hello!

This companion blog mainly hosts links that I want to mark for later reference. It's my virtual collection. As I read through literally thousands of blog postings, patterns naturally reveal themselves. Hey, it's a hobby that I enjoy. All links are gathered manually, i.e., I do not use any kind of automated search query. I figure I might as well share what I've found. Plus, I'm using this as a tester blog, so you might see a few oddities from time to time.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

razor, barbed wire

When we visited my family in the Central Valley this past holiday, Andy took a short run around the couple blocks or so in the neighborhood. While my adoptive kin own large, fancy, enviable houses, Andy noticed razor wire strung along the fence of a daycare center and the homeless people who were very friendly to him. My family joked during lunch that the place he found was a "preparatory" school for what life would be like in prison. Looking back it's not that funny. It's sad. Then, later that evening I listened to stories from cousins about their experiences of loud domestic fights they heard from neighbors, such that police evacuated them in the middle of the night at gunpoint. Homelessness, razor wire around daycares, gunpoint evacuations? This doesn't seem like the US, does it? Do we put up irritating fences to keep people in or to keep them out?

http://hwyfly.blogspot.com/2011/12/little-fence-for-big-horses.html

http://dawn-dancingintherain.blogspot.com/2011/11/on-vision-and-mind.html
http://themaxefiles.blogspot.com/2011/11/urban-prison-3-hemming-us-in.html


And as an extension of these thoughts...
http://66squarefeet.blogspot.com/2011/12/mimi-needs-little-help.html

http://talesfromthecoast.blogspot.com/2011/12/things-happen.html

Sunday, November 13, 2011

smuggling and poaching... of insects

While many people associate smuggling with illicit drugs or weapons and poaching with large animals like elephants, tigers, and sharks, few would think these illegal activities occur with insects. Here are examples of ants and butterflies on blogs:

http://antsbeesbutterfliesnature.blogspot.com/2011/11/illegal-ant-smuggling.html

http://myrmecos.net/2011/11/11/ant-smuggler-gerhard-kalytta-is-finally-caught/
http://skepticalmoth.southernfriedscience.com/2011/08/miami-blue/