Jan Priddy > Recent Status Updates

An odd thing to say, but Macdonald is a bit sexist, presenting falconry as manly, "the peregrine declined unnoticed because it is not adorable, a women's bird, easily kept track of on lawn and feeder—and easily missed. It is a man's bird, a strong, silent, solitary raptor." [1970] Yet, my intro to falconry was from a noted falconer-author unmentioned here. Women were discouraged from the sport... and did it anyway.

Many connections to royalty, Shakespeare, and the Church. Imagine nuns in trouble for their devotion to their falcons!

Falcon never build nests but use whatever is on offer!

Despite my kibitzing, this is a wonderfully informative book and beautifully written. I've admired falconry since I was a child.

Also, since fighting among peregrines, for example is rare, what would be the advantage of a larger male?

Two to four peregrine eggs for example, would weigh 100 to over 200 grams. And adult female weighs 700 to 1,500 grams, equivalent to a 140 pound woman carrying a 19-28 pound baby.

Reviewing the "reverse size domorphism" [RSD] of many raptors—the female is often considerably larger than the male—reveal the anthropocentrism of science, assuming that what is typical of humans is the standard. Further, in reviewing the possible reasons for this female/male difference, Macdonald misses the two obvious: 1. a larger female is better placed to grow the eggs, and 2. to carry their weight before laying.

mighty Mississippi

Clarity for me here.

This chapter was about Utopia in translation, which I read recently.

I have struggled with this academic writing, but by the time I finished the Introduction, I felt I was getting the hang of it.

And then she did.

Burgess fails to confront, even in retelling these incidents, the sexism and misogyny at the heart of law enforcement's failures to effectively pursue crimes—unconscious unwillingness to consider that a teenage girl could be the killer and assuming that reports of rape might be a lie, for two examples. She wants measurable, quantitative evidence because as a behavioral psychologist. It is cold & not always accurate.

The Bobbies case was a key turning point, but the profiling of that one seems obvious to me. Despite the Behavioral Science Unit central to this story, I am disappointed not to find any discussion of how Behaviorism altered the discipline of psychology to focus on countable and measurable behaviors. Burgess discounts the "instinct" the FBI relied upon earlier. [note: I've read a couple chapters out of order.]

This could have been a much shorter book designed purely to advance the author's thesis. Instead it is a book for people who want to read about serial killers, which is not the same thing at all.