In Nerdfighteria, a virtual land where nerds that have taken a liking to John and Hank Green’s vlog community, essentially a land of socially-conscientious nerds, come together and refer to angry, YouTube comments as angry–squids? Octopuses? Octopi? Am I remembering this right? The important factor to keep in mind that even if I go back…
Growing up I had a large collection of Marguerite Henry’s horse books: Misty of Chincoteague; Sea Star; Stormy, Misty’s Foal; Black Gold; Justin Morgan Had a Horse; Twilight and others. They, among my Animal Arc and The Saddle Club books, were meant to be stored and never given away because I knew I would love…
Ordinarily winter in northwest Arkansas is a time of sleet, ice, and bitter wind. Lots of bitter wind and wet air, which cold sinks deeper than the dry cold in the West—yet they get snow, go figure. This year we have had only a few nights below freezing and plenty more days over 60 degrees…
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 cater…
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. African wildlife and wilderness are full of jungle and safari…
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…
Hundreds and perhaps thousands of unidentified plant photos lurk in my hard drive. I’ve always intended to manage and catalogue 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…
Rural towns everywhere have an older generation that shares stories about how they grew up farming, mining, and other professions that are either phasing out or converted to rely on technology to the point the job doesn’t resemble the version predating World War II. Often the elderly converse with good humor despite how ludicrously harsh…
Reading, drawing, painting, photographing, writing, exercising, gaming–which of these past times do I do? When? How often? How long? It’s always a tough decision, but sometimes I get drawing and painting in, and for the sake of visual cataloguing, here’s twelve examples showing where I’m at skill wise at the end of 2016. Background note:…
“How do they film that?” I always ask. “How do they coordinate? What are they not showing me?” That is how I watch natural history documentaries in between the “ah! That’s so cool!” and “hmm, interesting. I should look that up.” Then one day on Netflix I saw BBC Earth’s 2009 Life: On Location, where…
Your favorite civilian natural science book comes with prerequisites: vivid photos from altocumulous clouds to decomposition fungi, key hiding spots of small insects and charismatic critters, and nontechnical but curiosity-provoking descriptions of ecological concepts–all of which fill The Practical Naturalist. Edited by Chris Packham and written by a team of scientists, this book is detailed…
There’s a phenomenon science students experience. Perhaps there’s an inspirational, rare term assigned to it though I do not know what that would be. The landscape is no longer a cohesive environment of greenery and blotchy earth colors punctured by charismatic creatures and dramatic waterfalls. It…becomes millions of things that non-sciency friends rare their eyebrows…
