I’m sorry to give this opinion, but I believe the right whale (Eubalanea glacialis) will become extinct within the next 100 years. The right whale is so named, because it was the most valuable whale to kill when whaling was an important industry, and therefore it was the right one to hunt for whalers. People used to use whale oil to light their homes. There are only ~380 of these long-lived but slow reproducing species left, and an average of 2.4 are known to be killed by collisions with ships every year. The number killed but not reported may be 3X that. The numbers don’t add up, and I don’t see how this species will ever recover. They wouldn’t be the first species of whale to be wiped out by man. Although gray whales still occur in the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic population was extirpated centuries ago, and a new study determined when this happened.
Right whales were the right whales to kill because they provided the most oil to light people’s homes, until Edison improved the electric light bulb.
Areas where specimens of gray whale bones were found that were used in the below referenced study.
Strange as it may seem, huge gray whales subsist on tiny invertebrates like these that they suck and strain out of muddy ocean bottoms.
Gray whales were extirpated from the Atlantic Ocean between 1150 AD-1350 AD, but some stragglers have crossed the north polar ice cap from the Pacific Ocean, since the ice cap has been melting more and more. They haven’t re-established a breeding population yet.
Up close view of a gray whale.
Scientists radiocarbon-dated 84 specimens of gray whales from different sites including those from Norway, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, England, and Morocco. Some specimens could be identified based on the identification of the bones, but fragments of bones had to be identified using chemical methods. Some specimens were from archaeological sites while others were from paleontological sites. Overall, they looked at 190 specimens from the European side of the Atlantic and 18 from the American side. The extirpation of the gray whale from both sides of the Atlantic is evidence Europeans were fishing off the North American coast almost 1000 years ago. The scientists who published this study concluded gray whales were extirpated by medieval whalers between 1150 AD-1350 AD. There are historical records of gray whale sightings as late as the 1700’s in the northwestern North Atlantic, but this was likely a remnant population that died out.
Gray whales are a migratory species that breed in warm ocean waters and migrate to colder waters to give birth to their calves. They migrate along shallow coastal routes, and medieval whalers likely ambushed these migrations. This is how I believe Paleoindians wiped out several megafauna species during the end of the Pleistocene. They ambushed and eliminated whole migrating herds.
Gray whales feed by sucking in mud from the ocean bottom. They expel the mud through baleen, a mesh-like structure made from keratin–the same material that makes up hair and fingernails. The baleen helps retain the small invertebrates that sustain the huge whales. Their extirpation altered habitats because they were no longer disturbing the ocean floor. These disturbances probably benefited some species but were detrimental to others.
Gray whales may return to the Atlantic Ocean. The north polar ice cap is melting, and some stragglers from the Pacific Ocean have been able to cross the open water to the Atlantic. Whether a permanent breeding population gets re-established remains to be seen.
Reference:
Van de, Kurk, Y.; F. Sikstrom, A. Kreutz, H. Bakke
“Dating the First Historic Extirpation of a Whale Species: The Demise of the Gray Whale (Eschichtius robustus) in the Eastern North Atlantic”
There are 8 species of small tropical deer that inhabit Central and South America. Although they are all referred to as brocket deer, some species are not closely related to each other and actually belong to different genera. The list of brocket deer species includes the red brocket deer (Mazama americana), the Merida brocket deer (M. merida), the pygmy brocket deer (M. nana), the little red brocket deer (M. rufina), the Mexican red brocket deer (M. temama), the brown or gray brocket deer (Subulo gouzoubera), the Yucatan brocket deer (Odocoielus pandera), and the Amazon brocket deer (Passalites nemorivagus). Some species are endemic to just 1 small region. The Meridan brocket deer lives in 1 small region of the Venezuelan Mountains. The Mexican and Yucatan brocket deer have limited ranges in Mexico. However, the red brocket deer is widespread.
The red brocket deer probably is good tasting venison because they primarily eat fruit.
The red brocket is a widespread species. Other species of brocket deer have much more limited ranges.
The Yucatan brocket deer is related to North American white-tailed deer. Unlike red brocket deer, their diet consists almost entirely of leaves.
A recent study of tooth wear from 357 specimens of all 8 species found dietary differences among them. The red brocket deer primarily eats fruit, though if there isn’t any available, they will eat fungi, leaves, and shoots. They can co-exist with another fruit-eating species, the gray brocket deer, because these 2 species have different ecological niches. Gray brocket deer prefer dry open forests, while red brocket deer prefer dense moist tropical forests. These species of deer don’t spread the seeds in their dung–the seeds get digested. The Mexican brocket deer is a mixed feeder. The Yucatan and Merida brocket deer almost exclusively eat leaves.
The summer coats of North American white-tailed deer have a reddish color, much like these species of tropical deer. I think the summer coats are much more attractive than their dull winter coats.
Reference:
Martinez-Polonco, M.
“Dietary Ecology of Neotropical Brocket Deer: Evidence from Mesowear and Microwear Analysis”
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology March 2026
Boobs are more popular than paleoecology. I’ve written nearly 1000 blog articles about science with an emphasis on paleoecology, but almost every day, the most viewed article on my site is entitled “Breasts were Invisible in Hollywood Movies until the 1940’s.” I think it’s my most viewed article of all time, and I wrote it just 4 years ago. (My blog is 16 years old.) It’s a stupid fluff piece. I’ve written many articles about paleoecology that I think are more interesting, and I’ve also posted my memoirs and a biography about my father, but nobody looks at those blog entries. The public thinks boobs are more fascinating. If more people want me to write about swollen sweat glands modified to produce milk, I suppose I will.
My blog entry about tits has more views than any science-based article I’ve ever written.
I‘m too lazy to look it up, but I think >16,700 views are more views than any other article I’ve written for this blog.
I watched an old movie the other day starring Lana Turner and noticed the pointy shape of her bra underneath her shirt. When I was a child, this type of bra was common, and I wondered when they went out of style because I never see them anymore. Pointy-shaped bras, also known as cone-shaped or bullet bras, were in fashion from 1947-1970. They were introduced by the Perma-lift brand in 1941 and quickly became popular. They briefly came back into fashion in 1990 when Madonna started wearing them, and supposedly they returned in 2025, but I haven’t seen any women wearing them recently. Buxom women became popular during World War II, and famous movie stars wore layers of cone-shaped bras under form-fitting sweaters to give themselves a more buxom appearance. This was before surgical breast implants became more widespread. The skinny fashion model look came into fashion during the late 1960’s, reducing the popularity of cone-shaped bras, and they also fell out of favor with feminists who didn’t think women’s bodies should be objectified. Now, some women are wearing them again amid modern women’s desire to take control of their own eroticism.
Out of curiosity I wondered what the largest cone-shaped cup size was. No bra manufacturer that I could find makes a cone-shaped bra bigger than a J-cup. That will fit some really big boobs, but many modern exhibitionists who advertise on Twitter have natural breasts too large to fit into any cone-shaped bra available. Here are some examples with links to their twitter feeds. Busty Sarah Rae, my favorite, is an O-cup. ((5) Sarah Rae (@BustySarahRae) / X) Carmen Sandi, another astounding beauty, is an M-cup. ((5) Carmen Sandi (@thatgreengirl22) / X) Cleo K-cup has very beautiful breasts that won’t fit into any available cone-shaped bras. ((5) Cleo K cup | 50% off OF!! (@CleoMessy) / X) And Masked Juggs has watermelon-sized titties that could also not fit into this type of bra, unless manufactures start making bigger ones. ((5) maskedjuggs (@maskedjuggs) / X) Unlike old timey movie stars, they don’t need to enhance their breast size. I’ve always preferred voluptuous women, but in my old age I take the most comfort in looking at the biggest tits and ass that appear on my social media feeds.
I began wondering about pointy-shaped bras when I saw an old movie starring Lana Turner.
Mamie Van Buren pioneered wearing layers of cone-shaped bras under form-fitting sweaters to give herself a more buxom appearance.
Jayne Mansfield wore cone-shaped bras. Her breasts were very large by 1950s standards, but there are many modern exhibitionists who have even larger natural breasts than she had. I prefer natural breasts over surgically enhanced ones.
The modern bra was invented in 1913 by Mary Jacob. Before this, women had to wear uncomfortable corsets, first used during the 1500’s. Women living during the Middle Ages wore dresses with bags in them to hold their breasts. Ancient Greeks and Romans used breast bands to hold their boobies in place.
Ulysses S. Grant was a great general, but as President he fell short of what I would consider success, partly because he was ahead of his time and partly because he was so naive, he surrounded himself with unscrupulous crooks. Ulysses was born during 1822 in Point Pleasant, Ohio located near Cincinnati. His father owned a leather goods business during a time when most people needed saddles. The sight of the bloody carcasses gave Ulysses a lifetime aversion to meat unless it was cooked very well done. His father helped him get an appointment to West Point in 1839 where Ulysses excelled in math and horsemanship. He finished at the academy ranked in the middle of his class, but half of his class had dropped out before finishing the 4-year program, so he really finished better than 75% of his peers. His best friend at West Point was Fred Dent who invited Grant to visit his family in Missouri after graduation. On his visits to Fred’s home, he met and fell in love with Fred’s sister, Julia, a plain woman with a nice bust and a cross-eye that she never had surgically repaired. They married during 1848. The Grant and Dent families did not get along. The Grants were strong abolitionists and the Dents were slaveowners, and the Grant family refused to attend their son’s wedding in Missouri. Ulysses and Julia eventually had 4 children–3 boys and a girl.
The army assigned Grant to be a quartermaster, an officer in charge of obtaining and distributing supplies. He participated in the Mexican American War between 1846-1848. It was a war that he believed to be unjust. He witnessed and participated in battles and learned that he could remain cool under fire. Grant performed heroically in Monterrey, Mexico when he volunteered to ride his horse through crossfire in an urban combat situation to obtain much needed ammunition. He rode his horse in a zigzag pattern while lying flat on it. He also saw combat action when his regiment took the heavily defended Chalpotec Fortress.
Ulysses was an alcoholic, but he didn’t drink when he was with his family. Apparently, even a small amount of alcohol turned him into a silly fool. Unfortunately, the army separated him from his family when they assigned him to a post in the Pacific Northwest, a region too distant for his family to follow. There was no railroad yet and instead of traversing Indian territory, the army took steam ships to Central America, crossed tropical jungle, and took steam ships to San Francisco. Julia was pregnant at the time as well. Ulysses sought solace in alcohol because he was lonely and depressed, missing his wife and newborn child who he had never seen. His drinking did not interfere with his duties. Every soldier at this depressing outpost drank heavily (I never met a military man who was not a heavy drinker, and I’ve known many), but Colonel Buchanan, his commanding officer, had it in for Grant and forced him to resign after Grant showed up drunk on payday during 1854. He went home to be reunited with his family in Missouri. Grant’s father-in-law gave the family some land to farm and 4 slaves who Grant wanted to free but couldn’t because they were kept in his father-in-law’s name. Grant freed 1 slave Dent gave him the rights to almost immediately. Grant failed after 4 years of farming, then opened a real estate office in town which also failed. His partner fleeced him–just 1 example in his life when he had money stolen from him in white collar crooked schemes. Grant was so honest himself he couldn’t fathom the possibility that other people were not being honest with him. It was a serious flaw in his personality that led to trouble when he was President. He and his family moved to Galena, Illinois where he could work in 1 of his father’s leather goods stores. (His father owned several leather factories and stores across the Midwest.) Grant could carry heavy loads of cow hides that his brothers couldn’t handle. He also clerked in his store, but he didn’t enjoy this work and avoided customers. His career path changed when the Civil War started and he reenlisted.
Ulysses S. Grant and his family.
Grant survived war but his cigars killed him.
Elihu Washburne, a strong supporter of Abraham Lincoln, represented Grant’s district in Illinois. Men with army experience were much sought at the beginning of the Civil War, and he helped Grant obtain his officer’s commission. Governor Yates put Ulysses in charge of 10 local regiments of state militia. As more troops joined the Union, Grant was elevated to Brigadier General. He made John Rawlins his adjutant general. Rawlins was a key figure who helped Grant throughout his future career, especially keeping him away from alcohol. Grant’s first success was capturing Paducah, Kentucky before Confederate troops even got there, then his forces defeated the Confederates at Belmont. Grant became a national celebrity when he led his troops to victory at Forth Henry and Fort Donelson at a time when Union forces were losing battle after battle in Virginia and the east. Grant was an aggressive commander always on the attack, and Lincoln liked this because his eastern Generals were slow and defensive. Grant’s victories gave the Union complete command of Kentucky, most of Tennessee, and part of the Mississippi Valley.
Next, Grant’s forces turned back a furious Confederate attack at Shiloh after Grant overcame some early tactical errors. Union forces advanced down the Mississippi River Valley where Grant oversaw a brilliant military campaign that led to the capture of Vicksburg, the last Confederate fortress in the West. Vicksburg’s defenses included 7 miles of fortifications, cliffs, ravines, manmade ditches, and swamps, and it was located at a hairpin turn of the river where ships could be stopped with artillery fire. Grant managed to sneak a major portion of his army past the artillery guns on ships at night south of Vicksburg, then had forces under Sherman feign an attack north of the city. Grant’s forces marched to the highlands to prevent Confederates from reinforcing Vicksburg, and they seized Jackson, Mississippi. They routed the Confederates at every battle during this campaign. They surrounded Vicksburg, and forced its surrender–a stunning victory that led Lincoln to name Grant the commanding officer in charge of the eastern Union Army.
Grant’s grand strategy led to the eventual surrender of the Confederate Army. First, he let Sherman loose into Georgia where his forces razed the heart of the South, destroying the breadbasket and munitions factories of the Confederacy. He attacked Confederate forces in Virginia, and he used Sheridan’s cavalry to destroy Confederate supply lines that fed Robert E. Lee’s forces in Virginia. Some critics unfairly call Grant a butcher because the Virginia campaign was so bloody with high casualty counts. Confederate forces had the advantage of being on the defensive, and according to theoretical military doctrine, attackers need at least a 3-1 advantage in manpower and firepower to have any chance of victory. Attacking forces necessarily have higher casualty counts. Moreover, warfare was evolving toward World War I style trench positions, a type of battle that just leads to many deaths. Grant was a much better strategist than Lee who refused to abandon Richmond, Virginia until it was too late.
Grant was a military hero after the Civil War and won the Presidential elections of 1868 and 1872. His record as President was mixed at best. His gullibility led to him appointing many crooks to cabinet positions, so his Presidency was constantly plagued by scandals. While he was President, the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the Constitution were enacted, and he did his best to enforce them. At first he was mostly successful. Southern states held fair elections with black people voting and winning office, and he used federal troops to destroy the earliest incarnations of the KKK, but Reconstruction was ultimately overturned at the point of a gun. The vast majority of southern whites were furiously opposed to former slaves having any political power, and northern racists sympathized with southern whites. Support for enforcing reconstruction faded, and by the end of Grant’s 2nd term black people were barely 1 step above slavery. Southern white people lynched and murdered thousands of black people, intimidating them from participating in the political process. After Southern white people retook control of the state governments, they passed laws that made black people 2nd class citizens, and racists on the Supreme Court upheld these laws, limiting what the Federal Government could do until Civil Rights laws were passed during the 1960s. Grant was ahead of his time in his belief in Civil Rights, but he was defeated by the racism of his time.
Grant also sympathized with Native Americans (his personal secretary during the war and his Presidency was Native-American), but he could do little to stop railroads, miners, and the expansion of Western Civilization from encroaching on Indian lands. He replaced some crooked Indian agents who robbed them of government supplies but could never get rid of all of them. It was Grant, not Teddy Roosevelt, who founded the National Park Service when he made Yellowstone the first National Park.
During the Civil War Grant was aggravated when his father introduced him to 2 Jewish cotton speculators, and he ordered the removal of all Jewish people from his military district, an order Lincoln rescinded. Grant was not a bigoted person, and he regretted his kneejerk reaction. He was a good President for Jewish people and appointed more Jewish people to government positions than any other previous President. He also appointed many black people to government positions, something that was unheard of at the time.
Grant’s foreign policy was successful. Americans still resented England for its early sympathy with the Confederate cause, but Grant made lasting peace with England, an ally of the U.S. ever since. He helped Mexico overthrow foreign rule.
Grant blundered in economic matters. He did get the U.S. out of wartime debt, but during the Panic of 1873, he decided not to stimulate the economy, leading to a 5-year economic Depression.
After his 2nd term, Grant decided not to run for a 3rd consecutive term and went on a world tour with his family where he was greeted everywhere with enthusiastic crowds. He did run again in the 1880 Presidential election but lost the Republican nomination to Garfield.
Grant lost all his money and all of his family’s money in what we would call today, a Ponzi Scheme. Ferdinand Ward conned Grant into putting his name on an investment firm called Grant and Ward. Because Grant’s name was on it, many Union veterans put their life savings into this firm. It was a total scam, and everybody who invested in it lost every penny they put into it, including the extended Grant family. About the same time, Grant’s decades’ long habit of chain-smoking cigars caught up to him. He developed throat cancer. He was broke and dying. Mark Twain rescued Grant from his financial difficulties. He gave Grant a good deal in exchange for the rights to publish his memoirs. Grant suffered horribly while he struggled to write the book. He couldn’t eat, drinking any kind of liquid was painful; and he had to sleep sitting up because the huge cancerous tumor strangled him when he laid down. Doctors had to scrape phlegm from his throat daily. Nevertheless, he finished writing his memoirs a few weeks before his death, and they were a best seller, saving the family from poverty. Grant died in 1885.
GeorgiaBeforePeople 