Saturday, December 22, 2007 - Foscue Creek Park, Demopolis AL
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The Bobby Joe James pushing its charges out of the lock at Demopolis AL, December 21, 2007
A visit to the lower pool
That's the lower pool below the Demopolis Lock and Dam on the Tombigbee River, Demopolis AL. I arrived just in time to watch a coal barge pushed by the towboat Bobby Joe James work its way down through the lock and out onto the river. It took close to an hour for them to negotiate the lock, moving ever so slowly and carefully. From my vantage point it seemed as if there was barely room enough to slide a piece of paper between the barge and the sides of the lock.
Fish tale (tail?)
Yesterday a bit after sunset I had the good fortune to find myself seated in the green chair with binoculars trained on a nearby great blue heron who, after taking more interest than I might have imagined (to the extent of moving closer to get a better view) in a nearby 5th wheeler being maneuvered with some difficulty into a tight site, went back to standing hip deep, fishing, in the cove. A quick jab into the water and up came dinner, clamped in great blue's long beak. A nice, fresh flopping, 6 inch fish dinner. A quick head toss to turn it 'round and head-first down the hatch it went, flipping and flopping all the way, sending waves of feathers fluffing and flouncing to mark its course.
A changing of the guard
There are only two rigs still at the park that were here when I arrived on December 7th. Several pulled out today and were replaced by a new group for the weekend and beyond.
This Wal-Mart is green
The Demopolis AL Wal-Mart Supercenter is not painted the usual Wal-Mart blue and tan but a nice quiet green and tan. For some time I've been wanting to get a picture to post on the page journalling my first night in Demopolis so while running errands at Wal-Mart yesterday I grabbed a couple of pictures. The color scheme is a nice change. I would like to see Wal-Mart use it at more of their stores.
Night camp
Site 42 - Foscue Creek Campground, Demopolis AL
- This is a well maintained US Army Corps of Engineers campground with level paved sites, most with full hookups
- Many sites overlook the water of the inlets off Demopolis Lake on the Tombigbee River
- There is good biking on the park roads
- The campground is pretty full Thanksgiving week and is generally booked solid the weekend of the Demopolis Christmas on the River festival in early December.
- Poor Verizon cell phone service - access is via Extended Network, roaming
- No Verizon EVDO service - access is via the Extended Network and service varies is slow but reliable
- Only 3 miles to Wal-Mart and other services in Demopolis AL
- Find other references to Foscue Creek
- List the nights I've camped here
- Check the weather
- Reserve a site
- Get a map
Genetic Determinism and Human Nature
The "implication" that seems to worry people the most is so-called genetic determinism - the notion that if human nature was shaped by evolution, then it's fixed and we're simply stuck with it; there's nothing we can do about it. We can never change the world to be the way we want; we can never institute fairer societies - policy-making and politics are pointless.
Now, that's a complete misunderstanding. It doesn't distinguish between human nature - our evolved psychology - and the behavior that results from it. Certainly, human nature is fixed. It's universal and unchanging, common to every baby that's born, down through the history of our species.But human behavior, which is generated by that nature, is endlessly variable and diverse. After all, fixed rules can give rise to an inexhaustible range of outcomes. Natural selection equipped us with the fixed rules - the rules that constitute our human nature. And it designed those rules to generate behavior that's sensitive to the environment. So the answer to genetic determinism is simple. If you want to change behavior, just change the environment.