Author. Thinker. Other things.
I've always loved this painting. Vertumnus looks serenely at the viewer, a slight smile making you think he knows something you'd like to. It's a clever work of Mannerism, seamlessly weaving a complex array of perfectly rendered fruits and other plants into the portrait of a human face full of character. The portrait is of... Continue Reading →
Last September, there was a brief flurry of activity over the idea of a program that can distinguish homosexual versus heterosexual faces, based on their online dating image (see this, for instance, from the BBC). It started shortly before a scientific article was published by Stanford's Yilun Wang Michal Kosinski in the online journal Open... Continue Reading →
If you Google "the world's most numerous bird," you will likely be given articles about the Red-Billed Quelea (Quelea quelea), also known as the Red-Billed Weaver Bird or Red-Billed Dioch that lives across most of sub-Saharan Africa. It's considered the most numerous wild bird on earth, the population sometimes peaking at 1½ billion individuals. Individually,... Continue Reading →
Last May 7, I had the pleasure of co-presenting a round-table discussion (called "Hot Topics") as part of the International Council of Museum's contribution to the American Alliance of Museums' 2018 conference. Our hour-long round-table discussion was hosted by ICOM-US (International Council of Museums USA). Our group of ten was highly diverse, including designers, architects,... Continue Reading →
Over my Sunday morning coffee, I open up my email (who gets the paper anymore?) and read an article a friend has just sent. "20 January 2018 - Asian wildlife trafficking 'kingpin' Boonchai Bach arrested" I don't usually post on breaking news, but this one resonated for me. Thai police have arrested a man alleged... Continue Reading →
A friend of mine just received an email from Amazon recommending that, based on her recent activity, she might like to purchase The Future of Natural History Museums. She was so impressed, she mailed it to me. I'm so impressed that I'm including it for you. So, the book. It was a collaboration between the... Continue Reading →
I just read an interesting blog post from National Geographic "Does Destroying Ivory Save Elephants? Experts Weigh In". Of course, a big public display of destroying artworks made from illegally hunted elephants makes in impact. National Geographic garnered the opinions of thinkers from all over the world, and their perspectives are equally varied. For me,... Continue Reading →
After the infamous case of the untimely death of the beloved Cecil the lion, natural history museums have become even more careful than before about demonstrating the provenance of the specimens they use for research and display. Big game hunting can be viewed with such distaste by members of the museum-going public that its display... Continue Reading →
I just read a some news from NEXT Pittsburgh that seems pretty exciting. It concerns Garfield, one of the suburbs in Pittsburgh. It's not a wealthy neighborhood. In fact, it's one of the poorest neighborhoods in the state. Stats from Neighborhood Scout say that the area is primarily made up of medium sized to large... Continue Reading →
A friend just emailed me a series of articles which surprised me considerably. Each describes an event in which an animal has died at the hands of somebody - and in some cases many people - grabbing it to take selfies. Here are some examples within the last couple of weeks - warning this isn't... Continue Reading →
ERIC DORFMAN 