Joe Plum sends two notes for the inbox.
Joe is a long time friend and posts interesting things on Facebook that often find their way here..
First off, the re-introduction of the Alligator Gar to northern portions of the Mississippi River is more than returning a native fish to its natural waters.
The Gar can grow as long as ten feet and weigh as much as 300 pounds,but more than just returning the Gar to a natural area and perhaps down the road developing as a sportfish staple,but has the potential to do a major favor for the environment-fighting the dangerous invasive species-the Asian Carp.
It may take a decent period of time,but once the Gar can re-establish itself in decent numbers,it might be able to make a dent in the juvenile Carp and eventually weed it down to a manageable amount....
Joe also added a link to Smithsonian magazine's site with a story of the abandoned Maryland amusement part the Enchanted Forest and where the buildings and props from the Forest are today.
I remember visiting the park a few times as a young child and even though I don't remember a lot of specifics,I do remember being there....
Mental Floss offered something that I didn't know about the 1908 Presidential election as a devotee of Theodore Roosevelt.
Most of you know the connection of TR and the teddy bear and that was used often to sell toys and as a marketing gimmick for the Roosevelt years,but in 1909,William Howard Taft took over when TR did not run and someone had the great idea for the next great toy-Billy Possum.
Shockingly,neither Taft nor Billy Possum caught on with the American people with Taft losing his re-election bid to Woodrow Wilson and Billy Possum not even making it that far.
Still,it goes to show that no matter how far one looks back in time-a bad idea is a bad idea...
Smithsonian also has another article of interest in which the genetics of the bulldogs are so slanted towards what people like to see from the animal that the health of the dog is in peril.
The bulldog now is a very unhealthy animal with short lifespans (8 years) and it appears that the gene pool of the bulldog is not diverse enough to support a bounceback from the pure bloodline.
The only way to perhaps improve the line is to take the dog and mix it with a similar,but not exactly the same breed in order to build up the various weaknesses of the breed.
What people love about the bulldog might be on its way to ending the bulldog as we know it.
I've been a fan of David Pietrusza's work for a long time.I mean,can you get better for me than writing books on Presidential elections and baseball?
So,when I saw Pietrusza was doing a podcast on the 1948 election (Maybe my favorite ever along with 1912),I was all over that!
The podcast was a great one as the almost two hour long show went by quickly.
I enjoyed it immensely and hope to see more of these types of shows from Pietrusza....
The New Yorker looks at the Libertarian party candidate for President-Gary Johnson.
I've written before about Johnson and will almost certainly be endorsing him here at TRS.
Is Johnson the perfect candidate? No,but in a year filled with awful choices-he's the best one....
And we wrap up with a science article from National Review of all places with the subject being the geologist that worked with the Apollo astronauts,Lee Silver.
Silver is the man that showed the astronauts how to "see" their environment and basically created the field of lunar field geology with the classroom and field work to prepare them for the lunar landings.
Silver is 91 now and the article promotes Silver to have a spot or area named after him on Pluto,which would be deserving....
That cleans out the non-sports inbox and I'll try to be around later in the week with the sports version..
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