Archive for the Audio Updates Category

Triple Resolutions 2012 I have a love-hate relationship with New Year’s. Because I’m a morning person who doesn’t enjoy late night events during which people get louder and more inebriated and suffer from Football Fatigue Syndrome (FFS) after being inundated by it during 9 years in Ohio, few of the traditional holiday activities appeal to [...]

Holiday Greetings, 2011 Right after I recorded this, I heard a linguist talking about how often we forget the source of the words we use every day. One of the  examples given was creature which comes from the same root as create and creator. Not only do we rank as creatures among other creatures relative [...]

Human-Avian Encounters For those who never heard of parahawking (which I’ve since discovered has been demoted to a sport), here’s a trailer for a film on the subject. Frankly I much prefer the encounters that occur spontaneously. To me, there’s something extremely special about a close encounter with any wild animals in their natural environments. [...]

Treatment Obesity My guess is that once you listen to this podcast, you’ll be able to think of other trends that occur in physical health that have parallels in behavioral health and vice versa. Whether we seek to fulfill our animals’ physical or behavioral needs, we always need to beware of the Iago Effect. Never [...]

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 [...]