A Little History on Little St. George Island

Article over at The Times.  I won't recount the whole thing, but only comment that the map in Fig. 1 is fascinating, and the guy in Fig. 3 taught me how to throw a castnet.  Does that make me really damn old?

Click through, it's a short read.  Or just click through and look at that map.

An Interesting Podcast from the BBC

In Our Time – a deep dive into various deep topics, always of interest.  For example, here's one on... coffee.  All good stuff, so far.

File it under 'radio.'  That is all for today.

The Far Side Website is Up

It looks like it's an online repository of Gary Larson's cartoons, with the occasional new one thrown in to keep things fresh.  Here's his intro letter explaining how things went down, including problems with people ripping off his work.

On one hand, I don't blame Larson.  On the other hand, Randal Munroe of xkcd fame has taken a much more web-centric approach, namely, use as you wish, unmodified, and give a credit link back to his site.  Either one is fine by me, and though I prefer Munroe's approach, Larson's work is his own to do with as he pleases.  I'm just glad to have him back, and online.

Anyway, 

The Far Side

is back.

OCMS on VOA

It's a couple of years old, but this stuff never gets old.  Half-hour long, so set aside the time to watch.

Had to email the link to this clip out to somebody who needed to hear it, so it's today's post.  More, much more, local action later in the week.

Green Light & Pain

Could Migraine Pain Relief Be Found in the Color Green?  Today, at NPR.

You mean like this and this?  Yes, I think we've definitively established experimentally that biking under a green canopy makes many pains and problems melt away.

BTW, click through on those links – they're just to old blog posts here at the 'swamp – and embiggen to enjoy a little slice of the woods while you're at work.  Those couple of pics turned out OK.

40 Years Ago: London Called

Article at the BBC.  I think I'm on my third copy of the album.  It gets played a lot, things just seem to happen when it's on the machine.  A bunch of 6D integrals and lab reports got ground out to this sound, and it's still inspiring good physics on a daily basis.

If you feel compelled to rush out and find a copy, be sure to get one with the bonus disc The Vanilla Tapes.  They're the working drafts of most of songs on the album plus a few extra tracks, they give an understanding of the path to the finished result.

That is all for today.

Owl Feathers

We have a pair of barred owls who patrol the neighborhood, keeping the local rodents at bay and making suitably spooky noises.  They're good to have around and a lot of fun to listen to on a dark night.  A couple of months ago, I noticed that one had dropped a feather in the yard, and the question of legality of taking it inside came up.

So, off to the interwebs to look... and ugh, that Federal Register business is overwhelmingly complete, to the point that in less than half an hour of reading you're not make heads or tails of it.  Fortunately, some time ago a reporter summarized it in this article.

Short answer: Generally, wild bird feathers are illegal to own, so don't.  The legal reasoning is somewhat contorted, but it comes down to owls and most other birds are illegal to hunt, it is also illegal to traffic in their parts, it's impossible to sort out a "found" feather from a "killed for" feather, so practically it's only possible to enforce by a blanket rule making ownership illegal.  Pick it up and examine?  Nobody's going to kick in your door for that, but don't take it inside.

Huh.  Learn something new around here every day.  Wish I'd thought to snap a picture of it.  Untouched and still on the grass, of course.