It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, January 27, 2020
19th-century bee cells in a Panamanian cathedral shed light on human impact on ecosystems
Locations of nest cell aggregations of Eufriesea surinamensis within the Cathedral in Casco Viejo, Panamá Credit: Paola Galgani-Barraza
Despite being "neotropical-forest-loving creatures," some orchid bees are known to tolerate habitats disturbed by human activity. However, little did the research team of Paola Galgani-Barraza (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute) expect to find as many as 120 clusters of nearly two-centuries-old orchid bee nests built on the altarpiece of the Basilica Cathedral in Casco Viejo (Panamá). Their findings are published in the open-access Journal of Hymenoptera Research.
The discovery occurred afterrestoration work, completed in 2018 in preparation for the consecration of a new altar by Pope Francis, revealed the nests. Interestingly, many cells were covered with gold leaf and other golden material applied during an earlier restoration following an 1870 fire, thus aiding the reliable determination of the age of the clusters. The cells were dated to the years prior to 1871-1876.
The bee species that had once constructed the nests, was identified as the extremely secretive Eufriesea surinamensis. Females are known to build their nests distant from each other, making them very difficult to locate in the field. As a result, there is not much known about them: neither about the floral resources they collect for food, nor about the materials they use to build their nests, nor about the plants they pollinate.
However, by analysing the preserved pollen for the first time for this species, the researchers successfully detected the presence of 48 plant species, representing 43 genera and 23 families. Hence, they concluded that late-nineteenth century Panama City was surrounded by a patchwork of tropical forests, sufficient to sustain nesting populations of what today is a forest-dwelling species of bee.
Not only did the scientists unveil important knowledge about the biology of orchid bees and the local floral diversity in the 19th century, but they also began to uncover key information about the functions of natural ecosystems and their component species, where bees play a crucial role as primary pollinators. Thus, the researchers hope to reveal how these environments are being modified by collective human behaviour, which is especially crucial with the rapidly changing environment that we witness today.
Environs of the Eufriesea surinamensis nesting site in Casco Viejo, Panamá in 1875, as seen from the summit of Cerro Ancón. A white tower of the Cathedral where bees were nesting is visible in the distant background in the centre of the peninsula. Credit: Eadweard Muybridge, courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum; gift of Mitchell and Nancy Steir.
More information: Paola Galgani-Barraza et al, Flower use by late nineteenth-century orchid bees (Eufriesea surinamensis, Hymenoptera, Apidae) nesting in the Catedral Basílica Santa María la Antigua de Panamá, Journal of Hymenoptera Research (2019). DOI: 10.3897/jhr.74.39191
'When, not if it happens': Factors favor possible Austin mega-wildfire event
by Heather Osbourne
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
All it will take for Central Texas to become the next area engulfed by catastrophic wildfires like those seen in Australia is a dry spring and summer, an errant flame and sustained winds.
Travis Countyfireofficials say the likelihood of such a mega-fire event is just a matter of time.
A recent report released by CoreLogic, an online property data service, ranked Austin fifth among metropolitan areas in the nation most at risk for wildfires. The only others in the country at a greater risk are in California, according to the study.
As the world watches and mourns over the wildfire devastation plaguing Australia, residents need only look out their window to see a similar landscape that Australians admired before the fires began.
Daniel Shaw, an Australian who has worked for the National Weather Service as a storm spotter, said his home country also built on the backs of preservation areas like Austin's wildlands to the west.
And, similar to residential growth near grassy areas east of Interstate 35, population growth in Australia has also pushed neighborhoods closer and closer to wild grasslands.
Shaw said if Austin's wildlands catch fire and embers blow into those grasslands, firefighters would struggle to extinguish the flames before another would start up nearby.
"If you've got fuel to burn and winds to drive it, then you're going to have a fast-running fire whether it's grasslands or bush," Shaw said.
Bob Nicks, president of the Austin firefighters union, said Austin's lack of sustained winds are now the only thing protecting Austin from a similar fate.
However, he said Austin's luck will eventually run dry.
"A 20 mph wind is devastating if it's sustained and blowing in one direction," Nicks said. "It's just a matter of when it happens, not if it happens."
Nicks said Central Texas frequently experiences two of the needed components for wildfires, dry conditions and triple-digit temperatures, from June through September during the summer wildfire season. However, sustained winds, the third factor that fuels the fires and pushes them forward in a singular direction, are less frequent.
If a fire was sparked in West Austin during hot, dry conditions when sustained winds were present, there would be no stopping it from destroying everything in its path, according to Nicks.
"When a fire reaches a certain size you cannot stop the progression forward," he said. "There is not enough water or personnel to put a dent on the head of that fire. You cannot stop it."
In 2011, as Central Texas vegetation withered during a historic drought, the most destructive wildfire in state history burned a total of 34,000 acres. The Bastrop Complex Fire destroyed 1,660 homes, killed two people and injured 12 others.
In Travis County, the 2011 wildfire season sparked 76 blazes and burned 9,835 acres, according to data collected by the Texas A&M Forest Service.
The 2011 season was the most devastating in the century for Texas, with a state-wide total of 30,896 fires and 9.94 million acres burned, the data said.
Even before the Bastrop fire, the forest service in 2008 tallied 175 fires that burned an average of 658 acres in Travis County alone. The next year, 50 fires burned an average of 95 acres in the county.
However, after 2011 the total number of fires and acres burned decreased significantly. The highest number of fires from 2011 through 2017 was in 2013 with 74 fires and 109 acres burned.
Randy Denzer, a vice president for the Austin Firefighters Association in Texas and the International Association of Firefighters Wildland Firefighting Task Force committee member, said the 2018 and 2019 fire seasons were also mild because of significant rainfall.
The combined total of acres burned for 2018 and 2019 was 107.
However, Denzer said, the increased moisture and lack of fires have allowed for vegetation to overgrow. Because of this, Central Texas is now at an extreme risk for wildfires, he said.
"The grasses are what carries the fires, and we have an overabundance now," Denzer said. "If we have a dry spring, we will be right back to where we were in 2011 by August of this year."
Although Central Texas received above-average rainfall in the first part of 2019, severe or extreme drought covered nearly the entire five-county Austin metro area in the fall, according to data from the U.S. Drought Monitor. Severe drought or extreme drought, which can include major crop or pasture losses and widespread water shortages or restrictions, are just below the U.S. Drought Monitor's worst condition, exceptional drought.
Extreme drought affected about 9.4% of Texas by October, including most of Hays and Travis counties.
Austin recorded 57 days last year when temperatures reached or surpassed 100 degrees, according to data collected at the city's main weather station at Camp Mabry. The highest temperature recorded was 105 degrees.
Denzer said climate change, which is causing drought conditions to persist throughout the state and temperatures to rise into the 100s more frequently, is putting Central Austin at a greater risk for fires.
"Climate change does have something to do with it," Denzer said. "Higher temperatures provide drier fuels, which creates better conditions for fires. Just a couple of degrees makes a difference.
"There is a bigger role, though, that is made by humans," he continued. "Everyone wants to live in an area with a pretty view. But now we can't have a fire burn in that area, so we have to stop it."
More than 53,000 residential properties in Austin are in the high to extreme risk zone for wildfires, according to the CoreLogic data. Cost of reconstruction in those areas would be approximately $16.35 billion, the data says.
Justice Jones, a wildfire mitigation officer for the Austin Fire Department, said where the fire occurs in Austin greatly affects the risks and intensity of the fire.
Jones said grass fires are seen daily during peak fire season in areas east of MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) and Interstate 35. Those fires are often less intense because of less vegetation in the east, fire experts agree.
However, the west side of Travis County where residential areas intermingle with wooded areas are at risk of devastating, uncontrollable wildfires during hot, dry months because of dense vegetation.
"Right now Austin as a whole is at risk of wildfires," Denzer said. "West Austin though is at risk of 50-foot wildfires that are unstoppable. Any fires along unmanaged wildland areas, no matter how small they are, will be devastating."
Austin's push toward conservation has tied 30% of its land into preservation of natural areas. As Austin began to experience rapid population growth, however, construction of residential homes expanded closer to these preservation areas, which put that land at a greater risk of wildfires.
Carrie Stewart, Austin fire's wildfire division chief, said once a wildfire does start, its embers can blow over a mile and can easily ignite other wooded areas or homes.
"Those wildland fires can happen anywhere we have those large, open green spaces," Stewart said. "That's going to be all over the city of Austin where we have those risk areas."
The Texas A&M Forest Service created a risk assessment portal to show what parts of Travis County are at a greater risk with current weather conditions.
As of Tuesday, nearly every green space in or around Austin was listed as a high to very high risk of wildfires.
In California, an estimated 350,000 home and business owners were unable to find insurance agencies that would cover their properties following the states most deadly wildfire season in 2018, according to media reports.
Jerry Hagins, spokesperson for the Texas Department of Insurance, said insurance agencies base their coverage costs on long-term historical data, so the more wildfires that happen in a particular area the greater the risk of insurance prices skyrocketing or the insured being dropped altogether.
Hagins said because Austin has yet to experience consistent mega fire events over the past 10 to 20 years, he does not predict Travis County to suffer from the same insurance woes like California in the near future.
"I think California is pretty different from Texas in the frequency of wildfires and the severity of them," Hagins said. "But, we still do have that risk. We don't see rate changes after a single event because they are factored in for the long-term average."
However, Denzer disagreed.
"I think in the near future people will have issues finding affordable insurance if we don't do something about this," he said. "The CoreLogic data is for insurance investors. Insurance companies are going to start taking a look at this data and they are going to start looking into these risks."
However, there is something Austin officials can do to help prevent wildfires and decrease the risk of rising insurance costs, according to officials.
This year, Austin city council may vote on a $1.5 million plan that would require all new homes and businesses constructed near wildland areas to follow a wildland urban interface code, or WUI code.
The new code would mandate that all new structures in these areas be built with ignition-resistant materials to protect them from burning embers, which often sets buildings ablaze in a wildfire when they fall on wooden roofs, blow in through vents or lodge under boards.
Examples of ignition-resistant materials include double-paned glass windows and noncombustible screens over attic vents. Remodeled properties and new construction would have to comply.
Nicks said while any code is better than no code at all, the city council is only considering a portion of the full WUI code.
"The one they have up for council soon will have the least impact on risks today," Nicks said. "A properly written code would give the authority to mitigate fuels on certain property, which is a very big part of risk reduction. We're disappointed it doesn't include old construction."
Nicks said later this month he and his team will welcome wildfire experts from California to re-visit the area and assess the risks and offer advice on how local officials can address a growing concern for wildfires in West Austin.
Denzer said he hopes the experts' opinions will push for the city council to consider adopting the full WUI code, which would hold landowners responsible for decreasing risks of wildfires on their own properties.
"I'm happy it's moving forward, but it does not do enough," Denzer said. "Adopting the full code is an investment, but it would reduce the risks of wildfires and of property insurance rates going up."
A tax on carbon dioxide emissions in Great Britain, introduced in 2013, has led to the proportion of electricity generated from coal falling from 40% to 3% over six years, according to research led by UCL.
British electricity generated from coal fell from 13.1 TWh (terawatt hours) in 2013 to 0.97 TWh in September 2019, and was replaced by other less emission-heavy forms of generation such as gas. The decline in coal generation accelerated substantially after the tax was increased in 2015.
In the report, 'The Value of International Electricity Trading', researchers from UCL and the University of Cambridge also showed that the tax—called Carbon Price Support—added on average £39 to British household electricity bills, collecting around £740m for the Treasury, in 2018.
Academics researched how the tax affected electricity flows to connected countries and interconnector (the large cables connecting the countries) revenue between 2015—when the tax was increased to £18 per tonne of carbon dioxide—and 2018. Following this increase, the share of coal-fired electricity generation fell from 28% in 2015 to 5% in 2018, reaching 3% by September 2019. Increased electricity imports from the continent reduced the price impact in the UK, and meant that some of the cost was paid through a slight increase in continental electricity prices (mainly in France and the Netherlands).
Project lead Dr. Giorgio Castagneto Gissey (Bartlett Institute for Sustainable Resources, UCL) said: "Should EU countries also adopt a high carbon tax we would likely see huge carbon emission reductions throughout the Continent, as we've seen in Great Britain over the last few years."
Lead author, Professor David Newbery (University of Cambridge), said: "The Carbon Price Support provides a clear signal to our neighbours of its efficacy at reducing CO2 emissions."
The Carbon Price Support was introduced in England, Scotland and Wales at a rate of £4.94 per tonne of carbon dioxide-equivalent and is now capped at £18 until 2021.The tax is one part of the Total Carbon Price, which also includes the price of EU Emissions Trading System permits.
Report co-author Bowei Guo (University of Cambridge) said: "The Carbon Price Support has been instrumental in driving coal off the grid, but we show how it also creates distortions to cross-border trade, making a case for EU-wide adoption."
Professor Michael Grubb (Bartlett Institute for Sustainable Resources, UCL) said: "Great Britain's electricity transition is a monumental achievement of global interest, and has also demonstrated the power of an effective carbon price in lowering dependence on electricity generated from coal."
The overall report on electricity trading also covers the value of EU interconnectors to Great Britain, measures the efficiency of cross-border electricity trading and considers the value of post-Brexit decoupling from EU electricity markets.
Published today, the report annex focusing on the Carbon Price Support was produced by UCL to focus on the impact of the tax on British energy bills.
YOU SAY TOMATO I SAY TOMATOE LETS CALL THE WHOLE THING OFF
Martha Sudermann, right, and Chris Peritore-Galve, graduate students in the lab of plant pathology and plant microbe biology professor Chris Smart, examine tomatoes growing in a greenhouse at Cornell AgriTech in Geneva. Credit: Allison Usavage/Cornell University
Many New York tomato growers are familiar with the scourge of bacterial canker—the wilted leaves and blistered fruit that can spoil an entire season's planting. For those whose livelihoods depend on tomatoes, this pathogen—Clavibacter michiganensis—is economically devastating.
In a new paper, Cornell researchers showed that wild tomato varieties are less affected by bacterial canker than traditionally cultivated varieties. The paper, "Characterizing Colonization Patterns of Clavibacter michiganensis During Infection of Tolerant Wild Solanum Species," published online in November in the journalPhytopathology.
Co-authors were Christine Smart, professor of plant pathology and plant-microbe biology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences; F. Christopher Peritore-Galve, a doctoral student in the Smart Lab; and Christine Miller, a 2018 Smart Lab undergraduate summer intern from North Carolina State University.
"Bacterial canker is pretty bad in New York," Peritore-Galve said, "but it's distributed worldwide, everywhere tomatoes are grown."
The pathogen causes wounding and is spread by wind-blown rain; if one tomato gets infected, it can spread from plant to plant.
"Bacterial canker certainly can cause the complete loss of a field of tomatoes, and we see outbreaks of the disease every year," Smart said. "Growers use disease management strategies, including spraying plants with copper-based products; however, once there is an outbreak it's difficult to control bacterial canker."
To combat diseases, plant pathologists and breeders often look for varieties that are resistant, but among tomatoes traditionally grown for market, there are none with genetic resistance to bacterial canker. So Peritore-Galve, Miller and Smart went back to the beginning.
Tomatoes are native to the Andes Mountains region of South America, where wild species have been free to evolve for thousands of years. Recently, plant breeders have identified wild tomatoes that seem to be less susceptible to bacterial canker and are resistant to other pathogens.
The team wanted to understand how bacteria spread and colonize in wild tomatoes versus cultivated ones. They zeroed in on the plants' vascular systems—specifically their xylem vessels.
Like individual veins in a human, xylem vessels transport water and nutrients from soil throughout the plant. The team found that in cultivated species, bacterial canker spreads everywhere, while in wild species the bacteria remain confined to certain xylem vessels without moving much into surrounding tissues.
"The wild tomatoes, for some reason, impede the ability of the bacteria to move up and down through the plants, which reduces symptoms—in this case, leaf wilt," Peritore-Galve said.
This is the first study ever confirming that wild tomatoes are susceptible to bacterial canker, though the infection is less severe than in cultivated varieties. But while a severe infection causes fewer symptoms in the wild plant, it can still cause lesions on the fruit.
Even so, a tomato variety with resistance to the bacteria could still be very helpful for tomato growers, said Chuck Bornt, vegetable specialist with Cornell Cooperative Extension's Eastern New York Commercial Horticulture program. Bornt works extensively with New York tomato growers.
"Many times, it's not the fruit symptoms that cause the issue," Bornt said, "it's the wilting of the plants or the plugging of the xylem cells that cause the plant to lose foliage, which then exposes the fruit to sun scald and other issues. … nfected fruit are also an issue, but in my opinion it's these other issues that have more impact."
More information: F. Christopher Peritore-Galve et al, Characterizing Colonization Patterns of Clavibacter michiganensis During Infection of Tolerant Wild Solanum Species, Phytopathology (2019). DOI: 10.1094/PHYTO-09-19-0329-R
Current model for storing nuclear waste is incomplete
The materials the United States and other countries plan to use to store high-level nuclear waste will likely degrade faster than anyone previously knew because of the way those materials interact, new research shows.
The findings, published today in the journalNature Materials, show thatcorrosionofnuclear wastestorage materials accelerates because of changes in the chemistry of the nuclear waste solution, and because of the way the materials interact with one another.
"This indicates that the current models may not be sufficient to keep this waste safely stored," said Xiaolei Guo, lead author of the study and deputy director of Ohio State's Center for Performance and Design of Nuclear Waste Forms and Containers, part of the university's College of Engineering. "And it shows that we need to develop a new model for storing nuclear waste."
The team's research focused on storage materials for high-level nuclear waste—primarily defense waste, the legacy of past nuclear arms production. The waste is highly radioactive. While some types of the waste have half-lives of about 30 years, others—for example, plutonium—have a half-life that can be tens of thousands of years. The half-life of a radioactive element is the time needed for half of the material to decay.
The United States currently has no disposal site for that waste; according to the U.S. General Accountability Office, it is typically stored near the plants where it is produced. A permanent site has been proposed for Yucca Mountain in Nevada, though plans have stalled. Countries around the world have debated the best way to deal with nuclear waste; only one, Finland, has started construction on a long-term repository for high-level nuclear waste.
But the long-term plan for high-level defense waste disposal and storage around the globe is largely the same. It involves mixing the nuclear waste with other materials to form glass or ceramics, and then encasing those pieces of glass or ceramics—now radioactive—inside metallic canisters. The canisters then would be buried deep underground in a repository to isolate it.
In this study, the researchers found that when exposed to an aqueous environment, glass and ceramics interact with stainless steel to accelerate corrosion, especially of the glass and ceramic materials holding nuclear waste.
The study qualitatively measured the difference between accelerated corrosion and natural corrosion of the storage materials. Guo called it "severe."
"In the real-life scenario, the glass or ceramic waste forms would be in close contact with stainless steel canisters. Under specific conditions, the corrosion of stainless steel will go crazy," he said. "It creates a super-aggressive environment that can corrode surrounding materials."
To analyze corrosion, the research team pressed glass or ceramic "waste forms"—the shapes into which nuclear waste is encapsulated—against stainless steel and immersed them in solutions for up to 30 days, under conditions that simulate those under Yucca Mountain, the proposed nuclear waste repository.
Those experiments showed that when glass and stainless steel were pressed against one another, stainless steel corrosion was "severe" and "localized," according to the study. The researchers also noted cracks and enhanced corrosion on the parts of the glass that had been in contact with stainless steel.
Part of the problem lies in the Periodic Table. Stainless steel is made primarily of iron mixed with other elements, including nickel and chromium. Iron has a chemical affinity for silicon, which is a key element of glass.
The experiments also showed that when ceramics—another potential holder for nuclear waste—were pressed against stainless steel under conditions that mimicked those beneath Yucca Mountain, both the ceramics and stainless steel corroded in a "severe localized" way.
More information: Self-accelerated corrosion of nuclear waste forms at material interfaces, Nature Materials (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41563-019-0579-x , https://nature.com/articles/s41563-019-0579-x
"Yes, they are coming and, yes, there are more of them: Ever since the first ghoulish proto-vampires, werewolves and zombies lurched from the preliterate shadows to stalk the cuneiform-on-clay myths of Mesopotamia, they remain undead despite the passage of four millennia, adapting endlessly to every time and every place -- perhaps none more than our own."
More Info: July/August 2012, Saudi Aramco World Magazine
This essay started life as a paper for the Manchester Gothic Festival and was adapted for the Supernatural Cities Conference in Limerick 2017. It is now destined for a special OGOM edition of Gothic Studies, 'Wolves, Werewolves and Wilderness' to be published in the spring of 2018.
In 1865, Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924) argued that ‘English folklore is singularly barren of werewolf stories, the reason being that wolves had been extirpated from England under the Anglo Saxon Kings, and therefore ceased to be objects of dread to the people’.
The Dictionary of English Folklore similarly informs us that ‘there are no werewolf tales in English folklore, presumably because wolves have been extinct here for centuries’.
These longstanding assumptions make the present day sightings of the English werewolf known as‘Old Stinker’ all the more unusual. What is most pertinent about this latest folk panic is that‘Old Stinker’ inhabits a landscape which is thought to have accommodated some of the last wolves in England. These sightings coincide with a phase of severe environmental damage.This has not taken the form of sudden catastrophe, but rather a slow grinding away of species.The result is a contemporary landscape constituted more actively by what is missing than by what is present, a spectred, rather than ‘a scepter’d isle’.The Victorian novelist Emily Gerard (1849-1905) explained the Romanian belief in the werewolf by associating it with a continuing fear of the wolf: ‘it is safe to prophesy that as long as the flesh-and-blood wolf continues to haunt the Transylvanian forests, so long will his spectre brother survive in the minds of the people’.
The emergence of an English werewolf (‘Old Stinker’) in Hull in the present day has reopened debates about the spectre werewolf’s relationship to the ‘flesh-and-blood’ wolf. In this article, I depart from the earlier opinions of Emily Gerard, Sabine Baring-Gould, and others, who explained the disappearance of the werewolf in folklore as following the extinction of the wolf. I argue instead that British literature is distinctive in representing a history of werewolf sightings in places in Britain where there were once wolves. I draw on the idea of absence, manifestations of the English eerie, and the turbulence of England in the era of late capitalism to illuminate my analysis of the representation of contemporary werewolf sightings.I
In literature, accounts of werewolfism or lycanthropy can be traced back to the epic of
Gilgamesh in approximately 2000 BC, whereas early fables warning of the wolf are exemplified by Aesop’s ‘The Boy Who Cried Wolf’ in 620-520 BC. Virgil’s Eclogues are thought to be the first account of voluntary werewolfism (around 42-39 BC). 1589, the year that saw the rise of werewolf trials in France, appears to have been the werewolf’s annusmirabilis.(A WELL DONE PUN)
Jean Grenier, the ‘Werewolf of Chalons’, and the Gandillon family, all of whom were executed as werewolves at this time, were murderers who had a taste for human flesh.The story of Grenier, a werewolf boy who supposedly fell upon and devoured several children, is recounted in Sabine Baring-Gould’s book on Werewolves (1865).
The boy claimed to be under the control of the ‘Lord of the Forest’ (THE GREEN MAN/CERNUNNOS/PAN) and was said to have appeared to his victims in wolf form.
Sorcery is the key to understanding such happenings, according to Baring Gould’s explanation of werewolfism. Such notions endured into the early twentieth century. Montague Summers (1880-1948) posited a shared history of witches and werewolves, shown through his use of demonologies in The Werewolf in Lore and Legend (1933). We are reminded that James I’s Daemonologie (1597), used widely in witchcraft trials, acknowledges the existence of ‘Men-Woolfes’.
British witchcraft trials focused on the witch’s metamorphosis into hare or cat, paralleling the preoccupation with shape shifting in European werewolf trials.Summers perpetuates this association between witches and werewolves in the twentieth century by documenting the historical sources and the authorities on shape shifting witches in England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland and by appending material on ‘witch ointments’ to his study of the werewolf.
Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924) was a Vicar in the Church of England in Devon, an archaeologist, folklorist, historian and a prolific author. Baring-Gould was also a bit eccentric. He reputedly taught classes with a pet bat on his shoulder. (SNIPE OF HOUSE SLITHERN HOGWARTS) He is best known for writing the hymn 'Onward Christian Soldiers'.
This book is one of the most cited references about werewolves. The Book of the Were-Wolf takes a rationalistic approach to the subject.
The book starts off with a straightforward academic review of the literature of shape-shifting; however, starting with Chapter XI, the narrative takes a strange turn into sensationalistic 'true crime' case-studies of cannibals, grave desecrators, and blood fetishists, which have a tenuous connection with lycanthropy. This includes an extended treatment of the case of Giles de Rais, the notorious associate of Joan of Arc, who was convicted and executed for necrosadistic crimes.Margaret Murray had a controversial theory about this subject. (SO DID ALEISTER CROWLEY, OF COURSE)
Nevertheless, the first ten chapters of this book constitute an essential work on the subject of werewolves. This etext was scanned at sacred-texts.
Why we should welcome the return of ‘Old Stinker’, the English werewolf
Over the last few months there has been something of a folk panic in Yorkshire, northern England, following reported sightings of an eight-foot werewolf with a very human face.
The werewolf “Old Stinker”, also known as “The Beast of Barmston Drain” is not a recent phenomenon – it was first reported in the 18th century. But these sightings – concentrated around the town of Hull – are especially intriguing considering that English folklore is rather barren of werewolf stories. Most wolves were extirpated from England under the Anglo-Saxon kings and so ceased to be an object of dread to the people (though wolves did in fact survive in the UK up until the 1500s). So what could be behind these new werewolf sightings?
In literature, accounts of lycanthropy – humans transforming into werewolves – can be traced back to the epic of Gilgamesh in 2100BC, whereas wolf fables begin with Aesop’s The Boy Who Cried Wolf, which was written at some point between 620 and 520 BC. Voluntary lycanthropy does appear from time to time – Virgil’s Eclogues are thought to be the first such account (42-39 BC), but becoming a werewolf is more commonly seen as “a curse” or a sign of bestiality, or at worst of cannibalism.
A werewolf devouring a woman. From a XIX c. engraving. Mansell Collection, London.
Most people have heard of witchcraft trials but werewolf trials are less well known – and those who were executed in werewolf trials in 16th and 17th-century France were believed to have a taste for human flesh. But these cannibalistic fears died down with the rise of psychoanalysis in the 19th century, when lycanthropy came to more commonly represent the “beast within” or everything animal that we have repressed in terms of our human nature.
History, then, provides us with two possible answers as to why people might think they’ve spotted werewolves in the English countryside. The first is a fear of violence, manifesting in anxieties around cannibalism. The second is a return of the repressed (perhaps the population of Hull are having a particularly Freudian spell?).
Needless to say, I cannot support these theories. I would argue instead that the answer lies in our cultural understanding of the werewolf and its connection to our native wolves. By reconsidering these primal links, we can begin to understand why people think they see werewolves – and this is pertinent to the appearance of Old Stinker himself. Were(wolves)
It is important to consider the werewolf as the spectre brother or shadow self of the wolf and to perceive the history of lycanthropy as being inextricably bound up with humankind’s treatment of wolves. For example, the case of Peter Stumpf, who was executed in Germany for being a werewolf in 1589, gained much noteriety in 16th-century Britain. It is notable that this interest corresponds with the extinction of the wolf in England in the 1500s.
Back to today. In 2015 the Open Graves, Open Minds project hosted the first international conference on werewolves at the University of Hertfordshire. This research drew attention to attempts to rewild the wolf in the UK and scholars began to question what would happen if wolves returned to our forests, as was prominent in associated media reports.
Our collaborations with the UK Wolf Trust generated further discussions around the possibility of rewilding large species in Britain including wolves and lynx. It is in this climate that new sightings of the Hull werewolf had begun to appear.
Who wants to re-wolf Britain? Nadezda Murmakova/Shutterstock
In July of this year newspapers reported that Old Stinker was terrorising women with his human face and very, very, bad breath (hence his name). The two most recent sightings were reported on in August: “Woman met eight-foot werewolf with human face” proclaimed the Metro newspaper. A full-scale werewolf hunt ensued after Old Stinker was spotted prowling an industrial estate. The werewolf had apparently eaten a German Shepherd dog and was seen leaping over fences like a modern day Spring-Heeled Jack (the folk devil that plagued Victorian London). Wolf guilt
Importantly, Old Stinker supposedly inhabits a landscape that is thought to have seen some of the last UK wolves. So the emergence of the Hull werewolf can reopen debates about the spectre werewolf’s relationship to the flesh and blood wolf. This coincides with a phase of severe environmental damage. It has not taken the form of sudden catastrophe, but rather a slow grinding away of species. The result is a landscape constituted more actively by what is missing than by what is present, a “spectred”, rather than “a sceptered isle”. He represents not only a nation’s belief in him as a supernatural shapeshifter, but its collective guilt at the extinction of an entire indigenous species of wolf.
Far from dismissing the myth, my instincts are to embrace it and see it as a response to our cultural memory around what humans did to wolves.
The Old Stinker story tells us that belief in werewolves lives on beyond the actual lives of the wolves that were thought to inspire them. Rather than being dismissed as a rather fishy tale, Old Stinker can activate the wolf warrior in all of us and allow us to lament the last wolves that ran free in English forests. Far from being a curse, he is a gift: he can initiate rewilding debates and redeem the big bad wolf that filled our childhood nightmares, reminding us that it is often humans, not wolves or the supernatural, that we should be afraid of.
October 30, 2016
Author
Sam George Senior Lecturer in Literature, University of Hertfordshire Disclosure statement Sam George does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
‘Truth’ behind those sightings of Hull’s Beast of Barmston Drain werewolf An American Werewolf in Hull? Published: Friday 21 October 2016
Collective guilt about wiping out the native wolf population could be cause behind the sightings of “Old Stinker” in Hull, according to an academic.
Media round the world picked up on claims that a “half-man, half-dog” creature had been spotted stalking the banks of the city’s Barmston Drain earlier this year. Barmston Drain in Hull: Could this be the home of 'Old Stinker'?
There were lurid reports of the “tall and hairy” beast being seen gobbling a German Shepherd and then jumping 8ft over a fence - with its prey still in its jaws.
The creature, dubbed the “Beast of Barmston Drain” was connected by folklorists to the legend of “Old Stinker”, a werewolf said to stalk the Yorkshire Wolds.
Further sightings followed - including in August when a woman in a car with friends claimed she saw a beast with a human head started walking towards them on two legs on a road through the East Yorkshire village of Halsham.
The location of the sightings, close to the East Yorkshire Wolds, which were once home to wolves, could be significant, according to Dr Sam George, a gothic scholar and literary expert.
Dr George, who was behind the UK’s first International Werewolf Conference at the University of Hertfordshire last year, said: “I often get asked what causes belief in werewolfism, but what is most pertinent and magical about this latest folk panic is that “‘Old Stinker’ is thought to inhabit a landscape which saw some of the last wolves in England.
“I argue that he represents, not our belief in him as a supernatural shapeshifter, but our collective guilt at the extinction of an entire indigenous species.”
Far from dismissing it as a figment of the imagination, Dr George says it’s important to explore people’s fears and look for deeper meanings, adding: “My instincts are to embrace it and see it as a manifestation of our cultural memory around wolves.
“‘Old Stinker’ is a gift; he can reawaken the memory of what humans did to wolves, draw attention to re-wilding debates, and redeem the big bad wolf that filled our childhood nightmares, reminding us that it is often humans, not wolves or the supernatural, that we should be afraid of.”
The sightings led to a freedom of information request to Hull Council which confirmed it had no policy on werewolves and rock legend Alice Cooper to ask: “So there are suddenly several reports of a werewolf like creature near a small town in the UK. Do you think it could be real?” NEWS 16/05/2016
8ft Tall Werewolf ‘Old Stinker’ Prowling In Hull Industrial Estate
An 8ft tall hairy creature which can stand upright like a man is said to be prowling a derelict industrial area just outside of Hull.
One eye-witness claims to have seen the “half-man, half-dog” lurking around the banks of Barmston Drain at Christmas and since then there have six further reported sightings
A woman told the Express: “It was stood upright one moment. The next it was down on all fours running like a dog. I was terrified. .A 'half-man half-wolf' beast is rumoured to be prowling an abandoned industrial estate just outside of Hull. Pictured is a still from the 1981 film An American Werewolf in London
“It bounded along on all fours, then stopped and reared up on its back legs, before running down the embankment towards the water.
“It vaulted 30ft over to the other side and vanished up the embankment and over a wall into some allotments.”
The sightings have been linked to the local legend of a werewolf called Old Stinker, described by author Charles Christian as “a great hairy beast with red eyes, who was so-called because he had bad breath.” ALAMY
The beast was allegedly spotted at Barmston Drain at Christmas
The legend was borne because that part of the country was once infested with wolves, Christian explains, pointing out that up until the 18th century there was still a bounty for anyone killing them.
“It was known for the wolves to dig up the corpses from graveyards. From that sprung the idea that they are supernatural beings, who took the form of werewolves,” he told the Hull Daily Mail.
Paranormal investigator Lee Brickely told Huffington Post UK: "It's a case I'm following closely, and it certainly raises many issues relating to the existence of werewolves in the UK.
"For the time being, I'd like to see more evidence and reports from locals."
Wolf bounties were offered during the 18th century (file picture)
Brickley, who is the author of UFOs, Werewolves & The Pig-Man, added: "As most people are aware, my home turf Cannock Chase is renowned for such encounters, and I'd most definitely like to investigate this case further. It appears, yet again, that there are many similarities within the sighting reports, and so I wouldn't rule this out as being a genuine paranormal encounter.
"Whether people believe werewolves are flesh and blood creatures or just beastly apparitions is another matter entirely."
But despite the 'evidence', Christian is sceptical that Old Stinker is back on the prowl.
Speaking to Huffington Post UK he said the animal is more likely to be “some feral creature living there that has got large and shaggy – like a big dog.” ANDREW MILLIGAN/PA WIRE
Could the animal be pet Husky that has been left to go feral?
Musing that it is likely to be a large breed that has been let go by owners who can no longer care for, Christian guesses it could be a Japanese Akita or a Husky.
“There has been a fashion for Huskies as pets and they grow enormous. The area where this animal is being sighted is semi-derelict and filled with abandoned warehouses and factories – an idea shelter for it," he said.
Christian, who is the author of A Travel Guide to Yorkshire's Wild Wolds added: “I wouldn’t advise stocking up silver bullets just yet. But I would advise against going out in the area by yourself without a big stick.”
Nonetheless, Hull historian Mike Covell has organised a nighttime “werewolf hunt” during the next full moon.
Covell said: "The idea is to visit the drain and walk along it armed with recording equipment. It has attracted a lot of interest and although people are taking it with a pinch of salt, they are fascinated by the reports."
He might want to keep Christian’s advice in mind. Just in case.
