Dan from Madison

Spring and Wildlife Comeback

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Click photo for larger.

The above photo was taken one block from my house. We have been seeing lots of wild turkeys in my neighborhood the last few years. I live in a mature subdivision that looks like a lot of other mature subdivisions in the United States. In fact, if you were blindfolded and dropped in there and had to identify where you were, I would wager that you would have a lot of difficulty. In other words, it is a pretty unremarkable place.

With the Spring thaw I have been seeing tons of wildlife scurrying about for chow. The deer are all over the place. I have seen the geese heading back north. A red fox ran across the road in front of my car the other day. I have lived in this area of the country all of my life, and in Madison itself for almost 14 years. Is it just me or is wildlife in general making a comeback? Are the different species adapting to development better? I never used to see things like foxes, hawks, turkeys, deer, and coyotes but now these are commonplace.

Of course all of my evidence is anecdotal. I would like some more observations from our readers that live in urban areas around the country (and the world for that matter). Do you see more animals in general? What types?

Cross posted at LITGM.

ChicagoBoyz Physical Fitness Series, Continued…

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As I mentioned a few weeks ago, Jonathan and I have been working hard to try to keep up with Zenpundit and his weightlifting skills. I am pround to announce that I finally cracked the half ton mark on my squat, and here is footage of the proud modafinil200mg moment – a 1,220 pound squat:
 


 
In all seriousness, can somebody tell me how you train for something like this? Do reps of 600 pounds? 700? Sheesh.
 

Boys Anti Tank Rifle

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As I have aged I began to notice that the books I have been reading about World War 2 had begun to bore me. Most that I was reading were about the massive operations that everyone knows about such as Barbarossa or Market Garden or the campaigns in the Pacific. A few notable exceptions were the Morison Set (that I think I may re-read this year) and works by Eric Bergerud such as Fire in the Sky and Touched with Fire. There were a few other highlights, but for the most part I was getting bored with the topic. Then I decided to take a deeper dive into smaller events, personalities, and items associated with WW2.

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Hypocrite and Thief No Longer

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My posts on intellectual property here and here generated many interesting comments.  I have more to add to this discussion, and have come to some realizations and conclusions – but am left with even more questions.

In the “Hypocrite” post, what I did was clearly wrong.  To review, what I did was watch a recently aired pay per view event on a website that I found that was hosting a video of the event.  I didn’t email the site owner to see if he had a permission from the owners of the content to air the video, but it is virtually certain that he did not.  What I did there was wrong, illegal, and unethical.  I won’t do it again.  Which means that I won’t be watching UFC events until they come out for free on cable.  The price is just too steep for me. 

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