Roads to the Great War: The Bats of Verdun

Roads to the Great War: The Bats of Verdun: Bechstein’s Bat ( Myotis bechsteinii )  One of 15 Species of Bat Populating the Verdun Battlefield During my days leading tours of the Weste...

Courthouse Facility Dogs? Sign of how screwed up we are, or that we miss the natural world?

I received this in my legal email:

Wyoming State Bar Members,

I am sending this email on behalf of a graduate student at the University of Wyoming who is in the psychology and law program.

The purpose of this survey is to assess legal professionals’ attitudes and beliefs about courthouse facility dogs and their impact on civil and criminal trials. You do not need to have any prior familiarity with courthouse facility dogs to complete this survey. The results of this survey will be used to inform future research on the impact of courthouse facility dogs on legal procedures and decisions, so it is essential that we hear the perspectives of as many legal professionals as possible. To be eligible for participation, you must be older than 18, fluent in English, and a current or former legal professional. This survey should take about 5-10 minutes to complete.

The control of nature.

The 'control of nature' is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and the convenience of man.

Rachel Carson

The Tiny Problem That Could Bring Down Trump’s Giant UFC Birthday Bash The UFC fighters won’t be the only bloodthirsty ones at the event.

 The Tiny Problem That Could Bring Down Trump’s Giant UFC Birthday Bash

The UFC fighters won’t be the only bloodthirsty ones at the event.

Glendalough Co Wicklow

 

The Agrarian's Lament: Blog Mirror: Listen to the birds, not the news.

The Agrarian's Lament: Blog Mirror: Listen to the birds, not the news.:  

Blog Mirror: Listen to the birds, not the news.

Tuesday, February 5, 1946. Star of Paris.

Look offered an article on what FDR would have said regarding the ongoing intense look back at the events leading to December 7, 1941, a controversy that most Americans have forgotten occurred.  But it was probably the slice of cheesecake offered up in the form of actress Colleen Townsend that drew attention to the magazine.  Townsend is from California and attended BYU (she was a Mormon growing up).  She entered acting through minor roles in the early 40s, but it was magazine covers that drew the publics attention to her.  She was one of the Yank pinups.  She converted to Presbyterianism in 1948 and married a seminary student in 1950, after which she left acting.  She had a long career as a humanitarian and civil rights worker, and is still living.

TWA's "Star of Paris", a Lockheed Constellation, flew from New York to Paris in the first transAtlantic commercial airline flight.  

The flight took fifteen hours.

More on the flight here:

5–6 February 1946

President Truman established the Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma.

Last edition:

Monday, February 4, 1946. Weather and War Brides.

Labels: 1940s, 1946, boats and ships, It was because of World War Two, Marriage, The relationship between men and women, Weather

Thursday, January 14, 1926. The Girl Who Went For A Ride In A Balloon.

African railway workers went on strike in Sierra Leone.

A total solar eclipse took place that was visible in the Southern Hemisphere from French Equatorial Africa, Sarawak and North Borneo (in Malaysia) and the Philippines. Scientists gathered in Sumatra to perform observational experiments, including an evaluation of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity.

Last edition:

Saturday, January 9, 1926. A different train attack.

Labels: 1920s, 1926, Art, Mexican Revolution, Mexico, Norman Rockwell, U.S. Navy, Washington Naval Treaty

Going Feral: Wyoming Officials Fear Seminoe Power Project Could Ruin Premier Bighorn Herd

Going Feral: Wyoming Officials Fear Seminoe Power Project Could...:  That's enough on this project.  Bad idea. Wyoming Officials Fear Seminoe Power Project Could Ruin Premier Bighorn Herd

Wyoming Officials Fear Seminoe Power Project Could Ruin Premier Bighorn Herd

 That's enough on this project.  Bad idea.

Wyoming Officials Fear Seminoe Power Project Could Ruin Premier Bighorn Herd

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...: