19 Comments
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David Goorevitch's avatar

Once again, with wings beating against the noise of a famously failed American culture, you give us an alternative, filled with fascinating ideas and knowledge worth knowing.

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Mary Wildavsky's avatar

Indeed, I am grateful this morning for having read this. And I am grateful for Brian’s introduction to the fabulous Dr. Finkel. And I look forward to more of the same, distracting me from the overwhelming barrage of bad news.

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Bryan Atneosen's avatar

RE owls: YouTube has excellent videos showing how silent they are.

RE books: Just bought FLUKE and CORRUPTIBLE. As fantastic as nonfiction gets! :)

RE Minnesota: Born and lived there for 50+ years. ;)

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Brian Klaas's avatar

Wonderful. I hope you enjoy them! And welcome!

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Ed P's avatar

Excellent as always!

Speaking of natural solutions, our shellfish friends already figured out efficient means to convert (dissolved) carbon dioxide into durable, solid and safe calcium carbonate in their shells. This chemistry seems like a sizable piece of the solution to climate change if you ask me.

And Go Birds, from center city Philly!🦅🦅🦅

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M. Apodaca's avatar

Wow! Thanks. I hadn’t seen this and I subscribe to The Atlantic.

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Tony S (UK)'s avatar

Owls are amazing. A European Eagle Owl flew about 6 feet above and from behind me a few years ago. I never heard a sound. To have the huge wings appear silently over my head was something I often think about. Another fascinating essay from Brian.

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Patrick Sheppard's avatar

Brian Klass is always so interesting and covers so many different and interesting disciplines! Whether he is discussing politics, history, natural history or mathematics his breadth and depth of knowledge and the ability to connect them, then bring forth interesting ideas is superbly entertaining and well worth the reader’s time! 😊

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Leslie Jean's avatar

I just love your writing.. I am fascinated with your musings..

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KSC's avatar

Tusen tack..again….Brian. Here is my special request: for posts like this you could, Heather Cox Richardson style, provide subscribers with an audio reading by you (not ai😖).

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Susan Linehan's avatar

Thanks for owls--I've always loved them, though they aren't often seen in my urban neighborhood. Kudos to those trying to adapt nature's "tricks" to human use--sadly, they won't get much funding in the US. Wind turbines are too busy causing cancer to benefit from knowledge gained from an owl's wing.

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Dennis Taylor's avatar

Wonderful introduction to the power of random selection over long time. Birds are extraordinary in many ways. What would we do without the zipper - modeled after the barbicels and hamuli that hold the barbs of feathers together.

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Glenn Raucher's avatar

Can anyone tell me who is the artist of the remarkable owl graphic up top?

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SallyJG's avatar

This was a wonderful piece! Thank you!

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Gretchen's avatar

the owls are not what they seem

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Robot Bender's avatar

How so?

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Brian Klaas's avatar

Like this

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Robot Bender's avatar

Oh. I got it now. Thanks.

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