Javelins or Baseballs, Our Shoulders Have Evolved for Throwing
It’s interesting how when you’re involved in something, you find relevant information everywhere. Since I’m hard at work on the chapter about how the first modern humans left Africa to…
Mary Soderstrom
Happy Canada Day, Happy Moving Day
While everyone else relaxes today in the rest of Canada, in Queebec more than a million households will move. Any beer and pizza that gets eaten is likely to be…
Saturday Photo: Let’s Hear It for Hostas
Maybe 15 years ago I bought three hosta plants for, if I remember correctly, $4 a piece. I planted them in front, where I’d begun the slow process of eliminating…
Okay, There’s Climate Change! What to Do About It?
Another wet, wet day here, while the center of the continent suffers from heat and they mop up in Alberta. Gene Kelly offers an alternative. A little silly, but lifts…
The War of the Bees: Dead Ones in Oregon, Live Ones in Toronto
A flurry of bee stories: thousands of them drop dead in Oregon, while a big swarm attacks a construction site in Toronto. What would
Deep Conspiracy: Naomi Wolf on That Snowden Guy
As I think I’ve said here before, why should anybody be surprised that various branches of US intelligence has been following us. They’ve done it for a long time, as…
Nothing (All That) New Under the Sun: Solar-Powered Shipi Visits North America
The New York Times has a fascinating video this morning about a solar-powered ship visiting New York. The Turanor Planetsolar circumnavigated the globe last year, and is now following the…
Happy Fête nationale from Someone Who Chose Quebec
Today is Quebec’s big holiday. Formerly named after French Canada’s patron saint St. Jean, Jean the Baptist, it now is more inclusive. Everyone is supposed to be welcome, although some…
Saturday Photo: Roses and Peonies
What good is rain for? For making roses and peonies bloom. I’ve never had such lovely ones as this year, when the temperatures have been cool and the rain has…
Last Day of School for Seven Weeks, Which Isn’t Too Short at All…
This is the last day of school here: many kids have only a half day and walking around the neighborhood this morning, it was clear that the young people are…
India and China: Two Giants with Different Records When It Comes to Inequality
China is doing better for its citizens than India mainly because it is providing more equal opportunity, according to Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate for economics in The New York Times…
The Red Haired Neanderthal
I’m currently messing around in our deep, deep past, trying to get a fix on the roads that humans have traveled for a new non-fiction book to be called Road…
Lots of People Not Going to Work Means Easy Traffic?
Montreal is becoming famous for its terrible traffic, along with its terrible mayors. But one of the things that is lost in shuffle this week, as Mayor Michael Applebaum was…
On a Day When Canada’s Two Biggest Cities Appear to Have Crooks as Mayor…
A little ditty thata may make you smile: The You Can’t Fight City Hall Blues
Saturday Photo: Bridal Veil and Honeysuckle
Sounds a little raunchy, doesn’t it? But the combination of bridal veil and honeysuckle makes a gorgeous late spring display.
The Fruit of the US Supreme Court Decision Outlawing Anti-Miscegenation Laws: Pretty Cute!
The US Supreme Court struck down laws that forbade people of different races from marrying each other 50 years ago this month. EVen though the following commercial has had some…
Recreating Eden 2013-06-13 14:11:00
Why don’t people learn to turn the sound down? Once again highly amplified music is making the news around here: a nearby elementary school got a fine for refusing to…
No Time to Go to the Country? Read Barney’s Version Instead
Just because it’s funny, and I’m looking for a way to avoid work.
Why Americans Seem So Unconcerned about Megadata and Their Telephone and Email Records
The Pew Institute has just released a poll showing that a good majority of Americans don’t have a problem with what the US government has been doing with the logs…
The Incredible Human Journey, But Not in the US
Traveling rather far afield as I continue the ground work a new non-fiction book to be called Road through Time, I came upon this marvelous BBC series on human migration:…