Lord God Bird

Rumors are circulating that tomorrow morning, Tuesday the 26th of September, scientists will announce the discovery of a(nother) colony of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in the Florida panhandle. No photographic or video evidence was obtained, however audio recordings made on the site have been studied, and dozens of observations have also been made. The exact locations of these possible sightings will be kept secret until further surveys this winter have conclusively searched the area.

Again, this is just a rumor. There could be no announcement tomorrow morning, or a completely different announcement could be made. In either case, this may be a good time for me to revisit the case of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker.



When news spread on April 28 2005 that the Woodpecker had been rediscovered in the swamps of Arkansas, words could not express my emotions. I like to think that I'm a very stoic person, but I nearly broke down into tears several times during those days after the announcement. I watched the Luneau video on endless repeat on my computer screen, and choked up as the realization kept hitting me. This was an almost mythical bird, one that I'd spent countless hours reading about, but never expected to see alive, it was extinct, gone, wiped off the face of the earth. The possibility of me ever encountering one was absolutely zero. But the Arkansas findings presented an unbelievable new hope, and a sense of optimism that my usually cynical self simply could not refuse. I obtained copies of the Science article, all the accompanying figures, interviews with the observers, subsequent book releases on the subject, and basically anything else related to the find. And I watched the Luneau video constantly, whenever I was distracted from homework, I would watch the video. It was my connection to a mythical bird back from the dead.

In the coming weeks and months, I heard that David Sibley and other prominent birders would soon be publishing a rebuttal to the original findings, and despite the names involved, I refused to believe that such an amazing discovery could possibly be taken away. Once the rebuttal arrived however, along with the subsequent response to the rebuttal, my views began to change. Sibley et al brought up a number of intriguing points regarding the original analysis of the Luneau video. Later, Jerome Jackson published a rebuttal as well, and while his was unbelievably flawed and picked apart by other scientists, a few interesting points remained. The Cornell response to these rebuttals was also fairly accurate, and suddenly, it seemed to me that things were stuck in a stalemate. Both sides had presented very compelling evidence to back up their cases, and the fact was, there was simply not enough evidence to prove who was right.



I'm now of the opinion that without completely definitive photographic or videotaped footage of a live Ivory-billed Woodpecker, it would be foolish to jump to conclusions regarding its continued existence. In science, the general practice is to come up with a 'null hypothesis' representing the most likely explanation, with the burden of proof lying on the scientist to prove that in fact an entirely new explanation is necessary. In this case, the null hypothesis is that the Luneau video, and all the independent observations were not of an Ivory-billed Woodpecker, but of some other bird, possibly a leucistic Pileated Woodpecker. As rare as an aberrant Pileated Woodpecker would be, the Ivory-billed Woodpecker was widely regarded to be completely extinct, to be completely non-existent anywhere in this universe, and the probability of it living once more was simply astronomical. Both the Cornell team and the skeptics have provided good arguments as to the legitimacy of the Luneau video and observations, which leads me to believe that the Cornell team has not presented enough conclusive evidence to dismiss the null hypothesis. So until we get sufficient proof that the woodpecker lives, I will take the skeptic's route. My heart wants me to believe, but my mind tells me to look at the evidence. And I never listen to my heart. My heart is incredibly stupid. That's not to say that I have a brilliant mind, but rather, I have an incredibly stupid heart. Whenever I see an inspirational quote telling me to follow my heart and to follow my dreams, I really want to smash things. I freaking hate those. But we're getting quite a ways off topic here.

I may have more to say regarding the Ivory-bill, depending on whether or not an announcement is truly made.



Links until the news arrives:

• The lives of people born without fingerprints.
• Map of natural disasters occuring around the world right at this moment. As a kid, I probably would've set this as my homepage and followed it for hours.
• We were practicing ridiculous Xabi Alonso goals when I sprained my ankle over the weekend, but in reality, our shots on goal would probably be more like this, with our games basically looking like this compilation.
  
• And finally, Oakland Raiders lol

Edit: It's now the morning of the 26th, and it looks like the rumors are true. A group from Auburn University has announced evidence of Ivory-billed Woodpeckers in the Florida Panhandle. A good summary of the new findings can be found in this newspaper clipping, with the actual paper to come later. For the latest news, the blog Ivory-bills Live is a good stream of information.

I'm very surprised that the group decided to reveal the exact locations of the findings, and I sincerely hope that groups don't descend upon the area and disturb the habitat too much. In any case, reading the summarizing article, I'm a lot more excited than I expected to be. Obviously I'm not completely convinced yet, but it sounds like they're very confident in their recordings. I'll consider any potential reports to be good news, accurate or not, as it's providing another lead into the search. The interview with Dr. Jackson, especially his title as an 'Ivory-bill expert' is a little laughable; I think Sibley is taking the best approach here, as a cautious scientist waiting to see the evidence.

Time will tell if this is the true rediscovery that the world has been waiting for, and it would certainly be nice to think that it is. For now, I anxiously await the formal paper, and any further evidence that may be collected in the subsequent searches. I wish the Auburn group the best of luck.


Another edit: The paper has now been posted. I really like this paper a lot more than the Arkansas paper. They rule out many of the common explanations for the 'kent' calls, and explain some of the variation in their recorded double-knocks via comparison with existing recordings of another Campephilus woodpecker, the Pale-billed Woodpecker of Central America. I'm still not convinced by the cavity size argument, and the bark detachment data seems like a tenuous connection to me. However, I'm quite excited by the audio evidence, and I'm curious to see what the general response to this paper is.

Also, with regards to the revealing of the location, I suppose it was necessary to add to the paper's credibility, otherwise the paper could likely have been rejected by any reputable journal. Hopefully this won't backfire like the Pearl River search, fortunately my understanding is that this site is quite remote, so that may be a moot point. I need to check out Google Earth.

One drawback of the Arkansas paper was that it relied too much on the video evidence, and did not speak enough of the individual observations. I would not disagree with the decision to do this, as field observations can be notoriously inconsistent and inaccurate, but with the skeptical analysis of the Luneau video, the paper had nothing left to stand with. The supplementary observational records provided with this Florida paper really helps to seal the deal, almost. Again, I await the arrival of further evidence, and the general response of the communities involved.

Electricity in the Cities

Cities fascinate me; it's probably the result of growing up in suburban North Carolina. Philadelphia was a primary reason I chose to come to Swarthmore, the school provided an idyllic and tranquil suburban campus with easy access to the benefits of a large city. Those benefits have become relatively trivial for me, I basically only go into the city to buy records or to watch arthouse films now, but it's nice to have those opportunities at least, certainly better than going to some remote school such as Williams.

Probably my favorite part of the cities is the public transportation. Even as a young kid, I was always fascinated by trains, subways, buses, and other forms of transport; on visits to Washington DC, I would want to ride to subway just for fun, with no particular destination in mind. On the train ride into Philadelphia this morning, I started to wonder what drove that interest. What made a train so radically different from a car? I think it may have something to do with the human aspect; for some reason I love the idea of riding a cold, soulless machine that will transport me across a city. Obviously that's not entirely accurate, as there have to be brakemen, engineers, conductors, and track operators to ensure that the train runs along smoothly. But that human element is certainly far more removed on a train than in a car. That still doesn't entirely answer my question of why I like public transportation, specifically why I would prefer getting a ride from a piece of machinery rather than from a human, but it's a start. Doesn't entirely explain buses either, but I will admit that I vastly prefer subways and trains to buses. I know, it makes no sense.



I guess the other aspect of cities I really enjoy is the people-watching. There really aren't enough characters in the suburbs, everyone is just a typical middle-class family working office jobs and sending their kids to school, just like in the '50s. When you venture into the downtown portions of the cities in my area, all that's really there are businessmen and city government workers. I feel like in the South, all the true characters ride around in the rural areas, waving their confederate flags and hunting quail, whereas in the North all the characters are in the city, with a much higher concentration and density.

Just getting off the train at Market East Station, a middle-school aged kid strode up the stairs with a massive mohawk and at least a dozen chains jangling from various articles of clothing and piercings on his body, accompanied by his relatively normal-looking parents. A white-haired 60-year old man walked by, with blue jeans hiked up all the way, and a vintage black Ramones t-shirt. A pair of 30-year old twins wearing identical Sufjan Stevens shirts passed me on the street. Those are sights that I would never dream of witnessing down in North Carolina, but do denizens of the northern cities become accustomed to such encounters? I'm incredulous that it could even be a possibility. At AKA Music, my favorite record shop in the world, the cashier was having trouble swiping my debit card through his machine, and he began to grow increasingly frustrated. The swipes became faster, harder, stronger, and he seemed to become genuinely furious at my card. On the final two swipes, he slammed the card through the machine so hard that it flew out of his hand and calmly fluttered back behind the counter. For some reason, it finally worked on the last try. I feel like this would never happen in North Carolina, there's just too much patience and Southern hospitality, and so I was fascinated by the display put on by this indie record store clerk.



As usual, I came into the city this weekend with the intent of purchasing records, not for myself this time around, but for the radio station, which didn't receive a few crucial records from their respective labels over the summer. That objective was quickly accomplished, and so I killed time by browsing the used bins to find some little gems for myself. For some reason, today was an unbelievably exceptional day in the used bin, and somehow I emerged with eleven albums, with an average cost of around five dollars per record. My mom would probably be thrilled to learn that I was saving so much money, but really I'm just cheap. If a three hundred dollar box set was on sale for thirty bucks, I probably wouldn't take it. I'm more concerned about the final price than I am about the discount.

Here's what I scored for myself:

• Elvis Costello - My Aim is True | 4.99 | retail: 18.98 |74% savings
  
• Decemberists - The Tain EP | 5.99 | r: 9.99 | 40%
  
• Bob Dylan - Bringing it All Back Home | 2.99 | r: 11.98 | 75%
  
• Bob Dylan - Blonde on Blonde | 8.99 | r: 13.98 | 36%
  
• Pavement - Spit on a Stranger EP | 0.99 | r: out of print
  
• R.E.M. - Out of Time | 0.99 | r: 13.98 | 93%
  
• R.E.M. - Automatic for the People | 0.99 | r: 13.98 | 93%
  
• Secret Mommy - Hawaii 5.0 EP | 0.99 | r: 8.50 | 88%
  
• Talking Heads - Fear of Music (DualDisc) | 8.99 | unavailable outside of boxset
  
• Talking Heads - Remain in Light (DualDisc) | 8.99 | unavailable outside of boxset
• Talking Heads - Speaking in Tongues (DualDisc) | 8.99 | unavailable outside of boxset

So far, the Secret Mommy EP was pretty aimless and forgettable, My Aim is True was pretty derivative and wasn't as catchy as I expected (I'm sure that opinion will change in time), while Bringing it All Back Home is completely destroying me, it's not as cohesive and consistent as Blonde on Blonde but some of the songs are a lot better, 'Bob Dylan's 115th Dream' and 'Mr. Tambourine Man' (obviously) in particular. I have to say that I'm incredibly excited about the Talking Heads purchases, I had kinda planned on slowly purchasing each album one by one in chronological order, but I couldn't pass up this kind of deal. I will be spending a lot of quality time with these records.



Back on campus, Meg was clever and nice enough to post a Crum Woods Sightings Board outside the Bio department office, enabling college students and staff to share any cool experiences in the Crum. Professor Hiebert Burch sighted a Bald Eagle soaring behind Martin one evening, which was unbelievable.

Not to be outdone, I climbed up onto the Parrish fire escape the next morning, trying to catch the peak of Broad-winged Hawk migration. Over a thousand had been seen in Media the day before, so I felt like my chances were pretty good. Apparently I forgot that hawks require warm thermals to soar in the air, and said thermals don't form until much later in the day as the temperature rises, so I didn't see any hawks that morning. Looking at my watch, I had about 20 minutes until my Genetics test, so I thought I'd head over to the Science Center Coffee Bar, grab a cup of coffee, and sit down for the exam.

And that's when I discovered that the fire escape door didn't have a handle on the outside. So I was locked on the fire escape.

I panicked. I was trapped sixty feet in the air, with no escape routes, with an important test in 20 minutes, with no cellphone, and nobody inside to open the door for me. I thought about punching through a window and scrambling back in. I tried picking the doorlock, but even then I had no way of actually opening it, so no luck. I thought about ramming through the door with brute force. I even briefly considered climbing down the side of the building, Spiderman-style. The birds flying all around me mocked me with their wings. I had a test in 10 minutes, and I was completely trapped. Finally, I noticed a woman walking on the ground far below, so I yelled to try and capture her attention. She looked up, so I explained my situation. She didn't respond at all, just slowly walked into the building. My only hope, and it's gone! I have a test in 10 minutes! #$#)@!)(#@%$#@()!!!!!!!1!!!!1111

Fortunately, I heard the elevator doors open, and a few seconds later the woman emerged through the fire escape door and let me back in. I thanked her profusely, but she seemed sleepy and utterly confused as to what I was doing on a fire escape so early in the morning, so I thanked her one last time and ran to the lecture hall for my test. Which I felt I did pretty well on, thankfully, but it was an absolutely bizarre way to start the day. If I ever go up there again, and that's a big if, I'll certainly remember to prop the door open.



Later that afternoon, I ventured into Crum Meadow for one final attempt at catching some hawks. All I saw was a lone juvenile Red-tailed, but as I started to head back I saw a small gray bird foraging in the knotweed. Snapping it into my binoculars, it was immediately apparent that this was a flycatcher, just based on structure and habits. But what kind of flycatcher?

I ruled out the tyrant flycatchers and Myiarchus flycatchers by size and shape. I ruled out Eastern Phoebe, as it had an incredibly bold eyering, wingbars, and the wing feathers were well-defined. I ruled out Eastern Wood-Pewee, as there was no dark vest on its chest, only a faint yellow wash on the belly, and a white breast.

So that left me with the Empidonax flycatchers. This was a very gray bird, with a short bill, ruling out the common Acadian Flycatcher and the possibility of Yellow-bellied Flycatcher. That left Willow/Alder, and Least Flycatchers. Again, I was struck by the incredibly bold eyering, the small bill, and the flat head. That led me to Least Flycatcher, a life bird, and a bird that doesn't even appear on the offical Crum Woods checklist! Strangely, it is mentioned in Pulcinella's Delaware County guide as occuring in the Meadow during migration, but that possibility, along with many others, are contested by the school's observational records. Despite this, I'm about 95% sure that this was a Least Flycatcher, an exciting finding to be sure.



Combine all this with my recently sprained ankle, suffered during a soccer exercise, and last night's successful WSRN party, and we've got an unusually eventful week for me. But I'm not one for drama, so here's to hoping that the next few weeks bring more tranquility, more peace, and less work.



But, more links:

• Get an inflatable iceberg for your swimming pool. It sounds pretty dumb, but for some reason I really want to see one.
• Google Maps uncovers a monstrously enormous killer insect.
• The absolutely hysterical Goosebumps blog delivers once again with its review of #24: Phantom of the Auditorium. This is probably the most hilarious blog in existence, in my opinion, you should read this even if you've never read Goosebumps before.
• The equally amazing Cockeyed provides a brilliant photo series from a recent barbecue.
  
• Overview of the 2006 MacArthur "genius" grant recipients.
• For some reason, I'm Asian, but I can't twirl a pen to save my life. This video illustrates the heights that I must aspire towards.
• Before my injury, we were imitating this ridiculous Xabi Alonso goal that was scored last week.
• Sometimes, I really lose all confidence in the concept of democracy.
• Slate does a good job explaining why I hate Zach Braff.
• SquidSoap, one of those mind-bogglingly brilliant inventions that comes along every now and then.
• Hook your fishes up with a pretty hott crib. You can try it outdoors too!
• The art of going to concerts alone, perfectly encapsulated. Hilarious because it strikes a little too close to home, haha.
  

Japanther and the Harlem Shakes

Just got back from the first Olde Club show of the semester, featuring headliner Japanther with opening act The Harlem Shakes.

Things got pretty kooky pretty quickly, as a massive crowd of non-Swarthmore students began to assemble outside the building. Gradually, it became evident that many of these kids had congregated from the surrouding regions to see the band This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb, who they thought were opening for Japanther. Unfortunately, they were wrong. One group of kids had driven over four hours from Maryland just to see This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb, only to be severely disappointed to learn that they were not playing, and in fact were never scheduled to play in the first place. Asked by Pat to describe This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb, one fan responded with, "They're like a mix between Dropkick Murphys and Simple Plan." We're not totally sure why people would drive four hours to see such a band, but I'm sorry that they were let down. Maybe we should actually book This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb at some point, if it would drum up that much interest.

So first up were The Harlem Shakes, a New York band who basically sounded exactly like a New York band. Singer with the Hamilton Leithauser croon, reverb-soaked chords on the Telecaster, pianist doing his best Walkmen imitation: it was nothing I hadn't heard before, but they didn't do too bad of a job with it. I didn't catch the title of their second song, but I dug the melodies quite a bit, and later in the set their song 'Sickos' was unbelievably catchy, and people were dancing all over the place.



But by far the most important aspect of the performance occurred halfway through the set, when the band broke out a bottle of champagne and decided to make a speech. Turns out, they wanted to play a cover, in tribute to a friend's band that had recently broken up. That band was...The Management. They were breaking up because one member was joining Of Montreal.

My jaw dropped to the floor. If I haven't told you this story before, please ask me about it in person. Basically, I saw The Management play several years ago in Carrboro, opening for Of Montreal, and it was the most absurd show I have ever witnessed, on so many different levels. Mr. Porcaro can also attest to this. I was pushing for Melissa to book them for Olde Club as well, and I'm not sure how that's going to work now, which is a pity. The Harlem Shakes' cover of 'Kids' was nowhere near as joyous as The Mgmt's version, but I didn't really care, I was just too stunned to speak. What a small world we live in. The Mgmt, R.I.P. I'm kind of surprised that I found out at all, much less at a random concert rather than off the Pitchfork news wire or something.

The crowd really loved The Harlem Shakes, and the feeling was mutual, as the band were clearly enjoying themselves, and stated that this was the best crowd they'd ever played for. Good for them, I suppose. We move on to Japanther.

I stood there chatting with Mr. Peters discussing the ramifications of the whole This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb fiasco as Japanther hauled their gear on stage, and as we talked the setup on stage just got better and better. First, a massive beat-up Marshall stack was assembled, with another speaker stack set up across the stage. A large Japanther flag was subsequently draped between the stacks. The drummer assembled his sparse kit right on the edge of the stage, with each piece emerging from this amazing nested case that reminded me of those Russian egg dolls, what are they called? The bassist checked to see that the tape deck was working, cassettes in tow. Telephones were placed on mic stands instead of microphones. The bassist couldn't find a pick, and so a Swarthmore student opened his wallet and pulled one out. Wut. This was already turning into the greatest rock and roll show of all time ever. Mr. Peters and I stood there, seeing the massive amps, and the bass, and the drums, and the imminent destruction we were about to face. It was glorious.



Japanther turned out to be exactly as their setup implied, an incredibly abrasive and noisy drum and bass combo, one step above Coachwhips, one step below Lightning Bolt. I didn't feel that their music was actually all that extraordinary, but it was perfectly designed to induce massive mosh pit freakouts, which Mr. Peters and I enthusiastically dived into. There was this one huge guy in the pit who was screaming the lyrics to every Japanther song in existence and annihilating everyone in the mosh pit. I found myself sandwiched between Mr. Peters and Mr. Stafstrom before the huge guy came barrelling through and pinballed me all the way to the side where I suddenly found myself in the acquantaince of my good friend Mr. Borkowski, how's it goin dude haven't seen you around much this is so freaking awesome, rock out, before the huge guy moved the whole pit and my momentum caused me to ricochet all the way across to the other side where I suddenly found myself surrounded by sweaty girls leaning into me and jumping on my back, hey this isn't too bad, o no here comes huge guy and I blindly crashed out to the back edge, drenched in sweat, and watched the rest of the show with Pat in the back. As I emerged from Olde Club and walked back towards Hallowell, I faintly heard someone call my name, and swiveled my head around to find two girls walking down the path towards me, I had no idea if they were the ones who'd beckoned, my ears had no sense of distance or direction at all. Fortunately it turns out that I was right, it was Marissa and Beth, wanting to know how the show went, laughing at my sodden state, encouraging me and Luis (he'd just gotten off his movie shuttle shift) to grab some frosties from Wendy's at this late hour. But I was tired, and so we said our goodbyes, and I walked back and took a shower, getting set for the long Saturday ahead. Why are my weekends infinitely busier than my weekdays, I ask my bottle of shampoo.

I feel that all the Japanther headbanging is negatively impacting both my coherence and my sanity, so I'll just stop here and post some links.

• At this hip new upscale Chicago restaurant, you can eat paper, and it's absolutely delicious (use BugMeNot if a password is needed).
• A beautiful rotating fireplace for your home. I really have too much space in my dorm room, and I'd love something like this to warm up those chilly winter nights, but something tells me the fire department wouldn't exactly encourage me to pursue this.
• Great discussion on the roles of wide receivers and running backs in football, and the characters who fill those roles.
  
• Bid to have yourself placed in a Chris Ware comic strip.
• Now that Pluto is no longer a planet, we must now refer to it as 134340.
• Amazing photo of camels casting shadows in the desert.
• A new species of Liocichla has been discovered in India!
  
• A Flickr user is documenting their use of different types of toothpaste every day. I would really love to have a bizarre obsession like this. Then I remember that I just named my radio show after a strange nocturnal Saharan bird and considered this to be perfectly acceptable and within the norm. See also the above Liocichla link.
  
• Site providing desktop wallpapers culled from satellite photos on Google Maps.
• Some great high-res photos taken during tennis' recent US Open.
  
• A review of Charlie Kaufman's new script for the upcoming film entitled Synecdoche, New York, which he is also apparently directing. Kaufman is probably my favorite current screenwriter; he's the guy behind Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Adaptation, and my favorite, Being John Malkovich.
• Cellists and other symphony musicians are being struck down by airport security, and it's hurting the global arts scene.
  
• An unbelievably addictive game to test your mouse-moving skillz. Doesn't sound too hard, right? Try it.
  
• Learn how to throw a screwdriver like a ninja. I'm not sure why you wouldn't want to learn.
• And finally, here's an unbelievably beautiful short story, entitled On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning, written by Haruki Murakami, one of my favorite authors. It's simply a beautiful story.

Emei-Shan Liocichla, the closest living relative of the newly discovered Bugun Liocichla. I've seen the endemic Steere's Liocichla of Taiwan, otherwise I have no experience with this genus of Old World babblers. Photo from BirdLife International.

Photosynthesis

Isn't it unbelievable that plants can convert carbon dioxide, a gas, into solid leaves, branches, and roots, just with the help of sunlight? Gas -> solid by sunlight? I'm just stunned that such a beautifully complex system could have possibly evolved/been created/whatever. Spend a moment thinking about it.



Also, I have more to say regarding the new Joanna Newsom album. With every pluck of her harp strings, it feels as if she's plucking my heart strings. O Ys.

Actually I don't find her attractive in the slightest, but this album...this album...



Links...

• "Devotees in Bombay celebrated a Hindu festival earlier this week by immersing colorful Ganesh statues in the Arabian Sea at night. The next morning, the tide brought them back. It was a surreal scene."
• Photo gallery of bizarre lenticular clouds.
• The excellently-written experiences of a college student in the frozen wasteland of Harbin, China.
• Learn how to cut a deck of cards one-handed. Also related is how to throw cards with your thumb.
• I've only recently become aware of the existence of so many types of movable bridges. Particularly interesting to me are the curling bridge, lift bridge, table bridge, submersible bridge, tilt bridge, swing bridge, and transporter bridge.
• Wristwatch developed by the noted architect Frank Gehry, he who designed the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, and the Walt Disney Hall.
  
• You definitely need to experience this glow-in-the-dark bubble bath.
  

Tilling of the Earth

I'm currently taking a course on Religion and Ecology, specifically what roles religion can play in either encouraging environmental stewardship, or in encouraging the exploitation of nature. As part of the class, I'm required to write journal entries whenever the inspiration strikes. After our first class discussion, I already had some ideas that I wanted to float into my journal, which I've decided to stick on this blog for now. I mean, why not. These aren't deeply personal or private thoughts, and if you're not interested, I totally understand, and you can feel free to just skip to the links or past posts. Really, I'd just rather stick them here than on some lonely word document lost somewhere in my unorganized hard drive.

Much of our discussion today centered on an article by Lynn White, entitled The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis, published in a 1967 volume of the journal Science. In the article, White accuses Christianity of gradually encouraging the exploitation of the world's resources, for several different reasons that I won't go into here. In discussing changes in human mindsets, White brings up the technology of the plow, that farmers use to ready their soil for planting.



Early plows merely scratched the soil, and required only two oxen to pull. Thus, families usually owned single plots that were capable of only supporting themselves, with perhaps a small surplus to sell on the market. But at some point, peasants in northern Europe developed a deeper cutting plow that required the force of eight oxen to pull, but was much more efficient in preparing the soil for crops. But because no single family owned eight oxen, neighborhood families then pooled together their oxen and collaborated in plowing very large plots to support the entire community.

White sees this as an important transition in the human farmer's attitudes towards nature. Initially with the scratch plow, humans were friendly with the environment and only took what they needed to subsist and survive. The advent of the deepcut plow encouraged larger plots and more exploitation of the land and more greed, which led human society to the unfortunate state that we now find ourselves in.

Several classmates raised the point that here, then, is evidence that technology, and not religion, is largely at fault for our destruction of nature. Specifically, technologies that increase our efficiency at harvesting resources encourage this harvesting further.



This was a valid point, but I started to think about why these technologies were developed to begin with. If humans began in an idyllic life in relative harmony with nature, why was there a need for the deepcut plow in the first place? I don't believe that it was invented on pure accident, I believe that someone felt the need to exploit the earth further, and therefore developed this new plow, which means that technology alone was not at fault. There needed to be some sort of impetus to raise the need for new technology, and the question we must ask is whether religion is that impetus.

For example, a classmate mentioned that the Incas of South America did not exploit their territory's resources, largely because they did not have the necessary technology. But I feel that there was no technology because there was no drive to invent the necessary devices to begin with, and that the Incas truly were in tune with their surroundings. You need a reason to invent, which the Incas did not have, while the Europeans across the sea did see a need for more efficiency, possibly because of differences in religion.

But then, isn't the single scratch plow harming the environment somewhat as well? It requires a small plot of land to be cleared of vegetation, which would clearly require some changes to the natural habitat. So the scratch plow itself is an increase in efficiency from some earlier techniques, which makes me think that technology is a slippery slope. Once the very first agricultural tool was developed, means of making it more efficient commenced, leading to the inventions of increasingly destructive tools. So when did this all begin? The Neolithic Revolution, when man settled down from their hunter gatherer ways? Why did this occur? There's a lot of disagreement about the causes of the Neolithic Revolution, but I would think that it has something to do with human nature iself, as I don't see how any other factor could affect populations on such a global scale to such a large degree.



But if it's human nature that's to blame, why did some civilizations hold respect for nature, while others clearly did not? This brings us back to White's original case for Christianity as an anti-environmentalist religion. He believes that pagan animist cultures who saw spirits and gods in every aspect of nature would use their religion as a reason to respect the environment, a belief system which Christianity would come to destroy. I'm starting to feel that this argument is about to get incredibly circular, and obviously there's no clear-cut resolution to the problem, otherwise there would be no reason to hold the class at all. I just felt that I needed to clear up my ideas regarding the role of technology specifically in the rise of environmental destruction.


In other news, I have an 8:30 am class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and so last night I decided that since I'd be waking up early anyways, I should just wake up even earlier to see what fall migrants I could catch in the Crum. That thinking backfired somewhat when I found that the sun rises a lot later than I remembered, and that most of the Crum Woods hillsides aren't struck by sunlight until even later, leading to a lot of stumbling around in the dark. But even in the darkness and relative silence, I was able to find some really great birds.

• Northern Waterthrush - new bird for my Crum list! Having experience with Louisiana Waterthrushes, my favorite bird, I could immediately tell that this bird was slightly more streamlined, with a thinner bill, and most evidently, with dense streaks on its chest, and thinner streaks than the broad strokes on the Louisiana. Its tailwagging was also much quicker than the relatively languorous Louisiana. The lighting was too poor to see a difference in the overall color, and I didn't get any definitive looks at the back of the supercilium. Found in one of the large puddles on the creekside trail below the ampitheater.
  
• Black-throated Blue Warbler - two individuals upstream from the hemlock bluffs behind Danawell.
• Black-and-white Warbler - one bird feeding at eye level in Upper Wister Draw.
• Acadian Flycatcher - one bird calling at the same location as the Black-throated Blue.
  

Recent links:

• This looks like a great road to drive.
• An interesting invention for your car that lets you see the light change without having to scrunch or crane your neck, for relatively short or tall people.
• Backpack with built-in basketball holder. Even though I don't play basketball seriously anymore, I'd still like to carry one around like this, just because.
• You've encountered those cheap sofa-beds in hotels, but how about this sofa that turns into a bunk bed.
• It looks like there's a MiG fighter parked in this normal parking lot, next to people's cars.
• Cedar Point has an insane new coaster under construction, featuring two launches, and some sick inversions. The press release is here, while the official website with a simulated ride video is here.
• Help Google improve its Image Search by playing this surprisingly addictive game.
  

And finally, rest in peace Steve Irwin. You will be missed dearly by all of us.

Ys

Heard an advance copy of the new Joanna Newsom album, entitled Ys, due out on November 14^th.

I'll admit that I've spent the past few days trying to craft a blog post reviewing this album. That is not what the current post is about. I've gone through many drafts already, and simply have not found a satisfactory means of conveying my feelings about the album. It's just an amazing album. It's not that I don't have words to describe it, rather I have too many words to describe such a complex work as this. I've tried every way of organizing and condensing my thoughts, but nothing works.

To put things as simply as possible then, I will go ahead and make this statement: this is one of the best new albums I've heard all year. I came in with many preconceived notions of Joanna Newsom as an artist, as the harpist girl with the disaster of a voice who wrote clever Renaissance Faire tunes, but everything's been completely shattered by this work. I'm a little scared to admit it, but Ys may be the best album I've heard this year. Of the past two years, actually, as 2005 didn't have a standout anywhere near this level. And maybe we can stretch the time frame further back. Is this one of the best albums of the decade thus far? It really terrifies me, but I might be willing to say it. It seems like such a kneejerk reaction, coming only after just a few days of listening; I should spend more time with an album before I make such bold statements. And as a male, it's a bit emasculating to proclaim this sort of lush elven folk as a masterpiece, shouldn't I be listening to Mclusky all day or something? I mean, I basically do, but still, nothing I've heard recently has come close to touching this.



I've already started rambling, and I can feel a deeper discussion coming, but I will try and refrain. In conclusion, I'm incredibly scared to say it, but at least my initial impression of Ys is that it ranks among the best albums of the decade. I realize that I've done nothing to describe why I think that's the case, and it's likely foolish to make such proclamations so soon; I'm about 95% sure that I'll look back at this post in a few months and laugh ceaselessly, in that case I'm not exactly sure why I'm even bothering. What's the point of this blog, really, I basically laugh at all of my posts after a few weeks at the least. Just to capture my mindsets and my interests at specific points of time? Somebody help me justify this thing's existence. In the meantime, I'm locked in my room soaking in Ys, until a few weeks from now when I'm totally saturated, and then I'll snap into the intense backlash and rock out Lightning Bolt for a while.



Links I've found while basking in the wondrous glow of Ys:

• Blog dedicated to the analyzation of the greatest opening shots in film history.
• Find out how much you weigh compared to your favorite celebrities, or to various animals, your choice. Just hope that you don't come close to approaching 'whale'.
• Agassi vs. Pavel, brilliant composite photo.
• Tipz for surviving a freestyle rap battle royale.
• Mark Danielewski, the author of the (in)famous House of Leaves, has a new book out, with just as many radical formatting tricks as the last.
  
• One of the harsher criticisms you'll ever read, to the point of hilarity. Sadly, Swarthmore alum Jonathan Franzen receivies similar treatment for his new book.
• The Iliad is being rewritten completely absent of the Greek Gods. Is this right?
• Find out what corporations have environmentally-friendly production practices.
• A lamp, and a refridgerator, finally combined into one.
• I'm not much a tech nerd, but I'm kind of in love with this mouse for some reason.
• Turns out Bob Dylan is kind of strange person.
• One of my favorite music critics is gushing about the new Justin Timberlake album, FutureSex/LoveSounds. I'm not sure if I should feel utterly betrayed, or if I should just hear the album, as painful as it might be. I'm sure you feel the same about my involvement with Ys, though I hope I was nobody's favorite critic.
• Cool sculptures made from shopping carts.
• Find interesting facts about your birthday.
• Based on the infamous Hot Or Not, see how good you are at ID-ing bombs on the new Bomb Or Not.
• A brief history of photography, with some nice examples.
• Music video shows what it's like to drop a camera off the Golden Gate Bridge.
• Speed rockclimbing, without ropes. I'm so pumped up just by watching this.
• Fake No Parking signs cause chaos.
• A very well done list of the 50 'best' birds in the world. A lot of good stuff here, though I'm surprised Standard-winged Nightjar isn't on the list. An interesting read even for nonbirders, I promise.
• And finally, an unbelievably interesting study mapping the tendencies of local dialects. As an example, here's a map showing the responses to the question "What word(s) do you use to address a group of two or more people?" Purple is 'you guys', yellow is 'y'all', red is 'you all', goto the site for the other colors, and for all the other maps, of which there are many dozens available. Notice Florida in this map. It is truly not part of the South.