Eat more cookies

Found this BBC story today about a huge beer heist in Dublin that made off with 180 kegs of Guinness! This seems like a fairly well planned operation in that police recovered the empty trailer in County Meath, so the beer has already been distributed or hidden. The part I don’t get is why the robbers also took 180 kegs of Budweiser. It really bugged us during our great Ireland trip in 1997 to find the noble Irish sipping our American swill in their pubs. Stop drinking that crap, me brethren!

So long as political unrest remains rampant in African nations, and so long as Middle Eastern and East Asian markets pay top dollar for illegal wildlife products, conservationist will face the constant threat that their efforts could be nullified in an instant. The recent rhino poaching in Zimbabwe is just one example of many, including the disturbing trend toward mountain gorilla poaching in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Like the g-force one enjoys on a tilt-a-whirl at the county fair, we’ve just been whipped this week from sunny and 82 degrees on Tuesday to impromptu snowball fights Friday night. Great fun! Our snow began falling just after dark last night, and lasted ’til about 10 pm. The heavy 2-3″ we got was perfect packing snow, and cast quite a magical ambience to sleepy Stillwater on a holiday weekend. By 11 this morning, it was mostly gone, but the kids are hopeful we’ll get a bit more today. We’ll see . . .

. . . freedom and family.

I am thankful for school and aminals.

I am thankful for food and air.

I am thankful for grandparents and friends.

James, age 6

the change is abrupt

when south winds shift to the north

juncos come to feast

According to this BBC report, a Japanese whaling fleet left on Sunday for a 5-month expedition that includes the take of “900 minke whales . . . 50 fin whales . . . [and] 50 humpback whales.” The Japanese claim that this expedition is for scientific purposes, and that the numbers taken will have little impact on the populations of these species.

Look, I’m not anti-hunting nor even anti-whaling, but come on people! 1000 whales for scientific purposes?! What do they hope to learn, how much a plate of humpback sushi will go for in trendy Tokyo restaurants? Go ahead and try to get a permit to “scientifically collect” 1000 robins or 1000 raccoons or even 1000 white-tailed deer in the U.S. It ain’t gonna happen. Why? Because even our government has the prescience to recognize that such a collection in the name of science would be excessive. [Kudos to us, btw, for at least jumping on the bandwagon of international outcry, although I'm sure Bush- and Cheney-ites in Washington are cracking jokes like, "Hey Japan, bring me back one of them there whale steaks - I hear they taste almost as good as spotted owl!"]

God love the Japanese, but these people are among the world’s worst non-sustainable consumers of the rare or otherwise valuable. Amazon hardwoods are one thing, but in 2007, can’t at we at least lay off the big whales? History has already taught us that commercial harvest of large whales is totally unsustainable. Why let the Japanese commit these sins of the past under their thinly veiled guise of scientific research? It’s an outrage.

Last Wednesday, “The Shrikes” played their debut concert at the 2007 Chili-Cook-off annual fundraiser for the Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society. It rocked. Here was our 10-song set:

“Can’t You See?” Marshall Tucker Band
“The One I Love” R.E.M.
“Never Been to Spain” Three Dog Night
“Bad Moon Rising” Creedence Clearwater Revival
“You Wreck Me” Tom Petty
“Atlantic City” and “This Hard Land” Bruce Springsteen
“Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World” and “Cortez the Killer” Neil Young
“Whipping Post” Allman Brothers Band

The Shrikes: Emily George (bass), Tim O’Connell (rhythm guitar and vocals), Andy George (drums), and Jason Heinen (lead guitar).

Oklahoma celebrates its statehood centennial this Friday. That’s right, the state is younger than OSU or even the Oklahoma City Zoo.

It’s been a fun celebration this whole year, but it’s time to put the “official centennial song” to rest. It’s corny and lame.

Here’s a way cooler song about Oklahoma that I wrote one summer day in 2005. I was driving along, some lyrics came into my head, and I pulled over and wrote this song on the side of a dirt road overlooking a ranch out near Webb.

My Oklahoma

DCG
DCG
DCG
DCG

G
We’ve got oversized loads on undersized roads,
C G
And miles of slick, red clay.
And people ask you “Where’s your church?”
C D
Before they ask you “What’s your name?”
Em
We got a sky so blue I’m swearing to you
Am C
It could be hanging in a hall of fame.

G C
That’s my Oklahoma,
D C G
It takes you two days on a train.

That’s my Oklahoma. D C G

We got big city blues and small town news,
six states right next door.
We got fields of wheat that smell so sweet
When it’s just about to pour.
And flying scissors slice the air
Catching flies over country stores!
That’s my Oklahoma,
Hey what are you waiting for?
Yeah my Oklahoma.

Now I don’t wanna paint a picture we’re something that we’re not.
You see there ain’t no bliss in ignorance
Too many minds here sit and rot.
And casino glitz just gives me fits
And sometimes it’s a little hot.
But that’s my Oklahoma,
Don’t be afraid of what we got.
My Oklahoma.

Well it’s a hundred and five on this average July
I got a thirst I just can’t tame.
And there’s a thousand guys out working pipelines
And they’re feelin’ ‘bout just the same.
Well come on inside it’s cool it’s mild
Let’s have nice tall cherry limeade.
In my Oklahoma.
I feel at home on the range.
Yeah, my Oklahoma.
I feel at home on the range.
DCG
DCG
DCG
D
C
G

75 degrees and sunny on Nov. 13th; there’s a cicada calling on the Arts Quad . . .

We’ve had a lot of discussion over the past couple of weeks on the Oklahoma Birds listserv regarding impacts of wind power development on prairie birds, notably lesser and greater prairie-chickens. (The former is a bird of mixed grass prairie [western OK] and the latter a bird of tallgrass prairie [eastern OK].) I’m posting here the two best explanations of the problem relative to prairie-chickens. One was written by Dwayne Elmore, assistant professor at Oklahoma State University, and the other by Don Wolfe, research biologist at the Sutton Avian Research Center in Bartlesville, OK.

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