Stop by and say "Hi"

well, actually I don't own a place on ScienceBlogs.com, but still I manage to keep up the good work on "geomythology.blogspot.it" (my own blog-space).
You know, wtiting about history of science, palaeontological efforts in order to bring back memory from the very deep past, symbols in human cultures, psychology and, last BUT NOT least!, history of religions, how could I not read "Laelaps"?!? I can't wait 'bout 'nother post on Huxley or darwinian concepts! And I'm waiting for "the book" (consider me as a future reader and commenter on my blog!)

"[...] the study of the geological foundation to human myths [constitutes] an emerging discipline in the Earth sciences called 'geomythology'. This term was coined by Dorothy Vitaliano, in her pioneering book Legends of the Earth: their geologic origins (1973), as 'the study of the actual geologic origins of natural phenomena which were long explained in terms of myth and folklore' " (Piccardi 2007)."

Well, I do appreciate a lot this statement (and stuff like this), but in the end I try to give a more "humanistic" understatement of the phenomena foretold; literature and oral tradition, myths and religions, deserve a lot more than simply a scientific treatment as "(poor) folk's pre-science". Indeed, I study History of Religions for my M.Sc.-but do not expect from me something "religious": I study expressions of the sacred as a feeling.

On "Laelaps" I find what I'm looking for: history of science, concrete and precise refs, and a sort of "open-mindness" i really appreciate a lot.

Wish I was there! ;-)

Leonardo

Wish I could be at the meet-up, but even so near as being down in DC, a trip to NYC takes planning and time I don't have.

I've introduced myself here before, but here goes. I'm Joe Shelby, living in the DC area (since '84), and a software developer with a CS degree from JMU. I follow the "last 24 hours" feed regularly and found this here when it joined the SB gang. My other top reads (as in, I'll read them no matter what the topic) include Dispatches, EvolutionBlog (no, I didn't know Jason @ JMU - he arrived long after I'd left), GoodMathBadMath, and Orac (though he writes too much in a single post! :) ). I'll otherwise follow any other post when it has to do with evolution (though at a certain point, the details do become numbing), anti-creationism, and anything else involving the efforts of the religious to destroy our constitutional safeguards. Oh, and though not an atheist, I do follow PZ and Greg Laden.

I got into evolution studies (as an amateur, of course) from the Walking With series, particularly Beasts. Occasional faulty science and speculation aside, it is beautiful and really woke me up to that missing gap nobody ever talked about before. We all knew the dinosaurs, we all know some of the ice age beasts (sabertooths, mammoths, etc), but all of those creatures of the Eocene and Oligocene, the details of the progress of whales, the terrorbirds - nobody had ever shown me any of that before.

I have, of course, picked up several layman's books on it since, and quite liked the recent discussions you've had on the topics.

Hi,

I'm a professional comic book/graphic novel artist (15 years.) But I also enjoy drawing dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasties. I've been sold on evolution from birth I guess, been really into dinosaurs for the last 9 years or so. I can't spell all that well, for some reason I just can't remember all the stupid little rules and exceptions. Yes, I can use a spell checker, but if I don't know how to spell it, it can be useless. That's the biggest reason I don't comment very much, but I do like the posts and all the information (and thanks again for the help with the abelisaurs!)

I'm currently working on a dinosaur art book for fun, and doing the GN adaption of Dean Koontz's Frankenstein. I guess I just love monsters;)

Thanks again!

Brett

@Brett: glad to meet you on Sblog's "Laelaps"! I'll visit your blog as soon as I can. I'm very happy to know people interested in science, palaeontology and religion! [f course, Thanx Brian Switek!]
Leo

Hey, all!

I'm Sean Craven. I've been a manual laborer since I was thirteen, specializing in toilets, ditches, and boxes. This came to an end a while ago -- back injury and there are a lot of details to that story -- and since then I've been trying to figure out what what the hell to do with my life.

Post-surgery, I've gotten training in computer graphics, have written terrible animation scripts for Mondo Media (mostly Thugs On Film, writing Cockney dialogue for Cockney actors, which was a hoot for this Californian -- stuff wound up on BBC and got a cult audience in East London, not that they paid me any more...), and am currently back in school. I'm studying art while I work on a novel. When the novel's done I'm going into an editing program, manuscript tucked neatly under my arm.

I'm mildly active in the small press -- this summer I've got ficiton and/or art in three different magazines, one of which I design and co-edit. ( For the record: http://www.mondaynightlit.com/, http://www.swillmagazine.com/, and the award-winning Milvia Street.)

And there have been some recent developments I don't want to jinx... but it looks like I might have a story in an upcoming anthology with some of the big boys. (The editor ran across a chunk of my stuff on the Swill website and then contacted me. That's the way to do it, let them come to me.!) Fingers crossed, knock wood...

I also do paleo art -- there's some of it on my site, including links to the pieces the University of Bristol put up on their dinosaur database. Hey, Brian used one of mine -- here it is.

http://scienceblogs.com/laelaps/2008/04/cambrian_freaks.php

My funtime practices include day hiking, cooking, playing bass with The Dizzy Toilet Devils, and reading comics (Hey, Brett!). I waste time with television and the net. I live with my beloved wife and two dogs, one cool, one irritating. (She's barking at a car as we speak -- a high-tension terrier with ultrasonic components.)

And I tend to be pretty verbal, believe it or not.

I read Laelaps for two main reasons. One is for the various scraps of information and natural history -- that's what sucked me in. The other is that -- well, this is kind of embarassing. But I'm an insomniac. It gets lonely at three in the morning...

I once walked in on the Missus while she was watching Friends. "How can you stand this horrible Anglo-Saxon-noun-currently-regarded-as-a-vulgarity?" She got really quiet.

"Sometimes I feel like they're my friends."

Isn't that just the saddest thing you've ever heard in your life? And that's part of what I get out of reading blogs; a sense of contact with likeable personalities, people I'd like to hang out with. So I read this because Brian is one of my imaginary friends, like those folks over at Eat Our Brains or the guy who does Achewood. Man, that is so sad.

Well, I've already been to NYC twice this month, so I'm giving the Sb meetup a miss. Sadly. There are a lot of folks going I'd love to meet, but I just can't hack the bus down from Boston for a third time in a month, even if it does have wifi. ;P

As for me, I'm just this guy. I love dinosaurs, like everybody who was ever a child. And like everybody who was a child in my generation, Jurassic Park bears a lot of responsibility for keeping me interested well into adulthood. I was never tempted into paleontology, though. I prefer soldering irons to pickaxes and toothbrushes, so yeah.

Obviously, what keeps me coming to Laelaps are the cool news stories about the latest breaking dinosaur science. Because, as we've established, dinosaurs are cool. ;)

I'm a math and physics guy who hangs around here because I don't want to stay too confined to my specialization, and because our host has interesting things to say about science popularization and other such stuff I find important. I'm also one of Joshua's confrères in the Boston Skeptics in the Pub circle — just another guy who couldn't get away from Boston this weekend.

I'm a recovering computer nerd turned microbiologist and "non-traditional" college student (now graduated and looking into graduate school). I am also the internet's foremost authority on Expired JellO Science (ask Google, it'll back me up on that...).

I read this blog due to three reasons (in no particular order):

• *It's part of the "all blogs" RSS feed...
• *I'm quite sympathetic to your travails in college (having just finished my 20-year "4-year" degree in December 2007)
• *Dinosaurs. I mean, come on, what kind of self-respecting nerd - especially a biology nerd - doesn't retain at least a little bit of interest in dinosaurs and other prehistoric biology?

I tend to skip over most of the posts in the "all blogs" RSS feed in general, but yours is one of the few that regularly inspire at least a casual interest from me.

(I've been wondering if I'd get any response if I did a similar "introduce yourself" thread on my tiny blog - I've only got about 10-15 regular readers at the moment... http://www.bigroom.org/wordpress if there are any sympathetic folks interested in giving it a look. Applied Microbiology, Food Science, Brewing, etc. tend to make up the bulk of the topics.)

Given how much enjoyment I get out of this blog (I read several blogs here at scienceblogs and it's in my top three) I think I owe you a post. I'm a geology undergrad that hopes to become a paleontologist at some point (with a focus on dinosaurs), and I have a bit of an obsession with evolution. I also have a broad variety of intellectual interests outside of my chosen field, history of science being one of the brightest shining among them, which makes this blog a wonderful experience for me. I'm also one of the people out there that thinks you have a great writing style and likes to read what you write just for the sake of the writing (some people just have that gift, Gould and Dawkins come to mind). I plan on running a blog of my own eventually, and I think that reading good writers helps me improve my writing skills.

Like others here, I am looking forward to your book!

I teach evolution, vertebrate zoology, and many other fun classes at a community college in western NY. I love this blog because I love reading about evolution, the history of science, and paleontology. After a day of teaching to students who can be less than as enthusiastic as I about these subjects, it's nice to know that there are others who love science. I enjoy being kept up to date on some of the cutting edge peer reviewed material as well. This is the first blog I check every day...after my wife's, of course...in case she's reading this and IDs me.

Hello everyone, I'm Mo, I'm 22 years old from London. I'm kind of a Masters student at the Natural History Museum, but I'm taking some time out at the moment. I'm currently writing the definitive dictionary on the etymology of tetrapod scientific names, which is fun and challenging at the same time. Other than taxonomy and nomenclature, my interests are palaeontology (especially vertebrates and trilobites), wildlife art, wildlife photography and a bit of geology. I don't like to advertise, but see my blog for examples of my art and photography! I like to travel around the UK to different zoos and museums to build up my portfolio.

I discovered this blog through Tetrapod Zoology; I can't wait for a new photo of the day every day from here, they truly are great photos that show patience, clarity and observation skills that I often lack when it comes to wildlife photography!

Hey, I am Aaron from the anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania, I'm 21 and i am a community college graduate (i got my education in a strip mall between a CVS and a Chinese take out place. i remodel homes for less than minimum wage and collect scrap metal for a living, live with friends, and spend some of my spare time reading up on the sciences. I read a lot of scienceblogs and alot of science related blogs outside of circle. i stumbled on to you awhile ago after seeing something on TetZoo and added you to my favorites. Been reading ever since, thank you

I'm Dallas, I'm a Biology major undergrad who hopes to one day have a Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology, and I'm also highly interested in physics and astronomy. I'm currently employed in a vascular toxicology lab at LSU and have had the privilege of researching cases of pulmonary hypertension due to toxic compounds (sadly for me this has nothing to do with evolution or creatures other than humans, mice, and rats, but it's still highly interesting and great lab experience). As someone who aspires to be and Evo. biologist I have done my best to obtain a massive collection of skulls and bones of extant mammals (mostly but not exclusively) and I often give lectures at schools using my collection and tying their structures and functions to natural selection, phylogenics, etc.

Along with Tet Zoo, Pharyngula, and Bad Astronomy, this is most certainly one of my favorite blogs. Keep up the good work.

You're one of the blogs I go to occasionally to learn things.

Plus, dinosaurs are cool.

And I need a break from pure outrage every once in a while, and there's always something to make me angry on the other blogs I read.

Hey, I'm an undergrad in Geology at Apalachian State University (North Carolina). I'm on track to go to grad school, and then hopefully get my Ph.D. in vert paleo. I'm currently interested in paleo ecology, but that's as an undergrad, so who knows where my studies will take me.

Of the blogs I read, yours is the one in which I see the best, arguably most professional, writing. Your posts tend to be well thought out and insightful; eschewing the opinion-laced emotional drama I see in things like political blogs, or even some other science blogs. Honestly, I mostly just want to thank you for putting up such high quality reading material for my bored moments :D

howdy, just dropped by!

Hi, I'm a 29 year old evolutionary anthropology PhD student at Rutgers University. Brian already knows me in person, and this is how I came to this blog. I had a combined graduate/undergraduate class with Brian in the fall semester of 2007 and he impressed me with his intellect and his thoughtfulness. Not many undergrads I meet (even when I was an undergrad) are quite so mature nor so able to think independently as well as Brian does. I come to this blog because Brian keeps me up-to-date on the happenings in paleontology that aren't concerned with paleoanthropology. He's also a fantastic writer and is able to cover so many different subjects, from his own work to that of others, including interviews. I always learn something new when I read his blog, and I enjoy his superb photography.

I regularly check your blog because it makes me happy that someone your young age is interested in organismal biology and science history and writes so well about it. Your pursuit of sources for your research is inspiring, too. Plus, I learn a lot.

OK I'll bite. My real name is Caleb (Hebrew for Dog, which is fine by me because I think dogs [big ones at least] are awesome) and I read this blog because science and biology are one of the few things that give me any sense of wonder at the world. In a way, life and science are my 'Religion,' my 'God' so to speak.

For instance, when I first discovered scienceblogs in general, I knew fairly little about science, but loved dinosaurs and always wished to see one. Imagine the slap-in-the-face of Awesomeness I received when I learned that birds -ARE- dinosaurs. Sure it's not the same as ever seeing a real live Tyrannosaurus or Sauropod, but it has changed the way I look at the world, irrevocably.

A few more facts about me: (feel free to stop reading here if you don't care)

I post under 'Max Paddington' because I think clever nicknames with repulsive implications are funny.

I'm an utter narcissist.

I don't post often because I have a habit of ruining anything I post on. Nothing personal, just who I am, so I make sure NOT to ruin places I actually respect.

I'm the only guy who's not a male supermodel* who can actually rock long hair without looking like a tool. (*That I know of)

I constantly impress my circle of friends (it's a very small circle by choice thank you) by my immense knowledge of animals and biology, and yet barely even graduated from high school, at age 20. Personally I don't know what all the fuss is about.

I'm really awesome. (See 'Narcissist')

I have a sense of humor that's about as sophisticated as that chimp at the zoo who has to be housed in a plexiglass pen because he won't stop chucking turds.

I really like smoking. It's my hobby.

Outside of Scienceblogs, I'm what is referred to on the internet as a 'troll'.

I have the stupidest and most juvenile email address on the entire internet: (fart_in_my_mouth@live.ca)

I'm a tech-support geek at a university, and the ScienceBlogs combined feed has a prominent place in my Google Reader (which always occupies one screen on my desk). When I see interesting articles I click over, and very often that's you because you write interesting posts about evolution and of course dinosaurs.

I think I stumbled across your blog while looking around ScienceBlogs & I liked it so much that it's become one of my daily fixes :-) I particularly enjoy your posts on the history of science as it's something I'm keenly interested in, but your writing is always stimulating, whatever the topic, & I love the photos.

My own background is in science education & while I'm on the staff here at Waikato as a biology lecturer I do a lot of education outreach; I find blogs like yours a wonderful way to keep up with areas that I'm not particularly knowledgeable about but often get asked questions in. (Gosh, that's garbled grammar but I hope you get the idea!)

people who are just interested in evolution regularly stopping by

That's me. 57-y-o IT business analyst with no training in palaeontology, but a lifetime's interest. I find your commentary on new developments amazingly accessible, and your pictures are awesome, so I visit most days. And, as you might guess from the spelling above, I visit from Britain.

BTW, I just wanted to say that I also greatly enjoyed meeting you Saturday! Next time I'll bring sunglasses for that smile of yours. ;-)