Saturday, November 21, 1925. Lava Beds.

It was a Saturday.

Last edition:

Thursday, November 19, 1925. First lighted high school football game.

Labels: 1920s, 1925, football, Introspection, J.R. Williams, Nostalgia, Sports, technology, Wyoming, Wyoming (Casper), Wyoming (MIdwest)

Going Feral: Nesvik tells Colorado to say no to Canadian wolves.

Going Feral: Nesvik tells Colorado to say no to Canadian wolves.: 

Nesvik tells Colorado to say no to Canadian wolves.

Hmmm. . .it would actually make more biological sense to take them from Canada. . . or Alaska, than a nearby population.

Pope Leo to MAGA Climate Skeptics: “Repent” The pope warned that ridiculing global warming is not courage — it’s contempt for the poor and for God’s world.

 

Pope Leo to MAGA Climate Skeptics: “Repent”

The pope warned that ridiculing global warming is not courage — it’s contempt for the poor and for God’s world.

Going Feral: The Feral Week.

Going Feral: Lex Anteinternet: Sunday, September 26, 1915. Wab.: 

Colorado Wolf Debate Heats Up Over Claims Diseased Animals Were Released

 

Colorado Wolf Debate Heats Up Over Claims Diseased Animals Were Released

Thursday, September 25, 2025

We Need To Talk About How We Can Effectively Advocate For Better Public Lands Policy Why the pro-public lands world’s inability to communicate accurately is such a problem, and the steps we can all take to do it better

 

We Need To Talk About How We Can Effectively Advocate For Better Public Lands Policy

Why the pro-public lands world’s inability to communicate accurately is such a problem, and the steps we can all take to do it better

Report: More than 99% of public comments opposed to end roadless rule

 

Report: More than 99% of public comments opposed to end roadless rule

Wednesday, September 24, 2025

Southern Rockies Nature Blog: These Hunters' Deaths Hit Me Hard

Southern Rockies Nature Blog: These Hunters' Deaths Hit Me Hard: Search and rescue volunteers are briefed before heading out. (Conejos County Sheriff's Office) The search for two missing bowhunters, An...

This is terrible news, to say the least.

When I first heard of these two men dying, it was by way of a headline.  As I was extremely busy at the time, I didn't read deeper into the story.  I frankly assumed they had succumbed due to hypothermia, and that they were likely inexperienced outdoorsmen.

I learned more about it sage chicken hunting with a companion, who had looked into the story more.  He revealed that in fact they were experienced outdoorsmen, but we both assumed that they had died due to hypothermia.  We assumed, frankly, that they'd stepped out for what they thought would be a shorter trip and were caught in a bad situation at which point they couldn't address the onset of the condition.

It turns out we were wrong.  It was a lightning strike.

I've been afraid of lightning my entire life, and a lot of that is due to living an outdoor life.  From my earliest years I can recall being fascinated with lightning, but also fearing it.  My earliest recollection of an electrical strike close by was when I was a child, looking out our picture window. and saw a bolt of lightning hit the ground right in front of the house and arc over the street, as a car passed under it.

My mother related that her grandfather had actually been hit by lightning observing an electrical storm out the back window of a house in St. Lambert, Quebec.  He was fine, but that  might have made an early impression with me.  My father, an avid outdoorsman, didn't mess with lightening at all, although he would continue to fish well past the point he should as electrical storms approached.  The childhood step father of a friend of mine was killed on the golf course by lightning.  The father of a gaggle of girls who where my contemporaries was killed on horseback when struck by lightning.  

I had plenty of reasons as a kid to fear lightning.

As an adult, I've seen lightning strike a human occupied thing when I saw a blot strike a boat in Alcova Reservoir.  I was far enough away that I don't know what happened to the people in it.  While living in Laramie, and going to law school, I had a bolt of lightning strike a power line right above the point I was at as I was hurriedly walking home, hoping to beat the storm.  It blew me to the ground, and I was deaf in one ear for about a week.  Also in Laramie, I remember being up in the high country elk hunting and briefly conversing with a mounted hunter as a storm started to roll in.  The air grew electrick and came in contact, somehow, with the horses steel ringlets on his bridle, causing his ears to shoot up, and a visible electrical current pass between the tips of his ears, just before he reared around and charged down the mountain.

Storms will appear and surprise you.

In the sticks, I watch the weather like a hawk.  It's not snow I'm afraid of being caught in, it's an electrical storm.  I'll abandon a place early if I think it looks like such a storm is rolling in.

Electrical storms in the high country are particularly dangerous. Due to the terrain, they roll up at you before you can appreciate them, and they are very frequent.  High altitude afternoon thunderstorms are a norm in mountainous terrain.

Added to that, in spite of Donald Trump and His Confederacy of Clowns, climate change has extended the summer and fall and that's making traditional activities in late fall more dangerous in various ways.  I'm not terribly familiar with Southern Colorado, but I can claim some familiarity with Northern Colorado and lots of familiarity with all of Wyoming.  This time of year, say thirty or more years ago, storm above 6,000 feet here were snowstorms, not rain storms.  We worried about being snowed out, or snowed in, not rain.  Now thanks to a desperate belief on the part of some that things aren't changing, or it isn't our fault, things are changing.

Wide Open Spaces reported their cause of death as being surprising.  I'm not terribly surprised, as I've had too many close calls with lightning even while being careful.  I'll merely note, it pays to be careful out there. . . really careful.

But sometimes, that won't save you.

Regarding the tragic deaths of Andrew Porter and Ian Stasko:

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen. 

Wyomingites with deep conservation roots oppose axing Forest Service Roadless Rule

Wyomingites with deep conservation roots oppose axing Forest Service Roadless Rule: Although the state government loathes the Forest Service regulation, many residents value the wild lands and wildlife it protects.

‘Judas elk’ to help target Jackson Hole ‘suburban elk,’ easing pressure on Yellowstone migrants

‘Judas elk’ to help target Jackson Hole ‘suburban elk,’ easing pressure on Yellowstone migrants: Research reveals that animals that summer on ranchland and in residential subdivisions near town pile up on the National Elk Refuge's southern end — a trait that will help wildlife managers steer hunters toward the problematic cohort.

Tuesday, September 23, 2025

Coroner: Lightning Strike Killed Elk Hunters Found Dead In Colorado

 

Coroner: Lightning Strike Killed Elk Hunters Found Dead In Colorado

Monday, September 22, 2025

Blog Mirror: Browning Auto 5 Shotgun Review: Still One of the Greatest Semiautos of All Time

 

Browning Auto 5 Shotgun Review: Still One of the Greatest Semiautos of All Time

Sunday, September 21, 2025

Lex Anteinternet: Blog Mirror: Outside Just Fired Me Because Of My ...

Lex Anteinternet: Blog Mirror: Outside Just Fired Me Because Of My ...:   

Blog Mirror: Outside Just Fired Me Because Of My Politics I'm hardly Jimmy Kimmel, but that's also a reason this should worry you

 

Outside Just Fired Me Because Of My Politics

I'm hardly Jimmy Kimmel, but that's also a reason this should worry you

With 700 daily visitors, Taggart Lake trailhead in Grand Teton National Park is in line for expansion

With 700 daily visitors, Taggart Lake trailhead in Grand Teton National Park is in line for expansion: Officials seek comment by Sept. 23 on a project that would redesign the park’s most popular year-round trailhead.

More Than 13,000 Pieces Of Garbage Removed From Yellowstone Thermal Areas

 

More Than 13,000 Pieces Of Garbage Removed From Yellowstone Thermal Areas

The Trump war on science continues.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed on Friday a rule to end a mandatory program requiring 8,000 facilities to report their greenhouse gas emissions - an effort the agency said was burdensome to business, but which leaves the public without transparency around the environmental impact of those sources.

Going Feral: A lack of the land ethic in office.

Going Feral: A lack of the land ethic in office.: 

A lack of the land ethic in office.

Back when I was 18 years old and first registered to vote, I registered as a Republican.  The first President I voted for was Ronald Reagan.

Soon thereafter, relative terms, and certainly before I went to the University of Wyoming I changed my registration to Democrat.  Wildlands had a lot to do with that, maybe everything, almost, to do with that.  Sometime prior to the Fall of 1983 I'd concluded that the Democrats wanted to protect nature, where as Ronald Reagan's Administration, with James Watt as the Secretary of the Interior, most definitely didn't care about it.

I was a Democrat for a very long time, but I often voted Republican, following a family trait of really voting very independently.  If you aren't thinking about the person you are actually voting for, you aren't thinking.  I voted, I know, for our Democratic Governors, but I also voted, I know, for some Republican Congressional candidates.  Starting prior to the 2000 election I started to consider 3d parties.  Some time after that I became disgusted with the Democrats constant embrace of abortion and changed my political affiliation to none.  By that time a lot of Wyoming Democrats were feeling the same way and a lot of them drifted into the GOP, some so solidly that they're regarded as stalwart traditional Republicans now, which in a lot of ways, they are.

I also eventually came into the GOP.  

I was comfortable, if often upset, with the GOP up until it nominated Donald Trump for the Oval Office the first time, which absolutely horrified me and still does.  This term, which is illegitimate (Trump is a seditionist who has not had the ban from holding office lifted upon him by Congress), has been bad beyond my fears as to what it would be.  Trump is all about land rape on the land.

We're back to the 1970s, I fear.

Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Condemns Effort to Roll Back Public Lands Rule

Posted by Nadia Marji | September 12, 2025

Trump moves to nix Public Lands rule; Alfalfa exports data dump

Also re-upping and freeing-up a piece on political violence and rhetoric

I still am registered as a Republican, but I constantly debate it. The Wyoming "Sweet Home Alabama" pack of carpetbaggers Freedumb Caucus has gained control of the Legislature and is busy driving through the state's culture like the Dukes' of Hazzard through Hazzard County in the Gen. Lee.  It's disgusting.  There''s some reason to believe that this is changing, but it isn't changing quickly enough.  Wyoming's GOP Congressional delegation supported the land raping proposal by the Senator from Deseret, Mike Lee, in spite of the majority of Wyomingite's being opposed to it.  "Your dumb" was the practical reaction to Wyoming voters from one of the three.

If you aren't a registered Republican, you aren't going to get to have a say in the primary, which is why I'm still there. Am I one of the RINO's that Chuck Gray cries about?  If the current GOP reflects the Republican Party, I am.  There's no alternative here, however.

This is all appalling.  

This is why we can't have nice things: Hageman Pushes Forest Service Chief To End Clinton-Era Roadless Rule

 The roadless rule should not only be kept, it should be expanded.

Hageman Pushes Forest Service Chief To End Clinton-Era Roadless Rule

 

Going Feral: Bear attacks on Hokkaido have become such a proble...

Going Feral: Bear attacks on Hokkaido have become such a proble...:  

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 99th edition. Sydney Sweeney has great jeans, and genes.

Sydney Sweeney in American Eagle denim, part of the ad campaign causing all the furor.  The outfit itself is very 1970s retro, which is more than a little ironic in context.  Given the commentary, this is posted with the fair use exception.

Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality and even eye color. My jeans are blue.

Sydney Sweeney in American Eagle ad.

Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle ad shows a cultural shift toward whiteness.

CNBC headline.

Q: Your administration has been very open about the fact that American women are not having enough babies. There was an ad this week. Sydney Sweeney, an actress, was in an ad for Blue Jeans. Does America need to see more ads like that? And maybe fewer ads with people like Dylan Mulvaney on the cover?

Rob Finnerty in an interview of Donald Trump.

First, let us state something plainly.

Sydney Sweeney is hot.

Way hot.

And she looks good in the American Eagle Jeans, which are sort of retro 1970s denim really.  

Really good.

So why are people having a fit?

Well, it's a really interesting tour through the culture, really.

Using attractive women to sell clothing is nothing new.  Shoot, using attractive women to sell anything, is in fact not new.  

So what's the big deal.

Basically, when you get right down to it, the big deal is two things.  First of all, Sweeney is white.  Secondly, this is a return to an obvious sex sells approach to selling that we haven't seen since the early 1990s.

The peak of the sex sells approach was really the 1970s.  Coincident with the rise of feminism was the absolute exploitation of women in advertising.  Calvin Klein really went to town with Brooke Shields, who was sexualized so young in her career that her image, in the movie industry, was basically a near example of child pornography.  But in advertising, he wasn't the only one.  There were in fact advertisements that would outright shock most Americans now as they used young teenage girls in sexualized poses.  It was repulsive. 

That seemed to have run its course by the mid 1980s, but even then, in the 1990s, Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith modeled jeans, in her case Guess jeans.  

The 90s, however, also saw the really fruity elements of the American come into cultural power, and a lot of that gave us, unfortunately, what we have today in terms of a massive right wing populist reaction.  In modeling, left wing media masters insisted that models not be, if possible, smoking hot young women and that instead they should be culturally diverse, and in some cases, fat.

Now comes this, in the midst of a real swing to cultural conservatism, but not culturalism of the Patrick Dineen type, but of the Dukes of Hazzard fan type.

What Sweeney said, quite frankly, is actually completely true. Genes are passed down from parents to offspring.  Genes in fact determine external traits like hair color and eye color.  That is a fact.

And, more than we like to admit, they determine a massive amount of our personality traits.  If you hang around a family gathering and don't find people who have the same deep interests as you do, the same sense of humor, etc., you might wish to check to see if you are in the right place. Sure, some of that might be due to environment, you are all from the same family, but some not.  It's well known that many of the traits that impact our personalities are in fact genetic.

So what's up with the upset.

Well she's white, as are 60.5% of the American population.  That is who you are trying to sell to much of the time. The liberal left just can't have that.

If the same clothing promotion was being done by Anok Yai, the left wouldn't be having a fit, the right would be, and for the exact same reason.

Which is exactly why, if I ran American Eagle, I'd have Anok Yai join in the campaign.

Of course, that isn't the only reason people are enjoying being upset.  They're also upset as the ads openly focus on Sweeney's assets, including having the camera in the jean jacket ad focus on her boobs until she intervenes to instruct the viewer to look at her face.

Well, gentle reader, that portrays reality.  All the feminist reactions in the world are never going to stop men from observing cleavage when its right there.  We're wired that way, and for a reason.

Which brings us to the next point.  In the right wing defense, Trump, in a friendly Fox interview, was asked the bizarre question "Does America need to see more ads like that? And maybe fewer ads with people like Dylan Mulvaney on the cover?" after the pronatalist views of the far right were referenced.

That was weird.  

The US, and for that matter the entire Western World, does not have a demographic crisis like the far right pronatalist like to imagine.  But the suggestion that men are going to look at Sydney Sweeney and suddenly feel aroused and go out and procreate is truly odd.

But even this does give us a glimpse into how modern Western society has really gone off the rails  No man who wants to "transition" is ever going to look like Sydney Sweeney.  Nor will any of them suffer from the Girl Flu every month.  That's reality.

Anyhow.  Givc the woman a break.

Last edition:

The Madness of King Donald. The 25th Amendment Watch List, Third Edition and Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist, 98th edition. The Perverts and Fellow Travelers Issue.

Equality, Raven Peak mulled as names for Grand Teton summit with disgraced leader’s name

Equality, Raven Peak mulled as names for Grand Teton summit with disgraced leader’s name: Mount Grizzly 399, Mount Liberty ruled out by state naming board.

Going Feral: Scientist who recovered grizzlies warns Trump’s as...

Going Feral: Scientist who recovered grizzlies warns Trump’s as...:

Scientist who recovered grizzlies warns Trump’s assault on conservation risks irreversible losses

Scientist who recovered grizzlies warns Trump’s assault on conservation risks irreversible losses: As the president seeks to log, mine, drill and develop, Yellowstone researcher Chris Servheen calls the administration's proposed policy "management based on ignorance."

Blog Mirror: Mammoth featured heavily in Western Clovis diet

Mammoth featured heavily in Western Clovis diet

Mammoth, it's what was for dinner.

No vegans on the paleo steppes.

Going Feral: Is this a good idea? The Return of the Dire Wolf

Going Feral: Is this a good idea? The Return of the Dire Wolf:   

Is this a good idea? The Return of the Dire Wolf

 Apr 7, 2025 6:50 AM MT

The Return of the Dire Wolf

I'm all for rewilding, but Dire Wolves have been extinct for 10,000 years and preyed, in their day, on megafauna.  Presumably any return of the Ice Age species will be limited to captivity. .  at least for now.

I'm not so sure about this.

Notable, the company that cloned them back into existence says they have not, so far, shown any dog like behavior, which is perhaps not too surprising given their evolutionary history, which is debated.  Some classify the large canine as Canis dirus dirus, a species in the canine family that shares a distant canine ancestor, Canis chihliensis, with wolves and dogs, with the wolf, canis lupus, being the direct descendant of that species with the dire wolf has an intervening one.  Others proposed that dire wolf has essentially the same linage, but is sufficiently separate such that it deserves its own genus, and should be classified as aenocyon dirus.  Frankly the cloning effort would suggest that those who disfavor a separate genus are correct, as a domestic dog hosted the puppies as embryos.

Dire wolves, it should be noted, were absolutely huge, which makes sense as they killed megafauna.

So the question, I suppose, is now what?

Going Feral: Blog Mirror: On DOGE and Keystone XL and lost jobs

Going Feral: Blog Mirror: On DOGE and Keystone XL and lost jobs:   On DOGE and Keystone XL and lost jobs

Going Feral: Trump cuts may cost a trout-brooding, Wyoming toad...

Going Feral: Trump cuts may cost a trout-brooding, Wyoming toad...: 

Trump cuts may cost a trout-brooding, Wyoming toad-rearing federal hatchery its entire staff

Trump cuts may cost a trout-brooding, Wyoming toad-rearing federal hatchery its entire staff: A 110-year-old facility is still operating, but the federal government’s DOGE initiative has shrunk the staff to two and put the hatchery in a position that could overturn its workforce completely.

This is why we can't have nice things.

 

Going Feral: The nature themed tattoo

Going Feral: The nature themed tattoo: 

The nature themed tattoo

Let me note, in general, that I'm not a huge fan of tattoos.  That being said, some of them are striking works of art now days, something that really wasn't true of most tattoos back when I was a young adult, although I will note a fellow National Guardsman, a full timer, back when I was a Guardsman had a striking tattoo of a tiger.  He was a jerk, but that tattoo was very well done.

Anyhow, somehow within the last twenty or so years tattoo artistry has dramatically improved.  Included in that are some with some really striking natural themes, including the following.