Scientific papers can be confusing if you are not used to reading them. This article provides some guidance on how to read coronavirus studies or other scientific papers.
https://www.nytimes.com/article/how-to-read-a-science-study-coronavirus.html
The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology now has a dynamite online course in bird photography.
https://academy.allaboutbirds.org/product/bird-photography-with-melissa-groo/
The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology presented 5 Lessons to take home from the first ever Black Birders Week. One resounding message from the participants is please do not label this effort as political. The label is a shortcut way of dismissing their experience.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/5-key-lessons-to-take-home-from-the-first-blackbirdersweek
If bugs don’t bug you, check out the Xerxes Society Webinars https://xerces.org/events/webinars
Book Festivals move online
AJC Book Festival – The Atlanta Journal Constitution Book Festival is generally considered the largest in the country. This year it will be online. https://decaturbookfestival.com/
Nashville has been called the fastest growing literary market in the country. This year, the Southern Festival of Books will move from War Memorial Plaza to an online venue.
https://www.chattanoogan.com/2020/6/22/410947/Southern-Festival-Of-Books-Announces.aspx
The Southern Literary Alliance in Chattanooga has also decided to move to a virtual format this year. Programs are announced here. https://www.southernlitalliance.org/happenings
An Unspoken Hunger
Terry Tempest Williams
Reviewed by Ray Zimmerman
Williams presents great stories, well told, revealing her love of the natural world. The text is also filled with people she holds in her heart. Some agree with her views and others disagree, but all are well loved.
Her essay, “Mardy Murie, an Intimate Profile” presents a verbal portrait of a beloved mentor for whom she never mentions the formal name Margaret. William’s love for Mardy is much like the love for her own mother and grandmother, revealed another book, Refuge.
Murie was born in 1902 and lived until 2003. She married the field biologist Olaus Murie and raised a family on the move as Olaus pursued research projects in Alaska and Wyoming. As Olaus studied herds of elk, Mardy and the children spent time outdoors.
She built tables and chairs on the spot and prepared meals in the wild. She became a mentor to younger conservationists at the Teton Science School. She testified at public hearings for conservation. She embodied a spirit much like that of Tempest herself.
Another essay is an homage to Georgia O’Keefe titled “Consorting with Coyote,’ and yet another is a ‘Eulogy for Edward Abbey.” Coyote as trickster figure is a strong image for each essay. Coyote is a recurring symbol for Williams. Her book Coyote’s Canyon reveals more on that subject.
Along with these well-known figures, she reveals family members. There is an uncle who never lived independently and appears to her in a dream after his death. Another uncle, a former State Senator, joins her and his daughter in a protest opposing nuclear testing. His wife has undergone successful treatment for breast cancer, a disease of epic proportions in her clan. They are a family of downwinders. The Nevada nuclear bomb tests rained radiation on their homes.
Aside from these human characters, the reader will encounter mystic beings. There are women who dance with bears. There is a slain bear who becomes a woman. There is Artemis for whom the bear is a sacred symbol, and who, according to some myths, turned Callisto into a bear.
The myths revealed in this book are stories with a deeper truth, stories by which we may live.