the curatorship of possibilities – ben's blog about urban ethos and connectedness
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I asked this man if he is seeing any interesting birds? He said: “Look, other there is the famous Central Park Red-Tailed hawk Pale Male with his pair”. And sure enough there was this building facing the 5th Ave. and the nest about the arch of the top middle window. The glorious bird flying in and out of it.
Turns out that the name Mustang comes from the Spanish mestengo, meaning stray. The Western mustangs are the wild descendents from the horses brought to America by the Spanish Conquistadors. There an article in Smithsonian describing Melissa Farlow’s work documenting the Mustang herds in the American West. She claims in the 19th century there were about two million Mustangs and just thirty-seven thousand today. Here is a photo essay narrated by Melissa Farlow.
In the article about the Stray Dogs of Moscow there are two interesting observations: the stray dogs develop a similar look and they are in the behavioral process or returning to their wild ancestors, the wolves. There is an equally enlightening article in the Times – The truth dogs reveal about evolution by Richard Dawkins who points to the fact that every single dog on earth evolved from a domesticated wolf. It’s fascinating that in a relatively short period of time the dogs have been bred to be distinctly different not only from their ancestors but also to have little resemblance between the breeds, as if there are different species. To illustrate his point Richard Dawkins describes the foxes breeding experiment by Dimitri Belyaev. Amazing how a similar genetic structure can produce so many variations rapidly.
Mike Munger shifted to the conversation about vegetarians in his podcast with Ross Roberts. Mike asks the following question: “Cows are not good pets and can’t survive in the wild. Most of the cows today are bred for meat and milk. So if not for the meat, millions of the cows would never be born. Strictly speaking if vegetarians would have their way, the cows would never be given the gift of life”. Of course the objection is to the slaughter not to the cows. Yet does a life of a cow has value that can outweigh or even justify the slaughter?
Perhaps if you are Swiss cow (above) the answer is clear but if you confined to a concentration camp in Texas, a different story. Besides in Switzerland a cow is more likely to end up as a chocolate or even the Baroness Tapuzina Cholent rather than a Brooklyn cold cut.
photo via flickr/curnen
Russian dogs, unlike their western cousins, are not neutered. This leads to the population of tens of thousand of stray dogs in Moscow for example. An article in the Financial Times looks at the different social groups of Moscow stray dogs and their intricate ecosystem in the city.
“According to Poyarkov, there are 30,000 to 35,000 stray dogs in Moscow, while the wolf population for the whole of Russia is about 50,000 to 60,000. Population density, he says, determines how frequently the animals come into contact with each other, which in turn affects their behaviour, psychology, stress levels, physiology and relationship to their environment.
“The second difference between stray dogs and wolves is that the dogs, on average, are much less aggressive and a good deal more tolerant of one another,” says Poyarkov. Wolves stay strictly within their own pack, even if they share a territory with another. A pack of dogs, however, can hold a dominant position over other packs and their leader will often “patrol” the other packs by moving in and out of them. His observations have led Poyarkov to conclude that this leader is not necessarily the strongest or most dominant dog, but the most intelligent – and is acknowledged as such. The pack depends on him for its survival.
Moscow’s strays sit somewhere between house pets and wolves, says Poyarkov, but are in the early stages of the shift from the domesticated back towards the wild. That said, there seems little chance of reversing this process. It is virtually impossible to domesticate a stray: many cannot stand being confined indoors”
photo via flickr.com/cronobikes
Milan H. is climbing the North Ushba Mountain (4,694 m) in the Central Caucasus, Georgia, during the 2005 Czech expedition. Photo by Jarek Vrubl (via summit post). Click to enlarge the photos. ►►►read more
F. Ernest Jackson, Study of a sleeping cat
Toxoplasmosis or Toxo is a parasite often carried by cats. It’s estimated that 1/3 of humans might be infected. The Stanford Professor Robert Sapolsky suggesting in an interview with the Edge that Toxo could drastically alter the human neurology, perhaps even play a part in schizophrenia. Fascinating, especially for people who hang around cats.
P.S. This pretty much solves the riddle of women with cats. Are they crazy so they live with three cats or are they crazy because they live with three cats. Might explains the global mishugas emanating from Jerusalem, the city infested with cats.
By seriously, did you notice the nonchalant comment about the “free will” at the opening of the interview? Remember those si-fi films where an alien parasite takes over and controls a human body? This is what Robert Sapolsky is actually saying, shocking.
Image licensed courtesy of Picture Library of the Royal Academy of Arts
Isalmic College for Women, Makhachkala, Dagestan. April 2008
My friend Max Reider sent me a link to his interview with Russian photographer Sergey Maximishin – Фотография как поступок. This quote resonates with me:
“Сегодня фотографы заняли в обществе роль, которую в шестидесятые – семидесятые занимали поэты. На встречу с фотографом могут прийти 700 человек – свидетелем тому я был и в Москве, и в Амстердаме. Благодаря развитию техники, фотография становится все более массовой, все более доступной, это – мгновенный способ самовыражения…”
A tea party for the theater club of the Mental Asylum No.7, St.-Petersburg, April 2003
Russia has such a complex and colorful texture. I don’t know if there is a better place to take photographs in the world. In addition culturally people in Russia are transparent, you can read and photograph faces over there… PETA might want to see this photo (NSFW). I guess this is where they make Shtreimels. ►►►read more
Dutch designer Christien Meindertsma decided to document all products traced to an actual pig from a farm in Netherlands, the pig identified by an ear tag 05049 . Christien Meindertsma published a book describing each derivative product that came from this very pig, an astonishing 185 products in total. In addition to the expected meat products Christien Meindertsma found that: ►►►read more
As promised there is a photographic update on this, Professor Cox’ retirement. ►►►read more
Sir Edwin Landseer, R.A. Head of a cow, ca.1810-12
The Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard University has the traditional grazing rights for his cows at Harvard Yard. The current holder of the chair, Harvey Cox is exercising his right and bringing a cow named “Faith” to graze in Harvard Yard this coming Thursday. Boston Globe – Bovine to visit Harvard Yard. I will be sure to check this out.
Image licensed courtesy of Picture Library of the Royal Academy of Arts
Brownstoner reports on the new bicycle repair shop in Williamsburg called Traif Bike Gesheft. The shop owner Joe Diamond fixes bikes and raises perfectly kosher chickens. If I were Joe, I would hire an armed guard on the night of kapores, you never know, but it’s not the best night for the Brooklyn chickens…
