Originally published as a digital essay for a university course April 22, 2020. U. S. Agency for International Development Emerging Threats Program launched the infectious disease surveillance program PREDICT in 2009. It included teams from more than 60 countries that would survey the world for unknown viruses in animals and assess their risk of causing … Continue reading Stop Spillover
Originally published as a digital essay for a university course April 22, 2020. In the Family Coronaviruses cause diseases in humans ranging from mild colds, which may do little more than annoy the sufferer, to MERS, which kills 37% of those infected. Seven types affect humans so far, but thousands exist. Most come from bats, … Continue reading Coronaviruses That Spillover
Originally published as a digital essay for a university course April 22, 2020. Human society traded one brand of disease outbreaks for another. In the past, we lacked hygiene, medical infrastructure, and knowledge of what causes disease. Today, we’re better in all three categories, especially in developed countries, but we’re disturbing ecology more and more, … Continue reading Spillover in the Modern World
Originally published as a digital essay for a university course April 22, 2020. We have been slow to learn the role of virus ecology in human health. J.S. Koen, a veterinarian and inspector for the U.S. Bureau of Animal Industry in Fort Dodge, Iowa, became unpopular during the Spanish flu outbreak in 1918. He saw … Continue reading Spillover
In Nerdfighteria, a virtual land where nerds that have taken a liking to John and Hank Green's vlog community, people refer to angry, YouTube comments as angry--squids? Octopuses? Octopi? Am I remembering this right? The important factor to keep in mind is that even if I go back to earlier vlogs when John addressed trolls … Continue reading Dictionaries and Eternal Nuances of Pluralization: Octopus
Ordinarily, winter in northwest Arkansas is a time of sleet, ice, and bitter wind. We get lots of bitter wind and wet air that sinks deeper into your skin than the dry, snowy cold in the West where I grew up. This year, we have had only a few nights below freezing and plenty more … Continue reading Lind Hollow Trail by Winter
It was great; then it wasn't. I have mixed feelings about On Writing Well by William Zinsser. I love the first 94 pages, but the rest far less so. That's a 28 percent good book, and that makes my final three-star ratings more than generous. What Zinsser writes in the first 94 pages caters to … Continue reading Book Reflection: On Writing Well by William Zinsser
One of BBC Earth's TV miniseries, Africa features the staples of intensive camera work and David Attenborough. The six-episode series released in 2013 travels between the Kalahari Desert, eastern savanna, Congo rainforest, southern Cape, Sahara, and a thematic episode focused on conservation and Africa's future. Africa is full of jungle and safari stereotypes, but this … Continue reading Film Reflection: Africa: Eye to Eye with the Unknown by BBC Earth
Few entities in the universe have perpetual growth. Ecology and economics are not immune to destruction and depression. The beauty of sustainable tourism and development is that humans make the choice to not plunge into a dystopian future and instead take logical and ethical steps to balance highs and lows in the future. In 2015 … Continue reading Introduction to the International Year of Sustainable Tourism and Development
Hundreds and perhaps thousands of unidentified plant photos lurk in my hard drive. I've always intended to manage and catalog them, maybe make blogging an excuse to learn the botany world one species at a time. I daresay I've failed and should try harder. One of my earliest photos back in March 2012 includes this … Continue reading Stigma Stigma: Misadventure in Identifying Plants
