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(Originally posted elsewhere on 11 June 2026.) So there’s a lot going on in this single chapter of Sippial’s. There’s something I left unrepresented in this excerpt, because I want more time to mull it over. I’ll include those thoughts as preface. So the relatively “radical”
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(Originally posted elsewhere on 14 August 2020.) It happened, they found one: a “new” lizard species (well, subspecies) formally documented within the borders of British Columbia (and, by extension, the nation of Canada): the Northwestern fence lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis occidentalis). Not a surprise to me, having been fixated on maps/
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Y’know about notorious housing costs and homelessness situation in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles, the Pacific coast of the US? In 2023, Portland and San Francisco are both moving forward with major multi-million-dollar projects to outlaw “street camping” while opening “city-run mass encampments” (not my
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(Originally posted elsewhere on 15 July 2020.) US federal government makes big investments in uranium. US Department of Energy plans major revival or uranium mining. “Stock prices skyrocket” during pandemic and uranium becomes “world’s best-performing major commodity”. Canadian mining companies gear-up for uranium extraction. Australia anticipates possible
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(Originally posted elsewhere on 10 July 2022.) First, some general sources. Then, three excerpts on Swedish involvement in Caribbean slavery and contemporary obscuring of that history. — Ports of Globalisation, Places of Creolisation: Nordic Possessions in the Atlantic World during the Era of the Slave Trade. Edited by Holger Weiss. 2015.
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(Originally posted elsewhere on 21 August 2022.) (Originally posted elsewhere on 21 August 2022.) Early 2022, researchers slowly and casually rolling out of bed, in their pyjamas, with a cup of tea: “Oh yea, by the way, no big deal, we almost forgot to mention that a previously-undescribed species
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(Originally posted elsewhere on 7 December 2022.) While there’s a lot of dramatic stuff here (Arctic foxes trailing the Russian crew for starving stragglers; the participation of such a high-profile naturalist as Steller; and the sheer scale of otter massacres), I’m intrigued by other parts of this
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(Originally posted elsewhere on 6 December 2019.) Excerpt 1: Fish are known generically as “Challwa” in the Mapudungun language [in rural Indigenous Mapuche communities east of the Andean crest in Neuquen province, Patagonia, Argentina ...]. This name in the native language constitutes an onomatopoeic word (an onomatopoeic name) alluding to the
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(Originally posted elsewhere on 17 July 2020.) Anguis fragilis. A beloved lizard. The “slow-worm,” in English. But why the name? Because they’re “slow”? Maybe not! Consulting the ancient (circa October 2004) texts. TAMH Dictionary: Interesting. Slightly less ancient texts (Wikipedia): Maybe Middle English association with “slow.” But maybe
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(Originally posted elsewhere on 24 February 2020.) In jest: “Girl, what if … what if we … Let’s bring kangaroos to London. Hella cool? Kids can hand-feed them bread in the gardens. If the kangaroo can roam here, it would demonstrate the vitality not just of the physical qualities of
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(Originally posted elsewhere on 15 May 2020.) At the time, hadn’t really ever known what it was like to live in one place for longer than a few years. People came and went. You lived somewhere, and then you were lost. Things are transient and passing. Slowly I attracted
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(Originally posted elsewhere on 26 May 2022. Addition/update added 19 January 2026.) The addition/update, which I think helps contextualize the relevance of the excerpt/passage itself: This little joke/meme image was circulating online after the US president said/did some stuff. And the original text analyzed in