-pedigree dogs without even considering them.

It also means you have probably chosen a canine registry.

With breed and "registration papers" occupying the first and second slots in your priority list, gender and coat color typically fill slots three and four.

That means health and temperament fall to level five and six.

No wonder so many people end up with unhealthy dogs!

Remember that all-breed books are the dog market equivalent of a sales brochure; they offer lovely pictures and descriptive puffery, but they are not Consumers Report. You would not buy a car based on a sales brochure. Why are you buying a dog this way?
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Oh, You're a Dog Trainer?

The Bull Asian elephant Ramprasad and his mahout, Su-Mir, drag a 2-ton log 1.8 miles out of the forest.  Watch what this elephant climbs over!  It's easy to forget that animal training is not new, and was not invented at PetSmart!
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George Carlin Points Out the Obvious

"The sanctity of life doesn’t seem to apply to cancer cells, does it? You rarely see a bumper sticker that says: “Save the tumors.” Or “I brake for advanced melanoma.” No, viruses, mold, mildew, maggots, fungus, weeds, E. Coli bacteria, the crabs. Nothing sacred about those things. So at best the sanctity of life is kind of a selective thing. We get to choose which forms of life we feel are sacred, and we get to kill the rest. Pretty neat deal, huh? You know how we got it? We made the whole fucking thing up!"  . . . . .  - George Carlin

Terriers of Two Sizes

A small working terrier is infinitely more useful than a large one.

Lookalike Sodas

Knockoff sodas, 79 cents for two liters. Dr. Bob (the name of one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous) is clearly a knockoff of Dr. Pepper, while "Mountain Shoutin'" is clearly a knock off of Mountain Dew.  Austin gets to experiment to see if there is actually any difference in taste.

At White's Ferry & Lillypons

Leesburg is the center of Virginia horse country. Just down the road is White's Ferry, which crosses the Potomac to Maryland near where I hunt.

Strange Values

Old apple crates, varnished, being sold in an antique store in Frederick, Maryland, for $28 a piece. 

Just down the road, peach crates in use at a real orchard.  No varnish, no drama.

Heading past the orchard and down the River Road, I have my son stop so I can point out this mansion with PLASTIC palm trees in its front yard.  

Yes, this is a weird town with weird people with weird values.

A Visit to Lucketts

Anyone know what the sixth item down is?  I didn't until I read the tag.  

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Staffordshire Dogs in Staffordshire China

From the very early 19th Century comes this Staffordshire Terriers Bull-Baiting Staffordshire Figurine. Notice that the bull is tethered -- this is spectacle mauling of a bull by two dogs, with a ring master to work the crowd.  The piece was sold by Christie's Auction House for $10,158.  

Other Staffordshire figures of the era depicted bear-bating (1820) with the bear muzzled as it fought off dogs.  The piece below sold for $22,705. 

All baiting sports, such as those shown here, were by banned by the British Parliament in 1835.

 

Glamour Camping = Glamping

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