OpEd by Paul Henreid, Esq.
Vice President of the Oso / Neenach Town Council

The Duck Test (TDT) is a humorous term for a form of abductive reasoning—or logical inference—which goes from observation to a theory, ideally seeking to find the simplest and most likely explanation.

The usual expression you’ve heard is: “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck—then it probably is a duck.”

The test implies that a person can identify an unknown subject by observing that subject’s habitual characteristics. The Duck Test sometimes counters arguments that something is not what it appears to be.

Los Angeles County, the most populous county in America, is no stranger to dumping their trash in distant places.

You’ve heard the ubiquitous acronym NIMBY [Not In My Back Yard], right?

Maybe this is why the Antelope Valley has literally become a dumping ground for . . . ducks? Some call it ‘mulch,’ defined in the dictionary as “a covering…(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

Paul Henreid, Esq. standing in pile of waste near an SEA in the Western Antelope Valley

Paul Henreid (left) stands in a towering pile of waste and trash that is spread across 40 acres, he says, in the Western Antelope Valley. He adds that it is cropping up across the entire region, altering the landscape. The material is also filled with shreds of plastic, rubber and cloth objects (right) which are blowing into the SEA (Significant Ecological Areas) designated for protection by Los Angeles County. Henreid, an attorney, says the county appears to be not following its own ordinance against illegal dumping.

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This is part of the May 13, 2016 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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