Out on a Limb

People and Mountain Lions, an animal management tragedy

October 2, 2014

On September 7, a 6-year-old boy who was hiking with his family was attacked by a mountain lion.  It was about 1:00 in the afternoon, the group was on a hiking trail near a winery in Cupertino, there were a total of four adults and six children in the party, and the targeted boy was […]

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The Other Side of Carbon Dioxide

May 18, 2014

All the alarming reports about rising carbon dioxide levels have led some scientists to start studies of the impact to plants of the impact this will have on their growth and welfare.  The results are starting to come in and scientists are surprised to discover that at least some plants appear to like it. Let’s […]

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Vegetation and Ground Water – a Two-Way Relationship

January 13, 2014

It’s another perfect day in Paradise; a sunny day with mild temperatures that allow me to work outside in shorts and a T-shirt.  The only problem with this is that it’s January, and we’ve been experiencing weather akin to mid October when we should be collecting our allotment of rain for the year. As I […]

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Statistics, aka Political Arithmetic

May 29, 2013

Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations: “I have no great faith in political arithmetick …” I am not being facetious when I call statistics “political arithmetic”.  The British coined the phrase to describe data collection and projections they were using to assess the population and determine public policy.  The Britannica Online Encyclopedia reports “In the 1680s the […]

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