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Starting on Dec. 14, birders across the U.S. will be tallying sightings for the Christmas Bird Count – a survey that has taken place annually since 1900 and generates valuable scientific data. But this may be the last year that they mark down “Cooper’s hawk” or “Wilson’s snipe.”
As sociologist – and birder – Jared Del Rosso explains, ornithologists have decided to rename bird species named for historical figures. Some of these people left problematic legacies that include racist or exclusionary actions. And any eponymous name – meaning tied to a specific person – implies human ownership over birds.
“Science has greatly expanded human understanding of birds in recent decades,” Del Rosso observes. “Trading eponymous names, which treat birds as passive objects, for richer descriptive names reflects this sea change in our understanding of avian lives.”
This week we also liked articles about former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s “desire for power at any cost,” a common motive for posting and liking hateful messages and Henry Kissinger’s deadly
obsession with Chile.
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Birders participate in the Christmas Bird Count on Theodore Roosevelt Island in Washington, D.C., Dec. 16, 2017.
Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Jared Del Rosso, University of Denver
What’s in a name? A lot, if you’re an Audubon’s Oriole or a Townsend’s Solitaire.
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Rep. Kevin McCarthy leaves a House Republican Conference meeting at the US Capitol on Dec. 5, 2023.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Rachel Hadas, Rutgers University - Newark
Kevin McCarthy, the only speaker of the House to be ousted, has quit Congress. The ancient Greeks and Romans, as well as Shakespeare, understood the price of ambition like McCarthy’s: humiliation.
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Producer Norman Lear on the set of his hit TV series ‘All In The Family,’ standing between its stars, Jean Stapleton and Carroll O'Connor.
Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
Yalda T. Uhls, University of California, Los Angeles
The TV producer showed how storytelling can bridge divides and serve as a beacon of truth in a complex world.
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Kristy Nabhan-Warren, University of Iowa
The famous apparition of the Virgin Mary has come to symbolize Mexico, but other groups – particularly migrants and Latinos north of the border – also feel a special connection to Guadalupe.
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Joseph B. Walther, University of California, Santa Barbara
Hate is for the haters. Much of the thrill of posting toxic messages can come from the attention and social approval a poster gets from like-minded people.
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Jorge Heine, Boston University
It’s hard to overestimate the role Henry Kissinger played in Chile. A former Chilean diplomat describes the mark that the powerful statesman made in his country and elsewhere in the Global South.
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