E.P.A. to Stop Considering Lives Saved When Setting Rules on Air Pollution

Excerpt from article:
"Over the past four decades, different administrations have used different estimates of the monetary value of a human life in cost-benefit analyses. But until now, no administration has counted it as zero."

Ockham's Opossum Marsupial genitalia and other complex subjects

Most folks who have seen an opossum’s pecker don’t know much about opossum biology, and they likely haven’t witnessed opossums doing the deed. This is how the backwoods lore about opossums breeding through the nostrils came about. Yes. This is a real thing. People really thought this. Some still do.

Five layin’ hens and full wood shed.

#blessed

Remnants of an old stone fence in the hills.

#ozarknationalforest
#ozarkmountains
#arkansas
#heritage

A terrible intimacy The .22 rifle’s sharp crack splinters morning stillness, setting off a scolding gang of blue jays on patrol.

I wonder if this lineage of squirrels, living in these woods once hunted by my grandfather, became part of what made my dad. That would mean they are already a part of me.

Woodstove Meditations Most winter mornings find me waking the woodstove in our living room long before sunup.

The stove groans softly and rouses, taking shallow sips of air as the elemental in its belly nibbles on kindling. With each second the tiny flicker and its appetite grow.

Just beyond the porch light Black panthers, myth-making, and rural identity

What I find immensely interesting about the black panther legend is that a dab of critical but outside-the-box thinking often does not diminish the cat at all. It transforms it into something even more magnificent and powerful than a flesh and blood beast could ever be.

#blackpanthers
#rural