Tag Archives: ecology

Eating on Mars, Cap’n Mal, and organic gardening on steroids

Posted on January 25, 2023 by smellincoffee

Since twelve men left their mark on the Moon,  humanity has wondered about the prospects of venturing further out, to the Red Planet.  It’s a daunting undertaking, from the journey itself to the prospects for sustaining life on a planet … Continue reading →

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Of galaxy and creeply-crawlies

Posted on January 19, 2023 by smellincoffee

Origins is a history of life, the universe, and everything. (Sort of).  It’s an odd book, in that  it begins in an expected fashion: Tyson and Goldsmith look first to the origin of matter, delving into the first seconds of … Continue reading →

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Pests

Posted on January 11, 2023 by smellincoffee

Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains© 2022 Bethany Brookshire368 pages Humans believe in and have attempted to create, a very orderly world. There are our cities and homes, where the only animals that belong are those there for our amusement, … Continue reading →

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Alabama’s Amazon

Posted on September 8, 2022 by smellincoffee

Saving America’s Amazon: Our Most Biodiverse River System is Under Siege© 2020 Ben Raines200 pages The Mobile river delta is one of the most biologically diverse places on Earth, but few know and still fewer appreciate this: for thousands of … Continue reading →

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The Forest Unseen

Posted on September 20, 2020 by smellincoffee

In his Becoming Wild, Carl Safina remarked, “How long and rich a morning can be if you bring yourself fully to it. Come to a decent place. Bring nothing to tempt your attention away. Immerse in the timelessness of reality. … Continue reading →

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Quotes from the Ground Beneath Us

Posted on March 5, 2020 by smellincoffee

“Quotations to follow tonight,” I said. I didn’t expect AT&T to have another network outage, though mercifully this one wasn’t as long as the twelve days (you better believe I counted) of February. But enough telecom griping! On to the … Continue reading →

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Of murder and meaningful ground

Posted on March 4, 2020 by smellincoffee

A friend recently introduced me to the terms lentic and lotic, referring to stagnant and fast-moving bodies of water, respectively.  My Lenten series has so far been very lentic,   as I’ve been distracted by life’s goings-on.    I have done a … Continue reading →

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Cities of Gold

Posted on August 3, 2017 by smellincoffee

Cities of Gold: A Journey Across the American Southwest in Pursuit of Coronado© 1992 Douglas Preston (Walter Nelson, Photographs)480 pages Sometimes, history has got to be pursued from the back of a horse.  Douglas Preston wasn’t sure what took him … Continue reading →

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Cod

Posted on August 10, 2015 by smellincoffee

Cod: A Biography of a Fish that Changed the World© 1997 Mark Kurlansky294 pages In Salt: A World History, Mark Kurlansky detailed the surprisingly impactful career of a table condiment on human history. The importance of salted fish, both as … Continue reading →

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Human Scale

Posted on May 15, 2014 by smellincoffee

Human Scale© 1980 Kirkpatrick Sale500 pages             Human Scale is an ambitious assault on big business, big government — the very concept of Bigness. Opening with biology, Kirkpatrick Sale first establishes his basic operating principle:  for … Continue reading →

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