Tomorrow is a moderately biggish day for me.  We’re installing a forest management demonstration project on a 40 acre block here on the research station where I live and work.  We’ve got a forested stand that has a mix of oaks (Quercus spp.), hickories (Carya spp.), pines (Pinus spp.), and red maple (Acer rubrum), and our goal is to 1) divide the forest into management blocks, 2) identify and implement appropriate silvicultural practices, and 3) monitor and maintain these blocks for use as a guide during our various field days, 4-H programs, school tours, and other forms of community education.

We’re currently in the middle of step 2, and tomorrow looks like it may be the day when we implement the most entertaining silvicultural practice of them all: prescribed fire!

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Tags: environment & nature by Mike McGowan
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Rich Trzupek at Big Journalism wrote an interesting piece about William F. Buckley, who died two years ago.  

As Trzupek notes in his piece, Buckley spawned and inspired a new generation of conservative and libertarian thought.

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Tags: books & writing by Paul Davis
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When Falls the Coliseum is looking for bloggers to post commentaries, essays, rants, satire, and reviews about current events, politics, entertainment, culture, and many other topics from a broad range of personal and political perspectives. We appreciate both serious discussion and merciless mockery. We like humor — the funny kind. If you’re interested in being a regular contributor, visit our submissions page and tour our site (see FAQ, Welcome, and History). We don’t care if you are libertarian, liberal, conservative, other, or don’t pay attention to politics. As long as you can write posts that interest readers and you want to do so regularly, we’d like to hear from you. We’re looking to increase our coverage of movies, books, TV, video games, celebrity news, pop culture, politics, current events, social issues, online oddities.

Tags: announcements by Coliseum
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I suppose you have heard of Tilikum the killer whale who killed. I’m in Africa. If I’ve heard of Tilikum, you have, too. He’s a 22-foot, 12,000-pound orca that last week killed Dawn Brancheau, a 40-year-old veteran killer whale trainer. One could look at the tragedy of such an event. In fact, I’m sure most will look at it as just that… but not me. I see it for what it really is… an act of war. That’s right. War. And what’s worse is that we have been at war since October 3, 2003. What happened on that date?

On October 3, 2003, Montecore (a 380-pound tiger) attacked Roy of Siegfried and Roy, the gay tiger trainers and performers. Roy was not killed but was severely injured. And what happened to Montecore? Nothing. [Read more →]

Tags: animals by Jeffrey Maryak
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In a Christmas-time post here at WFTC, I alluded to hyper-partisan people not having much tolerance for ambiguity. My theory is that these dullards can’t entertain — even in a brief, hypothetical sense — thoughts that stray from their specific cluster of swarm “intelligence.”
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Tags: art & entertainment, politics & government by Michael Cade
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So, James Cameron went on The View and finally revealed that Avatar was intended as a thinly-veiled vehicle for anti-corporate and environmentalist propaganda, confirming the suspicions of Republicans, mercenaries, and unobtainium miners everywhere. The funny thing is, even though he obviously wanted to send a very specific message, what the movie ends up meaning depends on one’s point of view. You might call it a reflecting pool, or a Rorschach inkblot test, in which everyone sees the confirmation of his or her political ideology in the story. Environmentalists might see it as glorifying the beauty and sanctity of nature and condemning man’s destructive and myopic exploitation of it. Socialists might revel in its message that living without money or trade is a more fulfilling and humane existence and that profit breeds violence and coercion. Doves might see it as challenging the military mindset and imperialist impulses of American culture. [Read more →]

Tags: movies, politics & government by John Capone
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Weren’t snow days wonderful when you were a kid? I can’t remember a sound from my childhood more beautiful than a phone ringing at 5:00am and the subsequent disappointment in my mother’s voice as she grumbled to my dad those seven magical words: “The kids are home today. This blows.” I hate to say it but now that I’m 30, snow days kinda suck. [Read more →]

Tags: environment & nature by Meg Boyle
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On the surface, the debate is about economics. Deficit spending, health care entitlements, and taxes all get top billing in newspapers and on television. However, many Americans understand there is more at stake than policy tweaks and social initiatives. They know the real issue is power.

The debate is not unlike the one that took place in the decade or so before 1776. As happened then, two camps are coalescing around broad concepts. On one side are the Royalists, those who believe government has the answers and therefore deserves the authority necessary to implement them. On the other side are the Rebels, who prefer to work out their own solutions and live with the consequences. [Read more →]

Tags: politics & government by Daniel Putkowski
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Recently I interviewed a porn star. Not just any porn star, but a former Dirtiest Girl in Porn (honors get no higher). Taryn Thomas put out a XXX version of Jersey Shore — yes, this is decidedly NSFW — and in commemoration of this cultural watershed it seemed fitting to do a profile for Esquire.com. I found her perfectly charming; we’re both Jersey natives and Jersey folk have a natural bond. Due to space limits and what not, much of the copy didn’t fit and rather than losing Taryn’s comments I decided to preserve them here. I considered providing context, but these can more than stand on their own. With no further ado, random musings from a porn star:

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Tags: art & entertainment by Sean Cunningham
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We at PWSBKTW usually describe some particularly heinous act and explain, with wit, when we can muster it, just how terrible the actions of some murderer or child abuser were. We are sorry to say that this week, we have nothing — no sarcasm, no punchlines as we point out who should be killed this week. We have catalogued horrible cases in past columns, managed maybe even to amuse as we shared outrage with our readers, but we’re at a loss for this one. Our column this week probably isn’t even necessary, since by now most readers are familiar with the case and have reached similar conclusions about a just end, but if we’re going to have a column called “People Who Should Be Killed This Week,” it would seem we’d be remiss to not mention the person who perhaps has most earned it. Dr. Earl Bradley is a pediatrician who is accused of sexually assaulting and raping more than 100 children, his patients, over the course of many years, while their parents sat in waiting rooms. Apparently there are videotapes. There is no end to disturbing details. Your day will be better if you don’t read the linked article. There isn’t anything we have to add that isn’t obvious from this column’s title and graphic. A lightning bolt and quick death would be a kindness Earl Bradley doesn’t deserve.  

Tags: people who should be killed this week by Scott Stein
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