Tonight, I am a sad bastard. My dear friends from the Secret Science Club are hosting the seventh "Carnivorous Nights Taxidermy Contest" and I am stuck at work (though, to be sure, I have always preferred the live fuzzy things to the dead ones- as yesterday's post implied). Still, I have always enjoyed the "Carnivorous Nights" event, and even presented pieces on behalf of artist, table tennis champion, and gentleman Peter Cua. I am there in spirit with all of the attendees... my friend Chris A. is texting me updates from the event- a mandolin fashioned from an armadillo shell is the highlight so far.
On a more important note, the taxidermy show was started as a promotional event for the wonderful book Carnivorous Nights: On the Trail of the Tasmanian Tiger by my friends Margaret Mittelbach & Michael Crewdson. The book is a fantastic read, and I am not saying that because they are my friends- it is an informative book which manages to be funny even though it is suffused with the melancholy appropriate to the disappearance of a remarkable animal from the face of the planet just as conservation efforts were being proposed by, of all people, Errol Flynn's father- for a taste of the book, here's a Washington Post article written by Margaret and Michael on the subject.
Just so everybody can be even sadder than the Bastard, here's a video of the last known Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus), a marsupial masquerading as a rather handsome dog with a huge head and an impossible gape of the jaws, which died in a zoo in 1936:
Seriously, folks, get your hands on a copy of Carnivorous Nights, you'll alternate between laughing and crying, and will heave a huge, sad sigh once you're done, lamenting yet another example of humankind's thoughtlessness.
Missing the Dead Things
ReplyDeleteThanks, guy. I like you, too.
Missing the Dead Things
ReplyDeleteYou may need a more accurate trebuchet.
I'm afraid we've only begun with the great human extinction.
ReplyDeleteWe'll probably get ourselves, too, in the end.
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I thought I left a comment...
ReplyDelete~
I think about the only thing that could conceivably cause human extinction is some kind of genetically altered virus that has just the right set of characteristics.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise what we're really doing is reducing the sustainable human population on the planet. Given wars, disease, pollution, sea level rise and atmospheric warming we may reach a point where the maximum global human population is only a couple billion, and the society may well become unconnected, tribal, authoritarian, even feudal. But it's hard to see a truly human-created human extinction...
Thanks, guy. I like you, too.
ReplyDeleteGee, you're swell... must be that gas buildup...
You may need a more accurate trebuchet.
It's just a matter of adjusting the counterweight...
We'll probably get ourselves, too, in the end.
The rats and roaches won't miss us.
Otherwise what we're really doing is reducing the sustainable human population on the planet. Given wars, disease, pollution, sea level rise and atmospheric warming we may reach a point where the maximum global human population is only a couple billion, and the society may well become unconnected, tribal, authoritarian, even feudal. But it's hard to see a truly human-created human extinction...
Environmentalism has always been about the health of the human species. We'll never be able to kill off the archaea or bacteria.
Given wars, disease, pollution, sea level rise and atmospheric warming we may reach a point where the maximum global human population is only a couple billion, and the society may well become unconnected, tribal, authoritarian, even feudal.
Some conspiracy theorists see that as the endgame, but I think they are wrong about the players and the means by which such an end will be accomplished.
we may reach a point where the maximum global human population is only a couple billion
ReplyDeleteI suspect that the *sustainable* population has never been more than hundreds of millions, and will be less than that when we've finished devouring the soil, the sea, the oil and the underground aquifers.
We missed you on Sunday night! And wow, thanks for the kind words. Poor thylacine. Wah! Not sure if Chris kept up with the texting... there's a little, well actually an extensive, slide show on the Village Voice website: http://www.villagevoice.com/slideshow/the-carnivorous-nights-taxidermy-contest-was-very-strange-indeed-41094284/
ReplyDeleteSee you on April 22. Or else!