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Friday Sprog Blogging: roll the dice.

Sitting here on the calendar between Chinese New Year and Saint Patrick's Day, it seemed like a good time for the sprogs to do some investigations of gambling devices -- in particular, dice. Dr. Free-Ride: Will you roll dice for me? Younger offspring: Can I use the purple ones? Dr. Free-Ride: Sure. Hey, we're going to roll 36 times. Before we start rolling, can you make some guesses about how many of your rolls will come up as sixes? Younger offspring: Ummm ... I think three. Dr. Free-Ride: Really? How many do you think will come up as fives? Younger offspring: I don't really know. I…

When activists are also human: issues of consistency.

I'd like to take a moment to consider a recent comment on a fairly old post about a class meeting wherein my students and I considered some of the inconsistent views about animals with which people seem to walk around. Here's what the commenter said: "But, as one of my students put it, 'Some of these people who want to shut down the animal research facilities should put a sock in it while they're still eating meat.'" This suggests that your classroom discussion created a false impression in your students, perhaps due to your own false assumptions. I've campaigned for ten years to end harmful…

Friday Sprog Blogging: the power of words and the psychology of groups.

This is not a "cute" story. It's an infuriating story about a school climate gone mad. And, although I suspect an organizational psychologist could give a nuanced analysis of the situation, that's not my area of expertise, so I'm just going to tell the story. Elder offspring was sent to the Vice Principal's office yesterday. When the office called Dr. Free-Ride's better half about the incident, the crime they reported was "saying the B-word". I should say right now, if you're in earshot of an elementary or secondary school as you're reading this post, please don't read it out loud! I…

Having a family and an academic career: one blogger's experience (part 2).

Where we left off in part 1: In my fifth (and last) year of funding in my philosophy Ph.D. program, staring down 30, trying to finish a dissertation, and bracing myself for the rigors of the academic job market, I said to myself, "How could having a baby make things noticably more difficult?" Then I remembered: I'd have to tell my advisor. I would characterize my relationship with my graduate advisor as a pretty good one. He always found time to meet with me, gave me good suggestions about what to read, made useful comments on my writing, and really pressed me to figure out what my view was…

Friday Sprog Blogging: climate change and ecosystems.

Driving home with the Free-Ride offspring yesterday, we heard a story on the radio that caught out attention. (The radio story discusses newly published research that's featured on the cover of Nature this week.) When we got home, we had a chat about it. Dr. Free-Ride: What did you guys learn from that story on the radio about the yellow-bellied marmot? Elder offspring: That, in the short term, climate change is good for some species. Dr. Free-Ride: Tell me more about that. Elder offspring: Well, it made the marmots increase in size and numbers. Elder offspring: I was going to say that! .…

Good riddance to a pair of academic pretenses.

Following DrugMonkey's lead, I'm going to play along on the meme proposed by Female Science Professor: What tradition or other general characteristic of academia would you like to see eliminated completely? According to the rules, which I just invented, the things to be eliminated have to be of a general nature. So, for example, the answer "my department chair" or "my university's moronic president" are unacceptable unless you want to eliminate the general concept of department chairs or university presidents. The candidates for disposal can be anything to do with academia, from the most…

It's an epidemic!

An epidemic of quackery, that is. Shame on CNN for allowing this babbling to go on. The producer of their medical news wrote an absurd anecdote, a story that reveals his credulity. My husband's best friend, Hans, was supposed to be in our wedding. But three weeks before the ceremony, Hans learned he had testicular cancer. He was 38. The prognosis wasn't good. The cancer had spread to his lungs, part of his stomach and his liver. We visited Hans a few days before we left on our honeymoon. He looked awful, and we were not optimistic that he would be alive when we returned. In a cold and dingy…

The first crane and the last crane

The first crane I ever saw is a bird burned permanently in my memory. It came out of nowhere and flew close by, staying in view lit by a nearly setting sun for about five wing beats. A gun was raised to shoot it but the trigger was not pulled. I was a teenager, and the brother of a co-worker invited me to go hunting with him. The idea was not for me to actually hunt, but rather, for me to see what hunting was all about. It was a social gesture and a manly gesture. If I like hunting perhaps I would join one of their hunting groups, get a firearm, learn to shoot, and become one of the boys…

More on doctors and terrorism

The other day, I wrote about how several of the suspects arrested in the attempted car bombings in London and Glasgow were physicians or in training to be physicians. At the time, I expressed dismay at what I viewed to be a betrayal of the very basis of our profession, that we try to help people and make them better, not kill them. The post engendered a lot of discussion (and the expected amount of doctor-bashing based on my supposed naivete in stating that most physicians go into medicine to help people, a statement that I stand by). Now, via Kevin, MD (who apparently got this by way of…

Happy Blasphemy Day: How I became an atheist

It was Blasphemy that led me to Atheism by a somewhat circuitous yet in the end well marked path. This is the story of my first step on that path. It was the lies they kept telling me. You can do whatever you want, god will forgive you if you ask for it. That did not seem logical or fair. If you watched a Jewish ceremony at the temple you would turn into a skeleton. The nuns actually told me that. If you even go near a Jewish Temple you will be cursed. One of our favorite places to play (because we pretended the star in the window meant it was the Marshall's office like in Gun Smoke)…

The Earliest Known Use of Flaked Stone Tools by Hominids?

It is possible that a much earlier than previously known date for the use of flaked stone tools has been established in Ethiopia, dating to prior to 3.39 million years ago. A paper just out in Nature by McPherron et al suggests that a set of marks found on two bones recovered from the surface very near a locality for which an estimated date can be obtained were caused in antiquity by stone tools wielded by hominids. The date predates any prior known chipped stone tool artifacts of the kind that would leave such marks. The absence of chipped stone tools in the archaeological record in which…

Apple screws pooch with iPhone 4. But there is a fix.

"You're holding it wrong," is apparently the latest 'advice' from Apple's Steve Jobs. When the iPhone 4 first came out, people noticed a lot of signal drops. To me, that would not be surprising because the iPhone requires the AT&T service, which, in Minnesota, totally sucks. There are vast areas of my own personal geography where AT&T has zero signal, and most of the rest of it ranges from acceptable to sucky. But it turns out that the iPhone had low-bars to an extent beyond that expected. In early July, Apple explained this as a software problem. The signal was fine, but the…

Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson died one year ago. The following is a repost of something I wrote at that time: ~~~~~~ I have only one Michael Jackson story. Michael Jackson was an international pop icon for a very long time, because he started his career so early. He was also African American. Bob Marley predated Jackson, and was Afro-Caribbean. For these and various other reasons, the face of Bob Marley and the face of Michael Jackson adorned the walls and backbars of clubs and taverns throughout Zaire in the 1980s. Moreover, these were the ONLY faces one saw in these contexts. Now, you have to…

What if "Boob Quake" had been ...

"Dick Shake" I want to start out by restating (or stating more plainly) that the Tokenskeptic podcast should be on your listening list, and that it influenced my own thinking about Boob Quake. Previously, I had been mainly interacting with people with a positive or neutral view of the Boob Quake, and in observing their relationship to the broader community of skeptics, feminists and atheists, noted that they were getting increasingly crapped upon for their involvement in it by subsets of those communities. The cleavage between pro and anti Boob Quake grew as quakes often do, along pre-…

The Origin of the Human Smile

A colleague and grad student of mine, Rob, just sent me the following question, slightly edited here: A student in my intro class asked me a good question the other day to which I had no answer. When did smiling cease to be a threat gesture? I have a couple of ideas. One is that with reduced canines, smiling became a way to say "look, I have small canines, I am not a threat to you." The other is that smiling is based more on a "fear-grin" than a threat. Under this idea, smiling might have been a way of showing deference to others. If everyone shows deference, it would be egalitarian, until…

A Case Against Home School Athletes

If you're ineligible to walk across the stage in your cap and gown, then you should be ineligible to walk on the field with your cap and glove. I'm not certain that I agree with this argument, but it is worth considering. There's [a Seinfeld] episode in which a floundering George Costanza is trying to figure out what career to pursue after quitting his real estate job. He hits upon sports broadcaster. "Well," skeptical pal Jerry says, "they tend to give those jobs to ex-ballplayers and people that are, you know, in broadcasting." "Well, that's really not fair," George replies. The joke is, of…

Brian Deer responds to Keith Olbermann

Last night, I lambasted Countdown host Keith Olbermann for having been played by the antivaccine movement and having unjustly slimed British journalist Brian Deer. Clearly, Olbermann was so blinded by his hatred of Rupert Murdoch that all chief apologist for the antivaccine movement, former freelance journalist David Kirby, had to do was mention that The Times of London, the newspaper that published Brian Deer's excellent investigative report nailing anti-MMR guru Andrew Wakefield to the wall for falsifying data, is owned by Rupert Murdoch, and it was like waving the proverbial red cape in…

Report a bad doctor to the authorities, go to jail? The cranks weigh in

Well, well, well, well. I should have know that sooner or later a certain group would weigh in on the trial of Anne Mitchell, RN, whose malicious prosecution is a result of a doctor who peddles woo using his connection with Boss Hogg Winkler County Sheriff Robert L. Roberts to find out who had complained against him and prosecute her criminally, trying to throw her in jail for up to ten years for doing her duty and reporting this doctor's questionable activities. Before I reveal what crank group has weighed in, given that its identity will not come as much, if any, of a surprise, let's just…

It's that time of the year again: The Global Orgasm has returned

Now why can't all New Age-y pseudoscientific mumbo jumbo be like this New Age-y pseudoscientific mumbo-jumbo? Yes, it's back. Starting right around now, it's Global Orgasm time again: WHO? All Men and Women, you and everyone you know. WHERE? Everywhere in the world, but especially in countries with weapons of mass destruction and places where violence is used in place of mediation. WHEN? Solstice Day - December 22, at 06:08 Universal Time (GMT) WHY? To effect positive change in the energy field of the Earth through input of the largest possible instantaneous surge of human biological,…

David Irving: "Free speech" and Holocaust denial

If you've been a regular reader here, one thing you know about me is just how much I detest Holocaust denial. What I detest even more, however, is when a Holocaust denier wraps his Nazi apologia and anti-Semitism in the cloak of free speech, particularly when he tries to claim martyr status while doing it. The ever-odious David Irving is particularly good at this, particularly when he flaunts the law of another country and enters it, knowing that there is a warrant for his arrest for denying the Holocaust, and then is shocked--shocked, I say!--that the police actually arrested him and that…

5 alternative medical treatments that "work"?

Some readers have been sending me links to this article on CNN.com entitled 5 Alternative Medicine Treatments That Work. Unfortunately, Your Friday Dose of Woo took up the time that normally would have gone into given this article the lovingly Respectfully Insolent⢠treatment that this utterly credulous article so richly deserves and that you, my faithful readers, demand. Fortunately Mark over at denialism.com has taken the time to fisk this one in detail. Does that mean Orac has nothing more to say on this article? You know the answer to that one. Mark just made it so that I can restrain my…

Andrew Wakefield's legacy

I hadn't been planning on doing any serious pieces to intersperse within the reruns of old posts while on vacation. Despite the impression some have gotten from my Random Observations posts about London and Britain, we've had an absolutely wonderful time the last week and are sorry to see it end. (Although I understand that I might have ruffled a few feathers when I complained about restaurant service, who would have thought that a post about how polite and friendly Londoners seem to us or an intentionally silly post about our failure to have seen any squirrels in London would have ruffled a…

MRI for the detection of early breast cancer

After a lot of the not-so-Respectful Insolence⢠of the last couple of weeks, I've been meaning to get back to living up to the name of the overall mega-blog, namely ScienceBlogs. Meeting up with my fellow SB'ers over the weekend in New York Fortunately, last week a topic just so happened to pop up related to my area of expertise, when a study in The Lancet was published evaluating the use of MRI in breast cancer. It happened to get a bit of press when it came out last month, some of it a bit breathless, as though this were a revolutionary observation. (To some extent it was unexpected, but…

More on that Miller guy

I've now listened to a recording of Miller's talk in Kansas. I like it even less. Miller is an excellent speaker. He's persuasive, he's clear, he knows his science well, and he was an impressive participant in the conflict at Dover…and he was on the correct side. Here's the problem: he's wrong now. What he does is an insightful and lucid analysis of the problems with creationism, and then tries to wrap it up by identifying the source of the problem. Unfortunately, he places the blame in the laps of atheists, which is simply absurd. We've got fundamentalists straining to insert religious…

Reaction to the AAPOR press release

I asked Mary Losch (chair of AAPOR's Standards Committee) to comment on my previous post I have read your entry and would note that the links you provided did not supply the questionnaire items but rather a simple template (as noted in the heading). The Johns Hopkins report provides only superficial information about methods and significantly more detail would be needed to determine the scientific integrity of those methods -- hence our formal request to Dr. Burnham. The Hopkins website refers to data release but, in fact, no data were provided in response to our formal requests.…

Anti-blasphemy = anti-free speech

Chalk this up under "Yet another example of U.N. incompetence": UNITED NATIONS - Islamic countries Monday won United Nations backing for an anti-blasphemy measure Canada and other Western critics say risks being used to limit freedom of speech. Combating Defamation of Religions passed 85-50 with 42 abstentions in a key UN General Assembly committee, and will enter into the international record after an expected rubber stamp by the plenary later in the year. But while the draft's sponsors say it and earlier similar measures are aimed at preventing violence against worshippers regardless of…

Heated Arguments and Melting Fractals (Fractal LXX)

Something about climate change makes people want to argue. Take Greenland, for instance. A few weeks ago, I posted a photo essay about the recent acceleration of melting in the Greenland Ice Sheet. Not only is the entry is still getting comments, but it also spurred a discussion on a political message forum that went on for six pages. Watching all these opinions fly, there were a number of times that I wanted to dive in and start defending science... but I’m a hermit, and it is more fun to lurk and watch. Besides, every point that I wanted to bring up can be found in a paper I’ve been waiting…

Stone, Steam and Sand: A Geologic Photo Tour of Southwest Colorado, Part II

Hot and Steamy Ok, I'll admit, the title is a bit gratuitous. But whether you're here seeking hotness, history or geology, you've come to the right place. The volcanism which formed the San Juan Mountains has settled over the centuries, but, as with the glaciers, signs of a fiery past remain. The layers of hardened tuff have weathered into fertile soils, lending to the thick vegetation covering the area today. Throughout the mountains and in the valley below, some parts of the continental plate are still worn thin. Magma still flows near the surface, heating the groundwater, which bubbles up…

OAS Wednesday - Location, location, location

For this week's OAS Wednesday, I thought I'd try to highlight some research that's in my field. As a result, I will likely be more prone than usual to lapsing into jargon and assuming knowledge that I shouldn't (or maybe I'll over-correct and get too simplified). Please let me know if anything needs clarification. In real estate, they say that the three most important things to consider are location, location and location. The same could probably be said about many aspects of biology, including the immune system - if you get a cut on your toe, you don't want inflammation in your kidney. I've…

On how science happens - Case Study: NASA, Arsenic, and Controversy

If you read Alex Bradley's guest post calling into question the claims of the recent Science paper stating the existence of microbes that can substitute arsenic for phosphorus in their DNA you might be wondering what to take away from it all, if the scientists can't even agree on whether the study is valid or not. I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on the scientific process and hopefully explain why this type of intellectual discourse demonstrates the strength of the scientific process rather than being an example of scientists not knowing what they are talking about. Here's the…

Giving the Lie: Blogs and Scientific Criticism

I have been slowly wading through A Social History of Truth, Steven Shapin's study of how early modern English gentleman's etiquette was appropriated for scientific purposes - primarily to help decide who to trust, and to handle disagreements about the nature of the world. While Shapin doesn't move beyond the context of early modern England or speculate about what modern scientific culture might have inherited from the founders of the Royal Society (doing so properly would be an awful lot of work), he discusses several concepts which I have very much enjoyed comparing to the interactions I…

Double Drug Jeopardy

From the archives: (17 February 2006) I'll be honest with you: I really don't know what to think about drug companies. I'll give them some credit, since unlike many of their peers they produce a product that is useful to society and has important humanitarian implications. I want to like them--I really do--but when I read about things like this, it becomes pretty difficult. On 15 February, The New York Times published a detailed account in its business section on the exorbitant prices some pharmaceutical companies are willing to charge for their therapies. The report focused on Avastin,…

BBC reply to the Janet Thompson incident

Last week I wrote about how the BBC's Drive Time show on Radio 2 allowed a quack therapist to promote herself on air, making bizarre statements about the human body. This included the 'scientifically proven' existence of meridians which "carry the energy of our thoughts". Needless to say, myself and others took umbrage to this miseducation, so I submitted the following to the BBC complaints panel: As a science writer, I was disappointed to find out that your R2 Drive Time show on Wednesday gave a considerable amount of airtime to life coach Janet Thompson, allowing her to voice numerous…

Closure on the Obokata/STAP affair

I've been following the story of stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency (STAP) cells with considerable interest, and there's a good reason for that: from the very beginning, it contradicted how I'd always thought about cell states, and if it were true, I'd have to rethink a lot of things, which was vexing. But on the other hand, empirical results always trump mental models, so if the results held up, there was no question but that I'd have to go through that uncomfortable process of reorganizing my preconceptions. It would be OK, though, because there'd be a great prize at the end.…

Is Oxford Shortchanging Its Students Through Overspecialization?

"Ph.D. programs don't really attract the most exceptional students," he said. I was having dinner with a few professors and graduate students from the Oxford Department of Biochemistry last night when one of the professors made that assertion. The topic of conversation was why so many graduate students in our program seem to lack a broad knowledge of areas of biochemistry outside of their specific area of research. Feeling slightly offended, and fueled by the copious quantities of wine we had consumed, I pointedly asked, "Have you actually seen any figures that would back that up?" He hadn…

Twin Cities Home Schooling Creationist Science Fair Photos

This is a repost of an item from my old blog. The Twin Cities Home Schooling Creationist Science Fair at Har Mar Mall in Roseville, Minnesota happened last month. The organization that (at least partly) sponsors this event (Twin Cities Creation Science) usually posts photographs of the science fair, but this year they got into a tizzy about it for some reason and removed the photographs from their web site. I was at the science fair, and I snapped a couple of photos, and I think there are interesting points of discussion that are lost with the TCCSA dropping the ball. Unfortunately, many…

Bush Will Invade Iran, Obtain 45% Approval Rating

I'm going to make a prediction. Just remember, you heard it here first.... First, let's lay out a few truths that need to be understood in order to embrace this bold prediction. You may have noticed the latest news on the shenanigans the Iranians are playing with the US navy. They've been driving boats at US warships, throwing boxes (possible mines) into the water in front of the ships, etc. What you may not realize is that this sort of thing is actually happening all the time. Military and paramilitary (read "terrorists" in some cases) units at borders in hot zones are always spoofing…

Antivaccination propaganda about the Poling case: A Saturday morning link roundup

Yesterday was annoying. It started out hearing about the vaccine injury case conceded by the government in a story on NPR on during my drive into work. As I walked through the clinic waiting area on the way to my lab, the TVs in the waiting rooms were all on CNN, where--you guessed it!--there was more ignorant blather about how the government supposedly had "conceded" that "vaccines cause autism." I'll give the Polings and the antivaccinationists who are trying to use their case (with, apparently, them as willing accomplices) as a propaganda tool, they're good propagandists. Try as I might, I…

Why We (should) Care about Methane in the Gulf of Mexico

(Just a note: The giveaway period for the audiobook of The Poisoner's Handbook has ended. If your comment is not published, it's too late to be considered for a free copy. But still glad to hear your ideas! Winners to be notified on Wednesday). One of the most interesting - and I think important - comment threads on this blog has concerned risks posed by the gas methane, blamed (along with BP) for the devastating oil spill in April and still seeping into the water from the broken drill pipe. "We don't know the composition of the crude oil as it is leaving the well head. This crude is…

Antibiotic use in animals: The feds move, a little

(You leave the country for a few days -- I spoke at a conference in Brussels, which was was lovely, thanks for asking -- and all kinds of news breaks out. So, sorry to be late on this, but it's an important issue.) Last week, the Food and Drug Adminstration took the first (baby, mincing, tentative) steps to address the problem of antibiotics being used in animal agriculture, not to treat disease, but to make animals grow up to market weight faster. This practice -- variously called subtherapeutic dosing, growth promotion, and "for production purposes" in the FDA's exceedingly careful…

85% of Statistics are False or Misleading

Numbers don't lie, but they tell a lot of half-truths. We have been raised to think that numbers represent absolute fact, that in a math class there is one and only one correct answer. But less emphasis is put on the fact that in the real world numbers don't convey any information without units, or some other frame of reference. The blurring of the line between the number and the quantity has left us vulnerable to the ways in which statistics can deceive us. By poorly defining or incorrectly defining numbers, contemporary audiences can be manipulated into thinking opinions are fact. Charles…

Much Ado About Area 25

An estimated 16 percent of the American population will suffer from major depressive disorder at some point during life. The disease strikes down nearly 19 million Americans each year, and it's likely to happen more than once. A whopping 50 percent will experience an encore performance within two years of their initial depressive "episode," and the stats get even worse after the second recurrence. What does this mean? It means that if you're wired for depression, you'll likely spend most of your adult life on some form of antidepressant--a fate that many do not relish given the side effects…

Private Guns, Public Health

This is David Hemenway's response to criticism of his book Private Guns Public Health by Kevin Baker at The Smallest Minority. September 27, 2004 I was asked to respond to what is claimed to be a critique of my book by Kevin Baker. I have neither the time nor inclination to have a detailed response to the many assertions and arguments he makes, many of which are wrong or misleading. It turns out that Baker isn't really discussing my book Private Guns Public Health, but a magazine article about it. Unfortunately it seems that Baker may not have read my book (or the hundreds of journal…

What is an internist and why should you care?

Yes, this is a repost, sort of. I first put this up on denialism blog in December of 2008. For various reasons, I haven't had a chance to crank out anything fresh this weekend, but this is still a good one, and I've edited it to freshen it up a bit, so don't complain until you read it. --PalMD It's July again, and that means I have a crop of new interns.  I love new interns, because every topic is fresh, every moment a teaching moment.  I'm sobered by the statistic that predicts that only about 4% of American medical grads will chose primary care, but even when I work with  the…

The Pill and altmed idiocy

We're now fifty years into the history of oral contraceptive pills, and we've learned an enormous amount. We've learned about various therapeutic uses of the Pill and unanticipated risks. We've learned to adjust the amount of medication to a lower effective dose. We've given women the opportunity to very effectively control their own fertility in a safe, private, and effective manner. But we haven't ended the controversy. Leaving aside idiotic moralist rantings about the Pill, the alternative medicine movement has treated it harshly. The decision to use or avoid any intervention…

We'll take the money you can bring us, even if you're antivaccine

I'm sure this is a case where someone thought it was a good idea at the time. Unfortunately, it's not. It's an astoundingly bad idea: The Ottawa Regional Cancer Foundation is bringing McCarthy to town March 2 to headline its annual Bust a Move fundraiser as a guest fitness instructor. But the actress, author and former Playboy playmate is perhaps best known these days for her unconventional views on autism, specifically her anti-vaccination writings. Her son Evan Joseph was diagnosed with autism in 2005, but McCarthy says now her son is in “recovery” and is doing much better. McCarthy has…

Planting A Tree: Chionanthus virginicus

I went to the Morris Arboretum plant sale last Friday. As a member, I got a "bonus" plant for free. The "bonus" plant is a lure to bring you to the plant sale. You pick up your bonus plant at a special tent at the very back of the plant sale, so you have to walk past the tables of annuals and perennials, the dozens of herbs and scented geraniums, seedling tomatoes and peppers and swiss chard, the long aisles of potted shrubs and trees, the section showcasing the offerings of the Rhododendron Society, the little clump devoted to clematis and native wisteria...by the time you get to the…

Crazy Optimistic Apocalyptica Joins ScienceBlogs

Earlier this month, while I was distracted managing mom's transition from assisted living to hospital stay to rehab and preparing to escape for my annual beachy vacation, a new star was added to the Scibling firmament. And she's a shiny one. I'm talking about Sharon Astyk, writer of Casaubon's Book. I like pretty much every single thing she's written over there so far, but I really love this entry. Here's a sample: A lot of people are dismissive of personal choices and personal actions, and as I argue in _Depletion and Abundance_ it isn't an accident that all the things we decide are…

Laelaps Movie of the Week: Grizzly

As we've seen with the last two movies featured here, there are some animals that naturally make good movie monsters. Sure, filmmakers might tack on a few feet and enlarge the size of their teeth, but sharks, crocodiles, and bears only require a setting and a foolish group of cast members potential victims to provide for a feature length film. It is the last of these "natural monsters" that we'll be dealing with today in the 1976 horror film Grizzly, featuring an antagonist that deadlier than your av-er-age bear. At it's heart, Grizzly is the tragic story of a cousin of Gentle Ben who loves…

SVP attendees already know about this, I'm sure

Unfortunately, I didn't get to attend to the annual SVP Meeting in Austin, TX this year, and I can hardly wait to hear about all the interesting talks and papers from those who attended. My curiosity as to the proceedings has been mildly sated, however, by a news report about one of the interesting discoveries announced at the convention; a mid-Triassic (225 Ma) track found near Melbourne, Australia that has been attributed to a theropod dinosaur. The 14cm-long tracks seem to indicate the presence of a theropod (or, as Zach has pointed out, some as-yet-unknown bipedal crurotarsian) that stood…