Three Times as Large as a Lion
After the mire of yesterday, today was a very good day. Very hot as well. Our high was 92˚F, with a heat index of 101˚F.
I slept a little late, but was up at a little after 7 a.m. and working on the layout for Bradbury Weather by 7:30. Have I said this book is going to be huge? Anyway, I did layout until breakfast, after Spooky got up at 9 and made it to McWane about 11 a.m. Another day with the Yale specimen, four hours spent measuring skull elements for MP 1.2 (and there was some other fun stuff). Back home, I watched three episodes of Eons.
That was today.
The depression is still here, but I pushed through it.
I was told yesterday on Facebook that "Thinking the world is worse than it ever was is vanity." This was after I opined how I am glad - given a certain quote - that Carl Sagan did not live to see what the world has become, and after I lamented not having been so fortunate myself. Anyway, setting aside issues of vanity (yes, I am vain, thank you very much, and pointing out that the observation is a sign of vanity in no way invalidates the statement), it is quantitatively demonstrable that we mankind has never existed in a darker age than this. Just do the math. Climate change, environmental degradation, overpopulation (8.9 billion and growing), the unfolding of the planet's sixth great mass extinction event, the continuing threat of nuclear war, rapidly emerging zoonotic pathogens, the internet (which, even had it not intentionally been weaponized, likely still would have proven the most socially divisive creation in history), and...I could go on for quite a bit longer. Yes, this is the worst moment in the history of man, and we have no reason to believe that tomorrow or next week or ten years from now will be any better. Not based on the evidence at hand. Sorry, kiddos.
But I have the past to offer small consolations.
The photo below, that's me holding the left humerus of a giant ground sloth, Megalonyx jeffersoni, which was collected by a crew from the now-defunct Red Mountain Museum (a crew of which I was a part) way back in the summer of 1985, from a cave in Colbert County, Alabama. The cave actually contained the remains of at least fifteen sloths, including a very, very young individual. The most complete individual, to which this humerus belongs, was nicknamed Angie. A mounted cast of Angie's skeleton has recently gone on display at McWane.
Take note, Spooky's birthday is on the 24th, and she also has an Amazon wishlist. Right here. And there's the Big Cartel shop, right here.
Later Tater Beans,
Aunt Beast
1:53 p.m.
I slept a little late, but was up at a little after 7 a.m. and working on the layout for Bradbury Weather by 7:30. Have I said this book is going to be huge? Anyway, I did layout until breakfast, after Spooky got up at 9 and made it to McWane about 11 a.m. Another day with the Yale specimen, four hours spent measuring skull elements for MP 1.2 (and there was some other fun stuff). Back home, I watched three episodes of Eons.
That was today.
The depression is still here, but I pushed through it.
I was told yesterday on Facebook that "Thinking the world is worse than it ever was is vanity." This was after I opined how I am glad - given a certain quote - that Carl Sagan did not live to see what the world has become, and after I lamented not having been so fortunate myself. Anyway, setting aside issues of vanity (yes, I am vain, thank you very much, and pointing out that the observation is a sign of vanity in no way invalidates the statement), it is quantitatively demonstrable that we mankind has never existed in a darker age than this. Just do the math. Climate change, environmental degradation, overpopulation (8.9 billion and growing), the unfolding of the planet's sixth great mass extinction event, the continuing threat of nuclear war, rapidly emerging zoonotic pathogens, the internet (which, even had it not intentionally been weaponized, likely still would have proven the most socially divisive creation in history), and...I could go on for quite a bit longer. Yes, this is the worst moment in the history of man, and we have no reason to believe that tomorrow or next week or ten years from now will be any better. Not based on the evidence at hand. Sorry, kiddos.
But I have the past to offer small consolations.
The photo below, that's me holding the left humerus of a giant ground sloth, Megalonyx jeffersoni, which was collected by a crew from the now-defunct Red Mountain Museum (a crew of which I was a part) way back in the summer of 1985, from a cave in Colbert County, Alabama. The cave actually contained the remains of at least fifteen sloths, including a very, very young individual. The most complete individual, to which this humerus belongs, was nicknamed Angie. A mounted cast of Angie's skeleton has recently gone on display at McWane.
Take note, Spooky's birthday is on the 24th, and she also has an Amazon wishlist. Right here. And there's the Big Cartel shop, right here.
Later Tater Beans,
Aunt Beast
1:53 p.m.