laelaps | March 13, 2009
Why did the turkey vulture cross the road? [Warning: The answer isn't pretty]
To get to the deer carcass on the other side, of course.
laelaps | March 12, 2009Everyone is talking about Atlas Shrugged in reference to current economic woes, but to me the arguments of the Faux News crew are more reminiscent of those made by Herbert Spencer and other "social Darwinists" in the latter half of the 19th century. (Check out Banquet at Delmonico's for more);
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The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
The Word - Rand Illusion
Colbert Report Full EpisodesPolitical Humor
Rap BattleNASA Name Contest
laelaps | March 12, 2009This is pretty cool. The new website Academic Earth has posted real college lectures from a variety of courses for free viewing. Since they are videos of actual courses it is just like being in class. There are only a smattering of subjects presently available but it might be a good resource if there's a course you always wanted to take but never got the chance to. Even better, no grades!
laelaps | March 12, 2009I cannot write a full review of it yet as I am only about 70 pages in, but so far I am very impressed by Sigrid Schmalzer's new book The People's Peking Man: Popular Science and Human Identity in 20th Century Science. Most of what I have previously learned about "Peking Man" (Homo erectus specimens from Dragon Bone Hill) had to do with its identification of it as an early human that, at the time, confirmed that Asia was the birthplace of humans. Unfortunately the fossils were lost when scientists tried to ship them out of the country for safekeeping at the onset of WWII, but surprisingly the…
laelaps | March 11, 2009I am not sure when it was recorded, but here is the audio (with pictures added by "CosmosFan1") from a lecture Stephen Jay Gould delivered at Wittenburg University in Ohio. There are a few unintentional flubs involving the dates Gould cites (that's 1859, not 1959...) but otherwise it's an interesting perspective on why Darwin's work was so important. Gould's take on Darwin's motivations for developing his theory get a bit speculative, but it is an interesting review all the same;
[My apologies, it seems that the remainder of this lecture has not been posted yet.]
laelaps | March 11, 2009Good news from the Beagle Project. The British Council has funded plans for a Beagle Project research network aboard the Brazilian tall ship Tocorime (or Adventure, the name of the sister ship of the Beagle) during its proposed exploration of South America. According to the Beagle Project blog this means the funding will go towards;
- a workshop in Rio de Janeiro "to bring together a new international team to discuss with the Tocorime operators - cruise logistics, scientific aims, timing, observations from space, public and schools outreach and contribution to the international Census of…
laelaps | March 11, 2009It has been a week since ABC's Nightline ran footage obtained by the Humane Society of primates being abused at the New Iberia Research Center in Louisiana. Even though the ethics of animal research has been big news on the blogs in the past week, with a poorly-argued article in last week's Huffington Post (Janet, DrugMonkey, Orac) and the recent attack on a UCLA scientist who uses primates in his studies (Janet, Evil Monkey, Nick), I am puzzled as to why there has been virtually no discussion of the footage taken at the New Iberia labs. For those of who you missed it, here is the Nightline…
laelaps | March 10, 2009
In 1857 Richard Owen proposed that our species, Homo sapiens, belonged to a distinct subclass separate from all other primates. He called this new group the Archencephala and based it as much upon human powers of reason as minute neuroanatomical differences between apes and humans. What's more, our "extraordinarily developed brain[s]" not only placed us above all other creatures but gave us new moral responsibilities, and in closing Owen stated;
Thus [Man] fulfils his destiny as the master of this earth, and of the lower Creation.
Such are the dominating powers with which we, and we alone,…
laelaps | March 10, 2009
Sasha, the Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
laelaps | March 9, 2009
From Life.
Starting on May 1, 1901 the great Pan-American Exposition delighted visitors for six months in Buffalo, New York. Organized to "promote commercial and social interests among the States and countries of the Western Hemisphere" the show displayed the modern wonders of art, science, and technology. Among the varied exhibits was Esau the chimpanzee.*
*[The infamous "Cardiff Giant" was also on display.]
Featured in the exhibit "The Evolution of Man", Esau was among the first performing apes in America. Others, like the first incarnation of Consul, had come before in Europe, but Esau…
laelaps | March 8, 2009If I ever have the chance to deliver a lecture on evolution again I may just have to use this clip (from Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder);
laelaps | March 8, 2009
On November 8, 1882 the paleontologist O.C. Marsh, popular minister Henry Beecher, industrialist Andrew Carnegie, and other influential men of the late 19th century converged on Delmonico's Restaurant in New York. They were there to toast Herbert Spencer, the social scientist who had gone beyond Charles Darwin's studies of natural transmutation to outline the evolution of society itself. All present, in one way or another, had been influenced by Spencer's work, and they ate and pontificated long into the night despite the fact that the dyspeptic Spencer would rather not have been there in…
laelaps | March 7, 2009
This morning I decided to make the most of the unusually warm weather by heading to the Bronx Zoo. I will post some of the photos I took during the coming days and weeks, but I couldn't wait to share this shot of a snow leopard.
laelaps | March 6, 2009
The Warren mastodon as originally mounted in the Warren Museum of Natural History. Note the size of the tusks. From The Story of Nineteenth-Century Science.
It is rarely crowded in the "Hall of Advanced Mammals" at the American Museum of Natural History. People stroll through on their way to see the dinosaurs and may stop to admire a fossil or two like the striking mount of Amphicyon, but the mammals just cannot compete with the star power of the archosaurs. This is a shame, for not only does the hall hold a weird and wonderful array of extinct creatures, but many people do not realize…