A Particularly Interesting News Review

Guess what's cool now? Apparently those who are hipper than me now find it cool to be an "Urban Woodsman". This means they're into appearing as if they're into chopping wood, shooting guns, wearing flannel/carhartts/beards and generally being proficient at surviving in the woods, hunting game, climbing mountains, etc, even though they live in, and rarely leave I would bet, New York City. Apparently someone's been been reading my DIY blog. Though it remains to be seen if this is actually a genuine interest they are cultivating, or just posturing. Being self-sufficient is a life style, not a trend. (See also, Urban Caveman)Similarly, as New York Magazine is reporting, jerky is now "artisinal". Why does everything cool need to be hip? Everything interesting needs to be a trend?

Overfishing is a major environmental problem with fish stocks hovering near collapse all over the world. Here's an interesting article about a ban on grouper fishing in South Carolina. I find it particularly interesting that the industry is so consolidated that fish caught in South Carolina is often shipped thousands of miles by processors only to end up on a plate a mile away from the dock.

Climate litigation is getting hot.

Also new on the trend front, growlers are hip! Even though beer lovers have been using them since the advent of the micro-brew revolution in the early 1990s, apparently now it's become "hip" in these parts.

On an uplifting, but somewhat uneasy note, the massive Fresh Kills Landfill is slowly being turned into a bird sanctuary. Though it's making the best of the situation, it's still a little awkward to enjoy nature at a former dump.

It's almost time to choose seeds for the garden this summer.

Save money by not heating your house. Somehow these folks don't strike me as as posers.

The thrifty and self-sufficient types knows waste not, want not and doesn't throw away things that might be useful for a project later. Even if you have no idea what that project might me. But clearly some people take this too far.

Nature in New York. A coyote is captured in Harlem.