Since shooting two documentaries in Maine in 2004 about America’s über-ungulate, I remain in awe of their size, placidity, and ability to attract tourists and admirers from all over the world. The moose should be America’s national animal, not that creepy scavenger, the bald eagle. One of my favorite shots of all time is this one. I was standing in a swamp in Baxter State Park in northern Maine at around 6 a.m. when I captured this incredible scene: a mother moose with two new calves chasing off her one or two-year-old offspring. Yearlings often track down their mothers when they’re feeling lonely but if mom’s got her hooves full, this is what happens. It’s a jungle out there.
Now comes the news that one of the longest studies of animals anywhere is providing clues to solving the mystery of one of humanity’s greatest diseases. Moose on Isle Royale in Lake Superior have had varying degrees of arthritis over more than fifty years. Scientists believe it’s related to in-utero nutrition more than anything else. But that’s just the short version. Check out the whole NYT article here. Just another reason to love moose.
August 17, 2010
Moose Key to Understanding Arthritis?
August 16, 2010
Digital Diddling vs. Natural Noodling; Studying How Nature and Technology Change Our Brains
“Music has charms to soothe the savage breast” is what playwright William Congreve wrote in 1697. But what do cell phones, computers, video games, and other techno-distractors do to us and can Nature reverse the ill effects of technomania or the “heartache and thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to” that Shakespeare’s Hamlet whined about?
For this answer, we turn from post-Enlightenment dramatists to 20th century folk comics. “Five neuroscientists are in a raft going down the San Juan River” the joke starts. But it’s not a joke- at least there’s no punch line yet. These brainiacs have come to Utah to literally float away from modern life for a while and hopefully find out how neurotic our Blackberrys, Xboxes, and iPods make us. Simultaneously, they hope to find out if getting away from these things and, more specifically, into un-technofied natural areas or wilderness heal the wounds.
Similar studies have been done on the negative effects of modernism and the positive effects of Nature on children like Richard Louv’s famous “Last Child in the Woods.” I can say from personal experience that getting away from my computers, phone, TV and other gadgetry not only calms me down but engages me in life on Earth on a level that’s impossible from in front of a glowing screen or the wheel of a dangerous, moving vehicle.
I wish the professors luck. More than that, I hope they have a great time here in Utah. I know I do.
August 4, 2010
Obesity Epidemic Grows, Outdoor Activity Shrinks; Nature is Not “Cool”- It’s Everything
“What’s the purpose in going hiking? You just go up a mountain and then down.”
Logan resident Evelin Cornejo, 17
Utah is one of the best places for outdoor and Nature recreation. It’s the major reason I moved here. As a probable result, Utah is fifth among states with the thinnest Americans (it sure isn’t because people refuse funeral potatoes or In-and-Out Burgers). Still, it’’s difficult to get young people here interested in recreating outside- even getting them outside. So in an attempt to pry kids away from their computers, video games, and TVs, the federal government held a meeting of a bunch of them the other day to talk about how to make Nature “cooler”.
I despise the word “cool” to describe anything. It’s a hackneyed 1950s cliche with socialist (gasp!) origins, implying that the people who use it are the only true judges of what it is. Young people have never been and never will be the true judges of what is “cool” because they don’t know much about anything at that age. “Coolness” is about status, being accepted, and rebellion. It’s one of the reasons obesity in this country continues to increase alarmingly among young people and all age groups. If “cool” means the popular and socially correct thing, most Americans, including young people, apparently think being fat, out of shape, and unhealthy is “cool”.
I applaud the feds’ efforts to stop the worsening obesity epidemic by encouraging kids to get outdoors, exercise, stop eating junk food, etc. But trying to make them believe Nature is “cool” is encouraging them to lie to themselves. Nature is not “cool”, fashionable, a commodity like a soft drink, nor an institution like work, school or church. Nature is essential. More essential than all of us and all our “cool” stuff. What schools, parents, the corporate media, and society need to teach kids is that Nature is the source of EVERYTHING, that we are a part of it, and that we distance and detach ourselves from Nature’s dominion at our peril. We deny or destroy Nature, we deny or destroy ourselves.
That includes being fat, out of shape, and really, really, RE-HEE-EALLY stupid (apologies to Dr. Perry Cox). This is how we get oil spills, human sprawl, gridlock, depression, obesity, air and water pollution, asthma, cancer, and every other societal ill we mindlessly and endlessly inflict upon ourselves. And if we continue to try and make Nature SEEM “cool”, we demean it and lower it to the status of clothes, TV shows, Emma’s new boyfriend, and Justin’s iPhone.
That’s not “cool.”
August 2, 2010
Where’s the Wave of Support for Rewewables After BP’s Gulf Disaster?
As I rode my bike along Willow Creek near downtown Park City the other day, I noticed something new since I’d been there a year ago. There were about seven new homes, built not only to be affordable but also passively and actively solar. They all had at least 1kWh of solar PVs and enough solar thermal panels to provide hot water for a family of at least four. As a construction guy told me at a bar later on, it’s the first subdivision of its type in Park City. This from one of the most otherwise progressive towns in America. I mean, they have a dog park.
But instead of being happy, I was actually rather sad. Seeing these new homes, which fit my idea of what all new home and office and construction should be, I thought about the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. I tried to detect a change in my own attitude as well as the rest of America. It didn’t change me much because, frankly, I changed my mind about renewable energy about ten years ago. Sadly, it has had almost zero impact on the rest of America.
No one seems to understand that our dependence on fossil fuels- oil as well as coal- is finite. No one seems to care that the toll on our children is going to far outweigh the convenience we enjoy now because of our fossil fuel folly. No one seems to care about anything except not wanting to hear about it any more. Just as they don’t want to think about energy, power, pollution or any of that ever, they don’t want to hear any more about BP, oil spills, solar power, or the people of Earth having to change their habits or face a bleak and avoidable future.
We just don’t care. Do we?
July 21, 2010
Mel Gibson Recordings vs. Free Speech and Privacy; Reporter Blames Technology, Government for Normal Human Behavior
“It just bothers me that we no longer have any privacy. This is America.”
- Avis Thomas-Lester, Washington Post “reinvented” reporter
The Washington Post is one of the best news-gathering organizations in the world. But like any large organization, they have bottom-feeders. This post by “reinvented on-line reporter” Avis Thomas-Lester about Mel Gibson’s recorded rants and privacy issues qualifies as one of the stupidest, least thought-out articles I’ve ever read. And as a former news director who once read 13 papers a day and still scans a bunch, I can detect drivel when I smell it.
First of all, what Mel Gibson says about anything is of no concern to me and has about zero impact. Second, if Avis is opposed to such privacy invasions as secret recording, she sure as heck is in the wrong place to be writing about it. The Internet is like walking into the center of town and taking off your clothes. If you don’t want to be seen naked, don’t go there. Third- and there are a lot more things wrong- she says “always ask if I am being recorded or videotaped and announce that if I am, I invoke my right to not be recorded of videotaped.” Anybody who’s gone far enough to set up a secret recording is not going to stop because of a threat from someone not in the same room or even the same country.
Recording devices are, essentially, technological enhancements or replacements for human memory. Someone who doesn’t want their face, voice, writing recorded shouldn’t make their precious secret speeches at all because the human brain is also a recording device. As for privacy, when you talk to one other person, you’re surrendering your privacy. What Avis T-L wants is ownership of her thoughts. Problem is, when you say or write them, you give them away. And as Mel Gibson found out, getting them back is nearly impossible.
This kind of naivety is charming for an eight-year-old but I assume Avis is not trying to reinvent herself as a Girl Scout. And it certainly doesn’t reflect well on WP when the average blogger is a better writer and more thorough thinker than a “reporter” for a major newspaper. In this case, Avis Thomas-Lester’s problem would be solved and the rest of the world would be better off as well if she just kept her thoughts to herself.
July 13, 2010
Summer Doldrums Mean Lower Productivity, Less Aggravation
I just got back from a week on North Carolina’s Outer Banks where the weather was improbably gorgeous instead of oppressively sticky as it usually is. Before that it was four days in Pennsylvania visiting relatives (pic left is the new science building at Wilson College in Chambersburg). Before that, we spent a week in southern Utah hiking. In the news business, summer is the most dreaded of seasons because 1) few interesting things happen 2) fewer staff are there to cover them 3) no one’s watching anyway. They’re at the water park.
But for me, summer has taken on a whole new look and feel from my previous journalistic life: do nothing, care even less. When I was a news boss, I spent more time sweating (literally) over staffing, filling the shows, and other shortages than I did the rest of the year. And for no good reason. I hated summer. Never a big fan of heat, humidity, traffic and general congestion which, growing up in Chicago, is a good indicator of whether you intend to remain after high school.
I used to blog a lot during the summer. I thought it was a good use of my down time. Now, it merely aggravates me and probably my readers as well. My work’s not as good, I’m usually doing it from a hotel room on a bad and/or costly service, and no one’s reading anyway. Besides, who wants to spend a couple of hours each morning reading about all the bad things happening in the world. I can do that in March. This is summer. Let’s go to the beach!
Now I like summer perhaps for the first time in my life. I don’t get as much done. But there’s not as much demand for my services as the rest of the year. So I might as well enjoy it. The alternative is aggravation. And who needs that in July? Especially when the supply of that increases dramatically in September.
June 22, 2010
Cubs Fans Finally See the Light; There’s No End to the Tunnel
You’re just… an old frat party with clueless fans and old degenerates.
- Captain Meatball
I finally gave up on the Chicago Cubs more than 20 years ago. Since then, they’ve come close to actually doing something significant a couple of times. Not exactly an outstanding record and certainly not one worthy of the adoration they continue to receive from their global legions of losers. So this blog post on the Chicago Tribune site was particularly entertaining. And right on.
June 19, 2010
Father’s Day 2010: Right-Wing Family Values- NOT
Colbert King’s excellent column in today’s Washington Post is a delightful skewering of Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich and the rest of the “family values” folks leading the pompous parade of moral know-it-alls while hypocritcally romping and closeting their own dirty laundry when the cameras are off. If America’s right-wingers hadn’t lost their senses of humor decades ago, they’d probably enjoy King’s column too. But to get the full effect you must know how to read.
March 14, 2010
Kevin Garn Scandal: Utah’s Church, State, Corporate Media Out of Touch With Morality
“These are tough times. We, as legislators, live in a fishbowl down there. It’s hard to hide anything.”
- Utah Senate Majority Leader Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City
Yup, “tough times”, Scotty. Remember the good, old days when you could take lobbyist money, romp with teeny boppers, drive around drunk and not have to WORRY? Anti-Mormons, religious fanatics, and media watchers alike are in a feeding frenzy over one of Utah’s top politicians and an LDS church leader confessing to molesting a 15-year-old girl, paying her off, then getting the help of the church, corporate media, fellow legislators and others to cover up the whole thing. This is one place where the comments to articles about it are more interesting than the facts as they come to light. They tell the bigger story here.
Because the victim is an adult now and has decided $150,000 wasn’t enough to stay silent forever, it begs the question “Why wasn’t there an investigation?” especially when the incident was reported by the victim to the LDS church but apparently never reported to the police by either party. There’s evidence local media also knew about the incident but didn’t report it even once.
It also is bizarre that Kevin Garn, the perpetrator, makes his confession in front of all his colleagues in the legislature with his “good wife” sitting beside him, after the statute of limitations for any crime possibly committed runs out, and receives hugs and a standing O. An incredibly disturbing show of support for someone who might otherwise be doing time. Truly, exploitation of women is cultural out in Utah. But this was way beyond creepy. It’s as if Garn was being congratulated for getting away with it.
Which begs the final question: how many other Utah politicians are doing the same thing? If they’re that sympathetic with Garn, you know what their mentality is: it’s the GIRL’S FAULT. But if it is, why must it be HIDDEN. If they’re finding it all out from Garn, you know they either didn’t investigate him deliberately, didn’t care about the victim, or are even more ignorant than their crazy, social-engineering legislation (though there’s already lots of evidence to confirm that).
We’ve already seen institutional abuse inside religious corporations with the Catholic church’s priest-boy abuse scandal. We know these monoliths should not be trusted regardless of their power, wealth and self-appointed moral superiority. Combined with the state senate’s leader resigning earlier in the session for a DUI, the continuing defeat of any campaign or legislative ethics reform, the ongoing contempt for voters by government leaders, and the meddling of the LDS church in the affairs of another state’s social issues- California’s Prop 8 banning homosexual marriage- it’s clear that Utah’s leaders are out of touch with morality as well as reality while trying to tell the residents of Utah and the rest of the world how to live.
But don’t take my word for it. Read the comments.
March 11, 2010
Iditarod 2010: Jack London’s “Call of the Wild” On Vook Captures Early Dog Sledding with Words and VIDEO
Like most modern sports, the Iditarod requires atheleticism, endurance, and a good deal of flamboyance. Unlike most modern sports, it began as an essential means of transportation in a hostile environment. The world’s most famous dog sled race has just begun in Alaska and will continue for the next few weeks until the winning team survives long enough to cross the finish line.
Few books capture the essence of dog sledding like Jack London’s classic “Call of the Wild.” It’s coming out on Vook.com in just a couple of days and I’ll let you know when it’s available and all the other details.
What’s different about this new, 100+ year-old account of the Alaskan gold rush is that it has VIDEO! BTW: Check out my post on how I produced the videos for it. The videos enhance your reading experience; not supplant the images London’s words create in your own mind but transport you to this rugged and beautiful part of our planet and make this touching and timeless story even more exciting and meaningful.
And who doesn’t love a hero dog story- especially when it’s told through the eyes of the hero dog?
