Archive for the Audio Updates Category

Unifying Challenges For those who have never read any of Edward O. Wilson’s groundbreaking books about nature and the environment, you can find them here. Although I mentioned Consilience in this podcast, Biophilia is another great one, but there are many others. Wilson is one of those people about whom I can truly and humbly [...]

Thanksgiving – 2011 Just a few meandering thoughts about my favorite holiday.This year I again get to lounge about while my treasured daughter-in-law does more than the lioness’s share of the work. All I have to do is enjoy myself and return home with lots of left-overs. Miraculous in it’s own way. At most, I [...]

Semantic Contagion Redux The other part of this subject that I’ll leave you to think about is whether animals do the same thing.  It’s seem they must. But how would it manifest, and how would we know it existed? Definitely something to ponder about while I’m cleaning house, working outdoors, or waiting in line somewhere…

About Books The links mentioned in this podcast can be found here. The new book has working title and no cover, but here’s a picture of a group of animals, Bamboo and Ollie to be exact, engaging in some group behavior with each other and their own and each other’s images in a mirror.  

The Power of Nonverbal Communication Click here to hear the interview with biologist and conservationist Alan Rabinowitz that I was listening to during my early Sunday morning grocery shopping foray. For those burdened with a glacial speed dial-up connection like I am, it’s also available in transcript form. If you listen or read the entire [...]

Instant Autumn I thought I wouldn’t be able to get any pictures to illustrate this podcast, but a brief lull in the rain allowed me to get these. They don’t do justice to the color because of the mist. But I dared not wait because if the predicted heavy rains bring high winds, there could [...]

Bisquick vs. Biscuit To set the scene, here are a few pictures of my library, the Silsby Free Public Library in Charlestown, New Hampshire. And exterior shot   The original reading room View from inside the turret

Mouse Revelations Not surprisingly, one of the casualties of high-speed transmission of news has been the decreased concern about fact-checking. Perhaps this explains the trend toward “creative nonfiction” with its greater wiggle room than the stricter standards that used to apply to journalism. I’m the first to admit that blatantly false statements regarding basic animal [...]

The Value of Smart Have you ever heard of IQ tests? What about the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking? If you answered “yes” to the first and “no” to the second, don’t feel bad. As a society, we place a much higher value on IQ-test lateral (or linear) thinking than the ability to think outside [...]

Self-Medicating Sheep What can I say? I like sheep the best of all farm animals. There’s something about them that always makes me smile. Maybe it’s because so many people think they’re dumb and I know they’re not. Or maybe I like them for some reason that’s so abstract or possibly strange (?) that I [...]