LESSON ELEVEN: Fowl Play

MEET WB: The lesser known of the two scientists, William Bernhard Tegetmeier gets short shrift in most history books, but not this one. Find out more about the bird man here by reading his obituary. Then see the man himself in portraiture and in caricature as one of his beloved birds.

Obituary: William Bernhard Tegetmeier - British Birds

AT Golder's Green, on November 19th, 1912, there passed away, at the great age of ninety-six, that well-known naturalist, breeder, exhibitor, judge, author and journalist, William Bernhard Tegetmeier, Born at the small village of Colnbrook in Buckinghamshire, on November 4th, 1816, a son of a surgeon in the Navy, Tegetmeier

WB Tegetmeier

WB Tegetmeier (1816-1912).

Tegetmeier as a pigeon

Cartoon of Tegetmeier as a pigeon

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DIVIDE AND CONQUER: Professor Don Boudreaux of George Mason University expounds upon specialization and how, in turn, it leads to new technologies and trade. Trade pro- vides a market big enough to make specialization worth- while while technology advances to meet production requirements. A nice summary of previous lessons as we near the end of History 201. 

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​FIND A TRAIT: You need one to be first rate, at least according to Marilyn Monroe and her co-star Frankie Vaughn. Their 1960 musical tribute to specialization includes the following shout out to Charles Darwin:

“The Pharaohs did it with Sphinx. And Darwin did it with links.
Some robbers did it with Brinks. Carnegie used a Hall. Specialists all.”

​Sing along!  

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STAY IN THE POOL: Yes, Darwin made adaptive radiation and evolution famous. But there is another Darwinian legacy: the dark humor and cautionary tales of the Darwin Awards. Author Wendy Northcutt highlights those who have volun- tarily removed themselves from the gene pool. The Berkley grad with a degree in molecular biology seems to be on to something about the self-selection of humans, at least those who make it into her books. Read and heed the collection including The Darwin Awards Volumes I–V and The Darwin Awards: Countdown to Extinction. Or evolve to the Internet and hear it straight from the award committee.

Darwin Awards. Chlorinating The Gene Pool.

The Darwin Awards boldly track the Human Evolution Revolution. Humankind is a devolving species, Homo sapiens sapiens isn't so smart, and with the intelligence of the species MIA and presumed dead, the impending extinction of the human race seems assured.

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BREAK BREAD: Think humans are the only ones making questionable decisions with disturbing consequences? Darwin and pigeons return in this news story from Russia where the birds were unable to pass up the allure of free grain. Unfortunately, that grain was being sifted into a mill to be processed into bread and the birds were unceremoniously sucked into the machine. Ironically, on a park bench somewhere, that bread was probably fed back to the pigeons. It’s the circle of life! 

Darwin Awards for birds? Pigeons getting sucked in by industrial grain mill in Russia (VIDEO)

A new bread-based delicacy from Kazan, Russian Republic of Tatarstan might become all the buzz for locals with a penchant for bird meat.