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Anthropology, Evolution and Science
Afarensis is a 3.5-2.8 million year old hominin from the Kada Hadar member of the Hadar formation in the Middle Awash, Ethiopia. He is approximately 41 inches tall, weighs approximately 60 pounds and has a cranial capacity of a whopping 410 cc (approximately). Afarensis is currently considered to be transitional between apes and humans and displays some traits of both. Since he spends a lot of time on the couch watching monster movies, some observers question whether he is an obligate biped (although no one has observed him climbing a tree). He also has a blog called Transitions:The Evolution of Life His previous blog can be found here.
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"Loyalty to petrified opinion never broke a chain or freed a human soul..."
Mark Twain
"Ideology is a poor substitute for rational thought..."
Afarensis
"It isn't faith that makes good science...it's curiosity"
Prof. Jacob Barnhardt, The Day the Earth Stood Still
"This man wishes to be accorded the same privilege as a sponge. He wishes to think!"
Clarence Darrow, Inherit the Wind
"...I become fearful when I see people substituting fear for reason..."
Klaatu, The Day the Earth Stood Still
"I want you to grab life by its little bunny ears and get in its face..."
The Simpsons
"This is between me and the vegetable..."
Seymour Krelborn, The Little Shop of Horrors
"There are bad laws and cruel laws and the people who enforce them are both bad and cruel..."
Thea, Isle of the Dead
"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." Jean- Luc Picard, Star Trek: The Next Generation
"But the limit of tolerance for these human foibles is obtained when the proponent of a questionable scientific doctrine endeavors to maintain it against all possible odds by misrepresentation, misinformation and suppression of contradictory data, and by insinuating unfairness in opponents of his views."
Franz Weidenreich, Morphology of Solo Man
"Man stands alone in the universe, a unique product of a long, unconcious, impersonal material process with unique understanding and potentialities. These he owes to no one but himself, and it is to himself that he is responsible. He is not the creature of uncontrollable and undeterminable forces, but his own master. He can and must decide and manage his own destiny."
George Gaylord Simpson, Life of the Past
Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the phd,
he's smarter than you he's got a science degree!
Yeah he's the Dick to the Dawk to the phd,
he's smarter than you he's got a science degree!
Unknown
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And when you look into the abyss, the abyss also looks into you.
Frederich Nietzsche
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
The Declaration of Independence
Category: Forensic Anthropology
Facial reconstructions are frequently used in forensic anthropology. Occasionally, they crop up in bioarchaeology as well (I'm thinking of a British TV show - the name of which escapes me - that also did facial reconstructions in every episode). They...
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 10:00 AM • 4 Comments •
Category: Forensic Anthropology
I t has long be rumored that the skull and some of the bones of Geronimo were in the possession of Skull and Bones. A letter uncovered by a Yale historian (more of that shortly) seems to confirm the rumor....
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 9:35 PM • 9 Comments •
Category: Forensic Anthropology
Kambiz has been busy. He is part of a team developing a new metabase devoted to forensic osteology. As Kambiz describes it:...
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 10:45 AM • 1 Comments •
Category: Anthropology
There are a number of interesting anthropology stories in the news today. My picks below the fold....
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 9:39 PM • •
Category: Forensic Anthropology
Although the person mentioned in this article is an archaeologist, this is an excellent example of forensic anthropology in action....
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 11:06 PM • •
Category: Forensic Anthropology
I'm currently working on a couple of book reviews that I hope to have up later in the week. In the meantime, I stumbled across this interesting story concerning forensic anthropology. According to the report a humerus, radius, and ulna...
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 10:46 PM • 7 Comments •
Category: Forensic Anthropology
The LA Times has an interesting story about Charles Manson and Barker Ranch. From the LA Times:...
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 6:33 PM • •
Category: Forensic Anthropology
There are a couple of interesting news items relating to forensic anthropology. First, this short piece on Beth Murray and forensic anthropology in high schools....
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 8:12 AM • •
Category: Insanity
Steve has taken time off from getting the new blog ready to bring us news of some credulous reporting on CNN. The reporting concerns some new woo called "Personology" which seeks to determine personality based on various measures of the...
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 1:34 PM • 9 Comments •
Category: Archives
This is one from my old blog and was originally published on 9/16/05. I am republishing it because it bears on some recently published research, which I will get around to blogging about after I have read the recently published...
Posted by afarensis, FCD at 9:44 PM • 3 Comments •
Orac 02.13.2012
ERV 11.26.2011
Tim Lambert 02.01.2012
Tim Lambert 09.12.2011
Orac 01.26.2012
