California’s Saint Francis Dam Memorial

The New York Times highlighted this catatrasophe as Feinstein et alia are sponsoring a bill to put up a memorial at the spot. The remains of the St. Francis Dam, which burst just before midnight on March 12, 1928, and killed more than 200 people.  It was  located just north of Los Angeles.   While this memorial…

The octopus from LRB

The Sucker, the Sucker! Amia Srinivasan BUYOther Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life by Peter Godfrey-Smith Collins, 255 pp, £20.00, March, ISBN 978 0 00 822627 5 BUYThe Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery Simon & Schuster, 272 pp, £8.99, April 2016, ISBN 978 1 4711 4675 6 In 1815, 15 years before he made his most famous print, The Great…

Perchance it really is to forget

Over the years, scientists have come up with a lot of ideas about why we sleep. Some have argued that it’s a way to save energy. Others have suggested that slumber provides an opportunity to clear away the brain’s cellular waste. Still others have proposed that sleep simply forces animals to lie still, letting them…

Ah the sea, the wonderful sea

As if I don't have enough to do on my farmette, I harbor dreams of fishing.  It does not help that I live near a major lake that has the nickname of "Lake Erie", because the real Lake Erie is about 200 miles away and when the locals cannot get away for the weekend, this…

Fish and chips

Well PA Dept of Fisheries does not stock cod, but aren't there other white fish out there?  The recipe calls for them so I must take it, that cod is in a rather large family,where  one could substitute one fish for another. Well it seems that the recipe is right.  While cod is not Quaker…

Dirt: coal or shale?

From National Geographic on coal.  I live in what was once King Coal country.  That ended back in the 60's and the mines were filled with water from the Lackawanna River (a tributary of the Delaware btw) and lots of dirt.  It seems where there was coal there was no shale but lots of lumber. …

a-sailing we go

  This may make a lovely painting.