W. H. Hudson and the Hail Storm

   We have just had a slight ice storm so I have been inside reading Far Away and Long Ago. In it, there is a description of a devastating hail storm. Hundreds of birds were killed, as were many sheep and even large animals, as well as a child. 

  The passage (provided below) reminded me of a post I did back in May, 2021 (see: Hail Storms.)  From it you will learn that it is predicted that we may begin to experience more, and more damaging, hail storms as a result of climate change. The storm below was witnessed by Hudson as a child, while living on the pampas in Argentina.

It was in sultry summer weather, and towards evening all of us boys

and girls went out for a ramble on the plain, and were about a quarter

of a mile from home when a blackness appeared in the south-west, and

began to cover the sky in that quarter so rapidly that, taking alarm,

we started homewards as fast as we could run. But the stupendous

slaty-black darkness, mixed with yellow clouds of dust, gained on us,

and before we got to the gate the terrified screams of wild birds

reached our ears, and glancing back we saw multitudes of gulls and

plover flying madly before the storm, trying to keep ahead of it. Then

a swarm of big dragon-flies came like a cloud over us, and was gone in

an instant, and just as we reached the gate the first big drops

splashed down in the form of liquid mud. We had hardly got indoors

before the tempest broke in its full fury, a blackness as of night, a

blended uproar of thunder and wind, blinding flashes of lightning, and

torrents of rain. Then as the first thick darkness began to pass away,

we saw that the air was white with falling hailstones of an

extraordinary size and appearance. They were big as fowls' eggs, but

not egg-shaped: they were flat, and about half-an-inch thick, and

being white, looked like little blocks or bricklets made of compressed

snow. The hail continued falling until the earth was white with them,

and in spite of their great size they were driven by the furious wind

into drifts two or three feet deep against the walls of the buildings.

It was evening and growing dark when the storm ended, but the light

next morning revealed the damage we had suffered. Pumpkins, gourds,

and water-melons were cut to pieces, and most of the vegetables,

including the Indian corn, were destroyed. The fruit trees, too, had

suffered greatly. Forty or fifty sheep had been killed outright, and

hundreds more were so much hurt that for days they went limping about

or appeared stupefied from blows on the head. Three of our heifers

were dead, and one horse--an old loved riding-horse with a history,

old Zango--the whole house was in grief at his death! ...

To return to the hailstones. The greatest destruction had fallen on

the wild birds. Before the storm immense numbers of golden plover had

appeared and were in large flocks on the plain. One of our native boys

rode in and offered to get a sackful of plover for the table, and

getting the sack he took me up on his horse behind him. A mile or so

from home we came upon scores of dead plover lying together where they

had been in close flocks, but my companion would not pick up a dead

bird. There were others running about with one wing broken, and these

he went after, leaving me to hold his horse, and catching them would

wring their necks and drop them in the sack. When he had collected two

or three dozen he remounted and we rode back.

Later that morning we heard of one human being, a boy of six, in one

of our poor neighbours' houses, who had lost his life in a curious

way. He was standing in the middle of the room, gazing out at the

falling hail, when a hailstone, cutting through the thatched roof, struck him on the head and killed him instantly.

(From: Far Away and Long Ago, (Eland Books), pp.73-76)

W.H. Hudson & The Western Libraries

The copy of Long Ago and Far Away I am reading is borrowed from the collections in the Western Libraries. Listed below are the books by Hudson found in those libraries in early 2023. There are almost fifty of them and there are some multiple copies of different editions held in various locations and the affiliated libraries. Given that the Western Libraries is getting rid of many books, I thought it worth providing a snapshot of what was a rather rich collection of printed books. I doubt if Hudson was taught about in many courses, but it is fitting that a university library has a surplus of them. Soon, these printed volumes are likely to be scarce on campus, but admittedly the students can read them in electronic form. As well, many of the copies were already in storage so it was unlikely that a curious student would ever have discovered them by browsing.

Hudson, W. H. A Hind in Richmond Park. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. A Hind in Richmond Park. J.M. Dent, 1922. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. A Shepherd's Life : Impressions of the South Wiltshire Downs. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. A Shepherd's Life : Impressions of the South Wiltshire Downs. Methuen, 1926. (Archives)

Hudson, W. H. A Traveller in Little Things. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. A Traveller in Little Things. J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1921. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. A Traveller in Little Things. J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1923. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Adventures among Birds. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Adventures among Birds. E. P. Dutton, 1920. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Adventures among Birds. J.M. Dent, 1951. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Afoot in England. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Afoot in England. J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927. (Huron)

Hudson, W. H. Afoot in England. J.M. Dent & Sons, 1939. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Afoot in England. J.M. Dent & Sons. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Birds and Man. Alfred A. Knopf, 1920. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Birds and Man. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Birds and Man. Duckworth, 1927. (Archives)

Hudson, W. H. Birds in London. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Birds in London. Duckworth, 1928. (Archives)

Hudson, W. H. Birds in Town & Village. AMS Press, 1968.(Storage) 

Hudson, W. H. Birds in Town & Village. J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1919. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Far Away and Long Ago : a Childhood in Argentina. Eland Books, 1982. (Weldon)

Hudson, W. H. Far Away and Long Ago : a History of My Early Life. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Far Away and Long Ago : a History of My Early Life. E. P. Dutton & Co., 1923. (Huron)

Hudson, W. H. Far Away and Long Ago. 1941. (King’s)

Hudson, W. H., et al. Far Away and Long Ago : a History of My Early Life. Printed by G. Kraft Ltda., 1943. (Archives)

Hudson, W. H. Green Mansions : a Romance of the Tropical Forest. 1945 (Huron)

Hudson, W. H. Green Mansions : a Romance of the Tropical Forest. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Green Mansions : a Romance of the Tropical Forest. Modern Library, 1916. (Brescia)

Hudson, W. H. Idle Days in Patagonia. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Idle Days in Patagonia. J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., 1923. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. La Tierra purpuréa. Ministerio De Instrucción Pública y Previsión Social, 1965. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. Nature in Downland. Longmans, Green, 1906. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. The Book of a Naturalist. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. The Book of a Naturalist. J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1924. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. The Land's End : a Naturalist's Impressions in West Cornwall. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. The Purple Land : Being the Narrative of One Richard Lamb's Adventures

in the Banda Orientál in South America, as Told by Himself. Creative Arts Book Co., 1979. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H. The Purple Land : Being the Narrative of One Richard Lamb's Adventures

in the Banda Orientál in South America, as Told by Himself. J. M. Dent & Sons, 1951. (Huron)

Hudson, W. H., and E. Mcknight Kauffer. Green Mansions : a Romance of the Tropical Forest. Random House, 1944. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H., and E. Mcknight Kauffer. Green Mansions : a Romance of the Tropical Forest. Random House, 1945. (Huron)

Hudson, W. H., Green Mansions : a Romance of the Tropical Forest. 1968 (Storage)

Hudson, W. H., and Edward Grey Grey of Fallodon. Dead Man's Plack, An Old Thorn,

& Miscellanea. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H., and Frank E. Beddard. British Birds. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H., and Morley Roberts. A Hind in Richmond Park. E.P. Dutton, 1923. (Storage)

Hudson, W. H.,  A Hind in Richmond Park.1968 (Storage)

Hudson, W. H.,  A Hind in Richmond Park. 1922 (Storage)

Hudson, W. H., and Morley Roberts. Men, Books and Birds. J. Cape, 1928. (Archives)

Hudson, W. H., and R. B. Cunninghame Graham. Birds of La Plata. AMS Press, 1968. (Storage)

H Spenser, Edmund, and William Henry Hudson. Spenser's Faery Queene. Book I. Dent. (Storage)

Ohio State University Press

    As the dreary weather continues, so does the search for good reading material. It is not usually found on the New York Times Best Seller List which, we have come to learn, does not contain books recommended by the NYT, but only those found in the various tabulations gathered by someone who works for the NYT. The best sellers are often not good, but they are popular, which also does not necessarily mean "good". As I type this on "Family Day", a holiday throughout much of Canada, it is interesting to note that Jennette McCurdy's, I'm Glad My Mom Died, is #4 on the "Non-Fiction" list. It may, or may not, be good, but apparently it is selling well. 

  About 12,000 books are published annually by University Presses, but they rarely appear on the lists in the NYT. An exception might have been, A River Runs Through It and Other Stories, which was published by the University of Chicago Press and was at least somewhat popular and made into a film directed by Robert Redford and starring Brad Pitt. Given that you may not come across many university press catalogues, or pay much attention to the book ads in some high brow magazines, there may be 12,000 new books of which you are unaware. 

  It is to make you aware of potential sources for good books that I have provided short profiles of university presses over the past couple of years. I began way out on the west coast with the University of Washington and lately have focused on ones near by, ranging from the University of Minnesota to those even closer to Ontario: Penn State, Wayne State, Michigan State and the University of Michigan. I must soon begin including Canadian ones. 

  Today, the choice is from Columbus, Ohio. I should have mentioned earlier, and have done so in earlier posts, that not all university press books are unreadable and full of the jargon we civilians associate with those who reside on campuses. While many current university press publications deal with things like intersectionality and hyphenated identities, the older entries in the catalogues can be of interest and many of them can be read and enjoyed by people like us. 

   At the website of The Ohio State University Press, you can quickly learn about their publishing priorities. When I have posted about the university presses close by, I have indicated that there is often a regional focus which encompasses our area, where books of "local" interest are found. See, for example, Penn State's "Keystone Books" and Wayne State's, "Great Lakes Book Series." Books with a midwestern focus produced at Ohio State are found under the "Trillium" imprint, a floral emblem Ontarians will recognize.

   If you are especially interested in nature and the birds and fishes found close by Ontario, be sure to check the works of Milton Trautman. Although he didn't make it beyond Grade 8, he is renowned as an ornithologist and ichthyologist and wrote many articles of interest about the Bass Islands a little bit south of Pelee Island. His very big book about The Birds of Buckeye Lake can be downloaded for free, but his Birds of Western Lake Erie could cost you almost $300. For a long and interesting article about Trautman see: "The Last Naturalist: A Zoologist Happiest in the Fields and Streams of Ohio, Wrote Major Works About the State's Birds and Fishes," Parker Bauer, The American Scholar, April 21, 2022. 

OSU PRESS

"The Trillium imprint publishes books about Ohio and the Midwest in an effort to help the citizens of the state learn more about the unique history, the diverse culture, and the natural environment of the state of Ohio. Books published under this imprint will also help to fund our scholarly publishing program, and will aid in lowering the cost of the student textbooks we publish." 

The entire book can be read by clicking on this link. 

A Few More Buckeye Books

The United States of Ohio covers little-known facts about Ohio, such as how the state was the birthplace of both the National Football League and Major League Baseball and how it was Ohioans who led efforts toward racial integration in both sports. Readers will learn what makes the state a manufacturing and agricultural powerhouse—with both the largest tire company, Akron’s Goodyear, and the largest consumer products company, Cincinnati’s Procter & Gamble, based there. The state grows, processes, and builds on a level that far outpaces the size of its population or expanse of its borders. And it is the birthplace of many prominent US figures—from Thomas Edison to John Glenn to Neil Armstrong. From sports to a century’s worth of entertainment superstars to aviation and space exploration, Ohio’s best have made for America’s greatest stories—all captured here in a look at the Buckeye State and its impact on the other forty-nine.

“An exceptionally thorough history of white supremacy focused on Ohio but relevant nationwide. By analyzing supremacist influences on American history, from conquests of Native Americans to today’s alt right, the authors have created an eye-opening resource. Its accessible style will engage a broad readership.”—Deborah Levine, editor of American Diversity Report

“Falconry in Hawking Women touches on so many topics: the strange intimacies of memory training that bonded a bird with its handler, gender hierarchies, and especially the entangled freedom and constraint of poetics. Petrosillo’s rich practical knowledge of the sport illuminates a key component of medieval literature.” —Karl Steel, author of How to Make a Human: Animals and Violence in the Middle Ages.

The Bonus:

  

   University presses also often publish journals and one produced by OSU is: Inks: The Journal of the Comic Studies Society. 

For an article of local interest in this journal see: "Comics and Public History: The True Story of the 1934 Chatham Coloured All-Stars, " Dale Jacobs and Heidi LM Jacobs, in Vol.4, No.1, Spring 2020, p.101.

Network

 

Fox News

   I just realized that I have not posted in ten days. To resume blogging I will pick a current event, which is a clear violation of my stated protocol -- which indicates that I will focus only on older, even ancient, unpopular matters rather than current topics of passing, but popular interest. The event is chosen, however,  because I think it will be an easy and quick way to provide you with some content, but judging from that last sentence, perhaps not. 

   Although Fox News is not typically available over Canadian television, most Canadians will have heard of the network and of the announcers, Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity. Recently it was discovered that they may not have believed some of the news they were preaching. They privately expressed doubts about the "stolen election", although they have not done so publicly,  and then shouted over the airwaves, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore." You may recognize that shout from the movie Network, which was about news broadcasting and ratings, which is also what the current event is all about. 

   The private views were discovered because Dominion Voting Systems is suing Fox News for defamation and, in doing so, gained access to Fox emails which contained statements which indicated some Fox executives and announcers had doubts about the reliability of Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell and thought it unlikely that Dominion had been able to rig all of those electronic votes (Dominion, by the way was established in Toronto by John Poulos.) 

   I gather that the doubts about the "stolen election" are not widely expressed over the Fox airwaves, out of fear that fans of Trump will migrate to news sources that are further right (apparently there are some, like Newsmax and OANN.) As even one Fox executive notes: “It’s remarkable how weak ratings make good journalists do bad things.”

   At first, I thought all of this was "good news", in that perhaps a few more people in the U.S. might view the current administration as a legitimate one. But, this "good news" probably won't be seen by the Fox viewers who are the ones who need convincing. I would ask some of my American relatives, but such political things are better not discussed. 

   It is also very likely that more Americans will be watching the trial of Alex Murdaugh, rather than the Dominion case involving Rupert Murdoch, who owns Fox and much else. Murdoch indicated that he thought the "stolen election rhetoric" should be stopped and that Fox needed to keep Giuliani off TV, but that has not happened. 

   Plus, this headline today relating to our Michigan neighbour, indicates we are likely in for a lot more "bad news": "Far Right Election Denier Beats Trump's Pick For Michigan GOP." You should also know that this election denier believes in demons:

Kristina Karamo, who refused to concede her run for secretary of state, beat Donald Trump’s choice for state chair in a chaotic convention.

In a Thursday speech to a right-wing “patriot” group in nearby Charlotte,[MI] Karamo argued that Christianity belonged at the core of American politics, called evolution “one of the biggest frauds ever perpetuated on society,” and asserted the existence of demons.

“When we start talking about the spiritual reality of the demonic forces, it’s like, ‘Oh, my God, this is crazy, we can’t go there,’” Karamo said. “No. It’s like, did you read the Bible? Didn’t Jesus perform exorcisms? … Scriptures are clear. And so if we’re not operating as though the spirit realities of the world exist, we’re going to fail every time.”

Sources:

  "Dominion Voting Case Exposed Post-Election Fear at Fox News, David Bauder, AP, Feb. 18, 2023 (the source for the quote from the Fox executive.) 

   "Far Right Election Denier Beats Trump's Pick For Michigan GOP," Isaac Arnsdorf, Washington Post, Feb. 18, 2023.

Crickets and Conspiracies

 

About the Conspiracy  

 I just uncovered a note to myself from back in the summer. In it, I had noticed a CBC article about a conspiracy involving the crickets now being raised in a factory here in good old London, Ontario. Apparently these little livestock are part of a "sinister totalitarian plot" promoted by a "cabal of shadowy elites" who "are trying to force us to eat insects. Seriously. 

   It is likely that you may have missed the article, so I will resurrect it here and present it as proof that conspiratorial thinking also occurs north of the border. As well, I will provide additional cricket information. The rationale for doing so is not obvious, so I will make it so. I have already written about our new cricket factory and about the consumption of them and other insects (see, Entomophagy.) If you combine the information already offered with what is about to be presented, you will have amassed a considerable amount of information about crickets. That will likely surprise you, but not nearly as much as I was surprised to learn that I am again writing about crickets. 

   What follows will not be so convoluted and will be presented like PowerPoint points, rather than in long, quirky sentences. Sources are provided, as usual, so you can go directly to more reliable and better written material. The short points follow this long introduction about the CBC piece.

The CBC Exposure

   The CBC title is a good one and should serve as a piquer (that is not a French word, but an invented one of mine. It should pique your interest.) "HOW A LONDON, ONT., CRICKET PLANT FOUND ITSELF AT THE HEART OF AN INTERNATIONAL CONSPIRACY THEORY, 7 DAYS AFTER THE FACTORY WAS BUILT, IT WAS FALSELY IMPLICATED IN A GLOBAL CONSPIRACY." by Colin Butler, CBC, Aug. 29, 2022. 

   It is quite long and well done. A timeline relating to the spread of the theory is offered as well as some comments by a professor here in London who teaches about conspiracies. A link is provided above, but here are some bits that may pique your interest. It's a conspiracy theory, so needless to say, the WEF, Jews and deniers of all sorts are involved. If they have their way, you will no longer be eating beef tenderloin.

   "The conspiracy theory has been circulating for months, amplified and published by hawkers of online misinformation in Canada and elsewhere in English and Chinese, often with the falsehood growing more sweeping or outrageous with each iteration. 

Those spreading the myth aren't just online bloggers and anonymous social media accounts. The falsehoods are also spread and tweaked by a number of political operators to suit their agenda, including the Alberta separatist movement and politicians like a sitting MP and a Conservative Party of Canada leadership hopeful. 

CBC News charted the history of how this conspiracy theory grew, from a single tweet by an Ontario construction company to being used as rhetoric in the Conservative Party of Canada leadership campaign. 

The timeline of the theory's growth

The entire thread begins simply enough with a tweet on June 10 from the Toronto-based construction company Ellis Don, announcing it had just completed work on the world's largest cricket production facility. 

The information was picked up a week later by Awakening Canada, a Facebook group that posts misinformation about the pandemic and conspiracy theories about the World Economic Forum.

The June 17 post was published shortly after midnight, asking: "Are you guys ready to eat some crickets welcome to communist Canada." It got 10 shares among the page's 4,600 followers. 

Eight hours later, the false information was repeated by Mike McMullen, a London, Ont., political candidate who ran for the People's Party of Canada in the last federal election, and a candidate for city councillor in this October's municipal elections...."

False info persists

Back on June 17, information about cricket consumption for humans continued to be shared on Facebook in Chinese on this page. According to Facebook's translation algorithm, followers are told the cricket factory is part of the "'Great Reset' agenda to stop the people from owning everything and implement the major food chain." 

On June 18, a similar post appears on Black Sheep Truth Media, a Facebook group that features numerous conspiracy theories with the caption: "The planned food shortages now offers a solution. Not to worry now, there will be plenty to eat folks."

The information has been reaching more people, with at least 292 shares and 164 comments among the page's 30,000 followers. It is also flagged as false information by Facebook after being singled out by independent fact checkers. 

Next, on June 22, the conspiracy is repeated by Tanner Hnidey, the vice-president of economics with the Alberta Prosperity Project (APP), a provincial separatist group. 

Hnidey posts a video to his personal Facebook titled "We're going to keep eating Alberta Beef!" 

"I do not intend to eat crickets or bugs for breakfast," Hnidey says in the video, falsely claiming the federal government is trying to replace beef with insect protein...."

On July 9, federal Conservative leadership hopeful Leslyn Lewis wrote a blog post with the heading, "Is animal meat being phased out?" that hints the cricket plant is part of a larger plan by the federal government to phase out meat.....

[The comment by the professor about all of this:]

"CBC News shared the timeline of the conspiracy theory's growth with Alison Meek, an associate professor of history at King's College at Western University in London, Ont., who studies conspiracy theories. 

She said the false information taps into a growing anti-government sentiment, playing on the fear and isolation many felt during the darkest days of the COVID-19 pandemic when authorities were imposing sweeping lockdowns and health restrictions that upended many people's daily routines. 

Meek said it's clear from the timeline that the false information was twisted and manipulated by each person who spread it, adding or taking away details in order to create propaganda to suit their own agenda."

--------------

   The timeline related to the cricket conspiracy has continued into this new year.  Here is the first paragraph from an article in the publication, American Thinker:

"Give up cheeseburgers, and eat bugs instead.  That's what the Davos elite want you to do, while they dine on $50 burritos and slabs of steak.  They would even have you feel good about being a meat- and diary-free insectivore.  To this end, they have carefully manufactured the cult of environmental alarmism, whose virtue-signaling adherents have been duped into thinking an ecological disaster is at hand." From, "Let Them Eat Bugs," Janet Levy, American Thinker, Jan. 23, 2023.

More Cricket Material

The Construction of the Cricket Factory

   EllisDon did construct the factory and the announcement is found here:

Aspire Food Group - New Production Facility. 

About Aspire - The Cricket Company

   The company website is useful and it announces that, A growing population and increasing demand for food and raw materials requires sustainable, scalable solutions that keep our world healthy.

Canadian Government Support For Aspire

   It is the case that the company received government funding in the summer of 2022. "Investment in State-of-the-art Facility For Aspire to Support Sustainable Food Production," Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, June 27, 2022.

"The Canadian agriculture sector continues to develop innovative ways to meet the demand for more sustainably grown food. Today, Francis Drouin, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food, announced on behalf of the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, an investment of up to $8.5 million for Aspire to support the building of a commercial facility to produce cricket protein.

Alternative sources of protein such as insects provide an opportunity for Canada's agriculture and agri-food sector to more sustainably meet global demand for food. Aspire's goal to tackle global food scarcity led to its focus on edible insect production, which can provide high volumes of nutritious food with a low environmental footprint.

With funding under the AgriInnovate Program, Aspire will use the latest smart technology to create the ideal growing conditions for crickets at its facility in London, Ontario. This investment will allow the company to monitor and grow billions of crickets at a time, producing a nutrient-rich protein for premium health food and pet markets. The technology will also significantly cut Aspire's cost of production, making its products more attractive for sale in domestic and international markets."

WEF Support For Insect Eating

   Early in 2022 the WEF did publish this report: "5 Reasons Why Eating Insects Could Reduce Climate Change," Feb. 9, 2022. The link is provided. It is noted that the report has been under attack: 

Help us prevent the spread of disinformation

This article has been intentionally misrepresented on sites that spread false information. Please read the piece for yourself before sharing or commenting.

The World Economic Forum is committed to publishing a wide array of opinions. Misrepresenting content diminishes open conversations.

Our consumption of animal protein is the source of greenhouses gas and climate change.

Insects are an overlooked source of protein and a way to battle climate change.

The consumption of insects can offset climate change in many ways.

Thinking About Entomophagy?

   See this video offered by the New York Times: "The Joy of Cooking (Insects)," Tala Schlossberg, et al, (no date) 
Mealworm soup. Chile-lime cricket tacos. Charred avocado tartare with ant larvae.

"In the West, edible insects have long been the domain of food adventurers, with few other takers — even as billions of people elsewhere on the planet count insects as a part of their traditional diets.

But as we explore in the Opinion Video above, a growing tribe of environmentalists, academics and entrepreneurs are arguing that edible insects must enjoy a wider acceptance to help create a more sustainable global food system and save the planet."

"Salted Ants. Ground Crickets. Why You Should Try Edible Insects," Carolyn Beans, Washington Post, Nov. 27, 2022. 

"Sanchez encourages people to eat insects, in part, to lighten environmental footprints. Farmed insects produce far less greenhouse gas and require much less land and water than conventional livestock. Insects also generate more biomass with less input. Crickets, for example, are 12 times more efficient than cows at converting feed into edible weight.

Already, 2 billion people eat insects, according to one estimate — primarily in parts of Africa, Latin America and Asia. The practice dates back millennia. “I always thought, even back in the ’90s, someday, maybe, [Americans] will do this,” Sanchez says."

Thinking About Getting Into the Cricket Business?

   Here is an abstract of a market research report indicating billions can be made. 

"Edible Insects Market by Product (Whole Insect, Insect Powder, Insect Meal, Insect Oil), Insect Type (Crickets, Black Soldier Fly, Mealworms), Application (Animal Feed, Protein Bars, Bakery, Confectionery, Beverages), and Geography—Forecast to 2030’, provides an in-depth analysis of the edible insects market in five major geographies and emphasizes on the current market trends, market sizes, market shares, recent developments, and forecasts for 2030. In terms of value, the Edible Insects Market is expected to reach $9.60 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 28.3% during the forecast period 2022–2030. In terms of volume, the Edible Insects Market is expected to reach 3,139,035.10 tonnes by 2030, at a CAGR of 31.1% during the forecast period 2022–2030.

The 237 page report will cost you $4,175 (US).

The Bonus (finally)

  For another example of conspiratorial thinking in London, see my post about 9/11.

  You probably failed to notice that the name of a food writer above is "Carolyn Beans", an example of an aptronym.

CRICKET

  For those of you who thought all of this might be about the sport, see my "Sports News From Elsewhere." You will learn that real money can be made in cricket. 

  If, on the other hand, you don't know a "googly" from a "lolly" see: "15 Corker Cricket Terms, Deciphered", Angela Tung, mentalfloss.com, May 5, 2016.

The Grapefruit Effect

    Although I do not have to take any prescribed drugs and do not pay much attention to health-related articles, I was vaguely aware that the word "grapefruit" is often mentioned near the word "medicine." Basically it appears that this citrus fruit can react with many drugs in ways which are not helpful.

   I was not aware at all that the "Grapefruit Effect" was one of those "accidental scientific discoveries" and that the discovery occurred here in London when Dr. David Bailey was trying to figure out ways to hide the taste of alcohol from those who were participating in a study he was doing on a blood pressure drug. The solution was grapefruit juice and it was a suggestion from his wife that led to an accidental discovery of considerable significance:

“It was really my wife Barbara and I, one Saturday night, we decided to try everything in the refrigerator,” says Bailey. They mixed pharmaceutical-grade booze with all kinds of juices, but nothing was really working; the alcohol always came through. “Finally at the very end, she said, ‘You know, we’ve got a can of grapefruit juice. Why don’t you try that?’ And by golly, you couldn’t tell!” says Bailey. So he decided to give his experimental subjects a cocktail of alcohol and grapefruit juice (a greyhound, when made with vodka), and his control group a glass of unadulterated grapefruit juice.
The blinding worked, but the results of the study were … strange. There was a slight difference in blood pressure between the groups, which isn’t that unusual, but then Bailey looked at the amount of the drug in the subjects’ bloodstreams. “The levels were about four times higher than I would have expected for the doses they were taking,” he says. This was true of both the control and experimental groups. Bailey checked every possible thing that could have gone wrong—his figures, whether the pharmacist gave him the wrong dosage—but nothing was off. Except the grapefruit juice."

Mrs. Bailey died in 2020. Dr. Bailey died on August 27, 2022, both in London, Ontario. 

Dr. David Bailey and Western University

   London, Ontario is not alone in being a "local news desert." There is still one  newspaper in the city, but there is little in it that is concerned with London, where the owners of it no longer reside and where it is no longer printed. The few remaining local reporters do a good job, but they can't cover everything. There are a couple of publications up at Western University, but I have not noticed anything about the death of Dr. Bailey and the writers there have no shortage of crucial issues to report upon. 

   I admitted at the beginning, my general lack of awareness and I may have missed some stories about Dr. Bailey and the "accidental discovery", but just in case there are none, I have gathered some information from which additional articles could later be constructed by others. Dr. Bailey, like Dr. Barr, is a name Londoners should recognize. 

   If you are more interested in athletics than pharmacology, I should mention that Dr. Bailey is Canada's Bannister, in that he was the first Canadian to run a mile in under four minutes. Information about Dr. Bailey, the Olympian, is also provided below.

  I became aware of Dr. Bailey because of an article in the American magazine, The Atlantic Monthly. I received it via email in December: "No One Can Decide if Grapefruit is Dangerous: The Citrus Can Raise the Level of Dozens of Drugs in the Body -- Sometimes to a Worrying Degree, Sometimes Very Much Not," Katherine J. Wu, Dec. 26, 2022. Dr. Bailey's discovery is discussed and, Dr. Dresser, who was mentored by Bailey is quoted. Dr. George Dresser is in the Department of Medicine at Western. Here is a portion of the article that mentions both of them:

"Grapefruit’s medication-concentrating powers were discovered only because of a culinary accident. Some three decades ago, the clinical pharmacologist David Bailey (who died earlier this year) was running a trial testing the effects of alcohol consumption on a blood-pressure medication called felodipine. Hoping to mask the distinctive taste of booze for his volunteers, Bailey mixed it with grapefruit juice, and was shocked to discover that blood levels of felodipine were suddenly skyrocketing in everyone—even those in the control group, who were drinking virgin grapefruit juice.
After running experiments on himself, Bailey confirmed that the juice was to blame. Some chemical in grapefruit was messing with the body’s natural ability to break down felodipine in the hours after it was taken, causing the drug to accumulate in the blood. It’s the rough physiological equivalent of jamming a garbage disposal: Waste that normally gets flushed just builds, and builds, and builds. In this case, the garbage disposal is an enzyme called cytochrome P450 3A4—CYP3A4 for short—capable of breaking down a whole slate of potentially harmful chemicals found in foods and meds. And the jamming culprit is a compound found in the pulp and peel of grapefruit and related citrus, including pomelos and Seville oranges. It doesn’t take much: Even half a grapefruit can be enough to trigger a noticeable interaction, says George Dresser, a pharmacologist at Western University, in Ontario."

Additional information about the "Grapefruit Effect" and Bailey is provided below.

Also An Athlete   

Bailey is on the right. Medalists in the 1500-metre run at the
Winnipeg Pan Am Games.

   At the age of nine, David Bailey lost an eye in an accident and his participation in sports was limited to running. He became quite good at it. His athletic achievements are noted in his Globe and Mail obituary and are provided here:

"He became the first Canadian to run a mile in under four minutes, and represented Canada in the event, which is rarely staged any more, at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City – after overcoming considerable adversity as a youngster.

David struggled through his early teens and lacked a sense of identity as a result of the eye injury and exclusion from contact sports, according to Harvey Mitro, a runner, writer and long-time friend. But a high-school coach recognized David’s running talent and, in 1961, placed him in the East York Track Club.

The club was led by legendary coach Fred Foot, who later mentored him at the University of Toronto and also worked in the Canadian Olympic program. David flourished under Mr. Foot’s guidance and the opportunity to train, and compete occasionally, with two older athletes: Bruce Kidd and Bill Crothers, who specialized in other distances and would become running legends.

While the three runners trained together, Mr. Kidd, won the 1962 Commonwealth Games six-mile event and competed in the 1964 Olympics. Mr. Crothers, a two-time Olympian during those years, earned an 800-metre silver medal at the 1964 Tokyo Games.

In 1962 at Varsity Stadium in Toronto, David set a world record in the mile for his age group, as a 17-year-old. And, late one Saturday night in June, 1966, in San Diego, he became the first Canadian to run a mile in under four minutes, posting a time of 3:59.1.

But Mr. Foot wanted him to break four minutes in Canada, too, Mr. Kidd recalled. So the coach organized another race, in July of 1967 at Varsity Stadium – without revealing the goal to David so that he would not feel extra pressure.

Mr. Foot instructed Bryan Emery to set a fast first-lap pace and secretly told Mr. Crothers to drop out at the three-quarter mark, according to Mr. Kidd. David was hot on Mr. Crothers’s heels when he quit running.

“I will never forget the look on [David’s] face when he realized what was happening,” Mr. Kidd said. “Bill just stepped off the track after taking the second step in this superb pace-setting job. Dave looked at him with the expression ‘Oh, my God,’ and then just put his shoulder down and just barrelled ahead to that fabulous time.”

He crossed the finish line in 3:57.7, becoming the first Canadian to break the four-minute-mile barrier in Canada.

Individually and as a team member, he garnered multiple conference and Canadian championships at the university level and berths in the U of T and Ontario sports halls of fame, among other accolades. He also captured silver medals in 1,500-metre races at the 1967 Oslo Bislett Games and 1967 World University Games (now Universiade) in Tokyo, and bronze in the mile at the 1967 Pan-Pacific Games in Winnipeg.

In addition, David ran the mile at the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica, and the 1968 Olympics but did not medal."

A Brief Bailey Bibliography

Obituaries: (with some excerpts)

1.  Dr. David George Bailey, PhD, Mar. 17, 1945 - Aug. 27, 2022,
Westview Funeral Chapel
"David distinguished himself for two very different reasons in the world of international running, as well as food-drug research.  On June 11th, 1966, in San Diego, CA, he became Canada’s first sub-four minute miler in a time of 3:59.1.  He sought to top this a year later on July 22, 1967, this time in his home town of Toronto, ON, in a time of 3:57.7.  Later in his life, while working on a clinical pharmacology study between a blood pressure lowering drug and alcohol, he discovered the bizarre reaction between some medications and grapefruit juice.  So if you ever see a little sticker on your medicine bottle saying “don’t take with grapefruit juice” you can thank Dr. Bailey."

2.   "David Bailey, Olympian and Pharmacologist Who Discovered the Grapefruit Effect, Dead at Age 77," Monte Stewart, Globe and Mail, Sept. 23, 2022.

"In the late 1980s, Dr. Bailey, an Olympic runner-turned-pharmacologist, was researching the effects of alcohol on the blood-pressure medication felodipine. Seeking to disguise the alcohol’s taste in his experiment, he tried combining it with grapefruit juice and stumbled upon the fact that his subjects’ consumption of the juice resulted in a greater concentration of the drug in their bloodstreams. He went on to discover that grapefruit juice has this effect because it inhibits an enzyme (CYP3A4) in the human gut that breaks down the medication, so the body consequently absorbs a larger than normal amount of the medication."

   At the end of 2022, Dr. Bailey is also mentioned in this G&M article:
"22 Influential People Who Died in 2022..." Dec. 31, 2022.

"David Bailey improved countless lives because of a discovery he made by accident.

3.  "Pharmacologist and Olympian David Bailey Dies at 77," Lisa Winter, The Scientist, Oct. 7, 2022.

"A few years later, Bailey was studying the interactions between alcohol and felodipine, a blood pressure medication. In one clinical trial, he tried using fruit juice to cover up the sharp taste of the alcohol before giving it to participants. He noticed that those who had the juice had much higher concentrations of the drug in their blood afterward, though it wasn’t clear at first whether it was the alcohol or the juice creating the odd reaction.

“So I decided to do a pilot study, on me, to find out,” he told Inside, a publication of the London Health Services Centre, in 2013. “Once I took the drug with water, then I took it with grapefruit juice. My drug levels were five times higher with grapefruit juice. That was a big eureka moment.”

   For a good, long article about grapefruit and Dr. Bailey see this interesting article:

"Grapefruit Is One Of The Weirdest Fruits on The Planet: From Its Name, To Its Hazy Origins, To Its Drug Interactions, There's A Lot Going On Beneath That Thick Rind," Dan Nosowitz, Atlas Obscura, Oct. 6, 2020. It begins this way:

"IN 1989, DAVID BAILEY, A researcher in the field of clinical pharmacology (the study of how drugs affect humans), accidentally stumbled on perhaps the biggest discovery of his career, in his lab in London, Ontario. Follow-up testing confirmed his findings, and today there is not really any doubt that he was correct. “The hard part about it was that most people didn’t believe our data, because it was so unexpected,” he says. “A food had never been shown to produce a drug interaction like this, as large as this, ever.”

Some Local Articles:

  There is not yet a notice about Dr. Bailey's death on the Western website, but there have been articles about him over the years. Here are some samples.

"Grapefruit-Medication Interactions Increasing," London Health Sciences Centre, Nov. 6, 2012.

"The number of prescription drugs that can have serious adverse effects from interactions with grapefruit are markedly increasing, yet many physicians may be unaware of these effects, states an article published in CMAJ.  The article, a review by the researchers who discovered the interactions more than 20 years ago, summarizes evidence to help clinicians better understand the serious effects this common food can have when consumed with certain prescription drugs."

"Grapefruit Part of a Deadly Mix," Adela Talbot, Western News, Dec. 6, 2012.

"That glass of grapefruit juice you usually have with breakfast isn’t as healthy as you think – if you’re taking certain medications, that is. Perhaps you already knew that.“We discovered the interaction 20 years ago. The science of grapefruit-drug interaction has been extensively studied.The science of the (interaction) is well known, but I don’t think it has been applied the way it needs to be now,” said David

Bailey, professor emeritus in the Schulich School of Medicine& Dentistry’s Division of Clinical Pharmacology.Bailey, along with colleagues George Dresser 

and J. Malcolm Arnold, recently published "Grapefruit-medication interactions: Forbidden fruit or avoidable consequences?"

  In 2015 there was a contest by the Council of Ontario Universities' Research Matters to determine research that was "Game-Changing". Here are the ones suggested for UWO and Bailey's is among them:

Dr. Charles Drake (1958) - Developed surgical techniques on the repair of ruptured brain aneurysms.

Dr. David Bailey (1991) - Discovered the dangerous interactions between grapefruit and certain medications.

Dr. Fred Possmayer (1981) - Developed a safe way to extract, purify and sterilize surfactant from animals for use in humans, in particular premature babies suffering from respiratory distress.

Dr. Murray Barr (1948) - Co-discovered an inactive chromatin, known as the Barr Body, linked to genetic disorders such as Down’s, Klinefelter’s and Turner syndromes. This led to a simple diagnostic test for certain genetic abnormalities.

Dr. Henry Barnett (1978) - Led a large international clinical trial to show that Aspirin prevents strokes, changing the way doctors managed heart disease.

Drs. Charles Beer and Robert Noble (1958) - Isolated vincaleukablastine, a powerful anti-cancer drug, from the Madagascar periwinkle plant. The drug turned out to be one of the most useful chemotherapeutic agents.

It should be noted that this bibliography is far from complete and is focused more on articles about Dr. Bailey and not on those articles which he authored.

The Bonus:

   If you on prescribed meds and want to learn more see:

Canadian - "The Effects of Grapefruit and Its Juice On Certain Drugs."
U.S. - "Grapefruit Juice and Some Drugs Don't Mix."
   "Grapefruit and Medication: A Cautionary Note," Harvard Health Publishing, Mar. 30, 2021. 

   The Wikipedia entry is under - "Grapefruit -- Drug Interactions."