clock | March 31, 2007I really did not have time to follow up on the whole case, but Alun has so check out his latest.... And you can always be up to date by following the postings on the APWR Central blog. I wish the whole thing was just an April's Fool joke, but unfortunately, it is just one's fool's joke that threatens to destroy some real archeological treasures in the region.
clock | March 31, 2007Pursuing praxis
Chaos Theory
Fish Feet
Science After Sunclipse
Barbara's Blog (Barbara Ehrenreich)
Eleblog
Mass Eyes & Ears
Uri Kalish - Urikalization
Mythusmage Opines
clock | March 31, 2007Jenna drew a squid. Perhaps if I post it here, PZ will see it and post it as well, and send Jenna a Pharyngulanche of visitors to her blog.
clock | March 31, 2007A review of evo-devo (Jenner, R.A., Wills, M.A. (2007) The choice of model organisms in evo-devo. Nat Rev Genet. 8:311-314. Epub 2007 Mar 6.) is starting to make rounds on the blogs. I cannot access the paper (I'd like to have it if someone wants to e-mail me the PDF), but the press release (also found here) is very vague, so I had to wait for some blogger to at least post a summary.
This is what the press release says (there is more so click on the link):
The subject of evo-devo, which became established almost a decade ago, is particularly dependent on the six main model organisms that…
clock | March 31, 2007The best way to make it easy for the low-brow followers to kill the enemy is to dehumanize it. That is what right-wing talking-heads have been doing for a while. Of course, if someone actually gets killed, they did not do it - they were just telling "jokes" on radio or TV.
clock | March 31, 2007When I ask a guy for something, I may get Yes as an answer half the time and No half the time. Yes mostly means Yes and No means No. If the answer is "Let me think about it", that means usually that within 24 hours or so I will get a definitve Yes or No answer.
If I ask a woman for something, I rarely ever get a No. I may get Yes half the time and "Let me think about it" the other half. And moreover, Yes need not necessarily mean Yes, and "Let me think about it" ALWAYS means No - as in: I never hear about it again from that person.
On the surface, that sounds like dishonesty and playing…
clock | March 31, 2007Jason drove down to Knoxville and attended an ID-Creationist "conference" and lived to tell about it. And tell he did, in five installments:
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
All the usual suspects were there and all the usual nonsense was spouted, but the most interesting part was the Subway-line conversation Jason had (in Part Four), debating a handful of attendees and noticing age-difference in their thought-processes and debating strategies.
clock | March 31, 2007Alun Salt will be leading a session about the Peer-to-peer publishing and the creative process, i.e., publishing papers on blogs at the Classical Association conference at Birmingham so he has written a post on things he wants to say there - quite an excellent summary of pros and cons of the idea and clearing away some common misperceptions.
clock | March 30, 2007Time has convinced me of one thing: Television is for appearing on - not for looking at.
- Noel Coward
clock | March 30, 2007On her blog, of course:
For my money, John Edwards is the best candidate out there. Clinton has Iraqi and American blood on her hands; Obama has yet to lay out clear economic alternatives; and, although they might once have been Republican moderates, McCain and Giuliani are shamelessly snuggling up to the Christianist Right. I like Edwards because he's taken up the banner of the little guy and gal in America's grossly one-sided class war. He's laid out a plan for universal health insurance; he wants to repeal Bush's tax cuts for the rich; he shows up at workers' picket lines.
I met him on a…
clock | March 30, 2007First, there was a Tree Octopus, but now, there is an even more endangered animal - the Mountain Walrus:
Having just eaten a substantial meal, this herd will not have to hunt again for many days. For now, these mustangs are safe from the satiated walruses. Mountain walruses are carnivorous animals. They eat many species of animals, from mice to horses and elk. The cows will venture forth in small groups and hunt for the entire herd. They will bring whatever meat they were able to find back to the dens and all will partake. The younger cows are in charge of looking over the calves while the…
clock | March 30, 2007In today's issue of Science, there is a study showing that hunting of sharks, by eliminating the main predator of rays, leads to a decline in the ray's - and ours - food: the scallops:
A team of Canadian and American ecologists, led by world-renowned fisheries biologist Ransom Myers at Dalhousie University, has found that overfishing the largest predatory sharks, such as the bull, great white, dusky, and hammerhead sharks, along the Atlantic Coast of the United States has led to an explosion of their ray, skate, and small shark prey species.
"With fewer sharks around, the species they prey…
clock | March 30, 2007There is a growing, glowing discussion about the usefulness of college science labs that was started with an anti-lab post by Steve Gimbel and responded to, with various degrees of pro-lab sentiment by Janet Stemwedel, Chad, Chad again, Chad yet again, Razib, Jeremy and RPM and numerous commenters on all of their posts (also check older posts on the topic by Sean Carroll and Janet). Of course, I felt a need to chime in. I teach labs, after all (and I took many as a student as well).
The core of the problem is the very existence of the institution we call 'college'.
Let me explain.
There is…
clock | March 30, 2007Overfishing Large Sharks Impacts Entire Marine Ecosystem, Shrinks Shellfish Supply:
Fewer big sharks in the oceans mean that bay scallops and other shellfish may be harder to find at the market, according to an article in the March 30 issue of the journal Science, tying two unlikely links in the food web to the same fate.
Dinosaur Extinction Didn't Cause The Rise Of Present-day Mammals, Claim Researchers:
A new, complete 'tree of life' tracing the history of all 4,500 mammals on Earth shows that they did not diversify as a result of the death of the dinosaurs, says new research published in…
clock | March 29, 2007I guess some people have no sense of aesthetic pleasure, no personal connection to nature, and no ability to think beyond money, money, money. They want to drill in Chaco Canyon, of all places! Apparently, there is more time to act, as the drilling is being assessed. During that brief respite, we can try to tip the scales by peititoning people whose job is to make the final decision. Afarensis has all the details, additional information about the case, and the contact information for you to use to try to prevent this disaster.
clock | March 29, 2007The April Fool's Day edition of the Tar Heel Tavern will appear on Sunday, April 1st, on Scrutiny Hooligans, so send your entries by Saturday at midnight to: scrutinyhooligans AT yahoo DOT com
clock | March 29, 2007Heureka is an online popular science magazine in Austria which you should check out, especially if you can read German. But some things are in English, including this interview with yours truly...
There also blurbs about it (in German) in derStandard online and hardcopy, as well as on their science blog Sciblog.