Four Pests Campaign

I just read about in China how they tried to get rid of sparrows, and that lead to locust destroying the crops and led to a great famine. 

Kind of an odd choice. They replaced it later with bed bugs, which makes more sense. 

Frogs

 

Birding

Interesting article about using apps to identify birds

Female black-chinned hummingbird in central Texas, enjoying scarlet sage.

Brazilian tanager

Dying in wilderness collection

I'm tempted to send these articles to my friend, but I think it's better just to collect them in one place for a while. I have several collection blogs that I write, and collect over time, and I'm hoping here to collect articles where people die or suffer being lost in the wilderness. 

I'm not super into trying to get people to fear the wilderness, and at the same time I feel that there is real danger in being unprepared and unaware while in the wilderness. 

Collection:

Three Hikers Die in Grand Canyon National Park in Less Than a Month July 9th 2024 (Times)

Three hikers die in Utah parks in suspected heat-related cases (Guardian)

Survived 2 weeks in wilderness of Kentucky!

Utah again.

'Freak storm' in Yosemite causes 20yo to slip off Half Dome and die, dad demands change (source).

I almost died sailing on Lake Huron in Saginaw Bay. Coast Guard rescued us. These people were not as lucky on Lake Powell: Woman and 2 children dead, 2 others critically injured after pontoon boat capsizes on Lake Powell in Arizona.

Fell into Grand Canyon (source).

12/18/24. A collection of people lost in Adirondacks:

Thomas Messick- disappeared in the Lake George Wild Forest in 2015.

Wesley Wamsganz- disappeared in the High Peaks in 2010.

Irene Horne- remnants of her campsite were found in the West Canada Lakes in 2007, no other sign of her has ever been found.

Jack Coloney- disappeared in the Moose River Plains in 2006.

George LaForest- disappeared near the Cedar River in Indian Lake in 2006.

Thomas Carleton- disappeared in the High Peaks in 1993.

Steve Thomas- disappeared in a storm on Mt. Marcy in the High Peaks in 1976.

George Bombardier- disappeared near Paul Smiths in 1971.

Douglas Legg- disappeared near Camp Santanoni in 1971.

The lake on summer evening

 

For some reason a tire in the water has me disgusted with my meditation spot, and I haven't been in a while. Today there was a can and two bottles bobbing in the water. You can avert your gaze from litter, but it's distinctly ugly. The sky is beautiful, the waves, the birds. 

I'm reading Devotions by Mary Oliver, but I'm past my posting online about her. This book is a greatest hits, and there are a few books that got away from me, and I haven't read. It's like you have to listen to all the albums first before you listen to the greatest hits album. 

I've decided to do a bit of a Lucretius kick today. Born 99 BCE, he lived to 55 BCE, 44 years. De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things) is his one surviving work. There is not much know about his life, and the various rumors that come down to us aren't convincing. It is the a book on Epicureanism: "Epicurus was an atomist and materialist, following in the steps of Democritus. His materialism led him to religious skepticism and a general attack on superstition and divine intervention. Epicureanism was originally a challenge to Platonism, and its main opponent later became Stoicism. It is a form of hedonism insofar as it declares pleasure to be its sole intrinsic goal. However, the concept that the absence of pain and fear constitutes the greatest pleasure, and its advocacy of a simple life, make it very different from hedonism as colloquially understood."

In his poem, It seems he gives a material interpretation of reality to avoid the contradictions and upset from believing in the gods.

There's an old translation on Librivox. And plenty of videos on YouTube. Here is one. 

Legends

“Among the Kazaks, even trees come in for veneration, especially lone trees. According to Kazak legends, it was from just such a tree that their ancestors were born a long, long time ago. It's a legend shared by many other tribes, including those in Southwest China such as the Tung.”

P.137 The Silk Road by Bill Porter

Cercospora

Not sure learning about Cercospora would happen, but it's captured my mind. Cercospora is the fungus that attacks leaves, a plant disease. 

Things that grow on leaves file here.

I’m seeing cottonwood tree seeds.

Eriophyes tiliae

Parasitic Gall wasp