Columnists

WILD NEIGHBORS: The Black Swift’s Secret

By Joe Eaton
Tuesday March 13, 2012 - 05:17:00 PM
Black swift on nest behind waterfall, Yellowdog Creek, Idaho.

Finding the breeding or wintering grounds of a migratory bird species is always a big deal. I’m old enough to recall the excitement attending the discovery of the Alaskan breeding range of the bristle-thighed curlew. Not that people were dancing in the streets, kissing random nurses, or setting fire to police cars, but there was a nice photo spread in National Geographic. (That may also have been my first encounter with the word “thigh.” In my family, in deference to my grandmother’s sensibilities, we called that part of the chicken the shortjoint.) -more-


FIRST DRAFT: Contraception: The New American Soap Opera

By Ruth Rosen
Friday March 09, 2012 - 01:30:00 PM

For weeks, bewildered Americans have witnessed politicians debate whether or not contraception should be covered by President’s Obama’s new health care plan. On March 1, after some of the most bizarre theatrical antics remembered in this nation’s political history, the U.S. Senate finally interrupted this surreal soap opera with a cliff hanger. By only two votes, they defeated an amendment that would have allowed religious employers to refuse to pay for the contraception of their employees. -more-


THE PUBLIC EYE: Four Lies About America’s Energy “Crisis”

By Bob Burnett
Friday March 09, 2012 - 01:06:00 PM

Oil prices are escalating and Americans soon may pay $5 for a gallon of gasoline. This grim fact has not escaped the notice of politicians. America’s latest energy crisis has prompted heated rhetoric from Republicans and Democrats. Here are four lies that have been bandied about. -more-


WILD NEIGHBORS:A Choice of Owls

By Joe Eaton
Friday March 09, 2012 - 02:23:00 PM
Does the northern spotted owl face extinction by assimilation? Credit:

Last week I wrote about a new proposal by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to study the impact of the barred owl on the endangered northern spotted owl by experimentally removing, lethally or otherwise, barred owls from selected sites where the two species overlap. The barred owl, a common and widespread Eastern species, has invaded the range of its close relative and appears to be displacing it in some areas. The two owls are interbreeding, raising concerns that the spotted owl may be genetically swamped by the larger, more fecund, and more adaptable barred owl. -more-


ECLECTIC RANT: The Privacy Implications of Facial Recognition Technology

By Ralph E. Stone
Friday March 09, 2012 - 08:19:00 AM

By using facial recognition software, a law enforcement agency can use its video surveillance system to pull an image of an individual, run that image through the database to find a match, and identify the person. It can pick someone's face out of a crowd, extract the face from the rest of the scene and compare it to a database of stored images. -more-


SENIOR POWER: The Little Red-Haired Girl

By Helen Rippier Wheeler
Friday March 09, 2012 - 01:47:00 PM

(The Little Red-Haired Girl is an unseen character in the Peanuts comic strip by Charles M. Schulz, a symbol of his unrequited love.) -more-


ON MENTAL ILLNESS: The Despair That Fuels Noncompliance

By Jack Bragen
Saturday March 10, 2012 - 08:29:00 AM

Even when ill with a physical disease, most people without a mental illness take for granted the normal functioning of their physical bodies and their comfortable presence in their environment. Most people have no concept of living in the misshapen world created by medication side effects. Antipsychotic medication creates a continuous suffering that I will try to describe for you. -more-